#but it's so hard making content for a fandom youre no longer as invested in skdjfdssdj

[corvidarcana]

the artistic quality of my fancomic has really gone down lately, and will continue to do so, but my sanity has gone up as a result, and that's what matters

[lunawho47]

Ok, I've refrained from making an official post on anything related to the Watcher Entertainment situation (I've reblogged but kept silent on my general thoughts), mostly because after that first weekend I had hoped most of the hate posting from so-called "fans" would blow over and we could resume our regular lives.

But it hasn't stopped. Every time something new from Watcher drops, people use it as an opportunity to post hatred about Steven Lim (which is disgusting and you should all be ashamed of yourselves) or show a grievous misunderstanding of how the company makes money.

A few days ago, the company apparently sent out a mass email to the subscribers of WatcherTV (and I say "apparently" because I am subscriber to WatcherTV and got no such email, and I've checked my deleted emails and junk mail) about a forthcoming sponsor made episode of one of their shows. Based on the screenshot I read of the email, they said it was originally going to be a YouTube exclusive, but after having gotten some inquiries from WatcherTV subscribers requesting they put it on the website, they were taking a poll to see if the people wanted it to be YouTube exclusive or to have the sponsored episode on the website.

People were acting like WatcherTV had run off with their money because after setting up a subscriber based streaming service, they were still going to be doing sponsored content. Y'know, the thing they wanted to leave YouTube originally. And people are acting like Watcher is saying that their money isn't enough and the subscribers are being ripped off.

And yeah, your money isn't enough. And that's the fandom's fault.

Originally, the idea was that if you didn't pay for the subscription service, you were going to miss out on a good chunk of their content going forward. The fandom gave a huge, riotous outcry about it and they backtracked to make it so that everything would eventually be on YouTube. WatcherTV subscribers just get it earlier (a month only.) That means that they aren't making a large amount of money from their subscription service because only the die-hards who have the money to spend are bothering to pay money to see content a month early. Most people don't mind waiting a month. (Hell, for years I had to wait longer than that to see DW in the US after it premiered in the UK over six months before. Needless to say, spoilers never bother me because it was how I engaged with the more British based DW audience for four whole years.)

So, yeah, they're going to have to do sponsorships, even with people investing in WatcherTV. And I am fucking sick and tired of seeing people complain about it. If you want them to keep making content and most of the fandom complains about the boys DARING to ask for them to pay to see it, then you're going to have deal with whole episodes of shows that are based around promoting games and films.

They have not stolen your money from you or lied to you about the situation. You're just either very naive about what the fallout of the fandom's tantrum would be or you're being willfully ignorant so that you can feel yourself righteously angry (but, sorry. You're wrong there. You're not righteously angry, just stupidly so.)

[kxmpfflieger]

I wish to be upfront about a few things

Hey gang, let's have a talk about the future of this account.

In truth, I no longer wish to associate myself with the history community, specifically the Great War subsection I've actively participated in for the last (three-ish?) years.

I'm going to be blunt and say that it is because of the people I've come across. This place is a minefield, and every second mine that blows up in your face starts a chain reaction worse than the last. Its terrible. Ive hated it. And my only mistake has been not openly stepping down a year ago like I originally wanted. There's been a LOT of unsavory characters that I have followed and supported unknowingly, and people that I've just encountered out in the wild that just made me sick to my stomach. Despite my better judgement, I've persisted, but I recognise the toll it has taken on my mental health is really not worth any of this.

To add insult to injury, actively being in the history community has made me scared of engaging with other communities in fear of being ousted for the stigma WW/Imperial Germany art can carry in general, and its become a problem the more I've grown tired and fallen out of love with this material.

I wish to branch out, I don't want to be associated with this community anymore because of the shit I've seen and how insensitive and out-of-touch a lot of the people seem to be about such serious subjects.

My relationship with Martyrs is definitely not what it used to be, same goes for the "source material". I wish I could tell you a few bad apples didnt spoil the basket, but they did. In truth, I've lost the love I held for it.

A mix of the rancid experiences I've had with the community this past year, combined with the fact publishing comics as a One Man Team is something I wouldn't wish upon anyone (burnout, impostor syndrome, having to deal with carpal tunnel for the rest of my life now partially because of it, off the top of my head).

I don't want to drop the comic nor the characters I've made, developed and invested myself in for the past two years of my life. I need time to heal my relationship with my art, Martyrs in its entirety, and just broaden my horizons with other fandoms instead of limiting myself to one thing. I will not abandon what I've worked so hard for, but I need time to pull myself back up.

I don't plan on stopping art of the characters entirely. But please be aware that if that was the only content you followed me for, you will have to deal with lots of other unrelated stuff from now on.

Getting myself lost in the absolute minefield this place is (the ww community) is not something I wish to do again. I dont want to be considered a member of it. I want to be an outsider occasionally dropping by. Only surface level stuff with art of my characters and comic, that's it.

I'm grateful for the connections and the wonderful close friends I've made. For all the lovely fan-works and words of love and endorsement I've received. But I need to take better care of myself, and there are very clear and specific steps I need to take to do so. I debated making this post in the first place and just phasing out ww art out slowly overtime, but doing so didnt feel right.

If you wish to unfollow me after this, please go ahead. You're not obligated to stay, nor am I obligated to keep you here. Thank you for sharing this journey with me for the past two years.

[dearweirdme]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/the-k-pop-king

Hi Rain. I hope that you are doing well.

What's your take on this article? And if you don't mind please go into details and share your insights.

Thanks.

Hi anon! I suspect we've all read the article by now, or seen snippets of it. I'm still sick (😫) and only got around reading the whole thing just now.

I wonder if they counted on this article doing the rounds in fandom. It's not meant for fandom, but rather for marketeers, proffesionals..investers maybe? I think the NewYorkers demographic is middle aged proffessionals? It's an odd piece? The writer doesn't seem particularly fond of Bang Pd's idea's, yet Bang PD himself and Braun are full on bragging.

It's a confronting article, we're reading all the things we've always suspected. Bang Pd is an asshole, a narcisist, and he uses people. To me this article reads as him bragging about having designed some sort of machine in which you put an artist, fans, add some ingredients and poof... you got a winning formula. He minimizes the artists talent, hard work, and input, and makes it seem as though his part is what makes a band come out on top. There isn't an inch of him that actually cares about fans. I think it's clear that by adding Braun in the mix, he wants to separate himself from the classic stereotype people have of Kpop. Braun's function in this article is to emphasize how great Bang Pd is and to reel in the western music industry. Bang PD comes of as a greedy man, who wants to have it all at the cost of his artists, and at the cost of creativity even.

One thing we can say about Bang Pd is that he's smart, he knows how people work? Or at least, he knows how people can be manipulated. Without having a caring heart, that is dangerous and I think we can see that in what the article talks about.

It's strange to actually read about what they do to manipulate content and fans. Ofcourse we've always known (and I suspect the many angry asks come from people who now feel the need to push back hard, because Tkkrs actually do seem to get things right). The conversation already was about fakeness in content, I guess this article seemlessly plays into that.. and proves how things actually are contructed. People no longer can say that things are all natural.. because the people on top have now basically confirmed that they're not.

My main issue is how unabashedly clear it is that Bang Pd sees artists as objects. It's not even about producing great music or allowing artists to create. He uses Jk as an example, and doesn't even speak on his talents and hard work. He just wants money and power. He'd probably prefer to have artists who will let themselves be molded into whatever he needs them to be. That's why he's going into ai. "The expendability of non human artists is unlimited". He's most likely tried to mold his human artists to the best of his capabilities already. I'm kinda afraid of what's to come for newer artists.

There's much more to say ofcourse, but I am still sick.. so I'm gonna leave it here for now.

[sunflower1me]

For the writer ask game!

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately 

🎨 - This one with Eiland and March from Fields of Mistria is just so cute and funny. There's a lot I could've chosen honestly- there's so much talent and skill on here!

🍄 - Ooough this is so hard!! My most written pairing is Gus/Elliott so my mind goes to them. I feel like once they get married they run the saloon together- it's an important part of Gus' life and Elliott absolutely romanticizes intertwining their lives. That being said, Elliott is much more introverted than Gus, so for Elliott's sanity they invest in soundproofing the back rooms so he can have his time to decompress and, of course, work on his novels.

I also think that after it causes a bit of trouble in their relationship that Gus adjusts the saloon's hours- not many people come at noon anyways and now that Gus has more priorities in his life than just running the saloon, it makes sense that things would switch up a bit.

I also have a more 18+ headcanon, and I'll put in a cut so nobody who doesn't want to see that has to. See that after the next ask if you're an adult!

🦋 - Another toughie! There's a lot of things that I could talk about, but I'm choosing the importance of community.

I always knew in my head that community was important to an extent, but I didn't fully get it until I joined a genuinely welcoming discord server(Shoutout to Fandom Express, I love y'all more than I can say). It feels great to be a part of something bigger than me, combined with the fact that I care so much about freedom of expression, a creative community was something I think I always needed. I've struggled a lot with talking to others and social cues and generally putting myself out there, and I still do! But I'm learning not to be afraid of other people and finding that maybe I can trust people with my creative works. We need communities, folks. Everything is better when you're together. Is that a phrase? It sounds like one!

I still deal with the self doubt (Am I creating enough? Is this idea any good? Is my writing any good? Am I doing this right?) but seeing other people who have common interests with you can really help keep you out of your own head, at least a little bit!

I've rambled on enough, but I'm grateful I got to answer this ask, plus the others!

Now for the 18+ thing I mentioned.

18+ CONTENT BELOW

🍄 - Elliott and Gus do bondage! Elliott introduced it, seeing it as an art form with all of the intricate knots and the beauty of giving up your body to someone in such a way. Elliott took the lead at first but after some adjustment they both actively enjoy being tied up by the other. Elliott spends much more time tying up Gus and likes to dabble in a bit of nude photography alongside it, only when Gus is feeling it of course. Gus takes longer to get the hang of it but finds he loves it too, though he's less artsy about it- the art is already there, he's just framing him in rope. <3

I've really wanted to write for this one but I haven't done enough research yet ^^' I just love love love the concept!!

[rttnpnkpmpkn]

Ever get tired or bored of Broken Colors fandom?

Is there any media that you started enjoying more AFTER distancing from the current fandom / interest?

I’m honestly more surprised that you haven’t stated that about the YB fandom lol. Mainly because I’ve been there longer than I should have, compared to BC 😅 And I still have my issues why I’m still there~

But to answer your question, I still hold the same amount of interest as with everything else, just not on the obsessive scale… comparatively.

Juggling multiple fandoms at once makes sure I didn’t burn out.

So ironically, that question really applied to Genshin as I’m ashamed of no longer having much interest after thinking about how I was invested in it… though I didn’t regret the merch I got from there ;w; It can go dormant, but not truly extinguished. I mean, it’s been years since I was into Dr Who and I still watch clips on YT because weeping angels and the German Dalek live in my head rent free.

I find the BC art style refreshing compared to my usual cup of tea and I’m still invested in the world building. I wanna think of what goes beyond the demo and what it’s like to live there as one of the inhabitants! Even if I don’t draw it as often, I can’t really say that I’m bored or uninspired because regardless of the lack of certain content, I live by the old golden rule of “create your own entertainment” when it comes to your favorite media, and my mind tends to over imagine and if not perfect the scene as often as needed xP

What’s not there *yet*, make “predictions” with what you got. I kinda get why some enjoy fantasy football by that logic. I like to challenge myself in imagining the possibilities what could or could not happen, and I would try to visualize and I haven’t really checked out all the creative prompts from there just yet. It’s hard for me to change hyper-fixations for that reason if it doesn’t have an ending.

Some media I’ve started getting into hmmm, I’ve gotten into Apothecary Diaries, Migi and Dali, Scott Pilgrim again and just looking at whatever YT recommends to me. I’m not into pr0n topics alone, whether you believe me or not lol. Peeps made it fun to draw, but it depends on the weather for me.

Hope that answers your question and have a good one! ^^

[dimentionalseraphim]

Good morning. This is a formal message to let you know that you have been banned from our community. Several members have approached us with evidence from your blogs that you ship or tolerate Plantcest and we take a hard zero-tolerance stance against incest and those willing to engage with its themes for the safety and comfort of members within our group, including those that specifically mention no Plantcest in their rules. As the evidence includes screencaps and video proof of a Plantcest tagged post in your likes, this ban is not up for debate.

Frankly, i don't ship plantcest, and I have never written, reblogged or shared it. If it's in my liked history, then I don't know where you are looking. I would like to see the evidence, if one of the mods could contact me. If i'm wrong? Fair enough, I must have liked something without truly looking at the contents, but I would like to see the evidence that was submitted so I can at least have closure.

This is not me disputing this ban, simply wanting to understand.

This is immensely disappointing, but the comfort of others comes first. In the future, at least let people know upon the ban without leaving them in the dark for so long. Nobody contacted me, at all, nor spoke to me on any platform. If this is what you would consider fair moderation, I urge you to rethink these practices. You also sent the same copy pasta response to me and the legato / midvalley that joined recently.

the fact that you list evidence as 'posts I liked', not made, says a lot. I couldn't find any plantcest posts i've liked when going through, but I didn't get through over 3500 posts i've liked on one blog alone. Someone had to actively stalk through all my posts on my private blogs, meticulously searching for tags, to have this issue which makes me question why moderators are accepting this behaviour.

It seems like you are encouraging the possibility of targetted harassment on anyone for anything they've done in the past and with no real chance to defend yourself there is a lot of cause for concern. Cancelling people based on liked posts alone for a fictional ship that they don't even ship, who is an artist, and looks at artstyle and often not the contents of the post itself is a toxic way to moderate. Especially since not once was I rude to anybody in isola, asked to ship plantcest, shared, or encouraged incest. I have been nothing but kind, and have had nothing but good things to say to people.

Once again, I do not condone incest / incestuous ships.

I expected better communication from Isola Radiale to at least tell my side and defend myself fairly. But after several people coming forwards in my DMs and telling horror stories of being banned with no warning & reason, sometimes because of mod power trips and sometimes because someone was friends with the moderators, this behaviour no longer surprises me. Guilty until proven innocent seems to be the reoccuring theme, and I still haven't recieved any evidence to back up your claims.

I consider this ban a bullet dodged, as I have only invested a few days of interest.

Fandom communities never truly change, and for one ran by 7 people, there seems to be an awful lot of carefully hidden drama, elitism & gatekeeping- mainly because you shit talk about your own community members on twitter :)

To anybody considering joining Isola... I would advise against it. They can and will ban you without warning for minor infractions on your own personal accounts without trail nor jury. No matter what I could have said in this instance, I would have always been seen as guilty, and that in itself says everything you need to know about Isola Radiale.

Those are my parting words.

@isolaradiale.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

SHSHS YOU SHOUDOVE TOLD ME ABOUT THE SHITTING TYPO LMAOAOA im crying if I hadn’t gone back to read the tl myself it would’ve just sat there un-addressed forever….I was even thinking of making a master note of all the TLs I’ve had so far just to organize imagine I just copy pasted that omg…maybe I should’ve slapped it into grammarly or some spell check before hand

But FR shidou actually hyping people up when he acknowledges vs Emo Rin…

No I completely get it it’s like when you start using like a cringe term ironically and then it just integrates itself into your vocab LMAOOO I know the feeling all too well…

OMGGG guys oaeu is fr happening….wait now I’m torn past me would’ve immediately slammed the Karasu button but after our convo im not sure??? Karasu for obv reasons but wait the otoya ideas we talked abt were way too entertaining and the Nagi double date and then also aiku being like “Barou needs bitches” GUYS decisions…………………….and how could I forget our yuki prince aiku discussion too omfg

REAL lowk I see a lot of nagi hate nowadays?? Mostly the people going “haha nagi fraud” or “nagi u suck apologize to Reo rn” so errrrr I’m gonna need kaneshiro to show us the matches of other stratums pls im lowk sick of Isagi’s face I NEED to know what goes on in scenes Isagi isn’t in pls im begging (channel ur inner kaneshiro and save us please)

I’m ngl I was pretty caught up but I don’t remember anything about his backstory LMAOO based on his character im sure you’re right tho

Also WAITTT I ALMOST FORGOT ABT YUN I love him he was so cute but chigiri as yun so real….I could’ve sworn he also had a moment where people were like “you’re a dude???” Which kinda aligns with the whole chigiri “princess” thing LOL

Wait that’s actually lowk such a smart way to decide HAHAHAH lmk how the results of that go….ive seen a bunch of matchup events floating around too I hadn’t realized how popular they were

I’m not even kidding it’s a little scary how accurate your kiyora feels…like in your previous response you were like “I think I got it somewhat right?” and I went in reading it expecting it to be maybe a little off maybe more violent since that’s what you described it as and then I proceeded to read and it was just canon kiyora. Witchcraft. Kaneshiro is actually invading your brain telling you what to do.

Kiyora being kinda shy and showing his crush a more private, somewhat vulnerable side to him>>>> he’s lowk cuter than I originally thought is this a conversion moment….ill hold onto this sentiment LMAO kiyoranese has me laughing so hard I lowk see the instrument vibes but I’m ngl I think I prefer this one over the instrument…maybe also because I don’t like Kaiser as much HAHA both are so good though….

THATS ACTUALLY TERRIFYING I’m glad you both are safe bc wtf..maybe you should invest in a bottle of pepper spray jic SHEGAJ

LMAOO is the one who mouthed sorry also the one you turned down with an excuse or is this a different person (if it’s different you really have some crazy rizz aura because that was really quick work) ok but no violence is good I was reading that thinking like “wait how much of this is non fiction……”

Checking off another Mira banger off the list…excited for whatever’s next and also the oaeu….

- Karasu anon

LMAOOO no it was funny and i didn’t want to embarrass you plus i kinda forgot it once i started typing so i did not say anything i’m sorry 😩 next time i will though

YESSSS OAEU IS HAPPENING literally so hype it’s going to be so much fun plus season 2 starts soon so it’s like the perfect time to be working on it because the anime onlies are going to get into tabieitaken and aiku which is perf 🤩 LMAOO i’ve fed enough karasu content that the world is no longer starving so it’s more like bonus atp 😏 HAHA funnily enough reo was winning the poll for a WHILE there but now karasu’s in the lead again 😭 it might just be an audience bias thing though because there’s no way if you get random people from the fandom to vote they would pick karasu over sae nagi AND reo 😰 we’ll see there’s still a bit of time before the poll ends so the winner def isn’t locked in yet!! i think reo is second place atm (possibly tied w sae) and karasu is winning w barou in third but who knows how it will all play out

EVERYONE SWITCHED UP ON NAGI SOOOO FAST it’s like they all forgot who carried isagi in the second selection 😱 truly there would be no bllk if nagi wasn’t there to score 90% of team white’s goals 😭 and he was also the first to score on the u20s like i need everyone to put respect back on my man’s name 😒 he’s going to comeback TRUST and when he does everyone will start glazing again but i’ll know…i’ll remember 🙂‍↕️

YESS i distinctly remember yun being mistaken for a girl and being called pretty (he also calls himself pretty a lot iirc) so it’s literally perfect for chigiri!! maybe i have a type in the kind of media i like watching or smth the parallels are kinda going crazy

yeahhh they are surprisingly popular!! i haven’t done a ton before (one of my old mutuals did them so i think i did a jjk one and got noritoshi + choso + yuta so basically i’m pomegranate ink y/n 🤩) but i think it will be fun to see for like curiosity’s sake yk plus it might make me more decisive on who/what to write for…or not LMAO imagine i get shidou bruh i’d be at a loss for words (i don’t THINK i will but the chances are never 0 yk)

LMAOOOO that’s so good to hear i was worried i made him too extreme especially because when i answered you it had been a bit since i had finished so like the most memorable parts to me were him getting in the fight and him talking abt how he beat up the mayor’s son but i forgot he’s pretty chill for the most part in the fic!!

HAHA omg kiyoraism incoming…idt he’ll ever break into my top three (nagi karasu barou the it girls of the miraverse fr) but he’s def growing on me honestly he’s rlly sweet in his own way 🥹 no i def feel that because neither of us have ever been into kaiser + w the instrument it’s almost a less relatable story?? since the reader is a famous actress instead of a regular person…plus kaiser is the opposite of kiyora he seems chill and sweet on the outside but on the inside he’s a little off putting whereas kiyora is ready to smack a bitch on the outside but on the inside he’s just a cutie who gives people grape candy if he likes them and the latter is def a trope that i think we both enjoy more LMAOAAO

IT WAS SCARY and okay so there were actually three guys that night — the one who said sorry (he only half counts though ig because it was dubious whether we were being friendly or if he liked my best friend or me), the one who i rejected by saying i was too drunk, and the one who slid into my linkedin dms 😭😭😭 the rizz aura is a little crazy to be honest like just today i was at the library to print out my resume and a guy asked for my instagram (also was not into him alas but i did give him the insta because why not) bruh it sounds like i’m making it all up or smth but trust it’s 100% real…i’m only chronically online on the inside externally i look normal enough to be approachable ig 😩💔 HELP IF THERE WAS AN ACTUAL FIGHT I WOULD’VE CRIED luckily he just yelled at us a ton but i did use some direct quotes and paraphrases from him to really liven up the story FJFHSJSJ

ANOTHER BANGER DONE now i need to figure out which req i want to be inspired for next and get to work so we can get to the oaeu 🤩 not counting yours i have 5 left to do so hopefully i can get them out quickly!! two hiori ones, two karasu ones, and a nagi req 🤩 plus the ones you sent in ofc and then i got a req last night also for nagi but they missed the cutoff so i’ll work on that post oaeu

[unofficialadamtaurus]

Why Is Everyone So Weird About Adam?

If you’re asking this question, you’re probably new to the fandom and/or the show. In that case, welcome! There’s a lot of fun to be had with RWBY, both Ice Queendom and the original show.

If you’re not new, consider this a chance to get up to speed. If there’s something you feel I missed, feel free to add it in a reblog or reply.

To answer the main question in brief: the tension around Adam is tied to his controversial* portrayal in the 3D source material.

We’ll go through the context of original show bit by bit so you can understand why people get so weird about Adam in ways they don’t for other villain characters. Keep an open mind, take in the facts, form your own opinion, and then engage with Adam however you see fit.

And, of course, Adam-related-stuff spoiler alert for the main show and the first episode of Ice Queendom. Additionally, content warning for high-level discussions of misogyny, grooming, pedophilia, abuse, and homophobia.

The Trailer

If you weren’t aware, RWBY began with four separate trailers, one for each main girl and letter in the acronym. These trailers started coming out in Winter of 2012 and the last was released on June 1, 2013 - just over a month before the first episode premiered. Within these trailers, Adam had the noteworthy role of being the first male character seen on screen and the first character to speak in the whole show.

In the Black trailer, Adam finds Blake in a clearing and tells her “It’s time.” They run through the forest and jump onto a massive train passing through. Once inside, Adam quips, “Looks like we’re going to be doing this the hard way,” to which Blake replies, “Don’t be so dramatic” with a little smile. As they fight a lot of robots, they leave opportunities for the other to finish off certain enemies. Their teamwork is tight and they clearly trust that the other will have their back.

At the midpoint, Adam checks a crate and tells Blake to move up to the next car while he sets the charges. Blake asks him about the crew members and Adam, with a very sinister edge to his voice, says, “What about them?”

There’s another big fight before Blake can answer, during which Adam gets a now iconic glory shot:

The trailer ends with Blake cutting apart the coupling between hers and Adam’s train cars; she fades into the distance, out of Adam’s reach.

So, the aspects of Adam that hooked people immediately: his design (black and red is a very good aesthetic), his superpower (disintegrating a massive robot with a single swing), and his weapons (gun sheath that can fire the sword it holds).

Adam’s fighting style in the Black trailer is cool. It’s entertaining. It’s fun to watch. People makes gifs of it for a reason.

How much mileage a person gets out of these aspects varies, of course, but on the face of it Adam has a very solid design and is entertaining on the screen. Combined with his obvious history with Blake, people were invested. Theories about his future role in the story, a confrontation with Blake, and so on circulated as the show entered its first season.

Many of those theories found traction by using the trailer’s background music - “From Shadows.” The lyrics are not subtle:

Born with, no life Into subjugation Treated like a, worthless animal Stripped of all rights Just a lesser being Crushed by cruel, ruthless human rule

We can infer right off the bat that Blake and Adam are fighting against oppression. Moreover, they are not themselves human. The fight aspect comes across clearly in the chorus:

From shadows we'll descend upon the world Take back what you stole From shadows we'll reclaim our destiny Set our future free

Rather than a straight evil villain that Blake had to run away from to save herself, Adam comes off as a morally ambiguous counterpart to Blake with the way he was doing the right thing (resisting oppression) the wrong way (murdering innocent crewmembers). Working only with what’s in the trailer, Blake left because she no longer agreed with his methodology.

Also, for context: here’s a link to an official video explaining what a faunus (what Blake and Adam are) is. Tl;dr they’re humans with one animal trait, like cat ears, added on.

The Show

So we have him featured as a deuteragonist to Blake in the trailer...and then Adam isn’t mentioned again in the show until he’s mentioned by Blake in episode 10 of Volume 2, "Mountain Glenn."

Side note number one: there’s actually a point earlier at which Blake explains the history of the White Fang to Sun (another Faunus), and she notes that a new, more violent leader took charge after the old pacifist one steps down. She doesn’t name names, but we learn later that the pacifist leader is actually Blake’s father, Ghira Belladonna, and the new leader is Sienna Khan, both of whom won’t show up until later volumes.

Back to episode 10: Blake describes Adam as a partner and then clarifies that he was “more of a mentor, actually.” At this point, roughly a year and a half has passed since we last heard anything about Adam. This brief mentor description fits with what we went over in the trailer section and confirmed a lot of theories at the time. Hype grew for what people saw as the inevitable confrontation between Blake and Adam, especially now that Blake was actively fighting against the White Fang and was on a team with the Schnee Dust Company heiress.

Adam does physically appear in Breach, the twelfth and final episode of Volume 2, to reassure Cinder’s faction that the White Fang will continue to listen to their faction despite heavy losses. With full confidence in his influence over his men, Adam says, “they’ll listen to me.”

Cue a wild storm of speculation trying to figure out how Adam fits into the White Fang alliance with Cinder. It started with the White Fang allying with Torchwick (a human) earlier in the show, but having Adam show that their alliance was apparently a willing one changed things. This scene cemented Adam’s role as an outright villain, though some still held out hope that he had a better reason for allying with Cinder than the joy of murdering humans.

It should be noted at this point that Tauradonna (Blake x Adam) was a very popular ship at this time.

The Show: Volume 3

The next time we see Adam is Volume 3 Episode 7, "Beginning of the End." In this episode, we are shown a scene of Cinder approaching Adam in his camp in Forever Fall presumably for the first time. She asks for his help attacking Vale; Adam rejects her, saying, "The White Fang is not an organization for hire! We're a force of revolution!"

When Cinder tries again to appeal to him, he shuts her down by explaining, "You're asking my men to die for your cause. A human cause. That is not an idea I am willing to entertain." He finishes this statement by lifting his weapon in an implied threat. Cinder gets the message and leaves. Shortly after, Blake approaches Adam and asks who Cinder was, but Adam tells her not to worry about it.

Later in the same episode and after the events of the Black trailer have occurred, Adam and his lieutenant are having a discussion in a camp tent. The lieutenant swears he will find Blake; Adam tells him to let her go. Cinder then returns to the camp with some of the maiden powers and wreaks havoc. When the chaos pulls Adam and his lieutenant from his tent, Cinder again asks for Adam's help, this time with the threat of violence somewhat softened by the same cases of money and Dust she brought the first time.

Note the smoke and bodies in the background.

Important fandom split here: at the time this episode aired, it appears that there was a general consensus that Adam was genuinely threatened into doing what he did. After character revelations to be discussed in a bit, that consensus fractured with a notable subset of people interpreting this scene as Adam willingly submitting to Cinder in a 4D chess move to gain powerful allies and that he never cared about the lives of his men at all. That line of thinking also postulates that his initial rejection was nothing but an act to maintain his reputation with his men.

Moving on: Beacon, the huntsman training academy Blake is attending, comes under siege by hacked robots and hordes of Grimm. White Fang piloting ships are delivering Grimm where they otherwise could not reach, presumably with Adam's blessing. The man himself doesn't appear until Volume 3 episode 10, "Battle of Beacon." Adam has a defenseless student at his mercy when Blake sees him. Before she can run, he notices her and says, "Hello, my darling."

We get into the meat of their confrontation in episode 11, "Heroes and Monsters." Blake rushes Adam to save the aforementioned student, who promptly vanishes from the scene, but Adam is unimpressed. In response to her claiming that she's not running, he pushes her weapon down one-handed and says, "You will."

Adam dominates Blake in a one-sided fight. Yang shows up looking for Blake as Adam is promising to destroy everything Blake loves. Adam stabs Blake through her abdomen to get her to cry out, grabbing Yang’s attention. Yang launches herself at Adam in a protective rage; Adam cuts off her arm.

Blake throws herself in front of a now unconscious Yang and Adam, after a brief irritated pause, cuts off Blake’s head - only he doesn’t, because that was just a shadow clone Blake left behind so she could grab Yang and escape. Adam doesn’t give chase, just walks menacingly in that direction while casually killing a Grimm that lunges at him...and then he is gone for the rest of the volume.

So, during this confrontation, Adam kicks Blake in the stomach, backhands her across the face, and stabs her through the abdomen. Given that the entire encounter is soaked in Adam's "my love" and "darling" forms of address to Blake, many fans interpreted this violence as abuse, and specifically romantic partner abuse. Other fans interpreted it as violence against Blake as a combatant standing in Adam's way to whom he wants to prove a point.

To be blunt, this encounter shattered expectations, and not necessarily in a good way. To see Adam so vindictively pleased to attack Beacon, see Blake, and wear her down went against the buildup earlier in the volume with the Cinder scenes and particularly the scene in which Adam tells his lieutenant not to go after Blake.

After this episode aired, Tauradonna shippers vanished in droves as they were hit with accusations of supporting an abusive ship despite there being no indication that this physical violence was present before this point; Adam fans likewise retreated.

Although some of the dialogue - mostly Blake's - still made overtures at the revolution and justice angles to her and Adam's theorized philosophies, the romantic dialogue and violence from Adam distracted from those grander themes with petty revenge against Blake for her "betrayal" of him in the Black trailer.

Side note number two: one person found the jilted ex boyfriend characterization to be so egregious that they made an edit of the scene to remove it entirely. I recommend giving it a look after watching the original version.

Beyond the abuse angle, this episode also surfaced two other accusations now often leveled at Adam: pedophilia/grooming and misogyny. I can't speak to their frequency at the time the episode aired, but they are plenty common now.

On the pedophilia and grooming front, these headcanons mainly derive from Barbara and Arryn, the voices of Yang and Blake, respectively, stating during an interview their personal headcanon of Adam's age. They viewed him as in his twenties. Based on other vaguely established pseudo-canon not depicted in the show surrounding Blake and Adam's first meeting, this would mean that Adam met Blake when he was well into his teens and she was around 12 or 13.

Adam's age was never confirmed in the show. Grooming or pedophilia was also never depicted. These accusations are extrapolations from cast members' headcanons coupled with pseudo-canon material.

The misogyny accusations stem from Adam's attacks against Blake. Physical abuse against Blake, a woman, was grounds enough for the claim. There’s no delicate way to say this, but put bluntly, abuse against a woman is not inherently misogynistic. Abuse against a woman because she is a woman is inherently misogynistic.

Although the claim that misogyny doesn’t exist on Remnant has been floating around for years, I wasn’t able to track down a source for it.

Because of this misogynist label on Adam, fans of his were swiftly condemned as misogynists as well. This has led to many fans of his being interpreted as “dude bros” getting overly hyped about a "nothing” character just because they like how “cool” he is while they misogynistically ignore the main protagonists. If you want an example of this dismissive attitude, check out this video from Twiins iink. Also note that the title has been changed since posting from “Get Over Adam” to what you see now after there was significant backlash from parts of the fandom for a variety of reasons, many of which are beyond the scope of this post.

Despite all of the troublesome implications and interpretations of Blake and Adam's confrontation at Beacon, there were some positives that Adam fans latched onto: Adam's intimidation factor as a villain (effortlessly besting Blake in a fight, taking down Yang in one shot), his indisputable personal connection to Blake, and his role in the central conflict of the story. He also, at this point, still could fulfill the role of the foil to Blake's more pacifist views going forward.

Side note number three: there are conflicting opinions on Adam's actual power level. I did a breakdown in this post.

So here we have another split in the fandom in addition to the ones before it: those who enjoyed his character now for the cool factor of how powerful he seemed - given that he took down Blake and Yang without apparent difficulty - and others who viewed that first group as endorsing the things Adam did and ostensibly stood for.

There is also another group of people existing even now who are genuinely supportive of more of less everything that Adam did and is accused of doing, but I honestly don’t know much about them. There are only a couple that I’ve seen and interacted with, but it’s not at all a common position these days. However, nearly all Adam fans are at some point lumped into this group.

I want to emphasize that Volume 3, and particularly the Adam and Blake confrontation, is the linchpin moment for Adam fans. I’ll run through the rest of the show just so you have context, but by the time one particular detail about Adam’s past came to light in Volume 6, most fans of his had already jumped ship.

Volumes 4 and 5

In these volumes we get an abrupt reframing of the White Fang's structure with the introduction of the cult-like Menagerie branch and, in the Mistral-based headquarters, high leader Sienna Khan. Although the show communicated that there was more to the organization than Adam in earlier volumes, those other branches and power structures had never been explored.

Sienna's introduction complicated people's relationship with Adam because she occupied the same niche he had originally been interpreted as filling: that of a violent activist.

For an in depth comparison of Sienna, Adam, and Ghira's methods, look at this post.

We are also introduced to Ilia Amitola, another White Fang member who subscribes to Adam and Sienna's view. Here's a post comparing and contrasting Ilia and Adam, since another common point brought up with Adam fans is how Ilia is Adam but "better."

Anyway, Adam features in one of Yang's PTSD nightmares in Volume 4. He then kicks off Volume 5 by giving a speech in support of reverse racism to Sienna, whom he promptly murders. His actual words: "[T]he Faunus are the dominant species of this planet. We're better than humans. We have everything humans have and more. Humans shouldn't just fear the Faunus, they should serve the Faunus."

Suffice to say he was hemorrhaging fans at this point. At the same time, critique of the entire White Fang plot, which had been present since its inception, lit up with Adam's latest characterization as the catalyst.

Adam succeeds in his coup and becomes the high leader of the White Fang. He's bad at it, he fails to bring down Haven, and is generally just pathetic. He ends the volume in disgrace, having narrowly escaped capture.

The Adam Character Short

Before Volume 6 aired, the show put out an Adam character short - think of it as a mini-episode dedicated to Adam.

The short showed that Adam was influenced and encouraged by Sienna, was the first to introduce Grimm masks to the White Fang, and emotionally manipulated Blake into staying with the White Fang when she no longer agreed with his methods. It also - years later - put in a scene of Adam apparently desiring Sienna's position of high leader despite his characterization in the first three volumes not hinting at that desire. This inclusion led to new analyses of early content with confirmation bias in full effect to show how Adam was actually terrible and one-dimensional all along.

I can't say for sure, but I suspect the 4D chess go-along-with-Cinder headcanon gained traction around this time.

Volume 6

In the first episode, "Argus Limited," we see Adam on his throne in the Mistral headquarters looking over the bodies of faunus he killed while soundbytes of those men questioning his competency play. Adam mutters, "the Belladonna girl" in reference to an accusation by one of the soldiers and then cuts the chair in half while yelling at the ceiling.

Later in the episode, we see Adam, wearing a new hooded outfit and blindfolded instead of masked, watching Blake from a separated train car. Yang also hallucinates him in his old outfit while the protagonists take shelter from a storm in an abandoned farm. He doesn't appear again until episode 10, "Stealing from the Elderly," cornering Blake alone at the Argus radio tower after killing all of the employees.

Adam's characterization in the volume's final episodes doesn't change much from his characterization in v4 onward. He's still obsessed with Blake and blames her for his problems. Unlike their confrontations at Beacon and at Haven, however, Blake is now terrified of Adam. She tries to run and talk him out of the fight on multiple occasions to no avail.

What we do finally get, though, is a face reveal fans had been curious about for years.

Adam removes his blindfold to reveal the letters SDC branded over his bloodied left eye. The Schnee Dust Company is a company known for “controversial labor forces” (as said by Blake in Volume 1), a description usually interpreted in fandom as either outright slavery or dangerously exploitative working conditions. 

There are a lot of reasons why this reveal made things so much worse in the fandom. For more on why it was a very bad writing choice, check out this post. There’s also this Reddit post in the same vein as what you’re reading now that goes into even more detail on why Adam is so controversial.

In terms of the story, this reveal occurred because Adam was in the process of manipulating Blake again - showing his scar while he talked about Blake leaving him when he’s been hurt by “all sorts of people in all sorts of ways.” This scene further divided people because it emphasized his known manipulative and abusive relationship with Blake (unsympathetic) over the new fact that he was branded over one eye with the logo of a racist company (extremely sympathetic).

Later, well after the episode aired and people had come up with theories for the brand’s existence, the showrunners declared outside of the show that the racist company’s brand appearing on an oppressed minority character’s face wasn’t due to the racism in the setting but rather Adam getting into an argument with someone at an SDC site and that person “let[ting] him have it.”

This revelation created further division among people who heard and accepted that belated explanation, people who heard it and didn’t accept it, and people who didn’t hear it.

With this finale also comes the final big accusation thrown at Adam: homophobia. In broad strokes, this is sourced from the (to date) unconfirmed ship bumbleby (Blake x Yang). At Beacon, Yang leapt to Blake's defense and Adam cut off her arm. At Argus, Yang again comes to Blake's defense and, working together, they overpower Adam after holding hands and declaring that they're protecting each other rather than one of them protecting the other.

The confrontation plays out and Adam dies to the broken pieces of his ex's weapon, stabbed in the front by his former partner and in the back by a human he saw once before for about thirty seconds. Blake breaks down crying and Yang comforts her. Shippers interpret this scene (in addition to this one leading up to it) as a key moment in their relationship. Yang also hits Adam with her bike called Bumblebee when she enters the scene. Because Blake and Yang were fighting Adam in the lead up to this bonding moment, some view Adam as a representation of homophobia standing in the way of the wlw couple.

Many also frequently make jokes about Adam being homophobic even though, in the show, it's seeing his former partner hold hands with someone else that sends Adam over the edge - arguably because he sees that relationship as viable, not because he doesn't believe women can love each other. He even yells at Yang, "What does [Blake] even see in you?"

Now that Adam is dead, let’s get into the genuinely thorny part. Neither the homophobia and misogyny accusations nor the canonical abuse or even the pedophilia/grooming angle can be considered the most controversial part of his character.

The Faunus Controversy

It is, fortunately or unfortunately, disingenuous to bring up Adam without bringing up RWBY’s entire faunus plot. Adam was a leader of the White Fang faunus group, for a time the leader, and his prominent role in the Black trailer and Volume 3, as well as the way Blake talked about and reacted to him, made him a significant face for the group.  

With that in mind, the crew explicitly compared (clip download link) the faunus to the American civil rights movement. Adam as a horned faunus is allegorical to a black person in America - he’s a discriminated-against minority fighting back against an oppressive majority. Not only that, but he’s a minority whose face was branded with the logo of a company he worked for.

If you want more detail about the White Fang controversy, I recommend watching these videos on it.

So, to recap: Adam is an oppressed, traumatized, and branded individual leading an extremist faction of a minority group fighting for a revolution against racism...and he’s a violent murderer who doesn’t care about his kin or cause and stalks the ex he abused across continents only to die at her hand.

A bit complicated, yeah? Depending on which aspects of his character resonate and which you can overlook, as well as which parts of his contradictory characterization you want to believe are the true core of his character, he can either be very sympathetic or the scum of the earth.

Framed another way, Adam arguably falls into the archetype of “oppressed character becomes a villain to lash out against the society that oppressed them but is stopped by the protagonists without the circumstances that led to their villainy being addressed.” Basically, this.

Side note number four: if you want to look into how Adam’s characterization ties into (and hurts) Blake’s arc, check out this video.

Let’s also briefly look at how CRWBY talk about Adam. The cast and crew often interact with the community and their attitudes towards events and characters often impacts how the fandom treats those characters. Adam is a prime example. We already covered the creators headcanoning Adam's age off the cuff and creating controversy that way.

More examples: Volume 6's sound designer tweeted about how the sound of the river Adam falls into after being fatally stabbed included a recording of a flushing toilet. Adam's English voice actor tweeted that Adam's only allergy was to Blake and Yang's love for each other (of note: that tweet was made in 2019. Blake and Yang's relationship is not canon as of 2022).

Those points, combined with the Word of God explanation of how Adam got his scar, point towards a dismissive attitude on the part of the creators towards Adam. This attitude bled into the fandom; if the creators don't care about this character or treat him with nuance, why should the fans?

So there you have it: the most complete in-one-spot picture of Adam in the original show and why people are weird about him. Which brings us to...

Ice Queendom

Before we even get into the show, let’s get into the promotional material from the official Ice Queendom website. Specifically, Adam’s character description:

“Adam was Blake’s companion during her White Fang era as well as her combat mentor. He expanded his faction with immense ruthlessness to achieve his goals, and replaces the old leader of the organization.” [source]

The romance aspects from the original are absent and it seems more in line with the Volume 2 mentor characterization than what came later. Also absent are indications of his faunus supremacist mindset that debuted in Volume 5.

Two important changes were made in IQ’s spin on the Black trailer:

As opposed to the “What about them?” line, we get Adam stating clearly that he doesn’t care about the crew members because they’re human. This bolsters his characterization of prioritizing Faunus over humans to the point that he sees innocent human lives as not even worth considering when making plans. It’s similar to the original, yes, but that sliver of nuance matters when establishing a character.

We hear immediately after Blake leaves that Adam chooses not to pursue Blake when he could if he wanted. In the original show, this detail was not revealed until the third season. Moreover, we hear from IQ!Adam that he is choosing not to give chase specifically because he believes the world is so hostile to Faunus that Blake will see things his way soon enough.

Nothing in Adam and Blake's interactions in Ice Queendom indicate abuse, misogyny, pedophilia/grooming, or homophobia - just like the original trailer. However, the biggest point in IQ!Adam's favor is simply that he is not the main show's Adam. His character has been tweaked just like many other RWBY characters to better fit IQ's story. Not only that, but for all that the original Adam did in his RWBY run, he has done none of that in IQ. To judge a character based on things that have not happened in their story is to do a disservice to that character, and to judge people for liking the new iteration of that character is to be needlessly weird about it.

It is at this point that this post finally comes to a close. As I said at the start: use this information to engage with Adam however you see fit.

While you're ruminating on that, enjoy this picture of my cat as a reward for enduring this post.

[burnedbyshoto]

hawks_littledove.mp3

— You’re an avid listener to NSFW ASMR artist Hawks. It’s just your luck that he’s offered to have phone sex with you.

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pairing: takami keigo (hawks) x fem!reader

warnings: smut, 18+, slight abuse of power/influence, phone sex, masturbation, degradation, praise, nsfw asmr artist!hawks

word count: 5,018

a/n: my keyboard is broken and i could actually cry. but hey, hawks do be sexy even tho I would never trust him with my life. also LOL this might be a call out to a lot of us, do not be offended or I will cry.

kinktober day 14 main kink: phone sex | kinktober masterlist

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Fantasizing about being in relationships with fictional characters was entirely healthy and normal.

That was something you believed to the core. It was fictional; thus, no one but you were to be hurt at the end of the day. The character, being fake, could never have an opinion because you must be real in order to have an opinion. So when you were between boyfriends, you discovered a new anime, and before you could stop yourself, you fell hard for a character.

It started as a mild obsession.

You had looked up fanart via google images, your heart warming when you saw the plethora of different fanart. The anime itself had been in circulation for a few years now, the manga for much longer, so the content was endless. Then google images wasn’t enough, and you began crossing into Twitter and Tumblr.

The fanart became better, more engrossing, and definitely much more NSFW. And then, one night during your endless rabbit hole down Tumblr after your daily search on Twitter, you stilled when seeing a new type of content.

⇒ grey fullbuster x reader

The obsession grew worse.

So much so that you had followed nearly five hundred self insert writers and artists on Tumblr, and maybe seven hundred artists, meta writers, and thread makers on twitter. But three months into consuming all the content you could find, you came across a new name that made you tilt your head.

Hawks Fierce Wings

It was a name that was being repeated and heavily talked about on both sites. It was an ASMR artist, apparently, and you frowned at the thought. You didn’t have anything against ASMR videos, but you weren’t exactly sure how to handle an anime ASMR artist. Were they cosplaying while making all those weird ASMR sounds? You really didn’t have any idea, but due to the immense boredom of your lazy day in, you decided to hell with it and tried out his most popular video.

It was simply entitled: Hawks is Jealous.

Did you have any idea as to who Hawks was? God, no, you didn’t. But if it was just some random cosplay he was going to do, you didn’t think it was going to matter. So as the only slightly educated ASMR listener, you never truly became invested when it was a thing; you slipped on your earbuds and pressed play.

The introduction screen faded into an illustrated picture of a slightly handsome man, and some calming yet tense music played in the background. You shifted, eyebrows drew as you waited for the ASMR session to begin, and when it did, you were not ready.

“I saw you walking around with that asshole today,” a voice practically growled in your ear, and you froze.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Oh, no!

For almost an entire hour, you sat glued to your sofa, your fingers digging into your lap as the jealous, spiteful words of this man named Hawks poured bitterly in your ear. His words were a near aggravated assault on you and definitely something you were beyond uncomfortable hearing from a stranger, but there was something about his voice that kept you there. Maybe it was the tenor of his tone or the way there was this sly, cunning scent to his words that he seemed to hide deep within his throat, but there was something that kept you there.

The second the passionate, heated kissing noises and heavy moans began to spill from his lips, you screeched, slamming your laptop closed as your cheeks pounded heavily.

Oh my god?!

It took a bit, but eventually, you were able to finish the audio and quickly figured out why he was an NSFW artist. You had never, ever heard a man eat a pussy fake or real as eagerly or vigorously as he did. Your hands were gripping the pants of your leggings, and your chest heaved.

Oh, motherfucking shit.

Finding out there were almost seventy other videos for you to still experience sent you scrambling for more, and eventually, you had to confess you were obsessed. Despite the anime fandoms you had discovered him for, Hawks seemed to be more famous for the content he created as himself. His real name was unknown by the looks of it, and he was only addressed as Hawks by his audience, something you caught on to quickly. So only after creating a new profile for his Youtube account, you made quick work of liking and commenting on every single of his already published seventy-eight nearly one hour and thirty-minute videos. 

Each one was different.

Each one filled with various roadmaps on how Hawks' scenarios would play out for you — the listener. When he used his own persona, he called the listener his little dove or his chicken nugget, sometimes his KFC thigh, or his shish kabob. 

You were glad at the very least he didn’t call you by any of those nicknames when pretending to fuck you at a speed only a “porn-is-my-only-education-on-porn” virgin teenage boy. You knew it wasn’t ideal, usually, but for some reason, it just worked. You commented on everything, read his summaries and thoughts on each video. Eventually, when you found yourself on his final, most recent video, you were ready to go a step further.

The Patreon app on your phone seemed jarringly out of place as you opened the app and subscribed yourself to Hawks' highest tiered option for the price of twenty USD.

And when you got your access to his page, you were immersed in more heavier, better content.

It was a goldmine in a sea of fools gold, and you absolutely went insane.

You weren’t sure if you were insane, needy, or just straight-up idiotic for scrolling to the very first Patreon post and indulging in the content Hawks created. 

There was a stark difference between the warnings alone between the Youtube videos and the Patreon posts. While the porn was readily accessible on Youtube, the kinkiest thing that ever happened in a video was a slight implication that Hawks had left the listener on a vibrator and fuckmachine as he went to go talk to the visiting neighbors.

It was a slight, tiny zone out and miss a detail, but one you had clung onto like an obsessed psycho and even commented on in your comment on the post. Of course, Hawks hadn’t responded, not that you had ever expected him to because all things considered, a video that was eight months old and hadn’t done that well, to begin with, didn’t seem like anything he would remember: notifications and all. 

But Patreon? Oh good, sweet, ravishing Patreon.

The very first video was of the following:

Stepbrother!Hawks fucks Stepsister!Listener in the stairwell during Christmas Dinner.

After praying and swearing to all the deities of the world that you were merely a person with a voice kink for this man and not, in fact, a perverted pseudo-incest worshiper, you clicked on it and began. It was downright sinful.

There were active voices whispered in the background as Hawks laughed about how fucking slutty you were for letting your brother fuck you like this. In the hallway, like a dog, where anyone in your joint family could walk out into. He laughed that you probably wanted it, how your wet ass pussy was greedily sucking him in, so how could you even begin to deny your lust for your brother.

You had to take a break five times during that audio.

Eventually, you do end up catching up.

Each video he had ever posted to your disposal, and most likely due to the different tier levels, you always commented on the videos. Even if it made you feel awkward for lusting over things months old, even if there were no other comments on the videos, which was much more common than you thought, you always commented and liked. It wasn’t anything ever crazy, you had seen the rarest comments bring a whole essay of analysis on why they loved it or the hating words, but you kept it simple.

Just something to keep Hawks spirits high without draining you even further of energy.

A simple: holy shit, that was hot as fucking hell!!!! you never disappoint me!!!

You never expected anything out of it; as a matter of fact, you had merely thought that you were doing the least by merely appreciating his creations when, one night, a few hours after you had gotten home. Your phone chimed with an alert.

Your mouth formed an ‘o’ in surprise; you hadn’t realized there was going to be a new release after he had just updated four days ago. Still, you popped in your earbuds and began the audio with a simple title.

i fuk ur stupid lil pus until u cri

He wasn’t precisely putting much effort into his titles these days, but his tags were definitely accurate and entirely explicit in what was to come. And in this newest video, the prominent tag was degradation.

You weren’t entirely into degradation, but still, you did what you had to do because you weren’t turned off by it. With the beginning sounds of the music playing in the background, you warped into the situation Hawks carefully carved.

But, oh?

Your face simmered with heat as Hawks dirty words dripped from the earbuds, the wet, squelching noise of your cunt and throat being fucked like some inanimate object made you soak through your panties as his disparaging words burned against your spine like a hot brand. After the thirty-minute audio was finished. Your body trembling with the aftershocks of an orgasm that had come despite the lack of actual stimulation of your clit, and you panted on your bed.

Opening your phone once again, you quickly liked the new audio and typed out your comment.

listen, i know i always comment about how fucking hot this shit is, but i have /never/ fucking soaked through my panties… you just did that and i expect a full refund for these panties 💦

You pressed send and, without so much of a second thought, continued your night. You had dinner, talked with friends, and ended the night curled back on the couch with a wine glass in your hand and a simple sit-com playing on the TV. The familiar sound of the Patreon alert rang in your ear, and you frowned, confused.

Grabbing your phone, you opened up the device and nearly shrieked at the sight of the information the notification that said:

Hawks F.W.: lets see those panties before i refund anything

A chill ran down your spine as you quickly put together the indications of this message, and you smirked, despite your quivering hands. 

Me: I have a seven inch dick requirement before seeing any of the goods — yes, that includes my panties

And from that very moment, you began a strange arrangement between you and the NSFW ASMR artist Hawks.

.

..

.

Working was the worst part of your life, you would say.

At work, you would sit in your small 4x4 cubicle, your shelves stacked with plenty of papers and items you needed, not to mention the computer that took up the majority of your desk. You weren’t quite sure what your job here was, you sort of sat at your desk and did meaningless assignments when assigned, but you did nothing for the most part. 

Before becoming an active Hawks stan, you would spend your time doing nothing playing video games. You had somehow managed to install a VPN onto your hard drive so that your employers wouldn’t be able to see what was on your screen outside of the home screen. They couldn’t trace what you did all day, but they could care less, given you got all your work completed on time and done in an over exceptional way.

But lately, since you had dropped into this… engrossed whore like relationship with Hawks, things changed. 

To be honest, it still shocks you to no end when he tells you that he had always been aware of you. Well, with your consistent, ever appearing comments on his posts and overall enthusiasm for everything he posted, it was hard to not be aware. The mental image of your soaked through panties after a long day at his own work had sent him over the edge, and he finally messaged you.

Through the DM’s in Patreon, the two of you grew to become quite the friends with benefits. He would send you countless personalized audio files because you had quickly confessed to your voice kink and how his voice sent your stomach into hormonal knots. In return, you’d send the picture of an occasional soaked panty, and if he was lucky, an audio clip of your pathetic whines back to his audios.

You couldn’t complain about this arrangement.

But as the number of his patrons doubled, and he wanted to entice his subscribers with paying him even more money, Hawks began to offer a bimonthly personalized five minute audios for his $20 tier. The fans poured into that spot, and Hawks and proudly sent you the new number of adoring fans he was getting. On account of growing platforms such as Tiktok, the number of new listeners he got was nearly exponential, as he currently passed one million followers last week. 

The cheeky bastard was also making enough money to stop working his regular work hours anymore. Choosing to transition slowly into his Patreon career while recording.

Hawks, however, seemed to have other ideas for your eventual personalized voice audio.

Hawks had simply asked if, by any chance, you were going to be working tomorrow the night before. Groaning loudly in recognition of your work schedule, you had texted him back that you were going to be working. Snidely including the fact that you weren’t rich like him, you needed the tedious old nine to five job.

Hawks: how utterly boring anyway u can b free around 2?

Me: Eh… probably not. Busy girl w busy schedule, ill be back from lunch so no break Why?

Hawks: well, u knw tht uve been amzing & th bst follower so i wanted 2 give u smthing better then the personalized audio

Me: Oh? Well, what is it?’

Hawks: pick up tmrw n find out

He had changed the subject immediately afterward by dodging all of your questions with ease. So you dropped it, and the two of you resumed a night of flirting. But now, sitting in your small cubicle, your eyes flashing to the clock that read 1:57 p.m., sweat began to build on your palm.

You peered down to your phone as you waited for something, anything from Hawks to show up. The fucker was too cheeky, evasive, and quick for his own good. You felt like pouting as you glared at the phone, waiting for the screen to light up.

And you stilled when finally, at precisely 1:59 p.m., your phone gleamed with light. You couldn’t abandon your computer mouse quicker than you did as you grabbed your phone, unlocking it, and reading the message from Hawks.

Hawks: do u have earbuds?

Me: Yes?

Hawks: good put them on n pick up

The moment you had read the first message, you were already pulling out your earbuds, synching them up to your phone, and placing them into your ear. But your jaw dropped when, for the first time, the call feature highlighted onto the screen, the time immediately changing to that of 2:00 p.m. The decline or accept button had never looked as daunting as it did right now.

Despite the call trying to go through, you still saw his follow up.

Hawks: if u dont pick up u wont get shit

[Accept]

You felt your heart hammering in your chest as both fear, apprehension, and excitement boiled through your veins, the hammering blood pounding in your ears as you waited for some sort of noise on the opposite side of the line.

“Little dove?” Hawks' voices filled your ears, and despite yourself, you smiled softly. The naturalness of his voice sends warm thumps down your spine.

“Hi, Hawks,” you whisper breathlessly, your head already checking to make sure your neighboring cubicle mates didn’t try to look over the divisions to stare at you. For the most part, the office building was quiet except for the phone calls, the clanking of computer keys, and the monotonous music playing softly on the speaker's head. 

“Whatcha doing?” he drawled, and you felt your skin heat up when you heard the all too familiar sound of his shoes hitting the top of his desk, the soft whine of his chair as he leaned back onto it. “Are you really at work?”

“What do you mean, am I really at work?” you squeaked, half horrified at the way the lazy, warm heat of lust was infiltrating your body at the sound of his voice, and the annoyance that he thought you had been lying? “Of course I am; it’s two p.m. on a Wednesday!”

“Ah, so little dove-chan is a raging pervert who engages in phone sex to bypass her long hours at work?” Hawks sighed his tone that of understanding and dismissal. You splutter. “You never fail to surprise me.”

“I do not do… that!” you stammer, your face feeling like hot cinders, your fingers and eyes double-checking to make sure that the audio was going to your earbuds and your earbuds only. You also couldn’t help the way your eyes swept around you, trying to make sure you hadn’t accidentally invited unwanted attention. “I said I was busy!”

“But, you picked up my call?”

“You said, or else!”

“Mmm, okay, I think I see,” Hawks tutted, and although you had never seen what you supposed to be his handsome face, you could imagine a lazy, toothy smirk on his face. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind using your little cubicle to talk you into fucking yourself good for me.”

Your jaw drops.

It hits the desk, and the muffled shriek of utter humiliation is only silenced because you bit onto your tongue like a rabid animal.

“Aw, you sound so excited for me already, little dove. I bet you want to know what I’m going to do to you, don’t you? I just know that I’m going to make you feel so... good…”

“Hawks!” you plea in a hushed whisper, your heart hammering where you sat frozen like a deer in headlights. Sure, you had definitely played his audios before to pass the time, but never before in your existence had you had actual phone sex. This was riskier than just listening to his audios; his audios always had a pattern, a way to escape from the madness of his voice when people were closer than you’d like. But this? No, there was no escape. “I’m at work! I c-can’t!”

“But, fuck, I want you so bad,” Hawks' voice dipped into a gravely tone, his voice just perfectly scratchy enough that your shoulders trembled in unspoken, untouched want. “I want to feel your cunt around my cock, baby, your pussy is so hot and I want to be the fucking lucky bastard that gets to fuck you through your bed.”

“O-Oh my god…”

“I’ve been thinking of what your tits look like,” Hawks continues on, his voice continuing in the style you liked the most. It was raw, heavy, and deep. No character impersonations, just him, pure Hawks. “I hope they bounce the way they do when I imagine you riding me. I want to see you moan when I kiss the underside of your tit, I want to see your face when you realize that you’re my girl, nobody's else's, but mine.”

Heat floods your panties at his words, your shallow breaths making him chuckle on the other end. 

“You’d be so lucky to be just mine, wouldn’t you, little dove?” Hawks snaps, his voice demanding a response, and you heave.

You look around, no one is near, and you croak out: “I’d be so lucky.”

“Louder.”

“I’d be so lucky.”

“Mm, there we go,” Hawks laughs, and your ears prickle for any noise that may indicate that someone was listening in. “What? Are you getting nervous that your needy ass will be heard by your coworkers right now? Answer me.”

“Mhmm,” you hum loudly, your cunt pulsing with more incredible heat and your hands shaking with a slight fear of being caught.

“Aww, don’t worry, little dove. I’m sure your boss will understand that you’re my newest fucktoy and will let me continue. Maybe they’ll want to join in?”

You whimper softly, shifting in your seat at that thought. You didn’t really want your boss coming anywhere near you, he was old and gross for one, and nothing could take the place of this beautiful man's voice in your ear right now.

“Oh, was that a no? You don’t want other people fucking you, do you, y/n? I bet you only want to have my cock in your tight little pussy, bet you want to watch the way that greedy little thing sucks me in, begging for my seed. Would you want me to cum deep inside you? You would like that little dove; you’d like to be full of my cum.”

“H-Hawks,” you keen as quietly as you can, your hips shifting uncomfortably in your seat, your heart hammering in your throat. The pressing heat in your cunt is growing, your panties growing with wet slick as Hawks' voice whispers down your ear, filling every empty and void space in your brain until you were having trouble focusing on the very much public spot you were in.

Hawks let out a soft, guttural moan, and you froze, face entirely combusting into an inferno as the familiar slick slapping of his fapping cock filled your ear. Immediately, you forgot everything.

“A-Are you—?!” you splutter, unable to find the words or the energy to come up with a way to ask if he was masturbating right now. Your eyes spun, your mind in a complete haze as soft, raunchy moans spilled from his lips, striking against your nerves and soul with each successive sound.

“I’m only trying to help you out here, dove,” Hawks growled, undoubtedly in effect to a rather loud smack of his fist colliding with his thrusting hip. “You’re the little office slut who picked up a phone call to entice in phone sex. I bet you knew exactly what I was going to do, and your pathetic, needy whore self caved to my instructions.”

Your fingers curled into the armrest of your chair.

“I bet this makes your boring ass job tolerable, the perfect distraction to a shit job, then imagining a few minutes of fucking yourself against my hard cock.”

“That’s not true!”

“No?” Hawks laughed, not believing you any more than you did. “So you wouldn’t hate it if I showed up and fucked you into the wall of your cubicle? You wouldn’t mind if I claimed your sweet-smelling pussy against your desk for everyone to hear? I know you can scream like a bitch in heat. I know that pretty little cunt of yours would milk my cock dry. Oh, I just know you would look so fucking sexy with your back arched, eyes closed, and you begging for hours just to cum. You wouldn’t cum without my permission, right?”

You gasped, heart fluttering, hammering in your chest as you shook your head, not trusting yourself to speak.

“I need a verbal answer, little dove.”

The heat in your core was blistering, your thighs shaking with your unadulterated lust and need as you ground into the cushion of your chair. All logic and moral long gone as he snarled and moaned your name in your ear, the slick of his fapping cock echoing like a great bell in your ear. You wanted to hear him cum, wanted to listen to the pithering sound of his echoing moans as he spilled the contents of his balls onto his hand — and how you wished it was your womb.

“I won’t cum w-without your permission!” you whispered, your skin shivering with your fear of being caught. 

“God, you sound like such a dirty fucking bitch. I bet your pussy is fucking soaked already. Bet you really want to run that slutty embarrassed finger against your clit but don’t want to be caught by your perverted coworkers,” Hawks hissed, his breaths turning into steady, heavy hot pants. You mewl softly, confirming his spoken thoughts, and he huffs out a laugh. “How many fingers do you normally shove up that pretty cunt of yours, little dove?”

“T-Three!” you gasp, your forehead pressing to the cool of your desk, your eyes glazed over and looking at the entrance of your cubicle, fervently wishing that no one tries to check on you as you grind against your stable chair. “O-Only three fit.”

“Fuck, you really do have a tight cunt, don’t you,” Hawks snaps, the wet sounds of his fisting hand around his cock a beautiful melody in your ear that makes you whine at the back of your throat. “Bet you can’t even fit cocks up your cunt without lube, huh. You gotta stay on top, or else you’ll get hurt with how thick and long my cock will be up that baby pussy of yours.”

“H-Hawks!” you grit out, the friction of grinding on the seat no longer working.

“Go to the bathroom, now,” Hawks commands, the small gasps on his voice from his approaching orgasm more than enough ammo for you to do as told.

You sprint to the bathroom, the slick of your cunt hot, and evident to you as you sped to the bathroom. Your phone clenched in your hand as you locked the door behind you, glad the room was empty. Barely managing to get yourself into the stall, the toilet paper placed on the seat as you raised your legs up, already prepared. The skirt you wore was bunched above your ass, and the panties you wore, stretching out around your knees.

“Sounds like you’re ready to start fucking that pussy for me,” Hawks laughs, but there's no humor, just bite. “Put in three fingers, now.”

Without even arguing or caring, three fingers slip into your cunt, and you cry at the feeling of your fingers completely stretching you out. The smell of sex and slick filling your nose as your fingers slick up, fucking your tight cunt as you moan louder and louder for Hawks. 

“God, your fucking pussy is so fucking wet, I can hear it from here!” Hawks moans, the frantic sound of his drilling hips gaining speed and momentum. 

“I want it to be you!” you moan, your face burning in your humiliation. “I want it to be you fucking my pussy, claiming me in this bathroom. I need you, Hawks, I want your cock so badly!”

“Fuck,” Hawks gasps, something tumbling in the background. “Such sweet words for a fucking dirty ass cumslut,” he growls, and your legs shake, your clit and cunt thrumming with your increasing arousal and pit of tightness in your core. 

“HAWKS, FUCK!” you sob as your hips try to start a merciless speed against your fingers, your body trying to match the speed in which Hawks was fucking his own hand.

“Keep screaming my name, whore.” Hawks gasps, his noises of pleasure beginning to grow louder and louder, your eyes crossing in satisfaction. “Screaming my name like the fucking slutty mess you are. All this shit just to get me to fuck you? God, you’re so fucking pathetic y/n. Begging for me, begging for more? I think you’re my favorite little dove ever, gonna make you mine whenever I get to fuck that pussy.”

“Hawks!” you wail his name again, your arms and pussy throbbing with the energy it takes to keep up with his inhumane speeds. Your vision seeing stars as you tremble more and more, your legs slipping from the toilet seat, yet. “I am your whore, your little dove. Please let me come, please! You fuck me so well, fucking hell, please, I needa cum, I needa cum!”

“Cum with me,” he snaps, his voice so deep, so dangerously smooth. It was precisely what you needed, the voice kink you had for his tenor exactly fulfilled entirely with that simple, last command. And just like that, your jaw slackens, head slamming backward, and pleasurable waves crash through you.

Your fingers still rock at your clit, and your vice gripped walls, your toes curling within your shoes as you soundlessly scream. Hawks, on the other end, is practically snarling, voice deep and altogether dangerous as grunt after grunt leaves him, and you can imagine the milk-white cum splattered all over his chest and hand. A beautiful, perfect sight that you wish you could see for yourself.

Exhaustion settles in your bones as you sit on the toilet, still entirely exhausted as you heave for air. 

“I think that was the best fucking orgasm I ever had,” you mumble, your eyes closed, not ready to stand up and move. “Thank you.”

“I’m good at what I… at what I do,” Hawks stumbles, husky exhaustion ringing in his own voice. “Now, little dove, finish up work, and I promise there’ll be a surprise waiting for you when you’re done.”

Not entirely agreeing, but not disagreeing with his command to go finish you last… two and a half hours at work, you begrudgingly said goodbye to Hawks before washing your hands and exiting the bathroom.

When five o’clock came, you watched as your phone screen lit up, and your face flushed as you read the DM from Hawks.

Hawks: this is my fav audio now ↳ hawks_littledove.mp3 but you surprised me today, so in case u ever want to have more fun sometime  call me 03-9183-2495 ;)

[professorchaos]

i’m seeing a lot of people really freaking out at the possibilities that a canon set 40 years in the future might hold (or, more accurately, perhaps the possibilities it might debunk). but please, don’t fret! there are 25 years of fanon behind these characters that no single episode could wipe out. this will just be another fun piece of lore to add to the massive pile - one potential next step in a history longer than a lot of you have even been alive!

the 20 year old future fics sitting around on ff.net won’t magically change overnight, and you don’t have to either! there are plenty of things in canon that many people choose to ignore, or play around with, and if you end up hating what happened to your fave, you can just let this be another one of those things. it doesn’t matter how canon it is or how hard canon tries to take what you love away from you. that’s quite literally the entire point of fandom. do you think people started writing star trek fanfiction because spock got gay married on screen? no! they did it precisely because he didn’t!

there are a lot of other shows which have done this before and you can look at any one of them for an example as to what happens. largely, it’s... not much! just because naruto canonically has children with hinata and is awful to them doesn’t mean people don’t make amazing works of art where he adopts with sasuke and they’re fantastic dads. harry becoming a cop and getting with ginny hasn’t slowed down the dedicated fandom niches where he becomes a teacher and gets with draco or hermione. canon absolutely cannot stop you from doing what you want: if canon says kenny is a cishet trucker but you read the source text as 25 years of evidence that she’s a bi trans actress, that’s absolutely fine. every reading of a text is valid and has merit. stories do not only belong to those telling them - they belong to you, the audience, as well.

at the same time, you should respect the authorial intent as having its own merit as well, even if for you, personally, that’s only in giving you something to play and/or argue with. that’s valuable, too! and everything meaning something different to everyone means it’s very rarely accurate to dismiss something you personally dislike as meaningless garbage*. another thing i would like to point out is that, as far as we know at the moment, the characters have only been aged up to 50. 50 is not the end of a person’s life. if you do wish to stick to canon, there is no reason that you can’t attempt to adapt your headcanons to fit around canon. just because a headcanon or ship gets written out at this specific point doesn’t mean it couldn’t still be part of your interpretation. creek not married? cool, they broke up in college and get married at 67. eric is straight? he discovers his homosexuality at 55 and starts going to drag night. it doesn’t matter. you can work with practically anything if your force of will is strong enough. 

try not to worry :) this show is a comedy and it’s a silly thing for any of us to be this emotionally invested in to begin with. we’re all very lucky that there are so many people equally invested, to hopefully ease the weirdness of this big change for each other a little.

i’m looking forward to enjoying the upcoming dumpster fire with you all later in the week! * a note for any randos reading this who agree because it validates their behaviour: i am not applying this to content created by adults involving the explicit sexualisation of minors. please do not misinterpret my words.

[mprosperossprite]

I just finished my first novel length fanfic!! How did that happen? I'm still a little bit in awe of myself and very very proud. I've been thinking about how I got to this point and I want to share what I learned while writing it, because writing can be a solitary, independent activity, but it doesn't have to be. So, in case this is useful to any other fic writers out there...

Three Things I Learned While Writing My First Novel Length Fanfic:

1. “Write for yourself” is bullshit advice in an ecosystem driven by sharing

I started writing my novel-length fic, Bring the World Back Into Tune, in November 2020. Four or five chapters into posting it, I almost abandoned the project all together. Why? Because I felt “nobody” was reading it. The Old Guard fandom is dominated by Joe/Nicky content. There are so many reasons to love Joe and Nicky and their relationship, but compared to my Joe/Nicky fic, Bring the World Back Into Tune (btwbit, hereafter) was getting a miniscule number of hits and comments and kudos. And I thought it was a better crafted story than anything else I’d shared at that point! I wanted to tell this story, but I also wanted to share this story, and those are related but distinct.

Fandom is an ecosystem built on sharing. These days, Archive of Our Own has given fandoms a safe place to host creations. Tumblr is a platform designed to promote engagement by sharing and re-sharing content. Discord is a platform designed for discussion. I am not a fandom old, so I can’t speak to this personally, but the folks who were creating and mailing physical zines? That was also an ecosystem of sharing, the internet has just expedites the time frame. Fandom is about sharing, not about creating.

I didn’t quit writing btwbit because there were people who told me they were enjoying reading it, because I had a handful of people who were commenting on each chapter. I realized that “write for yourself” was bullshit because I was already writing for an audience. Maybe it wasn’t the audience that I’d dreamed of, or as big an audience as I’d hoped, but I realized that internet fandom had given me an audience and so I started writing for them. Each chapter was a gift to the folks who were reading the story. Framing why I was working on this huge, sprawling fic in this way helped keep me motivated to finish it.

I also realized that audience and community are related. The more people I got to know by being present in fandom spaces -- in AO3 comments, in tumblr group chats, in discord servers -- the more people I got invested in the fic because they liked me, not necessarily the ship or the premise. Part of finding my audience ended up being building it, and that too contributed to my enjoyment of writing the story.

2. Beta readers are the best thing you can do for a fic

I think I may have said this in every single author’s note, but btwbit would be a very different and much worse fic if it weren’t for marbletopempire’s beta work.

I didn’t start out with a beta because I’ve a degree in English literature, damnnit, and I’ve got confidence in my ability to craft a story. I am also a damn good beta reader myself and I know that beta reading is a relationship built upon trust. When I started writing btwbit, there wasn’t anyone I trusted with it.

Marble became my beta because I began beta-ing for her. And I began betaing for marble because I was commenting on every chapter of her fic. I found her because I was engaging with the fandom. I was willing to let her into the writing process for btwbit because I had gotten to know her as a writer and a friend.

There were a couple of pivotal moments when marble gave me notes that came down to “would your characters really do that?” and every single time the answer was “no, they wouldn’t.” Sometimes this made the story longer. Sometimes this was a reminder that btwbit was not every Book of Nile story, it was my Book of Nile story, and, ultimately, a romance.

Also, find people to help you get the details right. Sometimes research is enough, but sometimes a conversation with a person who has experiences different than your own that might help you bring realism and nuance to your characters is transformative. @nevermindirah helped me out a couple of times and their insights helped shape and define a couple of pivotal moments of the fic (and I learned stuff that didn’t make it directly into the fic, too).

3. The hardest things to write are often the most rewarding

Mostly I’m talking about writing smut.

But, yeah, sometimes writing is hard, but with a community and audience by your side, it is very very worth it.

[cooloddball]

Someone submitted something in my inbox and they wanted to remain anonymous. Since this is an extremely long essay, I will put it under the cut. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

xxx submitted: hey, i was the one who ask what do you think of Misha and Jensen's current relationship First off all thank you for your answear it means much to me cause im easy to be convice and this person who keep telling me that they are no longer friends can be so convicing, so I'm actully trying to forget what she said 😅 so I'm just writing a few. she said that since they no longer work together, they will forget about each other, and do their common things like the gay jokes, face touches ect. With other people, and neglect each other, don't talk to each other, and then meet new people who will replace the other. And and she talked about the gish thing, she said she sure they didn't talk since the end of the series, because Jensen didn't know where Misha was and Misha didn't know about the Radio Company vol 2 (but i saw people say that, they were just pretending, because Misha liked something about Radio Company Vol 2, before the gish live, so in theory he already knew then or something like that) and She said Misha wrote a poem about Darius not Jensen and now I will write down what she sent me : I saw a post about Jensen's current activities on social media, and I've come to the conclusion the only person he doesn't interact with is mish. Sadly this makes my break up theory even stronger. I feel like this is a goodbye to one of the biggest parts of my life. They've moved on from "uk what I haven't told you today? That i love u"+ from "miss my only jensen" from "i love u misha i mean it from the bottom of my heart" from "jensen has no flaws" from "misha is the funniest thing ever happened to me" from all that love and affection from everything they developed together and now they're apart leaving their lives like nothing happened and call me a dramatic but they both have the same energy now as someone has after a big break up. and Jensen comments on almost every of his friend’s post except Misha’s"+ Jenmish is genuinely the best thing that has ever happened in my entire life. I owe them literally everything. They're the reason i hold on. Unfortunately on this essay i have to start using past tense verbs for them, and i have to continue on that. I don't know for how long y'all been in spn fandom. But even if u joined one year before the show ended you'd know how close and intimate jensen and misha were. Everything about them was unmatched.+ The chemistry and how they just fit eachother. They had always been all over eachother. Like they were holding on eachother for dear life. They completed eachother and were like world's most powerful thing. They were the definition of soulmatism. No matter where, they ALWAYS kept interacting with eachother. Each possible tweet or insta post. On cons that the other wasn't there, the other one would bring up the othere's name for no absolute reason. +The looks and repeated love confessions. How invested they were both into eachother. The family they had built together cuz we know how close dee and mish are (look all the charity work they've been doing together recently). There are youtube videos to proof everything I've said so far.When i say break up, my real intention is that they've grown apart. Everything started in the the third or forth month of pandemic. Before than jensen used to interact +(comment mostly) on almost all of misha's posts. But after a while everything just stopped. At first personally didn't care that much. Bcuz I believed too much in them that I thought not even the gods above could separate them. I told myself maybe they spend long hours chatting or video calling and that's why online public interactions are gone. But as it passed it almost diminished to zero. Except some likes from jackles and eventual ones from misha there weren't anything else.+ We got absolutely no content and the show went off too. We were helpless and were sticking to everything we had Dee had a big social media shot down, so as jensen. Misha was busy with the election. We got some interviews for it with all of them. But we didn't get much.except remember both of them pulling a bff

move. and texted eachother during an online con where everyone else were dead-serious about politics? That flickered something in me. That showed me that+ they can't ever possibly let eachother go. And the times everyone else were talking and these too would just talk random things together (the one jackels had a white hat on with stacy abraham).And then Misha posted that for jensen's bday We really overlooked it. That shit was too intimate. To close. Fav march baby? U just don't go around and called ur bestie baby and when u mean it deeply. Especially not when ur friend is jensen ackles the "I suffered form internalized homophobia my whole life+ but fuck my wife's an angel and i have an angel bf too and another angel which is his wife but I'd rather die than come out cuz my asshole dad pulled a John winchester on me". It doesn't work like that. But uk how mish is. Carefree and open. I believe they got into a fight bcuz of this. He didn't even like the post. AND that was when the tiny bit of interactions we had was gone too. For a while jensen didn't even liked his posts. After a month it started again.What made me finally believe in that they had grown too+ far: I still remember the night misha posted that he and jensen were going to have a con for gish together. I remember how hard I cried. Lile the whole world was given to me. But deep down in my heart I knew that something would definitely happen. It didn't sit right with me and unfortunately my senses never lie to me. Jensen showed up at the wrong time bcuz of misunderstanding the time zones (this was HILARIOUS). That's not even my point.+ I've seen that interview 3 times so far. It always reminds me of when i saw my ex at a party and we were both so thrilled to see eachother and we still loved the other dearly, but we just couldn't work it out. Jensen and Misha's expressions were EXACTLY the same. The genuine smiles and longs pauses were they just stared at eachother. I'm so happy that it was online cuz if they actually gave that looks to eachother standing right next to the other one I would've collapsed. Misha didn't know that jensen's album+ was out. And he got so embarrassed when he found it out. He didn't know that jensen was on set and hadn't been home for 8weeks. Jensen had no idea where misha was. And this means that they hadn't talked in a long long time.When you're that close with someone for more than a decade, i mean THAT close, even if u're separated from eachother you'd at least check on the once a week, or at least once in two weeks. But it was vividly clear that they hadn't. I hate how this world works. They would always be in my heart.+ I would be thankful from them for everything. It hurts, and it won't stop and im so sure I'd be carrying this pain for a long time. They mean too much to a lot of us. Sometimes I think to myself that god i love them so much. Remember in 2019 when we used to get SO many jenmishdee interactions? That was LIT. It was THEE year for us. I hope they're doing good. I really do. I hope we don't get more proofs and I won't have to update this thread. Cuz my heart won't be taking it very+ well.Something i gotta add U may say that Jensen's busy and that's why he doesn't comment. But he comments on a lot of jared and his new costar's posts. So that's no excuse. So yeah that's it. I don't know what am I supposed to think. english isn't my native language, so sorry for the mistakes

Here is my response:

I don't know who this person who has been talking to is but I have to say they seem to be project their previous relationship experience on cockles.

I believe Jensen and Misha are okay and are together. Social media likes and comments don't mean anything. I mean it's not like Jensen or Misha used to comment on each other's posts before. Jensen didn't even wish Dee Happy Mother's Day this year, does that mean they are not together anymore? Nope. He has other best friends he has known for over 20 years like Jason Manns, Steve Carlson etc that he doesn't wish happy birthday, does that mean they are not friends anymore.

Please let's not put value on social media likes. I don't even follow my own family on sm and I don't always like or comment on my bf's or bff's posts on sm. So it doesn't mean anything.

As for the Gish Panel, I have talked about it before, the time Jensen was slotted to attend the panel, he was meant to answer fan questions. I honestly believe they decided to not do it at that time because they knew the questions would be about Destiel and not their new projects. If you watched that panel, Misha knew that Jensen's album was out as I pointed out. He was just trying to promote the album and soldier boy. He knew Jensen had also buffed out. It was all to promote Jensen. Anything else you hear is trolls and antis just being loud. Also don't forget Jensen called him "babe".

If Jensen and Misha weren't okay, he wouldn't have attended or participated all those panels Misha organized especially for Gish. Danneel also posts a lot about RA and likes Misha's posts. I am 100% Misha visited the Ackles when he went to Colorado last month.

Stop listening to trolls and/or antis or just people who are projecting and look at facts.

[seaalgae]

get the distinct feeling that ppl who dont understand that chronic nuzlockers treat pokemon the same way an fps player treats a gun have only ever been exposed to kynim's nuzlocke content where she basically turned her whole team into blorbos & think everyone is like this

honestly the more i think about it the more I realize the capital N Nuzlockers are sort of a hard outlier in that regard; it changes the way you approach the game when nuzlocking becomes your default way of playing, or when you have a distinct goal in mind, whether that's a specific pokemon you want to take to a specific fight or a specific story you want to tell/specific character you get invested in - and that's before getting into people that sort of make the challenge about themselves rather than their guys

it's a GENUINELY interesting subculture and it's only made more interesting with how the Official platform's (Our Blessed Homeland) culture is isolated from the broader fandom (Their Barbaric Wastes), because of the expectation that the run will be used for Content(tm), the approach to runs as content first and recordings of game experiences second, the way the field is inherently full of other chronic nuzlockers and the sort of gameplay/story escalation inherent in the need to stand out from the crowd, and so on

like everyone with a nuzforum account has blorbo'd a butterfree before at least once - and honestly, has probably even used so many butterfrees and seen so many runs with them that taking one to the league no longer registers as a thing that people outside the community usually have a hard time doing

[skaylanphear]

Hi there! Do you have any advice on improving traction towards a fanwork/fic? I love writing—and it's not for notoriety by any means—but having validation and feedback also feels nice (I hope that's not conceited). What would you recommend to someone without a large audience/follower base? I do "advertise" on tumblr when my work is written/updated on AO3. How did your journey start? Thank you!

This is an interesting question and I doubt most people are going to like the answers, but here we go:

So, first and foremost, you need to be realistic about why you're creating in the first place. If you're doing work in a fandom that is older, where content has stopped coming out, or that is simply smaller, you're not going to get much engagement, period. There will, of course, be activity in these fandoms, but it will be far less and the people involved—while they may view your work—will be less likely to comment/spread it around simply because there's not much going on. So if you're creating in that sort of environment (which can be a really good environment if you're looking for something chill with no pressure), then you have to be prepared for low engagement, even if the people you do meet and who are willing to talk about your work are more regularly in your sphere. You can probably make better/closer friends in these sorts of fandoms, if you're willing to try.

But, on the other end of this, if you're coming into a huge fandom late, it's also going to be harder to wade through the massive following to get your stuff out there. For example, in both the Miraculous and Sk8 fandom, I started work pretty early on, when the shows were still gaining traction, and so my "name" as a creator gained traction parallel to that growth, as opposed to when I started writing in the Voltron fandom. With Voltron, I came in super late and so what few fics I had that did gain traction took a lot longer to get there because people already had their fav content creators in the fandom, etc. It's not impossible to get popular in this situation—far from it—but it does take longer.

You'll also benefit from having finished works early on in a fandom's lifespan, at least with writing. This is because there's less competition for views and so more people will be filtered to your work, initially. This means that you have a better chance of getting those comments and kudos. Having a finished work increases this engagement because people look for finished works before works in progress. Generally, the length of a fic doesn't matter much for popularity, so long as it's DONE. When I was writing in the ML fandom, quite a few of my earlier fics were shorter, and they compete in popularity with my longer fics, because people care more about having a finished story, not a long story. That's why when it came to Only Practice Makes Perfect in the Sk8 fandom, I worked hard to get that shit done, because it was the most popular story I had in the fandom and I decided—like an idiot—to make it a long fic. Which, yeah, means people probably love it/remember it more in the long run, but if I hadn't finished it in 2 to 3 months, I'd have lost considerable traction as far as making a name within the fandom.

This leads into one of the most important points, if not THE MOST IMPORTANT point in gaining an audience—consistency. If you do want to be a successful creator, you Have To Be Consistent. This is the most difficult hurdle for all creators, and it is oftentimes impossible to make happen. If you want to aim for professionalism, which a lot of fandom creators don't care about (which is fine), then consistency is how you get there. Nobody wants to read a fic or follow an artist who doesn't stick to creating what they start (RIP all my unfinished works and the people who left me as a result, LOL). Using my most recent works as an example, I very, very, very consistently updated Only Practice Makes Perfect multiple times a week. To the point where people got comfortable expecting it, which is the key variable here. When people become comfortable that you will regularly create content, they not only stick around, but will be more interactive with you and your work. Nobody likes the disappointment of getting involved with a work only for that work to rarely get updates. Most people don't have the attention span to care. I'll admit, if I read a fic that's not finished and the writer takes one week to update, then one week, then THREE weeks, I probably will, like, forget about it. That's just life.

The best thing you can do is schedule. And again, this is the HARDEST thing to do, because it holds the creator to a deadline. Most people who create in fandoms don't want that kind of pressure—and that's fine. I go back and forth on when I have scheduled releases and when I don't, depending on what I'm aiming to do. But if you to retain your audience, telling them that you will update a work regularly on such and such a day and such and such a time, it creates something for them to remember. If they're invested in your work, they will think, "oh, it's Friday, that means such and such is coming out with something new." But, with that in mind, you also have to commit to a schedule that people will remain invested in. Which basically means you can't put things out more than a week away from each other, unless you're really, really famous, lol. If I told people I was going to go on a two week update schedule, I would lose most of my audience. But a week is long enough for people to both still remember and anticipate. That's just how the scheduling of the world works. And if you're an artist that's working on a big project, then you have to share progress, or pieces of what you're doing on a regular basis. That's what generates "buzz" and keeps you relevant. And, yeah, that's a really hard schedule to commit to, because it's a lot of work. BUT this consistency is where you see people being successful. Popular youtubers may not have gained their popularity by being consistent, but most sure do retain it that way. And again, there are outlying exceptions, but they generally ARE exceptions.

Speaking of hard work, here's probably the second hardest thing to accomplish—you have to be prolific. Especially as a writer. You have to write A LOT if you want to gain an audience. And yeah, that means you have to work, a lot. I love my work, so I enjoy that "grind," and I also have developed a lot of strategies to work around writer's block and every other obstacle that tends to catch people up. I work in a very professional manner—I do outlines, and drafts, and plan. I do a lot of stuff that people who do this kind of thing for fun can't be bothered with (and that's fine), but that's because I find it to be what works best in creating an efficient environment. I'm also very, very NOT lazy, lol. I was raised in an environment where you have to work for everything that you want. My parents didn't buy me my first computer, or snowboard, or what have you. We were tight on money and if I wanted something, they couldn't help me—I had to get that shit on my own. And I also grew up on a farm, where hard work was a staple of how you did things. You did things the right way, even if it was the hard way. You can't cut corners and it's the same with this. If you want it, you have to actually do the work, that's it. Some people get lucky with popularity, most don't. Most famous actors didn't become well-known off their first efforts, they had to keep trying and keep working and then they have to continue to do that to stay relevant. So if that doesn't sound great to you, then you might want to not focus on your audience and just create because you enjoy it, lol. Sometimes that's what I do too, when I don't wanna deal with the pressure.

Moving on, here's another point that nobody is going to like. Simply put, you also have to be good at what you do. I think some people don't realize that I've been writing fic for over fifteen years. I currently have nearly 2 millions words worth of fics on AO3 and that doesn't include a majority of the stuff I've ever written. I practice A LOT. I write every day. And I'll tell ya, when I started out in middle school, my stuff was not good. But I worked hard, I ignored the hate, and I kept going. That is the only way you will ever get better at anything. There's no quick way to become a better writer, or artist. And a vast majority of people are only going to pay attention to your stuff if it's quality work. Getting to that point is a process, on top of then creating stuff that fits into popular molds. Not only am I good at what I do (and I don't care how arrogant that sounds—I've worked my ass off), but when it comes to fandoms, I rarely write "rare pairs" and "crack ships." Generally, if it's popular, that's where I am. That makes a big difference and I honestly don't have sympathy for people who write rare pairs and such and then complain about lack of engagement. You knew what you were getting into (it's mostly the Miraculous fandom that gave me this bitterness). If you're not writing what people WANT to read, then your audience is simply going to be smaller. And that audience doesn't owe you their attention, no matter how frustrating it is or how good your work is. I could be the best writer in the world, but if I'm writing RekixCherry fic, I have nobody to blame but myself when nobody reads it. BUT if that's your passion, and writing a certain unpopular thing makes you happy, then, again, you need to not be concerned with traction and your audience.

The last point I'll make is that it matters HOW you present yourself online. A good chunk of the well-known creators in any fandom are, simply put, older people. And those that aren't, and are able to connect with those older creators, have generally created a bubble around themselves of maturity and, like, of being nice, lol. A lot of creators are skittish these days, and if you're an asshole (anti) or fight a lot over stupid shit, you may get a bigger audience, but you will isolate yourself from other creators. And this is important because oftentimes it is your exposure to other creators that will get your work circulating. The reason I got popular in the ML fandom? I wrote a short angst fic and a really popular artist shared it/talked about it and the rest was history. But if I'd had a habit of being an asshole, probably wouldn't have happened. And, granted, I'm not saying don't voice your opinions, but if you're loud all the time, it does turn people off. Especially creators because they are oftentimes the ones being attacked. They don't want to pull more of that negative bullshit into their lives. I'll admit, when I was in the ML fandom, I was down for a fight, but then that's what people came to expect, and it probably did turn others off, and then when I didn't fight, or didn't think the way my audience thought I should, it, again, turned people off. It's really not worth it unless being that type of person IS your platform.

So, that's all the advice I can give, I suppose. And even if you do all this stuff, that still doesn't mean you're going to be popular. At the end of the day, the thing that I stick to is this—I do what I want, I love what I do, and I work hard. If I'm in a position to worry about all that other stuff, then sure, I do, but otherwise… There's no easy way to become popular and, quite frankly, it's better to just "live" working hard and being a decent person than it is to focus on all this bullshit. I've created a working environment where I function within these "points" quite naturally, so it's not something I think about (except for schedules, lol). Sometimes I get popular in fandoms, sometimes I don't. At the end of the day, it comes down to how much work you're willing to do, because you will always be giving more than you are getting back, so you have to at least enjoy what you're doing.

Seriously, just do it because you love it. And if the pressure of everything above is something you don't love (I like a good, high pressure situation, lol), then don't do it that way—it's not worth the grief.

[filipinoizukuu]

I saw your post about the FA's translations, and I totally agree. Sometimes, when they do not translate accurately, is to make it sound better or cooler in English, but it just ends up taking away a lot from the context and characters. We know how one of the most affected character interpretations is Katsuki's, a main character, no less. And Izuku and Katsuki's relationship too, which is something super super wrong, considering is deeply intertwined with the main plot of the series, thus if someone misinterpreted their dynamic, this person would miss a bigass chunk of the message the story has.

Here is the panel you mentioned before btw

I remember when I read this, only 10 or 11 chapters into the manga (?), and I was like "...I'm...pretty sure this guy didn't say that" khshsjdhs

OK FIRST OF ALL LMAO HELLO MANG!! THANK YOU SO MUCH AND DW ABOUT IT I TOTALLY GET WHAT YOU MEAN !!

(this is your warning for a long post ahead!)

In any case, I still think you're very correct on this! Not to ramble a bit, but Horikoshi's particular talent in developing the plot of MHA is actually very very brilliant and there are a lot of blink-and-you'll-miss-it details that together, assemble the big picture of what MHA is.

Translations are such an integral part of being able to understand foreign media. MHA or otherwise. The simplest of details say a lot about a character and often times make or break a series because everyone knows that strong character dynamics are what carry even the shittiest of plots.

First and foremost, I want to clarify that because of the nature of fan translations and the fact that most of it is volunteer work/ written out of pure enjoyment of the manga--we shouldn't judge these fan translators too harshly (if at all) for interpreting it the way they want to. FA, as far as I can tell, is a fan-based group that works out of donations.

The first thing I wanna bring up is that when it comes to fandom and its works, there are two types: Curatorial and Transformative. Now, the transformative part is something that must be very familiar to a lot of you. Fanfiction, fanart, and most headcanons fall under Transformative Works (i.e. AO3) because they are all about transforming the canon world to fit each individual's personal preferences. Meta-analysis posts and Character Breakdowns are also classified under this.

Curatorial on the other hand are fandom interactions made with the explicit purpose of being as close to canon material as possible. This is working out the logic of quirks, for example, or memorizing as much canon content about your favorite villain as possible. These are more cold, hard undeniable facts that lend themselves to the DIRECT VISION the creator/author had while making this media. If you were to ask me my opinion on this, this would be the moment where I tell you that the Curatorial side of fandom is where fan translations should (for the most part) fall under.

What people need to know though is that oftentimes, fan translations do not.

Translating isn't and has never been a one-is-to-one process. There are hundreds of thousands of aspects in a language that make it so that it isn't perfectly translatable. Colloquialisms to sayings to dialects, to just plain-out words that don't have a proper English translation to them! Manga is made by and for a Japanese audience, so obviously in a lot of instances, there will be cultural nuances that will not be understood by anyone who hasn't immersed themselves in Japanese culture/language.

So what does this mean then for fan scanlations?

It means that a vast majority of translators teach themselves to only get the essence of the message. They take the dialogue as they understand it and translate it to something of their interpretation. When language and cultural barriers exist, translators do what they can in order to make it understandable to the general populace. This means making their own executive decisions on how they see a character speaking. In example, if they see Todoroki using very direct and impersonal Japanese--one translator might interpret it to mean that Shouto is stiff and overly formal, while another may see it as him being rude and aloof.

The problem is, translators are fans just like us.

Like with the image Mang posted above, the translator based the usage of curse words off of their understanding of Bakugou's character. The lack of foul language in the original Japanese might have made the translator think "Oh. There just aren't enough Japanese cusses for his character." And took that as an initiative to make Bakugou's lines more colorful and violent because this was working off of the image Bakugou had had at this point in canon.

But Codi! You may cry. Wasn't it proven multiple times that Bakugou prefers concise and short lines? They should've known better!

Yes. Maybe they should've known better. But tell me honestly in your first watch-through of MHA, did you perfectly understand Bakugou's character either? Did you catch the whole 'direct and no flowery language' aspect of his language when you first saw Season 2?

Most people don't. I only really understood this fact after I'd read multiple discussions of it and even double-checked the manga myself. These are the kinds of things that only become noticeable with a sharp eye and some time to scrutiny. But the fact of the matter is that when it comes to fan translations, the clout and recognition are always going to go to who can post the quickest.

Am I excusing erroneous translations? A bit, I guess. It's hard for us to go in and expect translators to catch all these errors before release when we ourselves only catch these errors like 4 months in with a hundred times more canon context than these scanlation groups did at the time of its release.

Still, there are plenty of harms that come with faulty translations.

When a translation is more divorced from the original's meaning than usual, it creates a dissonance between what is actually happening versus what the audience sees is happening. This looks like decently-written character arcs being overruled and rejected by most of the readers because of how 'jarring' and 'clumsy' it seems. By the time translators had caught on to the fact that Bakugou was more than just a ticking time bomb, we were already several steps into showing how significantly he cares for Deku.

The characters affected most by these translation errors are often those with the most subtle and well-written character arcs. A single mistake in how the source material is translated can make or break the international reception of a certain character to everyone who isn't invested enough in them to look deeper into the canon source.

It creates hiccups in plots. Things that seem out of character but really aren't. Going back to MHA in specific, the way that inaccurate translations hurt both the 'curatorial' and 'transformative' parts of the fandom is that people have begun to cite them as proof of the main cast's characterization.

Bakugou and Todoroki are undeniably some of the biggest examples of mistranslation injustices.

Katsuki, in a lot of people's minds, has yet to break out of the 'overly-aggressive rival' archetype box that people had been placing him in since Season 1. One of the most amazing aspects and biggest downfalls of Hori's writing was that at first, nearly every character fit into a very neat stereotype for Shonen Animes (Deku being the talking-no-jutsu sunshine MC, Uraraka being the overly bubbly main girl, Todoroki being the aloof and formal rival). He made the audience make assumptions about everyone's characters and then pulled the rug beneath our feet when he revealed deeper sides of them to play around within canon.

What made this part about Horikoshi's set-up so good though were the many clues we were given from the very beginning that these characters were more than what they acted like. Even from the very first chapters, for example, we learn that Katsuki (as much as he acts like a delinquent) dislikes smoking because it could get him in trouble.

That is just a single instance of MHA's use of dialogue to subtly divert our expectations of a character.

Another example is when they replaced 318's dialogue of the Second User saying that Katsuki "completes" Deku with him saying that Katsuki merely "bolsters" him. This presents a different situation, as that line was meant to reinforce the importance of those two's relationship as well as complete the character foils that MHA is partially centered around. By downplaying their developed connection, it becomes harder for the MHA manga scanlations to justify any future significance these two's words have on each other without mottling the pacing of the story.

AKA, it butchers the plot.

With every new volume, there are dozens and dozens more of these hints and bits scattered around! So many cues and subtle foreshadowing at the trajectory of everyone's character arcs--yet mistranslations or inaccurate scans make it so that we don't notice them. This is what I mean when I said that some character arcs are being done great injustices.

Until now, many people can't accept that Katsuki Bakugou cares for anyone other than himself (much less his rival and MC, Izuku Midoriya), nor can they accept that Todoroki would ever willingly work by Endeavor's side. The bottom-line then becomes that because of people missing heavy bits of characterization that become very plot-significant in the future.

When it comes to the point where people can no longer accept or fit their interpretation of the earlier manga events to what is happening in canon, the point of a translation fails completely because it has lead people to follow an entirely different story.

TL;DR - Fan scans are hard. Translating is hard. Don't get too mad at fan translations, but also maybe don't treat them as the catch-all for how characters truly operate. Thanks.

Side note: DO NOT harass FA for any of these things. FA is actually a pretty legit and okay source for scans (they've been operating since like 2014 ffs), but regardless of that they still don't deserve to get flack for their work. You can have any opinion or perspective of canon that you want, I don't care. These are just my two (more like two million tbh) cents on translations. I suggest reading takes from actual Japanese audiences tbh if you wanna know more about the source material of MHA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯