#but maybe the two fandoms just don't overlap much

[not-the-living-ghost]

I cannot be the only one seeing the parallels between Willie from JATP and Monty from DBDA. Like they're both side characters who are in cahoots with the antagonist, and are also also potential love interests for the gay ghost main character ?? hello???

[the-s1lly-corner]

Having breakfast at the mansion

Admin yearns for old creepypasta days... grrr... GROWLS!!! I miss old creepypasta Fandom!!! Need to make a long fic where it's just everyone in the mansion and it's like a sitcom

Notes: gn reader, long post, shit post/non serious post, LOADS of characters, I prommy I still write for creepypasta my brains just been dry, reader is also a killer and/or non human creature, no Ben due to my hc of "he's in some tech device 99% of the time + there's no need for him to eat + he doesn't feel the need to be included for meals", platonic + you're new to the mansion, parts overlap/character parts intertwine here and there, this was originally gonna have bloody Painter and puppeteer but the post kinda got long and overwhelming SOCKDKVKGLCSISIZ

CWs: none but it's obviously implied EJ is yoinking some organs to eat

Characters: slender, splendor, jeff, Jane, nina, ej, lj, masky, hoodie, Toby, sally

SLENDERMAN

He doesn't really talk and he doesn't eat. He's more private about his dining experience and he's not about to eat a human carcass at the table....

Well saying he doesn't talk would be a lie. He does, just not verbally. It's downright horrific the first time he speaks in your head but you're just gonna have to get used to it... mostly checks in on you to see how you're settling in.. though it comes off as being a host rather than a friend

That aside he's probably one of the best options to sit next to if you want a quiet and calm eating experience

SPLENDORMAN

He doesn't really eat... his diet is the same as his brothers and it's debatable if he even has the capabilities to digest human food. He simply likes feeling included at the table and takes it as a chance to check in on everyone

Especially you since you're new around here! So sitting next to him means you're gonna have him leaning down to your ear and asking you all sorts of questions about yourself

He does try to nudge you into conversations the others are having... horrible if you're shy

MASKY

He responds to your attempts to make small talk so at least there's that...! It's painfully awkward but at least he's not totally ignoring you..!

He doesn't stick around long after he finishes eating though, same for the other two proxies, since he's got things that he needs to get done... but you're free to come to him when he's done...! Granted he doesn't do a good job of communicating that, but...

You can't help but feel like he's watching your every move under his mask...

HOODIE

Odds are he's sitting next to masky so... double interaction! He doesn't verbally speak, only signs. He never much cared for writing what he wants to say down...

He's not much of a chatter either but he doesn't make you feel watched- at least not as badly as masky does... he actually prods back when you question him. Why should he be the only one being asked things?

Actually gives you a faint wave goodbye once he and the others have to leave to do their work

TICCI TOBY

He's closed off but not fully shut down... if that makes any sense. He's definitely down to a morning chat just don't expect him to really open himself up to you- you've only just got here after all!

You kind of get stuck in a conversation between him and jeff... funnily enough you learn more about toby through that than you would've without jeff

Maybe if you're lucky you'll get dragged along with him once he's done doing whatever slenderman wants of him to do... whatever.. so call it a success...!

JEFF

He can be a little mean and snarky... but so long as you're not being annoying or whatever he's not going to be hostile or mean... not overly chatty but not totally silent

You get swept up in a conversation between him and toby, at least both are chill enough to let you get a word in... maybe if your humor is right jeff will take a quick liking to you

Has no obligations unlike toby so if that conversation goes well maybe he'll ask if you wanna throw knives with him or something

NINA

Oh the second you sit down she's going to start talking to you. Good luck trying to have a quiet breakfast- she's more chatty than splendor

And don't try to get out of any plans she makes with you, she's going to drag you around to either get to know everyone or figure out the layout of the mansion... she's simply excited to have someone new around...!

Wastes no time in filling you in on some gossip... you may not have been there but now you know who did what and when

JANE

Doesn't like to talk while she eats so trying to talk to her now isn't the best idea... she does answer the first few times you talk but you can tell she's growing irritated as you fail to get her hints

Meals are genuinely the worst time to try to get to know her because of this, and she keeps to herself in general so trying to form a connection is going to take some time

She's not cruel to you of course, but it's clear she has her own thing going on and doesn't want it to be disrupted... but it's not uncomfortable to sit next to her at the table. There are other people to talk to and... she does listen. Keeps track of things... if you mention liking something she will remember

SALLY

LAUGHING JACK

Doesn't need to eat but is there just to catch up with everyone. His plate is just covered in candy. He does ask you what your favorites are though...! And he's nice enough to pick them off his plate and give them to you! In his eyes it's never too early for sweets!

His humor bounces between being innocent to mean to dark, he's a wild card in that regard... but he's generally pleasant enough- he's an open book and he wants to know about you as much (or more) than you want to know about him... don't let his massive size scare you off...!

He's only known you for one morning but he's already giving you nicknames. Likely the easiest to befriend asides splendor and sally

EYELESS JACK

So he's... different... he doesn't eat at the table due multiple reasons.. mess and shame, mostly. But you do see him dip into the kitchen to retrieve a bloodied bag from the fridge

He doesn't really take any time to talk to anyone outside of muttering a good morning. He does at least stop to look at you for a minute... oh... yeah... you're new... that why he doesn't recognize you-

There isn't really a chance to talk to him in the morning :( not only does he not enjoy eating around others he just... isn't a morning person... maybe you'll have better luck later...?

Perhaps one of the only normal people at the table, though get ready for her to try to plan a little game with you after breakfast

...it may be early but she'd love to do a tea party with you...! She's already got splendorman on board! Pleeeeeeaaaase come play with them!

No hassle in trying to get her to eat her veggies since... she usually just eats cereal..! Scrambled eggs. Things like that! She does still pick at her food though... she may be a ghost with no biological need to eat but it gives her a sense of normalcy

[flying-machine07]

Hi Planes fandom do we still like Beyond the Sky I need to yap about it

I'm unsure of when the movie is supposed to take place. Based on this clip, I want to say between the 80s-90s?

We see a Blackbird (he could probably be another aircraft in that family, but a Blackbird makes the most sense considering the aircraft we see him flying with) flying with what look like F-22s, though they could probably also be YF-23s. I'm leaning closer to F-22 though

SR-71s were retired a couple times but their final retirement was in 1999. The first flight of an F-22 was in 1997 (they weren't introduced until 2005), so there is some overlap between when the two were used. However, the YF-23 was built between 1989-1990, and its first flight was in 1990. I'm not sure when it was retired though. I'm getting all of my information on when the aircraft were used from Wikipedia and it doesn't always say everything

However, on the wiki page for Beyond the Sky, it says, "The film was planned to explore the future of aviation in outer space." This leads me to think that Disney might've planned to have it take place in the present day or sometime in the future. Doesn't make much sense because so far the aircraft I've mentioned are retired and no longer flown. I'm not complaining though I have an SR-71 Blackbird oc who's still flying HAHAH (he's immortal and a grim reaper)

Also I'm drawing Blaze rn and I'm unsure of what plane she is so I'm basing her off a YF-23. Does it make sense? Probably not. I'm just going off looks. If anyone has better suggestions let me know and I might do some more art of her based on those

Here's a wip though

Also am I allowed to adopt her as my oc? Can I do that? And the Blackbird. I'd like him too. I'll take these F-22s. And the Goblin. I'll adopt all of these guys as my ocs and give them the love they deserve because Disney clearly doesn't want them /joking /silly

If anyone has their own thoughts to share, feel free to do so! I don't know a lot about the planes in Beyond the Sky (minus the Blackbird and the Goblin, those are some of my favorite planes ever) so I'd love to hear what others think. Or if anyone has more concept art/clips I'd love to see it. Even if I've already seen it/already have it saved I'd love to analyze anything for this movie and yap about it

Ok hi sorry this is like my 5th time editing this:

Beyond the Sky might still take place in the present day. As far as I know, C-119s aren't flying and yet we have Cabbie in F&R. Disney might've intended Beyond the Sky to take place in the present day and still have these aircraft flying. Maybe Disney doesn't care that these planes are retired. Idk. If this is the case then good for them because I honestly do the same with my ocs sometimes

[cassowariess]

Unpopular BCS/BRBA opinions?

Oooh. Er...I dunno if these are unpopular. I guess I'll know if I get hate for it, but maybe these:

- Breaking Bad has a tighter plot than BCS, even though I love BCS and still think it's one of the best things TV ever made and made the Breaking Bad lore richer in a good way.

-I don't think Mike feels any affection towards his coworkers post Werner and pre Jesse. I think the knowing look him and Gus share at the end of Fun and Games mirrors the 'little bit of hate' Gus has for Don Eladio. It's just that Mike has accepted this is his lot, and he can't really judge Gus after being schooled by Manuel. I think Mike likes it when his coworkers are efficient and wants to make sure they're paid, but affection doesn't really come into it.

- Chuck was right about Jimmy, but for all the wrong reasons.

-Nacho is a bad person. He has a good heart when it comes to innocents, even outside his father (anger at Hector shooting the Good Samaritan, feeling bewildered Arturo blocks the mum and child in Pollos Hermanos, the old folks at Lalo's hacienda) but boy was stupid to think innocents and the criminal underworld could never overlap. Jesse is a bad person too. I love them both anyway. Likeable=/= good person and I hate the mental gymnastics people do to make a character seem more morally good than they actually are to justify liking them. Just like the fictional Bad men! It's fun! See also: Mike.

- Maybe not so much an unpopular opinion in the gilliverse, but perhaps overall cross fandom: I think BCS and Succession were the last two truly great shows on TV. Everything else seems to be going downhill. Severance is good so far, but it's not a complete series yet so I can't judge it. Sometimes, a show can have a banger first season, and then the writing will go downhill in the second. Look what happened to House of the Dragon. They messed that up so bad and they had complete source material to work from.

[salemrph]

[Review] Love and Deepspace Event (Tokyo)

This is my experience about the 1st Anniversary Event in Tokyo. It was a pure coincidence that my trip overlapped with this.

I was super excited for this and tried to arrive early, thinking that I wouldn't be crowded.

Animate Store Ikebukuro

What happened? I arrived at the store around 10:30 am (Opening time was 10 am), and it was already packed. Girls were lining up to get a picture with the 5 guys, in their usual outfit.

I was more intrigued about the cookies and coffee you could buy in the Animate Grant Coffee Shop. I took the picture of the staircase decorations. Packed again, mixed with all fans and regular customers.

It was kind of cute but the print of Sylus as a dragon and the Xavier with a cute look wasn't well printed. Like they fucked up. Already a bit pissed. I lined up, and could talk with two spanish Girls. Super nice.

That was 10:45, around 5 minutes later. They started to give tickets with your "call time". Mine was 1:10 pm.

After stumbling out of the store, pissed as fucked. Because they don't guarantee you that you will get any cookies. Maybe coffee. And the limit per person is like 10. I needed to make time. I managed to see the small 10s long Advertising on the building screen.

So here I am, writing this 5 minutes before my call time.

It kind of worked with the calling time and the payment. I must say I spent way too much for just cookies and coffee. Like 6500 yen (40€/41$).

Sibuya Crossing

I had some luck and waited around 10 minutes. It was nice to see it but for the 10s, well, almost the same footage as at the Store but at least with sound.

Overall experience

I give this a 3 ⭐ rating. Maybe I'm too pampered from big events like the Gamescom in Cologne or the Japan Weekend in Madrid. And all the small anime conventions I went to in my life.

I mean, it is not that I wouldn't have known what was going to happen. But still, after seeing how Infold does the exposition in China, I felt disappointed.

But just having our lovely guys displayed, and waiting 3h for a coffee and cookies was way too much time. I could have just left, that's right. But I didn't because I will be for now the only time I could be at an "event".

If the game grows even more, at the level that maybe they have a stand at the Gamescom, I will definitely go. I know that in Germany they had a small stand in Essen for Infinity Nikki.

Overall, I'm pretty tired. I didn't expect it to take half a day. I must say, it is the first time I ever line up for some fandom stuff. So yeah, that was the Anniversary in Japan.

Oh, and the iced coffee was okay and the cookies... Okay too.

[anistarrose]

So the thing is, if people ship characters who are explicitly not into romance (whether aromantic or otherwise), that ultimately doesn't affect me on a level beyond "annoyance" — I can blacklist tags, and blacklist or block people who don't tag it. What I have to ask myself every time I see these things, however, is this:

"Does this reflect how this person feels about romance-averse people in real life? Does this reflect how this person treats romance-averse people in real life?"

Because how someone engages with fiction doesn't have to be a reflection of how they treat real people, obviously — and in this case, I would of course hope that it isn't. But if you know anything about what being aromantic is like, in real life or on the Internet... you'll understand why I'm not optimistic.

Thinking two characters are so cute together that you reject a bunch of their characterization to make it happen is just annoying, not a crime! But the second you make the leap to telling a real human person things like:

"I don't care how much you say you're not interested, because you just won't realize that you and X would make such a cute couple,"

or:

"I don't care how much you say you're not interested, because you're clearly just in denial which the Right Person has to come along and fix,"

or:

"But — but — but not falling in love is just so tragic! I want you to be happy, not sad and lonely your whole life!"

like the rationales that apparently motivate so many people to ship? Then that has crossed the line into harming real people.

I don't actually think that shipping aromantic characters is the primary cause in the cause-effect diagram, when it comes to the correlating the shipping with "likelihood to say these terrible, invalidating, autonomy-undermining things to real people." Precisely, I don't think it's a cause to a meaningful degree when you compare with the opposite direction — I think people who say these things to real aromantics (or anyone else who just isn't interested!), because of what they think about these real people, are in turn more likely to think amatonormative things about fictional characters. I think that there exists a feedback loop to some extent, because fiction can influence people's beliefs to some degree, but it's not symmetric. Real-life amatonormativity causes mass amatonormativity in fandom spaces.

So... at this point, do you see why aromantic people in fandom get a little defensive about aro characters, and about other characters who overlap with aro experiences? You see why we get kind of pissy when people very selectively throw a very specific part of their characterization out the window? You see why we maybe don't want to associate with those people? Why it makes us so uncomfortable?

"Stop shipping romance-repulsed characters," in my opinion, is a understandable outcry from the community that I obviously sympathize with — but it nevertheless conceals the core of the issue, especially from non-aromantics who aren't living with amatonormativity shoved down their throats at all times, and therefore might not be able to read between the lines. At the core, this isn't actually a debate about the morality of shipping in fiction, despite overlap with that discourse on the surface.

The real cry for change isn't "stop shipping that character." It's "start accepting me for who I am, without trying to either undermine or mourn it at every opportunity." Because at the moment, the overlap between people who erase fictional aromanticism and real aromanticism is significant — and even where they don't overlap, you know what? Romance-averse folks just trying to live in peace can't fucking tell the difference.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Hi! I have a question: can a person be autistic *without* having a special interest? I have identified with a lot of the posts from the autistic community, and the online tests I've taken suggest the possibility that I could be autistic (which I know should be taken with a grain of salt), but the main thing that keeps me from taking the possibility more seriously is that I'm not sure I have a special interest? I mean, I've had plenty of (usually fandom-based) hyperfixations over the years, but they've all been just that—hyperfixations. The only two things that I could remotely think of as being special interests would be bugs (with a heavy emphasis on isopods, which aren't technically bugs but fit the vibe) and the Legend of Zelda series. Both of which I feel like I don't actually have enough real knowledge about for them to be special interests, and there have been stretches of time where they did not have any active role in my life. Maybe I don't have a clear understanding of what hyperfixations are, and/or maybe I am only ADHD (because I know there's quite a bit of overlap), but mostly I really like reading and learning from your posts, and so I thought I'd see if you have thoughts on the matter! /gen

Thank you!

Hi there,

A special interest is basically something someone is a very focused point of a topic. Hyperfocus/hyperfixation however, is a bit different. It’s where you focus on something so much that it even interferes with your ability to do common things and tasks and it doesn’t last as long as a special interest. Like how I’ve loved collecting rocks a a kid and I still do to this day.

Please keep in mind that individuals can have hyperfocus and have a special interest at the same time. While others only experience one of these.

(To my other ND friends, feel free to correct me if I got something wrong. I wish not to spread misinformation).

I’ve found some sources that help differentiate between the two. I hope it helps. Thank you for the inbox. I hope you have a wonderful day/night. ♥️

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Hi Ralph, hope you’re well! I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I want to ask so please bear with me if it’s a bit garbled (and if you’ve already spoken to similar things). But generally - I was wondering if you thought that there might have been a point where Harry and Louis could have put a substantial end to speculation about a relationship between them. (I realise how binary a question that is but I hope I can clarify it a bit!) I stumbled into this space recently (your blog is so great), and in the last couple of days I’ve been trawling through what I can find of blogs dating back to ~2011, 2012 - I was really interested to see how fan narratives around Harry and Louis generally started out&have developed over the years. I was surprised, and then surprised at my surprise, that I felt there has really been little substantive change in the ways that their ‘story’ has been appraised. Or maybe just at what seems to be an unshakeable potency of what I think you’ve very aptly described as the larry canon. 

I guess I’ve just been thinking about different things that overlapped and maybe unfolded in simultaneous symbiosis and complete disjointment - the sprawling circulation of their recorded dynamic in the first two years of the band / the appeal of (all five of) them in their chaos and physical affection / the narrative ‘appeal’ of a fantastical hidden, suppressed relationship / the resonance for many queer people with a narrative of a particular experience of a suppression of self / the way in some early instances their team seemed to play into their ease around each other to project particular images of the band’s interconnections / the way the two of them so publicly pulled back from one another between 2012-2013 / RBB. So I think my question is really: do you think it would have ever been possible, given how early on it was that fans seemed to stitch together visual recordings to create a story, for their public relationships/performed (hetero)sexuality to be ‘believed’/accepted? That's still clumsy wording but hope it makes sense.

Thanks so much for this ask anon - I think it's really interesting question and have been mulling it over since you sent it through. (I also almost finished answering this yesterday, but then it disappeared. So I've installed a new extension to Firefox and hopefully that won't happen again).

I don't think it was ever possible to put an end to all speculation about a relationship between them. Particularly as speculating about celebrity relationships has only got more common over 15 years. There's no way they could get to a place where everyone who followed them would believe their relationships (and it's worth pointing out that there have always been a substantial number of people who did believe their relationships). Ultimately I think the key question is not about an off switch, but a knob. There are things that they turn up the power of the "Larry Stylinson" cannon - and those that turn it down.

It's an indirect way of answering the question - but the only place I really know where to start is analysing the effects of what they did in mid-2012.

The bullshit tweet obviously really changed the dynamic within fandom, particularly combined with the stories that fans had ruined Louis and Harry's friendship. It created a dynamic of good fan and bad fan. Those who didn't believe they were together didn't go anywhere near the Larry cannon for years. I remember reading blogs of people who weren't Larries - saying they were scared to even post a picture that had Louis and Harry standing together - because they didn't want to be bad fans.

But what that meant was that the Larry canon - this powerful set of videos and stories - was left in the hands of the bad fans. It became entirely associated with people who thought they were together - and the only path for people who came into contact with it and wanted to know more - was the path trodden by people who were together.

The other change about this time was that Louis and Harry interacted a lot less publicly. This added another layer to the story - 'they don't want you to know'. There is nothing that ups the power of a story like 'someone is keeping this from you'. I once read a really interesting discussion by a Welsh history twitter account (I think it may have belonged to a museum, but I'm not sure). Where they said that they'd discovered that if they ran the exact same story with 'this is what they're keeping from you about Welsh History' it'd do much higher numbers on social media. (They were resolving not to use this framing, because they didn't think it was a honest reflection of the dynamics of historical writing). Adding the 'they're keeping it from you' element made the story more powerful.

The other thing that the denials did (going back a step) - was really engage people. One of the things that I've come to notice is that the things that sustain fandom are not the things that fandom thinks it needs to be sustained. Most importantly fans of artists often imply, or outright say, that it's important that they get what they want in order to stay. But that's not what I've observed at all. It's not about getting what people want - but being engaged with what you want - no matter the outcome.

You can see this in sports fans - where people regularly don't get what they want. And while teams that do badly do have fewer fans - there's a hardcore of people who stay and get heartbroken every time. Part of that is that there's a new opportunity for engagement all the time.

I think that's true in this fandom - a denial, or something people hate - is very engaging. Fans don't need to be happy they need to be stimulated.

And I think together that suggests why the approach in 2012 ended up upping the power of the Larry cannon

I do think the approach they took in 2012 really upped the power of the Larry cannon - and I think gestures - if doesn't fully answer the question - what could they have done differently?

I think part of it is be more boring. I think what they ended up doing in terms of public interaction would have had a very different impact if there had been no denial/explanation to stimulate people. If they'd just interacted less and there had no stories about ruining their friendship. It would look like things had just faded away without explanation - which doesn't activate people in the same way.

I think they are being more boring - although I've no idea whether that's a conscious approach I don't know. Harry has just organised it so he is not forced to engage with Larry publicly (which is probably more for him than to be boring - but it functions as boring). Whereas Louis' approach lately has given people much less to hold onto.

The other side of being boring about Larry - is tell a more interesting story. Or just a story - it's hard to get more interesting than Larry - but there were a lot of people who found Haylor and Holivia interesting.

There are obstacles to this - Harry's whole thing is leaving a lot of space to be projected into. So that limits the capacity to tell stories. But I've always been interested in the fact that Louis hasn't tried.

Basically what I think that the only knob that really matters is being interesting and stimulating. And at times they've really turned that up, when that wasn't what they meant to do.

A couple of caveats to all this. One is that I don't know if it would have been enough - given how fandom has changed in the last 15 years. When I think about the dynamics of Kaylor - I do wonder if there's anything they could have done. Kaylor doesn't have the features that make the Larry cannon so compelling (what it has going for it I think - is the way that it fits with Taylor fan culture around engaging with lyrics and relationships). And Taylor is very good at telling interesting stories and gave much less negative attention to Kaylor and so stimulated it less. In addition they did just stop hanging out publicly without an explanation. And Kaylor has grown and grown. So it may just be a feature of their time.

The final thing is that I don't think it even occurred to them in 2012 that the Larry cannon had power. And they probably didn't care. Their job was to turn down the volume on Larry fast, and they more or less succeeded.

They didn't know what world they were going into (which is one reaosn the cannon exists in the form that it did). And I think the idea that Larry would have relevance in 12 years would have seemed absurd to them.

Unfortunately if you'd said to their team in 2012: "Liam died in accident where drugs and alcohol were a large factor. This lead to an increased interest in 1D and many new Larrie fans. After that Louis performed in Lollapalloza India'. The only bit of that woudl make sense in the way their team saw the industry working was Liam's death. Everything else would be, in different ways, incomprehensible.

Turning down the volume, but upping the power seemed like a reasonable trade in 2012, because they didn't know there was even a medium term.

[vladdyissues]

I feel like there's a good amount of the Danny Phantom fandom that would prefer the Space Ghost franchise if they knew what it was and the Space Ghost fandom wasn't a few dozen, not even 100 people, including the few people who worked on Space Ghost Coast To Coast that are still active online (Start with C2C and ignore all comics until you finish it and at least the original series and Cartoon Planet)

Maybe. Probably not. Space Ghost and Danny Phantom are two very different cartoon shows with a massive 40-year gap—four decades' worth of innovation in animation, writing style, humor, character design—with very few similarities.

Speaking as someone who watched Space Ghost: Coast to Coast in the early 00s, I can tell you that people who enjoy DP are probably not going to enjoy SG, especially the original series, which was the product of 1960s Hanna Barbara animation (read: low-budget, corny-to-the-point-of-camp writing, mediocre voice acting). It would be extremely dated now. And scientifically inaccurate. I mean, this is a cartoon that predated man setting foot on the moon. How well is it going to hold up in 2024? Probably not well.

Furthermore, many DP fans are too young to remember the Coast to Coast era. They may enjoy the humor; I know I did. But one would already have to be a fan of—or at least appreciate—old animation and its fuddy-duddyness to be both a DP fan and a SG fan. And I just don't think there's that much of an overlap. Maybe a few pixels.

I know you've sent several people this same ask, and the fact that all the ones I've seen have been some form of "I have no idea what Space Ghost is" should be answer enough.

[bilbosmom-belladonna]

Fanfic writer interview

Thank you for the tag, dear @insertmeaningfulusername!

What fandoms do you write in?

Various Star Wars media, though primarily Clone Wars, and also Stranger Things.

How many words have you published in 2024?

334,213, which. Good lord, that's a lot! A good 90K of that was written in 2023 and published in early 2024 but like. Still.

What are your top three fics you’ve written this year?

Well, it's hard to choose among the 21 (wut) fics I wrote in 2024, but I'll try!

Reasons to Celebrate is a Star Wars, Waxer/Boil hanahaki comedy, which is really its own advertisement, I think! The idea was so hilarious to me and writing it was a lot of fun.

Summer Lovin' Happened So Fast is a Stranger Things, Steddie one-shot. It is just chock-full of summertime vibes and I tried, as much as I could, to evoke a lot of sensory things that really bring me back to that season. Plus I think it's pretty cute!

The Farmhouse is a Star Wars, Cody/Fox story that was written for the 2024 Clone Bang! It was heavily inspired by a real place I got to visit and is a very different pace of story from most of my long fics, I think. Also I got to do a lot of fun worldbuilding!

What was your biggest pit of despair moment?

Woof. Well, in my hubrisambition this year I signed up for two big bangs which overlapped in the fall. And planned to write 50K+ fics for both. Somewhere in the middle I realized that that a) was a really bad idea and b) started to make writing feel a lot like a chore and less like a hobby.

Now, I do believe pretty strongly in the idea of writing even when you're not "feeling inspired" because muses are fickle, and generally I love writing for events and even thrive on deadlines. But it very quickly became a source of stress and really took a lot of the joy out of writing both fics, and even now I kind of struggle to love them as much as other things I've written. Lessons learned.

What have you learned?

Haha, well, not to bite off more than I can chew! And frankly I think I've learned my limits a bit, not just for events but for writing as a whole. I've been taking a break for a little while now and I think it's really helping. Gotta pace myself!

Did you beta any fics? Any faves you want to shout out?

I've never betaed, no.

What three fics have you read this year that you love?

Only three? Heartless, wicked, cruel! I will do my best.

all that's said in the low light by headlocket is a Call of Duty, Soap/Ghost fic that's just, ugh. Stunning. I don't usually go in for serious injury/chronic disability stories, not my cup of tea, but this one is so beautifully done and so sensitive without being preachy and so in-character in the most stilted, emotionally constipated way, hnnggg. What an absolute joy.

crystalizing clear as day (oh, i can picture you so easily) by the wonderful @inconocible is a Star Wars, Rex/Fives/Echo (with a side of Rex/Cody) story that takes place after Order 66. I don't think I'll ever get over the "pining for someone who's right in front of you" concept and this one really, beautifully delivers.

Undercover Work is an anonymously written Star Wars Rebels, Zeb/Kallus story that I adore for how it treats Kallus. The man is ruthless to a fault, even when he's working for the good guys, and the way he simply can't comprehend their relationship being anything other than transactional is as perfect as it is heartbreaking.

What ideas are percolating for next year?

Well, I'll be taking part in Waxer*Boil Month again this year, though I haven't started on those yet... And I've got a few things that I've started that I'm still hoping to finish in 2025 (stubbornly refusing to close the Gdocs tab counts as working on them, right?) including some additional scenes to my Steddie fic Maybe 10% Better and a TCW rarepair fic that I really really want to get out there.

This was a fun one! No-pressure tagging @cacodaemonia @elismor @mojowitchcraft @maplerosekisses

[cerosin-bis]

might I ask for a handful of just random cod trivia ..

and/or ! just your thoughts on the games and reboots, if you’re comfy w that?

I feel like you always have some random notes or tags about weird trivia in the game but obviously this isn’t specific At All so feel free to just ignore this if it’s weird sjdndjhd

Hi! no this isn't weird 🥺 I think what gives this impression is "just" that I played most of said games a lot and got interested in the lore that's not necessarily accessible to people who, big quotation marks, are superficially in the fandom. as in people who aren't interested in multiplayer or secondary gamemodes, let alone lore and are more focused on the main cast or one particular mp character (such as könig)

This got VERY long so, my rambles and opinions about the Modern Warfare games and their reboots below.

I played mw2 and mw3's campaigns in 2010-2013. I wasn't playing multiplayer at the time, I started it with BO4 in 2018. But I fell hard into MW's multiplayer with the first reboot, mw19, in early 2020.

Just so that my words have a bit of "the player's weight": I have around 900 hours on mw19, 400 on MWII and I believe 200-300 on MWIII.

Regarding campaigns: Call of duty is Call of duty. It's literally funded by the US army. it's blatant propaganda, and I expect no less when I run a campaign. With that being said, what I expect from a CoD campaign is either being over-the-top and extra (like the original trilogy and in some ways MWIII specifically), or rooted in reality and wanna be serious like mw19. This is minding the blatant history 'rewriting' it's doing (eg. chemical attacks in syria, highway of death mission). My honest opinion on it is that the reboots don't know what they want and it's especially visible in MWII. In my opinion, the original games nailed that "american action movie" feel that the reboots kinda lost by instead veering towards something overlapping with real-life maybe a bit too much while still wanting to include crazy shit. Like, I don't think it's a balance that can work. I do like that we had more character development with MWII and it felt fun to play (in that regard I have no complaints, and I even liked the semi-open missions that a lot of ppl disliked), but it feels a bit less like call of duty. I'll be curious to see what direction they take for the next MW game, but I sure hope IW get their shit together and have a clear direction.

Transitioning to multiplayer with that. This feeling that the MW games are now an amalgamation of things sewn together hastily started with the Warzone fusion and the BOCW implementation. It became especially visible in multiplayer with the addition of crossover bundles, providing less and less "mil-sim" skins, and it was obvious that by MWIII IW would step away and let other developers (treyarch, SHG, which are both turned more towards arcade gameplay) take over the multiplayer development. Which is kinda insane: MW was always Infinity Ward's flasgship initially.

In my opinion the MW multiplayer started feeling different (in my eyes, falling off) for 3 reasons:

Catering to a younger playerbase, notably the "tiktok crowd": younger gamers want games that are incredibly fast-paced (mirroring their use of social media and those yknow "adhd videos") and like extremely flashy skins. Therefore, they'll spend money to get them. I'm not saying this to say "it's bad!" it's just an observation

The absolute success of mobile games and fortnite-like collaborations. This is mostly due to the current way people "consume" social media and games, with everything being quick and instant and fleeting. The sheer impact that these two things have had on video games as a whole is absolutely insane: they started adding microtransactions in games because it started on mobile & they realised that if you let people buy skins with real money w the press of a button, spendings increase tenfold. Same goes with the battle pass model: it's incredibly lucrative.

Crunch, changes of leadership, writers and artists probably being allowed less communication and therefore focus; and, in MWIII's case, the arrival of AI giving us some tasteless slop in cosmetics. That they sell. For real money.

I've said it countless time but I really regret mw19 multiplayer's artistic and narrative direction. It had a story that's completely absent from MWII where characters are just empty shells with a few lines of marvel-like, mary-sue grade bios. Where's the cohesive story? Where are the outwardly morally grey or flawed characters, the sub-squads, the interaction lines, the bundles that made sense with the characters' backstories?...

Long story short, I don't know if the MW series will ever go back to what made it MW. I hope so, but seeing how between 2020 and 2024 the multiplayer entirely lost its soul & the campaigns don't know what they want to show, I'm afraid it might either never come back or take a dozen years so that a reboot of reboots gets out or a new series takes over.

'til capitalism and cashgrab leadership ruins it again and the cycle begins anew.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Asking to hang out with them outside the mansion

Except not all creepypastas will accept so the line up is shorter than before djdwkdkfk

You all know tje drill!! Doesn't have to be connected to the other slender mansion posts but there may or may not be references!

Characters: ticci toby, jeff the killer, nina The killer, Ben drowned, Eyeless jack, laughing jack

Notes: gn reader, new crp reader, mansion au, some of them only come because they can 'hide in plain sight', long post, admin misses old crp fandom, not to be taken seriously, some characters overlap, platonic leaning

CWs: mentions of canon typical violence and death

TICCI TOBY

Honestly he doesn't go out of the woods all that often outside of snatching some snacks from some gas station... and he sometimes pays if any recent corpses had their wallets...!

He usually either goes alone or with jeff (and sometimes Ben is there), but he's fine with you tagging along! Its... actually nice at night around here. The stars are cool..! Its.. quiet. He probably shows you some of his favorite hang out spots- just as a little treat for not being annoying. Just don't let it slip that he hides out here sometimes..!

Get ready to not come back to the mansion until dawn, he's a night owl for the most part. You guys might not even have to bother with breakfast... pats you both. These bad boys can fit so much junk food

JEFF THE KILLER

If he's not with Toby he's off doing his own thing. Naturally when you ask to go out to town he thinks you're asking if you wanna go slash up some people... I mean... he might end up doing it anyway if people don't fuck off- sometimes people deserve a good stab...!... kidding kidding, geez y/n can't you tell when he's joking! ...he's joking, right...?

He doesn't like going around town honestly. Not that he's scared he'd get caught more so he just... doesn't feel for the vibe all that much. He's grown so used to not being in these kinds of spaces that it feels weird to be back

Blasts music in abandoned parking lots while you two go back and forth. A lot of it is shit talk- it's only really when you're away from the mansion that you guys can talk unfiltered about whatever bullshit whoever did

NINA THE KILLER

Let's hope you don't have anything planned the next day because you're not going to be coming back until well after sunrise... and you'll likely be feeling everything for... a few hours after a well deserved rest

Lots of running around and sneaking into events- clubs, bars, things like that. Anywhere that's loud and packed. You guys might end up getting kicked out... and she hasn't even stabbed anyone... yet...! She'd stab a creeper for you without hesitation

Horrific food combinations from whatever you grab from any gas stations. Best not to try whatever she throws together...

BEN DROWNED

LAUGHING JACK

He can't really go out and wander the streets given hes... a huge monochrome clown... so you've gotta carry him around in his box when there's other people around... you don't mind that.. right..?

Peeks out just enough to talk to you when you're walking around- keeps asking where you're both going and if you're there yet. You look a little weird to passerby who overhear you muttering to the music box

Honestly he's happy doing whatever you wanna do- he hardly ever actually gets to wander..! Most of his 'exploration outside the mansion' is him slipping into households and doing his own thing... and he doesn't even do that that often nowadays..

EYELESS JACK

Honestly? You're surprised he didn't instantly shoot you down... given he's always locked up in his room, not talking to anyone.... at least he's making an effort to humor you...? Or maybe it's pity. Either way it's more than he gives the others

Though... you guys don't really go into town. If you want snacks or anything like that you either have to go yourself or pack your own- but to be fair... jack doesn't really... eat... at least not normal stuff...

Lots of wandering and checking out parks- quiet, lonely, lifeless... its.. nice not being so cooped up and jack seems to agree. At least he looks less tense..! Though... not much talking

He and Jeff are a package deal thanks to Ben's whole... tied to tech thing. He's the one in change of the music and he WILL say something if you have trash taste- or at least music he doesn't much care for

There isn't much he can really do in terms of activities... sometimes that sours the mood since he's at least a little resentful of that..

Keep him in the conversation! You may not be buddy buddy but keeping him involved keeps things running smooth!

[messrsrarchives]

Just lasted three days on marauderstok to see what it was like and oh my? Why is it so mean over there?

three days you're so brave i feel ready to welcome you back here with a nice pint and some sleep meds.

this might have been a throwaway rhetorical question but i'll answer anyway because we all know i've thought about this a lottttt, so i have five reasons:

1) lack of anonymity

tiktok allows you to see the person, their name, their appearance, even their mannerisms if they're speaking etc, you know the person. that being said, of course, you only know as much as they are willing to give. but because you are *seeing* them, i think you naturally assume that this is all they are and it opens up that connection for negativity. it's easier to take it from "i don't like this headcanon" to "this person pisses me off"

and it's an unequal balance a lot of the time between commenters on private accounts, or even people posting faceless content, where they have more anonymity and therefore say what they want. it feels safer to drop a hate comment when you're private, and someone public who shows their face is an "easy target"

2) traction

there's two parts to this - the hierarchy and the algorithm.

algorithm wise, hate gets more traction. i.e the recent trend of "what's a (character) headcanon that you hate", you're going to get a lot more comments than "what's a headcanon you love". people get more traction when they say something hateful because then people argue in the comments, their video gets boosted and boom, traction.

the hierarchy is a bit more complicated and varies person to person but how i see it on tiktok is: faceless accounts (i.e carousels or editors) -> rec accounts -> whatever the fuck i do -> cosplayers -> fanfilm "actors" (cosplayers, fandom is not a job like acting is, regardless of your skill). and even then this varies because of followers etc but the hate follows up. and maybe that ties into anonymity as well actually but i think the main thing is that the more "content" you're "producing", the more hate you get from people who dislike it - "customers" who dislike the "product" they've gotten.

these two tie together a lot because people view likes and followers as desirable so they become more hateful to get up the hierarchy, and they're hateful to those that are already up there even when they put them there. it's very complicated and dumb but to sum it up in one word: capitalism :/

3) algorithm

tiktok has a looser algorithm. you can "curate" your fyp and you can "curate" your space, but it isn't secure. you will get things you dislike esp if, say you hate jegulus, the video has #marauders and #jegulus, and you've liked a lot of #marauders stuff, the jegulus video will come up because you can't block # on there.

but that doesn't explain the hate, what does is the fast-paced algorithm and how that affects attention span and empathy. yes, i sound like a grandad saying "it's the damn phones!!!" but it is. you can watch a video and scroll, and by the time you make it two videos down, you've forgotten what the first one was. it's very fast-paced and i think that adds to how comfortable people are sending hate. once they scroll, they forget the video, but the poster won't forget the comment as easily.

4) separation

in a fandom space, i think tiktok feels very separate to the writers. which sucks on one hand but also,,, i'm glad a lot of them aren't over there. because tiktok views their fics as a product and are horrible about them. but that separation aids to that negativity because you assume they won't see it. the same with "bigger" accounts, pepple assume they won't see their one negative comment but they will.

there's also, conversely, a lack of separation on tiktok. this is most relevant i think to my jkr discussions where marauders spaces and potterhead spaces overlap. and yes, i'm generalising, there are fans on both sides that hate jkr and fans on both sides that support her, but that mixing adds to the latter. you'll see content from universal on your fyp and repost it, and then it's in marauders spaces, or you'll see someone posting marauders merch and repost it because marauders, and the two are now so intertwined that you can't separate pro from anti even with the disclaimers in bios.

the reason it doesn't add to the former - no matter how much you try - is that tiktok, because of its fast-paced algorithm, isn't built for long form discussion.

which. yeah. oops, sorry. tried to rectify that, but tiktok isn't built for the kind of discussions people have over here, so no positive change really ever comes, just negative change.

5) social media in general is mean.

that's it. that's the whole point.

but yeah !! that's a few of the reasons i've deduced !! again, i sound like i complain a lot but generally tiktok was LOVELY and i met so many incredible people. unfortunately for everyone else, my degree is lit and politics and i can't engage in a fandom space without analysing it. engaging in discourse? no. studying the discourse.

but to summarise? tiktok is just very,,, capitalism based. not necessarily just with money (but yes, fanfilms i'm looking at you and your 50k start ups) but also just traction and the constant race to the top.

which is so sad because half the people "at the top" didn't even want to be there, people simply liked their stuff then got mad when they weren't sitting on this crafted pedestal "right"

but mostly, tiktok tends to view fandom and fandom content as a product. fics aren't shared with them, they're produced for them - which is very gross and icky (again, fanfilms im looking at you but i'd ramble on if i elaborated on this point oh i'm doing it anyway okay but !! paying for this film to be produced? asking fans to donate so you can make this film directly contributed to this who product mindset. and yes, people donate willingly so but sigh. i'd much rather get the film then donate if i see fit than have to pay to receive it? and i think that faction of fandom being so big on tiktok really messed up the fandom ideology over there)

sorry i'll shut up. tldr; capitalism :/

[utilitycaster]

Casting Wish that Essek shows up in the finale for Dynasty/Bright Queen shinanigans especially since he gave Luda the beacon. I just think it would be funny because BH fans have started to bitch about him maybe showing up. I do not even like him as a character that much, but it would be funny if he and his brother snuck into the finale.

So on the one hand I believe in cautioning against wishing for things solely to spite others. I think it's a miserable way to approach media, and like, the things I have wished for c3 have all ultimately been motivated by "the story would have been better this way", not "this will piss people off" THOUGH I must admit those two things overlapped very frequently because to be a C3 fan was to either shrug off endless narrative chasms or claim that actually it was better that whenever a plot hole showed up the characters randomly teleported past it without explanation, because [wildly ignorant statement chosen seemingly at random]. With that said at minimum Verin showing up makes sense since he's like, part of the accord's forces, and also people who vehemently and loudly hate the Thelyss brothers are invariably the dumbest people in this fandom so you know, I don't disagree either.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

#edward teach#im an adhd ed truther & this is so fucking true.#also shows how you view people w/ adhd if you’re specifically using it as an excuse to do this. (via @ourflagmeanscatboy on this post by @jaskierx)

I don't want to derail a post about racism, but I do feel like this shit needs to get talked about.

Because people will say literally the most deranged shit about Ed. I've heard the idea that he's gonna lose interest in Stede because he views people as hyperfixations floated. He's volitile and unstable (citation needed) he's messy (but he thinks pets befoul the ship and he couldn't believe he was living like this after letting Stede's cabin get covered in maybe a weeks worth of depression clutter) he needs a minder (despite constantly minding other characters). And all of that shit when pointed out as racist invariably gets explained away with "but I think he has ADHD"

And it's like, first of all that's a headcannon you have, where as his race is very much cannon. so I think even if you have the adhd headcannon, which to be clear, I do, you still need to lend more credence to the marginalized identities that are in fact cannon about him. That's not to say that these two things are contradictory it's just to say that you need to treat your headcannons about a character of color with awareness for how their race overlaps with other identities they might have and how their race might be impacting their behavior, and how projecting issues onto them, even if those issues are things you yourself struggle with, might be perceived by fans of color who are already constantly fielding racism both in fandom and in their every day lives.

but second of all, and I cannot stress this enough, yall are ableist as fuck.

Like, I simply do not know how to explain to you people that Ed losing Interest in Stede like that would not be a symptom of ADHD because treating PEOPLE like HYPERFIXATIONS is not a symptom of ADHD. If someone loses interest in you because they have adhd, and I feel like I've said this before, one of three things happened. A. they did not lose interest in you they are just forgetful and do not experience friendship decay so they think you are still friends, B. You were never a friend to begin with you were someone they exclusively did their hyperfixations with, or C. you are blaming the ADHD for something completely unrelated friendships fall apart all the time.

And it's like that example is just the most egregious. half the time when I see ADHD headcannons nobody's talking about like... Ed picking up a brand new activity on a whim, or him tattooing himself because he's experiencing the evil boredom. It's all gotta be traits contradicted by canon. And often it has to be about pain and suffering, and often it really just feels like an excuse to make up bullshit about Ed while beating the racism allegations.

and there's two enormous issues with this. The first one is that if you're gonna have a headcannon about a character you have to figure out how to apply the headcanon to that character without making up a brand new guy. Ed is in the 99th percentile in terms of executive function. His executive functioning skills are genuinely a strength for him. He can't stand mess and he keeps a clean ship, he doesn't get angry unless directly provoked. He also has a large number of shitty tattoos on his person, he stims, he's probably got some hyperactivity going on, and some emotional dis-regulation in terms of managing his disappointment and catastrophising. You have to actually look at the character and figure out what cannon things translate into ADHD and what adhd traits are contradicted by cannon and if you're just hollowing him out and putting an ablist idea of ADHD in as a stand in for a personality.

Like.. ok. My favoriate cannon ADHD rep in the world is the Percy Jackson series. Every one of those kids has adhd and dyslexia. This does not stop Annabeth from being a very functional character with a million irons in the fire who's an avid reader and a Smart Girl TM. Percy by contrast cannot focus for five seconds especially when you put a book in front of him, but he can think on his feet really well. Both of these characters are fairly realistic representations of ADHD because sometimes ADHD is severe executive dysfunction and mess and emotional dis-regulation, sometimes ADHD is having a million projects going at once in a desperate attempt to beat the evil boredom and sometimes it's being able to pick up new things with relative ease. Different people have different levels of these things, which is why in my favoriate childhood book series Rick Riordan was able to have so many different diverse characters with distinct personalities and have them all believably have ADHD.

But a lot of people who headcannon Ed as ADHD don't seem to be interested in figuring out how Ed's personality is compatible with that headcannon, they just want to hollow him out and give him every symptom ever and it's just like... oh, so that's what you think of us then. got it cool.

[surelysilly]

@potatoeofwisdom

#I love this beyond words#but lads#do we think maybe we have seperated so far from the source material we are now just playing with oc’s of our own design?#not a complaint#loving the uptick of this crossover btw#I’m a bit confused as to how it hasn’t happened sooner? unless it had and I’m only now hearing about it#wasnt DP and supernatural two of the pillars of tumblr a few years ago? no? am I crazy? probably#potatoe rambles

sure, separately DP and SPN were/are very popular in their own right (Dannypocalypse, SuperWhoLock / I Love You news meme), but the superphantom xover was alwayyyysss much, much smaller and most active in the early to mid 2010s. (don't quote me on that, that's when I was most active and contributed to most of the fic then with some others and where my ideas still come from)

superphantom is kinda like a sleeper agent sort of fandom nowadays it feels like, and it boasts somewhat under ~200 fics on ao3 and FFN (who knows where else, and with what overlap to art), but it still relies heavily on the source material to work!

my king of hell Danny would not work without danny phantom or supernatural lore to fall back on even if he seems to be divorced from those origins (i promise he isn't!) ^w^;; but im glad you like him anyway!!! <3

hope this helps!