#by the way to everyone in the platonic server you are still awesome and the server isn’t going anywhere

[thatmooncake]

Alrighty folks, new year new DCA server!

Okay so we’ve seen a lot of lonely/socially awkward/new DCA fans looking for a place to talk to others and me and @flinxypie who kindly helped build this server are hoping this could be a fun place where we can coax each other out of our shells or at least spend a little while going pssppssppssssp with cat treats in an attempt to lure each other out from under the fandom sofa. The chat’s name is as of yet undecided (to be confirmed once poll results are in) but don’t let that stop you from joining along if you’re interested!

Here’s the link: https://discord.gg/4SYgUdW7Qc

This is a place to make friends where we embrace our awkwardness, our loneliness, and maybe we do it scared but we do it anyway (don’t worry, you’re in good company!). We don’t want to put anyone up on a pedestal out of other people’s reach or have fandom in general be a big competition or grind to get “famous” or stay “relevant”, just a fun space where we’re all equally silly little guys and get to talk about fun things we collectively like and have fun doing it at our own pace.

We plan on doing throwback days for older art, we have channels where you can adopt or be adopted by new friends (a little attention seeking is good and fine actually if you’re willing to give as good as you get) or if all words are failing you you can talk in meows or pictures or one word sentences in one of our quiet channels if you wish (fun fact: there are a surprising number of house cats and cryptids in the DCA fandom). Be a part of some silly fun art/writing trades, magmas or themed art/reblog chains and let’s all draw ourselves with our AU versions or do picrews (We also want to bring back the DCA sleepovers and interaction chains because those looked fun!) along with a bunch more stuff we likely haven’t thought of yet!

Everybody is welcome, lurkers are loved, and new friends are eagerly anticipated - let’s do this! 🎠

[prrism]

Brainrot: Y/N is XD's demigod child, sometimes XD just casually walks around the SMP and Y/N once simply said "hey dad" while XD just laughs before saying "Hi kiddo" and everyone in SMP is WTF? ! (XD is laughing his ass off at the mortals reaction while Y/N tries not to laugh).

I’m 100% here for the casual chaos, sorry this took so long to write 😅 I wanted to try writing in a headcanon format since it’s not something I normally do, so I’m sorry in advance if it’s bad

Casual Greeting

Summary: When you see your father, Dream XD, paying a visit to his server you decide to go say hi, thing is very few knew you were his kid… until now anyways…

Characters: Dream XD, Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, Dream, George, Sapnap, Badboyhalo, Karl, Wilbur, Foolish, Awesamdude, Quackity

Relationships: platonic

Pronouns: unspecified/kept neutral

Of course you never told your friends about your godly nature and powers, wanting to blend in as much as possible, but sometimes you’d secretly use your abilities for some extra fun

XD had decided to visit his server and see how well the mortals in it were thriving *cough*visit George*cough*

Cue you walking down prime path with the Bench Trio, casually passing the god

“Sup dad!”

He could hear the smirk in your voice, one of his own forming when the trio freeze in place, staring between you and XD

“Mornin’ kiddo.”

It didn’t take long after that for word to spread that you were XD’s kid

Tommy and Tubbo were flipping out bombarding you with questions while Ranboo scrambled to write everything he could into his memory book

You’re getting spammed messages from Sapnap, Quackity and Sam and you can hear the shock for you not having told them this news sooner

Bad, Wilbur and Karl are the ones who’ll go out of their way to find where you are and then proceed to ask you countless questions

Those like Foolish, Dream and George already knew about your status as a demigod by one means or another

With just about everyone freaking out over this “big” reveal you’re not even trying to hide your laughter at the ridiculousness

And XD is right there beside you having the time of his life watching everyone scramble to wrap their heads around the news

Once the initial shock has passed you’re a bit more open to using your godly powers around the SMP

The pranks, boy oh boy, the pranks you’re now able to get away with

People can say you’re the one who lifted their house 10ft off the ground but who’s to say for sure

On top of that you get more visits from Dream XD

He says it’s to make sure you don’t end up using your abilities to blow something up you’re not supposed to, but you know he secretly likes being able to visit you more often

Like I said, I’m still getting used to writing in a headcanon format but how was that for a first try? Anyways, I hope everyone has an awesome day

[pulim-v]

I will answer your ask tomorrow on account of the post limit hitting (2 days in a row 😭) but I have oh so many questions about your ocs. Hopefully these aren’t too many I’m just so unhinged about them. It’s like asking a show creator about my favorite show (which doesn’t exist yet.)

Mist - 2,6,9

Rowan - 17,20 (this question will come up more than once it’s so arghhh) 23

Dew - 32,40

Spark - 6,15,20

Fern - 4,11,20,27

Octavia - 29,41

Agate - 20, 22, 10

And 4 Magoo, D and E

Again I’m sorry lmao you don’t have to answer all these if you don’t wanna

I think you can post now lmao it's already hit midnight where the Tumblr servers are

Mist:

2. How easy is it for your character to laugh?

I'll say this a lot but depends ENTIRELY on the point of the story we're at. He retains the exact same sense of humor, but post-arc Mist is a lot more comfortable openly laughing (you can see if Mist is actively trying to hide his emotions if you can't see through his glasses and he's blushing intensely)

6. Does your character think laws are immobile or flexible?

Pre-arc Mist is an actual fucking Narc in real life he'd call the cops on fucking jaywalking (in-universe that isn't a thing). Post-arc he thinks they're a little bit more flexible but he still thinks people should ultimately respect the law unless lives are on the line

9. Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word?

Not really, at least not often. Honestly his first swear word was probably said without him knowing what it meant and he still remembers it, because he's embarrassed both that he said it and that he didn't know what it meant.

Rowan:

17. Are they easily embarrassed?

Not usually, but comments regarding his height (especially ones that say he looks like a kid) really hit him where it hurts

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do it?

Choosing Rowan for this question is so arng arng arng arng

"I don't get what romantic love is. I mean, first off I don't feel it, but it's hard to conceptualize as well. It seems different than platonic love because it usually involves things like constant physical affection, gifts and dates, though those things are present in families and friendships too. I guess there's the element of sexual attraction, but... let's not get into that..."

23. How does envy manifest itself in them?

OHOHOHO THIS IS A GOOD ONE. With Rowan, envy is mostly hidden away and covered by pride. He thinks he can't be envious of people because he's better than them, he can't be missing things because he's worked harder than everyone else (he thinks Octavia being so gender and so awesome and so amazing is just his head playing tricks on him)

Dew:

32. Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke?

First off Dew is the absolute fucking king of dad jokes almost no one gets a visible reaction out of Mist as easily as Dew. Second off, I don't think so, he probably switches it up a lot in talking about dumb accidents they got into as a kid lol

40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

Dew is probably one of the most chill characters in that regard because he doesn't really mind! That itself is a bit of a problem, they don't really care about improving as much as they probably should, but Dew knows their weaknesses and if they really need to they can work on them

Spark:

6. Does your character think laws are immobile or flexible?

Oh for Spark laws aren't just flexible they're in te fucking way. They're an obstacle that makes research on their thesis incredibly annoying (since they're researching the barely legal wild magic) and something that routinely gets in their way (but yeah they'd rob a bank if Fern and Via really needed the money)

15. How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it first?

Spark probably speaks like I do irl, aka an impulsive mess that cannot go three sentences with a weird expression or curse word. Maaaybe sometimes Spark rehearses what they're going to say, esp in cases like going to get meds for their ADHD, but overall they're too impulsive and "sincere" (aka an asshole) to really put effort into thinking over what they say

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do it?

Spark.. hmm... I'm not sure? Let's try:

"I haven't really fallen in love with anyone, and for now I don't want to, but I think the difference is the stuff you do? Like with a boyfriend we'd make out and have sex and go on dates, but with a friend I'd just hang out or have lunch together (and with my sister we just send each other video game memes every other day)"

Fern:

4. How easy is it to earn their trust?

Oh it's incredibly easy, don't be openly rude to him for like a week and Fern would trust you with her own life lmao

11. How do they cope with confusion?

Pretends she understands, then immediately looks it up on his phone to actually do so (if she can't, he'll avoid asking again as much as possible)

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do it?

Fern's a little clearer than Spark (since tbh I have a clearer view on how she thinks about his feelings)

"I think the difference is that, for someone I'm into, I'd want to wake up every day with their hand on mine, and to get married to them, and to have a house together, but with someone I consider a friend, I want us to talk about our crushes, and do homework together, and go out for drinks and just talk about life with her"

27. What causes them to feel dread

3 paragraph text where she's being really vulnerable, not seen in over 3 hours despite the person he sent it to being online

Octavia:

29. Do they usually live up to their own ideals?

Yes! Via's both really hard-working and really responsible, so she actually manages to both set and achieve reasonable goals for herself (whem external factors like a stupid-ass unrequited crush aren't distracting her)

41. How do they feel about children

Loves them, absolutely wants to adopt some when she graduates. *making up lore on the spot* She's an eldest daughter, so she's already kinda acquainted with taking care of kids, but she genuinely likes doing so and would love to have some of her own when she can settle down

Agate:

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do it?

Okay it's weird to say this but Agate is a lot less developed than the others so her response is even more flimsy than the other lore I've shared here

"Romantic love is kinda like a partnership I think, it's someone who keeps up with you, someone who you pull when they're going slowly and who pulls you when you're going too fast. A friend doesn't really have that intimacy, sure you help them sometimes but it's not as deep. And with families I think it's kind of a weird mix of the two where there's also more intimacy but you act more like friends"

22. How does jealousy manifest within them?

Oh this girlie is Repressing That Shit, if she's jealous for a reason she thinks isn't valid (aka literally any reason because her suffering is always justified) she's going to pretend that isn't a thing and hide her true feelings until either they stop or she can't pretend anymore

10. What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

"Don't worry, I'm fine!"

Magoo:

D. Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit the way they looked?

Oh I've redesigned Magoo a lot, and he only started giving a design 8 years after I started playing with him. Currently I'm thinking of redesigning him to mess with his proportions and color scheme, but I don't know if I'll actually do it

E. Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Maybe? I'm not sure, I'd like to think that he'd like my ramblings (and that I'd enjoy his cheerful demeanor)

[littlelionpaw]

Horizon

Thanks @xxxhellfireravenxxx for the tag! :)

(I went a bit overboard, I think....)

1. ride or die ship (your otp): Ereloy. BUT, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really see Erend’s appeal at first. Loud and macho and horrible facial hair... uurg, not my type of man, at all. I did like him as a character, but not as a romantic option. When I played the games first I didn’t ship anyone with Aloy. I didn’t even know what shipping was until recently :D At some point I stumbled over a ship-war post/comment on reddit in which everyone was losing their minds, shoving their opinions and ships down each other’s throats and I was like… how can you be so obsessed with pixel people? (I was still so young and naïve back in March…) but it got me curious, and I stumbled across godliath's AMAZING Ereloy art and somehow landed on AO3 and a wonderful fic (The Implication of a Kiss by Emtaz. If you are an Ereloy and haven’t read it yet, or want to become one, GO READ IT, it is so lovely) and was hooked. I decided to write my first own fic, got invited to the two minutes server after publishing it and started to pay more attention to Erend while playing the games and fell in love.

2. most annoying ship: None. I’m only annoyed by people who are mean/condescending/superior idiots about other ships.

3. second favourite ship: This is hard. So many lovely characters to choose from. Personally, I always had a crush on Petra. I guess I have a thing for Oseram. I also adore the way Abadund worships Morlund.

4. favourite platonic relationship: I love how Aloy and Morlund click.

5. underrated ship: Uuuh, I know lots of people hate Avad for being so forward with Aloy… but in all honesty – he has been completely courteous and nice about it. He likes her and tells her. He doesn't even want to make her his queen or pin her down or anything… he just wants to get to know her better and accompany her on her travels. So… yeah. I kinda have a soft spot for him.

6. overrated ship: Please see answer number 2. :P

7. one thing i would change in canon: (*three major things i would change in canon:)

The way Varl’s death is handled. I really hate that he is dead, but to be honest, I do like a good major character death in any story, because knowing something like this can randomly happen keeps me on my toes. The world they live in is extremely dangerous, it’s more or less logical for one/or more of them to die. I was actually convinced Erend would die during GEMINI. The way him and Aloy looked at each other when he rode off to his own cauldron gave me chills and a sense of foreboding. Then I thought it would be Beta. OK, back to how it was handled: Other than it sucking and emphasizing the mortal danger they are in and the ruthlessness of the Zeniths it didn’t have any real impact on the story. Aloy had another grave to visit and contemplate over. Yey. I don’t know, it felt flat, empty and in consequence unnecessary.

Second major thing I don’t like in HFW is the way Erend is handled. When you play HFW right after HZD it is especially jarring. The Daunt reunion is still awesome and gives us a matured, badass, no nonsense Erend. It’s one of my favorite scenes of the entire series. But after that? He is reduced to a blundering, insensitive oaf. I can understand that he is uncomfortable inside the Base, sitting around all day studying and reading, right after he tells us what he is actually forged for (paraphrasing: no ledgers, no boring afternoon patrols, just the hammer, just the fight). So, really, him being awkward and a little too loud and too much is to be expected. But there is really no need for the others (including Aloy) to be so mean/superior/condescending about him. Everyone is like haha will Erend even understand anything? Haha can he handle that? Haha please don’t get yourself killed you fool haha. He is loud and funny and a bit crude in HZD too, but he is also VERY competent despite is constant self-doubt. He picks up the pieces after Ersa’s death, cleans up his act and when he is faced with the truth right before the final battle he swallows down his fears and INSTANTLY turns to his comrades boosting their confidence, taking away their fears, showing excellent leadership. He is passionate and eloquent and empathic (see his speech in Mother’s heart!!). There is really no reason or indication for Aloy (or the others) to put him down so much or to not expect him to be able to handle/understand things. *grumble*

Third major thing: Burning Shores. I was so bored most of the time. Glittering, beautiful, masterfully rendered exterior – mostly hot air inside. When I was fighting the Horus I thought oh wow, why place a major boss battle right at the beginning of the DLC? And I laughed out loud when the screen announced it was over, thanks for playing. Yeah. SO MUCH wasted potential. Loved Gildun though.

8. something canon did right: >>>Horizon Zero Dawn<<< It is a masterpiece. And although I’d love for Aloy to get more smooches and experience more love and friendship… I will gladly go without any of that in favor for more of the gripping, deep, excellent storytelling that is HZD.

9. a thing i'm proud of creating for the fandom: I’ve only just started to create things and feel very humble and self-conscious about it. But I’m actually pretty proud of my first ever fic Something New, because it got me into this whole world.

10. a character who is perfect to me (wouldn't change a thing): Bright eyed Morlund! My god, I want to reach inside the screen and squish him. Also: Sylens, *chef’s kiss*

11. the character i relate to the most and why: That’s hard. I guess I can relate to Erend’s constant self-doubt. And his tendency to self-medicate to make things easier. But I can also relate to Aloy’s “I can do that alone, I don’t need any help”-attitude.

12. character(-s) i hate the most and why: Tilda. What a wonderful villain. That person makes my skin crawl. She is creepy as hell and doesn’t have this touch (or more like HUGE GLOB) of megalomaniacal madness that clings to Ted or Ceo. Being so self-centered, cruel, ruthless, and cold while apparently very clear-headed makes her very hard to grasp. Expertly done by the writers. And I want to punch Lanzra. Was there ever a bigger, more hypocritical BITCH than her?

13. something i've learned from the fandom: I’ve learned SO MUCH! I’ve joined the fandom in March/April 2023, I’m still very new here. But since then I’ve started to create things for myself again! Which I haven’t done in almost 20 years. I’ve always loved drawing and writing, so much so that my parents and teachers all encouraged me to do more, to be better, to “do something with it”. Ultimately these expectations/the pressure killed my drive, because whenever I did something that was just fun the question of “what can you DO with it? Can you sell it? Will others like it? Will it bring you fame?” inevitably followed. Drawing or writing about Blorbos is SO useless (in the grand scheme of things) that it is extremely feeing. It gives me so much joy. Second thing I’ve learned: It doesn't matter how “good/perfect” anything is, as long as it gives you joy. I was so confused when I joined the two minutes server, everyone was so nice to each other. So many compliments! No criticism, no tips how to do things better… until I realized that creating for a fandom is supposed to be simply fun. For yourself mainly and for people who happen to like the same things you do. There is no point whatsoever to criticize other peoples work unless they ask you to. Very freeing. It gave me a whole new perspective! I would have considered myself a nice person before, but now I think I’m more considerate too.

Please people, be nice to each other.

14. three tags i seek out on ao3: Don’t have any preferences… I randomly read what catches my interest!

15. a song i strongly associate with my otp/favourite character: Funny story: Shiver, by Coldplay. The thing is, at first I didn’t realize it’s a song about stalking :D lol. I thought it was a song about pining… Erend watching from the sidelines, in love with Aloy, waiting/hoping for her to finally notice him. Haha, although now I know the true intention behind the song I CAN’T get it separated from Erend….

[homestuckpolyswap]

Sign-Up Troubles? Fear not!

Signing up for events on AO3 can be pretty complicated. Trust us, we know exactly how finicky the site can be about accepting your GLORIOUS PROMPTS and WONDROUS OFFER.

Therefore, we've constructed a really simple "getting started" guide that answers the most common sign-up woes. With pictures! Wowwww! Keep your eyes peeled for that, because it's coming. SOON.

In the short-term, here's a quick glossary!

PLACES

AO3: The website where everything is hosted, Archive of Our Own dot ORG. It is an archive with a collection feature grouping similar fanworks together, and that's where Polyswap takes place! [The term "A O 3" comes from older internet shortenings, because there's one A and three Os.]

PROSPIT: One "half" of the Polyswap event, an all-ages collection where no fill can be rated higher than T. You can be part of Prospit if you're under 17 or over 18. But to be mindful of our younger creators, we keep it neater.

DERSE: One "half" of the Polyswap event, an anything-goes all-ratings collection where anything... goes! You must be 18+ to be in Derse, but you can still write SFW material here. NSFW is also allowed, all the way up to E!

OBJECTS & ACTIONS

POLYSHIP: Any relationship configuration with 3+ people in it. Poly- from polyamory and -ship from relationship. Polyships can be platonic, romantic, purely intimate, or something with all three! Get funky with it.

PROMPT: This is where you request gifts in your sign-ups. It details things like the ships you like, the dynamics you want explored, and maybe an AU you want someone to play with. Everyone must have at least THREE prompts.

OFFER: This is where you tell the moderation team exactly what your deal is. What do you like to make? Are you an author, an artist, or something else entirely? This is where answers to that would go.

DEFAULT / DEFAULTING: When a gifter is removed from their assignment. If the project is not complete on-time or life gets in the way, a default happens. There's no shame in defaulting manually, especially if you do it early in the event.

FILL: This is the "project" or "gift" mentioned all around Polyswap. When you're all done with a gift, you submit it by clicking a button labeled "FILL" ... hence the term! If someone doesn't complete or defaults, the project is unfilled.

TREAT: Anything generated after someone's fill is complete. Maybe your giftee had more than one awesome idea. Maybe someone else had a super great prompt. Anything you make after submitting your fill... is a treat!

MOD CHAT: Something unique to the Discord server, which is available by link to anyone that signs up for Polyswap. Need a super secret conversation with mods? Request a mod chat in the correct channel and we'll be right on it.

DEAR GIFTER LETTER: A comprehensive message outlining do-nots and squicks for your anonymous gifter to read. Not required, nor enforced, but helpful if you have many squicks. Any private do-nots should be in your offer.

PEOPLE

PARTICIPANT: Anyone that's taking part in the "primary" part of Polyswap, the gifting and receiving part. That could be you!

GIFTER: Anyone that is making something for someone else. The person assigned TO you is your gifter, and they are ANONYMOUS. No peeking behind the curtain.

GIFTEE: Anyone receiving something from someone else. The person YOU are assigned to is your giftee, and you are a SECRET. Get nefarious, but don't reveal who you are!

PINCH HITTER: Someone that has signed up to "fill in" on a defaulted gift. Not sure if you're giftee material? Couldn't think of any prompts but still wanna write stuff? Sign up to be a pinch hitter and save someone's Polyswap!

PROSPIDERSER: A funny term that refers to someone who signed up for both subcatergories of Polyswap, Prospit & Derse. That means you have two giftees and two gifters! Bonus!

[darth-shado]

(Not so good) Memories

-Desert duo Double Life fic crossposted on ao3 (written after 4th session)

Warning: Description of violence (not very graphic but putting a warning just in case)

Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, No Beta

Can be read platonic or as a ship

Word count: 810

Once again they were outcasts living away from others. As they would say but actually they were hiding from everyone else on the server. Scar was but Grian went to the pool party that didn't go exactly as planned. Tired from running away from a group of people trying to find their hideout he finally laid down to relax. Through the dim lighting that was in their new home there wasn't much to see, at least not properly. Suddenly Grian heard a shrug of a blanket from where Scar was sleeping.

"How was it?" Scar asked which made another man jump because he was sure that he hadn't heard him.

"It was awesome." Grian smiled to himself remembering the zombie army approaching from the depths of a pool. He definitely enjoyed watching all the chaos this caused. "Weren't you supposed to be asleep?" He added after a while to keep the conversation going.

"You know I've just been thinking." Scar shrugged, not giving much away he didn't wanted to talk about it just not now it was too early to jump into conclusions.

"And what were you thinking about?"

"When are you going to tell me."

"Tell what?" Grian asked, confused. There was a lot of stuff that he could tell Scar about.

"You and BigB." Scar turned to the side now facing an unstable dirt wall he couldn't bring himself to look at his soulmate during this conversation. He knew he wasn't the best at hiding his emotions.

"What about it?"

"Listen I'm not stupid I want to know is he a reason you've been avoiding me."

Grian sat up surprised to know that his soulmate found out about his secret soulmate.

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them. One of them wanted an answer and another didn't know how to give one.

"Just be honest."

"Yes, partially that was the reason I've been avoiding you."

Scar was expecting that but wasn't ready to hear it. He tried denying this thought as often as he could in his worst fear of it being true.

"I'm sorry I should've been honest from the beginning. It's just that…" He was quiet for a moment to find the correct memory that was stuck in his head. "It's just that I don't want to repeat what has happened in the desert."

"What do you mean?" Scar asked

"Remember the Monopoly Mountain?"

"Mhm"

"Well I didn't wanted it to go like that. Sure I had fun with you but most of us didn't realized what this game was really like. Back then nobody really cared how many lives they had because they didn't known what it was like to die permanently. I was afraid I was gonna lose you but eventually we managed to survive longer than many other players." He paused for a moment remembering the pain that night had caused him. "Then you made me fight for a stupid piece of paper or else you will take my life away from me as you did. You instantly betrayed me and didn't show a sign of guilt like you always wanted to do this."

Grian hugged his knees closer to his chest.

"After that there were only us two. It was like fate that a fight in a ring of cactus and fire would happen between us. I still remember punching you in the face until your jaw would break or giving you the final hit in the ribs. And when you were taking your last breath. I couldn't handle it being alone in the world. Without others, without Pizza, without you." He added the last part more quietly than the other.

Scar stood up with a blanket in his hand. He sat beside another man covering him with a blanket for comfort.

"I wanted to know how it is to be cared for."

"Every time I cared for you. I am really sorry about the betrayal. Honestly, I don't know why I've done that so I won't even defend myself. I admit I have a weird way of showing how much you mean to me."

Grian smiled slightly at Scar's words.

"You seemed to be distant from me and I had hoped that the Panda Sanctuary would help us but it seems that this idea didn't work out."

"It's really nice of you. Maybe after all of this we could try going there."

"You think so? Oh do I have a surprise for you!" Scar enthusiastically stood up and walked up to a big dirt wall. He picked up a shovel that was laying on the floor and revealed another dirt shelter with dozens of Pandas.

"Oh." Grian expressed his surprise. "Maybe it's not so bad to be soul bound with Scar after all." He thought to himself as he walked up to see the animals his soulmate brought.

[troped-fanfic-challenge]

TROPED Choice: Western

Howdy, Tropesters! The TROPED Choice Challenges have been super successful for us in the past and some of y’all have been asking for this so...it’s time to get ready for the TROPED Choice: WESTERN!

The way it works is simple.

Choose a Theme for your fic from our list of Western-centric themes!

Choose four (4) Tropes for your fic from our list of tropes! (You can, of course, choose more than four, but only the first four tropes you list will be included for voting). For this challenge, at least one of your four tropes must be a ‘Western’ trope, which are in a separate list from the other tropes.

Write your fic! Make sure you put what your theme is and what tropes you used in your fic summary, or in the notes at the TOP of your fic, so we can keep our eyes peeled for them as we read them! (If you are worried the tropes/themes will spoil your fic, you may put them in the notes at the bottom, but please let us know at the top if you choose to do so, and be sure that all of your tropes and themes are in the same place!)

The Challenge will be structured the same as previous Choice Events: tropes and theme list will be released, ten (10) days to write, four (4) days to vote; one quick round, done and done! Voting will be based on the use of your theme, your combined use of all four tropes, the combined use of your theme + your tropes, and three bonus polls, most unique pairing (which will count for both platonic and romantic pairings), and most unique take on a western, and most creative!

The tropes on our list that we thought needed defining have been defined, as have all the themes, but if you have any questions about any trope or theme while writing, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask once they’ve been released!

Dates:

Trope and Theme Lists Opened to the Public and Writing Period Begins: January 25, 2021 at 12:00am EST

Writing Period Ends: February 3, 2021 at 11:59pm PST (Feb. 4th at 2:59am EST)

Voting Begins: February 5, 2021 at 12:00am EST

Voting Ends: February 7, 2021 at 11:59pm EST

Winners Announced: February 8th, 2021 at 12:00pm EST!

*Please note that the usual times for the end of the Writing Period have changed this event!*

Rules:

Our rules from the previous iterations of this Challenge have worked out really well for us, so we are going to stick too them! If you need a refresher, the rules are as follows:

The requirements for the fics entered into the competition will be:

Must be The 100

Must fit your chosen WESTERN Theme

Must use ALL of your selected Tropes. If you don’t use the tropes, it will result in disqualification!

All fics must be 10,000 words or less (though we do allow a 500 word buffer zone to tie up a fic that has hit the 10,000 mark without being completed.) [In our previous challenges, we suspended the word limit for tropes such as ‘reincarnations’ and ‘groundhog day/timeloop’. To keep the challenge fair for those who do not choose tropes that would extend their word limit, we will not be doing so for this challenge.]

All ratings are welcome, G through E, but please be aware that some smut fics may not be everyone’s thing! Write what you like, but it the voting is public so just keep that in mind!

You will be disqualified if you include:

Rape!

Underage! (This means no high school AU with sex, no teacher/student if the student is underage, zero adult/under 18 relationships!)

Incest! (incest includes adopted siblings, parent/child, step siblings, biological siblings, or any familial relationship, blood related or not!).

Negativity towards any character or ship! (This includes any sort of abuse perpetrated by a character intending to paint them in a negative light, negative statements about a character intended purely to express your dislike of a character, or things of that nature.)

FOR THIS CHALLENGE!!!! ‘Western’ themed media often contains extremely racist depictions of indigenous/native peoples and cultures, portraying them as ‘savages’ who are an obstacle to be overcome by the White Heroes™. If you decide to include indigenous or native themes, characters, or plot points in your story, please be extremely aware that this type of depiction will not be permitted in this challenge. If you decide to approach these themes, please do so with care.

This competition was created to get creative and different fics out into the world, and to create a fun, positive fandom experience for everyone! In order to ensure that we achieve that goal of a positive experience, we reserve the right to disqualify anyone if we are reading and we think it violates any of our rules.

Please remember this is an anonymous competition!! Please don’t post your fics on your own AO3 account or on tumblr until the voting is over!

The challenge on AO3 can be found here:

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TROPED_Choice_Western

If anyone would like to write for this round, but would not like to be entered into voting, we would still LOVE to read your fics! Please upload them to the Non Anonymous TROPED Collection here:

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TROPED_Non_Anonymous

We are so excited to see what tropes and themes you guys chose, what combinations you come up with, and what awesome fics you guys write!

Remember that if you have any questions at all, including whether something would fit the requirements for a trope or theme you selected, would violate one of the rules, or anything at all, please don’t hesitate to contact us here or on our personal blogs, @thelittlefanpire @dylanobrienisbatman, we are here to help!

If you’d like to be added to our new TROPED Discord Server, please shoot us a message! We’ll be hosting some writing sprints and other fun encouragements throughout the event!

[sign-from-god-complex]

Um, so you're like a Tumblr god with writing, so do you have any tips on how to get your stories noticed and out there? Thank you!

ashdgfsdh that’s so!!!! nice!!!!! ty!!! so, to be totally honest, part of my situation is that I got really lucky with one of my fics early on, where it got like,,, a lot of notes and as such I ended up with way more followers but I can still try to give some tips!!!

(this got a little long, so I’m putting it under a cut)

1. Tagging

People (me included) will go through the Sanders Sides or character tags to find stuff to reblog. Only the first five tags you throw in will actually have your work in them (i.e. if you tag ‘1′, ‘2′, ‘3′, ‘4′, ‘5′, ‘6′, the fic will only show up when you search 1-5) and it won’t show up through searches at all if you use certain words (swear words, in particular, I’ve noticed).

Making sure to tag your stuff in a way that people will see definitely helps but also make sure it’s relevant tags. People looking for prinxiety won’t be thrilled to have analogical in the tag they’re searching. You can check my fics for the way I tag them if you want!

And, in relation to a different kind of tagging, use tag lists! I know there’s some general ones online (@the-taglist-repository has a bunch) but sometimes author’s will also just straight up tell you to tag them in stuff (e.g. I love being tagged in aspec or autistic sides content, @/rosesisupposes likes being tagged in superhero AUs, @/sleepless-in-starbucks demands /j to be tagged in all losleep content, etc. etc.).

I would be careful about just tagging people though. I’m, personally, not a fan of being tagged in things that I haven’t asked to be tagged in. It strikes me a little bit as ‘you’re a big blog so I’m just using your followers to try and promote myself’, even if that isn’t the intention.

2. Make content regularly

Now, I get that regularly putting out content is definitely not as easy as just saying you will—life gets in the way sometimes and creativity is stressful—but it definitely helped me when I started writing. I wasn’t doing much else with my time (an unusual circumstance), so I was putting out like,, at least 2 fics a month. In the entirety of last year I wrote 80 fics. But seriously, the more you write, the better your writing will be (practise!) and the more likely people will see it.

You can also try doing writing games like I’ve done for follower milestones in the past. You can find lists of prompts on tumblr, reblog them and ask people to send you a prompt and a ship for you to write a drabble for. There’s also things like Secret Santa (where people trade content for the holidays) and Soulmate September is this month, organised by @tsshipmonth2020! So participating in writing events that you find could also help!

3. Interact with other writers

The biggest thing, I think, personally, to help content creators is for them to work together to lift each other up (sounds kinda cheesy but I’m serious). If you comment on other people’s work telling them how much you enjoyed their fics, I guarantee they’ll be thrilled and you may become friends! (I’ve had,,, several friendships start this way; @/sleepless-in-starbucks and @/max-is-tired, among others).

And you can interact with writers outside of tumblr too! Discord is a super great way to chat with other writers and get your fics out there, I’ve found. There’s even some discord servers dedicated specifically to writing tss fanfics (@potestessemagishomosexualitatis has a great one that I’m in and ik there’s one run by discord user ‘parallelwrites’, though I’m not certain of their tumblr URL).

4. Write what you enjoy!

I guarantee people can tell if you’re writing stuff you’re not enjoying. You don’t have to write only the most popular ships to get notes on your writing (I mean, just look at Lia, who’s basically made their blog on the foundation of losleep). You should write the things you like, even if they’re niche, cause I promise if you want to read it, there’s other people out there who do as well.

I mean, I just read a qpr sleepxiety soulmate AU that the author (@averykedavra) described as ‘self-indulgent’. I’m a huge fan of platonic/queerplatonic sleepxiety but I never see it written! It’s not popular! But Avery wrote it and I loved it. I did not expect so many people to be thrilled about my aroace-Logan coming out story! I wrote it for Me but people really seemed to enjoy it! You never know what people will love.

5. Take care of yourself

This is maybe not so much writing advice as it is a caveat for all the stuff I’ve said here. At the end of the day, writing is fun and getting praise on your stories feels awesome, and I totally get that, but you gotta make sure not to burn yourself out. I went through a period when I started fic writing where I was,,,, a little too dependant on the feedback I got and if I didn’t get what I considered “enough notes” it basically sent me into a downward spiral.

Now, that’s me and I know not everyone will feel that way, but it’s good to remember you have worth outside of what you create. If you can’t manage to write the amount you think you “should” be, that’s okay. If you can’t manage to finish a piece you’ve been working on, that’s okay. If you go for months without writing because of stress, life or simply writer’s block, that’s all okay.

You are the most important thing in your creative endeavours; don’t forget that.

[fander-pride-meetup]

Fander Pride Meetup 2019!

Heya everyone! Last year was awesome! I loved seeing the amount of participation from the community!! However, I’m hoping to do more this year! Instead of a couple days...this will be a month long event!

Each week will have a theme for creators to follow!

How To Participate:

This month is about creating and celebrating your identity! To do this, follow the prompts and then tag us and tag the posts #fanderspridemeetup2019

Ways To Participate:

All art forms are accepted, such as

Writing

Art (Traditional/Digital)

Edits

Cosplay

Selfies

Journals

Headcanon bullet lists

Aesthetics/Moodboards 

Photography

Any other ways you can think of. If you can express yourself through it, you can do it! (However is you have questions, feel free to send an ask!)

Topics:

Week 1 (June 1th-June 8th): Relationships- Showcase Various Relationships (Platonic, Queer Platonic, Romantic, With Yourself, Ect.) Through The Sides and other TS Characters!

Week 2 (June 9th-June 15th) : Representation- Draw/Write/Edit/Express yourself with the Sides/TSCharacters to represent your LGBTQ+ experiences!

Week 3 (June 16th-June 22nd): Headcanons- Show off all your headcanons about The Sides/TS Characters and what they may identify as! (Doesn’t have to be your identity(ies)

Week 4 (June 23rd-June 30th): Pride- Showcase your pride of you indenty(ies) by showcasing anything related to your sexuality. Not necessarily TS related.

Other Things Of Note:

Part of the meetup is to, well, Meetup! Talk to each other and learn about the various identities of people in this fandom!

Since this is a Fanders Pride Meetup, try to keep your content related to TS content or yourself. Other fandoms are okay to be mentioned, but please keep it minimal

If your content contains triggers and/or Deceit (Sympathetic or Not) please tag accordingly! They will still be reblogged onto here but please include a warning at the beginning of the post as well as in the tags.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but hate messages or bullying will not be tolerated. There was a small issue with hate last year and such behavior will not be tolerated.

Participation in each week in not required! This is supposed to be a fun event so if you are unable to post something for one of the weeks, don’t stress it! 

Please signal boost! If you have any friends or know any blogs who might be interested let them know! This is for anyone under the LGBTQIA+/SAGA umbrella!

This event now has a Discord Server! This is an additional way to meet others! The server location is: https://discord.gg/5q7MwXt

Please send an ask if you have anymore questions!

(Edit by @iongnadh)

[kai-keda]

So something on twitter got me rambling this to someone who I don’t even know whether or not they’re involved in the same communities as me or not and I kinda just realized this is actually a big problem.

Why are fandom spaces having age wars? Or would it be more appropriate to call it generational wars?

Basically what I’m going on about is how now that I’m 25 years old and have joined and become super involved with a relatively much newer community than any other I’ve been in before I’m seeing a lot of hostility.

Hostility thrown at me by complete strangers.

Okay, so, if you’ve known me for long enough you’d know that I’m used to people not liking me because of actions I did or words I said. Specifically I’m referring to that mega dark time in the Dragon Ball fandom when my mental health was unchecked, I was overly emotional and stupid.

When I say “Hostility being thrown at me by complete strangers” in this context I don’t mean it in that same sense. I mean people who only know my age and that I’m in their fandom.

With my previous fandoms they were things that a lot of adults were in as well because they initially joined said fandom as children themselves. This includes Dragon Ball and Naruto. So I never really had a problem with people hearing my age and running for the hills screaming since they were used to seeing adults. There were also communities with source materials that were geared more towards adults like Trigun.

Heck I was still more often than not on the younger side of any particular group discussion. At most I would be more in the middle of the groups age range and never the oldest.

That is until now.

See I’ve recently gotten really excited, obsessed, hyperfixated or whatever you want to call it with the MCYT content creators. I’m talking of course specifically about the Dream SMP stuff but also the creators individually.

I love the Sleepy Bois Inc group and the Dream Team and Fundy and Ranboo and Niki and BBH and Tubbo and just the whole lot of them in the right contexts honestly.

To me this wasn’t really anything new. I mean, once upon a time I enjoyed Yogscast but I was really young and not involved in the internet’s current world of fandom culture. Also, I never obsessed over them and their story. I was into other things at the time.

When I get really invested in something I tend to immediately go searching for a community to share it with and I’ve started following on tumblr and twitter a lot of wonderful fan-artists and analysts and shitposters and man the lot of you are so great. And I’m also subscribed to a LOT of animators on YouTube. I’ve been leaving as many positive comments ranging from pointing out the finer details of a piece of work to fully emotional responses as I can possibly leave.

And it seems like you guys are really awesome and open and friendly! You guys tend to reply to my comments and even if you don’t (which is totally fair! Don’t feel pressured, my comments are to make you feel good not a trap to make you interact with me!) you’ll leave a like or heck a heart on my YouTube comments to y’all’s animations.

Seeing my positive energy getting returned with positive energy gave me the courage to join some discord servers and I started, of course, with the official ones. Wilbur Soot was the content creator of this group of people that I watched first so of course by this point I was subscribed to him on Twitch. I was also subbed to TommyInnit so I joined their servers. I’m in a few other servers including SAD-ist’s server and Techno’s members only server.

I started out joining vc’s and chatting in text channels but it’s been quite a long time since I’ve done either of those two things (not including a stray opinion here or there being thrown into the DreamSMP Boundaries discord).

I’m pretty sure it’s been since early December since I’ve really interacted in ANY of these servers - including the much smaller non-official fan ones!

Why is that?

Honestly, I got tired of the hostility thrown my way at any mention or reminder of my age.

I’m 25 years old and when people in these servers hear that, a good chunk legitimately feel really awkward.

I was asked not once, not twice, but FOUR TIMES in a single night from FOUR DIFFERENT PEOPLE in the SAME VOICE CALL “Why are you in a fan server for a sixteen year old Minecraft streamer (referring to TommyInnit) if you’re 25?” with NO trace of irony and with complete seriousness and out of all those times only ONE PERSON defended me because they were in the call for the third instance only for them to leave, someone else to join and it to happen again.

And each time, the call went quiet and everyone waited silently for my answer. They were all legitimately concerned for the fact that I happen to be a fan of a streamer who happens to be younger than me.

And when I pointed out what I THOUGHT was obvious which was “90% of the other streamers he’s with and openly calls friends are also adults including Wilbur who is only one year younger than me and Philza who is seven years OLDER than me” only a portion of people responded with “yeah that’s true.”

The rest said “That’s not the same.”

I tried again to “explain myself” (we’ll get to how shitty THAT is in a minute) by detailing how I just genuinely think Tommy, and Tubbo as well, are fun to watch. They’re entertaining, they’re funny, they’re energetic, they work well off the other streamers and I also find them adorable the same way I find puppies and kittens adorable. Heck, I love referring to Tommy as a Chihuahua because he’s a tiny little child with a really loud bark. It’s funny and cute and that’s the appeal.

That got a few other people to relax but there were still some people who at this point just said “well, I still think it’s weird but whatever.” and continued on only with an awkward air of nervousness around them.

Alright so it’s really important for me to stress that being a fan of a content creator does not equate wanting anything romantic or sexual with them in any capacity and therefore there is nothing inherently “creepy” or predatory about an adult being a fan of a content creator who happens to be a minor. I get that that seems like a hard concept to grasp but it’s true.

I’m sure there’s plenty of musicians and actors y’all absolutely adore who you don’t want to marry and/or bang. Heck, I’m positive there’s a good chunk of you who love Miyazaki films. You love his work, you’re a fan of what he does, of his content and you’re a fan of him yet you don’t want to marry and/or bang him. I’m sure a lot of you also have really close platonic friendships that you enjoy.

Assuming I’m only a fan of Tommy to get closer to him and his fans who are minors for some gross reasons is really shitty. NEVER assume the worst in someone like that. Be cautious around adults on the internet in general, sure, but this particular attitude I’ve described is disgusting.

Anyways, beyond that though this rabbit hole goes deeper.

It’s not just people being concerned that an adult is a fan of a content creator who is a minor. People have actually openly shamed and mocked me for being 25 years old in these other servers. Including the one you have to pay monthly to get into in the first place!

And now I go on twitter and I see a post pointing out how silly it is for minors to push adults out of fandom spaces that are based on content created BY ADULTS and the replies are people arguing FOR THE EXCLUSION OF ADULTS?!?!

HELLO?!?!

Are you guys okay?!?!

How is me being a fan of Philza and wanting to interact with other fans of his weird and creepy?? THE MAN IS LITERALLY SEVEN YEARS OLDER THAN ME AND MARRIED WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!

I heard that there’s been a lot of drama in the JoJo fandom recently where minors are trying to say the whole fandom needs to be purged of adults??? That it’s meant to be a safe space for children and teenagers?? THE ANIME JOJO’S BIZZARE ADVENTURE?!?! DO Y’ALL KNOW HOW OLD THAT FRANCHISE IS?!?! IT’S OLDER THAN SOME OF YOU!!

Should teenagers have safe spaces in fandom where they don’t have to worry about strange adults if they’re uncomfortable with that? Absolutely.

Should adults be shamed and kicked out of fandom as soon as they become an adult? Should “20” be the age where fandom must stop? Absolutely fucking NOT!

I want so bad to make friendships and be a part of a community of people who enjoy these dorky Minecraft streamers as much as I do. It kills me to open Discord, see all the activity in these servers and shy away at the last minute from joining in because of my age.

I’m rusty on this quote so forgive me if it’s not exact but this has been my life motto since I became an adult and accepted my place in fandom. I think a lot of you guys can learn from it:

“When I became an adult I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

- C.S Lewis

[holylulusworld]

Unrequited – Part 18

Summary: When John and your father agree to an arranged marriage between their children, they never planned Dean could fall for someone else. Knowing about the arrangement and loving Dean at the same time makes it impossible for you to not feel the heartbreak every time you see him smiling at her. (I shortened the request a bit) Pairing: Dean x Reader, Sam x Reader (platonic/best friends), Arthur Ketch, Jody Mills, OFC’s, Toni Bevella Warnings: angst, fighting, characters death, mind games, language, fluff

Unrequited Masterlist

 One week later you gathered all hunters and huntresses you know and who were willing to follow your call in an old hide-out.

“We all know by now these British bastards are not here to help or to support us. They killed our friends, allies…family. I want to strike back. Hard. Fast. Bloody. No mercy this time. We all are experienced in killing monsters – not men but this time the men are the real monsters.” Dean begins.

“I know this is a tough decision, but we all know Sam and Dean. Both are ready to die to protect innocent people or other hunters. I will support them, no matter what.” You add and Dean squeezes your hand tightly.

“Even after what he did to you?” One of the hunters you barely know asks.

“What do you mean?” Sam asks looking at the hunter.

“We all know he left her to die. Now she’s supporting him?” The hunter spats.

“Dean didn’t know I was there. It was Lisa not telling him about me. We talked things out and I do trust Dean. He proved it not a week ago. If you want to go, there is the door.” You say pointing toward the exit.

“Alright, if anyone wants to leave, do it now. I don’t want someone who will not participate to know any details about our plan.” Dean says and the hunter from before and two others leave the room.

“Anyone else wants to leave?” Jody asks. “Good. Sam will explain our plan now. I’m already informed so I will meet up with Donna so she can bring Claire and Alex out of town. I’ll be back in half an hour. If you need me, just call, Y/N.” Jody says placing her hand onto your shoulder.

“Bring your girls to Donna to make sure they are safe. We will take it from here.” Dean says and Jody gives him a warm smile.

----

“Do you want to fill me in why you not just messed up our little game but lost the Winchesters and Dean’s love interest at the same time?” Toni spats.

“How should I have known he would choose Y/N, not Lisa. I wanted him to suffer too, Lady Bevell.” Ketch retorts. His looks are icy, and he blames Toni for the wrong information.

“I gave you all the information we gathered. Dean did not marry Lisa Braeden; he left her and was looking for Y/N for ages. Now they are back together, and you assumed he would not choose her?” Toni exhales annoyed. “It’s not my fault you are not able to use my information.”

“Watch your tongue.” Ketch threatens his hand wrapped tightly around the much smaller woman’s neck. “I can kill you in a blink. The Winchesters will suffer for sure. I’ll force him to choose once again. This time between her and his brother.”

“We need the Winchesters alive, Arthur.” Toni protests.

“I know but you never said I can’t break them. Do you know what will happen if Dean decides to save Sam and not Y/N? He will hate himself and Sam, he will hate his brother too. Both men will lose the most important woman in their lives and I’ll witness it…priceless.” Ketch chuckles and even Toni gulps hard.

“This will break them beyond repair, but we need strong hunters. Everyone worships the Winchesters in the hunter’s community, Ketch.”

“A broken man can be manipulated much easier, Toni. Have a little faith in me and my methods. I’ll break them down and you can build them up again.” Ketch snickers leaving the room in a good mood and a plan to break Dean once for all.

----

“This base is their most important building. Weapons, information…reinforcement. If we can blow it up and kill them, they are out of business for a while.” Sam explains as you glance at the blueprints.

“This looks like a weak spot, Sam. We could hack the door, it’s a simple lock.”

“Great idea. I wanted to burst the door open using my big beautiful baby, but this will work too.” Dean chuckles and you shake your head.

“Hmm…we need to get into their system. This room looks like a server room. I’ll use the flash drive my friend prepared to get their data and will delete all data these bastards gathered. We can’t let anyone have information about us or the people we love.”

“Perfect, Y/N. Dean and you will take this sector. Jody, Sean and I will infiltrate this sector.” Sam says showing you the positions on the blueprints.

“We should meet up here. Looks like an important room. The security is much better. DNA scanner and guards. I bet their boss is in there.”

“I think so.”

“After we got the data we will blow up the building using my explosive. I will not let anyone get away with killing our friends. This is war and we are going to win it.” You state and Dean grins at you.

“Damn, woman. I love the way you think.”

“’cause you do - I’m awesome. Shame you saw me that late.” You tease as you check the blueprints once again. “We need to be careful. This is the only chance we will get. These bastards believe we will choose flight instead of fight, they are wrong. I’ve got something useful for us in my trunk. Got one for all of us.”

“Okay. Anyone wants to leave the party; this is your last chance.” Dean says clapping his hands.

No one in the room moves. Silence is washing over the hunters, knowing this is a take it or leave it situation.

“These guys are used to dominate monsters, people and situations. We will show them American hunters are not someone you want to mess with.” Sam says and Dean looks at his brother full of pride. “As Sammy said, let’s kick some asses.”

----

“Is everything prepared to get hold of the Winchester and his slut?” Ketch asks and Toni rolls her eyes. “Believe it or not Arthur, I know my job. Men are on their way to her house, the bunker and Jody Mills house.”

“Good. I want to see him suffer and play a bit with him before we turn them into perfect soldiers.” Ketch snickers outside the base. Ready to leave his eyes widen as six cars speed toward the gate.

“Toni! Alert the guards.” Ketch gasps running toward the Impala but you are already hacking the door to let the hunters in. “You have some guts, Winchesters, I must admit. Nice move, thank you for coming to us instead of letting us hunt you down.”

“You’re welcome, asshole. I suggest you go down on your knees and lick the ground before I plant a bullet to your brain.” Dean retorts and Ketch starts grinning.

“I suggest you look at your chest.” A red dot appears on Dean’s, Sam’s, and your chest. A trap…a goddamn trap. It was too good to be true…

“Who is the traitor?” You ask.

“Sean was busy telling us all about your nice, little plan, Y/N. I’m sure your friends are dead by now. How about another game, Dean? Let’s play…Sammy or Y/N this time.” Ketch snickers and Dean gasps.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, sick bastard.” Dean snarls through gritted teeth.

“Not at all. Choose, twenty seconds, the clock is ticking. Same rules, choose one, the other dies. Choose none…both die…” Smirking Ketch looks at Dean’s shocked features. He can see desperation spread out all over the hunter’s face.

“Choose, Y/N. Dean, just choose her.” Sam says and you shake your head. “No, Sammy…no. Dean, look at me. I love you but you and Sammy, you need to keep on fighting. Do it…choose Sam, please. Just choose your brother.” You sniffle and Dean’s hands start shaking.

“I can’t…” The hunter chokes out. “I can’t choose…”

“Dean, choose Y/N…please.” Sam tries once again.

“Five seconds left, Dean…” Ketch chuckles.

“Dean, please…choose Sam…just do it. I know you love me, prove it by respecting my decision.”

“Time’s up. Your decision, Dean.”

“Sammy…” Dean whispers and not a blink later a bullet hits your chest. Red liquid leaves your body and you fall to the ground.

With shaking hands Dean runs toward you as Ketch motions the snipers to leave the roof. His grin widens while Dean holds you in his arms. “I’m sorry.” He whispers and Ketch starts smiling but his smile fades as he sees you raising your hand, a gun aimed to his head and he curses before the bullet hits his forehead.

“You’ve got punk’d, asshole.” You chuckle.

“Damn, these bulletproof vests were a great idea, Baby.” Dean pants. “Good thing they didn’t aim the gun to our heads.”

“Shit didn’t think that far.” You tease. “Let’s meet up with Jody. Donna and Garth should’ve taken care of Sean by now. Traitor…”

----

“Sammy I must admit your and Y/N’s plan was, awesome. Tricking Sean by letting the other hunters go, hiding Donna and Garth in Jody’s truck…the bulletproof vests…true master achievement.” Dean praises and you grin at him.

“We still need to get the data and meet up with the others. Let’s hurry and kick some asses. It’s your turn to pay for food by the way.” You say running toward the building.

“Not fair, woman,” Dean mutters running after you.

“Will we talk about you choosing me over Y/N?” Sam mutters.

“It was her idea, Bitch. Y/N feared the vest might be too small for you, Sasquatch.”

“Still…you could’ve said something.”

Looking at his younger brother Dean’s features soften. Even knowing it was a trick it hit Sam hard seeing you getting hit by a bullet.

“I’m sorry, Sammy. It had to look ‘real’…now let’s hurry…”

----

“What shall we do with the data?” Jody asks glancing at all the information you stole at the BMOL headquarter. Every mission, every dirty detail is now in your hands.

“So far, I got no clue, Jody. These people are bastards but Ketch said they barely have any monsters in the UK. Maybe we keep this locked away as long as they never set a foot onto our ground again.”

“Were you able to delete our data?” Sam asks glancing at the laptop to check the information about monsters, weapons, and stuff.

“Everything according to us and other hunters got deleted. I stole some nice lore stuff for you. Might be handy on hunts.”

“A huge collection of data. Would you mind if I…” Sam trails of reading the first document. “Go ahead and have fun, Sammy. I’ve got a copy for every hunter.”

“What will happen to Sean?” Jody asks and you shrug. “Got no clue, Jody. We can’t trust him. He had the chance to stay out of this fight, but he chose to betray every hunter, he would’ve let them kill us, his friends and allies. Any suggestions?” You sigh.

“Kill him?” Dean mutters glancing at the handcuffed man in a chair in the library. Sean is furiously shaking his head, but Dean just gives him a dark glare.

“I could fake a crime. Sent him to jail for a while or we let every hunter know what he did. Donna, Garth and the others have connections. I have connections…just like you. Everyone will know what he did. Let him survive out there without a network helping him.” Jody suggests and you look at Dean.

“Your plan is even better. No one will help this piece of shit ever again. Within the next week, every hunter in the US will know what you did. You’ve got two options, run to your British friends or run from us for the rest of your life…your decision…” Dean chuckles glancing at Sean.

“What a collection.” Sam swoons and you smile at your friend’s enthusiasm.

“Dude, don’t orgasm about lore…” Dean chuckles and Sam glares at him. Giving him his cold bitch face.

“I don’t know about you all, but I’m beaten. I’m going to hit the hay.” Jody yawns.

“I prepared a room for you.”

“Thanks, Y/N.”

----

Three hours later you are still wide awake. Lying in Dean’s arms, on his bed you can’t find sleep.

“You okay?”

“It’s just…this is the first time I’m allowed to be in your room for longer than five minutes…feels odd.” You whisper.

“We can choose a new room to share if you want to. I want you to feel welcome. I want to start anew and do everything right this time.” Dean whispers as his lips ghost over your hair.

“Can we decide tomorrow. I’m so tired…tell me anything to make me fall asleep…but no dirty jokes…”

“Hmm…let’s see…when you were nineteen you changed clothes and I watched you. It was the first time I saw you almost completely nude. Every time I was with a girl I imagined you…”

“Pervert!” You mutter. “Should kick your ass! Playing Peeping Tom!”

“Did you never peek?”

“No…never…” You lie. Dean’s brows furrow and he looks at your flushed face. “You’re a pervert yourself…I knew it.”

“What? We lived in the bunker together. I wanted to have a shower and saw your naked ass…”

“I bet you got off to my cute ass.”

“Didn’t have the time. The next day I almost died…”

“I’m sorry…”

“But it’s a nice ass, Dean.”

“Wanna see it? Could strip for you.” Dean rasps.

“I’m tired, maybe tomorrow…”

“Sounds like a plan…”

Unrequited Tags    

@tftumblin, @malfoysqueen14, @lysawayne, @bitchwhytho , @roonyxx , @peachesandberrys, @myownsnowflake, @wolfgirl-1981, @havlindzk, @racewife2004

Forever Tags

@donnaintx, @screechingartisancashbailiff, @fallen-wolf22, @sister-winchesters99, @mogaruke, @the-is13, @helloitsmeamie203, @strayrosesbloom, @thewinchesterco, @hobby27, @kittycatlover18, @gh0stgurl, @marvelfansworld , @sandlee44, @hawaiianohana31, @unlikelysamwinchesteronahunt​, @katpatrova17, @notyourtypicalrose , @heyitscam99​, @onethingthatkeepsmealive, @natura1phenomenon​, @flamencodiva​, @echoesofpassion​, @cocklesbelli​, @voltage-my2dlove​, @fandom-princess-forevermore​, @thenamelesschibi​, @lauravic​, @fandomsrourlives​, @wittysunflower​, @drakelover78​, @lemondropirwin​, @lonewolf471​, @wronglanemendes​, @electraphygelectraphyng , @spnhollis​, @void-imaginations​, @jay-and-dean​, @shatteredabby​ , @juniorhuntersam​, @helpmeluci​, @neii3n​, @goodgodimaweirdperson​, @alltimesamantha​, @chonisberonica​, @supernaturalonice​ @stuckys-whore​, @shadowkat-83​, @officialmarvelwhore​, @certaindeanwinchesterforcastiel, @wecantgiggleitsafandom​, @meganywinchester​, @shikshinkwon​, @miraclesoflove​, @yolobloggers​,@guardian-tn, @lu-sullivan​, @maniacproffesor​, @hollymac79​, @straycuties9​, @destieladdict-221b​, @kayla-2000​, @ilovefanfic86​, @gracefultrenchcoat494​, @babygirls-fav​, @sadn0va​

If your name is crossed out Tumblr won’t let me tag you for some reason. Sorry.

Dean/Jensen Forever Tags     

@spnfamily-j2​, @supernatural-bellawinchester​, @butifulsoul125​, @lyinginthegingerlocks​, @deans-baby-momma​, @hawaiianohana31​, @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester​, @20gayneen​, @janicho88​, @thefaithfulwriter​, @dreaminemz​, @negans-lucille-tblr​ @sadwaywardkid​, @akshi8278​, @hhiggs​, @midnightsilver16830​, @mrspeacem1nusone​, @ria132love​, @caligraphee​, @the-witch-in-silence​, @multisuperfandom​, @deansgirl-1968​, @justanotherwinchester​, @jadesupernatural​

[ysalamiri-queen]

2019 Fic in Review

Inspired by @myevilmouse I’m going to sum up all the writing I’ve been up to the past year. I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished, and thanks to you all for the encouragement to put my ideas out into the world! This has been a year of trying new things, and really growing as an author I feel… And wow according to AO3 I’ve written about 400k words in the past 12 months, damn. So let’s get to the list, going from the beginning of the year to the end, and as always please heed the tags on these before reading.

Note: As I go back, I’m realizing a lot of the links were messed up or are just straight missing. I am on the Mobile App so things can get messy. Please visit my works page on AO3 HERE to see all of these on my page under JessKo and my other pseuds.

1 Late Night at the Slab

Idea: Filling a prompt for the Thryce server in which some, uh, unique Chiss anatomy was assigned.

Result: A 3-way with Thrawn, Arihnda, and Eli and my first foray into the more Xeno side of things in a Modern AU setting. Yeehaw!

2 The Trouble With Free-Roaming Ysalamiri

Idea: Based on some adorable ysalamiri cuddles art by @strength-through-order I wanted to write some Thranto fluff.

Result: Ysalamiri-filled Thranto fluff X’D

3 Inquisitor’s Debt

Idea: What if the Grand Inquisitor changed sides at the end of Rebels season 1?

Result: Some fun throwbacks with Obi-Wan and Caleb Dume leading up to Quizzy defecting with Ezra.

4 Ancient Stems

Idea: Eli Week drabbles based on the Vanto Week prompts.

Result: A silly buzz droid narrative with Thrawn and some cute slice of life Eli backstory/Ascendancy days bits.

5 Charnsuka

Idea: Kinky stuff with Lord Garmadon when he’s an Anacondrai.

Result: Kinky stuff with Lord Garmadon when he’s an Anacondrai. Sorry Zane!

6 Caged Like Prized Birds

Idea: Again inspired by the awesome Chiss anatomy and Thrux drawings by @strength-through-order , I wanted to craft a narrative around Armitage, as a young man, stumbling upon a clone of Thrawn.

Result: Man, this might just be one of my favorite things I’ve ever written, had so much fun plotting it out and the smut is mmm! Tentacles everywhere~ I’ve gone back to re-read this a lot, I’ll admit it. I hope you all enjoyed it too.

7 Quiet On Set

Idea: Must. Write. Talos.

Result: A cute little platonic x-reader with everyone’s favorite Skrull. This was my first MCU fic too.

8 Diagnostic

Idea: Wanted to apologize to Zane for the damages done in Charnsuka with some Glacier shipping fluff.

Result: A silly glacier thing leading to a bit of foolery. I’m happy with it!

9 Heron Soaring

Idea: A continuation of the plot line from Heron Rising with Kanan and Thrawn.

Result: Too many feels… but some great sex to soften the blow, Kanera too!

10 Patron

Idea: Responding to a tumblr prompt from @wukeskywalker regarding Thrawn commissioning LOADS of artworks of Eli.

Result: More Thranto fluff! I see a trend here…

11 Black Heron

Idea: Kanan x Pryce for @myevilmouse , I think this was our first ‘collaboration’ on something!

Result: Juahir hires a special someone to show Arihnda a good time!

12 Red Heron

Idea: @star-wars-rebels-4 is always an amazing wealth of ideas for Grand Inquisitor, and encouraged a work featuring him and Kanan.

Result: Delicious back alley smut when an undercover Jedi is caught!

13 Warm Homecoming

Idea: Give my and a friend's OCs some cute fluff.

Result: OC fluff and a vacation to Hoth!

14 sowing the seeds

Idea: Add something cute to the spank war project.

Result: Another contender for my ‘favorite thing I’ve ever written’ rank. Two chapters of pining, cooking lessons, and sweet slick smut.

15 Red Frost

Idea: After watching “The Evil of Frankenstein” with @sneakybunyip ‘s amazing movie night group, I wanted to do something fun with Victor and Hans.

Result: A fun little adventure fic with some huddling for warmth to boot. Victor and Hans are the hammer-horror-verse Thranto send tweet.

16 a setting sun to hide the ruins

Idea: What if I tortured Kanan to the point he turned evil and joined the Inquisitors (and went a little insane in the process)

Result: Instead of torture, let’s just use some serum that drives him mad. Perfect. Smut ahoy, pretty much a dead dove type fic.

17 Pinktown

Idea: When browsing abandoned towns in Florida, I came across Flamingo… what if Thrawn had been exiled here instead.

Result: An alternate history of Thrawn’s exile and eventual discovery by the Empire. Huge thanks for @badgerandk on this one for the perfect epilogue and beta.

18 the sun rises to only illuminate the stranger i have become

Idea: Setting sun… part 2! But it’s actually what happens before sun?

Result: How Kanan ended up where he is for ‘a setting sun’... lots of imp smut and again, it's sort of a dead dove style fic.

19 Frozen Over

Idea: Ar’alani x Eli Vanto

Result: Somehow me and my writing partner ended up at sensory deprivation focus on this one.

20 Shape of Honor

Idea: Well, this one started in 2018 but ‘finished’ in 2019. Still working on the epilogue. Lots of tweaks… If you are not familiar, this is my AU in which it explores how the Thrawn novel and Rebels show would be altered if Palpatine distrusted Thrawn from their first meeting and accused him of being a Chiss spy. Vaguely inspired by the film The Shape of Water.

Result: Well it's nearly a novel now, isn’t it. This was a great adventure in learning how to create compelling story arcs. I’m extremely satisfied with how it is shaping (lol) up.

21 Datura Stamonium

Idea: Thrawnbine ovi smut.

Result: Oops it has plot now, a whole backstory with Eli and such and so fourth. Will need further stories told…

22 Desert Entropy

Idea: Luke/Wedge modern AU shenanigans.

Result: Also pulled Nath/Wyl and the Rogue Squad/Alphabet Squad peeps into this. Set in Vegas, Luke and Wedge meet and have a cute little romance, but some legal troubles set them back (Palpatine, as always, is That Bitch™) Very happy ending!

23 The Great Eli and Thrawn Prank War

Idea: See Chapter 1: Mullet Thrawn

Result: This thing really grew up, and thanks to all the contributors for allowing me to join in! My contributions were: 7-Bombs Away! In which a bit of drama brews and Thrawn makes a paint bomb that forces him and Eli back into being roomates. 11-Tooka Troube 2: Electric Boogaloo in which Eli finds his quarters slowly filling up with Tooka plush toys, and then something huge goes off in supply. 17-The Bitch is Back In which who knew Thrawn could sing?!

24 Clipped Wings to Keep Us from Flying

Idea: Continuing the story line from Caged Like Prized Birds

Result: Dragging Eli and the OG Thrawn into this, seeing that their stories were left untold in the first work. Also Armitage and the clone are up to all sorts of cool things. Still a WIP, on the list to keep working on this year!

25 I’ll do what I can.

Idea: Some Ronan/Krennic feels post Treason

Result: A Ronan character study that I really needed to get out of my system and finally a stable alliance between Krennic and Thrawn!

26 Purple Heron

Idea: @punk--kenobi and I concocted some fun Kanan/Zeb/Hera smut featuring Lasat heat cycles.

Result: Ah this came out so cool, full of emotion and wonderful imagery. Massive kudos to @punk--kenobi for beta-ing my portion and contributing some of the best smut one can find!

27 Ninjago Angst Week 2019

Idea: Do some 1-shots for Ninjago Angst Week

Result: ow right in the feels. Each character got a highlight in their own ‘dark retelling of a canon or canon adjacent event’ chapter.

28 Vertigo

Idea: Thing’s don’t go right planetside for Eli, Pik, and Waffle in Treason.

Result: Big oof. I hope Eli can one day forgive me… I even put strain on the end game Thranto! Bittersweet ending and lots of angst.

29 More Than Just a Treat

Idea: What is Obi Wan up to in the desert…

Result: Aunt Beau and baby Luke baked him cookies obviously!

30 Datura Metel

Idea: Continuing the Datura cycle…

Result: Just how Eli ended up where he did in the first installation.

31 Here & Now

Idea: Some Thranto Fluff! For @jewelliffer

Result: A camping trip for shore leave! And a marriage proposal for extra sugar.

32 Monster Under the Bed

Idea: Benevolent Boogeyman Chiss

Result: Modern AU Thranto spooky sillies. Bit of an intense climax but they talk it out!

33 Haunted by Sentiment

Idea: Nath is in denial of being the Squad Dad for @glassprowlers

Result: Nath’s very bad no good oh so terrible day! It's very silly and I really like how it ended up, the title is way more serious than the story itself XD

34 Pulse

Idea: Werewolf AU Lavashipping

Result: Oops Kai is a werewolf! Good thing Cole is here to help him figure out how to press on.

35 Stories from Area 51

Idea: remember the raid Area 51 meme? I do! Gotta clap them alien cheeks!

Result: Oh no it got PLOTTY! Pretty much all of my favorite characters and ships cherry-picked and plopped down into a Men In Black style facility in the middle of the desert. I really have a thing for the desert huh…

36 Good Day

Idea: The “truth” behind the “Good day, Lieutenant Vanto” from Thrawn in Treason.

Result: Oh stars the FEELS! Thrawn is in deep water and he KNOWS IT! GAH!

37 Fur Ball

Idea: Chiss are mogwai/gremlins…

Result: Silly Thranto fluff. Thrass shows up too! Feeding them after midnight is actually a good idea here… Grow your own ideal man!

38 Came Back Haunted

Idea: A mission fic centered around the @peters-pumpkin-day prompts.

Result: Ice planet survival with Tarkin, Krennic, Galen, and Ronan.

39 Sewn Together

Idea: This drawing actually is what lead to the fic-

Result: A fairly unique reuniting of Thrawn and Eli after both return to the Ascendancy.

40 Spiked Heron

Idea: Oh no… Kanan gets himself in deep poodoo this time.

Result: Devaronians really like humans huh? The next chapter is half way written I swear it is coming soon!

41 A Colder Embrace

Idea: Thrawn/Purrgil/Ezra and Luke/Wampa for SW Rare Pairs.

Result: It's very cold on Hoth… and even colder in space.

42 Surround

Idea: Luke/Wedge for SW Rare Pairs

Result: Luke has to confront Wedge post ESB regarding what is, essentially, his deserting the Rebels.

43 What Happens Planetside…

Idea: Eli/Pik/Waffle for SW Rare Pairs

Result: heheh a scrumptious Eli sandwich! And surprise tentacles because, well, why not?

44 Hesperidium

Idea: Fluffy Kylux for the Kylux Secret Santa event

Result: Ah its so sweet you might get a cavity

45 Reanimator

Idea: Lovecraftian eldritch horror Thranto

Result: This is the sort of project that it takes 2 months to fine tune each chapter, so bear with me, but I can promise a wonderful, creepy ride is ahead!

46 Floral

Idea: Luke/Faro for SW Rare Pairs. Enjoy the Jedi lovin’, @myevilmouse

Result: Sex pollen and accidentally defecting from the Empire. Whoops!

47 The Harch

Idea: Bouncing off of THIS art by @mamidlo , we worked together to create this plot. Very much inspired by the Hammer Horror films, such as Dracula and Frankenstein.

Result: A fun and spooky romp of Kallus and Zeb getting trapped in a creepy castle featuring mind controlled drones and a species-obsessed Harch. This was my first time posting the entire story at once, too!

Wow, I can not believe how much has been written this year. Thank you all again for reading and kudos-ing and your amazing comments. I’d not be here without the support and love <3 Cheers to 2020 and much more fic ahead!

[dykeceit]

tw: discussion of incest

i usually try to stay away from commenting a lot on fandom drama and discourse but hooo boy have incest fetishists been pissing me off-

y'know romrem shippers didnt used to bother me that much, i thought eh most of them are kids and will grow out of it and have some reason they don't think roman and remus are "really brothers" (which they are). ive been there, i shipped thorki when i was like 15, and my excuse was that "well they're not really related" which of course is invalidating to people with family they aren't biologically related to. they're just as much family no matter what.

that being said, i don't condone sending hate to people. that being said, i think the way at least some remrom shippers are handling the hate or reasonable fucking criticism is downright absurd and disgusting. apparently, if people request you to make a new channel in your server to keep the romrem seperate from the rest bc uh Most People are made fucking uncomfortable or are even triggered by that (oh but thats right, talking about triggers makes you uncomfortable. surely as uncomfortable as those who actually get triggered, im sure. yknow, those who've for example experienced incestuous abuse. but of course your feelings matter more than theirs) then theyre being demanding and "coming at you". i dont know what exatcly was said by those people but i highly doubt it was overreacting. this isnt like sympathetic deceit for example where whether youre triggered by him depends on how you view him as a character. no, this is actual incest. roman and remus are actually brothers. but apparently youre the victim here.

its fucking ridiculous the extent of which these people paint themselves as martyrs of some kind, noble defenders of Free Speech... grow the fuck up. yknow ive been fine with these people existing as long as they do so in their own little incest fetishizing bubble and i have now blocked them so yeah, i guess technically that should be it, but goddammit i needed to rant about this, it's fucking ridiculous. you arent an awesome free speech champion, you just ship incest. and while thats disgusting, whatever, i cant change your mind, glorifying how you're being shunned by most of this fandom and just loving it and acting like everyone else is morally inferior to you just bc you Live And Let Ship.....no. stop. ship whatever i guess but you're not fucking jesus.

now, on the topic of romantization. ive seen remrom shippers argue you cant define that term and that It's Not Really Romantization Because Roman Feels Conflicted About His Feelings For Remus and just. no. what would make it Not Romantization is if you, the author, potrayed it as gross and wrong as it is, that you disapproved of it. and yet here you are, writing incestuous smut. here's a quick little tip. if you, the author, are into it, maybe thats a sign you're fucking romantizing it. Because romantization doesnt just mean potraying something as good, it can mean potraying something as bad but It's Hot Because It's Taboo. romantization happens with things that are bad, after all, like mental illnesses. they're not necessarily potrayed as Good but painting them as being in some way, desirable, there being something in them, that makes you a wiser person or whatever, but with the cost of being miserable i guess. now romantizing mental illnesses is a bit different obviously but the point is romantization doesnt equal This Is Normal And Good.

then there's the fact that....this fandom literally has 14 other 2 person ships just among the sides. 14 other ships that aren't canonically confirmed to be Platonic Only. and even more ships if you count poly ships! now, i personally used to ship loki with thor bc i wanted to ship him with Someone, and thor was who he interacted the most. that's obviously still wrong, but isn't really based on them being brothers. remrom however...if you choose that as your favourite ship uwu then...i think that's pretty fucking telling. but like.......yhink thomas maybe wanted to portray a sibling dynamic? because he hasnt? with the other characters? like here you have the One Confirmed Only Platonic relationship and you go ah yes that one, either bc of just being into incest or out of spite or smth.

now you may ask, what does this accomplish. just block them and move on. well, sometimes you got some Feelings. and you express them. free speech amiright, should apply to "antis" too right (i stg if they coin the term romremphobic i) and i dont expect this to change their minds, especially those who will just thrive off of this post and shape their whole identity around being hated for shipping incest i guess.

now when it comes to people who follow me...if you ship romrem, i...personally dont care all that much but i dont want to interact with you. yeah. idk this was a long rant im sorry

[pokimoko]

STEVEN UNIVERSE: THE MOVIE - Personal Commentary

I wrote this to send to a friend, but I decided I might as well post it on here. I did a large portion of this while I was watching the movie, but I did go back and improve on some parts after I was finished, so forgive the inconsistent tenses. I apologise for the length as well, which is a result of me getting completely carried away and analysing a lot of the movie (I bet my English teachers are cheering). Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy my personal thoughts on the Steven Universe movie. (Also, spoilers if you haven’t already watched it.)

- The opening....wow. Not only is it pretty but it's just so dramatic. It reminds me quite a bit of old fashioned Disney musicals (I’m guessing that was their intention). Even the layout of the credits are giving me that vibe. But especially the music. Very fairytale-esque.

- 16 year old Steven, yeah booiii! Now he’s only a few years younger than me. I do like his older voice and design. Bet Zach Callison is relieved that he doesn't have to pitch his voice up high anymore. And I personally really love the pan flag colour scheme of his new outfit. I wonder if they’ll keep it for the season(s) following the movie.

- Aww, the Diamonds are learning. Sort of. They’re maybe just a tad clingy, but that's still improvement. I really love how Steven Universe never makes the 'villians' completely evil, only misguided, and that everyone is capable of changing their ways. Such a great message. (Edit: Ooohh, I unintentionally called what I'd say is the moral of the movie. Noice.)

- Naaww, Steven and Connie are so cute. Steven's happy little grin after the kiss was just adorable.

- Oooh, I like the 'Here We Are in the Future' (Edit: 'Happily Ever After') song. It just shows how much they've all grown over the course of the series. And it’s a great way to recap the journeys of each of the original Crystal Gems to the audience.

- "PEW PEW" Yeesss. I love their handshake. And oh my god, he really is so tall compared to Amethyst now.

- Oh my god, they're reenacting the running sequence from the opening. Love me a parallel. Just shows how far they’ve all come.

-Okay, why do the 'bad' guys in musicals always get such cool songs? Spinel's song was so catchy. Now I'm super curious about her relation to Pink Diamond. Oh cool! A scythe. That's awesome.....AH! Okay, nevermind. Nooo.

- 'Losing your powers' angst. I love it (yes, I know, I'm terrible).

- Greg: "Holy shhhhhheee really got everybody" Me: 😏 I see what you did there.

- Steven: "I have no idea what's going on." Greg: "Well now you know how I feel most of the time." Greg is so relatable sometimes. Kindly stop being my spirit animal, sir.

- AHHH! They've all been reset. Craaappp! And I was just going on about growth and everything! But I'm excited to see what happens because I love angst, god damn it. It always helps to make the happy ending all the more satisfying. (And...admittedly, the amnesia narrative device has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I’ve always enjoyed how it allows you to so clearly see how a character has evolved over time and how much their experiences have defined their identity.)

- "Something is clearly wrong," Pearl sings happily and bug-eyed. Excellent and relatable. That's how I react to most things in life, honestly.

- "I could have lost all of my character development." Ha! Never subtle, are you Peridot? But also nooooo, not Peridot. Don't you dare touch her. She's grown so much and I love her dearly (and also Lapis' top notch dark humour. Perfect.)

- Sad song reprise is sad. I totally understand what Steven is feeling too. Things you’ve gotten so used to (hell, maybe even become dependent on for your emotional welbeing) can disappear so quickly that it can be quite a whiplash to have it gone, so it's completely normal to struggle to accept it, and to yearn for what you had not so long ago.

- Bismuth saying “We are the Crystal Gems” has watered my crops and cleared my skin. And I love her singing voice; the roughness in some parts suits her character so well.

- Rupphire Rupphire RUPPHIRE GAAAARRRNNNEEETTT, yiissss! Wow the fusion animation is really awesome. It's like a behind-the-scenes on how it works from their perspective. But I love how the two of them fusing together doesn't fix Garnet's memories or make her exactly how she was before losing them. Garnet isn't just an experience; she's also a product of her experiences.

- Lil' trumpet salute! Naww, Pearl, that's adorable.

- ....is Onion....immortal? He still looks exactly the same. 😟 I'm unnerved by that child and whatever power he had.

- Oooh, tap dancing. I love tap dancing! Even if Steven is wearing sandals while doing it. Oh boy, I love the friendship between Amethyst and Steven. It's always been one of my favourite things in the show. It's kind of like the sibling interaction I've always wished to have myself: supportive and wholesome. And I also love how their fusion shows that platonic and familial love is just as powerful as romantic love. Oh, YAY Amethyst is back! Like I said, friendship is a powerful thing.

- Oh my god, Steven and Greg are going to fuse. Ahhhh! Oh wow, it's basically Elvis with a six pack! Hehehe, so weird. But not bad either. And, oh wow, what a great song! Individuality is my kink.

- The ANGST is making me feel emotions. Steven looks so ragged, and the high pitched whining in his ears definitely added to that. And having felt that terrible myself a few times, I know how much it frigging sucks. And just like him I brushed other people's concerns off, so I'd be a hypocrite to tell him to take care of himself. (But I am a hypocrite. Take care of yourself, Steven!)

- Yep, here's the tragic backstory to make me sad about Spinel. Hit me where it hurts why don't you. Gosh, Pink Diamond really did some messed up things when she was younger (but thankfully she evolved from that and changed to become Steven). Leaving someone behind without giving them closure or even a reason would mess someone up for sure. You'd feel completely worthless. And unfortunately, being noticed for any reason⁠—good or bad⁠—is generally a way to cope with that feeling. Spinel is doing what she can to deal with what Pink did to her, and that unfortunately involves lashing out and hurting others.

- The 'True Kinda Love' song! Knew it'd turn up at one point. Knowing the context makes it so much better too. And hell yeah, Garnet is back!

- Blood? On this Christian Server? It's more likely than you think.

- “This is the story of my life.” Ahh! Steven's just a kid, and he's gone through so much. But, I gotta say, he is absolute proof that having a rough childhood and being a flawed person in the past (*cough* Pink Diamond *cough*) doesn't condemn you to being a wicked person forever. Anyone, regardless of their circumstances and experiences, can be a good person. Your early years don't define your identity or what will become of your future.

- Spinel: “When you change, you change for the better. When I change, I change for the worse. I used to be just not good, just not good enough for Pink. Now I'm not good at all!” Damn. That's powerful. Trauma can be such a difficult thing to overcome, and some people lose their way in their attempt to leave it behind. Sometimes, though, growing doesn't mean changing yourself and erasing the past; sometimes it means accepting the parts of your past that made you who you are now. Showing the importance of past experiences through the Crystal Gem's recovery of their identities is such a smart way of showing this concept to the audience. Such a great analogy. Now, let's hope Spinel can accept that though she has been changed as a result of her trauma, that doesn't make her ‘bad’ or unworthy of love (because that’s just not true!)

- “There's no such thing as happily ever after”. Sad but true. And also turning the whole Disney vibe the movie began with in on its head. Very smart.

- Steven: “I'll always have more work to do”. Then, Spinel: “I've got work to do. Friendship isn't going to be easy for me. I'm gonna have to work at it”. Exactly. That's how it is. ‘Happily ever after’ is a stagnant concept, and staying the same person for the rest of your life isn't healthy. And deciding to work towards improving yourself can sometimes be the hardest step to take when it comes to overcoming trauma. But change can be good; you should always keep working on improving yourself, no matter how comfortable you are with who you are and where you're at. Evolution is a part of living.

- Ooooh, White Diamond got sassy. She even has the hand gestures down. She’s making up for all the years she spent T-posing.Good for her.

- Oh my gosh, the focus on the Diamond's hands! Instead of destroying, their holding a hand out in a gesture of friendship. Seriously, that's frigging growth. That's such a cool parallel too. Rebecca Sugar and her crew are just brilliant.

- I'm so glad the Diamonds got someone to love and help them through their grief, and Spinel got someone to love her unconditionally, regardless of the flaws she thinks she has. They all got someone to help them heal. That’s wonderful.

- “I can make a change.” 👏Yes👏you👏can! That's your superpower.

Damn, that was so wonderful! I've always loved the message of personal growth, and the movie did it so well. In my opinion, Steven Universe has always been great at analogies to explain real life things (ie. Malachite being a metaphor for toxic relationships) so I really like how they used to amnesia narrative device to show not only how much someone can change and grow over time, but also to show it's our experiences, good and bad, that shape us as a person. Lots of people have traumatic experiences in their life that can inadvertantly shape a lot of their personality, and it can be hard to leave that behind, especially if so much of your identity is dependent on those experiences. Sometimes they can lead us to becoming ‘bad’ people, but they can also help make us good people too. Just look at Steven! He was able to accept his past traumas and use them so as to help others heal their own. 

Trauma isn't something you can erase without erasing a large part of your identity. It can be tough to live with, nonetheless. Sometimes, like Spinel, you just need a helping hand in accepting the scars life has given you; to help you grow beyond it and maybe even eventually be able to help others who are going/have gone through similar experiences.

And there's no shame in trying to be better and failing over and over again. At least you are trying. Because trying to be good against all odds, against the whole world doing its best to destroy you, shows just how strong you really are.

-----------

Sorry for getting flowery (and maybe just a tad projective). As you can see I just really like the moral of the movie, as well as pretty much every other aspect. I'm sure there's a lot of little intricacies I missed, but this is what I took from my first viewing of it. And these are just my opinions; you might have got a whole different vibe from the movie. You are completely welcome to add you own thoughts and improve upon mine (because I am by no means an expert).

So, to summarise my own thoughts on the movie, I’m just going to say: Personal growth for the win!

[aroworlds]

Aro-Spec Artist Profile: Alex

Today I have the delight of introducing Alex, better known to aro-spec Tumblr as @arotaro and @mutant-jojos!

Alex is a bisexual, half-Puerto Rican multi-disciplinary aromantic artist and creative with severe ADHD. You’ll find her prolific fanworks on AO3 as EmeraldTrash666, writing primarily for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fandom. Her bold, colourful art for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fullmetal Alchemist, Hetalia, Pokemon and Vocaloid fandoms is also available on Redbubble under the name StellaHagane.

She writes, she creates digital art and she dabbles in music, sewing and fashion design, single-handedly proving that there’s no such thing as too much creative awesome for any one aromantic!

With us Alex talks about finding the word aro, the power of fandom and creative fanworks, her love of aro Jotaro, the challenges of creating with ADHD, the struggles of being an aro gen writer in fandom and the importance of expressing our aro headcanons. Everything she says is absolutely on point, so please let’s give her all our love, encouragement, gratitude, kudos and follows for taking the time to explore what it is to be aromantic and creative.

Can you share with us your story in being aro-spec?

I guess in some ways my “story” starts out pretty typical. Got older, kept waiting for my First Crush™, never got it, started worrying and trying to force myself to develop crushes. I actually was in a relationship with another girl on a forum I was part of as a teenager, but eventually I realized that I didn’t really like her romantically, and the relationship started to become really unpleasant for me. I eventually felt so miserable that I didn’t even want to talk at her at all, even though we were close friends, but I didn’t want to break up with her - partly because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, partly because we were everyone’s “OTP” and I didn’t want my friends to hate me for ruining that. But eventually I did break up with her, and I’m happy to say she took it with grace and we’re still close friends today! (She’s ace and a great writer/artist herself, too!)

I was part of a very nice LGBTQ+ group as a teenager, but I could never figure out my identity. I felt really ashamed and alone. Whenever I brought up how messed up I felt because I’d never had a crush on anyone, everyone was like, “Oh, sounds like you must be asexual!”, but I knew I wasn’t, and that was the worst part. Even though I knew aromanticism was a thing, nobody ever talked about it. It was only ever in the context of aroaces, so I didn’t know I was aro. I thought I must have had some sort of mental illness or something, but certainly not a legitimate orientation, nothing to be proud of like everyone else.

During that time, I found myself connecting on a deep emotional level to characters like Alphonse Elric, Fujiwara no Sai, the X-Men in general (although I’ve been an X-Men fan since I was literally a baby), basically anyone who was somehow “different” from the rest of humanity, even though I never understood why, since I was a fairly privileged kid who had never experienced much bullying or anything. Weirdly enough, it was Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure that helped me realize I was aro and come to terms with it; I saw an interview with Hirohiko Araki, the author of JJBA, where he was asked what type of girls Jotaro Kujo likes, and replied that he didn’t think Jotaro liked girls. The obvious interpretation would be that Jotaro’s gay, but somehow, one way or another, I decided to go with the idea that Jotaro’s aromantic. Jotaro also happened to be a character I really related to for reasons I couldn’t quite articulate, so around the time I was 18 I put two and two together and was like ... oh shit…

Please click keep reading to continue Alex’s story!

Can you share with us the story behind your creativity?

I’ve always been weird in the way I’m very creative, but tend to kinda bounce around from hobby to hobby. Other people draw, or write, or sing, while I draw for a month, and then write for a month and sew for a week and play video games for a week, and then I draw some more, and then I try out something completely new, and then I write again. I think it must be an ADHD thing, idk. In any case, I’ve just always been really passionate about making stuff, whatever that stuff happens to be.

I’ve also always been very much fandom-oriented. Ever since I was a toddler, I used to dictate fanfiction to my mom (back then it usually involved Winnie the Pooh, the Powerpuff Girls, Godzilla, and my dog). I mostly draw fanart. I find that I’m not really capable of writing original stories, but I’m great at getting fanfics in character, and I love writing them. I love taking stories I already love and reinterpreting them, seeing what it would be like if the characters were put into different situations, etc.

Because of my ADHD, I really struggle with actually finishing things. I try really really hard, I really do, and I’ve been trying to push myself even harder these past few years. I’ve made progress, but it’s still extremely difficult, so I’m very sorry for all the projects I’ve abandoned over the years. Sorry I still haven’t finished the fic that was supposed to be done in early March. I’m trying, really. I promise I’m working on the next chapter of BLaD, too.

Are there any particular ways your aro-spec experience is expressed in your art?

Of course, pretty much everything I write is gen. Even if I include romantic relationships in my fics, I never write about romance, just stories which also happen to include some characters who might be dating someone. And obviously I always write Jotaro as aro! That’s really important to me. No matter which AU I’m writing, he’s always aro. (And autistic, but that’s off topic.)

I’m also not really into shipping because of my romance repulsion, but I ship Joseph Joestar and Caesar Zeppeli. The thing is … I’ve always viewed it as a unique relationship, sort of difficult to define as being strictly romantic or platonic or sexual, just kind of their own thing that defies words. That’s how I’ve always written it. I had the sudden realization recently that this strange view on the only ship I really actually like (at the moment, anyway) is probably due to my being aro, lmao.

What challenges do you face as an aro-spec artist?

People don’t read gen fics, and people aren’t interested in aro stories. That’s just the way it is. I do have some dedicated readers, whom I love deeply, but in general… I could post something with a deep plot, something funny and dramatic and witty and touching, something I poured my heart and soul into for months, and it’ll get very few hits/comments/kudos, while someone else could post the same generic 2,000-word romance fic everyone’s seen a dozen times over, with no editing or anything, and get twice the amount of traffic my fics do in half the time. It’s really crushing.

How do you connect to the aro-spec and a-spec communities as an aro-spec person?

I dunno… The aro community feels so small. Online, I have a small circle of aro mutuals who all kind of vent collectively, and I’m part of Arocalypse and a few aro/aspec Discord servers, but I still feel like there isn’t really much of a larger community to be part of in the same way that there is for other orientations. Offline, I’ve never met another aro, or even anyone who actually knows what aromanticism is prior to me explaining it to them.

I also don’t feel like there’s a very unified “aspec community”. As an allo aro, I feel very rejected by the ace community - not to say that I feel like I should be part of the ace community, since I’m not ace, but I feel like they throw aros under the bus a lot. I mean, we’ve all seen the “asexuals can feel love, just like anybody else! … oh, except for aroaces, I guess. But the rest of us are normal, so you should accept us!” rhetoric. Both within and outside the aspec communities, aros are rarely treated with the same priority as aces, even though we’re arguably in a much more difficult position than your average allo ace.

That being said, I’m glad there is an aro community at all. I don’t know where I’d be now if I were still questioning. Probably not in a very good place.

How do you connect to your creative community as an aro-spec person?

As I mentioned, there’s a general lack of interest in gen fics or sympathy for romance-repulsed people in general. It’s really difficult being romance repulsed in fandom spaces, because nobody cares about anything other than ships. There are very few gen fics, and even less that are a decent length, not abandoned, or cater to my specific interests, so I have to write my own. I don’t often have anything good to read; most of the big fics, the ones with cool plots and long word counts and ongoing updates, are ship fics. If I’m lucky, maybe two gen fics will be posted in one week, and maybe one of them will be longer than a few thousand words. Maybe one might even have my favorite characters. But usually genfics are few and far between, and kind of random in terms of what you’ll get. Sometimes I get so bored that I read ship fics anyway, and then I always wind up feeling really awful afterwards.

I’ve written, over the course of the past two years alone, over 20 gen fics. But whenever I vent that sometimes I’d like to actually get to read something, I always get someone telling me, “Well if you want gen fics, write some yourself! You have to make the change! You can’t demand people write stuff for you!” And of course, at the same time it’s totally acceptable to request ship fics from your favorite author, and if you complain that there aren’t enough fics for your rarepair, it’s seen as relatable and totally valid.

Fandom is just … really, really amatonormative, tbh. I hate it. I’m trying to make a difference (I did organize Gen Jojo Week along with my friend Rachel last year, and hopefully will again this year), but there’s only so much I can do.

How can the aro-spec community best help you as a creative?

Aside from reblogging my art and promoting my fics? Talk about stuff. Talk about aro stuff in fandom. Seriously! I know it seems obvious that aro people would like aro headcanons and gen fics and all that, but we need to talk about them more. Nobody outside the community gives enough of a shit about us to have aro headcanons, so let’s get them popular. Talk about your favorite aro headcanons. Talk about your favorite gen fics. Talk about how such-and-such character is totally aro; talk about how excited you are to see aro characters in fics. My dream is for aro headcanons to become just as common and popular as any other type of headcanon.

Can you share with us something about your current project?

This is old news to most of the people who already know me, but my current big project that I’ve been working on for several years now is Between Life and Death, a drama/horror/supernatural JJBA fic.

(WARNING: PHANTOM BLOOD AND STARDUST CRUSADERS SPOILERS BELOW.)

The plot of the fic is that Dio wins at the end of Stardust Crusaders, and after realizing that he has no hobbies other than harassing the Joestars, he decides to bring Jonathan back by sticking his head (which… we’ll just assume Dio preserved for plot purposes) onto Jotaro’s body. Obviously, Jonathan is NOT happy with this arrangement, but it also turns out that Jotaro’s still alive, just not in control of his body. He can still use his stand, so he essentially uses Star Platinum as a sort of proxy for interacting with the environment around him, even though he only comes out when Jonathan’s alone since he doesn’t want Dio to know he’s alive.

Basically, it’s the story of a depressed vampire and a traumatized ghost. It’s a very introspective fic; most of the story consists of conflicts between Dio and Jonathan, and Jonathan and Jotaro struggling to come to terms with their new existences - Jonathan being unable to reconcile vampirism with his personal morals, and Jotaro having one hell of an identity crisis while also mourning the deaths of his friends and family. The plot is picking up, though, and there is an end goal in mind, as well as an eventual sequel!

As for where the story-in-progress is at right now … well, the next “stage” of the plot is hamon training for Kakyoin and Avdol, which will be fun. This chapter also includes several dream sequences, including an extended appearance by Mary Joestar (Jonathan’s mom), and a very serious and dark scene which I almost ruined by having dream!Will Zeppeli refer to Jonathan as his padawan. Yeah.

Have you any forthcoming works we should look forward to?

As mentioned, I’m working on chapter 9 of Between Life and Death! And working on and off on some stuff for the mutants AU. Most recently, on a whim I rewrote the lyrics to Handbeat Clocktower by MOTHY to be about Jonathan Joestar. Somehow this went far enough that I’m making an actual UTAU rendition of this “parody”, and hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next few weeks. I’m really having fun with it and I hope people like it!

[locksmithoflove]

Humans Fandom Meetup! (a day late)

Hi there! I'm Jules, I'm 27, I'm Canadian, and as you can see by this post's timestamp, I'm late to everything!

A brief history of my obsession with these cute robots and their human pals: I caught the AMC premiere of Humans back in 2015. My dad and I are huge geeks so we decided to check it out, and, well... it was love at first episode. Since then my passion for the show has waxed and waned, but right now, I don't see it waning any time soon.

But why? If I had to give one reason I love this show so incredibly much, it would be that it's always done things a little differently. Sci fi is awesome and I love the themes the genre explores, but I feel like it often focuses too much on head and not enough on heart. Humans is different. It's a show very much about admirable characters trying their best, trying to love each other and positively affect the world around them.

Which is not to say, at all, that the show neglects the more cerebral side of things. Many of my favourite moments are philosophical discussions—on morality, humanity, activism, emotion. These discussions, though, usually further character arcs and relationships. Quiet moments like these are really the foundation of the show, and what makes me keep coming back to it. Though this season is a bit... “wilder”, let's say, than the past two, I've still never seen a sci fi show that felt so down to earth.

Favourite characters: Ahh, this is where I stop sounding like I'm writing an essay and start fangirling instead. Look, I dearly love like 90% of the cast. Seriously. I have 10+ children and they are all Humans characters. But if I had to pick, if I HAD to, then I'd go with Mia and Laura. They've been it for me since the first season, and look at them now. Look at these freakin’ heroines now.

If I start naming honourable mentions, we'll be here all night, but I will say that I think Niska is the best-drawn character of the entire series. Her arc. Her ARC!

OTP: Probably not too surprising given my answer above—I'm Miaura trash. Again, they've had me since probably like 1x07, and that goodbye hug in the first finale... I could hardly believe it when I first saw it. It was just. It was A Lot. They're A Lot.

But I can't not mention Nistrid (talentedbrilliantincredible.gif), and really, all the popular fandom pairings are precious.

Platonic OTP/OT6(?): The Elster siblings make me so emotional and I would give anything to see them, like, all sit down and play a board game or something. Just be at peace together, having fun and smiling and doing their ridiculously cute forehead-bump-thing (this is Fred-and-Karen-inclusive, by the way).

What I think of the fandom: Look, I've been stalking y'all for a long time, and man, I really gotta start joining in the fun, because this fandom is beautiful. Everyone's so passionate yet simultaneously nice and respectful of each other?? When does that ever happen! It's witchcraft I tells ya!

So here's my commitment to officially coming back to Tumblr for you guys. I'm going to start reblogging things and hopefully creating my own posts, writing fic/meta, and even making fanvids. Because dammit, this show is worth it! Feel free to come chat with me—especially about Miaura. I'm so down to talk about those two goobers, you have no idea. If you're on the Humans Discord server, I'm swearingtweetybird, DO @ me.