#dandys world root problem au

[fayblox]

the sillies . I'll b following these designs in root problem au yahoo

These redesigns / tweaked designs are all mostly traced from the images on the info cards in game and full icon arts! all of these can be found here -> weeeeeeee

[essayofthoughts]

👀

So like. I don't know if I'd ever write the Syldor Isn't A Dick AU even though I've got several pages of notes at this point but I think it would be really interesting? A world where the twins were raised by a father who loved them and who may well have remained in contact with their mother, who stayed longer in Syngorn because even if their classmates were awful they had support and care. A world where they were told when their mother died, and mourned her, and had support in mourning her.

It'd drastically change who the twins are as people, not in a "whole new person" way, but very much a "Turning a stone in the light" way. Without the negative pressures of Syldor they'd still be affected by Syngorn, but it likely wouldn't be as severe. They'd have a solid grounding in themselves and be more confident. Hells, Syldor might have told them that Syngorn could go to the Feywild!

I do still see them leaving - after all, Syldor isn't a dick, but that doesn't mean that Syngorn is all fine and dandy. I imagine there's still a lot of social pressure, it's just that Syldor's home, and perhaps even travelling with Syldor for work (which might enable Vex to still get Trinket) become a haven from that. But, say, when Syldor is considering marriage to Devana, there would absolutely be elves commenting on him finally making a good marriage and perhaps producing some proper children - and I think that might prompt the twins to leave. Sick of dealing with that, sick of their father having to shield them and support them despite that, knowing that it hurts their father to see those things said about them - so they remove themselves from it all.

But they'd be much better prepared - better trained, better established, better connected. I think it'd drastically change how they meet the others, and things like interactions with Percy - Vax would probably still hate Percy for his posh airs, at least until Percy proves trustworthy, but also like... Vex wouldn't need his affirmation so much? As I've said before I think Percy and Vex's friendship would end up much more rooted in shared interests and personal connection and jokes, because Percy's support wouldn't be as overwhelmingly significant as in canon - it'd still mean plenty and mark him as good and trustworthy to Vex, but when she's had support and affirmation as she didn't in canon, I think it'd be less of a huge deal to her.

But anyway. Yeah. I think a world where Syldor isn't a dick has a lot of potential.

The problem is that

1. I have no idea what I'd write for it and,

2. Uh... a huge quantity of fandom is set very firmly on "Syldor is only and completely a dick"?

And I get it, he's a shitty dad, but it is also a case of ideas he had ingrained in him from his culture, of having to face consequences he wasn't expecting - and he canonically does get better! He and Vex do reconcile! (Probably as a result of other consequences he wasn't expecting - he knew he'd outlive the twins, but I imagine he thought he'd have more time to perhaps reconcile with Vax.)

But a huge amount of fandom would probably, if anything, backlash to this idea, because they want Syldor to be awful. They want that clear delineation. They don't want the idea that he could even reconcile with Vex and try to redeem himself as he does in canon, so I struggle to think they'd be happy with an AU where Syldor is Doing His Best. Not always succeeding - but trying. Probably still a bit stiff and awkward and elvish, but who loves the twins nonetheless and wants them to be and do well.

That's messy. And for all the many good things fandom is, it is often very childish when it comes to dealing with genuinely complicated, messy relationships.

Send me a “👀” and I’ll ramble about an au I have but don’t know if I’ll ever get to writing it

[m58]

six by Peter Dent

ESTABLISHING ROOTS

I thought I’d done for the day – obviously a mistake – because I was called for and quizzed till I was near faint. There was a void now in our previous happy home – impostors being an example of syndromes too difficult to eradicate and which can be passed from hand to hand like a baton. If I knew any of the answers it was by accident. Was I known to the au- thorities; was I fundamental to any of a range of proscribed parties; had I attempted on occasions to deliberately misread the accepted ciphers? I wanted to sleep – that I did know. My name must have come up on their ‘Attend to Next’ list – I had fallen into a trap of their making. The world wasn’t as I was. The unadopted road and those who travel it create a problem. Quite why this should be I have no idea. I may come to investigate it on completion of my correction to the theory that germs are totally responsible for a given disease. Isn’t there always something hairy waiting around the corner?

HANG ONTO YOUR IDEAS

Insiders were keen to experiment in areas forbidden to them. There were quite enough allusions and crooked miles to be travelled before then I thought. Getting a provenance for devices these days gets progressively more painful – some participants in the race to get somewhere are thought to be using underhand practices. I want to get off the train soon as I can and get the kind of air I breathed as a young man. The arts have made huge strides since then and the ground has been so worn down you need to walk outside the white lines if you want to be accepted. We used to drive the har- vester when nobody was looking. We cut a terrific swathe.

PREMATURE DISCLOSURE

Coming in to land in a cross-wind no-one can say grace with any conviction.    I procured copies of Aviation Hazards  and dished them out to passengers and crew alike.     As you can imagine they were no more than a dozen pages in when we touched down!    An irresponsible thing to do some might argue but I really hope it took their minds off it.    Next time I’ll try some other ploy!    Remember: for any airport getting fog-bound there’ll be extra motivation for opticians and the rest will have more time to flush out their varifocals.    It all comes down to two questions: what is your gut feeling and how on earth will the obituary read in society columns?    I hear sighs of disenchantment.    I hear the slap of high fives

SEASONAL CHARGE

Sooty shearwaters sing as if they’re thinking about something but can’t quite explain what – they fumble about like an old person searching his pockets fruitlessly.   Amongst much else my day is not much clearer.    Unreality calls says John – which is as revealing as it simultaneously denies it.    At certain times and in certain conditions something inside lights up with a mind of its own.    Autumn and Winter are done with; we’re a week or two over the official worst.    I’m not as yet inspired to sing about good times ahead but something in what I say seems to implicate love and a healthy dose of sand and sun I can start working on.    Some birds rehash melodies from the past and trust they’ll get an audience – do my pocket bulge?

SNUG

I’ll invigorate the present if you do the past – two ends for anything you find on the shelves.    Breweries exist to play a part but only a part.   I exist at a point midway between things known and things unknown.   The ferry flew colours not so easy to make out.    Conditions better described as ‘wanting’.   ‘Half-light’ could be a friendlier way to put it? If only one could state – in the very moment of living it –   quite how it came to be and which in a string of theories sufficed to contain it.    As it is one’s likelier to explode in the process than serve anyone well.    Scales tilt according to one or more ‘extra’ factors.    These may have played a part in my shifting from EPA to Skippers Fine and Dandy. Both satisfy equations I’m used to but they refuse to mix.

THE HOLIEST OF HANGOUTS

Being a force for good is a hard act to put into practice – by 4 a.m. you begin to flag. There is only so much emphasis you can distribute across 16 lines of text. When she thinks of me it’s only to check on my whereabouts and what I’m up to. If I tell myself or the man at the bus stop that running up unpay- able bills can be a thing of the past he’ll only ask what’s the catch. Being sensitive and more often than not insufferable I go the extra yard not to exaggerate my good points. These days awards are so few in number and mean so little to the av- erage punter I keep the planchette tarot cards and tumblers well away from the table we usually sit around and slip effort- lessly from good English into ‘pure gutter’ and doom-telling. It’s taken years but I feel she’s now better at topping people up? Past dawn the subject turns to ‘exploratory touch’ inart- iculate thrashings of Determinism and bellowing for the key! Making it (come what may) leads only to breaking your bank.

[ask-the-apocalypse-kids]

Don’t sleep

Summary: An unknown epidemic breaks out across the world that causes anyone to die if they fall asleep. Survivors must find out what is the cause of this epidemic and stay awake for as long as possible. But some can not keep their eyes open.

A/N: This is an AU from the podcast “The edge of sleep” by QCODE and Wood Elf, narrated by Mark Fischbach. I started listening to this podcast and I decided to write an au about it. If you want to listen to the podcast yourself, you can find it on apple podcasts, or anywhere else you can listen to podcasts. It’s free to listen too and it makes a new episode every Tuesday.

Warnings: Cursing, mentions of drugs

Chapter 1

Aasim looked around as he walked through what looked like an ocean. The heaviness of the ocean water pressed on his ears, making it hard to hear. He walked through a small patch of seaweed until he was in a large opening. Looking up, Aasim spotted a large whale floating around above his head. It was glowing slightly. Seaweed was hanging from its mouth, swaying around as it swam through the water. Suddenly it paused its swimming and looked down at Aasim.

“What have you brought me?” The whale crooned loudly. Despite the heaviness against Aasim’s ears, the whales voice sounded clear, as if it were speaking right in front of him. “N-Nothing.” Aasim stammered as he looked up at the large beast. The whale looked at him more intently with wide white eyes. “Check your pockets.” The whale spoke.

Aasim reached into his coat pockets. He pulled out a bottle of sleeping pills. Popping open the bottle, Aasim took a handful of pills and gave them to the whale. The whale sucked up the pills into its large mouth. The glow around the whale grew brighter as it took the pills. Once all the pills were gone, it looked back at him. “I have a message for you.” The whale whispered to him.

“What is it?” Aasim mumbled, looking up into the whale’s large eyes. The whale paused for a moment before swimming really close to Aasim. The tip of its nose was just inches away from his face. The whale’s were wider than before. “Beware the elephant.” The whale whispered to Aasim. His words seemed to echo through the water and inside of Aasim’s head. He watched as the whale started to swim away. “Bring me something better next time.” The whale called as it swam away. The whale’s word continued to echo in Aasim’s head. But among the echoes, he could hear someone calling out to him.

“Aasim? Aasim? Aasim!” Aasim sat up straight from his desk, his head was spinning in a tired daze. Looking back, he saw his co-worker, Louis moving away from the copier. “You okay? You were pouring your pills all over your desk.” Louis asked as he moved back to his desk. “What? No I wasn’t.” Aasim yawned as he sat up. “Yes you did. Look.” Louis told him, pointing to his desk.

Aasim looked at his desk. Blue pills were scattered across his keyboard and desk. The empty pill bottle was in his hand. “Woah.” He huffed as he started to pick up the spilt pills. “I’m sorry, I just had this weird ass dream.” Aasim mumbled as he picked up the pills. “I could tell. You were mumbling weird things to yourself and throwing your pills everywhere.” Louis chuckled as he picked up some stray pills from his own desk and handing them to Aasim. “Thanks.” Aasim hummed as he took the pills and placed them in the bottle.

“No problem. You want anything from the machine?” Louis asked him as he stood up from his chair. “Uh yeah, a ginger ale sounds good.” Aasim hummed with a nod. “Cool, be back in a bit.” Louis nodded and walked off. Aasim and Louis worked the night shift at a technical building. All they had to do was to watch security cameras and do a bit of paperwork, simple. They had a lot of free time throughout the night, so they would talk about pretty much anything. Books, sports, science, anything that really came to their minds.

Aasim turned around in his spinning chair when Louis came back into the room. “Sorry man, no ginger ale tonight. Got you some root beer though.” Louis hummed as he placed the brown can on Aasim’s desk. “I don’t like root beer though.” Aasim sighed before starting to root around in his pocket for some change. “It’s alright, that’s not all I got you.” Louis told him before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small bag of Doritos and tossing them to him. Aasim smiled as he caught the bag in his hand and opened it. “Thanks man.” He smiled. “Happy Fourth of July.” Louis grinned before taking a swig of his root beer.

Aasim cracked open his root beer and popped open his bottle of sleeping pills. He figured maybe he’d take a few and take a little nap. He could feel Louis watching him as he popped the pills into his mouth and drank the root beer. “Have you started taking more of those than usual?” Louis questioned him. Aasim looked at his friend with a raised brow. “Yeah, why you ask?” He hummed after he swallowed the pills. “It can be dangerous taking too many of those pills. Take one too many and you might just fall asleep and never wake up.” Louis told him. Aasim sighed and looked down at his bottle. “I know. It’s just been hard trying to sleep again ever since…” Aasim trailed off, his heart aching a little.

“Ever since Mitch left you?” Louis finished his sentence. Aasim nodded slowly and sighed. Louis was quiet for a moment before speaking up. “Here, give me your phone.” Louis asked, holding out his hand to him. “What, why?” Aasim asked, looking over at him. “I’m gonna sign you up for a dating website.” Louis told him. “What? No, I don’t think I’m ready for that.” Aasim told him detestingly. “Come on, it’ll be easy. All you have to do is put your name, a picture of yourself, and brief description like, ‘hi I’m Aasim. I’m 23 and I’m weird as hell.’ Then swipe right, swipe right, swipe right. Simple.” Louis told him. “I met and Abigail on a dating website.” He hummed, crossing his arms over his chest. “You and Abigail broke up three years ago.” Aasim told him, raising a brow at him. “I know, but it worked.” Louis told him, sitting up in his chair. “Come on, I’ll sign you up for just one website.” Louis asked him.

Aasim sighed and tossed James his phone. “Alright fine, but just one website.” Aasim told him before taking another swig of his root beer. Louis was about to open the website when he spotted something on one of the security cameras. “Hey Sim, check this out.” Louis called over to him. Aasim moved his chair over to Louis’s desk and looked at the screen. There was a lone van parked in the large empty parking lot. “Might be some teenagers. Probably trying to set off fireworks.” Louis hummed before standing up from his chair. “I can take care of it, be right back.” Louis told him before walking out of the room.

Aasim nodded quietly as he left and moved back to his own desk. Aasim reached over and fiddled with a small radio that sat on his desk until he got to a station that he wanted to listen too. Aasim leaned back in his chair with a content sigh, his eyes closing slowly as he listened to the tunes. But suddenly the sound of a ringing phone made Aasim sit up. Looking over at Louis’s desk, he spotted his phone ringing. Louis must have left it behind when he left the room. Scooting over, Aasim picked up his phone. When he read the name, his heart dropped in his chest. It was Mitch. Swallowing the large lump in his throat, Aasim took a breath and answered the phone.

“Hello?” Aasim said into the phone. It was quiet on the other end for a moment before an oh so familiar voice spoke. “Hey.” Mitch’s gruff voice sounded back. It sounded like he hadn’t slept in a while. “Hey. How are things with you?” Aasim asked, trying to sound at least a little happy to talk to Mitch. “I’m good, I’m good. Work has just been making me lose sleep lately.” Mitch responded with a small yawn in his voice. “I know how that feels.” Aasim sighed quietly, biting his tongue a bit. Mitch was quiet for a moment before saying something that made Aasim’s heart flip in his chest.

“I miss you…” Mitch mumbled into the phone. Aasim couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Mitch actually missed him? Aasim found himself speaking before he could think. “I miss you too.” He whispered. “Really?” Mitch asked, surprise evident in his voice. “Yes, god yes.” Aasim told him, he could feel himself starting to get emotional. “Wow..” Mitch whispered quietly. “L-Look, let me just cut to the chase.” Mitch interjected, stammering a bit with his words. “I called you to apologize for never calling you or checking up on you to see if you were okay. I thought it would be easier if I distanced myself from you.” Mitch explained.

Aasim frowned deeply at his words. “So that’s why you ghosted me?” Aasim whispered into the phone. “What?” Mitch spoke quietly. “Is that why you ignored all my texts and calls for the past three weeks?” Aasim added, his voice rising in volume. “Look, I just needed some space to think about things.” Mitch told him. “So what? We were dating for two years, everything was just fine and dandy, then you text me one day saying you need time for yourself?” Aasim spat into the phone, his anger and sadness becoming apparent in his voice. “I had to do was right for me.” Mitch told him a bit louder than he wanted to sound, making Aasim go silent.

“So why are you calling me now?” Aasim whispered after a few moments of silence. “Because I care about you and your well-being, Sim.” Mitch told him. “And I’m concerned.” He added. “You’re concerned about me?” Aasim whispered distastefully into the phone. “Yes, of course.” Mitch told him. Aasim sighed as he moved in his chair over to the printer to grab something. “Well, I appreciate your concern but I’m fine. I’ve had this condition my whole life and it’s nothing that you need to worry about.” Aasim told him as he moved back to his desk. “I know it was hard, you having to deal with me and my problems. But you don’t have to deal with it anymore, I can take care of myself just fine.” Aasim sighed. “Aasim, none of that stuff bothered me at all. I mean yeah, it sucked that we couldn’t go to the movies, or binge watch Netflix or Tv. But I could live with all that.” Mitch said quietly into the phone. Aasim’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Well then what was the problem?” He asked.

Mitch was quiet for a moment. “We love each other, right? Isn’t that worth trying to work things out?” Aasim added quietly. Mitch was still silent before he let out a quiet sigh. “Maybe this was a mistake.. I’m sorry.” Mitch whispered into the phone. Aasim could feel his heart starting to ache again. “I feel like I’m just stirring things up between us.” Mitch added. “Mitch, just hang on.” Aasim told him as he leaned forward in his chair. “I just want to understand. I think I deserve that.” Aasim told him. “You do. You really do.” Mitch sighed. “Shit okay..” He huffed. “Take your time.” Aasim told him quietly, leaning back in his chair. “At the end of the day… I didn’t feel safe.” Mitch whispered into the phone.

Aasim was surprised at his words. Of all the things he expected him to say, that was not one of them. “Okay..” He whispered, surprise a bit evident in his voice. “Every night, I couldn’t sleep. I had kept my carving knife in the bedside table beside me.” Mitch explained to him. “Jesus Christ..” Aasim whispered in disbelief. “It was getting weird by the end, Aasim.” Mitch whispered to him. “I didn’t know what to expect.” Aasim was quiet as he looked up at the ceiling of his office. “I can’t believe I have to say this. But you do know that I would never dream of hurting you. Not in a thousand years.” Aasim told him truthfully. Mitch’s voice was a bit shaky as he spoke. “I know that’s what you believe.” He told him. Aasim wanted to say something but the sound of a car honking made him pause.

“Shit, that’s Marty. I gotta go.” Mitch told him. “Mitch, wait. Did I do something to you? I need to know!” Aasim begged him. “Did something happen when I was asleep?” Aasim asked him desperately. Another car honk sounded on the phone. “Listen, I have to to go.” Mitch told him, Aasim could hear the sound of him getting up. “Please hold on!” Aasim begged him, tears pricking at the edges of his eyes. “I’m going to Marlon’s party. If you get out in time, come find me there and we can talk then.” Mitch told him as he grabbed his keys. “Mitch? Mitch!” Aasim called into the phone, but no one answered on the other end. Mitch had hung up on him.

Aasim threw his phone onto his desk with a frustrated cry. He crossed his arms over his chest as tears streamed down his face. Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching the door. Quickly wiping the tears out of his eyes, he turned around as Louis opened the door. “Hey, can you come down to the parking lot with me? The van is really sketchy.” Louis explained to him. “What do you mean sketchy?” Aasim asked him as he stood up from his chair. “Just come on.” Louis told him before walking out of the room. Aasim huffed quietly before following him outside.

Walking out to the parking lot, Aasim immediately spotted the van at the edge of the parking lot. From where they were standing by the door, they both could hear shitty pop music blasting from the van. “What the hell?” Aasim mumbled as they walked up to the van. Louis pulled out his phone and snapped a photo of the license plate before walking up and knocking on the passenger window. “Hello? Dexter Tech lab security. Hello?” Louis called through the window. A few seconds later the blacked out window rolled down slowly. A cloud of smoke poured out of the van and directly into their faces. Aasim coughed heavily and tried to fan away the smoke. He recognized the smell. Marijuana.

When the smoke cleared, the two could see an older looking man was sat in the driver’s seat, a smug grin on his face. “Evening boys.” The man called over the loud music that was still blasting from the radio. “We’re with dexter lab security, our parking-“ Aasim tried to speak to him but the man cut him off. “What was that?” The man called. Louis rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Turn down your music!” Louis called over the loud music. The man seemed to hear him because he reach towards the radio and turned it down.

“Sorry boys, I like to play my music so loud I can’t hear myself think.” The man chuckled. “Anyways,” Aasim sighed as he crossed his arms. “We’re lab security and we came out here to tell you that our parking lot is closed at these hours. And we’re gonna have to ask you to leave the premises.” Aasim explained to the man. “Aw, I’m sorry boys, I didn’t I was breaking the rules.” The man drew out quietly. “It’s fine.” Aasim told him. Louis watched as the man went to turn the key in the ignition but suddenly the man paused and turned to them.

“Hey, can either of you boys spare a few dollars for a veteran? You know, because it’s Independence Day?” The man asked them quietly. “Uh sure.” Aasim hummed, pulling out his wallet. But Louis wasn’t so easily fooled. “Put your wallet away, Aasim.” Louis told him quietly. Aasim looked at him before slipping his wallet back in his pocket. “Where were you stationed?” Louis asked the man, crossing his arms over his chest. “Iraq.” The man responded. “Wow, I bet you’ve seen some heavy shit.” Louis hummed. “How many tours did you take?” Louis asked him. “Two.” The man hummed with a smug grin. “Did they put you through BCT up in fort Carson?” Louis asked him with a raised brow. “Yep.” The man was quick to respond.

Louis nodded slowly. He got him. “Oh really? Cause Fort Carson doesn’t have basic training. Get the fuck out of here.” Louis growled at the man. Aasim looked at James, surprised at his tone. “Louis.” He called to him. Louis walked up to the van. “Now!” He yelled at the man, hitting his window. The man merely chuckled, not paying any mind to Louis’s hostile tone. “You two boys out here all by yourselves? Kind of dangerous don’t you think? Two unarmed men out here all alone with god knows what creeps are running around out here.” The man grinned wickedly at them. “What do they even pay for that shit job? Minimum wage?” The man hummed.

Louis frowned deeply. “Fuck off!” He snapped at the man, hitting his window again. In a split moment of silence, Aasim heard a quiet groan coming from the backseat. It sounded weak and in pain. Aasim looked at the man. “Is there someone in there?” He asked the man. The man shrugged as he spoke. “It’s my daughter, she’s sleeping.” He told them. Louis still wasn’t fooled. “Let us see her.” Louis demanded. The man shot him a nasty glare. “She’s sleeping.” He snapped at Louis. Aasim looked Louis with concern before he started to pound on the back window. “Ma'am? Are you alright?” Aasim called as he pounded on the window.

Louis looked over when the man started up the car and pulled out of the parking spot quickly. “Happy Fourth of July boys!” The man called before speeding off out of the parking lot. “Hey! Hey!” Louis called as he chased after the van. “Shit!” He cursed when the van got away. Aasim noticed a bumper sticker on the back of the van as it drove away. It said, “Same shit, different parties.” with the two animals representing the two political parties. A donkey and an Elephant…

.

.

.

Aasim managed to get off work early that morning. He waved goodbye to Louis before getting in his car and driving out of the parking lot. He was planning to go to Marlon’s party. He needed to find Mitch and talk to him. When he pulled into the driveway of the house, Aasim could tell the party was over and everyone had left. But there were still a few cars parked in front of the house. Some people were still there. Aasim hoped Mitch was one of them. Getting out of his car, Aasim walked up to the gate that lead to the backyard. He opened the gate and walked around back. Aasim stopped and stared at the sight in front of him. The backyard was completely trashed with red solo cups, drug bags, and many other things. There were two people in the backyard. Marlon, who was passed out in a lawn chair, and Sean. A drug dealer that Aasim knew from a while ago. He was laying on the ground beside the pool.

Aasim walked up to Sean and nudged him with his foot. “Sean? Sean!” Aasim called to him. Sean just looked up at him lazily. “Oh hey…” He slurred with a drunken grin. Aasim watched as Sean slowly stood up, stumbling a bit. “You’re Andy from the beach right?” Sean hummed as he shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. “No, I’m Aasim. You know me Sean.” Aasim told him. Sean just looked at him with a lazy grin. He was truly wasted. Aasim huffed as he looked around the backyard. “Do you know if Mitch is here?” Aasim asked him. Sean completely ignored his questions. “You want something? I got molly, grass, shrooms, anything you want. I got some stuff that will really put you on a good trip but won’t fuck your head up.” Sean explained as he opened his jacket, revealing the many bags of drugs he had in his pockets.

Aasim sighed and rolled his eyes. He clearly wasn’t gonna be any help. “I don’t want any drugs. I want to know if you saw Mitch here.” Aasim told him. “I don’t know, Ashton. I can hardly remember names.” Sean slurred. “Aasim, it’s Aasim.” He told the drunk man. “Ohhh, you’re Aasim? The Aasim? You shouldn’t be here, man.” Sean told him. “What do you mean I shouldn’t be here?” Aasim asked him in confusion. “Marlon said that if you showed up, he would punch you in the face. He was talking to a boy with a large scar on his face. He got super pissed and said if you ever showed up he would beat the shit out of you.” Sean explained in his drunken state.

Aasim stared at him in confusion. “Boy with a scar?” Aasim asked him. “Yeah. He has a long scar running from up above his right eye down to his left cheek.” Sean told him. “Do you know his name?” Aasim asked him. Sean slowly shook his head. “Sorry man.” He hummed. “If I showed you a picture of the boy with a scar, could you tell me if it is him?” Aasim asked him, pulling out his phone. “Yeah, yeah I can do that man. I can recognize people by their faces.” Sean said with a nod. Aasim nodded and pulled up a picture of Mitch on his phone before showing Sean his phone. Sean studied the photo before nodding. “Yeah yeah that’s him.” Sean told him.

Aasim sighed and slipped the phone back in his pocket. He walked past Sean over to Marlon who was slumped over in his lawn chair. “What are you doing?” Sean called to him as Aasim placed his hand on Marlon’s shoulder. “I’m waking Marlon up.” Aasim told him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea man. He’s pretty buzzed.” Sean told him. Aasim ignored him and started to shake Marlon. “Marlon? Marlon?” Aasim called to him, but he didn’t move or say anything. Aasim got a sick feeling in his stomach. He shook Marlon harder. “Marlon?! Marlon!” He called loudly to him.

Suddenly, Marlon slumped forward and fell out of the chair, hitting the concrete. Aasim jumped and cursed. He went to Marlon’s side and turned him over. “Marlon!” He called. “What’s wrong?” Sean asked him. “He’s not breathing! Call 911!” Aasim yelled to Sean as he started to give Marlon CPR. “I can’t do that man, not on my phone.” Sean told him as he started to back towards the gate. “Motherfucker, take my phone then!” Aasim snapped at him, throwing his phone at him. Sean caught his phone and started to type the emergency contact into the phone.

“Jesus Christ, what did you give him!? His heart has stopped!” Aasim yelled at Sean. “I-I just gave him some grass is all.” Sean mumbled before looking back at his phone. “I’m getting a busy call.” He told Aasim. “What?!” Aasim called, looking up at him in panic. “I’m getting a fucking busy call, no one’s answering!” Sean told him. Aasim cursed quietly and stood up. “We need to take him to the hospital!” Aasim called to Sean as he grabbed Marlon by his arm. “Hey, I don’t want to be apart of this. I’m gonna go.” Sean told him, tossing the phone back to Aasim.

Aasim stared up at him in disbelief. “You can’t just fucking leave him! At least help me get him to my car!” Aasim shouted to him, but Sean was already walking out the gate. “You fucker!” Aasim yelled. He huffed quietly as he pulled Marlon’s limp body over his shoulders. He stumbled to his car and opened the back door, tossing him inside and shutting the door. Aasim quickly got into the driver’s seat and started up the car, speeding out of the driveway and down the road. The hospital wasn’t far.

As Aasim drove, he grabbed his phone from the passenger seat and dialed Mitch’s number. He prayed for Mitch to pick up. But he cursed when it went to voicemail. “Hey Mitch, it’s me. Listen, if you smoked or drank anything at that party, call 911. I think it was laced was some really bad shit. I’m on my way to the hospital, please call me back.” Aasim finished his voicemail and tossed his phone back into the passenger seat. Aasim didn’t look in the rear view mirror as he drove. He couldn’t look at Marlon if he was dead.

The sun was started to rise as Aasim pulled his car to the front of the hospital. From where he was sitting in his car, Aasim could see many doctors and nurses sitting on the front steps on some sort of smoke break. He could see that some of them were crying for some reason. Getting out of his car, Aasim called to them. “Help! Please help me! My friend’s not breathing!” He called to them as he pulled Marlon out of the car. Most of them ignored him, but one nurse with red hair put out her cigarette and got up, walking over to him.

“What seems to be the problem?” The nurse asked. Aasim looked at her with worry. “It’s my friend. He’s not breathing and I think his heart stopped.” Aasim explained to her. “Alright, lay him out on the sidewalk.” The nurse instructed. “O-On the sidewalk? Why not get him on a gurney, take him inside?” Aasim protested. “That won’t be necessary, sir. Please do as I say.” The nurse told him calmly. Aasim gave in and laid Marlon down on the concrete.

Aasim watched as the nurse knelt down and checked Marlon’s vitals. She didn’t take long. Eventually she stood up and looked at Aasim. Her look already told Aasim what she was gonna say. “I’m sorry, sir. But your friend is dead.” Aasim couldn’t believe her words. “T-That’s it? You’re not gonna do anything else? Not gonna take him inside to see why he died?” Aasim spat angrily at the woman. She merely sighed quietly. “I think you need to collect yourself sir. Take a few deep breaths, call the deceased‘s family, and go home.” She explained to him quietly.

“What kind of hospital is this? Why will no one help him? Why are the doctors and nurses crying? What the fuck is going on?!” Aasim yelled, mostly in confusion rather than anger. The nurse looked at him before sighing softly. “Something happened last night.” She said quietly. “All of our patients died in their sleep.”

[nyxelestia]

Racism in the Teen Wolf Fandom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Below the cut:

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

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

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

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

On Scott actually being a character of color

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

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

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

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

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

Teen Wolf Fandom Racism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For those who want more quantative evidence

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

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

Other Prominent Examples and Points of Contention

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

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

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

This post illustrates my point quite nicely.

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

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

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

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

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

Other Double Standards

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Main Points

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fandom does not exist in a vacuum.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[fayblox]

who up dandying they world ....... anyway dw root problem au coming to a blog near u soon :D

[fayblox]

very excited for posting more root prpblem au . twisteds r more fucked up than in canon YAHOO

[fayblox]

we got spiders and sharks and mouths that open where they shouldnt open and headless guys and body-less guys and AUGH its been so fun reworking all these guys

very excited for posting more root prpblem au . twisteds r more fucked up than in canon YAHOO