#even if the au isn't necessarily one i talk or make content for a lot

[jacarandaaaas]

I notice how (most of) the fandom likes to pin Mirabel as motherly but...Camilo's right there. I can see him getting strict when he needs to be or blurts out the right advice at the right time...which literally shocks everyone when he does but still. In other words, he's the "mom/dad" friend that everybody needs at the right time.

He takes care of kids all day + Is a natural caretaker like Julieta is. We don't know much of his personality other than "mischievous" but taking care of kids from an early age can surely make someone responsible and mature overtime.

Mirabel isn't the town babysitter; she has her own things going on. And I know she loves kids and all, but she strikes more as an older sister/ "aunt who gives you the candy you aren't supposed to have" kind of gal than a motherly type. Don't get me wrong, I honestly think she's good with advice too, but Camilo comes in a close second.

Yet, there's literally a tag on ao3 that's "Mirabel Madrigal acting as Antonio Madrigal's parental figure" that belongs to 94 fics. It's not a lot but still.

I'm okay with it being an au and all, have your fun, but Camilo takes care of kids on a regular basis. Shouldn't he be the one that's seen as parental?

It would be funny to see the slacker get fed up with someone's antics and start scolding like a parent would. I'm sure when it happens it makes the person do a double take because it's not something he does often. Rarely even.

So, when it does happen, it's shocking.

It would be nice to have Camilo be painted as someone who is emotionally mature. Maybe not to the extent of Mirabel, but like I said, he takes care of children. That has to make someone emotionally mature to some extent.

It would be nice to see Camilo not painted as a jerk for once. Sure, he's incredibly blunt but not a jerk! And yes, he's a teen boy, he's going to feel emotions like one, but we SAW him giving tea to his mom when she was freaking out.

Not jerk teenager would do that unless they were forced too. Camilo isn't forced, he wants his mama to be calm so SHE can feel a little better. We can see that by the way he's talking to her.

It would be hilarious to see Camilo using a chancla on someone (maybe a bully who's harassing Mirabel) and ending it with-

"AND DON'T THINK YOUR PARENTS WON'T HEAR ABOUT THIS!"

Sorry for the rant, I didn't intend for it to get that long.

anon you are speaking my language!! I’ve talked about my dislike for parentified mirabel before so it’s nice to see I’m not alone on that!

camilo definitely has a more nurturing side and we see it as early as the opening song! Whilst I wouldn’t go as far to say he acts like a parent he definitely knows how to discipline children and is just naturally good at dealing with them! I would love to see more content that talks about how caring camilo is (I am sick of the jerk camilo thing he’s not heartless guys!) I can definitely see him as more experienced with kids than mirabel as he’s the babysitter she’s more just the fun one who hangs around with them! it’s a very different dynamic as we don’t really see mirabel necessarily looking after kids only entertaining them! As for your point on camilo being emotionally mature I would have to agree! the mothers wouldn’t trust him with their kids if they thought he would be irresponsible! he definitely knows how to scold them even if it’s surprising when it happens! I’m glad you mentioned the tea scene, as I think it shows a different side to camilo! he is caring and he’s good at comforting people! he isn’t gonna try make a situation worse he cares about his mother and wants to assure her! and I hate when people use that scene against pepa too! it is normal to make your mother tea weirdos!!! I love that scene despite how brief it is and we see glimpses of that side of camilo in the comics too!

As for mirabel 100% agree! she definitely strikes me as someone the kids would view as the cool older best friend much more than a parental figure. They don’t want to make her mad because in their eyes she’s cool! she’s fun and entertaining and they don’t want to make her mad! it’s not the case of a parent where it’s they know they’ll get in trouble for it! that’s partly what inspired my camp counselor au lmao! the fact mirabel is so good with kids in a way she makes them feel validated she doesn’t reprimand them she is someone they view as a friend! The mirabel is antonios mother fic genre is one I completely avoid i love their relationship because she is so much more of an older sister figure to him! I’ve said before I don’t like these fics so I tend to avoid them even if I don’t really read fics anymore lmao!

but I agree with most of your points! camilo is always seen as the fun one whilst mirabel is the parental one when in canon it’s the other way around! that’s not to say camilo isn’t fun because he absolutely is but we see him actually babysitting we see mirabel just hanging out with kids for fun! what I really need to see is mirabel and camilo as a babysitting duo that would be so fun!! both of them are 15 and deserve to have fun!! let mirabel have fun!! I would love to see more stuff involving camilos nurturing side for sure though!

[blaiddraws]

Wait. hold on an entire second. I. I need to know more about the GiraIngo AU. I. How does the clans react to him? How does the Galaxy team react? HIW DOES VOLO REACT?? AND! the protagonist! Do they try and capture him? Do they become friends? I’m. Thinking about this so hard now.

(referring to this)

it's been a hot minute since I've thought about it so this is mostly off the top of my head. But.

okay so. a random new never before seen pokemon just suddenly shows up in hisui, wandering around. weirdly friendly and non-aggressive. and surprisingly genuine even if it can't speak like a human.

the clans! since he ends up getting basically adopted by sneasler first. and introduced to the clans through the noble Pokemon (she proudly flaunts her new worm son to all her besties) they're immediately. like. not necessarily completely TRUSTING of him but they can tell he's not a bad thing, or there to hurt anyone.

so they almost treat him like a,, lesser noble, i suppose? they respect him but they don't have that same. uhhhh devotion? no. reverence? for him that they do the Actual noble/ride pokemon, who are descended from Pokemon with the Almighty Sinnoh's blessing (little do they know he's literally like. a mini deity. but hey. details)

they eventually get used to him.

Galaxy team! i guess sorta the same way they'd treat the nobles, since they learn of him thru the clans. not much to say there

VOLO. haha. volo is. SO incredibly confused. so is the giratina of This Point In Time. both of them have no idea where this mini shiny giratina came from. normal giratina is kinda put off by him because it. it has NO idea. and it doesn't like that. volo is also put off by him but less so, and mostly because giratina is. so volo ends up trying to just. avoid him

unfortunately giraingo can subconsciously sense giratina's presence on and around volo so is just sorta. drawn to him. doesn't know Why but he just thinks that funky merchant guy is neat

protagonist! there's many ways we could go with this. dawn/lucas from the Future? do they Remember the future? or perhaps someone unrelated to dawn/lucas at all (and therefore don't know or have personal experience with giratina)??

i think if we did a dawn/lucas from the future who Does Remember. it'd. kdhdkshsjd. they're the player character therefore i WILL shove my love and adoration for The Worm into them. weird little chaos gremlin from modern times. pokemon can do no wrong even giratina.

so. they come across this mini shiny giratina and absolutely lose it.

introduced to them as the lesser lord of [whatever]. since the clans don't know what a giratina is. so it never occurs to them to try and catch him. but BOY howdy they're obsessed with that little guy.

so. yeah. become friends through sheer force of will. ingo does not have a choice in this. (not that he would have chosen otherwise. he's desperate for human contact where they actually treat him normally instead of with way too much fear or respect. and also SOMEONE has to stop this kid from diving into spacetime distortions without hesitation, or trying to fight and catch All the alphas. etc.)

[carcarcraziiv2]

Heartseel K'Sante Boyfriend HCs

~K'Sante, the poll broke my heart :'c. I love this man, gd it. Let's go bbg~

P.S. Asks are open! I am open to more Heartsteel, other League characters, different AUs, Arcane, etc. Just HMU :3

K'Sante isn't overtly open to PDA, however he doesn't necessarily NOT do PDA? He is often gently holding your hand, or leaning over to kiss the top of your head while you are pressed against him. Sometimes when he is feeling a little more out there, he will grasp your chin, lift your face up and kiss you gently, even if you're in front of people or your friends. If someone is giving you attention that he doesn't deem appropriate or is making you uncomfortable, he goes into immediate protector mode. "Did they make you feel uncomfortable? I'm sorry, my sweet. I'll stick by you now, okay? Hold my hand."

K'Sante is an undercover jokester. He acts like he isn't in on the shenanigans with Ezreal and Sett, but he DEFINITELY is, and most likely is a big part of the execution. Now, when it comes to joking at you or about you, he will only do it lightly. He doesn't want to offend you by accident or make you upset. If you try and prank or joke on him, he will know it's coming. He is just too smart not to know. "I know you wanted to- hey do you want me to come back in and pretend? Sorry love! Can't prank the mastermind..."

K'Sante is big on giving attention but is generally content with being left alone. He is very confident, so he knows you aren't off doing crazy things while he is waiting for you or vice versa. Trust is key for him, and he trusts you whole heartedly. When you two are together, his attention is solely focused on you. He expects the same, so when the two of you conversate it is almost always meaningful and/or interesting. "Awh, my love, you're home! I've missed you. Come, sit on my lap and tell me about your day." K'Sante pulls you onto his lap and fiddles with your hair as you talk to him.

K'Sante gives EXCEPTIONAL kisses. Never a dull moment with this one. Even the most delicate kisses make stars erupt in your belly. He will grab you gently with a hand behind your neck, lean down and brush his nose against yours before placing his lips on your own. In a heated moment, he becomes ravenous, groaning into your mouth and holding your face with his hands as your tongues collide. "Your kisses are my oxygen, love." "Gods, the things you do to me, y/n."

K'Sante is very smart, and very levelheaded. He tends to be right, and although it pisses you off a lot of the time that he is, he is so kind about explaining things to you. He will never make you feel dumb or less than for not being right. When he is wrong, rare as it may be, he will listen to your explanation with the utmost kindness and try his best to let it sink it. "Do you get what I am saying, love? Please don't be upset, but this is really important that we are on level ground. I love you, sweetheart." "Oh, that makes sense! See, I am glad we talked about it."

K'Sante is great at giving you a reason to be excited to get home, or vice versa. He will whisper sweet nothings in your ear when you hug and kiss him before leaving, gently touching your arm or your face making sure you know just how much he loves you. All day, he may send you devious little texts just to make sure you are prepared for what's about to go down. "Wait for me, Love, in that outfit I bought you. You know the one I'm talking about, right? Good." "So good, so perfect. So Mine."

[anonymous-dentist]

since people apparently cant be formal im going to be: we dont use "q!" cuz people kinda dont want to talk abt the server, only spiderbit/guapoduo, so they decided to use "g!" or only "!", and when people are refering to other series they use the first letter of the series for example: "c!roier", i myself dont quite get the g!/! and understand why u dont like people not using "q!" when the universe they talking abt is qsmp

(people saw u complaining abt it here and start to shit on u without any context on twt and saying u complained that q wanst appearing in other fics even tho im pretty sure i didnt when ur distancing urself from him so i wanted to be formal :])

-🎀

(also can u explain y u dont like the "g!" or "!"???)

I can try to explain myself, but I'm also kinda crying answering this because I have a hard time with emotion regulation when I'm upset (autism thing)

OKAY! SO!

I don't really mind the new tag things? Like, I don't love them, but they're fine. If people want to distance themselves, that's fine. I'm distancing myself. Anybody who's been keeping up with my blog over the past half a year or so can see that I haven't really posted about the QSMP at all since Purgatory started. I haven't talked about Quackity at all outside of that shitshow of an awards ceremony in over a month when, for several years, I was a Quackity-centric blog (2021-early 2023)

My thing with the new tags, and with the Guapoverse thing in general, is that it really just isn't accessible for a larger audience. Sure, some parts of Twitter might understand it, but what about the rest of us?

As far as I can tell, the Guapoverse originated with a Twitter artist (Moone), and it blew up overnight. And I'm overall cool with it! It's a little silly, but so is fandom. I'm a fanfiction writer. Who plays Splatoon for like 4 hours every day. I know silly, and I love it

But then, BAM, I blink and everybody's abandoned the q! and they're changing their tags on Ao3 and making everything suddenly so much harder to find, and it's all about accessibility, isn't it? Like, don't get me wrong, I love a good multiverse, but when it inadvertently excludes a significant portion of the fandom, what are we supposed to do?

Like, say I go on Twitter looking for q!Pac fanart. But now it's so much harder to find because it isn't tagged or typed that way, it's !Pac, and that includes search results from every single au that has a ! in it, like if there was an au called AU!Pac? The !Pac would be in there. But I don't want to see AU!Pac, I want to see q!Pac.

And then there's the g! thingy. Like, that's fine, but a little more widespread of an explanation would've been nice. Like, what au does g! stand for? If you don't know what Guapoverse is, like A LOT OF PEOPLE don't, what are we supposed to think your art is? If we're looking for q!Cellbit art, we aren't necessarily going to like and retweet your art if it's labeled as g!Cellbit because we don't know that he's q!Cellbit.

It's kind of similar on Ao3, only that one's a little different because you can filter by relationship. But let's say you don't know how to do that. Let's say you're new to the website and you only know how to filter by fandom, because that's the first thing you learn how to do on Ao3- it's right there at the top of the front page: Browse By Fandom.

So you go to the QSMP tag looking for fics with Spiderbit/Guapoduo in them. But, here's the thing, you can't find any. Because they aren't being tagged QSMP, they're being tagged Guapoverse now even if the fics are being set in the QSMP setting.

It's just a general lack of fandom accessibility that gets me. I understand the distancing aspect, and I've been waiting for it to happen since the Elections when he Brazilian fandom started getting IMMENSE amounts of hatred from Gringo Chats. But it gets a little tricky when you're part of a fandom as large as this one is. How are we all supposed to share content and talk about things with each other if we can't even find each other anymore?

Like! I've lost so many cool fics I forgot to bookmark because they were taken out of the QSMP tag and moved into the new one! (The new one goes against ToS btw I believe, but go talk to a tag wrangler about that.)

People on Tumblr don't know what the Guapoverse is. TikTok doesn't. Reddit doesn't. Only Twitter does, and only a section of Twitter does. Because I haven't seen any English or French-speaking Guapoduo People talk about the Guapoverse, only Portuguese or Spanish-speaking people. And I get that the exclusion isn't purposeful and that the Guapoverse is meant to sort of heal everybody from the wounds the QSMP left, but I think that maybe even just spreading the news and not... you know... sending death threats and insults and smearing people's names would be better than this.

Thank you for politely asking. I thought I had made myself clear before, but I guess I hadn't.

I'm open to answer any more questions. I can't explain myself to my critics on Twitter, but I can answer your questions here, hopefully.

[wsdalt]

TRIPLE AAA FELPS IS SO REAL I've had that headcanon sitting in the back of my mind for so long... I figured it was the "being aspec will make every character you write be at least a little bit aspec too" talking because I never really had anything to base it on other than Vibes but I'm glad you agree. (also "gender: felps" is great I love it. yes. very true)

listen I’m not going to lie it’s definitely probably a bit of that for all of us pfft (well… for you and me at least)

I just like it! felps is a character who’s dear to my heart, so headcanoning him with being arospec is the next logical step—especially since there isn’t really anything to suggest he’s not (again: emphasis on the spectrum in the headcanon. his crush on pac is romantic in my eyes, but tinged with the aromantic experience i am headcanoning him with)

you're the second person who's cited him having aspec vibes, and i so i wanted to get into it a little \o/ and really like…point towards what is probably causing those pfft (disclaimer throughout this entire thing that i am aroace and i am drawing on my own experiences when i say this stuff. and that this is less pointing out coding, and more looking into an arospec reading of the character)

under the cut we go, because this is long oops:

firstly: we really have to acknowledge fanon. as in… i would say i'm a fairly big player in terms of felps interpretations when it comes to things in english + things on ao3…? at least now, and especially for felps ship content. i feel like this is a fair thing to say about myself, right? i'm currently 40% of the felpac ao3 tag and all that

and i write felps as arospec because… well it's a headcanon i like. especially if you're a mutual/follower of mine who reads my fics, you're maybe picking up on that

and i don't want to speak for factorial (the other person i think maybe writes the most for him, especially romantic content), but i would say he writes--especially in xcom2 au--a lot of nonromantic stuff? not aromantic necessarily, but romance isn't really a focus (except for the few moments where it is of course). the main point is these people care about each other, it doesn't really matter how

basically--yes. a lot of felps ship content on ao3 can be passed off as ambiguous relationships (especially considering i write a lot of them kissing, but not actually together romantically/not as a "getting together" mechanism), which adds to an aromantic vibe--kissing doesn't inherently equal romance and all that. if this is the main way you interact with felps ship content, this is probably colouring your interpretation of him a little, i think is fair to say

to canon:

i have to say his overall passivity as a character probably plays a big part. especially in regards to romance and attraction, he's a lot more reserved than the other characters on the island. a lot of characters who are into romance/are attracted to others are very verbal about that, while the characters who aren't are also verbal about that. (or they do both like bad)

philza and missa are maybe the others who are a lot quieter? and their relationship comes across as very aromantic to me (not that people can't interpret them as romantically involved, just… you know. and even then--they're loud about being married/partners from what i've seen). the final category i would say is people who romance or attraction just doesn't come up for them at all, but they're not loud about not being into it. it just… yes, doesn't come up

the difference between that last category and felps, is that while felps is kind of quiet about his crush on pac, it does very obviously comes up. but it’s so much subtler compared to a lot of the other relationships (except for that one scene where he let his jealousy run wild for a bit when he finds out pac is flirting with other people after their kiss). in a story where people are so loud about being romantically involved/attracted to others, a quiet unrequited crush kind of slips through the cracks. it's not that the feelings are any less intense or important, but they feel different. and aspec attraction is different to allo attraction i would say (in my experiences, at least)

to me, being aroace has always felt kind of passive compared to my allo friends' sexualities. even if they've had long crushes on friends like this, they've also like… gone out dating. i think the fact we only see felps with this crush on pac and not really going after anyone else + the implication he's had it for a long time both kind of speak towards a specific flavour of aspec pining

+ the most active thing he does regarding the crush is seek pac out so they can go to the kissing booth together, and even then he's constantly minimising it as just something they're doing for fun. he starts off the conversation by saying he wants to see how it works, and then they constantly refer to it as "just testing"--which is something felps started

while this is like… a way to hide his crush if pac doesn't feel the same, it also gives off the vibe of engaging in your attraction to someone else, but without that necessarily leading to a romantic relationship. kissing doesn't have to be romantic. you don't have to start dating just because you kissed someone. and this is an aromantic point of view i suppose (casual hook ups obviously exist, but doing this with your friends instead of strangers is sort of looked at differently by society--you get it)

(this sort of falls apart a little when you realise he was hoping pac would interpret it as a romantic gesture and talk about the kiss with him, but i would also argue this specific flavour of 3D chess is aromantic--no i will not elaborate)

(also there's the fact he doesn't want to be the one to define their relationship/ask pac out even though he's perfectly comfortable asking pac to kiss him--i think you could argue he's trying to look towards pac to set the terms of their relationship. push the boundaries a little, and see how pac reacts. "pac's allo, right? he knows what to do about this, surely…")

(i'm reaching a little, but that's why i've said this is a reading, not an analysis/not pointing out coding)

as a secondary thing to combine with the passivity: I would also say the way the the saint thing fucks with his emotions a bit + his tendency to distance himself a little from things in general is a safe bet as to where the vibes come from. again, it's not that he feels things less intensely it's just that there's a disconnect between him and the rest of the world in some way--either intentionally, or through the saint stuff

and i don't know about you guys, but as someone who did not have any kind of aspec friends for a good few years while identifying as aroace (+ even before i knew i was too), i did feel a disconnect between me and everyone else--both with cishet people, and with queer people. so i, at least, am picking up on that, filtering it through my own experiences, and spitting out an arospec reading pfft

my final note: obviously this is incredibly subjective and biased, and is really just me trying to dig into whatever vibes people may be picking up on. as i've already said--i'm projecting with my arospec headcanon, and this whole post is less me pointing out coding and more me doing an arospec reading on the character

I'd really love to hear if anyone else has a way to put the vibes into words. i feel like there's things i've missed out on, but i feel like the big thing is just… the way he doesn't necessarily act on his attraction the way most other characters do, + with everyone also being queer so you can't say him being queer is the cause of the difference, the difference can instead come across as aromantic

and to talk about the asexual side of things briefly, i will point towards the way he reacts to most innuendos. which i will not list out here. if you know you know, i suppose

(people in the house are watching a movie really loudly right now, so it was a little hard to focus oops. I hope this all makes sense…)

[istadris]

lm3 seducer luigi au? 👀

@brendathepeep you're to blame for half of the ideas here.

This is going to be a LONG one, so brace yourself!

First Luigi's Mansion : E.Gadd met Luigi by pure luck, and he was willing to go through the house and capture ghosts while looking for his brother. Everybody wins ! But as he monitors Luigi, he notices that the guy isn't just a good ghost hunter. He draws ghosts ! In a very specific way, dare he say.

Dark Moon : the Evershade Valley is a good place to study ghosts and even obtain answers from them, and that's where E.Gadd starts to realize, oh. oh. Ghosts don't just want to scare Luigi, they're attracted to him. He's basically a walking aphrodisiac. So when the ghosts escape, E.Gadd doesn't hesitate : ghosts are less agressive when horny (usually), and Luigi is a good enough ghostbuster to justify calling him.

E.Gadd intended to tell Luigi about it ! He absolutely did ! But how do you explain to your assistant "oh there is an explanation to why ghosts always harass you" ?

Especially when he's running for his life! And he kept forgetting once the menace was dealt with.

He still tried to harness (or even just figure out) that weird power Luigi has but accidentally made a goo clone. Alas, while Gooigi does attract ghosts, he's not sturdy enough for further examination. After Gooigi reforms from a ghost spilling fluids (not necessarily their own) on him : "dang it, it seems I will need Luigi's consent on this matter after all"

Luigi's Mansion 3 : when Helen invites E.Gadd, she asks him a lot of questions,and some of then are about his assistant. " My, how brave of him to face such dangerous ghosts, how did the poor man survive ?" "Why, I shouldn't probably talk too much about this, but I trust you to not gossip. You see, my dear boy Luigi has quite the surprising talent ..."

(Suggestive content + spoilers for Luigi's Mansin 3 under the read more, you have been warned)

Helen's plan to capture Luigi totally involved to seduce him and lure him away from his family, but our boy's too oblivious for that and fell asleep right after getting to his room. Helen, after waiting for an hour and realizing her sultry pose and hints didn't work, decided to fall back on a simple "grab the rest of the posse and hide"

LM3 starts like in the game with Luigi falling asleep and waking up to things going apeshit, with Helen ans King Boo showing up, and King Boo chasing after Luigi and cornering him at the end of the corridor. Luigi is terrified of course...but fear and arousal have always crossed wires in his brain. Especially with ghosts. Oh, they terrify him, and yet when King Boo presses down on him, he's also hard as a brick, awfully aroused...which KB notices in his aura (and then the tent in his overalls). And he can now attest that the rumours about Luigi's aura being very attractive are true.

KB is very, very amused and tests further this inclination, and smut ensues...and because he wants to make the chase last and to drive Luigi to his limits, afterwards, King Boo all but pushes Luigi down the laundry chute while challenging him to come and get his friends back, but only if each of the floor's main ghosts find Luigi to their liking. And of course he'll spread the word about that human with a kink for ghosts...

Instead of the wanted posters with money for reward, it's a pin up picture with a number to call.

Through the entire night, between floors, Luigi gets harassed here and there by various ghosts and Boos who want a taste of the delicious human, but King Boo also gave clear instructions so the Boss Ghosts get dibs on him.

Stewart, Chambrea and Kruller are pretty easy to satisfy : they're all overworked and stressed out by their jobs, and once Luigi shows up with his delicious, enticing aura, it doesn't take much to convince them to sit back and relax. A head/handjob (well, the equivalent for ghosts as they don't have the same anatomy as humans anymore) and some fondling and kisses, and they're spent and content.

Chef Soulfflé and Amadeus Wolfgeist are Luigi's first obstacles : they're both "artists" whose energy expresses through their art, and so it's less about physical sex : they find release in making their "victim" experiment actual Food/music porn. Luigi never thought he would be able to come just from a concert.

King MacFrights : Ooooh these dungeons and torture contraptions are going to come in handy. The joust still happens though, with the victor gaining the favours of the crowd...a very enthusiastic crowd...

Garden Suites : Like mentioned before, if Dr Potter doesn't get physical himself, his beloved plants, on the other hand...between the very long and grabby vines, sex pollen all over the place, and toothy carnivorous plants, Luigi spends a LOT of time on this floor.

T-Rex + Ug : Gooigi comes in VERY handy there, because Luigi would NOT have survived T Rex vore with his own body. Sharing his consciousness with a pile of good helps for very interesting sensations.

Morty is the sweetest of all ghosts, and gives Luigi a well earned reprieve by letting him rest for a while and pampering his new star the whole time.

He's the first ghost where Luigi is actually the one to make the first move sincerely. However, he also insists on filming everything (and not necessarily taking part himself), puts Luigi through different roles and scenarios...He keeps up the praise all the while, which is an enormous boost to Luigi's confidence (and he realises he has a praise kink).

Boiler room : let's say Clem ain't keeping these rubber duckies just for decoration. At least lying down on a giant rubber duckie floatie in a pool the whole time is kinda relaxing.

Serpci ; listen even in the canon of the game, I thought when I first saw her "what is it with ghost ladies making Luigi sneeze while making seductive poses ? Is this how you manifest your interest?"

Anyway look at her. She would demand worship and praise from Luigi (thankfully he picked up some tips from Morty) and gosh just look at her ❤️

Captain Fishook and Johnny Deepend: look, if you can't see the sex appeal in a hunk shark pirate on his ship and a buff life guard, I can't do anything for you. Luigi even gets to get drunk in the grotto lounge afterwards, turns out pirate ghosts know how to party

Triplets of the Twisted Suites : oh boy, this one is gonna be a wild ride. Three magician girls with a streak for mischief in a floor full of tricks and traps ? It's a miracle he makes it out alive.

Disco floor : Luigi canonically loves dancing, especially in the Luigi's Mansion games. He's killing it on the dance floor. Going clubbing has never been his style, but now he gets the full experience, including the grinding and groping.

Ironically Helen is the only ghost in the hotel who doesn't manage to get a go at Luigi: he passes out in the Master suite for a while (he needs to regain some energy before King Boo) and when she tries to stop him, he claims he played with her pussy and holds up Polterkitty. She's furious but she appreciates that he did look after her precious cat.

Now Luigi arrives to the top of the hotel, armed with all the knowledge he acquired through the night on ghost pleasure, still "smelling" like the most delicious thing to spectres, and facing a blue-balled King Boo who has been watching Luigi's progress the whole time.

Mario when Luigi frees him : "Oh Luigi, you look exhausted, these ghosts must have kept you up all night!"

Luigi : "haha...yeah you could say that."

Who will win ? YOU DECIDE !!

[spacexfucker]

I wish I'd had the wherewithal at the time to properly document in real-time the influx of new people into Fandom spaces online during the start of the pandemic.

There's a very interesting set of people who, because they were spending so much time indoors, decided to navigate online spaces for more content of their favorite media. And, in doing so, dipped their toes in the first few inches of Fandom space.

I've seen most of these types of people on tiktok where it's fairly easy to access introductory Fandom content like fan edits and what are essentially AMVs. Because of the nature of those searches, most of the results at first are very surface-level. Nothing too crazy, just screen grabs, scene breakdowns, thirst traps, etc.

But, as is the nature of getting into a tag on tiktok, eventually the algorithm starts pushing you deeper content the more you interact with a tag. And suddenly, you're getting in-depth breakdowns, shipping content, and then, slowly, content that starts slipping away from strict canon.

So these people, who likely didn't necessarily anticipate the depth of Fandom or understand its quirks and layers, are thrown off. You see "discourse" at this level by people who have never been in Fandom before getting really pissy about things like crack ships, aus, or anything that isn't very strictly canon/explicitly said. Purists who don't want to be associated with the other people who have been in Fandom spaces for longer.

Now, this happens all the time even before the pandemic but because of both the pandemic and the popularization of titkok, this particular fan is a much larger part of Fandom. There's a lot of them and new ones every day and none of them know how Fandom works, what the like general rules and etiquette are, and a good chunk are very resistant to critiques on how they interact with fandom spaces.

The biggest culprit are people who, through tiktok, have literally been influenced to find fanfic. But not based on what they actually would like to read, but what they hear that everyone else has read or is reading again. Unfortunately, the fic that has had the most traction and spread on tiktok is Manacled, a Harry Potter fic. Anyone familiar with ao3 can look this up if you don't already know about it. And if you'd read the tags, I'm sure you could piece together why exactly a fresh new Fandom recruit or even just a regular person who happened to enjoy HP years ago would come across something that is being passed around as good and enjoyable and a way to relieve their favorite series may have terrible consequences.

Then there was this frankly huge influx of people who had never read fic before and had no idea how to parse the system of tags on ao3 reading a book about their favorite characters in a very dark, riddled with triggers, extreme AU. A lot of these people were basically following a trend. And most of the videos I saw talk about Manacled did not really do it justice in terms of preparing their audience for exactly what this fic had in it, nor how to properly interact with the Fandom space and ao3.

People were reading Manacled but not paying attention to tags and then making videos basically slandering the author for the story, hate reading it to talk shit and make hate content. But, on the flip side, there are people who loved it and wanted physical copies.

Unfortunately, this is where a singular tiktok comes into play in which a friend videoed gifting her friend a bound copy she'd made herself of Manacled. And like on tumblr, when certain posts get a threshold of interactions, it breaks containment. This caused another small influx of people who had never been introduced to Fandom, let alone fic, to flock to ao3.

At this point, we start getting into you-all-are-going-to-get-sued territory.

A large number of people read Manacled and other, mostly very popular dramoine, fanfiction. An undetermined amount of those people then, after seeing the video of the binding, began searching for ways to purchase a physically bound copy for themselves. For whatever reason, most were not willing to do this themselves, and so this is where the etsy listings came in.

There was a small boom of etsy listings for bound copies of mostly Mancled. In fact, you can still find these up. This, obviously, is both very illegal and very fucking insulting. This is a very big legal issue. In response, at least at the time, several of the bigger, popular fics took down their work from ao3. Which unfortunately didn't do much because in response, people who had downloaded the first prior were sharing those downloads with heartbroken fans.

You'd think that after being told that selling fic is illegal that people would stop. But they don't. If you take a look at one of the etsy listings, some of these are being sold for over 100 dollars. There's been a small push by parts of Fandom that have been around for a while to go to etsy occasionally and mass report these listings, but it's not really stopped anyone yet.

Fic authors have made a ton of requests either on tiktok or through ao3 for people to not do this. But, because most of these people don't know Fandom etiquette or even care about actual law or respecting authors, these requests have been mostly ignored.

Over the years as an author and someone who has also just read a lot of fic, there is a ratio involved in fic metrics. Generally, you can usually expect about 10% of the hits value for kudos and anything from 1% to 5% of the hits value for comments.

Due to the influx of people with no understanding of fic Fandom etiquette, if you look at the metrics for Mancled, it has over 8,300,000 hits. But its kudos and comments do not reflect the usual ratio.

There is even a strange crossover with goodreads where you can literally find reviews for Manacled. Which is honestly probably one of the most interesting things Ive seen. There are actually several dramione fics you can review on goodreads.

I'm still trying to process how some people's first introduction to fic was Manacled. I'm not saying the story isn't good or isn't well written. But, you have to admit it's a very strong first foray into fanfiction.

All of this to say, when you run into someone starting fights in Fandom space about canon or shipping, I'd say there's a good chance that you're interacting with someone fresh into the space who's entire online experience has likely just been Facebook and fan edits on tiktok. Metaphorically, a group of people who only have ever used salt and pepper on tv dinners arguing about your wine pairings, seasonings, and why you deviated from Marie Callender's fettuccine Alfredo recipe.

As a disclaimer, not all new additions to Fandom are bad. It's great to grow. It is interesting to see how a lot of antis come into the space, though.

[ivyial]

Canonicity in the Context of Ships (and Ship Wars)

Essentially, what makes a ship canon? Does it even matter that a ship becomes canon?

So, disclaimer before we start:

1. This is my interpretation of the meaning of "canon" and what it means for a ship to be canon. As always, I'm open to disagreements and constructive criticism, especially if it can tame the constant aggression in some fandom spaces

2. I like ships, but I don't support ship wars because they're all fucking pointless and if you're a grown adult or close to being one and you're still harassing people over ships on the internet, you're a fucking loser

That being said

As we all know, online fandom spaces have developed their own vernacular over the years: canon, fanon, headcanon, OC, AU, OTP, the infamous 'Dead Dove: Do Not Eat', etc. Fandom slang has also evolved since it was first coined. A prime example of that would be the use of the term "lemon" to refer to erotic fanfiction, which while still used, has suffered a sharp decline in favour of the word "smut" (although smut has its own use and meaning outside of fandoms).

The word "canon" is arguably one of the most important words in fandom, since it refers to the official source material from a game, book, TV show, movie, whatever form of media said fandom is about. In essence, it's the official story: what actually happens and what was intended by the creators. Some universes are easily accessible and the canon isn't really subject to much debate. Most TV shows have very straightforward canon: assuming that everything is contained within, let's say, 5 seasons of 22 episodes each, with no spin-offs, movies, or exclusive bonus episodes, the canon of the show will be laid out in these episodes. That's it. Some other fandoms will be much more obscure: think of game franchises such as Resident Evil, where many games have been released over the years, remade, and some have been largely forgotten and can even contradict the current version of events. In this case, it can be much harder to define what canon is, which events are official and still applicable to the story and which should be discarded completely. (And I have to say, as a law student, canon is weirdly reminiscent of the hierarchy of norms, but that's for another day.)

I could discuss the importance of canon in fandoms, but that's irrelevant to the point of this post. Let's talk ships. I don't need to explain to everyone what a ship is. There's no point of contention there. In most media where romance is either dealt with or hinted at, fandoms, and therefore, shippers, will jump at the opportunity to write about or make art of their favourite ship. However, there's always something rearing its ugly head and contributing to the toxic atmosphere in fandoms: ship wars.

Ship wars are in essence extremely simple, and I'm sure we've all been in a fandom that participated in a ship war, whether we were involved in it ourselves or not. Long story short, shippers argue over which ship will become canon. Writers are toying with the idea of two or more major ships and teasing that both have their chances. So, in the end, it's all about who comes out on top and who becomes official.

The canonicity of a ship is a lot more complicated than the canonicity of media itself. I'd argue that even if the canonicity of the story is simple, it's likely that the canonicity of ships will necessarily be harder to draw conclusions about. So you can imagine how complicated canon is when it comes to ships from franchises that barely know their own canon.

Since I've seen a lot of arguments over canon ships in the Resident Evil fandom as of late, and this is what inspired this post, I will be using this example primarily - and since ideally I'd like this post to reach fandoms outside of RE, I'll be explaining and illustrating my examples. Other fandoms and ships might also be referred to.

1. Canon, semi-canon and non-canon

When it comes to ships, there are 3 main ways to describe them:

- Non-canon: quite straightforward. The ship has not officially expressed any desire (even implicit) to get together whatsoever. They may or may not interact in canon, and if they do, there's just no romantic interest there. Non-canon does not necessarily refer to a ship being into each other but not doing anything about it, as this is characterised as:

- Semi-canon: there's something there. Maybe both characters like each other romantically, maybe it's one-sided, maybe there is potential but it could either sail or be ruined completely by Character A's reaction to Character B's feelings. But overall, the general consensus seems to be that semi-canon ships have not acted on their feelings. This definition is not set in stone - we'll come back to it later.

- Canon: yay, your ship has sailed!! The pairing has officially been confirmed. The characters have acted on their feelings and you have won the ship war.

These are the general definitions of canon ships. And if you think they're clear and satisfactory, in what world are you living?

2. Past canon vs current canon

You finally got around to watching the season finale and there it is: Character A and B confessed and kissed. Finally, it's canon, and you can gloat on social media about how you were right all along.

But then it turns out that by the final season, your ship breaks up, and Character A gets with Character C. Even worse, Character A stays with Character C and the show ends with them being officially together. What the fuck.

So, what does that make your ship? It's officially a sunk ship, sure, but what about its canonicity? Should it be considered canon? I mean, they dated for 2 seasons. So technically, there was a period of time when your ship was canon. It just isn't anymore.

This is the first hurdle we meet when trying to define a ship as canon. It all hinges on the when aspect of it. This is also where ship canonicity differs from story canonicity. Storywise, the ship is rooted in canon since they were together at some point. Shipwise, however, they are not canon anymore, since they have broken up. It's canon that they happened, but they themselves aren't canon anymore.

At this point, I would argue that most people consider that a ship that is together by the end of the show/game/movie/book etc., by the end of canon essentially, is canon. Don't worry, we're still far from having solved this.

3. What does it take for a ship to be canon?

You will have noticed by now that, so far, I have instinctively referred to a canon ship as a ship that is together. I'd argue that this is what most people think of when they think of a canon ship.

But what does it mean for a ship to be together? Do we mean that they have to be a couple? Is it marriage, is it a relationship, is it friends with benefits? Or is it a simple kiss and confession? Do they even have to make out, or have sex, or put a label on their relationship?

This is when we venture into the territory of canon vs semi-canon. Earlier, I defined semi-canon as a ship that has feelings for each other, or is one-sided, but no one has acted on their feelings. Mind you, this is the definition provided by the Internet.

Let's say Character A confesses to Character B. Character B feels the same way, but they don't want to get into a relationship right now. The show ends there. I mean, technically, they like each other, right? That much was confirmed. They acted on their feelings by confessing. Technically, that gets them out of semi-canon territory. But does it get them into canon territory? Nothing came out of the confession, really.

We can't in good faith argue that two characters confessing is enough to make them canon, since the term semi-canon also exists, and could very well apply depending on your own definition of it.

The problem lies in defining what it takes for a ship to be canon. If we go back to the very roots of canon, it's confirmation that a ship has an official romantic nature.

Is liking each other enough? Doubtful: if a main character flirts with a minor side character, who reciprocates, does that make them canon? They're into each other. But it would be ridiculous by fandom standards to deem them canon when the side character might never be seen again and has no real bearing on the story.

Truth is, what makes a ship canon fluctuates depending on the standards set by the media itself. If a piece of media is heavily romance-based, canon will most likely be defined by the ship that makes it out in the end, the one that has proclaimed to be a couple. If the piece of media is not keen on romance, and never creates romantic relationships between characters, it might be enough for the fandom to consider canon a pairing that has simply alluded to being into each other.

Whether the last example is good enough reason to hail a ship as canon depends on the fandom and the shippers. Some might think it's a stretch, some might think it's more than enough.

One possibility would be to look at the writers' intention for the pairing, read interviews if they're available, etc. However, most of the time, franchises have changes in writers over the seasons/games/movies, and it gets even worse when you take into account franchises that are adapted from another source material - say, Game of Thrones vs ASOIAF: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' intentions for the characters certainly differ from George R. R. Martin's intentions.

I'm going to start using actual examples now, to better illustrate my point. I'll be using Resident Evil ships, like I said. RE, despite having constant ship wars, is not famous for making ships canon or focusing on romance at all. The most you'll get is indicators that two characters are into each other or you'll get established relationships that are not subject to ship wars since they have no other love interest (see Mia and Ethan Winters: married couple, established as part of canon and the validity of their relationship with regards to other characters is never questioned). As a matter of fact, you could probably argue that the Winters are the only canon couple in the REverse.

Most RE ship wars happen as a result of Leon ships, the main ones being Aeon (Ada/Leon) vs Cleon (Claire/Leon). There are other Leon ships out there, mainly Chreon (Chris/Leon), Serennedy (Luis/Leon), Leshley/Eagleone (Ashley/Leon), and many more, but they don't engage in ship wars because they have the common sense to be normal human beings about their ships. (Seriously everyone, chill the fuck out.)

Aeon shippers are known for one thing: banging on and on about how their ship is canon - which, in their eyes, automatically discredits all other Leon ships (what's the point of shipping if it isn't to win, right? I'm obviously being sarcastic). Which, knowing the canon nature of Aeon, makes it the perfect test subject for this discussion and post.

Are Ada and Leon into each other? Sure. Ada confessed to falling in love with Leon in OG RE2, they flirted in OG RE4, Resident Evil: Damnation suggests that they have shared at least one night together, and in RE6, Helena guesses that Leon has feelings for Ada. These events, however, have changed in the remakes: Ada no longer confesses to being in love with Leon in RE2R, though she does kiss him to manipulate him, and they don't exactly flirt much in RE4R. But then, by discussing this, we'd end up discussing what is canon in a game franchise plagued by obscure secondary sources of canon, and that's not what I plan on doing here (I also severely lack the extensive knowledge to do that).

Despite all of this, Ada and Leon never actually get together. It's a constant game of cat and mouse, will-they-won't-they, whatever you wanna call it. Since they are on opposite sides of the same fight, it's practically impossible for them to get into a normal, healthy relationship. Going back to what I said about the canonicity of a ship being defined by the standards set by the piece of media itself, you could argue that Aeon is canon by those standards: since they can't get together, it only matters that they have shown reciprocated feelings towards one another.

However, that's not entirely true, is it? RE hasn't set those standards for romance. It doesn't act on ships, but it hasn't deterred romance as a whole: look at Mia and Ethan Winters. It is possible to get into a relationship in RE - now whether it is possible to get a happy ending is entirely less likely.

But I mean, there are other love interests for Leon that aren't on the side of who he's fighting. Look at Claire, or Ashley, or hell even Jill. We can't, as a fandom, reasonably ignore the flirting that went down between Claire and Leon in RE2R (and Infinite Darkness at times) and Leon and Ashley in both OG RE4 (though he does reject her at the end of the OG) and RE4R. And he was probably trying to flirt with Jill a little in Death Island, too - he's a bit of a whore (affectionate).

How do you even define the canonicity of a ship in a universe like RE, in which most characters can't form normal, healthy romantic relationships? Is it enough to kiss/sleep together (Aeon)? Is it enough to unabashedly flirt and to practically be parents to a practically adopted daughter (Cleon)? Is it enough to share all sorts of romantic tropes and overtly flirt with each other (Leshley/Eagleone)? What happens when you start removing all of the events that used to be canon, but might not be anymore/be part of a different canon than the current one?

4. Conclusion (kind of)

I really want to offer a definition of a canon ship that suits everyone, but every time i come up with one, I bump into yet another wall. Tentatively, we could define a canon ship as a ship that has, by the standards of the piece of media they belong to, acted on their desire to be together in a lasting manner that disproves all other potential ships for the characters. I'm sure that can be perfected, and there might be elements of this definition that can be refuted, but this is how I would characterise a ship as canon. Which would, you guessed it, make pretty much every Leon ship non-canon in the context of the REverse as a whole.

The one true conclusion of this post, however, is that shipping amounts to playing with Barbies and should not be taken so seriously. There are a lot of shippers who know that their ships have no chances of becoming canon, yet still choose to have fun with it, make content for it in their own space, and some of you guys are dicks enough to go and bully them over it. Go outside, take a breath, and understand that canonicity is not the be-all and end-all of shipping.

I went a bit overboard with this and I'm sorry (not really). I'd love to know everyone's opinions on what makes a ship canon, if there's scenarios I haven't considered, etc! Constructive criticism is more than welcome and as always, my ask box is always open <3

[ashilrak]

20 Questions Writer Meme

I was tagged by @skywalking-through-life! This is super fun omg, thank you!!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

210!

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

1,670,384 words, which feels insane

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, Percy Jackson! I tend to be pretty one fandom at a time, but in the past I've written for Hamilton, Harry Potter, and Marvel to name a few.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Electing Strange Perfections (1,951)

If You Ask Me For My Fire (1,842)

See The Beast You've Made Of Me (1,769)

On Each Other's Team (1,656)

Come Loaded With The Safety Switched Off (1,604)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I'm a huge believe in fandom as a community, and fanfiction as an avenue for that community vs just 'content'. I love answering questions and talking about the fics, and I've honestly made some amazing fandom friends in comments on fics. I think commenting is a really valuable part of community-building in fandom, and I think that replying to comments helps with that :)

6. What's the fic you wrote that has the angstiest ending?

I think this is all a matter of perspective, but I definitely have a few that are regarded as angsty even if I don't necessarily see them that way? Picking one, I might have to say See The Beast You've Made of Me.

7. What's the fic you wrote that has the happiest ending?

This is harder to answer lol, a lot of my happier fics are more moments, rather than a having an ending with build-up. But, Love Has A Way To Find Ya (Sneaks Up Right Behind Ya) is the first one that comes to mind!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have actually been very fortunate in this regard! I've had a few negative comments for sure, but most are more along the lines of "stopping reading here" or just poorly worded. I have several fics I've been more worried about, but locking the fics has seemed to discourage anyone who wants to be senselessly cruel! A lot of what I write isn't to everyone's taste, so some less than perfect comments come with that territory.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I absolutely have lmao. I haven't been in the mood for it recently, but I have my fair share. As for what kind, it depends on the ship and dynamic, and how seriously I'm treating it lol. I've written daddy kink to casual pegging to sweet losses of virginity.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Not really? I have a few ideas that have broached crossover territory, but I don't make a habit or it!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, though not recently. I'm sure there's a lot more out there in all honesty, but I've only stumbled across it once or twice on random websites when I've had the thought to google my username.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've been fortunate to have a couple translated, and it's always the most amazing feeling ever.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, I've co-written quite a few! I've done round-robins as well as more formal collabs where both authors are working together and writing together throughout the process. I really enjoy doing them and have written some of my favorite fics with others! They're definitely challenging, but I think I have the benefit of being pretty adaptable.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

So one thing you need to know about me is that I'm really bad at favorites. I think my favorite canon ship amongst my fandoms would be Percabeth, but my favorite ship for reading fanfiction for would, historically, be Tomarry/Harrymort/whatever you want to call it.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but don't think you ever will?

I am actively determined to finish the ones first coming to mind, but honestly the one I doubt I'll ever do anything with is the AU lovingly referred to as Percy French Whore lmfao

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think my adaptability is my greatest strength. I definitely have themes and patterns I fall into, but overall I try to keep an open-mind to ships, aus, and more. I've gone back and forth between past and present tense, I've written over 25 ships for PJO alone. There's very little I look at and think I can't write, even if it takes some time to come around to it/make it work for me.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I think my biggest weaknesses have to do with managing a story as a whole. I have these grand ideas, but I struggle to bring them to Completeness. I'll have dreams of showing a realistic development of a character from the one we know and love to something twisted and taken advantage of and miss a few beats, and drop a few characters and plot points along the way. I'm also not the best at worldbuilding. I'm a pretty low-context type of person, and it's highlighted in a fanfction type of environment. I'll get questions about worldbuilding in fics--and they'll be GOOD questions--and I'll sit there with my head tilted at the screen wondering why anyone would think of that 😭

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I like the idea of it, but would definitely need help from a native speaker. I got overly confident with my high school Spanish classes and made an attempt and I will never be doing that again.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Twilight. First fandom I read for, first fandom I posted for. Twilight was how I discovered fanfiction.net and started me down this path.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

This is almost impossible to answer just because there are so many factors at play, but the first two (very, very different fics) coming to mind are both collabs: HAUNT ME, THEN— with @mrthology and The Murder Monologues with @theinevitablesense

I tag @sappho-of-space 💛

[cityandking]

3, 7, 12, 19, 27 for the first two ships that come to mind!

thanks tabby! I'll do the girls and dairef // development questions for couples

3. By contrast, what was the moment that first made their ~heart~ Soft for the other person? Not necessarily a conscious realization of “I love this person,” but a moment that had them like “Oh...I adore them...”

BRAN/SABINE — it was absolutely sabine getting into a fight. doesn't matter which au; bran saw sabine get into it with a guy at least half a foot taller than her and was like. oh. I want her to come home with me. huh. (I have no idea what swayed sabine but I'd imagine it involved bran being at least a little bit of a cocky sonuvabitch) DAI/ZAREF — some moment of watching zaref with izzy and seeing him like, 80% more chill than normal. the trust was there already, and the admiration, but there was that small and strange period of time in selto where everything was quiet and they could all settle in and daichi saw him without all his armor (metaphorically and also literally) and was like. oh. oh. (word of DM says for zaref it was shortly after they arrived in wiztopia, after they had their talk about zaref hiding the truth of the void from them but daichi being willing to trust him and trust that they'd have each other's backs)

7. Do they (or would they) pursue the other character’s affection, and if so, how? Do they tell the other character how they feel? Try to earn their admiration? Woo them with romantic gestures? Flirt with them, skillfully or otherwise?

BRAN/SABINE — yeah, absolutely. bran loves flirting and putting on a show and grand gestures, and she also likes being liked, which means a lot of wooing. it starts out kind of teasing and fun—bran likes sabine's exasperation and likes it even more when she's honestly surprised or pleased about something—but the longer it goes on, the more it's clear that this isn't just a temporary thing, the more heartfelt and intimate it becomes (I don't think there's actually much feelings talk, but actions speak louder and all that) DAI/ZAREF — there's pretty much no pursuing going on there, tbh. daichi really doesn't flirt, isn't one for grand gestures, and doesn't feel the need to earn anyone's admiration. he's a pretty straightforward person and not interested in chasing after people or imposing himself on anyone (unless he's having a gods talk with ozy I guess), so he was truly willing to let things lie. even their first kiss wasn't really a planned thing, it was just. sometimes you give a boy back months of memories and they're all colored by your admiration and affection and trust in him and then you kiss about it a little, maybe. (they did have a proper talk about it, though. dai is big on talking things out; he needs to know how things lie.) (if there's any kind of pursuing happening, it's dai trying to get zaref to talk to him about his past. which has gone sooooo well so far (jk))

12. How much independence do they prefer in a relationship—do they want to share their lives as much as possible with their partner, or do they prefer to mostly do their own thing and let their partner do their own thing?

BRAN/SABINE — I think they're both good at doing their own thing and coming back together after. bran definitely travels a lot, whether or not sabine comes with. not that either of them would mind sharing things, they're just both pretty independent as people, and I think sometimes they need their space. DAI/ZAREF — dai actively enjoys sharing stuff with zaref and is kind of constantly interested in making space for him. that said, I think they're both pretty content to go off and do their own things, then come back together later—they're both pretty private.

19. Are they okay with public displays of affection? Do they like them?

BRAN/SABINE — bran is pro PDA. that's her wife! everyone should know it! check out her favorite person who she loves!! (I think she probably tones it down a little, especially if sabine isn't into it, but generally speaking yeah, bran will be affectionate anywhere.) DAI/ZAREF — daichi doesn't particularly enjoy public displays of affection. the affection is fine, he just doesn't like the attention. plus the first time he and zaref kissed in public it started a domino effect that led to a horrible blowup fight with his best friend, which was never resolved, so. he's a little PDA shy. (I have no idea what zaref's feelings on PDA are but I'd imagine he's a little less picky about it than daichi, given their past discussions.)

27. They have to apologize to their partner. Is this difficult for them? How do they approach it?

BRAN/SABINE — bran's really good at apologizing, actually. part of her life experience has been fostering good communication skills (can't be captain if you don't know how to work with people!) so she's quite adept at talking about stuff after a fight or misstep. she might need some time to process first, but she'll make sure a conversation happens. DAI/ZAREF — haha wow. this is so relevant. yeah. great. I mean on the one hand, he's good at it; daichi has an enormous responsibility complex and is very good at owning up to things he's done and apologizing for them. he doesn't like to let stuff linger. on the other hand, sometimes you explode yourself right in front of your boyfriend, try to sway him to join your demon army by telling him he'd do well as a soulless soldier of the abyss, and then try to kill him when he turns down your offer, so. maybe sorry doesn't exactly cover that? and you aren't sure how you're going to fix that or make up for any of it? because he's really mad at you (and rightfully so in your opinion)? but you still have to try? (he's gonna go with the straightforward and honest approach and then, uh. see how that goes.)

[minniepetals]

Rose & Thorns: 09

— summary: a lone rose, a little broken, until Jungkook came along and the two of you saved each other. and in doing so, Jungkook showed you a world where he shared with his six other mates.

— pairing: dragon!bts x reader

— genre: fluff / slight angst / poly!au / fantasy!au / dragon!au

— word count: 8.3k

— warnings: none

╰ part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 / part 10

"Hi there."

Just two single words are uttered from your lips and Jungkook is reminded of everything that has happened from the very first moment you spoke those exact first words to him.

He remembered those eyes of yours, so lost, so lonely, yet still having that kindness within to try and reach out a hand in order to ease his pain even if it meant just a small dose. Little did you know you'd end up as a true keeper of the dragons, lover to the seven princes of the East Sky and Mountains. But knowing the rewards, in the end, had never been anything you were seeking for at the time, and his heart warmed at the single reminder of how truly kind your heart is. After all, before you could even come to that moment of happiness with them all, you had to face serious consequences all because of that kind heart of yours.

Looking back on it, Jungkook only wished he could have dealt with it all in a better sense. If he were there for you like you were always for him, if he had gotten to his lovers a little sooner to make them see that nothing about you had been false, if he had been there through your pains and tears, maybe you could have reached that dream of freedom and happiness so much quicker.

"Jungkook?" Yet no matter what he thought, you were always there gracing him a sweet smile with such precious eyes that he knew he would forever hold dearly to.

"Back from taking care of the little whelps?" He asked, driving his thoughts away from the memories in order to look at what was in front of him instead. Jungkook knew he couldn't keep dwelling on the past no matter how much it had hurt him. Because here you were, lips curled into a brighter smile and he knew then that no matter what he thought, you'd never blame him for anything.

But perhaps that was what was hurting him even more.

You walked into the castle, feet having light bounces to them with a basket full of laundry. "I'm fairly certain Namjoon will hold an apprentice ceremony for Haeun soon. Who do you suppose her mentor will be?"

He grabbed you by the arm to pull you back in front of him before you could walk right past him without a second thought, surprising you just a bit.

"I'm sure Namjoon will make a wise decision on that but," the young dragon drew both his hands to hold you firmly by the shoulders as he expressed a disappointed face, "don't you think you're forgetting about someone else first?"

You giggled under his adorable pout. "Don't you have to get ready for the afternoon hunting patrol soon?" You reminded him, causing him to let out a grunt.

"Why is it that Taehyung and Seokjin are the ones to have you by their sides every day? Why can't it be me?"

"Kook," you laugh, "you know your hyungs would never let me go out there to support the patrols. For one, it can be dangerous especially for a simple human like me, and two, I don't have a clue on what to do during a patrol."

He sighed, allowing his hands to drop by his side again. "It's unfair. Sometimes I wish I wasn't a warrior."

"Don't say that. The clan has both you and Hoseok to keep us protected and that is something I would never want to take away from you."

"I know. I just want to spend more time with you" He looked up to meet your gaze again. "But for now this will do." Without any warning, he leaned in to give you a quick kiss to your lips, causing your cheeks to brighten in an instant as he strolled away with a giggle, knowing exactly what your expression would show without even looking.

You were too adorable for your own good.

.

.

"Have you ever had scented candles before?"

On one of the rarer days when you were free from your duties and didn't have the little whelps demanding for your attention almost every second you turned your head and Seokjin was well on his own, you accompanied Jimin in the lonely dungeons as he made his rounds as head of the guards, making small talks ever so often.

There weren't many prisoners locked up for their bad deeds just as the time you spent there a prisoner yourself so you knew Jimin often got lonely making his rounds all alone each time. Taking that into consideration, you weren't going to let the opportunity of your free time be spent doing nothing.

"Scented candles?" You tilted your head slightly to the side with innocent eyes that always got him every time and Jimin chuckled lightly after dropping his clipboard on a table from finishing his rounds with you by his side and turning to elsewhere. "I've heard of them before but they don't necessarily exist around here do they?"

"They don't but there are tales of the scented candles being of great help to be of comfort for anyone in need." Your eyes widened at his words, feeling quite intrigued, and when Jimin turned back around with a few things in hand, your breath hitches. "The first person that came into mind was you when I heard about them," he told you with bright eyes smiling as he brought them on over towards the table at the center of the room. You followed him curiously, rounding yourself to stand beside him as he displayed the candles for you. "So I had one of our traveler dragons to bring them back when they had the time."

"Jimin..." You felt so touched by his kind thoughts for you you almost didn't know what to say towards the sweet gesture. But when he graced you with a tender smile upon your gaze on him, you were sure he understood your thankfulness towards him.

"If only we had these at the time when you were our prisoner." His face fell with slight dejection but you were quick to shake your head lightly.

"Having you to help me then was more than enough, Jimin, I promise. Then again," thinking back to that time, you giggled upon the memories, "would you guys have really wasted such precious things on me at the time?"

He sighed. "I'm glad we can joke about it now but looking back at it, we were so horribly rude to you I can't believe I let my emotions get the best of me."

"You were just worried for the little one."

He chuckled upon your words with a tousle to your hair. "I don't think Jungkook would appreciate someone smaller than him calling him the little one."

You gave him a pout. "And why not? You do it to him all the time."

"Because I'm his hyung. Though he does often tease me about it from time to time." You giggled knowingly, already picturing their small bickering when it came to the two of them and their banters. Having seen that, Jimin smiled from where he stood beside you and brought his hand behind your head in order to pull you close and place a sweet kiss on your forehead, surprising you and making your cheeks flare up at the sudden gesture without warning. He found it cute how you had yet to get used to their kisses whether unexpected or not but returned his eyes to the candles despite the shocking state you were still in.

"Shall we try one of them?"

With his question, you blinked in a daze before shaking your head to return to the subject, and with your cheeks still slightly flushed, your eyes darted back to the candles laying on the table. "There are so many different kinds," you observed with a slightly opened mouth of astonishment to which Jimin found adorable.

"I didn't know what kind of scent you'd prefer so I got the dragon to get a couple different kinds."

"Lots of them are flowery scents," you beamed under the lowlights of the dungeon as you went on to pick up the candles in order to observe them up close. Pulling them up close to your nose, you waft at them in order to get a sense of how each of them smelt, your expressions clearly pleased each time you got a new scent to try as Jimin simply stood there watching you, happiness blooming in his chest at just the sight of you so content. "They all smell so great even without it lit up."

Your face fell with furrowed brows as you stared at each of the candles, having a hard time choosing which one to try first and Jimin let out a laugh. "You're so cute," he said. "We can try every one of them now if you still have time to spare."

"I have all the time to spare!" You exclaimed almost a little too happy for someone who had come in the dungeons declaring the desire to help. But he knew that was just the way you were and for that alone, Jimin wasn't at all dissatisfied by it.

"Well then, since you're having a hard time choosing which one to try first, just close your eyes and choose."

"Good idea!"

Upon Jimin's suggestion, you quickly closed your eyes and hovered your hand over the candles, blindly searching over each one before you finally settled with the one to the far right. With that, you opened your eyes again and held that one up.

"Lavender," the dragon beside you stated.

"Lavender's wonderful!" You were quick to say with your eyes lighting up at the chosen one. "It helps relieve stress and anxiety," you let him know and his brows furrowed a little at your words.

"Are you having trouble, little one?" He asked, concerned.

"Oh no, not me," you quickly said with a shake of your head. "I want to share this with Namjoon because I know being a leader to a clan isn't always the easiest. He comes home later than every one of us after all and most times I'm already asleep by then. I haven't seen him around lately so I'm a little worried."

His eyes softened at your innocent kindness that never seemed to ever leave your heart no matter what and for that alone, Jimin almost believed that he was falling in love all over again. "We're so lucky to have you by our side."

You looked up at him and gave him a humble shake of your head. "It's the other way around," you smiled. "Do you think he'll appreciate it? Oh, but you got these for me as gifts."

"Don't worry, it's always best to share gifts like these with each other," he said while gently stroking your head. "I know Namjoon will be more than happy to receive this."

"Then shall we also choose candles for the others as well? I think it would be really incredible to build a storage room for scented candles so that whenever one of us needs it, we can always—"

"Before that."

"Hm?"

Innocently, you looked up from the candles to meet Jimin's gaze only to have your lips captured in a sweet kiss, leaving your breath to hitch and your eyes to widen as you froze right there at the unexpected kiss.

Jimin leaned away just enough to give you some space with a chuckle. "Your reactions will always please me."

"J-Jimin!"

"But," his brows furrowing slightly, he brought his hand over to slowly swipe his thumb along his lip as you simply stood there, staring at those plump lips of his, not knowing what to do, "I want more, little one."

"J.." Your cheeks brightened even more as your eyes were quick to avert to the ground upon meeting his eyes, causing him to let out another throaty chuckle.

"I love you."

He found it amusing in the way your face only seemed to flush even more each time he did and said something. Your eyes were shaking, not knowing where to look, and he was sure your head was swarming with thoughts of how to respond to him. Surely you were panicking upon whether to return those sweet three words or not and it brought a tug at the corner of his lips.

"Well?" He raised a brow, waiting for your permission.

You bit your lip, still contemplating, but Jimin went on to take the lavender-scented candle away from your grasp to place it back onto the table as he inched towards you in a sly manner.

"I..." You opened your mouth shyly.

"Yes?" He urged you on.

"I-I..." You stepped back out of panic but he followed right away. "Well..um..."

"Hm?"

Bravely, you looked up to meet his eyes head-on and Jimin smirked, satisfied with that. But still, he waited to hear your words and despite how slow you were with it, hearing it made him happy nonetheless.

"I love you too." You told him and he smiled, letting his hand trail down your face in a gentle possessive manner before leaning in and pressing his sweet lips to your own.

It's a gentle kiss like the gentleman he is and not long after your thoughts are filled with him and him alone.

.

.

"I can't wait to become an apprentice! I just know prince Namjoon will choose the perfect one for me!"

You giggled fondly at the little dragoness who sat beside you helping you with your duties as the two of you fold the blankets for the whelps together. "But before that, you will have to let him know what you want to be first, right?"

"Ah," she said, almost as if she had forgotten about the beginning steps first.

"Well?" You urged her on. "What would you like to be as part of the clan?"

She looked away thinking, her hands coming down to a stop on top of the white blanket that laid on her lap, her thoughts going on to stray away to the different duties every dragon has as a member of the clan.

"Unnie how did you choose what you wanted to do?" She asked you instead of answering, her decisions still unclear.

"Well," you started, ready to help her to try and decide, "I chose to be both Seokjin's underling and helping out with the whelps because I love helping. I guess it was easy to decide because, for one, I enjoy taking care of the whelps' needs, and two, I'm used to the herbs and remedies as I've often had to learn them myself without relying on others to help me heal when I needed it. Plus it comes in handy when the princes need to be tended to."

"You don't like just watching on the sideline and would rather be of help, huh?"

You nodded with a smile. "Tending to them makes me feel useful. I can protect them in that sense while they help to protect the clan as warriors themselves. I'd hate to just stand back and watch them in pain, not knowing how to help them. It'd feel worse than anything"

Haeun broke into a beaming smile at your answer. "Unnie, that sounds just like you."

You chuckled at her words and went on to tousle her hair. "You'll find your purpose one day soon. Take your time, no one is rushing you."

"Oh!" She let out a cute little gasp. "What if I worked as a caretaker as well? That way I can be of more help here in the roosts!"

"That sounds—"

"No."

The two of you turned at the voice to find Taehyung walking up with a slightly displeased expression as he handed little Kihyun to Haeun before shamelessly pulling you against his chest right in front of the kids.

"T-Taehyung!" You quickly gasped and were ready to push him away at the unexpected gesture. Only he wasn't going to let you go.

"You already spend too much time with my princess, you can't keep taking her away from me. I'm supposed to be the one who spends more time with her than anyone else, Haeun!"

You couldn't believe this was the reason for his refusal of Haeun's help but rather than taking him seriously, the dragoness let out an exasperated sigh as she stood from her spot with Kihyun in hand before purposely sticking her tongue out at the prince. "Sucks to be you then, my prince, because unnie likes me more than you anyways!"

He let out a dramatic gasp with the grip around you only tightening. "How dare you say such lies."

Yet she made no comebacks and simply ran away before Taehyung could scold her anymore.

You giggled at their little banter and turned around to face your lover with a sigh. "I would appreciate it if you kept the affections to a minimum in front of the little ones."

"Why should I? Those little dragons are already trying to steal you away. I'm just marking my territory so they know not to steal someone else's mate, especially one that belongs to a prince."

"You know they're just playing around."

"That's what they'd like you to think, those mischievous little brats."

You burst out laughing at how ridiculous he was, jealous of the little dragons and even having quite the serious pout plastered upon his face. You didn't know what to expect walking into the relationship but even so, everything had been so well you were glad to be able to laugh and smile along their sides no matter how many times you'd get flustered by the things they did.

Frowning at you for not taking him seriously, Taehyung grabbed a hold of your face in both his large palms and brought himself right in front of you, making your laughter cease almost instantly.

"Is it fun making me jealous?" The prince asked with a raised brow, suddenly giving you a deadpanned look you weren't sure what to think. "Hm, princess?"

Your eyes panned away from his out of panic, already afraid to be caught by the poor little dragons in case they stumbled upon the two of you. "Tae—"

"I'm right in front of you yet you're focusing on something else?"

"If the whelps catch us like this, I—" He brought your face forcibly back to face him again with a displeased expression that is quick to bring your voice quiet all over again. "Tae..." Seeing him like that was a little surprising to you. After all, despite the many months spent in the dragon clan, there was still so much you had yet to know of including how the princes would act as your lovers, and now that you were with them, it still felt a little unbelievable they would feel such love and possessiveness over you.

Maybe that was just the nature of dragons. Just as you've heard stories of them being quite possessive with their treasures, perhaps mating was just as if not more important.

Your faces were so close you were sure Taehyung could feel the heat of your cheeks against his palm. It made you even shyer so you looked away, not brave enough to keep eye contact for much longer, and just for that, he let out a knowing chuckle.

"You're so cute." His voice was low, quiet. "I don't want anyone else to see this side to you, princess. You're ours after all, aren't you?"

You ignored his words in an attempt to hide your embarrassment. "Don't you think, um...you're being a little too brave doing this right here?"

"I'm sure Haeun's got us covered."

"That's not—!" You grunted. "We can't let her watch the whelps all alone, you know that."

"Eh," he shrugged, not caring one bit, "she's a good kid. She'll take care of it. In the meantime—"

"Noona!!"

You were quick to gasp and pushed Taehyung away as soon as you heard the young voice calling your name. "Do you need something, Minho?" You asked, turning around as the little one ran up to you while you both ignored the cry of agony and frustration falling out of Taehyung's lips as he leaned back into one of the beds of the whelps, holding his face against his palm at the missed opportunity that was now ripped away from him.

"Noona I wanna play with you!" The little dragon exclaimed with a bright innocent grin plastered on his face but Taehyung knew it was anything but. As if to provoke the prince further, he grabbed ahold of your hands and dragged you off, not even sparing Taehyung a single glance, knowing fully well what he had just done.

.

.

"Y/N."

"Namjoon!" He saw you quick on your little feet as you ran up to him with a beaming smile that was just enough to slowly ease the weights resting on his shoulders. But he knew it wouldn't last forever despite wanting to keep seeing that precious smile of yours even if it meant for just one whole night, dreading for the time that was coming. "I was just looking around for you!"

He gave you a tender smile as he drew his hand along your face, stroking it gently. "Did you need me for something, dear one?"

"Mhm!" You took his hand, ready to run off. "Come here, I—"

But Namjoon pulled you back to stand right before him again, he himself not having moved one inch despite you just about to drag him away. "Can it wait?" He said, causing your smile to fall with a slight concern.

"Oh. Are you busy?"

He hated doing that to you. "I was just about to have Yoongi call for a clan meeting."

"Ah," you said, nodding. "Then I will wait for you in—"

"Actually."

"Hm?"

"I want you to attend the meeting."

That took you by surprise as your eyes widened a little, totally unaware that Namjoon would ask you to attend a clan meeting. Usually, he would have all the princes and his most trusted dragons together for a meeting first before letting the rest know of any news that would be important to announce. You've never attended any meetings before and there hadn't been one for a while so surely the things he had to discuss had to be important, right? So why would he ask you to attend?

Seeing the confusion written on your face, Namjoon began to explain. "You're our Keeper now, remember?" He said, reminding you of the ceremony that had taken place just a few weeks ago. "Must I keep reminding you that you are now very important to the dragon clans?"

"Well..." They've mentioned that but you have yet to know what exactly that title meant for you. "I haven't exactly done much, have I?"

"I know," he nodded, understanding. "Truthfully none of us truly understands how a human would prepare for this role but I need you to begin seeing this title as your new duty. I know you have the whelps to take care of and also work alongside Seokjin but being a Keeper will begin to take up the majority of your time now. I need you to be prepared for anything, Y/N."

"I..." The serious gaze he held for you made you understand how crucial it was but still, you couldn't find the answer as to why. "I don't understand."

Namjoon nodded again. "It is best to let everyone know first before you ask your questions." He took your hand and began leading you towards the one room you hadn't exactly been to before; the meeting hall. "But just know that from now on, the Keeper will be attending every meeting that is to be held."

Knowing your questions would be answered soon, you gave him a nod. "Okay."

The meeting hall was a grand hall that laid a large table right in the middle with twelve chairs surrounding it all together. Seeing it up close and personal itself, you could understand just how serious the meeting was going to be. Even Taehyung himself who had already taken his place towards one of the ends held a grim expression.

But upon seeing you walk in with Namjoon at your side, his face lit up just the slightest bit.

"You look tense," he joked as if trying to ease your nerves with his little jokes. "It's alright, princess," the dragon assured you with a soft smile as he held his hand out to offer you a seat beside him. You easily took his hand, allowing him to guide you to the chair beside him as the others began to file in.

Hoseok took his place on your other side with a grin. "First time here?" He asked almost flirtatiously and made you let out a giggle.

Not long after the meeting began.

"The three clans have gotten news of me declaring Y/N as Keeper of the Dragons." You could feel all eyes turning to you at the report that left Namjoon's lips and just for that, you felt a weird feeling drop within your stomach but you weren't sure exactly what you were supposed to feel.

Was it a good thing? Or not?

Weren't the Clans all connected in one way or another despite them ruling their own skies and mountains? Questions swarmed in your head and you were suddenly realizing just how much you didn't know about lots of things that were important to the clan.

Sensing your confusion, Namjoon began to explain. "There are four main clans. The East, the West, the North, and the South. The other clans that exist are the smaller clans that protect other areas that are not covered by the four major clans. The warriors live protecting our territories in order to maintain the lands that were given to us from the first beginning wars many years ago. We are allowed to go to war with any smaller clan to gain land if we wish to do so, but none of us are allowed to attack any of the major clans so that no one clan becomes one over the other and dictates the rest."

"Hence that's where gaining a Keeper poses a problem, doesn't it, my prince?"

You turned your head at the warrior that had spoken. "It..does?"

He sent you a conflicted expression. "Us major clans may not be allowed to attack the others to maintain order but there are other ways to gain power and look slightly better than the rest."

"And one way by doing that is having our ancestor warriors accept a Keeper into one of the clans," another warrior added.

You were posing a problem as a Keeper already? Just by existing? Did that mean you'd have to leave in order to not cause more problems and potentially be the reason the clans may go to war?

Seeing those worried brows furrowing, Seokjin turned back to Namjoon. "The clans have given you their answers, I am sure. What did they say?"

With Seokjin's question, the attention returned to the high prince once again.

"They will accept the Keeper as long as we grant them the permission to use her in the case of any major wars."

Jungkook abruptly stood up in protest. "No!" He said in a thunderous tone with a face filled with rage at the thought of even bringing you to the wars. "I will not allow anyone to use Y/N in any way shape or form even if it comes to our own wars."

"But the Keeper has her powers to protect herself and the ones beside her."

"Y/N doesn't know how to use her powers yet," he was quick to dismiss the thought.

Meanwhile, you look at Hoseok and Taehyung beside you with confusion at this so-called power of yours. You really possessed powers now? And as if reading your thoughts, the two of them gave you a silent nod both firmly to let you know that all of this was real.

"She can learn."

"And she will."

"Whether she learns it well or not does not mean I will let anyone take advantage of her and put her life at risk. Y/N's already gone through so much, you can't just expect her to suddenly be thrown into the middle of our clan's problems."

But you were the root of the problem so it only made sense. And you were sure you weren't the only one thinking that as you looked around the room, noticing the hesitation in the warrior's expressions as some of them felt conflicted on whether to voice their true opinion on the matter or not since they all knew you were the lover of the princes.

Sighing silently with worry, you spared a glance towards Namjoon who seemed to be the one in the most conflicted position. After all, as leader of the East Clan, he had to consider both sides to the problem while also needing to take in the other clan's words without dismissing it so easily.

As you sat there while the debate continued on, you realized that the only way the clan could have accepted you at all was to become a Keeper. That was the only position available to you as a human in order to be someone not only the East Clan could trust but the rest of the clans as well. Which also meant that this was Namjoon's way of protecting you. Because as Keeper, you were given the power to protect not just the people around you but yourself as well.

"Hyung." Jungkook turned back to Namjoon, wanting the leader to declare the words of declining the other clan's orders but you knew it wasn't going to be that easy of a decision.

The room fell silent again as the youngest of the prince addressed the leader who sat tall in his seat at the end of the table. His gaze remained grim with both his hands clasped together in front of him with silent thoughts swarming in his head.

It remained that way for a while, the room waiting for Namjoon to speak.

He closed his eyes for a second before sitting back tall against his seat and looking up to rest his gaze right on you. Your heart skipped a beat, not knowing what he was going to ask of you or if he had come up with a decision, and whatever it was, you knew you had to be prepared.

"Y/N," he called, voice uttered in a low octave.

"Yes?" You were almost too afraid of what his next words were going to be but this was Namjoon you were talking about. You knew you could trust him with your whole life. The two of you went through danger together, helped each other up, carried one another, and made it out alive in the end. You knew more than anyone that he wouldn't purposely lead you to danger. After all, even though he had hated you then, he still protected you from that great fall because he knew you were special to Jungkook.

If there was anyone you could trust, it would be Namjoon.

"The wars that the dragon clans may involve themselves in can be quite brutal," he told you. "There will be enemy dragons far more dangerous than the ones that had attacked both you and Seokjin. You have to, however, be rest assured that our own warriors are far stronger than you can ever imagine. I will do all that I can to negotiate with the other three clans but be prepared to know that you may be needed in one of the wars in the future."

"Namjoon—"

He held a hand up to silence Jungkook without ever diverting his gaze from you. "No dragon that belongs to the clans, whether that of the major clans or the smaller ones, will ever dare to harm you. Every dragon knows not to try and harm a Keeper who lives to protect them. So if and when the wars ever come, will you give your complete trust to us in due time just as the clans will do the same with you?"

Seeing that complete resolve in Namjoon's eyes which hides no lies upon his vow to keep you from harm's way, you knew your answer.

"More than anything, I will entrust my life to the clans."

Proud with your reply, Namjoon let himself give you a faint smile in return.

"This will mean the clans will want to meet her, won't they?" Jimin spoke up upon the possibility and returning to his serious expression once again, Namjoon gave a nod.

"The Keeper has much to learn then."

"That's right."

Customs and courtesies along with the history of the Clans and their origins. Adding along with your training as a Keeper, the need to protect the dragon clans. You had much to do but you knew running away from it wasn't going to happen so you sat there with a resolved look in your eyes, letting the dragons know that you were going to do it all if it meant protecting them.

They smiled knowingly, proud to have you as their Keeper.

.

.

"Can't sleep?"

Namjoon's eyes turned tender upon the sight of you joining him out on the balcony later that night. He held out a hand for you to take and you gladly accepted it with no protest, allowing him to bring you forward and wrap his arms around you to keep you warm from the night breeze.

It remained silent for a while with the two of you just basking in each other's warmth, comfortable with just the sound of the crickets chirping under the night sky filled with the light of the twinkling stars.

"I'm sorry," he whispered a moment later and you turned to look up at him with confusion.

"For what?"

"When I gave you the title as Keeper of the Dragons, I should have asked you about it all first instead of just deciding it all on my own," he told you with a grim expression resting on his face. "Now you're going to have to face some challenges that you weren't prepared for."

His voice was soft against the wind, but you could hear the guilt and heavy stress weighing against him, letting you know that he had been worrying about you with all of this now going on. The other three clans weren't going to give in to his negotiations that easily but Namjoon would be working hard just for the sake of you and for that you knew all you wanted to do at that moment was to ease his burdens.

"It's okay," you told him softly as you leaned against his chest to let him understand that you weren't blaming him for any of it. "You gave me a place in your clan and that is more than enough."

"Being a Keeper is not going to be easy on you. Whether it was the only title I could give you as a human or not, this will only make things harder on you."

You chuckled a little at those words. "You know more than anyone nothing has been easy for me in the first place."

"Exactly." He let out a sigh as his arms around you tightened with worry. "This isn't exactly helping."

"As a Keeper, no one can hurt me, right?"

"You're going to have to learn to defend and use your powers first."

"Mhm," you nodded. "And I will."

"I know you will Y/N, and I trust you with all that I have," he acknowledged without any doubt. "I know that despite the situation you're suddenly placed in, the burdens you will have to face as a Keeper, you won't let any of that get to you and will do all that you can do for the clan. But," he gave you a squeeze, holding you tighter as if to silently tell you how afraid he was knowing he had no choice but to send you away as a leader who had to make the best decisions for everyone, "truthfully I wanted to agree with Jungkook and straight-up refuse the thought of even involving you in any future wars. The little one knows you best. He's seen through it all, feels the most guilty out of any of us for not being able to protect you as well as we should have. And I know you don't blame him, none of us does, he was after all the one who fought so hard for your life. But because he had to go through that, Jungkook will be the one to suffer the most when we have to send you off to fight."

You understood that. You understood the fact that Jungkook's heart was so big he wanted to protect everyone he could with his power. He was there beside you, always feeling helpless he couldn't do much to help you in your situation knowing he had been less powerful than the rest of his hyungs, but even then, you would never blame him because none of it was his fault.

He was a kind, gentle, and loving dragon who refused to let any of his lovers get hurt. But you understood where Namjoon was coming from and knew this wasn't going to be easy at all.

"I will tell you this though," you looked up at the leader whose eyes were already on yours with a firm resolve in his eyes. "As the leader of the Eastern Clan and as your lover, I will not let anything happen to you no matter what we will face in the future. So can you place your faith in me and do your part knowing I will be standing right beside you in all of this?"

"Namjoon..." Dealing with the Clans and potentially needing to be used in some of the future wars would not be easy, you knew, but you also knew that you weren't going to be alone. So you gave him a firm nod, knowing more than anyone that you could trust him. "Of course."

He leaned in to place a kiss on your head. "That's all I need to hear."

.

.

The days grew longer and longer as you took your duties off as Seokjin's assistance and the caretaker of the whelps in order to begin your training as the true Keeper of the Dragons.

You were given a teacher who taught you the history of the Clans and common customs and courtesies to prepare you for the meeting of the other three clans and had to face a challenge in trying to understand how the previous Keeper had lived.

None of it was easy, knowing you would be alone throughout most of it because the dragons themselves had no idea of how to train someone with a position they've never had to face. So you spent most of your time in the large library mostly to yourself with lessons after lessons on the history of the Clans and the first Keeper of the Dragons.

Given the ability to wield the power to physically protect someone while having no idea how to use or control it was hard for a beginner like you, but you knew you couldn't give up so easily because this was now your duty. You couldn't let your clan down nor disappoint anyone.

Everyone believed in you, it was your duty to show them that you were capable of this position without any doubt.

If the other three clans blindly trusted in you to the point of potentially asking you for aid in future wars then you could not let them see you as a weak and vulnerable human who would make excuses on how hard it was. You had to prove yourself to everyone.

Not just your princes, not just your clan nor the other three clans, but to yourself as well.

You were going to face this head-on, knowing it was your duty to protect the dragons now as Keeper of the Dragons.

.

.

"Tired?"

You quickly shook your head as you headed back to the private chambers after another long day of studying. With a big smile plastered on your face, you knew you couldn't let them worry over you so much.

"I'm perfect!" You said to Yoongi who held on to a skeptical expression.

"Well that's true but," he held his hand up to stroke your hair with eyes that didn't blindly believe you so easily, "you know it's okay to say when you're tired, right? You have it very rough right now, after all. We can all see it."

"Well I'm a little tired," you admitted sheepishly, knowing you couldn't hide anything from them as he brought you in to hold you in his arms soon after. "But it's been going well, I promise."

"I don't doubt that." Seokjin came up from behind you to place a kiss on your head. When you looked up at him, his eyes were just as concerned as Yoongi's. "I know you're a smart girl who is stronger than anyone I've ever met, however, you must remember to not push yourself too hard."

"You often go to the extremes for others, that's why we're so worried, princess," Taehyung said.

"If it becomes too difficult to face this all on your own, you have to tell us," Jimin chimed in. "Preparing for battles is not easy but doing this as a Keeper is something beyond our own imaginations. We may not understand some things but we're right here for you, okay?"

"Once you're done with the first steps of knowing how to defend and use your powers as a Keeper, the next step is learning how we fight our wars."

"I'm sorry," Namjoon said after Hoseok, looking the most worried out of them all since he was the one to have given you the title. "This is a lot more than I thought it'd be."

"I promise I'm alright," you said with sincerity at their concern for you. You hated seeing them like that but you knew it was coming from a good place. "Learning to protect the Clans is a privilege. I'm honored to be a Keeper. I won't let you down."

"Y/N."

You turned to the sound of the last prince to speak and saw the way he stood a bit further from the rest of you, an unsettling uneasiness clear on his face as his brows furrowed while he refused to look at you at first. It was silent for a moment as you waited for Jungkook to speak.

When he finally managed to look up and meet your face, you could see how much this was affecting him and felt your heart drop at just the sight alone. Jungkook was so worried about you.

He held his hand out, eyes averting from yours again but still, you took it without hesitation, letting the youngest prince have his way with pulling you into his strong arms. You couldn't see it from where you stood just seconds ago but now that you were in his arms, you could feel the way he was trembling slightly as he held you.

"'Please," he whispered as he let his cheek rest against your head, "if it's too hard you have to let us know. You can't lie to us no matter what. If you don't want to do this anymore then just say the word and we'll take care of it. But I know that is not something you'd ever do because you are much too noble for that so please...please don't push yourself too hard for any of our sakes. If you go too far you'll hurt yourself. So this time, this time I won't let you get too far. I promise I'll uphold my words and protect you. So please rely on me. Okay?"

You knew to some extent that Jungkook worried the most out of everyone but hearing those words coming out of his mouth, feeling the slight trembling of his body, you knew how scared he was right now. So worried, so afraid.

He loved you so much so you knew you couldn't do something that would make him think you were only going to make things harder for yourself.

You stepped back just enough to face him again where you reached up to hold his face in your hand. His eyes were filled with so much grief you wished you could just take all those worries away in a blink of an eye. But it wasn't going to be that easy. Despite that, however, you knew you had to do something to ease the pain even if it meant a small dose.

"I promise, Jungkook. I won't go too far this time."

"Good." He said and buried his face against the crook of your neck, his breath shaky as he let out a sigh. "Good."

"How about this?" Witnessing that moment between the two of you, Namjoon spoke up. "You should take a break tomorrow. You've been working non-stop these past few weeks after all."

"Hm?" You turned to Namjoon with a slight confusion while Jungkook remained in your arms, refusing to let you go anytime soon. "But—"

"The clan haven't seen you in a while since you've been buried in the library almost every day since your training started. I'm sure they've missed you."

"That's right," Taehyung let out a sigh at just the reminder of the little whelps demanding him questions after questions on when they were ever going to see you again. "You know more than anyone how much those little whelps love you. They've been asking for you since the day you started your training and Haeun isn't making things any easier. She's gotten so grumpy I can't keep handling all of them on my own."

You laughed lightly upon the mention of the little ones, already picturing them complaining to Taehyung and bouncing around him for answers about you.

"Everyone knows you're working so hard right now," Yoongi stated with a firm nod. "You should take tomorrow to catch up on things and take things easy. They've all missed you."

"I suppose a day wouldn't hurt."

"Then it's settled." With that, Namjoon gave you a faint smile as he walked up to both you and Jungkook, giving you a kiss to your head before gently patting Jungkook's head. He looked up, still slightly upset about this whole thing. "Y/N's going to be okay," the leader vowed firmly. "Everyone's looking out for her."

"Mhm," you nodded with a smile. "So don't worry too much, okay?"

He took a moment to stare at the kind smile you gave him and seeing how sincere you both were, Jungkook began to look relieved as his face relaxed for the first time in a while. "Okay," he sighed with a small smile of his own. "I'm proud of you."

Your heart blossomed with love.

.

.

Two weeks later, you were to leave to meet the three clans of the North, South, and West.

Dressed in formal wear, you took a deep breath as you stared out at the view of the horizon from the mountain top, knowing this would be the first time you would be leaving the mountain and being gone for a while.

"Are you ready?" You turned at the voice of Hoseok who stood tall beside Namjoon as the two of them would be the ones to accompany you on the journey. Behind them stood the rest of the princes and the clan to bid their farewells and wait for your return. Scanning the crowd, you could see some faces of worry and decided to give them all your usual kind smile.

"I have Namjoon and Hoseok with me, you can all stop looking at me like I'm already going out for war," you said with a small laugh to lighten the dampened mood. "I will be alright," you give them the vow with confidence in order to ensure that they did not have to worry too much.

It seemed to have worked since many of their faces began to lighten up again.

"We will be waiting for your return."

"Please stay safe."

"Send word if anything goes wrong. We'll be ready for anything."

You laughed again. "You all worry too much."

"For good reason." Seokjin walked up looking slightly grumpy. "We're sending our Keeper away after all."

"They won't do anything to me, I'm just going to be meeting them so that they will know who the Keeper is," you reminded him.

"I'm surprised you can be so calm." Truthfully despite Jimin's words, you were quite worried but you knew you couldn't show that now. It wouldn't be the best thing to do knowing the clan themselves were already concerned. "You're so brave, little one."

"Mhm," you nodded at his words with a confident grin. "So trust me a little more, hm?"

"Stay safe, princess," Taehyung told you as he gently tousled your hair.

"I will."

Meeting both Namjoon and Hoseok's gaze, there seemed to be some sort of a silent conversation going on as Yoongi met their gazes before he turned to you with a small smile. "We'll be waiting for you."

"Mhm," you smiled.

"I love you," Jungkook whispered before turning to Namjoon and Hoseok. "You too," he said. "Be careful out there."

"Of course," Hoseok nodded.

"Shall we go? We must reach the Southern Clan before the sun sets." Upon those words of Namjoon's the clan tensed up again along with an odd feeling dropping along your stomach. But you knew you had to do this whether it was scary or not. It was important to the future of the clans after all.

Once both Namjoon and Hoseok transformed into their respective dragon forms, you gave the clan a formal bow of respect. "I shall return in time."

With that, you climbed onto Hoseok's back and the two of them took off riding into the sky, leaving the Eastern Dragon Clan behind.

[hisredhysteria]

"Someone told me stay away from things that aren't yours"

Note: I might do a little bit of a draft clean out as I work on things—

TW: mention of unhealthy relationships, jealousy, manipulativeness, possessiveness, blood, violence, murder, guns. Do not read if you do not like yanderes or any of the previously mentioned warnings.

Summary: Yandere headcanons/au for Hacker, Doctor, Cutthroat, & Courier since they're the easiest for me to think of at the moment— ib @midnightlee25 because I love the yandere akudama drive content they make so I thought I'd share my own headcanons -!

Hacker

The most likely to be yandere, given that he can be quite possessive over things that belong to him

He does not like to see or hear that his s/o gets along with people that aren't him, especially if he's not in some way with them or looking after them in that moment

This leads him to resort to implementing a tracking device somewhere on their person, whether it be on their clothes, in a bag they carry with them, gifting them a necklace with one on it

If he's feeling suspicious, he may even jokingly try or suggest inserting one inside your body somewhere, behind your ear, in your hand...

Hence, he pretty much spies on you all the time or knows your whereabouts

He's not exactly clingy though, he likes to just have you in his general presence at all times.. wherever he is so he knows what you're up to

In the presence of others, he's not likely to cause any physical altercation to go down, but he will become argumentative with those that begin to get too friendly with you—

"You can stop now. They already belong to me."

He encourages you not to go out and see friends a lot of the time too, then gets upset at you when you come back and appear to be in a good mood

"Well you look happy. Who'd you talk to?"

He does not resort to killing anyone, although warding others off through technical means such as leaving them a vaguely.... threatening message on their phone screen at a random time isn't past him...

Doctor

She can become possessive quite easily, given that she may see her s/o as a pawn or a doll only meant for her using

She's got no qualms with killing people right in front of you if she thinks they've done enough babbling.

No, she will not spare mercy either. She will not just knock them out, she is killing them.

She asks you a lot of questions about where you were, what you were doing, who you were with—

"Oh ...? And who are they ...? What did they want with you ..?"

She shows up in places you'd least expect her too as well. She isn't necessarily following you, but you'll be met face to face with her in moments you'd probably rather her not witness

She is VERY scary when made upset, she'll likely cut you slack, but if you do it again then you're better off in a case like a doll.....

Or your organs may make great specimens to keep in jars around her lab

She'll try to make you jealous on purpose too, just so you'll know she's capable of it

She's not one to mark her s/o often unless she sees the need to— leaving a pretty little heart carved into their hand when she does

Cutthroat

If he could, he'd likely cage you or keep you locked away somewhere, only to take you out when he wants to play or to show you something

This is to preserve your life, but also because it allows him easy access to you at all times

If for whatever reason he can't keep you locked away, he's at your side almost 100 percent of the time

He needs to be in your presence, although like Hacker, it doesn't mean he's clinging to you the entire time...he may be busy daydreaming until you try to run...then he's snapped out of it..

"Huh-? Where are you going...!? You're not supposed to leave."

He is clingy though, so at times he'll force you into his grasp, whether you like it or not. He may even force you to let him sleep in your lap when he's tired, that way he knows if you're getting up to leave

He'll kill those who talk to you, even if they weren't threatening your life. He masquerades it as just having fun and playing around because he got bored of their talking and you looked bored too....

"It's not my fault they kept talking... besides, their life matters less than yours."

He'll feel bad when you scold him, but that's not because he killed someone, it's because you're upset now.

He'll mark you for fun, not because he needs people around him to know you're his. You're his whether they see it or not and it's not like he can't just easily murder those who think you're not—

He's rather messy and unclean when he does leave marks on your body. He'll start off small, until he sees more and more blood....then he becomes excited and the marks will increasingly get careless or even messy.

Courier

He's a little less on the possessive side and is ruled mostly by jealousy, fear of abandonment or the fear of losing you

He'll likely ignore the jealousy until it becomes so bad he has to cope

He's masochistic in the sense that he's going to let his jealousy eat away at him and he'll enjoy the dark feeling for a bit to cope...

Only a bit though, he merely only tricked himself into believing he likes the feeling of jealousy....that way it hurts a little less and it'll buy him some time before he starts to act out.

He'll talk down about people that you mention around him, not necessarily shooting the person down too much....but telling you that they're nothing but trouble to hang around

"You're still talking to them...? Didn't I warn you they were no good..? ...Don't cry to me when they prove I was right."

He does not kill anyone he is jealous of, he'll simply remove you from the situation with an excuse ....or, if he can manipulate the other person's words well enough, maybe he can justify pulling out his gun to scare them off

He's always got an eye on you too. Watching from afar, toting you around on missions when he thinks you're likely to find someone else other than him to occupy your time while he's gone

He does not think to mark you, but like Doctor, maybe you'll catch a glimpse of him in places you'd least expect

[madcatdaderpydrawer-blog]

I. Think I just spent the last two hours deep diving into your blog lmao- Head full many thoughts and headcanons now- I just hyperfixated on all your aus at once, and it's been a while since I've read through so much new content! You are officially my favorite fnaf writer lol!

So, if you don't mind trading headcanons I was curious about why Moon and Sun hate parts and service so much! My personal hc comes from the fact that in game they have really dull, not touched up paint at all- And their room is a mess and looks like a glorified storage closet...So I'm just under the impression that they aren't very well cared for at all. I think the technicians would probably dislike Sun's energy and constant chatter (probably worse rambling when he's nervous) and I can see Sun squirming a lot when strapped down- Just in general I feel like he'd get on their nerves and they might objectively call him things like childish or annoying until he eventually starts to internalize these things with everyone but his brother. Basically a bit of verbal abuse.

Moon obviously would hate that and hate the technicians in turn- But he'd probably get his fair share of beratenment too with being so snarky and snappish compared to his brother. I feel like he'd be treated more like a feral cat than anything, where strapping him down is basically mandatory- At the end of the day I feel like both of them would just have severe anxiety revolving around parts and service and would need to go there together or not at all. Post game (if the pizzaplex doesn't burn down) they'd probably be doubly scared to go alone because Sun thinks the second they take Moon down alone they'll decommission him for all the trouble he caused- Likewise Moon is scared that they'll hurt Sun or decommission him by association.

Sorry that was a lot- I have many thoughts about parts and service! There's a lot of subtle things to pile on for angst! From what I've read your Sun and Moon hate parts and service for slightly different but still similar reasons? Mostly the decommissioning for Moon?

I'm glad someone enjoys indulging in my insanity. I swear, these two dragged me back into the fnaf fandom after years and I could not be happier. Gotta love these scrunkly boys.

Headcanon sharing is definitely fun! My reasoning is a bit similar to yours in some way. The condition of their room, and the general fact that they are probably disliked by the staff probably leads to them not liking the staff either. But it is a bit different for me.

Sun isn't necessarily scared of parts and service as much as he is the area it is located in. It's the one other part of the pizzeria he sees on a daily basis, and it is so drastically different from the daycare that it makes him anxious. It's dark, no bright colors, and feels like a haunted basement. But he gets along with the staff just fine. Sure, he is annoying to them; He moves too much, and sometimes won't stop talking, but considering they could be dealing with one of Monty's fits they are pretty lucky. As annoying as he is, he's very manageable with tricks that could literally be used on children being surprisingly efficent on him. Ask him to play the quiet game, or that if he stays still for his check up he'll get a sticker? Oh fuck yeah, it's on. Sun wants that sticker. So all in all, while he is a bit much personality wise, he also is very easy to appease. Don't flat out insult him, offer him a sticker for being good and deliver on said promise and he will be fine. He isn't hard to please. He trusts that the staff know what's best for him.

Moon on the other hand, doesn't trust them for shit. To even get him down into parts and service for anything more then a check up, they have to tell him exactly what they're going to do or he won't listen. He wants to know everything that's happening, and when they get annoyed he argues with them that it's HIS body and he has the right to want to know what they're doing to him. They found that reward doesn't work with him either, at least not something cheap like a sticker, and not having the patience to figure out how to handle his moodiness they ended up using punishment most of the time to get him to listen. Special restraints were made that could attach to the arms and back of the chair, so that they could do maintenance on him without fuss. If he gets moody, or stubborn, or moves too much, the restraints shock him. They are usually placed around his neck and wrists, and they are fairly good at making him listen; Though they are also what stemmed his fear of parts and service in the first place. The amount of times he got shocked before he grew reluctantly obedient was staggering (it was probably instated during his training period, and as I've mentioned before Moon was wayyy more hyper when he was first made- this probably had a hand in stopping that early on). These restraints aren't used on Sun because they aren't needed for him, they are only needed for Moon.

Sun also doesn't like it because he gets brought down there when he's been bad to be scolded. He gets upset because he was made to make everyone happy, and so he feels a lot of guilt for not doing that. Moon is upset being down there, and argues if he thinks what he's being scolded about is stupid, but is scared not because he feels guilt (though he does, if he did something wrong he will apologize) but more so because he's scared of being shocked for it.

Bringing them both down at the same time is worse, though. Because Moon is protective of Sun and vice versa. So Moon will ask about what they're doing to Sun, just to check to make sure it's safe and end up pestering them during Suns check up. And during Moons check up, Sun would refuse to leave parts and service because "if I leave, you'll shock him again!" (they can't put the shock restraints on Moon with Sun around because he gets irrationally upset). But after the virus, it is definitely at least partly related to them both being scared out of their mind about what will happen to the other. Sun couldn't run the daycare well alone, reflecting badly on his ability to take care of children, and Moon was.. well, Moon.

[mallowstep]

sorry im not in the wc fandom but i just wanted to tell u that my friend found out he had a daddy kink thru ur fic and hes crying and screaming xd by the way my friend gushes abt u sound like a fantastic author!

i am SCREECHING dslkjalsdkj;fdas;kjlaf

god what is with everyone and talking about me with my friends. there r NOT that many of you so one of y'all is really chatty or smthn in which case 🥰

okay to person who discovered you have a daddy kink: my ex discovered he had a daddy kink when he was jokingly like "call me daddy," i was like "okay sure daddy," and he was like "wait no i want to call you daddy." true story. i don't have a daddy kink n i emotionally connect w people by telling relevant anecdotes so uh. yeah. hope u find a daddy/get to be someone's daddy, hats off to u.

and ASDLFKJADSL;JFK i cannot believe ur talking about me to your friends like. scream.

i need you to understand: let matthew set the scene for you. the year is 20[redacted you don't get to know how old i am]. baby matthew is like...13? 14? all of his friends r homestucks reading fics etc etc etc.

okay whoops so below the cut will be the full version, which, like. just gets into some of my experiences with sexuality. there's nothing bad/that needs a warning, but (a) it's getting long and (b) ehhhhh i don't really feel comfortable being the adult talking about discovering one's sexuality to youngsters, so. that's a 16+ below the cut.

the tldr is: me and my friends did something very similar and it is WILD to me that i am the person WRITING that now. absolutely wild. cannot believe it (and yet it's true).

again everyone i'm looking for 16+ only down here. now. where i left of:

all sorts of nonsense happens as things do when ur teens. i would LOVE to make jokes but they'd require explaining fandom context so the tl/dr is if you think i'm problematic NOW, you should've seen me back then. so okay so we're trading fics, y'know the usual "i can't believe i read this trust me you have to read this." nyway.

the fic of the hour, the one that i am telling you this story to get to, is by the one and only 2x2verse (agent_florida). now, what you have to know about them is that they've written 138 fics over about ten years, and 87 of them are explicit. i will not be linking what i am about to talk about because, well, i have a thing about not directly linking to certain things, and y'all just have to deal with that. i am giving you all the information you need.

now, 2x2verse is not the only foundational author from this period. thermodynamicActivity was and remains my poison of choice (and poison is the wrong word to use, as "i will read all their dreams to the stars" may have saved my life), NoBrandHero is another favourite, but come now, we all know where i am going with this story.

back to the point.

2x2verse has a good deal of content, a lot of it set in college aus. my mind is telling me it is because they were in college at the time, but that isn't necessarily true. i was a young teen. young teens are incredibly unaware. so.

baby kk, the one and only, sends me "> command line", which is, well...i do always struggle with how to explain things for people, but all you need to know is it's about a crack ship that would make you go, "i'm sorry, who and how?"

and it's a daddy kink fic.

well, it's a lot of things.

now, this is NOT the story of how matthew discovered he had a daddy kink. as established, i do not. matthew knew what he was into from a young age because he was born a kinky fucker and will die a kinky fucker. [note: by this i mean, much in the same way many a young gay know this long before they experience sexual/romantic attraction, so it was with me.]

however.

i cannot QUITE explain the experience of one's friend sending something to you with the tone of, "oh, i liked this. i liked this please read it." and you look at it and go, "god i can't believe i'm about to read this." (of note: i did not even have the grace of command line being a serious fic about trauma.)

this is a core memory.

while i don't know if this is a core memory for the two of you, i cannot properly express the oddity of this. here i am, the struggling college student of my dreams. i am up too late, experiencing Life, etc., wondering if i need to add a scene or two to the...ehh it's too hard to explain you'll see wednesday fic, and i get this ask, and i just.

fucking hell, man.

you ever realize like. my life aspirations as a child were fucking SHIT. not that this isn't good but like my life aspirations as a child knew i was going to b fucking. sdflaj;. anyway.

this means a lot to me to hear, i am going to bed bc it is v late n i JUST told my therapist very proudly that i fixed my sleep schedule, so i have to make that be true.

<3

[dojae-huh]

In general, 127’s MVs and season’s greetings have great fanfic concepts that are mostly underutilized (you’ve mentioned that a Superhuman-based hero AU would be an obvious idea). I think it’s not necessarily lack of interest, but more that the extra research needed to craft these AUs can be tedious, or that the writer may feel insecure in their ability to depict such an AU accurately. The tendency to stick with what is known is strong. If a college AU garners as much or more kudos as an (1/2)

intricately researched and plotted AU, then why bother? For some, the fanfic is simply a vehicle to convey explicit content. (I think entire NCT ships are formed and carried by the desire to see one’s bias in a certain explicit role.) But k-fanfic writers and k-artists are certainly more imaginative than internationals. Also: I think NCT Life in Gapyeong killed most i-writers’ image of a suave, sharpshooter alpha!Jaehyun, so perhaps that’s another reason why the DoMel AU is less explored. (2/2)

--------

I agree. I found i-k-pop fandom to be the most weak when it comes to authors. I guess it's the combination of much more writers being young (as oppose to, say, Star Treck who has writers in their 60-s), the lack of a well-described universe and rules (which a TV-series provides) and the lack of "oldies" who set the bar high.

You are talking about Doberman who hold his gun incorrectly on group pictures? Lol. In k-pop fanart he isn't "a suave, sharpshooter alpha!Jaehyun".

I think writing culture plays a big role. In Russia for some reason (maybe because of fanfiction growing out of roleplaying/reconstruction and Tolkien) researching is a big thing. There are forums where people factcheck (historical, medical, etc). If a person is into a silly samurai-anime, he/she will know the names of the generals, the bushido code, the name of places better than a common Japanese. Many fanfic-writers become publishing writers.

In English-speaking fandom I noticed that people from UK (which is evident from the use of metric system and word spelling) tend to try to write about Korea even if with mistakes, while people from US just move the characters to California (US is very self-absorbed and few travel abroad, while Europeans like to take leap years and go around the world).

I don't know about Korea, but I know it is still a country where people read a lot. And there are lots of BL novellas from different Asian countries, where writers take plot seriously (and cencorship makes many do bromance instead of open BL). So I'd assume it influences what fanfic-writers try to emulate.

I still didn't expect k-pop to be as weak because anime fandoms are not that bad. And the two subcultures are close (attention on Asia). My theory is that after BTS there was an influx of people who never touched any sub-culture before?

[malelovemail]

I haven't seen All These Aus so I cant really talk about how respectful they may or may not be but - fandoms using the same ideas/tropes isn't an uncommon thing. Like yes credit if you're pulling the majority of the story/set up (like in this instance where its not something v basic like 'hlvrai but college') but I don't think its necessarily a bad thing. Like will some stuff be unoriginal, yeah, but thats.. kind of the thing that there's always going to be unoriginal fancontent (1/2)

“Like a fandoms content is really self interactive and derivative off of each other. Like I get what you're saying w 'make your own ideas' but this is something that is also happening with other universes/ideas I've seen in the hlvrai fandom. And w every big fandom, especially ones with a young fanbase. Like ik you're saying 'you don't have to stop' but this is also a result of fan community working off of fellow fan ideas. Not everyone is gonna be skilled enough to build much onto the idea (2/2) Which isn't saying that people shouldn't try or whatever. Point is really just this echoe chamber deal happens w every fandom really and especially with hlvrai's young fans its gonna be more often and with less instances that add much. Its hard to avoid that sort of thing though without discouraging a fandom's collaboration and spreading/sharing of ideas which is what results in some amazing building contributions, but also the echo chambers. (3/2) [sorry theres gonna be 1 more, I know] I actually 100% get the frustration and I've tuned out of the tags bc it has turned into that echoe chamber of like ask blogs and some other stuff. But I don't think this is something malicious, its really just... people doing usual fandom stuff of seeing an idea they like and making their own thing with it, and in this instance has led to this, but I don't think it's really deserving of a finger wagging or shaming just bc its not producing great content. (4/2)” ---------- yup, dont disagree with you there; ive seen this kind of thing plenty in other fandom spaces and my intention in sharing my thoughts on the matter was not to shame young artists from deriving inspiration from the work of others, but in this specific instance there's almost an over-saturation of this one idea of which is very articulately crafted by the original writer, quote “protag gets trapped in an old fashioned computer program and interacts with the cast in a 90s webcore environment, cast tries to help protag escape the computer with the eventual help of an outside source partially at fault for the main antagonist - and by extension the protagonist’s plight, in initially helping work on the program, among other things”. this is a very hand wave-y synopsis but u get the idea almost every re-imagining of this au follows that exact formula, tells almost the exact same story with little deviation, and that under normal circumstances would not be a bad thing for most of these swap aus if there werent, like, literally a dozen of them now. i know for absolute certain no one copy of this idea has ever had malicious intention, and it’s definitely not any one particular person’s fault for contributing to any degree, but it does tend to encourage a bit of piggybacking off of the ideas of other people by copying, rather than taking inspiration from a given piece of media and applying it to their own work, which isn’t necessarily a problem with an immediate (or necessary) solution, if there even is a solution to begin with as i’ve said i’m not asking people here to drop everything they’re doing and start working on something different, at this rate the hlvrai fandom is so saturated with hundreds of au ideas that if i were to ask you to name one completely random idea offhand i could probably find at least one art piece or a blog for it by now - and that on it’s own is entirely fine! multiple renditions of a similar concept is fine, so long as it isn’t a premise as hyperspecific as y2k’s, imo i think a good example of “same concept, personal rendition” that’s been relatively harmonious (from what i’ve seen at least) has been the merfolk aus. ive seen at least 3 different fics for that on ao3 all of which i follow and they take the same general ideas (and mer species, oftentimes) and run with it in completely different directions. there are probably tons of other writers and artists for that medium too and i think its fucking great! its really awesome to see peoples individual takes on a concept like that, au wise, and while the core concept is the exact same there’s not too much overlap in environmental premises the issue i take with people doing similar for the likes of y2kvr is that y2kvr in and of itself is a very unique take on the general, webcore “trapped in a computer/game/etc” theme, it has it’s own unqiue premise, nd i feel like people have overall honed in more on said premise and setting rather than the core concept itself, which has churned out a lot of spinoffs of something much more hyperspecific per result. in general i think people have taken sub-aus a bit too far for this specific concept and i wanted to try and maybe discourage anyone else from jumping on the train at this rate without permission, since mothra has pretty clearly expressed a sense of discomfort towards it now regardless of my thoughts and opinions on the matter comparative to others, at the end of the day it’s more important to listen to and respect the wishes of the creator, whether it be asking permission first or holding off entirely from here on out . thank you for the ask(s)!