#fandom: the middleman

[kenzan-kiwami]

everybody claims to be a kashiwagi enjoyer but the only time anyone ever talks about him is to say he's the hottest piece of meat in the series

[officalgeorgestaniel]

Still reeling from this lol

My Insta has like 30 new followers since this episode dropped and people are DMing me left and right, suddenly confessing their love for my acc?! I can't :') This fandom is the best thing that ever happened to me🥹

[silent-sentinels]

y'know i think our paIe gift exchange partner forgot about us?

[danmeichael]

Every anon here is trying to one up each other on how weird and unhinged we can make the next ask, it's insanity.

i'm glad you guys are self-aware about what you're doing at least.

[madeinjapan-thailand-blbambeyond]

MAN CRUSH FANDOM ▪︎ MADE IN THAILAND

SUPAMONGKON WONGWISUT

[Nickname: JAMES]

SIRAPHOP MANITHIKHUN

[Nickname: NET]

[hermioneismyrealname]

*jots down some notes*

It appears that the love in the air fandom is also following the trends of angst in fanfics. With the decline of love in the air content and upcoming new series, it is hypothetically possible the fans have yet to move on. The current trend is that they are including the characters in one shots for angst and healing. The hurt comfort I believe will proceed to hurt no comfort depending on the outcome of middleman's love. My evidence is due to the fans continuing from love in the air to bed friends. Possibly due to the character King and Prapai, having similar characteristics whilst Uea and Sky are the traumatized cat boys. Thus, with the upcoming drama on the 10th, I speculate the fanfics to decrease but become more focused on tropes. Long fics appear to have died out. Observation will still be carried out because of the trailer for love sea and boy next world have no release date or trailer yet.

[podcast-bookclub]

Specifically to join the conversation around audience distance, it also brings in to question the accessibility of creators and the perceived or literal "lack" of fandom-only spaces. In my experience, Tumblr in particular has historically been a bit off-color; most day-to-day people you encounter don't have a Tumblr blog (and probably have never had one), often viewing the site as something long-dead akin to MySpace despite the consistency of activity across the platform. Generally the content created and shared on here tends to stay on here, especially within fandom (possibly due to a perceived sense of privacy, though that would just be a wild guess.)

That said, Tumblr has always been a "safe" space for fandom to exist, and I believe there's potentially feelings of intrusion to have audio dramatists here right alongside everyone else. While not inherently negative, that type of coinhabitance is (as far as I'm aware) largely exclusive to fiction podcasts, thus just sort of calling for a separate set of rules and a differing approach to fandom than we've seen before. The so-called coinhabitance isn't inherently negative in any way, but by design it definitely lends to a sense of "observation" for lack of a better word.

From the perspective of a fan, knowing that everything you're saying could theoretically be seen by a creator is, in short, nerve-wracking. Particularly with smaller shows and smaller creators (as said, beyond the reaches of audio drama "titans") it's not just a possibility, it becomes just shy of a guarantee. Often posts will circulate around small fandoms; if a creator doesn't see it on the tag or from your blog, it's not unlikely to assume it will circle back across their dash at one point or another. While yes, there is a sense of responsibility as a fan interacting in a space the creator also frequents, it leaves a lot less room for people to share as freely as they might otherwise do. (As an aside, I think creators setting up a filtered/blocked tag to allow their fandom that privacy is wonderful and arguably something every creator on platforms such as this should be doing.)

Additionally, I believe the general (correct) attitude around audio dramas is that the "indie" aspects of the space, as spoken about many times over, allow for the prevalence of representation for often underrepresented identities in audio fiction. Both as creators and fans, such podcasts are a place to feel at home, and here on Tumblr it's further a place to find others you can relate to also within that representation. While there is a certain degree of satisfaction within what the source material's "canon" provides, it may lead to any further hesitance about exploration in fanwork; with the creators, in essence, looking over your shoulder, what if you do something "wrong"?

As an example, take the colloquial habit of rewriting storylines or show endings within more "mainstream" media. A fan feels something was handled poorly, and are well within their right to explore those thoughts and ideas on the betterment of a situation in fanwork. However, I think there's potential with the presence of creators to once again damage that freedom through no fault of their own; a fan may be unhappy with something in the show, but equally as much they're aware a given creator will come across their fanwork depicting however they chose to repair it. While that isn't inherently negative, there may be fear just in the idea of causing an audio dramatist to feel like they made a mistake/should've done things differently/etc. In my experience nothing is ever intended to be an "attack" on a creator's choices, but I do think it could be a very easy conclusion particularly for a creator who is maybe inexperienced in fandom spaces.

All this said, ultimately most things on this topic are, for the moment, speculation, though I'm incredibly curious about the theoretics of any particular solutions to the overall lack of committed fandoms in the space (and, otherwise, observations concerning creators sharing said space.) I think it's easy for a lot of the discussion to become cyclical because everyone seems aware of the issues yet unsure of the best way to handle them, or if they should really be "fixed" at all. Fandom in indie podcasting is, for the most part, an entirely new ballgame, but trial-and-error will only get you so far if there isn't steps taken to at the very least evaluate and potentially adjust the way situations are approached by both fans and creators.

Where are all the Audio Fiction Fandoms?

To be clear, this isn't me complaining, and I know, there are plenty of fandoms for audio fiction podcasts and the like.

But I have always found it weird how few shows get the big, self-sustaining kinds of fandoms, the ones where there's always at least a little trickle of fanfic and fanart. So weird, in fact, that I've been thinking about it on and off for the last 5-6 years, and I have a few theories I'd like to share with y'all as to why, and to see if I can't get some feedback from the audio fiction fans on Tumblr.

Theory 1: Audience Size

The first theory is mostly about demographics - fundamentally, a fandom has to be large enough to sustain itself, and only a certain number of audience members are going to become the kind of fans who make fan works, so ultimately, an audio fiction show needs to get popular enough before fan works start appearing.

There's plenty of support for this theory, of course - Welcome to Night Vale, Wolf 359, The Adventure Zone and The Magnus Archives are titans in the fiction podcast space, and indeed they have big fandoms. But, with that said, there's plenty of other podcasts that are just as big that don't have fandoms, so this can't explain it all.

Theory 2: Audience Distance

This one is similar to the first, but subtly different. A few creators in the space I've talked to have noted that they'd never make fan works of their friend's shows - that feels weird, like deliberately treading on their friend's work. They don't have this feeling when playing in big fandoms, or fandoms where they don't know the creator. This implies to me that fans need a certain level of distance from creators in order to feel comfortable playing with that fictional space. While this is less the case now with the fall of Twitter, a lot of shows, for better or worse, used social media as the primary pillar of their marketing, as well as using Patreons with special access as part of their monetization strategies.

In short, it's never been easier to get close to the creators of your favourite shows, and for smaller shows, the most exuberant fans - the kinds who might make fan works - are also the kinds of fans who will take those opportunities to get closer to the creators. In short, there just might not enough social distance for fans to be comfortable creating works, not at least until the audience grows sufficiently that a creator simply cannot be that close with their entire audience.

This theory I'm not so sure about these days - this one is probably a lot more dependent on the generation of fandom you belong to. Older generations of fandom are more likely to have this queasiness around creator closeness, because they were creating in a time where fandom was a shadow realm, desperately hidden from The Powers That Be, and "No Copyright Infringement Intended" was carved into fan works as an eldritch attempt at legal protection.

Theory 3: Audience Age

To be clear - there are fans of all ages out there. But it is clear to me that fandom trends young, and part of that is just the time needed to participate in fan culture - creating and consuming takes a lot of time, time that tends gets scarcer and scarcer as you get older (there are obvious exceptions of course - stay-at-home mothers have consistently been a major force in fandoms!). It's possible that audio fiction fans just tend to trend older, and thus don't have the time available to create and consume fan works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how relevant this one is - Audio fiction is becoming more popular with younger audiences and slowly shedding the "old fuddy-duddyness" that surrounded it when I was first getting into the space. And, ya know, there are audio fiction fandoms out there, so obviously either the youth aspect of fandom isn't a thing, or it is, but audio fiction audiences are still trending young anyway.

Theory 4: We're getting what we need!

A lot of academic discourse often focuses on the idea that fandoms create for a reason - and that reason is often to focus on parts of a fiction that the original text, for whatever reason, doesn't. The most obvious form of this is the many, many, many examples of ships and erotic fanfiction. You, as a fan, watch a show, see something between two characters, and get frustrated that the show isn't giving you more of that, won't make what is clearly obvious to you, explicit. So, you consume and/or create fan works that help relieve that tension instead.

Or, in shows where the focus is primarily on plot advancement or action, you feel a desire to get to know the characters better - you see the stirrings of these characters, you want to know them better, but the show just isn't the type of show to give you that slow, character-heavy scene/episode that you know would give you exactly what you need, so, again, you go consume and/or create fan works to fix that.

It's very possible that a lot of audio fiction is already built to give these sorts of fan audiences what they want. There's already romantic relationships, characters are openly queer, the nature of the audio medium means that character-heavy scenes are something that the medium directs creators towards, so there's already a lot of character engagement. So, for many fandoms, there just isn't much need to create fan works - there's no tension between what the show is and what it could be.

Theory 5: We can make our own at home!

One interesting theory is that one reason that people make fandom is because, fundamentally, the creators understand that they're not going to be making a film, or a TV show, or a book. They have creative urges, and they're not in a situation in life where they're likely to overcome the enormous barriers to entry in mainstream media, so, in combination with the stuff in theory 4, they play in other people's worlds instead. They know that there's already an audience who will consume their work (they're part of that fan community, after all!), so they can get that validation of creation without needing to create their own TV show or film or book, etc.

Podcasts, however, are different. Now, it's not true to say that podcasts have low barriers to entry - to create a podcast, there's a lot of skills you either need to learn yourself, or find collaborators with those skills. But, those barriers to entry are much lower than visual media. At the very least, audio production is significantly cheaper and less complicated for an equivalent runtime.

Better, podcasts have absurdly low barriers to publication - There are no gatekeepers to satisfy, no distributors you have to convince. Once your thing is made, pretty much no one can stop you from distributing that work. You don't even really need to pay for a podcast host - there's a few free podcast hosts now. So, once you've done the work, pretty much nothing stops you from publishing said work.

So... If you're a creative fan, who loved a show but thinks you can do better? Well, you can! You don't need to play in other people's spaces, you can be inspired by the podcasts you listen to to create your own original work, in the same medium and genre.

What do y'all think? Which of these feel right, which of these feel obviously wrong? Are you part of a audio fiction fandom? What does your fandom feel like to you on the inside? As a audio fiction creator, it's kinda hard for me to get into the inside of fandom culture, so insider perspectives would be super neat for me, so please reblog this to anyone you feel might have an interesting perspective on the whole thing!

[emoclowncircus]

quick little rant thingy because DMC reddit just pissed me off

I hate how so many people in the DMC fandom fall for Dante's party guy shtick and genuinely believe him to be as dumb as a rock . For example an argument i see often for this is his inability pay off his debts/rant . People believe he's simply too dumb to manage any money when in reality it's stemmed from the fact that he has little to no consideration for his well being and puts others' needs before his,rather than his own lack of intelligence. Like Grue's daughters,whom he sends money to support them--or Enzo,his ex middleman. Even in the anime he goes on his way to save his client's brother,without getting proper payment.

Other than that,again in the anime he proves himself to be a worthy-occult detective and how great he can be at reading people. His office also has a decent amount of books lying around showing that yes,he does read and value knowledge

Not saying he's smartest out there,but he is in no way as stupid as people make him out to be.

[kedreeva]

You're sort of one of the kindest people i know on tumblr, so. um. i had a question.

how do i deal with it all?

right of the bat i will tell you i am a minor and my parents are zionists, so i have no income of my own or anything i could donate. everytime i post a single fundraiser that reaches my inbox and is vetted, i get 4-5 new fundraising asks for palestine.

most of them are unvetted, but i keep thinking that if i can't donate i should at least have faith in people and reblog the fundraisers even if they're unvetted, possibly that they're actually new and need as much help we can give, however, there's a possibility they are scams, and i don't want to draw away the attention vetted fundraisers might get.

how do you decide where to help out and how to live with your decision?

I have a policy that when it comes to asks (or messages) that solicit money or other actions (like boosting posts) I don't respond to or even publish asks that come from anyone that has never spoken to me before that moment, and that's a policy that has been in place for many years now, and is unlikely to change largely because the majority of asks/messages that are requesting money or to visit a blog post/their blog/their website are scams (or more often several years ago, led to virus infections on your computer!). My blog is, as it has stated at the top for over ten years now, a personal blog, not a fundraising/signal boosting/vetting blog for spreading donations- there ARE blogs like that, and people can choose to interact with those blogs or not, but my blog isn't the place for it and that's a hard boundary I enforce for my own well being. Tumblr is my place to rest and recover, however I see fit to do that.

A random ask to my inbox asking for money, regardless of what it is for, is (in my view) equivalent to a cold call from a stranger soliciting money. It's not about faith in people, it's not about right or wrong, it's not about can or can't. This is my home, and I don't answer the phone to unknown numbers. I will help friends/family/people I know personally (or parasocially, if I like them or recognize them), obviously, but that's a bit of a different horse.

As for how I decide where to help out, if I have the ability (funds, spoons, time etc), I will seek out information on the best place to donate that can do the most with the money to help the person/people/cause that I want to help. It's the Food Pantry Equation: I could spend $5 on groceries at retail price to donate, and maybe get enough for 1 meal for 1 person (though in this fuckoff capitalist hellscape, I'm not sure $5 would even buy a whole meal), or I could give $5 directly to a Food Pantry organization, who buys in bulk and knows where to get stuff cheap, so that my $5 can help five people or ten people or whatever. I also do my best to participate in fandom events that raise money for good causes; stuff like the fanworks charity auction I helped run to donate to a wolf sanctuary, or stuff like Fandom Trumps Hate (another charity fanworks auction event). Those kind of events are generally open about where the donations go to, and have done research into organizations to ensure the gathered money goes to good charities.

Like with the above, however, it's different if I know the person. If my neighbor comes and asks for a cup of sugar or my friend needs help moving or whatever, I'm gonna give them what they need without the middleman because we have that relationship already established. Donating $5 to a food pantry would probably help more people by numbers, but helping my neighbors and friends and family etc builds community in a way giving $5 to a random stranger on the phone soliciting money cannot, and even in a way donating $5 (or $5 worth of food) to a Food Pantry cannot. It's also usually a matter of one and done, as well as semi-transactional the way any relationship is a give and take; I can give my neighbor some sugar, and down the road they can return the favor the next time I'm in need of help. I help my friends move and I know whether or not I ever move, myself, that they would do the same for me if they're able. You can't say this about a random ask on the Internet and you likely won't ever be able to say it for most charities unless you somehow end up in their exact area of expertise. So it's different.

I feel like you should also learn about Tim Wong, the guy who basically single-handedly repopulated the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly out in California. The lesson his story can and should teach is that... sometimes it can do more good for the world to care Very Much about one specific thing, and put your heart and soul into it, than it does to spread a little bit of care over a lot of things.

So, I guess what I mean to say here is... don't feel guilty about what you cannot do. There's no guilt in that. When you are ready and able to help, you can always go and look for a good way to do so (and what you end up helping may not always be the thing you think it will be), but you don't need to feel pressured by telemarketers or charity donation calls from strangers while you're trying to eat dinner. Especially if they don't even know who you are, either.

[mixingandmelting]

No, Between the Two Of Us - None of Us Are the Sane One

Summary: Childhood to lover trope feat. Dick Grayson where you were best friends with him since the start of his Robin days which was also when he first having a crush on you

Words: 2.7 k

A/N: First time posting in the DC fandom, so please be gentle with me! Also there will be a version for Jason and Tim. ; )

Being besties with Batman and the first Robin is an experience to say the least. Many fantasize how it might go, romanticizing the prospect and excitement the friendship may bring. For you? Zero out of ten, would not recommend. The public masses claimed them to be heroes, but only you and villains know how unhinged they were. You did not appreciate playing the middleman when the two gave each other the cold shoulder or being the center of their amusement. Especially with Robin. You swore on your nonexistent Aunt Patty’s grave that boy was chaotic evil, the agent of all chaos. You grew paranoid for months having been pranked by him every time he swung by so you wouldn’t do “something stupid”. Or so he said only to get you to scream at the top of your lungs whenever you were hanging around on your apartment’s roof, creeping silently towards you and whispering the most random fact he found. He would then cackle with glee and proceed to rub on the wound by reminding you how the first meeting between you three which led to the constant check-ups  (a whole, another story you rather not remember involving a much younger you and Robin, Santa Claus, and pajamas printed all over with I <3 Batman and Robin).  You tried to get back at him multiple times. You never once won. 

However, there were times when he wasn’t pranking you. Moments like those, he’d simply sit and brood next to you, waiting for you to ask what’s wrong before starting his rant about Batman. With little to no knowledge said man, himself, would visit you and ask about him a few minutes after he leaves. Yes, you did question why they thought it would be a good idea for a kid younger than themselves to mediate between their fights only to give up  when you found yourself going in circles as to why you still chose to be friends with them. Way too complicated and big of a headache for your small head. It didn’t seem like Robin cared either, as he would tell you everything on his mind, not a single thing held back. Hands being held or a head leaning on a shoulder was a must when he talks. When that tradition started you genuinely had no idea but you never thought about it. More like you can’t when you saw the expression he wore. 

What started when both of you were merely children continued on to high school, where you discovered his identity. The way you found out was disappointingly anticlimactic. After the many years you hung out with him, of course you would recognize him right away. The same gremlin laughter, the corny jokes he shared with his fellow peers. Oh, and the fact his hairstyle stayed the same as both Robin and Dick Grayson. 

Dick, on the other hand, obviously hadn’t thought through that. At all. Okay, sure, you were on the more observant side but still, you shouldn’t have been able to piece all that together within a semester. He wasn’t even at school often because of all the missions to the point the school had been frequently calling Bruce and Alfred about his many absences. There were plenty of guys who sounded, talked, and looked like him, including his height. He was careful. Shouldn’t have been a “dead give away”, whatever that meant. So when he came over to comfort you after a mission, hearing how you got stood up at the school’s dance, he wasn’t prepared for you calling him by his name. Worse, he couldn’t even play dumb or pretend to not know what you were saying. Not when you gave him the same eyes you always did that held comfort and support he always seeked, as if understanding everything he was going through. 

With the cat out of the bag, he soon had you meet Batman as Bruce Wayne. He enjoyed the mini meltdown and sense of horror you were having, realizing just who exactly you’ve been chummy with all those years. Maybe he shouldn’t have gloated how you should've treated them better when you gave a mean, actually painful jab to his ribs. Still was worth it. So was the impromptu meeting with his team, Teen Titans, when you started working part-time at the pizza place they always stopped by to eat when celebrating a mission gone well. You didn’t know how silly and adorable you were acting, not as bad when meeting Bruce, but definitely shy and frazzled from being star struck. Well, for a bit that was. An hour later, you were sitting and laughing with them about a mission that involved Condiment King. The way you smiled and brightened the room had him thinking for a moment that he had a shot. After all, you practically met everyone he considered family. It had to be a sign for him to seal the deal. 

It stopped and ended as a thought. When you all started talking about love, he didn’t know as much as how he didn’t know which hurt him more; you saying you weren’t going to be in a relationship ever or you, not friendzoned, but bro-zoned him. You don’t notice the way Wally stiffens or the worried glances Donna shot at him. Starfire voiced opposition to your decision to stay single. Raven, not knowing anything, gave you her support. He most definitely did not appreciate Gar feigning disappointment only to get snapped at for going over the line by Vic. 

He didn’t know how to act around you afterwards when he escorted you home. He knew he was making you worried,  more so when he kept telling you he was fine when you asked if you had done anything to make him uncomfortable. He wanted things to stay the same. Retain the precious relationship that led to his love for you. There was no intention to make that night his last night with you. Yet, how was he supposed to act when he found out he never had a chance from the start? As crazy as it sounded, he once even thought about you being a Grayson. Of course not in high school; when the two of you got much older. It filled him with guilt when he heard from Bruce how you were asking about his well-being. It felt like a knife was being twisted in his heart when letters you wrote were slipped between his homework whenever he had gone to school to get them, belatedly realizing he never gave you his number. All he could reply back was the same, lousy excuse of being busy with missions. 

You, on the other hand, waited, hoped, prayed that Dick would visit you again. You knew somehow it was your fault and you wanted to apologize, make things right. Every night you stood on the rooftop, doing homework or simply reading. The nights you don’t, you left his favorite candy with a note. Batman was the only one who visited you then, though his visits were becoming rare from the increase of crimes occurring all over the world. It was through him you learned about Dick’s decision to leave the state and go to some college in New York by the end of the school year. You ended up rejecting the invitation to go with him to the graduation ceremony, knowing there was no point in seeing Dick again.

So really, Dick should’ve seen it coming when he learned from Alfred that you were leaving on the day of. As if to one up him, you weren’t leaving New Jersey.  You were leaving the states. It didn’t help that he had been forced to hand over Robin’s mantle to Jason not too long after the rejection. He had to face another heartbreak, as he mourned over the Robin who first met you, the body wonder who was your best friend, was no more. He naively thought he had time. To debut and cement his role as Nightwing, leader of Teen Titans while getting himself back together, all to come back to you. It was apparent enough to know he didn’t. Finding out on the day of, his hands fumbled with the keys to his motorcycle, rushing to get to the airport on time. Despite breaking every traffic law in Gotham (which he ended up owing Babs on not getting taken to jail or paying a big ass fine), he arrived too late. He couldn’t call out to you, his eyes taking in the glimpse of your hair  through cracks of the closing gates to TSA. 

Years passed and he tried to get over you. First with Starfire, then with Babs. Zatanna, Helena, Bea, Lori, Clancy, mixing one-night stands in between. But none of them ended up working for him. None of them were you. They didn't have the same humor you had. They didn’t give him the same warm hugs you gave him without him ever having to ask because you simply knew. Hell, the whole reason for things to end with each of them was because they called him out for it. His whole team did. Even his whole family including Bruce, Steph, Duke, Tim, and Damian. He’s not going to talk about what happened with Alfred, Jason, and Cass. He still gets nightmares for what they put him through. 

As he continued failing on nurturing a permanent relationship, you found yourself frequently buying magazines or skimming on the webs on the latest news and gossip covering vigilantes and heroes during your study abroad. You had brought with you newspaper clippings you kept on the Robin you still missed and cherished. You could count the number of times Robin changed, recognizing none of them were Dick. Yet you never found the heart to ask Bruce what had happened, if he was okay. Nor would you have been able to when you left without ever getting some sort of contact information to stay in touch with him. 

Now, he’s in his early thirties and you’re in your late twenties. So much has happened during your lives but you still think of each other. All the what-ifs playing in the back of each other's minds, regret and hope constantly raging back and forth. But not once have either you met even when you came back a few days ago. 

Currently, you’re sitting on the ledge of the same roof of where everything began. Gotham glows beautifully without the stars, its artificial lights so bright it makes the city shine as much as it does in the day. Kicking your legs, you hum mindlessly enjoying the scene. That is until someone calls out your name. 

Your grip slips and you scream, nearly falling to your demise. Or about to until a warm arm quickly wraps itself around your torso and pulls you over to safety. Gently the person places you on the concrete floor, a few seconds passing afterwards as your mind registers you’re still alive. Guess they weren’t expecting you to get angry, two hands quickly in the air and sputtering apologies when you stand back up and rage why no sane person would ever scare the living daylights out of a person sitting on a roof along with profanities that could shame Deathstroke and bring pride to Red Hood. You’re panting in the end and reach towards the can of soda you had placed when you were sitting. And when you take a sip, it then hits to who you had raged on. 

He looks away, a hand covering his face from holding back the laughter that threatens to spill out when your face matches a tomato. You’re barely whispering when you apologize for the profanities, of course you aren’t going to apologize for everything else you both know you’re very much right on that part, horrified and embarrassed that you had done that to a very famous vigilante. Out goes his self-control when you go absolutely silent and start to fidget from the lack of response. He bursts at the face you make from mortification. 

“You haven’t changed one bit.”

You freeze at those words. 

“Do…I know you?”

Immediately he stops. The air turns tense, you looking at him with wariness as he slowly turns himself completely towards you. Gently, he calls out your name. When you continue to look confused, he does it again, taking a step closer and pulling off his mask. 

He can see so much denial in your shaking eyes. The desire of you wanting him to say the person standing in front of you isn’t him. He’s quick to grab both wrists and root you on spot, keen and trained eyes already noticing your feet turning to make a run for it. His grip on you is firm but soft, enduring all the words you thoughtlessly, recklessly say while tugging to get him to let go. 

Eventually you stop, acknowledging there isn’t going to be a chance again in the future for you to speak to him or him to you. In fact, you both most likely would  evade each other for the rest of life if not for now. When he’s sure that you won’t escape, slowly, he lets go and takes a step back.

“..Why?”

There’s a tremor in your voice, the area of concrete in front of your feet becoming bi-colored. You don’t scream. You don’t raise your voice. Dick can feel himself break, his throat and chest constricting, dawning on him how not once you fault him for ruining the friendship between the two of you while listening about, for the longest time, all you desired was to apologize. When you weren’t even in the wrong. Too soon your words start to mesh and trip over each other. He takes the opportunity to open his mouth. 

“I love you.”

Your head snaps up, eyes meeting a smile fill with bitterness and self-loath. Your heart initially refuses to accept everything he tells you, how long ago he started to have a crush on you to how it ended up turning into love. You can never relate how his love for you ruined him where all his relationships with others never lasted for long when it’s him. The gremlin child that held confidence to defy everything on Earth, the gremlin child you developed feelings for. Silence hangs in the air once he’s done. All of a sudden you’re livid. Offended. Dick doesn’t notice, going from rubbing the back of his neck to shifting his weight from one foot to the other, wanting to give you the space to soak everything in. When he finally can’t wait anymore, he rushes to think of something, even resorting to begging for your forgiveness. Not looking down at your hands that slowly reaches for his collar.

“Please, all I really want to say is that I'm sorry. I know I was a dick to you so I don’t even deserve to have chance to ask you to be f-”

It takes Dick a hot minute to realize what’s happening before melting in. His hands make their way towards yours, pulling them up and placing them on his cheeks. He tilts his head to deepen the kiss without crossing a nonexistent line that you probably aren’t ready for. It ends up being the right call when you end up breaking it, lack of oxygen in your lungs from having no experience.

“Next time, just ask instead of assuming things.” You growl, pinching the flesh on both sides of his face.

He doesn’t reply or lets you say another word, his soft and warm lips placed right back on yours where they belong. Where they should’ve been since back then. Too bad the second kiss doesn’t last longer than the first, all of sudden hearing wolf-whistles around the two of you. Everyone from the Bat family and the Titans reveal themselves on the roof, some clapping, most teasing on how long it took for you two to get together. You quickly duck your face into his chest while Dick chuckles and pulls you into a tight embrace. 

Later on, a ring adorns his and your left hand. Never once getting taken off, no matter the reason. 

[fairy-writes]

REAL OR NOT REAL

Reblogs and Comments are greatly appreciated!!

__________________________________________________________________________

Fandom(s): Trigun Stampede

Pairing(s): Vash the Stampede x Reader

Word Count: 0.9k

Genre(s)/Tag(s): Gender Neutral!Reader, Reader is Short, Use of Various Nicknames (smalls)

Notes: I’m also taking this concept from The Hunger Games.

PART ONE HERE

__________________________________________________________________________

After three months, your memories of Vash still haven’t come back.

You ended up visiting the doctor who had discharged you, and he reassured you that they’d likely come back in time.

But you were impatient, and Vash was losing hope that you’d ever get your memories back. That much was obvious. He put on a show that he was fine, but you had the feeling he did that so as to not worry anyone.

He was succeeding in anything but that.

Nicholas noticed. 

Meryl noticed.

Roberto noticed. 

Hell, even you noticed!

So, Meryl came up with a game of sorts. She knew about your strange dreams and the odd flashes of déjà vu you’d get around certain things. Thus, the game “real or not real” was born. It was simple, if not a bit dumb, but it allowed you to voice your thoughts and feelings better than before, so you put up with it. You’d ask a question, like if you had been somewhere before, and then ask, “real or not real?”

More often than not, it was real to some degree. 

Vash came alive at the chance to talk about your previous memories. A small smile played at his lips when he spoke about your adventures. The shenanigans you’d get into. Some of it was before you met Meryl, Nicholas, and Roberto. But you found your heart thundering when he grew near. Your palms grew sweaty, even more so than in the desert sun. You liked it best when he would answer your questions. 

Was this what it was like falling in love with Vash?

“You’re killin’ me, smalls! Just get out!” Nicholas complained as you paused in getting out of the van. Meryl had stopped for a bathroom break in a small town, one you didn’t know the name of. 

“We’ve been here before, real or not real?” You ignored him in favor of asking as a wave of déjà vu washed over you. 

Soft sunsets. 

A declaration of love.

A gentle kiss. 

“Real, though you might want to get out of the van before Wolfwoof gets upset,” Vash said good-naturedly as he clambered out behind you. Now that you were slowly grasping at your fleeting memories, you were more comfortable sitting beside Vash. So, you’d all end up alternating who sat where just to give the middleman a break. Nicholas spills out with a few choice words in your direction, but you pay him no mind. Instead, your eyes are locked on a small tavern just on the edge of the town. 

“You took me there once before, real or not real?” You whisper to Vash, who chuckles and rubs at his undercut, 

“Real,” He says cryptically, not elaborating like he usually does. You frown and look up at him, but he avoids your gaze. 

What was up with him?

After a few minutes, Meryl exits the tavern, having relieved herself and ready to return to the desert road. 

“Actually… Meryl, would you be okay if we stopped here for the night?” You ask hesitantly, and when she stops, you elaborate, “I feel like I have missing memories here.”

At that, she readily agrees, much to the chagrin of Nicholas and Roberto. 

You were supposedly on a time crunch to make it to July, where a man named Millions Knives would be waiting. 

But you weren’t about to pass up on this opportunity, so you wander. Some faces are familiar, some aren’t, but something about this place makes you feel warm and fuzzy. You pass an alleyway where you swear there's the ghost of fingertips at your hips and a mouth on yours. 

But nothing comes of it, so you move on. 

Only to realize you’re being followed. 

At first, you think you’re seeing things—a flash of red fabric here, a smidgeon of blond hair there—but you aren’t stupid. You pick up on what’s happening rather quickly. Ducking down the very alleyway you had passed before, you ignore the phantom brushes of gentle caresses in favor of waiting. 

And when Vash passes by the alley, your hand darts out as quick as a whip and snags his jacket. He yelps as you pull him into the shadows with you. 

He’s close, blue eyes wide behind his glasses and lips parted in shock as he nearly falls into you. He barely manages to catch himself with his hands. 

“You’re following me. Real or not real?” You tease and see a pretty pink flush color his cheeks. He laughs awkwardly, 

“Alright, you caught me.” You grin,

“Well, you weren’t exactly being subtle about it. That coat of yours is hard to miss.” You say and release his coat. 

But he doesn’t move.

Your heart skips a beat as he looks down at you. He looks at you as if you hung the moons in the sky. You remember the feelings you had when you passed this alleyway and got into this town. 

Soft sunsets. 

A declaration of love.

A gentle kiss. 

“You told me you loved me here. Real or not real?” You whisper and see his eyes light up. 

“You remember?” He whispers back, just as softly, if not more so. All you hear is your heartbeat in your ears. Vash is impossibly close, leaning down slightly to meet your gaze as he searches your eyes for any hint of a lie. 

But you wouldn’t lie. 

Not to Vash.

“I’m starting to.” You say, stretching up on your tiptoes to kiss him. You gently hold his face as he starts in surprise. It takes all but a split second for him to respond, and he’s desperately kissing you back like when you first woke up. 

The only difference is this time, you don’t pull away. 

[meemoop]

sorry, last thing about this whole discussion, im the anon who talked about the weird fetishization of this fandom and i just wanted to clarify for that one anon that i also think that harry shouldnt be overly sexualized just for being feminine. i dont even hate feminine draco, in fact i think draco should be feminine if he wants to! but the way the fandom treats femininity and how that correlates to being submissive and weak, its a derogatory stereotype! same with how people make taller and muscular people tops or dominant because theyre masculine or dark skinned, another stereotype. point blank, hate stereotypes. whether if you apply it to draco or harry or ron or hermione. i apologize for being annoyed, but that one anon was putting words in our mouths for… saying that the fandom (like any other fandom) has problems with bigotry? which is true, and it should be said for people to grow.

my main point is that your character designs Doesnt fall into stereotypes, or if they do you dont treat it like its their whole personality. and i like that! in the end it doesnt matter as long as you dont treat peoples traits as a whole picture for their identity, basic respect and all.

ANYWAY i dislike using your inbox as both a venting place and a weird middleman for any anon-fighting so youre free to ignore this. but if you do answer i hope youre having a good day! and have you thought about how a drarry proposal would go?

well, I’m glad everything is cleared up now, I hope 😭😅 I don’t hate feminine designs for men either, but I totally understand the harmful stereotypes that tend to come with it. I’m glad a lot of you don’t feel that way about my designs. Even if Draco is thin, he’s an athlete, he’s ruthless, and has a strong personality. Feminine doesn’t always equal docile 🗣️ but all character design is valid, but I understand how it can be harmful by overdoing harmful stereotypes. I’m glad you all have a lot of opinions on this and it was rather interesting to see it unfold 💗 as for a drarry proposal I actually have NO idea lol. But any ideas? Much love 💗🫶

[tooruswhre]

JUJUTSU SORCERERS BEING PARENTS.

– feat. g.satoru, k.nanami, t.fushiguro.

– footnote. new fandom alert! been having jjk in my masterlist since the beginning of time and finally decided to get a kickstart.

obviously this is arguable, just opinion based and can be interchanged with any characters to your fancy!

– content warning. suggestive (?). implied fem reader.

i can only imagine that SATORU is a girl dad. he knew from day one that he is more than ready to spend the rest of his life with you and create a family sometime down the line. and upon hearing it was a girl, the sorcerer was beyond prepared. he spoils that girl all night and day, and it can only be assumed that she is a daddy’s girl from this behaviour. given that he is a sorcerer, and that alone comes with it’s own difficulties; he made a promise to come back to you and his babygirl in one piece every night. he would give her the world and any star in the sky if she wanted.

++ he is such a good listener when it comes to his kids; which makes me believe that his daughter is always willing to share her gossip and boy problems [ to his disliking lmaoo. may i mention he’s overprotective? ] with him because he gives the best advice.

NANAMI would be such a sheltering-helicopter parent, I can just feel it. protecting his children from the dangers of the world and making sure they’ll be able to protect themselves if he isn't somewhere arms reach away. and when he is arm's reach [ 89.9% of the time he is], he’s really probably sitting a few tables or standing a few people away from the kids, unbeknownst to them that he’s watching over them like a stalker. nanami just wants the best for his kids, just doesn’t truly know the way of going about it, so, they wouldn’t understand in their youth.

++ given that he is quite strict, he’s the type of dad that his kids would be scared to ask him for things. though, he loves them unconditionally; just a bit rough around the edges. you’re always the middleman for things, the kids ask you to ask him for them in every situation [when they want something, wanna go somewhere etc] . nanami is pretty blind-sided to that charade; wouldn’t question it if he wasn’t anyway.

to be honest, TOJI wasnt really looking forward to having kids, simply because of his lifestyle. but the conversation of having kids was in your interest; and knowing him, he’ll do anything to make you happy. nevertheless, your child was welcomed into the world a while later. and now he loves that he has a mini-me running around, showing them all the cool tricks and abilities daddy can do. he can’t tell what he loves more, the process of making love to you; or what that outcome brings. nonetheless, he suggests that the two of you should have more kids.

++ i also want to add that this man is soo laidback, if you haven’t figured that out by now. toji is the type of dad to provide his kids with logical instruction and respect!

[ppeonppeonhan]

So My Stand-In just ended, and We Are & Wandee Goodday end next week. We still got Knock Knock, Boys!, My Love Mix-Up!, The Rebound, Love Sea, and SunsetxVibes for a while, but...

4 Minutes (Action | Drama | Sci-Fi)

It took Bible almost 2 years to crawl out of that Build fiasco, and the fandom is primed to see him again with all of the ominous and sultry clips of the series they've been teasing us with.

Obviously, it looks promising 👀 but I'm most excited to see him in action again, and to explore another supernatural Thai drama -- this time about precognition (aka seeing the future). It'll be even more interesting to explore what it's like to be in a relationship when you BOTH have that ability. Does it prevent missteps or prove they're inevitable? We'll also get to see if Sammon, co-writer of the haunting Dead Friend Forever, will haunt us with every project.

Battle of the Writers (Rom Com)

Tutor and Yim of Middleman's Love are joined by not one, but FIVE other couples in this adaptation of a Chinese webtoon where one of them is accused of plagiarizing the other. I love a love-hate dynamic, but I can't imagine Yim resisting Tutor for long, so we'll see.

Century of Love (Action | Drama | Romance | Supernatural)

Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Girl dies. Boy uses magic stone to stay alive and agrees to die a tragic death if he doesn't find his reincarnated girl after 100 years. The Gods said "Ally!", sent her ass back as a boy the last year of that century, as if to say: "Oh, are you really in love? Prove it!" Boy, understandably, doesn't recognize girl. Suspense and tension ensue.

Really enjoying how the supernatural genre is slowly becoming as prominent as the high school / college romance settings. Please give me more of The Sign. But I'm, honestly, not really a fan of the actor Daou, which made it hard to endure their last series together, Love in Translation. Mostly in it for cheeky and adorable Offroad -- and the plot, obviously.

This Love Doesn’t Have Long Beans (Rom Com)

So what I gather from the trailer is that a douchey rich guy hires a model to seduce a chef into making him his successor. Fuzzy on the why, but am far more interested in how that rich guy seduces the model's very aggressive bestie. Double the love-hate. Double the fun.

The Pit Babe writers wasted NO time capitalizing on the success of their series, and their pairings. Not only is this an answer to the Jeff and Alan fandom's pleas for more, it's also a response to the ghost ship of Kim and Kenta. We've never felt so seen. Also, I'm loving Thailand's Chef era.

The Trainee (Comedy | Drama | Romance)

A production intern slowly realizes the assistant director that everybody fears is low-key kindhearted -- and a whole ass snack. PAPI!!!

Love me some OffGun. Cooking Crush was meh but I have high hopes for this one. Per uje, their chemistry is immaculate.

DATE: Mid-July 2024

[mxtxfanatic]

I’m gonna say it once real clear so I have a post to refer back to the moment it happens again (cause it will). I don’t give a fuck about any other reader on a personal level when I am reading a book. I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, the people who claim you, the degrees you hold and in what subject. Not a damn. When I’m discussing the book, I am discussing the things the author wrote in the book. When I am discussing characters, your personal life experiences or cultural “expertise” factor 0% into my analyses except as an addendum to my thoughts if it matches what the novel or author has already said. That means that I will not automatically bow to a reader just because they claim to be Asian in general or Chinese specifically (cause I’ve had people try to flex with both, before). I am just as capable of reading and thinking on my own, and mxtx is just as capable of conveying what she wants us to understand from her story without the “cultural translators” acting as the unwanted, unasked for middleman. Especially when that middleman is directly arguing against what the book tells me. Heritage isn’t a “get out of jail free” card for intentionally shitty analysis and willful illiteracy.

So no, I’m not entertaining your argument that a child abusing character is just fine and dandy cause “I’m Chinese, my parents beat first and ask questions later and that’s called love 🤪” You’re Asian? You’re Chinese? So what? The author is also Chinese and disagrees with you. I also have Chinese friends who’d disagree with you. Are they less Asian than you? Do they not count because they don’t confirm your self-interested generalizations? Newsflash: Chinese people are not a monolith, and the continent of Asia definitely isn’t. Unlike in this cursed fandom, most people irl can think for themselves.

I can tell you one thing, though: mxtx damn sure didn’t write any of her novels so that a particular group of Asian diaspora readers can run to a majority-white fandom to play “cultural translator” about how “inherently abusive” Chinese culture is to a round of hehe hahas at their own expense. And for what? White validation? Western approval? Over a web novel??? Does that not sound demented to you? Is that not the definition of self-hate?

[madeinjapan-thailand-blbambeyond]

MAN CRUSH FANDOM • MADE IN THAILAND

SIRAPHOP MANITHIKHUN

[Nickname: NET]

SUPAMONGKON WONGWISUT

[Nickname: JAMES]