#give them hell otw!

[foolishmortal]

"the site is full of disgusting smuts"

[rockstvrdotcom]

It's 💅anon again!!!!

Can you pls do a s/o who like to bite or mark their partner/mate a lot??? (NSFW or SFW all fine)

With EJ, Masky and Hoodie pls 🥺🥺🥺

ej, masky, and hoodie with a s/o that likes to bite

ej, masky, hoodie x reader (nsfw but mostly sfw in there)

HI NONNIEEE!! the first work u asked for is otw!! i just decided to post this one first because the other is longer lol

tw/cw: marking/biting (duhhh), nsfw, guys theres gore in the photos so beware, fem reader, mentions of blood, scratching, cigarette burns on skin/clothes, spanking, slapping, slight somnophilia kink

EYELESS JACK

you like to mark him:

at first he was reluctant, he thought his skin was already ruined enough at it was. you assured him that it's fine, and that he's the most handsome boy you've ever laid your eyes on. (you both cringed at that but he lowk loved it cos hes canonically insecure abt his skin)

once you did it the first time.. this man could not get enough. literally begged you to do it over and over again. he's obsessed with it. you almost got tired of it (you could never tho)

loves when you leave little kitten licks on the mark; he loves the feeling so much like he could just eat you

loves when your on top of him as you give him hickeys— especially when your sitting on top of him and your hips are grinding against his.

lets out really silent whimpers as you mark him, so silent you don't even hear them most of the time. but when you're near his throat, you can faintly hear them.

gets hard so easily from you biting/marking him.

obsessed with when you have lipstick on and leave little lipstick stains on his cheeks or really any part of his body.

...loves when you mark him near the base of his cock— whether its lipstick stains or his hickeys. he just loves seeing the marks as he jerks off when your not around him. (yall im going to hell)

he likes to mark you:

after he begins to mark you he does not stop. sucks on the skin until its a dark purple/green.

sometimes he even likes to bite through the skin and lick up the blood— if you're okay with it of course.

gets really turned on when you let him break skin, usually ends up in him bending you over the nearest surface and fucking you silly. the blood gets him so riled up.

whenever you both are not busy he constantly has his teeth in your neck; not all the time but often. sometimes he'll just sneak up behind you and take a bite like you're some sort of snack.

he likes to mark you around your collarbone and neck; makes you wear v necks around the mansion so people can see the piece of art he created on your neck.

he was really gentle with it at first— asking you if it hurt or if you were ok. he has a higher pain tolerance than normal he has a hard time knowing the limits, but when you tell him it's ok and tell him you want more? he just can't help himself.

if he's marking you and you both have nothing to do it usually always ends up in him dicking you down. this mans sex drive is HIGH

asks you to sit on his lap any chance he gets and let him mark you.

guys this man is just so obsessed with marking—  gn.

MASKY

you like to mark him:

masky n tim are very different.. tim is such a sweetie pie but masky is a whole 'nother thing. but lets talk about masky

this man.. he's so down bad for you marking him like the second you asked he started rushing you to come over here and start sucking on his neck.

all that and he still won't ever take off his mask— but maybe he'll lift it just enough for you to leave lipstick stains and hickeys down his jawline.

i don't even know whether he prefers the lipstick stains or hickeys. he loves when you break skin though, he's just so into it and it gets him so hot n sweaty.

also obsessed with the way you leave scratch marks down his back when he pounds into you, likes looking at them in the mirror and how they burn in the shower

when you're leaving marks around his neck you can really smell the earthy/woody scent he has.. and a faint smell of cigarettes' on him.

likes when you mark him as hes smoking a cig; two of his favorite things at the same time? sign him up

has to have some sort of grip on your thighs while you mark him, he's obsessed with your thighs.

it js makes him so horny when you have your teeth sunken down into his skin.

wants you to leave lipstick stains on the collar of his shirt or hoodie.. idk man he js loves it.

he likes to mark you

oh boy

he lifts up his mask just enough so he can bite you and taste your skin.

thighs. leaves scratches, bites, kisses all over your thighs. he just can't stop man.

begs you to let him mark you all the time, even though it lowk humiliates him.

"please, pretty. i wan' everyone to know your mine."

leaves scratch marks all over your ass and back, idk he's just obsessed with it.

the whole marking thing rlly plays into his obsession with letting everybody know your his. he's really possesive.

this one might be a lil.. yk. but if you're okay with it and let him, he likes to leave cigarette burns on your thighs. something about stubbing out a cigarette 0n you just does something to him. or he likes leaving cigarette burns on your clothes that you don't mind being ruined.

the way he marks you is just so diverse, you don't know whats next, a bite or??

also likes to spank you or js see your ass red.. seeing the pretty light red shade on your ass does something to him. when you guys are fucking he'll grip/spank your ass hard, he likes seeing his hand prints on your ass.

HOODIE

you like to mark him

when it comes to marking, hoodie and brian are relatively similar but hoodies way more kinky w/ it.

hoodie does not hesitate to do it in public. begs you to mark him all over while you guys are in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people around.

wants you to leave them in the most noticeable places like his neck and jaw.

he just wants you all over him honestly. he wants you ontop of him littering his chest with kisses and hickies. hes so obsessed with you marking him and you can smell the strong but faint smell of cologne on him (idk how that works dont ask me)

looks down his shirt randomly just to see the marks you left on him.

every time he sees one fading he asks you to do it again.

just like ej he likes when you leave marks near the base of his dick, it just adds to the pleasure when the forming hickey is throbbing while you're sucking him off.

he likes to mark you

doesn't stop once he starts.

hes kinda a sadist tbh

doesn't do anything like cigarette burns like masky. but likes to take a smoke while you mark him. he doesn't smoke often though.

hickeys and lipstick stains are his favorite. slapping you and seeing the red slowly creep onto your face tops all of that + bruises aswell.

doesn't slap you just to inflict pain; surprisingly. he just wants to see the red marks on your pretty 'lil face

takes pictures of the marks he left on you with his camera and jerks off to them later.

praises you but also degrades you at the same time as he marks you.

"fuck, you're my cute lil' slut aren't you? so adorable with my hickeys all over her."

grips at your thighs hard while you guys are fucking; hard enough to leave dark bruises. he admires then while you sit on his lap later on.

speaking of sitting on his lap,, he loves when you're sitting ontop of him or you're on your knees infront of him as he lightly slaps you on the face, just enough to leave his handprint.

also likes spanking your ass and leaving bruises on it

squeezes your ass later to hear you wince in slight pain.

marks you while your sleeping and likes to see your reaction when you wake up

kisses the marks he leaves on you

[jeysmullet]

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ♫♬♪ Lucky Girl

zilla fatu x fem!nurse!reader

warnings: fluff, smut, cursing, creampie, overstimulation.

enjoy 💕.

The ache in your feet was painfully evident as you made your way into you and Zilla’s shared apartment, sliding off the crocs you were wearing, before placing your bag and keys onto the kitchen island. You stepped towards the refrigerator, opening it and grabbing one of the many water bottles placed in there.

Turning back towards the island, you hear a noise come from the living room. A smile grew on your face as you realize the noise had come from Zilla. You quickly inched across the kitchen until you had made your way to the living room.

He was lying on his back with the phone in front of his face. You walked over to him, crawling ontop of him.

“What’s up, ma,” The man underneath you spoke. you moved your head, so your chin was on his chest.

“Hi baby,” my smile was growing just looking at him.

“How’d work go?” The feeling of his big hands playing with your hair made you relax into him more.

“It was tiring, Dr.Johnson still won’t leave me alone, even though i’ve asked him nicely multiple times. I even made it clear to him that I was happily engaged but he said that doesn’t matter. It was just very stressful today.”

While you were talking, Zilla sucked his teeth before placing his hands on your ass.

“He gon get his ass beat. I already told his ass if he fucks with you again, imma bring my ass up there. Call me next time he fucks with you.” You hum against his chest.

“I’m serious, Y/n, you know ion play with you letting people disrespect you.”

“I know, Zay, imma tell him. I just don’t want to get in trouble with the hospital.” You take in his tattoos as you trace over them with your nail.

“Ian gon let you get in trouble, ma, you know that.” Zilla’s facesentence trails off as he sat up making you sit in his lap, making your covered heat press against his dick. You suck your teeth before looking up at him.

“Now why would you do that.” He smirks down at you before grabbing your hips and slowly rocking you against him.

“You said you had a stressful day, lemme take care of you.” Zilla holds you as he flips y’all over, so he’s on top.

“Plus you look sexy as hell in those scrubs.” You roll your eyes before laughing.

Zilla leans down beside your face and kisses your neck. A moan falls from your lips as he starts leaving a mark on your neck. You feel him lick the mark before he starts kissing you further down until he reached the brim of your scrubs.

He sneaks his hands underneath the waistband and finds the lace of your panties. He moves them to the side before his fingers finally find your dripping wet core. “Always ready for me. I get you this wet?” He eases two fingers into me.

I grabbed his arm for something to hold onto. “Zilla, please, I need you.” He looks up at you, with his fingers still going, and smirks.

He fixes his fingers to make a “come here” motion whilst still inside of me. I gasped as my back arched from the couch.

“You need me, ma?” You nod your head quickly hoping he would let you feel him.

Zilla takes his hand from your pants, bringing it to his mouth. “mmm, you taste good.” You feel your body heat up as you watch him, your body getting more and more desperate for him to pay attention to your needs.

He taps your side giving you the sign to lift your hips up before going to pull down your pants. He pulls the pants along with your underwear down.

“Don’t matter how much I see fat ma, I can’t never get over her.” You whine at the comment, trying to cover yourself, making him laugh.

He moves your hand before he goes down and places his tongue flat against your heat, making you arch into him. You place your hand in his hair, trying to hold onto something. You grind against his face, or atleast try to before he wraps his hands around your thighs making you stay still.

Zilla was eating you like it was his last meal ever. You felt the familiar knot in your stomach start to form. He continued devouring you even after you had came down from your climax. He finally pulled away from your heat, giving your inner thigh a kiss, as you tried to steady your breathing. He leaned towards your forehead, pressing soft kisses to it.

“Are you okay?” Zilla asked you, rubbing your thighs.

“Mhm, I need you inside of me,” The words slur from your mouth as you look him in the eyes.

Zilla smirks before his hands find the waistband of his basketball shorts. He pulls them down along with his boxers.

When his dick was finally free from his boxers, you looked at it mesmerized as the precum dripped out of his tip as he lined himself up with your core. He teased you as he slides his tip through your folds.

He laughs as you start squirming underneath him. “What’s wrong baby?” Zilla smirks.

“Please Zay,” the sound was almost a whisper with how quietly you said it.

“Please what? You gotta speak up, mama.”

“Please fuck me, Zay.”

Zilla’s eyes darken as he finally pushes himself inside of you. The two of you moan at the contact, it had been a while since you both had alone time, so you had to readjust.

“You good?” Zilla asked after he bottoms out, keeping himself steady but not moving. You nod and he starts moving inside of you slowly and steady. After a few minutes, Zilla’s hips start speeding up, you feel his tip ramming into your cervix with every powerful thrust.

“It’s too big,” You feel tears well up in your eyes as the mix of pleasure and pain fills your body. Zilla brings his hand up to wipe your tears before bringing your legs to rest on his shoulders.

“You want me to stop?”

“Don’t you fucking dare.” You spoke through gritted teeth as you wrap your hands around his arms, which were planted beside your head.

He changed his position, pushing your legs closer to your chest before he lifts himself up and plants one of his legs onto the couch. You feel him reach a deeper spot in your core. Your eyes roll to the back of your head as you feel his tip reach your g spot. The knot that was once in your stomach forms again as he continuously brushes against your g spot.

“I-i’m gonna cum,” You managed to breath out.

“I’m with you, ma.” He brings his hand down to where the two of you were connected and rubs your clit.

Your hands found his back as you came undone, making you drag your nails across his back, surely leaving marks but you could deal with that later. You let out a loud moan as you came for the second time. After a few more thrusts, Zilla shoots his hot liquid inside of you before softly collapsing on top of you.

After catching y’all’s breath and coming down from your highs, Zilla softly pulled out of you and got up. He walked into y’alls shared bedroom and walked into the connected bathroom, before coming back into the living room a few seconds later with a small wet towel. He cleaned you up before picking you up and taking you to the bathroom to use it.

After you finished up your business and cleaned yourself up again. He picked you back up, taking you to the bedroom, before placing you in bed under the covers. He went to the closet before coming back out with a shirt. He walked over to you again as you sleepily sat up, pulling your scrub top and bra off, you grabbed the shirt from him. You pulled it over your head before laying down once more. You dozed off until you felt the bed dip beside you. Zilla settled down in bed before he pulled you into his chest, kissing your forehead.

THE END

y’all this was my first time writing smut for real😭, please be kind or please leave some tips !!

[willowser]

the day of the opening, you text izuku thirteen times.

most of which are met exactly how you'd hoped, in a way that should settle the nerves steadily brewing in your gut:

izuku: i will be there @ 7pm sharp!! ( =＾ω＾)

izuku: did you finish your speech yet?? we can go over it in the car otw!!

izuku: i'm going to grab flowers??? (///∇///) idk if that's okay?? but it's a big night!!! i think you deserve them!!!!

you should be relieved at his excitement, appeased enough to know that he has plans, that he's looking forward to this, too. genuine promise threads his words—and yet you only feel the pinpricks of doubt.

when he doesn't show, you try not to take it to heart. it's not his fault, you tell yourself, angry that you're angry. the life of a pro-hero is a whirlwind, and after knowing izuku for so long, one would think you'd become accustomed to the sound of his voice-mail and the rain check any and all events are given.

maybe it hurts so much worse this time because he didn't show up and he didn't call. didn't answer, either.

maybe it hurts because you're standing in front of the vision of all might in acrylics, your painting style soaking through the canvas; alive in his creases and curves. despite the fact that this is your first time in a gallery opening, ever, you think you were more looking forward to izuku's enthusiasm, than having your face in the local paper.

your smile feels tight across your mouth, as thick and forced as all might's. you hope it doesn't show through either of you on camera.

what would you say your biggest motivator is?

you take a long pause before answering, reminding yourself to rid your speech of any unplanned uh's and um's, and when what you've recited slips off your tongue, you can hear the words crashing into the hardwood below. shattering.

"the truth is that i wouldn't be here without the support of my best friend—"

(in the movies, this is when izuku would come bursting through the gallery doors, sweaty and disheveled in a suit jacket too large for his shoulders despite how broad they've become. people would be awed by the sight of him, glittering in the remnants of his emerald lightning, and he would turn to find you across the floor and he'd smile sheepishly, apologetically, and say—)

"the parking y've got here is shit."

but it's not izuku. it's bakugou.

it's impossible to have grown up with one and not the other, but—where izuku was quirkless—you were a girl, and that made you even more detestable. you weren't invited to any of his sleepovers or birthday parties at the arcade, and his nose always wrinkled at the sight of you and your pink butterfly clips, the dresses your mother loved to doll you up in.

even now, you see him and a strike of fear jolts your heart, instinctive, after watching the beat-down your best friend endured for so long. the only thing that softens him in this moment, for the first time, is the black, mock turtleneck he's wearing, and the bouquet of pale red carnations in his hand.

immediately, the interested party in front of your exhibition is stolen by him, dynamight, though his face twists hideously as they make to crowd him. you know that look, all too well, and you steel yourself for the bite of his words as he snaps at them.

"alright, alright, get the fuck outta my face before i blast all this frilly art shit to hell."

your anger spikes, fed by his own, though you can feel yourself shrinking behind the red-hot look he gives you, snuffed out as quickly as you'd caught ablaze. why, you wonder, why of all people would it have to be him? if this is izuku's way of apologizing, you'd rather have struggled through the event alone.

he stomps when he walks, like an overgrown child, and when he comes to stand in front of you and your small display, he doesn't even offer the flowers he's holding. instead he considers your work with a frown, eyes darting to and fro without so much as an inkling of enthusiasm. and then he takes in you, too—the soft cotton sweater you're wearing, the way you cup the sleeves with your fingers—with just as much disinterest.

and then he says, "thought you were s'pposed to have five pieces."

you were, but you and your nerves pushed your final painting to the last minute, and then you couldn't get any of the colors right, nor the movement. it was choppy and ugly and you hated it—and so you'd just gone without.

but you're not going to tell him that.

"what are you doing here?"

again, his face twists, as if he's sucking on a lemon. "doesn't exactly sound like a 'thank you', for showing up to your—whatever the hell it is."

"it's an art show, don't act dumb," you frown as he sucks his teeth and turn your stare to the flowers, how they're already wilting. petals drooping. your eyes sting as you look back up at him. "where's—"

"the hell do you think?"

it's not his fault, you tell yourself—but your anger has gone, blown out with the wind. the loneliness that always comes after letdowns like these joins you, faithful in its ache. you wrap your arms around yourself and step back further from him, forcing yourself to look away, at the other artists, so that maybe he won't see the gloss in your eyes.

it surprises you, what he says next: "...shitty nerd would be here if he could."

"i know," you say, defensive suddenly, like you always are with him when it comes to izuku. the bite in your tone deepens his frown and he, too, eyes the flowers. he holds them up wordlessly, handing them off to you with more care than you could have ever expected from him. "thank you for bringing these," you murmur.

bakugou shrugs, shoulders hiking up in a way that is as foreign to you as the light pink dust settling over his cheekbones. "don't know shit about flowers, so. whatever. congrats, i guess."

you frown again, brow crinkling. "but—izuku knows, doesn't he? he told you what to get, right?"

"what?" bakugou's nose twists, suddenly seven years old and offended by your proximity. "ain't talked to the fucker all night, just heard the call over the radio 'fore i left."

"wait, what?" you blink and take a step towards him, without thinking, and the action has him rolling his eyes up to the ceiling. cheeks darker, you think, in the low ambient light. "how—did you know to come then?"

and when he looks back at you, eyes molten and metallic, you think it's maybe not offense in his stare, but something else you've never seen on him. "nerd's been talkin' about it all week." he shrugs, and what he says next feels like an answer to more than just this question, here. "came on my own."

[haespoir]

cave me in: mkl.

⨯ pairing: plug!mark x reader

⨯ word count: 1.3k 

⨯ summary: haechan introduces you to his dealer friend, and mark lee makes it so hard to keep the relationship strictly business. not that you minded anyways. 

⨯ warnings: mentions of drugs (weed), some suggestive content, i think thats it enjoy :3

⨯ playlist: cave me in, gallant / half moon, dean / wfm, realestk 

⨯ extra content: part two

⨯ a/n: im completely normal about mark lee i swear ty @markonthemoon​ for furthering my completely normal feelings about mark lee... there might be a part two. 

. . . 

It had been at least 3 hours since you had picked up edibles from Mark. Three whole ass hours, and yet he was still laying on his bed feeling less than whole. Who did you buy them for? Were you getting high with someone else? Was it a guy? 

The first time Haechan had introduced you to him he didn’t pay it any mind. You were a close friend of the younger male’s situation-ship… Whatever the fuck that was. But it was no more than that in his eyes. You were someone who occasionally bought from him, and you were always so polite about it too. And for some unknown reason, or at least unknown to him, that bothered him. A few weeks later, a not-so-sober conversation with Haechan revealed that Mark had a crush on you. One he denied vehemently. Though he guessed out of everyone he sold to, you were the most ideal to date. 

Who the fuck said anything about dating? 

Mark shakes his head as if to rid himself of such wild thoughts. “I’m just hungry,” he says to himself, thinking of ways he could fill that empty void in his stomach. If only he knew, there was no amount of food that would help him feel whole. He grabs his phone, shooting a quick text to someone who knew would also be high at this time. 

mark [11:48 pm]: ramen?  jungwoo [11:50 pm]: and netflix?  jungwoo [11:50 pm]: mark… are you asking me to hook up?  jungwoo [11:51 pm]: say less baby i’m otw!  mark [11:53 pm]: dude what mark [11:53 pm]: no, just ramen  jungwoo [11:55 pm]: mark lee you want me so bad  mark [11:57 pm]: hurry before i change my mind

Jungwoo’s texts cause Mark to roll his eyes, but he grabs his keys. “Yo, Haechan,” he calls out, peeking into the male’s LED-lit room. On his monitor, he sees a discord call and what he believes is your profile picture. Why were you on call with him? “I’m going get ramen with Zeus, want anything?” 

“Nah, I’m going over to my girl’s in a bit,” Haechan replies, smoothly muting the call as he gives his roommate his attention. “I’ll just see you in the morning?” Mark hums, and he’s out the door quickly. He doesn’t want to even think about the relationship between you and Haechan, not when there’s a green little monster creeping through his veins. 

Once Haechan is sure Mark is gone, he’s unmuting the call. “Personally, I think he’s into you.” 

Though he can’t see it, you’re rolling your eyes. “Haechan, you’re just saying that. You’re tired of me third wheeling?” 

“Listen... Your words, not mine, sweetheart,” he says simply. 

“Whatever dude,” you sigh, rolling onto your side on your bed. “Have fun with your shawty. I’m going to sleep.” 

“Just ask him to smoke you out or something,” Haechan says, like it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. “I’m leaving.” 

You hear the noise of him leaving the call before you can even reply, and you’re once again rolling your eyes. You didn’t understand how your friend was into Haechan. What a fucking brat. 

I mean, you can’t just ask someone to smoke you out, right? Isn’t that something that’s offered? You groan loudly at the thought, locking your phone and tossing it on the floor. “Fuck you, Haechan,” you think bitterly. Why the hell did he have to put that godforsaken idea in your mind? 

Because the idea doesn’t leave your mind for weeks after that night. Every time you buy from Mark, you find it harder and harder to deny your attraction to the male. His actions don’t help much either. In fact, you’re convinced you’re delusional. There was no other reason. 

You had mentioned you liked rice krispie treats, and suddenly Mark has rice krispie treat edibles. With extra marshmallows no less.  

One time you heard your friends complaining that Mark had increased his prices. Which was odd because you were spending less on weed than you ever had before. Maybe they were just buying more? 

Or sometimes there’s a small baggie of only the clear gummy bears with the things you buy from him. It’s not like you had told him that the only valid flavor of gummy bears was the clear ones. 

These things weren’t just coincidences, right? Or were they? Haechan also liked marshmallow treats, so maybe they were for him. You had taken a liking to edibles, so you weren’t smoking as much as you used to. Meaning you were spending less money anyways. And Mark said that he liked the red gummy bears the most, so surely, you were just getting the ones he didn’t like. 

You let out a loud groan, ignoring the call from Haechan on Discord. Instead, you opt to shove your face into your pillow before letting out a small scream. Mark Lee was driving you absolutely crazy. 

Perhaps if you picked that call up, the text messages that flashed on your screen 30 minutes later would not have sent you into the panic that they did. 

mark [12:20 am]: yo mark [12:20 am]: i got a new strain  mark [12:20 am]: let me smoke you out? 

Maybe Haechan wasn’t a brat, and maybe you would thank him for this at your wedding years later. But none of that matters when Mark Lee is asking to smoke you out. 

you [12:29 am]: uh yea you [12:29 am]: my place?  mark [12:32 am]: say less mark [12:32 am]: i’ll bring your favorite gummies

He does bring them, and he does smoke you out. Which is why you find yourself in the position that you do. You’re sitting on the floor in your living room, your cheek pressed against Mark’s knee as he sits on your couch. You swear he looks perfect from this angle; his hair is pushed back by a headband he had stolen from you a few days ago, claiming he thought it was like a personal head massage device. You can see the way his eyes are slightly red, and you’re sure yours look exactly like his. Most importantly, his neck is on display, and you want to do nothing more than mark it up. It takes everything in you to not climb into his lap and do exactly that. 

“You look like a puppy,” Mark says, running his fingers through your hair, stopping when he reaches your ear. He’s rubbing small circles on your earlobe with this thumb, his eyes drinking in the sight of you. “My puppy.” 

God, Mark Lee was dangerous. Absolutely lethal. You groan at his words, pressing your face into his thigh to hide away from him. Unfortunately for you, this has the opposite effect, and there is no such thing as hiding from him. The sight of you nearly burying your face into his lap like this does wonders for Mark’s confidence. 

“Come here.” It’s a demand from him, and it’s one that you quickly listen to as he guides you to straddle his lap. In this new position, Mark’s hands quickly go to your thighs; the grip he has is almost bruising. But you don’t mind it, not when Mark’s got his head resting on the back of your couch and he’s staring at you in a way that makes you nervous. 

“Sorry for making you wait,” he says, and you’re feeling a bit confused. “Haechan might have given me a hint or two.” 

The confusion is gone quickly; you were going to strangle that kid. 

Mark laughs at the look on your face, easily reading the emotions as if you were an open book to him. “Don’t think about it, we’ve got a lot of time to make up for.” 

And when Mark Lee presses a kiss against your jaw, his hands traveling under your shirt, you know you’re done for. 

[wander-wren]

every once in a while i like to poke my head into "anti [x]" tags just to see what the other side thinks. recently i was looking through "anti ao3" and found a really funny post claiming that ao3 is not anticapitalist, but actually the Definition Of Capitalism, bc it relies on volunteer labor while supposedly having the money to pay a staff.

oh, honey.

but i am not going to make unsubstantiated claims on the internet, no, and this gives me an excuse to look at ao3's whole budget myself, which i've been meaning to do for a while. these numbers are taken from the 2022 budget post and budget spreadsheet.

ao3's total income for 2022, from the two donation drives, regular donations, donation matching programs, interest, and royalties was $1,012,543.42. less than $300 of that was from interest and royalties, so it's almost all donations. and that's a lot, right? surely an organization making a million dollars a year can afford to pay some staff, right?

well, let's look at expenses. first of all, they lose almost $37,000 to transaction fees right away. ao3 and fanlore (~$341k and ~$18k, respectively) take up the biggest chunks of the budget by far. that money pays for, to quote the 2022 budget post, "server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses."

in some years, otw also pays external contractors to perform audits for security issues, and for more servers to handle the growing userbase. servers are expensive as hell, guys. in 2022, new server costs alone were $203k.

each of their other programs only cost around $3,000 or less, and otw paid around $78k for fundraising and development. wait, how do you lose so much money on your fundraising?? from the 2022 budget post: "Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors."

then the otw paid an additional $74k in administration expenses, which covers "hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools."

in case you weren't following all of that math, the total expenses for 2022 come out to $518,978.48. woah! that's a lot! but it's still only a little over half of their net revenue. weird. i wonder what they do with that extra $494k?

well, $400k of it goes to the reserves, which i'll get to in a second. the last $93k, near as i can tell, gets rolled over to the next year. i'll admit this part i'm a little unsure about, as it's not clear on the spreadsheet, but that's the only thing that makes sense.

the reserves, though are clear. the most recent post i could find on the otw site about it were in the board meeting minutes from april 2, 2022: "We’re holding about $1million in operating cash that is about twice the amount of our annual operating costs. There is another $1million in reserves due to highly successful fundraisers in the past. The current plan for the reserves is to hold the money for paid staff in the future. It’s been talked about before in the past and we’re still working out the details, but it’s a rather expensive undertaking that will result in large annual expenses in addition to the initial cost of implementation."

woah....they're PLANNING to have paid staff eventually! wild!

so let's assume, for easy numbers, that the otw currently has $1.5 million in reserves. before we even get to how to use that money, let's look at the issues with implementing paid staff:

deciding which positions are going to be paid, because it can't be all of them

deciding how much to pay them, bc minimum wage sure as hell isn't enough, and cost of living is different everywhere, and volunteers come from all over the world

hiring staff and implementing new systems/tools to handle things like payroll and accounting

making sure you continue to earn enough money both to pay all of the staff and have some in reserves for emergencies or leaner donation drives

probably even more stuff than that! i don't run a nonprofit, that's just what i can think of off the top of my head.

okay, okay, okay. for the sake of argument, let's assume there is a best-case scenario where the otw starts paying some staff tomorrow. how much should they be paid? i'm picking $15 an hour, since that's what we fought for the minimum wage to be. by now, it should be closer to $20 or $25, but i'm trying to give "ao3 is capitalism" the fairest shot it can get here, okay?

ideally, if someone is being paid to help run ao3, they shouldn't need a second job. every job should pay enough to live off of. and running a nonprofit is hard work that leads to a lot of burnout--two board members JUST resigned before their terms were up. what i'm saying is, i'm going to assume a paid otw staff is getting paid for 40 hours of work a week, minimum. that's $31,200.

at $400,000 per year, the otw can afford to pay 12 people. that's WITHOUT taking into account the new systems, tools, software, etc they would have to pay for, any kind of fees, etc, etc.

oh, and btw, if you're an american you're still making barely enough to survive in most places, AND you don't have universal healthcare, vision, or dental. want otw to give people insurance, too? the number of people they can pay goes down.

it's. not. possible.

a million dollars is a lot of money on the face of it, but once you realize how MUCH goes into running something like the otw, it goes away fast.

just for reference, wikipedia also has donation drives every year. wikipedia, as of 2021, has $86.8 million in cash reserves and $137.4 million in investments. sure, wikipedia and ao3 are very different entities, but that disparity is massive. and i should note that if you give $10 to wikipedia they don't give you voting rights, i'm just saying.

by the way, you may have noticed that i didn't mention legal costs at all here. isn't one of otw's big Things about how they do legal advocacy?

yes, it is. they have a whole page about that work. and i can't for the life of me find a source on otw's website (and i'm running out of time to write this post, i'll look harder later), but i am 90% sure i learned before that most, if not all, of otw's legal work/advice/etc is done pro bono. i've also seen an anti-ao3 person claim their legal budget is only $5k or so, but they didn't have a source. but keep in mind that if they don't have a legal budget, all the numbers above stay the same, and if they do, there is even less money available for paid staff.

you can criticize ao3 and the otw all you want! there are many valid reasons to criticize them, and i do not think they're perfect either. but if you're going to do so, you should at least make sure you can back up your claims, bc otherwise you just look silly.

[lovelyiida]

I’m srry if ur not comfy with writing for mha girls but I’ve been wondering if u can find time to write jirou headcannons? Tysm if u do!

OMG IM SO COMFY WITH WRITING ABOUT THE MHA GIRLS DW!! I've actually been waiting for someone to ask me to write about the mha girls for a minute so thank you for your service lol. I also have a Mina fic otw, but that's another conversation for another day ;)

JIRO KYOUKA HEADCANNONS WOULD INCLUDE:

when the both of you first met, you guys instantly clicked.

it was the first day of class, you had so many thought running through your head at that moment:

were you good enough to become a pro-hero?

did you really deserve to be here?

will you actually make it?

is this even your calling?

sitting at your desk your hands were occupied with a fistful of your uniform. you look down at your legs, lips quivering and eyes watering, you were so nervous.

"hey? are you alright?" you heard a soft voice say. your head rises, snapping out of your nervous thoughts you try and show a smile.

"um yeah! I'm just so nervous." you look away in embarrassment, wiping a stray tear from your cheek. looking back you take in the unknown female's looks.

her dark eyes look into yours deeply, her short dark purple hair laying perfectly around her face. you notice her give you a deadpanned look.

"you're obviously not alright⏤here, we can listen to music together before the bell," she says, she lets out a shy smile as she removes a singular headphone from her ear and extends it out for you to grab.

a little dazed by the confident proposal, you nod and give her a slight bow. placing the single headphone in, you patiently wait for the girl to play her music.

when she presses play, your eyes light up.

"you know this band?" you beamed, the girl's eyes widened as well at your sudden burst of energy. "hell yeah! they're like the hottest thing out on the underground scene! I just went to one of their concerts!" she says back, a light blush on her face forms as she chuckles in excitement.

"what's your name?" you asked.

"Jiro Kyouka! and you?" she says, you tell her your name and the both of you formally greet each other with a bow.

after that day, both of you were hip-to-hip.

it didn't matter where either of you was, because you were always together.

and everyone knew that.

"hey, have you seen L/n? I need help with my combat skills," Mina says.

"y'know they're with Jiro," Bakugo says.

the both of you always went out places or hung out at each other's dorms and listened to music.

you loved it when Jiro would send links to her favorite music, and she'd love it when you'd do the same.

sometimes if the both of you were bored, you guys would make stupid songs on garage band, ultimately leaving the room with stomach cramps with how hard you laughed at Jiro's fried auto-tuned vocals.

there's one time when the both of you were getting tickets to see your favorite popular band, hovered over the computer in the lunchroom waiting for the ticket sale to drop. eyes wide open, staring into the blue LED screen, feeling that if you looked away for one second you'd lose all your chances.

you had all the devices possible, computers, tablets, and phones, the both of you were completely silent clicking any button possible to buy the tickets.

"I got them!" Jiro screamed loudly, the both of you crashed into each other's arms and started to scream like wild banshees. there were a couple of odd stares from people in the lunchroom, but that didn't matter.

and when you guys finally went to the concert, you guys screamed even louder. yelling out the lyrics like your life depended on it, hands entwined the whole night.

taking so many photos together that night, you had so much fun you'd never forget this moment ever.

voices hoarse and eyes tired, you had a sleepover in your room after the concert crashing in the bed...you fell asleep so quick you didn't even notice that you guys cuddled the whole night.

everyone seeing the life drained out of you and Jiro as they first hand witnessed the effects of post-concert depression.

sometimes there would be times when the both of you just co-existed with one another.

no talking, no interaction was needed, just the feeling of each other's presence was enough.

and on days when that wasn't the case, Jiro was there for you no matter what.

if you felt down, she'd be the first person to cheer you up, singing one of the weird songs the both of you made to make you laugh

letting out a weary smile, you huff out a breath and wrap your arms around her waist and embrace her into a soft hug. "what would I do without you, Jiro?" you mumbled into her shoulder.

"I don't know...die?" she says, sarcasm oozing from her lips.

the both of you burst into laughter, she hugs you even tighter now.

"I don't know what I would do without you either, L/n..."

you knew you never felt out of place when you were with Jiro, you always felt so in tune with her. you knew her deepest secrets, she covered all your wounds and healed all your scars.

you were complete.

is it weird to giggle at your own writing, this was so cute I literally was melting into my bed the more a typed this out. I hope you liked this anon!

⏤lovelyiida<3

[hisdarlingabsurdity]

Frankenstein's Monster

Pairing: Neteyam x Fem! Human! Reader

Tags: slow af. Part two otw. Bitter, jaded reader. Stressed Neteyam. Slow burn. Reader is a reader.

You haven’t been yourself lately, and you think it might have something to do with how everything is just so blue. Ever since you were so disrespectfully given birth to, you’re almost always surrounded by blue. It wasn't annoying at first, except the color never seems to be out of sight, there's always something that's blue everywhere you look. Literal blue aliens talk to you. And nobody has any idea how vexed you are at how ridiculously blue the sky is. Now the sea. Everything is just so goddamned blue. 

But you say nothing. It would be unbecoming of you to complain (about something so silly too) after all, it was the Sullys who saved you, Jake had taken you under his wing and taught you almost all he knows about surviving here as a human, so it makes sense that they would take you with them in their self-imposed exile.

They saved you from Dionysus Red, Container 12 where you were known as Subject 003. Even your uniform as No. 3 back then was blue. No wonder you hate the color.

 You really do not know where you stand with all of this. You are grateful, yes. You now eat three times a day, and not those shitty slop they served you back in Dionysus. You had a room of your own and you were free to do as you like, study, learn, listen to music, read, and use the technologies so generously bestowed upon you at Hell's gate. But you didn't belong there, hell, you don't belong anywhere on this moon you were so kindly shoved into existence on.

But you were glad that there was another human there that was your age. His name was Spider and you think he's stupid, especially when he tries to hiss. You adore him, but he gets on your nerves sometimes.

"I wish I could breathe outside like you. It's so unfair," he said one day.

You were watching a video about earth when he strutted in, and stared at you for five minutes straight, before finally speaking. You peek over the screen in favor of looking him in the eyes when you respond. "Sorry we couldn't salvage any of the tech they used to experiment and torture me for an ability I did not ask for. Though it would've been better if you waited for them to make it to subject 14, maybe by then they'd be working on people like me but with tails so they can make tsaheylu."

He shook his head, unraveling his crossed arms. "Okay, sorry. But that wasn't what I meant. You know that."

You shrug. "I don't know what you need my lungs for when you can just stay here with me and just…not go outside, to a world where everything tries to kill ya." You see him giving you a pointed look.

"But you don't even stay here all the time like that, I also envy how Jake gets you himself and teaches you how to survive here. Like, are you kidding me? The Chief himself? And he's practically adopted you." He mumbles the last part.

 You wonder if he sees the arrangement as  special treatment. You don't see it as such but of course, leave it to Spider to overthink things. If he pursues this logic, as ridiculous as it is, he might even one day think that Jake sees you as part of his family. Fool.

"He tries, and I have no idea why. I'm just going with it because I respect him and I believe he's doing it because for some reason (you sigh) he sees me as his responsibility. He's got like what, six kids? Ain't that enough brats to handle?"

"He's teaching you all that stuff because it's all you need since you can breathe their air, all that's left is for you to learn skills and stuff. Y'know, stuff scientists can't inject on you." he says as he plops himself up on a table. "And he's got four."

You roll your eyes, before they flickered to his legs, freshly smeared with spartan fruit, dyed to mimic the Na'vi body stripes. He sees you looking and sighs once again. "You see what I do to try and feel like I belong with them?"

"You certainly belong with them more than I do, you grew up here, and you get along with his children too."

"More like they tolerate me." He rolls his eyes.

"Their mom tolerates you, the kids like you." You drop the datapad on the table to completely focus on him. "That's something, isn't it? At least the kids don't hate you. His eldest glares at me like I personally offended his ancestors."

"Oh, they don't hate you. You don't exactly make it easy to approach you."

"Yeah, well I'm not that interested in making friends, ok? I've got you already. In any case, I think you might as well be part of their family with the amount of time you spend around them."

"I still think being able to breathe the same air as them would help a lot," he replies. 

Sometimes you still miss him.

You do hope that he's still alive…unless he's in a situation where dying is much more preferable.

Naturally, since Jake Sully more or less became your guardian, you had to leave with them. You didn't mind really, and you felt a kind of loyalty towards him, loyalty that's bordering on obsequiousness, and it scares you because you know you would do anything he asks of you (so you've gotten good at hiding before he gets the chance).

And that same loyalty made you feel anger again for the first time in a long while. 

"Absolutely not." Ronal says, the moment her eyes landed on you, she's already decided. 

You feel blood rush to your ears, your fingers digging into your palms as you feel everyone's eyes on you. You knew what Jake's family was thinking. That Neyteri was right and that they shouldn't have taken you with them. Now, they were moments away from finally convincing the chief to let them stay, and your mere presence ruined it. You hated the fact that they would be rejected, and sent away because of you. You knew you'd cause an inconvenience, everyone did, yet they just had to drag you along.

You were seriously even considering friendship with them, since you don't have a Hell's Gate to hide in, no Spider. Now they're all you've got. And you thought that maybe they don't hate you that much. But now the inconvenience of your presence was palpable, you realize that you've got no right to even think about friendship.

"She's one of us…" 

You could hear Jake in the background, voice too muddled because you couldn't focus, you didn't want to focus, because if you did, you'd hear what they had to say, and when you do, you wouldn't be able to help but formulate a response, and then you'd never be able to keep your mouth shut like Jake practically begged you to. So you bit your lip, kept your eyes on the ground, and held your tongue.

⌛🌊⌛

You yawn as you stretch, popping a few joints here and there. You step out of your new home with the Sullys, which was what they called a marui. You look up at the blue sky, then down at the blue sea. Then you catch some of the reef folks giving you the stink eye. You glare back and they shuffle away with a grimace, all pride and indignation. You really wanted to give those blue, lanky-ass grumps a good throttling.

"Stop glaring at the locals, dad told us to behave." The eldest of the Sully kids say as he steps out, already geared up for the day. You look up at him. "He only meant it for you troublemakers. Also, it wouldn't matter if I behaved or not." 

It didn't matter because they would always find something to be displeased about when it came to you.

 

You knew that he knew exactly what you meant and you walked away. Then you went padding right back, then past him to grab the book you forgot from inside the marui. You feel his gaze at you as you leave until you rounded a corner, walking far away to go look for a hiding spot for the rest of the day. 

You plan on making the most of your freedom before Jake masters whatever water animal it is he's practicing on, because then he'll have time to spare on you. 

You hear someone call out your name.

You turn and watch as Kiri sprints her way towards you. You squint up at her, almost blinded at the bright smile she was sending down at you. What an angel. 

"Now, where are you skulking off to again?"

"Anywhere that's far enough."

She looks around comically. "I don't think dad would appreciate you migrating off to another island for your reading time."

"Haha, very funny." You say, trailing off awkwardly, not knowing how to further contribute to the small talk she was obviously initiating.

She giggles as she proceeds to walk ahead, slow enough to let you know that she wants to walk alongside you.

"Look, I just…" she starts, waving her hands a little as she looks for the words she wants to say. "I don't think separating yourself from us is a good idea."

You say nothing, so she continues.

To be honest, it wasn't surprising of her to approach you about this. Of course they might care a smidge about you, like one would normally feel for a stray cat they occasionally give food to.

"They might see that. That we aren't that close. They might realize the distance you're creating and use it to their advantage, to try and hurt you."

"Then you underestimate people, and their capacity for cruelty."

"I think they'd be too disgusted to even try and approach me."

"Oh, I'm well aware of cruelty, I never underestimate anyone's capability for it. But I know I can be just as cruel. You can count on me to not be a pussy and let them trample on me."

"I know. But I think it's better if you don't go looking for trouble…" she says.

"What do you mean?" 

"I think it's better if you stay close to us, don't give them the opportunity to approach you. Don't give them a chance to get a rise out of you and cause conflict."

Oh but of course. Of course she wasn't worried about you, she just doesn't want you to cause more trouble for them. Fair enough. It was presumptuous of you to think that you'd even be on the same level as a stray cat.

"But I don't think your siblings would appreciate my presence around them. Believe me, I also don't want to cause anything bad for your family. Why'd you think I keep my distance for? I stay far away from you, because I know that they'll attempt to provoke me, maybe possibly even try to hurt me, get rid of me, or kill me. I stay far so no one will get involved. The conflict would be contained. Just me. Get it? " 

You stop, and she turns to you with an even more worried look on her face as she scans your features. "That's a valid point," you say.

She stammers, struggling to reply as her cheeks darkened. What she was getting worked up for, you do not know. But you do hope that your genuine wish to not cause problems for them would set her mind at ease.

You walk off.

⌛🌊⌛

You think that perhaps they shouldn't worry too much about you causing trouble, when they can't keep away from it themselves.

You hear Jake's voice from inside the tent. He was seething, and you watch as Lo'ak, the second son, walks out of the marui, his face bruised. He huffs as he pushes past you. You decide against loitering around there like a nosy eavesdropper, not wanting to come face to face with anyone from the tent. Then Neteyam walks out of the Marui. He raises an eyebrow at you, then you turn your back, about to escape from the reaches of the flame, or at least tried to.

"And you," Jake calls out. 

You turn towards him, and you see Neteyam grab this opportunity to vanish.

"You're coming with me."

"...um, no. I don't think so."

From the corner of your eyes, you see Neteyam pause, then pivot towards you, probably with a 'the fuck?' look on his face, the usual one he sends towards you.

Jake narrows his eyes as he stares you down, and you gulp.

"What I meant was, I am not ready yet, sir. I would like to have more time to gather my  courage, please." 

You hear Neteyam scoff.

Jake's brows drew together, deep in thought. You knew you had at least a little bit of a chance that he might relent when he takes his time to decide. If you had no chance at all, then he wouldn't have to think about it. You knew he was too busy for you, and you were right.

"Fine. But prepare yourself. I won't be as lenient once your training starts. You have a lot to learn." 

You, in your relief, grinned up at him. He blinks, clearly taken aback, his stern gaze softening. How it baffled you even more, when he nodded and patted you on the head, before striding off.

You almost burst out laughing when you catch Neteyam gawking at you. You try to keep your lips from curling into a smug, shit-eating grin for his sake. You failed.

⌛🌊⌛

You hate how that exchange improved your mood so much. It was revolting, the way the world seemed so much brighter after receiving a pat on the head from your saviour. You must've been a lot more lonely than you let yourself realize.

Perhaps Jake knew, because he went ahead and dragged you with them to dinner. The dreaded communal gathering that you've been avoiding.

You should've attended these gatherings sooner.

You loved watching the reef folk squirm under your blank stare. And since Jake successfully mastered riding a skimwing, his reputation improved significantly. The reef folk are more careful not to offend him and his people now, at least in front of the chief. Now you can creep them out without having to worry about getting beat up (at least not right now).

The fun was cut off though, when Neteyam notices what you've been doing. He was onto you at once, smiling politely at the people he passed, then as he reaches you,  his smile falls into a scowl. He leans down to you and whispers "will you stop doing that." It was more of a hiss, really. His smile was back again as he pulls away.

For the rest of the night, you can feel his gaze on you. You don't see your life flashing before your eyes, so it probably wasn't a glare anymore. It was unnerving, still. Especially since he's also, quite obviously hovering around you. He wasn't even trying to hide it, like a reminder, a warning.

It was a pretty nice distraction though. At least it was a far cry from the kind of looks you always get from the reef people. Granted, you kind of deserve it for creeping them out with your perfectly practiced, blank eyes, but they wouldn't receive such disturbing stares if they weren't looking at you in the first place. Since the beginning, they look at you like you were a walking direhorse shit. Except for that one girl named Tsireya. You could practically feel her curious stares like laser beams. At least they hurt less than the usual repulsion. Ah. Hurt. Yes, of course it hurts. No amount of bitterness and pretense of indifference can protect you from your very human weaknesses. The desire to be a part of a community. How completely alone you are now, without Spider, without those agreeable middle-aged scientists back in Hell's Gate, who exerted so much effort into building rapport with you. Tsireya's curious gaze is refreshing.

And as if she was summoned with the mere thought of her, Tsireya taps you gently on the shoulders. You meet her squinting eyes, sparkling with mirth, with your dead ones.

"Hi," she says

"Hi," you answer.

She looks down, still smiling. Shouldn't you say something? But she's the one who approached you, if anyone's gotta say something it should be her. 

You watch as she purses her lips in thought. Then she meets your gaze again.

"I apologize. I've never met a human before, and don't really know how to say what I want to say exactly the way I mean them."

You feel a bit warm, right in the chest because she talks so gently and she's so nice and her voice doesn't bear any disgust or hostility…

"What I do want to say is that," she continues. "I would like to be your friend."

"No, thank you."

Observe, the way her eyebrows meet but with anger so nonexistent, its absence apparent in the way her lips form a pout, her eyes glistening in dismay. You know she feels guilty because of the way her villagers have been treating you. You start to feel a little guilty yourself, but her mortification at your unexpected rejection of her offer of friendship gives you that unhinged sense of satisfaction. It gives fuel to the tiny flames licking at the hollow feeling in your knees. It was exhilarating.

You knew Neteyam was watching, too stunned to try and save the day.

You also knew that her brother was watching, his body tensing at the sight of his upset sister. He was far enough away to give you time, and you wait as he pushes himself off the tree he was leaning against, his eyes burning holes at the side of your head.

"You wouldn't gain anything by becoming friends with me. If anything, it would probably upset your parents." You explain.

Tsireya shakes her head, and she grabs both of your hands. Your eyes widened at the contact. 

"I do not think you deserve the way you've been ostracized. You are different, yes. But you are not evil, not like the demons we've heard so much about. Let me be your friend, we can show them that you are not one of those demons."

You did not expect this reaction, and you look around, hoping that no one other than her brother and Neteyam was looking, fat chance because everyone in the village has been blatantly looking at the two of you the moment she took your hands in hers.

"How do you even know that I'm not one of them?" 

Aonung reached the two of you, his lips curling in disgust at the sight of your hand in his sister's.

"I have a feeling. And let us confirm this feeling of mine by spending more time together!" She gives you an earnest smile.

You wanted to shoot her down again and reject her, this time right in front of her brother, just out of spite. But with her round, bright eyes, her genuine smile and reassuring grasp, you couldn't do it.

"If you really want to, I guess." You shrug, trying to appear nonchalant, even as she squeals, shaking your hands as she gleefully bounces up and down. You wanted to smile too.

"Do you wish to be one of us or something?" Aonung asks, clearly giving his all to appear civilized.

"No." You answer simply, and as fast as you can before you could think of a rude answer.

You notice everyone losing interest in your conversation with the chief's children. The reef people are slowly getting back to mind their own businesses. You don't want to gain their scrutinizing gaze once again, and upsetting these two kids would. 

"Then why are you trying to associate yourself with my sister?"

"Aonung," Tsireya groans. "I was the one who asked her first. I'm the one who wants to be friends."

Aonung ignores her as he steps closer towards you, his eyes flickering over to Jake before down again at yours. You couldn't help but steal a glance at Jake too, only to find him too busy talking with Tonowari, the chief. You meet Aonung's gaze once again, this time he was wearing a predatory grin.

"A human, a demon, trying to worm its way into somewhere it doesn't belong. That's what you are. Do not forget."

You take a deep breath, feeling the cool night air stretch your lungs as you try to resist the urge to deck him, right in front of his own village.

"What's up?" Lo'ak saunters toward your friendly group, both his arms resting on top of his head in a lazy manner. His clueless gaze shifting from Tsireya, then to you, then at Aonung. "Am I interrupting something?"

Simultaneously, the metkayina siblings answer a negative and a positive.

"Great, what is this? The gathering of freaks?" Aonung laughs. Neteyam winces, his eyes burning a fiery glare that you've become familiar with.

Kiri follow behind Lo'ak, sheepishly looking at you through her eyelashes.

"It must be, since you're here too." You say before Neteyam could even open his mouth.

The other three, Lo'ak, Kiri, and Tsireya blanches at your answer, the two other 'freaks' not even given enough time to feel offended. Silence ensues and you could almost hear the gears in Aonung's brain as he processes your unexpected retort. It definitely wasn't one of your best, and you cringe.

Lo'ak all but explodes in raucous laughter, causing eyes and heads to turn in your direction once again.

Aonung's sharp eyes flicker once again towards the direction where his father and Jake were, before huffing as he slowly backs away.

"That's right. Enjoy yourself tonight. It is a party after all."

He was definitely going to have you killed.

You know you've contradicted yourself when you told Kiri that you do not want to cause them trouble, only to later start provoking reef people. You managed to not make a scene (you kinda did) and ruin the party (you nearly did) though. That's something.

"What was that?" Neteyam asked, eyebrows slanted downwards in disapproval. You shrug. "Some guy walked up on me and started spouting shit?"

He huffs, clearly irritated. "You've obviously been annoying people on purpose," he says in a low voice, so as to not gain more attention. 

"It was me who approached her!" Tsireya whispers, vehemently defending you.

"What happened?" Lo'ak asks, also whispering, his head bent and leaning towards you.

"We all know you've been making others feel uncomfortable on purpose." Neteyam says to you.

You scoff. "Story of my life in a nutshell."

"What?"

"I only treat people the way they treat me, Neteyam. They glare at me and it doesn't matter if I ignore them, they'll still see me as a monster and treat me like shit. I just decided to have fun with it."

Neteyam sighs. He looks around before meeting your gaze once again. "Just stop with the troublemaking, it's the least you can do."

You wanted to rip your hair off. 

"Well, I'm sorry then. Sorry for terrorizing the metkayina people by mirroring their stares!" You flip Neteyam off, mouthing a very aggressive 'fuck you'. He gapes at you, mortified. You shake your head, muttering a tiny "shit" as you leave, already regretting the way you handled things, but still leaving as fast as you can to escape.

…

"You kinda deserved that." Lo'ak states.

Neteyam gives him an offended look, before also shaking his head as he walks off to the opposite direction, his head filled with thoughts of you.

[olderthannetfic]

One thing that's been bugging me about EOTWR ist that one of their bigger supporters has a post up with over 6k reblogs, where they claim that AO3's elections are rigged and that people should stop voting in them and instead "get angry" and give them "noisy, angry hell on every single fucking platform you can find.", which is pretty much a HUGE red flag. Why? For one, they present zero evidence on OTW's elections "being rigged" and that's an incredibly serious allegation to make. And as we can see with Trump and the GOP, it's an allegation that can be very well used to undermine liberal, democratic institutions and processes, so it should never be used without having serious evidence or at least a solid argument to support it. Nevermind that "don't vote" because "voting doesn't achieve anything" has been a hugely popular propaganda tactic and narrative that neo-fascist, authoritarian governments like Russia have spread via troll-farms in an attempt to sabotage western democracies and as a means of hybrid warfare, so I'm going to give anybody a major side-eye who replicates that kind of narrative, even in a different context. Also, this whole appeal to "get angry and give people hell" appeal? All withouth any kind of recourse to...you know....TALKING with each other and finding a way forward together? That's not something that shows interest in building better policies, that's instigating a harassment campaign against anybody who doesn't fall into line and agrees 100% with you. Which, given the diversity of the fandom community, with a wealth of people from different countries, different cultures, faiths and personal experiences? Also NOT a good idea. So overall....would be more anti-racist action a good thing? Yes. For now though, EOTWR looks to be a poster-child for "the way to hell is paved with good intentions" and has a higher probability of doing harm to fandom rather than good.

--

It's foolish to think OTW elections are rigged when everything about them is entirely predictable from basic popularity contest dynamics that afflict literally all parts of human existence.

Also, it's hard to even get anyone to run, and most candidates are functionally identical to an outside observer in most election cycles. What the hell is the rigging supposed to have done?

[andarthas-web]

The way to hell....

[EOTWR edition]

One thing that's been bugging me about EOTWR ist that one of their bigger supporters has a post up with over 6k reblogs, where they claim that AO3's elections are rigged and that people should stop voting in them and instead "get angry" and give them "noisy, angry hell on every single fucking platform you can find.", which is pretty much a HUGE red flag. Why? For one, they present zero evidence on OTW's elections "being rigged" and that's an incredibly serious allegation to make. And as we can see with Trump and the GOP, it's an allegation that can be very well used to undermine liberal, democratic institutions and processes, so it should never be used without having serious evidence or at least a solid argument to support it. Nevermind that "don't vote" because "voting doesn't achieve anything" has been a hugely popular propaganda tactic and narrative that neo-fascist, authoritarian governments like Russia have spread via troll-farms in an attempt to sabotage western democracies and as a means of hybrid warfare, so I'm going to give anybody a major side-eye who replicates that kind of narrative, even in a different context. Also, this whole appeal to "get angry and give people hell" appeal? All without any kind of recourse to...you know....TALKING with each other and finding a way forward together? In a “my way or the highway” kind of sense? That's not something that shows interest in building better policies, that's instigating a harassment campaign against anybody who doesn't fall into line and agrees 100% with you. Which, given the diversity of the fandom community, with a wealth of people from different countries, different cultures, faiths and personal experiences? Also NOT a good idea. So overall....would be more anti-racist action a good thing? Yes. For now though, EOTWR looks to be a poster-child for "the way to hell is paved with good intentions" and has a higher probability of doing harm to fandom rather than good in a very orwellian sense.

[pretty-weird-ideas]

Debunking the “Fandom Racism on AO3 should remain for educational purposes like Mein Kampf”

Comparing racist meta and harassment on AO3 to Mein Kampf as “educational content” in order to argue that it deserves to remain uploaded is so distinctly dystopian to me... Even seeing this argument at all is distinctly horrific and inflammatory. AO3 is not an educational space, and the fact that people are now suddenly advocating for it to qualify only in the case of racism is awful.

These same people would truly panic if fanfiction was held up to this standard and let me explain...

Mein Kampf is not handed out willy-nilly without context. Librarians editorialize a shit-ton about it when they give it up for public consumption. They have a bunch of historical context, it often comes with warnings, people distinctly describing why his views are awful, there’s critiques in the book itself etc. It’s mentioned in history books as antisemitic and racist as a preface. People even tear it apart logically and shit on Hitler the second the book is mentioned at all in an educational setting.

Guess what AO3 doesn’t allow... any of that. They don’t ascribe racism warnings (and the same people who make this argument shit themselves at the idea of adding one), racist authors can delete comments that add this context or critique at their own discretion, and the biggest thing of all is that this would be under the presumption that racism is called out by fandom or OTW in order for a lesson to be taught. 

Hate to say this: In order for racist screeds to even be proportionate to Mein Kampf every time this work is pulled up, it would come with a warning from a educator. It would describe every inch and detail of the author’s life, berating them in the process. The editors would say “this author is a disgusting person and we at the OTW do not condone this author’s beliefs or behavior whatsoever”, and then hand it over with annotations tearing apart the arguments outlined. 

If you aren’t advocating for no comment moderation, racism warnings + context, and for people to tear apart your works like rabid dogs, you can take your argument elsewhere. An educational space would fill your work with citations and annotations leading readers to actual Fanlore and Wikipedia pages. Dissenters would be cited in your comments. Your life would become a living hell of over-analyzed drivel. You will walk out of fandom wishing that the curtains were blue because blue was the author’s favorite color.

You guys wouldn’t survive if fanfiction became an educational space. 

An educational space is a space that puts the reader’s knowledge before the writer’s comfort, and that includes critics being put on the same pedestal that you are if not higher. The people that are arguing this are the number one crybabies about the idea of people calling their own work a type of “ism” or “phobia”. They lay awake at night thinking about critics mocking their fic in any way, shape, or form. And these people think they’re strong enough to bear the weight of educators/historians looking over their shit?

Trust me... you do not understand what you are asking for, when you imply that AO3 is an educational space in order to “gotcha” a bunch of POC who are complaining about the racism on the site.

I mean... if you want to turn your A/B/O fanfic into a discussion about your own life and sexuality Socratic seminar style the way they do with published authors, I can’t stop you....

[foolishmortal]

does this mean i have to work on my wips

[crash476]

As someone who works for an actual archive I can say with 100% confidence that AO3 is NOT an archive. It is a social media sight, therefore OTW is obliged to moderate LIKE A SOCIAL MEDIA SIGHT

Archives are usually seen as the final repository for documents and artifacts deemed to have historical value from the perspective of an archive. If AO3 was operating as a traditional archive (and there’s plenty that are run by non-profit orgs, community groups, etc. with little to no government backing) then they would just take on the collections from soon to be defunct fan sights and forums. This is incredibly important work as we are staring down the barrel of a digital dark age. Media companies have shown they have no regard for letting people have access to their IP and are willing to scrap completed work for a tax write off. Backwards compatibility has at best been an afterthought of tech companies, trapping critically important information on now defunct hardware. Hell, one massive solar flare and digital media is gone.

The problem from my perspective is that AO3 wants to be an archive AND a social media sight. Not only does it collect fan work that would otherwise be lost, but users are allowed to post their own work. I mean, I use AO3 to post my fics, it has the biggest platform right now and I like how you can organize your fics. But as an assistant archivist, you can’t have your cake and eat it to.

As a final repository for documents and artifacts, we have to vet and do research on the accessions that come to us. We are constantly trying to engage with our collections, giving them descriptions and context. It’s a sort of afterlife for these documents and artifacts, because aside from our preservation efforts, we archivists and technicians don’t add to the finished document. It’s treated as a completed. There’s no more editing to do. We do, also, get to choose what the public sees. In an ideal world, there’s no restrictions to any information, but working in a government archive, we have privacy and confidentiality policies that dictate how and when archival material can be seen. And we don’t keep everything, coming from the information management site. There’s a lot of docs that get destroyed immediately or after a certain amount of time.

If I had the ability, I would have the archive part of AO3 separate from a hosting site for ongoing fics. If a fic hasn’t been updated after a certain amount of time, then it should be added to the archive with a descriptor like “incomplete”. All the while the ongoing fic hosting side is moderated like any other web forum, blog, or fic hosting site.

This is all a long preamble for me to say that as a SOCIAL MEDIA site, AO3 is obliged to moderate users. When it comes to prejudice in all its form, you got to be on top of it. It’s like running a bar: most people are here for a good time, but you got to have boundaries. If someone gets to plastered or gets belligerent, you toss them out. And to invoke the old punk bar story, you have to toss out bad actors immediately, even if they seem nice. Because once they get comfortable, they bring in their likeminded crew and take over. AO3′s got a bad racism problem, fandom as a whole is rotten with prejudice, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to be better.

[shivasdarknight]

Anyways, I'm done transferring all of my fics (that I have full ownership over*) to SquidgeWorld Archive! 🫶

I'm not hopping off of AO3 just yet, though; by not renewing my donations and membership status (which I only got to participate in Board Elections anyways, wouldn't have done it otherwise), I become a drain on resources for them in the same sense as the action people took against Discord for NFT/AI chatbot bullshit. But also it's just good to have a backup anyways.

Regardless, fuck OTW and AO3 for prioritizing zionists' fragile egos over shit as simple as "From the river to the sea" - I hope they rot in hell! 🫶 Don't give them your money - they have a stupidly large surplus, anyways - and they also began a donation campaign while Gaza was being bombed, so (OP and final reblog are the relevant posts here). Do with that what you will.

*Two of my fics are exquisite corpse fics. The exquisite corpse writing itself wasn't coordinated by me, so I don't feel right crossposting w/o permission (especially if none of the people on them are even on SWA). So yeah, that's why it's 18 and not 20.

[bogunicorn]

Here is my one and only thing to say about this whole... AO3 algorithm thing. Ready? Here it is, super controversial:

Most of the complaints about the structure of AO3 - as in, the search function, the bookmarking, that sort of stuff, not the arguments about what's in the content that's posted - can be boiled down to people basically saying, "I wasn't curious enough to look up a solution to the issue I'm having, or wasn't self-directed enough to figure out a system that works for me, and it's less embarrassing to complain as if my refusal to do so is someone else's problem."

Now, yes, are there actual structural complaints to be made about AO3? Of course! I'd love to have things like be able to block specific authors or tags by default just built into the account, or even just floating comment boxes (rather than needing a browser extension for those things, which does exist). I'd love to see IP banning become available to make anon harassment more difficult.

But this current little spat of complaints is an update of some older, consistent complaints that can be solved either by: the complainer learning how to use the site, or AO3 becoming social media. And the second one isn't going to happen. I'm not, like, harshing a buzz here, it's literally not social media. There are no private messages, no feeds, the inbox is only for comments and replies to your comments. There is deliberately no feed for, like, things the people you're subscribed to have bookmarked or something. They made it that way on purpose and they're not going to try to change it just because a handful of people with their brains still solidifying are getting crabby about it. There is a reason that you have to subscribe to people instead of "friending" them, there's a reason there's no, like, blogging feature or messaging system or even the ability to set up a feed for anything in browser.

AO3 wants you to be social about fic somewhere else. They expect you to go to tumblr or twitter or discord or, I don't know, fucking carrier pigeons to keep track of stuff they don't have built in. Because once it's inching toward a true social media platform, once we start doing things like automatic feeds, recommendations, algorithms, an app, whatever, then there are community considerations to be made regarding content. Those are the cracks that gives censorship leverage.

Plus, like, you don't want an algorithm anyway. You know what algorithms are for? Selling you shit. Turning you into a sellable product. Driving engagement, which inevitably means rage farming. Every social media algorithm present on the big sites is there to feed you things you'll interact with, and the algorithm doesn't know the difference between joy and drama.

There's already a harassment issue on AO3. You want more harassment on AO3? An algorithm is how you get more harassment on AO3, because it's going to funnel people toward fics that people are already mad about, just like it does on tumblr and twitter and insta and tiktok and facebook and whatever other algorithm-powered shit there is. People in fandom already dogpile each other on other sites over what's on their AO3, the OTW isn't going to help you do it.

But none of that matters because it's just... it's not going to happen. Even if AO3 wanted an algorithm (which it does not, very emphatically and by design), managing one is expensive, hiring the people to create it is expensive, everything about it is expensive and time consuming. So, like, don't worry about it. And if you wanted one, idk, that sucks for you but I'm sure you'll recover.

AO3 expects to give you tools and let you do the work. Curating your own experience is your job, not theirs. Yes, you may have to manually trawl through your friends' bookmarks, oh no. Some large fandoms or super popular pairings even have tumblrs run by bots that post every single thing that shows up in that pairing tag, if that's your thing. Hell, just straight up ask people who wrote your favorite fics what their favorite fics are with the same pairing, and they'll probably go look them up for you!

Oh, also, if you're going to complain about AO3 as if it's doing something to spite you... at least make sure it's about a feature that takes someone more than 5 seconds to go look up and screenshot for you. Or at least go through your settings first and make sure you don't have shit like not asking for confirmation on explicit works turned on or something, since people just love getting sooooo pressed about "not being able to avoid smut" or whatever.

[lhazaar]

incidentally, because i have gained a lot of new followers recently again (hello?? thank you??? where are you coming from) and i know a lot of this is part of Fandom Tumblr, it's probably worth making explicit my ship discourse opinions lol

(readmore because this is long and necessarily involves talk about #csa and #sexual violence)

the reason this matters to me so much is twofold. one, i and people i personally know have been preyed on by people through fandom, specifically, and in ways that are hard to talk about without the context of fandom itself. two, i was a psych/writing student with a specific research interest in paraphilia, kink, and sociosexual behaviour; i used to work in a social psych lab specifically about sexual sciences

beyond that, i'm a furry lol

my understanding of this discourse is that three different things get wrapped into "pro/anti" discourse. the first is the existence of sexuality in media at all. the second is the existence of kink in media, including transformative media. the third is the existence of kink about taboo subjects, including children

i absolutely believe that depictions of sexual activity influence human cognition. this has been very well-studied from multiple angles and with many, many different agendas. some of those agendas are absolutely homophobic in origin, or part of ideological goals aimed at criminalization of sex work. reactionary pushback against sexuality in mass media is very often fuelled by far-right religious organizations who are not actually invested in protecting anything but their own power. however, these organizations target sexuality because their own ideology requires sexual control to maintain its power, and control of when and where it's culturally "acceptable" to be sexual is a component of that

i think that you should be extremely suspicious of people who equate this social movement with "people online being vocal about fiction being used as a grooming tool". fiction, including fandom, including transformative work, can absolutely be used for that purpose. it has been, on me and on people i know. sometimes the perpetrators were straight and sometimes they weren't. sexual abusers will use the tools at their disposal, and fictional depictions of sexual violence can absolutely be a component of this.

this doesn't mean that all "dark" topics are inherently suspicious. humans tell stories about all sorts of things. sometimes those things involve sexual violence or abuse. sometimes (often!) these things are written by people who have survived those events, and are writing about them in order to express something important about their experience, or to better understand the mindset of their aggressor. hell i have dungeons and dragons characters that are survivors of sexual violence in their backstory because it's a part of the character that i wanted to portray—this was still negotiated with the intended audience, even when that audience is just a couple of my friends, because i give a shit about how i portray that and how it's received

that is part of the media literacy you need to evaluate depictions of mature subject matter: who is the intended audience? what is the intended effect on the audience? what personal beliefs is the author bringing to the table, and what beliefs does the audience hold? where do those interact and what do they produce?

(ao3 is a good example of a place where this evaluation can't really happen, under their moderation policies and with the level of staffing that they have. i don't like what it does to the otw's reputation as a whole, because i think that the otw often does very important work for the legal rights of the audience. it sucks! i just don't spend time there and treat it like e621.)

i also don't think this is a new discussion and i'm leery of any attempt to attribute it to "puriteens". the furry community's been having this argument for as long as people have been making dildos lifecast from animals. (yes, that's real; yes, it's incredibly contentious and also grosses me the fuck out.) it's a discussion that is best navigated by people within kink communities, who have put thought into their own attraction and desire, and done the introspection necessary to understand impact vs. fantasy vs. acceptable risk.

finally, i think there's a really important aspect of this discussion that gets ignored. a lot more people are walking around with ocd than are walking around with genuine paraphilic disorders. intrusive thoughts, particularly in pure- or heavy-O manifestations of ocd, can be really difficult for people to distinguish from sexual fantasies. this isn't because the sufferer ~actually~ wants to do the thing, it's because their brain does not have the physical ability to stop thinking about the thing, and the cognitions that develop around that can be recursive and illogical. it's common for people with intrusive thoughts about child sexual abuse, for example, to fear that just looking at a child in public will "confirm" their attraction, or that the child will be directly harmed by them simply possessing the thought

ocd can absolutely destroy your life with these, and some of the early warning signs that you can spot involve fears of thought contamination, or the fear that you are Secretly A Bad Person in ways that may be unknown even to you. if that resonates with you, i want to encourage you to step back from this discourse, because people don't enter it with ocd in mind and that can be unintentionally very damaging. there is no such thing as thoughtcrime because your thoughts are not controllable, and a belief to the contrary is often deeply entrenched in people with ocd. this discourse isn't actually about thoughtcrime. it's about media literacy, authorial intent, and what tools abusive people will use in their pursuit of power and sexual control