#growing fandom

[vvyvernicus]

Since I didn't officially participate in AU-Gust this year, I wanted to show off an AU I came up with for The Villainess Wants To Make Her Husband Slim Down fandom.

@juchioris has made plenty of shorts for this fandom for the AU-Gust challenge, so please check them out if you're interested!

This isn't a fanfiction per say, but another alternate AU with key details focusing on one character in particular who has major changes in comparison to canon, which alters the original story.

It's a little throwback to an old post of mine, where I turned the male lead, Alois, into a "Cold Duke of the North."

This expands on this version of him. Also spoiler warning for key changes that alter important plot points in the original novel!

It's a little lengthy, so I'm putting it below the cut!

In the original plotline of this universe, Alois Montchat is reviled as "The Toad of the Swamp". At the time our main female protagonist Camilla meets him, she is repulsed by him, as he has all the features that earned him that nickname (he is obese with blemished skin that's bumpy like a frog's). However, in this AU that is not the case.

This AU's Alois takes on a more regal appearance, more befitting of his status as a Duke. He's always well groomed and dresses in fitted clothes. His skin is clear because he regularly applies special creams to combat the strong magic in the air that damages people's skin in Mohnton. He's also a lot leaner than his canon self, no longer eating unhealthy meals and avoiding exercise.

His personality has shifted as well, fitting well into the "Cold Duke" stereotype. However he is also more confident and feisty than his more mellow counterpart. If someone doesn't agree with him, he's quick to assert his authority and won't hesitate to use his appearance to threaten others. There are still traits that remain the same, as it's still Alois at his core.

Underneath the intimidating aura, he's quite antisocial and a recluse. He disdains the idea of social events and refuses to go to them, not because in the distant past that his family was excluded from them, but because he just doesn't like people. Still loves reading and learning about history.

His first meeting with Camilla is much different. Originally, Camilla is sent to him as a bridal candidate as a punishment since no one wants to be wed to the hideous toad duke. In this AU, Camilla is still punished for being a villainess, but is essentially sent away to die.

This Alois is rumored to be monstrous, as he doesn't socialize and people who have interacted with him mention his poor temperament. Since Mohnton is a land where criminals were dumped, it would suit him to have a ruthless side to him. Camilla is sent off to be a bridal candidate for him, since other women are too scared, but it's wildly expected that Alois will just kill her instead. Camilla still has her uncontrollable temper and bad attitude, which everyone assumes will frustrate Alois and he'd put her out of her misery himself.

Camilla herself is not thrilled about this and is even a bit worried about the potential of dying at Alois' own hands. She still loves Julian, but has come to the terms that he wants her dead since he himself came up with the idea to send her to Alois. When she meets Alois, she does find him attractive, but also intimidating.

Instead of screaming at him to lose weight like in the original story, she holds her tongue more at first, worried that a wrong word may get her killed. Their first meal together is intense, with Alois telling her that he has no intention of keeping her around and that he doesn't trust her. Not wanting to get thrown to the streets, Camilla's new goal is to find ways to get on his good side while she tries to figure out a viable escape plan that guarantees a comfortable life for her.

Now, delving into the more spoiler territory of his character, Alois is a man who experienced some serious childhood trauma. This is still the case in the AU variant of him.

The events in the original are still canon up until Alois is 15 years old. This means that:

1. Camilla had still given him her cookies when he was 10.

2. He was taken from his true home and had his memories wiped.

3. His "parents" still treated him poorly and forced him to adopt fake traditions with the intention of altering his appearance.

Alois is secretly the true second prince in the story, but he was kidnapped and swapped with a fake shortly after his 10th birthday. He was forced to grow up in Mohnton and assume the identity of the heir to the duchy. However, because of his princely features (his red eyes and silver hair), Alois might be revealed as the true prince and ruin their plan.

To avoid looking too much like a distinguished royal, Alois was forced to eat an absurd amount of food, all heavily doused with fat and sugar. He also was not permitted to use skin creams to protect against the miasma in the air. Because of this, he rapidly gained weight just as planned.

However, once Alois turned 15, was when a switch flipped inside his brain in the AU. Tired of playing the part of the obedient son, suffering at the hands to please his parents, he rebelled against them. He was sick of eating the revolting food all the time, tired of feeling terrible as the food took a toll on his health.

His parents were not pleased and it devolved into a huge fight between them. He lost control of his magical powers during the fight and ended up killing them. At first he was shocked, but ultimately relieved not to be under their control anymore. The senior servants panic and try to control the situation, but he threatens to do the same to them if they dare force the traditions to continue.

Alois ends up losing the excess weight by returning to a healthy diet and engaging in active hobbies; favoring ones that can allow him to defend himself without relying on magic as it can be unpredictable. Despite this, he retains trauma from feeling like a prisoner in his own body for 5 years.

Having Camilla as a bridal candidate was not something that Alois wanted. Not only does he distrust strangers, he also has no experience with women. So he does not know how to properly interact with her and tries to keep his distance initially.

When she arrives, he gives her the courtesy of having one meal with her per day, but he does not care to bring up conversation with her. Their meals are initially eaten in silence as Camilla tries to figure him out.

Although he is intimidating, he does not wish to bring any harm to Camilla. He makes sure that she is given proper accommodations so that she isn't uncomfortable during her stay. Even if he doesn't want to marry her, he's not cruel to her for no reason.

Just like in the original plot, when Camilla mentions that she likes cooking, he's compliant with her using the kitchen. He says that he would consider sampling some of what she makes, provided that it's not overwhelmingly sweet.

The servants still don't like Camilla much, but she also doesn't have to deal with the rude head maid Gerda.

While Alois is skilled with magic and has a lot of it because of his bloodline, he still trains regularly in other forms of combat. Mostly out of precaution and he finds that he can be more precise with physical attacks if he needs to defend himself in a pinch. As a result, he's in much better shape than his canon self.

This makes him look more like royalty, specifically more like a sibling of the two princes. There had been rumors of him being an illegitimate heir, with the past duchess having an affair with the king that resulted in Alois' conception. Alois himself couldn't care less about being a prince, truthful or not, and just wants to live a life of solidarity.

He trains so much because he is afraid of showing weakness after what he had gone through during his late childhood. Deep down, he secretly knows that his parents were trying to kill him off slowly by making him eat unhealthily for five years. So he does this as a continued act of defiance and self preservation.

Since Alois is not "The Toad of the Swamp", Camilla makes no jabs at his appearance. Instead she finds herself struggling to keep her eyes off of him, worrying that staring too much will have negative consequences.

Ah, the trauma. This poor man has a lot of it. Arguably more so than the original Alois, but probably a typical amount for cold dukes. While the canon Alois is slightly more open, this AU version buries his feelings like he's hiding previous treasure from thieves.

While he bottles up his emotions, there are times when they all come loose. Especially when his parents are brought up, more specifically the things they put him through. When Camilla eventually broaches this topic with him after seeing an old family portrait, with a younger, pudgier Alois, he completely loses it.

This is the moment Camilla realizes how flawed he actually is, despite his usual nonchalant, cold demeanor. She gets to understand him more as a person and see why he acts in the way he does. Camilla is terrible with providing comfort, but she knows how to listen, something that Alois never trusted anyone to do before.

Alois goes into full detail explaining his hatred for his parents actions and how he was rewarded by them by having to fix everything all on his own. He couldn't even trust his own servants, so many of them were discarded and replaced with new ones after the incident. He even goes so far to say that he doesn't even like his responsibilities that much, but he does then anyway because he is the sole heir to the dukedom.

From this moment onwards, Camilla decides to act nicer to Alois. Usually offering to be someone to vent to, in exchange Camilla vents her problems to him. This is what really starts to bond the two of them.

Just like in the original, Alois is still the ML, while Camilla is the FL. So by the same string of fate, they are destined to fall in love. And just like in canon, Alois falls first. Not to say Camilla isn't attracted to him initially this time around.

After they start talking and being more honest with each other, he finds himself wanting to spend more time with her. Though since he initially wanted nothing to do with her, it's hard for him to say he wants the opposite. So he spends a good portion secretly pining for her.

The main story events are when they really get to interact. Like when Alois has to go somewhere in the duchy, he makes up some excuse for why she should come along. At this point Camilla is no longer afraid of him and is somewhat happy to see new parts of the territory.

He's really bad at feelings. Poor guy doesn't know how to flirt to save his life, let alone have a charming conversation with a lady. His ego is too big to turn to Klaus this time around, so he's figuring it all out on his own. Camilla is usually not able to pick up on his interest, but she still finds him endearing.

At the very end of this AU they get married. Something we didn't see in the original story unfortunately. Alois ends up proposing to Camilla, who ends up liking him more than she expected, and she accepts.

I don't really have much to say about their wedding, just that Camilla's parents were not invited. Her personal maid from the royal capital, Diana, was able to come and then live with them in their estate. Other characters that show up, Klaus, Gunter, Nicole, they're all there too.

Oh right, the villains of the original novel. In this AU, it's bittersweet as while Alois and Camilla find happiness, the villains get away with their plans. Alois has no idea he's the true second prince and is finding his own happiness with the woman he loves.

Thanks for viewing this word dump of an AU! Not sure if I'll write a full fanfiction of it, but a small short here and there are high possibilities! This fandom needs more love.

[bloodsugarsuckerfishy]

They give such mentor and student group vibes I luv it

[krysmcscience]

I have some questions about karaoke night, Alex Hirsch. Very Important Questions. Which I will happily scream at a poor hapless baby triangle who can have no answers for me, and possibly also does not have object permanence yet.

Follow-up that is I guess suggestive, but let's be real here, Bill's a fucking triangle:

Dude slipped right into his birthday suit, lmao

this is so stupid :D

Anyway, I don't care what anyone says, this brilliant individual knows what's up - Bill is absolutely way more of a monsterfucker than Ford could or ever will be, full stop.

[magicicephoenix]

i finally finished reading I see you, Sundrop! by @shirajellyfish and IT'S SO GOOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO FINISH IT RAAAAAAA

i will be gushing about it in the tags but here's a lil animation i made based on the below paragraph in chapter 6 that gave me such a strong mental image that i had to make it real :)

[curioscurio]

I'm rewatching Steven Universe and I will never forgive Fandom for what it did to her

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Non transmitigation au where Shen Yuan auditions for a part in PIDW on a lark when it gets a live action adaptation, not thinking he’ll actually get a part (he just wanted to be able to say he did it okay? He was dated okay??! He was not dared he just thought it’d be neat, but he’ll admit to nothing.) and, much to his horror, ends up cast as Shen Qingqiu.

He somehow accidentally makes Shen Qingqiu so likable that he’s the most popular character. The fandom goes feral over him. He becomes famous. New fans are joining the bandwagon in droves to watch him.

And all the while, Shen Yuan is frantically trying to pretend he isn’t the most notorious anti fan troll to clown on the internet. He has never heard of PIDW before what do you mean Peerless Cucumber whomst?

[nova-rpv]

a redraw of the first drawing i posted here to celebrate the fact that ive been in tumblr for more than a whole year posting my shit and havent deleted my blog in panic yippee \:D/ (mushy rant in tags)

[catihere]

Considering his upbringing as a Greek demigod with a relatively present godly parent and an apparently open-minded mortal mother, with only a brief part of his childhood spent in fascist Italy, Nico is not very likely to have what we call “religious trauma” or “catholic guilt”.

Will, born and raised in the south of the USA in the early 2000s, on the other hand…

[ping-ski]

living up to my blog title fr now!! i cant stop giggling ab it, honestly brings me so much joy <3

[humans-are-tasty]

[vvyvernicus]

My fanfiction inspired someone else to write their own 😭

I write for an underrated light novel and until recently, it was the only work available to read in the Fandom. I just got a comment earlier today that someone loved my rendition so much that they had to make their own.

So now there are two works in this Fandom, it's growing 🎉

Of course I'm advertising it here, obviously.

[jomeimei421]

Felt a bit nostalgic watching RT shut down…Here are the og faves again for old times sake 💙

[thevulturesquadron]

Thank you for speaking up.

Fans have absolutely no idea of the struggle that goes into working on a project you love in the video game industry. How much heart, effort and mental health goes into developing a game. There is no excuse under the sun for this behaviour, I just wish there was a way to hold these people accountable.

[littlenastieswewhispered]

“buffy ended the show single :)” ok but only because her current love interest just DIED!! (he near quite literally died in her arms! in sacrifice for her!) her last words of the entire series were telling him she loves him and then saying his name in admiration. she isn’t single; she’s a widow.

[lucytara]

i am making this post for the benefit of all writers, artists and commenters alike. do not leave unsolicited criticism on fanworks. first of all, this is not a classroom. you do not need to leave both "critique" and "praise" for a valuable assessment to get a good grade in commenting. what you need to do is not be an asshole and realize that people are creating fanworks for a variety of reasons - personal enjoyment, validation, for a small group of friends, for a fandom boom, whatever - and these reasons usually do not include "wanting a random internet stranger to tell me what's fucking wrong with it."

at best, you will be talking to a wall (like me, and probably most authors/artists who have been doing this for years and years and do not give a shit if you don't like it, meaning it won't affect our creative process or what we choose to create) and at worst, you will utterly destroy somebody's motivation, creativity, and sense of enjoyment in what they love. which makes you a gigantic bitch.

people improve on their own time in their own ways, because that is the result of repetition (usually). they experiment and they learn and there are very few safe places left to do that. if you don't like what you're reading, leave. if you hate the voices and the characters and the dialogue, leave. if you hate the prose, leave. it's not for you and you saying how much you don't like something is not going to help newer writers and artists do it better. it's probably going to make them want to quit, which benefits NOBODY.

fandom is a community and we are sharing these works for FREE with each other because we all love this thing, regardless of what way we love it. it takes A LOT OF TIME to create, and in seconds, with your stupid asshole-ish comment, you have tainted someone's love of this thing and the effort they put into creating it. who cares if it's ooc. who cares if they use too many epithets. nobody is amazing immediately. it is your job as someone engaged in fandom to let people find their way and do what makes them happy even if you don't like it. internalize this and move on.

[anniflamma]

So I’ve received a couple of anonymous messages telling me that they were really disappointed in me for liking Elian's Antinous fanart. Instead of answering them individually, I’m just going to make an angry rant post instead. Most of if probably won't make sense anyway.

This post have talk about SA, and homophobia. Be aware. I don’t ship genuinely Telemachus and Antinous, if that’s what you’re wondering. I didn’t even consider the possibility that ship could even exist. At the end of the day, I don't care about that ship.

And do you want me to explain that I know SA is bad? Or that I’m aware Telemachus/Antinous is a toxic ship? Do you think I’m dumb and don’t know that? You don't have to explain to me either, I know that SA is bad, I have experienced it, you don't have to explain to me, trust me I know.

I like Elian's art because it’s really beautiful. Her work is a huge inspiration and encouragement for me when making animatics. But do I REALLY have to spell out, word for word, that I know Antinous is an antagonist and tries to do bad things? Does it mean every time someone draws Antinous and I like it, I have to explain that I like the drawing because it’s well done, not because I support Antinous’ intent toward Penelope and wants to kill Telemachus?

I mean, I’ve seen tons of thirsty comments like, "I hate how Zeus treats women, but your design is really hot" or "Even if Poseidon SA Demeter, this Poseidon I'd go down on all fours for!"

I have seen some stuff….

I guess I could just imitate something like that????

But I know it’s a joke and I know its a fantasy that someone is expressing. Its not real, its fictional. I know all those thirsty ppl who simp over Poseidon, Zeus, or even Antinous aren’t supporting hatred and violence toward women. And yes, I am expecting that you should already know this too. Because if we gonna assume the worst of ppl… Then everyone who likes Greek myth/Epic the musical are pro SA. "Do you like Crice from Epic the musical? That means that you support her actions, you support SA!" "Oh you like Odysseus?! He killed a baby and all of his female slaves cuz they got SA by the suitors! You support infanticide, slavery and SA!" Do you hear how dumb that sounds? To be honest, I wouldn’t be that surprised if there are some who think like this. I mean, this discussion wouldn’t even be a thing, right.

And if you don’t know, I literally make thirst art of Poseidon (and that includes Zeus and Hermes), and you don’t see it as a bad thing??? It’s Poseidon… Do you know what he has done to women in the myths?!

Im going to ramble here and I will bring up stories from greek myth that have SA in it. So be aware.

One example is the story of Caeneus. When Caeneus was a woman, his parents left him to take care of the house while they were out running errands. Poseidon took that as an opportunity to break into the house and sexually assault him. This is probably the only myth where Poseidon actually feels bad after what he did, so he grants Caeneus a wish. Aww, how sweet~~~ /sarcasm.

Do I need to give an example of Zeus? We all know what Zeus does. But hey, I’ve made Poseidon/Hermes ship art. And guess what? There’s a story where Hermes breaks a woman’s leg so she can’t run away from him, and then he sexually assaults her. Isn’t that cute~~! /sarcasm

Heck, I can even go on with my biblical ships. David/Jonathan—David, a serial assaulter and murderer, and Jonathan, a mass murderer. But do I support their actions? No, I do not support mass murder, and its really dumb that I have to spell it out for you.

Daniel/Darius is even questionable too! It's literally a king and his servant, and that power imbalance is so big I don’t know what to tell you! Do I have to spell it out that I know that, in real life, king/servant relationships aren’t cute at all?!

All of these characters that I’ve listed have done or represent horrible things. And I have to tell you that I don't support their actions?! Really? You really can't think outside the box?

But do you see what I’m trying to tell you? We can simp over other ancient mythological figures but Antinous is the red line that we can never cross??? It’s hypocritical and immature, that’s what it is.

Right now, ppl loves the Ody seduces Zeus art I made. And that "ship" is well really questionable too! But nobody have called me a witch and tries to burn me at the stake yet. 😐

And the thing is, I can separate these fictional characters from the real world. I can also separate the fictional material from other fictional interpretations. Exemple, I like The Song of Achilles, in it, they are the same age, but I am also aware that in the Iliad, Achilles is 16 and Patroclus is 26. But do I automatically assume that Madeline Miller likes teens? No! Do I assume that everyone who likes The Song Of Achilles like that shit? No!

But we still can have a disscussion about it without making it into a witch trial.

As long as we can separate different fictional materials, then everything is fine. It only becomes a problem if a person can’t separate them. Then we have a problem. I can acknowledge that my depiction of King David from the bible is not the same as from the original story and that he is horrible person towards women. If I couldn't acknowledge that, then its bad! The same goes for Antinous if someone makes an AU or headcanon about him. If someone want so make AUs about Antinous, my first thoughts isnt "Oh they like to SA ppl!". At the end of the day, this is just a group from tiktok who didn’t like a toxic ship and decided to bully an artist while acting like they have superior morals.

And I get this type of shit from christians when I make my queer bible interpitations, both from those that don't like the queer stuff but also those that points out that David and Jonathan were horrible ppl.

So I rarely answer comments like this because they usually end up spewing beliefs filled with homophobia and Islamophobia. Heck rasism sometimes, apparently, Christians don’t know that the Bible takes place in the Middle East, and they are angry at me for drawing them looking like Arabs! I just delete their comments before they gets there. Making queer biblical animatics on TikTok that go viral on the Christian side is not fun at all guys....

And hate to say it but tiktok Epic fans sound really similar. You are acting like you’re on a pedestal, holier than thou. Its just a different font.

+ I haven’t forgotten all those homophobic comments I got on my David/Jonathan animatic that I posted right after my Ruthlessness animatic. Epic fans were saying they didn’t want “that gay shit” and wanted to see more Epic stuff. Hate to break it to you all, but the Epic fandom isn’t that innocent.