#i'm such a 'minding my own business' person in fandom. i feel like my usual reaction to seeing takes I disagree with is

[torchickentacos]

The pokemon anime subreddit fascinates and frustrates me on equally deep levels

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

Locked In

Ah, the classic forced proximity trope (I'm such a sucker for this). This idea was suggested by @blueberrysquire so thank you very much! This one's for you, I hope you like the fic!

Fandom: Tokyo Debunker

Characters: Sho Haizono x gn! Reader

Word Count: 2.1k (2,170 words)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You and Sho get stuck in a classic forced proximity trope. What will happen when you have no choice but to confront your feelings for each other?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sho was going to kill Leo this time.

He really was. Sure, he’d said that before and Leo had talked his way out of it or Sho’s anger had dissipated once the issue was passed. But this time, he was serious.

That grey-haired idiot had pushed him too far this time and Sho was going to kill him.

What had happened to get him to that point? Simple.

The food truck had been a great success. Better than he’d ever imagined it would be. Each day came with more and more customers and, while Sho was happy his cooking was finally getting the recognition it deserved, that also meant more and more trips to and from the storage room to replenish his ingredients.

And then there were your visits. At the end of every day, Sho would experiment with whatever leftover ingredients he had on hand and make up new dishes. And somehow, you’d found out about this routine and started dropping by just as he was closing up for a free feed of whatever he decided to cook up that day.

Not that he minded the company. In fact, far from it. Despite his initial mental refusal, Sho had started developing something of a crush on you ever since your support of his food truck idea. He’d been around Leo so long, all it took was a few kind, encouraging words from you to get his heart racing.

And then, just as he was starting to accept his feelings, the last person he ever wanted to find out, found out.

~

“What, you got a crush on the NPC or something?”

Sho turned his back on where Leo was sitting and concentrated on not burning the chicken he was cooking.

It was the middle of the lunch hour and, as usual, Leo had dropped by to “help out” and “keep Sho company”. Of course, Leo’s version of helping was sitting nearby and gossiping about everyone on campus.

Today, he had been gossiping about you, the Honour Roll, the NPC, who was going around being a goody two shoes and helping all the houses with their unresolved daddy issues. Or mummy issues. Depending on who it was.

Sho had been distracted by his cooking and had made the stupid mistake of defending you.

And that was all the encouragement Leo had needed.

“Oh my god, you do!”

Sho refused to turn around. He could already imagine the look on Leo’s face, smug and vaguely disgusted at the notion of his friend having a crush on someone. And he refused to let Leo see the blush that had spread across his cheeks.

“Really? Honour Roll?” Leo sighed, “You’ve got to improve your taste. But whatever floats your boat, I guess. Could be fun after all.”

At that, Sho turned to face his friend. “No. No, no, no. Don’t you dare. I know that tone. You’re going to keep out of this. I don’t want any dares or bets or gambles. You’re going to keep your pointy nose out of this for once. Okay?”

A slow grin spread across Leo’s face. “You really like them, don’t you?”

Sho felt his face begin to burn again and turned back to the stove. “What is it to you?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

But Sho knew it was never just nothing with Leo.

~

Which brought him to today. The food truck had been exceptionally busy, even by his standards and by the end of the day, he’d had barely any ingredients left over to cook dinner for the two of you. He was just considering another supply run when your voice broke him from his thoughts.

“How was the truck today?”

You were standing in the door, grinning at him and he had to bite back a goofy smile of his own. Sure, he liked you but that was no reason to go blurting his feelings out so obviously.

“Busy. I’m all out of ingredients. No dinner today.”

Sho watched your face fall, then lift as you scrambled to cover your slip up. “Oh, that’s all good. Can’t get a free feed all the time I suppose.”

Sho nodded, letting the moment drag out before he let himself laugh, a smile breaking across his face. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I was about to go do another trip to pick up some fresh ingredients for dinner. I have to eat too after all.”

The way your face lit up was all worth it and Sho felt his heart race faster.

“C’mon. You can tag along this time. Since I’ve got to get the ingredients, you can pick what we have tonight.” He untucked his tie from where it had been sitting in his chest pocket and walked over to join you at the door.

On the walk across to the storage room Sho let his mind wander as you ranted about your day. Apparently, the latest house you had been assigned to was full of weirdos and you had no idea how you were going to make them all want to work together.

 “And then they decide to just leave. I mean who does that?”

Sho shook his head, smiling at your incredulous tone as he unlocked the storage room door. Leaving the key in the lock, he gestured you through, turning on the light with his outstretched hand. You pushed past him and he tried not to relish the warmth from your body.

“So, what’s on the menu?”

You made a humming noise as you looked over the shelves. Sho followed you into the room so he could better see what ingredients your eyes lingered over.

And then the door slammed shut.

Sho spun on his heel to try but it was far too late to prevent it from closing. He sighed and placed a hand on the door handle. But just as he was about to turn it to open the door a click came from the other side.

Sho felt panic build in him and tried to turn the handle. It didn’t move.

“Yeah, I locked it.”

Sho covered his hands, trying not to yell. Of course Leo was poking his nose into Sho’s business. And of course he would take matters into his own hands in this way.

“Leo. Unlock the door. It’s not funny.” Sho glanced behind him to see how you were holding up. Being locked in a room was never fun, even if there was plenty of food around. You looked more annoyed than concerned and Sho remembered that, even if he’d known Leo longer, you’d still had to put up with your fair share of his nonsense.

Leo made a tutting noise. “Uh uh uh. You and Honour Roll aren’t getting out of there until things get cleared up between you two. I don’t care how it gets resolved. As long as you leave that room with…no secrets.”

Sho turned away from you quickly, hoping you didn’t notice the blush on his face. “Unlock the door.”

“Enjoy!”

“Leo.”

Silence.

“Leo!”

Sho banged on the door with an open palm but there was still no reply. Leo must have walked away. Sho could imagine him going, swinging the key in one hand.

He sighed, resting his head against the door. He was pretty strong, maybe he could break down the door. But no, this room was specially designed to survive the brunt of ghoul strength to prevent theft. He’d left his phone in the kitchen, assuming it would be a quick trip to the storage room and back. And he’d seen you put your bag down inside the kitchen door and he guessed your phone was in there. Unless you were able to think of a plan to get out, you’d both be trapped until Leo took mercy and came back with the keys.

“So. Guess we’re stuck in here huh?”

Sho turned around slowly, almost dreading your expression. But other than lingering annoyance that he hoped was because of Leo, you didn’t look that put out by being forced to spend possibly hours in a locked room with him. Sho decided to take that as a good sign.

“Seems like it. Sorry.”

You shook your head. “Nah, all good. I didn’t have any plans tonight anyway. I don’t mind spending time with you. Despite the circumstances.”

Sho exhaled through his nose and sat down cross legged on the floor. He gestured for you to do the same. “No point in staying standing.”

You nodded your agreement as you lowered yourself to the floor and mirrored his position. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

~

The conversation had been flowing better than Sho could have hoped. Usually, you talked while he cooked and listened so it was a nice change being able to have a proper two way conversation with you. But it had reached a natural lull and you were both staring at the ingredients, trying not to make the situation awkward.

What was Leo anyway? There was no way of telling the time in the storage room but it had to have been a while. Surely he wasn’t going to leave them there overnight?

Then again, this was Leo. Even Sho didn’t know what he was capable of.

“Hey, Leo said something about clearing the air right?”

Oh no.

“Do you know what that was all about?”

No, no no.

“I think things are great between us. Even when we’re locked in a room, it doesn’t get weird.”

He was going to kill Leo.

“Nah, who knows what he was on about. Probably some new trend he saw on TikTok.”

You uncrossed your legs and spun around onto your hands and knees, crawling towards him. “You sure? It’s nothing like ‘you have a crush on me and you’ve been talking about me to Leo and he’s finally had enough so he locked us in this room to get you to confess’?”

Sho’s mouth hung open despite the voice in his brain screaming at him to get it together. You were just hypothesising, you didn’t know how he felt. But you were getting closer and your face was on level with his and the rest of his brain was short circuiting and he wasn’t sure he trusted his voice at the moment.

You paused. “It’s not that is it?” Silence. “Is it?” More silence as Sho looked away feeling his cheeks heating up. “It is.” You leant back, sitting down with a thump. Sho couldn’t bring himself to look at you. “Oh my god. It is that.”

Sho cleared his throat. He opened his mouth to speak but you raised a hand and he dared to glance at your face.

It was flushed and you were avoiding his eyes as carefully as he and just been avoiding yours. “Just…just give me a second.”

Sho nodded and leaned back against the door, bringing a slightly trembling hand to his head to brush back his hair.

“So, you like me?” Your voice was stronger and, despite the flush that was still evident, you were about to meet his eyes.

Sho nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. I didn’t expect you to find out this way though.”

You let out a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting to tell you I like you back this way either.”

Sho blinked, letting your words sink in. You liked him back. You. Liked him. You liked him as well. His feelings were mutual.

He felt a smile begin to spread across his face and saw the same grin mirrored on your face. “You like me too?”

You nodded. Sho wasn’t sure which of you moved first but the next thing he knew, you were hugging him and he was hugging you back and everything felt right in the world, even if you two were still locked in the storage room.

You pulled back from the hug, keeping your faces close together. Sho felt a fluttering in his chest as you began to draw closer…and closer…

And then fluorescent light bathed the two of you as the door swung open and Leo shone a torch down on the two of you.

“Well, that took longer than I thought. If it hadn’t wrapped up soon, I was going to have to leave you two there until morning.”

“Were you sitting outside that whole time listening in?” Sho felt you stiffen in his arms as you realised your private conversation may not have been so private after all.

“Well I had to know when to let you two out. Really Sho, after all that and your secret got blurted out before you had the chance to tell her yourself. I’m ashamed.”

Sho gently pushed you away from him and began to rise to his feet. He stretched a hand down to you and help you up as well. Once you were upright, he smiled at you.

“You want to help me kill him?”

Your grin returned, clearly seeing the sparkle in his eyes. “Could be a fun first date.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[demonslayedher]

Low-Key Married AU fluff

Kochou said that I was disliked, so I asked her if she disliked me too. For someone so quick to have a smiling response to everything, she struggled to reply. She was the one who proposed marriage and swayed me, so I had thought that meant she had feelings for me. There would be no other way to read it. However, with as unbothered as she is by my absence, I have to wonder.

It’s been ten days since I had last contact with her. I went home to the Butterfly Mansion, but she had just departed for a mission, so I didn’t stay long so as not to trouble the girls. It may still be a few days before I can return again, but it’s always likely she’ll be busy. She’s incredible in that way, taking on all the care of our injured Corp members in addition to her Pillar missions. It must be in her personality to keep adding to what keeps her busy, like taking me in as though I looked like I needed the care. Although the times we’ve spent together have been nice, I don’t require it. My duties call for me to always be ready for battle, and I’ve always kept my heart steady.

So has she. We are Pillars first, and no amount of affection can sway us—whether an abundance or a lack.

I’m not bothered by lacking something I didn’t deserve in the first place.

Last night again, I was too late to prevent a family from being slaughtered. There were no survivors this time, aside from the eldest child who was still ravenous with a recent transformation. Having to chase him down and keep him from harming anyone else kept me off the trail of the progenitor of demons, who had to have been close by. For centuries, he’s evaded us this way over and over, sacrificing entire families to throw us off his trail. If I were to chide myself over every failure, I would have lost the ability to do anything ages ago. Each time, the anger is something I carry with me, to push myself harder the next time, and the next. Any extent more that I can push myself may be the difference to someone’s survival, no one can afford to lose their life over any of my own lost confidence.

“CAW!! TOMIOKA GIYUUUU! NEWS FOR TOMIOKA GIYUUUU!”

Each time it's a crow I think I recognize, my stomach drops. My mind is already playing the words I dread to hear, as though trying to protect my mind once I someday hear them.

"Kochou Shinobu has died."

Even if I hear them, I'm a Pillar first. That was what we promised each other. I'll always do as I must.

The crow says nothing as it delivers a letter.

YES, YES, I KNOW, THIS FANDOM HAS TURNED ME INTO SHIPPER TRASH. For this pairing, it was more specifically my own joke AU which later bit me in the back and made me start really, really enjoying GiyuShino (which, for the record, I do not consider canon). Was throwing ideas back and forth with @reicchel again the other day and so here we are with ship content!

Part of the reason I love the Low-Key Married AU (in which it's mostly canon as usual, except that Shinobu and Giyuu have been married for over a year or so, and it's not a secret but they make such little deal about it that many people don't even know they're married) is that it's a frame through which to see every interaction and either make it really, really funny, or very, very, sad. Everything was supposed to be funny, but it keeps hurting, hahaha... aaahhhh.

For instance, in a regular romcom situation, it should be funny that Kanzaburo doesn't deliver all of Giyuu's letters. Knowing these two, who might had started this whole "well, we'll be a couple when we have time" thing by actively writing regular letters, this could had simply given the impression that the other person wasn't writing as much, so they both naturally decreased frequency to match. It's a little lonely, but neither one is going to push the other for more attention.

No!! I refuse to let this post end with angst! Time for omake!!!

[orangepanic]

I know you usually mind your own business and avoid ship wars, but out of curiosity, have you ever gotten unprovoked hate for shipping Iroh and Asami? Also, what’s your advice on staying strong about it? I feel like such a coward because I don’t want to get attacked by the mob for it. I know it’s just a ship, but the idea of dealing with that negativity makes me hesitant to speak up about it. 😰

First off, big hug.

Second, oh boy have I ever. I've gotten it here in my askbox and in replies to my posts, I've gotten it on fics, I've gotten it in comments about me on twitter and private discords, both ones I'm in and ones I'm not. I once had someone hate me in a comment on nearly every chapter of a fic - why did they keep reading it? Seemingly just to yell at me about the ship. It got so bad I had to report them for harassment. And that's not counting all the ambient hate out there of the "ewwww omg who the fuck would ship that?" that's not directed at me specifically. So... yes.

In terms of advice, I can recommend a few strategies that have kept me safe and sane over the years:

Aggressively curate your online experience. Block anything you don't want to see, be that tags or individuals or authors. Know that shipping Korra or Asami with anyone who isn't Korra or Asami is extremely unpopular in mainstream fandom spaces and avoid those spaces - for example, public fandom discords, tumblr communities and most of Twitter. Don't start shit or comment on bad takes. Don't reply to negative comments - delete them. Don't like, don't read. Etc. This is both to protect your own mental health but also to be a good fandom citizen. I've found that if you're generally doing all the right things and minding your own business people who go out of their way to shit on you wind up looking that much more like assholes to everyone else, which can help avoid that mob mentality you mention. I've also found that, on balance, you get back the energy you put out there. If you're a positive person who is seen as a positive person, most people will interact with you positively.

Find cool people and hang out with them. In my experience, these tend to be people who are both a) emotionally mature, and b) also ship a small or non-canon pairing. They do not have to like your ship and often won't but they'll also understand the experience of having their preferred pairing disliked by a large number of fans and so are less likely to be bullies themselves. Definitely avoid absolutists - people who believe a certain kind of ship is intrinsically superior to others (e.g. canon ships, queer ships, same-age ships, whatever) - in favor of people able to say "it's just not for me" if they don't like something. Finding spaces to interact with these people like their blogs or ask boxes, or finding small-ship-friendly private discords, are great ways to build community in fandom while shipping something out of the mainstream. These people are also great to vent to and problem-solve with when you get unprovoked hate or see a terrible take so you don't feel in it alone. If you don't know where to start, find fics on AO3 that you like and be friendly in the comments. That's how I met my first fandom friends.

Recognize that you can't argue with unprovoked hate. The first nasty comment I got on a fic I agonized for a week about what I'd done wrong and how to respond. I wrote out a very thoughtful reply asking for feedback on how I could better represent Asami's bisexuality in my writing. I got back "you're a piece of shit." I've learned since that the kind of people who say that what you ship in fandom means they should run you over with their car are not the kind of people looking for a thoughtful discussion. They are looking for the moral high ground, or for a fight, or to be seen as doing something "right" online so that they can be reassured of the black and whiteness of the universe, or whatever, but the point is that it's about them and it's about them getting a reaction out of you. Engaging isn't going to change their mind. So don't. It also prevents escalation. If someone drops a turd in your ask box and you delete it, nothing happens. Publish it with a lengthy rebuttal and that continues the conversation. Instead, treat them like you would any other bully, that is, disengage if you can, and hit them really fucking hard if you can't and then disengage. Again, don't be afraid to delete, block, or report someone if they are violating any TOS.

There's also all the standard online safely stuff like never sharing your name, address, or any personally-identifying info online. Table stakes. You don't owe anyone anything.

Anyway, good luck, and I hope to see more of you, anon. I'd love to chat with more people who like Iroh and Asami together, and I firmly believe fandom can be wonderful no matter what you ship.

[imptwins]

ALRIGHT, no more messing around I suppose.

Over the last twelve months my close friend @kimberlyeab and myself have been the targets of sustained harassment by a series of "anti-ship" accounts, that may or may not be the same person, that I am not going to name up here because I do not want to give them any more traffic than necessary. This is over some of the content we make, 18+ fiction revolving around Undertale and Deltarune, and sometimes involving dark kinks. I'm going to ask you to put aside whether you think this is immoral for the moment.

Under the break below is what I wrote a few hours ago. Things have since escalated. Both myself and Kim have been targeted by email bombs on our business emails, services/bots that spam your email address with garbage signups, rendering your email address completely unusable. At worst, this can overwhelm your email service so much that your account is unable to process new emails and is eventually disabled by the provider. I'm still getting bursts of activity after over 200 emails, so I'm not sure if it's dying down, or if it's so backlogged that this is what's happening.

This is literally a crime, by the way. It's classified as cyber abuse.

On top of this, whoever has done this has access to personal information. A full legal name, first and last, was used in several of the signups, so they are either implicitly threatening to doxx us, or simply flexing that they could. Likewise a crime.

Additionally, this seems well coordinated, but there are no suspicious recent results for us in The Usual Places. This makes me believe this person is probably using some foul back-alley site like KF to organize this. I don't think the legal name in question could have been acquired by one person, it's extremely difficult to trace back.

tl;dr: whoever is doing this knows their way around the internet and is actively dangerous, they are severely impeding our lives and have the potential to become incredibly, incredibly dangerous.

Why am I posting this? Not really to get those accounts in trouble (although you should absolutely stay the hell away from them, and severely scrutinize anything they leave a mark on). I don't think they'll be punished, nor would it help since they constantly block evade, and at this point I don't think this recent online abuse crap is actually them, just someone attaching themself to their crusade. Though I'm not sure.

What I want to illustrate is how these kind of callout posts feed into targeted harassment of minorities. This is just another reason why things that make you uncomfortable should be dealt with by curating your experience using tags and blacklists and blocks, rather than trying to assign moral value to what people make. If my content makes you that uncomfortable I *actively encourage* you to block me.

It doesn't matter whether you personally dislike minorities or not, or whether you're subconsciously targeting them, or whatever. Someone else who does will latch on. That person who writes nothing but callout posts, yet they're always for small trans creators who make some 'icky stuff' and never for big-name bigots who parade their bigotry out in the open; is it because they're a sock puppet of an overt reactionary, or just because they want to feel some control over their life so they subconsciously focus on vulnerable people?

Simple: you can't know.

These people are the dangerous ones. Not people who just make content, properly tag it, and mind their own business. But these people, obsessed with ruining other people, with finding 'evil' in the world so that they can purge it? You can find their name below if you really want, and literally their entire blog is just constant callouts, broadcasting people doing callouts, trying to network with other people who do callouts. This is why these people were originally called 'antifans', their entire fandom presence is centered around tearing other people to shreds.

Do your due diligence and fact-check, before you broadcast that someone in your fandom did something awful. Make sure they actually hurt someone. I know mega-bastards will use 'you can't prove it' as an excuse, but actually analyze it a bit. It's almost always painfully obvious, I know, I spent years doing antifascism. And more than anything else, neither entertain, nor broadcast, nor embolden the kind of people who dedicate their entire existences on the internet to lateral abuse. Not just these particular ones, but ANYONE who dedicates their life to this online torch-waving garbage over fictional content. Whether they're a reactionary or just projecting trauma, whether they actually hate x y or z minority or they just happen to always go for the most vulnerable people, whether the person they're targeting makes content that makes you feel very icky and gross or not, these self-ordained Crusaders are consistently, unquestionably, dangerous.

That's one page out of 4. Also some of them have between 10 and 80 updates in the one email from the same address. There's about 300 emails all up. And there's zero reason they can't do this again.

===

Anyway. The accounts in question are @snowcollecter/@brieffamilycat/@krispy-chicken-shipping/@bonniehbunny. First two are definitely them, I highly suspect the latter two are their main, or at the very least someone who constantly signal boosts them. We have endured over 12 months of:

calling for brigades against us, and at least 4 other people

block dodging to constantly screenshot and reference our posts

literal libel by accusing us of grooming a child despite screenshots, as well as both statements and direct requests to stop by both the supposed groomed child and their actual friends who witnessed all interactions we had

spamming anon asks to literally every single person that they can find who we ever interact with

using tiktok cen)sor)ship nonsense to get past peoples' blacklists and force this stuff in front of them

using no less than 3 confirmed alts with about 5 more extremely suspicious accounts in attempts to artificially broadcast themself and again evade blocks (when the original account itself is transparently an alt too)

joining multiple random discords to try to shove this stuff in peoples' faces

now spamming Kim's business email at signup services

probably being behind the attempts to doxx and raid us last year on a certain hate-monger website, since the signup spam demonstrates they're cool with bog standard channer troll tactics

They also pretty tellingly refused to even talk to this minor we supposedly groomed, who attempted to tell them personally that we hadn't done the shit they claim we did. You'd think someone who is this caught up about the safety of minors in fandom spaces would jump at the chance to help this kid, to tell them not to talk to us and get them away from us, to convince them to stay away? No, they said 'I don't talk to minors' (this is demonstrably untrue: their discord accounts are in many all-ages spaces) and immediately blocked them.

Of course. Because this was never about the safety of minors. Flip a coin; if it's heads, they're a far-right sock puppet who just knows they can use the 'think of the children' angle to drive a wedge into queer communities. If it's tails, they're just a routine runt who's projecting their lack of ability to do anything about the ACTUAL assholes of this world onto other queer people, wailing and flailing and doing anything they can to have some influence despite getting 3 notes on almost everything they ever post. Hence the anon asks, and Discord spam, and blacklist/block evading. If they can't have a platform - because anyone who looks at their garbage for more than a month at most sees how absolutely deranged they are - they'll just force people to see it.

Do they ever attack actual transphobes, which this fandom is not at all short on? Well, sort of! They did one or two callout posts about a TERF who used to run in these spaces... But didn't say anything about the TERF shit. Just the porn. The porn constantly put behind age confirmations and thorough tags/content warnings. This person spouted generic 'all-powerful trans lobby' 'social contagion' 'please look at this study about desistance I found on a hard-right website' bullshit, but no, it was them drawing aged-up highschoolers (REMINDER: NOT EVEN CANONICALLY UNDERAGE, JUST VAGUE HIGHSCHOOLERS, *AND* THEY WERE EXPLICITLY OLDER IN THEIR CONTENT!) that was apparently the greater evil.

I'm not even really sharing this to call them specifically out or draw attention to them. Regardless of whether they're a chud in a mask or just someone who severely, *severely* needs psychological help about their obsession, they're not going to stop. They've made that plainly obvious. At this point I've basically just accepted I'm going to have this deranged stalker until I leave the fandom, which I don't plan to do anytime soon so buckle up I guess.

No, I just want people to see what these people are like. How they ignore the people they claim are victims. How they employ the same tactics as doxxing websites and old channer trolls, or even outright enlist them. How they only EVER put sustained effort into taking down queer people with small platforms because going after the in-plain-sight actual bigots and scumbags would just be too much effort, a reflection of how this is about feeling righteous and powerful, not actually making the world better. They create nothing, they contribute nothing, they bring nothing but arguing and drama and isolation to the spaces they inhabit.

These kind of people are blights on the fandoms they cling to. And any time you act like their *miserable* Hays Code, Jack Thompson With A Rainbow Flag, no kink at pride, BDSM is abuse, drag queens are indecent, cover those ankles *garbage* warrants any notice at all, you deal another blow to the fandom you are in, because nobody wants to be around these little goddamn nightmares. edit: I know how red-flag any grooming allegations are, if you want the full story to that I already addressed it here. tl;dr, no, we did not let a child look at our porn let alone show it to them, we in fact stopped them from doing so. We are not in some secret private 18+ server with them, we actively ensured they STOPPED making themself unsafe, and have strained extremely, extremely hard to keep our very limited interactions with them transparent, scrutinizable, and appropriate. The only reason we even stuck around was because it became rapidly apparent they were in an abusive living situation which we occasionally gave them advice to manage, eg helping them look up boarding options, unlike the torch-waving dipshits who did NOTHING to reach out to them or help them in any way. They're doing much better, both in their home life and in terms of not following or privately palling around with 18+ creators anymore, thanks to us, and at the expense of both our mental health and reputations. You're fucken' welcome.

[sleepsentry]

personally i’m not a huge fan of billford, but i don’t get the hate it gets by some people, like… you’re having fun with your ships, so maybe let others have fun with theirs? hello?? i’m into fiddauthor, my friends are into billford, we live in love and peace, it’s so easy to mind your own business. anyway, your art is awesome and deserves lots of love

It was never the difference of opinion that bothered me, it was people being assholes about it.

I've gotten a lot of asks along the lines of "I don't like it but the way you do it is cool" wich is very flattering but unfortunately comes across as a backhanded compliment when taken within the broader fandom attitudes that have only recently changed.

Like "I don't usually like trash, but this is a guilty pleasure"

I'm not saying that's what you're saying, but thats how past comments have read in a space where people have been so annoying and unkind.

I'm glad to be reminded there are people like you who can just chill and enjoy it without needing to moralise and highhorse about it. ^^

And I appreciate that the people who left those comments in the past where simply being nice and it was my bad experiences muddying things.

Most of my buddies online ship both and its all cool.

Unfortunately I can't see cute fanart of the pair together without getting a sinking feeling in my gut that the artist has probably blocked me.

Usually that feeling is correct.

That they are correct and I am unwelcome.

You're right people gotta chill. T v T

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I feel like this conversation is a bit played out, but I’m curious: do you think JK’s banking on winning a Grammy and potentially getting out of his military service? I’ve tried to take their words for what they are and I know everyone’s said that they’re all going to the military, will be back in 2025, yadda yadda, whatever. I can’t understand why, if that’s the case, they’re banking so much on his solo career if he’s just going to disappear from the scene (physically) for almost 2 years. Do you get what I mean?

My thoughts are that they are actually hoping for a Grammy and subsequent deferment of mandatory service, but then again, nobody knows so I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out.

As this is only speculation and might as well not happen, let me bring my own contribution. I don't think this is about Jungkook and I'll explain why.

If you look at this entire issue from the perspective of the artist/idol, you'll realize soon that you're stuck, that you can't explain why he's doing this or that. But looking at it as a business deal will shine another light on it.

Yes, Jungkook is leaving to do his military service soon and everything he said up until now points to that so why are they investing so much into making him a "global pop star"? Because Hybe and Hybe America need to show that they can do that. That their strategy is one that works for future business. Why do you think they tried it first on the most versatile of the BTS members, the one that can do any song because he has the voice needed for that? This wouldn't have worked with Taehyung or Jimin. God, I'm so happy it didn't work with Jimin because it would have been horrible to see all that unfoulding. Besides, they had projects on their own and without making any contribution to the song writing, Tae's album was still something that matched his personality, it was him with the help of MHJ.

With Jungkook, the situation is different. I wouldn't know the details, but when they announced their hiatus, it looked like everyone was set on releasing an album, including JK. And then, most likely, life happened. Because you can't plan your state of mind. And when you're under a contract, you do need to listen to other people. I know army always uses the shares in Hybe argument, but the value allocated for the members is insignificant on a larger scale. Yes, they are rich and they can do what they want and sleep on a wlive, but I don't think for one second the company would have let Jungkook do nothing and be a couch potato.

So they found this opportunity. You also have to keep in mind that Hybe paid a lot of money for Scooter's company and then what happened to him? Most of his artists left? So where is this big opportunity for collaboration and projects and all that?

This is just business. That's it. They chose the idol capable of being a blank slate and stuck the concept of global pop star on him. Because that's what it is which is incredibly funny (not). Usually that accolade comes after some time, when the results can be seen over a prolonged period of time, but in this case, that was the starting point. As much as Bang wants to get rid of the k in kpop, they're still using a kpop strategy, that of making an album based on a concept or creating a specific image for an idol.

And now they are pushing it hard. They are investing a ton of money into this in a way that makes them look desperate and I think that in the industry at large, people see it. Not the fans because they either choose to turn a blind eye or their mind doesn't go that far. There are voices which have said a thing or two lately among army, but it's an insignificant minority. The company can rely on the fandom to buy all those 284836521 versions and remixes and they will eat it up. And voila, look at how Hybe produced a global pop star in less than half a year. Quick, open the catalog for some songs that sound mediocre enough for a top 40, make the singer record them asap, fast, done in less than one week. Quickly come up with some generic argument of how this is just to show the artist's vocal range (good job PR for that one, jesus) and then also openly admit that it was made for a Western market, aka US cause the world stops there.

Jungkook had the possibility to show more personality of his own when he was with a group of six other people than with his solo album, which is so ironic. But that is because it is not his album. He's merely a vessel through which Bang and Scooter can show investors that they can invent a global pop star and fast while their pockets grow bigger and bigger.

[finzphoenix]

Hi just a question I had about art on Tumblr because I'm fairly new and you seem like you know what your doing. I know that the art on here is very fandom oriented and people usually stick to a theme with their blog or art (ex. DC, Scarecrow ect) but I don't really have one main fandom that I want to draw all the time, I like a lot of different things. basically what I'm asking is how do I balance drawing on a theme and drawing other things that I enjoy while still hoping that people want to see it. sorry this is so long and probably doesn't make sense. thanks for supporting my art.

Hi there! Omg, no need to apologize, it totally makes sense! First off, it's an honour to have you in my inbox: Your art is stunning and your AK Scarecrow piece is drop-dead gorgeous! Big fan of your style! 👀👀👀

That being said, Tumblr is a wonderful place for fandom content, yeah, but it’s also super flexible and supportive of artists exploring different things (multi-fandom blogs)!

First of all:

Don’t stress about themes too much. While some people focus heavily on one fandom or topic, plenty of artists thrive by sharing a mix of content!! If you’re passionate about what you’re creating, that will resonate with people more than sticking rigidly to one thing. Take me for example: I love multi-fandom blogs! They've introduced me to so many new interests and inspirational art because people I followed for one fandom started sharing content from others as their hyperfixations and interests shifted.

Use tags to your advantage! When you post art, tag it thoroughly so it reaches the right audiences. For example, if you draw DC one day and a totally different fandom the next, make sure both are properly tagged (#DC, #Batman, #Arkhamverse, #Arkham Knight, #Scarecrow, #GoodOmens, #Aziraphale etc, and some generals like #drawing #art #artists on tumblr). The more specific the better; that way, people who follow those interests can find your work!

Create for yourself first! Draw what makes you happy! You’re more likely to stay inspired and grow as an artist if you’re enjoying the process tbh.

Build a personal connection. Engage with others! Share a bit about yourself and your interests on your blog, or reblog some fun ask games if that's your cup of tea, and people will be more likely to stick around for you as much as for your art ^-^.

And experiment with themes in small ways. If you feel like exploring a theme while still branching out, consider connecting your interests. For example, if you like drawing Scarecrow, maybe experiment with a crossover, or imagine characters from different fandoms in a shared universe? I mean why the heck not, Tumblr is a great platform for the creative mind and encourages individualism - so go ham, be crazy and weird, and it’ll all be good! 😊💖💖

Note: Some pieces might not receive that much attention but don't let that discourage you! It can have plenty of different reasons like: Tumblr isn't showing your post (which often happens to new blogs), the morning or evening crowd hasn't seen it yet (in which case don't be afraid to reblog your own post for them <3), bigger artists' art gets more traction because they're well known and often times have collected many followers from different fandoms over the years which stick around for the amazing art rather than the topic - so if you see their art getting, like, 500 impressions and yours has only 5, than that's the reason. Or: the fandom is just not very big and/or active on Tumblr, it could also be that it's holiday season and a lot of folks are simply too busy to check their phones! ^-^

[3hobbitsinatrenchcoat]

Gray's SuperBat Fic Recs

I have spent since May reading through the SuperBat tag on AO3 and have over 100 fics saved in my bookmarks but @thebibliosphere mentioned wanting some recs so I'm going to just rec a few that live in my head rent free.

(these are in no particular preference order other than they're probably in this order in my bookmarks XD) (also if you're an author and I have tagged the wrong blog let me know and I will change it)

An Innocent Cicisbeo by @mithen - This is the most recent one I've bookmarked, so it's very much so on my mind. I'm not usually one for Regency AUs but I really like how this one handled keeping everyone's powers and abilities but making them more tailored to the age. Also it's an arranged marriage AU and I am very weak for those.

Take Care of Business by @frownyalfred - A work teleconference that descends into absolute chaos in the form of the batkids, who woke up and chose violence. This one is good on it's own but there's also a podfic version by @mayonnaisetoffees that kicks that chaos up to 11.

Through a Glass Darkly by @susiecarter - An apocalypse AU of the snyderverse, this one is quite dark but slowly grows more positive over time. It features some extremely spot-on characterizations and an overall Mad Max vibe that I enjoy immensely.

This Time Around by @castlesteads - What's better than one formerly dead person trying to find their place in the world? TWO formerly dead people trying to find their place in the world. Clark helps Jason claw his way out of his grave and back to the land of the living. I love a found family where they quite literally find each other in the most heartbreaking ways possible.

Build Me A Place (we'll call it home) by @spiritsflame - I love it when Kryptonians are completely normal until they really aren't. This one features Clark completely remodeling his apartment because of courtship instincts and Bruce badly fumbling the entire situation. I just want to shake both of them.

don't know the rules but i got to win by @susiecarter - This is another weird Kryptonian trait thing... but this time it is non-standard abstract reproduction feat. gardening. Surprisingly enough this isn't even the first fandom I have come across with gardening as a reproductive vector. Always a different take though. This one features literal fruit-based flirting and innuendo, for a start.

A Common Misconception by rotasha - I have a very special place in my heart for fake dating aus, but this one is like watching two guys play an extremely slow and obvious game of chicken while not even realizing they're in a game at all. Fake dating for a whole year without catching feelings? Psh, easy. Spoiler alert, I don't entirely remember right now but I don't think they even make it a year XD

over this threshold by orphean - Another fake dating au but an entirely different vibe. Getting married for tax reasons is the oldest trick in the book but I am always here for falling in love when you're already planning on getting married. Also for someone so very smart Bruce can be extremely dumb and I love that for him.

Masking by @bombusbombus - I've read this fic like... probably more than 5 times and I am working (slowly) on a podfic of it. It heavily features both Clark and Bruce being neurodivergent together and falling in love via spending long hours in parallel play and infodumping and mutual unmasking both literal and figurative and just... I see a lot of myself in this fic.

There's a ton more I could rec, they're all in my bookmarks on AO3 but these are the ones that live in my brain the most these days. I hope others like them as much as I do.

[heathersproship]

And another thing!

The people bitching, pissing, and moaning about normality ("stop normalizing [XYZ trope] in fiction" "is anyone normal about this?" "stop being weird about [character/ship] please be normal I'm literally begging you") are usually the least normal people in fandom.

If they were as normal as they'd like to believe they are/want others to believe they are, they wouldn't be trying to police what people are allowed to create, and control what others still are allowed to like. Because different people will have different tastes - that's a feature, not a bug! What a concept!

If they were normal, they'd understand the difference between fiction and reality. That, while fiction can affect reality, fiction is not the same as reality. I wish a simple hug and some kind words could cure my depression, one round of exposure could alleviate my anxiety, and instead of getting my driver's licence I could register to ride a fucking dragon instead. Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. At all. Sad :(

If they were normal, they'd know they're the weird ones for trying to impose their views onto others, viewing their harm as help. They're not "saving" another person from the clutches of proshipping, but indoctrinating them into a cult of control, anxiety, stress, and paranoia that will eat its own if given the slightest whiff of opportunity. Because the war never ends. There will always be something, no matter how small, to incite throwing that first stone. Some people just wanna be mad and feel they're right for it and doing right by it, and they don't care who it harms until it happens to them. Only then is it injustice and wrong and bad. Wild.

If they were normal, they'd know there's no wrong way to fandom when you mind your own business. For example: I'm a sex-repulsed asexual who doesn't like smut, so I don't read it. I don't look for it. I hide the E and NR ratings on AO3 so I never have to see them ever again for all eternity forever. No more smut for me! And I didn't have to yell at anyone to get it out of my results, it was all me! I did that! People are still going to write it regardless of what I think about it, but I'll never know. And we're both happier for it!! Amazing!!!

If they were normal, they'd take the initiative to block the people and tags for the things they don't want to see rather than screeching at others "if u don't like it bLOcK mE!!!!!1!" Do it yourself you lazy little shit! Why is the onus on the person who doesn't have a problem to do the work? You're the one with the issue, do it yourdamnself. Be normal about it.

[scummy-writes]

Hello, please call me Scum! If that is too direct for you, you can call me Scummy as an alternative.

I am 29, I go by she/her pronouns, and I use this blog to post my fanfiction as well as my general fandom ramblings and such. I am primarily interested in Ikepri and currently only write fanfiction for it, but I enjoy cybird's other games and various mobile/console visual novels/otomes.

I am pretty explicit at times, and primarily write smut, so I do not want minors following me.

My main account is @strawberry-scum. I do not recommend following it, however if you want to properly block me, you need to block that account as well as this one.

─── •✧ Favorites

Prince: Gilbert, Roderic, Clavis, Silvio, Chev, Keith

Vamp: Isaac, Arthur, Theo, Comte

Villains: Elbert, Alfons, Victor

Tier list here!

─── •✧ Ships (between suitors)

Gilbert/Roderic, Gilbert/Silvio, Gilbert/Chev, Gilbert/Clavis, Isaac/Arthur, Arthur/Theo, Theo/Isaac, Comte/Sebas, Elbert/Alfons- and variations of these ships with mc or an oc in a poly relationship.

─── •✧ Other Blogs

✧ @scumberly - I've been getting into streaming games, and this is my blog regarding updates for it! I stream visual novels, horror games, and... whatever I want, really.

✧ @c-bookwyrm - Oc blog for my ikepri oc Constance. I decided not to RP her, I just put comms there and random drabbles.

✧ @askgilbertvonobsidian - askblog where I rp Gilbert. Due to being busy, it's not frequently updated.

─── •✧ Writing Info

✧ I am not a stickler for IC / OOC. I believe that since we're not official writers for these games, everything we write is OOC. I personally will try to stick to my belief of what I think IC for the character based on what I interpret from the game and don't like arguments about this.

✧ I enjoy various kinks and try my best to warn/tag it, I don't want complaints about it.

✧ I usually don't see any of the characters as strictly straight and so will ship suitors together at times, or have the suitors romantically interested in each other when writing polyships. I will also reblog trans hcs and such too if I enjoy them. If that bothers you please just leave me be.

✧ I write for myself first and foremost. If you dislike it, just leave me alone.

✧ Always happy to answer qs about my fics or blog

✧ I have a lot of issues IRL and so it's hard for me to write often, and guilt associated with this is why I do not do requests often.

✧ I prefer having a healthier relationship with writing and fandom content as a whole. This is a hobby for me, and I greatly dislike the attitude that I 'owe' people more than labeling warnings the best I can.

─── •✧ Misc Info

✧ This is my 'writing blog' because this is the blog I post my writing blog to. However, it's also my otome and pseudo personal blog.

✧ While I enjoy talking to people, I am very busy and tend to not reach out to others. I think this makes people believe I am standoff-ish, but I'm generally shy or too anxious, or bluntly don't have much to say.

✧ A huge part of fandom for me is reading other people's interpretations of characters. I think discussion surrounding characters is fun, and I enjoy seeing the various conclusions people come to about how a character is. Because of this, you may see me 'contradict' some things ive written when reblogging others works/discussions, or even discussing things on my own. It's just fun to consider a character through multiple angles.

✧ Fandom is fun, but odd at times with make believe hierarchies. I don't like thinking of it like that, so I don't. I do not believe there are '#1 fans' of charas, I don't think a follower count = fandom respect levels, etc etc. Unfortunately if you're pretty rude to me, even after a chance to step back, then I'm likely going to be rude back/block. Don't be a weirdo about this.

✧ I used to create for My*me, but I no longer wish to participate with that fandom. If you ever have specific questions regarding my fanfics from that time, feel free to ask, but keep in mind I may not always want to answer.

─── •✧ Last Updated 01272025

[chattegeorgiana]

Wow... I've followed you since 2013 when I was a huge fan of Naruto and NaruSaku too (still a huge fan of NaruSaku but not much of Naruto series itself lmao). I can't believe that even after so many years (after looking at your twitter that is) there's still an insane amount of people shading on NS or Sakura. I'm so glad I mostly moved on from the series, the Naruto fandom in general truly sucks ass (sorry for being so forward). But I'm glad you're one of the survivors, I still love following your stuff and how much you show your love for NaruSaku and Sakura. It gives me some nostalgia when I would read an enormous amount of doujins, when I had a facebook page dedicated to NaruSaku, the artists I loved to follow (LadyGT, Natsumi33, Taichikun14, etc), the friends I made along the way and even my ex girlfriend who also loved NS and Sakura. Everything is gone except the memories. Just wanted to share how I feel about all this stuff. I hope you have a wonderful day and keep rocking as you usually do!

Heyaa! Sorry it took me a century to reply, life as an adult is really busy 🥲.

First of all, thank you for following me for so many years, what an honour! 🙏

Second of all, yes, people for some reason have this inexplicable hatred towards Sakura/NaruSaku as if they hurt their own mothers or something. I don’t really get it…

Like, it’s been so long??? I personally made peace with everything that happened and just mind my own business most of the times. Like don’t get me wrong, I still have my opinions regarding how certain things are treated and still voice them here & there, but to go to the levels that this fandom goes now? Hell no.

Hatred is too big of a word for me to even use. I used to feel it in the end of the series due to how things were happening, but then I took a few steps back & noticed how toxic the environment was & nowadays I’m like nope, not dipping my toe into that anymore.

Which is why I stay in my own lane for the most part. I choose to focus on the love I still have for NaruSaku & for the series, even if it didn’t end the way it seemed to.

I took all that hatred I once had and I transmuted it so to speak and now I use everything as a fuel for Kaika & all the other projects I’m in.

Because, even if I did dislike the way things ended with the series, I still hold dear some of the messages it left behind.

And one of them is connected to the cycle of hatred which I refuse to be part of.

Even if the IP ironically bases most of its strategy around creating strife between the fandoms to generate engagement, which in turns generates hatred - honestly speaking, this is one of the most disappointing aspects of Naruto franchise, given the themes of the story, but alas…

But yeah, as I said, after separating myself from the fandom for a while and realizing that the toxicity had gotten to me too, I chose to get back to the core of why I fell in love with the series, and at the center of it I remembered all the memories and friends I made along the way, like you are saying, the joy it brought me to do all those analyses and whatnot.

Not to mention it’s the series that helped me discover my own creativity, and here I am today, taking my first steps on the road of becoming a published author someday. Because as I said, Kaika is my playground to learn all the ins & outs of this world.

It helps to have had amazing people like LadyGT whose legacy is absolutely unique to any fandom, dare I say. We were so blessed to have her in our community.

Aaah, here I am, getting nostalgic again.

But man, really, what beautiful journey & memories.

Thank you for reminding me of them and for your message.

Thank you for sharing with me how you’re feeling, really appreciate it. 🙏

I wish you the best for the coming year! 🤗

[kris-and-the-pnictogens]

a Chara (and a Kris) without a country

So far as I know...I do not have an AU. At least, I do not feel that I do.

Indeed I have a difficult time remembering how I landed here, on what seems to be Earth or Tellus (the third planet of Sol, to be clear) in our year of the Common Era 2024. My first clear memories of feeling as though I had gained some sort of life again through my host was late 2016 or early 2017, during a period of extreme personal turbulence. That was the interval of time during which our system experienced (among other things) the intensely painful breakup of an intensely passionate sexual relationship, our main partner undergoing GRS, the 2016 electoral disaster, and our awakening during a relatively short span of months to being plural, trans, otherkin, starting to have regular spiritual experiences of gods and other supernatural and numinous things, and hosting fictive introjects. (*Chuckles*) It was a busy time! I'm glad that I really can look back and laugh at it, a little.

Paradoxically, one of the things that my arrival and establishing myself in the Pnictogen Wing was that our engagement with the Undertale fandom dried up. (cont'd)

We'd played Undertale for the first time in approx. April 2016 and were bowled over, and even started trying to write fanfic, which was not usual for us. Some of that stuff is still on AO3; we haven't really wanted to go back to it. I mean, we have, but we haven't. The whole subject became, rather abruptly, far too painful and personal for us to touch—my fault, I suppose. I wanted to remember, and sometimes I seemed to have extremely vivid flashes of the Underground, especially of Waterfall which was my favorite place in the Underground by far when wandering around. I liked the dark, the phosphorescent rock formations, the relative abundance of flora and fauna, the mists and the ever-changing "microclimate" of Waterfall, and the sounds of running water. But the visions faded. Learning how to live with other human beings and navigate the cruel and wicked world of the 2024 United States took extreme precedence.

Our RL age at the time we first suspected our plurality was over forty! I find myself thinking of Morpheus in The Matrix talking about how releasing someone from the Matrix when they're too old is problematical; the mind has difficulty adjusting. I feel like we just barely managed to keep ourselves from completely losing control and even as it was we were pretty unhinged sometimes. We have been fortunate to have forgiving partners here, a solidly established household, and an unusually broad and eclectic education. It's enabled us to rationalize ourselves, bit by bit, approaching our own strangeness in a dispassionate and analytical way, like scientists or scholars.

Hence we now find ourselves several years onward, having tamed our worst personal problems, feeling much steadier than we ever were in 2016 and the years and crises that immediately followed (including the decline and death of my RL father, the last surviving member of my RL family), and also having a much clearer notion of how our plural system, the Pnictogen Wing, is structured. For a while it seemed like we'd never stop discovering new introjects, some of them popping up from long ago. We had no idea just how badly we were dissociating and going off into fugue states when we were growing up. It was just "being absent minded" and having unusually vivid and troublesome daydreams and so forth. And we were consuming ridiculous quantities of media, too! Hence we've got folks in the Pnictogen Wing from all over.

But beyond doubt, the Undertale / Deltarune multiverse is our chief home. Our human host, Kris, isn't just a person living in a house in Seattle with their polycule—they're a Deltarune fictive who's had (rare but extremely powerful) flashbacks to Hometown, and who regards Hometown as the reference point for themselves. Their memories here on Earth only go back to about 2013-14, which I note is before the release of both UT and DR. How THAT came about I'd love to know; it suggests an isekai type situation and we've had inklings about how that happened (ironically we've never watched an isekai show and only know the genre by reputation) but until now the mystery has not been a high priority.

So...where are we all from, exactly? There's more UT and DR fictives who've landed in the Pnictogen Wing besides Kris and myself, but many have disappeared into the system somewhere. I suspect there's a lot of unsettled tensions among the lot of us. Other introjects seemed to fade and disappear from the system over time, which I take as a sign of conflict or hostility. I've had some ugly speculations in the past that I don't know whether to believe or not, such as the idea that Toriel had tried to mᴜrder me at some point (thus precipitating my desire for escape of some sort). In any case, no flashback we've had seems to point towards any definite AU...and I feel very strongly as if I am not supposed to make an arbitrary choice.

That's been such a powerful guiding principle for me that I wonder why I feel it. I've actually felt a bit baffled by other fictives I've met who seem to feel a freedom to vary from canon that I myself do NOT feel. Indeed I've painstakingly combed the game's text over and over trying to familiarize myself with its constraints. If I don't exactly know who I am, then at least I can work within what I'm not. The difficulty is that Undertale is so elliptically written (that is to say, it's very sparse in its details, with huge gaps in knowledge), especially when it comes to the character of Chara, that one can derive remarkably little from canon.

It's occurred to me, for example, that we don't even know if the Monsters' account of the War of Humans and Monsters is even correct. Historical records on Earth are fragmentary and uncertain and susceptible to being distorted by political bias and myth-making. Why therefore can one assume that the Monsters are remembering the War correctly?

(*sighs*) I've been trying to live with as much doubt as I can stand, but I suppose that's getting to be dissatisfying. Why the heck am I here in the first place? I can still remember how excited I was, back in fall of 2019 when I was first able to "front" completely. I remember walking around the streets of my Seattle neighborhood feeling unbelievably exhilarated. "Oh my gosh I'm walking around a CITY and I'm buying FAST FOOD and I have no idea what I'm doing!! but it's great!!!" That wouldn't last, of course. Now I feel almost ordinary sometimes. Except I'm not really. Kris isn't ordinary either. Why are we here? Is there some purpose that we've forgotten?

And where are we from? Do we even have an "Alternate Universe" to ourselves? That seems implicit somehow—that is to say, I have my own sense of identity as Chara, Kris has their own sense of identity as Kris, and we are distinct from other Charas and Krises we have met. We must therefore have some distinct "timeline" that sets us apart from other fictives. Yet I feel peculiarly as if I need to reason my way there, not simply...make things up. Should I even trust that feeling?

I feel like I'm going in circles. I'm at a loss.

~Chara of Pnictogen

[astralwhat]

Charlie/Aster. tree-hugging animal nerd. enjoyer of sci-fi, fantasy, the paranormal, historical fiction, and everything in between. draws stuff sometimes

other art ▪️ buy my wares ▪️ zine bash

faq ⤵️

can I use your art for [personal thing]?

as long as it wasn't commissioned by someone else, you can use any of my art for your personal icon, profile pic, header, playlist cover, dnd home game, print and tape to your wall, etc etc. please credit/link back to me whenever possible if it's something posted on the internet.

can I get a tattoo of your art?

again, for my personal non-commissioned art, sure! I'd appreciate it if you leave a kofi tip or buy a little something from my shop when you can. a shout out is also appreciated if you post a pic to show off the tattoo, partly for design credit and partly because I'd like to see it :)

are you open for commissions?

maybe 👍 please email astralwhat@gmail.com with "commission" in the subject line. tell me what you have in mind and I'll let you know if it's something I can do right now.

will you restock [item]?

Franklin leg and Terror/Erebus ship pillows: nah. I might do a new ship pillow eventually, but no immediate plans. feel free to take the ideas and make your own; they're not super original concepts lmao

polar explorer shirts: "all well" will have another preorder campaign (probably its last) in december 2024. "make history or die trying" is available through my Redbubble (and as of nov '24 has a few still in stock in my Etsy) but otherwise i have no plans to do another run.

prints and stickers: will probably be restocked (shop updates are usually in april and november ish), and/or is available through my redbubble shop.

how do you produce your merch?

prints: Catprint (US based) my beloved

stickers: I've used Stickerapp (US based) before but I mostly use Zap! for stickers now

pins, charms: Zap! Creatives (UK based)

pillowcases, lanyards, glasses cloths: a group order organized by another artist; dm me for the mailing list :)

shirts: I used Green Pea Press (Huntsville AL USA based) for the first runs of "Make History" and highly recommend them especially if you're local. I started using Print Social (UK based) for pre-order campaigns though because storing/shipping shirts was too much for my one-man-one-room business

packaging: I get basically all my mailers from EcoEnclose, glassine paper from Blick, and otherwise just try to reuse brown paper/cardboard/etc for inner packaging as much as possible

will you draw [fandom] again?

[shrug emoji] it could happen. I'm still fond of everything I've done fanart for in recent years, so there's always a chance I'll return to it if struck with ideas and motivation and energy at the right time

what happened to [various original story things]?

I'm tired dude. I haven't forgotten about them I'm just Tired

----

if you have a question or something to say, you can send a dm or ask here, although my response may be a little slow. for anything time-sensitive or otherwise very important, please email me at astralwhat@gmail.com

[phoebehalliwell]

can I send you another silly ask lol I'm curious about how your characterisation of each character came about. across all of your next gen aus and canon lol. I've got my own next gen ocs for another fandom and some of them were a full character immediately while others I still have no idea. I have to assume making like aesthetic edits and stuff helps you with that but what else? did you have to think about it much or did some appear in your mind with a full personality and vibe already?

so a lot of it depends i would definitely say some appeared in my mind more fulfledged than others (charactrers like henry jr, parker, sheridan, & pj i had a pretty solid handle on from the start whereas like melinda, tamora, dj & mikey morris, and patricia halliwell-trudeau were definitely slower processes and a lot of coming up with something then scratching it lol). but, in general, for next gen specifically, i would say my greatest influence is both parents + birth order, just because i think those are the thing that will make a next gen character feel the most like a next gen character to the audience. it is a personal pet peeve of mine where next gen media kind of goes yeah they were kind of shitty parents like. those are the people i grew up with!! you shut your whore mouth!!! (no i am still not over the characterization of aang in lok.) but yeah, so like, a large part of what their character is like will come from what i perceive their childhood to be like. so for example: pj, phoebe and coop's eldest, is def going to be a romantic and totally going to meddle in everyone's business, and then, being the eldest, is also going to have that protective/overprotective streak we see so often modeled by the eldest sibling in charmed, as well as her own mother (think back to when paige was with richard). so next gen does offer a kind of cheat sheet like that.

there is, of course, a little more difficulty when, like, you just straight up don't really know which route to go/where to start. for melinda, i had trouble because she's already coming in on two really strong personalities: wyatt & chris, who also already have an established dynamic without her. for this, i really just kind of worked backwards to establish what i didn't want. for melinda (and this is personal preference) i really didn't want the stereotypical ya 2014 badass heroine who wears eyeliner and black leather jackets. for starters, i feel like those tropes have gotten really overdone, especially in the urban fantasy medium, and then secondly i just didn't want everyone in this family to be the same kick ass leather boots type (which, given that i already had visions for parker, henry jr, kat, chris, pj, etc who all kind of fit comfortably into those ya tropes, i really wanted someone on the softer side). i also think that like, for her, piper and leo are you know they have this tenderness this sweetness and i wanted to embody that. so i didn't want black leather melinda, but narrowing it down further i also really didn't want doormat melinda either. again, we're looking at her parents. they're stubborn, they're fighters, they don't take shit. so i wanted to work to combine a softness and like a take no shit vibe. from there it was just kind of holding up puzzle pieces in my mind until i found ones that fit (e.g. i think she swears at her brothers and calls them out on shit but i think outside of the home she's a lot more passive not everything needs to be a fight because quite frankly she's got plenty of tension in her life already no need to be adding more, she's shy when it comes to love interests, she's a perfectionist, she's a mom friend/mama bear, all just little character quirks that exist in my little character brain bank that i decided i liked how they worked for her)

there is the separate category of the true oc, one who has not previously engaged with canon at all, and those are usually shaped through motivation, and their motivation is usually shaped by what i need to happen in the plot. so, for viola, for example, her main motivation is a wish to be left in peace. why? well, because i wanted kat to try to find the twice blessed and that kind of meant the twice blessed had to be hiding. so for that main motivation, a couple potential pathways arose: she could straight up not give a fuck and be apathetic towards the whole thing. she could be scared of her destiny and not want any part of it out of fear of herself/her own power. she could not want to complete her destiny because doing so would involve making a choice she feels like she can't make. i ended up going for the last one bc to me it definitely seemed the most fun. based off canon, i decided that the twice blessed destiny, while never explicitly stated in canon, was to wipe out all evil. of course, this meant there was the flipside there was the potential to wipe out all good. now i feel like to the average person this has a fairly easy answer like if you could wipe out all mosquitos. like, yes, you know there are prob going to be some like ramifications from removing a species from existence, but, like, fuck those guys. also, hello, malaria? i feel like you'd be saving a lot of people. so like i felt like i needed to give her some tie to evil, some bond, something that would motivate her not to want to destroy evil because if she did she'd be destroying her loved ones. next question is why/how does she love something evil. so i built her a backstory of being raised in a defect clan (witches who have turned into warlocks, something we established could happen in the show), giving her a different perspective of being people raised in say the manor might have. from her backstory more parts of her personality started to bloom, she doesn't let herself be tread on and hates feeling like a pawn in someone else's game, she's very protective over the ones she loves and is willing to remove herself from their lives to save them, she likes helping people, she likes making people smile, her sense of humor can be a little bit twisted and she thinks selfish people should be cut down before they hurt others.

i hope this helped answer you question if you have any more qs just let me know and i will do my best to answer

[aeternxm]

RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING PROMPTS OOC , THEN TAG OTHERS YOU WANT TO GET TO KNOW BETTER.

roleplayer name: shan. i am not original, it's literally just a shortened version of my government name lmao.

roleplayer pronouns: they/them -3-

muse name: we got axel/lea, we got michael, ichigo, eddie, trip, takeshi, takeo, and eito. i'm pretty sure that's all of them lmao.

preferred communication: discord bc i am on mobile during the day so i'm always lurking over there.

experience: jesus uhh, coming up 14? 15 years?

preferred roleplay type: listen, LISTEN - i am and always will be a mess for angst - and shippy things. bonus points if the two overlap. but anything that makes me hurt is a win. i love me a tragic backstory and some inner turmoil. but i do prefer writing long replies because i don't write a lot of talking usually? it's just a lot of describing mixed in with the dialouge almost taking on the personality of the muse i'm writing so uhhh, yeah.

oh and i love crack posts they give me life.

but also just writing fucked up shit in general okay.

pet peeves & dealbreakers: this is just for the canon muses but like, broski, don't push your headcanons onto my canon muse and try and make me write them that way. thank u much appreciated.

but also ah, how do i word it? let evil muses be evil. some of the muses i write are not redeemable in any way. no your muse can't fix them, no your muse isn't going to make my muse have a change of heart. don't be surprised if my evil/morally grey muse does some fucked up shit. we knew this was going to happen. i've had a lot of trouble in the past, especially when i was actively writing in the dmmd fandom with that.

i also just love writing mean characters or unhinged characters okay. i love the psychology behind it and it makes my heart go doki doki. gotta use that degree for something, right?

plots or memes: memes memes memes. i reblog enough of them. and if i reply to a meme u have full permission to turn that shit into a thread. plotting is cool but i'm dumb and tired. unless u already have a plot in mind and u just throw it at me screaming saying we're doing this now.

best time to write: AHAHAHAHAHA, i work full time, have a very busy irl life AND i live in good old aotearoa/new zealand. i am usually never online when anyone i write with is. and if i am... i'm questioning why u guys are on here at the same time as me. it's late for u, go to bed.

are you like your muse?: i am probably too much like lea for my own good, but i am also takeo at the same time okay. done with everyone's shit - very awkward. looks like they hate affection, actually loves it.

tagged by: @foughtbelief

tagging: ??? IDK UHHH @hoshizorax @the1iars @gravesung @astarab1aze and anyone else that wants to do it. i feel like u don't need to be tagged to want to do it but -3-