#it's so fucking prevalent that people post about it WITHOUT TAGS

[allthepandasintheworld]

1, 8, 10, 11, 22, delear's choice on fandom 👀

choosing violence :)

i'm gonna go dc themed for this one (when it applies) thanks for the ask archie!!

also, as a disclaimer, it's stuff i personally dislike for whatever reason. i've filtered tags and blocked the majority of people who say/talk about these things, but occasionally posts do escape through my filters bc a lot of the shit i'm annoyed by with DC are SUPER common among the fandom (which is partially why im annoyed)

the character everyone gets wrong

BATMAN. god. not even the actual writers can write a batman i can tolerate. there are like. maybe five(?) fanfic authors whose batman takes i actually enjoy? the others are so hit or miss. i barely even browse the tags anymore it's too much emotional effort to filter through the fics that are left even if i use stringent filters

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

that clark/bruce can't have a dad bod or be pudgy or be fat. like there are SO many artists who draw them in these ways, and also? Strength isn't defined by how dehydrated you are when you flex? you need fat to pad out the muscles, or else you're going to REALLY hurt after working out so much. yes, even clark. besides, the soft look is sweet. i like it a lot. i know i draw them a bit more on the 'hunk' side, but i will defend the dad bod/chubby/fat bruce and clark truthers to my death

10. worst part of fanon

the sheer number of people who try to heteronormify a literal gay pairing

no actually it's two things: clark being nothing more than an idiot (he's allowed his himbo moments but he's also very competent!!) and bruce being... abusive? verbally or physically?? there's like two sides of fanon bruce that i strongly hate: the bordering on abusive bruces and the bruces who are aggressively baby-ified. both are. not fun. a certain amount of pathetic is fine in a man, whatever, i love rene and he's a super pathetic man, but there's like there's a point when it stops being 'ah yeah just a sad little man' and starts being 'the author is REALLY piling shit onto him and putting ALL the responsibility on the other character to fix him'.

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered

ok depends on fandom but for DC? like. four? i think. no wait five, although the fifth is like sometimes hit or miss bc there ARE a lot of major character deaths (and undeaths) in canon and like i don't really care as long as it's not permanent?

but i filter a/b/o (and related tags), mpreg, incest, and rape. all are self explanatory, but just filtering the first two ALONE absolutely guts the fic count and i stare at the fic counter the way you might watch a horror protagonist just barely get away from the killer without realizing it. am i saying the fandom has rank-ass taste? yes. actually. who knew so many people had a kink for bioessentialism?

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

in THIS big of a fandom i feel like there isn't a lot that people ignore? like there's something for everybody, and i mean everybody. although i do feel like a disproportionate number of people prefer batman and the batfam over superman and the superfam and im really sad about that bc people automatically write them off as 'good is boring', and the canon writers often do the same. which like. guys. cmon. it's not 'boring' to put your entire (superpowered) might into uprooting the deeply entrenched weeds of oppressive systems in the world and looking forward to a brighter future. that's why we fight?? isn't it? so we can have a better tomorrow??? superman isn't boring at all, happiness and hope isn't boring. hope and happiness find meaning in knowing that they are not the default, that we have to work hard and struggle for it!! anyways. i do follow some people who talk about this so it's not entirely ignored, but like in the wider ship spaces i do NOT see enough people talking about this specific element of superman. i think they all just think he's hot. which i agree with. but i ALSO think he's cool and interesting and more than just his appearance.

[rjalker]

Dear people who aren't physically disabled who plan to write fantasy settings:

[ID: Several images taken from the Geordi La Forge yes and no meme format, with Geordi holding out a hand disapprovingly for the no section, then pointing in approval for the yes section.

The first image is the meme:

No: "Saying the existance of magic in your setting means there are no disabled people (this literally just means disabled people are killed. AKA eugenics)"

Yes: "Having disabled people who use magical mobility aids and other assistive devices. Realizing that someone is still disabled even if their prosthetic arm is made of magic instead of plastic."

This is followed by four more panels of yes section:

"Geordi la Forge is still literally disabled. His visor helping him does not erase his disability and make him magically abled."

"Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender is still literally disabled even though her Earthbending helps her. It does not make her disability ~magically~ go away."

"Having your disability be accomodated does not mean the disability goes away. Having a prosthetic hand, even one that's made of magic, does not mean you're not disabled."

"Magical mobility aids do not mean disabled people don't exist. It just means they use magical mobility aids instead of plastic or metal ones. A limb made of magic is still a prosthetic even if it's made of the soul of the universe instead of plastic and metal."

Then another no panel: "'There's no disabled people beacuse magic'".

Then one last yes panel: "'Magic helps disabled people in a variety of ways'".

End ID.]

This also applies to science fiction; just because Luke Skywalker's prosthetic hand is super advanced doesn't mean it's no longer a prosthetic, or that he's not disabled. Same with Darth Vader - just because he has a suit that lets him breathe and walk around doesn't mean he's not disabled. (And Star Wars' propensity for making the villains visibly disabled while the heroes disabilities get covered up by super advanced prosthetics is a topic that deserves its own post, especially with how ableist some of the authors of the books are. Troy Denning is especially ableist)

Edit:

Because people keep being fucking obnoxious and ableist in the tags, yes,,, motherfuckers, if you refuse to have disabled people in your setting, that does make you fucking ableist. If you say that the magic is used to cure all disabled people and that's why they don't exist, that's fucking eugenics.

You cannot ""cure"", more like remove all disabilities without fucking eugenics. Magically automatically destroying disabled fetuses (a very fucking popular trope!) is eugenics.

The only way to fucking "cure" autism is to fucking kill all autistic people, also known as eugenics!

What about people with PTSD? Do you just fucking brainwash them so they aren't traumatized anymore?

Do you force all Deaf people to be able to hear? Do you force all blind people to be able to see? Do you force all anosmics to be able to smell?

Do you magically force everyone with a speech impediment to speak to your standards?

Do you force everyone born with bodily or facial differences to live up to your fucking standard of beauty?

You cannot fucking say "disablities don't exist in this universe because magic cures everything" without inherently saying that eugenics exists in your fucking universe.

Not all fucking disabilities need a cure. If you ""cured"" my autism I'd just be fucking dead. You'd literally just be changing me into what you think is fucking acceptable.

Stop fucking arguing in defence of ableists on my fucking post so you can pretend that eugenics has never been written about in magical settings when it is extremely fucking prevalent.

And while we're fucking at it, let your gods damned characters become disabled over the course of their story, and call them disabled within the fucking story. I don't care if they're a robot. I don't care if they have magic. Not all fucking damage can be fixed. Curses exist. Hardware can go out of fucking date and no longer be manufactured anywhere.

Let your characters become disabled and do not magically fucking cure them back to brand new every single time they get hurt. The only thing you accomplish by doing that is destroying any chance of ever having stakes.

No, "magical healing leaves scars on the mind from the memory of the injuries though!!!!" is not fucking good enough. Let your characters have scars. Let them become disabled. Stop being fucking ableist cowards.

Edit number fucking 2:

No, motherfuckers, you do not get to comment "if the disability was caused by magic it's not ableist to cure it with magic". You are the ableist this post is about. Shut the absolute fuck up, stop treating being disabled as the worst possible outcome, and just admit you're a fucking ableist. If you don't want your characters to become disabled, then don't fucking make them disabled.

[ID: The Garfield "you are not immune to propaganda" meme, now edited to read:

"If your first thought upon reading this post is, 'Oh, but it's okay to magically cure disabilities caused by magic!' Congrats…you are the exact sort of ableist jackass this post is about."

End ID.]

Edit number fucking 3:

Autistic people exist! People who are born with disabilities exist! You cannot create a setting where disabled people do not exist because we're all "cured" or "fixed" and not inherently say that you are killing disabled people as soon as they're born, or fucking aborting us as soon as you figure out we'd be born disabled! That's fucking eugenics!

There is no way to "cure" autism without eugenics! There is no way to "cure" people with body differences without eugenics! There is no way to make disabled people nonexistant in your setting without eugenics! Thinking you can and should "cure" and "fix" all disabilities IS EUGENICS!

Also:

[ID: A character shouting at the camera, now edited to read: "Shut up about Dungeons and Dragons! Shut up about Dungeons and Dragons! If the rules of Dungeons and Dragons are ableist, then fucking change them! It is your fucking personal responsability to be a better person than your bigoted society wants you to be!". End ID.]

[ID: White text on a dark brown background with white and black borders around the edges, that reads:

"I don't fucking know or care about Dungeons and Dragons.

This post is not about Dungeons and Dragons.

Do not fucking throw the rulebook of Dungeons and Dragons at me like it's some sort of 'Gotcha!'.

You will literally just be blocked like the rest of the ableist assholes who've already tried it.

If you play dungeons and dragons, it's your responsability to make your games not be ableist, even if it means breaking the rules.".

End ID.]

I do not fucking care what the ableist rules are in Dungeons of Dragons. Do not fucking throw ableist rules for a game I have never and will never play at me on a post I made so that people could learn how to make their settings less ableist. If the rules in Dungeons and Dragons are ableist, then fucking change them. If you don't want to change them, then stop fucking playing an ableist game.

Disabled people deserve to see ourselves represented in fiction just like everyone else, without any fucking requirements that we be "cured" or "fixed" before the story ends.

How the fuck would you feel if a trans and gay character's whole story revolved around going on a quest to become straight and cis, did so, and only then was allowed to live happily ever after?

Why do you fucking think suggesting people write stories about disabled people going on a quest to be cured because it's the only way they'll ever be happy is any less fucking offensive?

Also:

This post is NOT a place for you to talk about how disabled people in fiction should have the option of curing their disabilities. It's just not. That's the fucking default for this society. That is not a revolutionary concept. It's not novel. We fucking know this society wants us gone. A post about how disabled people deserve representation is not the place to talk about how "Well, actually, in fiction disabled people should be cured!" Like that's not the fucking universal default???????????

Edit #4:

Everyone needs to stop tagging this singing praise for Fullmetal Alchemist. A story that uses disability as a punishment and the characters are on a quest to cure their disabilities is not the amazing representation you're all claiming it is just because the character who is only disabled because of DIVINE PUNISHMENT uses prosthetics.

Read this post, and this one. Fullmetal Alchemist is a hell of a lot more ableist than you people are letting on.

guess what you can now find a PDF version of this post on the web archive.

Edit #5! August 23rd, 2023!

A) Everyone. Disabilities that can only exist in the magical setting are still disabilities.

Trying to cure the younger brother's magical disability of being a soul floating around in a magical suit of armour is, in fact, going on a quest to heal a disability!

It doesn't matter if the older brother doesn't want to get his limbs back when they're going on a quest to heal the younger brother's disability! Especially when they BOTH get magically healed at the end!

Magical disabilities that can only exist in that setting, but not real life, are still disabilities, and it's not okay to magically heal them either! What part of the Garfield meme on this post did you all choose to ignore?!

B) When you leave tags on a post you are reblogging, the original poster can see them! When you leave tags on this post, I can see them!

If you think this post is ""too aggressive"" then simply do not reblog it! Don't fucking tone police me on a post I've had to edit five times now due to the constant ableism people have been commenting since I made it!

I have been called the R slur by multiple people in response to this post! People have literally reblogged this post to defend eugenics abortions! You can't see these comments or replies anymore because I blocked the poster!

If you think minorities are being too aggressive by responding appropriately to bigotry, you're a bigot! And you should either not reblog the post at all, or at the very least, shut the fuck up and not tone police us!

Do not fucking put tags on this post complaining I'm being too aggressive! That's called tone policing and you're a bigot if you do it! Don't fucking do it on anyone else's posts either! They can see your tags too!

C) When I fucking say Harry Potter fans are banned from this post, yes, this means YOU!

Either stop supporting a billionaire who's literally using the profits from her bigoted shittily written books to fund REAL FUCKING GENOCIDE, or fuck off!

By continuing to support the Harry Potter series, you are literally giving JK Rowling free fucking advertising! You are encouraging more people to read the series and watch the movies, spending more money and giving her more fucking money with which to LITERALLY SHAPE A COUNTRY'S LAWS TO COMMIT GENOCIDE. She is literally fucking fighting to make being trans illegal! She is literally fucking fighting to have even more of autistic people's rights taken away!

You cannot fucking be a fan of the Harry Potter series in 2023 and call yourself an ally to all the minorities harmed by JK Rowling and the bigotry baked into her shitty series!

Read another book! The Web Archive has tons you can read for free! Literally every single book on gutenberg.org/ is free! Including audiobooks for some of them!

If you write Harry Potter fanfiction, simply fucking get rid of the names and identifiable features and start writing original fiction instead! It's literally free!

Not supporting a literal fucking genocidal billionaire costs LITERALLY NOTHING! And if you refuse to fucking stop supporting JK Rowling, which is what you are doing when you support the Harry Potter series and squeal over her OCs, you are not an ally to any fucking minority! No! Not even if you're trans yourself!

= = =

Edit again Nobember 28th 2023 because this comment is just. such a perfect example for all of you that think this doesn't happen.

butter-whore2 said, two hours before this edit:

kind of a fan of tumblr's slightly more algorithmically elements for reminding me of the hell's other people construct for themselves but this one hits like five of the boxes. How do people do this to themselves? it's such a bizarre way to act over media I genuinely do not believe is capable of stirring an emotional response the metaphysics of disability here are unintentionally really funny but disability is not a coherent ontological framework, it's a vague descriptor for literally thousands of different things none of which lend themselves to categorizing Moralizing over fiction is incredibly lame.

Liking harry potter is also incredibly lame, it's not morally wrong nor transphobic and you do not get to decide that lol. people literally do get "cured" of their disabilities all the time, many of them have a positive experience in doing so. this is not what eugenics is.

the anti abortion stuff lol

Literally how do you live like this? you guys don't even read real books I don't get it.

Archived version of the comment for posterity.

So yeah, lofl, block this fucker.

[utilitycaster]

Hi! Hope you don’t mind me asking but, I’ve seen you comment about a “fjord moon” theory every so often in your tags, and I’m quite curious what’s it about? I don’t think I’ve ever heard about it, is it something more prevalent in twitter spaces?

It started in Reddit spaces but it had a moment within the fandom at large during Campaign 2, especially after a YouTube video surfaced shortly after the campaign had come back from hiatus in August 2020. It hasn't come up lately since Campaign 3's plot pretty thoroughly debunked it, which wasn't necessary for reasons I will cover below.

I talked about how stupid it was at the time, and will do so again but I don't feel like looking back through my archives to find that post, so: the idea was that Fjord was from Ruidus. I call it a theory because its creators called it a theory but it was really just a lot of incoherent yelling that unfortunately happened to fall into the hands of a prolific and popular but talentless video maker and was boosted by a prolific and popular but deeply stupid figure on CR Twitter.

You can read it here but in short he basis was that Fjord was actually a Spelljammer Space Orc (Scro; yes this is just Orcs backwards; Spelljammer is not exactly the most brilliant of concepts) because he was intelligent and walked upright, ignoring that Spelljammer was, at the time, from D&D 2e only which can generously be described as "wicked racist in the depiction of orcs". Not that 5e is not without its foibles, but it had largely 86-ed the worst of the racism that pervaded earlier orc depictions. Also Garthok pre-dated Fjord and was a half-orc with the same intelligence, but what are facts to an idiot. So anyway this guy working off a deeply racist older concept for orcs spun this into a wild conspiracy theory involving the fact that Travis likes Dragonball Z; something about the film Spaceballs (as far as I know Travis has said absolutely nothing about this, this is just that the Mel Brooks Star Wars parody and my personal childhood favorite Spaceballs exists I think?) and various other random pulls from science fiction media. This guy asked a question at a panel and mistook the cast looking at him like he had lost the plot as a sign he was onto something. Somehow, people listened to him.

Here's the thing about theorycraft. It is more important, in writing a theory, that you base it on evidence than that you get it correct. Any dipshit can guess and any lucky dipshit can guess correctly, but if you show that you can't structure an argument for beans, anyone who can structure an argument for beans will rightfully look at you and say "well, they predicted something once, but that's a fucking fluke because they're a fucking joke." Theories should explain something that needs explanation (Fjord having an INT of 14 and the name Fjord and being an orphan does not). They should not solely rest on things the cast likes or things that merely exist in-world and certainly not from Spaceballs and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the connection of which to Critical Role in that Reddit post is not explained, ever.

To give some examples of good, mediocre, and bad but at least not nearly that bad theorycraft: the theory that Ashton was a meteor that was around early in C3 is in my mind not very good, but at least it fits within Exandria canon and explained something about Ashton needing explanation at the time. The theory that The Emissary is the source of the stasis bubbles is in my mind a very good one explaining several key mysteries (source of stasis bubbles; why Erathis sent him rather than coming himself). The theory that Bor'Dor was a dog was fucking stupid and made no sense nor did it explain anything that needed explanation (and also wildly misjudged how border collies behave) but did at least not say "also, the TV show Lassie...exists in our reality, and this is evidence" The Fjord Moon Theory is maybe the stupidest and worst CR theory I've seen in my entire life, and it's up there for fandom theories over all. I get that it was August 2020 and I don't begrudge people who were very bored and scared from joking about it while not taking it seriously, but I do begrudge those who did take it seriously because like, come on.

Anyway, I bring it up in tags sometimes because many of the worst C3 takes on Twitter that make it to me via "can you fucking believe this" screenshots in the groupchat are either started or propagated by Former Moon Theory People.

[voxofthevoid]

I have not tagged top/bottom for anything since 2018, and I won't be doing it again. The intent is to actively drive away people who need top/bottom, regardless of the dynamic, tagged. <- Can I ask what you mean by this? (different, curious anon)

Y'know, I had a feeling soon after replying to that anon that someone would ask about this 😂

Short version:

Hypocrisy and unreasonable expectations about tagging top/bottom caused me to stop the whole practice. I started using "Choose Not to Warn" and stopped taking tag suggestions for similar reasons. What you see is what you get, and I'm entirely content with people who want more specific tags or warnings giving my fics a pass.

Long version:

When I started writing and posting porn (Hannibal fandom circa 2014), I tagged top/bottom roles because most of my favorite authors did, and I figured that's the common practice. I also wrote switching then, less because of genuine interest and more because the dominant discourse was that it's the "right" way to write gay sex. I was personally inexperienced at the time and uncertain about my own sexuality; I was more scared about writing sex "wrong" than anything else.

From 2014 to 2018, I was in three major fandoms, one after the other: Hannibal, Attack on Titan, and Yuri on Ice. All three had raging top/bottom discourse, but if you've seen this shit, you know that there's no variety in it—if you've seen one of them, you've seen them all (though the YoI top/bottom discourse came with a generous helping of racism too). You had two loud camps:

Those insisting the bigger, older, meaner, stronger, and/or more dominant (personality wise) person should top; nothing else makes sense.

Same-sex couples, especially men, had to switch. Anything else is heteronormative and fetishizing.

Both stances are, of course, fucking bullshit. People fuck in whatever ways they want, and neither appearance nor personality determines whether you're a top or bottom (or anything on the BDSM end either).

But the discourse hasn't gone anywhere. You still get people trying to justify the sexual dynamics they prefer with one or the other of these arguments, and while #1 is typically used by diehard stans of the predominant dynamic, you also often get the opposite crowd trying to "prove" that X is actually a bottom because [insert reasons that almost always come down to bottom=more feminine].

On top of this, there's another prevalent trend. The predominant dynamic (top Gojou in the case of goyuu) is considered the "natural" option. It's the default. If you click on an explicit goyuu fic, that's what should be there. Anything else—be it switching or top Yuuji—needs a "warning" because heaven forbid anything other than the norm be written without neon keep-away signs slapped on it.

As my tone and all the scare quotes may indicate, I have no patience—but do have an abundance of rage—for any of this shit. I reached my boiling point toward the end of my YoI days, which was also incidentally when I started to fuck and my own tastes (IRL and fictional) solidified.

My porn fics are all rated explicit, and 99% of the time, there's a tag for anal sex. There's also a marked absence of top/bottom tags to go with these. Readers can do the mental math and choose whether or not to click in. If their assumptions make asses out of them, that's not my problem—except when they try to make it so.

[xenon-demon]

I fucking love pretty much every version of the “celebrity x Just Some Guy™” trope that there is for Steddie, but in honor of having a totally reasonable amount of wine I’m going to tell you about the version I’m currently thinking about all the time, one of my dumbest yet also funniest AU concepts: modern!AU with streamers Steve & Robin and Hardcore Fan™ Eddie who writes reader-insert fic about Steve.

Steve and Robin, aka EvenStevens and BirdBox_ on Twitch (“My name is spelled with a P-H, Robin, that’s such a stupid name.” “No, it’s actually even better this way! You don’t want to just use your real government name for something like this, and you would just make your username ‘SteveHarrington01′ or something equally uninspired-”) frequently stream together and have a shared YouTube channel. They got popular doing reaction videos that quickly devolve into the pair of them bickering on camera, and since the internet just loves the ‘snarky woman and her emotional support himbo’ dynamic, they got very big, very quick. Plus, it certainly doesn’t hurt that they had the combined might of Dustin and Erica to help them bend the algorithm to their whims.

While most people recognize their platonic-with-a-capital-P soulmatism, there are still some that are convinced they’re secretly dating - they can’t decide if it’s hilarious or absolutely maddening that every time they try to disprove the rumors, they somehow get stronger. Robin doesn’t feel comfortable coming out to the internet yet, and without that trump card some people just can’t understand why they’re not dating.

...there are other sections of their fandom, however, that absolutely do believe they’re not dating. Mainly because they’d rather be dating Steve or Robin (or both!) themselves, and write all the reader-insert fanfiction you could ever possibly need about it. Robin is largely ambivalent to the concept of fanfiction being written about herself as long as they’re not writing smut, since at least that way they’re not insisting she’s dating Steve.

Steve on the other hand finds it absolutely hilarious how despite how much he’s changed, he’s back to being the heartthrob he used to be in high school - and, he’ll be honest, he thrives on the attention. He’s given everyone the green light to write whatever they want - dared them to make it raunchier, even - to the point where it’s a running joke that Steve will read your reader-insert fanfiction about him unless you tag it with some form of ‘Steve don’t look’. He even used the prevalence of fic about himself to come out on stream.

(Steve’s in the middle of re-organizing his flower field in Animal Crossing when he’s interrupted by a donation. “Hey Steve, really sorry to tell you this but people are writing porn about you... and they’re making it gay. Like writing about you getting fucked by a dude. Just wanted you to know so you can say something about it.”

Steve stops dead, his screen freezing on his open inventory. “Hey, uh, why the fuck would I have a problem about a fictional version of me bottoming? Or- wait, do I seriously give off homophobic vibes? I’m literally bisexual. Hey Dustin, can you ban that guy please? Christ, the nerve of some people. If that’s how you feel about people being gay, or about people writing things that I’ve already said I have no problem with, you can leave this stream right now because I don’t want you here.“)

Many people lost their minds after that stream, one of them being popular tumblr blog whorefireclub.

Eddie didn’t plan on starting a tumblr blog for self-insert fanfiction about a twitch streamer. Really he didn’t, and every time he thinks about it in terms that plain he kind of dies a little on the inside. It’s really all Gareth’s fault, for getting fed up with Eddie’s dumb parasocial crush on a streamer and daring him to just “get it out of his system already”. So, using a bare-bones anonymous tumblr and many, many beers as his cover story, Eddie posted some of the most quickly written and unedited pieces of writing he’s ever produced in his life.

Except he wrote it with an AMAB reader character - and for those of you unfamiliar with the reader-insert sphere, that’s like fucking hen’s teeth. People are pretty good at making things gender neutral at least in their descriptions, and sometimes the anatomy is vague enough that it’s ambiguous, but the majority is written with AFAB genitalia for the reader character.

Eddie’s little drunken post blows up, and at first, he’s never regretted a life choice more.

After thinking about it, and seeing just how many people left comments with their reblogs or came into his askbox directly to thank him for giving them the representation they wanted, he starts to feel a bit better about the whole thing. In fact, it kind of tickles his “protector of the outcasts” instincts; there are people who can’t enjoy the content they want to because it doesn’t gel with their anatomy or gender identity. Eddie could, hypothetically, if he wanted to be absolutely insane about this one hot streamer guy, help fix that problem somewhat.

A couple of months later and he’s become “the guy who writes inclusive reader-insert fic”. While a fair amount of his work is gender-ambiguous, both in anatomy and in avoiding gendered language, more than half is written for anyone who finds themselves underrepresented in the usual reader-insert scene; anyone AMAB, AFAB people who can’t do female language, he’s even written a few oneshots with intersex reader characters. He did research for it and everything. It’s certainly not how he planned for this to work out, but it’s actually kind of... nice. He’d written a lot of fanfiction in his youth, mainly about Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, and while this isn’t how he’d imagined returning to the hobby it’s actually really fun. (It’s making his celebrity crush on Steve a million times worse, of course, but he’s in denial about that so it’s totally fine.)

He’s a little shit, so his blog header has - underneath his personal details - a PSA that reads “Steve, don’t look at this unless you have the balls to shout me out on stream ;)”. Eddie thinks he’s absolutely hilarious.

Right up until he wakes up to find his following has exploded overnight, and upon checking his DMs from his mutuals realizes that - oh shit - that bastard actually did it and talked about his blog on stream.

And Steve said he liked it. Steve likes the porn that Eddie wrote about him. Jesus H. Christ, Eddie is so unfathomably fucked.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if this were to exist as a fic it would be told through social media posts/DMs. one of those fics that uses unconventional (i.e. non-prose) formatting, you know the ones. the concept actually came from the fact I fucking LOVE fics like that, I’m a slut for any of that House of Leaves-type shit. one time I read a fic that consisted of 8 short stories and each one had a HTML puzzle you had to solve to be able to read it, e.g. one you had to highlight because the text was in white, another you needed to hover your mouse over to make it scroll through the text - I can’t remember the rest but it was SO COOL.

(or, to put this another way, I read homestuck at a formative age and it forever changed how I feel about formatting stories.)

[bixbythemartian]

so, a couple of times in my life, I've gotten job as a low end writer who did basically some level of those seo blog posts/website stuff- a job I loathed, because it was absolutely garbage pay and they expected very specific results (I was making less than minimum wage doing this a lot of the time), and I knew it was contributing to the enshittification of the internet, which was kind of soul crushing.

I did it two separate times in my life, and both times they sucked.

but both times I did this particular job, I wasn't allowed to make claims without citing sources.

There was some content control, someone read everything I wrote. And as frustrating as some of the feedback was- especially when it was clear the thing I wrote was too interesting and unique- it's much more frustrating now, in retrospect, when a quick internet search leads me to tons of fucking incomprehensibly written garbage documents that are clearly vomited predictive text 'ai' crap.

Like we were not paid enough for the work we did, and honestly could have done better stuff if given more leeway to do fun and interesting stuff around the topic, which probably would have been better for people selling tin roofs or mushroom growing kits or whatever. The editors were DEFINITELY not paid enough, either, but also the rules about writing those articles were really frustrating and also not specific- like it was one of those 'I know it when I see it' things, which meant you would have to make judgment calls, and if you fucked up so many times you were just out. You know?

But there was some quality control. I know I had one or two stories sent back because the links I provided didn't back up the claims I made. (Oops! Usually this was because I knew enough about the subject to not need to do research and had skimmed the source and assume it mentioned Thing.)

This wasn't, by the way, all web content ever- there was then and always has been extremely barely comprehensible shit written just to grab SEO tags and throw garbage links into, this isn't new! But with AI it's gotten just SO much more prevalent and harder to avoid.

[insomanic-fanfication]

🍃🌹I feel like this could help my Mutal Writers🌹🍃

Author's note: Writing can be entertaining and a way to let that creativity from your mind flow. For some, it can even be a coping mechanism. However, you can even get burnt out from things that you enjoy. That's okay! And it is, in fact, normal! Believe it or not, even professionals get writer's block; it's part of the writing process to help you think outside the box or different perspective.

Sources to help with writer's block:

How has my writing process been? How do I tend to do writing?:

Let me use one of my drafts as an example! Important understanding: When figuring out how to eliminate your own writer's block or write your fanfictions. It's prevalent to see how others write or their working process and feel discouraged when their way doesn't work for you. So here is some context about myself before I show you my writing process and why it works for me. While it may not work for others.

I am an Autistic 19-year-old (20 in 4 months, Jesus fucking Christ..), Transman. Working a full-time job and made this blog a side project and hobby. While being polyamorous, I am also Ace! So this will bleed into my writing without me knowing.

I've found ways to help me write are being in places where other people are working too; this is why you can often spot them in local coffee shops. Seeing a lot of college students and genius people working on their laptops and being productive tends to help me do the same!

Whereas, if I stayed in my room, I find it's much easier to get distracted or begin to procrastinate.

My actual writing process, Using one of my drafts as an example:

Draft in Question: "Shotgunning" Stoner Wally West x Male Reader

The title, content warning, author's notes, and summary are great places to start. It can help you understand where to take the fanfiction, no matter how long it's been since you opened the draft.

Don't be afraid if you don't know exactly where to start! There is no rule saying you have to start at the beginning of the fanfiction; if you have an idea of part of it, then you can start from there. Once you write that part, make a paragraph about how the situation gets to that point. Doing the same after the section.

The 2 purpose rule:

"When re-reading to edit, there must be 2 reasons for the edit that furthers the plot."

As someone that creates something, we often become our most prominent critic by deleting an entire paragraph because we believe it's not good enough. This is where we can become burnt out or discouraged about our writing abilities. By doing this, you are limiting your editing and, in return, limiting your stress about getting it " just right."

An expectation of this rule is to make sure the work is easy to follow. Write as much as you can, then step back from it for an hour or two, Then re-read it and write for better clarity. Only allow yourself to do this once or twice after finishing the fanfiction. Then press post! Post it before your anxiety tells you to keep editing or "Let's change this one thing first.". No! You're done, post or schedule it, and go to the next draft!

______________________________________________________________

I hope this helped someone that's struggling with some things. If the draft seemed interesting, check out my blog or more posts! I also reblog others' works; check out my reblog master list!

Have a fanfiction idea that you don't have time to write yourself? Request it! My request/ ask inbox is always opened!

Tags: @prismuffin @n0cturna1-m3 @gatorbites-imagines

[fanbun]

https://www.tumblr.com/fanbun/752745189017354241/hate-going-into-the-aromantic-tag-and-seeing-tons

I’m assuming this post is about Alastor (or at least a very similar situation) and as another aromantic person, I just want to say this:

I can’t use this website to interact with the Hazbin Hotel fandom much at all with Alastor’s ship tags blocked, especially not the #alastor and #lucifer tags. I used to get a lot of joy out of being part of this fandom, particularly Alastor, because he’s one of two asexual/aromantic characters from (now) mainstream media I can think of off the top of my head. I’ve been posting here (and exclusively here, I refuse to use most other social media apps) since before the pilot dropped, and ever since the actual show came out, I can’t use it anymore. I have the blogs I already follow, but even then a lot of them have shifted toward shipping content. There aren’t many blogs that’re completely platonic-focused, and it sucks. Obviously there were some blocked posts before, but I could scroll past them without feeling much of a difference. Now, it feels like it’s the other way around.

This is my issue. Obviously. But I can’t fix it short of leaving the fandom I’ve been part of for so long and is so important to me, and it’s really upsetting. I’ve blocked over 150 different blogs off the top of #alastor from the “this post contains filtered media” boxes (which is 90% of what I could see before), and if I scroll more than a few pages down, there’s a clear line where I haven’t reached yet. What’s worse, I don’t think this touched #lucifer at all, it’s only a little bit better than #alastor was before I did this. Short of blocking 90% of the fandom (which would most likely include a SHIT TON of my own followers since I’m also fairly active in the fandom), I don’t know how I’m supposed to fix it.

I can’t block every single blog that posts about ships I don’t want to see, but it’s so fucking prevalent now that I have to dig to find anything else. Which is ESPECIALLY upsetting considering I specifically liked Alastor because he’s like me. I was excited to have A Character. To not feel so fucking isolated in fandom spaces 24/7. And now I leave the tags feeling more upset and isolated than I did before. It has genuinely brought made me cry multiple times, because it reminds me of how different I am and how much I can’t enjoy these things the same way other people do. Being aroace is already really fucking isolating for me, both in the world at large and in fandom spaces specifically. I thought I had One Guy, I had One Guy for so long and now I can’t even enjoy looking through his tag anymore. It really sucks.

I don’t know what the hell to do about this man. I’m allowed to be upset, and I’m not going to apologize for that.

Sure, you’re allowed to feel upset by always seeing content that feels isolating or ruins your enjoyment of something. But that just means you have to find smaller fandom circles that share your preferences. Maybe you could join a dedicated Discord server that only allows platonic depictions of Alastor with other characters. Smaller communities can actually enforce rules like that.

I see where you’re coming from because I often feel disillusioned and out of place in fandom myself. But your experience is also shaped by the community you’re in. Admittedly I don’t engage with the Hazbin fandom very much. As a rule of thumb though, fans on Tumblr often have different priorities than fans on Reddit or Twitter for example. And Tumblr is known to have a large shipping community. So if browsing the fandom tags on Tumblr is upsetting you, you do not have to look at them anymore. There are other outlets and sometimes I find it more fulfilling to find one person to enjoy things with. That way you don’t have to worry about seeing a bunch of stuff that irritates you.

What I take issue with is the assertion that nobody should be shipping Alastor simply because it’s not relatable to every aromantic person. It will be relatable to some, and for others it might just be self-indulgent and not something they want to see in canon.

On top of that, some queerplatonic partnerships have elements that resemble romantic partnerships but feel different to the people involved. So what looks like romantic ship art to one person might be queerplatonic to another and vice versa. And if one argues that Alastor could only ever be non-partnering because it’s important to his aroace identity then that isolates partnering aro/aces in the fandom.

The point is that a lot of people have their own preferences and sensitive feelings regarding how they relate to their favorite characters. Feeling those emotions is absolutely fine. But making posts that suggest that other fans have wronged you for participating in fandom their own way isn’t going to make the community better. The most it’s going to do is make people feel guilty and spread hate to those who have different headcanons. And the worst effect it could have is dividing the aroace community just because someone’s experience of being aro or ace is different.

It’s okay to be different. We can all find likeminded people and make peace with it.

[courtana]

Long post about the non-con/rape fic author who harassed me by directly sending me a non-con fic. Scroll past if you are not interested.

Trigger Warning: mentions of rape, pedophilia, and stalking

I'm going to continue addressing the bullshit claims that @ns-imagines keeps on spewing after harassing me in my DMs for simply disliking their approach to romanticizing abusive behaviors and sexual assault in fanfiction. Because they continue to twist the story, and now they are @-ing tumblr users who simply said they were sorry this was happening to me. They're misinterpreting my blog and what happened two days ago when they first slid into my DMs and began this fiasco.

first, the post is totally still up on my blog. you probably cannot find it because either i blocked you or because you're an expert at lying and playing the victim. you can find it here: https://cssndra-cain.tumblr.com/post/723586418512920576/or-yall-could-just-be-fucking-normal-for-once.

Your @ was also never, ever once in the post. I did not even tag cod or Nikto. You are pulling this out of your ass to try to make me look bad and to justify sending me a non-con fic as harassment. It's not working. Even if I did name you, it does not justify doing what you did to me.

first, you're a dumbass if you think i wasn't going to see what the image you posted was about. i was confused what that picture was even pointing to, and went to your blog to see why you sent me that image. when i saw it was a non-con fic that you had directed me towards, that's when i got physically sick to my stomach and realized it was not just a funny little meme. it was you taunting me with something you know i clearly don't like and that most people would find triggering. it's why people warn each other when they see a movie or tv show that has rape, because most people—even if they haven't been raped—feel awful watching it.

i did not post my life-story on tumblr either or any of my experiences with sexual abuse because it's private. not that you would've cared anyway, because you clearly don't now. either way, sexual abuse and violence is so prevalent that most women have experienced it either way. to send a non-con fic to taunt someone, without it even crossing your mind that 'maybe a not so nice past is the reason why someone has said they don't like non-con & rape fics' shows you're not that intelligent. if i say, i don't like non-con, it's probably because i have a reason to. not just because i'm petty and dislike things for no reason.

either way, you had no reason to taunt me in my DMs either way. you could have messaged me saying, "hey, you used a screenshot of my introduction character post, and it hurt my feelings even if i wasn't your intention. do you mind taking it down? i'm still new on tumblr." and i would've been okay with doing that and apologized. hell, in this very response, i say that although i never once tagged you or included your username, i will admit that maybe using a screenshot was not the best idea. for that i will genuinely apologize. but your reaction thereafter was totally uncalled for and worse than just using a screenshot of one sentence of your post.

i did reblog a post about how people with violent kinks on tumblr need to be looked at closely because they're often proshippers who encourage rape and pedophilia. but i did not include your username. i just said something in the tags along the lines of 'last time i did this i had some freak come into my DMs' but i did not mention you by name.

I did post the screenshot of the conversation. You did not just send the meme. You sent me a whole pile of invalidating, insensitive, and idiotic nonsense.

I mentioned you in the post so people know exactly who I am talking about and what you did. You find joy privately harassing people in their DMs, but once your horrible actions see the public limelight, you feel shameful. That's your problem, not mine. I think it's fair that people in fandom spaces know when someone is engaging in harassment and using non-con/rape material as a way of taunting people, so that they can stay the fuck away from toxic folks.

Lastly, my blog does not complain about NSFW content. I do read smut, when it's consensual and well-written. What I don't like is when the smut portrays rape and abuse (like possessive behaviors and stalking, something you actually portrayed as positive in Nikto post), and other things that impressionable, young people in our fandom should not think is normal in a relationship. I do have the NSFW filter turned on, and i have non-con and dub-con in my filtered tags. But it's almost like this content is so pervasive in our fandom, that it escapes those filters anyway.

Again, genius, the problem was not that it was NSFW. You're such a master manipulator with words. Very common tactics in gaslighters. My problem was that 1) your character introduction post was glorifying stalking and possessive behavior in relationships and 2) you sent me a non-con fic in my DMs in order to further taunt me instead of simply asking me to not engage with your writing. I don't know how else to spell this out to you. You will continue believing in your own narrative, because it's very obvious you're the type of immature, narcissistic person to put down everyone around you instead of simply owning up to one flaw you committed.

Follow your own advice, babe. Read that bolded part again, slowly and to yourself, one more time. Slide into my DMs to harass me, and of course I'm gonna fight back.

Also, I never once sent you death threats. And I don't know of anybody you've listed sending you any. Post the screenshots, and I'll make sure to address that. As much as I find you disgusting and annoying, I don't condone death threats and threats of violence, even if you don't have any problem being an absolute pest in people's DMs.

[corwly]

sooooooo i guess i'll say it

to the people who are bitching about ship polls, no one gives a shit. stop being so disrespectful and dramatic about people enjoying things. no one has the right to send death threats based on a fucking poll on a hellsite.

i will admit i'm a younger user. i'm 20 years old and i am gender queer whatever doesn't matter but i am afab and lived most of my life as fem presenting/using she/her pronouns. seeing people say that "oh you hate women cause you voted for the ship with male presenting characters" jesus fucking christ. get a hold of yourselves i am guessing you're older than me but i have never met or interacted with someone who is fandom oriented that is around my age that gives so much of a shit.

if you are not emotionally mature enough to admit that other people enjoy different things from you maybe don't look at the polls??? have you thought of that???

this post is in direct response to this poll

the notes/tags in this are full of homophobia and calling those who voted aziraphale/crowley women haters and all that jazz.

and guess what i couldn't find! good omens fans hating on dr who!!

but what was extremely prevalent?

i'll show you!

like yeah nothing is fucking perfect why do you think amazon prime picked up this show over another company. it makes people happy! the world is changing and you all need to get over it.

and before anyone says shit about me not having seen dr who or being biased, i watched dr who. i didn't like it much and that should be just fine. i get why people don't like good omens and that is also just fine. i honestly didn't like rose as a character much either but that doesn't mean i hate women. i don't usually like women characters written by men for a male audience which, btw, is what dr who does.

it is absolutely possible to exist on the same website without saying you're going to kill the author and writer of whatever fucking media because a different ship won some stupid poll.

i didn't even vote in this! i've never voted on one cause i know how absolutely fucking upset id be about it. i actively try to avoid them but when this came up i was immediately upset and had to start blocking people cause jesus fucking christ let other people be happy and let another fandom enjoy something.

i am not a "new tumblr user" because i like good omens. i have been on and off this shit site for like 8 or 9 years now due to this absolute buffoonery.

just sit the fuck down and stop being stuck in your teenage years when things were more simple. it is 2023 and most people have grown past superwholock cause it's actually not 2013 surprisingly. enjoy things without it being a war of what's better and maybe idk give a new show a chance without thinking it's going to revoke something from you. we are literally all just people trying to enjoy shit and you are making it literally so fucking nasty to even try too.

thanks

[lorelodge]

Do you gravitate toward certain characters? Pet peeves? Are you easily distracted when doing replies/asks? Or are you “in the zone?”

mun questions // @azmenka

Do you gravitate toward certain characters?

I think my character type can be put into four general categories:

ADHD himbo's

Bad Dad's

Mean bitch red heads

Psychopathic assholes

And then whatever the fuck I have going on with Jeremy. Otherwise, without fail, all my muses fall into those categories.

Pet peeves?

I'm pretty chill, to be honest. General stuff like overformatting, not progressing the plot of a thread, super contrasted psd, and if I see drama on my dash I will hit that unfollow button so fast your head will spin. I think most of my other pet peeves are niche though and I won't unfollow/not follow because of them. Like when I see people reblog those positivity posts about disabled muses, female OC's, etc. I don't get the need to reblog something like that. Just interact with the muses who interest you. Another little thing for me is the abundance of trigger warnings. I understand tagging sexual content or gory images, but since a lot of us now list prevalent themes on our blogs (child abuse, gore, clowns, etc) I don't think it's as necessary to tag triggers. But that's just a me thing.

Are you easily distracted when doing replies/asks? Or are you “in the zone?”

My superhero name is Captain ADHD. My superpower is hyperfocusing and my greatest weakness is being distracted by literally every thought, sound, smell, and shadow that passes by me. For real, replies take me twice as long as they should because I struggle with organizing my thoughts and absolutely can't focus with external stimuli. This includes music. I may listen to something BEFORE sitting down to write but I can't have anything on while I'm writing or else it becomes impossible for me to focus.

[laceratedlamiaceae]

Dubcon is there for the cases where it's like, the scenario doesn't leave space for 100% explicit consent (like fuck or die but also the kind of fic where all the characters want it but aren't sure of the other's motivations or that they're all on the same page relationship-wise etc etc), it doesn't line up 1-to-1 with real life consent bc it's fiction and you can push it further without making the reader feel they're in noncon territory, since you're in the characters' heads. For some people it should line up or it's fucked up, for others it's more about if it hits the spot kink-wise or falls flat, or they've got different expectations based on story genre or canon context. What constitutes dubcon or noncon or "fully consensual doesn't need a tag" and where the lines are is A Fandom Debate that has been going on for decades and changes with cultural/fandom context and time too. I've heard this is why ao3 doesn't have dubcon as a warning, there was no consensus there, but the rape warning is generally more clear when it applies (bc 99% of the time it's written like that on purpose) and if the author isn't sure they can use the "chose not to use archive warnings" tag.

Im also getting annoyed at the amount of Izzy fic that doesn't tag dubcon or noncon but like. Clearly this is the entire point of the fic once you read it. Like the consent issues and Izzy being deeply uncomfortable or distressed or feeling like he can't say no safely are important factors in here and this is treated as aah but it's fine bc he's Izzy like (????) That's A Kink, author. That's a ducon kink you've got there. Sometimes straight up a rape kink. Please for the love of fuck own it, so I can filter it in or out depending on my mood. It's not even a content warning tag of the "may contain traces of peanuts" variety at that point! It's peanut butter! It's what this fic Is About!

It's also getting increasingly harder for me to trust trans Izzy fic by authors I don't know, bc so many of them feel less like this guy is trans and more like "Nagging ex-wife needs to be Taught a Lesson is my shit, but I can't be like that to a female character, that's illegal. So Im going to use this guy instead and change the pronouns" or like, I also don't want to read about sexual violence against a trans guy! I get that this is a kink trans men may have, just like how women have rape fantasies, but I don't have it and I would like to be able to filter it out. Sometimes it's a matter of writing skill, sometimes it's a matter of this getting mixed in with the general trouble people seem to have giving poor kinky sub Izzy the right to consent to things, like being a sub makes him less a person (which happens in other fandoms but I haven't seen it get this prevalent before)

(in reference to this post)

Thank you! I wasn't aware that this has been the subject of fandom debate, but that makes sense. It would be nice if more people at least just went with "chose not to use archive warnings," but I guess that would require them to think about whether there's consent in their fic to begin with.

And yes, it's baffling to me how people don't get that their works contain rape when that's the entire point of them. There was some art going around recently about an AU where Izzy was a pirate hunter and he was blindfolded, expecting to be having sex with Stede (and IIRC it was implied that that wouldn't have been fully consensual either), but then it was revealed to be Ed who removed the blindfold and used it to gag Izzy. Literally the entire point of it was that Izzy was uncomfortable, and obviously there was no way it could have been consensual, but the artist didn't tag it for rape and neither did anyone I follow who reblogged it; I actually convinced myself that I was being overly sensitive and misinterpreting it but now I'm not so sure.

I've been lucky enough to avoid anything too awful in trans Izzy fics, but I have seen a decent number of posts that seem to be taking the "Izzy is wife-coded/woman-coded" idea (which I don't have anything against, to be clear) and taking it all the way to "Izzy is literally a woman, except I don't want to genderswap him so I'll just make him trans" as if that isn't super transphobic, so I'm not surprised that awful stuff like that ends up in fics.

The stuff with people headcanoning him as a sub (because it is just a headcanon, despite any textual evidence for it) and using that to justify awful things happening to him is so infuriating for me! I've seen a lot of fics tagged for "dom/sub undertones," whatever that means, with no other warnings, and it's just Izzy being raped except it's okay because he's a sub and therefore he must be okay with anything anyone does to him. It reminds me of people using the masochist Izzy headcanon in similar ways (see this post).

[savecomplete]

re: post that says i play a part in "carrying the fandom"

not going to name names, not going to mention (tumblr function) anyone, but i want to nip this notion in the bud.

prefacing this with the disclaimer that this is strongly worded, that this is going to sound mean and harsh, but i'm fine with coming off that way, if i get to assert my boundaries.

i'm incredibly averse to "fandom". i want nothing to do with fandom involvement. i am not here to make friends. all i need to enjoy media is to talk about it with the handful of friends i've shared it to, and i either already have that, or i make it happen. when it comes to needing to use art to appreciate a given work, i express this creative energy in many different ways. visual art is one outlet for that self-expression. all i'm doing on cohost/tumblr/twitter/etc. is using relevant tags for art i make, deciding what i can/want to share to the public. tumblr's archiving and tagging system, while still lacking in features over the past decade, is notorious for how useful it is to visual artists.

do not put me on a pedestal, and do not treat my work like its public domain use. you'd be wrong to do either. i'm not superior or inferior to you; don't act like it. there is a reason my art accounts all use a selfie of me as my avatar. we do not know each other and i'm perfectly fine with that. stay on your side of the screen.

given 8/9 posts i've made on this account so far are katana zero posts, and that i was mentioned as one of a few artists "carrying the fandom" on here by a fandom member, i also want to speak my mind about how i perceive this specific fandom. it's weird. a lot frustrates me about it. i've seen a lot of things that make my stomach turn. some heavy issues are treated in flippant manner, despite the source game portraying them with appropriate gravity. for whatever reason, it's typical for the fandom to lighten fifteen's skin, despite it being exactly the same as zero's skintone. there is a bizarrely prevalent attitude that the incoming DLC is an owed debt to the fandom, enough for people to make accounts like one dedicated to a daily count of how long it's been since full release without the DLC. come on, people. it's as if the DLC exists in some strange intangible vacuum where the budget, size, and humanity of the dev team are somehow not a factor. as though the DLC exists separate from the ongoing pandemic, and a literal real war affecting the team.

to see so many "fans" act incredibly entitled, so loudly and constantly, and doing this everywhere and anywhere it's fucking possible to leave a comment or post, even on unrelated work, well…

yeah, hopefully by now it's clear why i would want to distance myself from any fandom involvement. i hate fandom. it's never a healthy culture; katana zero's fandom is no special outlier to that. i'm not a superhero savior to this fandom that is supposedly "dying", "near-dead", etc. im not "carrying" shit, i'm just using your tags. "this fandom is nearly dead" then die! i'm not a part of this! go read interviews from the dev team and learn about game development—hell, go and try to draw or animate or compose or code something for a game, and then just try to get back to me about how "unreasonable" the wait is for the DLC. pretending this exists in a vacuum: if the "first act" of the story took 6 years of development, and the DLC is currently taking 3 years so far, and the DLC's size is of half the main game... is the rate of game development truly anything close to unreasonable?

...i'll say that, to me, there's a difference between fans of a work of media and the "fandom" for it, even if the former group is not entirely separate from the latter. from half a month of being on tumblr i've grown over 50 followers, which is incredible, especially for a single-digit amount of art shared so far. i read tags. i check my mentions. there's been some lovely compliments through tags on reblogs, which i appreciate, and i further appreciate that my work is being enjoyed and shared through reblogs and likes. thank you.

p much the bulk of you treat me kindly; honestly, i'm still trying to wrap my head around all the positive attention and encouragement. thank you for taking care and effort to tell me what you have. energy and time have finite limits; i'm happy when people decide to spend that on making me feel appreciated.

but i'm also a rather direct person, and don't like being wishy-washy about my limits and boundaries.

so, to conclude: i get uncomfortable when people try to nominate me as notable for any involvement in "fandom", and further, when strangers talk as though i'm trying to breathe life into any fandom perceived as "dead" or "dying". that's not my problem. i'm not trying to solve it, either. i'm not looking for recognition as a popular figure in a fandom. what i create and why i create it is independent of any fandom existing. i don't want anything to do with fandom involvement. leave me out of it.

[buzzcat]

Fic Rec - build them a home, a little place of their own, by jessikast

**  As this is post-canon fic, it spoils the end of the movie. I would suggest watching the movie before reading this fic, as the movie is better enjoyed if you don’t know how it ends. The tags and my rec for this fic also spoil the movie, so the rest of this is under a read more. Go watch ‘The Old Guard’, then come back.

Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Wordcount: 9,061 Tags: Booker-centric, Post-Canon, Dogs, Animal Death, Animal harm referenced, Andy regains immortality, (How? Shhhh.), Reincarnation, Fix-It, Emotional Healing, Animal Therapy, Alternative Epilogue, Team, Forgiveness, Alcohol Abuse, Happy Ending, Redeemed Booker | Sebastien le Livre  Summary: Booker's plan to spend a lot of time very, very drunk is derailed by a stray dog. Next thing you know, Booker's running a home for old or otherwise unadoptable dogs. With all the emotional healing and catharsis you'd hope for. He woke in the morning to her curled on his bed behind his knee, the empty bottles that had been there knocked to the floor. It was warm and comforting and Booker groaned into his pillow. He had a fucking dog now.

first off, I just want to remind everyone to mind the tags on this one. animal death is a prevalent part of this fic. that being said, the deaths are treated with respect, and are relevant to the theme of this fic.

this is a fic about loneliness, about grief, and about love. we start in with booker about a year post-canon, and he is drinking himself through his days and so alone it fucking hurts. then, he gets a dog. an old dog, because he's too fucking lonely to turn down adopting a stray dog.

and then the dog dies.

and he grieves.

and before the loneliness can set in, circumstances conspire such that he adopts two more dogs and moves to the country.

and that's how it starts. booker takes care of old dogs (and once an ill-advised cat), because they need somewhere to go, and he needs to not be alone. it’s a grief every single time one of the dogs passes. but like rebreaking an arm that healed wrong, every time he grieves them, he learns how to grieve. how to live with a grief without it consuming his life, how to love something he knows will hurt him when it leaves. he loves them, he grieves them, he keeps living, and he heals.

this fic is a balm against loneliness, and a reminder that loving people you will lose is worth it, because you loved them.

Favorite Line: “It became almost cathartic – each time he mourned one of his friends, it was like he was mourning for himself, a little. The ache grew smaller each time.”

[kislaxnd]

let me tell you a bit about AO3 history. It was founded by a group of people that included an inc*st writter. Probably several, even. It was made so people could post fan content without fear of legal repercursion and has always allowed stuff like inc*st, and stuff that is so prevalent in this fandom like r*pe, abuse and torture. But somehow the inc*st writers are the devil. Nope, you don't get to pick and chose what type of fucked up content is allowed to be writen. Its not that stuff that makes fandoms toxic; is people clicking on fics with WARNING TAGS in them knowing full well what they're getting into and still complaining and calling out the writer. Learn to use filters, live and let live.

I didn’t know about the group of people and them supporting incest along with all that other information, thank you. I dont support r*pe either. If a fic mentions it as a backstory but not going into some weird graphic writing about and sexualizing it, im good. I know some people do and I skip over it, I just posted this one person. I didnt click on the warning tags, i looked for a character and saw the fic.

Believe me I know some people write about it. I have no idea why I am getting hate in my inbox for calling it out. I even scribbled the writers name out so its not like im telling everyone to go after the writer.

[scraps-pile]

I also want to tie this directly to the prevalence of online censorship.

literally, on this very website, you used to be able to post porn. and there was also a pretty intuitive tagging etiquette for posting porn. and this was largely enforced by the community... there was no real consequence to posting untagged porn, other than people avoiding your blog because they couldn't find it or filter it. tumblr now has "community labels" but that's laughable compared to the social etiquette that we ALREADY FUCKING HAD.

literally, if you didn't tag your post as #nsfw #femdom then the femdom enjoyers couldn't FIND your post, and the people who didn't want to see it couldn't BLOCK that post. even the term "not safe for work" is meant to be a tag you can block when you're at your job, and don't want to be seen looking at cock or something. and it doubles as a way to find stuff.

and what this meant, was that tweens and teens could exist on the same website as porn, and not feel like the mere presence of porn was a threat to them. because it was opt-in.

sure, there was a chance you'd run across something by accident, but you didn't feel like anyone was making you look at it on purpose, and you could unfollow/block anyone you wanted.

but I cannot overstate how important it was, that you could coexist peacefully with porn, without having to engage with it. it was a choice that you were given. and for tumblr's age demographic at the time, it was important to develop that sense of maturity around navigating the internet.

when that choice is taken away from all of us, that's when porn seems threatening. the implication is that it cannot be trusted to exist at all, or it will hurt you. so it's been eradicated, for your safety. you shouldn't have any reason to want to see it anyway.

for adults, this kind of attitude is extremely patronizing. where are adults allowed to be adults, and view adult content, on the internet? and I think it's also right to point out that, in the absence of sanctioned and effective filters, people will try to find a way around it by not filtering anything. when you punish people for labeling their nsfw, by decreasing its visibility, or flagging the post and not letting it exist at all... people are then disincentivized from labeling it at all.

but think about the attitudes described in the rest of this post. normal adults are used to interacting in an age appropriate manner with kids. in their private lives, these adults could have wild kinky sex, but any child they interact with will not ever know that. literally, parents can have sex with each other, and keep that part of their lives private, and away from coworkers, in-laws, and their own children... that kind of self management is SO NORMAL in an adult's day-to-day life.

to ban all interaction between children and adults implies that zero adults can be trusted to do this, and no child is safe as long as any adult is present. this same thing applies online... especially in spaces that allow the option of porn. kids have a tendency to get curious about stuff that you're trying to keep them out of, and get into stuff they shouldn't. if online porn posting is super decentralized and unsanctioned, then you lose that sense of large scale community, and all the protections that come with it. now, if a child comes across a seedy adult somewhere on the internet, there's less likelihood that a normal adult will be around and clock that as a red flag, or try to stop it.

this is what happens when you take a hatchet to online communities that were working just fine. you end up with communities that don't work anymore. if any of this paranoia is justified, it's because the conditions for it to be justified were created.

(also, this is 100% the fault of corporate censorship, because businesses want a squeaky clean PG-13 platform on which to advertise. capitalism will suck the humanity out of all human existence before it will ever give you the right to an ounce of pleasure, or the warmth of human connection. never forget that.)

Sometimes when people on the Internet are like "ADULTS CAN NEVER INTERACT WITH MINORS IT'S CREEPY" I remember how, at 12, back in 1997, I was on the Witchvox forums with people ranging from me to people in at least their 50s, and no one there was ever a creep to me, no one ever made me feel uncomfortable or asked for my personal info, and when I finally broke down after a particularly brutal day of bullying at school and posted about it they were the first adults I'd ever met in my entire life who told me the bullies were the problem and it was okay to be angry about it.

Kids need to interact with adults who will listen to them.