#lessons in internet history

[collector1observer]

12 and 1/4 years of MordeTwi

Well here's my sucky way of celebrating it. This ship is so misunderstood. I honestly believe people should stop doing that Airplanes meme, really.

some supplementary stuff from me

I might need to update my defense of MordeTwi someday.

[collector1observer]

I had to find out what the meme was about

If we're talking about the Airplanes art/meme, it is not based on anything. The story behind its creation was that bluedog444 (the artist behind the original, infamous Airplanes art, who was 9 at the time) just wanted to make something for the MordeTwi fan group, and the song was living in their head rent-free at that moment.

For how the Mordecai x Twilight pairing itself became a thing, it's a compelling story. I recommend just watching this video:

this meme is killing me

Now that I've seen both these shows I had to find out what the meme was about. And then for no reason at all I had to draw it.

[clown-of-rivia]

Fun Fact and History Lesson!

The 'no beta we die like [character]' originated from this damn photo that went viral on Tumblr in 2016 and changed Ao3 tags and fanfic vernacular forever.

Meaning: it's a tag used on fics that were not beta read (the author didn't get someone to read it for them before posting). Betas read fics to check for spelling, grammar, consistently, etc and often edit it.

*

Similarly, 'Dead dove' or 'dead dove do not eat' is from this scene in Arrested Development.

Meaning: if there's a warning of something really dark/bad, don't open/read it and expect something different. Or: 'mind the tags this is dark, don't read if you don't like it'.

[skankhunt44]

This was back when you had two web pages open, MySpace, and MSN.

Your emo song lyrics as your status, trying to become the alpha emo. You always took a selfie from above. Times were wild brah.

Then there was dialup internet... it was the worst sound. Also if anyone picked up the phone, you were fucked.

It was a time. That most of you weren't alive...

[unforth]

I know the Musk "trillion people means more Mozarts" thing is stupid as fuck but I just saw a prominent blogger reply to it by saying anyone has the ability to be a Mozart and I'm sorry but "talent doesn't exist" discourse has officially gone too far, and I say that as someone who hates the word "talent" and has replaced it almost entirely with the word "skill" in my vocabulary.

Not everyone is a prodigy. Yes, prodigies get lost because they lack opportunity, but that still doesn't mean everyone is a prodigy. If everyone WAS then everyone with enough wealth and opportunity WOULD be and like. I'm sorry, have you SEEN what a fucking moron Elon Musk actually is?

[collector1observer]

"In fact, the fic that started off the MordeTwi ship meme was this type of crossover."

First of all, why is it called a "ship meme"? The only meme on there is the Airplane art, and it's not even based on anything; the Airplanes art/meme and Earthworm Zim, the fanfic that started MordeTwi, have nothing to do with each other. MordeTwi was not originally conceived of as a meme; the fanfic was just that good at convincing people that they deserved each other, even though they were just friends initially, and they only saw each other as such originally.

"There isn't a reason for a humanoid bird to be in a world filled with the talking ponies, but there he was."

Actually, that was a multi-fandom/massive crossover fanfic (there were at least seven cartoons involved), where the different universes/franchises are treated as belonging to the same world – like Ponyville is just a border away from Park AV 300 for example (i.e. characters of [universes A, B, C, ...] coexist in [the "mashup world" of universe X] – rather than [character from universe A] is plugged into [the world of universe B]). What I'm tryna say is, in this context, Mordecai doesn't not have a reason to exist in "a world filled with talking ponies", because that is his world too in this case.

kay the last post got like. 23 notes. which is all a bitch w a hyperfixation needs to start infodumping about the nuances and minutia of crossovers and how to build them and what you'll get out of them.

*drumroll pls*

Fandom Fusion Crossovers: A Guide (Part 1)

In the first Breakdown, I touched upon Fandom Fusions as a concept. I realized that I was a bit too brief in retrospect, but that was because unlike the others, I have already worked through my love for these types of crossovers in stories longer than Moby Dick.

But, I'm here to rant into the void so lets give a quick definition, shall we?

Fandom Fusion is the type of crossover where the two stories exist side-by-side, the worlds slotting together with some overlap, but overall not interfering with each other. Until the plot of the fic kicks off.

The most interesting thing about this crossover is its potential for worldbuilding, and the way the power structures of both stories are balanced amongst each other. You need to make them belong together, create common threads, but also a degree of separation, and its not always easy to do that. Takes a lot of creativity.

I'll start with the 'making sure the worlds mesh' aspect first. Then maybe move onto the 'making the characters meet' aspect in another chapter.

Meshing & World-Building

There are a lot of different types of worlds, and genres. A common rule of thumb is that if you want a Fandom Fusion, the worlds should be in similar time periods, and both should exist in the same plane of reality. Generally, this means modern day Earth, but it can change.

With fantasy worlds, its a little tricky. Because all the worlds and continents have different names, which makes it pretty hard to do.

Or, you could simply not care for canon and worldbuilding and just have the characters hanging out together. (I cannot do that, it makes me break out in stress hives) In fact, the fic that started off the MordeTwi ship meme was this type of crossover. There isn't a reason for a humanoid bird to be in a world filled with the talking ponies, but there he was. No one cared. Do that, if you want. Fanfiction is anarchy, my dude.

If you do want to stress about it, here's some examples and vague combinations of genres.

Contemporary w/ Contemporary By 'contemporary' I mean showing people in their regular lives. Going to high school and college and doing regular jobs, with no major worldwide repercussions. The biggest problem w this is the geographical element of your worlds, and how the characters are supposed to meet. I will be going into this later. Otherwise, its easy to believe that these two stories happened at the same time. Don't really have much to add on this from a purely worldbuilding standpoint??

Celebrity w/ Contemporary or Celebrity By 'celebrity', I mean stories about the rich or famous or talented. Everything from athletes to actors are included in this. I personally classify it as a different style because it would require different worldbuilding. Esp if you're meshing together two different high-profile fields. From personal tastes, I will point out Yuri! on ice x Sk8 the Infinity crossovers. The similarities between the two are striking. One is about skateboarding, the other is figure skating. Parallels are drawn, but the characters have yet to meet. The geographical element with such crossovers is slightly lessened, because at least one party has the ability to travel easily.

Fantasy w/ Fantasy Here's where it gets interesting. You need to make the magic systems and lore compatible. They tend to line up alright, but best to keep an open mind. As an example, think of an Artemis Fowl and PJO crossover. The faerie would be considered spirits of folklore like any other. The Mist can be excused as weak around them because of a feud between the faerie and more powerful beings, which is why they are more at risk from being seen. Simple explanations like that which add on to the history of this shared world you've made.

Fantasy w/ Contemporary (or Celebrity?) These are always fun. Not only is there no tricky magic systems to shove together, but you also need to make sure that the normal-world's stakes are felt as heavily as the stakes from the magic-world story. Both of their problems should feel equally real and important to the reader. Depending on the type of fantasy series you're using, the geographic element and communication problem could be easier or harder to navigate, and a close eye should be kept on the interests and themes and motifs connected to each character to draw comparisons of them and have them meet characters from the other world.

There's a lot more I wish I could say. Maybe this would be easier w a graphical element? I can't draw very well but tell me if I should sketch something out if you're a visual learner and are trying to figure out wtf I'm trying to say.

My brain is hardwired to associate things with each other lol so if you want me to connect fandoms together fusion style, just... put the two fandoms in my ask box and I'll give you something back.

I'm only doing the meshing aspect rn, and will move onto how exactly characters are supposed to meet and what plots tend to occur on a basic scale later. If anyone rlly wants to know lol. I just really really like the background creativity that goes into crossovers and I think more people should do them and want to give a jumping off point if you're planning a crossover? Then again, I might just want to talk about things that everyone already intuitively knows and no one even wanted this but whatever

If I get around to it, I will link part two here.

[lennythereviewer]

Discourse over Super Smash Bros. Ultimate literally shaped a piece of internet vocabulary.

It started with "Scrimblo Bimblo" For those not in the know, fans of Smash Bros. are notorious for having a hatred for the Fire Emblem characters on the roster due to the fact that they occupy so many spots on the roster, half of them have playstyles that are derivative of Marth's moveset, and can kind of bleed together visually which earned them the "Anime Swordsman" moniker.

The arrival of characters like Shulk and Cloud only compounded the notion that too many "Anime Swordsmen" were taking up roster spots that could have been filled with more visually distinct or more nostalgic characters from other game genres, specifically platformers (and even more specifically, Crash Bandicoot, one of the biggest fan requests) One tweet however changed everything when it coined the phrase "Scrimblo Bimblo" a catch-all to describe platformer mascots as sort of a counter to "Anime Swordsman"

Scrimblo Bimblo caught on quick by frustrated JRPG fans who were tired of being talked down to and they finally had something that got under the skin of people who kept shitting on their favorites. The two sides fought back and forth until the DLC for Ultimate ended, but Scrimblo Blimbo ended up leaking into other sides of Twitter and Tumblr where it took on a whole new meaning outside of it's original origin

It somehow got twisted into "Skrunkly Scrimblo" which became sort of a term of endearment. It's meaning is flexible but seems to commonly used for "funny little guys" or something that's cute in an almost ugly or pathetic way

Eventually the Scrimblo was dropped from Skrunkly, and Skrunkly took over this specific definition And finally today, Scrimblo (without the Bimblo) has sort of made a resurgence, now has just become an overall term of endearment for not just a favorite character but for anything or anyone

Isn't that interesting? A term born out of fandom bullying to put down a persons personal taste ended up circling back around to become a term of enjoyment and affection. And it came from the funny platform fighter that lets you kick Sephiroth's ass with Minecraft Steve

[sege-h]

Like some kinda shark fin a now unrebloggable post on my dash has let me know whats going on on Twitter right now

Which is people going "UMMM NOT EVERYONE LIVES IN AMERICA OFC I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE ODYSSEY IS NOT ALL OF US HAD TO READ YOUR AMERICAN BOOK IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS" about being told it kinda sucks they dont know what the Odyssey is

Brother

Brother

I'm from Macedonia. That's like NOWHERE. WE had to read the Odyssey for school. And I knew of it BEFORE we had to read it for school because it was common knowledge. There was also some multi part Hallmark adaptation of it they kept playing on TV

[goldensunset]

there were a couple years i couldn’t even say the name of the show vld i couldn’t even allow my fingers or tongue to form the shape. to this day it’s still my instinct to call it v slur lol

[kashiichan]

Happy 11th anniversary, Spiders Georg!

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[collector1observer]

I just want to write my story

This is about how I came across MordeTwi and how it became one of my obsessions. It's kinda funny to look back to because I never really cared about Regular Show back then and I was one of those people who avoided MLP like it was the plague.

The first time I encountered a redraw of the Airplanes meme was actually in the year 2020, when I was browsing the Comics & Cartoons board of 4chan.

It was a "Barney Bait" thread, this was the thread's thumbnail. I had no strong reaction to this image, nor thought to figure out the context for its creation. I wasn't fully aware about the ship yet at this point, I just assumed this image was a commission and not part of a greater cultural phenomenon. Okay, I'll admit: this was also during the time I was in a phase where I irrationally hate Regular Show and what it stands for (I believe the Simp meme was popular at this point too), and when I looked at this image then, I swear I was like "Heh. Mordecai is being partnered up with some random pony." (I didn't know at the time that Twilight is also a main protagonist like he is lol)

Jump forward to more or less a year later, I was binge watching Jabroni Mike's stream VODs. One video in particular has Frederick Knudsen as a guest, and it was about AI generated images (this was back when Dall-E wasn't a thing yet, I think). One of the prompts was the lyrics of Airplanes, and at some point Fred had to bring up MordeTwi because Mike had no idea what's going on. That one fateful second... Fred shared the original Airplanes drawing (Mike showing it to us thru OBS), and that's when it hit me...

"Hey, this image looks familiar. Hmm... A meme. And it involves Mordecai and MLP..."

I had to pause the video but it only took me seconds to remember that 4chan thread. This was also the first time I learned of the pony's name – Twilight Sparkle. "Ah. I know my search term now, thanks Fred!"

Google: mordecai x twilight sparkle

This was when the Airplanes meme was still just about to blow up into mainstream popularity (re: resurge as a trend big time). Searching MordeTwi during this time was better since you got to see more of the older stuff that wasn't to do with the redraw trend or the Airplanes meme in general. At the same time I was deep diving in this search, I was also looking at my browser history trying to rediscover that 4chan thread to make sure I wasn't going crazy (actually, I had to look it up through an archive, e.g. Desu Archive).

I learned a few things that day:

1, Mordecai x Twilight Sparkle was a thing for a long time

2, the ship itself did not stem from the original meme image – which there's a trend over it – but alot of people don't seem to know that

3, there was a trend back in 2020 to "redraw MordeTwi"

4, there was an ongoing trend to make content related to: A, the ship, or B, the meme based on the ship.

There's just something about this pairing, it just... stuck to my head. Like, it's some kind of cosmic horror – they're bound together one way or another, their pairing is inevitable, and your mind just won't quiet about it. But there's something else I learned about MordeTwi in those early times: the original shippers of this pairing were kind of the underdogs. This was a full on fanbase too, I must add, with a fan club. Just a few days in for their existence and they were already getting hate sent their way; they were misunderstood – though granted, they didn't have a FAQ section to clear things up, until two years after their club was founded.

Suffice it to say: learning about this ship – how its' fans/creators got treated over time, and how it was perceived overall... that got me rooting for MordeTwi. It's a pity that MordeTwi is mostly seen these as "that fake ship/joke pairing that a nine-year-old made up out of nowhere".

[forgottenbones]

Douyin was launched by ByteDance in September 2016, originally under the name A.me, before rebranding to Douyin (抖音) in December 2016. Douyin was developed in 200 days and within a year had 100 million users, with more than one billion videos viewed every day.

While TikTok and Douyin share a similar user interface, the platforms operate separately. Douyin includes an in-video search feature that can search by people's faces for more videos of them, along with other features such as buying, booking hotels, and making geo-tagged reviews.

ByteDance planned on Douyin expanding overseas. The founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, stated that "China is home to only one-fifth of Internet users globally. If we don't expand on a global scale, we are bound to lose to peers eyeing the four-fifths. So, going global is a must."

The app was launched as TikTok in the international market in September 2017. On 23 January 2018, the TikTok app ranked first among free application downloads on app stores in Thailand and other countries. TikTok has been downloaded more than 130 million times in the United States and has reached 2 billion downloads worldwide, according to data from mobile research firm Sensor Tower (those numbers exclude Android users in China).

In the United States, celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon and Tony Hawk, began using the app in 2018. Other celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Will Smith, and Justin Bieber joined TikTok as well as many others. In January 2019, TikTok allowed creators to embed merchandise sale links into their videos.

On 3 September 2019, TikTok and the U.S. National Football League (NFL) announced a multi-year partnership. The agreement occurred just two days before the NFL's 100th season kick-off at Soldier Field, where TikTok hosted activities for fans in honor of the deal. The partnership entails the launch of an official NFL TikTok account, which is to bring about new marketing opportunities such as sponsored videos and hashtag challenges. In July 2020, TikTok, excluding Douyin, reported close to 800 million monthly active users worldwide after less than four years of existence.

In May 2021, TikTok appointed Shou Zi Chew as their new CEO who assumed the position from interim CEO Vanessa Pappas, following the resignation of Kevin A. Mayer on 27 August 2020. In September 2021, TikTok reported that it had reached 1 billion users. In 2021, TikTok earned $4 billion in advertising revenue.

In October 2022, TikTok was reported to be planning an expansion into the e-commerce market in the US, following the launch of TikTok Shop in the United Kingdom. The company posted job listings for staff for a series of order fulfillment centers in the US and is reportedly planning to start the new live shopping business before the end of the year. The Financial Times reported that TikTok will launch a video gaming channel, but the report was denied in a statement to Digiday, with TikTok instead aiming to be a social hub for the gaming community.

According to data from app analytics group Sensor Tower, advertising on TikTok in the US grew by 11% in March 2023, with companies including Pepsi, DoorDash, Amazon and Apple among the top spenders. According to estimates from research group Insider Intelligence, TikTok is projected to generate $14.15 billion in revenue in 2023, up from $9.89 billion in 2022.

On March 8, 2024, President Joe Biden said he would sign into law a bill forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok within 180 days. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously, 50-0, to advance the bill on March 7, 2024. ByteDance launched a congressional lobbying campaign mobilizing TikTok users in response.

On 9 November 2017, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, spent nearly $1 billion to purchase musical.ly, a startup headquartered in Shanghai with an overseas office in Santa Monica, California, U.S. Musical.ly was a social media video platform that allowed users to create short lip-sync and comedy videos, initially released in August 2014. TikTok merged with musical.ly on 2 August 2018 with existing accounts and data consolidated into one app, keeping the title TikTok. This ended musical.ly and made TikTok a worldwide app, excluding China, since China already had Douyin.

TikTok

[fruitsofhell]

I am literally such a proponent of just blocking or ignoring people and moving on with your life on the internet, even over the pettiest things because there’s no point in letting a bunch of random stings litter your dash throughout the day. Like I’ve blocked people for making mildly mean jokes about my favorite characters, I’m so serious.

But also sometimes you see someone so grossly misinterpret something that Really Isn’t That Deep, and... and I HAVE TO GO DIE IN INTERNET WAR FOR MY FAVORITE BABY MOVIE!!!

[frybolg]

im too old and too tired

read omegaverse, give people your most deprived ao3 fics as recs, enjoy dead dove do not eat

also

remember there are people who do *not* have internet brain rot and they are best given a slightly more tame fic to read

they'll find all of that on their own

be prepared to give them 'the talk' when they do (kudos, comment and bookmark. your bookmarks aren't private. don't be feral with punctuation because it's bad for screen readers. filter what you don't like out)

[kingkat12]

omg I love your fics so so so much and I think you would absolutely nail a fanfic where roman is teaching reader how to smoke? or something like that 😭 like it being really intimate and stuff ughh idk but roman smoking just makes me go absolutely feral

Roman..... teaching reader.... how to smoke....?

do you.... want to give me..... a heart attack......?

THIS WAS SO DAMN HOT IT MADE MY BREATH HITCH WHEN I READ THIS, you BET i want to write this!!! you know me, i love writing reader having her first time doing anything at all lol, this was PERFEEEECT!! hope i've done your request justice, thank you so much for this one!!<3333

nymphomaniac (roman godfrey x reader)

WARNINGS: 18+, smoking, mentions of sex, angst, flirting deluxe, Roman's mouth is FOUL

summary: not all lessons are good for you-- especially the ones taught by the notorious Roman Godfrey, who you also happen to have a history with

word count: 2,425

a/n: and this is NO WAY an encouragement to smoke, i don't smoke myself so... heh. read at your own risk i suppose, and be critical of what you read on the internet PLEASE!! mwah

How to smoke – a thorough guide by Roman Godfrey. That was a book I wouldn’t buy in a million years; why give a millionaire more money?

Thankfully, I didn't have to pay anything to get a free trial from the author of said imaginary book.

Roman sat next to me on the porch leading up to the house of the party we were at, having asked me to follow him outside to escape all the noise. I wouldn’t have gone with him, had I not started to get a headache from what I could frankly only call ear-rape. “It’s too fucking loud in there,” I muttered, shifting on the uncomfortable step. “There’s a reason I don’t go to these things very often.”

Roman shrugged, patting down the pockets of his jacket. “It’s not usually this bad when someone else hosts. But I heard this guy is notorious for being legally deaf, so that might explain it,”

“I wouldn’t be shocked if he did that to himself,”

With a laugh, Roman pulled out an orange-hued box of cigarettes, shaking his head. “It’s too bad you don’t attend parties that often. I never see you anymore, y’know? Just bring some earplugs if you’re so bothered by the damn noise,” 

Oh. My heart jumped with a jolt of pain. I cleared my throat; “Of course you don’t see me anymore, Roman… We broke up two months ago,” 

Despite seeing it coming from miles away, it had been the hardest breakup of my life. I knew whom I had gotten into a relationship with, knew exactly what kind of a guy Roman was, so I had been emotionally prepared for it when it all fell apart. The relationship had been more of a whirlwind thing, a lust thing, which had left me with a very bad case of being-walked-in-on PTSD. That one time Roman decided he wanted to go down on me at school, only for my math teacher to walk in on us in the classroom, was a memory I was sure I would never forget. Sadly. 

However, the bliss of being sexually compatible couldn’t carry the relationship forever, and I was aware of that long before he was. Around the time we hit the one-month milestone, I could see in his gorgeous green eyes that he was tired. Roman needed to be free to function, free to fuck any girl that walked by, and free to disappear for hours and come back whenever it pleased him. 

And what did I need? I wasn’t so sure anymore. 

If I were to use my brain and ponder that question once more, I would conclude that I needed to stop sitting next to my hot ex-boyfriend who was now lighting one of his classic cigarettes. Roman knew I didn’t approve, knew how many times I had told him it was cancer on a stick—still, I settled for the fact that he wasn’t scared of death. Actually, he probably wasn’t scared of anything other than real commitment. 

With a sigh, Roman nodded to himself. “I’m aware, but I’m still allowed to miss the sight of you,” He turned to me, his strikingly green gaze piercing mine— I held my breath. This was getting intense. Nonetheless, the next thing that rolled out of his mouth caught me off guard; “Do you have a lighter?” 

… What? “Roman, you know I don’t smoke,”

He shrugged, the corners of his mouth tugging into a smirk. “Worth a shot. I had hopes that you’d at least managed to become an arsonist in our time apart, maybe then you’d carry a lighter around with you,” Like this, faced with his heartbreakingly beautiful smile beneath the hues of the moonlight, I was reminded of the first thought I ever had when I met him; he was so… cool. Roman always looked so damn cool. I loved the way it made my heart flutter— the feeling of being with the coolest guy at school was still the most thrilling feeling of all. I felt cool, knowing he wanted to sit next to me instead of being inside the loudest party of the year hunting down his next lay. 

It was impossible not to smile back. “Don’t be so disappointed. At least I’m still a cannibal,”

Humored, Roman chuckled; “Glad to hear it,”

“And you’re still a nymphomaniac,”

That seemed to strike a nerve— Roman let out an offended huff, now patting down the pockets of his jeans. “Forget it. I never go anywhere without my lighter, anyway,” he mumbled.

Oh no. “I didn’t mean it as an insult! We were joking, Roman. You’ve never been the type to hide that you like… sex—” 

“Don’t fucking talk to me about sex right now, I’m too tipsy,” Roman’s words were harsh, snappy. He wasn’t looking at me anymore, now fishing out his usual red lighter; I hadn’t seen that one in a while. “No sex-talk. None.”

“Fine, Jesus!—”

“Thanks to you, I now have to smoke away the taste of you. Thank you,” he grumbled, a slight twitch appearing beneath his left eye as he brought the cigarette to his plush lips— oh, how I missed those. “Your perfume isn’t helping, either. So don’t talk about sex, because then I’ll start thinking about sex with you, along with how you taste after I’ve been going down on you for about ten minutes, squirming, whining, and then I start thinking of how much I miss it. So could you just—just shut up for a minute, okay?”

I stared at Roman in disbelief, my lips parting as my jaw threatened to hit the floor. He must’ve had a few beers too many to be talking so openly about… anything. I would go off on him about his use of words, telling me to shut up, but I was too stunned to think properly. With my mind still buzzing, I scooted closer to Roman on the cold steps of the porch, daring to lean my head down on his shoulder like I used to do when we were together. “You’ve only proved my point,” I breathed, closing my eyes. “Nympho.”

I knew him too well— I knew Roman would appreciate casual physical contact. He didn’t have enough of that in his life, anyway. Chuckling, amused, he lit his cigarette, inhaling with a quiet moan— something told me he had been waiting for a hit for some time. And just as I opened my mouth, ready to start my usual smoking-is-bad lecture, Roman cut me to it; “Don’t start talking about cancer now, either,”

“It is a cancer stick,”

“I don’t care,”

“You should!”

“But I don’t,” With a sigh, Roman exhaled, watching the smoke evaporate into the warm summer air. He leaned his head on top of mine, and I couldn’t help but think how the smell of the cigarette clashed with the comforting smell of his shampoo. It ruined everything. 

This conversation was one we’d had tens of times, and I wasn’t too keen on repeating it. “Roman…” I reached for the cigarette he lazily held between his fingers, feeling the softness of his hand against mine. “Maybe you don’t care, but I do. You need to take care of yourself.” I didn’t need to look at Roman to know his brows were drawn together as I took the cigarette out of his hand, holding it away from him. 

He sighed again, slower this time; “If you’d ever smoked, you’d see the appeal,”

“Yeah?” It was hard not to roll my eyes— “The appeal of cancer?”

With a low laugh, Roman turned his head, kissing the top of my head out of habit. Weirdly enough, it felt platonic for the first time ever, yet it didn’t fail to evoke a hard thump in my chest. It felt like I was being electrocuted from the inside, and my eyes sprung open—I was happy he couldn’t see that. “Not cancer, don’t be stupid,” he huffed. “Just use that pretty little brain of yours, I know it’s in there somewhere.”

If only he knew my brain was currently working overtime. “I’ll never see the appeal of inhaling crap that ruins your lungs. If anything, you’re the stupid one,”

Roman rolled his eyes, gently giving my head a nudge with the shoulder I was leaning on, motioning for me to sit up. “Let me show you, just once. If you don’t like it, you’re allowed to call me a nicotine-addicted nymphomaniac until the last day of high school,”

“And the day after. An extension for your favorite ex,”

“Nope. The day of graduation, and that’s it,”

I turned to look at the blindingly pretty smile on Roman’s face— how was it possible not to fall for this guy? He was gorgeous. “Fine,” I mumbled, knowing I would call him that no matter what behind his back until the day he died. “So how the fuck do I do this?”

Something in Roman’s green, green, eyes shifted. Maybe he was wondering why he had ever let me go in the first place— maybe he was thinking about the word to describe the color of my hair as it mixed with the grays of the moonlight? He cleared his throat, turning his body towards me as I mirrored him; “The first step is easy,” he said, reaching forward to place his hand behind mine, bringing the cigarette to my lips. 

My skin burned. Fucking burned, with every touch. 

Roman’s eyes were already big, which is why I was surprised to see they could get even bigger when he gazed down at my lips. “Open up,” he breathed, absentminded. 

Now, I could be sure he wasn’t thinking about the color of my hair. Maybe he was back to reminiscing about the taste of me? Or other nasty nympho things, as per usual.

I placed the cigarette between my lips, but Roman let out a short, alarmed sound that nearly made me yelp. “Now comes the trick,” he urged, leaning closer— I was unsure whether he was aware he was inching towards my face or not. The closer he got, the easier it was to focus on the single strand of his dark hair that lay over his forehead, straying from his stylings. It was so damn attractive— I had to hold myself back from smiling, now that I remembered the one time I caught him pulling it out of his gelled updo to lay it there on purpose. Cutie.

“The trick?” I echoed, realizing he had frozen to his spot just staring at my lips. I pulled the cigarette away from my mouth; Roman hadn’t said anything for about five seconds. This was bad. This was dangerous. It made me want to jump him and let him fuck me right here on the porch. 

“Uh—” Roman cleared his throat, letting out a breathy chuckle as he shook his head. “Sorry. The trick, right…”

God, I was two seconds away from bursting into flames like a phoenix. Was I still breathing?

“For your first time, you should— because this is your first time, right?”

“Yes!”

“You sure?”

“Roman!”

“Alright, alright!” Roman laughed, biting his lip as he tilted his head just a little. Had the cigarette not forced a space between us, I would’ve started wondering when he would kiss me. “The trick is to not inhale too much smoke for your first time. I don’t want you to cough up your left lung on my new shirt. And hold the smoke in your mouth for a moment, let it cool down, and only inhale it when you’ve taken the cig out of your mouth.”

If Roman one day actually did decide to write a smoking-guide, I could at least be sure the content would be explained simply and concisely. “Seems easy enough,” I mumbled, watching Roman’s pupils widen as I placed the cigarette back between my lips and sucked in a small amount of smoke into my mouth.

It felt like I was getting a mild burn on my tongue— it wasn’t pleasant. For a second, I got scared my eyes would pop from the shock, and I closed them to ensure the blood at least wouldn’t splatter anywhere if I happened to be so unlucky. But when the burning subsided, I finally dared to inhale.

My eyes sprung open, meeting the fascination in Roman’s green gaze as my previous headache caused by the loud music disappeared. My brain suddenly felt like it was buzzing with pleasure and energy. Before I knew it, I was half giggling against Roman’s mouth, letting my cigarette-clad hand fall by my side. “Wow,” I breathed, in awe of the satisfying whirring in my head. 

Roman looked like he was two seconds away from cooing at me, right in my face; “There you go, good girl,” he purred. “Do you get it now?”

God, I hated myself. Still, what I hated more, was that my hot ex-boyfriend was blatantly right. “I think I do,” 

Roman hummed, smirking as he reached for the cigarette in my hand, smoothly brushing his fingers across my skin on his way down. With a content sigh, he looked into my dazed eyes as he pressed his free fingers over the pulse of my wrist— “I still make your heart jump,” he breathed, leaning in so close I could feel the hotness of his breath against my cheek.

I swallowed. “You always will. It doesn’t mean anything,” My eyes flickered back and forth between Roman’s green eyes and his plush, pink lips despite knowing I shouldn’t. 

“It doesn’t?” he echoed, visibly amused as he raised his brows. 

“… Nope,”

Roman hummed, nudging the tip of my nose with his just as he always did—was this maybe just a habit, or was he going to…? The atmosphere was so thick, I could reach out and touch it. My breath had long caught in my chest, but Roman’s next words only made it worse; “Let’s talk about sex again,” he whispered against my lips, his lashes hanging heavy over his eyes.

“No. This is over. We’re just sharing a cigarette,”

“We could share a bed too,”

“Stop it,” I breathed, hoping he’d spot the desperation in my eyes. “It’s been two months. Aren’t you over this?” Please don’t make this any harder than it already is.

Roman stilled. With the next beat of my pulse against his fingers, his eyes softened with a new realization beneath the moonlight; 

“Over you? Never,”

[not-so-superheroine]

ignore those kids. they don't know shit but want to be seen as "adult" and mature. but they don't understand what that means yet. they have an imaginary idea of what it means to be an adult. and they probably can't realistically imagine what being 30 above is like.

modern fandom, often attributed to Star Trek, was carried by adults. 30 and 40 something y/o housewives.

like, get over yourself. they were mailing the fic and art via zines to each other. and yes, many stayed in fandom. when i first joined the star trek fandom, i read fics from authors who watched the show as it came out (as adults even).

she died in the past few years, but there was a older woman here on tumblr who had OG trek lore and K/S "Spirk (nowadays)" fanfiction and fanart in fan-created paper zines.

And ho do they think is running the ao3 site? there is so much information to the contrary that the statement discredits the poster's opinion, that it's comically wrong and this person has little experience in this area. this is a kid who doesn't have the life experience nor education to know what they are talking about and wants to sound mature and "cool" because that's what matters to a lot of kids at 14. obviously not every kid. for example, kids coming through a fandom like star trek or doctor who or sherlock holmes start off in multi-generational spaces. interacts with adult fans regularly and it's considered cool to know the fandom history (bc it's literally world-altering in some cases. so ppl are super proud) in a fandom like 1D and 5SOS, it's gonna be mostly kids. so people there may get the idea it's a kid thing. or this weird 'puriteen' thing that's been happening that adults and kids shouldn't interact on the internet so fandom is for kids. therefore, adults should grow out of it. but that's also a thing that a person may think at 14 and is developmentally understandable. but still ill informed and annoying.

long post but i just block them. they will either learn, leave, or get eventually get themselves canceled when they hit 25.

Reblog for a larger sample size!

No "show results", if you're not a fanfic writer just be patient.

I saw a post about an anon saying it was embarrasing to have an ao3 account in your 30s (it's absolutely not), so I want to do a poll and see what the age range actually is.