#might make integrating into the fandom easier?

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

ngl, the whole malevolent fandom limbposting blog whatever the heck phenomenon is incredibly convenient for my trying to find fellow fans to follow

I can find someone who made a cool post or two about my blorbos and I don't even have to anxiety myself up about whether following them will just give me 90% unrelated content about fandoms I don't care for, 'cus the whole fandom is committed to bit that revolves around having devoted fandom blogs. it's great

[brionysea]

pros of being good at character writing: good at character driven stories and truly making the reader believe i just plucked their faves from canon and put them directly into my fic

cons of being good at character writing: the need to do extensive studying before writing a new fandom (it's for a one shot)

[madlori]

Ok my fam, I think we all need a lil Come to Jesus moment. So let's talk about it.

"I'm disappointed Tommy wasn't in 8x02 and 8x03." That's ok! We'd all like to see him, and see our boys together. Going by precedent, we can probably expect to see him in 6-8 episodes this season (it could be more - Taylor had 13 episodes in season 5 - but we shouldn't count on it) and we've already burned one. I'd prefer not to have half of them during the opening disaster when SO MUCH ELSE is going on. I'd rather him appear in episodes when he's got a storyline with Buck, or even on his own, and especially at the midseason break or the end of the season when Relationship Events are more likely to happen.

"But the 217 engine!" I know. But as we sometimes like to say to other fans - we kind of baited ourselves with that. It was suggestive, sure. But the fact that production has MADE a 217 engine is also suggestive that we may see it again later, and they just put it in the hangar scene because they already had it and they had to fill up that hangar with as many vehicles as possible.

"An airplane disaster without using the pilot??" As others have pointed out, Tommy's not a jet pilot. And don't let anybody make you think you were nuts for thinking it was possible. It was definitely a reasonable theory, with supporting evidence, that he might be involved, but in the end, the big opening disaster is always going to be about our mains. As it should be. And honestly? It was great.

"But the whole point of bringing him back was to integrate him with the 118 more!" I'm sure that's still a goal they have, but it's probably easier said than done. Not just from a writing standpoint, but a contractual one, in that there's a limit to how often they can use him, so they have to pick and choose where.

"It's like they don't care about this relationship as much as we do." You're right. NOBODY will care about it as much as we do. They care about the main characters, about the show's actual premise (i.e. first responders encountering wild situations, secondarily the characters' personal lives). There is no universe in which ANY relationship in the show will be prioritized as much as we, the fandom, would like it to be. That's just life in the big city. But they do care, oh boy, they do. Enough to use BT scenes in off-season promo. Enough to write Tommy into a scene in the opening episode where, frankly, he didn't NEED to be. Also, consider this - to shoot that scene, Lou was probably on set a grand total of one day, MAYBE two. And they made sure to include him in the jokey "bee pickup lines" reel. You know what other relationship we haven't seen much? Buddie. They have not appeared together outside of work (and honestly, barely AT work either) except in the birthday party scene, and hey, did you notice that they do not interact at ALL in that scene? Buck spends that entire scene interacting only with Tommy. And that's a friendship featuring two mains that we know they value. That's not indicative of anything except the sheer scarcity of screentime.

"They should be promoting the queer relationship!" Should they? They've never really done that before, with the several pre-existing queer relationships. I have always sort of appreciated that they have not hung a neon sign on Buck and Tommy saying LOOK AT OUR NEW QUEER PAIRING. It's never gotten the Very Special Episode treatment - Buck never had gay panic, or much coming-out drama - and I like that. I like treating it no differently than other romantic pairings on the show. And they did actually promote it quite a bit when it happened. Now it would just feel kinda performative to me.

"Will he be in [whatever episode]?" Imma gently suggest we not do this every week. He'll be there or he won't. There'll be some we know he's in (I think 8x06 is a lock), some we won't know and will be pleasantly surprised, or unpleasantly surprised. I'd say odds for 8x04 are...20%, rising to at least 50% with 8x05 and 100% for 8x06.

And if you ever feel sad about it - go look at a still of Buck from any episode so far this season, and say to yourself, "This man is having heaps of amazing sex with his hot pilot boyfriend on the regular. Canonically."

I know a lot of us have encountered some pretty irritating gloating from people who hate this relationship (in a frankly weirdly obsessive way) about him being not there. Just remember - that's all they have to gloat about. The only "victory" they can claim is the absence of a character? Lame. And it's not even a victory, it's just the cost of doing business when your ship involves a recurring character. Sit back and enjoy your canon relationship between two men who've actually kissed on screen and ignore it. We can be generous about it.

So let's not talk ourselves off the deep end, shall we? I'd like to keep being a reasonable fandom.

[five-bi-five-mind]

New Addition

Fandom: Marvel

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff x fem!Reader

Words: 5.5k+

Genre: Fluff & Smutt

Summary: After things get serious with Wanda, she's finally ready to let you meet the twins. When everything just clicks with all of you, Wanda is even more smitten and so are you. So much so, that she might be getting a little ahead of herself...

Warnings: fingering (r receiving); biting, strap-on use (r receiving); magic strap; mommy kink; praise; pet-names; cum-filled strap; top!Wanda, bottom!r; breeding kink (maybe?); let me know if I forgot things...

A/N: So this was a request I received on another Wanda fic of mine posted to AO3... figured I'd run with it. Also kinda hate both the name and the gif I came up with for this fic but oh well... anyways, yay 1k celebrationnnnn

Another New Addition (Part 2)

“You did so good with them,” Wanda said with a soft smile. Her back pressed against the door as you walked further into her bedroom. “They absolutely loved you.” 

“I loved them too.” You returned her smile before turning around and taking in her room. Never had you stepped foot in here. You were honestly giddy just being in her home and taking in her surroundings, but now to finally be in her bedroom, a place that was so private and intimate to her… Well, you were over the moon.

In fact, you could probably say that you were glowing. In the six months that you had been with Wanda, you both decided to take things relatively slow. Any nights alone with her were spent at your apartment, not hers. You were totally okay with that. With Wanda having two boys, you knew what a big step it was to introduce you to them. That was always the plan though. Wanda had discussed it with you in detail. Once things got serious, if they got serious, you’d be slowly and gently integrated into their family dynamic. 

And of course, things got serious. What with Wanda blurting out how much she loved you within the first three months of your relationship and you immediately returning that sentiment with teary eyes. Still, you spent three months adjusting to that new development before you even thought about meeting her kids.

But then it finally came time to see them. Wanda approached you with a smile on her face, the one she got whenever she wanted something, and you willingly listened to her plea. Maybe the idea of meeting them utterly terrified you, but only because you knew how important it was for you to bond with them. You prepared yourself for some awkwardness, maybe even a little rejection from them at first. Lucky for you, you didn’t even need to worry at all. 

They were hesitant at first, but so were you. Wanda nudged the three of you along for maybe the first hour of meeting each other, but then it was like everything fell into place. It helped that deep inside you were kind of a big nerd. When they talked about their interests you immediately jumped in. That led Tommy to immediately beg for you to see all their stuff and Billy to tug you through the house until you reached their room. They then proceeded to give you a tour of what was quite possibly all of the items they ever owned. You nodded excitedly as they each took turns explaining just about everything in their possession and that just added to their excitement too. It felt like maybe minutes went by, but in reality over an hour had passed. 

Wanda, the whole time, just stood back and watched with the brightest smile glued to her face. The amount of pride and love she had for her boys was so evident in everything she did, but you didn’t have to see to know that. The way she would talk about them for hours with so much happiness in her voice had already told you as much, and you loved to listen to her talk about her family. Anytime she did, you couldn’t stop yourself from daydreaming about being added to their dynamic. It didn’t help that her love for you was also just as evident, making it easier for you to rationalize how easily you could fit in with the three of them. And as Wanda watched with delight at how fast you all clicked, she was filled with those same daydreams you often had. 

When it was rounding on three hours of you and the boys just spending time together, she finally broke the three of you out of your moment. It was probably important for all of you to eat even if you were just as disappointed as the twins when the three of you were torn from their extra detailed room tour. Wanda had to bite her lip to hold back a cheeky grin when she saw you following the boys out of their room with a matching pout. 

What really won you points with them was your insistence on pizza instead of Wanda putting in even more effort to orchestrate this perfect night with a fancy home-cooked dinner. She already worked so hard, she didn’t need to prepare some sort of three course meal too. Plus, the boys were over the moon for the idea of pizza and even more so when you said your favorite toppings were the same as theirs.

After full stomachs and more exciting conversation over just about everything the twins loved, you all settled with a movie. The movie was probably the hardest thing to pay attention to. The boys curled up on one side of the room, their eyes glued to whatever action scenes were unfolding on the screen. You weren’t really sure what the plot was and you didn’t even remember the movie title, not when Wanda had you wrapped up in her arms. 

It was all honestly very innocent. You leaned back on Wanda and she pulled a blanket over you both. Her fingers were innocently running up and down your arms as the movie went on, and while it was nothing inappropriate, it still made your heart race at the intimacy of it all. How could you pay attention to the movie when you were wrapped in the arms of the woman you loved and felt like you were instantly accepted into her family? You couldn’t remember the last time you were this happy. 

As the movie continued, you looked across the room at her two boys who were slowly falling asleep while trying and failing to remain focused on the screen. There was a soft smile on your lips that had practically never left since the moment Wanda got comfy with you on the couch. As silly as it might be, you couldn’t help but think that you could get used to this. Your mind wandered to the idea of having weekly evenings like this, quietly spending time with Wanda and her family until they all finally saw you as their family too. Never had you wanted something more strongly than for this night to become a regular occurrence. Maybe it was too fast. After all, you just met the boys and you’ve been dating Wanda for less than a year, but something inside you just said that all of this was right. It was a gut feeling that told you this is exactly where you were supposed to be. With Wanda, helping raise the boys if she’d let you, and spending every day of the rest of your life loving the three of them with everything you had.

You rubbed at your eyes, feeling a little sappy for the tears that welled there from the realization of just how perfect everything was. Wanda took your movement as a sign that maybe you were just as sleepy as the boys, whispering in your ear if maybe the four of you should finish the movie another night. Wanda didn’t buy it when you shook your head and tried to convince her you weren’t that sleepy. 

Of course, no matter how convincing you were, the boys really were not. They were struggling to keep their eyes open, their little heads nodding back onto the couch every few minutes before they jostled themselves awake. While they weren’t in love with the idea of calling the night early, Wanda was so good with them and convincing that they eventually agreed. What really got to you, in a good way, was that Wanda promised you’d be back for another night like this and that’s what finally eased their minds enough to agree to tuck in for bed. 

After she had them all tucked in, they were both in a deep sleep within minutes. You hung back while Wanda got them ready for bed, but you heard the way she cooed at them and cared for them as they settled into bed. While she was doing that, you were sitting alone, waiting for her to guide you to her bedroom. It was at this point in the night that anxiousness crept back in. Both of you had talked about it and planned for this to also be the first time you were to sleep over at her house too. There had been plenty of times where Wanda had got a sitter overnight and stayed with you, but this still felt very new. It was a big deal, and you were getting a little in your head about it.

Eventually, Wanda returned to you, slipping her hand in yours and pulling you towards her bedroom. Her soft smile matched the one you had worn earlier and you tried to match it, but nerves were getting the best of you. If Wanda noticed, she didn’t say much. She just introduced you to her room and motioned for you to walk in before she followed behind you.

And now, here you both were. Her smile was large as she praised you for the day and your nerves had momentarily left your body as you beamed proudly back at her.

They really did seem to get along well with you and it was so important for both you and Wanda that that happened. It was like a dream come true honestly, to be so quickly accepted by her kids and to so quickly accept them too. You were excited about what the future could bring, if the four of you could truly be one big happy family like you hoped. It had been one evening, but suddenly you found yourself wanting that future more than anything else you’ve ever wanted in your entire life. As Wanda smiled back at you, you thought maybe you could confidently guess that she wanted the exact same. 

“Was it too presumptuous of me to promise the boys another family night?” Wanda looked at you with the most hopeful eyes as she spoke.

Family Night. Those words made your heart flutter. It really did seem like Wanda felt what you were feeling about the whole evening. It was like this meant-to-be connection between all of you. You knew Wanda was the one for you the moment you two met, and Wanda had hinted that the feeling was mutual too. Now, since you’ve met her family, that same gut feeling was even stronger. It felt like, not only was Wanda meant to be your person, but the three of them were meant to be your family too. 

“No, no, no.” You were maybe too eager to convince Wanda you were more than happy with that. “It wasn’t too presumptuous.”

Wanda pushed herself off from where she was leaning on her bedroom door. In a few steps, she was suddenly in front of you, her arms wrapped around you and pulling you into a tight embrace. 

“Really?” She smiled and you nodded enthusiastically. Her lips pressed to yours in a gentle, but brief kiss. 

“I’d love to do it again,” you said against her lips, leaning back in for more. “And again…” you kissed her once. “And again…” you kissed her once more. “And again.”

Wanda pulled back to look at you, her smile so contagious it made you forget all about your nervousness that you had just moments ago. “I’m so glad you’re finally here.” Wanda pressed her forehead to yours as she spoke. She placed her hands on either of your cheeks and you couldn’t stop yourself from leaning into her touch. “I’ve been picturing this since the day I met you and it was all so perfect. You’re perfect.”

You closed your eyes as she spoke such sweet words to you. It was all making you so incredibly happy that you were at a loss for words. Your hands came up to cover Wanda’s and you turned your head to kiss the palm of one of her hands. She hummed softly to herself for a second, her forehead still pressed to yours.

You both stayed like that for a moment, basking in how happy and in love both of you were. One of the biggest things about tonight, other than being accepted by the two most important people in Wanda’s life, was that all of this just made your love for her even stronger. Wanda, of course, felt the exact same way. 

As she watched you, she was in awe of how good you were with them. It was almost like you slipped into a role she had never seen from you, but had hoped was there or would develop over time. As the boys talked to you about their interests and their lives, you showed this almost maternal side; one that knew how to respond to even the silliest of things they said to you. And then you also had this goofy, friendly side to you that matched her boys’ energy so perfectly, it was like a match made in heaven. As Wanda watched you throughout the night, she couldn’t imagine a better partner to integrate into her family dynamic. 

When the movie was playing, Wanda was filled with daydreams of what making you a permanent part of her family would look like. The evenings you’d spend with her and the twins, the adventures you’d all go on, the fun and love you’d share. To Wanda, those daydreams felt very possible to actualize and she planned to do so. Wanda knew, when she first met you, that you would be someone good for her boys, and she felt even more validated as the evening went on.

As Wanda was promising the boys that you would be back, she was consumed with thoughts of how fast she really could convince you to take more steps into a bigger commitment with her. There were quick little thoughts that popped into her mind about proposing, asking you to move in, talking to you about future building in a more real and permanent sense. She had a small worry that she was moving too fast. Not in a way that she thought things between the two of you would go bad, but just that she didn’t want to bombard you with so much so quickly. Except, these little thoughts about a future with you got bigger and louder as she pulled you to her bedroom. In the short walk it took to drag you through her halls, she started having ideas about even expanding the family with you. Seeing you not only become a co-parent to her twins, but carrying and being a mother to another child of hers. 

That last idea was even stronger when she finally had her arms around you in the privacy of her own bedroom. She was getting ahead of herself with all of these images of you becoming her wife and her coming home to you, her boys, and possibly a new addition to her family. The thought of you and her creating a new life together was starting to intrigue her. Maybe a little too much… 

Wanda leaned into you again, placing a soft, lingering kiss to your lips. The kind that had you leaning forward for more when she pulled away. She let out a soft laugh at your actions, but continued to deny you another kiss to your lips. Instead, she pressed hers to your cheek and then your other, showering you with soft kisses all over your face and enjoying the warmth she felt rise on your skin from her actions. 

You couldn’t stop your smile from growing as she treated you with such tenderness. Your heart raced as she moved her lips to jaw and then cupped your chin to tilt your head and press her lips to your pulse point. She trailed her lips down your neck then, with feather light kisses as she went. Her hands moved down to encircle your waist again and press the two of you even closer together. Your head swam at the feeling of her lips on you and being engulfed in her warmth. She really was perfect for you. It was like she knew exactly how to make you melt in the palm of her hand. 

“You’re so beautiful,” Wanda murmured against your neck, her teeth lightly nibbling at the skin there. Your eyes fluttered closed at the feeling of her lips on your neck and you hummed an incoherent response. “I love you so much,” Wanda continued, her lips moving back up to your own before placing another kiss to them.

“And I love you,” You whispered into the kiss. Wanda kissed you again at that, but this time a little harder. The kiss was slow, but she was moving her lips against yours in such a way that had you already feeling drunk on them alone. Your lips parted and Wanda’s tongue peeked out, running against yours ever so slightly, but just enough to cause you to shiver. And then, all too soon she pulled away, leaving you breathless in her wake. 

“I’ve been working on something I want to try…” Wanda’s voice was quiet as she pulled back slightly. You’ve seen a lot of sides of Wanda, but this one was a little new. It almost seemed like she was shy, nervous even, for whatever she had in mind. 

You met her eyes, giving her a gentle smile while you waited for her to continue. The arms around you moved, hands slipping underneath your shirt to press flat to your back. She ran her hands up slowly as she nibbled on her lip, you could tell she was hesitant about what she would say next. 

“Wanda,” you urged. “What is it?” You let out a soft, nervous giggle. Whatever she had in mind had you excited already, but the way she was being so withholding about it made waiting for the reveal a little anxiety inducing. 

“Do you trust me?” Her eyes sparkled as she leaned back in. 

“Of course,” you said breathlessly, waiting for her lips to press against yours once more. This time when they did, her hands pressed your body fully against her own when your lips met. The way she kissed you had your head spinning. It wasn’t harsh, but it wasn’t gentle. It was hungry.

When you parted your lips for her, she licked into your mouth and you couldn’t help the soft moan that broke free. This only egged Wanda on further, moving her hands until she was pulling your shirt up and then completely off. In the moment that her actions broke the kiss you took a deep breath before Wanda’s lips smashed back into yours. Your hands tangled in her hair and you pressed yourself against her as if any minuscule amount of space was too much for you. 

“Are you sure?” Wanda mumbled against your lips, but you were too lost in hers to respond. 

Wanda pulled her head back and chuckled at the pout that followed after. “Baby, are you sure?” Wanda asked again, to which you fervently nodded. “Will you let me try something, then?”

“Anything,” you mumbled.

“Good…” Wanda trailed off before pushing you to walk backwards until your legs hit the foot of the bed. “Sit back for me, pretty girl.” You did as you were told, your face flushed a darker shade of pink from her use of pet names. 

Wanda leaned down over you as you scooted yourself onto the bed, hooking her hands into your belt loops. You knew what she wanted and one hand quickly went to unbutton your jeans before she gave them a hard yank towards her. With some awkward maneuvering, you helped her get them all the way off your body, along with your panties, and then looked up expectantly at her. 

Her clothes met yours on her bedroom floor. Both of you stood still for second, each taking in the other’s naked form. Wanda was gorgeous, standing there in nothing in front of you and she thought the same as you sat propped up on her bed. 

After a moment, Wanda lifted her hand up and you watched as she briefly flicked her fingers. Then, when her eyes moved down her own body, yours followed and your eyes practically bugged out of your head. Okay, this was something new. 

Between her legs, attached with straps, was a dark red dildo. It wasn’t small, but you didn’t think it was necessarily too big either. It wasn’t like you weren’t interested in trying this with Wanda, it was just that you two hadn’t even talked about introducing toys in the bedroom yet and suddenly, with a literal snap of her fingers, it was there in front of you. 

Wanda looked back up at you, a subtle swirl of red shining in her eyes. “Is this okay?” Wanda flicked her eyes back down to the toy between her legs before looking up at you again. 

Your mouth went dry, trying to find the words to tell her yes; it was more than okay. But you were also nervous with anticipation for her to finally touch you and use it. You swallowed hard. “Y-yeah,” you struggled, “it is.”

Wanda’s smile turned a little predatory as she took a step towards the bed again. She felt so proud of you, seeing how willing you were to do this with her. You were nervous, Wanda could tell, but she had a feeling once you both tried this it would soon become a favorite for both of you. 

She crawled onto the bed, her naked form hovering over yours and you gulped at the proximity. It wasn’t like you hadn’t been like this with Wanda before, it’s just that there was never the addition of what was in between her legs in the mix. 

Wanda kissed your lips again, long and lingering, before she moved to kiss down your chest. Her hands ran from your chest, fingers dancing across your nipples, until they moved further down. She brushed the tips of her fingers across your skin with such gentleness, leaving goosebumps in their wake, until finally she reached between your legs. Her fingers met your wetness already, the kisses she gave mixed with the perfection that is her body had you already in need of her touch. When the tips of her fingers brushed your clit, a shiver ran through your body, and when they repeated their feather light touch, Wanda reveled in the fact that your body reacted so easily to her. 

Lips kissed back up to your neck and a hand pressed to your sternum until you were finally fully laying back on the bed. Your head tilted back to let Wanda run her tongue down the most sensitive parts of the flesh there. By this time, Wanda had started to steadily circle your clit with her fingers, causing soft, breathy sighs to fall from your lips. 

The excitement of all of this was getting to her. To say it was hard to wait, was an understatement. Wanda was so floored by your reactions and couldn’t wait to try what she had planned for you. If you were already this worked up from light touches, she could only anticipate how you’d react when she was inside you in a way she hadn’t been before. But still, she needed to go slow, prepare you. She didn’t want to break you after all. 

Her fingers ran down your folds, tracing your entrance before slowly dipping two in. You let out a gasp that was only made louder by the way Wanda moved to your chest and took a nipple into her mouth. Her tongue ran over your nipples, switching between the two, as she pumped her fingers into you at a leisurely pace. Whines were filling the room and she knew you were frustrated with how slow she was touching you. It seemed you both were excited for the main event. 

When your hips started to move with her fingers, Wanda could tell this was your pathetic attempt to make yourself cum. Her free hand went straight to your hip, her grip a bit harsh as she forced your body to still on the mattress. “Shhh, baby, not yet,” she purred. “You’re not going to cum on my fingers tonight.”

You huffed in frustration and Wanda pulled her fingers all the way out. That had you really whiny. Wanda bit her lip to try to hide the smug smile that tugged on her lips, half considering to tease you for awhile before she really started to fuck you. But then again, she was too excited to wait any longer. 

Sitting back on the bed, Wanda moved your legs until she was between them with either of them hooked over her hips. She sat there for a moment, admiring the sight before her. She knew you were wet from how she was already touching you, but to see your pussy drip with your wetness made her mouth water. 

“Wanda…” you pleaded after a moment passed and Wanda continued to just hungrily stare. 

She snapped out of it with your plea, her hand moving to wrap around the deep red toy before lining it up with your entrance. “This isn’t just a toy. It’s magic,” Wanda said, her body still with the tip of it barely pushing into you. “I’ll be able to feel you.” 

It took you a moment to register what she meant, but she didn’t really give you a moment. Her hips pressed forward and you felt her enter you completely. “Oh!” You moaned as you felt your walls stretch around her. 

Wanda groaned as she entered you, her eyes squeezing shut. She was trying to take in deep breaths, trying to restrain herself, but dear god the feeling of you was intoxicating. 

Your head fell back down onto the pillow as Wanda rolled her hips, her cock hitting deep inside you. She had a hold of your hips as your legs were still propped on hers, it gave her the best angle to hit deeper. The way she could feel every inch of the toy inside your pussy had her head swimming.

Wanda tried to start at a slow pace, she really did, but with each pump of her hips you let out an adorable whimper and she felt your pussy practically twitch around her. It was all too much. With your legs still hooked to her, Wanda fell forward onto the mattress, your bodies pressed together, with her hands barely holding her up. With this position, your legs hooked over her waist, Wanda could fuck you deeper and all her restraint broke.

“Holy shi-“ Wanda cut herself off with a low moan. The way her body was moving against yours had your head spinning, her pace increasing more and more. “I knew- fuck- I knew it would feel good, but not this fucking good.” 

Wanda’s hips were rolling into you in such a way that your whole body rocked back with the power of her thrusts. One hand grabbed onto the forearm by your head. Your nails dug into her skin as she kept pulling her cock almost all the way out of you just to slam it back in. She definitely wasn’t being gentle with you anymore and you couldn’t begin to care. The force of her cock pumping into you had your whole body deliciously shaking.

Wanda was barely holding herself up as it is, but when your pussy started tightening around her cock she couldn’t keep it up. She was fully pressed against you, quite literally fucking you into the mattress. Her face was tucked into the side of your neck as her hands flew back to your hips, moving your body into hers so she could grind you onto her cock while she fucked you. 

Your hand flew to your mouth, balled in a fist. Your teeth dug into your knuckles to try to muffle any sounds that were coming out of you, while Wanda hid her groans of pleasure into your neck. “You feel so fucking good,” Wanda growled in your ear as the force of her thrusts increased. “You’re gonna cum on mommy’s cock, okay princess?”

The way she was talking was also new, but it just added to your building orgasm. You nodded desperately, helpless to do anything but let her continue to fuck into you with abandon. 

“I’m gonna cum inside you,” she groaned. “Wouldn’t you like that? Let mommy cum inside you, paint your pretty pussy with my cum. Tell me you want my cum.”

“Y-yes please,” you stammered. 

Her movements were becoming more erratic and as you were approaching your edge, you knew she was too. The way your pussy was squeezing her tight, mixed with the way you struggled to stay quiet was too much for her. Wanda came and she came hard, her teeth digging into your neck to muffle her moans. 

The second she came you felt her cum hit your walls. A gasp was barely muffled when your own orgasm hit you. The surprising feeling of her warm cum inside you mixed with the sting of her bite had your body quake and tears well in your eyes at the sheer power of your orgasm. 

“Fuck fuck fuck,” Wanda groaned into your neck, her hips continuing to move and fuck her cum into you. The way she felt your orgasm had her cum again, filling your pussy up and prolonging your own orgasm. 

When you finally came down your body slumped onto the bed, your eyes shut tight as you tried to catch your breath. Wanda pressed her head to your chest, listening to your racing heartbeat as she tried to calm down from her own orgasms. 

“Oh my god,” you whispered in wonder. That was intense. She drew from you what was probably the most powerful orgasm of your life. 

“Yeah, oh my god.” Wanda let out a breathless laugh. Wanda pulled out of you after a moment, a shiver running through your body as she did. 

She sat back up, her cum dripping from your entrance. You continued to lay on the bed, still utterly spent as Wanda trailed her fingers down your thighs. “You look so pretty with my cum dripping down your thighs,” she whispered to herself more than to you. You just hummed, your eyes still shut as you tried to calm your breathing.  “Wonder how many times until it takes…”

You perked up at that, your eyes opening to glance at Wanda. “What do you mean?” You were more curious than worried about her odd remark. 

“I said it was magic…” Wanda trailed off, her fingers continuing to idly trace across your skin. “You’d look so beautiful carrying my child.”

“Wanda…” You sat up fully at this. The look you gave her told her you were feeling hesitant now, but Wanda just met your eyes with a soft smile.

“Don’t worry.” Her fingers stilled as she spoke. “I’m still figuring it out, nothing should happen this time. It took me a while just to conjure up something I could feel. To create life with it intentionally will take work. I don’t think I’m there yet.”

There was a lot of interesting wording in that, but you chose to ignore it. After all, it wasn’t even a couple hours ago that you were thinking similar thoughts about being a part of and maybe even expanding Wanda’s family. If she was really worried about that sort of risk she would’ve told you up front. At least, you hoped so. 

In truth, Wanda really wasn’t sure. She thought, as far as she knew, what she was saying was true. If she was being honest with herself, she probably should’ve given more thought to the whole ordeal and what consequences might come after, but when Wanda had this idea in her mind she was just too excited to postpone it. The sheer need to feel you as she fucked you and to be able to actually cum inside you was too overwhelming. She didn’t want to wait another minute after tonight, so threw caution to the wind. 

If there are results that come after this night, while she seriously doubted it, she did technically tell you it was magic before you two started. Hopefully, you had some understanding of the unpredictability of things like that. Although, the two of you were already on the same page. Neither of you would mind these repercussions, despite the short time you’ve been together. Wanda knew you were meant to be hers, meant to be in this family, so why not solidify it?

“Can we…” You bit your lip for a moment, a blush creeping to your cheeks again as Wanda waited for you to continue. “Can we try it again?”

Wanda’s grin was dazzling as she happily agreed.

Repercussions be damned. 

taglist: @geekyandgay98 @desperate-gay @high--power @storiesofsvu @demonicbaby666 @xxxtwilightaxelxxx @natashamaximoff69

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[midnightwinters]

We are the readers, not the writer.

MHA fandom isn't bad because of the shipping the only bad thing about it is when people are trying to push a narrative that isn't real. (sprinkle of spoilers btw)

Uraraka Ochao isn't made to be Midoriya Izuku's romantic partner, but she is indeed his friend. She is a HERO who's wish was to make her parents life easier and happier. YES she had a small crush on Midoriya and got teased for it. But at the start of it all she supported him at the beginning and suggested the name Deku in a positive light as his hero name. She was the first one to act when Deku was berserk asking Shinso for help. She upgraded her costume because of this and wanted to be better as a HERO. Deku looked up to her as a HERO because she was the one who took the initiative to ask the civilians to let him stay as a student and future hero.

She isn't a weak princess that needs to be saved by her prince Izuku. She may be a girl but she isn't a heroine because she is a HERO that wanted to save Toga Himiko, a girl that should've had support since she was little. Ochao even offers up her own blood and calling her cute despite being in a battle of death with Himiko.

Bakugo Katsuki, isn't a bad boy or an evil bully that torments Izuku. At the start ever since he was young his quirk was considered highly due to it's power. He thought he was the king on a throne because of the praises but then comes in Midoriya Izuku a quirkless boy who thought highly of him and wanted to be a hero besides him. But yet despite bullying him he allowed kid Izuku to hang around him watching AM on tv, getting AM cards, hunting for bugs multiple times, and even that moment at the "lake." When Katsuki tells Izuku to jump off a building, he comes to later regret this.

He is the first one told about One for All and hides it from others and even goes out of his way to help Izuku nurture the other quirks within One for All. He took an injury for Deku but he's an evil bully? He thought of Izuku before he died and realized the pain Izuku went through during his journey but he's not good to be by Izuku's side right? He regrets not grabbing Izuku's hand as a kid, but he knows he shouldn't be the one to grab his hand. He bows and apologizes to Izuku in the rain for all the things he did and said when they were kids. Where we come to find out from the parents of Bakugo that he hates the rain. His apology was humbling but Izuku never gives him a response and simple collapses. He kept an All Might card that he got with Izuku till this day by his side. He wants to atone for what he did as kids, and wants to support Izuku. He's cried in front of Izuku 3 times:

losing to Izuku

being the reason for All Might's downfall

finding out Izuku only has the embers and may not be heroes together

Goodie Two shoes Kacchan: He goes to bed real early, he gets good grades, he wears all might merch in secret~

My Hero Academia started with Kacchan and Deku. It ended with Kacchan and Deku. If you can't accept that Kacchan is integral to the story and an important person to the main character Midoriya Izuku than you will never understand this manga.

(btw he accepts himself as Kacchan Bakugo the one nickname that Izuku continues to still call him to this day.)

Midoriya Izuku the infamous boy that started quirkless and ended quirkless. Despite the setback in his life he still continued and pushed towards dreams of being a hero. He wanted to be as cool as his figure All Might and cool like his childhood friend Kacchan. In the beginning he is the first one to react to Kacchan and desperately tries to save him despite being quirkless. All Might who sees the hero in Izuku that day offers him the ability to be a hero, a quirk that would change his life.

Izuku has and will always be reckless with and without a quirk. It's one of the reasons why he can't hate Bakugo and wanted to save Tenko. All Might tells Izuku not to tell anyone about his quirk and who does he tell despite his favorite hero telling him this? his childhood friend Kacchan. Despite his whole class seeing Izuku reckless multiple times who is the one to worry? Ochao? NO it's his childhood friend Kacchan. Who is the person who desperately wants to visit Izuku while injured? Idk Ochao? NO It's Bakugo Katsuki not once but twice.

Izuku is a fanboy of heroes, but he's possibly the biggest fanboys of All Might and Explosive Murder God Dynamite. His room in the dorms and his room at home is filled with All Might. His first costume was inspired by All Might. He is able to copy All Might signature's smile. But when it comes to Kacchan, he reflexively starts to copy him at first it's when he needs courage to deal with villians at USJ but when Kacchan gets hurt by the semi fused All for One/Shigiraki he becomes so angry that he copies him. When sees Kacchan and everyone's lifeless corpse/bodies he's becomes so infuriated blackwhip starts to go out of control. Blackwhip came when Izuku was angry with Monoma when he started to back-talk Kacchan. But blackwhip was a canon izch moment? Not really, it was Ochao being a hero and another piece of evidence that Katsuki is Izuku's "weakness and strength."

I don't hate any MHA ship unless it's just straight up weird but do know that this manga wasn't made explicitly for you. It was made by Horikoshi who intended to make this something that he could enjoy at the time he first started writing it. So please know the difference between canon and your ship.

The only characters in the series that are canonically the worst in the manga and the real world is All For One, Overhaul, and Endeavor.

The one's that redeemed themselves is Bakugo, Nagant, Yuga, Gentle and La Brava (Stain kinda).

The ones that deserved better in their youth are Shigiraki, Twice, Dabi, Himiko, and Spinner.

Goodbye My Hero Academia, you were everything <3

[biancadoes1]

Hello! I've been in fandoms for over 20 years, and I honestly thought I'd seen it all. But then, while watching the promo tour for Bridgerton Season 3, I fell into the Polin rabbit hole. The chemistry between Luke and Nicola was undeniable, and it hooked me in quickly. However, as I explored more of the fandom, I was surprised to see how toxic things could get.

In my previous fandoms, I shipped characters, not the actors portraying them—except for Harry and Louis from One Direction (and that experience brought its own share of hurt: matching tattoos, song lyrics, all those signs…we truly thought “Larry” was endgame). This fandom feels similar. Many fans wish Luke and Nic could be together in real life, but at what cost? Our own sanity?

Let’s be real: the odds of them being in a real-life relationship are incredibly slim. The obsession with “Easter eggs” that supposedly hint at something more? I’ve been down that road, and it’s unhealthy. Years have passed, and that Harry/Louis relationship confirmation we hoped for never came. I see the same patterns here with Luke and Nic, and it’s disappointing to see fans clinging to these little hints instead of simply enjoying the incredible work they put into their characters.

A critical point to consider: would anyone be comfortable with a 29-year-old dating a 16-year-old? Of course not. So why is it suddenly okay now, just because they’re older? When JD became legal in the UK at 16, Nicola was nearly 30—an adult, while he was still in his teens. Even now, he’s still significantly younger than she is. If she truly is dating someone this young, it’s disappointing. It brings into question the kind of person she actually is, and maybe that’s why many fans resist admitting she could be in a relationship with JD. It’s easier for fans to uphold the idea that Nicola is perfect than to accept that she might be making choices that don’t align with the values we thought she stood for.

Nicola has long appeared to be a woman of strong character who took charge of her career and made independent decisions. Ignoring what’s happening now could hurt her public image and even her integrity. It’s one thing to admire the professionalism and maturity she’s shown on screen and in interviews, but it’s another to look the other way when things don’t add up.

So, what would it take for fans to accept that she might actually be dating JD and not Luke? The recent photos of her with JD in a residential neighborhood, having dinner with no reason to expect paparazzi, seem like a pretty clear indication that this might be a real relationship. It’s time for fans to face the possibility that Nicola isn’t as flawless as we might want her to be.

Part of the reason we might all want Luke and Nic together is because they have undeniable chemistry. But maybe it’s also because Nicola doesn’t fit the stereotypical “attractive” mold that society pushes, and we like the idea of her getting the handsome, tall guy. It’s possible we’re projecting our own insecurities, hoping to manifest a romance between them—and that’s not fair to either of them.

And yes, as much as I’d love to see Luke and Nic together in real life, the truth is, they’re actors. Their job is to bring their characters to life so we want to watch the show, so they can succeed, gain visibility, and open doors to new acting opportunities. Maybe we haven’t considered that their chemistry is simply the result of them doing their jobs well. If they’ve done their part so convincingly that they’ve made fans believe in their on-screen romance, isn’t that proof of their talent as actors? They’ve played their roles beautifully, and it might be time to let that fantasy go.

If we don’t want to end up with heartbreak, frustration, and sleepless nights, it might be best to step back and enjoy Polin as they are in Bridgerton. Let’s appreciate Luke and Nic’s talent without digging into their personal lives. And where are all these so-called “anon experts” even coming from? The way they hype up every little “clue” is exhausting. For your own sanity, take a step back from the speculation—don’t put yourselves through what we Larry shippers went through.

For all of our sakes, let’s step back, enjoy the characters, and leave Luke and Nic’s personal lives out of it.

Thank you for your thoughts, anon.

But I disagree heavily on multiple points you make and that's fine.

I like to leave these topics open for thoughtful discussion.

[tenpintsofsundrop]

Fanfiction Etiquette 101

(Things You Didn't Know You Need To Know)

So, I have seen some discussions about these things on my dashboard, and I know some people are new to tumblr and new to fanfiction in general, so I decided to put this list together in case it might help people. And this stuff goes for all fandoms, no matter what type of fanfiction to write and post.

Also fyi, this post is mostly for people who write and post fanfiction.

1: Putting A Readmore/Cut On Fanfiction

So a 'readmore' (also known as a 'cut') is the ability to put the body of your fanfiction under a cut off link so that people's dashboards are not clogged up by long sprawling paragraphs of text. This is also helpful if your fic contains smut and people don't want to be subjected to smut - people have to click through to keep reading sensitive topics.

The button for it looks like this on desktop:

And this bar of options comes up on desktop when you hit 'enter' on a blank line.

And it looks like this on mobile:

Tumblr put it permanently into the hotbar of options so that it's easier for people to put a readmore on their posts on mobile.

Once you have inputted it, it comes up as a light grey jagged line, showing you where your text cuts off in the main post aka what text is visible before the cut and what's not.

And generally, I think it's a good idea to put the readmore after the first paragraph of your fic, or after the description/summary.

I have noticed that some people put it in after several paragraphs for a longer fic, but I think to make fics easier to reblog, you could put it closer to the top. And even if you're writing smut blurbs, you should put it close to the top to keep smut concealed in case people don't want to read or see smut.

If you don't use a readmore, people are less likely to reblog your fic because they don't want to put a long text wall on other people's dashboards.

2: Using (Stolen) Gifs As Fanfiction Covers

I have seen some discussion about using gifs from google, and people putting a gif that they have downloaded and simply writing under it 'this gif is not mine, please DM me if it's your and I will give you credit'.

It's generally established among gif makers that downloading random gifs and putting them on your fanfiction is bad etiquette. Those are considered stolen gifs.

Even if you say it's not yours and offer to give credit, any gif you repost that is not yours is considered a stolen gif.

Fanfiction writers and gif makers need to work together, not against each other. Reblog gif sets you like, and don't download random gifs, no matter what the source is.

The best way to use gifs as fanfiction covers is to make them yourself or to use the tumblr integrated gif search system.

The gif search system is in the same hot bar as the readmore, labelled under 'gif'.

When you pull it up and click on it, you type in the name of the character you are looking for, and then you can scroll through the results. You can click on a gif to add it to your post, and remove it if you don't like it. So you can try out different gifs to find the right fit of what you're looking for.

And when you find what you're looking for and put it on your post, it automatically credits the gifmaker.

And the credit appears like this. And the name of the gifmaker can be clicked and then it takes you to their blog, so you can see who made the gif. This is a much better way to use gifs, because if someone likes a gif they see on your fic post, they can click through to the original gifmaker and reblog it.

Alternatively, using stills from the show/piece of media you're fanfic is about is a great way to avoid using stolen gifs.

2.5: Using Flashing Gifs On Fanfiction

I have noticed that a lot of people use flashing dividers for their fics, and they don't tag it with a flashing warning (#flashing gif or something similar) and they don't see this as a problem.

Using a flashing gif in fanfiction without a warning can negatively affect disabled readers. Not just people with photosensitive seizures, but people with migraines and different types of eye issues.

3: Using Coloured Text For Fanfiction

Speaking of accessibility issues, I have noticed that many people (especially people new to tumblr/new to fanfiction) use Tumblr's coloured text option to differentiate characters in fanfiction - assigning one colour per character with dialogue.

Some people also just use coloured text for the whole body of their fics, just making it straight up unreadable for disabled people.

Using coloured text in fanfiction makes it inaccessible because certain types of colour blindness makes it unreliable to see on a white background, and bright colours can cause eye strain for different types of disabilities.

It is kinder to use the traditional black text for the body of your fic, and any important information (like the content warnings, DNI criteria, etc).

4: Putting Thorough Content Warnings On Fanfiction

Speaking of content warnings - I could (and probably should) make an entire post about this topic alone, because many writers (both new and old) are severely lacking in this department.

Content warnings are supposed to be more for just smut - and if you do have smut in your fic, you should put warnings for that, instead of just releasing for fic into the wild with no warnings at all. Content warnings are supposed to be for anything that could be potentially triggering for a reader - phobias and fears, sensitive topics, uncomfortable or fear-inducing situations, and kinks and nsfw topics.

Tbh I think not enough people put warnings for alcohol and alcohol consumption in their fics, because alcohol is far too normalized to most people, but again - I could probably make a whole post just about content warnings in fanfiction. Basically: if you think your post could be triggering to someone with an addiction or in addiction recovery (or triggering to a sober person who doesn't want to read about drugs or alcohol) - then include those things in the content warnings.

Fanfiction is about informed consent.

People need to be better informed about what the content of your fic is before they consent to reading it. Also, if you're worried about the warnings being too detailed and giving away 'spoilers' for your fic, then you're probably worried about the wrong thing. And you can just put a warning at the very top that says "the content warnings of this fic contain spoilers for the plot of the fic" and let people make their choice if they want to skip the content warnings or not.

Please, write about all the dark or sensitive topics that you want, but just put detailed warnings on your fic so people can be informed about it before reading your fic.

People always appreciate thorough warnings, and they are more likely to read your fic if they are fully informed before clicking into the body of it.

4.5: (Not) Censoring Content Warnings

Tumblr is not tiktok. (Same goes for posting fics on AO3, but this post is mostly about Tumblr fics.) On Tumblr you can say/spell out any word you want without your post being suppressed or taken down - suicide, kill, murder, fuck, abortion, hell, porn, tits, cumshot, etc.

So that means that when you're writing out the content warnings of a fic, you should write them out fully, rather than putting slang or alluding to the topics in a fic. (Again, informed consent.) Rather than saying 'this fic contains SA', say: 'this fic contains sexual assault' or 'this fic contains rape'.

I saw someone using the term 'unalive' in the content warnings of their fic, and tbh, that's what inspired me to make this whole post.

If you're not mature enough to spell out all the topics in the content warnings of the post, you're not mature enough to be writing and posting about those topics.

Also, try not to use terms that need to be looked up/implicit terms. Certain terms for kinks (like dacryphilia or somnophilia) might lead a person to google those terms and find things they don't want to see. So instead of using those terms, just say 'crying kink' or 'sleeping kink' instead, so that everything is spelled out plainly.

...

This is all I can think of for now. Basically, just be kind to others when posting fics. Be kind to gif makers, disabled readers, and anyone from your fandom who might have an interest in your fic! Be safe and have fun writing! <3

[the-path-to-redemption]

I have a question about shipping in RWBY: when it comes to that subject is the the fandom too restrictive when it comes to picking characters?

I asked because I see fans harassed writers for ships they don’t like. For example

Pyrrha x sun (especially with Pyrrha)

Yang x Cardin (when making Cardin a better person)

Willow x (any guy) (they bring up the age difference part…until it’s jaune)

Etc

And most of time they want Jaune only ship with all the women.

I don’t understand the mindset: why can’t I use other guys? Why does it have to be Jaune only?

Why am I forced to only use Jaune as a default?

It honestly gets tiring seeing the same scenario over and over again.

Oh boy...*puts on hazmat suit*

Long Post Ahead

I can't speak for everyone, anon, so I'm just going to use my own experiences in the FNDM and shipping in the FNDM to answer this question as best as I could.

The first is that the RWBY FNDM is just a hostile place for shipping, as ironically as it sounds. What I mean by that is it's deeply rooted in anti culture and fictional puritanism, therefore if you ship the "wrong" ship, you are a bad person and whatever comes your way is deserved. It doesn't matter what the reason for shipping two fictional beings you might have, it's not "good enough" in the eyes of rabid FNDM stannies.

And that really sucks. Shipping is a way for fans to explore the dynamic between characters, expanding on a character they see potential in, or just because they like the way it works. It doesn't matter, it shouldn't matter, because none of it is real and it's for fun. But like I said, the inherent anti culture in the RWBY FNDM coupled with the hypocrisy of its treatment of canon ships exploited by the writers (BB, Arkos, etc.) versus its treatment of fan ships (especially rare ones) are the core issue of shipping in RWBY.

They're just fucking assholes to shippers in the FNDM because it's easier to target them.

And on the matter of Jaune, I'm not surprised. As a former Jaune fan, it's deeply depressing to see this character metamorphosis into the face of FNDM toxicity, especially for the dudebro ultra-masc bullshit that's integrated into every single issue with RWBY's narrative that the stannies refuse to accept. It's sad, but it has come to a point that you have to realize that the show is about Jaune, not the girls, and sure as shit not Ruby.

TLDR: the RWBY FNDM is extremely hypocritical when it comes to shipping as a result of both anti culture and dudebro extremism with Jaune, causing the space to be incredibly hostile to people who just want to vibe and play with pixels.

My advice? Fuck them, do what you want, and block the assholes. YOU, reading this, is a REAL person who has emotions and boundaries, and those should be prioritized over FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. Just be nice and civil to others, and we can all exist.

[mrghostrat]

This isn’t really a question for you but to the other anons who say they “hate aus but love yours” and I kind of want to know why? I also LOVE your AUs and it’s not an insult to say they both (streamer/bnf) push the limits of the canon characters to almost breaking point. They’re really their own characters and it’s a good thing. But if you’re someone who hates aus I’m surprised they would go for the extremes? Have they just not given aus the chance? I think in their rush to praise you they’re unintentionally punching down on other aus. bBut if they like yours so much there’s so many other possibilities they could also love if they give aus a chance

i get it tbh! and i don’t think it’s inherently insulting to other AUs, because it’s not a matter of quality, it’s a matter of preference.

for some ppl, the characters’ roles as angel & demon and the STAKES that come with that, are so integral to their characterisation, and a key part of what makes their pining & their personalities recognisable. what they’ve been through, fighting the apocalypse and sneaking around under the noses of literal heaven and hell have formed them as people*, and their relationship, to an incomparible degree. and 6,000 years hits very different than a human lifespan.

it’s valid to prefer the setting that turned the characters into who they are. that’s the crowley and aziraphale we all love, after all. i love canon compliant or divergent fics, but for me, i just get restless reading such a narrow selection of plots and feelings, and have always loved the open-endness of AUs (in every fandom).

the other problem with AUs is that, by taking them out of their primary roles, it’s a lot easier for writers to tangent and drift away from accurate characterisation. without the tether of canon roles and settings and past decisions, you can very easily forget what makes them Them.

there are plenty of readers who consume fan fic because they want more stories about the characters AND the story/setting/context they’ve grown to love on the screen/page. i daresay most of them lol! i personally love characters more than anything, and like finding ways to tie their canon personalities and decisions into new settings, to see how they would approach human problems. but i understand feeling like crowley and aziraphale are only crowley and aziraphale when they’re in the universe that made them who they are now.

this isn’t to say that every other AU is badly written or unenjoyable. it’s just that it’s harder to get it right, which can be off putting for readers who value that to try and scour through the archive for something to read; and even when they are characterised well, it doesn’t change the fact that people who prefer canon simply don’t enjoy tearing them away from it. those people likely enjoy mine because i try very very hard to NOT make them their own characters, i want to change the setting and the stakes but i’m gandalf pouring over scrolls and documents trying to get every nuance of characterisation right, despite how Out Of Left Field the initial concept might seem. and so i’m lucky they’ve decided to give me a chance, be it from my art, my writing style, the snippets i share, or all the wonderful people who’ve recommended me.

source: i prefer human AUs and @thewolveswolf prefers canon compliant and we’ve had this discussion on the daily LMAO

[taylortruther]

Rae I was just having thoughts about You're Losing Me a while ago, and it really is just such an enigmatic song yk. I can never explain the way it made me feel the first time I heard it.

Just sumn about hearing all those wonderful, romantic, idyllic love songs about Joe for five whole albums and then just. YLM hits you like a truck because till then we still hadn't processed it all. Joe had been painted as this perfect, calm supportive partner who can do no wrong and Taylor is happy and it will always stay that way...and then April 9th happened.

Public perception is a crazy thing, and it's even crazier how nobody even DARED to speak the words that thy could've broken up before they did...but the red flags were there all along. It reminds me of the line in sotb "I don't speak, afraid to jinx it" and now that song is in the denial playlist. Truly everyone was in denial for like a month after the news dropped and we weren't even IN the relationship, I can't imagine how bad it was for Taylor herself.

Someone on Twitter quoted the breakup announcement with "Isn't this the guy she wrote Lover for? Yeah, we're all screwed". Amazing how much her own songs made everyone believe everything was okay till the very last moments.

I think especially what YLM strikes me as is a song centered around not wanting to throw away a "good thing" i.e. the Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?

YLM is so horribly bleak imo, because it's not hopeful AT ALL. The last line is very literally her "making the decision" that unless he chooses her, she's done. And to think this was written in 2021?? Had she already accepted the truth back then? Did the denial stage start even BEFORE that? Was she sitting in the dark room for an year and a half?

The thing that hurts the most about a song like this with all the lyric parallels, is watching something you thought was gonna last forever turn out to be so disapointing in the end. Not WANTING to lose something you've built with so much love, even when you realise that the love has disappeared. The shattering of a mirage. All the We survived the great war imagery on Midnights to My heart won't start anymore for you. Her paralleling her own past songs will always break me. The silence that only comes when two people understand each other to You say 'I don't understand' and I say 'I know you don't'.

Of course the fandom believed at a point that they were endgame, but SO DID SHE. That is what makes the song harder to digest because it really feels like a personal letter to her fans, released ONLY for us months before it was made available to the public. I stand behind the theory that Midnights was the Denial album, and YLM (the bridge between Midnights and TTPD) is her waking up.

i know this isn't the point of your ask, but bear with me! i would argue that many fans realized some songs were describing dark or heavy moments - but, call it parasocial if you like, the fandom just wanted to believe they were working through those issues, not that the relationship was unhealthy or bad. (and no one wants to be labeled as a hater, which, maybe we can work on as a fandom now lol.) for example, i thought hoax and renegade were troubling, the line "your integrity makes me seem small" rubbed many of us the wrong way, we all clocked "maybe it was her"... meanwhile, unfortunately there were lots of theories about how it was "all in her head," which fortunately i think we can all put in perspective now. OK BUT MY POINT IS, it also makes it easy to imagine (as you said), that when you're IN the relationship itself, the good parts might overshadow the bad. you could cling to something that is beyond saving because there's still comfort or hope, and denial is extremely strong. denial can feel like hope tbh.

i think ylm really shows that she was trying so so hard, for so so long, that she was running out of steam in late 2021. and he wasn't make it easier for her, because he wasn't making his needs or true desires clear.

ANYWAY good thoughts, i enjoyed this ask!

[enigmalea]

Why I Contributed to FujoGuide

If you follow me here or mastodon you may have noticed that I've been reblogging/boosting a lot of posts for something called The Fujoshi Guide to Web Development (@fujowebdev). There's a good chance you followed me or know me from the Dragon Age fandom where I run communities, events, and zines and write fanfic, and you might be wondering why the sudden and drastic departure from my normal content. Why would a writer contribute to something related to webdev? Why have you stopped seeing thirst for Dragon Age characters and started seeing… whatever a FujoGuide is?

The answers to those questions (and more!) are below the cut.

My Coding Journey

I wrote my first lines of code in 1996 (yes, I'm old AF). It was the early days of the internet and tutorials for how to make your own websites were literally everywhere. You couldn't go more than two clicks without finding a how-to written in plain language. But it was painstaking and tedious. CSS didn't exist yet (literally, I started coding about six months before it was released) and even when it appeared it wasn't widely adopted or supported.

It was the "glory days" of Geocities, Myspace themes, Neopets, and Livejournal. If there was a cool site, you could use HTML and/or CSS to customize it. I honed my skills by coding so many tables character profiles for RPs, creating themes, painstakingly laying out user info pages, and building my own site.

Gradually, things changed. Web 2.0 showed up with locked down profiles and feeds you couldn't customize, free website hosts became more difficult to find, and point and click page builders became the way of the web. Shortly after, I took a long break from fandom; frustrated and disappointed with site closures, lost communities, and general fandom wank… it felt like it just wasn't worth it anymore.

I eventually came back, and when I did it meant customizing themes, figuring out how to create tools for my communities, coding tumblr pages (and learning they're not really supported on mobile), and looking at automations for my common tasks. One day, I woke up and thought, "I'm going to make a Discord bot… it can't be that hard."

So, I did it.

An Unexpected Friendship

About a month after I launched my bot to the public, I received a random Discord message from @essential-randomness. A friend had told her about my bot, and she was working on BobaBoard which needed volunteers. I was shocked. First, people were talking about my bot. Second, I wasn't a real coder. I didn't know anything! I just googled a bunch of stuff and got something working. I had no idea what I was doing.

She assured me it was okay. She was willing to teach me what I didn't know - and most of all, that she wanted my help. I took a day or two to think it over, and fatefully filled out the volunteer form. I didn't know if I could be useful or how I could be useful, but I wanted to try.

Programming Is Awful

In the years months that followed, I spent a lot of time in @essential-randomness' DMs complaining about programming… at least once I realized she wouldn't judge me. I was still very much doing things the hard way, taking hours to update a site to add a single link on all the pages. I knew there were easier methods, but I either couldn't find them or once I found them, they were filled with dense jargon which was terrifying.

"An all-in-one zero-javascript frontend architecture framework!" Is that even English? "A headless open-source CMS." Cool. Sounds good. "A full-stack SSG based on Jamstack extending React and integrating Rust-based JS." Those sure are words. With meanings. That someone knows. Not me, though.

I spent so much time looking at what sites claimed was documentation and losing my mind because I had no idea where to even start most of the time. With @essential-randomness' encouragement, I kept at it, experimenting with new things, and jumping in headfirst even when I had no idea what I was doing. And I was so glad. Where I used to struggle keeping one website updated, last year I managed to deploy and update 7 websites. Yeah, you read that right. It was amazing.

The new stuff made it all much, much easier.

An Idea Is Born

Meanwhile, we spent hours discussing why it was difficult to get fandom to try coding. Part of the barrier was the belief you must be some sort of genius or know math or that creative/humanities people can't do it. It is also partially coding communities being unfriendly to newbies and hobbyists; a culture which often thrives on debasing people's choices, deriding them for not understanding, and shouting rtfm (read the fucking manual) and lmgtfy (let me google that for you)- all of which are unhelpful at best and humiliating and abusive at worst. The tech dudebro culture can be unforgiving and mean.

The number of coding-based Discords I've left far outnumbers the ones I've stayed in.

We determined what fandom needed was a place for coders of all skill levels to come together to help and support one another; where they could learn to code and how to join open-source projects they love, and where they could make friends and connections and show off their projects whether they were new or experienced programmers.

And thus… Fandom Coders was born.

What About FujoGuide?

Of course, running a coding group and working on BobaBoard together means we spent a lot of time talking about the state of the web. We both lamented over poor documentation, jargon-rich tutorials, and guides which assume a baseline of knowledge most people don't have. What we needed to do was provide tutorials which start at the beginning… from the ground up (what is a terminal and how do I open it?) without skipping steps. What we needed to do was make those tutorials fun and appealing.

I don't remember exactly the journey it took to get us here if I'm honest. I have no clue who said it first. But I do remember I first started thinking about anthropomorphizing programming languages when we attempted to cast the languages as the Ouran High School boys… and again when I suggested we do a [TOP SECRET IN CASE WE DO IT] group project in Fandom Coders to help people learn about programming.

What I do know is that as last year ended, @essential-randomness became laser-focused on creating our gijinka and moving forward with FujoGuide… and I couldn't say no.

Okay, But… Why Contribute?

To be honest, it's not just that I was around for the birth of the idea. It's ALL of the things in this post - the culmination of three years of frustration trying to figure out what I'm doing with coding, of wading through dense documentation, of wanting to give up before I even start. It's three years of dipping my toes into toxic techbro culture before running away. All added to decades of watching the web become corporate-sanitized, frustratingly difficult to customize, increasingly less fun, and overtly hostile to fans who dare enjoy sexual content.

To sum all of this up, it's the firm belief that we desperately need a resource like this. Something that's for us, by us. Something that builds fans up, instead of tears them down; that empowers them to create for themselves and their communities what no one is creating for them. It is a project I'm deeply passionate about.

And I can't wait until we can bring it to life for you all.

[madlori]

Ship dysphoria

Ok so a bit of time has gone by, and the 9-1-1 fandom is settling into a bit of an...existential crisis?

Because 90% of this fandom is built on Buddie. Buddie has always been the strongest driving force. We love our other blorbos, but it's Buddie that usually drives us feral.

Except...Buck/Tommy. OMG. It is WORKING for a lot of fans. (and JFC we cannot settle on a ship name. Tevan? Kinley? I'm gonna stick with Buck/Tommy)

A LOT of fans are having a "I'm a devoted Buddie shipper, why do I like this so much??" moment and it can almost feel like a betrayal, or that you're deserting the ship (the ship that, remember, Oliver told us to stay aboard).

And I think I can probably speak for everybody when I say that the last thing we want or need is a ship war in this fandom, something we haven't ever really had but which has torn other fandoms apart.

So I'm gonna put on my veteran-of-many-fandoms hat for a second and tell you a thing:

It's okay to ship Buck and Tommy. It's ok to do that and still ship Buddie. It's also okay to leave Buddie behind if it's not working for you anymore. It's okay to just tolerate Buck and Tommy and not really care about it, and stay focused on Buddie. You are allowed to ship however it works for you, and you are not limited to one and only one ship. If you decide you don't think Buddie will happen and you're going to cut your losses, that's okay, too. It is not a reflection on your character or something. You don't swear an oath of fealty to a ship.

We don't know how long Tommy will stick around, but Buck will still be bisexual. He may date another man. He may date a woman again. You can ship those things too.

But why is this ship hitting me so hard? I never thought I'd like Buck with another man! I'm so confused!

I get that. There are some reasons why that might be.

There is something very appealing about a ship that's canon. Some of you might never have had a canon queer ship, but the pull is strong. There's no guessing, no interpreting, no subtext-examining. It's there, it's real, you don't have to wonder if you're just overinterpreting things. Yes. Buck and Tommy kissed and are going on a date. Even if that's all it ever is, you'll never be accused of "seeing things that aren't there." Don't discount that.

Tommy, even in just 1.5 episodes, is a LOT more integrated into the firefam than any of Buck's previous girlfriends. Tim talked about not wanting him to be "siloed off" away from the main cast and that was exactly the problem with his prior girlfriends. Tommy is friends with Eddie. He knows Christopher and has hung out with him. He spent most of that loft conversation reassuring Buck that his place in Eddie's life was secure. He feels more like part of the gang than any other ones. That makes it easier to see him in Buck's life.

The mere fact of Buck's queer awakening is so monumental for so many of us that the character who helped him get there is going to naturally earn our affection immediately, and it's going to make you want that relationship to succeed, even if it's ulitmately not endgame for Buck. You want to see Buck have a good experience the first time out with a man. Of course you do.

And we just want to see Buck make out with a hot beefy firefighter. That is so valid of us.

Anyway. There is no need for a crisis. You can love Buddie with your whole heart and still be excited about this pairing, and want to see how it goes, and read fic about it. I may be writing a lil something myself.

You're good, fam.

[transcendersmedia]

Making sports into drama (and games?)

An anime analysis from a game design perspective

I admit: I am a great sports anime nerd (and I’ve previously written about the volleyball anime Haikyuu and its fandom) – something that also affects my thinking around game design. What makes sports anime so good – better than watching the sports themselves – is that they usually combine the thrill and achievements of those sports with portrayal of the characters performing them. For me, that adds an invaluable component, since I’m also a character and fictional relationships nerd.

Ookiku Furikabutte - manga by Higuchi Asa

I’ve categorized the series based on how much of the dramatic content focuses on the game or sport itself and how much it relies on other factors, such as relationships between characters outside of sports. I’ll put my main focus on the series that primarily revolve around the sport. Many are based on manga, but not all. (Whether the series originates as manga or not might actually also affect the content, but it’s not something that I’ll go into in this post.)

Categorizing the shows

Series where the drama is primarily built around the content of the sport:

Ookiku Furikabutte/Big Windup (baseball)

Diamond no Ace/Ace of the Diamond (baseball)

Haikyuu!! (volleyball)

Kuroko no Basket/Kuroko’s Basketball (basketball)

Series where the drama is built around a combination of the sport’s content and other factors:

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteru/Run with the Wind (running)

Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu (archery)

Yuri!!! on Ice (figure skating)

2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu/2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team (volleyball)

Days (soccer)

Re-main (water polo)

Ping Pong the Animation (ping pong)

Series where the drama is primarily built around content outside of the sport:

Free! (swimming)

Hoshiai no Sora/When Stars Align (soft tennis)

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun/Clean Freak Aoyama-kun (soccer)

Cheer Danshi!!/Cheer Boys!! (cheerleading)

Bakuten!!/Backflip!! (rhythmic gymnastics)

Taisou Zamurai / The Gymnastics Samurai (gymnastics)

It’s interesting to see that the focus on sports content could in part be related to which target group the series is aimed towards. It seems like shounen anime (“for boys”) has a larger focus on sports content, whereas shoujo (“for girls”) and seinen (“for grown-ups”) revolve more around relationships.

Could set-based sports with clear positions be easier to dramatize?

Haikyuu!! - manga by Haruichi Furudate

Both volleyball and baseball translate well into anime format. Volleyball’s set-based play makes it easy to create exciting match portrayals. The game involves turn-taking and players’ positions on the court, including who serves and rotates, creating clear recurring moments of suspense. Since the objective is to win the most sets out of a predetermined number, the outcome of a match isn’t known until the decisive set is played.

The psychological play and complexity

Ookiku Furikabutte - manga by Higuchi Asa

The complexity of baseball could be seen as a disadvantage due to its difficulty to comprehend, but it’s a double-edged sword, since the complexity also adds excitement. Baseball matches as a whole can become slow, especially if the teams are adept at defense and don’t allow scoring hits. However, in anime, unlike in reality, there’s the possibility to cut or quickly summarize dull parts of the match.

Baseball and volleyball gameplay loops

A Gameplay Loop is a game design term that is used to describe the repetitive activities that a player will take while playing a game. It, essentially, defines what the player DOES while playing. – Engaged Family Gaming

Diamond no Ace - manga by Terajima Yuuji

In volleyball, a loop begins with one team serving, the ball is then moved between teams by players with various roles (such as setter, wing spiker, blocker, libero) until it hits the floor on one side of the net, determining which team scores a point. This loop is integrated into the larger system by having the first team to reach a certain number of points win the set, while the overall match aims to win the most sets out of (usually) five.

Do shorter loops and turned-based sports make for better drama?

The smallest loops in baseball and volleyball are clear and quite short, allowing for detailed focus on the characters executing decisive actions. The moments before a serve/pitch provide space for inner monologues and character communication. Side changes and innings/sets frame the matches, making it easier for viewers to follow, compared to more fluid sports like basketball or soccer. In turn-based sports, breaks are incorporated into the game’s design. Therefore, I believe that turn-based sports, where players also have very specific roles, are more favorable to portray, than sports where players have more similar roles and the game is more fluid. (Perhaps this is why Kuroko no Basket assigned supernatural abilities to the players, adding an extra dimension to the game that makes it a little more video game-like? Well, it could also be because the creator wanted to make a series about basketball players with supernatural abilities. Personally, I find that supernatural abilities detract from the intrigue of sports, but that’s a matter of taste.) 

Haikyuu!! - manga by Haruichi Furudate

Teams are great for drama

I believe team sports are better suited for storytelling than individual sports. This might be because team sports allow for more complexity in the narrative, as players within a team can be rivals, while also depending on each other to develop and win. Opposing teams are obvious antagonists, but the most interesting events often happen within the teams, between the characters that viewers have come to know, and whose development they are following. Team sports also have recurring tournaments where teams can face the same opponents multiple times, enabling long series that maintain suspense. This exists in individual sports too, but individual competition feels more one-dimensional than team-based competition. So, aside from game (sports) design itself, the setup around teams, tournaments, and matches also influences the narrative. Series centered on individual sports tend to focus more on character relationships outside of competitions, possibly because the sport itself doesn’t provide enough material to build drama solely around it.

Translating sports into drama - and games!

When translating sports into drama, there are factors that can both facilitate and complicate the dramatic buildup. If the focus is on the game itself, it’s advantageous if the game has a high level of complexity, clear/short loops, and specific roles, preferably with inherent conflicts. Among the sports I’ve seen depicted, I would say that baseball has the greatest potential to create compelling drama. However, with that said, the storyteller’s skill will likely have a bigger impact on the story than the design of the sport itself.

I’ve based this analysis on anime series, and they have their aesthetics, structures and way of portraying things. I’m very curious as to whether the components of a great sports anime – sports/game content together with character development and relationships – could also be made into great games. The content of digital games and anime series are very different, but I think there are still learnings to be made from analysing and also comparing those media forms.

Please let me know through our social channels which games you have played that include sports mechanics and relationships. I have played Pyre, which I think combine those things well. I also have Roller Drama on my to play-list, but I would like to know of more games that focus on sports and relationships (sports relation games!).

A last side note: When there was finally an anime about Water Polo – Re-main – the creators missed the opportunity of telling the amazing story on how this sport might have come into fruition – as a water based version of horse polo, called Polo Aquatic, where players rode on barrels hitting a ball with sticks… I mean, that’s something you can’t exclude!

[sublime-beyond-loss]

The answer I’ve found to the question The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe poses through the act of doing the Keeping The Narrator Company Livestreams

I consider this possibly the most important thing I’ve written among all of the many, many rambles I’ve had about TSP.

I've been looking a bit more into interviews around the original and HD release of this game and something I've picked up on is that they keep speaking about how they felt like they were stretching the content out toward the end and just kind of started flailing around adding whatever they could even if it was starting to feel like they had run out of ideas and were just trying to pump more content out of a concept that had long since run its course.

And suddenly a lot of things about Ultra Deluxe make a lot more sense, and while it is very hard for me to parse out where the satire ends and any sort of authenticity begins, the 'sequel' being about, 'Well, I don't know what to add to this game anymore, but people keep asking me to make more, so let's just throw random ideas at the wall and call it a sequel, even if it ruins the artistic integrity of the original.' makes sense. The undercurrent of hostility, mean spirited-ness , and cynicism toward the player starts to make a lot more sense too. Like why it was not even considered nor an outcome given for a player who might not want to keep pushing the skip button exactly because of the harm it's doing.

But like I said, I have no idea where the TSP writer dude's thoughts about continuing TSP actually begin in the context of all of this and what he wrote intentionally to fit a fictional narrative that does not truly reflect his feelings. I try to avoid making assumptions about the artist behind the art, nor do I say any of this with any sort of bitter or negative feelings of my own. As I've said many times, I am enjoying all of ideas and thoughts this gives my brain to chew on and none of this comes out of a bad place for me. The long form nature of this keeps me in a creative head space. I consider TSPUD more important than the OG game and I sure as hell did not hyperfixate on the original release like I did for this one. It has gained a beautifully diverse, kind, (VERY thirsty lol), and compassionate fandom that the OG game most certainly did not have. As someone who is very well acquainted with the general toxicity of gamer culture, the fact that I've found something that I can let my guard down with and nerd out about with a bunch of other nerds and not have to fear any of the usual baggage and hostility that comes with gamer attitudes is a goddamn miracle.

Regardless of the actual intent behind all of this, I suppose it only makes sense that a Stanley, almost subconsciously, would come along and quite literally take this release of the game and break it over his knee all in an effort to prove to the narrator that TSPUD has just as much artistic merit, if not more so, than the original game. I've almost assuredly played the most amount of Stanley Parable that any person has ever played The Stanley Parable at this point, and while I don't have much of an audience or reach, that was never what I was really looking for in doing this in the first place. I'm just glad to have made something meaningful for my new friends who 'Get It' when it comes to me doing this patently absurd thing. The game may not acknowledge it, but we're going to wait out this eternity with the narrator regardless, because the alternative is too horrible. We get through this together or not at all. We, as always, meet the game's cynicism and hostility with compassion, empathy, and understanding, even if it means, on a personal level for myself, making myself deeply vulnerable to that hostility and cynicism. It's easier now that there are people who are on the same wavelength as me about this, but oh boy does it still involve doing something that is very easy to judge and consider crazy or stupid to do.

This all started out merely as an act of defiance against the skip button, despite the inability to change the outcome, because of the cruel moral dilemma it posed to me, because I thought it would be a funny thing to stream while recovering from being sick, because I saw far too many shades of myself in the narrator as he self-destructs during this ending, but now I'm starting to come to understand that, at least from my perspective and the meaning I've taken from all of this nonsense, is that I've solved the central question the new content of TSPUD posed and came to its own conclusion on without any actual input from the people who played it and enjoyed it. That this thing is artistically dead and has no merit, that the only thing to do now is perpetuate it through soulless, lazy recycling of content that only proves just how played out, dead, and run into the ground it is. And my answer to that has been a reeeeaaalllly long form way of saying NO IT AIN'T.

[pinkgrapefloyd]

I don’t know if you answer asks so although I want your input on this, i’m not really expecting it so don’t feel pressured!

But basically, I just wanted to say I absolutely LOVE your writing. You’re seriously one of my favorite writers and I literally read all your stuff. But specifically I wanted to ask about Anti-Hero.

I’m a writer as well and I’m trying to figure out how exactly to write a fic. I’m kind of struggling with working with an overarching plot (like Robbie’s concussion, in yours) and balancing it with what people actually came there to see (yknow the actual ship). But you literally did it so well like everything with Robbie’s arch felt so relevant and interesting, even when technically the reason I started reading it was for Daniel and Johnny.

So I guess I’m just asking for tips. Like how to balance out your writing easily with that you know. And kind of just advice for writing a fic in general? Of course if that’s not too much, that kinda feels extra.

But anyway, if this ends up staying in your inbox, I just want you to know how actually HYPED I am for that good omens fic. I absolutely love good omens and i’ve never been more excited to see someone write for characters. Lots of love!

Hi! First of all, thank you very much for your sweet message! I’m very glad my writing and especially Anti-Hero means enough to you that you came to reach out for advice! <3

I hope this is not too basic, but here are some things I think might be helpful:

1. In terms of balancing different plot elements: You need to „braid“ the plot strands into each other. A development in one strand must have consequences in the others. The consequences can be small, but they need to be obvious! Robby’s head injury gives Johnny an opportunity to step up as a father, which makes a positive impression on Daniel. The matchmaking progress in turn gives Robby a sense of purpose. It ties into Robby's character development and his view of himself. This means Lawrusso moments are significant for Robby’s character arc, and Robby’s character arc is significant for future Lawrusso moments. Once I’ve established that connection, I don’t need to convince my audience to not ‚skip‘ through the Robby plot, because the Robby plot is an integral part of the Lawrusso plot. They wouldn’t work without each other.

2. General advice: Make sure that you’re having fun! It honestly sounds so cliche but I can always tell when a writer’s heart is really in it, and that makes the reading more enjoyable. If you’re passionate about something, it shines through. Go with the idea that makes you foam at the mouth, not just what you think the fandom will like. I had the most fun with „there’s daggers in men’s smiles“ because it allowed me to highlight one of my passions (fencing) and what I love about it. It’s not my most popular story, but it’s currently my favorite, and I was always very motivated to work on it.

3. If you’re writing multi-chapter: Have an ending in mind. I’ve had a lot of story ideas, but the ones that have a specific ending planned are so much easier to work on because I feel like I’m working toward a goal. With romance, I encourage you to get a bit more specific than just "They get together". I knew from the get-go I wanted Anti-Hero to end with Robby in the hospital after a second head injury, but this time there actually would be something going on between Johnny and Daniel. I knew the revelation of Robby’s misunderstanding would be the catalyst for Johnny and Daniel confessing to each other. I didn’t know how, where or when this would all happen, but having a general idea of the ending in mind gave me a sense of direction that made writing a lot easier. 

4. Optional: Knowing someone who knows the source material but isn’t hanging out on AO3 regularly makes it easier to stay in the original character voices. I didn’t have a beta reader in the classical sense, but I let my partner read every line of dialogue before posting it so they could tell me „I don’t think Daniel would say it that way“. It only happened two or three times, but I know it would have bothered me. If you want to consciously blend Fanon into your story, that doesn’t really apply, of course.

5. Skeleton Method: If you have a lot of ideas and struggle to get them written down, try writing the dialogue first (as if you're writing the script for a play). The dialogue is the "skeleton" of a scene. It's the most solid part, and gestures / feelings / reactions / descriptions are the squishy parts around it that make it come alive. Once the dialogue is doing what you need it to do, it's easier to fill the gaps and create a scene that will feel natural.

Also, I’m so glad you’re excited for my Good Omens fic! I generally don’t start posting multi-chapter fics until I’m 90-95% done writing them, and at the moment it’s still missing a few chapters. But it’s the project I’m most actively working on (besides my Carmanda one shot). Coming this year!

Best of luck with your story, too! Let me know if you want more specific advice.

[my-burnt-city]

Fandom terms glossary

I am aware that we talk a lot of nonsense and that many of the things we say must sound like we are speaking in tongues to the uninitiated, so I have put together a wee glossary of some of the more useful and some of the more chaotic terminologies in the hopes that at least one person will find something helpful within

PD - Punchdrunk; TBC - The Burnt City; SNM - Sleep No More; TDM - The Drowned Man

WM - White Mask (noun); because we simply cannot be typing out " a u d i e n c e   m e m b e r " every single time we want to shout out a cool loop buddy or discuss interesting flocking behaviour or just make it really clear we're talking about punters rather than employees

WM - White Mask (verb); for when a performer or other employee is watching the show as an audience member, for example: "I saw Milton WMing the Zagreus loop, I laughed to myself every time he took an unnecessary shortcut"

BM - Black Mask; because it would be EVEN WORSE to have to type out "member of the FOH team or backstage crew" every single time we want to sing the praises of these deeply integral and yet purposefully-mostly-invisible heroes

(FOH - Front Of House; queue wranglers, box office team, cloakroom crew, bar staff, stewards, everyone with a job that's to do with keeping the audience happy and organised as opposed to keeping the show itself running)

Red/blue casting - there are two basic casting configurations, the red cast and the blue cast, because this is a full-on three-hour dance show with no interval. Punchdrunk therefore make sure the performers alternate between travelling characters and resident characters so they don’t burn out and die from playing someone like Apollo or Iphigenia eight times a week. Once you learn who’s who in each cast, it gets easier to predict who you might see in which roles at any given performance, but because people sometimes go on holiday, or get injured, or pursue other short-term projects, or just like to mix it up, it is never completely possible to predict who you will see in any given role on any given night (apart from Hades, who is usually Sam Booth, and Furnace, who is almost always Sam Parker; go on HOLIDAY, Sams)

(NB: when people say a show is looking a bit purple, that means the cast list is more mixed up than the usual blue/red+covers+swings, and some people are playing the roles they wouldn't usually be playing for that night's performance)

Red cast - a small selection of point characters to watch out for to tell if it's a red cast show: Agamemnon (Rob), Iphigenia (Lou), Apollo (Seirian), Hecuba (Kat), Polydorus (Jordan), Orpheus (Naomi)

Blue cast - a small selection of point characters to watch out for to tell if it's a blue cast show: Agamemnon (Jon), Iphigenia (Fern), Apollo (Georges), Hecuba (Emily), Polydorus (Ferghas), Orpheus (Cristina)

Swing/(cover) - the swings are a small but mighty army of performers who have no fixed schedule and are able to play up to eight different roles each to cover holidays and other absences. Where we have taken our other terminologies from Punchdrunk directly, “cover” is my own term for people like Milton and Omar, whose entire job is to cover the resident roles on other cast members’ regular shows off without having to tap into the army of swings. Covers are a little more predictable than swings, as they play fewer roles and are pretty likely to be performing in the majority of shows in a week; swings are impossible to predict unless you have insider knowledge. Some performers are in the red/blue cast pattern and are able to play a couple of additional roles besides so might occasionally swing into one of these other roles, just without being referred to as a swing; some performers (MITCH) are only regularly scheduled for one of the two colour casts so will always be swinging if they’re performing on another night

Travelling character - a higher-intensity role, often (though not always) dance-heavy, often (though not always) seen moving between Greece and Troy. Performers usually get one show off per week in addition to no-show days, and this generally will not fall on a day when they are scheduled to be playing their travelling role. If you prefer Big Story to supporting players, follow a travelling character: Hades, Persephone, Artemis, Apollo, Hecuba, Cassandra, Polydorus, Polyxena, Polymestor, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, Aegisthus, Neoptolemus, Patroclus

Resident character - a lower-intensity role, less likely to be dance-heavy, less likely to be seen moving between Greece and Troy. Performers usually get one show off per week in addition to no-show days, and this generally will fall on a day when they are scheduled to be playing their resident role. If you prefer low-level weirdos to major players, follow a resident character: Macaria, Luba, Kampe, Eurydice, Zagreus, Askalaphos, Kronos, Laocoön, Oracle, Watchman

RD - rehearsal director; mostly there to keep an eye on the performers and performances. They rehearse with new performers, they rehearse with established performers in new roles, they rehearse with established performers in established roles in new scenes, they watch the show to identify any areas that might need tightening up, they get final say over whether a performer is ready to take audience members for 1:1s, and they even perform in the show (either semi-regularly like Lily and Omagbitse or as needed like Sarah, Natalie and Eric). If you ever see a familiar-looking WM carrying a notebook, congrats! You’ve spotted an RD in the wild!

C1 - Contract 1, 22nd March 2022 to 8th January 2023; C2 - Contract 2, 11th January 2023 to currently unconfirmed (and not even strongly rumoured at this point but nonetheless suspected by this individual blogger to be due some time in September) 24th September 2023 (😭😭😭)

Walk-out - when a performer takes a WM by the hand, leads them out of the finale, and removes their mask for them at the end of the show. There are variations on the theme but that's the basic shape for all of 'em

Walk-through - when a performer takes a WM by the hand and leads them from the Troy finale to the Mycenae finale

Shopty - there was a party back in the days of TDM. If your ticket was for both the show and the party, then it had SHO+PTY printed on it. Just a portmanteau for show+party, the nickname has stuck even if the tickets don’t have the shorthand on them anymore

The Souk - there's an off-limits area behind Ciacco's and Hades's house that was labelled as the Souk on PD's original planning documents. This area is inaccessible to audience members and unlikely to ever be opened up, but it does occasionally come up in conversation so it's not not useful to have a name for it

Chaos casting - generally refers to a show that has a greater than usual number of swings performing, which makes for a greater than usual number of exciting new performance choices to watch, but can also refer to the idea of a performer taking on an unexpected role

The Expendables - there are a few characters that the show can function without, so when there's just not enough cast members around, these are the first to be cut. They are (in order of most-to-least likely to be cut): Eurydice, Kronos, Askalaphos, Laocoön, Oracle, Luba, Orpheus, Peep host, Persephone. Yes, the show can function and has functioned without PERSEPHONE. Also, shout-out to that one performance where the usual ‘two Peep hosts + Orpheus’ trio was Literally Just Lily, what a show that must have been!

Lonely X Show - mostly just Zagreus, tbh, a Lonely Zagreus Show/Loop gets a special name because his story so strongly revolves around Eurydice that it's a rare and fascinating treat to see what he gets up to when she isn't there. Though that said, there was also once a Lonely Hades Show, and I would pay VIP prices for the opportunity to witness that for myself one day so PD should definitely consider revisiting that some time

Ghost loop - when a character is missing for whatever reason, but you follow their usual path around the space anyway, guided only by memory, sound and light

Lilydorus - once, back in the mists of last November, the online cast list announced we were due to have Lily play Polydorus. They chickened out in the end but the idea of an incredibly unusual piece of chaos casting has stuck with us since, and a Lilydorus is therefore a piece of casting that is so unusual that you'd be more inclined to think it a data input mistake than a genuine debut (which it almost certainly is, but you're still going to hop on a train and book a last-minute ticket while speeding your way to Woolwich just in case)

Peeple - a Wordle-type game which picks up the performers from the daily online cast list and lets you test your casting skills by having you list who you think each performer is playing at that evening’s performance

Swingo - when you have seen a swing play every character in their repertoire, you have achieved swing bingo: Swingo! Some people like to impose additional rules for themselves, like they must have had a 1:1 from the performer, or they must have been walked out by the performer at least once, but I just play by the bare minimum “followed for at least one loop per performer/character combo (and yes loop 1 counts)” rules

Team Kronos - there are no real rules for being a member of Team Kronos; you don’t need to have followed him a certain number of times, you don’t need to have had the 1:1, you just have to dig his vibes. Anyone who wants to can declare themselves a member of Team Kronos (I suspect that some performers who have played this role would not count as Team Kronos members)

Character nicknames heard in-show - Pols, Polydogface, Polydoofus (Polydorus), Skally (Askalaphos), Zaggy (Zagreus), Iphy (Iphigenia), Neo (Neoptolemus), Pat (Patroclus)

Character nicknames used by the fandom - PolyD (Polydorus), PolyX (Polyxena), PolyM (Polymestor), Aska, Asky, Bird Boy (Askalaphos), Aggers, Aggy (Agamemnon), Cly (Clytemnestra), Aeggy, Eggman (Aegisthus)

Character nicknames used by Punchdrunk no matter how hard performers and audience alike push back against it - Eury (Eurydice)