#might not main tag all of them but this is the first i digress

[enhanced-operatives-division]

handler for the bingo?

Bingo game here!

1 Bingo!

[tunamayuuu]

Hii!

I've seen a little bit of your Kny!bsd au through a rb from one of my mutuals, and I think I'm being sucked into a rabbit hole/pos

I love your art sososo much, and I would see it on my dash on occasion (it brought me happiness, but I never really kept up with the account, and I honestly high-key regret it), so when I saw your alt cast art, I remembered rbing the Kyōkenji x Inokana sketch you drew a while back, but I had no idea it was associated with an entire au!! I was estatic since I love the au concept, and I love both ships so much!!

Then, trust me, I was innocently scrolling through the tag when I came across rengokunikida... This man has no right being so jdbdjdbd

My thoughts immediately went to Murata when I saw TecchōGiyū, like yes he's such a pretty man, but my brain really likes to digress from the main point lmao.

Urokodaki as Fukuchi feels a little weird, but it's accurate dynamic-wise with Teruko, and Tachihara. What is Jōnō's relationship with Fukuchi in this au anyway?? It could go in so many directions I'm curious djehdhbd

I love this au sm and your art of it is delectable, so I just felt the need to send an ask your way. I hope you have a great day (⁠人⁠*⁠´⁠∀��｀⁠)⁠｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

–Anon you could call 'Grace'

I might come on here from time to time, so I might as well give myself a name.

this was the first grace ask i never got to answer oh my god anyway.

thank you so much!!! i actually stopped being into bsd for a full ass year and ever since that shin soukoku doodle i made, it comforted a big part of me that felt horrible everytime i'd post bsd onto socmed knowing my more passionate works didn't get as much engagement as shitposts ahaha...

the kny-ified bsd au was and still is an au project i want to keep working on!! i have a looong list of the full cast, it's just that i always get side quests and wanting to draw OTHER things and getting into OTHER new medias i wanna draw and yeah that's why it's taken years for me to complete anything orz (i have plenty of files of the au that i never posted because they're all unfinished or uncolored and i thought i won't do my au justice if none of them were colored yk?)

i'm not an inokana fan myself but i'd love to hear your take on them! i just wanted to draw kyokenji at that time ehehe

i will always say that rengokunikida was def not my idea. it was an idea from a bsd friend! they even explained to me how it could work and i never looked back

i'm actually not sure who would take murata's role in the au because we know next to nothing about canon tecchou. michizou already takes sabito's role so.....?

ALSO I FINALLY GOT TO ANSWER THIS BECAUSE! fukuchi is not urokodaki in this au! fukuchi takes kokushibo's role

jouno and fukuchi unfortunately do not interact in this au..

i'm so happy to see my au still getting love even after the years i've been on and off in activity! comments like these fill me with so much motivation to upkeep this au!

[inseasofgreen]

OK color me intrigued; what is this with dragon bonding and what are other dragon related rituals we may know regarding Zemorri and Indiss?

So first I'm going to explain who the Zrato are. I've name dropped them a lot but I don't think I've ever gone into too much detail. Actually I might do another lore drop today about them and their counterpart The Irayo. But I digress-

The Zrato is a race that actually has dragon blood in them, sometimes there are even draconic feature's that manifest from it. They aren't born with them, but many Zrato will develop them around puberty. One of them being scales appearing on the skin, which is something Zemorri actually has. Or horns, though that once can quickly lead to health issues once they start to appear and most times are shaved off if the person survives them growing in.

The Zrato where created by blood magic, but I'll go more in detail with that in said lore dump as the main focus here is dragon bonds.

Dragon bonding isn't something all Zrato do. It's typically done by the crown's dragon riders so they can commune with their dragons. Once the bond is in place, it can't be broken unless the dragon breaks it.

Zrato can form the dragon bond by blood magic, which takes someone who knows the ritual and can help preform it. The first step, find a dragon that will let said Zrato bond to it. Second step, blood meat, or bread if your Zemorri. Which basically is the Zrato mixing their own blood with that of a sacrificial lamb. The lamb, or really any enticing animal for the dragon, is killed before the Dragon. Then the Zrato then slices their hand and let's the bloods mix. Third Step, say a fancy prayer over the now said lamb and let the dragon eat it. Nine times out of ten a bond is formed.

All that being said, Zemorri actually never did that with Indiss. Nine year old Zemorri knew the basics of the ritual, food for the dragon, blood magic, the dragon is yours. Which he actually the blood part right, or close enough as he could. Zemorri sliced his hand and soaked a loaf of bread he stole from the kitchen's while visiting his mother's family home. He then marched up to Indiss, who himself was quite young at the time and offered the bread. Indiss didn't eat the bread, rude, but Indiss himself formed the bond between him and Zemorri.

Yes, you read that right. Dragon's can break and form bonds at whim. Dragons are a mysterious creatures, they possess magic of their own. Though that magic remains a mystery that the Zrato have yet to really figure out.

As mentioned before, most Zrato don't go that far. Not only does it make it nearly impossible for other's to ride the dragon, many might not be able to afford to pay someone to perform the ritual. Dragon's are often shared by whole families, and passed down like family heirlooms until the dragon passes away, or is stolen.

The only other big ritual I could share is the birth of the Zrato, but I'll do that in a separate lore dump.

Thank you for the ask!! I'm always looking for reasons to give all the dragon lore lol

Going to tag the POTO tag list as well.

@lord-fallen @inkingfireplace @rhikasa @leahnardo-da-veggie @satohqbanana

@real-fragments @the-inkwell-variable @tildeathiwillwrite @fromthenortheast @heycerulean

@sonnetery @wyked-ao3

[ms--lobotomy]

Since you tagged me in this poll I feel the need to answer with my thoughts for all of them. You know, for funsies.

40k Guilliman: pretty good option. He’s (somewhat) mentally stable and has talked it out with you beforehand. Though I am curious on where he acquired primarch-grade bondage equipment. Is that why it was planned months in advance? Was he spending all that time just trying out different kinds of ropes and chains that could hold him like some sort of kinky parody of Fenrir from norse mythology?? Also, he deserves sex that has him relax and not possibly shatter his partner’s pelvis, let that man rest. 8/10.

Corrupted Horus: We all enjoy a very evil and very charismatic man from time to time. And the chaos gods which are currently kinda wearing Horus’ body like a condom are one of the options presented in this poll. But before your mind gets carried away with the fantasy of hot mean DILF, we have to think: He’s still a DILF. And so his taste in music will be that of a Dad. So get ready for him to blast Imagine Dragons while sexily taking his shirt off. You plead for him to strip faster, not because you’re horny but because you hope that when he does so he’ll turn the rock & roll cover of Thunder off and fuck you properly. He won’t. 1/10.

Jaghatai: No words other than those of approval. No thoughts other than those of lust. 9/10.

Ferrus Manus pre-heresy: Not sure why you specified pre-heresy but maybe I don’t have enough imagination for a post-heresy lewding scenario, but I digress. So I feel that the sex wouldn’t be the main draw of the situation here, instead it’s more to do with trying to make a guy feel better about a body part that he wants to peel his metal-skin off of. Ferrus is a dude that has simultaneously given all of his children body dysmorphia (that they try to fix by replacing their body parts with tech) while also wanting to get rid of the most technological part of himself. And he won’t even tell people a direct answer about where he got the technological metal hands from anyway. This man is an enigma and the sex is just a backdrop for the true scenario; which is the Ferrus Manus character exploration that’s going on. So to judge purely by the sex itself it’s a solid 5/10.

Daemon Magnus: This dude will not only do all of what you specified. But he’ll also add Gale from bg3 astral plane type sex into the mix. The only limit is your imagination Babey!!! 11/10 (he may have used his psychic powers to mess with the rating).

Leman Russ: What’s not to love about a big scary man in a collar? What’s not to love about a living war machine getting restrained like they’re a simple animal?? Though him eventually breaking out of it would imply that my skills in Husband husbandry are poor, and that might make me kind of sad. 7/10 (would change it to 8/10 if you also put a muzzle on him)

Pre-Heresy Fulgrim: The number one rule of kink fantasy is that nothing will work out as perfectly as you want it to, something will always go differently than it did in your imagination because, fun fact, your partner is not a mind reader (and even if they were it’s not like they can control every action/reaction they do/have). If you fuck him he will be very very very disappointed in you and will act like a bitch about it. 3/10 (the sex stops midway through because you ruined his expectations too many times).

Rogal Dorn: The way im about to sexualise that middle aged man. Oh boy… well first of all I’ll- [REDACTED BY THE INQUISITION. SUMMONS A DAEMON OF SLAANESH IF THE TEXT IS READ OUT LOUD]. 9.5/10.

30k Corvus Corax: Now while he can’t be perceived, I can. In fact I am very perceivable. Unlike Corvus’ furtive emo outfits my fashion sense consists of wearing the most sparkly and shiny accessories all the time and in very large quantities. I dress as though I’m trying to sound like one of santa’s reindeer or a sentient human windchime. And my penchant to talk very loudly knows no bounds. So combining his extreme stealth with my extreme unstealth gives us the average of The Normal Amount Of Noticeability. Which would get us both arrested for indecent exposure. 0/10 because i don’t want to go to jail.

Sanguinius: also a pretty good option. Though I question how a man who had big issues with being deified by the mortal populace would feel about having his more “angelic” features worshipped. But I’m sure I can make it work. 7.5/10.

In conclusion: the vote goes to Magnus, but if he wasn’t there then Dorn would be attaining the title of “babygirl” real fucking fast.

Time to /finally/ answer some asks. This isn't a knock on you by any means, or anyone who's sent asks. I'm just not very good at it lol

Robby G: Listen. L i s t e n. This man is 1. the type to have a schedule for sex (nothing wrong with that if thats what people are into) and 2. the type to take it in the butt. He deserves it in the butt. Yes, he is a space war criminal. But wouldn't it be nice to put it in him?

Horse: I'm sorry, the image of an Imagine Dragons striptease is... enlightening as to the individual Horus is. He's the dad that hosts the barbecue parties. He's the dad that falls asleep watching TV. Hell, he probably wears Hawaiian shirts. (That last one's got me bricked up. Shit)

Jagh: This one got me. He fucking would be into leather, be it on him or his partner. May write a fic about it in the future. Dead serious

Ferrus: Ok, I'll admit it, this one was self-indulgent for me. Yes, Ferrus is an ass in canon. I also want him so bad, and that also entails helping him through some shit. (It's the "I can fix him" instinct.) Also, if his partner isn't ok with 17 inches, that's understandable. (Also also, I specified pre-Heresy because him coming back headless horseman style is kind of a pipe dream of mine)

Mags: Monsters are hot. Next guy

Russ: This one was a bit of a gift for my Russ fucker friend. You know who you are! And if you're a Russ fucker anyways, please be my friend

Fulgrim: This man has been through so many partners and he still doesn't understand kink very well, bless his heart. He's still gotta make sure everything goes the way he thought it would, otherwise what's even the point? Mm. Maybe he can be put with someone who makes him realize that it doesn't need to be that way.. ;v

Doorknob: Go ahead, sexualize the brick wall man. Put him in a maid dress. He'd like his partner to be a little rough, especially during... ahem. Encounters. Remember the Rogal Dorn position? Maybe not all the time, but fuck, this man needs to take it like his life depends on it.

Corax: Not for everyone, I get it. Especially if your clothes are like that. I applaud your fashion sense, you dress how I've always wanted to. But that fic's still rattling around in my mind. Thank you Raven Lady we all say in unison

Sang: You raise a very good point. I don't know how comfortable he'd be with focus on his more non-human qualities. But it can work. I have faith in you, battle brother.

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Re your post about needing straight awareness bc someone headcanoned ricky from shadow house as a trans girl…

Have you literally never participated in a fandom before it’s just a headcanon this is fandom 101 bro… another thing is when posting hate of any level abt smth like that, out of tact, you don’t put it in the main tag… I’m going to just infer that this is your first fandom experience cuz anyone with half a brain and has participated in fandom knows these things and doesn’t pitch hissy fits about it and tag it with all the main tags… people are going to headcanon characters as things other than what they are in canon, that’s actually the point of it.

Either that or you’re just anti lgbt and feel personally attacked for people headcanoning a character as something other than cishet. I recommend taking a few steps outside for a little bit and getting some fresh air and sunlight and maybe you’ll realize getting butthurt about someone’s headcanon isn’t healthy or normal behavior. It literally doesn’t effect you so my main word of advice, if you seem something you don’t like… block the OP and move on… and if you must rant about it… don’t put it in the main tags… I know that for you seeing someone headcanon a fictional character as being trans must cause a lot of fear and confusion when you’re transphobic and new to fandom, so I hope this advice teaches you something. Good luck in your endeavors baby fandom goer, hope you learned something new today.

Anon, I have been a part of fandom since I was in highschool. I am 35.

My point, with Ricky and Patrick specifically, is that it's not even gay. I'm honestly shocked at how few people ship the two of them together, especially considering the whole "soulmates" thing.

My point is that, in the context of them being cisgenderedly heterosexual -- in Ricky crushing on Lou, in Patrick crushing on Emilico -- fans accept the canon ship itself, but refuse to accept that it is cishet. To paraphrase yourself, it's almost like seeing a fictional character who is cishet "must cause a lot of fear and confusion".

Being generous, we could assume this is because some people have never realized that one can like and identify with a character unlike oneself. Thus, if one is trans and identifies with Ricky, Rick must be trans. If one is a lesbian and likes Patrick, he must be a lesbian. If aromantic, Patrick must be aromantic. If one did not want to be generous, we might assume that, for whatever reason, some people find the very idea of cisheterosexuality icky and will do any amount of mental gymnastics to ignore it.

As for using the main tag, I briefly considered removing it, as i didn't want to hurt anyone's feeling. But then I thought, to paraphrase you yet again, that getting angry about my thoughts on people's head canons of fictional characters isn’t healthy or normal behavior. It doesn’t actually effect them. If they see something they don’t like, block the OP and move on.

(I myself, not actually being as infantile as Anon would make me out to be, did not block any of the OPs I mentioned, because I like the majority of their content and don't believe that I'll get cooties from someone who has a difference of opinion from me. I also didn't send anonymous rants to their inbox, but I digress.)

To you, my dear Anon, "I recommend taking a few steps outside for a little bit and getting some fresh air and sunlight." You might encounter someone straight out there, but I promise, it will be okay. You might even find that you and them have a lot in common.

[daryl-and-carol-oh-my]

Hello! Just wondering why you tag your gifs in the Caryl tag when most of them aren't Caryl gifs, no hate, just curious.

Hi! Yeah, sorry, I had to sit on this a couple of days. My first reaction was to take down my posts and delete my blog. I have that hyper anxiety, and question why I do what I do a thousand times a day lol.

I suppose the simplest answer is that 'Caryl" is a duo. Carol is one half and Daryl is the other half of Caryl, and I love them equally, more than anything other ship I currently ship. I tag Daryl in Caryl and Carol in Caryl. They are my OTP.

It started with me unable to find gifs that I wanted to use as inspiration. There are so many talented Gif makers and I wanted to see if I could learn how to do it. I wanted gifs of EVERYTHING Daryl and Carol. Even if they weren't the main focus of the scene, or gif.

Example.

This scene right here. I wanted that gif of Daryl walking and Carol and Sophia by Daryl and Mere's truck. I couldn't find any, so I asked my writing partner to teach me how to make gifs and it turned into this huge project that sort of took over.

Like, does Daryl see them strolling around his truck and go over? Do they have a conversation? Do they just kinda look at each other? I had all these ideas and the gifs helped fuel Muse. I didn't mind so much that the focus is Lori and Shane. My focus was Daryl, Carol and Sopia - So when I uploaded to share them here it was marked in the Caryl tag.

Then I started seeing all these background moments where they are near each other but not the focus. I wanted to gif it all. Every moment, every second.

Like these too.

Like, where is Daryl gonna go? Carol's standing over that way. I don't know. I just wanted every second gif'd in case Muse wanted to write some little plot bunny.

And moments like this where they are standing next to one another that I just love - Also because I have a weird obsession with Carol/Melissa's neck. It's so elegant.

Like, even if just a shoulder or an arm is in the frame, I wanted to gif it.

It all started with season one. Not very much content, that I could find, of gifs like this or many gifs in general of Daryl or Carol. Now I have over a thousand gifs of season one Daryl/Carol/Caryl to use if I want - And! For others to use as well, as they are all posted and shared here.

I digress.

I tag them in Caryl because I love the Caryl fandom and want to shared them with them. To me, they are all relevant to Caryl. They have journeys and arcs that run along next to each other. I am not a analyst and I suck at expressing my thoughts. Plenty of awesome Carylers who write long, thoughtful meta's <3333 lol

I crop a lot too. If it's blatantly not Caryl and might be upsetting, to myself as well, I won't tag it Caryl. I have already considered this. I only want to gif moments that inspire Muse and show how parallel Caryl is to each other.

Thank you for the ask! I hope this answers you! ^....^

Here are my other blogs where I make FC gifs for my OC's. @foreign-bodies @my-ladies-noble

All I really do now if make gifs lol

Carylering On<33333333333333

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

20 Fic Writer Quesions

First, thank you @singeart and @mytardisisparked for tagging me!. I did a set of these last year and it was fun to see how my answers have changed since then!

How many works do you have on Ao3?

61

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

1.6 million and counting!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Trek Voyager

Star Trek Prodigy

Sailor Moon

Harry Potter

Madam Secretary

Ive debated writing SwanQueen for a long time but by the time I had the energy and time to write, I'd lost interest in the show. I might rewatch and come back to it one day...

I have thought about writing Wynonna Earp or Tamora Pierce universe fanfiction but have yet to get an idea that grabs me. I like to find things i want to fix and it's hard when the source material is perfection.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Parent Trap (305)

Sailor Moon H Order of the Phoenix (289)

Sailor Moon H Half Blood Prince (222)

Eden's Deception (167)

Out of Reach (150)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to! although if I'm busy or feeling down it can take me a while. Sometimes I forget.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I still think What Even is 3 Minutes takes the cake. Or I'll be Your First if You'll be my Last

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I Heard the Comm on Christmas Morn and Parent Trap

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Unfortunately I've gotten hate on fics since I started writing them... and it's become just something I expect to happen. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it confuses me. Sometimes it makes me sad. It really depends...

The memorable haters:

There was the delightful Fanfiction.net reviewer who got pissed i was "making everybody gay" (that was funny actually). I forget if they were the same person who flamed me when Mcgonagall and Hooch kissed under some mistletoe. I digress. They thought queering up the canon was like sinful or whatever. I was delighted to disagree and make the story even queerer.

Another person cussed me out for magically restraining Sailor Plutos time travel powers so my plot would work and for making her have feelings about it. aparently mad the senshi were not all powerful deus exmachinas who never feel feelings... That one stung. That was the reason I left FFN.

Hate because in Sailor Moon H, Harry Potter was not the main character.

Hate that I made a magic bio baby for the magical lesbians. (I can't have a biobaby with my wife irl, can't I at least let the fantasy girlies have one!)

Hate for including C/7 in a story

...I wouldn't call it hate for the fic but I have had an uncomfortable amount of commenters who hate on Chakotay any time I have him involved with Seven / don't have him grovel to Kathryn / really any time I let him advocate for how he's been hurt... at first comments like this stressed me out because i worried i had not written the character sufficiently sympathetic. But then Parent Trap breached containment and I got enough comments to be able to see I had definitely written the character fine... it was just that some people were always just rooting for a "Chakotay falls over himself to apologize to Janeway for not immediately dating her" storyline that... I'm not sorry 😅 I'm never going to write that. The older I get the more I feel like both of J/C just need therapy! They've been through so much trauma. Their feelings are valid (yes, even for other people).

Parent Trap breaching containment also meant that when I hit an irl rut and couldnt get in the writing headspace for a bit, a bunch of - sincerely, well meaning - fans got into their heads to start a commenting campaign to get me to update. I heard about it and panicked (i had bad experiences that year of getting people who only commented "update soon" and those conversely stressed me out and made me not want to write - I love fic writing for the conversations and community... so it made me feel like readers thought i was just a content vending machine). so just the thought of potentially getting an avalanche of guests, well meaning or not, begging me to update made me lock commenting until the fic was done. I wound up deciding after that that since "update soon" requests were becoming a lot more frequent that I'd consider before posting whether getting them would hurt my ability to finish. So most of the time now if I know a fic is going to reach a bigger potential community, I don't start posting it until it's almost done. That has had some upsides! (Im less dependent on positive feedback for motivation now!) and some downsides (no one comments on my fics with their theories anymore) but on a whole, a good decision.

Immediately after finishing Parent Trap I wrote Fever and got this amazing guest comment from someone who said (paraphrasing cuz i'm too busy to go find it) "Youre better than this. how dare you write this filth. J/C are better than this" that one had me laughing for days. But the comment did prompt me to create a second account later when I wrote a tentacle fic. At the time I worried i'd get a ton of similar flame comments from people who were subscribed to my main for other types of fic... but I am even feeling like that's unnecessary now. I write what I write! Yes, some of it is really dirty, weird smut. I'm not sorry.

Currently any time I post a Threshold AU fic an anon drops into my comments section in order to call me "Sick" and "Deranged"... they make me so sad I don't even make a quippy reply. I just delete them. I write that universe for my own wish fulfillment... Someday (soon, hopefully) I'm gonna have kids. And I am going to have to have conversations with them about who their biological dad is. Why they look like one mom and not the other, whether their non bio family love them even if theyre not blood related. I might have a kid who feels different from everyone else because they're queer or they're neurodivergent or they're some new alienating feeling I am totally unprepared for. and I'll need to help them navigate that.. Writing about hybrid salamander kids getting raised in a blended family is FUN. But more importantly... it helps me practice those situations. It comforts me to know that if the characters can figure this out in the AU then I can figure this out in real life! What the hell is sick and deranged about that!?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I write all sorts of smut. I post the stuff that doesn't totally mortify me once i've gotten out of whatever mood had me writing the smut in the first place.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have exactly two crossovers to my name: Sailor Delta and Sailor Moon H. I think on the basis of word count alone Sailor Moon H (>500,000) is definitely the craziest.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I consider the unlicensed use of the AO3 archive for ChatGPT and similar LLMs theft. (and there are several court cases pending that are also seeking to address whether it is legally theft as it pertains to published fiction and newspapers). The canon creators of the fandoms I write for aren't allowed to make money by using uncredited ideas pulled from my fanfiction (just like I am not allowed to make money from writing fic with their copyrighted settings and characters) and i continue to be apalled that ChatGPT and other LLMs think they can get away with using others copyrighted ideas without permission. Especially that they can take advantage of people who cant profit off their own work.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

No but i would be open to it!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Once with @magdalenejaneway, once with @jellybeansarecool and once with @trekflower and all three were fantastic!

Most of what I write for Threshold AU is also increasingly collaborated on a great deal by the AU creators and a few other folks. It's been going for over 2 years now and doing that more and more has enabled us all to drop more references to previous fics and to create a more cohesive body of fic for the AU. in general its just been so fun and fulfilling to make these stories with other people who are as invested in the characters as me and it just fills me with joy. I'm really grateful for you guys.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

On the one hand J/C have inspired over 50 fics, But on the other I have also been loving Sailor Moon and those ships since before I knew what fandom or shipping were. And really the only reason J/C inspire more fic is that all the sailor moon characters got a happy ending.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I never want to give up on a WIP...

but I am in knots about what all to do with Out of Reach.

Out of Reach is a St:Prodigy S1 AU where Chakotay has amnesia and doesn't remember anything from his time on Voyager, all the while he and Kathryn are in a situationship with a baby.

There's two questions I never figured out how to answer: 1. Does he get his memories back. If so, how much and what enables it. and 2: Do he and Kathryn stay together?

On the memories front. saying he never recovers seems unfair to the character. But saying he magically does thanks to 24th century science feels cheap and disrespectful - to the reality of real memory loss and to the plot that built up so much tension around this. Saying he gets back some or more over time is more realistic, but left me uncertain of where exactly to end the story. Tying his retrieval of memories to Kathryn also tied me up in knots. On the one hand they're in love and thats romantic. on the other hand the optics of his recovery totally dependent on one person is icky.

I also found the baby really annoying to have there by the end - I still think he's cuteeee i really do!!! - it's just... he makes the "we should stay together and try to figure this out" answer a bit too convenient 😅. and he complicates Kathryns reluctance to restart their relationship. The more she resists, the more callous she seems (deliberately not trying to patch things up with her kid's father) when i really just want to focus on her fears that Chakotay would be happier without her and that even if they restart their romance, she might lose him again on a future mission. It's ironic because i originally created the baby to ensure she wouldnt just run away from her fears. And now hes contributing to my difficulty ending the fic...

Actually the more I think on it, my real problem is I could write my way out of this, but I cant do it in only one or two chapters and that makes me feel tired. i was sorta hoping to wrap that fic up. 😅🙈

16. What are your writing strengths?

Imagery has always been a strength for me. But i think I'm also getting really good at action scenes too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Oneshots.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Only if it was information i wanted the reader to understand but not the POV character.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

W.I.T.C.H way back when I was 15.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Universe to Mend - I even have a few sequel or companion novel ideas to come after it.

This has gone on a while... 😅 - thank you for tagging me and letting me ramble! i'll tag anyone else who wants to answer! have at it.

[cutestkilla]

Fic Rec Wednesday

Hey hey! So while I actually am hard at work on CO content for the Picture Book Project (several illustrations of the gang in third year for @captain-aralias’ amazing take on Simon Snow and the Third Gate), I have nothing that’s really ready for main in terms of sharing. Thanks to everyone who continues to tag me over these past weeks (I tag you all back under the cut for today, or Sunday or to share your own fic recs)! I do love to see what you all are working on even when I have nothing shareable.

I thought I might do a little fic rec post today instead, dedicated to one-shots that were posted in the mad rush of December that I love and think are a little underappreciated. There’s such a flood of amazing content during COC that it’s hard to keep up, and then once we move on to January, there’s still new amazing content coming out. As a result there are some real gems that folks may have missed out on. And so, here is a short (no doubt incomplete because I myself am still catching up) list of my fave hidden gems from December 2022.

And We Still Do by @facewithoutheart (T, 8K)

This is the fic that inspired me to write this post, actually, because I was discussing it with @facewithoutheart earlier and saying I can’t believe more folks haven’t read it. Anyway, it’s so great! The story includes a bunch of AU meet-cutes/meet-uglys framed by post-SFC Simon and Baz being fluffy and cute, with a bonus ACTUAL first time they met via the crucible. Each AU is a great little one-shot in itself and to quote the comment I left on AO3, “I loved them all, I would read a full fic of literally ANY of these”. (That is not actually a direct quote because I appear to have misspelled the word “would” somehow, but I digress.) You get post-canon fluff, a Boy Band AU, a Royalty AU, a couple of really neat canon-divergence AUs, and a combo Coffee Shop/Sci Fi AU all rolled into one, with amazing results. I think it’s brilliant like everything that comes from Christina’s mind and everyone should check it out.

Baby It’s Cold by @larkral (T, 2.6K)

This is a post-canon story told through a series of vignettes with Simon helping Baz accept something (something cold, maybe?) about himself in a really cute and creative way. It’s just really sweet, the prose is lovely as one knows to expect from this author, it gave me the warm fuzzies in a major way and guess what else? IT COMES WITH 3D LEGO ART. It’s short and sweet so you have no excuse not to check this one out folks.

Nice Spread by @messofthejess (T, 1.2K)

Post-canon Brobelove! The age old mystery of whether tea actually can be served on Niamh’s thighs is solved! And just generally this is packed with excellent banter, excellent novelty mugs and excellent tea puns. Very fun!

Another Way We Match by @thewholelemon (M, 1.7K)

Gotta include some spice, amirite? This one is post-canon and packed with great dialogue and banter that pays homage to some of my favourite fanworks (This Will All Go Down in Flames by @facewithoutheart, Monsterfucker, Baby by @sillyunicorn and Property of Tyrannus by @starwarned and @seducing-a-vampire, to be specific) in the funnest way. Simon and Baz are doing sexy roleplay! Only all of Simon’s suggestions are causing Baz eye-rolling injuries. Really hilarious, sexy and also with the perfect amount of domestic fluff mixed in. I love me a sex scene full of funny dialogue and awkward moments, and this sure fits the bill.

I could go on and on with this list, only I’m supposed to be working instead of writing this post, so I’ll stop here for now. Hope you all check these out!

Tags: @alleycat0306 @aristocratic-otter @artsyunderstudy @basiltonbutliketheherb @blackberrysummerblog @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @confused-bi-queer @facewithoutheart @fatalfangirl @forabeatofadrum @frjsti @hushed-chorus @ileadacharmedlife @ivelovedhimthroughworse @j-nipper-95 @johnwgrey @larkral  @martsonmars @nightimedreamersworld @onepintobean @palimpsessed @shrekgogurt @stitchyqueer @takitalks @tea-brigade @technetiumai @theearlgreymage @thewholelemon @whatevertheweather @you-remind-me-of-the-babe                             

[suugrbunz]

Part Two — Main Focus will be Robert ‘Rosie’ Rosenthal, David Solomon, and inevitably the camp Rosie saw when tagging along with the Red Army.

Welcome to part two, you can find part one here. That part is entirely about the Band of Brothers series and Jewish identity. If you enjoy this essay, you'll enjoy the previous one! Find that one here: X

Let's talk about Rosenthal!! Let me start with; love him and this fandom better not overlook his Jewishness in their fics because this man is from… Brooklyn but more specifically Flatbush. Now, I know people who may not know exactly what Flatbush is and why I put any emphasis on that place. Many Yeshivas are in Flatbush and honestly it is very close to Crown Heights. Crown Heights is kind of like the orthodoxy capital of America. So, all that to say; I don't know the form of Judaism he observed but we can deduce he was Jewish and observing the religion. This is also backed by the fact he married a Jewish woman. So, when I say this man was raised Jewish, I mean it. So, don't dwindle him down to tokenism such as saying things about him loving Chanukah. It might be true but people outside of our religion use Chanukah like it's our holiest holiday. It's actually minor. It is important to represent someone who is of any minority correctly and Rosie (mwah) is no different.

Now in the documentary posted after the MoTa series ended we hear firsthand that the Jews of America KNEW what was happening in Europe. Rosie Rosenthal states this. Plain as plain can be. Which was his main motivation for joining the army air force. Rosenthal comes across a concentration camp which is based in truth. If you find this to be tokenism then sorry but you're wrong. In an age where I see people telling Jews that we are drinking children's blood, murderers, and denial of the holocaust. I think incorporating the reality of the sho’ah is essential. When I was doxxed for being Jewish. Fear showing my Star of David necklace— yeah, it is important!

Don't belittle representation of a minority especially if you are not part of the minority. It isn't your place to police if it was tokenism or not.

Let's address the concentration camp scene and its reality. Firstly, the pungently rotten smell of dead bodies permeates throughout the air whilst the Red Army is near it in the scene. We see Rosie is obviously disturbed by the smell and against his better judgement he goes to its source after asking to stretch his legs. In the following scene we see him discover the dead bodies in the camp uniform. Let's discuss this fact first and foremost. As the Red Army and Patton's Army were approaching the camps they did one of three things; Put them on marches to the interior of Germany (we see this happen in the show with POWs), kill everyone in the camp, or abandon the camp. Information on this particular camp leaves me to woefully say; Everyone in this camp was murdered or sent on death marches to a different camp so they couldn't be liberated. The town the concentration camp resided in was liberated by the 2nd Byelorussian front. More information on this camp can be found here: x

In one of the barrack rooms, which happens to be the one Rosie goes into, there were children. There is a drawing of a menorah, a magen David (which he touches), and Yiddish. Yiddish would've been taught more so than Hebrew in the 1800s-1940s European Jewry. Yiddish itself is a dialect of Judeo-Germanic. What does this mean? It means a Diaspora created a dialect using their native tongue and the regional language. Later on, it developed into its own language with its own dialects depending on where they were. Anyway, I shall digress and return to the true topic at hand. During this we see the words translated as; The judge of life will judge for life. It has religious tones to it but I am not here to explain what it may have meant. I'm not a rabbi.

Later on, when he is about to board a plane to go back to England— he encounters a survivor in the town. Their conversation displays something many survivors struggled with— did G-d remember them? How could tatty have forgotten us? Many Jews lost their religious beliefs after this, some stayed steadfast. I'm not sure how I would've reacted but there is no right or wrong way to react. What you see in this interaction is a genuine representation. Additionally, mass immigration and displaced persons camps were common from this point forward for Jewish people. They had to figure out where they were going to be safe.

On the other hand we have David Solomon... We see David Solomon questioned for being Jewish in the POW camp based on name. He is obviously Jewish. In the show, we see in a scene that after being questioned we hear the Major say; “We are all Americans.”. That didn't matter to the Nazis. I am sorry but the last name Solomon and first name David are nearly stereotypically Jewish. In the show and in this essay we need to address; He was treated differently because the Nazi officers knew he was Jewish. In an interview from 1980, also addresses the fact he too knew that there was a degree of persecution of Jews in mainland Europe. Solomon didn't wear his dog tags because it had H for Hebrew on it and the Jews in the military knew— they'd be treated differently. Even without the dog tags around his neck, he was still treated differently. Solomon was separated from the other members of the 100th and was told he was a spy. The reason for suspicion was due to him placing propaganda leaflets on his pyjamas shirts. I need to add he thought he was going home soon which is why he had the leaflets; He'd gotten them from some Royal Air Force plane that emergency landed the night before the downing of his plane and subsequent capture. Then, the day of the mission, he was in pyjamas because he assumed he was going home. Don't ask me. I don't know. All I know is this is genuinely what he said in the interview. Anyway, after this, he was roughly interrogated due to the suspicion of him being a spy (his words but I suspect this means possible torture.). Additionally, he lost around seventy pounds (est~ 190 lbs to 128) by the time he was liberated. David says Jewish American POWs were treated differently but he isn't sure whether or not Jewish POWs were killed. He also stated that amongst the higher ranking officers there was subtle antisemitism but there were some Jewish officers which balanced it out. Among the antisemitic officers, some had little to no care about what was happening to the Jews; Even if they knew. Many were just medal hungry— they wanted their medals, they wanted to look good. It was a lack of humanitarianism within the higher ranks. Finally, David Solomon says he doesn't consider himself a holocaust camp survivor to any degree (not sure who would).

After the war, those who told the stories were the refugees and newspapers. David Solomon met some of these refugees since some of his own (presumably) extended family members hosted refugees during the war. After learning all of the information, he went as far as to question (he admits this was wrong of him to question but) he goes on to say, “Why the atomic bomb wasn't dropped on Germany”.

You can listen to the interview here: x

You can find extra background information that I didn't include but read here: x

The Allies knew what was happening to the Jewish population of Europe. They. Knew. They could've stopped it but let me explain why they didn't. Through the American political lense— they put a quota on specifically Jewish immigration solely because they wanted to keep a majority Christian nation. They turned away Jewish refugees throughout the war. An example of this being Billy Joel’s (bye i keep using him as my example) parents who had to immigrate to Cuba during the duration of the war. After the war, they went to New York. However, a family that also tried going to America were the Franks. Yes, those Franks. Anne Frank, Margot, and Edith would have survived if America didn't refuse them.

[rubberduckyrye]

Why I will never RB your Art if you say “Don’t Tag as X” (And why I will probably block you for it)

Okay so I’ve seen this. So many times in the tags, so many times on art posts that were otherwise good and awesome that I would have reblogged--but then I saw the “Don’t tag as X” thing, and rolled my eyes and chose not to RB the art. In some instances, I even block the artist.

Most of the time, this is in relation to ships and art that can be interpreted as shippy but the original artist doesn’t want their work to be interpreted that way. Which is the first red flag for me--art is meant to be interpreted in a million different ways. No two people are ever going to interpret any kind of art the same way as another person. So trying to control how people interpret your work is at best, a fools errand.

However that’s more of a petty reason above all else--the main reason why “Don’t tag as X” is a huge problem is, in relation to how people interpret things differently, is that no matter what you do, people WILL interpret your art in a certain way. A certain way that may involve being a trigger for them.

So let’s say I see an art piece that is... let’s say it’s for Character B and C. The artist asks me not to tag my potential reblog as BC. Let’s say I decide to oblige by the Artists request and don’t tag it as BC.

So let’s say we have Follower X. X used to heavily ship BC to hell and back, but because of harassment, they can no longer even look at B and C together without thinking about the harassment they faced. It’s a proper trigger for them. It’ll give them panic attacks upon seeing it.

Now let’s say we have Follower Y. Y never really shipped the ship itself, but their ex shipped it a LOT. Their ex was abusive. They associate the ship with their ex, so the ship is a trigger for them--just seeing B and C together triggers them. They get sick to their stomach upon reminders and avoid the ship for their mental health.

Follower Z is a bit different. They just don’t like the ship, and want it tagged for blacklisting purposes. Vague art of B and C being cute and cuddly included.

So now here’s a problem with “Don’t tag as X.” The artist doesn’t want me to tag their B and C art as BC. Except three followers really need that ship tagged as BC.

“But it’s not ship art!”

It doesn’t matter if it is, or isn’t “ship art.” Well what you mean is “romantic ship art” anyway, so any and all platonic art is a form of ship art, but I digress. It doesn’t matter if it was intended as ship art or not. People will interpret it as ship art regardless.

“You can make blacklist tags for those followers!”

No, I can’t. Not for everyone. I never said I personally knew X, Y, or Z as my followers. I can’t tag what I don’t know--and if I tried to tag every post with “(Follower) don’t look” I’d have a bajillion tags like that. It’s not practical.

“But tumblr makes you see tags in your activity feed and I don’t want to see people tagging my art as X!”

Oh well. Sorry, but I can’t really feel a lot of sympathy for people who are making it more difficult to allow others to curate their own experiences.

“But it triggers me to see my art tagged as X!”

That’s a right shame. However, you should be aware that even if people RB your art without the tag, people will still consider your art in a way you don’t like. This is something to discuss with your therapist or peers, because trying to police how others interact with your work is not it, fam.

“I’m still going to say don’t tag as X.”

Then be prepared to get blocked. I’m not obliged to RB your art, and I don’t want to see your art anymore if I can’t reblog it safely and add tags that I think are necessary.

“But you’re hurting artists by not RBing their work! You should just respect their boundaries!”

I am respecting their boundaries, but nice straw-man. Me not RBing their art is a form of keeping to that artist’s boundary. “Don’t tag as X”? Then I won’t reblog it, meaning I won’t tag it as X. Congrats, boundary respected. The artist might not like it, but that’s just how it is.

If they want their work to be seen by the mass public, they have to get comfortable with the idea that people are going to misinterpret their art and intentions behind their art, and that’s okay. If they are not at that stage of acceptance, they aren’t ready for it.

Anyway, that’s my Hot Take of the day. Brought to you by someone who’s seen “Don’t tag as X” one too many times.

[enhanced-operatives-division]

One day I'll draw the ieytd cast with all the flower imagery i want

[benthicbaetyl]

Blogoblag Intro and Overview Post

(This Barbie believes she is incapable of sin!)

Hi, Tumblr! You've stumbled onto a roleplay blog for the webcomic Homestuck. This is a small personal project - I need to be incentivized to take some notes for a fanventure somewhere, basically. It will eventually look like something of a cross between serialized epistolary novel, scrapbook, worldbuilding exercise and fever dream diary. There is a story and a tagging system to facilitate it, although it will be punctuated by (diegetically sort of plot-relevant, honestly just me rping) digressions into other worlds.

If you're not looking for that, here's a handy cut, and you're free to go!

(In the future, most of this will be replaced with a blog page, but right now I can't do that, so I want it out of the way here.)

Oh, you're still here! Well, hi, then! Please, by all means, feel free to peruse, but first let's get some basic things out of the way.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

The Way of Things

This is a sideblog, my hands are tied in all relevant ways. I will tell you my main if the need arises (but from there we'll probably be offsite friends first). Please don't tag it in things when I do!

I post when I post, and you post when you post! It's like roleplaying over message in bottle. It is not necessarily the case that either of our interactions will touch our little fanworlds in very big ways, but I cherish each, all the same.

I love to read about jerks, but be sure you're not trying to be a jerk ooc.

On this blog, there will be no nsfw -- this is by far not the character or the forum, and I want everyone to feel comfortable here. You may also be sure of a lack of gore, because I don't like it. Related topics will be described tastefully.

I won't post or interact with drama here. I will try to keep pure OOC to a minimum (tagged #ooc), but you may see OOC or meta footnotes like this. Green like Doc Scratch's asides, you see?

I have no restrictions or regulations about the way other people write with me. That ship sailed long, long ago, and now I'm a normal person who respects your time and your sincere effort. Please, whatever length and style you like! I only bite a little!

Canon-typical trigger warnings for Homestuck apply here. I'm going to umbrella-tag particularly heinous but normal trollisms under #canon-typical dead peacebeast, but I will granulate that into smaller tags on request, and update this post as more things happen to Talasa.

Muse-specific TWs (things relevant to Talasa personally that you can expect a goodly quantity of): familial abuse and harm to children (canon-typical or at least canon-expectable), unhealthy sibling dynamics, mental illness, classism, ableism, sexism, described insect and fish biology, described blood (I will also tag other things as they arise and people ask for them).

Obviously oc friendly (people following a narrative will be able to filter asides, aus and dream meetings), though you'll soon see caveats - and Homestuck canon character writers might find themselves at a total loss in this AU, but I see no reason that it couldn't be worked out : )

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

.•° The Muse °•.

Talasa Rakhav

° Designed by @thecrews-shenanigans and received for a song and a dance. Here I am making good on things! Feel free to check in from time to time.

° May be written at a variety of ages. I will tag pretty consistently, for reference, and a coherent timeline will eventually emerge...

° The framing device of the blog itself is that it's all stuff she either wrote or received. How your muse came across it (found it drifting in the Ring, long-forgotten? Read about it on a tabloid website?) or came in contact with her is up to you! Time is not necessarily linear here.

.•° Talasa's quirk looks like this! She's a charming young lady and I think you guys will like her. Sometimes she'll make little meta comments or replies; treat them like old chatroom style rp posts if you like. °•.

The Mun

☆ Em, any pronouns, 22. I don't mind writing with the youth, and I know you guys are reading no matter what I say or do. I want to tell you, okay, we're all one big community and I'm looking out for you -- but since that's true, I should also say this:

I don't think young people rping romance with adults, or even anybody more than 1-2 years older than them, is a good idea. Still say hi! I'd love to chat and otherwise be a good neighbour. Just, you know, don't go there, not with me or any other adult. Remember to be safe and keep your information private on the Internet.

☆ My intersectional identities don't really directly arise in my Homestuck fanfiction, although they probably do inform the worldbuilding in some indelible way. Have fun sussing them out! I shan't be forthcoming! Not here for that!

☆ I live with a partner, special needs cat and ferret. It gets busy sometimes.

☆ I'm forgetful and, sad to say, not very bright. I will bungle much, and often. I'm doing longform hybrid epistolary fiction/poll game repository/tumblr rp blog stuff anyway because I believe in me, or if not in me then in my friends who believe in me.

☆ I draw sometimes. Talasa here (as an audience aid for a totally freehand fan universe) is about to be responsible for a significant upswing in that.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

That's all for now, folks! But someday this will be a section for navigating by. Stay tuned!

[coolcarabiner]

i was going to write this in the tags but then it got so extremely long i hit the tag limit so. i’m sorry in advance, op. but this type of misunderstanding on even an institutional level of catholicism is why i personally was So against the faith (ANY faith) for a long time, even though my family wasn’t exceptionally catholic when i was growing up. that, and the fact that (particularly in western countries and countries influenced heavily by imperial powers) many believers subvert the faith to fit the narrative of their political agenda without understanding the scripture they claim to love in the actual context it was created in. this idea that you shouldn’t question the church and it’s blasphemous to do so is indicative of weak power structures that fear dissent, but to me, that always seems to have more to do with man than it ever has with god. many, many people experience this though! and i myself am a young leftist lesbian so i know just how unwelcoming catholics have been/can be to people like me. with that being said, no faith is a monolith and catholicism is a prime example of this. it’s SO vast that people from different cultures, states, countries, cultures, etc. might do things differently. there are churches local to me that are staunchly pro life. there are others that welcome gay people and preach that the love of god is inclusive of all, regardless of identity, personal faith, or their supposed sins. repenting is supposed to be about doing things like speaking poorly of your neighbor, coveting what someone else has, or acting otherwise unkind, and less about like. premarital sex. there is just a breadth of ideas encapsulated under the heading of catholicism! but i digress.

i’m a religious studies undergrad and a lovingly critical catholic so beyond all of the above, here’s my understanding of why jesus died in hopefully brief, accessible form.

so in the first books of the bible (genesis and exodus) we have the garden of eden, cain and abel, people just generally letting god down and sinning it up. they’re ignoring his rules they’re making false idols they’re fuckin’ nonstop. god is eventually like ok. enough. and spares moses, his sons, and their families + all the animals on the ark but wipes everything out with the flood right. earth eventually repopulates and it’s sorta the same sin situation again, but now pharaoh has also enslaved the israelite people and is treating them horribly. moses is talking to god, god tells him to send all the plagues to pharaoh but “hardens/makes heavy his heart” in an honestly confusing back and forth that is interpreted differently by different faiths/traditions/scholars.

eventually, god tells moses to tell pharaoh he’s going to kill all the firstborn egyptians and their livestock to get pharaoh to release the israelites on their own terms and gives moses the instructons for passover. adherence to these rules saves the israelite firstborns and pharaoh is devastated when his son dies because he didn’t listen to moses, leading him to finally cast out the israelites on their own terms so they can worship and sacrifice to their god. the israelites leave egypt and as part of passover, they’re supposed to maintain these rituals monthly that include things like choosing the best lamb to offer as a ritual sacrifice, not breaking its bones, not taking it out of the home, and eating all of the meat on the night of passover.

biblical study is complex and that’s an oversimplification, but i think that captures the essence of what’s going on there. there’s also SO many books (nearly 40) between these two and the gospels, which talk about jesus. the main ideas in the canonical gospels (matthew, mark, luke, john) are that he’s the messiah sent to earth by god to show people the error of their ways and to serve as a physical manifestation of god’s abilities—god was sort of putting his money where his mouth is to “prove” his power and win followers in the most basic sense. and much like egypt in the tanakh/OT, rome did NOT like what he was doing because it went against their authority and the established faiths of the time and region.

i want to also mention that there’s verbiage about like. child jesus w a full beard wowing older jewish scholars with his vast knowledge in the gospels so i think it’s crucial to consider that the author(s) of the bible had agendas in forming their writings and often these texts were/are compiled by a multitude of individuals with different understandings/translations/political positions. the ultimate function of the text should, in my opinion, be to tell stories that have been pieced together from different languages and cultures to try and create a cohesive narrative about what life might have been like, why things might have happened how they did, and what people might have valued thousands of years ago. plenty of people don’t know that the bible wasn’t written in chronological order, including me before i started my program and i took CCD classes back in the day there’s just a lack of thorough education about What We Are Actually Talking About when we talk about the bible, but that’s an entirely different tirade about literalism and biblical interpretation.

the point and the answer to the initial question is really this: god doesn’t intercede in jesus’ crucifixion because it was planned to happen and it was done as an act of atonement for the sins of mankind. in less apocalyptic religions that don’t see jesus as a harbinger of the end times, the existence, sacrifice, and subsequent resurrection of jesus is what is supposed to keep god from wiping us out with another flood or the like. he died for our sins as the sort of ultimate sacrificial lamb, so we don’t continue engaging in, just for example, passover rituals that are maintained by religions that don’t see jesus as the messiah.

people using the “jesus died for your sins” line to treat you as if you’re a gross, irredeemable cretin are assholes flying in the face of the whole “not taking the lord’s name in vain” commandment. his death was meant to be symbolic like that of the ritually slaughtered lamb and the act of dying is one that was supposed to make statements—both political and theological—about sacrifice, sin, and the function of the faith relationship between humans and god not as one of inherent contention, but one that’s incredibly complex in a true reflection of the order of the universe.

Thinking about how it was never made clear to me in Catholic school exactly WHY Jesus died for our sins. I just remembered that I was literally never clear on who the dying helped??

I've heard theories as an adult, but basically what I'm saying is pointless martyrdom seems a little pointless, and also with enough propaganda the big logical gaps in a belief system get really hard to see. Especially if questioning anything is blasphemy.

I would have gotten in so much trouble for insisting the teacher explain how Jesus helped us by being tortured to death by Romans even when God could have prevented it! God sent his only Son, they would have said! Be grateful, they'd say! Be guilty! Stop asking why he did that!!!

[olderthannetfic]

How do I go about tagging a pairing where the second party is meant to be a surprise?

The story follows our female lead (A) who gets together with another girl (B) who happens to share the same initials as A’s canon male love interest. The thing is, B isn’t the male love interest genderbent or an OC — she’s a character from the original source material who got cut when the writers adapted the story for other mediums (movie, stage, show, ya know). Worse, the writers not only cut her out, they used her for parts to flesh out another minor character (which did not work out at all; there’s a reason they were separate in the first place). Also yes, B is my favorite, yes I’m very salty she got written out, and also this gives me a LEGIT reason to tag both the original source material as well as the adaptation that’s not “more people will see/read it if I tag both!” which is truly the only reason people fucking tag the way they do on ao3 in my fandom and I cannot fucking stand it. They write with one canon in mind but tag with both to reach the widest audience and it’s just. Clogging up the searches. But I digress.

B’s temporary name change is a pragmatic choice. Her not being native to the universe she’s in means no one knows her, especially not A, and since she’s trying to find a reality where she and A can be together, she has to up and leave a lot, so going by the anonymous Jane Doe is just easier. Once she finds the “right” reality she can plant roots in, the fic will be over and that’s when she reveals her real name. Most people who get into this franchise obviously go by what’s the popular adaption and don’t know her either (and if they do she’s so minor most don’t even remember her), so I want the reveal the LI is a canon character to be a surprise.

Obviously tagging it A/B spoils that surprise. It’s not a popular ship anyway, and this is a ship-heavy space (as in the popular ships get all the love and leave absolutely none for anyone else). There are only 7 fics with this ship in it, 5 of which are from the OG source material, and only 4 of which features them as the main ship. It’s SMALL. Quantity unfortunately outweighs quality in this fandom, so no matter how well I try to write it for A/B no one is going to care. Might as well drum up a little intrigue.

What do?

--

The AO3 convention is:

So-and-So/Undisclosed

[watch-grok-brainrot]

can i enquire your opinion on what i perceive as misuse of the words "zhiji" / "zhiyin" by western authors? it's often translated as soulmates, or even used synonymously, and for wx, often in romantic situations to fulfil non romantic soulmate fic tropes. i often get a bit frustrated by it. zhiji and zhiyin are both bosom friends, people who get you, appreciate you but they are not the western term of soulmates. what do you think? seeking perspectives to shape my opinion!!! thank you!!

nonny! I am so sorry! I meant to answer this the week you sent this and then i kept on getting sidetracked and forgot. >.> this is why i don’t get asks. i’m terrible at answering things. 

First of all, for those who are reading this and not nonny, i’m assuming you are either familiar with chinese or have read the blog post by @/hunxi-guilai by now. If you are not chinese and/or have not read her blog, go to her blog and go to linguistic meta and then read the post titled “ all right guys, let’s have a conversation about soulmates ” (gonna delete the link if i can’t get this to show up in tags since this is a nonny ask i want nonny to be able to find this... )

ok. now that we’re on the same page, let’s talk about translation. translation is messy. cultures don’t have the same concepts. when expressing words as complex as 知己/ 知音, you do what you can. 

do i think soulmates is an acceptable translation? yes. i would not hesitate to call wangxian soulmates. 

Is 知己/ 知音 inherently romantic? no.

do i think the connotations of 知己/知音 and the connotations of soulmates match perfectly? no. 

am i fine with fanfiction authors writing what they want? yeah. if i don’t like it, i just won’t engage with the material. it’s the idgaf of old age that i’m really glad i acquired. i can just nope right out and go find something i prefer. e.g. if i see a baobei in a wangxian fic, i usually nope right now. it’s not worth getting worked up over. lol. 

yes 知己/ 知音 are bosom friends but it’s deeper than that, right? 

Actually, i’m really glad i’ve waited. I’ve just binged Word of Honor (or what eps are currently out) and they toss out 知己/ 知音 a lot -- as they should. The show is spectacular (thus far 25 of 36 eps are out and i am dying at how amazing the main CP interactions are). Basically my heart is full of  知己/ 知音 mood so i think i can do a better job of explaining what it means to me now. 

To me, 知己/ 知音 is knowing someone/hearing someone so deeply that your souls are in sync. It’s being open and vulnerable. The mortifying ordeal of being KNOWN and/or HEARD. it’s joyous to discover that your eccentricities are understood implicitly. it’s stolen cheeky grins and stupid laughs that makes you feel alive again. It’s precious and rare and if you get one person in your life that REALLY knows/hears or tries to know/to hear you, you are lucky. this can be part of a romantic or platonic relationship. 

someone wants to call that a soulmate? sure. by all means. 

But if I were to see it in a novel or show I was trying to translate, I may translate it differently each time. The beauty of translation is, as the translator, I have the power (and the terrible responsibility) to interpret a work. My choices will be the text moving forward. My diction, if the only translation around, could be overanalyzed by a portion of the fandom. So would i always translate  知己/ 知音 as soulmates? no. Sometimes I might say say, “You’re the only person to know me truly.” or “To be truly heard in this life by one person is enough.” or I might say “soulmate” sometimes. 

so, i guess i do agree that soulmates limits the translation of the concept. but if you’re watching a show and there are subs, the subbers have more than meaning to worry about. you have to consider characters per second: 1) physically focusing on words with one’s eyes and then reading them takes time; 2) some people are much slower readers than others. (subbers also have to consider sentence structure and how to breakup a lines. and, depending on the show, sometimes the subs come out at an INSANE pace. it’s approximately 3-4 hrs of translation work once you have the chinese in front of you for a 20ish min ep if you’re being neurotic and probably just as much if not more of timing work to get an episode out. not to mention the translation checks and quality checks. so sometimes shortcuts are required... but i digress...) Is soulmates a good, succinct way to get the message across? yes. so i’m fine with it. and if it captures peoples’ imagination and brings someone joy, then even better. 

fandom should be fun. it should be happy. it should be a place where you grow and meet people that bring you joy. :) so am i upset that it’s the preferred translation of the mdzs/cql fandom? not really. it’s not perfect but it’s good enough for fandom (and horseshoes and hand grenades as people would say). 

[cookinguptales]

Hmm... about the time loop fic. I'm starting to worry that my daily chapter drops might clog up the tags...?

So I guess I'll just do this. I'm going to keep posting the chapters to tumblr when I upload them to AO3, but I'll tag them with my personal "wwdits tag" and "nandermo tag" rather than wwdits and nandermo. Once the fic is fully uploaded and completed, I'll post a notification to the main tags.

That said, I do actually think that the fic reads better with a little breathing room between each chapter, which is why I didn't post it all at once like I did Sway. (Especially after tomorrow's chapter, which is when shit really starts to hit the fan.) So that would be my recommendation for how to read it. But I totally understand that some people prefer finished fics, so if they want to wait a week(ish) and read it when it's fully finished, I'm happy to have people read it that way, too!

Personally, though, I do think it's better to read it as it's uploaded. At least as of tomorrow. Part of me has wondered if I should have posted the first four chapters together because they're a bit slower. lmao whoops.

Anyway, yes, I digress. The chapters will still be uploaded every day. They're locked, loaded, ready to go. If you want to know exactly when they're uploaded, you can follow me on tumblr or subscribe to the fic on AO3. But in the interest of not clogging the tags, I won't be posting every single update there anymore. Just the last one.