#migrating over from discord

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Fandom can do a little gatekeeping. As a treat.

So I finally decided to archive-lock my fics on AO3 last night. I’ve been considering it since the AI scrape last year, but the tipping point was this whole lore.fm debacle, coupled with some thoughts I’ve been thinking regarding Fandom These Days in general and Fandom As A Community in particular. So I wanna explain why I waited so long, why I locked my stuff up now, and why I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a-okay with making it harder for people to see my stories.

Lurkers really are great, tho

I’m a chronic lurker, and have been since I started hanging out on the internet as a teen in the 00s. These days it’s just cuz I don’t feel a need to socialize very often, but back then it was because I was shy and knew I was socially awkward. Even if I made an account, I’d spend months lurking on message boards or forums or Livejournals, watching other people interact and getting a feel for that particular community’s culture and etiquette before I finally started interacting myself. And y’know, that approach saved me a lot of embarrassment. Over the course of my lurking on any site, there was always some other person who’d clearly joined up five minutes after learning the place existed, barged in without a care for their behavior, and committed so many social faux pas that all the other users were immediately annoyed with them at best. I learned a lot observing those incidents. Lurk More is Rule 33 of the internet for very good reason.

Lurking isn’t bad or weird or creepy. It’s perfectly normal. I love lurking. It’s hard for me to not lurk - socializing takes a lot of energy out of me, even via text. (Heck it took 12 hours for me to write this post, I wish I was kidding--) Occasionally I’ll manage longer bouts of interaction - a few weeks posting here, almost a year chatting in a discord there - but I’m always gonna end up going radio silent for months at some point. I used to feel bad about it, but I’ve long since made peace with the fact that it’s just the way my brain works. I’m a chronic lurker, and in the long term nothing is going to change that.

The thing with being a chronic lurker is that you have to accept that you are not actually seen as part of the community you are lurking in. That’s not to say that lurkers are unimportant - lurkers actually are important, and they make up a large proportion of any online community - but it’s simple cause and effect. You may think of it as “your community”, but if you’ve never said a word, how is the community supposed to know you exist? If I lurked on someone’s LJ, and then that person suddenly friendslocked their blog, I knew that I had two choices: Either accept that I would never be able to read their posts again, or reach out to them and ask if I could be added to their friends list with the full understanding that I was a rando they might not decide to trust. I usually went with the first option, because my invisibility as a lurker was more important to me than talking to strangers on the internet.

Lurking is like sitting on a park bench, quietly people-watching and eavesdropping on the conversations other people are having around you. You’re in the park, but you’re not actively participating in anything happening there. You can see and hear things that you become very interested in! But if you don’t introduce yourself and become part of the conversation, you won’t be able to keep listening to it when those people walk away. When fandom migrated away from Livejournal, people moved to new platforms alongside their friends, but lurkers were often left behind. No one knew they existed, so they weren’t told where everyone else was going. To be seen as part of a fandom community, you need to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known, etc. etc.

There’s nothing wrong with lurking. There can actually be benefits to lurking, both for the lurkers and the communities they lurk in. It’s just another way to be in a fandom. But if that is how you exist in fandom--and remember, I say this as someone who often does exist that way in fandom--you need to remember that you’re on the outside looking in, and the curtains can always close.

I’ve always been super sympathetic to lurkers, because I am one. I know there’s a lot of people like me who just don’t socialize often. I know there’s plenty of reasons why someone might not make an account on the internet - maybe they’re nervous, maybe they’re young and their parents don’t allow them to, maybe they’re in a bad situation where someone is monitoring their activity, maybe they can only access the internet from public computer terminals. Heck, I’ve never even logged into AO3 on my phone--if I’m away from my computer I just read what’s publicly available. 

I know I have people lurking on my fics. I know my fics probably mean a lot to someone I don’t even know exists. I know this because there are plenty of fics I love whose writers don’t know I exist.

I love my commenters personally; I love my lurkers as an abstract concept. I know they’re there and I wish them well, and if they ever de-lurk I love them all the more.

So up until last year I never considered archive-locking my fic, because I get it. The AI scraping was upsetting, but I still hesitated because I was thinking of lurkers and guests and remembering what it felt like to be 15 and wondering if it’d be worth letting a stranger on the internet know I existed and asking to be added to their friends list just so I could reread a funny post they made once.

But the internet has changed a lot since the 00s, and fandom has changed with it. I’ve read some things and been doing some thinking about fandom-as-community over the last few years, and reading through the lore.fm drama made me decide that it’s time for me to set some boundaries.

I still love my lurkers, and I feel bad about leaving any guest commenters behind, especially if they’re in a situation where they can’t make an account for some reason. But from here on out, even my lurkers are going to have to do the bare minimum to read my fics--make an AO3 account.

Should we gatekeep fandom?

I’ve seen a few people ask this question, usually rhetorically, sometimes as a joke, always with a bit of seriousness. And I think…yeah, maybe we should. Except wait, no, not like that--

A decade ago, when people talked about fandom gatekeeping and why it was bad to do, it intersected with a lot of other things, mainly feminism and classism. The prevalent image of fandom gatekeeping was, like, a man learning that a woman likes Star Wars and haughtily demanding, “Oh, yeah? Well if you’re REALLY a fan, name ten EU novels” to belittle and dismiss her, expecting that a “real fan” would have the money and time to be familiar with the EU, and ignoring the fact that male movie-only fans were still considered fans. The thing being gatekept was the very definition of “being a fan” and people’s right to describe themselves as one.

That’s not what I mean when I say maybe fandom should gatekeep more. Anyone can call themselves a fan if they like something, that’s fine. But when it comes to the ability to enjoy the fanworks produced by the fandom community…that might be something worth gatekeeping.

See, back in the 00s, it was perfectly common for people to just…not go on the internet. Surfing the web was a thing, but it was just, like, a fun pastime. Not everyone did it. It wasn’t until the rise of social media that going online became a thing everyone and their grandmother did every day. Back then, going on the internet was just…a hobby.

So one of the first gates online fandom ever had was the simple fact that the entire world wasn’t here yet.

The entire world is here now. That gate has been demolished.

And it’s a lot easier to find us now. Even scattered across platforms, fandom is so centralized these days. It isn’t a network of dedicated webshrines and forums that you can only find via webrings anymore, it’s right there on all the big social media sites. AO3 didn’t set out to be the main fanfic website, but that’s definitely what it’s become. It’s easy for people to find us--and that includes people who don’t care about the community, and just want “content.”

Transformative fandom doesn’t like it when people see our fanworks as “content”. “Content” is a pretty broad term, but when fandom uses it we’re usually referring to creative works that are churned out by content creators to be consumed by an audience as quickly as possible as often as possible so that the content creator can generate revenue. This not-so-new normal has caused a massive shift in how people who are new to fandom view fanworks--instead of seeing fic or art as something a fellow fan made and shared with you, they see fanworks as products to be consumed.

Transformative fandom has, in general, always been a gift economy. We put time and effort into creating fanworks that we share with our fellow fans for free. We do this so we don’t get sued, but fandom as a whole actually gets a lot out of the gift economy. Offer your community a story, and in return you can get comments, build friendships, or inspire other people to write things that you might want to read. Readers are given the gift of free stories to read and enjoy, and while lurking is fine, they have the choice to engage with the writer and other readers by leaving comments or making reclists to help build the community.

And look, don’t get me wrong. People have never engaged with fanfic as much as fan writers wish they would. There has always been “no one comments anymore” wank. There have always been people who only comment to say “MORE!” or otherwise demand or guilt trip writers into posting the next chapter. But fandom has always agreed that those commenters are rude and annoying, and as those commenters navigate fandom they have the chance to learn proper community etiquette.

However, now it seems that a lot of the people who are consuming fanworks aren’t actually in the community. 

I won’t say “they aren’t real fans” because that’s silly; there’s lots of ways to be a fan. But there seem to be a lot of fans now who have no interest in fandom as a community, or in adhering to community etiquette, or in respecting the gift economy. They consume our fics, but they don’t appreciate fan labor. They want our “content”, but they don’t respect our control over our creations.

And even worse--they see us as a resource. We share our work for free, as a gift, but all they see is an open-source content farm waiting to be tapped into. We shared it for free, so clearly they can do whatever they want with it. Why should we care if they feed our work into AI training datasets, or copy/paste our unfinished stories into ChatGPT to get an ending, or charge people for an unnecessary third-party AO3 app, or sell fanbindings on etsy for a profit without the author’s permission, or turn our stories into poor imitations of podfics to be posted on other platforms without giving us credit or asking our consent, while also using it to lure in people they can datascrape for their Forbes 30 Under 30 company? 

And sure, people have been doing shady things with other people’s fanworks since forever. Art theft and reposting has always been a big problem. Fanfic is harder to flat-out repost, but I’ve heard of unauthorized fic translations getting posted without crediting the original author. Once in…I think the 2010s? I read a post by a woman who had gone to some sort of local bookselling event, only to find that the man selling “his” novel had actually self-published her fanfic. (Wish I could find that one again, I don’t even remember where I read it.)

But aside from that third example, the thing is…as awful as fanart/writing theft is, back in the day, the main thing a thief would gain from it was clout. Clout that should rightfully go to the creators who gifted their work in the first place, yeah, but still. Just clout. People will do a lot of hurtful things for clout, but fandom clout means nothing outside of fandom. Fandom clout is not enough to incentivize the sort of wide-scale pillaging we’re seeing from community outsiders today.

Money, on the other hand… Well, fandom’s just a giant, untapped content farm, isn’t it? Think of how much revenue all that content could generate.

Lurkers are a normal and even beneficial part of any online community. Maybe one day they’ll de-lurk and easily slide into place beside their fellow fans because they already know the etiquette. Maybe they’re active in another community, and they can spread information from the community they lurk in to the community they’re active in. At the very least, they silently observe, and even if they’re not active community members, they understand the community.

Fans who see fanworks as “content” don’t belong in the same category as lurkers. They’re tourists. 

While reading through the initial Reddit thread on the lore.fm situation, I found this comment:

[ID: Reddit User Cabbitowo says: ... So in anime fandoms we have a word called tourist and essentially it means a fan of a few anime and doesn't care about anime tropes and actively criticizes them. This is kind of how fandoms on tiktok feel. They're touring fanfics and fanart and actively criticizes tropes that have been in the fandom since the 60s. They want to be in a fandom but they don't want to engage in fandom 

OP totallymandy responds: Just entered back into Reddit after a long day to see this most recent reply. And as a fellow anime fan this making me laugh so much since it’s true! But it sorta hurts too when the reality sets in. Modern fandom is so entitled and bratty and you’d think it’s the minors only but that’s not even true, my age-mates and older seem to be like that. They want to eat their cake and complain all whilst bringing nothing to the potluck… :/ END ID]

-

“Tourist” is an apt name for this sort of fan. They don’t want to be part of our community, and they don’t have to be in order to come into our spaces and consume our work. Even if they don’t steal our work themselves, they feel so entitled to it that they’re fine with ignoring our wishes and letting other people take it to make AI “podfics” for them to listen to (there are a lot of comments on lore.fm’s shutdown announcement video from people telling them to just ignore the writers and do it anyway). They’ll use AI to generate an ending to an unfinished fic because they don’t care about seeing “the ending this writer would have given to the story they were telling”, they just want “an ending”. For these tourist fans, the ends justify the means, and their end goal is content for them to consume, with no care for the community that created it for them in the first place.

I don’t think this is confined to a specific age group. This isn’t “13-year-olds on Wattpad” or “Zoomers on TikTok” or whatever pointless generation war we’re in now. This is coming from people who are new to fandom, whose main experience with creative works on the internet is this new content culture and who don’t understand fandom as a community. That description can be true of someone from any age group.

It’s so easy to find fandom these days. It is, in fact, too easy. Newcomers face no hurdles or challenges that would encourage them to lurk and observe a bit before engaging, and it’s easy for people who would otherwise move on and leave us alone to start making trouble. From tourist fans to content entrepreneurs to random people who just want to gawk, it’s so easy for people who don’t care about the fandom community to reap all of its fruits. 

So when I say maybe fandom should start gatekeeping a bit, I’m referring to the fact that we barely even have a gate anymore. Everyone is on the internet now; the entire world can find us, and they don’t need to bother learning community etiquette when they do. Before, we were protected by the fact that fandom was considered weird and most people didn’t look at it twice. Now, fandom is pretty mainstream. People who never would’ve bothered with it before are now comfortable strolling in like they own the place. They have no regard for the fandom community, they don’t understand it, and they don’t want to. They want to treat it just like the rest of the content they consume online.

And then they’re surprised when those of us who understand fandom culture get upset. Fanworks have existed far longer than the algorithmic internet’s content. Fanworks existed long before the internet. We’ve lived like this for ages and we like it.

So if someone can’t be bothered to respect fandom as a community, I don’t see why I should give them easy access to my fics.

Think of it like a garden gate

When I interact with commenters on my fic, I have this sense of hospitality.

The comment section is my front porch. The fic is my garden. I created my garden because I really wanted to, and I’m proud of it, and I’m happy to share it with other people. 

Lots of people enjoy looking at my garden. Many walk through without saying anything. Some stop to leave kudos. Some recommend my garden to their friends. And some people take the time to stop by my front porch and let me know what a beautiful garden it is and how much they’ve enjoyed it. 

Any fic writer can tell you that getting comments is an incredible feeling. I always try to answer all my comments. I don’t always manage it, but my fics’ comment sections are the one place that I manage to consistently socialize in fandom. When I respond to a comment, it feels like I’m pouring out a glass of lemonade to share with this lovely commenter on my front porch, a thank you for their thank you. We take a moment to admire my garden together, and then I see them out. The next time they drop by, I recognize them and am happy to pour another glass of lemonade.

My garden has always been open and easy to access. No fences, no walls. You just have to know where to find it. Fandom in general was once protected by its own obscurity, an out-of-the-way town that showed up on maps but was usually ignored.

But now there’s a highway that makes it easy to get to, and we have all these out-of-towner tourists coming in to gawk and steal our lawn ornaments and wonder if they can use the place to make themselves some money.

I don’t care to have those types trampling over my garden and eating all my vegetables and digging up my flowers to repot and sell, so I’ve put up a wall. It has a gate that visitors can get through if they just take the time to open it.

Admittedly, it’s a small obstacle. But when I share my fics, I share them as a gift with my fellow fans, the ones who understand that fandom is a community, even if they’re lurkers. As for tourist fans and entrepreneurs who see fic as content, who have no qualms ignoring the writer’s wishes, who refuse to respect or understand the fandom community…well, they’re not the people I mean to share my fic with, so I have no issues locking them out. If they want access to my stories, they’ll have to do the bare minimum to become a community member and join the AO3 invite queue.

And y’know, I’ve said a lot about fandom and community here, and I just want to say, I hope it’s not intimidating. When I was younger, talk about The Fandom Community made me feel insecure, and I didn’t think I’d ever manage to be active enough in fandom spaces to be counted as A Member Of The Community. But you don’t have to be a social butterfly to participate in fandom. I’ll always and forever be a chronic lurker, I reblog more than I post, I rarely manage to comment on fic, and I go radio silent for months at a time--but I write and post fanfiction. That’s my contribution.

Do you write, draw, vid, gif, or otherwise create? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you leave comments? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you curate reclists? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you maintain a fandom blog or fuckyeah blog? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you provide a space for other fans to convene in? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you regularly send asks (off anon so people know who you are)? Congrats, you're a community member.

Do you have fandom friends who you interact with? Congrats, you're a community member.

There’s lots of ways to be a fan. Just make sure to respect and appreciate your fellow fans and the work they put in for you to enjoy and the gift economy fandom culture that keeps this community going.

[laluxea]

Important alert re: Tumblr

Some of you may have heard the rumours that Tumblr might be folding soon. There's talk of employees being let go, with only skeleton staff remaining to manage the platform in the hope that a buyer comes along. These rumours have not been confirmed or denied either way, but it's true to say we have entered a sort of limbo.

With this in mind, I would strongly urge any Zepfic / rockfic writers, fan artists etc who post their works exclusively to Tumblr to migrate their work over to a03 or another suitable platform at the earliest possible opportunity. Even if the rumours are unfounded at present, it's likely only a matter of time before Tumblr really does disappear for real.

If there's truth to the rumours and a buyer comes along, well... we simply won't know what their agenda is going to be until it's implemented, so time is of the essence. Platforms that don't follow the TikTok model are no longer deemed profitable, making it extremely likely that any potential buyers will seek to change Tumblr beyond recognition, forcing fannish creativity to the margins once more.

I'm old enough to remember what happened with Livejournal in the 2000s and the feeling of being cut adrift from fan community for what seemed like forever, so I cannot stress this enough: Migrate your works and tell your friends to do the same. Look into alternative platforms for discussions, such as Discord. Even Facebook might be a temporary option, though I would strongly recommend using alt accounts and making discussion groups private and invite-only if you go there. I'm unaware of any similar alternatives to Tumblr, but if anybody can fill me in, I'd love to hear it.

Please reblog this entry, and feel free to use it for posting your suggestions!

Thanks for reading,

Luxe 💖

@ri0thouse @talesofbron @ledbythreads @lzep @remiehneppoavihs @laysidel @keepcalmandcarryfire @zeppelicious @scentdiffuser01 @lara1606 @midnightinwales @starrie-amethyst @jimmysdragonsuit13 @jimmypage7 @theoriginaleppieblack-blog @thecodeisveroncia @the-may-queer @dschhh @ritacaroline @m-faithfull @tangerine-page @stellastarr7 @harrisonlover @maziecrazycloud @bluehairedspidey @dazedandconfussed @jonesyjonesyjonesy @ameliamusic @loveinhereyes-flowersinherhair @neworleansqueen @jennylovesjonesy @frampk @itchycooparrk @imoldgreggory @yzigpop @tangerina24

[noa-nightingale]

Finally had the time and energy to write a list about ep 55 of Pod Watcher (055: We Talk About The Past Year), so here are some things mentioned in that video about the WatcherTV announcement.

Steven said deciding to paywall most of their new content was one of the worst decisions they ever made.

Ryan said they hoped it would make the company more sustainable and they would be able to support their staff members, and that was the primary reason for the decision. He said after realizing what a mistake they had made, they tried to find a better solution that was "more inclusive of all the folks that have helped get us to this point" (i.e. their audience/fans).

Shane acknowledged that people don't react this passionately to things they don't care about.

Shane said some comments went over the line.

Steven said their viewers have to be at the heart of their content.

The shows they make on Watcher are a lot cheaper than the shows they made on Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed Unsolved had more people on staff than their entire company currently has.

Ryan said there was a lot of shame around having made a mistake and having hurt people. He talked about questioning his self-image. He said it took time to grapple with it and that's one of the reasons it has taken so long for them to talk about everything.

They are still figuring out how to make their company and the things they do sustainable.

They took a look at their shows to figure out what is the heart and core of them and what is not necessary (and where costs could be reduced).

Making Travel Season was cheaper than Puppet History and Ghost Files. (And Shane mentioned he saw people weaponizing Steven's ~gold eating~ - I want to mention this specifically because I am still angry about those comments.)

They dropped the "TV caliber content". Steven said this thing that was meant as a positive thing in the beginning became how to reach an imaginary bar that did not actually matter. He says the new bar is how to connect to and inspire their viewers, to be curious and do things they love and care about.

Ryan talked about the ego involved in wanting to push things further and making "TV caliber content" and said that the aftermath of the streamer announcement was an opportunity to refocus on what is actually important.

Steven said he asked around the company what their employees think about Watcher and the word that came up a lot was curiosity - they all care about curiosity and exploration.

Ryan said that sometimes you get misguided and need a smack on the head to get back on track - he said that the reaction to the streamer announcement was the biggest smack on the head he'd ever gotten and that he is grateful for it.

Steven apologized (again) for saying that anyone can afford $6 and that is was insensitive of him. Shane clarified that it was a thing they all released and that there was a lot of scapegoating on Steven.

They did not want to take the Goodbye Youtube down until they had the conversation and without unpacking everything. They want to take it down because it has info in it that is not true anymore. It's not about running away from it.

Steven thanked people for giving constructive criticism.

They talked about the future (very exciting!) and that they looked at what people want to see (which fortunately is also what they themselves want to make).

There will be more Ghost Files and more Mystery Files in 2025.

The channel will lean more into the paranormal, the mystery, the spooky.

Puppet History is coming back!

The food content will be moved to a new home (a new youtube channel). It will still be under Watcher's umbrella.

There will be bonus content on the streamer, including experimental things, new things, exlusive stuff (and Evidence Room lol). The videos will be there one month early and ad-free.

Watcher's discord got migrated over from patreon - if you have access to the streamer, you also have access to the discord.

Kudos to Matty for occasionally interjecting and asking important questions and guiding the conversation.

I tried to keep this short but there was a lot. I still highly recommend watching the entire video. It is not only very introspective but also a fascinating look into the Behind the Scenes at Watcher.

I watched the entire podcast episode again and while I love listening to Steven, Ryan and Shane, it was a bit emotionally draining. Would appreciate a few reblogs. :)

Thanks for reading! <3

[flecks-of-stardust]

The Bug Fables Wiki has Migrated to Miraheze!

TL;DR: If you're looking for the Bug Fables wiki, please use the Miraheze version instead! The Fandom wiki's maintenance is no longer being actively supported, and it should not be even visited.

The longer notice: The Bug Fables wiki is off Fandom for good! This has been a long time in the making, and it is overall a positive change. The Miraheze wiki is fully functional and better than the Fandom wiki was previously, with no ads, better formatting, and an active team helping to maintain and correct information. If you're reading this and would like to help out, by all means! You can always join the official Bug Fables Discord server and ask around in the wiki-spoilers channel, but it's also possible to simply use the Talk pages to communicate with wiki editors.

Now that the wiki is on Miraheze, the Fandom wiki will receive only very minor edits where necessary, if ever. However, do not vandalize the Fandom wiki. Beyond vandalism generally being unhelpful, any visitation to the Fandom wiki improves Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of the Fandom wiki, pushing it higher in search results and thus burying the Miraheze wiki. We want the new Miraheze wiki to be higher than the Fandom wiki in search results so traffic gets directed there, so even vandalism benefits Fandom in the end. Simply do not engage, do not click, pretend it doesn't exist.

The Bug Fables wiki has also been registered in Indie Wiki Buddy, an extension that automatically redirects away from Fandom wikis to indie wikis or a wiki mirror. It's recommended to click on the indie wiki directly yourself, but in case the indie wiki has poor SEO, this can help direct you to it. To reiterate: do not engage with the Fandom wiki. Fandom's monopoly over the wiki scene contributes significantly to the SEO of Fandom wikis, and every click counts, so spend them elsewhere.

Regardless, the migration has completed, but there's always work to be done. Whether you're just a wiki user or looking to help out with editing, I hope to see you on the new Miraheze wiki :)

[elysianfieldsarchive]

Hello EF! In case you haven’t heard, it is somehow, inexplicably, 2025. That’s right, we’ve completed another journey around the sun together. And as is apropos at the end of a year and the start of a new one, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished over the last 12 months as a community, as well as all the stuff your mostly benevolent Mods have been doing to improve your overall experience.

We’ll start with what the admin team has accomplished so we can save the best (that’s you guys and your accomplishments) for last.

Over the last year, we:

Added even more gorgeous site skins right out of the gate, increasing the variety of options as well as artist representation on the site

Successfully completed EF’s second mini-event, Monster Mash, and had a ton of fun doing it

Shepherded in the triumphant return of Mystery Month, the third ever, and first following the community-wide vote to trade off years with Drabblemania

Kicked off the year with a new commenting challenge that yielded gorgeous awards

Implemented a much overdue Artist of the Month Award, resulting in 27 members being nominated over the last year, and 13 Artists of the Month having been chosen (counting January 2025)

Rolled out sensitivity reader as a distinct type of beta reader

Introduced a new crediting system so artists, betas, and sensitivity readers are properly acknowledged with each work

Revisited and refined the existing guidance resources for authors and betas, and expanded them to include sensitivity readers

Added warnings to help members better curate their fanwork experience

Cleaned up our categories to minimize confusion

Resolved the email issues that remained from 2023’s server migration

Vastly improved the site’s previous stance on constructive criticism

Implemented member-driven initiatives in community spaces, such as Spotlight Saturday on our Discord server, in which members can recommend the works that mean a lot to them but do not or have not historically received as much attention as other works. Each work can only be recommended once and is compiled into a spreadsheet for reference. This is in addition to thematic watch parties and recreational game nights, which we hope to increase over the coming year.

The Mod team keeps busy behind the scenes discussing and implementing ideas to improve the member experience. There are a lot of initiatives still in the works, so look for those in the months to come. And as always, if YOU have ideas regarding how we can improve member experience, don’t hesitate to drop them in the Suggestion Box. We are always open to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and feedback regarding how Elysian Fields can continue to improve.

And all of these accomplishments were made in conjunction with our annual site events. We’ve already mentioned the Monster Mash Mini-Event and Mystery Month in July, but other events included Challenge Month in April, the Betrayal Challenge in October for EF’s 18th anniversary, and our fifth Secret Santa Exchange. That is in addition to all the other new works added or cross-posted from other archives over the course of the year. We crunched the numbers, and 2024 was the second largest year in terms of new fanworks posted on Elysian Fields in the last five years. The only year that beat it was 2023 (most likely courtesy of Drabblemania). It is also the second year in recorded site history that exceeded 10M words in terms of new words added. The only other year to do this was a bona fide pandemic year, meaning we were all confined to the indoors in ways we haven’t been since 2022 or so. Let that sink in.

Now that it has, did you hear that zipper being lowered? You should have, because we SMASHED 2024.

In the fifth year of recognizing the milestone of Completed Works, 119 creators completed a total of 450 works.

All creators who completed a work of any length (one-shots count!) in 2024 have been issued this award:

Also in its fifth year is the Event Complete Award (formerly the Challenge Complete Award). This was awarded to site members who during the most recent calendar year completed works submitted for the April Challenge, Mystery Month, or October Anniversary Event site event for all years through 2024. Our events generate many great contributions to the archive, and this award seeks to recognize those creators who not only start a new work for a community event but also finish it. As such, single-chapter or single-day events do not qualify (so no Monster Mash or Secret Santa).

And speaking of Secret Santa, we have some numbers to share.

We had 41 event contributions, which during the posting window garnered 918 likes and 456 comments, and for the first time, we welcomed commenters, artists, and beta and sensitivity readers to participate. That resulted in 27 artists and 28 beta and sensitivity readers helping to make the Santa works sparkle, and 47commenters completed the commenting challenge. All participants who completed their works, as well as commenters, artists, and betas, should now have their awards on their profile.

P.S. If you haven't read the fics or oohed at the art yet, you can find them all on the Secret Santa event page, which is also accessible by going to Browse >> Events >> 2024 Secret Santa from the site menu.

In 2024, we added:

10,320,149 words

566 stories

3,208 chapters

1,956 new members

99,718 new likes

39,923 new comments to the archive (comprising 2,175,381 words)

We also have issued awards to our most prolific members. These are chosen by the numbers.

Top 10 Commenters

violettathepiratequeen (156,694 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Commenter Award 2024)

Nightcandle (155,089 words)

magnus374 (147,248 words)

pfeifferpack (133,844 words)

swonderful (128,797 words)

All4Spike (118,334 words)

Green (98,452 words)

acekoomboom (71,023 words)

werehorse (56,350 words)

bmerb (56,037 words)

Our most prolific commenter for 2024 was @violettathepiratequeen!

Top 10 Authors

Ragini (1,022,197 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Author Award 2024)

Maxine Eden (611,744 words)

CheekyKitten (500,901 words)

Passion4Spike (493,995 words)

In Mortal (414,608 words)

Spikelover4ever (361,728 words)

Melme1325 (330,544 words)

Holly (274,667 words)

honeygirl51885 (255,098 words)

scratchmeout (250,047 words)

Our most prolific author for 2024 was Ragini!

We also ran the numbers and issued the very first pretties for our Commenting Star and Commenting Superstar Awards!

As a recap:

The Star Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list 6 months out of the year by leaving at least 15 comments, each of at least 5 words

The Superstar Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list each month out of the year

In 2024, 49 members received the Star Award, and 24 members received the Superstar Award. So if you were an All-Star Commenter 6-12 months out of the year, check your awards because one (at least 6 months) or both (12 months) of these babies should be there.

We love how this incentivized comments for our fanworks, and are pleased to announce the return of this award in 2025. Details (and pretty artwork) forthcoming. So if you want this award in 2025, start commenting!

If you are missing an award you should have received, please reach out to us (elysianfieldsarchive@gmail.com) and we’ll verify and get that corrected.

Friends, we had an amazing year. None of this would be possible without you. Thank you so much for everything you give to the community. We’re so excited to see what 2025 brings—both the stuff we know is coming, and the stuff that will take us by surprise.

[disrespectre]

18+ VAMPIRE VS WEREWOLF DISCORD SERVER

: ̗̀➛ 𝐔𝐇𝐘𝐑𝐄 𖤐

❛ UHYRE noun. monster [noun] (also adjective) (something) of unusual size, form or appearance. a huge and/or horrible creature.❜ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦

*𝐈 . In the beginning…

Vampires and werewolves have been enemies since the dawn of time. A cat and dog rivalry, constantly chasing, attacking, and killing one another. In the past however, they were able to disguise their factions and fights, preying on humans in the shadows. The only ones aware were each other, bickering about not being careful, or splitting the rations of blood.

𝐈𝐈. Covens formed, packs were joined, and throughout history, they prevailed. However, as times would change, so did technology, and their deceptive ways had begun to grow detected. Tensions rose as wolves blamed their bat enemies for not being cautious enough, and vampires blaming their wolven rivals for rampaging in their werewolf form in the night.. over time, they resolved this conflict with an shared idea, as hunters arose as a threat.

𝐈𝐈𝐈. The covens and packs migrated deep into the woods, where they’d be hidden from humankind. This seemed like a perfect resolve.. but problems are never truly over- as now, a new night stalking Shapeshifting beast has been thrown into the ring.. having been hidden in the woods for decades since.

𖤐 18+ Literate - Novella Server on discord

𖤐 Extensive, easy to follow lore that’s continuing to grow as our RP goes on.

𖤐 Create a vampire, werewolf, human, or hunter OC!

𖤐 Friendly members and mods, ready to help you and greet you!

𖤐 welcoming server, with OOC channels to hang out in and an easy to navigate layout.

𖤐 Create storylines, character rivalries, friendships, ships, and more, and share all about your OCs in our OC info channels! were ready to get to know your characters, and you!

𖤐 Come say hello! We’re DYING to meet you.* ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦

[smoothbrainstuff]

Did you know just drawing without worrying about cleaning up is really fun.. wow... that's crazy!! Anyway this is Internal Tempo (IT) who I've been mentioning briefly over the course of multiple posts

He's an odd model of iterator, not belonging to a specific generation as he was made of spare parts. Yeah, it is Total Eclipsing Sky's sibiling, attached by a bridge like LTTM and Five Pebbles. Safe to say the two of them don't get along for.. reasons I'll get into. Internal Tempo is actually closer to 100HP and sees them as their sibiling instead. IT loves pearls they're a total information nerd, it's collection is quite impressive. The pearls he wears on his outfit are his favorites! Mostly videos of his slugcat, Revenant

Talking WAYYY more under the cut now

Internal Tempo was first conceived because of spare superstructure parts leftover from the creation of Total Eclipsing Sky, being hobbled together and attached to his "brother". At first the top of IT's structure was solely used for factories and production, but eventually low-karma citizens from TES would begin to be relocated to live there instead, IT becoming a ghetto. The cause for the overpopulation in TES resulting in this unjust action was because of a mass migration from the surviving citizens of Ten Scales of Karma, a iterator in a nearby group who poisoned her Ancients nectar with void fluid. Internal Tempo hated this immensely, not only was the land surrounding him being polluted to keep TES's city clean, but his population was suffering and he had no power to fix it. Internal Tempo is not a god like the rest of their kind, they were a tool, it didn't have any command over citizens or a say what happened, he was a means to an end that came with the added bonus of more hands to work on the great problem. He was a hunk of scrap meant to play second fiddle to a god amongst gods, Total Eclipsing Sky knew and reveled in this

After the Ancient's extinction it got a little better for IT, he finally received full access to his and other local groups, beforehand only being contacted by TES and 100HP. Lacking most learnt social etiquette has left Internal Tempo with a reputation of being reclusive and anxiety inducing, all it's messages definitely have the vibe of people on discord who speak in all lowercase and add periods to the end of messages 24/7. Despite this fact after many cycles Internal Tempo and Last Nights Song begin to date after clicking almost immediately. Their logs of information help her immensely in keeping track of events when her systems shut down for half the day

Things begin to go awry when a heavily injured purposed slugcat manages to crawl it's way close enough to be picked up by IT's structure organisms, being ferried up to his chamber so they could save it. Through mildly clunky medical care Internal Tempo is able to save it, having to use free blueprints on chat rooms to fill in the missing parts. This slugcat, who will be named Revenant as a reference to their comeback from the brink of death, was created by TES and modified to have bat-like features. Figuring this out begins IT's delve into the rabbit hole of what the void TES has been up to. And it's bad. Enough to finally push Internal Tempo over the edge to plot against their golden brother. Hell has no fury like it's desire for vengeance. One that only gets worse when suspiciously modified scavengers begin ransacking 100 Hopeful Prayers

But this will cost him his body, an eye for an eye. All caused by a pearl and the campaign of a slugcat guided by them. Time will tell, a clocks internal tempo

[muditaaah]

:̗̀➛ 𝐔𝐇𝐘𝐑𝐄 𖤐

❛UHYRE. noun. monster [noun] (also adjective) (something) of unusual size, form or appearance. a huge and/or horrible creature.❜

꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦

𝐈. In the beginning...

Vampires and werewolves have been enemies since the dawn of time. A cat and dog rivalry, constantly chasing, attacking, and killing one another. In the past however, they were able to disguise their factions and fights, preying on humans in the shadows. The only ones aware were each other, bickering about not being careful, or splitting the rations of blood.

𝐈𝐈. Covens formed, packs were joined, and throughout history, they prevailed. However, as times would change, so did technology, and their deceptive ways had begun to grow detected. Tensions rose as wolves blamed their bat enemies for not being cautious enough, and vampires blaming their wolven rivals for rampaging in their werewolf form in the night.. over time, they resolved this conflict with an shared idea, as hunters arose as a threat.

𝐈𝐈𝐈. The covens and packs migrated deep into the woods, where they’d be hidden from humankind. This seemed like a perfect resolve.. but problems are never truly over- as now, a new night stalking Shapeshifting beast has been thrown into the ring.. having been hidden in the woods for decades since.

𖤐 18+ Literate - Novella Server

𖤐 Extensive, easy to follow lore that’s continuing to grow as our RP goes on.

𖤐 Create a vampire, werewolf, or hunter OC!

𖤐 Friendly members and mods, ready to help you and greet you!

𖤐 welcoming server, with OOC channels to hang out in and an easy to navigate layout.

𖤐 Create storylines, character rivalries, friendships, ships, and more, and share all about your OCs in our OC info channels! were ready to get to know your characters, and you!

𖤐 Come say hello! We’re DYING to meet you.

꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦ ꒦꒷꒷꒦

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi! You have a really cool blog and have been getting me into indie RPGs, so firstly just thanks :) But anyway, any RPGs that could work well in a play-by-post format, even if you'd need to homebrew or hack it a little? Online friends on the other side of the world are a beast.

THEME: Play-by-Post.

Hello friend! So I haven’t done a lot of play-by-post games, but I’ve tried it out once or twice. I think in many cases, you might not even need a ttrpg in order to do online roleplay; I’ve played in Star Wars pbp that used the FFG system, but I’ve also seen Star Wars forums that are completely text-based and host their own wikis on information that’s been established in their world to keep track of what's happened so far.

That being said, I can understand having a framework to help guide you, especially if you enjoy the structure of traditional ttrpgs. The possibilities of playing these games by post are vast, although I'm noticing that most of the old forums have migrated over to Discord these days - and Discord makes things like rolling dice so easy, so it makes sense!'

If you're converting a ttrpg that uses dice into something that is play-by-post, you'll have a dice-bot, while if you're using a game that has no dice, or is a little more free-form, then that's one less mechanical piece that you'll need to worry about. Other considerations will likely be things like where you put character sheets, whether the game will be organized in a West Marches format or more like a traditional story, and how often players will be expected to write up what they're doing.

All of this is to say that the following recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg, really. Some of these are designed for play-by-post, while others are just games that I've seen out in the wild before.

Lords of Creation, by Five Points Games.

Lords of Creation is a rules-lite cooperative world building game with a focus on the Divine. Players create Divinities and populate a fresh, open world with a focus on myth telling and lore. The game is intended to be played via Play by Post, allowing players to run multiple societies, factions and elements at once.

Five Points Games clarifies in the game text that this game isn’t really their brainchild, but rather the culmination of play-by-post roleplaying on old WOTC forums. It’s a game about divinity and world creation, and each “turn” of the game takes place over the course of a real-time week. I think this gives a lot of time for each player to be involved in each step of the game, as well as providing in-universe ways to manage players who no longer participate, or who need to stop playing for one reason or another. Lords of Creation is also GM-less, allowing everyone to participate in a partial player, partial GM-style role.

Yowl! What A Strange Hotel, by Zargo Games.

Yowl! is a reviewing service that allows customers to rate establishments from 1 to 6 stars and tell the important details of their stay in a handful of paragraphs. This game is about telling the story of a particular establishment, in this case a hotel, through a series of Yowl! reviews. Reviews are from a different perspective each time, and should reveal something interesting and unusual about the hotel. Is there a dark secret that the hotel is hiding, or is something even stranger going on?

Yowl! looks to be designed for a shorter length of play. Together you will create a strange hotel, and then take turns leaving reviews, letting little pieces of information contribute to a larger story-line as you go. I think this is a relatively simple way of playing by post, although it relies mostly on each player’s creativity, as the game doesn’t come with any prompts.

World /Chronicles of Darkness Games (currently published by Onyx Path).

The World of Darkness franchise is a beast, and has been fuelling play-by-post form play for decades. There’s a number of reasons this collection of settings has been so popular.

It’s focused on factions and politics, which means that a large number of people can join in and fill out various political groups and start plenty of drama with each-other. Because the drama is so juicy, dice rolls can fade into the background. (I don’t think that stops you from being able to use it in a small group though!)

It’s got oodles and oodles of lore, but it’s set within the real world, so players can use something like Google Maps to create a fantasy version of a real-life city, and it provides a solid frame of reference.

It’s been around for a long time, which means that there is so much in terms of resources and advice that you can look at, such as the Onyx Path forums, or the WoD Discord Server.

The Chronicles of Darkness games are specifically designed to be cross-compatible. Changelings, Hunters, Vampires, Werewolves and more can all interact in the same universe - as long as the GM is on board with it. Most of the base rules are the same, with some tweaks for each splat, so if you have some players that really want to play a werewolf, while others are more interested in becoming mages, you can combine the two no problem!

Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, by @jennamoran.

The Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG is a dice-less RPG from Jenna Katerin Moran, author of the well-regarded Nobilis and an important contributor to Eos’ Weapons of the Gods and White Wolf’s Exalted RPG.

Pursue fabulous quests. Progress through Issues. And find a place for yourself in a world of breathtaking beauty.

Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine doesn’t require dice, but rather asks you to role-play through scenes and spend points in line with your character quests. You gain XP for the experiences your character has, the way they interact with other characters, and the steps they take to move towards completing their quest. Because character advancement is dependant on role-play, I think Chuubo’s is a great way to prompt interactions in a play-by-post setting, and character advancement is both a compelling reason for folks to participate and an engine that feeds the storytelling machine.

The rulebook for this game can be a bit of a big read, but there’s a starter adventure included, with pre-built characters to help you get going.

Kids on Brooms and Teens in Space, by Hunters Entertainment.

Kids on Brooms is a collaborative role-playing game about taking on the life of a witch or wizard at a magical school you all attend that uses the “Powered by Kids on Bikes” system, first used in the award winning Kids on Bikes. Kids on Brooms is a rules-light storytelling system that takes you on magical adventures.

Teens in Space is a space opera RPG that uses the “Powered by Kids on Bikes” system. Teens in Space is a rules-light storytelling system that takes you into the cosmos for adventure and profit.

Both of these games use the teen-horror inspired game Kids on Bikes. Since these games rely heavily on polyhedral dice, I think setting up a discord server that also has a dice bot is the way to go with this one. You can choose a character from archetypes provided in the books, or create your own piece-by-piece. Different locations could be represented by different Discord channels, and since these games seem to work really well in regards to mysteries, I think a GM could focus on putting clues in different locations for characters to find, allowing the characters to slowly piece together a mystery over time.

I think Kids on Bikes is a kind of game that is going to require a lot more work to replicate as a play-by-post game than some of the other games on this list, because characters will need to roll dice in order to get things done, and it's best used in a small group. However, one thing I think really works well for these systems is the relationship questions that you roll on to determine how your characters relate to each-other. It gives you a connection right from the get go, and it can give the players something to work with while they're finding their feet.

Belonging Outside Belonging Games.

As a rule, Belonging Outside Belonging games don’t require dice, and as a common feature, BoB games don’t usually require GMs either. Characters are typically organized into playbooks; tropes or classes or collections of abilities that both define characters and make it easier for new players to find their rhythm. These playbooks will come with three categories of abilities: things that you can always do, things that require a token to activate, and things that reward you with a token when you do them. These games also usually include the setting itself as a playbook, or a divided series of responsibilities handed out to each player.

I can imagine a play-by-post form of game moving between descriptive scenes and active scenes, with players alternating between introducing elements of the setting / narrative obstacles; and describing how their characters react to these new events. (I've also seen this kind of thing happen on a Wanderhome server.)

Some Belonging Outside Belonging games that sound interesting to me are Lunar Echoes (a solar punk hack of Wanderhome), Geese at the Beach (chaotic water fowl looking for shines), and Capitalites (urban Asian young people trying to figure out who they are).

I hope you found this useful!

[commodorez]

Retrotech Crew 10 Year Anniversary!

A one-off post from @virescent-phosphor sorta snowballed into a tiny community, mostly started as vague vintage computer/technology shitposting here on tumblr.

We slowly congealed in a Skype group chat, which lasted for several years until we migrated to Discord in early 2017 (because Skype was garbage). By mid 2018, our numbers started to grow well beyond the initial tumblr crowd. And then we got a website and an IRC channel , both hosted by @aperture-in-the-multiverse. Eventually, multiple representatives of our group started showing up to various Vintage Computer Festivals around the country -- "hey, you're so-and-so!" Now, friendly faces are all over the place with overlapping interests.

@techav created a mighty fine vintage style logo for us which now adorns buttons, stickers, and even a handful of t-shirts!

Sure, we may just be a few hundred randos who talk about old computers in our free time with delusions of grandeur. But we're also folks helping one another out on projects, sharing the things we enjoy about old tech, hanging out and having a good time, and even still shitposting like the old days...

To all of the members of the Retrotech Crew, thank you for being a part of us.

To those members we haven't heard from in a long time, we miss you.

Beyond tumblr, here's where we exist on the interwebs:

Discord: https://discord.gg/GQjtBWE3as IRC: #retrodreams on irc.slashnet.org Website: https://retrodreams.net/

[gotham25052]

Dark Waters Part 10

As the social fabric of Gotham begins to fray and the Joker's intrusion into her life escalates, Anna struggles to maintain control. But is she threatened by the Joker or by something within herself?

Contents: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

Overall fic warnings: Explicit violence and explicit sexual content.

Chapter warnings: 18+, NSFW, violence, explicit sexual content, mild blood, speaking graphically about using a knife in violent ways, knife play (not blood play, not cutting), swearing

Author's note: I have moved away to ao3 before for explicit sections, so I just wanted to warn that I don't do that in this chapter.

There is a lot going on in this chapter! I did post briefly last week and then realized it needed major edits and some rethinking, so let's give it a second try. This has turned from a chapter I was worried about to one of my favorites. :)

Annie loved the time in the car, the Joker beside her, speeding through the winding streets. A light mist clouded the windows as they left the skyscrapers of Upper Gotham behind, and she felt the fear and stress she had experienced when navigating the interactions between the Joker's men and the Church members upstate begin to fade away. She wished they would never stop driving.

With so much of the city around them obscured, she could see very little as they drove through the early morning fog - a bench here, a streetlight there. Somehow having her range of vision so clouded helped her limit her thoughts about the future and the wider context of her relationship with him, the man beside her. She liked focusing on the immediate moment, riding in this car that was cutting through the mist to a location only he knew.

If it could only be like this all the time, without worrying about the risks of his obsession with destroying Dent. And now she had a new concern, the price on her own head that would certainly be coming if the Church discovered who had betrayed them. But in this moment, they were both free, isolated from the outside world.

She remembered how careful she had been when she had stolen glances of him in the car headed to the news station so long ago. Now, she was able to memorize the exaggerated lines of his face, his posture, his clothing, at her ease as she sat beside him.

They were climbing now, going uphill as they reached the outskirts of the city, an area where wealthier Gothamites had once built palatial homes to escape the dirt and grime of downtown. Most of the houses had been abandoned over the years as the cost to maintain them went up and their residents migrated to newer neighborhoods.

They must have finally reached their destination. He parked behind an abandoned and collapsing shed, positioning the car so that it was hidden from the road. It seemed that their goal was a dilapidated Victorian style home nearby. In the summer when the leaves were back on the trees and the vines flourished, it looked like the house would be almost invisible.

She wondered if this was some kind of a hideout for him. If so, she understood why he had chosen this location. It was tucked away, and the driveway was almost impossibly pockmarked with holes, making it look as if nothing had been touched here in years.

She liked the overgrown plants and the out-of-the-way location. Somehow it felt like they were hiding from everything here. As she opened the car door, she noticed the deep silence, broken only by the early morning songs of birds. It had been a long time since she was outside the range of the discordant sounds of the city.

As they walked toward it on the overgrown footpath, she noticed that even though the house itself looked abandoned, some of the cracked and peeling paint on the outside had been refreshed. And a beautiful two-story turret window looked brand-new, as if the glass had just been replaced and resealed.

She followed him, not completely sure what they were doing here. But as long as he was with her, she was willing to suspend her questions and worries. He didn't seem to want to break the silence of this spring morning. They reached the front door. He unlocked it but then had to throw his shoulder into the aged paneling to get it to finally budge and open.

She felt the sudden warmth of his hand over hers as he reached back to lead her inside. The large room was open and she could see a kitchen on the other side of the house. A curved stairway led to the second story, and an ornate fireplace adorned the opposite wall. Just like outside, the appearance was a mix of old and new. A beautiful antique sofa sat in front of the fireplace, looking clean and fresh, while the fireplace itself was boarded off and the decorative tiles chipped and covered in dust. The flooring seemed to have been sanded and refreshed near the kitchen, but the boards covering the steps on the stairs looked like they must have been there since the house was built.

She wanted to go see the turret windows from the inside - they had looked so beautiful from outside the house. The alcove of windows was on the way to the kitchen, and she went there and turned around, looking up at the high ceilings and then back out at the spring buds on the shrubs and plants surrounding the house.

She stood simply enjoying the light filtering through the windows. He certainly was being mysterious about why they were here. She turned back to look at him. He was leaning on the opposite wall, seeming to enjoy watching her here in this particular spot. It was surreal to see his purple-clad form here in this quiet old house, but somehow he still seemed to make it his own with his laid-back ease.

"Is this where you live?" she asked.

"No, I just sleep in the van," he answered nonchalantly.

"Why are we here? What's the surprise?" she smiled curiously, wondering why he was being so coy.

"Kitten, this is the surprise," he said impatiently, stepping forward with a flourish of his arms that highlighted the space around them. "This is your new place."

"What?" She turned, looking around her. Just this one room seemed immense compared to her cramped apartment. "How…?"

"I've been having it repaired for a while now - in case they figured out who you were after the hospital, or if things got out of hand in Lower Gotham. I didn't think you'd need it so soon, but with your little gift yesterday… you definitely need it." He walked over to her, reaching behind her back to touch the new seal surrounding the window.

"I've had work done on a few different houses around here. I want it to be hard to spot the one that's being lived in. But the projects aren't exactly done yet."

He walked over to the side of the room, rummaging in one of the boxes stacked there. "Here it is." He pulled what looked like a folded square of red fabric from the box. He returned to stand in front of her.

"The heat is out so I thought you might need something." He let the fabric unfold between them and she realized it was a long red women's dress jacket, the bottom half flared out like a skirt.

She had trouble comprehending his generosity. He must have been planning this for months.

"Well, put it on…" he said, snapping her out of her confused reverie. She slipped her arms through the sleeves and then folded them around herself, enjoying the luxurious warmth.

I sent the guys to your apartment last night to get your things. He motioned to the other boxes and trash bags scattered near the wall. "That's it. It's better for you not to go back there, just in case."

She looked down at the floor for a moment, knowing that he was right, she should be cautious. She shook off the momentary concerns and focused back on the present.

"I have something better now," she said, stepping forward and embracing him, wrapping her arms around his neck and lifting her face toward his. He seemed to have been waiting for her reaction. He raised his hands and ran them over her cheeks and back into her hair, supporting her head as they kissed there in the dappled morning light.

When they broke away from their embrace, he took her hand and pulled her toward a door on the back wall of the house.

"Come here, there's a pretty good view." He took her outside onto a small porch. The decking was decayed and looked like it was one of those things that had stayed beyond the range of the recent renovations. She picked her steps carefully to avoid the most rotted-out boards, and immediately saw what he was talking about. The city stretched out in the distance below them, the fog hanging over it so that she could see the lights still on there, even though the sun was shining around them. It was as if Gotham was always enshrouded in night.

The city was much further beneath them than she had realized, and seeing the lights would be beautiful at night. "It's amazing," she said. "So I can watch you, in the city, from here?"

"Yeah, you'll always know where I am." She looked at him and smiled, but her expression also held a hint of sadness, knowing that she couldn't control what he would do there, what risks he would take.

They turned and walked back inside. "Kitten, I have to leave, I'm going to have to check on things, especially with the guns coming in now. There's the food from your apartment over there, and I'll try to come back tomorrow with some more."

"Go," she said. She let his hand slide slowly out of her grasp and then he was gone. She was left there alone in the strange, half-finished house.

Her first thought when he had gone was simply, sleep. Her body and mind craved rest after the overwhelming events of the morning. He hadn't really given her a tour of the upstairs, but she assumed there would be at least one bedroom in working order. She walked slowly up the stairs, looking back at the open space below as she rose toward the second floor.

She found a simple hallway there, and tried all the doors before settling on the bedroom that had obviously had the most work done. It was a lovely room, but with some of the same faults of the rest of the house - the ceiling was peeling with age. But the floor had obviously been redone and the freshly polished hardwood shone under her feet.

She finally lay back with relief on the bed, letting out a breath and feeling the stress she had gone through in the early morning hours leaving her and giving way to a pleasant fatigue. It was early afternoon, but she didn't mind going to sleep now. He wouldn't be back until tomorrow - as tired as she was, she thought she might just sleep until then. She would have scarcely pictured herself here, in a run down but beautiful old home on the outskirts of Gotham, her whereabouts known only by the Joker. But here she was.

The unlikely nature of her new situation settled in her thoughts as she felt herself begin to fall asleep, and she noticed something there in the back of her mind. She couldn't pinpoint it. There was an unfamiliar shape there, something hiding - something unpleasant. She just couldn't put her finger on it somehow.

She sat up in bed, becoming alert. She focused on bringing this dark feeling from the depths of her mind up to the surface.

She remembered the words of the police officer she had spoken to so long ago, "Why would the Joker be interested in someone like you?" She hadn't thought about it for a long time, but now the words began to echo through her mind. It was very strange, that he had chosen her, so unlikely. What was special about her? She knew that he could have had any number of women from the dark underside of Gotham's nightclubs and gathering places, considering the power and sway he held in the city.

A thought, like a winding snake, slipped through the depths of her unrealized thoughts and showed itself suddenly at the forefront of her mind. There was one thing that was unique about her… her expertise on the Church. Her knowledge of where the guns were. What if that explained everything? His pursuit of her, his curiosity about her past…

Even the way he had wasted away after Dent's seizure of his weapons - was it all a rouse, just a game he was playing with her? Contrasting thoughts did occur to her. The fact that he didn't have any shortage of weapons when he first met her, and how he likely would have killed her already on the journey to this remote location if she had outlived her purpose, for example, did run through her mind. But somehow logic couldn't stop the freight train of humiliation and hurt that came to her once she accepted the possibility that he had just chosen her because of her utility to his operations.

The self-doubt and neglect she had suffered throughout her life somehow prepared her to accept the sneaking suspicion once it had crept out of its hiding place. And soon it had taken over like a parasite, not allowing her room for any conflicting thoughts.

It seemed clear to her now that he had manipulated her into giving him the information. And she had certainly given it to him. She suddenly felt embarrassed at how she had even dressed for him, the red lipstick - she had wrapped herself up into a neat package that he had already determined he would have, just short of a year ago now, when he first discovered her. But it was even more than that. He owned her body and soul now - he was everything to her. But now it looked like she was nothing to him. How could she have been so stupid, to have so eagerly given herself to him?

The lonely solitude of the house allowed her thoughts to cascade down further and further, following the outline of this new reality, and darkness surrounded her. She no longer thought about sleep, and she instead started pacing through the house, her feet covered in dust from the unfinished floors. Her emptiness and sadness at the perceived betrayal began to transform into a rage that she couldn't control.

She forgot about sleep, forgot about time. She only noticed night had fallen when she ran her foot into the bottom step of the stairs because she could no longer see the floor. She felt for the paneling and ran her hands along the old wallpaper until she found a switch. Turning it on resulted in a dull light, since most of the bulbs in the fixture had been removed.

She made her way back to the kitchen, pulling out the drawers one at a time. Most of them were empty, but then she found one with a few kitchen utensils. And then the next drawer above it yielded what she was looking for - a set of cooking knives. She sorted through them, her anger and shame guiding her, even though she didn't have a distinct plan. She finally settled on one and placed it on top of the counter. She walked over to the light switch, flipping it off, letting the darkness take over the room. She felt her way back to the kitchen and began pacing again, bitter tears trailing down her face.

It was late morning when she heard the creak and slam of the front door. He must be here, earlier than she had thought. She made a snap decision, grabbing the knife she had set out and dropping down to the floor, hiding herself behind the counter. She grabbed onto a cabinet handle to help stabilize herself and tried to breath as quietly as possible.

She crawled silently closer to where he would first turn the corner to enter the kitchen.

"Hey kitten, I brought some food, so you can fill up these cabinets a little. Where are you?"

She could hear him setting bags down on the other side of the counter. Every detail was etched in her mind as she concentrated on her goal. She could hear his footsteps - he was so close now.

She knew he'd see her just a moment before he rounded the corner, and she sprang up suddenly as he reached that point.

In one smooth motion she was up and bringing the knife down toward the side of his neck with significant force. She must have looked terrifying with the lack of sleep and the contorted face of anger she had when she faced him.

Was he very quick to recognize the danger and caught her before she could cut too deeply? Or did she hesitate for just a moment, and he took advantage of that split second of opportunity? Either way, he had her wrists trapped in his hands before the knife had a chance to do more than graze his skin.

"What the fuck, Annie?" he shouted. He paused, catching his breath and glaring at her with a furrowed brow.

"You're not too bad with a knife," he remarked more quietly. Not letting go of her wrist, he reached up to the base of his neck, bringing her hand with his, touching the small wound and bringing back his hand to see blood on his fingers. But he could tell it was an insignificant cut.

"You don't quite know what you're doing, do you? But you're a natural."

She was breathing heavily, struggling to hold onto the knife and pull away from him.

His practiced calm contrasted with her frantic movements as she tried to remove her wrists from his grasp. She still had the knife in her hand and began to try to kick with her legs, despite her range of motion being limited by the counter close behind her.

"So you don't like the furniture or something?" he asked lightly.

Despite his patience, he realized that she still posed a danger - her wriggling form was getting harder and harder to control.

"Ok, playtime is over. One more move and I'll call my men in here, and we'll give you some of that happy coffee you had a long time ago. I bet you'd have a lot to say, if I gave that to you."

His words subdued her immediately. She remembered the hallucinations she experienced when she had unknowingly drunk his homemade concoction long ago. She stopped struggling and he pried apart her fingers so that the knife dropped to the floor. He kicked it a short distance away.

"Ok," he said, letting her go and taking a step back. "Now, would you like to talk about something? Or, we could fight if you want, that would be fun. But you can't have the knife."

She stood catching her breath, looking at the floor, her hair hanging messily. She didn't want to talk to him, but she knew she wouldn't win any fights. He would always be able to overpower her. Always calm, always in control, he trained his calculating stare onto her disheveled form.

"You knew," she said, supporting herself with the counter and facing him.

"Mm hmm, that's good kitten, talk. I knew what?"

"You knew how I got out of the Church, didn't you? You knew I had the location of the guns. And you took me, all of me, just to get them. I wish you had just killed me before I ever figured it out." She looked down, watching her tears make perfect little circles as they hit the dusty counter. She didn't really care what he did to her now. If revenge wasn't possible, she didn't have interest in much else.

His expression turned quickly from amusement to rage as he took a step toward her. She looked up, alarmed despite herself, backing out of the kitchen until she found herself blocked by the hallway wall.

He had a murderous look. He covered the distance between them with a few strides and wrapped a gloved hand around her neck, pushing her back and pinning her to the wall.

"No, kitten, I didn't know," he growled. "If I had wanted information from you, I would have gotten it a long time ago. How I treated you, when we, uh, got acquainted - it was child's play."

His voice reverted to his usual tone. "But what about you? What if I was your target? Maybe you just wanted someone to help you get revenge on that Church of yours, huh? Could that be it?"

His hand was wrapped too tightly around her neck for her to speak, but she mouthed "No," her eyes wide.

But he knew what he had said wasn't true already - he had understood her feelings and watched them grow since the first moment he saw her fascinated gaze following him there in the ballroom.

He looked at her, his eyes flickering between rage and a deep warmth. There was something in his gaze that was more intense than anger.

"Can't you tell that I love you, Annie? Don't you know?"

He loosened his grip and let her go, leaving her coughing to regain her breath. She had barely recovered when he was back, holding her upright on the wall, his hands on either side of her head this time. His face was there in front of her, almost touching hers, the paint smeared from their struggle.

All the web of suspicion and betrayal that had been spun in her mind suddenly disappeared, like a black vail blown away in the wind, and the darkness was gone. She tried to take in what he had said.

"You… love me?" she asked quietly, her voice hoarse from her irritated throat, her lips brushing across his as she said it.

"Yeah, Annie, fuck, why don't you see that?"

He locked his eyes onto hers, not allowing her to look away.

"What's your problem? You can't believe that someone can love you just because of how you think, how your body moves, how beautiful you are? That's not enough?"

Despite her immense relief that her suspicions had been untrue, she could barely process his words.

Besides her own self-doubt, she also had trouble understanding how a man like this could do something as mundane as love her. She had known for a long time now that she loved him, but hearing the words from his mouth was something she never expected. She loved him like you love a force of nature, you don't expect the wind or the ocean to come back and tell you it loves you. It can take you and toss you to your death or curl around you with delicious warmth, but it is unaffected by your feelings.

Their lips met and it was as if he thought he could convince her of his feelings with just this one kiss.

He finally pulled away, a smile coming to his face. She watched him as he bent down and carefully picked up the knife. He studied it as he flipped the handle around so that it faced her, offering it to her, nodding his head to make it clear that she should take it.

She accepted it, hesitating, the weight of the weapon seeming heavier than before when her anger had fueled her, but the handle feeling strangely comfortable as she grasped it.

"You like it, don't you?" He looked at her quizzically, as if she was going to explain how she felt with it in her hand. But of course she was silent, her thoughts hidden as usual. She didn't know how to express what she felt, exactly, in words.

He held her shoulders, guiding her away from the wall, and he took her place there, facing her.

He tried a different angle. "Tell me why you chose the neck." He took her hand and gently guided it upward so that the blade rested there on his shoulder.

"I don't know," she said, not wanting to put herself back into the enraged mindset she had earlier that day.

"No, you chose where to strike. Tell me," he said in a more commanding tone.

She thought for a moment, seeming to need to travel though some kind of barrier to get to the point where she could answer him. "I had to hit you somewhere… where I couldn't save you, because I knew I would try to save you after. And your neck is exposed - I thought your clothes would be hard to get through with this knife."

She talked in a monotone, as if she was tapping into some subconscious layer of her mind. Her eyes were focused elsewhere. He reached out his hand and tilted her chin up so that her gaze settled on him.

He let out a sigh and a solemn look fell over his face. He raised his arms to the wall behind them, bending his elbows and letting his hands relax, as if in surrender. She stood frozen, holding the knife there on his shoulder. The only thought that was processing through her brain was how beautiful he looked there. His messy hair and the clashing colors of his clothes, the makeup that looked like it was melting from his face - all of it was haphazard, but he looked absolutely perfect to her.

He closed and then slowly opened his eyes. "What do you want to do?" he asked.

She opened her mouth, wanting to answer but confused about her feelings. What did she want? The question wrapped itself around her, his honeyed voice so familiar to her now, so inviting. She had no desire to hurt him now. All the doubt had been erased from her mind.

She wanted him, but she was unsure of what to do in the moment. After all, he usually led her, and she took her cues from him.

She had stepped back as they were talking, but now she came close to him, keeping the knife there against him. It seemed that he liked it there, and she felt some kind of power as she rested it on his shoulder near his neck, an intoxicating control. He was so much larger than her, so much stronger - but the sharp edge of the knife was her advantage.

She drug the flat of the blade slowly, carefully, up over his neck, onto his cheek. It followed the divots and textures of his scars and she changed the angle to trace the sharp point over his bottom lip until she found the edge of the scar at its base. She turned the point around it there, so delicately. She was mesmerized with the sweet red of his lips and the contrast of the cold steel blade. His breaths were coming more quickly now, but he stayed perfectly still for her. She brought the knife back down to his neck to rest it on his shoulder.

She focused, keeping her eyes locked on his even though the intensity of his gaze was almost unbearable. She brought her knee up between his legs, bracing herself with her arm on the wall behind him, rubbing it over him gently. His head fell back and he closed his eyes, making a sound in his throat that she wanted to hear again. She continued, with a little more force this time, the effort of keeping her balance making her begin to breath more deeply.

She changed her tactic and planted her feet firmly on the floor. She kept the knife in her hand but pointed the blade out away from him, letting him feel the hardness of its dull edge as she drug it down the side of his body. She was now on her knees in front of him, pushing aside his open jacket and endeavoring to unfasten his belt with one hand.

He let out a sound of frustration but kept his hands obediently resting on the wall, his fingers sometimes flexing with the stress he felt but never moving from their spot, as if an invisible restraint kept him there.

She felt it was almost cruel, but she knew him, knew he liked extremes. She hoped she was guessing correctly. She slowed down to half the speed, taking her time to feel his belt and the zipper under it. She refused to rush, she lingered on every action. He could feel each tooth of the zipper as she pulled it down, one little tick at a time.

Something like a growl came from his throat with the excruciating slowness, but all was silent after she pulled the pants and underwear down to his ankles and drug the pointed tip of the knife slowly up the muscled lines of his thigh, carefully leaving nothing but the slightest scratch behind.

She took the blade away and held it firmly on his hip while she followed the thin line with her mouth, kissing him in a slow trail. She heard him inhale sharply when she moved upward and took him into her mouth. He lost control for a moment, moving his hips out slightly, perhaps hoping that she would take more of him. But she was too quick for him, moving to the side and just letting her lips glide over him as he moved. She couldn't believe she was saying these words, but she reprimanded him. "No, no, you're not allowed to do that." He obediently brought himself back and clenched his teeth with the strain of waiting.

"That's better," she murmured. She stroked him with her tongue, bracing him with one hand at times, but still not giving him a home yet, denying him. She took him into her mouth, to her throat, but then let him go before he could gain any satisfaction. He cried out, and the sound was too much for her.

She relaxed her hand with the knife and released it to the floor. She was hurrying now, frantic. They could hear each other's deep breaths as they stood there in the silence of the empty house. She undid the buttons of her jacket as quickly as she could. He was still waiting there in the same position, chest heaving. She didn't have time to take it all off, just what she had to, and she ran her hands over his arms to bring him off the wall. She lifted herself toward him, telling him softly that he could take her now.

He came to her, kissing her relentlessly so that she could barely breath, pulling her down with him as he fell to his knees on the floor, like a wave crashing over her. She laid down in front of him and he came after her, spreading her legs apart and finally letting himself find his rhythm inside of her. She let him have relief, not minding how very hard the floor was under her back.

Her mind was still reeling from everything that had happened but he made her forget it, like always. She could only think about how wonderful he felt. It seemed like he couldn't cover enough of her, as if in his frantic caresses he wanted to take every inch of her now that he had her. He brought his arm behind her shoulders and lifted her toward him, bringing his mouth close to her ear. "Thank you," he said between deep breaths. He uttered it with such sincerity and such sweet seductiveness, he made the reward more than worth her efforts. He laid her back again and she gave him everything, taken away in the moment and letting the movements of her body feed his desires.

They were lying on the bed the next day, in the early morning hours, looking up at the cracked and peeling paint on the ceiling. Somewhere in the house there were crickets chirping, seemingly confused about the time of day.

"Why did you leak the audio of Dent?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"What? Oh, you mean the 'rats in Lower Gotham.'" he smiled, turning his head to look over at her. "I didn't. I don't know who did that. That's the beauty of chaos, once it starts it just keeps going, branching out - you never know what may happen."

She didn't share his enthusiasm. "He'll never stop. Dent will never stop looking for you…"

"I know," he said impatiently. "That's why I didn't leak that audio. No one like him would ever let that go. I wanted to bring him down, but I didn't want to have him on my back like this."

His calm demeanor returned. "But you're right, kitten," he said.

He turned to her, moving his hand up to her hair and running his fingers through the loose strands that fell down over her shoulders. "And the Church, those people will never stop looking for you, either."

They both turned to look up at the ceiling again, recognizing the danger surrounding them but relishing the isolated moment together in this protective cocoon of a house, so far above the harsh, unforgiving edges of Gotham.

Author's note: [Spoilers] He is so sweet here, I know. I couldn't help it.

I think I will be taking a break before working through the next chapter, and I may not be following my regular schedule. But I have lots of material written for a couple of future chapters that follow the next one, so Annie and the Joker are returning!

This is fanfic, so of course I don't own any characters from The Dark Knight (Joker, Batman, etc.). The main female character is original.

[dearheart42regenerated]

emerging from fandom hibernation/agonizing over my unfinished fics because it sounds like tumblr might actually be approaching its death throes for REAL in the near future, and I'm sad because the motorcity fandom is so lovely and tiny and niche, and I'm scared we'll never find each other or have another place to congregate if tumblr goes down...... :(

are there any active/semi-active motorcity discord servers right now? any MC fandom spaces on other sites where we can share stuff?

I also just panic-created a couple wordpress domains I can use to try preserve as much old fandom content as I can ("motorcityfandom" and "motorcityarchive", but I'm open to other suggestions too!) I don't trust myself to moderate anything bc ADHD flakiness lol, but I can use the power of Hyperfixation to preserve old fandom content! downloading/screenshotting @peopleofmotorcity's entire blog will be hard (I'm also eyeing @fyeahmotorcity's content) but I'm gonna start chipping away at it as best I can. this cartoon and fandom holds so many good memories for me and I'd be heartbroken if everything disappeared.

if anyone else has ideas for preserving stuff and/or migrating to other spaces, pleeeease pretty please chime in I don't want us to die out ;_;

[mintywolf]

A Long Road Home - Page 112 Author's Notes

Page 112

This page and the next one have been a part of the script for a long time. (As far back, I think, as the draft when chapter two was just Laudna telling her story to Imogen while they were on the road, before the Darkstone arc happened on the show and I decided to weave it into the main plot with the connecting thread of Laudna remembering meeting Imogen in the future-past.) The timing of this flashback scene has gotten bounced around a lot through revisions, causing the context of it to change. Originally it was a pretty straightforward account of the moment of Delilah’s arrival, and the first four panels were supposed to show Not-Yet-Laudna over the course of the year between the Whitestone Rebellion and the final(ish) defeat of the Briarwoods by Vox Machina close to the end of C1, of which she remained contentedly unaware.

****

Panels 1, 2, 3, 4: Not-Yet-Laudna travels through the changing seasons, with the live Not-Yet-Pâté. He is still nameless, because so is she. She sings as she ambles along with no particular direction.

In spring she sits in a meadow, weaving a wreath of flowers for him and a crown for herself.

In summer she lies in a rough hammock in the shade of a tree in her underthings, napping with her rat curled on her chest, and her clothes hung on branches nearby fluttering in the breeze.

In autumn she is being chased away from a village by hostile townspeople.

In winter she is walking through a snow-dusted field, with her rat huddled in the fur on her shoulder, under her hair. She is looking a little worse for wear by this point.

****

I really liked the idea of her just wandering along living her simple unlife with no idea that there’s an entire heroic adventure happening somewhere else (until the villain is abruptly catapulted into her body after being defeated). I went so far as sketching the first two panels, but at this point in the story I felt that there needed to be a greater emphasis on how she really was struggling to survive on her own before Delilah came, and how scared, and hungry, and lonely she was in the year she spent on her own. (I also felt that I should at least allude to the probable laudanum withdrawal she had to go through after being poorly resurrected and subsequently banished from society, since the planned scenes that followed up on that migrated to chapter 13 of Remember Us and never returned. It's the same apothecary, now fixed up post-Briarwoods and possibly under new management.)

The following panels have always been the same, though. She is immediately aware of Delilah’s presence because she is knocked over by her last living memory: being shot in the face with a flaming arrow by Vex.

(P.S. if you saw the wip preview on Discord and are wondering where Pâté went, I forgot he wasn’t supposed to return from being flung until the next page. He’s okay! He’s just slightly offscreen right now.)

[sweetmage]

I posted these on discord but I thought why not share here too? 😊

Some of my personal Viktor Vektor headcanons (as mentioned across my various fics) below the cut ✨️

He played drums in a small band for a very brief time and also had a commercial acting stint during the height of his fame (the latter of which he has never lived down the shame and embarrassment of).

He suffered a series of traumatic brain injuries which eventually ended his boxing career. He could have compensated via cyberware but he wasn't liking the way augmentations were bleeding into the sport so he opted not to. He still deals with persistent hand tremors as well as occasional migraines and bouts of vertigo.

He used to run a public broadcast station when he was much younger, though whether that or his smooth manner of speech came first I haven't decided yet.

He had an ex-girlfriend during his prime who he lost due to being a player. He had whisked her away from her papmered life of corpo parents and wound up getting her into the world of crime she never clawed her way out of. He regrets that deeply now, not because he wants her back but because she was a nice girl who could have been living a more normal life now. She wound up a fixer and a supplier of pharmaceuticals and they hardly speak outside of business. (Her and her kids are actually some of my old OCs I migrated over to this world).

Even all these years on he's still a cool, collected natural in a street brawl.

He really likes cars, but he's more of a practical car and truck sort of guy, compared to V who is all about hotrods and luxury vehicles.

He has quite a temper but his patients and friends rarely see it because he likes them. Those who thoroughly disrespect him though...

Also he is loved by cats inherently and he's not really sure why.

[transcendence-au]

TAU Wiki 2.0!

TL;DR The TAU wiki has moved!

Hey everyone! Mod F here to talk about a project we're working on regarding the Transcendence AU wiki. As many of you may know, the TAU Wiki is hosted on Wikia/FANDOM, an extremely popular free wiki farm. They've hosted us for years, and using them has been an easy and convenient way to get information about TAU out to people who are looking for it.

However, especially as time has gone on, we (and FANDOM users at large) have had more and more issues with the way the site is run. FANDOM is a for-profit company, and they profit off of the free labor of its editors through advertising. Advertising that is generally very large and obnoxious on every page on the wiki. That's the biggest of our concerns, although there are others: they control the platform, so they can control the content if they want, and they give limited options for wiki customizability.

Because of this, we have decided to start our own wiki, off of FANDOM. This way, we can be in control of the presentation, and we can own our own work. The new wiki has already been set up, and pages from the old wiki have already been moved over (although images need to be migrated manually). There's a little migration guide I've been working on, for anyone interested in helping. Of note: the new wiki is hosted on my own web server, and it is guaranteed to be ad-free forever.

FANDOM does not like it when communities move away. They don't allow deleting the old wiki, because they want to continue to make advertising revenue from it, and they ban administrators if they promote the new wiki. On top of that, they will usually appear much higher in search results than wikis on any other platform. These things make this project difficult, but not, I believe, impossible.

Despite all of that, we still want to do whatever we can to make our new wiki the best it can be. We'd love it if you could sign up and contribute information about your favourite TAU topics! If you have any questions, you can send us an ask, or join the TAU discord to talk about it.

[proship-confessional]

I was never really Involved in fandom for YEARS at first, like, there’s definitely things I brainrotted on, mostly just bouncing shit between my brother and me (funny thing about my brother, is a fandom prude, but not in an anti way, like, he refuses to even CONSIDER anything if it’s not canonically feasible, but if it happens to be a proship concept that makes sense with the canon, he couldn’t care less), not really fully engaged with any wider fanbase, yknow?

anyways, I went off my adhd meds for the first time since preschool (I was diagnosed YOUNG) when Covid hit and got whammied with the biggest hyperfixation I’d ever had up to that point and that I have ever had since. I’m still chasing that high. But anyways, that hyperfixation was DSMP

and again, kudos to my brother frfr, he heard I was obsessing over controversial block men and was just like Aight cool wanna make a crossover AU with this book series I like. And so we would spend HOURS at a time just talking about who fits where and shit

and ANYWAYS, DSMP had probably one of the most solid antiship/proship divide I have ever seen in any fandom to this day. Maybe I’m wrong and there’s something else bigger than the DSMP did it. But I don’t think I am.

I made an entirely separate email account in order to make an entirely separate ao3 account and discord account and twitter account because literally everyone in poppytwt did it. Oh yeah our proship community was called poppytwt and idk where the term came from but I like it

and everyone was private and you had to send proof you’re poppy to follow anyone and fanfics weren’t tagged with ANY main tags other than the ship tags themselves and it still feels like it was a whole ass black ops operation

and A N Y W A Y S idk where I’m really going with this. it was one hell of an adrenaline rush, I’ll tell you that. As previously stated. I am still chasing that high. I know a large poppy population migrated to tumblr at some point, but I hadn’t made a poppy tumblr (I had the email. I easily could have. But the fixation was already dying by then. Glad I didn’t tbh since I used it recently to make a general proship acc). If any poppyblr people see this, HAIIII :3

oh and also. That crossover thing I mentioned way back at the start is the type of crossover that’s “take the plot of one and the characters of another and line them up just so”, and we obviously took Tommy as the protagonist and branched out from there (since Tommy was pretty much the DSMP protagonist, as easily as a Minecraft server can have one), and through sheer chance of following the web out from there, Ranboo landed himself in the slot of Love Interest, and through SHEER DUMB LUCK, I’m a Tomboo main. And the plan was that if we ever wrote the fic, we’d make it platonic, but I’ve seen a lot more main fandom tomboo fics lately (mixed feelings abt that. On the one hand, Yay! Tomboo! On the other hand, Did My Blood And Sweat Shed In The Trenches Mean Nothing? How Dare You Scorn My Name Only To Turn Around And Do The Same Crimes.), so if bro and I ever get around to writing, i might just make it romantic and see what happens.

!!!