#obligatory disclaimer

[batman-gif]

okay, yk what *furries your emo band*

[mintedwitcher]

Okay look I will openly admit to not being a Martha fan (it's a whole thing, I'm still dissecting it) but like. Guys. Why do you think its 'unfair' that she doesn't get her own Doctor double?

Her arc ends with her realising that she doesn't need him. More than that, that her relationship with him is unhealthy. Why would she need her own version of him, and moreover, why would she want one?

Donna and Rose expressed similar wishes throughout their run, wanting to travel with the Doctor forever, but (as far as I can remember) Martha didn't share that wish. She loved travelling with him, but when she realised that there was more that she could do on Earth than in the TARDIS, she willingly walked away from it, twice.

I get that it's a funny joke, and maybe I'm overanalysing and spoiling the fun, but I just. I'm really honestly trying to figure out why Martha would want a double or a duplicate of the Doctor when - last we saw - she was settled and happy with Mickey.

[partsofapuppy]

the silly syscourser is so funny. i think we all need a silly syscourser in our lives. syscourse is stupid forever

[decompose1]

i never scammed on animal jam i've just played since the beta release and slowly accumulated a ton of rare items that i sell and buy rarer things with the profits from. i clawed my way to the top of the animal jam economy. im only a capitalist when its a kids game

[princesskuragina]

My last post was being snarky but here's my genuine pronoun etiquette opinion in case you actually want to know: it's pretty much never a good idea to directly ask someone their pronouns in front of a group of people, especially if you're in a position of authority, i.e. a teacher. The stakes of this question are very high for some people and you are putting them on the spot to decide what they want to share and what is safe to share. If you have decided you want to ask for pronouns at all, you can introduce yourself with your own to remind people that they can share theirs if they want to. And for the love of god whatever you do please do not just single out the most gender non-conforming or "trans looking" (to you) person and ask only them and no one else

[doyouknowthisdragartist]

"what's the appeal of drag kings" because women are my favorite guy next question

[valtsv]

will never understand the misogynistic inclination to pigeonhole every female character into the "exasperated sensible mom friend" role as if there's anything better than a woman so devoid of maternal instincts that she makes wire mother look soft. woman who rolls over and walks out onto the balcony to smoke a post-coital cigarette alone and leaves without a note or any kind of acknowledgement after sleeping with you because she can't stand the vulnerability of sleeping next to someone, or waking up beside them the following morning. woman whose idea of relaxing is abusing substances alone in a dark corner somewhere, and snarling and snapping at anyone who approaches her, regardless of intent. woman so emotionally unavailable she fails or refuses to notice that her lame ass partner is trying to push the divorce papers until they've taken the kids and left a heartfelt but scathing note pinned to the fridge. woman with more vices than genuine friends. woman whose expression stays blank and arms remain limply at her sides when you wrap her up in yours for a hug. woman without a gentle touch in her body, with nothing but rough edges and sharp angles.

[reasonsforhope]

Sometimes you just have one of those moments where the progress we've made as a culture get thrown into stark relief. You look at something and go "Holy shit, that would never have happened when I was a kid."

Today, I had one of those moments when I realized that the teenage boys I'm working with are just. genuinely, openly enthusiastic about going to Build-a-Bear for their outing.

These are sixteen and seventeen year old boys! They just had a whole conversation about what to name their "cute", mostly new squishmallows! They're genuinely excited that they're going to Build-a-Bear this weekend and asking other kids to pick up specific accessories for them!!

Holy shit, that never would've happened when I was 16. None of the boys would have dared to be visibly interested - and neither would most of the girls! There would have been a million gay jokes and "Haha, you're a girl" jokes and "What are you, a baby?" jokes. Teenagers weren't even supposed to care about anything back then!

Less than 15 years later, and I'm watching three 17 year old boys treat all that as not even worthy of comment.

So let's call that a reason for hope. Even when the kids aren't alright, in some ways apparently they are alright. Go Gen Z, honestly. It's so lovely to watch you guys just openly doing and saying stuff that, when I was a teen, would've been a social death sentence.

[jupitermelichios]

just to expand a little on the not demanding more point;

if you really want a completed story continued or a sequel written, comments along the lines of 'if you decide to continue this i'd love to read what you come up with' are totally fine and appreciated, and 'can't want to see what happens next' comments on ongoing WIPs are lovely

what is not lovely, and happens with depressing regularity, are comments like 'when are you going to update this' or 'why is this incomplete', especially because they frequently don't even come with an acknoledgement that the commenter enjoyed the fic! just a demand for more "content", and it's disheartening, and personally it puts me off continuing the story!

I'd also like to add a couple of items to the list if I may;

Unless you mark them as private, authors can see what you put in your bookmarks, so please don't use that as a place to write a negative review or vent about what you didn't like. if you want to mark a fic as being one you disliked so you remember to avoid it in future, either make the bookmark private, or get the AO3rdr (or similar) browser extension that lets you do that outside of AO3 itself

creating collections of fics you love is fine, but please add bookmarks of fics, not the fics themselves, because if you decide in the future to private your collection (and you have no way of knowing what might happen in the future that could cause you to do that) all the fics you've added will be hidden from the archive, and the author will not get any kind of notification about that! adding bookmarks avoids this risk, while still letting you create fun collections

those 'hey ao3 please stop linking atreus of sparta to atreus the jotun they're two different characters' style of frustrated tags authors sometimes put on their fics addressed to the tag wranglers (no prizes for guessing what the main fandom I wrangle is, lmao) are actually really useful to the wrangling teams, but please be polite! we are volunteers, and if something is linked up wrong it was an honest mistake (or there is a good reason why it's linked that way that has to do with stuff behind the scenes)

if your story uses a reader-insert or y/n, or an OC as a main character, please add 'reader', 'you', 'original character(s)' or a similar tag to the fic. because of the way tag linking works behind the scenes, there's no way for readers to easily find (or exclude) reader-insert or oc fics unless you add them as character tags!

AO3 Etiquette

It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:

Kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished - you kudos.

If you liked it, you should comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.

No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it. Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity. Don't ruin that for them.

Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.

There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.

For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.

Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLANTONIC, like friendship or family.

Nothing is banned. This is an implicit rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.

People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.

Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.

Avoid deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - orphan it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to you anymore.

This is a creative fanfiction archive. No essays on your insights or theories please. There are other places for that.

I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.

I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.

[caladbolg]

hermes said he doesnt get to work w charon as often

[ssalballoon]

Atlas

Can rest his weary bones

The weight of the world

All falls away

- after the initial fright of a wizard losing one's magic, i imagine it could feel like respite similar to how flying to a new country and being unknown and a complete blank slate is... among the sussur blossoms he is just gale dekarios

- lyrics from good riddance by Darren Korb (play hades/supergiant games and change your life forever)

- his embroidery has roses in it, apparently it's a term of endearment in waterdeep :') cute

[plesiosaurys]

getting emotional over footage of an amateur scuba diver interacting with a coelacanth. they are hunted by large deepwater predators, and here comes a large creature bearing the brightest lights it's ever seen, making strange noises, but it does not shy away. it hovers, calmly, as the diver reaches out and trails a hand down its back. im strongly against the anthropomorphizing of real life animals but the stupid emotional part of me loudly insists this is because it recognizes us, the alternating movements of its four paired limbs matching the diver's four paired limbs, & it is thinking, "hello, cousins, we missed you these 66 million years, it's so good to see you again. welcome back, welcome home."

[starstruckodysseys]

one of the lines in balance that always gets me isn’t even a character line. it’s not some badass or heartbreaking moment between characters or anything.

it’s griffin’s “how could you forget about lup?”

because he says it with this sort of incredulous laugh. and at first it’s like “oh yeah, haha, how could you?” because it’s lup. she’s your other half. your twin sister, your best friend, the other part of your soul. you know yourself through her. of course you wouldn’t forget her!

but you already have. and slowly, the dread sets in, because you have, and now you’re remembering, and there’s a kind of rage that comes with it.

how could you forget about lup?

[samwpmarleau]

would love to know why the cops keep releasing photos and information about the uhc shooter, because what we've learned:

attractive

smart

rich — but a class traitor

no criminal history

by all accounts a good person

killed the one person he intended to kill and no one else

grievance that's both personal (his botched back surgery + family member illness) and ideological (fuck the healthcare industry)

politics are a weird mix of both right and left, so republicans can't call him a crazy liberal

concise, well-articulated manifesto

seemingly got caught on purpose, or at the very least was not caught by actual police work, and furthermore insulted the police

like? how are these things supposed to make me feel less sympathetic towards the guy?

[funkylittlelurker]

My favorite thing about jayvik?

The difference between Arcane jayvik and LoL jayvik

Cause like,

Here are two bitterly divorced colleagues who want to kill each other, and only they are allowed to kill each other, and also they hate fuck sometimes

And then,

Here are two people who are so intertwined that they met each other before they knew each other, they saved each other from suicide, they cannot live without the other, they ascended into gay stardust/the fabric of reality, and are something more than just platonic or romantic

I just think it's funny

[laroserie]

i love the idea of joining the batfam by dating bruce, but can you imagine how awkward it must be ?

like you are dating bruce, you most probably know he is batman (he couldn't date seriously someone and never tell them) which is like a huge thing, you probably knew each others for at least 5 years and dated for at least 2 before you even step foot in his house and even then ! you still have never meet any of his adopted kids, he always has a way of avoiding The meeting.

of course - you know who his kids are, bruce is ... literally the it guy of gotham, you very much know the names and faces of his family - but that's it (now if you know their vigilantes identities is different story)

the question is, are they aware of your existence ? (of course alfred is aware; that out of the question, he followed to development of yours and bruce relationship from a to z)

going more for a no, not at the start, bruce has this clumsy dumb bilionaire personality but he probably could not like for you to receive media attention because he doesn't wish for your privacy to be intruded upon because you are dating (now there may have been one instance where the paparazzi took a picture of you and him together, but they could only see you from the back, or your face wasn't visible for whatever reason). they probably learnt about your existence very late into your relationship with bruce, and it's surely by accident, like, one of them see a message from you to bruce (and it's something probably something very cheesy) when he left it somewhere by inadvertence. and depending on who see that, they either fully open bruce's phone (sorry but they all know his phone password, bruce isn't aware of that tho) and read your conversation or they find some others way to have access to his messages with you (that isn't so blatant).

they for sure, do an 'emergency' meeting about it (dick and damian were the two that really wanted to do one, the rest probably don't care that much at that time, they probably think you are just the fling of the month for bruce - well usually the fling of the month is not that ... cheesy with him ? in their messages, and the conversations aren't usually that long ... nor do they go back that much. but whatever ! they do suddenly notice that it's been a while, since, well the last fling of the month of bruce but, it must just be a coincidence) which end up with them keeping tabs on you, just in case

now, you meeting them could happen in two way

either they are the one to meet you first - they don't want to wait for bruce to formally introduce you to them - or them to you. the one that 'lead' this is for sure damian, he is determinate to find out your intention with his father (and fight you), dick will lie and say he is just there to make sure everything go 'well' but he is just genuinely very curious about you and the fact that you are dating bruce - this can go for most of them, tho cass and tim are probably the one that are the most reticent to meeting you ? but nevertheless, they still are here, because they for sure won't let damian and dick have all the 'fun'. now jason, is probably also coming for the shit and giggle.

or you meeting them could happen because of bruce - deciding that it's finally time you meet his kids, so he invite all of them to dinner telling them he was someone he wants them to meet, and telling you explicitly that he wants you to meet his family (and the people that are part of his family but aren't family family) - of course, he could talk about it with you first, he could never force you into that. the meet - dinner, probably do not go in the way bruce hoped for it to go (but truth be told, he wasn't expecting it to go the way he wished it did). it's not awful, nothing bad happen. it's just awkward. one of them (probably jason) let slip that they already knew about you - damian make it very clear that he doesn't accept you (and dick has to try to diffuse the situation and tell you that damian is just joking - damian is not joking and he gives a death glare to dick), tim probably do not say anything of half of the dinner before asking you a weird question about something he should have no information about (like what's up with one of your weird habit / quirk), cass is just silent - she assess you for the entirety of the dinner (she conclude by the end of it that you quite a nice person and that she likes you quite a bit), duke is very kind and is very polite with you (he is a bit apprehensive and isn't sure why he is there but he figures it's because bruce wanted to have at least one regular person treating you normally - dick is too ... enthusiastic for that role)

at the end of said dinner, when bruce is driving you home, it's probably the most silent ride home you have ever experienced. until you burst out laughing - the dinner was probably the funniest shit you experienced. it felt like it came straight out of a shitty tv show with 14 seasons. sure it was very much awkward but still funny ! you reassure bruce that it was fine, though you could have liked a warning.

and ... you can add a yandere twist on it, and i love yandere so ... . some of them (tim and cass and probably dick) could start developing yandere tendencies when they learn of your existence ( and keep 'tab on you' aka stalks you and learn everything they can about you ), the others (damian and jason + eventually steph and duke even though they are probably some of waaay lesser yandere-y yandere) could start becoming like that after they finally meet you in person. damian could be the one to take the most or less time to become attach on you, it depend, but he could go thru a big phase of 'i refuse for you to replace talia, my mother, therefor i will despite your entire existence' but if you try to get closer to him, this phase will end very soon and his barrier melt away, if you want to let him take his time to accept you, the result will be the same but damian will try to make up for the time he hated you.

and of course, yandere bruce could be so happy for you to like / get to know and get closer to his family, and that's one more way he can tie you to him !