#oh my silly thang…going through horrors

[redwallclan]

OH MY GOD I LOVE HOW YOU DREW HER!!!!! SHES SO SILLY!!!! Thank youuuuuuu

These were some really TOUGH choices, but here are the "lucky ducks" from right to left! This was really fun, maybe I'll do a bigger, similar challenge in the future!

@bundlesofcrows's Tigergrowl! I couldn't help it, anxious cats my beloved! Also, I really liked the dark patches alongside the tan, top-tier cat design!

@angelhoundclan's Dogpaw! I made them look a little too young here, perhaps, but I saw that they had dog trauma, then saw that their name was Dogpaw, and the irony was too much to resist.

@redwallclan's Brighthusk! Drawing her was very fun, I love seeing ClanGen's with some freaky cats!

@echoes-in-echoclan's Caterpillargrowl! May StarClan grant him a W.

@clanofruins's Hatchstar! INCREDIBLY suspicious, she is on thin ice (affectionate) <3

@nettleclan-clangen's Graydrizzle! Out of all the medicine cats I've seen, I think Graydrizzle is the happiest-looking! Kind of just livin' their best life.

[the-s1lly-corner]

A bit of a specific idea, but I had a platonic idea for all of the characters in the Amazing Digital Circus—

Maybe all of them with a Wally Darling-like Reader? An example of such being Reader also speaking in a monotone voice that is both a little unsettling yet friendly at the same time, always making eye contact and never looking away, being able to eat things by blinking, being a lot more aware than they seem, greeting people individually anytime they enter a room, etc etc.

TADC cast x wally darling type! Reader !

Still stuck on mobile so this post may be a little short and whacky <\3 + I'll be relying on this ask for wallys personality since I cant open other tabs without risking deleting my progress on this <\3 + I've never touched welcome home 😭😭

CAINE:

Honestly, I don't know anything about welcome home as stated above, but I think Caine would have a lot of the same habits; namely the eye contact and I can also see him doing the blink eating...

The only difference is that hes way high energy

I think he would think that you're just a silly lil fella, an interesting little thang, wants to study you under a microscope..

Thinks its endearing how you greet everyone personally.. loves when you do it to him since it makes him feel special n appreciated

POMNI:

Overall pomni is going to need a lot of time to get used to the weirdness of the circus, and this applies to getting over the unnerving feeling she gets around you

Probably becomes speechless and does the face when you blink-eat

You know...

Just stares at where the food item once was... how did you do that...? What are you going to consume next? Why are you looking her in the eye like that?

..oh you're just telling her you enjoyed the snack you've brought

JAX:

As per usual I'm writing these all out of order, and I happen to be writing jax after I did zooble

I think jax wouldnt just think you're unsettling, I think he would think you're creepy

Now does he think you're a threat? Personally I don't think he would go as far as to classify you as such

Watches in horror as you blink and consume his sour gummy candies

Okay now this is war

You guys sometimes have unspoken staring contests, you usually tend to win them

Actually now that he thinks about it you dont seem to blink outside of eating...

RAGATHA:

"Oh, you're just a quirky lil fella!" Pretty much

Always thanks you when you greet her, she makes it a habit to greet you back when you enter a room

Tends to give you your favorite snacks, I think, but I think this can pass as a general hc rather than being specific to this post !

Little put off by the eye contact but does not turn away or show any discomfort; is able to push through it pretty well !

KINGER:

Okay so I know I mentioned some other characters being creeped out by the eye contact but I think kinger would be the most put off, asides gangle

But also I can totally see kinger having a staring problem; be it because hes lost in his thought and happens to be staring or some other thing

Accidental staring contests between you two/j

Feels like a real king when you personally greet him, probably bows a little and does a lil gesture with his hands before returning the greeting

Similar reaction as pomni when you blink-eat

Where did the food go??????

ZOOBLE:

I must admit, I think zooble would find you creepy, too <\3, or at least a little unsettling.. like sure they wont be mean to you unlike SOMEONE but they're a little put off by your odd behaviors

Though they would get accustomed to it in time, I think, especially since I have a whole "zooble ultimately doesnt care much about what's going as a means to cope w/ the digital circus as well as that just being their personality"

Does not like the eye contact, though; zooble seems like the type who wouldnt like eye contact... maybe I'm self projecting, though...

The eye contact definitely is what fed into the unsettling factor for them..

GANGLE:

The eye contact makes her so so nervous, she doesnt really have eyes the same way everyone else does but it still... makes her feel off

Similar to Caine she does feel nice when you greet her.. yes she knows out do it for everyone, but that doesnt dismiss the nice feeling she gets that someone is. Well being nice to her...

Shed like your voice, I think, oddly soothing and it's not too bold and out there.. not overwhelming, you know?

Not many ideas for gangle today <\3

[unfortunate--moth]

Okay so there's this tournament thing and Luka is the protagonist of the event, its a fighting tournament and he's feeling sort of insecure and he starts experiencing hallucinations throughout the matches and

See I want to talk about it but also spoilers for you or others

Kicks a rock

Just know it has altered my brain chemistry, and potentially the course of my life and I think you should log back on just to play it. It is incredibly worth it.

- Milgranon

im finally getting to this im so sorry

I remember the tournament thing!!! i cant remember if it was like a character quest or some other thing but i know the place i think. and i know Luka. silly guy.

but oh boy i love when a silly guy suddenly starts going through the horrors!!!!! gotta love it!!!

i plan on maybe getting back into it at some point. the thing is my main laptop has been. really sucking ass lately and im thinking at some point i should just replace it. ive been using my art tablet/laptop as my main thing as of late and this thang has almost no storage space for anything other than discord, firefox, and my clip studio files. so it isnt ideal

[crossbows-and-moonshine]

Stigma around writing fanfics? Fuck that!

(I write this mainly from a writer’s POV but this also applies to fanfic readers)

Buckle up kids, it’s gonna be a long one. *slurps wine*

Some of you might not agree with me here, but the majority of fanfic writers I have spoken to do. So let's address it, shall we? 

There is a very real stigma surrounding writing fanfics that is fucking ridiculous. 

It leaves the writer feeling somewhat secretive or even ashamed that they write fanfics at all.

Maybe you think you are not ashamed or you don't feel this way. But if someone asked you what you write, would you straight up say fanfics without hesitation? Or would your answer be more like this;

Random person: What do you write?

You: Oh...uhhh. Just short stories. Creative writing. Stuff. Thangs. [runs and dives out of the window]

Some fanfic writers feel so scared of being judged by others if they find out, and in some cases, it's because they have first-hand experience of a grade-A asshole who made them feel that way.

There are tonnes of misconceptions about fanfic writers, too many to go into in one post. But the main ones I’ve come across time and time again are that all fanfics are written by either ‘naive and silly’ 14-year-old girls (if you are a 14-year-old girl, keep slaying the writing like the fucking queen you are), or that we’re some kind of depraved weird sexual deviant, or ya know, a virgin living vicariously through our writing.

This is all bullshit. Say that with me,

B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T

Writing fanfics has nothing to do with our age or if we have or hadn't had sex. We write fanfics because we love to write and we have an intense love for a fandom that makes us happy. So we smush those two together to write and spread our joy onto other fans.

Some people just have this weird issue with people that write fanfiction that I won't ever be able to wrap my head around. And sometimes, they think they're being sneaky about it too. They could be the person whose mocking you and trying to mask it with backhanded compliments or pretending it's teasing even though they know it's hurtful. It could be the person who finds out you write fics and sends the link to everyone you know without your permission. It could be the people that laugh behind your back and think you don't know, even though you fucking do. It doesn't always have to be outright comments on it, even though sometimes it is.

Some people treat us like we aren't ‘real’ writers because we write fanfics and not original fiction. A lot of fanfics writers do write original stuff, and even if they don't, it doesn't make them any less of a writer. I write short horror stories and poetry that nobody gives a shit about. But fanfic takes up about 98% of my writing now because it's what I love the most. Fanfic writers still spend hours and hours writing, editing it a billion times to get it perfect. We still have to be creative. We think of plot lines and put the characters in new situations. We write. And you know what the definition of a writer is? 

Fuck them with their superior bullshit about you not being a writer. If you write, then you're a fucking writer. 

So you know what you do the next time someone makes you feel shitty for writing fanfic? You go home, open a new document and write a new fic, making them a character and kill them off *cackles and runs off into the night*

Okay no, not that. Although I won't lie, I've done it before and it feels hella good. But what you should actually do instead of feeling shitty about yourself is;

Feel sorry for them.

But they’re assholes, why should I feel sorry for them?

Yeah, some of them are assholes with bad attitudes and you need to give them the finger and tell them to sit on it. But you know what, most of them haven't ever discovered the joys of fanfic. And to me, that's real fucking sad.

They haven't ever had the joy of reading or writing a fic that brings you insane joy, of being immersed in the fictional universe of your favourite character. They haven't had that amazing feeling when a reader reaches out to a writer and then suddenly they're close friends. They don't know the excitement you get when you get a notification for your fave fic, or the rush you get when you complete writing one. They don't know any of that, and they might never with that shitty ass attitude. 

Fanfic as a reader and a writer has brought me so much joy over the years. And I wish everyone could experience that same joy. Fanfic has saved actual lives, I don't care if you think I’m being dramatic here. I’m talking first hand from people I know and myself.

My mental health has been bad since I was a young teen. I've been medicated since I was 14 years old and I've suffered with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. I know I’m not alone in this. Maybe you feel alone, maybe you feel like you have no reason to go on and nothing makes you happy anymore. You know it's only gonna get worse so what's the point? 

But then you get notified of a new chapter on your fave fic, or you stumble across a new one. And suddenly you're reading it and it's giving you all the feels. It's making you smile and maybe even laugh. And that spark you thought had left you, it's back. And you think to yourself, maybe today isn't the day. Maybe I can hold out a little longer.

To some people fanfic is everything and it keeps them going. So what is the big issue if it keeps people alive and makes them happy?

We get comments about ;

- You don't even get paid for it, why bother?

- Ew, sex scenes.

- You're writing about a universe someone else created. You aren't talented. You aren't creative. It's easy and lazy.

- We don't get paid for it, and we don't fucking care. We do it because we fucking love it. It's a hobby. Can we just let that word soak in? Hobby. A hobby is something someone does in their downtime because they enjoy it. Need it even simpler? I enjoy writing- I write.

People don't go around talking shit about other people's hobbies because it doesn't make them money. Why is it a bad thing that we spend hours creating things and sharing them without cost for people to enjoy? Some writers make fanfics longer than fucking novels and it's all free for anyone to read. 

My fic Such a Softer Sin is longer than ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.’ Harry Potter is 76,944 words long, whereas Such a Softer Sin is 138,452.

- How many non-fanfic books are out there with sex scenes in them? This isn't exclusive to fanfiction. But people like to act like we're all sex mad and freaks for some reason. I enjoy writing sex scenes honestly. But you know what? Sex is a natural thing that happens on the fucking planet everywhere. *gasps* I know, what a fucking revelation right? We aren’t fucking 12 years old here, come on. 

- Yeah, we are writing about a verse that's already made and characters that already exist. But you know what? That makes it harder to fucking write, you uncultured swine. 

You have to take a character that someone else created and try to get to know them on such a level that you can write them. You have to get into their head and into the head of the person that created them, trying to keep them true to themselves. This isn't an original character you have made. One with a backstory you know flawlessly, one you know every little detail about. Some of these characters have obscure info about them, things we don't even see in movies or shows and it's up to use to try and figure it out. Writing a character that already exists and writing them well is harder than writing an OC, so let's just get that fucking right.

It's not easy and it's not lazy. Its showing love and appreciation for something that already exists. It's loving it that much that you want to make more of it, you want to delve deeper than what's already out there.

So to all the assholes that want to have their misconceptions, who think it's okay to shame people that love their hobby, the one that doesn't only make them happy but other people;

Fuck you.

And to those fanfic writers out there; Don't feel ashamed of it. Don't shy away or hide because you're scared of being judged for it. You love it, and that's what matters. Their opinion doesn’t mean a damn thing.

To the readers; The same as above. The writer's love you more than you’ll ever know. You make them feel a little less alone and make them smile every time you interact. 

Fanfic isn't for everybody and that's fine. But there's a difference between not being into it and being indifferent, and being a fucking dick. 

Fanfiction isn't something to be embarrassed about. It's not some dirty little secret people need to keep or for people to make fun of because they don't have a clue. It should be embraced. It should be encouraged. It shouldn't be seen as some weird thing that makes people uncomfortable or that the readers or writers are freaks. 

Fanfic is bigger than people realise. You will walk by so many people in the street that read fanfic and you don't even know it. You're not alone and you don't have to feel that way. And the next time someone tries to make you feel shit about it, take a deep breath and just remember;

Feel sorry for them. 

They’ll never fucking know the joy you do.