#putting fandom tags here for search purposes

[ineffable-doll]

Tips on adding tags to fics

I wrote a guide last year about writing fanfic summaries (check it out here) and thought it might be useful to do a follow-up on tags! (Please note that this is AO3-specific and focuses entirely on the Additional Tags section. And also that all of this is just my opinion.)

I see folks often lament that they don’t know what tags to add to their fics; I think the biggest struggle comes from folks not knowing what purposes tags serve. So, let’s discuss that!

Convey Tone

The first thing tags are used for is to tell the audience what tone to expect from the fic. Is it a lighthearted comedy with some sweet moments? Tag it with Fluff, Humor, and Comedy. Is it a dark, slow, depressing tale that ends poorly? Try Heavy Angst, Sad, Bad Ending.

When looking for a fic to read, people want to know what the vibe is so they can find the fic that matches what they’re in the mood for. The summary is useful for this, too, but the tags are where you can really confirm: Yes, this is a fic with Light Angst, Humor, and Happy Ending.

In short: use tags as tone indicators. Not all fics cleanly fit one tone or the other, so overlap tags accordingly. It’s normal to have some contradiction; that’s the nature of storytelling.

Some common tone indicator tags:

Fluff

Tooth-Rotting Fluff

Domestic Fluff

Romantic Fluff

Light-Hearted

Crack

Crack Taken Seriously

Hurt/Comfort

Emotional Hurt/Comfort

Comfort No Hurt

Hurt No Comfort

Humor

Some Humor

No Plot/Plotless

Light Angst

Angst

Heavy Angst

Angst With a Happy Ending

Eventual Happy Ending

Sad Ending

Bad Ending

Happy Ending

Hopeful Ending

Ambiguous/Open Ending

…and more!

2. Content Warnings

Next, tags are a great place to add content warnings for your fic. Notes can go into more detail or be used for chapter-level warnings, but putting the broad categories of your content warnings in the tags is a good idea so those who wish to avoid certain types of content can do so, and those specifically seeking out heavy content can find what they’re looking for.

AO3 has the Archive Warnings function to help with this, but tags can elaborate on or specify warnings that don’t fit the Archive Warning categories.

Not everyone likes content warnings or sees the point of adding them, or they feel that they ruin the surprise element of storytelling. I won’t make a detailed argument here, but consider content warnings a sign of respect for your audience and their wellbeing. Triggers are very real things rooted in trauma and the least you can do is give someone a heads up that what you wrote could negatively affect them. Plus, as mentioned, sometimes darker content is exactly the thing someone wants, and a warning can actually be another way to attract a reader.

A very very short list of content warning tags to consider (and here’s your own heads up for mentions of upsetting topics in this list):

Death

Grief/Mourning

Violence

Canon-Typical Violence

Torture

Blood

Abuse

Alcohol

Drugs

Rape/Non-con Elements

Mentions of Rape/Non-con

Consent Issues

Mental Health Issues (there are lots of more specific tags for this category)

Panic Attacks

Ableist Language

…and more!

(There is definitely more that could be said regarding content warnings for Explicit fics, but I don’t read or write those, so you’ll need to look elsewhere for that.)

3. Searchable/Fandom-Specific

One of the most useful aspects of tags is being able to search the entire Archive via tags and/or filter content by tags (both to include and exclude – familiarize yourself with AO3’s Filter system if you haven’t already). So, you’ll want to include tags that folks are searching by. Tone indicator tags are used this way, but so are fandom-specific, character-specific, and relationship-specific tags.

If you have no idea where to start, look up the fandom/character/relationship you are writing for and filter AO3 by that. Then, spend some time looking at tags and filtering by different ones. See what comes up. Reading fic is always the best way to learn how to tag them, and that’s especially the case here. Maybe you’ll end up creating a new fandom tag!

While fandom-specific tags are not necessary, they can help make your fic easier to find, especially in large fandoms. Note that fandom-specific tags will usually have the fandom listed in parentheses at the end.

It’s difficult to make a list of tags for this sort of thing, but here’s some common structures I’ve seen over the years:

[Character Name] Needs a Hug

Asexual/Aromantic/Demisexual (etc.) [Character Name]

Oblivious [Character Name]

Dramatic [Character Name]

Sweet [Character Name]

Angry [Character Name]

Disabled [Character Name]

Autistic [Character Name]

Agender/Nonbinary/Trans [Character Name]

[Character Name] Has Anxiety/ADHD/Tourette’s etc.

Ambiguous [Character Name] and [Character Name] Relationship

Queerplatonic [Character Name] / [Character Name]

They/Them Pronouns for [Character Name]

Teacher/Superhero/Artist/other profession [Character Name]

[Character Name]-centric

Touch-Starved [Character Name]

[Character Name] is Bad at Feelings

[Character Name] Has Self-Esteem Issues

…and more!

Another category is tags for specific scenes, missing scenes, story arcs, episodes/chapters/parts, and so on, such as:

The Night at Crowley’s Flat (Good Omens)

Cloud Recesses Study Arc (Modao Zushi)

Post-Mogami Arc (Mob Psycho 100)

And there are plenty more that are so fandom-specific that they don’t fit an exact category:

Alternate Universe – No System (Scum Villain)

Heaven is Terrible (Good Omens)

Xianle Trio (Tian Guan Ci Fu)

4. BONUS Topic – Canon Divergence and Alternate Universes

One of the most fun parts of fanfic is toying with canon, so here’s a list of tags that can convey your fic’s relationship to the canon story. These are for fics that maintain a strong relationship with or resemblance to canon.

Pre-Canon

During Canon

Post-Canon

Canon Compliant

Not Canon Compliant

Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence

Alternate Canon

Fix-It

Not a Fix-It

Fix-It of Sorts

Some fandoms have specific tags regarding canon compliance with only parts of the given media – usually the case for franchises or works with big gaps between installments.

Not Canon Compliant With [Media Name] [Season/Episode Number]

Next are Alternate Universes (AUs), which are so divergent from canon to the point of not even being in the same world. There are more types of AU than I could dare list here, and several are also fandom-specific, but here’s some generic sorts that come to mind:

Modern Setting

Human

High School

College/University

Roommates/Housemates

Soulmates

Superheroes/Superpowers

Fairy Tale

Urban Fantasy

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Meet-Cute (can also be Alternative Universe – Different First Meeting)

Meet-Ugly

…and more!

5. BONUS BONUS Topic – Romance

Lots of fics on AO3 are written for romantic ships, and there are a LOT of tags to categorize different types and stages of these ships. These tags are useful to establish reader expectations (and again, for filtering). Some common examples:

Pre-Slash

Pre-Relationship

Developing Relationship

Established Relationship

Love Confessions

Love Realization

Drunken Confessions

Mutual Pining

Not Actually Unrequited Love

Getting Together

Getting Back Together

Moving In Together

Falling in Love

Marriage

[Friends/Enemies/Strangers/Rivals/etc.] to Lovers (can also have three stages, such as Strangers to Friends to Lovers or Lovers to Enemies to Friends)

Flirting

Slow Burn

Denial of Feelings

…and more!

There are also tags to specify what physical affection the characters engage in:

Holding Hands

Cuddling & Snuggling

Hugs

Kissing

Making Out

Almost Kiss

First Kiss

Second Kiss

Literal Sleeping Together

Non-Sexual Intimacy

No Smut

Explicit Sexual Content

Implied/Referenced Sex

…and more!

Aaaand a few non-romantic ones to toss around, for fun:

Best Friends

Platonic Relationships

Friendship

No Romantic Relationships (goes under the Relationships section, not Additional Tags)

Found Family

Friendship/Love

Ambiguous Relationships

Queerplatonic Relationships

Family

Parenthood

Love

Siblings

Developing Friendships

Parent/Child Relationship

…and more!

This guide got out of hand, and I still didn’t cover everything I could have, but I hope this was a helpful overview and makes tagging a little easier for you going forward! Here’s AO3’s tagging page for more info. Feel free to drop your own tips in a reblog/comment or ask questions if there’s something you want me to elaborate on. <3

[gazstations]

Blue

ASK REQUEST: find original post here

ᯓᡣ𐭩 SUMMARY

You’re convinced Johnny would be better off without you. Johnny is determined to convince you otherwise.

FANDOM: Call of Duty

PAIRINGS: John MacTavish x reader

WORD COUNT: 3,324 words

WARNINGS: Angst: reader thinks poorly of themselves, mentioned body issues, relationship struggles. Fluff: Johnny being a real one, happy ending, he doesn’t put up with the negativity

◇ Notes: I know some of you only marked down being tagged in fluff and so I figured the little angst was okay because it still ends up fluffy??? Idk. If you have an issue, let me know. I’m new to this tagging system game, lol.

○●○ NAVIGATION MASTERLIST

♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡

THERE WAS A VILE SICKNESS MAKING A MESS OF THE WIRING IN YOUR BRAIN. It was always there lingering in every squelching groove, sinking into the delicate, fleshy existence of life. You supposed the darkness was always there. It ate away at everything good until it reworked your DNA down to the very core.

You always lived with this subtle distaste for how you existed. You were a melancholic child who never learned how to purge out that sinister inner voice. It was you. That's not something a few good thoughts could work through. You were born blue in the face and would surely die that way.

Substitutes for temporary release were only that. Temporary.

Infection spread quickly, burning out the live synapses that produced the tantalizing joy. There was a steady muteness in your life. Your core was dispositioned, and that threw off the whole equilibrium.

When John MacTavish crashed head first into your life, he was crafted in an eager, child-like visage. He slithered methodically behind you, pinning you underneath his warm light. Because that’s what he always was: warm. He was this golden light you didn’t know how you lived without before.

And he wanted you. He traced the ridges of your rib cage with a slow, delicate nature as he searched for a way in between the grooves in order to grasp your heart. He was purposeful, laid out his intentions right in the beginning, leaving you no room to question or second guess.

For a long time, you were secured by this lively, bright muse that you somehow captured.

The fog was a gradual ascension. You were too busy with the calloused hands that cupped your cheeks each dewy morning to notice the grotesque, greedy hands that slowly sunk into your jugular. It wasn’t until they pierced your carotid artery that you realized the sickness in your brain had caught up once more.

It was always there. You shouldn’t have gotten so comfortable.

You began to doubt.

At first, the nausea only manifested like a small illness. Heavy behind the eyes as they leaked tears constantly, a tickle in the back of your throat, and a queasiness in the pit of your stomach. It was easy to hide, easy to push into the back of your mind even though you constantly felt the shadow behind you.

Then you became absent-minded. You lugged your weary body by the bone in a trance-like state to the kitchen each morning. Your morning beverage had a sour aftertaste, no longer appealing. Your food was bland, and you no longer felt excitement at the thought of eating. No matter what you did to stimulate yourself throughout the day, your joints still ached.

Then, you began to dismiss Johnny’s attempts to bond. This was where you felt horrible, which delved you further into your self-destructive attitude. He was a kicked puppy with every non explantive rejection as he watched you drift further away. A hollowed out phantom that haunted the halls where you first bloomed.

When you were in public, you stopped holding his hand. What he saw was malice creeping out through your pores. What you felt was that there were softer hands for him to hold. When he tried to hold you from behind while you waited in line or were just existing, you claimed you were too hot. His brow would furrow, and hurt would cross his face. He never questioned, and you hated yourself for ever giving him a reason to feel that agonizing pain and never know why.

As a natural physical touch fiend, Johnny tried to solve your issues with more. You knew all the ways he tried to initiate sex after so long in your relationship, and you could sniff out the desire from a mile away. By the time his voice dropped to a low brogue, his eyes half-lidded, and he was rutting his hips against your body, you were already far too tense.

Not now. I’m too tired.

It was always the fucking same excuse that fell from your poisonous lips. You were so cruel to the man that loved you wholeheartedly and you didn’t have the capacity to let words of confession slip past your lips.

Soon, he’d realize you weren’t worth all the effort to save. And though it would break your heart, you knew it would be for the better. You couldn’t purge this sickness in your mind. It was a chronic, permanent state of your being. Blue for the rest of your life.

You knew you had to play the part sometimes, however. So, when he initiated sex after three or four times of denial, you let him have his way with you. He peeled your clothes off your body, and yet you felt like he was prying the flesh from your bone. He dipped his mouth down between your thighs, and you stared at the ceiling, bile rising in your throat. You were suddenly hyper aware of every imperfect nuance of your body.

You hadn’t been caring for yourself like you should’ve. Your legs were prickly from not shaving for a couple of days. Acne was infested your skin. You hadn’t washed your hair for several days. None of those things Johnny had cared about before. He was never picky, but now, because you had your concerns, you believed maybe he did as well.

He moaned and groaned as he lapped at your slit. His fingers dug into your plush thighs and pushed them further away from each other. Anyone else could see he was seeing heaven right then and there, but to you, his warbles of content were over exaggerated. You despised yourself for convincing yourself at that moment that he only pretended that he had to enjoy it because he couldn’t hurt your feelings.

When he realized you weren’t into it, he lifted his head and softened his gaze. You weren’t going to find pleasure when you were already one foot out the door. When he went to hold you, you climbed from the bed and locked yourself in the bathroom. You turned on the shower to muffle your cries of self-loathing.

You were drifting out in a minefield, and Johnny was struggling to follow you.

He hadn’t tried to touch you since.

He was respecting you. Waiting for you to break and come to him for guidance. He didn’t want to be the one that forced you to change or heal. He was allowing you to come to that conclusion yourself.

No, maybe he was finally realizing you weren’t worth the effort.

A month passed of this disease. You withered away, and Johnny tried to save face in the public eye. Your shared home was a warzone, however. Sleep deprivation made you quicker to snap. It made you further your atrophy. You were trying to fix it, but it destroyed itself even more. Self-destruction was a war not many came back from.

Johnny was a problem solver, however. He broke. Not in the way you anticipated where he separated from his role in your life, but in how he clung to you again. He was a good man. He was observant, empathetic, and loving.

You were having a bad day. You stood in front of your mirror and dissected every physical manifestation of your insecurity. You tried to be good, to find a means to hype yourself up. To build your palaces amongst the rubble. It led to you on the floor of your bedroom, several items of clothing on the floor around you.

You were naked, stripped down to the very core of you. You were overstimulated, tears of frustration pooling out your eyes as your stuffy nose wheezed. Mucus collected in your throat and made it hard to breathe. You could feel the individual follicles of your hair, brushing against your body. You wondered how fast you could shave yourself bald.

“Oh, doe. It’s okay. C’mere.”

Johnny didn’t worry about past boundaries he set for himself in order to give you space. You didn’t realize he was home until his arms wrapped around your heaving body and pulled you back into his embrace. You were too weak to deny him this time.

He kissed your heated temple softly. You were making yourself ill from your deterioration. You choked on spittle and just sagged into his chest. Once the sorrow started, you couldn’t stop it. Your eyes tainted him as well, dampening his shirt as you sobbed pitifully.

You were so exhausted.

“C’mon, doe. Talk tae me,” Johnny pleaded. His hand ran over your head in soothing pats before descending down to your back, where he traced each vertebrae of your spine.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” you choked. “Why I’m like this.”

Johnny shushed you quietly and kissed at your hairline again. He didn’t try to discount your feelings by telling you that you didn’t need to feel this way. That wasn’t how you convinced someone to heal. You could give them assurances, but at the end of the day, they had to take the initiative to believe those words.

“Tha’s okay. Ye dinnae need tae ken,” he said.

You wondered if Johnny was naturally intuitive or if it was a learned trait after years of perusing different social circles. And your brain leaked poison back into your synapses. You weren’t like him. You struggled deeply to empathize with people when you were so caught up in your own gloom. Socially, you didn’t understand, and so you hardly connected with anyone. Not like Johnny.

“Doe…” Johnny’s voice brought you back. He pulled your head from his chest and cupped your quivering jaw. It ached from constant clenching. “Did ye hear me?”

Confusion made you tilt your head. You sniffled quietly and shook your head, admitting that you had disappeared inside your head.

“Ah asked ye if ye could try tae explain it tae me,” Johnny said carefully, as if you were going to frighten and lose what intimacy you had just allowed him.

You swallowed. “I don’t know,” you paused and felt the lump growing in your throat. “I don’t know how.”

“Is it me?” Johnny questioned. He pouted his lip and gave you a saddened look. Had he always been dissolving alongside you?

You have a single clue on which words to conjure. You were at a blockage, and it overwhelmed you. This self mutilation was far too complicated to simply explain. Too many branches grew off of the main trunk. Too convoluted. Too frustrating.

“It’s everything.” Was what you settled for. It was a pathetic response.

Johnny didn’t falter, though. He let out a soft, cooing noise and ran his thumbs along your cheekbones. It took your answer in stride despite all your attempts to absolve him of his responsibility to keep your wither away. You didn’t understand his psyche.

What you didn’t realize was that he understood the unwavering doubt and dissolution. As a soldier, he was well-equipped in the crippling agony that followed every decision. He understood that some days it was just simply everything.

Johnny sat back against the foot of the bed. He simply patted his lap, baby blue eyes watching you closely. Fondly. Sorrowfully. His own eyes were glassy as if he was sympathetic to your treacherous plight. It was almost as if your agony was his burden to bear as well.

You crawled into his lap like a wounded child. He helped your thighs cradle on the outside of his in a straddle as he stared at you quietly. Your damaged heart fluttered when he simply raised your hand to his lips and kissed your knuckles. Then he transferred to the other hand.

“Ah cannae help ye if ye dinnae talk tae me, doe,” He said.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered. Your heart was leaking, and you were tearing yourself apart.

“Why?” Johnny booped your nose and then kissed the tip. You watched his long eyelashes flutter as he blinked naturally. “Because ye ‘ave a couple bad thoughts?”

“More than a couple,” you muttered.

Johnny smiled faintly at your small correction. He wiped at the underside of your eyes delicately to not disturb that thin stretch of skin. You sighed softly, feeling the callouses rub across your face. It was more comforting than you wanted to admit.

“Ah think yer the bonniest thing ah ‘ave ever seen,” he said.

You scoffed. It was self-pitying. Pained. Those words made your own tongue feel dry even though he was the one who said them. Johnny noticed and frowned, “Not lying, doe. Ye need the truth right now.”

You couldn’t answer. You felt awful for what you worried about. What he had never been privy to this whole time. Or maybe he already knew what thoughts were naturally part of the package when it came to self-deprecation.

“Tell me how tae help ye,” Johnny pleaded.

“I don’t know…” You breathed out. “I’m just tired of my brain trying to sabotage a good thing.”

“Do ye see me runnin’?” He asked.

You shook your head. No, he wasn’t running, and for some reason, that was scarier. You noticed your hands were trembling, and you went to tuck them in between your thighs. Yet, you couldn’t fool your soldier, and he intercepted the movement by cupping both of your hands.

“Doe, look at me,” he ordered softly.

You listened to the command, prompted by the subdued syllables in his tone. It was pleasant on your ears, and your body slackened in his hold. His unwavering hold. That lump in your throat grew bigger. You almost thought you’d suffocate on it. Your throat was burning so deeply, and you swallowed to tamper down the urge to sob more.

“Yer okay…” Johnny assured. “Jus’ us. And ah love ye as much as ever.”

You made the mistake of locking eyes with the perceptive blue, and suddenly, you felt you were lost at sea. Endlessly staring at that one beacon of light to get you back to the shoreline. Except you kicked and tried to just give up, let the current drown you.

“Why?” You asked.

“Could write a novel fer ye,” Johnny said.

You huffed through your tears. You didn’t believe him, but somehow, the words still calmed you. He was trying to appeal to you, even if you spat it back out. You were an infection of hollowness, a husk, and Johnny was this beautiful being that somehow had all the capacity in his heart nurture. Even when he was shackled down by his own demons.

“Serious,” Johnny added. “Already talked silly ‘bout ye in my journals.”

Now, that was surprising. Johnny never showed you what was hidden beneath the leather-bound journals he continuously collected. You accepted it was personal. Some things you didn’t have the right to. Even as his partner.

“There’s no way you have that many good things to say,” you protested.

Johnny tapped your hip and helped you stand up. His bad knee cracked as he followed, a slight tension in his face. He once said it wasn’t painful, only when it got cold. It was just tight and felt like walking through tar. A reckless decision that permanently changed his body.

He grabbed your hand and led you over to his side of the room. He opened a drawer and pulled out two journals. He hummed softly as he checked the contents before turning and offering them to you.

“Read ‘em,” he declared. “Then try tae tell yerself that yer something to be disgusted by.”

He was offering you his heart with this one gesture. It made you more nervous than you expected. You were afraid to see yourself as Johnny supposedly saw you. Like if you weren’t damned then there was nothing worthwhile about you. The churning waters were your home. You were terrified to grab at the shoreline—that beacon of light now right in front of you.

It brought you to safety.

You were taught to snarl at it and question its motives.

Still, you took the journals with bated breath.

Johnny kissed your forehead, pleased. “Find me when yer done.”

He gave you space to stew as he stepped out into the hallway. You didn‘t move until you were faint from locking your knees so tightly.

♡◇♡

You climbed down the stairs with heavy steps. Your body was numbed, tears clumping your eyelashes together. Your emotional output was severely depleted. You had run yourself dry.

Johnny was in the kitchen when you found him. He was leaning back against the counter. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, and his jeans wrapped around his thighs detectably. But your mind wasn’t on that, not right now.

He smiled brightly when he saw your wounded form approaching, and he simply opened his arms. He understood what you needed at that moment. You hadn’t realized how much he saw you until you made it cover to cover in both of those journals.

You sniffled quietly, muffled by his shirt. You didn’t cry. You just sat there in his embrace. He saw you. He always had seen beneath the crippled, hollowed husk you were.

“You mean it?” You questioned.

“Aye, bon. Every single word,” Johnny said. “It breaks my heart tha’ ye dinnae see ‘ow wonderful ye are.”

“I didn’t think you’d…” you bit your tongue as acid burned on the wet muscle.

“Tha’ ah what?” Johnny pressed.

You deep down groaned that he didn’t let you off the hook, that he forced you to put your words out into the air. That your insecurity had to have a body. It seemed more ridiculous that way. Those stupid thoughts that circulated in your brain had less weight once they were out into the clean air.

You caught on to what Johnny was doing.

“I just… I don’t understand why…” you paused, brain pounding in your skull. “I think about your exes and your friends and how easily you just… live. And here I am…”

“Dinnae need the most confident bird, doe,” Johnny says. “Aye, ah yap a ton. But ye help me take a step back. My life is active, ah like havin’ my bon all calm. Ye the one ah chose as my partner. So the other birds ah’ve been with disnae matter.”

You went to speak, but Johnny literally covered your mouth, halting any leakage. You squinted as you stared at him, and he just gave you a boyish grin. It worked. It turned off your mind for a moment.

“If yer gonna talk shite, ye keep tha’ mouth shut,” he said.

You stared at him for a long, calculating moment. Then, you sighed, and your shoulders slumped in defeat. You didn’t have any emotionless replies. You didn’t have a self-deprecating joke. You had nothing. That was a good thing for once.

When Johnny was certain no acid would seep out of your mouth, he dropped his hand.

“What do ye want for dinner?” He asked as if it hadn't been an emotional warzone the past…well…whole time.

“What?” You blinked in confusion, head still reeling.

“Ah'm ordering us something,” he stated matter-of-factly as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

You were at least grateful he didn't offer to take you out because you really didn't want to go out. You weren’t really sure if you were hungry either, or maybe you were. Food didn't sound too repulsive right now. Though, if he hadn't said anything, you probably would've just gone straight to bed.

“Oh…”

You really didn't know what else to say.

Johnny hummed, seemingly picking up on that. He kissed your forehead before peeling himself away from your coiled tight body. The air was filled with a little less anxiety and far more sweetness than there had been in months. It put you at ease.

“Go take a shower, doe,” Johnny ordered softly. “Ah got this covered.”

And you believed it.

°•○●○•°

TAGLIST

@shhitskinkytime @all-by-myself98 @ladywraith

If you would like to be added to future works, fill out the google form in my pinned post!

[cumplanecrash]

So apparently I only have time to format this at work, and the thing about work is, sometimes you have to do work there. This smallish section (under 800 words) rounds out what will be chapter 2, I think.

AO3 🔗 Shizun Babies AU tag 🔗 writeblogging Shizun Babies 🔗 first 🔗 prev

This was the part that they never showed you in the videogames: everyone needing to fuck off and bury their noses (or their disciples' noses) in some books. There would be no convenient "Ah, yes, I've heard of such a thing" or recently arrived tomes, like there would have been in the original Proud Immortal Demon Way; no search engines or algorithms like a more modern setting might fudge the downtime with. Everyone had to leave and go do research, because this wasn't in the book and/or because the System wanted to milk the situation for Heartwarming Points or something. Dinner'd been had, the very little they knew had been shared, and it was time for everyone to go their separate ways.

And Yue Qingyuan was absolutely bullying his precious disciple!!

They both stood by the front door, where Binghe had just returned with a stack of books from the Great Library, still clutching them as the sect leader loomed over the boy. Binghe wasn't done growing yet, while the sect leader was approaching 2 meters and as broad as an ox (that or Shen Qingqiu was shorter than Shen Yuan had been, which would be a trip and a half given usual fantasy logic), so it's not that hard for him to physically crowd Binghe without actually using overtly hostile body language.

[the finished version of this illustration goes here]

"It's very important that you understand that your Shizuns still have all of their adult faculties," Yue Qingyuan whisper-yelled at Luo Binghe. His back was turned to himself and Shen Jiu, as he had been about to leave, so Shen Yuan couldn't see Yue Qingyuan's face, but he could see Luo Binghe's polite-masking-intense-discomfort expression, so he could only imagine the intensity. "You must respect that they are grown adults, who have earned a high rank and the corresponding respect."

"Naturally," said Luo Binghe, sounding bewildered.

"But also," Yue Qingyuan took Luo Binghe's shoulder. "This curse makes them need to perform childish mannerisms against their will. So in a way, they also need adult supervision."

"This disciple is used to providing for Shizun during his flare-ups," Luo Binghe explained. "Providing amenities while being respectful is a skill this disciple has honed over the last year. And as for Lord Jiu, there are at least two things we agree on wholeheartedly, so this disciple thinks things will go rather smoothly this time around."

Bing-ge, what's the second thing?? Bing-ge? Shen Yuan bit down on his candy, hard.

"Luo-shizhi must contact me if he needs anything at all," Yue Qingyuan shook Luo Binghe by the shoulder.

"Qiii-ge," Shen Jiu whined, startling Shen Yuan where he sat next to him. "Let the boy put the books down before you make him piss himself, carrying on like that."

Shen Yuan wasn't the only one startled. Yue Qingyuan looked mildly sheepish after getting caught threatening Shen Yuan's precious little lamb. (Which, to be fair, he had excused Shen Jiu doing so much worse, so clearly this backwards-ass fantasy setting didn't understand how traumatizing being threatened by someone who you had no reasonable method to get away from could be. There was a reason the Revenge Against Shen Qingqiu arc had been so long and so well received, is all he's saying.) After relaxing from his startle, Luo Binghe sent Shen Jiu a grateful look, a sentence which had never before been thought in the entire PIDW fandom's history.

"Gimme gimme gimme," Shen Jiu demanded sardonically, going so far as to make grabby hands.

"You're doing that on purpose," Shen Yuan accused him.

Shen Jiu tilted his head back, and Shen Yuan was not preparee wail that came from so close. "Xiao Jiu wants his books now!!!"

Luo Binghe hurried past the sect leader, panic clear in his eyes as he brought five thick books to the table. As for Yue Qingyuan...

Shen Jiu immediately covered his mouth, bursting into giggles. "Qi-ge's face!" He gasped out, curling over onto his side towards Shen Yuan. Yue Qingyuan's dismayed expression was hilariously overblown, to be fair. Once the table was blocking the other two's view, Shen Jiu glanced up toward the cieling, and then did a tiny little dance, wiggling his hands and feet with a small smile.

That's what counts as heartwarming around here? System??? System are you broken?!? Shen Yuan demands to send a bug report!

[fowlfics]

TBHX AO3 Collection

Hi there! Have you written a story or posted some other kind of work for TBHX fandom on AO3? Are you also impatiently awaiting the moment the tag gets canonized so that you could sort and filter the works to your preferences?

I've already sent a message to AO3 support, but while they canonized another fandom I've also mentioned in that message, they hadn't gotten around to TBHX just yet.

In the meantime, I have created a collection to work around the limitations of an uncategorized fandom tag!

It's called "TBHX for filtering until we're canonical" and it's open; You can add your works to it by going Edit Work > Associations > Post to Collections/Challenges > "tbhx" - if you have any issues with that but still want your work in the collection, let me know and I'll invite it in from my end!

For readers: feel free to use it to find stories to read and art to engage with! You can Sort by all usual criteria; You can use the "More Options" filters (Crossovers, Completion Status, Word Count, Date Updated, Language). While the Character, Relationship and Fandom-related tags aren't filterable (since they're not canonical yet either) you can put names in the "Search Within Results" field, and it should help narrow down the works you want to see!

Under the cut there's a list of currently used tags for easy copy-paste (going by the majority use amongst the currently-posted 40 works or wrangling guidelines); If you write TBHX stories, please consider using those to try and match until we get official tags!

Fandom: 凸变英雄X | To Be Hero X

Characters (the letter used for alphabetising for tag wrangling purposes is highlighted):

Ahu (To Be Hero X) - Big Johnny (To Be Hero X) - Dragon Boy (To Be Hero X) - Enlighter (To Be Hero X) - E-Soul (To Be Hero X) - Lin Ling | Nice (To Be Hero X) - Little Johnny (To Be Hero X) - Loli (To Be Hero X) - Lucky Cyan (To Be Hero X) - Miss J (To Be Hero X) - Moon (To Be Hero X) - Mo Sha | Ghostblade (To Be Hero X) - Original Nice (To Be Hero X) - Queen (To Be Hero X) - Wreck (To Be Hero X) - X (To Be Hero X)

Relationships: (these don't go strictly by the usage but rather by the wrangling guidelines: characters listed in alphabetical order by the name before the pipe [|] and generally following the rules listed here)

Dragon Boy & Lin Ling | Nice (To Be Hero X)

Dragon Boy & Lucky Cyan (To Be Hero X)

Enlighter/Lin Ling | Nice (To Be Hero X)

Lin Ling | Nice & Moon (To Be Hero X)

Lin Ling | Nice & Original Nice (To Be Hero X)

Lin Ling | Nice & X (To Be Hero X)

Lin Ling | Nice/Moon (To Be Hero X)

Lin Ling | Nice/Original Nice (To Be Hero X)

Moon & Original Nice (To Be Hero X)

Moon/Original Nice (To Be Hero X)

Original Nice & Wreck (To Be Hero X)

Original Nice/Wreck (To Be Hero X)

For any other relationships: Remember that they go in alphabetical order, with the fandom disambiguation at the end. It won't really matter once the tag wranglers get the fandom tags sorted bc then they'll link any variations to the canonical tag, but the consistency might be worth it in the meantime.

And just for fun, here's a list of some common freeforms:

Lin Ling | Nice Needs A Break (To Be Hero X) - Lin Ling | Nice Needs A Hug (To Be Hero X) - Mo Sha Needs a Hug (To Be Hero X) - Moon Deserved Better (To Be Hero X) - Moon Needs A Hug (To Be Hero X) - Nice Needs a Break (To Be Hero X) - Nice Needs a Hug (To Be Hero X) - Big Johnny Can Purr (To Be Hero X) - Dragon Boy Being Dragon Boy (To Be Hero X) - Hero Tower (To Be Hero X) - Insecure Nice (To Be Hero X) - Little Johnny Is A Ray Of Sunshine (To Be Hero X) - Nice Lives (To Be Hero X) - Top Ten As Found Family (To Be Hero X) - POV Lin Ling | Nice (To Be Hero X) - POV The Enlighter (To Be Hero X) - POV Wreck (To Be Hero X)

And some funnier in-tag commentary xD :

The classic: No beta we die like OG Nice did. RIP king you were there for 3 minutes

On canon divergence: Because we didn't even get to canon before it diverged - but there's no canon and the divergence is me making it the fuck up - We barely even have a canon and I'm uncomplying with it

On the Doomed Yaoi: Haolin needs to stop dooming my ships, Is it gay to save someone from suicide?, these gays needs to get out of my head, Wreck is a Wreck, wreck yearning kills me

The iconic: Freeing oneself from capitalism, FUCK TREEMAN, rip twink 4/5/25-4/5/25, the inherent catastrophy that is becoming a hero

And of course the plight that connects us all: I hope tbhx will get it's own tags soon😔, Written before Tag Canonization

Anycase: of course no one needs to use those tags or add works to the collection. We'll get canonized sooner or later and it won't matter then (but my friend did have to wait half a year for that to happen, hence why I bothered with that initiative). And also this is the intersection of my three major interests: AO3 tags, spreadsheet data manipulation and TBHX, so I'm using the non-canonical tag status as an excuse to yap about it xD

[marinettemarch]

Hello, everyone! No formal calendar this year, but I did want to post this year's prompts for everyone.

Just like last year, if you want to participate, be sure to tag your posts #marinettemarch2025 and @ mention this blog. I will reblog your submissions here.

Slightly different this year, I will be accepting anything created in the spirit of Marinette March. You may use this year's prompts, but I will also be accepting general submissions as well as any prompts from previous years. You can find all of the old calendars by searching #calendar on this blog, but if you'd like to save some time, here are the links for previous years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024 Mix and match however you see fit. The goal is just to spread love and positivity for Marinette!

That being said, some ground rules do still apply:

This is a salt free event. This includes harsh criticisms of the show, characters, ships, or fandom involved with it.

Ship content is allowed, so long as Marinette is the center of the work

NSFW is allowed, but please tag it and put it under a read more

For the purposes of this event, Shadybug/alternate Marinette is allowed as well as any alter ego Marinette has taken on in the duration of the show.

I'm looking forward to this year's event, and hope you all are too! Please reblog and spread the word. The prompts are listed in order under the cut.

All-Nighter

Grandparents

New Friends

Girls Night

Pink Scooter

Theories

Guardian Duties

Past Ladybugs

Mistakes

Diary Entries

Caterer

Master of Disguise

Weight of the World

Just a Kid

Relatives

Sleepover

Tea Party

Flower Garden

Wish

Lady Noir* (As in Marinette with the black cat Miraculous, not the ship)

Cherry Blossoms

Childhood

Investigation

Famous Friends

Love Interests

Enemies

Alternate Realities

Time Travel

Acrobatics

Sleep

Lucky Charm

[killerlookz]

another think piece bc this is kind of getting ridiculous now and i feel so bad for the people on here who are constantly losing motivation or outright deleting their hard work bc of some dumbass kids on the internet

im genuinely curious now, bc i still keep seeing people post about their work being posted on joostwt... like it must be on purpose now right? look i can understand being naive and coming onto tumblr for the first time and just looking up a fandom you like and then being surprised when people are little freaks about it ... but i mean at this point you have to KNOW what is on tumblr we've been the talk of joostwt (and tikok honestly) for like over a month now... you're no longer "accidentally" stumbling upon nsfw works you're actively seeking it out. and specifically actively seeking it out to harass and degrade the people who made the work, to what? to prove your own "morality" in this fandom? do you really think joost feels better now that you've put some random person on blast? do you think he's going to get on his knees and thank you for fighting the evil disgusting tumblr fandom... omg get a GRIPPPP!

if the tumblr fandom bothers you so much... stop actively seeking out the tumblr fandom??? like if its so gross and weird to you WHY do you keep coming back. go block some tags, or delete tumblr off your phone and stop trying to live out your repressed high school mean-girl fantasies over the internet and go outside.

like personally i dont really enjoy the joost fandom on tiktok or twitter, so i just simply dont interact with them, that easy. sure if joost content happens to be on my feed ill probably like it, but other than that i dont go out of my way to search the joost tags, or seek out fan accounts, bc just not my vibe- i suggest the rest of you do the same for us on tumblr

and tbh like i probably assure you joost is not surfing the "joost klein x reader" tag on here 😭 he's not going to see this shit as long as YOUUUU stop reposting them other places. anyways if you want to complain about sexualization are you also going to complain about the women he sexualizes in his songs? or what about that short story he wrote where he talks about a woman going down on him in a club bathroom... are you going to complain that he sexualized that woman? or when he talks about how he stole his friend's mom's bra... are you going to whine about how he sexualized her? because that's him sexualizing a real-life person. i mean cmon if sexualizing real people is so bad, lets at least keep our morals consistent.

[ingravinoveritas]

It's days like today that make me want to leave this fandom. Policing others to make yourselves look good is in complete opposition to the message GO tries to convey, IMO.

Thank you for your level headedness and patience on dealing with the people who piled on you with their negativity.

Here's hoping we can make it to the s3 release without anymore of this BS.

(Grouping together for ease of answering.)

Anon #1: Thank you very much for your kind words! I truly do appreciate it, though I don't feel like I did anything extraordinary or special. I was just appalled at the chaos that was unfolding in the fandom and how some people seemed to be encouraging it or even using it for their own self-serving purposes.

The interesting thing about a situation like today is how quickly it caused some people to show their true colors. You mentioned a pile-on, and that is exactly what happened--starting in the comments on my post where I had originally shared the concept art, with people attacking me and calling me a "disgrace" when all I was trying to do was make sense of the insanity and misinformation that was flying around. More than that, it was a comment that was completely out of order and unnecessary given the context of the situation.

Not long after this, I was told that someone had actually made a whole callout post about me. The post was made by someone who is part of a group of people who run a blog dedicated to harassing and sending abuse to me and others for the better part of a year now, and while I will not link to it (though it is in the tags and can be found if you search for my blog name), the content of this post involved telling people to harass me into taking down my post.

But the thing is, dozens (if not more) blogs posted the same photo that I did. Other blogs posted every single one of the concept art photos. I posted exactly one photo...and yet it was my blog that was singled out, by name. If this callout post was purely about defending the artist or GO, that would be an entirely different matter. But to single someone out like that is to put the focus on them and make them a target. So it seems to me that in this case, defending the artist/GO was nothing more than a convenient excuse for this person to show what a "good" fan they are by attacking a "bad" fan who they knew they could get others to easily go after.

And as you said, Anon #1, that is very much the opposite of the message that GO espouses, so it is ironic and unfortunate that so many people seem to have missed it.

As to your comments, Anon #2, the first thing you said is exactly what several other folks have said to me today. That if the person who contacted GON is a colleague of the artist whose work was "leaked," why would that person not just directly contact the artist (or a supervisor, a producer...hell, literally anyone other than a fan account)? There is no logical reason why someone who works on the show would reach out to a fan account (and as you said, one with a significantly smaller reach than FYGO) if the goal and intention was to get the pictures taken down.

And again, regarding the fever pitch to which discourse rose around the possibility of GO 3 being cancelled, I will echo a sentiment that I read on Twitter earlier, which is that it is frankly ridiculous to think that Amazon would cancel the show over concept images...but not over the SA allegations related to NG. In no way is this meant to diminish the seriousness of those allegations, either, but only to illustrate that if Amazon was dead-set on cancelling GO 3, they had more than ample reason to do so long before now.

None of this even remotely passes the smell test. It just doesn't. And the fact that so many people have been afraid to ask questions or discuss this openly is deeply concerning, because there is nothing wrong with asking questions. If you are genuinely worried that your friends or other fans will go off or get upset with you just for disagreeing with them or for saying "Hey, this seems weird to me, I'm not sure what to think"...are those really the people you want to be talking to? Just something to think about. So yes, I'm with you, Anon #1, as I also hope we can make it to the GO 3 release without any more of this drama. I know how easy it is to get caught up in everything, but if people would’ve just stopped and thought critically about these things for five minutes today, maybe a lot of this could have been avoided...

[chestersbraincell]

Finally doing an Introduction post 👀

It’s quite long, so I’ll put it as a “Read more”

I don’t necessarily identify with any particular name, but I have adopted a few Proper Noun - ish names which are in the list below. I don’t particularly attach myself to them as I don’t think I have a true name that exists, but the below are some things which I’ve collected that somewhat tangentially relate to myself or that I just, well, like! Aside from those, I much prefer to be referred to by, well, descriptors, I guess? It’s like you would go- oh, look at that ________ over there!/That _________ is……… kinda like that!

Well anyway, listed in somewhat of an order of preference(THEY’RE NOT PRONOUNS BTW):

•[REDACTED]

•Chester/Jester

•creature or any other variants of such descriptor

•Void/Voidling/shadow

•Shifting Void

•Nix/Asher

•Weeping Willow

(More may be added in the future)

I go by any pronouns, including any neos you think might suit my vibe! (that is, only with neo’s that are respectful, ie no slurs/otherwise offensive terms). I much prefer gender-neutral terms along with they/them, but I don’t get dysphoric with masc-leaning stuff. The only slightly touchy terms/pronouns for me are the feminine ones, I mean, they’re fine to use I would just rather they were used on rare occasions/as sayings(stuff like girl).

With that out of the way, it’s pretty important to say what I post, right? I partake in MANY fandoms, so never expect a singular theme. That being said, you can largely expect many reblogs/posts about:

•Undertale/Deltarune(rarely utmv stuff, I’m just not really a fan)

•Hermitcraft/Life series(Mainly Grian, Mumbo, GoodtimeswithScar, Smallishbeans and Geminitay), as well as sometimes generally just Minecraft related things

•Our Wonderland(VERY underrated psychological horror visual novel that you should check out NOW!!! 🫵🫵)

•My experiences as Alterhuman/Otherkin(more on this later)

That’s the main bulk of my stuff, however, I also pretty frequently post and reblog about:

•Mouthwashing

•Slay the Princess

•Corru.observer

•Detective Beebo

•Severence

•Dress to Impress(I often like to post my own outfits that I make!!)

•my experiences with Dermatillomania/Skin Picking Disorder

•generally rants/rambles/storytimes/whatever comes into my mind really. I use this blog a lot like a public diary, so also expect a fair share of venting/trauma dumping. I try my best to trigger warning these but yeah.

Now!! That’s!!! A lot of stuff wouldn’t you say? How does one navigate said stuff if you’re browsing my blog? Well!! The featured tags have been edited to feature my most commonly posted about things, and they’re a great way to filter through my blog. I reblog ALOT(especially using the queue, which I choose to not tag), so if you’re interested solely in my original posts I have just the tag for you: Asher’s Ramblings . With one small problem unfortunately. Annoying part being you have to manually type asher’s ramblings into my blog’s search bar WITH a space at the end for most posts to show(I think it’s because at a point I just started to copy and paste the tag instead of manually typing it). Otherwise the featured tags should work fine.

I have additionally created side blogs to reblog my writing ( @jestersrambles ) , dress to impress outfits ( @sillyjesterplaysroblox ) and otherkin posts/reblogs ( @shiftingvoid ) if you’re here from seeing posts related to those and don’t want your dash cluttered with the other stuff I reblog/post about. Keep in mind these sideblogs are updated irregularly/later than this blog so they are a lesser option to the main blog. Alas the choice is up to you. I will not be making fandom-specific blogs as I mostly reblog about those anyway and the purpose of the sideblogs was to allow people to more easily follow for content created BY me. So yea

Sometimes when you interact with someone, you have an image of them in your head. For a lot of people, that is influenced by their profile picture. And if you wish to see me as a Garfield dressed up in yellow and red clown attire that is completely fine! But!!! If you were curious as to what my internet sona looked like, then the closest I think I could get would be my Roblox avatar:

But alas, that is, as well as my current mortal human body, a mere suit, a shell, that contains my true self. Yupp here is where you get an exact description of my Alterhuman/Otherkin identity yippie!!!

The main “kin” identities I identify with are “Voidkin” and “Shapeshifterkin”. I am like the physical/metaphysical embodiment of, well, space, I guess? That is my “home”, anyway. The void is my home. Where I come from. But sometimes I’m also part of it. Not to get too spiritual with it but I do believe in reincarnation in my own way, and I believe that being part of the “void”, or just general “energy” floating around there is the in-between in which my soul resides in between lifetimes.

I think I’ve lived many a lifetimes which have shaped the main forms I take when I’m more, well, shaped. Most of the time the shape I take is mostly humanoid, with various animal/otherwise features at different times, such is the way of being a shapeshifter. I’m vanta-black in colour, except for the two glowing circles that are my eyes. They’re not always visible/open, but a lot of the time are. Also occasionally my teeth/fangs will highlight in a similar way. Oftentimes as of recent I’ve been covered in fur/my silhouette is “fuzzy” on the edges, but there are times when I feel more cool, smooth. The best way I could describe it is the texture of phone/computer screen. That and I’m semi-corporeal. So. Not entirely tangible. I take a liking to forests and dark spooky hallways/general areas, I think at some points I might’ve been something similar to a cryptid. Generally just like to become one with the darkness I occupy, too. Malleable is my shape is all I want to say.

Rarely, but it does happen, I experience more animalistic shifts(in the shapeshifter way, btw, since I know “shifts” is something used by otherkin identities in a different context). The forms I take, then, are most often either feline or canidae in nature. I’ve considered moth and squirrel before but I’m not sure whether I just share some traits/behaviours or whether I have had moments where I was completely shaped like that.

Well, I guess coming to an end, it would be worth to do a somewhat “DNI” list or whatever people do in that vein, if we’re speaking of interaction. A good rule of thumb would be that, if you don’t fw the things I am or the things I enjoy, probably move along. You’ll probably get a block from me if you’re Homophobic, Transphobic, Racist, Nazi, just generally if you’re a shitty human being and if I don’t block you because I don’t know of these views you hold, I would appreciate if you stay away from me thanks. I don’t enjoy partaking in discourse most of the time, especially if I’m not in a place to speak on the matter(ie not affected by it personally).

Though, I guess since this is tumblr, I guess I should specify my attitude towards shipping. I personally don’t like the terms pro/anti because they’re very reductive and people define them in different ways anyway. I’d say I have like 3 tiers of attitude towards ships:

Tier 1(A-okay with it, no problems here)-basically any ships considered completely unproblematic and healthy. I guess the only one some may disagree with being healthy that I put in this category is (STRICTLY) romantic minor x minor pairings. Because don’t act like minors don’t get into relationships/have crushes. If you make it weird/sexual then that’s on you and you’re weird.

Tier 2-ships where the relationship between the two characters may be seen as toxic or unhealthy. This includes stuff like Yanderes, bully x victim, codependency, non-age related power imbalances, stuff like that. With these, I do ship them, but in the way that I like to see these dynamics explored and written about/depicted. If you romanticise/endorse these then I am not okay with you and if I find out you do this I will likely block you at my own discretion. I just like to see them purely for the angst+the representation.

Tier 3- what you’re likely thinking of. Incest, anything involving minors x adult, SA victim x abuser, sexualisation of minor x minor pairings(yes, even if you age them up). I don’t want to see it. I will likely view you with disgust if I see you endorsing/posting it. I want to clarify I am against witch-hunting and harassing individuals who do this, and that I know some do this as a trauma response. I am not in a place to tell someone how to process their trauma. But I don’t want to see it.

Oh yeah, also, I’m 18, so I guess I should set out some boundaries there. Of course, I have no way of verifying your age and quite frankly I’m not responsible for your unrestricted internet access, so everything is up to your discretion. However. If I may lay down some personal preferences I would say my page is okay for anyone aged 13 and up; just make sure to have the tag “nsfw” blocked since I tag some of my more suggestive posts/jokes that way. As for more personal interaction like DMs or being something akin to “friends”(I don’t particularly like getting close to anyone let alone calling them a friend because of my trust issues, calling someone a friend makes it official and that scares me) I would personally prefer if you were at-least 16, 15 if we’re really pushing it but then again it really depends on how emotionally mature you are on whether we would be able to find common ground.

[ghouldtime]

i usually don’t message anyone or anything but i just wanted to say i love your characterizations of konig, ghost, and soap very much. the love and appreciation you have for these characters really come through in your writing.

the cod fandom is full of talented writers but the majority of them write smut. it gets tiring scrolling through the tag and just seeing porn when i actually just wanna see… ppl who enjoy the characters outside of sex appeal, yk? so your blog, truly and genuinely, is a breath of fresh air.

that’s not even mentioning the ppl who write them as abusive or use them to fulfill certain fantasies. i mean i don’t kink shame ofc, but idk sometimes ppl write them in extremely degrading ways that do a disservice to their character and it bugs me a little. plus all the “innocent bimbo reader” rhetoric, idk it gets tiring.

anyway, sorry for the yap session, but i did mean everything i said genuinely !!

💚💚💚💚 Salutations anon! You really don't know how much I appreciate hearing this. Seriously, messages like this give me motivation to keep writing and to stay active on here. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU from the very depths of my heart. You've all been so so incredibly kind, sweet, and encouraging 😭 I don't know what I've done to deserve this but it's appreciated and you all are absolutely awesome. This has made my YEAR, thank you for taking time out of your day to send my silly self a message 💚💚💚💚💚

I'm so so happy my characterizations have hit the mark for some people and that I'm (hopefully) doing them some justice! I'm always worried about that because characterization matters heavily to me and I want to respect their characters and how much they mean to me and other people through it EVEN IF THE WRITERS OF THE LAST MODERN WARFARE DON'T KNOW WHAT A PROPER STORY LINE IS AND KILLED SOAP WHICH I'M NOT FORGETTING, IM NOT FORGIVING, AND IM CERTAIN NOT LIVE LAUGH LOVING WITH IT. I'm refusing to accept he's dead, no matter what they say

I love the boys all so much. They all have such interesting things about them and have a lot more dynamic to them than people think and I just want to represent them right, especially lesser appreciated characters (haven't actually really written for them yet but Keegan, Logan, Hesh, Sandman, Roach, Nikto, Krueger - legit I love them, anyone feel free to send asks or scenarios you'd like I WILL write them. Legit, y'all, you can send me asks about certain characters even if there isn't much on them. I WILL do my research and I WILL write to the best of my ability)

Oh there's many talented writers in the COD Fandom, there really are. I can't say I really know any personally seeing as I never really interact with other blogs but I've seen some reallly really nice fics with so much thought put in them. But equally, there's a lot of just... smut. Not even well written smut, I'm sorry, but a lot of it is just really, really poorly written. I'm all for do what you want, write whatever makes you happy. Freedom of speech! If it makes you happy, cool! But I'm also going to cringe cause a lot of it is... yeah, yikes

Not trying to be the smut police and say every detail must be accounted for and everyone should follow it in a certain way but plz basic anatomy 101, basic prep 101, no guy gal or enby pal will appreciate it if you just shove it in to anywhere dry and I've seen a loooot of that and other things that just hurt?????

I get it, people learn by reading/writing, but this is literally just a single search away. And common sense. There's also a lot of practices being unsafely represented (like fifty shades of gray level) and uh it's not on purpose, it's not meant to be dubious, but it just is written as that. PLEEEEASE please please do some research, the internet is right there

But I felt the same way. Like bless whatever y'all want to write, no shame and NO shade to writing smut. I'll probably eventually do it myself again in the future (undecided on that but it'd likely be a side blog if I do and would never be a main focus, I prefer story over smut action. Once again, no shade and no shame to those who don't, to each their own!). Never ever going to full on NSFW mode or only writing that, I'm always always always going to prioritize writing the characters first and trying to get more stories out there about them :D

But I got tired of opening it and all I see is just... smut, smut, more smut, extremely dubious content x 50. And maybe a sprinkle of normal things or fluff here and there. I just don't look in the tags honestly anymore, because so many people just don't properly tag it or give 0 warning at all, not even under a read more, just BAM, unavoidable unless you flat out don't look at the tags at all

There's more to the characters than just being attractive 😭and I love exploring those aspects of them and trying to figure out why they are the way they are

Also I'm ALWAYS going to have an issue with people who fetishize horrible things. When you're actively fantasizing and writing about someone abusing someone else, like flat out abuse, and being incredibly toxic and terrible to someone - just, please talk to a therapist. That's not social commentary, that's not a proper portrayal of real, HORRIBLE things that affect many people and have very real repercussions - that's perpetuating the negative narrative around a lot of struggles and setting it back by instead turning it into something that's treated as attractive. I really fully can elaborate on this and have a whole rant - but it's not cute and it's NEVER cool to fetishize actual, awful awful things that happen to people. Dead dove doesn't excuse you from judgement - especially when it's not even acknowledged. You're just saying you know what you write is probably morally reprehensible. Hey, I'm going to reprehend and won't respect you at all when you write awful things just cause and get off on it. Think people forget that. Dead dove is a descriptor and doesn't excuse you or make you instantly free from judgement or mean you're not doing something problematic/disgusting. It's just saying you know it is, that's about it.

I don't get why people do that when it's clear they have no idea what they're talking about. I've seen that a lot with the bully! Things. Like... wow, clearly some of you WEREN'T bullied and you're writing about it and it shows because if you were, hey, you know how fucking awful that shit is and how it leaves life long effects. Not saying this applies to all but there's a lot I see like that where it's just ".... wow, okay, so you don't have any idea what you're talking about, cool."

AND YEAH the mischaracterization really does do a great disservice where it's clear they're just after the characters for their physique. They just warp them so bad it's like "Are we talking about the same character?" . In AUs you get to explore that and can shape them to your wants, that's your choice! Highly recommend AU's, it allows so much freedom.

But when it's like.... regular? And it's just no where close and they're doing a 180 in how they actually are (like having Ghost flirt with strangers and be big scary daddy dom im sorry he's not at allllll) I don't get it and it's clear you really aren't writing about or for the character - at that point, plz, make your own characters. Just make your own OCs, it's great! And you can make them HOWEVER you want instead of just ignoring a character's characterization to make them fit what you want. And guess what? It's your character so you can TRULY do what you want and have them the way that you want instead of bending characters to fit a box that they weren't made for

I'm not saying you HAVE to write a character the same as me or in a specific way, but when it's a character with an established personality/backstory, the least you can do is follow that outside of AU's if you're writing for them. That's... the whole point of writing that character - I don't get why you'd write for them specifically if you're literally going to ignore everything about them

SPEAKING OF THE INNOCENT BIMBO THING, I'm also really not a fan. Once again, if that makes you happy to write or read, cool! I just am NOOOOT a fan. Why does the reader always have to be so small and so delicate and so pure/innocent? Why does the reader have to be just so UWU coded? Why are they always like "oh you're so little and small :( and just don't know any better" . It's either that or they're John fucking Wick with little in between. Pleeeease it hurts my soul

Its why I try to genuinely write a neutral geared reader with reactions that will likely fit a lot of people! I'm always taken out of a story's immersiveness when it mentions something like like your hair length or how uwu small you are in comparison. Give me just... average sensible reader. Give me reader who has realistic human reactions. Give me reader who isn't perfect, give me a reader who isn't magically special or different. Give me a reader who is just doing their best, who is THEMSELVES, with no intent otherwise. I love those fanfics so so much instead of trying to feel like I have to be something I'm not to get myself in the mindset to read some pieces NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR YAPPING. IM ALWAYS WANTING TO TALK IM ALWAYS AROUND 💚💚💚💚THANK YOU FOR THE MESSAGE IT MAKES MY HEART WARM AND MAKES ME SO SO HAPPY

[imagineitdearies]

Hey I loved loved loved your fanfiction as I’m sure everyone here did but now I, going through withdrawals I can’t find anything similar or as good as yours. So I’m curious what your favourite bg3 fanfiction are?

Hey there!! Awww, thank you ☺️ I sort of got super focused on writing PS for a while there, so I can't say I know of all The GreatsTM in this fandom. I will share what I have enjoyed/am currently reading though (almost all of it involving Astarion), but anyone else should feel free to add your favs in the comments!!

As always, please check tags and read at your own discretion!

Finished ones I've enjoyed:

Seducere by Tlon ~ Astarion/nb!Tav ~ Astarion doesn’t need a reflection to know himself – two hundred years of servitude has shown him exactly what he’s good for. Odd that his new partner seems to disagree.

Nothing is safe by foxflowering ~ Wyll/Astarion ~ "Wyll's the sort of prince-type I would have once dreamed of marrying. When I was about thirteen."

Carving through the dark by skitter ~ Astarion/f!Tav ~ Wren and Astarion descend into the Underdark in search of a new purpose, and learn a few things along the way. Namely, that healing isn't linear and sometimes love takes the long way round.

Astarion Origin Party Nonsense by starkraving ~ Astarion/Karlach; Astarion/Cazador, sort of Astarion/Wyll? ~ A collection of things that ostensibly happen in the same little mental universe. Loosely based on the events of an Origin Astarion run and the various questions it inspired. (All but one in the series is finished so I'm counting it, lol!)

All Our Missing Parts by Viraaja ~ Astarion/Halsin ~ Halsin discovers Astarion was turned before his maturity and all the sacred elven rites that come along with it. Including the sex one.

Friday Nights by SadinaSaphrite ~ Astarion/Gale ~ Professor Gale Dakarios loses his research, his magic, and his lover Mystra all at once and only has himself to blame. When he goes to drown his sorrows, he meets a pale stranger with mysteries of his own.

visions of your love by LargeOctahedron, notyournoise ~ Shadowheart/f!Tav ~ Shadowheart is tired of doubting - of feeling her heart twist whenever she looks at Tav without knowing whether they feel the same. One night, tired of sitting and hoping Tav will approach, she tries to read their mind, only to find them in a rather compromising position.

WIPs I'm following:

Palmarosa by thespectaclesofthor ~ Astarion/Raphael ~ Astarion is stuck in the darkness once more, yearning for sunlight with every fibre of his being, while bitterly reflecting on all the things that were denied to him. Raphael knows Astarion's desperate, and comes to him with not one, but two horrid contract offers that Astarion loathes and dreads in equal measure - but the prize at the end of both are too good to turn down.

To Defy the Gods by ~ Shadowheart/Tav ~ Dark Justiciar. Mother Superior. Shar's Voice Made Flesh. Her Chosen. Shadowheart had emptied her heart of falsehoods, of the illusion of life and love, and accepted the inevitability of loss. Almost.

A Dog's Retreat by ~ Halsin & Astarion, past Astarion/Cazador ~ For most, it was just the end of the Absolute. For Astarion, it was the end of two hundred years of agony. And the transition is steep and slippery. Now, all he can do is hope that there are enough pieces of him left for him to pick up and somehow put back together. Too bad hope has never been Astarion’s poison of choice.

A Warm House, A Ruddy Fire by DepravedJJJSchmidt ~ trans!Astarion/Cazador, trans!Astarion/m!Tav ~ Mr. and Mrs. Cazador Szarr have an ideal marriage. Astarion doesn't know if he will be able to survive another year of it. (And I don't know if I'll survive another chapter tbh, but like a burning building I can't look away 😬)

Alright, that's all I can think of! I'm a bit distracted all over again thanks to the original novel I'm working on now, but hopefully you find something new on this list you end up enjoying 🩵 this fandom is full of so many talented people!!

[pokemontherapy]

I think I sort of get what the first anon was saying, there's a lot of lkdt compared to other horizons ships to the point where it sometimes feels overwhelming and inescapable and like no one cares about anything in hz but lkdt, I haven't seen many posts on Tumblr talking about wanting lkdt back but I have seen some so they definitely are out there, I mostly just scroll past and ignore them though

but in general, lkdt is kind of unavoidable now, when looking for fics on ao3 I've found lkdt fics in the tags for other pairings involving Liko and Dot - and I haven't checked in a while but there's barely any character study fics for Liko or Dot that aren't shipping them together. I've also seen lkdt shippers on here and on twitter post ship hate in the tags of other Liko or Dot ships, and again, I haven't checked in a while so I don't know if it's changed since mega voltage but last I looked it was impossible to find a Roy character study fic too because his only fics were as a supporting or background character in lkdt fics

I think it'd be nice to see some friendship fics or character study fics without there needing to be romance involved but that might just be my aroace ass talking

That’s honestly how I interpreted things as well!! Likodot is a great dynamic and it’s queer, which is Tumblr’s bread and butter, so it makes sense it would be popular. Honestly, with how little Horizons posts there are on Tumblr and how, for a time, every 3/4 posts were Likodot, I could see someone getting oversaturated with it. Heck, I did for a while.

It’s more on AO3; Liko/Dot is the most popular tag in Horizons, having 199 fics, and Liko & Dot has 46 fics, with only 17 of them not being crosstagged as Liko/Dot. Friede becomes the most tagged character if you remove Likodot from your search, and Dot goes from second to fifth. Likodot takes up ~ 2/5 of Liko’s fics (197/505 fics in total) and over half of Dot’s fics (190/341 fics in total), as of Jun 1 2025. For reference, Liko & Roy (the forth most popular dynamic and second most popular platonic one, after Liko & Dot) has 43 works, a little more than 1/8 of romantic Likodot. For someone who dislikes or is even neutral to/not searching for Likodot, this can make it insanely frustrating, especially if you’re looking for platonic fics.

I’ve actually had a pretty good run with Likodotters, in the sense that all I’ve met have been kind and respectful to me :D maybe it’s because I stay out of ship tags though.

A reason for the saturation in romantic content, at least for sites like Tumblr and Twitter, could be that there’s no real platonic duo / trio tags, so sometimes for organization purposes people will put fairly ambiguous art under their romantic tags; I’ve done that before, admittedly. The closest I’ve seen to platonic tags has once again been in the Ameliko fandom, with the tag #Liko and Amethio and the blog @liko-and-amethio. Maybe that could be a solution? I do agree there should be more platonic / friendship fics and character studies, as a fellow aroace (happy Pride Month btw!). AO3 has NO excuse though, that’s just amatonormativity / shipping culture at work.

Either way, the first step to change is doing something yourself. Write a character study! Draw the characters hanging out as friends! If you need to brainstorm, feel free to shoot an ask or DM me, even :D I love brainstorming. Also, I’m curious; what’s your favorite element of the Horizons dynamics (e.g. the RTV, Liko Roy and Dot, the trainers and Pokémon, etc.)?

[actualbird]

Statistical Report of Marius/Luke Ao3 Literature (2024)

(aka, a pet project i've been working on behind the scenes for a while. if you'd rather read it as a PDF, you can check it out here, but i've copy pasted its entirety into this text post, beginning in 3...2...1...)

Introduction

Ahhh, Marius von Hagen and Luke Pearce…such wonderful characters from hit mobile otome game “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis.” As love interests to Miss MC Rosa Qiangwei, they each are incredibly compelling characters with incredibly nuanced backstories, personalities, and dynamics with MC.

Also, there’s a small but dedicated community of shippers that want them to kiss and make out and be in love with each other. Hell yeah!

Welcome to the Statistical Report of Marius/Luke Ao3 Literature (2024), a report that aims to capture this community’s literary contribution to the MariLuke ship by crunching the data available to the public on Ao3! 

Before going into the data, there are some notes and caveats to this census that the author would like to make clear.

This report’s data was taken from the “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag on Archive of Our Own. This means that all works outside of this tag or outside of this website (ex. Twitter thread fics or Tumblr drabbles not crossposted to Ao3, fanfiction only on other sites like FanFiction.net, Wattpad, Weibo, etc.) have not been included.

This report’s data is as of May 31, 2024 as a cutoff date. This was so that I wouldn’t have to endlessly update the data and go insane.

Works that did exist but have since been deleted as of May 31, 2024 are not included, as the author does not have an encyclopedic memory of fanfics that no longer exist on the site :( 

Now with all that said, let’s dive in.

---

Number Of Fics Posted and Surge Periods

Now, let’s begin with the number of fics posted. As of May 31, 2024, there are 166 fics in the “Lu Jinghe | Marius von Hagen/Xia Yan | Luke Pearce” tag on Ao3. This number (and subsequently, this report) counts fics as they are listed in AO3 as unique fics, meaning that if it takes up its own little box in the AO3 feed, that’s one fic in itself. This does unfortunately mean that fics that act as a collection (i.e. each chapter is a different story) are only counted as one fic. This number also excludes podfics, because that’s basically the same fic in a different format.

That being said, this number is still nothing to scoff at. And things get even more delightful when we track down the frequency of fics posted month by month in a timeline.

The earliest MariLuke fic posted on Ao3 was “You are King” by itshaku on August 8, 2021, a mere 10 days after ToT’s official global release. The folks who posted the very first few fics in August 2021 laid down the foundation and bedrock of the Ao3 tag, and as ToT’s existence to the global audience continued, more and more fic started to populate our hallowed halls.

However, while that’s the earliest MariLuke fic as is recorded by Ao3 now, I happen to know that there was a fic that was posted even earlier. A fic called “Don’t Let Me Go” by sakurei. Both the fic and the author’s account has since been delated, but I knew this fic existed because I originally started this report in 2022. When I had first put together the preliminary data, I noted “Don’t Let Me Go” as the first ever fic, and then was disheartened to learn that it was deleted. Like, no…the sacred texts… All hope seemed lost until my dear friend Z Lukevonhagen suggested I search the link on the Wayback Machine, and lo and behold, a copy of the True First Ever MariLuke Fanfic On Ao3 had been unearthed. Thanks, Z!

In the month of October 2021, the Marius/Luke tag experienced its first fic surge. For the purposes of this report, any month with 8 or more fics posted during their duration is counted as a surge. Why is 8 or more the qualifier? That number was picked solely off of vibes.

A total of 9 new fics were posted in October 2021, though the I can’t find any discernible reason for this fic. After some digging, I found no relevant fan events that occurred in October 2021 that linked to any of the MariLuke fics. In terms of in-game happenings, the only thing of note here is that this is when the Symphony Of The Night event was running, but it’s not like Marius and Luke made out on screen during that event’s storyline (oh, how I wished though…)

Our next surge happened in August 2022, with a whole 12 fics posted, when the tag suddenly and beautifully got a sizeable influx of CN fics. CN fics take up 6 of the 12 fics posted during this time period, which is half of the month’s total fic yield. Thank you for your service, CN MariLukers !

Our next surge period lasted for a whopping 3 consecutive months, ushering a Golden Age for MariLuke fics, so to speak. Month by month, what happened was:

In October 2022, another surge occurred with a total of 11 fics. During this month, Twitter account Thirst of Themis had run a ToT Kinktober fan event, and a number of new Marius/Luke fics were created and posted in accordance with the Kinktober prompts. 

In November 2022, a total of 9 fics were posted, and this was mostly because of two specific singular authors’ hard work, as they published several fics all on their own in rapid succession and contributed to the surge. Ao3 author Litchire posted a whopping 4 fics during this period, along with Ao3 author ynfzymokaihewo who posted 3 fics. 

In December 2022, a total of 9 fics were posted, though this is the month where I couldn’t find any discernible reason once again. Maybe the holiday season just made us all fic-happy? Who knows.

After that, it’s smooth sailing for a while with average MariLuke fic yields for a couple of months.

Then, the Recession came. Followed by a Revival. Followed by another Recession. 

In April, 2023, only one (1) MariLuke fic was posted. Authors recovered in the following month of May 2023, but right after in June 2023, we all died once again with a staggering zero (0) new MariLuke fics posted. I assume we all went into hibernation or something. But that’s fine, because the next month in July 2023, the crops started flowering once more and the MariLuke harvest began anew.

Our next surge happened a couple months later, in November 2023, with 8 new fics posted. The culprit here is Thirst of Themis once again, for they had run a November prompts event, and 7 out of 8 MariLuke fics posted this month were in fulfillment of the event.

Now, we arrive at our latest surge and also our biggest one. In may 2024, the MariLuke Ao3 tag saw a whopping 28 new fics posted. This is undoubtedly the result of the fan event MariLuke Week (May 2024) for 27 out of the 28 fics were posted in fulfillment of the event’s prompts. The following authors participated in MariLuke Week, with their fic counts for this event placed next to their name:

xXILoveMyFridgeXx (10 fics contributed)

wtfhoney (7 fics contributed)

quarterweeb / theobscenfraction (4 fics contributed)

reptilianraven (3 fics contributed)

lukevonhagen (2 fics contributed)

Litchire (1 fic contributed)

Congratulations and thank you to the writers who participated in the event! You all contributed to the biggest surge in MariLuke stocks THUS FAR, and you should all give yourselves a pat on the back.

That concludes the timeline of MariLuke works up til May 31, 2024! Hit the showers, everybody!

---

Full List of AO3 Users Who Have Written Marius/Luke Fanfiction

The Marius/Luke writer population is a small but mighty one, with a total of 45 unique authors who have posted a fic Marius/Luke fic on Ao3 as of May 31, 2024. Before going into the full list of authors, here are some important caveats to the list:

ON ANONYMOUS AUTHORS: As this report deals with how Ao3 lists data, all authors who have opted to post anonymously will be counted as one entity. I personally know that some anonymous authors are different users, but verifying this without making any fuckups would make my tiny pea brain cry. For this reason, anonymous authors are counted as one unique author, so if you’re one of these anonymous authors, congrats on being a part of a Marius/Luke hivemind!

ON AUTHORS WITH PSEUDS: An Ao3 user who has different posted fics within the Marius/Luke tag under different pseuds will be counted as one unique author. Despite saying in the last paragraph that the my personal knowledge will not be enacted to tweak how Ao3 lists data, I’m making one exception here because it literally only pertains to three Ao3 users in the ship tag, so this won’t make my tiny brain cry at all.

So without further ado and in alphabetical order, here our are heroes:

Authors listed under the Anonymous Label

ajing_1124

artistic_gemini

asukryo

autumnsparrxw

BlazingSunflowers

CandorArchives

chechevitsa

darkbreak

doridoripawaa

dxpiarchaive / keeyamii

Eden_of_Amour / suffering_meguca

EnnTea

floweringlight

friedchickenlord

Goryo_Wataru

i_o_u_e_a

itshaku

kombat_exe

ladyhaspran

layla_wp

Litchire

lukevonhagen

m3i_day

marcipancake

monocuri

osamurice

pvsiytemhaver

quarterweeb / theobscenefraction

reptilianraven

RikuMorimachisGirl

Rxzaliya

samandspam

snocchiato

Solaste

sondepoch

strayris

Szim

Tinowenn

ThirdLibraryOfYumenosaki

turnscote

wtfhoney

xeriacat

xXILoveMyFridgeXx

ynfzymokaihewo

---

A Brief Glimpse Into Ratings and Tags

Before I looked at the ratings, I had a hypothesis that Explicit fics would take the lead because in majority of the MariLuke fics I’ve read myself, Marius and Luke are written to have incredibly active libidos. Lo and behold, when I did chart down the fics by rating, is is revealed that…

…statistically, we are horny. 

Not by a whole lot though! Fics that are rated Teen and Up comes in 2nd place by just a very small margin, so that’s a lot of fics that are accessible to those who don’t want to read Marius and Luke getting nasty.

In terms of Additional Tags, I checked out the Top 5 most frequented Additional Tags and charted them below.

The Top 5 most used Additional Tags are actually Fluff, Light Angst, Comedy, Humor, and Anal Sex. However, I reasoned that Comedy and Humor are the exact same thing, so I counted them as synonyms and added in the 6th most used Additional Tag: Established Relationship. 

Anyhoo, I think it’s really sweet to see that Fluff reigns supreme! And by a large margin, too. We love to write our boys having a wholesome lovely time. Of course, we also like just a smidge of narrative spice, which is where Light Angst comes in in 2nd place. That being said, I think it’s insanely funny that Anal Sex is in this chart. It is very out of place among the rest, LMAO.

---

A Brief Segue Into The Popularity of Marius/Luke In Relation to Other ToT BL Pairings

As of May 31, 2024, Marius/Luke is the 1st most popular M/M ship in the Ao3 tag, overall clocking in with a total of 166 works. 

In addition to that, I think it’s interesting to note that the 2nd most popular BL ship is Marius/Artem, with 130 fics, while the 3rd most popular BL ship is Marius/Vyn, with 66 fics. Tied for 4th place is Artem/Male or Gender Neutral Reader, and Vyn/Artem, both at 46 fics respectively.

The reason why I think the top 5 BL ships are interesting to look at is due to Marius’ participation in 3 out of the 5 most popular M/M ships in the ToT tag. Given this, we can veritably congratulate him for statistically beating the heterosexual allegations. Marius really gave off vibes that made many different shippers go “oh there’s no way in hell he’s completely straight.”

---

Accolades 

Longest Fic

As of May 31, 2024, the Longest Fic in the tag is [drumroll]...Losing Sight by pvsiytemhaver! This fic is actually primarily as ArtemRosa fic with MariLuke as an additional ship, and it currently clocks in at 90,109 words, taking the 1st spot as the longest MariLuke fic and the 18th longest fic overall in the general “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag. Let’s take a look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of the longest fics in the MariLuke tag:

Losing Sight by pvsiytemhaver (90,109 words)

the lips i used to call home (it was maroon) by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (58,185 words)

Five Points of a Star by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (25,494 words)

Risk of Pain by Solaste (25,157 words)

end of a decade (start of an age) by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (20,671 words)

Special shoutout to user xXILoveMyFridgeXx who consistently pumps out fics with gargantuan word counts.

Fic With Most Kudos

Next on the list is the Fic With The Most Kudos, and this title goes to [drumroll]... “standard operating procedure (x4 speedrun) by reptilianraven” which…oh, that’s me. 

This fic is not solely a MariLuke work, but an NXX Polycule work that has MariLuke within it. Weighing in with 827 kudos, it takes the spot as the 1st most kudos’d MariLuke work, while also weighing in as the 9th most kudos’d fic overall in the general “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag. Let’s take a look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of the Top 5 Fics With Most Kudos:

standard operating procedure (x4 speedrun) by reptilianraven (827 kudos)

every breath you take, every move you make, peanut will be watching you by reptilianraven (735 kudos)

how Puppy Pierce© conquered the world by reptilianraven (705 kudos)

the existence of a top student implies the existence of a bottom student by reptilianraven (575 kudos)

making out with your bro for fun and for profit by reptilianraven (567 kudos)

(Thank you for the kudos ;^;)

Author With Most MariLuke Works Written

And now, for our last accolade… the award for the author who currently has a large chunk of the MariLuke Ao3 tag coming from their own fics wrought by their own mind. 

This title goes to [drumroll]... oh goddamn it, it’s me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being insane about them. I don’t remember writing this much for them, I swear to god. Let’s look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of authors with the most MariLuke works written:

reptilianraven (24 works)

quarterweeb / theobscenefraction (quarterweeb) (23 works)

Litchire (15 works) and ynfzymokaihewo (15 works) tied for 3rd place

xXILoveMyFridgeXx (13 works)

wtfhoney (11 works)

---

Conclusion

I love this ship. I love this ship so goddamn much, but if there’s one thing I love more, it’s the community of shippers who write for this ship. This pet project was started as a little love letter from me to the MariLuke writing community. So, thank you, MariLuke writers!! Thank you for putting your heart and soul into the works you create, thus fashioning a beautifully wide array of fics to enjoy and read, and thank you for showing your love for this rarepair!

Alright, this report is too damn long. I’m gonna go reread MariLuke fics now. Bye! Hope you enjoyed!

[bluejaysandblackbats]

In The Soup

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam, Superfam

Summary: Jason Lives AU where he and Superboy become friends, despite Bruce's disapproval of Superboy. (ft. Jason's service dog, Gromit)

Chapters: 11/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Barbara Gordon, Conner Kent, Roxy Leech, Rex Leech

Relationships: TBA

Additional Tag: Jason Todd Lives, Jason Todd Has Chronic Pain, Jason Todd Has PTSD, Conner Kent is Superboy, Good Friend Jason Todd, Protective Jason Todd, Overprotective Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Disabled Characters, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Get Along, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Developing Friendships, Sneaking Around, Disguise, Fluff and Humor, Secret Messages, Hiding in Plain Sight

Chapter Eleven: Second Burger

Jason ate his sandwich, frowning as he thought about what he’d say to Conner. “Hey? Conner?” Jason whispered. 

Conner smiled as he ate his sandwich. “What’s up?” Conner questioned. 

“Do you know why your powers don’t put off Barbara and me?” Jason asked. Conner opened a bag of chips and stared at Jason, studying his expression as he searched for an answer. 

“I figured Gotham was weird like that… Why? Are you telling me that you wanted—?”

“I don’t want anything… That’s not it. I was a bit of a vigilante before my accident,” Jason confessed, “But now—. Now, I’m—.” 

“Jason, why are you telling me this? It’s not like it changes anything,” Conner smiled, “We’re still friends… Aren’t we?” 

Jason grinned. “Yeah. Are you sure you’re not mad?” Jason asked. Conner nodded. 

“But tell me one thing… Clarke with an ‘e’? That was on purpose. Wasn’t it?” Conner asked. Jason chuckled, nodding as he finished his lunch. Conner stared at Jason for a while before he started laughing. “And who is Barbara?” 

“A friend of the family… She used to date my brother. That’s all,” Jason lied. 

“None of my business,” Conner replied, “Jason, can you tell me something?” 

“Sure,” Jason answered.

“Your accident wasn’t an accident, was it?” Conner questioned. Jason shook his head. “I’m glad you lived. And I’m glad we met.” 

“If we didn’t, you’d probably have a girlfriend or a big friend group by now—.” 

“Funny of you to think you’re the one keeping me from having a girlfriend. I can do that all by myself,” Conner half-joked, “Speaking of girlfriends… Why don’t you have one?” 

“I go to a private school where everyone thinks I’m a freak. I might’ve had a shot if I went to a school with kids who are used to seeing real people. A lot of people in this part of Gotham tend to live in a bubble,” Jason replied, “But I don’t mind. Not everyone here thinks like that, but it’s hard to sift through all the ones that do. I don't have the time or desire to dig for the o” Jason took his glasses off and cleaned them before glancing down at Gromit, who lay patiently at his side. “Gromit, how are we doing?” Jason asked after he finished eating. He scratched behind Gromit’s ears. “I love you, sweet boy.” 

**

Conner dozed off during history, and Jason nudged him. When Conner looked beside himself, Jason was half asleep, too. He sipped water to stay awake. “Do you have notes—?” Jason nodded at him. 

The lights came on and the class winced. “Now that I know you’re all awake—.” Jason raised a bathroom pass up. “Yes.” 

“What’s that?” Conner asked. 

“I’ll be right back. Make sure the lecture keeps recording,” Jason whispered. Conner sat up straight, watching as Jason left with Gromit. 

He took notes while he waited for Jason to return. Several minutes passed before Jason returned, holding onto Gromit’s handle for support. Conner turned toward Jason. “Are you alright?” Conner asked. 

“I thought I was gonna throw up… I’m fine now, though,” Jason whispered. Conner could look at Jason and tell he was lying. His face carried a thin sheen of sweat, and he looked pale… Almost green. He had a wet stain on his shirt, and he smelled funny. Conner nodded, trying to give Jason the benefit of the doubt. The class came to an end soon after, and Jason almost made it to the parking lot before Gromit alerted him with two barks. Jason stopped and threw up in the bushes. 

“What do two barks mean?” Conner asked. “Jason?” 

No answer. He tried to run toward the street, and Conner grabbed him. Conner turned to Gromit while he held onto Jason’s backpack and started digging through the small bag on Gromit’s back. “Two barks for a seizure?” Conner questioned. Jason waved his hands in front of his face. Conner pulled another sheet out of Gromit’s pack and pulled Jason down to a seated position while he read Jason’s seizure action plan sheet. “Hey… Shhh…” 

Gromit pulled Conner in by his pants leg. “Okay. Okay, give me his phone. I’ll call Barbara,” Conner replied. He took Jason’s phone from his jacket pocket and called Barbara. 

“Jason? Do you need me to come and get you?” Barbara asked. 

“Yeah, I think he does. Gromit barked twice, and Jason’s—.” 

“I’m on my way right now,” Barbara replied. 

**

Conner sat on the ground while Jason slept on Conner’s leg. Jason was so exhausted that he couldn’t talk afterward, and he was distraught and confused. Barbara pulled up after the other kids started to clear out, and Conner carried him to the car. “Has this ever happened before?” Conner asked as he buckled Jason in. 

“It doesn’t happen a lot… How was he after?” Barbara asked. 

“Tired. He couldn’t talk… So, he just sat down with me and went to sleep,” Conner whispered. Gromit rested his head on Jason’s lap. “Is he gonna be okay?” 

“He’s okay. Let him get some sleep. He’ll be fine,” Barbara replied, “How was your first day as a normal kid?” 

“It was a snooze, but I could get used to it. Listen, I have to do something after you drop him off, but I’ll be back after. Can you tell him I’ll be back to do homework?” Conner asked. Barbara made a soft noise. 

**

“What’s with you lately? You used to be all about this hero stuff,” Rex complained. 

“I’ve got homework,” Conner replied, “If anything needs saving, I will be there… But I’ve got school tomorrow, and I’m doing my best to keep the government off your back about the child labor stuff.” 

Rex paused. “Okay… You’ve got a point there,” Rex whispered, “Do you think your friend might be interested in coming here after school sometimes?” 

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Conner replied. “I’ll ask him, though. See you later, Rex.”

“Bye, Kid,” Roxy waved as she looked up from painting her toes on the coffee table. 

“Catch you later, Roxy,” Conner replied in a sing-song voice, waggling his head playfully as he wiggled his fingers. 

He flew to the Clocktower to meet up with Jason, and Barbara let him in. Jason sat on the floor, eating what looked like his second burger. “Saved something for me?” Conner asked. Jason held up the bag, still eating as Conner took the bag and joined him. “ Can you breathe? ” 

Jason grunted in reply before taking a sip of his milkshake. “Starving… Thanks for calling Barbara and not 9-1-1,” Jason panted before taking another bite out of his burger. The pickles fell from his sandwich, and Jason scooped them up between his knuckles.

Conner started on his burger. “Are you always this hungry after?” Conner asked. 

“Mhm… Nobody tells me anything, so—.” Jason finished the last bite and started on his fries. “I don’t know how bad it is. Focal something-whatever. I’d be able to tell you if I could form a thought.” Jason laughed. 

“You just puked and tried to run into traffic… Then you started waving your hands in front of your face,” Conner replied. 

“Oh, well… Okay,” Jason replied, “Does it look crazy?”

“Not really. It just looked like you were really upset,” Conner answered, “ Can I bum a fry? ” 

Jason stuck his tongue out at Conner before taking another sip of his milkshake. “I’m about to start on yours if you don’t take a sip,” Jason replied. Conner chuckled before realizing Jason was serious. He gave Jason his milkshake. “Thanks. You can order another one off my phone.” Conner shook his head. 

“I’m good. Do you want me to stay the night?” Conner asked. 

Jason shook his head. “It’s a school night, and I don’t know if I’ll be at school tomorrow. No reason for you to miss class, though,” Jason replied.

[thai-drama-ao3-stats]

Thai Drama Stats Special Edition:

The Great Archive Lockdown 🔒

Hi folks! In case you weren't aware, there are various scraping bots that trawl through AO3 and use the data for AI training, content mill sites, or other vaguely nefarious purposes. One site, "Fanfic Books", is essentially creating an unauthorized mirror of AO3. Here are some posts about it.

To combat this, many users have recently chosen to "Archive Lock" their fics.

What is Archive Locking?

An archive locked work, or "restricted" work, is only visible to users who are logged into AO3. This prevents anonymous users (and bots that aren't using login credentials) from reading your fic or finding your fic in searches. This doesn't block all scraping bots, but it should keep most of them out.

What does this have to do with fandom stats?

The AO3 scraping I do doesn't use login credentials, so I can't count archive locked fics. That's totally fine! I am in no way telling you to stop archive locking! Lock or unlock to your hearts content!

It does, however, mean that the data I pulled from my Thai Drama AO3 Trends Dashboard this week (July 1 - July 7, 2024) are looking especially strange.

Holy moly! We actually have negative growth. More fics were locked than posted, which is why the Net New is negative. I'd estimate that about 1% of all previously public Thai Drama fics were archive locked this week.

This matches trends on all of AO3. This week, the total number of publicly available fics actually decreased by 0.7% -- and that's including all the new fics being posted!

When did this happen?

The timing for both Thai Drama fandom and all of AO3 is pretty consistent.

For Thai Drama fandom, most of the locking happened on Friday, July 5, but there was also some locking on Sunday.

When we look at all of AO3, it seems like most of the mass-locking happened on July 5th as well, with additional locking happening all throughout the weekend.

Which Thai Drama fandoms were most affected?

When we look at sheer numbers, KinnPorsche, of course, has a lot of newly-locked fics. 3 Will Be Free, My Engineer, and Dark Blue Kiss were locked down a lot as well.

When we look at the top fandoms by negative growth, The Player saw almost all of its fics vanish overnight. 3 Will Be Free was cut neatly in half.

This data is cool I guess, but... so what?

If these numbers are accurate, it represents another sudden and massive shift towards archive locking on AO3.

According to @star-grazing's stats about archive locking in December 2022, the total number of archive locked works on AO3 increased by 70% in just a couple weeks after a reddit post went viral about AI bots scraping AO3 for machine learning material.

Those stats show that in December 2022, 5.79% of AO3 fics were archive locked. When I checked the numbers again today, 9.37% of all works were archive locked.

Using rough estimates, from the last few days of AO3 data, I'd say that the total number of archive locked works increased by 8% since last Thursday (7/4). And trends seem to indicate that the great lockdown is still going!

Anyway...

Thanks for sticking with me! This is a really fun time to be collecting AO3 stats :) If you have more questions, feel free to reach out. I also put some more details under the cut! Thanks y'all!

Are we sure it was archive locking, and not some other data issue?

Er, good question. It's my best guess, and I've tried to rule out other potentially culprits. The AO3 Fandom Trend Analysis Dashboard, which has data about all fandoms on AO3, doesn't seem to show anything amiss. Their data uses login credentials, meaning they can count archive locked fics.

I also went through several tags manually while logged in and logged out to compare numbers from this week to previous weeks. It doesn't seem like there was a mass deletion or retag that I could see.

I also used the "restricted:true" search operator to search for archive locked fics while logged in. A lot of those missing fics pop back up!

I absolutely welcome other theories though, if you think of one!

Is this still happening?

Seemingly yes, for Thai Dramas at least! When I checked the "All Thai Dramas" AO3 search this morning, the total number of Thai Drama fics had dropped below the 40K mark - lower than when I first started keeping track a month ago!

We probably have a lot more archive locking in our future!

How do I archive lock my own fics?

There's a really good tutorial over here.

Help! I don't have an AO3 account, so I can't read all these archive locked fics anymore.

Please message me! I have some spare invites.

Which fandoms are the most "locked down"?

I'm not sure, but there is a Fanlore article about Hockey RPF and the Fourth Wall which provides some comparison stats. Hockey fandom has traditionally been one of the most locked down fandoms; less than half of hockey rpf fics are publicly available.

You can also peruse this AO3 search to see all archive locked fics.

[unhonestlymirror]

I realised what I felt when I was a kid and watched hetalia fandom from afar.

It felt like watching my own country, my land being raped. I just didn't look at it. It was none of my business, I said. It's just a stupid manga, I said, just several hundreds of idiots. It has nothing to do with reality, I said. I already knew how russkiy mir looked like in Belarus and what russkiy mir did to my mom, but I just wanted to live in my little peaceful real world.

I didn't look at it because it simply was unbearable to look at. Although, I myself did not fully understand why.

Then russkiy mir knocked to my home. I still forbid myself to remember my home, I will think about it tomorrow, I say. I suddenly realised myself in Lithuania, going to studies in a different institution, different people, different language, choir, swords, I have no idea what I am doing and I am scared, dances, activities, posting art on tumblr. Life was good. Life was actually really good. Way better than in Ukraine. The issue was that I still wanted to die, which was terribly unfair to people who tried so hard to make me feel better, and I still was losing weight, hair, sleep, health. I couldn't remember when I ate the last time, what I ate. I couldn't remember the names of people I've learned mere minutes ago. I couldn't smell my own sweaty and dirty clothes. I couldn't see the dust on my floor and my dirty dishes. I didn't feel physical pain. I didn't feel cold. I didn't feel hunger until I was losing consciousness. I've cried a lot for no reason at all, publicly, though. Time has stopped.

There was something that prevented me from healing.

That was the moment I stopped writing the sentimental memoirs about my family and wrote "Lithuania", "Ukraine" in tumblr search for the first time.

And then I met my greatest enemy face to face for the first time, under the tags of the only things in the world, which give me the meaning of life.

My greatest enemy gave me a reason to live on. My greatest enemy gave me the opportunity to pour out my hatred in a healthy way. My mom, after all, poured it out via domestic violence. Watching people drawing my countries being russia's sisters, I didn't feel such big hatred even when my family was shelled with russian missiles. It was such a great hatred that it replaced my love for Jujutsu Kaisen, family calls, guitar and other stuff that used to bring me joy, but moreover, it replaced my apathy.

Then I started drawing hetalia fanart. I didn't want to be Stierlitz from the famous anecdotes. I didn't plan to make any friends here. I came here with a drawn sword for a specific purpose and desire to protect my land. Honestly, I am still surprised I managed to make friends here. For me, hetalia is on the same level as kremlin in terms of the degree of pollution. But I guess, it's just another proof that good people can be found anywhere, even in the educational ass of the world.

Then I learned about rusliet, and for the first time since I've left my home, I felt fear. Lithuania is everything I have, it's my Tara, and I am Scarlett. I have no other place to go. It's the land whom I love dearly and whom I want to see happy and blooming. Lithuanians in hetalia don't feel what I feel when seeing rusliet because they didn't experience what I did, and I pray to God for things staying that way.

I promised myself that I would be careful, but I would never, never ignore people offending my land and putting it in danger. You come to my land with malice in your heart or with zero thoughts in your brain - you leave with my sword sticking out of your ass.

I am worried that training this community turns me into a monster myself. I hope I don't look like a monster to my friends. Sometimes, I act like one to my family, and then I feel the great guilt, but they got used to that the same way I got used to my mom breaking plates. Although I've come here with great hatred and anger, I still can't find any malice in my heart, and I still don't receive any satisfaction from causing pain.

You can say hetalia is my destiny, just like gaining Lithuania. I finally understood what love for one’s land is. I perceive Lithuania as my land as well, and I will gnaw the throat of anyone who dares to take it from me.

I have the goal in life: to protect my land, to protect the people I love, even if I never manage to become myself again.

[the-most-reliable-narrator-ever]

question to blog owner hi,,, i wanna learn the lore for the acc but dont know where to start 😢 where do i do this i WILL get to reading

Dated: June, 2025

Hey, Nicky here (yeah, I know, this is a Nick Carraway ask blog and the name I chose for myself for this fandom is Nicky. I know.) I run this blog. Normally I keep to the tags, but I’m always happy to answer questions so thanks for popping in! :)

Now, if you don’t care about the specific text of this blog and just want an incredibly basic rundown of who this Nick is and what he’s up to, I’ve put that below the cut. If you want to read the actual posts, continue directly below this paragraph and I’ve got some advice on how to get the most out of that for you:

Generally, this blog has two tags for organizational purposes: #nick answers his letters for when I’m answering an ask, and #nick continues the conversation for when I’m reblogging! Feel free to peruse both at your leisure, although I recommend #nick continues the conversation for the most complete picture.

I suppose one way would be to simply start at the beginning of my blog and work your way forwards. However, there’s a fair bit of content there, and I do not expect you to actually have the stamina or time to do all that. Here’s a couple ways to get a fairly good understanding of this blog without doing all that:

The #nick answers his letters tag has some pretty good anonymous asks answered (most of those are one offs because people have yet to find a way to reblog anonymously)

I don’t know what device you’re reading this on, but if it’s anything that has ctrl+f or any other ��find” function, you can scroll to the bottom to make sure every post is loaded and search for “ask-jay-gatsby”, as that’s who I’m mainly interacting with and who is the primary lore partner for this blog. Obviously, I have other valuable correspondents, but ask-jay-gatsby is like 80-85% of what’s going on.

The #nick continues the conversation tag provides full conversations, and boy, is there lore in those conversations. That’s the juicy stuff, baybee. Feel free to explore that tag if that’s what you want. :)

It just depends on how you wanna go about it, ya know?

And here, below the cut, is the promised really fast run-through on what’s happening to our good friend Nick if all of those options are too much work (you are missing out on a substantial amount of detail by choosing this option, and it it recommended to read the actual posts, but if you don’t want to this is sort of a C+ level summary):

So some background lore is that this blog starts like midway through Chapter 9. Like, the car crash happened, this Nick’s Jay is dead, the funeral has happened, etc. The only thing is that this Nick is still living in New York in the house next to Jay’s. He’s depressed, he’s an alcoholic, he’s not feelin’ it.

Then ask-jay-gatsby shows up in Nick’s universe. Because they’re… well… from different dimensions, so to speak, they can’t fully be seen. They’re somewhat ethereal, somewhat ephemeral, they can interact with the world around them but they’re not all there, ya know? Anyway, this starts off with Jay in Nick’s world, they talk for a bit and then Jay goes back home. Eventually, Nick, seeing that Jay is depressed after his Nick left him, goes over to Jay’s dimension, where they chill and hang and talk about a variety of different things. Long story made incredibly short, Nick tries to get Jay to take care of himself with varying levels of success. For specifics, I would really recommend the posts.

Now we’ve got to a point where Nick’s issues are really coming to a head and we’re starting to see the rise of his own unaddressed personality issues. Big things are in the works here!!! More to come!!! We’ve only scratched the surface so far!!!

Whew, this post got long. Sorry about that. Hope it helped, and if it didn’t, feel free to send in another ask and I’ll try my best to do it properly this time!

Wishing you well,

Nicky :)