#putting this in that tag because i know other people will use it for fanfic stuff

[danketsuround]

An Informal Guide to Writing about School in Japan

Sorry for posting this so late! Thank you for your patience.

This post should be used as a general reference for when you're writing something that takes place in a Japanese school. I made this because there have been a few stories (and even real articles!) written by people who seem pretty... uninformed about how Japanese schools actually work, but please use this as a framework for your story rather than a complete Bible.

Note: This post is informed by two things - my experience working at Japanese public schools, and being an American. The things I include in this post will be things that stand out to me as someone from the states. That being said, Japanese and American schools operate very differently, so there will be a lot!

A Year Overview

1st semester begins in April, and ends right before summer break in June. 2nd semester begins in late July or August, and ends before winter break in December. 3rd semester begins in January and ends in late March.

There is a very short spring break between 3rd semester and the entrance ceremony in which teachers/staff are told if they will be moving to a new school or not. This is specific to public schools. Academies/private schools likely don't adhere to this exact rule since they're contracted for a certain amount of time.

Grades and Classes

In large schools, each grade is divided by class. Each class has about 25+ students in it depending on the size of the school. In elementary school, junior high school, and high school, classes are either divided by letter or number.

For example, if you are a JHS 2nd year in the 1st class, you will be in 2-1. If you are an ES 5th grader in the B class, you will be in 5-B.

Kindergartens and daycares divide classes differently, and are called things like "Rabbits" or "Lions" - I don't think there's any real meaning behind what animal they choose, though. The word for "class" in Japanese is 組 ("gumi"). When referring to a certain class, we usually just say - using the same examples as above - ichi-gumi (Class 1), B-gumi (Class B), usagi-gumi (Rabbits)

Ages and Years

Elementary school - 1st grade through 6th grade (Ages 7 to 12)

Junior high school - 1st year through 3rd year (in the states, we would call it 7th through 9th grade. Here, they say JHS 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year) (Ages 12 to 15)

High school - 1st year through 3rd year (same note as above, 10th through 12th grade) (Ages 15 to 18)

Homerooms

As stated above, each grade is split up into sections, called homeroom classes. In JHS and HS, a teacher will be in charge of one homeroom class as well as one main subject. Not all teachers have their own classrooms (depending on the size of the school, sometimes you have more subjects to teach than students!) but most of them do. However, that doesn't mean there is a dedicated "math room" or "English room" - instead, teachers will move to different classes, and students stay in their homeroom. In elementary school, your homeroom teacher will typically teach every subject. Of course, there is a teacher per subject per year. For example, if you're in a mid-sized junior high school, there would be 3 English teachers.

Between classes, students have a 10 minute break or so. This is so students can use the restroom and drink water (they can't do it during class) as well as prepare their materials for the incoming teacher. Class leaders will also go to the teacher's office and will sometimes be tasked with carrying materials to class or preparing something separately (like turning on the projector, the TV, getting white boards, etc.)

School Subjects

Besides the core subjects (English, social studies, math, science, Japanese, P.E.), Japanese schools also have calligraphy and home economics.

Homeroom teachers will also be asked to teach sougo (interdisciplinary studies) and moral education. I believe sougo is a fairly new subject that was added to Japanese curriculum a little over 20 years ago - from my understanding it's kind of like a psychology, economics, and sociology class all wrapped up into one. Moral education, on the other hand, has been described as "very Japanese" by all of my coworkers - it's like a "here's how we follow the rules", "here's how to be polite", "here's why having good behavior is beneficial for everyone" type of class.

Japanese schools also do not offer advanced classes. All students are expected to take the same class unless they have been put in the special needs classes for learning disabilities, mental health problems, or behavioral issues. Special needs classes tend to be taught at a lower level and sometimes a mix of grades as well. Special needs students "belong" to a specific class (like, 1-1 or 2-B...) but they study in separate, smaller classrooms (sometimes just called Special Needs 1, Special Needs 2...) Some students who need special care but are willing/able to join regular classes will have a support teacher with them. One of my students is partially deaf and needs careful instruction but can otherwise sit and participate in class like everyone else.

The Teachers Office

All teachers' desks are in the teachers' office. There, we prepare for class, have meetings, take a short break, drink coffee... etc. - and teachers who do not have a homeroom class also eat lunch there. Typically, all teachers who are in charge of the same grade will sit together.

Students are allowed in the teachers' office, but they have to state their name, their grade, class, and their purpose for coming. An example would be: "Excuse me. I'm Momo Taro from Class 3-2. I've come to see Kaguya-sensei. Excuse me."

Then, when they leave, they have to say: "Pardon me" (失礼いたしました). Some of my students get in trouble if they don't announce themselves properly or make a mistake in front of the wrong teacher!

And, a small bit about teachers' names

There are some Japanese last names that are extremely common. Did anyone see that article that claimed everyone in Japan will have the same last name by 2531? Funny stuff.

That's why a few teachers go by their first name. It's not rude at all when half of your staff is Suzuki and the other half is Sato.

Teachers, of course, follow the same formalities that students do by using [Name]-sensei with each other. It would actually be considered highly HIGHLY inappropriate to refer to another teacher with -san or -chan in school - unless you're extremely close and just joking around...AND you're both female...a male teacher would not survive doing that.

A Typical School Day

It varies, but schools often start around 8:10 or 8:30 in the morning, and students go home around 4. There are typically 6 periods in a day, with an hour break in the middle of the day to account for lunch and recess - yes, junior high school and high school students get recess, too! Though, older students often use it to study or have a meeting with their club. At my school, my students are required to read in the morning.

Students are really busy and have jobs around the school. There are class leaders - who come to the teacher's office to ask what needs to be prepared for class - and there are students who run the morning, lunch, cleaning ("souji"), and end of the day broadcast, and students who are in charge of grabbing and setting up school lunch in the classroom. Of course, there are club leaders and student council as well.

Uniforms (students)

Uniforms are required for both public and private schools in Japan. Some elementary schools do not require uniforms, and others do. It's extremely rare to find a JHS or HS that doesn't require uniforms, but they exist.

Some schools are more strict than others. The main points are: no piercings, no makeup, no unnaturally colored hair (yes, this includes blonde, but not brown, as some Japanese people do have naturally brown/light brown hair!) - skirt length, shoe color (white only), wearing a hat, jewelry, manicures/nail polish color all have rules mandated by the school. Some schools even have certain haircuts they require students to follow! If a student has long hair, they will usually be asked to wear it in a low ponytail. Of course, not every student follows the rules anyways.

They also have outside clothes called "jerseys" that they wear under their uniform. This way, students are able to change freely in the classroom before/after gym or recess.

Uniforms (teachers)

Teachers are not exactly held to the same standard, but it depends on the school. While private schools are apparently waaaaay more strict about what their students and faculty wear, public schools don't really enforce it at all. The typical uniform is a collard shirt and slacks, but teachers who are in charge of a sports club can get away with the occasional jersey/sport shirt and shorts.

Everyone who comes into the school must take their shoes off and change into slippers or indoor shoes (shoes you bought that you have decided are only for wearing inside and have never ever touched the outside ground before...)

We take our shoes on and off.. a lot. That's why most teacher's inside shoes are comfortable slip-on sneakers or loafers. I've never in my life seen a teacher lace up their shoes before. Hell, my inside shoes have zippers. It just takes too much freaking time!

The Thing About Shoes is...

I said some stuff about shoes above, but I wanted to note that the student and teacher entrance is different. Students have rows and rows of lockers to switch out their own shoes, which is (often) conveniently placed near the school grounds where they play sports.

The teachers' entrance is the regular front entrance, and we have our own lockers as well. There are shelves of slippers that belong to the school for any guests who come in, or students who forgot their inside shoes that day, lol.

Yes, yes, yes - we are required to wear inside shoes with no exception. One of my students was injured and in a wheelchair and he still had to change out his shoes, so..

Discipline

It's basically impossible to get expelled, and things like ISS simply don't exist in Japanese schools. Don't be mistaken - that certainly doesn't mean students do not have behavior issues - MY STUDENTS ARE BAD!! But they don't really get punished for it in ways you would see at an American school.

Most discipline is delegated to the homeroom teacher (or whoever else's class you're failing, lol). Some problems are severe enough to be escalated to a meeting with your parents or the vice principal ("kyoutou-sensei"), but I've honestly never seen the principal do any student discipline, and I've never seen a student be suspended or expelled.

Japan is really keen on making sure everyone gets an equal opportunity for education, even for students who have behavioral issues or would do better if they were homeschooled.

Now, corporal punishment is illegal in Japanese schools. Making students stand outside of class holding buckets of water because they forgot their homework (or whatever you might have seen from slice of life comedies..) is a thing of the semi-distant past. That being said, there is still no shortage of verbal harassment from strict teachers onto their students. I think the most common form of strict discipline that is *still* accepted is a teacher laying it on a student in the office, then sending them back to their homeroom in tears.

Yes, while humiliation sometimes hurts even worse than a ruler to the hand, no one says anything about it. That's the older teacher style. To be honest, younger teachers aren't strict enough with their students sometimes. Including me, cause I'm a pushover, lol.

Club Activities

Club activities are my students' entire LIVES. My students really like handball and track, and are sometimes staying after school 5-6 days of the week. It's not uncommon for students to go to school on the weekends or during summer/winter break. It's also not terribly uncommon for students to be part of multiple clubs, so long as they don't intersect with each other too much.

Clubs are typically anything to do with music or sports. It's not unheard of to have debate clubs, English clubs, literature clubs, calligraphy clubs, theater clubs, etc. either - but I would say that's more common in cities where schools have more opportunity to compete or perform with many other local schools.

A note about mandatory Education

Once you graduate junior high school, your period of compulsory education ends. In other words, you can stop going to school and you don't have to go to high school. You also do not have to have a high school diploma or GED to attend college, but you still have to find a college that will accept you.

Other random stuff (and debunking anime-ish myths)

In summer, students go swimming! They are required to learn how to swim from elementary school.

Teachers don't have smoke breaks during class. No one has time for that, and if you're caught by a student or another teacher, you're fucked. We do it by the 7/11 after school like normal people.

Cram school ("juku") is a thing and a LOT of students are in it. One of my students is in a swimming cram school.

Being openly LGBT in Japan is hard, but it's not impossible. There are some openly LGBT students, especially in large cities. For teachers, they don't really talk about their personal life very often (I think it's a bit taboo..) so I wouldn't imagine anyone would feel pressured to out themselves at all.

Bullying is a big problem, but it's also one of the most widely studied and discussed problem regarding Japanese schools. Some people like to say that it's much worse in Japan, but I would argue it's fairly similar to the states. Severe bullying (in which a student is physically tormented or abused) is less common than things like spreading rumors, singling out someone, or cyberbullying.

Extra credit is not a thing, but some teachers are more lenient than others about deadlines.

Yes, students are able to express themselves freely. They often do, very loudly and opinionated...ly. Or, uh, mine do.

On a test or worksheet, circles are good and checkmarks are bad.

Schools have a lot of various events, assembles, festivals, and school trips - all of which are organized by students and homeroom teachers who don't get paid enough to stay as late as they do ;D

We don't use substitute teachers. Usually the schedule will change or another teacher will fill in during their free period.

Annnnnnd that should be it. If you have any specific questions or need clarification, you are welcome to reply to this post or send me a message! I can try and answer them to the best of my ability. Every school is a little bit different, but this is truly a "general" "overview" of school life in Japan.

Thanks for reading!

[omegasmileyface]

one of my favorite phenomena i see often is "dpxdc" fanfiction but its literally just a dc fanfiction where the author has an oc named danny. they can look entirely different, they can be a different gender, they can have zero relations to the dp universe or ghosts or any of his whole shebang, have a different last name and a different origin timeline, doesnt even have to be the main character, anything, but as long as the op is like "no dude trust me its technically danny fenton" its like. considered a dpxdc fic. im not saying this is a bad thing im saying its fucking hilarious

[brittlebutch]

sonic and snufkin actually kind of feel like very similar characters to me. holding hands over “my personal sense of freedom and dedication to making decisions based on what I think is right is what matters most, and if you’ve built some idealized version of me in your head then that’s none of my business and it’s not my responsibility if the reality of who i am lets you down in some way”. also the deep connection to nature and all.

[rweoutofthewoods]

fanfic/fandom ettiquite guide

Okay, I've seen some things recently that make me think there is some need to make a master post of some general fandom and fic ettiquite just because some people may not know and I think there's a huge wave of fanfic becoming more mainstream especially on apps like tiktok.

If you don't like it, don't engage with it!! I think this above all, is the golden rule of fandom. The internet is made for you to be able to mute, hide, and censor things you don't like. DO THAT! don't make a career off of hating things. This goes along with the three laws of fandom, which u should check out FIRST OF ALL.

DON'T GATEKEEP!! If you're posting about a fic, art, ANYTHING link it, credit it! Don't post a tiktok about a fic and then refuse to give the name. Not only are you failing to credit the creators of this content, but you're taking away from the fact that fandom is a COMMUNITY where content is meant for everyone.

Ao3 is an archive. You're going to see things you might not like or even find offensive or uncomfortable. But fanfic is not meant to be censored. Ao3 is made to be unfiltered, people can post anything and everything. Posting fics on other sites simply to shame their content not only brings MORE attention to it, but it's pointless. If you want a website that is censored go to wattpad. And of course, if you don't like it DON'T READ. You can filter your tags and warnings on ao3 so it won't show you that content.

Along those lines LEARN HOW TO USE AO3. There is no algorithm, it is not tiktok. You don't need to censor words in your tags. Your fics are not magically getting pushed out to people. Make sure you're using "person 1/person 2" for romantic relationships and "person 1 & person 2" for non-romantic relationships. Make sure things like non-con and underage are tagged under the warnings. AND AS A READER, know how to filter ships and tags to find the content you want. You can filter by kudos, certain tags, exclude certain relationships or characters etc. USE IT.

Do not create placeholder fics or other "non fics" on ao3. This is against their terms of service. You can (and probably will) be reported, this annoys people endlessly. We don't want to find a fic and open it to see "I haven't written this yet, sorry!" JUST SAVE A DRAFT OR DO IT IN A DOCUMENT? this seems like way to rack up hits, and it comes across as disingenuous, I don't see a real valid reason to make placeholders.

HOW TO WRITE AN ACCEPTABLE COMMENT: long is not important. A simple "loved this!" will make an author happy. DO NOT say any variation of "update pls?" regardless of how nice you think it is. Authors update when they can.I'm not the only author I've seen unhappy with this. JUST WAIT, either it will be updated or it won't, and either way you will live. If you have nothing nice to say about a fic?? MOVE ON. Don't leave a hate comment.

Do not rate or publicly shit on fanfic! A lot of authors know many people, and the chances of that author seeing whatever you're saying about their work is very high. If you don't like it, click off and read something else. If it's still living rent-free in your mind, that sounds like fan behavior to me. And there is no standard fics are supposed to meet, don't rate them.

Don't cross-post fics. Don't put fics on other sites, don't put translation on other sites. DON'T DO ANYTHING with a fic without checking with the author first. On that note, also don't post fics on GoodReads etc. unless an author explicitly says it's okay.

IF YOU DO NOT MARK YOUR BOOKMARKS AS PRIVATE AUTHORS CAN SEE THEM!! If you're going to say anything that isn't positive, you better mark that as private or better yet, move on. Don't say anything on a public bookmark you wouldn't want the author to read.

YOU CANNOT PROFIT OFF OF FANFIC, don't sell bound fics! Don't bind fics if the intention is to sell them. You're potentially creating a lawsuit for the authors of these fics and putting the existence of fanfic in danger. I've seen multiple authors debating taking fics down because of binding issues, just don't do it. AND IF YOU'RE BUYING BOUND FICS YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. it's selfish and I wish bad karma upon you.

You wouldn't think I'd have to say this but don't plagiarize or use AI to create fics/art etc. firstly making ai write something IS a form of plagiarism. bUT ALSO just write your own content. If you can't, then writing fics etc. is just not for you. No shame about it!

DON'T ASK AUTHORS TO BETA FOR YOU!! You wouldn't believe how many people have asked me to beta their fics for them, I AM NOT A BETA. I HAVE a beta because my proofreading skills are shit. If someone wants to beta they will offer, or go find a blog or somewhere where people are looking to beta. Like @needabeta You can even make a post asking around for a beta, but don't go bug your favorite authors to proofread your fics.

Really just don't harass authors. Of course, don't be afraid to send nice dms, asks, or comments if their inbox is open, but don't spam them especially if they don't reply. Respect boundaries! Don't send nasty anons, everyone knows this is a sign of jealousy and obsession. You're only succeeding in making yourself look bad. Ask yourself why is this author living rent-free in your mind, hm??

If you don't like a ship, stay away from the content geared towards that ship. There's no reason for you to be in people's inbox harassing them over a ship. It's never that deep. If you truly hate it so much, go consume the content for ships you DO like.

Stay grounded. This goes to both fic authors and readers alike. Hits and popularity are not the mark of a good fic. Getting a lot of hits doesn't mean it's good and NOT getting many doesn't mean it's bad. I'm tired of seeing tiktoks asking "so what's the next big fic?" WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE A "BIG FIC"? go look through the ao3 tag and find something you like to read, it doesn't have to be what everyone else is reading.

Headcanons are not law. People can think whatever they want about the characters. If you disagree with someone's hc, just move on... and just because a headcanon is popular, doesn't mean everyone has to abide by it. Be creative!

Don't treat artists and authors like celebs! We're all in this together! We're all losers who like the same characters and ships. Of course, compliment and be kind to all creators because we put a lot of time and effort into creating fan content for you all, but don't worship anyone. Don't treat them weirdly or make a post like "omg x followed me!" that's a bit weird. If you want to be excited, dm your friends and giggle together, but acting like authors and artists etc. are celebs only creates the room for people to stop seeing them as normal people and start acting rude or entitled. And many people are uncomfortable with it!!

TLDR; stop creating so much negativity in fandom spaces. At least in MY fandom it's just constantly shitting on ships, fics, art. It's hate anons, antis, and constant fighting about every headcanon. I'M TIRED OF IT! Learn to filter out content you don't want to see, and move on with your life instead of spreading more negativity.

If you have anything you think I should add shoot me a comment or an ask and I will add it! I'm sure I didn't get everything :) this mostly applies to my own experience being in the hp/marauders fandom for a good 10+ years, and I'm sure it varies slightly from fandom to fandom.

[moltengoldveins]

ok but I have Thoughts about the way Minecraft usernames translate to actual names, both irl and in fanfic. They’re definitely ‘obsessed with structure and grumpy at inconsistency flavor autism’ thoughts but still. I find it weird how we cut and paste the media we’re given to fit what we view as functional worldbuilding, and how that gets screwy when translating online names.

like, you’re working with several categories here. The person’s actual real name, their irl nickname, their gamer tag, a name possibly contained by or possibly the entirety of that gamer tag, and any extra pieces or symbols in the gamer tag. And you have the weird situation where those categories might not easily translate to a ‘First Name Last Name’ structure. For an example, we’ve got Phil Watson, who’s gamer tag is ‘Ph1LzA,’ and is called Philza Minecraft or Philza. The ‘Minecraft last name’ is a…. Bit? A joke? A reference to a bit of lore? It’s unclear. The ‘Za’ bit was put there for flair and is now an integral part of his name. Sometimes it’s his last name. Sometimes his real last name is chucked in there. the 1 in his actual username is literally never referenced in nicknames or fic it’s like it’s not even there. But that’s a simple one. What about Tubbo_? because we call him Tubbo Underscore. Like. We say the ‘_’ aloud. Why do we do that. What has possessed us to make that decision? What about FitMC? I’ve usually heard it said ‘Fit Emsee.’ Why say that, and not say ‘Minecraft? That’s not even really a last name, it’s just like…. His full first name. Fit is used more like a shortened nickname. BadBoyHalo. Like. ‘Bad boy’ is a slang term, not a name. It would make the most sense to call him Halo, that’s the distinct noun in the name, the term the ‘bad boy’ bit is referring to. Like ‘GoodTimesWithScar’ but noooo. Bad. Halo is usually a last name, if it’s there at all. Skeppy on the other hand is… just his name. No last name ever. Technoblade is also weird. Technoblade is his full name. We call him that. We ALSO call him ‘Techno,’ and use Blade as a last name. We also use Blade as a title. What the heck. GeminiTay. We call her Gem. We use Tay as a last name sometimes. Her name is a Zodiac constellation. Literally nowhere I’m have I seen that affect her naming conventions. IJevin. We just… remove the I. For everything. This wouldn’t bother me except we don’t do it with everyone and I’m starting to get annoyed by the inconsistency. GoodTimesWithScar. Ok. This one also bugs me. Like, most fics call him Scar Goodtimes when they need a name. I’m not gonna dig into it but that’s…. Why? Why that? Grian never gets a last name. Ranboo sometimes gets chopped into Ran and Boo but usually he’s an Underscore or he’s last nameless. Wilbur Soot functions wonderfully (until the get involved shhhh) but it’s too close to his real name it gets very confusing.

anyway, all of this sucks, I hate it all, we’re a terrible fandom /hj

all that nonsense aside, yknow who has a functional Firstname Lastname username? It’s even got a space, and proper capitals: Mumbo Jumbo. That’s who. Look at that. It’s perfect. Everyone should be more like Mumbo Jumbo. Thank you and good night.

.

Edit: I know about Ranboo Beloved and Grian Dreamslayer and the various other characters whose names I didn’t mention perfectly in this post. This was no piece of journalism, this was an old man shouts at cloud meme personified. I was very overstimulated and this was what happened to catch my autistic ire. I’m not upset, just figured I’d clarify, a lot of people seem distressed at my not mentioning Beloved. Hope y’all are having a lovely day 💜

[ask-the-rag-dolly]

after listening to an among us song i was given the drive to reboot this au so ,

originated from a doodle that spiraled , SPREAD THE INFLUENCE is an au where ragatha is the ( unwilling ) host of a parasite called ' the influence ' which is a virus that only wants to spread and survive . she wasn't compliant about it at the beginning which was ' fixed ' with an itty bitty bit of psychological torment !

also yes i know the abbreviation is unfortunate and i do not care it's funny

even though ragatha's still our usual sweet little optimist , there is this persistent feeling of wrongness . too positive . too affectionate . it's like all of her humanity has been scooped out and you're left with the mask she made for others in the circus .

which is how the virus spread in the circus - they preyed on vulnerabilities which was what their host is perfect for . striking when the victim puts their guards down , making them submit under the guise that their problems will be fixed ... unfortunately it's a monkey's paw situation .

of course , that's only for this particular instance of the influencer ! something to note is that the virus takes a lot from the host's personality , so t.i's mellow and passive , only resorting to violence whenever necessary . t.i's not really an opposite ragatha she's more like a Dark , Fucked Up Version of ragatha the amazing digital circus . she cares a lot for everyone she considers a part of her hive , but it took a lot of manipulation and gaslighting for them to get infected .

caine is left uninfected because " i would do that if my goal is to destroy this place ! " t.i's ultimate fear has always been dying . it'll do everything to not die , to the point it's trying to spread out of the circus ( <- honestly take this info with a grain of salt i wrote this before i fully developed the story ) . unfortunately there's this jester who's resisting the virus with pure lesbian rage and is trying to stop her .

now rags would eventually get de-influenced and the circus will no longer be infected , but we will talk about the extremely rocky journey of recovering from knowing you harmed everyone you cared about Later

was this ' the influence ' that amanda ( ragatha's va ) keeps referencing ? sighs ... yeah . ( feels so surreal that i can say i have their seal of approval for this )

why ragatha ? in story , how is she not the perfect host ? metatextually , this is an au of an au - this came from a blog about ragatha getting a virus that is inconveniencing her life . i simply thought of an idea of ' hey what if the virus took over her body ' one day . then this abomination was born . i would reveal the why and how she got infected ... eventually .........

is she still afraid of centipedes ? is it a ragatha if she doesn't have a fear of centipedes

does pomni still use a taser ? yeah

could i use / be inspired by the influence for my au ? i did not invent the concept of Computer Viruses so feel free to be inspired by it , no credit needed . for t.i as a character specifically , please credit me !

are there ships ? just pomni x ragatha

is suggestive content of t.i ok ? just don't send them to me , tag it as #tw suggestive or #suggestive so i could filter it out

is nsfw content of t.i ok ? my tiny artist hands are powerless against the unstoppable force that is the internet so my answer will not matter . that being said , i recommend that they're not put in the main au tag so people won't unexpectedly come across it . and no i do not want to see it please do not send them to me

could i draw fanart / write fanfic of this au ? 100% yes you could either mention me or tag it under #tadc influence au

does this au have an ask blog ? nah just a normal blog lol

READ THE COMIC ... I GUESS ... !!

the main story

oh boy a prologue

[seulszn]

Listen I love TLOU and the fandom very much but a lot of people (not calling anybody out) need a reality check and need to grow up. I wanna say my two cents on things that bother me in this fandom.

1. Boycotting for Palestine

I have seen multiple times on multiple occasions where people would sit on their phone and complain about why writers are “flooding the tags with this boycotting bullshit” and honestly all I have to say is your super childish you can’t take a hour or a week out of your day to raise awareness on a important topic that is affecting millions of people? Your so horny so down bad for pixelated characters that you don’t care about the innocent children, women and men that are dying in Palestine? The boycotting isn’t gonna stop just because you want your needs filled, the boycotting isn’t going to stop because you think it needs to, it’s not gonna stop until Palestine is free. And if you wanna read things that bad then read nobody is stoping you but a take into ignition that if a writer is spreading awareness then don’t be ignorant and say stupid shit

2. Less Sex and more angst or other genres.

Listen I love Abby and Ellie just like everyone else and I read a lot of smut about them but does that all y’all see when y’all look at them? As sex objects? Like I’m not saying that you should stop writing smut for those characters but write other things to that don’t involve smut, like angst I see a lot of people under that tag say how they wish writers would as write other things that isn’t just smut and majority of the time when they say that they get hated for it. It lowkey gets boring reading fanfics where the whole plot is smut, smut, smut. And again I’m not saying to stop writing smut but please for the love of whatever you believe in write other genres.

3. Black inclusivity

As a black writer and a black person TLOU tag isn’t inclusive enough. I know you must be thinking “Why are we speaking about this again?” Because I’m honestly so tired of how uninclusive the fandom is like I said before Ellie dates WOC if you don’t know what WOC is it’s Women Of Color all of Ellie’s girlfriends where WOC now I’m not saying you can’t write for Ellie as a white person and I’m not saying that never did all I am saying is once again all of Ellie’s girlfriend where POC

Riley was a Black African American who Dated Ellie

Cat the girl who wasn’t mentioned alot but is in the game is Asian American who also dated Ellie

Dina is a Jewish (Mexican, Middle Eastern ) American who dated Ellie

Also yes we know when the reader is white coded so don’t try a put that you don’t mention when race mentioned cause you do and we can tell when you do “She’s Petite and cute with her long blonde hair” or whatever you bitches be saying we know when you guys aren’t inclusive the whole point of fanfiction writing is to be inclusive is to make sure that readers can see themself in your xreader so if your putting all these “white things and then labeling your story as “the readers race is not mentioned” or that OC stuff that y’all do then just label the story as a white reader or a OC reader

4. Futa, trans and masc

Now here I’m gonna discuss two or three things starting off with Futa and Trans. Now I don’t know when “Futa” or “Trans” Ellie and Abby came from but a lot of you readers need to understand and learn the difference between the two because they are both very different things.

Futanari: is the Japanese word for hermaphroditism, which is also used in a broader sense for androgyny. Beyond Japan, the term has come to be used to describe a commonly pornographic genre of eroge, manga, and anime, which includes characters that show primary sexual characteristics from both females and males. In today's language, it refers almost exclusively to characters who have an overall feminine body, but have both female and male primary genitalia (although a scrotum is not always present, while breasts, a penis, and a vulva are). The term is also often abbreviated as futa(s), which is also used as a generalized term for the works themselves.

Transgender (often shortened to trans) is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex (trans men and trans women), it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.

Mind you I am not transgender I am nonbinary but I see a lot of transgender people speak up about how offensive it is to write a character as Transgender but it’s not really transgender but a Futanari remember a Futa is a character who is assigned a gender at birth but just has extra sexual parts like a penis.

Now another thing that bothers me is how y’all Masculinize Masc Lesbians as if they still aren’t women themselves like every time I read a fanfic with Ellie or Abby or even Vi and Sevika from Arcane you guys like to ignore they fact that they are also women themselves like it’s not gonna kill you to give those characters feminine compliments there shouldn’t be a reason why your calling these women “handsome” or other Masculine compliments and also a lot of Masculine women where makeup it’s not just a feminine woman thing. Masc Lesbians are women they aren’t men so stop treating them as if they are men and ignoring the fact that they are women

5. the Innocent childish reader gotta stop.

They title says enough I don’t think I need to say too much but a lot of y’all get innocent and corruption mixed up but a corruption kink is When you find the idea of "corrupting" someone, mostly in a sexual way, like taking virginities or introducing people to stuff like bdsm etc. It's the idea of having someone "pure" do "bad" things under your influence. And innocent is not corrupted or tainted with evil or unpleasant emotion; sinless; pure. not guilty of a particular crime; blameless. (From the dictionary)

Y’all need to understand yes not everyone knows what sex is but everyone knows what a vagina is what a penis is, what a orgasm is and what sex is but they may not knows what happens when you have sex so making the reader what y’all call innocent isn’t innocent it’s honestly to me perverted cause the only one who would say something like “my cunny feels weird 🥺” or that “what is sex 🥺” is a child. Children don’t know what sex is children don’t know what pleasure or orgasms is and when y’all say “the reader is a Bimbo” is also funny cause Bimbos know what sex is as well yes they may be stupid but they aren’t slow so before you make a innocent reader please think “am I making my reader act like a child or am I gonna make her really innocent like how regular grown ass adults act?” so don't get not knowing and "innocent" mixed up

6. The stories where they have sex inside a church also gotta stop

Now I’m not a Christian but these stories are honestly really bad and are Blasphemy a lot of people have come out and said that they don’t like the fact that people are writing stories about church in a sexual way like their shouldn’t be any reason why your characters are fucking inside a church, that’s like stomping on someone’s dead grave. You guys do shit like this and then wonder why Christian’s don’t like us. Religion isn’t something to be sexualized it’s not something to be playing with either this idc how much you hate Christianity you can be a Atheist, or Catholic or Jewish but please for the love of whatever you believe in don’t sexualize people’s religion.

That’s all I can think of at the moment if I think of more I’ll of course make a part two to this but don’t take anything I said here to heart it’s just my blunt honest opinion on things in this fandom and if I get hate for this 🤷🏾‍♀️

[theolivetree123]

◇ Yuuki's New Club ◇

Yuuki stared at the poster in their hand. They furrowed their brow as their hand stiffened, trying not to tear the paper in frustration. Their other hand grew sweaty with fear, and the tape in that hand turned damp. Grim, Ace and Deuce simply stared. This nervousness was nothing new from Yuuki.

"Come on, Henchman, just put up the sign already!" Grim yelled causing Yuuki to drop the tape.

Yuuki groaned as they clumsily picked up the tape from the ground. "Ugh, its... it's not that simple for me, Grim! I mean, gosh... in my world, people treated me like a speck of literal dust! It's not unusual for me to not want to but myself out there. Ugh, why did Crowely even allow me to make this stupid club..."

Deuce walked to Yuuki, putting a hand on their shoulder. "Yuuki, if you need us to put up these poster for you, we can. But, just so you know, I think your club will be amazing! Whether people join or not."

Ace lightly pushed Deuce away. "Ugh, don't let them off the hook, Deuce! Yuuki should be able to do this themselves. They shouldn't be relying on us to do stuff for em! Do you remember last week when we had to give an entire presentation because Yuuki was too afraid to go up in front of the class? Or maybe when-"

"Okay! Okay! I get it, Ace..." Yuuki quickly interrupted Ace and then looked at their poster.

☆「Art Club」☆

Founded by Yuuki Kamiyama, Art Club will be for people to not only make art, but research it, learn about its origins, and come to appreciate the work that goes into making a masterpiece.

If you'd like to join, please meet Yuuki in class 1-F tomorrow immediately after school ends.

Yuuki stared at the words. Who would want to join this club? Who would want to join Yuuki? They sighed. "Do you guys think anyone would want to join this club?"

Grim, Ace and Deuce paused for a moment. Then Ace spoke up. "Of course, Yuuki. There's gotta be at least one person in this school who loves art as much as you do. I'm sure of it!"

Deuce smiled. "I agree. You'll surely find people for your club here."

Grim jumped onto Yuuki's shoulder. "Yeah! C'mon Yuuki, you gotta think positive!"

Yuuki sighed again and smiled as they brushed their hair to the side. "I sure hope you guys are right." Then, Yuuki tore a piece of tape and stuck the poster to the lunchroom wall.

"Okay, let's get out of here before I change my mind..." Yuuki quickly turned away from the poster. Ace and Deuce followed.

◇ Welcome to Art Club! ◇

Yuuki has made their very own club! In classroom 1-F, they hold Art Club.

Yuuki would love some new members! Would you be willing to join?

Rules:

Only NRC students can join!

Everyone can participate! Whether you're following me or not.

No NSFW!

You can make fanart, make cards, write fanfics, etc.

Tag me if you choose to make anything for this mini event!

If you choose to make a card, you can use these club card blanks from my good friend, trinket!

I made the club badges below and the classroom background above. Please credit me if you use them! I have made an Art Club badge for every single canon NRC dorm.

Dress Code:

All you have to do is wear your club shirt (a shirt with the club badge on it). That's it! Everything else is up to you.

I will be posting Yuuki's own club card, as well!

◇ Club Members ◇

Yuubeni Chōga - @bunniehunn

That's it!

If you have any questions, please ask me!

Tagging below:

@cheerleaderman @moonyasnow @ashipiko @babyghoul138 @skibidibabygirl @skriblee-ksk @oya-oya-okay @the-rini-rush @twtysevapr @taruruchi @scint1llat3 @screamintoad @bunniehunn @gimmeurmoneyagh @offorestsongs @shinysparklesapphires @beneathsakurashade @gl00myb3arz @fell-e @the-trinket-witch @boopshoops

Let me know if you don't want to be tagged!

[angelofsmalldeath-codeine]

Good Saturday, y’all.

Topic of today’s rant: PEOPLE PRINTING AND SELLING FANFIC & GENERAL FANDOM ETIQUETTE

Profiting from fanfic will ruin it for everyone.

I want all of you who gift us your stories to be safe from lawsuits and beware that your content might be stolen.

Not to be on a soapbox and preaching to the choir but here are.

There are many authors pulling their work off AO3 because people acting on bad faith are printing and binding fics to sell on etsy thus infringing copyright laws. Fanfic has always been a grey area and we are allowed to exist in this grey area because we are not profiting from it. The minute money is exchanged, every party involved is breaking the law.

Why am I complaining about this yet again? Because we might be deprived from enjoying fanfic with the freedom we currently have because the fanfic authors will fear getting sued. If third parties are stealing our work and selling it, publishers and studios won’t care to know who sold it. It is your handle (thus IP address) on the sold fanfic. Because, get this, they are doing downloads straight from ao3 with your usernames.

Manacled is being pulled from ao3 because the author will publish it as a book. People are putting the book at risk by selling printed versions of it on Etsy.

I believe many of us who fall on the 20 years of reading fanfic side rather than on the 20 year olds reading fanfic will remember the Anne Rice days. These are not fully over because her son is carrying on the legacy of suing everyone who writes fanfic of her work. And if I may say, she didn’t invent vampires and should’ve taken many seats. I digress.

I am not sure of the levels of awareness within this community and to what extent it can affect all of us. TikTok is a massive contributor to this problem (as it is to many other problems. Again, I digress) since booktok and the binding folks discovered ao3.

You might think, I only post on tumblr so my content is safe. Well, they are finding their way here too. They cringe because tumblr is for old people but they still make their way here with their bad manners and pillaging behaviour.

I want all of you who gift your stories to be safe, lawsuit free, not lose your content and not be afraid of sharing.

I wish I had a definitive solution to this problem but I can only think of small actions:

report the etsy accounts selling fanfic/fanfic commissions,

report the TikTok accounts selling binding for fanfic work,

go back to the days of putting disclaimers on your notes that you don’t own the characters and you are not profiting from the story.

Tagging some authors* here for visibility so you can cascade to more people. Absolutely no pressure tag.

@theywhowriteandknowthings @tightjeansjavi @diversemediums @goodwithcheese @nerdieforpedro @fhatbhabie @undercoverpena @thelightsandtheroses @ezrasbirdie @notjustjavierpena @javierpena-inatacvest @freshlyrage @5oh5 @wardenparker @endlessthxxghts @creedslove @sp00kymulderr @secretelephanttattoo @gnpwdrnwhiskey @whatsnewalycat @pedrostylez @thetriumphantpanda @toointojoelmiller @dancingtotuyo @agentjackdaniels @ladamedusoif @lotrefcp @wildemaven @musings-of-a-rose @justagalwhowrites @morallyinept @pedropascalsx @criticallyacclaimedstranger @pennyserenade @kteague @astoryisaloveaffair @moralesispunk @linzels-blog @metalnecklace

*I can remove the tag if you are not comfortable with being associated with this post.

[wishingstarinajar]

Wish! Please, I feel so stupid, but what does the Maccadam tag mean? I know it's transformers related, but I'm just scratching my head on whether it stands for something significant or if it's just a name and nothing else.

Please educate me! Thank you!

Alrighty then, since you asked so nicely! *puts on glasses*

Maccadam is the name of this loveable, neutral but mysterious guy that not even Megatron dares to cross:

In several different Transformers media, Maccadam (and others like Blurr) runs a bar called Maccadam's Old Oil House, which has been around since the early 1980s comics. This guy, or well, his bar to be more precise, is one of the recognized constants in many of the different stories and retellings of the Transformers franchise over the past 40 years.

Now what does this bar have to do with the use of the hashtag? Well!

Before the first Bayverse movie came out, the Transformers hashtag was universally used for anything Transformers on any platform, be it toys, art, fanfic, screenshots, discussions, etc. But people be horny teens, you know, and some flooded the TF tag with gifs of Megan Fox and other things related to the Bayverse after the first movie came out.

People weren't happy with that, not wanting to see all that stuff while browsing the TF tag for art (or fanfics!), so they started to use the Maccadam hashtag in tandem with the Transformers tag to separate posts from the Bayverse slop. Why Maccadam? Because of the aforementioned constant Maccadam's bar is in the whole franchise. It's always there in some form or another.

After the Bayverse hype settled down, the Maccadam tag continued to stick and is still being used to this day as a "calling card" (mostly!) for Transformers art posts on social media sites that don't solely focus on art and/or fanfiction.

I'm sure I might be missing some backstory behind it but this is what I've been told and found about the usage of the tag. And now you know too!

[itsblasttothepast]

To my fellow Chequistas/Checolovers: you are all amazing, and I know this has hit us hard, unexpected (even when we felt it was leading this way) and poorly handled by a team that doesn't care about their drivers.

Checo looks at peace, happy and relaxed. He is different than when he lost his seat in Racing Point, perhaps because this time it was his decision, and this has been cooking for a long time. Remember when we said Checo had been more outspoken about the team's issues with the car and the failures? When he yelled at Bird? When he marked the mistakes over the radio? Checo knew he had to make a choice for himself, instead of just staying and being miserable.

I'm happy he decided to put himself first this time, and even when there's the possibility of retirement after this, I feel he wants to retire in his own terms and with a different taste than this 2024 left.

So if you need time to regroup, to feel better and assimilate this, we are going to be here for you. If you decide you had enough and move on to other things/fandoms, that's okay too, and if you want to come back we are here with open arms. We are a supportive community, Checo has taught us the importance of being positive, never give up and keep our dreams.

For my part, I'll keep posting Checo things, updating about his social media things, and making joked about the drivers. I'll still ship Chestappen, Chewis and Hulkenrez, and I hope the authors who write amazing fics about them continue, because they're amazing and your stories cheer me up a lot.

Also I met amazing people here, and I want to continue with the conspiracy theories with my buddy @simplywrong, and having tag conversations with @your-ace-cousin-clover; I want to see @selfishpresley's posts about Checo's dick and headcanons of how to get it, and @baby-alien11 and @kirasworldofwords posts about different opinions regarding everything F1 related; I want to keep exchanging fanfic ideas (particularly Chewis) with @wishfuldivine, and seeing the Strollonso content @aston14s and Lance content @11nevergiveup11 post with some Checo appearances; I want to read @lunarprophetuwu posts about the importance of mental health and ending stereotypes, and @cherriebbyyyy posts about Carlos (I'm becoming a fan). I want to understand @vegasgrandprix Checo posts and puns, as sometimes I get lost, but it's so much fun! and see the wonderful pictures @bluebirdy04, @coffee-bulls, @rojasnn post, and exchanging opinions in spanish with @yolixpan. Seeing the amazing fanart @saicoon shares, and the sense of humor of @luna-sibuna-trying (your posts/reblogs, even when they're not F1 related, cheer me up).

And to those who are new and feel you missed the best Checo era, don't worry about it, the best is yet to come, and in the meanwhile, the Chequitas/Checolovers community will keep the Checo fever, because he's not meant to be forgotten, even the haters keep barking even when he's out of RBR.

This post is to thank you all for your amazing impact in my journey here in tumblr, I have so many people to mention, but I'm getting a little emotional and I'll ramble as usual. You made being a Checo/F1 fan a fun and wonderful thing, and I hope we can continue despite of people celebrating Checo's leaving, well, guess what? The fans stay and will continue loving him.

To those who stay, see you in the dash/inbox and messages. Those who leave temporarily, take as much time as you need and we'll be here when you come back. To those who decide to move on, I wish you the best in your journey and if you want to come back someday, we are a tag away!

Baby model Checo for all of you!

¡Gracias por estar!

[ellestrade]

What do you think makes a good Damian Wayne fanfic ? Like what are your standards and red flags when you're reading one

Usually, I would first look at the 'Damian Wayne-centric' tags on ao3 and go from there. I don't think I hold any fics up to a certain standard, though being able to read any is important to me— that means proper paragraphing, grammar, etc.

I know that most, if not all writers on ao3 are amateur writers, novice at best and, if I'm lucky, have been writing since the dawn of Wattpad, so it's not fair for me to expect top-tier writing/characterisation. Everyone always has some kind of trope to fall back into, myself included. It's just a matter if said trope is annoying or not to consume.

"Good Damian Wayne fanfics" are, itself, subjective— because good fanfics, for me, means that there are no attempts at butchering his character, along with his loved ones, and that includes Talia, Ra's, Maya and Mara, etc. If I open a fic and it's all just a grandiose of people putting down Talia (making her a bad/abusive mother) just to have Bruce hugs his son, then I'm closing the tab.

That being said, here are my red flags/pet peeves when it comes to reading a fanfic:

Any, and I mean any variant consisting of bashing the al-Ghuls.

"Talia al-Ghul is a bad mother"

"Talia al-Ghul is a rapist"

"Ra's al-Ghul is a creep"

"Damian is a bad sibling"

Usually, any fics that consist of these types of fics often came out as xenophobic or straight up racist— taking Grant Morrison's run (primarily Talia's character assassination) as gospel, or never reading canon material as a whole.

Of course, credits where it's due, there are some, and I mean a very small some, fics that don't transpire that image— using the tag that to simply convey Damian's time in the League, or phrasing it in a way that Talia/Ra's were an abuser once victim. However, making them bad in comparison is just a no-go for me.

Also, making Talia a rapist is a one way ticket for me to block you— because not only that it is wrong, but it also shows that you don't care enough to do thorough research and just take it as it is; Talia, pre-Morrison, was depicted as this kind and loving woman. She was studying medicine when she met Bruce. They genuinely have Chemistry together. She was also a victim of abuse herself, and she would rather die than inflict harm upon others on purpose. She loves her son, she loves her husband, she loves her family and she also loves herself.

Also, the al-Ghuls are also some of the most affectionate family there are— at least, of course, prior to the whole character assassination for the sake of making Bruce seem like the better parent in comparison. They aren't afraid to show genuine affection to one another, becoming physical and shows their devotion beyond what words could measure— which, is , unfortunate, since they're presented in Western media, and God knows how bad someone would interpret a relationship if 'I love you's aren't being exchanged regularly like therapy talks.

Dare I say, they might actually be better than the BatFam 🤷🤷 but then I might get hunted down for sports so I'll keep that opinion to myself, for now.

I'm also going to redirect you to this one lovely account, @rasalghul777 and read their take(s) on Brutalia. Here's a starting post and this one if you'd like to start. This person makes wonderful posts regarding Brutalia and the al-Ghuls as a whole than what I could ever conspire and I applaud them for it.

White savior complex

"Damian got his love for animals from [insert any BatFamily members here]"

"Damian learned to love through being with BatFam"

Again, this could also be read along with my first point, but can also be seen separately— I genuinely cannot stand when Damian was written in a way that he was a 'feral, stabby boi' prior his transgression into the BatFamily since it conveys distasteful perception of the Arabic people as a whole; them being uncultured or even uncivilized.

It's gross, I hate it, get it away from me.

Also, Damian inheriting his love for animals from anyone else other than the al-Ghuls is just pure fanon bullshit— because that means you have no perception of what the League of Assassins really are and just takes everything the fandom writes at face value; the League (including Talia and Ra's) aren't some 2-dimensional villains who kills. Reducing a villain to a mere trope just to prop up your white boy isn't going to make me like them. It just takes away the fun of it.

People just love to forget the 'eco' in 'eco-terrorist', which Ra's is.

If anything, Damian would inherit his genuine and deep love for animals and nature from him.

It's worth mentioning that the League of Assassins doesn't kill people just for the sake of violence— there's a reason why they're being categorized as eco-terrorists, and not the other category people love to associate Arabs with; they kill with reason. Similar to Poison Ivy, they specifically target any organisation that brings ruins to Earth and nature as a whole.

On another note, writing Damian as 'uncivilized' or 'feral' is just plain wrong. While it certainly can be cute, in a sort of gremlin-esque, little brother way (Lord knows how much I love my little brother, but simultaneously wanted to (subliminally) throw a chair at him) but depicting him as this one child that goes around stabbing everyone unprompted rubs me the wrong way.

This goes along with my first note, but Damian was raised as a prince when he was in the League; there were some instances where soldiers who came to pick him up refer to him as "Young prince". He has manners. He knows what to say and what to do when being confronted by the media. If anything, Damian would adapt 'Gotham's Darling Boy' facade faster than BatFam girlies mischaracterise the next POC character.

Damian does love his mother and grandfather and his family back in the League very, very much. Just because he doesn't convey it in a conventional, traditional way, doesn't mean he doesn't know how. He has his own ways of saying 'I love you's of his own.

People that clearly consume more fanon media in comparison to canon.

Tim Drake stans. Like, as a whole.

Let me begin by saying I actually do not care on how you plan to enjoy your nice little character trope, but believe me when I say that there are some weights to what's famously transpired in the fandom spaces.

It's the "fandom affects canon space" phenomenon all over again.

It should go without saying that what goes in the fandom stays in the fandom, and vice versa. Like I said before, people tend to fall back to their favourite trope— writing characters in a certain way, conveying certain messages, etc. However, in the midst of your 'creative freedom', it's easy to forget that these characters are not yours.

Fandom is derived from the canon substance, that's why it's so flexible and allows creative freedom in the first place. The consumer can decide what's canon in the fandom space (rejecting what's real), though it's important to remember that canon is still the blueprint and shouldn't be thoroughly ignored in favour of your dumb little incorrect quotes. Rejecting everything just means that you're creating an Oc, which, atp is what you should be doing instead of DTI a canon character.

It's why we got gems like these:

(I have reached tumblr maximum capacity for images, but know that there's more)

Again, do what you want, I don't care! But remember that when you're depicting certain character dynamics like these, it also affects other potential fans' views and first impressions of said character.

I don't want to go off tangent longer than necessary— but I actively avoid any variants of, "Hurt Tim Drake" tags on ao3. Mostly because mischaracterisation awaits me. The rest are because his fans are genuinely obnoxious and (more often than not) have little to no comprehension to actual canon substance.

I think that's all that I could muster up. Sorry this post is long, lol, but I got carried away.

[54625]

I'm not sure if this is the end for the QSMP, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were shut down soon after this.

The eggs have been the lifeblood of the server since they were introduced, and having some of them permanently gone from the server is devastating for so many reasons, and bodes terribly for the future of this project. My optimism has run out. I will still wait for updates but I have no hope.

However, I wanted to write a piece for the community here on Tumblr. I know we're all very emotional right now, because while we have no confirmation that the QSMP will permanently close, we now have good reason to assume there might just be no other clear path out of this.

To the community:

Do not feel like you have to stop loving the server and everything it created. Do not stop creating art. Do not stop sharing why you loved the characters and the story and the world.

To completely boycott everything QSMP, you are discrediting the incredible work that the admins put into the server purely out of passion and the kindness of their hearts. Do not waste their sacrifices. Talk about the server and everything they did for it, give them recognition, let them know we love and appreciate all the time and care they poured into this project. Thank them by caring about their work that they put so much of themselves into.

To completely boycott everything QSMP, you are ignoring the beautiful friendships it created between content creators who otherwise would never have met, and the way it ignited such a fierce determination to learn about others' cultures in them. You are forgetting how much these streamers strived to tell engaging, relatable, fun stories, by themselves or with each other, and to have their fans talk about how much they liked their newest lore. You are refusing to acknowledge the effort put in by everyone on the project to tell amazing stories through the language barrier.

And to completely boycott the QSMP, you are denying yourself the fact that you loved this server; the eggs, the streamers, the stories, the cultural events, the laughter, the sadness, the friendships, the ship ships, the builds, the mods, the languages. You are part of this server for enjoying it's wonderful vitality and beauty and hilarity. As a community, we all are.

I have had my gripes with the QSMP fanbase, as anyone has gripes with the dysfunctional mad household they live in, but at the end of the day, I love it so much. This has been my first time actually being part of a fandom; interacting with people and sharing my art and my ideas, getting into silly debates and arguments, running my mouth off more than I should. I love this bizarre toxic fandom for all of it's worth; I love the fanfic writers (even if I think their characterisation is terrible), I love the fanartists (even if they give Pac those yellow scleras that always make me think of jaundice), I love the live bloggers (even if they clog up the main tag), I love the people who write analysis, the people who make animations and animatics, the people who webweave, and all the other things people in this fandom do to interact with the media we all collectively love and bond over.

We do not need to let this be the end of our community, as we can still share our admiration for the hard work put into this project, lift each other up, express praise where it is warranted.

And we can talk to each other, we can vent about how this has negatively effected us (provided we tag it appropriately 👁️👁️) and respond in kind to those seeking someone to speak to who relates.

The QSMP taught us the value of communication. While behind the scenes, it itself did not abide by it's own rules, we can. The QSMP itself is not the figurehead of communication; the content creators and the fans it sent this message to are. We can be an example of what the QSMP should have stood for.

I do not love the deeply flawed execution of the QSMP, but with my whole heart I love the idea; the ambition, the goal. It was noble. It, to some extent, worked.

It united communities.

Let it unite ours.

[antimony-medusa]

Gonna be honest with you though if someone outright says “don’t ship my character with other people” or something to that extent regarding smut or whatever I don’t think there should be any ambiguity

I get your point about the nature of fanfic being inherently encroaching upon people’s images so that levity should be extended to otherwise uncommon avenues but I really believe hardline boundaries should be respected, end of, no discussion. If I see people violating creators’ boundaries for their characters Or themselves (and these can be intertwined, it’s not up to the audience to pick apart their boundaries, cuz I’ve seen people try to do that) I’m not going to judge them fairly and I feel like neither should you.

Lines can be crossed and intimacy (not even necessarily romantic!) is a very different monster than the other avenues of storytelling because of how it involves real life relationships seeping into character relationships. Its’s uncommon for people to be like “I wrote A’s character being tortured because I feel like A is tortured in real life” but they Can and Often do that with ship work. So I don’t know, I feel like you’re not affording this the right nuance.

Alright, so, this is another post I'm gonna slap with a discourse and long post warning right away, buckle in.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying, and this is not an uncommon opinion to have! It's still the opinion of twitter/x so far as I know, and I think it's probably the opinion of the bulk of dsmp fans here, as well. I know my posts get notes once they start circulating in hermitblr, but I don't kid myself that I have the majority view. I am posting to explain my views expressly because I know a lot of people don't agree with me!

And in this case we do have a difference of opinion. There's two sort of points as I see it in your posts— we have hardline boundaries about shipping/nsfw from some people, and everyone in the fandom should be abiding by those no exceptions or be thrown out of the fandom; and we have shipping boundaries but not boundaries for other things because shipping is uniquely boundary-crossing and terrible and invasive, in contrast to anything else we can do in fandom.

Taking the second part first, I just don't think that's true. Let's not forget, boundaries discourse started with SMPLive and SMPronpa, and it was not the shipping that caused the discussion, it was the death games. The first real fandom reckoning we had with the notion of boundaries as mcyt fandom was over gore and murder and portraying people in violent ways. Shipping was barely a blip on the radar. The way the discourse has developed now, shipping is framed as the absolute worst thing anyone could ever do with your public image, and everything else is fine, but that is not the case for everyone. Recently the Pirates SMP creators were asked repeatedly for their boundaries (bothered on twitter, really) until they gave them and thus we saw people being fine with shipping but not wanting family dynamic, or being against both shipping and gore, or being fine with shipping but not wanting to be gender bent or trans headcanoned, etc. Not everyone feels the same way about the same things, despite the us-american cultural viewpoint that romance and sexualization is uniquely bad but gore and torture is fine, that everything else is fine.

Like, if we're looking at DSMP, I think there are a lot of creators who would feel just as strongly if not stronger about fics in which their character died of a terminal illness than they would about a fic in which they kiss someone, for understandable reasons. But I see those tropes in the tags regularly!

I think if we are honest with ourselves, if we are going to hardline boundaries about things that are uniquely invasive or bad to do to a creator's character with the view that we are putting all of this up for the creator's approval, we need to accept that this excludes us from writing anything where a character is abusive or is tortured or dies of a terminal illness or is psychologically broken or is age regressed or is neurodivergent or is queer if the cc is straight or trans if the cc is cis or cis if the cc is trans or straight if they're gay— the list of things that would be weird to do in the face of the real guy is really long. And it has most of our favourite tropes on it!

I love writing autistic philza. It would be really fuckin' weird to go up to Philza and tell him about how I write his character as whumped and autistic. Come on now. (But that's within boundaries, so that's— fine? I really don't think it's fine!)

Which is why my stance is that we should be thinking critically about these things, and keeping the fandom seperate from the creators. Some of these things are just not for the creators. They're fine but they shouldn't go on twitter. Y'know?

The idea that shipping draws uniquely on the real person and leads to invasive behaviour but nothing else does— that nobody does "I wrote A being tortured because I think A is tortured in real life"— Look. I have been in the fandom a long time. I remember how all the abused tommy narratives fed right into people assuming his family in real life were abusive— and talking about this on twitter! Where he and his family could see! People did this with WIlbur and Techno too!

I remember people reading about trans tommy and then truthing that the creator either was transmasc or was going to come out as transfemme any day now, publically, on twitter and in his chat. I have seen people she/her tubbo to his face on twitter, with fancams. I have been in chat when people who have clearly assigned Phil "dad" start asking WILDLY invasive things in TTS. If you think that shipping is the only fandom behaviour that can lead to people drawing directly from the streamers for their work and treating the creators weirdly about it, you simply have not been paying attention.

The way the fandom insists on treating benchtrio as children despite the fact that they're almost twenty and viciously attacking their friends for treating them as adults and chiding tommy and tubbo and ranboo for inappropriate behaviour. The list goes ON.

So. The recieved DSMP wisdom is that we should TTS the streamers to check if it's okay if we write a fic in which they die of cancer. We should DM them on instagram to ask if it's okay if we write them as a gender or sexual identity they don't share. We should show up in their twitter mentions to ask if it's okay if we write them as a physically abusive parent.

No????????

My view on that is that it is frankly bizzare it is that we have decided that "asking creators for detailed instructions regarding porn or gore" (especially in TTS! When they're fucking at WORK and can't step away! Stop doing this to the hermits!) is normal and fine and responsible but "post your shit in appropriate places and leave the creators out of it" will make you a monster.

Once again, the experience of someone coming up and saying "i think of you as age regressed" and someone saying "i found this fic where you're age regressed" and someone saying "can I write a fic where you're age regressed" is not that different. In all cases you know that the person has been thinking about it and putting it out there, and in all cases you didnt seek out this information, it was brought to you. In all cases it's weird. Just do not bring this information up to them!

If you just think about it for a while, you see that there is an entire host of things that would be weird to force into the view of a creator, especially when you consider that half the time we got these clips from TTS information when we have no idea if the person answering knew the context of what they were being asked, if they were specifically aware of the creator/cc divide that the fandom works with, or if they felt pressured into it. Oh yeah, let's take a TTS clip from Tubbo when it was 2 in the morning for him and he was deep in a minecraft mod when someone asked him about alters and delusions and he was like "oh you mean like— when they can't help it? I guess that's fine." That definately counts as freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic and specific consent to show him anything we want at all times forever. That's never going to make him uncomfortable.

Think a little here.

So I think there's a lot of the fandom that we should not be putting up for the approval of the creators, and if we don't have a firm answer on if they would like potential edge cases, we should probably be thinking about it and keeping it away from them (and I would err on the side of caution), we should NOT be showing up in the TTS to ask them about narratives in which they're institutionalized, or making them a GOP conservative in fiction, or if Wilbur was canon about seeing them as a bottom, or whatever bizzare thing someone is cooking up now. Honestly if you think to yourself "I don't know if the creator would like seeing this", I would be much more comfortable if the two choices we were picking between there were "simply don't write it" or "write it but keep it away from them", and "harass the creator for an answer on this subject and only write it if they say yes" never entered the equation at all.

And to return to your first point, if we already have a class of fiction that we are keeping away from the creators because basic intellectual curiosity would show that it would be weird to show someone, I don't think it's the end of the world to go "okay, creator doesn't like NSFW, so we also keep the NSFW away from them, keep this shit off twitter, block them if you create it, don't show it to them" and then we archive lock it and continue on our little weirdo on the internet ways.

Now, I don't expect to convince you of this, the phrasing of your post does not indicate that you're open to discussion on this topic. That's fine. Nobody has to agree with me. But I grew up conservative christian, and I have already had people try and get me to throw people out of the community for their perceived sins where I was like "well, I really don't think this is that bad", and I'm really resistant to being forced to do that again. I don't think it's a healthy way to run a fandom, to be shunning people for what they're doing in fiction. Harassing creators in chat? Sure, I will block them from my events as untrustworthy. That's hurting someone in the real world. Writing something that I don't vibe with privately on the archive for an audience of 50 people? That is not doing harm to real people. As long as they're not showing it to the creators, I don't count that as offensive.

How's that for nuance.

[thefangirlfever]

Stress Relief, part 2: 18+, Minors Do Not Interract (a Miguel O'hara fanfic)

Summary: When your boyfriend has to travel for his job, you both have to find an other way to relieve all the tension…

Tags: F/M, Smut, very self-indulgent, Use of toys, Sex phone, Masturbation (M/F), heavy dirty talk, established relationship, very horny, dicussion of aftercare

Word count: 4642

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It was not often that Miguel had to travel for his work. But this week he had to. There was this huge conference in Toronto where he would meet a lot of specialists and renowned scientists, including some who could support his upcoming projects. This was an occasion he couldn’t miss, even if the thought of being away from you made him feel a bit melancholic. Unfortunately it wasn’t like he had a choice. He could tell you weren’t too happy about him leaving for a whole week, even if you did your best to hide it. To most people it would have seemed like you accepted the situation, but he knew you better after three years together.

That was why he was trying to not show too much enthusiasm about the conference, to not bum you.

« I wish they had chosen an other time for this. It must be freezing in Canada right now... », he grunted under his breath. He was just adding an other sweater inside his suitcase. The sight and the dedication he was putting into trying to hide his enthusiasm was pretty endearing and enough to make you look up from your book.

« Is it enough of a reason to pack 6 sweaters ? »

He didn’t miss your snicker and replied sheepishly: “He, you know me, I’m not made for cold weather…”

You hum in response and tried to look back at your book when your eyes catch the shape of a box wrapped in colorful wrapping paper. Despite having your interest piqued, you didn’t ask any question about it. But Miguel caught your curious gaze on the package and a wry smile crossed his lips:

“This is a little something I got for you, so you will be able to wait for me while I’m away…”

This time, you definitely closed your book and he was pleased to see that he had your full attention.

“Oh, what’s this?”

“Huh huh, I’m not telling you now. You’ll have to wait til I’m gone to know.”

He couldn’t help but smile at your small pout. His smile stayed on his face even when you started crawling toward him. Once your body stood in front of his with you on your knees on the bed and your arms wrapped around his shoulders, he could feel a familiar strain in his pants.

“Why?”

“Because…” He seemed to struggle finding his words when you looked at him this way, with your doe-eyes hidden underneath the thick curls of your lashes. “It won’t be a surprise anymore if I tell you now. And I want you to use it only once I’m gone.”

“Ah ah...It’s something I could use alone!” He mentally cursed himself forgiving you already a hint of what could be inside this package. “I wonder what could it be?” You may have asked this innocently but he didn’t miss the way one of your hands travel down his torso with your spread fingers taking in the enticing shapes hidden beneath his tight-fitting shirt.

Miguel gently grabbed your wrist and held it a few seconds, preventing you from moving any lower. But the hurt was already done. He was spotting a semi-hard tent inside his sweatpants, the outline clearly visible under the gray fabric. He shushed you gently while shaking his head:

“You’ll have to wait a bit more...Just one more day...”

No matter how much you would groan in irritation or pout, you knew he wouldn’t flinch and so you decided to let it go. You were about to turn back to your reading, adverting your body away from his when his hands found their usual place on your hips. You immediately stopped whatever move you were going to do and looked down at his fingers on your exposed midriff. Miguel nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck, not even bothering pushing away your hair. He was too eager to feel it against his face one last time before his departure, to immerse himself into its luxurious softness and intoxicating scent. His warm breath fanned over your skin, heightening every sensation on your already taut body.

“I’ll miss you… You know it, right?”

“And here I thought you were unaffected by this… You know it’s only for a week?” You may have teased him but you were also affected by his departure. It’s been the longest the two of you have been away since you moved in together. You wouldn’t consider yourself clingy but it would surely feel weird the first days, coming back home without finding him on the couch or in the kitchen, without finding his shoes already waiting for you in the hallway, and falling asleep alone…

“How could I be unaffected by this?” Miguel replies in a slightly raspier voice. His hands were moving to a more dangerous territory, making their way toward the curve of your buttocks. He knew this was only for a week and even if he was not clingy either, the idea of staying away form you this long seemed like an eternity.

“I don’t even know if I’ll be able to focus on my work with you so far away…” His words were punctuated by small pecks that he would pepper along the column of your neck down the smooth curve of your shoulder. His hips pressed urgently against yours in a pleading motion. Alone with you, in the intimacy of your room, he was unraveling into the needy mess he tried to hide outside.

“Please, Y/N...please…” You shushed him gently and pulled him closer to your body, feeling the depth of his desire against you.

“C’me here, sweetheart…” These were the last words you found yourself able to speak properly before a low groan escaped your lips and you both fell down the bed.

***

You knew that the hardest part of your day would be when you would have to come back home. Miguel had left the airport around 6 in the morning and has informed you of every step of his journey by messages, pictures and even voice mails. Coupled with your work, you didn’t realize that you were now alone and the fact only hit you when you get back at the apartment later that night.

The heavy silence inside the place was the only thing welcoming you while you slowly took your shoes off. Some of your friends had offered you to go out tonight, and even to move out for a whole week. It would be like a giant sleepover. But somehow this was not what you needed. Going out won’t bring Miguel back home sooner and you knew that you wouldn’t have been of any good company tonight.

At least, having the apartment all to yourself had some perks. This meant music playing freely around the place, taking a bath as long as you wanted to and the control remote for you alone. Miguel had assured you he had checked in his hotel approximately 8 hours ago. He also texted you the planning of the conferences and even through the texts you could sense his enthusiasm. In this situation it was hard to bring his mood down by telling him how lonely you felt tonight.

It as around your fourth glass of wine, or maybe was it the sixth, that you remembered the present he had left for you. The package had definitely picked your interest, especially since the shape of it didn’t let you have any idea of what could lay inside… Miguel did mention that it was something to occupy you during his journey, so you might as well unwrap it now.

You scurried to the dressed in your shared room, where he had left the package, your footsteps echoing trough the empty place. The package came with a small handwritten card. Only these cryptic words were written: “I hope you’ll have fun while waiting for me.”

A strange feeling started growing inside your gut, almost as if you could finally guess what he got you. No...that would be too unlikely. And how could he have bought something like this anyway?

Unless…

There was only way to know. You grabbed the box carefully and sat down the edge of the bed. As you kept unwrapping the present, the sensation down your stomach only amplified. Your heart was beating loud enough for you to feel it drum inside your ears.

What if this wasn’t this? Would you be disappointed?

When you finally lifted the lid of the box, there was no more room for doubt.

And clearly, you were not disappointed.

But saying you were surprised was an understatement.

There, nestled inside pink paper lied a...vibrator. Bright pink with ridges all along what was supposed to emulate a penis. The thing was clearly different from what you usually used. Most of the times you were drawn to more...discreet toys. No noise, no penetration needed, smaller...And there comes this thing with its obnoxious bright color, its large and thick base as well as its two ‘bunny ears’. By rule of thumb, you could tell the length wouldn’t be a problem. It looked almost as long as Miguel’s, around the same diameter...And it seemed to work with a battery. You pressed the ON button without any expectation and to your surprise, the toy started vibrating. The phallic shape almost seemed to rotate while the ‘bunny ears’ vibrated but that was not the only movement you noticed.

Your eyes opened slightly wider when you noticed the base of the toy...move. It seemed like under the pink silicone, something was shifting. Something like small...beads.

You quickly turned the toy off. It was hard to tell if your cheeks got flushed because of this or the drinks you got. With a small grunt you let yourself fall down the bed, the toy still in your hand.

This thing was not a toy, it was made to kill. Even if the attention was nice and you were the first one to advocate for the use of toys, you didn’t know how to feel about it. It was both different and very alike to what you were used to. One look at the phallic shape and you gulped loudly. Did you really see beads moving underneath the surface?

With a careful touch you let your finger trace the ridges over the smooth material, almost as if it was alive. Your index traced the shape of it and then slowly followed the ridges. They looked like small mountains with creases and valleys, creating a very...interesting relief. You kept mapping the toy with your slow touch until your finger pinched the edge of it, the tip if you would. Almost as a reflex, your thumb rubbed small circles over the squishy mushroom head. After a few seconds spent rubbing the silicon, you realized that you were biting your lower lip and waiting for something to happen. Something that wouldn’t come from a toy.

What was Miguel doing?

The thought stopped your movement and you rolled over the bed with a low groan. You were sure of it now, he did this on purpose. He specifically chose this toy among all the other ones just to torture you, to have you think about his cock while he was miles away and out of reach.

Just when you were thinking this, your phone vibrated; the sound reminding you of the toy in your hand with great embarrassment. The name on your screen made you immediately reply.

Y/N: What the hell is this?

It took only a couple of seconds for Miguel to send back a text. You could almost feel him smiling behind his keyboard.

M: Just something to help you relax. I’m glad you like it.

A few seconds later, you received an other text:

M: We’re talking about the same thing, right?

You immediately typed back:

Y/N: I don’t know. Are we talking about the monster you left on my dresser that strangely looks like your own cock?

M: I’m feeling flattered you think it looks alike.

You send back a deadpan emoji, to which he replied:

M: Sorry for being cock-y. But seriously...do you like it?

Y/N: Don’t know, haven’t tested it out yet.(please, stop making puns)

You had to wait a bit longer to get an other reply. Maybe he had fallen asleep? Or maybe you went too far and he felt awkward about all of this? You were not expecting the next message you got.

M: I can change it again if you don’t like it this way.

Y/N: What do you mean ‘change it again’?

M: I may or may not have added some details into this toy… Have you seen the beads?

You looked back at the thick base and replied with a growing heat in your cheeks:

Y/N: They’re kinda hard to miss.

M: Well, I added them myself. If it bothers you, I can add, or remove some of the details on it. Nothing is more important than your comfort.

You couldn’t help the smile that bloomed on your face at his words.

Y/N: So, what you’re telling me is that one of the most brilliants engineer in the whole country spend his free time to upgrade some vibrator?

M: I know it will be worth it.

Y/N: Do you?

You hadn’t realized it yet but you were lying down the bed, fully relaxed now and something told you that Miguel was doing the same. It was almost like these times when you would both chat together until you fell into sleep out of exhaustion.

M: Yeah. Just imagining you using it was already worth the time spent working on this.

The sheer time and energy he spent working on this project made the attention even sweeter. You couldn’t deny it any longer. You would have loved any present coming from Miguel, no matter what it was. But the idea of something he crafted itself made it even more endearing.

Y/N: Thanks for the present, it was really sweet of you.

Y/N: So… you’ve been thinking about me using it?

The reply came quicker this time. He is so predictable sometimes.

M: Not gonna lie, it’s been hard focusing today, knowing you could be using it at any time of the day.

M: That’s exactly why I chose this one. I could picture you using it almost immediately.

The chat was clearly diving into more risky territory. Not that you complained. You could definitely use some relaxing time after that stressful day. Your free hand was already resting on your hip and your eyes darted between your phone screen and the vibrator.

Y/N: Shouldn’t you already be asleep?

M: It’d be hard to sleep in my condition right now…

You sent back a line of question marks, to which he replied with a simple picture. The pic was taken in the mirror of his hotel room. Miguel was sitting at the edge of the bed, manspreading, shirtless, in his gray sweats, the shape of a very noticeable erection outlined by the light of the room.

Okay. If you had any more doubt about his intentions, it was now fully clear.

Y/N: That was very subtle of you.

M: You’re really trying to talk about subtlety after seeing your present?

Y/N: Fair enough.

You couldn’t help but look back at the picture he sent you, zooming in on some details. And the lingering heat in your stomach didn’t go away. On the contrary it only seemed to get more insistent.

Y/N: I gotta say, your room looks nice.

M: Are you really looking at the decoration?

Y/N: No.

A small pause. Three dots moving on the screen. And finally you got an other message.

M: I missed you, you know. I wish you were here. No, I wish I was with you, no matter where.

Your heart skipped a small beat at his confession and you tried to quickly compose yourself, despite the fact that you were...alone, with no one to see the flustered, and horny mess you were turning into. Your eyes fell back onto the shape of the toy and you couldn’t get the image of the beads out of your mind this time.

Your silence didn’t seem to deter Miguel. At this point you were sure nothing would stop him.

M: The things I would do to you if you were here.

M: Just wait till I get home…

You clenched your thighs almost as in a reflexive move. You had no trouble imagining what he would do if he was here.

Y/N: I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait til then.

M: Me neither.

The solution to this problem was obvious, so obvious in fact that none of you seemed to want to admit it. Your eyes darted between the toy and the dial button on the phone. You had never tried this before. Sure you have already send each other some pictures but nothing like this… What if you assumed wrongly his attentions? What if he wasn’t comfortable enough to do this?

Miguel took you out of your reflections with a simple message:

M: Can I call you now?

Your only response was to press on the dial button. He only replied after one ring. His face and shoulders soon filled out the screen. He was still shirtless and you could tell he had recently washed his hair by the way the strands stick to his neck. A small minute of silence filled the space while you observed each other with almost shy smiles. Finally a soft chuckle from Miguel’s side broke the tension.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

“Are you currently wearing my shirt?”

You looked down and replied with a shrug: “I just took the first thing I saw…”

“Sure…” Miguel was by no mean fooled by your answer but he hummed in amusement. It’s not like he would complain. He liked the view of you, drowned in the oversize piece of clothe, with your thighs bare and one of your shoulders exposed. His eyes followed the curves and hollows of your collarbones before locking on the small mole at the crook of your neck. He could almost taste it under his lips, how warm and smooth you felt, the rich and salty taste of your skin, your perfume pricking his nose… The strain in his pants became harder to ignore by the minute and you could see him shift over the bed, trying to adjust as best as possible.

“So...what were we talking about already?” You asked as an attempt to bring the conversation further from your very light outfit. A wry smile curled up Miguel’s lips: “If I recall correctly, we were talking about the things I would do to you if you were here…”

“Oh right…”

It was your time to shift slightly over the bed, your thighs rubbing against one another, trying to ease the throbbing ache between your legs.

“And what would you do exactly?”

Even though he took a moment to think about it, it was clear he knew exactly the answer to this question. In fact he fantasized about it all day.

“Well, first of all...I would get you out of this shirt, no matter how cute you look inside it…”

You hummed softly, your breath a bit shorter as you visualized his hands pulling up your shirt like he did so many times in the past.

“And then?” Your fingers shifted toward the hem of the said shirt without you even thinking about it.

Miguel seemed like he was struggling to speak, as if his whole mouth had suddenly gone dry. He slowly licked his lips and the sight made your fingers press lightly against the fabric of your panties.

“I would...kiss you. Everywhere.” This sounded both like a threat and a promise and you had to stifle a gasp. You pursed your lips tightly and pressed your fingers harder against the fabric. Warmth oozed from between your thighs. You finally nodded as a sign that you heard him.

Miguel was feeling his heart beating faster and the lump inside his throat getting thicker. The sight of you visibly turned-on, your eyes glazed with lust and your eyelids heavy...it stirred something inside him, something that left him almost breathless. He could also picture your naked body, free of the shirt and the could imagine how the skin would break into goosebumps, how you would shiver against him before arching yourself under his touch.

His own hand dropped lower down his body.

“I would...do things to you…”, his shorter breath was indicating that he had also succumbed, just the way you did. He was palming himself through the fabric of his sweatpants, imagining these were your hands making him feel good, feeling his warmth, his arousal, his sensitivity…

“Yeah...me too…” Your reply was everything he could dream of and more. Emboldened, his hand cupped his erection and he felt his eyes roll back. The simple gesture sent a shot of arousal straight to the rest of his body.

“Like what?”

“I would...touch you, kiss you too...remove your pants, get on my knees…”

Every word you uttered was like a straight punch to his gut. At this point, his pants were of no use. The tent created by his engorged member was indecent and so he slipped them down his thighs, freeing his already leaky cock. You couldn’t see it, but the sound of ruffled fabric helped your imagination fill the blanks.

“You saw that mirror in my room? I would have you there, sitting on the bed with your legs spread f’me...right in front of that mirror and I would...I would eat you out. I would let you watch for yourself…”

The vivid image he depicted appeared clear as day in your mind. You couldn’t hold back any longer and you slipped your hand under the cotton of your underwear. You were already wet without any surprise. Your fingers tangled for a few seconds with the soaked curls of your pubic hair before your found the source of your heat. You slowly traced your lips and a small moan escaped your lips.

Miguel’s ears perked up at the sound and he muttered in a low gruff: “That’s it, let me hear these pretty sounds, baby… You’d like that, huh? For me to take you in front of a mirror, like we did last time?”

You could only nod your head while you slipped a first, careful finger inside your core. Your walls clenched around...nothing, or at least not as much as what you needed. You quickly had to add an other finger, motivated by the voice of Miguel in the background. It felt like he was whispering straight into your ear with this sultry tone of his.

“...what if we changed the rules this time? I’d get you on all four and took you from behind. What’ya think, honey? You’d like to see that? How cute of a mess would you be?”

A total mess. You would be a total mess as he would ram into you, making you cry out his name backshots after backshots while supporting your with his arms alone. Your thumb circled around your clitoris and you gasped. Your whole body jolted and a low whimper left Miguel’s lips.

“Please, let me see you, angel...I want to see you…” His whole face was flushed with heat, his luscious lips parted as he breathed harder and his tousled hair falling over his forehead. He was a sight to see, but so do you. He couldn’t care less about his image or how needy he might look.

You pulled your panties down and adjusted the camera to give him a good view of your pussy. An other moan breached the barrier of his restraint and this time his voice cracked slightly as he begged you: “Let me hear these pretty moans… Show me your face again…”

You adverted the camera and after a micro-second of hesitation, you grabbed the vibrator, turned it on and placed it against your entrance. The sound made Miguel’s breath even more labored, as much as his gaze toward you was adoring.

“Such a pretty thing...You know how crazy you drive me when you take care of yourself, honey? When you look so lost in pleasure that the rest of the world doesn’t exist?”

“Yes…” This was both an answer and a small cry of pleasure as the head of the toy penetrated your slick entrance. It stretched you out deliciously, almost as perfectly as Miguel.

“There’s some lube in the box too…”, Miguel informed you and indeed, you found a bottle of lube down the pink paper. You groaned as you sprayed the liquid over the phallic shape and muttered:

“What would I do without you?”

He was visibly too busy to reply to you with anything else than a pathetic whimper. This time, you managed to slide the toy more easily and you could them...the small beads under the silicon surface. They were moving at the same pace than the head, massaging your swollen lips, stimulating you in a way that felt both new and mind-blowing. Combined with the massage of the ‘bunny ears’, this was too much for you to stay quiet. Miguel seemed to find his own pleasure in your high-pitched whimpers and the way you tossed around the bed. His mind was getting lost in a lustful haze, both nourished by your voice and the images in his mind. The most vivid of them consisted of you, on your knees sucking him off while the toy would pump faster inside you. And in the middle of this moment, he had a flash of lucidity, if you can call it that. He needed to design something to control the toy at distance, like a remote… The thought of you squirming under his eyes while he would control every movement and pulse of the toy was making him almost delirious. No matter how hard he was trying to edge himself, to show some restraint, he could feel his palm getting slicker, warmer… It was only a question of time before he lost it.

Watching you move was like looking at a picture in motion. The way your brows rose with every new inflection of your voice, how you whisper his name among many words he could barely make out, how he could easily imagine that you were getting heated from the pink hue on your cheeks, the sight of your plush lips swollen from your biting…

So, when you came, he was unable to look away.

Your walls clenched around the toy as your clit plead for mercy, all red and sensitive from the stimulation. He wasn’t any better himself and he was panting like an animal when the first drops of his semen started staining the sheets underneath him.

The buzz of the vibrator stopped and you both found yourself silent as the realization of what you just did hit you. After a small minute, this was again Miguel’s laugh that broke the tension. He was lying on this side, holding his phone with one hand, the remain of his orgasm visible on his lower stomach. It may have felt good, very good, but he missed the feeling of your skin after the moment, of your scent, the small comforting ritual you both had after sex… And so did you.

“Hey…”

You soft voice caught his attention. His eyes looked almost feverish as he looked back at you.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

Maybe it was his eyes playing tricks on him but it looked like you were almost glowing after this moment. No. You were definitely glowing.

“Thanks for the present.”

A large smile lit up his face as he replied: “You’re welcome, love.”

==============================================

Taglist: Thanks to @safixiovi for pointing out the idea of Miguel making his own toy for his partner.

And thanks to anyone who read, commented and reblogged the first part 🌻. There will definitely be a third part👀

Notes: Waiting for a sex-toy brand to sponsor these stories.

< Part 1 / Part 3 >

My Masterlist

[ninjadeathblade]

Nachos (a Nimona fanfic)

Summary: Nimona tags along on Ballister's nacho date with Ambrosius (set post-movie)

Warnings: A couple swears and that's about it

Word count: 1,050

Fluff with a tiny bit of angst

Author notes: Thanks you to @skating-is-cool for scheming with me on my other post about this. I didn't put loads of effort into this if I'm honest but I let the boys finally have their nachos together.

"You promise to behave?" Ballister asked nervously, refusing to go inside until Nimona agreed. The shapeshifter had been begging to come along with him to his date with Ambrosius. Ballister had reluctantly agreed, knowing that if he'd told her no she would've snuck along anyway. Nimona shrugged, rocking back and forth on her heels.

"I dunno. Maybe." She shot him a grin full of fangs, almost falling over before catching her balance again and leaning forward onto her tiptoes.

"Nimona, please," Ballister sighed, exasperation clawing at the inside of his skull as he brought a hand to his face to rub across his eyes. "This is the first time since…everything that me and Ambrosius have actually been able to go on a date." Ballister struggled to articulate it to her. Mentally, he understood that Nimona was over a thousand years old and had probably seen many people be in love. But he also had latched onto her as some kind of younger sibling or daughter to him, which meant he had to explain everything. "Because we've left the army now, I don't have to hide who I am as much. You should understand that."

"Yeah, I suppose so," Nimona replied, flashing him another smile. "C'mon then, let's go see your boyfriend." Ballister made to grab her shoulder before she headed into the bar but she weaved away from him, slipping through the door into the bar. Ballister gritted his teeth before following Nimona, a certain air of anxiety around him. He knew that Ambrosius still loved him, that hadn't changed. But would it be awkward? The last time they were here Ambrosius was trying to convince him to kill Nimona. Ballister mulled over his thoughts as he followed Nimona through the bar, not paying much attention to his surroundings.

"Hey handsome." Ballister jerked out of his thoughts at Ambrosius' voice, looking down at his lover. Ambrosius smiled softly up at him, moving over in the booth seat to make room for him. Ballister shot him a shy smile in return, sitting down beside him while Nimona took the seat across from him.

"You're sure you don't mind she's here?" Ballister whispered, resting his head on Ambrosius' shoulder.

"She's family, it's not like she wouldn't be here," Ambrosius responded, pressing a light kiss to the top of Ballister's head. Ballister closed his eyes, relishing in the feeling of safety. It hadn't been long since the queen had died but it felt like years of being on edge constantly.

"You know I can hear you two, right?" Nimona butted into the conversation and Ballister opened his eyes again, regarding her with a deadpan stare.

"You know you could let us be romantic together every now and then?" He retorted, earning a snort of laughter from Ambrosius. Nimona stuck her tongue out at him before turning her attention to something over his shoulder. She transformed into a mouse, scuttling across the table.

"Be back soon." Ballister sighed with relief, visibly sagging in his seat. As much as he loved Nimona, it did feel more than a little weird having her third-wheeling on his date. After all, she was like a daughter to him. And although he wanted to spend time with her, it felt strange to have her on his date with Ambrosius.

"May I get you anything sirs?" A waitress appeared almost out of thin air beside them.

"Nachos," the two of them said in unison.

"No olives. He's allergic," Ballister added, jerking a thumb at Ambrosius. The waitress nodded, walking away.

"You always have to specify, don't you?" Ambrosius teased, playfully poking Ballister in the side. Ballister laughed quietly, wrapping his prosthetic arm around Ambrosius' waist.

"I can't have you dying. Who would continue the Gloreth bloodline?" Ballister joked with a gentle squeeze to Ambrosius' hip. Ambrosius practically doubled over with laughter, banging his fist on the table a couple of times.

"Shit, Bal, you think I'd actually continue the bloodline?" Ambrosius questioned, eyes slightly teary from laughter as he looked up at Ballister. "The closest thing to a child that anyone is getting from me is Nimona. We are adopting her, right? I mean, I get she's technically older than us but she's still a child, you know?" Ballister placed a gentle kiss against Ambrosius' cheek.

"Yeah, if she's fine with it. I haven't asked her yet," Ballister told him, withdrawing his hand from its position around his lover, fidgeting with his hands under the table. The two of them fell into silence, something that had rarely happened in the time they'd known one another. The waitress returned, placing their bowls of nachos on the table and Ballister didn't know what to do.

"I'm sorry." Ambrosius broke the silence. Ballister glanced towards him, noticing the tear tracks down his cheeks. He was honestly unsure if they were from laughter or not. "I'm so sorry I didn't trust you. Or Nimona." Ballister placed his hand over Ambrosius', the dark metal contrasting against his light skin. "I didn't even try to listen to you when you explained."

"It's not your fault," Ballister assured him.

"But it is. If I'd listened, if I'd tried to help then maybe it wouldn't have turned out this way." Ambrosius skimmed his thumb across the back of Ballister's hand. "If I could then I'd change it all." Ballister brushed the tears away from Ambrosius' eyes, turning in his seat to face him.

"But if that happened then we wouldn't have our family," Ballister pointed out, pulling Ambrosius into a hug. The two of them sat there in the booth for a while, feeling grateful that despite everything they still had one another.

"These nachos are delicious, I see why you both keep coming back here." Ballister pulled away from Ambrosius slightly, glaring at Nimona. She was lying slightly across the other side of the booth, a bowl of nachos in her hands as she ate some of them.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Ballister swore. "Can you not see we're having a moment?"

"Yes. And I'm having nachos," Nimona replied, biting into another one. Ambrosius pressed a kiss against Ballister's temple.

"Leave her be. It's fine," Ambrosius said. Ballister smiled softly, pulling the second bowl of nachos towards him and his love.

"Yeah. It couldn't be better."