#save me talking to friends on discord...... save me....................

[pnsge]

inside you there are two wolves: one gives a fuck, the other doesn't give a fuck

[blue-boxes-magic-and-tea]

i’m so excited to be able to annotate as i read along this time. i have been MISSING lockwood and lucy banter, and i love how the book starts off with sillies from them

“Okay,” I said. “Remember our new rules. Don’t blab about everything you see. Don’t speculate openly about who killed who, how, or when. And, above all, don’t impersonate the client. Please. It never goes down well.” “That’s an awful lot of don’ts, Lucy,” Lockwood said. “I’ve plenty more,” - The Screaming Staircase, p. 4

and like that’s just the beginning of their sillies like bro why is lockwood mentioning the mouse sized death glow he can see?? mans just trying to show off i can hear his big grin from here

but also like… do bugs have death glows? is it any living creature?? what’s the limits??? i have questions

-

i'm rereading this as part of a lockwood and co book club - this week we read part one of the screaming staircase! i even made a discord server if you want to pop over (I'm andy!) <3

[tsukikoayanosuke]

Suddenly Magical Boys?! - Ruikasa Week 2024

Day 3: First Meeting

(ft. Colofes magical girl au & mentioned of April Fools 2024)

Magic was something Tsukasa never really considered in life.

It wasn't that he disliked fantasy. No, complete the opposite. He loves fantasy. His favorite plays and stories are fantasy. But he has his limit. He's not a child anymore. He's 17! The perfect adolescent age! He's too old to wish upon a star! He has things to do! Places to be! The cafe to run! Auditions to go!

...

He has an audition to go!

"TOUYA! MINORI! I'm going now!" Tsukasa tossed his apron, accidentally hitting Touya in the face as he reached for his jacket. "There's the pecan pie in the oven!"

"Good luck, Tsukasa-senpai." Touya waved his hand, not even bothering to remove the apron from his face.

"You can do it, Tsukasa!" Minori cheered as she rolled past him on her rollerskate to carry a pudding order.

Tsukasa flashed them a smile as he ran out of the Booo! Cafe. His mind has only one target. There was no time to take in the view of the town Tsukasa had come to be acquainted with in just a few months. This town known as Kazamatsuri is a town at the foot of a mountain. While it is different than his modern hometown of Tokyo City, it doesn't lose its charm for its very environmentally conscious inhabitants. It is as if you're living in a forest; greenery in every corner as the gardening committee takes their positions very seriously. Thus, the air in Kazamatsuri, despite being more advanced in technology, is still as fresh as when you live in the countryside, making it a perfect town for his sister, Saki. It was also a coincidence that their other siblings, Touya and Kanade, also live there.

So now all of them live under one roof and Tsukasa, of course, being the responsible older sibling, took it upon himself to take care of them. Booo! Cafe, where he works together with Minori and Touya, is his source of income as Saki and Kanade help in their own way; Saki with her alien investigation team and Kanade with her band.

But when the local theater, the Devil's Manner, decided to do an open audition for their new production, Tsukasa knew he couldn't miss it.

And thus how he finally arrived at the venue, nearly out of breath. Darn, his legend almost ended before it could begin.

"Alright!" Someone clapped their hand, gaining everyone's attention. A blue-haired man stood in front of the auditionees along with a purple-haired teen who Tsukasa was sure is a the same age as him. "Welcome, everyone. I'm Shion Kaito, the head of Devils' Manner Theater. And this is Kamishiro Rui, our director." 

Already a director at that young age?! Ugh! It was like a stab in the heart for Tsukasa. He needs to do better! He hadn't accomplished great anything yet!

"We'll start with introducing youself." Kamishiro clicked his pen. Oh, wow. His voice is kinda nice- what the heck, Tsukasa?! Get over yourself! "Starting from the right, okay?"

Tsukasa nodded to himself. Alright. First impressions are important. He has to go big.

"Alright." Kamishiro pointed at him. "Your turn."

Tsukasa cleared his throat and stepped forward with a hand on his chest. "My first name is written with the character for ruling, and second with the character for pegasus." He spun around. "I am Tsukasa Tenma, the soaring pegasus born to rule the showbiz world!" And stretched out his hand toward Kamishiro. "Allow me to take my first steps to stardom on one of your stages, and I shall repay you with a plethora of incredible shows the crowds will fall in love with!"

Kamishiro's eyes widened ever so slightly. Good. He made him speechless. "Incredible shows, you say?"

Tsukasa nodded. "I am not merely a star, I am a supernova! I am the miracle-bringer! And now, I am at your service! Give me any role, and I will perform it to 12,000% satisfaction!"

Kamishiro giggled. "We'll see about that, Tenma-kun."

*****

Hours went by and Tsukasa could finally breath. The sun has started to set as he stepped out of the theater. It went better than he expected. Stardom here we come!

'Hey owari wo koete zutto paatii wo Hey mawaritsuzukeru meriigooraundo'

Oh, that was his phone. He picked it up. "Hello."

"Onii-chan!" It was Saki! "How was the audition?"

"It went great!" Tsukasa cheered as he started to walk away. "We'll just hope for the best for now."

"I knew you could do it! We should celebrate! Pizza and movies?"

Tsukasa nodded. "Pizza and movies, as tradition. I'll grab the drinks. Any request?"

He could hear Saki's shout followed by some mumblings from presumably Touya and Kanade. "Milk tea for me and Kanade and Touya wanted iced coffee as usual."

"Alright them, I'll see you later."

"See you!" Tsukasa smiled at his phone screen. He might be the oldest sibling, but that doesn't mean the little ones won't help him back. They only have each other in this town. Tsukasa would do anything to protect them.

To protect. To keep their smile.

He has to...

It's all he can do...

And then, the world shifted. 

Dong... Dong...

"Eh?" Where did that bell come from?

The wind picked up. A cherry blossom petal hit his face.

And then, it happened.

Runes of white light hit the street. 

A kid carrying a soda can tripped on top of it, but before his mother or Tsukasa could help him, time stopped.

Everything froze in a red hue like the sky. An old lady walking a street. Teens roughhousing playfully. A vendor selling takoyaki to a little girl. Nothing moved.

Except for Tsukasa.

"What the..." He looked around, dashing to find anyone who wasn't frozen. "What's going on?!"

The earth cracked and when Tsukasa turned around.

A giant baby with sharp teeth. "OkAy, pRePaRaTiOnS CoMpLeTe!"

A floating ball with millions of heads stood. "ThErE ArEn'T MaNy pEoPlE BuT It'S EnOuGh. LeTs hAvE ThEm."

"ChOw tImE! ChOw tImE!" The baby opened its mouth and people started to glow, covering them with white flame. The flame got sucked into its mouth.

"ItS So dElIcIoUs, sO DeLiCiOuS!" the baby cheered.

"DoNt tAlK WiTh yOuR MoUtH FuLl." the faces scolded it. "ShAmE On yOu."

"OkAy..."

The heads also opened their millions of mouths and sucked more flame from the people.

And Tsukasa just froze there. He couldn't move. Too much in shock.

This must be a dream. A nightmare. A hallucination from the build-up of nervousness of the audition.

There was no way this was real.

"There's no way..."

One of the many faces on the ball finally noticed him. "WhAt iS ThIs? A HuMaN StIlL RoAmInG ArOuNd tHe rEd nIgHt?"

The baby stopped its feast to turn to Tsukasa. "Is iT A MaGiCaL GiRl?"

"CoUlD Be. AnD A StUpId oNe tHaT Is."

The baby giggled and loomed over Tsukasa. "NoT GoInG To tRaNsFoRm?"

And he couldn't do anything as its hand wrapped around him. "CaUgHt yOu! NeVeR HaD A MaGiCaL GiRl bEfOrE. ChOw tImE!"

It opened its mouth and Tsukasa could feel himself getting sleepy. Flames came out from him and flowed into the baby's mouth. 

Oh. 

This is just a dream, isn't it?

A nightmare.

He'll wake up, right?

Someone... Saki... Touya... Kanade...

Wake him up, please.

A twinkle appeared in the distance.

And a shooting star hit the baby in the face.

It screamed, releasing Tsukasa from its garps.

Someone caught him before he could hit the ground. 

In his dazed state, he could see his savior; purple hair with two cyan stripes. A marking of a crescent moon over his right eye. A suit that reminded him of space.

"What are you thinking?!" His savior scolded him. "Why are you doing just standing there?!"

"Huh...?"

"Did you forget to transform? What kind of Magical Boy are you?!"

Magical... "Magic doesn't exist..."

"Then explain all of this."

"A nightmare?"

"A MaGiCaL GiRl..." The ball of a million heads. "A ReAl oNe tHiS OnE."

Tsukasa could feel his savior clutching him tighter.  "Time to go."

"Wha-"

The baby raised its hand about to hit Tsukasa and his savior, but they jumped out of the way. Well, it was more like his savior jumped while carrying Tsukasa's bridal style. That certainly woke Tsukasa up.

"Wait!" He put his arms around his savior's neck, securing himself from falling. "What's going on?"

"Are you new to this job?" his savior asked. "Does no one ever taught you about this stuff?"

"I didn't even know magic even existed!" Tsukasa shouted. "There's no such thing as Magical Girls!"

"You're being saved by one." 

"There's no way!" 

"Look, whether you want to believe or not, this is real." His savior looked down at him and Tsukasa could see constellations in his golden eyes. "Magic is real. Us Magical Boys and Girls are real. And those creatures, the Eaters, are real. They brought upon the Red Night where time stop so they could feast upon humans' soul like your. When a human lost their soul, they will disappear from existence and no one will remember them. Humans aren't supposed to be able to walk around the Red Night, so either you're also a Magical Boy or you have something with magical power to make you move around here." 

"But... I don't..." 

"I know now you aren't one."

They landed on the roof of a building and his savior put him down. "When the Red Night ends, you'll be transported back to your original spot when it was activated. So, stay here." 

Just as he was about to leave, Tsukasa caught his hand. "Wait! What about you?" 

His savior looked ahead toward their previous enemies. "I need to make sure they don't reach you and stop this Red Night early." 

"Why?" 

He chuckled. "I've taken an interest in you. Even if we won't meet again in this condition." 

Right. Tsukasa wasn't supposed to be here. He wasn't supposed to get involved in this mess. "Can I at least know your name?" 

His savior shook his head. "If we meet again in this Red Night. I'll tell you my name. But I'll be sure to look after you in one way or another." 

With that, his savior jumped into battle. With the spectacles that was the shooting stars when Tsukasa gasp- 

And then, the world shifted. 

Dong... Dong...

Everything returned to normal. 

Everything started to move again. 

But he knew some things were missing. 

There was a single teen missing from the roughhousing group. The vendor never sold anything. And the mother whose child previously fallen down just walked passed him. 

They were gone. 

Those who were eaten by those monsters, the Eaters, were gone. As if they never existed in the first place. 

And Magical Boys and Girls, like his savior, were fighting against them. 

Magic... Exists... 

"Tsukasa-senpai!" 

Someone caught him before he could fall down, clutching him for their dear life. "Tou...Ya...?" Wasn't Touya supposed to be back home? 

"You're alright." Touya hugged him tight and close. "You're alright..." 

"How did you get here?" 

"I ran." That's strange. Touya was never one good with physical activity. "You haven't home for a while so I thought-" 

"But time stopped." 

Touya let out a gasp and pulled out from the hug. "How did you-" 

"Are you...magic too?" 

Touya started at him with shock and Tsukasa begged that Touya would laugh or be confused, because this is just too ridiculous to be real.

Magic doesn't exist and everything he saw of Red Night and Eaters and his Magical Boy savior are just a hallucination. 

And yet, Touya reached for Tsukasa's jacket pocket. Touya and Tsukasa's jacket are identical, thus they would often got mixed. It wouldn't be surprise that in earlier rush, Tsukasa took Touya's jacket instead of his own. But it was still a surprise when Touya pulled back his hand while holding something. 

A hairpin. A simple hairpin with two small black orb.  

A hairpin that Touya would wear often. 

"Humans aren't supposed to be able to walk around the Red Night, so either you're also a Magical Boy or you have something with magical power to make you move around here." 

That was what the Magical Boy said. 

Is that Touya's magical item? So Touya is really is a... 

"I promise I will explain everything." Touya said as he pulled Tsukasa into another hug. "I'm glad you're safe..." 

Magic was something Tsukasa never really considered in life. 

But after taking a glimpse of it and knowing how dangerous it is, of how his own siblings in involved, Tsukasa knows there no way he could stay ignorant. 

Perhaps one day, once he learns more about this magical conundrum, he could meet with his savior again.

[roys-our-boy]

His sprite is so CUTE. Getian loml

[callixton]

I FEEL SO ILL & SAD.

[innerexpanse]

dude i might die here

[des-fangirl]

One day without interacting with discworld fans im already going insane

[countercharmda]

The hobbies are switching into fiber arts mode, AKA I’m gonna force myself to learn how to knit w tension in the yarn

[ghostighostly]

I have made. Many mistakes,,,

I've gone from 'eh i never do anything dont worry we can play videogames!' To 'Sorry cant talk i have the next 3 weeks scheduled to the second and am actively having a panic attack. Bye!'

How did this happen? Christmas. And divorce, but that's less impactful.

I will now proceed to rant in the tags gootbye forever.

[cosmicdenro]

thsc fans made me a kinder person wowie

[briarborealisart]

ohhhh baby guess who got into rottmnt

i finished the main series and all the shorts today so tomorrow i will be watching the movie

surely this will have no effect on my brain (lying)

i already have so many galaxy brained takes and headcanons it makes me look stupid

they're so skrunkly all of them

[cerealmonster15]

I’m watching a vid on how people run twitch streams bc A. I am curious about The Magic and B. I love deluding myself

[whimsyprinx]

I am so incredibly bad at friendship

[his-saiko]

Me: I can't get over it. "Of all the men she can cheat on me with she picks a foreigner outside of the country."

Bsf: He said he would've understood if he was another Filipino that was closer to you.

Me: Physical contact isn't a big deal tho. My 4 years celibacy can attest to that. Also, compare a short reply for every three days to having someone to talk to everyday.

Bsf: Man forgot he was neglecting you.

[malcriada]

Help save Bilal's family!

i want to talk about my friend Bilal @bilal-salah0. for over a year now, Bilal has been living in germany, trying to adjust to his new living situation in a foreign country, learning a new language and working full time. 

when the war started, he was far away from home and his family and has been living in daily fear for their lives ever since. 

being forced to work long hours and promoting his family’s fundraiser at the same time, he has taken on more responsibility than anyone ever should. still, he managed to raise money for their evacuation fund and helped take care of his family’s daily needs with the money he was making while working. 

in a cruel twist of fate, all of this got taken away in an instant. he lost his job and his apartment and even his residence permit. which means he is at danger of deportation from germany that could happen as soon as next week!

i have been in daily contact with Bilal for a while now and connected him with some of my friends in germany. together, we are trying our utmost to make sure he can stay in the country. anyone who knows german bureaucracy knows what kind of hell it is. but we won't give up.

without his job, he was forced to dip into the money of his family’s evacuation fund to cover their daily expenses like food and shelter. this meant he had to raise his goal from €70,000 to €100,000. this was not an easy decision for him to make, he even asked for my advice on whether or not to do it, because he did not want anyone to think he was scamming people. 

even in such a desperate situation, Bilal does not want to be seen as someone who would ever take advantage of people's generosity

his family is comprised of 18 members, 10 of them are adults and 8 are children under 16 years old, some of them newborns who were born amidst the chaos of war and displacement.

currently, he is sitting at:

€71,817 / €100,000

donations have been slowing down ever since he reached his original goal. i cannot stress how important it is that they pick back up!

WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME! HE NEEDS TO REACH HIS GOAL BY AUGUST 15TH!

THAT MEANS HE HAS TO RAISE NEARLY 30K IN THE NEXT TEN DAYS. THIS CANT WAIT.

his campaign has been verified and can be found on @/el-shab-hussein’s and @/nabulsi’s list of vetted fundraisers here (#132, line 136) so PLEASE don't hesitate to share and donate.

With such a tight deadline, i cant do this on my own. So i implore you to PLEASE share this wherever you can– on your whatsapp groups, on your discord servers, please share his story on other platforms wherever you have reach! Please share his story wherever you can, so that we can ease this burden from his shoulders.

[ID: a gfm link with a picture of two small children sitting in the sand in front of a cooking pot. they are looking up a the camera, eyes half-closed. the title reads "Donate to Help Evacuate My Family from Gaza to Safety, organized by Bilal salah" End ID]

tagging for reach under the cut, please let me know if you'd like to be removed:

@meaganfoster @briarhips @dirhwangdaseul @mahoushojoe

@schoolhater @pcktknife @sawasawako

@feluka @terroristiraqis @irhabiya @commissions4aid-international @wellwaterhysteria

@deepspaceboytoy @post-brahminism @khanger @kibumkim @neechees

@mangocheesecakes @kyra45-helping-others @7bitter @tortiefrancis

@toiletpotato @fromjannah @vague-humanoid @criptochecca

@aristotels @komsomolka @xinakwans @heritageposts @nibeul

@ot3 @amygdalae @ankle-beez @communistchilchuck @dykesbat

@watermotif @stuckinapril @mavigator @lacecap @yugiohz

@socalgal @chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @sayruq @northgazaupdates2

@vakarians-babe @wayneradiotv

@psychotic-gerard @mavigator @communistkenobi @socalgal @chilewithcarnage

@ghelgheli @determinate-negation @papasmoke @omegaversereloaded

@xinakwans @givemearmstopraywith @loombreaking @killy @deathlonging

@palms-upturned @blackpearlblast @littlegermanboy @loveaankilaq @sar-soor

@fridgebride @27-moons @tamarrud @familyabolisher @fleshdyk3

@decolonize-solidarity @palipunk @gothhabiba

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Fandom can do a little gatekeeping. As a treat.

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

Lurkers really are great, tho

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should we gatekeep fandom?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Think of it like a garden gate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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