#simple: cuz i can (again)

[nishitanis-left-nut]

infinite wealths got 14 chapters, im not gonna pretend like i didn't start the game foaming at the mouth wanting to see kiryu again but I didn't think he'd show up as early as chapter 3? i dont want to complain about More Kiryu but bringing him back at the very beginning of the game feels wrong, like theyre admitting that they couldn't make ichiban work on his own so they had to bring in John Yakuza himself to keep the fans happy or something. i had to stop playing after they get out of the car so idk if Kiryu leaves the party again soon after, but even then it feels weird to have him there at all so early on

and... the info dumps and verbal recaps of what happened on other games were never this bad were they? i get how they wanted to vaguely treat infinite wealth as its own thing and how, it being the 8th or so game in the franchise and all, a lot of people would not have played most or even any of the previous games (why you would bother with infinite wealth if thats the case is a mystery to me but eh) so they wanted to make sure everyone playing was vaguely caught up with ichiban and kiryus story but like... I was there. yes i do remember kiryus pretending to be dead to protect his family, yes i do remember how ichiban has two dads. why would they make him say that around six times in just the first three chapters?

and i get how they felt like they HAD to introduce kiryu properly since, again, a lot of people playing infinite wealth probably just played LaD and nothing else, but even in LaD they didn't just dump kiryus backstory on you. did i miss something why does ichiban just know everything about kiryu when they made it pretty clear in LaD that he never found out anything about him? when they parted ways in yakuza 7 he was still referring to him as "that guy" or "the dragon" because of the dream he had and seonhee didn't tell him anything, even after kiryu left, so how does he just know his name and his backstory now and why does KIRYU act as if he gave him that information himself. i was there, you have no reason to find it normal that he even knows your name????? i am losing my fuking mind over this actually

the info dumping is so weird, if you dont know who this mysterious man that seems to have a troubled past and Feels Important to the narrative is... too bad? skill issue even?? (its kind of on you if youre confused about things after jumping into the 8th instalment in a franchise) if y7 made you curious about him, the game being vague about who he is and what hes doing here did its job well since now youll most likely play the previous games to find out what his deal is, and if you dont, thats okay too since Ichiban was supposed to be the New Protagonist. but since they didnt keep kiryu as an "easter egg" (how could they even do that. its Kiryu.) now it feels like him and ichiban arent even fighting for relevancy, it feels like theyre actively pushing ichi farther back into kiryus shadow

and it feels like the more the games go on the more they dont seem to take the world building seriously (like how the florist just doesn't exist in yakuza 6 because the game would've been over the moment kiryu got to kamurocho, and him not existing anymore carried over to the games after it) maybe i should replay the games now without rose colored glasses but i dont remember ever feeling like i was watching the writers talk to me directly this aggressively in a scene before? this is just the third chapter i get theyre still just setting things up but... i think its just ichiban

the man who erased his name didnt feel like how infinite wealth is feeling and it came out before it, but after yakuza 7. idk what it is about having ichiban as the protagonist that seems to make the writers just... idk. ichiban had a lot of potential at the beginning of y7 but then by the end of the game it felt like that was it, his story got wrapped up. and i know we could say the same thing about kiryu but at least with him the writers made it make sense and work according to his characterization (eh...)

but ichiban is just A Nice Guy which couldve worked really well but hes such a simple character that they just dont know what to do with him? like oh yea his mom is alive actually so lets send him to hawaii to find her. uh a big tiddie vtuber canceled him online. i guess. (im also realizing now that i actually kinda hate how the games take place in the modern day. i know there was never a way to work around that since the games have always worked like this and you being as frustrated and annoyed as ichiban and kiryu are is kinda the point but. eh.)

i know im biased as all hell since i love kiryu, but what made kiryu falling back into the yakuza world over and over again believable and compelling was the fact that yea, the world "outside of him" still exists, politicians and police officers are still corrupt, old friends still need him, and his reputation still makes waves through the underworld and them crashing in on him over and over and over again until he just lets the tide take him made sense- i know im oversimplifying his story and yea they made a lot of weird and inconsistent writing decisions through the games (again, i dont think the florist even gets mentioned in y6 and the time line in general has a bunch of plot holes, majimas story too) but it. idk. the direction theye taking things in is weird and i hope Pirates doesnt feel like this

hes wholesome and prettty and nice and i like h im

[cetathestupidshark]

whoops, spoilers for ii 18. forgot to include form that beforehand

R.I.P. my husband (2013 - 2024)

you will be missed.

also ignore the really shitty doodle not feeling like putting a lot of effort into it lol

the finale was so good btw :D :)

[spaciebabie]

wish there was a mod like minecraft comes alive but more sims-y where i basically help manage a village and make sure the inhabitants are happy + have all their needs filled

[luckyashes-art]

Almost done w/ all the requests (literally just have 1 more) hrggrr...

Tho if I get any more I'll still do em but probably after a small break so I can draw other stuff 🫡

Still open for any kind of questions though, I will say!! I will also maybe just talk about silly stuffs like AU things of my own volition if I can think about it 💀

[warpstarrie]

showing a wip of next page as self-coercion

[bluestrawberrybunny]

Finally home…

Now to sleep for a week straight, bye y’all /j

[the-somwthing]

Me when someone doesn’t see Martyn as Mars: okay sure that’s your opinion.

Me when someone suggests Joel as Mars because they don’t see Martyn as Mars: 💥

[anaalnathrakhs]

Hi :D, for the opinion asks, 4.What's the best song from shout at the devil, 24. Song with the best outro, 32. Song with the best lyrics? Have an amazing day/night!!

hiiiiii <3

4. What's the best song from shout at the devil

Satd itself is an absolute banger. I love the kind of... chorus effect? group effect yknow.

24. Song with the best outro

it's too difficult of a question 😭

okay after a day or two of reflection, because im a little phish brain who wouldn't recognize musical grammar if it hit me in the face, i have an answer

It's a song about a guy who gets bullied into giving away his cool clothes, and the ending lines are like "When by the end of the song, you're buck naked and lost your boots, you gotta be creative to find a funny ending to it" and then the music slowly fades out. High art.

32. Song with the best lyrics

I have the softest spot for Wind Of Change by Scorpions, and I don't care if it's corny, it's in my heart forever. It's got everything I love in a song. Specificity, poetry, a metric ton of weepy feels.

That's my final answer because I am no apt judge for this category, and if I try making a quality comparison instead of going with my gut instinct we'll be here all week.

[megalophobic-astronomer]

regretevator speedrun lesbians%

[cutielatias]

I find fatal frame a little interesting cuz despise being a horror game, if we look deep into it, the games are actually about very simple and sad themes/situations(all the horror games are like that,now thinking). Even the second one that I thought it was more horror cuz of the haunted ville theme,actually is about a more deep/simple situation, after seeing a text from the director talking about the endings/characters this becomes much more obvious. I'm going to try to do a mini analysi of "what i feel the situation of the game is about" and will be interesting to see from a twin's point of view(since the whole theme of the game is about identical twins/ twin's relationship). In shorts words, is about how much society/"life" tend to want to separate twins and how this is harmful to the twins and twins itself fear this fade.

●The ritual the ritual represents society/people's ideia(mostly adults) that the twins after reaching a certain age (adulthood(18)) they should be separated, so much so, that the people who perform the rituals are even the adults(i know i know, is because only a "wise" person would know how to make a ritual, yeah but let's forget it the horror aspect and think in a more normal way, is very specific being adults, already showing that this demanding comes mostly from a authority/the people in general), people do this believing that this will be better for the twins or somehow this is more appropriate to society's standards, with that, the ritual in the game is even something said to be done for the sake of the village and their residents, the village representing society,how for society it's best the twins being separated. The thing of "becoming one" on the ritual, is a way of saying becoming one in a way of becoming "one person", without your twin by your side/without being around your twin,but just like in the game we can see that this is not right at all and this is something that the twins themselves don't like it and try to run away, even the twins that do the ritual didn't want to do it, and the twin's that stayed/lived none of them have happy endings or lived for to long after that.

■kiryu twins- if we seem the story in a normal way, basically, the other twin got so sad with the loss of her sister that she even got depressed and lose herself and gone crazy.

■tachibana twins- itsuki end up feeling so guilt and sad by living without/losing his twin that he end up commiting suicide so that they could stay together again.

■Yae and Sae-(this twins are kinda weird actually, doesn't even feel that wrong to separate they…, but fine) though we don't know much what happend with yae after she runs away, i think she didn't lived much longer after that, sae died with sadness and anger cuz of her sister breaking their promise, and yae becomes emotionless and died cuz she couldn't live with the fact that she left her sister behind.

None of them have good endings, even though it may seem like something good, live by your ownself "again" the fact of being such abrupt choice, that its not made by the twins own wish, makes very harmful.

●Mio and Mayu feelings In the beggining it's has a flashback of mio and mayu when they were kids( i never really understand much of this flashback before, i thought it only exist to show the similarite between mio and mayu with sae and yae, but now seeing the director commentary, even this scene have way more deep meaning and very twin relatable) mayu slipped on that day on purpose(and the same happend a little with that sae)mayu always felt that mio could lived without her, and while mio was slowly leaving her behind this thoughts become bigger and bigger, making her almost suicidal, so she decided to slipped/hurt herself so that mio could pay attention to her again(i find interest on the director words he says that mio also knew that mayu did that on purpose on that day, and this is such a twin move, we can sense each other feelings, so we probably feel when one twin do something on purpose; but mio just didn't understand why mayu did that, but she feels, which is a very twin thing). both mio and mayu have the fear of losing each other or that somehow life will separate they, this is a thinking that a lot of twins really can have, since when we grow old, we end up building our own lifes,especially ordinary people, people date, have works, marriage and some even have kids, which are things that separate us, you can't always stay with your twin when you have those things (nowadays i don't have much of that fear but when i was a kid i used to think about it, but now, not much, cuz i gonna be honest, i not normal(this is very obviously), so i probably wont have an ordinary life, and i don't feel me and ana's paths are much different from each other, so we probably will always stick and stay together)but for ordinary twins this probably a thinking. the meaning of mio and mayu journey is very relatable to that feeling.

●Final now we get to the end (or the conclusion or final message of the game, I think) it's difficult to say whats the game wants to say or express (because i think just like anything, its depends on the point of view),but I think the game just portrays a twin connection/relationship, and shows how the twin's bond is so strong to the point that not even a ritual where the twins kill and hurt the other, the twins will never stop to love each other, and it's also shows how it's a beautiful connection but at the same time there's a suffering and melancholic on it; the part of people wanting to separate them and the fear of the twins themselves if one day this happens and how the twins almost cannot live without each other (they can live, but it will be an empty and depress life), and how the idea of ​​separation is something painful for the twins, so much so that in the end where we kill mayu, I feel that the reason why mayu/sae wanting to kill themselves /do the ritual so much, comes from the feeling of both of them being afraid of their twins leaving them(a bit possessive…but ok~) but at the same time they know that this can happens and that it's also wrong to not let the other twin live their life, so they prefer to die, so that they don't see them and their twins separating cuz for them this is more painful than die, but at the same time also letting the other twin live their own life/"be free".

[weirdkites]

i made yuu v3 sing in engrish

[krystella-shifts]

EVERYTHING IS CLICKING FOR ME Y'ALL!!! *ੈ✩‧₊˚

The only post you'll ever need for LOA. Literally.

It's so easy to manifest literally so easy once you do this. JUST SIT BACK AND RELAX, BE IN RECIVING MODE INSTEAD OF CONSTANTLY FEELING LIKE YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING. Yes sometimes it can be hard when you feel panic that you have to manifest as fast as possible but trust me once you TRUST, it'll all fall into your lap at the snap of a finger! Literally. You'll even feel better and happy instead of worrying and feel like waiting forever. The universe/god/your higher self, whatever you believe in is telling you or teaching you that the way isn't through worry, stress, pain, suffering. The way is through ease, love, trust. Once you understand this you'll ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS be able to manifest without any effort. Yes, no need for that 21 days challenge, no need to set a reminder for every hour to affirm, no need to try hard to visualise every teeny tiny detail. Just have this inner knowing and relax. That's the cheat code. How easy is that? You literally have the cheat code and it doesn't require ANY effort outside and the most minimal effort inside.

Now let me explain all the manifestation techniques in more detail.

Every manifestation technique has one goal:

Think about any technique. Affirming, visualising, scripting,etc. All of these are for what? To remind you, you have your desire. YES not to get something. That's why Neville said feel it real is very powerful technique. Cuz that's what happens when we receive something right. But what we do in loa is we feel it rn and get it rn, and because the 3d is in the past, yes it's our past assumptions, that's why we say it's not real. So when we feel it real we already have our desire in the present, but the 3d is not in the present. So don't react to it. Just remember that. And after a few days of having our desire we don't get THAT excited, do we? So when you think about it again you don't have to feel anything or do anything cuz you already have it. AND THEN WE JUST SIT BACK AND RELAX. Again the same conclusion. Cuz that's it!

ALL YOU NEED TO EVER DO:

Decide what you want. And feel having it.

Remind yourself that you have ___ either saying it in your head, writing it down, etc

RELAX. SIT TF BACK. YES YOU DON'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING.

Whenever you think about ___ always remember you have it. And think naturally. How would you think having ___ cuz you do now.

Remember the 3d is a product of your past assumptions. Just like how we see the stars 8 years later of their actual form. Just like it takes 8 minutes for sunlight to reach the earth. If you remember this you won't ask "where it is" you know it is here. And yes u can manifest Shifting too.

Allow it to come to you. I don't chase i attract.

Yes that's what it means. And I am the living proof for that 😌💅🏻✨ I am literally living my dream life and bestie you are too. That's all you need to manifest (aka yourself). It's very simple but if you have any questions feel free to comment and keep me updated on your manifestation journey and success stories cuz I'd love to read them and know if my post helped you 🤭🥂 (atleast you can do that for me, right? ;p)

Love, ... redkittyjellyfish? Wait i need to change my user name 💀 (ps. I changed my user from redkittyjellyfish - Krystella-Shifts (⁠人⁠ ⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠) )

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

[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]

-

“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.

[bernardsbendystraws]

𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 — 𝐌.𝐒.

SUMMARY ʚɞ Matt wants you to know that you're still his girl.

CW ʚɞ Smut, possessive behavior, creampie, BREEDING KINK, mentions of pregnancy, dirty talk, really dirty smut cuz I'm horny, barely proofread, use of “mama,” mentions of physical alterations, protective mattttt!!!

PAIRING ʚɞ Reader x BABY DADDY ! Matt

A/N: COPYRIGHT NOTICE. All creds to @muwapsturniolo for the baby daddy concept! I needed to write this since I've been binge watching a reality TV show and that pic of Matt??? JDJFHOEIDHKLD

With love and big tits, Rose ➜ navigation

He’s your baby daddy. Nothing more, nothing less—at least that’s what it’s supposed to be like, but it’s just…not. 

“You’re an idiot,” you curse, huffing as you wipe off the blood on his hand. It’s not his blood. Matt’s fine—cocky, even. He’s had a stupid grin etched on his face ever since he showed Bryan not to fuck with his baby mama. It doesn’t matter if you’re together or not, Matt is always protecting you no matter what. 

“Bryan knew what was coming. He’s an idiot—and his stupid wife too.” Matt puffs, licking over the rims of his teeth as he reminisces on the night. You both had the same friend group. Being divorced entailed a lot of cross-over relationships from your married years. 

It was supposed to be civil, just a simple get-together with a bunch of friends who haven’t seen each other in a while. But that didn’t last long. Bryan and his wife, Demi, are fucking cunts. They act like they’re better than everyone constantly and are especially derogatory towards you and Matt. 

Rolling your eyes, you set the damp cloth on the side table of the couch. “Still stupid.” you mention. Matt shrugs, sitting in the sunken cushions, his jaw tightened and nostrils flared as he recalls the utter bullshit that occurred tonight. 

Demi decided to be up front. She asked you in front of a couple other people if you were sleeping with Matt again. Your wide eyes and lack of a response answered the question for you. Matt was livid when he overheard Demi calling you a ‘desperate whore’ who should be more concerned with co-parenting rather than getting fucked. 

And when Bryan flicked the bra strap visible on your shoulder, Matt lost it. 

“You didn’t have to—” Before you can say another word, Matt pulls on your hand, his eyes narrow as he tugs you a little closer. He wants you in his lap. You’ve known him long enough to read his eyes and subtle actions. 

“Matt, we shouldn’t…” His head cocks more to the side, an unentertained expression painted over his face as he just waits. Giving in, you settle on his lap. The hairs on the back of your neck stiffen as you feel him nuzzle his face beneath your ear, his arms swarming around your body as he breathes in your familiar scent. 

“I do have to. You’re still the mother to my child, you’re…you’re important,” he purrs, the tip of his nose running along the rim of your ear as he pulls you even closer, “-wasn’t gonna just let ‘em talk about you like that.”

He means it. With every ounce of his soul, he really fucking means it. You might not exactly be ‘his girl,’ but you’re still his—his to protect, his to defend, his to care for. It’s why he’s settled with your current arrangement. Sleeping together doesn’t help him move on, but it’s not like he was actually trying to ‘move on’ regardless. 

“Matt…” you sigh, your eyes fluttering as you feel his warm lips softly envelope around the pulse point of your neck. He hums against you. The vibration echoes through your body, making you feel everything and more. 

You hate it. This is a feeling only he can bring you. No matter how much time passes, no matter how many other people you try to date…it’s not this—it’s not him. 

The slight scruff of his beard brushes against your collarbone. You shiver as he nibbles down your neck, the air against his wet trail of kisses making your stomach erupt with an electric warmth. 

“Tell me to stop,” he breathes, panting for air as he tries to stop his hands from wandering. His fingers dig into the top of your thigh and the side of your waist, aching to move and touch you. “-say it.” 

It’s a desperate attempt to contain himself. His desires and his emotions are leaking into the way he grasps onto you, enhancing the passion that seems to make the air thicker—too thick to truly breathe and think clearly enough to remember why this isn’t right. 

“Please.” 

Oh fuck. 

The gentle whisper from your lips makes him lose all restraint. Matt redirects his lips onto yours, consuming you with intimate, sloppy kisses. His hands trace everywhere—up and down your sides, the tops of your thighs, the bottom of your tits…he can’t get enough. 

“Need—” your statement is cut off by a sharp gasp, your mouth falling open as you feel his hard bulge against the burning pressure between your legs. 

“Yeah?” Matt’s panting for air, his face flushed and lips curling with a slight grin as he watches your reaction, “-wan more, mama?” 

God. You feel like you're melting. Every time he touches you, it makes your ears buzz. It’s impossible to think—it’s impossible to concentrate on anything except for him and how he’s devouring you with his mouth and his hands. 

Both of your clothes are peeled off within an instant before Matt’s laying you back down on the couch, hovering over you as he positions his tip against your dripping hole. It shouldn’t feel this easy, but it’s practically routine. He knows exactly how to touch you, he knows how to handle your body and give you what you crave without you even having to say it. 

“You wan it, baby?” he tuts, grinning as you nod dumbly. He nudges just the tip in, concentrating on your face scrunching up and your back arching off the couch. 

You whine after a moment, realizing that’s all he’s giving you. The second you open your eyes to glare at him, he gives you everything—filling you to the brim as his pelvis presses against yours with a soft slap. 

Your widened eyes bring him more pride than he’ll admit. He never gets tired of this—taking you and making you feel so utterly full of him—being overwhelmingly connected. 

“Ma–att,” you moan, your entire body burning as your muscles tense from the shock. Matt coos, petting your cheek, leaning down to replace his fingers with a slight peck. 

The kiss is far more gentle than his next movements. He pulls himself back, making sure to capture your face as he drives himself right back in, slamming your body deeper into the couch cushions. 

Your hands grasp onto his shoulder, a loud moan humming from your mouth as he repeats the actions—fucking himself into you deep and hard. 

Matt laughs as he starts to thrust into you repeatedly. The choked moans and scratches on his shoulders make him feel a certain type of pride that makes everything feel fucking perfect. He has his girl under him—screaming, moaning, and writhing just for him—how it’s supposed to be. 

“Mmmmm, yeah? Feels good, huh?” he taunts, angling himself to hit the perfect spot inside of you. 

“Fuck!” you screech, a tear sliding from the corner of your eyes from the overbearing amounts of pleasure from his harsh movements. You love it. It burns in the best ways—it feels perfect—it feels right. 

“Maybe gonna get you pregnant again, hm? How’s that sound?” he asks, unable to prohibit the dirty thoughts from being announced. His cock twitches just from the thought. You being so full of him is something indescribably intimate—fucking you while you were pregnant with his child is the thought that always runs through his mind when he’s craving you. 

“Please!” 

Oh.

Oh.

Matt didn’t expect you to beg for it. He’s not sure what he was thinking, but your walls begin clenching around his length tight—suffocating his cock as he feels his balls draw up with each thrust becoming sloppier. 

You want it. And that makes it even more perfect. 

“You—fuck, you wan it, baby? Wan be a mama for me again?” he rasps, desperately trying to gnaw on his bottom lip in order to hold himself off. 

“Mhm—I…please! Want it—so bad—please, please, please—oh!” you screech, drool pooling from the side of your mouth as your thigh muscles tighten, your body forcing you to tense and shake as you feel a hot band of euphoria snap in the pit of your gut, the waves impossibly strong as Matt continues to pummel you into the couch. 

“Oh god,” he groans, feeling the familiar sensation of you cumming around his dick. It’s something he’ll never get tired of. He always has to make you finish first, he always has to appreciate the way you milk his cock deep inside of you while shaking beneath him. 

His thrusts slow as warm spurts of his cum spill into your convulsing walls. You gasp for air as he groans into your neck, his body tensing as he buries himself to the hilt inside of you. 

“You’re still my girl, okay?” 

It’s a question—a complicated one at that, but you can’t really argue with his cum spilling out of you—after you begged him to fill you up.

“Your girl,” you affirm, utterly breathless as Matt starts to caress your hair lovingly. 

He lowers himself to lay flat on top of you, careful to distribute his weight so he doesn’t accidentally hurt you in any way. You hiss as he presses his hips further into you, the wet squelch echoing as he repeats the possessive statement; 

“Still my fuckin’ girl.”

[plaguedocboi]

Ok y’all brace yourselves cuz I just learned about a new animal

Yes, that is an animal. Yes, scientists refer to it as the purple sock worm. No, that’s not it’s real name, silly, it’s real name is Xenoturbella!

When these deep-sea socks were first discovered, no one knew what the fuck they were looking at (and, really, can you blame them?). They have no eyes, brains, or digestive tracts. They are literally just a bag of wet slop. DNA analysis initially seemed to indicate that they were related to mollusks, until the scientists realized that DNA sample was from the clams they had recently eaten (yes, they can eat with no organs. We don’t know how.)

Scientists then analyzed the data again and tentatively placed them in the group that includes acorn worms, saying that their ancestors probably had eyes, brains, and organs, but simplified as a response to their deep sea ecosystems.

Later DNA testing has since shown that they are their own thing! Xenoturbella, along with another simple and problematic to place creature called acoelomorphs, belong to their own phylum called Xenacelomorpha! This places them as the sister group to all bilateral animals. So, they just never evolved brains, eyes, or organs. They are a glimpse at a very primitive form of animal that never bothered to change, because apparently what they do works. Rock on, purple sock worm.

[zaynesparadise]

∯ COCKOLOGY 101: ZAYNE & CALEB !

🫧✱ ݁ ˖ | a simple analysis about papi 1 & papi 2’s schlongs ♡ (i’m giving u full hex colours & measurements.)

pairing. — MDNI (17+) fem!reader x 𝐜 & 𝐳 (separate) warnings. dick measurements, overstimulation, mentions of shaving, mentions of porn, big cock caleb & big cock zayne, omg idk how to put the warnings for this one wc. 1.3k a,n. this is just for fun & obv on the unrealistic side don’t take this seriously. cuz i was laughing the whole time making this anywho enjoy !!!! <3

Ꮺ ZAYNE. firm believer that dr.zayne is on the longer side than the thicker one, don’t get me wrong i am no way calling this man’s dick skinny. it’s very thick but it is for sure hitting ur cervix no matter how unrealistic this sounds. his tip is a solid #e3b1b8 more on the pinkish side cuz have u seen this man’s nipples. they’re so PINK & he’s so paleish pink overall, rest of his cock is #edb8a8 still on the very pale side, transition colour from tip - rest of his inches is #e6a1a1 :3 his mouth-watering 8.2 inches (6 inches soft cuz i said so) (3.2 inches delicious girth wise) has the slightest, almost unnoticeable tilt to the right side that makes ur eyes cross

while we’re on the topic, zayne def shaves. we’ve seen his razor bumps, some days when his skin is a bit more sensitive he just does a simple trim in the shower and calls it a day, one of my hcs is that this man smells good. like you’ll never catch this man smelling off or even bad in your entire life, he takes his hygiene so seriously so i know he smells good everywhere. good quality cotton boxers, ball deodorant when he has longer shifts in the hospital, glycolic acid in every crack and crevice, really musky & light on the nose cologne paired with a nicely scented lotion, over all incredible hygiene.

daily cups of pineapple juice. firm believer that zayne has a lil morning routine ritual where he probably eats a spoonful of sea moss, takes his needed supplements & green juice so why not throw in a cup of fresh & organic pineapple juice to his routine? this man smells and tastes divine. and he knows it, he’s very proud of it and takes his sacred routine very seriously.

side notes: the way that he cums is sometimes sudden to him, zayne is very sensitive so when he’s wrapped around your walls that are continuously milking him he instantly gets lost in euphoria and doesn’t even realise how quick his climax is building up, sometimes he does have the focus to warn you but most times his head is in the clouds and he’s practically just babbling and rutting his hips unconsciously.

cums in warm, filling ropes of milky, almost watery cum. like i said, he takes great care of himself that paired with his obsession with your sweet cunt devouring his cock he cums so for so long, his orgasms are long lasting and intense. by the time the aftershocks of his high wash down his body he’s all over you again, kissing nibbling and licking every part of you that he can :(

not a big fan of overstimulation, but since you are he can’t deny you the fun at all. thing is, like i mentioned before he’s very sensitive, it’s ridiculously easy to make him overstimulated. a simple “you can give me one more, can’t you?” with a wink when you’re riding him is really all it takes. he turns into literal putty in your hands. thigh muscles flexing and sweat shimmering on his abs when he fills you up over and over again just because his pretty girl asked him to <3

his cock when overstimulated turns so red, his natural shade being a slight off pink colour that gets darker when he’s hard and fully crimson when you’re overstimulating him. a few slight, faint veins begin appearing around his base that you love to run your tongue all over just to feel him shiver under your touch, he loves it just as much as you love it.

in conclusion: pretty shaved & regularly trimmed balls, paleish pink 8.2 inches, lemon juice mixed with olive oil shots king and a sucker for pleasing his pretty gf <3

𖧷 CALEB. this man right here should be awarded for not having back pain bcs of the way he’s packing. i am a caleb horse cock truther ✋ 7.2 inches length wise but 4.5 inches girth wise this man is MASSIVE humongous gigantic BIG. he’s really big. (BIG CALEB!) thing is .. i’m also a believer in somewhat inexperienced caleb. he might’ve had a lil thing here and there but it never got serious or anything so he really doesn’t know how fucking huge he is.

(probably found out when he and gideon saw each other naked for the first time and he noticed the way gideon’s eyes were practically about to fall out of their sockets) now don’t get him wrong he’s watched porn and whenever he’s clicked on the “massive cock destroys—“ u get the gist, the dick in question always looked.. average in his eyes? it looked closer in length to his, he might’ve been longer even but that was considered to be massive? #BlessedButDoesntKnowIt #HeHasAWeaponOfMassDestructionAndIsntAware

he never really stressed himself about it, so quick side notes: tip colour #d9a593 more on the tanned side in comparison to zayne but it’s still so pretty rest of his cock is #ba8270 with a slight transition shade of #d99b82, regularly keeps himself trimmed but isn’t too serious or anxious about it, def believe that it’s very, very like extremely veiny. you’ve seen the veins around this man’s abdomen. has so many faint veins decorating his underside, and when i tell u that this man’s cock literally cannot stand upwards fully when he’s erect because it’s so fucking heavy i mean it.

i see caleb to be blessed with incredible genetics, good & decent hygiene but he’s not the type to really eat a spoonful of sea moss or coconut cult in the morning, he’s more like the kind of guy that makes himself green tea while blasting bruno mars at six am in his kitchen tbh. that being said he definitely tries his hardest to take care of himself by going to the gym and drinking water often so he tastes nice wouldn’t say that he’s not on the salty side bcs he for sure is, but it’s still very delicious.

going back to the good genetics & gym rat side; he has his cheat days (that sometimes might extend longer than intended, let a man be lazy for once he deserves it) but even when he stuffs his (godly) body with junk food or stuff that don’t really align with what he usually nourishes his body, it’s still literally perfect. his genetics come into play and it’s like he just had a green goddess salad with a side of cranberry juice, you’re definitely envious of his metabolism.

side notes: the way he cums depends on how he’s been fucking you, if it’s a quickie then it’s going to be an eye rolling orgasm for him. cums frequently one second he’s filling you up with long, thick like heavy ropes of glistening cum the next he’s still hard and fucking his cum deeper into you, on the contrary if he’s taking his time with pounding you against the bed, then he’s going to have a literal toe curling and back arching orgasm. he loves to cum deep inside of your fluttering walls, warm breaths fanning your ear as he keeps filling you up from behind, he cums for so so long if you pressed on your lower stomach you’d feel the way he’s stuffing you full.

is he ready for overstimulation? real question is, is overstimulation ready for him? a literal beast. this man fears nothing and is a freak. overstimulation should actually fear him. his gym obsession always comes in handy when it comes for inhumane stamina, he doesn’t mind fucking both of you dumb till he’s shooting blanks. whimpering, babbling, drooling till he can’t even speak coherent sentences and just mouths at whatever part of you he can reach. doesn’t care if his dick practically looks purple and feels like it’s about to fall off— if he’s overstimulating you both, he’s going to do it till you’re both passed out on his messy mattress.

in conclusion: caleb’s packing in the front and the back (papa packing never lacking), average monster cock, decent hygiene, salty addictive cum 🙂‍↕️

♥︎ : litr wrote this while listening to kitty kat by meg & thatpower by will.i.am so idek + this unserious drabble is dedicated to my caleb big cock believer & the reason why this acc opened in the first place: nia bunny :3 ♡