#somebody just tell me yes or no if this is a popular ship and no further details

[kacievvbbbb]

I don't know Laios....Chilchuck

I kind of ship it.👀

this moment right here, when he looked at him like this. Signed sealed delivered, baby!

[orangepanic]

I'm probably going to regret this later.

I had a good friend say to me recently that she's not reading any more books by white men. Clearly she was looking for congratulations. Instead, all I could feel was sadness.

To me, the point of pushing for diversity and representation in media is exactly that. Diversity, and not just to put points on a scoreboard or get kudos from your socially-minded friends but because you actually care about broadening your mind. For too long, too few people's perspectives and experiences have been overrepresented in history and popular culture, which limits our thinking and perpetuates the kinds of marginalization and discrimination that hurt society as a whole. We need to actively, aggressively correct that. But to me that means a process that is additive, not subtractive.

Add books to your reading list by people from different backgrounds and cultures, or that center characters who aren't like you. And "aren't like you" should be broad. Read a different genre than you'd normally pick up. Read about somebody older or younger than you, someone whose brain works differently, or someone who grew up in a different part of the country, even if they might look like you on the outside. Do this, but don't only do this to the point that reading becomes a chore or a performative action, or to the point where you're now cutting out other perspectives entirely. I hear so many sad stories these days about how little people read, and I think part of that is because there's been a push for reading as a requirement, as education, and that only certain kinds of books are okay to read because they contribute to this goal. That's such crap. Read what you want because it is fun! But then also add to that experience with new, different books. You never know what else you might like (looking at you, native Hawaiian vampire story). Growing your reading pie isn't about "no more of this" but "yes, more of that."

And the same can be said for fandom. Fandom has always been as space for people to explore different kinds of characterizations and relationships that aren't heavily reflected in popular culture. That's largely why we have transformative works. But lately I see this almost puritanical push in fandom for everything to check certain boxes when the whole point of fandom and fan creations is to make shit up. Don't see enough hairy-chested mlm werewolves on screen? Draw your favs as hairy gay werewolves who kiss! And if you've never thought about your OTP as werewolves, be open-minded enough to explore it, or to read someone else exploring it just to see how it is and stretch your brain a bit. Maybe you'll like it, or learn about werewolves. Maybe you'll hate it. Either way, support each other.

And like the books, this process should be additive. Push yourself to be open to more ships and interpretations of characters and canon. Also, curate your fandom experience, and if you explore something and it isn't for you, that's okay. It's for somebody else. And the fact that it contains no werewolves doesn't make it wrong, or boring, or toxic, or anti-werewolf, or something you need to tell the creator not to make anymore because you want to be seen in online spaces as coming out against what is unpopular so that you, by reflection, will look popular. If you do this you're looking for the fandom equivalent of kudos for saying you'll never read a book by a white man, leaving everything from Neil Gaiman to Tolkien on the table and thinking that makes you look progressive instead of sad and small and like you're trying desperately to sit at the right table in middle school. In short, fandom isn't a zero sum game any more than reading is. And real diversity in fandom means adding in the content and perspectives and characters we're missing, both on and off-screen, (and not just the ones you like, but the ones you might not) as well as not weeding out the ones that we already have. We can have more together, not less.

[daybreakrising]

so i've been thinking about this for the past few days and finally come to a decision-

i will be implementing a new rule regarding exclusive ships, and periods of inactivity

to preface this, i will say that i take exclusive ships very seriously, in that i don't jump to exclusives often or easily and they're usually based on very specific things. by extension, i also take the breaking of exclusives very seriously too. i don't like doing it at all.

however. in certain cases, if the partner involved in an exclusive ship goes inactive for a long period of time without any hint of returning and/or no communication, this then leaves me hanging for the development of that ship, and unable to potentially explore a similar dynamic with somebody who is active and communicating. i am a loyal person, but i have my limits - i cannot be expected to stay tied to a blog that isn't being used.

so what is this rule?

i am going to start breaking exclusives with blogs (or muses) that have been inactive for long periods of time with no communication or no sign of returning activity. and yes, this will apply even if someone is active on another blog of theirs, or is actively writing for other muses on a multi.

there will be some exceptions to this, particularly if the ship is built very specifically around one portrayal of a muse, but i won't put any guarantees in stone, just to be open about things.

what do you class as 'communication'?

talk to me. that's literally all it takes. if you've lost muse for your blog or a particular muse, that's fine - but tell me. communicate this with me. if you're just taking a short break from that muse but plan to return: great! if you genuinely can't see yourself coming back to the muse? also fine! still want to discuss and develop the ship away from the blog? i'm down for that.

i will not be angry or upset if you're dropping a muse or don't have it in you to be on that blog. i am always happy to park a ship (or ANY dynamic, for that matter) on the shelf for a while, and i can pick it back up again if needed. i find it very hard to throw things out, guys, trust me. i'll hold onto our dynamics until i'm forced to let go.

that being said, i do require continued discussion to maintain my interest in a ship. it doesn't have to be much - i'm not expecting people to send me essays or talk non-stop for hours or even every day. i just need something - random questions about their relationship, little ideas you've had for moments in their lives, even just knowing you're thinking about them on occasion is better than radio silence. so, if i'm not getting that from you and the blog/muse hasn't been used in a while.... maybe it's time to reevaluate that exclusive label.

i will, of course, communicate (or attempt to) with the involved partner if i come to this decision for our exclusive ship. and i want to stress: this is not personal. this has no bearing on how much i value our ship, the things we have developed, or you as a person and writing partner.

AND TO BE CLEAR:

this does not mean i am throwing out the ship entirely: i will still eagerly develop and write the ship if that blog(/muse) returns, we will simply no longer be exclusive for it. if activity continues, and providing i haven't developed another dynamic in the meantime, i may consider reinstating exclusives after a period of time - but i will only do this once, and i won't do it easily, which leads me onto:

i am also going to be stricter with exclusive ships as of this post.

i am usually exclusive for one of three reasons - first, that what i've built with someone is so specific to their portrayal of that muse that i cannot see me seeking out the ship with another portrayal. second, i have very specific ideas or thoughts about a "popular" ship and have found a partner whose ideas/thoughts align with mine and who i trust. third, it's a ship that involves characters no one would normally throw together and only makes sense in the world we've created for them.

as i said at the start of this post, i don't jump to exclusives easily (though it may sometimes seem that way). this just means that i'll need some more back and forth and to feel things out before i'll consider exclusives in future.

tl;dr: i'm gonna start breaking exclusives for ships involving inactive blogs or muses. sorry if this makes me a terrible person but i don't want to limit interactions with a dormant dynamic.

[do-androids-dream-ao3acc]

I love this truth or dare ask game, but having learned my lesson, I will ask the authors I like directly. :)

Tag whomever you like or are curious about.

I am curious so here are my questions. My "dare" in case you dislike answering will be a story for one of my favourite pairings. ;)

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help? 🐇 ⇢ do you prefer writing original characters, reader inserts, or a mix of both? 🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings 🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character 🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project? ❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best? 🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate 🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here ☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username? 🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it 🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Writing your favorite pairings? Don't get greedy girl, I basically just gave you romantic garden sex! (Also you KNOW I will answer anything because I love that and I love procrastinating) 😂

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

Just like that. I don't remember how I got into it back in the 90s, but in 2020, I got into it because I liked some Emralt stories so much, I thought, "Hey, maybe I can do that, too."

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

Probably @deagle. She'll know what to do because she's seen it in a movie with Sabin Tambrea 😂

🐇 ⇢ do you prefer writing original characters, reader inserts, or a mix of both?

Weeeeeell. Might be one of my OCs is a tiny bit like myself. But in general, I don't do reader inserts a lot.

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

I'm convinced Buck didn't tell Tommy about the sperm donor thingy yet, and it will become a major issue between them for whatever reason.

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

I still think his bachelor party behavior was absolutely out of character for Eddie. I know the fandom theories, but I disagree.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Maybe the kind of injuries you get from either falling of a certain height and from being shot with a .45

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

I will fail you... still obsessed with the song, so I'd love to see the topic of the seemingly infallible fail to rescue their loved one. Not necessarily resulting in MCD, though. Don't care which pairing, don't care who'd write it. It's juicy.

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

Listen, I don't hate characters. That's stupid, they're not real. I admire writers of any kind if they make me feel things about a character, even if it's repulsion. But wait, we have Gerrard in the coming season. Nobody likes Gerrard... are there 3 good things about him? Let's see. He's old, so he might just die soon. He screams at Buck, that might get him in trouble. He's jealous, so he might make a mistake. I think those are good things 😂

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

Yes, ma'am! Not edited.

“Who killed my father, Pablo? Was that you?”

Carlos pushed himself away from the car’s wreckage and fixed Pablo with his gaze. 

"Me? Oh boy, I don't cross the border so easily these days, you know? And certainly not to get some old guy out of the way. I've got my men for that.“

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

I love Dick. Philip K. Dick, that is 😂

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

There are so many, you know I love all the fanart I ever commissioned or got as a present. But today, I'd like to say this piece by @johix (sorry, if you don't want me to put it directly in a post please tell me!) I just love it.

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Usually, two breaks after a paragraph throughout the whole fic. Or when the fic turns out differently than expected, because I often don't read tags and I rarely read things like MPREG and stuff.

THANK YOU! This was fun. I'll throw the same questions right back at you.

[foliejpg]

oh yippie more asks:D

i have a lot :3

🍓🌵🥑🥤🌻🧃🧸🪐🍬🦷❄️🌿🏜️🍦🌸🎨🧩

you dont have to answer all of them but here you gooo

oh hell yes this is gonna be so fun <3

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

i don't remember specifically how, but i know i first interacted with shipping on youtube in like 2007-08 back when you could comment on people's profiles and message other users, so i think i must have commented on some like.. pokeshipping amv and just struck up a convo before i followed some friends i made to ff.net and deviantart, and started writing on ff.net lol

🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

so i don't use spotify, i'm an apple music girlie and i really only listen to my own playlist i made that is composed of all of my top 100 songs of the year going back to 2015 LMAO

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

@actuallyalaska she got me

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

every writer i tagged yesterday!! all of whom take part of the @bandomthememonths go read all these great fics by these awesome writers<333

🌻 ⇢ tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis

@judasisgayriot your gifs are a godsend and i always love getting a comment from them <3

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

my name is short for guinevere lol

🧸 ⇢ what's the fastest way to become your mutual?

so i'm sort of picky abt my dash lol i try to stick to foblr so if you post mostly fob then i'll prob follow! i do a good scroll through to get the vibe, but if they post a lot of non fob stuff, i usually skip bc its just not for me but no hard feelings ever<3

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

well i just bought a new (refurbished) computer for the first time in a few years, so that's exciting! i've recently started making embroidery patches and that's been a lot of fun lol idk i've just been having a good time<3 i'm doing a lot of home renovation projects so i'm excited to have a brand new kitchen soon lmao

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

not a fandom character but as far as bandom goes, i don't really care for mcr and maybe that just has everything to do with that i'm really not familiar with lore/band mbrs etc., but danger days is the only mcr album i really connected with especially when i was 16-17 and its still one of my favorite albums, but i'm good on their other albums lol

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

just be kind<3 ik that's super cheesy but i think its easy to forget that other ppl have feelings too and maybe just being nice to someone will make their day. also don't ever pay full price for anything if you can avoid it. generic brands are just as good as name brands

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

i have.. no idea honestly lmao

�� ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

listen when i figure it out, i'll let you know lol when i'm stuck i eat an edible and stare at the wall until something comes to me

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

ANY AND ALL!!!! especially when they tell me a specific part they liked - even if its just a line makes my heart go bu-bump<3

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

genuinely i can't think of a character i hate, i really don't watch anything but like. seinfeld and its always sunny in philadelphia lmfao

🌸 ⇢ do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them

this is my cat bear<3 she's ten years old and sleeps in a drawer in my desk while i work

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

here and here and here and this nsfw fanart from my bubbline au these are all my absolute favorites <3

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

i answered this here but its super long so<3

[jamlocked]

For the Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

🍓 🥑🥤🧃🍄🍬🔪🌸

(SORRY COULD NOT DECIDE)

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

WELL. It happened because I found out I was shit at writing. I'd been abroad for three months and it was mental (not really in a good way) and I was like, 'this is the book I've been wanting to write'. So I came home and started to write it and, dear God, it was terrible. Not too long after that I discovered fandom and saw some fan fiction for the first time. And some of it was SO GOOD, which I wasn't aware could be possible with fanfic (lol, right?) So I got absorbed in that and one day thought, 'well, maybe I should try because I already know these characters and it'll be good practice so I can learn to write my own stuff well'.

Guess what, it was.

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

@lvsifer You mate, obviously. Pfft, as if that were even in question. <3 (Though I question the word 'help'. Help me commit the murder? Yes, of course.)

(...thinking further, I also question the word 'accientally' in this scenario, particularly if @lvsifer was there with me, which he would be.)

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

There are so many I could choose but I'm going to go with Sforzando simply because it's open in a tab right now so I can start another re-read, and that says it all really. I would link another one from an old fandom as well because it was beyond stunning and broke my entire soul a few years ago, but I can't remember the full name to link it.

  🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

My own personal lore? Hmm. Can't remember what I have and haven't posted about. I'll go with my one severe phobia, which is shipwrecks. And that's all I'm going to say about it otherwise I'll start thinking about them and that is Unpleasant.

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

When Jim was a teenager he spent a long time debating whether to introduce himself to Sherlock. He didn't because he was scared, both of rejection and of it not living up to what he dreamed about. It's the only time he's ever really felt fear and he hates that he caved into it, given how Sherlock wasted years of his life on drugs and then became mostly ordinary.

I guess that's not really a pairing thing. So...in a world where Jim and Sherlock date or spend time together domestically, they frequently fight over food. Jim doesn't care about it but people have to eat, so he's going to eat well. Sherlock's diet of takeaways and beans on toast is unbearable. In the end, he forces Sherlock to learn to cook (by telling him it's entirely beyond his talents and 'yes, this is the most basic reverse psychology darling, but also, it's completely true') and Sherlock is so annoyed at not being able to tell what he means he becomes an amazing chef. And enjoys it. It's basically chemistry when it comes down to it.

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

Sherlock was never and will never be in love with John. Or Molly.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I mean, there's a long list. Wind speeds over coastal Mexico? Wheel widths of early 19th century French carts? The political system of Bulgaria was quite interesting.

🌸 ⇢ do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them

...mate, if you wanted to see pics of Coco you could have just WhatsApp'd me. :D

THIS IS COCO, ISN'T SHE BEAUTIFUL.

<3 <3 <3

[lana7779]

Hi, it is me, the selfcest (Breakcest?) anon again! You did not disappoint with your thoughts , as always! You are so right about the healing type of dynamic Break would have with his younger self. I have only ever seen Pinterest art of the two before, which just made their relationship would be purely sexual but there is much potential for something more soft between too. I could see Break coming back to his younger self on purpose to try to save him like one of those Christmas Ghost stories xP As for me writing for the pair... I am a little shy, I don't know if I could be as brave as you to post my fics for the world to see and criticise...

Heyy!!!

I'm glad I did not disappoint! I really do need to give Kevin more thoughts, because he has been through so much, and I really do think that Break, as much as he wants to distance himself from his old life, respects the experience Kevin gave him.

I think I know the art you're talking about. Hahah, really brings a whole other meaning to the term "love thyself". I mean, I'm not saying that after Break is done kissing all of Kevin's worries away he wouldn't drag him to the bedroom... after all, smut and fluff aren't mutually exclusive, so where there is fluff there can always be smut! But I'll leave that up to people's imaginations... ;D

But yes, I definitely think Break would get an absolute kick out of going back to meet his past self. Him especially out of the whole cast, just because of how much his past shaped who he is now, and they are practically two different people.

Kinda random thought, but I hope if he was to go back in time and meet his younger self and "fix him", that wouldn't alter the timeline wherein Break wouldn't exist........ (time travel makes my brain hurt, I should not entertain this thought any further... haha) HYPOTHETICALLY speaking though, if Break was to help Kevin become a better version of himself, I want Break to still remain Break, independently of a fixed Kevin. There. That's how I want this pair to work.

As for your fics being criticized... I'll tell you about the beauty of rarepairs, and that is, people generally SEEK rarepair content, they don't just stumble upon it. And if somebody decides to be critical of a rarepair, (knowing fully well that they went out of their way to seek that content), well... it just reminds me of this meme:

Likewise, I guess I just generally trust people to follow the "don't like, don't read" rule. And then those that do choose to read it and don't like it for whatever reason to just... stop reading and move on?

I'm a firm believer that the right people will find my content in due time. As you've seen, I write for the most questionable, least popular PH ships out there, and yet they're still getting love and support from the right people.

So if you ever do find the courage to post what you've got, I'm sure you'll do great! <3

[wifiwuxians]

20 questions writer meme.

tagged by @heyholmesletsgo THANK YOUUU

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

not counting things i'd rather remained anonymous, 21!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

513,621 lol

3. What fandoms do you write for?

mdzs, vaguely tgcf, hotline miami (though mostly past tense) and we'll see about the future

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Wei Wuxian's Super Special Super Secret Book Club still reigns supreme with 1229 kudos, and will most likely be my legacy despite it being the second fic i ever wrote for the fandom (i think?)

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late with 513, one would think i'd still be messing around with this AU but i'm happy to leave it where it is and just keep messing around with the crackship

Dawn Chorus, my most precious baby, at 251 by some miracle despite being oc/canon. you guys spoiled me with the love for this one tbh. none of my other xue yang centric works got anywhere near this close and i'm at peace with that because he's bonking my oc in this one and they have a kid.

The Book Club Extras at 232, which is hilarious when compared to the original but at least new readers will see there's more and maybe in the year 2055 i will publish them for fun

Frozen Pond with 156 at the end of the list, written for my friend @petitjams and taking place in a silly AU we made together (wen chao stays winning on here which is very funny)

i'm attributing the popularity of the first two to mostly being centered around super popular characters, because my later stuff is naturally better yet struggling haha

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

always unless they're like just emoji, because i like conversation! though i may also reply with a little heart hehe

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i wouldn't call it angstiest ending, it's bittersweet, but the threads that bind us is my top pick. and it also needs more readers so go read it. your hands and mine has a bit of an 'angsty' ending but only for song lan. xue yang had it coming :p 💖

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

excluding the two above, so far they all have a happy ending, or at least neutral??? i'd say Book Club, though, because that's the massive 'everybody lives!!' silly fixit fic

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope. i hope i didn't just jinx it. i get hate on art and through anon though! woo! (not anymore on here tho thank god)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do and i feel like it sucks so i almost always end up fading to black LMAO my actual explicit stuff remains private... it's like too embarrassing for me. i got judged for it as an 18 year old and 10 years later haven't gotten over it. i like bondage and bdsm though and that seems to crop up in private 😏

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i do on occasion! i love roleplaying them, but the only one i have out there is The Way To His Heart Is Through His Stomach (Oh God Please Don't Eat Me), which mixes mdzs and tgcf characters in a unique setting :3

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge, but i've had art stolen plenty so i wouldn't even be surprised

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, a few have been translated into russian!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

NOT YET BUT IT'S IN THE CARDS

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

all time? jeez. somebody tell me why i always freeze up and go blank when asked these simple questions? it's like i forget who the fuck i am. i feel like i should also say songxiao? but they're relatively new so it doesn't seem correct. fuck it. my all time favorite ship is [DATA MISSING OR CORRUPTED-- PLEASE PROCEED TO NEXT QUESTION]

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

haha... (looks at my abandoned hlm fic with the seventh chapter halfway written) haha...

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd definitely say dialog. it makes sense, since the stuff i'm most used to doing is drawing silly comics. i also like to ping-pong emotions around and feel like i'm pretty good at that too

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

using the same words over and over and feeling like i never write Enough, like everything is always light and never in depth. i don't like making scenes too heavy with padding but i also feel like i need to find a balance

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i'll do it only if it's a language i speak!!! this doesn't apply to peppering words like gege and stuff just for funsies. i think the best way to go about it is to just tell the audience what language they're speaking in that moment

19. First fandom you wrote for?

we're gonna have to go back to when i was 10 years old here lol... i think it was tokyo mew mew in terms of stuff i put online (oh god)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

it's hard to pick favorites, but i once again must say the threads that bind us in terms of work i'm most proud of.

i tag whoever sees it, plus @sugarapplebaby because ily

[aouboomseries]

i saw a comment from somebody on facebook who said that gemini norawit said on his instagram that my love mix-up is going to be the last series he's going to do a ship with fourth nattawat because he wants to focus on doing a straight ship with, who we're all assuming is, prim chanikarn, since they're starring in the dark dice together. but the whole issue with this is that i can't find anywhere on his instagram that he said this so i can't say how credible the factoid actually is.

buuut~ looking back on it, how gemini portrays his characters when shipped with fourth, i feel like... fourth carries the weight of the majority of their on screen chemistry. gemini mostly looks really awkward showing romantic feelings for fourth's characters. even when doing fan service, he seems to be a bit more on the awkward side and pulls away or dodges fourth's advances. he could totally just be playing into this shy persona but i still feel like gemini doesn't feel entirely comfortable in his ship or maybe portraying queer characters - now that's not to say he isn't queer in some form or at least an ally, he is what he is and that's nobody's business but his own.

i guess i just hope that gemini doesn't feel awkward portraying a character in a queer relationship and that's just his style of acting. time will tell when this new series comes out and we see how he acts paired with a girl in comparison.

hi anon! hmm this is interesting.

first of all, i’ve never seen gem say that mlmu is his last project ever with fourth so if you ever find the source of that info pls lmk!! i do remember him saying in an interview that he would like to do a series with a straight ship because he had already acted with a boy, so now he wants to act with a girl (what an incredibly bisexual statement LOL) but i didn’t take that as him saying he didn’t want to do bl anymore.

it has honestly never crossed my mind that geminifourth might divorce soon. to me, their gmmtv’s latest It Boys yaknow. it makes sense to me that they would lead other series separately so gmmtv can take advantage of their massive fandom and individual popularity but i still expect them to work together in the future. also. gemfourth are besties, they have a lot of fun working and playing together, and they flirt all the time whether they’re promoting a series or not hahaha. like yes their dynamic is definitely We Are Best Friends I Love You My Bro but that's typical of gmmtv pairs, and they're still having fun being an established pairing.

i believe we're in an era where actors in branded couples can do separate projects and then come back and do bl. i know with past divorced gmmtv couples like BW or ON, that's not the case, but those are specific circumstances. i mean...we're getting a kristsingto bl in the next year, honestly anything is possible.

personally, i’ve never felt that gemini was uncomfortable acting as queer characters or being in romantic scenes with fourth. in general, fourth is more experienced and more comfortable as an actor than gemini is. we know that fourth was probably gemini's first kiss ever and that gemini was really shy during msp because he has never been in a relationship before, i think some of his "discomfort" can be explained by that. i also just think gem has only ever played awkward/inexperienced characters, like his awkwardness or nervousness makes sense to me as heart or as tinn.

there are actors out there who have been ashamed of or uncomfortable working in bl, and obviously there's a lot of nuance within that topic, but to me, gemini doesn't align at all with those attitudes. i agree that at times, gem can be shy doing fanservice, but like you said, he's playing into that shy personality to match fourth's boldness and to be fair, fourth is VERY affectionate and likes to tease and surprise gemini. there are lots of times where we can see gem being affectionate with fourth (and with other male actors), and it seems like he really enjoys and values working with fourth and being in bl series.

at the end of the day, gemini is still so young and it's very early in his career. we haven't seen him acting at all outside of his bl roles and he overall doesn't have much experience as an actor yet—i think he's very much still finding his feet, so it's not really fair to make generalizations about his acting style. i personally think gem is a lovely actor, his portrayals of tinn and heart mean a lot to me, and his chemistry with fourth is great. i would be interested in hearing back about your thoughts during/post-mlmu and when gem's future projects are released ^__^

[carladuquette]

I was tagged by @dragonsoftheeast. Thank you, this was really fun!

1. What is your AO3 account?

CarlaDuquette. And yes, Carla is my real, actual first name.

2. How many words did you write total in 2022?

Ok, so here's the problem: Since I already updated Close your eyes, count to ten this year, AO3 doesn't count it for 2022. At least the fic doesn't show up in my stats for 2022, so I'm assuming that means none of the words I wrote for it figure into the word count either. Which means there's a lot missing. But then it counts all the words of fics I started in 2021 and wrote just one chapter of in 2022, so…

As it stands, according to AO3 I wrote 65,384 words in 2022. (For reference, it claims I wrote 168,090 in the seven days of 2023 so far, because it counts all of Close your eyes, lol.)

3. How many fics did you publish in 2022? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

I continuously updated one long-running fic and added to two oneshot collections that I started before 2022. I published five new stories in 2022, three of which were oneshots and two were multi-chapters. All of them were in the Elite (Spanish Netflix teen drama) fandom, except for one Casa di Papel oneshot.

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

My longest fic was Close your eyes (unsurprisingly, considering that it's still ongoing after 2+ years), a Lu-centric future fic and my first foray into fanfiction writing. If we go by fics I started and finished in 2022, it's there goes Princeton, a pre-canon Lu-Guzman teen pregnancy/abortion fic. The shortest was Joy to the World, an AU… Christmas fic? Or more accurately a heartbreak AU Lu/Valerio oneshot.

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

My most popular fic by hits that I started and finished in 2022 was there goes Princeton. Least popular by hits was 12 points go to… in which some of the Elite kids watch the Eurovision Song Contest.

6. What fic didn’t perform as well as you thought it would?

"Perform" sounds weird and is pretty vague. I'll take it to mean comments, because that is what makes me the happiest. Based on that, I'd say I put a spell on you, a retelling of the movie Hocus Pocus with Carla/Samuel as the leads. Some people commented on the first chapter, but all but one dropped off after that. Not the end of the world, since I enjoyed writing it tremendously, haha. But of course it's always a little sad to see that you're basically just writing for yourself (one of the reasons why there aren't many OG Elite fics anymore, I'd venture).

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

Missing her is like trying to know somebody you never met. It was the first (and so far only) fic I ever wrote outside of the Elite fandom, centering on my favorite Casa di Papel/ Money Heist character: Nairobi. I didn't really expect it to reach people, since there isn't an active ship in it and Helsinki is the only show character that actively appears in it. But it got several really kind comments, which made me happy 😊

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote from 2022?

Ooof. I mean, I'd have to say Close your eyes. But outside of that… Probably there goes Princeton. I'm proud of the character work in it, and of the Lu/Guzman relationship. But it had also been on my mind for a WHILE before I finally wrote it down, something I've always wanted to work on. I'm firmly pro-choice, and it's an issue really close to my heart, and I think I managed to tell a story where that comes through without overpowering the characters' journey.

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2022?

So many options! I really enjoyed the Casa di Papel fic Un Buen Dia (currently on hiatus, I think) by queen of Nairobi fics AndraB74. On the rare occasion that @cupcakeb still writes Lu/Rebe, I'm there – last year it was her great "sort of canon compliant" fic hate to be lame. And the Archie/Veronica masterpiece hymn for the missing by @andsmile (10,000x better than the disaster of a show these two are on)

10. Tag your friends to do this year-end fic review as well!

Any fanfic writers, consider yourself tagged! Additionally I tag @booksandabeer @cupcakeb @lavandulacosmos @carlarosonn (you write fanfic, right? if not just disregard lol) @voidstilesplease @andsmile @theimprobabledreamersworld

[jsmelodies]

🖊️Dearest Gentle Gift Recipient,

This author —

Wait a second. I'm going to put the pen down. Lady Secret Santa is gonna let her hair down and put on her sweatpants for a second.

You're so sweet for asking me questions.

I am genuinely enjoying your work! When all of this is over, I promise you'll get lots of kudos/comments, I just can't reveal myself SO soon.

To your points...yes, I agree. Elle x Emmett & Jamie x Claire are great Elucien examples. The Outlander one is very popular in fandom (for me too), but I love the Legally Blonde and support you writing that AU! The most important question being who would be Jennifer Coolidge's character 😂

For your questions...

Are there any other acotar ships you like? - Elucien is my OTP but I also particularly enjoy Nessian & Vassa/Jurian & and other canon ships.

When did you start shipping Elucien? I started shipping Elucien as soon as their bond snapped in ACOMAF. I was hooked as soon as I read the scene and may have rushed online to peek to see what happens and well ... haha I was like nooo why aren't they together yet!! But soon I hope 👀

Do you have a favorite Elucien headcanon? I love the headcanon that Elain sleeps with his jacket as well and secretly tries on the pearls/gloves he gave her when there's NO ONE around.

Okay I just read Apex Predator and I like how you consistently have Cassian call Nesta "Sweetheart" 🥺 I noticed that in your current work too. So now this author is wondering what Lucien would call Elain....

I hope your week gets better. I'm happy to pop in your ask box ~casually~ and also have Lady Secret Santa give you some weekly updates on your gift.

Your friend,

✨Lady Secret Santa

Oh my gosh it's so good to see you again so soon! And of course I'm going to ask you questions. I want to get to know you!

This is so long I'm sorry. I'll put it under a cut.

My week is getting better. For context, I'm substitute teaching right now while I'm doing this certification thing/trying to move out and some of these children were so out of control. Like two of them simply ran out of the classroom on Monday and security had to get involved and it was a whole thing. But that specific job ended on Wednesday, so I've had some peaceful quiet for the past two days as I've gotten to just do my schoolwork.

Okay but seriously, I went through such an Outlander phase a few years ago so I guess it's unsurprising that I'm such a fan of Elucien. And I think SJM said at one point that she partially modeled Lucien after Jamie, which. Makes sense, honestly.

If I had the time...I would definitely write Legally Blonde Elucien. But I don't. I already have some fics out on the horizon for after the gift exchange (and I write so very slowly so there's that). However! Elucien week exists, and if the idea is still brewing by then, then maybe😉

I don't know who Paulette would be💀 Genuinely no idea. Vassa, maybe? That's all I can think of.

Yeah I've also shipped them since then. I lowkey feel bad for all the people who have been reading the series since it first came out. It's been YEARS, Sarah. I just want them to be happy.

Elain wearing Lucien's jacket is one of my favorite headcanons 🥺 Whenever I see artwork of it, it makes me cry. I also have the headcanon that Lucien's going to be so proud of her when she snaps/holds her ground against him or somebody else. Like he's going to be holding back his smile.

I'm going to be completely honest when I say I have no idea what Lucien would call Elain. I feel like the whole "sweetheart" thing with Nessian is just iconic in fanon (even though I think he only canonically says it once? If I'm wrong feel free to correct me). But with Elucien? Not a clue.

I will say, if you're making your way through my archive: proceed into some of my older works with caution. Archive may try to convince you you'll like them, but trust me. Trust me. Some of it is quite a bit more critical than my newer stuff, and I think you'll definitely be able to tell that I was still figuring things out. And lately I've been trying to interact more with canon content I do like instead of what I don't (which, in a shocking turn of events, has been much better for me mentally).

Anyways.

Yeah, I really just rambled, didn't I? I hope your week is going well and I look forward to hearing from you again!

Feel free to casually pop in here anytime! And I'll never say no to weekly updates😊

[purrincesskittens]

Star Eyes, Zuko is mistaken as Water Tribe.

Gift for @muffinlance based off this post and this one

......................................................................

It was night when they found him. A quick examination showed blood on the back of his head. As they pounded on his back someone noted his eyes. “Gold eyes.” They called. “Are you fire nation?” The boy lifted his head and the light of the lantern caught his eyes reflecting back at them. “Of course I am.” The kid snarls. “Star Eyes.” Someone breathed. Shit this kid was one of theirs. “Could be the child of a war bride.” Was suggested by someone. “At least he’s not a fire bender.” There was a laugh that was quickly interrupted by the star eyed boy himself. “Yes I am.” “Well that was.... honest.” 

Star eyes were only something seen in the water tribes though. Even if this kid was a fire bender he had to be water tribe. More then likely the result of a woman stolen from her tribe during a raid and raised as Fire Nation since he looked enough of the part. But he was young, probably just recruited or practically forced into joining the military. There was a easy way to figure out how dangerous this kid was or rather how much more dangerous he was considering he was a fire bender. 

“Have you ever killed someone?” Hakoda asks crouching before the boy lifting his chin in one hand so the boy had to look him in the eye with those gold colored star eyes. “What? No ... I don’t think.... No.”  The kid seemed confused the blood on the back of his head suggested a head wound but this kid was young probably just assigned to a ship only to get knocked overboard by either by a storm or by another soldier. Those eyes probably didn’t make him popular or the fact that this kid’s eyes kept sliding away from Hakoda’s own suggested he may be a fey child. 

“What do we do with him?” Somebody asks as they watch the kid cough up water, curling and uncurling his fingers against the wood of the deck his eyes cast down. “We keep him for now. His mother is probably Water Tribe war bride if he is star eyed. Have Kustaa check him over and if he survives we figure out what to do from there." Hakoda announces to the crew. They took care of their own and until they figured out who his mother was and could turn him over to her family if she had any left the crew of the Akhult would take care of him for now. Half Water Tribe and the child of a war bride was still Water Tribe and like hell were they going to turn him over to the Fire Nation to continue using as a weapon.

Kustaa later informed him the boy had hypothermia as well as potentially severe head trauma it was hard to tell right now. The kid mistook him for his uncle. Which uncle they weren't sure. It's possible the boy's mother had a picture of her family she either managed to take with her or she drew herself or he could be thinking Kustaa was his father's brother. The escape attempts didn't help some of the crews opinions on keeping the kid but considering he was raised as Fire Nation and was in a strange place so its expected that he would try to escape although climbing the mast was something Hakoda really wished he didn't do along with scaling the side of the ship.

Kustaa had mentioned the boy called for his mother while delirious along with begging his father for forgiveness pledging his loyalty to him and pleading no to the man which didn't paint a pretty picture of the man or gain much favor of the fire nation in the crews opinions. "Tell me about your mother." Hakoda suggests sitting up on the mast beside the boy. Glowing gold eyes blinked at him. "I remember trailing robes. She favored long sleeved robes with delicate embroidery. She had long hair I remember her brushing mine when I was little. I would sit in her lap and she would brush my hair talking to me about theater or turtleducks or plants. Different things she liked. I think I would sometimes tell her about my day or what I had done recently I don't remember clearly its... faded almost. Fuzzy. I barely remember what she looked like."

Hakoda frowned the boy was water tribe he had to be with those star eyes of his but why wouldn't his mother tell him about her people, her home. Maybe she couldn't? Maybe the boys father was so controlling he made sure she never spoke of home to their son? Then the boy said something that made him rethink everything he knew about the kid. "Uncle said my hair is alot like hers. Or it was. I don't even remember why I shaved it." The kid frowned obviously struggling to remember rubbing his head with one hand. The head wound had left him confused he didn't rember his name or much of anything recent but he remembered he had been burned for cowardice supposedly or partially for that but what did the fire nation consider to be cowardly? Kustaa suspected the boy's own father burned him based off what they gleaned from fever dreams and night terrors.

“What did she look like?” Hakoda questions softly holding his breath hoping he was wrong with the hunch he had. “Elegant, beautiful, she had long straight black hair that was so soft and amber eyes with flecks of true gold in them she wore long sleeved red robes with elegant embroidery. The sleeves would bellow and she would hide me in them when I was little.” The boy continued to talk about his mother someone he remembered fondly although all the details suggested the hugs, the turtle duck kisses and every else stopped when the boy was small. Something happened to his mother and Hakoda was beginning to suspect it may have something to do with the boys true parentage. But how to suggest it to the kid without breaking the poor things mind? The whole crew already suspected he was spirit touched as the water tribe liked to call those who were different mentally the earth kingdom called them fey and not all of the earth kingdom where kind to them. 

“If I promise no one on this ship will hurt you and we won’t turn you over to the Earth Kingdom will you stop with the escape attempts?”Hakoda asks when the boy falls silent picking at the grain of the wood under his hands not meeting Hakoda’s eyes. The kid blinked up at him startled. “Okay.” Getting the kid down the mast was surprisingly easy after that and a few more rules were hashed out before the kid was sent to see Kustaa again and the crew was gathered. “The boy’s mother was fire nation. He remembers her more clearly then anything else.” This drew murmurs from the crew some wanted to toss him over board then since he wasn’t the child of a war bride. “But he’s star eyed he has to be Water Tribe.” Toklo says tilting his head in confusion. “Exactly. We know he seemed to have issues regarding his father and Kustaa suspects he may have been the one to burn the kid. I learned his mother also disappeared or may possibly have been killed when he was young.” This gained more murmurs from the crew. 

Panuk pulled in a sharp audible breath. He had figured out what Hakoda was getting at. “Does any one here know where they were about 16 to 17 years ago? If they were around the Earth Kingdom or the colonies anywhere?” Their chief had to ask if none of the men on this ship was the boys father he would have to send messages out to all the others in the fleet see if anyone remembered if maybe had met a pretty woman in the Earth Kingdom or in the colonies and spent a night with her. If the kids mother was Fire Nation and he was star eyed that meant his real father had to be Water Tribe. His mother had to have married or started a new relationship soon after and the boy looked fire nation enough to pass him off as her husband’s but the husband probably suspected what with the star eyes. There was silence followed by an uproar. “You can’t be serious?!” Aake shouted in outrage. “I’m not judging anyone but the boy is water tribe and with his mother gone we most definitely are not giving him back to the Fire Nation so we need to figure out whose he is. We take care of our own.” Hakoda soothed the crews ruffled feathers listening as the men scrambled to remember where they were and what they were doing all those years ago.

Slowly they managed to clear the majority of the crew those who couldn’t remember were left struggling valiantly to justify why they couldn’t possibly be the boys father while their youngest two crew members watched with glee obviously in the clear themselves due to their age. Once Kustaa cleared the boy Hakoda set him to work and had to add no breathing fire to the list of rules. Toklo and Panuk made friends with their newest crew member over laundry and the boy was very shouty about women’s work. And then the issue over the kid not having a name he remembered came up. Names like Siqinq, Kallik, Cupun, Tulok, Yuka and Tulugaq were tossed around. He is pretty sure they settled on Tulok simply because they already have a Tuluk and Toklo on board and that name is almost a combination of the two plus it had a star meaning behind it. The boy just wanted to fit in.

Reds were changed for Toklo’s blues and the boys hair shaved to regrow properly after Kustaa managed to break it to the kid that a real father wouldn’t abuse his son, biological or not. They picked up Bato who sympathized with them for wanting to keep the star eyed child, teach him his real culture, and find his real father but the kid was still a fire bender. A fire bender on a WOODEN SHIP!! The boy, Toluk looked like a kicked polar puppy being denied sleep in the hammock he was used to and his usual snacks when ever he wanted. They still had a lot of work cut out for them when the kid thought he would be killed over a bending accident because he didn’t fully remember he needed to mediate to control his fire. His memories were still patchy at best. So Hakoda ended up with his temporary foster star eyed child sitting in his cabin breathing with a lantern holding a dog.  

The kid liked sea prunes proving he was Water Tribe at heart. He was good at using his fire bending for non evil purposes even if he protested it. He proved he shouldn’t be left alone in port either by himself or with his friends. He gained a piercing, two rusted swords, a theater scroll and a cabbage? No one seems to know about the cabbage. He can cook as it’s proven despite how spicy his cooking is and nearly gets kidnapped by prostitutes. Sex workers were not on the list of people Hakoda thought he would have to fight for custody of Tulok with. He nearly gets himself kidnapped by a Earth Kingdom solider they are allied with who seemed sure their boy was then dead prince of the Fire Nation. Never mind that the prince was dead and their boy was star eyed. The solider was surprisingly unfazed by the heat of the kids cooking. He didn't end up kidnapped despite his best efforts.. The kid really needed to stop climbing the mast. “Prince Zuko?!” Hakoda’s kids seemed to also mistake Tulok for the dead prince. 

“That’s the Prince of the Fire Nation, dad he chased us all over and tried to capture the avatar numerous times. His sister did capture Aang.” His kids argued trying to convince him that their new foster brother was some evil prince. The kid in question for his part had more headaches then usual and just seemed more confused and angry. He remembered something. A little sister named LaLa. It takes a while but after watching their new brother and listening to the crew, “His name is Zuko, he is the prince of the Fire Nation, his father is Fire Lord Ozai does no one care about that?!” Sokka asks in outrage staring as the kid in question does laundry like its a perfectly normal thing for a prince to do. “His mother may be fire nation but his father sure isn’t.” Panuk comments dodging a wet shirt thrown by their resident fire bender.  This earned laughter and calls of “Good for her!!” And “She could do a lot better!” Followed by “At least a water tribesman would treat her right!!”. Sokka groaned in frustration and confusion. 

“Why is my nephew wearing blue, convinced Ozai isn’t his biological father and that he is water tribe?” General Iroh the Dragon of the West questions calmly. Tulok seemed to recognize Iroh and even called him Uncle and recognized some of the crew but he still didn’t have complete clear memories although his headaches grew worse until Kustaa told him it didn’t matter if he remembered or not he was water tribe and nothing was going to change that spirit touched or not. “He is star eyed you can’t possibly tell me the fire nation has star eyed kids that’s a water tribe thing only.” Iroh considered it briefly before dismissing it. His nephew looked similar to a young Ozai, so Ozai had to be his father even if he wasn’t much of one and his nephew deserved better then Ozai. But surely Ursa couldn’t have had an affair while married to Ozai it was impossible. Iroh tried to do the math off the top of his head of when Ursa and Ozai married vs when Zuko was born. “Look the obvious answer here is that the boys mom met with a Water Tribe beefcake and had a one night stand that lead to the boy. It’s the only thing that explains why his supposed father hated him so much and why he struggled with fire bending and is star eyed.” Bato explains grinning. “Beefcake?” Hakoda and Iroh question. 

Azula finds this all far to amusing. “That just means I’m the rightful heir after all. You can stay here with your little water tribe family and I can be the next Fire Lord after Uncle.” Somehow things get worked out that their star eyed fire bender’s fire nation sister will be staying with them along side her two scary friends and the kids supposed Uncle will become the next Fire Lord once they take down Ozai. The kid is still confused and there are still gaps in his memories but they aren’t giving him back now he is their’s and the fire nation can’t have him. They still call him Tulok since the fire nation does consider the sun to be a star after all. He seems to like it better then Zuko. He still does their laundry still wears beads in his braids in red, blue and one gold. In all that’s happened no one thought to alert the rest of the fleet about what they learned leaving them in for one heck of a surprise when they reach Chameleon Bay where the rest of the men from the fleet scramble to try to remember where they were sixteen-point-nine years ago. 

[actualbird]

Irt Vyn’s disaster driving, yeah you can get your driver’s license revoked. In the US it can happen if you get a certain number of traffic violations within a certain period of time. Also I did some research and (I mainly found stuff irt US licenses, but methinks it probably applies elsewhere) in order to drive legally in a foreign country you are usually required to apply for an International Driving Permit (IDP), which you show with your driver’s license (in my reading the US is more lax on foreigners not having a permit). It’s only valid for like a year though. And you need a valid license to get one. Now I’m just imagining Vyn doing all of that awful paperwork for a permit that he can’t even use because of how awful his driving is lol

irt vyn drives like shit cuz svart and stellis has the driver's seat on opposite sides

uh, i went off topic and ended up with a vyn fake dating concept at the end of this

wc: 911

oh my gosh, thank you so much for this information!!! with this in mind, yes absolutely in the og post scenario, vyn gets his license revoked KJBKJSKFJDS

THE IDP IS VERY INTERESTING TO ME OMG. tho canon tells us that when vyn moved to stellis in 2028, he became a naturalized citizen eventually and thus he is no longer considered a foreigner of stellis by the law. so maybe his hell paperwork wont be on the IDP side but just on the naturalized citizen portion wHICH. IM NOW WONDERING IF STELLIS IS SUPER LAX ABOUT?

here in the ph (and also the US, which is where we probly adopted it from), you have to have lived here for at least 3 years before qualifying to apply for naturalized citizenship. but by 2030, vyn is already a legal citizen of stellis.

so theres three possibilities i can see explaining this

stellis is much more lax about the period of time one has had to live in the country to quality for naturalized citizenship. their time requirement is probably one year

vyn (or vyn's father tryna make the life of his son (who may or may not hate his guts) easier past the borders of svart) pulls some royal lineage strings to get the process done faster. could be either one of them cuz if vyn doing it, while vyn stays quite divorced from his past lineage, it has been shown in Lost Gold (he pulled SOME KINDA political manoeuvre related to svart to get the cruise ship past that inspection vessel that could not see the golden mask, or something like that, i have a blurry memory) that he'll use that connection still if the situation really needs it. if vyn's father does it i just think itd be an interesting story of "yes, i was a not great father, i'll try to make up for it in any way i can" and vyn being like "noted without thanks"

OR---and this is my favorite one because it can result in something very very funny---VYN IS LYING ABOUT ALREADY BEING A NATURALIZED CITIZEN

okay continuing on that last bullet point, do you guys know of the romantic comedy The Proposal (2009) starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock?

well, if u dont, the summary of the premise is that sandra bullock's character, somebody from canada who is residing in the US with a visa, is now facing deportation because her visa expired. shes in a high position at work and thus does not want to get kicked out of the US so, in a desperate bid to stay, she asks ryan reynolds' character to be fake engaged to her since a marriage would make her a citizen. and to make sure theyre not accused of fraud, they have to get married too (and just deal with the divorce later).

it's not a great movie imo kjbJBKJS but it does have a convoluted premise for fake dating. the expired visa made them fake date.

anyway i want that to happen to vyn HAHAHAHA

hes gotta get fake engaged to one of the nxx (mc would be the most popular choice but would he really rope her into kinda breaking the law, the institution that which she works for? same would go for artem. still could work tho!! i just like all nxx ships/interactions so everybody is a possibility i love so much) so that he can stay in stellis bc his visa expired one way or another.

and this could either go platonic found family where the whole thing just brings the team closer together and understanding vyn more irt to his past (which will inevitably get roped into this situation) and then cue the feels :').

or it could go the romance route like in the romcom itself and whoever he decides to fake propose to is somebody he truly falls in love with. in this route, itd be best if the one he fake proposes to is somebody he DOESNT LIKE ALL THAT MUCH cuz in the og movie, the characters did not like each other but then grew to love each other during the fake engagement period, as is expected in a romance movie. anyway, if we stick to that, his options would be marius or artem. i CANNOT figure out which of them is funnier and will be the most emotionally tender thing as the slowburn fic goes on.

i hate this i hate that ive thought about this now because i want it so bad but i KNOW that this premise in either iteration is gonna be like 50k words at LEAST cuz it's either a slowburn friendship journey or a slowburn enemies to lovers fake dating journey. IT WOULD BE SUCH A LONG FIC. BUT IF IT EXISTED I WOULD LOVE IT TO BITS.

dont look at me, i cant write it myself, im not built good enough for that also i have 8945835 wips. this idea is very much up for adoption, if somebody is into it, jus follow credit link rules yadda yadda

god. how am i gonna think of anything but this for the whole day

THE PROPOSAL (2030) STARRING VYN RICHTER AND THE REST OF THE NXX INVESTIGATION TEAM!!!!!!!!!!

[forestwater87]

Okay, for all of you who don't feel like watching Miles RP as David

Here are some of my favorite quotes. Context may be added if I feel like it. Reactions are my goblin brain screaming. All of these came from a discord so if they don't make sense . . . see goblin brain comment.

(That link should start directly at the point where he becomes David; if it doesn't, skip to 1:40:33)

In roughly chronological order:

David: "Teachers are sort of like camp counselors during the rest of the year."

The thing is David is absolutely up his own ass enough to think this.

David: "Trail mix is expensive!"

^ said to show he understands why not everyone can donate to the charity for teachers. Very adorable, am crying.

David's "ooooh" seeing one dude was extremely non-heterosexual. Fucking bicon. Him losing his mind that one of the arenas is called "Survey camp"

David: "A person's hitting me -- I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry this is just pretend!"

This is just canonically how David plays video games. Either this or he's unwilling to commit violence at all, but I'll defer to Miles.

David: "That's very goat of you!"

Spencer: "Is David popular amongst his campers?"

David: "I like to think so! There's only 3 staff members, so I'm definitely in everyone's top 3."

"That also means you're in the bottom 3."

David: "Well, I choose not to think of it that way."

(I have to keep adding reacts so you can tell when one quote ends and another begins. Judge not lest ye be judged)

I think the other person in the stream is named Spencer. Friend of Miles. I know literally nothing else about him and am not even confident on those facts.

Every time he says something so non-David in his David voice I die: "I have a lot of grenades!"

David: "Oh my goodness, would you look at this beautiful scenery! Can we hike that mountain?"

This is so goddamn cute. I am dying. Miles looked at his fans and said "they will eat tonight" and I am so relieved.

David: "Not to be a couple of Greedy Garys, but I say we get this [care package] and then I'll drop another one!"

The fact that Miles is grinning like a lunatic the entire time is very good. (Also if this is formatted badly then I'm sorry but not all that sorry. I'm doing my best and David would be proud of me.)

David: "Didja getim? Didja getim? didja getim? How 'bout now?"

Spencer: "I didn't get 'em."

David: "Well, you tried your best and that's all that matters."

He calls healing "a little health kiss." I'm not sure why but it's very important to me.

David: [while jumping to murder someone] "Hi! Scuse me!"

(i just need something to separate the quotes okay)

David: "Well you know what gang, we did our best. You don't always win the 3-legged race. You did a wonderful job!"

Then there's a bit where they talk about Spencer's time at summer camp:

David: "ooooh hand-holding's pretty serious!"

David is too pure.

David: [dreamily] "Did you fall in love, Spencer? A summer love?" [puts hands up to his face]

Then there's the fact that David/Miles gets to pick where they play each round, and he keeps insisting on going to the one called "Survey Camp" every single time because it has the word "camp" in it.

David: "Now, I don't like to disagree, but . . . I was thinking we could go . . . to Survey Camp!"

Spencer reminds him that technically since David's the one with the power to choose, his opinion is the only one that matters:

David: "Everyone's opinion matters. And my opinion is we're going to camp."

David just steamrolling over Spencer's interests is very good. There are these little selfish nuggets sprinkled in among the wholesomeness that really capture the full David experience.

David: "Well, he's climbing up . . . he's coming my direction . . . oh, he looks scary . . ."

Spencer: "Is he coming towards me?"

David: "Oooh, I don't know. I'm dead!"

The positivity is relentless. I think Miles said on twitter afterwards that this whole thing was exhausting and I can see why. Being David is no picnic . . .

David: "I have a question: do we have to shoot each other in this game?"

And then a few seconds later:

David: "I'm just wondering if maybe there's a way we can, you know, help others. Talk through our issues."

And a few seconds after that:

David: "I was asking if they wanted to be friends in the game!"

I believe that moved killed him, too. Precious.

Also we're interrupting the real Miles!David content to share something my friend suggested to me while I was watching this and giving her quotes; she said that maybe David just calls everything camp to make life more fun, and then sent me this imaginary exchange that actually killed me all the way to death:

David: Gwen Santos would you go to marriage camp with me

Gwen: I'm going to have to change this story when I tell everyone

It made me laugh quite a bit.

Anyway, back to the video!

Spencer: "How do you sign up for [Camp Campbell]?"

David: "Well, um, you can fax, uh, an application to CameronCCampbell@hotmail.realwebsite.noreallyrealwebsite.com. And . . . you can know that myself and Gwen and Quartermaster and sometimes Mr. Campbell will do our best to make sure they get what they need! Which more than anything is love and support. And friendship."

Spencer: "How many dollars does this camp cost?"

David: "You know . . . it is, um . . ."

And then the conversation switches subjects and David breathes a sigh of relief.

Very shortly after this he changed his character from a woman (she was wearing a yellow shirt, which he liked because the campers wear yellow shirts) to "a Forward Scout with a positive attitude!"

"I like his style."

Spencer: "Does everybody abuse David verbally?"

David: "You know, sometimes people have harsh words. Mostly Max, and Neil, and Gwen, and Quartermaster, and Nurf."

Spencer: "Did you just list almost everyone?"

David: "Mmm . . . I'd say maybe a third."

Poor David. Somebody please protect him.

Spencer: "Yeah, I think people abuse David. I get that vibe. Or at least, I feel it in my heart. Like I wanna put ants in your bunk or something."

David: "Well, I think that says more about maybe some of the hurt you're carrying with you. And sometimes when people don't know how to process that, they act out. Do you want some trail mix?"

David just said his favorite part of trail mix is the raisins which is so cute. "They have a little bit of salt on them, which isn't typical for a raisin."

And he keeps telling chatters to watch their language.

David: "Who is my favorite camper? Aww, you know I couldn't pick a favorite! . . . But I know who has the most potential, even if he doesn't want to admit it."

I KNEW IT!!!!!

I've been saying for years that David doesn't have a favorite and gravitates towards the ones he thinks need him the most AND I FINALLY GOT ONE RIGHT!

David: "Well you know, Gwen swears and that's okay."

shipping intensifies

David: [gasp] "The moss is growing on the north side of the rock!"

Every time he nerds out about weird shit in the game I gain 3 seconds to my life.

Spencer: "Did you get teabagged?"

David: "What's that?"

Spencer: "It's where somebody places their most intimate bits on you for . . . friendship."

David: [softly] "Oh, I don't know about that."

Also David confirms that the whole show has been a single summer, so please see the "vindication" gif above.

David: "I know a lot of fun camp songs."

Spencer: "Sing 3."

David: [starts singing] "Bum-bum-bumblebee, bumblebee tuna, I love bumblebee, bumblebee tuna . . ."

Spencer: "Okay, please stop. I immediately regret this decision."

David: "Max said the same thing! One of my campers. And, uh, and my co-counselor, Gwen."

He's literally made of sunshine. I would die for this fictional man.

Spencer: "Are people at camp against their will? I feel like they are."

David: "No! . . . They don't always like it immediately, but it grows on them."

Spencer: "It sounds like they're there against their will."

David: "Well I just think that's a negative way of looking at it."

FWIW Spencer makes an excellent foil to David. Not as aggressive as Max or as dour as Gwen, but he brings a very . . . like, straight-man energy to the conversation. Like how a normal person would react to David IRL. I'd enjoy seeing these two interact more.

Spencer: "It's like your overpositivity is wanting me to balance it out with negativity."

David: "You know, I feel like that dynamic's pretty popular with me."

eeeeeeee <3

And the last one that I personally found noteworthy:

David: "One day we'll be able to afford safety equipment. Until then, we'll just have to deal with Quartermaster's Ropes Course. And a lot of pillows."

There's point near the last 20 minutes where either it got kinda boring or I just got too tired to keep track. But if there are any quotes you think I missed, please share them! This was a really lovely bit of content to feed our starving maw, and I appreciate Miles very very very much for taking one for the team.

[lochnessies]

ok here’s a dissection of a post an anon sent me the link to and bc i have the worst time management possible and i completely forgot i had it lol so sorry anon here you go ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men.

i hate to be the one to break this news to you op but just because a character doesn’t show skin like charlotte fire emblem doesn’t mean she isn’t designed to pander to men. she’s very much designed to pander to the (majority straight male) player base with her ‘uwu i only trust you professor omg did u see that rat? pls don’t look at my painting of you uwu’.

then there’s the whole edelgard c support in japanese where byleth makes reference to having come to her room for ‘yobi’ which is

there’s also the scene where byleth can make an unsolicited comment about edelgard’s breast size. which is… uhh… gross.

edelgard also has cipher cards that go from slightly fanserviceie to full on suggestive

and also her breast armor that my sister relentlessly mocked lol

and here’s a chart from the 3h subreddit about gender/sexually in regards to edelgard and edeleth. it’s extremely straight male. op might have just overlooked this since they probably don’t go on reddit and stay on tumblr (which unlike reddit is mostly female and has a high lgbt demographic).

Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero.

i don’t like where this is going…

She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated.

so women who cover up must be lgbt because straight women are naturally more revealing? oh y i k e s

Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind.

“titties don’t equal no substance but here’s my post on how she has more substance because she doesn’t show titties” ok

And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad). 

yes she does. amazing design 10/10. i have a feeling this is the only part i’m going to agree with

Edelgard is intense. She does not mince her words and she is constantly evaluating you. Though she tries, she has a difficult time understanding her peers initially. Early on, she talks about how she would sacrifice herself and others in the name of some greater good. She is terrible at communicating with her peers. She has to be seen as infallible. Her heart has been hardened for years and she assumes she has to stay that way. She also assumes everyone mourns the same way she does - which is why she (kind of insensitively) insists you move on when Jeralt dies. Because to her, grief has to be channeled towards action, or else you’ll get lost in it. This attitude is demonstrated time and time again as she presses on. It can make her come off as cold and unfeeling - but look closer, and she’s anything but.

don’t really have anything to say at this part. it is pretty on the nose though i would slightly disagree with that last sentence a bit. i wouldn’t say she’s as i feeling as hubert is but all of her talks of the war boil down to how she feels and never her victims.

Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace. 

????? what ????? her goals include imperialism, ethnic and religious targeting. her story is about having a set of beliefs and mowing down anybody who stands in her way. that has nothing to do with tea, friends, and lazy days. also am i supposed to be sad that she has to get up everyday and work? i do that and i didn’t start a war and only throw a pity party for myself

The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

this isn’t an ideal situation but i think i’m going to stick with the woman who tried to make me a god since i’m not selfish and i know it’s not only my desires and life at stake here. plus the green hair slaps ngl

Choosing her of your own volition (not for completionist reasons) requires the basic ability to sympathize with a woman’s pain. It also requires the player to read beyond her unwavering will and dubious methods to get a sense of how deep that pain goes and how the theme of humanity relates to her differently in each route.

i’m not going to touch this since @nilsh13 made a post on it that i’ll link here. i agree with everything he said so to repeat it would be redundant.

The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for.

literally the same reason i love rhea lol her goddess experiments are dubious at best but her reasons are the same you mentioned. i would say that i like this quality in edelgard too if her ending, while bloody, actually ended in a good outcome for fodlan.

This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system. 

i understand wanting to change a system, i really do. like edelgard, i’m an opinionated bisexual woman (who’s also physically disabled) so yeah i get it. and change can be good but it can also be terrible. even if the church was the boogeyman edelgard treats it as she still replaces it with her own shit regime. so it’s the same circus just with a new conductor.

I don’t think “Edelgard gets undue criticism because she’s a woman” captures the full picture. An important aspect of her treatment by certain parts of the fandom is that she’s a radical woman.

or maybe she does some pretty fucked up shit and it goes unacknowledged in her own route. and yeah she’s radical but in all the worst ways.

Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society. 

and what about people who have been hurt by systems where their ‘merit’ didn’t measure up and they were left behind? what about people from nations that experienced imperialism?

Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment.

yeah the ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ are used in relation to attempted murders which i think everybody can agree is a bad thing that needs to be condemned.

Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you.

it has literally nothing to do with ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ in regards to being gay or trans. that’s you projecting. especially since the church has 2 canon gay characters and two coded ones.

like i can understand why having a church condemn you can be uncomfortable but i’m begging you to please look at the context of what’s happening.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious. 

i was talking to nilish and he said

so yeah… while there is definitely sapphic femleth shippers out there, there’s still a whole lot of weird fetishizing going on from straight men about edelgard.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic. 

i can tell. this wasn’t supposed to be a dig but it came out that way and i’m not taking it out.

I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of.

so a gay revolution power fantasy (cringe) goes hand in hand with imperialism and installing a dictatorship? also the war had nothing to do with sexuality.

Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating.

edelgard gets to learn how to be human all while hunting those who don’t. and she doesn’t listen fo her friends. she doesn’t even trust them. she’s willing to talk to byleth but keep the people who’s been by her side for five years in the dark about everything. and yeah she gets to enjoy her new words since she’s on top. hate to be a commoner under her rule after she burned down my village in her war.

I love this character so much.

clearly. and i honestly don’t care if somebody likes her. i do as well even if my sometimes scathing words can make it seem otherwise.

It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her,

me too. please help me escape i’m losing my mind

because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil,

i mean, she does some fucked up shit that goes beyond any of the less than desirable actions of the other main characters and does an extremely poor job in trying to make herself seem innocent. i personally don’t think she’s pure evil but i completely understand where the people who say she is are coming from.

because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place. 

that’s big talk from somebody who implies that a gay pope is comparable to homophobic and transphobic irl religions and that leads an oppressive regime all because she uses the vague terms of sin and punishments that you have to gay power fantasy your way out of

[maliciouslycreative]

How I played damage control to an anti in a small anime fandom and may have led to her ultimate downfall

I know I had a really nice write up of this at one point but oh well. I’ll spill more of the tea in this one because honestly the tea was so hot.

There are a few things that I have to give context to first. Gaia online was like THE mega forum of the 2000s, you made a little avatar and through posting and doing other activities on the forum you made money to buy clothes for your avatar. There were forums for everything but the fannish portions were really what drew in most of the people. The anime I was into was Beyblade. It was a shonen anime about fighting with tops that were possessed by the spirits of magical creatures. The story was honestly pretty average but the characters were fantastic and the fandom is to this day still one of my favourites. The series had a primarily male cast and didn’t even have a female lead until the second season. This led to the fanfic for the English fandom being about 70% canon/OC, 10 % canon m/f, and 20% slash. The most popular character in the English fandom was by far Kai Hiwatari, the loner badboy of the team.

Also before we get started I would like to add that one of my best friends was neck deep in this and the two of us were more or less fandom married. This is the same friend that I fake dated, had feelings for, and she nearly got me into kpop in 2011 so like if you haven’t read that story please read it too because it will give you a good idea of how stupid I am and how much of a fanfic I have truly lived. 

To set the stage I was 16, soon to be 17 when I joined the fandom and it was 2004. In September of that year I wrote a humour longfic that became an absolute smash hit and I found myself somehow fandom famous. It was around this time that I joined Gaia online. I made my little avatar and immediately went looking for the beyblade thread so that I could make new friends. I found the main thread, made my little introduction and at the end of it mentioned that I was a slash writer but I supported all ships. This is where I met C. She had declared herself the authority on Beyblade in these parts and I had just committed the crime of mentioning slash which was very obviously not canon and we did not discuss in this thread because we only discussed canon things. I was like well that’s a bit severe but like sure whatever I just want to hang out and have fun. 

Oh boy did I have no idea what I was in for. 

C was a year older than me and unfortunately that made her older than the majority of the fans at the time. Her favourite character was Kai, and she was not shy about talking about this fact. She stanned Kai above all other characters, and often at their expense. She was also a fanfic writer of a popular canon/OC series. Actually, she was so full of herself that she didn’t even call herself a fanfic writer, no her stories were in fact novels and were apparently very good. I never read them. But more on that later. 

Eventually the slash fans got tired of her being rude to us in the general thread so we made a Beyblade slash thread. There was a core of like 8 or so of us and we honestly had sooo much fun. When C would be too unbearable in the main thread the people from there used to come over to our thread and we’d chat with them about non slash stuff because we were honestly all multishippers and just wanted to have fun. We’d get comments like “wow, I’ve had more pleasant canon het ship discussions in the slash thread than the regular thread”. We never worried about C coming over and getting upset about comments like this because she refused to be associated with anything related with slash lmao. 

I tried my best to keep the peace between C, myself, and the rest of the fandom because ultimately I hate being in fandom drama. I just want everyone to have a good time. I’m a people pleaser. Unfortunately my newfound fame put me in the awkward position of being the most fandom popular person in our small community aside from C. Virtually every fan that read fanfics that came into our thread knew one of us or the other by reputation and C HATED this. Especially because people would come in to the thread, recognise me and go “oh my goodness I love your fanfics!” and I’d be super sweet with them and it’d lead into “I can’t believe how nice you are, I love you” which would lead to us crying at each other. This was not the kind of fan interaction that C got, no her fans were more kind that were there to praise her and worship her like a deity that had blessed them with some gift. Rarely did they tell her how kind she was. 

Back in the mid 2000s there were really commonly those commercials (usually by Christian organisations) asking people to sponsor say children in Africa or to help build schools or provide drinking water. You all probably know the ones; know the language that they used in those commercials. My fandom wife, who I suppose I shall call wifey because yes we were THAT couple back then, once said that C described her fics like those people described donating money to save the lives of Children in Africa. So we used to joke that her fics were so good they’d save lives in Africa. Looking back at it all, she almost had a very fundamentalist Christian approach to bringing people into her fanfics. She of course tried to get all the slash people into reading it. None of us read canon/oc fic mostly due to our poor treatment at the hands of their fans and creators. Getting fed up I one day told her that if she would read any one of my fanfics that I would read the entirety of her novels. Yes, I was willing to commit to read a couple 100k of canon/oc fanfic that I’d never touch normally if she would even read one of my 1k 1 shots. Heck, I had a fic even that shipped 2 minor characters so she didn’t even have to sully herself reading about one of the main characters. It was honestly a good deal in her favour. I kept this up until the day we all left the fandom. Sometimes I do wonder if her fics were even ¼ as good as she claimed, but I will never know because she refused to read my fics. 

She wasn’t all bad and a tyrant all the time. As long as people kept the conversations on track and didn’t come in to the thread saying things like “KAI IS SO HOT ND T3H BEST N I AM GUN 2 MARRY HIM” she stayed mostly civil. It was always hilarious watching InuYahsa or Naruto fans try to come in and bad mouth Beyblade because they’d unleash the dragon and C was great at chasing off undesirables in the thread. 

The real apex of goings on though on Gaia was the guild drama. So guilds were like exclusive themed mini forums within Gaia. Anyone could buy one and run it however they want, as long as it still adhered to Gaia’s ToS. C of course was the owner of the only Beyblade guild. The fandom wasn’t really big enough to support 2 guilds so we just kind of let it go. Technically she allowed people to post slash fanfics but like everything had to be explicitly tagged and there was absolutely no slash RP. Wifey and I controlled a handful of minor characters together in the forum RP and definitely used to try to push the boundaries a little bit. Some ambiguous flirting here, a stray comment there. It was such a fragile balance though because C was heavy on the ban button. The active portion of the guild was just people that were in the cult of C and worshipped her writing. 

Understandably the other slash fans and myself were getting disheartened by this. So we pooled our funds together and decided that we’d open a second guild that though it was run by slash fans we would welcome anyone into our ranks. We just wanted to have a fun place for everyone to hang out, and to hopefully run a few events out of. In hindsight, we should have seen what would happen. When we opened the guild, with me as the guild leader, it was like somebody blew up the whole dam protecting the delicate ecosystem we had cultivated. Every single person in the Gaia fandom that was not a zealous follower of C applied to be in our guild and left her guild. We of course figured that we’d attract some of the gen population but we did not expect to accidentally poach all of it. All of the moderators were getting messages from people thanking us for giving them a place where they could say whatever they wanted without fear of getting their faces ripped off or banned. 

C lost her shit. She was so mad that we went behind her back to ruin her guild. We literally had to show her posts in the very public slash thread that we had been planning this in public and that it was not to ruin her life. We just wanted a place where we could freely post slash. The two of us had some spicy comments back and forth and then she dropped an absolute bombshell on me. Since Gaia’s mail system is terrible I unfortunately no longer have exactly what she said but it was something along the lines of “Ok, you win. I’m going to close my guild.”. Us slash fans had never been doing this to win anything. We had never been competing. We just wanted a safe space to be ourselves. 

C never joined our guild. The fandom slowly faded out within the next year anyway. We weren’t getting new content so naturally people just drifted into other fandoms. C kept up with the main Beyblade thread for a lot longer than most of us but eventually that eventually faded into obscurity too. 

I learned a lot about fandom bullies from those days. But honestly the thing that stuck with me the most out of everything was that if you provide a positive safe space for people they will flock to it. It may seem like there are so many hostile people out there, but there really aren't. They're the minority but they just make sure that their voice is the loudest. The best way is to ignore them and just do your own thing. The bullies just want attention and if you don’t give it to them and prove to them that their opinion doesn’t matter to you then they’ll move in and find something else to yell at.