#that's what we're all about here in this fandom

[redjennies]

*long sigh*

all right this is one of my most resurrected posts and to be quite honest, i think most people get what I'm saying here, but it could be clarified because the second it gets away from a circle of people who get it, people seem to lose the thread pretty quick. it was about a trend I noticed regarding the types of fans C3 was both attracting and whose voices were being heavily elevated within the fandom. with the campaign ending, it only feels right to say my final piece about it and be done with it.

first, this post is about whose stories and voices are centered in fandom. it is not about the cast (though having a predominantly white, culturally Christian, US American cast does influence it because they are telling stories from that lens.) it is not even really about the characters, themselves, and whether this is. it's about the fans, and specifically, it is about the lack of compassion and desire to understand, I see a particular type of white (often for lack of better word, "WASP"-y: raised middle class, culturally Christian, and/or US American/English/Canadian/etc) queer fan extend to anyone who falls out of an extremely narrow lens of "this is the default queer experience" or heaven forbid, to people who are not queer but are marginalized in other ways.

it is about how this phenomenon happens because they have been trained to see their queerness as their only identity (and therefore, in their arrogance, the only identity that matters) as it is the only thing about them that deviates from that WASP-y "default." through this lens, stories that are not relatable to that audience are largely ignored unless they are exceptional enough to be the "Academy-Approved POC Film of the Year" to be tokenized by white liberal audiences and stories that do touch on queerness but are primarily about other things like race/class/disability/etc are whitewashed into something more palatable for that hegemonic "default" audience to the point where it is practically unrecognizable from the original story. this is not unique to CR. this happens across all audiences and therefore, all fandoms.

clearly, this phenomenon leads to a problem in fandoms. if we are not extending empathy to the characters and stories that discuss perspectives that may be different than our own, than we will not be extending empathy to the real breathing humans who see their experiences (or the experiences of people they have known) in those stories. there was this post or article about why we need better POC representation that I read way back in the day and have never been able to find again that really stuck with me that said something along the lines of "we don't need representation because no black person can relate to George Costanza or Rachel Green. we already do. the problem is that white writers and audiences do not relate to black people and that shows through the kind of black characters white writers create." and I think that sentiment is relevant to what I'm getting at here. a lot of white queer fans on tumblr are often half-listening when a story is told, choosing to only pay attention when things are about them because at the end of the day, they have the privilege to do so. therefore, the fanworks they create reflects that lack of interest. the metas and fanon they write reflect that lack of interest. soon enough, the fandom itself reflects that lack of interest.

and worse yet, because queer people are an oppressed group (and to clarify, I don't want to come across like I'm saying just because we're white queers, we're not "really oppressed" or whatever), this lack of interest and compassion for people who are different than you becomes actively celebrated in fandom spaces. you have relatively privilege white queer people on tumblr loudly proclaiming characters only matter if they're gay, stories only matter if they're queer, and so on and so on. which on some level is fine if you prioritize reading and watching stories that have to do with queerness, but you do need to be aware of a massive bias you may have to what "queer stories" even are and how you are interacting with them and who you are leaving out. a great example of this is why every time there's a black bisexual male love interest in a video game, y'all keep calling him "too straight" and therefore "boring" and then getting mad and defensive when someone calls you on it. like I mean-- hit dogs holler. ¯\_(*ツ)_/¯

anyway, I was going to close with tying this concept back into CR and how there was a rot that permeated C3 and how this attitude straight up alienated a lot of fans. (god knows I got shouted out of this fandom until it got so dully unpleasant that I couldn't bring myself to give a damn anymore, and sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, I hope everyone who participated in the near constant harassment I received for the great crime of maybe being annoying as I made my little jokes and shared my thoughts has a bad fucking life. fuck you. learn how to use the block button.) but @utilitycaster who has been following this campaign as well as other actual play shows a lot more closely than I have already touched on that in a pretty dead-on post that I highly recommend.

so here is what I will end on, the phenomenon I've been describing throughout this post is in no uncertain terms, a form of bigotry, and as far as the people who have to live with that oppression are concerned, a queer bigot is not any less harmful than a straight bigot, in the same way a female bigot is not any less harmful than a male bigot. so if you sincerely want to your spaces to be more inclusive and aren't just saying that to "do a leftism," you have to accept your own part in that, regardless of who you are. you have to stop and pay attention to what kind of perspectives you might be ignoring, and stop immediately shouting at people because you interpreted what they said in bad faith. you have to learn how to just shut up sometimes and be a little reflective. i'm not always great at that, but it's a skill you have to practice even if you fuck up. you can always change your mind with new information and new ideas and new perspectives, but if you instinctively chase off everyone who might be willing to talk about something you've never considered before because you're more concerned about being right than learning, you're going to get a rot in your community that is really hard to get rid of once it festers enough. because if you've been told your whole life that the rot is the default and that it is normal and that it's the way it should be, you're never going to notice it's even there.

tbh the Critical Role fandom, along with most fandoms, has a problem with centering easily digestible metaphors for white queer experiences (and even then only those that check all the boxes of the purity list) at the cost of seeing stories through the lens of race, class, mental and physical disabilities and how those can intersect with queer experiences.

for example, putting an unnecessary amount of effort into proving Jester's attraction to Fjord is compulsory heterosexuality while ignoring that Fjord and Jester were both explicitly biracial characters from different class backgrounds and how that class difference intersected with their self image. a general refusal to really interact with Chetney as a character that is heavily coded as mentally ill and uninterested in being "cured." Veth being deemed the token straight Karen despite being a young rural mother of color struggling with addiction and having an arc that was heavily coded as trans, and Ashton, a nonbinary lower class punk with chronic pain, being considered just a man when it comes to ship wars. etc, etc.

[roguegambitweek]

Rogue/Gambit Week 2025

Hi everyone. Sorry about the long absence. We're back and so is Rogue/Gambit Week.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who participated in Rogue/Gambit Week 2024. There were so many wonderful contributions to the fanworks celebrating our favorite Southern couple. Rogue/Gambit Week wouldn’t be possible without all of you. Your creativity, your sharing, and encouragement is all part of what makes Rogue/Gambit Week a success.

And now for the announcement you've been waiting for. Rogue/Gambit Week 2025 will be June 15-21, 2025.

We will be taking prompt suggestions February 1-10, 2025. Then, the prompts will be open for voting on prompts will run from February 12-26, 2025 and the prompt reveal will be in early March.

Prompt suggestions can be something more general like “there was only one bed” or “love at first sight” or any of the tropes. Or, they can be more Romy-centric like “living in New Orleans” or “Romy in the MCU” or something like that.

Remember that we celebrate all version of Romy—from the comics to the movies to the comic series. You are invited to create in any (or all) of the universe. Also, if you are new to the fandom (welcome!) or have been around for a while (hi!) or returning after a hiatus (welcome home!), we would love to have you participate. You’re all welcome here.

We look forward to another great year full of Rogue/Gambit goodness and we can’t wait to see what you come up with.

[biancadoes1]

Listen I just don’t believe that there is any way that Luke can be both a Golden Retriever AND a Peter Pan frat boy at the same time. He’s one or the other. Fans have to decide who they think he is and either stay onboard or get off the lukola 🛳️.

I stan the golden retriever bc of the historical evidence of past relationships prior to S3/WT as well as what people who have met him have said about him. Golden retrievers have a really hard time pretending to be Peter Pan. Luke’s a brilliant actor but he’s no Peter Pan in real life. To me that’s what I saw in last night’s PR.

Do we all just wish they’d stop this nonsense? This GenX doesn’t need the heart palpitations so yes I do. It’s ok to take a mental health day folks.

Exactly.

You have to decide what you think is going on here.

We won't be getting any clarification on ANYTHING and if we do, we can hope its blatantly obvious no matter the outcome. This gray area is what makes it hard to decipher.

Unless it becomes very clear to the fandom itself (the GA doesn't count because the GA doesn't care), this screams cover/PR/whatever else call it.

A lot of people need to leave or take a step back completely. Possibly, this is what they want. I'll remain where I'm at until we're told otherwise.

Last night told me performative.

[solifloris]

UH ! AHEM ! taps mic... happy february !! this is @rose-tinted-kalopsia by the way.. HFJWMFN HEAR ME OUT !!!!!! I SWEAR IT'S ME !!!!! 😭😭😭

long story short, tumblr complications ... and my main (previously @roxierosies-main) was mistakenly terminated, so i ended up losing access to all my side blogs for the time being 😭💔 i haven't heard back from support yet, but i am expecting it to take a while (like... a month or maybe two...) to restore :( and like. i still really wanted to be able to write and find somewhere to archive and share them (and continue lnds shitposting lmfao) wjdnsnfhs SO...!!!! now we have this blog 🤲

why solifloris? HONESTLY im taking this opportunity to rebrand a lil hehe. so once i do get my blogs back, i'll be switching url's and rebranding as solifloris for real !!! :3

so what's on this blog? WELL !!!!!!! a while back i promised a valentine's event and i def don't want to go back on that promise...... so that's what you'll find here in the meantime! 🥰🥰 BUUUUUTT if in the case (though hopefully not 😭) it takes more than two months to restore or i don't hear back from support.. at all.... THEN i'll be using this as my new writing blog, and keeping @rose-tinted-kalopsia as an archive for my existing works! 🤲

what about your ongoing series? i knoww 😭 i still have "youtiful" and "to you who shines the brightest (i'll give you everything)" ongoing, so this does mean that in two months' time if i don't get my account back, these are the first i'll be reposting here so i can continue them!!!

we're going to hope i still get my blogs back, and soonest ... but for now 🤧 this is where you'll find me !! and i SWEAR it's me guys, my mutuals can vouch for this, i promise 😭🤲

TL;DR—

this is a temporary/backup writing blog bc i'm currently locked out! 💖

prev writing blog (in the process of retrieving access to): @rose-tinted-kalopsia

new main (you'll get follow/like/ask notifs from): @sunmerberrie

navigation links (from @rose-tinted-kalopsia): pinned post / rules / masterlist / fandom+character list / request guide / taglist / ao3

++ signal boosting @hunters-association , and also generally to anyone hehe i'd appreciate the reblog to spread the word hehe thaaankkk youuu!!! 💖

[aniseandspearmint]

Caveat on the 'constructive criticism' point, most authors don't mind you mentioning it if you spot an actual error in the story, like a formatting issue, or a spelling mistake, or a continuity error.

BUT don't have that be the ONLY thing you say in the comment, thats rude. Talk about what you enjoyed in the story first! Leave the gentle 'hey i noticed a thing' for last, okay?

Its also rude to push if you notice the 'error' you pointed out isn't corrected later, or the author doesn't respond. Some people don't care about those things and thats fine.

Over all, just be POLITE and even fandom etiquette faux pases are something you can walk back. Respect the authors preferences. Apologize if you step on toes. We're all here to have fun, you know?

Reminders for new ao3 users (in no particular order):

- filter your searches like you would on a library website or in an online catalogue

- don’t post placeholders, fic searches, or recommendations as fics. DON’T! It’s against ao3 TOS

- there is no algorithm. ao3 sorts by date posted/updated unless you filter with specific search criteria

- ao3 is a non profit. that means it doesn’t sell ads to make money — it only survives on donations. this is why it can show you so many fics without ever flashing an ad or pop up at you!

- report fics that break TOS when you see them (I.e., placeholder fics, searches) to help other users navigate better

- the tag “dead dove, do not eat” doesn’t equate to gore/awfulness automatically. it is a complementary tag that enhances current tags. E.g., if the fic is tagged “gore” and “dead dove, do not eat” the author really wants you to mind the gore tag

- most fandoms have a variation of “no beta, we die like (x character)” and they all link back to the “No beta” tag

- publishing a new fic sometimes means it won’t show up in the fandom/pairing tag for a few minutes

- subscribers receive update emails at different times, depending on when you update/publish your fic. there’s no good way to predict when an e-mail will be sent — it can be in 30 seconds, or two hours later

- some fics are restricted by authors to those with ao3 accounts only. if you see a blue lock in the upper right corner, that fic is only visible to logged in ao3 users

- you can block commenters now! this didn’t use to be a thing

- updating a fic just to stay at the top of the pairing tag/fandom tag is a dick move. unless you’re legitimately editing or adding chapters, this just annoys readers and fellow authors, and people will skip over your fic

[temporary-joyride]

Thoughts I am Thinking about after Bridon finale

In love with the frame of unimpressed LG and distressed CXS after the latter thinks his friend signed him up for sex work

Episode name fits. A perplexing one indeed.

"Why is it every time you look at me you have this murderous intent in your eyes?" is such a killer line I love it

The whiplash I got from Vein speaking perfectly normal Chinese only to bust out "what a pity!' in the most British accent ever

No way it means literally anything but I just found it interesting how Vein and LX say the same phrase in this ep. Different circumstances, same conclusion. What a pity.

"They say she can see right through someone in just 5 minutes" really great psychologist? Ranpo-level detective? Got some sort of other supernatural shenanigans running amuck? Only time will tell

THINKING SO HARD ABOUT "I know I can't stop you. But I can make you stay a little longer" SHAKING LINK CLICK BY ITS SHOULDERS- WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? WHAT EXACTLY DOES HE MEAN BY THAT???

The FUCK do you know, LG? It's ok you can tell me

So much to talk about but I'm 100% caught up on this. "But I can make you stay a little longer" I'm gonna leave the Xia Fei and CXS mom stuff to you guys, I'll take care of this one and think about it every waking second for the next two weeks dw

Allowing CXS an extra few moments to connect with his mom? Mmmmm sure. It's not like CXS promised to drop it all and not get anyone else involved, not like LG would have any way of knowing mother and son were talking unless son broke that promise

Genuinely not even joking I thought LG was trying to delay Vein by a few moments to get him hit by a bus or something

What exactly happened is even crazier. What was that, man. What was that. My guy's doing voodoo over here when did he learn that.

"I don't want to change the past. I just want to lead us all to a new future.." not entirely sure those statements are all that different but go off

LG screwed as hell Xia Fei was so serious about finding his boss's killer.

Or... non-killer? How long do you think until he learns Vein is still alive?? Imagine Xia Fei killing CXS in their photo studio in Vein's stead. Picture it. I'm having a vision here.

Pretty fun season but maybe a little awkward? Perhaps just because of the fandom on tumblr but I feel like I was so freaking immersed s1&2 but Bridon felt so silly at times I couldn't take it seriously

hrnngh one timeline, he says. over and over. what does it all mean. how does fate play out. if we're looping only one timeline multiple times then why does it feel like it's slipping through my fingers. the clock is melting right here in my palm. ripples in the stream at my feet. im not sure where the present even is anymore-

time's up!

[chaifootsteps]

https://www.tumblr.com/chaifootsteps/774187706168360960/im-really-surprised-they-didnt-go-for-a-stolas

honestly I feel like the fandom is in real denial about this. I've deadass seen a fanfic or two that uses this exact premise that came out before Sinsmas where Stolas is still depressed but is grateful for what Blitzo does for him and is at least somewhat aware of the fact that he is a financial burden on him and does say something nice to Blitzo once in a while

then the episode proper comes out and Stolas never says a single nice thing to Blitzo, never says thank you, never shows any self awareness about what a financial burden he is and how he's never worked a day in his life. even when Blitzo gives him a job to do to earn money, Stolas immediately messes it up both accidentally and completely on purpose when he's rude to the client, tries to trash the office and ditches to go try and make up with Via after a month of doing nothing (none of which he's ever called out for)

I can only think some of the fandom is just engaging in a never-ending game of kicking the can down the road - they still believe their sweeter fanon Stolas who actually is flawed but somewhat redeemable (if you take their reading of murder family just being questionable and not obviously coercive like it was in s1) is going to show up any second. and when anyone points it out they just say 'it'll come next episode! it'll come this season!' even when we've already seen from s2 that the show has little interest in addressing Blitzo's issues with Stolas because they've decided they're done with that and Blitzo just loves him now despite there being no chance on his part re: the classism

alternatively they just love the show they've made up and not what it actually is.

it really says something to me that even the defensive fans on TV Tropes have an Abandon Shipping entry for the central relationship of the show. deep down I think they're realizing this is a very bad idea of a relationship even if they want to argue all day that Stolas isn't 90% of the problem here

I wish more of them realized that there's absolutely no shame in saying "Fuck this nonsense and fuck canon, we're giving them the story they deserve." A lot of them act like it's a betrayal of Viv and the canon story, and putting aside whether Viv deserves betraying (she does), it's not one. It's the entire point of fandom. It's why we're all here.

[tragic-ships-tournament]

HOLY SHIT TIME FOR THE SEMI FINALS

The quarter finals are wrapped up now, and now it's finally time to determine the winners of both brackets. As you know, both winners of the brackets will be facing head to head in the finals in a week long brutal brawl-

But we're not talking about that right now.

You know the drill, let's get to the highlights.

Today we had 4 eventful rounds, each with their own drama and notable things. Let's start with the easiest one.

Destiel VS Dorian and Basil was in fact, an incredibly clean sweep for Destiel. Oof, sorry Oscar Wilde stans. But we all know that this is Tumblr after all.

Cherik VS Chainshipping. Ah yes, classic Superhero yaoi VS classic horror yaoi. But surprisingly, classic horror yaoi took it!? Really!?!?! I was shocked too, oof.

Oh lord, Enjoltaire VS Madohomu. This was intense. Fierce pushback from both sides as the scores flipflopped the whole entire time. Everyone was pointing to this video by George Blagden, also known as GRANTAIRE IN THE LES MIS MOVIE- which was one of the foundational texts of Enjoltaire as a ship. Fun fact, said video recently hit 1,000,000 views. Go watch it to give it a million more. But alas, we said goodbye to the french revolution gays this round in favor of the timeloop gays.

Okay now, this is the one you've been waiting for. The real tragic event of this round. Janice and Melina VS Orphydice. This matchup alone warrants it's own post. Or maybe an hour long video essay. Saying it was crazy would be an understatement.

Fans from both sides came pouring in. Artists arrived and all offered their support for Orphydice, and gave doodles to those who did the same. But the real sensation here is the Layton fandom all banding together. An out-pour of support rushed in, each giving their reasons why their tragic yuri should win.

leading the charge was @layton-heritage-posts, stopping at no point to continuously reblog and divert the undecided to their cause. They even rbed on all their different sideblogs in an abuse of power (which i support btw, go get your bread)

And right there with them was @darklight-owl, who even made a discord server (which you should totally join btw) just to get a watch party of The Eternal Diva.

Even I found myself rooting for the Eternal Divas. I reblogged the post, saying that if they were to win I would watch the full movie myself. Spoiler alert I did not.

On the other side there was the return of @hercarisntyours, here to take revenge for what Janice and Melina did to Oplita in the first round, putting out propaganda left and right.

And in lieu of the tournament, the Hadestown socials confirmed a proshot being filmed on the West End with the original cast as their own form of propaganda! Just for the tournament! Not for any other reason! (Anaïs Mitchell if you're reading this I would make a great Orpheus pls)

The two sides fought valiantly over 3 long days.

But in the end, as the dust settled, there was only one winner. Taking the victory by 0.1%, was none other than Orphydice. Guess it's Janice and Melina's turn to look back.

...Annyyywaayyyyyy crazy matchups aside, let's get to our bracket! :D

Feast your eyes, reader. This right here is the final ass full bracket for the Tragic Ships Tournament. God, it's been a long long tournament. I'll save the sappy stuff for the semi final wrap up post, but now it's the final stretch to determine once and for all... What is the ultimate tragic ship?

Semi Finals will be posted February Third at 8:00 AM EST. Be there or be square.

[on-wine-dark-seas]

So what finally convinced you to selfship?

Whew, this might actually net me some disdain, resentment, etc, but...I'm gonna power through this because I have a lot of opinions, and I wanna make it clear why I'm taking on this challenge.

So full disclosure: I don't actually really like Reader fics. It's not that they're not well-written. On the contrary, a majority of them are brilliant, and most of my favorite fics in this fandom are Reader[ish] fic. Now, the reason I don't like this is not because of the second-person perspective. I'm a longtime gamemaster, writing and speaking in second-person doesn't bug me. I've read The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Second-person can be a rad storytelling element.

What bugs me is the obvious farce of Reader fic.

I know a lot of writers and artists try their best to keep descriptions of the Reader out of their narration, but it almost always manifests and becomes glaringly obvious that the Reader is their OC stripped of name and defining physical characteristics. Even in the art, it's very clear that Y/N is an OC or a generic, skinny, white, feminine body.

Now, here's the issue: I'm a dark skinned Black woman with curly/kinky hair, and I'm not skinny or perceived as delicate [despite my best efforts]. When I see descriptions about my fave supposedly combing their hands through my hair, or my lips being plush and pink, or my CHEEKS TURNING PINK WHEN I BLUSH, I immediately separate myself from the Reader and replace it with what is obviously the writer's OC or self-insert. And there's absolutely no shame in them doing that! I am the CEO of the OC x Canon agenda, and I will always push for people to be fearless in creating OCs.

And so much of the Reader fic is making it painfully obvious that that's what everyone wants to do, and because no one wants to risk losing readers/views/kudos/comments at best, or being labeled the dreaded Mary Sue at worst, we get inundated with a lot of fanfic and fanart that clearly have heavy OC overtones.

I never see myself as the Reader because the writers are never visualizing me when they're writing the Reader. It's not even about the choices Reader makes in a fic, it's the obvious coding of the Reader's appearance, if that makes sense? I'm sure other Black women in fandom can relate.

So, because of this, I can't feel truly immersed in the story as if I'm the protagonist because the Reader is not me.

Does this look like a fragile, delicate, wide-eyed ingenue waiting to be seduced by the big, bad wolf? No. I am a woman of many vibes: I fuck. I fight. I curse. I spit blood and I dance until the sun comes up. I can also be very soft and sweet and affectionate [just ask the polycule], but most importantly: I'm Black as fuck; not just in appearance, but culturally. I come from Nigerian and American parents. I have a very rich cultural background that shapes and influences everything about me. And none of that is ever reflected in the Reader fics I read, and even some of the ones supposedly featuring a Black reader are holding back in significant ways. Yes, even the ones I praise and laud endlessly. Again, it's not about the quality of the writing, it's about the principle at its core.

And how could I ever expect a writer to account for a person like me in their stories? Why would I ever expect them to? Reader fics ring false for me because there's too many unique people out there to settle for generic nondescript details about the literal protagonist. And I have the misfortune of being in a fandom where that is mostly all there is to read. As a result, I have to do some extra mental gymnastics to enjoy reading fic. I would rather be reading about other people's OCs, if we're being honest.

I got tired of reading fic where I still felt like an interloper or outsider in a story that is supposedly about ME. And I decided to take the plunge and write a story that actually features me as the protagonist and love interest. Not the Reader. The Writer. I'm definitely not the first, and I hope I'm not the last. I feel like this is the natural progression for someone who exclusively writes OC x Canon.

On the other side of this, I understand why Reader fic has become so popular in the fandom. It's an easy way for people to get eyes on their work because now the readers feel like they can be invested in the story because the protagonist is them. And for some people, that's enough. But for those of us who are already ostracized, ignored, and even abused in fandom, and treated as Other, this is not always the case. It's not as easy as slipping into a new coat cut exactly to my size, and more like I'm in the writer's closet trying on their clothes and realizing that we're nowhere near the same size for me to be in there at all.

I hope the people who actually rock with me and my writing enjoy The Invitation when I finally release it. It's turning out to be a point of pride for me, and most importantly: the story is about me.

[utilitycaster]

The reason those C3 fans shit the bricks over the Charity stream was because they viewed the charity stream as a win for them and bells hells. Not like you know, an actual good thing to help people in need. Because when it was announced they were in the qrts and on twt yelling that the cast closing to play as Bells Hells was cause they loved them above all. That BH were "winning" because MN didn't get one shots while airing. No1 expected anyone BUT BH to be played so they were fighting air tbh.

[Cont. So when Laudna got yeeted and Beau joined it, it's like they suddenly hit with the fact that the cast like all the times. All character sheets were available and BH was being played by default of the one shot happening during c3. But they hung their entire world view on BH being extra special that they broke. Saw them also being PISSED at Ashley and Liam for getting MN members to the top before everyone else and especially the gate was "showing up BH".]

Here is what gets me, as a person who does not follow sports in any form: The Mighty Nein are a juggernaut of popularity within the fandom. I think this is for the most part deserved and I also think a lot of fans of C1 who never vibed with any later campaigns are simply not active in fandom any more since it's been 7 years, and Critical Role had more recognition with Campaign 2, so like, numbers within active social media fandom are not a perfect indicator of quality, itself a subjective measure.

HOWEVER. If you want your team to win, the most efficient way to do that is to start rooting for the winning team. I get that this is considered treasonous to genuine fans of sports. But like, if your biggest priority is Number Is Bigger then there is an obvious solution and it's called jumping on the bandwagon. Otherwise, perhaps you should consider a different metric, such as "did I have fun at this game? Were the snacks good? Were there some cool plays?" (from this you can see my priorities re: live sports namely are my friends here and did I get some nachos and a beer but you get my point). Honestly, this is how I and a lot of other people have been approaching Bells Hells week to week for some time now: were there some cool scenes? Did the character they liked most at the time say something funny? Did NPCs do anything? Were the fight mechanics interesting?

I have a post that I am saving for next week about specific elements of C3 that goes into more depth but I feel like Campaign 3's fandom in particular fell to a certain attitude that feels very specific to a younger (to me, an ancient crone, so like, mid-20s) crowd, of obsessing over numbers: how many fics. how many notes. how much screentime. can you believe that Episode 100 didn't even have Bells Hells in it????? And it's like. who the fuck cares. Is it good? Is it satisfying? Because right now we're watching you guys all admit it hasn't been and 120 episodes in you were waiting for the campaign to REALLY begin.

I don't think the cast dislikes Bells Hells! I think they all like all of their characters, and frankly when the cast gets asked directly a lot of them go with a "you never forget your first" and give their VM character anyway so like, the vitriol at the Mighty Nein really is a petty popularity contest in the end. But Bells Hells are the party that the cast happened to be playing during the Moon Plot Campaign and the party that the cast happened to be playing at the time of the livestream. None of the three main parties are uniquely special. They are special to their individual fans.

I made the Elon Musk comparison for C3 fans earlier this week and I don't want to go too hard since like, he is truly horrible, and I do think that a lot of C3 fans, while currently shitty self-absorbed people, are also quite young and it is my hope that a sharp but ultimately harmless disappointment like this campaign might shock them into fixing their hearts, but the final lines of this post came to mind while writing up a lot of my responses: "And in fact I would argue that seeking to put yourself above other people is inherently going to leave you empty, because egotistical as you may be, you've adopted a values system where your sense of self worth intrinsically depends on other people. Congratulations, you played yourself."

If your day can be ruined because your blorbo wasn't present for 100% of a live stream for charity and the cast likes all of their characters? You should work on that! I'm not saying it's easy or fun but it really is a thing you should work on because right now, the worst thing that's going to happen to you is people laughing at your misfortune on social media. But if you keep up this behavior, you're going to be bitter and miserable forever, and it will be your own fault because you're getting mad that something that was never about you continues to not be about you. Learn to accept that you had a good time (if you had a good time, anyway) and it's over and that's okay.

[miri-tiazan]

Fresh from the archives, new unhinged 00Q chatfic!

So, @cicerfics and have been writing unhinged 00Q chatfics and headcanons back and forth in DMs for uh… going on two years now, and it seems like perhaps the time has come to unearth some of these from the archives and dust them off for sharing. Accordingly, here is the very first chatfic we did, inspired by this comment thread on Ch. 7 of cicer’s delightful fic the warmth of your doorways!

tags: omegaverse, mpreg, weird omegaverse hormone nonsense, menopause

---

miri-tiazan: Oh God. Cicer. Doesn’t even have to be mpreg but…

Omega Bond going into his first heat in decades and just spontaneously deciding that Q’s flat is the Only Acceptable Location to nest in. They’re not even dating! Bond’s just broken in a few times! Q has no idea why this is happening!

Q just gets an alert from his home security system one day and Bond is There and he’s like, refinishing the window trim in the second bedroom or something. And also he won’t leave. Surprise, Q! You have a roommate, and he’s hormonal! Enjoy your new home improvements!

cicerfics: ...Okay, now that we're talking about this, you know what I'm a little bit obsessed with right now? The entire question of menopause in omegaverse. I don't think I've ever seen an a/b/o fic REALLY explore that concept, but now it's fascinating to me!

Like, what if nesting is a thing omegas only do when they're pregnant OR going through menopause? What if Bond (having never been pregnant) never experienced any of these instincts/urges and thought he was impervious to them? What if he hits 44/45, enters perimenopause, and is absolutely BODIED by the urge to:

a) Acquire a nice house b) Renovate, refurbish, and redecorate it c) Learn to cook d) Start a lil herb garden or something and maybe make some pesto??? e) Acquire a lover/companion to feed up and care for f) Acquire some pets/babies/random houseplants/literally anything that requires his protection and nurturing

Poor dude has ZERO experience with these types of urges. But when they appear, they hit him like a TRUCK. And his own flat is way too cold/sterile/crappy/lonely for proper nesting. There aren't even any cats or quartermasters in there!!

So, yes: one day Q gets home from work and Bond has simply annexed his flat/cats/kitchen. There are already overflowing bags from the hardware store scattered around the flat, because Bond has made up his mind that three different rooms need to be repainted, the bathroom needs a complete reno, and oh yeah, he's replacing the sofa because this one simply Isn't Right. The vibes are Bad. Bond Doesn't Like It, so it's gotta go.

Also, there's pasta sauce simmering on the stove and probably a trifle waiting in the fridge, and the cats are wearing new designer collars.

And sorry Q, but if you didn't want a hormonal new housemate/husband who is going through The Change...too bad. You got one anyway! He's here to stay...and no, he doesn't understand what's happening to his body/mind, either. Good luck, everybody!!

Continued on AO3 here:

00Q Chatfics and Assorted Headcanons (2391 words) by cicer, miri_tiazan Chapters: 1/? Fandom: James Bond (Craig Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: James Bond/Q Characters: James Bond, Q (James Bond) Additional Tags: Omegaverse, Mpreg | Male Pregnancy, weird omegaverse hormone nonsense, Menopause Summary: Lightly edited chat transcripts between cicer and miri_tiazan: some live-written fics, some random headcanons, some plot-free fluff, all 00Q!

[helreginn]

For sure! We used to greeters to make people feel welcome. I understand why we don't anymore, as most sit unanswered but it was something!

And we used to reblog memes from each other, not the source and it was how we engaged and it made us more aware of reblog karma. Rebagle a meme, send a meme.

And I'm gonna be REAL contentious right here and say that some MuMus simply have too many muses. A lot of them, actually.

When you have that many muses across so many fandoms it can feel very difficult to track and gauge which fandom you are even part of. Sometimes I click on muse lists and I just close the entire blog because there are about 200 subheaders/categories before I even GET to the muses.

I think it's very impressive that so many people CAN rp so many beautiful and exciting muses at once. A lot of my favourite RPers, I just sit in awe of how they can so fluidly change between ten muses an hour but when blogs used to be themed, even as far as MuMus (Eg, all Supernatural muses or all Viking muses) it was a lot easier to engage with those blogs rather than ones you follow and you even sorta have to check back every 2 months to be sure the muses you liked writing with that partner are still even on the roster. (Not to mention unless you're making a promo for each tv show / fandom you're losing half the opportunity to interact with those fandoms because they ARE so small now. And few people are gonna do that)

And half the breakdown of the RPC, I don't even think is the RPCs fault.

Every fix we got for what Tumblr took from it's previously functioning website is kinda clunky.

As a whole, you can see where the userbase has really grown up a lot. We're busy we're tired and our tags don't work. I love pages like @indiestarter that are helping to broadcast peoples' opens because the tags just don't cut it anymore as far as finding and being found in the RPC.

And then we can't have themes easily anymore so it's all google docs and carrd and that's great but it's just not the same as being able to click through someone's tumblr and read their threads, read their bios etc all on one page.

Tumblr as a whole has shifted from a reblogging website. Nobody reblogs peoples' gifs/art etc anymore. Across RPC and just general tumblr. But that carries back over to us in that we are now afraid to reach out. To busy peoples' notifs.

It's fairly obvious the people that have the most fun are the ones that DO reach out willy nilly and just fuck around and be cracky and jokey and talk ooc. But we're all chicken butts (Myself included) and don't reach out very much anymore.

And THEN when we do, tumblr hates us and we don't get notified of our IMs anymore either.

TLDR, we can't go back to that tumblr culture because tumblr itself is broken now. :T

hello my loves! i've been having this conversation on my main rp blog for a few days now, and so i decided to bring it here and have it with you guys too. before we go any further, please respect one another in the comments, this is just a little conversation about our thoughts and opinions!

so i've been on tumblr since 2015, meaning i've seen a lot of different eras in the rpc here! and it occurred to me that even back in 2018/2019, things in the rpc felt a LOT easier! we had dash events, group verses, people seemed to find it much easier to interact with their mutuals, we were a lot more relaxed about out absences and just generally seemed a lot happier and more of a community!

my question is this: do you think the rpc was better in the past? and if so, what do you miss specifically? what do you think needs to change for the rpc to be more of a community?

[arcticclimes]

There's been an incident on Terror.

[chaosxcrushed]

There's a certain CCCC summary video that we really, really like. We think it is a great video for people if they want to grasp the story more clearly, if they're confused, or if they're listening to the album for the first time.

That video being Chonny Jash and the Weight of the Mind on Youtube by W3tBl@nk3t. We think they cover it really well.

However, I'm sharing this for a different reason; they say few certain things that really struck with us until now, that I'd like to share with the fandom. Sometimes, we see people really just.. Miss the point of CCCC entirely, and I'd like to shine a light on what was said here. If you'd like to hear this for yourself on video, the timestamp is 35:57-36:45.

“..I bet we all could relate to that, they are the prime example of the side of you that suffers and the side of you that hates yourself for suffering:

The side of you that just wants to slow down and feel everything even to the unhealthy extent of not being able to do anything else(1), but also the side of you that so desperately wants you to get over it(2).

Sure, laying in bed all day every day to rot isn't healthy, but neither is boiling things down and invalidating your own emotions. Both are paths to inevitable disaster, and that's what Chonny is doing here. Keep in mind that the idea behind this album is being whole, and that means neither of these sides are entirely in the right or the wrong; this album is about inner compromise and acceptance(3).”

1.) The side of you that suffers; Heart. He is representative of Whole's emotions, he holds them. Your emotions can go haywire, especially when one's mentally ill and has no way of their feelings being validated. An emotional person like Heart suffers under the weight of crushing, devastating feelings. He wants to feel things out, have time to just process everything, even if it takes them days or weeks to get over it. It's not healthy, but feeling is what he does, and he wants to help because he knows he has importance. Solely focusing on just your emotions isn't the best thing to do, however.

2.) The side of you that so desperately wants you to get over it; Mind. Many people have been there, have wanted themselves to stop wallowing in their own emotions and just do something else, even to the point where you think feeling things out is unnecessary. This is also unhealthy, but not intentionally. Like Heart, Mind just wants to help, everything he does is in best interest. This is what he thinks will get them to move on the quickest; to leave behind emotions and focus on anything BUT that. Also not the best thing to do.

3.) This album is about inner compromise and acceptance; About being whole. Neither of Heart and Mind are right nor wrong. They have their own ways of doing things, of what they think will help their whole self out the most, but both are unhealthy despite the good intentions. They fight over who's wrong or right, when they shouldn't even be doing so in the first place. It's your thoughts against your emotions, basically; your feelings contradict your thoughts, and it leads to an inner war of sorts. This won't make things better, which is why you can't have Mind over Heart or vice versa; you'll need both of them. In the album, they are only able to be whole when they get along. They harmonize, they 'combine', they see eye to eye with each other and work together instead of fighting over and over. Inner compromise is achieved with this, and acceptance can lead them away from any disaster that there's to come.

What we're trying to say is that mental health is a large thing tackled within CCCC, and yet we see a lot of people who overlook it; thus, end up missing the point of the whole album. We see a lot of people believe Mind's perspective a little too much and treat Heart quite harshly, or the other way where people demonize Mind and say that Heart is perfect, when it's not really that in the slightest.

This is not a hate post towards people's interpretations of CCCC or how they view characters, I'm just saying that people can tend to overlook what's in the very narrative, and we see a concerning amount of people do such.

Anyways. Stream CCCC and put your Hearts and Minds in the get along shirt. Have a nice day.

[honig-dachs]

there it is

[compacflt]

YOU'RE ALIVE??? - my reaction upon seeing your most recent reblog

Anyway, your fic and blog single-handedly kickstarted my U.S. military history obsession <3

im alive!!!! yeah I've been away for a while. it, ah... has not been a grrrreat time to be a military historian or a Big Fan of military propaganda pieces like Top Gun for the last year or so...

lmfao I just saw that the second trump admin plans to haul up all the commanders in charge of the Afghanistan withdrawal (which HE negotiated btw) in front of congress with the plan to charge them all with TREASON per the UCMJ (good fucking luck dude)

but um in my timeline... that includes navy secretary 2021-2022 tom iceman kazansky, bro... so in case you're wondering what these characters are up to in the present day apparently the answer is "getting investigated for treason." sorry to bring down the mood. my happy ending's a little sour now.

mostly I've been insanely busy. I graduate university in may & have to have a journalism capstone, an English research thesis (my paper on military commanding officers in fiction inspired by my top gun fics tbh) and a creative writing capstone (novel) done by march. plus job applications, work for the place where im currently freelancing, apartment hunting... so im a wee bit crunched lately.

some minor updates for anyone who still cares: I am, extremely slowly, still editing WWGATTAI & the other stories. I've finished a complete overhaul of the Carole-dies chapter, chapter 7, but have yet to post it because I'd like to sync a logistical change in the story across the other pieces. and I'm mostly done with a COMPLETE overhaul of chapter 6 (aka "the nineties" chapter where ice & mav move in together & build their family) which goes into much more detail about how... emotionally and logistically... they could pull that off. + a lot more baseball stuff + the Clinton sex scandal. which leaves just chapter 10 left to do. ugh, my least favorite, which is why im putting it off... and then debriefing etc. which won't take as long because I don't honestly care about debriefing at all and I just have very minor changes to make to it. slider doesn't need editing and idgaf about the other pieces.

once I finish with the edits, which will happen eventually I swear because more than anything I just want to hold the updated edited final thing in my hands the way I did with the first draft, I'll upload my pdf (with meta analysis and notes that go back to mid-2022) for u guys to do with as you wish

also for the m:i doubleheaders I am planning on editing my m:i fic pre-m:i8 next year and pending ilsa life status will write much much more