#the fanfic part of the fandom is especially dead so most of these are old

[ywpd-translations]

Fic rec! (part 1)

Here are some of the fanfics I have bookmarked on my AO3! I have a few more, so I'll do a part 2 of this soon enough. All of these fics are amazing, so please go read them and show the author some love!

If you have fics to recommend please share them!!

Under read more because it got long~

Makishima/Toudou (TouMaki)

Yowamushi Pedal Three Sentence Fics by mikkimouse (Toudou/Makishima / Fluff / 1282 words /Teen and Up audience. It's a collection a lovely short stories!)

Hanging on the Line by Jaela (Toudou/Makishima / 2026 words / Fake relationship / general audiences)

five times they didn’t kiss and one time they did by Yellow (Makishima/Toudou / 4003 words / 5 times / general audiences)

Aoyagi/Kaburagi (AoKabu)

reminisce by foodandfandom (Aoyagi/Kaburagi / 1253 words / general audiences /Kabu has a crush but of course he's oblivious about it /beautiful beautiful fic, I love it with all my heart)

Imaizumi/Naruko (ImaNaru)

on the west mezzanine by monkeyingaround (Imaizumi/Naruko / 3743 words / Teen and up audience / literally one of my fave Imanaru ever!!)

your hands on my cheeks (your shoulder in my mouth) by monkeyingaround (Imaizumi/Naruko / 6115 words / Explicit / basically the nsfw version of the previous one! Just as amazing)

Your Eyes by Allen_Nara (Imaizumi/Naruko / 4018 words / fluff, kissing, touching / Mature)

Butterflies by LadyMarshmallow (Imaizumi/Naruko / 1326 words / fluff, mostly Imaizumi's thoughts / not rated)

Manami/Onoda (SanSaka)

I can still use it by sky_prince (Manami/Onoda / 3913 words / general audiences / so so beautiful, this author really has a way with words)

Kinjou/Arakita (KinAra)

ready to start by joestars for phantomdoodler (Arakita/Kinjou / 3047 words / Fluff / General audiences)

do you want to be with somebody like me? by joestars (Arakita/Kinjou /3082 words /domestic fluff, getting together / Mature / god i absolutely adore this!)

third time's the charm by kinjoy (Arakita/Kinjou / 2115 words /Fluff, first kiss / general audiences)

time to go home by softintelligence (Arakita/Kinjou / 4165 words / magical realism /teen and up audiences)

Danchiku/Kaburagi

Trial Run by GingerCinnamon (Danchiku/Kaburagi / 1749 words / love confessions / general audiences /absolutely adorable)

Urakubo/Niwazuma (NiwaUra)

a beginning colored blue by championhestu (Urakubo/Niwazuma / 1284 words / general audiences / literally my favourite thing ever basically the only fic about them I haven't written myself i own this author my eternal gratitude)

Ishigaki/Midosuji (IshiMido)

Dragonfly Circle by Anonymous (Ishigaki/Midosuji / 11808 words / Explicit / it's been so long since i've read this one but i remember i adored it)

A Night, Your Night by Anonymous (Ishigaki/Midosuji / 7356 words / love confessions, angst / mature)

Arakita/Makishima (MakiAra)

One Hell of a Declaration, Darling by hostilovi (Arakita/Makishima / 9834 words / pining, future fic / teen and up audiences)

Machimiya/Ibitani (IbiMiya)

It's really something by HapaxLegomenon (Machimiya/Ibitani / 1543 words / mutual pining, love confessions / teen and up audiences / a very old one i haven't read in a long while but i remember i loved it)

Onoda/Imaizumi/Naruko

and it's all in my head but– by risquetendencies (Onoda/imaizumi/Naruko / 11792 words / getting together, feeling realization / teen and up audiences / absolutely showstopping, perfect)

Applied Research by rascals (lordlings) (Onoda/imaizumi/Naruko / 17696 words / fluff, confessions / general audiences / again, showstopping)

Midosuji/Onoda (MidoSaka)

A Cast Shadow by Anonymous (Onoda/Midosuji / 55899 words / angst, slow burn, fluff / teen and up audiences / oh god this was so beautiful i need to reread it)

Manami/Teshima (ManaTe)

One More by Anonymous (Manami/Teshima / 45712 words / getting together, banter, flirting / Explicit / i love this fic more than i love myself okay? It's not finished but it doesn't matter it's still worth reading it, literally amazing)

Various Ships

The many meanings of rival by zephsomething (Makishima/Toudou, Imaizumi/Naruko, Onoda/Manami / 1594 words / general audiences)

[chronically-ghosted]

i totally agree that it’s ridiculous for people to write fics for films that haven’t been released yet, but the problem isn’t the smut itself. people have every right to write porn if that scratches the itch.

i think your main point is the most important: it’s impossible to write a thoughtful, inspired fic when we don’t even know the story it’s based on. no one knows who this character is or what he’s like.

at this point, everyone should just call a spade a spade and write pedro rpf. all they care about is seeing his face in different situations.

so my earlier post was not so much a statement on Pedro Pascal Character fanfiction/porn, but the commercialization of art and I interpreted the thoughts and opinions of others through the lens of the medium I most often express myself with, which is fanfiction.

let me be clear: i have no problem with smut - pwp or otherwise. people are allowed to write whatever they want, about whoever they want, with whatever tropes make them happy.

my overall focus (and granted it was probably very muddled by the end of those - what, like three reblogs?) was an interrogation of fanfiction as art, and the state of art in this modern era. and after doing some more thinking and listening to more people much smarter than me (thank you to everyone who dm-ed me directly to talk further about this), my opinion is thus: the creation of content (not art) is more ubiquitous today is not because we are getting more stupid as a society, not because of our failing attention spans, not because we are on the brink of moral collapse but because we physically do not have the mental strength to be intellectually curious as a direct result of constant, distracting, emotionally-draining stimuli.

i can explain what i mean below the cut with two primary examples, specifically regarding the shift in fanfiction cult, and yes, the prominence of smutty oneshots in the pedro pascal character fandom of which this blog is a part of.

I have been in various fandoms for almost twenty years. I have been writing fanfiction for almost that same amount of time. In recent years, I've noticed two trends that initially discouraged me, but that I now believe is a symptom of our adjustment to a modern, constantly online era.

A severe lack of engagement within the artistic artifacts of a fandom

The quality of the fanfiction itself (because yes I do consider fanfiction to be an artform) has gone down hill - mostly.

Lack of engagement:

Art is inherently created to be shared. This is especially true for fandom because the community lives or dies by how many people are interacting with each other and sharing ideas (news, theories, fanart, fanfic, etc). If you say a fandom is dead, it means there haven't been any new posts or fic about it in years. So I don't wanna hear it when people say, "oh write for yourself, you shouldn't be chasing engagement" because that is antithetical to the very concept of fanfiction.

In recent years, I have seen and experienced myself engagement in my work only so far as a like or kudo. This is not how it used to be. Message boards (yes I am that old) and niche fandom sites were constantly abuzz with media sharing and excitement, and everyone enjoyed some version of praise (unless you got hit by the antis but they're never fun anyway). Initially I blamed this drop in engagement on laziness: people just want the next thing, they can't be bothered to appreciate the hard work writers put in and they just see content and art as the same thing - stuff to consume.

But I myself am GUILTY of minimal reblogs and comments and I LOVE what I'm writing - the impact certain works leave me with is long, long lasting but for some goddamn reason, I can't sit down and praise the author's works. Am I lazy? Possibly, but this is also not an isolated behavior and it's on the rise: people do not have time to engage with fandom/fanfic like they used to. Most people I know have worked at least two or three jobs at some point in their lives to just to make rent. This gen z is the first generation in DECADES to be worse off economically than their parents. With an interest rate at 8%, who the fuck can afford the security of a home anymore? We work ourselves to the bone for scraps and the realization that The Dream has officially died. And so what do we want to do in the free time we do have? Engage with the very bare minimum. We want to read things that we can at best skim, things we don't have to think about or engage with in any meaningful way. We want a way to turn off the noise of the next apocalypse and sometimes the best we can do is the tap of a thumb.

Which brings me to my next point: what the fuck happened to thoughtful fanfiction?

But this question is inextricably linked to the points above: oneshots are easier to write, faster to write, and if you write fic that is basically "Mad libs porn" (without ever engaging in the actual medium because it is literally not released yet), you are doing the most minimal work for the most amount of engagement. But I can't fault ANYONE for doing that. It feels good to be told your smut is "so hot" or "this exploded my panties" and in this era where the time available to create is so fucking small and minimized of course you're going to write for the most popular character, whether or not you're interested in the source material because we want our art to matter to someone. Intellectual pundits loooove to lambast our "shorter attention spans" but fuck, when are we allowed the time to think - in between this "100 year storm" that's happened twice in the past five years, or the global pandemic that turned millions of deaths into a political punching bag, or the next video of a white woman crying wolf to the police over an innocent black man, or - or - or - or

In a day where reality and the world as we know seems to be holding onto a thread, we turn to comfort: comforting tropes (dbf to rape/kidnap fantasies), comforting fanfic (pwp), and comforting ways to engage with fandom. There is nothing wrong with wanting your art to be appreciated and there's nothing wrong with inherently wrong with pwp - but I do believe its symptomatic of a MUCH larger and more sinister movement within ALL art right now.

I come from the generation who banished fanfic authors for scrubbing off the filing numbers to their fics and publishing it as original content because, in our communities, they were selling out. Fanfiction is inherently an act of rebellion. Every time you write fanfiction you break canon, an established structure with its own rules and boundaries. So by trying to appeal to the masses, to curb your own writing to fit whatever is mainstream, you are doing a disservice to yourself AND to the art of fanfiction. If something you write becomes popular, wonderful, great, you are very lucky and there is nothing wrong with that either. But do not sell out your 13 beloved fans who WILL take the time to leave a comment, who WILL take the time to reblog because your weird little fic spoke to them on a fundamental level and now is with them for the rest of their lives - in favor of a 100 thumb taps.

If you've made it here, thank you very much for reading. I've added some links to some additional references to see how this concept of "populist" art is having a serious negative down turn in the quality of art, but is also not any one individuals personal failings:

Why the world is addicted to background tv by Kayleigh Day

How Modern Audience are failing cinema by Like Stories of Old

Rupi Kaur episode of Rehash podcast

I'm always here to talk fic and art and what makes you excited about your writing. Much love and please rest. We need you here.

[tommyssupercoolblog]

Incoming very long ramble about the fragility of internet content and the ways some things are impossible or difficult to preserve

The thing that frustrates me most about poppytwt is how fruitless it all feels.

Like, you can't archive or research poppytwt effectively. You can certainly TRY but you'll find very little!!!

You have people who spent years in the poppytwt fandom who can TELL you about fanfics they read, art they saw, friends they made who were deactivated or doxxed or harassed or who committed suicide or are otherwise lost to time, but they'll have almost nothing to show for it because poppytwt was actively designed to be as impossible to trace back as possible, precisely because people were afraid of harassment.

How are you supposed to find, say, Tommy/Tubbo fanfiction? There's some on the actual tag, sure, especially now that poppytwt is for the most part over and it's considered "okay" to ship them now, but I'll tell you right now there are thousands of fics that won't pop up because the fic had no tags whatsoever, or spelled Tubbo like Tvbb0, or used some God awful emoji combination to convey who they were talking about, or were straight up DELETED. Discord servers moved every few years, fanart and fics were usually tagged with censored bullshit or not tagged at all and then taken down and deleted, entire accounts were ALSO deleted, even assuming something was tagged properly it's probably gone.

Most of us in the fandom at the time didn't think to make archives of anything while it was happening, so we've lost like.... probably enough content to make our own small website full of it, and even more chatrooms.

Almost all of the public facing content left is NSFW and/or more controversial kinks like CNC, watersports, etc, which could be because people who post that content are more resistant to criticism anyway but honestly I don't know why that is, and I know sfw content beyond what you can currently find EXISTED, we consumed tons of it back in the day, but it's almost fucking impossible to find!!! And most of it, when you get your hands on a link, is GONE!!!!

It happens with NSFW content too though, if course. Veradie was one of the most popular artists in poppytwt by far and a lot of the art links don't work. Some have archived versions with working links but a lot is gone because the original post leading to it doesn't work, and Veradie, like, the person, is missing. I'm sure she(?) would know a lot about old fandom and might even have archived some stuff, but if you're some sort of internet historian how in the FUCK are you supposed to find her??? She deactivated without a trace!!!

I made friends with a user called Kencydoo on here and one day I logged on and Kency was just GONE without warning or any indication of where they were moving to, no DMs to people they knew, nothing. I don't even know if it was staff or mass reports or a self-deletion. I do know Kency sometimes posted NSFW dead dove stuff and had tags you could block to avoid it, so it's possible one of those posts blew up and got the blog taken down, but I have no level of certainty.

Reese (I think it was Reese?) had people hunting for a "main account" that didn't exist for harassment and doxxing purposes and then ALMOST left (I'm glad you're still here @reesesrambles )

There's no stability for poppytwt content and no real shelf life which means that most of the history and even the harassment that REQUIRED THE EXISTENCE of a seperate fandom is gone. We can describe what the old dsmp fandom was like and why poppytwt exists and what it means but most of the actual concrete fandom blogs or resources are GONE, absolutely obliterated.

Like you can't make a Strange Æons style video about poppytwt, you literally can't, because almost all of it is like the fucking city of Atlantis. There WAS stuff here, but it was constantly sinking.

Most people I know for a fact were involved in poppy honestly just left for the hermitcraft fandom because people over there are like...normal?? The hermitcraft fandom allows RPF and doesn't give a shit about shipping characters who are "sibling coded" or whatever the fuck. They understand the concept of just not clicking on something you don't want to see, instead of launching a twitter cancellation campaign against people. So like if you can talk about a similar, and GOOD source of content that is also actively ongoing and not get shit for it, why would you chose to create for a discontinued peice of content and/or streamers who you WILL get shit on for writing about?? Like if your options are "write grian RPF and be able to not stress and have a fun time" or "write tommyinnit RPF and delete hate comments every day and watch your back constantly" why the fuck would you pick the latter???

And it's frustrating because the fact everything disappears means it feels like you don't even have much to look back on. The friends you made or content you enjoyed about a series you love is all dust now, and if you were into the DSMP for a long time (and therefore in poppytwt for a long time) then it's so much worse. It all adds up.

Anyways that's my ramble on how fucked up it is that entire communities can be lost in an era where things can supposedly be maintained forever does anyone want to drink a caprisun with me

[joanna-lannister]

For the fandom ask! ->8,12,17,18,19,24! I might have asked too many, so pick and choose as you like!! No pressure of course

Hi! Oh no, don't worry, it's not too many! I had fun answering them! Thank you so much for the ask ❤️✨

8. Fandom you're a part of that's the most obscure?

Can I say the JC fandom? Because it's a very small, unpopular fandom, and not many people are fond of Jaime and Cersei together. So even if I'm very vocal about them, I think it's the most obscure one I can think of.

12. Craziest thing you've ever done as part of a fandom?

Oh, I think it would be getting my JC tattoo! It was so big on my arm, I was scared at first, but now I'm used to it.

17. Favorite blog(s) in your favorite fandom?

The JC fandom is kinda dead to be fair but I would say:

@musical-chick-13

@imnotwholewithoutyou

@alexcabotgf (she hadn't posted JC gifsets in a long time, but her old ones are 👌🏻)

18. All-time favorite fanfic?

"therefore each to other bound" by copacet! This fic gave me everything I ever wanted, and the characterization is perfect.

19. Fanfic you read again and again?

Hmmm, I read "therefore each to other bound" a lot tbh, almost religiously. But I'd say "Until Death Do Us Part" by my friend Annie. It's a Modern AU where Jaime and Cersei are married, and I love it to pieces and keep reading it over and over again.

24. Funniest fandom-related story?

OMGGGG Once upon a time, I blocked another JC stan on Tumblr. Her behavior was really "Meh", very childish behavior, and she kept trying to fight br*imes. And so, I blocked her because I didn't like the vibe she was giving off and she was annoying. Girly got MAD, like mad MAD and everytime she tried to make friends with other JC stans, she used to shit on me. Once, years later, she tagged one of her fics "it's better than most of the Pentos AU you'll read" or something along the lines, and it pissed me off, because you don't shit on your fellow writers, especially in such a small fandom, so I made a vague post about it on my blog. I didn't mention her, only in the convo I had with my friend in the replies. But Ma'am was STALKING MY BLOG, LITERALLY. And a few days later later, she wrote a WHOLE LONG ASS POST about me on her blog, saying I was insane and unhinged. I found out because someone send me the adress of her blog. And honestly? It was hilarious, to see her still being mad years later after I blocked her as if I had murdered her whole family. I didn't say anything about that post because it made me laugh and I don't know what she became, but I do know AO3 banned her for her behavior.

[dicenote]

DN Fic Recs!!

Aight, I think the Death Note fandom could use some positivity. And I wanna be positive :D! So here is a list of fics with reviews, aka a thinly-veiled excuse to wildly ramble about brilliant fics made by incredibly talented people. A lot of these works inspire me, so I want to share them with others! If these fics sound interesting to you, I highly recommend that you check them out and give the authors lots of love :D

Anyway, here we go!

Fallout by Zaney HacknSlash Rating: M (FFN) Ships: (Not the main focus) eventual Matsu x Sayu, eventual Ide x OC, background Aizawa x Eriko, (kinda) Mogi x Misa

Dude. Duuuuude. If you want to see an action-packed, angst-filled joyride of a fic featuring the Task Force after Kira, this is it. This is a 10 year old rewrite of the original version of the fic, but it has a lot of the old fandom charm left over from the 2008 original. The plot is centered on the guilt Matsuda feels after shooting Light, and what he has to do when a mysterious enemy forces him to confront that guilt.

I like how the author gives us insight into every major character in the story. The flipping perspectives keep the story grounded in some places, but make it chaotic when it needs to be. Most importantly, I like how we see, inside and out, how tight-knit the Task Force has become after everything they've gone through. I also enjoy how each of the Task Force members have their own dilemmas and struggles that pay off by the end, all to do with loyalty. Overall, Fallout is an epic story with action, suspense, and plenty of original characters that don't overstay their welcome.

True Successor by @mapsareforbraindeads Rating: M (AO3) Ships: Beyond x Light, BeyondTsuda

I think this was the first fic that really helped me get the appeal of Beyond Birthday, and that's a feat all on its own. Here, Vari takes the original story of Death Note and flips it on its head with an idea that sounds like "crack treated seriously" on paper: What if L was dead before the events of the story? What if, instead, he were replaced by someone looking to, "realize what [L] could not"?

The portrayal of Beyond's mental state throughout is simply breathtaking. One standout (not-too-spoilery) example happens when Ukita dies as in canon. Vari does an incredible job of showing Beyond's frantic thoughts to the point where this part is actually stressful to read. I really wish I could go into more detail about how Beyond is portrayed, but it's really worth reading for yourself. Like I said, this fic helped me understand why people like B's story so much.

Even if you've never read the LABB book (I haven't yet), True Successor is an utterly fantastic work that you should check out.

Weakness by Airmid Rating: M (AO3) Ship: LawTsuda

I think I've talked about this one before, but it's worth talking about again. I think of this as "the" LawTsuda fanfic for a couple reasons, most notably in that it really makes the pairing work in a setting that's close to canon. I really adore the way Airmid characterizes L and Matsuda in this fic and immediately contrasts them from each other. The events of Weakness take place before L's death in canon, and the story asks some simple questions: What would have happened if L let himself confide in someone before he died? And what if that person was Matsuda?

I've read some of Airmid's other, longer, works, and while I enjoyed Happiness and Until the End, Weakness stands out to me because it feels a lot "tighter", if that makes sense. Using the bells from the anime, we get this very solid through-line of L secretly worrying and preparing for the inevitable... And then Matsuda comes in. This fic in particular continues to be a huge inspiration for a fic I'm writing, especially for the portrayal of Matsuda as equally earnest and impulsive.

Pretty much anything by Tallulah

Okay, I wish I could pick just one to talk about here. From the short and devastating Axioms to the very long and devastating Broken Hallelujahs, all of Tallulah's works—the smutty and the soul-crushing—have intriguing worlds and deep, dark characters. Just make sure you mind the tags before diving in, these ones get dark. As a MatsuIde fan, I've got to give a shout-out to Saviour. It took a while for me to "get" the style of the fic, but in the end I really loved the tone. The way Tallulah depicts the dissociation and trauma of these characters feels incredibly real, and when the fic drops its unique formatting to symbolize the characters "snapping out of it", you feel it. Broken Hallelujahs has a similar vibe, but its story has more fast-paced action. Ooh, and The End of Days is an incredibly solid, more "canon-compliant", work featuring Aizawa x Ide x Matsuda, a guilty pleasure ship for me.

Twisted Fate by TwilightMaster15 Rating: M (AO3) Ships: None tagged so far, background LawLight

If you've been in the DN fanfic scene, I'm sure you've seen (or maybe read) a "What if L was Kira?" fic. Well, here's a new one. What if Aizawa was Kira?

This is another fic that takes what could be a "crack" scenario and executes it super super well. Rather than getting a childish Kira who calls himself "God of the New World", we have Aizawa, who has become disillusioned by the justice system he works in. The fic does a really good job in setting up Aizawa's relationships, good and bad, with the other characters, as well as showing the very different choices Aizawa!Kira makes versus Canon!Light. Speaking of Light, his motivations and role in the story are very well-done. His inclusion feels incredibly natural, and I can't wait to see what he and L do next.

Kira's Guide to the Munchies by @palant1r Rating: T (AO3) Ship: MatsuLight

I've gotta end this list with a funny one, alright? This fic is an absolutely delightful treat. It's like digging into a nice, warm brownie... Oh, wait.

See, Palant1r doesn't just characterize Matsuda and Light, more like dissects these characters' essences, their weaknesses and fears and flaws, and lays them bare for the reader to see. And yes, this is also true for when Matsuda and Light are tripping fucking balls. This fic is so very silly, but we also get to see the way these characters think, even if their faculties are hindered by quite a bit of weed. A character study wrapped in a goofy concept, Kira's Guide to the Munchies is a ride that you just have to read to believe. Seriously. I was thinking about quoting lines here, but it works better when you don't know what's coming next.

[olderthannetfic]

Holocaust deniers, people who get mad at "forced diversity" (read: any non-white OC, focusing on non-white characters, mentioning any religion other than Christianity, etc.) and anti-queer people are a plague in the comments of Danny Phantom fics on FFN. The vast majority of the DP fandom uses FFN and doesn't want to move over to AO3, basically because there's so much fanfic for it there, so many collections of fics, etc. that it's what everyone's familiar with and has the most content.

I'm really torn because I want readers, obviously - I like the story I'm writing and I want other people to get to read it and enjoy it - but as a Jewish Arab I am a bit hesitant to walk into a place where I know some bullshit is going to ensue. Do you have any advice? Any ways I could possibly minimize the amount of bad comments I get? I know someone who wrote more queer ficlets every time she got a hateful comment on her queer content in the fandom and that did a lot to get people to stop, especially when she mentioned them in the summaries and author's notes as the inspiration that keeps her writing. And I love that, but I can't always get inspired, sit down and hammer out one-shots on the spot like she can.

I know this fandom is like this because the creator is the kind of conservative other conservatives cringe at (especially ever since his church tried to raise a kid from the dead). I know some of this is inevitable in fanfic, since nobody only gets purely positive comments. But if there's something I can do to minimize the amount of garbage I get, I would like to. And I know you've been in fandom much longer than I have (I mean I'm 18 so most people have but you know what I mean) so I thought maybe you might have some tips.

Sorry for the long, rambly comment. I know you get a lot of asks and normally I don't bother other people about my concerns. Learning to manage my own concerns and worries is part of growing up. But I think asking other people for insight is good too, sometimes.

(P.S. you've gotten me into knitting and it's really fun. My mom always said I was too old to learn but you're an adult and you got into it so that made me decide to take the plunge and I'm really happy I did.)

--

Your mom is silly! People get into crafts at all ages!

I think for the trolls on FFN, the general culture there respects the same kind of aggressive douchebaggery they dish out. If you appear totally unbothered and fire back at them, they see it as strength. If you're too nice or too upset, they smell blood in the water. A "LOLOLOL Fuck you too!" attitude will go a long way.

Whether it's worth dealing with them is another story.

[wildelydawn]

2 7 11 17 18 35 40 47 73 for the writers ask game

I know it's a lot feel free to not answer all of them hahaha

Hello my dearest!! I will do all of them for you <3

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

It's very minor because he has so few lines/so little presence in the story, but it's when Big dies in II4Y. I didn't want him to die but I realized he needs to die for Kim to understand what permanent loss is. In chapter one, Kim is dealing with a break up, which is definitely a sort of loss, but once Chay and him begin to matter to each other again, Kim begins to realize that loss can be a lot worse, a lot more permanent. By chapter four, he's sort of gotten everyone back, right? Chay is talking to him, he's hanging out with his brothers. Big's death shocks him into remembering that it can be all taken away very quickly.

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

I know that my first fic was something written for classic Fruits Basket, but I can't remember the plot for the life of me. It was probably fluff or a retelling of Kyo's transformation when his bracelet comes off. The earliest, actual fic I can recall the plot too very vividly is a Supernatural Megstiel fic, in which I rewrote parts of Hello, Cruel World so that Meg Masters finds Castiel's trenchcoat and body. Unfortunately, I deleted that story because I wrote it at the height of SPN, and Megstiel was a rough ship to write at the time lol. I wish I hadn't deleted it! It would've been cool to take another look at it now, or maybe even potentially rewrite.

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

The entire process of making Thai desserts/food for BSC90 has been so great. Like, truly unmatched. Outside of fandom, my research is really depressing and almost always about the Law/law. So to really deep dive into how these foods are made and how chocolate was/is produced in Thailand is really fun. I do take research pretty seriously, and I do what I can to be as accurate as possible. Right now, I'm pretty knee deep in reading about football/football RPF, and I recently followed a bunch of popular players on my Instagram, and that's been pretty wild. And, of course, can't forget my favorite Dutch politicians either. Though, that research wasn't for writing. I just really got interested in reading about the Netherlands and far right government officials. I find myself just rereading or watching Dutch debate whenever I can find translations, fan-written or official.

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

God. It changes so often, especially depending on my mood. Right now, it's from YLTTL:

The subtle but decreasing hesitations in WIK’s motions make Porchay unsteady and ashamed at the same time. In his dreams, he envisioned WIK as the criminal: keen on stealing Porchay’s heart and laughing mercilessly while walking away, leaving Porchay naked on the floor. He imagined, the other week, after WIK had left him alone, that at their best, they could only ever be temporary bliss: a mistake, heat of the moment, other clichés that left Porchay feeling angry and confused. He had resolved that if the moment were to come, he’d give himself entirely to WIK and blindly hope that WIK would do the same, and they could leave without saying anything more. 

Their togetherness, he cruelly imagined, would be one born of force, passionate with no regard for the future, a story as old as time: those with power taking advantage of those with none.

18. what is your most and least favorite part of writing?

The action of writing is my favorite part of writing. And also finding out if someone reread something of mine. Least favorite part is posting/submitting/publishing.

35. tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

Definitely Chay. Chay is so different from me. I think what we have in common is poverty and independence, but other than that, Chay is such a bold, forward, dynamic character. He takes what he wants! When I wanted to ask out my current partner, I wrote a letter and then fled the country. Chay, on the other hand, just fucking shows up to where Kim is and calls it a date. I think he's the bravest character in the whole fucking show actually. All of what he does, what he navigates, is mostly done alone and independently and, up to a certain point, by choice. I admire that so much. He takes risks, even if it ends in detriment to himself. He's never static, he's never standing still. He feels things and acts on those emotions. Now, whether he processes them properly or maturely is up in the air, but he's not wallowing for long, and I truly think in a post-canon world, he would continue to do what he can to move on and adapt to his new life. That can be "Chay having a ho phase" or "Chay integrates into the mafia" or "Chay runs to Switzerland, meets Kang Yohan from The Devil Judge, and becomes a vigilante judge when he comes back to Thailand."

40. best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

"You're probably going to get decimated, but everyone will have questions." This came from my dissertation advisor/mentor. And she was right!

47. what story are you most proud of?

It's definitely a tie between YLTTL and Still Painting Flowers for You. I'm quite proud of the latter. It's short and it has, what I feel, is a good balance of canon and a reflection of two very important women in my life.

Thank you for all these questions, my crunchy little friend! It was so fun to write this out hehe.

Ask me writer things!

[sodasa-was-taken]

Hey there, I'm curious about your thoughts on this. If the Gundam fandom particularly the English part isn't very fanfic-heavy, what's up with Gundam Wing having 50000 fanfics from FF dot Net and AO3 combined? And many of them still being updated. They even had a zine last year and I think you can agree that that's admirable for an old fandom. Compared to Gundam Witch, I'm only aware of 2, and one is even dead. Meanwhile, other M/M heavy fandoms have released more than a number of zines already.

I guess I can't help but compare the English fandom with the Japanese fandom which is releasing countless anthologies and events across the board to this day. Like many, I've read that fanfiction is the gage that people care about a fandom so I can't help but wonder if that is an old way of thinking and unlike Gundam Wing fans who are older, the fans of Gundam Witch are younger and just don't care about fanfiction anymore.

This is the first time someone has pointed out a flaw in one of my arguments. It's been a long time coming if you ask me.

I think I might not have expressed myself in quite the right way. I didn't mean to say that the English speaking part of the Gundam fandom isn't into fanfiction but that it has a proportionally small amount of people whose main thing is writing fanfic. I think it's silly to only use the amount of fanfiction to determine the size of a fandom because the skill sets and passions people within a fandom can have vary greatly. Some fandoms are huge on fan songs some barely have any or not at all. Some ships have more animatics dedicated to them than others and while popularity does play a role it's rarely if ever perfectly proportional. That's what I was trying to get at. The only way the output of a specific type of fan work would be a reliable way to determine the size of a fandom is if the ratio of that type of fan work to the amount of people in the fandom was at least somewhat consistent. In most cases it's anything but.

The disparities between Gundam Wing and g-witch makes perfect sense to me, but it doesn't have anything to do with young people not caring about fanfiction. Believe they absolutely do. The thing is Gundam Wing aired on Toonami back in 2000 as the first Gundam show to ever premiere on American television. It was a straight-up phenomenon in the way anime just isn't anymore in the west due to anime becoming a lot more mainstream within the last decade. The way it was distributed meant that a lot of people could stumble into it without already being in certain circles watch a few seconds while skipping between channels and decide to give it a try. This had the potential to bring in people with very varying interest because a lot of those who became fans hadn't actively been seeking out the show.

Compare that to a show like g-witch that came out in a time where streaming wars and algorithms mean you most likely wouldn't have just stumbled upon it unless you were already watching similar shows. People in the west had to main ways of learning about the show: either through someone they know or through the internet. There's basically no way anyone got into the show out of pure curiosity and this is pretty much true for any Gundam show since Unicorn. Anyway, my point is we've gotten more picky because we can be and it makes fandoms more homogeneous when it comes to taste than in the past.

When it comes to what kinda people do choose to watch g-witch there's three main points I've seen people bring up when recommending the show. It's a new take on Gundam. It's well produced. It's gay, I swear. These three things respectively appeal to existing Gundam fans, people who are passionate about the medium of animation, and fans of sapphic media especially those who like animated shows. If they are to join the fandom they're likely more than one of them. Without knowing for sure through what I have been able to observe I would guess it's people falling under the third category who are the most prolific Sulemio shipfic authors. In terms of the amount of fics that is as I'm almost certain it's a bunch of Gundam veterans who are responsible for the 300000+ words ongoing fics.

That was a longer answer than I would've predicted. Thank you for the ask.

[tomdutch]

Hey um I know there's a large chance that you most likely won't see this, but I just have to say this. When you had first spoken up about leaving the fandom I was confused as to why because I didn't really realize how dry it was becoming. I just wanna say how utterly correct you were. It has declined even moreee since your leave (not saying you caused it or anything). I sometimes find myself comparing the notes/reblogs from Tom!peter fanfics to the tasm!peter ones and the difference is astounding ( it has me wondering if anyone even knows that Tom!peter exists). It's really sad, the fandom honestly can't be revived, like where is everyone??? I have so many questions about the decline of content in the fandom ( I know the interactions from the readers played a huge part, but I also feel like there may have been other factor that lead to this.) Did everyone in the fandom just grow up or something?? Anyways, I miss you lots and hope you are doing well and your new fandoms are treating you right.

wow this was a doozy to read but in a good way 😭 the delusional main character side of me wants to think my absence had an impact of any kind lmaooo but to be honest, the fandom was already in really bad shape.

lack of reader interaction personally wasn’t that big of a factor for me, i was incredibly lucky and am still grateful for the consistent feedback and love y’all gave me and i still sometimes look through reblogs on my fave fics for writing inspo :”) it meant so much to me and i look back with so much fondness on all the fun times we had with more interactive series, especially break my heart.

not to sound like i’m giving a ted talk, but what drove me away more than anything was the toxicity of the fandom. granted all fandoms have a certain level of it, but this one was really, truly bad in 2021-2022. there’s only so much consistent harassment and suicide bait a girl can overlook while still feeling welcome and excited abt this space 😭 when i look back at that stuff now i’m honestly shocked so many people stayed as long as we did.

rabid shipping culture aside, i personally feel like the mcu spiderman franchise took a big hit in no way home that drove a lot of ppl away. obviously they couldn’t keep going forever with a 30 year old guy playing a 19 year old, but their creative decisions in nwh are questionable at best to me. the end of mcu peter’s story was so final and abrupt that, combined with how flip-floppy the writers were abt a follow-up trilogy with new characters and a time jump, didn’t leave much room for fanfic to carry on. they quite literally erased mcu peter as a character and individual from the mcu itself lmao it would be pretty hard for people to write copious fanfics about a guy who has no one bc no one knows who he is and his family is dead as hell.

that being said, i really am sorry you feel like it’s difficult to enjoy and share your passion in this space. that feeling sucks and i hope that, if you write fanfic, the lack of engagement and content doesn’t stop you from being creative and sharing what you wanna share. trends and fandoms come and go in waves, you never know when a piece of media or an actor has a revival in the general public. i don’t know what roles tom has going on but if you feel inspired to engage in them when the time comes, i’m sure there will be ppl there to interact. you’re never too ‘grown up’ to enjoy fandom, especially not one as iconic and timeless as spider-man in all variations. if there’s a character, there’s ppl out there creating art for them.

in the meantime, i hope life treats you kindly as well and thank you for your ask :”) if you ever wanna chat with me, i’m still active on my main, or if you’re more comfortable here i still check in on this blog every other month 💛

[margridarnauds]

If I may ask another, Romeo et Juliette?

A musical that I have a very, very complex relationship with.

It was one of my first French musicals -- not one of my favorites (I have ALWAYS been an Atia and Chouet girl), but one of my first. Good music, Aimer was one of my eternal, lovestruck romantic songs from my teen years, the OTP song to end all OTP songs; Verona was one of my favorite musical songs (once an Escalus fucker, always an Escalus fucker), I loved C'est le Jour (being used to historical lit and period dramas means I have....no reaction to first cousin marriages, so I shipped Tybalt/Juliet, sorry lads.)

There used to be a dedicated French musicals fandom on here, so I was talking with people who were more invested in it than I was, me and a friend once listened to the London cast together and memed it to death. And when that community imploded, I joined the RetJ fandom more specifically after a couple of years. And...I did enjoy it. I was mainly in my own little corner, but I was talking about it, I was creating content for it. I didn't agree with everything, especially the way that Japanese productions were routinely dismissed, and I thought that people could be very harsh on individual productions in a way that wasn't particularly fun, but...I did enjoy the experience. I did enjoy working with other people, especially since, as a Toho fan and ESPECIALLY as an Escalus fan (and as someone who really cares about the women more than Mercutio), I was very locked in my own little corner with a few other people.

I fell in love with the musical. And with Shakespeare's original. I still think that this is My Adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, because it is really wonderfully faithful while modernizing it without being grimdark or cynical (yes, even the Hungarian.)

And...I refuse to go into details, because I have no intention of dredging up old ghosts, but it ended. Badly. I evacuated myself from the communities I was part of, leaving them to someone who hated me because I didn't want to split the fandom. I wanted to leave quietly, discretely, while potentially keeping some bonds. They used it as an excuse to spread their smear campaign to my old circles, something that I only found out about over a year later. No one bothered to tell me. I noticed that people were pulling away, some people have even blocked me on here, or else quietly unfollowed me, but I didn't know why and I tried to convince myself it was paranoia. I reached out to someone and they assured me that nothing had been said about me. Something I later learned was untrue. I won't accuse that person of lying, because I don't have a timeline, and I understand wanting to keep the peace, but my reputation and my mental stability were NOT acceptable collateral damage. I was suicidal, dammit, and I'm not just mad at the people who started the smear campaign, but the people who didn't bother to listen to me when I needed them the most.

And...I would say I'm not bitter about it, but actually, I am. Of COURSE I'm bitter about it. Even if I wasn't the most active member, I was there for years. I deserved better. And it has profoundly impacted the way that I still carry myself in a fandom context, because some part of me is always looking behind my shoulder. (I. Have never been able to join the BG3 fandom in the way I'd have liked to for a number of reasons, including my ongoing fear caused by this incident.)

...but, by the same token, I did rebuild myself, bit by bit, with Takarazuka musicals, including the Zuka RetJ. I wrote RetJ fanfic for myself and, without having a fandom to worry about appeasing, I wrote what I wanted -- some of my longest fics of the last three years have been Benvolio/Escalus fics that I almost CERTAINLY wouldn't have published when I had the dead weight attached.

So -- gorgeous musical, the Toho production will eternally have a place in my heart. I'm very happy that I can look at it without shaking now.

[soopsiedaisies]

18, 22, 24 👀

Hiii!!

18-It’s absolutely criminal the fandom has been sleeping on…

Within the HP fandom, most things have already been done—but that doesn’t mean they’ve been done well or often enough in a fandom of this size, which means to me that it’s being slept on.

Personally I’m really interested in the Potter family and I just don’t see enough absurd theories about them. You’ve got this pureblood family that’s like… INCREDIBLY old: according to extended canon, they’re only two generations removed from the Peverell brothers (who were born about two centuries after Hogwarts was first established), considering Ignotus’ granddaughter married the first person in the family who took ‘Potter’ as his last name.

The Blacks have SO many fics with HC’s about their Long and Beautiful (and Horrible) History, but the Potters (the paternal family of the main character) get like… what? A mansion, sometimes? Or all their power comes from their Peverell ancestry, or their Gryffindor ancestry, or whatever Old and Powerful Extinct Family is left. There’s only a couple of fics that explore some quirks other than their hair or bad eyesight, or explore some funny little ancestry, and I genuinely think that’s a shame. Let the Potters weird and/or creepy, please (with the ODDEST collection of stuff in their vaults)

22-Your favourite part of canon that everyone else ignores

This one’s difficult because, again, most things in canon have already been covered and therefore ‘everyone’ is obviously an overstatement… but dammit if I don’t love (and hate) all the memorial shit Godric’s Hollow. From a wider perspective, this is being discussed with some frequency (at least, in the fanfics and meta I read), but that mainly focuses on the hero-ification of Harry and his dead parents in general. But keeping the destroyed house up and putting a sign on it, and having a statue of a young family commissioned and placed in a cemetery feels… weird to me? Because like, who’s it for? Not for Harry, at least—especially considering he wasn’t taken to GH at any point in his life and had to go himself with Hermione whilst they were actively being hunted down.

The intent behind it I can sympathise with: it’s for wizards and witches to remember the end of the first wizarding war. But it just feels so… tourist trap-y. Imagine thinking it’s a brilliant idea to have a statue made of two dead twenty-one year olds and their baby as a memorial for the war they accidentally ended. Accidentally!!! I just KNOW that neither Lily nor James were thinking about the war effort when Vee broke in, only about the survival of their child. And their house still standing… I dunno. Like I said, I get it to some degree, but it also feels foul. Like this violent end and the sacrifice these people made for their son is something to gawk at.

That being said, it is one of my favourite bits in canon because it only underlines how fickle and nosy the wizarding world (and the world at large) is. I’m sure it was seen as respectful in-universe at the time, but it’s really just the cherry on top of the absurdity that is Harry’s fame. I really liked that bit in A Marauder’s Plan when the house was being cleared out and reality set in—the dishes, the towels, the toys, the newspaper… it all still lying there, at which point Bill questioned why the entire world had been celebrating the death of two young parents and elevating an orphan to hero-status. It’s just so… I dunno. It got some emotion out of me, at least.

24-Topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Which ships are supposed to be the best, and which shouldn’t exist because they’re supposedly morally wrong. I’ve got a lot of tags blocked on Tumblr and I don’t frequent Twitter (sorry, ‘X’) so I thankfully miss the bulk of it, but just also… in general? Why are you threatening to dox people or sending death threats over a fictional SHIP?? Have you perhaps not yet developed the ability to predict potential consequences, or are you just a bully? It makes absolutely 0 sense.

[dreadlord-mr-son]

I was in the shower just now (because a bug rubbed itself all over me) and my mind wandered, as minds do. And it landed on Harry Potter.

And I had a realization that's been a long time coming.

I maybe would have thought of it sooner, if I hadn't been resisting the "if you so much as mention a Hogwarts House you're dead to me" crowd so much.

I've been stubbornly clinging to the IDEA of Harry Potter fandom. Why should I cede ground to the bigots? To the transphobes and the antisemites? Stop giving her money, yes. But the idea that just being into the fic and fandom was giving her attention? Was supporting her? Why should I accept her framing? What happened to stubbornly enjoying things our own way out of spite?

But this was holding me back from the self-reflection I needed to realize...

The franchise really doesn't have anything left for me any longer?

It's not that I think it's BAD. Not like the folks who are sour graping "well it was always terrible writing anyway". But when I think about it. About making fanart, or fanfic, or headcanons, or anything? Meh. No interest. No desire. Nothing to hook me. Nothing to stir strong emotions. Only scraps and pieces left to make me look twice at all.

And most of what I still like about it isn't unique. Boggarts? Fear beings? Plenty of other fantasy has those. House elves are basically brownies reinterpreted to be worse. I can find so much stuff in other fantasy worlds.

This especially stands out as I get into other old stories from my childhood. Ones that I sometimes look back on with longing and curiosity. "I should reread/rewatch that!" I think. But not with Harry Potter. I don't... feel the urge to revisit it. It's not repellent but neither is it attractive. It's just there. Part of my past. Existing.

So I think it's time to do what I did with the Yogscast and take what few parts I still want and walk out with them.

Tuck Draco under my arm and throw Snape over my shoulder and carry them away like war spoils.

I suppose it's no surprise, for me at least, that what I still want are the ambiguously villainous characters. The rich boy too scared to either commit to or reject evil, and the bitter misanthrope who betrayed evil for petty personal reasons.

Characters who aren't good, but who could be given a path to be better, if they were led down it by the nose. I could find places to put them. I'd have to translate them, for most. Fit them into new settings and new worlds. Reskin them to belong somewhere else. But I've done that before. I have practice. It pretty much counts as one of my hobbies, at this point.

And if I took ones riddled with fanon and headcanons? Well, that's no mistake. I took the ones I wanted best, after all.

So I guess... that's where I am now. After finally waving the smoke from my eyes and getting a good look at where I am. Picking through the burning rubble for the last treasures left and heading out with them.

You win, JKR. Even my spite isn't strong enough any more to keep clinging to your world. I leave it in your hands.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some psychic white horses to reintroduce myself to...

[mechanicalinertia]

STMPD Recommends Bubblegum Crisis Fanfiction: DeadboltDon's Silent Rift

You know how last year, I lost my mind over Most of The Way To The Moon? Reader, I thought that such perfect Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction could never be written in our fallen day and age, that the really good shit was all in the nineties and the aughts, never to return in this decade. That I would have to be a lone soldier writing this stuff. I was wrong, suffice to say.

And now, I have been proven wrong thrice. Both by this fanfiction, and then by CodyLabs' Once Upon A Midnight Launch. As I begin the process of spinning up a new, better fanfiction project, this fact fills me with boundless joy, especially because it gives me something to review that isn't old or weird or horny or Yours Truly 2032.

And it came out of nowhere, too! Only a week old as of the time of writing, and from a user who I knew liked BGC on reddit, DeadboltDon just dropped this puppy, all 50K words or so of it, on us like that. I just found it, just binge-read it, and I am going to tell you, right now, it's time for you to read it too.

Okay, so here's the setup: Megatokyo is a city whose outer districts are absolutely fucking overrun with trash. Waste from electronics, vehicles, Boomers. Even if those wastelands are postapocalyptic nightmares where only the insane and Moorlockish live, that's still a whole lot of waste, a whole lot of things that are, well... one character in this fic calls it 'ungarbage'.

The main cast are scavengers - an ex ADP-jockey, an old guy, an ex-Outrider... and Lou. Yeah. Lou. The Sexaroid we all thought died in Moonlight Rambler. Weird, huh?

Well, things start creepy, that's for sure, when the team brings in the arm off a Knight Saber hardsuit, and then decide to bring it back, because the Sabers to them are living legends, nightmares who'll happily kill them to retrieve said piece. And the Sabers do show up. Sort of. Black hardsuits with silent flechette-throwing crossbows, something that we know aren't the Sabers, can't be, but who are they, then?

Well, Lou and company wind up in ADP custody, only for the Sabers to break them out in an unhinged rampage through the upper parts of the HQ, where Jeena Malso is an absolute fucking unit, and then a horror-movie like scrabble through vaults loaded with dead Boomers coming to life. Things get... dicey. Not to spoil anything, but the people behind the black hardsuits are a) unexpected villains and b) fucking terrifying because of that. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time for the final fight, I'll say that much.

Oh, and there are references! The WKUK's Sex Robot, various types of power armor stuck in the ADP's prototype division (eg. the Kerberos Panzer Cop suit), and a bunch of quotes from an UrbEx handbook. They're welcome. They energize the fic even more than it already crackles with violent life.

I wish I had more to say about this fic, beyond how much you should go and read it right this instant. Instead, I'll say this much: I think we're in the middle of a minor paradigm shift for Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction. My own work, Cody's work, and so on. I might be the guy who keeps coming back to this fandom, maybe most people are writing one-offs, but the fact that a superfan like myself can expect quality work like this as a baseline for BGC fanfic makes me think the future's bright... especially since I know of more than a few people who are working on new fics as we speak.

I say this with the utmost love: If you have a Story Of The Knight Sabers you want to bring to the internet, don't hold back. Give us everything you've got. Now is the time to rise together, to fill up the silent rift with light and noise.

[badgirlcoven-official]

It's my blog i get to post about fictional/fandom things that do not matter at all in the grand scheme of things (and also @ any mutuals/friends from discord who might see this this is not about you. Or really meant to single anyone else out either tbh)

but someone liking my old post reminded me of like. How weirdly gatekeepy (idk kind of an extreme word bc of how it's usually used) the dadrius microfandom is and also how fixated they are on fanon portrayals of Darius (granted. That last part is not at all unique we know fandom at large is about sanding characters down to their most convenient to the points you want to make basic traits but it's especially noticeable because they also are like really self righteous about it like woah you removed any negative trait from the fictional man that don't contribute to the like same 5 repeated angst fanfics? Do you want an award?/lh)

Like and I could maybe excuse it if fanon Darius was at least interesting but you're kind of punished for reading into his character literally at all or at least not deliberately interpreting canon to portray him as insanely incompetent for no reason.

Like y'all cannot convince me that Darius realized belos was an evil overlord and started the rebellion years ago and has been working behind the scenes and gathering intel this whole time but somehow thinks that child fucking soldier giant ass scar on his face mentor mysteriously and suspiciously died Hunter is fine and safe and not being abused by belos and you ALSO can't convince me that him having this knowledge and doing what we see him do in canon makes him a bad person or at all problematic, past like being a nuanced person who can't go at the world with the approach of a therapist.

Like idk I got a lot of pushback whenever I talked abt my hcs like it was automatically in bad faith or something, like ok fair it fsr makes people uncomfortable, but maybe it makes me uncomfortable when the only accepted interpretation is that he's that checked out/oblivious and more specifically that this is a good thing that absolves him of some predetermined guilt.

Like idk I think it's established very well that Darius has very little room to work with in helping Hunter for a number of reasons (he has to avoid suspicion, belos is insanely possessive over Hunter and limits his contact with others, Hunter is yk. The Golden Guard and child or not Darius has 0 assurance that if Hunter found anything out or sensed disloyalty to the emperor he wouldn't turn on him. Which, btw, it seems very likely pre Hollow Mind he would have) and then all of his attempts we see in canon TO help Hunter are waved off as not actually his contribution but purely coincidental and any inclination that he might have like. Idk fuckin autonomy in the narrative/plot is somehow the same as saying he's abusive (seriously this confuses me so much. HOW does that track? "Encouraging Hunter to act any differently than how belos wants him to is like basically wanting him fuckign dead because belos will kill him" belos was going to kill him no matter what. He's literally got a sigil. Darius already knows about the draining spell even if you don't think he knows belos killed his mentor this kid is literally already condemned. Also do you hear yourself? Trying to break someone out of their brainwashing is not abuse just because they might get hurt if their abuser finds out)

Like cmon guys they went into a public place, and checked to be SURE they were being followed (Hunter has 0 fucking stealth in his white and gold fucking outfit marching through the night market come ON) to do a spell they can literally do wherever when they Literally have A Secret Hideout no one knows about after Hunter just super mysteriously got an anonymous tip about their most dangerous plan. And yeah you could chalk it up to bad writing but like where is your whimsy aren't you tired of being boring as hell and refusing to engage with canon beyond surface level interpretations

Anyway moving on before this becomes a talking abt my Darius hcs post and not a complaining about things that don't matter post

But I'm also fascinated by how like. The dadrius microfandom becomes so defensive that they loop around into being weirdly misogynist towards Camila while ALSO perpetuating the same stereotypes with Darius that allegedly are the problem with Camila as a parent figure

Like idk the biggest argument I saw against Camila being an important figure in Hunter’s life (fuckign at all let alone as a potential parent) is that she already has so much on her plate and Hunter has So Much Trauma and would be Such A Burden on her which like. Okay really making that easy to interpret uncharitably but undercurrents of ableism aside like

Considering the Staple of dadrius angst is how he steps into raising the kid that 1. He has a complicated and often painful history with and 2. Literally Has His Dead Mentor's Face and how him having basically any support system is seen as too much of a coparenting truther agenda I really think that considering Hunter's existence and its affect on his adoptive parent really isn't the priority here

Like you want this man to, upon immediately escaping a cult in which he had to mask his entire true identity for a MINIMUM of 16 years, suddenly become a parent to a mentally ill teenager who he has an insane amount of guilt towards and who also until recently was fairly combative towards him and then you very specifically want him doing this almost entirely on his own AND you want to diminish all of Hunter's relationships with the others to just kinda casual friends when the narrative calls for friends to exist and somehow this is supposed to be The Healthiest Preferable Option that they'd both choose

Like idk guys maybe, insane fucking thought, Darius would not prioritize being Hunter’s Official Only Parent Figure(tm) and instead just idk. Relax for a bit. Get a fuckign hobby that doesn't include doing things for his little emo white boy for a minute.

Like obviously theres an annoying trend in mom Camila fics/content where she prioritizes Hunter beyond what's healthy that's an issue but you don't fix that issue by going well diversity win guys we took racist stereotypes for Black women and applied it to this gnc Black man instead. Now HIS life solely revolves around the white character(s). Hashtag progessive

Like and let me reiterate I LIKE dadrius, I like that Darius is able to reconnect with Hunter and that they're able to heal together and find family in each other. It's just that I don't like the way that fanon simultaneously isolates him and sands all of his emotions and motivations down to super gentle and somber parent who sits around agonizing over Hunter and his mentor.

Anyway back to Camila, I've noticed that in arguments about this there's a tendency to very strongly erase Camila's involvement in not just Hunter's life but in all of their lives minus Luz and Vee (and let's not kid ourselves Vee is only accepted as Camila's kid because they didn't have time to get attached to her before she was interacting with primarily Camila. I see so many complaints of "everyone ignores Vee" from people who I've honestly never seen posting about her otherwise) and like the undercurrent here makes me so uncomfortable like

There's this idea that Camila is just nice and doesn't actually care about the hexsquad and is basically counting the days until she gets her house back. And theyre like "what is Camila Gus and Willow's mom now too" idk how to explain to you she fostered these kids, repeatedly risked her life for them, and then was implied to be actively invested in their adjustment period returning home. Removing her agency in that and deciding she gets no joy from them or that they exist solely as a burden isn't doing what you think it's doing. And hell y'all have no problem randomly deciding that Darius is so super attached to the Blight kids who he has literally no interactions with and deciding that Hunter and Amity are The Siblings Ever when there's nothing indicating that so again it's fine putting the entire weight of the blight family's problems on this man but not fine to think that Just Maybe what Camila wants is a support network (THAT SHE GETS! and also that literally includes Darius if you like Camila’s VA, Elizabeth Grullor's HCs) and not to get rid of these kids

And I mean the arguments get ridiculous I am never letting y'all live down "Hunter isn't standjng next to Luz and Camila during the group shot at the end so clearly he isn't in their family" that is so comically pedantic especially when the epilogue has almost no dialogue and tells us very little about everyone's living situations and they kept that shit ambiguous on purpose to avoid alienating fans.

It's so frustrating like ok I get it annoying Camila as a mom fans killed your grandma and gave you anxiety letting Darius have anything that they could criticize but do you have to make that everyone's problem or go after the "coparenting truthers" for existing in your spaces

Also going to be so fr the weird emphasis on Hunter’s last name(s) and the idea that it's upsetting/problematic to call him Hunter Noceda annoys me like who tf cares man we saw Zeno's old twitter handle or w/e it was and thought it was cute we're not personally out to get you(tm) calm down

Actually wait I'm not done I forgot how like. Insane the Camila erasure is that when someone (idr who and also they aren't the problem) drew Darius thanking Camila for saving Hunter’s life at the end of thanks to them and a bunch of people were like oh man I never thought about that woahhh like. Only caring about it now that Darius was involved as though it wasn't a Major Point in Camila's character arc in which she overcomes the metaphorical and physical obstacles separating her from her loved ones like do y'all really care about this woman or do you only care when you can diminish her contributions and say she's actually super not attached to any of the kids actually.

[varlysca]

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.

36. How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?

10. ouhhh okay so it heavily depends on the fandom that I read for, because there is one Harry Potter fic that does kid fic incredibly well, but I never read it anywhere else. For Supernatural there's so much good fix-it fic. Sometimes a good AU. With my Sci Fi shows like Star Trek or Stargate I never read AUs bc I love the world already, so some of the more classical tags come into play.

Generally I love "there was only one bed", especially for characters with a prickly exterior that are then forced to be confronted with vulnerability. When written well, the tension in "enemies to lovers" can unravel me into fabric weave. But I also do like me a "fuck or die" fic for some plain smut purposes ^^

30. Haha that's such an interesting question because I am grand at getting fic ideas and then not finishing them. I don't stop working on them though, it only takes me... years.

I think one fic idea that's waaaaaaaaaaay on the back burner for now (because McDex and Garashir have taken over my brainworms) is a very niche thing: Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, where Old Shatterhand needs to come home to Germany for plot reasons (uncle dies) and Winnetou joins him.

He's then confronted a) with the racism of his family towards the man he loves calls brother, b) with the loss of his faith as he sees Christianity being misused (love thy neighbor except if they're not cis het white or male presenting etc. especially seeing as this is set in the time it was written -> 1875 Germany under Bismark, Culture Fight between Church and State) and c) with the detachment he feels from what he used to call home. Germany feels cold and grey and dead after having lived with the Apaches for so long, the people are so detached from humanity and the joy of living. He realizes who his home is and that what he has been living the past two years with Winnetou was the best life he's ever lived; being loved and cherished and part of the tribe.

And after they kiss and confess their sweet sticky feelings for each other, he has to now balance that. And then live with it after returning to the Apaches ^^

36. Oh god the horror of fic titles. Back when I was way more active in publishing (admittedly horribly cliche and bad) fanfic, I did a mix of Title That Sounds like A Lot Of Feels ™ (think: "it's always been you" that kinda thing), Song Lyrics or tangents to the fandom I was writing for (which were mostly anime fandom back then).

So the one I'm most proud of... oh god. I think it might probably be "Dreams in the rain" for the anime movie Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai. Again, it's horribly cliché but it links to the main character's hope and it rains so much in this movie.

[thisisaname-whatahappyname]

1) Are you named after anyone?

so i had two first names, and i was named after something in both ! but i wont talk about the second one cause it has been long dead, so now i have one first name !

and i was mostly named after the brand of milk my mom drank when she was pregnant called athena, and partly named after the goddess Athena, which is a fair summary of who i am as a person ! in parts bullshittery utter ridiculousness and silly n goofy in and out of context, and in parts actual potential:D

2) When was the last time you cried?

sometime this month

3) Do you have kids?

canonically, the same children that prev has, but it seems my dear has forgotten about ghost cat ,, (which is funny cause fae's the one who canonized ghost cat as a kid and not a pet, but seems as if she has favorites ): )

4) Do you use sarcasm? sometimes! most often when playing a character, but usually not much

5) what's the first thing you notice about people? online it's vibes, irl some random thing usually

6) What's your eye color? Dark Brown that's so dark brown it looks black unless you either look at it long enough or it hits the light

7) Scary Movies or Happy Endings?

i can enjoy happy endings if they dont feel forced, and while i love horror, scary movies are harder to get right for me than happy endings cause im more prone to having it accidentally turning a tag ridiculous because of poor cgi and or props, the monsters accidentally looking like a shitpost, or something about it reading off like an edgy wattpad fanfic, all of which i enjoy, but not in the way the author intended cause i feel no fear sadge

8) Any Special Talents? i am pretty good at art, and also better than avarage at essays and singing (not right now with the singing though, pretty sure i fucked my voice over a bit from overuse when my throat was infected)

9) Where were you born? In a city, im not gonna say which one, but just know it's in a city, is it in a city near you? well, who am i to tell?

10) What are your hobbies? is social media a hobby? also reading, drawing, and singing, i play videogames sometimes but not often enough that i can call it that (i should probably be on here less)

11) Do you have any pets? i have this street cat that acted as a pet for a bit, and my parents have two dogs that took over the old unfinished house

12) What sports have/do you play? i go on a walk at least once a week and that's as much as you're getting

13) How tall are you? an inch or two smaller than silver which means i am objectively closer to kneecap smashing ranges, which means 5'5 i think

14) Favorite subject in school? ive been enjoying mapeh (music, arts, physical education, health) and that's because the teacher is cool and poggers, english is also nice as a subject and it has been up there since most of my school years and the teacher is really nice and a good teacher

i think mapeh as especially fun and english as a especially nice subject so they both are my answer to this question >:}

15) Dream job?

youtuber/twitch streamer for numerous reasons, .

also fair warning! i know how this is easily able to come across, but, i know im not doing this with purely selfless intentions, and i also know im not doing this with perfectly selfish intentions, it's a mix on what i can get and give and that's part of the reason of why i like it so much >:D!

one the prospect of making other's smile and have that be my job is one i enjoy and twas my first goal when i decided this a bit back,

two just, i feel like id really enjoy that job, not only is the prospect of content creation fun, but just the thought that i could be myself essentially amd people would pay me for it as just, really nice,

and just, bro ive been in cc fandoms i know how much that shit can help people too, hell meeting someone through said fandom is probably the reason im alive and who i am now today (but they dont know this so shh) and just! i want to help people that way! i want to just, be able to provide comfort to people when things are wrong,

and be able to do that enough that it tips the scale over that they decide to not do it and using that via way if content creation, is just, not only is it objectively sustainable cause it means i dont need to face the emotional strain that would come with of personally playing therapist for thousands of people, but also, there's only one of me to go around, and if they just watch a video of me, that can provide comfort to a lot of people

and i just, dude not to mention the amount of money that comes from that, and just, to make a sustainable living just for being myself, to make more than enough money to be able to give away a lot of money, like! dudes, charities, fund raises like!!! dude, that's Way more money than id be able to give normally, with a ton of other jobs, and just! i want to do that

but yeah yeah! ah, tldr, i like the idea of being able to have a job where i can just, be myself and get paid, get paid more than enough where im able to give away a lot of money, where im able to raise a lot of money to give away, where im, able to help people emotionally too, even without knowing, just by being there

i just think that's cool

(also also, dont get me wrong, i know the bad stuff thay can come from it, the constant changing algorithms, and the platforms working against it's creators for said platforms own capitalist greed, but i also find studying algorithms fun, and i can probably find a way to deal with that last bit,

there's also a problem of when a fanbase gets too toxic and how to handle that, either to you personally and to other people as well, and ive been in the dsmp fandom, hell fucking shit, ive seen how dream acted and seen the consiquences if it personally, i at least have a good grasp on what not to do, hell ive seen how bbh's fanbase treated him in 2020, which means i also have a decent grasp on what not to do when people get to toxic to you as a cc

and also that whole "not putting me on a pedestal" thing ranboo did (and not doing it to avoid accountability but rather in admition that he can and will fuck up and not to act like he was this secretly bad person all along but rather to realize they are just a person and to just, tell him when they do) and admitting when he fucked up without being guilt trippy over it and explaining why he fucked up without acting like that excused his faults was also a good example on what to do)

15 tags 15 mutuals

*tips hat* @athemarina

1. Are you named after anyone?: No but there is this thing on my father's side of my family where give a name starting with the letter A to their child.

2. When was the last time you cried?: About a month ago.

3. Do you have kids?: Noh

4. Do you use sarcasm?: Why would I ever?

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?: The way they talk and I try to notice hand gestures a lot.

6. What’s your eye colour?: Dark brown

7. Scary movies or happy endings?: Either one or both

8. Any special talents?: Eh....I can do this thing with my arms, it's a bit hard to explain but one friend called it a 'bone breaker' and my other friend told me I was temporarily popping it out of it's socket.

9. Where were you born?: Earth. I assure you that I am not an alien.

10. What are your hobbies?: Writing, drawing, reading, day dreaming, plotting ways to rebel against my school.

11. Have you any pets?: Fishes.

12. What sports do you play/have played?: Speed skating, swimming

13. How tall are you?: 5'4'' (yes I am very short)

14. Favourite subject in school?: Art (I am a computer science student)

15. Dream job?: Honestly I am trying to survive through school. My dream job was crushed in 8th grade.

Tagging: @late-to-the-fandom @master-of-the-pigeon-religion @on-noon @caligraphyzev @calloumii @idreamofhamandcheese @rxd-bxttrflxss @isabellebissonrouthier @midnight-and-his-melodiverse@subuthetitan @i-eat-books-and-nutella @timetravellingkitty @avocado-frog @usernamewastaken @aohendo