#there’s even more on the other fic sites

[masterroadtripper]

AO3 - re: the new update

Alright, so I've gone through the Privacy Policy to attempt to compile relevant information. Note, I am not a lawyer, and I'm not from the USA. I'm simply someone who decided to close read the Privacy Policy. This is not meant to tell anyone what they should or should not do, but instead help people to make an informed decision

1. Users outside the United States. Always be aware of local laws and changes to those laws. While it sometimes seems like the USA is the head-honcho, keep in mind that other countries might be working on similar items

2. Accessible information which can be gathered from fics you've written and notes you've left (perhaps even comments).

3. Go check the email that your account is connected to and make sure that its meaningless. I'd recommend even perhaps using an AO3 specific email, as opposed to a "darthvader1234@gmail.com" that you also use on other sites.

4. I wasn't sure how accurate an IP address could be, so I turned to Google.

"Rest assured, it can't pinpoint your exact location or home address. However, it can determine the city or region where your device is located"

"Accuracy can vary depending on the location of the device and the provider. For example, IP-based geolocation services work better in big cities and less well in smaller ones. It can also be more difficult to find a precise location for a mobile device because they obtain new IP addresses as they move. "

5. AO3 knows what fics you've accessed.

6. AO3 may be legally compelled to share this information with law enforcement in the USA.

Now. Is there more in the Privacy Policy that I did not include? Yes, and I highly recommend that everyone goes and takes a good, close read of it. Is it the end times at this exact moment? No. But, taking necessary precautions (like checking your email address or only reading on a mobile phone) can never hurt.

But once again, I'm not a lawyer nor a law professional and you should always do your own research.

[haze-cat-man]

Dose anyone know why there's so much Spencer Reid / Gambit fan fiction? I can’t figure it out.

Like I support it I guess but why? How did this happen.

[officialdashcon2024]

Would it be a bad idea to write A/B/O fic of Omega!AnonymousSudan and Alpha!AO3?

Asking for a friend

[elvisqueso]

Pocahontas/John Smith Fic Rec List

In light of my recent inability to be chill at all about this ship or the movie, I've put together a fic rec list for the perusal of anyone wanting to dip in the waters with me.

I generally kept to one fic per author, but quite a few of these writers have some impressive catalogues of fic; and although I picked one personal fave per author for this list, there are a TON of excellent picks on these authors' pages, so please, please check them out!

[ big thanks to @revangerang for being the lead witness to me absolutely losing it for the past, like, 2 weeks. ]

One Shots:

The Royal Progress by babyb26 [ ff.net | Ao3 ]

When Pocahontas tries to escape the love triangle between her head and her heart by traveling with the king and queen on their royal progress. What could go wrong? What happens when a mysterious stranger claims her as his Queen of Love and Beauty? Can one dance alter a seemingly unhappy future? A wee bit supernatural. Dedicated to SunRise19 and HC247 Rating T-M

Tags: Romance/Supernatural, Solstice/Midsummer, Ritual Sex, Tarot, Love Confessions, Court of King James I Rating: M Chapters: 1/1 Word Count: 12,871 Published/Updated: 12/25/2019

Notes: I love me some supernatural elements, and this one-shot is a nice change of pace for this ship, since it focuses on bringing in old spiritual practices of the Isles. This author has a much broader catalogue of fic, so be sure to check out their page!

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When Hearts Meet by WishingDreamer5 [ ff.net ]

The moment he locked eyes with her, John Smith was utterly lost.

Tags: Romance Rating: T Chapters: 1/1 Word Count: 324 Published/Updated: 8/11/2015

Notes: Just a short, sweet little one-shot. <3

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Deleted Scene by fokkusu94 [ ff.net ]

You know how John Smith never tells Pocahontas that he loves her in the movie? Well, for whatever reason, the writers left it out. This is that scene.

Tags: Romance Rating: K+ Chapters: 1/1 Word Count: 1,473 Published/Updated: 1/24/2014

Notes: What is says on the tin; fluffy and sweet!

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Light My Candle by HC247 [ ff.net ]

Pocahontas and John run into a bit of trouble on their wedding night. Fun, fluffy, romance. For Sunrise.

Tags: Romance/Humor Rating: T Chapters: 1/1 Word Count: 936 Published/Updated: 12/27/2009

Notes: HC247 is another author with a massive selection of fic to choose from, so it was hard to single one out. This was probably the first one of theirs I read, and it's still a favorite I like to revisit.

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Sweet Sorrow by guardyanangel [ ff.net ]

"What pain? I've had worse pain than this." It was somewhat truthful. What was worse than the pain from his physical injury was the emotional agony he felt knowing he'd have to leave her. Nonetheless… "I just can't think of any right now." JS/P Oneshot

Tags: Romance/Angst Rating: K+ Chapters: 1/1 Word Count: 1,503 Published/Updated: 10/8/2010

Notes: Hope you like pain. I do. ಥ_ಥ

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Dream Giver by EnInkahootz [ Ao3 ]

After the events of Pocahontas, John Smith and Pocahontas reunite in a dream.

Tags: Romance, Ficlet, Dreams Rating: T Chapters: 1/1 Word Count: 665 Published/Updated: 3/3/2020

Notes: Another bit of wistful fluff <3

Completed Chapter Fics:

The Path to You by Cherriepixie27 [ff.net | Ao3]

This is a fix-it fic in which Pocahontas and John Smith end up together. Ignoring the end of Journey to a New World because I will go down with this ship. Lots of angst and eventual smut, hence the M rating!

Tags: Romance/Angst Rating: E Chapters: 2/2 Word Count: 6,931 Published/Updated: 7/20/2021-9/9/2022

Notes: I love the characterization in this fic. It's got a great balance of angst and yearning and romance. Just two people, finally finding each other again.

---

Shadows Cast by doodlegirll [ ff.net | Ao3 ]

What if, at the Hunt Ball, instead of a bear baiting, there was a prisoner? ..:Dedicated to my friend Kayla:..

Tags: Romance/Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Whipping [John Smith Whump], Angst with a Happy Ending, Racism/Racist Language, etc. Rating: T Chapters: 13/13 Word Count: 39,103 Published/Updated: 7/10/2013-1/12/2023

Notes: doodlegirll is another one with a collection of fic. She goes back quite a ways, and she's experimented with a lot of different styles over the years! This re-vamp of the non-canon sequel is more recent and action-focused. I have an affinity for it in particular bc I love me some whump ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

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Battlefield by SunRise19 [ ff.net ]

After Pocahontas II. It is often said you can't have life both ways, no matter how you wish it so. No one expects a battle of inner desires and words to be started during a ball. When the lines are drawn, can one foolish act be enough to make peace? PLZ RR! For HC247…COMPLETE

Tags: Romance/Drama Rating: T Chapters: 3/3 Word Count: 11,000 Published/Updated: 10/1/2018-1/1/2019

Notes: fCUk the writing in this one is so good! I'm a little [a lot] obsessed with the way John is written in particular. And SunRise has a TON more fic; there's a little something for everyone on their page, so be sure to check it out!

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Painting with the wind by Psyche Blue [ ff.net ]

A series of one shots following the second film, exploring the lives of John Smith and Pocahontas. Like the film, it is loosely based on historical events.

Tags: Romance/Angst Rating: T Chapters: 42/42 Word Count: 20,379 Published/Updated: 2/14/2013-3/3/2013

Notes: *deep breath* aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *deep breath* When they say angst they Mean It, but it's WORTH it. The story is intense and so beautifully written, I can't recommend this one enough (although, if you need a happy ending for P/JS...you can always stop a chapter short of the end and Pretend :'D)

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Meeting His Match by RhapsodyinB [ ff.net ]

John enjoys being a carefree bachelor until someone causes him to rethink his lifestyle. His version of the classic.

Tags: Romance Rating: T Chapters: 2/2 Word Count: 4,897 Published/Updated: 11/21/2012-11/28/2012

Notes: As the summary implies, this is a John-centric lil character study. A heartstring-tugger, with a dash of canon-divergence.

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Choosing Her Own Path by Lahiwe [ ff.net ]

Pocahontas never thought she'd be able to listen like her mother had. The gift of understanding was just that, and it hadn't been given to her. But when she meets a man from across the sea, she learns that the gift is more a part of her than she knows.

Tags: Romance/Adventure Rating: T Chapters: 9/9 Word Count: 13,294 Published/Updated: 1/2/2012

and,

The Collected Writings of Captain John Smith by Lahiwe[ ff.net ]

It's been a while since Thomas Ryan has had anything to do with the New World. Still, memories of it have never left him. Five years after his return to England, however, he receives a strange parcel and a letter from none other than his old friend, John Smith. Read the story of Pocahontas from Captain Smith's perspective-perhaps you'll learn things you never knew you never knew.

Tags: Romance/Adventure Rating: T Chapters: 10/10 Word Count: 32,124 Published/Updated: 6/9/2012-12/31/2014

Notes: I included these two fics together because they're really a two-part series. They're both wonderful character-focused fics I just adore.

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Disney's Pocahontas: an extended retelling by best obsessed [ ff.net ]

A retelling of Disney's Pocahontas, now complete. The idea is to see if a serious treatment of the whole story can work. Disclaimer: though some of the characters are my own, most were given their present form by the Disney Corporation.

Tags: Romance/Adventure Rating: T Chapters: 25/25 Word Count: 110,703 Published/Updated: 4/12/2009-5/29/2009

Notes: This is an EPIC and, if I were to pick, like, a 'Citizen Kane' of P/JS fic, it would be this one. Basically, it's an expansion on the world of the film, and reframes the story a little more realistically. It's got EVERYTHING. It's got a deep study of both leads, complex political maneuvering, John Smith's Pretty People Problems (obsessed with this), gay lil Thomas having a Lot to deal with, Pocahontas being smarter than everyone, and romanceeeeeee. *muah* c'e bella.

Incomplete Fics:

Glory to Glory by pearl037 [ ff.net | Ao3 ]

When John Smith returns to England, Pocahontas is left as the mediator between the settlers and her people. When a bad growing season forces them to cease trading, the new captain will stop at nothing to ensure the survival of his colony. Meanwhile, England prepares for war. Multi-perspective. All rights belong to Disney and history. Part XIII is up!

Tags: Adventure/Romance Rating: T Chapters: 14/? Word Count: 42,731 Published/Updated: 4/6/2019-6/22/2022

Notes: There's some wonderful characterization in this, and an excellent exploration of grief that just gets me in the gut. It's more-or-less an alternate sequel, and builds up the setting around both the denizens of Jamestown and John's gang of fugitives (queen behavior).

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Burning Bright by typewriter33 [ ff.net ]

This is a continuation from a "Pocahontas" fanfiction 'The Burning' published in 1999. He had never dared hope to see her alive and laughing, vibrant and beautiful. T/M

Tags: None Rating: T Chapters: 5/? Word Count: 21,349 Published/Updated: 7/30/2020-7/2/2023

Notes: I'm not sure where the predecessor of this fic is (although I'll continue to try). It's a rare modern AU, with a twist. You can piece together what happened before the fic, and the intensity of the universe it happens in. To keep in line with the setting, Pocahontas has a different name, which can be jarring, but once you get past it the premise is interesting and the story, compelling.

Honorable Mention:

The Magic of Hogwarts by orphan_account [ Ao3 ]

"The wall clock reads fifteen minutes till eleven. The newspapers indicate that today is the first of September. King’s Cross Station is bustling... Here our fairytales begin." Excerpt from Prologue. Betaed by the lovely and amazing Crystal (niuniujiaojiao). Please read the notes at the beginning of this fic. I will eventually update.

Tags: Disney/Harry Potter Universe Crossover, Modern Setting, Mentions of Underage Sexuality [see Author's Notes abt this], More Tags to be had Rating: T Chapters: 21/27 Word Count: 112,028 Published/Updated: 4/11/2016-1/10/2020

Notes: I didn't include any crossovers in the main list, because I hadn't really broken into that set of fic, yet. But I felt this one deserved a spot on the list. It's a wide, wide fic, and includes interpretations of a TON of Disney characters. I included this because the Pocahontas/John Smith subplot absolutely fucking wrecked me, and I needed to share. The last update the fic got threw me in the back of a van and beat me with an aluminum baseball bat. This fic is unfinished as of now, but even if it's never updated again, it's worth a read. Just be sure to read all of the author's notes!

[no1ryomafan]

I say this as someone who’s not involving myself in the hazbin discourse mainly because I’m too mentally tired to get into internet wank anymore or watching whatever is popular to begin with and as someone who isn’t even a big Devilman shill even if I think everyone should read it at least once BUT: I know their vastly different premises but it always bothers me how hazbin has demons with animalistic feats and next to (some of them not even showing this) they don’t ever bother to explain how this works given yknow most of hells residents are former humans meanwhile devilman has the COOLEST fucking world building I’ve seen to explain demons being animalistic and saying how monsters from tales were likely demons:

I’m not saying I would want hazbin to rip off this concept-this is assuming anyone on the team like- gives a fuck about old anime bc most people just know this series sadly as crybaby-but the idea Nagai lay down like half a century ago could literally be recycled for so many demon concepts, it’s slept on!

[non-un-topo]

Wish there was an elixir that wasn't alcohol that you could take that just makes you write/draw and not care about the quality of your work or about what your potential audience might think

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also it's something (better) like, the exercise of deliberately [art imitates life imitates art] holding up Billions to My IRL Things Perspective and going like whaaat would i want for winston. first answer is you want any character to not have been within the scope of the show in the first place, and to exit it since they are. and you kind of get that in the accidental reward in banishing winston, since like in the end it's just that the show doesn't care about him existing at that point But like it's winston sitting there quietly as everyone leaves & turns out the lights & Then he can leave too; others have peaced out & nobody remembers he exists so Now he can go off & do whatever.

but like in true form i think they definitely accidentally baked in another divine reward for winston in that, like, the way he's kept around as fodder for these fun little [pov: enjoy abusing this guy] asides with him, where it Just So Happens that he's autistic as something they're unaware of but is completely relevant to the expectation we understand him to be inferior(tm), it Just So Happens that he's also ""bad"" at not ""causing"" abuse to be turned on him. he's ""bad"" at staying in line. like well yes Yes that's what i want for him. just like In Real Life it's like yeah Ideally i'd want people to be able to extricate themselves from where they're trapped in power structures & i'd want them to have the perspective about it of understanding they're not Inferior / i.e. they are as much a person as anyone else and they're not corrupting everything good / i.e. it wasn't them Bringing It Upon Themselves and it's not them being Destructive by toppling a jenga tower of a hierarchy that happened to be pressing down on them. and winston is the kind of [the ruinerrrrrr] who is Turned On exactly because he keeps acting like someone who's on the verge of breaking out of the [being in line] someone demands of him as autist, employee, whatever other supposed manifestations of [inferior]

like in the 5 second stretches in which winston's allowed to speak before retaliation, it's because he's like "matter of factly" delivering whatever Information that's useful for another plotline. then he Brings It Upon Himself by making people aware that he's Also existing in his own right as a person rather than what they think serves their own deal / what they want from him at all times, perhaps by expressing his personality (didn't appeal to them! so it was Wrong) or not b/c of anything in particular said or done at present, just b/c people have a constant / accumulating contempt for him so their being in the same room as him & able to see & hear him is already dangerous. the [we're just seeing Any Abusive Dynamic in action] continuing apace.

and it's like, well, right there. he's written as acting like someone who doesn't blame himself for how he's treated, which billions frames as being Rude & Mean, and so too does everyone's abusers lmfao like and that these are his moments that are written to be Bringing It Upon Himself. and it's like hell yeah he doesn't blame himself. hell yeah that his self-esteem can manifest as anger at all. hell yeah that he keeps expressing himself with personality & confidence & doesn't even disguise his having been hurt, & it's this [his ass is Not grey rocking] that billions frames as both him "causing" his abuse & making that abuse "successful" lol, wrow just like real life!! and when like speaking of real life yeah it's not "bad" that people Do engage in strategies to mitigate & survive, including things like blaming themselves or being too "boring" to be anything but a non dialogued background character b/c that's all that goes unpunished, it's bad b/c it's done to them at all, not [ohh they're doing it to themselvesss] and like i'm asking myself like Ideally. what do i want Ideally. and i'd want winston to know that it's being Done To Him & i'd want him to find as much room for his personhood & autonomy as possible. and that's basically how he's written anyways, and billions hates that like You See this is why he deserves it this is why he's doing it to himself. and i'm like my god if that's not Inspiration for like "so what if people don't find you Personally Likable" and not preemptively holding back all personality or anything that'd draw attention as if you exist as a person in your own right & not something that only either gets in the way of or serves their wants of a Real person (someone with more power) like hell yeah you have him out here doing it =']

another fun addendum is like, billions isn't getting into it much b/c it doesn't seem to care much about "what if some people were peers & seem to have a genuine, recipcrocal relationship?" but that it just so happened to be like "oh tuk as the next closest loser who deserves it might be nice to winston" while it's framing winston as the "worse" Loser as being....unconditionally supportive of tuk. while the one downside of billions Also giving bentuk as much as it is is that it also inevitably has that shadow of "but ben is Superior to tuk" and like that it's correct that everyone encourages tuk to Stop Bringing It Upon Himself and start being less of a loser; it's wrong for winston to be like hey let's go have a foursome. like yeah probably don't make a list of the women you work with you'd be dtf but it's not like i'm convinced "ah billions and it's strong anti misogyny stance like" roflmao and billions is Not reflecting on "the downsides of unconditional support?" there when winston was beaten up for criticising taylor earlier like we WILL take his ideas while looting his [beaten unconscious] body there but he WAS wrong to express them as though he's BETTER than taylor!!! mafee's beautiful show of loyalty in kicking his ass even when he might agree with the argument and then benefit when it's adopted by taylor anyways! so it's as usual actually purely based on hierarchy & who gets to be in charge of people. it's correct for ben to be in charge of tuk, unless he has to step aside for that bizarre dead-end subplot about how it's tuk's fault if he's treated badly, b/c it's really his own Failure to have Confidence to know he has good ideas [raising our voice to deliver this message over the sound of breaking desks and chairs and computer monitors over winston because he had the confidence to act like he deserved to talk to someone and because he knows his ideas efforts & results are good & valuable around there] like. and isn't it sooo fucked up to talk about who you're dtf in the episode that has it be neutral if your boss is dtf & lets you know but is nice about it (and you're already Correctly tending to their ego, which you're responsible for!) like hey no possible problem! it's not even so much of a problem for a boss man to have the sex they're entitled to & be rude about their leveraging their power in that acquisition that it Stays a problem into the next season. ew, winston is Known (Inferred) Dtf??? we'll use it to exploit His vulnerability, exacerbate it, & punish him further for good measure in another episode that just revels in abuse & violation with a sexual aspect once again, but like, hey tuk don't do that, winston's such a Bad Influence for being like, shrug, kneejerk intervening with the Good Friendship where the One In Charge leaps in & Tells tuk the Correct thing to do. obviously there's also the tragedy that billions will Never let winston push back against Real Winners like rian or taylor in A Way That Matters (actually gets in their way at all) lol like. one thing that would have really been fun, winston should've literal kneejerk started physically fighting wags in either pertinent scene in 7x03 for real 110%. i wouldn't be like Gasp Violence Is Never The Answer if he just hit someone to hit them b/c fuck you. or broke anything on his way out etc etc. billions would Never let him. which is the other side of the same coin of [why he should get to]

tl;dr how great that winston's being "out of line" means he's basically always noticeably flouting & rebelling against the [He Deserves Abuse] agenda lol. that IS what i want. his being "beyond hope" like ohhh he's sooo stupid he doesn't realize how much he has the bad tastes & wrong interests & annoying personality He Will Always Be This Way like hell yeah!!! billions like oh no winston's personhood will never stay tamped down & locked away such that some godawful person tolerates keeping him in their inventory :( ohhh the ABA will never work :( that's right!!!!!!!!!! although they're not sad about it because it's about relishing the promise there will always be True Inferiors you can enjoy abusing with your righteous power over, but like well you wrote him escaping anyways even while dragging other "better" characters into standing around to serve axe's need for more than 1.8 employees and [crickets, reverberating cough, sneaker scuff] like. another ""wrong"" thing for winston to do, another thing for him to not "deserve," which is itself godawful actually lol like lord what it "rewards" its Good, Deserving characters with, no thanks. meanwhile winston's punishment is that he's autistic and """bad""" at being abused like lmfao good for him, fantastic for him, just what i want

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

y'know, I've been seeing a lot more posts talking about how fanfic, specifically, puts characters into boxes and takes away the nuance of them, and while I think that's an important discussion to have, I also find it quite perplexing? Like, these posts seem to come from people who don't even, or maybe very rarely, consume fics in the first place, and I say that because, if you do consume fics semi-regularly, you kind of learn? how to gage what the stories and characterisation are going to be like based on the tags and summary? Sometimes, you do have to step into the fic to figure it out, but it hardly takes very long to realise if it gels with you or not. Idk, it's not anything serious or important, but it does give me... "girl, what were you doing at the devil's sacrament" vibes, you know?

[thatsmyfive]

fear street sam/deena holiday snoozes 🛋️💤

this was inspired by a ficlet written by @pizza-is-my-buziness and linked below. it’s warm, comforting, and perfect — please go read it! come for the soothing, found-family holiday vibes, stay for some baking and a cozy nap. go go go go

[kakusu-shipping]

I, the real human person, have no problem with and even actively enjoy sharing and shipping my F/Os. However someone has recently taken up an issue with my nonchalance at the whole deal.

[todayisafridaynight]

i feel like the hello kitty doesnt do xanax post whenever i check the minedai tag on ao3 what is the obsession with piss im in agony

why did you just read my mind jesus fucking christ get out of my head youre so right tho this is so accurate and i feel this every day of my life and i feel insane and like im the one perceiving them weirdly so thank you anon for letting me know that im normal

[dancingplague]

I guess one question that strikes me as very important, that I haven't seen anyone raise:

What would it look like to make an attempt at scaling down AO3?

Who would need to be persuaded, for example, to lock down AO3 to logged in users only, freeze commenting and possibly slow down account invites? Presumably that significantly damages AO3's status as a community hub without compromising its mission, and makes steps towards having a less strained budget and volunteer team. Make it very clear that they are not a social media site, they're an archive that hosts fanfiction. I genuinely do not know who would have to make this decision though. Could you do it with four board members?

In any case, some of the hypotheticals people are laying out, where the harm to volunteers and users both are so large and intractable and the organization's interest in mitigating them is so limited, would warrant attempting this or something like it right?

[pocketsonny]

does anyone here use dreamwidth...or knows what it's like / has any thoughts 🤔

[pygmi-says-hi]

STOP DOING THIS IN INJURY FICS!!

Bleeding:

Blood is warm. if blood is cold, you’re really fucking feverish or the person is dead. it’s only sticky after it coagulates.

It smells! like iron, obv, but very metallic. heavy blood loss has a really potent smell, someone will notice.

Unless in a state of shock or fight-flight mode, a character will know they’re bleeding. stop with the ‘i didn’t even feel it’ yeah you did. drowsiness, confusion, pale complexion, nausea, clumsiness, and memory loss are symptoms to include.

blood flow ebbs. sometimes it’s really gushin’, other times it’s a trickle. could be the same wound at different points.

it’s slow. use this to your advantage! more sad writer times hehehe.

Stab wounds:

I have been mildly impaled with rebar on an occasion, so let me explain from experience. being stabbed is bizarre af. your body is soft. you can squish it, feel it jiggle when you move. whatever just stabbed you? not jiggly. it feels stiff and numb after the pain fades. often, stab wounds lead to nerve damage. hands, arms, feet, neck, all have more motor nerve clusters than the torso. fingers may go numb or useless if a tendon is nicked.

also, bleeding takes FOREVER to stop, as mentioned above.

if the wound has an exit wound, like a bullet clean through or a spear through the whole limb, DONT REMOVE THE OBJECT. character will die. leave it, bandage around it. could be a good opportunity for some touchy touchy :)

whump writers - good opportunity for caretaker angst and fluff w/ trying to manhandle whumpee into a good position to access both sites

Concussion:

despite the amnesia and confusion, people ain’t that articulate. even if they’re mumbling about how much they love (person) - if that’s ur trope - or a secret, it’s gonna make no sense. garbled nonsense, no full sentences, just a coupla words here and there.

if the concussion is mild, they’re gonna feel fine. until….bam! out like a light. kinda funny to witness, but also a good time for some caretaking fluff.

Fever:

you die at 110F. no 'oh no his fever is 120F!! ahhh!“ no his fever is 0F because he’s fucking dead. you lose consciousness around 103, sometimes less if it’s a child. brain damage occurs at over 104.

ACTUAL SYMPTOMS:

sluggishness

seizures (severe)

inability to speak clearly

feeling chilly/shivering

nausea

pain

delirium

symptoms increase as fever rises. slow build that secret sickness! feverish people can be irritable, maybe a bit of sass followed by some hurt/comfort. never hurt anybody.

ALSO about fevers - they absolutely can cause hallucinations. Sometimes these alter memory and future memory processing. they're scary shit guys.

fevers are a big deal! bad shit can happen! milk that till its dry (chill out) and get some good hurt/comfort whumpee shit.

keep writing u sadistic nerds xox love you

ALSO I FORGOT LEMME ADD ON:

YOU DIE AT 85F

sorry I forgot. at that point for a sustained period of time you're too cold to survive.

pt 2

also please stop traumadumping in the notes/tags, that's not the point of this post. it's really upsetting to see on my feed, so i'm muting the notifs for this post. if you have a question about this post, dm me, but i don't want a constant influx of traumatic stories. xox

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Fandom can do a little gatekeeping. As a treat.

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

Lurkers really are great, tho

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should we gatekeep fandom?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Think of it like a garden gate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[youhavereachedtheendofpie]

not reading wips feels anti-fanfiction to me. and i don't mean that in a "so you're a bad person if you don't read them" kinda way. do what you want. but i also feel, that you are completely missing the point. with fanfiction you're supposed to come along for the ride. the epic highs and lows of highschool football. the comment sections. the conversations. the theories. the "sorry i didn't update last week i was abducted by aliens and then my cat got stuck in a tree." LIKE. if you just want a story that's fully finished and polished go to a bookstore. fanfic is an EXPERIENCE. and ALSO. participating in the process is part of the way you make fanfic writing worth while. it's part of how you thank authors. like why would anyone write fanfiction if no one was going to interact with them until it was done? it again feels like a way that fanfiction is being eaten by consumer culture. you're waiting for your product. but this is supposed to be a club. you don't turn up to drama club like "where's my play bitch?" NO ma'am. we're supposed to paint these cardboard trees together. ok. i may have lost control of this metaphor. BUT YOU GET IT.