#they literally invented ao3 and fanfic

[starnana7]

ship so good it makes me want to kms.

[pluckyredhead]

hi! i'm new to comics and i got in through reading your fics and wayne family adventures. i've since started reading more of the mainstream verse and i realized that most comic fans consider wfa to be totally fanon. you're one of the few i saw that disagrees. would you mind elaborating a lil on why? i'm too new to really form an opinion either way but i'd like to know your's!

(also yes i really did stalk your blog back years worth of posts i'm sorry! 😭😭)

Aw I love this! Welcome!

So I think it's really important to be clear on definitions here:

Canon means it's part of an official text. It's literally in a comic (or book or movie or other property) published or licensed by DC.

Fanon means it's made up by fans. That doesn't mean bad or good, it just means that it comes from fandom and is not part of the official text.

Wayne Family Adventures is an official licensed comic by DC, so by definition, it cannot be fanon. That doesn't mean everyone has to like it, but it's not a fan comic. It's an official DC product. It's not fanon.

Now, WFA isn't part of the main DCU canon. It takes place in a separate universe. The Jason in Batman #138 and the Jason in WFA are not the same and they are having very different experiences. (And I'm sure the Jason in WFA would be grateful if he knew.)

But that's no different than a comic that takes place in an alternate universe, like Dark Knights of Steel or DCeased, or a movie like Blue Beetle or a show like My Adventures with Superman. They all take place in their own universes, but all of those universes are canon. None of them are fanon.

What I think most people mean when they say WFA is fanon is that WFA draws on tropes and characterizations that are popular in fandom. Which...yes, absolutely. This is on purpose, and honestly, it pisses me off when people complain about it. (Not you, anon! Your question was lovely, you just triggered my unskippable cut scene of dialogue. Sorry lol.)

Wayne Family Adventures is probably the single best idea DC has had in the 20 years I've been reading comics. (The second best was the kids and YA graphic novel lines.)

I just checked, and WFA has 1.3 MILLION subscribers. That's more than every floppy comic starring Batman sells in a month, combined. It's more than literally any superhero comic has sold in decades - in this century! The combined strips have over A HUNDRED MILLION VIEWS. That is bonkerstown. That is a readership like DC hasn't seen since the 1970s. That is unparalleled success, and it's introducing characters like Kate Kane and Duke Thomas to a whole new audience.

Now, WFA was clearly designed to appeal to Batfans who were active on social media and fanfic sites like AO3 and Wattpad, and Webtoon readers. The readership of Webtoon is mostly young and female. Fandom as a whole is mostly female. The writer of WFA is female.

And maybe I'm not being fair here, but when I see people dismiss WFA as "just fanon," I always catch a whiff of "It's not a real Batman comic. It's a girl comic for girls."

I have spent the past 20 years begging DC (and Marvel, DC is not alone in this) to see women as a viable audience - as their largest potential growth audience! I have watched in dumbfounded frustration as they ignored the juggernaut success of Raina Telgemeier and Ngozi Ukazu and Alice Oseman running rings around the NY Times bestseller list and counted a 50k shipment here and there as a resounding triumph. I have literally seen them throw out survey responses from women because "those women had an agenda." (This is a true story. 2011 was rough, y'all.)

And all of a sudden, they gave us a comic actually catering to women and young people and fandom, and they put it on the most popular, current, modern platform for comics availably - and it's brilliant. It's smart and funny and stunningly drawn and every episode makes clever, inventive use of the scrolling format. They FINALLY gave us a girl comic for girls, and it's a masterpiece.

And yes, it riffs on fanon concepts. It also has its roots firmly in mainstream DCU canon. It references deep cuts. CRC Payne and StarBite know their shit. Jason Todd being a bookworm may be a fanon staple, but he does plenty of reading - including Jane Austen - in the 100% canon mainstream DCU comics.

It's not going to be for everything, because nothing is. It's completely fine if you don't like WFA. No one has to read it or enjoy it. If you're into Batman for the darkness and the crime and the ongoing plotlines and the angst, WFA won't be for you, and that's totally fine!

But to finally, finally be valued as a reader by DC, to have them do something smart and innovative and so, so well executed, and have the exact people they made it for dismiss it out of hand because Bruce has a "World's Okayest Dad" mug or whatever? Yeah, that chafes.

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

The WFA comic surpassing other Batman comics is so funny to me because in some way *we* kiiiiind of created part of that shit (legal disclaimer OBVIOUSLY I don't mean this literally, what I'm saying is that the fandom created certain fandom representations of batfam that then translated over to WFA). To be fair, Batfam definitely wasn't always grimdark. The fandom itself did not invent Good Dad Bruce and all the rest, the comics themselves did, buuut it definitely solidified many of the tropes that are seen in WFA and it's quite amazing to see how long it's taken DC to realize what the current audience is looking for in a Batman comic. Even writing fic in my own little corner has made me feel that I have influenced how the characters are seen even if it's in a small way. Your impact has been outsized ofcourse. Either way it's kind of a W? Kinda cool? We can always keep making fan works, so w/e DC wants to do is whatever to me. But it is nice to be recognized in a sense.

I think it's fantastic. Truly. So much of what appears in the series are common fanon tropes that have circulated so much that they genuinely are shared pieces. To me, it in no way feels like being mined for cheap ideas or anything like that. I am fully convinced that CRC Payne is a fanfic writer, on Tumblr or AO3 or FFN or wherever. (CRC if you're out there I love yoooou.) We already know Starbite is on here.

WFA feels like a small, miraculous little hat tip to all the passionate people who have poured their love into this strange family for decades, and I'm grateful for it.

[daytaker]

Master Post! (One Post to Rule Them All!)

About Me:

You can call me Day! Or daytaker, or taker, or pretty much anything else. I'm an adult (over 25) from North America, and I use she/her pronouns. English is my first (and functionally only) language. I'm a major history nerd, especially when it comes to Ancient Greece and Rome, but also like... literally anywhere, any time. History is just so cool.

Fandoms:

Primary: Obey Me!, Genshin Impact (I will create and reblog content for this fandom!) Others: Arcana Twilight, Cult of the Lamb, Twisted Wonderland, Hazbin Hotel lately, plenty of others... (I will rarely create or reblog content for these fandoms, but I will like related posts!)

Requests:

Headcanons: FULL Drabbles: INACTIVE, but feel free to submit! Fanart: INACTIVE, but feel free to submit! Anything NSFW: Please inquire at my sideblog, @dayfinisher!

Ask/Request Guidelines

Important to remember with requests: there are no guarantees I'll actually get to them.

Commissions:

Fanfics and Fan Art: DM me! I've never done writing commissions before but knowing me I'll probably make 'em pretty cheap. You're free to ask about commissions at any time, even when requests are closed.

Masterlist of Content (Or, here are links to my fanfics, my art, and my headcanons, sorted by tag.)

Let's All Be Shadows - Honestly, I made this blog purely because I was so excited about writing this thing, I wanted to share it more. So I'm gonna put a link to its AO3 page on my pinned post. Satan-centric, endgame Satan x MC (kinda?), set in the Nightbringer timeline. I think it's pretty good. Lots of stuff happening. Hijinks and invented lore and all that.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Why do you care so much about AO3? The fanfics in that place, most of them, are just as bad written and cringe as the ones in Tumblr or Wattpad. Most fanfic writers aren good writers, they can't write anything of their own so they climb to IPs that aren't theirs, mischaraterize the characters and plot to the point of acting completely different.

And when they get a job as writers or directors in the intertaiment industry (like Nia DaCosta in Marvel), they do a terrible job.

Because I disagree completely with your assessment of fanfiction and fanfiction writers and I don't think art should be censored. I also lived through the FFnet days of having your favorite stories disappear overnight because of the obtuse, unevenly enforced, and constantly changing content restrictions on that site. A place like AO3, that was founded to be a place where all content is welcome and protected, is rare and important. Increasingly so as time goes on and the "art is literally harming me" crowd gets more and more influence.

Most fanfic writers aren good writers, they can't write anything of their own so they climb to IPs that aren't theirs, mischaraterize the characters and plot to the point of acting completely different.

So, they're so uncreative that they need to latch onto established IPs because they can't think up their own ideas, but then they change those characters and plots to be something completely different than what they read? Interesting. Anyway, all art is derivative in some way. Depending on which analyses you want to believe, there are only 6-9 story types. Every single story falls within one of these types. You can sprinkle in genre tropes, anti-tropes, subversion, modern inventions, etc to make your own story more unique, but nothing is wholly original. So I don't consider that a valid criticism at all.

And when they get a job as writers or directors in the intertaiment industry (like Nia DaCosta in Marvel), they do a terrible job.

Now this I do agree with, but I don't blame fanfiction, I blame producers and studio executives and DEI policies. If the best person who applied was hired for the job, it wouldn't matter how many fanfic writers and Booktokers tried to get mainstream writing jobs, none of them would be chosen because objectively better writers would be hired. But when the studio policy says "you must hire a woman for this" and all the talented women are unavailable, and the applicants you get are a bunch of no name, no resume, women, but one of them has a built in following from their fanfic days, an executive who only cares about filling in a name on a hire sheet so the project can move on is going to probably pick the one with a following and hope that translates to ticket sales in the future. The entertainment industry as a whole is going through a massive depression right now, and exactly none of that can be blamed on fanfiction or fanfiction writers.

Fanfiction is a blessing. It's thousand of novel length stories written by people who like the same things you like, delivered for free on an easily accessible and searchable site. It lets you experience new interpretations of your favorite characters and stories, or lets you continue those stories as they might have been continued by the original writers. The quality varies, wildly sometimes, but you can pretty much always find something you like unless you just hate the entire concept of fanfic as a whole. Which is, of course, perfectly fine. But let's not pretend that we need to find objective reasons to subjectively dislike something. We can all just dislike the things we dislike, and we don't need a reason other than "I don't like this thing".

[transredguy]

why do some people put ao3 on a high pedestal and treat it like its the greatest thing of our generation and actually ao3 invented queer rights where would our society be without ao3. like. first of all its just a fanfic site. and second i literally cant look through any tag without seeing a fic about rape on every page

[a1brix]

A "What If Uzi Died Instead of Nori" Fanfiction

This a first final draft of the opening scene of a new fanfic to post on AO3. I don't expect this to garner much attention in tumblr, but if you see this, please give comments and critiques! I feel like the ending was a little bit weak, and I have no beta readers...

---

"Mom! Check this out!"

Nori slowly turned from her desk to see Uzi hopping around proudly, holding a gun-looking thing in her hands. Nori sighed internally. That thing was the likely culprit to Nori's charge deprivation; That loud welding noise last night was constantly pulling her off sleep mode. And it was probably a new invention of Uzi's that Nori most definitely doesn't approve of...

She shook it off and smiled. If it would make her daughter happy, then she would entertain the idea of what kind of weapon her little girl had come up with this time.

"What have you got there?"

"My latest weapon!" Uzi began to wave the gun around, pretending like it was some sort of sword. 

“This cool-as-heck railgun!”

Nori stifled a yelp as the barrel whizzed past her head several times. She kept her smile though. The last thing she wanted was for her daughter to stop sharing these things with her. 

She loved seeing Uzi be with her…

But she was still quite uneasy about it! It's not every day your child makes something this... dangerous. Her eyes twitched a little when the barrel approached her again. Nori noted to herself to let Khan show Uzi some gun safety sometime soon, or at least how to keep the barrel pointed away from anyone.

Uzi smiled proudly back at her mom. "Pretty awesome, huh?"

"Sure, Uzi..." Nori reached forward, carefully pushing the barrel down so it wasn't pointed at her face. "Just... Please, try not to point that in anyone's direction, okay?"

Uzi stared blankly.

"Oh right... sorry, Mom." She said, tittering. "I forgot, heh heh..." Uzi set the railgun down on her desk carefully.

"Well... what do you think?"

Nori leaned forwards to inspect it a little. She didn't want to encourage the thought, but... "I can really tell how much thought you've put into making it a lightweight. The design itself is very sleek..." Nori did genuinely admire the craftsmanship. Khan really has been rubbing off on her daughter, hasn't he? She chuckled a little. 

"Although I am surprised you made it violet... and with stickers?"

Uzi crossed her arms and huffed. 

"Hey, I think it looks cooler that way! Don't ruin it for me!"

Nori shook her head, cupping a hand over her mouth and chuckling into her palm. "Well, I wasn't implying anything!"

"You're literally laughing at me!"

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!"

"So, what if I am?” Nori gave her daughter a playful smack. Uzi stumbled theatrically as a response, before retaliating with an onslaught of light jabs aimed at her mother. Nori held up her arms in defence, laughing softly.

“As your mom, it's my job to bully you for impractical aesthetics!"

"Bite me!" Uzi exclaimed, now giggling. "As your daughter, it's my job to make fun of you for being lame!”

Nori gasped in mock horror. "How dare you?!" She grabbed her daughter by the shoulders, and Uzi squirmed in response, still laughing. "That's it, you're grounded!"

"What?! No!" Uzi cried out, trying to worm out of her mother's grasp. "This is injustice! I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Really? Did you do your homework?"

There was an awkward silence before Uzi’s eyes hollowed, displaying underlines.

"Ah! There it is!" Nori laughed, pointing a metal finger at the lines. "The proof I need!"

“Mom!! That’s cheating!”

Nori laughed again. Uzi was smart, but could never outwit her mom. Well, not yet, anyway. She awaits the day her little genius finally pulls one over on her… but in the meantime, Nori couldn't help but have a little fun with this.

"Yep, it's true. You are grounded. That's also for making me stay up all night with all those sounds, you little gremlin."

Uzi grunted. "In my defence, I was working on something awesome!"

Nori rolled her eyes, playfully pushing her daughter away. It was times like this Nori wished she had a popcorn bucket. These kinds of shenanigans with Uzi were more entertaining than old human movies… and the "definitely-not-pirated” anime Uzi always wanted her to watch? Speaking of, she should really introduce Uzi to some new stuff.

"Well, I hope it's worth giving your poor mother a sleepless night."

"Sorry... But hey, I promise it's good." Uzi picked up her railgun and smiled. "It's going to blast some murder drones' heads off."

Nori chuckled, but it lacked warmth. She still has to care for the safety of her daughter. Just imagining the thought of her little girl facing a murder drone made her—

"Don’t go, please...”

Those words came so suddenly. Too suddenly.

Nori’s eyes hollowed. Something was crawling up the back of Nori's processor. An awful feeling, weighing down on her entire being as she blanked out for a moment. She couldn’t let the cracks show through though, even if just a little bit. 

Her teeth clenched, and Nori swallowed hard. She forced that feeling down.

Uzi maintained her grin.

“Go where?" Uzi asked. "Oh…! Outside? I mean… Yeah. I'm definitely planning to take this bad boy outside once it is fully done, but—”

Nori flinched.

"I SAID DON'T GO THERE!"

There was a clattering sound that caused Nori to blink. Her eyes glanced down to see her hands grabbing onto Uzi’s wrists tightly, with the railgun now discarded on the floor.

A few moments passed before Nori looked up to see Uzi staring right at her.

For the first time in a while, fear was etched into her little girl’s face.

“...M-mom?”

Stop ruining everything.

Nori let go of her daughter's wrist immediately.

Uzi clutched her wrist, looking down at it while rubbing it gently.

No... She promised would not lose control again. She could not bear to hurt anyone again, especially not her own daughter. Uzi did not do anything wrong. Uzi was only being herself. 

And this was just supposed to be some fun teasing.

"Did you not like what I said…?" Uzi looked up, her eyes void of their usual cheerful light. Her tone of voice seemed too frightened to hide its waver, almost sounding like she was about to cry.

A painful static suddenly blared inside her. 

Nori stumbled back, grabbing her head.

A good mother wouldn't do this to their own child.

"Mom!"

Nori's optics widened as she saw her daughter scramble to take hold of her.

"Are you okay?!" Uzi asked.

Nori is okay. Nori will always be okay when Uzi is around.

"I... I... " Nori stammered, “I’m so sorry, Uzi.”

Nori hugged Uzi. Uzi did not reply, but Nori had her daughter with her. Nori wasn't alone. Everything was okay as long as Uzi was here. Nori wouldn't lose her, right? Uzi was her everything, her reason to live for, her ray of hope when everything turns dark. It would destroy her if she could never see those sweet purple eyes again.

In her presence, Uzi will always be safe.

A smile formed as Nori looked up to her daughter’s face again. 

Her visor was completely shattered on the right.

On the left, her remaining purple eyelight flickered weakly.

Everything will be okay…

"Uzi…" Nori smiled, “We can still fix this..."

She pushed the shattered glass away with her foot.

Nori was still okay…

Her eyelight darted around.

"M-mom… What is happening?"

Uzi was still there…

Nori held her tight. "I... I don't know, but we'll be okay."

Uzi's head fell forward, hitting her shoulder.

Uzi…

“Mom… Why…”

Uzi looked up at Nori, before her light flickered out.

Uzi... it still hurts.

"Why did you kill me, Nori?"

[tazzymcclazzy]

RAAAAGH GRAAARRRGHHH AND OTHER SUCH SCARY DRAGONDOGTHING NOISES pleas e read this

tazdrgaoneyetagain -> tazzymcclazzy! first url change lets go

HELLAO! i go by taz, tazzy/tazzer, jevil, petco, or if youre feeling sillay, you can call me drgaone! or just dragon. if youre normal. also any variation of the word dog. if you call me fazerblaster you get fazerblasted into next fucking week (i'm looking at you, deezers)

☆ he/it/that/bark/woof/any canine-related neo you can fathom but i very much like it/its, transmasc and pan! can't quite describe my exact gender its like caninegender and boygored's evil child it's like the cissest-looking trans man you know its like some shadowy creature in the woods its like a domestic puppy. you know the drill. one day ill find a xeno that fits that

☆ furry and therian (black wolfdog) and simultaneously petre because you can never be too canine i guess, otherhearted (dragonhearted of course flaps my huge wings at u), selfshipper!!!1!1!

☆ not whatsoever diagnosed with anythin other than a few miscellaneous conditions but everyone who talks to me agrees theres some divergent on that neuro

☆ taken and very loud about it i love bird sm. SO much. im normal im so so normal [dies

☆ chronic epistaxis i am the number one bleeder

☆ also part of the corpoverse! i'm petcotherealest

《FANDOMS :3333》

◇ wings of fire

◇ pjsk/vocaloid

◇ fnaf, specifically the dcas

◇ hfjone

◇ the walten files

◇ chonny's charming chaos compendium

◇ regretevator. its birds fault

◇ kinitopet!!!!

《F/OS !!》

♡ sun (five nights at freddys, romantic f/o)

♡ six-claws (wings of fire, father f/o)

♡ sayori (doki doki literature club, romantic f/o)

♡ shadow bonnie (five nights at freddys, caregiver f/o)

♡ all 3 of the goofballs [heart mind and soul] r my platonic f/os. or fictional cgs. idk they're my friendce :]

♡ kinito (kinitopet, platonic f/o)

《TAGSSSS》

♧ drgaone roars -> og posts

♧ drgaone snarls -> asks and answers

♧ tax evasion -> art tag! i used this one across all my past blogs (@taz-drgaone, and the one i had to deactivate womp womp) so going through a tag for a literal felony is fucking flooded with fruity dragons. in retrospect i should have made it drgaone draws

♧ manatee the silly! -> manatee my blorbo my silly. also used across all blogs but you dont have to scroll past political shit

♧ drgaone scrawls -> vent poetry n fanfic !!!!!!!!! pls dont look there i put those there 4 safekeepin

♧ saveforlater -> imagine me curled up on a pile of these posts like a sleeping dragon atop its horde of treasures

♧ holy shit the images are moving -> animations i post

♧ partnerposting -> me being in love

♧ drgaoneflame -> posts im proud of. or popularish ones. the bangers

《MORE INFO I GUESS》

♤ feel free to send asks requests dms whateva!!!1! i thrive off interaction its my fucking lifeblood

♤ ask about my ocs. i beg you. hehe is that a sex reference

♤ on that topic, if it's brought up and ya get confused: carp is a dca au/selfship/crossover thingy invented via dumbassery and roleplay by me, birdic, and realguitarcenter/kaiyadrawzz, and it involves a lot of my wof oc lore (if i infodump to you abt one and redact something due to carp relation that is why), literal satanism, and lotsa heavy topics. if you wanna know about it, i will GLADLY TELL YOU and i have a loredoc in the works. my sona/the guy in my pfp is from carp, as is any characters by the name of austin, avery, or gabe. we hate gabe

♤ my discord is assignedmuckaatblucka PLEASE ADD ME i love makin friends so so so much

♤ tazzerjevil on ao3!!! read my fics boy. currently workinf on a jashling chatfic im v proud of

♤ not gonna put my triggers here due to An Incident but ask about em via dms or smth if you wish ^^ please do not ask about their origins. i will possibly block you if you try to find out

♤ PRO-PALESTINE. except i cant post much abt it because my zionist mother looks at my tumblr and id rather use this website as a place to relax than a place to spread information about current events pleeeaaasse respect that. but from the river to the sea palestine will be free‼️ i do my daily clicks also

♤ i am worlds most annoying dog. i will spam you with barking and yap about my partner so much

♤ i have many a sideblag! if you find the petre one, you get a gold star. if you find the other one and ask abt it, you get blocked. i sincerely apologize! but if u find the other one you probably have me blocked anyway ORRR youre looking here for more info about that one so uerm. hey there guys

♤ i am tooootally okay with jashshipping! i do NOT hc them as brothers. polytrident for the win bcos Comfort okay

BASIC DNI SHIT! pls if ur a jackass or bigot or anything do Not follow. also anyone against transspecies people (not one myself but its such a cool concept), mspec lesbians, xenos or neos. also if youre gonna tag me in a reblog chain plEASE dont, but especially dont do one of those ones where it says "tag [insert number of people]" i panic and have no clue who ta tag,,, also no reblog bait please! makes me nervous.

sona refs, theriotype refs, and other such images under the cut

SONA REFS:

second one by @/ratboyinastarrycoat!!

THERIOTYPE REFS:

i am simultaneously a large predator and an Oipouy. got a problem with that, liberal?/ref

OKAY THATS ALL SCAMPERS AWAY

[ghostoffuturespast]

🥐🦋🥤

For the Writers Truth and Dare Asks

Thank you for the asks! 🧡

🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh

This clip will forever live rent free in my head. I love tetris and I love the accordion.

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately

Since it’s truth and dare, fuck it. 

I’m wondering what you thought about my fic or, honestly, if you even finished reading it. (Maybe, I did manage to bore someone to tears.) 

You’re a phenomenal writer @luvwich. And from the small fraction of your work that I have read, you’re in possession of a formidable mix of charm, wit, and charisma that seems to manifest in spades within your writing. It’s something that I will never have, simply because those are things that I am not, and I’m envious of that. I can only dream of writing with the acute inventiveness that you have. Ever since we’ve started being friends (I mean, I hope we’re friends), it’s always felt like there’s been a bit of a wall between us when it comes to writing though. I don’t think it’s strange to want validation from friends and peers. However, I also understand that bandwidth is required in order to give and receive. Perhaps it’s my overactive imagination, but I do wonder why it’s something you seemingly give so freely to everyone else but me. Kind of feels like we’re at the dentist’s together getting our teeth pulled and it makes me wonder what the hell I’m doing wrong. Now, I obviously can’t make you do anything, nor am I asking you to do anything, but if you ever feel like dropping propriety and hashing out whatever’s on your heart and mind too, consider this an open invitation to hop the fence.

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

Not gonna play favorites and damn if I don’t read slower then I write, but I’ll recommend the fic I’m reading right now which is Rain in the Desert by @setaflow (aka @tarmac-rat)

This was the first fic I bookmarked after getting an ao3 account, right after I started my own fic in 2022, and I’m just now getting back around to reading this story two years later…

I’m not a particularly big SilverV ship fan (not that I’m knocking it), so when I stumbled (and I mean that literally) across Seta’s fic I was intrigued to say the least. If you like enemies to bromance, 90s dad rock references, and scientific levels of test-tube character analysis, then this fic is for you. Frankly, it needs waaaay more love then it’s gotten, by technical and emotional  standards the writing is excellent. I love Riley “Horse-girl” Aldana (even though I haven’t gotten to the name drop yet lol), kid’s got some spitfire and moxie underneath all the scared. I love how stubborn both her and Johnny are which makes for some some truly fantastic character dialogue and conflict. And I’ve been loving the slow reveal on their character backgrounds. Just an all around lovely multi-layered fic. I like a good onion.

[neatimmortal]

Snippet of something im working on rn

this is gonna get lost anyways lol. anyways here's your fanfic formalities:

heizou x GN reader! modern?au!

TW: Character death, direct mentions of war (not a specific just a war), implied terrible injuries but very vaguely described.

DISCLAIMER: this is part of a longfic im currently cooking, and plan to start publishing on ao3 (once i figure out how to even work the site). This is not proofread! I quite literally just wrote this. Excited for this project.

1k wk.

As the bullets flew, one thing was clear. This was the end. And by Archons had it taken its’ time, you thought. A hand that took you longer to identify as yours than it should’ve was wrapped tightly around your abdomen, in a pitiful attempt to dissuade the bleeding from continuing it’s relentless pace. Your ears had been ringing since you arrived here weeks ago, the non-stop firing of guns and other military-grade weapons of destructions and what have you. You had assumed your eyes to refuse to focus on anything much like how your ears never ceased to stop ringing however you had not been aware of just how unfocused they could be until you had caught a couple of bullets yourself.

Was it vain to be curious as to what you looked like? Not in the “I-hope-I-at-least-look-as-decent-as-I-can-be-given-the-situation” type of way, but just how harshly had this war torn into you? Did you look as bad as you felt? You pondered as you trudged along the debris and worn trees. You weren’t sure where you were going. Just away, was all you really could think at the moment. Away from the gunfire, from the yelling, from the flares, the blood, the death, all of it. Away from all of it. A moment of peace.

Surely you at least deserved that, right? Just a moment. Nothing shorter or longer. Just a moment, to tip your head back, breathe in some air that didn’t feel filtered through the horrors you had been facing for the past couple of weeks while being stationed here. Your feet made up the destination before your mind did, tripping clumsily and falling to the ground in a partially-shaded area in the woods. Not even the strength to complain, a moment of peace, was all you repeated in your mind, as you struggled and eventually managed to turn on your back and face up at the sky.

You must have been further out than you thought. That or you just never really had the time to admire the sky when you were busy reloading the gun you had been given. It was a pretty blue. Not a cloud in sight, yet the sun’s warmth wasn’t unbearable. It was almost comforting, like how a mother cradles their child in their arms to help soothe them.

It was by some misfortune that your moment of peace was so rudely interrupted by someone else. They were picking their way through the forest, much like you had been doing not so long ago, with heavy, labored breaths. It was an even greater misfortune when you managed to discern the sound and made eye contact with a reddish-brown haired man, wearing the enemy’s uniform.

You had no gun on you. Not anymore at least. You knew the exact reason you had come all this way out here anyways, and figured you wouldn’t need it. Would he put you out of your misery, with a bullet to the head? Would he be kind enough to do that? Or would he beat you as you slowly bled and laugh maniacally? War was a terrible invention from long ago that brought out the inhumane side of humanity. To your upmost surprise, he let out a breathless chuckle, before flopping down near you. “Looks like someone had the same idea as me. What are the odds?” He spoke, his voice was terse, no doubt in as much pain as you probably were.

You let out a similarly sounding laugh as you replied, “apparently greater than either of us probably realized.” After a moment (used to gather enough oxygen in your lungs to speak again, truly it was a feat at this point), you continued. “How old are you?” The man let out a cough, then a couple more, before responding, “20, you?” “19. Turning 20 in a couple of weeks.” “Happy early Birthday then!” He congratulated, mustering whatever grandeur he could, earning another strained giggle from you. It was quiet for a moment. Then two. Then three.

You turned to look at your companion, had he already left you? To some relief (ironic how you were thankful that this soldier that you had likely been shooting at for days on end was still alive, if you made it out of here you’d for sure laugh about it.), it seemed as though he was just coming to terms with it all, he knew as well as you. He hadn’t fallen too far of a distant from you actually. Mustering up some strength, you reached your hand out towards him. Thankfully, he noticed without you having to get his attention. Looking at your hand, then up to make eye contact with you, you could see the tears forming in his eyes. He stared at you for a second, his troubles all televised too well on his features before he spoke. “I don’t want to die.” He whispered, the joking tone from earlier miles away. His voice wavered slightly, likely from the tears, but it must have been the way that he said it that caused a weight to settle in your chest. Rather than breaking down, though you could certainly feel your own tears beginning to well up in your eyes, you simply nodded at him.

“Me either,” your lips pressed into a sad smile, as there was no help coming, Both of you knew it. That was why both of you had come out here. For a moment of peace. It was well deserved, wasn’t it? He nodded and took your hand, grasping as tightly as he could muster for some solace. The two of you laid there for some time. No words spoken, no more action took. You each just stared up at the sky, not daring to look at each other anymore (at the chance to see their new companion had already gone ahead of them), hands intertwined. It was not what you had expected when you began your march out here, but you doubted that his expectations were any different from yours.

A moment of peace was what you both got.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

literally going to hell for this but whatever, i've just finished reading silmarillion last week and honestly, you've put into words what ive been thinking about finwe and his actions. i remember going 'what' everytime i see people's posts and fics about indis and her children because its such a far cry from the books themselves. like did the fandom also suffer from the fanon vs canon thingy?

Hi! Welcome to the fandom!

I don’t think you’re at all alone in your reaction to Finwë - I think he rubs most people the wrong way for a whole gamut of reasons. He seems to ge trying to have things both ways, and as a consequence ends up failing everyone - both sides of his family, and his people as well.

It’s a big fandom and there are plenty of different perspectives, but yes, on the whole, large parts of both both tumblr and AO3 have some serious issues distinguishing between fanon and canon when it comes to the Fëanoreans, and any characters who dare disagree with, oppose, or be harmed by the Fëanoreans. The former will be treated as justified in everything; the latter will be villainized. Elwing was a major target in the past, but that’s abated to a degree; Thingol still is, to the point where I’ve seen people say they hate him for [insert things that are made up entirely and the opposite of his canon actions] and largely ignore his canon portrayal, and act as if the text is behind them. (Guys, he’s got enough of his own flaws, there’s no need to invent new ones out of thin air!) Beren, Lúthien, Dior, Nimloth, Elwing, Eärendil - people will act like they’re in the wrong for having been subjected, variously, to attempted murder, attempted rape, and actual murder by the Fëanoreans. I haven’t run into a lot of stuff villainizing Indis and her children, but I have seen a few fanfics of that sort and they always make me hit the back button immediately.

For these reasons, I’ve ended up as pretty selective about what fanfic I read, because the character distortion in a large part of it is extreme. Apparently it used to be worse in the past; Elwing-hatred is a minority now on tumblr, it seems like, whereas years ago it was pervasive. There are still piles of older fanfics (and some new ones too) that treat Elwing as being obviously to blame for the Fëanoreans choosing to massacre her people, take her sons captive, and drive her to suicidal despair - and, worse, treat Elrond has having this perspective.

I suspect that some of this is coming from some very big, very popular older fanfics that created an image of the story and characters that is frequently confused with canon, and that a lot of people used as a jumping-off point.

Another element in fanon vs canon question is that there’s also a pile of in-between stuff: material that comes from Tolkien’s marginalia and other drafts that isn’t in the Silmarillion. Some very popular fandom stuff - though not the non-Fëanorean-character bashing - comes from there. (For example, Maedhros’ hair being red and him being attractive, and literally having a name that means ‘good-looking’, are some of the most widely-known things in fandom despite never being mentioned in the Silm, as some of Tolkien’s notes mentioned them. The main characters’ Quenya names - Maitimo or Nelyafinwë or Russandol rather than Maedhros, Makalaurë rather than Maglor, etc - are also from there, and you’ll see them all over the place. I wasn’t aware of any of that before I joined the fandom, but but within fandom it’s everywhere.) So it’s hard, sometimes, to know whether something is a widespread piece of fanon, or something from other books. This also plays into the Finwë situation, because one of the things that vary between versions is whether he remarried almost right away, while Fëanor was still a kid, or whether he remarried when Fëanor was an adult. Christopher Tolkien chose the material for the Silmarillion in order to have a coherent story - so, for example, some characters (for example, two daughters of Finwë and Indis) who existed in parts of some drafts but not in others are left out of the Silm, because it wouldn’t work to have them disappearing halfway through the story.

So that all adds into the issues because if people want to villainize one character or build up another one, they’ll go to different drafts and pull out all the most negative things about one character and all the positive things they can find about another.

There’s still a lot of good stuff in fandom, and a lot of good fic, and on the whole I’ve enjoyed things hugely (I started reading fanfic around 2018-2019 and joined tumblr fandom in 2020, so I’m comparatively new). And there is a lot of interesting stuff about the Fëanoreans - but it can sometimes tend to drown out - or at worst, shout down - fan material on other characters.

[neuroprincess]

My OC Odessa, an asanelian, and some stuff about this fictional species I invented in the Star Trek universe, all done with voices in my head

I'm literally just posting here so I can link to my ao3 fanfic XD

[musewrangler]

AO3 First Lines Tag Game

Tagged by: @brievel and @afaroffsong Thank you both!

Rules: Share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

I'm assuming here ALL fan fic, so that will include a few yet unpublished things. ;D

Working from past fic to most recent:

10--Sanctuary

Veers watched tensely as the medics guided the grav sled onto the shuttle out on the vast landing platform connected to the medical station.

"You must stick to the schedule I've given you," Doctor Yara said sternly, tapping the specialized medical scanner. "No deviation. He ought to have had four days in the bacta, not 24 hours. You need to understand if you rush things it could literally kill him."

9--Forging Further Ch. 29

Piett looked up as the doors to his office slid open and Veers marched in. Any other person would have stomped, but as this was the 'Iron General' one didn't term this stomping. It was marching. Definitely.

8-- To Strive, To Seek, To Find, and Not To Yield

She clung as closely as she could to him in the dark and terrifying hold of this ship. She had utterly no idea where they were going, but she could guess the purpose. They were alive after all.

With beings like this it wasn't a mercy.

7--What We Say Without Speaking

"Sir, I have to admit this is making me rather nervous."

He could hear the Admiral making small movements to his left as he piloted the lamda. And he definitely heard heard the amusement in Piett's voice as he answered.

"I'm hearing a distinct lack of trust, Mr. Scraps."

6--Whiskey Diplomacy

It was entirely possible that diplomacy had been invented as a way to torture beings in ages past and all records of its inception had been lost. Thus, modern societies just assumed it was a normal way of conducting their affairs, slowly and torturously wearing each other down until they all got a mostly dissatisfying conclusion.

At least, this was Han's theory, as yet another senator rose to drone about all the virtues his planet brought to whatever deal they were trying to forge here.

5--Captain's Log: Tales Set in the World of Horblower

First Lieutenant Archie Kennedy was not someone who enjoyed the cold. His fiance loved the snow and found all sorts of romance about it. He could indeed appreciate that from beside the comfort of a warm fire or reading about it in a book. But she actually liked being out in it, and again, he could appreciate that for a while. But he was ready for the indoors after thirty minutes.

4--The War In The Shadows

Deep breath.

In.

Let it out slowly through the nose.

Lips arranged in a fixed and falsely pleasant smile.

Chin rested on gloved fingers interlaced together to portray interest in the speaker.

3--A Shield Not A Sword

"Sir," his weapons officer whispered in terror. He was a specky kid no older than eighteen. "Sir, what do we do?"

Piett stared out the viewport at the five Imperial Star Destroyers surrounding his tiny little assortment of ships. Four Gladiators and one Victory class. Typical for this part of the galaxy and more than enough to turn his smaller ships into tiny particles.

2--Yet to be titled long fic

Firmus Piett was not a man much given to the idea of romance. He acknowledged that it happened and other people seemed to like it---but he didn't understand the obsession with the shows on the holonet, or soul mates, or love at first sight.

1--Yet to bet titled one shot

"Plase, Max," his friend pleaded, gripping his jacket with surprising strength to keep Veers near him. "Plase. Ah know the ship went down intact. Ah saw it. Ya canna lave him..."

His Axxilan friend slipped back into his old accent when he was very tired, rather drunk, or downright terrified for his people.

Tagging with no pressure: @winterinhimring @hollers-and-holmes @chaosgoblinhours @klarionthewizard @alexx-dax @kanerallels @oftincturedwords @oh-great-authoress @mathmusic8 @themummersfolly

[fitzrove]

Complaining about fanfic trends (the treatment of F/F vs M/M specifically). This will probably come off very petty. Also, related to smut, so mentions of explicit content ahead...

The corpus of fanfic borne out of the Goncharov meme is so telling to me re: a wider phenomenon that has bugged me for a long time. This is a fandom where it's 100% invented characters and invented storylines - all that is commonly agreed on is a rough list of characters, among whom are a F/F ship (Katya and Sofia) and a M/M ship (Andrey and Goncharov). There should be literally no difference in how the ships are treated - one set of characters is not written differently than the other in canon, because CANON HAS NEVER BEEN WRITTEN. But immediately, two very separate trends emerge in fic. Take a look at the stats on ao3:

Goncharov/Andrey (207 fics in total)

Katya/Sofia (257 in total)

For once, there are more F/F fics than M/M fics in a fandom. But yet, the proportion of mature and explicit works out of the entire corpus is totally different across the ships. For the M/M ship, mature works form 17,8% of the entire body; for F/F, it's 15,9%. For explicit fics it's 8,2% for the guys and 3,5% for the girls. A noticeable difference!

When you look closer at the tags, you will find that the M/M fic (especially the explicit stuff) deals with considerably heavier and kinkier stuff. You have BDSM, toxic relationships, lots of enemies to lovers. The F/F fic is mostly tenderness and yearning... (Also some threesomes with a guy as a third.) This also seems like a trend in the wider characterisation of the relationships in fic across the board as well as tumblr posts - A/G is an enemies to lovers relationship with a lot of passion and tension, while K/S is soft and tender.

... Which is completely okay! People write what they want, and evidently, the people hard at work writing fic (but in actuality worldbuilding and characterbuilding from scratch!) want to write the stuff I've described. It's not up to outsiders to police what others write, fanfic is a hobby.

BUT STILL. I'm fucking starving 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Why are the wlw ships in fandom always either 1) background decorations 2) soft, sweet and pure 3) not really focused on the relationship but rather wider angst related to trauma (and usually trauma related to men). (I know it isnt actually always like this - the Rebecca fandom for example is doing great ajfjkskd.)

Can't I just want to read about absolutely toxic women being horrible to one another all on their own 😭😭 Or idk, just something super kinky. It's so frustrating that the trends centered around wlw ships always lean in the same tender direction EVEN WHEN NOTHING IN CANON POINTS THAT WAY. The tenderness isn't even earned a lot of the time!!! They don't even almost die due to their own mistakes!!!!!! They just meet and are very sweet about it. And like, I get the appeal of such stories, and I even enjoy them, but it's so frustrating when you want to read something toxic and it doesn't exist. 🤣 I would write more myself but none of my fandoms have those ships prebuilt and genderbends don't necessarily find a broad audience. So I just write and read M/M and occasionally lose my mind over an awesome F/F fic if I can find one. 😅

[watery-melon-baller]

For the ask game: 7, 23, 58, 94

And here's the link if you need it: https://www.tumblr.com/zyrafowe-sny/707459212951928833/ask-game-for-fanfic-writers

thank you for the link saves me from scrolling thorugh 2 days of my own bullshit

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

IDENTITY FRAUD MY BELOVED!!! the first fic i ever wrote was an avatar the last airbender crack fic that was about the gaang (aang, katara, sokka, suki, toph, and zuko) all randomly time traveling to season one of legend of korra, and causing an insane amount of chaose and commiting many, many crimes. it has similar vibes to weekend at beloss in my opinion, and actually wound up being a similar length, and its on my ao3 account if u wanna check it out. since was my first fanfic it was poorly written in some sections, but i learned a lot from it and its cool to go back and see how my writing got better chapter by chapter!

23. how do you deal with writers block?

ough. hm. not great tbh. if i have writers block its usually because theres something about the section im writing that i dislike , whether i realize or not. sometimes its because i feel obligated to write things a certain way even when i dont HAVE to, and i have to remind myself this is my writing annd i shoulnd't feel obligated to like it a certain way if i dont want to. but if im stuck on a scene ill put on some music and daydream and try to restructure the scene into a way i like and actually am interested in writing. mentally make an outline of "okay, heres how this should go". but sometimes if i just am stuck and cannot think of anything i dont try to force myself to write. i try to move on to other things and come back later and see if im interested or come up with a new idea.

58. what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were writing it?

googling when finger guns were invented. i did not get a clear answer >:(. fun fact that one throwaway paragraph of luz asking when finger guns were invented was literally just my train of thought in the moment being typed down seconds after i thought it.

94. do you prefer dialogue or description?

oooh i dont know! i tend to write a lot of dialouge due to like. mainly writing crack fic and fanfic in general but description is fun! i dont describe things a lot but when i do i like describing things that are hard to describe. idk i like describing shit i guess. i do enjoy dialouge but i sturggle with it sometimes. i do enjoy it the most when im writing banter and funny stuff. this doesn't answer ur question so im just gonna say i like both.

[roses-and-lightnings]

5 Things You Never Get Tired of Writing

@lizzy0305  tagged me??? I’m IN TEARS! 😭😭

rules: list five things you never get tired of writing. it can be tropes, themes, characters, phrases, whatever brings you joy. then tag five people!

1) Self indulgence

I write a lot about myself and my own feelings, but aside from that, every single thing I write has to have a dash of me in it, otherwise it doesn’t work. I write based on my own features, my own personal experiences and tastes, my feelings and morals and vision and craziest dreams. I am guided by them. Anything else feels extremely outworldly.

In fanfic I’m a specialist in trying putting myself in someone else’s shoes, so my writing of a character that’s not mine will mostly be built on empathy and sympathy and common/canon knowledge about the character and their universe.

2) Details

Adding details is my way of telling how passionate I am about my writing. I like writing about scenarios, sounds and appearences. It’s important to me what’s my character sees, listen, touches, smells and tastes, how they move on the scenario that moves with them, what they know and learn about the world they live in, but mostly, I spend entire paragraphs nonstop writing about what’s in a character’s heart. How they feel, what they feel, their thoughts, how and why they act like they do, how their bodies react, their intentions, everything.

3) World building

It’s too fun to research and make the rules, or find something in canon that matches perfectly with how you intended to do your fiction (or change it entirely because of one misplaced thingy that feels odd). Things like “soul science” were invented, and a spell called Vitae Florere that literally blossoms life on those who are nearing death’s door.

4) Character lore

I may or may not have written the story, but man do I have a paper for each of my 87 original characters, listing their backstory, physical appearence, character development, personality, personal flaws, talents and hobbies, their sexual orientation, birthday, zodiac sign and astrology chart, their aesthetics, which season of the year they like most, which color and element I associate with them, their deepest, darkest secrets... it doesn’t matter if they only have a single sentence worth of screen time!!!

5) Dialogue

If I can’t make it writing the whole paragraph, or the rest of the story, I absolutely love the talking my characters do, just their lines and their speeches (man I love writing accents and archaism in speech), without a proper context. It can end on something deep, beautiful that holds a lot of meaning for the eventual context I am definetly GOING TO write haha

Or it can be something like:

(My character and her relatives walk into a bar)

“What would you like to eat?”

”Your mom.”

- Taken of an actual draft

I’m tagging @brightredsunset800, @icarus-aetius @luendland @danpuff-ao3 and @mrviran