#this is an old fic I posted to Reddit like a year ago

[ichiwashername-o]

Saw the trailer for Wicked. Loved it. Play come to the Silver Screen. Annnnd...that reminded me, YEARS ago I read a pair of fics that kind of served as a "fix-it" to the Wicked universe. They were a bit dark, but not as dark as the "Wicked Years" books. And then they vanished at some point. So I posted on Reddit yesterday looking for them and someone found them...like yesterday or today I think, and that lead me here. I remember you on FFN. I remember your writings very fondly. I was sad to see them go but now maybe they can be posted to A03 or something? You're as hype for this fandom as ever lol. I was away from it for years. Thank you. I love happy endings and redemption and I remember your stories being two of the best for that.

Thank you for the kind words! And yes, way back when over on fanfiction.net, I went by the username Ichiko Wind Gryphon. Notable fics that I wrote were "Dangerous Secrets," The Fire That Consumes Us All" (that's still such a dumb name and I wish I thought about that title more) and "Cursed Blood."

And in fact, someone (magica12, huge shout-out to you) reached out to me on deviantart and they were able to lead me to an awesome archived website where I could find all of my old deleted fics! It was such a rush of nostalgia. I deleted those fics in a fit of me cringing at my past self and I regretted it ever since, but thanks to them, I can reread all those fics I poured so much time and love into!

I definitely plan on re-uploading them, either on AO3 or fanfiction.net. And when I do, I'll be sure to post about it here! It may take a while, as I'll be pretty busy in the upcoming weeks, but keep your eyes open!

[langernameohnebedeutung]

(Referring to this post: https://langernameohnebedeutung.tumblr.com/post/725361975543185408/you-heard-of-hating-female-characters-for-traits)

Do you think it's always a case of people being sexist, or do you think there are cases where the problem is the execution?

(sorry, I had my tabs mixed up).

I mean, for one, "always" is a word that I like to avoid because it's a word that is too big of a commitment to me.

I think execution as well as interpretation both play a role most of the time. And most of the time, they overlap and together they can develop their own very specific dynamics.

The thing is, when I entered fandom at now...almost 15 years ago, things were far worse. Far, far worse. Female characters were routinely portrayed as soulless evil and often violent harpies for no reason (the way they're e.g. often still treated in other, more dudebro-y spaces where female characters can basically be sorted into the categories "hot", "helpful" and "hated" (cough, Borderlands reddit and youtube, cough) - or their entire personality was erased to make her the perfect love-interest.

On the other hand, I feel like in the fandom spaces that have kind of reflected on these issues since then - both the misogyny in the original execution as well as the misogyny in fandom spaces - there is a certain anxiety that makes people ping-pong between these two problems and ultimately, shy away from the issue and the characters entirely.

One example is: How do we deal with female characters who are written to be problematic in extremely misogynistic ways (e.g. the nagging wife). Do we pile on by writing long texts about how she is annoying and nagging and doesn't support her poor husband, therefore meriting the poor writing while at the same time being true to her character and taking her at face value? Probably chiming in with the actual misogynists who will openly hate her AS a woman? Or do we ignore her entire personality and re-design her character into some fandom staple trope that feels more salvageable (but is often also ultimately a cliché like the long-suffering but good-natured doormat wife and isn't the act of making a woman more sweet and manageable sexist in its own right?)? Do we simply pretend her relationship with her husband is just a little bit quirky and fun that way? Or should we let her fade into the background? Do we ascribe a higher motive to her actions? Do we write "hey, yeah, Jane and I got divorced a few months ago" into our fic about the male lead to clear the road to whoever we ship him with? Or do we let him cheat because his wife is so horrible?

How do we deal with the female characters from old-timey works who are given basically no agency? Do we call her out for being useless and annoying and not contributing anything? Or do we construct some deeper agency to her actions? Do we turn her into another "reasonable, good-natured mom-friend"?

Another common complaint against female characters I see is that they're "annoying". On the one hand, I think this comes from the habit of writers of canon, who have decided that the peak of female character agency is to turn them into a token hindrance and rival for the male character who ultimately is wrong but still gets a lot of screen-time arguing and disagreeing and working against a male-character that the audience might like. Which often means they dislike her. The obvious solution is to ship them because they clearly have some hate-love kinda thing going on (I'm saying this in good humour, I love those ships). But sometimes that goes to another extreme where that same character who really, really, really hates a male character for very understandable reasons, has her personality erased and her values and priorities and boundaries ignored to ship her with him - and then fans will suddenly call her abusive and mean if her behaviour in canon doesn't reflect that fanon rationalisation. (though to be fair, I think this is also something that happens with m/m ships) Which is where we end up in the original scenario again, only worse.

I also think the low regard for women's experiences and feelings and the prevalence of misogynistic writing play a role. In execution, the female character's pain and experiences aren't given the same stage (especially if they would inconvenience the male characters around her). In fanon, because I think there is a certain discomfort with putting female characters through certain experiences because it is a misogynistic trope or because it has very specific connotations - and meanwhile, the idea that writing a male character dealing with these same experiences on the one hand (best interpretation) removes the lens of misogyny that causes this discomfort and let's us examine the issue from a less mapped out perspective and b) (less favourable interpretation) on the other hand, it might feel like this experience receives an upvaluation when a man is shown to be dealing with it.

For example, ages ago I saw this clip of an interview with...I think a director? and he talked about how he has to frame scenes, where the male lead cries very differently from the way he has to frame a scene where a female character cries because the audience reacts very differently because female characters are portrayed as crying so much more often, while a crying scene for the male lead is a show-stopper. It has a lot of gravity. This is something we also probably reflect at least subconsciously when we let a character cry. And I think this applies to a lot of things - both in our writing and in our interpretation of works that, e.g. are very male gaze-y. Showing male characters feeling love-lorn and sensitive and sexualised or domestic - that's an interesting exploration of masculinity, it is actively engaging with characters who probably weren't written like that in canon.

Showing your favourite action hero padding around his apartment making breakfast for his boyfriend in bed while thinking about how pretty he is (also, just to drive the point home, he might be pregnant now) is...just that tick more experimental than showing a female character in that same role. Especially if she, too, is a super-strong action heroine who can do anything. (and you are the one impregnating her and making her make breakfast? That doesn't feel nice!)

So yeah,...uh. I think both are an issue.

[alittledizzy]

I'm not a fan of dream's but it's so funny to see he went "after the surgery it won't be me in the mask all the time" then "don't say it's not me wearing the mask >:(". Like that dude is weird but weirdly hilarious.

tbh it is objectively hilarious.

i think the most important thing everyone should keep in mind about dream is just... dude is also figuring this out for the first time along with all the rest of us

there is this expectation (not from you, just from fandom in general) that he's either a 100% fuck up who makes awful decisions or he's 100% capable marketing genius who should not be questioned ever

but he's just like. a twenty three year old guy who until eight months ago hadn't left his house in four years. obviously rich thanks to his success over the pandemic. obviously intelligent enough to have built this career more or less by himself. but just because you stumble into a mix of the right content at the right time and the right audience finding it doesn't mean you're going to continue to make every right choice after.

i feel like fans of dream more than anyone else should get this? this man is like three chronic illnesses and a couple of neurodivergent diagnoses stacked together in a trenchcoat. he is relatable to a fault, but some people don't want to relate to him when it comes to the shitty aspects of adhd like time blindness and hyperfixation on a specific project. they also don't want to acknowledge what trauma can do to your passion for a specific topic. they don't want to face the human aspects of him because that's a stumbling block on the road to "dream is disappointing me personally so i'm basically now an anti"

he had a major project this year he was very excited about. for reasons outside of his control it never got off the ground. that sucks. like... i can't imagine spending months writing a 60k fic and someone else comes out with a similar fic and is hostile toward me over the idea of me posting mine. i'd sure as fuck be ready to step back from writing for a while.

and on the opposite site the people that idolize him and never want to hear a negative word about him or 'pop off, king' to every single thing he says don't want to understand that a healthy amount of criticism is not only good but needed for anyone. i've seen the same cycle in every fandom i've been in, like this is just 2018 dan and phil hiatus arguments with a new coat of paint, so i'm not even being specific to dream when i say toxic positivity and toxic negativity are equally exhausting to me. the reddit is a godsend when it comes to a place dream can, of his own volition and when he wants, visit to get a consensus of rational fandom opinion without the filter of people who are inclined to never disagree because they want a notice from him

anyway my tl;dr is i think more of fandom needs to look at dream and think 'what a weird but weirdly hilarious guy' rather than this urge to project everything they want him to be or want to be mad about onto him

[machiroads]

Machi's 2023 Year In Review

'23 was a bit of a wild one. A toast to the last twelve months (both in fandom and IRL) under the cut.

Fic

Here's what went out the door in '23:

Naruhata Noir

I started posting NN in December '22, about a month after finishing 9L. At one point last year I joked about finishing the entire thing in the week between Christmas and New years. Evidently, this did not happen for a variety of reasons:

A) A series of events occurring in my personal life that do not merit further detail that I will herein refer to as "the conga line of nonsense". That kicked off during last year's holiday season and bled into like...May. Which leads directly into:

B) Tears of the Kingdom came out. And;

C) A general loss of motivation in the project.

During the aforementioned Conga Line of Nonsense, I had a goal of finishing before TotK came out, but I only managed to cobble together another 4 chapters between January and May. After somehow managing weekly to biweekly chapters for 9L, NN was much more sporadic, and at one point I had people asking me if I was still alive. Which. sucked, since I generally strive to be a somewhat reliable person.

Once the TotK hyperfixation hit, I managed maaaaaaybe another 2 chapters before I finally got bored of grinding monsters to upgrade outfits. I did manage to meet the third self-imposed deadline of finishing before going to Japan for 2 weeks, so at least that's one W.

In addition to the distractions of Life, NN was more challenging to write for a few main reasons:

Aizawa is not the narrator. Look, I'm mature enough to acknowledge that he is Blorbo From My Shows, and everything I write wants to revolve around him. Taking a step back from that and trying to get into another character's head after spending 8 solid months on 9L was an adjustment. It took me a bit of time to find Shinsou's voice.

Most of the relationship dynamics in this fic are non-canonical, and pulled directly out of my ass. Shinsou's relationships with the Hottas are central to the back half of the fic, and his relationship with Mirko also becomes prominent at times. NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS HAVE EVER INTERACTED IN REAL LIFE I'M JUST SMASHING DOLLS TOGETHER LIKE I DID AS A 7 YEAR OLD.

Trying to parallel something I already wrote several months ago is hard. I wanted NN to make sense on its own, but also follow the relevant bits from 9L. This was next to impossible to accomplish without sounding clunky. Almost from the very beginning of the fic, the outsider's perspective of Aizawa's first steps, I felt the urge to change the dialogue because the story that I wanted to tell from Shinsou's perspective was different from the one I wanted to tell from Aizawa's perspective. I locked myself into that rigidity for a while, until I finally decided just to say fuck it at the end and modify the 9L dialogue slightly because the story had taken on a life of its own.

Erasermic took a major backseat in this one, but I still needed to scratch the itch, and I think that's why I ended up writing 2 emic one shots in between chapters.

I don't think a direct parallel spin-off is something I would try writing again, and the fic was probably a lot longer than it needed to be, but at the end of the day, I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, and I'm happy I was actually able to finish it this year.

Here's a collage of my inspo for Aizawa's apartment cobbled together from google maps and japanese real estate websites.

Being No One, Going Nowhere

The first of the 3 one shots that I put out this year, and a proof of concept that I can slap together 3k in a day and a half fever dream and call it a fic.

This one in particular was instigated by one of @o0fyuu0o's tweets that refused to leave me alone. And maybe also the two broken arms story from reddit, but you know, like, less incesty.

Mic was extremely pathetic in this one, which is immensely fun to write. Just a pathetic little meow meow. Sopping wet cat of a man.

College AU was fun to write, emboldened in part by @kyurilin's fic Stray. After being married to canon-verse for both 9L and NN, this was an exercise in just making shit up, and also living vicariously through the memories of the house I lived in for the better part of 2 years as an undergrad. I graduated 7 years ago and it is still crystallized in my memory.

A Tumultuous Sea, You and Me

I've been nursing a healthy crush on Pirate!Aizawa (or Paizawa, as the kids on JP Twit call him) since the Volume 35 character page came out in June '22. Paizawa even killed a 2 year long art block, that's how powerful he is. (Look!)

I do not remember what exactly spurned this one on, but it also got written in the span of about 2 days. I think I reread The Art of Drowning at some point this year, but I do not remember if it was during the writing frenzy, or sometime before it.

Aizawa gets to hold the meow meow card again in this one. His 2 sentence rivalry with Vlad is one of the best things I've ever written.

Of the 2 days I spent writing this, I probably spent 75% of that researching pirate ships. I used almost none of it, and have forgotten almost all of it by this point.

I feel like everyone that dips their toes into the realm of merpeople has a different interpretation on it, but I wanted to spend approximately 0 minutes on worldbuilding, so it's just kind of a chill coexistence between the pirates and the mermaids in this one lol. People were intrigued by said "worldbuilding" however and wanted more, but I think I've scratched the mer-pirate itch for now haha.

1966 Ford Nutstang GT350 Shelby

@kyurilin made a tumblr post that misspelled "mustang" as "nustang" and I skim-read it and saw "nutstang" and was like "you know what would be a terribad nickname for the car? Nutstang." At which point I immediately informed her, which led down the rabbit hole of a very loose RP (as it often does) and I decided YOU KNOW WHAT? I SHOULD JUST TURN THIS INTO A CRACK FIC.

At which point I had to sort of construct a loose plot around the entire bonkers concept. Nemuri held a key role in the pseudo-RP, but I ended up wanting to keep the fic tight and her role was mostly cut. But rest assured she is there in spirit, though, judging.

The plush nutsack is just a bastardization of a kangaroo ballsack coinpurse I saw in a Crap Souvenirs From Around The World calendar I had many years back that has imprinted on my memory. At no point did I seek out visual reference for it, and neither should you. It is up to the reader's imagination.

On the topic of bastardizations, the reappearing nutsack plotline is borrowed from the drawfee gnome saga.

Mic yelling GOOD MORNING and Aizawa banging his head on the underside of his desk is S tier slapstick.

PEOPLE MADE ART????

Some wonderful listeners readers are still making art for 9L, and we have been blessed with two beautiful new pieces this year:

Mic and Eri's selfie, from @kaleidoscopedrawsjpg

The Only One Bed scene, from @guiltyfixations

@obsessed-dragon also drew the photo of Shinsou holding Miso from Naruhata Noir, and Black Spider Eyes drew Aizawa dangling out the window from Tumultuous Sea.

Every time a piece of art drops on my dash, or I see my fic being recommended to other people, my brain does a lil short circuit and I have to go get up and walk around for a bit. I'm not sure words can express how much it means to me that people have enjoyed my writing enough to recommend it to other people, or sit down and create something of their own based off of it. It's humbling, and I'm truly grateful for every kind word or "sketch I should have maybe spent a little longer on" hahaha

Stats!

Look, I'm an engineer. I can't resist the thrall of Microsoft Excel. So here's A Chart.

I value Bookmarks the highest of all the stats that AO3 spits out. Views are pointless (skewed higher in the context of multi-chap fics). Kudos are an indicator of how many people read and liked enough to leave a kudos, but bookmarks are my indicator of how many people liked it enough to keep it around to read again, or recommend to others.

The bookmark-to-kudos ratio is (in my unscientific opinion) a measure of how many people loved the work vs how many people just liked it.

From the chart above, we can propose the following conclusions:

9L is still, far and away, the most popular, and most well-loved thing I've ever written. I'm fine with that.

The Nutstang fic was a certified cult classic, with a bookmark-to-kudos ratio of almost 0.3, second to only 9L.

NN is at a respectable ratio of 0.24 (middle of the pack), but in terms of number of kudos, is not that far ahead the mer-pirate fic. NN was not tagged as erasermic, so I do think this checks out in terms of sheer exposure.

Still Cooking:

FFXII AU

I started this one in March during the conga line of personal life nonsense. I somehow lured in Robbirdthe8th and @o0fyuu0o and @obsessed-dragon and got a solid month of drafting done before I was like "maybe I should work on NN again" and then it sat dormant until like. October.

It's up to almost 30k across 3 partially written chapters already, and I outlined 9 chapters. It is almost certainly overambitious, and I will almost certainly run into the same motivation issue I had with NN because it's a rooftop 4 fic and not just erasermic, and it has a demographic of approximately four people as an AU of a game that came out in uh........2006.

I thought I'd get at least some of it out in '23 but I'm taking it easy and just writing when inspiration strikes at the moment.

Fortuneteller AU

I started this one maybe a week-ish ago, in my quest for a pitch for the erasermic zine (surprise! they haven't made official announcements yet, but I'll be in it. this is an easter egg for those of you who made it this far). It's going to end up far too long for the 3k word limit for that, so I'm just co-opting it for another one-shot. Taisho era urban fantasy dabbling in some Violet Evergarden/FMA-esque post-war themes. Mic with pince nez. Aizawa in hakama. Gratuitous amateur tarot. It has gripped me by the throat.

More from the Nine Lives Extended Universe (canon-willing)

I've got 3 more spin-offs to 9L simmering, just waiting for canon to figure out its business. These are:

When The Battle's Lost and Won

A final battle post-mortem in 4 parts (if 3baka all make it out alive that is). Every few chapters of canon that come out, something gets added or tossed. Extremely fluid at this point, but there are some good quality blurbs and bullet points in there.

Kintsugi

The erasermic epilogue to 9L, from Mic's perspective. An exploration of their relationship beyond the final battle, with an overarching theme that I've borrowed from a Dorktown documentary on former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb: Not at all, and then all at once.

This one's just pure body worship, punctuated by an extremely casual marriage proposal. A lot of people still comment on 9L like "THIS CAN'T BE IT, WHERE'S THE REST OF IT?", so I hope this will satisfy those looking for some closure from a relatively open ending.

The Way of the Househero

With the impending graduation of the hell class, and a body that doesn't quite move the way it used to, Aizawa has a bit of an existential crisis and semi-retires so he can be a full-time parent to Eri while figuring out what's next for him. Mostly slice of life. No real plot to this one yet, mostly just vignettes. Aizawa finally gets cats of his own, makes mom friends, and becomes more of a knife slut (only its in the kitchen now instead of on the streets).

IRL

Painting

Every room in my home is painted some sort of bland pastel, and this year we managed to purge pastels from four rooms: my home office, our living room / dining room, and our bedroom. I am enormously pleased with how each of these have turned out.

Gardening

We moved to this house in January '22, and last year was mostly seeing what came up in the garden. This year we cleared out a lot of the decorative shrubs in our backyard (turns out you can hock shrubs on facebook marketplace), and planted a veggie garden. The extent of my gardening experience prior to this year was mowing the lawn as a teenager, so this year was a continuous learning experience, and likely will be for many more years to come.

We had some big wins (potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cherries, squash, dear god the squash), and some losses (apples that were infested with tent caterpillars, arugula that bolted, and lettuce that got eaten by bunnies to name a few).

In addition to veggies, we also did a lot of general cleanup around the rest of the yard, including clearing out some invasive species and thinning out some partially dead shrubs. We mostly let the yard do its own thing last year, and the previous owner of our home died about 6 months before we moved in, so it was probably neglected for a while. I cut out a blackberry cane that was as long as our driveway. I bought a wood chipper and a compost aerator and am learning the art and science of turning yard trash into yard treasure. (I have not peed on my compost pile yet, as recommended by /r/composting. Maybe some day.)

I also adopted a clipping from my sister-in-law's monstera, which has done quite well (except for the parts my cat has taken a mild interest in nibbling on from time to time)

Travel

Probably too much travel this year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3 Weddings (4 if you count the one in December '22 that's included in the Conga Line of Nonsense). Got covid at 2 of them. Invited to a fifth next year. Wishing everyone of marriageable age I know IRL a very elope

Trips for work to Winnipeg and Calgary (to which I have never been before, but are both underwhelming). Also got to fly on a floatplane for the first time, which is noisy, but the views are unbeatable

I turned 30 this year, and after the Conga Line of Nonsense, I said fuck it, we're going back to Japan for my birthday. 2 weeks, 8 cities. L: Shimanami Kaido cycle (still somehow 30 degrees in September x full sun x forgot sunscreen x 80km = pain) (my husband has proofread this and insists that this is not an L but agree to disagree) W: Hokkaido (beautiful scenery, incredible food, not 30 degrees in September lmao)

Anyways

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and thanks for your love in '23. I hope to provide you with more of the same nonsense in '24. Let me know if you want a spinoff cats + gardening + DIY blog, since that's just my life now. Happy new year 🍾

[bellehalla]

Omg I forgot about raging fires for like a HOT minute and then randomly remembered it like 45 min ago. Couldn't remember the name except that it had fire in it- searched all of ao3 for it and couldn't find it, searched here and couldn't find it. I've been STRUGGLING these last 45 min trying my hardest to find it again. Searched kaeya x inazumian reader, kaeya x cross dresser- legit everything I could think of.

Thankfully, I saw a reddit post asking for Kaeya Fic recs and found someone recommending it with a link.

It felt like seeing an old friend after years of lost communication when I found it again 😭😭

the x cross dresser is sending me looool maybe this is a sign to put it up as a tag? (i'm very bad at tagging in case nobody noticed)

this was sent to me months ago already so if you are still here anon, just know you made my day.

[therantsofawriterrr]

I saw an edit of Spiderman No Way Home and Amazing Spiderman 2, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Now i saw the Amazing Spiderman 2 like years ago when my dad had put it on, it had aired on Star Movies or HBO i don't remember, idek if i was old enough to understand what was going on.

But i saw like, all the clips on yt in the lonely, exhilarating, happy, sad and just overall emotional years of the pandemic and basically just felt ultimate despair when I saw the last few scenes of the movie, Gwen dying, him watching the clips and that last scene where he comes back as spiderman, you get the jazz.

Now, the thing is, i think it was last year or the year before when Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness had been released, and people had been saying that Spiderman No Way Home was important to the plot. I pirated the movie and was up all noon watching the movie. MoM was going to be an evening show, btw.

I don't have that kind of commitment, just lemme tell you. If I'm gonna see a sequel to a movie that I haven't seen, I will not be up all noon watching the first movie, instead i will only be reading the plot on Wikipedia and/or looking up the lore on tumblr, reddit, Instagram edits, etc, etc.

But this was different. This was a movie that I'd wanted to see, but simply had not gotten the time to.

Anyways, to get to the point, I saw the edit mentioned and linked above and I got reminded of the time I'd made up a whole fanfic, thinking that it would be the ONLY correct plot for Amazing Spiderman 3 if it was ever gonna be made.

In my plot, Peter has a job, so it's like many, many years later and he's basically a workaholic, when it comes to his job and his alternate job as Spiderman. I don't wanna reveal much, in case I decide to write and post it, but it basically involves a new woman, which is basically Andrew!Peter's MJ.

Now ik, alright? Ik that people can only ship him with Gwen Stacy and all that, and i rly did try to come up with a fic where he saves Gwen or a plot where she miraculously comes back to life.

But finally, I'm a writer. The writer/s of the movie had a hard decision to make, and they made it. It was for the plot, it was for Peter's character development. It felt like i was disrespecting that somehow.

But even so, I needed to give Peter 3 a very angsty story with a happy ending.

So basically, what I'm trying to ask is, if I write a Peter 3 story which has a new story and a new woman, would people be interested to read it?

Sorry i made this so long i get nervous 🥺👉👈

[mikaharuka]

I think of you as Mika, or Mizuka, with occasional panicked spirals into "Crap, she said either one is fine, I hope I haven't been using one too much recently!"

Both are fine! The story of how I ended up with them is... boring, tbh.

Over a decade ago, I established myself online and needed a name. I chose the very common name, Mika. Soon, I realized that I needed another name to differentiate myself, and chose Haruka - a gender neutral name whose common kanji was similar in theme to my name.

(Side note - I am agender, but I'm pretty apathetic and live as a cis gay-aroace woman for convenience. Any pronouns are fine by me.)

This is why my Tumblr, Reddit, and Discord are all "Mika Haruka". I even joined AO3 and posted my FE3H fics under that name in late 2019-early 2020. However... not long after, I left fandom and writing in general. My real life got really busy, so I just went back to lurking.

I wanted a new name for a few reasons - my FE3H experience ended on a sour note; having one name instead of two would be easier; having a more distinct name in general, and just wanting a change. I still liked the name - I kept it and used it everywhere except fandom.

I chose Mizuka in 2020, but it didn't matter... until I posted Apricity last summer. At that time, I had to decide if I wanted to return to Mika Haruka or if I wanted a new start with Mizuka as my main alt.

As you can tell, I chose the latter and I'm really glad, in retrospect. The stuff I write now is so different from before, and with the unique name, I have a distinct presence that's wholly my own.

Being said, I still use and like "Mika Haruka". Since I'm years out, I'm fine with my old name being associated with fandom. Heck, some fans still recognize/find me under my old name because they liked my FE3H fics and/or support translations! That's kind of nice~

So yes, both names are truly fine by me, Miranda! You're good ^_^

[musings-from-mars]

There's this anime gacha golf game I've been playing called Birdie Crush and something about it just feels surreal. I stumbled across it while aimlessly browsing the app store and decided why not, golf games are fun. But like, this game's last major update was almost a year ago. There is a reddit for fans of it but it seems very dormant with some of the most recent posts speculate that the devs have abandoned the game. I have found one solitary piece of fanart for it. There is an online mode where you compete again other players, but the other players aren't playing it live with you, it's seemingly just recordings of players' past attempts at the courses. Who knows how old those records are.

I feel like I'm the only person on earth who plays this game. Not literally, but... It's almost a liminal feeling. This feels like a game an AI matrix simulation would conjure. I know it's just another gacha game trying to make money off of microtransactions, but given that I have no urge to spend real money on any mobile game, the bits of advertising for shiny digital loot boxes and character outfits just feel like part of a facade. Idk why but this game has a fascinating aura, and the gameplay isn't half bad either.

Out of curiosity I searched AO3, and indeed there are no fics for it. I am now tempted to write some tiny one-shot just to be able to say that I founded a fandom tag on AO3.

[smooth-goat]

hi robin lol 1, 6, 7, 13, 14, 18 (ik you do but I want to know the answer to the second part), 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 42, 43, 49, 50, 51, 58, 61 (out of all of them), 62 and 63 (for a&a), 64 (for ginger tea) 68, 69, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79

so many !! fjdsklaf (ask meme here) i'll put most of the answers under a read more cause its long

1. Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

oh i daydream for sure. my fics tend to start as a single paragraph elevator pitch, basically, in my brainstorming document. And i'll daydream and experiment a little at what scenes that would include, what character interactions, different moods and settings—the Vibes. then i can start outlining. even though i can type quickly, my thoughts still move faster, and i feel i need to think things out before i start typing something and forget the other ideas in my head

6. What's the last line you wrote?

"The infant whimpers in the arms of the woman beside the pulpit. Snufkin eyes flick to her for a moment, Moomintroll sees. He adjusts the large scarf across his shoulders. His words stumble, just a little." — from a&a

7. Post a snippet from a wip.

Moomintroll’s paw twitched on the small of Snufkin’s back. Squeezed slightly. Hardly daring, Snufkin pressed his forehead into Moomintroll’s chest, breathing in his scent. Light, at first, and then sinking in. Fresh bread and laundry soap. A tinge of alcohol on his breath.

13. Do you listen to music while you write?  If yes, what have you been listening to recently?

I used to (as in just two years ago) be able to listen to music or have old youtube videos on in the background as I wrote. I wrote about half of "chlorine & corticosteroids", probably, with jenna marbles videos playing in the background. but something changed in my brain and now i need Silence or maybe a looping instrumental song. I like Erik Satie's "Gnossiène no. 3".

14. What is your favorite location and position to write in?

Most often, I write in my room, crouched over or lying on my stomach very babygirl. Favorite though is writing in the patio of my local library. Outdoors, nice weather, free wifi and power outlet. I can have a little beverage and look at trees and birds.

18. Do you enjoy research?  Which fic of yours required the most research?

As we both know, of Course i enjoy research jfdskla the one that required the most was probably "chlorine & corticosteroids" actually. It was the longest fic I had written at the time, so there were more little details I wanted right. Also it was about ulcerative colitis, a condition I don't have, so I wanted to do research to get it right. Medical information, of course, but also forums and reddit threads and tumblr posts by people with UC to get a feel for actual life with it. The experience of being on a low-fiber medical diet, of EDCs relating to fecal incontinence and ileostomy bags. Also also because I set it in Flagstaff, Arizona: a place I have never been to. So I spend a lot of time on google maps looking at different neighborhoods and bus routes and knowing where everything in the city was. I might have spent more time researching a&a, but i think the research for c&c was more necessary. then again, i did read whole books for a&a so. idk.

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process?  How do you come up with titles?

already answered !

23. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest?

I do this thing, for the beginning of a story (or chapter) that I have the outline establish a few sentences, then start writing what is functionally the second paragraph. And then I can never think of a good first line, so I just make that "second" paragraph into the first. And I feel it usually works? I think it skips the boring little establishing bits and catches interest better. Wrt outlining though and broader plots? I don't really think the beginning, middle, or end is the hardest. I'll have really strong visions for specific scenes, and I just have to figure out how to fill in between them. I guess most of those are in the middle, but the middle is also just the biggest part of the story, so I don't think it's fair to say it's the hardest for that.

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

Worldbuilding can be fun because of all the research, but I feel sometimes I get too in the weeds and lose steam. I try to reign myself in and research as I go when needed. I write my outline and a notable amount of prose all at once, bouncing around a little, and then the outline is simply cannabalized by the prose.  I do that especially with dialogue, where I write most of the actual "script" so to speak on my first pass and then add the tags and pacing sentences after. I think that first pass is the most exciting, where I can see the story change from ideas in my head into a more concrete vision.

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

when i write and can't immediately think of what joins moments together, i'll fill it in with a placeholder, like [few sentences] or [transition]. sometimes they're more specific, like [back and forth about scheduling] but sometimes i don't have an idea for what goes there. and sometimes filling in those gaps is like pulling teeth

27. What area of writing do you feel strongest in?

mood and tone, i think, are my strongest. the sort of atmosphere and how the air hangs and all that

28. What area of writing do you want to improve in?

I definitely do want to get more comfortable writing sex scenes. I think they're a rich vein of narrative and character and symbolic importance and I want to practice that more. I also want to get better at more complex narratives. All my stories, mostly given their length, have only had the capacity for a single plot, and maybe small threads of others. In a few years, I'd like to be able to write something with definite A and B plots.

29. What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of?

answered here !

30. How much do you edit your fics?  Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

This kind of goes back to the outline turning into the prose. Usually I get a sentence in that's just very plain text what happens, and then I'll go in after and backfill actual prose. And usually I know as I write what spots need reworking, and I'll leave a comment to myself (e.g. "rephrase" or "move to [x] paragraph" or "would he be this direct"). Or it'll simply be a word that I want to run in a thesaurus cause the perfect word isn't coming to me at the moment but I don't want to lose momentum so I just flag it for later. But I don't think I do a lot of editing tbh. Sometimes I read over finished chapters to catch repetitive lines and such, but a lot of big structural editing I do as I write in the outline stage.

35. What’s your favorite fic you’ve posted? (L)

Favorite that I've posted might be "Black Cohosh". I think it was a change in direction into the kind of stuff I really enjoy writing now: a sort of moody, introspective piece weighted with symbolism. Also bees. I also really like "chlorine & corticosteroids" in the sort of same-but-opposite way. It's definitely a modern piece with a modern voice, and I think it has a good tonal balance between the humor and affection of Jesse and Lake becoming close and the weight of Jesse facing his dangerous people-pleasing and Lake's and Tulip's experiences with ableism.

36. What fic are you proudest of? (L) 

Proudest of is definitely a&a. It's the longest thing I've written and the most unapologetic, I think. It took a lot to include the plot points I was nervous about, but I think it was worth it

37. What fic has been the hardest for you to write?

answered here !

42. What’s your favorite title that you’ve come up with?

I think "Sweetpea & Daffodil" is a good title on the floriographic front. "gratitude & please return my affection" really fits the theme of what happens in it, the letters to ones own disabled body which read like two lovers in pain and desperate to make it work. tbh i think my floriographic titles have all been pretty apt, cause these emotions are exactly what the code is built for. Yellow rainflower standing for friendship but also betrayal, undying love but also infidelity. Lavender symbolizing devotion and distrust. I also like "chlorine & corticosteroids" for its contrast, showing the two very different worlds of Jesse and Lake respectively, and seeing them interact.

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

Oh I have a wip called "Common Courtesy", focused on Snufkin and Pappa's interactions, where Pappa Does An Ableism and then instead of actually apologizing, builds a ramp to Moominhouse, and is a little Too expectant of praise for it. Getting into infrastructural segregation and Moominpappa's inability to apologize and just. Seeing these two very different but equally stubborn men interact.

49. What fic of yours would you say is the best introduction to you as a writer?

I think "Ginger Tea and Parsley Oil" is a decent introduction to the style and topics that I like to go into. lmao i just read it again and ive definitely gotten better (so much of it feels clunky to me now!) but i think that's a good an entry as any

50. How would you describe your writing style?

A part of my writing style I've put a lot of focus on for years is word choice. There's a sort of emotional depth, I think, that can be found in words that sound a little unnatural. As if each one had a pause before you spoke it. My backburner OC story Ink Blots has a significant portion of dialogue between people speaking in a mutually non-native lingua franca, so there's always this sort of haze of people translating things in their head, how this translation affects how they speak. And I think that's something that I've transferred into my fic writing too. 

51. Does what you like to write differ from what you like to read?

For sure! tbh i haven't been reading much fic lately, but books I like to read are often different than what I write. I've liked Kurt Vonnegut for many years now, who has a much more blunt style than I do: much shorter word length and simple grammar. And I love Jane Austen, who writes very differently from me in both content (satires about the English landed gentry) and style (quippy dialogue and sometimes meandering prose). I've also enjoyed epistolary novels, like Dracula and Ella Minnow Pea. I've never written epistolary works before, but it seems fun

58. Do you have a favorite piece of figurative language you’ve written?

hard to pick! i use a lot of it fdjaskl i'd say one i like is in a&a chapter 16:

There's a single word sitting in the middle of the table. It's heavy. The wooden legs creak and groan under its weight. Moomintroll fears putting anything else down even a little too roughly will make the table collapse.

i think it's evocative, effective, and i was able to play with it the whole rest of the chapter with characters' interactions with the physical table they were sitting at mirroring their approaches and avoidances of the topic at hand

61. In [all of your fics], what’s your favorite scene that you wrote?

idk about favorite cause that's a tough question, but i really like the scene in "Yellow Rainflower" where Alicia and Snufkin are talking at night about why Snufkin took so long to come back and never even wrote her. I think it was good move into the stuff I like to do now: conversations beginning to put equal or more weight into what is unsaid than what is actually said.

62 .In [acacia & asphodel], is there a deleted scene/idea you wish you could have included? Why did it get cut?

Oh when I was figuring out a&a, I wasn't really sure of its format. Would it be a one-shot series, a single piece, something in between? I have a bunch of little ideas but there are two I am a little sad to see go. One is where Alicia takes in a stray cat, and there's some fun little banter between them over it. But it's one that includes Sisu as a toddler so when I narrowed the scope of the fic to just the pregnancy and Sisu's first few days of life, I had to cut it cause it wouldn't make sense for her to do it then. Another is a sort of scrapped epilogue, where Moomintroll paints Snufkin giving Sisu a bath in the sink. I cut it cause for one just like before it required Sisu to just be a little bit older (though by just a few months), and also it was redundant with the closing chapter I have already. Also it felt a little too neat and tidy, and I wanted a more ambiguous ending that signified another beginning, not something that could read more as a happily-ever-after.

63. What was the hardest part of writing [acacia & asphodel]?

answered here !

64 . If you rewrote [Ginger Tea] now, would you change anything?

I like Parsley Oil as it is alright, but I think I would restructure Meadowsweet. More internal monologue, less verbal monologue. I think there are things that Snufkin would think but not say out loud that I had him say out loud and are just a little Too Vulnerable for him to voice.

68. Are there any fics that influenced you to write the way you do?

I feel like that would be really hard to trace. I've read a lot of fic jfkdlsa I like to read through entire tags of a fandom (a character or ship or another tag), or sometimes the entire fandom's tag on ao3. I think looking at different fandoms though, my writing style is very influenced by Pathologic fics I've read. The symbolism and the moodiness and the weight and the politics are all,I feel, lifted more from those works than a lot of Moomin fics.

69. What are your favorite fics at the moment?

i'm not reading any fics at the moment jfkdsl  favorites that i've had, though, include "Gracilis", "Darling, Oh", "The Little Book of Daffodils", and "Moss". I also really like Weevilo707's Infinity Train fics.

72. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve gotten?

I love getting complimented on symbolism, especially when it's something I didn't really notice myself doing. Like when I was doing it, I knew something was meaningful and important and so put it in, but I couldn't articulate how, and then I see someone put all my own thoughts into words. It really reminds me of why I love sharing my writing—I love the collaborate discussion and the enthusiasm with which I can talk to my friends about it.

73. What do you tend to get complimented on the most about your writing?

Often symbolism—especially lately, cause a&a has had a lot of symbolism and narrative parallels, and I love talking about that. I also get compliments on research (of course) and on specific gut-punch lines, often at a chapter's end.

74. Do you have a fic you wish got a bit more love?

answered here !

75. Is there a particular fic that readers gravitated towards that you didn’t expect?

answered here !

76. How do you deal with writing pressure, whether internal or external?

I think the external pressure I face writing is not in regards to writing what gets more attention—I've tried writing it and know it does better but also I know it doesn't feel as rewarding or interesting to write—but in avoiding topics of controversy. Including sex scenes, discussions of sex work and of eugenics and abortion, showing sexual harassment and antisemitism, depicting the common instances of ableism that I'm certain a notable amount of my readers have performed themselves. The controversial stuff, the kind of stuff that gets strangers to rally against you, can be scary to share. Internally, sometimes I do feel pressure to keep to a publishing schedule, feeling like I "owe" readers a regular update. But ultimately, I know that's not true. I'm a regular guy and a pretty busy one at that. Writing a novel for fun and for free? This is something I'll do when I have time and if I treat it too much like another job then I'll lose my love of it.

78. What motivates you during the writing process?

for general writing, the sort of "get-er-done" motivation, I like to get inspired. I read my old stuff, I listen to the playlists that I made, I make amvs in my head. Something that will get me emotionally invested in the art. There's also the motivation wrt the content of what I write, and for that I keep thinking about this anon I got, a disabled person who was really touched by the first sex scene in a&a, saying they hadn't felt represented in a sex scene before. That's just a really poignant thing for me, to be able to make another disabled person feel seen. Stuff like that, hearing from other disabled people, seeing our shared experiences—that's really motivating too, encouraging me to keep writing what I'm writing, because while it might be niche, there's an audience that really cares.

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

One of the biggest things that's helped me is analyzing the writing of other's—stuff you like, stuff that's just not your taste but effective, and stuff that just sucks. Why do certain things work and others not? Where's the line between personal taste and common consensus—and is that line where you feel it should be, and why that? I've loved film analysis, and video essays about films. I think that sort of critical thinking is really helpful for knowing how to construct your writing. (robin ?? suggesting research ??? who could have guessed)

[mechanicalinertia]

Bubblegum Black Chapter 8 is now live!

Hello all! It's been nearly three weeks since I posted this chapter, and I've been delaying writing the notes for that long while mostly because I wasn't sure how to talk about the chapter. The focus is Celia and Balalaika talking with one another and very little else, so what little worldbuilding details do I really need to highlight? I think there's some stuff, but by and large the chapter is about these two characters. So let's get into that.

Centara District Exterior: Can you tell I was playing lots of Phantom Liberty when I wrote this? You can, can't you! hasukashii na~

Balalaika's Dress: So this is actually inspired by the latest chapter of the New Girl In The Hood arc, where Balalaika is opening an Art Deco-vibes casino and wears an art-deco-ish dress. Of course, a year and a bit later, all her efforts have come to naught. A big fancy Balalaika figure, similar to the Revy Dominatrix one, has come to be released, by the way, and the dress she wears in that one is not the one I'm using here. According to a guy on reddit, said figure has sculpted and painted nipples underneath the glued-on dress. Never change, Japanese 'hobby' industry, never change.

Father's Corporate Princess: This is kind of important, but I'll likely have Balalaika explain it herself later. Suffice to say that I'm not doing some sort of 'she's part of the Neo Soviet Union', and so Balalaika comes from an oligarch clan tied to a real Russian corporation. Again, though, this is information that shouldn't be buried in the notes.

Celia And Her Cause: I actually have read not one but two fanfictions, both from the 90's era of BGC fic, where Celia pops off a suitcase nuke in GENOM Tower. And goodness knows the idea of Celia trying to only keep GENOM 'in check' is an idea as old as its proposition in Scoop Chase. Look, scroll back through my posts and you'll find me going on a rant about how The Sabers Can't Win just pisses me off as an idea, okay? It's... it is what it is, I guess. Some people will say that it's the only valid interpretation, or will even delight in describing how GENOM collapsing would make everything worse. Fuck, look, this is the same thesis I've advanced in Anatomy of a Lovedoll. You read my fics, you know where I stand on stuff like this. And hey! It provides a good foil to Balalaika, who believes that the world cannot be changed, and desires only to have her little niche on a dying planet.

Dinosaur Meat: Look, if we can 3d print synthetic meat, we can 3d print meat that no longer exists as a gourmet novelty. I am completely serious about this. Also, the Psittacosaurus is a dinosaur that just looks edible:

Yeah. You see it too, don't you? Like a little piggy-chicken thing. Heh.

Islamic Combine: A political entity founded by the Emiratis attempting to unite the Sunni and eventually Islamic world into a new caliphate. Pushing the Russians out of Central Asia to control its mostly-Muslim population was what lead to the Kazakh occupation by the Russian military, and that went supremely badly for all parties involved. Of course Balalaika despises them. About a week or two ago, by the way, I came up with the idea of a third metacorporation besides the Japanese GENOM and the Chinese World Prosperity Corporation, the puppetmasters of the IC, called Sunduq Alkhilafa, or Al-Sunduq (In English: The Caliph's Fund, or The Fund). I'm probably not going to do much with this organization for now, since D-Company is their primary puppet in Roanapur, and as we've seen D-Company is on its way out...

Various Megacorps within the Concern: Okay, here's some Deep STMPD Lore Bullshit to play around with. Fuck all that tragic character stuff with Balalaika trying to impress Celia and failing, we megacorping up in this hizzouse now. Yo. For realsizzles. - Black Orb is basically a spoof of megafunds and private equity giants like BlackRock and Vanguard, predatory funds who in the 2060's control most of the US's economy indirectly. Their practices haven't changed much since the present day, leeching the life out of industries and companies and turning competitive fields into stagnant monopolies where genuine innovation goes to die. - Verdanse I think I already covered, but they're basically Biotechnica in Cyberpunk 2077. They're food monopolists relying on single-celled vertical agriculture to manufacture bioproducts and petrochemicals of all kinds, ostensibly based out of Africa. They relied on old European seed capital to make it big, though, so they're... let's call them African cosplayers. - The Dangote Group is a massive Nigerian industrial conglomerate IRL, and while in this timeline Nigeria's economic fortunes are not what they could be due to the lack of demand for petrochemicals compared to the metals the Congo possesses, I put them in anyway just because I could, and also because it's nice for pasty dudes like me to remind myself that Africa has industry, has government, it's not just Le Dark Continent. Give it a few decades and I imagine the Western perception of Africa will change drastically. -Bharati Megacorps: Well, who survived the Indo-Pakistani nuclear war? Reliance? Mahindra? TATA? Take your pick!

HCLI: I did explain this, right? Remember, Koko's from the animanga Jormungand, where she's part of an arms-dealing / logistics conglomerate called HCLI. Here, though, she's left said corporation for greener pastures in GENOM. Celia's saying she thinks she could play the rest of her family off against Koko, keeping her unable to control the Redevelopment Concern. This goal - Get Koko - will animate much of the battle against the Concern in chapters to come. Of course, the Sabers won't just be fighting the Concern. Things keep getting in the way...

I Woke Up In An Old-ish Bugatti: I know Bugatti only does models on limited runs, instead of doing annual runs. That was a goof on my part.

Bamboo Network: A shorthand for the Chinese business networks of Southeast Asia, which basically run the region. Check the Wikipedia article:

Anyway, that's it. That's the nerd shit. Which this chapter wasn't really about.

Anyway! Next chapter is a big long fight scene, the first battle for Roanapur. It will take time to write, probably until like mid-March or so. I'll do what I can to put it out but IRL demands are ramping up so don't expect anything anytime soon. See you then!

[fsycowriting]

Kirby and the Cursed Castle

When I was a kid, I loved Kirby. My childhood wasn’t exactly idyllic; my parents fought a lot when I was really little over “grown up stuff” that I didn’t understand at the time. When mom and dad were screaming at each other, I’d hide away and play video games or watch cartoons, the cuter the better. For a brief little moment, I could retreat into brightly colored worlds where everyone was happy, where the biggest problems could be solved by beating up bad guys. 

Kirby wasn’t just my favorite character, he felt like my best friend. Looking back, I almost treated Kirby as a religious figure. I had Kirby plushes, Kirby toys, every Kirby game I could get my hands on, and I even watched Kirby’s Saturday morning cartoon whenever it was on. Other kids at school sometimes made fun of me for how much I loved Kirby, but I didn’t care. I knew that no matter what happened, Kirby would always be there for me. 

My two favorite games were Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, both on the Game Boy Advance. I always loved Amazing Mirror in particular, since it was the only game in the series to put an emphasis on exploration. It had a big, interconnected map, and you could go anywhere and fight the bosses in whatever order you found them in. Most of the other games in the series just have Kirby go through linear levels, but Amazing Mirror was special. I always wondered why they never made another one like that.

As a teenager, though, I learned that they had. I learned from a few fan forums that there was a rumored game that would have been named Kirby and the Cursed Castle, serving as a spiritual sequel to Amazing Mirror. According to the rumors, the game had gotten pretty far along in development, but was never actually released. Not for sinister reasons, though; it was a GBA game being developed near the end of the GBA’s lifecycle. Nintendo didn’t want to release a game for an older handheld, especially after production delays pushed the release date nearly a year after the DS launched. Valiant efforts were made to port the game to the DS, but eventually it proved too much of a hassle, and the project was scrapped. 

After learning everything I could about Cursed Castle, I scoured forums and fansites to see if I could find a leaked build. I spent months looking for it. I went from lurking on forums to making posts asking for info, but nothing ever turned up. I’d occasionally get a lead that some person or other might know more, but those always turned into dead ends. 

One day, after nearly having given up, I got an email from someone claiming to have a leaked, playable build of the game. They told me that the game was mostly complete, with a few areas that had yet to be fully implemented, although it did include the ending area and the final boss. There was also no official localization, but they’d done a crude translation of the original Japanese. They also mentioned that the game didn’t exactly play nice with emulators; it would run, but it would look weird in a couple spots, and it might crash. None of these, though, were dealbreakers. I said that this was all fine, and that I’d love a link to the build.

They sent me a link to a filehosting site, and within minutes I had the ROM on my hard drive. I put it on a USB stick so that I could bring it with me wherever I wanted. I was practically shaking with excitement, so much so that it took me a few tries to start the emulator, but once I’d calmed my nerves, I got it running just fine. 

The game’s title screen was a little less friendly than I was expecting for a Kirby game. The game’s title was in big black and red letters, with an eerie little tune playing as it waited for me to press start. That made sense to me, of course, since the game was about a cursed castle. 

The background of the main menu showed a glimpse of the castle. It was a big, gothic looking thing, with tall spires looming in a darkened sky. It looked really cool, like something out of Castlevania. It made me wonder if any Castlevania devs actually worked on this. 

The game’s opening contained some really awesome art, although the text was a little hard to understand. From what I understood, Kirby was going to Castle Zyxithel to defeat the evil Zix, who had taken over the castle from its previous inhabitants. The artwork for Zix was creepy; it showed him (or her, or it, maybe?) as a black silhouette of a tall person in a suit and fedora, with only glowing red eyes visible. I couldn’t wait to see what he looked like at the end of the game. 

The actual game started in a graveyard outside of the castle. There was a really pretty rain effect, but every so often the screen faded to black and I heard a thunder sound effect. I think this was some kind of emulator glitch with a lightning effect, but it was unsettling. The music wasn’t helping; it was unmistakably Kirby, but a little slower with an almost mournful tone to it. It was certainly setting the right mood, but the screen’s repeated fades to black put me on edge.

I was so on edge that I was a little let down by the first boss. It was just a ghost. A big ghost, sure, but still a cute cartoon ghost. It was also, well, the first boss of a Kirby game. Even with the screen fading, it didn’t give me much trouble. I beat it in a few minutes, and I was relieved to be out of the first area. The ghost dropped a key, which Kirby picked up before automatically heading into the castle.

Once I was inside the titular cursed castle, I wasn’t entirely sure that what I was looking at was real. The door to the final boss was huge, and there was a massive skeleton in front of it. It was… strangely anatomically accurate? It was still pixelated, but it didn’t look ‘cartoony’. This area was also totally silent. I wasn’t sure if this was deliberate, or if they’d simply never finished the music for this area. The skeleton served as the locking mechanism; each arm and leg, as well as the head, was attached to a chain on the wall. With the key I got from the ghost, I was able to unlock the left leg. The leg fell to the ground with a clatter. The rest of the game opened up, and I decided to head for the castle’s basement.

I expected things to be creepy after encountering the skeleton, but the rest of the game was surprisingly tame. It still had a creepy atmosphere, but it was that cute sort of creepy that makes me think of Halloween. The basement area had a lot of bug enemies, including a giant wasp for a boss, but it was still a heavily stylized wasp that looked a little cute. The game’s attempts at being creepy were also undercut by how easy it was. They introduced the ability to let Kirby have an ability in reserve, and I was breezing through the entire thing because I was never without a copy ability. 

The game’s only new copy ability, Slime, was really fun to play with. Kirby would turn into a little green slime, letting him climb up walls, enter small pipes, and pass through grates. It also let Kirby do an acid spit attack, which played a satisfying sizzle sound whenever it hit enemies, leaving behind a little skeleton. I admit that it seemed kinda morbid at first to have Kirby dissolve enemies with acid, but it was so much fun to use that I totally stopped caring. I’m surprised the game never crashed from having so many skeletons. 

With the last key in hand, I went back to the main chamber. I stood in all its eerie silence as the skeleton’s skull fell to the ground, soon followed by the main body. The door slowly opened with a bitcrushed creaking noise, and the screen shook as it did so. I thought it was a nice touch. 

The path leading to the final boss was eerily silent. It reminded me of the World of Drawcia from Canvas Curse. In fact, I was pretty sure that this part got recycled for Canvas Curse. There was a high pitched, constant drone that played, which went lower as I progressed through the area. There weren’t even any real hazards as I made my way through the hall. The only thing it had were these big paintings whose eyes tracked Kirby as he moved through the stage. 

I finally entered the main boss chamber at the end, which was an impressive looking throne room. A puddle of black slime sat on the other end of the screen. I say “black”, but it looked more like the pixels displaying it had died. I’m not sure if this was another emulator error, but the black puddle was really black. I swear the bits of glare on my screen seemed to vanish on just that puddle. 

Suddenly, a shape emerged from the puddle, and Zix’s health bar appeared on the screen. I’d been looking forward to this, and Zix did not disappoint. He looked like some kind of 30s gangster, wearing a black suit with red pinstripes. I could also make out shoulder-length black hair and red eyes, which looked awesome! His hair had the same weird effect as the puddle, which only made him look even more cool. 

Zix turned out to be a hard fight. He could teleport, in classic Kirby fashion, but he could also send rows of spikes moving along the arena floor, which I had a hard time dodging. He also had a big beam attack that took off over half of my health whenever it hit. He could also turn one of his arms into a big tentacle thing, but the tentacle thing gave him a bigger hitbox. After a few tries, I managed to beat Zix.

I wasn’t prepared for the second phase transition. The weird scream Zix made at the transition was deeply unnerving. I could picture my computer’s sound card straining from it. As I write this, I can’t actually remember what it sounded like. When I try to picture it, I feel like something is clawing at my mind, like my brain will get ripped apart if I think about it for too long. As Zix screamed, he dissolved into a big ball of black goo that started floating in the middle of the screen. The black slime started dripping from the walls, and the background faded into a swirling red void. I saw the health bar fill up again, and the name “Zixathu, The Cosmic Maw”. 

Zixathu was a much harder fight than Zix. The moving spike attack went all around the screen this time, and Zixathu could fire more than one of that big beam attack at once. I spent most of my time avoiding its attacks, and even when I could attack, I was barely denting its health bar. 

When Kirby died, it started playing the usual death jingle, but as Kirby’s sprite spun up into the air, Zixathu caught it with a tentacle-like appendage. The appendage started to slowly engulf Kirby, and I stared in confusion. I tried mashing buttons, but I couldn’t pause the game or skip whatever this was. After about a minute, Kirby was completely engulfed. 

Then, the emulator crashed. It started repeating a few seconds of noise before an error message came up. I closed the emulator, and the sudden quiet made me aware of a strange noise in my room. Somewhere behind my desk, I could hear a gross squelching noise, as if someone was boiling a really thick liquid. The noise seemed to rise up, like it had started near the floor and was moving towards the ceiling. I didn’t want to turn around and look, and instead I closed my eyes and tried to think of an explanation. Part of my brain hoped that if I could come up with a rational explanation before I looked, it would be less scary. 

I opened my eyes, and my blood ran cold. In my monitor’s reflection, I could see what looked like part of a black suit with red pinstripes. My heart started to pound in my chest, and I felt sweat start to build up on my forehead and under my arms. The thing behind me didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even hear it breathing. The only thing I heard was a slow, steady drip as droplets of black sludge fell from somewhere near its head onto the floor. 

I think it’s waiting for me. It’s stood there the whole time I’ve written this, with the steady “drip… drip… drip…” starting to drive me crazy. I don’t know what it wants, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. I think I’m safe as long as I sit here, but I’ll have to move away from my desk eventually. Maybe it will leave me alone if I don’t look at it, but I can’t say for sure. I’m not entirely sure why I wrote this, to be honest. It was a stalling tactic, sure, but I guess I didn’t want to go without saying goodbye to someone. If something happens to me, if I go silent, somebody please tell my Mom and Dad that I love them. 

[tippenfunkaport]

if ur still doing fic requests, can u do how all the SPOP characters react to Elon Musk and the twitter implosion?

I got this ask few days ago and wrote this but didn't post bc I left some characters out but I’m never going to have a better chance to post it than now so, here ya go!

Catra and Glimmer immediately went on the assault, using their verified status to impersonate the Muskrat… were both promptly suspended. Catra a few hours before Glimmer, which won her the bet between them, and she will never, EVER let Glimmer live it down.

Catra does still maintain Melog's Twitter presence (Entrapta buttered the cat as part of an elaborate experiment and Melog went viral) because its platform on unions and worker's rights was too important to squander.

In the spirit of Adventure!, Sea Hawk took advantage of the unregulated verification system to sow chaos by registering as a number of political figures and brands. At last count, he'd managed to tank the value of Amazon stock with what pundits are nicknamed the "wick in a box" stunt and was the direct cause of Old Spice suing Twitter for “damaging the sanctity of the brand and also several nautically theme shooting sets.”

Mermista claimed that the whole thing was, like, too stupid to join in but that was because she was secretly hoping to use her Twitter account to participate in #pitmad this year and finally get a book deal for Dead in the Water, the first in her series of undersea murder mysteries.

Adora immediately made accounts on Mastodon, Cohost, and every other Twitter alternative she could find and is trying to build up a following. She has tweeted the exact same joke on no less than five platforms as of this moment and is frantically researching tips for increasing engagement because social media is a game and she WILL win.

Bow's Twitter account was also suspended for impersonating Musk. Glimmer again. But he never really used it. He's more into making helpful YouTube tutorials. He has a Tumblr account too, but it's mostly filled with embarrassing old posts from his old Pirates of the Caribbean roleplaying days.

Netossa and Spinnerella finally ceded their long standing competition to see who could get the most Twitter followers and decided to concentrate on their popular YouTube channel where they document their ongoing prank war. They are currently competing to see who can stack the most verified checkmarks on their Tumblr account.

Kyle said it was a shame about Twitter going down but he wasn't too worried, since he still had his parasocial fanbase of 50 million fans who watched his gaming streams. Despite his underwhelming face reveal last month, he is still currently part of 3 of the top 10 ships on AO3.

Lonnie also streams and 99% of the comments on her streams are about how she's so underrated and deserves so much more popularity. She and Rogelio also have a big following on their fitness TikTok where they participate in funny trends and bully Kyle.

Entrapta does not need a social network. She IS the social network. She's so deeply tapped in she knows about every trend or breaking news story five minutes before it happens and has personally overthrown at least two governments without leaving her desk chair. She has an account on every major social network, but her close friends know those are just bots working off highly developed AI. If she does feel like actually socializing online, she makes a burner and hops on Reddit to start trouble in the Linux subreddits by recommending ethically dubious hacks for the lulz.

Hordak used to be a bit of a darkweb edgelord with an extensive collection of NFTs, but he's stopped hanging around with that bad crowd. These days, he's proudly not online at all, but always listens very patiently whenever Entrapta tries to explain the latest memes.

Frosta's deep into the Club Penguin fandom on Tumblr and has written 400k words of Jelsa fanfic she would die if anyone in the princess alliance found out about.

Castaspella only uses Facebook, where she shares nothing but wine-mom Minion memes despite the fact that she is not a mom and has never seen any of the Despicable Me movies. The day Farmville went offline, she wept openly.

Micah also only uses Facebook. His wizard roleplay group uses it for meetings. He signs every single one of his status (“Had a lovely with my daughter today! -Micah”) and no one can convince him to stop.

George and Lance share a Facebook account and also sign every post so when the three dads start talking to each other, it's too #cringe #oldfail for anyone else to look at.

Adora banned Swift Wind from the internet because he's too gullible and has fallen for every online scam there is.

Perfuma left Twitter at her therapist's suggestion because it made her too angry. She was incapable of not trying to “patiently” explain to people why they were wrong, no matter how bad faith the argument. She was once ratioed so hard in the comments of RoudUp’s official twitter account that she started a four day flamewar that only ended when Scorpia had to physically stop her from getting into her car and hunting down the other users. These days she just looks at the pretty pictures on Pinterest and takes a deep, calming breath. Though her eye still twitches at the idea that somehow, somewhere someone is probably being wrong on the internet.

Scorpia herself was at first heartbroken when she heard about Twitter’s potential demise until Perfuma showed her that there are also cute animal accounts to follow on Tumblr and Facebook and then she was all good.

Double Trouble has said they will be going down with the ship, keeping their dozen+ different troll and sockpuppet accounts going until the very end because they enjoy the chaos.

Wrong Hordak does not use Twitter but he would love to show you this most amusing meme he found that you definitely already saw four months ago.

[phantomrose96]

Chrissy help how do you keep motivation for such huge writing projects?? I've seen you posting about abot for a long time but I just clicked it and it's got like 360k words. My guy you are incredible and if you've got secrets to share I'd be very interested. Major props to you

(ABoT)

I'm hoping to resurrect Dickinsonian-era "paid by the word" writing gigs and retire off ABoT Kidding! kidding! I make 0 dollars and 0 cents off ABoT do not sue me IP holders.

More genuinely it's a couple things I guess. One big and simple one being just--I really like the story. It's long because there are a lot of parts I like and wanted to tell. Another is spite, because for a long period of time between 2017-2020 I thought I would never be able to come back to the story so it's something of a "fuck you look what I made anyway."

But I really REALLY think the biggest part to this all was the (tough, but doable) process of learning to be okay with this story taking however long it's gonna take, and being however long it's gonna be.

Back in the days when Tumblr was really a hub for fandom, fandom attention was extremely fleeting, and when you had any of it, it felt like it was always moments away from vanishing. Tourmaline, my 80k Steven Universe fic, I wrote in the span of just over 2 months. I had a chapter out roughly every 2-3 days for that entire sprint. I'm proud of pulling that off. But my main motivation for doing that was absolutely the fear of losing people's attention and interest if I dawdled even a little.

Early-days ABoT was like that too. The first 9 or 10 chapters were all posted in intervals of about 2-3 days apart. I was staying up extremely late to do this which wasn't good for me and I was doing it because I was afraid of losing people's interest and I was getting more intimidated the more I realized how long ABoT would likely be. And then for school and life reasons, my update schedule absolutely had to slow. And I was having a bad time because it was like I could feel myself losing readers and losing relevance, and the backlash was growing, and even when I was finding the time to write I'd started burning out hard on my passion for the story. I'd get frustrated with my own plot and characters, and you can't write a good passion project while frustrated with the characters.

And then I kinda quietly admitted defeat because the stress and the backlash were too much to handle and I couldn't wring anymore of this from myself. After a 1 year, 2 years, I was pretty much sure my readership was long gone. I still thought about the story constantly! I still cared. I just figured I'd missed my window and would never be able to come back except to backlash.

Then just shy of 3 years, I said "fuck it, actually" and wrote the next chapter (okay it was a lot more complicated than "fuck it" but that would take too long to explain.) And in FACT, a ton of the readership came back! It was an extremely warm reception! And new readers, too. Just a lot of really warm, positive feedback. Which absolutely blew my mind because it was completely at odds with my feeling that things needed constant updates to cling to relevance. And the idea of "well if they waited 3 years..." has helped me a lot with allowing time and breaks between chapters. I don't burn out on them. I edit them more. My update schedule's been more like 2-6 weeks between chapters, rather than days.

Allowing that down time, letting ABoT be a steady jog instead of an all-out sprint, has been absolutely crucial to getting as far through it as I am. Even right now, it's been pretty long since chapter 45. I dove super deep into putting ch45 together and I kinda needed some time off after to decompress and step away to not risk burn out. Which was very needed and helpful and now I'm back to chugging through ch46.

There was an old comment, I think on Reddit, that I read years ago which has stuck with me ever since. Someone was recounting a conversation with a single mother who was considering going back to college to get her degree, but was hesitant to do so because she would be 40 by the time she graduated. To which the other person responded "You'll be 40 anyway."

And "you'll be 40 anyway" plays in my head a lot. Like, ABoT's been going for almost 6 years. Well 6 years were going to pass anyway. ABoT might not be done for x-many more months. X-many more months are gonna pass anyway. Time's gonna happen anyway. So I'm not worried about whether this thing is still going by then or not. I'm just keeping at it until it's done.

[creepycombo]

Two Faced

(This is an old fic I posted on Reddit over two years ago. Thought I’d leave it here since I’ve been kinda getting back into this fandom recently)

"Heya." Shiromi greeted as she pulled open the sliding door, being greeted back by the formal, yet homey atmosphere of the council room, the rest of her peers sitting around the hardwood table. Akane gave her a soft spoken 'hello' without looking up from her papers, she seemed busy, whilst Aoi didn't really give much of a response apart from a low hum.

"Where have you been?" Kuroko spoke with a hint of agitation, her brow furrowing as a result. "You've missed the meeting. This is the second time."

"Sorry." Shiromi replied, taking a seat beside Aoi who was still leaning on her elbows, still choosing not to interact. "I was just taking care of something that needed to be tended to." She looked at her superior for a response, smiling oddly as she waited.

Kuroko paused to take a deep breath before exhaling, looking down in Akane's direction, checking on what she was doing before responding. "I really don't like your definition of 'taking care of things,' Torayoshi."

Shriomi laughed under her breath, amused by Kuroko's response before, too, taking a moment to gloss over Akane's bundle of paperwork that lay in a small pile to her side, Akane almost ready to add another piece to it as she continued to scribble things down.

"Are those the club bills?"

"Indeed." Kuroko replied, still with a hint of sternness. "I think you owe Toriyasu here a 'thanks' for stepping in to sort out the papers that you were instructed to see to, Torayoshi."

Shiromi gave a half smile. "Heh, they're early. They really don't waste much time, huh?"

Akane grimaced, closing her eyes for a moment before reopening them just that little bit wider than what Shiromi was comfortable with...

"No, some people don't." she said, as she continued with 'her' work.

Shiromi gritted her teeth momentarily before reaching out to one of the papers that Akane was still working on. "Well, you want me to take them?"

Akane shook her head, lightly pushing her hand away. "No, no, it's fine. I've got it."

Shiromi pulled back her hand and for a moment just dwelled in silence, the only sounds being the constant deep ticks from the grandfather clock, and Akane's pen against paper. She leaned back in her chair, arms behind her head, and stared attentively at her colleagues face as she continued scribbling.

Seeing Akane like this was greatly fascinating to Shriomi, as she had never seen anything like it before. Akane was worldly seen as a this tolerant and sweet girl, who took great pleasure in kindness and pride in her integrity, only wishing to spread positivity. This had to be the first time Shiromi had ever seen her frown, and Shiromi just had to find out why. 

It surely couldn't just be because she was doing paperwork that wasn't intended for her, when she been put on the spot with just as frustrating scenarios and still managed to keep her goodwill smile.

"What's eating you?" Shiromi asked, tilting her head to one side.

Akane's eyes met Shiromi's before they fell back to the paper, her mouth left slightly ajar as if re-evaluating what she going to say. "Nothing, dear, I'm just tired."

Shiromi switched from leaning back on the chair to leaning forward on one of her hands, with intent to bring herself just a little bit closer. "You sure? It's not often that you're tired."

Akane sighed, as she once again met eyes with Shiromi who was grinning back at her, waiting for an answer that Akane failed to give, as there was nothing else that came from her that could fill the rooms silence.

Kuroko could feel the heavy amount of tension in the room, and took a sip of her tea before planting her eyes into Shiromi again. "Torayoshi, please."

Shiromi gestured outwards with her arms, "What? I was only asking."

"Yes, but I get the feeling that Toriyasu doesn't care to speak to you at the moment."

"You know what, I think I'm going to go home for the rest of the afternoon." Akane said, standing up from her seat, with her head bowed, dropping her pen carelessly into the table before turning to walk the out sliding door that stood slightly ajar. 

As Akane reached her hand into the crack of the door, she jumped back, hand over her chest at the sudden sight of Shiromi appearing beside her, casually leaning against the door, with a playful question;

"What's the password?"

Akane sucked in air through her teeth, as her eyes opened wide again. "Shiromi, d-don't."

"Shiromi are you incapable of not being a bitch?" Aoi said, her head now lifted off the table after spending so long in silence.

Kuroko frowned, "Language, Rygoku." before turning to Shiromi with the same look. "Torayoshi, would you kindly move out of her way, you're part of the student council, act like it please."

Kuroko's statement didn't hinder her though, and Shiromi continued with her hijinks.

"C'mon!" Shiromi insisted putting her back against the door, as Akane continued to look down at her with pent up frustration that made her fists ball up. "I'll give you a hint, it's Aoi's birthday!"

"Leave me out of this!" Aoi yelled over, clearly becoming irate due to Shiromi's behavior, but all that came to a stop all of a sudden...

Before Shiromi could react or realize what was happening, she felt two hands with an iron grip latch onto the front of her blazer, forcing her up against the small space of the wall between the door and one of the many book cases that littered the place. Shiromi looked up and felt a chill run down her spine, her smile faltering at Akane's expression. Her eyes were dauntingly wide, her small pindot pupils overwhelmed with the rest of her intense orange irises. Her mouth opened, Shiromi able to see each impressive canine but any further thought of it was suddenly cut off by Akane's booming voice.

"Oh, I'm supposed to be peppy and cheerful all the time am I!? I'M SUPPOSE TO PLAY ALONG WITH YOUR STUPID JOKES WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE IT!?" 

Shiromi tried to struggle in her grip but found she couldn't move, sealed to the spot... by fear.

"YOU'RE THE ONE THAT GOES MISSING WHENEVER THERE'S SOMETHING IMPORTANT THAT NEEDS TENDING TO! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STROLLS THE FUCK IN WHENEVER THEY FEEL LIKE IT, WITH NO CONSIDERATION FOR ANYONE ELSE APART FROM YOURSELF!” Akane knew this was wrong, but now that she'd started she couldn't stop. Every negative platitude that she'd hoarded had come spilling out all at once, and now she could only wait for the floodgates cease on their own.

"Akane that is enough!" Kuroko yelled, trying to put herself between the two, placing a firm hand on Akane's shoulder but based on Akane's reaction, it was like she didn't even realize she was there.

"WHY YOU'RE EVEN ON THIS TEAM IN THE FIRST PLACE IS A MYSTERY! YOU STEAL, YOU CHEAT, YOU LIE, YOU RIP FRIENDS APART, YOU GET PLEASURE FROM FRUSTRATING PEOPLE! WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE!?" Akane violently shook Shiromi once against the wall, Shiromi trying as hard as she could to keep her head down in order to not look at Akane's twisted-with-anger-face, as her screaming continued.

"AND THEN YOU ASK WHAT WRONG WITH ME!?"

"What the fuck is the matter with you!?" Aoi reached over and tried to pull Akane off Shiromi physically, only for Akane start to direct her anger towards her instead. Akane threw her elbow back in retaliation to Aoi's attempt, missing, before then turning around completely to face her, Aoi taken aback by her twisted expression.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" 

Before Aoi could move Akane landed a hard hitting punch straight into Aoi's good eye, causing her to yell out and stumble backwards clutching her face.

Akane let out a wisping breath at the realization at what she'd just done, every rageful word that didn't quite make itself known immediately dying on her tongue, and turning into a quiver.

Kuroko had turned her attention to Aoi, trying to get her to show her face, but Aoi slammed a fist down on the table and turned back around to Akane with a primal look, a purplish bruise surrounding her uncovered eye.

Every alarm bell inside Akane's head was sounding, letting her know that she was about to receive the same treatment that she'd just given Shiromi and now Aoi. Her breathing hitched at the sight of Aoi coming closer and Akane fell against the door, pleading and crying hysterically, holding a hand out in front of her in a weak attempt to defend herself. 

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry... please, please don't hurt me." her mournful chanting got Aoi to stop and take a step back, and Kuroko to look down at her with a look that questioned if the events that just transpired actually happened.

Aoi returned back to slamming the side of her first down on the table, growling like a dog out of the throbbing pain that overwhelmed her eye.

Shiromi leaned against the wall with a lost look in her eyes, the wall behind seemingly being the only thing that was keeping her standing.

Kuroko buffered where she stood, trying to think what she should do, eventually deciding to hold out a hand for a Akane to take, hoping to pull her from the ground but, she recoiled away from her almost instinctively. 

"No, please! Don't touch me... I'll hurt you, please, dear, don't touch me..."

Kuroko shook her head. "Akane, don't be silly, come on, let me help you."

Akane swallowed her nerves and let Kuroko pull her to her feet, Akane unable to resist pulling her peer in for a surprise hug shortly after, burying her face into Kuroko's shoulder where she then released the rest of her emotions. "I'm sorry... I just don't know what's wrong with me today..."

Akane was shaking like a leaf in Kuroko's hold, trying her best to calm herself to no avail.

"It's.. It's okay, Toriyasu..." Kuroko said breathlessly before glossing over her brooding peers before looking back over to the sliding doors. 

"I think this would be an ideal time for us all to take a walk down the infirmary."

[olderthannetfic]

Do you have any ideas about how the heck those of us more familiar with AO3 etiquette can get the word out regarding not posting "help me find this fic" fics? There are a couple of fandoms I'm in (Boku no Hero Academia is the big one for me, but I've heard from others that the BTS fandom is also having a huge problem) where there has recently been a huge increase in this behavior (I assume from people coming over from Wattpad), and it's driving me crazy. If it was just one or two bad actors, that'd be one thing, but there's increasingly becoming this whole culture of people doing this, and then pointing to other people when you call them on it, saying "well LOTS of people do this, so it's fine!"

I've recently been going through and leaving a bunch of messages on "help me find this fic" fics that basically just say "Hey just FYI, AO3 works created solely for the purpose of searching for lost fanfics actually violate AO3’s terms of service. I’d recommend deleting this fic and posting this message on another site, such as Reddit, Tumblr, or Dreamwidth, or in a fandom Discord." Overall, most authors have gotten back with things along the line of "oh shit I had no idea", but today I received a message which said this:

I have read the official Terms of Service that we all click on the first time we visit. Didn't find the clause you are referencing. You seem to use this tactic a lot. I have seen your other comments on other "searching fics". Very old ones I might add. Which means you purposefully go lookinng for these fics just so you can post your high and mighty FYI comment. However, if you are trying to bring up the single line under the FAQ page then you are speaking of the general request to use the search function. As I (and others) have stated we have attempted this and it didn't work. As a proper web searching tactic we are attempting to narrow the pool of places to search. We know what Fandom it is and where the work was originally located. Perhaps we do not have or use any of those other platforms for various reasons. You didn't stop to consider or offer those options in a friendly manner. You simply say "FYI, you are clogging up the system. Go away". A little tact would be appreciated. I would say this kind of commenting is considered hunting, not moderating. I am glad to see people are starting to consider spite writing chapters to their searching fics just so people like you can't post passive aggressive things like this.

Which... I don't even know where to start with that. Like, first off, "help me find this fic" works are basically the definition of disallowed ephemeral, non-fanwork content, which is pretty clearly banned, and in fact is one of the only things that is banned on AO3. Then there's the idea that tagging something with specific fandom tags and tropes when you're actually just searching for something with those tropes is a proper use of the tag function, rather than a flagrant abuse of it. Then there's the fact that this person seems to think it's fine to break AO3's rules for this just so long as they don't have other options (which, to be clear, they do!). And then finally there's the fact that apparently people are considering only posting "help me find this fic" posts as author notes attached to real fanworks, which... that would be fine??? I would literally not mind in the slightest if people started posting shitty fanfics just so that they could ask where other fanfic was using the author's notes function – shitty fanfics are still fanfics!

I just... maybe this is me being a huge get-off-my-lawn retrogrouch, but it really feels like AO3 is having a bit of an Endless September, and I think it would absolutely suck if this became normalized to the point that every tag search was turning up a bunch of "find my fic" posts that someone made like four years ago and then never took down because they didn't understand the difference between an archive and a feed. Am I crazy? AITA here? And what – if anything – can be done, so that younger fans aren't discouraged from contributing, but also actually learn the basic rules of the archive?

--

Ah, the sanctimonious n00bs, I know them well.

You can point them to the ToS FAQ where it literally says not to post that shit.

Can I archive nonfiction?

Fannish nonfiction, which includes what is called 'meta' by some fans, is allowed. Where we provide a specific function (search, bookmarking, challenges) we will ask you to use the specific methods we provide for those activities rather than create separate works. So, for example, a request for recommendations for particular kinds of fanworks would not be an appropriate work. That search should be carried out by searching works and/or bookmarks. A list of recommended works on a particular topic would also not be an appropriate work. Recommendations should be done by using our bookmarking function. A description of a challenge for other creators would also not be an appropriate work. That should be carried out by using our challenge function.

In addition, as an Archive whose goal is preservation, we want permanent, nonephemeral content. To the extent that your content is designed to be ephemeral, such as liveblogging episode reactions, it should go on a journaling service and not the Archive.

No, you are not the asshole here. AO3's culture will change for the worse if we don't make some effort to let new people know how we do things.

I should really finish my personal guide to AO3.

[butwhatifidothis]

Omg, really that guy again!?, when you recommended that fic "Everybody leaves eventually" he putted a comment, wtf.

*sigh*

I tried, right. Didn't ever pay attention to this guy, never responded to his numerous replies, reblogs, asks, or mentions to me, trying to debunk or "debate" me. I only ever mention anything of him outright when he initially made that GameFAQs thread about me (which has since been deleted, funny that) and when he was actively gloating about harassing two people off of tumblr - one of those people happening to be a friend of mine.

I've been debating back and forth about whether to block him or not - I know it's gonna do jack and shit, considering his whole schtick is how effectively he manages to slime his way around blocks anyway, and blocking him would be giving him any attention more than what I was doing before. Plus I've literally never blocked anyone before, on Tumblr or anywhere else, so I have no idea if it'd even hypothetically work even if this guy wasn't known for evading them. And I thought, since he'd finally stopped incessantly trying to get me to engage with him, that maybe he finally took a chill pill and finally learned to stay in his lane.

But now I'm saying fuck it. I finally blocked R/axis - and that R/engor guy too, since I know they're buddy-buddy.

I made a post about 17 hours ago, 5:44 PM CST, that was mostly me recommending fics that I liked and thought deserved a bit more attention. R/axis, barely 20 fucking minutes later, leaves a comment:

He's not even subtle about how he came to the fic from coming from my post recommending it. And here he is, trying to fucking "um achktually" and debate someone who, for all I know, has literally nothing to do with anything regarding discourse. This fic doesn't even have 1000 hits, is tagged "Villain Edelgard von Hresvelg" and "this is very Edelgard negative" so you know from the gate that Edelgard isn't gonna get sugar shoved up her ass like the fandom is overwhelmingly eager to do in 99% of the fics she's in anyway, has no claims of trying to be ~meta~ like Cap'n's does, but lo and fucking behold, here this fucker is, probably thinking he's *~casting his pearls before the swine~* when in reality it's more like him shitting on the floor.

Since I know you're just going to evade my block of you, R/axis, and you're definitely going to read this somehow - maybe you'll have one of your buds screenshot this and send it to you, maybe you have another browser open on another account that isn't blocked by me - here's a heads up: don't fucking do this. Or, I guess I should say stop fucking doing this.

This fic has Hubert leaving Edelgard under any circumstances - the author fucking knows what they're writing isn't exactly a 1-to-1 match to canon. They do not need - and almost certainly do not want - you sticking your head through their door with your finger up and ready to wag at them for not being in-line with canon. This person has no influence in the fandom from what I can see, their fic is barely talked about or even known at all, and they make no attempts at saying that this is their genuine view on the game (and in fact straight up say in their comments that this is just what they wanted to see from these characters, which obviously means they know what they're writing isn't in these characters).

They don't want to debate you R/axis. No one wants to debate you R/axis. Shut the fuck up already.

And to the author of the fic: in the slightest chance that you ever read this, I'm sorry that I'd gotten some asshole stinking up your comment section. I never encourage people to leave unkind or otherwise "debatey" comments on any works, even ones I don't like, and I'm sorry that my recommending your fic did just that. Your fic is a really interesting AU idea and just a joy to read through, and it doesn't deserve some Reddit dick trying to "prove you wrong" about a damn-near two-year-old fic. Hope you're having a great day