#this is my old art but I want it to be seen

[aconfusedkitten]

do people on ao3 really not know that their bookmarks aren't private, because??

this was a ten thousand word fic, with two pieces of art embedded at the time this was bookmarked. fuck, one of the pieces is still there even if the other one got messed up by a change in how ao3 does image attachments, but that's not the point.

fic writers absolutely do not create things because they want to see bookmarks and comments like this. ignoring the fact that it makes me want to apologize for the length of a three or four year old one-shot, it's dismissive of the time me and my artist put into it.

it was my first fic collaborating with anyone, and at the time, it may have only been my second or third fic to reach 10k words. if i had seen this then, it might have actually crushed me. now, it just pisses me off.

please, dear readers, do not do this.

people are not machines that crank out content for you to enjoy. we aren't endless streams of motivation and ideas and time, so please.

don't treat people like this, especially in places where they can see it.

[shokveyv]

sari did not "choose" anything. you wrote her to choose sentinel, wrote her to be 25, and claimed that "making people uncomfortable is okay in writing." but then also try to claim that this is Japanese culture.

okay, well not all of your followers are Japanese and they don't have to be okay with seeing sari, an 8 year old upgraded to teenager, as said by her dad, now suddenly with a grown up alien robot.

You're free to draw what you want and write what you want. and if you post it publicly, people are allowed to have their public say. that first anon explained it perfectly and I have no idea how you could not understand what they meant when they said "if you knew someone since they were a baby or toddler, and then decided to date them the moment they were of age [18 in the states] , that is predatory, as in creepy, as in WRONG, you are predatory, as in creepy, as in WRONG.

no one in the States would or should find the idea of GROOMING as part of someone's culture. it doesn't matter if sentinel did or didn't remember sari.

again, draw what you want, but dont compare people being uncomfortable with your choice in taboo art as being like your mother. her issues with you are their own and your viewer's discomfort is NOT on the same level.

i really liked your art, but if this is how you will be when being told this sort of stuff makes people uneasy, then block and block and block. it is your account after all. and don't try to guilt trip people, that doesn't do anything but make your victim card expire. you're an adult drawing weird stuff. if you wanna own it, own it. don't pull the "I've been gone for 5 years, almost hurt myself and my mom gave me a hard time." its not fair you went through that but only bringing it up again NOW makes you look like you're farming for sympathy cause you drew an aged up version of sari dating a full grown mech.

She chose to based on the character development she was given. A writer understands this. Writing is uncomfortable. Otherwise why would you be question sari but not Tailgate, a literal child, being married to Cyclonus? You not question JRO? This is an edit: I have learned it is not a literal Child, he is only mind of a child behaviour.

Please curb your racism.

Sentinel didn't decide to date Sari moment she is 18. He did not know it was Sari and did not know his age. Why do you extrapolate "he waits knowingly until she is 18 to date"? that is you being malicious intentionally. She wasn't groomed. He didn't have contact with her at all xD You're being intentionally malicious and misleading! If you wish to debate you must have sensible argument not fake ones to lie to the audience. What are you talking about taboo mother????

If you cannot understand that sometimes there is writing that makes you unhappy and it's okay to be unhappy without the harassment of source, you are not mature enough to be reading my content, not mature enough to be on the internet. Grow up and stop being so racist and intentionally misleading!

Post-edit: Translator Alice here. She means that Sentinel has not seen Sari since last he saw her in the series. Sentinel doesn't recognize Sari as Sari when he sees her ala Cybertronian bibliotecaria. He never had a romantic interest in her as a child and was not waiting for her to become "of age" to date her. 20 years old is an important coming-of-age in Japan, so Sari being 18 at this point would have no significance to her dating-wise, unlike in America, where the age of 18 is significant. Nowhere did she say that he was waiting for her to become legal. That is something that was insinuated by the viewers.

[dootznbootz]

I don’t have a link but I saw a post along the lines of “EPIC fans trying to gaslight themselves into thinking Odysseus wouldn’t cheat (he does in the books)” and I nearly had a conniption.

Some people WERE arguing he was assaulted, but other people were saying it depends on the interpretation and saying he has a child with Circe and that he stays on the island with her for a year. I also saw someone say he was just lying about being assaulted on another post about it.

The Odyssey/EPIC fandom is so exhausting I’ve thought about blocking everything sometimes ngl. It’s so hard to filter out posts like that. But there’s so much amazing art and content about it I don’t want to stop seeing it.

No, like that's the struggle of it.

I Love Epic and I technically got into the Odyssey BECAUSE of Epic. But I'm a hardcore Odyssey girly. I adore it so much. I've read 8 translations at this point because I love it so much and it's fun for me! And Epic is in no way a replacement for the Odyssey (Jay even says that it's not! he's simply inspired by the Odyssey) and it feels like high quality fanfiction of the Odyssey (FUN! JOYOUS WHIMSY! I still like it! :3 ).

But holy shit, like, both Epic AND Tagamemnon fans can be so fucking exhausting. (I am a fan of both. I can say this.)

(Obviously I'm not talking about everyone. <3 I've made many friends and have met lovely people in both fandoms.)

Like while yes, Epic!Odysseus isn't coerced/raped by either of the goddesses, that's simply because of the fact that Jay simply felt like he wasn't well equipped to handle such dark topics to that extent. And I honestly respect him for that! He knows his limits with the story he wanted to tell and that's good! And in general I think he did a fantastic job handling the aspects of it he did touch on (Coercion with Circe's threatening in "There Are Other Ways" is done well imo.)

(ngl, I kind of take back what I said about "Not Sorry for Loving You". I think a lot of my reaction was initially from my fear of how fandom would react. But I've been delightfully surprised seeing how (for the most part) Epic Fandom has really come through to show the "fucked up-ness" of that song)

THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT ODYSSEUS IN THE ODYSSEY IS A SHITTIER HUSBAND BECAUSE HE, IN THE ANCIENT TEXT, CANNOT SAY NO TO A GODDESS.

Greek Mythology isn't like Percy Jackson where 12 year old Percy beat Ares. (I was a PJO KID TOO!) It's not "Odysseus didn't try hard enough" fucking victim blaming btw because HE LITERALLY CANNOT REFUSE OR THEN HE'LL (AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CASE OF CIRCE) WOULD DIE!!!

Like I wrote a whole ass essay on Circe's Situation (I feel so preachy and shitty about having to constantly bring it up but I will as much as I have to to get people to listennnn) and in general, if you can't see what's happening with Calypso, you've got your head up your ass and/or are just looking away because you don't like the actual implications of what's happening. For the main "gripe" I've seen with Calypso with how "He enjoyed her company at first", @lyculuscaelus has a great essay breaking that down.

And before? ODYSSEUS HAS NO LISTED CONCUBINES! And he brings up Penelope often in the Iliad!

And the whole "lying about being assaulted", I'm sorry but if someone is holding the "Men were so sexist that they couldn't possibly care about the women in their lives or have been victims" idea, then why would Odysseus willfully share that he was raped by women? Who, as they say, were viewed beneath him? Why would he lie about something that would put him in such a humiliating light?

Btw, Menelaus (sealy boy!!!) even says that he's being held captive by Calypso with what he learned from Proteus! Menelaus isn't known for telling stories!

I feel bad as like, I used to LOVE going into the tags and finding creators I haven't seen before and cheering them on! Art and Fics and yay! But like... It's sometimes so disheartening going in there and seeing nonsense or bad takes ;~;

Honestly, as much as I DO enjoy Epic, I think that hopefully once the hype dies down a lil, it'll chill out more :') We'll all be okay!

[eand47]

Prologue | Denying

Summary: Being an artist was your life purpose and you figured it out at a very young age. No one was surprised when you quickly made a name of yourself among the art communities around the world. Everything was going according to your life’s plan, until you were diagnosed with a life changing condition - Parkinson's disease. Since that day everything started to slowly collapse for you. Looking for an escaping, moving to a small, forgotten from the world sea coast town was the only solution you could think off. Buying an old beach house, which was screaming for renovation, was the greatest escape - until you met your annoying next door neighbour and his dog. A neighbour who had his own issues and demons to deal with but somewhere between the pain and the obstacles life has thrown to both of you, you found comfort in each other. All because he had the right colour of blue paint for your staircase banister.

Main characters: Portgas D Ace x Reader (female)

Description: Modern AU | Early 40s retired Captan!Ace and Artist!Reader

WARNINGS: ALL CHARACTERS ARE AGED UP, major age gap between Reader and Ace (!sixteen years!), 18+ only, angst, hurt/no comfort, family trauma, emotional distress, !mentions of Parkinson's disease!, mentions of depression, mentions of death/lost of a loved one, slight hints of abusive relationship

Word Count: 3,4K

story masterlist | main masterlist | next chapter ->

NOTE: It's finally out. Thank you everyone for your patience ♡ I want to warn you all in advance that this story will take a little longer for its chapters to be uploaded as a lot of the topics take a lot of research. This is a story which I believe will turn out very beautiful and sensual but also very emotional, so please keep this and mind and if you don't feel comfortable reading about disabilities and major age gap - I don't recommend reading it ♡ The prologue is just a little introduction to what has happened to Ace and Reader before they cross paths, as I intentionally kept Ace's part shorter than hers (+ his happened 3 and a half years prior to Reader's exhibition). Something super important please keep in mind that - yes, this is a ModernAU, but the time period is early 2000's so the use of social media and ect. aren't a thing in the story. Again pay special attention to the warnings as I don't want anyone to get triggered. Thank you and enjoy ♡ !english is not my first language so if you see any mistakes let me know!

Nothing but darkness could be seen in the vast sea, until lightings flashes and thunderclaps across the night sky and its horizon. Dark clouds obscure the moon and the stars as hurricane storm has taken the big cargo ship hostage. The massive ship has no other choice but to take the hits of the waves, which are looming over them embodied with all nature’s wrath. Stuck in the middle of the storm, the crew has no other choice but to do everything in their power to get out of it. With each ferocious wave attack the ship is getting more and more damaged. Located on the top deck of the ship, the windows which provide an unobstructed view of the water in all directions of the wheelhouse are trembling as another wave crashes into them. The whole lower deck is covered in sea water as the angry from the storm sea is trying to overpower the ship.

“Captain, what course should we keep?” The helmsman of the ship loudly calls to the tall black-haired man in charge, which is standing next to navigational officer, while trying to get in contact with the nearest port or a marine pilot.

“It’s pointless, Ace. There is no signal at all.” Says the navigational officer. Frowning his dark thin brows the captain curses under his breath.

“Keep the course straight.” The captain tells the helmsman while looking out of the window watching waves taking over the container on the ship. “Okay, men. This isn’t my first storm at sea nor is it yours.” His deep stern voice fills up the space. “Put the fear aside and hold still as this storm doesn’t seem to want to calm down anytime soon.” He turns to his crew as he straightens his posture and taking look at each of his men eyes, which are full of fear. “We all have been prepared for such situations, we all have been through storms, so this will be another one to add to the list, right?” Everyone nods in unison to their captain. He nods back and turns again to face the inky void in front of him. “I will get you all home, I promise.” He whispers to himself.

****

“Okay, so the catering company will be there at three thirty pm, so they can arrange the tables and drinks the way you have instructed me to tell them, and then the first and most important guests are arriving at six pm sharp, as you have promised them a detailed explanation about how you have crated you pieces, and then… (Y/N) are you listening to me?” Your assistant, Nami, a tall young woman in her late twenties, is now looking at you in disbelief. Shaking your head as you have zoomed out for a thousand times today, you give her a questionable look. “(Y/N) you are starting to worry me. You are so easily distracted nowadays.” She scoffs at you. “Please, listen – it is important for you! This is your first biggest exhibition, and you are not even paying attention to me when I talk to you.”

She is right, you aren’t paying any attention to her. Recently this has become like an impossible task for you. The feeling of fatigue has taken over you for some time now and hearing Nami nagging you about your upcoming big night tonight is only adding to your stress.

“I know Nami. I’m sorry, I’m just feeling extremely tired.” You say while looking for a place to sit in the gallery. Your walk and posture are hunched and slowed a bit, something you have noticed recently, but you blame it on all the stress and working hours preparing the exhibition.

Tonight is your big night. You are having your first ever big exhibition in one of the most famous galleries in the country, the Gagosian Gallery. This is your dream coming to life. Six months ago, you received the call that the gallery wants to exhibit your paintings, and for such a young and upcoming artist like yourself, this is once in a million opportunity.

You have been an artis since you can remember. Your mother used to tell you that since you were a baby, you were always mesmerised by colours and the moment you were big enough to hold a paint brush properly you never let it go from that day on. From private art lessons as a child, to art school as a teen and then to one of the most prestige universities for fine arts in your early twenties – you have been an artis your whole life. You can not imagine life without a paint brush in your hands, and you don’t want to.

Nami’s high heels can be heard loudly around the gallery as she is running after you. Your assistant is the short-tempered type, but that is why you hire her in a first place. She is as demanding and as much of a perfectionist as you are. You know that with her next to you, every demand you have for the exhibition will be followed and fulfilled. Siting on one of the sofas in the middle of the gallery, you observe one of Andy Warhol’s famous dollar sign paintings hanged right in front of you.

“Hey, Nami.” You interrupt her and whatever she is talking about. “Can you believe it? My paintings are in the next room, and they are in the same gallery as one of Andy Warhol’s pieces. I feel like a rockstar, right now.” Your chest fills with pride and a big grin spread across your face.

Taking a seat next to you, Nami sighs loudly as her head hangs low. You are quite the demanding boss and sometimes it is a pain in the ass for a person to work for or with you, but you are an artist. A unique one on top of it and very talented. Nami has a previous experience as an artist’s assistant which were nothing compared to you, in both talent and skills. No matter what how hard it is to work with you sometimes, you are still the best boss she has ever had.

“(Y/N), why don’t you get home and come back here around four pm? In the meantime, I will handle everything here.” She pats you on the back and with tired eyes you look at her and nod. You need some rest before your big night, and you are not turning this offer down.

“If there is something important let me know immediately.” And with this you make your way home.

****

Walking into your spacious apartment you sigh once you take off your shoes. Calling out for your fiancé to check if he is home, you get no response back. Going straight to the bathroom you take a nice hot shower before you put some comfortable cloths and drift to sleep.

It isn’t a long nap as you wake up not even two hours later and you look at the clock next to your bedside table. It is just one pm. Lifting your hand to massage your temples you can see and feel it trembling. This has been happening a lot lately, but you blame it on stress. It has been like this for the past year now, every time you are stressed your hands just tremble and that is it.

But recently the tremor in your hands and the stiffness in your body is bothering you. That is why a week ago, you went to check with your doctor. You wanted to make sure that everything with you is okay, especially your hands, but you won’t be getting any results until the beginning of next week.

Getting up from bed you make your way to the kitchen as you feel your stomach ramble. Walking into the specious kitchen you see your fiancé’s back facing you as he is talking on the phone. Sneaking behind him, you wrap your arms around his torsos and kiss the back of his shoulder. He looks at you over it and points you with his eyes to leave him alone as he is on the phone. Continuing with his business call you just let go of him not wanting to irritate him even more. Opening the fridge, you find it empty as always. You never learn how to cook so you and your fiancé – Doflamingo, usually go out and eat somewhere or order take away. Reaching for the portable phone on the kitchen island you dial the Thai place close to you to order some food.

The food arrives after twenty minutes but Doflamingois still on his phone. You decide not to wait for him as soon you need to start getting ready for your big night. Not even finishing the whole box of Thai noddles, you leave it on the side and go to the bathroom ready to glam yourself.

You have just finished doing your hair when Doflamingoenters the bathroom. He comes and hugs you as he wraps his arms around your middle.

“Did you talk on the phone until now?” You are observing him in the mirror.

“It is an important client, baby.” He response as he starts kissing your neck and runs his hands down to your hips.

“I don’t have time for this I should be in the gallery in an hour.” You are quick to push his hands away as you are a starting to get anxious for the upcoming night. Doflamingo just rolls his eyes at you and instead of following you, he just walks back to the living room. Walking out of the bathroom, you enter your bedroom going straight to the big walk-in closet. Taking off your clothes you grab the long silk silver metallic dress hanged in one of the hangers. Putting it on with the matching silver high heels you are ready to go.

Looking for Doflamingoaround your apartment you see him sitting on the sofa with the remote in his hands.

“Doffy, I’m going now. Be on time, please.” You say to him, with a little hope that he will turn around a look at you, make you a compliment or something for all the effort you have put, but no. Doflamingo is Doflamingo– if it isn’t a football game or an important business call, which would grant him at least a few thousand or hundred of thousands dollars, he doesn’t really care to pay much attention. As he says, ‘everything is an investment’ and sometimes you wonder if you are seen as one as well.

“Yea, yea I will be there.” He replies, his eyes not moving from the screen where the last football match he has recorded plays. With a bit of hurt and disappointment you turn around and go to call for a taxi.

****

The night so far is going great. The first meeting with your special guests has gone smoothly and now a lot of your friends, colleagues and fellow artist have come along to observe and admire your exhibition. As you are talking with some fellow artist you spot your big sister – Rebecca, and excuse yourself.

“Becca.” You call out and she turns. Her face lights up when she sees you and with a quick run she comes and hugs you.

“My little sister, you made it.” She squeaks with excitement as you are tightly wrapped in her arms. “Mom and dad would have been so proud of you.” Tears build up in Rebeca’s eyes, while you just swallowed hard.

Your father has died when you were only two years old, so you don’t have a single memory of him. Everything you know about him is from your mother and sister, which is ten years older than you. Her and your mother have been your biggest supporters, but sadly for both of you, you have lost your beloved mom two years ago. It was unexpected and so sudden which caused a big distress and sorrow on you two. Both of you took it very hard, especially Rebecca and because of it you tired to be the stronger one. You have barely cried or talked about it, keeping it all for yourself, but it could have been sense and seen in your paintings from back then.

You wish your mother was here today on your big day, but life has taken her away. Life has taken a lot from you in the past two years, but you shake the thoughts away. Pulling away from Rebecca you smile at her and brush away her tears.

“Thank you, Becca.” You reply and you take a look around. “Where are the kids by the way? Where is Koby?” Your sister has been married for almost a decade now and has two beautiful children with her nice and loving husband Koby. Your nephews – Kyros, who is named after your father and now should be eight years old and the newest member of the family Scarlett, which is named after your mother and it’s only one years old.

 “Ky got sick, and Koby had to stay with him home, so I just left Scarlett with them as I don’t think art exhibitions are the best for babies.” She giggles once she sees your frowned brows.

“The younger you teach them culture the better.” You cross your arms across your chest as you shake your head at your sister. “Anyway, kiss them from me and say hello to Koby. And I hope little Ky recovers fast.”

“He will, but anyway where is... Doflamingo...” Your sister clears her throat as she doesn’t like your fiancé at all, and she doesn’t hide it.

“Yes, I have been asking myself the same thing, but he should be here soon.” You give her a reassuring smile, but Rebecca is not only your sister, she is also your best friend, she knows you like the back of her hand and she can see the hurt in your eyes from the fact that your fiancé still hasn’t shown for your big night.

“I still don’t understand what you see in this cruel man (Y/N). All he sees is a beautiful young woman who he can show around as a price, he doesn’t see your value or you as a person. You can find so much better than him.” Deep down you know that Rebecca is right, but you don’t want to have this conversation now.

“Stop saying it in a way like he is your age, we have only four years difference.”

“I don’t like him and the fact that soon you will be carrying his name, you don’t look and fit his cruel family Donquixote, it makes me sick to my st-” You are quick to shush her as you see the man in fact coming towards you.

“Hey, Doffy. You finally showed up.” You don’t want to hide the fact that you are pissed at him for being later but also you don’t want to start any scandals with him right now.

“Traffic, sorry baby.” He pulls you closer to him and kisses the top of your head. “Rebecca, pleased to meet you as aways.” He gives her one of his arrogant smiles which makes your sister shiver. Rebecca hates this man.

“Well, I still haven’t seen all of the paintings and rooms in the gallery so if you two excuse me I will get going back to it.” She is quick to excuse herself and but not before she gives you a hug. “Be careful.” Rebecca whispers in your ear before she turns around and goes.

“What took you so long?” You turn to Doflamingo with a frown. “You know this night is important to me.”

“I’m sorry, baby.” He says again as he tries to kiss your lips, but you pull away. “I had a more important call than this, okay? But now, I’m here be grateful.” You are so used to this behaviour at this point that you just turn around to go and speak with other people. Of course, he finds a way to ruin your night as aways. Catching you fast he pulls you close to him and with serious tone tells you. “The doctor called and said you must go to the clinic on Monday as your results or whatever you did are done. And cut the attuite.” He warns you once again and grabs your hand locking his fingers with you. You have no choice but to stay by his side till the rest of the night as it just clicks to you – he isn’t here for you, he is here for future partners for his business.

****

Siting in the doctor’s office has you on the edge. From the moment you enter the hospital, and his assistant welcomed you to his office, something doesn’t sit right in your stomach. Your hands are trembling, but again you blame it on stress. Entering the room the grey-haired man takes a sit on his chair and places his hands on his desk. You look at him with expectation in your eyes.

“Hi, Doctor Hiriluk. It is because of stress, right? Nothing that I should worry about.” You get straight to the point.

“Overall, you are healthy.” The doctor starts speaking, but you can sense a ‘but’ in his sentence.

“But...” You raised one eyebrow at him.

“From all the information you have given me last time we saw each other I’m afraid that there is a big possibility that you are...” Taking a deep breath in the doctor looks at you with pain written on his face. “I think that you are in a very early stage of Parkinson’s disease.” The doctor tells you and you are trying to process what you have just heard.

It can’t be. It won’t be. It feels like someone has thrown an ice-cold water at you and you can’t move. ‘No, this can’t be’ you are telling yourself repeatedly in your mind. This can’t be happening to you, not you of all people. This isn’t fair, it’s not fair to anyone, but this isn’t fair. Why now? Why when you are in your prime years? Why when you just start stepping on the steps of success?

Suddenly the room starts to feel small, and oxygen seems to not reach your brain. This can’t be happening. No, you refuse to believe this, there should be some mistake.

“Please, calm down Miss (Y/L/N). I can’t tell for sure, yet. I will give you the contacts of a friend of mine, Dr. Kureha, she is a specialist in neurology and I’m sure she will be able to put a better diagnosis than me.” As he tells you this trying to calm you down, he calls for his assistant to bring you water as he can see that you are almost at the verge of a panic attack. “I can’t be sure even though from what you have told me, you check a lot of the boxes with early symptoms, but this is not my speciality. It is Kureha’s.” His tone is very calming despite the situation.

Taking the glass of water from the assistant you lift it up to your lips and take a sip off it. Lowering the glass and holding it with your hands in your lap you can feel them trembling again. This can’t be it. Doctor. Hiriluk gives you some time to gather your thoughts before you can continue with your conversation.

“Is it there a possibility that you might be wrong?” You ask after some time passes and look up at Dr. Hiriluk.

“It might be, but don’t get your hopes up Miss (Y/L/N).” Dr. Hiriluk takes a deep breath. “That is why I want you to go and speak with Dr. Kureha, she will be able to diagnose you and guides you on how to handle because she is the best neurologist in out there.” Hearing this, all you can do is nod.

Doctor Hiriluk continues to talk, but you can’t focus to listen. Your mind is a mess. If his diagnose is in fact correct, then it means that at some point the only thing which brings you happiness and peace will be taken away from you. Art is everything you have, it is your safe place, it is your escape of the world and the way to express the pain within you. This can’t be. This won’t be. ‘There should be a mistake.’ You think to yourself.  

END NOTE: I hope you enjoy reading the prologue as again it's only a slight introduction of events which will cause the meeting of them two (Ace and Reader). Next chapter will be way longer and it will take place and time where the main story will be happening. Any feedback and comments are welcomed and appreciated as always ♡ Feel free to like and reblog if you enjoyed it and again thank you for reading it ♡

writing, format & dividers © eand47 artwork @mxhxkxcx ©eand47, do not copy or plagiarise my work.

[aroaceleovaldez]

thoughts on the current state of pjo fanart and/or how the fandom interacts with art? sorry if this question is so vague HAHAHHAHAHA i mean we've talked a lot about this in the TA server, specifically how a huge chunk of fandom being a community is lost due to fanartists basically just doing their own thing and the audience largely crowding around fanartists that are more or less established already... i also feel that, same as with fic writers, reception (i dont want to use the word 'engagement,' nor am i sure on if it's the right word to use lol) has drastically decreased compared to before, even though the fandom is reasonably large

Oh i have so many thoughts about this. I actually went on a tag rant on my main blog the other day adjacent to this exact topic.

Basically my current theory is the current widespread-fandom "environment" that exists is a result of a combination of two things: 1.) Widespread social media purges of nsfw material leading to large swaths of fandoms moving to different platforms and a loss of old fandom history and means of communicating that culture to the simultaneous large new wave of younger folks coming into fandom for the first time, and 2.) fandom becoming more mainstream and the way "fandom" as a concept was marketed and presented versus fandom practically.

Cause the way fandom was marketed in the mainstream sense was "This is a subculture surrounding a media. It's all about the media. Fanworks exist but they're just a natural part of fandom - they just kind of spawn or spontaneously appear." There's no acknowledgement of the community that is the actual foundation of fandom (and how some fandoms don't even have a source material!), and implies that fanworks are something guaranteed that you can take for granted and only exist for consumption like the source material itself. It's commodification of fandom.

There's also the secondary aspect of that mainstream marketing of fandom which is the sanitization of fandom, particularly painting large swaths of the community as "those icky weird parts of fandom" and something to be ridiculed, rather than an actual foundational aspect - which is where we see a lot of the purity culture in fandom arise (between that attitude being fostered and the dwindling resources to be able to educate new fans across fandoms). And this once again leads me to my usual spiel of encouraging folks to watch The Fandom documentary by Ash Coyote on youtube - particularly from the 1:03:27 timestamp - because learning pan-fandom history is very important especially right now when we're in a fandom climate where we're seeing a lot of these exact topics and talking points coming up again in different spaces. I seriously cannot stress enough how much I need this documentary to be like base-level fandom education, it's so so useful and important to know general pan-fandom history and major experiences of other fandoms.

Aside from all that though, I totally agree that we've seen a lot more of fandoms - particularly Riordanverse fandom - rarely straying away from BNFs who already have an established presence. I again think that's part of how the lack of community in modern fandom spaces makes it difficult for new fanartists and writers and such to get a lot of traction or footholds, because nobody is actually going out and having discussions or sharing work. The BNFs a lot of the time have old fandom presence and that established audience is how their work continues to travel. But also in modern fandom enviornments they're often treated as secondary source material - which is really terrible for them! Because it's such a rude and entitled attitude to have towards fancreators! And it is absolutely worse for fanfic writers I think particularly because of how when the media presents fandom as a whole in the mainstream, fanfiction very often gets the short end of the stick and is mocked, so new fandom folks don't appreciate it as much or even understand how to properly engage with it.

Especially also given how, because new fans are lacking a lot of fandom cultural knowledge that used to be passed on, a lot of them don't know how to navigate fandom sites like Ao3 and the language and structures used (like tagging systems - most new fandom folks are more used to tagging structures like on instagram or tiktok which is to say, completely nonfunctional) and are struggling with that since the resources to learn about it are difficult to find if you aren't already familiar with fandom - which is exactly why i'm working on my riordanverse fandom infrastructure project.

[epic-kotlc-crossover]

King

Hiya! We're so close to the end of this... not quite! We have some art, possibly some little short stories, too!! Stick around.

Trigger warnings!! This chapter contains some very violent descriptions as well as mentions of SA! Read with caution!!

Also, there might be excessive paragraph breaks. sorry abt that.

@ham-cheese-toastie @myfairkatiecat @bookwormgirl123 @sombrathedragon @justalunaticfangirl

@the-soul-detectives

“RUN!”

The room erupted into chaos, suitors scrambling over each other to get away from Fitz. He laughed, levitating above them. Skills came in handy sometimes…

“Wait!”

“Where are they?”

“Where is he?”

“He took our weapons!” 

“Go! Go, go! Get out of here!” 

“He’ll kill us all, get out!”

Fitz let them run, smirking to himself. Years ago, his tutor taught him how to hide objects in the void– a talent only Conjurers knew how to do. Well, and him, now. Fitz had grabbed all of the mens’ weapons and snapped them away, putting them in the weapons room on the other side of the palace. 

Fitz wanted the suitors to get lost, trapped in the dark halls. It seemed to be working, based on the thoughts he was picking up from their panicked minds. He stepped over the dead body of Fintan, snorting with disgust. 

Before entering the pitch-black halls of his palace, he sent out a transmission, barely thinking about his ominous tones. 

For twenty years I’ve suffered every punishment. Every pain imaginable. I’ve angered gods, monsters, friends– I killed them all. Now I come back and find MY palace destroyed? Worst of all, I heard you dared to touch my wife and hurt my daughter?!

I.

Have had.

ENOUGH.

Fitz snuck into the shadows, staying against the walls to avoid being seen. 

“We’re empty handed!” A voice shouted to its comrades.

“But we have the advantage! There are 107 of us and only one king.” 

“No! You don’t get it. Fitz is the best strategist in all of Greece!”

Thanks, Fitz thought, and shot the man in the back. He didn’t hesitate to kill the other suitor, blood spraying on his face. He spat it out of his mouth, running off again. 

“Where is he? Where is he?”

“Keep your head down! He’s aiming for our voices!”

No, just your thoughts, he smiled grimly before firing three arrows at once in the direction of the gruff voices.

“Where are our weapons?!” Another voice hissed.

“He’s hiding in the dark! Find him! We know these halls, the odds are with us!”

Fitz lept out from behind a door. “You don’t think I know my own palace? I built it!” 

Aim.

Pull back.

Fire.

Over and over and over again. 

Ten dead.

Twenty.

Thirty–

“Please!” Fitz knew that voice… But who was it?

“Old king! Our leader, Fintan, is dead. The rest of us aren’t a threat! Forgive us, please. You don’t… You don’t want any more bloodshed.”

Oh. That was his cousin, Alvar.

Would he kill his own family? 

Yes. 

“Old King? You assume that I ever stopped being king, cousin?!” He shot Alvar in the heart, laughing darkly. 

Time to go. 

MARELLA’S POV

“GET OFF ME!” Marella kicked at the man holding her, biting his arm. He screamed and punched her in the nose. 

“Help!!” She called. But no one was going to hear her. Down in the weapons room, suitors armed with bows and arrows, swords, and clubs, she was far too outnumbered. Even Athena couldn’t help her here. 

“Let me go!” She demanded– pleaded, really. 

“Hah! After seeing what your father will do to us, we would never release you. You're what they call leverage.”

My father? Marella gasped, a new well of energy bursting into her body. She lunged out, surprising the suitor and kicking him down. She grabbed his sword and quickly thrust it into his heart. “Surrender!” she yelled. “Or I’ll kill you all.”

“And I’ll help, daughter.” A man dressed in bloody rags emerged from the tunnel behind her, massive hunting bow in one hand and a quiver across his back. 

“Mercy!” 

“Mercy, please!” 

“Mercy? Mercy?! My mercy abandoned me years ago!” 

Aim. Pull back. Fire. 

Strike them down, one by one. Ignore the pain.

“It died to get me home! And as long as you’re alive, my family will always be in danger.”

Stike. Blood spattering against her bare arms. Strike again. 

“You plotted to kill my daughter!”

Aim. Pull back. Fire.

“YOU PLANNED TO RAPE MY WIFE!” 

Screams filled the halls. More and more dead. Strike.

“All of you are going to die!” 

The king seemed to calm down then, the srange red light fading from his eyes. “All of you who have wronged me,” he started, taking a step toward one of the remaining suitors, “This will be your fate!” He reached up, shooting an arrow clean through the throat of the man.

When all of the suitors were finally dead, the king stepped closer. Marella shivered, wondering if she was about to die. “I’m so sorry, Marella. My journey home… this–” he gestured at the dead all around them– “my heart is filled with hate. Anger. Sadness.”

She took a shaky breath. “It’s okay… Father.”

[yurigagarin998]

[nipuni]

THE DOCTOR We had a pact, him and me. Every star in the universe, we were going to see them all.

My version of The Master and The Doctor in their Academy days 😊

A speedpaint video of this will be available at my Patreon on april 1st!

[astronomodome]

probably fine

[heshemejoshi]

going west

[arttsuka]

Fiddlestan 2: Electric Boogaloo? 👀

Sorry, this got out of hand

This was the best quality I could find of the poster (I didn't search that much but still)

[shokveyv]

Ok i wanna make it very clear this isn't being said out of anger or hate but an small explanation of to why some people might get the wrong impression about the Sari x Sentinel art.

Imagine a family friend having seen a child grow up and had been around them through their childhood. So they have seen them grow up.

But the moment they become 18, they decide "This child i have seen as a baby, a child, a teen, I now want to date them" it comes of very predatory. And creepy.

It is in turn, odd for someone who grew up with an adult in their life. To being attacted to them even when they get older. It makes it seem like there some implications on the child's (now adult) side, that don't make it seem very innocent.

Sentinel is millions of years old. He has seen Sari grow up from a kid, to a teen, and now adult.

While yes they are now both consenting adults, but the implications behind this attraction is what is very suspicious.

I an not saying this was what you beleive in or intended. But your audience, esspcially your western audience might get the impression you do.

I also know English isn't your first language, so I hope this doesn't get lost in translation or come across as aggressive. It's not. I very much adore your work, this is the only time I've been kinda taken off gaurd by your content.

At the very least, I think you should change the way Adults sari outfit looks to make it very clear this isn't her teen self. And people's styles and outfits change when they get older too, so you could have fun coming up with that.

Again, this isn't made out of hate or anger. Just an explanation as to why people might feel so strongly about the art.

Thank you for context explanation to the Western view. I think I understand? It struggles though . Sentinel has never been family friend. He is enemy to human, sees Sari as infestation canon.

Canonical, Sentinel Prime few interact with Sari. Doesn't know the name! He never see alt mode [unless I misremember]. In story, not see Sari in ten or more years. On Cybertron ten year later. Sees Sari of her alt mode [it is a robot!] and he wonder who she is. He was not interest in her as organic [not as child, not as teen], canonical. Canon, he hate organic! Why be interest in her? Story, he works to get acclimatize to this organic form when! he learns she is not a robot only. The text you say is implying he has seen her grown. Canon, he did not care about her and did not acknowledge her more than a contamination [he is bad as Megatron MTMTE, wanting death of organic]. He doesn't recognize her when she reveals organic at first [it is how little he has ever seen for the Sari].

Canonically, she still a stranger to him.

Thank you for explaining the hesitation. It seem, there are many people don't understand in Japan, it is common for 10+ year ago, one child and adult meet, but in when child is to become adult, they may cross red string of fate and meet again! It is exposing xenophobia I did not expect. It is okay to misunderstand. It is not okay to insult my culture because one finds it icky.

Distressing, people say I should change her cloth. I not change cloth wardrobe from high school. I feel, I am being shamed. It is humiliating. There is something wrong with me for not changing my clothes... It was going to have her wear different cloth in comic, Sari is fashionista! ^^\ I was so excited to see the wear different dress and makeup cool! The drawing is cover of the full comic

I write about: "In my story, he not know of her robot form. Years later, he sees her on Cybertron in robot form. Wonders, "Who is she?" stalks her for many year until he finally gets the chance to ask more. She doesn't like him because he organic fears [he doesn't know robot-Sari is organic]. She ride with Drift for long time but as she grow, she finds divisive [Drift is become unstable], so strays alone. This is on top of fighting against the Megatron release from Trypticon. Sentinel losing Magnus status humbles him, Predacons become a major threat, Optimus Magnus, Sari starts to understand Sentinel is not as big mean as before. He grows as character. She begrudgingly accepts it

Sari not written to fall for Sentinel. Only recent in writing this story did I see to involve Sentinel [he had recent fall away from Magnus status, Optimus picks it up]. Is ten years of plot before she meets Sentinel as robot version on Cybertron. It distresses to see people calling me pedophile. I work on total story for 9 month.

But, people are not okay to read,s not okay to write character grows, mature, having adventures on the way. I regret writing this story, knows now people don't want to read stories of character beyond canon. The context is too burden on the psyche. I have learned my lesson. I will not write outside of canon again. I am a disappointment.

Sincerely for the explanation, is thanking you. Maybe it is better to keep Japan only release, then. It will be understood there. ? [I pay to have last comic translation to English, I did not want the xenophobia me of the past. I want to be better! but it is not going to be happy for English. I truly this doesn't portray as me hating English speaks].

[luck-of-the-drawings]

OOH YEAH BABY ITS THE SURGERY EPISODE BABY!!! ME AND THE HOMIES NEED SOME NEW FACES FOR OUR NEW PLAN, AND WHO BETTER TO GET THE JOB DONE THAN THE TWO MOST EVIL PEOPLE WE'VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF HAVING OUR LIVES VIOLATED BY? I MEAN IT WOULD BE FUNNY. IT WOULD BE FUNNY.

[personishfive]

in which his life is like a video game

[priintiisor]

i realised i never showed the world my little silly the thief!!

much like literally everyone else in this fandom i have an oc that is one of arti s pups. this is the one that stole a pearl and got stabbed and her goal is to find her mom so she can beat the shit out of her for abadoning them and their sibling

(more rambling about them below because i ve thought about this goober way too much. i basically wrote an entire campaign for them. with like 3 different endings and everything)

they have a scar on their back where they got stabbed. idk what the scar on their ear is from, i just thought it looked cool

she inherited arti s explosive saliva, but it s slightly different, and instead of explosives she can set things on fire :)

since she got stabbed in the back as a child she can t throw spears all that well

most things burn out pretty fast or just can t be set on fire at all so. her weapon of choice is burning pearls!! i have Thoughts about what pearls are made out of but i imagine they burn pretty well and for a pretty long time

naturally this means the scavengers fucking hate her. there s a reason she s called the thief- i d imagine if she was a playable scug her scav reputation wouldn t be automatically set really low like it is for arti, but since you can t really use much else as a weapon you d have to either struggle or steal from the scavengers regularly (i also think i d be cool if her karma wasn t locked like arti s is but her max karma would get lower the more you piss off the scavs- by the time she gets to metropolis tho i imagine she s basically in the same situation as artificer)

i also like to draw elite scavs with a few pearls attached to their masks, so i d imagine thief steals their masks to be able to hold more pearls at once

in terms of story, as i said, she s trying to find arti because she s angry at her for yk the whole abandoning her children and going on a murder rampage instead thing. their hypothetical campaign takes place between artificer and hunter, so arti is either living happily in metropolis or fucking dead (if you got the ascension ending- idk i think it d be interesting if what happens with thief would depend on what arti ending you got). i don t think thief would have a citizen drone like arti does so idk how they get into metropolis? idk maybe pebbles just decided to be nice for once-

if arti is there, thief fights her and basically just becomes artificer the second. steals the mask and everything

if arti isn t there.. thief is now basically stuck in metropolis (i think the using scavs to get thru gates thing would still work for them, but idk. getting out of metropolis is hard dude those scavs are shit at the game-), their goal is impossible, they re stuck in this hole that they dug themself into and for what? they abadoned their sibling out of their own anger with their mother, in trying to reach their goal they ve made everyone hate them and now they re just stuck here (this is probably what their "canon" ending is. tho i will probably also draw art of them fighting arti because i think it s cool)

((do you see what i m getting at here))

i think thief s ascension ending would somehow also depend on if artificer is ascended or not but i haven t though that much about it. tho i think it would show a memory of when they small and happy with their family :)

aaand that is all, thank you for reading about my silly little guy. i remembered i have 1 (one) actual oc so i must tell the world about her (not even entirely an oc but- this counts i think) also i want to make an animatic abt her at some point so. the people must know about the funny little guy

i do have one other scug oc. their name is the pilgrim and i have never drawn them-

[kj-beastboy]

HAII lulu here first (srry i js spammed ur account i needed to show my luv) ALSO IM SO INLOVE WITH UR ART OMG, ur art lit brought me back to the fandom again ugh the way u draw wifey flug js hits so hard and ur colors rlly blow me away if i could have ur art as my wallpaper on everything i would (im already doing teehee) ALSO agh srry for any gore on my account i didnt realize u didnt like it! ill make 2 versions so u can see a blurred gore version

I NOTICED, HIII I'm a bit late but!!

I love to see that! I'm so happy I found your art too you're amazing!😭💗💕

but I never said I don't like gore, idk where that comes from! I just have huge trouble drawing blood myself bc I don't know what it looks like and I can't look at it irl as I faint... I have a lot of ideas bc I like Flug being the dominant and unhinged lunatic that he is in canon but I'm just not good at making anything dealing with dark or upsetting topics (and I'm a little scared of how people would interpret me as a person, I can't tell which of my ideas are cool and which are "too far". I'm too old to deal with this stuff online I'm just here to have fun)

I very openly don't like sexual violence and that's my hard boundary as there's even laws for fiction in my country that I have to follow, but gore is great to me and fully allowed!

I certainly adore your cannibal Flug so damn much🥴🩷 that is the kind of stuff I'd love to make too bc it's one of my fav secret headcanons...

here's some chubby Flug bc I might just love that one from you even more... but I can't decide... I need more of both...