#this thing of people just making stuff up and getting 1k likes on twitter has got to go

[tsmerch]

I’ve also seen a lot of people admitting to panic buying yesterday in hopes for boosts. (I saw someone say they bought $400 worth of stuff they didn’t want, in hopes of a boost)

People keep saying “why else would they come out with merch 4 days before tickets go on sale” I don’t want to be a downer, but UMG is a capitalist business, they knew they could make a quick profit

Yeah, it just doesn't really make sense to me to give boosts out for buying holiday merch. Buying the album, or even the singles, makes more sense because it led to a direct accomplishment for Taylor. Also, if you have $400 to spend just in case you get boosts and not because you actually want or like the merch, I think you'd be better off saving your money for tickets. But that's just me. :)

[akgaereporter]

txt: soobin catching strays for *checks notes* watching an anime..

tldr: a pann article(?) was starting shit abt an anime soobin mentioned on a live from MONTHS AGO. the anime (made in abyss) has some disturbing/horror/gore themes. he said he thought it was boring and was hesitant to recomend it to moas in the live. but in another live he had with seungkwan, he said he watched it because woozi mentioned it and then said he recommended it to sk. moas started making it a real issue, saying "if u defend him for this block me" & implying he endorsed the themes in the anime. sigh..

when ur in a meat eating competition and ur opponents are soobin antis who call themselves moas😱😱😱😱😱 yall are annoying as fuck all shade.. leave him ALONE abeg

tonight soobins name is trending on twt dot com for something other than the seunghan live or pannchoa making shit up about him😓 apparently (because i couldnt find it) a REAL kr pann article, not flopchoa, was made resurfacing an old live of him talking about animes he's watched. one of them was made in abyss, a psychological horror anime that is meant to be disturbing.

in this live he says that its not something he wants to recommend to moas because of the themes in it. after the clip started making rounds on twt however, people brought up the fact that he'd mentioned it before and said he enjoyed it.

now lets not jump to conclusions like SOME lewsers and realize here that the anime version of made in abyss that's available in korea is highly censored. it reduced the s3xual/problematic scenes that were in the manga, and had a lot of stuff cut out of it that made it bad.

but even if this wasnt the case, its so silly to suggest that u endorse every piece of media u watch☠️ are u a vehicle if i watch cars 2?? are u a murderer if u watch true crime?? are u gay if u watch heartstopper? well yes but lets please use some critical thinking here friends

the first two screenshots from his live alone should be the end of this discussion because thats obviously how he really feels. but noooo user28247943 on twt.com always has to create some thinkpiece for other no brain having ass kpop stans to like and rt and make blockchains abt.. exhibit a:

like what the hell r these people yapping about. me when im trying SOOOO HARD im PISSING and CRAPPING MYSELF to make this grown man from south korea who has no idea i am look like a bad person☠️

yeonternet was the person who started all this bs tho. idk if theyre the one who brought the pann article to twt but their tweets abt it are so braindead lord.. this person had over 1k follows trying to police what an adult man watches & saying it makes her uncomfortable that he does.. girl dont watch what he watches then?? and after shitting out that steaming load of crap shawty deactivated without clarification cause she couldnt take the heat ! ikdr never come back

++apparently the author of made in abyss admitted that they used the show to portray their s3xual fantasies abt children but even hardcore watchers of the show didnt know that like..

also when he initially said all this in the live the response was fawking normal as it should be..

bc it isnt just gore and horror and nasty scenes, it has worldbuilding elements, characters, plot, etc that people enjoy it for. its rated highly and its so fucking ridiculous that people were genuinely throwing around the word PEDO for stupid shit like this. when actual pedos show up yall wont even be able to recognize them through the serious justice warrior twitter brainrot thats spreading rn..

but the bottom line here is that its pretty clear people are trying to start a smear campaign on soobin. the pann article itself was just nasty akgaes and antis adding onto the hate train hes been getting since the sh live thing. and it's just so nasty and horrible to see self proclaimed moas jumping on that the first chance they got like damn bitch ur just a LOSER who never liked sb in the first place. need all of these mfs ran off the app immediately like its concerning to see how many of them have large followings

uarmyeonjun went priv but she had almost 2.5K FOLLOWS before those twts. genuinely be careful who u call oomf like these people are real hybrids all it takes is an alt/priv and a dream for a normal person to turn into a complete FREAK ASS😓 hell is real and its called moaville

a story in 3 parts:

maybe 4

1.3k follows are we not SCARED?

here’s a link to a thread of the clowns in HD ! point and laugh❤️

https://x.com/beomjzns/status/1726102040848527854?s=61

anyways stay safe in these streets trust nobody stay strapped at all times. kpoptwt gets uglier everyday bye

[malleux]

spell [2]. | corpse husband

part one ; part three

-> Pairing: Corpse Husband x Fem!Reader

-> Genre: Fluff, Slight Angst

-> Warnings: Hate Comments, Self Doubt, Anxiety, Cursing

-> A/N: thank you for 1k notes on part one! i’m so glad everyone likes my work. it’s really nice getting this much love after taking a hiatus on my fire emblem writing blog. i hope y’all enjoy it and stay on the lookout for part three!

corpse husband taglist is closed!

Two weeks.

It’s been two weeks since you joined Sean’s Among Us stream.

While that was your first public appearance, you had joined three others after that and already you were blowing up on almost every social media platform you had. The attention was kind of nice, you had to admit, but sometimes the anxiety of becoming a public figure weighed heavily on your shoulders.

During that time, you turned to your friends who were used to such scrutiny: Sean, Felix, and now Corpse, who you’ve been talking to every day for those two weeks.

It was another one of those nights where, at 1am, you were on Facetime with said man. His screen was dark, as usual. He hadn’t shown his face yet and you respected that. You didn’t need to see him to talk to him, or be his friend, or develop a slight crush on him. All of which you did.

The call was relatively silent on your end. Corpse was on Facetime with you, yes, but he was also on a call in Discord, once again playing Among Us.

You often wondered if playing that game was all your new friends did anymore.

You stayed quiet, letting Corpse play the game and avoiding his fans finding out about your call. You had college work to finish anyways, so the silence was rather helpful.

“We should ask Y/N if she wants to play. I wanna meet her.” Sykkuno’s voice rang out from the Discord call. He was right- you’d never met him. He and Corpse seemed extremely close, though, so you’d love to talk to him. A friend of your crush friend was a friend of yours.

“She’s busy tonight.” Corpse responded.

“Yeah, she’s got an exam coming up- wait, how do you know?” Sean joined in, questioning Corpse.

“Uh, I mean we’re on Facetime right now, I guess.” Your heart sped up- now his fans knew. “She’s studying. We’re just hanging out.”

“Didn’t you guys ‘hang out’ last night as well? It seems like you’re trying to take my best friend away from me.” Sean joked back.

“I mean, I definitely am.”

Your breath caught in your throat. What was that supposed to mean? Sean was obviously kidding, but the tone in Corpse’s voice wasn’t the one he used when he was joking as well.

Felix suddenly butted in. “Ooooh, I think Corpse-y has a little crush.”

“And if I do?”

Y/N.exe has stopped working.

꧁꧂

Three weeks, now, that you’ve been talking to Corpse daily.

One week since Corpse’s crush comment and one week that you’ve endured countless mentions and tags on Instagram and Twitter, constantly talking about #CorpseY/N.

You didn’t really mind the shipping, often losing yourself in daydreams about driving those two hours down from your apartment in Los Angeles down to San Diego and running into his arms. It didn’t help when he mentioned wanting you to come visit one day.

You just worried about how Corpse felt about them. He was still relatively new to blowing up on the internet as well, his fame suddenly skyrocketing in the past few months, so you weren’t sure if he was comfortable with them. You didn’t want to bring it up, either, fearing that the discussion would make things awkward between the two of you.

For now, you were rather content with just scrolling through the #CorpseY/N hashtag, looking at the pictures and nice things people had to say about you both.

“they’re so cute when they talk to each other, you can just tell Corpse meant it when he said he was trying to steal Y/N away.”

“#CorpseY/N is my new favorite thing. Everyone shut up this is all I’ll be talking about from now on.”

“God why can’t they just be together already? #CorpseY/N”

Everyone was so supportive and sweet, it almost made you feel like you already were Corpse’s girlfriend. Although your heart hurt when you were brought back to reality, you couldn’t help but love the comments that everyone left. They were amazing.

Until they weren’t.

There are always two sides of the same coin. Along from the supporters and their loving actions, there were also those who seethed at the idea of you and Corpse.

They scrutinized everything about you to the point that you made your Instagram account- already with 30k followers- private.

Haters talked about you. Your body, your personality, how you weren’t worthy to even talk to Corpse and the rest of the Youtubers, and so much more. You’ve spent many nights with your Facetime mic muted so that Corpse couldn’t hear the small sobs coming from you.

These thoughts were almost always on the back of your mind, but you were sometimes able to push them away.

Like now- as you focused on your exam. Well, tried to focus. There comes to be a time where one can only hear so many negative things about themselves before they can’t ignore it anymore.

But alas, you tried your hardest and finished your exam, before walking out of the room and pulling out your phone. Now, you had a break before your new classes started and you’ve never been more relieved. You pulled up a certain contact and clicked on the message icon, beginning to type.

you:

i’m finished! up next, a break.

corpse:

I hope you did well. How long is your break?

you:

two weeks!

corpse:

Come spend it in San Diego

You stopped in your tracks, taken aback by the offer. You really didn’t think that he’d invite you over, but you weren’t about to complain. Instead, you sent back an ‘I’ll pack tonight :)’ and rushed home to do just that.

Corpse called you as you packed, just like he calls every night. You were used to the routine now, often falling asleep around 3am as he stays on the phone, doing whatever he does with his ruined sleep schedule until you wake up and say good morning.

Tonight, however, you were too jittery to sleep. You stayed up all night with Corpse, talking about anything and everything, like usual.

What wasn’t usual, though, was how distracted he sounded. It made you nervous- was he having second thoughts about inviting you over? Was something wrong?

Your thoughts nearly overwhelmed you, forcing you to say something.

“Are you okay, Corpse?” You tried to hide the small shake in your voice.

“Hm? Uh, yeah, yeah, everything’s good. Why?”

“It doesn’t sound like it. What’s going on? You’re acting off.”

His side of the phone was silent for a moment, before he let out a sigh. “I’m just thinking about what I’ve got to do before you get here tomorrow. Like, cleaning and stuff.”

“Pshh, that doesn’t matter to me.” You waved your hand, even though he couldn’t see it in the darkness of your room.

“It’s just that, my apartment isn’t… the best. It’s small and there’s only one bedroom and it’s kind of shitty. I just don’t want it to be even more shitty.”

“Corpse, I’m coming there to spend time with you, not your apartment. I don’t care what any of that shit looks like. I’m going to be looking at you and hanging out with you. Not your apartment.” You didn’t mean to go on a tangent of reassurance, but you truly meant all of your words. “Hell, I might not even see the apartment because I already know I won’t be able to look away from you.”

“I- God, give me a minute. That took me off guard.” He laughed. “But thank you. I may not even be able to clean because I’ll be distracted too.”

“By what?”

“You, standing in front of me, in person.” You could hear the smile in his voice. “That’s a fucking dream come true.”

┎┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┒

taglist: @namjoons-crabssss @lookingforaplacetosleep @teenloves @princess00wifi @pillowjj @nvm-idgaf @creativedogs @wildflowerwhore @chillininahottub-withaghost @whyisquill @holosexualunicorn7000 @ourheavenlyemotions

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[actualbird]

hi zak just wanted to ask: what are some of your takes on Random Stuff the NXX Boys do™️? like,,, what are your hot-takes? have a nice day :D

hi there!! thank you SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK, it was so fun to think about and write and it was the perfect way to decompress from work. again, sorry this got long KJBSDKFJ, 1k words once more...

vyn richter

often forgets that his glasses are on his face when the situation would kinda be better if his glasses arent on his face; when hes having a hot drink (glasses fog up), when he decides to take a nap (glasses smush against his face). one time he was very tired and accidentally showered with them still on

he talks to his plants. it isnt because he believes in that thing where like, if you talk to plants, especially giving those plants encouragement, theyll grow better. it's more of like he just started doing it naturally because when hes doing gardening stuff hes very relaxed and idly chats to his plants about his day or whats on his mind. oh to be a plant vyn richter calmly speaks too...

he hates slow walkers with a passion, which is an unfortunate pet peeve when youre a professor on a campus. some students just walk as if theyre gonna live forever, theres no rush. he gets so annoyed by slow walkers blocking his way that he has an app on his phone thats a fake bike bell, just gotta tap it to make the sound of a bike bell. he taps it whenever slow walkers are having a frigging procession in front of him and he wants them outta his way and without fail, they move, not wanting to get run over by a bicycle. eventually though, students realize that 75% of the time, it's not going to be a bicycle. it's going to be dr. richter. and honestly, hes much scarier than getting run over by a bicycle.

-

artem wing

he edits and contributes to wikipedia pages, the absolute DORK. not just wikipedia pages, if theres a movie or book hes interested in, he might go on the wikia for it or wherever the general information hub is for that media and he contributes there too. artem finds a very soothing joy in just going through information and adding it to pages, IT'S FUN, STOP LAUGHING, CELESTINE!!!

many times in college, he would be found in the actual physical books section of the library arranging the books. he...does not work at the university library. he does not need to be doing this. he does it because he LIKES IT and none of the library volunteers like, stop him kjdfbkdjsf. why would they?? hes helping out and also having artem wing, handsome oblivious heartthrob, there in the library is PEAK EYECANDY. when neil finds out about this habit he is so confused at why his apprentice is Like This yet also kinda resigned about artem's nerditude

he likes learning new recipes but he gets so frustrated at recipe blogs that have a KILOMETRIC INTRODUCTION completely unrelated to the recipe. hes like "please, please, just show me the recipe" while scrolling down for the actual steps of the dish. and YET im completely sure that if artem decided to write down a recipe, he would do the exact same thing tho. just an unnecessarily long intro about the background of how he got to this recipe, the HISTORY of the recipe. later when mc goes through his little notebook where he writes his recipes shes like "oh my god, this is some kind of novel. that just so happens to have food in it."

-

marius von hagen

i hc that marius has like, an official twitter. hes a young guy and hes Like That, he absolutely has a twitter. he like, barely tweets though. on the rare moments when he does, it is so cryptic in a meme-y kinda way. "lol some of u", "the audacity...", "tfw." people who follow him are constantly like WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS REFERRING TO, and nobody will ever fucking know. what he mostly does on twitter is like tweets; jokes and funny shit, sometimes passive aggressively he likes shitty tabloid/rumor tweets of himself just so that op knows hes Watching

he pours the milk in the bowl first before the cereal. marius started doing this because he genuinely just liked it better this way, this way the cereal doesnt get soggy as fast and he likes the crunch. but the moment he learned that this habit ENRAGES PEOPLE, he loves this habit of his even more. he gets to fulfill his own cereal preferences AND be a little shit at other people?? huge win for marius. the Joy he got that one time he prepared a bowl of cereal at nxx hq (marius gets a cereal dispenser for the pantry, trust me on this, he does) in front of vyn and vyn just kinda...eye twitch as if marius personally insulted him. cereal tastes so much better when people are annoyed at him, marius thinks.

this is something he does not do on purpose, but when hes painting and hes drinking coffee, very often the paint water cup is close by the coffee mug. what im saying here is that marius, focused on his art, very often gets those two things wrong, HAHA. marius has put his paintbrush in his coffee. and marius has drunk paint water.

-

luke pearce

he has like these little joys of compulsion. like if theres a crunchy leaf where hes walking he needs to step on it. if there is a ceiling or sign he thinks he can reach he needs to jump up and give it a slap. if he sees a worm on the concrete sidewalk he needs to pick it up and place it in the soil. if hes in a clothing store he likes to Feel The Fabrics. minuscule things like this make him make happy, he really likes things that grant tiny satisfactions

i mentioned this in a past hc but im very passionate about it so i will say it again: luke pearce has questionable food habits. whenever hes grocery shopping he will Always gravitate to the discounted snacks that are discounted because theyre going to expire soon. whenever mc comes over he hides these snacks into a shame cupboard bc if she sees it shes going to scold him "luke, it's not as if you cant afford snacks that arent going to go bad in three days!!" and hes like "BUT STILL, IT'S A GOOD BARGAIN."

he tinkers with gadgets so much even when they dont need to be tinkered with, sometimes tinkering with mundane belongings of other people without their knowledge. like marius will be using a pen and then he twists it just right and suddenly it shoots out a FUCKIN TRANQ DART and he's immediately like "LUKE, WHAT THE HELL, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN." and luke is just like "oh, sorry. forgot to tell you. it also has a taser function!! :D" and marius is like "i use this pen for work, in WHAT situation will i need to tase somebody at Pax." and luke is like "You Never Know."

[hornime]

for your viewing pleasure | suna rintarou x gn!reader

camming was addicting in a way; he could be as lazy as he wanted with it and people would still lose their minds over the tiny crumbs he left them. it was suna’s sadistic little game, and he loved it.

warnings: 18+, college au, camboy!suna, male masturbation, mentions of drinking

w/c: 1k (this was not supposed to get this long oops)

a/n: no because suna is literally the perfect candidate for camming. he’s so fucking effortlessly sexy that it pisses me off but i KNOW i’d be pressing that follow button in half a heartbeat.

for your viewing pleasure: part one ↓ | part two

“fuck.” suna let out a guttural groan, his right hand moving rapidly along his shaft as he braced himself on his other forearm, naked body splayed out on his white bedsheets. “my hand feels good ‘round my cock but i’d rather it was you,” he grunted out to no one in particular. he took a shaky breath. “hngh, you know, if you were good, i’d cum inside. you’d like that, wouldn’t you? stupid whore, all desperate for some cum.” a few thrusts later, his stomach clenched and balls tightened, cum spilling heavily from his blushing tip. “oh god,” he moaned, “feels s’good.”

as he recollected his thoughts from his heart-pounding release, he reached forward and clicked the red button on his phone, stopping the recording. after playing the video through to ensure that nothing above his neck was in the frame, he posted it on twitter with a suggestive caption and headed to the shower. this was suna’s almost-nightly routine: film something filthy for his almost forty thousand followers and bask in the strange satisfaction of thirsty comments praising his cock and begging to get fucked. camming was addicting in a way; he could be as lazy as he wanted with it and people would still lose their minds over the tiny crumbs he left them. it was suna’s sadistic little game, and he loved it.

looking back, it’s almost inevitable that he started filming his solo sessions for attention, and eventually for some side cash. 

suna was always good with cameras—throughout high school, the miyas consistently kept him on his toes; he was constantly anticipating an opportunity for the perfect shot of osamu getting a set straight to the face or of atsumu getting tackled in retaliation for said set. just like on the court, he was observant: he always knew the best angles, the best lighting, and the best positioning, all coming together to form the perfect picture. 

and as for the porn part, well, he was a teenage boy once. he’d watched his fair share of erotic videos on all kinds of sites before stumbling upon the vast expanse of homemade clips on twitter, instantly understanding the appeal. a few months after he turned eighteen, he made his own account, figuring that he might as well use his cock for something other than his own pleasure. his peers always gave him hell for his apathy, especially in bed, but on the internet, strangers were in awe of just how little he cared—and how much hotter that made him.

by the time he reached ten thousand followers, he’d opened a venmo, making a few hundred dollars within a week. this isn’t too bad, he thought to himself. i could definitely get used to this. and he did, establishing a pretty solid side gig as a college student that could always use some extra cash.

speaking of college, suna wasn’t really one for parties. in fact, him attending the same party you were, being in the same room you were, and overhearing the only possible conversation that could possibly interest him, were all by complete coincidence. but damn, if he isn’t glad the fates aligned in his favor.

suna, in typical wallflower fashion, was standing against the wall, solo cup in hand, not doing much other than observing those around him and occasionally indulging in the flirtatious glances of a few other partygoers. thinking back, he wasn’t sure how he got so close to you and your friends, or why he was so keen on hearing what you had to say to them. all he knew then was that you were a familiar face from one of his classes, and you were irritatingly attractive. he could probably point to at least five different posts on his account in which he was thinking of specifically you, a person of definite sexual interest, while masturbating.

you’d been drinking, undoubtedly to the point of being tipsy, because there was no way you would’ve been talking about porn, especially at that loud of a volume in the middle of a party, sober. the few beers you’d downed had comfortably warmed your body, making your brain a little fuzzy and your actions a little more reckless. so when your friend had brought up the subject of pornography, you were quick to jump in.

“ya see,” you slurred, “for all the good stuff, ya needa be on twitter. your first mistake s’gunna be going on pornhub or xvideos or some dumb shit like that. you gotta be looking for the good kush on twitter. the homemade stuff. s’authentic and real.”

suna raised a brow at that, taking a short sip of his drink, curious as to what you were going to say next. 

“and once you’re on twitter, you gotta find some good,” you waved your hand vaguely, “content creators. ya know? some accounts you can rely on for all your needs.”

your friend asked you a question that suna couldn’t make out through the reverberating bass of the music.

“me personally? all right. this is my biggest secret, like, this guy is the holy grail of twitter porn. the user is...” 

suna nearly spit out the alcohol settling on his tongue as the username of his secret account escaped your lips. holy shit, he thought to himself, trying to control his quickening pulse. the idea of you using him to get off was way more arousing then he thought it could be. did you ever time your orgasm so that you both were cumming at the same time? did you stare with envy at his hand, wishing it was you? with nothing but your imagination and your fingers, did you pretend it was him looming over you, making you feel good?

his cock stirred impatiently in his pants. shit, i’ve got to chill the fuck out.

“i’m telling you, this man has the prettiest cock i’ve ever seen. like, you guys know, i hate sucking dick. ‘s the worse thing ever ‘cus their balls always smell like old cheese. but for this guy,” you rolled your eyes back dramatically, “i’d get on my hands and knees immediately. t‘so long and thick and curved and pink,” you gushed. “and his voice is so hot. i’d let him do anything to me.”

suna smirked from behind his cup. he likes you. maybe if you play your cards right, he’ll let you suck the pretty cock that you adore so much. and maybe if he plays his cards right, you’ll let him record it so he can watch it whenever he wants, and show off to his followers what a cockhungry slut you are.

making solo porn was getting boring, anyway.

>> part two 

© property of hornime 2021. do not plagiarize any of my writing and do not repost/copy my writing onto any other sites.

[ghoste-catte]

I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.

[spacetwinks]

It's good to see you on here! I've always wanted to ask you as a long-time follower, first-time caller just how you deal with Twitter and all the dumb bullshit that goes with it? Specifically not caring about what people say about you, follower count, amount of positive reactions to your posts, etc.

It feels like Twitter has legitimately affected my mental health because all I ever get exposed to on there is CONSTANT negativity. Even from folks I generally tolerate. I would love to just stop using it, but everytime I try it feels like I'm missing out on a lot. Plus it's where most of my friends are.

How do you shut out the voices in your head that make that website a goddamn nightmare?

part of it is just curation of who you're following, actively muting certain terms and phrases that might make things bad for you in your head, having a locked account for venting shit (this is one i think is crucial because sometimes you still want to post just to get bad energy out of you but you need a space where it won't be seen by EVERYBODY - maybe just a few people, or maybe even just yourself, tho in the latter i'd recommend getting a regular ass journal for that purpose), all that sort of regular social media stuff but part of it is for me, personally... i just had a break a long time ago with wanting to be The Funny Guy.

because i’m me, this is gonna get long. bear with me.

it's something i actually brought up forever ago on tumblr itself, and how i approached this platform in contrast to my existence in other online spaces before it, my approach would be I Just Post. from serious shit to funny shit to dumb shit, i just let it out of my head, emptying it out. in times WAY long ago in my personal life i would want to be The Funny Guy because that was how i saw myself as having value, which pushed me into unhealthy patterns, needing to 'perform', needing to be 'on', and losing my own sense of value if i wasn't making people laugh, wondering if i'd be pushed out of friendships or social spaces if i let my true self out. i'd keep all sorts of my real feelings inside of me and just simmer with awful thoughts because i had to be The Funny Person, at least that's how i thought of it at the time.

so i fucking ditched it. it wasn't healthy for anybody, not for me, not for the people who came to see me as The Funny Guy either and what preconceptions they might have of me because of it. this also lead to giving less and less of a shit about having high follower counts or whatever. people get it really twisted 1. what a high follower count *actually* is and 2. what it means, materially, for the person who has it. i got 27k on twitter and to someone who doesn't have 1k followers on twitter, yeah, that'll seem like a lot, but here's the thing:

follower counts don't pay bills. follower counts don't help you eat. the only time these numbers are materially useful to me in any way is when i have something new to sell, a twine, a pack of photos, or whatever. and even then, i still have to regularly advertise that stuff, because this relative high follower count doesn't automatically translate to success, to money, whatever. a lot of the people following me are a lot like me: they do not have a lot of money to pass around. this isn't the pre-'08 crash era where we're all tossing 5 bucks at some webcomic's paypal donation bar to get some 800x600 computer wallpapers, everything costs more and everybody has less disposable income. people with a lower amount of followers have, i think, an understandable assumption that high follower count = something materially beneficial, but... no, not really. if we all had more disposable income again, maybe.

but we don’t.

and i'd be fucking miserable if i approached my online presence that way too. just trying to get more followers, focusing solely on that above all else, to get bigger to achieve - what? i get a couple more freelance writing job offers that pay 50 bucks to, at most, 300 dollars? fucking god awful, man. that's not a life i wanna live.

also, seriously, digging in more into how 'high follower counts' are relative: it's not just that my numbers are nothing compared to actual literal celebs, but they're also frequently nothing compared to, say, some random fursuiters i might've never seen before, who are, again, themselves nothing in follower count compared to actual celebs. i think sometimes fixate on a random person who SEEMS popular and get lost in how that 'popularity' can be extremely relative. it's good to step outside of it and see where other people are much, much more popular, and then also to check if THAT greater popularity actually translates into something material for the person with it. it's less common than people tend to assume!

same goes for the ‘not caring what people say about me’. it’s not a ‘haters gonna hate’ deal, it’s ‘sometimes people just won’t like you’. some people just won’t like me. that’s fine! maybe it’s because they think my jokes suck, or i post too much/am too longwinded (these are incredibly justified reasons to dislike me in particular, i do post too much and am too long winded), or for whatever reasons. so long as someone isn’t like trying to start shit with me over it, it’s... whatever, y’know? there’s people i just don’t like too. trying to make it so Everyone Likes Each Other or Trying To Make Everyone Like you is disastrous for everyone’s mental health, especially one’s own. i’d very much rather not end up like fucking amanda palmer obsessing over some Guardian reviewer who didn’t like her work, or a YA author finding some student from several years ago mildly dunking on their books in the article of a small town college newspaper and blowing their top over it. and some of those fuckers - like amanda palmer there - actually make a SHITLOAD of money. they could be jet skiing all the time on a private island, but instead they just fuck themselves up over the fact that some random critic didn’t like their music. not healthy for amanda palmer - or for the critic!

other thing about twitter: it’s the fucking Id of social media platforms. no other site is more ‘everyone is just dumping out what they’re feeling with zero thought for curation’ than twitter. it’s just not designed with curation in mind! i’ll post about whatever the fuck comes to mind, because it all gets into the ‘waterfall’ of people’s feed, people EXPECT things to be all over the place on twitter, ESPECIALLY if they follow a lot of people. someone following 2000, 3000 people, and i’m one among them? my thoughts are just one of many, bursting forth and then disappearing into the flooded ether among the rest! i don’t worry about being ‘consistent’ or having a ‘presence’ because twitter isn’t built for it nearly as well as anything else. i talk about depression, beat ‘em up video games, communism, and which version of master splinter i think is the hottest, maybe all of them in the same day, and it’s just fuckin’ whatever. i find it personally so much preferable than trying to ‘be’ some particular performance, like being ‘the funny guy’ how i used to.

also: right now? twitter is gonna be a lotta negativity in particular! the world is in all sorts of fucked up flux emergency states right now and worse yet for many of us there’s no structure in our lives that actually values and gives time for us to pour out our grief and worry and fear in a healthy way and with the dedicated time necessary to do so. it’s all just sorta scrunched into one fucking cube. some people will handle it okay-ish, for various reasons. i think i do okay-ish, largely because i’ve just been extremely online since i was a kid and i’ve absorbed so much poison that i’ve immunized against a lot of it and process it different. other people won’t handle it as okay-ish, and there’s... nothing wrong with that! not the fault with them for not being able to handle it, but the fault of our societal structures that they don’t give us any real means to handle it but just ‘rugged individualism’ bullshit.

if going cold turkey sounds too much for you right now, i’d say instead just take large steps back from it instead of throwing it out completely, cut down your numbers of who you’re following and/or temporarily deploy more tactical mutes, make a locked account for brain venting purposes, and put more time and mental energy into fulfilling hobbies elsewhere during times you’d spend more on twitter.

you can’t eat twitter clout, you can’t pay bills with it, caring about ‘getting big’ on twitter or w/e is bad for the self and for others. dramatically reassess and change how you interact with that website, find ways to do so that are better for yourself, build other means of communities with your existing friends (and making new ones), do what’s right for you. take care, anon.

[onnabox]

An excellent take from a fellow artist on facebook regarding NFTs:

“I get requests almost every day to mint my stuff on some blockchain (it’s even happened jokingly with people in my personal life). It's extremely annoying and I’m fucking tired of it, so I’ll vent a bit here.

I’m disappointed in many of my fellow artists and wish more people would realize it’s ok to not participate because NFT's (as they are now) are stupid and only about commodifying/financializing every aspect of art/life made digital. An NFT is nothing but a digital certificate signifying you "own" a thing you cannot hold physically, and it locks you into a cryptocurrency ecosystem which is shaky and opaque by design. Buying an NFT is like buying a star or a piece of otherwise useless of cosmetic DLC in a videogame (like horse armour). Even though half the companies that sold those stars are now out of business and cosmetics in games have no effect on gameplay. 

In this environment, it's common for developers in the crypto market to disappear and steal from investors when a critical mass has been accumulated (look up "crypto rug pull"). It's also a way for unscrupulous buyers to money-launder since the laws haven't caught up to crypto yet, which is par for the course to unbridled big tech. Crypto aims to supplant banking in the same way Facebook aimed to supplant our lives and all artists participating are adding to it. It isn't about changing the system as much as it is removing accountability and concentrating power via a new and artificial scarce form of capital. If this is truly the path of history we are on, fine, but I don’t have to add to it and you don’t either, if you’re honest. There are (almost) always better ways to make money.

NFT's could be said to be about supporting artists by creating a space for exponential gains, but they are not about appreciating art. It’s big tech Sotheby’s. The only advantage for artists is that it creates a gambling scenario for buyers who believe that the pieces will go up in value over time. Like buying a poster for the flipping value over the appreciation for the art itself. Because if you really just loved the art and wanted the artist to make exorbitant amounts of money, why not just give it to them directly? Why do I need to digitally tokenize my artwork for you to pay me? If you love the art and believe in me so much, then fuck, just pay me $500-1k or more per poster instead of the usual $50-200 I ask. If you want, I could not send you a poster and just email a jpeg. I wouldn’t object.

I wish everyone participating in this grift (whether they acknowledge it as such or not) would look at the entire issue holistically. The impacts on the environment (crypto mining is awful and an unneeded expense on our atmosphere), the way more participation normalizes it and encourages others into what really feels like a MLM scheme, the lack of actual value inherent, the way it turns every piece of art into a mini stock market in which someone is going to lose by the end, only they won't have anything physical to show for it when they're the last one holding the bag and the injection of artificial scarcity (which is so stupid since you can just screencap any/every NFT that exists).

Scammers on NFT platforms like OpenSea are also notorious for stealing art from artists and selling it as if it were theirs the same way bots on FB and Twitter steal my artwork to use on bootleg t-shirts. The entire system is rife with disadvantages and opens up new avenues for piracy. NFT’s market themselves as the solution to a problem they are creating, which can only be solved by participating. “Well, if you were on the platform, then you could sell them yourself.” So the only way to avoid being thieved is to participate in the grift. How lame is that. Consent and respect are easily superseded in this system for those who decline its predatory advances.

Artists and developers should just be honest that this is about making more money above all else and speed-running the zeitgeist further into late stage hyper-capitalism instead of hiding behind high-minded ideals. Now, I don't think capitalism itself is always a bad thing, but I think there need to be checks and balances, and the whole crytpo-NFT scam is truly just about breaking all boundaries and supplanting old markets with new ones. It's not liberty, just diversification in a new kind of market. This isn’t a new system, it’s just creating digital fiefdoms and pressure for other artists to conform ("What, you don't wanna get rich, bro?"). And it's been really disappointing to see so many folks I respect uncritically go along with this just because it's an easy way to make more money.

Just say you want to make big money off of idiots who also don't know how half of this shit works. I'd personally respect it more. And despite the tone of this comment, know that I'm doing my best not to unequivocally judge everyone who's going along with this. I just think there should be more critical conversations instead of confusion and endless cheerleading, which is an affect only those with uncritical curiosity and/or a vested interest adopt. The rest of us just want to call it out for how stupid and greedy it looks and wish people would do better and spend their time making money in healthier ways. But this is The World Today, where the dollar trumps everything else. So. Fuck the environment, fuck physical art, let’s turn everything into a gamble. Let's embrace the metaverse with open arms. Because uncritically slurping up everything tech has done over the past decade has gone over so well. Sounds very healthy and sustainable.

I’m not an expert, so maybe I have everything totally wrong. But from what I’ve read/seen/talked about to people on both sides of the issue, this is my understanding. And maybe my opinion might change as new information becomes available. But for now, this is all just gross and I wish people would leave it to the techbro idiot’s corner it deserves to be in. Anyway. As you all were. And stop fucking asking me if I want to get in on this bullshit. No. Fucking. Thanks.”

[nim-lock]

Art Career Tips, 2021 Edition

Here’s an edited version of my 2019 answered ask, because... this feels relevant. 

It is a problem of capitalism that folks equate their income as a judgement of their value as people; and let me preface. You are worth so much. You have inherent value in this world. Your income is not a judgement on who you are (plenty of billionaires are actively making the world worse). LARPing self-confidence will go a long way to helping you get paid more for your work, because clients will believe that you know what you are doing, and are a professional. 

& real quick—my own background is that I’ve been living off my art since 2018. I went to art school (Pratt Institute). I work in a publishing/educational materials sphere, and a quarter of my income is my shop. Not all of this information may apply to you, so it is up to you to look through everything with a critical eye, and spot pick what is relevant. 

So there are multiple ways of getting income as an artist; 

Working freelance or full-time on projects

Selling your stuff on a shop

Licensing (charging other companies to use your designs)

This post primarily covers the freelance part; if you’re interested in the other bits there is absolutely info out there on the internet. 

IF you are just starting (skip to next section if not applicable) dream big, draw often (practice helps you get better/more efficient), do your best to take "a bad piece” lightly. You’re gonna RNG this shit. At some point your rate of “good” works will get higher. Watch tutorial videos & read books. A base understanding of “the rules”; anatomy, perspective, composition, color helps you know what the rules are to break them. This adds sophistication to your work. One way you can learn this stuff is by doing “studies”—you’re picking apart things from life, or things other people have done, to see what works, and how it works. 

Trying to turn your interests into a viable career means that you are now a SMALL BUSINESS; it really helps to learn some basic marketing, graphic design, figure out how to write polite customer service emails; etc. You can learn some of this by looking it up, or taking skillshare (not sponsored) classes by qualified folks. Eventually some people may get agents to take care of this for them—however, I do recommend y’all get a basic understanding of what it takes to do it on your own, just so you can know if your agent is doing a good job. 

Making sure your portfolio fits the work you want to get

Here is a beginner portfolio post. 

Research the field you’d like to get into. The amount people work, the time commitment, the process of making the thing, the companies & people who work for them. 

Create work that could fit in to the industry you’re breaking into. For example, if you want to do book cover illustration, you draw a bunch of mockup book covers, that can either be stuff you make up, or redesigns of existing books. If you’re not 100% sure what sort of work is needed for the industry, loop back into the portfolios of artists in a similar line of work as whatever you’re interested in, and analyze the things they have in common. If something looks to be a common project (like a sequence of action images for storyboard artists), then it’s probably something useful for the job. 

CLIENTS HIRE BASED ON HOW WELL THEY THINK YOUR WORK FITS WHAT THEY WANT. If they’re hiring for picture books, they’re gonna want to see picture book art in your portfolio, otherwise they may not want to risk hiring you. Doesn’t have to be 100% the project, but stuff similar enough. If you aren’t hired, it doesn’t mean your work is bad, it just wasn’t the right fit for that specific client. 

If you have many interests, make a different section of your portfolio for each!

Making sure you’re relevant 

Have a social media that’s a little more public-facing, and follow people in the career field you’re interested in. Fellow artists, art directors, editors, social media managers; whoever. Post on your own schedule. 

Interact with their posts every so often, in a non-creepy way. 

If you’ve made any contacts, great! Email these artists, art directors, editors, former professors, etc occasional updates on your work to stay in touch AND make sure that they think about you every so often.

Show up to general art events every once in a while! If you keep showing up to ones in your area (when... not dying from a sneeze is a thing), folks will eventually start to remember you. 

Industry events & conferences can be pricey, so attend/save up for what makes sense for you. Industry meetups are important for networking in person! In addition to meeting people with hiring power, you also connect with your peers in the community. Always bring a portfolio & hand out business cards like candy. 

Active job hunting

Apply to job postings online.

If interested in working with specific people at specific companies, you could send an email “I’d love to work with you, here’s my portfolio/relevant experience”, even if they aren’t actively looking for new hires. Be concise, and include a link to your work AND attached images so the person reading the email can get a quick preview before clicking for more. 

Twitter job postings can be pretty underpaid! Get a copy of the Graphic Artists’ Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines to know your rate. I once had a twitter post job listing email me back saying that other illustrators were charging less, and I quote, “primarily because they’re less experienced and looking for their first commission”. This was not okay! For reference, this was a 64-illustration book. The industry rate of a children’s book (~36 pages) is $10k+, and this company’s budget was apparently $1k. For all of it. 

Congrats you got a job! Now what?

Ask for like, 10% more than they initially offer and see if they say yes. If they do, great! If not, and the price is still OK, great! Often company budgets are slightly higher than they first tell you, and if you get this extra secret money, all the better for you. 

Make sure you sign a contract and the terms aren’t terrible (re: GO GET THE  Graphic Artists’ Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines) 

Be pleasant and easy to work with (Think ‘do no harm but take no shit’)

Communicate with them as much as needed! If something’s going to be late, tell them as soon as you know so they aren’t left wondering or worse, reaching out to ask what’s up. 

And if all goes well, they’ll contact you about more jobs down the line, or refer you to other folks who may need an artist, etc. 

Quick note about online shops/licensing and why they’re so good

It’s work that you do once, that you continuously make money off of. Different products do well in different situations (conventions vs. online, and then further, based on how you market/the specific groups you are marketing to), so products that may not do well initially may get a surge later on. 

Start with things that have low minimum order quantity and are relatively cheap to produce, like prints and stickers. 

If you are not breaking even, go back to some of the earlier portions of this and think about how you could tweak things as a small business. Ease of access is also very important with this; for example, if you only take orders through direct messages, that immediately shuts off all customers who don’t like talking to strangers. 

Quick resource that you could look through; it’s the spreadsheet of project organizing that I made a while back 

Licensing is when people pay you for the right to use your work on stuff they need to make, like textbooks or greeting cards. This is generally work you’ve already made that they are paying the right to use for a specified time or limited run of products. This is great because you’ve already done the work. I am not the expert on this. Go find someone else’s info.

“I am not physically capable of working much”/ “I need to pay the bills”

Guess who got a hand injury Sept 2020 that messed me up that entire month! I had a couple jobs going at the time that I was terrified of losing, but they were quite understanding when I told them I needed to heal. So:  Express your needs as early as you know you need them. Also do lots of stretches and rest your hands whenever you feel anything off; this will save your health later. Like, the potential of a couple months of no income was preferable over losing use of my hands for the rest of my life.

This continues to apply if you have any other life situation. Ask for extra time. Ask for clarification. If you tell people ahead of time, folks are often quite understanding. Know how much you are capable of working and do your best not to overdo it. (I am.. bad at this)

Do what MAKES SENSE for your situation. If doing art currently earns you less money than organizing spreadsheets, then do that for now, and whenever you have the energy, break down some of the tips above into actionable tiny chunks, and slowly work at em. 

The original ask I got in 2019 mentioned ‘knowing you’re not good enough yet’. Most artists experience imposter syndrome & self-doubt—the important thing is to do your best, and if anything, attempt to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man. If he can apply to this job/charge hella money for Not Much, then so can you! 

Check out this Art Director tumblr for more advice!

Danichuatico’s Literary Agent guide

Kikidoodle’s Shop Shipping Tutorial

Best of luck!

–

Once again disclaimer this post is just the ramblings of a man procrastinating on other things that need to be done. I’ve Long Posted my own post so that it turns into mush in my brain if I try to read it, but I wrote this so I should know this content. If you got down here, congrats. Here’s a shrimp drawing.

Yee Ha. 

My reference post tag My tip jar

[wenellyb]

Uhm. About the Anthony stuff. I don't think people should make it a campaign or something. What bothered most folks had nothing to do with shipping, but with the way he talked about queerness. The "exploiting homosexuality" line or the going to a bar shit. So it's a him problem, and fans should know it is apologize for bad wording, which it is totally on him, or let it die.

Hi Anon,

This is a little bit complicated to explain so I hope I will find the right words... but if some parts are not clear let me know and I will try to explain it better.

I have to disagree with you about what annoyed most having nothing to do with shipping after seeing the response I saw on Twitter, and even headlines from other news outlets.

The "exploiitation" and "bar" part is what annoyed the rational people.... but you and I know that there aren't a lot of those on the Internet.

All over Twitter it was all about Anthony not liking Sambucky together or Anthony saying Sambucky are just friends, etc. Be honest with me here, did you see any headline or any tweet with more that 1k likes or even 500 likes with that story NOT mentionning Sambucky?

Because, I didn't....

So yes, even if it shouldn't have been, the shipping part IS what the general public and other journalists focused on.

I personally didn't care about the shipping but was very annoyed about what he said about the exploitation of homosexuality and the not being able to go to the bar with friends thing.

And if I hadn't known a little bit of Anthony's background I would have been right out pissed... but Anthony is one of the few Hollywood actors, who has admitted that he had been brought up in a comminity where homophobia was present and that he has been learning and growing and showing his support to the LGBT community... So I know he is an actor that will actually listen and adjust if you explain to him what was wrong with what he was saying, because he is already aware that he has still much to learn.

But let's be honest for a minute, if the story had been only about Anthony's comment about how guys can't even hang out anymore...the story wouldn't have blown to the proportions it would have now because let's be honest...70-80% of cis straight guys talk like that... How do I know it wouldn't have led to this level of scandal? Because otherwise the journalist would have let the story as is, and left the comments in the context of the question.... He wouldn't have switched parts to make it look like Anthony had been talking about Sambucky.

Do you think "Anthony thinks guys can't hang out in bars anymore" would have made him trending worldwide? No.

And probably more so because in the context of the actual question, it could be interpreted as him saying he was uncomfortable with people shipping him with real life friends ( Sebastian). Especially his comment about the exploitation of homosexuality... in the context of the real question... that comment wasn't as misplaced.

But no, the journalist linked those answers to Sambucky in the title AND in the article, even though Anthont had said no such thing about Sambucky...except "I don't follow fandom stuff".

And I have said it before, I say it again, because of the actions of that journalist, this goes beyond shipping for me.

I really wasn't involved when the story was about shipping or about Anthony "not liking the ship"... But after listening to the audio... I was seething.

You may not understand this, but personally, I do not have a lot of Black lead characters in big movie productions to look up to... Chadwick passed away last year and we all saw what happened with John Boyega, and a Cyborg movie isn't even in the pipeline anymore.

I'm not a stan or anything, but I feel very defensive when those kind of stuff happens, because Black celebrities are held to different standards which is unfair but also a reality we have to deal with.

I'm not happy with what Anthony said, but I'm even angrier after finding out that the only reason this story got blown out of proportion is because a journalist, who apparently has a story of being unfair to Black actors framed the story and headline to be provocative, even though it could have led to the harrasement of Anthony by Internet mob or even worse, potentially hurt his career. Thankfully Anthony isn't on social media much.

It is fine that you think it shouldn't be a campaign, and I don't think it should be a campaign either... But I do think there is something to be done.

And it is fine if you want to "let it go", I understand that. That's why I said that I wanted to know what "people who want to do something about it" could do....

People who don't want to do anything about it can just ignore it... it is fine.

You are free to let the story die if you want to, but that is not something I feel comfortable doing.

I don't think I would have tried something if the post from that journalist had 1k like or anything... but the likes very very low... so we can actually do something...

Maybe it won't change anything for Anthony... but at least that journalist will think twice before villainzing another actor with no grounds to stand on...

That man knows most people only read headlines and don't even read the article, and even less are those who will aftually listen to the audio...he did this on purpose and I'm seething thinking he could keep doing this in the future because it is working... there story is getting linked everywhere.

I don't want to let it die, because when the story is already too big... it's too late... You can't do anything...I feel like the moment when you can try to do something, as this is the beginning.

Maybe what I'm doing is useless but at least I am trying something and we never know without trying....

And some other users gave great ideas like writing emails to news outlets to let them know how misleading that article was...

It might be a long shot, but it would be an even longer shot not to try anything.

I hope I made it clear, but as I said let me know if I can clarify anything.

[angeloncewas]

Wait what was the ask that Eret answered that you thinks going to cause discourse? It was about lore? This is the first time I've heard of it :0

This is the ask I'm referencing ! It only had 70 notes when I made that post so I was just guessing LOL (now it's at over 1k).

As for my prediction itself, I could very well be wrong (everyone's been good so far, I think), but it just ties into a lot of pre-existing discourse in a way that made me think it might flare up. None of that is Eret's fault or responsibility or even honestly related to them - I'm very thankful they chose to give us insight and it's really cool as a Tumblr-main - but there were certain parts that made me go uh oh.

I want to clarify right away that Eret isn't saying these things, nor do they necessarily reflect my opinion, these are just discourse topics I've seen and was reminded by with some of the ask.

1. The underappreciation of "less popular" streamers

Pretty self-explanatory; on the SMP, the people with the highest viewership tend to be considered the "main characters" and this has frustrated fans of the characters who aren't considered a part of that, as well as led to problems like that time Ponk's storyline got labeled "semi-lore" by the most popular DSMP updates account on Twitter.

"generally a process that is heavily managed by those with the largest audiences [...] that does leave people with lower average viewers more on the sidelines of the lore and unable to develop their characters"

2. Wilbur's supposed "control" of the storyline during season 1

There's an opinion (again, not mine) that Wilbur ruled the SMP with an iron fist during his time as head writer. I can't precisely echo back the opinions to you because I honestly don't remember them, but it's a lot of stuff about how he would decide things for other people even though it was meant to be a collaborative RP and sometimes they say that "head writer" is a bad position on principle, etc etc.

"before the whole Pogtopia war, I really wanted my character to have some sort of redemption arc [...] I was never involved in the preparation and planning of this event, this never ended up happening, so it kind of had to be rushed before the war which I felt was unsatisfying"

3. Current over-planning (and the way Dream and Tommy are "inconsiderate" of others)

Conversely to number two (oftentimes in direct opposition, though not always), some people argue that A) the very nature of the S2 and beyond storyline is flawed (tying into those debates about "improv" versus "scripted" lore and B) Dream and Tommy (with the disc saga and the prison arc) are domineering the storyline without any proper communication/are worse at this whole thing than Wilbur. (Again again, not my opinion. I love everyone - fandom centrist here.)

"I'm not the only one who's had ideas like this just get no attention unfortunately. [...] I do miss the early days of the DSMP lore where the majority of it was improv."

To be honest I just skimmed the ask during a 5-minute break I had and posted that it was gonna make people argue because I thought it might (we argue over everything it'd almost be weirder if it didn't), but on a base-level it's not particularly deep ! Like, I agree, Eret's answer was more than fine on its own, I just thought the fandom might start using it as ammunition.

[thewollfgang]

Hi Wolfie! Hope you're having a good day. I'm new to writing fanfiction, and I wondered if you had any tips on getting your work out there and seen by more people? I've posted a couple of works on AO3, and the people who read them seem to like them, but they quickly get buried under everything else. I enjoy what I've written and I want other people to enjoy it too, so how to get out to the fandom that it's there for the reading? Thanks!

Hello, darling. My day has been looking up. I hope you're doing well!

@ariaadagio honestly answered this better than I could, but I can tell you with my own experience that a lot of it relies on networking. My advice is, truly, make friends. Send asks, play ask games, hop on some discords.

I made my following largely on tumblr and drummed up interest in my work by filling ask prompts and from there people read my stuff over on ao3. You know how many notes my first ask game prompt fill got? 5. Now, one of my more infamous prompt fills has over 1k notes. (but we do not speak of electrician!Lucifer). Leaning into popular tropes is never a bad thing. they’re wanted for a reason and there will always be someone interested!

The bad thing about posting on busy ao3 days is that your work can get lost amongst everyone else's so PROMO THE HELL OUT OF IT. Send your stories to blogs who are open to promoting fic, like @luciferprompts and @deckerstardaily. (heck, send it to me, i'm happy to signal boost!). Post about it here, on twitter, and so on. there is NO SHAME. we are shameless, okay? slather that url everywhere you can.

And above all remember, these things take time. I've been kicking around tumblr in this fandom for yeeeears and have had time to build up followers and friends and connections with fellow writers. Don't be discouraged! Just keep working hard at improving your writing and the readers will come. Good luck!

[empyreanwritings]

To Be Lonely

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Gender Neutral!Reader (College AU)

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings: mentions of alcoholism, feelings of loneliness and anxiety

Summary: On a late night run, Bucky meets someone who actually understands how he feels.

A/N: hello friends! it has been awhile since i have posted an actual one shot, so i decided a good comeback would be my entry for @captainscanadian​ ‘s 1k writing challenge! i picked the College AU for our Buck Boi and idk where this came from, but it came from a deep place i guess aldskfjdsl i hope y’all like it!

Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated (: x

Bucky was fortunate because he never truly knew what it meant to be alone. Growing up, he always had Steve by his side. Sometimes that meant getting his ass kicked behind the school dumpsters, but at least they did that together, too. Everyone in the city knew who Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes were - two teens with charming smiles and blue eyes that could convince the older crowd into giving them just about anything. Free ice cream. Clothing that fit Bucky just right but could swallow Steve whole when he was still half his friend's size. Fresh produce to bring back to their mothers. It was always different but still a welcome perk of being the iconic duo.

When they separated for college - Steve choosing to go to an art school in California, and Bucky finding himself in the halls of Stanford - they still kept in touch, but he found solace in the friendship of his roommates.

Sam was full of sarcasm and toothy grins that made anyone around him smile too. He and Bucky had a habit of butting heads over small stuff like who left a spoon in the sink or whose turn it was to buy more milk, but they both knew they'd do anything for each other. Peter, or Quill as he preferred to be called, wasn't in their dorm often, but when he was, they always had a good time. Bucky wouldn't trust Quill to wake him up for an exam, but he knew there was no one better to go to if he was looking for a place to party for the night. The three of them were incredibly different, yet they got along just fine.

He made friends in different classes too; Wanda in his environmental biology class; Gamora, Quill's girlfriend, in his mythology class; and Scott, who he met sleeping in the stairwell behind the library one day.

Wherever Bucky went, he always had someone with him. He was never alone.

But, on nights when he felt his chest tighten and the breath catch in his throat, he couldn't understand why he always felt lonely. His mother used to remind him that being alone and being lonely were two different things, but he didn't understand how it was possible - how he could feel like he was missing something despite sitting in a room full of people.

It was another one of those nights for him. Sleep never came, and the more he tossed and turned in bed, the more frustrated he became. The only thing he could think of to get his mind off of the loneliness he felt was to go on a run, so he quickly changed into appropriate workout attire and dashed out of his apartment.

He ignored the fact that it was two in the morning and Sam, who happened to still be up studying, knew better than to ask where he was going. Sometimes the guy just needed to clear his head, and there was nothing wrong with that.

Bucky ran until his lungs burned. Every breath he took felt like glass shards in his chest, but he relished in the feeling because it distracted him from the thoughts racing through his mind. He only stopped to take a breather when black spots started to dance in the corner of his eyes, and he had the campus fountain to lean back on. The moment he sat down, he could feel his muscles practically sigh in relief, and he had to laugh. For being as fit as he was, he still had limits. What a way to remember he was human after all.

The cool spray of the fountain hit his face, and he leaned back ever so slightly to get a little bit more of it. It was incredibly refreshing; he wasn't against sitting there for hours, but he knew someone would come out and think he was high on something. High on adrenaline, maybe, but certainly not high on anything he wanted to be high on.

"I wouldn't fall asleep in that position."

Your sudden presence made Bucky jump and nearly fall into the fountain. You weren't there when he first ran up, which meant you must have stumbled upon him sitting there while he was enjoying the cool mist. The fact that he didn't hear you coming worried him. Clearly, he needed to work on becoming more aware of his surroundings.

"Speaking from experience?" He chuckled and leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. He tried to will himself to get up, but his muscles refused.

"Actually, yes," you replied with a smile. "I was so exhausted after a lab one day, I fell asleep sitting up and tumbled straight into the water. I'm pretty sure my picture is still plastered all over Twitter somewhere."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Don't be. It was hilarious."

You gestured towards the spot next to him, silently asking if you could sit there. Bucky wasn't sure why you wanted to spend time with him when you didn't know him, but he wasn't going to say no. As weird as it sounded, your presence was comforting. Made him feel like he wasn't running from something but running towards you instead.

A small smile spread across your face as you sat down. You dipped your fingers into the fountain for a moment, quietly watching the ripples grow bigger and bigger until they finally disappeared. You did this a few times before turning your attention back to Bucky. He wondered if this was something you liked to do - something that calmed you on your worst nights. He even started to feel bad because he might have stumbled on your private spot. Not that a fountain in middle of campus was entirely private, but it must be nicer at this time of night.

"Can I ask you something?" Bucky felt the heat rise in his cheeks when you turned to look at him. He wasn't sure if he should have just enjoyed the comfortable silence, but there was so much he wanted to know about you.

"Make it good," you hummed. "Cause if it's lame, I might not answer it."

He chuckled. "I just wanted to know why you were out here."

"You want an honest answer or one that makes you feel comfortable?"

"Honest."

You sighed and started to pick at the frayed edges of the hole in your jeans. It looked like you were debating on telling the truth. It wasn't as if you really owed him an honest answer. Bucky was a stranger, someone you only met because he was about to pass out. He offered you no information about himself, so why would you?

He was about to tell you to forget about it, but you started to talk and cut him off.

"My roommates are throwing a party, and they brought a lot booze. The smell was starting to get to me, and I knew I needed to get out before I relapsed," you confessed softly. "I know it sounds ridiculous given that I'm not that old, but I'm an alcoholic."

Bucky shook his head. "It's not ridiculous. And the fact that you could assess the situation and walk away means you're doing better than you probably think you are."

"I appreciate that, but it's not that impressive. I've only been sober for a few months, which my sponsor says is a good thing but sometimes it doesn't really feel like it." You ran your hands down your face and quickly gave yourself a little shake. He didn't say anything; he figured you were trying to push out all the bad thoughts. "Well. That was depressing! So, tell me, why are you out here?"

"Honest?" You nodded, and Bucky chuckled. It wasn't going to get cheerier from here. "I was running from my thoughts. Sometimes I think my brain is out to get me. Always making me feel lonelier than I should, which doesn't always seem fair. I have great friends and a supportive family, so why do I feel lonely? Why can I never go to bed feeling happy?"

Another silence fell between you two. His confession didn't seem to faze you. You respected the fact that he was as honest with you as you were with him, especially when he didn't have to be. He could have lied - told you some bullshit story about how his roommates were hooking up with each other, and he couldn't handle hearing it anymore. But he didn't. He told you his truth, and you liked that about him. You liked that you could trust him despite meeting him less than thirty minutes ago.

"Do you feel lonely right now?" You asked after a beat.

Bucky exhaled, a quick breath that almost sounded like a laugh. "Now that I think about it, no. I don't."

You smiled over at him, a genuine smile that made his entire chest feel warm.. "Neither do I."

[honeymoonjin]

Content Creator Year in Review!

now that i have finally escaped the labyrinthine 2020 i may as well go sappy for a lil bit and chat about my creations i suppooooosee.... thank you very much to the thoughtful @ttttaehyungie @kkulfm-writing @flurrys-creativity and @nightowls388 for tagging me in this xx

first creation and most recent creation of 2020:  my first creation of 2020 was my most recent creation is strawberry lemonade, which i wrote for a sapphic fic fest on twitter

one of your favorite creations from 2020:  i didn’t write many oneshots, but i have a soft spot for florezco. i love writing gentle, passionate characters, and the jimin in florezco is the epitome of that. researching it was so much fun too, and i have nothing but fond memories.

a creation you’re really proud of:  honestly, love is the warmest colour is one of my personal achievements because all the things the mc is struggling with, i was really having a hard time with when i was writing it. i poured a lot of my heart into this and it helped me process things for myself a little.

a creation that took you forever:  definitely tgm. i guess it’s kinda cheating bc it’s a longform series but i feel like if i finished it all the way it would end up taking like 2 years fkjdsfksddjfsk in terms of oneshots, strawberry lemonade took a long time. i was so rusty that sometimes it felt like pulling teeth to get words on the page. i’m so happy i powered through though.

a creation from 2020 that received the most notes:  technically my most popular 2020 post is the tgm masterlist. out of curiosity, i added all the notes for the masterlist and each chapter and bonus content (since the whole thing was written in 2020) and it’s over 27k notes isn’t that BONKERS ? tgm also currently has over 60k hits on ao3. i had never expected to even get 1k notes when i first started out in march of 2020. wow, even just working this out now makes me feel even more grateful for this lil community we fostered together and i promise i’m working really hard right now to try and find a way to bring it back <3

a creation you think deserved more notes:  because i had a lot of direct interaction with tgm (asks, reblogs, discord) i had the luxury of no longer paying attention to notes. i know everyone preaches (and i have too) about how notes don’t matter but they kinda do, in terms of feeling like your hard work is being received with warmth. i do wish strawberry lemonade would get more notes but i’m unsurprised since it’s not the usual fic you’d find here, and i was inactive for so long. i know it’ll take time to build a regularly interacting community again like i had with tgm.

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it:  ...crickets

a creation you made that breaks your heart:  tgm. always tgm. i feel so unsatisfied with myself for not finishing it. i miss the days i was updating weekly like crazy. isn’t it weird that i could update a 10k chapter each week while working and being in uni, but now i’m graduated and unemployed and i spend a whole day on 1k? fksdjfkds madness luv

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love:  honestly, i really loved making the tgm bonus contents. the social dummy app is a lot of fun and it was nice getting to kinda play in that world without having to pay attention to the grand arcs of the plot and stuff.

a creation that was inspired by another one:  almost all of my oneshots have been inspired by the art style of ghibli movies. it’s that magical realism, the wonderful mixed in with the ordinary, the love given to the smallest of details. whenever i write, i’m picturing my story in that aesthetic.

a favorite creation created by someone else:  this is so hard trying to choose just one but it’ll have to be The Songbird and the Sea by maia_archives. this fic is literally so good that it is now PUBLISHED (or at least available as a fiction ebook w name changes i believe) and there is even a sequel which i haven’t gotten too yet bc i’m putting off rereading the first one as long as possible so that it feels like the first time again THATS how much i adore this fic. i don’t think i’ve read any piece of fiction better executed than this. it literally does every genre better than anyone. it does the pirate au better than potc, it does slowburn better than pride and prejudice, it does worldbuilding better than jules verne, i cannot praise it enough.

some of your favorite content creators from the year:  on the home soil: my best girls @dreamyhan @hongism @baekhyyun @wintertae @sope-and-shine @ironicarmy @minjoonalist and my absolute role model @joopiterjoon (i’m sorry for not putting down more, i really have not read on tumblr at all this year) on ao3: annie_vi, Arobeebee, GinForInk, minverse, SugarAndMint, Lilithgirl, moonflower1306, tendershipping, Only_A_Fangirl, maia_archives, elle_O_moonchild, jjks, spudcity

and for good measure, another couple more creations of yours that you love:  my guy if i actually posted more things in 2020 maybe i could list them here

tagging:  the people i have tagged above, as well as anyone who sees this and wishes to do it! please tag me so i can read about your marvelous creations ;;-;

[daybreakx]

➵ accidental confession + spiderman! yunho x reader.

➵ warnings: reader is in danger for a bit.

➵ wc: 1k+

a/n: this wasn’t requested as a spiderman au but I couldn’t help it, I hope you don’t mind @ajusquishy🥺

Also unrelated but I had the longest déjà vu while writing this, I freaked out. 

Yunho was a smart kid, and he was smart as much as he was clumsy and had his head in the clouds. The worst part of it all was that becoming Spiderman didn’t change any of that at all. He would usually stop crime and do all of these heroic acts, but he’d also get tangled in his own web quite often, and forget he had homework for Spanish class frequently.

But he knew he shouldn’t take it in that direction, he already had too much on his mind, and as cliché as it seemed—because he’d seen it in movies over and over again—he knew that whoever went after Spiderman, would go after you if they found out who you were, and how much you meant to him. 

“Watcha doing?” Yunho asked, leaning over your shoulder, something easy for him, to look at what you had between your hands.

“Just scrolling through some news,” you replied absentmindedly, your phone open on a Twitter thread.

“Spiderman again?” he questioned with a sigh, “What’s got you so obsessed with him?”

Locking your phone you looked at Yunho, “I am not obsessed. It just makes me wonder, who would put themselves in danger on purpose like this?” 

Locking your phone you looked at Yunho, “I am not obsessed. It just makes me wonder, who would put themselves in danger on purpose like this?” 

Locking your phone you looked at Yunho, “I am not obsessed. It just makes me wonder, who would put themselves in danger on purpose like this?” 

“He’s just trying to do the right thing, I guess?” Yunho shrugged, “With all them special abilities and...stuff.”

“Why don’t you like him?” you laughed, raising both eyebrows at the dark haired boy.

“What? I never said I don’t like him,” he shook his head, feeling his face heat up. “He just has enough attention already, don’t you think?”

“If you say so,” you conveyed. It was best not to argue with Yunho about Spider-Man, he always seemed to avoid the subject. “You’re coming to my house tonight, right? I really need your help with that chemistry thing.”

“Totally, but you have to order pizza,” Yunho ruffled your hair, a soft smile on his lips. 

“Deal. See you tonight.” you tiptoed to kiss his cheek, before walking away and leaving Yunho a blushing mess, per usual.

🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️

Chaos was something usual in town, and you kind of hated it. There wasn’t a day something strange, bad or dangerous happened, you didn’t blame Spider-man for it like many people did, but you did agree that he was a bit chaotic himself, which was what sparked the curiosity that seemed to bother Yunho so much.

That day was no different than any other, as you walked down the street on your way to the subway, all hell broke loose. Police sirens could be heard from blocks away, people ran in every direction, not knowing where exactly they would be safe, and then he came in swinging from one of those strange webs, following the police cars from above. 

You followed the tumult, instead of going the other way, not a smart decision, but you couldn’t help yourself as you looked up at the guy in the red suit, jumping from one building to another. You noticed the truck they were all after, the big OSCORP letters on one side of it.

Everything ended as fast as it started, you saw Spider-man struggling with the driver of the truck, until it finally crashed against a building, smoke coming out the engine immediately. The problem were the cars chasing after it, unable to stop in time to avoid a pile-up.

“Watch out!” you screamed at another of the bystanders, in the way of the spinning car. A boy younger than you, with a spiderman mask made out of cardboard hanging from his neck. Without hesitation you ran to him, pushing him out of the way with as much strength as you could, scraping your hands and knees as you fell to the pavement, the boy out of the way of the car, but you in his place now.

All you did was close your eyes, waiting for the hit, but instead you were violently lifted off the ground, one arm firmly wrapped around you causing a pang of pain in your ribs. Not without a squeal of surprise, you wrapped your arms and legs around him quickly, as he swung to the roof of an adjacent building.

Spiderman landed dramatically with you still attached to him, a little nauseous after the trip. He let you go, his hands recoiling like touching you had burnt him before he took them to his face, pacing back and forth and muttering under his breath, his voice proggresively getting louder.

“What is wrong with you?!” he yelled at last, facing you.

“I jus—”

“who would put themselves in danger on purpose like this?!” the boy in the costume huffed, “Where is all that nonsense now? You’re going to be the death of me!”

Your jaw dropped at his words, staring at him pacing around the roof. “Wha–”

Before he could think through what he was doing, he ripped the mask off his head. Yunho looked at you, an expression unfamiliar to you installed on his features.

“Why did you do that?!” he repeated, looking genuinely distressed. “This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen, but I had to fall in love with you! I’m so stup-!” he stopped midsentence, the whole situation finally falling over him “Oh, my god.”

“Yunho, what the hell?” you covered your mouth with both hands, as you took swift steps towards him.  

Yunho sighed, taking his hands up to his face again before fidgeting with the mask between them, ready to put it back on. 

“Don’t you dare put that thing on again!” you touched his face gently, noticing the small cut on his cheekbone. “Are you really in love with me?”

He winced. “I’m the only dumbass who reveals both his deepest secrets in less than thirty seconds, aren’t I?” 

“I’m in love with you too,” you chuckled, making him look back at you.

Yunho frowned, “Is this because I’m Spider-Man? Because-”

You laughed a little harder this time. “It’s because you’re Jeong Yunho,and you’re funny and good-natured, and smart, although—yes, you’re kind of a dork at the same time.”

“Really?” a blush spread over his cheks as he made eye contact with you. 

“Plus, you’re Spider-man so, I guess it’s the whole package.” You joked, eyes lowering to the fistful that was his mask. 

Yunho shook his head, taking the hand that still rested on his cheek and folding it between his. “I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Well do it, you saved my life after all.” you smiled.

He grabbed your cheeks firmly, pouring down all of his emotions into the kiss that he gave you. He almost lost you, he revealed that he was Spider-man and he confessed his feelings for you in the last half-hour, the boy was overwhelmed.

Yunho pressed your body against his like he wanted them to become one while his lips touched your mouth gently, time and time again. Little pecks that soon wandered to your cold cheeks and temples. It was at that moment that he swore to himself he would never let anything happen to you, he’d rather die.

“You’re still going to help me with chemistry, right?” you whispered as he kept his forehead against yours.

Yunho laughed, finally putting the mask back on. “Of course, that’s just another way of saving your life.”

🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️​

[janiedean]

Is it bad that I really enjoyed reading the kinda fandom history/fanw*nk history posts abt j*nsa? XD Tbf I'm also a bit addicted to fanlore articles. XD Anyway I think in the tags of one post you mentioned j*imexs*nsa starting as an antijb thing? Would you mind elaborating on that? Sounds like an interesting, albeit bonkers, story, too.

dw I don't think it's bad I mean... we all enjoy catching up on wank we weren't part of (and my friends the things I could tell you abt spn fandom or when I was around at the sidelines for the worst rpf fic ever..) but anyway *deep breath* SURE THING LET'S SAY IT I mean....... it's not like it hasn't been years and I can talk abt it so whatevs, under the cut because reasons, also I'm saying now that a lot of this was what I deduced from circumstances and you've got to take my word for it unless someone who was around then remembers it and can confirm my impressions bc it was a lot less obvious than the j*nsa stuff

but going from the premises again:

I got a tumblr in like may 2011, read asoiaf june-july of that year, started being active on the tags around august-september 2011 so it was before S2 aired and 95% of the people that were bnfs/around then aren't on tumblr anymore/are here rarely these days so you've gotta take me at face value

in the main asoiaf bnf group there was this one jc shipper who like... I mean she's still active on twt and blocks everyone shipping jb on sight but good bc let's just say she's a piece of work not to mention that she spent months/years writing meta abt how jb was like fanfic stuff and had no book basis and how if you liked j but not c you were a misogynists which was wildly popular

I would like to add that person is basically... let's say everyone in jb fandom who ever got harassed knows exactly who I'm talking about and I'll leave it at that and was not for ship and let ship let's put it like that

so basically this person was on my dash bc I followed ppl who followed her and I saw a lot of jaimes*nsa stuff from her

in the sense that like... she was doing with it what I did with jonc/brynden back in the day when I was wanting to convince the world they were the crackship that was promised as in posting abt it/spamming it/discussing how it made canon sense/more canon sense than jb anyway and the likes, and like there was a fairly numerous amount of stuff for that ship back in the day - like before S2-3 aired jaimes*nsa had pretty high fic numbers/fanwork numbers considering that in canon they haven't interacted once

and that went hand in hand with keeping on trying to burn ground around jb before S2 aired/before they met in canon with that meta

and like... it's not like it started as an antijb thing in itself bc I'm sure that there must have been someone into it before the show aired same as there were ppl who as I was reminded lately wrote brienne/loras hatesex and so on, but the explosion which was during S1-3 (then it lost a bit of traction I think mostly bc jb exploded and sansa/tyrion happened on the show and the ppl involved kind of went more on twitter and didn't produce that much content anymore tho it still has numbers™) was also continuously fanned by person above + her followers who most likely were like... genuinely into it but again the antijb meta was around quite enough at the same time, so

also like... let's just say that back in the day I was the main t*robb ship contributor and I also wrote jb though less but jb was smaller as a fandom so I did post when the ao3 tag was at like... 30 fics or smth so I separately had my foot in both ponds and like until S3-S4 any t*robb fic where jb was the sideship would get tangentially less views/reviews than ones where they were not which in itself wouldn't be a problem bc obviously maybe ppl wouldn't ship one of them, but then there was this uuuh specific case

where someone who followed me for the t*robb who also followed her at some point asked me in private if a 22k t*robb fic that was the sequel to... my most famous/popular jb one let's put like that had a lot of jb in it because they were die hard jc people and it was triggering to them (which... I mean fair enough but in retrospective using that term instead of 'you know I really don't vibe with jb and I'd rather not read it' felt a bit like they were trying to guilt trip me ngl), I said that they showed up together in two scenes and were in the background and at most it was 1k worth of fic and the answer was that it was way too much so they were going to have to skip and like again their prerogative but idk that conversation kind of left me like is this some kind of roundabout way to say that it'd be better if I didn't sideship them? idk but until S3-4 I had the distinct feeling that at least for my own stuff having both ships together meant less readers and ngl I didn't update the infamous t*robb wip fic for a year because I was planning to make jb fairly prominent as a sideship there and I was there like 'oh god what if I get wank over it' and I didn't but again I would like to state it wasn't just because of one person, it was... the general atmosphere that seemed unfriendly unless you stayed on the jb tag/kept both separate

and I would like to add that the moment S3 happened and it sailed anyway bc it was going to was when the targeted harassing of anyone who was active on the tag started ssssso :|

basically like... I have a lot less evidence to go on re ^^^^ than the j*nsa stuff because that is well-documented the rest is my very humble opinion about the background of when j*aimesansa started getting popular but like it also was v. prominent in between jc people (same with the jcsansa threesomes) who were also following that person - I would like to also add that a bunch of ppl who shipped both were absolutely lovely and nice to interact with in other situations and not harassing anyone about it and again nothing against ppl into it as a thing but the moment of its peak was in conjuncture to the burning ground around jb moment driven by that specific person so *shrug*