#we really should be grateful to older fandom goers

[ashdumpsterpile]

I wanna talk about my fandom experiences on this site.

I joined tumblr somewhere around 2013-2014. I’d have been around 14-15 years old at the time. I had already been reading fanfiction for five years (I was 10 when I started I think) and had cycled through The Lion King 2, Harry Potter, Thor and Doctor Who, before landing on How To Train Your Dragon. I was reading a fic on fanfiction.net that linked the author’s tumblr bio in the A/N and that’s how I discovered tumblr.

I didn’t get an account for almost a year, but I would log on every day to see what my favorite author posted. She was 25+ (I think), married, and trying for kids. I believe by the time I moved on from HTTYD, she did end up having them. I would log onto anon almost every day to leave her messages on how much I loved her writing.

I’m not going to name who she is--even though she’s moved on from tumblr--but she made a huge impact on my life and influenced how I view fandom. She received a ton of anon hate, but handled it graciously. People came at her over the fact she was older, wrote adult content, wanted kids, had a few miscarriages, etc and she still was the most gracious person I ever observed.

Through her interactions with mutuals and other fandom blogs, I discovered other HTTYD blogs (still not naming any names, as most of them are still active). By this time I had moved onto the MLB fandom, which was just starting to get it’s roots.

After an awkward interaction with an author on AO3, where I begged for an update on a fic I loved and the author (rightfully) exploded on me, I went to a well-known HTTYD blog (a person who is 25+ btw) that I liked and respected and--on anon--asked what I had done wrong.

This person was well within their right to tear me apart, but this person kindly explained my error. I went back to the author on AO3 and apologized profusely. Three years later, when I was writing fic of my own and experienced younger readers treating me as I treated the one author, I remembered how kind the one tumblr account was to me.

This fandom blog that corrected my error and compassionately explained why I was in the wrong, is also someone who has received a lot of anon hate over the years. They’ve always pushed themselves forward, kept their inbox open, and continued to interact with those on anon. I have so much respect for them because they’ve put up with so much shit here, and still continue to be an active part of their fandom.

In the Doctor Who fandom, I followed a tumblr blog who not only was 30+ and with children, but who was an actual author (like I’ve purchased her shit from Barnes and Noble). She humored all of my asks, was kind in every interaction (anon and otherwise), and introduced me to new fandoms that I’m still a part of.

None of these people are even in the age bracket of 40+, but they are what you younger fandom goers view as “old people.” Recently, in my inbox, I’ve received a lot of hate for 40+ Tumblr blogs. I’ve also been “accused” of lying about my age and being 40+ myself because I “defend them so adamantly.”

My defense is strong because I was treated with kindness and compassion by older fandom members. I value them because they are good people. You don’t stop being interested in x fandom just because you have kids or turn 25, 30, 40 or have a career.

And FYI, these fandoms that you hate-anons are a part of-- the ones that you shame 40+ year olds for being in--are created by people who are 40+. Your content isn’t created by teenagers.

We should value older members in our fandom. They are the ones who have paved the way for us. They are the one’s running AO3. They are the ones running ComicCon. They are the ones graciously continuing to create content (for free!!) for you younger members.

Sadly, most of you won’t understand, or agree with me, until you hit a certain age and realize that you’re still interested in x fandom and you have kids/a career/etc. You’re going to find yourself in a position where you regret who you were as a teenager/young adult and how you treated those around you.

I was fortunate enough to be in a space where I was allowed to grow beyond my shortcomings and broaden my perspective. I only hope the rest of you will be able to do the same.

I hear you when you talk about p*dos on this site. I have zero interactions with these people. I have never met a p*do here. That’s a topic I don’t like to touch with a ten-foot-pole as someone who’s been a victim of such things IRL. Which is also none of your business btw, but I feel like is worth noting.

If there are any 40+ (or any age but that's the one the anons are so set on) p*dos on this site, then I’m 100% behind you on the fact that they’re creepy and don’t belong here. Let’s please remember to not generalize every person above a certain age as a p*do, however.

We are a community that should strive to protect and uplift each other, but it’s not my responsibility to protect minors on this site, it’s a courtesy for me to tag my shit as sensitive content, and I will not fall victim to purity culture as many others have.

If you are a minor interacting with my blog, you are not my responsibility and I would prefer not to interact if possible. However, if you come in good faith, onto anon, and start an interaction with me, I will strive to be like the older members on tumblr who were kind to me.

Let’s please continue to value what older fandom members have done for us. <3

[invisibleinorange]

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Bridgerton Rating: T Warnings: Presumed Character Death Relationships: Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington,  Eloise Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington(besties),  Bridgerton Family Dynamics, Simon Hastings/Daphne Bridgerton Characters: Colin Bridgerton,  Penelope Featherington, Eloise Bridgerton, Anthony Featherington,  Benedict Bridgerton,  Daphne Featherington, Simon Hastings, Portia Featherington Additional Tags:  Bridgerton, Polin Summary:  Unexpected bad news arrives for the Bridgerton Family (and friends) regarding Colin's travels. This will be a series that is set after "The Duke and I" or season one of the show. It is a companion piece to "Goodbyes". (#I’mHereToKillYouAllWithFeels)

While Anthony was absorbed in ensuring the women in their family were saw after, he’d asked Benedict to see to it that Penelope Featherington was returned safely home.

Penelope could scarcely speak much less utter how absolutely wrecked she was about the loss of their brother when she was left at her door step.  If they had allowed her, she probably wouldn’t have left. She was far better off useless there than alone with her own thoughts.

Her mother was waiting like the viper she was. Penelope wasn’t certain she had the strength to fight her off either.

“Since when do you get escorted home by Bridgertons?” her mother asked. There was something implied there like it would have been perfectly acceptable had it been one of her sisters.  “You could at least attempt to look happy about it.”

“Their brother just died,” Penelope found herself snapping.

“Not Anthony!  He would have been perfect for your sister,”  Portia dared to say, which only served to magnify the hurt and anger building up in Penelope. Penelope was used to bottling things up, taking everything on the chin but tonight wasn’t the night.

“No,” she argued, biting her lip enough to where it was close to drawing blood.  She didn’t want to be insolent but this was hardly a time to care about the next social season or making matches in the time between.

“Oh thank Heavens,” Portia said clearly not picking up on the fact that Penelope was actually quite distressed.

“It was Colin,” she said, voice shaking with force at the words.  She was one mere seconds from collapsing in on herself.

“Oh the one you have that silly little crush on. The fool who almost married Miss Thompson,” Portia said as if the first part was public information.  Penelope was in such shock that her mother had even  noticed such a thing that mouth hung open slightly.  She wasn’t prepared for the hurtful words that would come next. “You need not worry, Penelope darling.   He would have never married you anyways. Those books really have rotted your mind.”

It was an absolute slap in the face.  Her veins filled with ice and the slight from her own family. She was painfully aware that she wasn’t as pretty as the other eligible women of the Ton.  It was one thing to know and another to have it spelled out in front of her quite so ineloquently.  The fact that her mother could see her heart breaking and not even try to offer some sympathy was unacceptable.  She was almost grateful for the fact she’d never marry or have children, just so she didn’t have to worry about being as unfeeling as her own mother.

“You need not worry,” she uttered, storming away.

--

There was one thing that Benedict and Anthony agreed upon: the letter could never see the light of day. They couldn’t bring themselves to destroy it though so it was hide it away in a desk with other important paperwork.

The only real question that kept them up in the night was what they were to do about the problem reading it presented.

Colin was young and perhaps not as direct with his wishes as he might have been had he been a few years older but they could read between the lines.  The very wishes Colin expressed toward Penelope would never come to pass unless they saw it fit to carry them out.

They could not agree upon who would be the one to take it upon themselves to ensure she was protected, loved.  Neither fully desired to marry and certainly not a Featherington.  Neither particularly saw the things that their brother did in the girl but there was no denying she had a good heart.  As often as she had been at their home through the years, she might as well have been their sister.

When Daphne and Simon forced their way into the drawing room, the brothers were still arguing amongst themselves over who must do it when the proper mourning period was over.

“What exactly are you not going to allow him to do?” she couldn’t help but ask as she approached, her pregnant belly scarcely hidden by her dress.  She looked well even if it was clear that she hadn’t slept in order to hasten the journey home.  From the look on the Duke’s face, he hadn’t been on board but had been forced.

“Nothing,” the two brothers said almost in unison, greeting their sister with hugs.

“I don’t buy that.”

“You shouldn’t be out of bed,” Anthony said, protective act in full force as he gazed over her before looking at the Duke as if to accuse him of not having a better grip on his own wife.

“Don’t look at me. You know Daphne is of her own mind,” he said with a shrug.

“I only obey when the order makes sense and I’m pregnant not an invalid. I insisted we come as soon as we received word.”

She seemed to have it together far better than anyone else in the family which was almost remarkable, considering she and Colin were close in age and had always been the best of friends.

Perhaps it was all an act though because the Duke had threatened to lock her up should even the slightest hint of distress appear after a lengthy meltdown demanding he order up the carriages ended in his compliance.

“We’re grateful to have you closer to home,” Anthony finally said. “I’m not sure that mother will be able to properly handle planning his rites. I contacted Francesca and she should be home soon as well. ”

There was not body to properly put on display but a coffin would be order and filled to brim with flowers.  It would sit in the drawing room where they might welcome mourners. Someone must be with it day and night though and that was a job fit for a woman.

With their mother crushed and Daphne’s delicate condition, it was likely Eloise and Francesca would be left with most of the watch. She knew there would be no stopping Daphne from taking up the watch some of the time though or helping to ensure Colin had a fitting wake.  Then there was the small matter of tokens for funeral goers.  All would have be completed.

There would be an actual funeral but it wouldn’t be acceptable for any of the women to attend.  That would fall on Anthony, Benedict and Gregory.  They would get through it though somehow.

“I’ll make a list,”  Daphne uttered, throwing herself head first into the work of it.  This was how she was going to survive this moment. She moved toward the desk, going into find unused parchment.  Without sleep Anthony wasn’t thinking properly enough to know that was where they’d hidden the ghastly letter.

It was only once she was in there and Benedict elbowed him hard that he saw fit to remember and he knew it was too late.

“What’s this?” she asked as she spotted the handwriting under the blank paper pulling it up.  Her brown eyes narrowed as she began to read it. She gazed up from the words, feeling she’d violated her deceased brother’s privacy for having even read them. She wanted to ask if the others had seen it but one look told her that she had two brothers who knew full well about this.  

The last time she’d spoken one on one with her brother, he’d been so besotted by Marina Thompson that she wasn’t sure that he would ever get over her betrayal.  Clearly, she had not known her brother as well as she thought that she had.  The words on the paper broke her heart.  Her brother had died not fully knowing just how deserving of love he was.

“What did they do?” the Duke couldn’t help but ask, reaching to grab the paper from his wife and glancing it over.   He could pick up on the distress on his wife’s face and he was fully prepared to give Anthony a black eye over it.  This was already an unacceptable situation but if they’d done anything to add to the situation, he was going to be furious. At the moment, he wasn’t quite connecting the dots though.

“How could you?” their sister berated. It was clear the distress they’d hoped to avoid had arrived.  “I sincerely hope that I am wrong about the fact you have hidden this letter from its intended recipient.”

“It would crush her,” Benedict argued.

“It’s not your place,” Daphne argued right back.

“It is our place. Her well-being is our problem now and we won’t have this on our conscious. What good would it do her?” Anthony argued right on back, knowing full-well Daphne would win this argument. She always did.

“She deserves to know,” she told them, fury clearly written on her face.

The Duke was pretty clear from looking at her that he wouldn’t have to be the one throwing the punches. Daphne would be the one doing it, if he didn’t stop her.  He moved a little closer just in case he had needed to hold her back.

“Tell who, what?” a voice asked from the door.

All eyes turned to the tired, somber face of Eloise who had heard the arguing and decided to see what exactly was going on.

Anthony and Benedict gave pleading looks to Daphne to not tell their younger sister.  They might be able to bury this letter with her knowing but not Eloise.

Daphne clearly didn’t heed the warning. She narrowed their eyes at them before grabbing the letter back from her husband, crossing the room and extending it to her younger sister.

“I’ll leave the massacre of our idiotic brothers to you,” Daphne uttered before moving out of the room just as quickly as she’d arrived.  The Duke offered a sympathetic look to Anthony and Benedict before following after his wife.

[notasiren21]

Let’s just kindly blow this the fuck up and let it be seen.

Ash is right, a lot of our content IS made by 30-40+ year olds and yet so many of their viewers disregard that and bash fan writers and artists for making content when they could very well be within the same age group as the creator of X show or story.

Speaking personally, Ash is my best friend and I’ve FaceTimed her and been on calls with her. We’ve snapchatted and we sometimes spend nights texting back and forth about story ideas or random stuff people in their early 20s talk about.

She talks like a 40+ year old, you say anon? Lmao, you’ve clearly never seen our text exchanges where you’d believe you’re reading two teenagers who are drunk as hell and thinking they figured out the universe with our dumbassery.

Let’s not forget that sometimes, these older content creators are just what the younger generation of fans need.

They’ve seen shit, they’ve experienced and done shit.

They’ll probably know more about healthy and toxic relationships than a high schooler will most times and they’ll address it in their stories. They’ll give you the run down on having kids in a fanfic because they most likely do have kids and have gone through it all. They’ll write depression and the rebuilding of a character because they’ve probably gone through the trauma of it quite a bit.

If anything, I consider the “older” generation in our fandoms to be the most grounding part of the community. They’ll tell it like it is and they’re keeping you from seeing the world with rose colored glasses.

And honestly, if one is about to have a kid or hit past 25+, does that mean you instantly can’t be a part of your community anymore?

As someone who has given it a lot of though and hits baby fever so much even for my young age, I’ve realized I would probably still be writing fanfic if I was a mother or older.

Why? Because it makes me happy. It’s my coping mechanism when the world becomes too much and I need to exert my negative thoughts and feelings into a character and then make them feel better so I can.

Everyone who reads my work makes remarks about my angst and dark themes, but y’all realize it’s a legitimate part of me I’m letting you all feel right? Nothing is feigned there.

Heartbreak, betrayal, depression, anxiety, to be overwhelmed, to be unheard or talked over, to witness death or show up too late and be met with a lifeless body- I’ve fucking seen it and felt it.

There’s a good chance a lot of the most riveting fanfic you’re reading is very well written by a 25+ year old because they’ve seen so much and they’re willing to share it and show you, “Look, this is how you can overcome this.” “Look, this is the reality of it.”

Just because someone that is 25+ is in a fandom that is either a cartoon or aimed at a younger audience, it doesn’t make them perverse or worse. It either appealed to them, or they’re correcting all the wrong messages the younger generation will get because sometimes? They do know better.

Ash is older than me, yea. But like 2-3 years. And sometimes you can’t even tell since we act comfortably when talking. Half the time, I forget I’m the younger one because of the stupid and funny shit she says.

But she shouldn’t have to defend herself or her age on here where we can be an unrestrained version of ourselves behind random profile pics. She shouldn’t have to consider resorting to positing a pic of herself to prove it. This girl has sent me some stupid shit with her face in the videos -one time, literally her screaming about a little fan she got with such excitement.

But she shouldn’t have to post it or deviate from her online personality to prove what I’m saying.

If her words mean nothing than at least listen to mine when I say to back off and stop making assumptions of others. And for the love of god, don’t you dare shame those beyond the age of 25 for loving a fandom as well. Like Ash said, large majority of the shows or comics or whatever is created by people older than us, why do we feel the need to decide who can be a fan and who can’t?

I wanna talk about my fandom experiences on this site.

I joined tumblr somewhere around 2013-2014. I’d have been around 14-15 years old at the time. I had already been reading fanfiction for five years (I was 10 when I started I think) and had cycled through The Lion King 2, Harry Potter, Thor and Doctor Who, before landing on How To Train Your Dragon. I was reading a fic on fanfiction.net that linked the author’s tumblr bio in the A/N and that’s how I discovered tumblr.

I didn’t get an account for almost a year, but I would log on every day to see what my favorite author posted. She was 25+ (I think), married, and trying for kids. I believe by the time I moved on from HTTYD, she did end up having them. I would log onto anon almost every day to leave her messages on how much I loved her writing.

I’m not going to name who she is--even though she’s moved on from tumblr--but she made a huge impact on my life and influenced how I view fandom. She received a ton of anon hate, but handled it graciously. People came at her over the fact she was older, wrote adult content, wanted kids, had a few miscarriages, etc and she still was the most gracious person I ever observed.

Through her interactions with mutuals and other fandom blogs, I discovered other HTTYD blogs (still not naming any names, as most of them are still active). By this time I had moved onto the MLB fandom, which was just starting to get it’s roots.

After an awkward interaction with an author on AO3, where I begged for an update on a fic I loved and the author (rightfully) exploded on me, I went to a well-known HTTYD blog (a person who is 25+ btw) that I liked and respected and--on anon--asked what I had done wrong.

This person was well within their right to tear me apart, but this person kindly explained my error. I went back to the author on AO3 and apologized profusely. Three years later, when I was writing fic of my own and experienced younger readers treating me as I treated the one author, I remembered how kind the one tumblr account was to me.

This fandom blog that corrected my error and compassionately explained why I was in the wrong, is also someone who has received a lot of anon hate over the years. They’ve always pushed themselves forward, kept their inbox open, and continued to interact with those on anon. I have so much respect for them because they’ve put up with so much shit here, and still continue to be an active part of their fandom.

In the Doctor Who fandom, I followed a tumblr blog who not only was 30+ and with children, but who was an actual author (like I’ve purchased her shit from Barnes and Noble). She humored all of my asks, was kind in every interaction (anon and otherwise), and introduced me to new fandoms that I’m still a part of.

None of these people are even in the age bracket of 40+, but they are what you younger fandom goers view as “old people.” Recently, in my inbox, I’ve received a lot of hate for 40+ Tumblr blogs. I’ve also been “accused” of lying about my age and being 40+ myself because I “defend them so adamantly.”

My defense is strong because I was treated with kindness and compassion by older fandom members. I value them because they are good people. You don’t stop being interested in x fandom just because you have kids or turn 25, 30, 40 or have a career.

And FYI, these fandoms that you hate-anons are a part of-- the ones that you shame 40+ year olds for being in--are created by people who are 40+. Your content isn’t created by teenagers.

We should value older members in our fandom. They are the ones who have paved the way for us. They are the one’s running AO3. They are the ones running ComicCon. They are the ones graciously continuing to create content (for free!!) for you younger members.

Sadly, most of you won’t understand, or agree with me, until you hit a certain age and realize that you’re still interested in x fandom and you have kids/a career/etc. You’re going to find yourself in a position where you regret who you were as a teenager/young adult and how you treated those around you.

I was fortunate enough to be in a space where I was allowed to grow beyond my shortcomings and broaden my perspective. I only hope the rest of you will be able to do the same.

I hear you when you talk about p*dos on this site. I have zero interactions with these people. I have never met a p*do here. That’s a topic I don’t like to touch with a ten-foot-pole as someone who’s been a victim of such things IRL. Which is also none of your business btw, but I feel like is worth noting.

If there are any 40+ (or any age but that's the one the anons are so set on) p*dos on this site, then I’m 100% behind you on the fact that they’re creepy and don’t belong here. Let’s please remember to not generalize every person above a certain age as a p*do, however.

We are a community that should strive to protect and uplift each other, but it’s not my responsibility to protect minors on this site, it’s a courtesy for me to tag my shit as sensitive content, and I will not fall victim to purity culture as many others have.

If you are a minor interacting with my blog, you are not my responsibility and I would prefer not to interact if possible. However, if you come in good faith, onto anon, and start an interaction with me, I will strive to be like the older members on tumblr who were kind to me.

Let’s please continue to value what older fandom members have done for us. <3