#when you decide to contribute to a fandom you also have to give up your ego

[sofya-fanfics]

I Would Have Preferred To Spend Valentine's Day With You

Fandom : Ranma ½

Relationship : Ranma x Akane

My Year of the OTP 2025 contribution for the prompt : Valentine’s Day.

I’m sorry for the mistakes, English is not my native language. I hope you like it.

Summary : Akane took the chocolates out of the fridge and smiled. They were finally ready. She had been studying this recipe for several days. She had even asked Kasumi to help her and she was proud of the result. She was impatient to give them to Ranma.

Disclaimer : Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

@yearoftheotpevent

AO3 / FF.NET

Akane took the chocolates out of the fridge and smiled. They were finally ready. She had been studying this recipe for several days. She had even asked Kasumi to help her and she was proud of the result. She put them in a small light blue bag and closed it with a dark blue bow. She had not tasted them, for once she was sure she had succeeded. She was impatient to give them to Ranma.

She took her bag, left the kitchen and headed for the dojo. She had heard him say that he wanted to train. She entered the dojo, but he was not there. Akane frowned. Had she been in the kitchen for so long ? Usually, she had to force him out of the dojo to stop training. She went back into the house and passed Kasumi who was carrying the laundry basket.

“Do you know where Ranma is ?”

“Are your chocolates ready ? Are you going to give them to him ?”

Akane blushed and shook her head violently.

“That's not why I want to see him !”

Kasumi smiled affectionately at her.

“I asked him if he could take a book back to Doctor Tofu for me. He shouldn't be long.”

She headed out to the garden to hang out the laundry. Akane smiled, she could meet Ranma halfway and give him her chocolates. At least there would not be the family watching them. That was a much better idea, she thought.

She made her way to Doctor Tofu's office, but she did not run into Ranma. The doctor had told her that he had taken the book back to him and that he had left. She looked at the time and noticed that it was past noon. She sighed. She should have known that if he did not eat at home, he would have lunch at Ucchan. And since it was Valentine's Day, she was sure Ukyo would try to keep him by stuffing him with heart-shaped okonomiyakis. And Ranma loved her okonomiyakis too much to refuse.

She made her way to Ucchan. She was almost there when she saw the door to the restaurant explode and Kodachi come out laughing. She left, calling out “Ranma-sama !” and leaving black rose petals behind her. Ukyo came out, holding her giant spatula, ready to fight Kodachi who was already far away.

“Ukyo, are you okay ?”

Even though she was also engaged to Ranma, Akane considered her a friend despite their rivalry.

“She almost blew up my restaurant and scared Ran-chan away !”

She went back into the restaurant and Akane followed her. She opened her eyes wide when she saw the room that looked like a real battlefield. The chairs and tables were overturned and there were black rose petals absolutely everywhere.

“It's going to take me hours to tidy everything up,” Ukyo said on the verge of tears. “I'm never going to be able to open today.”

“I'll help you.”

Akane would feel guilty if she left her to fend for herself in this mess. She would give Ranma her chocolates later.

******

Akane left the Ucchan after helping Ukyo put everything back in place. If she had not been there, poor Ukyo would have taken all day. To thank her, she had offered okonomiyakis for her and her family, not forgetting the heart-shaped one for “Ran-chan”.

Akane walked a little further down a few streets. She had just seen Ranma in the distance, who had transformed into a girl and was being chased by Kuno who was holding a huge bouquet of roses. She decided it was time to go home. She sighed, disappointed. She had not been able to give him her chocolates, but at least she would be able to when he would come back for dinner. Valentine's Day would not be over yet. She dawdled downtown for a bit, looking at the shop windows. Then, she went through the park to go home. That was when she saw Ranma with Shampoo. She did not see any good coming of all this. She got closer and she heard Ranma saying :

“Shampoo, I love you.”

“Airen, me being so happy !”

Shampoo threw herself into his arms. Akane felt tears well up in her eyes. He had told Shampoo that he loved her ! That sentence echoed in her head. She thought she was going to be sick.

“Ranma !” She exclaimed.

He turned to her, looking both guilty and terrified. He managed to free himself from Shampoo's grip. Akane did not know whether to burst into tears or burst into anger.

“Akane, it's not what you think !”

She turned on her heel and walked away. She did not want to listen to him. He loved Shampoo, she had heard it clearly.

“Akane, I love you !”

She looked at him, furious. Ranma put his hands over his mouth and blushed.

“You're making fun of me,” she said. “Ranma no baka !”

She punched him hard, sending him flying. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She ran away.

******

Akane was sitting on the roof of her house, her legs curled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees. She could not stop thinking about what had happened with Ranma. She had never been so hurt. She glanced at the bag of chocolate she had placed next to her. She did not know why she had not thrown it away. She buried her face in her knees, feeling her tears well up again.

“Is this where you were hiding ? I’ve been looking for you for hours.”

“Go away, Ranma.”

She did not want him to see how hurt she had been.

“You got mad before I could explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain.”

“You are as stubborn as a mule.”

She heard him sit down next to her, but she refused to look at him.

“Shampoo made me eat magic chocolates. I don’t know what was in them, but whenever I saw someone, I told them : I love you.”

Akane raised her head and looked at him. He seemed sincere and it would not surprise her that Shampoo had managed to make him eat something so dangerous.

“I even told Mrs. Fukuhara that I loved her.”

Akane smiled. Mrs. Fukuhara was their eighty-year-old neighbor who strangely had a soft spot for Genma.

“Are these Valentine’s Day chocolates ?” He asked, grabbing the bag.

“Didn’t you get enough chocolates from your other fiancées ?”

Ranma frowned.

“Don't you think I would have preferred to spend Valentine's Day with you ?”

He blushed. Akane opened her eyes wide, not expecting that kind of statement. She was just as red as he was. Ranma tried to pull himself together and as if nothing had happened, he opened the bag and swallowed a chocolate.

“Did you bake them ?”

Akane nodded and a huge smile lit up her face.

“Do you like them ? You can eat them all, I baked them just for you.”

If he had listened to himself, he would have refused to eat another one. They were both hard and doughy and he wondered what she had done to make them taste like vinegar. But he did not want to see her sad again because of him. He swallowed the chocolates with great difficulty. He managed to eat them all. But he would never admit to Akane that it made him sick all night long.

The end

[themightycheesecake]

there was actually a girl like isagi on our middle school handball team, i was so scared of her i used to shit cement before going to practice

[stormsbourne]

alright listen

I know we're all having an evaluation of how eagerly we believe people who present with even the slightest air of authority and frankly good! we all need to be less credulous of people on the internet who tell lies.

but I think there are also other lessons to learn from james somerton. namely about his raging and blatant misogyny, which I've often seen similar forms of in fandom and on this specific site. to paraphrase bombs himself in the ctrl alt del video, if you see shitty behavior within your sphere, it's important to recognize it and try to fix it instead of rejecting it and asserting that no REAL members of the ingroup are like that. and nerds have a misogyny problem. including tumblr. so let's reckon with it.

do you append "white" or "straight" to your comments about women even when those things have little to do with the topic being discussed, just to make your comments seem more legit? (and no, m/m shipping discourse does not give you a ticket to say it's all straight women -- it's fictional characters, james.) do you often theorize about how (hurriedly appended "straight/white/cis") women are responsible for a problem in fandom, nay, all problems in fandom? have you made up a guy based on a single post that annoyed you and extrapolated to say that all (appended signifier to make it ok) women in fandom are like that? do you see women as uniquely fetishizing, uniquely stupid about politics or social issues, uniquely annoying to talk to? do you assume when there's an issue, even a real one and not the fake ones james made up, that a woman is probably at the root of it?

all of this still applies to you if you're a woman. it also applies if you're gay or a person of color or trans. being an oppressed group doesn't mean you are immune from sexism, and sexism is still rampant in everyday life for pretty much everyone.

your shipping and fandom discourse isn't immune from this. no, I'm not talking about how not enough people like yuri. I'm talking about how women who like "bad" ships like r*ylo or whatever are seen as open targets for harassment. how women who are into "bad/problematic" fandoms are seen as idiots and enablers who deserve what they get. how there's an attitude that women who like shitty bad porn must think it's good, must be too stupid to know better, and must need to be handheld and taught about good, acceptable fiction. I've already talked a lot about tumblr's complete refusal to admit that fujoshi wasn't a term coined by delicate japanese mlm to complain about evil women (and I wonder if james contributed to that idiotic concept), but the way I've seen people assert that women into m/m must be straight, must be stupid, must be lying about their identities, must be hurting gay men in real life in addition to wanting some anime boys to kiss ...

I've seen how some of you people talk about amb*r h*ard, is all I'm saying, and I've seen what you've tried to do to dozens of female creatives that, for some reason, you've decided deserve to be taken down or taught a lesson. I've seen the descriptions you use. shrieking, bitchy, whiny, uppity, shrewish, karen (don't get me started on how karen has been turned into an easy excuse for misogyny). you're not bystanders to what james did and is doing, you're a part of it. sure, you might not have the nazi fetish, but you've said things about women that put somerton to shame.

just a thing to keep in mind while the plagiarism discourse is ongoing. somerton is a shithead for many reasons but this is one that's important to remember because I think people often treat misogyny like a lesser crime, a smaller concern, and it's not. just think of what laws are passing and what views popular movements have of women and then, for one moment, consider that maybe your reflexive need to blame women or pick them apart might have been influenced by the Society In Which We Live.

[perotovar]

A Writing Challenge from August 1st - September 21st

"Erin, what is Frith?"

Frith, is an Old Norse term, typically used among friends and kinsmen, that would often be used in a diplomatic way to bring peace.

Or, more plainly, “a mutual agreement to avoid causing each other physical, emotional, or mental harm, and to avoid negatively affecting each other’s honor, worth, and luck.”

This is meant to be a long-lasting agreement among those that take part.

Now, I’ve spent a decent amount of time to know, in this fandom, that that could very well be wishful thinking, but I’m choosing to stay positive here. It’s no secret that there have been things happening lately that are less than stellar, to put it mildly.

But I’m not here to talk about that.

I’m here to have fun and be creative so that’s what we’re going to do!

I’ve had this idea brewing for several months, and it’s a subject matter that’s very near and dear to my heart. In my personal life, I’m a practicing Norse Pagan. For those that are unfamiliar, I like to describe it as worshiping the Old Ones. I follow the teachings of the Norse Gods.

Why am I telling you this? Well, since this is something that’s so close to me, and we’re all here as fans of one Pedro Pascal and his work, I figured why not combine the two? Initially, the goal was to write all these fics myself, but when I discovered just how exhausting and time-consuming that would be, I decided to include all of you!

I failed to do a follower milestone to thank you all and celebrate, so take this as my thank you for sticking around here and showing support to my fics and gifs.

Alright, so how is this going to work?

huge shoutout to @scenaaario and @kedsandtubesocks for all your help on this you lovely humans ♥

Another important aspect of Heathenry (Norse Paganism) is reciprocity. “Gifts given for gifts received.” So, you all wouldn’t just be giving me a bunch of fics to read. I’ve made something for those of you who will participate as well. This is an equal exchange.

I’ve paired up several of the PPCU with Norse Gods and made moodboards for each of them. I have reasons for matching them up the way I have, and I’ll go into more detail as to why later.

So, yes, this is a writing challenge at its core, but it’s also a way for me to show a little peace of myself with you all and for us all to be creative and have fun! Maybe you’ll step out of your comfort zone a little and that’s okay!

There is an expectation that something will be written/received, so if you don’t think you’ll be able to participate, that’s totally okay. There’s no pressure at all, and I appreciate any support or boosting to get to those that would like to!

Okay, enough of all that, which Gods have I chosen to match up with the Boys?

I’m glad you asked! Matching up traits and personalities was really fun, and really challenging. Nothing is a 1:1 match, but that’s okay. Nothing is supposed to be, and that’s where some of the challenge may come in.

For those that are participating in the challenge, you’ll send me an ask declaring which God/Pedro Boy you’d like to write. In return, and my part of the reciprocity, you’ll receive a moodboard to use for your fic, and a little blurb telling you a little more about the God and why I’ve chosen that character to pair them with. I’m hoping some of them will be a little obvious, but I’m aware not everyone is as familiar with the Gods as I am.

There are only 14 slots and therefore only 14 moodboards made, so once someone has been claimed, that’s it. As much as I’d love to have even more people participate, I don’t think I can make that many things lol.

If you’d still like to contribute somehow, I’m open to any questions you may have about the Gods (and maybe how the boys relate), because I’m a big ol’ nerd and love talking about this shit.

So, who’s who?

Maxwell Lord – Odin [Óðinn] (The All-Father and God of wisdom, magic, war, death, but also cunning and trickery.) claimed by @missredherring

Pero Tovar – Thor [Þórr] (God of thunder, lightning, sacred groves and trees, strength, and the protection of humankind.) claimed by @morallyinept

Max Phillips – Loki (The Trickster God of mischief and chaos.) claimed by @qveerthe0ry

Oberyn Martell – Freyja (Goddess of love, sensuality, sex, passion, war, and magic.) claimed by @guiltyasdave

Javier Peña – Freyr (God of fertility, harvests, and peace.) claimed by @almostfoxglove

Ezra – Týr (God of victory, law, and justice.) claimed by @marisferasiop

Marcus Moreno – Frigg (Goddess of domestic life, marriage, and maternal energy.) claimed by @joelalorian

Joel Miller – Hel (Goddess of death and guide to the underworld.) claimed by @beefrobeefcal

Dieter Bravo – Bragi (God of poetry, oral traditions, and the Skaldic Poet of the Aesir.) claimed by @schnarfer

Javi Gutierrez – Baldr (God of light and purity.) claimed by @morallyinept

Dave York – Vidar [Víðarr] (The Silent God of vengeance.) claimed by @kedsandtubesocks

Din Djarin – Heimdall [Heimdallr] (Gatekeeper of Asgard, the gods’ stronghold within Valhalla. God of guardianship, vigilance, and protection.) claimed by @djarinmuse

Frankie Morales – Skadi [Skaði] (Goddess of winter, skiing, bow-hunting, and mountains.) claimed by @agentmarcuspike

Jack “Agent Whiskey” Daniels – Ægir (Brewmaster of the sea.) claimed by @lotusbxtch

extras:

Marcus Pike – Idun [Iðunn] (Goddess of eternal youth and sacred apples.) claimed by @gasolinerainbowpuddles

Silva – Ymir (First being in existence and the reason for the creation of Earth.) claimed by @yopossum

Santiago Garcia – Fenrir (Most famous of all the wolves in Norse Mythology and the bringer of Ragnarok.) claimed by @for-a-longlongtime

There are no rules for your fic itself. You can write whatever and however much you want. All I ask is that some aspects of the Gods stay intact, otherwise this would just be any old writing challenge.

I wanna see you guys get creative with what the Gods offer. How are they speaking to you? What energy/vibes are you getting off of them? Run with it.

Now, I’m posting this the day before Lammas, the Pagan holiday that often takes place in the Summer, August 1st. I think it would round out the summer nicely if everything gets published around Mabon, September 21st, the holiday that celebrates the Fall equinox.

That gives everyone almost two months to write their stories. I’m hoping that’s a decent time? If it’s not, I’m not picky and typically run on Pagan Standard Time, so if it’ll take you a little longer, just let me know and it’ll probably be fine.

Thank you for sticking with my ramble, and I wish you all gọ̄der hēle (good luck)!

And remember, have fun!

[napalmfairy7]

I've finally decided to contribute to the COD fandom and post some brainrot that wouldn't quit pestering me until I wrote it down. So for your viewing pleasure, I present: The 141 at the nail salon💅

Soap would be the kind to hardly sit still during a pedicure because he’s so damn ticklish. You’re lucky if you can even get the rough edges of his toenails smoothed with a file without him flinching or jerking his feet. And you best have good reflexes when you start filing his calloused heels because the last tech that worked on him accidentally got kicked in the chin by his size twelves. He felt so bad about it he tipped them three times the amount he usually would and bought lunch for the whole salon. Would definitely get polish applied if he’s on leave. Either black or some other dark color. Maybe his favorite football team’s colors if they’re doing well. Wouldn’t get manicures though. He needs those callouses on his hands for the gym, he’s worked hard to get them that way. Plus if his nails get too long, or he gets a hangnail, why does he need nail clipper when it's just easier to bite them off? 

Gaz likes to have his nails done on the regular if he can since military life can be so hard on them. His mother took him along with her to the nail salon when he was a boy when she’d get her nails done. It wasn’t too long after that he started having his done too. At first it was a way to whittle at the boredom of waiting for her before he started to realize he actually enjoyed it. And you best believe every tech in the salon clamors for a chance to work with him when he comes waltzing in for an appointment. Those big brown eyes along with his handsome features and charming personality made him a salon favorite unsurprisingly. Somehow always manages to make his tech blush even if he doesn’t say a word. Gets both manicures and pedicures, preferring to have his nails buffed to a nice shine. 

Price maybe goes to have his feet worked on once every few months or so. He’s just too busy to make regular appointments. But on the occasions he does make it in, he isn’t very talkative. Preferring to bring a book with him to read while his tech does their thing. His position as Captain always has his thoughts going practically 24/7, so it’s nice to just let himself get lost in that novel that’s been on his to-be-read list for months now. Although he’s been known to fall asleep during the massage portion of his service and his tech always makes sure to give him an extra few minutes. He’s always polite and is a great tipper so they don’t mind spending the extra time on him. Doesn’t bother with manicures though. He knows he’ll just rough them up again anyway so what’s the point?

Ghost has never set foot inside a nail salon. Not because he thinks it’s “unmanly” or some other toxic shit like that. Why would he have someone else do it when he does the job just fine himself? Plus whenever he’d walk by a salon in the past, they always seemed to be too crowded and noisy for his tastes. By some miracle, his feet never have callouses and are always soft no matter what. Also mother nature decided to bless him with practically no cuticles so he’s never had to worry about that.

[byslantedlight]

Hello OFMD Tumblr thingie, and all the amazing people who are out there, and especially the ones who've been making all the posts that have made me so happy over the last few months. 💖💖💖 First and most importantly, thank you, thank you, thank you, to anyone who sees this!

This is my first post to Tumblr (probably pretty obvious from my huge lack of Tumblr sophistication! And the length of this post...) If you don't count reblogging things that I wanted to be able to find again. I've braved up to comment thank you to people a couple of times, but that's been it so far. I must admit it all looks a bit scary from this side of the glass, even though I can also see how friendly people mostly are.

But OFMD fandom is big! And you've been here a long time! I loved Series 1 when I watched it, and knew I wanted to watch out for Series 2, but it wasn't until I re-watched it when the Series 2 trailer came out on BBC iPlayer that I fell veeeery in love with it! And by then you were already here, and there was a language and debates about things I'd barely even noticed, and it's mostly me staring with big eyes thinking wow, and sometimes huh? and... well, you know. Plus there's trying to work out Tumblr, which I definitely haven't actually managed to do yet, and possibly never will, so... I decided to just jump in and post summat. Even just rambling, which is a bit of a specialty of mine... I mean - what's the worst that can happen, right? 😬

So... how come now? Well, I can't make art or gorgeous screenshots or gifs. I do write, but I'm still hanging out to get the right voices in my keyboard... I know them when I hear them, but you've gotta get the right rhythm going, and I'm not quite there yet, I don't think. Although really, I should probably just sit down and try (and stop waiting for work to shut up and give me time - I should be a pirate and take it!)

Anyway (told you about the rambling...) what I'm mostly doing apart from rewatching the eps on a constant loop is reading the fic. I'm picking it according to kudos on AO3, and according to recs that I see on Tumblr, and it's occured to me that alot of the stories I'm loving must have been recced looong ago, and that newbies like me totally missed them, and so maybe I could do my own recs, even if they are of older stories, and someone might find them useful. You know, if I work out how anyone else might ever see my posts. 😁 And if people aren't put off by my probably age-revealing use of emojis. (But I am entirely age-appropriate for Ed and Stede, and if I had to look up what zaddy meant too, well, that just means I matched Rhys Darby's expression in the bts, right? 🤨)

So it's not much, but I'd like to contribute even just a tiny bit to OFMD fandom in return for everything it gives me, so... yeah. That's my plan. I'll start in a bit, but this post is probably already too long since it's just rambling. And kind of dull. I should probably have said tl:dr at the top, shouldn't I, but then maybe anyone who actually saw this wouldn't, so... See, I kind of live in hope. 😊

Okay. Tags next, right? ... ack ... why won't it let me create new tags instead of just using ones from the drop down...? Well, those will have to do for now... maybe someone who sees this will have mercy and tell me how? I'll just be over here being a slight failure at Tumblr... And if you've made it this far (how long is an acceptable post over here?! Not this long, I don't think...) - thank you hugely for just that, and may your dreams be OFMD and joyous!

[class1akids]

Not that I don't entirely agree with your take, but I kinda feel like you're over-exaggerating just how Uraraka's "good' treatment is and that it might mostly be misdirected anger?

Like sure her fight with Toga was one of the most well-treated moments of final arc and 431 was unnecessarily centered around her, which sucks because we had more important things to focus on, but honestly I don't think her having it kinda good at the very end of the story makes up for how her character was paid dust for the majority of the anime/manga and how she wasn't allowed to exist in any substantial way beside being the Female Lead™

Like I understand talking about lets say Bakugou or Endeavor (which you do a lot for the later and I respect that) in the way you do, but Uraraka? That poor girl isn't the first person that comes to mind when I think about characters receiving special treatment form the anime or Horikoshi.

Precisely because Uraraka's arc is such a nothingburger for most of the manga, I find it excrutiating how much the epilogue focuses on her so overwhelmingly. She has more panel time than Bakugo and Shoto added together. This is not only about 431. We didn't need 2 out of the 7 epilogue chapters focus on Uraraka. We didn't need more panel time dedicated to Uraraka's shoe in 431 than most Class A characters. We didn't need most of the Volume 42 corrections to be adding more fat to the Uraraka scenes - there were plenty of scenes that needed more corrections or additions. And we certainly didn't need 431 try to convince us how Uraraka is saving the world with a fluffy counselling program, while her higher ranked classmates are all uselessly dying out as a profession.

I also feel a certain meanness how Horikoshi tried to draw Uraraka extra beautiful in 431, while for example, Monoma who pushed her out of the Top 10 got a controversial adult design, along with other male characters (e.g. Shouto).

I think it's normal if fans who stayed around or supported the manga for other characters wanted to see more focused balance, wanted to see their fave succeed and not be used as a cheerleader for Uraraka-sama (like Tsuyu or the UA Big 3 are). It creates resentment and gives a bad impression of Horikoshi, who just decides that now at the end, he can throw away the popular characters who contributed so much the popularity of the franchise.

The anime also gives Uraraka special treatment. I mentioned the OP of S6, but as a Shouto fan I will never forgive bones for cutting scenes from Shouto's climax and cutting the Rising title, while at the same time adding anime-only scenes to the Togachako fight, with the director admitted that she sabotaged Shouto's episode so the emotional emphasis can be on Uraraka, instead of adapting both contents with honesty and let the fans decide. That's not her place.

And yes, I'm angry for all the crappy merch where they insert Uraraka into Shouto-merch to push her, where they force blind merch on fans because she doesn't sell that well. I do feel that Horikoshi was resenting the fandom for not liking Uraraka as much as he does and the epilogue is his pettiness on display as he denies the content fans wanted (like bkdk talk, Shouto getting comfort or hugs from his family, the only hero agency we see is Uraraka's, etc.) for the end.

I compare this with the ending of Haikyuu, where Furadate made sure to give us little glimpses of all the characters post-timeskip, gave all the main ones dedicated chapters and most importantly made everyone feel valid and important for the choices they made.

I feel like Horikoshi is only paying lip service to being grateful to his fans and was not at all interested in giving an uplifting good-bye to his fans in general, only certain fans. And Act 3 Uraraka is the embodiment of this attitude.

The truth is, it's his fault to never committing a theme to Uraraka's character, never making an actual arc for her - always just putting her on unearned pedestals, with fluffy content. Pushing her character so hard in the end just leads to resentment and a feeling of betrayal.

[aziraphales-library]

Hello, hello, hello!

First off, I wanted to say thank y'all for all you do in the fandom, you guys are the main way I find new fics to read :D

Secondly, sorry if this has been asked before but is there any fics where Aziraphale is talking negatively about himself and Crowley is having none of it?

Once again thank you, y'all are the best!!

You'll want to check out our #insecure aziraphale tag for loads of fics like this. Here are more to add...

Thou shalt not seek release by StormIn_A_Bottle (E)

"Say it, angel. Repeat what you said earlier." "That I was fat. And unattractive." "And what did we decide about that?" "That I would be punished for telling lies." - Another contribution to the Spring Kink GOAD event, this time with the prompt "Orgasm Denial"

And Aziraphale Cried by Wintersprings23 (NR)

Aziraphale knows what he’s doing is bad. He knows that he shouldn’t do it, but he also knows deep down in his gut, that he deserves it. He’s seen how much harm he has done, by being ignorant, thinking he was better than these humans. And he has tried to make up for it, he really has, but he still lies in bed at night thinking about what he could have done. Who he could have saved. Aziraphale had done so many blessings, but sometimes they hadn’t worked. He had seen so many humans shorten their already short lives, hollow eyes and wounded body beyond saving

You're beautiful by Between_stars_and_Nebula (NR)

Crowley and Aziraphale have been living together as lovers for six months. Everything is going well but for the last two weeks, Aziraphale seems turned off, tired and depressed. Crowley decides to figure out what's wrong with his handsome lover “Crowley had his nose buried in his angel's perfumed hair, tears in his eyes at this violent suffering that he did not understand. The muscles ached from holding Aziraphale as hard as possible against him in the hope of calming his trembling. " What's wrong ? ", he whispered softly, almost more to himself than to the angel, "What's happening to you? What can I do? " "

Insecure by White Queen Writes (T)

When gaggles of women start flooding his shop on their lunch hours just to gawk at his sexy husband, Aziraphale begins to succumb to the new doubts and fears that come as a result of going native. Luckily, Crowley has a cure for that.

There is strength in your softness, Angel by Cuppa_Rosie_Lee (G)

A soft little drabble about a soft angel. Crowley and Aziraphale return to the bookshop after a date at the Ritz. Aziraphale becomes self-conscious about his weight, but Crowley is having absolutely none of it. All the feelings and a ridiculously soft demon in love.

I won’t stand for it by Dancer_in_the_rain (T)

“Look, if you don’t want to see me again, that’s fine. I just would have liked to know what I did wrong. But if you don’t want to talk about it, I guess I’ll just-“ His hand started slipping from Aziraphale’s and in a sudden rush of panic the angel gripped onto the demon tightly. “No!”, he gasped, the thought of his beloved leaving indefinitely suddenly feeling like a crushing weight on his chest. Crowley looked back down at him, his expression confused and hurt. “Tell me what’s going on here then, angel. What has suddenly gotten into you?” Aziraphale worried his lip between his teeth, unable to meet the other’s eyes. He could feel his heart beating up his throat. Was he really about to tell Crowley? Well, yes. Crowley deserved his honesty. If anything he didn’t deserve Aziraphale throwing him out and not even giving him a reason. Even if it was a good reason. He felt like fainting when he looked back up again into the face that he loved so much. The face that he felt so undeserving of loving. “Would you… do you think I should get a new corporation?” Or: Aziraphale overhears Crowley reprimanding his plants and starts to wonder if he’s even good enough for his demon.

- Mod D

[jezebel06]

Ao3 Donation

Yesterday, after logging into my Ao3 account, I of course saw they were having one of their bi-annual drives and decided to contribute. I set it up as a recurring yearly payment. Now, as a fandom vet who used what was once twitter until Elon Musk got his grimy hands on it and dubbed it 'X', I know there's a bunch of Anti-Ao3 people who disparage donating while using the damn site! I also frequent the Ao3 reddit so I've seen it discussed and I'm ready to give in my two cents. "why donate to Ao3 when you could donate to (insert cause here)?" How do you know people aren't doing both? I'm a woman, LGBTQ+, Animal lover, and have a husband with depression and heart-failure. Can you guess where I might toss a few when possible? Or what I might share even when I can't if I run into a donation link? I am also however, anti-censorship and a fandom nerd. Therefore, I believe OTW dose important work too. This year, the choice cause for those attempting to shame drive participants is Palestine, but remember when it was people affected by the Covid pandemic and essential workers? My husband caught covid, had a heart attack, and was in a coma for a while (this is how the aforementioned heart-failure). I was not allowed to see him. During this time, it was insanely hard to get out of bed and, as an essential worker, go to work. Ao3 has helped me through some incredibly tough spots and personal life tragedies including this one. This one though is why I'm tired of seeing anti-posts. You clearly don't even care one iota about the people affected by the cause you claim. If you did: You would support it without shaming over a hobby these very same people might engage in. Its also incredibly hypocritical btw to do this while using the site. They cost money to run. Have you ever spent a single dime on any kind of recreation yourself? Unless your answer is 'no', you don't have a leg to stand on even without the above when it comes to telling anyone how to spend their money. ENOUGH VIRTUE SIGNALING! THANKS!

[directdogman]

Hey dogman, idk if you answered this

Who, out of both DSAF and Dialtown, was your favourite to write and/or create?

It's very hard for me to pick favourites with my characters because I don't tend to give characters a lot of screen-time unless I find a character interesting or fun to write. You've caught me in a talkative mood, so warning, there's an onslaught of text coming!

DSaF: Dave was the most fun to write for, as I remember it. I mean, the guy is the walking personification of chaos and even when he's being constructive (eg, rigging robots to do insane stuff), it's usually in a destructive capacity. Dave will do LITERALLY ANYTHING but contribute to society in meaningful/valuable ways.

In terms of what character-writing I was most 'proud' of, I was also pretty happy with Dr Henry Miller, as a villain. Namely the research he embarked on, described in his logs in DSaF 3 (which the fandom evidently agreed with, as I got really strong feedback on those logs.)

One issue a lot of people (including myself) have with canon William Afton is that he's this kind of mad scientist character but his research doesn't really seem to be... idk, going anywhere? Other than using remnant (soul nectar?) to make kids possess robots, it's kind of a mystery how he got to this point he did from running a bad fast food restaurant. William gets fleshed out motivations in TSE and even then, it mainly revolves around his relationship with Henry Emily, iirc. It's actually pretty accurate to how real serial killers think, imo, but there's a pretty wide berth between this kind of serial killer and becoming a sci-fi fast-food mad scientist... So, I decided to try to bridge that gap.

DSaF Henry's logs actually mention where the idea for his research came from, namely the fact that he existed in a world with normal scientific rules just like ours and seemingly discovered something supernatural, and he approaches it like an amoral scientist would - trying to figure out how to figure out more about the fabric of reality using the newly discovered phenomenon of possession. The 'joy of creation' phrase people pulled from Golden Freddy's phone call in FNaF 1 is given context - Henry is trying to find out what's on the other side (and eventually, how existence itself formed.)

There's other aspects to his character that make him more interesting too, like the implication that his research is partially an excuse for him to act on an underlying sadism (with scenes implying that he inflicts damage on others than can't be justified as assisting with his research.) His background as a dissident/quack laughing-stock scientist (thanks to pushing his soul theory in a best-selling book, which is considered pseudoscience) BEFORE he embarked on his journey to become a fast food tycoon also makes it less farfetch'd that he'd be capable of y'know, harvesting human souls intentionally to continue his research?

I had more for the character on paper that people haven't seen but some of it wasn't revealed due to it feeling a bit too disturbing to publish. None of the contents would've been all that controversial, more just too tonally disturbing when written about in detail (like a omitted part from his backstory/lore post where he managed to pick up a hazy audio of his wife + son's crying from the radio of the car his wife/son drowned in and reacted with genuine elation upon realizing he'd discovered a new scientific phenomenon (as this was the first time Henry witnessed soul-possession.)) Yeah.

I don't feel much of a need to revisit Henry as a character because as a series villain, he was pretty thoroughly-written and he did his job effectively... And his fate was well earned! (He even got an epilogue short-story a few years back, further cementing his fate!)

Dialtown: From the characters/writing that the fandom has seen? Tough to say. I genuinely really like every DT character. Gingi and Mayor Mingus are two of my favourite characters to write for because they're both really insistent and react to adversity in a really comically indignant way. Mingus is more like Gingi than she cares to admit in very specific ways, which is the core hypocrisy of her character - she's one of the most abnormal things IN Dialtown, and spends the game on a quest opposing abnormality that she, herself, can't stand.

Many absolute rulers have debilitating physical and/or mental cruxes and despite that, usually have the final say on what is/isn't okay, often guided by arbitrary preferences. It's funny to remember all of the ancient kings and emperors who dictated how others should act, talk and even think, when very many of them themselves were anything except a good reflection of their own subjects! It's an irony I quite enjoy and leads to a fun character to write for!

My favourite DT writing is probably some of my Callum Crown speech drafts. I have a definite bias here since Crown's character is based on many figures I've encountered in my own reading (and his story relates to topics I enjoy reading about.) A lot of that is real nerd shit that wouldn't be interesting to 99.9% of DT fans (like a long conversation where Crown + Milt discuss a campaign speech Milt wrote for Crown and they bicker about if the wording/arguments used are truly honest.) Again, not super relevant to Dialtown-proper, but it explains a lot about why the world of DT ended up the way it did.

Realistically, the story of Dialtown itself is basically a weird little epilogue to a story that ended decades upon decades ago, centered around a bunch of small-town nobodies circling around the carcass of the last surviving main character of the old story.

I'm also very happy with Gingi's character partially because I know more about Gingi's past/future than you guys do. Gingi has such rotten memory that Gingi's backstory before DT's story begins is basically a complete mystery. Thanks to Gingi never getting close enough to any humans before laying its eggs, there's nobody in Gingi's life that can fill in the gaps. Companionship means so much to Gingi because prior to meeting The Gang, Gingi is aware of a massive and unknown block of time that's a complete mystery precisely because Gingi had nobody in its life. To Gingi, this time was basically akin to being non-sentient or dead, and Gingi would never go back.

While I was making DSaF, I drafted a ton of other stories on paper. I considered making most of them, but decided not to for various reasons, despite getting some solid feedback from collaborators. Bits of almost all of those project ideas made it into DT, with Gingi having traits from several other main characters I prototyped years and years ago. This includes where Gingi came from and what exactly Gingi is. I don't want to mislead people into thinking Gingi is more important than it is, like Gingi is the key to unlocking DT lore (I promise there's a LOT of aimless scuttling/devouring in Gingi's past and relatively little else!) BUT: Of everything from those old scrapped projects, Gingi is what I decided deserved to survive the most. And that has to count for something.

One day I'd love to make sequels to DT and perhaps explore some of the stuff I've described above, like why the hell the world of DT is the way it is or maybe where the hell Gingi spawned from. Thanks

[c-u-c-koo-4-40k]

Hello Everyone.

I want to clarify now, Posts like these will be rare on this blog.

This blog is primarily a place to discuss, headcanon, and do general fandom shenanigans.

As Billy Joel might say, It's a place to forget about life for a while.

But given the current goings on in the world, I Will be changing my pinned post to this link.

If you're like me, you may not have much disposable income. So it's hard to donate when causes you care about pop up.

This website uses advertisers and literal button clicks to generate donations.

My platform here is small, and primarily for fandom fun times, and it will remain as such. As previously stated, This will be a rare post of this kind on this blog.

But I wanted to give others the opportunity to help in this small way. And use my platform to spread this resource.

This website has buttons to click to help with issues like poverty, women's rights, the refugees in palestine, refugees in general and the environment.

Thank you for your time and consideration. And I hope you continue to enjoy my mad 40k ramblings.

Edit: Slight modification, I've changed Only Post of this kind to Rare as I have reblogged some other things not related to fandom and yes they were related to modern or otherwise issues.

I still want to keep this place 90% dumb fun, but even dumb fun has to be sober some times.

Edit 2: I've decided I Will be reblogging the occasional help or aid or donation post. Probably one or two every few days. If you want to Only see the fandom stuff on my blog avoid/block the posts with the tags #not warhammer #not fandom and #not 40k

Thank you for love and support. And big hugs to my mutuals. They deserve all of it.

Edit 3: Navigation

To Find all my writings use/search with the #c u ckoo anon tag.

To find my art pieces use/search #c u c koo art tag

To find the Severe Miscalculation Storyline search the #oc: khopesh tag

If something is a reblog or answer it will be under #c u ckoo response

Edit 4: Donation Posts will now be tagged with #c u c koo donation posting

All these tags can be found on this post at the very end of all the others.

Edit 5: Featured campaign! I've decided that every week I will post a link to a different campaign below.

I will also try to link the reblogs of the campaign that include the verification if any exist.

Current Campaign.

1,062 / 50,000 USD

2% Funded

This family is trying to raise money for the son's leg surgery/recovery!

This campaign is verified, and any Donation you can afford to give can be refunded for a Year so giving is Very low risk.

Sharing the linked post can also help as it will help reach more people. More people = more donations and shares.

No action is too small!

Thank You

Edit 5! Also! Here's a link to a website that is filled with vetted fundraisers!

Edit 6! Ask box is Super full so it may take a while for me to reblog your campaign. I work from the oldest up.

I'm also trying to give the campaigns in my Dms attention every other day so please be aware.

Edit 7: I'm still reblogging campaigns, but now I'm going to work on them in smaller groups.

I'm going to reblog a Handful of DM campaigns, and a Handful of asks each day. Exact numbers might change day to day, but I'll try to keep them to the same amount.

I've got over 50 campaigns in my dms and over 500 asks to work through.

I want to do proper posts and updates when I boost them.

Thank you for understanding.

Edit 8: In regards to Donation Matching.

I Can Only Donate to a Few Campaigns every Month. And I Only donate at the End of months.

I have to make sure All my monthly expenses are taken care of.

The campaigns chosen are mostly random.

[auduux]

Hello mcsm community

It's been years since i've played this game and I started crying when I figured out you can't play it anymore then started crying again when someone told me where to get s1 and s2 for free so that has sparked determination in me.

So, I have come to tell you I will finally contribute to this fandom. I am writing a season 3, where Romeo is still an admin. It's an au where Romeo made a deal with Jesse after realizing he might actually not win. The deal was that he would give Xara back her admin abilities and not kill anyone (and/)or destroy people's homes and he would get to keep his abilities. Jesse has the golden gauntlet in case he goes rogue.

There will be two versions, one with male Jesse and one with female Jesse, they have very different personalities. I'm using my own versions that I used. Each chapter will be 15k or 20k words, still haven't decided. I want to make them longer than my usual works.

Fem Jesse went with Petra after the Romeo situation was fixed, enough, and put Radar in charge. Male Jesse stayed in charge. You can probably guess why. (Fem Jesse is with Petra, male Jesse is with Lukas)

It is mostly centered around Xara, Romeo, and Radar but everyone else will have their moments too. It goes more in-depth on the other worlds through the portal network too, and Otto and Emily as well as the old builders world will be there a few times. So will the Sky City people and their new cities. The underground might be in there too.

I saw a post on here about shipping Nell and Xara and honestly became obsessed so...Xara is with Nell. Romeo will be with Radar after getting over Fred because Radar is my favorite and who doesn't want to start dating the emotionally constipated god that almost killed you, your friends, your townspeople, the world, locked a bunch of people under bedrock and started anew, killed their husband out of rage and confusion, locked up their best friend also out of rage and confusion, and hated you for about three months? It's fine tho he made challenges for them. Because he feels bad. And helped rebuild. Because he feels bad.

And there's FUCKING SOREN and his DUMBASS BOOKS as a treat. And Isor.

[sepublic]

Thinking back to criticisms of Luz going through the same arc of opening up and letting people in throughout S2B onwards (a point following Yesterday's Lie, where Luz's guilt increased tenfold after seeing Camila's reaction), and I think it's important to remember that this is the frustrating reality behind living when you have self-loathing, suicidal ideation, etc., AKA things Luz absolutely had. The healing process IS unpleasant, that's the point. Especially in later cases when the Day of Unity is impending, or the need to get back to the Demon Realm; Sometimes the situation is inherently stressful, it feels helpless and it’s not just a matter of mental health and handling. And that just makes it easier to self-sabotage.

To apply my own quote from another fandom to this situation: Luz is grappling with continuing to apply this lesson of self-worth because that's the exhausting truth; You will relapse and you will have to constantly remind yourself and relearn that same lesson over and over again. That's life, that's the banal truth behind living, but there's also a deep wonder behind it too.

Plus there’s other ideas this contributes towards; Like how you need to live with mistakes and how that plays into Camila’s arc with her daughter; Luz having her You are Not Immune to Propaganda moment, then forgiving herself to avoid the fallacy in Leftist circles that it’s better to have done nothing wrong than to do something right.

In particular, we see how Luz’s relapse can affect Amity, and how it gradually wears down on her, how it's genuinely stressful on her end as well; Obviously, Amity is giving Luz extra grace because Luz did the same for her first, despite nothing really prompting on her own end besides unyielding compassion. So it would hypocritical to not extend that same patience in return, and Amity does!!! But it ties back into why Raine and Eda broke up, why Raine isn't blamed for it, why Eda has to take responsibility and not just wallow in self-pity about how she's driven people away because Eda has others she cares about, and needs to look after as well, especially when they're kids dependent on her!!!

So Luz’s own relationship with Amity is at stake here if she doesn’t internalize her lesson, and sure that may seem insignificant compared to saving the isles; But it’s not just about saving the isles, but also Luz letting herself want things by continuing to stay afterwards, rather than live a self-imposed exile out of the mistaken belief that she’s inherently harmful to the demon realm for being an outsider. That can be a xenophobic take! And in the end, that relationship with Amity (who very much benefitted from Luz the Outsider) is one of the things Luz looks forward to even in her depression, and even if she planned to cut ties she wouldn’t want Amity to leave it on a bad note either; In fact Luz shouldn’t cut ties, period.

And I find it a bold take; That you need to open up not just because it's good for you, but because if you really care about your loved ones, you will see it hurts them too. That you're not just hurting yourself, this is not your ideal, noble self-sacrifice. You are still deciding things for other people in a way by hurting them, that you're not just caring about yourself but the loved ones you claim are better off from this anyhow.

You are putting people under a lot of stress because they can't reach out, and to save themselves because they can't save you without your own input, sometimes they just gotta cut ties. They feel like you're not being honest with them, and you can't blame them for making it about themselves because they've spent all this time up until now trying to make it about you and why you deserve to live. And since your own wellbeing as motive isn't good enough, at least consider theirs???

If you think about it, this could even apply to Luz’s own relationship with the Demon Realm; By insisting it doesn’t need her, that she’s more a harmful force than anything, she’s just harming it in the long run by not helping stop Belos. The isles needs Luz too, it’s not just the other way around! And then you have to remember the isles is an actual person, the Titan; So it’s another relationship of hers to maintain. The Titan is like a father figure, like Manny, so it all ties back together in Luz continuing to live and love to honor her dead father.

It's easy and even comforting to portray this type of self-loathing and self-destruction as only happening in a vacuum; But it doesn't. Despair can be comforting, and it's gonna keep hitting you over and over, unless you keep fighting it over and over. By god is it tedious, but over time it might fade away entirely. But even then you might have to stay on alert regardless. They really weren't kidding when they said To Live is To Suffer. But it's also To Thrive, and you need to work for that too.

Plus, Luz not being just done after hearing it the first time connects to how the Boiling Isles wasn't magically fixed following Belos' death and the Collector releasing everyone; They still had other people to worry about, like the other coven heads, and so much work in rebuilding the isles. We check back four years later and only then do they finally figure out how to undo coven bindings. The work continues, life continues, there is no definitive ending but you just gotta keep going. This was Dana's actual intent behind her displeasure with "Happily ever after" as a phrase, rather than hating happy endings inherently.

And I think the fact that there's still so much more to do works with the meta fact that there were still so many other stories and conflicts left untold, unresolved; Things like the Archivists, the Bat Queen's past, coven heads like Hettie Cutburn or Vitimir, etc. But in a way, the epilogue, the four year gap, and life continuing after the Quincenera because of course it will, because people and things will live on no matter how much destruction there is, is good space to explore that.

And it's a gift to fans who love stories and have the opportunity to make more themselves, because Dana herself explained in an interview how she loved to make connections in shows she had growing up, so it pleased her to inspire the same in fans from this generation. At the very least, if the show was given a spin-off or continuation, something like that, there'd definitely be more stories, and more work, to do with The Owl House. Again, those unlived stories are both the frustration, but also the wonder, behind keeping going.

[allwormdiet]

Extermination 8.1

Jesus Christ. Okay. Let's get this going.

Y'know, I wonder if Taylor might be cynical about human nature or something, weird

Hey Dragon, very cool to meet you in the chrome.

Aww, she's starstruck

Hey Weld, cool to meet you, wish it was under less dire circumstances

See, the nice thing about the Empire showing up to an Endbringer fight is that the Endbringer can then massacre a bunch of fucking Nazis. Totally victimless deaths, and no hand-wringing about whether it's right or wrong to take them down.

If I was giving performance notes to Leviathan for this showing I would have to criticize that he didn't kill more of them, frankly

Hey kids, sorry some of you are about to get slaughtered in a fight you're way underqualified for

Hey Panacea, I'll see you later when you decide to exacerbate Skitter's paranoia in revenge for the bank job and make this arc go from bad to worse for her

So I know Legend is publicly gay from fandom osmosis, but what I don't know in this moment is whether Wildbow had decided on that beforehand and Taylor is currently ogling a gay dude, or if he decided on it after writing this. I guess it doesn't strictly matter, but it leaves me curious how much of this was laid out in advance, especially with some other writing decisions that are gonna come up this arc

So Myrddin straight up has a wizard gimmick and that's kind of wild, but not nearly as wild as the fact that a Protectorate cape apparently flew off the handle sufficiently far enough to yell a racial slur multiple times in public. Like holy shit that is some radioactive PR.

Also, while you do not in fact have to hand it to the Empire Eighty-Eight, it is very funny of Kaiser to taunt Bastion like this

So that's the Triumvirate rounded out, and... how to put this. There's something that's almost sweet about Taylor's thoughts diverting to think about the "who would win" discussions about heroes. Like, I dunno, it's a cute insight into the world. Maybe she used to have those conversations with Emma back when they were younger.

Y'know, I'm constantly wary of government-employed superheroes as a concept, but frankly i think a corporate superhero team is even more hair-raising. The Christian superheroes could break in either direction, either they're genuinely good people who take their faith seriously or they're just self-righteous pukes. Knowing the general tone of this story, I'd be surprised if it was the first one.

Hey Parian, hey Flechette, looking forward to your later contributions

What the hell is Bambina's deal, even. Does she have some kinda thing going on like Babydoll from BTAS, or what. I don't know if I've heard the name come up before.

Grue, Regent, c'mon now

Also yeah Taylor, I think you sufficiently scared the absolute bejeezus out of Sundancer when you made this story really earn a content warning for eye horror.

Okay so I did not realize that Narwhal was gonna have a goddamn exhibitionist thing going on here, what the hell. Can you just get away with whatever as long as you're not showing your nipples or genitals? Did it truly never come up that she could maybe wear pants to cover up a little bit?

So I knew previously that Legend is a notoriously poor public speaker, but the fact that he just straight up says "best case scenario twenty-five percent of you are dead before sunset" is ridiculous. Kristen Applebees could give a more inspiring speech than this.

Everyone in that room must be questioning their life choices tbh

Current Thoughts

I know they all volunteered, and I know that there's a protectiveness that comes with fighting for your hometown, but Jesus Christ there should be an age limit for fighting Endbringers. Signing up the teenagers to fight Nazis is already a bit rough, but the kaiju who is going to kill a bunch of them feels like someone should have pulled them back. It might technically have been the wrong decision given how critical kids like Flechette and Skitter end up being, but at least then I'd feel less judgmental of the people running this show.

Anyhow. God Taylor just keeps ending up being lonely, huh? Can't escape it, poor girl.

[bunabi]

oh my god no, your point about zevran--first of all i ate it up, second i think you're right. my 1st playthrough of origins i ran as a male tabris that romanced zev and i need to do another playthrough because the vibes i always got about zevran that i could never quite put to words was that contrary to the common(?) fandom perception of zevran just being a very pretty and gentlemanly piece of meat, zev always struck me as much more nuanced and subtle LI than some of the other romance options who were more blatant in their feelings and thoughts and--yeah the big tell to me that something was off with Zev was also whenever he stopped speaking in a grandiose, expressive, or easygoing manner. You don't have to prompt him that much or be invasive after he's already decided to tell you something about himself; he'll talk for a while and he's descriptive. Even when other companions are being rather rude to him, Zev can do the verbal equivalent of a cartwheel easily and often. But he gets reticent with you after he's given you his earring and he's having a crisis about being in love with you and wanting to be your partner. And every time he caught wind of another companion liking you, he's gentlemanly but also quite straightforward and short when he says he'll get out of that companion's way if you want him to (but he doesn't want you to want that, he wants to be kept); aaaaand ... yeah, then he does what you pointed out with oghren. thinking of how Zev responds to you giving him those dalish gloves and what he says about his mom there (and in general how he behaves while you're in the forest doing the dalish questline) my best guess is that he's ... on paper he says he has no attachment to the dalish because he doesn't really think of himself as being one of them, but also he can't help but be sentimental and want some kind of attachment to something longer-lived and meaningful, like the dalish clans and their heritage/history? i can't remember what exactly Zev's thoughts were on alienages (though I imagine that would be a clue here) but my sense of Zev was always that for a dude who often seemed to believe himself a detached outsider, Zev also still identifies with his elf heritage & cares about elf issues--it's just that, you know, as a formality Zev still needs to take it from the top when prompted and explain how he's an amoral miscreant and murderer, that he's owned by the Crows and lacks individuality, you see he's technically neutral about everything because he's committed so many crimes dohow can he judge? Or something like that. I remember similar convos like what you're describing coming up between Zev and ... whatever the rock person's name was. Slate? Slade? Granite? Rock? SHALE. Yes, Shale. Because Shale always has odd questions. I'm sure Sten probably also has contributed to the mystery of Zev in some way but I can't recall off the top of my head lol.

Think you meant to send this to @zevsurana! I'm not the OP of that post! 😅

[butterflywithsass]

The good, the bad, and the ineffable omens. What makes Good Omens special.

I'm not very good at making posts on here so sorry if the formatting sucks. It's the anniversary of season two, and thinking back on everything, it's incredible how much has happened since it came out. I might get a bit long-winded, so if that's not your thing, just scroll on by. I'm just gonna take a look at why I love Good Omens, why I love the Good Omens fandom, and what the future holds for all of us who love this story.

I guess you could say I'm a bit of a new fan. I watched the first season in 2019. I liked it but I didn't really think about it until I heard it was getting a second season, and I decided to watch it again.

This second watch came at a very strange time in my life. I'd left my very introverted homeschool life behind to go to an art school in another state. I was studying creative writing, and just beginning to dream that I might be an actual writer someday. I've always gotten intensely invested in stories, a part of my ADHD that I've always struggled with. I find a story, and it consumes my soul. I have difficulty expressing emotions in real life, so stories have been an outlet for me to feel things in the persona of a character. It's this incredible power that makes me love storytelling so much. I could go on and on about the beauty of this, but that will get a bit to much so I'll move on. Mah point is...

whenever I would get really invested in a story, my parents would indulge me, but would always feel the need to mention, "You know it's not real, right?"

Anyway, for the first time, I was away from home and I could really indulge in stories without the pressure to disconnect from it to avoid the judgment of my family. For the first time, I could just be in love with a story.

A lot happened during the first year away from home, not all of which is relevant, but around this time I started owning up to my identity as bisexual. Being at an art school meant I was surrounded by queer people from all backgrounds, not all of them had the same support I did, and I witnessed secondhand as my friends went through the pain of having homophobic families who would control what art they made and who they spent time with, threatening to withdraw them from the school if they used certain names or pronouns. It was common for my friends to have a sort of shorthand code for when it was safe to use their preferred name or pronoun. Some came from very religious households, and so religion had been linked very closely to repression.

Good Omens came at a time when I was stretching my wings both in my identity as a person and as a writer and has informed what I write about ever since. As a writer, my work often focuses on themes such as fate and free will, religion and passion, divinity and humanity, and apocalyptic images. Additionally, Good Omens encouraged me to embrace comedy in my writing and to explore the absurd and whimsical. It helped me let go of the vice that held me back from writing things I thought weren't intellectual enough, or weren't creative enough.

I also became aware of the people behind the show, and of course, I grew to admire Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I admired how Neil Gaiman seemingly defied the inevitable fate of obscure and unsuccessful writers. To me, Neil Gaiman was an example of how writers could actually make it out there in the world. Terry Pratchett, I admit, took less of an interest in because he had been long dead before I became acquainted with Good Omens, and I mistakenly gave Neil Gaiman more credit for the tv show. If you want to know more about why I saw "mistakenly," check out @vidavalor where they talk about the other writers on the show and how much they contributed. It's really quite eye-opening and it gives me hope that the show can continue well enough without Gaimen.

I also grew to become a fan of David Tennent and Micheal Sheen. And when I say a fan of David Tennent, I mean a BIG fan. The Good Omens to Doctor Who pipeline is so f*cking steep I felt like Crowley during the fall. Not just Who, though, I watched stuff like Taking Over the Asylum, Einstein and Eddington, Around the World in 80 Days, Broadchurch, Jessica Jones, Escape Artist, f*king Single Father lol. I even got into Shakespeare because of David Tennent.

The love displayed by the actors for Good Omens feels truly special. Micheal Sheen's devotion to the story shines through in everything he says about it, and David Tennent, though not originally a fan, seems to have grown more and more fond of the story. I think it's not a reach of our imagination to say that the story has become very special to both of them, even more so than to us.

It's rare to see actors treat their roles as more than just a job. The occasional publicity stunt and press tour interviews aside, the roles actors take seldom stick with them, and I think it's a testament to the power of Good Omens that this is not the case for Micheal and David.

Season 2 came out of course, and we all know how that went down. I was has heartbroken as everyone else by the final 15, but I never had any doubt that the story was destined to have a happy ending.

Unlike some shows, where the story likes to flirt with tragedy to keep viewers hooked, Good Omens is not that kind of show. Amidst the pathos and drama of the Christian/Apocalypse setting, with literal heaven and hell involved, the story is relatively clean. I enjoy some Ineffible Husbands spicy fanfiction of course, but I'm glad that Good Omens has remained relatively kid-friendly. Queer themes are so often included only in "adult media," paired with dark themes and often explicit moments making them inaccessible to kids and cementing the idea that Queerness is inherently inappropriate. While Good Omens has the occasional adult reference such as Madam Tracy's side gig as a dominatrix or the 'seamstress,' they are veiled enough to pass. Even the sex scene with Anathama and Newt is comic enough that it can hardly be classified as one. As for heaven and hell, it would be easy to try and stress the darkness of hell through plenty of disturbing subtexts and the brutality of heaven, but here the show errs towards comedy, portraying both sides as corporate systems -- both funny and much more relatable evil than torture or traumatic scenes. It's easier to understand rude co-workers, degrading comments, overbearing bosses and endless paperwork than it is to understand the sources of our perception of good and evil.

Putting Adam Young as the center of the story of season one focuses the entire narrative. At the end of the day, Good Omens is about the ineffable nature of humanity defying all odds (or gods) betting against it. It's a humanist story, showing us that no matter how much the forces of good or evil might like to influence us, whatever we do will up to us.

This theme is constantly referenced, from Crowley's habit of taking credit for anything evil humans do and claiming it was his idea, to Aziraphale's constant assertions that humans are inherently good. It's exemplified by the baby swap disaster, which is a microcosm of this theme. No matter how much the powers above and below might scheme, they're plans generally end up being irrelevant to the choices of humans.

It's why Crowley and Aziraphale love humans so much. Humans are a guide for them, showing them how they can be more than just good and evil, and on our side, it's a hopeful thought to have, that the powers of good and evil looking down on us, instead of judging us, might actually have fallen in love with us along the way. It shows us that we are allowed to love ourselves.

The love that Aziraphale and Crowley have for each other is also at the heart of this story. While it has been discussed at length, it's for good reason. Because we all need a good love story. Amidst the uncertainty and ceaseless change, there is a constant, unbreaking bond between Crowley and Aziraphale-- steady as the revolution of the cosmos. Nothing in the scope of space and time is certain, but this is. We know that because we've seen it. Good Omens manages to create a love story on both a personal and an archetypal scale. On one level, this is a love story between two people from different worlds finding something familiar in each other. It's got the drama of starcrossed love, the steadiness of an age-old love, still with the butterflies of new feelings. As a queer love story, the hope in it is even more important.

Crowley and Aziraphale have all the qualities of two characters that are doomed by the narrative, and as much as I love those types of stories, this is a story about hope and it demands a happy ending. After all, if those two idiots can't get a happy ending, what hope do the rest of us have?

All this is to say, that while the final 15 was shattering emotionally, and still is, I never once doubted that all would be well eventually.

The recent accusations against Neil Gaiman came as a shock to me. I admittedly didn't know all that much about him as a person, but I looked up to him as a writer, as I said. The more that is revealed, the more truthful they become. I hoped that these allegations would end up as a big misunderstanding, and I questioned the timing just after David Tennent was attacked online for his support of the lgbtq community. However, the more information about Gaimen comes to light, the less it looks like a mistake.

This leaves us in a difficult position. It is not selfish to worry about the future of Good Omens. It is not foolish to be surprised. It is not naive to feel betrayed. It would be easy to come to the conclusion that 'no one should be trusted,' or to feel that the whole story has been tainted. It's so easy to write off the whole story as 'ethically complicated' so you don't have to examine your feelings critically. It's easy to 'boycott,' something so you don't have to deal with it, as if by not engaging with it, it's not real. I would urge you not to do this. boycotting a story is not as simple as just refusing to buy a product. Stories are part of culture and identity, to a certain extent, the person you are hurting the most is yourself.

There's a reason I spent so long describing why Good Omens is such an incredibly powerful story, because Neil Gaiman's actions negate none of that. The meaning of Good Omens is not dependent on the actions of the author. A truth is still true, even from the mouth of a liar.

Before I loved Good Omens, I loved Harry Potter. Despite JK Rowling's general shittiness, Harry Potter has brought goodness to people's lives, and even though some themes in the story ought to be examined more critically, the joy and comfort those stories brought also cannot be ignored. I was ten when I started reading Harry Potter. I was too young to grasp the homophonic or anti-semetic undertones in the story, and ironically, Harry Potter taught me to by an ally before I even knew I was queer. Before reading Harry Potter, I didn't know what gay was. After hearing Dumbledore was 'gay,' I did a google search and looked up the term in a dictionary. I remember my thoughts being, "you can do that?" and then, "why are people so upset?"

The point of this Harry Potter tangent is to say that while the intentions of the author may influence a story, the author ultimately can't control the effect the story will have on others. Once it is published, a significant part of it no longer belongs to them. They can't control what messages other people find in it, and they lose the right to decide what messages are true or not. If Neil Gaimen were to say today that Good Omens is all a very complicated metaphor for masturbation, that announcement would mean zilch.

Additionally, Neil Gaiman isn't even the only author! You don't have to give him all that credit to start with. Once again, refer to @vidavalor for info on the other amazing people who may have had a bigger hand in writing our favorite moments that we thought.

The Good Omens fandom has taught me not to be ashamed for loving a fictional story. I've been in the Lotr, Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Marvel, Sherlock, and countless other fandoms, and I can easily say that Good Omens is the most supportive, the most accepting, the most decent online fan community I've found.

We can hang in there. We've loved Good Omens since the book came out, we've loved Good Omens since before I was born, and we loved it even when we lost Terry Pratchett. We loved Good Omens when we thought there would never be a show, and when we thought one season was all there would be. Good Omens has so many kind and talented people behind it and so much love for it. Neil Gaimen will not sink us now. He doesn't have that much power.

@davidtennantgenderenvy also has a video on this that is very thoughtful.