#will most likely be posted to AO3

[clevereverest]

Careful • 1,951 words

[ Finch and Albert make out, but a level of vulnerability is accidentally breached.

This is a little spicy tbh BUT there’s no sex. They’re asexual and they were never going to go to that point, even though I don’t mention it. I hope you enjoy it! ]

Finch sat on the edge of his bed, the side closer to where his desk was under the window. He’d been browsing his phone mindlessly, procrastinating his school work, but even that grew boring after about fifteen minutes. He put it to sleep and placed it on his bedside table, then proceeded to fall backwards onto the mattress. 

“I don’t want to do anything,” he groaned, staring at the painted ceiling of a starry sky above him. 

“I’m sure,” Albert, Finch’s boyfriend of three and a half months, replied with a light laugh. He was over at the desk already, their laptops sitting beside each other and still shut. Like Finch, Albert hadn’t started working on anything either. 

“You make it sound like you weren’t procrastinating too,” Finch remarked. He heard movement as Albert approached, and added, “You were on your phone for as long as I was.” 

Albert conceded the point with a nod and sat beside Finch on the bed. Finch, still laying on his back, smiled brightly up at Albert — the greatest partner ever, in his humble opinion. 

They had a thing where Albert would say that he “always wants to be careful” with Finch, because he didn’t want to lose him. It was amazingly sweet, and Finch loved the sentiment. In return, Finch made sure to be someone that Albert could talk to about anything, and gently prodded Albert to open up more often. It seemed to be working out well and only improved as the days went on. 

For his first ever boyfriend, Finch was pretty sure he struck pure gold. 

“I would like to do something,” Albert said suddenly. 

His eyes were transfixed on Finch, a common habit that Finch had come to recognize over the course of their relationship. Albert just liked to watch him occasionally, no matter what he was doing, and Finch didn’t mind in the slightest. Assessing the gaze now, there was something a little deeper than innocent or idle observation, but Finch couldn’t pin it down yet. 

“Like what?” Finch prompted, his voice lowering in volume under Albert’s attention. 

Albert rested a hand on Finch’s cheek, caressing his thumb over the plane of it with a smile of his own. “Can I please kiss you?” 

Finch nodded immediately. He leaned into his partner’s warm hand and simultaneously tipped his chin up to meet Albert’s lips sooner. His hands traveled up to hold the back of Albert’s neck and waist while they kissed. It was evident after a couple seconds that this wasn’t just one long kiss, but a make out session. Finch was excited about that, and managed to pull Albert even closer. 

In doing so, Albert deepened the kiss. His free hand roamed until it found the bottom edge of Finch’s shirt, and slipped under it to brush over Finch’s side. Gasping quietly into the kiss, Finch felt lost and vaguely dazed all of a sudden. Albert leaned back to speak. 

“Is this okay, Fi?” He checked, remaining painfully still until Finch answered him. 

“Yes, it’s good,” Finch said in a rush. He was breathless enough for his boyfriend to notice and faintly smirk at. With a boost of confidence, Finch tugged at the hem of Albert’s shirt. “Take this off?” 

That smirk was clear as day now. “Anything for you, bub.” 

Finch practically melted at the nickname (he always did) and lifted off Albert’s t-shirt to reveal the beautifully toned body beneath it. He took the time to admire it all again, then let his hands move freely over Albert’s bare torso and tattooed arms while they resumed making out. Albert did almost the same thing, except he was just slowly pushing Finch’s shirt up — after a minute or two, he hadn’t asked about it. Finch was getting impatient. 

He carefully twisted out of the kiss, surprising Albert. Before his boyfriend could say anything, Finch blurted out, “Take it off already.” 

It seemed like Albert had been waiting for permission, and having gotten it, he did as he was told. Finch propped himself up while Albert removed the shirt, leaving both partners shirtless now. Albert also took a handful of moments to openly admire Finch, who blushed and tried to look away to hide it. He wasn’t necessarily self-conscious, it was more of a habit that he wasn’t overly fond of at first, but the reaction it got from his partner was worth it. 

“Hey, show me that pretty face,” Albert requested. He used two fingers to lightly push Finch’s chin back towards him so they could look each other in the eye. “That’s better.” 

Finch needed to kiss this handsome man again. Albert deserved it for how absolutely perfect he was. Taking control, Finch directed Albert to hold Finch’s sides while simultaneously pulling him closer for a searing kiss. As to be expected, Albert reciprocated, smirking at Finch’s eagerness. The couple was back to making out, and Finch barely registered when Albert shifted to straddle him, effectively pinning him to the mattress. 

Eventually, Albert broke the kiss — Finch drew in a long breath of air, unaware that he even needed the pause — and switched to kiss along Finch’s cheek and the bridge of his nose instead. Finch grinned, still processing every point of contact between his body and Albert’s, who was so much warmer and so present. By comparison, Finch tried to maintain his breathing while losing a fight to bliss. 

Albert’s kisses trailed along Finch’s jaw and reached the edge of his lips, but Finch tipped his head back slightly to avoid reconnecting there. Somehow, he managed to string together, “No, not yet. Keep going.” 

Having acted on a whim, he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted his boyfriend to do. The line of reasoning there was nonexistent. Finch was clocking out from the overwhelming sensations of this make out session — easily the most passionate one they’d had so far. Regardless, Albert seemed to understand and avoided Finch’s lips. Finishing the trail on Finch’s jaw, Albert took the next rational step: lower down, to Finch’s neck. 

For being pleasantly dazed, Finch was okay with this for a grand total of four seconds before his mind caught up and realized what was happening. 

Finch jolted underneath Albert, his breath hitching in a sudden, blind panic. Naturally, Albert reeled back in a flash, his eyes wide and expression fearful. 

“Fuck, I’m so sorry, Fi, did I hurt you or something —?” Albert spoke in a rush, somewhat panicky himself, a byproduct of Finch’s reaction. He even went as far as trying to climb off Finch’s torso, but Finch held him in place. 

“No, no, you can stay. It’s okay, I’m okay,” Finch quickly reassured in urging. He wanted his partner’s steadfast presence to stay right where it was, especially while he was coming down from his brief show of unfiltered fear. 

The couple lapsed into silence. Finch, still laid flat on his back, waited for his heart rate to return to normal with closed eyes and deep breaths. He’d unconsciously grabbed Albert’s hands and held them over his ribcage, and Albert tentatively rubbed Finch’s knuckles to further soothe him. 

“I’m really sorry for killing the mood.” Finch kept his eyes shut as he whispered the apology to his boyfriend. 

“Don’t be sorry for being scared,” Albert said, his tone soft. “I’m really sorry for not being more careful. I should’ve asked first, and I didn’t, so I now feel like a total asshole —” 

“Sweetheart, please,” Finch gently interrupted. He looked up at his boyfriend. “We’re both kind of to blame here because we haven’t discussed all of our boundaries yet, at least on my end.” 

Albert nodded in agreement. “You’re right.” A pause, and he dropped eye contact. “So you clearly don’t like neck kisses.” 

Finch gave his answer some thought. “Technically, it felt really good for a few seconds, but then I remembered my immense fear of… things — for lack of a better term — near or touching my neck, but my throat specifically is the real problem.” 

“Why is that?” Albert asked. 

“It’s an extremely vulnerable spot on the body,” Finch explained matter-of-factly. “The skin of the throat is thin, and if too much breaks or pierces the skin, you’d just bleed out. If the right amount of —” 

“Woah, that’s grim —” 

“— pressure on your windpipe, then you’re completely cut off from oxygen —” 

“Fi, hang on —” 

“— meaning you might pass out or you could die from that too.” 

Upon seeing Albert’s worried expression, Finch awkwardly cleared his throat, far more self-conscious now. “There’s more,” he added quietly, but before Albert could stop him, Finch rambled on, “but I won’t say it because I know how this makes me sound and I should just shut up because the mood is beyond dead. I am so sorry, Al.” 

His eyes were closed again. If he was able to, Finch would’ve gotten up from his bed, but as it stood, Albert was still straddling him. And if Finch was being honest, he didn’t want his partner to move yet. What he really wanted was to go back in time by about two minutes and direct Albert’s kisses down to his shoulder or collarbone — literally anywhere past his neck. He wondered how hard it would be to request for Albert to act like this entire conversation never happened and just kiss him again, just distract him from the stupid fear he has that ruined a perfectly good make out session —

“Adrian.” 

The use of his real name pulled Finch out of his mental spiral. He returned to the searching green eyes of Albert, who offered a satisfied smile when Finch actually focused on him. 

“Thank you for telling me about your fear,” Albert said earnestly. “I didn’t know it scared you so much, and I will not, under any circumstances, kiss your neck or throat going forward. I promise to be careful with you.” 

A small smile pulled at the corners of Finch’s mouth. “Because you don’t want to lose me.” 

“Because I don’t want to lose you,” Albert echoed sweetly, squeezing Finch’s hands and leaning down to lightly kiss his forehead. “I never want to do something that scares you.” 

Finch’s automatic response was going to be ‘And I love you for that’ but he managed to say something else lovingly appreciative before those three words slipped out. They’d only been dating for three and a half months, and while he’d never had a boyfriend before, Finch had a strong feeling that saying ‘I love you’ right now was too soon. (Even if it was true already.) 

Deeming the conversation a success, Finch aimed to redirect it. He said, “Can we get back to making out, or…?” 

“Of course we can,” Albert agreed immediately, and they released their hands to hold each other in other places. “Where do you want me, bub?” 

Just with one little nickname, Finch was melting again. He reached up to pull Albert back to his lips, and they kissed like that for a while before Finch got a great idea. He slowly leaned up, still locked against Albert, and effortlessly maneuvered their positions. Once they were situated, Albert was the one laying on the mattress whereas Finch straddled him instead, and they broke apart for air. 

“That was pretty smooth,” Albert commended, short of breath and the most attractive Finch had ever seen him. 

“Oh, I know, sweetheart,” Finch quipped with a grin, his cheeks flushed pink. He traced over his partner’s bare chest, causing Albert to squirm a bit, and Finch’s grin grew wider. “Can I kiss you here?” 

“Please,” was the simple permission that Finch received, and he eagerly leaned down to do just that.

[ My AO3 Dashboard • Sept. 9: On AO3! ]

[izzythedemigod]

I just found the funniest font ever

Like. What is this. Why is this. Who is the target audience of this?

[bebrave-live]

Genuinely hilarious how The Pitt fans, apparently, if you go by Ao3 popularity, all looked at Mel and Langdon and went "these two need to go a 10k+ slow burn where they get closer and closer and eventually become each other's most important person in the world" and looked at Abbot and Mohan and went "these two need to FUCK HARD"

[licorishh]

no way she's alive ?? yea those mental health breaks because social media makes people suck are wild huh

[sidethatyoudontknow]

In the middle of all this 457 chaos there's me that lowkey ships junho and the salesman/ the recruiter/ddakji guy or whatever you're calling him

I mean have you look at them, imagine the banter we could've got

Like there's junho, a detective who's been trying to find his brother only to be led up to a brutal kids game competition in some sketchy island and also finds out the person who controls the said game is his very own brother that he's been searching for a long time that is also a previous winner in the game

And then there's the salesman (some people call him ddakji or dak ho) who's been trained to kill, to see people that played the games is lower than him like a trash since he was a teenager probably, who doesn't even know the purpose of life anymore, a literal mess, a maniac. That's also probably the one that recruit junho's brother into playing the games(a theory not sure if that would makes sense)

Just imagine that, I could write a few headcanons if anyone interested

And yes yes I know they didn't even interacted once for SHIT(and the only time they ever see one another was when one of them already died and the one died never also see him or does he?)

[erinwantstowrite]

every time i start panicking about the small details (like how i don't know near as much marvel lore as i do DC, etc) i remind myself that LoF wasn't supposed to get super popular and im just having fun and practicing writing for my own books and suddenly that anxiety goes away. like it's not gonna be perfect and it was born out of me and my friend being goofy

[gothamite-rambler]

Harley: Why are Cattie and Battie acting like… how do I word this without grossing you out?

Nightwing: Like horny young adults?

Harley: Yes…

Harley pointed to Batman and Catwoman, who were acting like they were in their younger dating days. Catwoman playfully circled her fingers around Batman's lips, making him laugh before leaning in for a kiss.

Harley: Yes! What is that?

Nightwing: My nightmares. For a legitimate answer, Batman made this medicine he needed when he felt his bones making too many strange popping sounds. He wanted to feel better, and it worked… except whatever he put in it makes him act like I imagine he did when he first became Batman in a lot of ways.

Nightwing whimpered, covering his face like a child who just walked in on his parents in the middle of sex. Harley patted him on the shoulder.

Nightwing: I’m not upset about the romance part; I just don’t want to see it.

Harley: Oh, I can relate, but Cattie doesn’t seem to be complaining.

Nightwing (still hiding his face): About that… Remember when she fell off that building and landed on an awning? I’m not sure when, but he gave her some of his currently tested-only-on-him medicine, and then he dosed himself again. I want stoic Papa back.

Harley: Oh… oh… Ooooh! You poor thing. I assume you were lucky enough to miss this as a child?

Nightwing (whimpering): Mostly… Have they at least stopped yet?

Harley: I’d look the other way if I were you.

Meanwhile, the couple continued to embrace, kissing passionately as Batman dipped Catwoman. Red Robin’s masked eyes glanced at the exchange for a moment before he turned away, walking past Harley and Nightwing.

Red Robin: Don’t mind me; I’m going to find a mugger and see if he can beat me into memory loss!

Nightwing: Good luck, bro. He won’t be able to clear his mind. Once you see it, it stays with you.

Harley: You've walked in on Batman—

Nightwing: Five times, yes. Not always with Selina. One time was with Talia… The horrors. It was like a wolf versus a giant black widow spider. Harley, I’ve seen surreal horror from working with the Titans, and this makes me want to stare into the sun.

Harley (taking Nightwing for a walk away from his father): That's a normal reaction. That’s your dad and future step-mom; of course, you’re going to want to avoid seeing that. It could be worse.

Just then, Batman and Catwoman dashed past them, heading to the Batmobile and driving back to the manor. Nightwing quickly received a ping on his phone.

Nightwing: “Going home to train. You got this.” And... he sent a thumbs up with it. Awesome, thanks, Dad! A few more days left. Just a few more days…

Harley: How long has their libido been on high?

Nightwing: A week now.

Harley nodded, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

Harley: Talk and fight bad guys with me for the rest of the night.

Nightwing: Punching villains and thieves will actually help distract my mind. You know, when he took that drug called Venom, that was easier to handle. I’d take insane over ready to bang any day.

Harley: I walked in on my parents during a three-way with our neighbor. I can help you get through this; I gotcha, kid.

Nightwing: Thank you. I'm going to need all the support and journaling for… this time period.

pt 1

pt 2

[miyamiyano]

It's valentine somewhere

[rinriniisthekatch]

An expert of the spin-off 'I Thought this would only happen to Danny!'

Now, I don't know if y'all remember my ao3 fic back in April last year. Where Jazz was just driving and suddenly acquired baby Danny, hot and young Bruce and 12-year-old Dick. In chapter 7 or 8, there was a comment about having an older Bruce with the Jazz of his world. So, we'll be doing that! I'll write the expert and then the ao3 version will come out later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was only a matter of time when Bruce was thinking of meeting his younger self and his younger self's wife. Jasmine Wayne was... simply put beautiful young woman. He didn't know her maiden name, he didn't know whether she existed in his universe or not.

But he wanted to know and his children... his children were just waiting for that 'Okay, you can find her.' He was slowly becoming obsessed with the thought of finding Jasmine. If she existed in this universe.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Jazz Fenton only wanted two things in life. One for her brother to not start high school again due to fighting imbecils(?) because he can't keep his teenage emotions in check when he's mentally in his early 20's. The second thing, Jazz wanted was for people to stop telling her to go to Arkham to be therapist. She was not going to be a therapist to a bunch of psychos.

[necrotic-nephilim]

@profandomhopper i was going to reblog the original post this comment was left on but i felt it divorced itself from the original topic so much, you get your own post for giving me delightful permission to ramble about this. buckle in people this is long.

so, DC is a big fandom that expanses a lot of different types of content, and like anything, is subject to crossovers. the obvious ones like Marvel are for the reason of being a similar and equally popular superhero world, so it's easy to transpose the worlds onto each other and overlap the characters. both of these worlds deal with multiverses and endless, endless heroes. it makes sense and there's no real stretch to think Batman and Spider-Man could co-exist. i mean, there have been canon crossover comics. and even some more random crossovers like White Collar have pretty easy to trace origins, being an actor in WC was a popular Dick fancast back in the day so there was some bleeding over that led to a well-loved niche crossover space.

but Danny Phantom and Miraculous Ladybug are where it gets interesting. because at a surface, MLB sort of makes sense. it's a superhero world, you're following a teen girl superhero and sure the mechanics are pretty contained, but the crossover should make sense. but when you compare it to the crossover numbers of other superhero media like say My Hero Academia, Ladybug takes the *crown* with such a bizarre popularity. and of course, DP feels like it makes even less sense. sure, you *could* lump it into at the very least, superhero-adjacent media, but it's not a true hero world like MLB or DC is.

but, the thing to always understand about DC, *especially* the Batfamily (which is where the crossover content propagates the most) is this: a *very* good chunk of fans don't interact with the comics. i would venture to say even most Batfamily fans don't read the comics and actively talk about it. we've all read a very fandom big Batfam fanfic where the author's note mentions the writer has never touched a comic in their life. typically, these fans are either cobbling together their understanding from fandom content, or by frankensteining unrelated DC adaptations to understand each character. you take Bruce from Batman: TAS, you take Dick from the animated Young Justice, you take Jason from Batman: Under The Red Hood animated movie, you take Damian from the DCAMU Batman vs Robin, and you read some fandom metas to fill in the rest and well, you've got some sort of an understanding of these characters. read enough incorrect quotes, some genfic, a couple of character metas, and boom, you understand the Batfamily fandom enough to start creating your own content. and of course now. now you have Wayne Family Adventures so it's even *easier*. a pretty easy to pick up webtoon that's filling in all the gaps for you. but i've been in this fandom long enough to remember before we had WFA and even then, this was still a common, if not the most popular way, to ween yourself into the DC fandom space. you cherry-picked the canon you liked and then plunged into the depths of fanon.

i'm not here to make in depth commentary on if i think this is a good or bad thing. trust me i have that commentary in my head, but that would need it's own post. i'm very split on it and my feelings are complicated. my feelings on WFA are even *more* complicated. because oftentimes, the attitude expressed by these fans who are frankensteining this version of the Batfamily/DC world they have in their head is they don't *want* to read the comics. the comics don't contain the content they're after. and to an extent, i understand that. if you're looking for light-hearted vibes of the Batfamily all getting along and having the occasional hurt/comfort moments but in the end, they hug and make up, you're right. largely, you won't find that in canon. of course there are so many comics to recommend for Batfamily interactions, but you have to get specific. you'll find them interacting in small groups, Tim and Dick bonding here, Duke and Cass bonding there, but largely, the comics don't care to balance the ridiculously large cast they've given themselves. but fandom does. it's easy to toss them all in a blender and ignore the parts you don't like. the default argument to ignoring the comics or writing something OOC is always "well the comics are OOC and inconsistent too" which, while a flawed argument that massively misunderstand how comics work as a medium, isn't an entirely incorrect one. you could serve on a silver platter to these fans, an easy and accessible way to get into comics and they wouldn't be interested. it's not what they're here for. fandom is always character-driven above all else. it's driven by character relationships and dynamics. if someone wants to consume content where Tim idolized and stalked Jason as 'his Robin' and now is trying to help him rehabilitate and they're super complicated but have this long epic forgiveness arc, why *would* they read the comics? because they're sure as shit not going to find that dynamic in the comics. it's laughably OOC and not canon at all, but that doesn't matter. what matters is the sandbox. most Batfamily fans care *far* more about the sandbox canon gives them than the actual canon itself. feel how you feel about that, this really isn't being negative toward that attitude, but it is a common attitude.

so, you have Batfamily fans playing in the sandbox and building their own narrative. common fandom headcanons are so common, you could practically write a guide on how the fanon Batfamily works with how consistent people are about it. or you could just read WFA, which is practically the new manifesto of it. even now, with this sudden spike in people talking about canon accuracy and "actually this happening in the comics", they don't actually care about the comics, just what they can cherry-pick for fodder. (even if they rob it of so much context they're just as OOC as they were before. see specifically: the recent phenomena with Tim Drake going from the woobified weakest member of the Batfam who everyone needs to save constantly and he's the smart boy but he's also the one with a sad tragic neglectful past who gets overlooked being the way Batfamily fandom played with Tim for years. but recently, people seem to be pushing this idea of a ridiculously badass Tim, Tim who *totally* has a kill count because of his actions in RR (2009) if you take them completely out of context, Tim who bested Ra's and is even more badass than Jason and he's the 17 yr old CEO of Wayne Industries being cool and flawless it becoming the new fandom zeitgeist. neither of these versions of Tim are canon, and the second fundamentally misunderstands his arc in RR (2009) but the shift has undeniably happened and it's been fascinating to watch. the same thing happened with people suddenly deciding Jason isn't the "angry violent Robin", he was a sunshine sweet boy who was perfect as Robin. neither of these are true, but the second feels more transgressive and new to fandom from cherry-picked panels.) the point is largely, Batfamily fans would rather build their own canon than play with the actual canon.

and then, you have Danny Phantom. i'm not into DP and have no interest to get into it, but what i know about it via fandom osmosis is this: DP fans sort of also don't give a fuck about canon. once again, the canon of DP is a sandbox, not a rulebook. the concepts and the characters are the draw, not the plot itself. i've seen DP posts explaining characters who are essentially OCs, but have become so dominant in the fandom via fandom osmosis. there are concepts and ideas about how Danny's powers work and potential concepts with his ghost nature that either aren't in canon or only happened once in canon and fans decided to expand on that and doesn't care about it's own in-universe logic. i've seen a lot of DP fans also express they haven't seen the show and they don't have plans to see the show. because the show is just some children's cartoon with some inconsistencies and a simple plot, as you'd expect from CN. the show isn't the point. no one cares about it's plot, they care about it's characters. they care about pushing the concept of half ghost boy to a logical extreme and seeing what you can get out of that. can you make it weird and fucked up. how much can you highlight on his trauma and body horror. what identity crisis can you give him and how can you build his interactions with other characters in his world around that and also make those characters fun and unique on their own. sure, the skeleton of canon is there, but the meat lies all in the fanon.

Miraculous Ladybug also exists in this similar vein. the characters, the concepts, those hold intrigue. and not even mentioning the fact the original concept for this show was supposed to be aimed to an older audience, so you can see the bones of something a bit more mature and nuanced under this typical, villain of the week magical girl transformation show. the show itself is a bit shallow and that's not a *bad* thing, it's just the medium it exists within being aimed towards children. but the concepts of a teen girl who's basically a sort of chosen one, a boy who doesn't know his father is the big bad of the show, and their weird identity porn love... square thing. those dynamics are *so* complicated and such a fun sandbox to play in with character-driven fandom.

so, at the core, you have three fandoms that care more about the culturally accepted fanon than the canon, with a good chunk of people often not even consuming the original canon content. and well, DC is an *easy* world to transpose just about anything onto. a boy who's half ghost and fighting supernatural threats? that makes sense, DC has ghost heroes like Deadman already. a girl who has this magical item that gives her animal themed superpowers? i mean that's practically the same thing as Vixen's Totem so that one makes sense too. they fit in pretty easy, no needing to change the world to accommodate them. and of course, if you're a fan of *one* fandom where you don't care for the canon content and only like the fandom sandbox, chances are, you'll get drawn in pretty easily to another fandom with similar mechanics. if you can teach yourself the DP fandom rules/concepts, you can teach yourself the Batfamily fandom rules/concepts. and well, since there's so much crossover in fandom members, why not write the fanfiction? crossover fics will always exist, but with such a shared member base, you have a really big boom.

it's why the characters you see DP interact with in DC are *always* characters who are far more driven by fanon than canon. Danny and John Constantine is a *massive* concept. for people who don't read Hellblazer comics. my poor partner, @divine-dominion has lamented to me pretty often about finding DP content in the Hellblazer tag that is essentially turning Constantine into an OC. because whatever version of Constantine is being written about isn't one bit comics accurate, and really, isn't trying to be. and the same thing happens with Shazam. you watch Young Justice and understand him well enough, you get drawn in by the character concept that you just run with it. people put their favorite blorbos in the same place because hey, wouldn't ghost boy be pretty cool in a city like *Gotham*. how would Batman even react to him. and then, the shipping. because ages for the Batfamily can be easily hand-waved and moved around based on where you plop Danny into the timeline, you have your pick of the litter with him, and same with Ladybug. of course there are the most popular ships but largely, the world is your oyster.

i don't think this is the worst thing in the world for either fandom. it's not hard to filter out the crossover tags and scroll past content i don't like. and sure, i see the appeal of making your blorbos from two different places meet. i've got my drafts *full* of DC/MHA crossover ideas because well, i like them both and think that would be cool. i think my only gripe with it is when DP or MLB crossover content seeps it's way into the wrong tags. using the above example, if you're writing about Danny and Constantine but there's zero content of the actual Hellblazer comics, i don't think you need the Hellblazer tag, just the Constantine character tag. tbh i wish this extended onto Ao3 and people utilized fandom tags better. if you're writing Batfamily fanfiction that is very clearly and obviously WFA driven in characterization and concepts, i would far prefer those fics be tagged with the WFA fandom tag rather than the Batman (comics) fandom tag. because well, you're not writing about the Batman comics. and there's nothing wrong with that, but it helps if you don't confuse yourself for content striving to interact with canon more. (this especially extends to Young Justice, by the way. if you're writing for the Young Justice tv show please, please stop using the Young Justice (comics) fandom tag. i'm at my wit's end- /lh)

the whole thing is fascinating. i've got zero interest in entering DP or MLB as fandoms because that's not my speed, but witnessing it as an outsider is my favorite pastime. i see a *lot* of posts going around the DC x DP space that are helping explain to people who's who, what's what, and understanding the canon/fanon of both of these properties so others can better enter the space. which is not something you'd need in a fandom driven only by it's canon content, but it is sweet watching others try to help newbies enter the space. it's a very inviting fandom space, i think, whether you lament it's existence or not. they're just sitting in their corner with their blorbos, and i gotta respect that. the posts explaining the Batfamily to DP fans are always fun for me to read, even if i disagree with some of the characterizations in them because it helps shine a light on what the fans of this crossover regard as "important" enough about each fandom to be worth including those sorts of primers. very fascinating stuff.

[transingthoseformers]

There's a certain brand of angst with the Megatron (war era / post war era) x Orion Pax (pre-war era) brand of megop

Crunchy stuff to me

[baejax-the-great]

Fanfic isn't a possession.

When an author deletes a work on AO3, they haven't taken anything from the readers. It's not a physical object that can be snatched away, and if readers wanted a digital copy to keep, AO3 made that possible. It is the reader's choice whether or not to keep a copy. The author has absolutely no say over whether or not they do this.

If you have a favorite exhibit at the museum, and that exhibit closes for whatever reason, nobody "stole" art from you. Same thing with whatever play is currently at your local theater--it's temporary, and when it closes, the actors didn't take away your entertainment. Before streaming and box sets of tv shows being sold at Target, all of television was ephemeral, too. You caught it or you didn't.

I don't know why there is an expectation that fanfic should be permanently made available to readers. The archive certainly gives a place where that can happen, but there is no reason to assume that it always will happen, nor that readers are entitled to that.

There are many reasons to delete a fanfic--not orphan, not post anonymously, but delete. It's fine to be disappointed if that happens. It's not fine to harass authors or try to wrest control of the work from them or create archives full of stolen work.

[trappedinafantasy37]

We did it guys! Minthara is in the top 100 most mentioned video game characters on Tumblr, sitting comfortably at rank 55!

With Astarion at rank 1 (cause of course), Gale at 5, Shadowheart at 6, Karlach at 8, Lae'zel at 9, Wyll at 12, Halsin at 16, Tav at 19, Gortash at 47, and The Dark Urge at 67. Baldur's Gate 3 is also the most talked about video game on this platform, as well as the 6th most talked about thing on all of Tumblr!

I wish Minthara was higher, but you know what, I'm happy she's on there at all! It is also interesting that she ranks higher than Durge and that Durge is that low on the list. It's also pretty interesting that there is such a discrepancy between Durge and Gortash as Durgetash is also the 67th most talked about ship on the platform. It is quite an achievement that our favorite drow is even on that list at all.

It is all just making me think back to some of the more dejecting AO3 statistics with Minthara almost being a blip, practically a statistical outlier in some ways. Even some insignificant side characters got more attention and adoration than her, or had numbers that would compare to her. But Tumblr is a much bigger platform than AO3, containing a much wider array of topics (including fanfics). So for Baldur's Gate 3 and Minthara to stand out that much is really saying something! Reading these statistics on Tumblr does go to show that one platform does not represent the entire fandom and that AO3 is only a piece of the picture.

[pisces-swirlix]

me: damn i’m so excited for the weekend

coworkers: me too! got any fun plans?

me, sweating nervously: haha i guess

coworkers: nice! what are you up to?

me, really just looking forward to reading the weekly updates of my favorite fanfics: um. sleeping. and walking. yeah

[ryssbelle]

Poppy for N2 au, it took me so long to make her design cuz I didn't really know what I wanted to do only because I feel like her design is pretty perfect.

But then I just thought about fun outfits to give her or outfits that I would find comfortable if I was wearing them and it all came together.

Poppy here is pretty much the same as here movie counterpart, as nothing really changes on her end of things other than having more insight on Branch through his brothers, and through Lief. Shes also a bit more understanding a bit earlier on because of it but it doesnt do much to change her own character arc I would say.

Bonus

Part of Poppys design was based off a design I had made for previous rulers of Troll Village/Tree

Namely Queen Protea who I designed as Poppys grandmother

Named after the Protea flower which part of her design is based off :D

In the context of this Au Protea was the one who conceptualized the tunnels while her son, King Peppy, was the one to follow through after her death

[toupee-or-nottoupee]

i think it was delightful thinking about how he'd interact with the quest (i brought him via AnyTimeCompanions mod. he does not say these, its just my own delulu)

Plus the hilarity of having just interacted with him as Prof. Black and he doesn't know jsangksdjgsd yet

pt 1 (you're here) / pt 2 / pt 3