#I’ve seen people saying that the fandom should change it and I’m curious to what people think

[cosmics-beings]

Why do you like Skybound? From the little I’ve seen on tumblr, it looks like it’s made Starscream into a heartless, ruthless villain with no emotions and that doesn’t sound like something a Starscream fan would enjoy.

The thing about it is that, I like it because it is Starscream. Starscream is ruthless, he is heartless and he is a villain. Especially to humans. The only thing I don’t really like about Skybound is that, for two seconds, I was terrified he was killed off early but people are saying he might be alive?

I think the interesting thing about Starscream, depending on the iteration or what version of the character you absorb, is that he can be multifaceted. I think that the two Starscream’s we have now are Earthspark and Skybound Starscream. It’s fair to say that Earthspark Starscream is handled with a lot of nuance and respect for what happened to him, which is what I absolutely love and adore. But Starscream is still, at his core, before any form or redemption can ever take place, and awful person. Even Earthspark Starscream was not a good person until the episode dropped.

Skybound Starscream to me at least, isn’t that shocking because that shows us one of the many facets of Starscream he can be. I think that, given the various iterations we’ve had of him, and the franchises lack of actually committing to a type of Starscream, it is easy to mix those versions + fandom interpretation (which imo , does tend to water him down and overly pacify him for many reasons), and in a way, think they should be canon.

But in reality, despite the iterations, Starscream is not supposed to be viewed as a good person. At least, not to begin with. Starscream has always been an extremely violent, ruthless, manipulative and abusive person. Even in Earthspark, or TFP, or Cyberverse, etc. He has always resorted to violence to get what he wants. He mistreats those around him, and those who try to help him whether it be his Trine, Knockout, etc. That’s why I don’t think that Skybound is inaccurate because that’s just who he is. I think as Starscream fans, it’s logical to want a version of Starscream that is nuance and more complex because we have gotten that in the past, even among the violence. And I mean, other characters are allowed to have that.

But I’m also okay accepting that Skybound isn’t that version, and that Skybound is also very canon, and often times forgotten version of Starscream that I think the fanbase sometimes needs to be reminded of. I’ve spoken about this before, but while I am heavily empathetic toward Starscream, especially in like TFP and Earthspark (and IDW), he is still an awful person, and he actually has to change to get sympathy points. And what Skybound is doing is in a way, reminding us of that or leaning into that side of Starscream that is either overlooked by the fandom, or a side we haven’t seen in years.

I am literally all for crazed, violent characters like Starscream, and I do like it. Because I also think that, with all the discourse surrounding his character, it is important to recognize that he isn’t this helpless person who has done no wrong. He is still, at his core until he changes, a violent person. And it is satisfying seeing him be violent but also seeing him be held accountable for it.

Skybound Starscream, like all depictions of him, is realistic. I just don’t think we get the nuance or the sympathetic nature of him, which again is okay. That’s not to say that in the future, we don’t see it. Because I believe we will.  

I am very curious to see how his relationship with Megatron is going to be, and in my mind I hope they have a good/better relationship but I hope they're good to each other, or at least can work together. I really don't want any of them to be redeemed I just want them to be terrible actually and just feed off of that.

#if i say that starscream is lucretia to megatron's batiatus and i need to see them be THAT bad in this comic #i actually dont want starscream to be a good guy at all #but in that i don't want megatron to be good either T-T #i want them both to be really evil #starscream #transformers skybound #tf skybound #energon universe

[staygoldnati]

#I’ve seen people saying that the fandom should change it and I’m curious to what people think #the outsiders #ponyboy curtis #darry curtis #sodapop curtis #two bit mathews #dallas winston #johnny cade #steve randle #dally winston #curly shepard #purly

[welcome-to-green-hills]

So I’m relatively new to the fandom and I first started following back when Frontiers came out. I’ve been following along with prime and the movies and love them like you do, but I’m not really understanding the whole debate about Shadow sounding better? He sounds like a nice guy with what I’m seeing here in prime, kinda a bit of a loner and very focused and determined but know when to open up to people and stuff.

I think what I’m trying to say is is there a weird point in history where people didn’t like him? I keep seeing that people are saying that his character sounds like his old self. Did something happen? Sorry if this a dumb or loaded question. I’m really curious

Hi Hon!❤️✨

This is not a dumb question. I promise you that this is an excellent question! It’s a bit of a long history because this character has been around for 20–odd years. And you see a whole lot with how a character grows within that time.

Shadow has gone through… a lot of changes. And I definitely mean “a lot.” We’ve seen Shadow go through some positive changes, negative changes, and even some questionable decisions throughout the years. Sometimes influence came from memes and media popularity, others came from writers butting heads with each other, translations from different regions are often compared to one another, and many more. Reboots of the franchise happened and it became a problem; character development changed when it didn’t need to. And it almost became an obsession with some where we felt this need to try and fix everything. With all of this going on, it kinda became hard with pinpointing how a character should be portrayed. On top of that, how can you talk about a character that has an interesting background without going overboard?

I think that we—and when I say “we,” I mean a good majority of the fan base that welcomes Prime—fancy Prime!Shadow so much because he reminds us of an already existing Shadow… and that’s 06!Shadow. It’s not an exact copy, but they are similar. Both are developed. Neither of them hold onto their past in an unhealthy manner, but use it as inspiration to become something better. You can have a character with a traumatic past share that they’ve gone through something bad without it being angsty for no reason. The past is there, we recognize that it exists, but it isn’t used as a defining label. Instead, the time and energy that is used from mending is now used to create something positive. Prime is not a bad interpretation of Shadow at all, it’s a pretty good starting point to a character that we’re familiar with.

So, yeah. There’s definitely a LOT to the whole debate about what’s wrong or right with Shadow. However, I think we’re at a good place now. We’re taking a step back to examine the history of a character and building off of traits that worked well in the past. If anything, you’ve arrived to the fandom at a perfect time.

Anyways, this is just my two cents on the subject. I know that this didn’t cover everything that has happened with Shadow, but it’s a start. I hope that this answers some of your questions, my dear.

#shadow the hedgehog #Sonic Prime #mystery anon #off topic #I’ve been a Sonic fan for 20yrs. You see some things

[iamstartraveller776]

Feel free to ignore, but you mentioned that the fandom landscape has changed drastically from twenty years ago, and I’m curious what that means for you. I’ve seen lots of posts on the topic, but am interested in your experience if you want to share.

I absolutely can share!

Twenty years ago, I found fandom through bulletin boards or message boards (depending on what you called them). Trekbbs was my first one, and it's still standing. High speed internet was relatively new, and it was easy to keep up with "threads." Whenever you logged in, it would take you to where you left off with any given thread so you could catch up. (Discord does this...kinda, but Discord moves at warp speed where BBS's moved at impulse power.) It was easier to stay connected, to get to know people. Also, the boards were (and are) heavily moderated. Trolls were banned, and folks who got too heated under the collar were usually temporarily banned until tempers cooled. So it was generally a safe environment.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the vast majority of the boards were grown-up only. That's not to say that minors didn't sneak through, but they were on their best behavior lest they get found out and kicked off the board.

And from the boards, we learned where to find fanfic. Back then, even though FFN existed, fic was primarily archived on private sites. There were no such thing as likes and kudos back then. It was fandom etiquette (at least for my corner of the Trek fandom) to leave a comment/review if you read a fic (and be nice about it!). It was the era of Kink Tomato (your kink is not my kink and that's okay) and don't like don't read and simply fun. We had challenges, did round robins—where someone would write a chapter of a fic, then another author would write the next, and so forth.

Even when I made the switch to posting more on FFN, it was pretty normal to send a message to someone to thank them for favorite-ing your story even if they didn't comment. And often they would message back, telling you what they enjoyed. I have some friendships born from this! It was normal. Writers weren't called "needy" and "self-absorbed" for hoping for more interaction with their readers. We were all in this together.

I also did yahoo groups for a time, and had a fantastic time with my friends in an email chain.

LiveJournal was kind of the peak of fandom, IMO. I think it was the first "public" website, rather than something privately owned, where we could build communities (private or public) as well as have our own pages (private or public). Some of the best fandom events happened on that site. But LiveJournal ended up imploding. (Cyber attacks then the new owners started wiping out entire communities without warning for violating the new terms of service. It was horrible.)

So we all moved to Tumblr. (And we were slowly moving to AO3. Some also moved to the site formerly called Twitter.)

Tumblr was pretty awesome back then. Because fandom people took the same community with them when they came. We didn't have replies back then, but dagnabit we screenshot tags or reblogged comments and posted them with replies. It was easier to follow tags and even some fandoms created blogs that were archives for fics. (Myself included.) The downside was, and continues to be, lack of moderation. Not that I think fandom should be gatekept, but it isn't as easy-going when you do have to worry about putting up with trolls as a rule rather than the exception.

Alas, life happened and I had to step away for a few years. When I came back...it's so much quieter. Significantly less interaction. Less comments on fics. There's just...less connection in general. People tend to flit in and out of fandom more often. And on top of that, there is the odd movement that fanworks shouldn't contain anything that would make a reader/viewer uncomfortable or is unrelatable to the general masses. As a fanworks creator, there have been times I felt more like a monkey dancing for a demanding audience rather than a squee-ing fan sharing things with fellow sqee-ing fans. I seriously questioned for a long time whether I would bother anymore.

(This also doesn't mention how streaming and binge-watching series rather than weekly releases have affected fandom. It's different when you get one episode a week for an entire season of 20-24 episodes than when a streamer releases the entire 8-10 episode series at once.)

A part of this is me, too. I don't have nearly as much time to invest in fandom as I used to. I can't be too critical of the changes in fandom, but it is different.

And so I hang onto a few of the friends I've found (like you!) and continue to find here and there. I write whatever I want and delete rude comments. I always reply to the others. And I keep plugging on!

Thank you for asking! And thank you for being part of what I love about being on Tumblr even after all these changes! (Sorry I got a bit verbose!)

#star replies #about me #fandom #curator on ao3 #fandom old

[yuikomorii]

If it’s not rude of me, I’d like to ask how is Ayato the favorite in Japan among fans?

I’d always assumed it was Shuu, since he consistently ranked first in the polls and that Ayato was the favorite among the people who don’t play the games but buy merch, so that’s why he got a push in merch. I do not mean to offend, I quite like Ayato, I’m just curious.

(I apologize if my English is bad, it’s not my first language.)

// Shu has more active and sociable stans, Ayato has more solo and private stans in Japan. Popularity polls never really show how popular a character truly is because 1) you can vote once a day everyday in some cases, 2) it’s not that hard sending a link to your friends/followers in order to vote for your favorite character and 3) not everyone votes. I’ve never even seen any DL character get close to even 10k votes and I’m sure all of them have over 1 million fans. I mean… Just take a look at Piofiore's Dante, who came in first in the popularity poll, although Yang and Nicola are much more well-liked. The same is true for Lupin from C:R; even though he tops the polls, Van Helsing and Saint-Germain are all the rage. If we interpret it that way, Kou won the 2022 poll too, right? Ayato also won the 2017 Rejet shop poll, which took place in Tokyo.

Shu is still indeed very popular in the Japanese DL fandom, but Ayato is more popular in the Japanese otoge fandom and with locals. Sometimes you’ll find Shu merch a bit more expensive than Ayato’s one, other times you’ll find Ayato more expensive than Shu. It simply depends on how the sellers view the situation.

Another possibility is that Shu’s stans aren’t as active as they were in the past since things change or Ayato just had a huge DL fans boost. I know votes aren’t everything but the fact fans voted Ayato’s CD as the best Daylight one and also won best overall CD drama in 2022, surprised me a lot because I, at least, never found his CD dramas particularly good.

I made a post about this once, and as I said, it started off as a joke but Ayato is truly an IT boy, lol. A famous idol cosplayed him once… that should say it all. In 2020, people recommended him so much that he ended up co-starring at “Nino-san”, a program held by Kazunari Ninomiya, a national idol as well. I don’t know how, since he’s literally 40 years old, but he somehow knew who Ayato was and even smiled when he saw him. Moreover, the interviewer literally went to a stranger and interviewed her, then she started shaking and laughing when she saw Ayato and even admitted being his fan. That, imo, shows how HUGE Ayato must me, if even random people know who he is and bias him too.

I don’t think any Diaboy could ever be more known and loved than Ayato is outside of the DL fandom but that’s not because of his character or anything like that, but due to his unbeatable visuals. You’ll see a lot of people saying that his face is ideal/perfect/desirable, as seen here, and they’re not even joking. Most people find Ayato the most good-looking one there because he is the closest to their beauty standard. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is very handsome; Shu has one of the most liked designs too but the reason why his visuals are not more praised than Ayato’s ones is because he looks too western. Japanese people are fascinated by western features but they don’t want to look like that; the majority would prefer someone that fits their ideal of beauty more. Ayato has canonically big eyes, a small face but not too small, long dark lashes, a youthful and quite androgynous face but that still shows some masculinity, a slender yet muscular body, above average height (170cm) but not too tall. That’s what makes him visually perfect.

To sum it up, all DL characters still have their fans but due to the fact that a lot of other otome games came out, they lost some hype they used to have. Ayato still manages to be the most talked about, praised and trending character at the moment merely because of his visuals, since that’s what sets him apart. Him being super pretty makes otoge fans and locals bias him, so they desire his merch, plus he got a big amount of DL fans too. Is he the most popular in the jp DL fandom? Idk, I don’t think anyone could truly measure that. Is he the most popular DL character there? Yes.

#admin

[goayeos]

LIES AND BLOODSHED / 9:06 PM

Fandom: ATEEZ (Park Seong Hwa)

Genre: Angst, Yandere, Drabble, Gore

Word Count: 569

TW: blood, gore, death, mentions of serial killing, yandere, manipulation.

 “What’s so bad about a little bloodshed?” He looked into her eyes, which were full of uncertainty, unease, and anxiety, it made him laugh a bit. At her silence he feigned hurt, tapping her cheek with his left index and middle fingers, “you should respond when talked to, angel.”

   She didn’t know what to say, looking around at the red stained basement floor. The once brown panels of wood were now deep scarlet, and the large room now felt small and tight with the pungent scent of death lingering, it didn’t seem to bother him though. After all, he was the reason for all the skin grafts on those meathangers.

   “Hwa… who exactly are you?..” She muttered, not able to leave the grip of his arm around her waist.

   “...Who am I?” Seonghwa chuckled, finding his wife’s concern quite amusing. “I’m still the man you fell in love with years ago, I’m still here, I’ve never changed..” He continued, “..but you’re aware that even the people closest to you, even you, yourself, keep secrets from you. I guess you’ve figured out mine.” 

   Seonghwa’s eyes narrowed, his lips brushing against her jugular now. “I’m not gonna hurt you… relax puddin’,” he whispered, feeling her tense up, “don’t you trust your husband?”

   With hesitance, she slowly nodded after a minute, but that was after Seonghwa was getting impatient, his blade pressed against her soft skin. “Good.. good angel.”

   “Now I have to ask you one more thing,” He stood straight, letting go of her as he looked down at her shorter stature, “and you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” 

   She shook her head, letting out a breath.

   “You wouldn’t tell the authorities, no? Because I also know a secret of yours, baby.” Seonghwa raised his brows in amusement when she shook her head. “I-I’m not hiding anything. What would make you think so?” She looked up at him with a troubled gaze. “No?” He nearly scoffed out, then went out of her vision, into the dimmest part of the basement, where he opened the closet.

   “You mind explaining this then, my dear, loving, oh so beautiful wife. You said you’d never lie to me, so I just want to know, because.. you know, I’m curious.” Seonghwa explained so casually, dragging out a deceased woman by the hair, covered in blood. His other hand held the back of her shirt for support, since the poor woman’s hair was jaggedly cut in a degrading way.

   “Because I, oh baby girl, I didn't kill her. I’ve never seen her let alone would I ever touch her in this way, this.. This is disgusting.”

   Seonghwa dropped the body at his wife’s feet, and watched as her face turned from feigned anxiety to stoic uneasiness. 

   “I said I wouldn't lie... “ She slowly turned her back to him, sliding sneakily the .22 in her grip, a devilish smile growing onto her features, as she let out a laugh.

   “And I meant that.” 

   She turned quickly, gun to Seonghwa’s head.

   “No female is gonna touch you, because you belong to me.” She cocked her brow, spitting on the dead body.

   “And that harlot pushed her luck. Unrest in turmoil.” 

   “What-”

   She snarled, before pistoling his foot, and dragging him away to the closet despite his newfound pain.

   “Goodnight, my dear, loving, oh so beautiful husband. I said I’d never lie to you..” She smiled, closing the door.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I've been preparing a series, comes out February 1st, 2024. It's called "Paranoia", and includes all members of ATEEZ. Most of them will be NSFW, as they are centered around adult content (sex, smoking, drinking, drugs, gangs, etc.). I'll be updating more about this on a separate post, but go ahead and let me know what you think about this one! Thank you for your time and take care of yourselves. <3

-Sweetness (2023)

#kpop #kpop imagines #kpop fanfic #seonghwa #seongjoong #yeosang #wooyoung #atz #mingi #hongjoong #jongho #ateez #kang yeosang #choi san #park seonghwa #seonghwa x reader #seonghwa smut #seonghwa ateez #seonghwa imagines #seonghwa fluff #seonghwa angst #kpop rp #seonghwa yandere #ateez x reader #ateez fanfic #ateez fic #ateez imagines #kpop aesthetic #ateez smut #ateez yandere

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

In the past few weeks I’ve seen lots of posts about people either complaining about or explaining to ‘younger’ fic writers about how their belief in an AO3 algorithm is incorrect and I wanted to put my perspective forward as someone who probably is counted age wise in this section of younger fic writers.

I’m 18 and have been writing fic since I was 11 and found Wattpad and started posting little self inserts of my friends and I in the animes and comics we loved, so about 7 years of writing and to be honest my perspective of ‘growing’ an audience in fic has been influenced in some way by social media, but not to the point of assuming there’s an algorithm. 

With Fanfiction, there’s always going to be niche tropes and genres depending on the fandom and it’s common sense to assume that the more you ‘target’ a popular ‘trope’ or genre in fic the more (i hate to call it this but for the sake of the social media allegory I will) engagement you’ll get. The more clicks you’ll get, and theoretically the more comments, bookmarks/saves and likes/kudos you’ll get!

For instance, let’s take mid-2010′s Wattpad; self-insert/oc-ish inserts were still popular because it let the reader (commonly a pre-teen/teen girl involved in a fandom for the first time) act out fantasy scenarios with their fictional/unrealistic crush or let them become best friends or family with their favourite characters! People loved it, because it’s the most basic form of self-indulgence and of course self-insert always has and always will be popular in fic but from my personal experience it was BOOMING on Wattpad then; so if you wrote self-insert/ocish insert then you would get more people clicking and reading as was my experience. 

However if you were to do a more ‘niche’ genre or trope... lets say a Mineta Minrou ship fic in the Boku No Hero Acadamia fandom (since Mineta is an almost universally disliked character in the fandom) you may get the occasional views from Mineta fans or from people who were looking for another tag and are just genuinely curious about what’s going on here but with a character/trope so unpopular within the fandom it doesn’t matter if your fic is the most beautiful gut-wrenching philosophy changing piece of literature to grace the internet people won’t read it. It’s the basics of ‘don’t like don’t read’.

To me, that’s my social media influenced perspective of fic sites. 

The READERS in an essence are the algorithm, if you want ‘clicks’, hits, likes, bookmarks, kudos in the most efficient way then you have to do research into you fandom and find what people LIKE to read - are songfics really popular here? Is any ABO fic created under this fandom tag bullied into deletion? Does this fandom love coffee shop au’s? 

But if you do that, then what’s the point of writing fic? 

What’s the point of writing something that you might not even want to write, that you won’t be able to put your best into, that you will just sit there going ‘I hate this, this is stupid, useless and not something I want put to my name’ all in the interest of getting people to click on your fic so that you can feel you’ve gamed the system when the number goes up?

I know people who’s magnus opus of fics have gotten less than 500 clicks, and most of them regrettably will come from the same 20 or so people re-reading but they’re beautiful, fantastic fics that have all the right tags, that should be ‘palatable’ to a wide audience but they just never get picked up by a wide readership on A03 because as beautiful as it is, there’s hundred of fics being posted every day on AO3 and the tough reality is you aren’t special.

Fic writing isn’t a competition, it’s a fun hobby or side hustle and it’s something that people do for many reasons; to improve their writing, because they can’t let go of this one particular plot point or scene,  to share their love or hate over a character and many other reasons as simple as ‘I wanted to write a story with these character’s in it. But why would you want to write a fic just so people might go ‘oh wow! you make really popular stuff’.

Will that really make you happy? I don’t think so, my first non-self insert fic did absolutely terribly when it came to people reading it because I was so used to writing a genre where people would flit from one of my fics to the other and tell me how much they loved it, but I nearly ended up deleting the fic and never straying from self-inserts because I must not be as good of a writer as I thought.

(I wasn’t, hand on heart I’ll admit that. I was 13 and had a very inflated sense of self)

But then I just kept writing because my friend told me that they liked it and it took a good long while to unlearn the idea that people interacting with your fic in large droves meant success but I did and my writing and confidence has improved. 

And so...

To all the younger fic writers or even the older fic writers just getting started, looking at fic sites like a social media site will do nothing but hurt your creativity and harm your confidence.

When it comes to social media sites it’s easy to forget you’re engaging with real humans and not just creative outlets handed to you by the algorithm but they are real people, and the social media mindset is ‘appeal to what the machine wants and the people will follow’, but on sites like A03 everyone is a person and there is no machine to appease. If you soullessly pump out fics just to make some mystical computer program push it into peoples faces people will notice how little care there is in a fic. 

A fic is supposed to be something you’ve created, and like with all art it’s in some part a reflection of *you* so if all you do is go ‘I don’t need to put as much effort into this I just need to put the right tags and let the magic happen’ people will know, if you pour your heart into it but then mistag the whole thing people will get pissed at you.

Nobody likes reading a whole wall of tags, it’s boring and unreadable and if you mistag your fic to get ‘more clicks’ people will just report you because you’re in breach of T & C. You’re not only turning people against you from the offset you’re potentially getting yourself booted off the platform with nobody but yourself to blame.

The best way to get ‘engagement’ on AO3 is just write what you want, do what you want and people who like the same things will come to you, people aren’t going to read something they don’t want.

An archive is just a collection that you look through yourself; hence the name Archive Of Our Own. It’s OUR archive of OUR things that we made. 

If you try and dehumanise the system then you’re going to be on the losing side.

#fandom #proto talks #A03

[azrielgreen]

I just came from your tik tok about ao3 etiquette and enjoyed your commentary about kink shaming and rating systems and why it’s not a good thing for fandom. How it drives creators away or forces them to delete work because they don’t want to be judged and witch hunted… Thank you for using your platform to bring attention to those matters. 💚

I was wondering what your take is on another fandom matter: comments people leave that sort of perpetuate a fandom hierarchy and dig at other writers to lift other writers up. Like “this creator carries the fandom on their back” or “you’ve ruined me for all other writers”. Stuff like that. I’ve seen it across multiple fandoms and always felt a little stung by it because what it says to me is that everybody’s work in fandom as a collective isn’t appreciated. I feel comments like those turn fandom into a popularity contest where select writers are skyrocketed to fame and small time creators are drowned out. I’m not sure if that’s just me taking it personally, or if those comments are actually rude.

Obviously I’m not unaware that you’re popular and rightfully so. I’m not trying to come off as bitter, or guilt trip you for your success. I apologize for my question if it seems this way. I tried to word it carefully, but I’m not sure if i communicated my thoughts accurately.

I know you’ve been part of smaller fandoms/ships before and often orphan your work, etc. because you write for yourself, and you never expected to blow up. So I guess I’m just curious to know your perspective since you know both sides of being smalltime and being famous, and if your standing in the Steddie fandom has changed anything for you or given you a new outlook. If it’s a lot of pressure to be so looked up to. If you ever miss being more of an unknown creator so it could give you more freedom. If it ever makes you feel uncomfortable to be popular.

Thank you in advance if you respond to this. I know it’s an odd message. 💚💚

Hi, firstly thank for you this question. It's a really important one actually and being mindful of the fandom in which we share space/interact with one another is, in my opinion, essential.

So, looking at your question - the elevation of one author above others in terms of praise - it's definitely not ideal language being used in the examples you gave and there is always, I think, a way we can express ourselves with total authenticity and honesty, but also not stepping on people. Now, this is not saying that anyone who comments things like that IS stepping on anyone and I have to be clear that 99.9% of all my positive fandom interactions here have been expressed beautifully.

However, our language can always be shifted to something more inclusive. Because ultimately, this fandom is MASSIVE and there are a stunning amount of beautiful, meaningful works that due to its size don't get anywhere near the recognition by comparison that they deserve. No single creator carries anything on their backs, a fandom is a community and it should be a mutually beneficial/supportive one.

In terms of a popularity content, I think that happens in all large fandom spaces to a certain degree. This phenomenon has both positives and negatives, but overall, I try to stay out of the "contest" as much as possible. Cliques are deeply unappealing to me and having been bullied out of several fandoms in the past, I can confidently say I would never want to be in one. I have good friends, writers and readers alike, in this fandom and I dare believe that no one I am close friends with would ever treat people poorly.

In terms of my own experience, I do still regularly orphan works. Orphaning my work keeps me humble to a degree and I love creating just for sake of it, with no audience in mind. I personally don't feel any pressure to be looked up to as I will always write for myself, even on main, and if people don't like it, there are 16k other fics out there to read (and counting). It does make a little uncomfortable to be considered popular, or well known more accurately. It's strange to scroll Twitter (something I rarely do these days) and see my name and my fic being very casually discussed. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. I miss feeling invisible, that's true, but it'll never stop me from writing what I want and whoever enjoys it along the way, that's a wonderful added bonus.

In terms of "fandom heirarchy" - a strange system that mostly operates on word of mouth, sometimes the hits/kudos numbers on AO3 - I think it's important to remember that a lot of the reason behind this structure is that some of us were the first people writing Steddie back in June 2022 and so those numbers/familiarity are naturally inflated due to legacy. I definitely always try to keep that in mind and I will gas ANYONE up whose work I love, always, while trying to pay tribute to all authors and creators in this space however I can.

I have to say I do dislike the elevation of one author above others on general principal and I see people getting competitive, hostile and even sometimes resorting to bullying. The SteddieBigBang Discord server disaster (which I heard about from my friend) is a solid example of that and an excellent reminder of why I value my space and autonomy so dearly.

Operating in this fandom has absolutely opened my eyes to the pitfalls of such mainstream interaction but it's also allowed me to reach such a wide audience of people who've shared with me their own experiences, which I treasure. I've healed a lot of my own personal trauma in writing what I have and I'm incredibly grateful to have a place here. I will always advocate to elevate all authors within the fandom because everyone's work is important, beautiful and essential. I will always defend everyone's right to consume and create whatever they want in a safe, encouraging space.

I make new discoveries every day based off my own searches for content and gently advise others to do the same, rather than only ever relying on rec lists and "algorithm" style suggestions. If I published You're Divine today, out of nowhere, I doubt it would find any traction beyond the few people (like me) who tag-search for the very specific things they like.

Thank you for this question and for taking the time to relate your thoughts so the way you did. I appreciate you. 💜💜💜

[alittlefrenchtree]

Oh? Tell us more about Nick and Taylor's chemistry please. Curious Anon here! What do you mean by how interested you are in the nature of it and how it reflects on screen? Please elaborate 😊

Ok, so.

I don’t want my words to be misunderstood or lead to negativity so I might be extra cautious with things I’ll be saying.

Where to start? 

After my first watch, I remember saying *I think I like them better as BFF than as soulmates*. Six months down the line, things have obviously changed but I feel like there’s still a sense of that in few of my favorite scenes to watch, such as the New Year Eve party, the infamous turkey scene or the coffee in Paris scene. They’re flirty but we’re still closer to the start of the relationship than the end of the movie.

After my first watch, when I eventually stumbled into a few videos of them as Nick and Taylor and saw them as they are, I said oh. right. this is what I’ve seen shine so brightly through the movie.

So, that was me a few days in the fandom.

Obviously things are a little bit more nuanced now that I had time to watch and think more about everything. Because their chemistry also work in scenes where they are definitely not friends. Sex scenes were definitely not a problem since they feel right in all of them and there are also scenes through the second half of the movie where their chemistry is perfect for me. I love the.. pontoon? (No idea how it’s called) scene. Even if I wouldn’t put it in a list of my favorite, it’s probably one of the most beautiful scene of the movie. I love the piano scene as well.

But there is also a whole segment of the movie where they've kind of lost me in terms of chemistry. And writing this post is making me realize that most of the scenes I’m talking about are actually scenes that happen in a row: from the moment Alex storms into the (fucking) castle to Alex leaving all the way through the V&A scene. I guess I was waiting to feel things I haven't really felt. Not everything fall into Taylor and Nick’s responsibility obviously (I could pinpoint blocking and writing and editing), but these were moments the chemistry should have crossed the screen to wreak my heart and didn’t really. 

And I don’t know about their filming schedule exactly, but my guess is that maybe at this point they had fell (too much?) into that friendship/banter energy off screen, and it had leaked a bit on what they were doing on screen. Which did great for some scenes and a bit less for others. Because learning that the coffee scene was the first one they shot made a lot of sense with the rightness of their energy there. Alex and Henry have obviously known each other for a while, but, in many ways, the scene feels like a first date. And since this was the first scene for Taylor and Nick, they naturally were exactly where they needed to be. With the shyness and the tension, but that urge to know each other and just start whatever they were starting as characters and as actors.

So yeah. This isn’t me saying they haven’t any chemistry or haven’t enough of it. They obviously have, and it did help for the majority of the movie. But, for me, there were some moments, when the nature of their chemistry off screen might has made the process of hitting the right spot on screen more difficult. I don’t know.

And I do believe that seeing or not seeing chemistry in people is the most subjective thing you can think of. I’ve seen people melt over the chemistry shared by two people who looked (for me) like they never met in their entire lives and I’ve also seen the opposite so, you know. All opinions are valuable in this context and nothing is an absolute truth.

And if you’re wondering why I didn’t mention the night scene in Paris: I have another ask about it, so we’ll have plenty of time to discuss at length about it. Just probably not today 😅

And once again, thank you for the question 🙏💜

#alft asks #i'm not sure of how much i want to tag this actually #i do love the movie i promise 😅

[nathanrm]

Alice returns to Wonderland

This idea has always been in my head ever since I started getting into the twst fandom and I just wanna talk about it, what if Alice returns to (twst) wonderland after being gone for many years?

For a bit of context though this Alice will be my own version, a mix of all types of Alice in wonderland content that I’ve seen over the years, my version will be male because 1.my blog is for male and enby readers 2. NRC is an all boys school 3. There are already a lot of female twst reader content to the point when I look up “twst x male reader” there still a shit ton of female reader content

(and yes I will keep Alices name the same despite making him a boy, I just prefer it that way, let’s just say Alice’s mom desperately wanted a girl but Alice was born a boy, so Alice’s dad let his wife let her name the baby boy Alice)

The basics of my idea for this fanfic is that Alice grew up in wonderland being able to visit it when ever he wants with the help of the white rabbit , he’s been visiting since he was young (maybe 3-4 years old) he grew up with the weirdness of wonderland and see the beloved characters as family, King and Queen of hearts are parental figures, mad hatter, the March hare and the teapot mouse as uncles and aunt, and the jabberwock as a giant house pet , and with the rest of the great seven as his other parental figures as well (yes I’m very well aware of great 7 yuu and great 7 yuu is one of my inspirations for this fanfic idea) Alice often stays in wonderland longer than he should but it doesn’t matter since time works differently in wonderland than Alice’s words, Alice can stay in wonderland for week, months or even years but in Alice’s world he’s only been gone for a couple of hours or a day (since we see in the live action, in wonderland Alice has been there for days but when she returns it’s only been a few minutes).

And Alice was somewhat involved with the making of NRC , yes i know this sounds far fetched but I saw a theory about NRC being the evil queens old castle, they even compared pictures of both NRC and pictures from the Snow White movie as proof, since that place is really really old it obviously had a lot of changes to it, and in my fanfic ramshackle was a dorm specifically for students that are from Alice’s world, normal magic less students who are more interested in things that are considered abnormal in their world, like Alice’s natural curiosity for things that aren’t the norm in the Victorian era, here’s a bit of the fanfic for context

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

“My dear do you like the idea of going to this school once it is finished?” The queen of hearts asked Alice as the boy was sitting next to her looking at a book with only pictures in it and little to no words.

-Alice looked up at his mother practically beaming with excitement ”of course mother! Night Raven College sounds like it would a wonderful school! I can’t wait for it to be finished! Meet all kinds of people from other lands, and learning new things from them just makes me excited!” The boy yelled with joy and excitement.

-The Queen couldn’t help but coo at how adorable her son was, his natural curiosity always getting the best of him “well there will be another dorm added for special students” the Queen said to grab her son’s attention

-The Queen had Alice’s full attention now, placing himself on her lap so he can listen to her with wide eyes filled with curiosity and smile on his face “this dorm will be for students like you my dear” she stated then bopping Alice’s nose making him giggle “this dorm will be for students from your worlds” she continued “students who don’t fit in with the norms of their society or government or whatever it is they have there. Magic-less students who have unique qualities of their own to make up for their lack of magic, like how your such a curious little boy, smart and a fast learner!”

-The Queen cheered and tickled Alice making the boy laugh and trying to keep his mother hands from tickling him more, the pair laughed and hugged each other in a loving embrace

-Once they’ve stopped the boy got off his mother’s lap and looked up at her to ask if he could go tell his father, the King of hearts about it, she gave a nod of approval then the boy ran off into the garden to find his father to tell him about the news

And this is the last time Alice sees his wonderland family after going back to his normal family which he regrets a lot because the white rabbit never came back to bring him back to wonderland and he’s been waiting ever since.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

I’m still very nervous to post the stuff I write and draw on here, and I’m still nervous about my writing since I’ve mainly only written stuff for myself for a long time but I wanna share the stuff I write and draw, I’m still new to writing for other people so for those who are way better writers then me feel free to point out any mistakes I make, I wanna learn so I can be a better writer

All of my writing will be male and enby readers so please don’t ever ask for a female reader I’m begging you please just don’t, I will never do female readers, I posted my rules about request before but deleted it because I haven’t posted any of my writing about twst, I will remake it once I’ve posted more of my stuff

I’ve rambled about my version of Alice for twst on @Twisted-wonderland-but-gayer blogs and a lot of their writing inspired me to make my own about twst

Here is some art work of my version of Alice for twst

#twst #twisted wonderland #writing #fanfic #my oc art #my oc character #oc rambles #male reader #enby reader #twst x male reader

[silvialightning]

I had a thought that maybe the recent flux of… out-of-left-field, used-to-be-obscure ships have come into play because of the fandom environment surrounding shipping. (I’ll preface this by saying that I have those kinds of ships too, and I do not mean to bash on any of those ships and shippers!)

If you ship main characters (or super popular ships) there is always going to be fandom drama surrounding it, no matter what the ship is or how unproblematic it is. There are extreme corners of fandom that are hypercritical and policing of what ships are and are not “morally allowed.” And if you try hard enough, you can always stretch for a moral quandary.

So there are people who are in those fandom corners. Fandom is a place to have fun. But with such policing of what is and isn’t allowed, with the goalposts between ships changing at a whim, rules applying to one ship but not the other, there is a worry that liking the wrong ship will get you harassment.

Maybe that’s why there’s recently been such a boom of ships I’ve never really seen before. Characters that never interacted much (if at all), maybe ships that are aesthetically matching, maybe the characterization isn’t even quite accurate to the characters shipped. But if they’re not The Bad Ship then it’s allowed! Nobody really cares about the shipping drama of X character. So people can ship these things freely without worry.

(I have crackships too, between characters who only have one exchange, or who are not even in the same game/shows! This is all fine! I am fine with out-of-left-field ships! The sudden rise in popularity of those ships is interesting to me! The ships that should have like 50-ish fics bc of how obscure they are! And I’m glad ya’ll shippers are eating well. It’s just..curious to me the happenings of it.)

#mine #fandom culture #I should be sleeping rn

[starlit-dreaming]

ITBOMM Extras/Drafts + Announcement

Fandom: WMMAP Rating: G Ship: Eventual Lucathy, Felily, Calena, and more Note: the Twin Sibling AU that i tried so hard not to write, but i DID, so naturally i have to call myself out for writing it. will be cross-posted on ao3 and wattpad under the same title

A/N: oof this chapter kinda ran outta my hands and went from 4k to 5k+ lmao i also sort of just glossed over some details, but i’ll eventually go a little more in-depth at a later time

Arc 1: Beginning of the End 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Arc 2: Of Princes and Villainesses 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21

Side Story: maybe, i’m afraid (verena/athanasios) 1 | 2

[Extras/Rewrite Announcement]

A/N:

Long time since my last update, and I will apologize for that since I didn't expect it to have been that long since then lmao

I've been rewriting ITBOMM!!!!!!

The reason for this is because there's a lot of scenes that I wanted to write, and a lot of storybuilding that I didn't have back then that I do now. There's a lot of interactions that I never got to write out prior to the timeskips, and there's a lot of relationships I'd like to better establish instead of just tossing everyone into the scenes in one chapter.

I'll be posting the rewrite under a new story as "re: in the back of my mind" and I'll be changing the title of this fic to ITBOMM. I'll be posting extra scenes, my outline, etc here, and mark it as complete.

CW: There is a scene where someone commits suicide. For those who wish to avoid it, I will be marking it as *** and ending the scene with the same marking. It isn't explicit and detailed, but I will still be marking it.

————————————————————

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear — or so the saying goes. He didn’t expect Odysseus to actually start attending their music lessons together, but he supposes that it doesn’t actually matter in the end. It should be a blessing in disguise, since it meant he could get to know the kid and regain some memories.

Should be, in theory.

Rather, what matters is how awkward Athanase feels when it comes to hanging out with a future anti-monarchy revolutionary leader, since his mother had stepped out of the room for several minutes. If you don’t see the issue with this, then allow me to paint the problem:

They were alone together. A member of the monarch’s family, and a future anti-monarch revolutionary.

“What did Your Highness say to make Lady Durk cry?” Odysseus had asked after a short while of silence. He seemed curious, despite his blank stare and monotone voice. Maybe he was just as bored as Athanase is, since they were both reading music scores and doing nothing but reviewing what they had just gone over while Countess Nightingale was out discussing something with Felix.

It was naïve of Athanase to think that nobody would’ve found out about Autumn. Felix was one thing, but if anyone else saw her crying, they’d think he was turning out to be more like his father, maybe. They knew Felix would keep his mouth shut, but if it were anyone else who saw her cry, word would spread like fire. For both of their sakes, he hoped she got away without being seen, but apparently not.

Still… it could’ve been worse. Odysseus was asking in a one on one conversation, without anyone else. Countess Nightingale didn’t seem like a blabbermouth, and the maids value their own life to gossip about the Imperial Prince’s playmate with other nobles around.

So that limited the amount of people who saw. Maybe Irene saw the crying and decided to get her brother to pry into the matter? It made sense…

At least it wasn’t his father — he’d probably ask if Athan found her to be a displeasing friend.

“Huh?” He blinked owlishly, trying to look as confused as he hoped he did. “What’re you talking about, Sir Odysseus? Why would big sis Verena cry?”

Athan was pretty fucking adorable — he knew this and was confident about this fact. He and Athy were blessed with damn good genes. Maybe, on a very slim chance, Odysseus would think he’s a cute and harmless person and that Autumn didn’t actually cry because of him.

“Hmm.”

Maybe his adoration for Ferdie was too strong. How the hell could anyone remain indifferent to his cute face?

. . .

Ah, he spoke too soon, Athanase thought, his eyes noticing the slightest red hue gracing Odysseus’ cheeks. The boy in question simply looked away as he muttered under his breath.

“Well… deserved…”

…?

Did he just scoff? His eyes had looked away, but Athanase could sense that there was a hint of scorn in his muttered voice. He was curious about what Odysseus actually said, but…

If he didn’t know any better, it sounded an awful lot like…

No, it couldn’t be.

Odysseus may be OOC for a character in Toska, but he was still a kid. Granted, no kids to his memories were ever really polite and cordial for the most part, but this was a world with a nobility setting.

(“Would you call me crazy, if I told you that I went back in time?” or so implies whatever character in a cliché rofan manhwa scenario.

Athanase waves the thought away.)

“I don’t know what you think might’ve happened, Sir Odysseus,” Athanase simply smiled. “Care to share your thoughts?”

“Ah, it was simply my imagination, Your Highness,” Odysseus politely responded with an obviously fake smile attached with the false pleasantries. “Forgive me for misunderstanding what happened. I was rather concerned if Lady Durk offended the Imperial Family.”

The way Odysseus apologized felt as if he were mocking him, especially with that twinkle in his eyes. He seemed greatly amused, actually. And it sounded like he himself saw her cry.

Maybe he wanted to know if his “rival” was out of the picture. Or miserable, depending on who he’s obsessed with.

Athan wanted none of Odysseus’ drama-starting shit.

‘He’s more of a brat than I thought,’ Athan absentmindedly thought, instead opting to refocus on his music sheet.

——————————

He could feel eyes staring at him, bearing into his soul.

A glance up, with a smile on his face, he sees his father, looking at him from where he sat at the dining table. Judging by the fact that Athy was nowhere to be seen, it was just Athan who arrived early.

“Good morning, papa!” Athan greeted sweetly, giving him a proper bow before moving to take his seat.

When he sits down he notices his father staring at him. Despite seeming expressionless, he couldn’t help but sense an unspoken displeasure.

Strange, did Athan do something wrong?

‘Maybe he just hates seeing my face as opposed to Athy,’ Athan absentmindedly thought, feeling a pang of bitter disappointment. It was hard not to hate his sister, even though she hadn’t done a damn thing.

The doors open up and in walks Felix holding Athanasia, who he promptly lets down after a glare from his father. He watches her dart around the table, the slightest blur of blonde heading towards their father, giving the man in question a hug.

Huh. When did Athy start getting so affectionate with him?

——————————

Interacting with Athy is, to put it bluntly, weird.

The realization that the original Athanasios hated his older sister made it hard to think of her as the same dumbass sister he cared about. On top of that, the loss of his twin telepathy made it difficult for him to understand her thought process now as if they were strangers. Knowing her, she was probably screeching profanities at him for ignoring her, since she didn’t know what was happening.

Her thoughts were always so loud, too…

Losing the telepathy was a huge blow, because now it left them with only one faucet of their personalities. He had a role to play as a sweet and gentle musician genius, while Athy was a cheerful and friendly prodigy who enjoyed learning. Their telepathy allowed them to just be two young adults in the same unfortunate circumstance.

But, he didn’t want to reconcile with her, if he had to be honest. It was necessary for the sake of convenience, yes, but unwanted.

Unlike him, Athanasia was “complete” in his eyes. She wasn’t burdened by lack of memories, she wasn’t shackled with comparisons purely by being recognized as a genius. Maybe she was the golden child, favoured by looking the most and acting like their mother.

His sister was not controlled by her memories and lack thereof. Not like he was, with his obsession with memories.

Even so, their conversation was inevitable.

He knew it was, and with most of his memories all over the place, he just didn’t want to talk about it. Talking about his lack of memories would only invite questions that he couldn’t answer, questions that he himself wasn’t ready to hear.

‘She doesn’t need to know that this is my third life,’ he concludes, ���But I’ll tell her about Autumn, otherwise she’ll be too wary of her being so close to me. She already wasn’t happy about me going to Arlanta, either, but Felix managed to get his foot in the door negotiation-wise.’

Felix opens the door, allowing him to poke his head in and see his sister and her playmate.

“Athy, can I play with you?” Athan asked rather sweetly with a smile. “Big sis Verena wanted to talk to Lucas.”

“Of course, Athan!” Athy cheered, smile wide and clearly fake.

Lucas only raised a brow at the odd request from Autumn, but Athan supposed it was justified. Lucas was an outlier, and Autumn wanted to figure out if he really is an unrelated person to this world.

Maybe he’s a transmigrator like them, Athan truthfully considered. Like an OC in fanfics — original characters were a hit or miss with him, but he often made exceptions if he was desperate for a fanfic. Lucas seemed like a cliché self-insert OC — black hair and red eyes, a classic combo that would only be a better fit if he was a mysterious stranger with a tragic backstory…

Focus.

“Why have you been ignoring me?” Athy frowned, puffing up her cheeks in clear displeasure. “Ever since I woke up, you never talk to me like normal!”

“Me ignoring you?!” Athan scoffed. “You’re one to talk! You’ve been acting like I don’t even exist!”

“What?”

“What?” he hissed. “What part of that don’t you understand? You’re the genius here.”

——————————

‘Autumn, where are you?!’ Athanase panicked, calmly taking a sip of tea. ‘How do I deal with your obsessive gay son?!’

‘Bitch — where am I? Where the fuck’re you?!’

Autumn’s thoughts practically screeched at him from across the Marquisate.

——————————

Ferdinand Milford is a surprisingly chatty kid. It often grated on his nerves, but oddly enough, there were moments where he did feel fond of Ferdie’s dumb comments. Maybe the original Athanasios was much more familiar with the guy?

He almost reminded him of Athanasia, whenever she tried to urge him to tag along with her.

How was she adjusting to life without him, especially without the telepathy?

Maybe it’s for the best that he doesn’t know.

——————————

“I don’t get it,” Athanase frowned. “I said the same thing word for word as I remembered, but it only made her angry.”

“Did you do anything different?” Autumn asked.

“Not that I can remember,” he shook his head.

“Well surely you must’ve done something,” Autumn wearily said with a wry smile, finally looking over to him. “Charlotte dislikes men, and yet according to your memories, you and our families were the exceptions.”

“But I really didn’t do anything different…”

“That may be, but you need to remember that you’re not the same person any more. You experienced a childhood where you are loved and cherished. Even if she, too, is cherished by her loved ones, maybe you won’t be able to relate to her at all in this life because you’re no longer the same as you once were.”

He hated that thought — a small part of him desperately wanted to know more about Charlotte.

It was a rather ugly feeling.

“I don’t want that,” he quietly admits. “I want to see her smile.”

“You’re surprisingly stubborn about this,” Autumn blinked.

“I don’t remember much, but she was important to me.”

——————————

“I… don’t want to have a painful death.”

She is a beauty beyond compare, though her face was sickly pale with chapped lips. He tries not to note the lack of red hues her lips used to have, nor did he say much as his hands cupped her cold hands. Her eyes are beautiful, but they are now muted orange-yellow sunsets — he still loves them, he still loves her, but it breaks his heart to see her in so much pain.

“Wouldn’t that be nice? Surely you agree, dear.”

“Yeah,” he quietly says, placing his hand next to her as she laid in bed and watching her weakly bring his hand to cup her cheek.

“Do you think I’m being horrid for thinking my family is selfish, love? For saying such horrid things. Mother and father keep telling me to hold on a little longer and have faith,” she weakly huffed. “Sister-in-law keeps telling me that she’ll find someone to save me, and then my elder brother insists that I’ll survive this ordeal, even though he looks away as though ashamed.”

“No,” he wryly smiles, running his fingers through her long blonde hair, watching as her shoulders relax. “I would say the same, if I were plagued with this cursed affliction without a known cure.”

“Truly, my beloved understands me best,” she smiles in return, and he notices how her eyes grow misty. “Am I terrible, having these bad thoughts? For wanting them to cut it out and be realistic?”

“Of course not,” his eyes softened. “They’re trying to handle the situation by having hope, but it’s hurting you the most.”

“I know they mean well,” she states as tears begin to fall. “But it makes me feel all the more guilty for leaving them.”

“Yeah, I know,” he nods, taking his handkerchief out as he wipes away her tears.

——————————

“I will leave you and the princess be — I won’t even try to covet her holy beast. In exchange, I ask that you don’t interfere with the wish I must grant.”

“And whose wish are you talking about?”

“Why, my princess, of course. Isn’t it obvious?” she smiled at him. “Even if she’s not the same person, I must accomplish what’s been asked.”

——————————

“Would you hate me,” [][][][][][][][][] had started, looking off into the horizon, “If I were to be consumed by my short-sighted quest for revenge? If I abandon my ideals of knighthood in exchange for the power it takes to defeat those who have wronged us? If I were to ever become the monster that I had sought to destroy… what would happen, if I stray?”

He raised his hand to cup [][][][][][][][][]’s cheek, speaking gently, tenderly, “I would kill you myself.”

His eyes softened.

“Good.”

——————————

***

She sits on the windowsill, calm and quiet as the wind brushes through her long pale blonde hair. The weight of her dress fell at her sides, a clear indication that she was skinnier than before. Her face sullen, and the skin of her hands had hugged her so that he could see the bone structure.

So, he dimly thinks as realization creeps up on him as if it had always been a known fact. This was the reason why she was hiding away. Up in a room away from everyone in the mansion.

[][][][][][][][][] twirled a flower between her fingers. If anyone from noble society saw her now, they might actually believe her to be a mere ghost, waiting for her time to come.

“[][][][][][],” he quietly says, watching as his beloved wistfully twirls the flower in her hand.

“Ah. I’ve been caught.”

Despite the nonchalant response, she looked rather guilty.

Guilty about taking off without him, he knows.

“You’re leaving.”

It was not a question.

[][][][][][] doesn’t smile at him, and instead wistfully smiles at the flower in her hand.

A precious and pretty flower that will soon wither away.

(She, too, will wither away.)

“I am glad that it was you who found me, and not another soul, my dove.”

He was speechless.

She was now leaving.

She was now leaving by choice.

“Maybe in another life, we would have had a chance,” [][][][][][] bitterly chuckles, her eyes dull from losing its vibrant shine, her dry pale lips curled like wilted flowers.

The sun was shining behind her, illuminating her presence.

She was beautiful, as always, forever in his eyes.

Always tragically beautiful.

“Maybe next time,” she breathes.

At that moment, she finally looks at him, properly then.

“Maybe next time,” he smiles at her, because that’s what she would want to see in her final moments, and she smiles back, elation clear in her eyes.

That was it, he thinks, that’s the smile he longed to see.

. . .

And then she…

And then, she was gone.

“Maybe next time,” he tells himself, finally crumpling to the ground as the tears pour out and his smile withers away.

Maybe next time, he would’ve had the strength to save her from herself.

Maybe next time.

***

——————————

‘What the fuck do I do?!’ Autumn internally screamed, clutching her teacup as Claude’s eyes bore into her.

‘Spit it out!’ Athan cried. ‘Spill the tea!’

Without much thought, Verena coughed, her tea spilling onto her.

“Are you okay, Lady Verena?!” Lady Iris, who was seated at her side, immediately reached out her handkerchief to Autumn.

“Ah… my apologies,” Autumn demurely stated, taking the handkerchief calmly, despite the internal screaming that only Athanase could hear. “I didn’t expect the tea to be as bitter as it was, so the fault lies with me…”

“We’ll just have to make sure there’s more sugar next time for you, Lady Verena,” Athan smoothly stated as he smiled at her before looking at Claude who continued to stare on with a frown. “Papa, may I be excused, so I can show Lady Verena where the dressing rooms are?”

Claude didn’t bother to hide his displeasure, as he narrowed his eyes at Autumn with the most loathsome look. “You are to return as soon as you’re done,” he stated with a more neutral look as his focus returned to Athanase, looking rather disinterested despite Felix seeming to hold back a laughing fit. “There will be no delays.”

“Of course, papa!” Athan chirped as he and Autumn left the room.

. . .

“So scary!” Autumn let out a heavy gasp as she leaned against Athan’s shoulder the moment the doors closed. “If looks can kill, I’d be dead again!”

“Chill, bro. You’re overreacting,” Athan rolled his eyes at her dramatics as he snapped his fingers, instantly cleaning the tea stains. She shot him a confused look. “Dad doesn’t know yet, but I’ve been getting better at magic.”

“He’s gonna murder me in cold blood if he finds out I know that fact before him,” Autumn cried, her face getting red and blotchy. “I have to walk on eggshells if I value my life.”

“Yeah, yeah, wallow about my so-called tsundere dad,” Athan shook his head at her dramatics. “I’ll at least walk you to the dressing room before I leave you alone, so you can focus on planning your funeral.”

“How nice,” Autumn pouted, wiping her eyes with the handkerchief Iris gave. “A companion until my demise.”

——————————

“Dance with me,” Autumn says, looking at him softly. “Stop thinking about it, about them, and just savour the moment we have in this peace and quiet.”

“…I don’t think I can do that.”

“I understand that you have a broken heart,” Autumn whispered, placing her hand over his. “And you can cry all you’d like, but it helps to grieve over something that wasn’t meant to be bit by bit.”

“…you sound like you’ve had your own heart broken.”

“Yes,” Autumn softly murmured. “My heart never stood a chance.”

When did she get a broken heart? She never told him anything in their past life.

“You sound as if you were in love.”

“I was.”

“Who was it?”

“…someone who had no future.”

——————————

“It’s difficult being bisexual in a noble society where it just doesn’t seem to be the norm,” Verena sighed.

“Try being an actual member of the royal family and bisexual. Athy keeps teasing me about the gentlemen — not sure why she’s not teasing me about my potential suitors, but I’m thankful that she hasn’t,” Athan dryly stated. “What’s up with everyone, anyway? There’s not a single ugly person out of all the people I’ve encountered,” he looked at Verena and wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Including you, too.”

“As a marriage candidate of yours, I suppose I should be grateful you think of me to be attractive,” Autumn pursed her lips, obviously displeased at his compliment. “You’re not a sight for sore eyes either, unfortunately.”

“It’s called having good genes,” Athanase dryly stated. “Is there an actual reason you were wistfully sighing over your sexuality?”

“Lilian York,” Autumn simply stated as Felix awkwardly tried to ignore their conversation. Briefly, Athan pitied the guard, but also, he found it quite amusing to watch him feign ignorance in the aftermath of all his conversations with Autumn.

Felix was interested in Lily, wasn’t he? It would be fun to try and tease him…

But still.

“My nanny?” he raised a brow. “Really?”

“She’s young, she’s single, she’s devoted,” Autumn huffed, placing a hand on her hip. “She’s pretty, she’s very sweet and kind, she’s mother material—”

“—Alright, you’ve made your point,”  he interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And you’ve also made it abundantly clear that you’ve no interest in anyone in our generation. It’s not like you can make it even more clear.”

He froze.

That sounded like a challenge.

Athan did not intend to challenge her.

For a moment, Autumn is quiet. There’s a sinking feeling in his chest, as if he’ll loathe this conversation for years to come. They make eye contact.

“Don’t—” Athan hissed.

“Duke Robain,” Autumn seriously stated as Felix immediately choked and stared at them in baffled disbelief. Athan didn’t blame him, he would’ve reacted the same way if Autumn mentioned his own father. Even then, his father wouldn’t be too terrible of an answer since Duke Robain was likely in his 50s-60s by now. To an outsider, it would simply make Autumn seem as if she were into grandparents.

She probably would’ve said his father’s name, if she didn’t value her own life. It was fortunate that she gave no fucks after Felix found out about her interests in mothers and fathers.

Still, he made a face, wrinkling his nose as he very much judged her blatant disregard for manners.

“Can you not?”

“Duke Robain.”

He heaved a heavy sigh, deliberately choosing to ignore her as he takes a sip of his tea.

“Duke. Robain.”

“I heard you the first time, and I prefer to leave it at that,” Athan flatly shot back, placing his cup of tea back down. “Now, will you kindly shut up?”

She did not kindly shut up.

“He’s gorgeous, Prince Athanase!” Autumn seemed to practically swoon. “Duke Robain is my ideal man. The silver-grey is a lovely combination with his red hair, and his voice is just—!” Autumn squealed. “And he’s just so gentlemanly.”

“Duke Robain is, what, three times our physical age, now?” he rubbed his temple, feeling a headache creeping in. “And need I remind you that we haven’t even debuted yet, at the very least?”

“He’s only, like, 45, last I recall,” Autumn confidently stated. Well shit, there goes his guess. He keeps forgetting that high society’s wack like that with their marriages and crap. “And Duke Robain has yet to remarry. And you debut in four years — we have time. I need to plan a memorable first meeting!”

“Right…” he slowly spoke, his eyes trailing away from his companion and over to Felix, who appeared very much horrified by the conversation and very much wishing he never heard a word. “Good luck with that, I suppose.”

——————————

“Don’t!” Odysseus had shouted, trying to cover Athanase’s face. “Don’t look!”

“Sir Odysseus…?”

“Please… don’t try to remember.”

As if mocking Odysseus, the flames roared, a scream accompanying it.

And Athan, he… he…

He blacks out.

. . .

Everything ached in a way that felt unfamiliar to him.

He hears the cackling fire and frowns, opening his eyes. The room was getting uncomfortably warm, and he couldn’t move much, nor could he speak.

And that’s when he sees it — a fire burning the building, reaching towards him in an agonizingly slow pace. He tried to break away, only to realize that he was tied to a chair, with a piece of cloth over his mouth.

He tried to squirm, but it was no use—

It was only then that he heard a faint shout, screaming for him.

That very same person had reignited the hope he had lost in the midst of despair.

“[][][][][][][][]! Please, answer me! Your Highness, Prince—”

——————————

“You don’t even like physical labour!” Athan stated in clear exasperation.

“Just  because I don’t want to be a swordsman doesn’t mean I’m not interested  in the art as a writer!” Verena argued back as Athy watched them, taking  a sip of her tea as she watched the two argue. “Besides, knights who  can use magic are sexy and popular in literature nowadays!”

“You  just want to write a love story involving a prince and a knight,” Athan  shot back. “You even wrote that smut fic involving, well, you know.”

“That’s not true! That’s not true!” Verena screeched, covering her ears as she pointedly avoided eye contact.

“Says FFN User Starshine-Dreaming!”

“No,  no, no!” Verena cried. “Drop it! I stopped writing on FFN for a reason,  Athan! When in heavens are you finally going to stop reminding me about  it all?!”

“Who knows,” he flatly responded. “Maybe I’ll  be reminding you for the same length of time that I’ve waited for a  chapter update — several years, bitch.”

“It’s been more than six years! Get over it already, asshole!”

“Six in the previous life, but eight including now!” Athan hissed. “Fourteen years in total, Autumn!”

——————————

“So… I might have fucked up canon this time,” Autumn immediately started the conversation with a pleasant smile on her face.

“Excuse me?” he blinked, taken aback as he looks at her.

“Hari Ernst,” Autumn sheepishly grinned.

“Autumn… what did you do?” he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Eheh… well, I have a little sister now! Surprise?”

“You didn’t.”

“I did,” she sheepishly nodded, taking a sip of her tea as she avoids eye contact. “Brother and I were out shopping together, we ended up finding Hari, and brother pitied her, so we proposed that maybe we took her into the family. Auntie needs an heiress, last I recall.”

“Dude… didn’t the oldest of the Ernst boys like Hari, even though she practically looks like she could be their sister’s twin with how similar they look to each other? I did not torture myself with reading that damn novel to reach this point, dammit.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Autumn nodded. “Besides, didn’t you say that it would be a good idea to befriend the Ernst Family? I hear that they’ll be partaking in the Hunting Competition. Who knows, maybe if the future heiress of the Pompidou Family ends up charming the future Duke of the Ernst Family, we’ll have ourselves a proper alliance by marriage going on.”

“Do you honestly believe, to the gods above, that Eugene would marry into the Pompidou Family?”

“…We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

——————————

“So, my aunt will be adopting Hari — er, Harley — and it turns out, since my uncle refuses to adopt her since she’s from the streets, she’ll remain a Demirci. When Hari — fuck, Harley —inherits the title, she can keep the name.”

“That doesn’t sound plausible to a noble society…”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that. I just opted to talk to His Majesty.”

“You talked to my dad?”

“All I did was mention that you thought Pompidou is a dumb name and that you felt bad that Hari — HARLEY — was going to be called by that name when she gets older. And that it’d make you really happy if she could go by Demirci, so you should maybe act really cute with His Majesty like Her Highness, Princess Athanasia.”

“…right. Also, you know it’s fine to still call her Hari, right? If anyone notices then just say it’s a nickname.”

“…why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Cause it was funny watching you struggle over something so simple.”

“Wow, what a bitch.”

——————————

“We need to talk.”

Autumn’s smile faltered the moment she heard those words. “Oh no, are we breaking up?”

“What?”

“I swear I’ll change, babe!” Autumn stated, slumping in her seat over the table. “Please don’t leave meeee.”

“Autumn, the fuck’re you on about?”

“You said the classic breakup intro, dude. I had to do it for the sake of our readers. What if they got their hopes up regarding our relationship? No, no! Things like this ought to be clearly defined.”

“…my best friend’s going crazy. Look, nobody would ever ship us — except for maybe a few crazy multi-shippers. Like yourself. Even my sister’s against the very thought of it. She’d rather I start crushing on Ijekiel, and everyone knows how popular I’d be with him! Plus, the majority of our readers don’t want me to end up with a girl.”

“Damn. Way to hurt me right where it hurts the most. I can’t believe I’m un-shippable with my own bestie…”

——————————

“You should be fine,” Autumn snorts, taking a sip from her glass. “Common noble etiquette dictates that you should never approach someone of higher status for a dance. Princess Athanasia is more approachable. Just frown at everyone and you’ll be good.”

“So I should treat them like bugs the same way my dad does,” Athan concluded.

——————————

***

“As you already know by now,” she weakly says, “Athanasios died. In my rewrite, I tried to figure out a way to keep him alive, I wanted to give the twins a happy ending.”

That was surprising — she never told him that.

“No matter what I tried to write, I couldn’t imagine him being alive at the end of Toska. Somehow, or some way, he was going to end up dying. It was the main reason why I stopped posting updates in the first place. I wanted to finish it, though, at least for you, when I found out that you read my story. I wanted to finish rewriting Toska for you, but then you…”

But then he died.

She had no reason to finish her story, if the one she rewrote it for wouldn’t even be there to read it.

“And it was… it was the same. For Athanasios. He…” she refused to look up from her teacup, but he could already see where she was going with this.

“Athanasios died in your rewrite.”

Just like he did.

Verena says nothing, but that alone is enough of an answer.

Athanase slowly nods as dawning realization washes over him. And he remembers that dream, where he spoke to Diana, and the way he moved closer to the ledge.

.

(He feels a twinge of guilt, a pain in his chest, for what he was about to do.)

.

“He jumped from a tower.”

Nothing.

.

(There is something about him that she sees, and he knows this, because there is a moment that her soft smile crumples. Tears pour out as his mother becomes distraught, sadness splashing him in waves, but he stands still — unyielding. He finally takes a step closer to the balcony, hands touching the cold stone.)

.

“And he chose to do it. He wasn’t pushed, he wasn’t threatened, he wasn’t manipulated, he wasn’t in any danger.”

His throat felt dry.

He knows.

“It was a deliberate choice. Athanasios… he wanted to die.”

.

(An image of Diana standing on the balcony, crying as she tries to stop her son who only shakes his head and smiles, who tells her “I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough.”

The sensation of stepping on the ledge, ignoring his silently crying mother.)

.

“Athanasios got tired of living,” he quietly says.

Verena closes her eyes, tears spilling forth as she never looks at him. She says nothing, again, as he figures it all out, slowly and verbally voicing the thoughts aloud, a sick and twisted feeling rising from within.

He feels nauseous.

.

(An image of long black hair whirling in the wind comes to mind, high up on a rooftop, staring up at the darkening skies above. Lips curling up into a smile as they ignored the painful aches of their bones. The feeling of freedom just within their reach…)

.

“I got tired of living.”

And it should be alarming, really, but it doesn’t surprise him.

He always believed that he wasn’t the sort of person to just… jump to end his life, and yet he did — he has, he had, he might. With a compelling enough reason, it was a magical excuse to end it all.

It just so happened that wanting death was reason enough.

.

(“I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough. Maybe next time.”)

.

In his previous life — lives, maybe — he wanted to die.

She doesn’t need to tell him the reason why she never finished the rewrite anymore. He did exactly what Athanasios had done. It must’ve felt terrible, reading your own writing meant for a friend who died, only for that very person to die in the same exact way, albeit in different circumstances and situations, in different places and times.

But for the same reasons.

It still happened, even if he never thought he would consider…

.

(He died.)

.

“You did,” Verena softly confirmed, but she didn’t really have to, not after his memory was steadily returning with more clarity and pain. “And that’s why you died in our last life together.”

People are complicated. They’re irrational or logical, fuelled by motivations or lack thereof. They’re complicated, righteous or morally grey, or downright psychotic or had been sane this whole time. Their actions could be done for stupid or convoluted reasons that most just wouldn’t be able to recognize from the get go.

The answers can be difficult to answer, because sometimes a reason why things happen include multiple issues, little things that build up over time.

And sometimes, the answer he’s been looking for really is as simple as that:

“You were tired, Athanase.”

.

(“I’m… tired.”)

***

#fic: in the back of my mind #wip tidbit #wynter writes

[jayflrt]

hey!! hope you’re doing well, i’ve really been enjoying your fics :) i kind of have a random question; what are your thoughts on the “reblog to like ratio” discourse that’s been going on here on tumblr? personally i have some opinions on it but they don’t really match with the majority of what i’ve seen haha. so i’m curious about what your thoughts are? like do you think writers are entitled to reblogs and comments?

hihi anon !! 💘💘 thank you for supporting my fics ! and i hope you’re having a great day/night love :’) ooo hmm i’ve definitely seen conversations about that going around 😵‍💫 i’ll put the rest of my answer under the cut since it sort of got long 🤧

i do agree that interaction is a factor of encouragement for a lot of people and it can be discouraging when you pour your heart into a fic and don’t get the engagement you anticipated. however, i do think we should be realistic about how well content does in certain fandoms. for example, smaus and headcanons/reactions seem to do a lot better in enhablr than long fics. with tumblr in general, a lot of readers seem to prefer smut over fluff. btw i’m not saying people don’t like other genres like crime or mystery or something, but from what i see smut gets a lot more engagement

and there’s also other factors as to why engagement might be slow. maybe your readers are just too busy to read at the moment, maybe the certain trope/plot you’ve written isn’t their cup of tea — it honestly just comes down to personal preference

i used to write on wattpad and i’m ngl i feel like the interaction there was worse (and kind of negative) so tumblr is kind of a dream LMFAO and also ngl i never thought of my like to reblog ratio until i saw posts about it and stuff. i don’t rlly mind it tho bc the reblogs and comments and asks are very very sweet. tumblr does have an odd algorithm where only reblogs are how you spread posts across other blogs, and that’s why i use my likes as bookmarks instead :’)

i do see that across most platforms tho, like tweets will have more likes than retweets and wattpad books will have more votes than comments sometimes. so i do encourage people to reblog more for that exposure, but i also feel like the criteria changes each time i see a post LOL like i’ve seen posts going from “don’t just like, reblog the post” to “don’t reblog with just tags” to “don’t just reblog with one comment and keysmashes.” i will say when you place these expectations on your readers, it becomes hard to enjoy what you’re writing and to appreciate the praise you do receive

i used to be a silent reader around 2019-2020 and now i do enjoy leaving extensive commentary on fics if you see my fic recs blog, but i also can only really do it with long fics :o if it’s a smau/drabble/timestamp/reaction, then i sort of just read it and don’t have much to say yk? i feel like that’s the same for a lot of people as well, especially on enhablr when that seems to be a lot of the content

i’m not sure if “entitled” is the right word for reblogging and commenting. i do encourage readers to reblog and comment on content they like !! since we’re all putting out free content tho, we gotta keep in mind that readers are not expected to read all of our works in the same way that we’re not obligated to write for others. i also respect that some people like to curate their own blog’s content. like yeah blog aesthetic whatever — i make multiple side blogs for that reason. we can’t be entitled to reblogs but not allow our readers to be entitled to having their blogs be the way they want yk ??

i’m sure people have other opinions on this so i hope this didn’t come off in an aggressive way or anything !! and i’m sorry for rambling on for so long omg 😭 ofc i’m always open to other perspectives on this matter as well 💗

#💌 : love notes #anon

[heraldofcrow]

Can you explain what “git gud” means to you? This sounds snarky but I am genuinely curious. That phrase kept me away from Soulsborne games for so long until I fell in love with Elden Ring. Thanks for your time <3

Hey, that ain’t snarky at all! It’s an important question, don’t worry. Haha, I actually think there are genuine mix ups over what that stupid phrase should mean, honestly. But here’s how I’ve often seen people explaining it—

It’s meant to mean, “Hey, don’t give up. Keep pushing, keep grinding, keep fighting. Get good, improve, get stronger, build up whatever you need to build up. This game is tough but you’re tougher. Come on.” Because in truth, these games just aren’t that hard. If you get good at them by leveling up, adapting, paying attention, pushing through, etc…you’ll beat them.

That’s why “git gud” is supposed to be all that encouragement summed up in one phrase, because there’s no secret magic trick or technique that’s gonna get you through the game. Everyone is gonna be different. You have to adapt at your own speed and according to your own style.

Funnily enough, this little Viva La Dirt League skit about Dark Souls explains what “git gud” is really about, and what true Souls vets will say it means. The cocky jerks in the fandom will use it condescendingly and as a dismissive meme, but they don’t get it. It’s not about that.

I can’t believe I’m trying to explain why this silly gamer phrase is actually deeper than how people use it but hey, when I understood it was actually about not giving up, I started liking it. I can’t tell you how many times I was stuck on some boss and just wanting to completely quit, but then I would remind myself to “get good” or “keep going.” To get better. It actually helped me. I would start changing my strategies or simply just keep swinging. That rush of adrenaline I’d get afterwards when I won was totally worth it. I got good. I did it. I overcame.

That’s what “git gud” should mean. Not how trolls use it as an overused joke or condescending statement.

Thanks for the ask, homie <3

#asks #Good ol Souls Logic #It’s so funny how i like this phrase now #I used to feel annoyed by it too #But it’s cuz people use it in the wrong way lol #Gitting gud is what Dark Souls is about when it comes to difficulty #Don’t give up skeleton! #dark souls #soulsborne

[bookofmirth]

Sorry, but I don’t agree with “TBH I think that Nesta still has work to do because a few actions don't make up for a lifetime of cruelty.”

Mostly on the basis that we don’t know what their history is. We can’t judge her “lifetime” based on 4 chapters of the book. Especially when SJM is so inconsistent about her storylines (like the whole Feyre can’t read thing).

I think your referring mostly to the fact that Nesta needs to atone for what she has said to Feyre, but their relationship is conflicting and far from being abusive.

And I don’t think what Nesta has done up until this point has been “a few actions” she has repeatedly risked her life for her family, and saved Feyre and her unborn child. She went to a high lords meeting and told them that it was because of Feyre that she even lives. She was ready to sacrifice herself in war. And that scene at Feyre’s (almost) deathbed too. I mean, what more actions is needed to “atone”.

And she’s only 24/25 so what lifetime of cruelty does she have under her belt. What can we glean from the few chapters we have been given that Nesta had always been set in this cruelty campaign against Feyre? Certainly not against Elain.

SJM has said that Feyre isn’t perfect and has made mistakes (mistakes that we haven’t seen but exist in their shared past) I don’t see it as fair to suggest that Nesta needs to do more than she already has for Feyre. Short of risking her life and defending her family, what else is there?

Above all, Feyre has said in ACOFAS, Nesta has more than made up for everything and that she’s already forgiven her. So really, it’s certain half of the fandom (and Rhysand) that hasn’t.

I’m genuinely curious, do you think Elain has anything to atone for? Or are her actions enough that she she has balanced the scale?

At the beginning of acotar, the sisters’ relationship was well established. Feyre wasn’t coming home shocked to find Nesta a changed person, so it’s reasonable to assume that her behavior had been going on for long enough that Feyre knew exactly what to expect. It wasn’t a vendetta against feyre specifically, or anyone specifically. It’s how Nesta handled her feelings, which takes me back to my point that Nesta needed to look inward for healing, not point fingers at other people.

I addressed my comment about atoning in another ask but to clarify further - Nesta has done important, useful, helpful things when the shit hit the fan. There is no disputing that. Just to reiterate, in my opinion, the important thing moving forward is that she doesnt resort to pushing people away again (when we know she doesn’t actually want to do that!)

I don’t understand why people keep saying Nesta is 24. Or calling her a girl. That’s a whole ass adult where I come from. Nesta was around 22-23 when the series started. A lot of these issues began much earlier, when she was a teenager, but… she’s still an adult. I don’t think it does her much credit to infantilize her character in order to excuse her behavior. She can vote, and drink, and rent a car in the US. She could be married for a few years, be a parent a couple times over. (You didn’t call her a girl anon, obviously, I’m just commenting on things I’ve seen in the fandom.)

Re: Elain, that’s the difference I was referring to before. Elain doesn’t look to intentionally hurt people with her words or actions, so I wouldn’t talk about her journey in the same way I would Nesta’s. Elain has some accounting to do, which imo she is. She apologized to Feyre already and acknowledged that they should have done more to help her. Your ask actually made me wonder if that’s why she’s doing what she currently does - cooking and serving food at her home, rather than relying on servants to do it. Helping other people rebuild their gardens after the war. Either way, Elain’s story is not going to be about reconciling with how she has behaved towards other people in the way that Nesta’s was. That’s not to say she’s been perfect, but she didn’t go about trying to hurt people. Her journey is different.

[nymph1e]

hey I have a question. Sorry if it seems like I’m being rude with it or something I’m just genuinely curious on your take.

If you’re anti censorship, are you also anti social media moderation? I feel that sometimes giving people temporary or permanent bans is needed if they harass people or spread misinformation.

I think sometimes band can be unfair, like the real example I’ve seen on YouTube of striking someone for calling out a popular channels animal abuse but not striking the popular channel .

just curious on your take!

Not rude at all! Genuine questions coming from a good place - or even genuine arguments against me coming from a good place aren't rude. It's when people come into my asks telling me i need to touch grass, calling me rude names, or accusing me of pedophilia for not agreeing with censorship that it's rude.

CW for this post, I will be offhandedly mentioning potentially triggering topics that I've seen people call for the total ban of, just remembered from off the top of my head. I don't necessarily like anything mentioned, they are just examples.

To answer your question yes and no. Moderation isn't censorship, when done correctly. I'm actually firmly pro moderation and tagging both. I don't believe that people should have to see shit they don't want to see, and moderation and tagging of online spaces will help stop people from, say randomly clicking open a tweet of furry porn.

I think the key here is direction. There's a difference between posting revenge porn of your ex and posting your own kink. There's a big difference between calling for the death of all furries and posting a montage of goriest scenes from horror movies. A difference between attacking others and posting for your own enjoyment.

And, look, it's absolutely a grey area. In general I say err on the side of allowing as much as possible, including things that most people will find unsavory, simply because what is "unsavory" changes from person to person. I might find rape-play porn uncomfortable, but my neighbor Sally thinks that trans women are all rapists and fetishists, savvy? The next person along the line loves rape play, thinks trans women are swell, and wouldn't harm a fly.

As long as no real people are being harmed (without consent), and as long as the content is properly tagged so people can avoid, I think it should stay up. I think moderation comes in when things aren't correctly tagged, or when people attack others.

So much of the fandom policing/censorship movement is extremely hypocritical, to the level where I firmly believe these people never actually follow their arguments through to their conclusions. They tend to attack people who follow ships they dislike, or kinks they dislike, then paint it in a coat of social justice so they can have warm fuzzy feelings about being bullies.

I don't think they realize that by calling for censorship of fandom spaces on a large scale, they paint a major target on the back of any historically oppressed group. Women, queer people, POC, non Christians, the kink communities, etc. all have been the targets of large-scale censorship in the past, and if any is implemented in the future I guarantee they will again.

Also, the reason I believe they are so hypocritical is you don't see these people campaigning (with the conservative christians) to remove books containing this content from libraries, tv shows and movies containing these things from being created. They don't care about these things because they don't actually believe in what they're saying. They want to stop individuals in online spaces from doing something that makes them uncomfortable, and don't have the wherewithal to recognise this, so they convince themselves they're morally superior instead.

#long post #shipping discourse #anti censorship #im making this impossible to reblog because im already dealing with ONE controversial post blowing up tyvm