#but if AI is on ao3 then I really don't want to update

[pechoraflow]

yO there is a rumor that AO3 is letting AI scrape our fanfics? Can anyone confirm/deny this?

#ao3 #archive of our own #fanfiction #if so I will be removing my fics #so feel free to download while they are still up #I WILL NOT be subjected to art theft #if anyone knows a way to share fics where AI can't get at it #let me know and I will reupload everything #AND start posting the new chapters I've written #but if AI is on ao3 then I really don't want to update #I will find a solution but am open to suggestions

[copperbadge]

Hi Sam! Because I just saw the post on ao3 and donations, and a different post about ao3s updated statement regarding chatgpt/ai generated fiction, and you generally have a good read on things like this - what's your opinion on it, and how its meant to be interpreted?

(I want to good faith believe, and its a complicated/ongoing topic, but wanted to hear your thoughts)

I don't know which post about the update you mean, Anon, but I assume the update referenced is the one the OTW posted on 5/13 about AI scraping and ChatGPT. I do have some thoughts but I want to go through the post a little because I don't think I'm actually needed to interpret this one -- I think with some critical thought anyone can, but a lot of people don't get critical thinking training in school, so I want to do a little demo of it.

Pre-emptively, this is a list of things I'm not an expert on: copyright law, data scraping, AI, website design, and the legality of certain forms of freedom of expression. But honestly for this you don't need to be.

First and foremost, we really have no reason to disbelieve OTW when they speak on this subject. While there's debate and discussion about AO3 and certainly it's imperfect in a number of directions, they are pretty transparent, generally speaking. I don't believe there is a reason to approach AO3 with an assumption of disingenuity in a general sense. However, the organization is run by humans, who are imperfect and can sometimes be deceitful, so it's good to always approach public statements with a critical eye.

So the post is talking about two separate but related issues: preventing AIs from scraping AO3, and policy on AI-generated works being posted. What we are looking for, from both, is a combination of things: we want what they're saying to make sense both in the world, and within the statement -- no contradictions, nothing that seems illogical, nothing that seems like baseless assumption or generalization. We want simple prose, and we want a look at the reasoning behind the actions they're taking.

When talking about AI scraping, they start with what they've done to counteract scraping, speaking in relatively simple terms but with enough specificity that if you wanted you could look up anything you didn't understand. They list what they've done to prevent scraping, and they also discuss the issues with the kinds of measures that would need to be implemented to fully prevent it. They mention specific examples that people were concerned about, and they talk about what they'll be doing going forward.

In terms of the text, this all makes sense to me -- here's what we've done, here's the problem with doing more, here's what we plan to do next. Internally, no matter what the topic is, this section is logical, there are no contradictions and no particular evasions. Critically it passes muster. Additionally, with the knowledge I do have of website design and data management, I can tell that they're doing all they reasonably can. From a standpoint of ignorance, the statement makes internal sense; from a standpoint of knowledge, they're doing what I would do in their place.

When talking about AI-generated works, likewise, they're pretty open about their process and reasoning. They say look, this isn't against TOS as it stands, and here's a reminder of why, followed by a mission statement. The bolded text of that statement is very clear, and correlates with what I said in an earlier post: their policy is maximum inclusivity of fanworks. This statement is consistent with policy AO3 has held for years, which is well-known to the community.

They go on to discuss how AI-generated work could violate spam policies, but those spam policies apply to everyone everywhere, and they remind us that we can always have the Policy & Abuse team examine a work we're skeptical of. (Inside baseball, I know some people who have beef with Policy & Abuse for being unresponsive, particularly in certain cases where harassment is involved. However, within this document, they are saying both "here's why we do this" and "if you have a problem, here's the first step.")

Again, after saying what's happening and what's being done about it, they move on to say that these are only current policies, and may change depending on future developments, and that those changes will be made available for public discussion. This is once more internally logical, and with the benefit of outside knowledge, perfectly rational.

Because I agree with them -- when I saw there was an "updated" statement from OTW on AI-generated prose I was frankly alarmed because I think banning AI-generated prose from AO3 causes way more problems than it solves. It's pretty restrained of them not to bring up the issue in more detail, but it's not difficult for those of us familiar with the community to project outwards as to why banning AI prose might be a bad thing.

So, think about what happens if an AI prose ban goes into effect and you read a fic you think was AI generated. How can you tell? Have you read some of the human-generated prose on AO3? Some of it's not great. So really in that case, what you're banning is someone saying they AI-generated the fic, which means AI-generated fic would still show up, it just couldn't be tagged as such. It's like Prohibition -- they banned alcohol and people still drank. They poisoned the alcohol and people drank the poisoned alcohol (check out paragraph five for specifics). If you ban something off the archive it'll still show up there, it just won't be tagged, so instead of a bag labeled "dead dove, do not eat" you just step on a land mine in your kitchen. AI prose is not content in the way that say incest or underage sex is; I'm against banning those as well, but at least with those you can pretty clearly say "yes this is" or "no this isn't" based on objective criteria. You can't do that with "was this made by a human or a machine" when it comes to prose.

Which leads to the second issue: if a text is reported as AI-generated and the author says "No, I wrote that," how do you prove otherwise? If you report an author for uploading AI-generated prose, all that will happen is either they just say "No, I wrote that" or someone on AO3's abuse team unilaterally decides that yes, this is AI prose, and punts someone off the website who might just be kind of a crap writer, which is not a sin or a crime. Either way it's a waste of time. So introducing a ban on AI prose is really just introducing either a useless show-law that will still cause AI prose to be posted there, just without proper tagging, or a tool to harass people with. Harassment is already an issue on the archive.

And we can reason all this out for ourselves simply by asking "What is the good-faith reason for not banning AI prose?" Assuming good faith isn't just for blindly trusting, after all; it's also for reasoning out other peoples' motivations for things.

And frankly fandom gets a little weird about assuming bad faith when it comes to anyone who has the least bit of power within the community. It's something I've encountered personally, as someone with some clout in fandom who is occasionally assumed to have weirdly malevolent intent. I'm not malicious. I'm just an awkward dumbass. But this is just something fandom does, so it's also good to check oneself and go, "Hey, is this person being genuinely malevolent or am I just assuming wickedness because it's easier to be mad at a villain than to explore the complexities of these acts?"

It's why I deliberately didn't speculate about the person who uploaded an AI fanfic and didn't respond to others doing so in comments. That person is right there. You don't have to assume any intent at all, you can just ask them. And it's so much more educational to do so!

So yeah, actually real props to whoever wrote that post by the OTW -- it's internally logical, reasonably transparent, simply written, and avoids a lot of prose pitfalls that I would absolutely fall into (did fall into, in this very post). I think within this area, they are doing what they can to prevent scraping and making the correct decisions, for now, regarding AI content on the archive.

#ao3 #otw #ai prose #censorship #archive

[toxicanonymity]

Hey, this person has directly credited you as their ideas for their character bots

https://poe.com/pedroxo

unauthorized AI Bots of fics

Thank you everyone who kindly let me know. I did not give permission. From what I saw, they built >25 bots using content directly from my fics (screenshots under the cut). They also used others to various degrees.

Listen, I strongly relate to the desire to talk to these characters - I've said it before. I appreciate how invested someone must be to go to all this effort, and I appreciate the credit. But it's not right and I'm not comfortable with it. You may not realize what it feels like to the writer. It feels like a violation.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the first incident for me. Someone once made a bot of my fic 4 days after I publicly said not to in response to an ask. I didn't find out until it had almost 1k "chats" and you'll see I use that term very loosely under the cut.

I've said don't do this, and it's in my masterlist. I've even shared my anxiety about being so slow to update that people take matters into their own hands. I'm not really sure what else to say. I'm tired.

Please don't do this. And when you see chatbots built on fics, please alert the writers.

Note: The bots are down. I don't want the person to be harassed - i think that's obvious based on my tone from the start.

Beyond these, there were more bots from night walks, slasher, and stepdad, ones from Raider and Speakeasy and even a few from hypotheticals I published like when stepdad goes to jail for indecent exposure or when you aren't getting wet for raider joel.

Night Walks: Original, Soaked

Left in Lincoln pt. 1; jalbird

Slasher: Midnight Tow, Stop Playing

Stepdad: Clock, Ring Doorbell

Sorry I was too overwhelmed to do the IMG text on each of these but it's basically just snippets from the works listed.

After being contacted, the person copied and pasted a message to multiple writers saying they were sorry, didn't know what they were doing, were deactivating their acct. They asked to spread their message, and said have an amazing day/night.

------

Past Incident

IMGs: 1) I answered an ask August 16 saying no. The asker had "offered" to credit me. 2) August 20, someone made a bot without credit. This is worse imo and suggests trying to hide their actions.

I told a lot of people about this, but it was an isolated bot unlike the profile discovered 2/23.

IMG: comparison of left in lincoln text to the bot.IMG: A seven paragraph narrative bot output. Obviously failed my test if you've read the fic.

-----

ANYWAY

If you're not already on ao3, I recommend signing up. This isn't a threat to leave, but I may not put everything on Tumblr forever. My AO3 profile.

Edit: I like tumblr because I like answering lore and questions and getting thots, plus my blog is very multimedia with many awesome contributions from different people. Please help keep it that way, because your interaction is why I'm here. I value everyone's engagement here.

For many reasons, I'm less and less comfortable with Tumblr being the primary home for all my writing. I'm aware people can still take things from AO3, but not as easily. I'm trying to be nice by preemptively suggesting people sign up on AO3 if they want to read everything. If it's not worth the trouble to you, just don't do it.

----

Ty very much to those who have been supportive and checked on me. It means a lot. I will admit this made me put on a hat and cry in public lol.

feel free to rb this because idk if everyone realizes the extent of this or how jarring it can look.

#cw discourse #anti ai #taps mic

[softpascalito]

⋆ Softpascalitos Masterlist ⋆

This is a regularly updated masterlist of all my works, posted on tumblr + ao3! They're sorted by character with warnings/tags, please still read the full descriptions before reading! My entire blog is 18+ / MDNI.

⭐ - my personal favorites ⛓️ - smut 🍂 - hurt/comfort 💌 - fluff

i write for: javier peña, pedro pascal, agent ortega, joel miller, oberyn martell, dieter bravo, silva, frankie morales, din djarin, agent whiskey, javi g, tim rockford

last update: 6th march 2024 If you have requests/questions/feedback or just want to say hi, feel free to pop into my asks! ✮

I do not give permission to have my work copied, translated, rewritten, put into any AI programs, or reposted without my direct agreement.

Specials Kinktober 2023 31 pieces of (mostly smut) - read on AO3 / Tumblr Advent Calendar 2023 25 Pieces including moodboards, hcs and fics - read on AO3 / Tumblr

✮⋆˙ Javier Peña ˙⋆✮

We got your back - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐🍂

Summary: You work as a new DEA agent alongside Peña and Murphy. A not-so-kind colleague reveals more about you than you would like. Peña takes you under his wing. Tags/Warnings: Main fic, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn WC: 6700+

Pregnancy Sex with Javier Peña - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐⛓️

Summary: You're pregnant, Javier is overprotective. The problem: You're also really fucking horny. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Aftercare, Pregnancy, Established Relationship, PWP WC: 2600

Beyond Saving - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐🍂

Summary: Javier is on office duty when he learns that someone close to you has passed, causing both of you to spiral. Tags/Warnings: ❗ Dead Dove: Do not Eat ❗, Mention of Suicide, Grief, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Minor Character Death, Trauma, Crying, Mental Breakdowns WC: 1300

Kinktober Day Three - Hate Sex - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: When a raid goes wrong, Javier Peña gets pissed. You expect him to take it out on you. You dont expect him to fuck you so good. Aka a steamy office romance with a side of hate sex. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Hate Sex, Unsafe Sex, Rough Sex, Spanking WC: 2300

Kinktober Day Eleven - Humiliation - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: Javier takes you home after a night out. You worry about waking Steve who lives upstairs- until Javier notices the way you are staring at his gun. (Thats not code for his dick, Im talking about his actual gun). Aka Agent Peña fucks you on his couch using something other than his dick. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Gun Kink, Rough Sex, Praise Kink, Spanking, Dirty Talk WC: 2200

Kinktober Day Twentysix - Tying a tie - Tumblr / AO3 🍂

Summary: Javier resigns from the DEA. You both reflect on your life in Colombia while you help him get ready. You also discuss what is about to follow. Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Trauma, Anxiety, Established Relationship, Crying, Sad Javier Peña WC: 1600

Peluda - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐💌

Summary: A snowstorm hits Bogotá and you bring back a surprise visitor. Javi is not amused. But, it leads to a realization about himself- and about you. Tags/Warnings: Fluff, Nicknames, Soft Javi, Snow, Established Relationship WC: 1700

✮⋆˙ Pedro Pascal ˙⋆✮

Here with me - Tumblr / AO3 🍂💌

Summary: During his time in Morrocco, Pedro finds himself in need of reassurance. You are happy to help. Tags/Warnings: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Insecurities, Age Difference WC: 1200

I'll look after you - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐🍂💌

Summary: Pedro is sick (but of course he doesn't admit it). You look after him. Hurt/Comfort (but the twist is that you're the one doing the comforting). Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, Emotional, Established Relationship WC: 2000

✮⋆˙ Agent Ortega ˙⋆✮

Agents don't have favorites - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️🍂

Summary: Agent Ortega visits the Emerald Palace, but finds the woman tending to the horses more interesting than those tending to the men. After he leaves for a while, he comes back to an unwanted surprise. Aka its emotional but also they fuck. Tags/Warnings: Explicit, Referenced Non-Con Elements, Hurt/Comfort, Smut WC: 2600

Kinktober Day Ten - Shoe Shining + NTR (Cheating) - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐⛓️🍂

Summary: Ortega returns to Brimstone. When he gets a shoe shine from a past flame, who is now married, things get complicated. Tags/Warnings: Explicit, Hurt/Comfort, Smut, Cheating, Rough Sex, Spanking, Aftercare, Creampie, Dirty Talk WC: 2200

✮⋆˙ Joel Miller ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day One - Pegging - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐⛓️

Summary: You and Joel run into a sex store on patrol. They have everything one needs to give their older, grumpy partner a good pregging. Aka Joel Miller gets his ass fucked for the first time in his life. Tags/Warnings: Explicit, Smut, Pegging, First Time, Aftercare WC: 3000

Kinktober Day Four - Nonsexual Ageplay - Tumblr / AO3 🍂💌

Summary: When Joel brings back a book on trauma from patrol, something catches your eye. Having had too much of your childhood taken away by the outbreak, you find a way to get some of it back. Aka a soft Joel Miller making his partner feel safe enough to try nonsexual ageplay. Tags/Warnings: SFW, Past Trauma, Age Difference, Nonsexual Ageplay WC: 2000

Kinktober Day Seven - Wax Play - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️🍂

Summary: Joel and you are paired up for patrol. There are a lot of things unsaid, a snowstorm rolling in and some candles. Go figure (or go read i guess). Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Hurt/Comfort, Snowed in WC: 1900

Kinktober Day Twelve - Somnophilia - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: In 2003, Joel Miller is busy with dishes, paperwork and raising a child, leaving little time for his relationship. When he gets restless and sneaks over to her house, finding his girl asleep, he remembers a conversation they had about consent. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Explicit Consent, Age Difference, Established Relationship, Secret Relationship, Aftercare, Crempie, Pre-Outbreak WC: 2000

Kinktober Day Thirteen - Playing with hair - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐🍂 💌

Summary: Joel works in construction in Jackson. During his lunch breaks, he always comes home to you. When you notice a talent of his you hadn't known about, he opens up about the past. Tags/Warnings: Jackson Era, Established Relationship, Bathing/Washing, Domestic Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Joel play guitar, Good Parent Joel WC: 1000

Kinktober Day Fifteen - Massaging - Tumblr / AO3 🍂

Summary: When Joel comes home after a long day of work, you crave nothing more than him. Until you're both reminded of his age. Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Age difference, Massage, Kissing, Healthy relationships WC: 2200

Kinktober Day Sixteen - Familiar Scents - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: Over the span of many years, Joel Millers scent always stays the same. It starts when he takes you for a hike before the Outbreak- and continues for long after. Tags/Warnings: Friends to lovers, Age difference, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fingering, P in V Sex WC: 2400+

Kinktober Day Nineteen - Tooth Brushing - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐🍂

Summary: Grief is cruel and just because you and Joel live in the safe haven that is the Jackson community it does not mean you're immune to it. Possibly the saddest (but also kinda best) thing I have written so far. Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Character Death, Established Relationship, Grief/Mourning, Protective Joel, Survivors Guilt WC: 2400

Kinktober Day Twentyfour - Crossdressing - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️💌

Summary: Joel Miller has been wanting to try a different piece of clothing for a long time. It's not until you that he feels supported enough to do so. Turns out, you both really fucking like it. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Fluff, Insecurity, Soft Joel, Slight Mommy Kink, Jackson Era, Sub Joel Miller WC: 2000

Kinktober Day Twentyseven - (Public) Help with button - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: What happens in a dimly lit corner on the lap of Joel Miller at the town dance, stays at the town dance. Almost. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Dirty Talk, Vaginal Fingering, Public Sex, Teasing, Established Relationship, Age difference, Jackson Era WC: 2400

Kinktober Day Twentyeight - Daddy - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️🍂

Summary: Joel has been noticing a few things about your relationship that make him wonder about your feelings regarding your father. As you open up about your issues, he's sweet, supportive and makes you feel better in the way only he can. Tags/Warnings: 2003!Joel Miller, Pre-Outbreak, Smut, Explicit, Hurt/Comfort, Daddy Kink, Daddy Issues, Crying, Fingering, Cock Warming, P in V Sex, Secret Relationship WC: 2600

Kinktober Day Thirty - Free Use - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: Joel comes home urgently needing some relief. Its a good thing youre there- and the first time Joel makes use of an ... interesting agreement. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Free Use, Rough Sex, Light Dom/Sub, Dirty Talk, Andry Sex, Shower Sex, Baking, Female Reader, Established relationship WC: 1900

Snowy Surprise - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️💌

Summary: Joel takes advantage of your lunch break on patrol for ... other activities. Afterwards, a promise he made about christmas decorations comes back to haunt him. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Fluff, Soft Joel, Established Relationship, Fingering, Dirty Talk, Semi-Public Sex WC: 2200

Here cums Santa Claus - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️💌

Summary: Jackson needs a Santa Claus - and Joel is the perfect fit. Getting to have you on his lap is just a bonus. Aka the one where Joel is dressed up as Santa Claus and you get to ride him. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Fluff, Soft Joel, Established Relationship, Fingering, Dirty Talk, P in V Sex, Costume Kink, Riding, Creampie WC: 1800

✮⋆˙ Oberyn Martell ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Five - Collaring - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️🍂

Summary: Oberyn gets you a special present, one that both of you will enjoy. But things dont always go as planned. Tags/Warnings: Explicit, Smut, Established Relationship, Safeword Use, Hurt/Comfort WC: 2050

Kinktober Day Eight - Breeding - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐⛓️🍂

Summary: Oberyn and her have been trying for a baby to no avail. Ever the loving viper, he comes up with an idea. Tags/Warnings: Explicit, Smut, Established Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Breeding, Dirty Talk, Praise Kink WC: 2050

Kinktober Day Seventeen - Threesome - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: You are in charge of serving wine to the dornish folk at the kings wedding. A couple catches your eye and it may not be as one-sided as you thought at first. Aka the steaming hot threesome with Oberyn and Ellaria we all need. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Creampie, Threesome (FFM), Servant Reader, Aftercare, Porn with Plot WC: 4400

Kinktober Day Twentytwo - Washing hair - Tumblr / AO3 🍂

Summary: A few weeks after you and Oberyn begin to try conceiving and days before he leaves for Kings Landing, he finds you cooling down in the baths during a hot day. Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Mild Smut, Bathing/Washing, Pregnancy, Established Relationship WC: 1700

Kinktober Day Thirtyone - Pregnancy - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️🍂

Summary: Oberyn has been more cautious around her now that the due date is near. He has to realize it's not what she wants. And who can deny the wishes of a pregnant woman? Tags/Warnings: Smut, Pregnancy Sex, P in V Sex, Oral Sex, Romance, Fluff, Domestic, Established Relationship, Female Reader WC: 1400

✮⋆˙ Dieter Bravo ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Two - Titfucking - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️🍂

Summary: Dieter is alone in quarantine and begs you to come join him. Even with a few obstacles, you treat him the way he deserves. Tags/Warnings: Explicit, Smut, Titfucking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort WC: 1700

Kinktober Day Twenty - Watersports - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: Dieter is on edge because of an upcoming premiere and as his personal assistant, you try to keep him calm as well as sober. There is one thing that may help. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Established Relationship, Semi-Public, Assistant Reader, Alcohol, Watersports, Dom/Sub Undertones WC: 1700

✮⋆˙ Silva ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Fourteen - Armpit + Orgasm Denial - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: When Silva comes home after a long day on the ranch, he smells amazing. He also distracts you from cooking in a quite special way. Tags/Warnings: Explicit, Smut, Sweat, Praise Kink, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, P in V Sex WC: 1600

Kinktober Day Twentyfive - Dancing together - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐🍂

Summary: When a particularly hard rain hits your little ranch, so does the sadness. Luckily Silva is there to make it better.(This fills a few gaps in Silvas life in a way that ties in with the movie.) Tags/Warnings: Established Relationship, Domestic, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Parent Silva, Romance, Kissing in the rain, Slow dancing WC: 1400

✮⋆˙ Frankie Morales ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Six - Frottage - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: After a flying lesson, you find yourself drawn to the man in the pilot seat. Luckily for you, Frankie knows exactly what you need. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Dirty Talk, Established Relationship WC: 1400

✮⋆˙ Din Djarin ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Nine - Gloryhole - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: Din just wants some quick pleasure. You just want to enjoy your job for once. Both of you get more than you bargained for. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Prostitution, Oral Sex, Strangers, Semi-Public WC: 1600

✮⋆˙ Jack Daniels ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Eighteen - Spanking + Whipping - Tumblr / AO3 ⭐⛓️

Summary: When you mess up during a mission, Jack doesn't want to have to report his own girlfriend. Since he is your higher-up, you work out an agreement- a punishment by Whiskey himself. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Spanking, Whipping, Dirty Talk, Praise Kink, Crying, Established Relationship, Rough Sex, Dom/Sub Undertones WC: 2200

Kinktober Day Twentythree - Deepthroating + Facesitting - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: You've never deepthroated anyone in your life- but you're eager to make your man feel as good as possible. You receive a proper thank you as well. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Dirty Talk, Praise Kink, Deepthroating, Facesitting, Rough Sex, Oral Sex, Aftercare, Established Relationship WC: 1900

✮⋆˙ Javi Gutierrez ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Twentyone - Lingerie - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️💌

Summary: Javi usually gets the movie memorabilia he loves so much for his birthday. This year, he gets something infinitely better. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Established Relationship, Birthday Sex, Lingerie, Kissing, Fluff, Praise Kink, Dirty Talk, Vaginal Fingering, P in V Sex WC: 2100

✮⋆˙ Tim Rockford ˙⋆✮

Kinktober Day Twentynine - Breathplay - Tumblr / AO3 ⛓️

Summary: After a successful case, everyone goes out to celebrate. Everyone except your boss, Tim Rockford. But, with an empty office to make use of, you both find your own way to celebrate. Tags/Warnings: Smut, Explicit, Established Relationship, Choking, Coworker Reader, Female Reader, Office Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Secret Relationship WC: 2100

#pedro pascal x you #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x y/n #pedro pascal fanfiction #javier peña x reader #javier pena fic #masterlist #softpascalito #joel miller x reader #joel miller / reader #javier pena fanfiction #din djarin / you #din djarin x reader #din djarin / reader #din djarin #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #ao3 author #tim rockford / you #tim rockford x you #silva / you #silva / reader #javi g / you #javi gutierrez #javi gutierrez / reader #agent whiskey / you #agent whiskey x you #frankie morales / you #frankie morales / reader

[whumptober]

Quick question just out of curiosity because this will no doubt come up once again..

so before the proverbial crap storm that is AI hits the fan...

Last year it kicked off if AI work (art or other) was accepted for whumptober 2022.

so out of curiosity where does that sit this year 🤔

is it possible to allow it if declared? Is it not but why?

It's a prickly subject I know but hey someone has to ask 🙈🤷🏼‍♀️

Whumpookies 🍪

The use of AI in fan-generated work can be a nuanced issue. The mods feel that using AI tools to enhance a work that's mostly person-generated is rather different from plugging a prompt into ChatGPT and posting what it spits out. We don't want to limit what people put together for this event, but AI feels a little like cheating. A case can also be made for using AI as a tool for creating work, like any other tool. It's indeed rather complicated.

We decided that we will not reblog AI works but we won't stop you from using those tools if you choose.

It's not like we're going to check every fanwork posted in October; we rely on the honor system. So if you use AI in your works, you can post them, you can add them (with an AI tag) to the AO3 collection, you can count them towards being a completionist, but we won't amplify them with reblogs from this official account.

Participants may not feed another's work into AI to generate a prompt specific ending and use that in this challenge. That's theft, and really rude.

Again, we're not going to police everyone, but if someone does this and it's brought to our attention, we'll call out the offender and block them.

If anyone has further questions about AI or what is allowed for the event, ask here or on the discord, or message us directly. We'll be updating the FAQs this week.

#mod yenn #asks

[touchoffleece]

Reflecting back over the last few years of AO3 and why it was made in the first place (to archive fan works) and older fanfic enjoyers trying to warn about purges of days gone by

It feels ironic that we're now experiencing a new fanfic purge in some sense. Either authors are trying to hide their works for a sense of control over unwanted AI Scalping in AO3 because of it's success as the best place for fanfiction hosting. Meaning unregistered or people not logged in won't be able to find fanfictions because they are behind a curtain now essentially "purging fics" from the public. Not that I blame any author who chooses to do this, I actually am pro authors doing what they feel they need to. I've decided to private fics because I really don't even like the idea of it possibly happening to my shoddy drabbles if it hasn't already and feeding into the misuse of AI by people looking for easy money. Or we see this other type of 'fanfiction purge'. New generation of fic readers being more demanding of free passion projects to the point of being rude, and driving the authors to stop writing, or even have authors publicly state the increase in considering just deleting their works because of the shift in attitude in what fic readers decide to comment under works. This observation made from looking at comments of newer fandoms (be it ao3 comments or social medias) and seeing more and more comments just be "update soon!" (and those comments only ask for more) or some veiled demand for more content under the guise of 'a joke demand for more'. And while there is nothing wrong with letting a author know you like the story and would like to read more, when it's just constant "more" comments with no acknowledgement of anything that goes on in the story/update it comes off as dismissive of the work someone put into an update. It sucks to see people act entitled to demand more from fanfic authors who are generally associated with distress but willing to put updating a fanfiction above irl commitments because of the love they hold for their fanwork, only to get asked for more and more. We have seen and know of the memes, but hey: fanfiction writers are humans, humans with emotional limits regardless of outlandish sounding some author's notes come off of to people without context. Entitled comments more likely then not lead to burn out, or authors just deciding to stop writing or decide to take their works down to not feel harassed by people asking for more. I really don't know many creative oriented people who take constant demands for more and more work without some type of reward well; and while some might try and ask "Aren't comments in themselves a feel good reward for the authors? Isn't that enough?" It probably depends on the author, but when the comments are just constant "more!" "I need the next update now!" ect, it doesn't give much feel good vibes after the initial "oh someone liked what I wrote" because more often then not they will wonder "I wonder what they liked about it" only to see the comments are just people rushing to order more free fanwork to be devoured as fast as possible without appreciation to what was already shared to the public for free. This has turned into a venting rant from what I originally had thought when I got the thought in my head late at night, but I do want to include that this probably can be linked back to people underappreciating or being apathetic about comparative literature, media literacy, or just appreciate taking art and doing some deep thinking on it, and it's a damn shame it seems it has lead to what feels like a new fanfiction purge in a place meant to be a safe space for fanfictions. Another example of history repeating itself because of complacency and forgetting or choosing to ignore our past mistakes.

#rambles #shower thoughts #archieve of our own #ao3 #ao3 discourse #fanfiction #fandom #fandom meta #fandom history #pop culture #internet history #media literacy #it's a bit sad ao3 is experiencing a 'fanfiction purge' despite so many older fic readers trying to prevent it from happening #we live in a society #anti ai #anti ai writing

[milverton]

Hey, I don’t really want to bother you but I could not find your fics on AO3 anymore. What happened? I have been following them since 2016. I am too attached to your fics. You have no idea how much I love your fics. Please Please Please keep them up. Thank you :)

You're not bothering at all..!

They are still there, but I've locked them for logged-in users only because of AI harvesting.

If you don't have an account, I can give you an invite. :)

(I have several invites so if any follower wants an AO3 invite, I can give you one!)

Also sorry for not updating anything in over a year now. T.T I'm invested in writing something else (multiple "elses") that I don't want to publish at all unless I finish it. 188k+ and counting (among with others)!

Thank you so much for caring! <3 You have no idea how happy this made me..! I'll work harder to produce an update for the fics I'm already publishing..! <3

#sade replies #reginatang blog #for those who don't know: ao3 is invite only #you can request an invite from ao3 #but it takes longer to get one that way #if you don't have an account and want one right now please ask me for an invite <3 #(please i want to share my invites i've had them for so long)

[icypantherwrites]

Update on AO3 Situation + Final RAINN Support Event

(this is a little long, but please, if possible, read to the end.)

AO3 has *finally* reinstated my fanfiction To Become the Nightmare and in a way this nightmare situation is over. I'm still extremely frustrated and disappointed though with AO3 especially as I am 99.9% certain the only reason my issue was finally addressed was because I tagged their support page on Twitter/X rather than any of my emails and communications to their actual Policy and Abuse team. They also provided no apology or reason for the delay or an explanation for why their staff provided a 1-week timeline that they then ignored for 3.5 weeks. I'm grateful to have my story back, but this entire ordeal has been awful in so many ways.

I will also admit on a personal note it was also disheartening to see how many folks sent me messages, asks (to the point I locked them down on Tumblr) and comments on AO3 stories (of which I'd know there'd be even more if AO3 hadn't made the blanket decision to lock down all guest comments) wanting to know where I'd be updating now, getting upset over the fact I use Patreon as they don't want paywalls to read my works, asking about the status of current stories and former stories, etc. and very rarely, if at all, even taking into account how all of this was affecting me.

I have poured years into posting on AO3, on making it a platform where I have over 2.5 million words worth of stories for everyone to enjoy, and am dealing with AO3 painting me as some villain because I linked to an organization to try to help sexual assault victims, and their complete lack of communication on top of all of that felt intentional. It's put me in a really bad mental health state and coming in daily to see multiple people asking and asking about how will *they* read my stories and making me feel guilty for not updating just... it really hurt. And the answer was I didn't know entirely what was going to happen and was still hoping for the best outcome with AO3. And contrary to some of the accusations I received, I never intended to put all of my new and upcoming works behind a Patreon paywall and certainly never planned to delete any works other than the single one I mentioned (and I explained why that was). I may have used Patreon's platform (because it has better formatting than say Tumblr) and made the works posted there available to the public (anyone can join as a free member, fyi), but that was never the end-game and the fact so many people got mad and angry and posted honestly kind of cruel asks and comments... I'm really hurt. I'm a person too and I share my works with my own time and energy and to have everyone so embroiled in this "me me me" energy when I was really struggling with what AO3 did, just... makes me not want to post anymore anywhere at all. I won't do that because I won't punish those folks who have been supportive and kind, but please, take a moment before you comment to think how it feels to be the recipient of a message like that. That's all the energy left I have to spend on that but please, be kind. Be understand. Be appreciative for what you do have and remember always that authors have feelings too.

Going forward I'll be looking to get back to updating existing stories and publishing some backlog on AO3 during this suspension/lock; however, I will be holding off on that until AO3 lifts their own blanket ban on guest comments as I know there are plenty of folks who prefer to engage that way and/or haven't yet been able to get accounts. You may have seen as well that my account, given that it seems to be AI-bots leading the reason for the guest ban, has been locked down to only AO3 accounts able to read my works. That will remain in effect until AO3 releases theirs and it may be something I ultimately do to protect my account and my works in the future, but for now once the current AO3 situation has been resolved that will go back to access to guest accounts as well.

In the meantime, with To Become the Nightmare restored and the fact my earlier RAINN support events have thus far yielded $2 for me to donate (which hurts in other ways xD Come on y'all, financial support for a great organization and some emotional support and love for the author, what's not to like about that?) I'm going to do one final event to try to raise some funds for RAINN and at least try to make a small, positive difference in all of this mess.

For the remainder of this week, anyone who leaves an engaged comment (100+ words, no quote-backs in that word count, about the fanfiction at hand) on To Become the Nightmare I will donate $2 per comment to RAINN. It would also personally mean a lot to me as this story never really had a lot of comment engagement in the first place AND on top of that it got a really, really toxic comment. I unfortunately get those folks regularly on sexual assault recovery fanfictions I write because they refuse to accept that everyone heals in different ways AND also refuse to take accountability where if they don't like what they're reading they have the power to hit the back button on their browser and just not read it. I left that particular comment up (you can see it on page 2) if you want a taste of some of the people I still encounter to this day. Anyways, it would mean a lot to hear from those who may want to read it, but given that it both a; has sexual assault and b; is an M-rating please do read it at your own discretion. I'm posting the full summary below and please read the warnings tagged on the story. I'll post an update at the end of the week with how much we managed to raise for RAINN (and if you'd like to donate on your own too, please feel free~! ♥)

To Become the Nightmare

Summary: [College AU] “And if you didn’t want to have fun,” nails dug into Lance’s skin as the grip tightened and Dios, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t move, “then you shouldn’t have been such a pretty little tease, freshie. You wanted to hang with the big boys? Well,” he chuckled, “welcome to the real party.” Hot breath wafted over Lance’s face as the upperclassmen smirked down at him. “Now let’s get it started.”

#voltron #vld #lance #langst #fanfiction #fanfic #icypanther #icypantherwrites #rainn #donation #support #ao3 #archive of our own

[moku-youbi]

Entitled AO3 Commenters

Fam, we really need to talk about the toxic behaviour that's going on in AO3 comments these days. I know there's a lot going around about how people just want to consume, consume, consume, and move onto the next thing, and most don't even bother to kudo or comment, which is pretty heartbreaking as it is.

But sometimes, I think the folks that *do* comment, but do so in a shitty, entitle way, are even worse. Because it's like wow, you put in the time and effort to make a comment, but you were an absolute douche about it. Now, in some of these cases, I wonder if it's just young people who are new to the world of ao3 and just don't know better. Maybe they honestly don't realise what's wrong with the things they've written. So let's look at a few examples of shitty comments, and talk about why they're shitty, and what could be done to make them more acceptable.

I'm giving people the benefit of the doubt here, even when it's difficult to do so. I'd like to believe that it's just a difference in age and how we've learned to communicate with strangers online. So please, if you're guilty of these things, instead of getting angry or hurt seeing this, just think about how to do better?

So a lot has been said about the "when are you going to update again/I'm desperate for an update/" or even the *shudder* "since you haven't updated in x, I'm going to put this through an AI engine to finish the fic!" comments:

Setting aside the fact that this fic is 44 chapters and over 180k words in length, and this person never left a single comment on it or any of my other fics to tell me they enjoy my work, and how shitty it feels to know your work was apparently loved and appreciated, but not enough to actually *say* that except to demand more of it, sooner... AND the fact that I have long notes on the fic and the series about why the parts are being written and posted in the order they are...

Let's talk about why these comments aren't helpful, and in fact can often have the opposite effect of what you're hoping. Authors are already likely feeling crummy about their writer's block or real life circumstances getting in the way of working on that WIP, and these comments compound the guilt we feel, which makes it even more difficult to work on. It can make us want to avoid even looking at/thinking about that WIP, no matter how well-meaning the comment.

Fic writers are real people with real lives. I only have a couple hours free time to myself everyday, and a lot of times I'm so tired I just want to do something that's mindless fun. Most nights, however, I forgo a movie or video game (IDEK the last time I played a game! and I love gaming!) or reading to work on my WIPs. Even so, these comments are a reminder that to the people reading, that's not enough. They will consume my story, not bother to thank me for it, then demand more.

Often times, you can leave the same comment going on about how much you love it, just delete the parts asking about updates and/or assuming the fic is abandoned, okay?

Next we have the 'did not bother to read the tags and/or author's note' commenters:

The problem with this comment is that this fic is tagged as "no archive warnings apply" which means there is no underage content. Furthermore, while his age isn't explicitly stated in the fic, I have made it clear he is an adult, in college within the text of the story. I have the following in my author's notes at the beginning of the fic: "Tom Holland is my Spider-Man, but I have aged him up here, as he's in college, so. Feel free to imagine whichever spidey floats your boat"

If I'm going to give this commenter the benefit of the doubt (something that is increasingly difficult to do with anti culture), then at best, they do not read tags, summaries, or notes, and expect to be able to ask an author prior to reading their works to answer a comment that is already addressed multiple times.

If you're honestly worried about being triggered, or reading content you don't want to read, then I suggest just straight up avoiding fics that aren't clear enough to you from the tags/summary/notes. If you've read all those and it seems ambiguous, just skip it. Or if the story still sounds good, then maybe just skim the beginning of the story, even. Context clues are your friends, my dudes. If the character is a college student, chances are good they're adults.

The 'lacks reading comprehension' commenters:

Is it wrong to ask questions of an author when you don't understand something? I actually think it's a great way of interacting with authors and can lead to better understanding and appreciation of the work. However, there are a few problems with *how* you ask a question.

First of all, the problem commenters have not previously left a comment of any kind, and don't bother to include any sort of positive feedback along with their question. They just rock up to your inbox demanding an answer to a question they have, that makes you realise they weren't even really paying attention to your work (or the source material for that matter.)

In this case, smartphones don't exist in the canon work, and only exist in my fic because the characters have suddenly been thrust into a different universe. Klaus doesn't understand smartphones because he grew up with them. He is able to quickly adapt to the new technology of the world, while others, like Viktor, are confused by it. This is all explained quite thoroughly in the text.

The 'doesn't know how to google' commenters, who might also be the 'disingenuous question' commenters:

Again, going to give this commenter the benefit of the doubt that they aren't just an asshole anti. So you don't know what Thorki is, but you're on AO3, home of All The Relationship Tags. Even if you didn't think to search it there, google exists, and is your friend. Type Thorki in there, and it's not even like you've got to narrow your search or add 'ship' or anything. The top result is the Thorki page of shipping wiki, and the next several links are photos of Thor/Loki. There is literally no other result given on the first page of google.

But LBR, this is likely an anti trying to subtly shame me for shipping Thorki. In which case, I'd invite you to look at my author page and see the types of fics I write regularly, and maybe just take your nonsense elsewhere.

The 'why are you here?' commenters:

Again, it's not like there's anything wrong with this kind of question! I too have seen PFPs of people on AO3 and been curious myself. The problem is, once again, coming onto one of my works and, without acknowledging the work that I've put so much time and effort into the thing they're commenting on, they just demand an answer.

What's particularly bewildering about this is that it isn't even in the 4 most recent works I've posted. So instead of just seeing my PFP and clicking on the first thing they see and asking there (still a little rude, but maybe more understandable??) it seems they were here to look at my work, and in doing so saw my PFP, and decided to ask.

Look, there's a way to ask these kinds of questions, young folks, and so I present to you

The proper way to ask a question commenter <3 :

Look at that! The commenter was able to get their question answered, and I was delighted to respond to them, because they took a few lines to tell me that they'd appreciated the work it pertains to. Honestly, I don't even need that much, although it's sincerely appreciated and makes my day. But even a simple "Loved the story, it was a lot of fun. BTW--that house..." would be cool.

We've all had those times when we get a burning question reading the fic--

"Is it possible they were referencing those lyrics??? I mean, it's not a very popular song, but it seems so obvious!!!" (probably, and the author is likely gonna be super excited you know that song, too)

"Did that line mean to insinuate what it did? Is that foreshadowing? Are those characters secretly screwing?" (the author may play coy, or they might be super excited you picked up on the thing they were hinting, or maybe they'll be annoyed you ruined the surprise?? but that's on them being brought up in the Marvel era of no spoilers)

Or indeed the questions about PFP or what house/city/clothing you used as reference.

But unless you're a regular commenter, popping up with just that question is abrupt at best, and shows a lack of common courtesy. Like, okay. Imagine running up to your favourite actor/singer/author in public and instead of saying "I'm a huge fan/I loved X/you're an amazing author/lyricist/actor/etc", you just immediately start bombarding them with questions "When are you going to write a new song/What did you mean on page 126 when you said/why did you decide to write these two characters together/etc etc."

Just imagine that you are addressing a living person with real human feelings, and ask yourself, if I were talking to them face to face, would this be an acceptable way to address/open a conversation with a stranger.

#ao3 etiquette #ao3 comments #ao3 #comments #fandom #the author is a human person

[wander-wren]

got another bot-spam comment on ao3, but this one is extra weird. let’s do some investigating!

for those not in the know, The Haunting is my dark whumpy “todoroki gets adopted by aizawa” fic. it’s also 60k words long. so right away i’m doubting this person read it. that plus the generic vibes? bot comment. but i’m also pretty sure i’ve heard of this channel before, specifically because it wasn’t crediting authors. hm. so i go check it out: http://www.youtube.com/@DnWhatIf

first of all, these are the videos i’m greeted with:

now, i don’t want to bash anyone’s taste, but this is so extremely not my thing. nooooo way. some of these read more like crackfic, which is fine, but tonally the difference is SO much. and just makes it even more glaringly obvious that they aren’t reading the fics they’re spamming or even giving them a cursory once-over (or putting strong filters on the bot? i’m not clear how bot comments work)

because this is the first thing you see about The Haunting:

i’m guessing, if it wasn’t completely random, it’s the fact that i tagged izuku as a character. and really it’s just lazy, the whole thing. it’s all bots. ai art in the thumbnail, ai voice reading the fic, bot making comment spam for you. zero respect. if this was an actual podficcer i would consider it! hell, i might even accept ai voice readings (MAYBE), if it was obvious there was a human person who cared behind them. it could certainly be a tool for good, since podficcing isn't very common (we love you podficcers. if i had a little bit more confidence i would be one of you).

but anyway, hang on, lets back up a step, because the whole reason i looked into this was the credits issue. the video “what if deku became a teacher at ua” (ugh) (i hate the title gimmick also) is going to be my guinea pig.

so in the little intro (also done by ai), it says “all credits to their respective authors” which, yikes. however, they do link to their permission statement and the fic in the description, so it….could be worse. but also, these are the comments

(and it continues like that for a bit)

the channel name also has a 4.0 after it [edit: it did when i started this post, then i got distracted for two days, and now it is gone. hm], which implies they’ve had a lot of trouble with keeping it up. so it seems likely that this is the channel i heard about stealing fics, they just finally learned to get permission and give credit to try and keep it up this time. the permission statement on this video is real (i wondered if they would just link to something else and assume no one would check), but even THAT author references being “freaked out” (positive?? unsure) when they heard of people finding their story on youtube. before giving permission to upload with credit. so that’s not great

also this sludgepit of content is absolutely the thing that attracts people with no patience clamoring for updates literally one day after the video goes up. go figure. bad vibes all around.

also, if you’re wondering about the quality of the reading (i’ve stumbled on some pretty good ai voices as of late!), it’s, uh. i don’t actually know about how all this works, but i feel like when you pick a voice to read a story it should at least be able to approximate character name pronunciation. and flow.

but alas.

i also don't want to bash the authors in question but the truth is from the very minimal poking around i did (not giving this channel any more of my time than absolutely necessary), the writing featured is....mediocre at best. which is fine and good for the fandom ecosystem and i will NEVER be anything but happy that people are writing and posting less-than-perfect works, especially since some of these premises are pretty unique and i think it's better to have the fic than not. we all start somewhere, fanfic is an excellent way to practice and get feedback at the same time, etc.

but these channels, these kinds of operations, they're going to prey on new and young authors and that's who is going to be saying yes to them. because they want the exposure, they want to be told their work is good enough for someone else to care to record it for youtube, they haven't been around long enough to recognize this for what it is: someone taking extreme shortcuts to get views and likes and a bit of notoriety off of other people's work. and that's shit.

and remember that youtube videos can be monetized!

now, i doubt this channel in particular has been monetized, although it does meet the minimum requirements as far as numbers go:

it shouldn't meet the requirements for the monetization policies, specifically these ones:

especially with the disclaimer in the beginning that the content is not their own--which might be why previous versions of the channel did not give credit. who knows.

however, youtube DID just have some scandals about people making videos that were pretty much entirely plagiarized, which were monetized, so i don't have the highest hopes in the world. still, it doesn't seem monetized, so no strikes against this particular creator for that, at least, but defo something to look out for if anyone ever brings up hosting podfics on youtube.

so yeah, bot spam, not a complete scam this time but definitely really sketchy, bad vibes all around. and i still kind of want to give them permission to use my fic just to see what would happen, lmao

#wren wrambles #ao3 #i probably shouldnt someone tell me not to #what i SHOULD be doing is writing the last chapter of haunting huh #AHHHHHHHHHHH #anyway. wren investigates really random shit pt 182326748

[sloanerisette]

How To Win Your Senpai In 10 Days Chapter 5

Whew, finally an update! Sorry for the long wait, but I had a lot of trouble settling on a core idea/focus on for this day/chapter, but I finally decided on "Hangover" because of all of the drinking and Mimi's drunken texting. This was my big focus for @campdigimonth on tumblr, and lots of shoutouts to everyone who's a part of it who has offered me comments on my little sneak peeks and all the kindness! It means so much.

This chapter in particular is dedicated to @reliablejoukido for all of her support, kindness, and making sure I don't push myself too much with all my work. And especially for all the fun headcanons and thoughts we've shared! Thank you for being part of the Jyoumi squad with me! <3

I hope you all enjoy! <3

And here's to another year of wonderful Digimon fics and art!

Chapter Summary: After a much needed girl's night, Mimi has to deal with the fallout. Fallout that isn't just the horrible hangover she's gotten after all that wine.

If you want to check out the chapter on AO3, you can do so here!

---

The next morning came far too quickly.

Mimi was the first one to be sick that morning, making it to the bathroom just in the nick of time. She was also the one who was still sick even after Kari and Yolei, who had suffered similar fates, were eventually able to work past it. With all those glasses of wine last night— ones that were stronger than she expected Yolei to bust out— she was reeling. The ice cream didn’t help either.

Sora, who had managed to walk away with a bad headache, had been there to rub Mimi’s back and keep her hair out of her face until she was only just dry heaving. She needed last night desperately, but it didn’t make the morning any less unpleasant. As opposed to the decadent treats they indulged in last night, once she and Sora came back to the Inoue family living room, there were tall glasses of water and a bottle of pain relievers.

She sat down on the floor, right in front of the coffee table, looking at Kari who looked more miserable than she did. As the girls sat in silence, their Digimon slowly started to make their way from Yolei’s room, confusion and concern on their faces as they saw the states their partners were in.

“Hopefully you girls didn’t get up to too many shenanigans last night,” Hawkmon tutted as he eyed Yolei in particular.

Gatomon got to Kari’s side as soon as she could once she saw the half-dead expression she wore.

“Are you ok, Kari?”

“I’m fine, just…” Kari started slowly, taking another long drink of water, “…Still recovering from last night.”

“Next time we’re giving you half a glass at most,” Mimi said with a motherly wag of her finger. Sora narrowed her eyes at her friend.

“Or none at all, hopefully,” she mumbled, “Especially not if you’re going to take her share,” she added with a sigh.

Mimi and Yolei both ducked their heads and looked way from Sora, whose face could only be described as “not mad, just disappointed.”

Palmon sat next to Mimi and looked up at her, tilting her head.

“You don’t look so great, Mimi, are you sure you’ll be ok?” the plant Digimon asked, and Mimi felt her heart ache for worrying her partner so much.

“After some of the noises I heard earlier, I hope so…” Biyomon said.

Mimi offered as reassuring a smile as she could to her Digimon, “I’ll be ok, promise. I’m feeling a little better now.” She gently patted Palmon on the head, and her Digimon curled up to her and pulled her into a hug.

“I’m so glad!” Palmon said. How loud Palmon was definitely wouldn’t help her headache, but it could’ve been worse. Plus, there was no way she would say no to a Palmon hug right now.

“Hey, what if we went to Ai-Mart to pick up some snacks and stuff?” Yolei suggested before taking another long swig of water.

“As long as there’s no more alcohol,” Kari said. Hawkmon shook his head.

“I swear, Yolei, you really do need me to chaperone you sometimes,” Hawkmon said. Yolei waved him off.

“I promise, it’s fine. We had Sora and Mimi to help,” she insisted. Mimi ducked her head, knowing that she had done more to spur on the night’s rowdiness than not.

“It’s a good idea, though. We could definitely use something to soak up any of the alcohol still in our systems,” Mimi said. She finished her glass and slowly pushed herself up, rocking gently in place before raising her arms in the air to congratulate herself on a job well done.

“Ok, let’s clean up, get changed and see if we can get something to help with the hangovers,” Sora said.

Though the idea of cleaning up the living room didn’t sound appealing in the slightest, none of them were going to leave Yolei with all of the work. It had taken a while for all of them to handle it, but thanks to their Digimon helping out, too, they had managed to get it done before too long.

Back in her clothes from the day before, Mimi joined the others in heading for the elevator. Save for the quiet groans from Kari and Yolei in particular, everyone was silent and as they rode down, Mimi pulled out her phone and looked at it.

Joe still hadn’t replied to her texts from the night before. It wasn’t even that early, though she supposed maybe it was a blessing more than anything that he hadn’t gotten back to her. With how much of a nonsensical mess everything she sent him was, she couldn’t stop from feeling mortified. The ding of the elevator rang out and she walked out with the other girls, still looking at her phone as she followed close.

Despite her pounding head she still remembered last night clearly. Gushing over him, crying over him, and asking her friends if they would judge her for trying to win him back. And even now that she was sober, that thought was still in her mind. She did want to win him back… or just win him over, really. She didn’t want to hurt him or Manami, and that thought was even more prevalent now that her mind was no longer swimming in red wine and rocky road. No one deserved to get hurt… but someone would. If she did nothing, it would be her, but if she actually tried to pursue him, then she would hurt Manami and potentially ruin her friendship with Joe.

Could she handle that? Was she ready for that very real possibility?

She bumped into Sora as they stopped at the entrance to the store, then pocketed her phone and offered Sora a sheepish smile, mouthing a “sorry” in the process.

Yolei unlocked the door to the store, gesturing for them to go in and followed in after. She flicked on the lights and when she did, all of the girls cringed at the sudden, blinding fluorescence that poured in from overhead. Once they recovered, they started to look around, almost lost in where to start in the sea of convenience store goodies.

“Since Yolei handled everything last night, I’ll pay for the hangover cures,” Mimi said, before speeding towards one of the fridges against the back wall. Sports drinks were going to be one of the best options, without a doubt, and she already began plucking out a few for the group.

“What did you do back in New York?” Kari asked.

“Wait, you didn’t drink a lot in New York, did you?” Sora asked immediately after.

Mimi laughed, “No no, not that much!” she insisted, waving a hand to hopefully assuage her friend’s fears. “Only two or three times when hanging out with friends.”

Admittedly it was a few more times than that, but there were only a small handful of hangovers that really did a number on her like this morning’s.

Sometimes they would meet at one of their houses, ordering pizza and sneaking alcohol from their parents’ liquor cabinet, and would complain about whatever crossed their mind. Usually something school related.

Michael hosted a small goodbye party with a few of their friends the weekend before she left, which involved fast food, cheap beers, and a toast to her over some of Michael J Barton’s whiskey.

Mimi decided she didn’t like whiskey that night.

As she rifled through the freezer for drinks, she couldn’t help but smile at that memory. It involved a lot of joking, yet still heartfelt speeches about how they’d miss her.

With how empty she was feeling since she came back, she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she would’ve been better off had she stayed in America…?

No, even with what happened with Joe, she still had other friends close by. As much as the aftermath sucked, last night would still be something she held near and dear for the rest of her life.

She popped the sports drinks into a small basket Palmon grabbed, and then started to walk through the aisles, looking carefully for anything that could help.

“If it was during a weekend we’d get some greasy fast food or something from a diner.”

“Ohhh, that sounds so good right now,” Yolei groaned.

“Carbs or something greasy helps. My mama told me umeboshi helps, too, because of the… acid, I think?” Mimi said.

“Oh, we have umeboshi onigiri here!” Yolei said, before padding off to the right aisle.

“Perfecto!” Mimi shouted, snapping her fingers then pointing towards Yolei. Yolei had a wide smile on her face at her idol using her catchphrase, and couldn’t help but giggle to herself as she grabbed a few packages of onigiri. Kari cringed and shook her head.

“You sure you’re ok, Kari?” Sora asked at a much gentler volume. Kari nodded.

“Yeah, my head just hurts still,” she sighed.

“Anything else we should be on the lookout for?” Yolei asked.

“I think these should be good,” Mimi said, “We should start off small so we aren’t too hard on our stomachs, and then we can always grab something to eat in a bit.”

The group converged at the cash register, with Kari leaning against it to help prop herself up. Yolei was starting to ring up the items, and Mimi pulled her wallet from her bag. Once she was done, she handed a drink to each of her friends before cracking open one of the onigiri. She cradled it gently in her hands, staring at it in awe.

“You look happy,” Sora teased gently. Mimi couldn’t help but chuckle, unable to take her eyes off it.

“I mean, it’s been a long time since I’ve had one of these. We made some back in New York, but we could barely find ingredients for the ones I like,” she said. After another moment to build up the anticipation, Mimi took a bite off the top and let out a content sigh.

“So good.”

Sora followed suit, taking a bite of her own, and nodded, “So good.”

Kari gulped down her drink, as if the relief couldn’t come fast enough, and once she was done she slammed it on the counter. Yolei’s eyes went wide.

“Did that help?” she asked.

“…Not yet,” Kari sighed. Mimi wrapped an arm around Kari and pulled her into a side hug.

“I promise you’ll feel better soon, sweetie.”

“Worst case we can just have a nice, all-day cat nap,” Gatomon said as she hopped up onto the counter.

Kari mumbled an “I hope” before she started nibbling on her onigiri. The group slowly fell into a peaceful silence as they all worked on their hangover cures.

Eventually the quiet serenity of the convenience store was annihilated as the door whipped open and they were greeted by the bustling Odaiba morning and a very familiar, very loud voice.

“Hey, we’re closed— oh, hey,” Yolei said. Mimi turned her head mid-bite to see Ken and Davis walking into the store.

“Hey!” Davis shouted with a wide wave to the group of girls, “What’s up ladies?”

“We’re closed, Davis,” Yolei grumbled, though it didn’t deter him from heading towards the counter. Ken shot Yolei an apologetic smile which caused a light tinge of pink to settle on her cheeks.

“We were just on our way to play a few pick up matches and wanted to pick up some things beforehand,” Ken explained, “I know you said you were going to be closed for a couple of days, but we saw the lights on so we thought we would check.” Yolei’s eyes instantly sparkled.

“Of course! Don’t worry about it! Take your time!” Yolei nearly shouted. Kari, who was standing next to Yolei, groaned and rubbed her temples. Davis narrowed his eyes and grumbled.

“Oh, but when I come in it’s a problem…”

Mimi and Sora leaned close to each other and snickered.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be here long,” Ken said, grabbing Davis’s arm before dragging him off to the other end of the store.

“Ugh, so annoying…” Yolei said, rolling her eyes as she angrily took a bite from her onigiri.

“Come on, he’s not that bad,” Kari said, “Plus you get to see Ken.”

Yolei's light flush turned into a burning red, which quickly started to overtake her face and the tips of her ears. She hid behind her food and glanced away from her friend.

“I mean, that part is good, I guess…” she mumbled. The three girls couldn’t help but laugh, which merely caused Yolei to slowly sink behind the counter— even more so as the two boys approached.

“So what are you ladies all doing here bright and early?” Davis asked as he and Ken started to unload their haul. Davis’s backpack started to rustle, and DemiVeemon and Minomon poked their heads out of it.

“Are we there yet?” DemiVeemon asked.

“Yeah, I wanna play— oh, hi Yolei!” Minomon squeaked out, waving a tiny little arm to the girl behind the counter.

“Hi Minomon,” Yolei said with a wave of her fingers before she began to ring up their items. “To answer your question, we had a girl’s night last night.”

“A girl’s night?” Davis asked as he glanced at the rest of them, his eyes finally landing on Kari, “What’s up with your girl’s night that’s making you guys look so rough?”

“You really don’t know how to talk to girls, huh?” Yolei asked, an unamused look on her face as she folded her arms.

“What!? N-no I’m totally great at talking to girls, I was just—” he stammered out, before catching the fact that Yolei stuck her tongue out at him. He narrowed his eyes at her and returned the gesture.

“Yolei just wanted to do something fun for me and the rest of us,” Mimi said, before taking another sip from her drink. DemiVeemon hopped out of Davis’s backpack and landed next to Hawkmon and Biyomon, talking with the two of them as Yolei continued to ring up the items.

Ken gently nudged Davis in the side as the other pulled his wallet out to pay. Davis looked at Ken and blinked once, then twice, then his eyes went wide.

“Oh, right! I almost forgot!” he practically shouted, then looked over at Mimi.

“Sorry, uh, about the other day,” he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Mimi raised an eyebrow and tilted her head curiously. As he felt all eyes land on him, he ducked his head, “You know, about that comment I made at the picnic?”

“Oh!” A wave of sadness washed over her as she remembered the moment in question, it replaying in her mind just as clear as when it happened. She could feel Sora’s worried look on her, and she waved Davis’s apology off, keeping up that clearly rehearsed smile that had been the only one she could muster up to anyone.

“It’s ok, Davis, really, don’t worry about it,” she said. She knew with each word she said she could feel her voice start to waver more and more, but she swallowed it down before she actually teared up. Plus, it wasn’t like Davis did it maliciously. If there was one thing that boy couldn’t be, it was malicious.

“I just, you know, always thought that you and Joe were a thing,” Davis said with a shrug.

“Davis,” Yolei hissed. Ken closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and silently sighed.

“I mean, like, nothing against Joe’s girlfriend or anything, but I don’t get why he wouldn’t date you. You’re a smokeshow! Right Ken?” he asked, wildly gesturing at Mimi. Ken shook his head, still pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Davis…” Ken mumbled.

“Davis!” Kari shouted at the same time, a prominent frown on her face. Davis held his hands up in front of him and took a half step back.

“I-I-I mean not more than you or anything!” he quickly added as he focused his attention on Kari.

“Davis!”

Both Kari and Yolei shouted this time, and Davis shrunk under their glares.

After that, Davis was quick to hand Yolei some money, keeping his head down the entire time from shame. Mimi appreciated the compliment, but Yolei had no intention of dropping it, her hands on her hips as she tapped her foot impatiently.

“Thanks for letting us shop,” Ken said with a bow of his head as they took their bags.

“And, uh, sorry again,” Davis mumbled. DemiVeemon hopped onto the counter and then onto Davis’s backpack, tumbling into Minomon as the two fell into its depths.

“Bye!” the two in-training Digimon shouted, squeaky voices muffled by the backpack. Davis couldn’t make eye contact with Mimi, Yolei, or Kari, and sped out of the store as fast as possible, with Ken giving the group of girls an apologetic look before following after them.

“Finally…” Yolei grumbled, shaking her head.

***

Now their girl’s night was done, they had successfully (mostly) beaten their hangovers, and the rest of the day was still for them to do with as they pleased.

Mimi, however, couldn’t think of anything she wanted to do even while Yolei excitedly threw out ideas for what they could get up to next.

A part of her wanted to go back home with Palmon, maybe watch some sad romance movies while chowing down on more ice cream, and continue to cry her heart out when she could muster up the tears for the last day and a half before school started back.

Yolei set a hand on her stomach after she finished locking up the store.

“I know we just snacked and everything, but I could go for lunch,” she said.

“I mean… I could probably go for some food…” Kari said with a sheepish laugh, “I think the closest thing we had to actual food last night were chips.”

“You said greasy food helped, right? I could go for a burger or something right about now…” Sora said with a wistful sigh.

“There’s a burger place a few blocks down we can go to?” Yolei suggested, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder.

The girls all looked at each other, and once Kari’s stomach loudly rumbled, they were quick to agree that lunch was needed. With their Digimon in tow, they walked down the street at a leisurely pace, the morning passerby looking at the Digimon curiously before continuing on their way. Even if they were somewhat famous in Odaiba, and even if the world had seen more and more of Digimon over the years, there were always the people who watched in awe whenever a Digimon passed by.

Every so often, when conversation lulled, Mimi pulled her phone from her bag, heart pounding as she checked to see if there was anything from Joe. And each time there was both a sigh of relief followed by a wave of stress when she saw there was no new message. After the fifth time she shoved her phone in her bag, she looked up to see that they arrived at their destination, and that Yolei was already rushing inside.

“Mimi,” Palmon said once everyone else was inside, looking up at her partner with that same worry in her eyes as had been there since they had been reunited, “Are you ok? You keep looking at your phone and you seem sad.”

Mimi’s shoulders sagged gently, and a weary smile made its way on her face, “I texted Joe last night before I fell asleep and I haven’t heard back from him yet…” she trailed off, tapping her foot against the ground, “…I wonder if I made him uncomfortable or I seem too… childish or something.”

She pursed her lips as her gaze went distant, staring off down the street at nothing in particular.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t! You and Joe are really good friends!” Palmon said.

Mimi crouched down and wrapped her arms around her partner in a tight hug, resting her head against Palmon’s flower.

“Thank you, Palmon,” she whispered to her partner.

“I hope so.”

Suddenly, the door whipped open, and Mimi let out a yelp as she nearly fell onto the sidewalk.

“Mimiiiiiiii!” Yolei cried out, blinking as she saw nothing… until she looked down. “Mimi! Oh my god! Are you ok!?” she asked.

Yolei squatted down, and with Palmon, she helped Mimi stand up. “I’m fine,” Mimi assured her friend as she dusted herself off, then looked over at Yolei, “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing! You just never came in, so I went to get you.”

“Sorry, Palmon and I were just talking,” Mimi said.

“Well come on! We’re starving!” Yolei said. Yolei’s infectious energy pepped Mimi up a bit, and she tried to push away those stressful thoughts of her potentially ruined friendship with Joe. Sora and Kari already ordered, got their food, and made their way to a booth, and Mimi slowly stepped up to the counter, doing everything she could to keep those text messages far from her mind as she ordered. She and Yolei joined the other girls at the booth, and they started their meals in silence. Despite how long it had been, even the crunch of fries proved to be too loud for Kari to handle at times, and every so often she couldn’t help but cringe and press a few fingers to one of her temples.

“I can’t believe we have to go back to school in a few days,” Yolei sighed as she dragged a couple of fries through some ketchup she put on a napkin. The thought caused Mimi to slump in the booth.

“I’m not ready,” Mimi groaned. Sora slowly shook her head.

“Me either. I have a bunch to do for the tennis club that I’m not ready for.”

“I need to watch you play tennis this year, Sora!” Biyomon smiled, taking a bite from the burger her partner got her.

“Oh, can we go too, Mimi?” Palmon asked, kicking her legs happily as she looked up at her partner.

“I would love that! I’ve never had a chance to watch you play either!”

“Maybe we can all go?” Hawkmon suggested.

As everyone agreed in unison, Mimi felt her phone buzz and pulled it out, nearly choking on her food as she looked at the screen.

[Kido Joe]: Are you ok Mimi?

Her breath got caught in her throat as more messages started to roll in.

[Kido Joe]: Or I guess I should say were you ok…

[Kido Joe]: Are you ok now, I guess?

She briefly looked up from her phone, not missing how Sora was looking at her phone curiously before she went back to her own food. Did she tell him about last night? Or the hangover she was finally pushing past?

[Kido Joe]: I only ask because you misspelled a lot of words in your texts compared to normal.

[Kido Joe]: And because you texted me very late.

[Kido Joe]: Sorry for texting you so much now!

“Who is it?” Kari asked, and Mimi’s face heated up as she looked to see all eyes on her.

“I think we know,” Gatomon said before munching on a chicken nugget.

“Oh! Is it Joe?” Palmon asked, her eyes sparkling as bright as her smile.

“Yeah…” she admitted sheepishly.

After everything she said last night, and especially after telling Kari what not to do while drunk, there was no way she could admit why he texted her.

And this was all while she couldn’t figure out just what to text him, not wanting to keep him waiting too long because of how much it would undoubtedly worry him.

“Has he finally realized how perfect you are?” Yolei grumbled, taking a long sip from her now empty cup, the sound echoing around their table. Kari nudged Yolei’s side from her comment, who let out a grumble at it.

If only he had. She glanced back down at her phone, then at her friends, and slowly put her phone away.

“I’ll text him later,” she said, “Right now I need to spend time with my favorite ladies.”

She offered them a smile, and decided, for now, to wait for just a little bit as she tried to get her thoughts together.

They talked about simple things, with Yolei asking some more about New York, and Sora and her giving Kari and Yolei advice and encouragement for their upcoming year of school. Once they were done eating and left, Kari seemed to perk up some more, and the sun didn’t seem so oppressive now.

“We need to do that again!” Yolei said, stretching her arms above her head and stretching from side to side.

“Just no alcohol next time,” Sora said sternly. Kari said the same thing at the same time, punctuating her words with a drawn out groan. Yolei ducked her head, looked away, and started to whistle.

“I am up for a girl’s night anytime, and whether there’s alcohol or not, I will make sure my favorite ladies are well taken care of,” Mimi said, pulling the others into a hug. Their Digimon all joined in, taking up half the middle of the street.

Once they broke apart, the girls and their Digimon said their goodbyes to each other, and for a moment, Mimi stood against the side of the restaurant, her phone clutched in her hand as she stared down at the messages. Even though she had plenty of time to think, she hadn’t actually decided on anything to say.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: Hey!

Well that was… a start.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: Sorry about those texts last night!

[Tachikawa Mimi]: I was

Could she be upfront about it? Would he judge her? She grimaced and cringed, shutting one eye and angling her head away from her phone a bit as she tapped the buttons.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: A little drunk

She paused, heart beating even faster in her chest. She felt honesty wasn’t the best idea in this instance, but the words were now on the screen, unable to be taken back.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: Haha!

She cringed, feeling like that laugh didn’t help— and she couldn’t help but wonder if Joe could tell from reading just how fake that laugh was.

[Kido Joe]: Drunk?

[Kido Joe]: You got drunk???

[Kido Joe]: Are you ok? How drunk did you get?

Oh god. So many questions. She could picture clear in her mind how frantic he was just from how quick the texts came in. He was probably pacing in his room with a hand to his forehead in disbelief.

She pursed her lips, deep in thought for a few moments. Palmon looked up at Mimi with worry on her face. Mimi, however, looked down at her partner, and offered her a smile in hopes of calming her down, then squatted down to be on her level as she started tapping away again.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: I’m ok! I promise

[Tachikawa Mimi]: Just a mild hangover

As she stared down at her phone, she could feel her head pound even worse than it was when she first woke up.

[Kido Joe]: A MILD hangover?

[Kido Joe]: What’s considered mild???

[Kido Joe]: Are you dehydrated at all?

So many questions. So, so many questions. Ugh, she didn’t want to worry him at all. Maybe she should have lied. Just a little white lie to make sure he could rest easy. She started to type away a response before another message came in.

[Kido Joe]: Where are you at right now? Are you with anyone? Is Palmon with you?

Mimi furrowed her brow in confusion, slowly hitting the backspace before typing up a new message.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: Huh?

[Tachikawa Mimi]: Yes Palmon is with me why?

[Kido Joe]: Oh phew, that’s a relief.

[Kido Joe]: I asked because I wanted to check and make sure you’re ok.

[Kido Joe]: Where are you right now?

Suddenly her heart started pounding in her chest. Her cheeks felt warm. He wanted to check on her? Butterflies swarmed in her stomach at the thought, and she guiltily looked away from her phone.

“Mimi?” Palmon leaned over to take a look at Mimi’s phone, a beaming smile on her face. “Oh! Joe wants to see you!”

She was feeling better, did she really need to see him?

No, but she wanted to see him. And he wanted to make sure she was ok. Was that so wrong? She still remembered her words last night, drunken and slurred as they were, asking her friends about if they would judge her for fighting for him. To try and win him over. It was bad, every part of her knew it was bad, but she couldn’t help it.

If she saw him, though… it wasn’t necessarily trying to win him over, right? He was just checking on her. And knowing Joe, there was no way he would be calm unless he saw her with his own two eyes.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: I’m by Ai-Mart

However, as soon as she hit send, another wave of guilt washed over her.

[Tachikawa Mimi]: But don’t worry, seriously!

[Tachikawa Mimi]: I’m fine, honest

“Do you not want to see him?” Palmon asked with a gentle frown.

“It’s not that I don’t want to see him. I just…” she trailed off, letting out a breath that blew some hair out of her face, “I’m sure he’s busy since school is starting soon, and I don’t want him to worry about me when he should be getting ready.”

“But Mimi, I don’t think Joe would’ve asked to see you if he didn’t want to!” Palmon told her. Mimi knew that was the truth, but she couldn’t help but wonder if that was really the best decision for him. Or if he was just doing it out of some sort of obligation after what happened the other day.

[Kido Joe]: I’ll be there in ten minutes at the latest!

She felt a knot in her stomach when she saw his text come in. There was still a voice in her head that told her he was just doing it out of some sort of obligation. Mimi closed her eyes and shook her head to try and chase that errant thought away.

“We should head to Ai-Mart,” she said to Palmon. Her partner cheered as they headed back down the street. Despite how happy Palmon was, Mimi couldn’t stop the iron ball of dread that sank deeper and deeper in her gut.

***

Her feet felt heavy the entire walk over, almost as if her body was hesitating, too. But, Palmon was excited to see him, and Mimi was, too, a part of her touched that he would make the trip to see her.

As she approached the convenience store, she was relieved to see Yolei wasn’t there, if only so her junior wouldn’t get the wrong idea or blow things out of proportion. She did, however, see Joe standing there with his back to her, craning his neck as he looked around.

“It definitely hasn’t been ten minutes…” she thought.

Gomamon was perched on his shoulder, and once the seal caught sight of Mimi and Palmon, he tapped Joe on the head with one of his claws. Joe whipped around and Gomamon gripped tight onto his sweater so he didn’t fly off. As soon as he saw her, Joe’s eyes went wide, and he started running towards her. Mimi bit her lip, but continued walking to meet him halfway.

“Well if it isn’t my favorite flower!” Gomamon grinned, waving in an exaggerated manner as his partner skidded to a stop. Palmon waved both her arms above her head.

“If it isn’t my favorite seal!”

The edge of Mimi’s mouth twitched upwards into a small smile, and she didn’t miss how Joe’s expression lightened a bit. She also didn’t miss the careful once over he gave her, feeling herself flush under his inspection.

“You look ok…” he mumbled to himself, “Are you sure you’re ok?” he asked.

Mimi nodded quickly, “Mhm!” she chirped, hoping to ease his worries, though the way his brow furrowed indicated it wasn’t too helpful. “I had a bunch of water, drank one of those sports drinks that help out when you’re hungover, and I had a bunch to eat.”

“Oh,” he said, nodding slowly after, “That’s good. I’m glad.��

“That’s a shame,” Gomamon sighed with a shake of his head.

“Why?” Palmon asked.

“Because Joe got you a bottle of water! He was so worried, he was all,” the Digimon started, clearing his throat as he stood on his hind legs, “‘Gomamon, Mimi might still be dehydrated and not know it, so we better hurry up!’”

Joe turned a deep red and his jaw dropped, “Gomamon!” he hissed. Mimi felt heat creep up her neck and she tugged her collar gently, glancing away.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, rocking on the balls of her feet. She took in a quiet breath, needing an extra moment before she looked at him, “I told you that you didn’t have to do all this. I really am fine,” she assured him.

Joe’s face, however, still held that deep blush of embarrassment on it, which Gomamon seemed particularly pleased about. “It just makes me feel better being able to see that you’re ok,” he told her. He balled up his fist and coughed into it, once again averting his eyes from her. He took a moment to distract himself by rifling through his bag, before eventually plucking out the bottle of water and handing it to her.

Mimi felt warmth spread through her chest and she took it from him, cracking open the lid and taking a long drink. She held it up after.

“See, I’m all good now. Promise,” she said. Joe gave her one last once over.

“I’m glad you’re ok. I was pretty worried when you said you got drunk,” he said as he scratched his cheek.

“I appreciate it,” she said, letting out a soft laugh after.

“So, um,” Joe stammered out awkwardly. Mimi tilted her head as she looked up at him. He shook his head, trying to chase away the blush, though it was a fruitless endeavor. Mimi took another drink of water.

“Why did, uh— I mean— well—”

He continued to stammer out attempts at words, and Palmon tilted her head just like Mimi.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

“I think he wants to know—” Gomamon started, but Joe brought up a hand over his partner’s face to stop him.

“I-I just wanted to know… well, why you got drunk. Are you ok?”

Mimi swallowed hard. He looked so worried and that brought her guilt back tenfold. She knew she couldn’t beat herself up for texting him while drunk, but she also knew alcohol definitely brought out a person’s true intentions thanks to the lack of inhibitions, and she should have been more responsible with her phone. Especially after lecturing Kari.

If only she handed it off to Palmon, then she wouldn’t be in the second most awkward situation ever.

As she hemmed and hawed on answering, Joe frowned, “Mimi?”

“I’m ok, yeah,” she said, her voice not carrying that usual bright energy, even compared to just a few moments ago, “I just… had a girl’s night. And we got a little too crazy, I guess.”

She forced out a light, lilting laugh, one she couldn’t help but cringe at for how fake it sounded to her. She folded her hands behind her back, offering him a smile. At the very least, she could keep Sora, Yolei, and Kari out of it. Joe peered at her carefully.

“I didn’t realize a girl’s night involved getting drunk,” he finally said. Mimi tried to stifle back a giggle, but it bubbled from her lips rather ungracefully, and she put a hand over her mouth to try and cover it. Joe didn’t miss it, however, and he raised an eyebrow.

“What’s so funny?” he asked in such a sweetly curious manner that it almost left her giggling even harder.

“Oh, it’s just that that’s such a you question,” she said, the edges of her eyes crinkling as she smiled. Mimi still wondered if he realized how adorable he was.

She wondered if Manami thought he was adorable in the same ways.

“Is it? I mean, I guess…” he said, pausing for a beat, “I’ve never been a part of a girl’s night, so.”

Mimi laughed louder at that, “Well surely you and the guys must have had a guy’s night while I was gone!” she said between laughs.

“Should I have? I mean, I haven’t. Not like that, at least. Matt’s wanted to hang out but I’ve been pretty busy,” he said, before putting his chin in his hand.

“Maybe I should ask Jim if he’s had a guy’s night…” he mumbled to himself.

“Joe,” she said, pulling him out of his thoughts, “You really don’t have to worry about not having had a guy’s night,” she assured him, patting him gently on his free shoulder.

“Joe could do to lighten up a bit, though,” Gomamon mumbled.

“Hey!” Joe said. Palmon started to laugh, too.

“You guys are so funny!” she said.

“I’m funny,” Gomamon said, preening with pride, “Joe could still use some work.” Joe shot him a look.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! I’ll help you work on your comedy chops while I’m here,” he added quickly, playfully nudging his partner with his fin.

“I appreciate it,” Joe mumbled in a deadpan tone. His voice brought along another flow of giggles from Mimi and Palmon. He turned his attention right back to Mimi after, “So, um, do you need anything else? I know you said you’re fine, but—”

He was still worrying. She felt bad he was still worried even though he could see she was fine, but she was also touched. Her heart fluttered, and she hoped it didn’t show too much in her expression. Even if a part of her was still worried that he was helping her out of obligation, there was… joy in the fact that she seemed to hold some place in his heart and mind, even now.

“We’re not leaving now, are we?” Gomamon asked.

“Oh! I mean, we don’t have to,” he shrugged.

“Good! Because I barely got to see Mimi the other day! I’ve missed her!” Gomamon said. Mimi took a half step forward and scratched Gomamon behind the ears.

“I’ve missed my favorite seal, too,” Mimi told him. Gomamon had a beaming smile on his face.

“See, I’m her favorite seal!” he said.

“So I heard,” Joe said, once again in a deadpan voice, but he was unable to hold back the smile on his face at seeing the two talk.

“It’s been so long, Gomamon! Have you been doing good in the Digital World?” she asked.

“Yup! Me and Palmon have been spending lots of time together! She’s shown me so many different flowers in the Digital World!” Gomamon beamed.

“And Gomamon and I have been to so many beaches around Server! It's been so much fun!” Palmon said, with a smile that stretched across her face. Between Gomamon and Palmon, their Digimon seemed so happy, and even if her and Joe weren’t going to spend much time together— the very thought of which still hurt her to her core— at least their Digimon had remained such close friends.

“Well, I’ll have to have Yolei open a Digital Gate for me sometime so I can come along!” Mimi said. Both Gomamon and Palmon cheered.

“You know it! We’ll give you the best tours of Server’s most lovely gardens and beaches!” Gomamon told her.

“Did Gomamon invite Manami to the Digital World, too?”

She knew she couldn’t just keep comparing herself with Manami in all these little situations. But that didn’t stop the thoughts from worming their way in her mind.

She shook her head to try to chase them away, and followed it with downing the rest of her bottle of water.

“You didn’t go too far out of your way to come here, right?” she asked. Joe quickly shook his head.

“No! Not at all! I told you I was nearby, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, but I’d hate it if I interrupted your day just cause I got a little drunk last night!” she said.

“Not at all. Like I said, I’m just glad you’re alright,” he said. “And, I mean, I’d prefer if you didn’t get drunk again, but if you do, you can call me if you need help,” he said.

“Thanks Joe, and the same to you. I know some good hangover cures,” she told him.

“W-Well, I don’t think I’ll be drinking anytime soon, but thanks…” he said with an awkward chuckle.

If she got drunk again, Mimi wasn’t sure she’d have the heart to tell him. She didn’t need to worry him this much again.

The two stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, Mimi’s head tilted up to look at him and their eyes met. She would love to get lost in his eyes right now. To not focus on anything else.

Gomamon nudged Joe again, “Earth to Joe!” his Digimon said, before poking him with one of his claws again, “We don’t have a lot to do, but I’m sure Mimi does!”

“Oh, no no no, I’m not busy at all!” she assured the seal, “Just dreading school starting back.”

“You’ll do fine,” he said, the warmth in those three words giving her hope that she might actually be alright. She was already a bit anxious about attending school in Japan again, but if Joe believed in her…

“Thanks.”

“And hey, if you ever need any help… well I’m sure Izzy would probably be better— and closer— but I wouldn’t mind helping you out,” he told her.

“Thanks, but you don’t need to worry. You’re finishing up high school and your classes are probably pretty intense. Plus you said I’ll be fine, so I’m sure I'll be fine!”

She placed her hands on her hips, offering him a triumphant smile.

“You will, but it never hurts to ask for help if you need it,” he smiled warmly.

“Ok Joe, you can stop being all googly-eyed now! We need to get lunch!” Gomamon said right when the silence settled. That snapped both of them out of their stupor, and their heads immediately turned away from each other.

“I, uh, I should let you go. And so Gomamon and I can eat lunch, too,” he said, the words spilling from his tongue in a stilted manner.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Mimi mumbled. She stepped off the ball of her foot and headed down the street. “Bye Joe!” she said, forcing another awkward smile as she waved goodbye to him, Palmon copying the gesture. Gomamon gave a big exaggerated wave to Joe’s own timid one, and as she went further down the street, she couldn’t help but feel relieved that he couldn’t see her.

“See Mimi, he really wanted to see you!” Palmon said once they turned the corner.

Gomamon’s last comment was seared into her mind. He wasn’t googly-eyed about her, he was googly-eyed about Manami.

“Yeah…” she said, a gentle sigh falling from her lips. Despite the spring, the air around her felt cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, remaining quiet on the rest of the walk home.

***

Thankfully the trip back didn’t take all that long, even at the slow pace she and Palmon were going. Her eyes glanced towards the playground right next to her building, a bitter taste in her mouth as she thought about just a few days ago. She wondered if it would ever go away when she walked by here. A whole high school career having to walk by the playground she got rejected at by the love of her life didn’t sound great. The creaking of the swing’s chains almost sounded like a taunting laugh. Mimi clenched her eyes shut and reached for Palmon’s frond, finding comfort in holding her partner’s hand.

Her pace sped up and she pulled Palmon along inside, finally able to open her eyes and breathe a sigh of relief. A weight lifted off her shoulders now that she was standing by the elevators. She pressed the button and her shoulders slumped. As soon as they got home and she said hi to her parents, she knew she and Palmon deserved a nap.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, and her and Palmon slowly stepped in. Mimi hit the button and leaned against the side, allowing herself to deflate.

“Hold the elevator, please!”

Mimi perked up as soon as she heard that shout, and instantly hit the button to keep the doors open. Just a moment later, Manami appeared, gasping for breath. Once she saw Mimi she straightened up and smiled, adjusting her glasses as she did so.

“Oh, hi Mimi, hi Palmon,” she said, taking a big step into the elevator, then dropped the grocery bags she was carrying, “Thanks.”

“Oh, no problem,” she said, offering the other a tight smile, while Palmon waved happily. All of the awkwardness she felt when talking with Joe and all of the sadness she felt looking at that little playground came flooding back.

“How’re you both?” Manami asked, still catching her breath as the elevator shifted and then started to ascend.

“I’m good!” Palmon said simply, her voice bright as always.

“Oh, I’m alright. I was just out with some friends,” she said, “How’re you? That seems like a lot of groceries.”

Her eyes trailed down to the five or six plastic bags that were stuffed to the brim and resting on the floor. Manami nodded.

“Oh, yeah, I was hanging out with Joe but he had to go so I just went to pick up a bunch of stuff my mom needs for dinner.”

“She was with Joe?”

“O-Oh,” Mimi choked out, “Was everything ok?”

Mimi felt her heart pound in her ears, everything else falling away as she waited for Manami’s answer with bated breath.

“I’m sure it was. He just got a text and said he had to go. Maybe he had to help his family with something,” Manami shrugged. Mimi prayed Palmon wouldn’t say anything, but thankfully her partner didn’t speak up about it.

He… he left his day with Manami… to check on her?

“Did you two have fun at least?” Mimi asked, her eyes darting over to see the floor ticking up painfully slow.

“Oh, yeah. School is usually so busy that we don’t have a ton of time to hang out together out of it, so it’s been nice to spend extra time together before it starts back up again,” Manami smiled.

“Oh, I can’t even imagine. Joe’s always been so focused on school as long as I’ve known him,” Mimi said.

“Well, it’s our last year to worry about that, at least,” Manami said. Next year, Joe would be off at some nice university with his girlfriend and she’d be left behind. The thought left her nauseous.

Her thoughts went right back to what Manami said a few moments ago… he was so worried about her that he left his date to make sure she was ok?

Ding!

Did it mean something? It had to… right? Was she just holding out too much hope that maybe something good could come from all of this?

“Mimi?”

Mimi blinked, then looked down at her partner, who pointed towards the door.

“We’re on our floor!” Palmon said. Manami was already out of the door, once again carrying the ton of groceries she brought along. Mimi stepped out of the elevator and Palmon followed, and the two walked in step with Manami until they reached the Tachikawa’s front door.

“It was nice seeing you, Mimi! And you too, Palmon!” Manami said.

“Bye bye!” Palmon said, waving goodbye as Manami hurried over to her own apartment.

“Bye,” Mimi said, waving weakly as she watched the other girl head inside.

“How’re you feeling, Mimi?” Palmon asked.

Mimi placed a hand over her heart as she continued to stare at the spot Manami had been.

She still wanted to fight. She had to. Those drunken thoughts from last night were her true feelings, and though she knew she couldn’t say it out loud, she couldn’t deny it.

“…I think I’m starting to feel a lot more hopeful about things.”

#campdigimonth2024 #Digimon #Mimi Tachikawa #Jou Kido #Jyoumi #Joe Kido #Kido Jou #Tachikawa Mimi #digimon fanfiction #sloanefics

[thedo0zyslider]

Updated Pinned! (Feb 2024)

HIII GUYS IM DOOZY!! welcome to the art blog :]. i'm a multi-fandom artist/writer, but my main one is mcyt! (my art is anything im interested in, and my ao3 is only full of tmnt and mcyt for now)

Extra Info below (names, pronouns, etc, etc)

-Ren/Ron/Cass/Doozy - he/they with an occasional side of she/her - minor - My main blog is @hollowwish and i also run @daily-martyn-itlw - Here's my a03! - Tags are: ron.art, ron.writing, ron.fic, ron.oc, ron.reblog, ron.txt (I think that's all of em) - I'm the author of that one really long fwhimmy fic on ao3 (Explosions Across Lifetimes) and also Life Transfer and Distraction (my 3 notable works i think) - Asks/art and writing requests are ALWAYS open!!! I love when people talk to me :D

FANFIC SHEDULCE BELOW!! THIS IMAGE CHANGES WITH MY MOTIVATION!!!

Now for the housekeeping stuff -

THIS BLOG RUNS ON QUEUE HALF THE TIME!! The queue is either a week long or a few months longs at any given point, or it's empty

Things you CAN do with my art/writing/aus:

Use it as a pfp, header, background, etc (with credit)

Create fanart based off my writing, aus, etc

Literally don't steal or use without credit and I'm good.

Things you CANNOT do with my art:

Profit off of it

Use it without my credit or permission

Train AI with it (art and writing)

Reupload my fics without permission or "finish" one of my unfinished works with AI (if you want to translate something just shoot me a message!! ^^)

Send any of my work (especially fanfics) directly to a CC without my permission

I AM NOT CURRENTLY (AS OF FEB 2024) TAKING COMMISSIONS!

I thinks that's everything! List is subjected to future updates (dividers by theprideful)

#pinned post #ron.txt

[xhanisai]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Cheers for the tag @mostmagical !!!

1 - How many works do you have on AO3?

Forty-two

2 - What's your total AO3 word count?

448,371

3 - What fandoms do you write for?

Mainly Miraculous Ladybug at the moment. I do want to write some for Soul Eater and Gintama.

4 - What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

#LetMarinetteDrinkCoffee2K19 (9918 kudos)

Bite off more than you can chew and you'll choke (6355 kudos)

Speak now, regret later (3710 kudos)

Only idiots try to woo those who are already in love with them (2958 kudos)

Without you, what is the point? (1510 kudos)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do try my best to respond. They always make me happy and I love knowing my readers' reactions and thought processes regarding the stories I wrote. If I don't reply, it's mainly because I'm overwhelmed and tired hahah! But every comment always makes my day and I do reread them.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It's probably got to be "Goodbye" is bitter. It's a SpyXFamily story and I killed off the entire Forger family. My readers' tears were a joy to drink in a mug.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

A lot of my stories surprisingly have happy endings. I think the most tooth-rotting one would be Wo Ai Ni! which is an ML fic. It's literally fluff and fluff and so much fluff and if you love seeing Adrien being a madly in love silly goof with one Marinette Dupain-Cheng and being a hot mess about it, this is for you.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Surprisingly, I haven't gotten any hate on my stories every since I started writing for ML. I did get death threats from this one buffoon over a pairing in my last fandom but I put that menace back in his place and since then he hasn't gone after anyone else in the fandom :)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

My name is MissEcchi for a reason LMAO. There's so much smut I haven't even posted publically yet because they need polishing and editing and I'm a lazy bitch. Here's a few I've written for ML (and they're all and always will be lovesquare~)

Unmasked - Identity reveal, mutual pining and some comedy.

Red - Identity reveal, vampire Chat noir (after getting zapped by an akuma).

Paperthin - Identity reveal, mariblanc!!!!!, angst, happy ending.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have ideas for many! Just haven't written them out to fruition yet unfortunately. I do have an Ouran High school x Miraculous crossover story that has been chilling in my WIP docs for years lol...

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Some dumbass kids thought they were slick when they re-uploaded my stories on wattpad. Got them taken down. I haven't checked around since then so I hope no one else has done that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Plenty! Here's a few I did with @seas-of-silver

Negative!!!

Murder On The Dancefloor

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

LOVESQUARE OF COURSE. Especially mariblanc!!!!!!!

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

In my last fandom, I had a multi-chaptered fic that I haven't updated since 2018 I believe? It was my most well written story in that fandom and I did enjoy writing what I did. I don't know if I'll ever finish it because I just no longer have the same love and passion I had for it. I'd rather it's left the way it is rather than trying to give it a half-assed ending.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I'm really good at writing emotions, especially with angst and comfort. I'm a huge slut in making my favourites go through the most horrendous, traumatising experiences ever and then have them look after each other. I also think I write battle scenes decently, especially when I'm in the mood. I like to enforce how powerful the heroes can be and make the akuma battles more brutal than as showcased in canon.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Currently, I think my weakness is that I write too much. I do waffle a lot in my stories because I'm very peculiar on my pacing and trying to time things. This also makes the writing progress more complicated than it should be and it is why most of the stuff I've written haven't been published yet because the editing takes too long.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I enjoy doing that a lot! But I do try my best to make sure to not do it too much because of language barriers. So the dialogue in the other language is either mundane or something simple. I've got the advantage of having learned a few languages since childhood at home and at school.

I have spotted that some people who like to add dialogue in a different language just used Google translate which is hilarious, especially when the translation is wrong or makes no sense.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Sonic The Hedgehog...

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

It's got to be Connecting Everything (Connecting To Everywhere)! It is the story I've always wanted to write and I just love horror and supernatural. I've always wanted to read an ML horror fic where lovesquare are still miraculous weilders and everything is pretty much the same except they've gotta deal with ghosts and demons too hahaha. It is my least popular ML fic unfortunately and I do hope I can reel in more readers! It is still ongoing and ch2 is a work in progress.

Thanks again for the tag, Magical!

I tag @gale-gentlepenguin , @seas-of-silver , @lalunaoscura , @ladyofthenoodle , @theflashdriver and everyone else who wants to do it! No pressure!

#I don't know what to tag this as

[da-birb-writes-sometimes]

The Important Stuff

Welcome, welcome, welcome my dears! I do hope you enjoy your stay here, on my humble slice of this lovely hellsite!

Mobile Navigation - Twisted Wonderland Masterlist of Masterlists - Ikemen Masterlist - Ask Rules (Closed) - Match-Up Masterlist & Rules (Closed) - Tag List (Always open)

You’ve been blocked? See tech support!

. . . . . . .

Basic Info About Me;

Name; Dove

Pronouns; They/Them

Age; 22

Birthday; 06/30

Nationality; Canadian (this will affect grammar, and I use the metric system as well)

Fandoms I Write For; Twisted Wonderland (more to be determined)

I also don't have a beta, so if you see grammar/typos... be mindful of that o^v^o

I primarily only use this blog for writing, as it is also a secondary account. I do have a main blog, but just as a warning, it's the Wild West over there and is just pure chaos; @dove-da-birb.

Rules Regarding My Writing

Do not put my works into AI.

Do not repost my works; I repost my stuff on Quotev and AO3 under the same name.

Do not plagiarize my writing.

If I find out someone has done any of the above, they will be blocked.

Do Not Interact Criteria

Basic DNI; homophobes, transphobes/TERFs, aphobes, racists, xenophobes, misogynists, sexists, ableists, pedophiles/MAPs

Fascists

Pro-"Israel" (you are supporting a genocide and colonization)

Proshippers

People who just want to cause discourse

Content & Content Warnings

I include content and content warnings at the beginning of every post, and they are also tagged appropriately with the content warning following the cw (ie; cw blood). I do not censor tags for accessibility reasons; please don't censor tags.

I do use gifs on occasion; all photo and/or video content will be tagged as tw (ie; tw flickering).

Still undecided if I'll write NSFW/18+ content, but if I do; do NOT interact with it if you are a minor. I will end up blocking ageless/minor blogs if I see you interacting with 18+ content. I'll also mark the post as mature as a precaution.

Okay, now to the more fun stuff!

Emoji Anons

❄️🦊 anon

🌻💛 🐸 anon

🍁 anon

🖨️ anon

💥 anon

💖 anon

Mutuals

I have a lot of mutuals now that I think of it...

Link also includes my mutual guide/if you want to be mutuals

Some of My Tags

dove does events ; I use this tag for events (either for follower milestones, or just because I feel like it). I also don't really plan on revealing how many followers I have, so you can guess on the figure if you want.

dove does match-ups ; tag for match-ups.

dove's polling station ; tag for polls.

dove answers ; for answering questions (can be writing related or not)

dove rambles ; not writing content, usually just little updates or heads up for maintenance

reblogging since it got lost in the sauce ; reblogging my work, especially if I'm proud of it

And as a reminder, reblogging helps content reach more people; likes do nothing. Even a reblog with no tags helps; you don't even need a following. If you like content; reblog it.

#blog housekeeping #pinned post #also not putting a 'read more' option since hey you should read this #i streamlined a lot of stuff but it contains the exact same information #i use more tags but those are my more frequent ones

[yukidragon]

Girl, help.

I actually saw with my own two eyeballs someone trying to say that "If you, a fanfic writer, find offense in a reader commenting 'Update plz' (and nothing else) then that is a YOU problem".

And they tried to defend it by saying that readers will get tired of waiting and will move onto something else?

I am FUMING.

I bet this person has never written a single thing in their entire life outside of assignments for school.

It's those sorts of comments that make me very disheartened, especially as someone who often winds up taking prolonged breaks from my writing due to various reasons, most of them health-related.

Content creators, whether they write, draw, or make any other type of art and share it online, are already painfully aware that, in a sense, we have to compete with the entirety of the internet at all times. It often pushes us to keep producing more and more and more to our own detriment, because we're made to feel like we "owe" our fans constant entertainment... and if we don't deliver, then we're a failure. It makes us feel like if we don't constantly perform, everything we worked hard for out of love will be rendered worthless, and we'll be left forgotten.

It's not wrong for a writer to feel a little offended if the only feedback they're getting for their work is just, "Update plz." The grand majority of us aren't getting paid for our work. Our "payment" comes in the form of positive comments letting us know that we're doing a good job and that our readers are engaged with the story. If all we get are demands for more from us and nothing else, it makes us feel as though we're only seen as machines that produce content and not people, just as disposable as any AI bot out there.

Invalidating a person's feelings can be so, so damaging. We're not machines; we're human.

I can understand why some readers make those comments though. So many readers simply don't know what to say. That's why so many people wish that they could give a story multiple kudos on AO3. Words can be difficult. Leaving comments, giving replies... It took me a long time to learn how to use those words effectively and be more talkative in public settings like these.

Maybe the person who wrote that comment about writers is someone who would respond, "Update plz," to stories in the past. Maybe they were feeling defensive upon learning that their past actions were taken as a negative thing. No one likes to feel like the bad guy, after all.

People who leave those sort of comments typically mean it in a positive way. They like the work and want to see more of it. It's a nice sentiment, but sometimes good intentions can cause damage if the execution is flawed. It's not wrong for writers to gently point out a better way to give feedback that doesn't make them feel so pressured to constantly perform for little in return.

Writing is hard. Art is hard. It takes countless hours to improve at it. I've been writing stories since I was 5 and I'm 41 now. My current skill level is due to thousands upon thousands of hours of writing and self-improvement. People who get to read the end product will never see all the work that goes into making my stories. To them, it appears into existence one day like magic. This can make the art seem easy, effortless. This is why way too many artists and writers undersell their work.

That's why I go out of my way to leave positive feedback as often as I can, and thank those who do the same for me in return. It means the world to me and it reminds me why I love sharing my work with the world.

I think the person who was making those comments about writers could benefit from taking a step back and really examining why those sorts of comments are taken negatively. Maybe with a little empathy and understanding, they could better understand why what they wrote was even more offensive than the, "Update plz," comments themselves.

#Ask #Just Writer Things #Warning: An Opinion

[dawnfelagund]

Thank you so much for such a detailed and well reasoned reply! That makes me feel a lot more educated on the subject. Out of curiosity, since ao3’s popularity and ubiquity seems to have bred its insularity and lack of accountability, what do you think they would have to do, promise, or change to become more credible again, or to excise this issue? (While preserving their mission, as AO3 is not a moderated site like SWG). Because I do like their mission statement, and some of their operations seem transparent, but as you said, the zero commentary and progress (outside coding) for three years is ridiculous. And if this is outside the realm of something you can or want to answer, that’s okay! No sweat.

It's really hard to say, to be honest! I'm not very familiar* with how the OTW runs (aside from knowing that it is a registered nonprofit in the U.S. and therefore follows the law where that is concerned), and really, I think the question of what needs to be done to regain credibility is really up to individual users/fans to decide. Like the AI thing? Kind of eye-rolly as indicative of dysfunction because of the lack of communication within the upper echelons of the organization and the inability to quickly get about even a basic reassurance that AI scrapers were blocked. Probably not something I'm going to leave over, though. But End OTW Racism? Especially if I was a fan impacted by racist harassment who felt the site had been made off-limits to me as a result?? Every day of silence would make it hard for them to win back my trust, I'd imagine. I wasn't even involved in the protest but find myself pissed, as we approach a week with no response after the protest ended, by the complete lack of response.

* Though it seems that not many people are familiar with how the OTW runs. I recently read this post, which does go into organization-level changes (and Chestnut is in a much better place to speak on this topic than me), which also has a number of comments from OTW volunteers along the lines of, "Well, I was a volunteer for x years but I'm not 100% sure how this is handled in the org." Which is interesting to me that even long-term volunteers--some of whom were quite high in the hierarchy!--lacked that big picture understanding.

The [lack of] communication piece seems quite big to me. In my experience, that torpedoes an organization quite quickly. In my work running the SWG but also as a teacher-leader (someone who takes on leadership roles in my school and district while remaining in the classroom), I have found that better communication always makes things better. Even just saying, "Hey, I know this is a thing. I'm working on it," makes a difference. My experience is that people tend to be pretty understanding. It's the radio silence that is hard to handle. People feel unseen and unheard. Like right now ... there was just a massive antiracist protest against the OTW and still there is nothing on their news page about their promises three years ago, much less a response to that movement. How can that be?? It's hard not to hear in that, "We don't care." It's hard not to see the lack of response as the response.

I wonder too to what extent this dysfunction is going to be endemic in an organization of this size that is run almost entirely by volunteers. Over the weekend, in writing this post about the SWG archive, I realized that we recently reached 5,000 fanworks. Then while checking the OTW news page to see if there were any updates on antiracist actions going forward, I saw that AO3 recently hit 11 million fanworks. 11 MILLION. I know what goes into an archive of 5,000 fanworks and cannot imagine scaling up more than 2,000 times that on volunteer power alone. I also know that the most difficult and time-consuming work the SWG mods do is moderating our Discord server (which is, again, relatively small and friendly!), and while I don't agree with the argument that "AO3 is no longer an archive but a social site and should be moderated accordingly" (i.e., throw out their ideals around serving as a universal archive), I do wonder if we, as fans, need to accept that a site of that size will not be able to do an adequate job of even the limited moderation they do and socialize/interact elsewhere. Which again takes us back to a "small internet" with sites and groups that function as communities and can be moderated by members of those communities. If people want that, let's do it! Let's build those places again. But as I said in my last post, that task isn't on the OTW/AO3, it is on us.

#the otw mess #fandom archives