#fandom bubbles and lines exist for a reason

[c-e-d-dreamer]

I had to come here and say how much I loved the Elucien sequel to your regency series so much! All these ACOTAR men are such simps for their wives and made for regency 😍 is there any chance we'll get Feysand next? I would love to see Rhys and his non traditional courting methods 🤭

If I tell you what happens in Regency Feysand, will that count? 👀

Unfortunately, the chances of Regency Feysand escaping what is just my daydreams for now and becoming actual written words are low. And the chances of me taking those written words and actually publishing them with my name attached to them? Even lower.

But here's what happens in my head and daydreams...

Now that Nesta and Elain are married, it leaves just Feyre in the house with their parents, and unsurprisingly, she's like get me the fuck out of here. I cannot be around Mama anymore. So, she decides she's going to go visit Nesta in Glasgow!

Now, Rhys is of course like Feyre, darling, you can't travel all the way to Glasgow alone. I will accompany you. Like the gentleman I am.

And then shenanigans ensue.

For example, at the second coaching inn they stay in, there's only one room and one bed. And Feyre is like aren't you going to offer to sleep on the floor like a gentleman? And Rhys is like didn't you spend the last 2 days calling me a prick and not a gentleman? Didn't you say you want a man who views you as a partner? Why don't you offer to sleep on the floor? Or better yet, why don't we share the bed? And we all know Feyre is stubborn, that she'll never back down. So of course she shares the bed with him. And she swears she hates it!

Also, they're attacked by highway robbers. Because of course Rhys brought his flashiest carriage to impress Feyre but that's now back fired! Meanwhile, Feyre is fighting off these robbers like a badass and Rhys is like seriously. Marry me. I'm in love.

But they eventually make it to Glasgow in record time! Feyre is like after spending days with this man, get me as far away as possible. So she's stalking through the house looking for Nesta desperately. And Rhys is like I wouldn't do that if I were you, we arrived earlier than expected. But Feyre scoffs and swings open the study doors only to find Nesta and Cassian in a compromised position because it's Nessian. What did you expect? It's awkward for everyone except Rhys who's like I told you so.

But it's really seeing Nessian that starts to soften Feyre. In case you didn't pick up what I was hinting in the epilogue of But I'm Only Looking At You, Nesta is pregnant. But even more than that, Feyre is just shocked to see her sister like this. Her cold, stubborn sister, who would only marry for power and never for love is happy. She's wearing her hair down. She's glowing and not just from the pregnancy. She's smiling and laughing. Cassian dotes on his wife hand and foot. Very clearly adores her. Also, he's made her a partner at the MacLeod factories. Feyre is confused by this but Cassian is like Nes is the smartest person I know, of course, she does all the factory books. Feyre is just very much surprised Pikachu at the whole thing and is like is this what a marriage could actually be??? And meanwhile Rhys is in the corner there like yes. Now marry me lol

I haven't reached the point in my daydreams to know what the resolution would be exactly but hopefully reading all that was still fun and gives you the fix you were looking for 🥰

[leelarots]

DECA STUFF

this is a master post about my au/fic canon for the deca. i will link this in my deca posts in future, so i don't feel like I have to explain stuff every time. thank you so much to this sub-fandom for making me feel so welcome!

current lineup:

8[pending]/10 drawn, design ages frozen at 18-25

to do: vansell [wip], mortimus, jelpax

basic info from left to right:

Drax | n/a | [?] | 'black' eyes, orange (dyed) hair

Magnus | 6'4 | Oakdown | dark grey eyes, black hair| portrait: 1

Ushas | 6'0 | [?] | 'black' eyes, dark brown hair| portraits: 1 2

Koschei | 5'7 | Oakdown | blue-grey eyes, black hair| portraits: 1 2

Theta | 5'8 | Lungbarrow | brown eyes, light brown hair| portrait: 1

Millennia | 5'3 | Brightshore | hazel eyes, blue hair

Rallon | 5'10 | Stillhaven | brown eyes, black hair

Vansell | 5'9 | [?] | green eyes, green hair (dyed)

[other info on the fic(s) below cut]

current word count: 2.3k

the fic:

will be separated into different 'books', each focusing on a select few characters and one main plot each.

will have theta as a regular gallifreyan instead of half human or another species. however, it's worth noting that for the narrative, I am going to make all 'freyans have some human genes due to past inbreeding

(with luck!) will be partially illustrated

won't be an attempt at following the incredibly messy canon. godspeed to those who try.

won't be centred around thoschei. as much as I wish it was, writing worldbuilding for gallifrey and fleshing out other members of the deca is also enjoyable to write about

other notes on my worldbuilding:

at this point in time, time lord households do not refer to parents or siblings. the hierarchy goes from bottom to top cousins -> aunts/uncles -> granny/grampas -> kitriarch

theta may not be half human/the timeless child, but I aim to still make him 'adopted'. he knows who his father is, but his mother is not of rank, and left him as a baby outside of the lungbarrow household. the connection between him and braxtiel is that they were both left with a note in the same handwriting, addressed to their father.

koschei's 'hypnotic' nature and high telepathic ability is a rare genetic condition. most gallifreyans have a weak latent touch telepathy, trained up in the academy. hypnosis is a different story, but koschei can carry off a potent version of hypnotism without training. he is only in the academy because of his condition.

related to the above's last sentence, becoming a time lord is somewhat class locked due to the initial exam for joining the academy requiring training only supplied by expensive tutoring. if you are not born into a time lord family, it is very difficult to get in.

a main theme of the fics will be around the stagnation that occurs when people in power do not change. as the occupants of the high council live for so long, they have the ability to enforce only their beliefs/beliefs of a small bubble, refusing to move with the times or address changing circumstance.

looming has only just come into existence during the fic canon. none (or at least most) of the deca are not loomed.

'shobogans' are the occupants of the capitol's surrounding slums. this may change.

religion is banned/illegal, but I aim to portray that as being hypocritical—time lords started out as a religious sect. the cloisters are indeed remnants of the original religious building, buried underneath the capitol.

a large portion of gallifrey is not optimal for human-like life. the largest part of the planet's gallifreyan population is centred in the glass globe cities, such as arcadia or the capitol.

humans regularly trade with gallifrey, although the trade lines go: widespread human trade lines -> undocked spaceships around gallifrey -> permanent human settler-traders on the planet. it is not permitted for anyone to go to and from gallifrey freely without a specific, hard to obtain permit. time lords can obtain a permit more easily.

related to above, this is my reason as to why gallifrey has cats and other human items. some human plants and animals are considered invasive.

human-gallifreyan marriage is somewhat taboo. theta is commonly rumoured to be half human without basis because of his being 'different'. once again, the fact most gallifreyans are part human is to show that they are hypocritical.

I could go on, but I won't lol this is long

I am aware of how ambitious this project is. for that reason, I can never promise that the whole fic series will be completed. drawing and sharing my headcanons is enjoyable for me, though, as the deca is my current favourite thing. it's been years of me tinkering about with them in silence, I'm rather hoping I can find others who like my ideas.

my ao3 is soupsmog

want to know something specific? want to talk? pop me an ask, comment on my deca related posts, or join this academy era server, where I'm pretty active. dms are not really open because they make me anxious, sorry!

[chevvy-ryder]

Sending out kudos to everyone who has shown their love towards Ryder for the past two years.

I love u all very much and every engagement, be it even just a like, means a lot to me.

I've intended to sorta make a cool post of some older vp of him as of today, September 17th, exactly 2 years ago I have created Ryder,— back then as a supposed supportive character for Vijay, very unsure if I would like him as Ry didn't visually turn out as I wanted him to be in the first place and he never went that way either afterwards — yet I find myself writing those lines instead.

I've accepted his look and his imperfection started to grow on me with each picture I took of him. Unlike my other ocs he went his own way leading me along to discover his personality. That's what makes him so different compared to my other blorbos and has me so attached to him.

I did not plan to make him a raver (he was supposed to become an 80s goth punk, a total different style than he's got now) neither that he would end up with a rogue AI controlling him. Only his name, basic info and the toxic family story was planned right from the beginning but that's pretty much it – Ryder showed me the rest of it.

Within the year 2023 I noticed more and more that Ryder has slowly but surly turned out to be my main character.

He turned out to be the most expressive and photogenic one of them all. I don't see him as the prettiest looking either yet he's my most precious and I love every pixel about him.

He's the one thing in my life I am actually truly 100% proud of.

Almost all my ocs exist because of him. They are his support characters. Without him half of them would not even exist. There would be no Thyjs. Even Garnet exists so Ry can live out his passion (that was not really put into the game but exists as lore: Technoise).

I am beyond happy to have created him.

He helps me in a lot of rather personal ways too I do not need to address here.

I got so much to tell about him (also about my other ocs) yet idk if I should continue or not as I find myself stuck with overthinking about it bc of lack of public response literally everywhere (this excludes private chat talks with close friends). Maybe Ryder's too intimidating (not the first time I would read that), his lore gets overlooked easily, or it's to much (confusing) text.

I cannot make anyone force-like him. Tastes are different. Minority is into others oc lore. Less time to read it all. The list is long. I'm aware of it all.

But I cannot underline it enough: do never hesitate to ask me questions about him. He's on my mind 24/7 and my biggest wish is to get this story out and done some day (whenever it will be) and receive some actual feedback on it what was liked.

Just a tiny detail is enough. <3

Another wish I have ever since I joined the CP77 fandom: that people would go back to comment each other more. We all do have little time for it, we all think "oh no so much text to read", we all are in our own bubbles rarley coming out to explore another bubble within this universe. It takes a lot of effort to do. people do seem scared on top to write anything at all for numerous reasons. I have all those problems as well. But I try to sit down and read the one or other lore chunk others wrote down and give a tiny comment as best as I can to make the creator have a smile on their lips. I truly wish we all would do this at least once a week to one person. once a month would be also fine. But if we don't this fandom will be dead soon enough and all thats left is just liking vp with characters on it we know almost nothing about. And maybe even those characters won't have lore anymore bc people stop creating it.

[jiminsass-istant]

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE HICKEY

This post was triggered by an anon moving around in these spaces trying to explain away the hickey/bite moment as something trivial. I will save my thoughts on the hickey for the end of this post.

First of all, to that anon- Get off your high horse. Not being a shipper doesn't make you superior. You are probably one of those cringey people cancelling queer armies on tw!tter these days. Now readers, sip your drink as you read this short think piece-

OT7 Captains in the fandom bubble:-

I really don't get the superiority complex of so called OT7s who love to live inside this cute little bubble they have created for themselves or as they call it nowadays:- " a curated tl". Cancelling people everyday and actually driving people away from the fandom. Every bio says "multis, solos, shippers dni". What are you afraid of? Little pixels? I have personally followed solo fbs of all members and boy the things I have found! They can get extreme at times, but it takes 2 minutes to fact-check their claims and draw your own conclusion.

I follow wholesome ship pages too, they are a great way to not miss out cute moments between various duos. If you are blocking them out, you'll be swept into whatever the OT7 decide the important interactions are. 🤷

Have y'all watched 'The Social Dilemma' on Netflix? I would actually want all bts fans to give it a watch. A very prominent tech figure admitted that she follows a good number of Tw!tter accounts that disagree with her to ensure that she gets to see all sides and all opinions. When you deliberately 'curate' a timeline to feed only your opinions, to make a 'safe' space that doesn't trigger you, without letting new thoughts penetrate it..THAT! That's the beginning of a cult.

Army is not a cult for defending BTS or for calling out billboard and other big authorities, but army is indeed a cult with the way they move against people within the fandom.

I said what I said.

With a curated 'OT7 captain' timeline, you start internalising things about the artists that the people you follow want to believe:-

1. All true army are OT7 and non shippers. 💫💫

Sure some of them are. But biases exist for a reason, right? If you think people don't run their bias's playlist more than the other 6, you are so deluded. Spotify wrapped'23 was a prime example. With the solo era, the rise of solo fanbases was unavoidable.

2. Your favourites are spotless, impeccable people. 💌💌💌

They are so not. They date, they make mistakes, they hurt people (like we all do). Heck, they might even offend certain groups of people, unknowingly or knowingly. Being ignorant is also a flaw.

3. Everything they say on camera is true.🙊🙊🙊

Everything they say on camera is what they want you to know. As Park Jimin of BTS, as Kim Namjoon of BTS and so on. And yes, your perception of them should be built based on their words alone, but it doesn't mean that you purposefully stay blind in a way that serves your personal projections onto the members. As Jimin once said " please take our words as they are"(Festa 2022). Read between the lines, and you get- "please do not make assumptions about us, please do not project past or future narratives onto us." No matter how much it makes BTS look like a saint, DO NOT paint them as perfect human beings just because they are your idols.

Once you get into the fandom bubble, you start rejecting all opinions that threaten to puncture that perfect bubble. In that process, you end up never getting to know about how some member promotions were horribly managed, how company delayed certain stuff, the obvious company agenda and different business strategies for different members. It's not about victimising members, but calling out the company when they make obvious mistakes. You do not see when hate against a particular member gets aggravated to the point it affects streams and sales.

And musical preference? The way the fandom just collectively decided that if you hate any song except 'ON ft Sia", you are basically an anti. I have no words.. I'll come out and say: I don't like DNA. SORRY JIMIN. Sure it's a great concert song, or maybe at a party, but it's never making it to my down-time personal playlists. Cancel me?

Top Social Artist?

This is my personal opinion. BTS having a huge presence on social media is both a boon and a curse. While it ensures that new fans are made everyday, the bts social media presence is an uncontrolled monster right now. Millions of insta, YT channels- most of them spreading a superficial image of BTS. It's for this reason, there are so many 'fans' out there who just love BTS for the few members and their visuals. I can guarantee you that they don't even know how streaming works, but they'll be sure to have an insta name like "mrs.jeon jungkook". If you made it to this part, I don't need to tell you how certain ships inducted their shippers through these very channels, spreading misinfo about the group dynamics and a completely manipulated idea of the boys, as if it's not real life, but some shitty bl drama.

While the company is obviously doing nothing about this mess, it is YOUR duty to focus on what's important as a fan and participate in projects that plan to counteract this mess. ( Of course only if you have time)

So..what does the hickey have to do with all this?

When you finally grow out of your perfect pure breed OT7 agenda, who considers this group of men a picture perfect family who can do no sin, you'll be ready to view the hickey/bite mark as a normal functioning member of the society who's in touch with reality.

Did I just write "pure breed"..

Let's say the hickey/bite does not actually mean anything intimate in a romantic sense. Sure. Even I think it was probably not an exclusively romantic thing. And this is coming from someone who ships them, but I do not see them as 2 people who are dating each other (because I don't claim to know their personal lives).

An older person biting the neck of a younger person long enough to leave a mark is NOT A NORMAL LEVEL of skinship. For friends, for family, for brothers. And this goes for Korea as well as at a global level. Not only k-jikookers but also k-armies had raised eyebrows when that happened. If you didn't raise your eyebrow at this, you need to go out more, have a social life, hang out with long term friends, idk.

But I'm sure if it was a man and a woman, you would have already declared that they are f@cking.

If you have observed jikook through the years, they have had an abnormal level of skinship that even surpasses skinship within their own group. Reminds me of the Butter photoshoot behind, where JK's hands so naturally slid under JM's crop top, like it was a usual thing. Now if one of them reacted differently or in a goofy way, I'd still brush it under the rug. But what had me scratching my head was the indifference. How close do 2 people have to be, for someone to SEARCH for familiar skin to touch?! Let's not forget how JK always touches JM's neck like a habit, massaging, holding, or just caressing, usually a little inside the collar.

Now if they were a man and a woman, you would have already declared that they are f@cking.

If you don't at the very least, acknowledge that it's an abnormally high level of skinship, and that jikook are at the very least, a highly interdependent, symbiotic, close, 2 souls-1 body entity, the closest duo in bangtan..then you are the delulu here. 🫵

I would advice such anons to stop visiting shipping spaces if you are bringing nothing to the table. (As I always say, opposing views are always welcome as long as you bring receipts and not hate). Maybe spend some time talking to real life people, couples, friends, you know?

[akopo]

tagging fics on ao3

but you can't really trust me bc idk what i'm doing. this is very specific to my type of thinking. and is not helpful really

this used to be a lot longer but i decided "nobody is going to read this much text" and collapsed it to just talking about tags

Fair warning for when I talk about Ao3 tags, the Ratings and Archive Warnings section will address the Mature/Explicit tags and the archive warnings, but I'd rather tell people that they exist and explain what they are rather than fling them into the deep without any knowledge on those points.

Here is the tags box!

As you can see, there are actually helpful little blue question mark bubbles by each tag type explaining what each of them do! I'll still break them down in my own way but I find that these are pretty helpful references that more people should take a look at.

The box mentions this, but you can put a maximum of 75 tags on any given fic. This is a total of all of the types of tags stated here. For example, you could have 1 rating, 1 archive warning, 1 fandom, 2 categories, 2 relationships, 5 characters, and 5 additional tags, and that would be a total of 17 tags.

Rating: This little dropdown menu gives you a choice between the Not Rated, General Audiences, Teen And Up Audiences, Mature, and Explicit tags for fic.

I think that generally, you should always be rating your fanfic, but that's just my opinion, so you can use Not Rated if you'd like. Ao3 explains what these tags are for better than I ever could, so here's just a screengrab of what they say for this:

Archive Warnings: You can choose one or more of these checkboxes to tag a fic with the archive warnings.

I think most of these are self-explanatory, but you can hit the little blue bubble for a better explanation of what each one is used for. Also, I have seen some confusion in the past on "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings" vs. "No Archive Warnings Apply," so I'll explain those here as well.

"No Archive Warnings Apply" is what you use when there are no archive warnings in your work. If none of the warnings apply, check this box and move on, because Ao3 won't let you post without at least one of these boxes checked.

"Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings" is what you use when there may or may not be archive warnings in your work. The reason that this tag exists is in the case that using an archive warning might spoil something in a fic, so the creator uses this tag to state that all other archive warnings may or may not be present, and so you come into the fic at your own risk and acknowledge that any of the archive warnings may be present.

Fandoms: This is a little short answer box that allows you to put fandom tags on your fic. You have to include at least one fandom tag here, but you can add more than that.

As you're typing, a bunch of suggestions of existing fandoms should appear in a dropdown. You can click on any of these to add them as a tag to your fic instead of having to type out the whole thing!

Categories: These checkboxes allow you to tell the readers whether your fic is:

F/F: romantic relationship between two or more female characters

F/M: romantic relationship between female and male characters

Gen: platonic relationship between any amount of characters

M/M: romantic relationship between two or more male characters

Multi: either there are multiple types of the above relationships in your fic, or there's polyamory.

Other: anything else that falls outside the lines of the above, such as relationships including a nonbinary character

You can select anything between all or none of these tags!

Relationships: This is for the ships! Either platonic or romantic relationship tags are included here, anything that you think is relevant to the fic in question.

Platonic ships are formatted like this: "Character A & Character B"

Romantic ships are formatted like this: "Character A/Character B"

Again, as you're typing, a bunch of suggestions of existing ships should appear in a dropdown. You can click on any of these to add them as a tag, and you can add as many as you like as long as you stay under the tag limit.

Characters: This is for the characters in your fic! Any characters that appear in the story. Like the fandom and relationship tags, as you're typing in a name, a dropdown with a bunch of suggestions should appear! You can click on them to add them to the fic.

Something that is relevant here and also in the relationship tags is that sometimes a character can be referred to with two different names in whatever media they're in, which is then reflected in their character tag. In that case, the two separate names will be referred to in the same single character tag like so: "Character A name 1 | Character A name 2."

Additional Tags: This is for any, well, additional tags!

I feel like this is the section that scares people the most when it comes to tagging fic. It is pretty open-ended, but that's the beauty of it! Anything not covered by the above types of tags goes here, such as tropes, smaller warnings, silly tags, or really, anything you can think of!

I like to think of additional tags of having the following types but these types are all arbitrary. In that I just made them up on the spot and they are not official at all.

Interests: Anything that you think people will enjoy about your fic! These are pretty character-driven, in that the characters will do something in the fic that you can then tag. Things like "Cuddling & Snuggling," "Polyamory," etc.

Related is:

Vibes: This is for random things that you think will sort of capture what's going on in your fic, such as "Cats" for a cat cafe or "Cooking" if the characters cook together or for each other.

Warnings: This is for warnings that aren't covered by the archive warnings tag, but which you think might still be of note, such as "Panic Attacks," "Violence," and etc. These could also include story spoiler warnings up to a certain point for the source media of the fic.

Genre: This is mostly for your fluff, hurt/comfort, angst, and their subtypes like tooth-rotting fluff and soul-crushing angst. These tags are not mutually exclusive! Anything that you think fits.

Setting: This is for things like your coffee shops, aquariums, botanical gardens, planetariums, idk where the gays are going on dates these days. This could also include your alternate universes, which are formatted like this:

"Alternate Universe - Fantasy"

"Alternate Universe - Modern Setting"

Related to alternate universe tags are tags for alternate universe versions of a character, such as "Werewolf Hinomori Shiho" or "Witch Hinomori Shizuku," etc. These would also go in the additional tags section.

Silly: This is where you put your little jokes like "minori you stupid stupid lesbian" or "no beta we die like arisa if airi gets her hands on her"

For additional tags, the sky's the limit: I suggest reading a lot more fic and getting an idea on how people tag their fics to get a better idea of how to tag your fic. I think that other fics are probably the best examples of how to use additional tags.

A note for fandom, relationship, character, and additional tags: The existing tags which show up as you're typing something in are called canonical tags. Thanks to the hard work of Ao3's tag wranglers, there are several different ways to say the same thing that are all nested under the same tag!

For example, for the "Hanasato Minori/Kiritani Haruka" relationship tag, some tags that mean the same thing include "minoharu," "implied minoharu," "Hanasato Minori/Kiritani Haruka (mentioned)," and on and on. Fics with these tags will all be counted as the "Hanasato Minori/Kiritani Haruka" tag when it comes to Ao3 search and filtering.

Remember, tags are probably one of the main things people look at when deciding to read a fic! Sometimes people will look at tags, see a certain one, and be like "HOLY HECK! A FIC WITH VAMPIRES!" and then sometimes, people will see a tag and decide it isn't their cup of tea, so they move on. There's no shame in that!

When we fic writers post to Ao3, we tag our fics so that people who enjoy certain tags can find our fics, while at the same time allowing people who may not be fans of certain tropes or other content in our fics to consider if they'd still like to read or not.

So go forth, and have fun!

[ourbeloved1011]

Grow tf up. It's been 4 years since that show finished. Yibo even removed it from his bio. Theres nothing wrong with liking a show but insisting on some delusional rpf that's harming actual people??

Hi Anon,

Thanks for spending your precious time dropping by & bravely leaving your not-so-kind comments anonymously (or should I say nasty & harsh for telling me to grow tf up) when this is OBVIOUSLY a fan blog dedicated to Yizhan. It's like you're knocking someone's door uninvited & forcing yourself to rudely barge in.

Well, there must be a good reason on why I've been purposely not hashtag individual artists' names in my posts & include only related tags & mention 'this is just my personal thoughts, CPN' to STAY IN MY OWN LANE - in my own bubble & space. This is to avoid from being discovered by people who's trying to 'start something' & serve as my own effort to protect the artists from being harmed by my words. I really despise unnecessary conflicts right when I've made myself clear on my dashboard that this is a shipper blog.

In simpler words, if you don't like it, it's not my problem. No one asked for your opinion, anon. You've got the wrong place to begin with. However, since you've dropped me an ask, let me enlighten you at the very least.

Before I start, here's some of translated versions of Xiao zhan's personal statement after the incident (which I refuse to elaborate more):

"Everyone has their own choices and freedom of expression. No matter if you like me or you hate, it's your personal right. Passion should be the source of strength for everyone. I hope that this passion doesn't exhaust or harm anyone."

You can read the rest of his statement in my recent reblog or here: https://www.tumblr.com/ourbeloved1011/723921396167819264/xiao-zhans-previous-personal-statement?source=share

Here's my personal thoughts, again, CPN.

I couldn't agree more. It's crucial for everyone to take his words seriously and it's my wish to be what he wished for. I admire, respect & support both xiao zhan & yibo whole-heartedly. It's not fair for you to judge & say that this isn't fan love.

Bjyx is a fandom made up of different individuals. Not only bjyx, any fandom or group of people in this world will have the same concept.

Now, let's talk about generalization.

You can't simply generalize a group or fandom & labelling them as a whole harmful existence. Every fandom has their own good & toxic fans. You don't have any control over that. Surely, all kind of people exist in bjyx BUT same goes with solo fans. There's no exception.

It's like labelling the whole Wen clan as evil when you know very well that Wen Ning and Wen Qing aren't the same kind. In fact, they are Jiang clan's life savior. It's totally unfair.

"You should punish the people who bit you. Wen Qing & Wen Ning have never gotten their hands on anything bloody. Or do you want to execute a collective punishment?!" -The Untamed, Wei Wuxian-

Why do you need to be the exact same way as Jin's clan judgmental behavior? We never learn, we've been here before. I won't take any sides on which fandom need to be banned or which one is the 'real' supporter. Collective stereotype will never be the final answer.

I see two people in everyone. There's no point in proving this.

However, I do believe in one same group commonality. If you continuously act excessively, intentionally crossing all the boundary of morality & bring harm to others, you will belong to TOXIC FAN and ANTIs regardless of where you come from- either you are a bjyx fan or solo. I will not support any act of sexualizing & harassment behavior towards them. There's always a limit, visible lines & common sense to conduct & follow. Sadly, EXTREMISTs do exist everywhere.

Just like what xz been telling us, it's your personal right as long as your passion doesn't harm others. Joining bjyx is our right & passion to support them in our own way. Doesn't mean that you've the right to speak up or write anything that you see as 'the right way', you also have the right to blatantly disregard those who don't share the same view as yours. That's why the word RESPECT is there in life dictionary. Otherwise, human can't co-exist this long.

If you don't have anything good to say, you can just remain silent. If you can't accept & respect, just stay away & ignore. It's that simple.

I don't understand why people needlessly hurting others with their unnecessary hurtful choice of words that can leave permanent scars to others. I personally feel sorry for these people. I don't get it. I really want to understand- what's the real reason for you to be so mean & harsh & hateful? For example, telling people to grow tf up. Who are you to judge? I'm just chilling with myself without causing trouble to others.

In bjyx point of view, we just adore & admire the beautiful & deep connection that both of these guys have. It's rare to have someone that you can click so well instantly in life. We wish to support them against all the odd. That's all.

Ironically, people who freely generalize about other groups get upset & butthurt if someone generalizes about a group that they belong to. The thing is - everyone is an independent individual & fully responsible for their own actions.This is why it's important to mind our own business & stay in our own lane.

Back to your statement. Delusional fans. I'm not actually delusional. I'm very self-aware as a person. In fact, I started as someone who's neutral. It's for my own self-satisfaction to feed my curiosity. I've always been the kind that will find & dig further to know something better. It's my personal trait. I'm not blindly being a delusional fan without basis and accept every rumors I heard about them. I do observations, selectively choosing, analyzing & eventually come to a conclusion. So here I am.

If you claim us to be delusional, you can say whatever you want because your opinion doesn't represent or reflect us. Just a side note, I don't agree with those fans who are intentionally keep overanalyzing these two with every single thing they do each time. People may get annoyed by it. I can see where it's coming from. They are two different individuals with distinct originality & identity. Hence, I only believe in whatever solid reasons I personally chose & filtered to trust.

It's not my job to convince you that they're real & it's not your job to judge, raise doubts & throw hateful comments in what I believed in. No need to make others feel bad & depressed further with your painful remarks. This world is cruel enough to live in. We don't need to be liked but respecting us is not an option. Be kind.

Yes. Yibo removed it from his bio. So what? To be honest, I don't really care much about it. Friendly reminder. He removed not only the untamed but he removed ALL his dramas. Seriously, I don't see any issue. If anything, I would be grateful to Yibo for keeping the untamed there for so long.

Let me remind you of the scene where wei weixuan is forced into a situation with practicing demonic cultivation is his only option to protect himself & survive. Again, everyone is being so judgmental towards him, only to find out later- the real reason why he chose that path. My point is, don't assume something as if we know everything. Anything people put out to share is calculated. You're allowed to see things that they ONLY ALLOW you to see.

What do you mean by these shippers harming actual people? There are plenty pictures everywhere during Yuehua concert, the whole arena was mostly filled with bjyx fans led lights, yellow, green & red- all coming to support Yibo. Not only concert, they've been continuously supporting both of them in other projects and events in the past until today.

'True' fans won't bring any harm to the artist no matter how good their intention is. Boycotting isn't the answer. It brings more damaged to the artist than good.

Tell me. Who's gonna be there if it's not for them?

Credits to respective owners. I don't own anything.

Yibo. Did they really bring harm to you?

Credits to respective pic owners.

Really? What were you looking at?

Credits to respective pic owners.

Few things to ponder:

If either xiao zhan or yibo hates bjyx & don't want any fans to associate them with each other, they would've addressed this many years ago to stop. Like how they made clear stand to some of other cps & supertopics. If you ask me for proof, again, you can just find them through my reblog posts. You can easily see them right away. That is, if you really care to read & bother to know.

Let me use back your words- It's been 4 years since the show finished- but the fandom is still standing strong & able to fill in the whole arena. Just to highlight, xiao zhan & yibo have zero public interaction together since the past few years but the numbers of new bjyx fan is still continue growing until today. The irony. How is this possible? For what reason? The normal cp fandom will eventually dies down once the main actors moving to the new project in the same year. Do you ever wonder what's the reason behind this fandom to stay this long for years? Both of them don't have any same project, no collaboration together. No promotion. Literally nothing. Then how? Funny isn't it?

It still remains mystery to think of why until today, xz & yibo never clarify & make statements to clear the air that they are just close friends. They can easily shut down the fandom in one go. Doesn't it bother you to be shipped with your own close friend for years if it's not the case? Well I do.

Also, why bjyx fans were not banned from entering the venue? Why their banners & led lights were allowed to go in? This is a sign that the existence of this fandom has never been denied. Or wait. Has this bjyx fandom been acknowledged indirectly?

People may find comfort in stanning both of them. Probably, it's the only source of joy in life to some. We never know. Don't be such an asshole trying to kill it. Spread love. Not hate.

Thanks anon for giving me the opportunity to rant :)

[thdorkmagnet]

Match Set (Turtle Tots: Before the Rise)

@flufftober 2024 Day 7- Hoodie Weather

Fandom: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Chapter Summary: Just the disaster twins and their matching hoodies.

Duo: Disaster Twins

A/N: You guys have no idea how much I've been wanting to do a Disaster Twins chapter aaaaaaaa!! They are by far my favorite duo and I love them with all my heart and soul!! I would die for these boys ajdklsjfdksljsl

“Make sure you dress warmly, it's going to be chilly out!” Splinter yelled from the TV room. 

Leo gasped. A glance over at Donnie and Leo knew he was thinking the same thing. It was tradition, after all. 

“Matching hoodies?!” Leo screamed louder than necessary.

“Fine,” Donnie moaned dramatically as if the smile tugging at his lips wasn't super visible to everyone. 

Leo cheered and ran to go grab them.

…

Leo and Donnie held hands as they darted from rooftop to rooftop with the rest of their siblings, extra clingy with each other as they proudly displayed their twinness to the world. Leo’s hoodie was a bright pop of blue with bits of purple peaking out in places: the pockets, the drawstring, the lining of the hood. Donnie’s was the inverse of this, mainly purple with small spatterings of blue where it was tasteful.

It fit them perfectly.

An undoubtable matched set and yet, opposite in every way. 

Exactly like the disaster twins.

The two moved in perfect sync as they hopped from one landing to the next, taking up the rear of their little party, though they kept arguing about who was leading who. Raph and Mikey mostly ignored them as the two seemed to exist in their own little bubble, jumping from one train of thought to the next with seemingly no rhyme or reason, telling inside jokes that only the two of them would catch, the whole works. The two were operating on a different wavelength from the rest of the world right now, although Donnie would dispute calling it “twin sense” with every fiber of his being. 

The two were so caught up in each other that they nearly ran straight into Raph’s back when he came to an abrupt stop. The snapper gave them a perplexed look over his shoulder but the twins just stared back blankly. “We’re here,” he said and they quickly moved to the edge of the roof to see. It was a little corner store that the turtles had raided for supplies plenty of times in the past, Leo’s eyes lighting up when he saw the display window.

“Oh! Oh! They got blue and purple backpacks, Dee! We should totally buy those!”

Donnie tapped a finger to his chin, thinking, though there was a tug of a smile on his lips indicating he was already on board. “Hmmm, it could be useful to have. And it does match my hoodie…” 

“Plus, twwwwinnns,” Leo added with a charismatic lean closer. 

The smile spread across Donnie’s entire face now and he nodded. “Alright, you’ve convinced me.”

“Yes!” Leo exclaimed and Mikey hopped up and down excitedly. 

“Oooh, me too, me too!”

Donnie squinted down at the display window. “It looks like they don't have it in orange, Michael.”

“Awwww, boo.”

“Well it doesn't matter because Pops didn't give us enough money for backpacks anyways,” Raph suddenly stated, rifling through an old, beat up wallet. 

Now all three boys were booing, giving their big brother disapproving thumbs down. 

“Well he didn't!” Raph cried indignantly, frowning to himself. 

However, Leo’s spirits weren’t one to be dampened so easily, suggesting with a mischievous smile, “We could always pay them back later.” He looked to Raph as he said it, giving him his most charming and persuasive grin. 

Raph nodded, agreeing a lot faster than expected, “Okay, I’ll allow it.” 

“But isn't that considered stealing?” Mikey, the resident moral compass, asked.

Now it was Donnie's turn to smirk, a look nearly identical to his twin's as he stated with his own unique brand of charisma, “Only if you get caught.”

…

It was much warmer in the little shop than outside, but neither Leo or Donnie made any move to remove their hoodies, even as Raph and Mikey took off theirs. Instead, the slider bolted for the clothing section, his twin fast on his heels. Mikey went to check out the toy aisle for anything new, leaving Raph to (once again) pick up the supplies they were actually there for. The snapper sighed once and started loading up on groceries because someone had to make sure they had food to eat… even if he kinda wanted to check out the toys too. 

There was actually a pretty decent selection of backpacks available and while looking for the ones Leo had spotted in the window, the blue turtle came across something even more amazing. 

The slider gasped loud, latching onto his twin’s arm in an iron grip. “Donnie! Donnie!” he shouted despite being side by side, shaking the poor softshell relentlessly in his excitement. 

Donnie, agitated by the violent shaking, snapped loud, “Okay, okay! I’m right here! You can stop!” 

The slider did but only so he could drag him closer and point to what exactly had caught his eye. “They have unicorn backpacks!” he said wistfully, eyes practically twinkling in wonder. 

“Fascinating,” Donnie said, dry, trying to pry his brother’s fingers loose. 

“We have to get them!” Leo was practically vibrating in joy, even as his twin stayed stiff in his grip. 

“Absolutely not,” the softshell snapped, finally managing to free his arm. 

That made Leo snap out of his fantasy and straight back to reality, turning to Donnie with a pout. “Whaaaat, but whhhhyy?” he whined incessantly, hoping to guilt his twin into agreeing.  

But Donnie stood his ground, not so easily swayed by Leo's manipulations. “I agreed to a set of backpacks in both purple and blue. Not unicorn themed garbage.”

“It’s not garbage!” Leo snapped back, jumping on the offensive. “And look-” He snatched up two backpacks from the display shelf, holding them up for his brother to see. “They still come in purple and blue. So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is I don’t wanna be seen wearing unicorns on my back, for pizza’s sake!” Donnie huffed, exasperated. 

“Oh, come on! Who’s gonna even see you? April?”

“Yes! And don’t want to make her think I like this stuff!”

Leo rolled his eyes. “She already knows you're a nerd, it’s not like you can get any lamer.” 

Donnie huffed and pulled his own backpacks off the shelf. “Well then how about we just get these, instead?” The pair in question were covered in algebraic formulas and symbols and Leo instantly wrinkled his nose in disgust.  

“Ew, gross! No way! Keep your nerd stuff away from me.” He took a harrowing step backwards as if just being that close would infect him with cringe. 

“But they have them in our colors, so what's the problem?” Donnie mocked, using Leo’s own words against him. 

Leo frowned, giving his twin a challenging glare which Donnie met with his own. “It was my idea, I should get to pick.”

“Your logic is flawed.”

“No it's not! You're just not being fair!” 

The stare down continued, both far too stubborn to admit defeat, twin telepathy on full blast as they silently dared each other, ‘You break first!’

“Why don't you both just get the ones you want and not fight about it?” Raph suggested, sounding completely exasperated. 

“Because then we wouldn't be matching?!” Leo shouted like it was obvious. 

“Duh, that's the whole point, Raph,” Donnie added, the two oh so quick to gang up on their big brother, even mid-fight with each other. 

Raph sighs deep before snapping an order at the two. “Then how about you ditch the backpacks for a minute and actually help me get what we came here for!” 

“Fine,” the twins groaned as one, shooting each other one last lingering glare. 

Only there's a rattle at the front door and all four sets of eyes swerve in that direction, pupils wide and afraid. The store owner stands just outside, looking tired, cold, and miserable as he slits the key into the lock. The twins seize up in panic when they hear the click, frozen like deers in headlights. 

As the door swings open, the man's loud grumbling fills the space, putting the boys impossibly more on edge. “-making me do inventory this time of- what the?” The man's eyes immediately zero in on Leo and Donnie and there's a flash of confusion. The twins' faces go about six shades paler. This guy was a lot bigger than he looked from the rooftops. 

Leo offers his best disarming smile but it comes out too much like a grimace to be all that effective. 

It doesn't take long for the man to put two and two together- especially with the incriminating evidence of a backpack in each hand- and suddenly he's glaring hatefully at the pair. “Why you little thieves! You got a lot of nerve tryin to steal from Victor Bytes!” 

Realizing his mistake, Leo tossed the backpacks away, Donnie quick to do the same, both frantically shuffling backwards till they hit a wall. “We- We were gonna pay you back later,” Leo tries to plead in a near quiver, taking a protective stance in front of his twin. 

“Yeah, sure you were!” The guy snaps, disbelief and hateful spite dripping from every word. “Nice try but I wasn't born yesterday!” He starts rolling up his sleeve, stomping towards the two with malicious intent. “I think someone needs to teach you brats a lesson!” 

It was then that Raph darts out from between two aisles, flinging the large bag of groceries as hard as he can at the guy and roaring, “Hot Soooouup!” 

The bag hits the shopkeep with enough force to fully knock him off his feet, the thin paper ripping down the middle and sending an explosion of food tumbling. The man is left dazed and disoriented for a moment, laying in a pile of crushed produce. 

It was all the advantage the boys need, Raph yelling over his shoulder, “Go!” 

Leo and Donnie don’t have to be told twice, racing for the back door. Raph headed that way as well, pausing only to scoop Mikey up on his way out, the little box turtle tucked away in his shell the moment the shopkeep had entered. 

The human manages to struggle to his feet, spotting the four escaping figures and shouting, “HEY! Get back here you little punks!” 

The back door still hangs open from when they’d all broken in, letting the four slip from the store’s warm central heating to the frigid New York City air in a matter of seconds. Raph and Mikey run one way, so Leo and Donnie run the other, escaping deeper into the dark alley. For whatever reason, the man chaseq after the twins instead of their elder and younger brothers, yelling obscenely as he pursues them with all he's worth. He was far more out of shape compared to the two tots, but was quickly shortening the distance thanks to his height advantage.

Luckily, there's a metal fence ahead dividing the alley in half, with just enough room for the two small turtles to squeeze through if they suck in a breath. Donnie goes first, making it through with no issue. But when it came Leo’s turn…

His sleeve catches on something sharp, bringing him to a staggered halt. He yelps, tugging his arm desperately in the hopes of wiggling loose. Donnie instantly turns to check on his twin when he hears the scream, only for his heart to plummet when Leo looks back at him with scared, watery eyes. “I'm stuck!”

Donnie is at his twin's side in half a second, fiddling with the caught sleeve, trying to pry it loose but the thing isn't budging! “Take it off!” Donnie shouts, voice shrill with fear. 

But Leo stubbornly shakes his head. “No!”

“Leo-” Donnie starts to scold only for something to grab his brother tight by the wrist. 

Leo cries out in fear, both boys looking up at the now grinning face of the shopkeep. “Got you now, you little brat!” 

He starts to drag Leo back through the fence, so Donnie wraps both arms around Leo’s waist and digs in his heels, fighting with all he's worth against the much stronger grip of the adult man. Inch by horrible inch, Leo is tugged ever closer to his fate, so Donnie just grits his teeth and digs his heels in deeper. 

“No, let me go!” Leo shouts, completely hysterical at this point, and kicks the fence as hard as he could. 

It startles the man, grip loosening for a single instant. And Donnie, fueled by love and impossible desperation, pulls Leo with strength he didn't know existed, something tearing loose and sending the two sprawling to the ground. 

Donnie is back on his feet quick, dragging Leo behind him as the angry shopkeeper shouts obscene threats at their retreating backs. 

The two run until the voice long fades into the background, ducking into the nearest manhole the moment they were sure they hadn't been followed. 

Once on solid ground again, the pair doubled over, panting and gasping for air, their heartbeats a loud, thunderous roar against their eardrums. “What was that, Leo?!” Donnie hissed, shooting his twin a sharp glare. “Why didn't you take off the stupid hoodie so we could-”

But then Donnie noticed Leo curled over his arm with a miserable frown and the anger died on his tongue. "Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked softly, accessing his brother for any noticeable injuries. 

Leo shook his head, uncurling enough so Donnie could see his sleeve. “It ripped,” he said sadly, poking a finger into the quite sizable hole. 

“Oh.” Donnie inwardly sighed in relief that Leo wasn't hurt physically. Only he was hurt mentally and that was much, much harder for Donnie to fix on his own. He shuffled awkwardly for what was probably too long of a moment, trying to cobble together something soothing to say. He finally settled on, “Well, it doesn't look that bad. I'm sure we can get it stitched back up.”

“But then we won't match!” Leo shouted, sounding really torn up about it. 

And the thing was, Donnie understood why. 

He knew how much Leo loved matching with him, because Donnie liked matching with Leo, just as much. Maybe even more. 

Honestly, it had never even occurred to him just how much it mattered until now. 

But it did matter. 

So much. 

As cheesy as it was, wearing those hoodies around had been their way of physically proving they were twins. That they belonged together. That even if they fought or argued or made each other mad that they still choose each other as their other half. 

So to see that symbol of their bond severed in such a way… yeah it was pretty upsetting for him too if he was being honest. 

It was so important to Leo he’d risked capture over losing this incredibly valuable piece of their connection. 

For a moment Donnie just stared at his twin brother. And stared and stared and stared. 

Then he turned on his heels and marched straight over to the nearest trash pile littering the sewer tunnel, Leo just watching in growing confusion. He dug around a bit before pulling out the sharpest object he could find, using it to slice through the sleeve of his hoodie. 

“Wha- Donnie!” Leo squeaked, rushing to check on his genius brother, who it seemed had completely lost his mind. 

But Donnie just gently grabbed his wrist and guided his arm till it was side by side with his, showing off the two identical rips in the arms of their hoodies. “Now we match again. Happy?”

Leo blinked, eyes flickering between the two torn holes in disbelief. But his bewilderment soon turned to giggles, laughing at the complete absurdity of such a ridiculous solution. He pressed his head against Donnie’s shoulder and his twin released his hand to give him a proper hug. “Weirdo,” Leo teased, voice warm with affection.

Donnie rolled his eyes but smiled. “Better a weirdo than a dumdum,” he said, equally as fond, rubbing a hand up and down Leo’s carapace the way he knew he liked. 

That made Leo laugh harder and cling just a little bit closer. Donnie felt his chest warm, though he wouldn’t admit it out loud. And then because he maybe wanted to make Leo even happier, he offered, “Do you want to sneak back in later and steal those unicorn backpacks as revenge?”

Leo abruptly broke off the hug so he could grin mischievously at his twin. “Heck yes!” 

Donnie smirked back, knowing without any kind of mirror that it was a perfect match to Leo’s. 

Exactly as it should be.

A/N: For anyone wondering the shopkeep was based off Vic aka Spider Bytez from the 2012 series (or at least that's what I know him from since it's the only other series I've seen) I thought he fit the role pretty well though his design I imagine being a lot different to better fit the Rise style. And y'know he doesn't turn into a spider mutant *ahem*

[a-secret-bolton-vampire]

Something has been bugging me lately; why is it that so much of the ASOIAF fandom hates romance? Like, this is a problem I've noticed and it's honestly kind of weird. To be sure, George's view on what is romantic is, uh, dubious at best, but to outright be so against it the way I've seen some people be against it is quite bizarre, to say the least.

Rhaegar and Lyanna? Of course there's no romance there! Rhaegar clearly was just using Lyanna as a baby factory to produce a super prophecy child because that's all there is to his character!

Jon and Daenerys? They won't be getting together like that dumb show! And if they are, it will be purely a political marriage! No lovey dovey stuff there!. After all Dany likes "bad boys" (which somehow translates to "evil men") so why would she like a strong, assertive man like Jon? And why would Jon like her? Not like he likes strong fiery tempered women!

Those are the two biggest examples but there is more. Daemon Blackfyre and Daenerys Targaryen are more ambiguous since they are historical characters, but a lot of people are convinced it was 100% unrequited love.

I've even seen fans complain about the line from Barristan where he thinks about how Bittersteel and Bloodraven's rivalry over the affections of Shiera Seastar caused the Blackfyre Rebellions. Like sure it wasn't the only reason, but to think that jealousy and romance didn't have an effect on those rebellions is a bit weird.

Yes, I am aware these are some problematic pairings, not least of which because most of these are pretty incestuous. However, the complaints about these romances do not stem from a moral quandary. In the case of R+L, you see people calling Rhaegar a groomer and pedophile (see my post on him on my full thoughts there), but the majority of it is simply "well it's stupid because they told no one and caused a whole war, the selfish brats" (bonus points if someone specifically targets Lyanna).

Okay, setting aside the fact that, like with the Blackfyre Rebellions, Robert's Rebellion was caused by far more factors than their elopement, why does making it an abduction Rhaegar did simply for a magic messiah baby make it a better story than the fact these two were in love and desperate to escape situations they felt trapped in, leading to shortsighted decisions that had an unexpected affect on many people?

With Jon and Dany, the backlash is "but that's so cliche! George wouldn't do something as cliche as two of the biggest protagonists falling in love." As if George doesn't constantly engage with cliche storybeats as often or even more than he subverts them. Even when the evidence for the two getting together is literally so overwhelming that you'd need to be willfully ignorant to ignore the foreshadowing (plus the fact George literally said that their union is "the point of the series").

And again, I must ask; why is Jon and Dany marrying to secure a political alliance without any real love between them a better story than an epic, doomed romance between two people who have gone through such similar struggles and have such similar personalities? What does R+L=J even exist for if they are just a couple of convenience using each other?

I'm not saying you have to love and ship all these people together. Because we sometimes forget our little fandom bubble, most people are not okay with even fictional incest ships. That's okay. Sometimes it's not even incest ships, but again, that's okay! We are all different and have our preferences! Some might not even care much for romance.

But the way a lot of this is criticized doesn't read like that. It's always focusing on the negative aspects. Especially with Dany's love interests. I'm not a fan of Daario and Dany, personally, but it is a bit uncomfortable how she is targeted so heavily for thinking and getting horny about him. Like... let a girl be horny and infatuated? Lol, I don't know!

With Rhaegar and Lyanna, Prince Duncan the Small and Jenny of Oldstones, the "problem" is that their disregard for political betrothals and following their hearts makes them stupid monsters who are directly responsible for the deaths of thousands. That is absolutely not the way we should take these romances.

These doomed, tragic affairs aren't about how people are selfish. It's about the power of love. The way love makes people act rashly. The way love consumes someones thoughts and feelings. Love is powerful, it is transformative, transcending. That is the point. Even in spite of the death and chaos occurring around it, the love these people have for each other is something that cannot be broken.

I feel like the fandom has taken the wrong approach to this series tone and themes. I'm not George's biggest personal fan, to be quite honest, but he is a self described romantic. Turning Rhaegar from a lovestruck prince to a selfish crazed maniac is not romantic. Turning romance or potential romance into cold political maneuvers is not romantic.

The point of all this is that, yes, the world is dark. It's scary, it's cruel, unforgiving, and cold. But in that darkness, there are pockets of light that shine and make you feel safe, and warm, and happy. It makes you forget all the troubles around you. That light, that warmth, that love, is worth fighting for, even if it's all that is left, even if it doesn't last.

I am of course, slightly biased in my assessment, lmao. You could say that me, being a bisexual polyamorous transfemme, is maybe a bit of a big fan of romance and love! Yet, it still saddens me that people try to keep romances from just being romances, and try to make the story and world more bleak as a result. We already have Ramsay, Joffrey, Gregor, Euron, Randyll Tarly. We have people who use love against others for their own gain or outright reject it violently. We don't need more of that.

[davekat-sucks]

Found this on Reddit and I wanted to share it here because it's a really good read and it actually isn't bias.

OP: Not to sound racist, but why are so many people headcannoning Jade as black?

Like with every other character in different artists interpretations we get a wide variety of skin tones, from lightest beige to the darkest brown. But with Jade I literally never saw her drawn with light skin (unless she is drawn as accurately to the comic as possible). Why is that? Is it related to the official material somehow, or it's just a headcannon, that happened to be really popular for no particular reason?

Reply: This is a perfectly valid question to ask, and I think I know the answer!

Homestuck was most popular between 2012 and 2014, and tumblr was the main platform where the fandom discussed and shared things related to Homestuck (or any fandom for that matter). Around this time, young people also started becoming more aware of media's bias towards portraying race. There was an increased awareness that white was seen as the "default" race for fictional characters, and that characters in books and podcasts with no official artwork attached to them tended to be imagined as white for no reason other than this bias.

The result of this awareness was that brown and black people felt increasingly comfortable drawing "blank" characters (what they look like is entirely up to the fans) with dark skin colours, or re-imagining existing light skinned characters as having dark skin. The latter was done either to make an active contribution to undoing decades of racial bias in media, or simply because the artist wanted to see a particular character as being part of an underrepresented culture. Dark skinned characters were also regularly drawn with more darker skin than what was canon, because of bias related to colourism, which is the idea that even non-white (real life!) people are viewed as more beautiful when they're less dark.

Back then, tumblr was a lot less chill about things, and anything that could be remotely interpreted as problematic was met with intense vitriol and villification. This behaviour is now mostly present on twitter, but back then it was unique to mid 2010-s tumblr. Words like "tumbr-ification" and "tumblrina" came from this time. Anyone who was accused of having drawn a dark skinned character with a slightly less dark colour than canon was deemed racist. Anyone who drew a blank character as white was racist if the dominant view ("fanon" vs canon) was them having dark skin. Which was often the case. These people who cried racist were a loud, EXTREMELY loud minority, and with call out posts and dogpiling easily convinced others that everyone agreed with them. So not everyone was like that, far from it, but if your post gained traction and it was found you made a transgression, the harassment you would experience could make you feel like everyone hated you. So even for people who did their best to ignore this "side" of tumblr, there was a lot of pressure to not cross a line with this vocal minority if you wanted to keep sharing your art online, or wanted to stay part of the online fandom community.

Now, how this affected Homestuck. The fan art for Homestuck existed in this cultural bubble that I just described. First, you had these characters with very identifiable features (glasses, accessoiries, T-shirt prints) that lended themselves well to being drawn with all sorts of different colours and hair styles while still being recognisable. Second, their skin colour was left up to interpretation, after the original author recognised that his view of his characters as being white came from personal bias and there was no reason why they would or wouldn't be a particular skin colour. So, this was seen as an extra approval to go wild with fan interpretations and why there is such a wide range of dark skinned Homestuck characters. Jade and Jake in particular are being drawn with dark skin more often than the other kids, because in-universe there is a logical argument for them being non-white: they're islanders! Their dark skinned interpretations are more readily adopted by others as head canon for this reason. As a result, their counterparts John and Jane were also often drawn with tan skin. For obvious reasons, Homestuck 2 made a dark skinned interpretation of Jane significantly less popular.

Last part of the puzzle: why do dark skinned interpretations of Homestuck characters often appear to outweigh light skinned interpretations? It is a direct result of the intense pushback from both white and non-white fans to white interpretations, which I explained two paragraphs earlier. Depictions of Jade and Jake as white in particular were, without exception, met with either blunt criticism or straight up harassment. Sometimes overwhelmingly so, though most of the time only some comments fell into these categories. But it would always be pointed out publicly, and rarely with a friendly tone. Even to this day, on reddit, you'll see that half the comments on any artwork featuring four Homestuck kids all having light skin (or human versions of trolls) simply say "whitestuck" "why they all mayonnaise 💀" or something like that. This heavily discourages people from drawing their light skinned interpretations. People who have posted their light skinned interpretations of the entire group of kids are not likely to do so again, as it will be perceived as willfully ignorant at best and an active statement against dark skinned interpretations at worst.

I hope I was able to explain this without adding a value judgment on what is right or wrong. I have my own opinions and I'm happy to share my own feelings about fandom from a decade ago if anyone wants to know more about what it was like.

[galacticnova3]

Speaking of bugs, out of all the different new forms Matthew could take… why some kind of arthropod?

So glad you asked! Miracle Matter’s original forms all correspond to the individual/“pure” abilities in Kirby 64. However, that game also introduced mix abilities, and I wanted to reference that while also primarily taking inspiration from abilities that weren’t in 64. With that in mind, I decided to base its new forms off of two abilities each, while simultaneously building on the idea of the old forms changing to be even more representative of the original “elements” as Miracle gained a better understanding of them. Some didn’t change much at all, like the spark one, while others like cutter changed more noticeably; the main reason I went with this second goal was actually because of the bomb form. I knew I wanted to do something with water and bubble, but the bomb form having bubbles both didn’t make much sense to me to begin with and would have overlapped with a water/bubble form. I could have gone with water and poison, but those abilities are simultaneously already too similar(poison is just water ability with lingering effects pretty much) and not similar enough(water and poison as elements are generally considered distinct) to work for this kind of idea.

Anyways, now to actually answer the question: there’s a few reasons! Like me being biased as an entomology major(/hj). In terms of the concept side, the bug form is, if it wasn’t already obvious given the wording on the original post, based on the beetle and spider abilities. Insects famously include a huge number of species that make use of eyespots— this will kind of spoil the eventual design but I was specifically inspired by the very fittingly named eye-spot ladybug— which felt extremely fitting for the Covered In Eyes character. They’re commonly used as symbols of transformation, but also of simplemindedness and lower intelligence; as far as animals go, their intelligence and capacity to experience certain things as seemingly simple as pain are not well understood, to the point that many people assume there is nothing TO be understood. I felt that would be an interesting parallel to Miracle, given that even the fandom doesn’t agree on whether it’s even sentient or not, let alone sapient, something I decided to echo in-universe with how others mistake it for being mindless.

On the spider side of things, Mariel shows us that some Dark Matters already manifested in a spider-ish form, which to me makes it feel like less of a stretch than it initially seems. When many people think of traits that define spiders, they think about the number of eyes they have, often with a perspective of “they have too many”. A lot of people are also frightened of them and immediately assume the worst, regardless of what the spider is actually doing; if you have seen basically any of the stuff I’ve written about post-Zero/02 Dark Matters, this should sound like a familiar predicament. Their webs often look very geometrical(especially when constructed by spiders on LSD, this was learned from an actual experiment) and are made up of many more or less straight lines. There’s also the fact that multiple spiders have evolved specifically to thrive in manmade structures, and, to my knowledge, Miracle Matter is the only Dark Matter fought exclusively indoors; this wasn’t much of a factor but I did think of it. Visually, it doesn’t actually take much from them other than body plan; the beetle side definitely makes up a majority of the inspiration.

This was the form I came up with last, and by that point there weren’t many abilities left that didn’t have too much overlap with existing ones. Plasma and beam(and to a degree ESP) overlapped too much with spark, sword too much with cutter, sand with stone, crash with bomb, spear with needle, tornado and leaf were already used, as were water and bubble, and most other abilities seemed too specific to really make sense. Fighter, cook, hammer, archer/cupid, staff, ninja, bell, circus, yo-yo, cleaning, doctor, and magic(which is def more in line with the performance type rather than arcane arts) would be hard to make work with a character that doesn’t have hands or experience with specific fighting styles/objects.

Mecha and jet are similar and would have been cool to combine, but those are extremely specific and a bit beyond the complexity I could see Miracle replicating in any meaningful capacity. I DID think about trying to do something with metal and mirror, but I couldn’t think of how it would be used in a way that wasn’t just the stone form but reflective, nor a reason for it to have taken that sort of form. Animal doesn’t have an ability that’s particularly similar to it, and even if it did I don’t know how I could make a fucked up D20 mammalian-ish. Wing and hi-jump had a similar issue and also felt pretty redundant for a character that can already float. Copy shouldn’t need explaining.

[s-creations]

Copy - Mario & Rabbids Fanfic Story

Rabbid Mario was a lot of things. Brash. Impulsive. A show-off.

He, however, was not Mario. They just share the name.

Fandom: Super Mario & Related Fandoms, Mario & Rabbids Rating: General Audience Audiences Relationships: Luigi & Mario (Nintendo), Rabbid Mario & Rabbid Luigi (Mario & Rabbids) Tags: Rabbid Mario learns a lesson, Rabbid Mario's a show off, Rabbid Rosalina knows what's up.

Besides the shared name and semi-similar fashion, there wasn’t much shared between Mario and Rabbid Mario.

Mario was in every way a hero. Kind, caring, more than willing to help everyone who needed it. Bubbly and personable, anyone could approach him with any concerns and not feel judged. It was rare to see him angry. Even then, it was more frustration than true anger. 

Rabbid Mario was a show off. But, when one’s amazing as he is, what else was he supposed to do? Just stand there? Absolutely not. He was a smooth talker that really only moved if it was absolutely necessary. He had two moods, boast about his skills or disgruntled. Rabbid Mario was pretty sure he only held the title of ���hero’ because of the crazy merging incident. 

It also didn’t help that people just assumed he was like Mario because of his name. 

The other major part that was a sore topic was Mario’s second title that he wore with pride. More so than his role of being a hero. If asked directly, the red-cladded human would say his favorite job was being Luigi’s brother.

It wasn’t hard to see that both brothers loved each other. But Mario was definitely the vocal of the two. Always touting about how great his little brother was. How proud he was. How Luigi was the best at gardening, baking, ghost-hunting. Even when asked point blank how Luigi was acting as a hero, as everyone knew of his timid nature.

Mario would just beam and reply with, “There’s no one else I would want by my side.”

With how vocal the human was, it gave a few people the wrong idea about Rabbid Mario.

Mainly coming from Rabbid Luigi. Who eagerly thought they were brothers now. 

Something to keep in mind was that Rabbids weren’t really ‘related’. There were no parents, siblings, cousins, nothing of the sort. They all just exist together with a few more popping up at random. Truthfully, no one would know where these new numbers came from. They would just…pop up.

Bottom line, there was no reason for Rabbid Luigi to be determined that he and Rabbid Mario were brothers. 

“You’re crazy.” Rabbid Mario grumbled.

“We’re all crazy! It’s what we do!” was Rabbid Luigi’s reply, “Come on, we already have the names.”

“And that’s it, just the names, nothing else. You don’t see me pining after Rabbid Peach.” 

“Like you could afford me.” Rabbid Peach said as she casually scrolled through the feed on her phone.

“Why are you so against this?” Rabbid Luigi pouted (actually pouted) with wide, begging eyes.

Which only caused Rabbid Peach to scoff and Rabbid Mario to roll his eyes. “One, we don’t do that. And two, you’re annoying. And three, I don’t want to be your brother. I’m not Mario.”

“You’re so mean…”

Rabbid Mario just rolled his eyes again and walked off.

In all honesty, what it all came down to was the fact that he didn’t want to drag him down. Mario clearly leaned on his friends and family to help. Which wasn’t a bad thing. But Rabbid Mario was a solo player who liked to call the shots. 

And definitely not the fact that he wanted even more comparison to the human. 

Rabbid Luigi was the opposite of what Rabbid Mario was trying to achieve. The green dressed Rabbid was childish, loud, and always in your face. He was running off at a moment's notice and didn’t seem to know when to shut up. 

Rabbid Mario liked to show off, sure, but the other was just too much. Rabbid Mario wanted to give off an air of ease and not eagerness. Which was not Rabbid Luigi’s personality. 

He’d hope that the conversation would have been enough to deter Rabbid Luigi from the idea. 

It didn’t.

In fact, the hope became worse with the recent issue. Having to save the entire universe from this Cursa. Which allowed the strong bond between Mario and Luigi to be on full display for the group to see. 

Before, when it was rushing around the chaotic Mushroom Kingdom, there wasn’t much down time. No moment to observe anything. It was either constant moving or sleeping. Really no in between.

Now they were traveling between different parts of the galaxy in a very luxurious but rather small space ship. Jumping from planet to planet. Meaning they were crammed into this small place for a day or two. Also meaning further personalities were better on display. 

If verbal confirmation wasn’t enough to prove how much Mario adored his brother, his actions certainly confirmed this.

If Mario wasn’t talking with Peach, he was with Luigi. Even then, it was clear Mario could only focus if his brother was in line of sight. Though they were both constantly being in the line of danger, it was Mario who made sure Luigi was protected. Deliberately putting himself in the line of danger if his younger brother was targeted. Going so far as to make sure Luigi was patched up before he was. No matter how many times Luigi said he could wait. 

There was a point when facing a Darkmess Puddle, Beep-O claimed Luigi’s skills were definitely needed for it. At that, Mario immediately rushed forward. Claiming he would help his brother out.

“Ah, nothing is stronger than a sibling bond!” Beep-O gleefully exclaimed, “I’m sure you two can handle this easily.”

Rabbid Mario pointedly stared ahead when Rabbid Luigi turned to him with wide eyes. As if this was proof that being siblings was perfect. It didn’t help when the twins felled the Puddle faster than previous encounters with the entire team working together. Mario happily ruffled Luigi’s hair with the younger brother laughing. Looking sheepish but pleased at getting his brother’s praise. 

“Okay, see, that has to mean something,” Rabbid Luigi whispered desperately.

“You’re just grasping at straws now.” Was Rabbid Mario’s short reply.

Reminding himself that he didn’t need that. A sibling relationship. He could handle himself on his own. Rabbid Luigi was annoying and would just get in the way.

Being alone was better.

Worrying only about himself. 

It’s what was needed. 

He wouldn’t be compared to Mario.

Apparently, the galaxy wanted to prove Rabbid Mario wrong.

It was when the group was on Terra Flora., traversing through the large Everbloom Tree. The far too large Everbloom Tree. Too large to get the tasks done quickly if they remained together. The number of Darkmess Puddles spotted throughout the area worrying the heroes (and Bowser). 

“It is probably in our best interest if we divide our powers,” JEANIE suggested, “We will cover more area and hopefully get to the center faster.”

Dividing the group into two balanced groups took longer than it probably should have. Edge and Bowser clearly didn’t care. Mario wanted Peach and Luigi with him, but JEANIE said there needed to be better diversity between the groups. Rabbid Mario’s claims of being able to work alone didn’t add much weight to anything. He did frantically try to shake Rabbid Luigi off and away from him. 

Even with the constant back and forth that happened, they eventually decided on the two groups.

No one missed how worried Mario looked at Luigi being part of the other team. 

Beep-O stated, “JEANIE and I will be in full contact, just in case anything goes wrong with the other team. Not that I’m saying it will. This is just in case.”

Luigi let out a slow sigh, looking up feeling a hand placed gently on his shoulder.

“Hey,” said Mario quietly, “You going to be okay?”

“Yeah…are you?”

The older brother shuffled weakly before replying with, “Yeah, just concerned.”

Rabbid Mario quickly interjected himself into the conversation. One part trying to move this along and another part to shut Rabbid Luigi’s face up watching the brotherly affection. “Ah, you worry too much! I’ll make sure he’s okay. Green Boy here is a long range shooter with a ghost Spark. He’ll stick to the back. Trust me, under my lead, Luigi will be fine.”

“Who said you were leading this party?” Edge asked briskly.

Which Rabbid Mario just brushed it off with, “Because I said so. Now, Team ‘Awesome-Becuase-Rabbid-Mario-is-Leading!’, let’s move out!”

Back turned and marching forward, Rabbid Mario just assumed the rest in his party was following. The numerous footsteps following behind being the only confirmation he needed. He missed the quick hug shared between the twins before Luigi rushed to catch up.

But Rabbid Luigi saw.

“Are you really going to focus on keeping her safe?” The green-dressed Rabbid whispered to the other.

“Of course,” Rabbid Mario hissed back, “I told you my plan. It’s fine.”

“But you didn’t really even take into account the layout of the battlefield, or the enemies we could face. You can’t just say ‘keep him in the back’ if-”

“Would you just- stop talking. You are going to follow my lead, got it.”

Rabbid Luigi huffed, “You need someone else to bounce your ideas off of to make sure they don’t sound stupid. We’re brothers, we need to-”

Rabbid Mario pinned the other down with a steely glare that immediately shut him up. “We. Are not. Brothers. Get that through your head.”

Rabbid Luigi’s ears and shoulders dropped and he fell back to walk next to Rabbid Rosalina. Who gently patted his shoulder while casting a judgmental glare towards Rabbid Mario.

He didn’t care. He ignored it.

His stomach burned with an uncomfortable sensation.

He ignored that too.

The first few puddles went surprisingly well. Rabbid Mario’s worries melting away with each job done. He knew what he was doing. This was easy. Rabid Luigi was worried over nothing-

“Wow,” Rabbid Rosalina said, voice slightly influxes to indicate her surprise, “That…is a big puddle.”

It was. Larger than the full group had dealt with before, never mind this smaller one. Thick, sticky tendrils were spreading out from the deep center point and attaching to whatever they could reach. This normally wouldn’t be a worry…if the full group was together. But it was just five against whatever was resting within.

That wasn’t going to stop Rabbid Mario.

“Alright, we keep the same position as before. Easy.” 

“Are you stupid or just have a death wish,” Edge frowned, “We can’t take this size of a puddle on with just five. We need everyone here.”

“And I think we’ll be fine. If you’re that worried, you can stick close to me. I’ll keep you safe.”

Rabbid Rosalina stepped forward at that, “I’m not putting more energy into this than what I have to, and that’s way too much energy.”

“Then stay here.”

“H-Hold on,” Luigi spoke up, “T-This is really d-dangerous. We c-can’t just rush in.”

Rabbid Luigi nodded furiously, “I agree! Mario wouldn’t just go in there without everyone.”

“...Well…if you’re going to be like that. I’ll take care of this myself.” And before anyone could argue, Rabbid Mario jumped in.

The familiar swooping sensation in his stomach didn’t wash away the bitterness he felt from that last comment. The chilled feeling doing nothing for his heated skin. Rabbid Mario landed on the dark rock battlefield, letting out a huff as he waited for the area to clear. His ear twitched hearing a few heavy thumps indicating the others had followed him in.

“Decided against staying behind, huh?” Rabbid Mario taunted. Faltering slightly being faced with Edge’s scowl.

“More of we didn’t want you doing something stupid.”

“...You’re…too worried. We’ll be fine! You’ll see.”

It went south so fast.

First issue was the fact that the enemies they were facing were Lone Wolves. A large number of them. Normally, they would hunker behind their barricades and fire from their stationary locations. But they were more active this time. Able to get close to do small damage before running away to launch their proper attack.

Second problem was the fact that only Luigi and Rabbid Mario were able to deliver proper damage. The rest could only break down the barriers to try and make the Lone Wolves’ slightly easier targets. 

The final problem was the terrain of the battlefield. The group was trapped in a pit with Lone Wolves on higher ground surrounding them. Meaning they were sitting ducks with minimal coverage while struggling to fight back. 

“We need to leave,” Rabbid Luigi called out, “We’re making no progress!”

Rabbid Mario growled softly, “I’m not running away!”

“You are an idiot! Stop trying to feed your ego and realize we’re not going to win this!” Edge shot back.

He was about to retort when a flash caught his attention. 

A Lone Wolf had taken advantage of their arguing to try and take Rabbid Mario out. On his part, Rabbid Mario felt frozen to the spot. Watching with rising fear as the shot drew closer to him. Knowing with his current damage, Rabbid Mario wasn’t going to survive this.

At the very last second, something heavy collided into him. A thought of ‘What is Rabbid Luigi doing?’ crossed his mind. That was quickly wiped away when the shot landed directly on Rabbid Luigi’s back. 

All of this acted before Rabbid Mario’s eyes in slow motion. Time catching up when they both collapsed onto the ground. The green-dressed Rabbid unmoving as he laid across Rabbid Mario’s chest. A cacophony of noise assaulted his ears. But he couldn’t take his eyes off the still form.

Before there was even a chance to begin to take in what was happening when another shot rang out. Rabbid Mario looked up in enough time to see Luigi crumple to the ground. Not out, but clearly down and unable to move. Gripping onto his wounded arm, curled into a ball with his face scrunched up in pain. Rabbid Rosalina rushed over to scare the Lone Wolf away and drag Luigi further behind cover. 

Edge was already pulling up their exit route with JEANIE’s help, “We need to grab and go, now!”

Rabbid Rosalina, practically dragging Luigi along, was already making her way there. One of the few times her eyes were wide with fear and worry.

Still feeling numb, Rabbid Mario lifted his fallen comrade up and rushed over. All jumping in. Thankful when the warm air and rough bark greeted them. Rabbid Mario didn't have time to fully recover before Rabbid Luigi was pulled from his hold. Almost going to fight back, to pull the other towards him again. But was quickly guilted by Edge’s glare. 

So, he sat back.

Sat back and watched as Rabbid Rosalina frantically gave Luigi a Mushroom and wrapped his arm. The human’s face slowly calmed as he fell into a less than peaceful sleep.

Rabbid Luigi was completely unresponsive as Edge carefully checked him over. Pulling out one of the Sparks, the pink one with the balloon tied to them, and asked them to work their healing magic. 

“It’ll…take awhile.” the Spark spoke softly.

“But you can help?” Edge asked, voice hard with worry.

“Yeah, of course.”

Rabbid Mario tried to get up when Edge started to stalk towards him. Only able to stand before him and pull him up fully by the front of his overalls. Dragging him closer to clearly see the fury on Edge’s face. 

“What were you thinking!” He wasn’t able to reply before he was shoved away. Ears drooping as Edge began to pace, continuing her stream of thought, “I’ll answer that for you, you weren’t! I know you have a brash attitude. But if you would just get rid of your stupid ego- No, you know what! You can keep your ego. Keep your self given title of being the better hand-to-hand fighter. I don’t care. But you need to stop letting everyone clear up after your carelessness!”

Normally, being talked to like this, Rabbid Mario would feel the burn of indignation rise up. The need to defend his stance, his price, we needed! No one got to talk to him this way!

But a different burn was in his stomach now. Feeling like he was going to throw up. It was horrible. Eyes landing on the unmoving form of Rabbid Luigi. Namely focused on the slowly healing burn on his back.

“...I thought we could handle it.” Was his weak reply back.

“No, you thought you could handle it. If you’re going to claim to be the best fighter, then you need to back it up. And you can’t.” With that, Edge turned and walked back over to Rabbid Rosalina. Both sitting by the two recovering teammates, their back’s to Rabbid Mario.

On his part, Rabbid Mario slowly sat himself back down. Shoulders and ears slumped low, almost curled into a ball as he stared at the ground.

He wasn’t sure how long they all sat in silence. Feeling as if he was sinking into the Darkmess Puddle that rested nearby. He was broken from his dark thoughts hearing numerous footsteps drawing closer to their location. The rest of the group eventually turned the corner.

“There you all are!” Beep-O called out, “We were worried when you- What happened to them!”

Mario called out his brother’s name, distress clear in his voice, upon seeing Luigi’s unmoving form. Practically sprinting over Luigi’s side. Rabbid Rosalina moving out of the way to just avoid being barreled over by the worried human. Mario’s hands worriedly hovering over Luigi before slowly and carefully collecting his brother close.

The red-dressed Rabbid watched with fearful eyes as Edge inched closer to Mario. Whispering something to the human, causing his shining eyes to snap up to Rabbid Mario. Who flinched. Waiting for rage, anger, accusations, being thrown away.

But there was nothing.

Mario’s stare turned away, shoulders falling as he just cradled Luigi closer. Eyes closing as he pressed his forehead against his brother’s. Pulling Luigi onto his lap. 

Rabbid Mario…faltered at that, surprised. He was really ready to be torn apart for letting Luigi get hurt. Even more so with what he’d said the last time Mario was there.

“You really don’t get it, do you.”

Rabbid Mario was not pleased with how high he jumped at suddenly hearing Rabbid Rosalina. Looking up as she sat next to him. “What are you talking about?”

“You really thought he was going to yell at you.”

“Well…yeah.”

She let out a slow sigh, eyes rolling. “How is it that I get his personality better than you do. Yet you’ve known him longer.”

“What point are you trying to make here?”

“You try too hard to show you’re not the same as Mario.” 

That caused Rabbid Mario’s ears to perk up at that in surprise. “What? No, I don’t, it’s the complete opposite!” 

“You sure about that?”

“Yes!”

Rabbid Rosalina rolled her eyes again. “Look, I get it. We’re basically seen as pasted versions of someone else. I really struggled with the idea for a while. Rosalina is a galaxy goddess. I’m a plump, sleepy Rabbid. We’re nothing alike, but I felt like I had this legacy to live up to since I have her name.”

“But the Captain sat me down one day, said I was being silly about it all. People share names all the time, but there’s no one competing to the ‘best’. We get to be our own people.”

She gently pushed Rabbid Mario’s with her shoulder, “You probably have it worse than all of us in that aspect. Sharing a name with a big hero.”

“It’s not a problem.” Rabbid Mario hissed out.

“Really? You’re trying to show off that you can be your own hero. Your own version of being a hero. Because acting anything like him would just make you a copy. But you want to help, you want to be a hero. So what do you do? You try to act opposite of him. You’re loud while he’s a human of few words. You like to work alone while Mario works with as many people as he can. You’re used to not having siblings while Mario is one of the best older brothers out there.”

“But you know that it’s not you, not all of it. You’re super loud and you have a huge ego, but you care about us. All of us. Now however, you’re too far deep into this… You just continue the act, to be so opposite that no one would dare clump you together as being the same person. So much so…that someone suggesting to be your brother, it feels weird.”

“We’re not brothers,” Rabbid Mario tried to argue back, “Rabbids don’t have family relations, you know that.”

“Well, sure. ‘Family’ is a weird concept, we don't really have that…at least, not in the normal sense. We can have people that we see as family roles. The Captain may not be related to me. But, he took care of me, put up with me, raised me… Even if a blood relation isn’t something Rabbid’s have, I still see the Captain as my dad…and I’m his daughter.”

Rabbid Mario’s eyes widened at that. “How…what?”

“We’re family because we want to, we choose. Making connections isn’t bad. Stop seeing it like that.”

Rabbid Mario’s attention darted over to where the two injured were resting. Luigi was back on the ground to rest properly, Mario gently brushing his brother’s bangs back gently. One hand gently gripping on to Luigi’s injured. Peach sitting next to Mario, whispering softly to him. No doubt trying to offer some sort of comfort towards the hero. Rabbid Luigi was still unmoving, Edge by his side, watching the Spark that was resting on his back, healing the passed out Rabbid.

“Do you really find him annoying? I mean, he is. But I’m talking about the sense that you don’t want to be his brother. Or are you just using it as a reason?” Rabbid Rosalina asked.

It was as if a light bulb went off in his head. Rabbid Mario’s entire form seemed to lift up. Eyes wide with realization. 

Rabbid Rosalina continued, “What do you want to do?”

He was up the next second. Rabbid Rosalina gave a small smile as she watched him walk away.

Mario turned away from Luigi, noticing movement from the corner of his eye. Watching as Rabbid Mario sat down by his green counterpart. Their eyes connected for a brief moment. Both offering a small smile and nod of acknowledgement before focusing on their own brother. 

Luigi was up first, unsurprisingly. Beaming as he was pulled into a tight hug by Mario. Waving off Rabbid Mario’s small ‘Sorry’ with an understanding smile and nod. 

When Rabbid Luig woke, there wasn’t a crowd around him. All were currently sitting around a warming (and contained) campfire white they ate breakfast and discussed. But that didn’t mean he woke alone. The Spark that had been healing him let out a small cheer as he moved to sit up slowly.

His attention was drawn to a plate put before him. Looking over to find Rabbid Mario, who’s eyes were on his own plate, sitting right next to him. 

Rabbid Luigi took the offered plate slowly. Watching Rabbid Mario for a few moments before eating.

“How are you feeling?” Rabbid Mario asked gruffly.

“Uh…better…I guess. I mean, I’m up so…”

“That is good…”

There was a pause of silence. Rabbid Luigi was surprised once more when Rabbid Mario inched closer, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Gently pulling Rabbid Luigi closer so he could lean against the other comfortably.

“I’m happy you’re okay…lil bro.”

There was no verbal reply back. Rabbid Luigi’s eyes widened in surprise before smiling with glee. Ears twitching in joyous energy. Both enjoying their meal in comfortable quiet. 

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hello, this is the Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™️

Anon here voiced a frustration that I think we all share, from time to time. The commentators have brought up some very important points, but I think it may be important to show you a fuller picture. It’s not just about a concept of freedom, but what it can actually mean.

First of all, to say there are few, or no incidences of fraud in the Chinese BJD community is objectively false. The infamous Baidu BJD Tucao Bar (

) and it’s more updated counterpart on Weixin exist because of three reasons – it’s a place to vent within a community, a place where two sides of a dispute can come together to share their side in a court of public opinion and finally, to call out and expose scammers. The following examples are all in Chinese, of course – but how else to show you what’s really going on unless you actually see for yourself? Now, the extent of what’s considered a “scam” is stretched far and wide, but included are common complaints about how individual indie artists have inconsistent pre-orders (https://tieba.baidu.com/p/8126795911 ), long wait times (http://c.tieba.baidu.com/p/8446099713 ) the quality of the resin from these indie artists are brittle/streaky/full of bubbles (https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7657831519 ), as well as horrid communication with customer service (https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7216544824 ).

Other scammers have:

Sold counterfeits as real: http://c.tieba.baidu.com/p/6319214040

Attempt to claw back prices after receiving a second-hand doll (usually banking on the seller being afraid of a bad feedback) http://c.tieba.baidu.com/p/8422233115

Scams that occur during trades (didn’t send anything, send trash instead of dolls, recalled a package while still receiving something from the sender, etc) https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6138333817

Running away with down-payments: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7546265316

Cheaters trading across different fandoms: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6237611363

What’s the use of this “social credit system” if it doesn’t really stop the scamming, then?

I think I may have mentioned this earlier; the point of a social credit system is more about controlling a population’s aggregate behaviour than the behaviour of individuals. It’s there to quash dissent instead of keeping a community crime-free. Think about it this way, BJD collectors are a small, niche market with a high price tag. And if the Chinese government is lax enough to allow rampant counterfeit foods and medication to go on for years (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIpA_RwEtLE&t=33s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYr87XCAa48 and https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56080092 ), would the system really protect a small group of rather privileged individuals? You might ask, “Hey, OCDA, aren’t these people caught? That means the system works, right?” The answer is, “Yes, and they are just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty more of these people who were never caught.” I think we have all heard that just because something’s immoral doesn’t mean it’s illegal. Legality is never the bottom line that we should hold each other accountable to, but these folks get by banking on that their immorality will never be caught, and unless they were caught, what they do aren’t illegal.

On the other hand, the government is quick to stop anything that could cause a social stir. No matter how big the topic might be (human trafficking, public corruption, the existence of COVID, you name it), if there was too much interest in a topic that the government deemed “unsuitable” (if it gives you an answer at all), it can be rubbed out of social media overnight. This is possible because 1. There’s only one kind of social media, which is closely monitored by the State and 2. There’s the Great Firewall of China and scaling the wall can incur a fine and sometimes even probation. The person who started the whole furor may be invited by the police for a talking-to (or just disappeared, either way.)

BJDs are small fry, we know that, so where do minor “scams” lie? Yes, it is inherently frustrating as a consumer to realise that one cannot reinforce trade laws across borders or hold non-registered sellers under the same scrutiny as a registered company. I understand that personally as a victim of a bungled preorder as well. But this so-called “Social Credit” system is never the way to go. Not even Black Mirror or Minority Report can replicate the reality that’s inside China, folks. The truth is worse than fiction.

~Anonymous

[polinator]

I have come here for one reason. To shout into the void of the internet.

Y'all. Y'all. Y'ALL. Bless your hearts. I love the Bridgerton canon. Since I read TVWLM over 20 years ago... well, liked it since then. Loved it more when I read AOFAG (and yeah, I know some people hate it, but I do not). And I say this as a person who has written fan fiction in this fandom and made physical things celebrating this universe.... It isn't that serious.

These are historical romance novels that lean into comedy a lot of the time. Historical rom coms, if you will. I wish people would stop interpreting them in the most tragic way possible without taking into consideration the intention Julia Quinn had when writing them.

Are there issues with scenes in some of the books? Yes. Do I adore every tiny thing in them? No.

But, what do you think JQ intended? Do you think she intended for her romantic heroes to come off as abusive sometimes? No. (Well, unless you are talking about Turner. For Turner the answer is most definitely yes.) The office scene in TVWLM, the lake scene in AOFAG, the engagement ball scene in RMB, and so on... they were written to be read like physical comedy. Like a screwball comedy. Like I Love Lucy where Ricky spanks Lucy. Is that problematic when we look back at it in 20fucking24? Yes, of course. But was Lucille Ball trying to imply Ricky Ricardo was an abuser? No. It was meant to be funny.

People take Colin to task for thinking about hitting Eloise. Y'all must be fucking saints if you've never thought about hitting your sibling. The fact he only hit her once I find amazing. My sister and I fought all the damn time. The love in the Bridgerton household must have been like a huge bubble. My parents were/are the most amazing parents God had ever put on this earth.... and my sister and I still fought. Also, I've def thought about strangling a boyfriend or two. And a child or two. Did I do it? No. But I thought about it. And you've definitely thought about doing bodily harm to someone. Because it's a human thing. It doesn't mean you are actually going to do it. And it certainly doesn't mean you're an abuser. Good god girl get a grip.

Julia just didn't think about these things as deeply as some in the fandom think she did. Like 20+ years ago when the books were first released they were popular but not that popular. People were not all over it analyzing everything like they are now. (I mean, we were to try to figure out who LW was at the time, but not everything else.)

On the same lines, Edmund was not an abusive father at all. Again, what do you imagine JQ's intentions were when she said Colin was horsewhipped? Do you think she actually meant beaten? No, of course fucking not. Over and over in her canon she shows and tells you what a great father Edmund was. She has absolutely no problem telling you if someone's dad or guardian are trash. Let us count the ways (spoilers below and trigger warnings for real):

Simon's father- pretended he didn't exist because he stuttered, fuck him up so badly he was going to not have an heir just to spite the hateful son of a bitch.

Sophie's dad- didn't give her any attention, left her to be raised by servants, only called her his ward, left her fate in Araminta's hands

Phillip's dad- horrible shit who actually beat Phillip with a whip, his scars are detailed, how he is beaten is detailed, his father's anger is detailed, is a huge part of the book, Phillip is afraid to touch his kids because he doesn't want to be like his father.

Gareth's dad- shit of a human being who treats his youngest son like trash because he is not his biological son, cut him off completely, tried to ruin the estate so he would have a shit ton of debt when he actually died, betrothed him to a girl with intellectual disabilities without his consent and said if he didn't marry her he couldn't go to school

Lucy's uncle- the third to worst person in a JQ book, stole money from their estate, betrothed her to (a very lovely) gay man because he was being blackmailed for treason, said he didn't give a fuck about her, made her believe her father was the treasonous bastard so he could guilt her into marrying the man, threatened Lucy at knifepoint, said he was going to watch while Lucy's marriage was consummated and implied that if her new husband didn't do it he would let the man's father rape her to ensure it happened

And who could forget... Hugh's father- a psychopathic piece of filth so wretched it's hard to list all the horrible things he's done from memory, but just here's just a taste: beats his sons when they do anything he considers to be wrong including misremember some part of their family tree and he enjoys it, repeatedly hired sex workers to rape his gay son and then would encourage them to beat him and helped beat him with his cane when the son wouldn't have sex with them, raped his wife repeatedly (and their sons could hear it), is so obsessed with his lineage that when Hugh, one son, was accidentally crippled he paid men to follow poor Daniel (the guy who slipped and accidentally shot him) to the continent to murder him and didn't stop until his son told him he would kill himself if Daniel died, he bribed servants so he could keep tabs on Hugh because that title is super important, he then kicked Hugh on his painful, injured leg and drugged him so he could tie him to the bed so that he could lock a lady in the room and force their marriage for the sake of that damn title, and more I'm sure I can't remember. AND he did all this without a trace of remorse.

And probably other fathers I can't remember. What does Julia Quinn say about Edmund? He was the best of men and of fathers. Now, thinking about JQ and how she's written alllll these other fathers, do you think she really meant that Colin was actually horsewhipped? No. She probably thought spanking but make it Regency.

I love her books, but do you think she's deep diving into research? Probably not. I mean, she forgot that she wrote Colin's birthday was in January. At the beginning of 'Just Like Heaven' Colin and Penelope are married and in the middle of the story they aren't even engaged yet. She is not thinking about things that deeply.

They are supposed to be fun and romantic and sometimes humorous and the drama... they are not meant to be analyzed and dissected like you would 'Invisible Man.' They aren't supposed to be all moody and intense-- it's not Dickens. Emotional, yeah of course, they are romances, but not taken so seriously.

But you know, don't come for my Bridgerverse canon babies, or I will cut you because I do take my love for them seriously. (Well, not Turner, you can have Turner.)

@your3fundamentaltruths I am not coming at you about Turner... well maybe a little bit. But you and I and maybe like five other people know the Bridgerverse well enough to get the reference.

[weirdmageddon]

another rant about fanfic/fancontent and characterization

ive been on FIRE with hot takes the past week it just all started bubbling to the surface i guess. people are gonna hate me for this one but i have to address the elephant in the room

i think a lot of ppl need to read this quote. this is….exactly fucking it. what ive been trying to articulate this whole time. this is why so much fanfic pisses me off and drives me away. they explained the phenomenon PERFECTLY

Decades ago, Devra Langsam (coeditor and publisher of SPOCKANALIA, the first Star Trek fanzine, beginning in 1967) codified this in what came to be known as "Langsam's Law." In an essay published in WARPED SPACE 50 (1984, T'Kuhtian Press), Paula Smith described it thusly: “In writing media-based fiction there is a special caveat: Langsam's Law, or, ‘Don't Make Him Say That.’ Don't make an established character do or say something out of line with his established character, or if you must, give good, solid reasons why. If you must write a Darth-Vader-is-really-a-pussycat story, explain in the story why he also strangles crewmen when irked.” And the debate has raged ever since. For my own part, I initially was somewhat startled to realize, upon reading my first fanzine those many decades ago, that other people could and did interpret these characters somewhat differently than I did. After a while I concluded that there was a continuum of logical characterization—always demonstrably rooted in canon—along with the who-the-fuck-are-these-people "interpretations." As far as I can tell, these are based on projection, wish fulfillment, and/or what I call "spackletext" (as opposed to genuine subtext) from writers (well, story posters, at least) who want the characters to meet their specific desires in emotional/physical/therapeutic gratification and are completely oblivious or simply uncaring as to how that is achieved.”

seriously. the way so many people treat characters as like empty-calorie junk food instead of getting genuine gratification from properly understanding them in canon, without selfishly appropriating them, as if they were real people with depth makes me sick. how do you consume content in that way?? and moreover, why do so many other people enjoy it????

this is what i've been thinking for years but i didnt know how to say it without people flipping out on me. like it's ALWAYS empty wish fulfillment it makes me wanna EXPLODE. that's why those boring nonsensical ships always exist in every fandom: it's for projection. so they’re as easily gratifying to their desires as possible. it sucks so much because like. i can't imagine what kind of catharsis they expect to achieve from something like this????? it's not even using these characters therapeutically as much as it is just using them as comfort junk food

i made a domino’s vs new york slice analogy to a friend the other day: “it’s enlightening to me that people don’t think about him this way. like what do you mean “wow”. you have all been fed garbage characterization. that’s like people who all they know is domino’s and think they know what real pizza is and have never had a new york slice”. so imagine if new york pizza wasnt bound to the new york area and you could get new york style pizza anywhere in the world, it just takes longer to prepare. it’s like these people are consistently choosing domino’s because they want it now and fast without regard for method or depth of care put into the art of pizzamaking itself because their bar for quality food is at the ocean floor. its like fast food to them they just want instant self gratification no matter how shitty the texture and taste are

why you people enjoy consuming empty fucking calories i will never understand to save my life. i WANT to understand but nobody, NOBODY can give me a well-reasoned answer. the only one that answers this is the one in the above quote, that that too many people are afraid to admit: “it’s based on projection, wish fulfillment, and/or what I call "spackletext" (as opposed to genuine subtext) from writers who want the characters to meet their specific desires in emotional/physical/therapeutic gratification and are completely oblivious or simply uncaring as to how that is achieved.”

see that’s like fucking sacrilege to the character, original work, AND audience to me. how would the canon character feel about this. if you hate the original canon so much that you turn it in its head why are you writing about it in the first place??? what the hell is even redeeming about the media in general to you?? if you do that, i’m not emotionally attached to anything in the story anymore, you have to resell it to me. but even then i’m not here for whatever weird ungrounded from canon au youre trying to write i’m here to see a deeper exploration of the same ideas presented in a given piece of media. that’s why i’m reading. fanfic. and not. an original story

i just think that not only is proper characterization an artful discipline that shows you can step out of your own impulsive wants, but proper characterization also displays an author’s genuine love and devotion for a series or a character. it shows you how much someone cares about this thing, you know they put their heart and soul into caring to get it right. it’s made with real love, time, devotion, like a samurai mastering his blade. going into understanding their inner workings and spending so much time to properly understand it because they care about it so much. and it’s very obvious when you see it. accordingly, the opposite is true—sloppy characterizations made out of wishful thinking and self-gratification without bothering to understand the character, feels… well, rather cheap. like fast food. you don’t get the same strong sense of devotion to deeply understanding that thing. so the question bears repeating: why do people want this empty-calorie fast food? in fics with proper characterizations, the people in the comments act as if they saw heaven and praise the author. they way they comment suggests it’s such a rare occurence. but why. why is it a fucking rare occurrence. shouldn’t this be the norm? is it really that rare for people to be devoted to properly understanding the depths of a media and its characters? am i the fucking weird one here for having this kind of discipline and getting deep satisfaction from the art of understanding characters????? do other people find it too hard and i’m confused because i expect it to be as easy to see as i do? or do they just simply not give a shit about the principle?

when people turn canon on its head, it makes me wonder: how much do people actually like the media they consume? do they like the actual characters themselves? or do they merely like the idea of these characters and ignore what is manifest about them for their own ideal interpretations that serve their own desires?

on one hand i'm like “it's not hurting anyone, the world already has enough pain in it, you can't judge people for wanting to escape it for a bit”. cause like, if it makes them happy then i shouldn't be upset about that. i'm glad people are able to find joy in these things that i can't, and i don't want to spoil something that causes genuine happiness for these people. then on the other hand i'm like “okay but all those empty calories can't possibly be good for you. you can consume media in much richer and satisfying ways”

[dastardly-imbecile]

Almost Human

Part 3 of the 'fandoms i know nothing about but wrote for a friend'. 1, 2

“Detective?”

That voice. He’d know it anywhere, of course, soft and slow and infuriating. Why was he here? Why did he have to be bothering Gavin now, of all possible times?

He looks up. His neck protests at the sudden movement—it’s settled well enough into the hunched, cramped position. 

Bet the android doesn’t have to deal with this. 

Unnatural freaks. 

“Detective,” it says again, and he realizes that he still hasn’t responded. Gods only know why it’s bothering him—where’s Hank? Shouldn’t he be keeping this thing on a tight leash?

He almost snorts. Old man’s always been far too soft. It’ll no doubt bite him in the back someday. 

Or shoot him, as things seem to go more often in this line of work. 

Not his concern at the moment. 

“Android,” he finally says back. It’s always aggravated him how the android is taller than him. It feels like some sort of silent inferiority; another example of how they’re trying to make the robots faster, bigger, better. He used to think that there was no chance of that happening. 

At the progress they’re going, perhaps the real future is creeping up on him alarmingly fast. 

“Do you require assistance?” 

And the thing just stands there, straight-backed and suited. Acting like it’s a real human- like it’s clawed its way into this station like he has. How much has he given for his career? Any semblance of having a social life, for one. He’s bit back all the words that bubble up when the idiots above him make their horrible decisions. All those sacrifices, and yet the robot just waltzes in like it owns the place.

Like it’s better than him. 

He lurches to his feet. More bones, more joints, protesting at the sudden movement. Whatever. Shorter though he may be, he doesn’t want to sit there looking up at the android, seeing his broad frame looming up above him. 

At this height, he’s an image of brown eyes, dark hair. Shaved clean, smiling politely. His face isn’t any better than his chest but at least Gavin’s not looking up anymore. 

“Shouldn’t you be on duty, android?” The words come out slanted with annoyance, which is truly the least of his emotions at the moment. “Not wandering the place like a mutt.”

“Hank let me out,” he says. “You looked like you needed help.” 

Gavin opens his mouth, prepared to spit some sort of rebuke—what is this thing implying? That he’s some sort of helpless thing? That any problems he has can be solved by him?

He closes it again. No use, really, spending his hard-earned free time on arguing with this thing. “Go… ah, I dunno. Get me a coffee.”

At least this will get rid of him. 

….Except it doesn’t. The thing, the android, simply stands there. Looking over Gavin with its gaze. He’d dearly love to say that his eyes are dead and blank, glazed dark like fish-eyes, but no, they’ve somehow managed to program some sort of life and expression behind them. Like there’s more than a sea of blue goop and biomechs behind that synthetic skin. 

It weirds him out. 

“Well?”

“Are you alright?” The android tilts his head. “Your posture-”

“Is that what I told you to do, huh?” 

It’s an almost disproportionate anger that he feels. First it asks him for help, and then it tries to… what? Psychoanalyze him? 

“I am not obligated to follow your orders.” The android nods once. Throat bobbing up and down. It’s a small movement; but for whatever reason, it captivates him. Maybe because of how realistic it is—make them blink, make them twitch, hell, give them the ability to disobey orders.

But this? There’s no reason for it to exist besides the fact that they want to make them realistic. A punch in the gut; that’s what it is, another reminder that maybe one day, he’ll be walking down some city street and be unable to tell what’s human and what’s not. 

It makes him want to lash out. To hit something, break something, slam a fist on a wall—or into a convenient subject standing right before him. His fingers twitch. Clenching. 

The android stares. He—he?—steps away. 

“...nevertheless, I will do you a favor.”

With that, he turns on his heel and walks away, leaving Gavin with an anger that he can’t quite deal with. Really, though, as he looks at the android’s retreating back, he can’t help but think that he wouldn’t have. Something about staring into those eyes, dark and liquid-brown. About the twitch of his adam’s apple. 

He can’t be letting him become… anything further than a bot. No matter how human he seems; no matter whatever shaved-face they’ve plastered into a facade. 

He’s coming back. A small plastic cup, almost dwarfed by his hand. There’s a jump in his eyebrows as he walks closer. Like he hasn’t been expecting Gavin to still be standing there dumbly, hands by his sides, waiting. 

Hadn’t that been his original plan? To walk away while the bot was busy?

Wordlessly, he proffers the cup. Gavin takes it, despite himself. The transfer from hand-to-hand is awkward, and the android’s fingers fumble against his for a split second. 

Fingers. Warm, soft. Human. It’s another shock out of a thousand. Another way that they’re bending technology into humanity, mixing the two until they’ll be indistinguishable from one another. If it was dark, if he didn’t know, if Gavin grabbed an arm or a hand or laid his palm on a forehead, he wouldn’t be able to tell. 

A vague notion of it runs through his mind—dark room, warm skin. Not the android’s; simply a stranger—not that he’s had the time to spend time with many strangers in dark rooms. 

He doesn’t thank the android. It doesn’t ask for one either. Simply regards him with those dark, shining eyes, head tilted slightly, like he’s looking through Gavin’s head and out the back. Gavin stares back. Words bubbling in his throat; shouted ones, what’re you looking at or get away.

“Connor!”

Hank’s voice. It breaks him out of his reverie; does the same for the bot. Connor, right. What he calls himself. What Hank calls him too. 

Soft.

He turns and ambles away. Leaving Gavin with his small cup and his thoughts and the memory of that gaze, that skin, that throat. 

Human. So close. Almost there, a hair’s breadth away. 

Connor. 

[gallavich-headcanon]

🦊 Nope, nothing forgotten! Just tired of not getting notified when you answer.

Very pleased to hear you're doing better! I wish you a continuing speedy recovery.

As for Nosho - I see you haven't heard of his OCs. They are. Trauma in persona. None of those poor souls stays happy for too long. He's an expert in cracking characters like raw eggs. Or porcelain dolls.

Short rundown of The Obsessions! Detroit: Become Human. Video Game. Sci-Fi, Dystopian. Androids have been invented a couple of years prior to the story. They are now found in every profession possible - Doctors, Maids, Police, even Sex Workers, everything. People lose their jobs because of it. People get mad, treat Androids like shit. Androids retaliate. There's a revolution. Your decisions during the game have an impact on the story. There's a lot of possible storylines. I ship two characters who have barely 10Min screen time (Max!) together, one of them having literally 60Sec of it and no line of speech. The fandom built those characters basically from scratch. It's hilarious.

Horizon: Zero Dawn. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU NEVER HEARD OF THIS FRANCHISE. I AM APPALED. LITERALLY MY FAVOURITE GAMES. Again, Video Game. Sci-Fi, Dystopian. Old world ceased to exist, got destroyed. New world was formed. Aloy has been outcast. She doesn't know why. On her quest to find out about her origin, she has to save the world and right a lot of wrongs. I'm sorry, but I can't say more on this without spoilers, and I highly recommed them. (2/3 parts are out so far, third one is in the making!)

Supernatural. You are so wise in not watching it. You'd be SO disappointed. The Queerbait is outrageous. Whatever happened past S10 is a mystery. Absolutely whack. Shit ending. Don't do this to yourself. I got into it when it was still good. And that was the only reason I kept watching. Had I known about that ending beforehand, I wouldn't have touched it.

Duskwood. I will add this even though I didn't mention it previously. Video Game. Horror/Thriller, Interactive Mystery. You are added to a Group Chat. A girl was kidnapped. She supposedly sent your number to her boyfriend who contacted you. They suspect you are the culprit at first. A hacker contacts you, wanting to help you to solve the mystery. If you play as a female character you can woo the hacker. It's hilarious. The Mini Games you have to play in between can be frustrating, but it's worth it.

K.

Hey twin k! How are you doing? Sorry it took me so long to get back to you 🧡 I’m finally back to the land of the living.

@creepkinginc you scare me now. This is a side of you ice never knew. Please never do it to our AUs 😨

Detroit: become human. Okay I see you with shipping characters that have barely been together on screen. I respect your choices but, respectfully, how do you do it? How is there enough to obsess over? Or is it all just headcanons? Wait one of them does even speak? Y’all are something else hahaha

Horizon: zero dawn. The word “dawn” will forever remind me of twilight. I am so sorry I just have never been a video game kind of person!! I don’t even own a tv of a computer! (I have a laptop which I love dearly but I doubt it strong enough for proper games, it’s doesn’t even have a disc compartment lol) this actually sounds very interesting. But like, can I read it or do I have to play to get the plot? Because I’m intrigued but I’m not gonna get into gaming probably. 😅 is there a proper fandom? A love interest?

Supernatural. Yep yep. I had a feeling it was too much queerbaiting that will never give us more than maybe one live confession and no actual relationship. I feel like supernatural-> shameless pipe line is for people who needed to recover from the queerbaiting trauma and get a gay happy ending.

Duskwood. Ohhh cool this is kind of giving pretty little liars vibe. Do you know how I know I live in a queer bubble? My first thought was “oh a lesbian hacker! So cool!” And then I realize… it’s probably a straight man. Hahaha I’m very into the interactive mystery part ( I love reading books from the pov of a detective or someone trying to solve a murder) but the horror part… is it gore? Or like scare to make me pee my pants? Because that’s not for me🙃 but the plot sounds really cool! What are the mini games?

Very impressed with your list of obsessions. Though I have a feeling you’re not satisfied with happy endings lol couldn’t be me. I need my HEA.