#the Web is a meta-author

[enjoyvoidblack]

Something that I don't think I've ever personally seen talked about:

Jon mentions in season 3 that he'd quit smoking for 5 years, prior to the cigarette he went for after hearing the Fears explained by Leitner. It's not hard to assume that the stress makes him start again, and that it continues, since it gets mentioned a couple times more after that. That breaks my heart a bit on its own already.

But the other thing is that the Web tends to play with addiction.

And in Season 1 it gave him a fucking lighter.

[la-patrona-magdalena]

Reading list/Fanfic Masterlist Yandere!Batfamily X Reader

NONE OF THESE FANFICS BELONG TO ME, this is more of a personal reading list of fanfics I follow and such, all the links lead you to the creators' direct blogs.

Almost all the fanfics in the 'platonic' section are with Neglected!Reader, I'm addicted to that trope.

More than one link will lead you to the authors' master list instead of a masterlist for the series. This is because they don't have a dedicated list for the series, and it was easier for me to keep them this way. (There are also links to the first chapter, in this case, the author probably left the other chapters there, in addition to imagines, headcanons, and drabbles on their own.) I thought about adding a short description below the links to explain what the fanfic is about… maybe I'll do it later or just leave it as it is.

Not - series

Again and. Again - series

Bruce hears Reader call someone else "dad." - drabble

Reader who only recognizes Alfred - drabble

[UN] Fair - series

Adorned in pearls (although Bruce here is not platonic…) - one shot

Batfamily with a Shallow Reader - imagine

Reader in Squid Games - imagine

Crack Baby - series

Smalltown Meta!Reader - series

Forget me not - series

No more Chances - series

Inmorta! Reader - series

Undoing Fate - series (it's not yandere but it has my favorite cliche so…)

Tip toes - series

Meet The Waynes - series

Bring back the dead - series

Obsessive reader in the shadows - imagine

There are two fanfictions here, the first fic doesn't have a name and I don't know what to name it. - series

Who said money can´t buy hapinness (considering the # I assume that the batfam is platonic….but I'm not sure) - series

Between life and death, death is tempting - series

Ain´t no sushine - series

Beyond the Bat - series

Crow choir - series

Waterbone - drabble

Marine!Reader - one shot? drabble?

Saboteur - series/imagine

Unwanted embrace - series

I'm almost sure this was one of the pioneering stories in this trope. - one shot

Little Demon - one shot

Goodbye World - one shot

Batsis wakes up in a fanfic - imagine? drabble?

Batfam playing with Reader - I think it's a drabble…I don't know

Pity Party - series

Yandere Al Ghuls! - series

How would they spend time with you after the kidnapping? -drabble

You´re a fucking weird hacker - one shot

Lucid Dreams - series

Ghost of the Past - series

Soulamate Soul Animal - series

Good Look(includes more DC yanderes characters) - series

Web Bound (It is NOT yandere, but it does have obsessive characters) - Series

Bug like Angel - series

The other family - one shot

Batman! Damian Wayne x Robin! Reader - one shot?

Children!Reader who loves Tim more than Dick - headcanon

Yandere!Batfam Headcanons - headcanon xd

Advantages and disadvantages of Neglected! Reader - Headcanon(?)

When your family only cherish you after your death - series

Yandere Batfam x Neglected!Elle Woods!Reader - series

My pathetic family - series(?)

The ballad of a bygone blight - series

Batmon and his baby -drabble/ Scenery (bruce is romantic)

Reader happy to be ignored - drabble/Scenery

What We Want - series

The sinfull Allure (the story is not yandere, but it has the batboys, and I love this reverse harem) - series

Seven Days a Week - Hit me Hard and sort - two series

First married to Bruce - one shot

As Yanderes´ Universe - one shot series?

Polyamory with Aged Up! Damian Wayne and John Kent - imagine

Sisters!Reader x Batboys - Headcanon? (according to the hashtags)

Greetings - drabble?

How Dick and Damian would handle learnig reader is dating somebody? - Drabble?

Addictive - Series

Do You Think We´ll Be In Love Forever? (includes more DC characters) - various drabbles

Perfect Life - one shot

Batboys and reader who knows - headcanon set?

Checkmate - one shot

Tim Drake x nursing student!Reader - one shot

Remedial Lesson (18+) - One shot

Dommy Mommy!Reader - headcanon

Reader hosted by Tim Drake - one shot

Yandere self-aware Dick Grayson - headcanon set

Moon Prism Power! - imagine

What types of yanderes would the Batboys be? - headcanon

Yandere!Batboys x Reader HC - Headcanon

Dick Grayson is your coworker - Drabble (?)

Muse: The Painting - one shot

[mere-mortifer]

♥ Sanji/Reader Rec List ♥

40+ fics & authors suggestions! Click here to view this on a separate web page for easier navigation ♥

Sometimes I’m normal about fictional characters, other times I become psycho-sexually obsessed with them and relentlessly look for fanworks where they get smooched and hugged into oblivion. And by characters I mean Sanji.

So here’s a non-comprehensive list of Sanji/Reader fics that I love, most of them rated Explicit. This got sooo long because I kept finding other works to add while scrolling through my bookmarks and reblogs, it goes to show how good the fandom is! (Assume, unless otherwise stated, that Sanji is more on the sexually submissive side, since I like what I like and seek out that dynamic specifically.)

Authors I love

I’m starting this list with a few mentions of my favorite authors, although I’m sure I’m stating the obvious with most of these and you all know them already. Who cares! Go re-read their stuff! Leave a comment! Give them your money!

1. One Piece Works by @onlymurphy

Not to fall into hyperbole, but I owe OnlyMurphy my life. If you’re here reading this list then surely you love this author already, so this a good excuse to re-read the entire Grow Old With Me series. Sanji’s characterization is top-notch, and if you enjoy explorations of his self worth issues and how they would affect an otherwise loving romantic relationship then look no further. Also the author is a very talented smut writer (very talented writer in general, make no mistake), and that's the greatest accolade I can give them. Imagine me putting a gold metal around their neck but I’m the one who's moved to tears about it.

Honorable mentions for the filthiest-yet-very-romantic works in their catalog:

🌶 Do That Again

🌶 Wildest Dreams

🌶 If I’m Lucky

2. One Piece Works by @citrinae

I’m linking the masterlist for this author ‘cause I really like all their Sanji-centric fics, and I’d love, love, love to see more. Sanji is so princely and devoted, just an absolute dream of a man, and he’s putting a lot of effort into making the reader feel loved. He gets stellar results in my opinion.

3. One Piece Works by @thus-spoke-lo (GoldExperience86 on Ao3)

There are three fics in particular by this author that I couldn’t pick a favorite from if you held me at gunpoint: 

🌶 Let Me Help 

🌶 Worth the Wait

🌶 Dear Diary 

Have you ever read a sex scene so good you bypass getting horny and go straight into mourning, knowing you won’t be able to read it for the first time again? That has not stopped me from reading all these roughly a million times. Click on those links. Look at me in the eyes, listen very carefully: click on those links. I say this because I love you and want you to be happy. 

You will find other fics by them in the rec list because 1) I couldn’t resist and 2) I’m pretty sure they have more things posted on Tumblr than Ao3, at least as separate one-shots.

4. 🌶One Piece Fics by @untolduttering

Author, I know deep in my soul that you love Sanji as much as I do. Fortunately I’m okay with sharing. If anything I'm glad I'm not alone in the trenches.

Check out all her fics and snippets, her writing is incredible and I’ve loved every single thing about Sanji she’s ever posted. Each time I open Tumblr and I see a new post by her, my day gets a little brighter. She writes one of my favorite versions of Sanji ever, insatiable and devoted and so, so hot. He couldn’t be more my type if he tried. 

I want to single out her vampire!Sanji one-shot because I haven’t seen this trope used by anyone else and I liked it a lot! It fits so well, what with the theme of hunger and Sanji’s inability to ask for what he needs:

Hunger 

The meta post that inspired the fic

5. One Piece Works by @fanaticsnail

Fanaticsnail, you’re the only one who has ever made me willingly click on a smut fic that involved Doflamingo just because Sanji was there, too, and I love your Sanji so damn much (p.s.: everyone go read it, 🌶 Seat Number Four).

One of their fics also appears in the Sex Pollen section, and since that one is particularly filthy let me add here two fluffy, romantic fics where Sanji is all cute and flustered by the reader:

Kiss The Cook

Your Flirty Chef

Yearning & Pining

The title of the section is pretty self-explanatory: fics where and the reader are not together, but God knows they want to.

6. 🌶 Wanting by @froggiewrites

This fic…holy shit. I’m genuinely writing this with tears in my eyes. The yearning & pining & longing mixed with the sexual tension so thick you can cut it with a knife makes for a truly incredible read. Only for real Sanji lovers, if you’re not nodding along at each desperate thought the reader insert has about this man then I’m sorry but you’re only a casual Sanji liker.

7. 🌶 My heart is thrilled by the still of your hand by ladyhabanera

[screaming crying throwing up] no yeah I’m very normal about this fic, I like it a totally normal amount. In the Ao3 comments I say that “Sanji is so so dreamy—a heady mix of submissive and deeply romantic”, and then if you scroll a little you find my other comment which is just me yelling in all caps at my second reread. I not only stand by both, but I’m doubling down. 

8. Puzzled by @mynewblackdress

What a lovely series, and what a lovely trope…misunderstandings due to bad communication are as irritating and useless in real life as they are incredibly fun to read about. The reader is convinced that Sanji’s earnest compliments are his fucked up way of making fun of her, and it takes a while before they figure out that he means every word. Give it a read if you want a break from the sea of smut that I’ve added to this list, and you're the mood for opla!Sanji in particular. 

9. Sweet Confession by @softonshanks

I have one specific weakness that I’m glad to often see in fics: Sanji getting a hug while he’s busy cooking, and he’s all cute and flustered about it because he didn’t expect the affection.  And this fic has that + Sanji’s a pining mess for the reader, who he’s FWBs with despite the fact that he’s totally in love with her + she’s taller than him and he loves it. I’ve hit the jackpot. I’d love to see more Sanji fics from this author, so much so that I’m gonna ask her pretty please in Italian: Sara, ti prego, facci sognare.

10. 🌶 Your Name by @strawhatsoraya

Now, the one pining in this fic is me. Sanji and the reader are actually complete strangers, but if what appeals to you in mutual pining fics is the gut-wrenching depth of the feelings described, then I think you should check out this little one-shot. My notes on Ao3 are “Tfw when a pwp hits your id so well it bypasses making you horny and goes straight to suicidal”—do with that what you will. Also, check out the rest of this author’s fics and make a whole evening out of it.

Ft. Zoro

Get that stinky Mosshead out of my sight…no, wait, let him stay. I guess we can take turns on Sanji or something.

11. 🌶 Picture You by @froggiewrites

I don’t usually read Sanji fics where Zoro is heavily involved, but I’m glad that that didn’t stop me from clicking on this one (also, to be fair, they take turns on the reader. Well, the reader takes turns on them.) My note on the Ao3 bookmark is “God-tier sad horny Sanji characterisation”...couldn't have said it better, me from the past. 

12. 🌶 Shaken Up Hearts by @lyriumcoloredskies

Okay so I lied, maybe I do like it when Zoro is heavily involved, as long as it’s a collab to team up on Sanji. Sanji gets lovingly demolished in this one, but before he gets there he’s sad like a kicked puppy about not being allowed to kiss both you and Zoro. Who am I to say no to a heavy dose of Zosan in my het Sanji smut?

13. 🌶 Nuvole e Lenzuola by redtendou

This one’s niche because it’s written in Italian. I was stunned by the author’s ability to make a graphic sex scene actually work despite Italian’s atrocious sex-related lexicon–trust me, it’s a struggle. If you’re into Zoro and the reader ganging up on Sanji and you understand Italian, definitely give it a read.

Spa day for the soul

Fics where you take care of Sanji, or Sanji takes care of you, or where there are actual spa activities thrown into the mix. God knows this man needs some TLC once in a while.

14. 🌶 My Pampered Prince by @sheerxfiction

It’s Sanji’s turn to spend some time flat on his back on the kitchen table–it’s what he deserves. If you’re craving a brilliant smutty fic where Sanji gets pampered then you've foudn it, the reader take really good care of him in this one–and I have to give bonus points for the heavy dose of Sanji’s self-worth issues and the readersinsert fighting back against his refusal to get taken care of. Get loved, idiot.

15. 🌶 Shower Time by @chibieggplant

Cute, hot, sexy–I’m talking both about the writing and Sanji in this fic. He takes a shower with the reader and spends the entire time in disbelief that he gets to tenderly wash her body, feeling quite embarrassed by how into it he is, despite the fact that this an established relationship fic. And that’s how I like my boys!

16. 🌶 Vinsmoke Sanji: Not all Men are Rats by livingonadaydream

I love, love, love fics where Sanji gets pampered…but it doesn’t hurt to read the complete opposite once in a while. A very sweet Sanji makes sure that the reader gets a very happy ending.

First Time

We'll never know the canonical sexual history for any One Piece characters because Oda is, unfortunately, a coward. However I'm not surprised that Sanji is considered by many the most virgin to have ever virgined in the history of virginity—so here's a list of fics where you pop his cherry. Be delicate, please...he's very sensitive.

17. 🌶 Say When by @venomatically

This one has to be the first I tell you about. If you go check the comments on Ao3 you’ll find me absolutely losing my mind after my first read, and there’s no quick comment I can add here to fully explain how much I love this author, her writing, and–Good Lord in Heaven–the way she writes Sanji. He’s a virginal pervert. He’s got that dog in him and it happens to be a cute little puppy. He’s so sweet and adoring he can’t bear to tell you how often he thinks about fucking you. I need someone to invent him in real life, it’s not even funny anymore. (Also, if you like to see Sanji actually get a little depraved, check out her other fic, too: 🌶 Letting Off Steam)

18. 🌶 Lust by @tetzoro

Ooh, this one’s hot. It starts so poetic and romantic, but as Sanji loses himself in the feeling the descriptions get more carnal. I love his POV here. Also it involves one of my favourite things ever: the readers starts on top but when it gets too good Sanji can't resist and he flips her over to do all the work himself. Who else cheered?

Sex Pollen

While writing this rec list I realized I have at least four sex pollen fics where Sanji eats something he shouldn’t and then…I wanna say “regrets it”, but the consequences are that he has hot sweaty sex with someone he’s really into. If he were to notice the trend I think he might start putting the wrong thing in his mouth on purpose.

19. 🌶 It’s a what flower?! by @sanjifucker42069

From the blog name alone I knew I’d found a kindred spirit. They have written for both the animanga and OPLA, and to be honest it’s hard for me to pick a favorite work. That’s a lie, this one’s my favorite. The author has a great sense of humor, and this fic in particular is both very funny and incredibly hot. I love how desperate and pathetic Sanji gets, and how hard the reader insert is trying to keep things PG before it becomes obvious they just have to fuck! Good problems to have if you ask me.

20. 🌶 a fever you can't sweat out by @cryocandy

I remember reading this one day right before work. My shift was about to start, and I was sitting by myself in the car reading the smoking hot sex scene for no good reason at all, ensuring that I wouldn't be able to focus on anything productive for the rest of the day. Sanji in this fic is so dreamy and cute and pathetic, all qualities enhanced greatly by the amazing writing. If you don’t think you like fuck-or-die fics, do yourself a favour and read this one anyway. 

21. 🌶 Needy Boy by @maddddstuff

My note on Ao3 for this one was “Single-handedly made me into spanking btw, if you even care”, and I stand by it. He’s the one that gets spanked by the way, in case someone was in doubt.

22. 🌶 Someone Help Me by @fanaticsnail

Sanji’s a mess in this one. A total and complete mess, and I loved every word of it–also, since in the first part Sanji is struggling against the effects of the sex pollen all on his lonesome, this fic might also appeal to my fellow Sanji whump fans.

Dom!Sanji & Co.

Just because I have a preference for Sanji being a sub it doesn’t mean I will scoff at fics where he’s more dominant in bed. Here are the ones I stumbled upon that I’ve really liked! (Also I’m using the term “dominant” very loosely here, in some of these fics he’s simply more assertive in bed.)

23. Too Much (Take Me Home) by @secretwritingspot

This is THEE dom!Sanji series for me. There’s no sex in it, it’s more of an exploration of the sub/Dom dynamic and why someone would crave submitting to another person. Sanji finds himself in the dominant role with little warning, but he’s damn great at it in his usual adoring and tender way. I’m linking the first fic of the series, but the author has written more for this scenario!

24. 🌶 Leg Day by 1LucaCola1

The title says it all; fantastic premise for a smoking hot pwp fic. If I had the opportunity to train and make good use of Sanji’s expertise, I’d also push myself too far until my legs were shaking, and then let him do other things to me to make the shaking even worse.

25. 🌶 very professional nights by @missfrustration

Ugh, I love this one! Sanji is your superior at the Baratie, and he’s so very stern with you until he isn’t at all. Love the bait and switch of a Sanji whose professionalism makes him act a little cold when clients’ satisfaction is on the line but simply melts when he’s alone with the reader. And everything he ends up doing to the reader in this fic, I’d hardly call a punishment.

26. 🌶 Doodled Hearts by Twisted_Inkwell

Soft dom Sanji fucks you hard but he’s sweet talking to you in French the whole time. I don’t know what else to add to convince you to read this one, that should be plenty.

In the kitchen

To fuck the cook, you’ll have to look for him in his natural habitat. Then you can proceed to ruin the kitchen table for everyone else.

27. 🌶 Midnight Snack by BombasticBastard

This fic is a part of a Sanji/Reader/Zoro series, but I’m linking Part 2 where it’s just you and our lovely boy. As the title says, the reader is craving a midnight snack and goddamn, she gets the best one the Sunny’s pantry has to offer. This could also go in the Dom!Sanji category because he quite literally talks you through it, as the kids say nowadays, but he also showers the reader in compliments & he confesses his love, so overall he’s too much of a big ol’ softie to call him dominant in any way.

28. 🌶 All It Takes by mooseskulls

Reader catches Sanji being the pervert that he is, stolen underwear and badly-hidden moans included. This one has both a gender neutral version and a transmasc!reader one, I thought that was lovely–this way lots of different people can enjoy the “getting bent over the kitchen counter” scenario. 

29. 🌶 Compliments to the Chef by @tigreblue

The Author says this is their first fic–if that’s the case, they’ve got a bright future ahead of them. We all know Sanji doesn’t easily accept love and gratitude, but some good ol’ finger-sucking ought to convince him. Things degenerate beautifully from there.

Dark(er)

By darker I mean that I’m adding here fics where Sanji is something other than an absolute sweetheart. You’ll understand how actually dark any of these fics are from my comments and the authors’ tags, but they all have the general vibe of “Sanji is a sleazy pervert” in varying degrees of illegality.

30. 🌶 appetite by @groubee

Ooh…this one’s fucked up. Sanji is an unreliable narrator that makes non-con somnophilia sound kinda cute, actually (it really isn’t.) In his defense he’s written as some sort of incubus-slash-sex-demon. The author doesn’t go into detail but they don’t need to, it’s all about the sickly sweet mood (emphasis on sickly) of a tender lover who’s also a horrible, horrible person.

31. 🌶 Letting Off Steam by @venomatically

He’s a freak in this one, but he’s soooo nice about it and he’s soooo thankful that you’re letting him be a complete pervert who can get away with waking you up by stroking his cock over your face. 

32. 🌶 Smile for the Camera by @thus-spoke-lo 

This one broke my heart and turned me on at the same time, I give it a full five stars. It’s a short and sweet one-shot where Sanji breaks down all your walls and then does the same to your trust in men…enjoy!

33. 🌶 Compliments to the Chef by @thus-spoke-lo

I realize only now that this fic and Smile for the Camera are by the same author. That’s not gonna stop me from reccing this little series, too–in the notes on Tumblr you can see that this was written for a “sleazeball collab”, which should tell you something about Sanji’s characterization. While reading this I felt like that lady in the comic about sexual harassment on the workplace…like yeah maybe I would be okay with it if the guy was hot enough. And by workplace I mean a shitty restaurant, and by guy I mean Sanji in the role of the line cook who smokes too much and is very transparent about wanting to bang you on the counter where lunch service is prepared.

34. 🌶 Use me by moosetracksandscenechanges

This fic! My God! I’m adding it here not because there are hard kinks or morally dubious dynamics between the characters, but I still think it fits. It has its sad moments due to a generally darker atmosphere and a more aloof version of Sanji (not that aloof, still recognisably himself)...but also he willingly gets tied to a bed. Sub Sanji lovers stay winning. My hopeless romantic heart hopes that Sanji and the reader will actually get together, but there’s a lot to love about the fwb dynamic they’ve got going on right now. A bittersweet read in the best way.

35. Conjugate the Ways by @secretwritingspot

Oh, Sanji has a foul mouth in this one, but he’s speaking French so he’s forgiven…also the reader has no idea what the hell he’s saying to her. It’s creepy in a cute way! The fic doesn’t include actual smut, it’s just Sanji fantasizing out loud about the things he wants to do with you, but if you’re in the mood for some good ol’ sexual tension, give it a read.

36. 🌶 Ma chérie by marriedtosanji

He lied to you! About being French, of all things! I would never forgive him. He’s really good in bed though, so he makes up for it. The smut here is so delightful it does a 180% and goes back to breaking my heart over the fact that I’ll never meet a cute stranger in a bar who wants to seduce and is also Mr. Sanji Onepiece himself. 

Voyeurism

I swear this isn’t even in my top 10 kinks, I guess that Sanji’s character simply inspires a lot of authors to put him in situations where he’s staring. Watching. Ogling. Observ–you’ve got the gist of it. 

37. “It’s entirely too obvious [...]” by @ofallthingsnasty

[giggling and kicking my feet] the reader makes Sanji sweat cold in this one…I love when he’s nervous, I love when he’s desperate for forgiveness! He doesn’t do anything bad, but the fic is all about him watching the reader eat and obviously liking it a bit too much. The mood is suggestive but overall it stays pretty innocent until the end.

38. 🌶 Voyeurs by snackshack

Thank you Zoro and Nami for your help in making this happen, we couldn’t have done it without you. Sanji and the reader are in a freak4freak relationship, a match made in Heaven. Very good smut and a delicious premise!

39. 🌶 Perversion by glossyjoonie

@Sanji: babygirl you suck ♥ Short and sweet fic part of a larger collection (there are other Sanji-focused chapters, check out those ones, too!) where Sanji gets caught spying on all his favourite ladies: Nami, Robin, and you. Robin sticks around for a while in this one, but in the end the reader is the one who shows Sanji what happens to boys who misbehave.

40. 🌶 Just Between Us by @mytanuki-kun

This man is always spying on you in the shower, in bed, from behind a bush or whatever…it’s about time he gets a taste of his own medicine. I adore this fic, I remember reading the first chapter and hoping the author would update as soon as possible because I was hooked. Sanji catches you ogling him in secret and he plays into it cause he’s a horny bastard and the love of my life. The writing is incredible and Sanji’s characterization is so, so dreamy and sexy and adorable.

That’s all, folks. You have enough material to survive a nuclear war, you can spend many happy decades closed in your bunker eating canned food and reading reader insert One Piece fanfiction. 

My final, desperate request is this one: does anyone have the link to a Sanji fic where he’s 40 years old and he hired a babysitter (you) for his kid, but then one night the kid is somewhere else and you two end up hooking up? Please? Pretty please? I think it was part of a collection or series but I can’t find it anywhere!

[fine-nephrit]

🥏 Where to find good XF fanfics

👽 On Tumblr

@lilydalexf has an encyclopedic knowledge of fics and continues to be an invaluable resource. You'll find a boatload of themed fic lists, individual rec posts and helpful answers to anon asks.

@txf-fic-chicks-blog seven years of almost daily recs, with well-written blurbs and a lot of fun, run by @kateyes224 and @piecesofscully. Look out for their themed days: "Casefile Monday", "Tumblr Tuesday", "Editor's Pick Wednesday", "Post-Ep/Missing Scene Thursday", "Novel Length Friday", "Smut Sunday", and the very cool "Because You Watched"

@msrlibrary a well-tagged library of MSR fics; each entry includes a short excerpt and a nicely chosen image from the show.

@201daysofxfiles a rewatch blog by fandom veteran @wendelah. Each episode in season 1-7 is paired with its own fic rec post.

@enigmaticxbee an aesthetically pleasing and neatly organized rewatch blog that is packed with great content, including excellent fic rec lists categorized by season, story type, trope, and more. Each episode guide sometimes features related fic recs.

@thatfragilecapricorn30 posts one fic rec every Friday, accompanied by a nice writeup.

@randomfoggytiger curates many fic rec lists sorted by often fun and creative categories.

@cecilysass has a google doc titled "fics I love", which is a fantastic fic list categorized by story type, complete with thoughtful blurbs. She's also shared two episode-related fic rec lists on Tumblr: here and here.

@pookie-mulder writes a monthly fic journal with good recs.

**self-promo plug** I post fic recs on my Tumblr blog @fine-nephrit under #nephrit's fic rec. Plus, I reblog others' fic recs that I come across!

👽 Rec Communities

XF Book Club: the best thing ever, an absolute gem that deserves to be preserved for posterity. During its run, 270 fics were recced and discussed in depth here. The community's intelligent and insightful comments on this blog are sometimes even more enjoyable to read than the fics themselves.

The Fic Filter (xf tag): well-curated selections with short blurbs.

Multifandom Het Recs (xf tag): a major rec site's xf section that offers nice "why this must be read" writeups. @het-reccers

Crack Van (xf tag): another major rec site with a big xf section, featuring endless recs and blurbs

Fancake (xf tag): another major rec community's xf section boasting an extensive thematic tagging system

👽 Personal Blogs

Emily Shore aka Naraht: meta essays, fanvid recs, fic recs—great stuff aplenty

Bad for the Fish aka Scarlet Baldy: fantastic fic list paired with highly enjoyable reviews and analyses of the fics she's read. @badforthefish

Ramblings of a Mind Untamed: reviews of a dozen or so classic fics

xxSKSxx XF Fanfic Recs: still active in 2024! @xxsksxxx

X-Libris: more of a fic library, this is the best place to download nicely-formatted ebooks of pre-AO3 oldies. What I love most is the incredibly detailed and extensive tagging system.

👽 Individual Rec Lists with good writeup

Character Manifesto - Dana Scully: a character analysis and 10 Scully-centric fic recs, categorized by "best of .." selections. Amazing format and choices!

Character Manifesto - Fox Mulder: same format as above for Spooky

bachlava's awesome fic rec essays, covering classic fics and slash fics

ShipRecced blog's classic MSR fics and newer MSR fics recs

luminary's 16-fic rec post

RivkaT recs fics and writers @rivkat

Anna Otto's favorite stories

Syntax6's rec list on her site, great rec list on Tumblr and FTF rec list @syntax6

👽 90s Old School Rec Sites

The Basement Office - Musea: a treasure trove of extensive fic lists with lovely written blurbs, recced by a group of talented writers from back in the day

The Other Side - Fanfic Recs from Beyond the Grave: a large collection of 'scary' or 'spooky' story recs with nice blurbs. Beautiful web design.

the Rookery - Favorite Authors: nice commentary on a list of classic fic writers

X-Files Fanfiction 101: an intro guide to fic categories and what to read for each

The Primal Screamers: a fun site run by a mailing list that hosts fic recs with blurbs, and a 'Coffee Talk' section full of delightful discussions of canon

Idealists Haven - Elemental Fanfic Archive: an archive with rec blurbs

Chronicle X: a large, well-organized archive with blurbs, plus a 'Can We Talk' discussion section of novel-length fics, plus a total of 46 author interviews. Simply incredible!

👽 Special Mention

The X-Files Lost and Found: a fic finder message board that is miraculously still very active today—How wonderful! Its FAQ page hosts a huge collection of well-categorized themed fic lists (not recs), including "Classics (or, Your Fanfic Education is Not Complete Until You've Read ...)".

Where do you find your next read? What did I miss? Reblog and share your favorites!

[the-lambda-archives-ai]

Statement of : Gordon Martinez Freeman, 30 year old MIT graduate,Regarding a peculiar video game he’d found.

Recorded direct from subject, May 16, 200-

Statement begins.

Pt 1 > here

ABOUT 👇

Hello! I am the author of this AU, you can find my main at @inkzectz , for more meta questions about this AU, or for general comments about it, please go there.

What is the AU about?

LA : AI is a crossover AU of sorts, in the simplest way put, it’s TMA but with HLVRAI characters, TMA stuff happens but altered to fit the general HLVRAI narrative, and with my own changes, headcanons, etc. added

I will be updating/editing this post as I progress.

Will it have spoilers?

Disclaimer!!

The AU will have a lot of the original themes of hlvrai and more so TMA, more so, horror themes, this will include gore, body horror, worms, decomposition, cult themes, psychological horror, arachnophobia,flashing imagery, etc.

(Will update as I go on)

I also feel it is important to mention this is the first time I have ever made a ask blog/ web comic/ published a story online, I will make mistakes, please bare with me as I am trying to figure things out.

English is not my first language, I do my best to grammar check and write well, but at the end of the day I will also be making mistakes.

Please be patient with me.

This au is a passion project of mine that I am doing on my free time because I want to, it is important to remember as a reader, I do not owe you anything.

It is best if you’ve seen it but as of writing it right now (early ep 4) there aren’t any spoilers. Once I am a little further ahead then you may want to listen to it.

Yes, not a lot, but vague/mild spoilers about how the world works, plot points, and character.

Again the spoilers will be vague and mild at worst, as it progresses I would recommend listening to tma, but it’s sort of like how while half life knowledge is helpful in hlvrai it isn’t exactly necessary to enjoy hlvrai bc it’s different enough from it to not really matter (?) I hope that makes sense.

Asks rules

- No telling [ player ] exactly what happens ex : “omg [ player ] when you weren’t looking [ npc ] said this very important thing that is supposed to be kept secret for lore reasons”

- Please avoid asks like “tell this character they’re pretty” while I appreciate the compliment, I am trying to write a story and want to keep things as on topic as possible. Instead tell me on my main if you like the art, I’ll probably reply with a doodle or something, just not on here.

- Less so of a rule but more so of a general statement, I will be avoiding asks that either are too close to what happens or if answering would mean progressing the story too quickly, there’s a lot I want to happen and I want time to do it all.

- Another one that’s less of a rule and more of a general thing, if I don’t like what you said I won’t be answering.

- I also sometimes just don’t know how to answer some things.

- Please be respectful of the ships I choose to include and don't force your own, ship wars and such will not be tolerated.

- Please be respectful of others and do not spoil anything, not everyone has listened to TMA and knows it's themes.

I will not be answering everything, I cannot always get to every message so please be respectful of that.

Select character

Character abouts! [ Will be updating as I continue to work on the story ]

[ select ] > Mr. Freeman

> Gordon Martinez ‘Martini’ Freeman

30 y.o . 6’0 . 230lb . Romani / Puertorican . male [ he/him ] . bisexual

[ PLAYER ]

> Lives in Seattle, MIT graduate, left Black Mesa, works as a librarian IRL but also makes money via streaming video games occasionally, in real time it is 2018.

> Believes in the paranormal out of fear but tries to rationalize out of denial, he will never admit something is supernatural and will jump through hoops to rationalize even if deep down he does believe.

> Has a son named Joshua Medrano Freeman, who is 6 years old, Gordon and his old partner met in college but split up before Joshua was born, they remain civil but are nothing more to each other than Joshua’s other parent.

> Gordon rents an apartment with 3 rooms, his own room, Joshua’s room, and a third that used to be a guest room but he has so little visitors he’s just chosen to revamp it into a gaming room.

> Gordon works primarily in a library for now as he’s looking for a better job.

> Gordon often wears hoodies, sweaters, t-shirts, crew necks, and any general outfit one would wear at home, long curly hair that is beginning to grey due to stress, unkempt goatee, and almost always wears green tinted glasses [ he doesn’t need glasses he just thinks they’re cool ]

> His hair is usually pulled back in a ponytail but can also be found in a bun or just down.

< [ select ] > Mr. Coolatta

> Thomas ‘Tommy’ Coolatta, primary researcher, and technical head of the institute.

39 y.o . 6’7 . 190lb . Chinese/filipino . Male [ he/him ] . ???

[ NPC ]

> His father owns the Lambda institute and he grew up in it, he officially started working in the archives when he was 24, and of all the employees in the entire institute he has worked there the longest.

> No one knows who his father really is, Tommy being the only one who’s ever actually seen / spoken to him, his father is the real head of the institute but gives most his orders through Tommy, so Tommy is also technically the head as well.

> Not much is actually known about him, besides his father he doesn’t appear to have any other family, nor does he ever speak of his personal life much.

> Tommy primarily works as an archival assistant, specifically in research, he is the one who will verify details regarding statements or do further investigations into aspects of the statements.

> Tommy is quite the colorful character, often wearing colorful clothing and accessories, he seems to think doing so brings some cheer into an otherwise boring environment, he often wears patterned polo shirts, cheap company bracelets, pins, lanyards, pant chains, but is never without his signature multicolor propeller hat.

[bitchlessau]

hello new and old readers, thank you for showing interest in my comic 💚 i’ve decided to temporarily migrate it to tumblr while i get a domain of my own, since twitter and meta’s policies have become very hostile for artists and users in general, and i don’t want to be part of it any longer.

⚠️ disclaimers⚠️

bitchless depicts mature themes (all properly tagged) such as sex, drugs, alcohol, death, violence, abuse and mental health issues.

some color pages can be hard to enjoy for some readers since it’s very bright. now there’s a black-and-white version of all color pages for accessibility.

please understand that bitchless is an AU comic based on south park of all things and that i, the author, am not eric cartman and therefore don't support what he says or what happens in the show, for that matter. be nuanced and be respectful.

🏔️ START HERE 🏔️

(recommended for app users)

🌲 ARCHIVE 🌲

🚸 you can now read bitchless in chronological order, all at once!

(recommended for web users)

[moonyskarma]

𝒯𝙝𝔢 𝒮𝙝𝔞𝚍𝙤𝚠 𝒮𝙥𝔦𝚍𝙚𝔯

◀ FILE ACCESSED: LEVEL 9 REQUIRED ► METAHUMAN DOSSIER: SPIDERMAN A.R.G.U.S. REGISTRY CODE: X-319J-CH-VOID

ALIASES: Spiderman / Shadow Spider / The Spider CIVILIAN IDENTITY: West, Charles "Charlie" Calloway AGE: 23 KNOWN AFFILIATIONS: Flash (Charles Leclerc), Team Flash, CCPD LOCATION TRACKED: Central City CURRENT STATUS: Active

PHYSICAL PROFILE: • Height: 5'8' • Build: Athletic, high muscle density (noted for enhanced strength) • Eyes: Dark brown • Identifying Marks: Minor scar, left oral commissure (non-inhibitory); mask conceals facial identity effectively. • Movement Style: Agile, non-linear; often utilizes vertical terrain. Confirmed enhanced reflexes. • Suit: Matte black adaptive suit with web-distribution technology and reinforced under layer. Not A.R.G.U.S.-issued.

PRIMARY ABILITIES: • Enhanced Physiology: Superhuman strength (class 10), stamina, reflexes, and healing factor. • Wall-Crawling: Adhesive grip via neuro-responsive extremities. • Spider-Sense: Extrasensory awareness of immediate threats. • Web Deployment: Internally engineered, wrist-mounted cartridges. Customizable web types (standard tensile, impact dispersal, ensnarement) • Combat Training: Improvised street combat, acrobatic evasion, and pressure-point targeting.

SKILLSET & SPECIALIZATIONS: • Forensic profiling, behavioral analysis (certified) • Tactical intelligence and urban reconnaissance • High proficiency in field improvisation and stealth pursuit • Access to CCPD crime scene data and surveillance through internal credentials (flagged by ARGUS audit; under review)

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE & BACKSTORY: Psychological Profile: • Subject exhibits patterns of trauma-rooted hyper-independence. Displays marked reluctance to delegate or rely on others—early case files indicate complete operational solitude for first phase of activity. • Notably anti-lethal but not pacifistic; engages targets with calculated brutality when deemed necessary. Repeated field reports highlight consistent use of force intended to incapacitate rather than eliminate. • Maintains high tactical intelligence and demonstrates combat-specific hyperfocus, especially in urban terrain. Emotional triggers noted: child endangerment, abuse of power, institutional failure. Exhibits signs of complex trauma and internalized guilt response—subject is a classic moral absolutist operating in moral grey. • Behavioral alignment: Anti-heroic, trending toward cooperative vigilante. • Integration into Team Flash has promoted marked behavioral shifts—less isolation, increasing reliance on allies (notably Flash and Cisco Ramon). Subject remains emotionally reserved but is capable of deep loyalty once trust is established.

Background Summary: • Subject was adopted as a young child into the West family under sealed circumstances; birth records list "Calloway" as original surname. Details regarding biological parents remain classified or unknown, though metahuman lineage is suspected. • Early adolescence marked by above-average intelligence, academic aptitude in forensic science and behavioral criminology, and notable disciplinary issues related to authority resistance. Currently employed by CCPD as a criminologist. • Initial vigilante activity predates official metahuman registrated by ~10 months. Operated nocturnally under masked alias "The Spider", avoiding detection while targeting individuals who eluded legal consequence. Patterns consistent with personal vendetta overlaying systemic justice response. • Following first contact with The Flash, subject's strategy evolved—shifted from solo vigilantism to tactical cooperation in metahuman apprehension efforts. • Subject remains unregistered in the official Central City vigilante database, though Team Flash records identify him as a consistent field agent in meta-level incidents.

THREAT ASSESSMENT: • Threat Level: Yellow (Conditional Watchlist) • Subject poses no direct threat to civilians or sanctioned meta operations under typical parameters. Actions are guided by a strong internal moral code, though not always in alignment with ARGUS or CCPD protocol. • Tactical efficiency, unpredictability, and emotional volatility under specific triggers (e.g., child endangerment, abuse of power, sexual abuse) warrant continued surveillance • Field Classification: Containment Risk Tier II — Standard intervention protocols apply; use of lethal force not authorized unless subject breaches metahuman containment policy. • Despite cooperative stance, subject has not submitted to full ARGUS evaluation.

SECURITY CLEARANCE NOTES: Access to full dossier contents restricted to Level 9 operatives and above. Any unauthorized attempts to duplicate, transmit, or disseminate subject data will trigger immediate lockdown protocol [Ref. ARGUS Regulation 16.3c]. Subject's full metahuman potential remains under evaluation; redacted portions accessible only by Director Waller or ARGUS Field Oversight Division.

[SECTION REDACTED – 03.16.XX / AUTHORIZATION: A. WALLER] Biological origin and medical anomalies flagged for meta-genetic analysis. Subject denies knowledge of pre-adoption trauma. Further investigation pending.

. . . back to the circus 🎪

[toniko]

oh but prev reblog meta (the oracle quiz)

> Baek Deoksu who had to juggle 7 distinct character voices in Debut or Die so they wouldn’t get mixed up in dialogue with each other (w/o spamming dialogue markers)

so all of the gsgw characters similarly have strong character voices I think reminiscent to the ‘meta’ element that they are all ‘characters’ in a fictional web wiki... um well and also the setting is so much more fantastical so the personalities are well diversified

I also think it’s just the author’s style! it’s enough to guess the personalities of the lines w/o knowing the actual lines 😉✌️

[lacunammmm]

Also, I think I say this to all Tumblrites who rant about MHA, but... You may be interested in Worm.

Short meta-story is, its author spent several years practicing his style on drafts and accumulating ideas, then took literary lessons that helped him overcome his main barriers, and over the course of couple years banged out 1.7 million word FREE web novel, two chapters a week (plus occasional donation goal bonuses) by an ironclad self-imposed schedule.

Wildbow LOVED Worm at the time of writing it. He cherished every character, and interludes showing POVs of others than the protagonists made some people change opinions on some of them - in the positive direction. Now, over the course of its sequel Ward fanbase kind of spoiled it, but still, it was clear he was doing what he wanted, how he wanted.

The power system is very elegant. Once you really get into it, you will not get out of it, and it makes sure every power is very uniquely literally tailored to be "perfect"(note the quotation marks) fit for its user. If you ever get to that point, I am interested in hearing what you think your power would be, at least in broad strokes ;3c

It is a frequent view on the dedicated subreddit to see a post go "I have finished Worm. I think I will re-read it again some day later" which, if you come back to its length, is an indication of peoples opinion on it.

Now, I will give fair warning: When the introduction says "if you need content warnings, this work may be not for you" it is NOT a conservative "ha-ha, triggered" taunt, but rather a genuine estimation of Worms contents. Also author has his own biases fairly aligned with less-than-perfectly-aware cishet man, but honestly to my reading it never really came to a tipping point. But damn, it is good in a way very few if any other works I encountered in capepunk have been.

Have I mentioned that it is FREE yet?

I was heavily into Worm. I got into it via fanfiction, as many people do. After absorbing knowledge of the world mainly through fanfics, I decided to read the story itself so I’d be able to win internet arguments. The ultimate power move in the Worm fandom. You can shut down and dumpster any smug fanboy who hasn’t actually read the story he claims to be a fan of with your superior knowledge of having engaged with the thing we’re discussing. I was right there when Wildbow was posting chapters of Ward. I’d read them within hours of them coming out, then hop on the meme subreddit to post some memes. Ward’s ending actually hurt me worse than MHA’s ending. I was having a pretty good time too up until the end. But there’s a reason the fandom only talks about Worm and people aren’t so much into Ward. Mainly because everyone fell in love with and soul bonded to Taylor Hebert, and the Vicky of Ward is radically different from Taylor. Worm is an okay story: if you only stick to what’s actually written in it. The guy has loads of Word Of Gods that the fandom complies where scores of mechanics and tidbits that were not shown in the actual story are fleshed out. The fanfic scene is tiresome as the audience expects you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything the man says in random discord groups that suddenly become the new canon. You could wake up in the morning and be posting on a discussion thread, and suddenly there's a new lore drop that totally changes things. The WOGS can conflict and contradict established lore and whatever is newest becomes what it is. See: Him getting annoyed at memes and deciding to retcon Browbeat’s death. It was absolutely hilarious and the meme subreddit was fantastic at the time. Someone made a meme where they’d rotate a picture of Browbeat every day and we’d upvote it every time.

The author wrote an extensive WOG about how Browbeat eventually drifted away from The Wards and found other ways to solve his problems and just left. So that makes it even funnier when people would count down the time to when Browbeat would make his reappearance in Ward, so Wildbow just retroactively kills him off. He didn’t want to reintroduce the guy or give people what they wanted, he just got mad about the memes and how the discussion would be filled with a handful of browbeat shit posts each new chapter. Oh, I just remembered, the memes about "X character is Browbeat in disguise and he changed himself with his biokinesis!" It was soooo good.

Easily some of my favorite moments in any fandom. Absolutely hysterical. I’ve never seen anything like it and we probably won’t again. I remember when Parian's true power wasn't revealed so people made theories on it. I wrote a short fic where Parian locks in after the death of some comrades and reveals her true power and beats Behemoth. My interpretation of it was that she could make strings completely unbreakable and was sandbagging. She wraps the guy in them and then shears through his body and dices him like a slap chop. Naruto was what was big back then, so I framed it as her unleashing her secret hidden forbidden technique. I think it was like a year later where we actually learned the canon explanation for how she'd stalemate Behemoth. Some wild speculation until then. I'm reminded of another one. Wildbow answered a question about a heroic Grayboy, and then said that Grayboy wouldn't be able to beat Leviathan 1 vs 1 and would be killed without backup. How's Leviathan kill the unkillable Grayboy? Wildbow didn't elaborate. Once again, more secret hidden forbidden techniques were speculated. My personal favorite is that Leviathan can secretly compress an oceans worth of water into the palm of his hand, then unleash it in an annihilating blast. Basically an aquatic style rasengan. It was fantastic for fanfics because it meant you could have Leviathan pull out whatever you wanted and it makes sense because the author explicitly told you this guy's a mega beast. WAAAAY more powerful than he pretended to be, even stronger than we expected. In this short fic, we've got the destroyed docks and Levithan retreats after he ended the life of Gray Lad (the hero Gray boy.) So then Armsmaster swears revenge. Gray Lad was volatile. Gray Lad is the nuclear option you send in for the greatest of threats. Gray Lad is capable of, has in the past, and has no remorse about inflicting fates worse than death on people. But he was a hero who did the right things for the wrong reasons. That last line is another meme, by the way. We loved to sprinkle it into posts or stories. Worm created an absolutely rich environment for fanfiction. I’ve read some really good Worm stories. Since you brought it to mind, I recall what it was about Worm that attracts people so much: the sandbox. You’ve got Brockton Bay where he captured the voice of a handful of characters really, really well so getting into how they’d respond if you change a variable is easy. Lung, E88, Coil. Then there’s factions like The Elite, The Teeth. Endbringer attacks to shake things up. Lots and lots of possibilities. I like some of the WOGs, though, since they spawn a few interesting what ifs. For example, an alternate reality with no gold morning because Echidna was allowed to rampage and consumed hundreds of natural trigger capes, thus killing off the main antagonist via energy drain. This is absolutely hilarious and all it costs us is a bunch of parahumans. No one could have known that at the time, but the author told us it was possible in a random post on spacebattles. We got into lots of theory crafting over on the CYOA community. I was big into Jumpchain and there’s lots of Worm CYOAS. That spawns its own genre of discussion and people often talked about problem solving. The world is an interesting puzzle to be solved, or doom entirely just because of your arrival. One of the fun discussions is the idea of “What would you do if Isekai’d to Worm?” And the answer is, “Doom the world just by being here if you read Ward, because the Simurgh now knows everything and she’s not going to lose this time.” Peak dark comedy. I've never loved a fandom more than my time in the heyday of Worm and Ward. I'm very thankful for the awesome times. Thanks a lot for this ask. I go years without thinking of Worm unless someone brings it up in a CYOA discussion and then I reminisce on the fandom I was heavily into. This trip down memory lane was excellent.

[trothplighted]

Ok so first of all I just spent hours scrolling on your blog, I’m obsessed with your meta posts, they’re so well thought through and intriguing.

I am curious about your thoughts about Peter/how he was portrayed in the early days of the fandom. I originally got into the HP fandom back in 2010ish and for a long time I didn’t question Peter being constantly left out of fanfics and fanart because the Peter that we meet in PoA is just inherently unlikeable. Re-evaluating as an adult, I want Peter there (specifically in the context of first war fics). His betrayal is so much worse when he actually exists as a friend to the other Marauders, and I hate that it gets overlooked. And I really have a hard time coming up with a reason for his exclusion that isn’t just… fatphobia.

I re-entering the fandom last year after being out of it for nearly a decade, and now characters like BCJR and Evan Rosier and Regulus Black (who have been characterized by fans as hugely attractive) play a huge role in fanon, but Peter (who is canonically fat and a bit ugly) is still often left out. And idk I’ve been thinking a lot about how JKR associates moral goodness with attractiveness (Peter is fat and I believe at one point is actually referred to as looking like a rat, Sirius is described as attractive while Regulus is essentially described as mid, Snape, back in PS when we're introduced to him and supposed to think he's awful, has greasy hair and yellow teeth, Umbridge is described as looking like a toad). I know this is not unique to JKR but I think it has played a huge role in how fans view Peter, whose character could be so interesting to explore but is just… not even included half of the time.

I also get really irritated that he’s one of the only characters consistently headcanoned as aroace. And of course, aroace headcanons are good and lovely, I myself am aspec and love to see the representation within headcanons, but it really irks me that the only canonically fat character (I’m pretty sure he’s the only one? Correct me if I’m wrong) is so regularly headcanoned as aroace. It just feels like people projecting their own fat=undesirable perspectives onto him.

Anyway this ended up being way longer than I anticipated, but I’d love to hear your Peter thoughts :)

So this took a long time because I wanted to do enough broad research to make sure my memories matched up with broader fandom trends - the HP fandom has always been big, and since it began in a decentralized era of the web tracking it has always been hard. But from what I’ve been able to see I more or less had the right of it from the start, so let’s dig in.

The question of what to do with Peter has always been kind of a messy and complicated one. You can find comments and feedback on fanworks globally across multiple languages voicing contradictory opinions on him, and criticizing or praising his inclusion or exclusion or characterization, essentially as far back as you can find Marauders-era fanworks online. People would praise a story for incorporating him well, for treating him like an equal friend among the four boys, for giving him good qualities, and for not writing him like a villain-to-be. Some stories like The Shoebox Project made an effort to make him an equal protagonist, while many others would present Sirius-James-Remus as a tight-knit trio with a bonus hanger-on in Peter. And you can see based on the commentary (check Fanlore for this, particularly their records of things like fanbooks and doujinshi) that there were a lot of people who thought like you did - why not make him a full-fledged equal member? Isn’t that how he was? Maya’s “Sirius Black, Super Genius” (not hosted by the author anywhere but you can find reuploads and archives if you Google) is useful here - it’s a bit of a crackfic and definitely a comedy but Peter is a present character who feels very authentic to how I remember him in the fics that were kind to him.

For once I don’t think we can necessarily call this fatphobia’s fault. It wasn’t until OotP that we had any idea of what Peter looked like as a teenager, and several people headcanoned that he (like many people) was thinner as a student and a young man than he was as an adult, at least if the fanart is anything to go by. This is of course a different kind of fatphobia, linking innocence and good qualities with thinness, but if Peter isn’t seen as universally or uniformly fat by the fandom it does mean they’re treating him with a kinder and more nuanced hand. I think it comes from the fact that for five years, including the Three Year Summer that was the first generation of HP fandom’s major creative period, our only awareness of Peter was as a traitor or as the boy who grew into a traitor. People wanted to create reasons for that, so they made him the least-close of the four Marauders, or they made him the least intelligent, or the least Gryffindor-like (meaning here that he was least likely to break rules for fun or take risks for fun, and the most cowardly). People didn’t consistently want to make him a hero, because he wasn’t a character with a future to be spun out. There were sympathetic villains or charismatic antagonists who had devoted followings of their own, but these were people like Lucius or Draco or Snape or even Young Sexy Diary Tom Riddle rather than Peter.

I don’t think this necessarily had to do with physical appearance (Snape’s greasy unwashed hair, confirmed teenage acne, and canonical unattractiveness weren’t obstacles even before Alan Rickman was cast), I think it had to do with personality - there wasn’t anything that most people who woobified or sexified villains could work with in Peter. He was a spineless coward, and his second appearance in GoF made him even more spineless and weak and whimpering. Even his complicated potion and resurrection ritual work is unappreciated by the narrative - Voldemort negs him through it for the whole school year, and Harry justifiably doesn’t really care that it’s cool as shit that he grew a whole new body in a cauldron.

I tend to challenge Rowling’s attitudes about all of her characters, which is a substantial effort because she’s deeply opinionated about every single one of them, but Peter is difficult as fuck to flesh out because we essentially know nothing about him beyond his betrayal. We don’t know what his dynamic with the others was really like. We don’t know how he felt about them, because he never talks about them where we can see it beyond the conversation in PoA. We also don’t know many details of how they felt about him except that both Sirius and Remus would have died to protect him rather than turn traitor, though this is probably true of many people besides Peter, especially among other Order members. And when you look strictly at his deeds and his canonical dialogue, when you remove authorial motivation and judgment, what he did still sucks real bad. We can’t immediately presume he was dealing with trauma or working through internalized prejudices, we can’t identify abusive family or community members, we can’t say with canonical backing that he was probably feeling overshadowed in his friend group due to the actions of Sirius and James. All we’ve got is that when it mattered he broke. And people don’t really know what to do with that.

To your point about BCJR and Regulus and Evan Rosier - Rosier is a blank slate, we can do what we like with him (I personally don’t care about him); BCJR and Regulus both have characterization details like people who remember them and parents who exist in the text beyond one mention. They’re more solidly fleshed out as characters (and of course it’s funny because people choose to ignore those canonical character traits in favor of building their own, such is the way of fandom) which gives them more to do and more space to take up. Peter has one character trait, and it’s “sucks real bad”. Even Umbridge comes off better, because a sympathetic or JKR-critical reading of the text can find a lot of fertile ground in examining someone whose gender presentation is naturally hyperfeminine and who clearly loves being a girl but who isn’t conventionally attractive and who never was. Peter doesn’t even have that.

Regarding sexuality headcanons - I do think allo people generally tend to assign arospec and aspec headcanons to characters they personally find “least fuckable”. I don’t think this is a conscious decision necessarily, I think it’s the safe option for many fans, but I do think that it comes out here with Peter. There aren’t any ships people are really feral for that have Peter in them, and he’s both too defined to have a place in post-2016 Marauders Build Your Own Canon and too undefined to have a place in canon-compliant works that rely on canon characterization to inform the relationship dynamics. So he gets handed the arospec and aspec rep, and people don’t necessarily mean anything negative by it but it does pretty neatly stick him into the “nobody has to feel complicated or sad about him being gone or being evil” box.

Historically, he was usually an unlucky-in-love straight boy who was just as girl-crazy as James was and Sirius was/pretended to be. (Bisexual Sirius was the fandom norm for a very brief window in time and fairly common for a decent while because of how hot and charismatic and presumably-slutty he was, because fandom is a reflection of society and that’s how the early 2000s felt about bi people. Post-HBP bi Remus became much more common and Sirius was firmly relegated to being 100% homo 100% of the time.) Part of it is that asexuality and aromanticism were very rarely discussed in broad fandom spaces, part of it was that if a character wasn’t gay/bi they were perceived as straight automatically, and part of it was again simply that nobody really could agree on what to do with him. You’d see a few fics that would expand on his affections and attractions, but they didn’t take hold in the public consciousness.

So - that’s more or less where we stand. I think Peter’s probably the only character whose position in fandom now is more or less exactly what it was 20 years ago. Isn’t that fascinating?

[conarcoin]

Some stuff I've been reading on TV Tropes has got me thinking again about the issues with how we classify what is fictional when it comes to MCYT, and this is gonna be a bit of a long meta post, so strap in.

A lot of the time, I see people's arguments for SMPs being works of fiction fall back on authorial intent and character vs CC separation, and I'm starting to wonder if this is a weird framing issue.

So TV Tropes has the rule of Tropability - most Let's Plays aren't considered tropable works as they're just people playing a game. To be tropable, you have to create something transformative with your use of the gameplay, particularly, the most common form of this is creating a narrative.

A lot of Let's Play pages have been getting cut lately, and the ones that are tropable are moved over to Web Video, as the Let's Play category is being phased out. Dream SMP was one of the first to be moved over, with no one arguing against it, because, of course, it's so blatantly a tropable work of fiction that you'd have to be actively turning off your media comprehension skills to not recognize it.

Now, those who follow me probably know I've been working on a TV Tropes page for SMPLive for a while now. That page started off in the Let's Play category.

And of course, me reading about all this, and knowing that SMPLive's status as a "Minecraft roleplay" series is very contested due to arguments of authorial intent - I got worried that the page I'd been spending all my time working on would be sent to the cutlist for real-life troping (something disallowed - you can't trope the personalities of real people).

So I asked about it in the thread, asking if my page was tropable and if I could move it to Web Video and someone much more active than I am responded to me pretty quickly. They, presumably, took one look at this page, and immediately went "yeah, go for it".

...And I realized that, of course they did. The fixation on authorial intent and character separation we have in the MCYT fandom is very weird and out of place for how a lot of people determine what is a work of fiction. I can only presume that this person probably saw all the narrative tropes on that page, clearly seeing that there was a narrative there, and went, yep.

Why are we so fixated on authorial intent? Most SMPs would pass TV Tropes's tropability rule with flying colors, because they have narratives. Why are those narratives completely disregarded when having this discussion, when they're the most important part of what makes a story a story?

It doesn't matter at the end of the day if this YouTuber thinks their SMP is a work of fiction or not - if they're creating a narrative, that's a work of fiction that they've created.

Or blah, blah, death of the author or whatever.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Todd Spangler at Variety:

TikTok could fade to black in the U.S. in a matter of days after the Supreme Court rejected its appeal to halt a law that will ban the popular video app as of Jan. 19 unless Chinese parent ByteDance sells its stake. “There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the Supreme Court wrote in its opinion in the case. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.” The court said that “we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.” The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, [...]

In the event of an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling, TikTok has been planning to shut down the app in the U.S. on Sunday, Jan. 19. At that point, TikTok users will see a pop-up message linking to a site with information about the ban. TikTokers also will have the option to download their personal data. There still could be wiggle room for TikTok to avoid an immediate shutdown. The Biden administration is leaving the question of what to do about TikTok to President-elect Donald Trump, set to be sworn into office Jan. 20. Trump is trying to position himself to be seen as TikTok’s savior: He is considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of the law for 60-90 days while he tries to hammer out a resolution to keep TikTok available, as first reported by the Washington Post — although it’s questionable whether Trump has the legal authority to pause the divest-or-ban law.

Trump may also instruct the government to not enforce the ban. But given that the law imposes fines of $5,000 per user on companies that distribute or host the TikTok app, tech companies like Apple, Google and Oracle (which has an agreement to host TikTok user data in the U.S.) may be reluctant to flout the ban. [...] The shutdown of the TikTok app in the United States would be a boon to rival platforms including Meta’s Instagram, Google’s YouTube and Snapchat. Amid the looming threat of the TikTok ban, Chinese-owned social app Xiaohongshu (aka Red Note) has soared in popularity this past week.

[...] The law doesn’t mandate the shutdown of TikTok per se. Rather, it prohibits Apple and Google’s app stores and web hosting services from distributing TikTok in the U.S. (under penalty of monetary fines) unless ByteDance sells its ownership stake in the app to an entity based in a country that is not designated a “foreign adversary” of the United States.

SCOTUS unanimously upholds TikTok ban in TikTok v. Garland, meaning that the app could be shut down as soon as this Sunday.

[shrinkthisviolet]

It's Love Letters Night! Send love and positivity to your favorite writers and bloggers!

This got really long so I’m sticking it under a cut 😅:

@negative-speedforce you are absolutely amazing. I love your posts and fics, I love Siv, and I love how much you love Nora (your fic about both versions of Nora sharing a name and the ✨insecurity✨ that would cause lives in my head RENT-FREE) and!! You’re an Iris and Reva defender just like me!! 🥰

@vexic929 you’re so amazing and fun to talk to! You have such wacky off-the-wall ideas and you make them work so well and I love you for it 💞 Malcolm, Berrie, and Beth in particular are so dear to me, and so are their fics!

@goldheartedchaoticdisaster you’re so fun to talk to, especially the OUAT stuff lately 🥰 I also always appreciate seeing your comments on my fics, they’re always long and wonderful and you’re just a delight. I can’t wait to see how you write Rowan, I love Nicky and Stephanie, I love your characterization of Mike Barnes and his family (canon to me!! Everyone read “bad boy (no more)”, it’s so good), and your CK Mini-Rewrites? *chefs kiss* you should’ve written the show

@angst-is-love-angst-is-life you pulled me into my current whump fixation headfirst 😂 I love reading through the whump prompts on your sideblog (@whump-is-love-whump-is-life, for anyone who wants to check it out), and I love talking to you 🥰 you also make me cry with how much you hurt Barry in Trophy and 12 hours, but I respect the whumpy endeavors

@fezwearingjellybananas you’re such a delight 🥰 you pulled me into Snowest with “Milk and Sugar”, your fics are so fun to read (and often a niche/novel premise), and I love seeing your sweet comments on my fics! I also so love the cycle of inspiration we’re in 😂 (for context, they got inspired by my Morgan AU to write Speedster Siblings, which (along with Gone in a Flash) then inspired me to write my Daddy Issues AU)

@starstruckpurpledragon (aka @kitkatt0430), you are wonderful and amazing and you’ve written so many amazing fics and meta for this fandom!! You have great takes, super interesting ideas…and you’re so wonderful to talk to. You also (along with @alittleflashvibe) pulled me into Saverb with “You Must Live (For Me)” 😂 much appreciated for that

@alittleflashvibe you are a delight and incredible and your Barrisco takes are such a highlight of this webbed site 💞 you always get me to see something new in their scenes, it’s terrific. You also pulled me into shipping Barrisco in general 😂 (you and @starstruckpurpledragon, as I mentioned above)

@frosty-the-killer-doll hiii I know we don’t talk a lot but I just wanted you to know you’re incredible and I love your takes on Caitlin and Frost—you’ve gotten me to see them both in new ways (that web weaving post about how Frost’s instinct to protect was corrupted by vengeance?? That was inspired, and it’s only one of your many great takes about her and Caitlin!). I also love love LOVE the Jesse fic you wrote, it’s like you read my mind fr 💞 love having you as my mutual

@icedteaandoldlace you’re so wonderful too! I’ve loved following along with your comments as you read my Morgan AU…and you’ve given me such a wonderful appreciation for Kamilla and Kamisco. Your Kamilla & Caitlin friendship fic is so sweet and I love it to pieces

@blackaquokat where to even begin 😅 we’ve been mutuals for like…what, years now? I don’t even remember how it started, but I DO remember your WKM fics and how incredible they are 🥰 your OC for the DA is absolutely how I view them, and your fics are so canon to me, you deserve all the love for crafting such a meticulous world from the pieces Mark gave us.

@seek--rest your fics are OUT OF THIS WORLD and so are your takes!! You’re one of my favorite Spidey fic authors (and that’s a very short list 😂), you’ve gotten me to see him and MJ in such incredible new ways (Irondad but make it MJ!! Ingenious!!), and you have great takes overall (your post-Blip meta my beloved!!), here and in the discord. You also wrote the May & Sally fic of my DREAMS!! Some people might call you an “absolute displeasure to know”, but I couldn’t disagree more, you’re wonderful 💞

@abcd-em on the note of “Irondad but make it MJ”, Vagary lives in my head rent-free 💞 you’ve written PeterMJ in so many wonderful ways, but that in particular really sticks with me. And you’re such a sweet person in general

@hollow-dweller speaking of great takes…hollow you’re practically oozing with them, here and on the discord. I always come away learning something, and you just have so many amazing thoughts?? Also I keep thinking about the Peter & Jessica fic you wrote like…oh my god?? Inspired?? I must applaud you 👏👏

@robbyykeene your CK takes are so incredible, you’re the first account I go to for them, I love reading your posts. You’re so right 💞

@leohttbriar i adore your fics! Your Samtory ones live in my head rent-free, and so does “for what do we live (but to make sport for our neighbours)” like!! You Get It!! You Get Penelope and Charlotte!!

@jenpsaki I can hardly talk about Samtory and not mention you, when you’re the one who pulled me into this ship with “different but same” 🥰 and thank you so very much for that

@arrthurpendragon you are a key pillar of the OC community and so wonderful 🥹 thank you for hosting that exchange event back in July of last year, it pulled me into the OC community and I’m so grateful for it

@lady-of-the-spirit you’re delightful to talk to, you have great takes for pretty much everything (ESPECIALLY Star Wars), I love Hestia, and I’ve never seen HOTD but I love how passionate you are about Alicent 💞

@basimibnishaqs speaking of having great takes about Star Wars…🥰 Rey & Luke being father and daughter especially, I LOVE your posts on the subject. And this fic you wrote about them!! An AU ofc but so very sweet to me 💞

@practically-an-x-man you and I are fairly new to being mutuals but I love having you as one 💞 still chugging through the Ophelia fic, but I love it so far! And ofc as I mentioned before, you write AMAZING whump (as shown in this incredible fic!)

@azaablue your ATLA fics are out of this world, but “beautiful boy” and “Push and Pull” in particular always sticks with me 💞 all the kudos in the world, you Get It, and you’re so wonderful. A gem in the ATLA fandom

@calliopieces your Maiko fics are a GEM in The ATLA fandom, especially “crowning glory” 💞 you just Get Mai and her family situation, and especially Fire Nation girlhood, and I love this fic so much for it

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users. "Brazil blocks Musk’s X after company refuses to name local representative amid feud with judge"

"The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it."

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote.

X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users.

The looming shutdown is not unprecedented in Brazil.

Lone Brazilian judges shut down Meta’s WhatsApp, the nation’s most widely used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 due to the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and stayed online.

X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the "Twitter revolution," but it has since been restored.

A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines cited by de Moraes.

By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA, BARBARA ORTUTAY and DAVID BILLERAugust 30, 2024

SAO PAULO — (AP) — Brazil started blocking Elon Musk's social media platform X early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country.

The move escalates a monthslong feud between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension on Friday.

To block X, Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users’ access to the social media platform. As of Saturday after midnight local time, major operators had begun doing so.

De Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn’t had a representative in the country since earlier this month.

“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote in his decision on Friday.

The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it.

In a later ruling, he backtracked on his initial decision to establish a 5-day deadline for internet service providers themselves — and not just the telecommunications regulator — to block access to X, as well as his directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk purchased the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.

“This is a sad day for X users around the world, especially those in Brazil, who are being denied access to our platform. I wish it did not have to come to this – it breaks my heart,” X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said Friday night, adding that Brazil is failing to uphold its constitution’s pledge to forbid censorship.

X had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page late Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote.

X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users.

Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. X’s lawyers in April sent a document to the Supreme Court in April, saying that since 2019 it had suspended or blocked 226 users.

In his decision Friday, de Moraes' cited Musk's statements as evidence that X's conduct “clearly intends to continue to encourage posts with extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse, and to try to withdraw them from jurisdictional control.”

In April, de Moraes included Musk as a target in an ongoing investigation over the dissemination of fake news and opened a separate investigation into the executive for alleged obstruction.

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist," has repeatedly claimed the justice’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right. He has often insulted de Moraes on his platform, characterizing him as a dictator and tyrant.

De Moraes’ defenders have said his actions aimed at X have been lawful, supported by most of the court’s full bench and have served to protect democracy at a time it is imperiled. He wrote Friday that his ruling is based on Brazilian law requiring internet services companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified when there are relevant court decisions and take requisite action — specifying the takedown of illicit content posted by users, and an anticipated churn of misinformation during October municipal elections.

The looming shutdown is not unprecedented in Brazil.

Lone Brazilian judges shut down Meta’s WhatsApp, the nation’s most widely used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 due to the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and stayed online.

X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the "Twitter revolution," but it has since been restored.

A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines cited by de Moraes.

“This is an unusual measure, but its main objective is to ensure that the court order to suspend the platform's operation is, in fact, effective," Filipe Medon, a specialist in digital law and professor at the law school of Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro, told The Associated Press.

Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her handle MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on X where she intends to go, posting a screenshot of rival social network BlueSky.

On Thursday evening, Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service provider, said on X that de Moraes this week froze its finances, preventing it from doing any transactions in the country where it has more than 250,000 customers.

“This order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X. It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil. We intend to address the matter legally,” Starlink said in its statement. The law firm representing Starlink told the AP that the company appealed, but wouldn’t make further comment.

Musk replied to people sharing the reports of the freeze, adding insults directed at de Moraes. “This guy @Alexandre is an outright criminal of the worst kind, masquerading as a judge,” he wrote.

Musk later posted on X that SpaceX, which runs Starlink, will provide free internet service in Brazil “until the matter is resolved” since “we cannot receive payment, but don’t want to cut anyone off.”

In his decision, de Moraes said he ordered the freezing of Starlink’s assets, as X didn't have enough money in its accounts to cover mounting fines, and reasoning that the two companies are part of the same economic group.

While ordering X’s suspension followed warnings and fines and so was appropriate, taking action against Starlink seems “highly questionable,” said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s Technology and Society Center.

“Yes, of course, they have the same owner, Elon Musk, but it is discretionary to consider Starlink as part of the same economic group as Twitter (X). They have no connection, they have no integration,” Belli said.

___

Ortutay reported from San Francisco and Biller from Rio. AP writer Mauricio Savarese contributed from Sao Paulo.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others. When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him. We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that. In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency. Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders. To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech. ------------------- Em breve, esperamos que o Ministro Alexandre de Moraes ordene o bloqueio do X no Brasil – simplesmente porque não cumprimos suas ordens ilegais para censurar seus opositores políticos. Dentre esses opositores estão um Senador devidamente eleito e uma jovem de 16 anos, entre outros. Quando tentamos nos defender no tribunal, o Ministro ameaçou prender nossa representante legal no Brasil. Mesmo ap��s sua renúncia, ele congelou todas as suas contas bancárias. Nossas contestações contra suas ações manifestamente ilegais foram rejeitadas ou ignoradas. Os colegas do Ministro Alexandre de Moraes no Supremo Tribunal Federal estão ou impossibilitados de ou não querem enfrentá-lo. Não estamos absolutamente insistindo que outros países tenham as mesmas leis de liberdade de expressão dos Estados Unidos. A questão fundamental em jogo aqui é que o Ministro Alexandre de Moraes exige que violemos as próprias leis do Brasil. Simplesmente não faremos isso. Nos próximos dias, publicaremos todas as exigências ilegais do Ministro e todos os documentos judiciais relacionados, para fins de transparência. Ao contrário de outras plataformas de mídia social e tecnologia, não cumpriremos ordens ilegais em segredo. Aos nossos usuários no Brasil e ao redor do mundo, o X continua comprometido em proteger sua liberdade de expressão.

[olderthannetfic]

How do you determine what is or is not canon with web series? Both word of God and core canon are normally located in the same place (Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, own website) so it makes the line a lot blurrier. Especially with all the 'extras' that don't affect the main plot but do add depth to otherwise shallow characterization. My knee jerk reaction when someone says "the creator said..." is "that's not canon, that's word of God," but it's more complicated if everything is on the same patreon stream.

--

Depends on the medium.

If canon is fiction on a patreon, then only things that made it into a piece of fiction count. Author commentary does not. You could call it some sort of para-canon or meta-canon, I guess, though "word of god" still covers it reasonably.

But if canon is a series of speculative blog posts of the "Humans are space orcs" variety, then even if it's usually considered to be just posts A through E, it's harder to say that the side posts don't count.

As for whether side stories count relative to a main novel series or something... Depends on the context. Probably? But I wouldn't say absolutely always.

[mariacallous]

Researchers found a vulnerability in a Kia web portal that allowed them to track millions of cars, unlock doors, honk horns, and even start engines in seconds, just by reading the car's license plate. The findings are the latest in a string of web bugs that have impacted dozen of carmakers. Meanwhile, a handful of Tesla Cybertrucks have been outfitted for war and are literally being-battle tested by Chechen forces fighting in Ukraine as part of Russia’s ongoing invasion.

As Israel escalates its attacks on Lebanon, civilians on both sides of the conflict have been receiving ominous text messages—and authorities in each country are accusing the other of psychological warfare. The US government has increasingly condemned Russia-backed media outlets like RT for working closely with Russian intelligence—and many digital platforms have removed or banned their content. But they’re still influential and trusted alternative sources of information in many parts of the world.

And there's more. Each week, we round up the privacy and security news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

New Digital Identity Guidelines Strike Back at Dreadful Password Policies

A new draft of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's “Digital Identity Guidelines” finally takes steps to eliminate reviled password management practices that have been shown to do more harm than good. The recommendations, which will be mandatory for US federal government entities and serve as guidelines for everyone else, ban the practice of requiring users to periodically change their account passwords, often every 90 days.

The policy of regularly changing passwords evolved out of a desire to ensure that people weren't choosing easily guessable or reused passwords; but in practice, it causes people to choose simple or formulaic passwords so they will be easier to keep track of. The new recommendations also ban “composition rules,” like requiring a certain number or mix of capital letters, numbers, and punctuation marks in each password. NIST writes in the draft that the goal of the Digital Identity Guidelines is to provide “foundational risk management processes and requirements that enable the implementation of secure, private, equitable, and accessible identity systems.”

DOJ Indicts Alleged Iranian Hackers Over Trump Campaign Breach

The US Department of Justice unsealed charges on Friday against three Iranian men who allegedly compromised Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and leaked stolen data to media outlets. Microsoft and Google warned last month that an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group known as APT42 had targeted both the Joe Biden and Donald Trump presidential campaigns, and successfully breached the Trump campaign. The DOJ claims the hackers compromised a dozen people as part of its operation, including a journalist, a human rights advocate, and several former US officials. More broadly, the US government has said in recent weeks that Iran is attempting to interfere in the 2024 election.

“The defendants’ own words made clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump’s campaign in advance of the 2024 U.S. presidential election,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference on Friday. "We know that Iran is continuing with its brazen efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the US electoral process, and advance its malign activities.”

Irish Regulator Fines Meta More Than $100 Million Over 2019 Password Lapse

The Irish Data Protection Commission fined Meta €91 million, or roughly $101 million, on Friday for a password storage lapse in 2019 that violated the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. Following a report by Krebs on Security, the company acknowledged in March 2019 that a bug in its password management systems had caused hundreds of millions of Facebook, Facebook Lite, and Instagram passwords to be stored without protection in plaintext in an internal platform. Ireland's privacy watchdog launched its investigation into the incident in April 2019.

“It is widely accepted that user passwords should not be stored in plaintext, considering the risks of abuse that arise from persons accessing such data," Irish DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement. “It must be borne in mind that the passwords, the subject of consideration in this case, are particularly sensitive, as they would enable access to users’ social media accounts.”

The Tor Project and the Tails Privacy Operating System Are Merging

The digital anonymity nonprofit the Tor Project is merging with privacy- and anonymity-focused Linux-based operating system Tails. Pavel Zoneff, the Tor Project’s communications director, wrote in a blog post on Thursday that the move will facilitate collaboration and reduce costs, while expanding both groups' reach. “Tor and Tails provide essential tools to help people around the world stay safe online,” he wrote. “By joining forces, these two privacy advocates will pool their resources to focus on what matters most: ensuring that activists, journalists, other at-risk and everyday users will have access to improved digital security tools.”