kt-says-stuff - Tumblr blog

[kt-says-stuff]

guys PLEASE stop liking this i’m a big liar i don’t even remember writing this HELP 😭😭😭

so i'm writing a drarry fic because i've read almost all of them and i wanted one that's Mine but if i dont post about it i'll never actually finish it so. drarry. im doing it. bug me about it. here's a lil spoiler from the first chapter (which i have not finished writing but it looks like it’s gonna be about 10k words rn)

[kt-says-stuff]

the devil on your shoulder (me) is telling you to tell us what sirius is thinking :)))

hm. okay. because i literally can’t hold myself back

SPOILERS for dstg chapter 28 re: dorcas

okay, so. sirius can smell dorcas. she’s obviously everywhere in the house, as is mary and even traces of remus. but like, when he walked into the bedroom, specifically, he could smell her, and it was stronger. not super strong, but stronger. it’s also a different scent, so he’s uncertain on it. but he knows he can smell dorcas.

see, here’s the issue: you might not remember, but. there is like, no record of a vampire being turned the way dorcas was. james talks about it in chapter 24 of dstg: vampires just don’t get turned that way. dorcas was a freak accident due to multiple circumstances working together: the basilisk venom increasing sirius’s venom potency, sirius being a pureblood, even down to the timing - there was so little venom it definitely didn’t linger, and i feel if she had been killed even half an hour later it would’ve run through her system already. it’d also the result of a freak accident - NOBODY has EVER survived basilisk venom. they don’t know how it works. in sirius’s (and all of their) mind(s) there is no way that dorcas could be alive/a vampire. it’s statistically impossible.

so, sirius is faced with.. a tricky situation, because he walks into the room, and remus is on his knees saying that the stash of weapons is gone, and like. well. if he says, now, oh, i can smell dorcas and it’s weird and a bit stronger and might be recent, … that’s gonna make remus SPIRAL!!!!! SO bad!!! when there’s like, such a minor — in sirius’s eye, impossible — chance that she’s alive! when there’s so many options that are statistically SO much more likely to explain it (eg: dorcas is the last person who stayed in the room, so her scent lingered). remus will LOSE it.

so like. it’s understandable why he doesn’t say anything. at the end of the day, dorcas being alive is so statistically unlikely that it’s fair enough that none of them really even consider the possibility. really, he dismisses it almost as quickly as he thinks it/smells her. if he was to tell remus — especially because he is the person remus trusts most, the person he would follow to the end of the earth — it would literally just set him back a whole month of mourning. it’s frustrating that they’re so close, but. mmm

and yes, i suppose this is me confirming that dorcas has been in the house. you’d find out soon, anyway, and it’s not really a secret when you already know she’s alive & i’m actively trying to hint towards it and it’s not subtle LMFKSKDN

[kt-says-stuff]

Please indulge me while I rant into the void of your inbox.

There’s this one canon M/F ship in my fandom that’s been unquestioned and absolutely untouchable for like 15 years. Recently people started shipping M with another dude, and while it started out as a crackship it’s gotten to the point of popularity that it’s become almost impossible to find new M/F fanworks anymore. And while I’m always here for queer rep, there’s already a behemoth M/M ship in the fandom with two other guys, and the aforementioned M/F is so wildly good while he never actually interacts with this other dude in canon and if he did, it’d probably be awkward and toxic as fuck. Idk, it just smacks of unaware Gen-Z misogyny in the same way that teens are trying to subtly reinvent the Hayes Code.

--

[kt-says-stuff]

I am a sucker for fics where everyone thinks Sirius is this massive player who sleeps around all the time, but in reality he’s Demisexual and a virgin, because he’s only ever wanted Remus, but he’s insecure about it because this reputation got away from him

[kt-says-stuff]

I’m officially back on my atyd shit,,,sorry not sorry

(zoom in for better quality)

[kt-says-stuff]

can’t believe i’ve seen enough posts on my timeline today to have to make my biannual reminder that

commercially printing fanfiction (through sites like lulu) is illegal

and that

doing so puts the fanfiction authors/readers at risk

because one of the main reasons fanfiction is legal in the first place is that it’s not produced for a profit and therefore not competing with the original source material in the market.

[kt-says-stuff]

your fanfic doesn't need to be Content

ok so thanks to this lovely anonymous message i've been motivated to organize my thoughts on the increasingly common phenomenon of fanfic writers treating their own fics like Content for consumption, the way an influencer on social media might (all of this is in the context of the marauders fandom specifically -- no idea how or whether it might apply elsewhere)

what i mean by that is, essentially, instances of fanfic writers playing into the idea that fanfiction is a product created for the consumption of readers (and thereby the idea that fandom is a community that can be clearly divided between "producers"/writers and "consumers"/readers).

some examples i've seen: people "advertising" their fics on platforms like tiktok, sometimes even before they've started writing said fic ("hey guys i'm going to start writing a fic with x y z who's interested??"), or making posts asking outright "if i wrote a fic with x y z would people read it??" i've also seen people share concerns that if they write a certain thing they want to write (i.e, heavy smut, heavy angst, etc) then it will make their fic less "accessible" to a broader audience ("i want everyone to be able to enjoy my fics!")

another recent example that comes to mind is the "jegulus strike." while i'm sure it was largely well-intentioned, a strike is a form of protest tied inextricably to a consumer economy, and positioning writers as laborers who are standing in opposition to readers demanding that labor reinforces the framework of a consumer economy in which fanfiction is a product for consumption.

something i want to make clear here--i'm not saying that any of these behaviors are like....Moral Failings deserving of Ridicule. i think we are all very much conditioned by late-stage capitalism + algorithmic social media to view everything, even our hobbies, within the framework of a consumer economy. this is just me observing some of the ways i see that mindset creeping into fandom spaces.

like. i think there's this unspoken assumption that art is only worthwhile if it has an audience; that creative pursuits only matter if you can profit from them. if people are applying this mindset to fanfiction, then it makes sense to see this impulse to advertise fics the way authors advertise their books on tiktok, or twitter, or whatever. it makes sense for writers to become preoccupied with audience perception, perhaps changing their stories to make them more palatable for a certain audience or even going into the writing process with the audience already in mind--an overhanging and ever-present anxiety, asking yourself "how will this be received?"

the problem is that fanfiction doesn't fit into this model. it has always been meant for a niche audience, never the mainstream, and it has always existed outside the profit economy. trying to turn fanfiction into broadly consumable content is antithetical to the medium itself, and, in all likelihood, will fail. the vast majority of fanfiction is never going to be read by hundreds of thousands of people. if you go into writing it with an audience as your end goal, you will likely be disappointed.

what makes fanfiction so wonderful and unique is that it is meant to be written, first and foremost, for the writer. fanfiction as a medium grew out of personal joy in creation, out of individuals who thought "I want to see this story for myself" and then wrote it. because fanfiction is specific, catered to individual tastes and niche audiences, it lends itself to a unique sort of community in which your work attracts other people with that same niche taste, making it easier to strike up a conversation or start a friendship by saying, "hey, i love this story you wrote for yourself! it just so happens to be the exact sort of thing i wanted to read."

so i guess at the end of the day, my question for other fic writers is: if nobody was ever going to read this, would you still want to write it?

and if the answer is no...i think that's something that calls for reflection! where is your motivation rooted? is it rooted in a desire to create, in the joy of creation? or is it rooted in a desire to be seen, to be validated? wanting to be seen and validated is entirely natural, and it is by no means a bad thing. oftentimes, both these impulses--creation and validation--will be part of the decision to write + post a fic. but if validation is your primary motivation, and if you have internalized the idea that validation means getting as many people as possible to look at the thing you're making and click a heart button, then you will probably end up disappointed. you will probably end up feeling like your writing isn't good enough, no matter how many people end up reading it--because no audience will ever be big enough to validate you if you aren't able to take pride in your creation independent of any metrics of consumption.

i'm not saying that you should never share your fics on social media. like i mentioned above, community is one of the best parts of fanfiction--but are you posting in search of community? or are you posting in search of an audience? i know the line can get blurry sometimes, but i do think those two things look different, and i do think it is productive to look inwards and ask what you are truly seeking when you throw your writing into the void of social media posts. and i think as writers it's important not to fall into the trap of acting like our fics are a product intended for audience consumption, because to do so contributes to the deterioration of a fandom culture that is separate from the profit economy. plus, i just think all of us would be happier if we started trying to actively unlearn the idea that art is only worthwhile if it manages to amass a huge audience.

[kt-says-stuff]

Jealous?

ft. A very jealous slytherin and a smug gryffindor.

[kt-says-stuff]

Regulus: if you could meet anyone dead or alive. who would it be?

James: alive.

[kt-says-stuff]

ON THE TOPIC OF MARAUDERS AS GRISHA FIC I JUST SAW THIS JEGULUS GRISHA AU https://archiveofourown.org/works/43400895/chapters/109103313

OH MY GOD?

SUN SUMMONER JAMES… SHADOW SUMMONER REG…. GAAAHHHHHFBFBFJFB

GUYS THIS FIC HAS A FUCKING MAP AT THE BEGINNING???????

[kt-says-stuff]

so i'm writing a drarry fic because i've read almost all of them and i wanted one that's Mine but if i dont post about it i'll never actually finish it so. drarry. im doing it. bug me about it. here's a lil spoiler from the first chapter (which i have not finished writing but it looks like it’s gonna be about 10k words rn)

[kt-says-stuff]

HELP THIS IS THE WORST FAY EVER SIRIUS IS FIGHTING A VAMPIRE WAR AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

[kt-says-stuff]

the only reason i still have tumblr is to see zar’s behind the scenes of crimson rivers stuff 😭😭

[kt-says-stuff]

if this is a fucking dream i’m gonna be so upset. let the boys be happy 😭😭😭

(when i say upset i mean i’m gonna be obsessed with it zar i love ur fic)

Any chance of a mini spoiler for chapter 49 ? 🤍

sure!

❗️❗️CRIMSON RIVERS SPOILERS❗️❗️

[kt-says-stuff]

harry potter would be raised bilingual by regulus, who would speak to him exclusively in french.

effie and monty would speak to him in hindi and urdu— but james would maintain english since they found it important for harry to have someone in the home to speak english with since they quite literally live in england.

the issue is however, with four languages being used with the young boy at any given time— well harry language hops, without even realizing it.

and sometimes, he’ll be babbling along in james’ arms— entirely in french and not slowing down long enough for his da to even tell him, and when james doesn’t respond to a question (because he has no clue one was asked), harry would get frustrated.

so james started answering anytime harry looked at him, not sure as to what he was answering— and usually just sputtering out the first thing that comes to mind. and harry, well harry finds this absolutely hilarious.

so for about two weeks when harry is nearly three, he purposely speaks to james in french, just to burst into fits of giggles every time james cluelessly agrees to something. (and yes— this is how the black-potters ended up with a pet turtle)

[kt-says-stuff]

religion is literally so fucking cool. like you can have your own beliefs but if you don’t engage with others and learn about it and examine it in the way this post examines adam and eve then you’re never going to understand what makes religion so special.

i grew up mormon and while i don’t practice the religion anymore i still engage with it and analyse it and try to understand what it was about it that makes so many people believe in it. i just think that religion is one of the most interesting and versatile topics to study and you can’t go on criticising it and ‘debunking’ it if you’ve not engaged with it.

Biblical opinion that no one asked for but I've always thought it was pretty clear that the Adam and Eve story is meant to be an allegory. If you release yourself from the chains of examining the Bible as an attempt at fact to be proved or disproved and simply read it like you would any other story, I think there's some pretty interesting themes to explore. Personally I believe the Adam and Eve story is an ancient myth meant to explain that God (/the Creator/the Universe/whatever you want to call it) wanted their creations to have free will. This answers many common complaints about the story:

Why would God put the tree there at all? It wasn't meant to be a real tree, it symbolizes the spark of humanity and the spiritual conscience that is only gained if a being has self awareness and free will. Without that knowledge, we would have been infants or animals all our lives, and the creator didn't want that.

Why would God allow the devil into the garden? Again, he didn't, because it's a metaphor. The snake (which is never textually mentioned as being the devil) symbolizes the dark side that is gained by consuming the fruit. In other words, the ability to do evil, which isn't something an infant or an animal has. It's the voice in our heads that guides us towards wrongdoing, but it's a necessary voice to allow for free will. It shows how humanity, given even the most ideal circumstances, would not be humanity if they didn't sometimes give in to this voice.

Why was it Eve that gave in first? This has been construed in a very misogynistic way in the past, but there's a lot of ways to interpret this action. I think one could argue that Eve being the one to bring free will to humanity symbolizes motherhood, as her proverbially giving birth to humanity's consciousness. It could also be meant to portray women as being more attuned to spiritual forces. I think it's interesting to note the similarities between Eve and the Greek Pandora, because they seem like two different versions of ostensibly the same story.

Why did God punish them and kick them out of the Garden of Eden if he let them eat the fruit on purpose? This symbolizes that a utopia like Eden is not achieveable, because we are flawed by free will and we will always wreck it. God took away our chance at utopia, and gave us our human nature instead.

Then why even give us free will? Why not let us enjoy a utopia? Shit man, I don't know. I'm just examining the themes of the story. I would guess that the people who first told those stories knew that humanity couldn't achieve utopian society and used stories to explain why it was impossible.

I have absolutely no idea where my personal beliefs on any of this rest, but I think we do the Bible a disservice when we refuse to engage with it as a historical text. It's a pretty remarkable book. Once you let go of trying to r/atheism your way through the stories and just enjoy them as stories, you will find so many interesting things to think about. Like any mythology or folklore, the old testament is a collection of stories that were passed around, some true, some false, some in between, but all shared over centuries because they gave their listeners some deeper meaning to the world around them.

[kt-says-stuff]

y’all gotta fucking read this cause the shit i’ve been seeing on tiktok shitting on zar for popularising a ship with his fic is ridiculous. y’all should be happy one of our fav ships is getting recognition especially in a fic as amazing as just lovers. so much love to zar for writing the intermission cause it’s so important to me as an ace person to see that we can be in healthy relationships and fall in love and that other people know that we can too and normalise it

so, there's something i want to address really quickly, because ive just seen something that made me sigh very, very deeply.

i did not "invent" evan/barty (rosekiller) as a ship, or even that ship name. idk who came up with the ship, but i do believe it was @fuckboyregulus who came up with the ship name. i didn't even know it before i got on tumblr more often.

i wrote evan/barty in just lovers for two reasons. one, they kind of just insisted on flirting in the background, and i was fine with letting them do it. they were never meant to be a pairing in that fic—they weren't in bfb, either, just very good best friends—so it was genuinely just an accident. the second reason was because there was a popular demand for it due to people who already liked the ship, or just liked how they flirted in just lovers. i didn't mind writing them and really fell in love with that specific evan and barty in that fic, and in intermission.

i don't ship evan/barty the way i do jegulus/wolfstar/dorlene. i don't mind reading them, and i didn't mind writing them, but just the same, i don't mind if they're just friends, or background characters, or not even there.

there are a few things about evan and barty separately that shape the way i write them. evan, for example, has a similar home life to regulus in that he has expectations, and him being asexual is important to me. barty, in turn, has Daddy Issues (this is canon), and part of how volatile/chaotic he is (in just lovers) comes from that.

it's important to note that i don't mind writing them in aus or—in the case of just lovers/intermission—a world where death eaters and voldemort doesn't exist, but they are not a pairing i will consistently write in the future, like jegulus/wolfstar/dorlene (and even marylily, possibly) are.

i didn't come up with this ship, and i didn't popularize it. evan/barty (rosekiller) was already a thing way, way before me. do not give me credit for something i did not do, especially when other people did it before me. especially when i am not the only person who is doing it, and doing it well, because there are plenty who are doing it better.

there are a lot of people out there who really, really love and adore evan/barty (rosekiller) as ship and separately, while i don't even come close to feeling that much about it.

i just wanted to acknowledge this because im not the only writer in the fandom, and im not here to step on toes or take credit for something i have nothing to do with overall. thank you <3