onehundredthousandflies

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Can I shamelessly self plug my bi!Spencer x male!BAU!Reader fic to you?

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*on a speed boat, swiftly sailing through the ocean* 

Derek, sitting on the stern: come on, man, come out here! 

Reid, inside the enclosed cockpit: no! if i fall over, i’m going to die! 

Derek: no you wouldn’t, we’d come back for you. 

Reid: okay, fine, what if a shark gets me? 

Derek: 

Reid: what about electric eels? 

Derek: 

Reid: a shoal of piranhas? 

Derek: 

Reid: a swarm of jellyfish-

Derek: okay, you know what, reid!? please stay in there. 

Reid: *pulls sunhat down* 

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Hotch, talking to Reid: Well Reid, whenever I’m about to do something, I think ‘would Emily do that?’ and if she would, I do not do that thing.

Reid: …

Emily, from the distance: He’s not wrong though!

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Emily: What situation is not instantly improved by the addition of fishnets, I ask you.

Reid: Being a fish.

Emily: Well, shit.

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Emily, walking into the BAU: 'sup guys

Spencer: YOU DIED! I FUCKING SAW YOU DIE!!

Emily: death is a social construct

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This user supports AO3

This user is anti-censorship

This user believes in “don’t like, don’t read”

This user believes in “ship and let ship”

This user believes that fiction tastes and preferences do not dictate moral character

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Whoever wrote those tags, among many others, cares more about trans headcanons of their blorbos than the rights, health, and lives of actual trans people. And they think that counts as alliship and activism. Disgusting.

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idk how to word this properly but wrt the fanfic thing you reblogged earlier. Why do fanfic writers have such different expectations than any other content hosting platform?

Like lets take youtube as a point of comparison, Engagement like comments and likes largely exists to boost the works place in algorithm, thats why youtubers put in calls to action and other engament bait. Few with decent reach even read the comments and the audience shouldnt try to develop any weird parasocial relationship with the youtuber. Fanfic authors ask for likes (kudos, because the websites gotta use nonstandard language for some reason) and comments despite them not having any impact on an algorithm, and seem to want the audience to try and develop a relationship with the author based on tumblr posts like that one.

Why the radical difference in behaviour away from the norm? And honestly with all the (usually) metaphorical blood spilled online about parasociality why are authors really surprised that the audience tries to keep their distance as is best practice with any other content producer?

okay I am going to answer this as kindly and as calmly as I can and try to assume that you are asking this in good faith. because my friend, the fact that you feel the need to ask is, to me, The Problem.

[this is, for the record, in response to this post]

fanfiction writers are not *posting content.* (I also have reservations about engaging with the term "content producer" or "content creator" but let's put that aside for now, I'll circle back to it.) you say "they seem to want the audience to try and develop a relationship with the author" as though it is strange, off-putting, and incomprehensible to you, when in fact that is the point of writing fanfiction. it is a way of participating in fandom. it is a way of building community and exchanging ideas and becoming closer with people.

if authors wanted to solely ~generate content~ that would get them attention (?? to what end, the dynamic you have described seems to equate algorithmic supremacy as winning for winning's sake, as though all anyone wants to do is BUILD an audience without ENGAGING with them, which I cannot fathom but let's pretend for a moment that is, in fact, true) then like. if that were the case why on earth would they choose a medium in which they categorically cannot succeed and profit, because it isn't their IP?

you are equating two things that are not at all the same thing. to the degree that parasocial relationships are to be avoided, and "that person is not trying to be your friend they are trying to entertain you, please respect their boundaries" is a real dynamic -- which it is!! -- like. you have to understand that the reason that is true for the people of whom it is true is because it is their JOB. they are storytellers by profession, and they are either through direct payment, or sponsorship, or advertising, or through some other means, profiting off of your attention. i don't say this to be dismissive, many wonderful artists and actors and comedians and any number of a thousand things that i enjoy very much go this route but they do so as a *career choice.* and so when you violate the public/private boundary with them, you are presuming to know a Person rather than their Worksona. the people who work at Dropout or who stream their actual play tabletop games or who broadcast on TikTok or YouTube are inviting me to feel like i know them to the degree to which that helps them succeed in their medium and at their craft, but there MUST be a mutual understanding that that's a feeling, not a fact.

however.

a fanfiction writer is not an influencer, not a professional, and is not looking to garner "success." there is no share of audience we are trying to gain for gain's sake, because we are not competition with one another, because there is nothing to win other than the pleasure of each other's company. we are doing this for no other reason than the love of the game; because we have things we want desperately to say about these worlds, these characters, these dynamics, and because we *want more than anything to know we are not alone in our thoughts and feelings.* fanfiction is a bid for interaction, engagement, attention, and consideration. it is not meant to be consumed and then moved on from because we are NOT paid for our work, nor do we want to be. the reward we seek is "attention," but attention as in CONVERSATION, not attention as in clicks. we are not IN this for profit, or for number-go-up. there is no such thing: legally there cannot be. we are in this because we want to be seen and known.

like. please understand. i am now married to someone i met because of mutual comments on fanfiction. our close friend and roommate, with whom i have cohabitated for over a decade now, is someone I met because of mutual comments on fanfiction and livejournal posts. that is my household. beyond my household, the vast majority of my closest personal friends are people with whom I built relationships in this way.

you ask why fanfiction writers want THIS and not "the norm," but the idea of everything being built to cater to an algorithm to continue to build clout, as though the only method of reaching people is Distant Overlord Creator and Passive Receptive Audience being "the norm" is EXTREMELY NEW. this is not how it has always been!! please think of the writers of zines in a pre-internet fandom, using paper and glue and xerox to try and meet like-minded people in a world that was designed for you to only ever meet people in person, by happenstance, in your own hometown. imagine the writers of the early internet, building webrings from scratch to CREATE a community to find each other, despite distance. imagine livejournal groups, forums, and -- yes, indeed, of course -- comment threads IN STORIES -- as places where people go to *converse.* in the past, we had an entire Type Of Guy that everyone knew about, the BNF ("Big Name Fan") whose existence had to be described via meme because it was SO DIFFERENT THAN THE NORM. treating fellow fans like celebrities or people too cool for the regular kids to know was an OUTLIER, and one commonly understood to lead to toxicity.

in the past, I have likened writing fanfiction to echolocation. i am not screaming because I like hearing the sound of my own voice, though i can and do find my voice beautiful. i am screaming so that the vibrations can bounce back to me and show me the world. the purpose is in the feedback. otherwise it is just noise.

does this make any sense? can you see, when i describe it that way, why an ask like yours makes me feel despair, because it makes us all sound so horribly separate from one another?

perhaps I will try another metaphor:

a professional chef who runs a restaurant will not have her feelings hurt if you never fight your way into the kitchen to personally tell her how much you enjoyed the meal. that would, indeed, violate a boundary. professional kitchens are a place of work, and you have already showed her you enjoyed the meal by paying for it, or by perhaps spreading your enjoyment by word of mouth to your friends so they, too, can have good meals. you show your appreciation by continuing to come back. if a bunch of people sitting around randomly happen to have a conversation about how much they love the food, it wouldn't hurt that chef's feelings to not be included in the conversation. however: EVEN IN THIS INSTANCE, it is ADVISABLE AND APPROPRIATE to leave a good review! you might post about how much you like this restaurant on Yelp, and it would probably make the chef feel great to see those positive comments. but the chef doesn't NEED them, because the chef is, again, *also being paid to cook.* that's why she started the restaurant, to be paid to cook!

i am not being paid to cook.

i am at home in my own kitchen, making things for a community potluck where i hope everyone will bring something we can all enjoy together. some people at the potluck are better bakers, some better cooks; some can't cook at all but are great at logistics and make sure there's enough napkins for everyone; some people come just to enjoy the food, because that's what the party is for. and if I, as this enthusiast chef who made something from my heart for this reason alone, learned after the fact that a bunch of people got together in the parking lot to rave about my dish but no one of them had ever bothered to tell me while I sat alone at my table all night, occasionally seeing people come by to pick up a plate but never saying anything to me -- of course that would bother me, because I am not otherwise profiting off the labor I put in. this is not a bid to be paid, because if someone WERE to say "hey, great cake!! here's five bucks for a slice" i would say no, friend, that is not the point and give them the money back. i'm not trying to Get Mine. I am in it to see the look on your face. I'm in it so you can tell me what about it moved you, so that I can say back what moved me to make it in the first place. so we can TALK about it.

because what happened in the first place is this: one time I had a cake whose sweetness, richness, flavor, intensity, and composition moved me so much that I *taught myself to bake.* so I could see how much vanilla and sugar was too much, so I could learn how to make things rise instead of fall flat, so I could even better appreciate the original cake by seeing for myself the effort and talent and inspiration that goes into making one even half as good.

learning to do so is a satisfying accomplishment in and of itself, yes.

but I also did it because at the end of the day we should EAT the cake. and it's a lonely thing, to eat alone when a meal was always designed and intended to be shared.

so, to answer your last question: i'm not surprised, i'm just sad. because somehow two things that were never meant to be seen as the same have been labeled "content," and thus identical. and it diminishes both the things that ARE intended to be paid for AND the things that are not, because it removes any sense of intimacy or meaning from the work.

i hope you know i'm not mad at you for asking. but i'm frustrated we've come to live in a world where the question needs to be asked, because the answers are no longer intuitively obvious because we're so siloed.

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i feel like an often overlooked downside to 10-episode seasons and the death of the "monster of the week" format is that we get way less whump variety nowadays. used to be that there'd be dozens of opportunities for your fave to get punched or kidnapped or hypnotized or what have you. these days if it doesn't fit into the main plot, it just doesn't happen. this is a tragedy. we should be protesting.

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*the BAU playing minecraft* 

Emily, getting knocked off a horse after failing to tame it again: oh my god, you bitch! 

Reid: why is the green thing sparkling- oh. i died. 

Penelope: I HAVE SO MANY CATS AND WOLVES. *happy noises* 

*Derek laughing mischievously* 

JJ, gasps: why is my house on fire?!!! 

JJ: derek!! put the flint and steal away already! that’s the third time you set something on fire!  

Hotch: how did you get the diamond tools? 

Rossi: i spawned them in. what? did you want me to use the wooden ones? 

Hotch: how do you spawn things in?

Rossi, snorts: newb. 

CHAT: SPENCER_REID FELL FROM A HIGH PLACE

JJ BURNED ALIVE

A_HOTCHNER STARVED TO DEATH

EMILY BLEW UP

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It's not really a debate so much as a Watsonian vs. Doyllist analysis of the same series of events. Both can simultaneously be true.

‘Spencer Reid acted like that in the later seasons because of the prison trauma forcing him to mask his autism’ vs ‘The writers realised he was the ‘hot one’ and therefore nerfed his autistic traits/changed his character drastically to make him appeal more to the female audience’ debate you will always be present in the front of my mind

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Ages of the Criminal Minds cast because PSA: life doesn’t stop at 40

Mandy Patinkin, 71. Thomas Gibson, 61

Lola Glaudini, 52. A.J. Cook, 45

Matthew Gray Gubler, 44. Kirsten Vangsness, 51

Shemar Moore, 54. Paget Brewster, 55

Joe Mantegna, 76. Meta Golding, 52

Rachel Nichols, 44. Jeanne Tripplehorn, 60

Jennifer Love Hewitt, 45. Aisha Tyler, 53

Adam Rodriguez, 49. Daniel Henney, 44

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not that this gives someone a label but hasnt she publically dated women? aisha i mean.

Hi Anon, glad you asked! Because this NEEDS to be talked about. Just the fact I got this ask barely ONE MINUTE after posting a reminder about Aisha's sexuality only PROVES how misinformation is spread and accepted, without actual fact checking. (That's not a personal dig, Anon. This is something that has been going on for yeeeeaaarrrsss)

While Aisha Tyler has ALWAYS been an LGBTQA+ advocate, even more so since her little sister, Feri, is gay and publicly came out in 2015) and Aisha has also played MULTIPLE girl-kissing characters over the years (in hopes of inspiring LGBTQ youth)...

Aisha, herself, has NEVER publicly 'dated' a woman.

Let me pull up seven years of receipts to explain why most people think this is true (I myself have mistakenly called her sapphic in the past, but upon further research, realised that's entirely speculation.)

This is a lesson in media literacy. Specifically, 'don't believe everything you read!' and 'do your own fact checking!'

In 2016, news broke that Aisha and her husband of 20 years (Jeff Tietjens) were filing for divorce.

Then, in 2018, Aisha shared this (since deleted) Instagram post showing a photo-strip of her and actress Emily Bett Rickards kissing, with the caption 'True Love.'

From THAT POST ALONE -- News outlets began reporting (ie: SPECULATING) 'Aisha Tyler Goes Public With Her Girlfriend', 'Aisha Tyler has found true love with a woman', 'Aisha Tyler might be dating her true love'

No doubt, THESE are the articles that led you to believe she was publicly dating a woman, Anon. But, ALL OF THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN SPECULATION!!!! [This 'TheThings.com' article from 2020 has an even more in-depth break down]

Aisha and Emily are best friends, have been for many, many years. And yes, in the past, they have posted photos of themselves kissing and cuddling -- but that does not AUTOMATICALLY mean they are dating and/or queer.

Note: In recent years, Aisha has locked down her IG to hide all posts prior to about 2023/4. Older posts included many photos of her and Emily Bett kissing, holding hands, hugging, and being physically comfortable with one another. Which again, only added to the online rumours.

But there are also, many photos of the two of them being cuddly with another of their close friends, Carina MacKenzie (@cadlymack on IG). Nowadays, Aisha, Emily, and Carina post photos of themselves together on their IG stories fairly often. Just a week ago, Aisha attended a premiere of Carina's most recent project. The trio are best friends, but outside of that -- it's all just tabloid rumours.

The three woman are all VERY aware of the internet's speculation too. Carina has made multiple teasing comments over the years, including on the original 2018 IG post (that began this whole debacle), and even as recently has 2023 (see second photo below).

I know people will say, 'Oh, come on! There's so many photos of Aisha and Emily kissing on the lips!' to which I'll say, 'SO WHAT?!?!?!?!'. Can we PLEASE stop instantly labelling women (and people in general) as queer just because their physical intimacy with people of the same gender doesn't fit into society's view of what is or isn't romantic????

As someone who is personally a big fan of platonic kisses and cuddles with my female friends, I am HERE for Aisha and Emily's friendship. I think it is SO important to normalise platonic relationships which involve close, physical, bonds, REGARDLESS of sexuality. To me, Aisha and Emily are sort of the female versions of Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen (though, Ian is gay irl).

AGAIN, this all comes down to MEDIA literacy and NOT BELIEVING everything you see online without actually doing some fact checking. ESPECIALLY now, in the age when AI is trying to paraphrase anything and everything -- it is IMPERATIVE to stop and think 'Is this assumption based on justifiable facts and genuine public statements made by Aisha? Or is it just a culmination of YEARS of speculation, now wrapped up in a baseless little AI package?' 🤔🤔

If you do a Google Search for 'Aisha Tyler LGBT' today -- The AI overview says this:

HOWEVER - if you take ONE second to click the link at the bottom of the summary to show the 'sources' Gemini used to create this overview, you will immediately see the statements about Aisha's sexuality have absolutely NO verifiable sources. The AI decided 'Aisha Tyler specifically identifes as bisexual' based on a combo of the aforementioned 2018 rumours, a silly tweet Aisha made in 2014, and a Quora post where a random user speculates further about her sexuality.

THIS IS WHY IT IS IMPERATIVE TO ACTUALLY DO SOME FACT CHECKING BEFORE JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON OF ASSUMING SOMETHING ABOUT A CELEB!!! (PLEASE, I am on my hands and knees, BEGGING!!!)

Also, for anyone who needs the reminder, Aisha playing queer characters without being queer is NOT queerbaiting!! REAL PEOPLE cannot, by definition, 'queerbait'!!! That is a term exclusively for fictional relationships!

In conclusion, the Criminal Minds fandom labelling Aisha as 'sapphic', or 'openly dating a woman' is not only spreading misinformation, but it continues to perpetuate the idea that celebs need to PUBLICLY out the inner details of their sexualities and relationships online. (Which is so disgusting on so many levels)

WHATEVER the relationship is between Aisha and Emily (and Carina, for that matter) is THEIR OWN BUSINESS!!!!

But to answer the question, NO. Aisha has never 'publicly' dated a woman, nor has she ever publicly stated she's queer!

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Most people would probably guess bard, cleric, or possibly a rogue for class, but I think she's a barbarian main. Muscle mommy with a heart of gold Karlach type characters. For race? Gnome. She's the type who would come up with something off the wall like a bear totem gnome barbarian and make it work.

Need to know what race and class Penelope likes to play in dnd

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I'm doing a rewatch of s12-18. So Luke's feelings for Garcia are pretty much an open secret at the FBI.

Rossi the 1st trip to O'Keefe's

Stephen when they're talking in the bullpen and Alvez blanks what Stephen is saying because Garcia comes in. The plane.

JJ the remote incident, him comforting her at Reid's hearing, he leaves JJ with glass in her head and blood in her eye because Garcia is upset about Stephen then he's reluctant to leave her even with Matt calling for him.

Matt when she mentions maybe leaving for Ca, Matt's eyes go straight to Luke. Plus the "WE KISS" scene at the party.

Tara she also checked Luke's reaction to Garcia leaving.

Voit openly mentions it, and no one says a thing?

These are just off the top of my head.

My girl needs to open her eyes.

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Loved this wholesome caption from CM writer, Chikodili Agwuna who wrote 18x08 'Tara' [X]

"At one point while writing this episode, I wrote three separate proposals. Tara's, Rebecca's, and my own." 😍🥹