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Do you ever make so many ocs that you don't know what to do with? It's a problem

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I'm in love with Pearl/Garnet, but Pesrl/Greg is an interesting dynamic. I also want Garnet for myself, though I would share her with Pearl!

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Technically it's a screenshot, but yeah. It's my Naruto Oc, Toshiro Kamiya! Though he's not fleshed out (I haven't decided his jitsu), I'm pretty sure I'd win. He doesn't know what a shirt is, but he knows what a jacket is! The shirt thing came from my friend's comment, when- in his first design-he was wearing a mesh/fishnet top, but no actual shirt; It just stuck.

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This reminds me that I need to drastically rewrite and rework on a werewolf story, that had the typical stuff and was generally bad

Also, your book sounds cool

To readers who don't like vampires...

So I’ve heard from a few people now that they don’t like vampire fiction, and this isn’t a judgment in any way I’m genuinely curious as to why.

Because I don’t like werewolf fiction, usually. I don’t like the emphasis on so-called “pack dynamics” and aggressive masculinity and just all the wrong takeaways from a flawed study that the author himself spent the rest of his life trying to fix.

I’ll tolerate werewolves in a world of other supernatural creatures, usually vampires, because then the story is the conflict between the two supernatural races.

I don’t hate werewolves as a concept. I actually really like the symbolism and themes behind this other half of you that you can’t control, that’s dangerous and makes you a social pariah. It can be an allegory in a lot of ways.

Modern werewolf stories just tend to feature horny, aggressive, straight men justifying their actions even more with the whole “alpha/omega” concepts, and straight women’s escapist fantasy romanticizing abuse, and I can’t stand it.

However. Pitch me your (non-erotica) werewolf story and if that pitch doesn’t contain the alpha male nonsense that I can’t stand, I’ll give it a shot.

So I’m genuinely curious ‘cause I guess I’m blind to what turns people off from vampires, just so I can better understand my target audience, and those outside it.

If I can guess, based off popular vampire fiction, here’s what I think would turn a reader off, and how my book doesn’t do that, because that’s just not the book I want to read.

I love vampires, but not every depiction of vampires.

If this might change anyone’s mind.

1. The Edward Cullen Type

This perpetual seventeen-year-old is a creepy stalker justified only because he’s immortal and Bella thinks he’s hot. What he is excuses everything he does, and he takes no accountability for his behavior and actions. Stalking her, watching her sleep, his controlling behavior, his warnings for her to stay away yet refusing to leave himself, and his lack of self-control leading her into an “I can fix him” storyline that concludes with her dead and a mother before she’s 19.

My… I guess Edward stand-in, in terms of the primary vampire love interest, is nothing like him. And, again, this isn’t a “my book is superior” argument, we just had different goals for the stories we want to tell, different audiences, and my goal was not romantacy.

Dorian is, first, 24/25. He wasn’t a scared kid when he turned. He was already an adult and a parentified one at that, so he’s had to mature beyond his years to be a responsible caretaker with discipline.

He’s also not fixated on the protagonist, not party to the “tall dark and handsome inexplicably finds the bland brunette every-woman girl the most amazing woman in the world with just one glance” storyline.

If anything, the vampire is the one in the “I can fix him” role, trying to save the protagonist from himself.

2. Urban Fantasy Setting

Every vampire story I can think of is urban or historical fantasy. Vampires aren’t anywhere near the first creatures you think of in high fantasy, but this time I wanted to change that.

I do however have a bone to pick with immortals who don't act their age, whitewashed retellings of historical events, and just sloppy research that comes second to the next period costume the author squishes their character into.

I love urban and historical fantasy! But I wanted to see what would happen if you took them out of the usual last 300 years of world history and put them in a high fantasy setting.

My characters did not live through the roaring twenties. Nor did they see King Louis XIV. Nor do they have a signature look for each decade from the 50s onward. They have no commentary on the world wars.

What they do have is a commentary on their wars, and still the ‘wise immortal’ vs ‘naïve young mortal’ is at play. I wanted a blank slate to play with.

3. The Obsessive Supernatural Lover

As mentioned above, I don’t have an Edward Cullen type, but nor do I have the other typical vampire trope of “immortal finds the uncanny reincarnation of their dead lover in someone centuries later that is the basis of their love affair”.

Again, not that I don’t like this trope, I just didn’t want to do it.

First of all, my lead vampire love interest is aroace, but also poly, and while this is a romance, it’s a romantic subplot in what’s more a political adventure fantasy. Protagonist Elias is in a “vampires are evil, soulless monsters because that’s all I’ve ever known it must be true” state, until he meets Dorian, who starts throwing all that into question.

Elias falls first. Dorian is… more complicated. He’s obsessive in one way—he’s determined to save Elias from himself and help him be happy in the new reality that he’s stuck him. Elias fights him on this constantly.

Whether Elias can mature enough and grow independent enough to thrive on his own and be happy in his new life is the determining factor in whether anything will happen between them. Dorian wants Elias to be happy, more than he wants Elias to be happy with him.

4. Teeth

Specifically a biting kink? I think people might have a problem with that? And to that I have to say this isn’t erotica. While I have Elias who discovers that if it’s the right person he doesn’t mind being bit at all, I have Dorian hates being bit under any circumstances.

Vamprisim in this world is linked to sexuality in a way—if you’re allonormative and sex-favorable, you’re going to derive pleasure from being a vampire. If you’re aroace like Dorian, food is just food, and he can and does separate the two, and being aroace actually gives him an edge over other vampires in his discipline and tolerance to his hunger and keeping a clear head.

5. Blood, death, gore

…Okay yeah, if you’ve got a problem with any of these, this ain’t the book for you. I just don’t glorify (or sexualize) it, if that makes a difference. I’m an aroace author and wouldn’t know where to begin with it, which also means a lack of sexualizing my characters.

Genuinely don’t know how to do it without thinking it looks terrible and corny.

But I have a cast of characters with supernatural healing and I take full advantage of some brutal battle tactics.

—

I wanted to take vampires as a way of othering. How quickly we dehumanize people who are different from us, many of whom did not ask to be what they are and who can thrive in ways that aren’t threatening. Many of whom chose to be what they are and make the most of it, living quietly and not bothering anyone. My vampires aren't "veggie" vamps that only murder animals. And they aren't "ethical" vamps that rob blood banks and call it superior.

The good ones at least, have worked out a way to cohabitate with mortals and take enough to survive, fully considering the amount of blood a mortal should be giving before it starts to impact their health.

My vampires don’t have pointy ears or super pale skin or supernatural beauty, or any defining features as “other” until they show their teeth. The point of that is that they can “pass” as mortal, as regular people, and make friends, interact with polite society if they want to, and how quickly friendships get eviscerated upon the perceived betrayal of discovering that this friend isn’t human. And how insane this cohabitation looks to "vampires are soulless monsters" clansfolk, who think it must all be an elaborate con playing on their ability to pass.

It's a take on how thin that line can be, and how arbitrary divisions are arbitrary when “monsterousness” is relative. This is a world where there are vampires who keep mortals as blood slaves to survive. This is also a world where mortals keep vampires as blood slaves to survive.

Which is then more of a monster? The vampire that buys mortals and treats them well enough because mortals are fragile and abusing them helps nothing, or the mortals who keep vampires in solitary, inhumane conditions, fully abusing them knowing that no matter what happens to their bodies, they’ll survive it?

It’s a question I intend to take 4 books exploring and if you’re still not a vampire fan, well then this isn’t the series for you. But to anyone who’s just seen “vampire” in the summary and clicked away, maybe this’ll have you reconsider?

Book 1 is available here and Book 2, I hope, should be out around Christmas, 2025.

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The assassin and the person they were sent after are now lovers!

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I feel called out! I make a ton of ocs, forget about them, and I never know what to do about them; The plot is non existant

anybody else . can anyone hear me

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I'm going to join in!

DAY 15

GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 15

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I don't think I'll have any great grandchildren, considering I'm hardly interested in romance and not at all interested in sex

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This is how I became friends with someone. We were both in this program that trains food service... And I saw them sitting and reading ao3. I then asked what fanfic they were reading. I got super excited! Now, we are friends!!

i have gotten to a point where if i’m in a public space and i think someone seen me reading on ao3 i try to be like you know what?? good. because no listen if you see me reading + you can tell it’s a fanfic + you can tell it’s ao3 +bonuspoints you know what fandom it is because you recognise someone’s name, maybe that’s fate. maybe fate brought you to the row behind me on this airplane. maybe you were meant to read ninety one whiskey. maybe you were meant to read I was screaming your name through the radio. like idk man i think it’s fate i think maybe you should. what are the fucking chances

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Man, I wish I looked as good as you! How did you get there??

(Photo for visibility and anyone spite following me.)

"You're still a girl, you faggot."

This morning's Anon hate mail called me both a girl and a faggot in the same breath, which is a pretty clear example that ideological consistency is not important to these people, only sending a message that both women and queer folks of all genders are unwelcome.

I don't really waste my time dunking on "accidentally affirming" hate mail (I'm not going to celebrate being called a faggot in this context), or, in a similar vein, pointing out logical fallacies in those who say "pronouns are recent". (I see so many allies get mired in mocking transphobes for "not understanding grammar," so I'm going to talk about that alongside this piece of hate mail.)

They don't care.

Y'all gotta understand that transphobes aren't attempting to meet you where you are with your understanding of gender theory and the rules of grammar -- they are just scattershotting hate and broadcasting that trans people are unwanted. (And they usually also reveal quickly who else they hate.)

Of course they know what pronouns are. Of course I am nearly 50 and it's absurd to label me as a child. And of course they wouldn't actually think of me as a gay man. (And there's no point in correcting them that I am a bi man.)

They loathe me as an openly trans man, and they have also made it clear there is no way I can "fix" myself into an acceptable woman, especially given that no woman is acceptably equal in their eyes (the use of "girl" to insult me). They just want to tell me they hate me in any form.

I'm only mentioning it here because I don't like seeing other folks trying to engage with this kind of hate on the grounds that it is "illogical" or internally inconsistent. Since when has this kind of bigotry ever been rational.

We're also speaking 2 different languages. When they say things like, "no one ever used pronouns before," they are not referring to grammar. They are talking about pronouns listed in bios and email signatures. They are talking about individuals using they/them and neopronouns. They are talking about visibly queer people.

When they call me a girl as an insult instead of a woman, they are infantalizing me, taking away my agency and further sending a message that women and girls need the controlling influence of men.

And when they call me a faggot, they are merely grasping for a slur that still is loaded with the promise of violence.

It's all just another type of dog whistle and I'm tired of this type of hate being engaged with on "logic" grounds, especially in a dunk. You are missing most of the message and how this kind of hate goes beyond just me, some random trans guy on the internet. You can't counter this with smugness.

My Anon hate will get deleted with a block, and I'll vent about it in a way that tries not to engage with the actual logical inconsistency. No good faith for bad actors.

But reminder that, while this stuff doesn't hurt me much psychologically anymore, to be spit upon regularly is still disgusting to go through. Also, this attitude is deeply rooted in the current regime, so there is actual legislative power behind those hateful words now, no matter how well I can emotionally shrug them off.

All I can do as a queer person is to persist and not be intimidated, and encourage cishet folks to knock it off with sassy clapbacks and instead say and prove in no uncertain terms that this kind of hate is unwanted.

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HELL YEAH!!

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Sometimes, they become the main character!

A major problem of being a writer is falling in love with your side characters. You want to explore them, want to share every detail you created for them, show them off to your readers. The pain of not letting them outshine the main character is real.

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WHAT??!!! I feel so lucky, I just finished the show for the first time recently! The timing!

ITS REAL OH MY GOD ITS REAL!!

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I love reading incomplete works! Something about them is so exciting! And I'm making the authors happy by showing my support and getting excited to see what happens next.

Also once, I accidently tricked myself into thinking a fic updated!

I feel like this is an unpopular opinion, but more people should read incomplete/unfinished/in-progress fanfics.

I've noticed this huge trend where creators on tiktok and tumblr who will be explaining how to use Archive Of Our Own to new users and they always say "and make sure to scroll down and click completed only" or how people will go out of their way to mention they only read completed fics 'because they were traumatized when they forgot to check the dates and didn't realize this fic hadn't been updated since 2012'.

The thing is - I think by not engaging with and/or actively avoiding writer's WIPs readers are potentially adding to the aggregate of abandoned works. Now this obviously isn't the case for all abandoned fics, anything from major life events, to loss of interest, to getting busy can be a reason for a fic getting abandoned - but at least on some level I just know that writers are quitting while they're ahead when they aren't garnering any response or feedback because reading WIPs has become unpopular. If you're worried about reading something that hasn't been updated since 2012 then you can use the date updated function to sort out old fics.

Anyways, support your favorite fanfic writers by engaging with their WIPs.

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Yep, but I don't think I have any posted here. I'll have to post some!

Reblog if it's OK for other artists to draw your OCs

Sometimes I get too timid to send asks to ask. I want to see how many people are ok with artists drawing their OCs!

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I would love to see Benny and Ethan stuck in a large get along shirt, with "Pool Boys At The Vampire Mansion" on it! That would be hilarious

some of these are character shirts from mbav, one is smtg I saw on tumblr, and a few are just ideas of mine. If you have any more ideas for t-shirts for this character, lmk!!

Which one is y'all's favorite?

(link to previous post w/my cartoon self on it)

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I mightve mentioned this before, but the MBA fic I was reading also ended/went on hiatus on a cliffhanger!! The last time they updated was on my birthday last year; I hope they're okay. The last chapter is literally called "Conflicted Feelings: Part 1". I find that hilarious!

Okay so I've been thinking way too much about My Babysitter's A Vampire again and how mad I am about the cliffhanger ending but like don't worry they're all fine, the last two eps never happened, and the gang is having a movie night rn