#I actually don't (knowingly) read any fics where someone is using another person's Tav/Durge

[optiwashere]

How do you feel about other people making fan art or fanfic about your oc Asheera? Like interacting with other Tavs or writing their own scenes?

Art? Please do! If anyone ever wants to they can. I'd love to know what an artist is making, and I'd love to see it before it's out for the rest of the world so I can offer early praise as well as suggestions or corrections, but please go ahead!

I expect people to credit artists, so I would expect another artist to credit Asheera as my OC and link to my stuff. That's basically all I expect.

Right now I can't commission anything (holidays go brrr) so please don't solicit for them 💜 Also, I have a lil blurb on my AO3 profile that covers the things that people have blanket permission on! It's never come up, but I made it years ago so I think I'll add onto it now...

I really appreciate the love and interest in Asheera if anyone felt compelled to write fic with her in it, that's really flattering! I really do mean that. Like, I wanna express that up front. Super flattering and I'm honored. I love everyone (mutuals, followers, drivebys, anons, all y'all) that pours love out for her and asks questions about her. I really do! But there is a line.

This is the condensed version of what I've spent the better part of an hour writing.

In advance, you don't really have to do this but for people that don't know — it's considered common courtesy in fanfic circles to ask about using other people's OCs in fanfiction.

Also: this is about fanfiction specifically, not the fun asks that come in, and it isn't a permission thing. I can't stop people from writing about her. I also can't stop how I know I will react, emotionally.

I would be very wary of why people would want to use her in fic and, if it was on AO3, why they felt the need to publish it. My immediate answer to a total stranger doing that is: I would probably be demotivated and depressed by it.

Please don't do it if you respect me as a person. This is for me as much as it is for you. Trust me.

Asheera isn't a self-insert, but I am very emotionally attached to her. She has projections of my transition and experience with transition in her. I would be extremely uncomfortable/borderline depressed to see her depicted in ways that don't conform to what I think of her. I also don't know what "interacting with other Tavs" really means without hard specifics. I do mean literally word-by-word on that.

I'm not pretending that this is a moral high ground or a logical stance. It's all an emotional reaction. I've had experience with my OCs being written in strangers' fics and it never ends well. It's made me possessive and controlling and I recognize that. I also recognize that it is not anyone else's job to monitor my emotions or feelings, so take my word at face value here.

This isn't even touching on the part where I'm actively writing for Asheera, have lots of unused ideas that I wouldn't want to see someone else write, and the clusterfuck it can create on tumblr/AO3 if someone assumes a one-time pass equals free reign to fanfiction.

Please respect my wishes 💜