#I'm severely otp-deprived

[novuit]

I hadn't seen anyone post EngIta content for a long time so I'm fixing that.

[humanveil]

blacked out after seeing ali call elliot’s parallel universe thing self-soothing and when i came to this was in my phone notes xxx

[decepti-thots]

I was in the tumblr tf fandom for a hot second a few years ago and i just wanted to ask, is it still really aggressive here? because back then there was a lot of shipping drama, there were a few callout posts going around (can't really remember about what) and just...a lot of bad stuff. I personally had someone tell me to kill myself because I liked one of the villains. guess I'm just wondering if, in your opinion, things have chilled out? Cuz I'd like to get back into it but I'm a little hesitant;;;

I'm going to try and give the fullest answer I can in the best faith to this! For context, this blog is a couple years old now, I have enough followers that I get a lot of active engagement on my posts etc, I am very active in TF fandom here, Twitter, and IRL, and while I did not used to be active I have been lurking in TF fandom as long as I have been on Tumblr.

There is absolutely still some toxicity; all fandoms have their bad faith actors, their drama hounds, their shipping Diskhorsers TM. I have gotten hate mail, I know folks who have issue with weird anon haters who are persistent, whatever. But no, it is not as bad as it has been in the past, IMO, not at ALL, and it is 100% possible to have an active, sociable and nice time in this fandom so long as you curate your engagement, with basically no drama at all. Many of the worst folks burned out and left when the fandom got less active and their shitstirring paid lesser and lesser dividends, IME.

People sometimes ask how I maintain such a vocal presence without falling into the still-there drama, and I have some advice that I promise you will mitigate like, 99% of the possible issues you could encounter:

Block whenever you feel like blocking. If you get a bad vibe, if you just don't personally like someone and don't wanna see them, if you see them throwing what looks like a temper tantrum you don't want in on, just block 'em. Remember: blocking is nothing personal towards the person you are blocking. It is not insulting and doesn't need to be 'earned'. Block every single person you think not blocking might even just theoretically cause stress or drama. (I am blocked by several people for reasons no more serious than 'I hate your OTP', and I commend every one of them for doing it and having a better time on this site!)

Delete any and all anon hate. Block anyone and everyone who sends you hate. No exceptions. No witty comebacks. No takedowns. Nothing. You see it and the actual literal second you do, you block and delete. None of it is worth one second of your time. Deprived of the oxygen, they will leave. And you won't be tempted to re-read it and stress out.

In that same vein, if it causes issues, just turn anon off! Turn it off. Personally I keep it on because I simply do not care about the odd troll, but if you care even slightly? Fuck 'em, turn it off, anon is a privilege your followers need to earn by acting in good faith.

Find people you like and follow them, ignore blatant shitstirring in the maintags (again: block people!) and try to curate content and follows and mutuals based on what you do like and not what you don't. Curate positive engagement; do not rely on the general fandom slurry, find what you like and hang out in your own corner of things that bring you joy. If the maintag stresses you out: don't check it. Check the blogs of folks you know are cool instead. Stuff like that.

Fandom should be fun. Fandom should be finding people you like and sharing good times with them, not stressing about avoiding folks you hate, or who hate you. Tumblr lets you moderate how you engage, when, and where more than almost any current social media site; now you can even turn off reblogs and oh my GOD is that a lifesaver function btw. If you want, you can make your blog unsearchable! It means you will need to be more proactive in making friends. But TF fandom is pretty tight knit these days, and folks want to talk a lot of the time. You'll still be able to engage with cool people.

There's way less aggro losers around these days, but more to the point, you can absolutely avoid the ones that still insist on being annoying and starve them out without much effort, tbh.

[autumn-equinox-04]

aiden?

Yessss I love Aiden!!

Favorite thing about them:

I love his energy. Aiden just has a perpetually sleep-deprived, in-desperate-need-of-caffeine, tired-of-life, angsty-arteeste vibe that I relate to on a spiritual level.

Also: dude has a mischievious streak. He's not innocent. In the right place and time and situation, he can be just as much of a chaos demon as anyone else. He rocks the whole "hidden-depth" vibe.

Least favorite thing about them:

This is hard because I genuinely love him, but probably his tendency to push his emotions away- and, in the process, push people away. It really contributes to his angsty arteeste motif, but it causes so many unnecessary problems (case in point: CoG and NoI).

Favorite line:

Aiden has way too many iconic lines for me to choose just one, so I'll just put the line that he's (arguably) most known for:

"Why are you like this, Shah?"

brOTP:

Aiden and Rudy.

Once Aiden stops resisting the call of madness, these two will terrorize the world and you cannot convince me otherwise.

OTP:

Arudennnn

I love these two so much omg their dynamic their banter their everything <3

nOTP:

Aiden and Kara.

Just. No. I don't like it. I DON'T LIKE IT.

(also him with literally everybody else in the series except Aru because the Potatoes are like his siblings and the adults are like his relatives?? extended family?? that Indian thing where everyone who is not your parents is your uncle or aunty and it's very unlikely that you're actually related to any of them??)

Random headcanon:

Aiden is a side sleeper. He doesn't curl up into a ball or anything, but throws his limbs out in front of him like he's trying to hug someone.

Aiden falls into the category of Capable Of Swearing, but Does Not Swear (Usually).

Aiden has several patented Looks™ and uses them on a regular basis (mostly on Aru and Rudy).

Unpopular opinion:

I don't think I have one?

Song I associate with them:

Okay, I.... genuinely don't know this one. There are simultaneously too many songs I associate with him, and no songs I associate with him.

So for now I'm gonna go with the song he sang to Aru in NoI (it's not a real song, technically, but you can't get any more authentic than what the guy came up with himself)

If anyone has any recommendations, please share!!

Favorite picture of them:

There's no question about it, it's this one (because otherwise I would have had to say the old official art, and that's a big NO):

And that's it from me! Thanks for the ask, @parrotxx!

[normalbrothers]

1, 3, 5 generally, 13 (about polly) for the salty fandom asks >:)

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

i'd guess the main otps in this fandom are tommy/grace, tommy/lizzie and tommy/alfie - which i all understand. the former two are literally consummated relationships in the show and you can see how they got there and the latter is a good dynamic between two male characters (hdhdhd), and i'm interested in/fine with all of them as far as watching pb goes. there are couple of popular tropes/takes assigned to these relationships that i don't really agree with or find fitting for the characters, and they tend to bleed through in fic, so it's kind of a hit and miss often enough, but as far as canon goes, they are all fine to me (in the specific ways they exist, etc), so i do get them (to answer the question as directly as possible) though imho this is one of these questions where it also becomes obvious that pb fandom doesn't really have traditional fandom dynamics where there are several OTP corners/niches of either canon or non-canon relationships (that don't involve tommy, and there are a couple!) that you could argue about; everything is so oversaturated with oc or y/n fic that you don't really have this stuff naturally occur in greater measure. which is sad, honestly.

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion

sure have! i've grown a little more "lenient" or open-minded or patient about stuff, so it's not something i tend to do right away anymore, but i think there are probably still a couple of opinions i'd unfollow someone for.

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

"ruined" is a harsh word, but tommy/alfie isn't that interesting to me anymore: most fics are either Margate Fics(tm) or stuck in s2 or just complete aus that have little to do with the characters in the first place and often it's tommy being written as separate/isolated from the family which is always kind of boring to me: i need to know what's happening Over There ! i get why this happens, etc, but it's a shame, since the relationship actually went through a couple of canon developments that could be explored. (THOUGH i do have to say alfie has grown somewhat obnoxious to me in s5/s6, and i ended up not really liking his and tommy's scenes (they are *fine*, but i sort of think it was a mistake to have brought him back after s4 at all, and i think you can see that in these seasons, even if alfie's function is plausible). and that's not quite the fandom's fault, that's kind of on the show/writing to be fair)

Unpopular opinion about XXX character? (Polly)

she's either reduced to the girlboss matriarch who's badass and right about everything (boring) or diminished in her own arc (re: michael) or caricatively mischaracterized as a jealous harpy when it comes to tommy and gr/ace (yawn), and it's all so terrible and doesn't dignify the character at all there's a trend of her being deprived of the complexity she absolutely has in canon (literally thee female lead, and what for!!), when what makes her so good is that she's faulty and flawed and this compelling melting pot of conflicting and contradictory desires and wants and emotions and ambitions and trauma and hypocrisies; and it all plainly plays out for everyone to see! she's as multifaceted as tommy and arthur, and as good and bad, as sympathetic and as hard to like as either of them. obviously, her arc has been tragically cut short, but there's still plenty of it when revisting the show, and her impact is tangible: anyone who's watched s6 probably had that odd moment of going 'oh i know how polly would have felt about that/what polly would have done/said here', that's how good she was, a perfectly realized character potrayed by an extraordinary actress!

[imwritesometimes]

Donolinc is one of my favorite OTPs of all time, and because I've had a serious case of brainrot over them for years now, I've written several fics about them. For your Donolinc reading consideration:

Sleep It Off {681 words, rated: G, no warnings}

Lincoln visits a sleep deprived and very exhausted John Donovan

Endearments {564 words, rated: G, no warnings}

It was just something Donovan did, called people by little pet names

When the Night Comes {557 words, rated: G, no warnings}

Lincoln reached out wildly, trying to get a better grip on reality. A form started taking shape beneath his hands, a voice cutting through his mental fog. Donovan.

Sharp Dressed Man {722 words, rated: T, no warnings}

Lincoln's large hands came up and grasped either end of Donovan's still loose tie. "I'm glad you were never a bow tie man," he said grinning as he began straightening out the necktie.

Partnership {1,721 words, rated: G, no warnings}

Everything got very crazy very fast when Lincoln returned to New Bordeaux. He'd been so busy leaving a trail of bodies through the city he hadn't even had time to check in with Donovan lately. However, a heavy downpour and heat from the cops pushed Lincoln in the CIA agent's direction one night.

Till Your Fingers Burn {6,118 words, rated: G, no warnings}

He chuckled when he spied Donovan at his desk, head lolling back in his seat as he dozed, headphones for the wiretap device still on his head. A cigarette burned in the ashtray on the desk. Lincoln picked it up and took a drag before he tossed the empty pack of cigarettes from his glove box at Donovan's head.

-or-

5 times Lincoln and Donovan give one another small tokens of affection and one time they share an exchange of affection

Courageous Act {8,324 words, rated: T, no warnings}

Lincoln swallowed thickly and glanced out the windshield, trying to focus on anything other than the fluttering sensation in his chest. Donovan sighed as he fumbled for a moment with the handle on the side of his seat until it finally reclined a bit. Lincoln looked over again, his eyes lingering on the exposed hollow of Donovan's throat, the light, wispy hairs on his chest that just barely peeked out from beneath his thin undershirt.

-or-

five times Lincoln and Donovan wanted to kiss one another, and one time they did