#These two were made for fanvids.

[moinsbienquekaworu]

How have I been in fandom for - going on 8 years (?) and not gotten into fanvids before?? All the association I could have been making.... All the memories.... All the composition and clever editing....

[aquietgirlsmess]

I’ll never forgive the writers for what they did to villadero

[nostalgia-tblr]

having remembered my youtubes channel i watched this one again and you know what fuck it this is actually pretty good so i'm going to make yous have to see it on your dash.

[chainsawcorazon]

January 8th - 14th, 2024

Monday, January 8th - Sins of the Family // Isolation

Tuesday, January 9th - Prophecies // Deadly Devotion

Wednesday, January 10th - Superman Cults // Possession

Thursday, January 11th - The Forgotten One // A Hole in the World

Friday, January 12th - A Parent Knows Best // Eldritch Horror

Saturday, January 13th - It Takes a Village // Inheritance

Sunday, January 14th - Mistakes Were Made // Horror Movie AU

Purpose?

Not enough horror-themed fanworks in the world about the Superfam. Got jealous of the Batfandom having all these horror-themed events and projects, so I decided to host one for the Superfam.

Why should we participate in this?

Because you like seeing the soupeyfam in ever-increasingly fucked up situations that elicit a deeply-rooted, ancient dread :3

So how does it work?

The release date for fanworks is from Monday, the 8th of January through Sunday, the 14th of January, 2024. 

This aint a Halloween-themed event! You have well over three months to write, draw, and create fanworks. However, use the spooky season to help generate some ideas and propel you forward! :3

This an opportunity for people who’d like to explore the Superfamily characters, dynamics, and relationships through a variety of prompts. Although romantic ships are nice, please make sure the Superfam are the focus of your fanwork.

Superfamily characters include, but are not limited to:

Clark Kent

Lois Lane

Kara Zor El

Jonathan and Martha Kent

Jon Kent

Osul Ra and Otho Ra

John Henry Irons

Natasha Irons

Kon El/Conner Kent

Chris Kent/Lor Zod

Karen Starr

Kong Kenan

Superfamily characters of ANY comic book universe are acceptable. If you want to spend the entire fanweek exploring Ultraman and Injustice!Superman because you love drama, then be my guest! If you want Ultraman to kidnap Lois this time instead of Jon, go for it!! Let that imagination run WILD!!!

Darkfic, horrorfic, genre-specific work, and other both safe and not-safe-for-tunglr dot hell tropes are welcome. Just make sure that you post any Mature content on a landing page that doesn't restrict Mature content (like AO3). I don’t want anyone getting their blog banned. We cannot defeat our capitalist overlords, but we can definitely work around them.

This fanweek will not have a dedicated blog. These prompts are free for anyone to use. Because it is a non-traditional, non-monetized, and free-to-opt-in casual event, there will be no mods but moi, no advertising of paid services, and no ratings or participant restrictions. I will open a collection on AO3 in January for anyone who wants their work collated for this event.

In order to ensure that both creators and the audience are making informed decisions about what they engage with, all creators are encouraged to include triggers, ships, and any other squick warnings. 

Please utilize the read-more function for fanworks that are longer than 250 words. We're tryna read yer stories, not get spammed with a wall of text. Please Be Courteous.

And last but not least - if you are engaging with any of the fanworks, reblog, reblog, reblog! Share the work with your followers. Send all the love to the creators for crafting their masterpieces!!

What can I contribute?

Fanart (standalones, comic strips, etc.), fanfiction (one-shots, multichapter, etc.), fanmixes, gifsets, graphics, meme collections, fanvids, whatever your heart desires! Go wild!!!

Can I create/write not-safe-for-tunglr dot hell content?

Yes!!! All creators are encouraged to include triggers warnings, sub-genre specifications, ships, and other warnings in their posts. I will not discourage you from writing your 16k Kara-goes-evil fic, but please... Be Courteous and tag your fanworks appropriately so people can make an informed decision on what they're comfortable with viewing.

What does (X) prompt mean?

Each day has two prompts!! You can either pick a prompt OR you can combine prompts in different ways. Let your imagination take you where you want to go with each prompt!! If you want to explore both in the same fanwork, then be my guest!!

Mainstream Canon, Elsewords, and AU content is acceptable! Just make sure to stay within the comicsverse. Creativity is key! Have fun!!!

Can I crackship/multiship/harem/OT3/polyam the characters?

Absolutely!!! Just please remember that this is the Soupeyfam horror week, not the Lois-Has-A-Harem-of-Elseworlds-Supermen week. We love ships and things, but this week is about the Superfamily. The characters can have their lovers, but their personal romantic dalliances shouldn't overtake the Soupeyfam dynamics (unless you're pulling a Cersei and Jaime, lmao, if that's the case, go wild).

Does this have a tag?

During release week, use the general “superfam” tag to share your work with the wider Superfam fandom on tunglr. You can use whatever other tags you fancy. The best way to share, however, is to directly @ me so that I may reblog it.

I didn’t read a damn thing before this, Ava.

TL;DR: Over three months until the fanweek!!! For all fanwork creators out there, now’s the time to start thinking about what prompts you want to utilize for your creations. There are no creative restrictions, but I do ask that you follow these posting tips:

All fanfiction should be under a read-more.  

Not-safe-for-tunglr fanwork should be LINKED to whatever landing site the content is being hosted on (Twitter, AO3, etc). This includes both fanfiction and fanart. I don’t want your blog getting flagged bc tunglr hates gay people.

Provide content warnings for all triggers, squicks, and sub-genres. Unfortunately, in my ten odd years away from DC Comics, the fandom's seen a resurgence in puritanical behavior and tons of censorship and self-censorship. Please list content warnings on your work but do not be discouraged in sharing your work. If a fancop gets on your ass, block them. Please block as MANY as you can. They're like pests, they're always gonna be there, but their influence can be diminished by staunch blocking and reporting.

You can participate as much as you want!! Maybe you only wanna create for one day? Cool! Maybe you’re an overachieving corporate clown insomniac like myself, and wanna create for every day of the week? Go for it!!! 

The most important thing is to have fun :)

Truth be told, this event is entirely selfish. I personally love to the horror genre, and would love to see the characters in the Superfamily get more canon content as seen through beloved horror tropes. Unfortunately, Status Quo often gets in the way, and the current fanworks are largely ambivalent to the Dreadful and Despairing. If you'd like to join me in creating deliciously dark fiction featuring our favorite DC clan, please do! I would love to read your 10k character study of Otho and Osul assimilating into human society after spending their formative years as slaves in Warworld.

We’re over three months away from release week, so take your time, look through the prompts, and get your creative juices flowing! I will be sending out reminders until the go-live date.

For the people who showed interest during the initial interest check, I hope you're able to participate. To the four people who hate me, your mom's a hoe. Thank you.

[mondstalgia]

BL ships that I will never forget:

In a few weeks it's gonna be 14 years of obsessing over queer media, especially BL, so here are the ships always on my mind in no particular order.

Arata & Shingyouji (Takumi-kun Series 4: Pure, 2010): Listen the Takumi-kun Series from 2007 to like 2011 was my life as a (pre-)teen. In hindsight really sketchy but anyway haha. Those two really caught my eye back then though (especially their racy kisses) and I was happy they got their own bigger part in one of the movies.

Evan & Isak (Skam Season 3, 2016): Was there a queer European teen that wasn't obsessed with this season of Skam? I remember re-watching it so many times I could recite their text without speaking Norwegian. Plenty of beautiful Skam universe parallel couples out there but these two will remain the iconic blueprint.

ChenAi (Kiseki: Dear to me, 2023): Almost unfair to put them on here but seeing how I haven't been able to think about any other ship every single day for the last 3 months, I feel like it's justified. They just have everything I want and need to get hyperfixated on.

Seiryo & Yuzuru (Seven Days, 2015): Oh my, the way I loved this silly concept and how funny it was yet they managed to get me all emotionally involved in the span of two movies? Insane chemistry and just..everything I needed back then. Especially since it was then one of the very few BL's I saw without a sad ending.

KornKnock (Bad Romance 2016, Together With Me 2017 - 2018): Listen, plot wise Manner of Death is the absolute height to me but when it comes to MaxTul I will never forget them as Korn and Knock in these series. Forever grateful to all the fanvids that led me to finding my BL fathers. Chemistry forever out of this world. Also shout out to Yiwha, best female character in any BL and my wife.

WinTeam (Until We Meet Again 2019, Between Us 2023): The couple that made me aware of what second lead syndrome was because I waited so long for more of them, it felt eternal. I don't think I will ever get tired of these two.

VegasPete (KinnPorsche, 2022): Who said I couldn't like a toxic ship? These two took me by surprise, I didnt even know they were going to be a ship in the series. Definitely acknowledging how fucked up they are yet at the same time it's the forst toxic ship that really got me. I love them, in my own weird way.

HaoGu (HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count, 2019): I mourned them like I have mourned no other couple. I should have known from the title but they really lead me astray. My beautiful boys, the star crossed lovers. They still get me emotional now, I might go cry now.

Hira & Kiyoi (Utsukushii Kare, 2021 - 2023): Before ChenAi there were Hira and Kiyoi who absolutely owned my heart. I love how misunderstood by BL fans they were who claimed their toxicity. Meanwhile I simply love how weird their relationship is and getting to see a real Tsundere in action. I'm obsessed with them.

Honourable Mention: Kim Jae Wook as Min Sun Woo in Antique Bakery, 2008. The very first gay character I saw in Korean media. Forever iconic, forever in my heart.

[sansasnowflakes]

the thing that makes me go insane when it comes to jonsa is that even though it’s not canon - and probably never will be - it’s a ship that’s got everything. it’s got everything you could ever wish for in a pairing. the shared history, the childhood memories, the complex family dynamics, being family yet being strangers, going from being strangers to being family. the parallels in their individual journeys - being in turn a traitor and a prisoner, learning to survive by playing a role in a place where they can never rest nor trust anyone. jon going from bastard to lord and sansa going from lady to bastard. being hurt over and over again, forced to grow up too soon, their dreams and ideals crushed, their innocence taken from them. the years-long separation, the pain of losing everyone they love, the longing for home and thinking they’re all alone in the world. and then... and then the reunion. unexpected and all the more beautiful because of it, all the more beautiful because of the distance that existed before, because she wasn’t his favourite sister, because of all the hardships they endured that made them into different people, people who could understand each other, love each other. the fact that with him sansa is finally safe, and with her jon finds his purpose again. avenging their family, avenging each other, and the house stark of it all - reclaiming their stolen home together when they used to be the two people who wanted to leave it the most. finding their identity as starks, an identity which was taken from sansa and never belonged to jon, by gifting it to each other - jon helping her get winterfell back and sansa letting him know he is a stark in her eyes, giving him the acceptance he never got from her mother. the comfort and protection, being each other’s safe haven, helping each other heal, learning to trust again, learning that they deserve to be loved. sansa’s wish of being loved for who she is, all her little girl dreams that she thought were impossible, coming true when she finds her prince in the most unlikely candidate of all. jon, with his lower status and feelings of inadequacy, being the hero she so desperately wished for, someone brave gentle and strong. but the anguish, the shame and the denial, a forbidden love, a burning desire fighting against the need to be honourable. jon’s parentage being revealed. the layers, the LAYERS guys!!! and that’s not even all of it. fics, meta, fanvids and edits have opened up this world of possibilities, they’ve taken these characters, understood them so perfectly, and created the most nuanced, compelling, beautiful relationship i’ve seen in all my years of obsessing over fictional couples.

[annaofaza]

Inspired by this lovely fanvid by @uynumeotp <3

He wakes up on a white couch.

Vash's first instinct is bury his head in his hands. He can't go through this. Not again.

But when he looks up, it's... different. The orphanage is bustling, as it is now, with the shouts of children playing tag; he can even hear Miss Melanie scolding someone for not helping sweep the yard. A grove of trees surrounds them, laden with tiny white flowers.

And when he blinks, there's a table, absurdly set for two, draped in a white cloth with all the things Vash loves: a box full of doughnuts, a plate heaped with spaghetti, pint glasses bubbling over with foam. He's seated in one of the rickety folding chairs that they drag out of the closet for visitors, underneath the umbrella he's had close on his hand more than once.

And in the middle of the table, a bottle, with a familiar label...

"Tongari."

Vash closes his eyes.

"It's impolite to ignore someone right in front of you, spikey."

Slowly, slowly, he opens his eyes, and sees Wolfwood seated across from him.

There's no blood on his suit, no feverish gleam in his eyes, no sweat on his brow, no cross in sight—he looks as neat and pressed as he's always infuriatingly been in the middle of nowhere. Vash drinks him in, going back to the little details he'd already forgotten: the way his buttons have been stitched and restitched on, the tiny crosses standing out stark white on his wrist like cufflinks, the almost delicate way he holds a cigarette between his fingers.

"Tongari," Wolfwood repeats, "I guess I can't call you blondie now, can I?"

"No" is all he can say. His eyes go to Wolfwood's—and stay there. He's not wearing his sunglasses, now, and that, of all things, makes his throat close up.

"I hardly recognize you without your coat, either. What did you do with that thing?"

"I... put it away," Vash manages. He remembers Meryl giving a song and dance at not having it for tonight's show, the exclusive interview, Vash shoving her away, laughing, when she (half) jokingly told him to strip to make up for it. You'll ruin me! They'll get us for false advertising! and him howling, You shouldn't have made promises you couldn't keep! and her shrieking, Milly! Milly! Hold him down!

"Your glasses, too?"

No more hiding, he'd told them. Everyone knows who I am anyway. Nai wore them, sometimes, with his cloak. Sometimes Vash would get the shivers, looking at him, his twin a ghost from long ago.

Vash watches as Wolfwood takes another drag, smoke escaping from his lips. "After all this time," he finds himself saying, "you haven't stopped smoking?"

Wolfwood chuckles. "It's not like it'll do anything here."

Vash's eyes fill with tears.

"Come now," Wolfwood says, more gently. "I've missed your smile. I never did get to see it one last time."

"You were dying," Vash retorts, before he can think, Wolfwood even now knowing how to push his buttons. "Did you want me to stand up and cheer, too?"

Wolfwood's eyes soften. He really does look different without his glasses; Vash wishes he could have seen more of his eyes. "It was bound to happen at some point, tongari. I'm surprised I made it that long, frankly."

"You should have—" Vash chokes; he's thought this over countless nights, alternatively raging and breaking down into sobs, even once destroying a hotel's box fan. It wasn't fair, it wasn't, it had been the only thing he'd asked whoever was up there, whoever Rem believed in; he wouldn't have even asked Wolfwood to stay by his side. If he could have just been, without having to have so much on his shoulders, had the blank ticket all his life. But because of Vash... "I should have—"

"Ah, tongari," Wolfwood says regretfully, "have you been carrying this around all this time? If anything, I shouldn't have left you. But I thought it was my mess, my burden, and... so many things, really." He takes another puff, breathes it out, reaches for a shot glass.

"If I had been there..."

Wolfwood shakes his head. "You don't know that, and we can't change it." He downs his drink in one gulp, slams the glass down. "Tongari, you've saved the universe. You did what I didn't think was possible: making peace with Knives. And I think without having to run all the time... You're just getting started."

Tears are blurring his vision, now. "But I don't..."

"Tongari. You promised Meryl. Milly is there, Livio is there, you have so many damn people who love you, spikey, for a good reason." He smiles. In the distance, white petals begin falling from the trees. "I'm not going to be mad at you for living. You'll see me again, in time."

He's right, damn him. Vash wipes his eyes, trying to hold in Wolfwood's image for as long as he can, to erase the warmth of blood soaking through his coat and the sound of dirt thudding on a too-still body.

"Nicholas..." he whispers.

Across the table, Wolfwood places a hand on his, squeezing gently, and Vash knows there's nothing more to say.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, September 14

XANDER: The center of Sunnydale's Hellmouth was- BUFFY: Under the library. XANDER: Right. Now, exactly where the library was, we have- BUFFY: Principal's office. DAWN: So he's evil? BUFFY: Or in a boatload of danger. XANDER: The last two principals were eaten. Who'd even apply for the job?

~~BtVS 7x01 “Lessons”~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

The Leather Jacket (Spike/Reader, not rated) by sapphistically

The mysterious time traveler had disappeared after one more night [...] (Buffy/Spike, not rated) by hiddenbysuccubi

Frosty Hearts (Buffy/Spike, M) by loverswalk89

The Ten Second Rule (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by Girlytek

[Chaptered Fiction]

a long way from sunnydale, Chapter 1/? (Ensemble, Charmed xover, T) by s6ullys

Shadowed Suspicion Volume XI, Chapter 6/? (Ensemble, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure xover, T) by arcanedreamer

Aegis, Chapter 17/? (Xander, DCU xover, T) by dogbertcarroll, Narsil

In the Company of Witches and Slayers:, Chapter 157/200 (Willow/Tara, E) by VladimirHarkonnen (TheLightdancer)

There's A Crack In Every Wall, Chapter 5/7 (Buffy/Spike, E) by bunniesarebad

A-Z of Sex, Chapter 2/26 (Buffy/Giles, E) by KatyAmberAuthor

After Life, Chapter 6/? (Buffy/Faith, E) by Alwaysandforevermylove

Supporting Loki (And Thor), Chapter 9/18 (Buffy, Willow, Marvel xover, M) by SomeMeaninglessName

Breaking the Code, Chapter 8/? (Star Wars xover, Dawn, Buffy, Illyria, G) by Buffyworldbuilder

Situation Normal - All Faithed Up, Chapter 7/? (Buffy/Faith, M) by QuillBard

Out of Ashes, We Rise Anew, Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike/Angel, T) by anneikenskywalker

Forces of Good, Chapter 20 (Buffy/Faith, M) by Faith-rulz

All Roads Lead Back, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, M) by loverswalk89

Forty-eight days in L.A., Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Blissymbolics

Stupid Thing, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Misti

Little Light, Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Melme1325

Incarnate, Chapter 15 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Sigyn

Aegis, Chapter 17 (Xander, DCU xover, T) by dogbertcarroll

Enchanted Dawn, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by VeroNyxK84

Viral, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Harlow Turner

A Taste of Buffy, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Maxine Eden

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: [Misc AtS AU doodles] (ensemble, worksafe) by artsying-ifer

Gifset: Every Tara look: S4E17 Superstar (worksafe) by lovebvffys

Moodboard: [Moodboard with red and white tones] (Buffy, Giles, worksafe) by buffyannegiles

Moodboard: [Moodboard with pink tones] (Buffy, Giles, worksafe) by buffyannegiles

Gifset: Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school! (ensemble, worksafe) by orion-lake

Artwork: I hate you - Episodic art for BtVS 2x22 “Becoming, Part 2 (Buffy, Spike, worksafe) by revello-drive-1630

Video: Buffy The Vampire Slayer | Full Q&A | For The Love Of Fantasy (London) 2024 by Monopoly Events

Fanvid: Tara + Willow - Fight for it by Faith Victoria

Fanart, FNTM II: I think I was in Heaven (Buffy, worksafe) by christytrekkie

[Reviews & Recaps]

Interview with The Date - Never Kill a Boy on the First Date by Slayin It with Juliet Landau

First time watcher: Few thoughts about Buffy and Spike's abusive relationship. by psychenock

PODCAST: It's Got The Spike (S4E20) by It Stakes Two

PODCAST: Buffy 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered by Once More Podcast

PODCAST: Episode 73: Doomed (w/ Ally!) by Gym Was Cancelled

[In Search Of]

Does anyone ever say "I'm looking for Spike" in the show? requested by SoFLShelfLove

Help finding an episode !! requested by Fair-Ad-9396

[Community Announcements]

Obsessed With You 2024 by otherworldly_chemistry

[Prompt with no fills] Buffy and Giles - magic made them do it/sex pollen/f*ck or die by buffyversekinkmeme

[Fandom Discussions]

[ask by anniemurphy] Just curious are you more Fred x Wesley or Fred x Gunn or are you like you like them at different times answered by destiel-wings

ATS in their recap of Spike’s final moments on btvs in 5x2 very very intentionally [...] omitting Buffy telling Spike she loves him is actually so embarrassing of them by raisedbythetv89, messedupdoilies

Spike fit the trend of her ex’s leaving town but he came back by aphony-cree

Does anyone else feel like Buffy lowkey neglected Dawn? by coachscottsleg

[Headcanon with commentary in tags] still thinking about how pike is a way better love interest than angel (and spike) and should have followed buffy to sunnydale by froggods

Does anyone else skip season 1 and half of season 2 during their re-watch. by denn_r

Is there anything you wish the show had done differently? by HinduHillbilly

Becoming part demon: Buffy vs Cordelia by Dry-Dragonfruit5216

What's something the Buffyverse writers did that made you feel like they were "out of touch" with the audience to a certain degree? by PristineSituation498

Music fans, which episode has the best instrumental score (without lyrics)? What's your favorite track? by rfresa

Can you spoil angel for me? by Lemonstarklion

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[atamascolily]

As someone who makes fanvids and AMVs, I spend a lot of time looking at media in unconventional ways--cycling the same clips over and over again, jumping around in a non-linear fashion rather than watching straight through in chronological order, etc, etc. Usually, this is in service of getting shots to line up with the music or finding that one snippet that perfectly illustrates a lyric, but it also means I spend a lot of time engaged with the source material at a level of repetition and detail that most viewers do not indulge in.

I thought nothing would be able to top that level of granularity, but then I started making text post memes by juxtaposing media screenshots with clever and witty posts made by strangers on the Internet. Instead of watching the same clips over and over again, I was now watching specific individual scenes shot by shot, searching for the perfect frame to pause and screenshot. Suddenly, I was engaged with the source material on a whole new level, staring at stills I have never really looked at before, despite having watched them in motion a billion times already.

This was especially true of Madoka Magica and even more true for Rebellion, where the animators had lovingly incorporated whole new levels of detail I had never encountered before--some of them so complex and intricate, they could only be fully appreciated as stills, either because they were only on screen for an instant or because there was so much action/other stuff going on in the foreground that drew my eye when I was watching casually or for plot. (As much as I love subtitles, they did not help with this, since their presence meant my eyes were also naturally drawn to the bottom of the screen as well instead of focusing on the background.)

I started documenting my PMMM observations here on Tumblr, partially because it was low-stress and informal fun, and partially because this site has such excellent and convenient image hosting (for now, anyway) that it's really easy to discuss and compare multiple images at a time, which I think is more effective than reams of text at proving my points.

When I look at a screenshot, I have two major questions in mind:

1) What am I looking at? 2) What does it mean?

The first question is one of observation and identification. This part is usually straightforward, but can be more complicated if the animators are drawing on an element of Japanese culture that I'm not already familiar with. The answers to this question vary considerably depending on context, but they're usually not a source of tremendous controversy among the fandom; they are fairly objective, with a definitive right or wrong answer.

The second question, however, is more complicated and subjective. This is where analysis and interpretation come in--of the shot itself, the scene in which it occurs, and how it fits into the installment/series/franchise as a whole. It's entirely possible for different people to have wildly different takes on this, and multiple readings can and do exist simultaneously.

In my meta writings, I usually attempt to answer both questions: first, by pointing out details that I think are interesting, and then by offering my interpretation of them. Rebellion in particular is so visually dense that it's possible to randomly pause at any scene and find something new; no matter how much I watch it, there is always more to analyze.

To be clear, I don't think that watching Rebellion frame by frame is inherently better than watching the whole thing straight through, just that different perspectives and insights are possible. In this sense, both Madoka Magica TV series and Rebellion are inherently fractal in nature, with meaning multiple levels and layers regardless of scale. Unlike real-life fractals like the Mandelbrot set, however, there is a clearly defined limit to this--I doubt once you zoom into the pixel level there is anything to find, but hey, you never know with SHAFT.

I generally prefer to work with material that has already been released rather than stuff that hasn't, but I try to ground my predictions in my observations as much as possible--by which I mean, consistent with the show's themes and motifs on both a macro and micro level. That in itself doesn't guarantee that they're right, but I like to think they are plausible, which is all you can really hope for with that sort of thing. And of course, all my analyses and predictions tell you as much about me--how I see the world and what I value--as they do the work itself.

I used to joke that I was working on an honorary master's in media studies and Rebellion in particular, but after looking back at my output over the last six months, I'm not so sure that's a joke anymore...

[bettsfic]

it took 140 hours, but i finally finished my first playthrough of baldur's gate 3. overall i'm insane about it but there are a few things that really pissed me off. my (many) thoughts in no particular order under the cut.

i forced myself to play the full game totally vanilla, no mods even though i'm so bad at games i usually need cheats to make it to the end. not to mention i've hated inventory management in every game i've ever played (except genshin. love u, hyv). but i was patient, and i played on explorer mode, and i savescummed the hell out of it (hence 140 hours). but as SOON as i finished the epilogue, i turned around and installed 30 mods, most of which are QoL things that shouldn't even need to be modded (vertical camera pitch, WASD option, stackable items, sortable inventory, highlight ALL interactable objects).

i decided i wanted to play both a Dark Urge playthrough and an I'm Just Ken playthrough, but after making two new characters and, through my endless youtube diving, accidentally getting spoiled on what i think is the major durge reveal, i decided simply to make Ken the Dark Urge.

every other minute he goes, "Hi! I'm Ken," and then thinks about murder. it's great.

obvs he's going to romance Shadowheart (although i may download the poly mod and romance everyone).

MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

here are my Thoughts, in no particular order, because i don't know where else to put them:

i didn't enjoy romancing Astarion as much as i thought i would, because i came to see him less as a romantic interest and ended up identifying with him more than my Tav. that said, i'm very excited to do Astarion's origin playthrough

i ended up enjoying my Halsin romance more, because it was a more traditional slowburn, and Halsin's quest was totally external conflict. on one hand, that made me less interested in him as a character overall; on the other, it was SO SATISFYING to find out he had been Pining for me the whole time. sometimes i just need a little bodice-ripper content, as a treat

obviously i'm also into Astarion/Halsin and Astarion/Halsin/Tav

however the only viable fic idea i have is Astarion/Shadowheart? i blame this fanvid

no, really, what was so different about Early Access that OP got this much Astarion/Shadowheart material? the description in the video says they were disappointed by how their dynamic had changed for full release

okay, time or my biggest beef:

Haarlep pissed me off almost enough to stop playing the game. not in a purity way, but in a "this is just bad writing" way

i mean, your options are to kill him or fuck him. that's not consent. and when you agree to fuck him, you have to roll several checks to keep him from killing you. then he steals your likeness so that whenever he has sex with someone else, you have a spontaneous orgasm

i wanted to dismiss it as dead dove, but the point of dead dove is that 1) it is labeled, and there was no indication whatsoever i was about to walk into this, and 2) dead dove implies the creator is aware that the content is filth for filth's sake. i saw no evidence that that quest was anything more than the sniffing panties buff of D:OS2

the sadist in the goblin camp? that's good filth. you have a little public BDSM demo that you can easily nope out of, and if you finish it you get a permanent buff. your companions have fun things to say. and there's no major quest attached to it, so you can completely walk past it. and the Drow twins were the same. and Mizora. just horny content for players who enjoy that kind of thing, and easily disregarded for players who don't. i don't understand why Haarlep had to be different

like, you're looking around for the hammer. you come across Haarlep, who is bored and wants to have fun with you. maybe he offers the promise of a buff that will help in the coming battle with the Absolute. if your romanced character is in the party, you have a dialogue option to talk to them about it first. maybe in parting, he gives you a hint about where to find the hammer, and it's in a completely different room

but no, you *have* to interact with him to advance the quest, can't talk your way out of it, and it leaves you with a skeevy pseudo-debuff

when i went to look it up, i saw so many forum posts of people being like, hmm this made me really uncomfortable, and (presumably) men responding, it was consensual! you have the option to kill him! and it's frightening that so many people think that way

also when you have a female Tav and you choose a male Haarlep, the animation doesn't change to account for the position. Haarlep straddles you the whole time. and that just made me interpret the scene as a male succubus rape fantasy

and your companions have to WATCH. and they don't intervene or even say anything about it. if you've romanced Astarion and he's in your party, you get one point of disapproval and that's it. like he wouldn't have an Opinion over that kind of coercion? i saw some youtube videos and know that he says something about it much later when you spontaneously orgasm, but that's it

i hope there's something i'm missing, and someone will come into my ask and go "ummm actually" and tell me some important factoid of game development that will make me interpret the scene differently

i ended up resetting and just not doing the House of Hope questline. i didn't bother with the hammer, either. honestly the whole Githyanki plot confused me and i was more invested in my conflict with the Emperor. i ended up siding with him and killing Orpheus so that no one would have to turn into a mindflayer. i was expecting to have to persuade him out of taking the crown himself, but he just noped off for some reason

this is another thing i wonder if i missed. i never understood his motivations or goals beyond "protect you" and "manipulate you." so he's Balduran and he killed his dragon and...what else? to what end? it would have been more satisfying to me if he planned to take the crown for himself but decides not to because of the bond he's forged with you. but maybe i can interpret it that way anyway

yes i fucked the Emperor

but i fucked him in Guardian form

like a COWARD

i was very torn about all the characters' final decisions. in the end, i kept Jenheart and spawn Astarion. i let Wyll and Karlach choose for themselves (and loved their ending together). i couldn't prioritize Gale or Lae'zel this playthrough because i was focused on too many other things, and i got their bad endings (although i ended on good terms with Lae'zel despite killing Orpheus?)

i played as a beast master ranger (i mained a beast master hunter in WoW for years) and i've seen in several places on the internet that it's supposedly the worst subclass, but let me tell you...

the bird companion. nobody is talking about the bird companion. by the end, it has two actions, the ability to blind, and your bird can call in two more birds. you can have a total of FOUR BIRDS

the red dragon in the final battle? couldn't do shit. it spent the entire time blinded by my bird. nearly everyone on the battlefield was dead by the end, but my bird still had over 50% of its HP. the bird is BROKEN

in my I'm Just Ken playthrough, i'm going to multiclass Shadowheart into a raven girl. the birds spoiled me and i can't imagine playing without them now

it's weird to me that there's penis physics but no boob physics. did anyone else notice that? you wiggle the male avatar and the dick moves. you wiggle the female avatar and her boobs are like rocks. even when she's lying down, the boobs stay exactly as they are

listen, i have a lot of complaints. the bugs made the game nearly unplayable for me. i know they're putting out patches fast, but i think it'll still be years before i would recommend this game to someone who is on the fence about playing it. if you're not immediately dropping everything to fuck the hot sad vampire, you might as well wait until the game is cleaner at like hotfix 856

BUT

i've never experienced anything like this game. every decision matters. every character has a story. there are so many potential paths and opportunities that it's literally impossible for the fan wiki to be completely accurate. i cried at least 4 times, and by the end, saying goodbye to Karlach, i was actually sobbing. i'm old enough now to know that these states of immersion into fictional worlds are rarer than they used to be, and i'm so grateful to this game for giving me so many hours of fun and escape

unlike books, movies, and tv, where i get invested and move on and rarely read or watch anything twice, video games are always such a learning curve for me that when i get into a game, i stay there. i have thousands of hours into Genshin and SDV, and i have a feeling BG3 will be the same. this game is so, so flawed, but it's ambitious beyond any narrative i've ever encountered, and i really admire it for that

i would love to find a Discord server for it that's not overwhelmingly huge, just the people writing fic and making art. it's been a long time since i've been involved in a fandom and i really miss it

[philologique]

10 patpran fic recs (and one inkpa rec)

showing up a doozy of a month later with the fic recs i promised i would deliver “shortly​.” sorry!!

hopefully you follow me and will see these (in which case, message me off anon and I WILL send enthusiastic fic & fanvid recs, possibly less belatedly and probably even when you don’t ask for them lmao). if not, whoever is reading this, i hope you find a fic—or two, or ten—that sparks joy ✨

these basically all require knowledge of bad buddy canon. if you ever want no-context-required fic recs for other fandoms, or bbs recs to scratch a more specific itch, my askbox is open! send me some tropes or vibes you really like/any hard passes and i’ll try to find something for you!!

fic recs under the cut!

OBJECTS IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR MAY APPEAR CLOSER THAN THEY ARE by teaseller (canon divergence, rated t, 3450 words)

“Do you want something to drink? Water? Juice? Tea?” Pran is flitting awkwardly between the kitchen and the living space, seemingly looking for something to do with his hands, or fill the space. Pat attempts to ask for water but instead goes with “I missed you when you were gone.” What will be different, this time?

achingly beautiful and one of THE character-defining pat fics for me. an au where pran was still sent to boarding school after their high school concert, but they ultimately went to different universities. if you watched episode 12 and couldn’t get the thought of pat smiling sadly at their dumpling place and saying “I haven't been home in a long time” out of your head, this fic is for you.

We Can Follow the Sparks by crookedfelicities (bet-era, rated t, 8.8k)

Or, 5 times Pat nearly loses the bet +1 time Pran does.

speaking of Character-Defining Pat Fics, every three sentences of this fic there was a passage that either took my breath away it was so perceptive or made me smile hard enough that my face hurt. the DIALOGUE!! the CHEMISTRY!!! the way crookedfelicities captures pat & pran in that in-between space they built with the bet—their incredible fondness for each other, pat's certainty that this is it for him, his joy in knowing he'll gladly jump into this headfirst as soon as pran is ready! and the +1—the way pran's want is this palpable, heavy thing; the contrast between the weight of his longing and the quick, sharp banter between them. perfection.

Pause by filigreesails (bet-era, rated t, 4,588 words)

On New Year's Eve, Pran is stuck at home with nothing but a sprained ankle and a foul mood to keep him company. Even Pat seems to be ignoring his texts, even though the bet has been dispelling the remaining distance between them at an almost alarming rate, of late. But a companion for the evening may be closer to hand than he expects...

my face hurt from smiling I'm so FOND of them and the whole dynamic they captured of that nebulous, undefined era of pat and pran's relationship. the combination of pran's hesitance and his absolute certainty in the way they feel about each other, the way they each make themselves so vulnerable by putting the competition on pause... it’s wonderful :’)

sidenote: @chamacafeahorrible​​ my ao3 bookmark from april 2022 says ‘rec annie as soon as she watches bad buddy’ so if u ever do watch bad buddy this is specifically for you, along with @miscellar’s zombie fic which. holy shit.

nothing to lose by dekkaisdefyinggravity/@paalove​ (canon divergence, rated g, 1420 words)

Things went a bit further between Pat and Pran before they were found out - now their friends have to deal with it.

this made my heart hurt and then it made me smile like a fool. ao3 user dekkaisdefyinggravity has this unparalleled ability to build a whole, lived-in world in such a short space, and this is no exception; the contours of this au are fleshed out so deftly i’m in awe. i first read this during a break at work and spent the rest of the day thinking idly about this version of pat and pran, so wholly shaped by the circumstances of the au and so immediately recognizable as themselves. I reread it this summer and it still takes my breath away. I could easily read a hundred thousand more words of this universe and not get bored.

Fight Or Flight (Worth The Wait) by Jabber_Moose (canon divergence, rated t, 12k)

Pat still wants to shove him back under, hide him, and pretend none of this is happening. He wants to preserve the bubble of camaraderie they’ve been in as long as possible, because he’s not sure if he’ll get another chance.

Or: canon divergence where Pran is discovered under Pat's bed in ep 2, the trajectory of a story shifts, and Pat bulldozes through in true Pat fashion: determined, full throttle, and not how a friend would do or say anything.

a canon divergence fic that’s so well done it feels obvious in hindsight, even though i hadn’t given it any thought—of *course* the scene with ming in episode 2 was a fork in the road!! i love the choices Jabber_Moose makes here, the places the story veers off from the one we know and the moments where it unexpectedly falls back on track. and pat. PAT!! it’s an exquisitely frustrating delight to follow him as he reacts to one shitty situation after another, guided entirely by emotions he hasn’t come to name yet. reader, i love him.

Breathe by concerningcardigancollection (canon divergence/food allergy au, rated t, 9.6k)

Pat doesn't eat peanuts. This is why.

the fic where instead of a bet pran nearly dies of an allergic reaction and they get their shit together early. I think about this fic all the time. it simply slaps. i LOVE when two characters who secretly Know Things about each other have to reckon with that publicly, and this fic has that in spades. what a good fic!! 

another sidenote: @oswlld​​ sometimes i think of bbs as an inadvertent spiritual successor to that episode of lizzie mcguire where she and kate get paired together for a class project, and this fic reminded me why!

heart in a cage by @sunshinedobi (canon-adjacent wlw au, rated e, 36k)

In another universe, Pran loves Pat. That’s not the universe Pat is stuck with, but that’s ok. She’s getting over it.

OH BOY. WLW PATPRAN. sometimes a fic can feel so personal it’s hard to talk about? I just-- okay. the thing about my relationship to pran is that sometimes it's important to have a blorbo who’s a dude you can project feelings about daughterhood onto from a safe distance. this fic completely eliminated that distance and peeled me like an orange. just. a wonderful fic that rubbed me absolutely raw.

Stuff and Things by aworkingprinter (pre-canon/canon-compliant, rated t, 8.3k)

Pat was careless with his things. New pencil cases, new backpacks, new notebooks. Meanwhile, Pran kept his backpack from the beginning of elementary school until lower secondary, and he had decorated it himself. The important thing, he had decided when he was twelve, was that Pat was spoiled and careless, and he, Pran, was not. It was a basic Pat/Pran divide, as sure as the pink line between their garbage cans and Pat’s interest in drums (and girls.) About the belongings Pat and Pran have kept, abandoned and shared across the years.

i struggled to decide which aworkingprinter fic to rec because they all made my mind whirr in *such* good and different ways. read this when you’re in the mood for meditations on a theme, a series of quiet vignettes set over time and full of perceptive lines that knocked me out at the knees (there are two passages i still think about at least weekly). then, run-don’t-walk to Pinocchio (an au in which pran cannot lie and remains full of secrets, 46k—@raftings​ i think you will LOVE this) and to everything else aworkingprinter has written.

Can't Get Off This Ride by fangurks (canon divergence - soulmate au, rated t, 15k)

"So you think she'll transfer you again?""Yes, Pat! Give me one reason in the world that would not make her send me away!" At that, Pat's expression turned thoughtful, and Pran used the descending silence to wipe at his face and pick up the towel that he had previously dropped. His anger was slowly replaced with exhaustion, as he held out the piece of fabric. "We can't change things anymore anyway. We always knew how us being friends would en-" "What if we were soulmates?"

pretend!soulmate au!! PRETEND! SOULMATE AU!!! pat & pran have so many shared memories that they’ve experienced differently, and shared experiences that they remember differently, and fangurks takes that and runs with it like a gymnastics ribbon. and the way they weave in specific emotional beats from canon?? it’s so good. like...damn, pat. you really do have to stop doing this to him. also i think about the way this fic articulates their families’ respective attitudes towards The Feud all the time. a seminal work in bad buddy scholarship. 

the heart haunts what it haunts by AndSoTheUniverseEnded (canon divergence - ghost au, rated t, 26k at 5 chapters) (WIP as of 2023/07/16)

"Obviously! What else would a ghost do?" "A what?" Maybe Pran hadn't lost his mind. Maybe the rest of the world had just decided to go crazy when he wasn't looking and no one had bothered to update him on the situation. That would be just typical. "What did you think was happening?" Pat asked, incredulously. Pran threw up his hands. "I don't know, Pat! But my first thought, weirdly enough, wasn't that you're haunting me!"

the just like heaven-esque ghost fic of my dreams. i am quite possibly the world’s biggest sucker for a somewhat-light, plotty ghost romance, and this fic DELIVERS. we all know the story: pran transfers back home during his first year at university and finds himself unexpectedly and fortuitously reunited with pat. less fortuitously but even more unexpectedly, the pat who this pran encounters is a ghost. this fic is so good. also not to spoil too much but i love the OCs here?? an elderly queer woman who can talk to ghosts and her dead-but-not-departed wife?? ahhhhh!!!!

heads up this fic was last updated in february 2022— i'm holding onto hope that maybe one day it will be continued, but if not the ride was still absolutely worth it.

yet another sidenote: @icouldhyperfixatehim​ i think this is possibly as specifically up your alley as it is mine?? if you read it lmk how you liked it!!

+1 inkpa rec

not patpran, but it’s summer in the northern hemisphere and this fic feels like taking a sip of lemonade on a hot day

nothing else would ever be better (better) by dekkaisdefyinggravity (post-canon, rated g, 1.5k)

That’s when Paa has the thought: Marry me. The one where our girls get engaged.

this fic left a good taste in my mouth! in classic dekkaisdefyinggravity style, this fic feels so alive and comfortably lived in—I love when side characters have lives that don't revolve around the main characters—and every few paragraphs there was a moment that was just so wonderfully refreshing. i'm also unreasonably invested in the offscreen drama that’s alluded to in passing here. that broken engagement... tell me more 👀

[samwinjester]

Do you ship Yalex?

Also from the bottom of my heart thank you for your fanvid for Merlin and Mordred.

Like I am obiviously a Merthur shipper first and foremost but

Such a rare pair deadly but charming. The doomed from the start.

I wish there were more fanfics and fanvideos of them!

No, not a Yalex shipper. Alex Rider is probably one of the few fandoms where I have 0 ships.

Ahhhh thank you so much!!!!! I am hoping to edit them again soon!

I am also a Merthur shipper first, but I really, really like both Merdred (s5) and Mergana (s1-3) as well. Prefer to read Merdred fics over anything else because Mordred and Merlin had so much tension and potential to be magic!husbands...

Ahhhh I really wish there was more content for these two, too! Highly recommend @liztparadox blog/Ao3. (Send me fic recs plz because I have read almost all of them at this point)

(Sorry anon, but you made a mistake mentioning Merdred. I could rant about Merdred and the tension between these two for hours.)

[olderthannetfic]

Hi! So I have a rambling explanation that’s going to lead into a genuine question about making a website somewhat like a03 or finding alternatives to a site I will mention (it’s not a03 don’t worry)

I am a non/disney editor, crossover artist, amv maker and deep faker and any other term for “make videos of characters in canon or au type scenarios to music”. I’m also a fanficcer. And I remember when being wary of Anne Rice and Archie Comics and DC was a thing. A teacher, to cover his ass for an assignment of mine, taught me how to write an apology letter to a company on the offhand my hand written basically Batman fanfiction, made it’s way online or was heard about. I was in the tail end right before A03 but I am extremely grateful that the site exists. Okay. So now I need to talk about the Owl House. In season three episode special one, Luz Noceda makes an amv coming out to her mom.

Editor friends in a private discord were both happy and worried. Luz is one of us….but also Disney knows about us, to some level. Nothings happened I’ve just been stewing and I’m just worried something might hit the fan for the community given many of us use Disney media (hard not to when 80% of things put out is by them) So I’m asking how one would make a platform like A03 but for video media. Or if there’s things you know like that. YouTube is getting more and more difficult for anyone nowadays too.

Again, nothings really happened yet, I just can’t get it out of my head

--

Video is worlds harder than text, but you know that.

There are a couple of approaches here: First, more is more. The more sites you have your stuff on, the smaller the chance that Disney can nuke all of them. Second, if you're not just using youtube and getting good at playing the algorithm, you need some way for people to find you or to keep track of all your alternate hosting.

Vidders of the oldschool sort have taken to using AO3. It doesn't have native hosting, of course, but it provides a stable URL and useful fandom-based tagging without algorithm bullshit. It's also a decent way to get vids out there if you only have download links and no streaming (though, of course, that means fewer views). You can embed a bunch of different copies of the same thing in the same work.

I don't know of a ton of fannish attempts at video hosting that are open to everyone. The only person I can think of who's heavily working on that is the guy behind Vidders.net who has a few different projects going.

For other hosting options, I'd see what AO3 currently has whitelisted for embedding. Two obvious ones are Critical Commons and Archive.org.

--

Broadly, yes, fanvids and AMVs have been subject to even more disastrous mass deletions than fanfic has, and far fewer of them have been saved by other fans because video files are huge.

Oldschool AMVs in the strict sense (i.e. Japanese anime and not Disney) are catalogued and sometimes hosted on animemusicvideos.org. Oldschool Media Fandom has some vidding archivists, and really old stuff was released on tape and then disc, and people still have their copies of those. But online-only fannish video stuff from the 00s and 10s has massive gaps in the historical record already.

Disney is quiescent now, but they haven't always been, and neither have other rights holders. Worse, a bunch of hosts vidders liked just up and deleted their entire sites, wiping out eras of videos and commentary.

Your stuff is in less danger than it would have been 10 years ago, as far as anyone can tell, but video is always in massive danger of disappearing.

--

If you actually succeed at video!AO3, more power to you! I'm just skeptical that you'll be up to the technical and financial challenge if you don't already know more than you currently do, you know?

Hosting video has, among other problems, the issue that people trading actual abuse materials will upload their videos to your service. Hosts often play whackamole with illegal and traumatizing content. I've known people whose jobs exposed them to this shit, and they were... not okay.

I guess you could make things slightly easier on yourself if you restricted video to cartoons only, but then you'd have the same issues amvs.org does where people who start as one kind of editor start working with other footage and keep trying to upload the wrong thing.

It's often not really viable to host unless you make everyone pay and/or you're authorizing a few dozen accounts of people you've vetted, not running a service just anyone can sign up for. Hosting a hundred videos for friends that you have reviewed and know to be fanvids/amvs is a lot easier than hosting enough stuff that you can't personally review it all.

If you or anyone else is interested in trying to start a site, I'd go check out the various writings by Denise (who runs Dreamwidth). She has some twitter threads and posts on enforcement and running a platform. I remember she talked about the tech people use to detect CSAM from known law enforcement databases.

I don't want to be a downer here, but there are serious legal implications to being the actual host as opposed to just running a discord or something on someone else's platform and reporting some fucker if they try to post illegal shit.

--

If I were you, I'd get my buddies together, embed all our works on AO3, and then maybe make a collection or tagging standards so we could find each other's stuff.

For hosting, I'd add the Internet Archive, Vimeo, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. to Youtube and do a periodic audit of AO3 works to make sure links were still working.

AO3 already has a lot of tags that have been made filterable, like Fanvids, AMV, Video Format: Streaming, etc.

[fazedlight]

Fandom creators tag game

Thank you @waytooinvested and @fabulousglitch for the tag!

1. What sort of content do you create, and what is the thing you’ve made that you’re most proud of?

Proudest fic - There are a few I tend to choose from, but right now it's Even Though You're Kryptonian

Fanvid - My Rise vid

2. What fandom(s) do you create for?

Supercorp. (And a very tiny amount of Dansen and soon Rojarias.)

3. What is your current favourite ship (or brotp if you prefer), and how controversial is it?

Supercorp!! I don't think it's a controversial ship, lol.

4. For your answer to question 3, are they canon?

They are to me 😌

5. What was your first fandom, and how old were you?

My first obsession (and still greatest love) was Xena. I started watching the show a few episodes into season 1, when I was 6 years old. It was very formative.

That said, I didn't really get involved in any fandom communities until Supercorp (in early 2022).

6. What is your most unhinged fandom creation to date?

I don't think I get super unhinged, but as a pilot I did like creating this dumb incorrect quote.

7. Do you remember what started you off creating fandom content, and if so, what was it?

I was getting frustrated at not being able to find certain types of fics, and it struck me that... I was allowed to write my own.

8. Do you let people you know in real life see your fandom creations?

Yup! My partner read my first two fics in support, and several of my IRL friends have read at least one of my fics because I didn't have the good sense to keep that information to myself when I was getting started. It's mortifying lol. But my friends are very cool people.

9. How do you feel about fanworks of fanworks? Has anyone ever made something based on a thing you made?

Fanworks of fanworks are amazing!!! I've been incredibly lucky to have that happen three times (post), and gotten asked for permission for a different continuation and a podfic that may eventually happen.

10. What feeling do you most often try to evoke with your creations?

Angst. Longing. Bits of compassion too.

11. Has someone ever paid your work a compliment (in any form) that has stuck with you, and what was it?

I love each and every one of my commenters ❤️

Honestly, the compliments that stick with me most are "I came back to reread this" or "this idea is still living rent-free in my head" type comments. I think that's what all writers and artists want - to feel that their art lasted in someone's mind beyond the first time seeing it.

12. What’s your favourite thing someone else has made that you’ve seen in the last 24 hours (and link it if you can find it again!)

Technically it was more than 24hrs ago but this art by @awaitingrain is so fucking cute!!

13. Give a small sneak preview of something you’re working on right now (eg a couple of sentences of fic from a WIP, a gif set theme, a small piece of a larger picture, whatever you feel happy to share)

I have a ficlet (that's getting out of control), here's a snippet:

Lena was cozying into the warmth of Kara’s body, when Lena spoke. “I’m thinking of visiting my mother’s house soon,” she said shyly. “I want to find out more about her. Where I came from.”

“That sounds lovely,” Kara said softly.

“Do you want to come with me?” Lena asked.

Kara hesitated.

14. Have you ever seen/read anything made by the person who tagged you? If so, what was it and what was your favourite thing about it? (pick a favourite if there are several)

Both of them are on my reading list 👀

15. Do you leave comments on fandom works, and if so how would you describe your comment style?

Some of my comments are very simple, some of my comments are very long. I've tried to get more consistent about commenting ever since starting to write, because I know how important it is. Unfortunately, I also read a lot less now that I'm writing more.

16. How many works in progress do you currently have? Will you finish them all?

I have 5 WIPs! I'm very confident I'll finish them all.

17. what’s the longest it’s ever taken you to finish a fandom project?

I guess my worldkiller Kara fic took a bit over 3 months, though part of that was spacing with the Supercorp Big Bang.

I tend to write fast. One of the things I'm actually trying to do is slow down to fill out the story a bit more.

18. Describe the thing you made most recently in a way that is technically true, but also completely misleading. Link the thing if it’s published!

Lena has a bad day in the lab (Clockwork).

19. Do you ever engage with fanworks for a fandom you’re not in? Which one(s) and how did you get into it?

I totally engage in fanart from other fandoms that cross my dashboard, particularly korrasami. I don't tend to read fanfic of stuff I haven't engaged in, though.

20. Recommend a fan work from your fandom to your followers

This fanvid is probably my favorite in the entire fandom.

Suggested tag list, but there are no rules here, follow your heart.

A mutual you have never actually spoken to but think seems cool - oh there are so many of these!! I am tagging @mssirey who I don't think I've had a proper convo with yet

The most recent person whose content you engaged with (eg read a fic, reblogged art, whatever form you feel best fits) - @thealieninhiding (though by the time I finish this very long post it might be someone else lol)

Someone whose content you saw via tags/reblogs and you followed them because of it - @jadedloverart!

Someone in your fandom that you think makes cool things - @ekingston

Someone in a different fandom that you think makes cool things - tagging @thatonebirdwrites who makes korrasami stuff too

Someone you always tag on things like this - I'm not sure there's someone I always tag but I'll pick @nottawriter as one of the people I frequently tag when I do these things

Someone you have never tagged before - @rebellionbear have I tagged you before?? you are cool so I am tagging you!

Someone you would like to get to know better - @femslashhistorian

Someone who makes art you like - @awaitingrain along with others above!

Someone who writes fics you like - @luthordamnvers along with others above!

[kuwdora]

For the vidder ask: 11, 18, 24, 26! :)

Ooohhh, this gets really really long because of the multiple questions ahaha and I also tried to be succinct in my answers but that's hard.

24. When and why did you get started?

A stargate friend way back in maybe 2004 was sending me bootleg copies of Stargate SG-1 episodes on a CD-ROM but also had included some music videos that had some pop songs to the characters. (I’m A Slave for Yu of Britney Spears for Lord Yu and My Goddess by the Exies for the Goa’uld stick in my mind). I thought these videos were really, really soooo cool. I also grew up watching MTV when they were still showing music videos regularly and had unconsciously been absorbing the visual language of short form narrative and grooving with the music. So it’s no wonder that I wanted to learn how to make music videos of my own to a show that I really deeply loved.

I started vidding in 2007 with a copy of iMovie. And pretty quickly I realized I wanted to do more of this video editing thing because I was having so much fun. I didn’t have the pirating knowledge back then so I used my entire summer job money to pay for a student license of Final Cut Express which I think at the time was $200 or $300 back then as well as an external hard drive. A small investment to dive further into the hobby that would become much of my creative joys for the future.

Around 2006 and 2007 I was scouring livejournal for other fanvids at the time to see what other people were making. Buffy and due South and X-Files and Stargate were all very popular shows to vid for and I found the vidding community on livejournal and just hit the ground running with the hobby. Reading people’s vid notes, reading people’s comments on vids. Looking up lyrics and seeing how people tried to connect story ideas of the song and shippy feelings to the show. This was pre-YouTube and streaming video platforms were only just starting to become a thing. All fan-made tutorials were meticulously written out in text and screenshotted. It was a combination of all the fannish resources and communities where people asked questions and me literally mashing every button and pulling on every lever in the software that I started to learn how to export and lose my mind over things called “codecs” and “aspect ratios” and more. You won’t hear people screaming about it much now but old school vidders will remember ghost frames and that weird green line that would appear in exports and other batshit visual artifacts that would end up in finished results. the tech was so janky back then and Final Cut crashed a lot. The technical aspect was so hard to get used to but it was really satisfying to learn enough to make the things.

I love making stories come alive in fanvids. ---

11. Have you vid any ocs?

I had to sit and think about this because I was only kind of sure the answer was yes. I needed to go and look and make sure it was only one or two instances that I managed to vid OCs because I’ve made SO MANY vids and have half-started others over the years that it’s hard to keep track.

Armour For Liars is a fanvid for synecdochic’s Stargate SG-1 AU fic A Howling in a Factory Yard. At the linked vidpage I have a lot of notes about making this vid at the time. It was a true delight to fan-cast for synecdochic’s original characters. It was also really, really great to recieve such enormous and surprised and awed feedback on that vid. I wasn’t not doing well at the time I made that vid so it was nice that I could still make something really cool and watch people get excited. Just take a look at the 40+ comments I got on that vid, it’s still wonderful to look back on it. :)

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18. Favorite artist to vid to?

I have like five different answers to this depending on the day (and I also have another ask like this I’m answering with more and different detail.) I love vidding Kesha, Linkin Park, Lady Gaga, Audioslave, Bishop Briggs, 2000s music, etc etc.

Right now I REALLY look forward to vidding covers and mashups and medleys. This type of song allows me to create a more layered narrative/emotional landscape to use songs that are familiar but end up hitting very differently when applied to a vid. Also the songs are just really cool, IMO and tickle my brain. Let me give you an example.

Memory Leak (also on ao3) is my Matrix Resurrection vid. I wanted to vid this film and I specifically wanted to find a song that was contemporary at the time of the release of the original trilogy (so 1999-2003) but I wanted to have it be a cover. It’s a new take, re-visiting an old song. Similar to how the film is re-visiting the events of Neo’s life from the original trilogy after he's aged 20+ years.

I identified the song Adam’s Song by Blink 182 pretty quickly since it came to mind based on the subject of the film. The original song had depressive overtones (and you can read more about the song on Wikipedia) which I believe mapped out well to the emotional journey of Neo in Matrix Resurrections. However, the thematic arc and motivation of Neo’s journey is one of love and perseverance. I had like 3-6 covers of Adam’s Song that were more melancholy and hopeful, somber and positive. I settled on Albert Salt’s cover because it his vocals and his version of the song I felt matched the hope and love vibes that I got out of the film. This cover also ended up being a medley and giving me some extra lyrics from other Blink182 songs to play with outside narrative context of Adam’s Song and I think that also really helped elevate the vid. Also I think it’s just a really pretty cover, very lovely.

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26. Any vidding rituals you have?

My main ritual happens before I even start actively working on a vid. When I’m ready to warm up my brain for a project, I create a vidsong playlist for my current vid interests. I will be listening to the vidsong about 4,000x before I even download an episode or make a clip or create a project file. I listen to it until it’s in my bones, my brain is saturated with it and no other music exists. I should be tired of the song by the time I start vidding it but it really helps grease my creative wheels.

I also love to create multiple vidsong playlists and shuffle things around for various reasons. It helps me keep some of my (too many) ideas somewhat organized and I love tidying my playlists and adding to them during this idea/discovery stage of the process. I have a main/general vidding playlist, a playlist for songs that are “incubating” and don’t have a show or film attached to it yet but I love the song and know the song would be great to vid. I have two (actually three) witcher-specific vidsong playlists, a ‘vidding graveyard’ playlist for song/ideas I’ve abandoned over the years. I have other playlists that are genre specific. I have show/film specific playlists while I’m either contemplating an ambitious project like a Vid Album or when I’m trying to listen to potential vidsongs back-to-back and audition them in my brain for the vid I think I want to make or would like to make. Honestly I could do a separate ask game just on my vidding playlist ideas or my vid wips and published catalogue for the sheer volume of music genres/artists and sources I’ve done over the years. If that’s something people might be interested in exploring. I could call it “Vidder Open House.” thank you for the ask!! Get to Know the Vidder ask game! Send me an ask!

[hexiewrites]

I was gone in the summer so I missed this milestone but: I've officially been in the steddie fandom a year (plus, uh, three months), and wow, what a fucking amazing year it's been

(i do want to shout out to my spouse for BEGGING me to watch this show for multiple years until i finally caved when they were away last summer, and to whoever made a steddie fanvid on tiktok, and the algorithm gods who went 'this bitch likes gay shit' and served it to me, causing my total descent into absolutely madness)

in that time (since august of 2022, and actually almost all between aug 2022-april 2023), I've:

written 16 (!!!) fics

totalling 307,294 words (holy fuck)

my three most popular fics are, by no small margin:

same as it ever was (which was only my 3rd ever steddie fic) (and which is currently being podficc'd by the amazing @n0connections!)

carve your name into my chest (my magnum opus, the steddie hockey fic, which I am still to this day absolutely blown away by the reception to. it's baby brother prequel, clean ice cold hearts can't lose, is much less popular but one of my absolute faves. can be read as a standalone, if you're into that!)

&, there'll be a riot cause i know you (proving that you're all really just here for the smut ;))

I've had other podfics made (thank you, @amanita-fierce, for the amazing pod of when they raise the landing gear (will your heart stay here)

I've gone absolutely crazy with a @thefreakandthehair prompt and accidentally wrote a hallmark movie fic that's the second longest thing I've ever done (make this inn our own), which the incredible @staymagical BOUND INTO A BOOK for me (the craziest and coolest thing that's ever happened in my fandom life, I'm not even gonna lie!) (and then my amazing beta blue bound carve into a book, but they don't have tumblr so they don't get a fun tag, but I also cried very hard about that as well)

I've gotten more fanart than I could even hope to tag, but special shoutout to @oriarts for being the first and for never failing to make me lose my mind over the way you make my fuzzy brain images come to life, and also for letting me brain spaghetti at them literally all the time, many of my fics would not exist without ori (psst if you make fanart PLEASE tag me so i can see it and cry!!!)

and I've made more friends than I ever expected, and have felt so loved and supported by this whole community. I've been part of fandom for the better part of two decades now (yikes) and have never felt so welcome, and appreciated, and I have to thank all of you for that.

I'm so excited to be back, and I'm sorry I don't have a pithy way to end this post. <3

ps. no promises, but hopefully there will be some new stuff coming down the pipeline in the next few months. hope to see you there!