#Undertale was my very first fandom that I ever participated in

[acatpiestuff]

Finally allowed to share this one! I made this a little over a year ago for @xtalezine (xtale created by @jakei95). Its fun to see how my style has changed a bit.

[jinxed-sinner]

begging other aroacespec Alastor fans to stop acting like the aroacespec community is a monolith

Before I go any further this is a vent so please keep that in mind. Additionally this isn't targeted at anyone specific, I've been meaning to make my stance on this clear since I first got into Hazbin but anxiety's been kicking my ass. So fuck anxiety, I'm getting tired of implicitly being treated like I'm not aroacespec just because I ship Radioapple.

I've mentioned To Preen An Angel's Wings here a few times, but I am very much respecting Alastor's aroace identity while still making it a Radioapple fic because I'm using it as a way to explore my own identity as demiaroace. Hell, I even make it clear that I acknowledge that Alastor is aroace (I literally have Lucifer saying “I know [Alastor]’s not into romance or sex" in the first chapter, within the first 800 words even). Demiaroace is still aroacespec. Asexuality and aromanticism aren't a one-size-fits-all experience.

I still crave a romantic relationship, but due to a combination of social anxiety, being demiaroace, and just anxiety in general, I don't have that yet. My anxiety prevents me from getting to know anyone so I can form the connection required for me to feel attraction. Additionally I have a habit of purposely ignoring red flags in my friendships, which also makes me nervous about being in a romantic relationship. Me craving a romantic relationship doesn't suddenly make me not aroacespec. I'm still aroacespec. Hell, I'm even sex repulsed and think sex is gross but have a high sex drive. How does that happen? Your guess is as good as mine.

I genuinely don't know what it is about the Hazbin Hotel fandom, but I've never been in a fandom that gets this bad about respecting characters' canon sexual/romantic orientations to the point of harassing people over it or feeling the need to comment on everything that can potentially be read as ship, and I've been in both the Sonic and the Undertale fandoms. It's so fucking bad that I've genuinely questioned if some Hazbin fans have ever participated in fandom spaces before.

I'm not saying other aroace people can't project onto Alastor and I'm not saying people have to ship him with anyone; I am however saying that going after people who project onto him differently or going after people who do ship him is not fucking okay.

Act like a fucking adult. If you see something you don't like, just block it like an adult. Stop reminding people every time you see someone say "ship" and "Alastor" in the same post that Alastor's aroace. It's fucking exhausting to me, as someone who is aroacespec, to see other aroacespec people constantly remind others that Alastor's aroace. Nobody's forcing you to do anything, Vivziepop liking Radioapple doesn't mean it'll become canon or that she retconned Alastor being aroace, and fanfiction and fanart aren't canon. Additionally, people shipping something doesn't mean they want it to be canon. I ship Radioapple purely in fanfiction and fanart, I don't want it to be canon.

Grow up, be mature, stop reminding people Alastor's aroace every time a post can vaguely be read as shipping Alastor, for fuck's sake. If it bothers you that bad just block the person who posted it like a mature fucking adult. I will not be budging on this and if you try to start an argument with me about this I won't hesitate to block you because I'm sick of this

[kurolini909]

About me!

This might be sudden, but I'm working on a Master Post and thought to include this section. ^^

Who am I?

Hello everyone, I'm Kurolini909! An artist, character creator, aspiring designer, writer and storytelling enthusiast!

Nickname/URL;

My current URL (Kurolini909) is an extension of my former one (Kuro909), which was based on a cat character from an anime I enjoyed when younger!

I decided to extend it so that it would be a bit less generic. The current one plays a little with the letters and sound of my actual name which I will not be revealing. The numeral does not have any particular meaning.

Former Online Presence;

I was originally better known as an Undertale content creator, though I'm attempting to deviate from that now. I still love the game and fandom, but I want to explore different medias and also develop a bit on original projects and pieces!

Undertale was the very first major fandom I actually joined - I had experience with the Warrior Cats fandom before that, but not in regards to actually producing content - back when I was a pre-teen. I immediately fell into the shipchildren, shipping and Alternate Universes corner of the community, and assumed that was just what you were supposed to do over there.

I sorta had no idea what I was doing with fandoms back then, so... Yeah. I recognize that this foundation ended up making a huge part of my online presence and there's not much point not acknowledging it whatever I'm into nowadays.

I created a few ship children, but no longer feel attracted by that niche in fandoms and am more inclined to make OCs within the universe unrelated at all to actual characters, or just Original Characters altogether. It is unlikely I'll create anything similar again. I very much love the personas I came up with and developed in that time though, and they might be repurposed into their own separate things at some point.

Additionally, the people I met through creating these characters and participating in that part of the fandom are all lovely and incredibly talented. I made a ton of remarkable friends I don't think I would have interacted with otherwise, so I'm quite fond of that period!

My Current Content;

Currently, I find that I'm happier not restraining myself to one specific content type anymore. I will post whatever I'm in the mood for, which I'm hoping will bring a lot more variety into the blog.

I'm prone to hyperfixations, and the likeability is that my content will come in waves of whatever media I'm inclined to at a time. I do not, however, make any commitments to stay posting that in the long term. As I said, my content will vary according to my current interest.

Interests;

When I enter a fandom, I rarely actually leave it.

I think everything I ever liked just sort of goes dormant for a while to give way to newer interests until nostalgia peeks my attention back to it, so I thought it was worth mentioning some of the media I enjoyed consuming and creating content for, and still do from time to time!

Transformers (several continuities, mostly Prime and MTMTE), Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pokémon, The Dragon Prince, Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss, Good Omens, Warrior Cats, Books (generalized), The Owl House, Five Nights At Freddy's, Hollow Knight, Animes and cartoons (generalized).

I believe that's it!

I'll be making a couple more text posts like this one to add to that Master Post I was talking about, but for this one, thanks for sticking around! ^^

[the-pigeon-queen]

every day i laugh about how i followed you for your webcomic, and saw your yugioh art and was like "huh thats cool. i dont think i'll ever be into ygo but its cool to see art for it!" and then i fell assbackwards directly into the ygo fandom. and then i saw that you did tf2 art and i was like "huh that's cool. I'll never get into tf2 but the art is neat" and here i am drowning in how much i love tf2. do you have any other fandoms you want to try to get me into? anything niche? (i love love love your art btw. its absolutely beautiful and i still get butterflies when i see it)

lolol sometimes the fandom chooses you I'm afraid XD

It's super sweet to hear that you followed me for my original art :']c And I'm glad ya stuck around through my different fandoms lolol

Also I'm really happy you like my art too, that's very sweet to hear :']!! <3

And I can certainly list some fandoms/things I've gotten really into! I feel like my interests are kinda scattered, but if you like both tf2 and yugioh too, yours might be too lol :']

Now, the number of fandoms I've participated in is fairly small. To keep this list tolerably short, I'll only mention the fandoms I have or currently look up content for.

Big Fandom things you've def already heard of or might already be into:

Fallout 4/Fallout - Were you here during my Fallout4 phase? It was after tf2, I think lol :0 If not, Fallout in general has a great aesthetic, some fun lore, fun characters, and a pretty extensive fandom :0 I also really loved the game itself, and I suck at fps games :']

Stardew Valley - I haven't really dove into fandom for it, I just look at the pretty art :'] (Elliot my beloved,,,)

Balders Gate - It lived up to the hype for me, I've loved playing it ^^ Haven't participated in the fandom for it myself, but I know there's plenty of people who make plenty of good stuff. Great characters :'] I do wanna draw my player characters,,,

Undertale/Deltarune - Don't let the fandom scare you from the games if you haven't already played them :'0 they're so genuinely good

Steven Universe - were you,,, were you here during my steven universe phase,,, just ignore the infamous part of the fandom :'0 (I did not enjoy Steven Universe Future, the spinoff, I'm sorry if I missed the point but it missed me,,,)

Smaller Fandom things:

Castlevania on Netflix - All of the characters are exceptional, the animation is exceptional, the story is action packed but the characters have room to breathe. Isaac is my favorite character, hands down!

Dislyte - yeah,,, it's a gacha game,,, and I don't even know if it's a good one lol BUT hear me out: the character art and the settling/world concept is so good. There's so much room for good stories, I just wish the game would give us more than what it currently has :'0 I'm currently writing a fix-it fic for the main game story :']

Tiger&Bunny on Netflix - It's an anime with two seasons, and I believe there's been two movies, and there's a short manga add-on (it's an anime first, so the manga is supplemental) It's about superheroes that are sponsored by their network to fight crime. I really enjoyed the characters and world building :0 BUT IT IS CRIMINAL WHAT THEY DID TO LUNATIC MY BELOVED they'd better walk it back if season 3 happens

Petshop of Horrors - I... I don't know what to say lol it's an older manga, and it might not be perfect, but something about it just got me idk. It's def the most niche thing on my list that still fits the criteria of 'I liked it enough to actively try and consume fan content of it'

That's all I can think of atm, if I think of any more I can always revisit this and list em :]c

[thenaiads]

Fandoms and Ships

Here is the link of the first post: LINK

@wilbywrites

@bruhimbadatart

and who ever will read this

I will said here to not bothering OP anymore.

......................... The point is that you CAN'T STOP THIS!!!

Boundaries or not you can't stop it, this thing happen everytimes.

When I was in the Undertale fandom I saw shit like you can't even imagine!!! Some creators in that fandom will create some cute or even dark AU and then people will totally vomit bullshit to them no matter what.

In the Gravity Falls and OTGW fandom, I and other people shipped Pinescone (WirtxDipper), and most of us will age them up but others Not!

And don't let me talk about the gore and porn stuff that some people draw (some of them are 16 years old) even when the original creator said no!

As I said I have been in a LOT of fandoms, and I keep seeing this war over and over again.

Many people took what Techno said as "NO, don't do that",  but for me was more "This is cringe and I don't wanna participate it. Please, keep it private".

And with Techno that NEVER really talked about it in a more specific way like Niki did. (I remember she said to "don't ship HER (real person), but that we were free to USE her Character for our fanworks").

We were left with a very lovely ship, but with some people that will come and say "delete that or else", even when we tagged and keep it between our friends on AO3.

I believe that the creators have no issue with us using their fictional characters, but if we wanna talk about boundaries then I wanna use an example: 

Imagine that you (creator/artist) make a doll (series/comic), and you give that doll to a person or kid (fandom), and maybe you give them some "rules" (boundaries) about how to play with this doll. Now the person starts playing by creating fictional stories and scenarios (AUs and headcannons) that don't have much to do with the original story (canon plot) of this doll. From there the person inevitably begins to give this doll (which has become a completely different character from the original story) "companies" who can be family, friends and love interests. The doll is now the Persona/Original character of the fandom.  At that point the fandom created something so similar and different from the original story and characters. And the original creator can't "take back" the doll, because it has become something totally new even though it's still part of the original series in a way.

This is what in a way happened in DreamSMP's roleplay, where the creators have given us a product, which we have with our imagination changed into something new. (Where this is going with the boundaries??? I’m going there)

This kind of behavior and creativity is the foundation of every single fandom, and you can't change it... Because that's what makes a fandom.

The moment the creators of the DreamSMP created the Server and its storyline, they knew that inevitably this sort of thing was going to happen!!!!

And yes some asked to avoid some things (like using their real persona, or to avoid writing or draw smut or horror/dark/gorey stuff), but even so they never said "DO NOT CREATE this particular topic at all" not really, what they tried to say was "Please, if you create this context keep it private and don't force it on me, because it make me uncomfortable”. That's what I really hear from every single creator and artist at the end of the day. And that's what we as fans are supposed to acknowledge and respect, but fail to do (towards the original creators and other fans).

Another example: Dream said that horror and gore make him sick, but that wasn’t an order to stop creating dark content for his character. (That Dream said something that made people angry, and then fans and haters bein assholes with him is something totally different and not new. If you some of you was on Twitter on that time you know exactly what happened and how 😓)

I've learned not to force my ideas on others when it comes to fandom, whether I'm right or wrong.

You can't tell people what to create and how, not when the fandom was originally created by fans for fans!!! To allow them to run wild with their imagination and creativity.

Don't you want your fandom to create some kind of stuff? Then don't create a fandom... or at least stay away from it.

I mean, Toby Fox the creator of Undertale has never interacted more than he should with his fans here on Tumblr (where the Undertale fandom was born. Even when the level of toxicity skyrocketed), and for a reason simple: there is no way to control people, you can only hope they are respectful enough to keep their shit to themselves and not make trouble for others.

If you go to my tags you will find some problematic ship (not DSMP) with themes like: incest, selfcest, R-18 (for the smut/lemon scene), and other that I don't remember.

These tags are all about fictional characters that I'm 100% sure the creators vomited blood after read them.

Still this hasn't stopped anyone from creating them and enjoy these kinds of themes.

If you wanna avoid to see the “Dreamnoblade” (or other ship names), you need to go on your Settings and use the Filtered Tags!!! And if you find a post DNB with any tag on it then you need to contact OP (the creator of the post) and ask them to use the tags that will help your filtres to work!!!!

In the past, I had a lot of people coming into my ask-box asking me to tag "in the correct way" my posts to avoid seeing things that they did not like. I had to create the “moth” tag, because some guy that followed me didn’t like the photos of moths that I LOVE to reblog!!! So I don’t understand why you can’t do the same 😑

So I Repeat:

1- You can’t control people and force them to be like you want.

2- You can’t and should NOT trip guilt fans to throw away what made them happy, especially if they keep it privately (on Discord, AO3 or here on Tumblr), with NO intentions to show to the CC their PRIVATE WORK.

You CAN and SHOULD create boundaries with other fans asking them to be respectful towards CC and yourself, and to use tags correctly (like good neighbors do).

3- And when a person is a total piece of sh*t and doesn’t wanna find any agreements with you, then you: Unfollow them, you can even Report and Block them if you wish (like most of us do these days), and call it a day 😊.

This is how a fandom work and should always work!!! Period. And if you can’t do that, then you should not be in a fandom and interact with the people in it!

P.S: English is not my first language, if there are weird and confusing words and sentences I’m sorry, you can contact me and I will try to explain myself better. The word is Try.

Please don’t send hate or disprectful messages here or in my ask-box (if you do that I will totally report you to the Staff and then block you. Don’t test me)

[flamedraco]

What fandoms are you in? And which genres do you tend to gravitate toward?

Okay so (and I apologize for the way too lengthy answer to this simple question) Fun fact about me: I have this nasty habit of always ending up in some of the worst possible fandoms. And yet somehow I've always managed to ignore the drama and bad stuff because I stuck closer to my own little corners of said fandoms (mainly focusing on memes and my own fics or favored fan content and don't interact with a larger majority of the fandom). But I actually have very few fandoms I can say I was actually "apart of" or are "in". Because really I don't...leave? Fandoms? I'll keep passive interest in them even as I get older but I won't actively participate or write fics for them anymore. And I have this thing where I aggressively hyperfixate on fandoms I'm in and I'll be part of them for years before I move on to another one.

So fandoms I'm in/have been interested in: MLP, FNAF, Undertale, Eragon, Warriors/Survivors (two series by the Erin Hunter team), Wings of Fire, Fairytail, Danganronpa V3, Persona 5, Assassination Classroom, BNHA, and nowadays DSMP. These are mostly in order btw. Some of these can be considered grouped together because I was in a couple of these around the same time. I consider MLP my first real fandom because that was probably the first thing I ever read (or rather listened) to fanfiction of. And it was my first exposure to dark fics and other things involving the internet.

As for genres it depends on if you mean books, movies, games, etc. I've always gravitated towards fantasy/fiction books and fantasy style series. I like action sometimes. Occasional horror (psychological kind usually). I've never been much of a sci-fi person but sometimes I can vibe with it. Again it really depends on the medium because I prefer action movies but I prefer fantasy books.

Now...an outlier here is fanfiction. Because that stuff depends entirely on the fandom. There are very few AUs that I simply refuse to touch across all fandoms (looking at you school AUs) ((specifically high school AUs)) (((I hate them))). And I have favored AUs depending on the fandom as well. My two biggest examples here are Villain AUs for BNHA (which span a massive genera of fan content in BNHA). And fae AUs/Superhero AUs for DSMP. A lot of the other fandoms on my list didn't have much in terms of "AU" content (except Undertale but I'm not talking about that mess). Hence why these are my two examples as my two most recent fandoms. Those are my favorites for those two fandoms. But there are always AUs I won't touch for these fandoms too. BNHA for example: I rarely touch AUs in that series that are "No Powers". I'm fine with AUs where Izuku doesn't have a power, but the entire cast not having powers? Ehhh. I'll pass. Because without the powers, without the hero/villain drama? It loses all kind of interest for me. It becomes just school drama at that point and I hate it. However I make exceptions for versions of the AU where they combine "no powers" with something interesting like "mafia". DSMP: Surprisingly enough, I hate how a majority of royalty AUs in the fandom is written and I won't touch them. That, and the super popular fics in the fandom. I haven't read Passerine, I haven't read Butterfly Reign, and I refuse to touch Accelerate or the other super popular DNF fics. The most I've read in terms of "popular fics" in the fandom was Tommyinnit's Clinic For Supervillains. But that was it. I liked the fic, don't get me wrong, but that was my limit.

I hope that answered your question in some capacity?

[tricktster]

So I once again have a lot of new followers, meaning that it’s time for my periodic disclosure that I started this blog back in 2015 to promote *deep breath* my Explicit Sans/Reader Undertale fanfic, Chill or Be Chilled.

If you’re rolling your eyes at that title, that’s totally justified because it was super halfassed, much like I initially expected the whole fic would be. If you’re rolling your eyes at the words “explicit,” “Sans,” and “Reader,” buddy, you aren’t alone, because I never would have chosen that particular combo of content and characters if I hadn’t been up to a scheme to bilk you fuckin’ rubes for all you’re worth.

I’m kidding. Kind of. Like, I didn’t really think that it would ever go anywhere at the outset: I began writing a few months after I graduated grad school and immediately thereafter got incredibly, INCREDIBLY sick, leading to a month long hospitalization that absolutely destroyed my path to get a paid job in my chosen field for about a year (I had to wait months to take a qualifying exam that’s only offered twice a year due to the hospitalization.)

So there I was, recovering from medical trauma, bored and aimless, unemployed, wildly depressed, and suddenly trying to scrape by in my manhattan apartment without a revenue source or student loans to facilitate my doing so. At the time, I was just like “eh, I’ll try my hand at writing fanfic, how hard could it be? and like, maybe i can get some people to donate money if I get enough clicks… and then I can use that money to buy food that isn’t just toast/ketchup sandwiches!!!!!”

What can I say? It honestly wasn’t my wildest scheme; it was 2015, I was seeing tons of thirsty Sans content on tumblr, I’d actually played Undertale so for once I had some context for THE popular tumblr fandom of the time… aaand honestly, I just thought it would be hilarious to write an entirely earnest sex scene where one of the participants was a literal skeleton. I studied screenwriting pretty seriously in college, I knew how to write dialogue and set up a vague narrative arc, I figured I’d write like 15 chapters and maybe get 50$ from generous readers if i was lucky.

Weirdly, even at the very beginning, this plan seemed to actually play out as I hoped? I was only giving it like 40% effort and I was writing absolute fluff for the most part, but I still picked up a few hundred readers and even got a few donations that permitted me to enjoy both pasta AND sauce at the same time!

The thing is, like I said, that I spent my undergrad years writing and critiquing screenplays. I knew that what I was writing could only be engaging for so long without some force driving the narrative, and it turned out that I couldn’t turn the part of my brain that was constantly analyzing plot structure off. And like… I liked writing fiction again. I’d stopped doing that once the 2008 recession turned all the entry level positions that could eventually lead to a writer’s room gig into unpaid internships, forcing me to abandon my dreams and instead pursue the goal of Being A Rich Corporate Asshole. I was actually pretty good at that last part (still am), but I missed writing fiction; more specifically, I missed writing GOOD fiction. I discovered that in spite of my initial lazy intentions, I couldn’t just keep halfassing it.

So, I decided to full-ass it. I began outlining and seriously working on my character development, and since I was the one writing it, I decided that it would be the kind of story I’d actually want to read - sure, there would still be some fluff, I’d still write a few skeleton sex scenes (and I wasn’t wrong, those WERE hilarious to write), but there would also be action and eldritch horrors and quippy dialogue and a billion plot twists down the road that I’d have to earn by laying the groundwork down up front.

Once I decided to fully commit to telling a story, I started having a ton of fun with it, and the quality improved exponentially…. and now, years down the road, I am the author of a 484k word, 176 chapter undertale fanfic that is currently the 884th most kudos-ed work on Ao3, which doesn’t sound that impressive until you consider that’s 884 out of 8,713,596, which puts it in the top .0001 percent. And that, unless I got the math wrong, is a batshit bonkers insane percentile to be in. It took some fuckin’ WORK, my dudes, but as a result I can now say with full sincerity that I am incredibly proud of the explicit Sans/Reader Undertale fanfic that, as one anon once pointed out, I kind of wrote as a joke for an audience of myself?

Anyway, I’m sharing all this because like after years and years of having this information in my head I just managed to FINALLY explain to @wrexie the exact layout of the location that like 70% of the story takes place in - I never managed to shake the screenwriting instinct to keep the location budget manageable - and now I feel like my soul can finally rest. Unfortunately, I was able to do that by sharing google maps photos of a mansion that I drove by a lot in high school, and it seems super invasive to the owners to plop that in a public post, but if you’ve read it and you FINALLY want to understand where all the rooms are in relation to each other, DM me and I’ll send you a screenshot lol.

Also, if any if this intrigued you, you should probably give the fic a shot, the link’s at the top of this post. As I mentioned, the first few chapters are pure fluff, but the plot starts to pick up steam pretty early on… and then you hit chapter 44, the pandering is officially put to rest, and from that point forward it’s a goddamn blast.

[rainbowninja00]

my lovely fandoms

I thought I would make a post comprising of the fandoms I'm in, even if I'm not really active in them.the main ones Undertale - specifically UTMV (undertale multiverse)

this is my main fandom and the one I participate most in. the art, writing, and creators are great. are there some bad parts? of course, every fandom has its faults but it's not nearly as bad as others think. bless all the super dedicated artists and writers who work so hard to keep it alive and make everyone smile, cry and everything in between. Edit: I literally cannot escape, if you want a fic rec im your gamer. I will sing the praises of the talented writers in this community any day of the year. Danganronpa this is one I recently joined and I love it and the games so much but JEEZ, people need to chill over the ships and mainly need to stop shitting on characters they either don't understand and mistreating people who have different favorites like their favorite protag or antag. that being said, kokichi is my favorite character and no I will not change that. that being said, there is one character that triggers my anxiety and I cannot even think about them without shaking and feeling sick so that sucks but overall I will be buying the decadence collection when it comes out. Edit: I got the collection, barely played it cause i have a very short attention span and the stupidity of the characters infuriates me. The owl house I promise I'm not joking this series is gold, amazing art, I love the covens and show and characters, it's just * chef's kiss*. the show may only be on its second season but I hope that it gets more seasons. real excited for an actual gay Disney character. I am so excited for new episodes, don't worry I won't post spoilers! Edit: I would literally commit arson for the collector omg. I HATE HUNTLOW WITH A PASSION, why? eh, feels forced and boring as hell. their friendship would mean soooooooo much more to be honest, neither of them should be thinking of a relationship in there current predicament. kind of in this fandom? splatoon I love the second game and I'm super excited for the third, but I never played the first. I play splatoon 2 on and off, but it is the game I have around 500 hours on, on my switch. I have read some comics and absolutely adore the art, but I haven't read any stories on their own out of fear, it's a game with squids and octopi, you can understand why. Edit: I have splatoon 3 and it is my favourite game atm, i love it so much im so excited for the dlc and the fresh season coming up. im very proud of the squid research lab for having gender abolished. My little pony (only friendship is magic though) I can explain. I started watching the show when it first came out when I was little so I just kept watching and got the mobile game, dolls, a big applejack plushie, (she was my favourite) and some of the comics. if you ask me the comics are actually really good and get a lot darker than the show and it feels more expressive and less "the magic of friendship will fix all!" even though that does happen. overall, I just like rewatching the show sometimes and seeing what great works of art people make. the soundtrack slaps though. also, cupcakes, that creepypasta and a couple others traumatised me when I was like ten so there's that. gravity falls?

I love the entire series to bits, the art and headcanons but there is little to no new content so I just lurk and wait for more.

Disney gets a mention cause it's not really a fandom (Edit: fuck disney support indie creators and the actual creators of the cartoons they deserve so much more than the platforms give them)

Helluva boss/ Hazbin hotel well, one of these is content starved, and the other is bountiful. still live them both a lot. addict is one of my favourite songs ever, also stolas' song, and ironically vacay to bonetown is a comfort song. the character designs are cool! Edit: Stolas is my blorbo i love this silly owl man and I am hype over season 2 and more episodes, also i have some merch! an alastor pin and some stolas stuff including his grimoure! steven universe since the series ended there isn't much to say other than, I liked the original series, the movie was good, steven universe future was okay but overall felt kinda frustrating to me? the point of it makes sense, showing steven can't take his own advice, doesn't want change, and needs to feel useful, but overall I just wanted someone to try harder to get him to understand? it felt like everyone around him was just watching and barely cared. art is cool, the show is always fun to rewatch, and the SONGS. pokemon pokemon itself has been big for me since I was little so finding a bunch of people who loved it as well was fun. my first game was emerald (which was also one of my very first video games overall too) and I loved X, omega ruby, moon, ultra moon, and shield. the art, nuzlockes, gameplay, TCG, plushies, it's a huge community, but I'm not the most active in it. (my favorite pokemon is shiny sylveon btw) Edit: my favourite pokemon are shiny sylveon, spheal, and alolan vulpix as well as the tandemaus line. Lego Monkie Kid MOOOOOOOONKIE KID! FAMILIAR TALES, NEW ADVENTURES!!! I love macaque and sun wukong, shadowpeach forever. the series is so good the art style is gorgeous just chef's kiss all around. Kirby Love me the round pink boi what can i say. i loved triple deluxe growing up, enjoyed star allies, and adored forgotten lands. it's such a cute, sweet, sometimes eldrich horror-y, fun series. Daycare Attendant (FNAF SB) just this specific part I love sun and moon and all their depictions, animatics, the daycare theme song unironically makes me feel calm, it's like a baby sensory video. I wanna hug all the talented artists who made this very niche part a fandom in the first place. barely in these fandoms Miraculous I may be super into the show, but the fandom? not so much. I haven't seen much but there are some cool comics and predictions, but the whole love square stuff is kinda what puts me off of interacting or really talking about it. Edit: i just want it to end please it's so insane now i have no idea what is going on anymore in this series. i will stick around for fan comics and the finale. Hollow Knight the silly bug game made me smile, cry, rage, and so much more, my furthest completion rate is 107% I believe. still waiting for silksong.Harry Pottertrans rights Edit: FUCK HARRY POTTER NOPE NOPE NOPE NOT EVEN NOSTALGIA WILL SAVE THIS SERIES. I have seen the light and learned about the rampant anti-semitism, racism, shitty plot, etc. I am removing it entirely from my list. (Also i am trans i figured that out wayyy after making this post i think) That's it! I'll add more if I remember more! Edit: I added more :)

[thegrinningkitten]

How did you get so popular? I’m trying to grow big as a blog myself, but I can’t really do it. It seems like nobody likes my content.

The short answer is “I draw fanart, and I got very lucky”.

If you want a longer answer, then the brutally honest version of it is...

There are certain obvious rules to what kind of content would get more traction online:

1. Fanart is more popular than original art. The art will be more appealing to the viewer if they can connect to it on an emotional level, and if it’s fanart for a thing they’re already familiar with, the connection is already there. Original art, on the other hand, requires more work on the viewer’s part to establish that connection.

2. Comics are more popular than non-sequential pieces. Ideas are more likely to stick with people than visuals. Unless you have really strong visuals — as in, an art style that really stands out from the rest.

3. One-shot comics are more popular than long, multi-part comics. The reason’s similar to the one in the “fanart vs original art” point: One-shot comics are consumed all at once, while multi-part comics would require the viewer to go back and read them from the beginning to understand what’s going on in later parts.

There are also rules as to the best ways to post and tag your posts on different social media, but there are more than enough tutorials for that online.

While all of this should answer the general “how art blogs get popular” question, if you were actually asking about my experience in particular...

I started posting stuff online sometime around 2005-2006 — that’s when I started drawing too, I think. Had accounts on many message boards and social media websites over the years, but I don’t think there’s much to tell about them.

I first registered on Tumblr around 2010-2011 — and before anyone asks, TheGrinningKitten is my second blog; I did a huge thing where I abandoned all of my old accounts everywhere and started posting online under a new username.

Anyway, the thing is, I’ve been in different fandoms — big and small — for years, ever since I started posting online. My “main fandom” before I finally got into Undertale was Devil May Cry. I’ve spent around three years drawing fanart — and doodle comics — for it and even got a small following because of it. By that I mean that this blog had around 300 followers around November 2015, when I snapped my attention towards UT.

I participated in Fandom Kombat (Russian fandom event) with team Undertale and made some fanarts and stuff which went largely unnoticed by people. Heck, I even made Sans’s Happy Song, which did pretty well on YouTube, but people never made the connection — and even to this day a lot of people are absolutely baffled when I tell them that I made that video.

But then, inspired by CQ’s format for comics, I made this. It got reblogged by someone already popular within the fandom, it got spread around, and the reaction I got was overwhelmingly positive. So I decided to make another silly idea into a comic, and it got even more popular.

Things... kinda snowballed from there.

So, to put things into perspective, it took about 10 years for me (and 4 years for my Tumblr blog) to “get noticed” so to speak. You decide what to make of it. *shrug*

[zehecatl]

ive noticed that you and shae really dislike sans. im not here to argue with you or disagree, but i was wondering why you think so? :0 its been awhile since i was seriously into ut so im not up to date... did people decide hes Problematic or something the way they did with Asgore? honestly just curious.

OH BOY... SANS, HUH?

so uh. there’s a lot of history behind The Sans thing, so i apologize if this runs kind of long, but, well. you did ask. and i do like talking about The Sans Thing

so, some background: back in the day, i was a very, very, big Papyrus fan

like, i loved that skeleton. i thought about him basically 24/7, i ran a discord server dedicated to him, i wrote fics, i wrote meta posts, i did the whole nine yard. and this is crucial to why i, and Shae, both have such A Beef with Sans

and, just to make one thing clear: neither of us really have any problems with Sans the character. just like the other UT characters, he’s well-written, he’s engaging, he’s likeable. he has flaws, yeah, and i’ve talked about them plenty in this past, and this ain’t really about any of that, but none of that is why i dislike him. so he’s not problematic! you did not, in fact, miss some huge UT drama

now, back on track, the thing about being a Papyrus fan back in the day: there was no content

like, genuinely, there was no content. i think i was one of the first people to write Papyrus centric content back then, and even then, it was mostly me. this has gotten better, and it did get better back then, but i want you to understand that, because that’s crucial

and the thing is, if there just wasn’t a lot of UT content, this would be fine- but UT took off. like, it was HUGE almost immediately, and i think when i got into it, it was like? a year later maybe? i was a bit late to the whole thing, really

so when i come in, a year late, to a tag BURSTING with content, and find nothing for my fave? a bit disgruntled, but eh, Papyrus isn’t a main, and it’s pretty common for that to happen, so, whatever, right?

except

except

Sans

Sans was absolutely everywhere. like, you went into the tag, you saw Sans. and you didn’t just see like, a few bits and pieces, oh no. the majority of content was, and still is, Sans centric

now, lemme make something extra clear here: i don’t think people should stop any of this. i don’t have anything against anyone who participated, or participates, in the Sans stuff. people are having fun, and that’s really all that needs to be said

but as a Papyrus fan? as someone who could not just block the Sans tag and find the bits of content there was? it was. frustrating

and that’s not all, because if that was all, i don’t think either of us would have such a Problem with Sans

the thing about Sans, the reason why i dislike him, why Shae dislikes him, is the way the fandom portrays him

now, if you were around back in the day, you might be aware that Papyrus was, back then, mostly just portrayed as ‘Sans’ little brother’. he was portrayed as a naïve, good-hearted idiot, and that’s not me oversimplifying- that was genuinely how people portrayed him, back then

Papyrus, back then, wasn’t a character. he was a prop

i’m sure you’ve seen the Sans angst around; the pictures where Papyrus is dead, and Sans is very, very, distressed about it

the relationship between Papyrus and Sans was portrayed, quite simply, as Sans The Tortured Soul, and Papyrus The One Thing Sans Cares About

and as a Papyrus fan? god, that was beyond infuriating

here was this character, my favourite character, who had SO many layers, who was so clever and good and powerful, and people just. absolutely ignored that. they absolutely shat on him; everything Papyrus had done, they took away. he was, genuinely, seen as a child. no one acknowledged how smart he was, or how powerful he was, because people didn’t care

people didn’t care about Papyrus beyond the fact that he was Sans’ little brother

and as someone who loved Papyrus? that was just. it was so, so, angering

writing it out now, i still feel bitter. i’m still mad about it, to this day

the fandom treated, and still treats, Sans like he is Everything

every little thing in UT was tied back to Sans. stuff that we knew had nothing to do with him, was contributed to Sans. he became, and still is, the literal center-piece of the fandom

people made him this powerful character, the strongest in the Underground- they made him aware of Resets, made him so smart and clever and just-

they took Sans as i knew him, and twisted him out of shape

Sans is a guy trying his best. he’s a guy dealing with the knowledge that life is, inherently, pointless, and he’s dealing with that badly. he’s tired and he’s apathetic, and if you kill Papyrus, he does not care

and the fandom did not care about any of that

there’s a lot of things to be said about how the fandom portrays Sans; i’m sure i could write a thousand more words, but really, the bottom line is that i don’t dislike Sans

i hate Snas. i hate the fandom version of Sans that’s absolutely overtaken the canon, i hate the way Papyrus was, is, treated as nothing more than a prop

i don’t really dislike Sans; i like him, in fact, and there’s a lot of things that could be said about his character, about his relationship with Papyrus- and i’m sure i said a lot of those things back in the day; but the fandom doesn’t care about the canon Sans

there’s a fic Shae’s written, that doesn’t particularly show Sans in the best of lights- that touches on some of these canon failings he has

and people took issue with that. took issue with Shae playing with canon traits he had portrayed, calling them out of character, and, well

i think that really sums up how twisted Sans’ character has gotten

to me, now and then, it was like the whole fandom had collectively made an OC that just. took Sans place. and whenever i pointed it out, whenever anyone pointed it out, no one agreed. they all insisted that, no, this was the canon Sans

and don’t get me wrong, some of these things were based in canon- the Sans fight is cool, is this magnificent display of Sans’ skills, but it was never this huge display of power

i won’t say i’m not being bitter about it, because oh boy, i absolutely am. i am so, so bitter about Undertale, about the fandom, about Sans and Papyrus- and i always will be. i genuinely hate how the fandom portrays Sans, how everything is about him, and that ain’t ever changing

so that’s why both of us dislike Sans. really, at the end of the day, it’s about flanderization, and about being Bitter Bitter Papyrus stans, but eh. what can you do

hope this was, at the very least, an interesting read! and if someone tries to start an argument, just know: i ain’t reading it <3

[alch3mic]

Yeay 1000 followers, woho! 😊🎉

I congratulate you and I am happy for you! Even if the whole thing comes a little late. ^^"

I am very happy about this news, because I love your blog very very much and has already helped me through difficult times, like now!

And it doesn't matter what you post. Whether fanfics, doodles, or just answering questions, I love everything about your blog 🧡 Because no matter what you do, you can feel the passion and joy you put into your work. Above all, you don't give up even if you lack motivation and I have respect for that. You do your best in everything you do and that's what I like about you so much.

Above all, your lovely and funny comments are what make me smile the most. X3

And not only that! You also gave me the courage and the motivation to start drawing again myself. Thanks to you I found my joy in drawing again! Really thank you so much 🧡

You may not be so aware of it, but you created something really great here and I am not surprised that so many people see it that way too.

I hope I will be lucky enough to see or read your creation in the future too!

Nevertheless, always think about your own health and only do as much as you can and above all do what you enjoy! ^^

You have achieved so much and I know you will achieve so much more thanks to your dedication and all your fans will support you!

Enjoy your success, stay the way you are and do what you enjoy the most!

By the way, I'll also be sending a matchup, even if it's as good as the last day for it.

Even if I have to wait forever for a answer, this is fine with me! I am very patient! So don't stress yourself.

(I just hope that it arrived and that Tumblr didn't swallow it all again ^^")

oh my gosh thank you so very much my friend!!! waahhh this kinda message really makes me wanna cry ( ; ω ; )

i’m so happy that my blog could help you through a difficult time and inspire you! that’s.. pretty much why i created this blog in the first place, except it was to inspire myself. 

i won’t lie, the pandemic hit my mental pretty hard because my work took up most of my life. after getting laid off i really didn’t know what i was going to do with all this free time, but i had been hanging around the outer edges of the undertale fandom for so long just lurking among the shadows that i told myself maybe it’s time to finally take a chance and produce some of my own stories that had been floating around in my head.

never in my wildest dreams did i ever imagine things would turn out like this though. that my goofy ideas and quirky little drawings would inspire and engage others, or that i’d be given an opportunity to meet so many lovely people and participate in so many cool projects, and i’m so incredibly happy that it has!! so thank you so much for your support my friend. i hope you keep being yourself and creating too!!! i’m rooting for you! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

[skitter-kitter]

tagged by the amazing @doorsclosingslowly

How many works do you have on AO3? 

101 currently!

What’s your total AO3 word count? 

160,470 words. Holy crap. God, for someone who only writes one-shots I thought it would be much smaller.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Okay. I’ve written for at LEAST 30 fandoms. The top five are Video Blogging RPF (mainly Dream SMP) with 33 works, Star Wars with 11, Creepypasta with 9, Harry Potter with 8, and Warriors with 7. 

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. i will be changing soon, not really a surprise, honestly. Since I was there watching as it slowly grew. Really proud of this fic!

2. heart and soul, I... I thought this would be like number 15 for kudos. how is it number one. how??? when did this happen??

3.  convalescence, okay i forgot i wrote this. But, considering its a Tommy fic i’m not TOO surprised. I had a lot of fun with the first scene when I was writing!

4.  a glimmer of hope, once again surprised. Huh. Didn’t expect this to be so high.

5. sunrise, oh hell yeah. Super proud of this one.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to, but I usually don’t for a few days after a post.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Okay, ignoring my first year of posting (every fic ended with MCD because I didn’t know how to end fics) I think my fic with the saddest ending is hand in unlovable hand, a Warriors fanfic about a world where in the first book Thunderclan lost the fight to Brokenstar, and Firepaw went missing. Its set many moons later, with Tigerstar as leader of Thunderclan, now known as Tigerclan. He has pressured Riverclan into joining him. Its about Firepaw and Greypaw’s friendship, and the ending broke my friend! I love the fic so much

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No, but I do think about them and unwarranted amount. Everyday I get closer to writing a post-canon fic about a Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and Marvel.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope! <3

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Nope! <3 

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope! <3

Have you ever had a fic translated?

One person offered, but it was never followed up on.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Okay, I don’t ship things very often. But anything that’s “they hooked up in college and that tension has stayed through the years” always gets me good. Masky/Hoodie??? Iconic. Felix Kranken/Jack Walten?? Amazing

Whats a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Hmm, probably the like 10 Maul fic ideas I have left in my brain.

What are your writing strengths?

Describing a character’s mental space, and dialogue I think.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Overusing words.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If they give a translation, great! If they don’t, why did they even put it in?

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

... Undertale. Send an ask if you’d like to hear more about it

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

I think Axiom of Maria is one my favorites, honestly. I love how i was able to pull off a sort-of outsiders pov and have the audience perfectly guess what Varian was thinking the whole time.

tagging @moonpaw @moonlight-modoki @childotkw and anyone else who would like to participate!

[tervaneula]

This might be an odd thing to post but I want to memorise this day - it’s been exactly six months since I drew my first fanart after watching the Good Omens miniseries the previous day. 12th of June.

Since that day I’ve made 52 pieces of fanart. Fifty-two!! What!!!! It really doesn’t look like there’s that many drawings but the number itself is just staggering to me. The last time I’ve been this productive was probably three-to-four years ago because of Undertale and even then most of it was simple sketches. This folder doesn’t even include all of my ineffable sketches and wips, nor all the other things I’ve drawn during these months! It feels incredible to have been able to draw this much in such a short time, because in the past there has been whole years when I’ve barely touched the pen. Not to mention that I started writing little things again. That’s just. Wow.

This is just completely blowing my mind and I couldn’t be happier. All the people I’ve followed, gotten followed by, talked to, admired from distance for their meta, art, and writing have made my life feel so full. Not to mention my heart! What the heck guys, this fandom really has been the most wholesome one I’ve ever participated in (of course there’s always some rude and/or depraved behaviour but luckily people can learn to be better) and I’ve felt so, so welcome.

I’d like to think of myself as easily approachable but the truth is that I’m an unskilled conversationalist, so every single lovely ask I’ve received means the world to me. And just so you know, if we’re mutuals or talked like, once, I consider you a friend. In practice it means that whenever I see a fun post from you or your url shows up in my notes, I can’t help but smile and my chest fills with warmth. And no matter who you are, if you regularly reblog my art and leave comments in the tags (I love to read the tags!!!) I recognise your name every time and I love that 😎

I’ve surpassed 10,000 notes minimum each month and that’s INSANE. Of course I’m not nearly as popular as some other artists in this fandom and frankly, I quite like it this way. I was so used to just doing my own thing, getting less than 20 notes per post on average, that this sudden feeling of being seen was and continues being overwhelming on some days.

All in all, I want to thank all of you for being yourselves: kind, creative, wonderful people. You deserve the world. This little Finnish heart that I have is humbled, I’m so very grateful. Terry and Neil really created something wonderful, for it to be able to bring people together like this.

A BONUS: Because I’ve been feeling so happy for a long time now, I finally felt brave enough to fulfill a dream I’ve had for years - this sweet baby girl will move in with me when she’s ready! (✿´∀`✿)

Tl;dr: I’ve been drawing Good Omens fanart for six months now, being in the fandom makes me happy, I’m getting another snake

(ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

[constellaris-a]

Hello, um I am mobile and would like to read rules and see your characters :)

i don’t know if either of my muse pages work for mobile, since 90% of my blog is heavily coded, but let me copypaste my rules here for you at the very least ♥

Core

Mutual exclusive / private - will not roleplay with others unless mutually following.

Does not send in passwords, nor ask for them.

Does not participate in “reblog karma”

Will not rp any form of NSFW content with those under 18

Is open to both canon characters & ocs. self-inserts are a rarity

Will not rp any form of toxic relationships

Will not get involved in drama (or at least attempt not to)

Need something tagged? Just let me know.

If you have ever participated in cis/het/lgbtq+ bashing get the fuck away from me right now. do not follow me. do not attempt to interact with me.

I would highly appreciate if any of the following content could be tagged:   inflation / extreme obesity , noncon / dubcon , detailed / shown blood ,   toxic relationships , tentacle sex , vore , gore , watersports

Roleplays

All canon characters are basically canon-divergent. I try to keep reference to as much source material as i can, but no one is perfect.

It is less likely I will respond to one-line replies/starters due to lack of ability to form proper replies.

Due to personal reasons, angst is something I personally must be very cautious in writing. I will be very, very selective on who I choose to write it with.

I will not roleplay: blood-related incest, tentacle sex, noncon/dubcon, any form of domestic violence/abuse, beastiality (beastskin and demons are fine, feel free to ask me if you are uncertain), anything involving underaged characters, watersports, scat, vore, inflation

I am okay with pre-established relationships and other such things, though I prefer we talk it out first.

I am not comfortable with my muses requiring to share a chosen partner in any verse. All relationships/sexual encounters are kept separate from one another to avoid any chance of “cheating” happening.

Other

I am not the best at keeping up contact with people. I’m trying to work on it, but please be patient. Please do not send me constant messages trying to get my attention.

I will not always be able to reply to everything, nor will I always receive asks. Tumblr can eat them from time to time.

Yes, there are times I will be more selective of who/what I respond to. I’m human. No one can say they’ve never done this. I do usually get around to things eventually.

I am Australian, therefore my timezone is most likely drastically different to yours. Please keep this in mind.

I will not roleplay with certain fandoms in any respect or really want anything to do with blogs involving them in any way. These fandoms are: Dramatical Murder, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Smash Bros, Undertale/Deltarune. If you’re unsure if your fandom may be one I prefer to stay away from, feel free to ask.

[awkwardtaco056]

so now that i’m no longer in the Hell that was school and after finding the lovely blog @endcringe i’ve decided to talk about my own experiences with cringe culture, bullying, and why it’s Really Bad to not let people enjoy inherently harmless things, especially neurodivergent people (read more because this is gonna get long and triggering at times, TW for mentions of bullying, suicide, child abuse, a brief mention of incest shipping. I won’t be naming any of the peers that I discuss my experiences with, because my point with this post is Not to “cancel” anyone, I just want to speak out on my experiences)

I’m neurodivergent; I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 8 years old. I didn’t know a lot about it, and a family member even painted it as “oh it’s nothing blah blah blah just apply yourself more. Because of this, I had no idea about the concept of hyperfixations until I was in my late teens. Due to that, I would obsess over random things and my family would shame me relentlessly for it. My mother said I had an “addictive personality” and that she feared I’d end up a drug addict or alcoholic because of it.

I look younger than what I am, I’m short, and small. AKA, the perfect candidate for being picked on by people bigger and stronger than me. People made fun of my art when I was around 13, but fortunately that was an instance where spite fueled me to improve drastically. However, just because I happened to take the shitty comments and have it fuel me then does NOT mean bullying people will have that effect all the time. At some point someone put my old South Park fan art on a cringe blog. I was temporarily hurt, and a little angry, but I realized that if someone was making fun of a 15 year old’s art, they probably didn’t have much going for them in life, so I moved on.

Fast forward to high school. Everything was horrible and I’m not exaggerating when I say I barely made it out alive. I was living in an abusive household up until January 2018 and I found comfort in many different interests. I’ve always found great comfort in music and the arts in general. In 2016, I drew a picture of a mermaid. I was inspired by the chocolate opal gemstone, and I thought it’d be fun to draw a gay chubby mermaid with dark skin and a rainbow tail and freckles. Junior year was lousy and I wanted something that sparked Joy. I was immediately told that “scientifically, mermaids wouldn’t look like that. Mind you, my take looked like this:

Obviously I wasn’t going for realism, I just wanted to draw a cute mermaid. However, they continued to tell me that they wouldn’t look like that, going as far as writing so on the back of said drawing. When I got angry at her for taking it too far (as I’d established before that I didn’t like it when people wrote on my art without permission), they got angry back, accusing me of being unable to take criticism. Heated by the accusation, I went as far as asking my art teacher if it was fair for them to say that, and she said no, stating that constructive criticism would be talking about how I could improve my lineart and coloring in the digital version. I took her actual helpful criticism and since then have improved Drastically in digital art. Even with that being said, I found myself hesitant to participate in things such as MerMay because I was leery of hearing that peer berate me for having cartoony mermaids. 

 During high school I grew to love many musicians, a lot of emo/alternative stuff, a couple being Twenty One Pilots and Melanie Martinez. I love how unique TOP’s style is, their open discussion of mental illness, and as someone who had a rough childhood, I connected with every single song on Cry Baby. It was like nothing I’d ever heard. I started listening to mashups featuring all these different artists I love, adoring how they could change the tone and sound so drastically. A peer Bully of mine in junior year condemned these two artists, declaring that they made “Bad Music” simply because it didn’t fit their tastes. They’d throw my drawings on the ground, write over them in pen, steal my headphones so I couldn’t listen to music, push me around, complain that mashups sucked and gave them a headache, and in general shit all over conetnt that was actively preventing me from committing suicide. 

Some family members were no better. Once high school hit, I began listening to Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, and My Chemical Romance. Their deep complex lyrics stuck with me. I would write down quotes from my favorite songs and thanks to hyperfixating, I remember each studio album in order My mother resented when I fell in love with the “Emo Trinity” because “the Columbine  shooters were emo and that event traumatized me” Despite that, not only did the Columbine tragedy occur in 1999 and none of the bands got together until the early 2000s, but I have a pretty good feeling those groups aren’t For gun violence. The other side constantly criticized the fact that I love FOB, P!ATD, and MCR because I’m black and “why must you listen to that white people music.”

 I grew fond of Dan and Phil in high school (and I’m still a fan to this day!), I loved Phil’s kindness and positive aura and I deeply connect with Dan’s sense of humor and personality. Their content made me happy during some very dark times in my life. It’s November 2017, I’m over a close peer’s house at the time, and notice PINOF is upon us. I drew the PINOF whiskers on my face, my plan being to quietly watch them in the corner of peer’s bedroom on my phone through headphones, the others were doing their own thing and I knew they didn’t like them, so I thought they’d respect it if I silently indulged in it. Unfortunately, the complete opposite happened. I was immediately shunned and locked out of the bedroom, told that I’d only be let back in if I washed the whiskers off because “absolutely not”. Me, being stubborn, washed them off temporarily but drew them back on in the room. Life during then was especially bad for me, as the abusive household I was in was getting worse. They noticed, of course, and even though all I wanted was to enjoy this small tradition in a time during a deep depression, I was immediately shoved out the room and locked out, only to have said peer’s family members notice. I’m a relatively shy person, so this was honesty a really harrowing experience that had a lasting effect on me. 

I grew to adore Sanders Sides as well, but the moment I found out most of my peers didn’t like Thomas, I was terrified.  I stopped watching Dan and Phil’s content for months and shied away from other fandoms too, only occasionally indulging in times of complete solitude. One time when said peers were due to visit my house for the first time, I saw the Phandom and Fander stuff I’d hung up on my wall in my little sanctuary that was my bedroom (it was the first time in years I’d had my own room), and I was filled with panic and fear. I took them down and hid them away, genuinely terrified of what they’d do to me if they saw. It’s still incites so much anger in me to this day because they turned around and ended up shipping incest, but somehow liking D&P and Sanders Sides was So. Much. Worse.

They were baffled by my actions, despite having humiliated me Twice by going on a private blog of mine separate from everything so that I could fully indulge and laughing at everything on there, once at a peer’s house, once right in school. I don’t think they realized how traumatizing it was to have a large group of people in public laughing at something I was deeply self conscious about for all of my life. I put on a brave face at the time, but ended up crying in the bathroom after first period began. I continued to be treated as lesser until things came to an ugly head August 2018 when I ended up in the hospital because I nearly attempted suicide. Years of child abuse, bullying, and being deemed “cringy” made me feel like I didn’t deserve to be alive, that everyone would be happier if I were gone.

After arguably one of the lowest points in my life, I cut them off and slowly began to embrace the Real Me. I started letting myself enjoy the things again, made true friends and even found love, my first boyfriend ever at 18. I still get choked up retelling it, but when PINOF 10 dropped, after he found out how much I’d been hurt over the incident in 2017, I was greeted with a photo of him with the whiskers on his face. I cried for a while, blown away at such a pure act of kindness. He listens to me ramble about my interests, he compliments my taste in music, he watched K-12 with me. 

This got incredibly long, but my point is this: Cringe Culture hurts people. You might think it’s whatever if the Thing doesn’t apply to your interests, but content you’re denouncing as cringy could be something that’s keeping them alive, that one flicker of light in a void of darkness. When I was contemplating suicide, I listened to The Black Parade, repeating Gee’s words to myself over and over, that nothing in the world was worth hurting yourself over. Some friendly joshing here and there is okay, but actively ripping someone to shreds constantly to the point where they have a mental breakdown in front of you and later on plan their own demise is disgusting. Nobody should abuse anyone for having harmless interests, no one. Unless you’re participating in p*dophilic/inc*st/s*xual assault/inherently abusive ships/content and pretending it’s not bad because “Fiction doesn’t impact reality!”, you have every right to like what you like and be happy. Read homestuck. Play Undertale. Draw up the Wildest OCs you can imagine. And stay away from people who try to rob you of innocent fun, life is too short and in this cruel, unforgiving world, you deserve to be happy, whether you’re a 13 year old who draws cute furries, a 16 year old cosplayer on TikTok, a VSCO girl, a 30 year old who writes/draws self insert art or a 20 year old who adores Invader Zim. 

Cringe Culture is just bullying under a different name, and it can lead to many instances of people, especially fellow neurodivergent folk to feel isolated and ostracized. Attempting to bully someone out of an interest they have isn’t going to fix them; it’s more often than not going to cause more damage. I suffer from diagnosed C-PTSD, anxiety, and depression, and sometimes I still find myself trying to over-justify my interests. To all who are roped up in bad homes and lousy “friends” who berate you for your innocent passions, I’m sorry you’re suffering, things will one day get better even if it doesn’t feel like it, and fuck those people. I’d also like to note that sometimes even if it seems more terrifying, it’s better to have one or two close friends you can truly trust than a whole group that walks all over you. You have every right to call them out for treating you poorly, and if things don’t improve, you also have every right to leave.

You have a right to live your True Self.

[spacegate]

Gaster Blastober 2019 - Week One

Participating in Gaster Blastertober 2019 put on by @gbpack-discord. I will be doing my best to write short ficlets every week. I’ll be adding them to the side stories fic on AO3 eventually. Hope you guys enjoy! Most will be kinda fluffy cause I feel icky and need some smiles <3

Prompt: BAD HABIT

Fandom: Undertale

Warnings: None

Fluff-rating: 60%

-----

Papyrus was asleep, tucked into his race-car bed as his alarm clock slowly ticked down the early morning hours. He’d be up bright and early, like usual for him, but it was a little harder for him to fall asleep that night.

After all, it was his first night in his new house. Such things were always different, unsettling.

It wasn’t like their father didn’t want them home with him, but they weren’t tiny baby bones anymore. Both him and his brother were adults, and needed to strike out on their own and have spaces for themselves. Sans was in college, and he was undergoing outdoor training. It seemed much too big to fit that all into their cozy childhood home. It felt like the right thing to do was to attempt to stand on their own feet and do things like a proper adult.

So, their father had helped the both of them find a new place to live, which was literally two houses down from his. They wanted to be on their own, but not that far away. They had promised to visit often, which placated their father. Plus they’d see him at his bar daily, so it wasn’t like they had gone very far.  They could tell it saddened their father to see them go, but it’s the same pain that every parent must bear once their children are grown and ready to face the world.

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, for either of them.

Papyrus heard a soft shuffle in his bedroom, the noise loud enough to him that he wearily opened his eye sockets to peer into the darkness. He had always had good low light vision and it didn’t take him long to find the source of the noise. 

He sighed.

Of course, it would be his brother.

Sans sat on the floor in his blaster shape, eye sockets forward as he stared at the door, haunches fully planted. He was as still as a statue and positioned directly in front of the door. Nothing would be able to get into the room without running into some serious teeth. Though Sans was much smaller than Papyrus’ beast form, he still packed a serious punch. The shuffling noise was Sans’ claws on the carpet as he subtly shifted to root himself firmly to the floor.

“Brother, what are you doing?” Papyrus turned down the usual volume of his voice to address his brother, doing his best not to startle him. Sans said nothing, and continued to stare at the door. He probably didn’t hear him, not when he got like...this.

“Brother.” Papyrus tried a little firmer, sitting up and pulling his rocket ship patterned covers away from himself. He reached for the lamp on the end table next to his bed and switched it on. Immediately, the room was bathed in warm light and chased away the dark shadows. The sudden change made the elder brother jump with a soft yelp. He whipped his head around, one eye socket black, and the other with a flickering blue/yellow round pupil. He stared for a moment, before he blinked and the usual soft white lights appeared in his sockets again.

Papyrus crossed his arms against his chest, fuzzy pajamas bunching up here and there. “BROTHER, WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM?” Now that Sans was lucid and alert, Papyrus switched back to his regular volume.

Sans thought a moment, clicking his fangs in thought.

<“i...was watching...”> His clicks and barks was just as clear as Common to the younger brother.

“YOU WERE STANDING GUARD AGAIN WHEN YOU SHOULD BE SLEEPING FOR YOUR CLASSES TOMORROW.” Papyrus voice took a hard edge to it. Sans’ condition required him to get plenty of rest, and here he was, sitting up all night staring at a door. How long has he been sitting there before the noise awoke him? Any time was too long for Papyrus’ liking.

<“couldn’t sleep.”>

“OF COURSE BROTHER, THIS IS A NEW HOUSE. IT IS STRANGE AND WILL TAKE SOME GETTING USED TO.”

Sans nodded slowly, eye sockets blinking as his body sagged a little. Tension left his bones slowly, reducing his look from a frightening creature of teeth and claws to a tired friendly critter who could use  a hug or two. <“s’ different. yeah”>

“I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WANT TO PROTECT ME, BUT I AM NOT A LITTLE PUP ANYMORE. THERE IS NOTHING THAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN’T HANDLE AND I CAN SOUNDLY DEFEAT ANY INTRUDER WHO DARES  INVADE OUR SANCTUM.” It wasn’t quite scolding, but a declaration of fact. Papyrus was an adult. An adult who was skilled at magic and was training to literally rip through rock to find trapped people. He didn’t need protection anymore. “I AM FAR PAST THE DAYS OF YOU NEEDING TO CHECK UNDER THE BED FOR HUMANS.”

Sans sagged a little more until he was outright lying on the floor like a puddle. <“i know bro. i’m sorry...i just...you know...”>

“WITHOUT OUR FATHER YOU FEEL LIKE YOU MUST ASSUME HOUSE PROTECTOR STATUS, YES I KNOW. FATHER HAS TAUGHT BOTH OF US WELL, IT IS TIME YOU SHARED THAT BURDEN. IT IS MY HOUSE AS MUCH AS IT IS YOURS. YOU ARE SLIPPING BACK INTO BAD HABITS, BROTHER.”

Sans was quiet. He couldn’t deny anything being said to him.

Papyrus scooted over in his bed, making a space and patting it with a hand.

“YOU ARE LUCKY THAT I, THE AMAZING PAPYRUS, DO NOT NEED AS MUCH SLEEP AS YOU, AND THUS CAN ASSUME GUARD DUTIES IN YOUR STEAD. YOU SHALL CUDDLE HERE AND BE SAFE UNDER MY CONSTANT UNINTERRUPTED VIGILANCE. YOU WILL SLEEP AND BE RESTED. ”

Sans chuckled softly, and slowly stood. <”can’t argue with the great papyrus, can I?”>

“NO YOU CANNOT! NOW GET UP HERE BEFORE I PICK YOU UP AND MOVE YOU MYSELF.”

Sans climbed up into the bed with a huff. Of course he was wearing the same clothes he wore that day and not pajamas. No matter. As soon as the elder skeleton had his paws steady he was immediately shoved against the now much-larger Papyrus. Papyrus’ beast form was long and wiry, completely different from the short and stocky form of his brother. The best part, though, was that they fit together into a comfortable cuddle pile. It was the same way they slept as children up until they were old enough for separate beds. Even then, during bad nightmares and bouts of anxiety, nothing calmed them down faster than a cuddle. Even the vague upsetting dreams Papyrus had from time to time about steel and snippets of white were dashed away in such piles. Sometimes their father joined, but nowadays they were much too big and would smoosh their poor father.

It didn’t take long for both beasts to settle into the bed, Papyrus pulling the covers over them both with his teeth. Sans sighed, pancaking out as he truly relaxed. Papyrus gave him a soft comforting nuzzle.

<“thanks bro.”>

<“OF COURSE, AS IF YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT SAFETY. REMEMBER WHAT FATHER SAID?”>

<“to howl if in trouble and he’d come reduce anything messin’ with us to ash.”>

<“NOT ONLY WILL THEY FACE THE WRATH OF OUR FATHER, BUT EVERYONE IN SNOWDIN. YOU ARE SAFE, BROTHER. NOBODY IS FOOLISH ENOUGH TO HURT US. EVEN IF IT TAKES OUR WHOLE LIVES, I, THE FOREVER UNFORGETTABLE PAPYRUS, WILL REMEMBER TO REMIND YOU OF SUCH THINGS.”>

Papyrus knew what Sans was afraid of. He knew ever since he was old enough to be sat down and be told why his brother acted the way he does sometimes. Sans rarely talked about their lives before their adoption, but he knew what it was. After all, he had the Undernet and it didn’t take long to find archived newspaper articles about it. His brother sacrificed a lot to protect him.

He understood, which was why he did his best for his big brother. It was time for Sans to be protected.

Sans nuzzled in close and yawned as he got comfortable.

<“you’re the best bro around.”>

“THAT'S RIGHT, NOW SLEEP.”

It wasn’t hard to fall asleep after that, nor the nights after.