#anyways i revised bits of it and that's that

[spnfemslashbang]

The Supernatural Femslash Bang: A Manifesto

So.

This week, the deadline for draft turn-ins for the Supernatural Femslash Bang came and went, and I was ultimately forced to make the very difficult decision to cancel the event due to lack of submissions. One or two of you might have wondered how many submissions we actually received.

The answer is one. It was the story I (Mod Slinky) wrote as my life was crumbling around me. I don’t know what I’m going to do with that story at this time; maybe I’ll submit it for another event if one comes along that’s appropriate for it; maybe I’ll save it in case I ever decide to try this again; or maybe I’ll get bored in a month and decide to just post it as-is.

Let me make it clear that I am not angry at any of the individual participants, nor am I trying to shame anyone for not meeting the deadline. Writing is hard, and writing on a deadline is even harder, and I applaud everyone for even trying to do it, even if they couldn’t finish.

I am disappointed that the event did not go as planned, because well, this is my baby. I’ve run several bangs, both for Supernatural and other fandoms, but this is the one I’m most proud of. I think there are a lot of reasons for it failing this year, but I’ll probably never know all of them. (I am running a Feedback and Suggestions Survey if anyone wants to weigh in.) 

The rest of this is very long and I don’t know how interesting it will be to the rest of you so it’s under the cut. 

TL;DR: We will be trying the Bang again sometime in the future (don’t know exactly when) with revised rules. In the meantime, we’ll be starting up a no-minimum, no-deadlines bingo in the next couple weeks and looking at organizing some smaller events to make sure we get more femslash out in the world anyway and to help inspire people for the next Bang.

Let’s start at the beginning.

History

I joined the Supernatural fandom in 2021, after the show ended. I had vacation time I needed to burn, but there was nowhere I could really go in the midst of the pandemic, so I decided to just bingewatch a really long show to fill the time. I knew how Supernatural ended, so I figured why not, it can’t possibly disappoint me.

It disappointed me.

But it also sparked something in me, because it was so bad but the characters were so great. I started writing fic, and then I signed up for the DeanCas Big Bang as a way to force myself to finish a longfic I’d started. I had a blast, and my beta reader for that fic recommended another bang to try, and then I learned of all the events going on in the fandom.

I found a (partial) list of bangs and looked through for any I could participate in. Most were Destiel-focused which, fair, they’re the juggernaut of all fandoms ever. Some were Wincest-based, which fine, you do you, I’ve dabbled there. Some were all-comer events for any pairing, but when I participated in those, they were still very Dean-Sam-Cas focused. There were a few events focused on other characters, but they were few and far between.

On the list I had, two of them were centered on female characters, and neither of them were actively running.

Supernatural has a misogyny problem, and I’m not the first or the last to point this out. While I don’t think it’s fair to say that every woman on Supernatural is just there to die, the way it treats its female characters is not great. I could go into how and why this is, but we’d be here all day and frankly the topic has been beaten to death by people much smarter than me.

The Supernatural fandom also has a bit of a misogyny problem. Again, this is not a revelation, though the misogyny in the fandom is a lot more complicated than the show itself, considering the show was made by and for men while the fandom is largely made up of fem-aligned people. Not entirely, but again, we won’t get into that because I want to focus.

But Supernatural also has a lot of amazing woman characters in it, and as a lesbian, I felt a little bit alienated by all the fandom events being so male-centric. This has improved somewhat over the last three years, and I applaud everyone who has made that happen. And as part of that effort, I decided to start the Femslash Bang, so that there would be a place for stories entirely about those amazing, interesting women who were mistreated or ignored by the narrative. A place where they could have better writing, better stories, better endings.

The first year, we ended with six stories. The second year, we got eleven, and the third year was a reverse bang that got eight. The event has never been huge, and that’s fine, I didn’t expect it to do Destiel Bang numbers, and honestly, it was a lot easier to manage a few participants than to try and wrangle dozens or hundreds. I am incredibly proud of all 25 stories and artworks; they’re all incredible and unique and everyone who wrote them should also be proud they were part of it.

And then this year came and you all know what happened. Again, I’m not angry at anyone for it, and I do plan to try again next year with some revised rules.

What Went Wrong

Again, I will probably never know all the reasons this year’s bang failed the way it did. I have received a few responses on the survey so I can speculate, but I may be dead wrong. Keep that in mind through the next section.

Part of it is that this Bang has never been huge to begin with. My reach within the fandom is extremely limited, especially since it’s so huge, so getting the word out is a challenge to begin with. I suspect that there are more people who would register and participate if they only knew about it, but the announcements never got the one reblog that would have brought those people in.

Another part is that I may have been a little ambitious with the word count. The word count for the Big Bang has always been 10,000 words, writing over about eight months. I did not feel that was an arduous task, but I am admittedly a pretty fast writer. I don’t think I could make the schedule any longer without the whole thing feeling like a slog.

And then there’s the matter of investment. We’re adults with lives, and there’s a lot happening in the world, so investing in any kind of fandom project is a lot. Coming up with new ideas is hard work, and making those ideas come out the way you want is even harder. Writing is hard, and if you don’t want to do it, or if you don’t have words, it becomes impossible. But also, Supernatural’s time in the spotlight is starting to come to an end.

Supernatural got a boost in its fandom at the end of the show because frankly, the end of the show sucked, and it sparked a bit of a renaissance in terms of fanworks in an attempt to fix it. But that was five years ago and the only new material released was a very short-lived spinoff that no one asked for and that got a generally lukewarm reception. (Yes, I know The Winchesters has its fans, but it was nowhere near as popular as the main show.) Fandoms thrive when there’s new material to analyse and write about and inspire more stories. Even long-enduring fandoms like Star Trek are still chugging along because they never really stopped releasing new shows and movies. There might have been lulls, but they always come back.

I don’t know if Supernatural is ever coming back. There’s always rumors and teasing about a revival, but I doubt it’s actually going to happen, and if it does, let’s be real, it’s probably going to suck. And meanwhile, the fans have moved on. Half the people I followed for Supernatural (including me) are now into 911 (which also sucks but in a completely different way than Supernatural). Getting people to invest in the really big events is hard, let alone the tiny little Femslash Bang that doesn’t focus on the most popular characters.

I always knew that the event would end one day. My policy from the beginning was that as long as even one person besides me wanted to participate, I would keep running it, because it’s important to have femslash and other women-centered events available.

Well, the day has come when I was the only participant, so I have to ask if it’s worth running. I like to think it is, that if we just put it aside for this year and come back later, we can make it happen again. Maybe I’m being grossly optimistic, but I still believe in giving a space for those stories to be told. Just maybe not in the format we’ve been using.

What Comes Next

I do intend to try running the Bang again. Maybe next year, maybe the year after that, but I do plan to make it happen one day. I’ll be revising the rules and requirements and possibly moving the schedule to a less busy fandom time, though the general time frame will likely remain the same because let’s face it, eight months is already a long time to be running an event like this.

In the meantime, the feedback survey has indicated that people would be open to another kind of event. So far, the most popular option has been a bingo, which I am open to doing. On further reflection though, trying to make a schedule and rules for an event like that feels like it would end the same way as the bang did, with nothing being turned in except from the person running it.

So here is the current proposal: Shift into anarchy bingo mode.

What does that mean? It means that there will be no schedule and no limits (for minimum or maximum) on the fanworks created. Write a drabble or 50K. Draw stick figures or the Mona Lisa. Make a playlist with five songs or fifty on it. Write a three-hour operatic tragedy if that’s what inspires you. Post whenever, just tag the bang on Tumblr or add it to our AO3 collection. (We’ll have more details soon, I just have to work out some logistics.)

I am still open to other suggestions, of course, and maybe we’ll do some smaller events as well over the next few months to a year while revising the Bang rules and schedule, but right now my goal is simple:

Put more femslash out in the world. Celebrate the women of Supernatural. Participate in any of the other women-centered events in the fandom if you find them. Use your bingo card to write your fic next year or whenever we regroup and start again.

I still believe in all of you, and I’m not giving up on making this thing happen.

[bayysti]

[hauntingofhouses]

We all already know Mizu and Akemi are narrative foils. But you know what? Lemme just say it, here's what I think:

Taigen and Mikio are foils.

Not necessarily to each other as individuals in the way that Mizu and Akemi juxtapose each other, but mostly in the contrast between their relationships with Mizu.

I've covered specific parallels between Taigen and Mikio in other posts I wrote; but as the number of parallels I'm noticing between them keeps piling up, I'm compelled to just compile them all in one post. So! This is, thus, the post in question.

First of all, let's look at their similarities.

1. Their status in society is the same. They are both samurai who lost their honour and have dreams of reclaiming it.

2. They are also both diligent as they strive to achieve this goal, they both care deeply about their work, but here as they begin to contrast, as the work in question and way they go about their goals is different:

For Mikio, his work is in taming and rearing horses; in order to prove himself, he must tame Kai—a willful and strong horse—and present it to his lord. For Taigen, his work is in sword fighting and martial arts; in order to prove himself, he must kill Mizu—a willful and strong swordsman—and present her dead body to his lord.

In the parallel above, not only are Taigen and Mikio contrasting each other, but Mizu and Kai are placed in comparison as well. And of course, Kai is Mizu's horse, and represents her. Which is why, when later, Mikio sells Kai off, it represents the way he is tossing Mizu (and their relationship) aside.

From there, the rest of the details of their character begin to contrast and juxtapose each other more clearly. So let's look at those differences, shall we?

Their backstory:

Mikio was a great samurai who was banished. A somebody to a nobody. Taigen was a fisherman’s son who rose to the top. A nobody to a somebody.

2. The first time we meet them on-screen:

Mikio is an adult. An older man. Mizu's superior in age. He is Mizu's to-be husband. A love interest. Taigen is a child. A young boy. Mizu's peer in age. He is Mizu's bully. An antagonist.

3. Their maturity and growth:

Mikio is mature, but stuck in his ways. Taigen is immature, but capable of changing and learning.

4. Their overall attitude:

Mikio is generally relaxed, easy-going and unfussy. Taigen is uptight, irritable and severe.

5. How they talk to and conduct themselves around Mizu:

Mikio is aloof, soft-spoken, and serious. Taigen is obnoxious, brash, and sarcastic. Mikio is quiet, speaking only when spoken to, even when Mizu turns to smile at him and shows openness to be near him. Taigen is loud, talking while others are silent, even when Mizu turns from him and shows no interest in conversing with him.

Mikio doesn't show much of who he is to Mizu throughout their marriage, despite their growing affection. Taigen openly shares his traumas and life story to Mizu during their brief alliance, despite their mutual antagonism.

6. Their external vs internal selves:

Mikio is calm, gentle, and considerate on the outside. Taigen is hot-headed, rude, and selfish on the outside. Mikio is cowardly and deceitful on the inside. Taigen is brave and loyal to a fault on the inside. Mikio tells Mizu that he wants to know and see all of her. But he scorns and betrays her, the woman he loves. Taigen tells Mizu that he wants to duel and kill him. But he endures torture to not betray him, the man he hates.

9. Their hair, a symbol of their honour:

Mikio's topknot is untied by Mizu during their spar. This humiliation occurs in private, the two of them alone in a rural location where no one can see them. Taigen's topknot is cut off by Mizu during their duel. This humiliation occurs in public, the two of them being watched by many others in the Shindo Dojo.

10. Their power dynamic with Mizu:

Mikio believes he is Mizu's mentor. He teaches her to throw knives, how to ride and care for horses, and about the tactical benefits of using a naginata. Taigen believes he is Mizu's equal. He views Mizu as a samurai like himself who received all the same teachings he did, and who possesses the same values.

11. Their perceptions of Mizu:

Mikio sees Mizu's feminine side first. He sees her as sweet and gentle, but also clumsy and incompetent. Taigen sees Mizu's masculine side first. He sees her as terrifying and deadly, but also strong and skilled.

12. The way they approach sparring with Mizu:

Mikio only spars with Mizu once. As the fight progresses and she is beating him, he tries to put a stop to it. When she teases/provokes him, he starts taking the fight personally and seriously, finding no enjoyment in it. Taigen spars and brawls with Mizu all the time. No matter how many times Mizu beats him, he doesn't back down. When Mizu challenges him with a chopstick, he is eager to compete with her and gladly rises up to the challenge.

Mikio and Mizu's one and only spar is a friendly match; Mizu is smiling and having fun while he grows increasingly frustrated. Taigen and Mizu's last-seen spar is a playful wrestling match; both him and Mizu are having fun and laughing.

Mikio cannot deal with Mizu being better than him, so he scorns her and walks off, avoiding her thereafter. When Taigen cannot deal with Mizu being better than him, he follows her to observe her moves and continues training in hopes to eventually beat her. After being bested by Mizu once, Mikio leaves her and sells the horse he'd previously gifted to her. After many times losing to Mizu and fighting alongside her, Taigen commends her and admits she is better than him.

13. When Mizu pins them down in a friendly spar:

Mikio sees Mizu's whole face objectively. Taigen stares at Mizu's mouth and eyes.

Mikio gets angry when she kisses him, throwing her off of him and snapping at her, calling her a monster. Taigen gets aroused, apologising, so she pulls herself off of him.

14. Mizu's blue meteorite sword is a reflection of her soul. She believes most are undeserving to face it, let alone hold it. And on that note:

Mikio is the first person (chronologically) that Mizu fights against using her sword. Taigen is the first person (we see on-screen) that Mizu fights against with her sword. Mikio is the first person (chronologically) to ever hold her sword, as she passes it to him, letting him wield it. Taigen is the first person (we see on-screen) to ever hold her sword, as she passes out, and he picks it up and carries it for her.

15. Then, last but not least, in Fowler's fortress, when she is drugged and in pain, she hears Ringo's voice in the dungeon. She then follows it to an open cell:

Mizu first sees Mikio as a hallucination, the sight of him haunting her and causing her to lose her grip on reality. Her eyes glow a surreal blue to represent this. Her Mama appears then and says Mizu's name accusingly.

Mizu then sees Taigen, but he is real, the sight of him a relief and grounding her back to reality. Her eyes return to their normal blue colour to represent this. Taigen looks at Mizu weakly and says her name softly.

Then, later, when facing Fowler, her revenge awaiting her, she instead chooses to follow her conscience (represented by Ringo's voice in her mind), putting aside her vengeance for a time, in order to save Taigen.

So that's basically all the ones I've noticed so far, but even then, I feel there's already so much that forms a contrast between these two.

What makes it especially incredible about these juxtapositions is that Mikio was Mizu's husband, the man she had fallen in love with, the one person she had ever been intimate with, the man who made her begin to accept herself, to put down her desire for vengeance and instead live a life of peace and happiness.

So for Taigen to have so many parallels with him... Do you see what I'm saying here!

Not to mention that Mizu clearly already has some burgeoning attraction to him, as indicated by how she thinks of him when asked about her desires. And Taigen clearly has shown interest as well (see: him getting a boner after their spar, him holding her hand and telling her, "We're not done yet.").

And on the topic of speculating future possibilities of this relationship, this post by @stromblessed has pointed out yet another parallel between Taigen and Mikio:

Mizu promises Taigen to meet him for their duel in autumn. Mizu fell in love with Mikio and duelled him during autumn.

With all that said, I do believe Mizu and Taigen's relationship is definitely hurtling towards something. But whether they will actually end up together in a sustainable relationship and have a happily ever after? Well, that is a whole other story; we'll just have to wait and see.

[fisherrprince]

instead of going to sleep I decided to give sprawl ven a more detailed set of clothes

[hyakunana]

A Steadfast Ally

Chapters: 1/1 (1408 words) Fandom: 仮面ライダーギーツ | Kamen Rider Geats Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Series: Part 1 of Geats Sponsor Swap AU

(Part 2)

(Part 0)

[simcardiac-arrested]

never volunteer for anything university related man. also go listen to this

[breeberrypies]

nothing ropes me back in like the voltron fandom. I got back into good omens for TWO DAYS and I had a real handle on one of my new fics I hoped to put out soon. nevermind fellas I saw a klance fanart last night and right now I’m working on another vld art piece and revising my 6 year old klance fic

[ohsweetflips]

ik i’m a perfectionist but my experience of getting specifically 95s on essays in grad school is like “why is some of this criticism scathing”

[hidey-writes]

six sentence sunday

Under Gu Yiran’s hands, the chicken van bumps along the uneven road like a living thing, and he tightens his grip against it. Beside him in the passenger seat, Zheng Bei stares out the side window in silence. Gu Yiran had made Zhao Xiaoguang show him the map, during one of the endless waiting afternoons in the hospital when Zheng Bei wasn’t there. He’d reached out to trace the circled spots, all three, the sleeve of his hospital shirt catching against the edge of the paper as Zhao Xiaoguang said, Ge wanted us to check all of them, even though he was pretty sure you could only be here, pointing. A cluster of rectangles marking the abandoned crematory buildings north of Halan. Zhao Xiaoguang had left a fingerprint smear of grease along the entry road, right where it ran along the train tracks.

another snippet from the start of ch5! it feels so weird to be back to down drafting now that ch1-4 have shifted the story so far from the original final chapter outline that literally none of the draft material is appropriate anymore lol but it's really enjoyable to just sit and type the most medium sentences in the world without having to do any higher-level thinking about pacing or subtext or anything :) brain off drafting my beloved :)

[thedortbag]

Its a basic one since i only wanted to make a proper color reference for him

VERY simplified and Brief backstory go boom chika boom (2x):

Savvy Melagcolia, legal name Samuel Morris, was a former employee working at the ASYNC foundation and responsible for exploring the depths of the Backrooms that corporation thoroughly researched on.

In one of his shifts, being assigned along with his team to traverse the complex as one of their everyday expeditions, during the operation, Samuel unfortunately encountered a Partygoer/Entity 67 and was caught in its grasp. Thus being infected.

Luckily however, because of the long infection process of a Partygoer, he broke free of its grip and ran as far as his tired feet could get him.

Alone and scared, he laid down on the floors of the labyrinth and waited for someone to save him to no avail.

Though, because of the remaining poison left in his body, it wasnt enough to turn him into a partygoer but it was enough to turn him into one mentally.

With no hope left, it was over for little Sammy. And so was his fate.

When he woke up, it was not him anymore but someone entirely different. And that's when he was finally found by someone quite special.

[skukis]

at dinner the other night my much older cousin asked me if i had any regrets about top surgery and i'm actually kinda glad she did bc like nope. absolutely none. best decision i ever made fullstop. thanks for reminding me how great transistioning and being transgender is.

[brackenferns]

looking like that, you'll open some wounds

the promised taryn/ghost get-worse oneshot will go live this weekend 🖤 a tease:

Off balance, the two of them. She has come to rely upon the push and pull of their encounters. There's an equilibrium there—circling this thing hand-in-hand like revelers around a bonfire, tugging one another toward the heat of the flames and yet always inexorably on, around, away. But they've both fallen out of step. She once read the tale of a brave girl who had to dance through fire to thaw the ice-heart of her beloved. Every moment of the dance was agony, but when she emerged, she was unharmed. That's how love works in fairytales. This is not love, pure and generous, but she feels the lick of flames regardless.

[sasquach-scratches]

I haven't played Enderal in a long time (though I often think about finishing a save i started years ago lmaooo) let alone get around to finally reading Dreams of the Dying

So Imagine My Surprise to find out that a copyright issue led to the writer to scrub all references to Enderal and make it its own thing with more books planned in the setting

[jichanxo]

sunday six 🌼

tags: @passthroughtime @four-white-trees @overdevelopedglasses

poking at senseific with a stick. here's off hours kitakata

It was different to see Kitakata here, out of school, dressed down. He wore a brown leather jacket, jeans. A far cry from the usual white button up and slacks. More than that, he was smiling, his posture was relaxed and unguarded, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. It wasn’t dissimilar to the way he’d acted on the roof during their smoke break, just more. Kitakata looked right at home here, and that was an odd thought to have when Yagami had mostly come to associate him with the school, rather than a cramped bar tucked away in a corner of the Champion District. On the roof, he’d looked unprofessional, vaping while surrounded by all the reminders of his vocation. Here, he was just another guy seeking a bit of indulgence, and nobody could fault him for that.

[mummer]

doing complex computations and have found out that even continuing my current pace (unsustainable anyway) i will absolutely not have a first draft done by the end of the month like i said i would because i forgot books have to be kind of long and i have a full time job so its kindof physically impossible

[eggshell4bones]

the other day i was gonna rewatch close enough (made by the regular show guy jolly good show amen) BUT its not on netflix anymore. not on streaming AT ALL anymore. devastating