#are you worried people will react negatively to your blorbo?

[fo-ryourconsideration]

I've noticed that most people submit characters anonymously. This is fine, obviously, but I'm curious as to why that is 🤔 Thoughts? Insights?

[scary-senpai]

Salty ask - 14, 19

Hello, Wonderful Anon! Thank you so much for dropping me a note <3 I always get ridiculously happy when I have something in my ask box. Perhaps you've figured out the theme by now, which is "if I hate something, it's probably a Me thing."

Salty Asks Done Nicely

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

90% of the OPM subreddit needs to quietly sit in time out until they learn to play nicely with other kids. Although I don't think that counts as an unpopular opinion.

As an avid consumer of meta and fan-made content, I think that having disparate interpretations of characters/scenes/events is usually a Two Cakes problem.

[[redacted/Blorbo]] is Ace/Aro? Love it. I'll be in my bunk.

[[redacted/Blorbo]] is a Sex God? 100%. Fabulous. I am curled up with my tablet and covered in cracker crumbs as we speak.

Do I sometimes catch myself giving the side-eye when someone portrays a character differently than I normally imagine? Yes--I am human and my opinions are strong. But at the same time, I try to remember that this person is giving their time/effort/energy/love to create something--almost certainly for free--and then has the courage/gumption to release their baby out into the aether for others to enjoy (because formatting for ao3/tumblr/etc is its own other beast!)... seriously, I'm figuratively kissing y'all on the mouth right now, and/or handing you a proverbial soup bowl with a side of undying admiration. I think it's fantastic that I have different types of content to choose from, in addition to canon, and that I have diverse options depending on my mood. Or, who knows! You might even change my mind :) To be honest, I did not understand Mumarou at first, and while it's not my OTP it is one of the ships in my armada. :) I'm grateful for any content that features my faves.

That being said... on Reddit in particular, I noticed some (actually a lot) of readers reacting in a strongly negative way to the relationship between Saitama and Genos, or just outright being mean to Garou or hating on Genos... I don't really understand that. I mean, I do, but... I've largely curated my fandom experience to avoid those people. Life's too short, you know? I'm really grateful to the Tumblr community for being such a chill and supportive place.

19. What's the thing you hate most about your fandom?

Writing for a small fandom is really hard.

I have yet to fully uncouple my desire to create with my desire for attention (it's an ongoing struggle). And because I mostly write genfics (no romance), that makes it really, really hard. And when I do write something that features a romantic relationship, I do so for an OTP that runs counter to the two most popular fandom ships, that makes it really, really, really hard.

Sure, I write meta stuff too, but I haven't been blogging very long, and I don't have much of a following so I don't get much engagement/asks/etc. I'm always a little surprised when people want my opinion on things.

I put a lot of work into everything I write, particularly my fics, so it's hard not to get down about the near-radio-silence sometimes. I accidentally wrote 100 words of Batarou for Wanpanmas 2020 and it was easily the most popular thing I'd ever done... until I briefly stepped into the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom with a Gojo x Reader sickfic. But that was better, because I did it on purpose--specifically, I did it for a friend who (like me) laments the lack of SFW/smut-free x reader stuff. Same writing style, similar character (white-haired & insufferable pretty boy), but very, very different experience. I do have some JJK fics drafted and occasionally I fantasize about switching over because maybe I wouldn't feel so left out. Then I take a deep breath, check my feelings, and close out my Sukuna x Reader drafts. (don't worry, I'm not planning to switch fandoms any time soon. I have enough OPM stuff to keep me busy for years... and if i hesitate to share my fannish work with IRL friends now, imagine having to explain "canon-typical cannibalism" to people.) There's a saying song from the musical [title of show] and it goes like this: "I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing than 100 people's ninth favorite thing" and that's sort of my mantra when it comes to creating these days. I wouldn't be as confident in my work if I hadn't had this little fandom detour on my writing journey--it's pretty much necessitated that I dig deep into my motivations and confirm, "yes, I'm doing this because I love it," and "yes, I am 100% at peace with this finished product even though nobody's actively patting me on the shoulder right now," and actually I do have quite a few people that regularly interact with/entertain my ideas (I've jokingly used the term "emotional support mutual" but I feel weird assigning titles without consent... but if you have to ask, you probably are <3).

I may not have hundreds of followers--I'm, at best, midway through the double digits slightly over 100 but I'm grateful for everyone who's ever commented on/hearted/reblogged anything I have written, even if it’s a silly one-liner. Quantitatively, I don't get much interaction but qualitatively my heart is overflowing when I consider some of the exchanges I have had... Like it really tickled me that enough people actually wanted to play OPM bingo which started out as a silly joke, or joined in my Toaster Prayer Circle… any time the ship name I made gets used, my soul leaves my body (that’s only happened three times, but when your soul escapes your physical form, it’s a real bear to make it go back in…) little things like that seriously means a lot to my ADHD/Autistic Chaos Brain, which has always struggled to connect with people.