#but it's so much fun enjoying a book and connecting it to your blorbos at the same time

[yujeong]

VegasPete and Childhood's End: a deranged attempt at connecting two completely unrelated things

Hello there, fellow VP enthusiasts. This post here is my remaining 2 braincells trying to come up with ways the silly, little book known as Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke and the silly, little couple known as VegasPete are connected, and how the show chose this book for Vegas to be reading in episode 11 for reasons beyond its title. I swear it's true, I asked Pond, he told me about it, trust me. I said in the tags of this post that I have started reading the book because I have a fic idea I wanted to write (which will happen next year now, after I finish the book), and after I shared my observations on the kindergarten mafia server, I thought to myself why not make a Tumblr post too? So, here I am. I would like to clarify that I will be spoiling major parts of the book, obviously, so anyone who doesn't want to get spoiled, don't read this post and the ones after it. Also, this is the version of the book I bought like 5 days ago from a well-known bookshop at the center of Athens, which sells English books too, bless them. Just so you know what my source is. (Unfortunately, getting the version Vegas was reading might be difficult - if not impossible - in Greece to find, because I believe it's one of the first editions? I'm not sure. Nevertheless, I have the book in my hands, which is what counts.) If I make any mistakes in regards to the information I'll provide about the book, the story and the characters, I apologize in advance. It'll probably be me not being careful enough while reading it and missing sth. So, without any further delay, here we go:

The basic premise of the book is a concept that's become cliche in the recent years: aliens called the Overlords have taken over the Earth, bringing prosperity to it but leaving humans with having no actual freedom in their choices. So, reading up to page 34, we learn that there's a specific Overlord called Karellen who's responsible for ruling the Earth, and we also get introduced to Stormgren who's the intermediary between Karellen and the human race, with the title of "Secretary". At first, I had made the connection of Vegas being Stormgren and Karellen (or the Overlords in general) being Gun, because Stormgren trusts Karellen with ruling the human race, just as Vegas idolizes his father who can totally bring prosperity to the family and make it better by force (an important element since the Overlords just came and declared themselves the rulers of the planet and took over). Also, there's an element of secrecy with Karellen, because it's been 5 years since he arrived on Earth but no one, not even Stormgren, knows what he looks like. This causes Stormgren to be a bit suspicious of Karellen, which he rarely shows and tries to push the feeling down when it resurfaces. In the same way, I thought this could connect to Gun who's hiding stuff from Vegas - Porsche anyone? - which Vegas will start having thoughts about post ep 11. All of that is fine and good, BUT I wouldn't be a Pete girlie if I didn't try to include my boy in this. I think all of the above I mentioned is more about Pete than Vegas. And, judging by how obsessed Vegas became with Pete post ep 10 - after their masks fell off and he saw who Pete truly was - I am confident in my belief that Vegas reading Childhood's End would think of Pete, not himself (sth he already does at this point but you get what I'm saying). SO, Stormgren is actually Pete, who follows Karellen's words almost blindly, and almost is an important word here because in the book, he does argue back about things and is vocal about his opinions, even if Karellen smartly turns them down. Karellen is generally very softly spoken, polite and very human like in the way he talks, so in my opinion he resembles Korn way more than Gun. There's also a character who calls Stormgren out on his blind faith in Karellen, and if this isn't Vegas telling Pete that "there's no such thing as honesty", I don't know what it is. Now, for the fun part: Stormgren gets kidnapped by a group of humans who want the Overlords to leave and not only is the dude semi-casual about it on the surface while keeping his panic under wraps, in the end his captors, after explaining how they got him and what their plan is, throw a pack of cards at him and ask him to play poker with him, which causes Stormgren to laugh like he hasn't laughed in years. I'm just imagining Vegas reading this and shaking his head, putting on his clown shoes, thinking: these guys are so stupid, encouraging their captive be this nonchalant around them, I would never.

[pinkbalrog]

Just finished the Vampyres by C.R. Kane last night and while I'll probably get to a proper full length review I will do a short one, following the example of a previous blogger.

Overall Verdict? *drum roll* An excellent read! I was engaged from beginning to end, absolutely invested, and very in love with the language and descriptions.

One use of rather Victorian phrasing stuck out to me: in using words we usually use for very specific things in slightly different contexts. I adore the use of the word "frothed" and the descriptions of literally everything were wonderful. I'd pull more examples but I just gave to book to my sister to read after she said "it sounded good".

It has a deft balance between descriptions of emotional and physical reactions and smooth transitions.

It also has a lovely tone that slips down into despair. You will find yourself appalled and disgusted with the POV character, which is delightful! I really like all these takes on vampirism and the effect of the passage of time on human minds. The different, terrifying strengths of contracts and individuals shows, along with the afterword, a depth of research and consideration for the accumulation of vampire mythology that modern media lacks. The particular powers of the POV character are well chosen. They allow Kane to look deeply at other characters quickly and in fascinating ways and allow mystery to bloom; and I really like how the POV character's power is limited despite all the advantages it provides.

It IS a more rewarding experience if you have read Dracula, which is, I would say, the only thing that may be called a flaw (if you interpret it that way). I will have to wait on my sister's reaction to see how it stands alone as I can not judge. (I'm sure she will like it, though. We read the same books 90% of the time lol).

Make no mistake though, I loved this. The writing is rich but not overwhelming and I THOROUGHLY enjoyed it. Thank you, @see-arcane !! I really look forward to reading anything you write and I'm so happy to have read your book. Personally, I really enjoyed finding all the connections to Dracula. It was immensely satisfying!! I love my blorbo very very very very much and you made him so gloriously tragic *imagine me grinning *. Much much fun. Much pleased.

[purple-ant]

I picked these fruits for you!!! 🍉🍊🍋

🍉 - Do you prefer to write short fics or long fics? Multichaptered works or single ones? Why?

I really feel better writing short fics because most of the time I have this one image/vibe that I really want to bring to life. But it doesn’t feel right sometimes, like I should give people more context/feelings/describe stuff which looks obvious to me but not for the reader- and suddenly I’m tired of writing -_-

I have a lot of ideas for multichapter works some of them even started but let’s say by now i started posting about six fics that were supposed to be big and only one of them is finished (Beat, Resonance, Unison), two are frozen and the rest haven't moved past the first chapter. I'm really worried about I Pray My Mind be Good to Me but it’s going pretty good, much better than I expected

So in the end short fics >>> long fics

🍊 - Who’s a character you don’t write for that often, but keep meaning to write for more? (They’re so interesting! But maybe you have trouble pinning them down, or keep getting distracted by another blorbo...)

Right now I think a LOT about Serenno royal family and not only Jenza (it is so fun to write her pov but it’s also a hard time for her :c poor girl doesn’t understand that ALL men in her family are bastards).

We don’t know much about Anya but the tiny pieces that the Cursed Book gives us are so tasty: she cares about the Funeral Moon and she is kinda cold with her kids and still - I think she is the one who called the Jedi for Dooku; she probably never loved Gora and it looks like women don’t have much power on Serenno-

And Ramil!! The first son, heir to the throne, he rebels against his father, finds sponsors and connections (including some very bad people) through his own efforts to become a pod-racer. And he’s good at it!! What was that about human inability not to win but even survive a podrace?? And how it feels when your only sister thinks that some sorcerer on Coruscant is a better brother than you? and THEN he becomes disabled because of his own actions and his father dies (did he kill Gora???) and he becomes a count and-

I want to study this family under a microscope

🍋 - What’s your favorite spicier trope to write?

Jess- JESS!!! ughhh you read so much of my unpublished porn and that's how you pay?? I can’t really say what is my favorite because how I understand the smut is more about feelings than tropes for me. Like if I catch the dynamic and feelings between characters, I can take myself and the reader into mostly anything (few tropes are too much even for me)

But in the end, I think it would be bondage and serving top (if this is the right term)

Something about the trust and giving the control to another person where the bottom can relax and not worry about anything. And the second thing is well, it’s something about serving, about the character giving their all just to make their loved one feel good without thinking about their own finish, pleasure not from their own stimulation but from simply seeing their partner enjoying and melting in their arms.

[sealsapocalypticmusic]

figured i'd ask since artists can see the playlists their music is added to on spotify:

do you mind if your non-tlt songs are added to tlt playlists? because i would get it if you wanted your original music to be taken on its own, not pidgeonholed as fan music.

Meant to reply to this awhile ago, so sorry it took me a bit! Anyway, don’t mind at all if people put my non tlt stuff on tlt playlists! Part of the reason I love those books enough to write songs about them, is because they resonate with a bunch of the themes I’m obsessed with and would want to write about anyway. Also I’m very much of the mind that once the art is out there, people should be able to play with it in the ways that are fun/speak to them! I’m on record as being delighted when people use my songs for Blorbo stuff, and I see this as much the same with the added bonus that the tlt characters are often my blorbos as well! Delightful! As for being pigeon holed, eh I’m not worried about it, I write music because I like doing it and if people connect with it because it reminds them of other stuff they like that’s cool. If you’re enjoying my music, I’m not gonna try and put rules on how you go about it. Anyway, no worries in general about putting my stuff on fandom playlists (especially for fandoms I also like!) I think it’s sick as hell and I hope people are having fun with it. Go forth and do as you please and make whatever playlists you desire! <3

[zyrafowe-sny]

oh I have some questions if you're taking!

11: Link your three favorite fics right now

45: Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

70: When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

Thanks so much for the ask! Asks come from this post.

11: Link your three favorite fics right now

This is so hard. There are so many good fanfics out there.

I will always love @sercezgazety's/theprincessofdenial's A Potter's Field. It was written before For the Future aired, and is a darker look at how post-Belos life and political restructuring/lustration could look like, particularly for the former Golden Guard. I appreciate how the story is also told/supplemented through other media (like archaeological field notes), and the whole fic matches my academic interests pretty closely (studied anthro, politics, Eastern Europe, democratization, etc. once upon a time). Full disclosure: I did beta read it and was generally a chapter or two ahead of other readers, so that made the comment section even more fun. In general, I highly recommend the comment section of all theprincessofdenial's fics in addition to the fics themselves.

After a long stretch of being most interested in genfic (especially in the TOH fandom), Nimona has gotten me into shippy stuff again. I'm enjoying @peachblossom-odyssey's/LiterallyThePresident's how familiar the danger series because it's an interesting concept for an AU (Ballister doesn't become a knight), the universe is dark/gritty, and all the Ballister/Ambrosius interactions are fire.

I also really like @thegrimshapeofyoursmile's Strange Infatuations series since I am a sucker for worldbuilding, especially worldbuilding based on research.

45: Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

Both? One of my favorite books - Under the Whispering Door - made me cry actual tears and laugh out loud, so that kind of emotional rollercoaster is something I aspire to.

A good chunk of my writing falls into bittersweet, but even my "funny" fics like World's Best Turkey Carver and LuluRoe include nods at grief. My most angsty fics tend to be short and follow canon closely - I haven't invented much new angst for the blorbos.

I'm a little proud that I get this kind of range of comments across my fics (yes, I re-read comments as a pick-me-up and cherish each and every one):

"I don't know if i should laugh or cry ahdjshjd"

"Thank you for making me look like an idiot in front of my roommate! I laughed way too hard at that part."

"Aaaaahhh this hurt. This hurt me. Akkskssmzndkdk"

"This gave me such a quiet, sweet little heartache."

"I want to cry but I'm in a public place"

"I love this so much! Though you will be paying my therapy bills"

"It took me over an hour to finish reading this fic because I kept laughing so hard kdnfjskdkfmdkdkfjdk Oh my god, I had like twenty different giggling fits."

70: When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

It wasn't until after I posted my third TOH fic that I confessed to my long-term partner that I was writing again and shared my AO3 username. There's just something about writing that exposes a bit of your soul, and having my writing connected to me as a person can feel mortifying.

I have mentioned to a few people that I write fanfic without linking to my work, and that's been easier (sometimes to friends/acquaintances who are also in fandom spaces, sometimes to my real life professional writer friends/acquaintances in a "I am but a humble amateur but still can relate somewhat to your writing vent post/your messed up Google algorithm" sort of way).

Basically, I don't consider amateur writing (fanfic or otherwise) embarrassing, but am more personally shy about sharing what I write with people who know me in real life.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

I vibe with hyperfixating w/ characters. To varying degrees I’ve fixated on: Armin from AOT for a while, 1D had a DEATH GRIP on me for a few years, (SEVEAL book characters through my teen years)I had an Alucard from castlevania fixation for maybe 3 ish years (‘ending’ only recently) and now Hobes lives in my head rent free ngl.

I get the “being sad cuz you can’t meet them” part, I’ve felt it. I try to not daydream TOO much cuz otherwise it takes over my life and I’m doing a considerable effort to live OUT of my own head, but BOI do I LOVE just daydreaming about my blorbos of choice.

I don’t speak too much about it (mostly the daydreaming) cuz to an extent it feels like a “me thing” (like something I don’t wanna share with anyone cuz it’s special to me), but if given the chance I DO info dump on my fixations.

I don’t think it’s cringe, not at all. These things are stuff that helps us process the world and our experiences with it. I believe everyone has sensitive weird shit that they don’t talk about, but if there’s something Ive learned is that we hardly ever have completely unique experiences. Most people just hide their oddness. Fandom being a prime example of how much our blorbos can mean to us. I think it’s okay and normal. (Until it goes overboard and people send idk violent messages to others because they headcanon something differently idk, the unreasonable stuff imo)

Can’t believe our of everything people would dare to make JOY and INTEREST the things with negative connotations. Being mean should be cringe, being a bully should be embarrassing. But unashamedly enjoying stuff?? That’s wonderful.

Anyone too embarrassed of their own vulnerability that they deal with it by making others feel bad about their interests are the most immature out if all of us.

Joy is everything that’s good with the world.

Even just seeing the letter 1D makes me wanna scream (in a good way!!) cause it takes me back to high school lol 1D was a bit older than me so my grade had Mindless Behaviour (does anyone remember them, where they even popular) but I remember the days where 1D was like the definition of summer songs

And I can totally understand the 'me thing'. Like I never really spoke about it but I felt like I knew my daydreams were more substantial or vivid than the 'average person' so to say.

Or when I spoke about characters to other people, I understood that neurotypicals likes characters, but they often didn't see them as fully formed 'persons' in the way I do - as to say, they didn't speculate or see emotional backstory, connections, or their behavior the way I did.

I never really shared any of my daydreams because like - I can't even get into it that's like asking someone to explain Star Wars to someone who doesn't even know space travel exists.

I grew up in a time on the internet where self-inserts and OC were seen as cringe, and someone would be very quick to call out 'Mary-Sue's (or flawless OCs) whenever they could.

It's not like that now - but in juxtaposition to canon x canon shipping, that bias is still there I feel like. Like it, as a work of fandom art has less 'value' that art or fics of canon only characters

It kinda bums me out still.

I think OC and daydreams and self-indulgent inserts are all the best part of fandom because it's the purest way of fans connecting with content on a personal level.

I'm happy that I see more people pushing back on that lately. Like after years of seeing people viciously hate furries when most of them seem like very nice, fun people, it's refreshing for people to be like 'nah, actually this thing is cool. and im gonna spend of time and/or money on this thing cause i makes me happy;

like you remember when the new Star Wars movie trailers came out and that dude reacted to it and he was moved to tears and people made fun of him??

yeah fuck everyone else that dude knows whats up.

Like yes, openly cry to your faves. Fantasize deep meaningful daydreams that help you process your feelings. Draw your OC with them, or learn every single thing their is to know about them.

That's why I wanted to talk about this. Because I've never heard it spoken about before. Maladaptive daydreaming, yes - and that can be harmful. But I hardly ever hear people talk about the basic mundane experience of it - or even how it can enrich our lives and help us emotionally develop of neurodivergent people.

When I think of it that way, it's something that makes me happy. I don't think I'll ever be able to describe it fully, and that's the point. Our stories are private to us, not because theyre embarrassing, but because they're so us that to even describe it would like describing a new world top to bottom

I love it. It's what makes humans humans.

[rontra]

your art is making me go absolutely feral about wondermagic. I never looked at Zatanna comics before (or much comics in general), do you have any recommendations on where to start? I need more of this funky gay stage magician and her huge dork girlfriend in my life.

oh god. I MEAN first of all YES!!!!! WONDERMAGIC W!!!!!!! im so happy to hear it. they make me actually crazy im glad youre enjoying The Art

however SECOND OF ALL i must confess (as i have confessed before!) that i am a fake ass comic book fan. i've barely read Anything for Any character (LOL) i am not at ALL versed in her various appearances/history. so tbh i hope my more knowledgeable followers can drop recs for both me and you if there's anything particularly noteworthy

but i can talk about what i HAVE read bc my journey with her has been very . memorable to me. THIS IS NOT A HELPFUL POST this is just me infodumping--AT LENGTH--about my and zatanna's relationship. but i do talk a little about what ive read. like casual rontra followers can stop reading here its just rambling

anyway my first exposure to ms zatanna was in the first proper dc comic i ever read. which doesnt count because its extremely not about her (this is a tangent) but its notable for making me out loud go "who is this MAGICIAN" which prompted my partner to immediately reply "you mean zatanna zatara". oh you know her. you know the magician. bitch who the hell is--

you gotta appreciate the experience here. its babys first ever comic. i know superman i know batman ive seen them around (from being alive as a human). i have never in my life heard of the stage magician who hangs out with them (in full costume??) and is their friend(?????)

SHES VERY MEMORABLE. WHO THE HELL IS THIS MAGICIAN

anyway that's all a tangent. flash forwards to last month. i was already working on CTDE from the kara^2 angle (bc i majored in n52 power girl w a minor degree in supergirl: woman of tomorrow, of course) but i was like "i should expand this roster". my friends suggest their blorbos ofc and i have a fun time reading wiki pages from multiple storylines/continuities just getting a wide array of impressions from different places. just snooping around the Vibes. and im like. man i should look at that Magician. read some of HER pages

you gotta appreciate knowing nothing at like 3am, to figuring out ctde zatanna's palette at 5:43 am

i can't resist her.

anyway i already knew here that i was going to do something weird with her in the CTDE that wasn't necessarily connected to any of her published material. i was cooking independently. the stove was on before i had ingredients on hand bc i had the IDEA first. but i was like "i should look at some of her stuff first-hand and try and refine the Vibes" yknow. like theres limits to how much of a fake zatanna fan i can be

so we put out a call in the Mutuals Network and someone was like "you Could watch the justice league dark movie from 2017 she's in that". i was like ok 1hr15 animated movie i can handle that EASY

i didn't love the movie. so i'm not going to say anything else about it. however something VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

thats right. wondermagic took hold before i read a single zatanna comic. just as it has for you anon.... we're not so different you and i...

couple days pass. im just relaxing. hanging out. looking at random tumblr blogs that post comic stuff bc im curious. so i stumble on this one post and it has a clean edit of This Fateful Image 👇

this. GODDAMN image

i was like Wonder Woman is HOW TALL? excuse ME? (>he has also never engaged with a single piece of wonder woman content)

SHES SO TALL........??? and Next To Zatanna? (diesel voice) back in my day we called this spitting distance. and we would post it on /u/

im like okay what comic is this from im going there and im going NOW. to view her. like it's that easy folks. just show me wonder woman, Tall, next to another woman. and i'll go read it

nyway this is Justice League Dark from 2018-2020 it's like 30 issues or so and theres a stretch of chapters where diana is a real hunk its unbelievable. then the art changes but it was amazing while it lasted

(and then i immediately stumbled and wondermagic ctde real)

i really enjoyed this comic actually. i have NO idea how its generally regarded by zatanna nation, but i had a fun enough time. absorbed a lot of DC Comics Magic Lore for my AU which is important

at some point it starts doing Weirdly Umineko Coded dialogue totally unprompted so if you've read that it might tickle your funnybone to see comic book characters asking each other "was this a trick or was it magic 😏". made me feel right at home

my main complaint is that SHE'S NOT DRESSED LIKE A FUCKING MAGICIAN IN IT!!!! COME ON!!!!! they chickened out on the full magician garb in this whole era. which is just so sad. the fishnet fingerless gloves are funny though i might steal that. but i think she is so funny when she's wearing the full magician costume. like call me shallow but her commitment to the bit is so important to me

on the upside she interacts with wonder woman A Lot. the rest of the team is fun too. the justice league dark team is just wonder woman severely failing to put together a squad with any star power at all and i think that's adorable. her failgirl era. now she's out here with her also-rans. i like them all im fond of them

diana scruffs zee like a cat??? she's just hanging there like she's ok with it LOL

it technically jumps off of another comic but tbh if you're willing to hit the ground running and just Accept some stuff in medias res and go with it it's pretty easy to pick up if you wanted

("Just Going With It" is a vital survival skill for getting into comics in general because even if a comic isn't part of a longer continuity its always like "omg glup shitto is here!!! for the fans!!!" and you just have to be like Okay someone else will know who that is. ill just go w it. yknow 😭)

anyway i got a lot of DC Magic Lore (Strangely Familiar Edition) and Zee Content AND!!! Wondermagic Content. in this one. so even if i had an inkling about them before, this comic is really what detonated the charge so to speak. they interact so much

and the dynamic created w their relationship to magic and stuff is really interesting. brainwormy for sure. it took me from "who the hell is this magician" to "DO PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT WONDERMAGIC????? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELLO???" in one comic. i have a LOT of thoughts about them like genuinely i think there's meat on the bone conceptually for wondermagic

but i think pretty much any time they appear together in general they're just Like That. whenever theyre both in a comic they have to be gay about it (what the fuck did she mean by this). i was losing my mind when i was catching up on DC/RWBY (ABHORRED. avoid if possible) and zatanna is immediately on her bullshit again. IS THAT HOW YOU GREET HER

anyway to sum up my rambling here's a peek into my league of comic geeks library of Shit Ive Read Since Then (that had zee in it). basically i have no further wisdom for you but for the knowers this is where i'm at (click to enlarge)

it's a totally random selection LOL my strategy is that i look at comics that list her as a cast member and spin an actual roulette wheel in my brain to decide whether i should read it or not. there's very little else going on here. just monkey sees funny magician -> neuron activates

that pretty much catches us up on my zatanna journey. youll notice if you paid attention to the date/time stamps that it took a mere matter of Days to go from "yeah i can watch a movie" to "i think about her kissing women every night before i sleep". it is DIRE in here. im not sure ive ever had such a Severe escalation of worms

i love her. she's my funny girl. anyway. zatanna nation. if you're still reading this. if you're still with me. what is your wisdom. what should me and anon read. please.

this is a matter of international consequences.

[daisychainsandbowties]

hey, quick wot question (i don’t wanna google it and risk getting spoiled😬)

I just found out 208 is the finale and I somehow thought there’d be 10 episodes this season. honestly thought there was some more developing to come before the finale. so I was wondering, was this season one book or bits and pieces of an overreaching arc from a few books?

this is a tricky one to answer because… technically s2 has bits and pieces from like five books lmao. but mostly small things. some character arcs are from book 3 (others are entirely made up for some reason) but it does seem as though the finale of this season will roughly follow the end of book two. there are definitely chunks of book three in there (as i suspected there would be, and other things from that book i hope to god are still coming and not just dropped), and then… scatterings of other books. but in terms of narrative arc i’d align it roughly with book two.

this next part is not really answering your question but there aren’t any spoilers either. just ranting ig

yeah i agree with what you’re saying about development. i’ve been struggling to tell if my moments of “hmm… was that… made clear enough? was that earned?” were just my book brain seeking the familiar connective tissue of RJ’s narrative structure, but i have started to worry that my mom (gleefully unwilling to even listen to me explain things) will not be able to follow what’s happening in season 2 as much as i feel is necessary for someone like her to enjoy it.

they’ve made some choices i flatly dislike (taking siuan’s scenes and giving them to other characters, and actually everything that happened with siuan last episode “she would not fucking-”) others choices that genuinely bored me. i should be 👁️👁️😍😍 at my screen all the time as a book fan but the warder storyline… the stuff with moiraine’s family. i was like… cool when is it egwene & elayne & nynaeve and (gay brain) lanfear time again. and to be clear i like moiraine so so much, i like lan so so much, and i was so looking forward to their little divorce but stuck in our get-along t-shirt arc this season. but i was at times just feeling too ‘???’ why is any of this happening right now to be engaged with things.

and then also just aware of them not?? really getting my blorbos at times?? like lan not even going “you’re accusing fucking ME, al’lan mandragoran lord of the seven towers true blade of malkier, of being a darkfriend?? 🤨 be so fr right now.”

i wanted so badly to have the best time with this show and i was benefit of the doubt again and again but they’re losing my trust. (lost it, with making siuan do THAT for whump) i walked away from last episode feeling physically ill for the wrong reasons, and i get not everyone feels this way but i’m… a bit numb about tonight. emotionally detached. i wish i didn’t feel so bad (obviously) but!! anyway the books are still a lot of fun to read and i’m hoping they at least give egwene what she’s earned this season (a hug, and also murder)

[kuwdora]

Witcher Commenting Event & Community Engagement

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this post that @jackironsides reblogged a few days ago about the lack of engagement with fanworks.

Comments are great. Commenting can be hard (more on that later) but receiving them is great, right? We want to support each other as a community and continue to squee about our blorbos and meow meows together.

(nostalgia time) I come from the old livejournal days where it was usual to see conversations happening in comments for days or weeks on end, even on short fics. People writing ship manifestos, fannish newsletters, community recommendations and commenting on those too. People reccing fic and meta. Things just were a little easier to find and engage with. Things didn't get so lost in tags or in a discord server you didn't know exists.

I have been thinking about the ways we could be social and connect to each other again and comment more. I love the Witcher Flashfic discord server because there are “Live readings” that groups of people perform on your fic while your story is under anon for the week. It’s incredibly fun to both be the author watching this anonymously while people READ YOUR STORY IN REAL TIME (or during a backread). And it is SO MUCH FUN fun to read a story together and comment WITH PEOPLE. Riffing off your squee and comments about the style, the plot, the characters in a fic. It’s like a book club! It’s so much fun.

A DREAM:

So I got to thinking. What if we tried something something similar to discover, read, and comment on fanworks TOGETHER? I have this dream:

A Comment Crawl, a la pub crawl. Except instead of pubs, we are visiting fics and art and vids and everything else and leaving comments on it together. (Fanwork Crawl doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way, okay…!). Target all kinds of fanworks: fic with no comments, few comments or are older than 6 months. Fanart that only has reblogs but no one ever told the artist what they like about the piece, not even in tags. Etc. etc.

We could put up a list of fanworks that are recced/nominated based on a theme and give people that window of time to read and compose a comment. Then we go and drop our comments on the AO3, tumblr post/etc during a designated window of time. Build off each other’s squee in the comments like I KNOW we do in discord. Let the creators see our avalanche of love and squee together.

Commenting can be hard and stressful when you don’t know what to say or think or what the creator is looking for.

Maybe you don’t know how to comment on a fanwork you’re unfamiliar with because you’re not an artist or a vidder or cosplayer or don’t know how to show an author how much you enjoyed the story.

This can be taught! There’s even work that @longlivefeedback has done in 2018 where they created a COMMENT BUILDER TEMPLATE that we can modify for Witcher related squee. For your personalized squee. Remove that inhibition and hurdle to comment and show love for the things that you spend all that time reading, reblogging and dropping links in discord.

We can learn from writers and artists how any scrap of feedback is going to mean the WORLD to them. And we can learn how to make more technical comments on things, too!

I have created a survey to gauge interest in A Comment Crawl for Witcher fandom. Please fill it out here if this sounds like something you would like to participate in or help organizing. I would really love help on this if it’s something people want to try!!

SURVEY HERE

I also have a ton of ideas about how create engagement through writing recs lists and creating fannish teams to go on treasure hunts to go together and look for fanart, fic, fandom-inspired jewelry, gifsets/etc based on a theme and then write a recs list to the public community. Link/tag the creators so they know how much their work is being loved on by other people!!

Is this reccing thing something that sounds like it might be fun for you to participate in?? @fancakeofficial is a pan-fannish reccing community that sort of inspired me in my thinking in how great it would be to have more recs in Witcher fandom in a more centralized way. They have a presence on tumblr, twitter and dreamwidth and people have been submitting themed recs for years and it's definitely a community I go to when I am looking to see what other people liked and to find something new. And sometimes my stuff gets recced a decade after I made it! It's fucking WILD and amazing feeling!! I would love to see something like this for Witcher fandom if possible..

Truly, recs are like... comments and kudos turbocharged because someone went out of their way to tell other people why your fanwork is great and get more eyes and squee on it!!

There is so much excellent rare pair fic out there in Witcher fandom. There’s amazing character-driven stories and hidden gems in the juggernaut pairings. There’s some fucking incredible femslash out there, omfgggg. So many of these stories get lost amidst the volume of fanworks and don't get comments or squee and it's can be so lonely. There is SO MUCH INCREDIBLE ART AND VIDS AND COSPLAY and gosh, so much amazing creativity out there.

*takes a deep breath*

So yeah, I would like to try to figure out a way to bring people together and comment together and squee together that can happen more outside of discord where the creators can see, squee and even participate with us!!

Anyway. This is very rambly and I am probably forgetting a million details because my brain has been on fire because of 10,000 other things. BUT I am putting it out there!! Hoping some folks would like to hear me out and try something like this.

Signal boosting is greatly appreciated!! If we build it, will you come??? Leave me your details in the survey! Let me know what you think!!

P.S. If you are a rare pair writer there is another round of @witcherrarepaircommentexchange will be open for nominations again in November so PLEASE be sure to check that out!

Tagging people that I know have many more followers than I do who might have followers who could be interested...

@fangirleaconmigo @jackironsides @limerental @ghostinthelibrarywrites @bomberqueen17 @brighteyedjill @sargassostories