#even tho it’s fictional rpf shipping

[blurryface-never-left]

Can't believe Tumblr recommended me a post of someone bashing Joshler fans so absurdly hard only to be educated in the comments on how the pilots are probably the BIGGEST shippers of themselves and they STILL kept their misinformed post up.

Like I understand both sides of the discussion on rpf, but I think we should agree that if the ppl being shipped have actively stated they're okay with it and even encourage it, then you harshly calling the shippers disgusting, then your speaking on behalf of ppl without their permission. So please, tell us all about consent since you seem to follow it so well.

Also, learn to look into shit before proclaiming with your chest information that is possibly easily debunkable. Or at the very least, when you are given the correct information, apologize and remove the post. You literally bashed a whole group of ppl bc you thought so highly of your own opinion. Makin it out like we support murder or some shit holy fuck.

[the-somwthing]

Sorry but I’m not getting over the person who basically implied that headcanoning Jimmy as taller than Tango is thinly veiled rpf and they’re not REALLY separating cc from character. Like WHAT are you cooking

[alpinelogy]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

tagged by @63historian thank you so much for the tag <3

not tagging anyone cause I think most of yall already probably got tagged. the failure of catching up on tag games late o7

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

14 including fics posted on anon

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

159,278 including fics posted on anon

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Nowadays only F1 but I wrote for several fandoms before

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

[fic posted on anon], galaxy collapse (somebody scream), soldier down (on that icy ground), system’s breaking down (there’s been a glitch), fill your drink with tonic gin (this is the american dream) 

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to respond. I am not particularly good at responding but I try o7

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

fill your drink with tonic gin (this is the american dream) because of how open the ending is

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

galaxy collapse (somebody scream) probably because its very much 12k words of fluff but I think the happy endings in we found wonderland (you and i got lost in it) and now entering a world (from which you will never return) hit more cause of how much shit goes down

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet and fingers crossed I never will. That being said I do have shitposts locked and loaded for if I ever get anon hate

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Sort of...? I'm not particularly good at writing smut but I am learning:tm: and when I write/try to write its smut with feelings

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Nope. Tho back in the day aged maybe 13 -ish? on wattpad I wrote a lot of them. Fun times

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope and I hope I never will, especially now that I write rpf

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope but few weeks back I joked about a fic idea for an older fandom with a friend from that fandom and we are seriously considering co-writing it now

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Protagonists of the world!! (Bokuto and Akaashi from Haikyuu!! my og two sports guys ship even if these were fictional sports guys playing a real life sport)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

So many. Predominantly the Pierre/Esteban attempts at psychological warfare but I dont think I am smart enough to write that

16. What are your writing strengths?

Descriptions I think? I like putting adjectives everywhere

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

What the fuck is dialogue!! In all seriousness just interactions in general

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Fine for a couple of lines/to emphasize a point. If its for longer dialogues just write it in the language youre usually writing it, even just the act of writing is an act of translating from your brain into words and unless theres a really good reason to write in another language I think there are better way to make it clear the characters are not communicating in English

i have a lot of feelings on this topic and yes i do have a rant locked and loaded lol

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Naruto I think? I was a child on the internet thats for sure

20. Favourite fic you've written?

I like all my fics equally (its maybe we got lost (in translation) by probably a long shot. or we found wonderland (you and i got lost in it). galaxy collapse (somebody scream) and fill your drink with tonic gin (this is the american dream) are also some of my favs)

[drinksglue]

hi i hope you don’t mind me coming into your inbox to rant. you just seem like the most reasonable person in the proship side of the TMC community.

anyway, i’ve been lurking in this community for a while (mostly because i’d rather not get involved in drama and just watch from afar) and overall i think the only issues i have with people in the proship side is how it’s mostly made up of minors and how they often treat crewdela more like fictional characters than the actual fictional characters themselves. you guys can ship mark and cesar all you want, why do you have to ship alex and andrew too?? ik RPF is a thing but i feel like theres a difference between shipping celebrities with each other and shipping some white boy who makes spooky videos with his best friend (maybe thats just me tho idk)

No, I pretty much agree.

To start, yeah, there's a huge issue with this side of the community being overrun by minors. To be honest, that's the case with the entire fandom, so it just sort of bleeds into every aspect of it. But the minors on our side of it can just be plain disrespectful.

Several have lied about their age to talk to me directly or even join my 18+ only discord server. A lot of them get really pissy when you point out that 18+ means 18+, and that someone under 18 doesn't belong in the 18+ side of the community.

I'm neutral on RPF, there are ways that people go about it that doesn't inherently bother me, but things that do bother me is when they start actually treating the crew like they are high-profile celebs, as you said. Someone drawing art of them is a little weird, I can't say I like it, but it's... whatever, I guess.

What does distress me though is the fact that now there are kids on Twitter posting photos of Alex and Andrew that they had to dig for because those pictures weren't meant to be spread publicly by randos on Twitter. It's super weird and invasive. They're literally just... guys. 19-year-old guys who became popular practically overnight. If you want to ship the characters or make smutty art/fic of those characters then by all means, but it would be nice if people would have some decorum when it comes to real people.

Hell, one of the minors who lied about their age to access adult accounts on Twitter is also responsible for a catastrophically shitty callout post on Alex that leaked tons of tweets from his private account that had nothing to do with the situation at hand, including several tweets where he is clearly struggling with his mental health. There is absolutely no reason why those tweets in particular needed to be exposed, and the only reason why you'd screenshot such a tweet is to use it to hurt someone.

To make a long fuckin story short: The TMC fandom is largely made up of minors, and regardless of whether they're on the proship side or the anti side, they've made a distasteful habit of being disrespectful little shits.

[janaedonim]

3, 8, 10? From coffeewritesfiction

Sorry for taking so long and being a monster! Life etc etc 🩷 thank you for asking 🩷

3. My favorite fic that I’ve written - hmmm I think there’s three and I’m gonna say that’s fine bc what rules. For like the best writing I think I’ve done in a fic there’s a 1D rpf I did in second person that I feel like flows really well and takes you into the feeling.

For a character exploration I really love the fic I wrote about Danny Mahealani from teen wolf exploring what his storyline could (SHOULD) have been in the show + how his significance could have been related to the origins of his last name. DANNY SHOULD HAVE BECOME A MAIN CHARACTER IN SEASON TWO AND IF I EVER SEE JEFFS BITCH ON THE STREET

Anyway, third one would be a fic for The Flash where Caitlin has a Bi Awakening because of Iris because she’s literally the hottest woman on television??????????? But yall wanna act like she ain’t bc racism….okay…,.

8. Projects I’m currently working on - I’m trying to finish all my old fics in chronological order, but I actually think I want to deep dive into all my old fandoms and finish all the WIPs from each fandom one by one. Im also feeling super conflicted about rpf so I’m looking at all my 1D WIPs and trying to figure out if any of them can work as original fiction instead. A lot of them I think only work in the context of 1d lore/fandom phenomenons so idk what to do with those.

Currently actively writing something vaguely titled “silver courts the captain” which is gonna be cheesy fluffy black sails fic.

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Yeah I didn’t expect that me writing smut for the first time would have like no affect on the kind of feedback I got? I was expecting a lot of commentary on the sex but most folks are still mostly focused on the ship 😄 which I honestly love for me I’m self conscious enough as it is. The fic was Rachel x Monica friends fic btw 😅

Also!!!! The previously mentioned fic about Danny got so much kindness and love that encouraged me to keep going even tho it took me like ten years (I don’t think that an exaggeration) to finish that fic. And I didn’t expect that at all I didn’t think anyone would care. 😭 literally every person that commented on that fic ever I’m sending you wishes for peace, good health days and paid off debt 😭🩷💕🥹🥹🥹

🩷🩷🩷

[nyxeze]

wdym ao3 is evil?? like obvs the slack bullshit is horrific and absolutely needs to be condemned and they need to do something to stop propping up zionism

but like what shows that ao3 is evil before that?? /srs

people much smarter than me have said it better than i could, but i mean. the fact that they let literal cp on that site. like how i remember when that tommyinnit guy or whatever was underage when he got popular and there were TONS of explicit fics of him on there, even shipping him with some of his adult friends! that’s a whole child there that people are writing porn about and ao3 refused to do anything about it! there shouldn’t be smut of fictional children anyway, but especially real ones!

and there’s also how they refuse to do anything about the racism issue on their site… which people of color on social media have talked about at length about. so i would recommend doing some digging there (id attach some links but im writing this a day before a massive final i should really be studying for.)

also naomi novik runs the site and when you look up her ao3 she has tons of weird smutty fics like snape x harry (also transformer omegaverse and american idol rpf. just thought id point that out)

so yeah. like i said. don’t take my word for it. lot of people smarter than me have written whole pieces on it. fuck ao3 tho

[gogtopia]

It feels different writing fictional characters in a fictional world vs rpf, right?

VERY different and i think part of it is that i'm just way more comfortable with a fictional world. i think a lot of what i really like to write is character study and introspection and that's something i personally feel uncomfortable writing too much about with rpf because it feels speculative (even tho it's not inherently speculation because it's all fiction this is just my personal preference as a writer) whereas with the dsmp i can dive into those sort of topics freely. also like i have pretty strong opinions abt how i analyze certain dsmp characters and writing them is an opportunity to explore that artistically. i like writing meta but creative writing is way more of my strong suit. and like i know the real dtqk+ writer bread is in writing stuff that takes place in real life but truly that's just not what i like to write except for the rare oneshot here and there. i think a lot of why i write aus almost exclusively is 1. because i love worldbuilding and 2. i can strike that gray area of somewhere between the dsmp world and real life where i can have my cake (fiancés, personal headcanons about character sexualities and stuff, paralleling canon storylines that i like) and eat it too (dream not being the enemy, exploring different ship dynamics, appealing to a broader audience). honestly this is the first rpf fandom that i have ever been in like i watched youtubers before that had that on a smaller scale but well i was a rpf hater then LMFAO

[riacte]

hello hello, would you mind talking about spopera? Specifically, i saw a post a while ago about space twitter (which was hilarious) and... could you please tell me more about that side of the au :D

(also, what's your favourite little thing in spopera?)

YESS spopera!! And omg I LOVE space twitter. We have a #shitposting channel on the server and it’s my home <3 so thanks for the ask!!

(Coincidentally this is also my favourite thing lolol)

Buckle up because it’s gonna be wild 👀

First we have the genesis of all spacetwt discourse: the trans Lumians discourse. Basically some Twitter (the official name for the app is Twilight in this AU but I’m using Twitter because it’s funnier) users think Martyn is transgender False. Because they’re blonde, the same species, and stick with Ren. That’s literally their rationale. It’s a huge conspiracy with users going “prince of hearts 😍” and deeming it’s “transphobic to use f*lse because it’s martyn’s deadname”. Of course people with common sense go “🤨they look different and their freckles are literally different colours🤨” but the trans truthers don’t listen… it’s a huge argument online 😭

Then of course we have the fanfiction!! Exterra RPF!! Who could forget! We have Launchpad (Wattpad) and the Starchive (Ao3) <3 Someone found out Ren was seen as a delinquent when he visited False during their highschool years and boy you would not believe the EXPLOSION of Bad Boy RK content. It’s embarrassing. It’s funny. Bad Boy RK x Reader…. And of course the classic “got sold to RK and Queen of Hearts”. Because the kids would want that.

There is ALSO discourse on how Launchpad and Starchive characterise Bad Boy! RK. Starchive has those 10k delinquent befriending private school student Falseren fics with lowercase lyric titles. Launchpad just has a lot of X Reader fics.

BTW the most popular Exterra RPF fic is called Cold Spells— a parody of Heat Waves of course. It’s exactly what you imagine it is. The second most popular fic is a Medieval AU called a hand to hold until the end. Yes, it’s the 3rd Life AU. Yes, the author has the trafficpose url. (Check out the real owner of trafficpose here for more spopera content!! :D)

So that’s Starchive in a nutshell. However AO3 also exists… as a chemical compound. Someone (we’re thinking Cub) found AO3 and discovered it could be used in starship launchers. Essential, AO3 fuels ships. Yes it’s a pun.

Also the shipping discourse is insane in this universe. The whole “real people shipping is bad and invasive” thing aside, people just love arguing about the ships. The Falseren shippers fight with the Treebark shippers. People ship Ren x Skizz and Ren x Etho or whatever. And Doc. They also ship Ren with his crazy blue stalker (“😍 10k enemies to lovers 😍”). There are also genuine Treebark Truthers 😭 they call the Falseren shippers “comphet” or “heteronormative” or SOMETHING.

You think it can’t get worse. Well, it can! People ship the raceships. Shipshipping. Like, they humanise the freaking ships. The Dogwarts freighter is humanised into a dilf. People would unironically make tweets like “ // shipshipping idk i don’t like how the fandom portrayals falsewell as an old person it’s kinda ageist :( “

NOT TO MENTION THE SUBTWT DRAMA…. part of #hearttwt (False’s subtwt) don’t like Ren because they think he’s problematic and weird and a “Lumian fetishiser”. So we get tweets like “// red king neg DONT WORRY WE’LL SAVE FALSIE FROM THE STINKY MAN” the replies are like “???? They’re literally best friends???”. People also say shit like “my nyooms nyooms 🥺” “my poor glow glow” unironically.

Have some Space Twitter screenshots I made <3 not entirely canon but it’s funny <3

Also I made Space Gacha. This isn’t spoilers I promise—

yeah. so like. fictional discourse is the only part of world building ive contributed to 💀 also we borrowed a ton of stuff from f1 fandom which is just irl spopera BSBFHSBSA

I can imagine it’ll only get worse with time… anyways if you’ve read this far thanks for putting up with this LMAO

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

If you actually look at agro’s “zoophilia tw” tag you’d see nothing but them talking about bestiality being bad. Not to mention that post literally says that including therians as animals bc they identify as such “does not condone bestiality”.

I really shouldn’t be surprised tho considering y’all think writing a story about a bad thing is the same as wanting the bad thing to happen. I genuinely want to know your opinion on public libraries & how they’ll just put anything on their shelves, regardless of how immoral it is

I think my favorite are the anons who just completely assume what my stance is on things.

The idea that people are saying “oh if it happen in book it as bad as if real” is completely unfounded. That was never the argument. If you find someone saying that, I can almost promise you it’s going to be a sock puppet or an actual child.

What people like me ARE saying is that there is no moral justification to allow and offer erotica to pedophiles or zoophiles. Child and animal molestations are very real and very serious, do you actually see value in encouraging the sexualization of minors and animals?

By the logic of “oh it’s just pictures or writing who cares no kids or animals were touched” then would you also have no qualms with photos of naked children sold to pedophiles? If the child was simply naked and never actually touched or aware of anything bad happening, by your logic there is nothing wrong with that, but it is still classified as child pornography because it is being used to sexualize children and as a society it is pretty generally understood that this is dangerous and evidence of someone either being an active predator or soon to become one.

And don’t try to say “oh that’s different because in fanfiction and lolicon no children are involved at all” because it isn’t true. If that were the case, I would not be able to go to AO3 and point to the piles of nsfw rpf about child celebrities, youtube personalities, etc. I would not be able to find Hentai of real-world minors in almost any fandom that has live action actors. But I can find that, I wouldn’t even have to look. Before the nsfw tumblr ban, I could barely go to any tags on this site without finding people sexualizing the kids from IT 2017 or Stranger Things. People shipped them, wrote rpf smut, drew porn, everything. Anyone who said “hey this is incredibly disturbing not to mention illegal in the US where this site is hosted” was just “a dumb anti” and chastised for censorship or whatever.

I don’t care that Lolita exists. I am actually a fan of dark fiction and horror. I have written it, I have drawn it. One of my favorite shows was Breaking Bad, and that isn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows. I even liked Game of Thrones when it first came out. I do not have a problem with dark, disturbing, or heavy content in fiction. I have a problem with this content being sexualized, romanticized, and glamorized. I am sorry that you think Boku no Pico was a deep and coveted story that deserves to be preserved in public libraries, but your thoughts are not universal.

Tangent over, if you take nothing from this I would at least like to circle back to the fact that using “umm, actually—“ logic to insist that saying “zoophiles dni” is oppressive to therians is absolutely an insane point to make. If you’re going to willingly call yourself a zoophile, sure, but don’t expect normal people to react warmly to that. Elbowing your way into the zoophile community and dragging therians down with you is truly unhinged behavior and absolutely does make it look like you just want to molest dogs.

[mobiused]

why do people have to be such weirdos/write RPF about the actual real idols in loona when their fictional loonaverse characters are right there...

right like im 100% fine with stories about the characters (tho tbh sexual depictions of even loonaverse characters still skeeve me out but i don't have the ability to articulate why) but these people don't have any boundaries or self control. they see the girls as objects to use just to get off to, and if it's not blatantly erotic it's still overstepping and invasive.

the loonaverse narrative literally has so much canon juicy sapphic relationships for fans to enjoy. why can't they be happy with that? we have wholesome highschool 2jin, messy and toxic chuuves, whatever the hell vives is, angsty hyewon, and you can even invent dramatic love triangles like vivesoul or chuuvives if you are really into the lore. i hear gays like found family too - loonaverse narrative literally has a recurring theme of non-nuclear, self-ascribed families being far more valuable than real families. haseul is literally described as the mother figure, and oec trucking off together with the yellow truck & their camper van is SUCH a cute foundation for a fictional story about lipsoul dealing with their basically adopted magical daughter. actually now i wanna write that. or expanding on vives' christmas with choerry's unexpected arrival, thats a romcom plot so good i could sell it to hallmark. there's so much fun to be explored with the loonaverse and yet weird shipper freaks are determined to bring it into the real world, because they are selfish and they are lonely and they do not respect the girls.

the amount of times i see in VLIVE chat when the girls do frequency of the moon episodes about 2jin or hyewon or lipsoul or chuuves, from constant 'jokes' about them dating to "IS CHUUVES REAL? 🙏🙏🙏". what do you think is going to happen? do you really think the members are going to read that and then suddenly confess to the world that yes, they are in fact dating, and jeopardize their livelihoods? they're either forced to distance themselves from each other, thus jeopardising their friendship, or continue to be just as affectionate, further 'fueling' shippers and acting like a green light for inappropriate behavior, and they're powerless to tell their fans to shut the hell up about it. (also tangentially related - this is part of so many ggs business models but ironically not loona lol)

i get how to a sapphic teenager that the idea of two pretty girls that you're a fan of being intimate with each other (whether that's emotional or physical) can be titillating, but it's so important for these teenagers to learn that while entertaining the idea in your brain is probably pretty natural, it is just flat out unacceptable to share this in a public forum. and yeah maybe teenagers have to learn to hold their tongue on these things, but there are so many adults who DO know how inappropriate it is and don't care - or worse, try to argue that it's justifiable, which just helps convince susceptible teenagers that shipping real people is remotely acceptable. its natural for kids to entertaining celebrity crushes and project their sexualities but these people are grown, man. go get a girlfriend. go watch clexa compilations. go write original stories. stop torturing these girls with your lack of boundaries.

anyway, this video of lauren talking about camren and the affect it had on her relationship towards her own sapphic sexuality should be required watching for anyone who thinks for a split second about making shippy fanart or a chat formatted meme about the girls. you are not only disrespecting their boundaries, but to the lgbt members of loona (which there inevitably has to be, there's 12 of them for christ's sake) you are hurting their relationship to their sexualities. think about the damage you are causing because you can't stop yourself from saying such invasive things.

"made me feel like a predator" "i was always the aggressor" "to this day i hyperanalyse every friendship i have with a girl" "so traumatising for me" "it really fucked with my head" "to this day i have an issue flirting with girls because of it" is this really what you want your queer idol to feel like?

sorry poor anon for turning your question into like a 30 minute rant lmao but i have a lot of anger over this because i do love these girls and i want them to be happy and rps is just the biggest enemy to that.

[lilfellasblog]

I tried to choose a question but, I'm pretty interested in answers to all those tbh

You. I like you.

Talk about the first ship you ever had. - Tiencha (Tien Shinhan/ Yamcha), which is why I'm very sympathetic to those also suffering in rarepair hell.

Talk about three of the most important ships throughout your life. Destiel, Tiencha, Analogical

What’s your current OTP? Oof, I think I gotta go Prinxiety! So much potential for angst with hurt/comfort.

What’s your current NOTP? You know, I honestly can't think of any tbh.

Do you have any poly ships? For my OTP question, I originally answered LAMP/CALM, so definitely that!

How do you feel about love triangles? I think they can be intriguing if done well. If there's cheating involved, it would be pretty difficult for me to feel sympathy for the cheater.

How do you feel about RPF? It's fine, do whatever you want. Fanfic has always been for fans, not for creators. Purity culture and entitlement needs to stop. It's like seeing a sign that says "Snapping Turtles", jumping in the pond anyways, then yelling at the people who put up the sign after you lose a couple pounds of flesh.

Have you ever shipped yourself with a character? Tbh, the closest I've gotten is wanting different characters to adopt me and take me from my home. But I don't think I've ever romantically shipped myself with someone.

Do you have many ships that never got together at all? *cries in All Of Them*

Do you ship any characters that have never met? Huh. I don't think so tbh.

Talk about your favorite first kiss. Well in college there was- Oh! You mean fictional characters! :3 I think Virgil's first kiss with Roman in Healing Broken Wings is my favorite.

Have you ever been disappointed when your ship finally got together? *cries in It's Never Happened*

Has a ship ever broken your heart? In fanfic? Yeah, I've read some sad endings before and that's usually not my jam.

How do you feel about will they/won’t they? I'm fine with it so long as it ends in "Yes they will!"

Have you ever “shipped at first sight”? Analogical, actually!

Talk about a ship you initially disliked. I think when Remus first appeared, I had a hard time imagining him with anyone because of what a gremlin he is. I've come around to the trash rat tho.

Talk about a pairing you’ve stopped shipping romantically. Destiel.

Talk about a moment which made you question an entire ship. Season 6 of Supernatural. Destiel. >:(

Have you ever shipped something despite yourself? Kind of? I've done spite fics with spite ships.

Talk about a ship you feel alone in shipping. Tiencha, or Tien Shinhan/ Yamcha. They'd be so cute together!

Is there a ship you just don’t get, but have nothing against? Any ships that are part of fandoms I'm not in. I guess maybe Tony Stark/ Steve Rogers? They have such different values and ethics. They literally need a threat to the entire universe to come together.

Which of your ships have the best chemistry? Oh Analogical, easily. Royality too I think.

Which of your ships deserve better writing? Tiencha :(

Do you mostly ship canon pairings? Lmao no.

Have you ever shipped a pairing before you even started watching the show/movie simply because of gifs and graphics or similar? Yes I have! Crowley/ Aziraphale.

Have you noticed a pattern in your shipping? Is there a romantic dynamic you’re more drawn to? Not really, it's kind of all over the map.

Is there a ship you’ve shipped for most of your life? Tiencha.

Does shipping come easily to you? Yes, I am trash.

Do you need to ship something to really enjoy a movie/book/tv show/comic? Definitely not. I was a Potterhead, and I still don't really ship anything there.

Name a couple of fandoms in which you have no ships. Harry Potter, Marvel, DC Comics. I'm not in those fandoms tho.

Talk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love. Roman is playfully protective of Virgil, and Virgil teases him by dramatically swooning.

Share five must-read fics. "Unexpected Destinies" was my first fic that I got into. Destiel fic, very complex and interesting AU. I think it got deleted during a LiveJournal purge tho. I got really into the "Battle Scars" series for a hot minute. Disabled Goku/ disabled Yamcha. "Perfect Attendance" by Periwren is great hurt/comfort starring Roman and Logan. "Welcome to the Neighborhood" by LeFay_Strent is absolutely hysterical. Shenanigans with Remy and Virgil, background Prinxiety, baffled Logan, it's a good time. And "War is Hell (but crushing is way more awkward)" by Jasper01 is incredible in so many ways! Funny, tragic, accurate, romantic, sweet, heartbreaking, all the things!

Name your favorite fanartist(s). So many fanartists have moved away from Sanders Sides, so I'm having a hard time thinking of many. To make sure I cover everyone, if there are any recs please let me know and I'll signal boost!

Share your favorite fanmix for your OTP. *Googles fanmix* It would appear I have none.

Recommend 1-5 shipper blogs. Gosh, so many of the shipping blogs I follow have become inactive in the Sides fandom. So! If any of you shipping blogs would like a shout-out, lmk and I'll signal boost!

Do you create fanmixes/gif sets/fanart/fic/fanvids and so on for you ships? Fic. So much fic.

Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP? I mean I'm partial to Healing Broken Wings AU. As for trope, I'm a sucker for angst with hurt/comfort.

Do you like and use ship names? Definitely! Much faster to type.

Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself? I'm taking the word "fictional" literally here, because there is someone I'm in unrequited love with that I'm working on dealing with and I would really love a relationship with this person even though I know any hope is fiction.

If you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be? Prinxiety, and that Roman would get some goshdang therapy!

[delusion-of-negation]

you know what, anon, fuck you. first of all as I hate formatting, which I gotta do now so I can post this with adequate tws for mentions of csa, and second of all because I'm not obliged to add an "uwu pedophilia bad tho" at the end of every post about unrelated sexual stuff.

[edit: rpf stands for real person fiction, btw]

"While I normally don't care to a large degree about RPF's, as long as they are not openly accessible as mentioned. I gotta say there's kinda a line,"

so, you imply that what I said was inoffensive - although you say and imply, respectively, that I said that things have to be inaccessible and that there's no line, neither of which I said in the relevant post. I said that the best bet is to make it so a conscious decision is required to view, ie a click, and I explicitly said that you can post said link publicly. and, the more I think about it, the more I actually think that I was too rigid in that post - not all rpf is slash, or even shipping or fandom in any way at all, and I was very tired at the time, and the post nut clarity hadn't hit, and I was thinking in terms of comfort, but fiction does not exist to make you comfortable. political cartoons, historical fiction, dramatisations of events, all of these are forms of rpf that can be mass advertised and put in newspapers, and should be. I take it back, I literally do not give a fuck at all.

but nevertheless, you still feel it appropriate to show up in my inbox, to drag a trigger into this, for absolutely no reason at all...

"and that line is when real minors, teens or children are used in a NSFW fic."

I'm disinterested in that line of questioning. I wasn't talking about that. the only cases I've ever even seen that were at all vaguely like what you're talking about were minors online getting harassed for having crushes on, and writing or drawing other, comparably aged, minors in scenarios so vanilla even granny wouldn't blush (and I have a commanding presence, but even I can't convince teenagers not to be horny for celebrities). idk if you're an anti or some proship dude who found a nice tasting anti dick to suck, but I have to assume it's one or the other because there's zero other reason to go there. there is not a pandemic in fandom of adults writing graphic sex betwixt them and real children, or posting it for those kids to see, it doesn't happen. and thus I do not care to be called upon by total strangers to discuss the ethics of shit that isn't happening land. I don't care to qualify every single fucking post, which had nothing at all to do with minors, with "but uwu pedophilia bad", because your immediate response to someone talking about adults is to go "hmm yes but what if those adults are attracted to children". my guy, nobody here was thinking about that.

anons respect csa survivors' wishes to not have triggers sent to them, and stop bringing children into every unrelated convo challenge.

"Even if it's not directly NSFW, just "hinted" there's something... iffy about it,"

wow okay. so I said I didn't want to go down this bullshit line of questioning about a thing that doesn't happen, but who defines a hint? you literally read multiple things into my post that 100% weren't there, and sent this shit, I legitimately don't trust your judgement. what about non-explicit (ie hinted) vent art that I made as a kid about what I went through? it's about a kid (me), so was I being naughty?

"especially when the pairing is an adult person, either someone they work/interact with, or "OC's" (self inserts especially)"

again, this literally doesn't happen. but why? your standards are absolutely nonsensical. if the (understandable, albeit totally unrelated to my post) premise is that seeing such a sexualisation of themself can be harmful to kids... none of this matters. the amount of sexualisation there doesn't change if it's two kids written about or an adult, and whether that adult was a self-insert or not is equally irrelevant. it has no bearing on what's been done to the kid because what I, up until these parts, assumed you take issue with is the kid's exposure to such description of themself. an oc wouldn't make it any more descriptive of the kid in an inappropriate way. if anything, two kids is the worst of the lot, that's twice the potential for kids exposed to such description.

this line changed it for me - I was already not joyful about you making my, again, not at all about minors comment about minors, but this made it clear that you didn't just see my post and go "hmm I'm worried about a ridiculous hypothetical", you saw my post and went "but pedophiles". harm to kids wasn't the priority, the priority was being grossed out by the most pedoy pedo you could dream up and sending that to me to demand that I also be grossed out. I know that because you think a self-insert is the worst objectively - however, if I write "and then my self-insert bungley mcscrumple, the leprechaun with twelve heads, banged [idfk any celebrities, let alone underage ones]", that is a stupid sentence that hurts not a single soul who read it, while a detailed description of [well if I don't know one, I definitely don't know two underage celebrities] doing the do, with constant comments about their bodies... well? that's not how you were thinking though, bungley is a self-insert who did a pedo thing, therefore the writer is a pedo, therefore that's worse. you're not thinking with portals, anon, you're barely even thinking with braincells.

anyway, my stance on rpf involving kids is case by case - I can't act like political satire, which I failed to consider in my initial reblog of that post, can't ever involve real kids, who the post and my initial reblog had absolutely nothing to do with. as for sexual rpf involving them, I didn't want to talk about it, but since you've forced my hand, I now think that it should be a requirement in job interviews to submit rpf of bungley mcscrumple, the leprechaun with twelve heads, passionately making love to at least two underaged celebrity boys. why not.

and for future anons, yeah sure I endorse any and all bullshit scenarios you dream up that assume inoffensive posts are offensive if they don't also express an opinion on idk pringles.

[andromedasummer]

how in the year of our lord 2021 are there still people who unironically ship real people. and race car drivers at that. are they just nuts? i thought fiction shippers could be nasty but holy shit this is insane.

i temd to avoid rpf tho i know some of my friends in the f1 fandom ship stuff but i am not lying when im telling you this is one of the top ships in the fandom and its not even the worst its just egregiously bland self-insert like shit they said "is anyone going to project onto this awful man and ship him with one of the few hot drivers on the grid?" and did not wait for an answer

[crtter]

I think there is worst creep than self insert shipper who ship themselves with characters tho. Like. RPF fics. Like everyone talk about fiction all the time without uttering a word about the countless YouTubers who are treated like they aren't even real which is awful. I remember people saying that it's fun so it's ok and "I am just writing an oc with a celebrity name" and if they do they could just straight up write a original fic.

That bother me way more than any fictional self ship ever will but I never see any people talking about that. Is it because they are scared that the KPOP fans will retaliate since they do the same?

Oh yeah, hands down. RPF is just... not good. Like, I know a few artists and YouTubers have spoken out about how “they’re OK with it” but I believe the vast majority of them find it uncomfortable. Like, sure, having crushes and fantasizing about real life people is a thing but actually putting it down on paper and publishing it publicly online just feels disrespectful, plain and simple.

I mean, yeah, a lot of people operate under the assumption that “oh they’ll never see it!!!” but I’ve been in a fandom for a comedy group once and people there straight up linked them the smut incest fanfics they wrote about them as if it was nothing, so no, that’s definitely not a hard rule everyone who writes RPF respects and I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

Worst thing is when people write smut of real life, underage celebrities. It’s particularly popular now with certain YouTubers, I hear. I think everyone’s rule of thumb to how you should act towards any public figure should be “would I be personally uncomfortable if someone did this to me”? And like, I’m pretty sure most people would be super creeped out if they found out someone was writing stories in which they go on graphic detail about them getting it on with someone they’re just friends with or something of the sort.

Speaking of K-pop nothing against the music or anyone who’s a fan of it, of course, but I do wonder why this sort of thing is so prevalent in fandoms for such bands... is it just because they’re popular right now? I’ve had to block SO MANY people who draw N$FW and shippy art of K-pop artists... it’s so jarring to see a piece of art and go “oh this is very well-drawn, wonder which show there characters are from, or if they’re OCs” and finding out OP actually ships two real ass people together...

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

having been shipped with your friends that you only have platonic feelings for really gives you some prespective on rpf fandoms

Addition: wait rpf means real people fiction, and meant like bands and stuff like that. real people fandoms, not just rpf, you get what i mean lol

Hi anon! I definitely think it's not totally analogous, because it's different coming from people you personally know and have to interract with on the daily, than it is with celebrities who probably don't circulate at all on this website.

I also think it's somewhat understandable behaviour, and I don't think the line between appreciating what is clearly there and reading into something to an invasive degree is always well-defined. It also gets complicated when it involves dead people, because there's inherently less harm to be done there, and in the case of say John/Paul I think one party still being with us puts it in this uncomfortable middle.

I don't think every choice I make is always the most ethical, but I mostly try to be respectful of what people actually said about themselves (which is why I don't speculate much on Paul beyond his own words) and also accept that even if I'm curious, nothing entitles me to details on these people's lives.

Here's a song from one of my fave shows Crazy Ex-Girlfriend about shipping your friends and it's one of my favourite things ever tho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24eVmr9b5kM

[lillupon]

So, I've got a very long rant/opinion here and Idk really know how to say this without coming off kinda bad but I'm gonna say it anyways. I agree with the fact that the seventeen tag has been kinda dry lately on most fanfic places, but it's really only in the smut area. It's the sane way with other groups too I feel like. All of the nice little innocent tags are boomin to this day and thats completely fine. I think the smut tag is dry tho bc lately I feel like a few social issues (like sexualizing people and disrespecting them and their identity) have crossed over into kpop and have been ?blown out of proportion? Lately there's been a rampage of people who like to say that writing smut about someone is disgusting and is dehumanizing because people want to assume that it would make the idols uncomfortable which could equate to some morality issues on how you are reducing someone only to their body without their consent and a bunch of stuff like that. It kind of pisses me off bc this is fiction. About grown adults. Clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life. I think a shit ton is wrong with the world we currently live in, and deciding to come after something that isn't even real bothers me. Like what does that actually accomplish. But yeah, I think thats a reason why smut has been dying down. I mean, on youtube almost every video about unpopular opinions, or things they dont like about kpop will include something about shipping idols in fanfics. And then everyone in the comment section will talk about how its all fine and dandy in moderation, but once people start writing smut it's crossing the idols personal boundaries. It's something I've been seeing a lot more often and I think people who are interested in writing smut are being turned away from it bc we've gotten to a point where people are being called disgusting for having fantasies.

Hi Anon, thank you for sending in this Ask. 

I want to preface this by saying: when I write or talk about Mingyu and Wonwoo fucking on my blog, it is a fantasy. I am not speculating about what the real Mingyu and Wonwoo might be like in bed. I am imagining the versions of Mingyu and Wonwoo that I have created in my head, that exist only in my stories. None of it is real. I understand that this can be a blurry boundary for some people. But for me, the separation between fantasy and reality is well-defined. Now, on to your Ask!

You’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. You’ve also touched on many of the issues I have been struggling with myself as of late. It’s difficult to argue about morals since everyone has a different set of values, as well as different comfort levels. Some people think real person fiction (RPF) is a gross invasion of privacy. Others are fine with it. And others don’t care one way or another. There is no single answer; I can only offer my answer. Which means, of course, people are welcome to disagree with it, or parts of it. 

In this essay (LOL But forreal: this is an essay), I will be sharing my experience in the k-pop fanfic community from 2014 to present, the etiquette I personally abide by as a reader and writer of RPF, as well as my stance on RPF in general.

I started reading and posting fanfics back in 2014/2015 on a website called AsianFanfics (AFF). Obviously, no one on that site had a problem with RPF, since AFF is a platform made specifically for sharing stories about Asian celebrities. For many years, I read and enjoyed RPF with zero guilt. I scribbled away by myself in my own corner of fandom and curated my own content. I didn’t interact much with other fans, readers, or writers. I didn’t have a Twitter, and I only used tumblr to reblog memes. As a result, I’ve been able to avoid a lot of anti-shipping discourse, as well as purity and cancel culture. I had no idea there were so many negative opinions about RPF. It wasn’t until I became active on the subreddit r/Fanfiction last year that I learned about all the discourse surrounding RPF. 

This newfound ‘awareness’ does make me feel guilty at times—but only because after mulling this over, I still don’t think this is something to feel guilty about.

Here’s what I remember, first and foremost, when I create and consume RPF: fanfics and my favourite ships are fictional, and fiction is fantasy. This is basic etiquette when it comes to RPF, and most people in the k-pop fandom understand this. Delusional fans exist, of course, but they are not representative of the entire k-pop community. 

Another point of etiquette is to keep fanfics within fandom spaces. I would never push my fics into celebrities’ faces, or go around claiming that my fanfics are accurate representations of a k-idol’s life or personality, in any way, shape, or form. I would also discourage directing ship-related questions to official accounts, or bringing them up during fansigns or other face-to-face interactions; I believe that in these instances, shipping does have the potential to strain real-life relationships.

So with basic etiquette out of the way, let me share my approach to RPF in general.

As much as we like to think we know our favourite celebrities, we really don’t. All we see is their public persona. And this public persona is intentionally controlled, managed, and curated by a team of people: directors, tabloids, editors, makeup artists, publicists, etc. How “real” are these celebrities? We are so distanced from them that they may as well be fictional.

I draw from the public persona that idols project, and I work them into my own writing. But at the end of the day, these personalities are my own interpretation. My interpretation is probably nothing like an idol’s actual personality. I just use the “public persona/character” that idols portray as inspiration for my own stories, which are set in wildly different universes.

More than anything, I think of k-pop idols as “actors” in my fic. You know how when you write an original novel, you scroll through Google images, looking for the perfect person to portray your original character? RPF is literally that, except you might build upon pre-existing dynamics and personalities.

When it comes to explicit fanfiction, two main concerns are prevalent: one of consent, and one of sexualisation.

If we argue against explicit RPF due to lack of consent, we should be willing to apply the same lens to all explicit works. How do we know that the creator of a movie, book, series, etc., is okay with us using their characters in our stories, explicit or not? We don’t. Perhaps some creators encourage fanfiction, but don’t want their lovingly crafted characters engaging in sexual acts or experiencing trauma. We just don’t know. I feel this line is even more blurred when we talk about characters from movies or TV series.

Let’s take Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, as portrayed by Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan, from the Captain America movies as an example. I am willing to bet that when people consume and create explicit fanfiction about Steve and Bucky, they are imagining Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in their heads. I doubt many people are imagining the 2D cartoon versions of Steve and Bucky, even though they’re technically the exact same characters. Why? Well, it could be because movies are more readily and easily consumed than comics, and so people are unfamiliar with comic book Steve and Bucky. But it might also be because fans find Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan attractive. Is this really any different from RPF, where fic authors make up everything about a celebrity’s life?  

When readers and writers of fanfic talk about how hot Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes is, those comments are about Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan’s bodies. When reading explicit stories, fans are going to picture Chris and Sebastian’s bodies in their head, doing sexual things. Can we say, “Well, it’s not really you, Chris/Sebastian”, when in a way, it is?

The reality is, people are going to thirst over celebrities, regardless of whether or not explicit fanfiction exists. They’re going to post thirst tweets on Twitter. They’re going to talk to friends and strangers online about how hot [insert celebrity name here] is. They’re going to fantasize about dating and having sex with their favourite celebrity. Or, as it is in my case, they’re going to make up stories in their heads about their favourite idols dating and banging each other. People are going to do all of this without ‘getting consent’ from the celebrity. Cracking down upon and shaming writers of RPF isn’t going to change any of that.

To be honest, I’m not sure why people think it is disgusting to imagine sexual scenarios about real people. It is okay and normal to have these kinds of fantasies. I suppose the alternative is to fantasise about having sex with cartoon characters instead? It’s a very binary way of thinking to say that if you imagine/write real people in explicit scenarios, you are immediately sexualising, dehumanising, or objectifying them. There is more to dehumanisation than writing smut about our favourite celebrities. For one thing, you can love someone and appreciate all parts of them, and still want to fuck their brains out. And generally, fanfics come from a place of love—love that is not only sexual in nature.

Is it the sharing aspect inherent to fanfiction? The possibility that a celebrity might stumble upon explicit works about them? The chances are very low, I think, of the k-pop idols I enjoy writing about coming across my English fics. But I also believe in curating your own content, and that applies to celebrities too. Perhaps a celebrity should not go searching for fanfics about themselves. And of course, people should not show celebrities their fanfics, unless invited.

Another argument I hear against (explicit) RPF is, “How would you feel if someone wrote fanfiction about you?” First off, I don’t like this argument because there’s a difference between someone who decides to be a public figure versus someone who decides to remain a regular private citizen. Celebrities should and do know what they’re getting into when they choose their occupation. (This is not to say, “They are celebrities; sexualise them all you want because that’s what they signed up for.” Here, I am only acknowledging that people might have sexual fantasies about celebrities they are attracted to. Presumably, celebrities are cognizant of this.)  

If someone (whose existence I am not even aware of, mind you) decides they want to write explicit fanfiction of me in some tiny corner of the Internet, I wouldn’t care so long as: (1) they don’t shove it into my face, and (2) they don’t harass me and ask invasive questions about my personal life and relationships. It’s not hurting me or negatively affecting my life, so it wouldn’t even register as a blip on my radar. When fanfiction remains within its appropriate spaces, it is largely harmless. 

Now, if a k-pop idol were to ask their fans to stop writing fanfiction about them, would I? Yes, I would. However, I can’t imagine that happening. Judging by the number of ‘sexy’ concepts, fanservice moments, and variety shows such as ‘We Got Married’, I am certain that k-pop idols realise they are the stars of many fantasies—some of which are explicit in nature. Considering the prevalence of shipping in the k-pop industry, I would argue that shipping is subtly encouraged.

It’s sad that so many talented writers are shamed out of fandom, or feel that k-pop cannot be the medium through which they tell their stories, or explore their sexuality, or cope with trauma, or simply have fun. Professional works and Hollywood love their RPF—readers and writers of fanfics should be able to, as well. 

As you said Anon, “clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life” (this is a lovely sentence, by the way). The kind of person who dehumanises another and reduces them to a sexual object will do so some other way, if not via fanfiction. I don’t think the issue of fetishisation can be fixed simply by telling people not to write explicit RPF. In my experience, people who read and write RPF are more respectful and thoughtful about these things than the general public. We’ve all seen the general public say highly sexual things about celebrities in the media and to their faces, or tag celebrities in their thirst tweets. Are these things less invasive than fanfiction? Personally, I don’t think so. And in my opinion, there are more pressing and damaging issues in stan culture than fanfic.

In conclusion, I don’t think there is anything wrong with creating and consuming RPF, both explicit and non-explicit so long as we:

Remember we are writing fiction

Keep RPF within its appropriate space, and

Do not harass celebrities about their personal lives and relationships

RPF is not for everyone. There may be people who enjoy RPF, but draw the line at explicit stories. This is fine. Everyone has their own personal preferences. What is not fine, however, is attacking people for creating things you don’t like. I’m not sure what kind of moral crusade people are on and what they hope to achieve by shaming writers of RPF, explicit or otherwise. Ultimately, fic authors are writing a fantasy. It’s not real; no one is being hurt. I think it’s important for people to curate their own content, and AO3 makes it very easy to filter out explicit works and unwanted tags. 

Maybe this is me trying to justify my own participation in explicit RPF—I don’t know. What I do know is that I love k-pop, and fandom is an important part of my media and entertainment experience. I adore the k-pop idols I write about, and I just want to imagine them being happy and getting lots of love and orgasms. Let a bitch be horny, goddamn… 

Some bonus fun facts!

At the time I am writing this, on AO3:

26.2% of Stray Kids fanfics are rated M or E

26.3% of Seventeen fanfics are rated M or E

29.0% of Merlin fanfics are rated M or E

34.9% of Captain America (Movies) fanfics are rated M or E

40.1% of BTS fanfics are rated M or E ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Coincidentally, I saw this post on Reddit this morning: Can we have a RPF positivity post?