#percy with mlm flag

[aroaceleovaldez]

i hope this doesn't sound like a silly or weird thing to send you, but i'm autistic and have long thought of nico and a handful of other riordanverse characters as autistic and i love your posts about why nico in particular seems intentionally autistic-coded. but i've been thinking, if rick did intend for any of his characters to be autistic, why wouldn't he say so outside of the text at least? i can't think of a good reason why not, when he goes out of his way to be explicit about so many other characters' various marginalized identities and has confirmed things like reyna being asexual outside of the original text. so it gives me this nagging sort of doubt that maybe rick just made nico come off as so extremely autistic coded by accident, somehow. if it wasn't an accident i do kind of wish he'd say so because there's next to zero explicitly stated autistic representation in, like, any media so it'd be nice to have here even if not strictly necessary. either way though, like i said, i love your posts and i agree with you 100% about autistic nico! some others i like to think are autistic are annabeth and leo.

(Most of this is gonna be kind of a tangential ramble to your point and i apologize in advance just bear with me)

This actually touches upon something I've been meaning to do a write-up on recently, which is: depending on the coding, that is our explicit statement. In most coding, actually, that's kind of the point. (Also something something Death of the Author.)

You may have noticed a recent trend across media of characters saying things directly rather than expressing them in a natural way, and often this includes incredibly stilted dialogue of characters explaining things in very politically correct, wikipedia-esque descriptions and terminology that make absolutely no sense for the characters' personalities or mannerisms. This is born out of the idea that if something is not stated in explicit terms, no amount of evidence below an outright direct exact statement will ever count - if two characters of the same gender have an explicit kiss and wedding on-screen, it doesn't matter because they never said the word "gay," etc etc.

In PJO, prior to more recent books, we get plenty of examples of characters explaining parts of their identities without direct statements. Percy never needs to say in outright terms that he has PTSD from Gabe - and it doesn't make sense that he would! He's 12! He's never been diagnosed for that. He probably doesn't even know what PTSD is really. But we, the audience, know without a doubt he has PTSD, because it is clearly expressed to us. That is coding. Tyson is coded as having down syndrome. Nico is coded as being autistic. It doesn't make sense for Nico to turn to the camera and explain that he's autistic and what that means, because he definitely never got diagnosed for it and probably doesn't know what that means cause the diagnosis literally did not exist when he was growing up - and heck, autism terminology was still kind of getting sorted out back in 2007 when TTC was published, so it's unlikely we could have feasibly gotten any exact terminology wink-wink-nudge-nudges short of something like how Percy outright mentions other students called Tyson the r-slur in Sea of Monsters. And in fact we see that same exact style of coding with Nico later on in the series. Nico never turns to the camera and says word-for-word "I am gay, I am mlm, here's me wearing my exact pride flags" (until TOA/TSATS, which... did the exact thing i mentioned about characters speaking like theyre trying to get a good grade in therapy, or giving a powerpoint presentation). But it is never unclear that HoO is telling us outright that Nico is gay. It's not just hinted at. It's there, in your face. But entirely because no one ever outright says "gay" specifically it's technically still only coding. We know he's gay, we know the characters have trauma/ptsd, etc etc. We don't need it spelled out - that's just kind of condescending. It's like if you said describing a character with "eyes like moss" means they were "green-eye coded."

Nico being autistic-coded isn't hidden. It's not a secret. It's very overt. If you know what autism looks like, well, yeah, there he is. Even if you only know very vague 2007 media presentation of autism, Nico in TTC is easily recognizable enough as autistic because that's the point. Tyson is easily recognizable as being coded as having down syndrome and it's very clearly very intentional! It's just never spoon-fed in exact terms to the reader because it's not necessary! You've already been told the information necessary to tell you what is up with this character, so just plainly going "oh they're [x] in exact terms" is very much telling-not-showing and feels redundant. And while there are places for that kind of thing, most of the time it's very unnecessary. Sometimes coding is subtle, sometimes it's obvious, and yeah there are times where writers code characters unintentionally, but the textual evidence is there, and that's the whole point.

And that's what Death of the Author is about - it doesn't matter what the author intended at the end of the day, because if it's in the text it's in the text. You can look at author intent to try and figure out what that text means, but the text is the text. A Separate Peace is a very classic example - author John Knowles denies there being homosexual subtext, and meanwhile one of the protagonists living in 1942 puts on a pink shirt while saying he doesn't mind of people think of him as gay. What the author says after the fact doesn't matter - if it's there, it's there. So Rick saying anything outside of the books is completely irrelevant. And Rick talks about this a lot - he actively tells people that his statements outside of the books are just his own thoughts, but what's in the books is what's in the books, and if the text supports it then that's all the evidence you need.

Nico specifically is a case where yeah, he's clearly autistic-coded. It's very obvious and very obviously intentional when he's younger, and as the books progress it remains a background trait of his but is still notable (except for when it gets forgotten in TOA/TSATS like everything else, including the adhd/dyslexia, but i digress). It's a clear pattern within the first few books that Rick is intentionally including. It doesn't make sense, especially for the year the book was published, for the reader to be directly told in explicit terminology that Nico is autistic, because the reader is already being told that Nico is autistic.

And yeah, Rick doesn't mention Nico being autistic-coded outside of the text, but he also doesn't mention Tyson being coded as having down syndrome. He also said one time that Percy doesn't have PTSD at all, which is very incorrect starting from book 1. Again, Death of the Author. Whatever Rick says outside of the books does not matter, because he already said it in the books. And there's plenty of other stuff in the books that Rick doesn't touch upon, particularly relating to character identity - did you know Leo is Native? Sammy mentions that the Valdez family is Native in Son of Neptune but we don't get any specifics and then it's like never brought up again anywhere. That happens all the time in the series - and outside of the series - Rick can't possibly address every single point to confirm/deny everything from the books. That's what analysis is for! And that's why my blog exists 👍

[charcharbinks333]

★☆about me☆★

a little bit about me, because why not <3

DISCLAIMER: if you know me IRL…. get outta here (unless ur matthew or ashton)

the name is charlie. pronouns are any i guess. i am genderfluid and bisexual. emo i guess? DNI IF UR LOOKING FOR A SB. I AM A MINOR.

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leo sun, leo moon, taurus rising. august 19th. spiritual and pagan, respect all religions.

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some of my amazing mutuals: @hoe4kai @hearts4golbach @sparky4577 @bornandraisediniowa @teapartyprincess4two

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music ~ HER’s, radiohead, weezer, the smiths, the smashing pumpkins, tv girl, sex drive culdesac, frank ocean, childish gambino, kendrick lamar, the beatles, sufjan stevens, mitski, panic! at the disco, pierce the veil (seen live!), blink-182 (seen live!), highschool, the cure, my chemical romance, sleeping with sirens, pigeon pit, peach pit, slipknot, korn, system of a down, strawberry alarm clock, michael cera, we the kings, fleetwood mac, avenged sevenfold, anti-flag, teen idles, chief keef, lil skies, dominic fike, chase atlantic, michael jackson, and more tbh

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movies ~ call me by your name, mean girls, princess and the frog, adult world, megamind, the lorax, the perks of being a wallflower, paper towns, TASM, ITSV/ATSV, deadpool 1&2, coraline, paranorman, hocus pocus, beetlejuice, boxtrolls, kubo and the two strings, the red turtle, scream, then came you (2018), senseless, SLC punk, tangled, my little pony equestria girls/rainbow rocks/friendship games/legend of everfree, big time movie, ferris bueler’s day off, heathers

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tv shows ~ american horror story, community, how i met your mother, big bang theory, school spirits, new girl, rick and morty, brooklyn 99, modern family, AHS. (but i already mentioned that), adventure time, sugar rush (can’t lie it slaps)

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books ~ the perks of being a wallflower, paper towns, the obsession, want to go private?, girl stolen, gone girl, call me by your name, to kill a mockingbird, the tempest, catcher in the rye, around the world in 80 days

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youtubers ~ danny gonzalez, drew gooden, kurtis conner, dylan is in trouble, the sturniolo triplets, filmcooper, sam and colby, jake webber, johnnie guilbert, bobbybroccoli, larray, quen blackwell, carrington

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people i will write about ~ evan peters (and his characters), sam golbach, colby brock, carrington bornstein, jake webber, johnnie guilbert, tyler/hansumfella, milo manheim (and his characters), percy jackson (book/logan lerman version), charlie kelmeckis, matt/chris sturniolo (romantic/platonic), nick sturniolo (strictly platonic), tara yummy (platonic)

❝ rules and boundaries ❞

¡ rules and boundaries for my writing and recommendations !

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i am currently not comfortable with writing smut. the most i’ll write is implied nsfw or lime (teasing and such, between fluff and smut). if it’s recommended i won’t be bitchy, just politely turn it down and we can move on. this may change depending on if i broaden my writing horizons or not.

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any creators that have specified boundaries about fanfiction will not be included, and please inform me if they have specified and i’ve written about them, and it will be taken down immediately.

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do not repost my work onto other websites, such as wattpad or ao3. if you want to translate my work, ask for permission first and keep it on tumblr, and cred ofc.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

im not comfortable writing mlm, or trans!fem reader, as an afab person i don’t think i can get the proper perspective and it doesn’t feel like my place to write that. gn!reader and fem!reader are always the table, however

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if a character is underage, i will not write anything but fluff about them, probably won’t write anything romantic at all, but it all depends.

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i will add onto this if anything comes up and i hope you enjoy my future work :)

love always,

charlie.

[theprinceofliones]

List of MY OWN PERSONAL LGBTQ 4KOTA/NNT HEADCANONS PT1/?

(Again, for those who can't fucking read, this is MY OWN PERSONAL headcanons and NO ONE ELSE'S! You do not have to agree or like my own personal headcanons, but please respect them thank you besties 🤪)

(ALSO! I will say that there are some flags that I made sure to look up and research to make sure everything is accurate! But, if something on here is NOT accurate nor used correctly, I'd love it if you guys could let me know and keep me educated! Thank you!)

Tristan

My boy is transfeminine and a PROUD bi-mlm (bi w/pref for men) icon 🥰 While he was born with male pronouns, he's very feminine leaning but doesn't really mind any pronouns used for him, so he's a little agender as well. He's found that he is attracted to both genders but most definitely prefers men (COUGHS LANCELOT COUGHS).

2. Lancelot

GAAAAAY!!!!! This is a one hundred and twelve thousand percent GAAAAAAAY man right here. But, in saying that, he's is ALSO aromantic as he has an extremely hard time forming a romantic bond with another person whatsoever. Sure, he'll go out and have fun with other guys from time to time, but he's never felt any romantic feelings for another, everything is just purely sexual whenever he has these 'encounters' (...enter one Tristan Liones. and Lancelot's whole world is flipped upside down).

3. Percival

AAAAA Percy my beloved 🥰 my boy is proudly Pansexual! He'll find himself being attracted to anyone no matter how they identify! All that matters to him is what's in your heart. But, he's also demisexual as he very rarely forms sexual attraction to those around him. He DOES have a big fat ginormous crush on Naisens though! Although he doesn't really realize it lol.

4. Gawain

GAWAIN MY BUTCH LESBIAN ICON!!! She's VERY much into women and women ONLY! She's never had an attraction to men, in fact she thinks that the whole world would be better if there were only women (oml same queen). She's not a very feminine leaning lesbian which is why I assigned her the butch lesbian flag! She prefers to present more masculine-like as she wants to be seen as strong and dominant, but does not identify nor use male pronouns.

5. Naisens

That kid is non-binary all the WAAAAY and Nakaba PLEASE you have the chance to do the funniest thing ever and make it canon with Naisens PLEEEEAAAAAASE. Post-time skip Naisens uses they/them pronouns and dresses more neutral to not assume either or any gender. They're also pansexual! Any gender, any sexuality works with them as long as your name is Percival LMFAO

Part 2 will come soon! I want to try and do as many characters as I can! Stay tuned and I'd love to hear your guys' OWN headcanons as well!

[djarin]

looking for some new mutuals ! hello friends!! i wanted to follow more gifmakers who run in the same fandoms as me, so if you're interested in becoming mutuals, pls like and/or rb this post and i'll check your blog out!! :D

if you're into any of these fandoms, i'll probably follow you:

star wars (any/all)

marvel (any/all)

what we do in the shadows (tv)

good omens

our flag means death

lucifer

bbc sherlock

percy jackson

bridgerton

heartstopper

shadow and bone

the queen's gambit

fellow travelers

wednesday (netflix)

ghibli

older disney movies

lord of the rings/the hobbit

anything mlm/gay... let me know in the tags because i'm always happy to find a new hyperfixation 🤭

mutuals, if you could sb, much appreciated!! :')

sorry to tag some of you to get this post more exposure, hope you don't mind!! @astaerion @calkestis @cal-kestis @alivedean @edteachs @seance @buckysbarnes @cobbbvanth @chrrispine @padme-amidala @bixcaleen @dani-clayton

[crows-templets]

Organized Master List parts two!

Hazbin/helluva

Nifty normal

Stella normal

Adam again normal

Human blitzø normal

Cherry bomb normal

Sally mea normal

Dark

Dark forest normal

Moon phases normal

Madilyn mai normal

Necromancy normal

Douglas normal

Gothic normal

Ghost theme normal

Misc

Carnival normal

Unthemed ☀️☕️🖤🤍🍷 normal

Yd and sameal ♣️🕯️🪞🌪️ normal

Train them normal

House/gem 🐴💎❣️ normal

Fantasy

Fantasy/BG3 normal

Sleeping beauty normal

Alien normal

Royal core normal

Pirate normal

Unthemed 🖤🪽🏹💀🗡️☁️ normal

Princess and the frog normal

Regency normal

Misc fandom

Tord eddsworld normal

Cole fisher normal

Vanny fnaf normal

Barbie normal

Legend of Zelda normal

Toby creep pasta normal

She-ra normal

Shiver splatoon normal

Winn schott medium/short

Jude folk of air normal

Jeff the killer normal

Margret Lee normal

Lemon demon normal

Princess Celestia long

Billy loomis normal

Darco malfoy normal

Seven little nightmares normal

Rarity mlp normal

Bendy normal

Call if duty moon normal

Everett everly normal

Jeff the killer number two normal

Clove Valorentnormal

Star symbols

Music/star normal

Star/flower normal

Dots’n stars normal

Vaggie medium/short

Lilith short/medium

PJO and affiliated books themes

Alex fierro normal (I KNOW IT LOOKS LIKE THE GENDERFULID FLAG)

Will solace normal

Nico di angelo normal

Solangelo normal

Percy Jackson normal

The camp fire song (musical) normal

Science/crime

Detective very short

Bones normal

Crime with a side of jellfish normal

Science long

Science? Normal

Nature

Frog normal

Flowers normal

Moose/love normal

Bungo stray dogs

Nikolai medium

Dazai normal

Fyodor normal

Sigma normal

Atsushi normal

Ranpo normal

Sigma take two normal

Unamed bsd normal

Light themes

Kinda angelic normal

Bright circus normal

Colors

Red normal

Pink and blue normal

Green normal

Alphabet

X normal

Mcyt themes

Sapnap normal

Philza medium/short

Ranboo normal

Foolish normal

Technoblade normal

Karl Jacob’s normal

Pride themed

Rainbow normal

Trans normal

Lesbian normal

Bisexual normal

Bigender normal

Intersex normal

Asexual normal

MLM normal

Aroace normal

Lunarself normal

Polyamorous normal

Gynosexual normal

[thatautisticweirdo]

✨Argo II crew+Will visits Spencer's headcanons✨

Will buys a "I ❤️ emo bitches" Tshirt (Nico Is not amused despite being said emo bitch)

Piper picks up something with a lesbian flag on it to make fun of Jason but Jason picks up something with the mlm flag on it as a rebuttal. He has not come out yet, this is how it happens.

Frank attempts to not look at anything dirty and when he inevitably sees something he shrieks loudly and covers his eyes

Leo buys a "who ate all the pussy" t-shirt even though he is the gayest man alive (fight me. The descriptions of Jason are NOT platonic)

Nico walks in and imeliditly walks out and goes to the hot topic instead

Hazel is supringly un-phased by the back of the store and just looks at the jewelry section the whole time.

Jason buys a wolf stuffed animal

Percy buys anything and everything with a water type pokemon on it and laughs at the horrible tshirts.

Annabeth buys a shot glass that looks like a pill bottle (don't ask why I just feel like she is on anti depressants)

[bassguitarinablackt-shirt]

mlm percy is my beloved simply because i think the flag is very him-coded.....

[fighter-spirits]

I posted 4,570 times in 2022

That's 1,341 more posts than 2021!

876 posts created (19%)

3,694 posts reblogged (81%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@eclipsedmoon87

@perytonpred

@one-golden-eye

@gayelectro

@wingwaver

I tagged 3,136 of my posts in 2022

Only 31% of my posts had no tags

#submas - 106 posts

#shippu! iron leaguer - 86 posts

#subway boss emmet - 66 posts

#subway master kudari - 64 posts

#ingo - 63 posts

#emmet - 59 posts

#gh.art - 56 posts

#subway boss ingo - 54 posts

#subway master nobori - 50 posts

#warden ingo - 48 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#you liked percy jackson/mythology/dinosaurs as a kid didn't you? you probably know a lot of random facts and have a lot of.... odd opinions

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Those PokeMen keep appearing on my dash. i like them. they're funky. So I made Leaguers based on them.

go watch iron leaguer &lt;3

92 notes - Posted April 6, 2022

#4

Happy Pride Month, have some Pride flavored Submas, featuring my hcs!

Emmet is an Aromantic MLM Demiguy (He/They), and Ingo is a Biromantic Asexual (It/He)!

I'm open to pride flag requests, especially for the sprites.

Individual sprites below

See the full post

136 notes - Posted June 1, 2022

#3

For a drawing prompt: Ingo and Melli on a date, chillin

i might have put too much effort into this. i was gonna do a beach date but melli probably hates sand lol.

my favorite parts are melli's hair and bracelet, and ingo's tunic and coat button

196 notes - Posted May 23, 2022

#2

[Removed because of Drama]

My #1 post of 2022

stupid comic ft mellingo and @perytonpred's oc

268 notes - Posted May 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cowboyvillainz]

ok this is the last daintypost for uh. the next 5 minutes for sure at least. i did pride doodles for All my dainties, plus one for @cryptidroad (the last dainty here is his, Pine!)

[cosmomota]

Nico di Angelo Pride Icons

I wanted a Nico icon with my flag (MLM) so I decided to make different icons with multiple variants of the MLM/NBLM flags.

All credits in order underneath cut. (Please don’t any of use these if they are not your flags lol)

DNI Banner Credit: https://bluefinbanners.tumblr.com/post/619121000013086720/green-alien-dni-banner-for-anon

Art Credit: https://www.deviantart.com/viria13/art/Pleased-to-meet-you-354596706

Flag Credits in Order:

01. https://kittysprites.tumblr.com/post/175886631327/i-made-a-bunch-of-autistic-pride-flags-based-on

02. https://gayflagblog.tumblr.com/post/186181118619/gay-man-flag-russian-%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8-%D1%8F-portuguese

03. https://twitter.com/elfofcolor/status/1268084117377216512

04. https://twitter.com/neoptelemus/status/1278561119703949312

05. https://twitter.com/reveledego/status/1273470410458357763

06. https://twitter.com/CatCoIors/status/1278342916642086913

07. https://twitter.com/trenderkomaeda/status/1258150858048638976

08. https://twitter.com/lumiexalt/status/1272425861447249920

[potatofever]

happy pride month from witherworld's queerest, and also me and my partner <3 (flag/identity identification under the cut)

EDIT: i forgot to mention, but the identities placed upon characters in witherworld do not reflect the identities of the people they are based off on, and please respect that! thank you!!

reblog please! it'd help me out a ton :)

from left to right:

ww! @scrubthings : demiromantic, where one can only experience romantic attraction after having developed an emotional connection with another

ww! @yo-it-dey : alterous attraction, a type of emotional attraction that is not necessarily, or a mix of, platonic and romantic attraction (please correct me if i am wrong thank you <3)

ww! percy: bisexual, where one can experience attraction to more than one gender, typically the binary male and female

ww! @void-with-drip : MLM, as in male-aligned people attracted to male-aligned people, NOT the pyramid scheme......

ww! @onlyplatonicirl : aroace, where one does not experience neither romantic nor sexual attraction

+

potato (me!): transgender, where one does not align with their assigned gender at birth ; demiromantic, where one can only experience romantic attraction after having developed an emotional connection with another ; omniromantic, where one can experience attraction to any gender, but gender still plays a role in attraction ; asexual, where one does not experience sexual attraction

anon (my partner <3): aroace, where one does not experience neither romantic nor sexual attraction

[littletealights]

information

basics (slashes will be in order of preference):

name: elle/egg/ella/elisabeth

pronouns: they/them/she/her (neurotypical cishets use they/them only please)

my relationship status is single

i am femme nb, all pronouns are applicable. am poly lesbian asexual.

i am jewish and black

regarding my posts:

this is out of date and will be fixed when i have the chance

there will be few times where this is applicable, but please only compliment my work, not me, unless you have express permission.

i write silly little things about silly little characters. if you don't agree with my head-cannons, move on. if you take issue with my drabbles, ask yourself whether its a personal issue before commenting. if you think i've said something wrong, fundamentally, morally, or politically (that word is used for lack of a better one), comment or dm me about it. do not reblog it, unless the tags say otherwise. i will see if it needs changing and act accordingly.

the tag 'elleyouwhore' will be used with spam shit regarding me.

the tags 'who is peter nureyev?' 'a simp' is one that i will use. you'll figure it out. it is a reference to the penumbra, but the tag may not be regarding penumbra.

vent posts should have the tag 'ouw' meaning 'opinion unwelcome'. if it doesn't, you are free to offer an opinion. otherwise, leave it alone.

do not do:

don't call me racist. or sexist. i am neither.

don't compliment me

don't make advances of any kind, thanks so much.

do not interact:

people who take issue with my identity

people who take issue with my race

pedophiles/sex offenders

anyone who has read and agreed with the book 'masculine christianity.' buying it is also a red flag.

people who support international mission trips

anyone who is anti-abortion rights

anyone who is anti vaccine

nazis. i shouldn't need to say that.

people that fetishise relationship types (e.g. mlm, wlw, t4t)

fun fandom stuff:

bnha (multiship)

sk8 the infinity (the obvious ones)

vld (klance)

tma (the canon ones)

penumbra (canon, i think)

percy jackson (the canon ones)

hp (i literally don't remember what happened in canon anymore, don't remind me)

deh (treebros)

others, but expect these the most, i think.

this is a georgie barker hate account. i don't hate her, but someone called me sexist for not including her in a post, and now i'm feeling petty.

i do not like dumbledore, nedzu is fine.

i do not agree with the pjo hunters of artemis. i don't like them if misandry existed, it would be personified as them

natalie deserved better than jace and i stand by the fact that he was in the wrong.

'pathetic little white boys' is a compliment. and i will say it in regards to people who are none of those things.

my discord is ellesnothere9434

prev url: generalofloki5

[the-ghost-king]

helloo,

for the ask game

4,5,9,10,26,28,29

Hello! ◡̈

4. Percico or Percabeth?

Percabeth, unless it's an AU I see Nico and Percy as having a brotherly relationship

5. Jasico or Jasper?

PerJasWilIco? Is that an option? If we're sticking with canon though, Jasper is better than Jasico but mlm Jason 👀

9. Favorite character?

Nico for emotional reasons but Percy is probably the best written

10. Least favorite character?

Piper Mclean... She's just so horribly written, it's Rick's fault but still

26. If you went to Camp Half-Blood, what would be your favorite activity?

Here

28. Who would you want on your team for Capture the Flag?

Athena Cabin and Ares Cabin

29. Hunters or Amazons?

I like how the Amazons stay in one place but the gender roles seem very binary so I like The Hunt better

Thanks for the ask!

[takaraphoenix]

51 pls

Thanks for playing! ^-^

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

OKAY SO since I already halfway ranted about this in the other ask, I will elaborate further!

I have to admit, I prefer fandoms without canon mlm, or canon “intensely heavily queerbaited” ships (like Supernatural or Hawaii Five-0. They ain’t canon but so heavily queerbaited that they’re basically this fandom’s big “canon” mlm), because they are incredibly stuck.

It’s ridiculous, considering how much I advocate for canon rep. And I love the shows where I get canon rep. But it’s the fandoms that tend to get insanely frustrating for me.

Because I am generally already a rarepair shipper, but shipping rarepairs in a fandom where there is a canon mlm ship? You can... you can completely forget that. Everyone and their mother ship the big canon flag-ship and the percentage of people willing to entertain shiny rarepairs is even more ridiculously small.

Let me give Percy Jackson and the Olympians as an example. It was a small fandom back in the day already, but I want to talk more specifically about the phenomenon of canon mlm.

The moment Nico’s feelings for Percy became canon, my obscure rarepair OTP suddenly blew up. And in that case, yay that’s great because it was already my OTP!

But then Riordan, in his ever-shipping wisdom, decided that the 14-year-old gay couldn’t possibly stay single and thus he created an outta-nowhere endgame ship for Nico.

And all of a sudden, all those people who had jumped on board of my OTP just a year ago with the last book now jumped off of it. And not just them! Even people, fanartists and fanfiction writers who had been on board of this ship for years, turned their back on it! I even got PMs on FFNet from long-time readers who felt the need to let me know that while they enjoyed my fics, they now moved on to the new endgame ship for Nico.

What made this particular instance of “canon mlm takes over the fandom” even worse was that for a short, short year, my OTP got a burst thanks to it just to be basically tanked a year later.

I don’t even want to imagine how much smaller the Percico ship would have been if Riordan had, from the get-go, introduced Nico as gay and built up him and Will to become an endgame ship. This way, at least, Percico had the chance of pre-canon-mlm creativity and freedom of shipping.

And there’s just... There’s been so many fandoms - Glee, Shadowhunters most prominently - where shipping was far more limited in fandom due to people latching onto the canon main ship.

Back in the day, back when we barely got any canon representation, shipping truly was all out and broader. But the more canon representation we are getting, the more this phenomenon seems to be taking root.

Not just in a “damn it, I can’t find my rarepairs”-way, or in a “I really dislike the canon mainstream ship”-way, but in a different, very concerning way.

Because somehow, with the more representation that we got, the fandom mentality about shipping changed. There is this new need to have your own ships validated by canon. The closer to canon your fictional ships are, the more “valid” they are. And it is absolutely linked to the fact that we do get more canon representation these days. In any fandom where there isn’t any representation, people latch onto what is the “most likely” ship to become canon and act like they are thus in the right - I’m just saying Voltron here and I think you all know what I mean.

And it’s just genuinely tiresome on all sides, it’s so frustrating for me as a person who’s always been into the smaller, more obscure ships, because they are now even smaller and seem even more obscure, because the thought of shipping one half of the canon mlm with someone else but their canon endgame is downright blasphemic in some fandoms.

Fanfiction Ask Game

[thessalian]

Thess vs the Zero Sum Game

The other day, @true0neutral pointed me at someone going off about how “until Critical Role fixes its horrible track record with mlm, Caduceus being gay is infinitely more important than any other identity he could possibly have and you’re homophobic if you disagree with me”. And how “if Taliesin went any other sexuality with Caduceus, his entire existence would be a bait-and-switch at this point”. Because when Mollymauk died and people were upset over the death of the only confirmed (note the term confirmed) mlm among the Mighty Nein (and I’m not judging anyone for being upset at the loss - just at those who insisted that Matt was ‘burying his gays’), his response was to hug them and say, “They kill us, we just come back gayer”.

It took me a little while to be able to formulate a response to that - at least, one that wasn’t quiet cursing, holding back tears and a polite request for him to please stop flagging up what this person said. I needed some distance and perspective before I could approach this in a sensitive and considered manner.

I think the first thing I should address is the reason my reaction was so visceral - the fact that every time I turn around, someone in the LGBTQ+ community is throwing someone else under the bus. I know that mlm representation in general is important; I just don’t understand people who so strongly advocate for representation for their sexuality (or the sexuality they prefer to see, as sometimes happens when it’s less ally than fetishist - and I’m sorry, but it happens, especially with mlm, and it’s sad and I hate it) to the point where it considers any other option in the LGBTQ+ spectrum to be a sign of bigotry. When they say, “Caduceus has to be MLM because MLM need more representation in Critical Role”, they get praise. However, the reason I didn’t say, “I would really love it if Caduceus was ace - and hey, that doesn’t mean aromantic so mlm could still apply - because asexual people need more representation in general”, is because I’ve said these things before and been called a homophobe every single time. Apparently wanting representation for a sexuality whose existence people tend to either forget or actively deny is a sign that I don’t want to see representation for anything else. I do want to see representation for everybody! Just ... I’m not even allowed to ask for my own without getting shit thrown at me for it, which saddens me.

Then we look at the second reason shit like this upsets me: Caduceus’ sexuality should not be chosen because of the demands of others. It’s one thing when a TV series has characters who could very easily be representative in all manner of ways, but deliberately aren’t because focus groups. Critical Role is something different, something new, and just because it’s viewed by people doesn’t mean we own it in the same way. Taliesin Jaffe isn’t an actor hired to play this character written by someone else in this situation - Caduceus, like Molly before him, and like Percy before that, is a character he created. Putting pressure on a team of writers to include more representation because they’re wrong about losing their audience if they dare to be diverse is entirely different than putting pressure on a human being to make a character that is there for their pretendy fun-times conform to the needs and desires of people who are allowed to watch said pretendy fun-times.

I know that Critical Role is now watched by millions of people. I know they broke hella records on the Kickstarter that will have the animated Legends of Vox Machina out next year. I know all of that. The problem is that things like this have made an awful lot of people forget that this is still their D&D campaign! It’s meant to be fun for them! It’s better when it’s fun for them! They mesh better and have more fun and bring that energy to the table when it’s fun for them! And ‘fun for them’ does not and should not include demands from people who have been allowed to watch their fun that affect personal character backstory. This isn’t just entertainment for us. It’s entertainment for them.

Let’s take a different tack here. You write fanfic for fun. It becomes hugely popular by fanfic standards. You become what, back in the day, we used to call a BNF - a Big Name Fan. You start writing a character as being a particular sexuality because that’s how you see them, even if it’s not the most popular headcanon for the character. Suddenly, you get people coming into your social media and telling you that you need to write this character this sexuality because the community needs more representation for their headcanon sexuality and you’re clearly a bigot if you disagree with that. How would that make you feel? How much fun would writing fanfic be at that point?

Just ... I know what I would like to see in terms of Caduceus’ sexuality. However, I am happy to go with what Taliesin decides - on his own, not because of pressure from the fandom. Also, I am not going to invalidate anyone else’s headcanon that way. If people want to see Caduceus as gay or bi, fine, great, cool. I will simply mention that he might love men without necessarily being into sex, or feeling sexual attraction, and insist we can have both. It would be easy for all sides of this to say, “Hey, yeah, he could be a homoromantic or biromantic asexual, sure! We would both get representation that way! I hope Taliesin considers it!” ... but it doesn’t work that way, it never will, and sometimes I wish I could be as uncompromisingly demanding as others in this situation.

I get it, though. Sometimes we feel so marginalised and ignored, often for good reason, that we have to stand up for ourselves and our community, forsaking all others. I just don’t think that’s fair. I want everyone to have representation, because that’s what the world is - a diverse smorgasbord of people, all with fascinating experience. I just wish everyone could see it that way and we could stand up for each other, instead of splitting up the LGBTQ+ community the way we do, fighting for representation like it’s a zero sum game.

[beauregardance]

Why Rewrite?

I’m rewriting cover my skin (Sun-Kissed Light) due partially to becoming more conscious about what kind of mlm fanfiction I’m writing (as a cis-woman outside of the mlm community) and whether or not it contributes to homophobic fujoshi-esque tropes of torture porn. I’ve elaborated more on it under in this post.

Since I’ve already explained my feelings there, I won’t be talking more about it unless anyone else has questions, which I will gladly answer.

Now more on the logistics!

Confessions:

1. I did not intend for it to be a long fanfic. In fact, I went out seeking 3 chapters. And then 5. And then? Indefinite. Which leads me to my second point.

2. I had no plot.

No really, I didn’t. I had absolutely no idea where I was going with it, and my continuity errors (though I fixed them on rereads) were examples of this meandering. I had no idea who Beatrice was. I was going to cross that bridge when I got to it.

3. Unrelated subplots. 

I had no main plot, but I had too much going on the background that I wasn’t committed to exploring, and it’s very visible on a reread now. Examples include: 

Piper/Reyna, which, shame on me, wasn’t explored enough or properly!

Bianca di Angelo - which YIKES veered into ableist depictions because I had no idea what kind of illness she had and that’s already a red-flag. To understand better: Koogi from Killing Stalking not having researched BPD, and saying that she characterized Sangwoo as “not normal” and it happened to “fit” with BPD. Mental illnesses does not mean someone is unable to function in society, like I wrote in with Bianca. That shit was not okay, and I was 18 when I wrote that, not 14. I’m owning up to my mistakes now.

Hazel’s mom. What was she doing? Why was she estranged? Why is she absent from the family picture? I remember it was an important part of the story...but how? I had no idea what she did in this fanfiction to be honest. That piece was not fleshed out.

Octavian. He was going to be a subplot of the story that dealt with bullying but I don’t even think I thought more about that than beyond the first introduction.

Drew Tanaka. Who is she? Why? What does it have to do with this? What was I planning with her character? Obviously I knew I wanted to redeem her, but that’s pretty much it.

Percy Jackson. He appeared in like two chapters and disappeared. I don’t think I wanted to do anything with his character except to show that Nico’s interest was switching over, but it still didn’t make a lot of sense.

4. The main characters themselves were not fleshed out.

Yes, they are already existing characters that don’t need to be fleshed out because RR has already done it. But. BUT. That is no excuse to write them blandly without any hints of AU. That’s what an AU is - they’re slightly different depending on their circumstances. That’s why Nico is a Levesque! Yet there’s nothing to be said about aspirations, dream jobs, futures. The only thing we know is that Will is going to an Ivy League school for the life sciences. That’s it. And that’s not enough. I knew Hazel was in college, but where? What is she studying? And Reyna is practically a blank slate. She cares deeply about Nico and is a Big Lesbian, which is great, but she needs more development. Piper - oh Piper. Why is she so casual about Jason having cheated on her? Did she never love him in the first place? Was she in love with Reyna the whole time but was scared due to going to a conservative school? Unfortunately, I knew I had never planned on expanding these questions, and she would always be relegated to the detective girlfriend role with no depth of her own.

5. The School / Geography

No layouts. Nothing. The only thing keeping track of the story for me was labeling the top of each chapter with the week day it took place (e.g. Monday, Tuesday etc) in my document. I had no school layouts - which okay, can be overlooked since school was almost over, but I spent 20k words in that school. Some people write a whole tragedy in 20k. Basically, when you spend that much time, there needs to be some sort of layout. Something to structure it. I had absolutely no structure.

While speaking about the school, why is it so intensely homophobic? I had written it in just for the sake of homophobia but it doesn’t sit right with me. Yes, people can be just homophobic but there’s something wrong about this.

I also had no sense of where this was taking place. The suburbs was my assumption, but it could easily be the city. Anyways, main point is: needs more development.

Now onto the writing aspect:

1. 20k words, and nothing happens.

Literally...nothing happens. I used to make fun of Twilight but....literally nothing happens in it, which is why it was dragging on so long. Part of it has to do with the fact that I didn’t know what I was going towards.

2. The purple prose is everywhere.

The reason why it’s so long and nothing happens is because there is so much purple prose. At the time I thought I was being touchingly poetic. When I reread it last week, it was too much. So many descriptions and feelings that could be cut. So many little details that took away from the scene and distracted the reader. Yes, while it was poetic, it also felt like a try-too-hard poetry, like I was forcing something out that didn’t want to be written.

3. This post.

I think this says everything about writing on abuse. I was talking in the negatives all the time. Nico was in a constant state of emptiness with no let up, no presence of anything replacing his security.

4. It doesn’t interest me anymore.

Mainly because I had no plot to begin with. Something needed to change before I could go back to it. I couldn’t keep writing chapter nine like I wasn’t feeling all of these things.

5. There was so much stalling, not a slow build or a slow burn. Just stalling.

This also had to do with not knowing where the plot was. I was putting off so many things because I didn’t know what to do with them. The main plot, I didn’t know where to go. The sub-plots - they were also a lost cause. I also knew I didn’t want Will and Nico to get together that early. But in the midst of trying to write a slow burn, it doesn’t read like a slow burn. And I think what’s essential about this fanfic is that it needs to be a slow burn. That’s the whole focus of this fanfiction. The fact that it doesn’t read like one makes it, frankly, kind of boring to read.

6. Falling in Love?

Because...it doesn’t feel like it. It’s abrupt, comes out of nowhere, and yes fanfiction can be unrealistic, but I was kind of aiming at some semblance of realism here. The gradual love didn’t feel real enough, which is why on a reread, I couldn’t invest in Will and Nico. That’s also why it didn’t feel like a slow burn. Because I didn’t buy that Nico was falling in love with Will and vice versa.

That’s all she wrote for now. 

Now what can I do with all of these notes I have for myself? Well quite simply - change it up - find the plot - retcon, and dig deeper with this story that I’ve only been skimming the surface with. Which is why I’m going to be uploading my old chapters onto my tumblr for archiving while I update with newer chapters. Some subplots are going to be retconned (you can count on the Bianca subplot disappearing because it’s disrespectful af!), replaced, or entirely made anew. So what’s going to change about the new rewrite? Is it going to be basically the same? Well yes...but also no. We’ll see when we get there ;) sketch out the entire plot! But yes, I do have a basic idea of what is going to say, and a hint to what happens in five words is: The Winter’s Tale - William Shakespeare. Take what you may from that!

ARCHIVES

Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight