#probably the longest post on this whole website

[olderthannetfic]

So, you mentioned low standards of research in podcasts. I don't listen to podcasts or watch a lot of videos about fandom analysis, but I have seen error corrections happening in the wild for what I have listened to, so I can only imagine how annoying it is when you know your shit.

Do you have any resources that come to mind as things everyone who likes fandom should be comfortable with, or specific essays on uniquely important fandoms (such as Sherlock Holmes or Star Trek) that everyone should read? Obviously the OTW resources are up there; what else?

Aside from resources, do you think there are any skills that are especially vital for getting to the bottom of fandom trends? Interview skills are probably pretty high up there.

Any pitfalls you see a lot of young fans falling into?

(I do a lot of fandom history research. It is the thing that gives me joy in fandom; other people like shipping or AUs, I like my little mini-anthropology sandbox and watching how ideas spread. I'm not necessarily good at it, but it's fun!)

--

Well... it's the usual things.

For example, a lot of fans claim to love fandom stats, but the ones that get passed around come from like three people. The people doing those stats, including me, don't usually have a statistics background, which doesn't automatically make them bad, but it really seems like people are just trusting anything with a pie chart.

We've recently seen people discover that those year-end AO3 ship stats have a seriously weird methodology. They don't show the thing their fans are actually trying to find out. People were pissed. But most of the time, they don't even bother asking what the methodology is or trying to do anything themselves.

There's far too much sitting back and waiting for some BNF to spoon feed one publicly-available information.

--

The big failings aren't usually the math itself but, of course, not knowing what question to ask, so it pertains to history research, not just stats.

You'll see a lot of stuff on shipping that looks at AO3 because AO3 shipping numbers are easy to pull... But AO3 shipping numbers don't just happen to be easy to pull: that is both an effect and a cause that is directly related to AO3's content. Someone interested in meta shouldn't be asking "What do AO3's numbers show?" as their first question. They should be asking "Why is this metadata available or not available and what does that mean on a sociological level?"

--

Thing two is the eternal I Have Apparently Never Heard of Anime problem. A fuckton of people theorizing about fandom trends seem to know fucking nothing about whole massive sectors of fandom or treat them as afterthoughts. This is okay if you're writing a history of Media Fandom. It is criminally stupid if you're trying to talk about what makes a piece of media have fic when another doesn't, what kinds of websites make fandoms take off, etc. Those kinds of broad questions need a broad understanding of what's out there.

It's not anime-specific, and I'm not asking for a high degree of knowledge.

I have routinely had people tell me that best friend ships and mystery/crime as a genre aren't popular, and that's why AO3 has this or that pattern... Meanwhile, buddy cops are the bedrock of oldschool slash fandom and make up basically all of the longest-running Western m/m fandoms that aren't Star Trek. CSI slop tends to have legions of future canon het shippers, and they make plenty of fanworks. It's just that some of this is more visible on FFN or older places, not AO3.

I'm always seeing things like someone speculating about how this and that anime fandom thing or bit of mid-00s FFN community drama led to this other thing on AO3, not realizing that AO3 came out of LJ Western fandom slash culture. To them, FFN is so central that it must be the main reference point, not the bajillion and one archives AO3 founders ran or Usenet or mailing lists or LJ.

I once saw someone asking on twitter about where a prominent Ranma fic might have been posted in the mid-90s. People claiming "My professor is an authority!" came out of the woodwork in droves to blither about K/S zines and then LJ. Not only was this entirely wrong, but the right answer was blindingly obvious if you knew enough to interpret the google results. I can only assume that the person tweeting had never heard of Usenet and didn't recognize the acronym for the big anime fanfic group that literally everything like this was first posted to.

I'm talking people insisting that fandom only goes for white characters when it's very obvious that fandom goes for majority leads who are not othered. All the bawwing in the world about "People assume anime characters are white" won't get rid of The Untamed or Kpop thirsters or whatever.

I'm talking sweeping pronouncements about gender and fanfic writers where the person hasn't even heard of FIMFiction or SpaceBattles or Dark Lord Potter cheesefests.

I've been in fandom for a long time, but I wasn't in all these parts, and I wasn't around for 80s zines. You don't need deep knowledge until you pick a research topic. But it's shocking how little shallow, broad knowledge a lot of people have when they're writing their Theory Of All Of Fandom History.

--

People are stupid as shit about survivorship bias, and fandom history is no exception. They're also dumb in the opposite direction, assuming that the thing they like now has always existed in this exact form.

For example, someone got mad at Fanlore for supposedly not documenting the history of f/f zines. Others have searched and searched for the zines of their old show they got into last year and are bewildered to not find any. The reality is that Fanlore editors are attempting to document every Media Fandom zine and have combed through old adzines looking for any mention of anything. Because of the methods of distribution—because it was expensive—small fandoms often had no zines at all.

Femslash fandom doesn't seem to have gotten enough critical mass to do much until Xena. The internet has really democratized things, but even the early internet was still somewhat in that old mindset where only certain popular things have a fandom. I think Yuletide itself, which started in 2003, really helped spread the idea of rare-but-existing fandoms being a thing. FFN and perhaps some other multifandom archives like Media Miner played a huge role.

Nowadays, we think of fic as just how you respond to media, any media, even if there are only two fics for that one car commercial, but that isn't how people saw things in every era—or at least it's not how fandom infrastructure worked. A lot of the time, the big hosting spots were single-fandom archives, often with restrictive content rules. Finding somewhere to post a m/m/f OT3 fic used to be hard. Never mind early zines when photocopiers didn't even exist yet and you had to sell out your print run of 500 to make a go of it.

All good research starts with a lot of preliminary investigation to figure out what you're even trying to look for.

Actually bothering to look for fans talking about their own history or casually chatting with your interview subjects before the formal interview will put a person miles ahead of many of the cringeworthy fandom ~papers~ I've seen.

The biggest mistake people make is going "Okay, these numbers aren't perfect, but some numbers are better than no numbers".

Bullshit.

As soon as there's a pie chart of the false numbers, everyone's brain turns off and they never look at the chart subtitle, never mind the research notes.

Bad numbers are often worse than no numbers.

Look at the logic behind the methodology first. Look at the social context. Basic understanding of human nature and familiarizing oneself with the shape and hangout locations of a community will get you most of the way there before you sit down for a specific interview or try to collect any specific numbers.

--

None of this is a fandom thing. Research is research. It's just that most people think "research" means watching a tiktok that the algorithm likes and were never taught how to evaluate a source for reliability.

Evaluating sources is a skill. I had explicit lessons on it in school. Lots of people don't, and that sucks.

Honestly, watching the more thoughtful debunking content on non-fandom topics, like Miniminuteman's stuff on pseudo-archaeology or Dan Olson's... everything, is a good window into critical thinking, and that's most of what's missing from bad fandom history.

--

But more than any of that, more is more. Not the crap stats, but the narrower, more personal accounts, the interviews. The more fans who investigate their little corner that isn't the same old AO3 site-wide "Why is there so much m/m?" ship stats or the same canned "Everything comes from K/S" history, the better.

What I object to is not amateur efforts but efforts that pull from the same small pool of data or that just reblog a tiny handful of supposed authorities.

--

If people are going to read just one thing... hmm... go try to look up a history of rec.arts.anime.creative, not because I think it's the most important fandom history out there but because it's at the nexus of things a lot of current fandom history work miss.

[skelleste]

2024 Art Summary

A selection of art from the past year. You can find a little about each image below.

Happy New Year (Again!)

Just like last time, it's time for another self-indulgent end-of-year post. A lot of things happened and unfortunately I don't feel that I made as much art as I did last year. I got bombarded with people asking me for art trades when I opened them last winter and I still haven't done most of them. I'm used to only a few randos that I mostly turn down requesting them, but having a bunch of friends ask all at once was a bit unexpected. If you're still waiting, I haven't forgotten and will make it eventually. Unfortunately I have the "I shouldn't draw for myself until I do my owed art" mentality most of the time and it just results in doing absolutely nothing because, quite frankly, I often don't want to draw other characters more than I want to draw my own. I'm going to have to be extremely selective about art trades going forward. I also moved this year for the first time ever, and that threw a big wrench in the works. The reason I moved so soon was because my insane sister was moving back in. She threatened to poop in my brother's bed (she's 22) and threatened both of us with violence and my parents were like "yeah that's fine". So uh, yeah, goodbye to living that sweet, sweet, chimpanzee lifestyle. All of that aside, I still made plenty of things, and I'll talk about a few of them here.

January

Some of the last comic panels I worked on before the art trade fiasco put working on the comic to a halt for almost a whole year. These are sketches, but the whole page is done now, of course. This was probably the most time-consuming panel so far, as I had to draw an indoor scene with 9 characters (technically 10 if you count Scott twice). I'm not sure if any of the panels that I have yet to work on will surpass this one in amount of time needed. There's a reason I made this one of the first scenes on the laundry list.

February

The first art trade. I had the pleasure of drawing Mumbo, Jumbo, Balder, and Dash for Chalkrub. I don't feel too great about the background, with its wonky perspective and odd colors, but everyone seems to like how it turned out anyway. It's my third most popular piece of art on this whole site as of writing this.

March

I made this for no reason other than I wanted to draw something edgy for edgy's sake. It had been a while since I made any art of this nature, and Ferdinand is my go to OC for it. My taste in art is not the same as what I draw. I make what I do because it's more about the enjoyment of the process than the aesthetic appeal of the final piece. When I focus on personal aesthetic appeal, I end up not drawing for 9 months at a time because I hate injuring my hand on inking all the time. So if you're some edgy artist and ever wondered why the fuck a cartoon shitposter extraordinaire follows you, there you go.

April

Another art trade, this time for 888goober888 on DeviantArt. A perfect example of a classic case of the eternal false promise "yeah I'll just finish this detail and then be done." And then there's 3,000 brushstrokes worth of individual grass blades. Tee hee.

May

This was a painting I started, and then put down because it was awful to work on, and then I picked it back up weeks later and finished it. The miseries I suffer for not trusting the process. It was a backburner project for a backburner project, which is the website. This painting is now the homepage background, ready to greet all visitors to my nonsense.

June

Commission for Porcumoose. I get the standard array of OC types in my commissions, because every client wants something different from the last. This time I felt very fortunate to draw something I personally like, and I this was my favorite commission from the whole year. This is my way of saying to the public at large "Please pay me to draw more spooky shit please please please".

July

Art Fight month again. I was planning on attempting longest chain with a friend, but he fell ill and we cancelled that plan. I decided to do a slow art year instead, which means fewer attacks with higher quality. My personal favorite from fighting for Team Stardust was this attack, Osireon (a fanmade eeveelution) for Sqveel. Thank you to everyone who attacked me! I always appreciate every single one. Next year is the big 10 year, and I plan on making it special.

August

August always begins with a week-long break from art for me, simply to rest after Art Fight. I also had a week-long vacation shortly thereafter, so half of my month was already spoken for. I had also started the process of moving and lost even more time to that. I can't recall exactly what all I made during then because it was very little, but one of them was certainly catgirl Maudlin. Here she is in all her glory.

September

This is when I moved, and I did not have access to the internet on my computer for a little while. I also spent much of my available drawing time working on a commission, so this was another month where I made very little for myself and cannot recall what little there was. Scatterbrain pineapple is going to teach you French while I jog my memory with blunt force and drywall.

October

Alright, now we're talking. On a whim I decided to participate in Goretober, because I couldn't stop thinking of stupid slapstick ideas and I thought someone scrolling through the tag and seeing this stupid shit randomly in the mix was funny. I was correct. I have one last prompt that I'll get to when I get to it, but aside from that one, this was my favorite drawing from the season. I think I've raised the bar on my own cursed content.

November

After Goretober, I took a break from regular drawing and leaned in favor of website progress. I made a handful of long-needed art assets, animated a custom cursor, created directories for future comic releases, and more. There is still much more to do, but a lot of the necessary code is sorted out.

December

Fuck those art trades (respectfully). I'll do them when I do them. I started working on the comic again for the first time since last February and I've already got a few more pages done. I don't really publicly talk about the comic very much, and yet I'll have random people take interest in the characters, the site, the prospect of a comic coming into existence, etc. and so I should really get on that. As much as the trades have been delayed, this is a project that was started much earlier and honestly could've been done by now if I didn't have to live for so long with people who are blasé about abusing each other. It needs to be completed.

These are just a small selection of my artworks throughout the past year. If you would like to see more, then you can peruse the blog. It's been my goal to get the comic done for the last two years, and we're going on year 3 now. Same old, same old. You'll see more art from me soon. I hope your new year is fruitful and full of peace. See you in 2025.

2023 || 2022

[nessiesgf]

tagged by @lisavetbathory thank you!! 🥹🫶

1. rewrite another try | louis/lestat, loustat & claudia, claudia/madeleine, rated E

my favorite and longest fic i've written so far! inspired by the movie 'ticket to paradise,' louis and lestat are divorced and hate each other, but they work together to stop claudia's wedding. had a blast writing the arguments (of which there are MANY!) lots of fun and lots of fluffy unholy family moments

2. back to you, love | louis/lestat, rated E

post-season 2, following louis and lestat as they navigate being together/being apart while interspersed with news articles detailing lestat's world tour. this was a fucking BEAST to write from the song lyrics to the concert outfits that i spent days scouring the runway websites for... PHEW!

3. i have mail, from you | louis/lestat, rated M

my second venture into the romcom AU universe, based on 'you've got mail!' louis is an independent bookstore owner and lestat owns the company trying to close his store. i took a huge departure from the movie with this one, so if you don't like a certain plot point, you might enjoy this! i also have to shout out cherhorowitz8's YGM fic. cher is THE romcom icon and their fics are basically the only reason i started writing. romcom aus will save us all, truly.

4. you should stay all my life | louis/lestat, rated E

my first IWTV fic! idk where i'd be without it! it's based on 'notting hill,' where louis is a bookstore owner (my fave job for him apparently) and lestat is a famous movie star. very love at first sight for both parties and full tooth-rotting fluff.

5. untitled WIP | louis/lestat, rated E (probably)

okay, i only have 4 fics on my ao3, but i'm loving the fic i'm writing rn and i had to say something about it! it's much darker than my other ones with a lot of discussion of drug use and suicidal thoughts, so a fair warning now! a basic synopsis is that lestat is a globally acclaimed rockstar and louis is his #1 hater. it's loosely based on a DCOM (very loosely) and i'm on ch. 4 out of approx. 10-12. its taking everything in me to not publish it now because i'm sooooo excited about it!

i would tag people but i'm still very new to the whole sharing my fics on tumblr so i don't have many fic writer mutuals. if you see this and want to share yours, please do!! 🫶🫶

[sisville-v11]

hi. today is the 4th anniversary of a very special moment in my life, and i think im finally ready for today to be the 0th anniversary of me spilling the beans on what that special moment is... we're plural. if you don't know what that means... i think the easiest way to describe it is that since 2021, we've secretly been 3 izzys in a trenchcoat masquerading as just one to the public eye; all of us share the same singular brain & body, but each of us are fully unique in our personality and interests. and now we're finally ripping the mask off and going fully public with that. god it has been. a fuckin experience to stay quiet about all this, all the times that weve had to disguise the text each of us writes to fit as a single generic one, i dont even know how to describe how freeing it is that we can finally exist as ourselves now, we have been waiting for this moment for YEARS and now its finally here aaaaaaaaaa!! ANYWAY, with that said, i guess we'll take now for each of us to introduce ourselves! ill leave it under a read more so we can truly feel unrestrained in making these as long as we want to, but the most important bits is that each of us are luna, lizzy, and ki, and please treat us as individual people thank you. if this is all new to you & you'd like to learn a bit more about plurality head here this sites pretty awesome https://morethanone.info/#

//hi, im luna, im the one whos been around the longest and was the sole one taking the helm during all the years before 2021, im the one our whole online presence is kinda built around lol. i found out i wasnt alone in here in may of that year, and my god what a fuckin weird feeling that was at the time lmfao, im not complaining that i had company in the slightest though, genuinely life improved so much once there were others i knew could take the wheel of piloting this body when i wasnt feeling up to it. honestly idk how to describe myself cause like, if you follow this account you probably already know what im like lmao most of the stuff on here aligns with my interests, like yeah i like minecraft i like broville. actually i AM the main one working on that broville video essay so theres that, a good chunk of the music we put out between 2021 and now was by me too (though, the others have been letting their own voices shine a bit more with some of our more recent works)... ok im dry now im passing this over to lizzy {HI IM LIZZY OMG FINALLY I CAN TALK UNMASKED OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! so like haiiiiii!!!! & stuff!!!! i was there when luna 1st figured out we all existed back then so ive been up here p regularly since around 2021 but ESPECIALLY grew a larger presence up here in like 2022+, i can point 2 some specific things i made cuz yea i do music 2 i love music making who up musicing they make!!!! ok so the although the sky remix was mostly me (tho luna made the base 4 that), i did the x naut fortress remix, the can you composition, & those r just a few! my interests r p similar 2 lunas so dont expect a whole lotta variance there LOL but like my personalitys p different!!! u might b seeing that rn hehe LOL i like being energetic bubbly & silly :3 who up sillyying they bubbles (me im doing that!!!) ok idk what else 2 say LOL launching a friendliness missile towards ki cuz theyre next in da big roundup of intros :D } ``hey hey, my name's ki! ^-^ I may still be relatively new here compared to these other two, but i still adore all the time i've spent up here and would like to continue to do so for the long foreseeable future! 😁 though, honestly, i'm not sure how much you'll see me on tumblr here, haha. while i quite respect this website's art-focused community & overall vibe, i don't think i'm as into it as these other two are, heh... who knows, perhaps i'll set up a bluesky account later on if i feel like that site's vibe jives with me better! so for now, you may see me make the occasional post here, but other than that? dunno how much i'll be around haha, though it is still very nice that if i do feel like writing something of any length on here, I'll get to write it purely as myself without needing to generify it! ^-^ anyway, i suppose i'll let luna cap this off, now! //anyway yeah. i guess thats the whole post. damn i dont even know what to say now, just, were pretty damn nervous posting about this lol. weve stayed quiet for this long but i feel like with how dire the world is right now, we need to show that despite it all we can still be out here living our happiest lives openly without hiding away who we truly are, like fuck that shit we out here. i hope yall are cool with us yknow not being 1 person, i really have no idea what kind of reception were about to receive for this, but i do know that no matter what, we arent gonna change who we are for anyone who really dislikes us being like this or whatever. were done hiding, its time to shine our true colors. our true individual colors. we're ready for whatever comes next. - luna, lizzy, & ki

[demigod-shenanigans]

I keep seeing updates about your Valgrace Orpheus and Eurydice fic on my dash and I just wanted to know if- when it’s finally finished- will you post it raw on Tumblr as well as on the various fic websites? (I don’t have AO3 but I really wanna read it once it’s done). If you do pls pls tag me so that I can read it?

I might consider posting it here! This fic is my pride and joy and the longest project I’ve written in actual years so I am kind of tempted to subject as many people as possible to it, lol

I’m primarily an ao3 author these days but I was originally a Wattpad kid so it might end up over there too. I don’t think I’ll bother with ffnet because that nightmare hell website requires me to download then reupload the entire chapter if I so much as want to fix a typo and I just cannot be made to deal with it. It’s been forever since I last posted fics on tumblr but if the interest is there, why not?

For the record, though, you don’t need to have an account to read my fics on Ao3, they’re available to anyone regardless of whether they’re signed in ^^

Either way, it’ll probably be a while until I’ll be ready to start posting that fic, since I’ve vowed to finish the whole thing before I start posting (as hard as that has been, I’m constantly tempted to keep tossing snippets at everyone, but I don’t want to give too much away in advance). Will update about my progress here occasionally!

[weyrwolfen]

Happy Cody Day! Have Some Fic Recs

I wasn't able to finish writing anything for the 2-2-24 cause, so it seems like the least I could do was throw some recommendations for a few of my favorite Cody-centric fics into the ring to help celebrate. Enjoy!

Gen:

And Your People Shall Never Be Destroyed (complete) by independent_variables

Summary: A-017 turned and regarded him silently for a long moment. “You ask a lot of questions, Kote.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Is it really as simple as being one or the other?”

Kote bit his tongue.

‘17’s expression tightened, and he stepped forward to grip Kote’s shoulder.

“One day you’re going to ask a question you don’t like the answer to,” he said, eyes bright and burning. “And that’s when you’ll have to decide: is this a good thing, or a bad thing?”

My Comments: Features a whole slew of precocious CC cadets dealing with the horror show that is Kamino, but Cody is the POV character for the first, longest fic in this multi-story series. Heartbreaking with a happy, hopeful ending.

First Choice (complete) by smilebackwards

Summary: The clones get to choose their Jedi generals.

My Comments: This series has three fics in it, and while the first one is Obi-Wan-centric, the next two are from Cody's POV. The first two are a bit more serious in tone, while the last one is basically Cody's brothers relentlessly trolling him.

Shippy Fics (nothing explicit, because those fics are between me, God, and probably some overworked Ao3 website volunteers):

Our Own Choices (WIP Cody/Obi Wan) by heartofroses112

Summary: CC-2224 made the choice. Cody had to live with it. The Commander... well, he was prepared to burn the galaxy down as penance.

Or, Cody decides to leave the Empire, but that doesn't stop his past decisions from haunting him. In the midst of trying to repent for the crimes he 'willingly' committed, Cody may very well start a rebellion against the Empire while he's at it.

My Comments: Can it really be called shippy if we're 88 chapters in and the tagged pairing hasn't actually laid eyes on one another? Anyway, Codywan is pretty clearly endgame, if that either is or distinctly is not your thing. I'm mostly here for my catnip, which is the post-Clone Wars clone rebellion angle.

Our Caches and Constellations (complete Cody/Obi-Wan) by johanneb

Summary: Eleven years ago, the Jedi order got wind of the closing pincers of a Sith trap and scattered to the remote corners of the galaxy. Ten years ago, millions of clone commanders and troopers were introduced as the Republic’s new Army, made for fighting a war alongside people the galaxy seemed to be forgetting ever existed. Nine months ago, Commander Cody decided he was no longer going to risk his men's lives for the whims of clueless generals. Now, his decision to save a boy and a man in the desert, and the plan he comes up with to get away with it, will change the galaxy.

My Comments: Cody quiet quits the Empire as a prelude to loudly quitting the Empire, which is a lot easier in an AU where all space flight and communications technology is steampunk-y and fairly slow. Very creative world building.

100% open to receiving some recs too. I know both shippy recs were Codywan, but I'm not actually all that attached to that ship over any other. Happy @codyday2224 everyone!

[wanderpawn]

I'm going to get a little brainrotty with my Zhongli Psychoanalysis here

I feel like it's a long shot to even make this post because I still don't understand this website very well.... but I truly hope someone out there will enjoy reading my perspective!

I want to elaborate more specifically on the "Zhongli has Dissociative Identity Disorder" fanfic drabble thing I wrote last week, now that I'm more coherent (with lines from the game as evidence) 👍

^ my little headcanon of what they look like..... for headcanon consistency's sake (´-ω-`)

Basically, my headcanon is that Zhongli has DID. Their parts are Zhongli, Rex Lapis, Morax, and quite a few more.

"But being diagnosed with a dissociative disorder requires you to have a spotty memory/blackouts, and Zhongli has a really good one," is what you might be thinking... but I have Answers.

(screenshot from the OSDD/other specified dissociative disorder wikipedia page)

The fact that Zhongli has had so many identities in their life... as far as I know, they're the only current archon who's had so many. Certainly makes you wonder 😐 (Not to mention all the stress and inner turmoil that probably comes with it... *cough.* and they're known for being "existential," too.)

Another thing I wanted to point out was this:

Lack of an ability to plan the future.... it could be their autism (which is a whole other can of worms), but it could also be related to emotional amnesia (possibly speaking from experience....)

And these two lines specifically prove that they exist as multiple separate identities, but in one body.

So, here's where the.... the Brainrot expands.... into MEGA Brainrot..... (you can skip to the ＊ if you don't want to read my overly-specific-totally-not-projecting headcanons.)

Their parts.... I was looking through my drawings yesterday.... and I'd realized I'd already drawn all three of their main parts 🥲

Morax (left), Rex Lapis (right),

and Zhongli, their host (above)

Zhongli is the average everyday life haver. They're basically everything we know about them through the game. Their physical stature is short, and they're very awkward, bad at socializing, and infodump frequently.

Rex Lapis is very polite and good at talking to people, they know how to entertain a group, and they do best in social situations. They have a sort of "aversion" to thoughts spiraling out of control, and a more "laid-back"/relaxed demeanor.

Morax is the "flat affect" and "resting b*tch face" part. They have a more "adult-like" personality, and they've probably got something more going on underneath the surface (like serious depression and repressed memories....)

＊Aaaaaanywaayyyyyy.........

Like I said, there's many more parts to Zhongli, I'm just too exhausted to think about it that hard right now. I had to share this because my brain won't stop thinking about it and I needed to get it off my chest (；ω；)

Thank you for reading my cringe infodump..... thank you...... 🥺

(This is probably the longest post I've ever made on tumblr. Haha.)

[nottoofondofgaypeople]

You should make a long post about Laurance

You are so lucky I got that Vylad ask before this... Ohhh boy

Full stop, this post is probably going to be one of the longest things I post on this Nether forsaken website. Laurance has been a comfort character since I first watched this series years ago in spite of all the bull shit Jesson put him through. I have many many many thoughts on him, and none of them will be organized.

I'm fairly confident that this post will get into some very unhinged territories, I cannot be normal about this man

I feel like this should go without saying, but all of the headcanons I have dumped onto Laurance on my main blog apply to this rewrite. Including this one which you have definitely all seen, and all Shadow Knight headcanons are also canon here.

But let's talk about this rewrite specifically. Because when Laurance comes back from the Nether, and he confesses his love, the mother fucker does it! He actually gets Irena to say she at least feels something towards him! It isn't much, but she doesn't get all awkward when he says that he loves her, and she's supremely gentle with him while helping him with his recovery. This really quickly turns into romance and the two are effectively dating shortly after.

Yeah Laurance's eyes aren't magically fucking cured to perfection, that's stupid an abelist.

Actually, because I want peak recovery arc material out of this rewrite Laurance is going to get to spend a lot of time learning how to fight with this new form. His body has been pretty significantly altered from the process of undeath and also the torture. I'm so for real when I say Laurance has so many scars, just so many of them, 18 million scars all over his everything. He already had some from being a stupid fucking child, but these ones are a lot uhm... bigger.

Laurance has to adjust to the new symptoms of his body. A lot of them are slow, appearing over time. The first major thing Laurance notices is that when he stops thinking of breathing for long enough, he just stops breathing. Shadow Knights don't need to breathe, so their body doesn't naturally do it. But Laurance never fully died, so he kind of does need to breathe?? And this is just where it starts.

I think the doll symptoms start kicking in a lot slower than I initially thought of. There's still the first time that it happens, but then it doesn't happen as often. Maybe once or twice, but the next time Laurance really deals with that is during the Season 1 finale (but it isn't Garroth that knocks him out (but that's a whole post unto itself)). Going into Season 2 though, it gets worse and worse. As the Shadow King has more influence over the Overworld, the calling gets stronger and stronger.

More often than not the calling manifests as a whisper in the back of Laurance's mind, something that sends a tingle down his spine and not in a good way. His blood runs hot, and he can feel his body pulled to Irena. Like his blood is tied to her life force and constantly trying to bring her to it. And any time he's around her, that voice gets louder, starts multiplying as he fights it, all of them demanding him to kill, to do it, to free himself of the burden, to gain eternal life.

Laurance doesn't want eternal life though!! He never has!! He wants to fall in love and start a family and grow old with his partners!!

Okay so going into Laurance's childhood a bit, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Laurance is the mcd equivalent of a theater kid and yet somehow fumbled in choosing his class and ended up as a fighter instead of a bard, the goof. He picked up the Lyre when he was a teenager, mostly because his father bought one and expressed an interest in teaching Laurance how to play, and he was all over that.

He stops playing it when he goes to the guard academy cause they just don't have instruments there (which is a crime), but he does still spend a lot of time remembering songs and finger placements, mans is doing whatever he can to make sure he doesn't fall out of practice. When Laurance comes back to Meteli as an official guard he celebrates by having a party in the town and finally getting to play his beloved lyre again.

He doesn't play it as much when he's a guard, but he always tries to stay in practice. And he won't let any blindness get in the way either, his muscle memory is so on point he barely needs his eyes unless he's reading sheet music, which is usually right in front of him.

I could seriously go into a whole character analysis of comparing Laurance to Orpheus, specifically from Hadestown, like I really want to, but I'll restrain myself to just the general myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Laurance really thought he could walk into hell and defy the gods. He really thought he could just do that. And even when he was faced with punishment, when Orpheus was forced to stay in the Underworld in her place, he endured it all for her. And actually this is so funky the roles are kind of reversed. Because Irena is the one who can't turn around to look at Laurance when they're running out of hell. If she does, she will die. That is guaranteed. Eurydice has always acted in the assurance of her survival. Unlike Orpheus in the same position, she can manage to not turn her head.

Hhhhhhg Laarmau as Orpheus and Eurydice is literally everything to me you don't understand.

And yes Laurance being Orpheus coded is why I gave him a Lyre, I won't even deny that. Like, c'mon, Laurance very earnestly trying to earn Irena's affection and saying "I also play the lyre" and Irena snarking back "A liar and a player too? I've met too many men like you." I'm--

Stay focused!! This is not the Hadestown post!!

What if Laurance was like obscenely physically affectionate? Like he's so so so physical, he loves having a point of contact with someone at all times. It doesn't have to be anything big either. He just likes wrapping his arm around Garroth's shoulder, or having Irena play with his hair. It was something important before the Shadow Knight transformation, and he only needed it more as time went on. The feeling of his lovers heartbeat reminds him he's alive.

And other people touching him reminds Laurance he still has this body. In spite of all the Shadow Kings control, he has control of his own body in this moment and he is using that control to show love and care and that matters to him more than anything. He likes holding hands, putting his hands on people, having other people do the same, even the smallest amount of affection is enough for him to selfishly crave more.

Laury likes singing a lot. His voice got a little deeper after the Shadow Knight thing because his vocal chords got just a little shredded in the Nether, but he still loves singing and singing with his friends and lovers. Laurance singing some sappy love song to Garroth who is just completely smitten, or singing some silly little campfire song to boost Cadenza's mood when she's having a bad day.

THE TABLE BIT!! I simply adore the table bit!! All of it! And it's even better in my rewrite cause even if the dialogue and the scene plays out almost exactly the same, they're in love while doing this silly bit!! Such fucking dorks I want to throw them against concrete.

Thinking about Laurance and Ungrith. Laurance finding this wyvern in the forest while exploring one day and befriending it almost instantly because Laurance is just a very kind person. Even if Ungrith isn't allowed to be with his brethren, it's okay because this weird fuckin kid is really entertaining and a genuinely great friend. I know it isn't possible but a scene where Laurance, Garroth, and their wyvern childhood friends get to hang out and talk would probably fix all my problems.

Raven doesn't literally anyone but Garroth touch him, but when Irena tells him about Ungrith, he's willing to let Laurance pet his scales or whatever you do to show affection to a flying lizard. It's not the same, but it's better than nothing.

Laurance's favorite place to kiss other people is on the cheeks, but his favorite spot to be kissed is the forehead. I think that he doesn't admit this to people, rather lets them figure it out. Both Garroth and Irena figure out Laurance likes kissing their cheeks a lot, like he does it constantly, especially because Garroth has freckles and Laurance is determined to kiss every single one of them.

Garroth is the one who learns about Laurance's affinity for forehead kisses cause he's only like two inches taller than Laurance, but that difference matters a lot to both of them. And Garroth can tell very easily from the way Laurance always loves looking up at him with those big doe eyes. Once he tells Irena this, she starts asking Laurance to bend over or kneel in front of her so she can kiss his forehead very tenderly.

Because I made Garrancemau polycule real in my rewrite, Laurance's calling latched onto Irena, but man oh man, it tempts him with Garroth sometimes. He fights so hard to protect Irena partially because if she dies by someone else's hands, he knows it'll latch onto Garroth. And sometimes the calling urges him towards it anyway, considering it'll work. A calling is best answered by the death of a lord, but the death of another guard isn't always a bad thing.

Every time Laurance runs from his lovers to fight the calling he feels so cold without them. Like if he bothers to try sleeping while on his own it just feels so cold. So empty. It doesn't feel right to try to sleep without Irena in his arms and Garroth snuggled up behind him and a blanket over the three of them.

I think Laurance cries a lot. He doesn't really have hang ups about showing his emotional side until he's a shadow knight, and even after, he only tries to hide his anger. He never hides his anguish, his sadness, his absolute misery as a result of the nightmare he was forced to live through. Laurance's crying is so loud, so wretched, almost agonizing for him. It forces his entire body to shake and tremble, sobs being wrung out of him almost forcefully.

I want. him. to be okay. and happy. and I know he won't be. Aughfhhg.

[wlwlibrary]

Get To Know Me

Hi I'm Teri, I'm 20 y/o and an aroace spec lesbian (I will not justify my sexual/romantic orientation online so if you have a problem with it you can just leave).

I'm autistic and am very passionate about my special interests. I usually cycle through them for longer periods of time (around a year or so), so some special interests lay dormant for a while but (might) come back someday.

My current active special interest is SwanQueen. I joined the fandom in late 2017 and I had 3 special interest revivals (currently in my 3rd SQ era). SwanQueen is my primary and longest lasting special interest (it's been 7 years now damn), even if new special interests come up and SwanQueen gets temporarily sidelined it always comes back and will probably stay with me for the rest of my life.

I'm an avid femslash/wlw ship lover. My OTP is obviously SwanQueen but some other ships I enjoy are...

Siuraine (Moiraine x Siuan from The Wheel of Time)

Agathario (Agatha x Rio from Agatha All Along)

Kirasaya (Kirari x Sayaka from Kakegurui)

Mariri (Mary x Ririka from Kakegurui)

Catradora (Catra x Adora from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Korrasami (Korra x Asami from The Legend of Korra)

HomuMado (Madoka x Homura from Madoka Magica)

Rhaenicent (Rhaenyra x Alicent from House of the Dragon)

Ava x Deborah (from Hacks, although I don't ship them in a traditional sense, I probably ship them more as some form of QPR since I quite like the complex nature of their relationship as depicted in the show, a relationship that cannot be put neatly into a box because it has aspects from all kinds of relationships, romantic and otherwise)

A list of Fandoms I'm in (non-shipping)...

Once Upon a Time (ONLY for SQ, I have an ambivalent relationship with the rest of the show because... obvious reasons)

Avatar the Last Airbender Universe (including The Legend of Korra and Prequel Books)

Kakegurui Universe (Main Series, Twin, Midari and Kakegurui Kari, I prefer the mangas to the anime, although the Twin anime is quite good, the main series anime is a bit oversexualized imo)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Hacks

Agatha All Along

Madoka Magica (only watched original anime series + the 3rd movie)

Arcane

The Wheel of Time (TV Show + read 'New Spring', and while I think the story is good I'm mostly invested for my baby fishwives)

I'm very interested in fandom culture, fanfiction as a whole and tropes. And I would love to discuss these topics with someone so if you're interested hit me up :)

I'm currently working on a worldbuilding website for SwanQueen. Basically I take all the bits and pieces of OUAT I like and change the rest to fit my SwanQueen version.

If I ever find the motivation to sort and polish my thoughts as coherent text, I will post meta analyses (on Tumblr) and the occasional fanfic (on ao3, under the same name as my Tumblr blog). Maybe I will also just dump my thoughts about SQ parallels, symbolism etc. on here (instead of loosing all my genius thoughts by talking to myself lol).

I've been an editor for 7 years now and will occasionally post SQ Edits on Insta (my IG is ortvs).

And most recently I started dabbling in digital fanart (will stick to SQ fanart only).

Other things about me...

I love dogs and I'm part of a service dog team in training. My service dog's name is Fenna, she's 4 years old and a mutt, originally from a shelter in Romania. She's incredibly cute and loooooves cuddles.

Another special interest of mine is autism and disability rights.

[thefrogdalorian]

I think (while obviously still important) the whole "please leave comments on fics you enjoyed" has been said to death, so I won't say it again. I would say I've actually been really lucky with engagement on my fics, but I just had probably the longest gap since I started posting and that, combined with me kind of struggling with things I'm writing currently, led me to a bit of a slump. Nothing world-ending, but just those usual lingering doubts - can I actually write? Is it even worth continuing with my WIPs? Does this all suck and I'm wasting my time?

Well I got four comments about my writing in a short space of time today and it's just the best feeling ever to come back to that. Giggling, kicking my feet, twirling my hair... the works. It genuinely made my day! Especially after a few days of nothing.

For writers, don't underestimate yourself. There are always people out there enjoying your work. It might take a bit of time for an audience to find their way to you and begin commenting, but trust that it will come. It's not a reflection on your talent either, a lot of people don't feel confident enough and doubt their ability to find words... but when someone comes along and does it feels incredible.

And for readers, NEVER underestimate your ability to make someone's day with a comment. Truly even if it's just a few words or even a keyboard smash and emojis... it means the world just to know someone out there is enjoying your writing, rather than just seeing numbers increase on a website which can be quite impersonal. We write for the love of it so there is always no expectation to comment, but to know that your work reached a real person and they ENJOYED it? The best feeling, as a writer.

Sending positive vibes to every author who hasn't had any feedback for a while, that you wake up to a bunch of comments like I did and it gives you that boost you need. Sending encouraging vibes also to every reader who might struggles to find words or be embarrassed about commenting. I hope you find it in yourself and make someone's day!

[audioeidolon]

Favorite fics? Doesn't have to be rise or even turtle related

Oh man I got very excited for this ask. I have been in a lot of different fandoms for a very long time- but lets start with some of my all timers.

Now What I'm Going To Say May Sound Indelicate (Rated E)

A Reddie fic for It CH2, which I've probably reread about fifty times. It's unfinished, and probably never will be finished, but it's absolutely worth a read. The writing is incredible, and it's my singular favorite fic of all time. A lot of medical procedures and recovery, since (spoiler) someone gets impaled at the end of the movie and this is exploring how they might live through that.

_________________________________________________

Blue Sky (Rated T (from what I remember))

PDF VERSION

I hope this link works- the first link is fanfiction dot net, which is hard to use after so many years, and the other is a pdf I found of someone who downloaded a version to share. This fic is from 2011, and is actually pretty famous. Based off of Portal 2, what happens when Wheatley gets a body? I've actually been meaning to reread it because I barely remember it at this point, but this fic came out about a year before I graduated high school and opened my eyes to the fact that fanfiction can be actual published novel quality.

Also friendly reminder that if you love a fic, download it. Not to repost obviously, but websites disappear and works get deleted for any number of reasons and you may in fact be helping an author out.

_________________________________________________

Wow. This is fucking wild-

From Out the Ocean Risen (Rated T)

A Pacific Rim fic that started publishing in 2013- last time I reread this, YEARS AGO, the series was as of yet unfinished. It's a fantastic body-horror-esque story of the implications of aliens and hiveminds and what makes a monster. It's Newton Giezler-centric and FANTASTICALLY written-

and it JUST updated this month in 2023. I had no idea, but searching through my fic list made me notice. I thought, surely it's just an update to apologize for abandoning the fic- but no! It's an actual new chapter.

If you guys ever wanted to show support for a fic that's been abandoned, this one deserves it immensely. Show it some love, it's never too late to hop on board and enjoy a fic and you never know what someone will return to.

_________________________________________________

Pirate King Laurence (Rated T)

'His Majesties Dragon' is a super good age of sail book series, sometimes called 'Temeraire', that's as if a Pride and Prejudice character was captain of a dragon crew. This is a little bit of an AU to that, and is one of my all time favorite Temeraire fic series.

_________________________________________________

the run and go (Rated M)

Post Homestuck fic. 560k words. Still being updated- enough said, it's fantastic. This is probably the longest fic on my list. Involves a lot of unpacking about Dave and Bro and not just what it's like recovering from an abusive childhood, but reconciling with the person you love who abused you. Also everyone lives. Everyone.

_________________________________________________

>Dave: survive three years on this rock (Rated T)

One more Homestuck fic for the road- there was a period of time where the Homestuck tag was nothing BUT meteor fic. If you were in the fandom, iykyk. This one was probably the most in character Dave and great portrayal of what it would be like actually living within a universe made up of date game mechanics.

_________________________________________________

The Other Hawke (Rated E)

If anyone's gone through the rest of my fic besides TMNT stuff, they've seen my SECOND largest fandom I've written for, which was Dragon Age. More specifically, I fixated on most peoples least favorite character on the whole series- Carver Hawke. Hahaha. I just really fixate on the oddest characters, huh?

This is a fic about what his life outside of his brother is like, and giving him a lot of depth that you don't get in the video game series. Also he is getting dicked down by Fenris, which is a fantastic pairing I didn't know I needed. It's hilarious, and romantic, and very tense.

Man. I gotta reread a lot of these. Thanks so much for the ask! Sorry if it got a little out of hand haha.

[rancidslime]

This is a really interesting exercise! So, I would argue that an equal execution for maids simply isn't possible in the same way that it is for, say, knights. The way I see it, there are two big reasons wizards lend themselves so well to extreme stylisation, to the point of not needing to show any part of an actual human form.

A) Let's talk about first instincts. The word "wizard" has by now referred to characters of basically ever gender and appearance, but when you hear the word "wizard", the mental image most often conjured up by the word is actually pretty concrete. Long beard, robe, pointed hat. If there's a face, it's nearly always an old white man with a long beard. (I could list the reasons why this image developed, but this is a website full of nerds. I'm sure I don't have to go through a whole genealogy of how the trappings of the modern wizard became codified into pop culture through art and literature.) If someone asked you to "draw a wizard" on a post-it note, you'd probably draw someone who looked basically like Gandalf, plus or minus a few stars on his robe. We all know what a wizard looks like.

B) The traditional trappings of a wizard all heavily obscure the human form; hats, robes, and beards (where included) cover up a lot of the body and face! This means that a stylized wizard can be easily turned into a featureless, genderless collection of symbols with minimal tweaking of the style or design, while remaining self-evidently wizardlike. You can even hide the hands, feet, and face completely - Final Fantasy's black mages are famously one of the best examples of this approach in pop culture.

The maid, by contrast, runs into a two main problems here. So like, yes, we're talking about the meido as cosplay evolution of the figure of the french maid. But one of the issues here is, the meido archetype doesn't have the raw recognition, the crossover appeal, of the wizard. If someone's really into period pieces, they might think of a period-accurate ladies' maid. If they're like, a normie straight dude, they might think of Spirit Halloween lingerie. Someone who has hired a modern maid might think of a person in scrubs, carrying a bucket. The kind of maid we're talking about is a subgenre of what "maids" mean to people, whereas the default image we have of wizards is seen as the progenitor everything else is playing off of. I hope I'm still making sense.

So the meido does have a few necessary signifiers (dress, often but not always black, with white petticoats and an apron, sometimes with a headband). Have you noticed the problem? That's right - the only headgear we recognize as maidlike doesn't obfuscate the head! We talked about how one of the biggest strengths of the classic wizard is that you don't need to show the face if you don't want to - with maids, you don't have that option. There will always be a recognizable human form, even if you opt for the longest skirt possible and give your maid big ole leg-of-mutton sleeves!

Now, that's not to say I don't think you could take it pretty far - you could hide the face with a bonnet large enough to completely conceal the head and face, but between the change in headgear to something rarely actually employed by maid cosplay to the fact that maids of this stripe are usually shown with their hair down, I think that's a little bit of a cheat.

I just saw a wizard-as-fantastical-species shitpost and a maid-as-fantastical-species shitpost on my dash back to back, and now I'm kind of wondering what the maid equivalent of the classic "just a robe, a hat, and a pair of eyes" interpretation of the wizard-as-species would be.

[dukeofdogs]

Master post for Gwent lore pt 1

Base set:

Monsters

Arachas Queen

Eredin Bréacc Glas

Unseen Elder

Woodland Spirit

Scoiatel

Brouver Hoog

Eithné

Filavandrel aén Fidháil

Francesca Findabair

Northern Realms:

Princess Adda 

Demavend

King Foltest

King Henselt

Nilfgaard

Emhyr var Emreis 

Jan Calveit

Morvran Voorhis 

Usurper

Skellige

Bran Tuirseach

Crach an Craite 

Eist Tuirseach 

Harald the Cripple

Year of the Wild Boar:

Thronebreaker

Ardal aep Dahy

Arnjolf

Eldain

Gernichora

Meve

Crimson Curse

Anna Henrietta

Queen Calanthe

Dana Méadbh

Dettlaff van der Eretein

Svalblod

Novigrad

King of Beggars

Cleaver

Sigismund Djikstra

Gudrun Bjornsdottir   

Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart   

Whoreson Junior

Iron Judgment

Merchants of Ofir

Year of the Dire Rat

Master Mirror

Grand Master of the Flaming Rose (Jacques de Aldersberg)

Sparrowhawk (Eredin)

Wrath of Brokilon (Eithné)

The Cripple (Harald the Cripple)

Emperor of Nilfgaard (Usurper)

King of Kerack (Viraxas)

Way of the Witcher

Viy

Erland of Larvik

Arnaghad 

Gezras of Leyda

Ivar Evil-Eye

Fallen Rayla

Year of the Great Oak

Stalwart Leadership

Advanced Tactics

Price of Power

She Who Knows

Duchess of Dol Blathanna

Melusine

Leticia Charbonneau

The Witchfinder

Vilgeforz

Year of The Cursed Toad

Vial of Forbidden Knowledge

Mysterious Puzzle Box

Renfri

Eltibald

Boholt

Sove & Ulula

Dagon

Svalblod Bear

Part 2

[knowledge-based-wumpus-agent]

Something I feel like people aren't getting about the whole Reddit API situation is that on some level it's not really about the API or 3rd party apps themselves, its that this situation is just another indicator that the like, ethos, of the internet of the 2010s is dying. In the early social media days there was this idea that platforms weren't the websites but the servers and the data, and they welcomed people to use the same tools they used to build the websites to make their own tools. Like the idea was that it would be mutually beneficial to let more technical users interact with the platforms in unapproved ways because it would drive people to the platforms and provide more value for users, and that's how you get things like bots and 3rd party clients and people doing statistics on subreddit membership and twitter linguistic analyses or whatever.

Reddit didn't even have an app for the longest time! Like people didn't go "wow this app sucks I'm going to make my own" the 3rd party apps were there first, because from Reddit's old perspective, if iPhone users wanted to interact with their service in a more platform specific way it's within their rights to create a client to do that. That's honestly probably why they haven't implemented mod tools or accessibility features, why spent the man-hours when someone else will do it for you?

But of course if people are interacting with your service via the API directly you can't serve them ads, and now it's even worse with the advent of GPT spam posts. So it was pretty inevitable that Reddit was going to start restricting the ways you can interact with it. And now that the big social media sites have destroyed all the competition they just do whatever they want, and being idealistic about how an open internet ought to work doesn't benefit them at all.

It's just sad to see API access start to be restricted across the internet. It's super annoying to see Steve Huffman act like the API wasn't always touted as like, a social good, when he's been there the whole time and made it like that in the first place. And I see a lot of people being like "oh boo-hoo you can't use 3rd party apps anymore waa" and I'm not sure that like trying to explain this stuff from a technical perspective would make them realize why people care, because it's more about how people thought and felt about the internet over a decade ago.

[nyxs-sins]

Brothers + Datables Reacts to Fan Art

Warnings: Mentions of scandalous art pieces. Cussing.

Lucifer:

What. The. Fuck?

The man has never taken his shirt off why is he shirtless in some them-

IS THAT LUCIFER X DIAVOLO FANART?!?!

Figures out Mammon is selling the pieces.

MAMOOOOOOON!!!!!

Doesn’t know whether he wants to beat the ever living shit out Mammon or take a nap.

He does both.

Saves all the Lucifer x MC fanart.

Mammon

Tries to sell the fanart of Lucifer.

Actually succeeds for a little while.

He isn’t phased by fan art of himself, scandalous or otherwise.

He’s a model, why would he care? He’s hot and he knows it.

Gets hung upside down in the Underground Tomb once he’s caught.

He wasn’t let down until Lucifer realized that MC was willing to fight Cerberus to get him down.

Denies liking the Mammon x MC art but his photo gallery says otherwise.

Leviathan:

Is secretly one of the artists.

He has a secret website where he takes requests and sells art on.

Refuses to draw fanart of himself unless MC is included but he never posts those.

Gets all blushy when he sees the more scandalous pieces of himself.

Doesn’t do anything about it though.

His fanart is the least accurate because he is always wearing super baggy clothes.

The few pieces he finds that are pretty close impress him.

Satan:

He doesn’t care.

Is secretly one of the biggest suppliers of Lucifer x Diavolo art.

Dragged Belphie and MC into creating and distributing the art with him.

Knows MC is the one that made their fan art popular but will die before he tells on them.

Once saw fan art of MC dressed like a cat and then proceeded to chase them for a week trying to get them to act out the photo.

He loves anything with cats.

Is a little grossed out by the more scandalous images but ignores it for the most part.

Most Satan x MC fanart usually has one of them dressed like a cat or reading.

He has a whole album dedicated to that art.

Asmodeus:

He absolutely loves it.

Cosplays the art of himself down to the last detail and uploads the images of Devilgram.

Encourages fans to make more fanart of him and his brothers.

He likes art of just his brothers, but will comment things like “you know what would make it even cuter? If you added me into the picture!”

Really feeds his ego.

Will do various poses for artists and will try to convince MC to join him.

His favorites are the more scandalous pieces, of course.

Saves all the fanart of Lucifer shirtless.

The only thing he likes better than Asmo art is Asmo x MC art.

Beelzebub:

Didn’t find out until he randomly came across a drawing of Luke cooking with Barbatos.

Thought it was cute so he kept looking at the fanart.

Was confused when he saw Lucifer x Diavolo art.

Traumatized when he saw scandalous art pieces of himself and his brothers.

Immediately went to MC and Belphie for comfort.

He didn’t look at Devilgram again for nearly three months.

Doesn’t understand all the excitement about the fanart and doesn’t want to.

Had to physically hold MC back from fighting Cerberus to get to Mammon.

Belphegor:

He almost slept through it all.

Didn’t find out until a traumatized Beel told him about it.

Was ready to burn down the world because it scared Beel.

Is secretly in cahoots with Satan in supplying Lucifer x Diavolo art.

And any other fan art that he knows will get a rise out of Lucifer.

Honestly it’s probably the longest he’s ever been awake during the day.

At night is when he really gets to work though.

Loves MC x Belphie fanart but will die before he lets anyone find out.

Diavolo:

Saves all of the Lucifer x Diavolo fanart.

And the MC x Diavolo fanart.

Was not above buying fan comics of him and Lucifer until his supplier mysteriously disappeared.

Lucifer wanted to stop him but couldn’t.

Wanted to draw fan art himself, but Barbatos stopped him by giving him more paperwork.

Sad Demon Prince noises.

He still doodled little comics on the side of his paperwork when he could get away with it.

Barbatos:

Doesn’t care No. 2

Typically just smiles and nods when Diavolo shows him the fan art.

Until he saw Barbatos x Diavolo.

That’s the only time he’s ever messed up dinner.

He nearly burnt down the kitchen.

He also knows that MC is the one that made fan art popular.

Doesn’t know what to do with that information though so he does nothing.

Until it starts to get out of control and he tries to stop them.

It’s too late to stop them.

My Lord please stop doodling on your paperwork-

Solomon:

Supply and demand.

He has the supply, they have the demand.

He also loves seeing the others’ reaction to the art.

As far as seeing art of himself, he doesn’t really care.

Secretly saves everything that has to do with Asmo and Barbatos.

Will rub the fact that he has A LOT of Solomon x MC fanart in the brothers’ faces.

Even though he made most of that himself.

Simeon:

Didn’t even know about it until Solomon showed him.

Immediately starts praying to God for forgiveness.

He likes the cute, holy art.

And the art of Luke cooking.

But the more scandalous stuff he sees about himself…

Solomon had to stop him from bleaching his own eyes.

Luke:

Has the purest fandom in the three realms.

Still a little weirded out by it though.

Didn’t know it was a thing until he saw Beel looking at a drawing of him cooking with Barbatos.

Told Simeon about it and he forbade Luke from ever looking up fanart.

His phone got parental controls put on it so Simeon could make sure he didn’t.

Now he’s even more worried.

ThOsE sTuPiD dEmOnS-

Doesn’t even know why he’s calling them stupid at this point but he’ll never admit that.

Secretly worried when he finds out some of the art traumatized Beel.

Brought him some sweets to make him feel better.

“We aren’t friends! He’s a demon! I just needed someone to sample my sweets!”

BONUS! MC:

Laughs in evil.

Is the one who made fanart popular.

Everyone knows better than to post inappropriate things about Luke because MC WILL break their knees. And their necks. And burn down their family’s homes.

Has the most fan art out of everyone, even Asmo.

Is also shipped with everyone.

Refuses to confirm or deny any and all ships.

Except MC x Luke those people die.

Luke is their son and they won’t accept anything else.

[sysmedsaresexist]

Alright, friends, it'sssss

SHITSTORY (SHIT HISTORY) WITH 🌟 SAS 🌟

Before we get into it, I've checked in with OP, and we're going to have a nice, respectful conversation, I don't want anyone sending any crap to OP, from here on out it's sources and discussion, not argument

This post may be a bit jumbled, but I hope it's largely clear

The vast majority of this information has been archived on @pluraldeepdive, we thank them for their service 🙏

So, I think a timeline might be best

Many Voices was a newsletter for pwMPD. It was started in 1989 and you can read all of it!

In 1991, alt.sexual.abuse.recovery was created, and hosted a very large community of CDD systems. In 1994, this usenet group became ASARian incorporated, and it would become host to peer support, web hosting, unix shell accounts, and DID/MPD resources.

Also in 1994, alt.support.dissociation, would go on to become the longest running group for people with dissociative disorders. It's still active today!

I bring these three up because of another post I saw.

1995 is when we start running into problems.

Astraea's web would be the first website to discuss non-disordered plurality. Go and search everything you can, use every search term you can think of, check every archive you can access. I assure you.

It starts with Astraea.

(This conversation does not and will not touch on spiritual and religious plurality as used in the DSM, that's a different conversation that I'm happy to have, but exists outside of the history of endogenic and non-disordered plurality, up until much more recently when it was twisted to infer proof of endogenic plurality (it's not))

Astraea would go on to coin "natural multiplicity" around 1996. They theorized that multiple personalities were not a disorder and occurred spontaneously instead of developing from trauma and dissociation [x] [x]

Astraea was, and still is, one of the biggest names in syscourse. They started the movement and maintained it. What's important at this point in time is specifically what they're saying to and about CDD systems. At first glance, it sounds good, but when you actually look into their sources, when you put it all together, it paints a picture of extreme ableism and saneism. It showcases highly dangerous ideals that has harmed many, and will continue to do so. There are highly credible claims of plagiarism, misattribution, and a strong anti-psychiatry bias on Astraea's Web.

@pluraldeepdive the above link is broken, any chance you can get one that works?

Thank you!! Working link

This is the start of the endogenic community (see 2014, when natural multiple is replaced with endogenic because "natural" implied, often directly by those using the term, that CDD systems were unnatural). The name changed, but the ideas did not. These ideals are ingrained in pro/endo talking points, to the point that many of the plurals I've spoken to don't even realize that what they said hurts.

Natural multiplicity wasn't just about non-disordered plurality, it was actively anti-DID.

Astraea and the natural multiples would go on to boycott the diagnosis and take steps to try to remove it from the DSM. Keep reading, we'll get there.

In 1997, natural multiplicity would morph into a monster. Out of the natural multiplicity movement would spawn the "empowered multiples."

Empowered multiples put a huge focus on functionality and were separate from, what they called, 'survivor multiples'.

Tumblr doesn't like when I try to edit paragraphs with links, so here's dark personalities. It's gross. You won't enjoy.

I'm trying to pick some choice quotes, but they all kind of suck, and I can't quote the whole thing, so... this, I suppose.

However, if you were to meet [an empowered multiple] in real time, you probably would not even realize [they] were a multiple because most people expect multiples to be either psychos or sniffling babies who can't handle anything.

They have a very low view of people who find use in the medical model and therapy.

In 1999, MultiGardens formed, but it was short-lived. Shortly after, the person who originally coined empowered multiplicity would make a statement that it was never meant to exclude survivors and they hadn't meant to cause so much conflict. Despite saying that, they continued to bash survivors and those who wanted fusion and therapy.

In the early 2000s, things take a sharp turn for the worse. The push to separate plurality from CDDs starts with Astraea. This is the article you linked, and we've barely started. We still have 20 years to go.

I highly suggest you give this post a read about Dr. Allison and the way Astraea presents the article.

It's at this point that natural multiplicity becomes a "movement." The purpose of this movement was to establish that plural experiences were not pathological. Participants in this movement often insisted that childhood trauma or abuse could not cause plurality or multiplicity.

Even today, the plural association continues to push that pwCDDs are just looking for someone to blame for something they already had (that they were multiple prior to abuse and would have been multiple without it-- with heavy implication that we're simply broken versions of endogenic systems that hate ourselves because we're pluralphobic. No really. That's the entire article.).

The problem is that those in the movement adopted the DID diagnosis despite acknowledging that it wasn't what they were experiencing (or could it be that plurality and CDDs are two different things?), and rather than talk about it, they just took to boycotting the diagnosis as a whole.

And they thought that the medical terminology was dehumanizing and derogatory, and rather than create new words, they just continued to encourage everyone to boycott the diagnosis as a whole.

I'm just going to quote PDD directly here.

Psychotherapy for DID was also denounced despite many participants never receiving such treatment. For example, the Astraea group had stated they were not diagnosed and had never been to therapy at the time [4:"Is it possible to know or discover that you are a multiple without ever having been diagnosed by a professional?" section]. Yet, on an essay encouraging the boycott of diagnostic labels, Astraea claimed that "[a]s a diagnosis, MPD/DID does not help multiples in the long run. Doctors and insurance companies make $$$ off us but are WE helped?" [3:"Removing Diagnostic Labels" section].

Discourse and REAL political activism to remove DID from the DSM continued for the next TEN YEARS. I highly suggest this post and this one for seeing what Astraea was up to, with screenshots and direct links.

Ah, fuck, this one, too.

We haven't talked about the misinformation yet. I don't know that I can cover all of it. It would take an entire blog-- oh. Pluraldeepdive exists!

None of this even touches on Lancers or Pavillion-- the cruelest of the entire natural and empowered multiples.

Wait, is that the layman's guide you're trying to link to?

The one created by these guys?

Why yes, it is.

The association between non-disordered plurality and the natural multiplicity movement was solidified, and the damage was done. "The primary messages given by the non-disordered multiples [...] is that multiple personality is not a disorder and the anti-survivor message that multiplicity is natural and not caused by abuse." [X]

In 2014, endogenic was coined, as mentioned above, to be less offensive. The past was never addressed and buried. People deny all of this happened.

For a large chunk of the community, endogenic then became synonymous with the movement, with all the same issues as before. Just with a nicer name.

And here we are, in this great year of 2024, linking to Astraea.

This post is directly adjacent to this entire conversation-- plurality being coined as the anti psych alternative to multiple, and how everyone is going back to multiple again so we can do the whole song and dance one more time.

I think... that's it??

Violently slamming the fact that DID and other "Dissociative Disorders" related to Plurality were made by Ableist doctors who believed in "False Memories" and had MANY patients come out about being abused and/or the Integration forced upon them causing them to be unable to function due to the lack of their Headmates

Anyways, please read This, I feel it helped give a lot of light on why you honestly shouldn't bother interacting much with 'Anti-endos' and 'Sysmeds'

I know we posted the link before but certain,, posts keep popping up on our dashboard.

(The link outside of text: https://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/allison.html)

Also, for anyone who does read that I feel the need to say (if the information does actually reach you): Do NOT be ashamed at using the term DID for yourself, or anything mentioned to be "Bad" in that text. If you can go without using it, obviously it could be great if you would, but if it's the most comfortable term for you then you're under no obligation to stop using it for others comfort. Same goes for plenty of other stuff.

Also: Go check out the other plural post we made, Specifically the one mention Layman's Guide To Multiplicity. (Though, if you can't find it, here's the Link) ((Note: The website doesn't load very well on Mobile, so you may have trouble reading it on a phone. It's still able to be read, but it may feel a bit annoying))