#the two worst fandoms with the most obnoxious ships combined

[nana2009]

moirail and i were talking aboat our otp similarities and this is the end result♥

[musical-chick-13]

Hey, I saw your post about female characters being ignored and not cared about, one thing I know and tha I've seen is that; even if the female characters and side characters were all female—they would still genderbend them, or latch onto two male characters who have done no shit and give them better characterisation, the fandom will also flatten, cut out, and remove important characteristics of the important female characters, while giving important hc canons and what not to the two male characters.

It is plain old fandom misogy and has always been there from the beginning.

"Even when women and girls are at the forefront of the story, men will always be seeked out in whatever ways possible, and centralised—female characters on the other hand, will always be judged or ignored; people do not want to admit it, but they still have internalised misogyny to worked on, 'fandom is not activism' gives them an excuse and cover to not examine, women's stories or inner lives don't and have never mattered to a lot of people in varying degrees."

Overall, I just resonate with your frustrations and thought I was the only one . . .

Oh, you have come to the RIGHT place, my friend, I rant about this every other day at minimum.

FEMALE CHARACTERS!! WILL ALWAYS!!!! BE JUDGED OR IGNORED!!!!!!!!! Like. Chainsaw Man and Game of Thrones/ASoIaF have been praised significantly for letting all of the women in them be extremely flawed and complicated in differing and interesting ways, and I STILL see people not engaging with them and/or reducing most of them to one (1) characteristic. (Cersei is a "crazy bitch," Sansa is "stupid" (??), Catelyn is a terrible mom, Melisandre is...there; Kobeni is obnoxious, Makima is hot, Himeno is the Worst™, etc. etc.) And there should be an overwhelming abundance of increasingly implausible f/f ship content, right? (There isn't.)

(And ohhhhh, people want to erase the importance of women to the overall narrative and its themes (and their canonical importance to other-usually male-characters) so bad, see: Cersei, Himeno, Irene Adler, Mary Morstan, MCU Natasha, Camille O'Connell, Bonnie Bennett, Lizzie Saltzman, Mai from AtLA, Martha Jones, tbh even River gets a fair amount of this. And then some of this is obviously combined with racism when the character is a WOC.)

And I don't have a problem with genderbending characters-gender is complicated, and exploring different facets of how a character might interact with the world if their gender identity changed is incredibly interesting!! But it's...very telling that, historically, I have seen this happen a lopsided amount in one direction, where the female characters are reimagined as men and not vice versa. (Remember when a not-insignificant number of people could only stomach BBC Sherlock/Irene if they reimagined Irene as a man? And then got mad at Elementary for CANONICALLY reinterpreting Watson as a woman? Good times. 🙄)

Just...so many of these wildly-hated or ignored women are...not any less complex than a lot of fictional men who get popular. (I'm sorry, you want to tell me that Misa is not at LEAST as interesting and worthy of sympathy as K*lo fucking Ren? When she has the backstory she does and presents an engaging dichotomy of "bubbly/silly yet murderous" and deconstructs the idea of extreme single-minded devotion NO I'M NOT MAD ABOUT THIS WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT)

And the idea of "fandom is not activism" is supposed to be used in the sense of "Liking a pRoBLeMaTiC dynamic/character in a story doesn't mean you think that behavior is okay in real life" (finding a fictional war criminal interesting doesn't equate to supporting genocide, exploring a toxic dynamic in fic doesn't inherently mean you hate victims, etc.), and "Paying lip service to marginalized/mistreated fictional characters is not the same as helping and supporting actual marginalized/mistreated people in real life." It doesn't mean, "We ignore obvious examples of misogyny and racism and ableism and transphobia and all other prejudices just because this is supposed to be fun." Biases are systemically ingrained, and any given person will bring those biases into all facets of their life; that doesn't just magically stop happening because one of those life facets happens to be a hobby or form of entertainment. Breaking down and dismantling prejudice has to happen on every level, including the """small""" ones.

The only time I have ever seen people engage with multiple female characters on a regular basis while admitting to their importance and narrative complexity and actually creating fanworks about them is Noir (2001). And that's because there are a whole 10 people in this fandom and the show has no men. (Okay, not literally, but you know what I mean.) And it's just so incredibly frustrating that that's the point we have to get to just for it to be possible for people to bother with a work's female characters on an enthusiastic, regular basis. (Because, as you said-that doesn't always happen even when those conditions are met.)

ANYWAY, I'm so sorry for making this response so lengthy, but genuinely I have been holding this in for a long time. TLDR, you're right and you should say it. You definitely aren't the only one, and I'm so, so glad that somebody Gets It.

[beevean]

5, 6 and 9 for the salty asks

5) Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

It would be easier to list the popular pairings I still appreciate :^) and it's usually because I don't engage that much in said fandom :^)

6) Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

Can't think of anything. Popularity in fandom is a sure way to make me apathetic towards something, as obnoxiously hipster as I might sound. Sometimes one or two fanfics might make me consider a ship I would have never thought of (Barok/aged up!Susato is surprisingly cute but for obvious reason there is like. one person writing fanfics for that ship lmao), but no, fandom in general did not.

9) Most disliked character(s)? Why?

Recent example, but fuck if I didn't want to beat Lenore from Netflixvania within an inch of her non-life, scummy overrated rapist piece of shit :V

I also never liked Nahyuta nor I will ever like him. Fucking obnoxious zealot, I thought he'd be much funnier than "muh going to hell" and "oops i was a good guy all along". He's like the worst parts of Edgeworth and van Zieks combined and cranked up to eleven, without any of their redeeming qualities.

[ghostmartyr]

...I have lost my temper, so this is all going under a cut despite the fact that some of it clearly needs to be shouted into people’s ears. This is pure hate for a fandom I am not part of, because I hate it. Reasonableness not found.

It’s about ship hate.

Specifically, shipper hate. And why NO.

Buckle the fuck in.

...So I don’t spend time in the fandom anymore. I hate it.

But I unfortunately have friends. So I hear stuff.

So. Uh.

I despise the Eren and Historia ship with all of my heart.

Meanwhile, the people who also hate it are so fucking loud and obnoxious that I can’t hate it in peace without feeling tainted by their inability to leave people the fuck alone.

(ETA: ...Several hours later, wow. I was not kidding about losing my temper. The below was crossed out originally, and for the sake of continuity I won’t delete it, but good grief, me. Calm down. You’re not helping.)

Stop sending people hate. You take away my ability to peacefully fantasize about my NOTP burning to a fucking crisp, and you make the general perception in the fandom that anyone who cares about queer rep in the fandom is a raving jackass.

Is that remotely true? No. Does fandom perception function on truth? Also no.

Also, when people get hate, spite becomes a motivator.

Thanks guys. You’ve made the fandom even more full of that thing we can’t stand. Wow, gee, why are so many more people in favor of this ship I hate now?

Gee, I fucking wonder.

People do not stop being invested because you send them hate. Or they do, which is actually awful. Fandom’s fun. It is supposed to be fun. Let the people who haven’t completely fallen to the hate in their hearts actually have a good fucking time and leave them the fuck alone.

I hate this ship. So fucking much. But do you know what happens when I try to hate it at the moment? I feel guilty! Because every single person who actually likes it has to put up with this crap! You people being assholes is interfering with my quiet, simmering hate, and it’s annoying.

(I got calmer as things went on, so that’s crossed out in the spirit of giving people the option of ignoring the vitriol. ...There’s. Still a lot of vitriol. But. The above is probably the worst?)

And you know what? If canon were to actually make it a thing, yeah, there would be some very serious reasons to complain. But you know what else? Right now, you’re complaining about something that isn’t canon. Because it is not fucking canon. You aren’t complaining about a worrying trope within a product of mainstream media.

You’re complaining about other fans enjoying themselves in a way you don’t like.

Does it suck that the whole fucking Historia fandom would prefer shipping her with every single male character over her ending up with a girlfriend? Yes.

Does shouting at the people who still know how to have fun change how much that sucks? Not really.

Look. I hate this fandom. With all of my fucking heart. I don’t belong in it. People don’t like me, and none of the things I care about are things that it values. I spend every second I’m forced to think about this fandom consumed with hatred for life in general. Is that healthy? No. Hence the leaving.

Don’t take away people’s joy. Ever. Even if it’s for something you hate. They need it just as badly as you need yours.

Find your joy again instead of trying to tear someone else’s down. If you succeed, you ruin someone’s day/week/life. If you don’t, they’ll probably create more of that thing you hate. Which doesn’t help you in any way, shape, or form.

I would kill to find a reasonable discussion about wanting Historia to be a lesbian and being disappointed that fandom has zero interest in that. I would kill to find a serious discussion on how fucked up it is that the manga appears to have killed her girlfriend off-screen and impregnated her. Regardless of anything else, she is queer. Hell, she could be head over heels in love with NPC Farmer Guy, and she’d still be queer, and the narrative problems with her arc as it appears would still be worthy of critical discussion.

And instead of that content existing, people keep screaming at fans of a non-canon m/f pairing.

Which, even if it were canon, would be a jerk move.

Pairings being canon means that you can shout about them without hating their fanbase. That’s really the only change, but it is a significant one. When a pairing is canon, that means shouting about it is shouting about canon. When pairings aren’t canon, shouting about them means that you are shouting at their fanbase.

One of those is okay. Unless the shouting leads to direct content with the creators. The other is straight up being a dick.

Not everyone who likes m/f is homophobic. Hell, some people just like Eren and Historia together. Is that a fun thought? No. Is Eren the only character Historia has significant canon interaction with? Pretty fucking much. People will ship anything that stands in the same room long enough. It comes down to personal preference.

Most people do not have personal preferences that lead them to f/f. It sucks. Shouting about it is not going to change that. You can talk about why that is, and why misogyny and homophobia combine with discussion of queer female characters and why that doubly sucks.

People will still ship the thing you don’t like.

At best, you might make them feel ashamed about it.

Awesome. More people feeling like they’re not allowed to love the things they love.

Historia Reiss is a queer character. The entire fandom regularly screams about how she never actually had feelings for Ymir. Currently, her arc involves her girlfriend dying off-screen while she herself is coerced into pregnancy.

So, you know. Let’s complain about how people want Eren and Historia to bang. That’s clearly the problem.

Again, I hate the ship! I hate that half its shippers appear to be following me and I have no idea why (....no offense, I’m sure you’re all wonderful people, I just have a lot of hate I’m really sorry thanks for the likes)! I hate that it’s difficult to find fans who want Historia to be gay! I hate that the one person I’ve seen wanting her to be asexual said that Ymir and Historia weren’t canon! I hate that before I left, every single damn fan of Historia who cared about Historia as a person, not an accessory, seemed to be cheering for the possibility of Eren and Historia!

But you know what I hate most?

I can’t find anyone who feels that way who has remembered to treat their fellow fans with respect. The people I know who have my preferences? I know that because they scream and shout at people. They tag their hate, they send anonymous messages, and generally make people feel like garbage for enjoying a thing.

I can’t even want Ymir and Historia to end up together without feeling guilty, because I know if that happens, everyone who happens to like a m/f ship involving Historia is going to get crapped on.

I’ve wanted Historia to be a lesbian since I started this series, and I am now in a place where I feel bad for wanting that, because the people interested in her being other sections of the spectrum get treated so terribly.

The honest truth is that I left the fandom because psychologically, I am a disaster, and everything being shouted back and forth hit too close to home. I can’t handle it. I don’t expect to ever touch it again outside of my bubble, because every brush I’ve had with it since makes me miserable.

What triggered this mess of temper was one of my friends commenting that someone I know got hate for making some kind of graphic. He used hyperbolic language about how “oh so they did this so that means they’re murdering gay people.”

I don’t hold that against him, but the reason it set me off is because the perception is that people upset with Historia being the m/f bicycle of the fandom are whiny brats who deserve to be unhappy and are overreacting to homophobia that doesn’t exist.

And it’s just... anon hate is never okay. It helps nothing, and hurts people. Including the people sending it. Putting that darkness in your soul into action is just going to make it worse.

But part of what that hate has done is... it’s made it so the loudest voices of the people upset over Historia and the problems with her treatment are anonymous haters who make people who like the wrong ship cry.

That. is not a helping thing.

Historia’s portrayal in the manga is a damn concerning thing. The fact that people still argue that she never had feelings for Ymir is a very concerning thing.

The fact that people ship her with Eren might be frustrating, and even hurtful with the reminder that the majority of the fandom definitely does not want Historia to be gay, but it is very much not the thing to be loud and worried over (especially because, again, non-canon, so you’re really just picking on the fanbase itself, which has zero point except for meanness).

Maybe I’m imagining it, since I left. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, since my little corner is so distant.

But what it feels like is that people complaining about homophobia has become synonymous with whiny brats with no respect for fandom boundaries. Because the people complaining about homophobia loudest are acting like whiny brats with no respect for fandom boundaries.

And that is a problem.

Homophobia still exists. Lesbophobia still exists. Biphobia still exists. From my limited contact before I left, I know that those last two are at war instead of holding hands, because they’ve fundamentally misunderstood what each side is upset about.

(Side bar I guess: People upset about lesbophobia are upset about lesbians being treated like crap. People upset about biphobia are upset about bisexuals being treated like crap.

Not wanting a queer female character to like men does not equal hating bisexuals. Wanting a queer female character to like men does not equal hating lesbians.

Meanwhile, at this point, if Historia is ever given a canon sexual identity beyond liking Ymir, a lot of people are going to be hurt for personal reasons that have nothing to do with their respect for various sexualities. Having your hopes dashed sucks. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. You should be allowed to feel however you want about fiction in peace.

Which leads us back to me wanting Historia to just fucking die so that no side will ever have the option of harassing another because “ha ha we were right you all suck.”

Just. Just kill the queer. It will be so much less awful that way. Kill her now.

I need this series to end and the tags to accidentally be deleted. Or on purpose, whatever works.)

Going back to... yeah.

As much as we all like to think we’re reasonable people who use our heads, when something does not actively affect you, it is easy to start taking it as seriously as you take that thing’s spokesperson.

So the fact that the apparent spokespeople for lesbophobia in the SnK fandom are a bunch of rabid anons lacking in basic respect?

That... is really sadness-inducing.

You’ve taken an understandable pain and twisted it into a frothing hate that does nothing but hurt people.

Please don’t do that.

Be hurt. Be upset.

But be kind. For the sake of yourselves, and for the sake of the things you’re trying to champion. It’ll go better.

(...And on that note, I’m really sorry for all the yelling. Which probably made a few people who didn’t deserve it feel bad. I am just a very angry person, and. ...When I say I left for a reason, this is that reason. Every behavior I’m critical of is something I have felt a thousand times worse in my heart. I want to be a bad person more than anyone in this damn fandom.

But sorry for the yelling. I know most of you guys have nothing to do with any of this. Hell, I’m not even in the fandom, so who knows if what I’m screaming about is accurate.)

[airagorncharda]

I finally watched Voltron, and quite liked it! My review of the show, and also the fandom, is below:

So, the show is right up my alley, I liked the animation and characters a lot, and I’m very very pleased with the effort the writers have gone to to include a multitude of representation, especially considering it’s a remake of a show that had extremely bland character designs! Genuinely I ended up really caring about the characters and I’m excited for the last season.

So my feelings on the show are, like, 70% positive! 

That being said, I definitely have some--

°˖ ✧ Complaints about the show itself!   ✧˖ ° 

Characterization:

Mainly, that the characters were basically 2d characters until like season 6. Five seasons is a long time to wait before giving anybody character development, guys. Or even, like, character TRAITS outside of their base trope. 

Hunk is a big guy / the fat comic relief character, so his character traits involved eating, cooking, vomiting, and being a coward, and the jokes about him were all about him being fat. Oh, also he’s the “stable” one of the group. This is a complaint on multiple levels, since it’s fatphobic and obnoxious, but it’s also obvious and two dimensional character design.

And all the characters were like that, basically. 

Allura was arguably less so than the paladins, but only to a point. When Matt showed up, he was more 3d in the first like 2 minutes of screen time than the entire main cast had so far displayed in multiple seasons, because all of his character traits weren’t instantly predictable. Side characters tended to be more interesting and less predictable than main ones, which was just kind of weird.

Shiro and Adam:

I honestly just wish that the writers had been allowed to make their relationship more explicitly romantic, and thus make their breakup more explicitly a breakup. Instead it was kind of vague, which I understand wasn’t the writer’s faults, but it still felt a little weird.

Lotor:

I just feel like they slightly mishandled the end of his arc. I wish they’d either made him more clearly 100% wrong, or else more clearly explained why he wasn’t 100% wrong, which brings my to my last one:

“Galra need Quintessence!!” ft Lotor

This is my main complaint about the show (at least 20% of my frustration with the show is this one thing), because.....

Why?

Why do they need it? Did I miss a line where it’s literally ever explained why the galra NEED quintessence? Or even WANT it, as an empire? We know why Zarkan needed it, and why individuals need it (it’s immortality juice with drawbacks they don’t care about) but I never got the impression that the entire galran empire is immortal-- and even if they are, then they shouldn’t be. “Help us maintain our immortality at any means necessary!” should have been answered with “No.” followed by “Learn to deal with your mortality like everyone else.”

Literally, Lotor was like “We just need unlimited quintessence, and then the galra will do whatever we want!” and nobody in the entire cast was like “cool, we’re on board so far, but like, what exactly do you need it for?”

I still don’t understand what it was all for.

°˖ ✧ Complaints about the fandom! ✧˖ °

I feel like I’m kicking a hornets nest by even bringing this shit up, because:

This fandom is goddamn cursed:

Nobody in this fandom seems able to agree on the character’s characterization, I suspect largely because they barely had any for 5 seasons. Instead of saying “these are my headcanons” and letting it go, though, I keep seeing people being adamant that their headcanons are canon and anybody who disagrees is wrong / bad.

People in this fandom appear to be largely unable to stay in their own spheres of interest and let other people enjoy other interests. Every tag is full of negativity.

I think it’s a really bad sign when most of the best artists and writers in the fandom try to keep away from the fandom, and a lot of people have been deterred from watching the show at all because the fandom is so apeshit.

I’ve seen people being called a lot of names, told they should die, and called pedophiles based on which adult characters they ship with each other. It’s been a wild ride and I only dipped my toes into this fandom. I’m not planning on going much deeper.

K/l/a/n/c/e is a plague:

Let me be absolutely clear, I am not talking about the ship. The ship is fine, I can see why people like it, I have no problem with it. 

The problem is the shippers that it is impossible to avoid.

There doesn’t appear to be a single tag I can go into that doesn’t contain meta about this ship being canon. People who ship this ship are the worst perpetrators of my previous point (they’re the ones I’ve seen saying all that shit), and they flood other tags with negativity, and meta about their own ship. 

I’ve never been more tempted to refer to someone’s ship as their agenda, either. The only thing that seems to matter to them is whether or not it’s canon, which is... wild... because that’s really not the point of shipping? And because it’s not canon. Sorry, but there’s only one season left, and they haven’t laid any groundwork for it. Also neither of them is the canonically mlm character, and I doubt they’re going to turn this show into one with 3 main mlm characters within the last season.

And yet.

When I say there isn’t a single tag I can go into that doesn’t contain meta about this ship being canon, btw, I’m not exaggerating. I went into the Allura tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The Shiro tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The Allurance tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The Lotor tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The fucking "Garfle Warfle Snick" tag! Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. “Adam Voltron” tag??? Fucking meta about how k/ance is “canon”.

And even when it’s not meta, and it’s just comics or art or fanfic ideas, the thing that frustrates me is that it’s constantly things like “What if Lance [does something Shiro already did @ Keith] @ Keith!” and “What if Keith [does something Allura already did @ Lance] @ Lance!” and “What if Keith and Lance [did a thing two other characters have already done]!” with zero self awareness that their AU has already happened in the literal show, just with different character combinations than they’re interested in. They seem to only care about those two characters, and only care about them in relation to each other, and it’s exhausting.

Allura:

1) People who draw Allura looking less black than she does in the show are cowards. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen and it’s Bad.

2) People who are baffled by the concept of Allura and Lance having a relationship, and spend lots of effort trying to convince people that they’re friends or that the possibly canon endgame of them dating “came out of nowhere” and “doesn’t make sense” etc. 

You’re racist and we can see you.

Shiro and (mostly) Adam:

The people who decided that Adam was Shiro’s love interest after Adam was introduced in a flashback in which he broke up with Shiro (as far as I can tell they were mostly k/ance shippers who were excited to have a “gotcha” @ sh.eith shippers) and then lost their absolute minds when Adam died... exhaust me.

The people who are calling Adam’s death “bury your gays” and “queerbaiting”.................. exhaust me a lot. The context of Adam’s death is not what either of those terms mean.

I understand that it hurts when queer characters die, because so many queer characters historically have died. That doesn’t mean every single time queer characters die is automatically homophobia. This show did not kill all their queer characters, and it didn’t even kill it’s MAIN queer character, OR kill the main queer character’s love interest (because that’s never what Adam was presented as or meant to be). And Shiro IS a queer character. He’s not being baited, he’s still queer even when Adam isn’t present. Newsflash, Adam’s purpose as a character was to convey canonically that Shiro’s been queer the entire goddamn time.

I don’t necessarily like that they chose to kill him, but I don’t think the context was homophobic. He died in a war, along with many other people. 

And furthermore, who did you want them to kill? They needed to kill at least one existing character from one of the main cast’s backgrounds for narrative reasons. The options they had, because of how much effort they’ve put into filling this show with representation, were:

Characters of color

Pidge’s mom

That’s... literally it. Characters or color and women (especially older women), btw, are also constantly killed off in media the same way queer characters are, to further other character’s narratives. This is what happens when the cast is primarily rep for marginalized people and the story involves war. Characters die. And when the only characters that exist are from marginalized demographics, the choices about who dies are never going to feel good. That doesn’t make them based in bigotry, or even necessarily bad choices, just because they hurt. 

°˖ ✧ Conclusions! ✧˖ °

Fun show with a few frustrating elements and a cursed as Fuck fandom.

[thedispatched]

It’s really sad and honestly embarrassing as fuck at the infighting within a group. Watching this unfold you can see how much it was never about loving wayv as a group but seriously just loving one member. Some of these “fans” need to stop lying to themselves that you care about what happens to the group and that sm needs to think about the others. Not it’s more of a you just care about what happens to your favorite who may not have been getting that attention.

I have a lot running through my head but let me just say this. They don’t realize and I wish solo stans understand that just because your favorites sell more albums does not mean they are the most popular. No lie I’m looking at the “top” two members right now who’s stans keep bringing up numbers. It just means your fandom/people might have more money access than everyone else lol like I don’t care but that’s the damn truth. I have a favorite member but I can’t afford to buy albums because I have bills to pay and I need food on my table lol and I’m not knocking people who buy those precious albums or spend their money. I’m knocking on this idea that “we can buy more and spend more therefore we are the most popular” idea. It’s like just because you’re the loudest doesn’t mean you’re the smartest or correct!!!

And because you are a fan of member x doesn’t mean you have join the fanbar/fan clubs. (If I’m not wrong cause when I reading about these fanbase changing names cause of the regulations… a lot of them buy from fanbars because of the location of where they live and how shipping and delivery is very difficult so buying from fanbars make it easier for them to get an album.) Not everyone joins or has money to donate to some of these (ridiculous) projects. Also let’s not also forget that some people buying albums from these places are buying multiples just to get those photocards. Mass buying like that shows you have more money to spend lol And when people measure the amount of money that was spent on these video fansigns to reiterate that their fav is more popular with more selling power… it shows the exact same thing. It’s all about money. I would love to talk to my favorite member in a video chat but that costs thousands and I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend so freely lol It’s funny and also incredibly sad and frustrating when you point it out to some of these solo stans they get so defensive that numbers speak louder than everything else.

Oh and I love seeing the complaints that sm just sees them as a dollar sign and how to get money because that is all sm care about. These solo stans are so dumb because you’re treating them the same freaking way! They don’t realize that when they claim that their favorite or this or that fanbar sold more they see them as just a dollar sign too. They subconsciously (?) look at them the exact same way the company does… that they are valuable because they make the more money. Like they may make you that money within the fandom but that doesn’t equate to making money or getting that attention and recognition outside of the fandom. Common sense be out that door I don’t know how some of them survive outside of fandom universe.

I’m sorta new to the nct world… got into them cause of nct 2020 but even seeing the other units fighting too lately about selling power and my unit sold more or my favorite member sold more than yours or we have less versions of yours but sold more… people need to stop. How does it come across to other fandoms when the people within a fandom can’t even get along or have a discussion without yelling and insulting each other?! Combining with another obnoxious fandom who are loud about their own (manipulative) selling power why can’t y’all just stfu, listen to the music, smile when they look nice and watch them perform?!

The worst enemies are the people who are right next to you. 😒

solo stans tend to act like that from what i've seen, doesn't really matter the group lol. i never understood how/why solo stans act so ignorant (if that's the right word). obviously not all solo stans act like this, but a lot do.

i agree with you on the whole money thing. i always look more towards the general public than fandoms in these types of things. not even just solos, but as a group, if i wanna know how popular they are i'm looking at the general public not whatever their fandom contributed to (this includes streams/views).

it's one of the reasons why i believe a lot of idols wouldn't make it super big as a soloist without their fandom.

but i guess there is a reason why fandom power is such a big thing 🤷‍♀️

honestly, i'm jealous at how much these fans can spend on their faves. i wish i could do that lol. but they make up for those like us who can't afford it.

i've always seen it more as the company sees them as $$ while fans see them as a pretty face to fantasize about, after all is that what they're also marketed to be/do? they feed into a daydream and people love it. the only difference is that some know how to separate reality from daydreams and some don't and take it too far.

but yes, everything does always end up being about money. it's business.

"Like they may make you that money within the fandom but that doesn’t equate to making money or getting that attention and recognition outside of the fandom." couldn't have said it better myself.

honestly, i became an nctzen in 2017 (i was pretty new to kpop also), but became a casual fan a year later because i couldn't stand the fandom at the time. after stanning multiple groups during this time, i didn't become a nctzen again (more so a wayzenni tho) until i experienced more fandom behavior and just decided to stay away from it and support them on my own how i want to. i'll call myself a fan, but i don't exactly participate in fandom culture like how others do. i'm here for the music and the group. i honestly don't care about awards and views and just the competition in general. i'm just here to have a good time 😭

[irraydiance]

1. No specific fandom, do whatever you feel like 2. I just really like salt, you don't have to do all of them if you don't want to

It’s cool anon, I’m just pulling your leg. All in good fun!

I’ll stick to Assassination Classroom because it’d probably be too much salt if it was a fandom free-for-all.

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

I see why people ship Karma with Asano – it’s the same reason people ship rival pairs, which is something I don’t get – but to me, they’re always going to be the rivals who find one another insufferable and don’t get along. It’s a personality clash as I think they’re fundamentally different people.

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?*

Karma/Nagisa and even then, their friendship is just kind of…”meh” to me now. In the past, I would’ve called it a BroTP of mine but I’m just indifferent now. Yeah, they’re close and there was that schism/survival game arc and all – I recognize that, but I’m just tired of seeing it everywhere even when it’s actually presented as strictly friendship.

I’d rather read about the Nagisa/Sugino BroTP to be honest. Or better yet, the Karma/Sugino BroTP. Hell, give me some Sugino/Kayano friendship.

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

No, but that might also be because I generally only follow fandom-specific blogs. I also only follow one AC blog, so…

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

Yes, I have a NoTP – it’s Karma/Nagisa, and yes, it’s the goddamn most popular pairing in the fandom no matter which side of the world you’re on. Just my fucking luck, right?

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

A pairing that I actually liked? No. A pairing I was indifferent to at first? Yes.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?*

Hahaha. No.

If I hated it to begin with, then I probably had a solid reason as to why, and my opinion wouldn’t change so easily.

7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?*

Not a one.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?*

Never. That might change after this. But I did get an annoyed anon one time when I said Karma and Nakamura aren’t actually close. They were actually pretty civil though so no offense taken. I never heard back from anon but I hope they read my response!

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

Takaoka, probably… Yanagisawa was a scumbag but as a villain, Takaoka was more annoying as far as motives go. Like a goddamn cockroach, he just won’t go away (see: Karasuma’s 2-page manga in Grad Album Time). He also felt like a cartoon villain…but I can’t complain too much as the target demographic for AssClass definitely skewed younger.

There aren’t really any characters in the series whose guts I absolutely hated though.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Oh hell. The space arc right after the schism/survival game arc. Yeah, it’s AssClass we’re talking about, but I can only suspend my disbelief so much. Also, the lull in-between that arc and the final arc where nothing really happened was kind of a chore to read. It was the calm before the storm, but not much happened.

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

The fandom doesn’t hate him as far as I know, but Sugino doesn’t get nearly as much love as anyone that isn’t a member of Utatan, Nakamura, or Asano. Is it because he’s just a regular nice guy and people think that’s boring? Because he’s super ordinary and apparently heterosexual? I guess that’s Tumblr’s least favourite combination.

I’m kidding. Don’t kill me.

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I don’t know if it’s unpopular but I enjoyed the baseball arc with Sugino. He’s just very likable to me. The themes of friendship and teamwork were recycled constantly, like in the sports festival (Isogai’s) arc and the culmination of Karma’s character development in the second semester finals, but it really began with Sugino’s baseball arc, and to me, that one really exemplified the themes best out of them all. They felt like a real rag-tag group of guys working toward a goal together.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

Karma is not a flirt and he’s not a slave to his hormones.

Stop writing him this way.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

Outside of the Ace Attorney fandom, I’ve never been in a fandom that hates on het pairings so much. I’ve seen all the common ones insulted and just trashed in general for the most inane reasons, and the Nagisa/Kayano ship has it the absolute worst, but I digress. The only het pairing people don’t seem to shit on is Chiba/Hayami – probably because they mostly only ever interact with one another. Go figure.

Also, this is a thing in every fandom, but seriously, you’ll have two characters interact, and even if it’s a completely regular conversation, people suddenly just start shipping it. It’s like people will ship any character with another character as long as they have even some kind of small connection. “These characters hate each other? Yeah, let’s ship ‘em.” “This character complimented this other character in an offhanded way but they have no other interactions? Yeah, I ship it.”

I’m not saying “stop having fun, guys,” but it’s a mentality I don’t follow.

15. Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

Some of the villains felt a little too cartoon-y/flat for my tastes, like Takaoka, but as I said earlier, I think AssClass skewed younger despite such a focus on assassination and the entire nature of “killing” – most of the time, not literally, of course. They had basically zero redeeming qualities as opposed to antagonists like the Asanos, who were ultimately sympathetic, or even Korosensei’s apprentice.

16. If you could change anything in the manga/show, what would you change?

I’m terrible with these questions. My biggest complaint is that in a series with loads and loads of characters, most of them didn’t even get fleshed out so I really would’ve preferred there to be more alternate points of view – make it really feel like an ensemble cast because outside of maybe 2-3 characters, the rest of them only ever got one-and-done chapters. There are so many characters that I wish got more time in the spotlight, but alas.No offense to Nagisa and his fans – I like Nagisa, but especially in the second half of the story, it just felt like the scope narrowed way too much on him and/or Karma when Class E is actually supposed to be treated as a single entity where everyone feels equally important. Kind of like in the problem Karma solved for the final exam.

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

I wouldn’t have had Kayano die only to be brought back to life right after. I get that it was a parallel with Korosensei not being able to save Aguri, and now being able to save her sister Kayano. Still, the whole she’s dead lol psyche! angle went beyond cheating death; Kayano straight up died and got revived.

At the same time, in the entire series where they had a death fakeout like what we got with Lovro, if Kayano ended up being the only one killed off for real, I would’ve been upset.

So I would’ve not had that happen at all. I would’ve settled for Kayano getting hurt, or being about to get hurt when she tried to help only to have Korosensei cover for her, but not have her literally dying.

18. Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased?

Whether you ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ a pairing is down to preference.

There are plenty of pairings in other series that have strong evidence behind them and even then, there will be a handful of people from the more popular ship that twist facts to suit their narratives because they don’t like opposing pairings. They’ll even bend fiction into fact to deny actual facts. That’s being biased, but I can’t even say these people are “in denial” because a lot of those people honestly do believe they’re 100% right. Even if you throw a fact in their face, they have some kind of warped excuse ready.

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

Obnoxious, toxic shippers.

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

You’d think that on a salty ask list, the question would be what the most vile ship is, not the purest one.

Come on, guys. Karma/Okuda is obviously the purest. Sarcasm aside, I really do think Karma/Okuda is the purest. It’s very sweet and genuine. The very guarded Karma can completely drop his walls and open his heart to Okuda and in turn, she watches out for Karma and really wants what’s best for him.

Putting aside the deadly pranks they can unleash on others, Karma and Okuda’s relationship is definitely pure.

21. What are your thoughts on crack ships?

I don’t mind crack ships at all but I would prefer that there’s something logical that connects the characters involved, even if it’s a crack ship.

22. Popular character you hate?

I don’t hate any of the popular characters, but I find that I’m much more mild about Nakamura than a lot of people in this fandom. I like her, but clearly not as much as everyone else.

23. Unpopular character you love?

Sugino is one of my favourites. No love from the fandom, sadly.

He’s referred to as Nagisa’s “best friend” by official material but it seems the fandom completely buries this. He’s always written off as a goddamn third wheel to Karma and Nagisa no matter if it’s shippy or just platonic and that’s such a pet peeve of mine. Official material indicates that Nagisa/Sugino/Karma get along well as a trio, but noooo, fandom seems to have this perception that Karma and Sugino only see one other as a friend-of-a-friend (Nagisa).

I feel that they might not have been friends if not for Nagisa, but after they got to know each other, Karma and Sugino would still be good friends even if Nagisa’s not around.

24. Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?

I’ll say yes. For a weekly Jump series, AssClass is a lot more off the wall compared to the usual stuff, but it has your standard life lessons/morals for not just kids, but anyone. Plus it’s short and sweet at ~180 chapters.

25. How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX?

I wouldn’t change the ending. Korosensei had to die or else it would cheapen the meaning of the story.

26. Most shippable character?

The fandom would say it’s Karma, but I will say it’s someone with a welcoming and adaptable personality like Sugino. Isogai works too.

27. Least shippable character?

Outside of actual villains, probably Asano. This isn’t meant as an insult, but it’s hard to find a match for him because of his personality.

I didn’t have great answers, but I tried, lol.

[ryukoishida]

Arslan Senki Fandom Day [Encounter] | In which top idol!Gieve and folk-rock musician!Isfan collaborate.

Written for Arslan Senki Fandom Day 2017 – [Encounter]

Title: Primadonna and the Piano Man [Part I] Author: ryukoishida Character(s)/Pairing(s): Isfan/Gieve Summary: This is the story of how one of the nation’s top idol Gieve and bestselling folk-rock musician Isfan meet (and eventually fall in love). [Idol/Musician!AU] Rating: T Warning: N/A A/N: Yes, I’m writing that self-indulgent AU that nobody cares for again. Sue me. Also this got too long so I’m splitting it into two parts. Sorry.

---

Sing When You’re in Love Series:

i. We Sing We Dance We Steal Hearts ii. We Sing We Dance We Fall in Love iii. Untitled iv. This Storm, It’s Coming v. I’m Yours (and so are they) vi. Primadonna and the Piano Man [Prequel] [Part I | Part II]

---

“It’s impossible.”

“But Isfan—”

“There’s no way in hell—”

The agitated fingers on the fretboard dance in an even more erratic rhythm, his right hand strumming harder in a frail attempt to drown out his well-meaning manager’s desperate plead. The chords reverberate raucously within one of the soundproof practice rooms in the core building of Ecbatana Entertainment Productions.

“Will you put away your guitar and just listen to me for one moment, please?” Lucian, hair swept back into a half-ponytail and streaked with silver-grey, frowns disapprovingly, the lines around his eyes deepening as he leans against the wall with a rumbling sigh.

Isfan is usually one of the more easygoing artists to deal with in the company, but being the manager of this particular singer-songwriter — infamous in the music industry for being exceedingly serious and painstakingly methodical when it comes to his compositions and lyrics-writing, as well as being a little too opinionated about the idol culture, among other controversies — for the last few years, Lucian has seen him at his worst.

Trying to convince him to collaborate with one of the nation’s top idol, as Lucian soon discovers, turns out to be even more of a challenge than he’s initially anticipated.

“According to Farangis, he’s the one who personally wants to invite you for this collaboration,” Lucian’s mouth curves up in amusement as he continues, “apparently, he likes, and I quote, ‘the impossible way he can tug at my heartstrings while playing the piano with such a straight face and singing about a haunted ship and dead lovers’.”

Isfan snorts in reply. So, that man has done his homework after all, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s an arrogant, flippant man with over-the-top make-up and even stranger hairstyle that seems to change every time he appears for an event or talk show (not that Isfan had been paying any particular attention) who dares to call himself a musician, when all he seems to be capable of doing is dancing to mainstream pop and singing such cliché, sickly saccharine love songs the lyrics of which may as well have been written by a sixth-grader bearing their first crush.

If there’s one thing he detests the most in the world, it’s crudely-crafted, shallow combinations of words that disguised themselves as lyrics.      

“Have you ever seen him perform?” Lucian can practically see the weaving pathways in his protégé’s brain busily working out this disaster of an idea.

“How long have you known me, Lucian?” he asks, quirking up an eyebrow, the answer clear as day.

“You haven’t,” Lucian announces with quiet triumph, “then maybe you shouldn’t judge him so harshly. I’ve seen footage of his performances when he was still with his previous idol unit and I’ve got to say, that boy’s got charisma and one hell of a voice.”

Isfan’s responding hum is brisk and non-committed.

Lucian was the one who discovered him in a local bar and restaurant when he had been working part-time, performing mellower versions of top 40 hits on a tiny stage in a dimmed corner for patrons who hardly paid attention to him or his music, to support his last year of college. When the music producer approached him, business card and genuine smile intact, Isfan was still suspicious of the stranger’s intent until he recognized the face and voice of the famous rock musician who had been most active about two decades ago, and Isfan only knew of him because his elder brother Shapur was a huge fan and would constantly play Lucian’s CDs in the car and at home.

It has been five years since then, and Isfan has learned very early on to trust Lucian. Not only was Lucian a talented musician back in his prime years, but he’s also a capable manager who understand his charge's needs and tries his hardest to accommodate Isfan’s wishes whenever possible. Of course, there had also been times when they had their disagreements, but these were rare and far in between, and during the few instances that happened, Lucian had made the right calls.

Isfan would trust his career and future in Lucian’s hands, but this collaboration will surely end in nothing but a catastrophe — a catastrophe Isfan would rather avoid at all costs.  

Attempting his best to put on an optimistic air, Lucian starts again, “I’ve already arranged everything with his manager; all we need is for you two to find some time to get together during the next few weeks to work on the single.”

“I’m too busy,” Isfan immediately replies with a hint of a smug grin.

“I cleared out your schedule,” Lucian smiles back pleasantly, knowing exactly how the singer-songwriting will counter.  

“But I need the time to work on my new materials,” Isfan protests.

“And how are those new songs coming along?” Lucian asks pointedly.

“…”

He doesn’t mention the scrawled-out melodies on crumpled pieces of paper or the many deleted or discarded samples on his laptop. Lucian probably already knows and is just saving Isfan from embarrassing himself.  

“That’s what I figure. Look, you know I always respect your talent and artistic freedom,” Lucian says.

“Then you understand that it takes time to craft something that’s better than the previous album,” Isfan mumbles, fingers mindlessly plucking the strings in a nameless melody.

“I understand perfectly,” Lucian reassures him with a grim expression, “but don’t forget that the music industry is still business to the higher-ups. They only care about the results and profits, and at the rate you’re going right now, you’re not giving them anything. It has been more than six months since you’ve released any new content; the fans may be patient enough to wait for you, but the company is less forgiving.”

That’s one thing Isfan dislikes being a contracted artist at a major label; everything is about money, money, money. It’s not that he doesn’t understand their side, but it doesn’t stop him from feeling the frustration and unease roiling in his chest that can only be assuaged by banging loudly on a drum-set. Percussion is not his strength, but it sure feels satisfying.

“Even…” Isfan glances up at his manager, fingers slowing down the strumming, “even if I were to work on a collaboration, does it have to be him?”

Seeing a crack gradually opening up, Lucian quickly takes advantage, “You might not see it now, but perhaps he’s the spark of inspiration you need to get you moving forward.”

“You think?” Isfan sounds doubtful.

“It’ll be beneficial for both parties,” Lucian nods with a relieved smile, “I’m sure of it.”

-

Isfan isn’t sure of anything anymore.

He pauses before the door of the studio, sharp topaz eyes glancing through the glass only to spot an unfamiliar figure inside: the young man donned in a knitted sweater half a size too big for his frame and skinny jeans that accentuates the length of his legs is sitting on the plastic chair and plucking the strings of his acoustic guitar delicately, dark purple hair the shade of twilight bunched up with hairclips to keep forelocks from blocking his sight, a pair of plastic, black-rimmed glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose and making his eyes impossibly green, and he’s solely focused on the scattered sheets on the music stand.

Isfan checks the room number again to make sure he’s at the right place.

He is.

His grip on the strap of his guitar case tightens a degree, and then he knocks on the door two times. Without waiting for an invitation to come in, he turns the knob and lets himself into the studio with confident steps, a challenging glint in his eyes, and firm line to his lips.

The man with the obnoxious purple hair looks up, eyes widening in surprise as if he hasn’t expected any guests even though they have arranged this meeting just two days prior.

“Damn, those MVs didn’t do you any justice. At all.”

“Excuse me?”

This is clearly a mistake, Isfan thinks as he walks up to the man who still has a guitar in his lap. Isfan’s height easily towers over the other man’s, but he seems nonchalant about the intimidating aura Isfan’s body language is emitting.  

“It’s a compliment,” he explains with a flirtatious grin as he pulls himself up after placing his guitar on a nearby stand, and with how close they’re standing, he has to crane his neck a little to stare at Isfan straight in the eyes, sea-green irises bold and unafraid. “I’m Gieve. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I hope we’ll be able to work well together.”

The folk-rock musician is ready to either throw a punch at the idol’s incredibly pretty face and risk getting yelled at by Lucian, or pull him in and kiss that insufferable smirk away. He chooses to do neither; instead, inhaling deeply in an attempt to calm himself down, he pulls a chair over, folds himself into the seat elegantly, and begins to take out his instrument and some notes he’s made beforehand — lyrics ideas and snippets of melodies he’d been working on that might act as starting points for this collaboration.

He’s a professional, Isfan reminds himself like a chant, he’s a professional and he’ll act like one, and he will not let this damn idol get the better of him with his terrible flowery rhetoric or his dazzling smile that has successfully slain thousands of fanboys and fangirls all over the country.

“Isfan,” he coldly introduces himself and presses his lips tightly together without another word.

“Oh, a little shy, are we?” Gieve takes his seat and picks up his guitar once more, fingers idly caressing the strings as a gentle series of notes begin to form and flow like a small creek drifting smoothly over pebbles warmed by the sun in the depth of summer.

Isfan is about to open his mouth to snap a retort, but he’s genuinely surprised by the strange complexity of the chords and notes weaving together into this seemingly light and buoyant tune, so much so that his fingers are trembling slightly as they crave to touch the cool, ivory keys of a piano to play the harmony to accompany the sweet melody of the guitar.

“You wrote that?” Isfan asks when Gieve stops abruptly, breaking the brunet’s trance.

“Still tinkering with it.”

“It’s… it’s good,” he’s staring at the music stand when he says it, his eyes not quite meeting Gieve’s.

“That was really difficult for you to admit, wasn’t it?” Gieve grins knowingly, and the expression only grows more imminent when he sees Isfan’s cheeks staining red at being found out. He stands up once more and stalks towards Isfan, almost like a predator, the sharp gleam in his eyes merciless, though a small smile still curves along his lips as he closes the gap between them. “What? You think I got to this point in my career just by looking pretty and knowing how to dance and sing? Don’t look down on idol culture, Isfan. A lot of us worked hard since we were teenagers, and less than half of us would even make it past the eliminations to get a chance to perform on stage. So, if you think I’m just going to let you push me around while we’re working on this project because you think you’re more musically superior to me or whatever, you better think again.”  

Their faces are mere inches away from each other’s, and Isfan can feel Gieve’s frenzied, heated breaths against his cheek, his sea-green eyes brightened from agitation. Isfan gulps, gaze unable to rip away from the idol’s intense stare, and when he finally realizes they’ve remained in this awkward position for way too long, he shoves the idol away by the shoulders, causing Gieve to stumble a few steps back into a safe distance.

“Did you only invite me for the collab just so you can give me a lecture?” Isfan mutters darkly, “If so, then well-fucking-done. Shall I see myself out now that you’re finished?”

He begins to stuff his guitar back into the case, but a hand wrapped firmly around his forearm makes him freeze.

“Calm down,” Gieve laughs and let go of Isfan’s arm when the brunet sends him a glare, his previous irritation seeming to have dissipated without a trace, his smile once more bright and harmless if a little too cunning. “I didn’t know what I was expecting, but given the theatrical lyrics you write, I should have guessed that you’re as melodramatic as they come.”

It looks like Isfan is about to protest again but Gieve is quicker, “Look, the reason why I want to collaborate with you is because I truly admire your music and tenacity to strive for perfection. I’ll be frank with you: I’m sick of always doing dance pop and being assumed that I can only do one genre of music; I want to do something new, something unexpected and exciting that would make the fans happy. What about you?”

Gieve settles back on his chair, cradling his guitar and strumming a chord with practiced hand.

“What do you mean?”

The idol’s gaze is unsettling, yet Isfan is unable to look away.

“What do you want out of this collaboration?”

He thinks back to the past six months when he tried to write and rewrite so many melodies, none of them to his satisfaction, each seeming to be missing a piece, lacking the passion, the energy, and the soul of his previous works. He’d locked himself in the studio for hours on end; he’d travelled to the countryside to get inspiration and peace; he’d even attempted to write after he’d gotten himself drunk just enough to be tipsy and his emotions were allowed to burst forth onto blank pages without his usual constraint.

None of those had worked.

He sits up straight and clears his throat.

“I want to move forward with my music; I want to transform what I’ve achieved before and turn it into something different but still irrevocably me…” Isfan has never imagined that telling Gieve, of all people, would feel like this — as if he’s sharing this insurmountable pressure and frustration that he’d been unable to disclose to anyone else because he’d always been able to handle this on his own.

But this is a collaboration; he has a partner this time, and it looks like Gieve is just as ambitious and driven as he is in this regard.  

“So, it seems like we have a similar goal,” Gieve’s smile grows wider, almost scheming.

“It would seem so, yes,” Isfan is still wary of the other man’s intention but he’s willing to hear him out for now.

“I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s go big or go home. So why don’t we aim for our song to reach the number one spot in the Pars Top 40 chart?”

[ysabelmystic]

Tagging game of fictional favorites!

Pass it on to 20 mutuals.

MBTI: ENTP

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Book person or TV person: Books

Favorite book series: Skulduggery Pleasant

Favorite TV series/anime: Durarara!!

Fantasy universe you would most like to live in: Nalthis. I would spend my life gaining a massive supply of breath for the sake of seeing more pretty colors.

Favorite character ever: Skulduggery. He’s a skeleton with good fashion how can I not???

Character you would like to personally slap in the face: Sazed (Cosmere)

Character you would like to personally murder: Glen (Demon Road). I have a thing against characters that do nothing but create filler for the plot. Glen’s sheer stupidity easily added an extra 200+ pages. And also, buddy, don’t ask to go to Disney World while hitchhiking, and FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS!!! You want to know why your parents abandoned you? BECAUSE YOU’RE OBNOXIOUS!!! The biggest “f u” about his existence was that his death wasn’t even “on-screen”.

Character you would gladly intern under: Izaya Orihara (Durarara). Or Kelsier (Cosmere). 

Character you would totally have tea with: Bartimaeus (Bartimaeus). That would be a very interesting tea... 

Character that you feel really needs a hug: Wayne (Cosmere). Especially by the time the next book rolls around. Then he’ll really need a hug... y’know... if he survives. I’m afraid for that book.

Character you love that you would probably hate irl: Nathaniel (Bartimaeus). He’s the type of person that I would trash 24/7 because he’s an asshole, AND he’s successful and quite honestly, I hate that combination. And also, Lucifer (The Devil is a Part-Timer). Kid’s lazy.

Character you would realistically be friends with irl: Jackaby (Jackaby) or George (Lockwood and Co). 

First character you had a crush on (if any): Sebastian Michaelis (Black Butler). I blame him for my getting dragged into anime in the first place... it hasn’t died either, but I think I'm starting to prefer Grelle these days.

Favorite ship: ....Thrashgrace. This is literally the only ship that I have ever had interest in. I’m not even sure why... 

Series (TV and book) that you feel ended terribly: Trigun (the anime). The ending felt so horribly rushed.

Series (TV and book) that had so much potential but was actually an epic disaster: Demon Road. Why Derek... why? 

Worst book/movie/tv show you’ve ever read: 10. It was some “retelling” of And Then There Were None (which I admit, I’ve never read), but oh my god if there was ever something so shallow, so implausible, so ridiculous, and so generic... Like, it is an actual goal of mine to create a film parodying the book in the spirit of The Room and Trolls 2 because it is so bad that it was, in a way, one of the most delightful things that I’ve ever read. 

Favorite book from your childhood: Alright, so I read this in some kids mythology book, and I have no idea what the title was, but the gist of the story was as follows: Asshole drowns a cat because a girl keeps paying attention to the cat instead of him. Girl emblems cat. Cat comes back with wings and offers to send Asshole on vacation in the underworld. They go through the underworld, fighting monsters and all that jazz. Girl and Asshole weigh their hearts. Asshole’s heart is super heavy, so he gets eaten by a demon. Girl and cat live happily ever after. If anyone remembers this book, please help me find it?

3 favorite tropes: Badasses wearing suits. Clever, sociopathic, chaotic-neutral troll characters with upsetting backstories. Anxious, perfectionistic character finds happiness and learns to chill. 

3 most hated tropes: Main character face planting into boobs (why does this still exist). Character tries super hard to be a good person, even if it means jeopardizing other characters or not killing the villain. “Strong female character” falls for dark-haired supernatural dude who smirks a lot. 

Scariest thing you’ve ever watched/read: Corpse Party. That shit was wild.

Anything you’d like to recommend? Please read Bartimaeus. It’s really good, and our fandom is dying. 

Would you like any recommendations? Guys, send me scary things. I am bored. It has been YEARS since I have been given some proper heebie-jeebies (and please do not send me Steven King). Also, urban fantasy and fantasy with a sense of humor is most welcome. 

Tagging: @stargazer-sebastian @fate-plays-chess-with-two-queens @mexican-pinapple @haizandthebattleoflife @aornis-hades @chamomile-daisies @buckythecarrotslayer @thelilyofthevalley424 @aplpaca @dynamicwaffles @redgriffinattacks @lycant-guy22 @kassialie @dextervexter @tinnu-elencu @lord-bampire-of-vat @haveyousinnedtoday @protectoroffaeries @theverysecretdiary @potentiallyunwise @kaleidoscopeeyeschicagothighs @erunerwynter @grauinbunt @whatofyouyoungprincerenarin @jazzy-kandra @dominodean @eyesocketsandsuits and ANYONE ELSE because I am not sure that that is twenty, but I’m too lazy to count. 

[angel-gidget]

Stars Unearth Your Fires (ch2/?)

Title:  Stars Unearth Your Fires (Ch 2/?)

Fandom: DCU, Teen Titans, Red Robin (preboot)     

Rating:  PG  | Words: 1200 approx | a03 link    

Summary: Tim Drake never thought of himself as a troublemaker as far as Robins go. But a passing accusation quickly escalates into a case of stolen memories, technologically backwards clues from his past self, interdimensional hijinks, reflections on the good old days, and possibly the rekindling of a foregone romance. Eventually Tim/??? Mystery ship!

A/N: I ask that any fashion nerds reading this forgive me for my fake fashion week plot device. Lets just say the DCU has extra fashion weeks bc magic and leave it at that. Thanks again to @kiragecko for the beta!

"Wait, dude. Scrappy Doo hacked your diary?"

"It wasn't a diary, Kon. But, kinda."

"A lockable device on which you record your private thoughts you share with no one? Soundslikeadiary,man. Youshouldembraceit."

"I could repeat lectures verbatim from Diana about refusing to be shamed for traditionally feminine things that are actually emotionally reinforcing, but I think I'll spare you since you're not fooling anybody."

He could have come alone, but he had returned their texts on a whim, and when they had learned he was going to scavenge their old HQ at Happy Harbor... well, there was no stopping the remnant of Young Justice otherwise known as his best friends.

"It was more like a smartwatch jam packed with ridiculous hardware and old ipod levels of memory that I had filled with work reminders, but whatever."

Cassie and Bart had a point. But the truth was, the closest thing he really had to a diary was the dozens of hand-written letters he had written essentially screaming at his father. Letters he had tossed in the fire before he could be tempted to actually leave them where the (now dead, now lost) man could find them.

But some things remained too raw to share.

"Hey," Cassie was the first to touch her toe down on the threshold (Normally, Bart would beat her, but he had allowed himself to be a bit distracted, fully zipping around a couple laps to check out external changes).

Cassie started entering the old security codes without a hitch. She was not even thinking about it, and it gave Tim a tiny surprising warm fuzzy tingle in the chest, "Damian didn't use anything in it against you, did he? Trying to dig up crap on--"

Tim allowed himself a chuckle, "No. Assuming he did manage to read any of my entries, I would have paid money to watch him try to figure out what any of it meant."

"Oooh," Bart zipped back, and darned if he wasn’t talking faster and faster, allowing his own nostalgic excitement to kick in, "Did you write it in a code?"

"Sort of."

Kon was floating by the graffiti wall. It didn’t matter how many times they cleaned it, "Hanson Sucks" would always reappear as if by magic. Tim used to suspect Bart solely, but looking back, (and looking at Kon's face now) he suspected a little differently.  

The guy's grin has a bit of the ol' Kid when he glanced over his shoulder, "You didn't just write it in code, you wrote it in SLANG, didn't you. Yes, you did."

Tim snorted. But denied nothing. There was no point.

"Bet it was like 90% rap references."

"Ooh, don't underestimate Tim's eclectic-ness, Bart. There was no doubt a healthy dose of Enya lyrics entwined in there."

Bart's nose scrunched, "Enya? Seriously, Tim?"

"Hey," Cassie interjected, "I like Enya."

"You also like country music and boy bands dangerously similar to Hanson. It's okay, Cass. Weloveyouanyway."

The rules for Gotham and his team had always been different.  While clever hiding spaces had been a practically intellectual game in his home city, sometimes the trick to hiding something in YJ HQ was to just place it somewhere really dumb.

“The girl’s locker room, Rob? Really?”

“You never looked for any of my toys here, so clearly, it worked.”

The locker combination was Steph’s birthday. Something his teammates had no reason to know and something Batman and Nightwing might overlook. Or at least, they would have overlooked it back then. Maybe he should change it. Did it matter? Would he ever have cause to use this thing again? It was worth thinking about, but not something for just yet.

The lock released with an obnoxious clack and the door swung open with a creak. There were some things in his life that Tim kept meticulously clean, but no locker had ever been on the list. His crumpled extra Robin uniform tumbled out along with a collection of scratched CD’s, multi-sided dice, hand-drawn diagrams of team formations covered over by Bart’s doodling, and a cracked baseball bat.

At least his uniform had been through the wash before he stuffed it in there. Small favors from his former self. Tim carefully unrolled the Kevlar cape, tumbling his old wrist computer into his palm.

He would need to replace the battery. Specifically, remove the battery, and carefully charge it, then place it back into the device. He was not going to risk synching the thing—even to the old YJ mainframe—by plugging it into the computer directly. Maybe he was being paranoid. Hm. Not the worst thing to be.

“So…” Kon interrupted, “You gonna tell us what’s up?”

His first—heh—impulse was to be cryptic, but he swallowed it down. These were his friends.

“I was singled out by those Gatekeepers. I want to know why. When I checked the dates, I realized all of our computer records were compromised. I think… I think a more personal record might have escaped their notice.”

A moment of silence. He would have enjoyed the rarity of quiet in the old YJ cave of all things, but they were looking at him with a high-alert concern that was on the edge of tipping into horror.

“Woah. The bat-computers were compromised? Holy Hera, Tim.”

“DoyouthinkitwastheGatekeepers? You do. You totallythinkitwastheGatekeepers.”

Tim nodded, “Yeah. I do.”

“So what, man? You think they waved their triple-joined finger and just…?” Kon waved his own hand.

“Erased a week—maybe more—of events that happened while our reality was colliding with something outside of our own multiverse. And in a room with you, the Flashes, Booster Gold, and Guy Gardner; the person they expected to cause trouble was me.”

“And you can’t remember because they probably also erased our memories.” Cassie inferred.

Kon nodded until Tim’s earlier comment sank home, “Hey wait, whattaya mean ‘with me’?”

Bart giggled, “Oh, as if you don’t remember what you were like back then.”

Kon sighed as Bart and then Cassie joined in on ruffling his hair. They had to be fast. And reach up on their tip toes to do it. But Kon let them for a good half of a second.

“Ok. Point taken.”

The wait for the charger to hit green felt like an eternity. Plenty of time for the ambiance of the old cave to slip from nostalgia to haunting. Bart had opened up an entire closet of junk—chemicals, paint, mechanical insects—that he had apparently collected with Greta. Kon had dusted off Anita’s old masseuse table, only to find that no one was really in the mood to hop on it. Cassie found an old set of brass knuckles that belonged to Slo-bo, but quietly set them down when she noticed their discoloration was due to dried blood.

Nobody messed with the dusty arrows kept in hopeful little spaces. Nobody looked at the archer’s targets. At least, no one looked when others were looking.

Tim sighed and watched as Cassie floated around, fidgeting. He remembered how hard she had clung to the idea of Cissie returning to the hero life, terrified that her best friend would grow distant as a result. Tim had… been more optimistic. At the time.

He knew where their old friends were. He knew Greta Hayes was a freshman in college now. That they girl they had once called Secret had impressed the entire faculty of St. Elias with her ability to catch up and surpass academic basics. He knew that while she excelled in her math and science classes, she enjoyed the chaos and the friendships she found in her drama electives. He knew because her teachers kept good notes that were easy to hack.

He knew Anita took odd jobs to support the two tiny children that were her de-aged parents. She would put on her old Empress costume on occasion, when crime had the gaul to come to her doorstep, but lived quietly in Louisiana for the most part. Supergirl had been the last hero to come into contact with her, and told him all about it.

None of them had really had the chance to feel close to Ray, but Tim knew that didn’t make them special. Ray Terrill’s profile with the Justice League displayed a new team every year. He had run with reserve units, the JSA, Freedom Fighters, and more.

Then there was Cissie, Arrowette, the girl who took them by all by surprise once every few months as her face appeared on a cereal box, in an energy drink commercial, or on a motivational poster in a sporting goods store. Because nothing sold that stuff better than an Olympic archer who had looks as well as accuracy.

It wasn't a painful thing for Tim personally. Hell, there had been a time when he thought he was headed for a similar path, a time when he thought retirement for himself was a strong possibility, just a few years away. But he knew better now. And he knew that Bart always bought things with her name or her face on them, but didn't actually look at them. And that when Cassie heard her voice blaring from the TV, she would stare mournfully at an old number in her phone before putting it away unused. As much as they would wish otherwise, Cissie King-Jones had drifted away from them.

Not that Tim didn’t also fit the drifter profile to an extent. The thought hit him hard. He hadn’t been to the Tower in over a two months, but like a dog with a bone, the Titans had refused to let him stay out of touch. Even when Dick had the bright idea of sending Damian to the tower, to try to get him to interact with ‘younger’ heroes—because apparently Dick could’t be bothered to remember that he was sending an eleven year old to socialize with a crew that no longer possessed a member under the age of sixteen—his friends had reached out, insisting that Red Robin was the only Robin on their roster.

It was humbling, and it put a scratch in this throat and a watery heat behind his eyes that—

BEEP!

Charging complete.

Bart zipped toward the outlet, and hopped on his toes while waiting for Tim to unplug the device. He felt Conner and Cassie join in hovering behind him as he began to skim through the files. There was only one that matched what they were looking for, with its simple text repeated in the space-tab code.

R E M I N D E R S

Dig up 8th grade time capsule

Go 2 fashion show @ Hollywood Mall. Compare/Contrast costume

Be outside July 4th

Go 2 most romantic city on July 15th

“That’s it?” blurted Kon and Bart at once.

“Fashion show?” Cassie scratched her head.

Tim sighed, “I was watching out for key word triggers. I think.”

Bart frowned, “Like, if  you actually said anything close to what you meant, you were worried the Gatekeepers or whoever would notice and erase everything like they did with the Batcomputer?”

Tim nodded, “The ‘reminders’ are literally reminders. Straightforward intel would be too dangerous.”

“‘Cause God forbid your lil’ bitty bat-self actually tell your future self what was going on.” Kon huffed impatiently.

Cassie elbowed him in the ribs.

Kon hissed. “Sorry! Too dangerous. I get it.”

Cassie raised her brows and let it go. “So, what are you going to do?”

Tim shrugged, “Do what they tell me to and hope they help me remember, I guess.”

Bart looked up from his phone, “Better hope the ‘reminders’ don’t have to go in order, Tim.”

Tim winced, “Why?”

Cassie looked over Bart’s shoulder at his screen, “Because the only major summer fashion demonstration in California hits the runway in about 12 hours. Woah.”

Tim powered down the wrist tech. He didn’t like the idea of going out of order, but only two of the reminders had actual dates attached. At least he had opened the file right before July. Small favors.

“Fine. Mall first. Grab some food and rest and meet back with me in—“

“Only if you do,” Cassie’s eyes were narrowed.

“Yeah, man. No caffeinated all-nighters.”

“Kon and I will tuckyouinifwehaveto.”

Tim snorted, “Fine.

It messed with his plans, but if he was being honest, Cass was in town, and Steph had mentioned to Dick in the cave that she was done with her freshman comp essay. Red Robin wasn’t strictly necessary when Blackbat and Batgirl were around to help out.

He did his best to take it as the impromptu bit of fortune it was.

He didn’t let it hurt.

[kaaras-adaar-a]

all evens for the 69 embarrassing questions >u> cause I'm an ass

CONT: (for…. both???? on that last question?????)

69 Embarrassing Questions

// Because this is going to get long… >.> 

2. Who’s you fictional crush/squish?

Rofl mine? I love a lot of fictional characters, including some of your guys muses and my own XDDD So, lots and lots! But Sigourney Weaver is like my celeb crush hahaha. As for Kaaras, he’s got a thing for the Hero of Ferelden and most Hawke’s XD Basically anyone who saved the world in some way :3 

4. Worst insult you’ve ever given?

Both Kaaras and I have been bullied since young ages, so we’ve both been called many, many things. For me, I just don’t give a damn anymore. For Kaaras, racism doesn’t really get to him much anymore, or calling him an ox and a savage. Now it’s things like calling him selfish. Because, rofl…. he’s not. XD 

6. How did you find out about sex?

Primary school, sex books or something me and my friends found. Lol, yeah! XD Nothing interesting. I never had THE TALK thank fuck. For Kaaras, it was all very… later on in life. His mother didn’t tell him much because she wasn’t very comfortable with telling him, and his father was dead by then so… Kaaras learned by talking to others about it, which… was overall awkward and embarrassing. He’s still very ignorant on a lot of things. XD 

8. Worst Phobia?

For me, COCKROACHES DXXXX doifjgodifjgodifjg nope. For Kaaras, moths, but also failing people, losing loved ones, etc. 

10. Ever been arrested?

I have not, Kaaras has been–twice. 

12. Who would you let die if given the chance to save them?

Things like these are never that easy to predict, tbh. Because they are very in the moment, and I doubt anything like this will happen in my boring life, lol. As for Kaaras, he’d always try and save someone unless they were a lost cause. :’D 

14. Something silly you believed as a kid?

EVERYTHING, lol. God, I dunno… Kaaras thought boys had periods, too. XDDD 

Controversial role models?

N/A for me. The Maker, for Kaaras, lol. 

Cringiest thing you’ve shipped?

I’m pretty particular on my ships, and generally only ship them if I feel that they have good chemistry and would WORK as a couple without being obnoxiously abusive. I like to give them backgrounds and fill in blanks and well… yeah, make them work for their relationship, not just put two random people together, lol. I go hard or go home basically. 

What helps you fall asleep?

Kaaras is a lucky bastard who falls asleep like as soon as he hits the pillow -_- Mod is one of those people who can lay in bed for HOURS before he falls asleep. So… Robot Unicorn Attack 2 helps some nights XD Maybe a cuppa tea an hour or so before bed time? 

What’s your age?

I am 26, Kaaras is 29

Honest opinion on religion?

Kaaras is a little more devout than I am, but we both are more agnostic if anything, brought up on heavier religions (I’m Catholic and he’s Andrastian). We’ve both struggled with religion, miserable pasts, etc, so… We both kind of believe that your own beliefs are your own. Look, so long as no one is shoving it down our throats and hurting people over it, then you can believe in whatever you want. Just don’t be an arsehole over it. Overall, though, Kaaras has much more faith than I do. 

How would you describe your smile?

Dorky and stupid… Kaaras’ is also dorky and stupid, but it’s also a sweet, kind loving smile and I adore when he smiles. He has smile lines and I am JEALOUS! My cheeks are all pudge and his are all wicked looking :O 

Ever dropped plans/projects and not said a word?

Kaaras? FUCK NO! Me? I have no idea… *walks away from meme like it was never asked* lol XD No, I’m generally pretty good, but there have been times I’ve worked on art or a fic and just dropped it. 

Personality Type?

I am INTJ, Kaaras is ENFJ 

Would you wear pajama’s in public?

Have done so in the past, and continue to do so, especially on a fast food run XDDD Kaaras has, yes, but he also just wears sleep pants and no shirt, so it’s nothing embarrassing. XD 

Pineapples on pizza????

I dig it. :) Kaaras won’t say no to food XD 

Do you have a dark sense of humour?

HAHAHA fuck yes. If anyone knows me… they know ;) Kaaras is pretty easy to make laugh, so… I guess? In a sense? Probably not so much as me, though. I’m definitely worse and more evil. 

Top or bottom?

Kaaras is a switch during sex. 

Pettiest thing you’ve cried over?

Hmm… probably a lot of dumb shit when I was super depressed. Depression warps everything and makes the smallest things feel like the biggest. As for Kaaras, I’m not sure. Probably a really nice gesture someone did for him

Longest time you’ve cried?

Either when my partner went back to America or during basically my 3+ year long depression >.> Kaaras, definitely when his father died. 

Do you have a fandom OC?

Yeeeesss. *points to Kaaras and family* XDD I have some Transformers ones as well, and a Lion King Hyena. Mass Effect, Aliens... yeah, I have a few haha. 

Have you ever used a base for drawing?

Absolutely! There’s no shame in using ref and bases, so long as you always give credit. I haven’t used a base in YEARS, though. They come in handy for beginners, especially. :) 

Controversial opinion?

Skipping because I have work soon and am not quick enough at typing to get this one XD 

Chest or genitals?

We’re both way more arse men lol. 

Any scars?

Yeah, but nothing significant. Kaaras’ are more significant. Across his nose and bottom lip from the night his dad died. Appendix removal scar, bear teeth on his shoulder and dragon claws on his side. 

url for an old cringy social media account?

Oof... I honestly DON’T know? Once I joined deviantART, I kept night-stalker13 as my main URL’s until I got others, but NS13 and fun-sized-owl are generally my go tos. 

How long does it take you to get up in the morning?

I spend a good 30 mins on my phone before I get up, it helps me wake up, especially on work mornings. Kaaras is up and out of bed pretty damn quick. XD 

Fave eye+hair colour combination?

Natural - blue eyes and blonde hair for me. Dyed, I’ll go for anything, I love brighter colours when dyed. Kaaras likes green eyes and red hair. 

Do you do drugs?

No. And Kaaras is no also. 

Did you go through a “RANDOM XD” phase?

Pls read this meme XDDDDDDD lol. I always use XD because tbh, when peopel don’t use emojis it makes me uncomfortable and they appear less friendly >.>