#they're actually canonically wanted for MURDER in my fan fic. but this is likely doing something less... serious.

[poetandwolf]

lol I had to.

[solitaire-sol]

Marauders Fandom Vent Post

CW: The following is anti-Regulus, anti-Barty Crouch Jr, anti-Slytherin Skittles, anti-Death Eater whitewashing, and a little general ranting about canon vs non-canon.

I should be finishing my Moonchaser Week fics but I made the mistake of browsing around and wow wow wow there are some truly terrible takes and I kind of really hate it.

"Regulus was abused and--" Really? Was he? Because all the info we get on him in canon is that he was Orion and Walburga's 'golden boy,' probably after Sirius started getting rebellious, definitely not reason enough to be Voldy's No. 1 Cheerleader until he was personally offended by the pursuit of immortality/mistreatment of Reg's house-elf. Just because ten billion fics follow-the-leader'd a handful of Big Fics where Sirius and Regulus were regularly Crucio'd on the daily from early childhood (and were still somehow functional when it landed Neville's parents, two adult and experienced Aurors, in the madhouse) does not make it canon. REGULUS WAS NOT A POOR ABUSED KITTEN AGAHGAHGAH

Oh, and speaking of the Longbottoms: "There's no proof Barty Jr really tortured anyone and he probably didn't even do anything at school so we don't know--"

Yeah, I guess that's fair. I mean, he was a dyed-in-the-wool Deatheater and was sent with two known murder-y/torture-y Deatheaters specifically to "take care" of the Longbottoms, who were as mentioned tortured into madness, but maybe Barty Jr was just sent along to take minutes or serve tea or something! No-one desperate to avoid Hell Prison might try to avoid it by saying they were innocent of the thing they did! We should believe the fascist fanboy who hangs out with other murderous and torturous fascist fanpeople.

"But Barty Jr was under the Imperious by his father! He was abused so--"

Yes, because his father stupidly broke his son out of Hell Prison as his wife's dying wish, tried to hide said son and couldn't control him because Barty Jr was a Voldy fanboy who kept trying to rejoin/restart their little Dark Magic gang! I'm not defending Barty Sr, he made a lot of very poor decisions throughout, but he Imperious'd Barty Jr to keep him from wandering off and doing Death Eater things like, oh, torturing and murdering Muggles and Muggleborns! There's no indication that Barty Jr was Imperius'd or cursed or abused or anything worse than having an emotionally distant workaholic father before he went into Azkaban, and there are lots of kids with emotionally distant parents who don't join hate armies and try to resume said activities after, again, his dying mother sacrificed herself for his freedom. Shockingly, Barty Jr is actually terrible!

I know, I know, it's fandom, do whatever you want, but I just don't understand this bizarre dual-vision myopia. Either canon doesn't matter, you can do what you want and ignore whatever's in the books, in which case why bother citing canon events at all? Or canon does matter, in which case your wildly speculative and sometimes outright incorrect 'facts' should at least be acknowledged as exactly that, rather than stretching the intended meaning of the phrase 'it could happen' so far that it snaps! Why are people so desperate to whitewash these murderous fanatics, they aren't even actually hot, their fans have decided they're hot and therefore should be whitewashed and I don't understanddddddd

[necrotic-nephilim]

what are your favourite batcest ships and why?

AAA i love this question so much. i'm going to limit myself to a top five, because otherwise, i'd just end up listing all of them. the true joy of batcest is they're all so good for such different reasons and there are so many unique dynamics you can explore.

JayTim - it's funny bc, before i started this blog, i don't know if i would've put these two losers as my number one. but because i've done so much deep diving into their dynamic and i write them the most, i think it'd be a disservice for them to be anything *but* number one. their canon dynamic is just. so fun to play with. i truly love all of their interactions, particularly pre-Flashpoint. the concepts of Tim holding such contempt for Jason while Jason is weirdly obsessed with Tim. i'm a fan of Hannibal and Killing Eve and well. if this isn't a Hannigram-coded ship idk *what* is. i like ships where love and hate co-exist and there's no real "happily ever after", just fucked up co-existing, where they crawl back to each other like a bad habit and really, this ship is that so perfectly. the themes of jealousy in the Robin mantle. Tim wearing Jason's Red Robin suit to punish himself. i will likely never shut up about them. even in the New-52, there's such a substance to them, though the dynamic is wildly different. they will always be so weirdly dependent on each other's existence. i love them.

BruDick - you can't outdo the doer, i fear. i think i like BruDick mostly for the history of it, yk. there's genuinely *so much* queer history seeped into the homoeroticism of Batman and Robin, these two have been a symbol for queer people for decades. but the ship itself has so many dynamics i love. problematic age gap, "are we family or lovers", "i can't be in a room alone with you without getting into a screaming match but if you called i drop everything for you". all of it. i especially favor 80s/90s BruDick when they were in their divorce era just because it's so messy. Dick has canonically said he would die for Bruce, even during their arguments. no matter what, these two will always be single-mindedly devoted to each other. there will be other Robins, but none of them will compare to Dick Grayson, for Bruce. it's a unique and complicated bond that has endless layers to peel back. they always crawl back to each other bc no one else will match their level of intensity.

DamiTim - years and years ago, when i was a teen trying to people-please with how i existed in fandom, i used to insist i didn't like batcest and found it icky and gross. but there was one DamiTim fic that was my exception. that fic was my fucking roman empire. i reread it like once a year even though it's not completed and likely never will be i do not care. so now that i've killed the morality police in my head and i let myself ship what i actually want to ship, this ship holds a top place in my heart just bc of that fic alone. but in general i do fucking love their dynamic. similar to JayTim there's just so much mutual hatred in these two that has endless potential. Damian's insistence to not see Tim as a Wayne and as a legitimate brother/heir to Bruce is something you can play a lot if you give Damian an angry, fucked up crush on Tim he doesn't want to admit to. they have so many reasons to dislike each other, so to try to get them to slowly fall in love is a fun challenge. they either have a long complicated forgiveness arc and end up a happy married couple or they are the couple that tries to kill each other once a week. no in-between.

JeanTim - there's like. one person here on tumblr who goes as hard for this ship as i do and truly god bless them bc they feed me. Jean-Paul is too underrated in the batcest scene. once i reread Knightfall, i will have to help popular this tag on ao3. i enjoy both a very fucked up version of this ship during the peak of the Knightfall arc, where Jean-Paul is deep in his murder Batman era and Tim is trying to stop him to no real avail, but i *also* think there's so much you can do with the ship afterwards, where Jean-Paul is trying to make up for what he's done and be a better person and better hero. they're the peak Batman/Robin ship, to me. they truly care about each other, but have a very complicated/bloody history and i just. man i love it so dearly. i've been meaning to write a fic where Jean-Paul goes to Tim post the Sword of Azrael (2022) arc to properly discuss and apologize for all his actions in Knightfall for his personal healing and they end up fucking. it could be sweet and cute or kinky fun bc what is the joy of a character with that much Catholic guilt if you don't give them a weird religious kink.

BruCarrie - The Dark Knight Returns got me into comics and i will defend it till the day i die. Carrie Kelley can be pried from my cold dead hands. i just really love these two? Carrie took one look at that cranky old bastard and decided she was his problem. and Bruce is at a stage where he should be very averse to the idea of having a Robin, he knows it's a bad idea. but he just. accepts her anyway. idk how to explain their dynamic other than she plunks herself in his lap and stitches up his wounds while telling him he's an idiot and he lets her even if he's grumbling about it. they have the biggest age gap of any Batman/Robin ship and for that, they should get like. a dead dove gold star no matter how rare the pair is.

also honorable mention goes to BruTim, because *god* do i love the concept of Tim offering himself up to Bruce as Robin in every way, knowing that there are likely sexual/romantic implications to being Robin. it's one of my favorite flavors of batcest to exist. i don't view them as a "happily ever after" ship, because Bruce will always go back home to Dick, but it's a fun lil dead dove moment.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/729095437558169600/what-are-people-who-hate-murder-gore-death-and?source=share

It is a really good question, what people who are supposedly so upset by murder, gore, rape, abuse, etc. are doing in fandoms for media full of them, and yet it happens constantly. Before House of the Dragon brought a bunch of normal fans back to the fandom last year, the ASOIAF/Game of Thrones fandom on Tumblr was like 90% antis. The fandom for the 2022 Interview with the Vampire show is also chock-full of them even though the show itself seems to be doing all it can to scare off that type of person. My friend recently got into Gotham and says the fandom is full of people with lengthy DNIs including "DNI proshippers" and their favorite characters are all people who do morally reprehensible things like murder that the show still expects you to sympathize with. I really do not get it. I see how in an otherwise "lighter" (idk how to put this, but without archive-warning-style upsetting content) show, fans can twist themselves into pretzels to pretend some character they like who did a bad thing didn't actually do that bad thing. I understand how that kind of one-off cognitive dissonance works. But when the whole show is full of characters like that and you're constantly watching them do the things you insist are immoral to like? It's not even a case of having different tastes for fanworks vs. original fiction; I like shows like that, but I'm generally not a fan of rape or abuse in fanfiction since I prefer escapist romance in fic, but I'm up for whatever in original fiction. But I don't think there's anything *wrong* with wanting to read fanfic that has non-con or abuse, and I fully understand why people enjoy that stuff. But these anti people think it's wrong to like that content, in any fiction, in any form, and act like they are traumatized by it wherever they go. And yet.... these are their fandoms. How???

--

They're attracted to dark stuff and/or to very intense canons.

They cannot handle this interest and project their fears onto others.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Mel Medarda

she is the richest woman in piltover who left her family because she didn't agree with the way they did things (conquering and murdering). she sponsors jayce and viktor, and courts jayce, which makes people upset because, you know, jayvik. she and viktor are CANONICALLY parallels with much of their imagery mirroring the other's and they are literally the same height. and people are so weird and misogynist and racist about her. they argue she is manipulating jayce and doesn't actually love him. i am cognitively disabled and cannot explain things well, but, she is so fucking shouldered

Black woman who has a romantic arc with one of the main characters Jayce. Jayce has a best friend called Viktor and their relationship is pretty important plot wise, shown as a direct contrast to his relationship with Mel even though only one is canonically sexual/romantic. So naturally fandom as the transformative safe haven it is villainized Mel horribly coming up with theories about how instead of being a complex morally grey character she's actually evil and just wants to seduce Jayce for Evil Reasons. Since they couldn't use her as a supportive female friend with no personality, others just ignored her existence entirely or acted like Jayce would ditch her for Viktor. Majority of m/m shippers will reduce her down to her relationship with Jayce and an obstacle in the way of JayVik, ironically writing her as a far worse and less complex version of the character we get on screen. The misogyny reeks and combined with the racism? It's a pretty bad case. Only slightly mitigated due to the fact that the main characters of the show are women (and the lead is a lesbian) so thankfully the male focus of fandom is lessened as opposed to filling almost every inch. Still awful to try and search for good Mel content, godspeed girlies with taste.

She's one of the most interesting characters on the show, a rich politician, smart and beautiful and has a really complicated and intriguing relationship with the city's golden boy inventor. unfortunately golden boy has a sickly twink science partner so she gets sidetracked SO BAD

Nyota Uhura

She's Spock's canon partner in AOS, and I get it because they're not a great couple, but she gets villianized in fic so much. They constantly make her an asshole (which totally has nothing to do with her being black /sarcasm) and abusive just for the crime of dating a man headcanoned as gay. And I mean, I think Spock is gay and her being a love interest was unnecessary but still! She's cool!

Oh my god so in the Star Trek reboot she’s Spock’s girlfriend and the fandom has no idea what to do with her??? Like she is ALWAYS either such a bitch or like the mom friend? And there is so much more to her character than that? But they always break down her character AND find a quick and easy way to break up her and Spock. I’m not even mad at that but at least treat their relationship with some weight instead of just being like ‘it never mattered’. People can love multiple people throughout the course of their lives. You know that right? Just because you loved someone before doesn’t make your new love any less special. And even headcanoning Spock as gay… you realize he doesn’t need to be attracted to Uhura for their relationship to have mattered, right? Even if he confused friendship for romantic attraction, him feeling such strong friendship and openly expressing it is so monumental for him!!! 

she's dating Spock, who people ship with Kirk, so fans have decided that it's horrible writing and "really, they're just defending her, the movies turned her into just a love interests," which is not at all true. The movies do so much more for her to the point that the fans who have only seen the movies think that the main characters are Kirk, Spock, and Uhura instead of the Kirk, Spock, McCoy of the original series. Also having a black women being shown as being desired and loved in mainstream media, particularly by one of the most popular characters of all time, is a good thing, not making her "just a love interest"

[violet-moonstone]

dagur and mala in "chain of command"

ok I gotta be honest

I was not a big fan of this pairing the first time around but theyve grown on me.

I found all their interactions so goddamn funny. Every time Dagur opens his mouth, Mala looks like she wants to murder him

literally me:

and then of course there's them being adorable after the trust building exercises

more opinions on their relationship below

honestly my main complaint with them isn't to do with the fact that theyre together, but the fact that their opinions of each other changed so suddenly – pretty much right after they just met each other. It feels like such whiplash, especially when we had the slowburn of hiccstrid over several seasons. even other pairings that aren't even canon have stronger foundations than dagur/mala imo.

anyway i dont want it to come across like i dislike them together...i just wish their transition from unfriendly acquaintances to romantic interests were more organic. I do think they're cute (when they're not being overly affectionate, which I vaguely remember happening when they actually get together)

that being said I still 100% intend to write them as dysfunctional in my fics.

[chainoftalent]

I genuinely wish your yan kokichi was the standard im sick of gorey or physical punishment focused yan kokichi because it completely goes against the whole idea of DICE and likeee i get that he's a yan in this and all but not all yans are violent, if i search for yan kokichi i do NOT want to be called a kitten then stabbed in the thigh

A lot of yan (character) content is just insert anything and call it a day but yan content like yours? It feels like I'm actually reading a canon live version of the character if they were a yandere since you include their past, principles, nature into the writing and it's just chef's kiss🙏if you ain't got no fans I'm fighting in my grave bro

Yooo I'm so thrilled you'd say that. I get the appeal of the more violent stuff, it's really just the fact that I got into yandere content when i was an early teen, and now im in my twenties. I've seen the violent stuff a million times by now and its kinda lost its thrill. Like there was some really nonsensical gory kankri yandere stuff a loooong while back that i saw and I fucking loved it as an edgy teenager. However, when you get as much exposure as I have, you start craving other things. Like how horror movie fans get desensitized to certain tropes.

Honestly I don't even dislike gory yandere content now, I still rather like it honestly I love fucked up pregame fics because it's just fun to read what are essentially fun little horror stories. It's just not something I personally really want to play with in my own space.

I however have always been fascinated by obsession in media, whether it be over a person, or an item, or just anything. Psychology is a huge interest to me and obsession tropes tie into that nicely. So when I approach yandere content I make, I always try to play into how and why they would start showing these kinds of behaviors and how i think they would react to it. Kokichi is terrified of losing people and not having power, Shuichi is neglected and desperate, Mukuro never was really taught better, they're not just cliches they're fully fleshed out characters I enjoy exploring.

Which seems like "oh that's obvious you should do that" when I say it but its really really not, it takes a lot of practice with a trope to understand how to make the trope fit the characters instead of the characters fit the trope. If youre someone newer to writing with this trope, you're going to go "oh yanderes are all kidnap murders who have no other interests, so if i want to make fav character a yandere i need to make them a kidnap murderer with no other interests" and that's pretty normal.

Then only by doing that for a few years do you start realize that the trope can have a lot more nuance and flexibility and you can pick and choose what elements you want to use. Your first time knowingly playing with a trope will basically always be a stereotype of that trope, that's how we learn.

Honestly even if it can frustrate me at times to see yandere content so wildly out of character, it's all part of the process. Some may eventually learn to lean away from being overly gory, while others will learn to lean in to gore and violence but make it more personalized and nuanced.

Like there's a fun yandere kokichi fic of kokichi taking kiibo apart and keeping him deactivated to try and make sure he stays with him, which while not bloody, is a pretty violent act if you think about it, but it fits kokichi because technically hes not hurting him! It just takes practice to learn the more subtle stuff.

So while I don't disagree that I much prefer my version, I don't want to like actively put anyone down and be like "im so much better then all the other yandere blogs" like nah this is just my personal niche of preferring psychological horror to physical horror and I've been doing this niche for like a goddamn decade so I have a good eye for the details on it, and even then my own version is still inspired by other yandere kokichi stuff. It's all a circle! Which is why i dont mind if people do things inspired by my kokichi

Not to say you can't be really annoyed or anything obviously, I'm just a nerd who really likes this kind of stuff and finds all of it so so fascinating, I was super fixated on this trope as a teenager so I still love analyzing it. It can definitely be frustrating, and it's honestly half the reason I made this blog was because I was annoyed at how no kokichi yandere content involved dice despite it being such an interesting concept. It really does mean a lot to me that you like it so much, anyone I can convert to the cult of "psychological warfare based yanderes are underutilized and cool" is a welcome recruit mwahaha

[applepies-and-starlight]

Was Ishmael always your favorite from day one, or did Canto 5 swing things in her direction?

So, she wasn't like, my favorite favorite day 1, but I did have a higher opinion of her compared to the rest of the cast (barring Ryoshu and Sinclair as food name oomf was making propaganda about them like a madman), her initial demeanor also gained her extra points because I generally gravitate towards characters that Actually Respect The MC/PC i won't say no to unhinged characters can we at least pretend to be civil during work hours and not treat me like a dog? It makes me sad :(

And then Canto V dropped.

Normally, this wouldn't be. That Big of a deal, if it was in literally any other position I'd just go "oh cool, so that's what happened" and moved on.

Problem: there was probably at least 20 different sleeper agents in my brain. And all of them involved Azur Lane

(Context for confused LCB moots: Azur Lane is Arknights' weirder, hornier cousin set somewhere in a WW2-adjacent period where all of your units are warships given human form known as Shipgirls (official term: KAN-SEN) and you fight against a robotic menace known as the Sirens)

(Editing Apple: putting this under cut because... oh lird. It's long.)

I had this like, entire ramble I wanted to go off on but at some point I didn't know where to take it lmao, but the basic idea is the following:

I got into Azur Lane last year because of spite and (eldritch-ish) pirates (Hello Royal Fortune!)

Got dragged into lore rabbit hole

Got convinced to read eldritch apocalypse fanfiction of Azur Lane (Whispers of Saturn)

Loved the fanfic a lot, started making Pirate shipgirl ocs based off the fic's concept (eldritch creachurr)

First iteration of Whaleship Essex created; whale-like mermaid-siren figure who has albinism and is a little Too trigger happy with whale murder

Made her look like Ishmael LCB because haha funny reference

Devs went fuckshit crazy with the anniversary event; Marco Polo was raining the wrath of God (who, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, was a false god), the god in question was fucking up the world with a weird white membrane (which, now that I think about it, kinda acted like pallidification), the french were getting back together, everything is great

I try to add the false god(s) into the lore timeline of my Azur Lane shit, cue updates happening to Whaleship Essex where she's the only survivor of her group and knows that someone else also survived but blames them for not being able to Do Something about it

New Pirate event happens

Devs stole 2 of my OCs and made them canon (hi, Hind; hi, Galley) and they also happen to be close to Whaleship Essex while they were my OCs

I work around what the Devs have given me and decide that they're in a state of kinda died-but-not-really (long story)

(Note that I came up with all this oc stuff around like. November or something.)

Overall my hype for The Sea™ and eldritch horrors have reached an all time high

Canto V releases; I learn about it while trying to make a Limbus AU for Murder Drones

I decide to check it out because. Water.

Doomed sailor yuri

"Holy fucking shit did I just predict Canto V with my OC that's completely unrelated in every way except for the fact that she looks A Lot like Ishmael???? What?????"

Present time; I have been stuck in the Limbus hole ever since (and apparently my brain has delusionally stuck itself onto our favorite ginger sailor so uh. hi fellow ishmael irls!)

Sooooo... yeah

Basically we wouldn't be here if the stars didn't align at Halloween 2022 and Manjuu + Yostar gave the AL fans someone who isn't a pirate

[le-trash-prince]

Kimkenta partners please cuz partners what kind of partners what are they partnering in

Okay so this one started off as my thoughts on what post-canon might look like for them coz I've long been a fan of "Pete recruits them to track down the other children/break into human trafficking rings." If I ever sound like I'm doing deep analysis into Pete being the Mystery Man in the S2 pilot, it's like 50% wish fulfillment on my end coz this is what I want to happen LMAO

My thought for this fic tho is that Kim was brought in before his association with X-Hunter became public, and Kenta's murder/betrayal was kept under wraps. So they both have associations with Tony that haven't been wiped clean, which lets them go undercover under the guise of carrying on Tony's work.

I've blended some of this into the background of my current fic, with them being partners working for Pete, but what I really want to write for this particular WIP is them infiltrating an upscale and sketchy BDSM club, where they have to be in a fake dom/sub relationship that requires them to actually navigate the trust in that sort of dynamic, especially when they're performing it in a dangerous environment where they may be required to push their limits in order for Kim to play the part of a ruthless villain.

There's all kind of deliciousness that could happen, but there's also a lot of detail and nuance to navigate, so it's the kind of thing that will take a lot of work. But it needs to exist LOL

Thank you for asking!

[ithoughticouldwrite]

Can we get Larissa and Marilyn relationship headcanons, please, if no one has asked already?

Maybe how it started and other general relationship stuff?

Note: Going to preface this with the fact that I don’t ship this, however, I do enjoy the ship. Small difference. This doesn’t mean don’t ask me about it though!

And this will likely go more into au territory as, in my opinion, it wouldn’t work that well within the canon of the show unless quite a few things changed. Now that I’ve said all of that, let’s get into it.

Larissa Weems x Marilyn Thornhill Headcanons/ Rambles (w/ spoilers)

Larissa hired Marilyn at first just as an attempt to foster good relationships between outcasts and normies, Nevermore Academy and Jericho. Marilyn would’ve known this.

As the principal Larissa wouldn’t be able to just ignore Marilyn like the rest of the faculty appears to do, so all of the beginning interactions are pretty forced.

One hell of a slowburn. Oh my gods. This is not a relationship that just happens. You're here for the long haul or you're not here at all. (I'm probably gonna speed through it tho cause this a hc/ ramble post, not an entire fic lol)

Marilyn just wants Larissa to like her and genuinely accept her. Sure she's accepted as a teacher but again...that's mostly just for other reasons.

They both develop a respect for the other's work ethic and determination over time though and that's...it, for awhile.

It's likely that it's that mutual respect that leads to a somewhat stable friendship.

Somewhat stable friendship leads to more mutual trust, which leads to actual friendship, and in turn leads conversations not work related. Personal subjects. Learning about each other. You know, typical gateway stuff to either being just best friends or one wanting the other to push them against the wall and kis-....nevermind.

Marilyn has these thoughts first, for sure, but it's early and she can tell that these feelings are not reciprocated.

Larissa knows something is up but given that they're friends now, probably best friends, she doesn't pry. It'd feel wrong, and it's not like the feelings are getting in the way of either of their jobs so...eh.

Marilyn feels like she's walking on thin ice and as though as any significant mistake could undo all of the progress made between the two women, and included in that list of potential mistakes is confessing that she thinks she fallen for Larissa. She hasn't at this point it's more of an infatuation but still.

Marilyn's infatuation dies down eventually but it leaves behind genuine love.

Larissa would start to reciprocate this love before realizing that she's getting genuinely close to someone (again) and no matter if we go with her and Gomez, Morticia, or both, she's going to be resistant to the new whatever their relationship is becoming no matter what.

So she distances herself, going back to primarily professional interactions, which makes Marilyn worry she's fucked up. She hasn't but she's worried about it.

When Wednesday shows up they both have to put whatever mess they've got going on off to the side to make sure shit doesn't hit the fan, which fails, but still.

Shit hitting the fan actually pushes them to interact with each other more which, in turn, leads to them having to acknowledge their feelings for each other.

It all comes to a head at the Rave'N when Marilyn asks Larissa if she was excited about hers, and of course Larissa opens up about only remembering disappointment since Gomez chose to ask Morticia to it and not her....and then, y'know, ✨murder✨ happened.

They talk a little bit more and Larissa can almost swear the punch has been spiked, so she asks Marilyn to watch it for a bit while she goes somewhere else in the room to watch the students.

The whole paint revenge happens and of course Larissa is distraught, and everyone goes back to their dorms while she waits for the police and Noble to figure out what happened and why it happened.

Once all of that is figured out she'd go back to her office/room, still upset. (sidenote: I'm convinced that her bedroom is connected to her office).

After Marilyn gets back from everything with Eugene and Wednesday she goes to tell Larissa about what just happened as best she can.

Now Larissa is surprised that anyone came to her office at this time of night, as everyone was undoubtedly still shaken up from the events of the night. She's happy to see Marilyn though, almost happy enough to get up and hug her. She didn't see the other woman at all during the final events of the night and was worried she'd been the monster's next victim.

Professionalism? Yeah that's thrown out the window here as Marilyn decides her paperwork can wait and ,although she'd feel bad for interrupting Larissa doing her own paperwork, it wouldn't stop her from rushing over and hugging the other.

They'd probably hug for so long that Larissa lets Marilyn sit down on her lap just so she can hold her closer, professional relationship be damned.

The stress of the night and the relief of seeing each other would probably make them confess their feelings to each other.

It feels like forever passes before they let go of each other, going to their respective bedrooms, and calling it a night (well after Larissa finishes her paperwork. She ain't letting that go unfinished).

The next day whenever the both of them has a chance, they talk about the night before to figure out if they both meant what they said. If they in Larissa's office, which they probably are, they share a cautious kiss, not actually kissing until they're sure the other is okay with/ wants it.

Larissa does have to work through her own feelings of being in love with a normie, and Marilyn with an outcast, but they work through them both on their own and together.

General Relationship Things

Y'know that picture of one woman straddling the other while doing her makeup? Larissa is on the bottom and Marilyn is straddling her.

Lots of romantic stuff behind closed doors in order to keep a professional appearance on the outside...although they smile more at each other than in other teachers.

They do each other's hair. I'm right and I know it.

Sitting in each other's offices while one does paperwork and such, and the other grades homework.

Matching. Pajamas. Idk why or how but that thought just fit them.

Dates out in Jericho disguised as work meetings with a different atmosphere.

Late night walks together, and definitely some kisses as long as no students are around.

Promise. Rings.

They definitely have those magnetic necklaces that connect with each other to form a heart. I considered bracelets but it'd be much easier to hide a necklace with their outfits.

Larissa listening to Marilyn ramble and infodump about plants.

Marilyn listening to Larissa talk about various famous outcasts throughout history.

They know each other's Weathervane orders in case only one of them has the time to go out to it.

Extra Thoughts

Now there's definitely an area of conflict here, and it's the fact that Marilyn Thornhill is Laurel Gates, an outcast hating bigot. If we roll with that thought, and her plans for Nevermore with Tyler Galpin/the Hyde and Joseph Crackstone, who's to say she wouldn't be prepared to betray her own feelings for the beliefs she was raised with? That she wouldn't stab Larissa anyway and push down the guilt, crying before going to target Wednesday and the rest of the kids at the academy?

She could also decide not to go through with her plans after all, after a lot thinking, but still kill Noble Walker as he was about to uncover her secrets anyway. Sure the prophecy can't happen is Wednesday isn't there, but it also can't happen if Marilyn decides that she doesn't want to do it. Tyler wouldn't be able to force her to do anything either as he's under her control.

I don't think she'd come clean to Larissa about anything either, choosing to keep everything in the dark. It'd be easier that way.

Although let's say Laurel Gates is someone that Marilyn is working with instead. Under this idea Tyler could be a Nevermore student (if Hyde's aren't banned, obviously) and Marilyn unlocked him for his own safety, and she could've simply been manipulated into helping with the plan. Marilyn subtly outs her for this, leaving evidence where Wednesday can obviously find it and put things together.

Would all that information coming to light hurt Marilyn's relationship with Larissa? Without a doubt, however, since Marilyn was manipulated into things I can see them going to therapy about it separately and together until they've moved past it. Larissa would also pull some strings so Tyler is expelled for murdering people, as a favor to Marilyn and for Tyler's late mother, regardless of whether or not she knew her personally.

I wrote this all in one go. No editing.

Thanks for ask anon!

[izloveshorses]

Why not all of them?

But just for starters, what about the one where they sneak around and fuck all summer? I think that's my favorite one of yours to read.

lol ayyeeeeeee i can work with that!!!

for clarification to those who missed, anon is asking for a director's cut commentary of this fic!

let's split this up section by section, bc it's a long fic 💀

section one:

we start us off with the classic post canon divergent "they missed each other on the bridge, so now anya is fully committed to being anastasia until one day dmitry strolls back into town" au. full disclosure i started this fic fully committed to not thinking too hard about very much ahdlksjf so dmitry literally strolls back into her life without any further explanation. in the fic before in this series, they obviously expressed some feelings ashldjkf but they didn't exactly Talk about any of it, so there's a lot left to be said here. but at the same time, once it's all out in the open-- that they simply miss each other-- they're on the same page and are able to start right where they left off, if that makes any sense.

idk how detailed you want me to be about the smut lol but in general i think anya is like always down to Jump him and dmitry has to catch up. and i think, based on descriptions of how the murder was executed (gunshots and bayonets to the chest) anya would have some pretty graphic scars that might cause some insecurity.

and when they're done, even tho they said they love each other, i think dmitry would still assume he wasn't welcome to stay the night/ that she didn't actually want him long term. which is dumb i know lol but he's an overthinker and has low self esteem, so can u blame him? so that moment towards the end of this section where anya asks him to stay was supposed to have a some emotional weight to it. and the line from the next morning, “I just really, really don’t want my second introduction with your grandmother to start with me buck naked in your bed," makes me laugh every time 🙈

section two:

this is how we go from just a silly night together to a ~pattern~. a habit. i like the bit with the tiara, this whole scene sort of spawned from that thought. i really really love writing pillow talk, which is this entire fic ahlskjdf so this scene they're just cuddling and chatting and i had a lot of fun <3 anya is sort of his common sense filter? she gives him very logical ideas of where to find a job and he's like oh i hadn't thought of that 🧐 it's just that they are both sort of lost at this point and they help each other find ways to ground themselves, reconcile the hardships they lived through with the lives they are living now, and get through the day, one step at a time.

section three:

montage moment! this scene was originally split into two or three and in different spots, but in order to fit everything we had to condense a bit. i knew we needed a moment with vlad, both to see how he's doing emotionally without his friend and bc it's funny to think about anya being a little flustered when the subject of dmitry comes up lol. the bit with the birthday gift was originally closer to the scene with the party/dancing/etc that dmitry gets invited to! but anya's birthday is in june so for the timeline to work out her birthday had to be earlier in the fic anyway. and i wanted the party to be later so their public reunion™ wouldn't raise too many questions yet, so the scene was split. it took me a long time to decide What the king of random gifts gives her, but i think a camera was perfect bc anastasia did carry one around a lot <3 nicholas was a big fan of photography and had all sorts of cameras laying around and was a fiend about documenting his family. so anya would have that muscle memory in her :)

this scene was also important to plant the seeds of how they aren't quite on the same page about the future. they're super into each other, obviously, but they haven't really talked about anything long term yet beyond tomorrow. anya wants something permanent but doesn't want to pop the happy bubble yet.

section four:

this might be my favorite part of the whole fic. i'm a simple girl, i love dmitry cooking and i love soft domesticity and (again) i love cuddling and pillow talk <33 this was meant to give them a taste (no pun intended) of what life could be like if she wasn't anastasia™, and it gives them a reason to be a little discontent with what's going on now. dmitry's work hours are Icky and anya doesn't really like her life as anastasia at all aslhkjdf but also they only have each other in a very limited way.

and again, they aren't on the same page in regards to the future, though they don't know it yet. again anya sort of tests the idea of marriage but dmitry still hasn't quite wrapped his head around the belief that he's actually enough for her. unlike his former conman lifestyle™ of reaching for things out of his reach, he thinks he needs to try to be content with what he has while he has it, because he's not used to people wanting him for more than a little fling. obviously anya is the love of his life and he's hers, but he doesn't really know how to believe that yet.

section five:

another montage moment! i wrote some of this very early on in the process <3 i really liked the part where they talk about their parents and how dmitry is a royalist now lol but i wasn't really sure where to put it in the fic 💀 but this is where it landed. and i also like anya telling him about the callers lined up for tomorrow, bc she finds it absolutely hilarious that anyone would even try to court her when her beautiful secret bf dmitry exists! and of course dmitry would just be sulky and jealous and sad at first. the man is too insecure. but she's like no mister this is supposed to be funny 😤 anyway yeah they are very cute to me 🙈

section six:

once again anya is always down to jump him 🌚 i knew there needed to be a moment where the dowager and anastasia would go out of town to visit relatives at some point, and who doesn't love good ol reunion sex lol. and i knew vlad would invite dmitry to a Function, and i knew there needed to be a bedroom eyes in a crowded room/ 'nobody knows we've been fucking this entire time tehe 👀'/ formal dress moment™ at Some point! they had to have a public 'reunion' late in the fic bc i didn't want other characters to start to get suspicious yet. originally this was supposed to be her birthday party but i already said why that wouldn't work. and as an echo of the previous section, dmitry would of course get a little too in his head about the whole thing and go scowl in a corner somewhere, unaware anya is ready to have him all to herself rn alhsjdkf. he's obviously jealous, but not in a possessive way, he's just discontent with the arrangement. they both are. and i needed them to dance for... reasons <33

idk about y'all, but i can never get enough of anya arguing about semantics (the bit where dmitry is like 'put me on the list') and dmitry finding it irritating and adorable at the same time <3

section seven:

originally anya's maid was supposed to be the one who catches them, she was gonna have a whole arc where she parallels the working class girl anya used to be and anya was gonna confide in her/ found her to be better company than the aristocrats she hangs out with, but i didn't feel like writing all that lhasdkf. and it makes more sense to use a character we already have than to come up with a whole new rando. and lily would be able to figure it out, too, since her love affair with vlad was meant to foil dimya.

section eight:

this fight was so hard to write 💀 i didn't want to over explain, but the whole reason why it escalated to a fight was really complicated; like yeah obviously they love each other and definitely want a future together, they just weren't on the same page as to what that would look like and they needed to hash it out. they certainly know how to make each other mad 💀

section nine:

i really wanted to write dimya in this dramatic jane austen period romance™ longing for one another in a parlor over tea™ needing to break apart when someone else enters the room™ situation... so that's the real reason why they had to fight asklhjdf so we could get them to do This and Feel Big Feelings across a room 😌 and in this fic the moment with anya and the dowager before the finale didn't happen yet, so it's happening here. 'dmitry refused the reward?' is now 'dmitry is coming to tea??' and i really love it when the dowager and dmitry get to interact in any fic. it's like candy to me. so deliciously tense and awkward. i also think their sense of humor is very Situational and Strange, especially in the eyes of a proper lady like marie, so having them commit to a bit as long as they can in front of someone else is funny to me lol. and i feel like while some nasty things were said in their fight, they reconcile pretty quickly bc they just want to figure it out and that's what matters <3 the musical has a lot to say about female agency, so i wanted to echo that theme here too.

section ten:

obligatory post-elopement epilogue <3 i cut this down a lot, mostly bc a lot of it was redundant and not really going anywhere productive and somewhat bc this document, combined with the fic before, was reaching 30k and i was ready for it to be over lol. but yeah. anya gave the grand duchess lifestyle a good try, but i think this was the best compromise for her. and now that they're married anya gets to call dmitry 'grand duke' which is a personal favorite of mine that hardly ever gets used alhskjdf. and i really liked the bit where she's like lets go! and he's like rome isn't going anywhere 😪 and she's like but our train will if u don't hurry up 😤 🙈

[aimmyarrowshigh]

HI, I'm just wondering where you get your drabble prompts from? 3000+ works that's INSANE but where do you get the ideas? if they're just random word generators I've done that, but I don't know how you can write so much and Im wondering if you have like pages with good prompts? love your work sm

Hi, thanks!

The prompts I use really are just random words, tbh. I found an old database for the Oxoniensis fanfiction “Porn Battle” challenge from 2013, stripped the fandoms and pairings from the requests, searched and removed all of the duplicate prompts, and randomized the whole rest of the challenge prompts to come up with a list of 13,000+ prompts. Then I just chopped that humongo list down into 100-prompt lists that I keep in an Excel file. I've got enough 100-prompt lists in there to last me YEARS, even if I were still writing at the pace that I was in 2022 (maybe soon. Hopefully soon).

I have noticed that there are some duplicate words that Excel missed stripping because of US versus UK spelling (or typos) but that’s OK. :) I just swap the duplicate word out of the list with something on my desk, usually -- which is why there are prompts for, like, "paint" and "seltzer" and "thread," haha.

I have put a couple of list tables up on my Tumblr on this page, so as long as you credit where you found them (because it did take time to strip, organize, and randomize the lists) you’re free to use them!

As for connecting the random word to an idea -- that's why it's helpful to have people request a pairing with the prompt, and it's SUPER helpful to have a really wide array of pairings/fandoms I'll write. I think if I tried to fill every prompt with the same pairing, I would run out of steam really quickly.

I also like to take prompts in the least expected direction that I can a lot of the time, which is why prompts like "domme" or "finger" will be totally gen, and something LIKE "paint" or "thread" might be smutty. Or if a word has multiple definitions, I try to use one of the less-common ones. I also, personally, try to come up with ideas that are canon-compliant or canon-adjacent as much as I possibly can because that's the kind of fic I prefer, and I think having that boundary helps me to come up with ideas, too. Like how would "seltzer" fit into the actual canon for Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, or Marvel, or Star Wars, or whatever? Sometimes that takes a little research to answer, and then that births an idea.

I like drabbles, one-word prompts, and canonfic all because they are boundaries and formats that help me, personally, come up with ideas more easily. I think if I tried to open up those boundaries and just write ANYTHING I WANTED I would freeze up and not be able to write anything at all. (Which is why I'm the world's slowest longfic writer, haha.)

I am a big fan of writing to formats and with boundaries of the form. I think it definitely helps get ideas flowing if you know that you only have a certain amount of room to fill. This is why I don't understand free-verse poetry.

[kalinara]

I'm starting to get a little obsessed with Rings of Power, I have to admit. I'm not entirely sure why - perhaps I just really have a need to rejoin a fandom that is full of hyper-pedantic purists who nit-pick endlessly over contradicting canon material, racist "historians" who apparently never heard of the Moorish invasion, Mongol invasion, the Silk Road, or any of a thousand other reasons why actual historical people of color might have ended up in medieval Europe, and the usual victim-blaming villain apologists. (I won't lie, I also think the Feanorians are pretty compelling. I draw the line at blaming the invaded people for not wanting to hand the magic rock over to repeated mass murderers though.)

Eh, maybe I'll stick to my own corner. There's some good fic out there though.

These are my initial observations from the first episode:

1. There's more indirect Silmarillion references than I expected. From fan reaction, I thought they were scrapping the entire thing. But it seems like most of Elrond's fucked up backstory is intact. Or at least not contradicted. (I think there's even a Feanor namedrop in a later episode?)

2. Galadriel is so pretty, OMG. And her armor doesn't have boobs!

3. Elrond is adorable. Of all the fannish complaints, I have the most sympathy for the one about Elrond having Steve Harrington hair. I feel like it might be a character beat though. They seem to be leaning a bit into the idea of the Peredhel being not quite accepted in general elf society, so maybe that's meant to be a tiny little rebellion?

3b. The idea of the Peredhel not being particularly accepted does seem like a deviation from the Silmarillion, but then that was pretty broad strokes. We know EVENTUALLY Gil-galad and Elrond will be homoerotically joined at the hip, but it might take a while to get there.

3c. I would like him to grow it out eventually though. The current look doesn't suit his face. I think something longer and pinned back a bit might work better with those angles.

3d. The idea of Elrond not being an "elf lord" seems particularly offensive given the poor guy is arguably the heir of every elf kingdom under the sun. Then again, none of those elf kingdoms actually exist anymore. Except the one Gil-galad's running. But I actually really like the poor put-upon clerk with quiet ambitions aspect of his character. It's pretty rare to see open ambition treated as, if not a positive trait, then a neutral one.

I feel like there's this thing, in popular western media, where we adore the wise and powerful figures - the wise king, if you will, but we don't like the idea of someone actually wanting and trying to achieve that role. The only good powerful person, we say, is the one that doesn't want it. They get it by chance, by birthright, by being in the right place at the right time. Even if they "earn" it, it's generally by doing something heroic, completely unrelated to governing people or dealing with politics. THOSE sorts are almost invariably the Wrong Choice.

But what if you want to enact real, positive change? What if you want to protect people or take care of people? How do you do that, if you're not in a position of power? How do you get power, when you're not really allowed to want it?

(I might be projecting too many good motives onto my historically favorite character, but I have future canon knowledge that he does a pretty decent job when he actually IS in charge of shit, so there you go.)

4. I love that Galadriel and Elrond look like they're the same height. Google tells me he's 6', and she's 5'4". I'd never have guessed. Nice camera work. Or phenomenal job at hiding the stilts.

5. I love that elf aging seems to be completely arbitrary. Elrond and Galadriel look like babies. Gil-galad looks middle-aged*, while Celebrimbor...well, I guess being only non-murderous Feanorian is really stressful?

5b. It hurts me to say that as Gil-galad's actor is maybe a year older than I am. But alas, that's life.

5c. Celebrimbor also has short hair. Maybe it's a Feanorian thing? That'd be kind of interesting. Did Tolkien ever specifically SAY they had long hair?

6. I have no idea who Arondir is. It's probably worth noting that I haven't read the Silmarillion since college, which might explain why I'm not really nitpicking anything. Whether he's one of the umpteen tragic elves from that book, or a canon newcomer, I don't care. I want to keep him.

6b. I'd like to see that elf who said that there were only two elven-human marriages and they ended in death and despair to say that to Elrond's face. Wait, no. I think he might cry. Say that to Idril Celebrindal. I fucking dare you. (Tuor would absolutely hold her flowers.)

7. I wasn't expecting the hobbits. No one mentioned the hobbits.

8. Also, no idea what the Southlands are, but it's an interesting story beat. From an average human perspective, what makes one powerful overlord better than another? Especially given some of the shit the good-guy elves got up to over the years.

9. Everything looks really pretty and nothing's really happening yet, but this is Tolkien. I sat through the extended editions of the movies (...might have fallen asleep at one point, but that's between me and the Professor), I can wait a few episodes before things start to happen.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the next one.

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

I would like to recommend an album for the sole fact that the first third of it is a narrative about transformation. "Murder of the Universe" has the first story centre around the Altered Beast, I was giving it a listen recently and thought it was something you may enjoy the narrative aspect of.

Ill admit, while this is my first experience with King Gizzard, ive been around the block a few times and nowhere from what ive heard did i begin to anticipate they might have an affinity in adapting Sega Genesis videogames into albums.

Because of that, I'm unfamiliar with the greater Gizzard Universe, and needed a bit of clarification from Genius on some parts. That being said, I very much enjoy the music and the narrative it seeks to tell, even if to a layman, it seems very much anthological. Obviously I enjoyed Part 1 and the Altered Beast best, although I recognize Part 2 and the Lightning Lord as the much more technically impressive part. Once I realized the album was trisected, I considered turning it off now that I had gotten what I had came for, but stuck with it out of respect and curiosity.

it could be that i dont typically listen to rock operas, but parts do seem to drag on for a long time. I know, calling prog rock long is like calling the sun bright, but i enjoy the length of albums like Dark Side or Lamb Lies Down on Broadway because they're slow and transcendant and give me time to zone out. When an album like Murder wants to keep a tense atmosphere, it keeps said atmosphere going across 8+ tracks, and eventually i get bored of hearing the same riff. Really, there were no slow parts in this album.

I appreciate the Altered Beast narrative for what it is, the the constant flip flops between perspectives before they eventually blur into one. It achieved what it set out for and complemented it with some nice descriptions, which are always the best parts of tf of course. From an artistic standpoint, it was very impressive, if slightly generic.

I wasn't a particular fan of the spoken word narration. The actual singing consisted of very basic rhyme, which was frequently evocative, but too short and sparse to ever allow me a chance to get into it. Sung narration with that same style of evocative language, and a good metal scream or too would have greatly increased my enjoyment.

And the AI voice narration... Whoof. Nobody could have seen what would become of AI voices, and I'm sure they only did it to make their character sound properly inhuman, but this time it's simply a victim of time and happenstance.

But for good things to say about part 3, the association of humanity with the revolting act of vomiting fucking slaps. I hate to self-fellate, but i wrote a fic a while back about a transhumanist who wished to make himself feel disgusted to tie himself to his old flesh body (which is so far removed from MLP canon im sure ill just deponify it at some point and release it as a short story), and i still love the idea that the imperfect and wretched parts of our biology are what make us people. The ending track might as well make up for every criticism I had previously about the album. It's fucking perfect, and it's not even what i came for.

7/10 no notes

[muserepeats]

Why do you think the Euphoria fandom's most popular characters/ship is Lexi Howard & Fezco (Fexi)? They're not one of the main ships featured on the show, like Rue and Jules. And while many fans clearly identify with Lexi, who is intelligent, dedicated, caring and passionate, I wonder why (especially amongst fellow fanfic writers) Kat Hernandez, who writes fanfiction and has a secret double life on the internet, isn't more popular in the Euphoria fandom, or featured more prominently in fanfic.

Hmmm, so I think there are a few separate questions in this ask and many other people have articulated opinions that I share re: the lead inquiry. (Fez and Lexi were the rare earnest and genuinely romantic pairing in a season fraught with addiction, enabling addiction, being traumatized by an addict you love, toxic masculinity, cheating, fucking your best friend's ex, abuse, human trafficking, murder, etc. And Fez and Lexi are both attractive people. And they have great chemistry onscreen. And it was unexpected on a surface level yet worked so beautifully upon execution.)

[More below cuz I'm blabbering on.]

I have to disagree that Kat isn't popular in the overall Euphoria fandom. It's my understanding that lots of people were super bummed about her truncated arc in S2 and would have loved to see her with a meaningful and more integrated storyline in S3. She's featured on Dax's podcast this week, and her Euphoria commentary has been covered by multiple entertainment news outlets. Sure, it's partly "people love mess and want to know drama" but it's also "we loved this character and want to know why things didn't work out." I think Kat is popular and that's why the whole thing garners such attention, even now.

Musing on Kat inclusion in fics is a different thing. (And I do think overall Euphoria fandom is different from fic fandom and is different from tumblr fandom.) It's not particularly motivating for writers to watch a character they once enjoyed get a dead-end story. Not much to work with in S2. I would have loved to see more depth into her realization that "what you think you want isn't what you actually want" or whatever the Maddy quote was. That's such a relatable idea and would have been SO compelling to explore for Kat. But, didn't happen and we got minimal sidekick action. (A fix-it fic for Kat as an independent character would be lovely and I would gladly read it!)

Quite frankly, if Lexi hadn't gotten a strong narrative arc (including a romance) in S2 I don't think she'd appear frequently in fics. So to me, it's the compelling connection between Fez and Lexi that drives popularity. They both grew a lot and showed different sides to their characters, brought to the forefront by their interaction with one another.

Re: Kat in Fexi fics, I'm not surprised she isn’t prominently featured because she's not super connected to Fez or Lexi in-canon. Ash, Cassie, and Rue all make sense as more central figures in their stories. Even with AUs, there are some interesting relationship dynamics between Fez & Ash, Ash & Lexi, Cassie & Lexi, Rue & Fez, etc. that can drive plot, tension, character development, yada yada yada.

Possibly things like fat phobia and racism factor in, too. But I don’t think those are the only reasons we don’t get a lot of Kat.

[margridarnauds]

CHOOSE VIOLENCE-6 and 13

I have Romeo and Juliet/RetJ on the brain, so let's go

(Mandatory "By reading this you are acknowledging that you are about to see me be kind of a bitch")

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

B3nvolio/M3rcutiø. Like. There is no way it should have swept that poll. None.

"But it's basically canon!" When? When they're standing next to one another? When B€nvolio tells M€rcutio to cool it down and M€rcutio's response is basically to be like "Oh, you're such a hot-head!" Where is the canon? Where is the ATTRACTION?

"But the musical!" Where they have a song where they're both dancing with girls throughout it and not looking at one another? Where they sometimes barely exchange any dialogue, either?

"M€rcutio is so gay coded!" Is he really, or is he a rampant misogynist and so we say he's gay as a way of avoiding dealing with that? (Note: I am aware of the existence of the Baz Luhrman film, but the usual cadence of things is that this is the Normal Way to Portray M€rcutio and I'm here like. That is a very cynical view of gay men...and anyway, M€rcutio's issue is with love, not sex.)

"He uses a lot of dick jokes!" And I've never seen a straight boy do *that* before while they're objectifying women. (And those dick jokes are directed at Romeo so like. If he's in a relationship/secretly pining for anyone...)

"He doesn't have any reason to be involved with the feud!" Again, you've never seen a rich straight boy get into things in order to be an edgelord?

"B€nvolio calls him 'Brave M€rcutio!'" Please tell me that you have friends who relentlessly hype you up especially if you're a bit of a piece of shit and they're essentially testifying at your murder trial to argue why you didn't deserve to die, please.

I want to emphasize there's nothing WRONG with doing a queer reading of M€rcutio (even though I think it's been done to death, even in academic Shakespeare) if it's really meaningful to you for whatever reasons; one of the things I'm really skeptical about is when...in classical lit fandoms, someone positions themselves as an Authority and says that you can't do a certain reading or another which is why I'm skipping on Dracula Daily because I am TIRED and I've blocked at least one person in this fandom for what I thought were some really pretentious, gatekeepey approaches to the material, but it's like. There's a difference between doing a reading with the understanding that it's a reading, or because you do want to ship it for reasons that are frankly beyond me because even if you want to see M€rcutio fuck someone there are people that he exchanges more than a few lines of dialogue with and pressing that it's Actually Canon and somehow Shakespeare's Greatest Ship (Coriolanus/Aufidius did NOT speedrun enemies to lovers to enemies for this disrespect).

We know that my approach to things is Ship and Let Ship, I'm running The Musical Theatre Villainfuckers Tournament, for the love of God, but I am side-eyeing why it beat out Romeo and Juliet, who Shakespeare broke his back for to create some of his best romantic dialogue for. Like, I think that we can acknowledge that people have the right to write and read whatever they want, they don't need my approval, but also these things do reflect broader societal ideas around women. I have gone onto fic exchanges repeatedly and the only things in the nomination category were....M€rcutio ships. It's insane. There's no chemistry, there's very little canon backing in the original play/musical, M€rcutio is an annoying dick who is mainly only interesting because he's traditionally played by conventionally attractive men, it is kind of unfair to B€nvolio in the sense that he's usually expected to sort of be the emotional support to someone who is obviously throwing away his life, and I can only really stand it these days when it leads to B€nvolio getting his back blown out by M€rcutio's uncle or B€nvolio admitting that it never could have worked out regardless of how he felt or might not have felt. Also my former stalkers very aggressively shipped it so like. Yay for bad connections.

Like, it's insane to me that in a musical/play called Romeo and Juliet/Juliette, I have to be in a constant state of

(You get $2 if her name is not in the title) 13. worst blorboficiation

You'd think I would say M€rcutio and he is a frontrunner but I have seen people say that Gregory and Sampson (remember, the nice two servants we meet in the beginning who are cheerfully talking about *raping women*) were Gay Icons and I needed to drown myself in holy water after that because oh my GOD fandom is willing to cancel a character for ANYTHING except for misogyny -- people can say what they want about me shipping Reylo, but at least with the stuff I read, my girl got orgasms, character development, and a leash to keep the former Supreme Leader on. Like, people will talk shit about you shipping even the mildest M/F enemies to lovers ship because it's a Straight Ship (even if you are bi) and, Oh No, they might have had CONFLICT and then ship characters that blatantly talk like *that* about women, make it make sense.