#this is my first contribution to the fandom and first post since april!

[zancaveri]

Happy Valentine's day, take the cards that i made on my phone at 2 am last night!! 💗

[duckprintspress]

A Big Gay Market: Sunday, April 27th in Albany!

This coming Sunday, April 27th 2025, Duck Prints Press will be joining over 100 other awesome vendors, a handful of food trucks, a bunch of community organizations, and some wellness groups at A Big Gay Market in Washington Park, Albany, New York. The market will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. along the Knox St. Mall, and the current forecast suggests we’re in for a lovely day. So if you’re in the area, come on down, take in the tulips, and come hang out at the queerest market in town. Learn more, and I hope to see you there!

Also, in March, I did an interview with Cyren, who runs the market! As far as I know, Cyren’s report on the interview hasn’t posted yet, but I thought it’d be fun to post my pre-interview notes. I ended up saying way more during the actual interview, but this covered the basics…

Name: my actual name is Claire, my pen name is Nina Waters, and my most common online name is unforth. Pronouns: any, but I prefer strangers use they/them for me Age: 42 Location: Schenectady, NY Business Name: Duck Prints Press Social Media Handles: most places, duckprintspress, though on Mastodon I’m dppunforth, and my personal account on Tumblr is unforth.

1: When Did You First Start Your Business? What’s The Origin Story?

Okay, so in the early twenty-teens, my friend Burdock was considering going into publishing, and so they took on editing a couple anthologies to which they invited me to contribute as a writer. As they considered where to go in publishing from there, we started talking about maybe doing something together, the two of us, and during the summer of 2015, I started doing a lot of research and formulating a plan to do an indie micro press with them.

In college (circa 2001), Burdock was my roommate, and they and I engaged in a prank war. The original idea was for one of us to defeat the other using library books, music from the J-rock band Gackt, and ducks. However, when the time came to actually defeat each other, ducks were by far the easiest of the three to find, so we started attacking each other with ducks – for example, a duck tied to the pull-string light in my room, a bucket of ducks propped over the door of theirs, that kind of thing.

So in 2016, when I self-published my first book, I wanted to put an imprint on the spine, and was still thinking Burdock and I would do this together, so of course I came up with an press imprint name that incorporated ducks!

Time passed, and things changed, and when all was said and done, Burdock didn’t end up opening the press with me (though they are involved as a writer!), but Duck Prints Press stuck. I started more formally planning the business in 2019, and with support from my family, getting it formally started based on the previous years’ planning and research became my covid quarantine project; I’ve been running Duck Prints Press as my full-time job since December, 2020, and we’ve been an incorporated LLC since January, 2021.

2: How Does Your Business Intertwine With Your Identity?

While I wouldn’t say that my business ties to my personal identity (I am aroace and agender), it absolutely ties into my overarching identity as a queer person. The founding vision of the press is to publish original work by fancreators, especially fanartists and fanauthor. I was and am a fanauthor, and I always dreamed of publishing my original work, but there were a lot of impediments in the way: having a family, having a mental illness, the types of queer genre-crossing stories I wanted to tell, and more. I wanted to make a business where people like me, the friends I’d made in fandom, could publish their work no matter what their challenges were. The overwhelming majority of the people I’ve known in fandom are queer, and our focus is on telling queer stories. And that’s what Duck Prints Press does: while I don’t require demographic disclosures from our contributors, I only know of exactly one person who isn’t queer who works with the Press, and nearly all our stories and all our artwork incorporate queer elements. I want to bring these stories and artworks to a wider audience; I want us to tell our stories.

3: Where Was Your First A Big Gay Market? What Was That Like?

My first market was in October of 2023. Despite threatening weather, it wasn’t canceled at first; I went with my mother and a local author who has become a friend to set up in the absolutely pouring rain. The market ended up canceled within an hour of opening, but even with the terrible cold wet weather and the low turnout, I made almost $200 in the two hours or so I stuck out being there. I knew right then I’d be back: the lovely people, the cool crowds, the queer vibes, all of it was impeccable even on a yuck day. On a lovely day? It’s like being at a little mini-pride multiple times a year.

4: When Did You First Feel Like An Artist? Or, Alternatively, When Did You Feel Like Your Business Was Starting To Make Sense?

I started feeling like an artist – specifically, in my case, an author – when I started writing fanfiction. Before then, I wrote a lot but it always felt like something I did for me, something I wasn’t very good at and that no one outside my family would ever much care whether I did it or not. But when I started writing fanfic and sharing it online, I discovered that people actually really liked my words, and I was also able to produce a lot, consistently, at a high level, and I started to think: wow, I can really do this.

Then I had kids and got stupid busy and that good-vibes feeling kind of fell off a cliff, but deep down, I still know I can do it.

Of course, as a publisher, most of the work I put out isn’t my own, so to answer the second question as well: when I saw the interest in our first anthology, both from people who wanted to write for it and in people who wanted to purchase it. Our first anthology got over 100 applications, many of which were absolutely phenomenal, for only 20 story slots. That told me there was interest among fancreators for an outlet like my press for their original work. And then when we crowdfunded the anthology, we sold over 700 copies and raised over $25,000. That told me that there was interest among readers for the kinds of stories our creators would tell with their words and art.

The rest has just been the slow build from that initial success. It’s been a long process, but we’re finally breaking even consistently, and the future is bright.

5: How Has Your Work / Business Transitioned Over The Years?

…well, there’s more of it. All the time, there’s more of it. I also have a lot more help now than I used to; we started with a management team of five people, and now there are like twenty who help me make decisions, edit, publish, and more. I wouldn’t say there’s been a firm transition, like, we haven’t gone from one thing to another, but instead it’s been a slow build, like adding new blocks atop the existing foundation. Sometimes, those blocks aren’t stable and they fall; other times, they prove to be far more load-bearing than I’d ever predicted. It’s just a process of expanding on the parts that work and leaving behind those that don’t.

6: What Are Some Of Your Other Passions?

Well, fandom obviously! The initial plans for this came into being while I was a big fan of the show Supernatural, but in late 2019 I watched a Chinese historical drama called The Untamed, which was based on a boy’s love book called Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Unsurprisingly, considering I run a book publisher, I also love to read, and ever since I watched The Untamed, I’ve tumbled deeper and deeper into reading Chinese BL novels – the genre is called danmei.

I also love fibercrafts, though I’m in a bit of a drought recently – just haven’t been in the mood. I sew, embroider, cross-stitch, quilt, knit, crochet, weave, and spin!

7: Any Closing Thoughts?

If you want to start your own business, you absolutely can. Just make sure you have a really solid plan, and make sure you pay attention to pricing your things in a way that’s fair to yourself. Passion doesn’t put food on the table, as I’ve learned the hard way. If I didn’t have a supportive family, I wouldn’t have been able to tough out waiting for my business to actually make money.

Also, queer spaces are more important now than ever. Let’s be excellent to each other, okay? We’re in this together.

[iamamythologicalcreature]

2024 Round-Up and Review

2024, aka The Year I Discovered I Love Drawing Baz With Long Hair.

But also.

Honestly?

(Yeah, I'm going to be honest. Yeah, it's going to be a long post. Buuuut it's my blog, so here we go!)

This past year was rough. Really rough. In many ways as difficult as 2020, and in some ways, even harder than that. I lost my specialized medical care after 2023, and my health tanked in 2024. Medication changes, chronic illness/pain, and the hardest thing of all was... this idea I seemed to have that if I could just fake it enough, I could make it. Like I could deny my disability into non-existence. Pretend it away.

Instead, I ended up pushing myself past the breaking point, with the worst possible timing ever.

And THEN (when I desperately needed to stop and rest), I packed up my life and moved across a continent. (I hadn't moved since college. So I thought I'd move and it'd be done. That was wrong. Ahem. I'm still moving in...)

But the GOOD that happened last year came in the form of friendship. That's not just a line. My friends were my lifeline. To those friends who stuck it out with me even when things were far from easy, thank you. You are the most incredible people I know, and your friendship has given me reasons and opportunities to feel joy and hope where I might not otherwise have done.

Okay. So. The ROUND-UP is... *drum roll*... Under the cut!

At first I was a bit bummed to see I'd only finished 9 pieces of art during the entire year. But since I am being honest... I know I did my best, and so clearly the best I could do last year was nine pieces of art. So many of those pieces were attached to amazing projects, though! I got to do several collaborations with some truly amazing human beings, and I also got to run my very first fest for the fandom! So I'm calling it good.

Now, finally, the art links:

(I won't be including works in progress on this list, as I still hope to finish them at some point XD)

January: Oh my God, January. I didn't finish anything in January, but I worked on a lot.

February:

Tis better to give than to receive - This was my contribution to Erotic Grope Fest, and it was my first time doing anything NSFW. It's pretty tame, all things considered, but I think it still fit the mission. Also ended up posting a high-res version of this on AO3. Because. I mean. Come on. XD

March:

Three lost boys (found) - I started out as a beta reader for @mooncello's inspired take on Neverland, but by the time I received chapter 2 I was very nearly begging to be able to illustrate it. I'd had this particular image in my mind after reading the matching scene in chapter one, but had tried to suppress the inspiration. Silly me. I'm so glad I gave in. This is a favorite of mine.

April:

Keeping Neverland - (Technically posted on Tumblr in May, but on AO3 in April, so...) Illustrating @mooncello's writing again, and this one was a challenge! But one I wholeheartedly embraced. I wanted to echo Baz's journey as an artist with my illustrations, so where I used pencil sketching for the chapter one illustration, I went for a finished charcoal drawing, here. Digital charcoal, it turns out, can be just as difficult as the real deal. Slightly less messy, though. (I'm very proud of this finished piece.) Also where I continued my exploration of Baz's long hair. XD

May:

A rough sketch for a rough night - It feels a little off to be posting this sketch in my art round-up, considering the emotional inspiration, but truth be told I ended up liking this sketch quite a lot. I also learned a couple things, from both the events of that night (not my finest moment) and the drawing of the sketch (hey putting my feelings into art is a good idea). So I think ultimately this little sketch deserves to be included on this list.

June:

Teenage Dream - I posted this on Tumblr in June, for my birthday, but I actually did the art at the beginning of the year for the Valentine's Day exchange on the Carry On server. I rarely finish anything to this degree, and am immensely proud of it. That said, I ended up using it for so many things last year, I'd be okay to not look at it again for awhile. (I called it "Teenage Dream" because it made me think of a daydream Baz might have had as a teenager - now made real with Simon by his side. Cause I'm a sucker for their romance >.> )

Illustration from The Eternal Life of Baz Pitch - So I'm not sure how I got lucky enough to earn a special preview of @monbons's story, but I knew I couldn't read it in pieces. So she let me read the whole thing. It was very cool. I read it all at once I think? And when I was done I crashed Monica's DMs to yell at her about it. But then I drew this picture. (While I was chatting with her, even, and casually asking her about cherry blossoms so I could draw them the way she imagined them. It was very fun.) Now we're friends. XD (Check out the fic - now posted in entirety!)

July: Uh. Migraines. Just migraines. I had to pull back from the fandom a lot, and stopped participating in a lot of online activities. Boo.

August: Sketched concepts for CORB, and packed.

September: I moved over 4000 miles.

October: Everything I worked on in October ended up debuting in...

November:

Carry On Through the Ages! Okay, as stressed and sick as I was, I have no regrets about taking on COTTA. It was AMAZING. So much wonderful content! It was SO GOOD to contribute to the fandom, and to do that with history geeking? Dream come true. I also dipped into my previous area of expertise (picture manipulation) and did some cursed paintings to promote it. Mona Baz, Stormchaser Gothic, Mademoiselle Wellbelove, and Iconic Icon Simon.

A Prophesied Rivalry - Another dream come true was collaborating with @monbons for COTTA! I loved talking ideas with her, and she was so supportive when I hit road blocks, too. I love Ancient Egyptian art, and this was as much a love letter to that ancient art style as it was to my beloved Snowbaz. (I did a ridiculous amount of research to do this piece.) (And now I have Egyptian Baz and Simon in my new apartment. Extreme Bonus.)

Snow on Ice Illustration - Getting paired with @leithillustration for CORB was like winning the creative collaboration lottery. Not only did they grasp my concept from the get-go, but they've taken it in a creative and exciting direction. Also, we've become good friends, which is the very best possible outcome for a collaboration. (You should check out their story if you haven't already!)

(Snow-kitty also got very sick at the end of November, which halted a lot of my progress on some WIPs. It was scary for a bit, but I am so happy to say he has fully recovered.)

December:

Snowflake Exchange presents More Than a Footnote - I kind of love that I started the year illustrating one of @mooncello's stories, and ended it with an illustration from another! I was so excited to pull Heath's name from the proverbial hat for the exchange. I'd wanted to draw something from More Than a Footnote since the first time Heath told me about it. I completely love Dev and Niall at this point, so I hope to play with them some more in the future! (BTW Heath I think you're one of my muses hope that's okay XD)

SO. Yeah, the year was often a hard one, but a lot of good happened in spite of all the bad. The good was even more valuable for daring to happen in the midst of so much blah. (And boy howdy, did I get a lot of material to learn from.)

In 2025, I think I'm going to focus more on accepting my limits. Like, I can still work on improving my health and functionality, but I really need to try and determine when I need to stop. That has its own learning curve, but I have to start somewhere! I'm also working on vision therapy, which I'm doing on my own since I can't afford the out-of-pocket expense. Still... So far, so good. Fingers crossed!

Creatively, I think 2025 will be the year where I get to work on projects I started in 2023 and 2024, and I find that quite exciting because those are ideas I genuinely loved. I also hope to bring some other ideas I've had for a very long time to life. (Finally.) I hope, hope, hope! And hey, if I get to do more collabs? That would be awesome, too. (Carry On Through the Ages will be returning, as well!)

Thank you to these lovely people for tagging me in on this round-up, and for remembering me despite my frequent absence!

@emeryhall, @rimeswithpurple, @prettygoododds, @artsyunderstudy, @noblecorgi, @alexalexinii, @best--dress, @j-nipper-95, @roomwithanopenfire, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @imagineacoolusername, @mooncello, @whatevertheweather, @thewholelemon, @youarenevertooold, @monbons

And to everyone who is still tagging me on wipsday posts, other things, commented, any of that! Thank you. It means a lot to me. Hello's and How-Do's and general well-wishes to:

@drowninginships, @aristocratic-otter, @that-disabled-princess, @leithillustration, @bookish-bogwitch, @theimpossibledemon, @fiend-for-culture, @bazzybelle, @ic3-que3n, @blackberrysummerblog, @run-for-chamo-miles, @shrekgogurt, @confused-bi-queer, @hushed-chorus, @cutestkilla, @skeedelvee, @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @wellbelesbian, @facewithoutheart, @ileadacharmedlife,, @raenestee, @supercutedinosaurs, @fatalfangirl, @palimpsessed, @martsonmars, @brilla-brilla-estrellita, @theearlgreymage

And anyone else who actually read my extremely long post. XD

[thedarkestcrow]

10th Blog Anniversary!

Hello everyone, today, March 8th 2025, is the 10th anniversary of my blog here on Tumblr. I know I’ve been almost inactive for the past year, and it’s been relatively quiet here for even longer. With the manga being on hiatus and many of my mutuals focusing on other fandoms or becoming quiet here as well, I didn’t really have much to write about and quite frankly, I didn’t really feel like it, either.

However, this blog is still very dear to me. Even though I’m not posting much, I still check on it regularly. Since today marks the 10th year of this blog’s existence, I wanted to at least do something here. It’s crazy that it’s been 10 years already. When I first started here, it was because I wanted to follow some blogs that provided great content for my favorite manga at the time, be it spoilers for new chapters, translations from Yana’s blog at the time, beautiful art, or interesting theories. But then I started contributing my own content, first with some edits and later with my own theories or analyses which has shaped my blog into what it is today. I got to interact with so many people who share the same love for Kuro. And for that, I’m very grateful.

I know the fandom hasn’t always been nice to each other, there were (and probably still are) sensitive topics that led to nasty arguments that escalated to disgusting insults on a personal level. Fortunately, I’ve never really been on the receiving end of this, probably because I’ve tried to avoid engaging in such conflicts. I love discussion and differing opinions on all sorts of topics. That’s what gives rise to new ideas and perspectives. But it’s important to remain respectful, even or especially towards someone who has a different opinion. After all, we’re all part of the same fandom, so we should stick together and respect each other.

That said – and on a lighter note – I believe the majority of the fandom consists of really great people. That’s been my experience over these past 10 years here. So to those people, thank you! Thank you for sharing your content, be it art, stories, theories, ideas, thoughts and so much more. Thank you for keeping up with me for all these years. Thank you for being nice and making this a fun place on the internet to be. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed running this blog for the past 10 years, and I’ll always have fond memories of my time here.

With the Emerald Witch Arc being animated starting in April and with Yana preparing for the final arc of the manga, I expect more Kuro content and maybe (just maybe) that will get me to be more active here again. I won’t make any promises though, it probably won’t happen until the manga returns and even then it might only be occasionally. Just know that this blog is not abandoned yet.

For the 10th anniversary of my blog I have prepared some posts, at least for today. I hope you’ll enjoy them. Take care, everyone!

[sitp-recs]

2024 in review - recs & highlights

following last year’s tradition, here’s the 2024 version! I took several breaks this year and wasn’t able to do as much as I had planned, but I’m still so damn proud of these small accomplishments. also very grateful for being part of this inspiring and creative community, and for having made some amazing friends along the way. I’m tagging everyone who’d like to join me in this exercise of self-love and celebration - feel free to @ me!

this year I’ve…

✔️ wrapped up masterlist #4 and kickstarted #5 which will be the last one. I hope I can make it special!

✔️ put together a reclist to celebrate my beloved Teddy Lupin with some of my favourite rare pairs

✔️found my way back into single recs! @eleadore inspired me with her exquisite the sun between us and I wrote my first fic rec since April 2023. at first I struggled a bit to find my voice, but it was really special to pour my feelings out there again. I hope I get to write a few more in 2025!

✔️ joined @hprecfest last minute, and it’s been the highlight of a very busy December. I’m thrilled to be reccing so many works I love and excited to find new favourites thanks to everyone’s brilliant contributions! thank you both @danpuff-ao3 and @coconutice22 for running this wonderful project to celebrate fandom 💗

✔️ officially created my BL sideblog! curating old man yaoi pics for @pink-heart-jam is bringing me so much joy and comfort. I’ve already made a couple friends over there and have been reading so much more than I imagined!

things I’m looking forward to:

✍️ finish my Erised readings so I can update my fest rec list asap

✍️ post part III of my special rec series “fic as a sensory delight” which I really enjoyed doing!

✍️ getting back to the hidden gems series! got a few drafts from s2 waiting to be reviewed and posted, and am already planning a s3 👀

[davidbowie-microfic]

INTRODUCING David Bowie microfic prompts!!

Each month will have single-word prompts (one for each day) inspired by lyrics by the icon we all know and love: David Bowie! Feel free to write microfics from any fandom and with any ships based on these prompts. The first prompt list will be released on 30th April 2025 in preparation for May.

We're Marauders fans first and foremost, but every fandom is more than welcome to write using these prompts. Have fun!

Find this month's prompts here.

Rules:

1. Microfics should be kept short, ideally under 800-ish words, but we will accept anything under 1000 words. You should also include a word count :)

2. Each microfic should follow the prompts, and it should be made clear which prompt is being used.

3. Since this is a multi-fandom prompt blog, you should tag the fandom and/or ship you're writing about.

4. Content warnings must be used where applicable!!

5. Please tag us @davidbowie-microfic - we'd love to see your contributions! We'll repost everything we're tagged in.

6. Microfics are just that: microfics! This means they have to be standalones, and can't be snippets or excerpts from pre-existing fics.

FAQs:

When will prompts be released?

Prompts for each month will be posted on the final day of the month before. We are based in the UK, so this will be based on GMT.

Will my microfic be reblogged?

Yes, if you tag @davidbowie-microfic we will aim to reblog it. Reblogs will hopefully be within 24 hours of the original post.

Can I post for multiple fandoms?

Yes, this is a multifandom prompt blog. Just make sure you make it clear which fandom/ship you're posting for!

Can I use previous prompts if I miss the date?

Yes! If you tag us, we'll reblog it, unless you specifically say that you don't want us to.

Do I have to use the prompts for just fanfiction, or can I use OCs as well?

The prompts can be used for any piece of creative writing you want, including original works. So, no, you don't have to write fanfiction!

Is this a competition?

No, we just want to encourage people to write!

Are the prompts themes, lyric lines, or something else?

The prompts are single words that have been used in any song from any album released by David Bowie. All you have to do is include that word in your microfic!

Are the fics supposed to be uploaded to an AO3 collection?

No, we don't have one right now, so we're currently only using Tumblr.

If you have more questions, feel free to send them in the ask box. We'll try to answer them and add them to this post within 2-3 days of receiving them (but it's usually within 2-ish hours).

We're also happy to receive single word prompts from you, just in case we're running low, so feel free to submit them!

Enjoy, and happy writing!

[zourryficfest]

Zourry Fest Q&A

Recently Zourry Fest was asked to participate in a 'Space' over on Twitter (for the uninformed, like myself, a Space is essentially a live audio 'hangout' with different speakers).

A few mods of other fic fests came to join the party and we chatted through some questions our host, JoJo, compiled from a few sources.

Shania bravely took the reins for us and did an amazing job! We had our answers written out already, so figured some of you may be interested in reading through them if you didn't get a chance to tune in.

Check them out below if you fancy getting an insight into the inner workings of Zourry fest!

Intro: Hi! My name is Shania and Maddi and I are the mods of Zourry Fic Fest. We both go by she/her pronouns. Though I am the one speaking right now, Maddi and I both contributed to our answers for the questions so you’ll be hearing from our one brain cell that we share. Our fest was founded in April of this year and we are participating because we thought that it would be an interesting discussion as long time lovers of fic fests and recent fic fests mods! 

What’s your fest’s origin story?

To tell the origin of ZFF, I'll actually have to go back a bit to how Maddi and I crossed paths to begin with. It really is the wildest thing. I posted to Tumblr looking for Larry RP partners (iykyk) on the Telegram app and Maddi reached out to me there. After (lots) of yapping and discussion of Maddi's upcoming fic at the time (Two, He's Kissing On You which is a Zourry fic) we quickly became friends and discovered we were already following each other on Twitter funnily enough. We discussed the rise of Zourry fics lately and how there wasn't a fest catered around the trio yet, so with her fest participation experience and my wild, off the wall idea we decided: Hey, why not create a fest and see what happens? The rest is, as they say, history. I'm extremely lucky (and grateful) we were able to connect in the first place because what are the chances of that? You know? But, yeah. It's great. It’s been amazing. ZFF has surpassed our expectations from the very beginning and we couldn't be more appreciative!

Do you participate in your own fests? Why or why not?

I, myself, am still undecided on whether or not I'll write for it. In theory, I would love to contribute, but I've only written one fic for the fandom so far which was several, several years ago and it was subpar in my opinion. We're our own worst critics, right? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'll let Maddi convince me to go through with it. It would be cool to make my official debut as a writer for our fest.

As for Maddi, she’s definitely writing for our fest and if I’m successful in bullying her then she might even write two. She says her decision to participate is part of why the fest exists in the first place. She loves the dynamic of Zourry and can’t wait for an excuse to write more!

Besides the fest topic, what sets you apart from all the rest?

We like to think we're very open and inclusive with what we'll allow. Fics can include anything ranging from canon compliance to AU, magical, mpreg, A/B/O. . you name it. We also welcome any variation of top or bottom and dom or sub as well as any gender expression. We don't have a maximum word count or very many rules in general to allow authors to reach their full, creative potential. The only real requirement is that the fic includes Zayn, Louis, and Harry in some sort of significant capacity!

How is your fest structured? Is there a standard format for fests, or does each fest come up with their own in your experience?

Since Maddi has participated in a few more fic fests than I have (I haven't participated in any), I’ve asked her to provide an answer which I will read now: She thinks there are some basics that every fic fest has to have to make it a fic fest in the first place. At its core, it’s a collection of stories with a theme that ties them together. It seems anything outside of that is fair game.

She’s seen fests with no end dates and no sign ups required all the way through to more structured ones with firm dates and rules. We’ve tried to go for a middle approach on that.

We wanted to provide our writers (and readers!) with enough structure to keep them motivated without coming across as too domineering - or we hope that’s the case! 

We’ve chosen to structure our fest in a fairly ‘standard’ way, having prompt submissions open and close, then author sign ups open and stay open throughout most of the ‘writing’ time. Our decision to keep them open came from Maddi’s own personal experience - she’s wanted to enter some fic fests later on in their processes. She’s even entered one just a week before they closed just because an idea struck!

So in short, we wanted to try to make a structure that works for our authors first and foremost, and that’s been our goal with any decision making for our fest.

How long is your fest active each year? What went into deciding that?

Our fest is going to be active from May to November of this year which is roughly seven months. This is partially due to the fact we came up with the idea in April and wanted to strike when the Zourry iron was hot, but we also wanted to extend the fest out into the latter half of the year when it seems slightly less fests will be posting. 

We took a quick look at other active fests and tried to slot ourselves in between a few other anticipated posting dates, both so we didn’t step on any toes as well as with the aim to give our authors the best chance at getting their fics read! We also wanted to provide adequate time for authors to write their fics which is the most important part of the whole thing! We do hope to continue Three’s a Party Thursdays in between rounds (if we choose to continue) which is our version of fic recs.

You've described your current theme and how you structured your fest, but is there anything else within the scope of your structure that you hope to add or expand into?

Maddi and I have discussed potentially using Zourry as sort of an umbrella so to speak for Zouis and Zarry fics as well—not just the three of them. As far as we know, there isn't another active Zarry fest and we feel it would be helpful for those who maybe want to see Zouis or Zarry without the third or for those who have an easier time writing for two people as opposed to three. We're not quite sure what we'll do just yet, especially as there is also currently an active Zouis fest on Tumblr so we wouldn’t like to impose on anyone else's ideas! We are still so new and would like to successfully make it through this round before jumping ahead of ourselves. 

How do you support writers who are nervous no one will read their fic, or that they aren’t “popular enough” to join a fest?

This is such a tough question, you know? Because it's a very real feeling. While this fandom can be incredibly kind and welcoming—it can also be toxic at times especially when it comes to new writers trying to “break through” so to speak. ZFF has created a discord server for our writers to not only keep in contact with us and each other in a casual setting, but it allows us a better way to offer assistance in anything they may need whether it’s motivation for writing, helping locate a beta reader, or finding someone who can bring the artistic vision they have for their fic to life. We also think it's important to remember that fic writing should be for yourself first and foremost. Write something that interests you and not the other way around. You'll always come across your people. Popularity is subjective anyways, isn't it?

Do you allow anonymous submissions? Why or why not?

Absolutely! We think everyone should have the opportunity to write freely without the pressures of being recognized. Some people may prefer to remain anonymous because of the content in the fic, maybe they’re new to writing and want to get a feel for it, or even just personal preference really. To cater to the privacy and/or request(s) of our authors, we have always (and will continue to) accept anonymous submissions with open arms. 

For those of you who allow pairings beyond just Harry & Louis, have you gotten negative responses?

Without going into too much detail—yes. We've seen a couple indirects on our respective timelines. We also received a message on NGL just the other day. To us, it's whatever. We try to not let it get to us because everyone has their own likes/dislikes. We figure at the end of the day we’ve been shown a lot more love than hate about our fest, and that’s what matters the most!

What are you most proud of when it comes to your fest?

I think I can speak for Maddi and I both when I say that ZFF, from the beginning, has been a team effort. Each of us dedicate a lot of time towards it and making sure things go smoothly. I tend to cover Twitter more while Maddi takes the reins on Tumblr, but everything we have done has been mutually planned/discussed. We type up everything together and nothing is done without approval of the other. We created moodboards for prompts alongside one another and also crafted Three's a Party Thursdays (fic recs) together. When I say we share one brain cell, I truly do mean it. So. .yeah. I would say the team work? Without it, I don't think we would have had as much success as we have so far. 

[blackmoonlightexpress]

About the mixed response in China & why I think TTEOTM will prevail in the end 💪

Saw the "Badly Received in China?" post earlier and thought to share a longer take on the situation in China, why are there so many antis, and my own predictions on its future.

First, a clarification, TTEOTM has been an massive hit in China. The data speaks for itself in every way you can measure commercial success: viewership, platform membership, app downloads, social media heat index, advertisements, merchandise sales, unintended tourism GDP contribution. The drama has shattered records and outperformed all the recent xianxias, which you'd never dare to expect for a drama with no dingliu (顶流) that airs exclusively in the dead April slot on a platform that's 3rd (sometimes 4th) amongst online streamers. (Some day I'll create a master post just on the stats.)

The only area it falls short on is critical response. It's not just the low Douban rating (opened at 6.x and now dropped to 5.6). The three Bs - Douban, Weibo, and Bilibili (which you can think of as China's IMDB, Twitter, and Youtube) were full of attacks against the show. This included trending topics on how the actors looked (LYX too thin, BL looking old/big/overshadowed by CDL, CDL 照骗 not looking as good as in photo) as well as allegations of plagiarism and drama behind the scenes between cast & crew members. A lot of people watched video edits that twisted the facts and had a poor impression of the drama and even left 1/2-star reviews on Douban without ever watching an episode. (This type of brainwashing is more effective than you'd think. I've been reading a lot of negative posts about the Little Mermaid movie and almost caught myself writing something negative about it without ever watching.)

As all of this unfolded, I kept asking myself, why all the smearing? Who is behind it? And why TTEOTM in particular?

A lot of what appears to be normal user activity is driven by water armies, marketing accounts, and "black" hot search ranking, all paid. This is all backed up by photo evidence captured by netizens. It comes down to commercial interests of rival platforms, productions, actors. This actually happens to every drama that is threatening in some way (almost a proof of success), but TTEOTM attracted more anti $$$. Why? For one, it's seen as the secret weapon that could elevate Youku's status as a 3rd/4th player to a close 2nd to rival and even at times overshadow Tencent. It's no coincidence that, Bilibili, which is owned by Tencent and has way more daily active users than Youku, has promoted hate videos and limited the traffic of fan videos - at some point not even recognizing the drama's Chinese title in search results. (Bilibili used to be a haven for LYX fans and a platform LYX has partnered with extensively. This flipped 180 degrees since he no longer has any unaired dramas with Tencent.)

TTEOTM is also a target for rival productions. It's got big name stars with solid acting reputation, one of the hottest IPs, and high anticipation from all the promotional materials - they've been super loud in letting everyone know that they have better costumes, special effects etc Meanwhile, there's a massive pipeline of unaired xianxia dramas that stick to the old formula and will likely feel dated after people have watched TTEOTM. People even started questioning how some productions with bigger rumored budgets ended up with cheaper-looking promotional materials, costumes, CGI (read: embezzling). So if you've invested in xianxia 101, you'd really want to discredit TTEOTM and stop people from watching it.

But there's also rival fandom jealousy, which is almost worse. Someone asked which fandom is behind it, I would say everyone. There are only so many "resources" to go around in the "entertainment winter" and it's a zero sum game. LYX and BL are both already big stars but still not at the top yet. They are big enough to threaten the dinglius, but not big enough to be accepted as having "made it" by other rising stars. E.g. Yang Mi, Yang Zi, Xiao Zhan receive a lot of hate too, but it's less realistic as a prospect to bring them down. In contrast, the smearing of Bai Lu actually kind of worked. (And I'm really talking about the fans. The actors probably leave it to their agencies/companies.)

Other fandoms are especially bitter in this case because TTEOTM really upset the status quo and commonly accepted truths in a way that kind of discredits everyone else. A lot of the below have been used by fans of dinglius as excuses for when a drama doesn't perform:

Youku is a rubbish platform and Youku exclusive web dramas will never have high viewership

It’s impossible for an actor to break out twice within the same genre

An actor can only develop a big dedicated fan base with CP marketing

Breakout hits are always unanticipated dramas that come out of nowhere

Autumn/Spring is a dead slot. Hits can only come out of the summer and winter holidays.

IMHO A lot of the intense hatred comes from long held beliefs being proven wrong. LYX has always been thought of someone who’s borderline A list and B list, yet the opening viewership of TTEOTM is like double that of dramas led by bigger stars. It would have been less threatening if it started low and slowly gained traction because the drama proved to be good. But the initial hype speaks to the market power of a LYX xianxia, so a lot of people wanted to see it fail and looked for faults everywhere.

Moreover, because TTEOTM had an explosive opening, it did not have enough time for word of mouth to develop before people started bashing it. If you look at Douban ratings, shows that fewer people watched tend to have better reviews because only fans bother to rate it. Starry Love and Back from the Brink, both harshly dismissed as flops by the industry, both have >7.0 on Douban. Meanwhile, people love to hate on a show that is receiving a lot of hype - suddenly they are held to completely different standards even if the budget is similar. Why are people more accepting of the rise of Dylan Wang and Esther Yu in LBFAD? In the end because the expectations were pretty low. They were able to build up a fan base while no one was watching.

Finally, TTEOTM does have lots of production problems, some of their own doing and others not their fault. Either way this left the drama less defensible in the face of scrutiny or tucao (吐槽) culture. The production is very ambitious and took risks, but did not deliver everywhere. It's got parts that look like a blockbuster film and parts that look like a B grade TV show. I personally did not like some of the editing, lighting, cinematography, color grading, special effects, makeup. AND this is precisely the type of production details Chinese viewers LOVE to fixate on. Meanwhile, compared to western viewers, they are more forgiving about things like mediocre acting, dubbing, slow pacing, repetitive tropes or storylines, uninteresting characters. (I think this has something to do with cultural differences around rewarding perfect execution over innovation/risk-taking, sum of the parts over parts that carry the sum.)

And then, there are creative choices that are daring and controversial. These are not problems per se - for every viewer that hates it, someone loves it because it's different. But this perhaps explain why its score has dropped further, even in non-Chinese platforms like MDL, even amongst fans of the show. For example... (spoilers ahead)

Opting for a bad/open ending, knowing that it'll upset some fans, but sticking to it because they feel that it protects the overall integrity of the story (no deus ex machina). Of course, most viewers prefer a happy ending. It would have been easy to just give people what they want. The screenwriter doesn't even have to come up with a new ending for god's sake! However, almost every xianxia that has come before has resurrected the lead character after the big climax. Viewers have been making fun of the cop out: What's the significance of life and death if everyone just reincarnates?

Packing lots of details in a fast-paced, highly complicated, non-linear plot, trusting viewers to be engaged enough to use their brain, rewatch, and discuss outside the show (a bit like Christopher Nolan films). The downside of this is that it's hard to edit out a scene. There's also high risk of viewers getting confused and complaining that the plot makes no sense. Even though most things do if you go several layers down, some rightly point out that they just want to be entertained and the drama should stand on its own.

Making this a male lead centric (大男主) drama, which is rare in the xianxia genre that more recently has targeted young women exclusively. The story shifts from focusing on LSS's mission to TTJ overcoming his fate, perhaps at the expense of the romance (a criticism I see a lot from viewers looking for a pure love story). However, for context, viewers in China (including CCTV itself) have been complaining that the xianxia genre has lost the "xia” (heroism). It's gone from Chinese Paladin, which is about ordinary people overcoming odds to become heroes, to stories that are just about pretty people, who happen to be gods, falling in love since the success of Eternal Love and Journey of the Flower. TTEOTM brings the focus back to "zero to hero" character development, so this is also a change that many welcome.

Allocating a crazy portion of budget and screentime to superhero fight sequences. I agree with all the critics who say these scenes don't add much to the story, the B roll looks better without CGI, and they could have kept other scenes instead. BUT guess which scenes I find myself rewatching and showing off to friends the most? Episodes 14, 15, 32. Because it is thrilling and glorious. Plus after enduring so many Marvel films over the years, I'm pleased to see a version that's genuinely Chinese (not some pan-Asian BS), rooted in our philosophy and martial arts tradition, featuring Chinese faces that have real kungfu training.

Going over the top on aesthetics - colorful costumes, hair accessories, and heavy makeup. A violent reaction against the simple pastel aesthetics that have dominated xianxias over the years. Of course, lots of people hated on the eyeliner and found the extravagant visuals distracting.

However, even with all its flaws, I'm glad it aired and did not wait for perfection. (A lot of May dramas did not go live last minute due to "technical problems" i.e. government censorship. These days, airing = success.) In addition, I predict that over time people will come to appreciate TTEOTM more. Here's why:

1) A lot of dramas now widely lauded as classics started out with poor ratings. Over time, the noise will die down and make way for what really matters - compelling acting and story. Empresses in the Palace (2011) opened with a Douban rating of 2.7 out of 10 (yes, this bad). Viewers didn't like the casting choice. They thought the actors looked bad. There were also issues with the costumes. Over time, its rating increased to 9.4. It's now a show rewatched so loyally that data analysts use its viewership to track market size. Similarly, a lot of the issues people have with TTEOTM are superficial. The things that matter most like acting are good, and even if you dislike the story and editing choices, it did manage to keep 70M people watching and engaged till the end, incl. people who don't watch a lot of TV or like this genre.

2) Moreover, when people look back or rewatch, they tend to focus on just the highlights, and TTEOTM is full of memorable scenes. There are also so many standout memes/gags (出圈梗) that will live in our cultural fabric forever. Fans on Douban were surveyed on who they would have chosen as the director instead and still overwhelming "rehired" Kuk Kok Leung. Biases aside, I think people realize that you could have a better executed drama overall - higher production value, greater consistency, more attention to detail, BUT you might also lose a lot of the things we loved. I don't know if another director would have allowed TTJ go full creepy/evil/weak in the first few episodes or filmed all the steamy love scenes without a modesty backlight. TTEOTM feels so different because it breaks ALL the rules (see above) that I'm not sure if dramas in the future will try to replicate. If they do, TTEOTM would have started a trend. If they don't, TTEOTM will remain the only option.

3) Only dramas that inspire passion will stand the test of time. There are plenty of dramas that score well but don't inspire passion - they will fade away over time. The TTEOTM fan community is intense - there's so much discussion and engagement everywhere. Its Douban group is the #3 most active ever (measured by # of comments). Its MDL page has 68K comments, highest of all aired CDrama. Its Douyin topic has close to 29B views, highest of all costume drama. (Interesting to note that TTEOTM has an excellent reputation on Douyin, the platform with the most active users and least amount of toxic fan activity.) Fans have spent >25M RMB on merchandise, an unprecedented amount - 3M RMB on a character that appears for <10 mins (OG Devil God). It's got to have done something right because this is way more buying power than the fans of LYX and BL combined. And in my N=1, I've not been this excited about a franchise since Game of Thrones and then Harry Potter.

Bottom line, you might have liked it, liked it with regrets, hated it... but if you're spending the time to read this post, all the way till the end, you've become a luna-tic (or 烬神病人)!

[katwriteswhump]

Hi there! I recently came across whump community and tags and I'm interested to contribute my writings here too. But I have no idea how to start, and if any idea of mine is original. I checked out a few upcoming whump events too and I think maybe I can participate in them?

Can you please provide any tips and information about this genre and help me out? Thank you.

hello! nice to meet you! it’s always lovely to hear from other people trying to start in the whump community.

honestly, i just kind of started posting my work. i gave my ocs tags, and released them into the wild. idk if you write for fandoms, ocs, or a mixture of both, but there’s always going to be an audience who’ll want to read your writing.

all whump is going to be similar or related somehow, but everyone writes slightly differently so you don’t need to worry about your work not being original, im sure it is. i think the most important thing about posting whump writing online is just making sure you’ve tagged properly, since we write about a lot of stuff that’s potentially triggering. past that, you just need the courage to go for it! i spend most of my time scrolling the whump tag, so im bound to come across writing by all sorts of people. if you posted your work id definitely see it (that being said, if you wanted to tag me when you post, id definitely love to see it).

im pretty sure the next upcoming whump events are the april ones, like whumpril? im planning on participating and ive got the first few days queued, so that might be a good time to get started? it’s pretty close tho so idk. that’s for you to decide.

so in conclusion, go for it! i’d love to be tagged if you don’t mind me seeing your work lmao

thank you so much for the ask!

[solrosan]

solrosan's fandom year 2024

Third year in a row I'm a late with this, but I'm two days earlier than in 2023 and 2024 so that's an improvement! There's been a continued drop in my fandom contributions, however. No reason to drag this out more than I already have, so...

2024 was the year that I…

...was correct about my Spotify wrap no. 1 song

...got the AO3 fridge poetry magnets

...realised I don't know the names of the INFINITE members

...failed to learn the names of the INFINITE members

...had five different youtube tabs open without watching any of them (they are still open)

...wrote an orgasm on January 1

(the difference between my first Tumblr post of 2024 and 2025 is depressing)

...did Camp NaNo in April and managed 300 words per day

...met @the-sign-of-tea!!

...asked for a Bluey fic and got one! (thank you @ess-jay-oh)

...wrote what can probably be classified as Bluey meta

...bought SO much fandom merch for a fandom I'm not even in

...got back into reading

...sent an AO3 style comment to the author of one of the book series (and got the sweetest reply!)

...rewatched Mad Dog in the hopes it would make me finish my fic (it didn't work...) (thank you @woodohwanedandproud for watching with me)

...stress rewatched Beyond Evil because it was going away on Netflix, only to see that it's back a few months later

...stopped listening to true crime pods at dinner

...decided I would start posting my half-arsed half-finished fics on AO3 but didn't

...posted the least amount of words on AO3 since getting an account

...knitted a baby blanket

...got 11 notes on my most popular Tumblr post

That was that, I think. Going by how little output I've had this year, I won't do a stats section.

Thank you everyone who has talked to me and poked me and reminded me of the fact that I'm actually a human being with hobbies of my own this year! You keep me sane!

[srmt-zine]

At last, some details!

(A while back on @srmthg we had a zine interest check, and it remains open for any additional suggestions/feedback about what you'd like the zine to be (you can also shoot this blog an ask) but I don't plan on doing a second interest check. If enough people feel this is a mistake, there's still time to do one, but as it stands I don't see the point. I will continue to accept feedback and take it into account moving forward!)

By the way, my name is @netbug009 and I'm your friendly head mod for this project! This will be my first time running a zine, but I've been helping run projects in this fandom for 18 years!

The Format

SRMTHG Zine (cooler name tbd) will be a free PDF zine scheduled to release on September 18th, 2024, AKA the 20th anniversary of the series' first episode!

I know a lot of folks (myself included) like to have nice, shiny, hard copies of zines, and I hope to get the zine onto a publishing on demand site such as Lulu to let people buy them at-print-cost if they'd like, but a free digital edition will be the first priority. Since this zine is a celebration of the anniversary of a relatively small fandom, I want as many people to be able to access and enjoy it as possible! Plus, this is my first time running a zine, so I think it's smart to keep it simple. This also lets us worry less about page counts - if a lot of cool people contribute cool stuff, a PDF can be a chonk as we want!

The Content

The zine will include both fanart and fan fiction (and maybe even a few QR codes to some other digital goodies like AMVs and fanmixes if there's enough contributor interest!)

Light shipping will be allowed, with a few exceptions - no adult x child and no monkey x human ships will be allowed. (This was THE overwhelming request in the interest check and is not open for debate.)

We're going for a general vibe and love the idea of getting copies into the hands of voice actors/staff, which should give you a rough idea of the type of content we're going for - if it's too creepy/fetishy to hand to Ciro at a convention, it's too creepy/fetishy for the book. (That said, Monkey Team is a very silly and weird show with a love for classic horror tropes so I hope people don't let that limit their imaginations too much if they wanna do something spoopy!)

NO AI WORK WILL BE USED OR ACCEPTED IN THE CREATION OF THIS ZINE. I hope that'd be a given but just to be 100% clear, no.

The (Rough) Timeline

March 2024 - Contributor Applications Open!

April 22nd - Zine members selected and invited to Discord

May 1st - Zine members finalized

June 1st - Zine check-in 1

July 1st - Zine check-in 2

August 1st - Zine pieces due!

September 1st - Zine layout finalization due!

September 18th - ZINE RELEASED!

You might notice this is a pretty long timeline for a zine and we're starting pretty early; because this fandom is fairly small and this is a big occasion, I want to provide extra time so that as many people can hear about the project and participate as possible.

If you're looking for something to do until contributor apps open, SIGNAL BOOST, SIGNAL BOOST, SIGNAL BOOST! Reblog, post to Twitter, tell your friends, get the word out so this can be the biggest celebration it possibly can! If you make any graphics in your quest to help get the word out, PLEASE tag this blog so they can be shared!

Aaaand that's the basics! Again, feel free to send an ask with any additional questions. If you're considering applying in January, it's never too early to start sketching/considering ideas!

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

Welcome to ma blog! 💙 (+ Links Masterpost)

Quick introduction to me -

Name: Sparkles ✨

Gender: female 🩷

Birthday: Oct. 26 🧡

chronic Sonic fanatic 😜💙

✅ What you can expect to find here:

pretty much everything Sonic 🤣

Wholesome Sonic & Tails Wednesday contributions: art, fics, screenshots, etc. 💙💛

random screenshots from something in the franchise accompanied by me happily screeching/ranting about it

Sonamy things 💙🩷 (and occasionally from some of my other ships, like Knuxouge and Tailsmo)

reblogs of Sonic stuff from other people

my fanart

my fics (they're also on AO3, I'll leave links down below)

Sonic Cinematic Universe stuff

Sonic IDW stuff

Sonic Prime stuff

Sonic Boom stuff

(yeah)

CHAOS 😈

❌ What you WON'T find here:

complaints

hate posts

politics

inappropriate anything

(I TRY to avoid reblogging things with swear words, but sometimes the post is too good overall or something so there might be an occasional one. There won't be any in my own original posts, though)

This is my space to have a fun time with moots and the Sonic fandom! 💙

Socials -

Instagram

YouTube

Cara

DeviantArt

AO3

Writer sideblog: @sparkles-writes

Murder Drones and Digital Circus sideblog: @tadc-and-md-sideblog

Speaking of art, I will occasionally take ✨ REQUESTS! ✨ I won't officially open commissions till sometime in 2026, but until then, if you want a doodle of something (Sonic related ofc), just drop an ask in the guacamole box! Terms apply, like nothing inappropriate and no weird ships and/or ships I don't support, but in general, y'know. 💙

Links to my fics:

"Toddlers are harder than one would expect" - in which Sonic comes to realize that he's all but adopting this little fox that started following him, even though he barely has a clue what he's doing.

"Sonic Frontiers - Anything for Them" - in which Sonic's absolute dedication and love for his friends — even to the point of death — is explored as he scales the towers on Rhea Island.

"Foxes Go Floof" - in which Tails goes poof and Sonic thinks it's the funniest thing.

"Comfort in a Thunderstorm" - in which Sonic and Tails experience a thunderstorm for the first time and talk about their fears.

"Girl Talk" - in which Sonic and Tails talk about Amy, and Sonic's confusing friendship/relationship with her.

"Sonic's Weird Napping Places" - in which Sonic naps in weird places and his friends find him in said weird places.

"From 'Friends' to 'Parents'" - in which Sonic Wachowski comes to realize that Tom & Maddie are his parents, not just his friends, through the screen-to-text version of two actual scenes plus a new scene or two.

"Sonic Frontiers - Calm After the Storm" - in which Sonic and Tails — both exhausted after the events of Sonic Frontiers — take care of one another.

"Wachowski Family One-shots" - a collection of one-shots centering around the Wachowski family: Tom, Maddie, Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails.

"Healing Hugs" (Sonic Prime) - in which Tails tries to understand what happened with Sonic in the cave, and offers the simple comfort of a hug.

"Brothers' Night" - in which Sonic drags Tails away from his work to have a fun night together with no screens.

"The Darkness Within" (Sonic X) - in which Sonic guiltily reflects on his actions as Dark Sonic, and Tails sits with him, comforting him without knowing what happened.

"Sonic vs. Tails - The Ultimate April Fools Battle" - in which Sonic and Tails spend the entirety of April 1st locked in an all-day prank war.

"Enchanted" - a Sonamy AU, strangers to lovers, slow burn 💙🩷

"Tom's First (official) Father's Day" - in which Sonic faces the second Father's Day he's faced since getting adopted by the Wachowskis, and is determined to make this one better after last year's awkwardness.

"Fevers Can't Ruin Birthdays" - in which it's Tails's birthday and Sonic tries to give him a perfect day, but comes down with the flu instead. (basically the plot of Frozen Fever lol)

(will update this as I write more)

"Can't Die with Regrets" - in which Sonic Wachowski, while trying to stop the Eclipse Cannon alongside Shadow from shooting at the earth, fears dying without getting back to his family to apologize to Knuckles and Tails and check on his parents. Actual scenes written, with thought processes added.

"Tender Loving Care" - in which Tails takes gentle care of Sonic shortly after the war with Infinite has ended.

Dats about it! 💥

[choicesficwriterscreations]

Greetings

Hello! Lia from @liaromancewriter here. It's been a whirlwind week (or so) since I transitioned into the role of admin/moderator of CFWC. And I'm long overdue for an introduction post.

I've been contributing my content to CFWC since April 2021, when I first discovered this resource. It helped bring my work to the attention of a bigger audience than my tiny blog ever could. Over the years, CFWC also introduced me to fanfic writers and artists that I hadn't been aware of in my little corner of the fandom.

I'm excited to continue building on the amazing work of previous mods and keep this community going for Pixelberry's Choices content creators and readers/fans. Our Navigation Post contains links to everything you need to know about participating in our community. But here's a refresher.

Content Submissions

As always, we accept fanfics, fanart and edits for the weekly F/AotW list. Tag us on the submission, and we'll reblog within 48 hours. If we don't, please contact me directly, as Tumblr tagging can sometimes be unreliable.

All submissions received before midnight US/Canada Eastern Time on Saturday will be added to the weekly list published on Sunday.

Throwbacks & WIPs: Now accepted any day of the week

Tag us on your old fics, art and edits (they should be at least two months old) or WIPs and Previews any day of the week, and we'll reblog them within 48 hours.

Meet My MC / OC

You can submit your Meet My MC / OC profile at any time by tagging us on the post or sending an ask with the post link. We'll reblog it andadd it to the master list.

Asks

Asks are always open, but we don't accept anons on this blog. If you have a confidential/private question, please DM my main.

Thanks for reading!

[project-pidw]

Hello everyone who's followed me here! The poll ended a while ago and it looks like people are interested in doing this so here's the blog where all further information about such a project will be placed!

Due to the fact that I've never run a fandom event before, this is going to take me quite a bit of time to organize, plus I've currently got a lot on my plate irl right now (such as writing and producing a musical from now until the end of the year which I am very hyped about but also I assume it's going to take up a lot of time) so bear with me as I organize my own thoughts before bringing more people on board

In short here's a generalized timeline for things off the top of my head (and is by no means all inclusive or a hard and fast timeline, this is just to give people general expectations)

Now (June 2024) - October 2024: Organizing all the feedback from the comments on the original post, coming up with organizational structures and outlining how many roles would be needed in order to put an event like this together

November 2024-December 2024: Mod applications and interest checks open

January 2025: Interest Check results are released and Mod application results are sent out

February 2025: Mods look over organizational structures, give feedback for how the event is organized, finish getting everything ready for people to contribute to the project

March 2025-April 2025: Sign ups are sent out for writers/artists/betas, distinguishing between people who would like to write pre-blackening arcs and post-blackening arcs (in my mind there would be an application process similar to that of a zine for writers and artists thay would like to create hard and fast canonically referenced events in PIDW but EVERYONE would be open to write general wife number whatever chapters OR Binghe gets massive power up chapters, for those that want to participate but don't wanna write smut, including people that don't sign up within the "event" time frame, allowing PIDW to be an ever changing living document that essentially never has to end however this system would remain open to changes depending on what people would like to see most)

May 2025: Results are sent out for people writing pre-blackening arcs and discord invites are sent out to all participants in the project

June 2025 - March 2026: Creation period, potentially longer or shorter depending on interest check results since the goal would be to create chapters with ridiculously long word counts for the sake of the bit

April 2026-???: Release of the project to ao3, with a new creator's work being posted each week at first and then speeding up to a daily reveal until all works are revealed in the collection, functioning similarly to a hypothetical Airplane's writing schedule

Once again this is all just... REALLY vauge outlines and the speculation of someone that has no idea how long it takes to put on an event like this, I would imagine that in actuality it would take much longer to do so, and life tends to interfere in things in mysterious ways so I would not be surprised if this does not end up accurate to the actual timeline, but just to give people a general idea of when a large scale project like this would be able to take place!

[demiesworld]

this is word vomit, me rambling, and basically just saying shit!! at the end i am thanking my followers for helping me reach 1k!!

i started this side-blog back in late april to early may just thinking that this was just going to be a fluke. originally i had only planned to just post more random shit on here, reblog some anime stuff, and just do whatever i wanted. there were times where i was like "im going to delete this blog", "im losing my interest", "this ain't getting me nowhere", just pessimistic thoughts.

that all changed when i started writing for anime. my very first post was a stupid "toman as stupid shit i did in my life" post which garnered some good attention. ppl liked it. then a little bit later i decided to write "tokyo revengers reaction to how you fight" and ppl LOVED IT lol i was so happy reading through the feedback about how the reader was depicted as being badass and strong.

later i got myself more involved into the anime fandom. i started watching demon slayer after a previous co-worker of mine mentioned to me that i should watch it bc it was a good anime. and it is!! demon slayer is one of the most popular animes out there imo. so when i began watching demon slayer i wanted to write content for the demon slayer fandom as well. now originally i wanted to write my first demon slayer fanfic with tengen x reader, but i was already hooked onto season 4 with the hantengu clones and had more motivation to write about them. the hantengu clones x demon!reader thing i wrote, i literally did not expect for it to get any attention. bc i haven't wrote smut like that in FOREVER. literally i thought it would go to shit but i was fucking excited to see it gain over 2.5k notes!!!

now before i got into demon slayer i was watching jjk. but i just never thought of writing for them since i had only ever watched the jjk 0 movie, and season 1. i didn't familiarize myself with the characters and just went with how the fandom portrayed them as. though as soon as season 2 came out with the gojo's past arc i wanted to write some content for them as well.

then... i got lured into the miguel o'hara stan. now i was already a marvel nerd BEFORE i rejoined the anime fandom. i was only watching the marvel films and the tv shows like daredevil, punisher, and loki. when i saw miguel o'hara on the big screen I FELL IN LOVE. not only that but he is voiced by OSCAR FUCKING ISAAC. god i want for this man to yell at me- ANYWAYS LOL UM we're getting off track here!! i went to reading some miguel o'hara fics, watching tiktok edits of this man, looking at fanarts of him, and then i sort of got the inspiration to write some content about him. and i do notice that there is not a LOT of miguel o'hara with a black reader or at the very least with a latin/hispanic reader. so i want to spice things up and contribute to writing things for him.

now mind you all i write my fics with a black reader in my mind!! but i never describe their skin color, their eye color, their weight, i don't describe what they look like bc i want for the reader to feel included!!! i want for the reader to feel as if they are in the story. unless it is stated in my notes that the reader is black, chubby, skinny, etc. then i write as that. but if you read most of my fics there's not really an indication of the reader's race.

so with this blog and through my writing i want to show all writers that you don't have to describe what the reader looks like. that there are ways to avoid describing the reader and to have the reader feel included. inclusivity is my goal here on this site. as someone who is multifandom, i want to bring something to the table and maybe make a change.

to end this all off bc damn this is getting TOO DAMN LONGGG i want to say to all of my followers thank you so much for following me. times have been hard for me, but you know seeing that i have ppl who love my content and my writing makes me happy. honestly it is getting me motivated to get back to writing more again. i hope to give you guys more content, and better up my writing skills in the future. please stick around for more! again thank you babes! i love you all so much!!

♡ with love, demie !

[whisperinthedeadofnight]

With the final chapter of "Marie" posted, my first multi-chapter fic is now completed. Next week, I will begin posting my other multi-chapter fic, which is much longer. This next fic is one that I've been working on pretty much daily for over a year, so I'm very excited to finally be sharing it!

In my previous general update post, I had expressed hope that I would be able to start posting some of my Parks and Rec Timeline posts within a month, but that didn't end up panning out. I am still hoping to get these posts started soon, but I've been busy and haven't had the time for it yet. Likewise with my fanvids, which are probably a bit further away from being ready but will hopefully be ready at some point in the near future. I've mainly been focusing on finishing the editing for my fics, which has taken a little longer than expected, so I haven't really had time to work on those other projects recently. But I just wanted to say that I haven't forgotten about those other projects and that they will be coming at some point. But I don't want to give an estimate right now since I will probably end up getting it wrong again. So if anybody is following along with this blog and is interested in those projects, I will just say stay tuned! They will be coming eventually, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

In terms of other projects, I haven't had a chance to work on too much new stuff recently. I've mainly been focused on trying to get the editing for the fic that I will start posting next week across the finish line. It probably won't be fully completed before I start posting it, but I am probably about 90% done with the editing. And it is only the later chapters that still need to have the editing finished, so I will be good to start posting the early chapters and will definitely have the editing completed before I need to post those later chapters. The editing for that fic has consumed most of my time lately, so I will be looking forward to being able to work on some new stuff once it is completed.

My next fanfiction project will be from a couple of fic exchanges that I have entered. I will be writing fics as gifts to other writers based on their requests and will be receiving fics based on my requests as gifts in exchange. I'll keep it vague because the fics in these exchanges are supposed to remain anonymous until authors are revealed a little while after the works are revealed. But I will be writing some things outside of my usual April/Andy focus. Though I may be receiving some April/Andy fics written by other authors as my gifts, so it may still end up contributing something back to the fandom. It should be interesting to try writing some new things and go outside of my usual writing comfort zone. I will share those fics on here once they are no longer anonymous, but I don't know the exact date of when that will be. But once I finish my current editing, these exchange fics will likely be my new focus (but they shouldn't be as time-consuming, so I will hopefully be able to work on other things on the side).

Outside of those exchanges, my focus will still remain on Andy/April. I do have a shorter multi-chapter work-in-progress fic that I have been working on on the side that is close to completion, so I will hopefully have that one edited and ready to go by the time that I have finished posting my next multi-chapter fic. Aside from that, I do have a couple of one-shots that I have completed and still need to edit. I should hopefully be able to get those out at some point too. After these, I am brainstorming several ideas for my next Andy/April fic, but haven't decided definitively yet. But I do plan to continue writing for them and will hopefully have some more cool content for them coming up in the future.