#was reading my chinese fandom stuff and thought of this

[meraki-yao]

Random RWRB question that crossed my head

So in the book it's made clear that Henry's one year older than Alex, which I would say is somewhat reflected in their dynamic as well

But in the movie both of them are aged up (ergo kind of more mature)

Plus Taylor's three years older than Nick, and that's reflected in their own off-screen dynamic too

So do we think movie Henry is still the older one or?

[mejomonster]

i still think about that post that mentioned different levels of reading comprehension... i’m going to look for it to reblog again...

just like. i don’t usually think of adult reading comprehension in ‘levels’. i tend to assume ‘oh everyone can understand when a narration is emotional, its biased and implying information about the narrator’s emotions and biases and is not necessarily reliable’ and don’t realize some people comprehend a bit less, just the face value of ‘narration says X is disgusting, so X is, narrator says Y is true so its true’ and interpret texts based on that. and some comprehend less than that, not noticing there’s even an emotional overtone anywhere, and the writing says X so X is simply true. 

A lot of these skills get taught to some degree in school, when english classes made us do literary analysis of texts. And perhaps more important since it involves factual information, when school would make us evaluate sources for our essays and figure out what bias writers have and evaluate which part of articles is writer’s opinion and which part is actual facts. Critical reading skills we need to determine if something is an ad trying to convince us of something or an informational update, to determine if something is trying to manipulate us, to determine if the information portion we read is backed up by other sources or likely not actually true, to determine the biases of all informational media we consume (because even simple stock updates and history books all have some tinge of the biases of the writer/presenter). These skills help keep us safe on the internet, help us look for information to make decisions, help us recognize when we are being manipulated, recognize various media’s goals toward convincing us of things and still being able to sort through for the facts connected. For example when there is a shooting at X with Y people injured, that’s a fact, and then everything the reporters say beyond that about ways it could be prevented/shouldn’t have happened is their opinion, and how the words they use to describe the facts themselves like if ‘kid’ or ‘criminal’ is used to describe the shooter and what words describe the police and victims etc all are still used to push the writer’s opinion.

I would like to hope, since figuring out facts versus opinions is such a vital skill for simple online safety (from malicious ads, propaganda, dangerous groups) and for simple real life safety (figuring out if a recall for food happened, figuring out if a location in the state is currently unsafe to travel to), that hopefully most people learned that ability to discern. I also realize now that I’m older, how useful that skill is, and how I still have more to learn and practice in being able to do it. 

Well, that skill is vital in discerning fact versus opinion of nonfiction and opinion media. But it’s also a skill needed to understand stories, fiction, and again it just. Surprises me how its not actually a given that readers who find something, watchers who find something, will actually have the full ability to discern the intent and meanings that a creator put into something. 

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hello! I've been reading through all your posts so far and even though I am personally an ML fan and not a salter, I love media analysis and I'm sad that there isn't much of them in the fandom. There are directions in the show that I'm not satisfied with and I'm currently working on a rewrite for a future comic.

I'm curious about your ideas and takes on how you would personally rewrite ML, right now one of my issues is figuring out how the Peacock Miraculous works bcuz of sentimonsters. How would you write them?

I'm glad that you're enjoying my stuff! I label it all as salt because - as best I can tell - this fandom defines that as anything even slightly negative, but my goal is more analysis and discussion than angry ranting. Talking about what a piece of media did wrong and how you would improve it is a fantastic way to improve your own writing. It's why I got into media analysis in the first place!

Funnily enough, I do have a massive rewrite out there somewhere on AO3, so I DO have thought about how to handle sentimonsters. Or, more specifically, I've thought about how to handle the peacock. I'll give those first, then circle back to sentis.

In my humble opinion, the idea of sentimonsters should be scrapped for the following reasons, all of which existed long before the sentitheory was even on my radar:

Sentimonsters are too derivative. They feel like akuma clones and not a unique power. You can tell that the power was only created because they wanted/needed a power that would let the peacock be used at a distance the same way the butterfly is even though no other miraculous works this way.

If you want to do a slavery plot, the kwamis are right there being enslaved. You don't need to add human-looking slaves to the mix. Especially given that many of those human-looking slaves are apparently fine to kill off? Just, the ethics around the way the show does sentimonsters will always make me feel icky. Meanwhile the kwamis don't have the awkward element of being magical constructs that were made to serve. They were a free people before the miraculous. The one way I've played with using Felix is as a kwamis freedom fighter instead of a senti one.

Sentimonsters have too nebulous of a lore. In what way are they emotions brought to life? Outside of Feast, emotions don't seem to effect them at all. Nooroo's powers feel far more emotion based than Dusuu's and it bothers me.

There's also the fact that one of the show's biggest problems is character bloat. No writer alive can write a satisfying story that features a team of 36 characters! (18 humans + 18 kwamis) This is why the kwamis act as a hive mind once Marinette becomes the Guardian. You just can't write that many characters into a scene and keep their personalities straight, so they're now a single unit even though it makes Sass and Wayzz feel out of character.

Give all of that and the way the miracle box is kinda... well, it feels a little too cultural appropriation-ish for my tastes. I won't go on a full rant here, but to give two highlights: the zodiac miraculous don't seem to have a thing to do with the real Chinese zodiac and a box based on Chinese lore would NOT use a black cat for the symbol of bad luck. Black cats being bad luck is relatively modern European lore. In other words, the Chinese stuff is just there for ascetics and not actually representative of Chinese culture, so I had no moral issues scrapping the miracle box and making a much smaller version and neither should you if you're so inclined!

The thing about lore is that it only matters as much as the show makes it matter and, outside of a few key miraculous, I really do think you can change them without most readers caring because of how little the powers actually matter to the show's lore. Like they have completely scrapped the idea of making a person match their miraculous even though that was supposedly a big thing back in season two. This is extra true because it took us so long to learn all the powers in canon, so there are a lot of fics that pre-date the canon reveal and do different things.

But if you want to keep sentimonsters to be more canon accurate, I would consider all of the following as options or things to keep in mind. Feel free to use all or none of them as I'm probably never touching this plot and, if I do, it will doubtless be different from whatever you do:

Doing something to make the difference between valid and non-valid sentimonsters abundantly clear and not just "the creator decides who is valid" OR just don't make any sentimonster valid and have Emilie have used the miraculous out of a desire to help people because she didn't know it would kill her

Have Gabriel be more conflicted about the use of sentimonsters since, you know, his kid is one and Adrien, Felix, and Kagami are the only sentimonsters he dealt with for many, many years

Consider having Nathalie make one sentimonster (maybe even present it as her own child) in order to help Gabriel so it's not a slew of akuma 2.0 on the battlefield. Instead its someone at the school looking for Ladybug and Chat Noir after the villains realize that they're teenagers. (This could be a good way to use Lila and make her powers make sense)

Redo Dusuu's Force or make the tie between sentimonsters and emotions more clear. Like Felix is made from jealousy and Adrien is made from love so that's the source of their conflict

Use Felix as a third, morally neutral party who only cares about sentimonsters and have him act toward those goals like we all thought he was going to after season five. Magneto from X-men should be your template for him not whatever canon did.

Consider letting Kagami know from the start and let her know that she and Adrien are meant to be, but she's not allowed to tell him the truth or something. If you don't go that route then, at the very least, have her finding out be a big deal for her relationship with her mother.

Go all in with Adrien's commands. Gabriel wants Adrien to date Kagami? He's going to date Kagami. None of this Y-7 undo button BS. Go big or go home.

Give the sentimonsters a way to break free. That's what the power of love is supposed to be about. You could go super cheesy with this if you combined it with Adrien's source emotion being love. The literal love child using the thing that made him to overcome what he was made to be to be what he wants to be sounds very fun to me.

Consider giving the senti kids superpowers. It's honestly kinda weird how relatively normal they are. Like, sure, Felix is supposed to be super smart, but we only know that from his Wikipedia and that's about it.

I could go on, but that's a lot, so we'll stop here. Feel free to send additional asks or message me. I have many, many thoughts about how to fix canon while trying to stay true to the core ideas of the story. Or, at least, the things I consider to be the core. I legitimately enjoy the adaption process and think the fun of fanfiction is largely trying to fit alternate takes on canon into the base framework so it still appeals to fans of the source.

[sugar-glaze-donut]

Hii!! <3

If it's alright with you, could do some drabbles/small hcs of the devil butlers who have an aruji-sama who is a long dragon/Chinese dragon? I've been thinking about this concept for a while, I still haven't seen any sort of supernatural MC in this fandom😭 I mean it makes sense since the game MC is supposed to be basically just a self insert of the player, but it would still be nice to see an aruji who's like nonhuman and stuff •w• sorry if I rambled a bit there (T_T)

Why hello Anon! I see you have an interesting request!

In my past few works, I wrote about Aruji-sama who's a devil, an angel and a fairy. But an Aruji-sama who's a Chinese dragon? I LOVE YOUR IDEA!!!

I did a lot of searching about the Chinese dragon, here are the sources I used! - Here! (Please let me know if some information is fake or isn't true!) (Also PLEASE tell me if anything I wrote here is offensive in any kind of way! I don't want to accidentally offend anyone here, I want my readers to feel comfortable reading my writing)

Headcanons under the cut!

Eyes

First of all, I'd like to imagine that Aruji-sama has eyes with a gradient of colours and slitted pupils. Colourful eyes are extremely unusual in the Human world, so Aruji-sama has to hide their identity by wearing colour contacts.

Ever since going to the Akuneko world and seeing the butler's MAJESTIC eyes, Aruji-sama probably thought that taking their contacts off would be a good idea...

But even if colourful eyes aren't unusual in that world, slitted eyes sure are!

▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 🐲 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️

Nac 🗝️: Oh Aruji-sama! Your eyes are stunning as always!

Aruji-sama ❤️: O-oh thanks-

Lucas 🍷: Is this some sort of unusual genetics from your world, Aruji-sama? May I have a closer look?

Aruji-sama ❤️: Yes, of course-

Lamli ⭐: Aruji-sama! Your eyes are sparkly... like, like stars!

Aruji-sama ❤️: *sobbing internally from embarrassment* (from my research, apparently Chinese Dragons are shy? Oh my! I suppose we have another case of slightly insecure and shy Aruji-sama, oh no!)

▪️ ❤️ ▪️ 🐲 ▪️ ❤️ ▪️

Scales and Tails

Just another note about Aruji-sama's appearance! Once they open up to the butlers, I'd like to think that they'd let their appearance slip through their human looks. From their tail suddenly popping out when they're happy, to showing their canine teeth when they're angry.

Think of it as... those Zhongli (from Genshin Impact) or Dan Heng (from Honkai Star Rail) in their half-dragon forms! That's what I imagine Dragon Aruji-sama to look like!

▪️ 🐲 ▪️ 🪭▪️ 🐲

Aruji-sama: Guys... I have to tell you something...

Berrien: Yes? What's wrong Aruji-sama?

Aruji-sama: I'm not human... *shows their dragon features*

The butlers: *gasp* 😯

Miyaji: Aruji-sama...

*insert Miyaji turning into his half-animal form after Aruji-sama unleashes his demon (why the fuck does that sound so wrong??)*

Miyaji: Me too...!

Aruji-sama: aww! *on the verge of tears cause they feel safe in the palace*

(if you know this meme take this 👑)

▪️ 🐲 ▪️ 🪭▪️ 🐲

Fortune and Rain

Last but not least, as Chinese Dragons represent "Good Fortune" and "Strength", I think that Aruji-sama's presence would give extreme luck to every butler in the palace

It can be small, unnoticeable things to unusual and terrifyingly weird events. Like Ammon's roses growing unusually well in bad weather, Nac feeling energized even after he only had a few hours of sleep, and... Haures actually succeeding in making something edible!?

The butlers might freak out (especially because of Haures's case).

And with the power of Google, I have found out that Chinese Dragons are usually associated with water. Occasional rainclouds here and there... oh and nobles slipping on puddles here and there... why is that noble drenched? Wasn't today sunny all day?

▪️ ⭐ ▪️ 🧧 ▪️ ⭐ ▪️

Boschi: Hey Ammon, don't you think things are going a little too well these days?

Ammon: Now that you mention it, that's kinda true...

Fennesz: It's not bad though... we should be on guard in case something happens-

Haures: Hey everybody look! I actually succeded in making cookies :D

Boschi: WHAT THE FUCK-

Ammon: YOU IMPOSTER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE REAL HAURES-SAN!

Fennesz: I'm hallucinating, I'm definitely hallucinating...

Haures: ...do you want to try my cookies at least? :(

...

The rest of the butlers: I feel a disturbance in the force...

Aruji-sama ❤️: a-ACHOO!

▪️ ⭐ ▪️ 🧧 ▪️ ⭐ ▪️

Some random noble: You and your butlers suck! *walks away*

Berrien: Are you alright Aruji-sama? Please don't listen to that noble. I'm sure they-

*Berrien hears a scream in the distance*

Berrien: Oh my! Was that the noble... why are they drenched?

Aruji-sama: *looks away awkwardly* Maybe a puddle just fell on them...

Berrien: Ah, of course, that makes sense- huh? Wait that's not right..

▪️ ⭐ ▪️ 🧧 ▪️ ⭐ ▪️

🍩Side note for anon: I hope I was able to get your request right! Sorry it took me so long to write this... 🍩

Last edited - January 29th 2024

✦ Want to read more of my works? Come and take a look at my Masterlist! Have a nice day, toodles! ✦

[thisisapaige]

Tagged by @mercurialkitty. Thanks! This was fun :-)

20 Questions for Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 59

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 645,479

3. What fandoms do you write for? Just Supernatural. I have the brainworms and they are in the shape of Thee One and Only Castiel.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

stay, In Just Saying It, Non Solum, Still Waters Run Deep, Sleeping Together

5. Do you respond to comments? Most of them. I do get kind of overwhelmed (with love and joy) if someone comments on all the chapters as they read, so I'll often reply to their final comment. And if the comments are rude, I ignore them (doesn't happen often, but it has).

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Thee fic that started it all: Empty Spaces. A bold choice for my first posting, lol. At least I wrote a sequel? :-P

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Probably Something Blue. I wrapped that up with a bow. As a commenter wrote, "Holy happy ending, Batman!!!!!"

8. Do you get hate on fics? Mmmmm, not sure I'd call it hate but I did have a commenter who wasn't happy with the direction The Angel went in. Thankfully, they figured out the fic wasn't to their tastes and decided to leave halfway through.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yeah. It's fun to write but, whew, very difficult to edit, lol. As for what kind... somewhat-idealized- romantic-everyone-has-a-good-time-and-feels-their-feelings kind of smut, I think. Most of the time... Murder the World was a lot more angsty.

10. Do you write crossovers? Nah. I don't really have the fic bug for other fandoms.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yup! A couple in Russian and one in Chinese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No. I don't know if I'd be able to. I don't think I'd be a very good partner :-P. I don't even like a beta to look at my stuff 'till the draft is done and I read it though a couple times.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? It's the DeanCas of it all.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? The Path of the Righteous Man (my reverse verse fic) is like, my white whale. I keep going back to it and never adding a single word. The block is strong on that one.

16. What are your writing strengths? Introspection and action. Both are sooooo fun.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Dialogue. UGH. Dialogue. How do people talk? Hell if I know.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Sure. My monolingual ass won't, though.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Posted? SPN. Written on loose leaf paper as a tiny child, which has been lost to the ages (thank goodness)? Final Fantasy VII.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? This is a mean, mean question. I cannot chose one! I cannot! So have a selection (answer subject to change in 30 seconds):

stay for being my fix it that allowed me to continue enjoying the show after that fiasco of an ending.

The Angel for being the fantasy epic I always wanted to write.

insi(de an)d outside for being some of my strongest writing.

Still Waters Run Deep for being my first bang and also because I have prints of the art reafre made and that still blows my mind.

Something Blue because it took me on a very personal journey (and also I just posted it so it's fresh in my mind).

I *could* probably post most of my fic, honesty. I like my stuff. I wrote them for me, after all.

Tagging: @angelcasendgame @hornystiel @wormstacheangel @bloodydeanwinchester if you so chose to participate!

[wangmiao]

im a honky ass white girl who's never watched any chinese cinema before apart from some wong kar-wai films - and I had never seen any chinese television! - but im superrrr into sci-fi, so that's how i ended up reading three-body. only found out about the tencent adaptation / cdrama last week!! I started watching it with engsubs just out of curiosity... it's soooo much better than the netflix adaptation wtf. like it's not even close!!! the respect for source material and the fact the cdrama actually improves on the book by fleshing out the characters more?? im losing my mind. netflix could never.

anyway. please keep up the great content, we must let the world know ✊✊✊ sorry for my strange message out of the blue.

(shiwang 5eva btw. but I only speak/read english so cannot read any of the fics... crying myself to sleep at night.)

hello friend! thank you so much for sending in this ask! i'm so glad that people who are not familiar with cdramas can still enjoy tencent's three-body <3! and you are so right about the characters in this adaptation even liu cixin himself thought so:

so if you already like wang miao from the novel, you have to try this tv adaptation!!! every other main character is well rounded too. and the decision to add a lot more to the relationship development between shi qiang and wang miao is a wise choice as well (shiwang 5ever indeed!!!). it is something that is not very focused on in the novel, but it totally makes sense, and it's a lot better than adding any other types of relationship to other characters.

also thank you for liking my content and the encouragement! i'll try my best. sometimes it's really hard for me to deal with a tiny fandom xD, and i'd take breaks before i'm mentally strong enough to post again, but i'm glad to see that some old fans are active again and we are getting new fans! i really hope that more international viewers will get into this show, and maybe there'd be more english shiwang fanfics.

and i'd like to use the chance to clarify to new fellow fans that i do post about other cdrama (occasionally kdrama) stuff even though a large portion will still be zhang luyi and yu hewei (shiwang's actors) related. if you are only here for three-body, it is very understandable. you can follow my three-body post archive @shiqiangs instead, or use the directory/tag list to look for old three-body posts yourself.

[tryhardgwen]

so i write about lec pros now apparently

this is daysie's fault! but like, lovingly. i cant believe i wrote about lec pros before i wrote about lcs pros. im supposed to be an na-lck fan. what happened.

here you go !! this is a bo/photon bc .. vit got eliminated, my friend was sad, so i set off to write a fic abt them for her. i knew about boton before because i read their fics, and i watched that cooking video because UM OF COURSE I DID. in the process of writing this i fell kinda in love with them because? they're so cute????? and domestic?? and stfu??? anyway i will continue with thoughts and stuff below yay.

title is from lizzy mcalpine's apple pie. just domesticity vibes i guess, and food. i was almost going to name it "ripe red heart" from strawberry by twice, but lizzy won.

for the foods: 1. jellyfish/haepari naengchae with vermicelli rice noodles for the "funfact" i made carzzy thing. i just wanted something humorous. jellyfish was the first thing i could think of so i googled a fun fact and a dish and yay! it all worked out. 2. fettuccine chicken alfredo bc idk. i wanted to like make it a diverse selection of foods from other cultures so i went fuck it, pasta. lets go. 3. hotpot: as a chinese person who eats hotpot like at least once a month at home i had a score to settle with the haidilao goers. bit of a t1 fandom thing, but i am a t1 fan so i rest my case. HOMEMADE HOTPOT>>> tyvm. 4. bramboráky is because i just... wanted to use the "this is tax for cultural appropriation" line. i figured it was in line with carzzy's character, so i went and googled czech dishes and settled on it. 5. chinese beef and broccoli stir fry with rice because (i say this in the fic) it's a chinese dish for bo and bo's favorite food is meat (according to this video i watched anyway) 6. finally, budae jjigae because of this video. of course. also, Korean dish for photon, its a comfort food, yeah.

anyway i guess i dont have a whole lot to say about this. i hope nobody is too ooc; i tried! i watched a whole bunch of content and fell into a rabbit hole lmao.

[olderthannetfic]

thank you for your answer.

i did watch the yin yang master movies a couple of months ago. i remember the discourse when people called it 'xianxia'.

im actually familiar with the five phases! It came up in a korean novel that uses elements from various mythology, this particular thing in relation to a mythological exorcist. i considered that i might have mistaken it for that but i didn't think so.

another thing that feels similar to pentagrams is the '8 gates' (2 of which were life and death but I don't remember the rest?) i read in a xianxia novel, tho the writers could have made that up for the plot heh.

--

Oh, that's interesting!

I know I whined about people not understanding my little fandom, but I didn't realize "It's not xianxia! AAAAAAH!" was more widespread than that.

I even had a Chinese-speaking friend go snoop around in Chinese fan discussions to make sure they all thought DoE was set in Japan and I wasn't insane.

The big issue is that onmyoudou/onmyouji canons are still historical fantasy, they're heavily daoist, and they're from an era of Japanese history when the aesthetics often look pretty Chinese to a modern eye. All that samurai and zen rock garden minimalism stuff shows up centuries later. This is full on penis hat-wearing, blinged out Heian period.

(One of my favorite things about historical costume dramas is how dumb historical hats look. I love them so much.)

The Heian period was basically trying to rip off Tang Dynasty China super hard, and a lot of Chinese fantasy uses Tang Dynasty shit too. Not to mention all of the "real" esoteric shit and traditional medicine and such is going to look the same even in a modern Chinese media that isn't overtly magical.

So if you're coming to Dream of Eternity or the other YYM based on the video game from being an Untamed fan or whatever, it's extremely non-obvious what's going on here.

Dream of Eternity in particular is in conversation with the two Japanese movie adaptations of Yumemakura's novels. Things like the sexy exorcism are drawn directly from there. I read some translated interviews where they straight up said they were referencing them a lot.

There are obviously both dragons and big snakes in Chinese mythology. However, my impression is that DoE was trying to reference Yamata no Orochi, though not very directly. The princess is pretty clearly Yao Bikuni. Qingming (Seimei) has shikigami, including a tengu. The thing with the demon playing a lute is a classic Japanese story that takes place at the Rashomon gate.

It's not like you couldn't have infinite stories about demons stealing important Asian-style lutes set in China. It's just that if you're familiar with the rest of this franchise and with historical Japanese writings, you recognize that story as coming straight from the Konjaku Monogatarishuu.

[i-have-dots-in-my-brain]

ayup mates, its me!!!!11

Call me dots or dot (not correct but when saying something belongs to me you use "dot's". idk why don't ask me)

TAGS : my art (self explanatory), dot's thoughts (mad ramblings) (extra note, there are two versions of dot's thoughts, the other one is with the phone version of ' so you can go look for that if you wanna see me posting from outside the comfort of my room and computer), dot’s travel journal (me on holiday). *prone to updates

fandom tags are ridden with reblogs, i am very sorry lol

if you wanna find my (mostly serious) art, check out @dots-in-my-head (send me asks and dms on this blog) also i have started putting fandom stuff there too so if you want to get my fandom doodles you can look to there as well

dumbass who likes to draw ocs and shit. (posts like there is no tomorrow but also like i have all the time in the world)

still questioning sexuality but currently aro/ace? (idk i'm not in a rush lol)

my loveley husband (@octoxxt, pls ignore this blog dude its embarrassing)

She/they (why do you need to know my age, you a cop?)

will not draw smut or NSFW bcs i will start howling with racous laughter and melt. (i don;t even read smut in fic dude what do expect me to be able to draw??? im a cartoonish anime style inspired artist you put your hopes too high if you think i can draw a dick without making it look like a piece of middle school desk graffiti)

i've got a bit of a dirty mouth but everything is vanilla

Makes lots of headcanons and will make art for the headcanons, accepts asks but no nsfw

please talk to me god i am lonely (i am serious about this i love it when people rb and scream in the tags it genuinely makes my day)

Absolute art machine(whether the art is good or not is a big question that i am not ready to answer)

makes shitty animations sometimes

Uses lol too much

Chinese, knows mandarin (translate the random messages for maximum brain damage) i don't know simplified but i do know traditional

am i a furry? idk but if you're mad about it you can fuck right off

am currently inbetween fandoms

fandoms i am (kind of) active in are hetalia, scp, dnd, genshin, pjo, bg3, apothecary diaries, jrwi riptide and csm (list is prone to updating because fandom is my support system)

old fandoms or the fandoms i lurk in (i visit them often): eddsworld, demon slayer, pokemon, vocaloid and wof. (also prone to updates as i remember stuff)

note : i am still in school and have a life outside the internet so stuff will be delayed (which is why i am only kind of active)

Do not say anything about how cringe I am I know trust me (it’s a coping mechanism lol)

if you're concerned, you're very right to be

I am very incoherent (most of my life updates have actually devolved into cries for help, please talk to me)

also if you don't like my art or ships its okay just please don't tell me, just leave or go to a blog you like (any critique about anything i make shoots a bazooka straight into my heart and behind the screen i crumble into a cartoonish pile of ashes and bones as i stare at the screen blurred by tears) (unless I ask for critique then I just go “cool I didn’t realise that”)

i am serious about that i will actually take it as a personal insult and cry behind the screen, please dont

[lucidboba]

This is a vent post on the Lego Monkie Kid fandom and the show. I am in no way an expert on the Journey To The West book so take this with a grain of salt.

I am honestly so sick of the Lego Monkie Kid fandom spreading misinformation around and claiming they know everything about JTTW Sun Wukong as a character when half of them don't even read the book and just get their information from OSP JTTW and LMK.

OSP on their podcast already said they left out a lot of stuff from the book for their videos as it's a summary and might have made Sun Wukong seem more impulsive then he actually are and they encouraged more people to read the book instead so I don't blame them.

What I blame is the part of the fandom that keeps on acting like they know everything when they just watch a short summary of a very long and complex book.

I get it, LMK is different from JTTW and change the original story a lot as it's a kids show. You shouldn't have to read the book just to enjoy the show. But you shouldn't spread misinformation around about the actual book just because you heard it from somewhere and did little to nothing research and just read a couple of short analysis.

This happens mostly to Sun Wukong as there are people saying he was unjustly punished and he didn't do anything wrong or people saying he was a moster demon spawn that deserve his punishment even when Guan Yin had to step in to intervene or people saying he was dumb, entire personality is being impulsive.

He is the Intelligent Stone monkey, the Monkey of the Mind, the monkey that have knowledge of ancient medicine and cured a king, the monkey that almost managed to sued the Devarāja Li if not for the Gold Star Of Venus's intervene, ment to represent the mind in all it's clever chaotic glory. he was one of the top students under Patriarch Puti for goodness sake and was the one who solves most of their problems on the journey. He has his moments of being impulsive and dumb but not nearly as much as people might think.

Not to mention their favoritism of the Six Eared Macaque, they baby him as if he wasn't the representation of what Sun Wukong would be like if he actually didn't have any control and just did whatever he wanted. Now LMK Macaque actually is trying to help MK in season 4 which I am very happy about, but JTTW and LMK are very different. So please, if you want to say JTTW Macaque did nothing wrong, don't use LMK as source.

Now the show have some flaws that I feel need to be adress. The show deviates from the actual book a lot which I have no problems with as it's a kids show but how much deviations are you allowed to have to the point of being an bad representation of the actual book. They said they consulted Chinese experts on the book which sometimes you can tell but other times, it just doesn't feel like it.

But there are also some fans that spread nonsense around and because they have a lot of followers everyone just believes them without more research. It made the show just feel like another bad adaptation in a sea of plastics that just so happens to float above the rest of the bad adaptations the book have gone through.

Which is a shame, you can tell a lot of thought and hard work have been put in the show with it's stellar animation, amazing voice acting, beautiful soundtracks and some actual moments that can put you to tears. But I wish the fandom would stop taking information from the show and stop saying it's exactly like the book. It made just enjoying the show and interacting with the good part of the fandom with it's beautiful fanart and great discussions harder to enjoy when all you can think about are the inaccuracies people are spewing around about the actual book.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my long rant. I really needed to get this of my chest.😮‍💨

I might rephrase this at a later date if I'm unhappy with it.

[meraki-yao]

There's this one pretty active member in the Chinese rwrb fandom who's a forensic scientist and her posts are a delight to read because she really... knows how to bring her professional knowledge into fan content

Including but not limited to analysing what caused the rope mark in one of yesterday's Geroge Villiers photos (answer: he was hanged by the neck while standing, she even deduced what type of rope was used), analysing Nick's skull shape to scientifically prove why we perceive him as babygirl, analysing Taylor's muscle strength, and analysing the boys'... *cough size *cough there's an actual mathematic formula for that why humanity why

There are some stuff from her posts that are things I thought I would maybe learn in anatomy class but here we are

Again, and I need to reiterate it, this is done all in good fun though! She says she's the kind of personal who can't turn off her work brain which brought her here.

She's 十五斤麻辣小龙虾 on Weibo if you're Chinese-speaking and want to check it out! Don't expect me to translate these ones it's far too academic for my baby translation skills 🤣

[tavina-writes]

Have you any suggestions for someone who has started recently (few months ago) to publish fics on ao3 and doesn't get a lot of hits/kudos? I feel a little down and insecure, and I don't know if it's my writing the problem or the fact that the pair is not the main and not liked much

Hi Nonny!

This is a difficult conflict to have with yourself, and I'm sure that like, you've seen all the posts about how like "you should be self indulgent! you should write for yourself! who cares about engagement!" and this both is and isn't true. But also even if you think it is true and you'd like to get some of that energy it's very difficult and for that sending you so many hugs. It is very normal to feel insecure about sharing something you've made, and I think writers of all levels of experience and "engagement" feel down about themselves like this in cycles.

idk if I'm qualified to say a ton on this topic, but I've seen lots of "unhealthy relationship to stats page" and could tell real stories about horrible things that have happened so I guess here goes nothing?

A few things to keep in mind:

what do you consider "not a lot" ? 10? 100? 1000? One of the major problems of focusing overtly on hits/kudos/comments/and other things you can't change is that inevitably if you achieve the "number of your dreams" you will....get a new number that you want. It will be bigger. Chasing this type of external numbers based validation to the exclusion of other stuff is very difficult because it is one of those sliding slope black holes to never being satisfied with what is currently going on. This is my primary thought on why focusing on stats isn't very good: it's very easy to get into a never ending cycle of never being happy.

as someone who's written for several years: we're coming up on the winter holidays, end of the semester, winter break type time period in many parts of the world but esp for northern hemisphere english speaking fandom, so if you're seeing a decrease in hits/kudos/comments/the feeling that someone out there is reading your work in general, this could play a big role. If you've only been publishing for the last few months the first time this happens can be really jarring! But it has nothing to do with the quality of your writing or if people are interested in reading and everything to do with brickspace taking up a lot of time right now. (I imagine this might also be true for Chinese speaking fandom around New Years, but I can't say since I don't engage there very often to notice trends.)

Depending on the fandom, (which, unless you, like me, are into Naruto which seems to thrive on niche AUs from now until forever), main pairings/fandom popular juggernauts will always get more people reading than a rarepair. That doesn't mean the people who write for rarepairs are doing a bad job or that writing for a rarepair isn't rewarding to the writer in other ways, but that may mean modulating expectations on like "how many people will click on my work?" and "how much feedback will I get?"

So overall, I feel like there's a combination of factors here for why you might be feeling down, but there are ways to help with this!

For one: talking about your writing and your work and what you're doing! This, I've found, is a great way to make friends. (also to anyone who says that this is obnoxious and attention seeking, this is the attention seeking webbed site, if you don't want attention why are you here????)

For two: locate friends and yell your thoughts at them <- I have found this to be 100% a mood picker upper when it comes to "am I doing a good job at writing?"

For three: find what makes you really happy about your own writing! This doesn't mean that you have to seek to improve your writing, but just, stuff that you enjoy, a line you really like, a relationship you enjoyed, a fic you thought was nice, and be kind to yourself about it.

Again, sending you hugs nonny! I hope some of this helps!

[sparklyslug]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @aidaronan and @softbrah thank yewwwwwww!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

50!!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

405,752

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now it's all Stranger Things, all the time baby. But you never know when the madness might strike for something new. Or re-strike for something I thought I was done with haha.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In Focus (Check Please) Up the Punks (Stranger Things) we're gonna fight til we do it right (Check Please) If you want him, come and claim him (Stranger Things) t'hy'la (Stranger Things)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I'm usually really good about it for the first day or so after a fic has posted, and then I kind of.... fall off with it usually. I read all comments! I appreciate all comments! Usually what happens is I see the email notif on my phone, mentally go "ah I will craft a perfectly thoughtful and appreciative and stirring response to this later when I have time to do it justice!" and then I do not do that.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The one that comes to mind is a fic I wrote for the Hobbit, hands too small to hold it, which is an AU where everyone lives but Bilbo still has the ring and the events of LOTR are still barreling towards them.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Let Us Dwell in Fair Ithilien and There Make a Garden with @greenlikethesea is ONE BIG MASSIVE HAPPY ENDING (after 10+years of tragic angsty pining but w/e). I also wrote a little happy family ever after Garak/Bashir for Star Trek DS9, between the noise.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

noooo it's never happened! If I'm getting hate it's behind my back ahaha who knows what goes down in y'alls discords, that’s none of my business! Im a Leo and I work in marketing, so I am not terribly tortured by that kind of thing ahahaha

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

SURE DO! I don't know what "what kind" means. The smut kind. I've done closed door fade to black, I've done some explicit stuff, I try to give you range baby.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I LOVE A CROSSOVER! Star Trek/Stranger Things is pretty crazy. My current project is Stranger Things/You've Got Mail put in a blender with Supernatural, so that's decently zany too.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I thought Quorum had been translated into Chinese, but I can't find any evidence of it, so might be all in my head ahaha.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I love to collaborate with folks! When the creative chemistry is right it's RIGHT, and it's so fun to ping-pong ideas and paragraphs back and forth. I co-wrote Check Please fics with @softbrah, have written a universe of Stranger Things fic with @greenlikethesea, and it's all been a blast. Me and @aidaronan are cooking up some ideas, if the two of us can ever stop signing up for bangs and things long enough to get to em.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Well of course I will say Steddie right now because I've been living here for over a year and a half. It truly does have just the most delicious dynamic, however the setup and wherever you take their characterizations.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't know if I'll ever finish my Vampire Eddie immediately post-canon fic, I didn't have much direction with it, just Vibes.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think I'm good with atmospheric sensory details, it's something I really care about when writing at least. I definitely enjoy dialogue, too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes are hard, and I struggle with nailing (heh) the physicality of sex scenes. My haters in their discords are welcome to chime in here 😂😂

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I have no thoughts in particular. If it works in the fic and you've made sure your translation is right if you're not fluent in that language, hell yeah.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Lord of the Rings. You will never see this fic.

N E V E R.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

IT IS REALLY HARD TO CHOSE AMONGST MY CHILDREN. I put a lot of my heart into I was open to pain and crossed by the rain (Wayne Munson my beloved) and I'm really proud of what I did with that one. I truly wrote Can't We Be Seventeen knowing it was really just for me, to scratch one of those desperate writing itches after an intense period of fixating on the Heathers musical soundtrack, and I really like that fic too.

Tagging @occasionaloverboy@greenlikethesea @thefreakandthehair @henrystars @capriciouslyterminal

[khizuo]

intro post!

commission info | art blog

hello! i'm khizuo on the internet. i post art and other stuff. read the whole post before following.

chinese settler on turtle island

19

they/them and ze/zir pronouns in english; 他/X也 pronouns in chinese

trans genderqueer (tme), aspec bi

i have ocd (with stigmatized themes) and i am adhd/autistic. feel free to talk to me but please keep these things in mind if you do because they do tangibly affect the way i interact on the internet

for the end of settler colonialism, capitalism, imperialism through revolutionary action

decolonization is not a metaphor. death to all settler colonies on stolen land

covid isn't over, it's an airborne mass disabling event and if you don't take the precautions available to you you will not like my blog

vegan for total liberation

shoot me a dm or ask if you need me to tag anything

if you like my art, please check out my ko-fi! all funds i raise there will go into community care and building a safer, financially independent life for myself. or commission me!!

all new followers must be 17+. all minors following must block the tag "minors don't look" and confirm that you have blocked the tag by liking this post, or you will be blocked.

fandoms, tags, and more below the cut. read the whole post before following.

interests that you may find on this blog: mcyt, diy music/clothing, punk music, post-punk and related genres, alternative fashion, hanfu, and more.

(i used to be a big dsmp fan and i may talk about that time sometimes so if you have 'dsmp fans dni' in your bio i recommend you don't follow me lol. if you want to follow me but don't want to see me talk about it, block the tag 'd/smp'. that being said, fuck the dteam)

additionally: as a non-Black poc and gentile who is thin, tme, light-skinned, and able-bodied, as well as a fairly low support needs autistic and not intellectually disabled, i benefit from anti-Blackness, anti-Semitism, fatphobia, transmisogyny, colorism, and ableism against physically and intellectually disabled folks. if i do anything to perpetuate these systems of harm, please call me out. i will take full accountability.

pr0shippers and dream/dteam supporters do not interact with me. I block liberally.

personal tags:

my text — original post tag

my art — original art tag

my analysis — original meta tag

about me — where I talk about anything somewhat personal

khizuo reads — my reading tag for quotes and thoughts

khizuo diys things — where I talk about diy and share my upcycling/diy work!

khizuo talks music — my music rambles tag

khizuo talks vocaloid — my vocaloid rambles tag

khizuo_irl — irl tag

khizuo plays minecraft — my minecraft rambles tag

khizuo vents — for personal vents. may include triggering topics (especially when my ocd gets involved) so filter if you don’t want to see them. these posts will usually also be tagged with “don’t reblog”, and they’re not okay to reblog unless I specify with the tag “okay to reblog”.

like this post once you have read it!

[spurious]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

Thank you for the tag, @wonkyelk & @sga-owns-my-soul!

How many works do you have on AO3?

103, a number which recently shot up due to me posting all of my random tumblr ficlets to my AO3 account lmao. Previously it was, like, 70.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

267,356

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently it's pretty much all SGA all the time over here. I am enjoying dabbling in Genshin when the mood strikes though, love the yuripeans <3

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Twenty Questions

Ink and Wings

Five Times Rodney (and John) Visit the Millers

Solitary in a Wide Flat Space

Abercrombie & Rodney

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I try to, at least, though sometimes my responses are painfully delayed. I like hearing what people think about a story, I want them to know their comments are loved and appreciated, and sometimes you end up getting into a discussion like back in the Good Old Days on LJ.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Man I really do not write a ton of stuff that doesn’t end happily /just went through all my fics

Angstiest ending of things I've posted is probably either the Kanjani superheroes AU or the apocalypse akame fic? Has my tolerance for writing lengthy angst lessened with age?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

As I said above, most of my stuff seems to have relatively happy endings. If I were to pick I might say O I Think We Should Be Brethren, because it takes the longest and hardest journey to the ending, which makes it feel more impactful to me.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got one "hate" comment on the Kanjani cannibalism fic from someone who thought I was sick and needed therapy, or something to that effect. Otherwise, nope.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes. I would say my smut wheelhouse is kinky porn with feelings, I guess?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I do not.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I believe one or two of my fics in Johnny's fandom were translated into Russian and/or Chinese?

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Not to completion!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

how dare you make me choose between my children

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Story I started for a fic exchange in, like, god...2014 or so? In which Yoko kisses Hina, then hits his head and wakes up in a world that's just a shamelessly silly amalgam of J-drama tropes. Sometimes I read through the doc and go "man i wish the author would update"

16. What are your writing strengths?

Sensory description, wanky poetic bullshit, smut, scenes with no more than two people in them, banter-y dialogue

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Endings, complex plots, ensemble casts, scenes with three or more people in them, transitions, being a complete baby about taking criticism, endings, endings

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don't see a reason for it? You either need to add a gloss with a translation (if your POV character and audience are intended to understand it), at which point you may as well just write "Screw you, McKay," Zelenka said in Czech; or you want it to be incomprensible to the reader, at which point you may as well just write Zelenka muttered something in Czech as he stomped away. If your reader happens to understand the language you've written in and you're not confident in it, they'll be annoyed by the weird grammar you've gotten from google translating it, and even if you are, you're losing the effect of someone having said something that your POV character shouldn't understand.

......................apparently I have an Opinion on this? who knew.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Cardcaptor Sakura, when I was like 13? I may have posted it on FF.net but if there's a god it's been lost to the sands of time. I do not think it was very good.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Shouldn't be surprising at this point for me to pick O I Think We Should Be Brethren for this, right? I just think it's neat.

Tagging (I've seen this one circulate a fair bit so apologies if you've been multiple-tagged): @audioletter @sparrowsarus @texasdreamer01 @luredin @alienfuckeronmain

[mxtxfanatic]

i thought i'll answer privately. i saw you're questioning how valid are hunxi's metas, so i went and took a look, obviously only a few of them and not all. i think the linguistic meta i read is good, world building/culture/other stuff she sometimes have a disclaimer at the top saying she doesn't know and did internet research, she writes mostly cdrama meta so i didn't read those. all in all i think she's pretty good, but still read it with a pinch of salt, and she tells you when she doesn't know a topic, which i think is the most important thing.

Ah, the reason I added my misgivings in the tags is because I heard that hunxi might have been one of the original BNF accounts responsible for the pervasive fanon in the mdzs fandom. I’ve seen quite a few “fanon is canon” mdzs BNFs be (or at least appear) really knowledgeable about Chinese culture and cnovel genres, but it makes me feel weird that they do seem to be so knowledgeable while using their status as an expert to spread falsehoods about a specific work.

But also, I’ve never followed that person, specifically, and I do not know what they’ve actually done or said, so I’m running on “better safe than sorry.” Also, always having multiple sources of information helps with being able to catch when one might be biased on a certain topic, anyways.