Wishing you could specifically block/mute a fic series on ao3 because you like the authors other works but you hate that one fic series they're also writing.

Lots of good posts about the AO3 situation going around and I just want to add:

If you find that you are distressed about not being able to access the stories that you love, tell the authors of those stories once the archive is up again! Tell them you missed them, tell them you were in the middle of one of their fics when it went down and not being able to click the Next Chapter button was agonizing, tell them all of the things you appreciate about their writing. If you're relying on artists (that includes fanfic writers!) for joy or comfort or pleasure or distraction or any other positive experience, they want to hear about it! That will make them happy, too!

Every once in a while I get asked about whether particular pairings are problematic, or if it’s allowed to like/dislike a specific pairing, and ultimately I think my advice is the same no matter what pairing it is: you have to make your own decisions for whether you like it or not instead of leaving it up to the discretions of others.

And this seems obvious! You would think that it goes without saying that you should base your opinion on your own taste and boundaries! But the saddest part is that it doesn’t— ive seen people who are obviously interested in a pairing defer to the “popular” opinion that it’s the worst ship under the sun, solely because they don’t want to be judged for it. Alternatively, I’ve also seen people claim that you’re not allowed to be uncomfortable with any aspect of a particular ship, and bend over backwards to pretend that there’s nothing unhealthy about it at all, when it’s perfectly reasonable for people to have different opinions on the subject. Ultimately, this rhetoric leaves people unable to form and enforce their own boundaries, and it’s kind of sad to see?

Like, I have plenty of pairings that I’m personally not a fan of, but I’m never going to pretend that my personal discomfort means that other people aren’t allowed to enjoy them, yk? I just keyword mute the terms and move on with my life.

Similarly, I also have pairings that I enjoy that I know have aspects that can make others uncomfortable! And I’m not going to push those onto people that I know might not like them, since I can respect that we have different tastes.

It makes me rather worried that fandom has gotten to the point where people aren’t encouraged to make their own decisions on what they can handle, but instead have to defer to the majority opinion… it’s isolating, isn’t it? To only allow yourself to be surrounded by those who share the exact same opinions on every pairing as you? How will you ever grow if you can’t handle differing opinions from your friends? I know it’s difficult, but it’s a journey everyone has to take eventually until they win the idgaf war

As much as a free website it is, it's good to have the courtesy of not leaving tags of another ship on making a post about a precise ship. It's particularly distasteful when the original post's ship is on the rare side and people of more popular one barge in to make that post about their own ship in tags. Like sure no one can tell you not to do something but this is some little human courtesy in my opinion

Me when the tags aren’t working on things that take me forever to make:

İ want to messily rant about something which is the way this fandom treats canon ships.

Ships like aoikane are so very obviously canon from both sides (Aoi is so obviously inlove with Akane if you don't see that you have zero media literacy im sorry) yet they keep getting hate left and right, in some platforms (cough cough, twitter, cough) you will get jumped if you say you enjoy it.

Meanwhile a ship like mitsukou gets a completely different light and is just, you are auto expected to like it just because its canon? Just that, whenever someone brings up not liking mitsukou its just "BUT İTS CANON!!!!" who genuienely cares? İ straight up just don't like their dynamic im not too big on right person wrong time unless specific settings/an au

And it irritates me how those same people will deny aoikane or teruaoi or even Sakura's obvious pan/bi coding despite them being so obviously canon

And that behavior just pisses me off so much because in everyother fandom of ever, not enjoying a canon ship is completely normal and not a big offense but in tbhk fandom its a whole another story. And that makes me even more judgemental towards mitsukou because its fans are so annoying about it being canon.

İ am not fucking getting up everyday praying for mitsukou to not be canon because lets be honest it pretty much is. And i hate how these people are just so sticky to it thinking a ship can be liked just because its canon.

so people are starting to Know about gradley

I wanted to check my wordcount for the year so I made VERY sure not to look higher up in the list of my AO3 stats which makes sure I don't feel too awful.

Unfortunately the total amassed hit count number is below the word count number so I still feel a little depressed about it... (':

every time I check my saved ao3 tag of murai/yatora and see that there is Actually! A! Work! I go batshit... it's the best thing ever

what do y’all think is worse: having a rarepair with a couple fics that you really like, or having a more common pair where you dislike most of the fic?

I have certain ships in Genshin that would probably get me cancelled on Twitter which is a terrifying thought

23 and 24 teehee

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

i wouldn't say unwillingly, but ronance! it's just one of those ships that i didnt really think about until i got more involved with fandom and then was like "oh yeah, it doesnt matter how much they've interacted i can do whatever i want" (because before that point i was so focused on making people like me i didnt wanna do anything that would make people not like me)

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

any sort of sexuality discourse really, but in my experience headcanonning characters as bisexual and then having them in m/f presenting relationships......... the biphobia that EXUDES from people when that happens is unreal and so upsetting to me

choosing violence ask game

let's see how far my reach can go with this: send me an ask with genshin impact ship (or platonic!) fic ideas (sfw pls) and I'll write little scenes I come up with ^^

So yeah, not sure if I'll put anything up directly on ao3 (might depend on how treatment goes) but I've been going through wrist and hand issues since last summer, which translated to tingling aches over the holidays, and now numbness and weakness in both hands. I got a study last week that confirmed double carpal tunnel, and I should be discussing severity and treatment options on Thursday, but for now, the point is that's probably been affecting my writing motivation before I was even aware of it. Even with voice-to-text, it's hard to get really into writing with that.

...That SAID, I can't entirely blame my hands for my hiatus. Been watching a lot of games and been busy with family, ~and~ coming back from seeing PotO has my headspace soundly on that. Been revisiting ol' rps and just brainstorming stuff, building would-be stories in my head, even if the thought of writing for phandom solo is overwhelming new territory. Especially since my Erik/Meg otp and 15+ years of headcanons would be beyond niche, and big plans = dedication I likely cannot give (see above wrist drama). Especially since I AM dedicated to finishing A Truth So Strong when I can. But that doesn’t stop me from binging musical songs and mentally organizing thoughts and trying to translate old headcanons into more mainstream phan friendly ideas, and initially balking and then coming to love the idea of a Meg-Raoul friendship. pouty puppy & bratty big sis ftw. (even though he's older. shush.)

It's so lovely honestly seeing somebody who is REALLY into this ship but the ship is like the rarepair of rarepairs so they go nuts over every little crumb. It tides them over for the next two months

And also this additional perk of this jp-only artist that ALSO draws them so beautifully❤️👌

Mute button on AO3 my beloved