anyways i havent settled on a suitable understanding of ghosts within the dp universe which is REALLY hindering my writing about it

Listen. I love the dcxdp crossover. It’s a lot of fun! There’s so much that can be done for this crossover, with all the characters and settings and the many plots that can spring up from them. But as much as I love writing for it and sharing my fics with the community, there’s been a significant uptick in things that are rubbing me the wrong way. Some of these things have to do with canon vs fanon, but others are more about the shifting culture of the community.

(keep in mind that I only see things on Tumblr and am not in any discords, so my experience will be different from others bc I have a more limited experience with the wider community)

(putting it all under a read more bc its long)

Let’s start off with a look at what we’re doing as a group:

Building off of completed fics on tumblr: I always thought the etiquette is to not build off of a completed work without permission. Someone had an idea and executed it, then shared it with us. It should end there. If you want to add to it, contact the author first and see if it’s something they’re fine with; some will say no, some will say yes, some will say yes but be sure to credit them for the original fic. A lot of what I’m seeing is a completed fic gets added on to in a way that completely takes it away from the original idea. Having experienced this myself (on a requested prompt from someone else, no less), I found it kind of rude. Maybe it’s just me, but a completed fic is not a prompt request or something open for building up another story around. It’s already completed. Leave the story as is and let the author know you liked it.

Expecting others to write for you: the prompts are what build this crossover fandom, in my eyes. Prompts are posted and people create something around them, either as a group by adding onto what other people are saying, or as individual fics that one person wrote. Now I’m seeing people throw out prompts that are basically fic outlines, then begging others to write something for it. Like, those prompts are already written! They have very specific details! Why not write it yourself? You’re already halfway there, you can just write the thing you want to see and post it. It’s not about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at writing, it’s about crafting an idea to share to the world. Why ask others to write it for you when you’ve already practically done it?

But also, you are not owed fic. This might just be general fandom burn out talking, but being a fic author who has been treated like a machine? It sucks. I love writing, but I share what I write because what I wrote made me happy and I wanted to share that with others. I’m not a content creating machine who has to pump out fic after fic for other people’s entertainment. I just want to share what I love and having people pop up in my notifs only going “write more/tag me/sequel?/etc” is tiring. I get that it’s coming from a place of love bc you liked the fic enough to want to see more, but please actually talk about what I’ve already written instead of going “update? More? MORE????”

Hostility to DC canon: I get that DC canon is a mess, but it still is a canon and has a lot of cool stuff! I’m seeing a lot of posts recently about how dpxdc people refuse to engage with the comics, and I need to let yall know that this is not a new thing. DC fans also refuse to engage with the comics (it’s mostly batfam) and it’s very easy to tell who has and who hasnt ready batfam related stuff bc the fanon is incredibly wrong about characterisation and what happened in comics. But that’s for a different post.

I’m seeing both sides of the argument (this is for fun, reading comics isn’t required, don’t like don’t read vs it’s tiring seeing people butcher my favorite characters into ocs with their name/face, I want to share my love for comics but there’s so much pushback, it shouldn’t be weird to expect people engaging with a media to have actually engaged with that media). And I think you should engage with comics! DP is a unique case in which fanon is for the most part better and more interesting than the original show (also death to the author/butch hartman), but DC comics shouldn’t be engaged with in that way. If you like the characters you see in dpxdc, you should read about them in comics! The whole point of a fandom is that you’re a fan of the original media. That’s why you’re engaging with it in this way, writing within the world and characters and canon.

I don’t know how people write for fandoms when they’re not familiar with the source material. I wanted to write dcxdp so I started rewatching DP. I’m reading comics. I want to know the characters and their stories so I can have a foundation to write from, and also to better understand the media so I can share my love for it. The refusal to engage with source material while engaging with its fandom is so strange to me.

Also dc fans who love the comics are great! In my experience, they’re very kind and willing to help you jump into comics! Don’t know where to start? Pick a character or team and follow them! Want a reading guide? We’ve got TONS. want thoughts on a specific character or comic run? Just ask!

Now to more specific points about what I’m seeing in dcxdp works:

Mischaracterized batfam: this is a group of people who are disasters and have complicated relationships with each other. They’re kind, wonderful people who bring out the best and worst in each other. Why is Batman always adopting people. Why is this a running joke with the batfam. I get it being a joke the first few times, but I’ve seen it so often and done like it’s accurate characterization that I just. I can’t. I leave that fic immediately. I can’t do it anymore. Batman is paranoid and tried very hard to keep kids away from him/away from being a vigilante. Unfortunately all the kids he got are stubborn and smart so he was doomed from the beginning.

Superman and Kon: you guys are pretty much only pulling from Young Justice Animated which I think is a terrible adaptation, but that’s my own taste. But seriously. Clark is kind. That’s an important part of his character! He’s the strongest man in the world and he’s kind. He was also dead when Kon first appeared as a experiment from CADMUS in Hawaii. They’re not father-son, but they are family and they do care for each other, once they get to know each other. Also Kon is not an angry broody boy, he’s funny! And annoying! pls read kon comics guys, i promise youll like his actual character

Chronos??? Guys. Chronos is not a god in DC canon. He is in Greek mythology, but in DC he’s a Captain Atom villain and he’s literally just a guy who got obsessed with having perfect timing. He’s themed around clocks. He has nothing to do with time travel or time gods. The Speedforce is Time, basically, and it is not human. It is an eldritch being beyond our comprehension that can eat people. If it chooses to have a human form, it’s going to choose to look like Bart. Please read Flash stuff, it’s interesting!

Lazarus Pit Madness lasts like 5 minutes in canon. Jason having it, and being affected by it for years, is a purely fanon thing from the dc side. Not going to say anything more on this because it goes into Jason Todd discourse.

Repetition: I’m sorry but I’m tired of seeing the same things over and over. I barely see anything out of the dcxdp tags thats new and fun to engage with. Everything is the same variation of “Danny helps Pit Mad Jason”, “Bruce insta-adopts Danny”, “Superman is mean to clones”, etc etc. Think of any popular dcxdp trope and that’s all you’ll see. I get why these are fun and popular, but the way it’s being engaged with now? It literally makes me exit Tumblr and put my phone down.

Not every prompt has to go down the same routes as the other prompts. Please explore more options, branch out, twist those tropes around to do something new with them. And also stop going onto other people’s fics and saying “what about [dcxdp trope]? Cant wait to see [dcxdp trope]! You should have [dcxdp] trope.” If I didn’t include it, it’s not included for a reason. There are hundreds of other fics that write specifically about those exact tropes. Read those, or write your own. (im being super bitter here but please just let me write what i want to write without trying to pull the story into another direction for a trope you like. Im writing for me, but sharing it for you. Not every fic needs those tropes in them.)

Tumblr specific things: this is less about the content and more about general posting etiquette. Please put long posts under a read more. If it’s more then three paragraphs, consider adding a read more if there is significantly MORE than three paragraphs. Tag appropriately. Content warnings and trigger warnings should be at the very top of the post and in the tags so they can be properly blocked. If you’re posting fic/prompt, please double check your spelling and fix any typos you find because posts that are filled with excessive typos are difficult to read.

There’s probably a lot more to talk about, but just getting this much out is tiring and, frankly, I don’t want to think on it any more today. If you reply/add comments, I won’t get to them in a while bc I will be writing ghostlights and yhk fic to lift my mood :)

Do you know where you are?

For my sanity's sake, this is an info and technical OOC post.

What is this?

This is my ... I guess personal interpretation / "rewrite" of regretevator! This will mainly focus upon already built on canon to a point (specifically before the Dream Parasite is revealed as of today, April 22nd.) and then build outwards on specific concepts.

This isn't just an AU blog to hold my thoughts but rather also a technical askblog for specific characters! I would love to write everyone but that's impossible and also this is for fun.

So... who do you plan to write here then?

So that really depends on how I feel. I almost was tempted to make "groups" to organize everything but honestly it's impossible for me to properly do so.

I will say, I want to focus on characters that are of GENUINE interest to me versus popularity. Which means I will ALSO be writing these characters similarly to canon- not the fanon. (Like I plan to write Poob out but not the version everyone sorta associates easily with the character.)

Which I will say I am not the world's perfect writer, if I do accidentally write something that is offensive please tell me.

Who are you?

Good question! You can call me Kri or, for here, Flesh! I have @codeopathy as my main!! I'm the only one writing and drawing everything so it's gonna be a time I think...... Anyways! I use He/They/Ask prns and am an adult! PLEASE DO NOT BE WEIRD. This blog will NOT be used for any discourse in the fandom.

Navigation

regretalore - LORE posting

regretanpc - in character posting

regretart - any art done for the au by me

regretfanart - any fanart done for the au (HELLO?)

ooc - admin posting

That said! You can start sending in asks if you want! I plan to make a few posts to write out some of the lore of specific things (such as MR and the Fleshcousins) but you can generally ask about anything.

Again do keep in mind this will focus on pre dream parasite things, I would love to work on DP stuff at this moment but it's better to keep it simple.

to answer your q/post about sharing f/os (im too shy to reply to it so 🐢 anon ask) I totally agree!!! there are some I dont like sharing but it isn't even a jealously thing. it's like a my brain is dumb and this thing only has one wire it can connect to. like if those guys exist im like ayo we like the same game/show ??? les goooo. like IT'S A SHARED INTEREST THING lets go past the f/o and tell me your thoughts on the thing itself!! favorite level or moment or theories. if it's a game whats your playstyle. rpg? okay what's your party setup. does this make sense. sorry im only making games analogies it's what I dabble in more. so WITH YOURS!!! genshin i think? what's the gameplay here what you got going on. main your faves or another because gameplay wise they might be better? go OFF!!!!

omg hi turtle anon!! Yeah I love it when I find a shared f/o or someone with f/os from the same source bcs yooo we both liked this enough to do that??? Especially with Kaeya bcs I’m a veteran player and began f/o-ing him back when he was the only source of information we even knew about Khaenri’ah, so I’ve got so many theories and headcanons built up by now. I’ve seen people interpret his character and his story in so many different ways, it’s always fun to hear a new take on it all (especially since my personal interpretation runs kind of opposite a bunch of fanon stuff).

I don’t main Kaeya although I really tried mid-game. Ultimately the characters as units feel pretty separate from who they are as people, so I’m not too drawn to play my f/os (Alhaitham was the exception, since he fit pretty well into an existing team of mine).

I’ve built up… so many different main teams over time lol. I used to prefer to have an on-field DPS with as many off-field damage dealers as possible, rather than using elemental reactions bcs I’m so not used to RPGs and complicated team comps overheat my brain. These days I’m more open to reaction-based teams tho. In order of when I built them I’ve got: a Xiao team where he just pogo sticks everything with Albedo helping from off-field, your basic Itto geo team, Chongyun + Xingqiu freeze team with Shenhe, Alhaitham/Shinobu/Xingqiu/Nahida hyperbloom team, and I just got Baizhu to round off a Cyno quicken team. I tend to balance “nice looking guy/gal but not necessarily an f/o” with “this is a fun but doable playstyle” with “I’ve got enough primos saved for this banner as a f2p” lol.

I’d love to hear what your playstyle is like, Genshin or otherwise! I might be (relatively) new to RPGs but I think the strategy is fun even though it can get complicated haha

I want to add something that bothering me about danny's 'real' malfoy name. I looked into his name suggestions you have in the master post and saw that it all was names of constellations, and those type of stuff. So I want to find name for Danny and he's suppose not to like his original name- to make him more separate with the Malfoy then he already is.

And my problem with that is Danny might actually want to change his name to his original. I mean - noctus? Asterion? Xiphias? This all are very cool names that if *I* had the change, I totally would want people to call me in them.

That fit with the constellations names and would totally make sense. But I can't give Danny this names. It's too cool.

I thought name him denabola/deneb because this name doesn't really sounds good. But it is horrible name for my taste and I don't want Danny to ever have this name.

What should i name him that doesn't really sounds like badass name , but also sounds like normal kinda human name? (Sometimes that danny wouldn't be happy about being called this way)

(HP/DP twin AU)

I think people focused on constellations since Draco is a constellation and they figured the boys would be named in similar ways, but yeah; Danny would definitely find being named after a constellation cool when he has such an interest in the stars, so the only way he wouldn't like the name would be if there are some negative associations with it.

I mean, if you did stick with a constellation name and not just any of those ones, Jack and Maddie might have some slim awareness of how much teasing having a name like that would introduce him to, given that people make fun of them for studying paranormal science all the time. They could have used the constellation name as his middle name (popular as Daniel James Fenton is, it's fanon) or made Danny his middle name and called him by his middle name rather than his first name, where it would come up less often. Even if Jack and Maddie aren't aware enough for that and they send him to school with a weird name (since canonically they might not be so observant; it really depends how you want to write them), the merciless teasing that would follow would probably reduce Danny to tears and have Jazz advocating that they call him something normal. Torment would sour the name for Danny by association.

There is absolutely nothing stopping you from ignoring the constellations altogether, though. Narcissa would be from Greek mythology. Not sure about Lucius. But if you want to take or twist a name from mythology, you technically have canon proof that wizards do that.

So, a quick google of names from Greek mythology (I'm using Greek because Narcissus)? (I'm gonna pull from this site for convenience.) Dardanos is close to Danny and could be the origin of his nickname if you don't want to pull Danny out of a hat/have him completely renamed. (Dardanos founded a city.) I doubt anyone would name a kid for their eye colour when a baby's eyes might change, but Glaucus would be a possibility if you were doing that (it means bluish grey and is for a sea god and yes, it's not Danny's eye colour, but again, eyes change). If he's older than Draco, you could go with Proteus (first). Granted, none of those are particularly normal-sounding. I'd say Castor (or Pollox but that's less normal) because twins (and of the two Castor died), but that gets you back to constellations (Gemini). It does offer easy teasing potential, though. Castor oil immediately springs to mind for me.

Those won't be as many possibilities if you'd probably like, but it's at least a starting point for other sorts of names to consider!

god, all of ur danny phantom ideas are AMAZING like it’s so impressive how you managed to expand on canon and make it so much more interesting and fun!! could you just like, post a complete block of text of all your favorite fanon ideas? from the freckles to the obsession to the electric core and whatever else, I’d love to read it!! <3

thank you!! ooh okay so um hm. where to start.

so for several years i’ve wandered the edges of the phandom, but i didn’t get real involved until a little over a year ago, i think? anyway everyone here is a genius and they’re all full of wonderful concepts. it’s a very creatively rich environment.

i got very attached to What If It Was Scarier and More Supernatural ‘cause that’s what I like to write anyway, some, and there’s just a unique brand of situational horror that can come from dp. also Ghost Cores as a universal trait that all ghosts have with like, pokemon typing, is great. i made a chart when I was writing my first phic. it’s a bad chart but I had a great time. Cores expanded into like, what about if Danny had an Electric Core?? which I love. if u get electrocuted into half death you deserve to shoot lightning. i also just have a soft spot for lightning powers in general so this is the one i’m the most strongly attached to lol. also! the phandom has great general rules for Obsessions, and I love when people take a crack at figuring out one for Danny. I am personally v attached to space obsession, since he wanted to be an astronaut. also it gives me good design vibes to work with. the freckles I saw on a few different folks’ art and They Were Right, They Were So So Right.

i think some of the stuff i do that’s like, more self indulgent I guess is like, age the kids up a little to like 16 (i wanted them to have a car, and also that’s just.. slightly less baby) and i make Danny p tall, bc at 16 I think he’d have started inheriting Jack’s height. i was initially trying to keep him pretty gangly to make up for it but honestly i forgot that was the plan so it’s not v consistent lol. when I was writing Lightning & Comets (it has a tag I’ll tag it perhaps I’ll return to writing it some day but if u wanna know the Outline literally just ask and I’ll post it somewhere OTL) I know I wanted to linger a little while in like, Vlad actually getting to mentor Danny for a bit? like, Vlad knew Danny was a halfa but Danny didn’t know Vlad was, and just thought Plasmius was a helpful ghost mentor. And I was gonna do Deep Lore for Pariah Dark, like a castle made of fallen castles and fortresses and a long forgotten army of the damned or smth. was gonna be cool. was gonna have Ghost King Danny do something funky in the Dan storyline, bc shouldn’t Dan also be the ghost king?? can i get a ghost king fight? i dunno i didn’t get that far. i lifted a lot of power mechanics from L&C for the crossover stuff which is probably going to be confusing later but I might change my mind about things if/when I get around to writing for it properly

you already know I'm gonna ask for genshin<3

GOD BLESS ILY 💖💕 i should mention that i accidentally closed tumblr halfway through answering this, so i am literally retyping all of it. this new phone has a very like, slippery screen n i'm not used to it so i was like OH SHIT HAGDJANHDBSN

my favorite female character: SUCROSE!!! i only have very minor complaints about her design (really i just wish she was wearing some pants) n the parts of it i do like (her hair n her ears n the COLORS) are so pleasing to look at. i fly around with her bc the mondstadt wings match her really nicely n she looks so cute. her little ears.......i adore her. she has a voiceline about how she wants to use alchemy to create a fairytale utopia n it's SO sweet n i love her so much.

honorable mention hu tao, bc she's actually the only female design i personally don't complain about at all (the bar is so low though) n i LOVED her story quest. i'm also a really big fan of how she's voiced in english (bc i play in english) n also she's hilarious. i'm obsessed with her dynamic with zhongli too.

my favorite male character: strap in kids. this is gonna be a long ride. i have a top three, although it's technically more of a top four.

tied for first are childe n xiao bc i cannot choose between them. i had a really fun journey with childe; when i first started playing, my friend told me they thought he would 100% be my type n i looked at a photo of him n went "ehhhh" so i wasn't really sure at first. i also knew the um. "reputation" fans of him had within fan content n such so i was ALSO wary of that being a very frequent fandom-goer. fast forward a little bit n his banner roles around. i actually decided to pull for him for GAMEPLAY reasons initially, bc the idea of a ranged user being able to use a melee stance was literally a gamechanger for me who wasn't n still isn't very good at archers. i did start liking him reluctantly at that point, but i didn't really want to admit it (very funny looking back) n i used to make fun of him a lot bc i was in denial. NOW i have him in my party (my incredible dps my beloved) n i have finally met him in story which made me fall REALLY hard REALLY fast bc believe it or not, canon childe is NOTHING LIKE fanon childe. n that's a good thing mind u. n the rest is history, he now means everything to me. i am soft for him daily. i also rescind my previous "ehhhh" about his appearance bc he is very sexy. i am ALSO very much an advocate for how griffin voices him n i could talk about the golden house scene for literal hours; it is THE best scene in the game so far.

xiao was sort of similar, my (same) friend n i both knew i would like him bc he is VERY much my type. we were right. i was hyped up to meet him n as SOON as i did i fell so hard i fell off a cliff. it breaks my heart every day i don't have him as i wait patiently for him to rerun. playstyle wise i honestly think he's really fun, but i would probably be saving for him even if i hated how he played, bc i just love him that much. i'm also obsessed with yaksha lore in general n i think about him a lot. xiao my beloved. he also has one of my favorite (if not my favorite) designs.

diluc n zhongli are the last two, bc i can't really choose which one of them i like more, only bc they're both important for different reasons?

diluc was my FIRST favorite character. i took a single look at him n i KNEW. first character i loved, first character i really wanted, as well as the character i tried to (n failed to) REROLL FOR. over fifty times, n nothing. i have him now, but goddamn. i have a thing for characters associated with fire, n as soon as i heard about the whole darknight hero thing i was like oh my.....marriage. i was heartbroken when i played through the chunk of the story quest where they let u trial him before i had him bc i wanted him so bad. he's literally been on my team since day one. i go idle with him to hear him say nice things to me. i love him so much.

n as for zhongli, he's. also special. the definition of comfort character. "he's more than daddy to me. he's.....he's like GRANDPA" HQGDNANHD no but seriously, he walks on sceen n i just feel safe. part of it is keith being so very good at voicing him, but regardless i love him very much. he tugs at my heartstrings a lot n i think he's probably the character the causes me the most physical heartache bc i feel so bad for him.

honorable mention dain, bc who would i be if i didn't mention dain. mwah.

my favorite book/season/episode etc: i'm gonna go with quest for this one! n i think we all know what i'm gonna say; OF COURSE IT'S ZHONGLI'S STORY QUEST!! i complain a lot about how this game doesn't treat tension properly, but i have absolutely nothing to complain about in either of his quests. particularly part two really held its own for me against the entire main story, in my opinion. i know part two just came out, but i am ECSTATIC about the possibility of future parts. also the only story quest i've shed tears over (although i came pretty close on childe's n xiao's). i even THINK about a scene from that quest n my heart breaks into pieces. emotionally, zhongli owns me.

my favorite cast member: in terms of acting performance, probably keith. in general, yuri. he is one of my all time favorite voice actors n i inhale everything that he has done like fucking kirby. i'm really attached to a lot of the english cast though; laila, griffin, khoi, erika, etc.

my favorite ship: this is hard, actually. what's hilarious is that all my favorite pairings involve zhongli. i honestly, at this point, think it's a tie between zhongluc n rezhong. bc rezhong there is just so much there n so much to THINK about, but zhongluc is very comforting to me, personally, n the whole dragon n the phoenix imagery stuff sucked me in like a VACUUM. i also really like guili though; basically, if zhongli is in it, i will at least think about it (sort of, see later).

a character i'd die defending: childe no uhh. in terms of characters who NEED defending, kaeya. i am so SICK of u people not knowing how to interpret him. i'd like to add in eula here too, bc i REALLY like her, n i think some of u went a little bit haywire. in terms of characters who don't really need defending, xiao. i would die for him, actually.

a character i just can't sympathize with: ironically i don't genuinely hate any of the playable characters yet. dottore is pretty fucked up so i guess him, but also i still find him interesting hagdbanhdnan.

a character i grew to love: besides childe? ganyu! i didn't NOT like her by any means, but i was mostly indifferent, n while i WISH her story quest had a little more to it...i adore her very much.

my anti otp: besides the obvious ones, zhongchi.....LET ME EXPLAIN!! i don't HATE it, exactly. but i got so irreparably BITTER about it clogging up both childe n zhongli's individual tags, to the point where i couldn't find enough content without it, i completely lost interest. i will accept nice art of it, but i also have a massive problem with how A LOT of fans tend to over/hyperfeminize childe in relation to the ship, which feels very disingenuous to me bc childe.....isn't a feminine character, really. he's just, i dunno, skinny?? if anything, his whole fight happy shit feels more masculine to me, lmao. it just very much feels like a lot of u can't accept a pairing between two men unless u put one of them in the role of the "woman" n it very much bothers me. like, listen, i know childe is canonically a malewife n i love that about him, but it's about the intent. n i feel HORRIBLE vibes from a lot of u people. i know active fandom genshin fans have bad vibes in general, but u know what i mean. i have been to this rodeo before, n i hate it every time. also, i see a lot of very mischaracterized childe in relation to the pairing too, n to a much lesser extent zhongli, but it still exists. basically, i don't hate it, but i am bitter. n it very much feels like a lot of u are turning them into ur token fandomwide homos which NEVER ends well.

please all i ask is if ur gonna ship two men can u at least treat them both like some semblance of men i am tired