Is there a discord server for A.B.A x Paracelsus ship? I know the couple is niche, but Im just curious because I want more content of them 😭🗝

"He’s frozen stiff, threatening claws now hovering down to the side—his eyes look huge in the darkness, that faint white glow giving just the slightest of his expression away. 

He still doesn’t strike."

- all because of you (i do right) by puppyblue on ao3, Chapter 1. @puppyblueao3 here on tumblr i think!

(does this count as a fic rec or fanart. both, probably. rambles under the cut.)

SO uh—i'm really picky about fanfiction. like. really really picky.

i dunno why exactly, but i kinda have a hard time reading them right away bc a) i'm not really a shipper and that's most fanfiction i've seen and b) i like when i can really imagine the characters saying and doing whatever it is they're doing.

y'know the whole "he would not fucking say that" meme? lmao that's me, but with fanfics and only to myself. (i know everyone has their niche and i'm not here to police anybody's fun, just curate my own.)

anyway all that to say that i really, really liked this one. a lot. it's canon divergent off of into the spiderverse, and if you can believe it the comic is literally not a spoiler bc it's in the summary of the fic. but if you liked uncle aaron or even just are a sucker for redemption (? ish?) arcs, i think you'd like it! with all the angst and chaos from atsv it's a nice change of pace.

man oh man i'm actually kind of pissed like. if you don't know what this is about ignore it it's fine it's just stupid drama godbless but why is it that whenever wlw try to have their own thing in fandom and it gets even a little bit outside of those niche spaces they get made into the villains somehow. like god sorry the Big Mean Scary Lesbians are being mean and scary about your poor gay ship the whole internet loves that must be so hard!! like i'm not condoning harassment but the way this shit played out people are going to make hanamusa shippers the villains of this dumb drama when they were just trying to like. have fun with a pokemon ship. i literally don't even care about the ship that much but like. you absolutely did not have to write paragraphs upon paragraphs about how much you hated it when you seemed fine with it before. sometimes shit happens in a poll you can't predict! it's fucking tumblr! hanamusa shippers didn't deserve all this. christ.

About canon or not canon

This is time around I am talking about fandom issues, not Miguel's theory, so is okay if you want to scroll past this.

I had mentioned this off-hand before in other post, but I feel is always good to do some reminders, specially since I had gotten past a certain number of followers, and the last time I mentioned this I feel it was awhile ago.

I do not care what about canon or canon ships when is about fandom works.

I feel I need to make this clear because I had seen a few "How people could like X ship?! It doesn't make any sense!"

My answer? It doesn't matter, this is about having fun.

I don't know how many people actually know this but I RARELY ship canon ships, this has been happening more as of recently but for the most part I had shipped niche ships or even crack ones.

I consider that the best fic I had ever done, is for a ship that is so minuscule there is only 4 fics in ao3, and 2 of those are mine. And believe me, it makes perfect sense, those characters work together in my head and few others.

But fandom has zero to do with canon; fun story guy did you know the first type of fandom as we know it, was shipper of Spock x Captain Kirk of Star Trek? They would have zines with fics, they will hold reunions to talk about the characters, draw comics about it; the creators and the actors even KNEW about this!

But that ship was never canon, and even if people saw potential in it; it doesn't matter. Fandom is to have fun, not to try to limit how people create.

By the way, if you think this take is weird for the type of content I make, let me say it this way: I think people writing about X ship or writing a character in Y way is okay; I can understand sometimes it can feel frustrating and I am not saying you have to like it.

Everyone had been frustrated for that one story they read where the character they love is completely out of character and you want to rage quit; and I get it, I had gone to my friends to rant sometimes about things like that.

Because let's remember, did this person write this story for me, or did this person write the story this way because it thought the idea of X character doing something in specific sounds like fun for them?

I think we all know the answer.

So no, I can get being frustrated, and that's fine and natural, but one thing is how you behave with a few friends in private while talking about petty things; vs trying to scream in a public place where people, including that person, can see.

You are entitled to your own opinion, in your own space, specially when it wasn't asked. Is not hard.

"Then why you do stupidly long essays about what is happening in the movie?"

Because there is a different of what I write in my fic vs what is happening in the canon story!

Because canon and fanon aren't the same thing! And is much better that way.

Canon cannot be as weird or corny or dumb at times, because it cannot be everything people want; so is nice to have people going crazy with wild ideas. And fanon shouldn't limit itself because is about being creative and seeing how far the human imagination can go.

I think is important remember what happened in canon because I had seen literal people have interpretations of a character (which is fine and dandy,) and then try to say is canon and people who disagree are haters (NOPE.)

I like discussing what the hell is going down the movie because I love the canon material and exploring those topics is fun for me, and because I want to have a way to say "I believe this is what went down and here is my reasons for it." Maybe is the ADHD or maybe is the trauma but I like to be able to justify my response.

But I also recognize when something is totally not canon and I am just exploring ideas. I also like to talk about how things could had been handle better in canon; (because a teen who is just starting doing fanfics should be as cringe as they want, but when the source material is fucking up a story then this is an entirely different story.) That's fun for me too.

Sorry this got so long, it was suppose to be a short message, but like I say, I like to be able to justify my response.

BTS shippergate

(lol I just like saying xyzgate about any little drama so here we go.)

What is shipper’s issue with Taehyung recently and when did he become public enemy #1?? I am definitely on the 'Taehyung is smarter than people give him credit for' train but never did I think he was the evil mastermind some people think he is. Are we all really being serious or are a lot of your complaints about him colored in a jikooker, taekooker, taennie, y/n lens?? I’d go with the latter cause the things some of the aforementioned groups of people have said about Taehyung in the past few months can only be cooked up in a cauldron of delusion.

Let’s get this straight— Taehyung is not interacting with his friends/group mates (who he’s known for 10+ years, mind you) to feed shippers. It’s the way y’all will go to war with this idea that Tae wants to use Jungkook to cover up his alleged relationship. First of all, you’re giving him way too much credit. Who do you think Taehyung is that he can use Jungkook or Jimin or any other member for that matter, and keep doing it for as long as you claimed he has, without that member saying something about it. Do you think Jungkook is so scared of Taehyung that he can’t tell him to not mention his name on weverse? You always talk about “he knows how much hate Jungkook and Jimin get when he does this” does he? Now I’m not saying the boys are totally oblivious on the matter of ships but I definitely don’t think they see as much as y’all think they do. A lot of the things shippers talk about are very niche things that you would have to actively seek out for the most part, at least based on my experience. And this is just the english side of things, I don’t really know what the shipper climate is like on the korean side so it’s hard for me to entertain the idea that he knows about the things we (girl idek much) know about and doesn’t care. It’s also interesting to me that this claim is coming from jkkers when Jimin was treated similarly for years every time he so much as breathe in JK’s direction. i thought y’all will understand but I guess you’re fighting fire with fire…

But before we even get into all of that, why are we here in the first place? Why can’t we ever take anything the guys say or do just as it stands? I’d be with you guys if it was only silly little jokes but it isn’t. You guys are taking it so seriously and starting one sided beef with a man who probably wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. Why can’t something that was meant to be a joke between friends not just come across as such to you unless it fits your narrative? Why can’t two friends go to a movie premiere without it being seen as either a big ‘coming out’ moment or a PR stunt and nothing in between? (it can be because we saw 94z at an event and no one acted this weird, it’s always the maknaes smh) It’s because many shippers have reduced everything these men post, say or do as a hint of their relationship. Not everything they do has to do with a ship, whether you think that ship is real or is being used as a cover for some other relationship. Taehyung can post Jungkook on insta just because he wants to, he can talk about him 25/8 and no one should care unless JK says he has a problem with it. It’s just that many times shippers draw baseless conclusions from things that don’t even matter. It comes from that inability to separate the fact presented in front of you from the stories you make up in your minds. If this doesn’t change I can see this continuing to be a problem. We’ll see the same cycle of events occur if JK or Jimin ever end up in rumors like this (gawd i hope not, i’ve aged 64 years) because you guys refuse to leave room for deniability. I am not saying this as someone who thinks they’re holier than thou for not shipping the members but i’m saying this as a shipper myself. You cannot believe in a ship 100% because we do not know these people’s life, all we see is barely 4%.

*sighs* #makeshippingfunagain. lol has it ever been fun with BTS though? Things were already in the trenches when I got here:/.

Now taekookers who are switching up on Tae. I must say— this one is on you and i don’t know what else to tell you.

I’m not gonna repeat myself too many times cause this all comes down to the fact that you lot convinced yourself FOR YEARS that Tae so much as looking in JK’s direction meant he was hinting that they were married and in love. Taehyung has never told y’all explicitly that he was dating JK (if anything he’s showed signs that he isn’t, but let’s talk about this another day) so it’s not his problem that all your walls are now cracking. I think the state of that ship rn shows that a lot of y’all didn’t really like Taekook in the first place cause how does one of them possibly being in a different relationship cause y’all to jump ship so quick. Now I’m not telling you to start more discourses to deny Taennie, let it rest i beg. What i’m saying is Taekook still exists. Taehyung can have 20 *confirmed* girlfriends and 10 *confirmed* boyfriends and Taekook will still exist because at the end of the day they’re friends before anything else. But i guess if I was also preaching and fighting with others FOR YEARS about my ship being real I will also be throwing a temper tantrum right now. Anyway, if y’all are leaving you can just do it quietly, all of this is uncalled for. You’re just embarrassing yourselves.

Unto my last point, Taehyung isn’t obligated to be some protector of Jennie on the internet. They’re both involved in this mess and if any of them wanted to say anything or protect each other from their fans being equally as nasty to the other, they both have the means and platforms to do so. I don’t get this double standard that Tae has to protect her while she can just go about doing whatever she wants. And it’s honestly so dumb to be advocating for Jennie when (if we’re assuming they’re in a long term, loving relationship) she can just as easily tell her man what she wants/needs from him and whatever happens there is really not our concern. It’s also ridiculous cause what do you want him to do?? I’m genuinely curious.

Anyway i’m gonna end here because there’s no way I can go on without this giving me a stress ulcer. It’s not like I was surprised by any of this (y’all are predictable), I knew Tae would get hated no matter what he did after Paris and it’s going to keep happening once all of this is still in the air. Now, I get this whole taenniegate thing is a big deal, it’s confusing as shit and I acknowledge that. I can even acknowledge people having thoughts and opinions on the matter because we’re only human but some people, on every side you can think of, have definitely lost the plot. Let’s get it together!

~~🐝

^^if you hate him you will die and go to hell btw:))

@leupagus requested, and her wish is my command. At least on a Monday morning when I'd rather be thinking about fic than my weekend email backlog. So:

List five of your least-popular fics, as well as when/why you wrote them.

the green place, Word of Honor modern AU, YeXie, 2021

This was a little string of YeXie Week ficlets based on word prompts. Friend Ritualist* and I had been batting around some ideas for a Plant Witch Xie'er fic in the DMs and I thought I'd use YeXie week to play around with the character voices/world a little and see how I liked writing those two. I had a lovely time writing it, but semi-connected short ficlets where the rimming is (just barely) off-screen are a hard sell. Also I left it marked incomplete for a long time thinking I might go back and finish out the week's prompts, so I'm sure it got passed over by the very wise people who don't read WIPs. No regrets, I like knowing Plant Witch Xier'er is out there even if he'll probably never really get written.

*babe, I'm blanking out and can only think of your pro author tumblr name and not your fandom one, if you're seeing this and wanna be linked, drop your fandom url in the comments and I'll link you up

The Desert Dreams of a River, Darkangel Trilogy, Aeriel/Irrylath, Erin/OFC, 2019.

Yuletide fic! With the hit count you expect for a Yuletide genfic based on one of your formative pieces of circa-1982 fiction about a girl trying to reform a vampire while they live on the terraformed moon. Written in a frantic haze just short of deadline, if I recall, as I'd started a different angle on it that didn't quite work. I'm not saying this story was just an excuse to get Erin a wife, but it was sort of that, since the prompt didn't really allow for Erin to wife Aeriel. (But she SHOULD HAVE. Let Aeriel Have A Husband And A Wife.) I loved these books so much. Unfortunately something must be really fucked with the licensing because only the third of the trilogy was available as an ebook at the time and that doesn't seem to have changed? Pick up a hard copy of the first book if you ever see one, though.

every word is nonsense, Only Friends, Ray&Sand, 2023

Another little tidbit of a fic as an exercise in character voice again and also how much I liked how much the show likes their smoking scenes. Look. I'm a person of a certain age who smoked like a chimney as a teenager and into my early twenties, and I can't help the programming that got into my bones about the inherent eroticism of sharing a cigarette. (lolsob, high five to my fellow Thai BL nerds, how are we all doing this week with the one-two- punch of the DFF shotgunning scene and the new 4 minutes teaser? it's fine, i'm fine.) I wrote this thinking that next I would write some RaySand smut and then didn't because the whirl of Thai BL fandom pulled me on to something else, but at some point I want to rewatch this show and may still write it then because it fed my FirstKhao shipper heart so well.

dizzy in your wake, Nirvana in Fire, Changsu/Jingyan, 2020?

I'm not the one who said "what if Mei Changsu were a were-octopus," that was a series of amazing twitter threads by @astronicht. But people just KEPT sending it to me because I am known to think octopus content is very cool and also to be a Mei Changsu Girlie, and eventually a couple of friends shook me until 600 words of ridiculousness came out. What surprises me is not that this one has few kudos, but that it has >10 kudos at all. I would say this is the most niche and silly thing I've written except I've also written MDZS/Jupiter Ascending fusion fic, so let's not pretend I have any dignity left. Written in 2020 but it didn't get posted until later because I don't usually post things this short. At some point I was in one of those "it's an ARCHIVE, we should put ALL THE THINGS THERE" moods and slapped a few NiF ficlets written for the group chat up there.

A Second Dose, Hannibal, Bev/Freddie, 2016

This was the thing where you write an odd little rarepair and it's so much fun you come back and do a sequel you hadn't meant to write. I'd written Bev/Freddie before and then when a Hannibal rarepair fest came around I was like, hey, what if I did that again. Possibly I just wanted to revisit the cat named after Rosalind Franklin that I'd made up for Bev.

20 fanfic questions!!

thank for the tag, lovely <3 @cchickki

How many works do you have on AO3?

6! Far more unpublished though.

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

out of those published: 60,723

3. What fandoms do you write for?

uncharted. whoops.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Wine, Wine, Whine. I Think We've Got Chemis-tree, The Sadir Inheritance, A Taste of your Own, Best Served Cold

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

I try!! Nothing makes me feel happier than seeing that people have enjoyed my stuff so much they feel inclined to actually tell me?? If I ever don't reply, it's honestly because I'm overwhelmed, or have imposter syndrome... on my own writing? Hmm.

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

oh god. tbh none of my ao3 ones are particularly angsty. Best Served Cold is probably the closest because of ✨vengeance✨, but I've got a fair few angsty fics unpublished.

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

deffo I Think We've Got Chemis-tree. It's just silly feel-good fluff and very 'fanfictiony' if you get what I mean. Not my fave, but people seem to love it for some reason :')

8. Do you get hate on fics?

HA. Luckily, I've managed to steer clear from any hate with my Sam stuff, which is probably down to the niche-ness of the fandom, but I used to get a LOOOT when i wrote TWD stuff back in the day. And it was pretty much always due to me using British english spelling & lingo rather than US. Yawn.

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

Abso-fucking-lutely. I think the stuff I've published is pretty tame tbh... compared to what I'm too frightened to post because I'm sick in the head <3. I love giggly, fluffy smut, but hey. I also love stuff that verges on dead dove. Come at me with asks on the matter. I'm game.

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

Nope. Tbh I don't like anything enough to do crossovers, but ig it's not out of the question.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Again, this fandom is so small, I feel like it'd be blatantly obvious if it had been. I think I saw something a while back that made me raise my brow at the similarity, but to say it was stolen may be a bit far-fetched.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I had an old TWD series of mine translated... twice?!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I had a friend once who asked me to beta her fic, and it ended up becoming a total 50/50 collaboration, so yeah! Again, it was TWD.

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

Pfft. I really don't have one. (I'm a disgusting, delusional self-shipper.)

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

ARGH I really want to continue with The Sadir Inheritance, but it's so time consuming, and it takes me about a month to write a very basic request, let alone take care of my fic-baby. I really really like it and have SOO many ideas, so maybe it's overly pessimistic to say I won't ever finish it. But the fandom may be extinct by the time I do :')

16. What are your writing strengths?

Apparently I'm good at dialogue and characterisation? That's unhealthy obsession, bay-bee!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Anything emotional, I think. I enjoy writing the conversational side of things, and am a very humour-centric person, so find it hard to make things perfectly angsty/sad when they need to be. Though I still write it! I'm just not all that confident.

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

Hell yeah. Just make sure it's accurate to avoid offence/severe cringe. I wouldn't personally do it unless I was completely certain it fit.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

the walking deadddd

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Out of those I've published? Probably the Best Served Cold/A Taste of Your Own duo. It was a lot of fun to write, and allowed me to add a relatively solid plot to something raunchy- though, the alternative ending to ATOYO is better, and I wish I posted it first, because I want more people to see it sksks. You live and learn.

I won't tag anyone- but would looove any of my moots to do this. It was fun!!

I keep encountering antis in the wild so far my favorite one has been the one who was frothing over Jaytim shippers. "Just because they're not technically brothers"!

Friend they're not technically nor non-technically brothers. They weren't raised together. They don't have a brother dynamic.

"It's different from DickBabs and TimSteph!" Not really! You're just cherrypicking!

90% of antis use anti rhetoric to justify why their ship is better/more valid than another, not because they really care about things they deem immoral or whatever, and I think a lot of Fandom Discourse tends to miss that by a long shot.

Like more often than not it's just bitches digging for reasons why their OTP is the only ship that can be shipped, therefore if you ship something else You're Wrong and the ship you ship shouldn't even exist. They use arguments on morality and such because they're hard to argue with - lots of folks don't know what to say when they're faced with "don't ship X and Y cause it's harmful and abusive!", "you're hurting victims of SA and grooming by shipping X and Y!" - and what happens is that they get scared out of the ships/topics they like and stop engaging actively with fanworks. Sometimes they rationally or subconsciously realize that it works, so they end up even adopting the same rhetoric as it's really fucking convenient: being on the moral high horse is delicious because people feel like it automatically puts them in the category of the good guys, therefore everyone else is a bad guy and they can harass them and send them death threats, even if it's just about shipping fictional characters.

I've seen this happen in basically every single fandom I've been in since I was 12 (and I am Not Young™), and I've seen the most unexpected people use anti rhetoric while not being antis themselves, or even labeling themselves as proshippers, but they would still use anti arguments to "legitimize" their ship and claim how and why it was better than others in the same fandom. Instead of just... saying that one ship in particular is not for them. Tbh lately I'm only trusting multi-shippers not to pull anti bullshit out of their ass, and this niche of the DC fandom is really a safe haven. But I digress.

One of the things that really pisses me off the most is the rampant homophobia. Going by generic anti logic Jaydick is incest, but Dickbabs isn't. Jaytim is incest, Timsteph isn't. Brudick, Brujay, Brutim are all incestuous ships - except Bruce and Barbara isn't. The het ship is fine would you look at that. Childhood friends to lovers is alright with pop culture as long as it's a man and a woman, because if it's two men they'll immediately scream incest and abuse (lumping them together too, while they're also not the same thing ffs). Because hiding behind anti mentality and purity culture there's the big bad monster of queerphobia, which shows its ugly face the moment you take a peek below the surface.

And since I feel like this isn't being said enough. Dick and Jason ARE NOT BROTHERS. Neither are Dick and Tim, or Dick and Damian, Jason and Damian, Jason and Tim, I could go on. These people are not related, not by blood or legally, not in any way that matters and would make it incest. They're a legacy of characters who wear the same cowl for narrative reasons, and THAT'S IT.

Calling Jaydick "incest" irks me to no freaking end because I LOVE incest ships, I am DOWN BAD for them, and this one ain't it chief. They're not related. They didn't grow up together. They don't share any brotherly bond except a vague "brothers in arms" kinda thing. People decided this at some point in order to have an argument why their plastic prepackaged het ships were better than the Bad Abusive (gay) ones, because they're fucking homophobes, and that is about it.

And that's what I really want to say to all the young, queer antis that parrot the terfs and homophobes that pushed them in that direction. They are taking away a space that is YOURS TOO. They fucking HATE YOU. They hate you because you're queer, gay, bi, pan, ace, trans, nonbinary, a woman, even just a teen. Purity culture and anti mentality is how they keep you under control, tied to their morality leash and making life miserable to every other queer person that refuses to conform and refuses to shut up and to stop enjoying fiction for the harmless, but also valuable thing that it is.

criminal minds Q&A (Qs from @/concretemercy on twitter)

who’s your favourite character? hotch, emily and spencer are my big 3 but if i had to choose between them.. i think hotch

which season is your favourite? early seasons >>>>> but more specifically i think season 4! although 3 and 5 are close too, that whole era has some of the most interesting cases and as devastating as it is i love the focus on hotch’s home life both pre and post haley’s death

who (in your opinion) is the most underrated character? i’m not mega attached to any of the characters who filled emily’s place in the seasons she was away but i did rly like kate callahan!! i’m surprised she’s not talked about more, she’s such a cool character imo and her storyline with her niece is also underrated!

who (in your opinion) is the most overrated character? this is a hard one but i think i’d have to say rossi? there’s several reasons why i dislike him a bit compared to other characters but he just felt like quite a step down from gideon and i just feel like his personality and backstory have less substance and are less interesting compared to the others’?

who’s your favourite cast member? SOOO difficult i love them all 😭 i think thomas’s acting skills are seriously underrated, i rly don’t believe many actors can achieve the duality between hotch and david from love and human remains as successfully as thomas does,, equally i loveee paget she’s such a sweet incredible soul 🫶 also bonus: aubrey plaza one of my #1 celeb crushes 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 she plays cat so well 😫

if you could change one thing in a plot what would it be? rossi being canon racist in his youth.. but if we’re talking more major (?) plot points i think maeve’s death - everyone agrees spencer suffers by far the most trauma throughout the years and i think it would’ve been nice for maeve to have survived and for her and spencer’s relationship to have progressed further, just to add a little sprinkle of consistent joy into his life :(

your favourite canonical ship? does garvez count as canon or not.. bc it is in my mind

your favourite non-canonical ship? i’m not much of a shipper i think bc the team feels like such a found-family i cant imagine their relationships to be anything other than platonic but.. i might go niche and say elle x emily (ellily? emme? emelle? idk) bc i think if they ever met emily would have the maddest crush on her lmao (i need them to meet, pls let them meet one day 😫)

favourite episode? again crazy difficult but i have to say 100.. literally not a day goes by where i don’t think about that episode, it’s television and acting perfection (thomas being the most talented actor ever strikes again) bonus #2: seven seconds (the one where the aunt is the unsub of the girl that goes missing in the mall) is also perfection, the tension throughout it is insane, i could write essays about it

favourite quote? the scene where hotch and will are talking about a victim who was the will’s closeted co-worker and will says “icb he flew hundred of miles to be someone else” and hotch replies “no he flew hundreds of miles to be himself” 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 hotch my little ally

why did you start watching the show? one of my school friends loved it and convinced me to watch it bc a family friend had given us her prime video log in but i only got through season 1 until i got logged out so i went two years without watching it until i subscribed to disney+ at the start of this year and picked up where i left off

have you watched criminal minds more than once? i finished my first watch-through a month ago and i went straight into rewatching it all the next day! so i’m currently at s3 on my first rewatch :)

what is the most heartbreaking scene from the show? the entirety of 100 is the obvious answer for me but also when derek faces his abuser (both times) and ofc “he was alive yesterday?”.. mgg your directing destroys me

favourite scene? too many.. any moments between hotch and jack, jj’s wedding, emily’s return from death, derek telling spencer that hank’s middle name is spencer ❤️‍🩹

when did you start watching the show? watched s1 in late 2020/early 2021, had a two year break and picked it back up in early 2023

favourite cast photo? my bffs 🤭

17. have you watched the spin offs? cm: evolution (if that counts as a spin off?) yes, the others no, i was planning on watching beyond borders but it’s not top of my watchlist priorities

18. who’s the best unsub? cat.. i feel so evil for loving her (that’s just what aubrey plaza does to me ig)

19. what was the most terrifying case? the only case i’ve been so genuinely scared of i’ve had to look away from my screen is the capilanos (the mgg directed killer clown episode), but i also love that ep bc spencer mentions a village near my hometown lmao

20. whose death was the hardest to watch? haley’s ofc and maeve’s

21. is there a character you can’t stand? when he was first introduced i didn’t like will and i was like.. why would jj like him of all ppl (i think i just found his accent and bad flirting annoying 😭) BUT i love them together now, they’re rly cute especially in s16

this took way longer than i expected 😭

Imagine a modern AU where Billy is an actor and Steve is the frontliner in an indie band called the Demo Crew. They’re not superstars or anything but are pretty blessed to have a really committed fanbase. Demo Crew is contracted to do the soundtrack on Billy’s latest film which is another huge step for them because of the exposure. Steve tweets about how he is awed that any of those studio suits even knew their unusual music but is super grateful for the opportunity and having a blast, and his fans notice that Billy’s official account likes the tweet. But things really heat up during the press tour when their mutual fans start noticing that Billy talks about the films music whenever he can. He’s always bringing questions back around to how the music makes the film and the scenes what they are etc. “It would have been a totally different film without Steve, Eddie and those guys.”

People start to notice things, like the way Billy rarely just says the band’s name but instead singles out the band members or sometimes just Steve. Like he has a personal relationship with them or something, and the (until then) niche Harringrove Shippers come alive like Muchu. They smell a story and they’re on the case. Somebody digs up old photo and video of Billy’s metal head days before he was famous and a whole theory is making the rounds about how he’s behind a certain avatar on the official fan forum “flayed club” and his publicist is forcing him to hide it for the sake of his clean cut image. Somebody else recognizes a bunch of blurry pins that look like they might be ones from the bands merch store in a couple of more recent photos. Controversy starts heating up between the shippers and some of Billy’s more conservative fans because of the dark themes in the music.

“I loved the soundtrack for the film, but lets face it Demo Crews ordinary stuff is kinda twisted. I just don’t think Billy’s the kind of guy who would be into that.”

“Can someone open a window? I can smell the bullshit moral panic from here. Look it’s obvious that even if Billy isn’t behind “Master_Puppet that he is one of the flayed, and you know what? THAT’S OKAY. It’s insane that in this day and age he’s being told he has to hide his interests just to make himself palatable to a bunch of pearl clutching PTA moms.”

Billy speaks up for his poor management team at the next interview. No he’s never been told he has to hide any part of himself and he’s lucky to work with a really great team who look out for him and always encourage him to be true to himself even when that’s hard for him, but he appreciates how passionate the fans are. He only knows a little about it but Flayed Club is a great space and he loves the energy and creativity happening there. Oh of course Jimmy, he’s a huge fan of Demo Crew. Funny story, he’s known for forcing new people he meets to listen to his favorite album. He thought he was taking a shot in the dark when he suggested that their vibe would be perfect for the project, but it turned out Jan over at the studio was also a big fan. Steve likes and reblogs the interview clip and captions it with “best reference we ever got”.

The fandom is on fire. Master_Puppet confirmed! Also Billy is basically the reason the band got hired. Everyone is rabid to know if/how/when Billy met his favorite band, also if he and Steve are friends. I mean, people would ship them anyway because they’d look gorgeous together but really it’s the way Billy always says Steve’s name first and the way he says it. It’s the way that as Billy opens up more on instagram about his past struggles, and why he relates to certain lyrics, that it just seems so in sync with the things that Steve has said about why he wrote them and why the band chooses to explore such dark material. Mashups and compilations with #soulmates trickle from the flayed club out to twitter and tik-tok, until it feels like the whole world is shipping them. “I know they probably don’t even know each other but I just think they’d be perfect together.”

“But isn’t Steve dating @RockinRobin? 😂 I mean, they live together!!!” The hetero police come out in full force to defend Steve’s assumed hetero, offended at the very idea that someone could think two men might get on well together. Robin would never fan a fan war online, Steve, she’s far too busy and adult for that. But she does make a point to dig up the taco earrings Steve got her for Christmas once and wear them with her Lesbi-Honest T-shirt and take a bunch of selfies for the gram. #theothersoulmate

So it’s pure carnage online. Some people are still convinced that this confirmation that Steve and Robin are partners while others are sure she’s directly referencing the flayed and #soulmates. Robins not the only one who seems to like teasing the fans. They’re always hungry for new Harringrove proof and go crazy when Billy and Steve like each other’s posts or interact at all, and sometimes it feels like Steve’s band mates and Billy’s friends will post deliberate references to the soulmate theory. TikTok queen ElevenEmpirePenguins makes a viral video captioned “When all of your friends know you’re in love with them before you do” with a clip from some rom com Billy starred in, and Max puts it on her twitter. Steve’s band mate Eddie comments “Blue Jean Rhapsody” a popular track on their second album under a picture of Billy and his costar Heather. Which leads to fans lamenting that there’s no music video for that song already and theorizing that maybe the band is going to collab with him to create one because that song was like, made for Billy.

There’s fireworks the first time Billy and Steve publicly meet. It’s during awards season, when Billy and the band are both guests on a talk show. Body language experts are popping out of the woodwork to analyze every look and gesture, down to how close they sat together on the couch. Billy looks at Steve like he wants to lick him up and Steve’s got like no chill. He was either just struck by cupid’s bow or possessed by the spirit of a blushing love bug.

“Whoa. Did we just watch Harringrove become reality in real time?!!! 😍”

When the host asks if they’re aware of the soulmate theory, Steve stays on flustered and Billy gets coy. “Oh yeah, well it’s been a whirlwind and there’s not a lot of time to focus on much outside of work. But yeah it’s great. I think people just love to be in love and if it makes them happy to play matchmaker, well that’s fun. As long as it’s not hurting anyone do what makes you happy.”

Big Order's Frustratingly Random OVA

Until yesterday, I'd never bothered to look into the "Big Order" OVA.

It was originally a giveaway with a volume of the manga and pre-dates the actual anime series — just like Mirai Nikki/Future Diary's OVA. And also just like Mirai Nikki's own OVA/series and the Big Order anime series that arrived later, it's an Asread production. Given all of those similarities, I thought this would be a case much like Mirai Nikki's OVA. Mirai Nikki's OVA is just an abridged take on the series' Episode 2 with slightly different animation/angles in spots. With that in mind and given all of the similar setup, why would Big Order's OVA contain anything interesting for me? Especially since I didn't even like the Big Order's anime series.

So yeah, I pulled said OVA up on the Blu-Ray and was greeted with THIS. I was NOT prepared.

"Random Order" is a trippy watch, though I can't say it's not interesting while it's running. It's full of random scenes from the then-upcoming anime (scenes that appear largely identical to the ones used in the finished episodes... barring a few exceptions) as well as a few alternate-reality scenes that have no parallels in the series proper. And weirdest of all? The eventual anime series seems to specifically call back to this OVA during its final episode. I never would've known that if I hadn't just finished watching the series again, but... yeah, there are references in that finale to scenes that ONLY exist in this OVA. Bizarre.

The framing device is that lead protagonist Eiji Hoshimiya — usually, but it might also be Rin or Iyo or Sena at times, depending on the scenes you get — is sitting in a supernatural café while Daisy (she's the mysterious being who grants the characters their "Order" superpowers in response to their wishes, if you didn't know) is waiting for him/her to make their wish. But Eiji-or-whomever is struggling to make a wish because they're totally tripping out, seeing either (A) alternate realities that already exist due to various wishes they made in different timelines OR (B) dream-like illusions of what they might be able to make happen based on wishes they're considering in their minds OR (C) flashes of memories they've already experienced prior to this moment.

Not that I've seen all the scenes in here, mind you, because of course I fucking haven't. After 12 run-throughs that took me back to the above image's first "C" each time, I haven't managed to land on that magical "11" even ONCE, so I've yet to see ANY of the three random outcomes that lead ot the long credits. But I've sure seen plenty of outcomes that lead to the short credits...

I'm watching this Blu-Ray on a PS4, and I can't find any way to skip around various titles/chapters on the disk via the PS4's interface. I also can't find that anyone has uploaded the entire complicated series of options; this thing is MUCH too complex and niche for people to bother. It seems like the existing uploads only contain the mandated first 23-or-so minutes, completely ignoring all the optional variations thereafter.

As for the unique scenes in this OVA? Out of what I've seen, there don't appear to be many. But if nothing else, any die-hard Eiji/Rin shippers who might be out there will definitely get their juice during those first 23 minutes.

Yup, it turns out these are straight-up having sex in whatever reality/dream/memory we see during the outset of the OVA. So there's plenty of flirting, kissing, seductive talk, etc. And... I guess that flower in her hair never comes off?

fic writer ask game!

tagged twice by both @knickynoo and @mythical-bookworm :D

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

60. what a nice round number lmao

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

396,318

3. what fandoms do you write for?

i'm a back to the future writer through and through!

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Until I Get Home

November

But It's Alright

The Me You Knew

Winter of '84

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i usually do, simply because i love interaction between fics. besides, whenever someone takes their time to say that they liked my fic, to me, it's simply polite to respond and at the very least say "thank you".

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

it's a short oneshot titled "Yesterday", which is an alternative (angstier) take on the outcome of the duel in bttf part 3.

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

honestly? "Until I Get Home". it was angsty overall, but the ending is super satisfying and happy, you can take my word for it.

8. do you get hate on fics?

not that i know of, no.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

absolutely not.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest you've ever written?

i'm not into crossovers, really. the only crossover i have on my ao3 is "The Weight Of Us", a fic taking elements from this year's "Oppenheimer" movie.

11. have you ever had your fic stolen?

the first chapter of my fic "14 Scraps Of Paper" was copy-pasted onto a wattpad book like one and a half years ago, but nothing has happened since.

12. have you ever had your fic translated?

technically, quite a few of my fics exist in two languages, because i personally write them in german and translate them. but no one has ever translated a fic into another language.

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

i have, yep! quite a few of my ao3 fics are roleplays, meaning that two people (or sometimes more) have been invloved in writing it. "The Me You Knew" is also a collab work.

14. what's your all time favorite ship?

i am not a shipper lol. marty/jen is always great, but i'm not into ships in general.

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

i have no idea right now honestly

16. what are your writing strengths?

maybe dialogue? i think i'm also pretty decent at suspense

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

i tend to use the same words/phrases over and over again, specifically in english, because my vocabulary is still limited. i also hate describing things or settings.

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

i want and will do this in the future! it's specifically planned for my "Trinity"-threequel, but might happen befoore!

19. first fandom you wrote for?

i never published it, but i recently found a Super Mario fanfic from when i was like 9. it actually had a decent plot, i was surprised with myself lmao

20. favorite fic you've ever written?

this is HARD. but really, i adore "Most People Were Silent" in a way that i don't adore any of my other fics, because i allowed myself to play with original ideas and characters. the result was a super niche bttf fic, but i love it so much.

thanks for the tag! imma tag @bg-sparrow, @synthsays and whoever else wants to participate!

Hello again! Back to asking you some more questions out of curiosity! You’re answers have always been so detailed and insightful!

After seeing a few posts of yours, I wanted to ask, why do you ship China/ Mongolia? It’s a fairly unliked, or at least unpopular ship in the English Hetalia fandom, so I’m curious to see your perspective? That, and how do you imagine their dynamic?

Hii! I'm so glad my answers have been good, I love talking so thank you for the questions! I'm sorry about how long this reply is, its pretty rambly

quick disclaimer: these r my opinions and thoughts, there r sensitive topics and such here as well that I try to treat carefully

SHORT ANSWER

(ignore the 'show' lol it's jus fav x fav)

LONG ANSWER (warning. its pretty long)

Hmmm to be honest, the simplest answer is just that I like and ship everyone with China who is my fav, I really like Mongolia, they have shared history, so I smash them together and call it a ship LOL

It's also bc I like Chinese history and the Yuan dynasty is a pretty prominent dynasty. Plus it's incredibly funny to me to see China bounced from one foreign ruler to the next in that little pocket of time where a part of China passed from Mongolic to Tungusic rulers while the Song dynasty grew and then shrank until it was finally fully conquered by Kublai Khan + going with the headcanon that nation-tans lived with their conquerers, I think China chilling with Mongolia during the Yuan dynasty is a fun image. It's a little difficult to write about because Mongolia (and, less relevantly, China as well) like, fractured a lot? It's not a single line of successive nations, and modern groupings and borders haven't always been this way ofc, so it's always a little hard to parse that in Hetalia terms. But it's fun to think about : )

Also, I will say I follow mainly Japanese artists on twitter and there's surprisingly a rather developed niche of Mongolia/China shippers

Dynamics

Dynamic wise, I focus on old history, but I like a variety of things! ぴよEX from pixiv has some really fun historical comics, the super serious Mongolian Empire and arrogant but expressive China are really cute when interacting, their casual day to day dynamic and interactions despite the situation are fun too. As a big China fan from a purely Hetalia point of view abt an event from many centuries ago, there's a feeling like 'wow he put a lot of effort into conquering China huh he tried really hard lol that's kind of cute... also he was the only one to Truly Have all of China until Qing dynasty came along... the Khitans and Jurchens all tried but were unable to fully conquer China... it was only Him 🥺'

I personally really love clingy China who reminisces about the old days and Mongolia who's a little tired of it, even though it's very unrealistic because the Yuan dynasty obviously wasn't a fun time for Yaoyao and then the Qing dynasty. ALSO was not a fun time for him haha so what would he even reminisce about... it exists in my heart though, a nebulous 'yeah maybe they hang out sometimes and China gets jealous over stupid shit and reminisces thru nostalgia lenses about how he once sat side by side with Mongolia and Mongolia tries to focus on the meal and not on the yandere beside him'. I also have a specific image in my head of Mongolian empire era Mongolia walking around with Song dynasty China tagging along to complain about stuff despite the lack of friendliness between their respective nations. Ahistorical but fun! The few Mongolia/China fics I've read in the English fandom that aren't openly anti-shipping are rather angsty fics about the Yuan dynasty, and though I can see why, I think it's much more entertaining to see their coexistence and casual day-to-day interactions in the ~century that the Yuan dynasty lasted, China's annoying peppiness, Mongolia half-listening to his flights of fancy while doing Big Ruling Things, etc. In general, the base of the ship for me is 'tall, annoyed, and serious x small, annoying, and expressive'. Like the first image I doodled specifically for this ask lol

Its place in English fandom

On the topic of popularity, I can understand why it's not as popular in the English fandom tbh the history between the countries has been very antagonistic and fraught w violence, esp in modern history, the 1900s and Mongolia's struggle for independence and such. and culturally there aren't that many similarities, aside from what's left over from the past rule's influence on culture and then there's a bit of cultural influence up north ofc. And then the topic of Inner Mongolia, as well as ethnic tensions... I'm not really in a place to comment and I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to say anything, so this is just an acknowledgment it exists and also that it in my experience influences the English fandom, which, I mean good for them doing some research and staying away from sensitive topics and potentially offensive depictions

also the people who ship Mongolia ships in the English fandom tend to be Mongolia biases, and this ship is more of a China fan ship if that makes any sense? Like, if you liked Mongolia you might ship him with like, Tibet, have something fluffy and sweet and not... this toxic ship fraught with recent suffering, but if you like China there's a bigger chance of shipping him with Mongolia focusing on the Yuan dynasty. A bit of bullying for our fav little arrogant old guy. Meanwhile, there aren't that many China mains in the English fandom and the ones who are out there tend to ship him with yt ppl and focus on either AUs or modern history with a focus on China/western relations 😅 which I mean, fine, I do as well dsjjghfljk but fun historical ships like Mongolia/China aren't really popular.

Qing Dynasty rambles, kinda off topic

Another thing: the Qing dynasty! Okay so, I've read like. at least one english fic that had China turned into an oppressive little dickhead in this time period, but IMO and it's a very very personal and subjective thing, I don't think having China, that is Yaoyao, being the main force in the Qing dynasty makes much sense. This isn't like Yaoyao apologia LMAO it's more like, if each distinct and separate people and culture have their own nation-tan, I don't see why Manchu wouldn't. We may be sinicized now and I consider myself Chinese, but we are still a distinct people to the Han and Manchu were NOT Chinese back then!! It should also be noted that while the Manchu ruling class encouraged the mindset of a diverse China, 'Manchu Mongol Han' (满蒙汉) type thing, they were still conquerors who conquered China, Mongolia, and then a bunch of other places, and there was a hierarchy involved that had Han Chinese below Manchu. There were Han (and Mongolians and other ppl) who were promoted and integrated into the banner system or given Manchu clans or whatever and they were allowed to send their daughters in as concubines but the upper class was generally Manchu and there was a (failed) effort to retain traditional culture, meaning it can't be taken as 'Manchuria was consumed' sort of integration. Shoving 'well China was not in charge of China' in there kind of... changes the dynamics of Mongolia and aph China a little? Another, maybe more important point, is that Mongolia being conquered by the Qing dynasty in many cases wasn't initially a China Mongolia thing so much as a Manchu/Jurchen tribes vs Mongolian groups sort of thing, some groups fought with the Manchu, others were allied w Manchu Qing for protection against other groups, also iirc there were enmity/alliances left over from when Manchu were a bunch of little Jurchen tribes who either fought with the nearby Mongolic groups or turned to certain Mongolic groups for trade and alliances as protection. Like I get that in modern times HOW exactly the conquering went down doesn't matter as much as that it did and at that time China was the main force even ruled by outside conquerors, especially because the Qing dynasty is acknowledged as Chinese and the current country is a direct successor state to the successor state of this dynasty, but Hetalia content that directly addresses this history should take it into account. It's sort of like hmmm the Yuan dynasty's attack on Japan?

Of course, this is a sensitive topic! Lots of violence. Sooo it's the sort of thing that I'm hesitant to make 'content' about, but I do think about it sometimes. How would the relations go down? Idk bc Qing dynasty isn't one of my preferred periods for Mongolia/China but I thought I'd include it anyways since I've seen this era around in the English fandom and I had a Hot Take I wanted to express. It would be an interesting dynamic, though, bc then China goes hard trying to keep Mongolia in the republic era which was VERY VERY ruled by Han who were miffed about centuries of oppression under Manchu rule, lots of anti ethnic minority sentiment arose from that and the, ah, other events going on in during the late 1800s and early 1900s. so it's like... as a country it makes sense but how do you fit this into the characters? It's not like the characters have to like what's happening in their country of course, but I'd like to situate them in the time and atmosphere nonetheless. It's also a situation where China was getting hella brutalized during the late Qing/Republic era by western powers and Japan, so the usual line about this era for it is 'wow poor baby : (' which I admit I love, but it does leave Mongolia, any and all suppression of culture, and its independence movement by the wayside. A country and its systems can be very complicated because everything happens all the time and there's like a billion people involved but then u gotta find a way to balance it within these individual characters which is hard!! I've read so many fics in this era and it always focuses on a few specific character/country relations and inevitably leaves many big things out, everything just happens all the time huh!

I guess the timeline would be roughly:

Stirrings of trouble -> Manchuria gathering. some Jurchen groups are directly allied with Mongolian groups for protection while other Jurchen groups waged war on them and the Ming dynasty so this is awkward -> wowee China has been conquered uwu Yaoyao enters another Jin dynasty -> battle with Mongolia ig? or talks of alliance? The same thing applies to pre-Manchu unification, it's hard when all the different groups represented by one dude are doing different things and it's hard to say who gets the nation-tan -> ok now Qing dynasty is at its largest. China and Mongolia are both under Manchu rule, Mongolia has a bit more status but China gets kept closer to the rulers and in the palace cause obvious reasons. Do they interact? probably sometimes? i'd have to do more research on the details -> oh no the westies have arrived to do a bit of war and opium -> China has attacked and gotten rid of Manchuria, preferably while crying for the spice, but now that he has Mongolia he doesn't want to let go : ( misery -> and the rest is history. i guess

Closing

I'm sorry if nothing makes sense but I started writing and editing at midnight and I can see daylight through the windows so I'll leave it here

Finally: here's a link to PiyoEX's Mongolia/China compilation! There's a bunch of short comics about the Mongolian Empire/Song Dynasty part of history, some Russia Mongolia China, and one timeline of events with Mongolia celebrating Yuan dynasty, China celebrating Ming dynasty, and both of them side eyeing the new guy for the Qing dynasty dksljhgf

To be honest I don't usually think too deeply about this ship aside from teehee funny 1100s AD interactions and wow what if they went out in modern times and Mongolia had a horrible time and China couldn't stop clinging to his arm like a bug! And ofc that one irl video where China was thanking Mongolia for some sheep the gov sent, and some dude sang this song of thanks that was autotuned to hell, but the ship has a lot of potential for exploration, though it's sensitive and hard to handle correctly imo

my experience with ao3

i joined it around 2015 mainly because of an otgw author i followed on tumblr, and since they were very active on ao3 i thought to myself, "why not?". otherwise it took me a whole year to actually post something there. since then i got quite a following for my undertale fics, and later other fandoms such as steven universe.

my fics are, in general, pretty well liked, sometimes even gaining hundreds of kudos. one even got 1k the other day. most nice comments i get are from ao3 users. even then, i never actually interact with them. i rarely reply to comments, nor do i comment myself; i mainly just bookmark the fics i like. i gradually got more wary of the users since the more i tried to consume fics there, the more messed up shit i would find. for instance, a lot of the ppl who read my ut fics were into fontcest and child/adult content, and it was the same thing for the other fandoms i wrote for.

maybe because of my general avoidance, i never had a traumatizing experience on ao3, like many have unfortunately gone through. i have gotten rude comments every now and then, but i was never caught up in grooming or something as such. even still, looking for fics used to be much worse because i wasn't aware of any filtering extensions, nor did ao3 have the "exclude" feature back then, so the great majority of fics i would find was basically pedo/incest/abuse/racist porn. when they did add the "exclude" feature a couple years ago, it became a little less disheartening - while it was still a pain having to exclude 10-20 tags just to get something normal -, but in general i never quite used ao3 to read many fics, only very niche concepts i'm personally fond of. i also always check if the author reads and/or writes any insidious content, so i'm very selective of what i read and who i follow.

the thing that made me create this account, though, was when i wrote a fma 03 fic last year and i included a tag that said "elricests and royeds have no rights and should rot". someone reported me to ao3 and they accused me of harassment, and hid my work until i got rid of the tag. i refused and posted a very heated rant against ao3, which finally got me suspended for months. in the meantime, ao3 began actively deleting works that included any tags that included "x shippers do not interact" or similar. basically, their excuse was "you have to let ppl ship whatever they want. yes, even if it's incest and pedophilia".

at first, when i was angry, i thought of deleting all my works, but after a while, i realized i didn't want to. the reason my account is still up is mainly sentimental. i've been on ao3 for 7 years now, and i did find some good fics and good ppl in there. my fics are very personal to me, so all the positive (and earned) feedback i got means very much to me. i have many fics there, some still ongoing, so i haven't had the courage to delete my account. i guess it's mainly because i never went through something traumatic there, so it's probably easy for me to have these feelings.

i've always been on a little corner on ao3, really. it means a lot to me when ppl find it and decide to stick in. but of course, ao3 has deeply disappointed me in a lot of ways. i'm only still using the site with a grain of salt. sometimes i wish i could let go, but it's really hard for me to do it. maybe one day i will, but for now, i just really wish i could have a safe space where people can enjoy platonic/familial content without any concern.

ao3 is a huge platform nowadays, and a lot of writers i follow and respect use it. i know taking it down is not easy, so i really wish there was a way for us to pressure ao3 to have better moderation - and actually ADD a blocking/muting feature.

i will always stand on the side of minorities, and i hope one day we get justice for all the harmful things ao3 and its users have done to us.

Ah! I'm so happy that someone is not a fan with Dialuc ship. I thought I'm the only one or in the unpopular side of this argument.

I get why people ship these two. But to me their dynamic doesn't sit well to me. So as He and Barbatos.

It's hard to ship Diavolo with anyone because what his character does to others. The only ship I can see that could work is Him and Solomon, but that is a crack ship (Also I don't ship characters to other characters without them actually having romantic chemistry or the canon pair plus who scary people tend with shipping in general)

I wish the Dev's isn't afraid of making an arc for Diavolo where they acknowledge of his controlling nature, even though his this prince placing people in situation where they can't say no isn't how to making friends or make deep connection to others.

Sorry for this rant, I just want to chat with this topic.

I definitely agree!

It isn’t just Lucifer people take issue with, it’s literally anyone he has power over. He used his dying sister to make him his servant. Messed up. Then there was that whole thing was Barbatos and threatening to abandon the thrown if he didn’t stay with him. Although the way Diavolo talks about it, I got the impression he was much younger. Lucifer and Barbatos seem to hold Diavolo in high regard but the nature of their relationship makes me feel icky for shipping them. And to be fair to the DiaLuc shippers out there I don’t think they deny these issues.

The devs were pretty close in acknowledging his controlling nature in S3 with Belphie but they were too afraid to call him out. They ended up making Belphie just get over it.

“You saved my life guess I gotta do what you say!”

In these type of discussions, Belphie is usually left out but I know the ship has a niche following. Given everything that’s happened in entirety of their relationship, the refusal to compromise, lack of understanding and especially the inability to accept no means no. Diavolo was really gonna force Belphie to wear a hat, because he wanted him to. Then he guilts MC into trying to get Belphie to wear the stupid hat! Mc could’ve easily said no themselves, but Belphie already did!

The healthiest relationship he has atm is with Levi but with his complete disrespect for boundaries and Levi’s social anxiety, I’m a bit worried. I hope this is the relationship they address his control issues. It would be good for both of them! Levi gaining self respect and boundaries and Diavolo learning to respect said boundaries!

And this always goes without saying, but ship them if you want! If you ship Lucifer and Diavolo, great! If you ship Lucifer, Barbatos and Diavolo as a poly couple, more power to ya! It doesn’t make you an awful person, you just interpret their relationship differently then I do. Which is completely valid!

I love talking about ObeyMe! Nowadays it seems all I do is rant about it, but rants are cathartic! So I was really happy when I saw your ask!

5, 9, 22 for salty asks!

Oooh thank you for the asks! I spent way too much time thinking about these, haha.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

"Ruined" might be a strong word - I was never much of a Harringrove shipper (though I def saw the chemistry/sexual tension) but god that is just such a toxic barrel of snitty arguing and shit-flinging that I avoid almost all Harringrove content on sight. (Even stuff by authors I typically like.)

I like Lawrusso from their interactions on the show, but jesus so much of the fanfic is saccharine sweet and wildly OOC, I just couldn't engage with that side of the fandom. Johnny's a writhing ball of toxic masculinity and insecurity. Daniel's a pretentious weeaboo with a stick up his ass. They're both hung up on the past. Gimme more of that. That's why I love them.

Other than that, I feel like being in the fandom has changed my mind on certain pairings, especially canon or seemingly endgame ones. I'm generally a multi-shipper, as long as it makes sense, but Mileven and Stancy are much bigger mehs for me since I got more into the ST fandom scene. Modern PRMF fanfic turned me from Chip/Vida to Chip/Vida/Xander. I was always on-board for Shassie, but fandom has made it hard to watch the heavier-handed Shules episodes, which makes it harder to watch later Psych content in general.

A kind of niche one (maybe not on this hellsite) but Juliette and Cal on First Kill were a huge letdown after all the thought pieces and gifsets I saw here. They were okay, but the chemistry was mid and the writing was so inconsistent, I had a hard time connecting with them after the expectations set by the fandom.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

Oh this is a tough one. Like of course I dislike Billy Hargrove, he's made to be a piece of shit with dubiously redemptive potential. Same for guys like Jason Carver - if I dislike them, the writers did their jobs right.

Every time Mineta appears on MHA, I groan internally and externally. I know anime is probably cheating but god that little shit gets on my nerves. Honestly, any anime character that exists purely to be pervy comic relief immediately activates my fight or flight response.

22. Popular character you hate?

I don't hate Tommy Oliver, per se, but he's so fucking over-saturated in modern PR media, I just want more from other legacy Rangers and seasons.

Kusaka from KR Faiz - another character I'm meant to dislike but god he's so popular in certain circles and I know it's because the actor is likable but Kusaka himself is so punchable and the cause of so many problems throughout the season, including keeping one of my favorite pairings (Takumi/Yuuji) on opposite sides.

Is Tori from Cobra Kai popular? I like the idea of her but god the writing is so inconsistent, it's like the writers wanted a female Robby but couldn't figure out her redemption arc the way they did his. (Not that his was great but hers is just a scattershot of redemptive tropes and the writers going 'eh? eh?')