#also if u saw the beta post of this fic... no u didn't

[tonytonwy]

people pleaser

futakuchi kenji x f!reader

w.c 2900-ish

summary: where futakuchi kenji isn't as mean or disrespectful as other people have told you

Shit.

You softly bite your lip as you realize Mai is in a different class. She gives a reassuring pat on your shoulder as you try to find anyone you spoken to before; however, your eyes get stuck on one name.

Futakuchi Kenji.

You had heard of Futakuchi before, mainly by Mai's ramblings, but he was… known, not necessarily good things but he had a bit of a reputation. He had issues with talking back to upperclassmen and fighting for marks with teachers. You had spoken to him once or twice but can't even remember what it was about.

“There’s a reason you’re all seated this way,” You try to hide in your beige sweater, the green blazer on your skirt. You try to ease your breathing as you feel Futakuchi eye you down, probably wondering why you're completely avoiding his gaze.

Fuck.

Your teacher, a young man with dark curly hair leans on his desk, “if you notice, you're probably seated with people you never thought you’d talk to.” You subtly nod, a window on one side and Futakuchi on the other wasn’t exactly the way you planned the year to go.

“I want you to speak to people with a different opinion to you, if you’re quiet, be loud. If you’re a bit of a dick, maybe be nice.” He looks at Futakuchi, who simply stares at him back, giving a tight smile. You nervously bounce your leg on the floor, side-eyeing Futakuchi. He was currently doodling on his notebook, ignoring everything the teacher was saying. His long legs are spread out, your eyes are slowly draw to his hands. They're long but in a soft and almost dainty way. You can't help but look at your own; rough and your nails are uneven, nothing like his. Despite his broad shoulders, his wrists are skinny and you can only imagine what the rest of his body looks like. You have to admit, he's quite attractive. You don't remember him being this easy on the eyes last year.

You look away before you can be caught.

“Ah, also, I may have sat the two best math students together on purpose.” You notice how Futakuchi’s head lifts, actually listening now. You mentally sweat, hoping that there was a student that got better grades than you. However, the teacher’s quick and teasing glance at you make your mouth slightly open in shock. “I think friendly competitions are good. That’s right, Futakuchi,” the teacher points at him suddenly, “you’re no longer the best student. You have a rival in this class.”

“I’m sure they won’t be hard to beat.” Your teacher gives a laugh. He appears to know Futakuchi and his personality already. You can't say the same but in a, incredibly, weird way, you want to.

<3

“Thank you, y/n, you’re the best! This is the last time, promise.” You give a small smile as your classmate gives you a side hug and she runs off, your pristine notebook in her hand. You stretch and let out a big sigh; she had said the same thing last week.

“God, you’re such a people pleaser,” Futakuchi says rudely, his eyes glaring at your classmate who is quickly copying your work before the teacher arrives. He clicks his tongue in disapproval, an annoying habit of his, and shoves his hands into his blazer’s pockets. His notebook open with the answers to the homework and a slick black pen. “She’s too dumb to do basic algebra.”

“That’s a bit mean,” you slightly shuffle so you can look at him properly, “she might have personal issues going on.” The sarcasm in deep in your voice as he snorts, shaking his head. Futakuchi caught on pretty early that you were the other top student as everyone asked you for help. By pretty early, the third day of school, and since then, everyday, without fail, he would ask how much you studied and what's your 'loser face' like (you refuse to show him, obviously). And now with the results of first test arriving, you feel Futakuchi’s excitement as your stomach is full of nerves.

“Yeah, clearly personal issues going on,” as he says that the girl laughs loudly with her friends, forgetting about your notebook fast. You couldn’t wait for class to end. You feel a sudden whack on the back of your head and turn your head as Futakuchi has a bored expression, as if he didn’t just hit you. You smile in shock and as you open your mouth to talk, his blabbermouth beats you to it.

“I bet you’re the type of person to be in a rush and somehow,” he adds suspense for some reason, “you’d still help a person who's dropped their groceries. Or let someone convince you to join their cult or whatever.” You can only stare at him in silence for a few seconds before actually laughing, and you can see a glint of pride in Futakuchi’s eyes.

“Well, that definitely hasn’t happened before.” You say, eyes rolling. Futakuchi can only shake his head. Despite your initial fears, talking to Futakuchi in class became normal. Sure, he would tease you constantly and distract you , but it was weirdly easy to tease him back and, to just talk.

“You know what? You should tell people," he shifts his chair so he's closer and you lean in, he's practically whispering the last bit, "to..."

"to...?" You whisper, confused.

"to fuck off." He says fast and simple and you give a small laugh, shaking your head in disapproval. "And stop being a people-pleaser, it's gross."

Before you can respond back, your teacher hops in, a stack of paper in one hand and a red pen in the other.

You feel an annoying but all too similar soft kick to the bottom of your chair. You don’t even bother giving him a glance, you already know what his question is going to be.

“What did you get?” Futakuchi says, ignoring the teacher’s glare and your head remains down, finishing the last section of the questions you got wrong. “Are you ignoring me?”

“Did you not tell me to stop being a people pleaser?” Your voice is harsh but you turn and give a cheeky smile. His mouth is wide open, a smile starting to form and his eyes are full of disbelief. Pride swells in your chest and you wish you had a camera to take a picture of Futakuchi's face.

“Wow, using my advice against me?” He scrunches up a small piece of paper and flicks it to your face, hitting your nose. “That’s messed up.”

“Futakuchi, please stop bothering your neighbour.” You quickly put your head down and feel your cheeks heat up as people stare and Futakuchi sulks in his seat. His tongue clicks again, slightly quieter this time. “You can bother her when you get a higher grade than her.” Your eyes widen and whip your head to see how Futakuchi’s eyebrows twitch in annoyance at the teacher’s teasing.

The class continues in silent before you see another piece of paper arrive at your desk. You look at Futakuchi, unimpressed with his attempted to communicate. He shrugs before showing you his paper, a clear red 88 on the corner.

You hesitantly look at the paper, firstly, afraid of this paper being a death threat and secondly, being caught by the teacher.

How tf did you get a higher grade than me? You purse your lips, a smile threatening to come out. You quickly write a response and give a deep breathe before throwing to him, if he killed you, at least you would die a winner.

By doing your mum.

You cover your mouth as you hear Futakuchi loudly laugh, the teacher once again turning. He covers his mouth, clearly not expecting for you to write such a thing.

“Care to share Futakuchi?” The teacher’s tone slightly more serious now.

“Nah, I’m good.” he says quickly, and writes on the other side of the paper you threw. You try to work but your eyes go to him, wondering what Futakuchi could possibly be writing. You quickly get the other paper, scrunched and your hands feel electric as you open the paper.

You're definitely not a people pleaser anymore, quite the opposite actually.

It's not long before he bothers you again.

“What did you get?” Futakuchi pokes your shoulder, and you pull your tongue out, not bothered to answer. “Real mature, c’mon,” He leans in, but you swat your paper against his face.

“Don’t be snoopy,” he looks unimpressed and scoffs before folding his arms. “Futakuchi, you’re such a baby.” You give a small laugh as he pulls the middle finger.

“l/n and Futakuchi, last warning,” your back straightens significantly as your teacher gives a small nod and you can hear Futakuchi choke a laugh over your nerdiness.

“Teacher’s pet,” he says, glancing at you once the teacher faces the board again.

“At least I got a higher score than you,” you give a small smile while continuing to write down the teachers notes, and you feel Futakuchi’s glare on you.

The class passes by fast, as classmates come and ask for your help in explaining certain equations. However, you still feel those pair of eyes on you.

<3

As you walk out to the lockers you see Futakuchi, leaning on the wall on his phone. Despite being able to talk to him in class, being fully alone with him was a completely different situation.

“Waiting for Aone?” he turns and before he can glare, he gives a small smile. You go on your knees and put your school shoes into your locker as he fully turns and squats with you.

“Yep,” his face is serious and stoic, “so what did you actually get?” your face drops and you try to not smile over his persistent attitude.

“I wasn’t aware that you still cared,” you see his cheeks go slightly pink for once, “fine, I got a 92.”

“Bullshit,” he says but you open your bag and elegantly pass your paper, a clear bright red 92 in the corner. Futakuchi clicks his tongue, once again. “It’s because the teacher loves you.”

“Don’t belittle my efforts,” you put your leather shoes on as he slightly nudges you so you slightly trip, you give a quick glare that makes him laugh. “It’s not my fault you fight every teacher on every test.”

“I know my worth,” you snort over his arrogance as he stares at your calculations, his eyebrows furrowed, “also you deserve a mark here.”

“What?” You feel your heart drop and immediately lean to your test and see your working out, shoulders touching with Futakuchi. You ignore his breathe hitch, you ignore how warm he is, and you definitely ignore his cologne. “No, I don’t. I forgot to round it.”

“He said that correct units were the additional mark, not rounding, so he forgot to add a mark for that.” He folds the paper and hits your forehead, “you deserve a 94 instead of a 92, at least.”

“It’s just two percent,” you say shyly, grabbing the paper while standing up, “I doubt that’ll change my overall grade.” You didn’t want to fight the teacher, he treated you nicely every time you needed help with a question.

“You worked hard for this test,” he stands up as well, his long legs contrasting yours. His eyes staring at you for way too long, he gives a small sigh before rubbing his neck. “You deserve the grade you studied for.”

Oh.

Oh.

You don’t know why it tugs your heart, the acknowledgment of your hard work and for Futakuchi, of all people, to see it. It does something to your stomach and you feel your cheeks heat up, your feet feel stuck to the floor and your hands are suddenly clammy.

“I’ll ask him about it tomorrow,” you push the paper back in your bag, your stomach heavy with nerves. You suddenly feel insecure, did you even bother fixing your hair? Is your skirt too long? Face too blemished? You feel your sweater cling to you, in a unflattering way.

You avoid his eyes and walk past, not sure what to do with this flush of emotions. “See you tommorrow.”

"Wait," you quickly turn and Futakuchi awkwardly walks up to you, face slightly pink, "I'll walk you to the gate."

"Why?" He avoids your eyes and instead looks to the side.

"Loser's etiquette," he gives a dorky smile and you can't help but laugh.

"Sure, it's dangerous times to be walking alone to a school gate." He snorts and lightly pushes you.

"Shut up," despite his tone, he's smiling. You push him back and you both are in the strange game of pushing each other until the end of the gate. You take a deep breathe and look at Futakuchi, who's looking around to see if there's any other students.

“Thank you, I would’ve never noticed that mistake. I will actually talk to the teacher about it.” You have a serious face before Futakuchi laughs, eyes crinkling and you have to laugh with him over your dramatic style.

“No worries, it has to be a fair competition after all,” you shake your head giving a small smile. You lightly punch Futakuchi, who acts as though you have the strength of a body builder.

“Your mercifulness is going to be the end of you.” You start to walk off, your heart feeling a bit lighter.

“This is my first and last time helping you, y/n.” You give a small wave before giving him the finger.

“Good to know, because I won’t need it again!” You shout, not taking a second to glance at him despite the temptation to do so. Futakuchi laughs before disappearing back into the school.

<3

“Thank you for telling me l/n! Jeez I can’t believe I missed that.” Your math teacher gives a thumbs up, a big smile on his face. He couldn't be more than 25.

“Uhm, Futakuchi told me, actually,” You shyly give credit to him, and you see your teacher's surprised face appear, his mouth wide open.

“Futakuchi helped you? Even though he’s second?” You nod, your face heating up the more you think about it, last night you had been asking yourself the same questions. Your teacher gives a chuckle, “I have never heard of him helping anyone besides himself and Aone.”

“Yeah… He said he wanted a fair competition.” Your teacher let out a loud laugh.

“God, he’s a softie. What a stupid excuse,” he adds a red circle to your new mark. “I’m glad you’re seating next to him,” He gives a smile, “you're too nice to everyone.” Your eyebrows slightly frown as you recall Futakuchi said something similar.

“Mister Moniwa, do you know Futakuchi?” You ask, seemingly out of nowhere and your teacher tilts his head, pondering how he should answer.

“Our mums are friends,” you let a small ‘oh’, “plus, my little brother is Futakuchi’s captain.” You nod, still feeling curious about Futakuchi.

“Do you like Futakuchi always coming up to you to fight about his grade?”

“Well, I’ve known him since I was young,” he says, smiling, “funnily enough, I was his tutor when he was in middle school. So, I don't really mind. I know he's competitive.”

"I could tell early on," you laugh as you think about all the other times Moniwa has made a lesson a competition so Futakuchi would actually participate.

“Is there a reason you’re so curious about Futakuchi?” You feel your face heat up as he peers into your face.

“Uh, no,” you fiddle with your fingers, “he just seems, so confident.” Your comment surprises Moniwa, who’s eyes widen before giving a soft smile.

“That's one way to see him."

As you walk away you finally look at your paper you see a ‘96’ scribbled and a small comment.

Clearly Futakuchi ‘missed’ the other mark you got on the last page! Tell him off for me.

You shake your head; he definitely saw that mark. You practically speed walk to the class, excited to see your 'rival'.

“You asshole,” you slam your paper on his desk, “you saw the other mark, didn’t you?” Futakuchi eyes widen before giving a smug face.

“Why, I have no clue what you mean, dear y/n.”

"Oh my god,” you laugh before sitting down in your chair, giving him a shocked look. “Here I thought you were genuinely trying to help me achieve my maximum potential.” He laugh before sitting up straight, stretching his body.

“Nope,” he pops the ‘p’, “I can’t give you all the answers, now can I?”

“Yes, you can.” You say, lightly hitting your shoe against his.

“I can’t believe you got 96,” his tongue clicks, “impressive.”

“Why thank you, but it’s…” You try to maintain eye-contact, despite your face becoming a hot mess, “it’s, uhm, thanks to you, Futakuchi.” You rub your neck awkwardly as you wait for him to say anything at this point. His eyes widen as you say his name, and you quickly realize you've never called him by his name.

“Uhm, it’s okay, you already got a higher score than me so why not give you a bit of a boost up.” He coughs, clearing his throat up, ears slightly red. “You clearly needed it… Plus, probability is my bitch, so I’ll ace the next test.”

You slowly glare at him, a million thoughts going through your head.

“I’ll bet… That I’ll ace it harder than you,” you leave your hand out for a handshake, “probability is everyone’s bitch.”

His classic smug smile comes out, his hand drumming on his desk, actually thinking about the logistics of this bet. However, his hand slides into yours, giving a small squeeze.

“Deal.”

note: hope u enjoyed it, first time writing futakuchi ahh, can u tell the parts i rlly enjoyed writing??

#haikyuu!! #futakuchi kenji #x reader #fluff #he's such a menace but he's my menace #we need more content of this horrible man #i have an idea for aone but we shall see #also if u saw the beta post of this fic... no u didn't #if u see any errors pls tell me #i'm terrible at english #date tech #aye maybe prequel in futakuchi's pov #bc obviously we have to kdrama it and he obviously knew you from before #2am writing?? more likely than you think

[redfurrycat]

May i respectfully ask how you can enjoy a ship if u didn't see the show for canon's sake?? 😄👀

Hey Anon! :)

Talking about Sterek are we, right?? :D

Upon reading your ask, I reflected on how I got into the Sterek fandom in the first place, and wow what a nice journey down the memory lane!!

Short answer to how I can enjoy a ship if I didn't see the show?

COLDFLASH.

Confused, are you? =D

The longer version of my babbling is under the cut, and so very sorry about that, coudn't help myself! :D

In case you don't know about the Coldflash ship, Anon, just a quick word. Tis the hero/villain ship from the Flash tv-show, aka Barry Allen/Leonard Snart.

THEM:

I started following this ig account ss.sterek [@holycafe if I'm not mistaken], liking all the coldflash posts, then getting curious about their other posts as well.

This is how Sterek came to be.

At first, it was a polite indifference, but the more I saw the sterek posts the more it got interesting to me, until one day I started searching for any Sterek content.

Until I started searching for any content on Tumblr, specifically.

Until I liked so many incorrect quotes and crack posts about this so-called Sourwolf and Spaz.

At some point their dynamic became SO addicting, I decided to start reading fics.

Did I understand any of the mentionned canon? Heck no.

(The Teen Wolf Wiki Page was a huge help in that regard, explaining to me what a kanima or a nogitsune was for example.)

Still, I remember the first fics I read were about Stiles being Pack Mom to the Wonder betas!! =D

Also fics closely (ish) related to canon...So yeah they always referred to stuff happening in the show that I usually didn't get...

With patience, some research, and LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF FICS, I began grasping things and characters surrounding the Sterek pair.

So I may not know about the Derek and the Stiles from the show, but I know of the fandom version of them.

Beleive me, it puzzled me how big it got to me. (BUT I'M LOVING IT!)

Like I probably have 2,000 bookmarked Sterek fics on AO3 plus the ones I've yet to read on my marked-for-later and the other ones I read without bookmarking them (rookie mistake xD).

I think the writers and the Sterek content creators have taken the grumpy-sunshiny & dry-sarcastic dynamics and wrote....how to say it? almost different characters than from the show? To the point I didn't need the show to understand them.

Nor did I wish to.

Actually, I tried watching after S06 got out, but didn't last more than 15 min maybe? My brain was too wired up on the Sterek vibe to fully appreciate the show. (Maybe my teenage ass would have liked it... But as I was watching soooo maaaaany tv-shows already, it was impossible to start watching Teen Wolf, and when I first heard of Sterek I was at Uni and really didn't have the time - But OH LORD THE NUMBER OF FICS I READ... My life saver to countless sleepless nights unable to close my eyes xD)

I've only watch THE famous Sterek Supercut!!!! :D <3

I don't know if you are aware of my Tumblr really, but if you are, you may notice I'm VERY MUCH INTO PLANES AND PILOTS these days... (okay it's been a year)....

YEAH YEAH YEAH TALKING ABOUT TOP GUN AND TOP GUN MAVERICK AND BLONDE AND BRUNET PILOTS SO WHAT OF IT?!

*I'm super chill, whatddyamean???? :D*)

Make NO mistake though, Sterek is still a favourite pair of mine, and I AM OH SO GLAD to see old and new content popping up in my dash. Still reblogging and reading!!!!!!!!!

ETERNAL STEREK!

Thank you to the original account that got me into Sterek. Thank you to THE STEREK FANDOM FOR CREATING THE MOST AMAZING CONTENT AND FICS.

Dear you go, Anon, rambles over. :D

(((I started writing the reply in the morning, and it is now the evening. I got distracted by real life stuff in the middle, and I AM EXHAUSTED. I hope you can make sense of all the babbling (or word-vomit, more like it.) I won't be reading again cause otherwise I'll keep adding stuff :D))

Have a good day Anon! ;)

#answered anon ask #coldflash got me into sterek :D <3 #and I'm ever so grateful for it! <3 #eternal sterek #sterek is eternal #I love sterek #I also mentionned coldflash and top gun.... AND I LOVE YOU TOO. #good lord this bean needs sleep xD #🐈red🐈furry🐈cat🐈tag🐈

[simmonsized]

Question for TRaG, which I love with all my heart and am, just, infinitly curious about: do you have any headcanons on what might be happening on alternia right now? Obviously the trolls won't show up in the story, because that would: A) be a lot of characters to handle and B) are probably doing their own thing, but I just wanted to know if you've thought about what might be going down on murder planet, assuming the situation is even comprable.

Hello! I'm so glad you love the fic! It's incredibly close to my heart c: Sorry this is so late, I woke up last night and saw this but I fell back

asleep! I wrote some sleepy notes before I passed out though, and I'll probably just ramble a bit!

I think I've said this before but you're right, the trolls would simply be too many extra characters to balance, and i was going for a more traditional post-Sburb au feel anyway, haha!

(this got really long)

All that being said, I can't really speak for any potential ancestors considering it's kind of implied they existed centuries apart, unless you wanted to drop them all in there for funsies, but we don't have much in the way of actual info for them so ur guess is as good as mine!

It would also be technically half Alternia, half Beforus, by the laws of the RNG universe, which always tickles me pink. I do love the idea of the troll hives getting smashed together, though I'm not entirely sure what the doubled up population would look like, considering on Alternia all the adults were off planet to prevent rebellion or w/e and on Beforus we only know that beforus Feferi was more interested in the idea of "culling" in reference to caring for other trolls (albeit in the cringiest, worst way possible).

It would be interesting to see actual troll cities with adults present, though I don't have any particular layout for Alternia vs Beforus personality (the green moon was Scratch, after all, and now that he's gone, where does that leave Alternia??)

Anyway the furthest I've ever really got is:

- Feferi from the beta trolls perspective would still be the "heiress" but I guess Meenah's there too, and I reckon that Beforus Feferi would be easier to talk to, and more willing to allow change, if only because??? what else do u have to lose, honestly?

- Honestly short of shaking Sollux upside down like a kid trying to get lunch money from a nerd's pockets, I don't imagine they would have any way of contacting the kids. Sollux was the one who set up the viewing screens in the first place, and he doesn't actually have a reason to set up a connection, and whether or not they other trolls ask him is up to the person who writes it, I guess! I think he'd be more willing to do it as a favor, since it's pretty much canon he loves his friends but, ur guess is as good as mine!

- the only thing I actually put any thought into is that literally nothing is more important or as funny to me as Karkat and Kankri sharing a hive. there's a lot of fun parallels there between them and i genuinely just. think it's the funniest thing in the world.

- there's probably a lot of sissy slapfighting happening. i wonder if kankri had a crabdad too

- i'm not even going to get into the vast glub we'll just assume that either didn't happen or isn't happening again because phew what a thing to come back to life and die again

- i want damara to get five minutes to herself

- I think Terezi and Latula could benefit from having some genuine conversations about their roles in their friend groups and the world's expectations of them c:

- i honestly have no opinion on vriska that's none of my business

there's an old roachpatrol fic that briefly covers a karkat and kankri interaction on a post-game beforus that i actually adore very much, but since this world is like, inbetween, who can say!

They're such different worlds, and it'd be jarring af to smash them together, especially considering the cultural division

I won't ever apologize for not including the trolls, since that's not a story I'm interested in telling, but I don't mind musing on them from time to time, if only because it's interesting to conceptualize c:

#long post #but hopefully under cut??? i can never tell w tumblr anymore #the run and go fic

[kimikotsuki]

Fandom discourse and culture has changed a lot over the years and I always try to err on the side of caution whenever possible.

The reasons writers create and share their work are varied and diverse: maybe they're trying to improve their writing and welcome advice, sometimes it's all about the ~ S Q U E E ~ because you loved the show/character and wants them in more situations, sometimes the reason is the ~ R A G E ~ about the direction canon took and you plan to murder it and use it's blood to re-write the story; this is more an illustrative than exhaustive list and sometimes there'll even be multiple reasons at once of course.

And sometimes, those reasons do not match or go well with any type of criticism, even well intentioned, constructive ones.

I saw an post on Tumblr that ilustrated very well another reason why one shouldn't simply assume that con-crit is welcome: if you go watch an amateur performance (in the most literal sense of the word of non-remunarated, regardless of quality of performance), one won't immediately presume afterwards to go to the artist and start critiquing it.

At the same time, I wholeheartedly think that one of the most wonderful, unique possibilities of fandom is the capacity for collaborative work between the authors of a story that is being posted as it's written and it's readers, culminating in an end product with quality that ends up being more refined than otherwise it would've been.

That type of interaction is even sometimes one of the main reasons people write fics, to not only create something, but also to share the act of that creation.

That works almost like making all the readers of a fic into beta-readers and can be a wonderful thing, but the post argued that the work done by betas is analogous to editing in published works, and that such a relationship is based on built trust, so while yeah, that dynamic between writer and all their readers could work, assuming and simply barging in is generally more harmful than productive.

When I adopted that new reasoning, I debated whether or not I should then mark all my bookmarks on AO3 as Private and make them inaccessible to anyone else, but in the end opted not to, mainly because even though I mainly write them for my future self, I also feel other readers can benefit a lot from knowing how the experience of someone who liked a work enough to rec it went, specially if while reading that fic they stumbled upon things they didn't like.

If there's one thing I learned from over 15 years of reading fics is that my tastes change over the years, and sometimes it's not even about the quality of the writing itself or even the progression of how polemic subjects are treated at any given time, but rather the moment that I am in changes how I receive the same work, such that tagging a certain work as one worth reading again later with no contextual information on the vibe I was riding when I did that will inevitably lead to a disappointment that is frankly an overreaction on my part.

That happened somewhat recently with a Frostiron fic I read a long time ago, in a moment where I was squeeing like crazy over the pairing (and it was a work of squee, so we matched really well) and it got on my list, but years later, when I was feeling nostalgic over the pairing and went to read my list of besties, the expectation I had was so great that the dichotomy between my experience back then and the one in the re-read were terribly big, even though it was a well written fic, squee and all, and the only real difference was that *I* wasn't squeeing over the pairing anymore.

And at the same time, I found that, in a way, this managing of expectations I do primarily for myself when I create a rec with the bad points of a fic that I loved can also be helpful for others, because even if it doesn't fit 100% since we're different people, I always thought the best recs I've always found were the ones that stated what were the cons of any given story, because those cons might not be something that bothered me like it bothered them or it even might end up being somewhat bothersome to me, but the pros outweigh them and, because I went in expecting to find those things, there's no disappointment in it, so they end up bothering me a lot less then it could've.

The other reason I eventually settled on not making my bookmarks private was actually because of those authors that seek improvement and welcome constructive criticism from all the readers who are invested in their story and value their thoughts and experiences while reading their work, because while yes, better to err on the side of caution and not go offering advice and opinions were those are not wanted, if we let that completely rule everything we do in fandom there will be a lot of loss in regards of this constructive, dynamic and interactive aspect so characteristic and wonderful to this type of media.

I know authors can have access to the bookmarks made of their fics, but unlike comments, it's not quite a space exclusively dedicated to them or even for interactions between reader/author.

In a lot of aspects, I'd even go as far as saying it's a space primarily for readers: it's not something that will culminate in a email sent to the author's mailbox, it serves mostly for filtering and ordering purposes (like when you're looking for fics to read and apply a filter to show only fics with a certain number of bookmarks or to order the fics shown from the greater to the least number of bookmarks) and also so readers can, reading these bookmarks, have a better idea on what's to expect from a work from different readers with different personalities and world views and ways to pereceive what was written.

And since it's a space the author *can* have access to *if* they want, it's possible for them to look at that place to see that con-crit while, at the same time, not being a place where that con-crit will get shoved in their faces if they *don't want it* and as such it seemed to me to be an overall respectfull and good compromise between those two points that seemed very important to me, and one of the only way I've found of making it known if that type of interaction is welcome, I'd be happy to head over to their comments and talk there.

If I'm marking it as a rec and commenting, I'm doing it because I think that fic absolutely is one of the best stories that I had the pleasure to read; however, the number of characters allowed in a bookmark rec are limited, so if I end up putting into it anything besides an incoherent keyboard smash, those things are going to be whatever points I feel are very important to keep in mind whenever starting to read it so that reading experience is the most enjoyable possible both for my future self who's going to look at that besties list and decide on what to read again as well as first time readers who might have seen the rec and will go in knowing somethings that, by their nature, don't tend to be things we tag for; they will have mostly what amounts to con-crit, so if you welcome this type of interaction or if the rec I made is bothering you in anyway, I urge you to get in contact with me through the fic mail I linked in my AO3 profile.

This post is getting linked there because the profile section doesn't allow enough characters for everything that I had to say about the subject.

As soon as I see the email, I'll either be happy to either tag the bookmark as Private so it won't be visible to anyone but myself if it bothered you or head over to your comments section so we can talk better about the points I raised if this type of interaction is something you welcome.

#fandom discourse #ao3 stuff #fandom culture #bookmarks