#blacklist term for fics:

[kittykatninja321]

I went “I’m not into this but let’s hear them out” on one too many omegaverse fics and now I have thoughts and opinions and headcanons and shit. Horrifying. Please be careful it could happen to you

#Mads was right when she said omegaverse should be a psychological horror genre #platonic omegaverse is only slightly less horrifying than the romantic/sexual stuff #99% of the time when people are like ‘it’s for deconstructing sexism’ or whatever they’re lying it’s for weird wolf sex. However the tropes #that appear in platonic omegaverse fics are fascinatingly revealing in terms of people’s views on the nuclear family. Like idk how to #explain it I just know that the ‘family abolition’ people would have a field day with it. Horrifying implications it terms of familial abus #that go mostly unexplored. Most of the platonic stuff is just for fluff. I have seen it used effectively for horror one time #Omegaverse #<- for blacklist purposes

[sickgraymeat]

the hope that maybe despite it all things are going to be less terrible and terrible a little less often AND maybe you’re even known/heard/understood and still loved?? Delicious! Appetizing! Protein-packed soul food!!! I make a cheap imitation recipe called fanfiction!

#fanfiction #fanfiction writing #ao3 #bubbline #ish :3 #I get so worried that ppl will not know what to expect with my fics and then be disappointed #like expect them to be angstier mostly but other stuff too #anyway I’m so close to finishing the first chapter of the 🕰️ fic but I’m worried it’s not covering all the ground it needs to #but also it’s like going to take forever if I try to get everything in and actually do it justice #jus talkin #at least I’m p consistent abt tagging so that jus talkin is the one to block/blacklist (i forget what it’s called) if u want #I was at urgent care the other day and the nurse was like ‘you’re not crazy’ and I had said nothing to prompt that #but now I’m realizing that just the way I talk is totally enough to prompt that ajbdndndndnme #I am crazy tho fr I’m reclaiming the term it’s what I am #it is super funny that I just come off as a person who needs to be told that tho ajdbebndnn #like totally fair #the Venn diagram of things I take too seriously & things I treat as a joke is a circle

[autistichalsin]

What is pro-ship?

Proship is, basically, a combination of three core beliefs:

Fiction doesn't have a 1-1 overlap with reality, and more to the point, what one enjoys in fiction isn't who they are in real life. People who play DOOM aren't school shooters, people who torture their Sims aren't serial killers, and people who enjoy reading about dark themes in fiction such as rape, abuse, taboo kink, extremely unhealthy ship dynamics, and so on aren't real life abusers.

Harassment over fiction is wrong. If you hate a ship or a kink, it's reasonable to blacklist, block those who post about it, and so on to curate your experience, but things such as suicide baiting, doxxing, implying they have harmed people in real life because of what they enjoy fictional characters doing, and etc are all wrong.

Censorship of fiction is wrong, on the grounds that: it almost exclusively ends up applied to queer creators and/or queer content (queer content is judged as obscene infinitely more than the same content were if it was not queer), therefore making it an oppressive tool; attempting to censor certain themes, which often have been experienced by the creator and/or readers, is tantamount to telling them their own lived experience is too obscene to be discussed; the resources it takes to censor fiction could have been better used to help real life people in need instead; what counts as obscene is incredibly subjective, and you can't count on this judgment only being made by reasonable people because unreasonable people are prominent in much of the anti discourse; and labeling of a ship as obscene/problematic is, more often than not, done simply to ships that rival antis' favorite one, rather than on any actual moral grounds, resulting in incredibly nebulous reasons being given that make it impossible to consistently enforce rules about what ships are problematic.

Some people prefer to use the terms pro-fic, anti-anti, or similar instead, and some people don't support antis but prefer to distance themselves from proship as a label due to issues within the community.

Note: the "pro" in proship has NEVER stood for problematic; it has always meant the opposite of "anti", because anti as a label predated proship being a label (before antis, proship was the default, so it had no label). Pro always meant "in support of", not "problematic."

Hope that helps, anon!

#discourse #proship #proshipper

[gayassbird]

how to recognize fan burnout & what to do about it

unfortunately, from experience. here are some signs:

you are having less fun participating in the fandom, in whatever way you do that. (you suddenly stop reading fics, your mutuals are annoying you on a hair trigger, you feel overwhelmed by your projects, you stop looking forward to new content, the only content you DO enjoy has to follow very specific, rapidly narrowing, or very uncommon parameters)

important to note, there are still good times! but there is an ambient stress or discontent growing that you're not so sure about. could be more bad days than good ones, or an equal balance, or just enough negativity that it's affecting you.

"discourse" and petty squabbles take up a significant portion of what you think about. you might get really heated about these arguments. sometimes, you are unable to make yourself stop thinking about these things at night, in idle moments, or in other situations where your mind needs to be elsewhere.

your commitments to the fandom are interfering with other things in your life, such as your social life, school/work, hobbies, or anything else you find important.

fandom has become your ONLY hobby

recent or upcoming changes in the media have made you unhappy and/or reluctant to engage

here's what you do:

think about the patterns you usually engage in (what servers you visit/how much you backread/how much you need to feel on top of) and when you do these things. try to analyze what has become habit vs what you really enjoy most. cut back whatever you can from the former

CURATE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE. look into blacklisting certain terms, leaving discord servers, mass-block users if you need to. don't start fights. if discourse is stressing you out, make sure that you are not deliberately seeking out opinions that will upset you by searching for certain ships or users. do not use social media as a method of self harm: recognize what that means and whether you are doing it.

make deliberate time for your non-fandom hobbies. download a new craft pattern. go for a walk every day. join a club at school or in your local area.

establish alternate means of contact with your friends, and most importantly, BEGIN USING THEM. this can be via discord, phone numbers, a different social media account separate to the one you use for fan activity. find other common interests, steer conversation away from fandom. if you don't start using these alternate methods of contact, things will be a LOT harder. we want to get your out of the fan environment that's stressing you out while maintaining the social connections that are important to you.

if you are responsible for fan projects in some way, stop taking on new ones. make sure to share responsibilities you feel you have with other people so that if things get too much and you need to leave, you'll have less strings attached.

that being said, recognize when you need to let go. yeah, you might have a project ongoing. but if you are in mental distress about it, you need to let it go. don't feel pressured to do "just this one last thing" or a "grand sendoff" to a fandom.

be keeping track of the balance between "how much is this fandom making my life more good or less good, and how do i think that will change with time on my current path."

if you don't want to do something, STOP DOING IT. you really can just back out. communicate with others where necessary.

your mental wellbeing is always more important than the media or the fan community that you once loved. if you are not taken care of, you won't be able to accomplish what you want to.

#fan burnout #fandom #fan culture #blaseball #(i am not burnt out of blaseball but recognize that there are major changes ongoing that may result in some level of burnout in folks) #my last fandom was. Bad.

[piratefishmama]

So i know the poll isnt over but i'm going to assume yes, to the background information on Finders Givers lmao.

So this is basically notes, they're notes I have on these characters, things that might not explicitly make it into the fic, and some things that might be included or referenced, but they're just... things i have noted down as character motivations or bits of information for specific characters that i wanna keep note of.

so keep some of these things in mind when characters are introduced! it'll explain a lot in terms of characterizations or vague references.

Please be advised there are CW's in here! CW: Mentions of ED CW: Mentions of human trafficking CW: mentions of illegal behaviour CW: mentions of past parental abuse CW: mentions of police bullshittery

The Harrington Family

Adults

Head of the family - Steve Harrington - 28 - Bisexual

Steve runs several underground businesses around the city, including drugs, fire arms, smuggling, and he owns a few clubs that deal in… illicit behaviours (strip clubs, gambling, etc.)

Steve also deals in legitimate business practices to cover up his naughty ones. He has military contracts for legal firearm development and distribution. He also owns a few local restaurants and a bakery that he bought to give Jane something soothing to do when her nerves are fried.

Steve was under his parents guidance until he was 18 years of age, they passed away in a car wreck leaving him with the 'family business' which he has since expanded and grown into a pretty sizable empire.

He lives in a high rise apartment in the city, the floor to cieling windows are bullet and blast proof and his security system is state of the art developed by his own company, he also has a security team and weapons hidden in several places around his apartment just in case anyone managed to get through the gauntlet of shit he's got lined up for them should anyone tresspass.

He owns the building, Robin lives in it, and so does Nancy and Jonathan although they're planning on getting a house somewhere just outside the city.

Steve wants the Hideout for drug and weapon smuggling purposes as one of the tunnels under it connects to a sewer line that runs to the city docks, getting the Hideout would mean he'd have access to pretty much the entire city from that one spot, as it's an access point to the tunnels not on any official city map.

Robin Buckley - 27 - Lesbian

Met Steve at a restaurant owned by his parents when they were both teenagers, Steve was still under his parents wing at that stage of his life and was held up by a rival family who caught him having dinner with friends, Robin, while working as a server, took a bullet for him, and wound up tied to a chair back to back with him in a warehouse while the bad guys tried to ransom them, took them both together thinking they knew each other because Robin took that bullet. They've been inseparable ever since.

She's the most important person in his life, he'd give up everything for her in a heartbeat. Wouldnt even think about it, he owes her his life.

Robin comes from a middle-class family and worked most of her teenage years in retail and customer service jobs, until she was taken hostage with Steve. She knows multiple languages, can play a few instruments. she's a little clumsy but she has spirit. she and Steve play basketball every now and then with the kids to unwind. She likes baking with Jane.

Nancy Wheeler - 27 - Bisexual

Steve brought her in when she was fired from her first reporter gig for some bogus political bullshit that wound up with her name being blacklisted in the industry when she went after the wrong person without any back up.

He paid for her student loans and brought her and her family into his family, she now works closely with Robin to make sure Steve doesnt do anything stupid, and if he does something stupid without telling them, she aids in damage control.

She's also a solid researcher, can find that needle in a haystack without needing a magnet. And she's really good with a gun.

Jonathan Byers - 27 - Heterosexual

Came with Nancy, is now her fiance. He's good at publicity shots, manages the galleries on the company's website. He takes most of Steve's public appearance photos. Doesn't really have the stomach for crime but he's pretty good at staying quiet.

Argyle - 27 - Pansexual

Came with Jonathan, a pretty spectacular get away driver, a good cook, and solid weed dealer, doesnt deal in anything stronger, has a quality hook up back in California that Steve was happy to connect with. He also ferries the kids around whenever they wanna do something stupid. Sometimes he appears with pizza, nobody knows where he gets the pizza, (he makes it himself).

He's currently staying with the Wheelers as there's no room for him elsewhere. He eventually moves into the block.

Billy Hargrove - 28 - one foot out of the closet Gay (still defensive about it)

Originally forced to work under Henry Creel, the head of a rival gang as an enforcer after his father racked up gambling debts with him. Billy is volatile, violent, and very defensive. He will snap to violence if he's backed into a corner.

Billy has a hair trigger temper similar to Jane, however his trauma is more related to his abusive father and being forced to work for Creel as a hitman/enforcer. He was the muscle, the guy who'd turn up to break things or kill someone. He's not a nice person by any means, he still acts a bit like a shark that's sensed blood in the water, but he's trying to be better now he's free of Creel.

He was raised by a racist, so his views on things are backwards and a lot twisted, but he's getting better. He's no longer antagonistic towards Lucas, he was for the first few months, but Max stepped in and shut that down.

He's doing a lot better now he's in a healthier environment, no longer fearing for his and Max's life, and no longer under Neil's abusive thumb, but he has unhealthy coping mechanisms for his stress and anger.

Joyce Byers - 46

Came with Jonathan. She doesnt really have a role besides keeping Hopper from arresting everyone. Everyone loves her though, she's like a mother to them all. Very protective of them. She'll do odd jobs here and there.

Jim Hopper - 46

Chief of Police in the city, Steve's parents basically blackmailed him years ago and Steve still has the material if Hopper ever stepped out of line.

Hopper has since reunited with, and fallen for Joyce, they went to school together, small world! So he can't do shit without Joyce being mad at him.

Begrudgingly he does actually like Steve though, the kid doesnt cause half as much shit as he could do given how much power he has.

The other parents

Play little to no roles. Not mentioned other than in passing.

Claudia mans the main secretaries desk at the main office which acts as a front for Steve's other shit. Steve hired her after he overheard Dustin talking to the other kids about how his mother had been made redundant at her previous job.

The Kids.

Jane Ives/Harrington - 16

Steve's most dangerous enforcer.

He recovered her from a human trafficking ring, the other victims found their way back to their homes but while they could find her mother, Terry was mentally gone after a blow to the head which happened when Jane was originally kidnapped.

Steve took her in, she uses Harrington as her last name in school. Their relationship is closer to brother/sister rather than parent/child.

Nobody expects Jane to be dangerous, and that's one of the reasons why she's the most dangerous. She's small, she's a wisp of a thing, but she will snap.

People do not take her seriously and then they die.

Jane has PTSD and intermittant explosive disorder (IED). She has trauma triggers that include claustrophobia and a fear of dark places, she doesnt trust easily and her speech is stilted from growing up in harsh conditions with no schooling or socialization.

Befriended Max at school when Steve insisted that she go to school with kids her own age to learn how to socialise (she was chaperoned and the school was well aware of her difficulties). There have been hiccups due to every school having bullies, but Steve has always paid any medical bills caused by those hiccups.

She killed Henry Creel to free both Max and her brother from his clutches using Steve's old nail bat, after convincing Max to bring her to Henry under the guise of her joining his "family".

It took a few weeks to gain his trust, but she killed him in his home by finding out his home security codes, sneaking in at night and taking him by surprise. Nail bat to the face.

Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Will - 15-16 & Erica - 13

They're the kids, they met Jane in school. They do random odd jobs here and there, mainly they act as spies around the city, they usually communicate through walkies, changing the channel once a week to avoid being listened to.

If there's anything happening around the city that's worth knowing, one of the kids will know it.

Will and Mike already knew Steve through their relatives, which made it easier for the other kids to trust him.

Steve will not allow them to do anything other than act as weird little spies but thats fine, they think it's really cool.

Max - 16

She's a solid get away driver and Billy's stepsister, will absolutely take a baseball bat to someone if necessary, she and Jane are best friends.

She acted as a drug runner for Henry for a year before Jane intervened.

She has a huge crush on Lucas, it's mutual, it's very cute.

The Block

The block is 4 storeys high, there are sixteen apartments in the block in a range of 1 to 2 bedroom. Odd numbers on the left side of the building, even numbered apartments on the right side of the building. Four apartments to a floor. Rent is usually $595pm not including any utility bills.

Eddie Munson - 29 - Gay

Lead vocalist and guitarist of Corroded Coffin which plays at the Hideout, the bar Steve is buying, every Tuesday evening.

Jobless as of start of fic due to a 'disagreement' with his line manager which ended with the manager unconscious and bleeding.

Eddie struggles to find work as he has an assault felony on his record that had him spending two years inside. He used to deal drugs back in highschool but doesnt any more. He still partakes from time to time when he can afford to buy from the shitty dealers in the block. He knows the weed is trash and not at all worth the money they're asking for, but they're easy to get to and it provides a decent enough high to pass the time, he doesnt let Chrissy partake until she's healthy again.

Argyle quickly becomes one of his friends when he moves into the block.

The assault felony was against a local police officer who attempted to coerce him into sexual acts in favour of letting him off with a warning for being caught dealing drugs, hinting that he should be grateful to get any at all given Eddie's sexuality in such a small town.

Eddie punched him and managed to launch the drugs he had into a field lost to the darkness while the officer was disorientated.

The only charge they could pull him on was assault.

When he got out, he was more a freak than ever before, now known as the local queer after the officer he'd 'assaulted' had rushed to claim Eddie came onto him to get out of a harsher charge then panicked when the officer didnt reciprocate when asked to explain Eddie lashing out, as he'd never shown any agression towards officers before and the sherrif couldn't understand why he'd start now, the Sherrif still didn't understand how that could make sense as the story was so hastily told by the officer, so Eddie got out early after a quiet internal investigation led to him being revealed as a victim.

Unfortunately as he did assault an officer, the charge was never wiped from his record.

Eddie spent a year in Hawkins with his uncle after getting out of jail, before jumping ship. Not before making friends with Chrissy Cunningham, who he'd caught at the quarry one night a little too close to the edge of the cliff.

He talked her down, made her laugh, and gave her half his sandwich which she picked at quietly.

He found out about her ED from Jason her childhood friend and 'boyfriend' (performative, acted as a shield against her mother when he could), who at first couldn't believe that Eddie was getting her to eat things, he was defensive at first, angry that she'd go to the local felon instead of him, but… eventually he conceeded that maybe she would be happier, maybe she could survive life if she stayed with Eddie.

Jason sought to convince Eddie to get her to move away from Hawkins with him when Eddie decided to jump ship. He didn't have to try hard. Eddie was planning on whisking her away anyway.

They moved to the city together and have been inseparable ever since as he strives to help her recover.

Lives in Apartment 8 on the second floor with Chrissy.

Chrissy Cunningham - 27 - Bisexual

Lived with abusive parents until she was 16 and then managed to split her living situation between staying with her childhood friend (Jason) under the guise of him being her boyfriend, and hiding out with friends.

Chrissy has suffered with an eating disorder since she was very young mostly due to her mother's insistent comments about her weight and pointed shaming remarks regarding her clothes needing to be let out when they didn't.

She now lives with Eddie in the city, healthier and happier than she's been in years.

Keeps in touch with Jason by semi-weekly calls, he visits every now and then to check in on her.

She's estranged from her parents and little brother, although she wishes she could see her little brother and protect him from her parents. Her parents cut all contact when Chrissy ran away with the town 'freak/felon'. Claiming they didn't want her to negatively influence their son.

Jason was absolutely in love with her, nobody doubts that, but he was aware that she wasnt there, wasnt in that headspace, and probably never would be while in Hawkins, so while he did love her, while he did 'date her' publicly, and while he was happy to pour that love onto her, it was never with any intention to have her do anything with him. It never came with pressures or expectations. He just kept her safe whenever he could.

It's been a month since she last forced herself to throw up and she's put on a small amount of weight that she's happy with. She's on the mend.

Lives in Apartment 8 on the second floor with Eddie.

Dottie and Mick - 19/21 - lesbians.

Dottie and Mick live across the hall from Eddie and Chrissy, they're a couple of runaways estranged from their families who found each other and stuck together, they're not a couple although sometimes they act like it.

They argue sometimes due to Dottie's dependance on drugs and Mick's overprotective tendencies and they're kinda punky, little grungy, but they're nice neighbours usually, and mostly keep to themselves.

Lives in apartment 7 on the second floor

Mrs Luiza Jablonski - 71 - widowed.

She's polish, jewish, and old. She lives alone and usually stays inside.

She loves her neighbours and they love her. She's everyone's grandma.

She crocheted Chrissy a sweater when she and Eddie first moved in, it's Chrissy's favourite thing to wear as it's made of thick cream coloured wool and so cosy, the arms are too long but Chrissy likes how they cover her fingers, makes her feel safe.

She also crocheted Eddie a little plush bat after she saw his tattoo. He loves it.

She has two cats, Mika and Pusia. She owns and can play a grand piano. She occasionally makes enough food to feed the whole floor with leftovers.

She's a little deaf so she doesnt mind Eddie practicing his guitar in his room, which shares the wall with her apartment. Sometimes she will play the piano along with him if she has her hearing aids in, they have little duets sometimes.

Lives in apartment 6 on the second floor.

#Pirate's fic lore #other ficlets have lore like this in a fun little document #but this one has the most lore written up i think #Finders Givers Lore

[olderthannetfic]

forever grateful for ao3 because going through my fave kpop boy's tag on tumblr is like gambling where the odds are Never in your favor. (stumbling on y/n fic, even after blacklisting so many terms related to it 😭)

--

[raayllum]

so i deleted my poll & here's why bc it is both. sad, strange, and a little hilarious. for TLDR, skip all the way to the end

this is what it was gearing towards as of this afternoon & this is why it got weird.

for clarification, the poll was meant to investigate, because i was curious, how many people i had potentially influenced in my writing(s) about callum analysis wise. i actually expected option 2 to be the most common (aka that people already saw him that way) since that's what i've found in my circles; most of the other rayllum writers and shippers i've spoken to reached those conclusions themselves after S2 or S3, if not earlier. so option 1 being the most popular was the first big surprise, as was as many people picking "want to see the results"

here's where things go from surprising to weird. earlier this afternoon, the poll was sitting around 120-ish people and had been in that vein for most of the week since it was published, climbing maybe a few votes every day after the initial boom in a variety of the categories the first like day and a half.

then, steadily, over the course of 5-10 minutes, anywhere from 5 to 15 fresh votes flooded in... all to the same category of "nah i don't see him that way." which wasn't That strange, except

the fandom troll, who is notoriously obnoxiously loud about Not liking this interpretation of callum, also has a tendency of making sock blogs and sending anonymous asks to bait you over and over again, no matter how many times you block them. for Years.

then the number continued to steadily climb solely in that singular category, doubling and then tripling. now, i'm not going to say there couldn't be *check statistics* 50 people who don't see callum as being willing to sacrifice the world for his loved ones/help aaravos if rayla or ezran's lines were quit literally being held at knifepoint, But

When the poll started, I acknowledged the bias the poll would likely be prone to, as my followers - by virtue of following me and seeing and presumably agreeing with what I post - would probably skew in favour of the interpretation, and this was reflected in 6/7 days of the poll's backing, with 60-78% (roughly 70-80 people) of participants leaning towards a shared interpretation. "Nah I don't see him that way" also rose steadily in terms of votes throughout the week day by day, but never cleared more than 8-10 individual people (you're troopers, I respect you, and I hope having the "snake boi Callum" tag makes it easier for you to blacklist accordingly so that you can enjoy your fandom experience)

The Snake Boi Callum interpretation is popular enough in fandom that we actually had a fandom event for it a few months back, plenty of people participated who I felt I wasn't familiar with as well as people I knew I would, and the pieces of art/fic/playlists regularly got 50-150 notes. If there are 50+ people who disagree with said interpretation, they are, generally speaking, not a group who's often actually making things for the fandom at large in terms of fic, fanart, other forms of creation, and not a ton of meta weekly or monthly about the topic and/or outside of that general wheelhouse, either. The 'pro' side is conversely a lot more active; most of the people who have written fic about said topic(s) aren't even me, but other cool lovely talented individuals over the past 3-ish years

The initial wave of votes happened when I posted the poll in the "snake boi Callum," "Rayllum," "tdp," and "the dragon prince" tags to reach a broader audience beyond my more immediate active follower range (as like, 90% of my followers are lurkers, which - respect). This is when it would've made sense if there was going to be an uptick in "nah I don't see him that way" to build

Instead, it happened 6 days into the poll when it was already decently buried by tags, I had recently self-reblogged it back into my accordingly biased circles, and rather than having a general variety, only a singular category went up by close to 40 people in like 3 hours. I tend to gain anywhere from 6-10 followers a week (for example, this week was 6) so that also does not account for the massive leap in a very short amount of time

Therefore, keeping to roughly 125 votes for posterity, and when removing the originally 30-ish or so people who voted for "see results" (significantly less than the first category, but more than the second by a decent margin) as well as the real 10 votes for "nah, I don't see him that way," approximately 85 people voted explicitly in favour of Snake Boi Callum / one of the first two options in general, with my meta being cited as the biggest influence. This is also with me rounding up the numbers of the other categories to likely more than they were, but I want to account for the potential error of my memory, as I wasn't keeping track of where things were super specifically before it started to smell like meddling.

Again, it's not that there couldn't be 50 people with that opinion, it's just that 40 of them, Realistically, did not suddenly come out of the woodwork in the span of 1-2 hours to consecutively vote in only one (1) category 6 days after that would've actually, marginally, made sense in terms of tagging / seeing it in the main tags.

If you're wondering why I presented all my ~ evidence ~ it's because if not, I'd probably be labelled as a liar and/or dismissed (it's happened before, unfortunately) and honestly, it ended up being a little funny to dig into how presumably nuts this got.

TLDR;

Anyway if you ever feel like you're deeply insecure and worried that you're idiotically clout chasing, remember you will never be as Embarrassing as the guy who made close to 39 sock blogs in one afternoon to try and 'one up' someone over an opinion they have regarding a children's tv show protagonist who's believed biggest flaw is that he Loves His Friends.

better poll that cannot be screwed with will follow

#blog-hordika-us #fandom nonsense #the way i don't mind math as much now bc i spent 3 hours today teaching it lmao #like imagine having the incentive to have that many fake emails and that much free time #i could never #i actually worked on my publishing revisions today and that was so nice #also so much mario kart #the irony of being So Mad that i'm like 'callum is gonna fly too close to the sun' #and then you icarus yourself. it's like titanic all over again

[evilwickedme]

Losing my mind at the kids reading Bruce/Batman fic

No cause I actually think about this stuff all the time. The Waynes are celebrities!!! Depending on your preference they could be international celebrities or local celebrities, but Bruce and Tim have both been the CEO of an international conglomerate worth billions, Bruce at the very least has to have been on the cover of TIME magazine and had a billion interviews about how-to-be-successful even though, you know, he's the definition of a nepo baby. So between the Waynes and the Batman being two of the most important cultural exports from Gotham, and the fact that WE openly funds Batman, there's gotta be some really good stuff in the celebrity and superhero RPF fandoms, right? It's just sort of obvious that people will start shipping them

So. Who brings it to the Batfam's attention? There are several possible avenues. I personally think it makes the most sense for Tim or Steph to have found it. They're both around 17-19, they went to school and had friends, so yeah, they're on social media. Tim has to have an online presence that's semi professional and so has a secret second account on all websites and apps, but Steph goes full fucking feral on main. I think Tim gets @ - ed a lot by weirdos, including people tagging him in their Tim Drake/YN fanfiction (sidenote do not do this in real life. Please don't do this in real life), but for that reason it might actually be that his blacklist is a mile long. Like he simply cannot see the word fanfiction on his Twitter feed. So Steph is the one that finds the one million BruBats fanfiction. She sees it mentioned and hunts it down. And then she sends it in the batkids GC and shit EXPLODES

Dick is very much like, a person with better things to do than be a weird gremlin online and he's never actually seen a fanfic before. He's heard of it because he gets asked weird things sometimes, but this is effectively his introduction to the world of fic and he's horrified. He steals Damian's phone so he won't see it which just makes Damian all the more curious and determined to read it. It gets physical

Steph and Tim take turns reading it out loud to Cass (Steph does Batman's voice, Tim voices Bruce) who finds the whole thing a little baffling. Neither Brucie nor Batman are particularly similar to her adoptive father and the concept of fic is a little out of her wheelhouse, although Steph does a very good job explaining the basic terms and reasons for its existence to her

Babs knew all along. This wasn't new to her. She's read worse things while doing research for cases

Duke reads the whole thing in one sitting (ish, it's really long). It's actually really good and he leaves some really thoughtful comments on the characterization and slow burn. The author doesn't reply but does cherish those comments forever

Jason wrote it Jason doesn't interact with the GC but babs literally hacked his phone to prevent him from leaving it so he opens it once a week to mark it as read and leave and he happens to open it in the middle of this shit going down and decides to check it out. He accidentally clicks on the relationship tag however and sees things you can't unsee. He literally runs over his phone and vows to go off the grid from now on

#batfam #batkids #dc #tim drake #stephanie brown #dick grayson #damian wayne #cassandra cain #barbara gordon #duke thomas #jason todd #I fucking love social media aus for this fandom it's so much fucking fun #gail speaks #ask #anonymous

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

Hi! How are you? I hope you're having a good day! I hope you don't mind me sending this (and sorry if you've answered something similar before!) I was just wondering if you had any thoughts on Louis' relationship to the idea of "change" in the album?

We have bigger than me being the lead single with lots of references to changing and coming to terms with change. ('Cause, yeah, I might have changed/ But everybody does' one of my favourite lyrics!)

Then two of the bonus tracks "change" (which was the first fitf song we heard right? Sorry I wasn't around then!) Which is again about how things change and how in a lot of ways Louis still feels like the kid he used to be. (Side note- I'm always floored by how good change is, every time I listen its like im hearing it for the first time)

Then in high in california we have "spent my whole life just thinkin I had to change"

I find it so interesting and would love to hear Louis talk about it. I love so much of your thoughtful answers about Louis' music so wondered if you had any thoughts on this theme in particular?

Thank you so much!

There’s so much to say about Louis & the concept of change, and it goes much deeper than the lyrics that have the actual word “change” or “changes” in them.

Almost all of Louis’ lyrics about “home” have bittersweet overtones of nostalgia and loss— all the way back to 1D’s Through The Dark, Night Changes, Home. The reassurances of themes like, “When you’re lost, I’ll be here. I’ll lead the way. I’m be the light. Even when the night changes, I’ll be the same.” Even the flip side of Home (literally the A side to Home on the 1D surprise EP drop), Perfect, illustrates the exciting life of being a teen idol (“hotel rooms, good champagne”) sardonically, sarcastically, or as Julian Bunneta said during promo, “Ironically.” Perfect isn’t perfect at all… because it isn’t home. Perfect is pretend-perfect, superficial and glittery, fanfiction-perfect, but unreal.

(An aside… think about the reason Sony released Perfect as a single and not Home, even though Home was the fan favorite… and the fact that Home wasn’t even included in MITAM. Sony knew that fic-loving fans would generally misunderstand the concept of Perfect. The exciting, wild, party-drug-alcohol-filled life depicted in Perfect results in real life oopsie pregnancies and babies, which was causing complications in Louis’ real life. Home is a complicated topic amidst all of this instability.)

I think that for Louis, the idea of “Change” is the flip side of “Home.” Where Home is a bedrock, Change is uncertainty, anxiety, disruption. In 1D, change often ended badly for Louis. While the major change that he sought in 1D’s sound and in his involvement in songwriting brought about great personal satisfaction, it came at a huge cost— maybe even leading to industry’s blacklisting him in 2019. In 2015, most of the changes Louis faced brought about upheavals— the 1D break up that Louis didn’t want, the deep rift in the friendship with Zayn, Zayn’s and Harry’s impending solo careers, Louis’ accidental fatherhood. Initially, I think Louis was incredibly anxious about what fatherhood would mean to his personal life and his career (and his actions weren’t great, tbh). The stability that Louis had counted on at home was also about to undergo a seismic, tragic shift.

So to find out, at AFHF 2021, that the first possible song on a new album was called “Change” was intriguing, especially since Louis already knew the title of the next album would be Faith In The Future (it was flashed onto the AFHF screens, and Louis also said in interview that he knew the title before most of the songs were written). This song told us: The Future is not to be feared. There is hope in the power of positive thinking (e.g. Nikolai Tesla’s 369 manifestation method). Louis has— it seems— made his peace with change.

Listen to Change and see how much Louis invokes the idea of home in this song, bringing the two concepts together. Even his Home (Doncaster) is not truly static in a changing world: “houses all look the same/ There's different names on the gates/ You know the people have changed/ Oh, it's such a shame, nothing stays the same.”

It’s the same technique that he uses in Saturdays and in Silver Tongues, recalling his youthful past to acknowledge conflicted, painful, unresolved feelings, in order to move into the future (Chicago too). I think the most humorous reply (and the release of tension) to this push-pull dilemma is the lyric in Silver Tongues, “I don’t feel like going home.” — in a way, Louis is acknowledging that change can be rewarding and sweet, that the idea of home is in friendship and love, not in brick and mortar things, and that he can hold both concepts in his mind at the same time.

It’s kind of cool to compare the bridge from the chorus of Changes that Louis wrote and sold to blackbear (2018):

to Louis’ song Change (2020-21):

(angelsflylt on tiktok)

Where Walls is introspective, honest and vulnerable but dwelling on the past, Faith In The Future is about forging one’s own destiny, breaking through, drawing the moon in the sky, imagining one’s own poetry (Louis released merch in the shape of a bottle cap that opens bottles… thus creating its own solution).

Thank you for the question! I really missed looking at Louis’ riddles and wordplay. He’s so much fun, always (I bet he throws great parties), but also very intelligent and so heartbreakingly filled with love. We’re lucky to have his songs. He’s just in another class.

#louis tomlinson #change #Louis songwriting #change also is Louis’ very diplomatic and philosophical way of saying #that friends can change too #sometimes who he thought was his friend can become his biggest critics #for whatever reason #the pain it causes is also temporary #and one must believe in a better future regardless #and move on #the experience had value even if the people are no longer there for him #valuable lesson for all

[wildlife4life]

Can you explain why Buck and Eddie dating in your nfl Buck fic is a secret? There’s no reason like, irl why something like that would be a big secret and im confused why it is for them

Actually there are several reason irl. The NFL is a very hypermasculine sport, dominated by hetero men. There has been very little progress in terms of support of the LGBQT+ community beyond saying, hey we support them. Majority of open players have less than successful careers. Currently there are no active open players, the last one retiring this previous year. Backlash from team mates and other players, resulting in physical and emotional harm, can end a career. Loss of endorsement (where a lot of players earn connections and extra income), and the potential loss of employment. Look at what happen to Kapernick, for just standing up for BLM. He's been basically blacklisted because he 'offended' the 'American' way. So sadly an openly and successful LGBQT+ player just would not be perceived well for the general audience that tunes into the NFL and the league will do anything to keep the money rolling in.

So yes Buck and Eddie's relationship is a secret and if you go back through some of the snippets, I point out how the current society isn't ready for a successful and open NFL quarterback being in a queer relationship. It takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice to be in the NFL, let alone a top player. Buck could lose everything he worked his whole life towards and Eddie understand that. He's not going to make him choose, because that's not love.

You seems like you see the best of the world and thats really nice, but take a peak behind the curtain and see past the donations towards LGBQT+ charities. I love American Football and they are making strides, but sadly they aren't that long. It comes down to the money and right now the money doesn't want queer football players.

Thanks for the ask anon. I really tried my best answer with my limited knowledge on the queer community and the politics of the NFL. Not sure it was the answer you were looking for, but... my fic is not some twisted view on the NFL and queer relationships. I'm shedding some light on whats hidden behind the flashy players and shiny trophies.

Have a good day!

#ashley answers #nfl #queer commnity #buddie #secret realtionship #take off the rose colored glasses #NFL is not the most open community

[kamiversee]

god forbid the man loses his temper in justified circumstances, because it totally outweighs the fact that the reader woudn't even be in this situation if it weren't for Gojo. nah

can we be fr 😭 unless Choso does something super fucking crazy to the point that the reader's health is on the line, he doesn't come close to comparing to Gojo in terms of how bad he is for the reader

if you think about it, completely taking out the fact that we simp for these preexisting characters, these were a bunch of strangers that the reader has to trust her body with. fuck, with what we know now about Sukuna in this AU (regardless of how long ago these incidents of abuse last happened) the reader lucked out by a lot

Gojo blackmailed her to the point where she naturally has to worry about pregnancy and expulsion/occupational blacklisting. realistically, any normal person that lets this much people hit it raw would technically worry about disease too 😭😭 Choso's "worst" actions are extreme PDA, a tattoo made on a whim, being very jealous, and yelling at her 🧍‍♀️ whereas Gojo even contemplated on KIDNAPPING the reader

Gojo's too hot for his own good bc the delulu just rises every day. ngl, i almost was like "she needs to go back to Gojo!" until i thought about it for a second lmfao

-☃️

RIGHT LIKE CAN YALL BE SO FR

Btw, to go off this, the like lack of mentioning the possible diseases is just because at the end of the day this is still a ff😭 i try to make it semi-realistic ig? Hence the mentioning of pregnancy here and there🤷‍♀️

But realistically, yes diseases would be a major factor to worry about bc at the end of the day she doesn’t rlly know these men. But I also like to think about how people actually do the things the reader does in this fic irl so it’s not the most outlandish thing tbh

There are plenty of uh…. WHORES we have as friends💀 (love them tho, go off queen)

But yes, GOD FORBID Choso express his emotions… ITS SO BAD how Choso got a tattoo for the reader… AND OH NOOOO he gets jealous & yells at her?😱

Omg!! How terrible-

Like bffr rn…

But yk Gojo blackmailing her into becoming a diff person is totes fine ^.^ he was just a lil silly!!😉

#kamiversee!answers #k!ans: ☃️

[icedmetaltea]

Man, I really hate it when I'm reading something and the plot is incredibly good. Like so very good and then it just becomes smut. Pure smut. The amount of times this has happened to me is ridiculous. To each their own of course, I'm not hating on those writers. Everyone has their interests and if that's what they like then I'm happy they feel comfortable enough to share. It's just so difficult to find stories where characters remain platonic or where they don't just have sex a bunch to deepen their bond. Idk. Am I being a prude or an ass for thinking like this?

Are you talking about books or fics? :v

If the latter I highly suggest using the filters to blacklist. There's a guide here! Then just stick to rated G or T and avoid anything with tags that imply there's smut in it (there will still be people who don't tag their shit BUT try to avoid those). In general M or E is always gonna contain some kinda smut, or at least references to sex. Sometimes it's for violence/language but that's rare.

If it's books it's usually pretty easy to tell which books will have smut lol (at least in my experience, I avoid romance books generally)... if there's a shirtless or scantly-clad person on the cover it's prolly gonna have it. You can also check goodreads and sometimes you can tell based on comments and ratings if there will be smut, you can also just ask in the questions section.

You're not a prude or being an ass at all my friend!! Everybody's got stuff they're cool with and stuff they're not cool with. Heck, I have stretches of time where I'm super sex-repulsed and can't look at anything containing sex without wanting to gag. It's not at all unreasonable!

I'm not quite sure where to look for this BUT you may look for books/fics featuring asexual/aromantic characters. There aren't a ton but I know they exist! r/asexuality and/or r/aromantic as well as other internet forums may be helpful with locating books like this- there tends to be some overlap between the two so a lot of the time you'll find people looking for aroace stuff in one or the other. Also I have just today found out the term for romance books without smut is called "closed door" or "clean" romance so that's interesting

And remember: be the change you wanna see in the world! Maybe pick up writing and write the kind of relationship you prefer? It doesn't have to be a full-on book, maybe a fic or a short story with ocs? It can be super fun and fulfilling while also hitting that niche you crave

#Answer tag #Metaltea Talks #*gives anon a pastel blanket*

[basilone]

I was tagged by @onehelluvamarine, ty! 💚

A band you don’t like that many others do:

Coldplay. I am absolutely mesmerized by how popular they are, because every single song of theirs I’ve ever heard gets on my last nerve.

A childhood memory that you remember vividly:

I used to do ballet and got to perform in a huge theatre once. I remember hanging out backstage, watching the older dancers, getting to see what the lighting crew was doing… It was a brilliant time, though the hassle to get hair and make-up done had a lot of people yelling and losing the plot. (I learned how to do stage make-up myself when I was a lil older, partially because that’s how you roll in drama classes but also because of that experience hahaha!)

Least favorite animal and why:

Listen. Listen to me. We do not need lightbulb fish. We do not need them. We do not require their presence in our waters.

Hot fandom take:

Do you know how many hot takes can fit in me? It’s a lot. I’m going to go with two hot takes because it’s my party and y’all have never ever seen me post one to this blog before.

Numero uno: readerfic is not OC fic, OC fic is not readerfic. If you name your character, it’s an OC. Even if you write them in first or second person POV. If you write Y/N, it’s readerfic no matter how much backstory you try to chuck at it. Learn to tag it properly. A fic cannot have both the canon character/OC and canon character/reader tags. Please do my last remaining pieces of sanity a favor and don’t make me read Y/N with my own two eyeballs just because you mistagged your fic.

Numero two: smut belongs under the cut. I don’t make the rules. If you start your fic with smut of any kind, put it under a readmore. Especially do this if that smut contains highly specific kinks. Aside from the fact that there are minors on this website who’ve got no business being subjected to that, people should be given the choice whether they want to see that level of smut on their daily newspaper dashboard scrollthrough first thing in the morning.

Do you wear any jewelry, if so, what’s your favorite piece:

I do, though not all the time. One of my fave pieces is a small ring with an eight-pointed star that I wear on my pinky finger.

A movie others liked but you didn’t:

Titanic. I know it’s got many many many fans, but I was cheering that iceberg on.

Three things you love about yourself:

My creativity, my ability to switch gears and learn on the fly, and my hair that does whatever I want it to do.

A place you hope to visit in the future and why:

Dude, have you seen the state of the world lately? I think I’m just gonna hope to visit my bed later on today, much safer.

An actor that gets on your nerves and why:

I have Tom Cruise blacklisted on this hellsite for good reason. The good reason being that I think he’s batshit and that people should stop entertaining his presence in anything. I’m not drinking that cult juice, thanks.

Things you’re excited for in the nearby future?

My birthday’s coming up on Feb 9!

Least favorite ship in a fandom you’re in:

At the risk of getting utterly disowned by a good number of folks that follow me: Webgott. I have gone for an outing or two in this ship, if memory serves me correctly, and I think I understand why people like it. I love banter in a ship as much as the next person, and the push-pull of opposites can be fun. But I also think Lieb deserves a lot more than someone who’s fundamentally at odds with his life and his POV. I think that the discussion they have in that final ep is indicative of something so major that it is a dealbreaker in that ship. (Plus, Web is just… not my fave character. Putting this mildly.)

What’s the most toxic fandom you’ve been in?

Vikings. Hands down, no contest. Absolute toxic cesspool of lies, backstabbing, and badmouthing. There are a few very good reasons why I’m no longer on speaking terms with people I used to call friends (at least one of whom was also in our lovely little war fandom back in the day) and why I’ve all but given up on doing any new gifsets or writing in that fandom for the foreseeable future.

List three things you find beautiful about life:

I’m gonna all caps this like a particularly obnoxious internet citizen because !! important !!

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR UNIVERSE DO YOU HAVE TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE STARS

MUSIC

THAT MOMENT WHEN YOU’RE LAUGHING WITH PEOPLE YOU LOVE AND YOU REALIZE THERE’S NOWHERE IN THE WORLD YOU’D RATHER BE THAN IN THAT EXACT MOMENT

Any dreams for the future?

I just want to live a life that’s good. I don’t really do future plans or dreams, it’s all vibes. I will know the move I need to make in the moment it needs making. Everything else is confetti.

How are you really feeling today?

Tired! (She says while about to embark on a screencap-to-gif journey. You might note the tiredness by the fact that I have completely lost my filter somewhere down the line of answering these questions, lol.)

Tags:

lmao I feel like half this fandom got tagged already and I’m very shit at remembering usernames and who likes tagging games sooooo. uhm. ain’t tagging anybody today.

#tagging game

[raymond-reddington-ruminations]

Title:By The Horns

Date:July 14th, 2023.

Series:The Blacklist

Category: Finale fix-it fic

Main characters: Donald Ressler, Raymond Reddington

Rating: PG-13

Tags: The Blacklist, Redarina (implied)

*I made up the quotes from Liz in here because I figure they must have had these conversations, even if we didn't see them on screen.*

It was damn lucky that he'd come in a helicopter. As tiny as it was they managed to get Reddington onto the collapsible emergency backboard, and maneuvered him inside. Donald Ressler got Reddington to a medical center inside of 20 minutes of noticing the seemingly dead man twitch.

Now Ressler sat in a side room off of a short hallway. Calling it a waiting room was too generous a term for this tiny little emergency medical center. His elbows rested on his knees and his forehead in his hands. He was shaking, and his vision was off somehow, as it had been since he found Reddington stomped into the ground by the bull. A tornado of conflict like he'd never quite known ran through him. He should be doing something else. He should be calling Cooper back. That wail that had come from Dembe when he'd told them he was standing over Red's body.

But then the twitch, the pulse check, the noise of the helicopter and the urgency of the doctors and nurses. He hadn't had a chance to call them back, to tell them that the man was still alive.

"Not yet," a voice in the back of his head whispered.

Reddington might not make it. Ressler would wait for the doctor to give him some news first.

"There's another reason," the same voice in his head responded.

Shut up, he told it. Are you the devil or the angel on my shoulder?

The voice smiled back. It had Reddington's smug little smile.

The Doctor who had taken Reddington into another room off the hallway charged back out and began loudly calling for the attention of everyone in spanish. He pointed to different people in turn, demanding something. Most people shrugged or shook their heads, but some responded with at least one letter of the alphabet and Ressler understood that.

"A…".

"AB…".

He charged to his feet and quickly advanced to the doctor. "Blood types? Is that what you're asking for? Blood types??! I'm B negative!"

Ressler proffered his arm and slapped the inside of his elbow. "B negative! We're a match! We've done a blood transfer before!"

"Yes, yes!" The doctor grabbed his arm and ushered him into the room where Reddington lay on a stretcher. An oxygen mask was over his face, a brace around his neck, a heart monitor was beeping threadily, and a battered looking portable x-ray machine was being maneuvered over him by two nurses.

Ressler was ushered into a chair next to Reddington, and in short order Resslers blood was trailing through an IV tube into Reddington's arm. The beep of the heart monitor became stronger, more certain of itself. Red's chest began to noticeably rise and fall, something that Ressler hadn't been able to see out in that field.

The nurses finished their scans of Reddington's body and left. They were suddenly alone in the small, cramped room together, with the beep of the monitors and the ticking of a large wall clock. Resslers slow, controlled blood loss was combining with jet lag, and taking its effect on him. He felt drowsy and light, as if he was floating. He found himself looking over at his long-time nemesis, battered and bloodied, unconscious beside him. What a long road this had been. There had been so much loss. Liz. Where did it all end?

There were things he should be doing, like making that phone call. Why wasn't he?

"It'll limit your options. Wait. No one knows but you."

Son of a bitch. It out and out sounded like Reddington in his head now.

He drifted for a bit, not the least bit comfortable with deciding not to decide. Wait and see. Wait for the doctor. Ignore the fact that Red's condition should have nothing to do with Resslers' job.

The doctor returned, going to the wall and turning on a light board. He put up an x-ray of Reddington's skull, and began talking and gesturing to it. When he paused to look back at Ressler, he took in the other man's complete lack of comprehension. After a moment of hesitation, the doctor pointed to Reddington's nose area on the x-ray. He held out his fist horizontally, with the thumb extended to the side. Then he turned his fist so that the thumb was pointed up. He pointed to the area on the x-ray over Reddington's left eye, another place that was still bloody on Reddington's face. Again he started with the thumb extended to the side, and turned his fist so that the thumb was part way up.

"Ok, I got it. Injured, but not so bad."

The doctor put up another x-ray, and pointed his finger down the spine, continuing to talk, but not stopping there. Red's ribs and left forearm each got a big thumbs down, not that Ressler needed that interpretation. He could see for himself the shattered bones in the image. He shifted in his seat, registering his own sore ribs, thanks to Red's marksmanship just days ago. He didn't want to think about that. The voice in the back of his head had been all too convincingly suggesting that in Red's shoes, Ressler would have had to pull the trigger on Hudson himself.

The doctor moved on to an x-ray of Reddington's pelvis, but after just a moment he took it down again. He began flipping through the folder of x-rays in his hands, muttering to himself. He took the X-ray of the pelvis, and compared the numbers on it to the numbers on several of the other x-rays. He seemed confused. Then he left the room.

Donald waited, blinking hard and trying to shake off the faint dizziness. The clock on the wall told him it had been just over an hour since he had first found Reddington in that field.

The doctor returned with a younger woman, in different colored, more decorative scrubs. He put the pelvis X-ray back on the wall, and pointed at it accusingly, seemingly demanding something from the woman. She took the X-ray down, and again compared the numbers on it to the other x-rays. Then she put it back up, gesturing to it and speaking in a deliberately reasonable tone of voice. The doctor cut her off heatedly, gesturing to Reddington and back to the x-ray.

"What's going on?" Ressler leaned forward in his chair, reminding them of his presence.

"Ah. English." The woman spoke haltingly. She pointed at Reddington. "Friend?"

He stared hard at her for a moment. Then raised his fist horizontally, with his thumb out to the side.

"Ah," she replied, though her expression was clearly confused. She pointed to the X-ray, and then pointed to Reddington, and fumbled for the english words. "...tr….uhm…g…ch, change?"

He looked at her blankly, and shook his head that he didn't understand.

She turned back to the light board, and moved Reddington's pelvis x-ray to the side. She shuffled through a folder of x-rays in her own hands, and put up two more x-rays, both of them pelvises. She pointed to the first one, which was longer, narrower, with a smaller oval in the center, mostly taken up by the tail end of the spine. Then with the same hand she reached down and seemingly grabbed her crotch, Michael Jackson style. Ressler blinked, hard, and leaned back, baffled.

The woman pointed to the second new x-ray, where the pelvis was shorter, wider, and had a larger oval in the middle with far less of the tail of the spine showing in it. She then pointed to her midsection, and with her arm drew the shape of a pregnancy belly in the air in front of her.

"Yeah, I do know that. Men and women have different shaped pelvises." Basic forensics had been a long time ago, and he'd never had to make the identification himself, but in theory he could.

The woman slid the two x-rays apart, and popped Reddington's in between them. Then her finger shifted back and forth between all three.

Reddington's x-ray was in between, literally and descriptively. Wider, but also taller. A larger oval, with less tail bone in it. The areas that made the pelvis look taller had different levels of brightness on the outer edges, which Ressler knew from looking at his own x-rays over the years denoted bone growth.

But that large oval in the center, with the small amount of tailbone. That was distinctive.

"No," he said. He pointed at the X-ray, pointed at Reddington, and shook his head. "That's not his x-ray. Obviously."

The woman also pointed to the X-ray and to Reddington, and nodded her head insistently. She took the pelvis x-ray down, and lined it up in her hand with the skull x-ray, the arm x-ray, and x-rays of Reds clearly broken leg after it. She pointed to the upper right corner where the numbers were, and Donald could clearly see that the numbers were sequential. Each x-ray changing by only one number. The pelvis x-ray belonged in the middle of the bunch. He stared in confusion.

The doctor spoke up again, sounding annoyed and arrogant. The woman slapped the pelvis X-ray back up, drawing her finger around the oval in the center emphatically. She pointed to tiny, long-healed cracks that showed around the oval, speaking to the doctor sharpley, and again drawing the pregnant belly in the air in front of her. She pointed at Reddington, threw her hands up in finality, and stalked out of the room.

There was an awkward silence. Then the doctor shuffled his files, stared at the floor, and left.

Ressler sat alone again in the room with Reddington, looking at the X-ray in confusion and dizziness. A group of nurses came, bringing him some orange juice. They quickly and efficiently cut off most of Red's clothing, put his arm in a cast, and bound his leg in a brace. They elevated the bed and carefully supported Red's unconscious upper body as they wrapped his ribs.

Red's entire upper back and the backs of his upper arms were covered in burn scars.

"My father died in a fire when I was 4. He was fighting with my mother. I think Reddington was there."

Liz.

"He killed your mother right in front of you, you tried to kill him for it. Why are you forgiving him now?"

She hadn't answered him, that last time that he spoke to her, in his hospital bed just hours before she died. He never did learn why she backed down on going after Reddington for the seemingly unforgivable act of killing Liz's mother.

But there was that letter that Dembe had given to Elizabeth when he wasn't supposed to. It had seemed to cause such a rift between Red and Dembe. A secret, THE secret, revealed to Liz, finally, on the last day of her life.

Donald Ressler was not by any means stupid or slow. That damn voice in the back of his head was putting the pieces together, but the rest of him was resisting. He looked at the man in front of him, whom he'd been chasing for 15 years. It couldn't be, could it? It just wasn't possible, Reddington was far from being celibate. Someone would know, someone would talk.

"CRISPER gene editing was in use 20 years before anybody thought it was. Men can be implanted with uteruses and carry babies to term. Hooker robots. What exactly isn't possible, Donald?"

No. Not this. It couldn't be.

Alexander Kirk let Reddington go. Reddington would never say why.

Damn it, it fit. It fit so perfectly. It explained every. Damn. Thing. Why Reddington would give his very life to protect Liz, why he forgave her, and only her, every single time.

What the hell?! What the actual hell was he going to do with this??! It just couldn't be right!

A ringing cell phone made him jump, and he fumbled for his pocket one handed before realizing it was coming from the pile of Reddington's clothing nearby.

Shaken, he flipped open the basic phone, seeing the identifying name come up at the same time that the call became active.

Agnes.

"Pinky??! Pinky!!"

Away from the speaker for a moment; "He picked up! I told you! Pinky?? Pinky, say something! PINKY!!" She was escalating into higher panic with every plea.

Agnes. His goddaughter. That bright, beautiful little girl that was the last surviving piece of Liz.

"Not the last, Donald."

He cleared his throat, and spoke her name, in a voice that was clearly not the one she wanted to hear.

"NO! NO, I WANT PINKY! SAY SOMETHING PINKY, PLEASE!! " She was screaming now, and he could hear Cooper in the background, sounding tearful himself, trying to calm her.

Agnes and her Pinky were so close. Closer than Red and Liz had ever been. And he might actually be her Grand….oh god. The implications of it swirled around his brain. Even the lowest criminal, if they qualified as human at all, they couldn't not love their kids. Jesus, no wonder. Now it all made such terrible, tragic sense. Liz. Reddington should have told her.

"Cooper…Agnes, listen…" he tried to cut through her hysteria.

"Ah…nez…" Resslers' head snapped around at the muffled voice. Reddington, one eye flickering slightly, the other swollen shut, was trying to lean his head within the neck brace towards the phone.

"Hang on", he told them all, and pulled Red's oxygen mask just slightly offside, to hold the phone to his face.

"Ag..ness?"

"Pinky??! Is that you??!"

"Izz me…Izz you?"

"Oh God, oh God. Pops said a bull attacked you. He said you were dead! I told him I'd just talked to you!" She'd settled into sobbing her words out.

"Well zaz bullshi'. Heh. We gonna have burgers nex' time."

Bloody, bruised, and bound, Raymond Reddington still managed one of those little grins. Asshole.

"I love you so much, Pinky. Please come home. Don't stay away, just come home."

"Love you, see you zoon."

Ressler took the phone back, and clearly so did Cooper.

"Donald? What the hell??"

"Sorry, I..I really thought he was gone. Then I had to get him help…"

"I had to wait for Dembe to be sedated before I could come home. God, I've got to go back and tell him."

"Yeah. Cooper?"

"Yes?"

"…. I didn't call anyone. I'm here on my own."

There was a long pause of understanding.

"…. You're far from home Donald. Way out of our jurisdiction. I don't know what you can or can't do, or what you want to do. I only know what I would do in your place. I never want to hear her like that again."

"No. Me either."

"This isn't a bureau phone, Donald. This conversation didn't happen. The last one we had earlier, when you did call on a bureau phone, stands."

Ressler closed Reddington's phone.

Red was watching him out of one bleary eye, which seemed more alert by the second. He noticed the IV of blood connecting them.

"Full circle?"

"10 years…not that I really think I ever owed you anything. Except maybe a goodby."

He looked down, not sure where to go from here. He had committed to a course of action with Coopers unspoken consent and support. He was going to take no action at all.

There was no reason for him to stay here now. He could walk out, and Raymond Reddington would remain dead to all the world, with one hell of a tall tale about how he'd died gone out into the world, via the FBI.

Red watched him, picking up the situation easily. Softly, he asked; "Why?"

Red waited, the silence pregnant with tension.

Donald didn't know what to say. He wanted to talk, he wanted to question, and he wanted to forget.

"What…what is Agnes's blood type?"

"Why would you…." Red's working eye had finally managed to focus behind Ressler, to the light board on the wall, where the image of his own pelvis was brightly lit. He was quiet for a minute, and then spoke slower more carefully than he had before.

"I knew how you felt about 'lizabeth, before she did. Before you did. I knew if I said anything good, she'd run the other way."

"So you made fun of me for eight years? Gee, thanks. Why'd you keep it up?"

"Habit. I wish you a good life, Donald."

"Yeah, you too. Red."

The end.

Note; The show is over. They can't say this didn't happen.

#the blacklist #raymond reddington #donald ressler #harold cooper #agnes keen #fanfiction #redarina

[fanaticsnail]

Hi, just a rando who saw the blacklisting tags post and just wanted to share smth neat about myself: I don't like fics that are shipping content at all? :0 I'm not a very romantic person, so, that genre just isn't interesting to me. Because of this I unfortunately have avoided all fanfic due to lack of um.. understanding if there even is a tag/system of terms that would mean no shipping? from how I understand fic, that's kinda how you find the fics at all in the first place via the shipping tag? (i know no shipping fanfics exist though, and even tried to encourage myself to write some years ago but genuinely felt like there's such a minority of people who would care, I never bothered) I just found it interesting that your question to Moon about what fic she enjoys seemed to translate exclusively (to me) to asking what shipping content she likes. While I could be misunderstanding the meaning on that one, I just wanted to let you know that there's all kinds of reasons why x reader wouldn't be someone's cup of tea, and in my case it's that I don't read fanfic at all due to avoiding romantic content in general! have a great day, and if there IS a tag for no shipping in fics I'd love to actually learn what it is

My Dear, my Darling; I completely understand.

On Ao3, there's the "/" option to tag as platonic (at least I think that's the way you're meant to use it). If the romance is between OP character and the reader, it is tagged "x reader". For example: if the fic describes the romantic relationship between Sanji and a reader: "Sanji x reader" is tagged. If there is an underlying rapport relationship that the reader character has with Luffy: their bond should be tagged as "Luffy / Reader".

I am yet to see the tag used here, and I have no idea if I should start tagging "/ reader" or not for the majority of my fics. I also would like to add, if romance is not your flavour of fic: that is absolutely fine! Reading romance is not everyone's yum.

To quietly add: I have desired to write concepts I have had vivid nightmarish and dark dreams about: sci-fi, adventure horror, thriller and gore are the main elements of those ones. All original works, characters and concepts - but I know it is not something everyone will enjoy reading. It's not fandom, and I have built this page around the One-Piece fandom. I am a Snail; I write romance, comradery and rapport here. The only thoughts I write that are an outlet for non-romance and friendship are interacting within the plot with background OCs and characters.

In saying all that; if there is a request you'd desire to be made for character x character rapport and interaction, or reader x character that you would like to read - your asks are welcome here! If you request this type of fic, I think if you request "Character x Platonic!Reader" would be a way to do it?

I adore writing shenanigans. It is one of the main reasons I play D&D - specifically for shenanigan content (I am in fact playing tonight, and I can't wait for @since-im-already-here and I to obliterate the stupid mind-flayer!)

In regards to the "people not caring" aspect: We watch One-Piece. None of those characters are together romantically! I adore them all and love watching the angst, fluff and relationships between them. That's what brought us all here in the first place!

Thank you for sharing that part of yourself with me, anon. I am so glad you felt able to reach out and educate me, truly. I mean it with the biggest heart that ever did belong to a such a Snail.

#one piece #opla #opla fic #x reader #one piece live action #anon ask #Thank you for reaching out #I adore learning more about this fandom and fic preference

[amarriageoftrueminds]

something i truly do not understand about smbcky and to a lesser extent, smstve shippers is how they so clearly prefer the stucky dynamic genuine love for each other and prominence in the story their emotional core being each other to the point that non-shippy general audiences call BS when newer entries try to downplay their relationship

but then they don't ship that but instead lie through their teeth abt what stucky in canon is and pretend that their preferred ship has the stucky dynamic

it'd be so much tolerable if the diehard SmBck shippers were honest abt what they are and stop acting like it's a soulmate/fated lovers ship and admitted that it's more of a meme/dudebro/"haha they hate each other it's funni" joke ship, which is what gen audiences did when their show was airing, gen audiences treated it like a meme cuz the narrative never gave it more depth than a bunch of glued-together buddy cop tropes and banking off audiences being invested in the IRL actors' public on-camera personas

those shippers would be much happier if they were honest abt what it is and isn't instead and wondering why romance-lovers prefer the dynamic that actually treated the emotions and feeling with depth and sincerity instead of the dynamic of 2 cishet dudebro hwood actors who think their jokes are hilarious but you can never tell when the joke even happened or not happened

Tbh I don't really know how smbcky shippers ship them because I don't see it! (Got it all blacklisted or filtered or w/e and tend to block those posts when I see them and move on. Hard pass from me.)

So I can't really comment on whether they habitually make up bullshit about stucky or downplay it, because I'm simply not seeing it! 🤷‍♀️

I guess stucky occupies a bit of a unique situation, in terms of shipping, because shippers can lean hard into it's canon romanticism and 80+ years of comics, without needing to steal from other canon ships.

(Like, I've never seen or heard of stucky fic with Bucky in Peggy's scenes, or Natasha's, or Sharon's, because none of them have the same profound place in Steve's life or the same profound lines so it would be, if anything, kind of a downgrade??)

Whereas the MCU canon definitely is trying to downplay and cannibalise stucky to feed other ships, in just the way you describe.

(And thereby inadvertently admitting that the writers don't actually rate the existing-canon as romance, for example. Putting Peggy in Bucky's scenes in WhatIf, while completely deleting Steve and Peggy's original scenes, which were supposed to prove they're a couple! Tell me you think stucky was legit without telling me...)

Most jarring to me was WhatIf, where they had Bucky casually bumping off zombie-Steve, with zero sign that this was his best friend, the only living person who's known him since he was a child, someone he'd sacrificed a whole limb for TWICE etc etc etc…

But was then expected to be upset over bumping off zombie-Sam?

H u h ?!

It was so obvious and cack-handed an attempt to shove down one in order to raise up another, that it was just... cringe? 😬

Maybe that's the origin of this, if you what you say is happening in sambuca and stvesam shipping, is really happening. They've swallowed the 'shit on stucky' coolaid the Rat is peddling and now they're doing precisely what the Corporate Overlords want? 🤔

Kinda sad to think about... 😥

And as for this 'copying X ship dynamic to fit Y ship while ignoring Y ship's canon as if they never liked it anyway' phenomenon...

I have definitely come across a similar thing in stucky fanfic too, actually!

I've seen Bucky's personality (and even physical description) overhauled and replaced with a sort of James Charles-esque, Darcy Lewis Tony Stark hybrid.

Which leaves me thinking, 'but if that's the kind of person you think Steve would want, then you don't actually ship stucky, you ship Steve/Darcy, Stny, etc?'

So it wouldn't surprise me if what you say is true, Anon, because I've definitely seen that ^ similar thing elsewhere with Bucky.

And yes, you'd think, if the 'dramatically romantic co-dependant burn the world for them childhood soulmate' dynamic is the one you're after, then you can't actually like the Sambuca dynamic?

(Cuz if you're not a fan of 'buddy cop dudebros who hate each other on sight are forced into proximity and bicker to the point of becoming an annoyance to the other characters', then why are you here?)

It's an especially odd choice to cannibalise another ship's canon for fanon when what is in canon is a lot of queerbaiting you could draw on instead!

(eg. them rolling through a field for comedic 'lol they're doing gay stuff!!' relief, 'now give us money like you did w/ stucky!!' Annoying, yes, but extremely useful from a shipping POV! No different than destiel or johnlock, when the writers were in on it but had no intention of following through. The fans didn't let that stop them!)

Maybe it derives from a sense of a stolen opportunity? Because FATWS absolutely could have been the 'emotionally resonant ship-establishing show'.

But instead they went with 'Mackie being sarcastic was hilarious in junkets so let's just have him throw casual abuse at Stan so we don't have to bother to do our jobs.' Gave Stan one (1) Emotional Scene and Mackie Zero (0). (While also, funnily enough, shitting on all of Bucky's backstory as if it didn't matter, while not even bothering to mention Sam's at all.)

And finished with a lazy insult; a montage, so that they don't have to bother actually showing them becoming good friends, in the six fuckin hours that they wasted on What FunnyNaziGuy Thinks. 🤬

I think also, Bucky stans seem to be more able to see the flaws in that show, because they never regarded it as 'his' (since he's not being made Captain America, sidekicking remains his gig etc.) Whereas Sam stans did see it as his, so they feel as if they're being disloyal and shitting on one of the few pieces of black rep available by criticising it (and double-down on refusing to address any issues about it.)

So perhaps Sambuca shippers who come to it from a Sam-stan POV almost can't criticise the crap they were given (eg. Mackie Yells at Stan for 6 hours + Nobody's In Character). Emotionally, it's much easier to criticise, eg. skrull Steve from Endlame, and pretend that shit was IC and he and Bucky haven't been It in Steve's films or Marvel's Batman & Robin in the comics for 80 years. 🙄

Definite ship-envy going on, though what the hell there is to envy in the way MCU treats Stucky I don't know!

.

tl;dr: haven't seen it personally but it wouldn't surprise me since that's what the MCU itself is doing and rarepair shippers are in dire straights anyway, poor sods.

#toAyourQ #dat's me #hey nonny #no idea how to tag this because I got death threats the last time I ventured to answer asks on this subject #😮‍💨 fun times... #mcu critical #sambuca #antisambucky #??? is that right??? #stucky meta #TFATWS critical #FATWS critical #antisteggy #mcu meta #fandom wank #diskhorse #steggy is hydra trash party #meta #aren't we all a little too old for this? 🙄 #when avoiding shippers has become self-care = 😭 #thinkin bout how hannibal lecter let will graham's brain-damaging illness progress cuz he's literally a serial killing cannibal #but when mcu character mocks bucky's brain damage people are out here thinking they're... nice... to him??