smithereen

Fandom old. Often lurker. Sometimes fic writer. Smithereen on AO3

[flieslikeamoron]

It's always so funny when a guy wearing skates stands next to a guy who isn't.

[raichett]

liking a ship but disliking the distinct set of stock fanon that they have been assigned is like one of those punishments dante came up with when he wrote the worldbuilding for hell in inferno

[flieslikeamoron]

i was thinking for my ghost AU instead of doing an Angels in the Outfield thing, which isn't really an AU it's just post canon, I could do an AU where Eddie died in season 3 as part of the meat monster. And he's haunting the video store because that's where he got lured from. But mostly he's just haunting Steve because he never liked that guy. And Steve doesn't realize he's being haunted at first, he thinks he's cursed. Because his coffee is always cold (from Eddie sticking his ghost finger in it) and the lights always seem to turn off right when he's getting somewhere with a hot girl and the computer keeps turning off when he's in the middle of checking out the most impatient, assholey customers. And none of it ever happens to Robin, it's always his shifts while she's at school.

And then I need to figure out how they realize it's a haunting. Probably Robin figures it out. But at some point Eddie types his name into the computer or pulls up his rental file so they know who the ghost is. And he doesn't actually remember what happened after Billy told him to hold still. It'll be over soon. He sort of remembers it not being over soon enough. He doesn't actually want to remember more than that.

And Steve decides he's going to help Eddie with his unfinished business so Eddie will go to the afterlife and stop annoying him. And Eddie makes up some wild goose chase unfinished business to fuck with him. Maybe there's a thing where Steve has to carry around one of the VHS tapes so Eddie can leave the store. And they're spending a lot of time together on this wild goose chase and Eddie is starting to kind of get a soft spot for the guy.

And then I think it's a thing where after the fake out the party tries to legit help Eddie move on and whatever they do fails and the rest of the party is like this sucks. What else can we try? But Steve is secretly relieved that Eddie's sticking around and Eddie doesn't seem that disappointed either. And keeps sticking around. And sticking around.

And maybe the longer they spend together the more Eddie becomes visible to Steve and it could be a thing where Steve can see and hear him but just can't touch him or can only touch him when he's sporadically corporeal.

And he stops having to carry the tape around because Eddie's anchor switches from the store to him. And the party is like oh yikes how do we fix this. You guys are stuck with each other. But the truth is neither of them minds that much because they're lonely codependent freaks who actually never want to be alone even for one second. And also they are in love. So they decide to just stay stuck together for the rest of Steve's life. Which I guess is as happy of an ending as you can have when one of you is dead?

[chocoarts]

mhm yep

im normal about them

[a-way-we-go]

catch.

[notte-nought]

a quick recharge after constant aggressive flirting, then back at it

[rogerdeakinsdp]

Who are your heroes?

[lizardsfromspace]

[flieslikeamoron]

[sapphireh3arts]

today is the ten year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. a full decade ago, i lost a friend and a coworker. i was lucky. i had friends that lost several people. today, please remember and fight for all those that have died to live the live they should have been free to. i'll always remember you, Cory.

[forgive-and-take]

Widow's Bay ep 9 no context spoiler:

[sing-you-fools]

i must say, i am a huge fan of when a book is in the middle of a very exciting plot containing many interesting problems when out of nowhere for a few pages it's like, "hey by the way, real quick, here's a detailed explanation of the city's water filtration system! i'm telling you this for a reason and you should worry about it. anyway! haha okay back to the plot" and you just get to be Scared for a while

[succubusboyfriend]

you have permission to pick that 2 year old "abandoned" project back up. it's not mad at you for setting it aside. and maybe time and distance have helped ease or erase the things that made you put it down in the first place.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

There are lots of reasons why fandom is "quieter" now than it used to be. Some theories are more compelling to me than others, and they all have a different scale of impact. We'll never know for sure, of course, but I like to think about it. Thus, this poll.

Of the list below, which reason do you find most compelling or do you think had the biggest impact?

New entrants to fandom don't know the old ways

fandom olds didn't teach the newcomers how to fandom

covid/surge in fandom due to quarantine and lockdowns

"antis" and other harassment campaigns against creators

creators posting complaints about comments (people worry about commenting wrong)

rise of discord popularity - fandom is walled off from each other

tumblr porn ban and other reasons people left the site

capitalism turning fandom into a passive "view and move on" commodity

rules from social media impacting fan culture (eg. don't comment on old posts)

general state of the world / burnout

social anxieties in an increasingly complex online culture

"surveillance state" worries and not wanting to be perceived

Remaining time: 1 day 21 hours

This is an incomplete list, so if your most compelling reason isn't listed, feel free to add it in the notes.

[saintprey]

barb

[clementine-kesh]

obviously there’s nothing morally wrong with the projectionist lens through which a large portion of fandom operates but it does get kind of tiring to constantly feel like. hey guys what if we stopped talking about ourselves and instead talked about the character

[clementine-kesh]

and of course a degree of projectionism can be a very useful lens in certain circumstances, such as having unique insight into a character who shares certain aspects of your own experiences. but at the end of the day you still gotta recognize that there are going to be aspects of them that diverge from yourself

[saggeses]

I’m gonna be so fr rn, yall gotta stop acting like women’s sports only contributions/offerings are 1) that most of the athletes are queer 2) some sort of “morally pure” version of the sport. you don’t realize that you’re doing it but you’re de-valuing them to a point of queerness + morality meter. which the latter is just insane when there are POS’ amongst women’s sports

[saggeses]

“Don’t watch the NHL, watch the PWHL! They’re actually gay!” why is that the only selling point to you

[saggeses]

there is no such thing as a morally pure sport