a garden of words

AKA | 28 | he/him | you may know me as akaparalian!

[sarking]

Lemme just write this real quick to get it out of my system

Oh no it's deeper in my system

[welcometothejianghu]

Small Fandom Summer 2026!

For the fourth year in a row now, it's time for Small Fandom Summer! Join me for Small Fandom Summer! It's real easy to play:

Make a fanwork for something that has fewer than 1000 English-language works on AO3

Post it to AO3

And then you've done it! You've made a thing and you've diversified the fandom ecosystem! You're basically a hero.

Q: The fandom I want to create for has more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but the specific pairing I want to write for has fewer than that. Does that count? A: Yes! Q: What if it has more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but, like, just barely? A: Okay! Q: What if it actually has a lot more than 1000 English-language works on AO3, but it still feels small? A: Sure! Q: What if I don't want to post it to AO3? What if I don't even have an AO3 account? Can I post it somewhere else? A: Wherever! Q: What if-- A: Just do a thing, friend. Make a thing. Share the thing. This is not meant to be restrictive; this is meant to be inspirational. Create the fanworks you want to see in the world. Make a stranger happy by appealing to their niche interests. Bring joy.

And if you want to give yourself some silly little Steam-like achievement badges to commemorate your accomplishments, well, you're in luck! I've made a bunch of them right here! You can grab the ones that apply to your work and paste them wherever you like and feel good about what you've done. Here's a few of my favorites:

So you see? This is meant to be silly and fun.

There's nowhere to sign up. There's nothing to commit to. There's zero pressure. You just do it if you do it, and don't if you don't. But if you do want to play (yay!), tag your stuff with #small fandom summer so we can all swoop in and appreciate everyone else's efforts.

Here's to creativity!

[ao3commentoftheday]

Images are white text on a black background with a coloured icon taking up the leftmost third of the image. They are as follows:

Green icon of a magnifying class over a beetle. Who's That Boy? (wrote for a character that previously had no AO3 tag)

Orange icon of a tape measure. Size Matters (wrote the longest fic to date in the fandom)

Grey icon of two women holding hands. Lesbifriends (wrote the first F/F fic in the fandom)

Yellow icon of a smiling face surrounded by hearts. My Special Person (wrote something because you knew that one person who'd appreciate it)

Blue icon of an elephant and a mouse. Lorge and Smol (wrote a crossover between a fandom with more than 1000 works and a small fandom)

Grey icon of handcuffs. Testing the Waters (this had better not awake anything in you)

Yellow icon of two fish approaching a hook. Hooked! (wrote something for the first time and are already planning on writing something else for it)

Green icon of a bag with a leaf on it implying soil or plant food. A Brand-New Bag (wrote for a fandom so small you had to teach AO3 what it was)

[ndnbutch]

personally I am of the opinion that vegans who are like “the way our food system currently works under capitalism on a large scale is exceptionally cruel to all animals including humans and is not sustainable, so I’m doing what I can to make the most ethical choices available to me about what I eat and encourage others to do the same” are generally very reasonable people who I agree with in spades. but vegans who seem to think human beings are not themselves animals who are ultimately also part of the food chain but instead some kind of other paternalistic higher entity that can never engage in ethical and sustainable hunting practices (and especially the fringe I’ve seen who think other carnivorous animal predators are also evil and need to be eliminated) are people I regard as foolish at best if not actively anti-indigenous and racist

[evilscheme]

A belly can be a "slut waist" too. If you're not a fearful little freak

[agnes-nielsens]

[funstyle]

what we really need is a male moanliness epidemic am i right folks

[angelofthe2000s]

I’m afraid some of ya’ll just don’t have the freak gene that lets you enjoy ACTUAL enemies to lovers. Ya’ll think that trope is just like coworkers fighting over a promotion or smth like no give me people that have tried to maim and kill one another or give me nothing

[annabelle--cane]

kinda confused by reporting I'm seeing saying that qween jean became the first openly trans person to win a tony award last night, because j harrison ghee and alex newell both won performing awards in 2023 while already out as nonbinary, and toby marlow (along with lucy moss) won for best score in 2022? and those are only the ones I can list off the top of my head, there may well have already been other trans tony winners. do people just mean first binary trans person? or first trans woman specifically? what's up here

[annabelle--cane]

okay and now I'm looking up reporting from the 2023 tony season and all the headlines are about ghee and newell being the first out nonbinary people to win tonys. comrades they may have been the first nonbinary performers but marlow won for best score the literal year prior. I think reporters might just be a little stupid.

[annabelle--cane]

playbill you're killing me here, someone tell them that nonbinary is a type of trans and that the term they're looking for is "binary trans person." make no mistake, qween jean rules and her win absolutely deserves to be celebrated but "first openly trans person to win a tony" is shrimply not true.

[annabelle--cane]

our beautiful transgender nonbinary individuals and their antoinette awards. and also lucy moss.

[genderqueerpositivity]

Minnesota’s Giant Rainbow and Leather Pride Flags

June 28, 1998. Both flags measured approximately 50 feet wide and 75 feet long.

[ryuutchi]

Friendly reminder that the leather flag predates almost every other flag. We owe this community to leather daddies and kinksters

[nightmarechamillian]

In the era of corporate sanitization never forget it was leather daddies and S&M folks who protected some of the earliest pride parades.

[seven-oh-four]

(sobbing on the floor) i'm amazing digital worthless

[seven-oh-four]

i just feel like i lack an amazing digital purpose

[letsenglem]

happy summer season to the fucking. fall out boy ice cream truck photoshoot. specifically to joe trohman. in the ice cream truck photoshoot.

LITERALLY WHAT THE FUCK WAS THIS ALL FOR...

[letsenglem]

happy pride month to joe trohman ice cream truck photoshoot, actually.

[alm0sthere]

warped tour 06

[miquellakind]

crack the egg of sympathy and make the omelette of compassion

[aroedmundpevensie]

there's actually a secret eighth deadly sin and it's exactly like gluttony except for textile projects

[stitchposts]

[nohoperadio]

Cavemen didn't have clocks yet, so it was a mystery to them why the sun suddenly started setting and rising an hour later or earlier when daylight savings changed over. Now we know.

[dovebane]

If you have a fucked up sicknasty fanfic you've been thinking about sharing but are unsure, this post is your sign to run to AO3 and Just Do It: 1. Someone somewhere wants to read it. Even if it's only one person, that person matters

2. Your creativity matters and so does your ability to share it

3. Serial harassers in fandom spaces are beginning to express discomfort that sites like AO3 completely strip their ability to do anything about fic they don't like, sometimes going as far as leaving entire fandoms due to the influx of "problematic fiction without a chance for consequences to the author". Posting your fanworks to AO3 actively contributes to making harassers feel unsafe and powerless in fandom

4. Militant anti-fanfic content creators also cannot do anything about fic posted to AO3

5. You can post anonymously to AO3, with the ability to de-anonymize at any time

6. You can moderate comments before making them visible on your fic, restrict comments to logged-in users only, or turn off comments altogether, meaning you can post anonymously and completely turn off comments if you choose

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[yaketysmax]

here is the art energy i’m wanting! and why i call my stuff eyecrimes. draw it! post it! enjoy! be freeeeeeeeeee!

[thehubby]

And don’t let yourself be held back by choice of art medium. I’ve made some damn fine wordcrimes in my time and I will make more. My game design can be occasionally described as a braincrime. I am sure a few of you out there can put up a solid earcrime.

You nosecrime people…well, do your own thing, just do it a little bit further away, okay?