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[phoenixcatch7]

Fanfiction is great because you can see so clearly how people learn to write.

Some people, it's clear, learned almost entirely through absorbing the world around them. Grammar and punctuation will be all over the place, spellings are approximate, but the voice of the narration will come through so clearly. You can hear the dialect of the people around them as of they're telling the story. It's not a written story, it's a transcription of how they talk in their day to day life.

Some people learned through reading a gazillion books as a kid. Grammer and spelling will be rock solid, formatting occasionally based on the single tab of physical books rather than the double tab of online scrolling, but dialogue is often stilted and overly formal. You might notice a lack of contractions and very rigid rules they made for consistency that actually have a lot more flexibility than they think. They tend to have a fantastic grasp of sentence flow, though.

And other people formally learned how to write. This could be anywhere from taking school classes seriously because they enjoyed writing stories as a kid to literal certifications and jobs in the field. Grammer is flawless. Punctuation is triple checked. Foreign words are in italics. Characters have distinct voices. But their self indulgence is tempered by perfectionism. They know precisely what they want from a fic. Authors notes often feature mutterings about their happiness with the chapter. Kaomojis often appear! They seek a style to their writing, and it makes for some wonderfully clever plots! These are the ones most likely to get fun with formatting!

And some people.... Some people examined it all. They dissect dialogue, people watch, cross reference behaviours and compare characters to people irl. You can tell almost immediately who had formative experiences with Terry pratchett and/or ghibli, because it's these people. While others see writing as fun, expression, craft, they see it as art. Plain and simple. Sure, the grammar is occasionally sacrificed on the altar of creative freedom, and the occasional sentence might miss a full stop, but these people seem to self reflect on themselves as part of the art making process. On occasion, these people have the most masterful grasp of dialogue and invocation and hand sewn characterisations. Formatting is pretty standard because all the focus is on the actual words. These fics can be edited to the moon and back!

All of these can vary wildly in forethought and quality, and betas can often catch individual problems before they hit post, but just. Isn't it so cool? What's that one Oscar Wilde quote about every mask just being another fragment of yourself?

Did you recognise yourself?

[shipping-isnt-morality]

Good morning! I’m salty.

I think we, as a general community, need to start taking this little moment more seriously.

This, right here? This is asking for consent. It’s a legal necessity, yes, but it is also you, the reader, actively consenting to see adult content; and in doing so, saying that you are of an age to see it, and that you’re emotionally capable of handling it.

You find the content you find behind this warning disgusting, horrifying, upsetting, triggering? You consented. You said you could handle it, and you were able to back out at any time. You take responsibility for yourself when you click through this, and so long as the creator used warnings and tags correctly, you bear full responsibility for its impact on you.

“Children are going to lie about their age” is probably true, but that’s the problem of them and the people who are responsible for them, not the people that they lie to.

If you’re not prepared to see adult content, created by and for adults, don’t fucking click through this. And if you do, for all that’s holy, don’t blame anyone else for it.

[zandracourt]

This needs to be reblogged today.

[justsparethoughts-deactivated20]

Consenting to see adult content doesn’t mean you should have to see a bunch of shit romanticizing incest and pedophilia you walnut

[thebaconsandwichofregret]

Except this is the last line of consent before the actual work. So if you’re at this button you have already done the following:

1) chosen to go onto AO3 in the first place

2) chosen the fandom you wish to read about

3) had the chance to filter for the things you do want to see like a specific pairing or a specific AU

4) had the chance to specifically filter out any tags you don’t want to see like, oh I don’t know, incest and non-con and dub-con and paedophilia

5) had the chance to set the rating level if you wish to remove any explicit content at all

6) have read the summary of the story, which aren’t always great but are the only indicator of what the story will be like writing wise so something about it was good enough for you to click on it.

7) have read the tags of the story which will tell you what is actually in the story. If you have used filters to remove stories with things you don’t want then there shouldn’t be anything in here that’s a shock to you but maybe there is. That’s why the tags are there for you to check for yourself.

8) Then you have to actually click on the story. You cannot see anything other than the summary or the tags without personally deciding that you are going to open and read this story.

9) Only here, at step number nine, do you get to the adult content warning pictured above. You have been through eight different steps, the last six of which have also been opportunities for you to see that this has adult content. And AO3 has *STILL* stopped you to ask one last time “are you sure you want to read this because it has things that only adults should see in it”.

If after this point you are reading incest and paedophilia then it’s probably because you specifically went looking for it.

You walnut.

[vi-maxwell-blog]

This is the most beautiful thing that I have seen about ao3

[greenmegsnoham]

Will

Always

Look

Not

Understanding

Tags

[nnoragamis]

he'll literally move heaven and earth for her but it's fine it's whatever i'm sooo normal about it

[blackgirlsreverything]

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

No matter the quality of your creations, remember that you’re the only one in the world who can make them exactly like that. They’re all unique contributions to this world cause no one else can do it like you. Don’t let comparison and competition make you forget that you got a perspective no one else in the world can express.

[shadowyprincessninja]

Never posted anything before so bare with me.

For Darksiders week: crossover: Darksiders x Godzilla

Warrior

One Warrior stares down another.

War thought he had seen just about everything in his long life. But this… this had to take the cake.

It was a gleam of something metallic moving across the dark nearly still ocean that had initially caught the Red Rider's attention. 

Bringing Ruin to a halt atop a cliff overlooking the ruins of a coastal city, War watched with interest as a handful of heavily armed dark grey ships moved slowly inland. For a moment, he dismissed them as remnants of the human age not unlike the ruins of the city that spread out before him. But these ships moved with too much intent. 

Sailing strategically toward the ruined port, they navigated slowly through the graveyard of broken, half sunken wreckages of similar vessels. For many moments more, War pondered the meaning of such a feat. Could some of the humans have survived? Or was there something else piloting the well armed ships?

As War contemplated this seemingly miraculous occurrence, the ships came to a halt, dropping anchor, just beyond the cluttered and broken piers. 

Suddenly and seemingly without cause, the dark waters pulled away from the coast. Beaching the nearest and rocking the broken carcasses of many of the other former watercrafts as the water retreated.

Then the Earth's bright sun glinted off something else entirely. 

From out of the midst of grey ships came an odd set of stony leaf-like projections that cut through the water and wreckage alike with ease. 

War could only stare in awe from the cliffs overlooking the once large human settlement, as a creature - no a lizard - rose with an elegance that should never have been possible considering its size and dimensions. 

Rushing forward with the monstrous lizard's lumbering steps onto land, the water swept into the ruins of the city, effectively cleansing it of any of the nearby demons. 

Pausing with its long tail still deep within the ocean waves, the creature moved its rounded head, gazing slowly across the city ruins.

Even more curious now, War remained where he was, giving Ruin a gentle pat against his thick neck absently. 

Just as the creature had come ashore, so now too did smaller vessels disembark from their parent ships to follow the same exact route that the monster had taken. Once the small boats had run themselves aground, humans - that from War's current distance looked like little more than ants - jumped out and with guns held in strict military formation followed the monster's path.

A cry of a hundred demon voices suddenly echoed throughout the ruins of the city, and War could see the masses of them pouring out of the cracks and crevices that had not been filled with water.

Gritting his teeth - the humans, possibly the last of their kind, were walking into a trap - War spurred Ruin forward only to bring his mount up short not a moment later as the gargantuan lizard paused in its tracks to answer with a defining roar that shook even the ground they stood on.

The roar ended in almost a growl, followed by the turning of large turrets atop the ships to point toward shore. 

Roaring again, the sharp report of the ships' guns drowned out by the sound, the massive lizard moved swiftly further into the city. Easily taller than any of the tallest buildings still standing in the city - bigger than even Straga if War really thought about it - the creature suddenly came to a halt as the buildings before it exploded into smaller bits of rubble as the shots from the humans' weaponry came to bare.

Undeterred, the demon hoard continued its mad rush forward; a wave of animosity that War was all too familiar with. 

 

Just as War was about to move Ruin yet again, he felt something… something in the air; as if the entire realm suddenly held its breath. That same 'something' prickled uncomfortably across War's skin, and had Ruin stomping and snorting in restlessness. Then came the hum.

Like a swarm of steadily approaching insects, the hum continued to grow in intensity, causing a tremor to roll up War's spine in anticipation. It was then that War noticed a blue glow moving steadily up the jagged dorsal spines of the lizard's back. It finally all accumulated near the mighty beast's head, causing even its eyes to glow with the same frightening blue.

The roar that came forth this time was accompanied by a beam of such fiery blue power that the decayed buildings, and demons alike were obliterated without prejudice. It forced War to lift an arm to shield his eyes and face from the ensuing rush of air and tiny debris. The closest thing War had ever seen to use in comparison was Strife's beam shots, and even those were a pale comparison to this nightmarish blue flame.

When the creature was through incinerating any and all demons that had foolishly stood in its way, it gave a soft growl that sounded nearly contemptuous.

With the guns of the ships silent once again, the humans that had halted on the beach now started on their way again. 

It was utterly bafflingly to behold! Could it be that these humans trusted this monstrous beast? And even more surprising, was the creature actually looking out for them?

War wasn't given long to consider as he was suddenly confronted by the sharp, still glowing gaze of the monstrous reptile.

It growled deeply, and then faster than a creature of that size had any right to move, it came to stand just beneath the cliff that War and Ruin stood atop, its head nearly level with them.

The roar that issued this time, forced Ruin to dig his hooves in and for War himself to grasp tightly to saddle or risk being blown out of it.

When the monster finished, both War and Ruin were covered in spit but considering the alternative, War counted them lucky. For all his powers as a Horseman, he highly doubted he would have survived against that horrid blue flame.

With a huff that blew a great bout of steam from the creature's nostrils, the blue glow slowly faded from its eyes, leaving War to stare into a surprisingly intelligent gaze.

Seconds stretched to minutes before with a narrowing of amber eyes, another soft growl was issued. Thick scaly lips pulled back across sharp, white teeth that were just as intimidating as the flame that had previously been issued from between those mighty jaws.

Not wanting to be on the receiving end of any of this creature's attacks, War did the only thing he could think to do, and simply held his ground.

Slowly, as War continued to observe the burning eyes before him, he began to understand.

This was a warrior, not unlike himself, but one that was solely dedicated to protecting this realm and by extension the humans that lived within it. The following snorted huff as the mighty creature turned away told him everything he would ever need to know.