#orangekittyenergy

[midandevil]

Next set of attacks! 🤺

For @immren @orangekittyenergy and @hurglewurm

[mercymaker]

I had a big long thing typed out originally and my internet cut out right when I sent it so idk if you received it ;_; BUT yes, adding another voice to the fandom is feeling very weird and isolating. It always just feels like I'm one step outside...whatever is going on in any given fandom? Like just on the outskirts of it. And idk if its discords or different sites or if I'm just bad at posting but it does very much feel like you have to 'market' yourself and I hate that. I'm here for fun, it shouldn't feel like work. (Plus I'm just bad at that) And Tumblr feels like the least worst of those but the *other site* the one I think you mean, felt so isolating on there I just straight up gave up posting, because why bother. Like I would never meet some weird unspoken required fandom quota or I was missing some key element to being part of it. It always felt very transactional, if that makes sense. At least here on Tumblr even if I toss a post out in the void and it flops horribly with the way the dash and tags work I know it will eventually find an audience somewhere. Its like people have just generally, across the board, gotten allergic to just...connecting with other people. Like guys its the internet! Were posting to connect! You are allowed to comment and connect even if you dont know the person. I could keep rambling on and on about this but just wanted to say I feel you. <3 I dont know what the solution is but Im going to keep on keeping on and trying I guess. Love you mel

Oh noooo, this is the only message I received :(

And yes, that's exactly it! You really feel like now you have to be a marketing and a PR agent, just being an artist and a fan is no longer enough. And you're right about ~*the website*~, as I once got straight up told that yep, it is very transactional and that in order to get comments I ought to comment as well. Which is like.. I get the sentiment of being involved in the fandom, which I also believe in, but it feels like we pushed that good advice into the extremes where being in a fandom comes with people sort of.. keeping the tally of who comments on whose posts and if one person doesn't comment enough on your posts then you're not going to comment on theirs either. And in all honesty.. I feel like that's partially what led to the general decline in people engaging. It stopped being 'oh, I find this cool or beautiful or interesting so I will express my opinion on it' and turned into.. currency.

And I don't know if it's because the internet as a whole shifted into everything and everyone trying to get monetized, but it's almost as if that entire mindset just bled into everything. It's no longer just about actual money, it's also about attention, engagement. People operating with this mindset of 'well, I don't think this person has earned my comment/like' and the reasons behind that are wholly arbitrary. It's just.. such an unwelcoming space to enter and can leave one feeling utterly alone.

Which also made me wonder if fandom shifting from forum boards and journals and tumblr to more mainstream SM sites also contributed to this weird.. idk, fracturing? Clique mindset? Because now people can very clearly see who has what amount of followers. And that, unfortunately, also plays a role in how people interact (or more likely NOT interact) based on that metric.

And it's all.. interconnected! This sort of transactional mindset created the need for people to band together into groups to prop each other up, thus further feeding into that by creating this almost.. idk, a pledge? That everyone within the group supports each other no matter what, not based on the merit of their work, but the fact that everyone is in that certain group (which like.. on its own, a group of friends supporting each other is completely fine! it's just the fact that this phenomenon always existed to some extent but a) wasn't a pre-requisite to being part of the fandom b) didn't enforce this sort of.. tribalistic mindset where people stopped really interacting with others outside the group).

And that just further breed the sense of isolation if you're not part of one clique or another, so it's totally normal for others to either seek to be accepted to a group (through various means stemming from something as innocent as just talking to people OR something a bit more problematic and sucking up to people they want to be their friends (which happens!!!), becoming essentially doormats, thus creating this weird social hierarchy within the group where those who are new, or more on the margins, cannot freely voice their opinions or dare to say anything that would go against the grain (something I myself witnessed in certain discord servers) in fear of being ostracized). It's either that or creating your own group and thus feeding that loop where the community just fractures even further, creating more sense of isolation, forcing people to flock to one another ad infinitum.

I also think that maybe the fandom as a whole shifting with the new generation is also at play here. As I've noticed that the one thing that the younglings fear the most is cringe. I see this cultural shift where kids these days truly would rather be passive, cynical, and idk.. uninvolved? Rather than being passionate and earnest and whimsical, because that risks them coming across as cringe and that's like.. the highest crime of them all, it seems. So when you apply such a logic to a fandom, it starts to make sense why so many are just passively consuming 'content' in private, without getting themselves involved in any way.

It's really sad and makes me worried for the future. Especially in these restless times our world is currently experiencing, having an escape in fiction and fantasy and, above all, a community is SO SO important. And yet what was once a 'happy place' for a lot of people to feel like they belong in and can share their excitement and passion (which is something SO human) is rapidly becoming a cold, unwelcoming wasteland.

And as an old™ who (now looking back) experienced "the golden age of tumblr", I look back at that joy, that sort of.. "I'm in this giant playground and can run up to random people and tell them I really like their tshirt and then a day later a random group of strangers pass by and tell me they really liked my crayon drawing from yesterday" feeling and my heart just breaks. Not only because I personally experience only vague remnants of it at this point (and I do think that tumblr still has that deep down somewhere, just not on the scale it used to be), but because I realize that people entering now see fandom in a completely different way. They never got to even know how different it was. Instead, so many think that all this, all the cliques and performing for engagement, and the transactional nature is normal.

But yeah, I don't have all the answers either. I just try my best to keep creating, to bring even a little bit of that old spark into the community. But just the fact that I literally cannot function in discord servers really impedes that because I.. also do feel left out and isolated sometimes. I've seen people in this very fandom who liked my work drop me like trash when I didn't perform the correct dance for them, when I dared to disagree or speak up when I saw someone being cruel about other people's work. When I didn't comment enough on their work or didn't put my stamp under the 'follow4follow' and 'comment4comment' pledge. Maybe I truly am just a fandom grandma who cannot keep up with the times, yelling at the clouds while most try their best to ignore it.

But.. I am glad that we can speak about this. Discuss it. Express our frustrations and fears and sadness. I know for a fact that there are more people like us, feeling like that. People who are even more isolated and alone, thus even more afraid to speak up about it. Who know that something about this fandom climate is just not right, but don't know what to do about it.

And to end this on a positive note! Even with all of these problems and some of the worst people and situations I experienced in this fandom.. I am so glad I met people like you. People I can call friends. People that do not keep a tally on how many times I commented on their work or how much time I spent in their servers. People that create beautiful art, support each other. People who are there, not because they expect something in return, but because they care.

Love you, my friend 💖

[commander-krios]

Top three romances between Dragon Age AND Mass Effect?

Ooooh no, how could you do this to me???

This is really hard tbh because I love everyone in their own ways. But I have to say

Zevran Arainai

Thane Krios

Dorian Pavus

Pretty sure those are my top romances that are actually romances. Because if we want to talk NPCs who I romanced in my heart, that becomes even harder.

[andromedaancunin]

@orangekittyenergy had a lil giveaway that I won, and this is the piece that she drew for me!!! 😭❤️

I am absolutely IN LOVE!!! I HC that Andromeda and Astarion started reading and cuddling together on their lil tadpole adventure and it became part of their every day routine. I asked if she would be able to draw that for me and she did such an AMAZING job.

I cannot stop staring at how beautiful this is and I am so, so, so grateful!!! 😭❤️😭❤️😭❤️😭❤️

[wanderingaldecaldo]

Top 3 Cyberpunk 2077 characters (outside of your V and Mitch of course<3)? Criteria can be whatever you want it to be.

NOT MITCH?? Okay, fine. 🥲

Rogue Amendiares. I love Rogue for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is for surviving Johnny and reinventing herself. She's a badass.

Carol Emeka. She cracks me up! She's funny and smart and she does not take shit from anyone. Plus, the way she hits on Judy while V is right there in front of her? The balls on her!

Panam Palmer. I love that woman with every fiber of my being. V and I both were smitten with the fiery Nomad. She doesn't know what she wants, and she's gonna hurt herself and everyone around her while she figures it out. She's a big mess, and I love her so much. If only she had figured out she's bisexual. 🥲

[keldae]

I need everyone to behold the CUTEST EVER THING that @orangekittyenergy has created for me! I requested Devi and Gale cuddling in his Waterdeep tower with little newborn Tiawyn, AND SHE DELIVERED. I love everything about this picture! Gale's proud look! Devi leaning against her hubby's chest! The way they're holding hands while holding their baby girl! The sunlight in the window! How cozy little Tiawyn looks!!

Brb need to go write fic about this ❤️ Thank you so much, Danielle!

[druizard]

Rolan & Fawn for @orangekittyenergy

[commander-krios]

Ooooh 😈 Who is more likely to start chaos “for the vine” & who films it? and 👀 Who gets jealous more easily & how obvious are they about it? for both Juniper x Rolan aaaand Ariadne x Illario please? <3

Thank you! Of course you choose the funniest options for these questions lmaoo Ok..

Juniper x Rolan

😈 Who is more likely to start chaos “for the vine” & who films it?

We know the answer to this one. OF COURSE Juniper is the chaos starter. She's a bard. She used to run with a circus. She's the definition of chaotic good energy. I'm not entirely sure that Rolan would film anything but he'd certainly stand there shaking his head while the chaos went on.

👀 Who gets jealous more easily & how obvious are they about it?

Rolan gets jealous too easily. Mostly because he has a hard time believing he deserves someone like Juniper. She's the hero of Baldur's Gate. She's saved his life so many times he's lost count. And he is quite obvious about it. But over time, I think he starts to realize his worth more and the jealousy goes away.

Ariadne x Illario

😈 Who is more likely to start chaos “for the vine” & who films it?

lmaooo pretty sure Illario would be the one 'doing it for the vine' while Ariadne, who isn't as chaotic as he is, won't pass up a good time. Especially if she can get a laugh out of her friends. And she enjoy spending time with Illario, even if it's going to get them into trouble in the end.

👀 Who gets jealous more easily & how obvious are they about it?

Neither. Illario is extremely sure of himself, perhaps a little too much at times, but he doesn't get jealous. Not even when people are obviously flirting with Ariadne. He grows used to it as time goes on. She IS a hero, after all. Ariadne, too, doesn't get jealous often. I'd say the only time she might get jealous is if someone else gets to spend more time with him than she does.