On July 15th, 2023, hereby known as Tenshi Day during 007 Fest
Our fellow fan in Bond fandom, @tentacletenshi, passed away a few months ago. Thank you to @teamcivilian for making sure her legacy lives on. She made wonderful contributions to the fandom.
And while I would like to highlight that in this post, I’m here to first emphasize to you all what a considerate, kind person Tenshi was. THAT is what I remember. That’s how we should all wish to be remembered.
If you’ll permit me, here are a few screen grabs from some of our conversations, particularly in 2022 when I captained Team Civilian and had the honor of getting to know Tenshi well. We had long heart to hearts in private messages on Discord.
The redacted portions are out of respect.
This is the kind of sudden thing she’ll send me, and it’s like she just somehow knew I needed it, that I was struggling and I really needed it:
After that, whenever she sensed from afar that I was sad, she checked in. She always had something supportive and helpful to say.
Shortly thereafter, Tenshi opened up about being bullied on AO3. A troll was leaving nasty comments on her fics, and using different accounts. Reporting and blocking wasn’t being effective.
Tenshi was BOLD and CREATIVE and experimented with fanfic, which is exactly what it’s for. She wrote a brutal Bond and an evil Madeleine Swann and yeah, it’s a risk in this fandom but if we try to shut down this kind of expression we’ve shut down the essence of fandom itself.
These are the fics:
Trust is a Form of Love
and
How to Kill a Swann
So what did we do? Team Civilian and fellow Bond fans refused to let this go on, and we flooded her comment section with appreciation and love. Don’t ever fuckin’ mess with our friends.
Tenshi was so happy it brought a tear to my eye.
I wish I told her more what she meant to me.
I’ve now got tears streaming down my face.
God rest your soul my friend. I love you very much.
