11 Foot Tall Canon God

Well, okay, maybe that's not exactly true, his first reaction was to think that Bad's drinking problem was back. And his second reaction was to think that Tubbo lured Bad into playing a prank on him. Come to think of it, envisioning slaying the evil king was his eight reaction at best, and only after Bad convinced him to sit down and hear him out.

But after he learned about the prophecy – that a chosen one will one day come to the Null and free its citizens by beheading the tyrant with the sword known as OSC (Outstanding Sword for Cutthroating) – Pangi's been imagining how it would go ever since.

(Why was he the chosen one? Well, he asked Bad the same question, but only got told that it's a 'good question' and that it's 'obvious' in a tone that made Pangi feel kind of dumb, so he pretended he understood).

The point is, that never in his mind he imagined it to go like that:

"Just cut it already!" Aimsey yells at him from the other side of the ballroom. There's like three different figures in black capes that are attacking them.

"I am trying!" Pangi yells back. The King of Null is convulsing underneath him with the sword stuck in the side of his throat.

"Try harder!" Lukey and Ros yell at him simultaneously, fighting five of the king's men in a surprisingly effective teamwork.

Pangi groans and pushes harder.

It's not his fucking fault the legendary sword hasn't been sharpened in centuries!

The beheading ends up taking at least 15 times longer than he originally thought, but finally, with the one last push, the Null's King's head comes off and rolls down the ballroom floor right to Lukey's legs.

Everyone stops fighting and looks at it.

Lukey bends down and picks the head up by the hair with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Holy shit", someone says. Was it one of the king's men?

"Fucking finally", Lukey sighs and looks up at Pangi with a bright smile. Pangi smiles back, the giddy feeling of pride bubbling in his chest.

"So... what now?"

Everyone looks at Pangi.

***

In the next 48 hours several things happen:

• Pangi announces himself to be the temporary king until they find the heir (Lukey's idea).

• Pangi and his friends and also around 2 or 20 Null soldiers take a short trip to the late king's estate to retrieve from the tower there the Princess of Null and bring her to the castle as the rightful ruler.

• They don't find the Princess of Null in the tower. In fact, they only find a bunch of alchemy supplies, spilled potion bottles and a note that says 'Goodbyeeeeee, suckers'.

• Pangi's kingship quickly becomes very permanent because of the runaway princess (very much to his dismay, he was planning to go on another epic quest with his friends instead of doing something as boring as ruling a kingdom)(at least Lukey is going to stay and help, unlike Ros and Aimsey, who have to return to their own kingdoms).

• And also Pangi gets told about the curse (god, being the chosen one SUCKS).

"Your highness, I will repeat once again", one of the old king's advisors sighs, frustrated. "Every Null's monarch has to get married within the first year of their rule, otherwise the curse will be unleashed upon them".

Pangi stares at the guy. The guy stares at him back. Lukey looks between them, curious and concerned.

"No, but what does it mean? What curse?"

If Pangi didn't know better, he would think the advisor is looking at the OSC in Pangi's hands rather wistfully right about now.

"If you don't get married, you are sent to the void", the advisor repeats again. "So the council would like to know, who is going to be our new king's lucky spouse?"

Pangi glances at him and claps his lap, offering Lukey to sit down, because he would really much like to cuddle his best friend right now. Lukey ignores the lap sitting offer and instead pulls another fancy chair closer to Pangi, sitting there. His hand finds its way into the new king's auburn hair, brushing it softly, and that's good enough to make him relax just a bit.

"I guess I will have to find someone to marry me", Pangi squirms. "For tax benefits".

Lukey flicks his forehead at that, and Pangi hisses, pressing his fingers at the place of impact.

"No, dude, I mean, how are we going to find someone for you to marry, who is trustworthy enough to rule this kingdom with you", Lukey clarifies, leaning a bit closer to Pangi, catching his gaze. "Do you have anyone in mind?"

Pangi's always liked Lukey's eyes. They are dark brown and warm, like chocolate or black tea in winter, but under the certain light they can almost look black. He swears he sometimes sees purple flecks, like glitter, in them too if he looks deep enough.

"You know what? I do have an idea", Pangi tells him softly, not looking away.

Lukey tilts his head slightly, with that stupid wonderous expression of his that makes Pangi want to squish him like a marshmallow.

"Why not?! It makes so much sense".

"I am not doing any of that f a g shit with you, Pangi", Tubbo shakes his head so violently that he almost falls out of the frame of the crystal ball they are talking through.

"That's crazy, I am straight actually", Pangi grumbles. "But think about it. You are already Princess of Green, and if you become the Queen of Null too, there's so much potential! Plus you always wanted to get your hands on Null's magical studies. You can have them if we get married!"

"Fuck no", Tubbo repeats. "Not worth it. Plus you are funny if you think I won't get them from you anyway".

Pangi wants to argue further, but a familiar voice cuts him off.

"Is that Pangi?" Bad's voice rings from somewhere behind Tubbo, and a second later the demon's lanky figure is pushing into the frame, almost making Tubbo fall again.

"Hi, Bad", Pangi greets his mentor/sorta father. "Being the chosen one sucks".

"Oh, I am sure you are doing great, Pangi", Bad coos, finally settling that way so him and Tubbo are both in frame, even if it means that they are uncomfortably pressed against each other. "What are we talking about?"

Pangi (regretting that immediately because Bad gets WAY to excited about the prospect of his 'darling boy' getting someone 'special to cherish and maybe maim just a little bit' in life) informs him of everything that's been happening.

"Why did you even take the title?" Tubbo asks, squinting in confusion. "Where's the Princess of Null? Did you kill them?"

"Ran away from her tower", Pangi huffs. "Why, did you know her?"

"I was supposed to marry her actually at some point", Tubbo muses. "For political benefits and yadda yadda".

Pangi frowns.

"But... aren't you gay? Why would you marry a girl?"

"Aren't you straight? Why are you trying to propose to a guy?"

"Touché".

"Oh, Pangi, we are going to find you a lovely spouse", Bad chimes in again, his voice full of whimsy and butterflies. "Don't mind Tubbo, we can find someone much better!"

"Hey!"

Pangi snorts.

"Thank you, Bad. I guess I should go and draft some ideas. Or practice my rizz on someone. Whatever will help".

The 'someone' in this case, being, of course, Lukey, his most trusted friend. But Bad and Tubbo don't have to know it.

ASHSWAAAAAAG I LOVE YOUR ASH SO MUCH AND HE DOESNT EVEN HAVE MUCH DIALOGUE YET. He’s so swag, and loser, and girldad, aaawwww I love that he isn’t overly stand-offish and quick to anger like some of his other depictions but rather observes a situation before jumping into a reasonable conclusion, thats OUR compassionate supreme leader

im at the edge of my seat on what’s going to go down as the story progresses. I’m loving the mix of horror and comedic bits, it flows so naturally, especially from Ewron’s pov who’s filled with constant complaints so when something does get him to shut up the audience knows something is about to go down. God he’s going to be even more annoying about Ash like canon q!Ewron is soon /pos “Ash Ash Ash Ash”

Thank you so much for all your hardwork and this gorgeous fic!!!

Thank YOU so much for the kind message!!

A preference is something like, “I don’t want my character to be drawn in ship art.”

A boundary is something like, “If you draw ship art of my character and I see it, I’ll block you.”

They are not interchangeable. You can prefer something and have boundaries regarding that something, as seen in the above example, but they are not one in the same.

A preference is what you would like to happen/not happen. You can always suggest preferences, but they are just that: preferences. What you like won’t always happen, but you can always say that you’d want it to.

A boundary is, in this context, a sort of reaction towards something you’re uncomfortable with. It’s a safety feature in any kind of relationship, including one between creators and fans. This can include blocking certain terms from appearing on your page- this is where the interplay between preference and boundary can come in, because you can say that you want anyone making art of your character that is against your preferences to use a specific tag that you can block.

It’s very important to remember that no one has to follow your preferences. It’s also important to remember that boundaries are largely a personal thing and not something multiple parties have to agree to; I’d personally compare it to wearing a seatbelt when in a car with someone else, it’s something that’ll keep you safe if something happens, but the driver doesn’t necessarily have to agree with you doing so. A boundary is self-preservation. You can’t control what other people do, but you can control what your response is to what other people do.

A lot of creators today don’t seem to really get this difference, though. They conflate the two probably without realizing it (thank you 2020-era mcyt fans /neg), and so it falls to other fans to protect the creator’s peace instead of the creator protecting their own; people are always going to do whatever the hell they want to do, especially when it comes to creative expression like fanart and fanfiction.

While it is probably a little rude to go against a creator’s preferences with art, there’s usually nothing actually mortally objectionable about it. You aren’t a bad person if you draw Character X with wings when the creator doesn’t want that done, they don’t get to determine what you can and can’t create.

What creators can do is set boundaries with their fans. Make a tag specifically for things they don’t want to see that they can block (this has been a practice for YEARS on social media, tumblr included.) They can state that anyone making art they’re uncomfortable with will be blocked, like how they ban people from twitch chat if they’re making the creator uncomfortable. Boundaries are on a personal level, not a proper transaction like how modern mcyt creators and fans seem to think it is.

Meanwhile, there are things fans can do to help creators with their boundary setting that isn’t fandom policing. There’s a long-standing tradition with rpf-adjacent fandoms where the fans make statements at the top of their fics or in the captions of their art saying something like, “[Creator] DNI!!” While DNIs are really kinda just proven not to work, it’s a phrase creators can filter out and block.

It’s give-and take. Fans should respect their creators’ boundaries. If a creator says they’ll block you if they see you post something they’re uncomfortable with, that’s literally fair on their part, and you should do what you can to keep their online experience safe. But, for that to happen, the creator needs to realize that their boundaries can’t control people, and there needs to be some wiggle room in the form of fan boundaries like tags and such.

And I think that fans deluding themselves into thinking these creators are just a small step above them, aka 'They were a fan like me, too!', has led to increasingly-dangerous behavior, ex: ccs leaving vidcon early because of weird parasocial fans treating them like fellow fans, or even friends, and acting like total freaks to these creators' faces.

Or even ex: hunting down fellow fans for 'problematic' behavior (problematic in quotes because oftentimes the difference between what a cc's boundaries are and what fans police others about is a mile wide) because the creator, as a part of fan spaces with no real distinction between Creator and Hello Fellow Kids, will inevitably see stuff they aren't supposed to that has been a part of fan culture since fan culture began one bajillion years ago.

Good question!

I legitimately think that creators doing things like blocking tags/words is probably the single most realistic way for them to stay on their side of the boundary

As an example, I’ve seen that this one cc named Abolish (genuinely no clue who this is btw) has a specific tag created for them to block. This tag is for people to tag stuff they specifically don’t want creators to see, boundary breaking or not. And, from what I can tell, this works pretty well!

I do also think that ccs trying to police fan behavior is not only a losing battle, but it’s also something that really freaking encourages the kind of parasocial fan-on-fan policing we’ve been seeing increase over the years. Like, yeah, creators can have boundaries, but the most successful creators I’ve been watching for over a decade now (mcyt and not) just. Don’t bother trying to tell the fandom what to do most of the time because they know it A) won’t work and B) won’t be worth whatever trouble comes out of it

It isn’t necessarily fair to ask creators to stay entirely out of the fandom, but I think that allowing some spaces to be fan-only is a very good thing. It can be entire websites like ao3, specific tags on tumblr or twitter, or even just. DMs and private discord servers, which I’ve seen creators and fans alike try and police, which is just kind of Beyond imo

🕯️I will understand how to block tags

🕯️I will have a basic understanding of how a fandom works

🕯️I will not threaten to send people after my fans

🕯️I will learn what a boundary actually is

🕯️I will not support harassment

🕯️I will accept that there is content out there that I don't like

🕯️I will encourage my fandom to be a place where people feel safe