Another Messy Guy

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3w0Psnu

by ceraxxxx

A sound wakes Derek in the middle of the night.

Someone has opened his front door.

Words: 969, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Teen Wolf (TV)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski

Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski

Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Gift Fic

Stiles: What didn’t I do with the body?

Derek:

Steve, whacked out control freak McGarrett is dying to know what Danny has in the bag and of course, Danny strings him along until Steve’s need to know gets the better of him. Well played Danny Williams.

SS: Did you stop for Malasadas this morning?

D: No

S: Is it evidence from a case or something?

D: No.

S: Now just stop, stop. What’s in the bag, what’s in the bag?

D: My lunch you genius.

S: Your lunch? So what did you bring?

D: You got to know every last detail about my life? What’s it to you what my lunch is?

S: Because you think it’s so fantastic I’m going to steal it? You fly in some deep fried sandwich from New Jersey I’m not allowed to know about?

D: It’s a salad okay. That’s it, nothing else in here, just a salad, okay? Grace has been taking nutrition class and she’s concerned about my cholesterol so I promised her I would eat better. Okay, happy?

S: Huh, that’s actually incredibly sweet.

D: I appreciate that.

Then exactly 2 minutes and 31 seconds later, we get this little exchange after Steve refused to hand over his dad’s files to Jenna Kaye…

D: Why did you not give her your files right then and there? What is your plan…please?

S: Must you know every detail of my life?

1. This is working under the assumption that tumblr is a space solely (or at least primarily) for teenagers/kids and that simply isn’t the case. Historically the creation of fanfiction, fanvids, fanart, etc. has been done by people in their twenties and older.  Think about how many years it takes to learn how to craft a good story. Think about what you need to pull something like a con together. That person with the Skill you admire? There’s a very good chance they’re an adult. It used to be that kids pretended to be 18+ because they knew online fan communities were adult spaces. I’m not sure when this switch happened, but it needs to stop.

2. It is not “a little weird” that people don’t put their age on their blog. I have mine because I’m comfortable sharing it and my fan identity/irl identity are already really conflated, but a lot of people - most people - want to keep personal information to themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that and insisting that we reveal that information is all kinds of wrong. Can you ask someone their age? Certainly! Maybe they’ll tell you, maybe they won’t, but regardless you are not entitled to that information. 

3. The children on here? They are not my responsibility. If kids/teens are worried about who they’re talking to then they should either a) be careful about who they interact with or b) not use this website. If they’re too young to understand this then they’re too young to be online without parental supervision. Now, how can a teen be careful about who they interact with? Check the person’s blog. See the kind of content they post. See if there are any hints about their age (mentions of school, job, birthdays, etc.) - or again, just ask! I’ve had plenty of people on here decide they only want certain types of interaction with me after discovering my age and that’s fine. But it’s not my job to monitor everyone else’s internet use.

4. Finally, I find the language here to be rather concerning. “A little weird,” teenagers are “lured,” leading to things that are “much more insidious”… all of this, whether intentionally or not, frames anyone 20+ as intrinsically predatory. It also takes agency away from anyone under 18. Teenagers aren’t “lured” into talking to me, they make that decision on their own. They are their own person capable of making their own decisions, gathering information before making that decision (like asking someone’s age) or, if they can’t do these two steps then again, they should not be online. We’ve come right back to point #1: this is not your space. It’s our space. I’m not some trespasser here who only gets to stay provided that I cater to those younger than me. If anything, based on how much of online content is geared towards adults, kids should be working under the assumption that they are speaking to an adult until proven otherwise, especially on websites like tumblr that cater to all ages. Don’t assume you’re talking to another teenager. Don’t project onto a person and then get mad when you find out you’re wrong. That’s not them tricking you, that’s you failing to take responsibility for yourself.