Obsure Reality

And maybe I'm just ancient, but since when has fandom ever been about validating canon? Canon is incidental to fandom output. It is, at best, a guideline. You can stick to it, or you can go so far off the beaten path that you fall off the edge of the world and wind up in a new one where the map has words like "here be dragons" stamped in the upper corner.

Fandom is about exploration beyond the canon. It can look like canon, talk like canon, and sometimes even emulate it so perfectly you'd swear you've found the author's secret account, but it doesn't have to.

Because the tag itself was created as a response to a fandom-wide tendency to disregard warnings and assume tagging was exaggerated. And then the same fucking idiots reading those tags describing things they found upsetting or disturbing or just not to their taste would STILL click into the stories and give the writer's grief about it.

And as a response writers began using the tag to signal "no, really, I MEAN the tags!"

But like.

If you really think about it, that's a solution to a different problem. The solution to "I know you tagged your story appropriately but I chose to disregard the tags and warnings by reading it anyway, even though I knew it would upset me, so now I'm upset and making it your problem" is frankly a block, a ban and wide-spread blacklisting. But fandom as a whole is fucking awful at handling bad faith, insidious arguments that appeal to community inclusion and weaponize the fact most people participating in fandom want to share the space with others, as opposed to hurting people.

So instead of upfront ridiculing this kind of maladaptive attempt to foster one's own emotional self-regulation onto random strangers on the internet, fandom compromised and came up with a redundant tag in a good faith attempt to address an imaginary nuance.

There is no nuance to this.

A writer's job is to tag their work correctly. It's not to tag it exhaustively. It's not even to tag it extensively. A writer's sole obligation, as far as AO3 and arguably fandom spaces are concerned, is to make damn sure that the tags they put on their story actually match whatever is going on in that story.

That's it.

That's all.

"But what if I don't want to read X?" Well, you don't read fic that's tagged X.

"But what if I read something that wasn't tagged X?" Well, that's very unfortunate for you, but if it is genuinely that upsetting, you have a responsibility to yourself to only browse things explicitly tagged to not include X.

"But that's not a lot of fic!" Hi, you must be new here, yes, welcome to fandom. Most of our spaces are built explicitly as a reaction to There's Not Enough Of The Thing I Want, both in canon and fandom.

"But there are things on the internet that I don't like!" Yeah, and they are also out there, offline. And, here's the thing, things existing even though we personally dislike or even hate or even flat out find offensive/gross/immoral/unspeakable existing is the price we pay to secure our right to exist as individuals and creators, regardless of who finds US personally unpleasant, hateful or flat out offensive/gross/immoral/unspeakable.

"But what about [illegal thing]?!" So the thing itself is illegal, because the thing itself has been deemed harmful. But your goddamn cop-poisoned authoritarian little heart needs to learn that sometimes things are illegal that aren't harmful, and defaulting to "but illegal!" is a surefire way to end up on the wrong side of the fascism pop quiz. You're not a figure of authority and the more you demand to control and exercise authority by command, rather than leadership, the less impressive you seem. You know how you make actual, genuine change in a community? You center harm and argue in good faith to find accommodations and spread awareness of real, actual problems.

But let's play your game. Let's pretend we're all brainwashed cop-abiding little cogs that do not own a single working brain cell to exercise critical thinking with. 99% of the time, when you cry about any given thing "being illegal!!!" you're correct only so far as the THING itself being illegal. The act or object is illegal. Depiction of it is not. You know why, dipshit? Because if depiction of the thing were illegal, you wouldn't be able to talk about it. You wouldn't be able to educate about it. You wouldn't be able to reexamine and discuss and understand the thing, how and why and where it happens and how to prevent it. And yeah, depiction being legal opens the door for people to make depictions that are in bad taste or probably not appropriate. Sure. But that's the price we pay, creating tools to demystify some of the most horrific things in the world and support the people who've survived them. The net good of those tools existing outweighs the harm of people misusing them.

Yeah a very common and go-to pet name is actually just one big joke. Everyone was tricking you the whole time!! Pranked <3

I can’t imagine the horrors that this would entail… I don’t wanna hear my name unless you’re reading off a legal document

“TW: British People”

Lettuce gives me such a big ick in salad I swear 😭

Okay fanfic writers, your mission, should you chose to accept it, is a filthy 100 word drabble, for any pairing, to be posted on Thursday, in time for American Thanksgiving.

Disclaimer that I'm super new to the fandom so this is my first time writing for it, and I also written one little fanfic in the past 3 years for a different fandom so I am Rusty and they're probably very OOC lol.

--

Tailor’s shops, Tim had found, were rather soothing places. Quiet and smelling faintly of amber and cedar. His chosen shop was an octagonal room lined with built-in shelves and racks of suits and armoires of darkly stained mahogany. A table in the centre of the room housed a swatch book of different types of wool and lining silks that Tim liked to flip through just to feel the delicately woven fabrics.

On one side of the shop window, there was a mannequin dressed in a half-finished suit, one side left without the facing so onlookers could see the canvas and careful stitching that gave the suit its structure. On the other there was an old treadle sewing machine, though Tim doubted it was still functional. Nevertheless it helped add to the timeless sort of atmosphere of the shop, something that felt so far removed from all the computers and cold artificial displays Tim usually worked with.

He’d been coming to this tailor for a few years now. Bruce had recommended him, and Tim had been coming ever since. There was something calming about the familiarity. Coming in and greeting the salesman who recommended a few suits for him to try on, settling on one that he thought looked best before the salesperson called the tailor out to him. It was always the same tailor, an elderly man with small, quick hands and soft eyes by the name of Lucius Fox.

Tim waited for him now, dressed in a neat blue suit the salesperson had chosen off the rack for Tim. The shop did offer entirely bespoke suits, but Tim had always found that to be much more elaborate than he felt he needed. As long as he looked neat and presentable, it worked for him.

He flipped through that fabric swatch book, tracing fingertips along the pinked edges of soft blue wool and reading the sticker on the back of the previous swatch as though he had any idea what any of it meant. Camel hair, it said. Tim didn’t think the fur of a camel would be particularly soft or good for suitmaking but evidently he was wrong.

“Mr. Drake?” Called a voice from the door to the tailor’s workshop itself, a voice lower and smoother than Tim had been expecting.

Tim looked up to see a man walking towards him, tall and broad with a streak of white through dark hair, a ruler and chalk in one hand and a pincushion secured to the other wrist with a band of black elastic. He’d forgone the jacket of his three-piece suit, the sleeves of his dress shirt neatly rolled up to his elbows, a tape measure draped around his neck. The suit was fitted just enough to display a figure far sturdier than Tim would’ve expected for a tailor, just hints of a broad chest and arms that filled out the sleeves far better than most.

His face was just as chiselled, with sharp green eyes that seemed to shimmer with amusement, the corner of his mouth turning up just slightly.

It took Tim far too long to realise he’d been staring, and he quite quickly flicked his eyes back down to the book before him, feeling warmth rise on his cheeks. “Yes, that’s- uhm.” He cleared his throat. “That’s me.” He looked back up at the Tailor. “Sorry, I just was expecting someone… else.”

The Tailor smiled in something between understanding and amusement. “Yes, Mr. Fox is out for the week so he’s left me to handle the shop. I’ll be taking care of you today.” The blush rose higher on Tim’s cheeks, and if he didn’t know better he’d assume the Tailor was doing that on purpose, with that honeyed voice of his and those smoothly spoken words. “My name is Jason.”

“Tim,” he answered, picking at the band of his watch.

“A pleasure to meet you, Tim,” answered Jason, and Tim was almost irritated at how well such a simple and common name rolled off Jason’s tongue. Jason gestured towards the pedestal in front of the three-way mirror, a platform just a little bit above the ground that made fittings easier, evidently. “Stand up there and face the mirror,” said Jason, tone polite and professional despite the command.

Tim nodded, trying not to follow Jason’s order too quickly and trying even harder not to fidget. He’d gotten better at it over the years. At his first fitting, Mr. Fox had smacked him upside the head with a ruler and told him to sit still. Now though, he had a feeling he’d find it just as difficult to behave as he had back then.

Jason came to stand close behind Tim, and it was with another small amount of irritation that Tim noticed even atop the pedestal, Jason was still slightly taller than him. “Tell me a little more about how you like your suits to fit.” His voice was softer now that they stood closer together, a gentle sound rather close to Tim’s ear. Tim couldn’t tell if he could feel the body heat radiating off of Jason, or if it was his own body that was warming up.

“Well… I’m not really sure I have much of a preference. Mr. Fox just fixed whatever he thought looked bad.” Tim wasn’t particularly meticulous when it came to fashion.

Jason hummed in understanding, stepping back just slightly to sweep his eyes over Tim, analysing the way the suit fit him with a careful, sharp stare. “Well, Mr. Fox is very good at what he does, but between you and I? He's also ancient and tends to prefer older, boxier styles, which I don’t think particularly suit you.” Tim felt rather like a blank canvas, where Jason could see the vision of the finished piece and Tim couldn’t. “You have a much narrower waist than most of the men I see. I think you’d look far better in something that showed that off a little more.”

Tim tugged at the hem of the jacket, trying to see what it was that Jason saw, but as far as he was concerned a suit was a suit and as long as it fit he wasn’t sure the cut of it made much of a difference. It was something to wear to a formal event and want to take off as soon as he got home. As far as he knew, the one he had on already fit fairly well for the most part.

“Here, I’ll show you what I mean and you can see what you think,” Jason continued, stepping closer to Tim again, standing right behind him so that in the mirror he could see his own silhouette overshadowed by Jason’s. Jason stroked gentle fingers up Tim’s spine, a featherlight touch to smooth out the wrinkle at the base of his neck. Tim suppressed a shiver as Jason leaned in close to place a pin to mark where the extra fabric near the collar needed to be taken in.

“Generally, off the rack suits were designed to fit men with far worse posture than you,” Jason explained, moving on to pin the sides of the suit. He sounded… appreciative, nearly praising despite the aforementioned posture making more work for him.

Tim could definitely feel his body heat now, attention narrowed down to where he could feel the delicate brush of skilled fingers along his waist, sliding a pin through the fabric with ease and precision Tim wouldn’t have associated with larger, stronger hands, far less wrinkled than Mr. Fox.

Tim could feel the warmth of Jason’s breath, could see him leaning in close in the reflection of the mirror. Now that Jason wasn’t looking at Tim’s face, Tim couldn’t help but stare at Jason’s, at the piercing, intense gaze, careful and precise in his work. He was much younger than Tim assumed most tailors were, likely only a few years older than Tim himself.

Jason moved to the other side, momentarily placing a hand on Tim’s waist to pull away the fabric needed. Tim wondered what he was thinking, so focused and diligent, fingers so much more skilled than Tim would’ve expected. It was an art, really, and there was beauty in simply watching the way Jason worked, in feeling each gentle brush of fingertips along the fabric, light and delicate and telling of so much skill in those hands. Some part within Tim desperately wanted to ask for more, for a taste of what those feathery sweeping touches promised.

“How does that feel?” Tim snapped his eyes away from Jason’s face and back to his own reflection, reminded quite quickly that Jason was a professional only doing his job and Tim desperately needed to get it together. Jason was reminding Tim that he desperately needed a few things.

“Uh… what?” Tim asked, feeling suddenly rather silly and realising he hadn’t been paying any attention at all to any of the things he was supposed to be paying attention to.

Fortunately, instead of the irritation Tim had been expecting, Jason simply laughed, a low chuckle rumbling in his throat. “The suit. Does it feel too tight? Too loose?” Oh- right. That was why Tim was here.

He looked at his silhouette in the mirror again, this time actually looking at himself instead of at Jason, and found he quite immediately knew what Jason had been talking about before. More than just fitting him better, Tim felt like he looked more… like himself. Not someone putting on a costume to go play the character of some high-society heir. He looked… really good, and good in a way he hadn’t expected to see in himself.

“Well?” Jason asked, smirk tugging at his lips again. “You seem quite easy to leave speechless, but I would appreciate at least some feedback.”

“Oh- sorry. It feels good. Thank you,” Tim answered, looking back at Jason in time to see his satisfied smile.

“Good,” said Jason, stepping closer again. “Now for the sleeves, I think they’re a little long for you, hmm?”

Tim nodded, knowing at least that much needed to be fixed. The hem of the sleeve was barely above his knuckles. Jason leaned in, left shoulder brushing Tim’s right as he slid one hand past Tim’s hip, one hand on either side of Tim’s.

Tim’s breath hitched, trying to calm the way his heart raced at their proximity. He knew this was part of the fitting, that this was the easiest way for a tailor to roll up his sleeve. Mr. Fox had done it too, but when Jason touched him, it was… different. No- Jason was just doing his job. He was a professional, Tim shouldn’t be thinking these things.

Jason’s index finger brushed Tim’s palm as he started to roll the sleeve up, tucking the excess fabric inward so it looked more like what the finished product might be. He slid two fingers beneath the sleeve to help smooth out the folded edge, the backs of them brushing along the sensitive skin of Tim’s wrist. Tim would be surprised if Jason couldn’t feel his racing heartbeat like this, but if he did, he didn’t say anything of it, simply curling his fingers and bringing them down slightly to bring the sleeve down just a little.

“How’s that?” Jason asked, voice hardly above a whisper now that he was practically speaking in Tim’s ear, their faces only a few inches apart. He slid his fingers out of the sleeve, pulling away again so Tim could examine the length for himself.

“Yeah,” Tim answered breathlessly. “Yeah, I like that.” He realised now that Jason had pulled away, he very nearly felt cold. But at least the distance gave Tim room to catch his breath and chase away those creeping thoughts.

Then, Jason stepped in front of Tim, between him and the mirror, and Tim’s heart stuttered in his chest. Tim had nearly forgotten about how Tailors marked the second sleeve, and he was swiftly reminded when Jason dropped to his knees in front of him.

Tim immediately held his breath, staring directly forward and absolutely refusing to look down.

“You know, I can’t do this if you don’t relax,” Jason teased. It was then that Tim realised he’d balled his hands into fists, and then that he knew that Jason definitely knew what he was doing. He released the breath he’d been holding, unclenching his fists and relaxing his arms at his sides.

Jason hummed in satisfaction, and Tim felt that gentle brush of warm fingers against his own as Jason held the ruler up to measure the new length of the sleeve from the tip of his thumb, sliding a pin into place before repeating the process with the other sleeve. Tim was trying not to tremble, trying to ignore what he could see of Jason in his peripheral vision, trying not to wonder what it might be like if he used that tape measure for something other than its intended purpose.

Finally, Jason stood again, face so close to Tim’s that Tim could make out the different shades of green and blue in his eyes.

“Wonderful,” he said. “Now, if you’d please remove the jacket, it’s time to mark the pants.”

This. Still. Makes. Me. Laugh.

Let me explain why:

Look at how Tim is holding the pen. Stylistic choice or not, that grip means he's putting pressure on the pen. That he's heavy handing his writing.

Now look at the pen. That's a fountain pen. Fountain pens work through combined capillary and gravity action that makes the ink flow down to the nib naturally when the pen is in writing position and in contact with a writing surface; which is, depending on the model, between 45° and 60° angle in the vast majority of the cases.

Most fountain pens aren't made to sustain heavy hand writers. In fact, a great number of them is used to correct the grip, angle, muscle memory and heaviness of a person's handwriting style, since the simple act of touching the nib on paper easily makes the ink come out.

Now, look at Damian's implied facial expression and body language. Yes, we can all shrug it's just his rivalry with Tim that makes him react like that, it's a perfectly reasonable way to explain it all. However, for a fountain pen affictionado, for someone who loves fine writing instruments, that right there is a sentence of death.

Damian isn't just seeing Tim use his pen. He's seeing Tim, a person who couldn't care less for the writing tools he's using, obliterate the tines by placing way too much force on them. He's horrified of his favorite writing instrument being damaged by Tim's disregard with it, which is the most common reaction ever when any fountain pen lover sees their favorite pen being held and used by another person without their authorization.

Damian isn't overreacting at all.

The fountain pen community can confirm it.

[EDIT]

I know it's no ones concern, but as a lover of fountain pens, I kind of had to give a huge zoom-in in a version of this that isn't as pixelated and... guys, I think I know which fountain pen is this!

I may be wrong, but I think that's a Lamy Safari Black Charcoal model!

In the comic we can't see the window or the triangular grip very well (I can kind of see a shadow of the triangular shape, but I'm not calling it without being certain) and it looks a bit chonkier, but look at that cap! That minimalist cap with the sturdy yet simple, black clip and small gap on the top of the cap! That's a cap for a Lamy Safari model if I ever saw one!

Yes, maybe it can be some other fancier and more expensive brand, most Lamy's I've seen are between 30-60USD with special collections being a little closer to the 80USD mark on really expensive shops online, but let me make an argument for it.

A Lamy Safari fountain is considered a popular workhorse among affictionados and artists alike. Not only it's reliable, with a simple yet stylish body and construct that serves to pretty much every occasion, its construct is simple in terms of maintainance and handling. Want to go travel on a plane? No problem, take the cartridges with you! Prefer bottle ink? Not a problem at all, here's the converter for all your bottled ink needs! Oh, the standard medium nib isn't to your liking? Let's find one that you enjoy, there's European extra fine (0.38) to broad, stub, italic and even for writing musical score! Still not enough? Hey, there are many manufacturers that make their own customized nibs for a fair price, maybe give them a try? And the best part? The nibs aren't so expensive that you're breaking the bank with them, so if you break one you can get another with relative ease.

Basically, I'm new to the Batman fandom as a whole, and a few months ago I decided to make a Twitter account that was specific to JayTim in hopes of meeting new friends who were also fans of the ship. The fandom friend group I'd been part of previously wasn't great for my mental health for a few reasons, so I was really really excited to join a fandom entirely disconnected from that group and hopefully make new friends. I know how antis can be, so I also made a new account disconnected from my main to protect my anonymity.

I forget where exactly I saw it, but I think it was in the replies of a tweet one of my mutuals replied to? I'm really not sure, but someone mentioned having a proship RP partner search blog on Tumblr. Immediately, I was ecstatic. I've been struggling finding people to rp with in general, and even moreso for JayTim, so I was really excited to meet new people and find new people to write with on this blog. It had been years since I'd been on Tumblr, but I made this account as a new sideblog specifically for the purpose of posting an ad to that account (I later learned you can't send in asks as a sideblog, but oh well)

I DMed the mod of the blog on Twitter to make sure my ad followed the rules and also let them know that my blog was new because it had been made new for the sake of posting an rp ad. I submitted the ad, they posted it on the blog, everything was great. While I waited for replies, I scrolled through old posts on that Tumblr account to see if anyone else was looking for a JayTim rp, and I found in the comments of one post the link to a Discord server specifically for BatFam rps. Immediately again, I was super excited. I'd been looking for a Discord server to become an active member of, and this seemed absolutely perfect, I was really incredibly excited about the idea of being part of a community. I know I'm beating the dead horse about how excited I was but I really want to emphasize that all of this was happening to someone who was utterly ecstatic about the idea of making new friends in a new fandom.

I joined that server, posted an rp ad there as well, and I got a message from the mod of that server about the ad suggesting we start a JayTim rp together. The conversation goes like any other with a potential new rp partner. Discussions of writing styles and preferences, I shared a sample from another JayTim rp I was doing at the time, things were looking great.

So then I decided to check Tumblr again to see if there were any updates about the post. To my surprise, I see that my post has been taken down, I have been blocked by the RP blog, and I have been blocked by the blog mod that I messaged on Twitter initially. There was no message about what I might've done wrong, no warning, nothing. No context, no conversation, just Blocked with no explanation. So of course I'm incredibly stressed out and confused because I have absolutely no idea what I did. It's been a while since I'd been on Tumblr so maybe there was an etiquette rule I broke? I know I'll block people who post a lot of a ship I don't like just because I don't want to see it on my TL, but my ad was specifically for JayTim in the first place and the mod approved it, and this wasn't a personal Tumblr this was a place to find RP partners.

While this is happening, the Discord mod is still chatting with me about ideas for our rp, and I apologized for seeming a little off suddenly and explained what happened and that I was really stressed and confused about it. The discord mod said they understood, and that it did seem odd. A few minutes later, they mentioned having to go to bed.

A while after that, I check Discord again to see that I've also been banned from that Discord server and blocked by that mod. Again, no explanation, no context, nothing. At this point I wanted to cry because I didn't understand what I was doing wrong or what was happening. I thought since I'd been talking to that mod about how confused I was about the initial situation, maybe they'd contact me to give me context, but no there was nothing. No way to contact anyone, no closure, just getting blacklisted from the new fandom I was so excited to join with no explanation.

At least a month went by. Finally I want to try and find more JayTim rp partners on Tumblr again so I look for a tag, and to my surprise I see that initial Tumblr rp partner search blog has unblocked me. So, I send them a message explaining what had happened and expressing my confusion. I'm just going to copy paste exactly what was said:

Me: Hi there, I'm admittedly a little confused. I posted an rp ad ages ago on this account, the mod proofread it on Twitter and I sent it in and it was posted. A few hours later, the post was taken down and I was blocked on this account, and the mod who I was in contact with also blocked me on Twitter. There was no explanation and I'm really not sure what I did or why I was blocked? But I was just looking for an rp and noticed I'm now unblocked on this account. The mod on Twitter still has me blocked and I'm still very confused. I'm not sure what I did wrong or why I was blocked in the first place, or why I'm no longer blocked now. Is there maybe a different mod in charge of this account?

Blog: Oh heck i guess it mustve gotten lost in the mix

(Maybe they didn't read my initial message? I thought maybe they were going to add more information, but no they just left the message at that for 2 hours)

Me: The ad? No it was posted. It was up for hours, and then I was blocked by this account and the mod's twitter account with no explanation or context to why

Blog: Ohh yeah no it was reported that you are an anti and this acct is not for you so we took your stuff down

I was then, again, blocked, and at this point I'm even more confused and baffled than before. I'm not, nor have I ever been, an anti. I have literally no idea why they might've thought I was one, and I couldn't ask because they blocked me. At this point this is driving me nuts and I've been stressed out and frustrated about this for months. No one is listening or talking to me, I'm just being ignored and I don't understand why, so at this point I'm not going to let it go.

I logged onto my old Tumblr account from years ago and messaged the blog again saying that I'm not an anti and don't understand what happened or why they think I was, I'm trying to be understanding and non-abrasive but I don't understand how this even happens and why the mods would handle a situation like this. I also went onto an alt and contacted the mod on Twitter. At this point Elon Musk has removed the ability to DM someone you are not mutuals with, so this entire Twitter conversation is happening in the public replies of one of her tweets. (The Tumblr account never responded to my message)

Me: Hi, I know this may be inappropriate to message you on an alt, but you didn't give me a chance to explain before you blocked me again. I'm not an anti. I don't understand why you think I am or who told you I was, or what I possibly did to indicate to you that I was an anti.

Mod (responding immediately. This mod has consistently been replying basically immediately): Hi i have been told you have been blackmailing people and telling them that youre going to post callouts about them writing incest and underage if they dont write these things with you and that you evaded server bans on discord for the same reasons

Me: Okay, I have never done any of those things, so could you please expand on who said I did these things and what evidence they provided of that claim?

(A day goes by, no answer)

Me: I'm not sure if you're busy, if so understandable, or just not responding to me, but I'd really like to talk to someone and try and figure this out because I don't understand what was happening. Did someone say it was my account? Or was there an assumption that I'm associated with another account that did these things? I'm sorry for being so persistent about this I just was really excited about joining this fandom and really don't want to get blacklisted from it for something I didn't do and no one is talking to me about it

Mod, Immediately : I messaged the person that reported you to see if they have anything to chime in about this maybe being a case of mistaken identity. please be patient.

Me: Okay, no worries. Thank you

Me: No rush to respond to this but I forgot to mention that if it would be helpful to provide my main account and ao3 and anything else, let me know, I would just prefer to do it in DMs

Mod: I'm waiting for the other person to get back to me right now i will let you know if i need anything further from you <3

(4 days go by, nothing. So they're not asking for my word on the situation, they're not looking at the active JayTim Twitter account I've been running for months, there's absolutely nothing I can do and no one seems willing to have a conversation with me about what happens, it's all just waiting on this mystery person to add context.)

Me: Hi there! It's been 4 days so I was just wondering if there were any updates on the situation?

Mod: I've gotten into contact with the person who reported you and they said they would look for the screenshots when they had a chance

(So, they didn't already have screenshots? From what I can tell, someone told them I was an anti, and the mods felt no need to actually verify that? And just blocked me and blacklisted me from everything, no questions asked, even though I have nothing to do with whatever I'm being accused of and no idea what's happening.

A week goes by. Nothing)

Me: Hi there, it's been a week, has that person managed to send you the screenshots yet?

The mod hasn't responded to that message, it's been two days. I'm trying to be patient and understanding but I'm so sick and tired of being ostracized, blocked, banned, and ignored for something I had nothing to do with. The information I've copy pasted in this message is all I've been told, I don't know anything else about whats going on or how this happened. I'm just so frustrated because I was so happy about the idea of joining a new fandom and making new friends, and now suddenly I'm seemingly blacklisted from the entire BatFam rp community for reasons no one is even actually telling me.

The most I can tell so far is just that someone said "hey that person is an anti" and despite having no evidence to back that up, the mods just decided to kick me out of everything and tell everyone I'm an anti?

I'm not sure that anyone is actually going to read this, both because I have one follower and also because this is a long post, I guess I partly just wanted to type it all out, and also just wanted to tell my side of the story because it stresses me out so much every time I think about it. And I was talking to that Discord mod about how stressed and confused I was when I got blocked the first time but still, no one thought to take a second look? No one thought to give any amount of context or even talk to me?

You’ve heard of lemons and the Citrus Scale? Well, what about KINKTOMATO?

KINKTOMATO is an important concept in fandom. It’s a humourous re-spelling of YKINMKATO - Your Kink Is Not My Kink (And That’s OK). This is the idea that if you don’t like a particular kink or ship etc, that’s fine but you don’t need to attack or shame the people who do. Just leave them alone to enjoy their fics and art in peace and ask that they do the same in return. 

KINKTOMATO is the “you do you” of fandom. It’s the “whatever floats your boat” of leaving other people alone. It’s an easy and judgement-free way of hoping that your fellow fans enjoy their content as much as you enjoy yours and understanding that different folks like different strokes. 

Roy: Ok sweetie what do you want to wear to school today? Your new Dinotrux shorts?

Lian: I don’t like those anymore, they’re for boys.

Roy: Wat

Lian: Some kids at school were teasing me because they said Dinotrux is for boys so I don’t wanna wear them anymore.

Roy: Ok

Roy: That’s fine

Roy: I’ll handle it

(Next day at school pickup, Roy arrives wearing a full length ballgown, sparkly makeup, combat boots, earrings, and a Peppa Pig trucker hat)

Roy: WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT BOY CLOTHES AND GIRL CLOTHES??!!

Other parents: Uhhhhh

Roy: I’M A MANLY GODDAM PRINCESS

Other parents:

Roy: AND MY DAUGHTER IS A BADASS LADY DINOSAUR

Roy: THAT’S ALSO AN EXCAVATOR

Roy: BECAUSE KIDS’ SHOWS ARE FUCKING INSANE

Roy: IF A TRUCK CAN BE A DINOSAUR, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GIRL CLOTHES AND BOY CLOTHES

Roy: DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM???

Other parents: No, no, all good

Teacher: Sir you have to leave

Roy: OK I WILL LEAVE

Jason: ...

Tim: What?

Jason: Let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly before I respond. Your dad was murdered. Your stepmom, who never adopted you, was in a mental hospital. Dick was awol. Cass was still basically a baby as well and was finding herself. B was avoiding you because he felt guilty about getting your dad murdered.

Tim: He didn't-

Jason *speaking over him forcefully*: Then you dropped out of school, so no one could possibly miss you while you lived with a man who was a complete stranger to you and who knew you had money and no adults worth a damn in your life.

Jason *takes deep breath*: Why the fuck would you do that?!

Tim: Well, at first I wasn't sure what was going to happen to me and Batman needs Robin, but we also both needed some space to grieve. I had to make sure I was still available to Bruce while also leaving us some breathing room. Plus, Dick was out of town, so Bludhaven needed a vigilante anyway.

Jason: Okay, ignoring the twenty other things wrong with that statement, did it never occur to you that Bruce could just adopt you?

Tim: Well, Yeah. But he'd just adopted Dick, which was a really big deal for him, emotionally, you know? I was worried he'd feel bad if Bruce turned around and adopted me.

Jason: You were worried Dick would feel bad if Bruce adopted you when you had literally no one else?

Tim: Yeah. I was used to being alone anyway and you know how he can get when it comes to Bruce.

Jason: So you decided to move in with a strange man who was down on his luck and might, oh, I don't know, murder the weird, wealthy child whose bank account he had access to?!

Tim: I paid him. I never gave him direct access to my bank account.

Jason: Oh, well that makes everything fine then. He'd just have to force you to hand over more cash. Or hold you hostage against Bruce. Or blackmail you to keep you as his baby sugar daddy.

Tim: I set up everything about his fake identity so he couldn't try to blackmail me without looking really sketchy himself and he never knew about Robin, so what would he blackmail me with anyway?

Jason: How about telling Bruce what you did, since the charade was obviously mostly for him?

Tim: Then he'd risk losing everything while I moved in with Bruce. Nothing he could do against me would gain him anything, so what was the worst that could happen?

Jason: He could have murdered you in your sleep! He could've jumped you while you were vulnerable! He could've threaten to report you to a truancy officer if you didn't do something he wanted! He could've drugged you and sold you to traffickers! Fuck, I don't want to keep thinking about all the horrible things that could've happened to your idiotic baby past self. So let me just reiterate the important question: What the fuck were you thinking?!

Tim: Why does every funny story I tell you end up with you freaking out and yelling at me?

The latest 11.0 update means that Google Analytics is a thing on the switch and turned on. What that means is that Nintendo has a deal with Google to share with them your data for advertisement purposes.

To turn it off

go to the eShop

go to your profile where your funds and account info is

go down to the bottom of the page

there you will see “Google Analytics Preferences”

select the Change

select “Don’t Share”

Lance takes a drag on his cigarette, blows out the smoke. A cold breeze tugs down his hood and disperses the smoke. His damon grumbles a little, moves closer. Near the end, Shiro had picked up smoking. He favored menthol cigarettes, and it made his kisses minty. No harm if I’m already dying, says his ghost, smiling as he leans on the railings, his gaze fixed on the horizon.

For @khellamendra, written for Langst Halloween Exchange 2020 @langstron. Warning: Past Character Death.