man i think it depends

The absolutely pervasive mentality that unwanted criticism or critique shouldn't be given and should be ignored is why fans of color don't stay in fan spaces.

And I am not going to mince words here:

A lot of you are racist. A lot of your fan works are racist.

That might have been difficult to hear. And if it was, you should probably reflect on why that was.

"Fandom etiquette" has created a space where fans of color either bite our tongues and eventually leave or say something, get dogged on, and then eventually leave.

If I say "I am uncomfortable with fandom's tendency to write trans men as feminine and submissive" I do not mean "I think every person who writes feminine submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I don't even mean "any cis-person who writes feminine or submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I mean "I would like writers to seriously think about why this is so common, why they write that, and if it fairly and genuinely engages with what it means to be a trans man, or if they just think it's hot when submissive people have vaginas and didn't want to write omegaverse of m/f".

Similarly, when people say "fandom is systemically less interested in black characters, less willing to give flat black characters rich fanon than flat white characters, and less interested in black characters in ships", the response is not to explain why you, personally, just happen to like popular white guy in that fanon. Your job is to look at yourself and ask if you tend to "just happen to be more interested" in the popular white guy across fandoms, be honest, and start unpacking that. Sometimes it's easier to love the flat character who's already getting 10,000 fics with headcanons and art and meta.

If somebody says "I wish there were more gluten free options at the potluck. I hate always showing up and not finding anything I can eat*", they are not asking you to throw your cake in the trash and weep. They do not want to hear your long speech about how actually this is your grandmother's recipe, and you've tried it with rice flour actually, but it just didn't work. You think about what you can do, and you listen to how they feel.

Then maybe...

Maybe...

“It’s okay Steven, I’m never alone. I fucking love you so much.”

Here's what I need you to do:

If you see a post with a "mature content" label, and it's 2026, DM me a link to the post.

Yes, that's really it.

I am hoping to collect several thousand such posts, so that I have a decent sized dataset. I do not care what the post is about; if it's labeled as "mature content", I want to add it to my dataset.

Meet Kelpwhisker!

Once upon a time, Kelpwhisker was the renowned healer of SedgeClan. They were skilled at their job and loved by their clanmates, a testament to their family’s good nature and upbringing. They grew up alongside Sleetstar and Galefoot, which prompted a friendship between the three, something especially strengthened when Sleetleap was made an advisor, the two of them sharing the stress of such high-ranking positions at a young age.

Kelpwhisker’s littermate had a litter of kits when they both were 30 moons old, and due to a difficult birth, their sibling did not survive and only one of their kits made it out alive. Kelpwhisker stepped in as a somewhat of a surrogate parent for the kit, named Algaekit. It was unconventional, but nobody in SedgeClan was eager to separate Algaekit from her only family. Due to her rocky start and unconventional upbringing, Algaekit grew into a risk-taking, impulsive young warrior named Algaemask, who was demoted to a challenger soon after becoming a warrior for severely injuring a JuniperClan warrior in a border dispute.

25 moons ago, Algaemask was on a patrol with some fellow clanmates. An apprentice named Bubblepaw was severely injured in a sea lion attack, and Algaemask put her life on the line to save the apprentice, though it resulted in significant injury to herself in doing so. Kelpwhisker, having only just lost their apprentice Emberflight 8 moons prior, was unprepared to handle such a dire incident. Their herb stores were unprepared and they only had one set of paws when two cats were in desperate need of urgent help. Instead of prioritizing the young apprentice with less blood to lose, Kelpwhisker put all of their effort into saving Algaemask, unwilling to lose their last family member in such a gruesome way. Algaemask survived, but Bubblepaw did not.

Sleetstar, horrified by Kelpshisker’s abusing their position to save their family over another clanmate, stripped them of their position, demoting them to a challenger alongside Halibutsong, the apprentice’s mentor who had refused to save their life. Algaemask, however, was promoted back to a Warrior afterwards once she healed.

Ever since then, Kelpwhisker has been barred from practicing medicine, their position sacrificed for their niece’s life. It was a challenge to adapt to their new rank considering their lack of training in hunting, fighting, or Warrior duties as a whole, but they learned to adjust, especially with Algaemask’s help.

On some level, Kelpwhisker always hoped that a desperation for a healer would force the leadership into reinstating them, knowing SedgeClan couldn’t go on without a healer forever. However, this hope was quickly quelled five moons ago when Sleetstar leveraged LichenClan’s drought into the transfer of one of their warriors to act as a healer instead. Ever since Oakstream took on SedgeClan’s healer position, cats stopped seeking out Kelpwhisker for under-the-table help.

Through it all, though, at least Kelpwhisker had Algaemask. That is, until recently. Algaemask was the first cat to be stuck by the illness that now plagues the clan– despite Oaksteam’s best attempts, she did not survive her illness. Kelpwhisker remains a Challenger, now with no more family left and unable to use their skills to help their clan in its time of need.

Kelpwhisker will be one of the five adoptables available in our Sedgeclan opening on July 11th.

Meet Brightwing!

Brightkit was born to husband and wife Galefoot and Sleetleap, alongside her brother Emberkit. Only a moon after their birth, Sleetleap was promoted to the advisor role at an unprecedented young age of 19 moons old– a feat that hasn’t been seen in any recent SedgeClan history. Sleetleap, humbled and desperate to prove the promotion just, threw herself into her work while Galefoot took over the lion’s share of raising the duo while Sleetleap settled into her new position. Galefoot was a kind and doting, if not sometimes clueless father– he didn’t always do things right, but he encouraged his kits to follow their dreams. For Emberkit, that dream was always obvious– to become the next healer of SedgeClan. Brightkit’s were a little less solidified, but ever since her mother’s promotion, there was always a silent, unspoken expectation with her– you’ll be next after me.

Sleetleap pulled strings with her peers when it was time for her kits to be apprenticed. Emberpaw was made the next healing apprentice, where Brightpaw was apprenticed to the leader at the time, Flowerstar. As their mother gained respect and notoriety among their peers, expectations of the two siblings grew. It seemed effortless for Emberpaw, who fell into healing training with immediate success– he never seemed to understand in the same way when Brightpaw spoke of the stress that came with being put on a pedestal, expected to shine above the rest. She adapted, throwing herself into her Warrior training and SedgeClan’s ideals– but the only cat who ever seemed receptive to her feelings was Galefoot, who took a less actively involved role when Sleetleap was able to step back in with her training.

Brightpaw and Emberpaw both passed their training with flying colors– Emberpaw even graced with receiving his full name early so as to be promoted alongside his sister, a reward for his exceptional talent as a healer. They were named Brightwing and Emberflight, welcomed into SedgeClan as fully-grown cats before they knew it at 12 moons old. Once Brightwing was a warrior, Sleetleap’s influence was only heightened, her mother wasting no time in guiding her to what she would need to do as a warrior to eventually find herself as an advisor, too. While Brightwing always did her best, an early promotion was not in the cards for her like it was for her mother and brother. Nevertheless, she did as her mother told her and continued being the good cat her mother always told her she was.

When Brightwing and Emberflight were 20 moons old, however, things took a turn for their family. Tensions were high on the JuniperClan border– their northern neighbors had their prey run short with a sudden famine and were in desperate need of more territory– territory that held important herb stores that SedgeClan couldn’t give up. While SedgeClan tried to find some form of resolution, JuniperClan insisted time was running out. They met at the border to discuss, but when SedgeClan was unwilling to give them the land they needed, JuniperClan attacked to get what they needed. Emberflight was killed in the dispute by JuniperClan warrior Storkstrike.

Emberflight’s death hit Galefoot and Sleetleap hard. What had once been a team turned into two despondent cats who were grieving in their own ways, Brightwing caught between them both alongside holding her own grief. The divide between her parents was made worse when Sleetleap was promoted to leader only six moons after Emberflight died. Brightwing was promoted to an Advisor role under her mother only a few short moons after that. Brightwing has been spending her days since her promotion trying her best and bouncing between two grief-stricken parents, still unrecovered from her brother’s death to this day.

Brightwing will be one of the five adoptables available in our Sedgeclan opening on July 11th.