Angst Gremlin No.1

She called it.

The key is community, positivity, and encouragement.

I had a couple discord servers and ran events, both for the servers and for the fandom in general, but none of that is unique.

I think what helped set my spaces apart was that I have always tried to encourage creation for the sake of creation. With Perpollo specifically, it was such a small ship that there was always a feeling of 'oh my god, you like this too?' that made it more exciting. It meant for me that even if someone had an idea for a fic that I might not have clicked on due to my preferences for AUs, tropes, characterizations, or whatever, I was going to cheer them on because I was excited for more fic or art. And it was genuine excitement too. I ADORE seeing people create whatever their heart desires and my own preferences have nothing to do with it. We watched the tag from 100 fics to over 1,000 and it made it feel like we were all working toward something together.

I think a lot of spaces feel like they have unspoken rules over what's 'okay' or not, whether that's not liking ships or having a group consensus on characterizations or disliked characters. I know a lot of people really disagreed with my stance on bashing, discourse, and the discussion of politics in my servers, but to this day I think that was part of what helped keep the vibes and energy up. Sure, you may not have been able to complain about some fic that really pissed you off, but you did get to talk about an idea you've had for a while and have ten people say HELL YEAH! and that's the sort of thing that's encouraging as fuck. And that feeling only intensified when you'd post the fic you'd been talking about and then people would follow through with thoughtful comments. It makes you want to do it again.

and then on the day of the show, my friend asks, "where is the camera I requested?"

gallerist: "you didn't request a camera"

my friend: "I did, and you confirmed that you would have one here."

gallerist: "that isn't true."

and then she proceeded to pull up the email thread, and my friend could see that every single email they had sent had been summarized by AI, and that the gallerist had then had AI write a response to them based on the AI summary, and that the AI had detected that they needed a camera, and confirmed on behalf of the gallerist that they would bring a camera, but because the gallerist had offloaded the work of actually reading and responding, she simply hadn't actually made any note of it herself, therefore didn't bring it, nor did she even know one was needed.

they've had to face settlements against stealing from current authors, so they'll just go for the old books now. they're also doing this so they have the only copies of rare books.

his siblings: ...

demeter: poseidon he looks just like you.

poseidon: okay… sure. maybe he does, but! there are many people in this world that share similar traits! that hardly means anything!

hades remembering poseidon in the first titan war: he acts just like you too.

hera: you both are… unique fighters.

poseidon: what does that mean.

Hey there! Just a friendly reminder/PSA from your friendly neighborhood Pixiemage!

“Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” is too often (incorrectly) used as a cover-all tag, on fics ranging from Vaguely Uncomfortable to Serious Shit, as a replacement for any intense tags relating to the story. People will use it to say “Holy shit guys some INTENSE SHIT happens in this story” without actually saying what that Intense Shit™ is.

In actuality, the “Dead Dove” tag is meant to be used in addition to other warning tags. Pulled from a scene from the show Arrested Development (look it up on YouTube!), it means “Hi! Hey! I labeled this fic to warn you of what’s in it, so you might REALLY want to read those labels! This fic is exactly what it says on the tin! The tags are accurate! Don’t say I didn’t warn you, because this is me warning you! Read the tags!”

So before you accidentally use the “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” tag without context, here’s your preemptive lesson for next time. Please tag your fics accordingly! Ta!