#cgf-kat

Pretty much what the title here says. I preface a few things: one; I haven’t been reading very many new things as when I do want to read something I, cough, tend to read my own works, and two; I state again I haven’t been reading very much since it needs said again and three; sorry this is later than my nap by far, got busy xD

And with that out of the way here are a few fic recs for you guys. If you read them please do be sure to leave a comment; authors work very hard and they’d love to hear from you ♥

To Hold On by cgf_kat @cgf-kat

Chapters: 4/?

Summary: Keith comes closer to the bars and lowers his voice, even though his eyes still won't quite meet Lance's. "We're gonna be all right, Lance. We just have to hold on until we figure a way out of here ourselves, or until the others find us. And they will."

"I know that. But where ARE we?" Lance whispers urgently.

"I'm sorry, Lance, it's...if I'm right, I think it’s...kind of like a brothel. But not for sex.” Keith shifts on his feet, uncomfortable. “Just for people who want to hurt people."

My notes: Lance AND Keith whump and then emotional comfort and delicious platonic Klance? I hear angels. 

flicker by discordiansamba @discordiansamba

Chapters: 3/?

Summary: Keith Kogane has always known that his luck was bad. He didn't need anyone to tell him that. But getting mixed up in an alien invasion? Yeah, that was a little worse than he'd anticipated.(or, Keith never becomes a paladin and is around for Sendak's invasion of Earth)

My notes: This is part two of a series. Lots of Adam in this one (and nice to see him explored as a character ♥) and of course Keef. Incredibly intriguing AU and love all of the Galra!Keith nods even though he has no idea that he is one. Very excited to see where this goes.

Amygdala by bittiface @bittiface

Chapters: 10/10

Summary: After months of feeling like he's just trying too hard, Lance takes a step back and tries to see who comes looking for him for a change. All he wants is to fit in, to feel like he's wanted, to feel like a true social equal. So he waits...Slowly his hearts starts to break...

My notes: A dive into some emotional angst and self-worth and done very, very well (as I dislike over the top “woe is me” Lance) and some great Shiro moments to boot. The ending gives me all the warm fuzzies ♥

Goodnight, Gentlemen by silenceisgolden15 @arwenride

Chapters: 1/1

Summary:  The Galra think an adviser will be easy to break. They're very, very wrong. 

My notes: It’s BAMF Coran, what more needs said? I will add though this author has a number of other fics I’ve marked to read later; they all are pretty much Keith centric so if that’s your cup of tea do check them out. For reference the ones I’m planning to read are (and this author has yet to let me down): Primal Fear, ‘Tis the Season and Black and Blue

Takes One To Know One by R3noraDrake

Chapters: 1/1

Summary: “If you hadn’t tackled me before that grenade went off,” Lance barrels on, lifting his head up to meet her eyes. “I probably wouldn’t even have legs to begin with. You saved my life, Pidgey. Thank you.” His face hardens. “But never do that again.”

Pidge swallows, cracking a toothy-red grin. “T-takes one t-to know one, huh?”“Pidge, seriously?”

----

Pidge decides to take a page out of Lance's book and protects him. But that turns out not working so well, because apparently size does matter, and now they're both injured. The most they can do is comfort each other and keep themselves awake until rescue arrives.

My notes: This is marked as a romantic paring but can be read as platonic. I always love Lance doing his self-sacrifice thing and seeing someone else take a literal leaf out of his book and then facing the consequences after is so good. Great dialogue here ♥

Rising from the Ashes by wingedflower

Chapters: 1/1

Summary:  A sequel to IcyPanther's one-shot "Please, can anyone hear me?" following Lance's recovery.

@rueitae​ said:

24. “Lets just stay in bed.” with Plance if you please.

32. “This is gonna sound cheesy but….I love when you’re half asleep and talking nonsense.” Because pillow talk. (Consider this an alternate or prompt to combine my earlier one)

i’m going to be Like That and combine prompts...hope you don’t mind!! but anyway, it’s all of ~1700 words but still took me way too long and was supposed to be post-canon but ended up being a weird long-distance AU which...um. dunno if it’s good but cheesy it is. mind the implied nudity and sexual content (nothing’s explicit), and enjoy!! <3

(24) “Let’s just stay in bed.” / (32) “This is gonna sound cheesy but...I love when you’re half-asleep and talking nonsense.”

Pidge wakes to sunlight streaming in through the gaps between dark blue curtains. The light warms the air, and despite the noisy hum of the air conditioning unit over the door her skin is still sticky with sweat.

She groans and tugs the star-studded bedsheets over her head - she’s not ready to get out of bed and it’s marginally cooler burrowed underneath - before rolling onto her side.

Her nose brushes against something firmer than a pillow.

“How long have you been awake?” she mumbles into Lance’s arm.

The bed shifts as Lance joins her under the covers, his warm breath against her face indicating that he’s facing her since she refuses to open her eyes. A part of her is too hot and wants to kick him and his body heat out of bed, but the other part prefers to latch onto him and snuggle closer.

The latter wins out.

Lance wraps an arm around her waist while he reaches up with his other hand to brush sweaty hair off her face. “How did you know I was already awake?” he wonders in a low voice.

“You’re always awake before me,” Pidge reminds him. She sighs, tightening her own hold around his abdomen and cracking her eyelids to meet his eyes. “I think next time I’m going to make you sleep somewhere else.”

“What? Why?” Lance frowns. “This is my room!”

“It’s too hot and you’re too warm and I know I say embarrassing things in my sleep.” Pidge rests her forehead against his chin, putting the lie in her words - she relishes their time together too much to actually follow through on her threat - and hoping he won’t see the flush that must fill her cheeks.

“Well…”

oor-bellamyspace

replied to your post

“I never thought I’d see the rebirth of the banned books movement about...”

Exploring dark themes: good Literal pedoporn for the sake of porn: bad

people want the pedo porn and rape for the sake of rape porn on a03 to be taken down.

So I feel like this is where there is going to be a lot of disagreement because there isn’t an answer that everyone is gonna like.

But here’s the thing. By us laws child porn only counts as child porn when its about an actual living child. So you can personally object to the existence of porn involving fictional minors, but there is nothing illegal about it.

And I’m gonna tag @cgf-kat because you asked what was going on and I’m gonna cover that here. 

So essentially A03 was created in response to the purges of explicit content on fanfiction.net and of fan content on livejournal. These were two big turning points in proving that even sites catering to fandom really had no idea what they were doing, and that the only real answer was to find a place where fans could ensure that other fans had a place where they could go and share their works. Thus, Archive of Our Own was founded, and it had the strict policy that any and all content was allowed. As long as it wasn’t targeting or harassing a real person or people, and that it was tagged properly, anything was allowed. 

And that’s because they understand that when we suddenly decide to police fan content, or any content, we very quickly slide down a very slippery slope. Censorship is always a touchy topic, and that’s kind of why things like Banned Book Week exist, to show us that no one should be able to dictate what we are allowed to read. I doesn’t matter the content, it should be there for us to engage with and talk about. Because when we give someone the power to censor things, we end up losing everything. As blogs wiser than me have said, when you give someone the power to censor things, eventually they are going to start censoring you. No one deserves that power. 

The real issue here is that censorship doesn’t really work, especially when it comes to fandom issues. 

So say we decide first to ban sexual content, what is the definition of sexual? Is it strictly sex? Or do things like sensual making out and cuddling count? Those things can be sexual. So then, should we ban all relationship based content entirely, as most relationships lead to sex? And if so, who gets to decide what counts as sexual and what doesn’t? What are their biases? Are they going to say that all lgbtqa+ relationships are wrong but straight ones are good? Must all romantic content be strictly vanilla and fluff to avoid offending anyone? 

What about so-called abusive ships? What do we do when one person says its abusive and another says it isn’t? Who gets to decide? What if cannon isn’t so clear, do we ban it all just to be safe? Do we refuse any content regarding villains? Are all Villain/Protag ships always problematic? Can people write redemption stories or AUs? Or do those romanticize violence? Must all villains be written as such, and do all stories involving them have to explicitly state that said characters are bad? Can we trust people to understand that? Or must we point it out? 

Can we write angst? Can we write about violence and death? Must it only be canon typical violence? Or can we expand on it? Can we write about characters dying? Which characters are we allowed to kill? Just adults? What about minorities? Can we only write stories about violence happening to cis straight white men? Or should we just get rid of all violent content entirely? What about arguments? Disagreements? Can we only write about everyone getting along and having fun? Is anything else problematic? 

And then of course there are people who write about violence and rape to cope. Are they not allowed either? And if we allow them how do we find out who is writing to heal and who just enjoys dark things? Should everyone have to share intimate personal details so they can post their works without judgement? What about teens writing about fictional teens being sexual? Is that allowed? Can adults write about teens or is that wrong? And how to we confirm that the writers are teens? Is that even possible? 

In the end, the question is, how can we be objective in a fandom space where things are constantly subjective? 

And since fandom is so subjective, do we only allow works that are based entirely on cannon? That kinda defeats the purpose of fan works entirely. Once we start censoring things, its only a matter of time until we are down to such strict guidelines that the whole purpose of fandom is stripped away and no one can have any fun so they leave. Censorship does not work. 

So instead of dealing with all that, A03 has its extensive tagging system. Instead of putting it in the hands of a few random people to decide what is allowed, we put it in the hands of the people engaging in the fiction to decide what they want to see. You can exclude almost any tag in your searches on their site. Explicit content is marked as such, it even gives you an extra warning just to make sure that you know what you are getting into. Rape fics, abuse fics, incest fics, they are all tagged. If you find them and you read them then any emotional distress you feel is YOUR FAULT. You were warned. You read it anyway. Your reaction is your responsibility. 

And who are we censoring this for anyway? Kids? A03 the rest of the goddamn internet are NOT safe spaces for children. So for the adults? Why do we care if adults see adult content? Adults are expected to have a healthy relationship with fiction. They are supposed to know the difference between fiction and reality. And if you can’t? Well, you shouldn't be engaging with fiction at all, let alone adult fiction. 

And listen. You aren’t protecting children by removing said content. The internet is FULL of porn, kids are gonna find it. In fact, fan-fiction offers a rather safe environment for teens to explore their sexuality. I know it did for me. Teens should be allowed to explore that side of themselves. To stand against that basically just plays into the anti-sex ed side where we cannot ever tell teens and pre-teen about sex because oh no what if they do the sex!! And that’s a tired ass argument that only ends up harming children in the end. 

And hey, explicit content is flagged as such. If kids find it and read it it isn’t the author’s fault, it the fault of the kid for lying and their parent for not monitoring their child’s online activity. 

So you can find said content disturbing and not want to read it or engage with people who read and write it, but you don’t get to say it isn’t allowed. These authors aren’t breaking any laws, they aren’t hurting anyone and if you engage with things you know will upset you that is your fault. And if kids find it, that the the parent’s fault. 

That’s why A03 exists. That why we celebrate banned books. Because you don’t get to decide what people are allowed to think and feel and do. As long as its legal and they aren’t hurting anyone, which they aren’t, then you have no fucking say in what they do. 

thank you for the asks <33

Fan Fic Writer Asks

(8) What time are you most productive?

that would be evening mostly, when i’m the only one awake and unlikely to be interrupted, or else the routine of the day is out of the way and i can peck away at my keyboard in peace...

(11) Do you listen to music when writing?

nah i can’t; it’s too distracting, even if i eventually tune it out. i only really listen to music while i’m driving, because i need to sing along to something to keep from getting mind-numbingly bored (or if the news is too infuriating/depressing)

(26) Story you’re most proud of

hmm...tough question, but i’m going to say Fatalistic Daydream. I wrote it for my very first Bang (which i also joined very last minute after messaging a mod and saying hey i have a fic i’m already working on can i please join??) and, well...it was kind of a wild time last April because not only did i have this fic due, but i also had two fics due for an Exchange (don’t be a pinch hitter for an event or you will Die), and it was right after i finished my fic for the zine, so i might’ve been a bit...burned out. but Fatalistic Daydream is funny because i’d started it at least a few months before and then my interest in it fizzled out and i left it until the opportunity the Bang presented gave me the chance to at least attempt to reignite my interest in it. and it took a bit of effort and a lot of focus, especially when i ended up with plot inconsistencies that i had to smooth out because that’s just what happens when you don’t touch a project for a while. but i finished it!! a fic that, in a sense, took me months!! and that’s never happened before (and tbh hasn’t happened since...oof)!!

plus it’s always a little...awkward to include OCs in fan fiction, but this fic helped give me some practice in that respect (even if using OCs is never my first choice in fic...unless they’re villains. i’m okay with writing villain OCs lol)

@braincoins OMUNDSON GIF YAAAS

I am confused, whaaaat? What book? How…..?

The novelisation of The Day of the Doctor. 

There’s a page where it says it’s going to explain plot holes (like why a Time Lord’s granddaughter had the name ‘Susan’ and about the rumors of if the Doctor is half human or not and why the TARDIS exploded during the Pandorica incident) and says the chapter is being overseen by the Priests of Silence.