Category: A Catch All

Fics That Made Me: May 2022

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Why yes, I am making a blog series all about fic that shaped me as a person. I am speed-running my way through this however, so I haven’t attached any warnings or content notes to any of the stories since for some of them, it’s been a while. So I maybe don’t recall what notes or warnings a story requires before recommending! Read carefully if you decide to dive in!

TItle: Glass Houses

Author: Viridian5

Fandom: Weiss Kreuz

Why It Hooked Me: Glass Houses is set near the end of the main Weiss Kreuz series and main character Ran Fujimiya (who takes up his sister Aya’s name while she’s in a coma) loses her at the start of the story, he tries to take his own life. While he’s miserable and restrained, series antagonist Schwarz, rolls up to “rescue” him and one of the quartet, the berserker Farfarello, becomes enamored with the wounded “kitten” and seeks to remake him to his honest and best form. I remember a lot of the early parts of this massive fic, but what hooked me was this part where Ran realizes that he’s getting pleasure from killing and it’s not about killing the just or whatever, he just likes this shit. Him starting to accept his real monstrosity – more than killing, but liking it and realizing that this wasn’t Stockholm Syndrome but genuinely his real self breaking through– was where I settled in for the story. I genuinely didn’t expect to straight up change my life.

How It Shaped Me: I’ve been reading Glass Houses since I was a high schooler. Even when I’m not reading it – a thing I used to do multiple times a year before it crossed the million word mark – I’m thinking about it. This story is a masterclass in how to write fix it fic and pull the characters in a story far from their origins while remaining in-character. Everyone in Glass Houses feels the way they would in the anime series. It’s an implausible but logical progression and the sprawling cast of characters – incorporating existing characters from side media like the radio drama or sequel manga but also new characters – helps keep you on your toes. At no point do I think “wow this couldn’t happen”. In fact, I’m like “why didn’t this happen?”. This was also an early primer for me figuring out how to write intimacy and banter so as a baby I would try to write my own fic in ways that echoed the flow of Glass Houses. I also became deeply attached to people and characters named Sasha because of this. #IfYouKnowYouKnow

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Who’s Afraid of A Black Blaise Zabini? Everyone in 2005 Harry Potter Fandom… Apparently.

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When we talk about “toxic fandoms” and racism, the easiest example people go to are male nerds mad about Black people being cast to play comic book redheads and other “historically white” characters. However, one little known or talked about example is the way that the Harry Potter fandom from 2005 practically went to war over the one-line reveal that Slytherin Blaise Zabini was actually Black.

One perfect example of antiblackness in fandom that proves false these claims that Black characters and celebrities are just “lacking” something to make them worth shipping (characterization, canon romance, tapping tropes) and that is why no one ships them?

The Harry Potter fandom’s response to Blaise Zabini before and after JK Rowling’s reveal that Blaise was male (2004 in a Q&A) and Black (“He recognized a Slytherin from their year, a tall black boy with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes” in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7: “The Slug Club in 2005).

Blaise Zabini’s only appearance prior to that book and film was in a single line in the first Harry Potter book (““Well done, Ron, excellent,” said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry as “Zabini, Blaise,” was made a Slytherin.). However, people instantly made up all sorts of headcanons for this character based off of a name and Hogwarts house.

For the eight years between Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, here’s all what fandom frequently decided Blaise Zabini was:

  • Italian
  • Tan (but sometimes pale)
  • Dark haired with light, sometimes blue or green eyes
  • Draco’s best friend
  • Draco’s boyfriend
  • A pain in the ass to Hermione
  • Sometimes shipped with Pansy Parkinson
  • Sometimes a girl
  • A bisexual Chad
  • A cool badass
  • Occasionally very Gender (and written as androgynous or gender queer/fluid)
  • A pureblood
  • Interesting
  • Sexy
  • Charming

He didn’t have any characterization or lines in canon, but he sure did have all of that.

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Oh Hey! Anniversary!

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Last year, I celebrated seven Marches with my website.

This year is actually… my seventh anniversary. If you’re surprised, don’t be. The passage of time has always been a struggle for me and numbers have always been… complicated for me.

Every year I talk about how big a struggle the past year has been and blah blah blah but this year, let’s try something new despite everything weird and bad happening in my life. Let’s try focusing on good stuff, hyping myself up, and manifesting cool shit for the rest of the year.

Let’s be… mostly positive.

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Stitch Gives Away: Two Tickets to PTD in Seoul (STREAMING)

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I love giving things away! Y’all know this!

For eighth year of running Stitch’s Media Mix (does this count as the seventh anniversary?) I’ll be giving two very lucky readers/followers a streaming ticket for a single day of a stream for Permission to Dance on Stage! Well Weverse shop doesn’t let you buy things for other people, so you’ll get a paypal, cashapp, or venmo transfer for the cost of the ticket in USD! But same diff!

This is a flash giveaway so we’re going to do this REAL quick. It’s ending Sunday March 6th at Midnight EST and I’ll announce the winners when I wake up that day.

So what do you have to do?

Comment with:

  • Your BTS Bias
  • Your favorite B-Side
  • Your Favorite Music video
  • Bonus: A favorite piece of BTS content (blog post, podcast quote, YouTube video or tweet) from me!

After all, this is a giveaway to celebrate my very hard, very stressful work here and thankfully, for the most part, ARMY and BTS have been a balm in trying times. I love them a lot and I want to share the love even though I don’t do as much BTS content these days as I work on other things – the concerts coming up will change that! I made really great friends through this fandom, people who challenge me, introduce me to good music, and have kept me going as I engage with other fandoms intent on tearing me down. I want to make this experience possible for them! So… here we are!

You can comment with your Twitter account or your WordPress account if you have one. (Or other social media? I’m not sure what the limitations are for wordpress comments…) I apologize for not opening this up to more people who follow me/my work, but because of harassment from random people, I can’t just open this up to more comments because hate will happen because people suck!

If you are a reader who’s interacted with me in some other way but don’t have a WordPress or Twitter account, send me an email through the contact form or my regular email and your name will be added to the spreadsheet Editor A or BTS Nieceling will run through for giveaway purposes!

(Comments are auto-moderated so don’t panic if you don’t see yours show up immediately!)

Onwards, We March

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So, February fucking sucked.

I nearly lost my dad and was basically scared out of my mind for 48 hours minimum, my mom had to fly out to be with him because I can’t travel and work since there’s no internet in the house, got rejected from a college I applied to and a journalism opportunity, I found out that some racist freak maliciously edited my Fanlore page with bullshit “controversies” (and I still can’t bring myself to look what the page looks like now), and I possibly got my identity stolen/bank information jacked in a scam!

Even with the good things that happened (two excellent Fan Service pieces, an interview with [REDACTED CELEBRITY], spending almost 2 uninterrupted weeks with my youngest niecelings and my first piece for Joy Sauce… a lot of this happened under the weight of a pressure I didn’t expect to have. (And my nieces being with me is directly related to almost losing my dad because I had to have the girls with me to keep going in case the worst happened and with my mom traveling so initially, that was not fun at all.)

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End of 2021: How Did This Year Compare?

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Back at the end of 2020, I did a lengthy piece looking back at everything I’d done before looking forward to what I hoped 2021 would bring me. As we’re at the end of the year, I wanted to look back and think about:

  • how much of my 2021 trajectory matched the goals and desires I had for it in 2020
  • the stuff I did that wasn’t necessarily part of my Goals list

2021 was very busy. So busy that I’m still kind of trying to figure out everything I planned to do for December because there’s so much left undone and 2021 is just a little over a week from ending. I took most of December off and if you’re wondering how scary my backlog is… it’s a whole nightmare.

And I still have another video – this one on the state of racism in fandom in 2021 – left to plan, record, and upload next week on top of planning content on like four different fronts for the first quarter of 2022! Argh!

–

Below the cut is a version of my script for this, but it’s not a 1:1 ratio, some things I adlibbed in the process of recording and while I love talking, I also cannot stand the sound of my own voice so… I cannot go back through and add what’s missing. Sorry! Youtube has subtitles but they’re auto-subtitled so that might not work well… Hopefully in 2022 I’ll get a job that’ll allow me to afford to pay for subtitles and transcripts regularly but since I don’t have a job at all… lol

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[PRE-ORDER] (IN)FAMOUS

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(In) Famous, my novella about a too-online, fame-hungry teenager who starts hanging with a bad crowd & makes a bunch of crap decisions as a result for JUDGES Volume 3 (2000AD), will be out Dec 1.

Preorders for the novella are open now including for limited edition signed copies!

Hey, Now It’s November!

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October was… a lot.

In a good way. 

Mostly. 

Aside from dealing with racists empowered by the latest round of “if you have any criticisms of AO3 – including it lacking anti racism policy and its unevenly applied harassment policies – you are a literal nazi burning books and racism in fandom is necessary to fandom itself” shit that lasted the usual two weeks before racist weenies went back to fighting with teenagers on the internet, things in October were… pretty good actually. 

(And we will be digging into that slippery slope to racism in fandom at a later point because uh… a lot of the gays and girlies in fandom are openly white supremacists and we need to talk more about that and how they’re purposefully poisoning the well of discourse in fandom.)

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Take You Home For The Night, For A Bite

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A little early because after this point I’ll be super busy BUT… have yourself some birthday omegaverse. The first sequel is already in progress!! (If you’re not an adult or you’re not into omegaverse, please don’t read this! Thanks!)

Stitch Writes Stuff

Marcus, an Alpha out on the prowl, gets the ride of his life when an Omega and their mysterious partner pick him up at a local hangout spot. 

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BIRTHMONTH GIVEAWAY: MADK

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Makoto has long been ostracized because of his odd hobbies and a sexual kink others would see as disgusting. One day he finds a book on summoning demons and manages to summon the intimidatingly beautiful and rather chatty Archduke J. The demon offers to grant Makoto’s deepest twisted desire in exchange for his life. Once Makoto has sated his demented appetites, he fulfills his end of the bargain, only to find he’s been reborn as a monster…in hell!

Content Warnings: gore, dubious consent, flat out lack of consent, body horror, betrayal, cannibalism, complicated power dynamics, death and mutilation, corruption/corruption kink, murder

Okay! So if none of this has scared y’all away, I’m here to give away digital copies of Ryo Suzuri’s MADK!

This is my favorite erotic horror series ever – and I have read plenty. I love the dynamic between Mako and Archduke J as well as how Mako’s relationships with the other demons across the series evolves. This is a deeply dark series based on the premise of getting what you desire when what you want is deeply disturbing. I love Mako and I talked about how appealing he is as a protagonist to me over in one bonus episode of my podcast a few months ago.

I think MADK is thrilling, incredibly delicious, and so dark I wanna reach for a candle. It’s very similar to Tokyo Ghoul and Kaneki’s arc of becoming more monstrous and more human, but there’s the added bonus of uh… incredibly improbable sex. Like it’s wild how bodies work in this series and I love it.

If I could only read one manga series for the rest of my life, it’d be this one. Honestly.

And that’s why I’m choosing to give away copies!

TO ENTER: Be over 18 and use your real email address when you leave a comment below about what your favorite piece of horror in the world is. (While you don’t get bonus points for erotic horror, I’d appreciate it nonetheless!) You can comment using your social media or your wordpress account! Message me on Twitter or via the contact form if your comment doesn’t show up by like 9AM the following day.

Giveaway closes 10/23 at 11PM! I’ll email the winner!!

Castlevania: Random Drabbles

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A birthmonth surprise for y’all! Some sweet sweet, semi-sexy Castlevania content for those of y’all who are into that. I have literally no idea how to open comments on that site at any point (if you can comment on something, please do because I do not know what I did wrong there).

Stitch Writes Stuff

For Birthmonth 2021, one of the non-omegaverse gifts I have chosen to bestow upon you all is… some Castlevania fan fiction. Canon adjacent (not necessarily compliant) and set across different characters/pairings around the series. All things are vaguely canon levels of sexy. Probably.

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[Thread Collection] VERY Brief Thoughts On Jesy Nelson and Blackfishing

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From my main, private twitter earlier today. I wanted it here too.

I am not going to waste too much energy on Jesy Nelson but I will point out that as hard as she’s blackfishing and trying to present herself as Extremely Biracial Black Woman, she’s also actively weaponizing white women tears and activating white/queer fandom (via stan twt)

Especially against Leigh-Anne, an actual Black woman. And because she’s got Nicki in her corner defending her blackfishing (hypocritical after the Miley Cyrus stuff), this means that her non-Black fans will feel extra empowered to be actively antiblack towards LA & her Black fans

She wants to be Black (visually) but also clings to her white womanhood, the thing that lets her get sympathy and causes people to defend her violently, something that actually no one does FOR Black women but is often aimed at them in different fandoms.

I’m fucking tired.

Birthmonth 2021 Begins

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September was super busy and I’m really satisfied with everything I’ve done. Once again, half of it can’t be revealed yet because it’s stuff I did for upcoming work, but the other half of it has been… pretty great content dropped on my website and Patreon.

The biggest thing that happened in September was that I attended Fiyah Magazine’s Fiyahcon 2021 – and had a great time attending and speaking on panels. I also… won The 2021 Ignyte Critics Award?? 

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Looking Back At About Two Years of Cultural and Fandom Criticism

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So uh… I wasn’t expecting to win the Ignyte Award for Critics in 2021. Part of it, is that I don’t expect anything really and this way I get to be pleasantly surprised in the end.

The other thing is that the past two years have been a hell so upsetting that it has been hard to believe in myself and the power of my community. I’ve done my best work, tried to be my best self – but a lot of times, the reaction has been frankly horrific harassment including dogpiling, spammy comments, and successful attempts at destroying and disrupting my life/career.

So far, the only thing I haven’t gotten have been death threats. There’s been at least one false police report filed (according to the person who filed it), different kinds of slurs, and still-active attempts to destroy my reputation and career. But not death threats… yet.

All because people think I care… about what sort of fictional characters they want to see kiss on the mouth.

But that’s really not why I do this. Any of this.

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Utopia Is Fantasy (Sports)

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Imagine a nerd space that had so much respect that people didn’t even comment on its presence.  One with dedicated TV-channels that spent hours talking about the nerdiest of all nerd things — numbers. One where even basic channels spent programming time on helping millions of nerds figure out the crunchiest parts of their tabletop role playing game (TTRPG).

Do you have that utopia in your head?

What if I told you it exists and it’s sports?

No really, I’m being serious.

Sports spaces are some of the nerdiest spaces I’ve ever been in. They’re loud, sure, and very mainstream (a thing certain other nerd spaces definitely see as inherently normie). They definitely have a reputation for being aggressive and abusive and unsafe that– same as every other group’s reputation– is both earned and unearned. But they are also full of nerds who obsess over things like statistics, and magic rituals, and the latest tech.

And yes there’s a TTRPG that gets television air time.

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