Happy Birthday To This Bbygirl Kevin Day 02/22

Reader Appreciation

I’ve been seeing a lot of amazing posts lately thanking fanfic writers for that good, good content that we’re all disappearing into right now. And I love these posts, and FUCK YES, the healing power of art during these rough times, it can’t be said enough. But I feel like there’s something missing from these posts, and that’s the readers.

A lovely friend of mine recently shared something with the caveat that they “contribute basically nothing to fandom” and I was fucking floored. Like. This person has made playlists for fic, and shared art, and reached out to me to talk about my stories and other stories and like - that is the Work. They made me feel like my shitty writing was good enough to share, and that made me write more, and connected me with more people, and that sort of contribution doesn’t get acknowledged enough. I don’t write fiction because I have to, or for the likes or hits or whatever; I write it because I have a story I want to tell. On the days when my brain is cooperating, writing is a pleasure. On the days when my brain isn’t cooperating, comments from readers make my words feel meaningful anyway. This isn’t a one-way street, a producer/consumer situation. Or at least, it doesn’t feel like that to me.  And my best writing has been done when people are holding me accountable, or are pushing me to do better and I’m so grateful for that. And so grateful for you.

So. To the readers who comment on every chapter. To the readers who leave thoughtful essays in the comments and the readers who leave 😭❤️😱 or keysmashes. To the readers who are inspired for the first time to make art or write something themselves. To the readers who leave kudos. To the readers too anxious to comment (I’ve been there, sat in a space where I had no idea how to express how a story made me feel) and the fandom ghosts who dip in and read and vanish.

To readers who like or reblog or share or rec or send messages or don’t do any of these things.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for building this community.

Thank you for reading.

ooh they schemin 🤨

Was anybody going to tell me Neil and Andrew hold hands and sit in each other’s lap and get two cats and an apartment together and they tell each other “stay” and “welcome home”, that they join the same pro team bc they’re a “package deal”, that they don’t celebrate anniversaries bc why put a unit of time on something immeasurable, something that will last forever, and that they know they’re never going to leave each other, that they never CAN leave each other, and they communicate well which is ironic considering Neil used to lie to Andrew with every second breath and Andrew falls asleep every night facing Neil so when he wakes up from nightmares all he has to do is open his eyes to know everything is going to be ok or did I just have to find that out from the authors tumblr myself??

andreil 😌 my love for them is insane I wish them all the happiness

ig: oliviaillustrations

Andreil has got me in a tight hold

neil: hostage or not, sometimes it’s nice being held

I know this is going to make me sound pretensions but I have to get it off my chest. I feel an unimaginable rage when someone posts a photo and is like "this picture looks like a renaissance painting lol" when the photo clearly has the lighting, colors and composition of a baroque or romantic painting. There are differences in these styles and those differences are important and labeling every "classical" looking painting as renaissance is annoying and upsetting to me. And anytime I come across one of those posts I have to put down my phone and go take a walk because they make me so mad

Things you don’t need to feel guilty about: eating, how you look, standing up for yourself, relaxing, sleeping in, taking a mental health day, saying “no.”

big fan of walking in the rain. hate the concept of wet clothes. i am tired of life and its obscure sufferings

SHADOW AND BONE (2021-) | “The Unsea” (1x07)

“Crows don’t just remember the faces of people who wronged them. They also remember those who were kind. They tell each other who to look after and who to watch out for.”