outsiders and boring normal people and fandom newbies always think that buckwild kinky porn fanfiction is the strangest fandom hobby but they are wrong.
the strangest fandom hobby is plotty fanfiction, the kind that requires research, because engaging in this hobby makes no goddamned sense.
it doesn’t even give anybody masturbation material, which is at least a logical and admirable goal that contributes to the betterment of society, or at least society’s solitary orgasms.
in other news i hope the cia spyware monitoring my internet usage understands that i’m googling information about smuggling drugs in thailand because i want the details to be right in a single paragraph in a 10,000 word story about a gay mafia guys.
this post has been making the rounds again and i just want to state for the record that it is a fucking delight to read in the tags all the random things people research for their fanfic and art. fandom, i love you. i love you with your flood maps and medical procedures and tentacle biology and historical fashion and traditional handcrafts and conlangs and urban geography and literally everything else. i am completely sincere about this. the enthusiasm with which people embrace detailed, deep, and often obscure research, just because they want to get it right, because they want to create something rich and interesting, it makes me feel better about the world. i adore it.
There’s no way he’s going to get it without a little help. After a moment, she gets an idea. She points up at the constellations he was describing earlier. Eric frowns. “Sky? Uh…” She pushes his cheek to direct his line of sight, then does her best to draw the ram constellation. “Aries?” All right, good job. She gestures for him to say it again. He does, and she holds a hand up to his lips before he can say the s at the end of the word. “Arie-? Ari-e?” She runs a finger down his lips as he says it again. “Arie-? Ari-el?” Yes! She bobs her head excitedly. Eric grins at her. “Ariel. That’s a beautiful name. Written in the stars.” They gaze at each other, and for Ariel it feels magnetic, like everything in this moment was set up just for them.
