the_diggler

Here there be Slash. Yaoi. Smut.
You have been warned ;D
(check my tags for other fandoms)

Please Note - For some reason using the Collapse function really messes with the formatting of my posts. If it bothers you, just open the individual post and it should display correctly.

UPDATE 2020 - Am currently crossposting all my little bits and pieces at AO3 and editing some of the older fics as I go. Good news is I'm also writing new stuff again so that will come soon :)

Title: Memory Lane {also at AO3}
Rating: NC-17
Pairings/Characters: Dean/Castiel, Meg, Charlie, Moseley
Genre: AU, fluff, humor(?)
Word Count: 4,030
Summary: 10 years later, Dean and Cas are still going strong (although Dean’s sense of humor has gotten worse), so at their Reunion they try to catch up on some of the things they never got to do in High School. [an epilogue to the High School 'verse]
A/N: This was originally a giftfic I wrote for kiray in 2012 called High School Reunion, for lack of a better name. But when I started crossposting some of my old fics I came up with a few more scenes, and as a result the rating went up and I actually named it properly :) I thought this verse was long dead, but for some reason I just keep coming up with scenes for it!
Disclaimer: Supernatural is the brain-spawn of the almighty Kripke.

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Title: The Legend of Castiel: The Wayward Avatar [2020 remix] {also at AO3}
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/Characters: Dean/Castiel, Sam, Dick Roman, Bobby Singer
Genre: AU, adventure/fantasy, fusion, fluff
Warnings: canonical character death
Word Count: 2590
Summary: Castiel must learn one last element to truly become the Avatar, and Dean is the earth-bender that is teaching him. It does not go well. For reasons.
Author's Notes: So I remixed the old idea ficlet for this into something that reads more like an actual fic, but it's still a lot of exposition :s
Disclaimer: The characters of Supernatural and the world of Avatar do not belong to me. Dammit.

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Title: Counterproductive verse {drabbles posted at LJ, and at AO3}
Rating: R, Mature
Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Genre: humor, of the slightly smutty kind.
Warnings: exhibitionism, voyeurism, masturbation interruptus, explicit lanquage
Runtime: 4:20 min
Summary: "Shower-time" doesn't work as well for Dean as it used to.
A/N: Remember way back in 5x03 when Castiel popped in on Dean in the bathroom and Dean had to remind him about personal space?
Disclaimer: Supernatural ain't mine.

[ crossposted at tumblr ]

Title: Pillow Talk {fic from tumblr, crossposted at LJ, and at AO3}
Rating: T, PG-13
Pairing: Dean/Benny
Genre: AU, domestic, fluff
Warnings: based on a slightly nsfw picture!
Runtime: 2:30 min
Summary: Dean doesn’t know how Benny does it, but even his coffee is some kind of culinary masterpiece. And it’s ten times better served in bed, the morning after a solid night of… well. “I could get used to waking up like this,” Dean sighs happily.
A/N: Check it out! I did a thing! There's some slight background hiss from my cheap recording gear but if that's not too bothersome I could be into doing more - it's the perfect time right now!
Disclaimer: Supernatural ain't mine.

[right click to save mp3 from tumblr crosspost]

So… I’ve been out of touch with fandom for a while. I tend to go through these cycles where I’m intensely involved with writing and fandom and social media for a few years… and then I go through a couple of years where I barely have the patience to string together a couple of sentences, even to reply to messages, in both fandom life and RL. Whether I get writers block or just over-extend myself, or there’s some health thing and/or RL starts kicking my ass… I just go into deep “lurker” mode as we used to say back in the day.

Gather ‘round children, and let me tell you a tale of long ago. Our story begins in the last century, around 20 years ago, and ends somewhere in the last decade… A time before tumblr and twitter and AO3... A time when forums and mailing lists were the most interactive venues available to the fringe culture of fandom... When sites like geocities, fanfiction.net, and mediaminer.org were prolific... And Livejournal had only just begun…

A time when the overarching culture of fan-etiquette was embodied in the phrase “NO FLAMES.”

What is flaming, you may ask me? Or, these days, you may ask Google, and you will scroll through its replies to find your answer from Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary and such - but to put it simply, it’s what today’s media socialites call wank, hate, trolling, bullying, ship wars, etc.

But as with any written definition, what it fails to capture in its explanation is the culture surrounding the phrase in its entirety, the perceptions and implications tied to it, and the mentality it engenders. The definition of “flaming” may be obvious, but the phrase “no flames” embodies the very simple idea that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Or at least, say it politely and respectfully. Thankfully the phrase concrit (constructive criticism, fyi just in case) is still around.

Now I know this idea of holding your peace might be offensive to some in this age of opinion entitlement and social justice. But too often I’ve seen social justice used as a tool for further bullying and alienation, when the core of social justice is supposed to be about inclusion and creating safe environments for everyone and all.

At least, that’s what I learned from the hipsters hippies before me; “Make love not war.” Peaceful protest. Actually holding peace, if you will. But then, we would have to take our tale to 50 years ago. And maybe that’s not the point of today’s social justice culture, seeing as its advocates refer to themselves as war-riors. I really can’t say, as I come from an entirely different generation.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against speaking up or speaking out. Obviously. Just that the hostility isn’t always necessary or appropriate, if ever. And don’t just do it for the sake of doing it. Learn to recognize situations when it will actually do some good, instead of escalating the situation or kicking people when they’re already down. Don’t go looking for a fight.

“SAFE”

I guess the real question is, what’s changed in the time between hippies and hipsters? Most probably, it’s accountability. In the early days of the internet, our interactions were still governed by the rules of real-life interaction - we wouldn’t type things that we wouldn’t say to someone’s face. But as time went on, and the internet became increasingly more interactive and unmoderated (to the point we have direct lines of communication to the POTUS?!), we discovered we could get away with saying a LOT more.

And I suppose this is what gave rise to hacktivism, which at its core seems like a way to bring back accountability - but again I’m sure there’s a whole culture there which I’m not really informed about.

What I can do, is refer to the wealth of psychological studies relevant to this lack of accountability. Specifically, the study which found that people are more likely to torture someone the further removed they are from the subject. They’re unlikely to do it when it’s hands-on. But it’s a lot easier when all they have to do is push a button. Even easier when they’re in a completely different room pushing that button. Easier still when they can’t hear the person’s screams as they push the button.

Do I really have to draw the line of comparison - from people typing hateful words from the safety of their own bedrooms, to the very real emotional consequences it has on their targets?

But how do we bring back accountability, without being dragged into hateful “wars” ourselves?

Well, thinking about it now, we have several other options available to us, don’t we? Keep scrolling, ignore, block, report. Don’t engage. DON’T FLAME. Simply turn away from the haters and turn to our friends and like-minded individuals to commiserate and create. And there doesn’t have to be any hostility in doing so. MAKE LOVE NOT WAR. For every person that disagrees with us, there is someone else out there that we can turn to who will support us. This is one of the most beautiful and validating things I’ve discovered about the internet - finding that other people in the world actually like the things that I like! I’m not alone! And the validation that has come from the internet’s increased interactivity and connectivity is why fandom culture has grown so huge and accepted in recent decades...

“SANE”

But maybe in today’s day and age, it’s not enough to simply turn the other cheek. The problem inherent in this approach is that the voice of dissent then becomes the only voice. And then problems like groupthink and confirmation bias begin to occur on both sides. When we surround ourselves with “yes-men” we risk the danger of over-validation and the inability to recognise the existence of different views. And so our tolerance for any differing views becomes severely limited.

For example, in recent years I’ve seen the openly gay creator of a popular tv show cop a lot of flak for not canonizing the show’s biggest slash ship. Even though the show’s portrayal of LGBT characters has been groundbreaking. To clarify, it has been “groundbreaking” not only because of the inclusion of several LGBT characters, but because their orientation was never the main point of their representation. The question of their orientation was never the main plot to be explored in an after-school special manner, or the plot twist, or the major character development etc. That groundwork has already been covered over the last few decades. This time, these characters simply exist in the show’s universe without question, accepted and liked, because a person’s orientation shouldn’t have to be made into an “issue.”

But when our dashboards only show us evidence supporting the existence of our favorite ships, well, then that’s all we see. That’s what we come here for. That’s all we want to see. So that’s all we look for. And the majority of people we’ve chosen to interact with all think the same way, so it confirms and validates our views. To the point that we really start believing our fan-ship is or should be real, because everyone thinks so, and anyone who doesn’t must be insane, since all the evidence is there.

The problem with that is, we’ve forgotten about all the blogs we don’t follow, posting just as much evidence out there for every other viewpoint that we aren’t interested in. And sometimes only a small percentage of that gets through.

And it’s one thing to attack other fans, but it’s a whole other level of disrespectful to attack the creators of a show we love enough to complain about in the first place, accusing them of queerbaiting or lack of representation or being homophobic. That’s when said creators actually start to drop terms like “confirmation bias” into the show, or leave to “develop new projects.”

“RESPECTFUL”

Have I digressed? Possibly. The obvious point there is that we need to start acknowledging that different viewpoints exist. Maybe then when we disagree, we can start doing so in a respectful manner, without hostility.

But that point has been made before. Thanks to a few brave, reasonable people here and there. However, these are people who speak softly, in a calm and rational manner, when the haters are screaming and raging at the top of their lungs. They are doing it loud enough that sometimes they are the only voice we can hear. And this is when people start deactivating their accounts, leaving fandom altogether, or worse.

Screaming back is a flawed solution. And unfortunately in unmoderated platforms, accountability for this kind of behavior is limited. Yes, hate-tagging is handy for people who just don’t want to see it and know how to filter it out. But those tags also make it a lot easier for people to find the hate and join in, whether they’re for or against, either way escalating the situation. The fact that we even have hate-tags now just gives the entire hate-culture momentum. And I don’t want hate-culture to be the loudest voice in fandom.

So the real point I’m trying to make is that maybe we need to start giving voice to the large chunk of fandom that isn’t looking for trouble, that just wants to enjoy whatever their ships and kinks are in peace. And can do so, not with blinders on, but with full awareness that different ships and kinks exist. The people that know when to ignore, or when to engage when the inevitable conflict lands on their doorstep, and know how to do so respectfully. These are the voices that need to be heard. This culture of etiquette is what needs to be tagged. Positivity and inclusivity is what we should be giving power to, with a slogan we can rally behind.

To borrow from an oft overlapping community, I’m going with “Safe, sane, and respectful.”

Unless someone has a better suggestion. Please let me know. Let’s throw some ideas around.

But in the meantime, if you’ve ever written a post like this, or want to, tag it #SSR

If you want to speak up, but don’t know how, feel free to link this or reblog, and tag it #SSR

And I know I’m calling attention to myself, opening myself up to attack with some of the things I’ve said, but if you disagree, all I can ask is that you do so in a manner that is #SSR

Title: List Of Celebreties Dean Would Like To Bump Uglies With {also at AO3}
Rating: NC-17
Pairing/Characters: Dean x Gunner Lawless, past Dean x Tara Benchley, past Dean x Suzy Lee
Genre: pwp smut, canon compliant
Warnings/Spoilers: briefly metioned het, bicurious!Dean, bottom!Dean, first!time, anal, rimming, oral, size kink, dirty talk, outdoor sex, porn watching. References to episodes 11x15 Beyond the Mat, 2x18 Hollywood Babylon, 9x08 Rock and a Hard Place, 5x08 Changing Channels, 7x06 Slash Fiction, and 4x08 Wishful Thinking (blink and you miss it).
Word Count: 4,108
Summary: Sure, Dean had appreciated the poster of Rio over Sam’s bed back in the day, as much as Sam had. Well, probably more. But the first time Dean had ever gotten off to the thought of a man instead, it was to the thought of the sizeable bulge in Gunner Lawless’ oh-so-tight costume, to strong arms and spandex and meaty, meaty thighs.
Author's Notes: Yeah I used to be WWF trash back in the day - back when it was still called the WWF :s
Disclaimer: Supernatural ain't mine!

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