Reblog If Your Name Isn't Ashley.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUNDAM!

Hottest pairs of siblings.🥴✨

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Dance! Dance! Dance until you die! ...Oh wait 👻🎶👻

Ghostly Ballroom, the 6th and final prompt for Drawtober! I'll reveal the full piece tomorrow on Halloween 🎃🧡

for fanfic writers and readers

as a black girl who loves a lot of different movies and shows, fanfic allows me to read stories that put me in the middle of my favorite things. however, fanfic often (unintentionally) excludes girls who look like me.

i am so sick and tired of reading a fanfiction and having to rewrite it in my brain because a character description immediately implies that the reader is white. if you don't know what i mean, here are some examples.

"your skin turned pink" or "you blushed": black girls and women with darker skin tones CANNOT blush. our skin does not just turn pink

"pulled your hair into a messy bun": my 4a hair cannot be pulled into a messy bun at random. i may be able to do a ponytail if i have braids in, and i might be able to tie it up if I have an old twist-out, but a "messy bun" is often not possible.

"he ran his hands through your hair": yeah...unless my hair is in a silk press (and an OLD silk press), that's not happening

there are a plethora of other examples that would make this post insanely long, so let me get to the point. there are very easy ways to make fanfic a bit more inclusive; all you have to do is tweak a few character descriptions. OR, put in your pairing or warnings that the reader is implied to be white.

and finally: please, please stop tagging your DARK fanfictions "xblack!reader." i am tired of searching for fluff under the black reader tag and finding non-con, dark themes, etc., ESPECIALLY when the fic ends up being for a white reader💀.

the goal of my page is to create a safe space for black girls who love reading fanfiction. i am only one person, so if you'd like to help, here are some ways to do that!

send me fics (preferably marvel and stranger things to start) that are with a black reader

comment some other things in fanfics that imply that the reader is white or that make the fic a little less accessible

REBLOG FICS BY BLACK WRITERS

Dissociation vs Overstimulation

Tired Kayla

Aiko Akiyama! SHSL Animator!

It’s a Danganronpa OC

So Gods Do Exist- (Mortal Kombat x OC) ((Kinda))

Part 1

A teenager named Lemon was waiting to be called up to her kickboxing match. She’s a dark skinned woman with medium sized hair that was braided and put into a ponytail. As of now she’s in the waiting room with her coach, a light-skinned woman who was the same age as her.

“Alright, Cherry Lemon, you got this!” The coach said, putting her hands on Lemon’s shoulders. “Just remember to stay calm and focused…and fast. Your opponent is taller and buffer than you so yeah…be fast!”

“Got it, coach!” Lemon said, jokingly saluting. “I’ll do my best to make you proud.”

“I know you will.” The coach chuckled.

“Cheri Carr and Elizabeth Warner, come to the arena, please!” The announcer called through the speakers.

“That’s our cue.” The coach states, patting Lemon’s shoulders once more and helping the woman up. “Let’s go!”

“Right!”

“Standing on the left corner is Elizabeth Warner!” The announcer announced.

Elizabeth was a dark skinned woman with long hair that was wrapped into a bun. She looked just like Lemon’s coach said: Taller and buffer.

Could she also add that she was older? Like in her thirties?

“Her record is: 10 wins, 2 losses, zero draws and 3 KO’s! Standing 6’0 and weighing 160 pounds!”

Elizabeth smiled at Lemon who smiled back. They didn’t wanna have any ACTUAL beef with each other. It’s just a regular competition.

“Standing on the right corner is Cheri Carr! Her record is: 13 wins, 5 losses, 3 draws and 5 KO’s! Standing at 5’5 and weighing 135 pounds!”

The referee called both the fighters to get closer and they did. The man told the woman the rules of what to do and what not to do before letting the woman casually talk to each other.

“I’ll be honest, you’re a lot smaller than I thought.” Elizabeth noticed.

“I’ve heard that way too many times…” Lemon muttered. “Not my fault everybody here is just freakishly tall…”

“Hey, if it makes you feel better, the shortest person I’ve met was 2 feet tall…but they were a baby…”

“Oh my god…” Lemon chuckles and raises up her hands to be waist level of Elizabeth. “Let’s get this over with.”

Elizabeth lightly hits Lemon’s fist. “May the best person win.”

The referee told the two to go to the opposite sides of the ring where their coaches were.

“Remember your training and you shall win.” Lemon’s coach said in a fake deep voice. “But for real, stay calm and beat her ass, Cherry Lemon.”

“I shall sensei.” Lemon replied, giggling and fake bowing. She gave her coach a fist bump before walking back inside the ring to face her opponent.

“I admit, you have a very good record and haven’t lost a battle in a while.” Elizabeth said. “But I‘ll be the one to end your streak right here.”

“Go ahead and try.” Lemon taunted, putting her fist up. “We’ll see how long you last.”

(I have zero clue how kickboxing actually goes…so…uh…I’m just going to skip this fight…)

“Cheri Carr wins the match!” The announcer stated.

Lemon wiped some blood off of her lips and reached her hand out to Elizabeth who was laying on the ground in pain. “It was a pretty good match.” She complimented.

“I agree.” Elizabeth said, taking the woman’s hand and pulling herself up. “You’re a really good fighter, Cheri. This was really fun!”

“Hehe! You can just call me Lemon! It’s kinda weird when people, excluding the announcer, call me by my actual name.”

“Alright then, Lemon. May we meet again so I can have a second shot at kicking your ass.” Elizabeth smiled, bowing at Lemon.

“Now that I think about it, I don’t remember needing to bow in kickboxing.” Lemon chuckled.

“It’s just something I was taught to do at a young age, it shows respect.”

“Then I’ll do the same.” Lemon lightly bows back and smiles brightly at Elizabeth.

Lemon was now sitting on their bed, looking outside the window, at the dark sky. They didn't do anything after their match and just decided to stay inside their orphanage and just…exist. Justice (Lemon’s coach whose actual name is “Justine”) came to check on her from time to time and had to force them outside of their room at some point to eat dinner.

“Maybe I should go for a walk.” Lemon whispered to herself, glancing at the rollerblades she had in the corner of her room. She felt a smile grow on her face as she got up from her bed and picked up the rollerblades. “Or a skate. It’ll make it a lot more interesting.”

She puts the shoes on and quietly rolls outside her room, looking around the orphanage. There were a few others still awake but most of the teenagers and children were asleep at this time. Lemon made sure to not get anyone’s attention as she rolled outside the orphanage and on the sidewalk. Justice had told her about a skate park a few blocks away, so she’ll probably spend an hour or two there.

Once she got there she noticed that the entire park was empty except for one person.

"Justice?" She called.

"Hey, Cherry Lemon!" Justice replied, sitting on top of one of the ramps. "I knew you'd be here."

Lemon smiled softly at her friend and they both decided to skate together. They spent at least ten minutes doing as many tricks and acrobatics as she could. Cartwheeling between ramps, doing flips off small ramps (Because Lemon would rather not break a bone this late at night) and doing grinds on the ramps as well.

Suddenly the light went out and someone grabbed Justice's arm, pulling her away from Lemon and into the dark.

"Justice!" Lemon shouted before yelping when someone also grabbed her arm, pulling her to the bottom of the skate park and making her land roughly on the ground.

“What the hell!?” She cursed, looking up at the person who grabbed her. It was a man, that was all she could see in the pitch black of the darkness.

“Cheri Carr, you and your friend will come with me.” The man demanded, keeping his grip on Lemon.

Lemon could hear footsteps above her and guessed this stranger had friends with him.

“Who are you? What did you do to Justice!?” Lemon questioned before huffing. “Don’t tell me you're one of Elizabeth’s admirers and now you’re trying to jump me for being better than her. Come on…”

“That’s not why we’re here.”

Lemon frowns and glares up at the man. “Then why are you?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Wrong answer.” Lemon quickly took a mini taser from out of her pocket and stabbed the man in the arm. “You suck at kidnapping people.” She presses the button on the taser and shocks the man, forcing him to let her go. The light from the taser let her see some of the man’s face and clothes. She noticed his clothes looked very…blue. Especially that weird mask he had.

“Okay, what the hell are you!? And where the fuck is my friend!?” She exclaimed, backing away from the man and taking out her phone, turning on her flashlight to fully see the blue man. “A ninja!? Only ninja’s wear weird shit like that!”

She made sure to back away from the man more before turning around and seeing at least 10 other people dressed in the same way the blue man was, but only three others truly stuck out to her. Two were wearing orange and gray with masks on their face and one was wearing a black cloak, but there was no way she could ignore those glowing eyes piercing into her soul.

“And that’s just fucking god.” Lemon whispered, still moving the flashlight to see around her. focusing her attention back on the blue man right

"Lemon!" Justice shouted, her eyes squinching when Lemon's flashlight hit her eyes. She was held back by the gray ninja who was flaring directly at Lemon.

"Justice!"

Lemon was about to run to her but heard something come her way and dodged a blast of ice. She didn’t really realize what the hell almost hit her until a second later. “Ninja’s have ice powers!?”

She had to block multiple attacks coming from the man and even dodge other ninjas that were trying to help the blue man. She put her phone in her mouth to keep her light and quickly took care of the ninjas that were all dressed in basic black, leaving the other four.

Lemon roughly took the phone out of her mouth and shouted, “Want to explain to me why you want to kidnap us now!? Especially since you know it isn’t going to happen!”

The orange man from above jumped down to where the blue man was, most likely going to help him fight. “We’ve just learned some interesting stuff about you two…so we wanted to see it personally.”

“Fucking weirdos…” Lemon muttered, getting into her fighting stance and noticing that she hasn’t had a stable stance since this all started. “Fighting me while I’m in my roller blades…do you know how weird it is to move in these!?”

The orange man took out some sort of rope with a blade at the end, twirling it in his hands. He then throws it, making it wrap around Lemon’s leg and pull her towards the two.

Lemon reacts quickly and kicks upwards once she’s close enough to the two, hitting the orange man in the face with her rollerblade. She then twists her leg to kick the blue man in the side, giving her the chance to start attacking the orange man and eventually knocking him out. Now she only needed to focus on three other people…thankfully. Then she can call the cops on these freaks.

“Knocked out your buddy.” Lemon taunted, looking at the blue man who was glaring at her. “Now you’re next.”

She once again takes her taser out and tries to strike the man with it, but he quickly freezes her arm and throws her over his shoulder. Lemon looks down at her arm in mild shock before slowly moving it up and down to see how heavy it was. “This could work…” She muttered, standing up and dashing towards the blue man, swinging her arm at the man’s face. The man quickly dodged and tried to sweep under Lemon’s feet, but the woman jumped over him and stomped on his chest, pinning him to the ground. She then took the chance to whack him in the face with her frozen arm, knocking the blue man out but sadly not breaking the ice on her arm.

Lemon takes a second to breath in and out before glaring up at the glowing eyed man and the gray guy. “Let go of Justice now!" She demanded, about to run up to the two.

“Sadly, no.” The glowing eye man stated, turning to the gray guy and saying, “You can hold her down now.”

“Excuse me!?” Lemon exclaimed before yelping as her hands were pulled behind her back. She looked back up at the glowy eyed man and realized the gray man was nowhere to be seen. “Ninja’s can teleport too–!? Actually, that’s not that impressive…” She then perked up once she realized something. "Ha! You're not grabbing Justice anymore! Justice run! Ru-"

She noticed that Justice was peacefully standing next to the glowy eyed guy with her hands in her pockets.

"Okay, I guess don’t run…?” She muttered as Justice and the glowy eyed guy slid down to where Lemon and the gray guy were. The glowy eyed guy pulled his hood down and introduced himself to Lemon.

“Hello, Cheri Carr.” The man said. “I am Lord Liu Kang, God of Fire and Protector of Earthrealm.”

“Yeah, okay, pause. Justice, what the hell is happening?”

“A test.” Justice answered with a smile. “That you passed.”

“Wha…” Lemon was so in shock that she didn’t even notice the gray guy had released her arms and quickly broke the ice on one of her arms, relieving her of the unbearable cold she was feeling. She then yelped as the blue guy started to stand back up, glaring directly at Lemon who looked confused.

“I thought I knocked you out?” She questioned.

“Like a weak hit like that could do anything.” The man scoffed, standing up and walking over to the orange guy to help him get up.

“Weak!?” Lemon shouted.

“They were holding back.” Liu Kang explained, turning to face the blue and orange ninjas. “Bi-Han, Kuai Liang, is everybody okay?”

“Yes. Nobody has any big injuries.” Kuai Liang answered.

“Okay, we need to start from the beginning here.” Lemon demanded and pointed to Liu Kang. “Who are you?” Points to the ninjas. “Who are they?” She then points to herself. “And why me?”

“Right.” Liu Kang agreed. “Like I said before, I am Lord Liu Kang, God of Fire and Protector of Earthrealm. The people you just fought are the Lin Kuei; they are a clan that are dedicated to protecting Earthrealm.”

“You keep saying Earthrealm, aren’t you just talking about Earth?”

“Earth is only a part of Earthrealm." Justice explained, wrapping her arm around Lemon's shoulders in a joking manner. "Earthrealm itself is one of the many realms on the universe."

"The realms are rivals of us and that’s why we need champions like you to protect ours.” Liu Kang added.

“Champions? For what? Are we fighting?” Lemon asked. "And Justice, how the hell do you know these people?"

“Yes. and it is almost time for the grand martial arts tournament between Earthrealm and the realm of Outworld. It’s held once each century and allows each realm to demonstrate their strength. Our realms are at peace but there are some Outworlders who would prefer to be at war with us. If we win this tournament, we’ll calm them down for at least another century.”

And I met them randomly like…6 years ago. They literally just teleported into my room in the middle of the night.” Justice added, smiling at Lemon who looked at her in shock. “They wanted me to help coach you and train you to help defend Earthrealm.”

“What the fu–”

“I know it’s a lot! But you’ll learn and you’ll be in much more interesting fights!”

“Yeah, okay, If I’ve learned anything from fictional books and movies, people outside of earth always have some weird powers and weapons." Lemon then turned to Liu Kang. "Why would you want someone who kickboxes for a living to help you fight people like that? I’m just going to die.”

“I never said you would die and I never said you were going to fight without some advantage.” Liu Kang reassured. “Nobody has ever died or been gravely injured in the tournament so you don’t have to worry about that. Just think about it like your regular fighting matches.”

“And ignore the fact that you basically said that if we lose this tournament there’s a chance we’ll be at war.” Lemon mutters and sighs loudly. “Okay, fine, I’ll help you. There has to be a reason you chose me out of…literally anybody else and I rather not have innocent people forced to fight a bunch of magical pieces of shit if we happen to lose this stupid tournament.”

“Thank you, Cheri Carr.” Liu Kang says.

“Just call me Lemon…”

“Alright, Lemon. The monks await you at Wu Shi Academy to start your training. Some of the people here will take you there while I still have more champions to gath-”

“Actually wait.” Lemon interrupted. “What about Justice?"

“What about me?” Justice inquired.

“I can’t leave you in the orphanage by yourself! What if you get beat up again and none of our other friends are there to help? I can’t risk that!”

“Lemon, I’ll be fine.” Justice reassures. “The shit only happened once, and because of that, I now have my friends/bodyguards around me 24/7. I feel like a celebrity!”

“But Justice–”

Justice wraps her hand around the back of Lemon’s back and pushes her head forward, prompting a kiss from the both of them. Lemon stays frozen in shock before Justice pulls away and chuckles at her friend’s reaction.

“I’ll be fine.” She reassures, lightly kissing Lemon’s nose. “Go and protect Earthrealm. It’s quite literally your destiny.”

“Right…” Lemon mutters before laying her head on Justice’s shoulder with a groan. “But that just made me want to stay even more!”

Justice lets out a laugh and turns to Liu Kang who was smiling at them both.

“She’s ready.”

“No…”

“This is the Wu Shi Academy?” Lemon muttered, looking around. The place was beautiful and calming with its lush greenery and cherry blossoms. “I honestly thought a dojo would look a lot less…peaceful.”

“Some are.” One of the monks said, smiling at Lemon. “Now follow me, we have prepared a room and uniform for you.”

“Uniform?”

“Oooohhhh, you mean the clothes everybody else is wearing?”

“That is what a uniform is, yes.”

Lemon slightly glared at the man who was doing their best not to laugh. “Don’t get all sassy with me.”

“Sorry, sorry!” The man apologized. “Now let’s get going. You’re most likely going to start your training first thing in the morning.”

“Good thing I’m a morning person.”

“AAAAHHHHH, WHY ARE YOU HERE!?” Lemon shouted. She was here, first thing in the morning like the monk said and while she was expecting a bunch of other people to be here, she wasn’t expecting anybody she knew. So seeing Johnny fucking Cage right in front of her scared her a bit, and the man too because his eyes widened at her shouting, same with three other men.

“Do you know her?” One of the men with a sedge hat asked.

“No, but I’m guessing she’s one of my fans.” Johnny answered with a smile, clearly using this as a chance to brag to the others. “I am pretty popular after all.”

“Okay, fan is an overstatement…” Lemon muttered, looking at Johnny in slight disgust. “But my coach...girlfriend...I don't know yet, is one and wouldn’t shut the fuck up about how good you were at fighting. My mind never once thought that you of all people would be one of Lord Liu Kang’s champions.”

“Wait, aren’t you Cheri Carr?” Another one of the men asked. This one had a whole sword with him. “One of the most famous kickboxers in the world?”

“Mhm! I am!” Lemon nodded, smiling at the sword guy. “But call me Lemon!”

“Lemon? What type of name is Lemon?” Johnny questioned.

“It’s just a nickname my coach-girlfriend gave me based on my actual name. But It’s been used so much that it’s weird to hear people call me Cheri. Kinda like how you’d feel uncomfortable if I called you John Carlton.”

Johnny visibly cringed and looked to the side. “Yeah, it’s weird as hell…”

The guy with the sedge hat chuckled at Johnny before politely bowing at Lemon who bowed back. “Well, hello, Lemon. I am Raiden.”

“And I am Kenshi Takahashi.” The guy with the sword introduced, also bowing.

“Nice to meet you both.” Lemon replied. She then turned to the last guy who was also wearing a hat, but she had forgotten what it was called. “And you are?”

“Kung Lao.” The man replied, not bowing but looking at Lemon in confusion. “Aren’t you a bit too young to be a champion?”

Lemon shrugged. “Don’t ask me. Ask Liu Kang whenever he pops up again. He’s the one that pretended to kidnap me and my girlfriend. That almost gave me mental and physical trauma.”

“Well, we’re not exactly here to focus on whether we should be here or not.” Raiden interrupted. “We’re here to get stronger and protect Earthrealm.”

“I guess.” Lemon replied. “But I do have a question for you all.”

“Hmm?”

“How’d you guys get forced into this?”

“Liu Kang and the Lin Kuei pretended they were trying to destroy a restaurant that belonged to someone close to us.” Kung Lao answered. “Turns out it was a test and the owner of the restaurant was also a part of it.”

“She basically trained us our entire lives for this.” Raiden added.

“That honestly sounds like some Hero’s Journey bullshit but is pretty cool.” Lemon commented and turned to Johnny. “What about you?”

“Literally just broke into my house and asked us to join.”

“Us?”

“Oh yeah.” Johnny wrapped his arm around Kenshi’s shoulders, “This guy also broke into my house to steal my sword!”

“It’s my family’s sword!” Kenshi snapped, pushing Johnny off of him.

“Bulllssshhhiiittt!” Johnny laughed. “I still don’t believe it!”

“If that is true then damn, Johnny, we need more interesting lives because these three seem to be more special than us.” Lemon said. “I know, let’s make something up!”

“Like what?

“We’re uh…aliens from a far away land and landed on earth in total confusion. We don’t know what this place is and why we’re here but for the past 18 years we’ve been raised by two human adults that have taught us to be humble and use our very random powers to save others–"

“Isn’t that just Superman?” Kenshi asked.

“No! Because there’s two of us now! We’re twins!”

“There's no way anybody’s gonna believe you two are twins.” Kung Lao laughed.

“They will if I tell them that I just stopped growing in…uh…elementary school!”

“PFFT–HAHAHA! Sure! We’ll pretend that’s true!”

“Kung Lao, stop laughing.” Raiden scolded. “By the way, we’re all late for our first lesson.”

“What!?” Lemon exclaimed. “You could’ve said something earlier!”

NEXT

MASTERLIST Picrew link: TOON ME!

Dear pen, help me.