#only 100% about pillowfort tho

[nights-at-crystarium]

As a twitter/tumblr user since 2010-2011, I believe I have sufficient grounds to say that currently we as a community are living through the scariest, shittiest time yet. This post isn’t trying to fearmonger, no I’m not leaving tumblr until it literally keels over, but I suggest that we don’t put all our eggs in one basket.

If twitter/tumblr stay usable, great! In the worse scenario, you’d have kept posting on a new platform and stayed ahead of the curve.

This post shares my personal experience with three potential “new”* fandom places, and is aimed to help fellow content creators. I’m an artist fully depending on internet to survive, my reasoning may not apply to you if you’re a hobbyist. Do your own research, it’s always healthy. * Pillowfort and mastodon have been around for 5+ years, bluesky is ~2 years old.

Discovering new people to follow kinda sucks on all three platforms, twitter and tumblr are eons ahead, but, given the recent chaos and uncertainty, I’m willing to be patient, keep posting on those, and feel safer than I would’ve otherwise been. More baskets good, one basket bad.

All three have poor visual customization, don’t expect custom tumblr themes.

This list starts with the least popular, but most human and easy to join, and what I personally trust the most. All three allow nsfw if labeled properly.

✦ Pillowfort is a barebones tumblr. Intuitive, cozy, but currently very, very small. Be patient with its clunkiness or lack of some features, it’s made by an AO3-like team. I’d personally love if the fandom crowd managed to redirect its attention to it instead of the sus bluesky.

Joining: is free, invite-only, but the waitlist is nearly instant.

Lurk around on their official tumblr: @/pillowfort-social

✦ Mastodon, for me personally, is impossible to explain directly. I’ll use several comparisons.

- Discord but all servers can interact. You’re still on a server curated by some human(s) that might tell you what you can and can’t post, BUT, if you don’t like that server’s policy, you can move to a new one while keeping your followers. - Email, users A and B may be registered on different domains, still they can talk. It’s a weird comparison, but fediverse (please I’m not explaining THAT but it’s a good thing) in general looks like another email story: unlike big sites that come and go, it might stand the test of time. - Someone compared mastodon’s structure to xiv’s dc and servers, if you look at its domain names that way, it might be easier to understand.

Depending on user, mastodon may feel gatekeepy/snowflakey. I haven’t spent enough time on there to form a proper opinion yet, but a warning’s due.

An actually good and hopeful thing about mastodon AND tumblr: the two might start interacting in future. Ever lamented that your fav asian artists don’t use tumblr? If they use misskey, or any other place on the fediverse, it might be possible to follow them directly from tumblr in future, and vice versa.

Joining: is free, however some servers close for new members sometimes, and have human moderators reviewing your request.

✦ Bluesky is a twitter without Musk: today’s average internet user reads this, drops everything and already looks to register there. It’s still sus, but people flock to it like crazy. Most likely to become the next big fandom place in my eyes, even if I’m not happy about that.

I personally have no good feelings about bluesky. Same as twitter, which I hated even before the 2018 tumblr exodus, yet the crowd decided to make it The New Fandom Place, and, grudgingly, I had to give up and also join them in 2022. During the year I haven’t stopped despising twitter, yet, I can’t deny that it helped me survive. I estimate half of my patrons, and, hell, even tumblr audience, comes from twitter. So, if bluesky ends up being the next hot shit, I’ll have to keep up because internet pays for my living.

Joining: is free but hell, invite-only, the waitlist is a lie, your best chance to join is a direct invite.

This’s all I’ve got to say for now. If you have a correction or an addition, replies/reblogs are welcome!

Screenshots of the current interfaces under the cut, you may spy on my profiles o/

Pillowfort

Mastodon.art

Bluesky

[laufire]

t100 6x13

(crossposted to dreamwidth, livejournal, and pillowfort)

Okay, first thing first: Murphy just became immortal. He also drank blood. So, technically, Murphy is a vampire! xDD (I really need to finish the The 100/Blade fusion in my drafts smh).

Emori and Murphy were the stars, technical vampirism or not, idc (tho man, I want Emori to get more screentime). On a purely shallow level, the were HOT AS FUCK. Emori with that commanding voice, moving Bellamy’s face, stopping Murphy for a kiss… damn (the Mellemori moment was niiiice. So was the Memoraven hug, with Raven’s smile. My bbys.). LOL at Murphy’s reaction to kiss-dude (“that was interesting”, “you seem nice, and a good kisser” xDD). And he’s such a drama llama, ILH (being a god should be fun! For the glory and grace of me!).

The episode kept feeding me small crumbs of my fave crack ships, with Octavia’s awe when she thought Diyoza was coming (and her happiness the daughter they raised together, no I don’t take constructive criticism xDD. Though I got to say, I’m meh about the actress they picked for Hope atm. We’ll see next year. What’s with all my main fandoms having some precious daughter called Hope, btw?), or Echo and Octavia acting all ~simpatico –and Echo calling Octavia(‘s tattoo) beautiful ahahaha.

I haven’t ~felt any of the Primes were truly immortal until this episode, with Gabriel being so clearly amused at Murphy’s antics and proud of Echo for figuring out the tattoo was a code LMAO. He vibed like a weird grandpa. Though my fave Prime moment was Creepy Widower Chris Argent telling her wife they needed the Earth people to clean their toilets lol.

Speaking of Primes, I’ve read some people in Sanctum will insist on worshipping Memori and I CAN’T WAIT OKAY. Murphy will enjoy the hell out of it… at first xDD. And the supposed incest better be brought up again, that shit was hilarious.

I’m going to assume only the evol Commander jumped to the ship (I better get some AI!ship/pilot!Raven shenanigans, js), and the rest remain on the flame… so Echo can get it xDD. Or I’ll write that AU, IDEC. And I loved the “City of Light Community College” comment.

I’m guessing the end, setting up Bellamy for a search/rescue of Octavia next season, is what they mean by him “regressing to s1”… because let me tell you, I was not getting that impression from the rest of it xD. The whole “return to the bare necessities” for a last season is very typical, and given certain… preferences of mine… it could be interesting, I think. We’ll see. Though I have to say, I’m pre-annoyed at the fact that plot is going to Joss my Anomaly!Biyoza fic (which will be read by maybe two or three people xP). I got too comfortable with my space fam headcanons remaining intact thanks to the time jump lmao.

[mamashitty]

Samwell Elementary Chapter 13

Title: Samwell Elementary School Fandom: Check, Please! Chapter 13, you can read previous chapters here Word Count: 2,334 Ship: Zimbits Find it on my AO3 & pillowfort! Blurb: Bitty goes to a family skate with Jack and the Falconers and then a movie!

dat butt tho: I can’t tell if I’m more excited or if Maisie is that you are coming to the family skate.

Eric: Well, I am most excited about seeing Maisie skate. Also, what kind of pies does everyone like? Does anyone on your team or their family have any food allergies? How many pies do you think I should bake?

dat butt tho: Eric, give me about twenty minutes to get Maisie in bed and then I’ll call you, okay? I’ll have all those answers when I call, I promise.

Jack had been good on his promise and had called Bitty within those twenty minutes and had answered all those questions. It explains why Bitty is currently carrying a few different varieties of pies and other baked goods into Faber stadium. He is anxious and excited. Jack is carrying Bitty and Maisie’s gear for them. Maisie has skipped ahead of the two of them, eager to find her hockey Uncles. Mostly, she is shouting for Uncle Tater and that is when it hits Bitty once more that he will be on the ice with a bunch of professional athletes. And their families and for some reason, Jack had asked him to come. Bitty said yes and he knows why. Any excuse to spend more time with Jack will always get a yes from him.

But it was more than that. Jack had asked him in person, and Bitty remembers clearly, how shy Jack had looked. Almost timid. He remembers even more clearly how brightly Jack’s blue eyes had seemed to shine when Bitty had said he would love to go. There had also been a hug, tight and quick, after the yes. For one breathless moment, Eric had wondered if Jack would kiss him but he had not and Shitty had come wandering into the kitchen, loudly wondering why he had agreed to go on a morning jog with Jack in the god-damned winter. Bitty remembers laughing maybe a little too loud when Jack pointed out that it was still technically the fall.

Bitty knows he has a crush on Jack but he is about ninety percent certain that Jack likes him back. The best way to become 100 percent certain, in Bitty’s opinion, was to spend as much time with Jack and observe him. Being able to skate with him, Maisie and a bunch of other hockey players is just an added (if scary) bonus.

Being on the ice is nice. Better than nice, actually. Bitty wishes that he had more opportunities to skate like this. He usually only skates for team practices or games with the rec leagues. He is moving in lazy circles around the ice with Maisie. The five-year-old is a natural on the ice, skating fast and sure.

“Mr. Bitty, can you do a spin?” She asks him suddenly, and Eric stops skating for a second.

“I haven’t done anything fancy like that in a long time, Maisie.” He says, and he can see Maisie pouting. “But! I can give it a try, okay?” Maisie beams at that, and then much to Bitty’s horror, she manages to get everyone’s attention by loudly proclaiming that her teacher is going to do some spins on the ice! Bitty feels his cheeks turn a vibrant red as a bunch of hockey players turn to watch him.

“Maisie, Mr. Bittle does not have to-…” Jack starts to say but is cut off by Tater.

“Zimmboni! Let little baker do his tricks.”

“It will be fine, Jack.” Bitty attempts to reassure his crush, and himself. He can do this. It might be like riding a bike, he tells himself. Muscles will remember what they are supposed to do, right? Bitty takes a steadying breath, and then he begins to skate. He is grateful that everyone is staying off to one side, leaving him plenty of space to do this. He is surprised that his body seems to remember what to do, he lets his body do its thing and he shuts his brain off as much as he can, as he goes to do a spinning jump. He lands on the ice, not as gracefully as he might have years ago, but he at least does not fall on his ass.

He hears clapping and cheering. Little Maisie skates at him fast and then hugs him tightly, excitedly asking him to teach her how to do that. He laughs and then notices that Jack is staring him and it is an intense stare and did it just get hot on the ice all of a sudden? He drops his gaze back down to Maisie.

“I can teach you some. Your skates are more designed for hockey, but I can still teach you a few things, okay?” Maisie beams up at him.

Bitty loses track of how long they have been on the ice. He spends most of his time with Maisie, teaching her how to do some simpler spins, he races Jack around the rink with a little encouragement from Jack’s team (mostly Tater and Snowy). He notices that whenever he and Jack are near each other that Jack seems to stand close to him, closer than is probably normal. He notices that they bump arms and hands a lot. At one point, he heard Snowy tease Jack for skating into the glass because he had been distracted and for some reason, Bitty felt his own face turn red as he hoped that he had been the distraction—a strange thing to hope for he knew but he hoped for it all the same.

The family skate ends and Bitty has somehow collected a bunch of new numbers from the Falconers’ and their family. He has promised to bake way too many pies and cookies for them all. He has also promised to help teach a few baking lessons after the new year. Maisie looks dead on her feet but she refuses to let Jack carry her to the car even though he offered. Bitty helps pile everything into the car as Jack helps Maisie get into her booster seat.

“Mind coming with me while I drop Maisie off at Camilla’s?” Jack asks as after he starts the car.

“No, I don’t mind.” Bitty replies because any excuse to spend time with Jack he will take.

“I was also wondering if maybe you would like to watch a movie with me tonight at my place? We can order take out?” Bitty looks over at Jack but sees that he is decidedly staring straight ahead of him.

“Sure, I would love to.” He sees Jack grin and he knows he has a big ol’ grin of his own.

--

Bitty is seated on Jack Zimmerann’s couch. Bitty is also wearing a pair of Jack’s plaid pajama pants and a Falconers’ hoodie because for ‘Dinner and a Movie on Couch Zimmermann’ a person must be in pajamas. Bitty had not wanted to go home to change even if was not all that far away from Jack’s place and Jack had offered him up the pajama bottoms and hoodie. Bitty keeps replaying the look Jack had given him when he had first seen Bitty in his clothing. It might distract him some from the movie.

Dinner is finished with mostly empty carryout containers on the coffee table in front of the couch. He and Jack are on opposite ends of the couch, but their legs are entwined together underneath a blanket that Jack had tossed over them. Bitty does not remember who actually initiated what he is going to term as a snuggling between their legs, but someone did. Or maybe they both did at the same time? All Bitty knows is he wants more than that. He was a proper cuddle. He wants a damn kiss and he is 99 percent certain that Jack does too. Anytime he looks over at Jack, he sees Jack quickly turning his head to look back at the movie. They have made eye contact a handful of time but neither one of them seems brave enough to make a move. Bitty tells himself that he will make the move when he realizes the movie is over and Jack is sitting up on the couch, their legs slowly untangling as he stretches.

“I will be right back, I need to use the bathroom,” Jack says and Bitty nods, watching as he retreats to the bathroom and maybe looking too long at that rare end. He sighs, before standing up from the couch himself and stretching. He glances down and notices the mess of takeout containers, and he scoops them up in his arms to toss them in the trash in the kitchen. He would feel far too rude just leaving the mess for Jack to clean up later on, and besides, he feels like he needs to do something right now. He has no idea why he is so afraid to act on what he is feeling. He does not think it is just being Maisie’s teacher—in fact, he thinks he and Jack could handle that hurdle with ease even if it is maybe a little ethically dubious. His shoulders slump as he tosses the empty containers in the trash and he seals up the containers with leftovers in them and plops them into the fridge.

“You did not have to do that yourself, Bitty,” Jack says and he is right there by the fridge. The suddenness and closeness of Jack’s voice startle Bitty and he jumps, spinning around to face Jack.

“Well, I woulda’ felt guilty just leaving them out all night or leaving them for you to clean up,” Bitty says. He is also well aware that all it would take is for him to take one or two steps tops to reach Jack and kiss him. His eyes hover on Jack’s lips for a second as that thought enters his mind. He tears his gaze away from Jack’s lips and goes to look at those blue eyes instead. He kind of regrets that decision too because the eye contact makes him feel weak in the knees.

“Did you want to watch another movie?” Jack asks, and Bitty notices he looks bashful like he did when asking about the family skate. Lord this man.

“Only if you kiss me,” Bitty says and then his eyes widen. “I mean… I did not mean to say that out loud,” he word vomits out. His face red and Jack is just staring at him, eyes wide. Okay, okay so maybe Bitty had been wrong about Jack maybe having a crush on him? Maybe Bitty should just run away right now. Jack has a series of road games coming up so the timing to hide for a while would work out.

“You want me to kiss you?” Jack asks but he makes no move to close the gap between them.

“Uh… it was a joke? Kind of? Lord, I mean… yes, I do but you don’t have to. Jack, I’ll just… uh, I can go home. I did not mean to say that, it should’ just been in my head, but I must be tired?” Bitty rambles. Then he moves to leave the kitchen but Jack stops him by gently placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Bits, don’t go.” Why are Jack’s eyes so blue? Bitty can’t stop staring at those eyes. “I want to kiss you,” Jack adds, and Bitty blinks.

Did he just hear Jack correctly? Jack still has not done anything more than just grab his shoulder. The seconds keep ticking and they are now just staring each other, both looking a bit like deer caught in some headlights. Bitty can feel nervous laughter wanting to escape him. He has no idea why he is being so hesitant to kiss Jack right now. Jack just said he wants to kiss him, but Jack is being shy about it too. Bitty knows one of them has to make a move.

“We… should… just kiss then?” Bitty says, the words sounding so uncertain to his own ears. He drops his gaze from Jack’s eyes and to his lips instead, and he sees those lips quirk up into a grin.

“Okay,” Jack says, and then he is finally closing the distance between him and Eric. Really, it was less than a step. Bitty’s heart is thudding hard in his chest and he wonders wildly if Jack can hear it. Or see it like in those old cartoons that Bitty used to watch. Jack’s grin has turned into a soft smile and Bitty is sure he could melt right now. Jack brings a hand up to gently cup Bitty’s face, tilting it just slightly.

“Okay,” Jack says again and Bitty parrots him quietly.

Then they are kissing. It is a soft thing, sweet, and maybe a little hesitant. Bitty relaxes into it, breaking it off after only a few seconds. His brown eyes looking right into Jack’s blue. His face is flushed and he knows his smile is big. Jack has a big smile on his face too.

“I have wanted that for a while now,” Bitty admits.

“Me too,” Jack says, quiet enough that Bitty almost does not hear it. That prompts Bitty to lean up and kiss Jack once more. This time with none of the hesitancy of that first one. He loses track of the time that they stand in the kitchen just kissing before Jack pulls back with a sigh. His forehead resting gently against Bitty’s, before he pulls back even further to look at him.

“So, about that second movie?” Jack asks, cocking an eyebrow up.

“We should start it,” Bitty says, his mind mostly thinking how much nicer it will be to kiss Jack on the couch. He doubts they will focus much on the movie. Jack smiles at him, a vibrant smile, and takes his hand before leading him back to the couch.