#;;hey...this might be important {psa}

[mbat]

not me waking up and checking the good news app (i recommend it btw) and crying about an article about sesame street teaching kids about addiction

i literally did not grow up in a household like theyre talking about but fuck man i think its so important that kids have tools and information, about nearly any topic. its so fucking important. im so glad that people are seeing that and making things for kids to know these things

tbh most of the time when im crying about this its about queer issues lol, cause i just imagine how much it wouldve helped me and so many other people to see queer stuff in a positive light when we were kids, and how kids are finally getting that now

but tbh ill cry about any serious topic in kids shows. people think kids shouldnt be exposed to these things, but its so important that they are, but in a safe and caring environment like on their shows or in their books. idk man im just saying, its great

[cripplecharacters]

Do you have tangible advice on *how* to research different disabilities for writing? How to find specific blogs beyond searching the name of the disability on Tumblr, forums, websites with good info, etc? I see a lot of advice that is basically just "research the disability and talk to people who have it" but with how Google has gone down in quality, I'm not sure where to look beyond the surface level info (plus how to find people with the disability who are willing to share niche details/answer really specific situational questions). Thank you for everything you do on this blog!

Hey!

I'd say that you should break the research process into a few steps.

First, figure out what you should actually look into. Think about the genre, intended audience, and role of the character. A background character in a comedy meant for elementary school kids and a main character in an adult romantic novel will have two different approaches. You don't have to (and probably shouldn't) overdo a character that doesn't need it - otherwise it can end up feeling like some sort of disability awareness PSA, and that's probably not what you want.

With that in mind, you can start the actual research. I think that the websites of organizations/foundations for people with that specific disabilities are the best, since they cover a lot of things from many different angles. They are also usually written in simpler language than medical websites (which are also great, but I get that not everyone can understand those, not everyone's fluent in English, etc.) and have more tangible advice for "how to function with XYZ" essentially. It also can give you a glimpse of what your character could specifically struggle with, especially in case of a recent disability - medical pages often won't talk about insurance problems, interpersonal issues, or actually coping with the new state one's body is in. Check the FAQs, or the most commonly visited pages, stuff like that to get an idea on what's important. For example, these are some of the most concise explanations of how someone with a complete spinal cord injury at a specific level might function and what they might need. Something like this can be a good start to figure out where your characters "is", so to speak.

Some organizations for common disabilities might also have some sort of "media representation" page that's made specifically for writers. UK's Down Syndrome Association has one, Face Equality International has one, Phoenix Society has one, US Foundation for the Blind has one, etc.

This alone is more research than the vast majority of writers bother to do. If you actually understand:

what the disability is,

what symptoms it has,

how those affect your character in day-to-day life,

how to avoid the most common offensive stereotypes,

you are doing better than a lot of published writers, to be honest.

Okay, but what can you do to make it even better:

Since at this step you know what symptoms your character has and which ones you will actually show to the audience, you can start researching them one by one.

Here you might have to go read some medical studies, and learning how to get information out of those is a skill that needs some practice. But it is necessary to figure out if your blind character's vision loss is more likely to be total with no light perception or 20/200 (and, to figure out if your character's eye condition even causes blindness... because I've seen "blind characters" who are blind from eye conditions that... do not cause vision loss) so that you can actually research appropriate accommodations or aids.

Knowing specific symptoms will be even more helpful if your character's disability isn't very common - symptoms are very rarely tied to just a single disability, and you might have more luck researching a completely different one. For example, if you can't find info on something related to being a unilateral arm amputee, try searching for solutions that hemiplegics use. Not all will apply, but a lot of this stuff will be the same.

Make sure you understand what you do or don't do with those symptoms. There might be treatments, there might be some lifestyle changes to be done, there might be some strict limitation that you will have to put on your character for them to make sense. I think it's better to fit the character concept to the symptoms that you want and not the other way around - if you do the latter, you might find yourself writing an essentially abled character or a disabled character that is just inconsistent. Not every disability will be compatible with every role or concept, and there's really no point in trying to put us literally everywhere. If you really can't find a solution for something you need the character to do, it might mean that there just isn't one.

Once you figure out the technical stuff and have all the "dry" information laid out, start seeking the real life equivalents. Start widely at first so that you can narrow it down later, not the other way around (unless you don't mind changing the character around a lot). If you have already done a lot of technical research before, you will have more specific questions (which are easier to answer than "how do I write a disabled character").

Look up daily vlogs and day-in-a-life videos on youtube from people with that disability (and don't be afraid of only very-low views count videos popping up as that's almost inevitable - there are very few big disability youtubers, so try giving the smaller ones a chance). Watch interviews where people with that condition explain how their daily life is, how their disability affects it. SBSK is one of the best IMO. Check out AMAs on Reddit. Read personal blogs (you can generally find some by just putting "living with Name of Disability blog" into search). There's a ton of people who sincerely want to help others understand the realities of living with their disability and name their stuff accordingly so that it's easy to find.

At this stage you should have a decent idea of how the disability affects your character both in the technical sense, and in the more practical one.

Try to write out their average daily routine - from how they get up in the morning to when they go to sleep. Try to actively think "how would they do it" - how would they get from their bed and into their wheelchair, how would they dress up, how would they commute to work, how would they communicate with others, how would they get from point A to point B. If you realize that you're suddenly stuck, you now have a specific question ("how to put on pants with no hands", "how do totally blind people use computers", "shower accommodations C5 SCI", whatever) which is much easier to research than just a vague awareness of Not Knowing how your character functions in general. All of these questions have been asked before - newly disabled people will be going through them in their real life, and they use the same search engines and same social media as everyone else.

If you get this far, you're doing quite great! I'd say that this is enough effort to make a good and complex disabled character that's important in the story, though maybe not the POV character.

For a POV character, if you aren't disabled, you probably need a sensitivity reader/consultant.

There are a lot of those in writing spaces already - a lot of disabled people write themselves. If you just drop a "I need a sensitivity reader for XYZ" and use the general writing tags, there's a high chance you will get a response (assuming the XYZ in question isn't something very rare and/or so severe it would prevent someone from using the internet in general).

You can also try the disability's tag (don't get discouraged if it's not used a lot, a lot of people lurk without posting anything themselves) since you're looking for a real person and intending to pay them (very different from abled writers randomly posting their blorbos in disability tags).

Some of the places where you can try looking are r/SensitivityReaders, WritingDiversely, FireflyCreativeWriting, even sites like Fiverr could work. I've also heard some good things about Facebook writing groups, but I don't have any personal experience with them.

You can also always reach out to an association for people with the kind of disability you need - tell them that you are a writer and are looking to pay a sensitivity reader to help you, and they might be able to refer you to someone who would like to do that.

Another thing would be to keep intersectionality in mind - if your character is disabled, but otherwise part of the majority in every other sense (in NA or most of EU: white, rich, Christian, cisgender, straight, non-immigrant), you will have less things to consider than if your character has the same disability but is also a Polynesian transgender immigrant. If any intersectionality is particularly important to what you're writing, you should include that as well (you can also work with multiple sensitivity readers to try and get as close as possible).

My last advice is to only seek out sensitivity readers if you're able to pay them a fair amount for their work. Don't ask people to work for you for free (which is probably obvious, but a ton of fanfic and whump writers on Tumblr seem completely unaware of this).

Technical tips:

For specifically avoiding AI slop, I recommend putting [before:2023] after whatever question you put in, it will filter all results made after 2022, eliminating 99% of AI nonsense (works for images too).

If you're constantly getting a specific kind of wrong result, use [-ThingYouDon'tWant] after the input, it will remove everything that contains it.

If you're not getting a specific result, put the word you need in quotes ["Word You Need"] and it will force only the results who use that specific phrase/term to appear.

So if you're trying to find a blog about living with quadriplegic cerebral palsy as an adult and can't find any relevant searches by putting just that into the search, try ["cerebral palsy" "blog" quadriplegic -parents -spinal -SCI] and you should get more relevant stuff.

That's how I generally try to approach research for writing and I would say I've had good results (including now). Researching is a skill that requires practice unfortunately, at some point you can simply tell when a resource is bad or good since you've looked at so many already.

Follower input is welcome and encouraged :-)

mod Sasza

[babycharmander]

PSA for TF2 Fanartists

(And... really for everyone on the creative side of the fandom, but artists are the ones hurt by this the most.)

I've been seeing some really concerning stuff here that is going unnoticed. Granted, I don't think this is any artist's fault--if anything, the artists are the victims here. But that's why I want to make you guys aware of this, so you can protect yourself from this sort of thing.

"This sort of thing" being a little something called fetish mining.

Fetish mining is when someone with a specific fetish attempts to trick someone else into providing them with content for their fetish... without letting them know that's what they're asking for. Outside of fandom spaces, this can look like someone with a foot fetish approaching someone who is selling socks, and asking them to "model" the socks for them--they're not actually interested in buying the socks, they just want to see pictures of feet.

Within fandom spaces, however, they often take the form of someone repeatedly requesting something featuring a very specific body part of a character, or repeatedly requesting art of a character performing a weirdly specific action. (The repeated part is important here--someone could just say "oh hey could you draw this character shirtless?" once, and that would probably be fine. There's a chance it could be a fetish thing, sure, but it's significantly less likely. Same with a really random request--someone could request something really specific, but if they only do so once, it's significantly less likely to be a fetish mining request.) They might also provide an excuse like, "oh, I think this would be really funny! :)" or "this is a joke request! but it would be hilarious if you drew it"

So what are some examples of this?

Well... they might look a little something like this:

[ID: Two screenshots of two different anonymous asks. The first one reads "HEAVY TF2 TUMMY" with multiple red exclamation points afterward, and the second reads "Sniper tf2 teeth" followed by multiple red exclamation points. /end ID]

(I was going to feature another but then realized it wasn't anonymous, and I'm not comfortable putting an actual blog on blast.)

If these were just one-off asks, that would be one thing, but if you look up these things, you'll see dozens of these asks.

As well, there's nothing wrong with drawing Heavy shirtless, or drawing Sniper baring his teeth. Having fetishes for stomachs or teeth is not wrong, either, nor is specifically requesting fetish art (so long as the artist is okay with such requests)!

The problem is that the specificness of these asks, combined with how frequently these asks get sent, are signs of fetish mining.

(Though another problem is that... this isn't always a 100%-for-sure sign of fetish mining. Some people have special interests that might not be a typical thing like a fandom or hobby or branch of science, but could just be something oddly specific like stomachs or teeth. These things are okay and are not bad! But requests relating to these things can, unfortunately, look identical to fetish mining.)

And again, fetish mining is a person sneakily asking for someone else to provide them with something that is fetish material for them--something that is sexual for them--without letting that person know that's what it's for.

This makes it a form of sexual harassment.

I feel like a lot of the fandom is... not really aware of what's going on, here, and it's distressing. These are very likely bad actors trying to take advantage of people and get away with sexually harassing others (including minors). This is not okay. No part of that is okay.

The best thing to do when faced with a request that seems oddly specific is to look it up, and, if there seem to be multiple requests of this nature, to ignore it--do not fulfill the request. Do not encourage this behavior. (Unless you're okay with drawing that kind of content, but like... if that's the case, then tag your work appropriately.)

Don't feel bad if you've fulfilled some of these requests in the past--you didn't know, and being tricked is not your fault. But now that you do know, you can hopefully better protect yourself from this kind of thing.

[lemoncrushh]

Running on Empty

Summary: An unfortunate incident at the gym

Warnings: None, just a PSA - Never workout on an empty stomach.

Word Count: 1185

A/N: Harry x reader AU. Originally an OC but has been edited. From my 2017 collection.

Harry was a new guy at your gym. You hadn't been going as regularly as you should have, but once he started coming a few weeks ago, you made it a point to keep up with your workouts. He was gorgeous, to say the least. Not your typical buff, gym type guy. But really attractive with a killer smile.

So far your exchange had merely been a few hellos and nods of the head. But you were determined to get his attention. You can assure yourself however, what ended up happening was not your intent.

You'd skipped lunch that day, having only a bagel for breakfast and a handful of jellybeans that you'd grabbed from your co-worker's desk when your boss had asked if you could stay to help set up the conference room for an important meeting. You could have (and should have) easily gotten a sandwich at the deli before heading to the gym, but you only had an hour, and you knew Harry would most likely already be there. It was pathetic how you'd memorized his schedule, this man that you barely knew.

He was already at the weight bench when you left the locker room. Walking past him, you could see the beads of sweat forming on his upper lip and arms, his t-shirt nearly soaked through. He groaned low as he lifted the bar, his muscles flexing. Sighing deeply, but low enough you hoped that he didn't hear you, you took your usual place at the treadmill, popping your earbuds in and setting your water bottle in its cubby. Choosing one of your workout playlists, you began warming up at a steady walking pace. As the songs progressed into faster tempos, so did your walking and soon you was at a jogging pace, your heart rate up.

Lost in your music, you didn't notice Harry had gotten up from the bench until he was beside you, wiping his face with a towel, your eyes connecting.

"Hello," he grinned. Good grief, he had a great smile.

"Hi."

You watched as he took a stance on the treadmill next to yours. He said something else then that you couldn't quite make out with your music blaring, so you pulled out an earbud.

"Sorry?"

"I said, I've seen you here before a few times."

"Oh. Yeah." You didn't know what else to say. You'd rehearsed several scenarios in your head, but at the moment you were breathing too hard to make actual conversation.

"I'm Harry," he said.

"Y/N," you replied, though you was sure it sounded more like a breathy mess.

"Good to meet you," he smiled again, making your heart race more than it already was.

Grabbing your water bottle, you took a long drink, emptying almost half of it. The next song that came on was clocked at an even faster bpm, so you sped up the speed of the treadmill. Now at a running pace, you felt the sweat drip down the back of your neck and between your breasts. Your breaths were hard but steady as you made sure you could handle it. There had been days when running was a breeze, and you'd feel exhilarated from pushing yourself to the limit. But because you hadn't been keeping up with your usual routine, and probably because you hadn't eaten, you could already feel your body resisting. You felt like your heart was beating out of your chest. You slowed the speed just slightly as you felt yourself getting light-headed.

"Hey, you okay?" you heard to your left.

You turned your head to Harry to looked concerned. Unable to speak, you nodded.

"You might wanna slow down," he gestured to the treadmill console.

You nodded again and did as he suggested. When you found a slower, jogging pace, you started to feel a little better, your breathing even once again. You held on to the bar this time, something you didn't normally do in order to regain the feeling in your legs which had seemed to go numb. You weren't sure how you'd even managed to run at all. It was as though you had phantom limbs that moved at their own will.

Finally, your playlist came full circle, a U2 song finishing out what you knew was the end of your workout. You walked for the remaining time, guzzling the last of your water.

Stepping off the treadmill, you immediately felt woozy. Blinking hard, careful not to get sweat in your eyes, you reached for your towel and wiped them. That was when two things seemed to happen both simultaneously and in slow motion. You saw Harry step off his treadmill and walk towards you, and everything went black.

"Y/N!"

You could hear a voice calling your name, and it sounded familiar but far away. You were probably dreaming.

"Y/N!" he called again.

Ouch, you thought. That light was too bright.

"C'mon, love, open your eyes."

His honey-like voice soothed you and you blinked, allowing the irritating light to shine in your eyes. That was when you saw his face, hovering over you like a guardian angel. His chest fell as he let out a sigh of relief.

"She's coming to," he relayed to someone behind him.

"Um..." you swallowed hard, your throat suddenly dry. "What happened?"

"You fainted, straight into my arms."

You groaned, lifting your hand to your head which you realized was throbbing.

"You know," he added with a smirk, "if you wanted my attention, you didn't have to go to such extremes."

"Oh God," you mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I just wanna make sure you're okay."

You stared at him for a moment before someone else appeared above your head and knelt down beside you.

"Miss, do you need a doctor?" the second man asked.

"No," you replied. "I think I just passed out. I'll be fine."

"Can you sit up?"

You realized then that Harry still had his arms around you. You nodded and allowed him to help you sit as you felt the blood rush to your head.

"Oh," you groaned again.

The other man handed you a bottle of what looked to be a sports drink. You took it from him and drank a large gulp, feeling it immediately run through your veins.

"You sure you don't need a doctor or an ambulance?"

You looked at him and shook your head. "No. It's fine."

The man nodded and patted your back. "Sit for as long as you need." Then he turned to Harry. "Don't let her make any sudden moves until she's ready."

"Yes, sir."

When the man walked away, Harry took your hand.

"You sure you're okay?"

"Not really, but I will be."

"Did you eat anything today?"

You let out a breath. "Very little."

"Are you diabetic?"

"No. Just overworked I suppose."

Harry shut his eyes and shook his head. "When you're ready, I'll help you stand," he offered. "Then I'm taking you to lunch."

You smiled gently. "You are?"

"Well...it wasn't how I was planning to ask you out. But it'll do."

If you enjoyed, please like, comment, reblog or send me a msg!

MASTERLIST | KO-FI | FEEDBACK

[omghallucinations]

enhypen heeuseung: wow this is a lot of nurturing benevolent energy especially for someone with a relentless work ethic and need to succeed???

psa: i went into this cold! i have seen clips of this boy off tiktok and i listen to enhypen's music a lot but idk him well, so lmk if this resonates from what u see lmao

wow, i am genuinely impressed! i would trust him with a lot more responsibility than your average man. there is a lot of empathy and compassion and sense of responsibility to others here! capture my heart, why don't you????

ok let's get started.

birth time unknown, my nemesis! well, we've got a range for his moon (21° virgo to 5° libra). no clue about rising, angles, etc etc etc. but! we can dispositor tree.

we've got a mutual reception tree, where venus and mercury rule each other.

someone with a mutual reception tree:

diplomatic

sees other people's perspectives

negotiator

two dimensions of the personality, might lean one way or the other

libra mercury has more influence unless his moon is in libra in which case that branch moves over to venus.

either way we can see his primary actors are gonna be : anxious kind of (self) critical art/relationships vs. diplomatic communication. the work ethic (saturn) also is important (saturn is in charge of mars, his willpower, who is very strong in capricorn), so is the moon (emotions, security needs) and jupiter (beliefs, travel, learning). question--does he have... anxiety? either way probably good to have him on a team bc he can smooth over conflict well.

unsurprisingly his libra sun is way down on the list of influence!! a libra sun is in its fall. a planet in its fall is like stranded somewhere where it does not have any currency, does not speak the language, has no idea what is going on. like it's still around but boy is it confused. libra suns + identity issues 4-ever. libra sun is leaky. the moon and rising are gonna be more influential, and in this case virgo vibes regardless of moon--venus in virgo wields influence over his sun.

ok so just ran into a problem that made me almost rage quit this entire post lmao--at around 8:45 pm virgo venus becomes libra venus. ugHHH this would change a shit ton. he seems like a day chart person though right??? i don't really know much about him idk!! i'm gonna move forward under the assumption that he has virgo venus and if it turns out he was born after 8:45 pm i'm gonna be pissed

cardinal squares and oppositions: rest??? but how could i provide for the family/for the good/for society if i rest??

right away there's a t-square-- jupiter opposite mars, mars square sun/mercury, sun/mercury square jupiter. t-squares are like... hey girl you ever repressed an emotion??? but also they are insanely productive. no one is gonna rest with a square.

cardinal oppositions and squares: activity, drive, FIX the PROBLEM right NOW, only god can stop me, allergic to asking for help capricorn mars: i am in control thus everything that goes wrong is my fault because i could have probably prevented it with willpower clearly i didn't eat enough spirulina or do enough planks cancer jupiter: ♫ we are the world  ♫ we are the children ♫ we are the ones who make a brighter day so let's start giving  ♫ mars opposite jupiter: i will INSPIRE the BELIEF into everyone!! there is no such thing as overcommitting!! i can take on infinite tasks!! so can you, believe in yourself!! capricorn opposition cancer: spare the rod spoil the inner child no wait we need to focus on nurturing, let's go work no let's go home, safety is through success no wait safety is through the family,

but never fear, squares are here! an opposition may fight forever, but a square comes to some kind of understanding or at least working relationship

capricorn square libra: ah let me rephrase, in a way that is pleasing to you and me, that actually the greatest goal is diplomacy... i mean we're going to do it my way but i will absolutely compromise because i am civil and refined... so... cancer square libra: wait i have no idea what is going on right now or what i'm feeling lol? um could someone... help me.... i'm totally fine giving up completely actually... idk... i really need family/friends to identify myself... ha ha... mars square sun: i know what i want and i will go after it! i must achieve or who am i??? i can never rest i always have to be Doing. my daddy/mommyfamily issues are not the point and have nothing to do with my need to succeed!! mars square mercury: uh what were we talking about haha? jupiter square sun: i will give u the shirt off my back i will give you my last protein bar i believe in growth and freedom and i am definitely as confident as i act like i am ha ha why would you think i wasn't??? jupiter square mercury: i have a great wide angle view of the world and humanity and stuff, also i overheard someone say something one time and completely misinterpreted the situation!! but it's okay i am focused on the future... the possibilities...

lol this is someone who has a really really rEALLY hard time resting. has he ever been injured?? if so, that must have fucking sucked for him. very Achievement Orientated but not in a selfish way, honestly much more focused on the group rather than the self--with the cardinal squares, he has no aries involved. it's all about the society (capricorn) the family (cancer) and the group/relationships (libra).

ahh it reminds me of someone who works 5x harder than other people and someone's like, omg leave some for the rest of us why are you working so hard it makes us look bad, and he's like "..." because it's not about putting himself above someone else! he's not succeeding at you, ok! he is doing so for you, be grateful, god.

mutable opposition: peter pan syndrom

gemini saturn opposes sagittarius pluto, this is generational but also a fun and cute opposition imo. i mean not pluto-saturn, that fully blows, but gemini-sagittarius!

gemini-sagittiarius: talkative, restless, Eternal Youth, down with the kids, subjective v objective, scattered v whole, fox v hedgehog

yay!!!!

however...

saturn-pluto: :(

saturn = anxiety fear and pluto = deep core terror, so together... mm. can be a fear of power, fear of power being put on him, fear of having power himself--heeseung may kind of dodge any leadership roles because he doesn't really trust himself.

saturn-pluto is usually very suspicious of people in authority anyway. can go back and forth between constructing and deconstructing, rules and no rules, i am a good little capitalist v burn all banks. you know what i mean!!

with this and heeseung's capricorn-libra square, he has a lot of stuff around authority and fairness.

let's talk air trines!

you can see an exact trine between heeseung's libra sun and his aquarius uranus--he's not too fussed about fitting in but he is very fussed about equality and equity and humanity and stuff. he has a talent for fairness. also he's lowkey weird with that uranus-mercury trine. idk if he shows this, but he is absolutely very strange.

with the trine from mercury to saturn, his work ethic is natural to him, and he has an ability to be responsible you don't always see with the amount of air energy lol.

also he's super wise and can leave shit in the past when he needs to. i would trust this guy with a lot of responsibilities actually! he has the ability to put his own ego aside and make the decision that's best for the collective even if it's worse for himself, SUPER rare.

damn... i may have to stan??

also uranus mercury and saturn are all retrograde (and neptune) so he's gonna have to unpack a lot of stuff in his life, he's on an Individuation Journey, lots of karmic untangling, go with god my past life baggage buddy

venus-moon conjunction: 🥺

on the left, 12:00 am. on the right, 11:59 pm. either way, we've got a venus-moon conjunction, it's just how close the conjunction goes.

dude i may really have to stan. this is such an adorable conjunction. is he a mama's boy? he might be.

he is so sensy and also is afraid of hurting other people's feelings. he feels rejected easily (maybe less than some people with this placement, bc of his other aspects) and assumes everyone feels rejected easily too, so he is very careful. people pleaser to the max. very sensitive to criticism, probably wants to fix everything immediately if he feels like he made a mistake even if was barely a mistake. girl same, mood.

it's a really good thing he has that capricorn mars and the cardinal opposition/squares because they keep him from being too delicate or yielding, gives him the willpower to move through hurt and things like that. moon-venus conjunction can be too accommodating but capricorn mars hates accommodating so it's a good balance.

hm he might have some gender things, like traditional beliefs around gender. idk if they are actually true to his personality though--it seems more like expectations he was raised with and in some ways they counter his actual personality, but he holds onto them anyway.

and whoever he gets with... you may have to deal with an overly involved mother-in-law.

venus-moon... square chiron: in conflict with his Wound, like it fuels his sensitivity but also there is maybe a feeling of... all is not how it seems, like he may not totally believe someone when they tell him they love him. bright side he is really really caring. (also his chiron is conjunct his south node... hm something is up with his childhood. his mom might be overcompensating for something she feels guilty about that happened to him when he was a kid? idk.) square lunar nodes: essential for his soul's growth--he's gonna have to deal with his own emotional safety needs and relationships in order to Grow. his south node in capricorn is very "workaholic" and his north node in cancer is very "learn to focus on ur own life and family", so that's clear. also at 0°, his lunar nodes are very potent. opposite pisces lilith: virgo v pisces is very martyr vibes, very rescuer or being rescued, he might have a tendency to want to save people that is actually about him wanting himself to be saved? very service-orientated though but he'll need to look that in the face to see what's underneath that need

fixed stars & asteroids & stuff

heeseung's sun is conjunct the fixed star spica. damn he's got some guardian angels. this is the star of protection and benefit. pure dose of helpful energy. you don't always get what you want but you get what u need.

saturn is conjunct the asteroid vesta, who is all about commitment. leadership vibes. he may shun the leadership role but it's after him anyway. when he says he's gonna do something he does it. trustworthy, needs to Believe in something to commit to it.

damn this is good boy disease. what the hell dude. do we have to be so virtuous??? god!!!

---

well!! i am still pausing my enhypen deep dive until i look at all of their charts so we will see, but what do u guys think his he more this one or that one?

actually this is extra hard edition because libra moons and moon conjunction venus are like. super similar lol. PEOPLE PLEASERS.

anyway. is he more overthinker or compulsive smoother-over? what's the vibe?

thank u for joining me on this journey. i've learned a lot and now my heart hurts but i too am air dominant so i don't wanna talk about it :)

[bengiyo]

Wandee Goodday Ep 4 Stray Thoughts

Last week, we got to see Dee and Yak getting mutual pleasure from their current arrangement before Wandee got embarrassed at work and decided to lie and say he had a new boyfriend. Dee asked Yak to be his fake boyfriend, but Yak refused on the grounds that they agreed to not get involved in each other's personal lives and also he didn't want to come out as a boxer. Dee ignored this resistance and then tried to trick Yak into spending time with him to get him to agree. Yak, ever the simp, acquiesced after Dee showed vulnerability. Also, we got more insight into Oyei and Cher, learning that Oyei took on debt during COVID, and Cher comes from a wealthy family. The two are a team and I love them.

Whoa are we opening on a nightmare memory?

Okay, I like this moment. If they're going to be friends with benefits, this is definitely a moment when Yak needed a friend.

Drake's tiddies is out. A gift for me and @happypotato48 and @yankeebastard who is here saying "Hey, Daddy."

Yes, Kao, ask that man direct questions. Now, throw Ter into the pool.

Poor Kwan. Ter seems more concerned with Dee than her.

NOT ROOM 666!!! THE DEVIL! This show said "Don't feel sorry for him. Even the Devil can feel a little bad when he got kicked out of heaven."

This show is so good. We cut beautifully to Yoryak enjoying the same offering Dee had given The Devil.

Very invested in these two talking about their crushes between their own tussles.

We got a new sign! "Be Available But Not For Everyone."

Be careful, Dee. Don't fall in love after telling him to practice confessing.

Interesting. I think Cher knows that Yak has plans beyond boxing and this gym. @yankeebastard thinks it might be a promise Yak made to his mom.

Cher is so gentle and careful with Yak. He lets Yak tell him what he needs to say with such sensitive prodding.

Not Yak getting horny listening to Dee exert himself and remembering their hookups.

The editors are doing a great job with the audio cues this week.

Wow, Taem is clearly a leader of Team Tote Bag.

Hold your ankles? Definitely not the first time Yak has been told that, among other things, I'm sure.

Dee, you gotta sort yourself when it comes to Yak.

I love that Oyei is always trying to get Cher in the shower with him.

Kao jumped up quick at the tea, and is so real for wanting to choke Dee out.

Keeping track of these two almost forgetting themselves and kissing. Excellent gay content.

The Devil is back and he is jealous. I hate this man. He meant it before when he said he didn't like men or Dee. Fuck this guy.

The whole gym is judging them and I love it.

Why wear your gym shirts if you don't want to be seen?

Oyei and Cher judging them together is so important to me.

Very smooth of Cher to just talk them out of the conversation about the parents.

David was correct about the mom.

Yes, scratch his back. I love the use of metaphor on this show.

Poor Kwan. I'm glad she can see through Ter.

I love Kao. Tell your friend is he embarrassing both of you.

Kao said try out my new line of products

Yoryak thought he was outside of the MySpace top 8 and got his feelings hurt.

I really liked the way they handled this HPV PSA. Good job, BL.

That was a solid episode. I like that they're tackling the blurring of the lines in the relationship explicitly, and I like that Dee recognizes that he's jealous. It's interesting having The Devil call out the relationship as fake and be right and wrong. I wanna think about the parents for a bit, because Cher checking that Oyei was okay with Yoryak felt pointed.

[forevermore05]

1. I can't speak for other cultures that were represented in this show (I'm so sorry if your representation was ruined too), but since I'm a South Asian and specifically an Indian and Hindu. I think I have some credibility. Ok, so this may depend on the interpretations of Hinduism that you've grown up with if you're a Hindu reading this. Well, growing up, I was always taught that Chakras were so important. I learned that the GODS could not accomplish something unless they access all their Chakras (again, this is the interpretation I grew up with it might not be the same for you). So the fact that watching Aang just be able to live life without accessing all of his charkas properly was a big slap to the face. Let me just say this right now. If you were representing a culture, especially the culture that you base the entire show on you either do it correctly or you don't do it at all. Don't make it half-baked because that's just disrespecting the people who follow that religion. And you're emphasizing how insignificant their religious values are (mind you Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world). What little representation we had was also ruined.

2. I also want to talk about another point since I'm here. I think I've made it very clear that I'm a woman of color. Even though me and Katara Are not the same ethnicity. She was my representation through skin color. And it's so interesting. How even though I knew that she was not my ethnicity, I still grasped onto her as a representation. Now this is not a PSA for studios to say "Hey, let's have a person that is brown, and everyone will be okay with it because they will have a person of the same skin to relate to." No this is me criticizing the lack of diversity in the show. The fact that you can base an entire show on a culture but not be able to handle a main character from that culture. And also I think the reason why I like Zuko and Katara ( I've made this point before) But the amount of respect that they have. As a woman of color, I have not exactly received respect from other men whether that be because of my gender or my skin color. So seeing a woman of color be respected regardless it's just so refreshing to me.

3. Also I want people to be mindful that a lot of people who ship this ship. Are women of color and/or part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. However, I'm going to talk specifically about women of color since I'm straight. A lot of us have come from countries that have been colonized and still face the repercussions of colonization to this day, so what I'm trying to say is. When woc ship this duo they know what they're doing and they're not doing anything wrong. It's disrespectful to insult them for being racist and misogynistic when in reality a lot of these women face misogyny and racism in their own lives. They understand why they ship this ship. They understand it very well because they able to see and understand what is truly going on.

4. If you have a problem with this post and want to potentially hunt me down. I'm only saying this because I've seen other women of color be harassed for liking Zutara. I need you to remember that I'm a teenager. I'm a kid. I don't think you want to beef with a kid. And no, it does not matter that I'm 18. You shouldn't be harassing anyone over a ship. In fact, accusing shippers of being racist but then being racist to that poc/woc shipper is insane. It kind of shows that those people are not on a moral high horse.

5. I'm a kid......don't even think about it.

[austinslounge]

PSA - Re: Austin's Relationships (Past & Present)

Hey everyone, while it's fun to speculate about Austin's relationships (past and present), I think it's important to keep in mind that we really don't know everything that went on in his relationship w/Vanessa. The only people who truly know that are Austin and Vanessa. All we know is what we saw with our own eyes. Everything else is just rumors, hearsay, and gossip.

Same with Austin and Kaia. As much as we speculate about their relationship, the reality is, we really don't know what their relationship is really like. All we can go by is what we see. Everything else is just gossip, speculation, hearsay, etc.

Until Austin himself talks deeply about his past relationships and his experiences, all we can go on is what we see in photos and videos, and what Austin himself has said. 😊

We can make guesses and inferences, but at the end of the day, the truth is, we really don't know these relationships and how good or bad they were (or are). So, while it might be fun for us to speculate, it's still good to keep in mind that we really don't know what goes on in people's relationships... let alone, people we don't even know personally.

I personally feel like some fans behave like they know all about Austin's relationships, or why he and Vanessa broke up, etc., and the truth is, we don't know shit. And until Austin or Vanessa write a tell-all book, or give a heartfelt interview about their relationships, we don't know the full story.

[normal-paldean-student]

MMM PSA

hey! it's come to my attention that some people are using the MMM prompts to play with darker or more intense themes than usually appear on their blogs. that's absolutely fine, but it's important to remember that your followers followed you based on your normal content, and might not want to see that stuff. so please give a warning and provide a blacklist tag so people don't feel like they have to unfollow.

[gt-zel]

To Zel:

Hey dude, listen, I’m sorry abt all this shit. I have like 2 important things to say that might?? Be some flavor of helpful? Do what you will w this.

1) online space is not real life, and your blog is first and foremost for you. You are not beholden to the mental wellbeing of strangers. Ever. For any reason. You don’t owe your followers anything, actually. Nothing at all. If they try to force their moral repulsion down your throat that is a Them problem. If other people cannot handle the shit you’re posting they have a fucking block button. It’s literally right there.

2) I’m not your mom so I’m not gonna tell you how to handle this. It’s up to you. I wish you a restful time away from all this if you need it. Not everything is your fault, especially not this shit. You didn’t hurt anyone, you were just posting what felt right at the time. They hurt themselves by failing to pull away and enforce their own boundaries. That is on them. The act of creation, even darker creation, in and of itself is not one that can ever harm anyone aside from the creator, and it sounds like you’ve been running yourself ragged trying to keep up with people who haven’t asked you to compete with them. Rest. Come back when art is fun again. Come back if art is fun again.

TL;DR: I’m so sorry someone forced their emotional wellbeing onto your shoulders bro oh my god.

To the fuckhead that did this:

How dare you make someone else’s artistic expression about your needs. You’re being mean and unreasonable. It’s childish to expect others to bend to your fucking whims because the way they post makes you uncomfortable. They are NOT violating your boundary by existing on their blog, especially when you can block freely. It is your responsibility to cater to your online garden. If that means pruning a shrub that you once liked a lot because it’s no longer producing the pretty roses you want from it, do that. This space literally gives you a hedge trimmer. Use it. Either that, or ask nicely for them to tag and then understand that they don’t actually have to do anything for you if they don’t want to.

PSA: nobody owes you emotional safety on the internet, even in sfw spaces!!! You gotta make the safety yourself god dammit and that includes blocking entire blogs even if you like some of the stuff on there! It’s your decision and it’s your life and it’s WILDLY DISRESPECTFUL to demand other ppl cater to your fucking whims all the time. It is your job to moderate your online space.

Sincerely, 🌙

I appreciate the passionate words, however it was my fault for not clarifying via trigger warnings that the content I was posting was gory and had depictions of torture in it. So it is my responsibility for not keeping a safe space in the first place and I’m taking the blame for those actions.

[chaifootsteps]

This Episode of Ask Chaifootsteps is called: Metallica Anon's Thoughts on Bluey 🤘

Well Chai, I just finished watching S1 of Bluey, all within six days as the episodes are only seven minutes long. Now I shall begin S2.

All I can say is... wow! Bluey is an abso-wacka-lutely fantastic show! I still can't believe I thought it was overhyped drivel (perhaps I was still deep in the red smog). I pretty much like every aspect of this show. The animation, the characters, the music, the stories, and even the messages. I find it admirable that Bluey isn't afraid to tackle more mature-ish subjects, such as consent or death or sleep deprivation. Honestly, Bluey is a show that just makes me feel good. In a way, it really reminds of Hey Arnold... except with anthropomorphic dogs. 🐶

As for issues, I barely have any. Sure, there are some characters that are uninteresting, and there are some episodes that boring or too on-the-nose. Also, not sure if this an issue, but there was a moment in the minisode "Browny Bear" where Led Zeppelin was mentioned, which rubbed me... not the wrong way, but in some way. Maybe I'm still not used to having real-world things mentioned in kids cartoons. (If LZ is canon, does this mean Metallica is also canon in Bluey?) 😵

Yet despite all my binging, I still haven't had a Bluey dream yet... Aw biscuits!

One more thing before I go, coconuts have water in them! 🥥

This was such a wonderful thing to read...thank you for this! It's absolutely true; not every episode of Bluey is a winner, but on the whole, this show's a delight and a gift. Every aspect of it is so carefully crafted and there's so much love behind it. Can't wait to hear more of your Bluey thoughts!

(The Muffin sleep deprivation episode might be one of my least favorites, but I find it hilarious that it's basically a kid-friendly PSA on the importance of caring for drunk friends. It should be shown at every college freshman orientation.)

[traumatizedpomelo]

PSA: I WILL BE TEMPORARILY LEAVING TUMBLR

Hey yall! Tumblr is a wonderful place for me, it's where I go to talk about fandom stuff that I can't in real life, to share art that I loved making, and to get away from the stressors of everyday life.

unfortunately those stressors really need my attention right now 😭i'm in a pretty important stage of my academic career, and I need to be completely focused on that, which means I'm logging off for a bit.

I might come back after January, I might return sometime closer to summer, but I will return. in the meantime, I wanted to thank all you lovely folk who I've gotten to know (my beloved mutuals) and I hope you'll stick around until I come back :)

sincerely,

bee 🐝

[thedawner]

hey I really enjoy your style and brush packs! I've bought a couple of the packs, and I wanted to ask if you have any tips for using your brushes/getting the most out of them? Like what sort of brushes would you say work best for coloring/shading/lineart - some are obvious (ex liner for lineart) but I struggle with picking ones to use and what works!

Hello, thank you very much for the support! Let me know which program you got 'em for and I could try to highlight some particular ones from there.

I like to try to use the lineart brushes both for sketching, lining and coloring, especially the brushes that are like "Thick Tone Pencil"(or similar) or have coloring changing features to them!

Also, this is a more general answer:

🔶 I usually use brushes named around the word "Shale" for lineart and I usually sketch and color with those too. If you use Procreate the Personal Shale from this free set is my most frequently used:

I try to treat it like a very springy, multipurpose brush pen.

I've first tried to make something similar for Photoshop here(and later on re-made the brushes for CSP and Procreate):

From the sets above I like to use the Dried Up Ink/Dry Ink brushes both for lineart and for painting. I draw over loose paint strokes with it to define shapes or to re-make what I painted over! Those sets also contain painting brushes such as Flat Varnish Oil/Painty, Textury, Triangly/Oil Brick which could work well if you want to go for a thick, mushy oil pastel/oil paint texture. For thin, precise sketching, I like to use the Concept Art Lad!

🔶 I also like sketching/lining/coloring/painting with the coloring changing tone brushes such as the ones from these sets:

When painting with color changing brushes, I like to color pick from what the brush randomly generated for me and build up on that!

The brush sets above have a brush called Wispy Sketching Brush which I use for bold and loose brush strokes! It's like a sable brush but covered in graphite(that also changes colors with each stroke).

🔶 There are also a lot of flat, tone brushes for shading in those sets too and a few more in here:

That one above contains a series of Blocky Marker brushes that I like to use for fairly much everything.

🔶 There's also this free PS brush pack which imports decently in Procreate and CSP that has a brush called Soggy Pencil. It behaves like a regular sharp pencil tip, but if you make it bigger, you can create dusty, blurry or out-of-focus effects:

[auras3ye]

activity psa

hey friends, so if it wasn’t already obvious i haven’t really been around recently anywhere, due to a number of factors. i am here to inform you that this is probably not going to be changing much anytime soon. well the disassociation has finally let go of my brain, i am faced with another present hurdle. as of tonight ( sun 12am ) i am the full time shift lead till feb. my supervisor is going back to africa on mon for two months holiday, which he is more than deserving of as he doesn’t take holidays during the year at all. as the deputy supervisor, operating on the weekends, i have now inherited his position five days a week. with the tensions among the various staff even two days can take a lot out of me. my job in itself is already exhausting, now with that on top of it. i am only getting christmas day off in dec as i am too important to let go for a week but hey they let my shitty coworker with less seniority take five days and i am definitely not upset about that : )))))) so i will not have any down time from this. i am going to be very tired and anxious at times during this period. my motivation is going to fluctuate excessively. i can be here for a few days straight and then vanish for weeks. it all depends on my mental state.

i love warren, and all my blogs so much and i am not abandoning them. but i wanted to explain that the activity dips will continue for the next two months. on the plus side, being the supervisor full time means i have computer access all five nights i am on, so realistically there is more chance for writing. but all of this is going to depend on my mood and work load. i am also going to stop making “i’ll be active soon, or maybe tonight” posts. they have been wigging me out lately and then i feel guilty for not delivering. in short, consider this a semi hiatus, and i will be active when and where, wherever i feel like it.

i appreciate your patience with me and i encourage mutuals to reach out to me on disco : warrdenpowers. (with the dot) for those that don’t have me yet. for plotting and chatting purposes. hell it might even be easier to rp in servers. so msg me about that if you are interested. anyway, thanx for reading this. i adore you all 💜💙💛 xoxo

[shallowseeker]

Hey hey PSA I don't answer asks about fanfic, or what you see in fanfic per se. (I haven't even read The Greats in this fandom; I've only been here a coupla years!)

I'm happy to talk about specific things that fandom plays with on occasion and how I think they might relate to canon (often, canon can be braided to mean all of the things and all of the emotional states), but at the heart of things, I wholeheartedly believe fanfic is to EXPLORE things and have a good fuckin' time.

It's taking that what-if, or that moment of psychological fragility and putting it in the great big blender to see how you can stress it more, or even to heal it!

Like, really... fanfic isn't about meta, it's about answering important what-if questions like, "What if Sam got his period and then drank it because he hallucinated it was demon blood?" etc etc

[xaaxaa-translations]

A little PSA

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to pop in quickly and share some news with you all. The ownership of this blog has changed hands. Unfortunately, the original admin and creator can no longer maintain the blog, but there's no need to worry – xaaxaa translations are here to stay! :D

I'll be doing my best to keep the updates coming and to deliver the best translations I can manage. I thought it was important to let you know that my Japanese isn't perfect, so I'm counting on you guys to point out any mistakes you might notice (and maybe help me improve along the way TT).

With that said, I really hope you'll welcome me with open arms!

Cheers!