#( take a bunch of professional people and you start to think they only understand things through their professions )

[clochanamarch]

aisling not being able to take out the company of v this time bc they're public figures and immensely influential, and if she didn't have the kids and the squad to worry about she'd probably do it anyway, but any action she takes is answered with a retaliation that might hurt them, ultimately leading to her needing to resort to more subtle methods when it comes to fighting them.

[lemonlover1110]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬

Satoru Gojo

[Chapter 10] Late Nights

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Pairing: Satoru Gojo x f!Reader

Discord +18 - Twitter - Ko-Fi

Satoru’s behavioral change is something that you never really expected. It seems that he’s warming up once again, even though you’re not giving him the attention he desires. He wants you to be the sweet and loving woman that you were when you were in a relationship, but you aren’t that woman. But it’s fine with him, he’s still warming up and treating you like an actual human being.

The bar is low, but you don’t really expect much from spoiled little Satoru. 

For some reason, you’re not liking this change though. You prefer him as the cold and mean boss that would snap and berate you due to a minor mistake. Maybe it’s because he’s molding and reminding you of the man that you used to love and you don’t want to see traces of the past relationship. Ren is the only reminder you need, and the best reminder because he reminds you how Satoru left you without an explanation.

You hate how he suddenly drops the mean act and is sweet; professional but still sweet. He tries to make an effort by asking how you’re doing, asking you to take breaks during work hours so you don’t tire yourself out so quickly (knowing that sometimes you have to run some errands for his mom), and whenever he orders food he asks if you want anything. You wonder what his mom said to him especially when you remember how he broke down and hugged you out of nowhere. She definitely said something to him.

“Have you started sending out the invitations?” Satoru asks, and you hum in response. Even though he knows you’re busy, sometimes you can’t get out of the task of working late nights. There’s so much to do in one day sometimes, and it’s especially busy with an upcoming charity event. It’s an event that his father would host each year but it consequently stopped when his mother got a hold of the company. Since Satoru is officially the president of the company, he’s honoring his father by bringing back the event– Additionally, it brings great publicity to the company, but that’s just an added bonus.

“Around one hundred people have said yes, a handful declined, and we still have a lot of people that haven’t opened it or are just thinking about it.” You inform him. 

“Have the Zenins said anything? Any of them?” He’s curious to know their response, and you try to recall. You remember the Zenin name coming up a lot while growing up, you never really got to understand the relationship between that family and the Gojos. They’re in constant competition yet they still invite each other to big events.

“Yeah… They declined.” You answer when you remember. He feels relieved to know that. They’re the last group of people he wants to see… A bunch of complicated snobby pieces of shit. He quite literally doesn’t understand why his father insisted on inviting them to every major event. He remembers Naoya, mainly because they went to school together, and that boy was unbearable. Satoru was lucky that he was a year younger. “I remember one of the Zenins–”

You can’t quite remember his name, and you try to remember the name. It’s on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite get it. Until Satoru speaks up, “Naoya.”

“Yeah! He asked me out when I was like sixteen. Really awkward… He told me that I’d never amount to nothing and it’d be weird to see him and show him that he was right.” You share, and Satoru finds himself surprised at the information that you share. How has he never heard of that? 

“Good thing that you rejected him. Suguru and I would’ve never allowed that relationship to happen anyway.” He responds, and you raise your brows. It’s weird why he’s bringing it up, but you’re more curious as to why Suguru of all people wouldn’t allow that to happen. You understand why Satoru would’ve been upset– But not Suguru. You chew on the inside of your cheek anxiously, wondering if you should ask the question that comes up in your mind.  In the end you ask,

“Why wouldn't Suguru have allowed that relationship to happen?” And Satoru isn’t sure how to respond. He isn’t sure whether to dismiss the question and get back to work, or to answer honestly. Satoru’s eyes shift back to his computer before he says anything.

“He used to have a crush on you back then.” He clears his throat, grabbing his water and taking a sip of it. You find yourself a bit taken back, a stupid smirk on your lips and it pisses him off. You shift in your seat, adjusting yourself so your back is straight.

“Suguru had a crush on me?” You sound so fucking proud of it, and it takes everything in Satoru to remain his composure. You repeat the question, sounding even more proud than the last time. 

“Yeah, he did.” Satoru says through gritted teeth. You’re way too ecstatic to even care about how he talks. His hands form into fists and he tries to hide them from you. “Why does it matter anyway? We ended up dating.”

“I’m just wondering… We all wonder how life would’ve turned out differently if we had made different decisions.” You answer, and he scoffs. When his hands are visible again, your eyes fall on your wedding band. “It doesn’t matter anyway, we’re here to work.”

“You’re right.” He nods his head in response. He focuses on what you have to do before you go back home. He’s sure you’re in a rush to go back home to your stupid cat.

“Plus, you’re married to someone else. It doesn’t matter if I had chosen to date him.” 

He bites down on his lip. He guesses you’re right. He’s not allowed to get upset. After all, he did leave you without an explanation. Maybe he should’ve let Suguru get with you. 

“Mommy!” Ren yells, the biggest smile on his face when he sees you. You always welcome him with open arms, picking him up from the floor and filling his little face with kisses. Even though you’re exhausted by the time you get home, you always manage to find energy to spend some quality time with him.

As you pay attention to him, brushing his hair out of his face with your fingers, the nanny collects her stuff and says her goodbyes before leaving. It’s your daily routine. While you greet him, she leaves without missing a beat. “Are you hungry, Ren?”

“No.” He answers, and while he says that, your stomach growls. Satoru offered to buy food but you rejected the offer since you wanted to leave as soon as you could. Ren, being the honest little boy that he is, points it out, “Sounds like you’re hungry, mommy.”

“I am. I’m gonna order something.” You say, definitely too tired to cook something up. You smile at him, tilting your head to the side, “Do you have any ideas?”

“Pizza.” He doesn’t waste a second, and you chuckle. You figured. You kiss the top of his head and you put him down on the floor before reaching into your purse to grab your phone. You find a couple of messages on your phone from different people. Mrs. Gojo telling you that you need to talk, a similar message from Shoko, and then Suguru checking up on you.

First thing’s first, you order your food delivery before you send a message to Suguru. You then call Mrs. Gojo, and within the first ring, she picks up the phone. She doesn’t bother greeting you before saying, “What’s up with Satoru?”

“I have no idea. I’m his secretary, not his babysitter nor his mother.” You respond, too tired to care about the way you speak to her. “You should know.”

“I swear to God, if you said anything to him–” She stops mid sentence and takes a deep breath. “Do you have an idea of what’s going on?”

“I have no idea. What did Satoru do?” You ask her. You hear her sigh.

“I’ll talk to him. I’ll call you if I need anything.” She says before hanging up the phone. You turn your full attention to Ren, deciding that anything else can wait until he’s asleep. You walk over to him and crouch down to his level.

“You wanna watch a movie, Ren?” You ask him and he nods in response. He follows you as you walk over to the couch to look for the remote control.

“Can we eat ice cream, mommy?” He looks at you with puppy eyes, and it’s hard for you to say no.

“After dinner, Ren.” You tell him, taking a seat on the couch. He takes a seat next to you, laying his head on your lap.

You will always hold some sort of resentment towards Satoru, but you will always be thankful for the little boy that rests his head on your lap. Ren is your whole world.

When Ren is sound asleep, you find yourself on the couch, finger hovering over Suguru’s contact. And just as you’re about to call him, someone calls you first. The man that you were just thinking of. You don’t waste a second picking up the phone and putting it to your ear.

“Hey, Suguru.” There’s a dumb smile on your face. It becomes bigger when he says your name. You don’t waste any time considering your eyes are shutting on their own. You’ve texted the entire night, talking about trivial things. You just have to come out and say it, “Satoru told me that you liked me back in the day.”

“Is that so?” Suguru responds, and you hum. You bite down on your lip, waiting for him to say something else. Any other time you would be embarrassed to just say that, but your brain is barely functioning, and your confidence is extremely high. “What do you think?”

“That if you had said something before Satoru then…” You swallow thickly. Would you have chosen Suguru over Satoru? After realizing just how immature Satoru is, right now you say you would’ve chosen Suguru. Back then though… It doesn’t matter now anyway. “Maybe Ren would’ve been your kid.”

“Is that so?” You hear how he’s holding back on laughing. Finally you hear a chuckle. “Is that your way of shooting your shot?”

“Maybe…” You respond, and you’re lucky you’re half asleep when you’re saying all of this. The silence would be your biggest embarrassment at any other moment. You smile as you hear,

“Do you wanna go on a date?”

[meiguicha]

AITA for complimenting my colleague and kissing him on the cheek?

Blade x Fem!Reader - Reddit exists AU

its stupid4stupid

Update 1 - Final Update

r/AmItheAsshole ~ 9 system hr. ago

easternskiesonamoonlitnight

I (???F) work with a group of people who undertake a bunch of odd tasks, one of whom who I will refer to as Dao, (???M) is the colleague I'm now terrified that I have offended. To preface, he's gone through a lot and now has developed a certain mindset that makes him a little hard to approach. He's not very open with the rest of us, albeit I find he's a little colder towards me. Still, he isn't someone I would say is hostile, just quiet.

Now over the years, I may or may not have developed a not-so discrete crush on him but have no plans nor have acted on it. But now I'm scared I may have fucked up our entire professional relationship.

A few days ago, we had just started a new mission we received and so in an effort to further understand our target, we had to pretend to be a couple to gain access into a certain location. This is where shit started going sideways.

I rarely get to see Dao in anything other than his usual uniform (???) so when I saw him in a suit I couldn't help but to compliment him and to call him 'incredibly handsome'. This was just before we had to start our mission and he just scowled at me and told me to get a move on. For the rest of the night, I could feel him glaring at me every time we were separated. And also he just kept following after me from afar whenever I had to move elsewhere to talk to someone else.

There was also a moment where our status as a couple came under question so I kissed him on the cheek to really sell it. This isn't weird for me because I have done the same thing to my other colleagues on other missions but when I did it to Dao, he broke the table next to us from how hard he was gripping it.

When we were done and he was driving us back, he didn't talk to me even though I apologised for everything. He also took my bag that had the keys to my hotel room so I was forced to sleep with him for the night. I don't think he slept because I didn't and I could feel him staring at me.

I think I may have offended him but I don't know what I did. He refuses to tell me anything even after we finished our task, but now I just catch him glaring at me or tailing after me even during our day offs. There were a few times where I woke up and he was just staring at me in my bedroom, if not, there are times my door is left wide open even though I locked it.

I think I might have to just kill myself because quitting my job is not an option for me. And if I don't, I think he'll get me first.

So, AITA for calling my colleague handsome?

GalacticBaseballer069 ~ 8 system hr. ago ~ OP, what kind of job do you work where kissing your colleagues is normal. also do you take resumés

TileGamer4ever ~ 9 system hr. ago ~ NTA, I'm pretty sure your colleague is in love with you. easternskiesonamoonlitnight OP ~ 9 system hr.ago ~ I don't know what you're on, but give me some. I think I'm going to need it.

QuietonDeck ~ 6 system hr. ago ~ YTA, did you at least ask whether he was comfortable with you doing all of that to him? People like you think you're entitled to do whatever you want only to write it off as 'part of your personality' or 'normal for you'. You knew he was acting colder towards you and yet you chose to compliment him as some sick attempt to get closer to him. I hope he... Read more theyearspasson ~ 4 system hr. ago ~ dude are you reading this with your ass or something

[scottxlogan]

The down side to being a fanfic author/fan artist

Look, I know we've all heard it before but since fandom is slowly fading away to things like AI and people simply not leaving likes/comments it's getting to the point that it's turning away people behind fan works simply because there is no engagement anymore. Each one of us has our own process, so I can't speak for everyone, but with me when I create a fanfic for example, I get an idea, get excited about an idea, write out the idea/chapter and then go through an editing process that used to be a one time thing where I detail something and change things around, but often I find myself editing a few times to make the work the best it can be. This is a very time consuming process that often has me shying away from being super social when it comes to chatting because I'm trying to put together something that I'm not only excited about, but I'm also excited to share with others.

After all that work is done, I post it, then make sure to let everyone know it's there, taking the time to share it on Tumblr, discord, etc. and then I find myself filled with a sense of accomplishment and excitement hoping that people love the work as much as I do. I know it's silly but that moment of posting if filled with excitement/nervousness because you never know how something will land, but you're hoping it does well.

Then 24 hours pass and you see there are views, but minimal to no likes/kudos or comments and then you think "well maybe I posted it at the wrong time and it just didn't hit the right audience." Or maybe I should put out a regular schedule or that maybe I shouldn't post WIPs until they are complete since I know a lot of people WON'T READ a story until it's complete, which hey I get it. Books are like that. You get the whole experience and you don't want to be left hanging. I mean sure it makes sense but for me as a fanfic author (who isn't a paid professional author) sometimes in the past I'd do WIPs and it was the feedback that I received from readers that shaped and formed the story itself beyond my idea because it gave me even more food for thought to create. Now that kind of feedback simply isn't there. There's no reaction and it's quite frankly disheartening.

Case in point I had people BEG ME to write a sequel to a one shot I wrote recently and I told myself if I got 4 comments (just 4 which really isn't much) on the story I would do it. Fortunately, as luck would have it I got more than four comments and a bunch of people excited by the possibility of a story. So then I wrote it, posted the first couple chapters of a sequel and by chapter 2 there is one amazing reader (who is honestly the best and a reason why I continue to write in that particular fandom) who left an awesome comment/feedback but beyond that NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and like this is a story that I've already written 4 and 1/2 chapters on because people were so excited for it, yet when I post there's nothing. I get people are busy and life is busy but when it's getting over a lot of hits and people are seeing it, it makes me question what's going on here? Like are people just turned off by the idea of an unfinished WIP or just turned off by something longer than 1000 words? It's hard to sort it all out and a bit frustrating that no one is trying to make an effort to let writers (not just me) know how much they like the work.

TBH I just don't get it and for those who are lucky enough to get engagement I'm happy for you, but I don't for the life of me understand why no one wants to get involved with fandom anymore. If I make a post on Tumblr about a story even though I have THOUSANDS of followers on this blog alone it gets like 4-10 notes most of the time (if I'm lucky) and it's usually my closest friends just trying to show support for my efforts. This also applies to if I make an art piece, which by the way takes just as much time to create if not more, and it's starting to really depress me in general. I see so many fan arts out there and I would NEVER claim to be one of the best as there are so many beautiful artists, but I know my art isn't complete trash either. Sure, I'm a WIP myself as an artist, but when I reblog other people's art it gets them a LOT of notes and reblogs because, well, as I mentioned before I have THOUSANDS of followers who do look at art and do see what I post, so I'm not quite clear on why anything I post never lands with the audience when it's the same subject. I mean honestly it can't be that bad people. My art is just as valid as anyone else's (as is my fanfic for that matter) and the fact that I'm not getting any engagement is so disheartening. It doesn't matter what fandom I'm doing art or fanfic for I'm getting little to no engagement and I simply don't get it.

Again I'm not trying to whine, but I just sit back and see people praising other authors/artists and how great their works are and both of mine slip under the radar after hours of effort. I even got to the point that I told my sister today that I've set a number for myself in terms of feedback I receive this month and if I don't find myself getting that quota (which tbh is so ridiculously low that given all my fanfics I have written it shouldn't be an issue) that I'm going to quit writing and doing fandom art because it's clear no one really cares whether it's out there or not. if they did, I feel as if they'd let me know it and no one is, so at this point I feel like I'm very close to being done beyond the obligations I still have because while sure I do it for myself, I also did it for the community and if the community isn't interested in what I have to contribute and makes me feel like my contributions are invalid and unimportant, then what's the point? I mean really it's just sad in general and I'm well aware no one is going to probably read all of this either but it's just where I'm at.

[jankenshouta]

i just had the best conversation of my entire life related to fandom. plus, i found out my friend is pro-ship :]

long text incoming...

it all started with me posting some statuses on WhatsApp about hating how internet is nowadays, i mean like, harassment becoming something more common and watering down serious issues too (like for example calling someone a PDF or using terms such as Cheese Pizza or 'grape'). a friend of mine, one of my closest friends, replied saying they 100% agree with me. especially with the part about watering down serious terms.

yes, we both understand that youtubers often use these words to not get demonetized but... come on? what happened to censor the words with 'bleep' or just muting them while editing? plus my friend said people might use these terms to not trigger other people but... surprise surprise, triggering is necessary. in a mean like, people NEED to get terms like "murder" and "rape" relate to SERIOUS crimes that can hurt/kill people, and terms like "unalive" or "🍇" takes off all the weight of the word. you get what i mean?

then, we went on talking about a (nice) video i saw, about... Roblox, surprisingly. it was like a 15-minute-video edited on kinemaster about problems that aren't very discussed in the Roblox community, those problems being the SKINS. in a mening of, have you ever noticed how people on Roblox have been accused of crimes like pedophilia just because of their skin? often a furry avatar or a revealing (or not) feminine avatar? i find it funny how they get pissed about furry/feminine skins but don't say SHIT about masculine skins revealing their whole chest? kind of remembers me of something called misogyny (or not, feel free to correct me).

(note: i think i made it look like the guy in the video was saying furry skins equal pedophiles but NO, he's complaining exactly about these people who accuse others of crimes over skins.)

he also talked about a youtuber who made a Roblox/Discord bot that banned anyone who seemed like a "predator" to it. said tuber wasn't even a programmer. he used ChatGPT instead of, I don't know, hiring a professional programmer? surprise surprise, the bot obviously didn't work and was banned. it can't really determine who and who isn't a predator just by the skin. a bot won't analyze the situation, either it'll respond with YES or NO, either 0 or 1. i'm not a IT expert but i think everyone knows that.

anyways, it's a nice video, i highly recommend taking a look if you understand/speak portuguese (since it was the video's language). only issue is that he used the term PDF but again, YouTube demonetization thing ig.

then it went to shipping discourse because, yeah it is related a lot with this false accusation things and... i really like to talk about fandom with my friends. i was really afraid i was going to sound like an aluminum hat theorist to my friend but they loved hearing it.

i said the whole proship/antiship thing, not citating the terms. i said how i feel this whole thing of crucifying people over fiction had became a lot more popular during 2020 because of the pandemic. we couldn't really go anywhere so we spent our time in the internet, especially in short video apps like TikTok. more people began engaging in fandom, but it was people who didn't know fandom etiquette, who didn't really know how it worked.

BUT i think all of this was popularized in 2020, because afaik it started around 2016-2017 in Twitter/Tumblr in the Voltron fandom? I don't know nothing about this media but i think it was because of Klance and Sheith. instead of ignoring the ship they didn't like, a bunch of shippers just began parroting shit like "if you like that ship then you're a pedo! you're a criminal" then it all went downhill.

my friend agreed with all of that, like every sane person would i think. we also talked about liking problematic characters, citating Purple Guy (FNAF), Jimmy (Mouthwashing) and Funny Valentine (JJBA) as examples. we've noticed many people love William Afton despite being a child murderer. but the moment people like a problematic character who committed a SEXUAL crime, like Jimmy (raped Anya) or Funny Valentine (afaik tried to SA Lucy Steel who was 14) then you're worse than any criminal in this whole word. see what i mean? it just doesn't make sense :/

and this like, coming from me and my friend. neither of us like those three characters we mentioned, but it's still stupid to judge, or even worse, send threats to someone over... characters. pixels on a screen.

about shipping, i'm so happy my friend accepted it normally. i was afraid but said anyway that one of my first ships was literally brother/brother (Shun/Ikki from Saint Seiya) and they said it's okay! liking a ship doesn't mean you enjoy it in real life. my friend themselves said they see a problematic ship as a guilty pleasure, but it doesn't mean they support it. that's just common sense.

we also talked about lolisho. while i'm a shotacon (i haven't mentioned it to them), my friend doesn't like lolisho. but we both agreed that judging people who like is... weird. why don't you just block? we also agreed that it's weird to send lolisho art to the police is TERRIBLE. because... no, naked Ciel Phantomhive drawn in Clip Studio Paint is not endangering any kid. no, Hayato Kawajiri receiving backshots is not endangering anyone either. in fact, it doesn't help in any way, it just makes the police's work harder and it just makes it harder to help ACTUAL victims of CSA/CSEM/CSAM.

it's really shocking people care more about 2D dolls. now for example the dark web that must be like TONS of this illegal content? no one gives a fuck huh. now saying this too: if you're able to, please donate to organizations that help/save children from those terrible crimes. "Oh, but what if I can't donate?" i can't donate either, i'm not 100% financially independent yet. but i really recommend to share about these organizations, such as links or posts. of course, check if they are veridical first. not only organizations related to help children, but to help people in general.

lastly, we talked about fujoshi and yaoi. i find very weird that people just... hate yaoi and fujoshis because according to anti-fujoshis, they "fetishize" queer people. bruh. i think a fetish would be like, wanting to see gay dudes just fucking and nothing else. i don't really think fujoshis fetishize gay men, you know? also, literally most fujoshis i've seen are queer??? i'm literally an asexual woman yet i like to draw/read yaoi? i love to read and draw JotaKak, but seeing two guys (or just any couple, gay, straight, etc) fucking in front of me would make me vomit because i DON'T like to see real people fucking. it's gross to me!

also, do anti-fujoshis know how did the term fujoshi originate? yes, it originated from misogynistic men who didn't like to see women in fandoms. fujoshis just adopted the term (similar to the JJBA fandom with the term jojofag). i really wish anti-fujoshis knew better about the whole situation.

and that was all. it was a very fun conversation, and i'm very glad to know my friend is pro-ship. again i didn't cite the term to them at any moment, but they are anti-harassment and agree that fiction ≠ reality. we both agree too that this will someday slowly dissipate and that internet will become what it was before 2016. like ship and let ship. hearing I Ship It (that one parody of 'I Love It' by Icona Pop). we're a minority for now but i'm very sure this will change :]

i love my friends.

[velvetvexations]

I did not mean to sleep all day. Here all the non-kink asks in my inbox lol.

Does a little dance. People being weird about transmascs on here has messed up my self perception so bad im not actually sure of my own gender anymore, yayyyyy

Fuck that anon, if you're man that rules. Being a man is awesome. You don't need anyone else's opinion to affect who you are, there is no bad gender.

just saw someone acknowledge trans men are often lumped into female spaces due to bioessentialism but then turn around and say that thats proof that trans men arent oppressed. lol.

People act like being let into the Woman Club is the one and only goal of being trans and it's so fucking annoying.

Ngl I still don't understand why femboys are a "transmisogynistic caricature that can't be reclaimed by transmascs" according to some people. Do you have any insights on this because I genuinely can't understand, femboy sounds like gnc boy culture and in my own experience, maybe transfems before they come out occasionally identify as femboys. Idk is it like, someone with an outwardly feminine appearance being a guy? Because that's why I like calling myself a femboy.

Some people think femboy started as a transfem thing because they're idiots who don't know shit.

hey if catboy is ubiquitous and having nothing to do with crossdressing why did Jerma crossdress when someone drew him as a catboy???

Because catboys are allowed to do that lol. Taking one example of a crossdressing catboy to mean catboys infringe on transfem copyright is wild.

Hi thanks for letting me vent to you cause I am at work and can't properly process my emtions otherwise rn. I've been otherwise generally in a slightly emotionally fragile place and then I just got an awful review for my first actual order from a stranger on Etsy. And like I know logically that it's not the end of the world and I gave them exactly what they ordered and it's not my fault that they measured wrong or didn't take my advice and size up a little for fit etc etc but no one else will know that and I just got started selling craft stuff and it's just a hobby and it sucks that this person clearly expected something that wasn't what they paid for (my prices are low cause it's a hobby sorry I don't have super professional materials that would make my stuff cost double) but it's really fucking me up and I am trying not to like cry at work because of this and it's so stupid. This was just my first purchase online that wasn't from a friend and I was so excited and they hated it and didn't even send a message or anything about the length (that was exactly what they asked for by the way) not fitting before leaving a review. It just fucking sucks and I wish my brain didn't react to the most minor disappointments/shows of dislike with the I'm going to kill everyone in this room and then myself meme as first response Thanks for listening. It really helps to be able to vent this somewhere <3

I'm really sorry anon, that sounds so frustrating and hard to deal with. I love you so much. <3 I know you do great work and I hope it goes better next time.

Having NPD sucks, lmao, sorry for the rant ahead. I have to remind myself that the 'mark' on shinigami eyes doesn't actually mean anything, but it's hard sometimes because it's still a stain on my reputation. :( some people will see that and take it at face value, forever associating me with the filth that is transphobia, and I can't do anything about it. I appreciate the people who actually know what a transphobe is going out of their way to remove that mark, but it's a losing battle against a bunch of buffoons who think catgirls are transmisogynistic. sometimes it's really hard to pretend that it doesn't bother me at all, because it's highly insulting for me to be associated with the things I literally fight against. What an insult to my legacy and efforts to even bother to care about other people, you know? I don't HAVE to take time out of my day to do activism, I could just not bother to care at all, but I still try. I deserve praise, not this bullshit😭

I'll praise you! Thank you for fighting against transphobia. <3

All this catboy talk. Wanted to say hi as a catboy. Meow :3

Nya~!

My prediction for TRF discourse in 2025: closeted, non passing trans men shouldn't wear skirts or other traditional women's clothing (even if they don't want to and literally have no other choice) because they're MEN and men wearing women's clothes is obviously always transmisogynistic

All trans men are transmisogynistic because they grew up mocking transfems by wearing women's clothes.

some of this discourse is just so fucking wild i cant believe this is something people are taking so seriously. sipping my tea from the sidelines as a chubby catboy therian lmao

You have a cooler head than I.

iirc the "catgirls are transfem" thing started happening around the time Ferris got popular as a character because, if I'm correct, Ferris actually is transfem (coded?) and following that some people just decided The Aesthetique belonged exclusively to transfems now (also you're so so so so based for loving Schrödinger I remember first seeing him in like 2007 and wishing I looked exactly like him)

Schrodinger is my secret fifth blorbo. I'm obsessed with him. I think about him constantly. High five.

als catboys are only white passing in the way that people love to say anime characters are white lmao (aka cant conceive of the fact that anime characters are actually light skinned Japanese). not to say anime doesn't have a colorism problem but They Are Not White and its racist to say otherwise

lol yes exactly

I might be really stepping in it here, but tangential to catboy/catgirl discourse, I'm starting to get really uncomfortable with how the cutesy moe-blob yuri is treated as "trans lesbian culture" these days? as though none of it was ever straight guy fantasy shit? as though it's ideal representation instead of another vector of impossible beauty standards? idk, maybe I'm just being way too touchy. 😬

It's fine if something becomes emblematic of transfem culture but you just can't pretend something was always transfem when it blatantly wasn't lol

you got marked red on shinigami eyes and i havev no idea why

My smoke too tough, my swag too different, my bitch too bad.

juggalo here. we don't want them.

Devastating.

For what it's worth, the "cats transforming into people" thing is probably based on the bakeneko, yeah. The "bake" in "bakeneko" means "transforming", often with the implication of transforming into people (like the better known bakedanuki and bakegitsune). The popularization of cat-people in anime probably came from Neko-Musume from Gegege no Kitaro (the anime behind the "youkai boom" in modern Japanese culture), who is a half-bakeneko.

Fascinating.

(Dif anon) "leading one to wonder what transphobia they think trans men do face" 99.999% sure at this point we're at "trans men experience misgendering... maybe...?"

Well that doesn't count since everyone wants to be a girl, an idea that I believe has universal appeal because I'm a self-centered moron.

You're awesome <3

Thank you anon. <3

I didn't realize I was trans from yaoi but I did largely realize it from memes about traps and accidentally stumbling across largely transfem subreddits via a anime memes despite being transmasc so. Great amount of respect for our yaoi soldiers.

Hell yeah!

[cimmerian1275]

A little insight from me when it comes to drawing

Over the past year or so, ive gotten allot of people asking me "how do u do that?/i dont understand how you can draw this??" & "how do you draw so fast?" & "i wish i could be as productive as you" & "how are you so good at art?" <- to name a few of the most common comments i get.

——————

I never have a good answer for that in the moment because i overthink and spiral. But i can ramble my thoughts about it here.

I dont THINK i draw very fast, comparatively to some other people my art style/method that ive developed up over the years actually makes drawing for me take longer than it would for someone else.

Theres definitely artists out there who take a longer time to draw than me, and artists out there who can draw much faster than me.

But for me personally? Im probably somewhere in the middle.

I technically do draw very fast with the amount of details i can add in a short span of time, but 50% of the time spent drawing is actually me sketching, adjusting the sketch, using the liquify tool, resizing and rotating things a bunch of times, resketching the sketch and basically creating a whole rough draft of the artwork before i even begin drawing the actual lineart.

If my artwork took 2 hours to complete, i can guarantee you the first hour was just the sketch.

And after explaining that 👆 it makes it easier to explain "how are you so good at art?". For me, being good at art is... tough to explain because the way i view "good art" is probably different to how others think it is. Itll be a long info dump but ill circle back to that at the end.

——————

I unfortunately have a bit of a perfectionist streak and a very spur of the moment "if i can, why not?" attitude and that heavily influences my art. This is where being neurodivergent (think adhd, autism) becomes a very important factor to consider during my art process:

If the inspiration hits me to draw *something* in a cool dynamic pose that the art gods just beamed into my brain, ill go "ohhh hey that would look awesome!" which then turns into "why not draw that right now? whats stopping me?" ill pause whatever im doing and leap into sketching out that idea. I am a tragedy when it comes to impulse control.

This part is where i inevitably get doomed by my own brain xD

I have two options ahead of me:

1, 'Start drawing right now before the idea runs away' OR 2, 'Let that idea float around in my head for a few weeks, procrastinating how awesome it would be but never actually act on it'

And when i pick option 1?

Ill forget and drop whatever half baked plans i had for the day, ill forget i havent had anything to eat in the last 10 hours, ill forget i should probably go outside and touch grass. Ill lock in, grab my pen and get comfortable because i wont be moving for a couple of hours.

Ill leap into sketching that idea while its still hot, because i know if i just sit there and let myself procrastinate about it, ill never actually draw anything.

I can spend around 2 - 5 hours on average just non-stop drawing when it comes to bigger projects. I absolutely suck at taking breaks, and i only ever do when i get thirsty or begin to feel my brain telling me it needs some enrichment (which is usually just getting up for a snack or drink). Take this with a grain of salt because im no professional or psychologist, but i like to think that i have found my own personal ways weaponize my adhd/autism to aid me with art.

(Lots of people are probably going to relate to what i say next, so buckle up! I need to do some explaining first so you can understand how my brain works)

I tend to lose focus, SO EASILY, i can switch up conversations really fast without a sweat and enjoy it. I can be reading, listening/humming to a song, and have a secret third option where a corner of my brain is thinking of fanfic and art ideas all at the same time. Ill zone out in the middle of a book, a show, an artwork, and start procrastinating about the randomest of things. Ill spend a good couple of minutes trying to stack my pillows just right to sit in a comfortable posture, ill get pissed off if theres itchy fabric brushing against my drawing arm and ill drop everything to fix that, ill keep fluffing up that blanket on my lap until its in the exact right position.

These things often make it difficult for me to sit down, get focused, and start drawing...

But i actually have a good list of tricks that make it possible for me to avoid distractions and comfortably lock in on drawing. And oh boy, when i lock in i reeaaaallly lock in.

——————

Some common problems i face when drawing, that you might have trouble with aswell:

🔶 Ill have an art idea hit me, but by the time i open up the program i use to draw its already nyoooomed back into the void it came from: IT SUCKS!! I lost the idea and cant grasp it in my imagination :C but ive got a strategy i use to grip that idea and keep it in my head long enough for me to draw. And its MUSIC. I love scrolling my playlist for the right song/playlist that fits the "vibe" of what im trying to draw, and i often associate an artwork to a specific song. Some examples of what happens when i just looped 1 song (or playlist) the entire time as i drew it: - 'Odysseus' - 'King Of The World' - 'Falling Feels A Little Like Your Flying' - 'Let The Wind Carry Us' - 'Gold' - 'First Flight/Flight Over Alps' - 'To The Ends Of The Earth' For ALL of these big artworks, i owe so much to music for enabling me to lock in and get that idea down on paper. Not every artwork is based on 1 song though, sometimes ill just have a playlist on shuffle in the background instead as i draw away. I find music helps slow down and focus my thoughts long enough for me to imagine what im actually trying to draw.

🔶 Ill stop midway drawing and lose focus, just zone out for seemingly no reason: Ive discovered when that happens for me, ive simply gotten lost in a decision making process at some point while i was drawing. When i eventually notice ive zoned out, i pause what im doing and take a step back to think... "What was i trying to do earlier?" -> I was trying to decide what part of the artwork i was going to draw next, theres a few things i rlly wanna draw now but i can only pick one! I got lost imagining how both options would look when i do them, and once id stopped to procrastinate about those my thoughts had taken the wheel and spiraled into a ditch instead of actually going ahead and drawing it. This is really common in my case, and its often about 5 songs later that ive noticed im just sitting here staring into space thinking about a fanfic i read 2 months ago and how much i loved it, and not working on the artwork in front of me xD

🔶 Ive lost the motivation to start/finish an artwork/project: Happens all the time, and its horrible, i have projects, commissions and owed art that people are waiting for... yet i cant seem to find the will to work on them. I dont really have advice for this, but i want to drop some wisdom on you and say that Its okay if you cant seem to draw that right now. You dont need to put everything else on hold to finish this, you can start a fresh project instead of continuing that old one thats looming at you from the corner of your files. Dont allow yourself to feel burdened and pressured to complete something, dont let the mere thought of losing motivation turn something you love to do into something you hate. (this is probably not effective advice for anything with a due date, but it can still help in a roundabout way) Ive come to think that when youve lost motivation, your brain is simply just still loading the ideas and motivation, theyll come to you in time. Its like waiting for a massive game to install or update, its going to take a while, but youll still get it in the end. When your motivation finally returns, you can be satisfied that youll enjoy what your drawing again! Maybe you just needed a break from it, maybe your brain needed a moment to work up the courage.

I still have artworks that are MONTHS in the making, and that people are still waiting for, but im content to know what when my motivation returns to finish those ill actually be able to put genuine effort and joy into completing them. Meanwhile, ill keep drawing what im currently motivated for so that i dont get rusty <3

🔶 ARTBLOCK!!! *falls into the void/dies for a month* The thing thats always peeking over my shoulder and asking if its time.... From my perspective, i perceive art block TWO ways:

Exhausted mentally, burnt out <- OR -> Literally art-blocked, your stuck without ideas, trapped in a rut D:

Exhausted and burnt out? Too dead inside to draw? Thats the universe knocking on your door saying you reeaaally need to take a vacation, listen to it. Burning out is NOT fun, and the longer you push past your limits the longer youll have to spend recovering from it. Having breaks for a couple days to a week every once in a while does wonders for my sanity.

Literally facing art-block, ideas not idea-ing? Ive discovered that my brain is asking for enrichment when i face that, it wants to try something new and exiting and fresh, it wants to stretch its muscles and stop drawing the same old boring stuff youve been drawing for the past couple of weeks.

Try drawing in a new artstyle!! Maybe change what brushes you draw lineart with, make them thicker, or thinner? Try a brush with a unique texture to it. Draw with a smaller/larger canvas than usual, participate in a daily art challenge or event? Spontaneously draw someones OC that you like. You just need a breath of fresh air and to mix things up a little bit <3

🔶 Hyperfixating so much that i forget to take care of myself: Half the time I WILL get really bad hyperfixation on a bigger artwork because im in the zone and i locked in too hard that its become obsessive, and it often feels like...

"If i dont finish this or keep drawing, my anxiety spikes like theres something after me and theres this unwarranted sense of NEED to do good and get that artwork done"

Thats the big driving force that gets me to be productive with my art. Depending on how you view it, it can be seen as a good or bad thought process. This is usually a good heads up that im getting close to a burn out when im finally done with that artwork, and i really NEED a break. Stop for lunch, or dinner, grab a snack and walk around a bit.

——————

To the people who say: "how are you so good at art? how do you do that?", "i wish i could be as productive as you", "tell me how/teach me your ways"

Im gonna be sappy and say its NOT straightforward and this is definitely not the answer youd expect, but im good at what i do because ive taken time to look at myself and understand how my own brain works.

Im good at art because ive spent all this time getting SUPER introspective, picking my own brain apart and discovering that: "when i do this, it makes me enjoy drawing! If this makes it enjoyable it means i can draw more" and that ultimately leads to "When im able to draw more, im constantly growing and improving my skills from all of the experiences im gaining, i now have the motivation and passion to do THIS because im actively enjoying it"

If i know what distracts me, what makes me lose motivation, what causes me to burn out, what i dont enjoy drawing... and ive learned ways to overcome those obstacles? Thats what i think enables me to be a good artist and be so productive.

Im gonna be cliche and say LOTS of practice is also literally the only reason why im where im at today. Sure, i already had a boost at the beginning because i was naturally artistic and its probably genetic somehow with all the artistically talented people in my family, but its because ive put work into refining those skills and honing them that theyre actually GOOD. They would be useless if i hadnt done anything to build them up.

You dont need to have a predestined skillset to become good at art, your just a little behind and have a longer learning curve. Ive watched a close friend of mine over about 5 years, go from really bad scribbles and awkward looking doodles to practicing and discovering they have a really good knack for colors and shapes.

I like to think "whats actually stopping me from learning to draw?", whats stopping me from downloading an art app and messing around, whats stopping me from doodling in the corner of a book, whats stopping me from stealing sticky notes and scribbling on them, whats stopping me from wanting to improve more and more? Too many people are close-minded and negative with "i dont have any devices to draw on" so what? grab a book and pen, i started with traditional art myself. "But i dont have pens or drawing books?" that sucks, but whats stopping you from grabbing a stick and even drawing in the dirt or sand or snow?

[yumeshiftss]

Tw! Mentions of syscourse, fake claiming, mentions of suicide, talking abt experiences as a traumagenic system so just overall just upsetting topics. Read with caution

We really don’t like getting into syscourse but we feel like I should share my personal experience as a traumagenic system.

For some background- I’ve had alters since childhood, I’m not gonna go in depth abt my trauma (obviously) however the important thing is that they were all introjects since cartoons and other media was legit the only safe way I could cope with the trauma I was going through. At the time I just thought they were imaginary friends- some would come and go though there was always some there and it’s been like that for as long as I can remember.

I never had the words to explain it, at first it was imagery friends, then it was daydreaming, turned into maladaptive daydreaming. I have had heard abt DID and similar disorders before but I never knew much abt them so… we just- kept on living.

Then suddenly, in the year like 2020-2021 (maybe 23??? Idk the years merge into each other) I saw videos on TikTok- about well- systems! At first I was just interested- since the experiences they were talking about felt REALLY relatable… like that was exactly what I was experiencing, so I kept on watching and I kept on seeing more systems and their experiences.

Ofc when you interact with a bunch of system content… syscourse is bound to show up. And at the time topics like IRLS (I think another term ppl used was delusion attachment?) were big… and yeah- let’s just say a majority of the videos I saw weren’t “hey these people have something going on and we should try our best to support them, even if we don’t understand what. And hey! Perhaps medical professionals should look into this to better help people” they were more like “IRLS are disgusting fakers who fantasize abt having DID and are just fake copycats of systems who are horrible people. They’re all just roleplayers and have no actual issues going on!” And well- it made me feel… confused. I had known abt IRLS and believed that at the very least something was going on and that even if I don’t know how or why it happens that’s up to medical professionals. Though of course that raised thoughts on “am I a bad person because I believe them?”

Then call outs on “fake systems” and videos on “how to spot a fake system” with stuff like “fakers will usually claim to be fictive heavy since they just wanna rp as anime characters!!” And “if a system likes being a system then they’re clearly faking since no REAL system likes being a system!!” and well… those applied to us. We were a fictive heavy system and well I liked (and still like) being a system- hell it was probably the only reason why we were still ALIVE. There are multiple times where I would’ve probably killed myself if it weren’t for them and them talking me out of it.

So when I heard about how the stuff I- WE were experiencing made us “fakers” I was… lost, confused, I thought we had finally made a step in the right direction to figuring out what was going on… but then the answer suddenly had a barrier with thousands of spikes and a massive “DO NOT ENTER” sign.

It wasn’t JUST the fake claiming (which is still bad on its own) it was the way they would talk abt those they thought were “faking” like they were evil people that get off on the suffering of “real systems” and that made me TERRIFIED. What also didn’t help is that anytime I made a comment about questioning if we were a system the responses I got were… not friendly. While some kind souls did in fact tell me to go seek a professionals help on the matter a majority of replies were “it’s extremely rare so you probably don’t have it” to even just straight up “oh look another faker” and to me, what I had saw and heard other people say was that “fakers” were horrible people, that take advantage and actively harm “real systems”

So of course… the thoughts started to come up

Was I a bad person? Was I a horrible human being for even QUESTIONING about being a system?

So… I stopped. I stopped interacting with system content, I stopped looking at sources, I completely tried to forget everything. Of course that doesn’t fucking work when y’know…. Still have fucking alters, what also didn’t help that before I spiraled into the whole “I’m faking and a horrible human being” I was actually actively acknowledging them as being more than “just daydreams” and communication was well- getting better… of course that changed and I immediately started trying to ignore them, I felt incredibly guilty over the fact I acknowledged them in the first place, that I was a horrible person for doing so.

But… without them. I was fucking miserable.

They never left- they were STILL there I was just ignoring them to the extreme. However I felt extremely alone, suddenly there was no one to help when I got flashbacks, had extremely bad anxiety, and when I felt extremely unsafe… cause everyone that usually would help me through situations like that- I thought made me a disgusting human being who likes just roleplaying a sick fantasy abt having a disorder.

Safe to say that was a horrible fucking time for us. Of course it got to a point where I couldn’t deny their existence anymore- but I was still terrified about questioning being a system. So I just- called it daydreaming and left it at that… and well I never told anyone about it. It was something I actively hid.

In fact, it took us YEARS to finally tell someone and go seek a professional about it and we only recently started seeing a therapist.

We probably would’ve told someone sooner if it weren’t for anti-endos and system exclusionists that made me feel like how our system works was wrong and evil…

I don’t really know how to end this- however ig I should probably say this…

instead of immediately treating systems that don’t perfectly fit into your box on what a “real system is” like evil fakers, treat them with kindness. Cause even if you don’t believe they’re a “real system” there could still be something going on, and to deny them helpful sources and a community that can help them for a most likely very confusing and difficult time can be extremely dangerous.

-🎀

[luna-spring]

my thoughts on "this winter" by alice oseman

if you follow this blog or at least see a post of mine, you will know that i love everything alice oseman creates. this book is no exception. it was the second novel i read of hers (the first one being my beloved "soliteire") and it was just as good as I thought it would be.

in the comics, we see charlie's decline, his illness at its worst, quite literally taking control of his life. in the book, we have aftermath.

spoilers free down below

it was a nice surprise to start the book with tori's point of view. i've got so used to reading the comics where everything we see and hear is nick's or charlie's that it was a good change of pace. since the book happens a few months prior to "solitaire", we already see how tori is feeling, and how heavily charlie being ill affected her.

the whole bunch of the spring family is coming to christmas and with that, the questions, the stares, the usual family gathering threat, only worse. charlie has to deal with his family being completely ignorants dickheads and tori tries so hard to make things easier for charlie.

it is no use, however. charlie leaves and tori stays. it is simply heartbreaking to see how alone she feels, how she truly thinks that whatever she's feeling doesn't matter. charlie matters, she doesn't.

"can you at least spend christmas with me?" by @anaspringblog

one of the things i loved the most was that we saw a little bit of nick and tori's relationship, how nick cares for her too, how he knows that she will always be by charlie's side (you can see me freaking out about this in this post)

okay, this post so far has been all about tori (can you blame me? she's my favourite) so let's talk a little about charlie.

in the comics, we know charlie is ill, like really ill. but (at least, i) we don't see so up close, we're the audience, and we don't hear his thoughts. in the book, we actively do, so when he says "i started to realise how ill i was. and why i'd ended up there. it's because i was actually dying." just made my stomach roll. just then i realised too how sick he was. we read about how shitty he feels, how all of this is being so hard on him, how he knows how this has affected everyone around him, and how he feels guilty about it.

but one of the most important things i found in this book was how well it represents the recovery of a mentally ill person; how it is kind but not sugar-coating, how real and honest it is. for example when charlie says that when he was in the hospital, he didn't even want to try to get better because getting better demanded effort and energy, a thing that he didn't have, that he didn't think he would ever have again. but with the help of professionals he managed to do it. he managed to try and managed to get better. he isn't "back to normal" especially because such a thing doesn't even exist, but he's better, so that's what is important. right now he just wants to feel normal, to have a good day. which is proving very difficult.

however, nick being the ever sweetheart that he is, tries to do that for him. really tries to understand and be supportive without being pushy, and that's just what charlie needs.

charlie is tori's best friend, but tori isn't his, and that's heartbreaking; so when tori appears at nick's that's exactly what i feel for her. she's trying so hard, and charlie knows that, too.

"i worry about you all the time. did you know that?" gif by @evie-carnahan

so, finishing the book from oli's point of view, innocent, childish, pure oli is just want i need it. just what the book need it. a reminder that in the end, they're together, no matter what. they're a family.

"and then you promise to come back." tori smiles. "okay. we'll definitely promise to come back.

favourite quotes:

“I hate Christmas,’ she says. ‘No you don’t,’ I say. ‘I hate this one.’

‘Everyone hates this one.”

“Sometimes I want to just stop trying altogether. Just stop doing anything at all."

“When people know you’re mentally ill, most people either want to ignore it completely or they treat you like you’re strange, scary, or fascinating. Very few people are actually good at the middle ground. The middle ground isn’t hard. It’s just being there. Being helpful, if help is needed. Being understanding, even if they don’t understand everything.”

this post is a very very long way to say again, i love this book, i love what it does and what it represents. that's all.

next review is going to be about "nick and charlie" if you care about stuff like that.

[lassieposting]

Serpine in therapy for the asks :)

Okay so my headcanon is actually that Nef doesn't get a choice about going to therapy. It's part of the parole agreement he makes with the Sanctuary when he immigrates to Roarhaven. Whether or not he is answerable for our Serpine's war crimes, and whether the Sanctuary here can try him for his war crimes back in Leibniz, is still up for debate by legal professionals and he'd rather not risk it, so in exchange for his freedom he agrees to comply with weekly check-ins with a parole officer (which ends up being Skug, because China is spiteful), regular therapy, and location monitoring.

And like. Honestly, he thinks the whole thing is a massive waste of time - the Sanctuary flexing its power over him to make a point. He shows up, he's charming and personable, he flirts with the therapist and the girl on reception and anyone else he happens to bump into - but he thinks that before long, he'll have them convinced that he's psychologically normal and doesn't need their services, and they'll discharge him.

But like. The thing about Nef, aside from having a sadistic streak a mile wide and Chronic Backstabbing Bitch Disease, is that he's spent the vast majority of (at least) his adult life surrounded by people who would turn on him in a heartbeat if it suited them to do so. He comes from a world where abuse, manipulation and betrayal are not only common, they're the norm. That's the only way to relate to the world and to others that he understands. The Faceless worshippers are a nasty bunch who all encourage each other's worst impulses and learn to care only for themselves, and on the rare occasion that they break those habits, they tend to get hurt by those who haven't. So like, Nef's normal meter is completely and utterly broken. In his Handbook backstory, his childhood was unstable and emotionally damaging. As an adult, he has nothing to do with his family - all he had was Mevolent and the Church. His relationship history is littered with violent psychopaths like Christophe Nocturnal and Jaron Gallow, people who approved of and supported Serpine's own sadistic tendencies, but also tended to vent theirs on him when it suited them. This. Man. Is. A mess.

The therapist suspects complex trauma - although, that's not as unusual a diagnosis as it is for mortals: it's a given for millions of sorcerers who survived the 500 Year War - narcissistic tendencies, though not to the point of a full blown personality disorder, and an obsessive focus on/one-sided rivalry with Skulduggery.

Honestly, I think Nef would mostly use it as an opportunity to annoy Skug. He pays attention, but mostly so he can take what the therapist tells him and put it to use while Skulduggery is stuck in the car with him for an eight hour stakeout. Psychoanalyse him. Armchair-diagnose him. Treat him to a three hour monologue of "My therapist said..."

But like. You know that thing where you start saying hewwo to mock other people who say hewwo, and it's kind of a mean-spirited joke at first, but suddenly you've unironically adopted hewwo into your daily vocabulary and can't stop saying it? Yeah.

Some of it starts to get in via osmosis and sheer habit. He spends so long mockingly telling Skug about all the problems that he (Nef) thinks he (Skug) has, that he actually starts to notice things for real. He can tell when Skug is dissociating. He can point out to Val that she has a tendency to pull away from and lash out at the people who want to help her, because she's terrified to be seen as anything other than competent and capable, and then he'll think, hold on, I do that too.

A lot of therapy goes in one ear and out the other because it doesn't work for him - complex trauma is just Like That. The standard practices - like CBT - seem like platitudinous drivel to you, and the fact that everyone else seems to think they work often feels like a great big joke everyone is playing on you. But he takes in enough to start making some small changes to how he interacts with others and how he behaves. He starts learning how to react appropriately to distress signals in the people who are becoming his friends, rather than seeing those signals as something to take advantage of, a soft spot to sink a knife into and twist. He's developing basic empathy, which actually helps him, because for once in his life he's in a situation where bonding with others is The Way To Get Ahead, rather than something that would get him killed.

And he's getting a better grade in therapy than Skug, by virtue of actually agreeing to go, so he gets to be smug about that.

[year2000electronics]

do you have any tips or suggestions for someone wanting to make their own oc story? your ocs and their stories are so insanely cool but i have no idea where i’d even begin to make one!

also happy y2kvr-versary ! late i know but it was still the ask blog that caused me to follow you and i’ve just stuck around for your other content after. :)

HMMMM lemme just spill a bunch of my thoughts all at once, this is just some stuff i personally like doing with my own oc stories! by no means is this a comprehensive list and i am not a professional!

1. accept the fact that you’re probably going to need minor/side characters. of course that isn’t always the case, there are story types that only focus on a handful of characters, but let’s use the reckoning as an example: even though i love all the characters there dearly, it’s about sinclair and his donning and subsequent subverting of the “mythological hero” mantle by taking on the vices’ challenge. montez and duncan, the other two archangels, are there to serve as a secondary antagonist in holy orders and bring some more life to the story’s world respectively, and That’s Okay. recognizing that not all your characters are gonna be the most specialest boys is a great place to start with structuring an oc story imo!

2. KEEP AT IT. the reckoning as it exists now didn’t truly come together until 2020, which is when the ask blog was made. cardine (the city the vices reside in) is such a key, important concept that drives the story along and the reckoning wouldn’t be nearly as good without it, and that only got introduced in one of the final drafts pre-ask blog!! reworks, practice with laying out the events, thinking and re-thinking of stuff and spending years with it is really good. it’s healthy. i mean a lot of great films and tv get ‘saved’ at the last minute from being terrible by one terrible concept being scrapped so revising and not being afraid to change things is your best friend

3. learn some rules. i’m of the firm belief that storytelling should be an all-access hobby for everyone, so you don’t have to read all of save the cat and then write out a full script or anything, but like. turn on a movie you like, or read a book you love. think about what they’re doing to convey primary themes to you. pick out the themes, actually, that’s good too. being able to pick up on themes that aren’t just being stated to you as if it’s dialogue from sonic heroes is a great teacher on how to subtly weave those themes into your story

4. don’t be afraid to break those rules! a lot of that stuff is great to pick up but at the same time they’re YOUR characters, and if you find yourself getting bored by playing too “by the book”, nobody said you can’t change how things work. for example, a lot of my oc stories have “villain protagonists” because i just really connect with the way ‘villains’ present themselves in media. if you find yourself fixating on a side character and brushing your main character aside? screw it! you can just make the story about them! what if a 7/11 clerk went on an adventure instead of the main guy!!

5. INSPIRATION IS YOUR FRIEND. WEAR IT ON YOUR SLEEVE. i don’t mean you have to publicly disclose every single thing you were inspired by, but the amazing digital circus is REALLY big right now, and gooseworx has told people IHNMAIMS and the raggedy ann movie were big inspos and she clearly loves those things because they uplift the work higher! (plus it gave people a new appreciation for those things) and, imo, understanding what inspires you and celebrating it is a lot better of a mindset than going into something out of sheer spite (like you’ll see a lot of people online making very inflammatory “i alone could fix a piece of media that had to go through an entire writer’s room as well as corporate mandates, gosh why doesn’t everyone just Make Things Good?” type posts on social media, and i find myself straying more and more away from that). best example i can think of are all those very ill-fated “original alien stories” that su criticals made back in the day that were even more confusing than the gems and everyone had to pretend that “of course it makes more sense for the aliens to be flowers, gosh, why didn’t rebecca sugar think of this? we’re so smart”. my point is hate and shame can fizzle out quickly but creativity is forever

6. and of course, always make sure you’re actually having a good experience with the process. fun, catharsis, importance, etc. if it sucks, you can literally hit the bricks. i say that with experience because before my original superhero story existed (iris of the storm), there was another (problem students). it was dormant as a story for a really long time because i had accidentally made a superhero story without any of the superhero tropes i loved, but i couldn’t just… delete it all! OH WAIT. YES I COULD. i started it all over and got rid of ocs that i was glad i made but don’t need anymore, and i’ve never been happier cos iris of the storm is actually fun for me.

BUT YEAH THATS IT. thumbs up

[9w1ft]

What are your thoughts on the three years Taylor had disappeared for before her reputation comeback? Was she also professionally cancelled, as in lost a lot of brand deals and the like?

PS: I like your tea posts a lot! How long have you been doing that now? Do you buy more tea for your collection?

PSS: How do you think your anon-answering records look like this year?

hi!

i am a rep era kaylor. i started paying attention to things with reputation, so i was not really paying attention closely during this period of time you’re asking about. so, my below thoughts are just based on me taking a second to google and check my chronological understanding of how things went based on how i’ve researched in the past.

**people who were there at the time please add on**

in actuality taylor only “disappeared” for about a year. maybe you are getting the 3 year number from the period of time between 1989 and rep release years? but taylor’s instagram reset only happened several months before reputation’s release. after releasing 1989 she of course went on tour with the 1989 tour and that went until december 2015. snapchatgate didn’t happen until july 2016. after that she had appearances at Formula 1 in Austin in october, the 2016 CMAs, and she release i don’t want to live forever with zayn in december 2016 with the music video released in january 2017 and had a pre super bowl concert in february. she erased everything from her instagram in august 2017, reputation was announced that august, and then her next public appearance was SNL on in november 2017.

i don’t get the sense she was professionally cancelled. one example, she signed her multi year promo deal with at&t in october 2016, which would have been after snapchatgate. that’s a huge deal. her deal with keds shoes did end with 2016 but i think part of that is likely aligned with taylor’s desire at the time to evolve her image. keds as very red era and it worked with 1989 era but, i think 2016 was a logical stopping point.

i think the reason why it felt like she disappeared is that she was active on social media so much in the years before snapchatgate, but then she really dropped a bunch of that so it felt like it was drastically less so suddenly. but taylor has really pared down her social media presence in recent years as well so, im not sure if she was similarly quiet these days if people would even notice.

re: ps: it’s been around 900 days since i started! yes i buy more teabags every once in a while to replenish. i have a lot of loose tea leaves though too.

re: pss: not sure i can judge the quality of my own anon answers! i think i only answer about 25% of the anons i get. if i don’t answer back it’s usually nothing personal 😆 sometimes i draft an answer to something when im halfway done and then forget its in the draft.. i often dont post stuff that is personal or questions that are difficult to respond to. sometimes the timing of a response has been lost and i don’t get back around to it. sometimes i won’t answer if the anon is unrelated to my blog or if its something being send around everywhere looking for someone to bite. etc etc. it’s not a perfect science but all and all, i don’t answer the majority of what i get, for sure. taking a page from taylor’s book: dear reader you don’t have to answer just cause they asked you…

[neeterloveschenford]

Gonna throw my two cents in about 6x01. Many will not agree with me, but it is what it is. We're all allowed our opinions on a bunch of fictional characters. That being said, let's dive in.

I don't have a problem with Lucy or Tim and how they behaved in last night's episode. Was Lucy OTT and a bit irrational? Yes. Let me introduce y'all to anxiety. It's a common reaction to duress. I have often acted in a similar manner over the course of my life. I like to think that I am better at managing my anxiety, but I'm also 20 years older than Lucy. People tell me all the time that I am so confident and have it together. What they don't know is that I am just really good at handling it. But Lucy is still only in her early 30's. She still has a lot of life that she hasn't experienced yet. And I will never understand this mindset that Lucy is ALWAYS super confident and badass. Ummm, are we watching the same show? Yes, in the moment she can be a complete badass. When we first meet her, she takes out and arrests the dude that tried to carjack her. In 2x07 we see her dive right in with the bomber showing Nyla the potential that she has and starting one of the best friendships on the show. In 3x06 she came up with a cover story on the fly to save June. And I could keep going. But all of these are instances where there was not time for her to second guess herself. And this is what I love most about Lucy. She is me and I am her in a lot of instances. I don't want her to be perfect all the time. I love her imperfections. I love the fact that she can sometimes be immature and emotional. This makes her more real. And another thing that I think is often overlooked is the fact that It's only been about 3 years in the timeline. We grow and change over the course of our entire lives. Give her some more time if you want her to be a superhero. I mean Angela and Nyla often struggle with balancing their personal and professional lives. This is a process that never stops. And I want to continue to see her grow and become more confident. But it's a life long process.

Now on to Tim. I keep seeing people say that Tim has sat in a shop with her for 3 or 4 years so he should know how to talk to her and never say the wrong thing. Listen, my mom and stepdad have been married for over 40 years and the man still says the wrong thing all the time. I love how he slipped back into TO Tim and didn't realize that wasn't what Lucy needed. Just like Lucy, it makes him human. I love that he is just as flawed as Lucy, just in different ways. As for the fight, yes it was stupid. But people have stupid fights everyday. And sometimes those stupid fights are the catalyst to being able to move forward and deal with whatever caused the fight in the first place. I am excited to see them finally deal with the underlying issues they obviously have.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but I have to go to work. So I will end this here.

[donnerpartyofone]

I signed up for this online class co-taught by a woman I find maddeningly brilliant, where she lectures on her experience working with and studying people who are on the cutting edge of whatever their professional field is. She discovered this common thread where many of them claim that they don't come up with their innovations on their own--supposedly, ideas just enter their minds spontaneously, or even in a dream, and they follow these disciplined lifestyles (versions of monastic practices, generally) that they believe make them more receptive to those kinds of messages. A good clarifying example is that of a mathematician (Pattie Maes I think? I forgot to write it down) who claimed that as a young student, she would just-know the solutions to math problems without being able to explain the reasoning, so she was always in trouble with her teachers; eventually she got into analytical philosophy, which helped her reverse-engineer and understand the answers she mysteriously received. So anyway the class I'm taking allows you to offer up your own projects for feedback and advice about how you can invite a breakthrough to happen. There are some extremely interesting people in the group, including a couple of guys who are doing futuristic-sounding sustainable farming projects, someone who studies black holes, and just all stripes of scientists and artists. I'm hearing some pretty interesting things, but...

The class is co-taught by this woman who is also obviously brilliant, she has these insane credentials I barely understand involving venture capital and AI, she works with and for extremely high level companies and luminaries and her self-selected title is something like "singularity expert". And like, all of that is inherently interesting whether or not it sounds somewhat sinister to your ears, but I quickly realized that she's one of these people who is just fundamentally excited by the basic concept of Success, and she automatically thinks that any measure of fame and fortune, no matter what it's in aid of or where it came from, is evidence of genius. Which to me is like this incredibly dangerous trap, for what I think are really obvious reasons.

So one of us students brought up a manuscript she's been working on for decades that isn't going anywhere, and the singularity expert told her to just throw it out and do something else, basically. And in her justification for this, she started saying "I know a lot of you probably don't like Elon Musk, BUT" in this really bitter, cold tone of voice that let you know immediately that she's a huge fan and she thinks the resistance to him is just a bunch of ignorant liberal bullshit. And her example of his genius, which we should all imitate, is that when he wanted to make a big update to Tesla/Twitter/(some other shit he acquired from actual innovators), he found that the update was incompatible with all of foundational code, so he just threw out millions and millions of dollars' worth of code to force his new thing into place. And I mean, on one level I heard something useful and true: Don't sacrifice your future for the comforting stability of the past, beware of the sunk cost fallacy, etc. But the fact that Elon Musk did something that *appears* to represent that, depending on how you spin it, does not mean that he is a genius you should seek to imitate. First of all, I didn't leave knowing exactly what the consequences of his actions were, and second of all...millions of dollars doesn't mean anything to that guy. He's impossibly rich and he basically started out that way, and he's never going to wind up homeless or whatever even if he drives every single company he bought into the ground. He's just not a good example of someone with a high risk, high reward mindset that we should all emulate because he could lose hundreds of millions of dollars almost without noticing. The fact that he did this thing that in isolation looks heroic, that's only a tiny part of the picture with him.

(And that's without even getting into the impact that it has on the rest of the world, that he has so much power; like personally I think he's such a negative presence in the world that it's beyond just material effects, actually he's so corrosive that even talking about him is bad. Just contemplating the idea of him brings out the absolute worst in people, it's bad for people's moral fiber to even argue about him, but ANYWAY)

Unfortunately I find that a lot of people who have some kind of overlap with the self-help field will eventually come around to admitting that they're so blinded by the glamor of public, lucrative success that they don't really care where it comes from or who gets it or what people do with it. Damien Echols is someone I really enjoy, I just think it's undeniably interesting to hear from someone who spent almost 20 years on death row studying spirituality (to be glib about it) and pursuing all kinds of monastic disciplines; I mean that guy has things to say that you don't get from circulating in normal society. He practices something that has roots as far back as ancient Sumeria, he's not rich and he's not trying to get rich, but he often reminds people that poverty doesn't have an inherent moral quality and it's not inherently evil to pursue financial success. He'll say that if you have a phobic attitude toward money, if the very idea of it is tainted by guilt and fear in your mind, then it becomes a destructive force in your life--but if you think about money as energy, a resource you can channel into doing what's important to you, then it becomes something positive and supportive. And I can totally understand that. But then Echols will extrapolate that to the point that he's praising megachurch guys who are absolute crooks and scam artists and who definitely rob people through a form of psychological blackmail that tells them they're going to hell if they don't help buy Jim Bakker or whoever a private jet. And I'm like, man...ok so it's worth while to say that having a positive mindset about money can change your life for the better. But that doesn't mean that we have to then lionize every single person who ever got rich no matter how they got there and no matter what they did with their power, that's just fucking insane, right?

I could go on and on actually, about various people I've heard speak about how to break through your subconscious limitations and take a more authorial role in your own life, and how often even the most apparently well-meaning one of these speakers will come around to praising like the Monopoly guy, or some tepid pop star with an incredible marketing machine behind them, as ground-breaking geniuses who we all need to emulate. I mean a lot of people who are visibly successful get there by accident, or nepotism, or coattail riding, or plain ruthlessness. Many people in the big-success category turn out to be inarguably, unfathomably stupid (ironically I spotted the Elon Musk Pop Tart story the morning before I took this class), and some of them are only geniuses insofar as they have an abnormally well-developed predatory instinct that makes them able to think thoughts and perform actions that you really can't conceive of if you aren't, you know, a psychopath. Someone recently posted a bunch of advice on teaching from John Cale, and one of the things he said was "Suspect charisma", and I think THAT is a much more important piece of advice than like, "find someone who is rich and famous and do whatever that person appears to be doing without asking yourself how they got where they are, or just what is the real reason that you personally are so compelled by them." It seems like a lot of people respond to the aura of "success" so intensely that they just don't want to have to question it, and they'll bend over backwards crafting these speculative backstories and dialectic arguments to make their animal reaction to the spectacle of power sound like something intellectually sound. It smacks of stockholm syndrome, of people who fall in love with their own bullies. There's complicated reasons for that, some of which are what got Trump elected I think, but I don't wanna talk about that. I have to go to the doctor's now anyway, and stop thinking about this.

[arizonaconservativegal]

If you’re a conservative with reasonable beliefs, more power to you, that’s great, we need more people like you.

But you’re doing yourself a major disservice if you take a post about anti-social behaviors from our party and showing you don’t socialize much and just stick your head in the sand and go “nuh uh that doesn’t happen!” Just leaves that avenue open to attack from Democrats.

Both my parents are registered republicans, and my mom has had to distance herself from fellow conserative friends specifically bc of that adrenochrome stuff. (Some of the friends were Korean btw, so i don’t wanna hear racism bs) My friend who isnt a republican but whose parents are both R has her mom sick of her dad bc of this stuff. Even at my job, the guys who talk about politics are work go to the exact topics mentioned in that post you said doesn’t happen. Democrats are just gonna pull up screenshots and use that to undermine everything else youre saying and say its fake and made up too.

Project2025, which I have read, wants to abolish overtime pay unless it interferes with the Sabbath - not religious stuff in general, only the Sabbath and only if you believe in the Sabbath for real. That’s literally only christians and jews. nobody else.

I’m not saying those are your beliefs, I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen if trump is elected president. But Project2025 is a really big thing and not just bc liberals keep on pointing to it to fearmonger. abortion is one thing but how are we gonna tell people “we dont want christianity to be the main thing we just have morals” if we’ve got big think tanks going “actually we wanna test people for their religon at work” ? radical conservatism is gonna kill moderate conservatism and make people vote dem. my dad even voted for biden last election and hes been a republican since before the 90s. the weird stuff is immature but the things they’re calling weird do happen

Okay look I fully understand that no one wants to believe me here so I'm shouting into the void expecting something to happen and that's ridiculous but I'm going to do it anyway because I still have a few minutes until my conference call starts.

I've been working in Republican politics professionally for ten years. A decade. I'm not talking out of my ass when I say no one is taking Project 2025 seriously. I actually do know that directly. When the Heritage Foundation is mentioned in conversation, people roll their eyes. The thing about think tanks like that is that they don't have to deal with the reality of what they're suggesting. They essentially throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. If something does - then they'll write an actual policy prescription or draft legislation so that lawmakers have something to start working on. I know you probably don't know what the difference is (which I don't mean as a knock on you, it's just not something most people know), but Project 2025 contains none of that. Until the conversations I hear at work start to shift or I see one of those ideas become a policy treatment or draft bill, I'm not going to worry about it. From a practical standpoint, all Project 2025 is today is a Democrat fundraising point.

To your other point, there are roughly 70 million registered Republicans in this country, not counting third party members or conservative leaning independents. Some of them suck. A lot. I'm really not trying to pretend that's not the case. But to write a post claiming that all conservatives are like that is absurd and shows that you don't spend time around us. The very vast majority of conservatives are just normal human beings who go to the grocery store and work boring jobs and take the kids to little league practice and hold extremely boring opinions on politics. Just like the very vast majority of liberals. It would be equally unreasonable of me to go around telling everyone that all Democrats are the equivalent of the Bernie bro who shot up a bunch of Republican members of Congress a few years ago or that they're all the like the people who send me rape threats here or call my old campaign office to say their going to firebomb us. It would be really easy for me to believe that if all I did was spend time around other conservatives and my only interactions with the left were with their raging nutcases. But I spend time around liberals so I know they're not like that any more than we are like that jackass last night.

It is so easy these days to put yourself in a little bubble of people who think like you and only ever see the worst of the people who don't. That used to be difficult for conservatives to do because media was all very left-leaning so even if we didn't personally know a lefty, we still saw them portrayed positively on tv, whereas the left didn't see that of us. With streaming and algorithms and alternate media these days, we are heading in that direction too. Very little scares me more about the future than that.

The only way to fix that is if we all start talking to normal people on the other side the aisle again. That's all I'm trying to get people do to. You don't even have to talk to them about politics. Talk to them about baseball or something, I don't care. Just something so that when you think of the other party, you think of the human beings you know instead of some boogeyman. There are nearly 12,000 people following this blog. That guy last night wasn't one of them - why does he get to represent them? They didn't do anything wrong and they outnumber him, literally almost 12,000 to 1. The only reason anyone listened to him was that he 'confirmed' their bias and they didn't think about it any more than that. They saw one example of what they already believed and let that give them a reason to ignore the mountain of things contradicting them. So I'm pissed at that guy for that and for generally being a shithead.

But I'm still going to say it because it's still true: if you think that's how all conservatives are, you obviously don't spend a lot of time around conservatives.

[behindthewox]

Recent changes/news made me think of the day we were told to close all ‘official’ discord servers where people discussed site work as Dan would rather we have everything WoX-related on the sites themselves. Main argument for this was that ‘it works on the WoP DK server’. Well, that’s great for WoP DK! It does not work for everyone, however.

Now, I get that Dan wishes to keep all WoX communication on WoX. Makes sense and we make sure to tell people not to suggest other chatting platforms when it comes to general WoX chat. But as someone who’s had/has a few site jobs, I can assure you that discussing work-related topics is HELL on WoX.

What options do we have to choose between here? Private (group) messages? Forums/topics? Oh, the scrolling back and forth between what’s been said before and by who. Not to mention, if you don’t have ViP, you can kiss any form of formatting and structure goodbye.

What about the chat, then? It’s faster than forums. Maybe a little too fast. It’s even harder to keep track of who said what and reply to the right comment, not to mention way too restricted when it comes to long messages. Because, believe it or not, discussions - and the occasional summary of points - will be long.

But thankfully, there was an option to the closing of the servers. We just needed to invite Dan to them! Yes, you read that right. Why, though, exactly? So that he could ensure we followed the site rules? That we didn’t trash talk the owners, the sites or the mugwumps? Is that the level of faith he has in us? Because that’s what it felt like. A need to control and monitor what we do OFF-SITE.

Curious as to what we did on those ‘official’ servers? We stuck to the task at hand, whether it was forum monitoring, information or notifications shared between the members, board posts… and only that. Dan may not think that highly of us, or think we’re just a bunch of petulant children, but we do in fact take/took great pride in our work. And we’re professional about it, as one should be.

A gentle reminder that Dan does NOT own discord and should not and cannot demand to be part of servers where WoX people just so happen to gather, regardless of reason. What if we wanted to talk about stuff unrelated to WoX - we just so happen to all have been playing WoX at one point - would he have demanded to be part of it then? No, he wouldn’t.

Had Dan looked into what’s being posted on the sites and in the job clubs, he would’ve seen that plain discussion is the only thing we take to a place where it’s easier to have them. Every report, every note, every important news or message IS.ON.WOX in the forums for the respective jobs, just like he wants it to be.

So why won’t Dan allow us to do our jobs more efficiently, which having discussions off-site enables us to do? Or, if this isn't to his liking, then give us a better option to the existing chat and private messages or topics because that's not working for everyone (except WoP DK, allegedly).

You wonder why it’s so hard to get people to take up site jobs? Here’s one reason - Dan’s need to micromanage is making our jobs harder and harder to do.

Understand that most of us do not harbour any hate or mistrust in Dan. But by being treated as though we can’t be trusted while we’re doing our best to make his sites the best writing roleplaying place to be, that fact has long since started rapidly changing.

[disclaimer: the text above is a submission sent in by an anonymous contributor, and they are expressing their personal feelings and opinions. I'm just posting it / fish]