#(( i think i have a system for which posts get reblogged where now at least the system makes sense to me kinda ))

[murillo-enthusiast]

Which came first... the egg or the ████? (1, 2, 3, 4)

Upon a close look at the inside of the egg... It was not empty, but there wasn't even a form of something in there. There was definitely movement...but from what? It was like Bory was shining a light against a shadow that does not deter, only consume and grow. It was black.

-- @perdicinae-observer

-----

Bory... looks delighted.

Bory: I had heard tales of shadow creatures from other afterlives, and while I do not know if this is related to those or if this is something wonderfully peculiar and unique... to think that we are beholding a creature undescribed and unknown, something that lays an egg and is animate yet formless! Or perhaps our eyes are deceiving us and the light is not penetrating the egg shell, but no matter, we will crack this mystery soon enough! Will you hold onto this egg for just a few moments more while I sketch a basic outline..?

He's going to put the equipment down, and without bothering to light up the room again, grab his notes and by the light of the lantern, start drawing Egg.

[astercontrol]

If KOSA passes

Or if any other form of censorship (there are many in the works!) ever succeeds at stepping in to impede our ability to communicate online:

We have to make plans.

Now, I dunno who'll even see this post. The few followers I have are TRON fans (who despite the fantasy we live in, tend to have realistically dismal views IRL about Disney and the various corporate uses of software).

And this fandom, on average, is pretty tech-savvy. It's where I've encountered the most people under 20 years old who actually know how to use a desktop or laptop computer.

So, if there's any hope for what I'm thinking about, this is prolly a good place to start with it.

(As with all my posts, I encourage reblogging and containment-breaching.)

(Gifs are clips from TRON 1982, mainly the "deleted love scene," from the DVD extras.)

Anyway.

Current society has moved online communication much too far onto major social media sites for my comfort. Whoever you communicate with over the internet, chances are you do it through a service owned by a big company: Tumblr, Twitter, Discord, Telegram, Facebook, whatever. Even TikTok (shudder).

These sites, despite their many flaws, can provide experiences that are valuable and hard to get otherwise. And once all your friends are on one site, you can't just leave and stay in touch with them all, not unless they all go the same place. It's easy to see why it's hard to abandon any social media platform.

But a backup plan is important. Because, as we've seen over and over, social media sites can't be relied on. They change their policies suddenly, without good reason-- and are inconsistent, even discriminatory, about enforcing those policies.

If they're funded by ads, the advertisers are their main customers, and your posts are the product. Their goal is that the posts most valuable to the advertisers get seen by people the advertisers consider desirable customers.

Helping you communicate-- making your posts get seen by the people you want to communicate with-- is optional to them.

Not to mention that the whole business model of an ad-funded website is generally unsustainable. Many of these sites are operating at a loss, relying on shareholders in a fragile bubble, doomed to fail soon just from lack of real profit.

And the more restrictions --like KOSA-- that the law puts on freedom of online speech, the likelier they are to go down or just become unusable. Every rule a site is required to follow is another strain on its resources, and most of them are already failing badly at even enforcing their own self-imposed rules.

If we want any control over our continued ability to stay in touch with our online friends-- we need to have a backup plan. Maybe it'll be simple at first, a bare-bones system we cobble together-- but it's gotta be something that will work. For a while at least.

There are lots of really good posts about ways to build your own website, using a service like Neocities. I VERY MUCH recommend learning this skill-- learning to make websites of the very simplest, most stable, glitch-resistant type, made of html pages-- which you can upload to a host while you store backups on your home computer. If you value the writing and art that you put online, this is probably the safest you can keep it.

But that's for making your own creative work public.

As for communicating with others-- for example, receiving and answering other people's comments on your work-- that gets more complex. I personally haven't found it worthwhile to troubleshoot the problems that come with having a system that allows visitors to comment publicly on my website.

But what we do still have-- and likely will for a long time-- is email.

Those of us who came of age before social media's current hold... well, we might take this for granted. Email was the first form of online contact we ever encountered… and thus it can seem to us like the most ordinary, the most boring.

But in the current world, it is a rare and precious thing to find a method of communicating that doesn't require everyone in the chat to be signed on with the same corporation.

Email is, as of now, still perfectly legal-- as much as social media companies have been trying to herd the populace away from it. I'm sure there are other ways to share thoughts online that are not bound by laws. But I am not going to go into that here.

Email service is provided by law-abiding companies, which will comply with subpoenas if law enforcement thinks you are emailing about doing illegal things. So, email is not a surefire way to be safe, if laws become dystopian enough to threaten your freedom to talk about your own life and identity.

But it's safer than posting on a public social media page.

For now.

Email is beautifully decentralized. You can get an email address many different ways-- some reliant on a company like Gmail, others hosted on your own domain. And different people, with all different types of email addresses, hosted in all different ways-- can all communicate together by the same method.

Of course any of these people, individually, can lose their email address for some reason or other, and have to get a new one. But as long as they still know the email addresses of their contacts, they can reconnect and recover from that loss. The structure of a group linked by email is reliant not on a single company-- but on the group itself, the friends you can actually count on.

This is why I am trying to promote the idea of forming email lists, as a backup plan to give people a way to stay in touch as mainstream social media sites prove to be unsustainable.

I'm envisioning a simple system of sending emails to several addresses at once, and making each reply visible to everyone in the chat by using "reply all" (or, if desired, editing the To field to reply to only some).

If enough people get used to using email in this way, it could fill most of the needs met by any other group chat or forum …without depending on a centralized social media company that's taking dystopian measures to try and make the business profitable.

So here are some thoughts about how I personally imagine it could work.

(Feel free to comment and bring up any thoughts I haven't addressed, or suggestions to customize how specific groups could set it up. This is meant as more of a starting point for brainstorming than a catch-all solution.)

As I see it, here are the basics of what you and your friends would each need to start out:

An email address. Any kind, hosted anywhere. You should use a dedicated email account just for this group, one that you do NOT use for other communication. Being in this group will result in things you don't want happening to your main email address-- like getting a TON of email, one for every post and reply. Or someone could get your email address that you really don't want any contact with. Use a burner email account (one that you can easily replace) and change it if needed.

The knowledge of how to "REPLY ALL" in your email. This will be necessary in order to add a comment that everyone in the group can see.

The knowledge of how to EDIT THE "TO" FIELD in your email, and remove addresses from the list of all recipients. This will be necessary if you want to CHANGE WHICH PEOPLE in the group can see your comment.

The knowledge of how to FILTER WORDS in your email. This will be necessary if a topic comes up that you don't want to see any mentions of.

The knowledge of how to BLOCK PEOPLE in your email. This will be very important. If someone joins this email group who you do not want to interact with, it will be up to you to BLOCK them so that you do NOT see their messages. (If they are bad enough to evade the block with multiple burner accounts, that's what you have a burner account for. Change it, and share the new one only with those you trust not to give it to them.)

Every person in the group will be effectively a "moderator" of the group, able to remove people from it by cutting their email addresses out of the "To" field. Members will all have equal "moderator" privileges, each able to tailor the group to their own needs.

This means the group may naturally split, over time, into other groups, each one removing some people and adding others. Some will overlap, some won't. This is good! This is, in my opinion, what online interaction SHOULD be like! There should be MANY groups like this!

In this way, we can keep online discussion alive, no matter WHAT happens to any of the social media websites.

If the dystopia got bad enough to shut down email, we could even continue with postal mail and photocopies, like they did in the days of print-zine fanfiction.

If it looks like the dystopia is gonna come for postal mail too, we'll use the connection we have to preserve whatever contacts we can with people who live near us.

Not saying it's GONNA get that bad. But these steps of preparation are good no matter exactly what kind of bad stuff happens.

As long as some organized form of communication still exists, we'll have a place where it's at least a little safer to be your true self…

to plan events and meetups…

and maybe even activities a little too risque to make the final cut of a 1982 Disney movie.

They're trying to censor us. We want a Free System. So we're gonna fight back.

For the Users. Not the corporations.

Peace out, programs. <3

[ikeucity]

IKEUCITY WILL BE UNDER MAINTENANCE :(

hey guys...

so i’ve been thinking a lot about my current fics, and i really want to make them better. i am afraid to announce that some things might get revamped or changed, but it’s all for the best, trust me. i’m adding extra scenes and details to make everything more enjoyable for you. things i felt i could've added to make the world even better.

(don't worry! i will keep almost everything, as i know you've enjoyed how i write the characters and scenes, i simply want to write it better)

i want those who enjoy my stories to find an escape and be immersed in the world i've created with my works, thats why i love writing long ass fics. and i will continue to do so because i know it has helped me too. to just step into a different reality even if just for a moment.

i’m still continuing brought the heat back and moonstruck, but the my one-shots are getting a bit of a refresh. i know edits not showing up in reblogs is annoying, and i honestly get so pissed every time 😭

all my fics are getting a deeper, more polished version. i’ve been reading a lot and doing research to improve my writing, so expect more quality content! i’ve also created a system where, by the time i post something, there’s already another fic lined up.

what you can expect in the future is yours to wreck is getting a new spin, and i’m dropping part 3 as a gift! i’m not deleting posts—just archiving them. if something goes missing, don’t worry—the completed work will be even better.

i’ve also figured out how to make sure i have more words allowed on my posts and stay organized.

i’ll be making drabbles for fics like yours to wreck, featuring cute moments that won’t be in the plot—just a little side thing. and is something i plan to do for future fics too!

will i write requests? absolutely! but not yet, not until i feel like i've at least completed some of my series.

also it's important to know that i do love my series like akdjdjsisjs but i can't keep the series going without adding more to the plot, but you guys trust me, right?

i write fast. the reason for all of this is that i need to get better at posting finished work that i find perfect, no more second guessing. no more typos and feeling the urge to edit it or replace a few things.

i want to feel completely satisfied with what i share. if i’m calling something mid, imagine what i can do when i’m fully content with it? :O

literally, in a month, i’m gonna be raining down fics on you. the one that’s setting the tone for the kind of writing and quality you can expect is peeping tom, which i’m completely focused on right now and am receiving help from a wonderful person for it.

i want to keep my blog alive, and i need to feel happy about it. hence the changes. i hope you understand my sweets.

thank you all so much for the love and support—it means the world to me!

🖋️ love, keuri

[aggro-my-beloved]

《 ♡ Soulmate September Schedule ♡ 》

hello lovely fandom, @aggro-my-beloved here! i’m over the moon to announce that for the entire month of september i will be posting soulmate au centered fics featuring your favorite redacted pairings! some are canon, some are not…but all the works listed below are ones i’m proud to share. the plots and pairings will be listed below the cut. please interact by replying or reblogging this post, and let me know if you’d like to be tagged in any of the following fics once they are

posted <3 (p.s. pls don’t let this flop)

all the following prompts are based on this post from my main blog, @buck-nialled

⑨.②.②④ ⇒ “Long In The Tooth” (LaskoxDear)

[lasko’s been eighteen for six years now, and frankly, he’s becoming sick of playing a juvenile. what makes his endeavor for a soulmate even more bewildering? they’re one of his students.]

❾.❹.❷❹ ⇒ “Trash Polka” (AsherxBabe)

[babe is tired of wearing hoodies in summer, and leggings in the spring. but their soulmate seems too caught up in his career to mind leaving little notes and drawings on their skin, rather than meeting up for a legitimate conversation. babe takes matters into their own hands, which soon won’t be covered by a mod-podge of their soulmate’s scribbles. at least, one can hope.]

⑨.⑥.②④ ⇒ “The Grey Area” (GuyxHoney)

[what’s more depressing than witnessing an amusement park in black and white? realizing it may be the last time you visit one, is probably what guy would answer, as he dangles upside down on Wonderworld’s “Surge” coaster. the pretty stranger next to him isn’t the worst company, though.]

❾.❽.❷❹ ⇒ “A Great Disservice” (DavidxAngel)

[david serves a dangerous line of work. and angel? they cat sit. still, both come home with cuts and scratches for the same reason.]

⑨.①⓪.②④ ⇒ “Rumination” (DamienxHuxley)

[a re-imagined dialogue to the elemental bois confessing their feelings.]

❾.❶❷.❷❹ ⇒ “Resigned/Sullen” (DavidxAsher)

[neither david nor asher have spoken post-inversion about the turmoil they experienced in the arena. not the scars that wouldn’t heal, not what caused them, and certainly not who kept asher from bleeding out on the ground.]

⑨.①④.②④ ⇒ “Pulsation” (Foolsverse!MiloxSweetheart)

[milo enjoys feeling his soulmate’s heart thump faster when he’s present. but only when he’s present.]

❾.❶❻.❷❹ ⇒ “Like and Unlike” (Davidxfem!Angel)

[angel thinks she’s finally found a cure for her crippling social anxiety at Dahlia’s local gym. but she cannot tell if david, the ill-tempered coach, will be the one to make or break her progress.]

⑨.①⑧.②④ ⇒ “Parting Song” (QuinnxDarlin’)

[when you’re standing next to who you think is your soulmate, as you watch the real one whither away in a shitty steel department chair—how do you respond?]

❾.❷⓪.❷❹ ⇒ “Battered and Bruised” (Samx Darlin’)

[so long as he doesn’t tell them, sam can keep up his act of healing darlin’ without suspicion. it’s magic, after all…]

⑨.②②.②④ ⇒ “Twin, Where Have You Been?” (MiloxSweetheart)

[“well, sweetheart. one of us is gonna have to change.” in which milo and his soulmate will forever be that couple.]

❾.❷❹.❷❹ ⇒ “Midnight Oil” (AaronxSmartass)

[the matchmaker test is the one exam nobody can study for. only fate will tell a person who they truly belong with. still, aaron attempts to pull an all nighter with his overly-charming classmate in an attempt to cheat the system.]

⑨.②⑥.②④ ⇒ “All Roads Lead To…” (DavidxDarlin’)

[david’s twelve years young and still leashed in red, wondering when he’ll meet the one on the other side of it, or if he even wants to. darlin’ is eleven years in, a hopeless romantic, and crossing the California state line when they notice their red string now has a little slack.]

❾.❷❽.❷❹ ⇒ “Change Your Tune” (GeordixCutie)

[cutie’s soulmate is the number one target on their shit list. because who on god’s green earth gets the tetris theme stuck in their head on a daily basis? well, they’re about to meet him...]

⑨.③⓪.②④ ⇒ “As If You’ll Live Forever” (ElliotxSunshine)

[the one thing more ironic than sunshine’s soulmate being a dreamwalker is how tired they’ve become of sleeping.]

[spork-supremacy]

saw a post about how cliquey the fandom can be, can’t find it for the life of me to reblog but thought I’d share some observations I’ve had over the years of basically being a ghost on here. Granted this is less on behaviour and more on how we can section ourselves naturally.

I find that the bigger the fandom the easier it is for it to get divided into little subsections, especially if it has a lot of content in season variation, characters, and location. Ninjago is a very big prime example of this with around 17 seasons, 2 specials and the pilots, many with themes attached to them. there’s a lot that you could cling onto and make it your one big focus on the show.

It also has a giant cast especially when you include roles that are either small or season specific, once I just tried to see how many I could name alone from memory and I got a little over sixty and I’m sure there’s more. When it comes to location we don’t have too much in mainland Ninjago that begs to be further explored considering most people we actually take notice in live in the main city. But add in the 15 other realms and we have a whole host of interesting locations to explore.

To circle back to characters we also have a lot in our main cast, with a standard of six ninja, now three students, and if you still want to count Pixal, Misako and Wu because you are in denial, and Garmadon’s two season stint in the title sequence, we have 13 who’s been included in the main cast at some point , creating multiple dynamics we can work with and latch onto.for me personally I have always gravitated to the Jay focused side of the fandom because that was where I was most comfortable, looking over character studies, art, headcanons, general Jaya stuff because I have a favourite ship dammit, and skybound analysis because despite how strange of a season it was it was also somehow my comfort season, my favourite one I dare say. I admit it was mainly because I didn’t really think about themes and subtext back in the day and just always loved a romance heavy season of anything. I was simple sue me.

But now I love it because as much as I don’t wish to admit it I can see a lot of myself in early seasons Jay, not necessarily a good thing but watching him grow out of specific negative behaviours helped me to do so myself. With the season itself it’s just fun to pick it apart and notice what exactly was so off to me when I was younger.

And something like this can apply to everyone in the fandom, which is why they stick to their own corners, because that’s where they’re most comfortable. They may stick to a character like Lloyd because he has a lot of angst attached to him to play around with, or someone like dare that because he’s a completely comedic character and prime for crack scenarios, or Nya because of her journey of self discovery. There are definitely still people obsessing over SOG or TOE, or possession. And what I do see is people happy to share their thoughts on their own “fixation season” as I call it.

This is at least how I sort pretty much all media in my own brain and I think it’s kinda neat how the internet can work like it. With a whole branching system that if you take certain doors can have you starting off in the surface entirety of the show to looking over really obscure details like how much the word wish is used every season (great post if you can find it).

this definitely became way more in depth than expected but this is what I have noticed. I very much like how much the internet aligns with my thinking patterns and the imaginatory map of my brain.

Now I just need to figure out if this is neurotypical behaviour .

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Spider-Man India, but... where from India?

A SUPER long post featuring talks of: cultural identity, characterisation, the caste system, and what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man.

I’m prefacing this by saying that I am a second-generation immigrant. I was born in Australia, but my cultural background is from South India. My experiences with what it means to be “Indian” is going to be very different from the experiences of those who are born and brought up in India.

If you, reader, want to add anything, please reblog and add your thoughts. This is meant to be a post open for discussion — the more interaction we get, the better we become aware of these nuances.

So I made this poll asking folks to pick a region of India where I would draw Pavitr Prabhakar in their cultural wear. This idea had been on my mind for a long while now, as I had been inspired by Annie Hazarika’s Northeastern Spidey artwork in the wake of ATSV’s release, but never got the time to actually do it until now. I wanted to get a little interactive and made the poll so I could have people choose which of the different regions — North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South — to do first.

The outcome was not what I expected. As you can see, out of 83 votes:

THE RESULTS

South India takes up almost half of all votes (44.6%), followed by Northeast and Central (both 14.5%) and then East (13.3%). In all my life growing up, support towards or even just the awareness of South India was pretty low. Despite this being a very contained poll, why would nearly half of all voters pick South India in favour of other popular choices like Central or North India?

Then I thought about the layout of the poll: Title, Options, Context.

Title: "Tell us who you want to see…"

Options: North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South

Context: I want to make art of the boy again

At first I thought: ah geez. this is my fault. I didn't make the poll clear enough. do they think I want them to figure out where Pavitr came from? That's not what I wanted, maybe I should have added the context before the options.

Then I thought: ah geez. is it my fault for people not reading the entire damn thing before clicking a button? That's pretty stupid.

But regardless, the thought did prompt a line of thinking I know many of us desi folk have been considering since Spider-Man India was first conceived — or, at least, since the announcement that he was going to appear in ATSV. Hell, even I thought of it:

Where did Spider-Man India come from?

FROM A CULTURALLY DIVERSE INDIA

As we know, India is so culturally diverse, and no doubt ATSV creators had to take that into account. Because the ORIGINAL Spider-Man India came from Mumbai — most likely because Mumbai and Manhattan both started with the same letter.

But going beyond that, it’s also because Mumbai is one of the most recognisable cities in India - it’s also known as Bombay. It’s where Bollywood films are shot. It’s where superstar Hindi actors and actresses show up. Mumbai is synonymous with India in that regard, because the easiest way Western countries can interact with Indian culture is through BOLLYWOOD, through HINDI FILMS, through MUMBAI. Suddenly, India is Mumbai, India is a Hindi-only country, India is just this isolated thing we see through an infinitely narrow lens.

We’ve gotten a little better in recent years, but boy I will tell you how uncomfortable I’ve gotten when people (yes, even desi people) come up to me and tell me, Oh, you’re Indian right? Can you speak Hindi? Why don’t you speak Hindi? You’re not Indian if you don’t speak Hindi, that’s India’s national language!

I have been — still am — so afraid of telling people that I don’t speak Hindi, that I’m Tamil, that I don’t care that Hindi is India’s “national” language (it’s an administrative language, Kavin, get your fucking facts right). It’s weird, it’s isolating, and it has made me feel like I wasn’t “Indian” enough to be accepted into the group of “Indian” people.

So I am thankful that ATSV went out of their way to integrate as much variety of Indian culture into the Mumbattan sequence. Maybe that way, the younger generation of desi folk won’t feel so isolated, and that younger Western people will be more open to learning about all these cultural differences within such a vast country.

BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SPIDER-MAN INDIA?

Everything, actually. There’s a thing called supremacy. You might have heard of it. We all engaged with it at some point, and if you are Indian, no matter where you live, it is inescapable.

It happens the moment you are born — who your family is, where you are born, the language you speak, the colour of your skin; these will be bound to you for life, and it is nigh impossible to break down the stereotypes associated with them.

Certain ethnic groups will be more favourable than others (Centrals, and thus their cultures, will always be favoured over than Souths, as an example) and the same can be said for social groups (Brahmins are more likely to secure influential roles in politics or other areas like priesthood, while the lowers castes, especially Dalits, aren’t even given the decency of respect). Don’t even get me started on colourism, where obviously those of fairer skin will win the lottery while those of darker skin aren’t given the time of day. It’s even worse when morality ties into it — “lighter skinned Indians, like Brahmins, embody good qualities like justice and wisdom”, “dark skinned Indians are cunning and poor, they are untrustworthy”. It’s fucking nuts.

This means, of course, you have a billion people trying to make themselves heard in a system that tries to crush everyone who is not privileged. It only makes sense that people want to elevate themselves and break free from a society that refuses to acknowledge them. These frustrations manifest outwardly, like in protests, but other times — most times — it goes unheard, quietly shaping your way of life, your way of thinking. It becomes a fundamental part of you, and it can go unacknowledged for generations.

So when you have a character like Pavitr Prabhakar enter the scene, people immediately latch onto him and start asking questions many Western audiences don’t even consider. Who is he? What food does he eat? What does he do on Fridays? What’s his family like, his community? All these questions pop up, because, amidst all this turmoil going on in the background, you want a mainstream popular character to be like you, who knows your way of life so intimately, that he may as well be a part of your community.

BUT THAT'S THE THING — HE'S FICTIONAL

I am guilty of this. In fact, I’ve flaunted in numerous posts how I think he’s the perfect Tamil boy, how he dances bharatanatyam, how he does all these Tamil things that no one will understand except myself. All these niche things that only I, and maybe a few others, will understand.

I’ve seen other people do it, too. I’ve seen people geek out over his dark brown skin, his kalari dhoti, how he fights so effortlessly in the kalaripayattu martial arts style. I’ve seen people write him as Malayali, as Hindi, as every kind of Indian person imaginable.

I’ve also seen him be written where he’s subjected to typical Indian and broader Asian stereotypes. You know the ones I’m so fond of calling out. The thing is, I’ve seen so much of Pavitr being presented in so many different ways, and I worry how the rest of the desi folk will take it. 

You finally have a character who could be you, but now he’s someone else’s plaything. Your entire life is shaped by what you can and can’t do simply because you were born to an Indian family, and here’s the one person who could represent you now at the mercy of someone else’s whims. He’s off living a life that is so distant from yours, you can hardly recognise him.

It shouldn’t hurt as much as it does, yeah? But, again, you’re looking at it from that infinitely narrow lens Westerners use to look at India from Bollywood.

AND PAVITR PRABHAKAR DOESN'T LIVE IN INDIA

He lives in Mumbattan. He lives in a made-up, fictional world that doesn’t follow the way of life of our world. He lives in a city where Mumbai and Manhattan got fucking squashed together. There are so many memes about colonialism right there. Mumbattan isn’t real! Spider-Man India isn’t real!! He’s just a dude!! The logic of our world doesn’t apply to him!!!

“But his surname originates from ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he’s wearing a kalari dhoti so surely he’s ______” okay but does that matter?

“But his skin colour is darker so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he lives in Mumbai so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

I sound insensitive and brash and annoying and it looks like I’m yapping just for the sake of riling you up, so direct that little burst of anger you got there at me, and keep reading.

Listen. I’m going to ask you a question that I’ve asked myself a million times over. I want you to answer honestly. I want you to ask this question to yourself and answer honestly:

Are you trying to convince me on who Pavitr Prabhakar should be?

... but why shouldn't i?

I’ll tell you this again — I did the same thing. You’re not at fault for this, but I want you to just...have a little think over. Just a little moment of self-reflection, to think about why you are so intent on boxing this guy.

It took me a while to reorganise my thinking and how to best approach a character like Pavitr, so I will give you all the time you need as well as a little springboard to focus your thoughts on.

SPIDER-MAN (INDIA) IS JUST A MASK

“What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that’s a good thing.”

Stan Lee said that. Remember how he was so intent on making sure that everybody got the idea that Spider-Man as an entity is fundamentally broken without Peter Parker there to put on the suit and save the day? That ultimately it was the person beneath the mask, no matter who they were, that mattered most?

Spider-Man India is no less different. You can argue with me that Peter Parker!Spidey is supposed to represent working class struggles in the face of leering corporate entities who endanger the regular folk like us, and so Pavitr Prabhakar should also function the same way. Pavitr should also be a working class guy of this specific social standing fighting people of this other social standing.

But that takes away the authenticity of Spider-Man India. Looking at him through the Peter Parker lens forces you to look at him through the Western lens, and it significantly lessens what you can do with the character — suddenly, it’s a fight to be heard, to be seen, to be recognised. It’s yelling over each other that Pavitr Prabhakar is this ethnicity, is that caste, this or that, this or that, this or that.

There’s a reason why he’s called Spider-Man India, infuriatingly vague as it is. And that’s the point — the vagueness of his identity fulfils Lee’s purpose for a character that could theoretically be embodied by anyone. If he had been called “Spider-Man Mumbai”, you cut out a majority of the population (and in capitalist terms, you cut out a good chunk of the market).

And in the case of Spider-Man India? Whew — you’ve got about a billion people imagining a billion different versions of him.

Whoever you are, whatever you see in Pavitr, that is what is personal to you, and there is nothing wrong with that, and I will not fault you for it. I will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from Central due to the origins of his last name. I also will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from South due to him practising kalaripayattu. I also will not fault you for saying he is not Hindu. I also will not fault you for saying he is a particular ethnicity without any proof.

What I will fault you for is trying to convince me and the others around you that Pavitr Prabhakar should be this particular ethnicity/have this cultural background because of some specific reason. I literally don’t care and it is fundamentally going against his character, going against the “anyone can wear the mask” sentiment of Spider-Man. By doing this, you are strengthening the walls that first divided us. You’re feeding the stratification and segmentation of our cultures — something that is actually not present in the fictional world of Mumbattan.

Like I said before: Mumbattan isn’t real, so the divides between ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are practically nonexistent. The best thing is that it is visually there for all to see. My favourite piece of evidence is this:

It’s a marquee for a cinema in the Mumbattan sequence, in the “Quick tour: this is where the traffic is” section. It has four titles; the first two are written in Hindi. The third title is written in Bengali*, and the fourth title is written in Tamil. You go to Mumbai and you won’t see a single shred of Bengali nor Tamil there, much less any other language that's not common in Maharashtra (Western India). Seeing this for the first time, you know what went through my head?

Wow, the numerous cultures of India are so intermingled here in Mumbattan! Everyone and everything is welcome!

I was happy, not just because of Tamil representation, but because of the fact that the plethora of Indian cultures are showcased coexisting in such a short sequence. This is India embracing all the little parts that make up its grander identity. This scene literally opened my eyes seeing such beauty in all the diverse cultures thriving together. In a place where language and cultural backgrounds blend so easily, each one complementing one another.

It is so easy to believe that, from this colourful palette of a setting, Pavitr Prabhakar truly is Spider-Man India, no matter where he comes from.

It’s easy to believe that Pavitr can come from any part of India, and I won’t call you out if the origin you have for him is different from the origin I have. You don’t need to stake out territory and stand your ground — you’re entitled to that opinion, and I respect it. In fact, I encourage it!!!

Because there’s only so much you can show in a ten minute segment of a film about a country that has such a vast history and even greater number of cultures. I want to see all of it — I want him to be a Malayali boy, a Hindi boy, a Bengali boy, a Telugu boy, an Urdu boy, whatever!! I want you to write him or draw him immersed in your culture, so that I can see the beauty of your background, the wonderful little things that make your culture unique and different from mine!

And, as many friends have said, it’s so common for Indian folks to be migrating around within our own country. A person with a Maharashtrian surname might end up living in Punjab, and no one really minds that. I’m actually from Karnataka, my family speaks Kannada, but somewhere down the line my ancestors moved to Tamil Nadu and settled down and lived very fulfilling lives. So I don’t actually have the “pure Tamil” upbringing, contrary to popular belief; I’ve gotten a mix of both Kannada and Tamil lifestyles, and it’s made my life that much richer. 

So it’s common for people to “not” look like their surname, if that’s what you’re really afraid about. In fact, it just adds to that layer of nuance, that even despite these rigid identities between ethnicities we as Indian people still intermingle with one another, bringing slivers of our cultures to share with others. Pavitr could just as well have been born in one state and moved around the country, and he happens to live in Mumbattan now. It’s entirely possible and there’s nothing to disprove that.

We don’t need to clamber over one another declaring that only one ethnicity is the “right” ethnicity, because, again, you will be looking at Pavitr and the rest of India in that narrow Western lens — a country with such rich cultural variety reduced to a homogenous restrictive way of life.

THE POLL: REINTERPRETED

This whole thing started because I was wondering why my little poll was so skewed — I thought people assumed I was asking them where he came from, then paired his physical appearance with the most logical options available. I thought it was my fault, that I had somehow influenced this outcome without knowing.

Truth is, I will never really know. But I will be thankful for it, because it gave me the opportunity to finally broach this topic, something that many of us desi folk are hesitant to talk about. I hope you have learned something from this, whether you are desi or a casual Spider-Man fan or someone who just so happened to stumble upon this. 

So just…be a little more open. Recognise that India, like many many countries and nations, is made up of a plethora of smaller cultures. And remember, if you’re trying to convince Pavitr that he’s a particular ethnicity, he’s going to wave his hand at you and say, “Ha, me? No, I’m one of the people that live here in the best Indian city! I’m Spider-Man India, dost!”

(Regardless, he still considers you a friend, because to him, the people matter more to him than you trying to box him into something he’s not.)

*Note: thank you dear anon for letting me know that the third title was Bengali, twas my mistake for literally completely forgetting

[voltaspistol]

Hey everyone, it's your friendly neighborhood gold star mental patient here with secondhand therapist advice.

For those of us with a lot of anxiety who tend to get "stuck" trying to take in ALL of the information because your brain is desperately looking for the "AHA!" moment that will make the brain gremlins go away?

That information ain't out there as of the evening of November 6th.

At least not yet.

And if your brain is operating in crisis mode, you will be tempted to say and do things that might hamper rather than help.

Now might be a good time to look through your game and movie backlog to find a title that will help you "come up for air", so to speak. Something that will allow your brain to stop making cortisol & adrenaline, because right now? Your ego is basically doing that I Love Lucy bit where she works in a chocolate factory. That shit is not good for your brain, not good for your body, not good for whatever we have left that passes for a soul.

It doesn't free you from the obligation of getting involved in your community.

It just gives your brain some time to process some things in the back of your mind while your conscious mind takes a break. Here's some suggestions to start: ✅ Lord of the Rings (Not the recent show, the ones from the early 2000s) - The obvious choice which I think a lot of people will be gravitating towards on their own. ✅ Tank Girl (Movie, 1995)- If you need your story of overthrowing tyranny to be filled with swear words, sexual innuendo, and high levels of camp along with a decent 90s soundtrack, this might get you pumped enough to organize. ✅ Amelie (Movie, 2001) - A comfort watch if you feel alone and isolated. If you are too scared or too shy to run headlong into a formal political action group, this french film documents how small, creative acts of kindness and justice can make the world just a little bit better. It will renew your faith in humanity a bit. ✅ Disco Elysium (video game 2019) - A sprawling choose-your-own adventure set in a post-war capitalist dystopia alternate reality. Soothing for those of us who have made apology tours after losing our shit, illuminating for those of us who struggle with intrusive thoughts, and compelling for everyone who likes those stories where reality and unreality are a bit wobbly and elements of the fantastical seep through in unexpected ways. It doesn't have much to do with current events, but maybe that's what you need right now. ✅ Hades (game, 2020) - A game all about being stuck in hell, and fighting to get out, and although you get help from allies along the way, you're the one who has to do the dirty work. If you need some lessons on resilience and a compelling story besides with lots of interesting characters (including non-cis romance options!) and you want to get revenge on an oppressive father figure, try it on for size. ✅ Superliminal (2020) - If you need a high-end creative physics-based puzzle game that is light on story and operates on dream logic that relies heavily on linear perception just to distract you? This one is short but will have you distracted long enough to let your brain breathe a bit. ✅ The Room (2014) - For low-end systems and mobile devices, this is basically an elaborate digital puzzlebox, like one of those fancy desks with lots of hidden drawers. Atmospheric but not scary.

Also, don't discount the obvious ones: Cat videos, re-watching beloved old shows, guilty pleasure music etc.

You are not helping anyone, not even yourself, by doomscrolling until something goes --SNAP!-- in your brain.

Come up for air, give your brain metabolize the nasties, and THEN you will be able to strategize. Though for obvious reasons, now is not a good time to go back to old addictions like World of Warcraft. The idea is to take a break, NOT to drown in old waters. This list is not comprehensive, obviously, please add your own in reblogs

[feelbetterlove-books]

Oughhhh okay first of all, I am SO happy to see Bucktommy back on our screens and I WILL be mass reblogging things about them soon, fair warning! I took a bit after the ep to stop jumping up and down about how good it was, but then I came across the subject of this post and so first, to get it out of my system: a rant! It's not about the episode, probably not of any interest to most people, especially Bucktommy fans trying to protect their peace, so feel absolutely free to ignore this, I'll put it under a cut, I just have to get it out. I've been holding my tongue where bobs are concerned for the most part because I don't want to be mean/have a bunch of negativity on my blog/have any of them find and come after me like they're known to do, but idc rn.

So, there's this author I follow on insta, have followed for years, have read a few of her books and had the rest on my tbr. The ones I've read weren't mind-blowing or anything tbh, but for contemporary romances (not my usual genre) I had fun with them. What I really liked about her was that she is so outspoken about all of her books having bi characters: f/f and m/f. Bi4bi m/f, bi woman x straight man, bi woman x lesbian etc. I love to see bi rep and her efforts to make bi characters visible are great, I respected her for it and I found out last season, she's also a 911 fan! A Buck fan! Cool! She ships B*ddi3 but usually idc ship and let ship, I didn't think she was a Bucktommy hater.

That is, until tonight when I went on insta and saw her post. Bee cupcakes as the first pic, I went oh cute, for 911!! But then I scroll through the post and find this bingo card, the more I looked at it, the more I was like 😬 oh so she's a bob, huh? She only cares about Buck and his bisexuality if he's with E**ie? I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but then there's this in her stories (edits by me to highlight what I'm on about):

And I've blocked a LOT of blogs to try and avoid Tommy/Bucktommy hate so getting blindsided by this when I was in such a good mood enjoying our favorite guy's scene sucked. I literally felt sick about it for a while afterwards and I've decided to unfollow her and unhaul the books I own without reading more. It's not the first time I've stopped supporting an artist I was a fan of, granted this reasoning may seem dumb or petty to other people but I just can't get over it, I mean-

You're a romance author with 5 books published, I didn't think it was a stretch to assume you at least had some decent media literacy and appreciation for a good story/a sweet, queer, rom-com inspired ship. But you hate Tommy just because he's in the way of your ship? You champion bi characters, but will hate on the gay boyfriend of one who is breaking stereotypes and making people feel represented because you think his straight best friend would be a better match? Seriously?

And it's not only these two things, I looked her up on tw*tter, which I'm never usually on, but had logged into today to look at Lou's posts, and I found that she follows multiple people who I know to be particularly nasty Tommy haters/bobs. So. Yeah. I'm out of there, I just can't look at her the same anymore, not to be parasocial or whatever but she always seemed cool, I liked her, I wanted to support her work, I HAVE supported her work personally and as someone who works as a bookseller, I've pointed people to her books and sold them.

But now I just have a bad taste in my mouth. There has been SO much hate towards Tommy, Bucktommy, and worse, the real people who ship them, Lou, and even Oliver over the last few months, because it's constantly being stirred up by this kind of B*ddi3 shipper. I would feel sorry for them for how desperate and bitter they are if not for the fact that I simply cannot stand them anymore. They are miserable and determined to make Bucktommy shippers miserable, too.

I just don't get why people can't stay in their fandom lane and leave others alone?? Like, getting mad that Buck's ESTABLISHED BOYFRIEND and E**ie's FRIEND, WHO HE LIKES, was in one (1) scene, when it narratively made sense for him to be there to remind the ga of him, is pathetic. Tommy came to support E at the virtual birthday party of his estranged teenager, and make a heavy scene lighter and you're acting like he's some kind of monster. I can't even, I'm done!

I hope all the bestie boos will start to leave the fandom soon, when Tommy sticks around, because tbh they only care about one thing that's never going to happen and they don't even seem to have fun on their side of the "ship war". They're too busy being nasty all the time, can't talk about their ship without dragging ours down.

Anyway this rant is becoming more generalized than what I planned to say about that person and has already gotten sooo long, so I'm just going to post it to throw all my anger and frustration out there with it and then bury it with happy Bucktommy posts!! If any Bucktommy fan for some reason actually reads this 1. Oof. Sorry! 2. I 💙 you, Bucktommy fans are the best and I'm so glad to be in this fandom despite everything!!

[sara-wishes]

Sk8er boi. - 여상

Skater!Yeosang x Female!Reader

genre: fluff, enemy to lovers.

warnings: rude y/n (only at the beginning), poor skater vocabulary, mention of scratches, a swear word (?), sorry not sorry but studying biology sucks, angelic yeo.

word count: 3.3k

now listening to: Sk8er boi by Avril Lavigne

a/n: happy birthday to yeosang! if you enjoy this work, pls consider reblogging :D also, i added everyone who interacted with my previous post for this fanfic to the taglist, since I changed the requirement after posting it.

The headache was already present in your system.

You couldn’t tell if it was from having locked yourself up five hours ago to study non-stop, or from the noisy and irritating rolling of skate wheels.

The culprit to blame for the incessant clattering, none other than Yeosang.

The boy next door, who had accompanied you all throughout your life, as your neighbor and as your classmate. Not that you knew much about him or you shared an irreplaceable bond with him. You were acquaintances, who had talked to each other from time to time. And perhaps, just perhaps, you had developed the smallest, tiniest and insignificant crush over the greek sculptured boy. 

Nonetheless, if someone were to ask you about your opinion on him, of course, you would retort that he is to you nothing more, but an endless nuisance, and that you considered him to be the ultimate archenemy of all your grades.

Although he indeed was ‘the boy next door’ for you, he liked being referred to as the ‘skater boy next door’. Who was too passionate about skating, to ever stop trying new tricks, right under where your window happened to be located. The only parchment of the street he had deemed good enough to practice on. Unfortunately, summer was nearing your town, and the luxury of keeping the window shut was not one which you could afford indulging in.

So, you were stuck with the bothersome rumbling of plastic over concrete.

The hours of studying were finally getting to you. As the diligent student you were, you had been bottled up inside your room. Reading, memorizing and hammering into your brain your biology sessions, hating every single moment of the five hours in a row, in which you had been torturing yourself. The fog in your mind didn’t make it any easier to keep going. 

You were officially burned out. No other time like before your finals to reach your human limitations. But still, even if you were incredibly bothered by this fact, you tried to blankly read and re-read the now familiar pages of the book, making this your last, desperate attempt.

Regardless of your tries, you were slowly getting more irritated at your inability, after 20 minutes of useless staring at a filled notebook, letting your nerves get the better of you. The annoying hobby of the previously ignored boy, finally affecting you too negatively to restrain yourself. Blinded by your powerless state, you were even convinced he was doing it just to spite you and you were putting an end to at least one of your impediments.

While you took your time to angrily load with irritation each of your moments as you got up from your seat at your desk, you pondered that, maybe, you shouldn’t be letting your pent up anger out on the skater boy, but you were too tired and done for to take a moment to think things through.

Leaning your head out the window, and waiting for your vision to adjust to the sunlight, your target became distinguishable. The blonde, unaware of your eyes on him, still practicing his tricks.

“Hey, you! Could you stop for three minutes? People are trying to study here!”

The innocent boy looked up at you with big maltese eyes, startled at the unexpected voice coming from above his position. ‘Fantastic.’ Now you didn’t only feel miserable with yourself, but guilty at having called out the boy’s harmless doings. Perhaps this enmity was one sided after all.

“Sorry, am I making too much noise?” He shyly and politely asked you.

“Well… Yeah.” You honestly felt like a Karen, complaining to a manager over the incorrect order in a restaurant.

“Oh, sorry…, again. Y/N right?” His voice got smaller at your glare and his form shrunk at your tone, making you feel as if you were kicking a puppy. At this thought, you scoffed out loud, making the boy tilt his head naively. You really were the villain in this story, huh?

Coming back from your cloud, after self deprecating just a little more for the day, you nodded at his question, actually surprised at his knowledge of your name. 

Without a doubt the most beautiful guy in the world remembered your name, the name of the most basic and common girl to ever grace the earth. You sure felt kind of special at this. A silly thought and sentiment, but you had had enough pestering all day to not take the indirect compliment.

You really were regretting having ever complained to him. And even though you couldn't even blame the blonde anymore as hard as you tried, he continued explaining himself. 

“I figured you would stop studying at some point of the day.” His deep timbre conjured his sentence, with no malice or offensive intent.

Oh. Oh. So you were the stupid girl who was feeling remorse over your actions, and he was getting cocky? The anger that had slightly subsided, arose once again even stronger than before. At least that was how you were taking that incredibly blunt statement. The patience left in you taunted by it, made you want to go down to the alley and break that damned skate of his.

“Well Yeosang, I figured you would stop skating at some point of the day.” You’d give him back a taste of his own medicine. 

At that, the blonde shut up and stood still, just blankly staring at you. And even if you thought he had never looked as handsome before, not his visuals nor his damaged puppy face would make you forget how pissed you were at him right now. Tired of his silence, you decided to finish the job.

“Are you gonna’ stop or do I have to go down there and break that thing in half?” You bitterly made him snap out of it, using your head to gesture to the bored skate that he carried in his hand.

“Hey, h-hey, I’ll stop, don’t be like that.” He rushedly assured you.

“Thought so.”

With that, you retreated back into your room. Back to studying, to pretending not to be worn out from all the pressure, time and dedication you put into it.

At least, that was your plan. As soon as you tried to duck back indoors, you heard Yeosang’s angelic voice call you out (was every single thing about him just angelic and otherworldly?).

“Wait! Wait! Please.”

Annoyed out of your skin and huffing, you decided to indulge the skater just this time.

“What.” More than as a question, it came out as a statement, only adding to the furious rudeness.

“Why don’t you come down?” He timidly suggested.

“So you can make me lose more of my time? No, thank you.” Was your retort, sarcasm dripping from every word. He must be losing it if he thought he had a shot at convincing you.

“No.. It’s just- you can't spend all day cooped up inside. It isn’t healthy. Besides, I’m sure you’re burned out from all that hard work. A bit of fresh air and skating can do you no wrong.”

Taken aback from his honest and sincere worry, instead of answering back with a witty remark, you let yourself ease a bit into the conversation. You were getting tired from all the tension and anger that were in no way helping your headache. Maybe he did have a shot at convincing you. So you could only think that, maybe, he was more observant than the rest of his friends gave him credit for, and found his realization of your state admirable.

“You noticed.” Answering with a calmer voice, the frown that had adorned your face for the entirety of the word exchange, now gone. However, even at your more relaxed state, he still felt the need to be watchful and careful of his wording, cautious as to not let his previous mistakes repeat.

“Don’t take it the wrong way but, you’re usually so kind with me and my friends. Even if just from passing. It just didn’t seem like you were the one speaking right now.”

Perplexed at his statement, you allowed yourself to drift from the conversation to your own head, leaving the boy hanging. 

He… noticed you? Not only that, but he thought you were kind? You couldn’t believe what he was saying. He was the kind one. One of the kindest souls you had encountered. He was the one dealing with a pissed-off neighbor incredibly politely and with the grace of a swan. You were the one who should be praising him and awarding his kindness. 

Yeosang was like a sun, always making sure his friends shined as much as him and no one felt out of place or kept out of the loop. You were not stalking him or anything of the sort, but everyone who knew just a bit about Yeosang, was aware of how far he’d go to make sure his friends and close ones felt appreciated. He was the definition of kindness. So much so, that just with that comment he had managed to lift your spirits quicker than you could’ve ever imagined. Just like the work of magic. 

Remembering you were still in a conversation with the boy in question -who, at your unresponsiveness had begun fiddling with the ends of his board-, you answered his previous question. 

“Okay.”

“O-okay?”

“You notice me being worn out from class, but you can’t tell what I’m talking about? You still are as oblivious as always, Sangie.” Maybe you were being too cruel on the poor clueless boy. Maybe you were taking too many liberties and speaking too casually to the one you only shared the same classroom and apartment block with. Maybe. But you were feeling happier thanks to him, and maybe you were in to have a little fun, after looking at your biology book for about 3 hours straight with a blank mind and no results.

After having decided for the more enjoyable choice, you retreated back into your bedroom. You closed the damned book with a slam, turned off your heated up monitor and without even grabbing your keys, you sprinted down the stairs of your apartment and hopped over the side of the road Yeosang was calmly waiting for you.

“So, what do you suggest?” You expectantly blinked at his form.

Abruptly and out of nowhere, he began chuckling adorably at your sudden enthusiasm and outburst of energy. At this, you couldn’t contain your own smile, not that you were trying to. It was amazing how fast he had been able to lift your mood. Partly to how honest and good-natured his words had been, as insignificant they could seem to any other, they weren't to you. And partly to you taking a moment  to assess how childish and simple-minded your previous attitude at the boy had been.

When he finally took a breath after his fit of adorable chuckles -which made his smile smaller and all the cuter-, he let out his thoughts and the reason as to why he had felt the sudden humor. “You’re eager.”

“Yes! Now teach me how to skate!” Even if your crankiness was gone, your mindset was difficult to get rid of. The stubbornness of getting things right when you dedicate yourself to them and the ‘don’t lose your time’ attitude you always wore on your sleeve, were also present now, when your current fixation was learning how to skate with Yeosang’s guidance.

The sun was setting, but now seemed like the perfect instance to try and successfully ride without scraping your knees. You felt confident, after all, how difficult could rolling on top of a skate be? Maybe after you got the hang of maneuvering around with it, you would even go and try some simple tricks.

Although you felt hesitant at first, since you believed to be skillful enough to manage without it, Yeosang convinced you to let him show you a bit of the theory involving skating. How to position your knees, where to stand on the board, how to turn and push yourself easier…, the basics.

Thanks to Yeosang, you learned all the theory needed (Not much, thanks to god, otherwise you would’ve already passed out from all the ‘studying’.)

“Okay, now you ride it.” Without hesitation, you jumped on the board, avoiding Yeosang’s helping hands to get on top of it. You felt optimistic enough to slide across the street without the boy’s help. It could not be that difficult. 

That’s what you thought at first.

Going on a straight line was the easy part. You forwarded your body with the help of your foot, managing to beeline towards your initial destination for the most part.

When the moment to turn arrived, is when things started to go south. Not only were you unable to properly direct the board to take on the curve, but the momentum of the previous linear movement wasn’t helping either.

The stiffness of the board threw you off balance and made you lose your footing. Before you could even realize what was happening, you were barreling towards the floor.

From your position, facing the other side of the street, you couldn’t see Yeosang, but you heard his gasp as you fell. 

Planting your hands in the ground, you stupidly fell over them, your knees also taking the impact and scraping themselves in the process.

“Y/N!” Yeosang shouted for you, running to your aid.

“Ow…oww…” You whined at the painful scratches. Yeosang skidded across the pavement, not caring about damaging his pants or his own knees. 

“Are you okay?!” He worriedly questioned your state, kneeling to your level. 

“Yeah, yes- I just hurt myself a little. I’m okay.” Brushing off the dust and dirt from your knees, you reassured him you were fine, just a minor wound. Regardless, he took out of his back pocket a box of Peppa Pig bandaids, selecting a few of his liking. Incredulous, you stared at him.

“Are those for me?”

“Yeah, we can’t let it get infected. Who do you prefer, George Pig or Pedro Pony?” Not believing your eyes, this time you were the one to start chuckling. He could be so childish and so mature at the same time. Yeosang was truly a wild ride. But, obviously, you had an evident answer to his question.

“Pedro Pony, of course. He's my hero.” At your confident answer, Yeosang did not hesitate another second and proceeded to take his water bottle -that had been waiting by a corner on the alley-, pouring a good amount of the liquid over your wounds and patting down the excess with a tissue. The Pedro Pony bandaids coming next. After securing them on your skin, he got up and lent you a hand to help you off the ground.

“Thank you. I really thought I got it.” You sheepishly broke the comfortable silence.

“Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. But, I have an idea. Do you trust me?” He looked at you through his lashes, standing just a few centimeters away from you.

For a moment, you pondered. This was the longest amount of time you had talked to him ever before. Sure, you did kind of fancy the boy, but maybe you could take the opportunity to tease him a little. Either way, he had made you feel incredibly comfortable in record time, giving you the opportunity to run away from your duties just when you most needed it. You could honestly say, you trusted him to teach you skating, and a bit more than just that.

“Sure.” When your answer came out as positive, he smiled brightly. Almost blindingly. Possibly the most beautiful smile you had ever witnessed had been his in that exact moment.

The blonde signaled you to hop on the skateboard again, just a little bit over the front. Maybe you should have expected it when he directed you to settle that way, but it came as a surprise when Yeosang climbed on behind you. He began circling his arms around your hip, but the kind male, gently asked for consent before completely embracing you. 

“Can I?”

“Yeah.” Due to your proximity, both your answers came as a mere whisper, only audible for each other. His arms finally settled around your form, instantly warming you, from the electric touch of his fingertips near your belly, to the top of your shoulders, where he leaned his chin to be able to see. Your ears became a vibrant red without you even realizing. 

The boy began pushing you both forward, starting slow, taking the turns you had not been able to before. But when you both had settled into a comfortable position and tempo, he thought he could speed things up.

A bit more harshly, provoking a small rattle on the surface of the skate, he pushed you both with his foot, planting it strongly on the ground. The pace began increasing, the wind making your hair wild, slipping through your locks and caressing your face. The freedom you had been yearning for just minutes before, was now finally yours to enjoy and savor.

“Woohoo!” You couldn’t help yourself. You really needed this and you were going to make the most out of it. Letting out a freeing laugh from the pits of your chest, Yeosang joined you in your joy. Unbeknownst to you, he was immensely euphoric to have been the one to free you from your shackles, taking the glee trapped inside you, letting it resurface.

Even hours after the sun had settled behind the horizon, you two still skated, laughed and talked about everything and anything, building a moment that you both would treasure and hold dear next to your heart. 

Sadly, you had to come down from your cloud at some point, returning to reality. And you could stress no more the liberating hours.

“Yeosang. Thank you so much for this. All of it.” You snapped the boy out of his daydream, the same one you had been engrossed in just moments ago. He slightly raised his left eyebrow at your remark, curious as to what you meant. And smiling due to his antics, you decided against answering his silent question.

“You have nothing to thank me for, everyone needs this from time to time. I am glad I was the one to help you.” When he finally understood the meaning behind your words, he sincerely retorted. But he deduced this was your way of telling, the moment was coming to an end.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” He tried to elongate the moment as much as possible, feeling the same way as you did about your parting.

“Yeosang. We live right here. Like, two meters away from this alley. I think I’ll do just fine. But, thank you again, either way.” Smiling at him, you begrudgingly rose from your sitting spot. And waving at him, you made your exit around the corner. “See you around, S8er boi!” You shouted over the other side of the street, unable to see Yeosang’s reaction at that point.

If you had already admitted to yourself that you had a crush on the boy before, you now had confirmed it was much more than that. And perhaps, if someone were to ask about your opinion on him, this time, you would consider telling them Avril Lavigne could try to take away from you this skater boy, but never succeed. 

With this thought in mind and a new perspective of Yeosang in your heart, you were ready to take on more of your studying. But, mayhaps, the universe was against you studying at all today. Your apartment keys missing from your pocket -forgotten on your desk at the prospect of skating with your crush- and a blossoming smile on your lips -ecstatic at the thought of spending more time with the boy of your dreams-.

taglist: @anew-inception, @harmonized-disarray, @imalittlebitlovedrunk, @dea-nimus, @landsharkfandomtrash, @alice0blog, @baizhuu, @bunnyiix, @cookiechristie, @alex-90000, @corpser2002-blog. (names not on bold could not be found).

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Anecdotally I definitely would say my center of gravity has shifted much lower since I went on estrogen! Propioception is difficult for me, so exactly where is unclear, but I think somewhere below my belly button at this point.

Though funnily enough, even before then, when I did the basics of parkour dad would always get onto me about focusing too much on my lower body and not enough on my upper body--my weight was distributed relatively top-heavy but something about what felt like the most natural way to move always prioritized the lower body.

AHHHHH this is so cool!!!

I love hearing from other trans people the different ways we're noticing our embodiment of gender change (or NOT change!!!!) in response to our medical transitions. I just think it's so much fun learning more about how and why bodies do things lol

Anyway, I really think it makes sense that it would shift! Because like. It is working in coordination with your strongest force applying muscles surely! So surely it tracks for the CoG to get "dragged" up or down a bit depending on how that has changed in response to our hormones???

I would REALLY love to know more about that tho! Like WHY is it happening and HOW (not least of which because I'm about 8-9 months on T now and I want to know how I might need to learn to carry my body differently)

But ALSO now that you mention it, I think you might be onto something????

Because my center of gravity is "high"! At least in that I need railings set around like. Lower rib cage height??? In order to feel less like I'm "following my CoG over" into that vertigo feeling? And I would say that I have always tended towards a leading CoG somewhere between my belly button and my bra band.

Okay I'm officially curious! Roll call! Where do people notice their center of gravity BEFORE and AFTER medical transition or HRT of any kind - intersex siblings, this includes us - (and what hormones got added to your system) if you've done that?

And secondary rollcall! If you HAVEN'T started medical transition or HRT of any kind, what is your gender, and where is your center of gravity? I don't actually know that it will be helpful in this to include whether you're cis, gnc, trans, nonbinary, etc, but feel free to include that as you're comfortable!

I'm going to reblog this shortly (or link to a new post as appropriate -> HERE BE LINK IF THERE BE LINK) with the "low" CoG poll

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Okay so here’s my thoughts on the staffcon thing.

I still think collapsing reblogs so posts look more like other social media isn’t gonna work as a feature but they will probably roll them back a little and at least add a toggle off for it if they try it and enough people submit feedback. Edit: this is actually less of an issue, most of the discussion is based on a misrepresentation of what’s happening. They’re just making it easier to scroll past long posts. EDIT AGAIN: actually some people already have the initial roll out of the feature and it. Is bad.

I think submitting feedback is a takeaway. There was a pretty clear effort to just remind the user base that there are real humans on the other side of a paycheck having to read and respond to the inputs of every feedback method on the site, which is fair. It’s easy to be an asshole online in any semi anonymous platform and that is something that tumblr culture takes a certain bloodthirsty pleasure in.

And yes, of course, user complaints about issues such as accessibility and the many ongoing glitches and bots and the search function, etc. are valid and do need to be addressed. But at the very least it would be cool if we as users maybe try to cultivate a slightly less pitchforky social norm when submitting feedback about changes to the site. The ceo is not reading every @ to his blog. One of his employees is. The people reading all of the feedback are just people doing their jobs. All jobs suck under capitalism, maybe we could try not to make their jobs actively worse.

Would you be rude to an overworked server in a restaurant? No? Cool also try to not be a dick to the person getting paid to answer customer or user complaints.

Related to that, funding. Many current and former members of staff have been pretty frank about funding in the past. The company is trying to at the very least breakeven, which not a single company who has owned tumblr has managed because the hosting fees for this site are insane due to all of the stuff on it.

If they don’t get it to breakeven they’ll hopefully best case just open source the website which is a method they’ve done in the past. And it would probably work, and then the website would to my understanding be being maintained by users. Now this is where my understanding gets fuzzy so anyone with more knowledge of how this would shake out feel free to chime in. But my understanding is that the source code for the site would be opened up and maintained by the community likely through mostly volunteer work. I would guess largely uncompensated.

So personally I think maybe the vitriolic response to every change they make going forward to try and monetize the site and pay even some of the cost of operation is perhaps a bit overblown, because they’re still trying to find a way to keep paying those people to work on tumblr, and I think people continuing to be paid for the work they do is better than volunteers doing unpaid labor.

I do also think there’s a secret third option for automattic and every other company finding themselves with a worse outlook now the Silicon Valley bubble has started to really burst, and that is for all existing staff members to unionize and then turn the whole thing into a worker coop. Much more stable organizational structures. Worker coops are also one of my favorite short term solutions to many other systemic problems we are currently experiencing.

I do hope this site continues to exist for many years, especially as it is one of the only places on the internet where the culture makes it safer to talk about some of the more permanent and long term solutions to various systemic issues that function within societies. Also funny text posts.

[avocadoraisin]

Whats the appeal of blue sky. I’ve never heard of it before. Is the community better or is about privacy or what?

its more for people looking for a replacement for twitter, since now that place is overrun with AI and bots and trolls and right wingers and misery and now they changed how the block feature worked, and EVERYONE hated that

if you ask me, i dont really understand why people dont just come back to tumblr. it has everything art communities keep asking for: the ability to edit posts, highly craftable blogs and posts for presentation purposes, a huge character limit, a robust tagging system that you can use for either sorting your own work on your blog or to get more eyes on it in tags, or to better hide things you dont like. its great.

but idk. the porn rules still really turn a lot of people off, even though naughty work is allowed here again so long as its cropped or censored or what have you.

so, Tumblr, I think, is still the best place to be if tumblr is what you want.

Bluesky is the current best "twitter killer" if you're specifically looking to fill that hole. Ive been on it for about a year or so because the furry community claimed it first, but every time Musk does something fucking moronic, more people go "hey wait, this place IS pretty neat" and join the party.

i dont fully agree with how blocking works there either, but so far I havent had a problem... (you can find out who is blocking you, which makes me uneasy. I like to have a little privacy, not everything I do online needs to be on display on my profiles. I personally dont even like when my 'likes' are public, another win for tumblr. but you cant win them all. unless you're on tumblr and dont mind not posting porn, then tumblr has it all. but I DIGRESS......)

but on Bluesky, you can: use tags in a similar way as you do on tumblr, to organize your own work or use it for discoverability. you can have slightly more control over the interactivity of your post (same as here, where you can limit comments. You can disable quote posting, but you cant stop people from "retweeting" though, which is a shame. I enjoy being able to nuke the ability to reblog my more intimately personal posts on tumblr, but its something.)

And, kind of like custom tags, you can create custom "feeds." You can use these feeds to discover other people's work out there, or you can use them for people to sort through your stuff too. I have one for only my art and Werepire AU so far. like this:

And in general, the community SO FAR seems dedicated to keeping the space more positive, since rage bait and contrarianism and infighting runs rampant on twitter. theres a little bit more typing room for nuanced thoughts on bluesky, people are more willing to have mature discussions, at least from what I can tell in the circles im in. you're less at risk for aggressive randos to show up in your space because its not algorithm based, its based solely on who you follow (yayyyy!!) or the feeds you subscribe to.

Also just the fact that most people on the platform right now are just excited they can share art and say things without 200 bots swarming to their posts, or the twitter algorithm stomping their work into the dirt because they posted a link, had too long of a caption, had too many hashtags, too LITTLE hashtags, said unknown tweet-suppressing words, or it was in a thread, or NOT in a thread, etc etc etc etc etc

and theres porn. of course.

[astercontrol]

In regard to that previous reblog-- and other notes in that thread discussing just how much hearing aids actually can or can't do, and vision problems that can't be corrected to 20/20, and other not-correctable disabilities--

...my thoughts are running off now into the fuzzy areas, which are places I... really tend to get uncomfortable.

Especially now, because I'm currently in a fuzzy place myself -- a state of health where I do not know if my impairments can be fully corrected -- and whether or not they can? may depend a lot on things like, will I find a doctor good enough to know what's going on? and, how bad will this new job be for my body?

and it stresses me out a lot to think about how I can't know the answers to any of that right now-- and that's about all I can handle, even without the added stress of trying to determine whether this makes me "legitimately" physically disabled.

Eyesight is only one small part of it. My main worry right now is that I have hardly any sensation or muscle control in my right calf and foot. With good shoes I can walk, without cane or crutches-- pretty far before my limp becomes noticeable-- but it does.

My legs are visibly different sizes, with my left calf taking on all the muscle, while my right is atrophying. And my foot "drops," noticeably, the outer side dragging to the point that I had to learn how to avoid tripping on my own foot. The PT says I'll likely need an orthotic brace called AFO to support it.

He doesn't know the cause. I won't know the cause until at the very least a couple weeks from now, when I get to see the spine specialist who'll look for causes further up in my muscular and nervous system.

I have a new job. It's gonna be mostly at a desk, but since this problem started while I was working a desk job, I wonder if sedentary life makes it worse. I haven't ever been able to drive (that was a different neurological issue in my teens) so I have to walk to work. If I stop being able to walk that far, I won't be able to keep doing this job. But for now I can. For now, for that distance, my walking almost passes as normal.

I don't know how close to normal that orthotic brace will get me. Or whether the exercises the PT is having me do, or anything the spine specialist can do, will restore any of that sensation or muscle. I don't know if there's any kind of correction that's gonna get my leg back into a range comparable to eyes that see 20/20.

And the eyesight part, at the moment, feels pretty much the same to me.

I just got new glasses. They help a lot, but they don't fix my problem focusing on close-up things-- I keep having to take them off and back on when reading, but my eye doctor said I didn't need bifocals, and none of the available prescriptions of reading glasses help either, and it seems to be getting steadily worse.

And I don't know if this is all just something I can get back up to 20/20 by finding a better eye doctor, or by getting better about my reading and screen use habits, or if it's something more serious that is never gonna get better.

And I have no idea if all the data entry im going to do at my new job is going to exacerbate it, or maybe it's just going to get worse for whatever other reason, until I can't get any glasses that'll make it good enough to do a job like that?

I don't know.

I don't want to call my eye problem, or my leg problem, a disability on the level of needing hearing aids or crutches. Because I want to think it can be fixed to the point I can forget about it.

But is "not wanting" a good enough reason to say this doesn't count as disability? Is it just denial?

Which is why I am kind of regretting even reading that previous post I reblogged. Because where even do you draw that line? And that's just for physical disability. I'm not even getting into my neurodivergence, and all the places that fuzzily shades into what's considered normal.

*sigh*

[interstellar-inn]

꩜— greetings all, happy wednesday! mod cotton here and i am pleased to announce our creator of the week!

what is creator of the week?

creator of the week is a project started by the network to celebrate different writers and artists in our community. with such a vast network of amazing and talented creators, we think it's only fair we show a little extra love to each one, one creator at a time. creator of the week aims to show a little extra support to creators by shining a special starlight on them and featuring a few of their works. you can help support too by giving them a follow, or if you read their fics and find that you like any of them, make sure to reblog and let them know!

with that, congratulations to fawn a.k.a @dearbraus! as this month being pride month, we wanted to highlight a creator who writes queer fics and fawn is practically the pioneer. they are a very pleasant individual to interview and talk to! during our interview, we talked about their experiences as a queer creator on tumblr, fandom, and the community all together; and get to know them more! touch read more for the full interview below!

1. what made you join tumblr? how long have you been a member all together?

i joined tumblr originally for fanart and fandom! i believe it was for the hunger games and percy jackson! that was back in 2014 so it’s been about ten years as of this year!

2. what's keeping you to the site? is there anything you like about it? what could be changed?

honestly the community! even with all its flaws it’s the community that keeps me on tumblr. i do of course love supporting my fellow artists and writers but this specific corner of tumblr is really special in a way that it cannot be found elsewhere. i really like how tumblr allows you to personalise your blog and the ask function as it makes for fun interactions without the pressure of it being private. i’d honestly only change how the tag system works because it can be so finicky with getting posts to show up lol!

3. what is the most difficult part for you when it comes to brainstorming/writing?

hm, it’s definitely picking a character! i have such trouble picking just one of my favourites because i want to give them all love! and when it comes to writing fics i struggle with starting things off. i tend to get ideas of a specific scene in the middle of the story and have to build around that one scene so it makes the beginnings and endings a bit tricky.

4. what is the proudest/most inspirational moment you've experienced in creating so far?

i’ve had many moments but if i had to choose just one it’d be when i created my royal au series as it pushed me to my limits in terms of creativity and how much i could write. i’ve never written as much as i have for that series and i’m really proud of myself

5. as a queer creator yourself, what was your experience as a content creator? what keeps you going?

i’ve had a lot of ups and downs when it comes to writing as a queer person whether it be due to people questioning my identity or just blatant homophobia. there are times too where it has definitely felt a bit lonely as someone who writes a substantial amount of queer fanfic or at least enough to where i’m know for writing such fics, however i’ve managed to find and make a small community of other queer writers which is really important to me. they’re definitely what keeps me going and so are my readers. i’ve received some very lovely comments on my work that really just motivate me to keep going and remind me why i write what i do even when i feel discouraged

6. where do you find your muse to start creating? what inspires you?

i started writing as a kid and always loved to insert myself into whatever piece of media i was currently fixated on. i didn’t take things too seriously when i was younger and it was very much just a hobby back then but it has now evolved into a passion that allows me to express my innermost feelings even if it’s through writing anime x reader fics. i still am very much inspired by self inserting through my current fixations but it has shifted more towards inserting in the name of representation. while i’ve been a bit too busy as of late to delve into writing longer fanfics, last year i wrote two fics which centred heavily around readers experiencing mental health issues as well as compulsory heterosexuality because these are things that i’ve found to be not so readily spoken about outside of online spaces. i really do enjoy using fanfiction and writing in general to explore things that are considered taboo in a slightly unconventional way

7. do you have any advice for any first-time content creators?

don’t put so much pressure on yourself! i think due to the commodification of hobbies, there’s this idea that if we write or make art that it must be mass produced but what makes art special is that it’s one of a kind! so if you’re a first time writer/artist on tumblr, don’t force yourself to creator in the hopes of appeasing others! create because you’re inspired and because you’re having fun! also, don’t let others ruin your fun!!!! i think that’s the most important thing, block liberally to protect your peace, use tumblrs filtering feature to hide anything that you dislike, and ignore those coming into your inbox looking to cause trouble!!! i definitely struggled with taking things to personally when i first started writing and it sucked the fun out of sharing my writing very quickly until i learned that i shouldn’t let others being negative and mean get in the way of my enjoyment

8. do you have any advice for anyone looking for a server/network to join?

hm, i think my biggest piece of advice would be don’t be scared! join servers and networks even if you don’t know the owners/mods super well! it can be super scary being in a new space with new people but i promise it’s well worth it! way back in 2021 i joined audrey’s very server not knowing anyone and have since join all the other iterations that came afterward because there was such love and care put into her servers (that are still there with the interstellar inn!) and have loved meeting so many new people who are in all kinds of different life paths. and for anyone reading this looking for a server or network to join i definitely think you should join the interstellar inn, theres so many fun events and watch parties being held that make the server a really fun space! and the network is very well organized and cared for that i’m in awe! and of course i would love to befriend any person reading this who ends up joining hehe

visit fawn's blog ( @dearbraus ) or check out their tag at the inn here!

that's all from us! see you next time and be sure to follow fawn and check out their works! <333

— cotton

edit: thank you to the anon who pointed out our oversight! we have since corrected it. fawn's pronouns are they/them. we deeply apologize for our mistake.

[lesboylycan]

[ID in alt text]

We reblogged it on our plural sideblog, yeah, although that post was moreso about specifically dissociation; we added a thing about amnesia in our tags since we have ample experience with not recognizing amnesia because it "feels normal" (or, in certain cases, not recognizing the true source of amnesia because of weird CDD denial shit). (We'll reblog this over there once we have the stuff we want to say here) (Link to context post)

We definitely get where you're coming from when it comes to the psychiatric application of diagnoses and CDDs specifically, but (so far as we can tell) this specific conversation is about self-identification and self-determination, not (necessarily) about how plurality gets medicalized by psychiatry. It gets a bit fuzzy when it comes to talking about CDDs, of course, but we think the post makes it fairly clear that it's about plurals identifying themselves as having or not having CDDs; from our perspective, it's a conversation being had within the plural community about how we label our experiences based on internal observations, especially since the OP states that that's what happened to them (which is probably why they made the post in the first place).

I think one thing that might help with some of the perspective on it is that pwCDDs often go through a lot of doubt and denial, and it can present in a couple different ways, especially depending on the communities they're in; (so far as we can tell) it's a defense mechanism from the brain to keep you from figuring out something's "wrong". For some, it's denial that they're a plural system; for others, including us, the denial wasn't about being plural, but about having a CDD, because we were in a community that was accepting towards non-CDD plurality.

I'm not saying that's wholly a bad thing, per se; obviously in some cases, it can and will be, but for us, we weren't ready to acknowledge and accept disordered-ness in our plurality, even if it was affecting our life on the daily. It was a "healthy" amount of denial that allowed us to still be people instead of a person, but didn't force us to confront something we weren't yet ready to face. (Ofc we were forced to face it anyway because of bullshit sysmedicalism surrounding polyfragmented plurality, but in an ideal world, we probably would've figured it out only in the past couple of months rather than in June when a bunch of other shit was happening all at once)

And like. To be clear. It was affecting us constantly on a day-to-day basis. We scored a 61 on the DES-II, our memory got so bad at points that we were scared we were developing early-onset dementia, and yet we never once spared a thought towards DID even though it was the simplest possible answer for us, specifically because of that denial factor. Early-onset dementia was an idea (deemed by the brain as) "easier" for us to handle than we have DID, against all logic, because the brain isn't exactly a logical organ. It's a big hunk of electrified fat that thinks and controls pretty much every single bodily function and then some.

You definitely have a point when it comes to disordered plurality in the public, singlet-centric eye, I won't deny that, and I doubt many people (who aren't sysmeds) would; but since it's a discussion being had specifically within the plural community about self-identification with being disordered, it makes sense (at least to us) why singlets and their perception of plurality isn't being mentioned--they're not in the room right now, it's an intra-community discussion about how we think about ourselves.

[dinosquad-central]

Alright, after running this blog for over a year I've decided to make an actual pinned post—complete with a guide to my tagging system.

First off, who am I?

I am the sole moderator of dinosquad-central, obviously. You may call me Dino Mod, and I use any pronouns, including neopronouns that do not begin with x or z.

My Favorite characters are Caruso and Buzz. I don't actually know that much about dinosaurs in general; I just think they're neat. I'm the event coordinator on the Dino Squad discord server. And I love getting asks! (Although sometimes it takes me a day or two to answer them)

I tag posts with #dino mod to indicate that they are either original posts from me, or things I've reblogged wherein I added something to the body of the post, rather than just the tags. So if you want to browse my thoughts on the show, that's the tag to do it.

Now that you know who I am, what's Dino Squad and where can you watch it?

Dino Squad is a 2007 cartoon about five teenagers who can turn into dinosaurs, and you can watch it for free on YouTube. The first episode is called "The Beginning", but the series is episodic, so the order you watch doesn't really matter after that. If you want to watch in in order, there's an episode list on IMDB.

In the immortal words of my original pinned post, reblogged from @/deerlyloved: "Dinosquad is so bad please watch it forever 😌"

If you already know Dino Squad and want to hang out with other fans, we have a discord server! Anyone is welcome to join.

Is there anything else you should know?

Yeah, a couple of things, actually. But this is already getting long, so I'll continue under the readmore.

Firstly, I need to give credit where credit is due, and make sure y'all know that the person who made the banner I use for this blog, which is also the quintessential "there's like five of us" dinosquad fandom meme, is @scoutbot. Everyone say "thank you, scoutbot!"

My profile pic, on the other hand, is lifted from official Dino Squad promotional material, but if anyone wants to draw me a new one, I'd be willing to trade you a fic for it—DM me if interested.

Secondly, there's one type of tag I don’t list in the tag guide, and that's the type I use to fawn all over everybody's Dino Squad posts. In such a small fandom, every time someone makes something new for it, they do so knowing it won't get much engagement, so I want to make sure they get at least one person who with enthusiastically give a kind, thoughtful, personalized comment on their post. Creating for a small fandom can feel thankless, but I want to mitigate that as much as possible by saying thank you thank you thank you for hanging out with us and participating in our fandom.

I'll mention it a few times in this post, but as long as you tag a post with #dino squad (as one word or two) I am basically guaranteed to see it, and I'll reblog almost anything in this fandom. So if you want more of the stuff you like, I strongly encourage you to create it! I love to see new takes and new faces in this fandom, and I will always lift you up.

I think that’s it.

Wait, didn't I say something about a tagging guide?

Buckle in, because my tagging system is extensive and thorough.

Lets start with Basic Tags.

Every post about the show (which is 99% of what I post, since this is a Dino Squad blog) is tagged with both #dino squad (two words) and #dinosquad (one word).

In most other tags that feature the name of the show, I use the one word version, for consistency. More on that later.

Posts that are not about the show, usually either dinosaur/paleontology related posts, or occasionally technical information about this blog itself, are tagged with #not dinosquad. For cool dino fun facts and art, this is the tag to explore.

Every post on this blog contains at least one of these tags.

Next, how about some Character Tags.

Whenever a character is mentioned or very strongly implied in a post, I tag it with their full name, similar to AO3's character tags. You can follow any of these links to read every post featuring that character.

#Victor Veloci—That's his name, don't wear it out!

#Joanne Moynihan—AKA Ms. Moynihan, beloved mentor of the squad

#Rolf Maxwell—AKA Max, the squad's fearless leader

#Fiona Flagstaff—The Girl™

#Rodger Blair—Smartest kid in school

#Neil Buzzmati—AKA Buzz, the one who likes "punk stuff"

#Erwin Caruso—Yeah, his first name is Erwin

#Peter (Veloci's Assistant)—Remember him? Appears once in the first episode and never again?

#Rump (dinosquad)—The squad's pet dino-dog

#Liam (dinosquad)—Fan favorite autistic character

#Terri Flagstaff—Fiona's sister

#Winifred the Snake—Buzz's pet python

Obviously, some of these characters are going to have more posts in their tag than others, simply because people like and post about some characters more than others. If you want more post about your favorite character, Make Them. As long as you tag your posts with the fandom, I can basically guarantee I'll find them and reblog them to this blog.

That's not all, though, because there are also a lot of original fandom characters, and I tag for those, too.

If you want to see all of them, I use the tag #dinosquad oc on every post that features one, but I also tag them with the OC's name, in case you're curious about a specific one.

#Vega Veloci—Teenage transfem lesbian clone of Victor Veloci, created by @prometheus-adam

#Violette Veloci—Another female teenage clone of Vitor Veloci (though which one of them is trans is left to interpretation), created by @ufolvr

#Valentino Veloci—Male teenage clone of Victor Veloci, created by @al-gay-tor

#Iggy and Chloe—A pair of OCs by @musekicker who will be given individual tags when they have full names

#Gyrian Maelstrom—Buzz's dad who works for RaptorDyne and is also a dinosaur, created by @ufolvr

#Moss 'Rat King'—RaptorDyne employee self-insert, created by @hotratking5592

#Thysbe Ginko—RaptorDyne employee favored by Victor Veloci, created by @boysiinberry

#Miss Disma and Mouche—Head of PR at Raptordyne and her assistant, created by @boysiinberry

#Kalyeen—Raptordyne grunt, created by @boysiinberry

A lot of people seem to think that Veloci would be into cloning—can't say I would argue with them lol. On the discord server, people have shared way more OCs than this, but I can only reblog the ones that get posted about on tumblr. I anticipate this list will grow.

Ship Tags are a subset of character tags

Like with characters, if a ship is explicitly mentioned or strongly implied in a post, I will tag it with a ship tag in the format of characterA x characterB where A is the character whose surname comes first alphabetically. Posts about ships are also tagged with #Shipping.

#Rodger x Max—Those who like this ship often cite S1E2 "Growth Potential" as one reason

#Buzz x Caruso—Those who like this ship have cited S1E12 "Not so Great Outdoors" as one reason

#Moynihan x Veloci—A ship that is much more popular on the discord server than on tumblr

#Peter x Veloci—Remember Peter? Appears once in the first episode and then never again?

#Fiona x Vega—Ship between Fiona and @prometheus-adam's OC, Vega Veloci

#Caruso x Max—Those who like this ship have cited S2E10 "Scents and Scents Ability" as one reason

#Ginko x Veloci—Ship between Victor Veloci and @boysiinberry's OC, Thysbe Ginko

Most of the ship tags are pretty lightly populated, some only have one post. Suffice it to say, shippers are a minority in this fandom, but I still dutifully tag ships when they appear. If you want to see more of your fave ships, or have an idea for a ship not on this list, Create for it! I will happily reblog any ship for this fandom.

Now, let me tell you about my Categorical Tags

If you're looking for a specific type of post, for example, if you just want to scroll through all the headcanon posts, or all the fanart, that's what the categorical tags are for. These tags are usually accompanied by the word 'dinosquad' somewhere in there, and many of them are listed as featured tags on this blog as well.

#Ask—Someone sent me an ask to which I decided to post a public reply

#Character Analysis—These posts will always be tagged with the character being analyzed as well

#Crossover—These posts will always be tagged with both the other fandom in the crossover, and the primary character(s) from the other fandom that feature in the crossover

#Dinosquad AU—Posts about the Dino Squad characters or concepts in an alternate universe, whether it's completely different, or just minor canon divergence

#Dinosquad Fanart—Also tagged with #art and #fanart, in addition to the fandom specific tag

#Dinosquad Fic—Fan writing, typically, but not always, in the form of a link to Archive of Our Own

#Dinosquad Headcanons—Posts containing either a single headcanon, or a list of headcanons regarding the characters or world of the show

#Dinosquad Meta—Posts about the technical aspects of the show, like animation or writing, as opposed to the plot/characters/etc.

#Dinosquad Theory—Theories about the show, both in regard to the plot/characters, and the production (but usually the former)

#Episode Review—Posts in which a specific episode of the show is being analyzed, summarized, or otherwise reviewed

#Incorrect Dinosquad—Also tagged with #incorrect quotes, in addition to the fandom specific tag

#Poll—Posts that have at least one poll in them

#Prompt—Idea(s) meant to inspire the creativity of the members of this fandom. General prompts are distinct from the Dinosquad Monthly Prompts in that anyone can post them at any time. (more on the monthly prompts later)

#Rereblog—Posts that have been on this blog before but I'm reblogging again, either because something new has been added to them, or because there was nothing new for me to post, so I picked some old favorites to pad my queue. This tag stands in the place of all the things I originally tagged the post with, so when I use it I'll only add tags that apply to the new reblog

Most of these tags are self explanatory. Many have sub-categorical tags, which I've included either in the descriptions above, or in the Content Tags section.

After that come the Content Tags

Content tags tell you what's in the post, aside from characters, obviously.

#From the Dinosquad Discord Server—Posts containing content which was screen-shot or copy/pasted from the fandom discord server

#Dinosquad Monthly Prompt—The monthly prompts are part of an ongoing, year-round event hosted by the fandom discord server. Posts in this tag include not only the monthly prompts themselves, but also art and fic created to fill the monthly prompt. Members of the fandom server can DM me on discord to suggest prompts.

#Dinosquad Secret Santa 2022—We did a fandom holiday gift exchange in 2022 and posts with this tags are the gifts created for it

#Digital Art and #Traditional Art—Two self-explanatory sub-categorical tags for Dino Squad fanart

#Feathered Dino Forms—Posts wherein the characters' dino forms are described as or drawn having feathers

#Overheard at RaptorDyne—Posts about working at RaptorDyne, mostly incorrect quotes.

#Max Gets No Respect—Posts about the squad disrespecting Max, also mostly incorrect quotes

#Morally Gray Ms. Moynihan—Posts talking about the possibility of Ms. Moynihan keeping the kids dinosaurs on purpose, or similar theories/headcanons/AUs/etc.

#Trans Buzz—Posts regarding the popular headcanon that Buzz is a trans man

#LGBT+—Posts containing queer content, such as sexuality/gender identity headcanons for characters

#Trans—Same as above, but for specifically trans-related content

#Screencaps—Posts containing screen captures from the show

#Memes—Posts containing memes either related to the show or otherwise

There are probably a few more character-specific ones that I have forgotten, but I'll keep updating this tag guide continually as needed.

There is no #Gay Caruso tag because... well... Caruso. That would be every post about him lol. Maybe one day I'll go through his character tag and add it to every post where it's relevant but it'll have to wait until I'm really, really bored.

Lastly, I have Warning Tags

I don't really have warning tags for things that were in the show, like I'm not gonna have a warning tag for sharp teeth or carnivorous eating habits, because... well... it's a show about dinosaurs. If you had a problem with that kind of thing, you probably wouldn't be here. I also won't use the CW tags for passing mentions—my thinking is that if something's not really in the post I don't really need to tag for it.

#Cursing—I know most people don't have a problem with explicit language, but this blog is technically for a kids' show, so there it is

#Blood CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of blood

#Injury CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of one or more injuries

#Death CW—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of death

#Body Horror—For posts containing depictions or descriptions of body horror (excluding dinosaur tranformations)

#Long Post—For posts that are more than two screen-lengths on mobile. I will not tag something as a long post if it has a readmore, unless the part before the readmore is longer than 2 screen-lengths.

If there is anything not on this list you would like me to have a warning tag for, or if there's a post you think should have one of these warnings, but I forgot to add it, just shoot me a DM, or an ask, and 99% of the time, I will gladly add a warning tag.

Well done making it to the end! GOOooo GO DINO!