#At the very least- i'll post the exposure tags

[moodlesmain]

Hi. Look at this.

I just spent two days straight making a digital conspiracy board trying to piece together my favourite genre that isn't really a genre and more just a very particular niche which doesn't really have a name.

If you want to look I reccomend downloading and zooming in on the image to read everything LMAO, I want to try and convert it to a page on my neocities at some point so its easier to view but for now you guys just get a big ol' jpeg. You're welcome :)

[digitalmidnight]

Project Eden's Garden Predictions

This is meant to be silly. Spoilers in post and in tags

There's a really big influencer light and Kai just walks right up to it and gets fried like a moth. Kai is a victim.

An area opens up with remote controlled RC cars. During the race, everyone hits the sand bags at least once. The sand bags start leaking pink. They open it like a cocoon. The butterfly was broken upon the wheel. Kai is a victim.

Toshiko forces Kai to watch teen rom-coms with her. Kai is a victim.

Grace goes "Screw you Damon. The man I shared a bed with is gone, so I'm killing the man you share a bed with." Kai is a victim.

Damon was supposed to die in Chapter 4. Kai becomes aware of the plan, but ends up dying himself to save Damon. This kickstarts a series of events (like the butterfly effect) that lead to Damon finally being fully into being part of the group and ending the killing game. Kai and his killer are treated as martyrs. Kai is a victim.

Same thing as above but Damon commits a murder instead. He gets away with it. It doesn't matter anyways. Kai was a victim.

Damon goes: "so how did the victim die?" Kai says: "Like this!" Kai is a victim.

Eloise is training late at night and sees Kai acting odd. A misunderstanding happens where she doesn't know it's Kai specifically. Still, she believes whoever she saw, which just happened to be Kai, was a horrible, irredeemable person. She makes him suffer. Kai is a victim.

Jean kills Kai for his attempt at French. Jean is a bigger victim. Kai is a victim.

A big plot involving handwritten murder notes pops up. Except the handwriting is atrocious (in trial, there's confusion whether it's Damon or Demond. Also Mark vs Ultimate Marksman). Kai ended up getting killed because the killer confused his last name with Grace's. Kai is a victim.

Diana gets Kai because chameleons eat butterflies and she was hungie. Kai is a victim.

Kai does a little hip bonk to get an item out of the machines. The machine falls over and breaks. Mara gets him. Kai is a victim.

The casts gets it into their heads that this situation is like V3. They totally consented, this is a television show, and all their fans are routing for them. Cassidy and Kai end up fighting to the death for the sake of their fanbase. Kai is a victim.

Someone pops Kai's pool inner tube. He does not float like a butterfly. Kai is a victim.

Ingrid knocks Kai upside the head with a horny jail hammer. And by that I mean sledgehammer. Kai is a victim.

Kai makes it to the very end where the garden itself is starting to crumble. They come across a statue of two men. The boulder that the Cain statue was holding falls. Kai is a victim.

Wenona wants to get out and somehow clocks Damon, Ulysses and Kai to be the only people smart enough to rat her out. Theres a sleepover between a lot of people in Ulysses room to try and research about where they are. The room fills with gas that Ulysses can't smell. The gas is denser than air. Kai, who was sleeping on the ground, is found before anyone else can be affected and the attempt at getting him to fresh air gets everyone else out of danger. Kai is a victim.

Jett goes "I like cars" and suddenly a car appears out of nowhere and hits Kai. Kai is a victim.

Kai begs Mark to listen to his super cool music idea. "Trust me it's so cool and you just have to make it but it's a billion dollar idea. I'll pay you in exposure. It'll totally pay for itself-" Kai is a victim.

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". Two strangulation victims are found. You would think it would be the two women with bird motifs, but only one of them is. Kai is a victim.

It's a simulation. Kai is a bug in the program. Tozu removes him. Kai is a victim.

Kai discovers Mukuro Ikusaba. The sixteenth student, lying hidden somewhere in Eden's Garden. The one they call the Ultimate Despair. He didn't watch out for her. Kai is a victim.

Kai gets really messy in a bathroom with his hair dye. The pink smears make him look like the killer. The class gets it wrong and everyone is a victim. Kai is a victim.

Desmond is dared to hit a target. This triggers a trap which kills Kai. There is a debate over if whoever set the trap is the killer, or if whoever hit the target was the killer. Doesn't matter to Kai what the answer is. Kai is a victim.

Damon is too comfy cozy to get up. There is nothing containing Kai except for Damon sleeping on top of him. Kai starves to death. Kai is a victim.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Weird but genuine question… how do you deal with the fandom’s misogyny and/or racism? I have been in many fandom and asoiaf is not the worst I have been in but I am still relatively shocked whenever I see a very… particular opinion. And since I saw you were in the fandom for a long time I thought to ask you, if you are alright with answering that.

How do I deal with it? I block a lot of people. Tumblr not so much (its issues are not usually those topics at least), but twitter, ugh god. And I avoid reddit and westeros.org forums like the plague. (I pay attention to exactly one thread on worg, and that is the one where wiki editors debate what to do with the wiki.) Actually, it was exposure to worg's misogyny that kept me from getting into the fandom after I first read the books back in 2005, and it wasn't until I found tumblr shortly before the release of ADWD in 2011 that I actually began to pay attention and contribute to the fandom. (As I've said before, somehow during 2005-2011 I totally missed there was an active ASOIAF fandom on LiveJournal, which is a pity because it was exactly what I was looking for but did not find on worg.)

And I also do my best to counter such bullshit when I see it. Not always mind you -- again, blocking is a girl's best friend, and I'm not seeing such things on the websites I refuse to go to -- but if I get certain types of asks, I answer accordingly. And if I see certain things in posts in the tags here on tumblr, I'll answer there as well. (Not usually with a public reblog-and-shame due to the number of followers I have likely causing dogpiles, but I will comment.) Twitter however is a lost cause, though, if you're there please just slam that block button over and over again. Or again, don't go there. Honestly ASOIAF fandom should've left ElonXnazitown years ago, sigh...

Anyway, best of luck in this fandom, and please take care of yourself!

[poetrysmackdown]

some informal thoughts

hello! hope the holiday season has been kind to all of you. and i hope all my jewish followers had a lovely hanukkah! anyways, since i said a few months ago that i’d pick poetry smackdown back up sometime around this time of year, i thought i should make a post. the gist of it is that i’m still quite busy, i have a break that’s about three weeks shorter than I was planning on, and i don’t currently have the mental bandwidth required to read, contemplate, and sort through poem submissions in a way that does justice to them, even if i were to recruit some friends to help out. since running a tournament format requires at least five weeks of continued engagement once it’s underway, and since i’m not at capacity to offer that right now due to the change in my schedule, i’m gonna have to bow out for now. sad bc i was looking forward to it!

my hope is that i’ll have some more time over the summer to hunker down with it, in which case you’ll be hearing from me. it’ll frankly depend on the kind of job i land in for the summer, but i find that my unemployed spirit can typically keep me doing stupid shit regardless of workload...to a point. i don’t want to make any promises because i don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up just to let them down again LOL. i do admit the amount of exposure the first tournament got has made me feel like more of a perfectionist this time around, doubly because i don’t feel that i’m very suited to being a public online presence (even a relatively quite small one)—i’m bad enough at responding to emails for my own real life responsibilities, let alone tumblr asks for the silly responsibilities i invent for myself lol. that’s not to say i no longer want to do it, or i don’t enjoy it, or even that i don’t feel capable of making a really interesting bracket—just that if i am working to put something new together, and if people are taking the time to submit poems they care about, then i don’t want to half-ass it.

my second admission is something like this. I made the original bracket as a celebration of poetry and our relationships to it. yes it was silly and competitive, and the poems were very tumblr, but still, celebration was the intention—I wanted to have conversations about poetry. I stand by the bracket format as a fun and valuable way to foster conversations about poetry, but truthfully, the poems i’m wanting to have conversations about right now—the poems that we should be talking about right now—are ones that i'm not comfortable putting in a bracket. I reblogged The Baffler’s Poems from Palestine collection on here earlier, and Najwan Darwish’s “Who Remembers The Armenians?”, which I still often find repeating through my head when I'm traveling from one place to another, walking home or riding the bus. I came across this beautiful thread recently where people have been translating Dr. Refaat Alareer’s “If I Must Die” into their own languages (this just makes my translator's heart sing!!!!!!). @havingapoemwithyou has been posting some great poems from and for Palestine as well—check out their tag here.

There's always more to add, and I'll be posting more on here as I come across it, but that's what I feel anyone should be focusing on right now when it comes to poetry. i think poetry can be an escape but it should never be a distraction. does that make sense? i wouldn't be against doing a one-off poll here or there, but it feels weird to be making a tournament for poetry right now, or anytime soon. i feel like what free time i have right now is still best utilized helping my friends with organizing in the real world. and god, a bit off-topic but while I'm talking, fuck poetry foundation—I have so much respect for all the poets keeping up the boycott, because while i think it's a simple decision, it's not always an easy one (Aurielle Lucier discussed that here).

anyways, if you read all of this, thank you for your time!! I could go on and on, but really this was just meant to be a message telling y'all that there won't be another tournament for a while lol. even so i'll be trying to use this small silly platform as best i can until palestine is free because that's the absolute least i can do.

[campingwiththecharmings]

tagged by @soft-girl-musings ❤️ ty, this was super fun! tagging whoever wants to do this (please tag me in your posts!!!!)

1. Type your name followed by core into pinterest and paste the first pic. 2. Refresh your pinterest homepage and paste the first person. 3. Refresh your pinterest homepage and paste a random aesthetic picture. 4. Write a little story :)

(Please be gentle, I have not actually seen Dune, tho I did read a little of the novel, and am basing this characterization on my very limited exposure to Leto lol)

Dune Modern AU (I guess??) - Leto Atreides x F!Reader | (1,840 words) | Not proofread

AN: i...might've gone a bit overboard with this lmaooo. i blame oscar. 🫣

Warnings: murder, allusions to SA, probably a tad stockholm syndrome-y (lol), vague smut, some angst.

---

You struggle against the crewman's tight hold on your wrists, knowing that even if you were to break free, you'd have no where to escape to. Your ship had been attacked and boarded that morning by pirates, after which you, along with a handful of others, had been left to die on your pillaged ship.

When a ship flying the flag of Caladan had happened upon you, you'd been relieved, over the moon, even. That is, until they'd boarded and killed everyone left alive save for you. You should've known something was off as soon as they stepped onto the deck, their uniforms filthy and unkempt. But you'd been so desperate, had wanted to believe so badly that you were being rescued.

You don't know where he's taking you now, but given the lecherous look he'd given you just before grabbing you, you can take a guess.

Hopefully he'll at least have the decency to kill you once he's finished.

You growl as the man pushes open the door at the end of the hall, dragging you swiftly behind him. He throws you into a chair and looms over you, caging you in with a hand on either armrest.

"Feisty, aren't we?" he says, his dark eyes cold and cruel. "I like the feisty ones."

You stare him down with a glare, determined to not let this man take the only thing you have left: your dignity. He smirks at you and leans in, but it halted by the sound of the door opening.

"I'll take it from here, Yueh."

You watch as the man's lip curls slightly, annoyed at being interrupted. Nevertheless, he stands, schooling his face into an indifferent mask and turning toward the newcomer.

"Of course, Captain."

The crewman leaves, closing the door behind him with a loud "thwack," leaving you alone with this new man, apparently the captain.

You study him, noting that his uniform is in far better condition than that of his subordinates. Even his knee-high boots have been polished to a shine. You drag your eyes up his torso, then his chest, your eyes snagging on the insignia pinned over his left breast pocket. It looks familiar, but you can't seem to immediately place it. You allow your eyes to continue their journey, sliding up his neck, over his graying beard and stately nose, until you meet his eyes.

They're a warm, deep brown with a gentleness in them you are not accustomed to seeing in men (especially those in authority). He smiles at you apologetically, knowing he is at least partially responsible for the terror you've endured.

"Are you alright?" he asks, his voice soft and gentle, just like his eyes.

Inexplicably, the facade you've erected to make yourself seem unaffected by all of this crumbles at his question. No, you are absolutely not alright. In less than a week you've been attacked by pirates, had all of your possessions either taken or destroyed, and have watched almost every person you care for die. Tears well in your eyes and you're helpless to stop them from falling.

Embarrassed, you hide your face in your hands, silently sobbing into your palms. You flinch when you feel a hand on your shoulder. Was he...comforting you? You look up, his eyes radiating sadness and, dare you say, compassion?

He hugs you then, gently pulling you against his chest and wrapping an arm around your shoulders. He murmurs soothing words, promises to keep you safe, tells you you'll never have to live in fear again so long as he is with you. .

And you believe him, God help you.

He asks you to call him Leto despite clearly holding some kind of title. It feels odd to be so informal, but you do as he asks. He does not appear to have much trust in his crewmen, namely the group who'd boarded your ship. As a result of this, he is reluctant to let you out of his sight, so you spend most of your time with him. He does most of the talking, telling you of his beloved homeland Caladan, of his son Paul...of his late wife, Jessica. When you are ready, you do the same, telling him about where you grew up, of your parents, of your desire to see the world.

It's not until a few weeks later that you realize you're falling in love with him.

You do your best to hide it but he seems to sense the shift in you. The night before you are expected to return to Caladan, he finally asks what's troubling you. As when you'd met him that first day, his eyes are what get to you, the gentle kindness and patience in them like a balm to your soul.

"I...I think I'm in love with you," you admit, sure he doesn't feel the same.

But he surprises you yet again.

"I love you too, my darling," he rasps, leaning in to press his lips against yours.

He makes love to you until the sun rises, his movements gentle yet still passionate. His fingers tangle with yours when he pins you to the bed, making you come over and over, you body shaking with pleasure as he smothers your moans with his kiss.

He asks you to marry him in the afterglow, his head nestled between your breasts as you comb your fingers through his soft hair. You tell him you will and he looks up at you with a smile, sitting up so he can steal another kiss from your lips.

There is a commotion on deck as soon as the ship docks and it takes Leto a moment to realize it's not the usual flurry of activity that usually comes with a return to land. Sensing something nefarious, he tells you to escape through the window in his quarters. You don't want to leave him, flat out refuse to, in fact, but he convinces you yet again with his gentle, earnest eyes.

"I need to know you're safe," he says, taking your hands in his. "I'll find you, I promise."

You wait for him at an inn a few blocks from the docks but he never shows. You don't sleep, you can't, too worried about Leto and what might've happened to him. At the first sign of dawn, you leave the inn, returning to the docks in search of your Leto.

His ship is gone, the slip where it had been empty, and your heart sinks. Had it all been a trick? A game? A way to pass the time while at sea? Had he even really loved you or had he just told you that so you'd warm his bed?

You consider asking the harbormaster if they know what happened but...what would be the point? You know all you need to know: Leto is gone, has left you here alone, despite his promises to protect you, to love you, to marry you.

You do your best not to break down, to not give in to the crushing weight of your broken heart. Using the last of your coin, you decide to stay another night at the inn Leto had told you about, and in the morning, you convince them to hire you as a housekeeper in exchange for a bed and a meager salary. You work there for months, saving every penny you can for passage back to your homeland.

The night before you're set to leave, he finds you.

Leto.

"What are you doing here?" you ask, crossing your arms defensively over your chest.

He's disheveled, almost haggard, and much skinnier than you recall. You wonder briefly if he's been ill but quickly decide it doesn't matter--he left you, fooled you into thinking he loved you.

"I'm so sorry it took me so long," he rasps, his voice strained, as if he'd been screaming for hours.

You scoff, doing your best to avoid looking him directly in the eyes. That's how he always got you, manipulated you.

"It's too late, Leto. I'm leaving in the morning," you tell him, turning away to fiddle with your already-packed bag.

"Will you at least let me explain?" he pleads, shuffling closer.

You sigh, shaking your head. You tell yourself no, that you don't owe him anything, that he doesn't deserve a chance to explain himself...but you can't help but be curious.

Without looking at him, you nod, bracing your palms on the dresser before you.

He thanks you, taking a moment to collect his thoughts before he dives right in. He's been in jail, he claims, was locked up as soon as he stepped foot on land. Evidently, there was a mutiny and some of his crewmen, led by Yueh, had framed him by planting an illegal drug called Spice on board the ship. As soon as it had docked, the mutineers had sent an anonymous tip to the authorities and, as the Captain, Leto was arrested and thrown in jail. Unable to prove his innocence, he'd had no choice but to serve his time.

The story sounds plausible, and you're almost inclined to believe him but....you just can't. Your heart wasn't just broken by him, it was shattered. Irreparably, you think. Even if what he claims happened is true, you can't see how you could ever trust him again. Not after everything you've been through. You tell him as much, back still turned to him. After a beat of silence, you hear him shift closer, feel his warmth against your back, your eyes falling shut as he presses a gentle kiss against the base of your neck. You swallow a whimper, inhaling shakily when he runs his knuckle down the back of your arm.

"Please look at me, my darling," he pleads, voice thick with emotion. "Just one more time."

Hesitantly, you turn and your heart breaks a little more at the pain and desperation in his eyes. He smiles, taking your hand in his and gently squeezing it. Your eyes well with tears, one escaping and sliding down your cheek, and your curse yourself for your weakness. Using his free hand, he swipes the tear away, his touch lingering on your face.

You're not sure who moves first, but suddenly his lips are on yours, and a fire ignites in your chest. More tears slide down your face as you kiss him back, your arms winding around his neck as he hoists you up to sit on the dresser. The action knocks your bag to the floor with a dull thud, but you can't bring yourself to care as Leto licks into your mouth, his tongue hot as it slides against yours.

When he finally thrusts inside you, it feels like coming home. Suddenly you feel safe again, you feel at peace.

In the end, he travels with you back to your homeland. Slowly, the trust that was broken is rebuilt and before you realize what's happening, you allow the love you have for one another to heal your shattered hearts.

[babyrdie]

Fandom thing

Okay, so I first got on Tumblr years ago and eventually deleted it. I wasn't very active, I was more into spending my time on those browser gaming sites. Later, I moved on to various social networks until I end up on Twitter. At some point, fandom became so unbearable (I swear, those "friendships" were so disturbed) that I made my account private with like 8 people following me. I eventually gave up on Twitter (the place is getting crazier by the day. Not in interactions involving me because, again, I was pretty restricted. But the mere things I read… what the fuck is that?) and migrated to Tumblr.

The thing is: I spent a considerable amount of time without any real exposure to the fandom behavior. I got used to the peace of it. Then eventually I was exposed to some downright fandom behavior (in a negative way) in the mythos community here and considered changing my focus from mythos to other thing. Well, it's probably been about a week since I posted about this possibility (this is the post about answering the ask and maybe stopping posting about it) and I've given up on the idea. The fandons for the other things I'm interested in are MUCH worse, especially since they're more popular and you know what happens in big fandons. It's on such a frankly horrific level that I, who was considering posting my drawings about these specific fandons, changed my mind for fear of attracting unwanted attention (not in quantity… in type of attention). That is, at least in the cases of characters whose tags are "energetic" enough to have problems (which, unfortunately, is the case with the tags of many of my favorite characters from these media, so yeah). Like, my god, there was a post from someone saying they didn't like a character (and it wasn't even said in a rude way to those who like the character!!!) and the amount of unnecessarily aggressive replies… what's this, man?

Conclusion: I think I'll continue on this side because, at least, being less popular makes it easier to avoid this type of situation lol

[anachronismstellar]

WIP Wednesday - 28/08

Omg hi hello uh 🧍‍♀️ as we can see it's been a while? In my defense- yea no I have no defense besides falling into another fandom head first fjsbakdnakd OTZ

But here it is all the lines for Waltz for the Dead!!

I'll do my best to get back on WIP Wednesdays as soon as I'm a bit more free ❤️

Tagging everyone who requested:

@somefishycat @aparticularbandit @wizisbored @asha10100101010 @enigma-the-mysterious @sourb0i @violet-prism-creatively @kalira @kallisto-k @post-and-out @adhdavinci @lizhly

Sentences under the cut!

------

“So let me get this right,” Jin Ling pressed his pinched fingers on his nose, sending a prayer to any Gods that might be hearing that this would be just Lan Jingyi's overactive imagination. “Of all my uncles, as you're so fond of pointing out, you saw the ghost of the one we know for sure that wouldn't be able to be here because he's very much walking around and shamelessly married to Hanguang-Jun. Is that right?”

“You know very well that Wei-quianbei is not actually Mo Xuanyu,” Lan Jingyi grumbled over his cup of tea, not meeting Jin Ling's eyes.

“No, I know that, because he died to get his revenge.” Jin Ling had to take off his hair pin, undoing his updo. He could feel his headache coming. “Remember that? Because I remember very clearly telling you, Lan Sizhui and Ouyang Zizhen about that.”

“Of course I remember that!” Lan Jingyi said with his tea cup clanking loudly against the table. “But something is happening, Jin Ling! Why would Nie-zongzhu go meet me at the gates after him sending a letter to me to help him with Qinghe's resentful energy?”

“He did what?!”

He didn't intend to scream, and he had been better at his bursts of reaction, as his jiujiu would call it. But knowing his uncle, he would react the same way if he knew about Nie-zongzhu going after Lan Jingyi's help. Not because of Jingyi, but for the fact of Nie Huaisang requesting for help at all.

Jin Ling wouldn't touch that with the longest sword in the world, but the Guanyin Temple night affected them all in different ways. How could it not? Jin Ling had gone through the most awkward family secrets reveal one could go under, all while being held hostage by his own uncle. Zewu-jun had to witness his closest friend and sworn brother go through all the stages of madness before killing him in what to this day no one knew if it were a genuine reaction or another of Nie-zongzhu’s lies. His uncle had the least exposure to the entire nonsense, but he still had to deal with the fact that Wei Wuxian was back and obnoxious as ever, on top of being all lovey dovey around Hanguang-Jun.

And then, there was Nie-zongzhu.

Jin Ling didn't remember much of that night, he had other pressing things to be worried about. But he remembered how collected and poised Nie-zongzhu had walked away from the temple, as if he had just gone out from a walk instead of witnessing his revenge unfold beyond the eyes of some of the most important political figures of the Cultivation World.

And Jin Ling hadn't been fully present for the whole Chief Cultivator transition, his uncle shielding him from most of the hysterics that followed that night. But he knew enough, and heard enough, to know that the entire five Sects were expected to crumble under the scandal and Nie Huaisang's weak pulse.

However, the complete opposite had happened. Nie-zongzhu stepped in and with a sweep of his fan was able to put measures to hold back the fire and the power vacuum Jin Guangyao had left behind. And such efficiency had one and one explanation only:

“How long had he been planning for this?” he heard his uncle whispering deep in the night, while piles and piles of documents covered his desk, a bottle of wine next to him long emptied.

The answer never came, be it in the form of letters or be it from Jiang Cheng demands to speak with Nie Huaisang in person.

If Jin Ling had any resentments against Nie Huaisang, it would be for the following years of silence between him and Jiang Cheng, as Jin Ling was forced to see his Uncle grasping straws to comprehend where it all began. How much of Nie Huaisang's friendship had been real? How much of it had been him using the Jiang clan for his own gain?

And the saddest thing? The moment his heart broke for his uncle into a million pieces?

When he caught Jiang Cheng sitting in front of Jiang Yanli mourning tablet, asking again and again-

“I could have helped. Why didn't he ask for help?” as if his sister would show up with a hug and soft hands to clear his tears away.

-------

Thank you everyone for the requests!

[viscasi]

The purpose of this blog is to connect with other hetGNC people and hopefully spread some positivity and awareness.

Things I'll be posting:

Mainly, my focus for this blog is content about being gender nonconforming / hetGNC / virago. This includes memes, discussions/commentary, reblogs of relevant posts, personal experiences, etc.

My goal is to bring awareness to our community, to help other hetGNC people feel less alone, and to hopefully give us a way to connect to one another!

Additionally, I will also be posting/reposting hetGNC-adjacent content, such as: A) Very little content specifically made for hetGNC people exists yet (I'm working on it 😉). So, sometimes I'll be reblogging posts from various adjacent communities because the post also applies (at least mostly) to our experience as well. For example, I reblog a lot of butch positivity/appreciation posts from lesbian/bi blogs-- my intention in reblogging those is to reiterate what OP is saying but to hetGNC masc women. Another example are transmasc posts-- I put those here sometimes because even though it obviously isn't the same, a lot of experiences/interests hetGNC women have can overlap with those of transmascs', such as a desire to masculinize your appearance and tips for doing so.

B) This blog also exists to spread some positivity for queerness in general, so it'll include some posts about other varieties of queerness, sprinkled in here & there.

C) Sometimes there's an overlap in interest that I'm reblogging for. For example, this is not a Role Reversal blog-- Role Reversal refers to people being gender nonconforming in the role sense, but usually not in the identity sense (the women aren't usually masculine people as much as they take on the relationship roles traditionally reserved for men, and vice versa). However, RR is a relationship dynamic that is generally (but not always!) desired by hetGNC people, so I blog RR content every now and then for that reason.

D) Sometimes a post isn't 100% hetGNC, but part of it is-- for example, if I'm posting a picture of a couple and one is hetGNC, but the other isn't.

Additionally, Sometimes you'll see me tag a post as "femdxm", "mlm", "bisexual" etc. even if those topics aren't the focus of this blog, or the main intended audience for the post-- I do this when the content might have some overlap interest in other tumblr communities, for the purpose of exposure, in hopes that it will make it easier for people who don't know about hetGNC people (especially those who are hetGNC themselves, but are unaware of the label, and scroll in adjacent communities for content) to find this blog. NSFW While the majority of this blog will be SFW, I'm not going to shy away from the sexuality aspect of this identity, since I think it's an important part of the experience that deserves as much attention as the rest. So, while there will be the occasional NSFW post, I will tag it for those who wish to block it (#nsfw)! Personal/Unrelated Content I'm NOT going to post anything here unrelated to what's outlined above, BUT if you're here you'd probably enjoy my personal blog (I'm thinking other hetGNC people also like rocks, productivity and cute animals!) On my main ( @viscasi-main ), I reblog more hetGNC adjacent things and reblog stuff about my interests, all that. More importantly, it's also where my likes/asks come from!

Messages and Asks I am quite busy so my replies can be slow, but I love DMs/asks (on either blog!) and I would love to hear from you, so please don't be shy if you'd like to connect!

I would also LOVE to see more hetGNC blogs! If you're thinking about it, start one! Post/reblog/comment your own experiences, your own memes, anything! If you do, tag/reach out to me! I'd love to see!

[progwords]

Tagged by @fury-brand and I definitely didn't forget to do this for a week nahhhhh

How many works do you have on AO3?

73! Or 72. Depends when I click post.

What's your total AO3 word count?

1,963,743! It would be over 2 million if I published a bunch of mostly finished WIPs, so I should. Get on that. Eventually.

Your Top 5 stories by kudos

Korra and Class of '09 are fitting, I guess.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

95% of the time, yes. If someone took the time to leave a note, I'll take the time to reply and typically with a whole lot more thoughts and feelings in response. Not EVERY time, but I do try!

Do you write crossovers?

Sort of? Not really, but sort of. There was the ONE that was technically a crossover of Revue Starlight and Class of '09, but not...really. I just used the Giraffe for magical realism but honestly it didn't need to be that.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I have and do. Only one-and-a-half were published (Thunderstruck has a sex scene in it, but the story itself isn't smut-focused) and tbh I think I'm really good at it. I've written a lot more but none of it is anything I'm likely to share. Just for funsies.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I have! Twice! Or, four times? All of my Korra stuff was at one point uploaded on some pay-per-read website in idk 2015, "The Cactus" was copied and remade into something kinda ass (can't remember what it was called) and something happened with the Class of '09 stuff but I can't remember it at the moment.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but there were a few who wanted to give it a shot but weren't able to do it due to other obligations.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Several!

What's your all time favorite ship?

I have no idea.

I really should. Honestly, I think I burn myself out on every ship I love because I write and write and write everything I want to explore with them until I hate one or both of the characters involved from self over-exposure.

I never LIKED Jeckole, as insane as that is to probably read from me. They were a NECESSARY tool for me to work through a whole lotta things, but I never really enjoyed them together.

Korrasami, at the time, I did love them together, that I really really loved. At least, in the context of the story I wrote, in that Asami was fucked up by grief and Korra was a stable point for her to smash up against and fail to break. Outside of that story, they're...fine. Comics ruined it for me, though.

Kate/Maggie, never liked them. Kate/Renee, YES, okay hell yeah, still very about them even if Kate Kane has only been, to my knowledge, written well exactly holistically well exactly once.

Eda/Revy? Nope. Rock/Revy? I like them in how they reflect one another, as foils, and stuff. Is that a ship thing?

Rixia/Ilya? They are up there, and a rare example of both characters being heavy-weights in how they are written.

Juna/Musse? No, but they are fun.

Elaine/Van? I DO like them, but not my favorite.

Claire/Sara? Hah. No. LMAO. Nope. Okay, in fairness, I DO sincerely love how I built them and their dynamic, even if in hindsight I REALLY should have broken them up and had them be more friction-y exes, but y'know, sometimes you want something happier or Sara Valestein just refuses to FucKinG COOPERATE AND no-sales every variation of that break up you can write until you give up and let her have what she wants.

Fuck, it's them, isn't it?

Really wish I'd broken them up, FUCK

What's a WIP that you want to finish but probably never will?

there was this future-fic where Sara's almost retired that I was trying to write but I just couldn't figure it out. I miss her. I need to write her again. I love her so much.

What are your writing strengths?

I've been told my conversations are weird, windy, but extremely organic and somehow easy to follow. So, probably that, or at least how a conversation is STRUCTURED. How all the little pieces of a conversation fit into the larger ideas of the story.

Probably that, tbh. And maybe story structure in general?

OH. Left turns, I'm REALLY good at those. Half the time they just pop in my head and I'm like "it'd be wild if this happened" and yeah it should! Let's do that!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Overdoing it. I need to remind myself a lot that I don't need to touch on everything, and that sometimes every single idea or concept doesn't need a comprehensive deliberate preamble build to convey the totality to the audience.

Sometimes, you can just do something, and it works better that way.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet, but want to?

Metroid, probably.

What's your favorite fic that you've written?

God, I don't know.

Ficsandmusings would say it is Thunderstruck; she read that like literally 100 times and has the whole thing basically memorized. She quotes it and makes references to it for jokes at least once a week. I DID write it basically for her to be the audience, so that makes sense. I do love that story, despite my current frustration with how I know it could be better in a very specific way (even if that change, interestingly enough, would also be something of a betrayal to how I write Sara. Kinda) and I should probably give it that credit, but...

Should it be the Class of '09 stuff, in that it saved my life to write it and it is basically impossible for me to write that much, that well, or in that way probably ever again, this encapsulation of so much shit all at once that is shockingly...actually great? Well. No. Not my favorite, despite the accomplishment.

Batwoman? Extremely personal in a deliberate way, but ultimately hamstrung by my insistence in writing it as a maxi-series for authenticity.

Black Lagoon? Definitely up there, especially "If Only", in which I subconsciously externalized gender dysphoria as fascism and American imperialism and misogyny in an extended, consistent metaphor for like 100k words.

Korra? The domino effect of that one is why I'm where I am in any capacity, so it deserves a lot of credit for that. Even if I don't really like it all that much anymore.

It's not the Mass Effect stuff...

I think it has to be Thunderstruck, yeah.

Ficsandmusings is right yet again

tagging @jtavington @425599167 @jennawynn @figsandnewtons @jbk405 @kayleen756894 and whoever else sees this and wants to do it yay!

[sunieepo]

been thinking of quitting tumblr or at least... idk... using it really differently

i feel like scrolling the dashboard i'm just inundated with so many bad takes / sexism / racism / horrendous world news / doomerism / things i've asked ppl to tag but aren't (not upset about it because i get that i'm asking a lot). and i get that it's supposed to be funny/absurd seeing people online say bad takes but it just makes me feel pretty down sometimes. in general i think exposure to random people's takes on the internet is just very damaging to my mental health. same with the constant stream of awful news

i'm currently finally seeing a therapist to try to help me with some of my more serious mental health issues and i think i'm overall just much more sensitive now than i was in the past. especially with the sexism stuff man. and i get why people wanna post about and complain about bad takes they see online regarding this but... god, i'm just exhausted. i'm tired. i don't have any more rage or ridicule left in me. i'm just incredibly sad at the state of the world rn and i have no more energy left to feel anything but sad about it.

scrolling specific character/fandom tags is still pretty safe so i'll still have that, but... yeah, for similar reasons to why i left twitter, i'm kind of feeling evacuating my main tumblr dash if nothing else.

that or i could get really aggressive about muting/unfollowing people for posting untagged bad take shit, but i'm already only following about 200 users and my dash would literally just be a ghost town if i did this lmao.

shrugs. idk. tl;dr i'm a baby and my headspace is the worst it's been in years and i just don't have it in me anymore to tolerate being exposed to bad takes, even if i'm supposed to find them ridiculous.

[thesnazzysharky]

Eh. I guess I'll make one of these. Why not

Hello hello! I'm TheSnazzySharky, but you can simply just call me Sharky for short.

What is there to know about me? What is this blog about? Well to put it simply, around 2 years ago I found something about myself. I love writing, being apart of discussions, making theories, and overall just waffling about shit.

That was what I did for awhile on Reddit (although I don't really bother with my account on there all that much anymore) and recently I've been doing the same with Tumblr. I like making posts or comments that can get people to think a bit more about the media they love. Just kinda of a fun hobby of mine.

As you can see, 99% of the posts I make here are about Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion. That's simply because that's what I'm hyperfixating on right now (autism lol), but hopefully I can shake things up a bit later in the future and talk about some other media I enjoy.

Speaking of shaking things up, I do want to make edited videos about things I enjoy talking about at some point. That way I could possibly obtain the exposure and interaction I'm looking for. I just don't when or if I will be able to try to take a crack at it. But even if I don't, I'm at the very least grateful and find it awesome that even a small portion of people are interested in me just talking about stuff.

So... I'm glad that you're here :)

I'm a snazzy sharky and I guess there was something else to say. Have a snazzy day and check out my personal tags down below (and my AO3 account)!

[sleepycelestialprincess]

Vintage Camera Review

The Argus C3 Match-Matic

from 1958–1966

I was at a local thrift store and I saw an Argus camera in the showcase, I asked to see it. It had a tag saying it had been put out just the day before and was marked for $7.50. It's a pretty cool looking camera! Argus was a local to Ann Arbor camera company so its pretty well known in the area. There is even an Argus museum near downtown that's worth a visit.

It's a hefty camera, it's shaped like a small brick and weighs almost as much. It's a range-finder, completely mechanical except for the detachable light meter that doesn't even use a battery. The light meter is probably the most impressive aspect of the camera, with no battery, it has a solar cell that generates electricity. That electricity is measured to tell you how much light is in the scene and how to set the exposure. Its pretty common for cameras of this era but interesting none-the-less.

The camera it's self it pretty typical to start; a 50mm ƒ3.5 lens, it has a shutter dial, a frame counter, film winder and re-winder knobs, instant/bulb switch, cold shoe, and a very old style flash connector.

But then I notice the apertures and shutter speeds are not labeled as usual. The apertures count 3½, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I looked this up and they are equal to ƒ3.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16. The shutters are labeled 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 which are equal to ⅟10, ⅟30, ⅟60, ⅟125, ⅟300th. Ok, weird, I know scales weren't standardized for a while but I was surprised that a camera of this era wasn't, but I can get past that. Also, the shutter dial indicates that it should only be turned in one direction. If you turned it the other way, it may not change the exposure. I haven't tested enough to know for sure.

It also has an Argus iconic Flash Finder / Distance dial connected with an external gear. It gives a (yet again) proprietary flash guide number to help you set your Argus flash. According to the manual, this only works when using ISO 10 film and a specific type of flash bulb. You'll have to reference the manual for the math for different films and if you have a regular flash, you'll have to reference the manual to convert flash finder numbers to standard flash guide numbers. (I hate flash anyway, but if I didn't, I'm glad we have TTL flash or at least automatic flash for the last several decades)

So I loaded a roll of Tri-X 400 into the camera... but nope, I had to look that up too. I've used quite a few old cameras and I wasn't absolutely sure I could figure out how. Once loaded, strange, but not that hard, I started to take some pictures. Focusing is a pain it the butt! It uses a two lens focusing system where it shows you two images similar to the split focus system in an SLR. This isn't so bad except it's in a separate viewfinder than your main viewfinder. So if you are focusing on a moving subject, you can't focus while keeping an eye on your framing. Maybe my almost two-year old wasn't a good test subject for this camera (haha).

Like any mechanical camera, you have to cock the shutter. The lever is in a very inconvenient location. Its right where you want to hold this (did I mention) very uncomfortable camera. Ok, there is a lever in the way, thats not the problem. If you take a picture with your finger in the way of the lever, it'll stop the shutter from moving, giving you a much longer exposure than the dial is set to! It even says this in the original manual, its not just because its old and needs lubrication.

Film winding is weird, to be honest, I'm not 100% sure I loaded the film correctly. I have checked, it is winding the film but the counter doesn't count right. (I'll update this post with more info on that later) Also, when winding to the next frame, it doesn't stop it's self, you have to look at this little button next to the counter and when it moves, you've reached the next frame. Its very easy to under or over wind unless you are paying very close attention.

Resources with more info: http://www.cameramanuals.org/argus/argus_match-matic.pdf https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Argus/Argus-C3-Matchmatic.html

Summery:

Its a cool looking, "entry level" camera for its time. It's much more difficult to use than other cameras of it's era. It's heavy and very awkward to hold. The light meter it pretty cool. I won't use this camera again. Its a display camera only.

Here are a few pictures of the camera, light meter, and viewfinder. Maybe later I'll add a photo of the inside (there is still film in it now).

In the closeup of the light meter you can see it is set to ISO 400. The outer ring rotates to let you choose a combination of aperture and shutter. If you follow the line, the needle is pointing to the 7 which is ƒ11 while the shutter is 7 which is ⅟125. The last two are looking through the viewfinder and through the focus finder. A double image as seen would be out of focus.

BTW was this interesting? Would anyone like to see reviews of other cameras I've used? Petri FT, Nikon F100 (my usual 35mm), Minolta SRT 101, Minolta XD5 (my secondary 35mm), 4x5 view camera, Sony HVC-2400 video tube camera, Kodak ADVANTiX F350 (my first camera as a kid), Polaroid Automatic 250 Land Camera?

[herrscherofmagic]

IMO, the current story arc in HI3rd might just be my favorite one so far. i've got a lot of thoughts to share on it, so I present to you this post! But first, a preamble :)

This is a really long post, I think I used the right tags for this? idk

I'm basically just copying over a post that I made for Reddit, so idk if this is way too long for tumblr or what. I've got a habit of writing pointlessly-long things on Reddit and idk if the Tumblr folks appreciate this or not x-x

but without further ado! my thoughts on the whole "city of salt and sand" story we've got going on right now.

P.S., this is mostly spoiler-free; I don't make any specific references to events in the story, except for Susannah's feelings but even that is really vague so it shouldn't reveal any plot twists or anything like that.

I remember how confusing and awkward it was when I first started playing HI3rd.

I didn't have a clue who any of these characters were, some parts of the story seemed weird, or convoluted, or had no explanation. Over time I caught up through reading the manga and catching up with the story; I looked through past events to figure out the story of the Captainverse; and I've been thinking plenty about the story of HI3rd and the other Hoyo games, trying to piece together different ideas and themes.

With all that in mind, I feel like this story arc has been probably one of the strongest pieces of storytelling in all of HI3rd, and maybe even across all the Hoyo games (that I've played, at least).

I'll make the obligatory disclaimer that yes, sometimes the technobabble gets a bit confusing. Thankfully I can understand a fair bit of it because of some exposure I've had to math and science, but I can't pretend to be at Schrodinger's level.

But I think this chapter did a great job at presenting some of these ideas in a way that felt natural to the progression of the story, while also making it understandable. We might get a statement that makes 0 sense, but you can usually figure out what's going on through context clues, as well as the analogies that some characters have been making.

I think the cast chosen for this arc has also been a huge help. This is probably the single most diverse cast we've had, in terms of personality, behavior, and mindset. Whether it's Kira repressing her "dislike" of Misteln, or the banter between Senti and Seele, there's been a lot of fun moments where these characters aren't all thinking on the same wavelength. Instead they need to find ways to understand each other. It really feels like there's an effort being made by these people to understand the situation they're in, and every step forward or misstep backwards feels meaningful. It's that variety in beliefs and personality that really spices things up and makes it feel so much more lively to me!

Building on that, I've also really enjoyed some of the themes being presented here.

Especially Susannah... oh boy do I have a lot to say here!

I think Susannah's development has been phenomenal (though it's absolutely criminal that a lot of it is limited-time events... THREE events now). In fact, while this isn't quite as serious of a situation, I'd go so far as to say that it's vaguely comparable to Kiana's experience in Arc City.

Yes, the severity is different.

But the thing that made me love Honkai was how we saw Kiana grow very slowly. It was an imperfect journey and it took tremendous effort on her part, but she was able to keep moving forward. Sometimes it felt like Kiana made progress (such as her training with Fu Hua), but this progress masked deeper problems that she couldn't run from (her sacrificial nature). This led to that emotional back-and-forth, where Kiana had real victories and real defeats over time. It wasn't just "The power of friendship!" saving the day in one fell swoop, but instead it felt like a much more realistic take on how difficult it can be to recover from trauma.

Susannah doesn't have to deal with the freakin' Herrscher of the Void inside of her, but her own mind puts up a big fight nonetheless. The more I see Susannah move forward and stumble back time and again, the more I feel a stronger connection with her as a character. For crying out loud, just in the last week or two I've lost count of how many times I've felt like I've been making great strides in my art one day while being a complete emotional train-wreck the next day.

Seeing Susannah breaking down but picking herself back up and moving forward nonetheless... That is why I put so much of my energy towards the idea of storytelling. It's why I play games and obsess over stories and analyze characters and dissect settings and come up with theories and headcanons and fanon and more. Being able to see these characters go through these struggles and seeing how that can relate to my own experience in life is something that has genuinely made me a better person over the years, and might have even saved my life in a way. I want nothing more than to be able to tell stories just like this someday, so that perhaps others might be able to learn and grow from my own stories that I conjure up.

While Susannah is the one I personally relate to the most, I've still been able to appreciate the rest of the cast, too. It's enjoyable to see the way they interact with each other, but I also feel invested in every single person here. There's even a particular someone I've especially grown to love here, but there's leaks and spoilers a-plenty out here in the internet right now so I don't really want to push that subject.

For the sake of keeping this spoiler-free I've been avoiding specifics, but honestly there's just too much for me to talk about even if I wanted to dive right into it. From the setting and stage design, to the character interactions, the development of the plot, the conflicts and resolutions we've had so far, it all just feels so satisfying to me.

I guarantee that there are some objective flaws somewhere in this story arc, and I wouldn't be surprised if others were to start pointing out those flaws. But I'm still enjoying the story, so even if I can't say "This is an objectively great story", I can still say "This is a story I love", and that's good enough for me~ ^_^

[tielesiti-eftu]

you're telling me a FURRY pinned this post???? 😳

hey hey! I'm Tiel, she/her, and that's all you're getting to identify me here <3 you can look at my sona though

if you've stumbled over here then I can only assume you were looking on purpose since I mostly keep to myself, in which case, welcome! so long as you're not a piece of shit to or around me, feel free to hang out. I am a firm believer in having your own corner of the internet, and this is one of the main spots I do that for myself; as such, what you'll find here is going to very wildly differ between days, and it's all to cater to me and basically nobody else.

please do not tag me in donation posts or send me asks about donating to you. i have no money to give and no reach to help get you exposure from people who would be able to. i hate to say it but you would be better off looking elsewhere for help.

I don't do softblocking in either direction, so if you're able to see this page, congratulations! you're most likely fine! on the flipside though, if you're softblocking me for whatever reason, I'm really bad at noticing things like that and would in all honesty prefer if you just fully blocked me (genuine)

this post might be edited at some point, and I'll reblog it with an addition mentioning the changes if I do mess with things here

tags of note under the cut

here's some tags I use fairly often, or that exist for filter purposes! this section might change too, so be aware of that!

#pinned post - you are here!

#targeted reblog - I know people that enjoy things, and sometimes I like to attack those people with cannons

#reblog game - for posts that come with minigames or other fun things to do if you reblog them!

#reblog bait - for other reblog-oriented posts that unfortunately do not come with enrichment but I wanted to reblog anyways

#:3 - :3

#you will look at this - art reblog tag, added to posts with art or other cool things that I did not make

#foxposting - basically post about or containing as fox gets tagged with this bc foxes are fun and I enjoy them a lot

#tailsposting - like foxposting but for specifically Miles "Tails" Prower

#kumihoposting - like foxposting but for specifically Kumiho Cookie from Cookie Run, also known as The Single Solitary Reason I Still Care About Cookie Run In 2023

#a rustle in the bushes || art tag - as suggested, this is my art tag! I don't really post art very often, but when I do, it'll be under this tag

#the fox hole recipe book - if a post has a recipe, either made by me or reblogged from someone else, I'll add this tag! it's a bit sparsely used, since I don't find much good recipe stuff, but it's there!

#in the bushes you find a strange mushroom - an extension of the art reblog and art tags; if something is tagged with this, the art in question is intended for mature or adult audiences by the OP. sometimes these will have mature labels on the posts themselves, sometimes they won't; this tag exists to let people who may not want to see it either way to filter it out. as a general rule though, I am probably reblogging these for a reason, and you don't win any prizes for guessing it

#draft clearing - I use this when I'm going through my veritable hoard of drafted posts and dredging some up to see the light of day. why I do this instead of using a queue, nobody knows, least of all myself

#food, #food tw, #tw food - these are all blacklist tags I use, and admittedly I may be forgetting to add something here or to tag something in general; I'll keep it consistent for things in here though. keep in mind, if something isn't in this section, I probably don't consistently tag for it! I used to add "tw" to the beginning and end of some of these tags, hence the slight repetition, but these days I just use the raw word for simplicity's sake

#drizzle, #storm, #fire, and #ice - deprecated tags originally used to denote if posts were serious or not. storm and ice were for serious posts, while drizzle and fire were for non-serious posts. I have way too many total posts to remove/replace these tags by this point, so you're absolutely gonna see them if you go looking, and I wanted to clarify what they were for as a result. some slight typos of these (drizzle especially) are probably under this umbrella too, if the variations that keep showing up in my suggested tags are any indication

[sol1loqu1st]

under a readmore because. yeah. cw for discussion of like. everything happening on the news rn

i don't know how to talk about any of this without it sounding like i am making. like. Literal G*nocide (censored to avoid tags not because i think it's a Bad Word) about Me And My Mental Illness so i guess prefacing with. like. this is not any sort of #Take, i'm just processing some complicated personal feelings that i don't know how to talk about with my therapist. at the core of it all i'm scared and not sure how to help and i feel like there's so much confusion that if i ask for real, tangible things i can do, there's a not-insignificant chance i might end up helping to make things worse.

anyways like. i've probably got moral ocd and at the very least have a lot of the symptoms, and i also have cptsd from like. a million different things but partially from constant, unrelenting exposure to horrific news (specifically, in a way where the narrative tends to be both "if you aren't spending a majority of your time and effort thinking about and trying to solve this, you are complicit" AND "this is hopeless, there's nothing the average person can do, no amount of donations and calling your reps and front line activism is ever going to help") since i was a young teen, again, who probably has moral ocd, and just. idk. everything happening right now is immensely triggering on so many levels.

i don't know what's *actually* happening because it feels like there are a hundred different narratives but i know there's a horrific genocide happening and i'm terrified that by not reblogging or talking about it much i'm not doing even the bare minimum of my part. but so many of the posts i would actually reblog (specifically, posts with actual information or ways to help -- as a personal rule, i won't reblog posts that are just fear or anger or venting (not because i think that's Bad(tm) but because it just makes me feel hopeless and suicidal)) seem to go out of their way to like. pin the blame on average citizens, or even jewish people, instead of the israeli (or hell, the united states) government, and i know that like. nuance gets lost when you're scared and angry and grieving and as an outsider it would be ridiculous to tone-police but with the rise in rampant antisemitism in the last few years, at least in the US, happening alongside all of this i am so so scared for my jewish friends and i'm scared for what it means for me when i eventually start my conversion process (or if it means that i'll never start, for my own safety) and i've already been struggling with activism burnout since like 2020 and i'm just. i feel sick watching genocide happen across the world and not knowing how to help and being scared that even if i attempt to help it's going to make a different problem worse. and i feel disgusted and horrified at myself for being so paralyzed by fear and confusion and my own much less significant trauma that i'm essentially no better than someone who intentionally sticks their head in the sand and doesn't care at all. which, see above, makes me worry that i'm complicit.

i'm open to replies to this post, including ones that challenge the way i feel and especially if anyone has any suggestions on constructive ways i can help (or groups i can donate to who are doing constructive things -- i've heard someone say even donations aren't helpful right now, i don't know if that's true or not) but i'm begging for compassion because like. believe me, whatever thing you're going to say about my position of relative privilege or like. White Guilt(tm) or anything like that, my brain has already guilt tripped me about it. i'm not necessarily asking for advice on how to turn this into actually constructive activism because i know that ultimately it's kinda on me, but i'm open to hearing advice anyone has

sorry for this being kinda incoherent, i didn't want to talk about it at all since i know it is like. the way i personally feel about this is not relevant or important. but it's consuming a lot of my thoughts and energy and i'm trying to find a way to find some sort of balance where i can still function without just sticking my fingers in my ears and pretending it's not happening

[theoutcastrogue]

1) While I am personally repulsed by the influencer / self-promotion / instagram Type of Posting, and it's extremely off-putting when I see it on tumblr (the very place I frequent to get away from all that), I have THE GREATEST sympathy for people who just wanna share their work with the world, and discover that it's only feasible if you do the whole social media song and dance, and they happen to simply not be into this social media song and dance. Ideally, they'd want to set up a portfolio and let the work speak for itself. And most of the time they can't, because no one sees it. It's terrible.

2) On the other hand, on this very site, it WAS once possible to gain an audience with a portfolio of your work, and zero reblogs or memes or addressing said audience with your words. My experience on that was with #photographers on tumblr. I don't know how that tag is doing now, but I'll tell you how it worked back then, because that's why I came to tumblr in 2012: the ease of use, the custom themes, and the native image hosting made it surprisingly good for a photography blog/portfolio. (Extra surprising if you consider how atrocious the code was overall back then, and in the crucial matter of resizing images for display on the dashboard, STILL IS.)

I am definitely NOT into the whole social media song and dance. All I did was post each photo with a single-line caption (incomprehensibly obscure title / location / date), and tag it with said location, #photographers on tumblr, and maybe #street photography or #portrait or something. Almost all of them were black & white. I didn't maintain a steady flow, sometimes I didn't post for months and sometimes I unloaded a dozen at once. Fanart was not applicable. And I reblogged nothing, not even my own posts. I did everything "wrong", and I was not interested in doing it "right".

But there are other photographers on tumblr (often but not always amateurs), and I followed a bunch of them, and I interacted with them at least with Likes. I got a handful of notes on each photo (double digits), once in a while triple digits. Which was fine, I didn't whine about it. The OP talks about artists pointlessly complaining that the fandom site is not good for engagement (duh), but I very intentionally misused tumblr and regretted nothing. The main thing that got me here was "it's prettier than flickr". If that also got me 20 notes per post, great!

And then some of my photos got picked up by curating blogs (let's call them that), which are hardly a thing any more but were prominent back then. There was no smalltalk on these blogs, just reblogging art, making it clear that their job is to find art on tumblr and show it, and they might add a short comment on composition or something. E.g.:

"Very interesting point of view, lights and framing. I like the misty mood and the sky. Very well captured cityscape."

That definitely brought "exposure", and lots of photographers got an audience through such blogs. And they didn't need to fill their own blogs with memes and shitposts, or share their inner thoughts and feelings. Just their work. It speaks for itself.

Now, to be fair, a large chunk of that audience was other amateur photographers. But I mean, we're talking about black & white photography in the 21st century: how many people (other than goth teens) are into that without also being into creating some of that?

And here's something that doesn't exist any more, tumblr used to have Blue Tags. Does anyone remember Blue Tags? It was like Radar, the mods selected posts to promote, except it was themed, and there was a Blue Tag: Fashion for example, a Blue Tag: Black and White. That's the one I got, for several photos. (Not my best ones, lol.) And triple digits weren't rare any more.

Blue Tags

I started getting asks and replying poorly (i.e. belatedly or never, I am still SO bad at this), I got fans which was hilarious, I added words to a handful of posts (like a paragraph on the process, technical stuff, composition, musings on photography), I once posted a shout-out to other photographers and curators I liked, I technically did a fanart (lol) which also got a Blue Tag

aaaaand that summed up my concessions to the whole social media song and dance. I still didn't reblog, I didn't chat with anyone on my blog, there were no memes and no shitposts.

And just as I was getting traction, and we got to quadruple digits,

(which hardly made my blog famous or anything, not even in that small corner of non-fandom tumblr, but it got the job done of sharing my work, which only happens when there are other people there to share it with, whether it's 5 or 50 or 5000 of them), I got bored and kinda quit.

I might have made a comeback. Until the 2018 purge came, and FULLY sapped any desire I might have to share my photography, or even explore the work of other photographers (which, to be clear, I used to be VERY keen on, both for famous professionals and unknown amateurs) on a site that takes issue with female-presenting nipples.

Now the Blue Tags are long gone, reblog chains are the norm and non-personal curating blogs are declining, you shitpost or you die, and I am SO glad I don't feel the need to share my work on tumblr any more. Because if I did, I'd be fucked.

I sincerely hope others have found ways to accomplish that without having to do the whole social media song and dance, and without having to put on the spotlight their whole personality (well, a persona thereof) just to get their art seen.

I keep meeting artists who complain that Tumblr Is Dead then when I check their blog they've made four posts in six months and all of them were self promo lmao. Influencers whining that "tumblr is useless for engagement" tells me every part of the problem, like sorry you can't just show up and farm this userbase for clicks by waving buzzwords around the way you can on tiktok. This is the Excited About Stupid Things website reblog some shitty fanart or die