#Can you believe I've been on (and off) this website for 10+ years

[nostalgicpurin]

Happy 10th Anniversary lads (gender neutral)

[cocoatonedcurls]

become an academic weapon 📚🔫✨

hi all !!

with my GCSEs this year, and only a few weeks before back to school, I decided to really lock in yesterday 🫣

so I thought I'd take all the info I've come across while scrolling through studytok and put it into a little post for everyone looking to improve in their studies (& for my benefit as well 🙈)

motivation

this is probably the biggest factor when it comes to locking into your studies, motivation can quite literally make or break your academic achievements (😦)

so, its very important you motivate yourself, and moreover, stay motivated 😭

i've made it sound daunting but motivating yourself is lowkey easier than you think, here's a few ways to do it:

picturing yourself in 10 years, where all your studying and hard work has paid off - you can't be that person without doing the work that they did 😬

you can also do the opposite of the above - imagine how disappointed you'll be if you didn't work as hard as you could have and failed

"revenge studying" - the most toxic yet probably the most widely effective technique - working hard so you can beat than the people who are better than you

make studying aesthetic - create pinterest boards, look at quotes and tiktoks, make success your greatest desire

make it an addiction - if you're bored? study. had a bad day? nothing like setting yourself up for the best future. having a great day? go make it better by making yourself smarter.

get a motivational study app - i LOVE 'Study Bunny' I've been using it for two days now and it genuinely motivates me to be more productive to keep my bunny happy 🙃

resources

obviously, you need some help where you can get it despite all the controversies surrounding studying and the use of the internet, there are some amazing online resources you can use that will actively help you 📚

Quizlet/Anki - both of these flashcard platforms are incredibly useful - Quizlet is a fun platform and you can search for flashcards made by other people - Anki, in my opinion, is better than Quizlet for memorising, and you can import flashcards from Quizlet.

Mindnote - A mindmap making software online, a user-friendly interface + is quick and easy to make them - Great for visual learners

YouTube - the teachers on YouTube are incredibly helpful and can explain any topics you're confused about very quickly and very thoroughly

Spark Notes - great for English literature, with in-depth analysis of your texts and modern translations

Physics & Maths Tutor - free past papers and topic questions for core subjects and a few others, great for active recall

Study Bunny/Flora - helps keep track of your progress and keeps you motivated, I recommend Study Bunny because I can see how much work I've done of each subject and tick off things on my checklist

these are just a few out of many other resources so go do some of your own research, especially if there are websites that help with a specific subject

techniques

different study techniques work best for different people, no technique is a one-size-fits-all, some people are visual learners, others perform best by memorising & etc.

active recall - the only one-size-fits-all method - is a cognitive function that you carry out to remember things in tests, so practising this is a must -> the best way to do this is by completing topic questions and past papers using minimal amounts of notes. basically just testing yourself before the actual test

Spaced-out revision - one of the best ways to make sure things stick in your mind, revise a topic/subject and revisit it every few days, eg. 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, 30; and by the 30-day mark it should be stuck in your mind because your brain believes its something that you need to know in the long run and stores it in your long term memory

Flashcards - great to memorise content for the test, especially subjects that are tested with orals

Scribble method - scribbling on a piece of paper while revising the content in any form, reading, listening, etc. helps your brain store the information you're consuming more effectively

Feynman method - basically just explaining the topic you're revising to someone, this helps you develop your understanding and catches out any areas you're unsure about to revise later

making mindmaps - this is great for visual learners, especially if you use different colours for each section of the map so that you can associate each concept with each colour and recall them easily

again, those are just a few that come to mind. do your own research and find out what works best for you 😇

while studying

knowing how to study effectively is also a crucial aspect of success (obviously) 🤭

here are a few tips:

don't listen to music with lyrics, instead you can listen to lofi tracks, cafe/library asmr, brown noise, jazz music (my favourite)

set yourself a study slot, like 2 hours every day at a specific time & set a focus filter on your phone for the duration of your study time

make an aesthetic/cute study space so you can enjoy your time in that space and it doesn't feel like a chore

get a whiteboard to make learning more interactive & fun

light a specific candle whenever you're studying so your brain knows to associate the scent with working

have regular breaks eg. every half hour for 5-10 mins

reward yourself afterwards, so you associate studying with a good experience

consistency is key, the more you study the easier & more fun it becomes 🙃 the more you study the more you are likely to succeed and fulfil your dreams ✨

remember though, academics is not everyone's thing:

"you cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree"

everyone is good at something, and it doesn't make anyone lesser or greater 🫶

if you try your best, that is all that matters 🫠

- li 🌘

[xclowniex]

I want to talk about allegations of jew face aka claims that someone is faking being jewish.

On one hand, people do fake being jewish. Last year, at pro Palestine protests, JVP handed out shirts with "not in our name" on the front and "jews say ceasefire now" on the back, to people at protests. Some of the people who recieved and wore the shirts were jewish, but there were also non jews given the shirts and wore them. This shirt is still available for sale on the JVP website. Non jews who wear the shirt are doing jew face, as the shirt implies they are jewish.

Then you have blogs like one which was deleted a few months ago, who claimed to be a jew but was actually someone from Iran. Whilst there are jews in Iran, the blog was claiming to be a Jew in the US. So safe to say, it was an Iranian psyop as they were antisemitic.

Conversely, there are many antizionist jewish bloggers who get falsely slapped with the accusation that they aren't really jewish. 10% of jews worldwide are antizionist or non zionist (someone who doesn't believe that countries should exist, and therefore believes both Israel and Palestine, along with every other country should no longer exist).

And it is actually disgusting when an antizionist jew gets slapped with claims that they aren't actually jewish. A jew is a jew is a jew. Someone's opinion does not strip them of their jewishness.

This post was something I have been wanting to talk about but the thing which motivated me to write it is a post I saw listing behaviors that if someone who says their jewish does, then they aren't really jewish.

And I agree with this in some capacity. A lot of those behaviors are indicative of someone faking being jewish, but no group is a monolith and there could be real jews doing that behavior. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to that poster and assuming they meant it as a loose rule and not hard criteria.

Some of the behaviors listed were people only saying they were jewish after Oct 7th, jews who post antisemitic content, and blogs which go beyond criticisms of Israel and is literally just xenophobia and that's all they post.

And yes, that are all things which jew fakers do. They only claim to be Jewish to gain a sense of being reputable. However I have spoken with jews who are really jews, who do engage in that behavior. Do I agree with that behavior (excluding claiming to be Jewish only after Oct 7th)? No, I do not. I think it's terrible. But does that made a person less Jewish? No. The reason I excluded the only claiming to be Jewish post oct 7th is because for some jews, being jewish wasn't something they want to advertise on their blog. Whilst I have said I was jewish on past blogs I've had, on this one, it wasn't till after Oct 7th did I make it known here. Which for those who never knew my old blogs, which would be everyone as I was cyberstalked by an ex and would delete blogs when my ex found them, it comes off as if I'm suddenly claiming to be Jewish post oct 7th.

There is also another claim commonly tied to claiming antizionist jews are fake jews, which is that antizionist jews must have no connection or limited connection to jewish culture. That they were either not raised with jewish culture or if they were, as an adult they no longer practice even secular judaism. And whilst again yes, this is true for some, it's not true for all.

There is a popular antizionist jewish blogger on here, which has spoken multiple times about how they practice jewish culture and religion. It would be stupid to deny it because of a political belief.

This post as ended up being far longer than I intended, so to hurry up and get to the point, I do not think we should fake claim jews unless there is hard proof that someone is faking being jewish.

Hard proof can be a person claiming prior to not be Jewish, if a blog is revealed to be a psyop, or if you personally know the person running the blog and know for a fact that they aren't jewish.

[brakingpoint]

i missed your answer but happy day of the lord i'd love you to rank drivers by hotness because i think you're hilarious

you know what it's been like three days of the lord since you sent this but i've finally got bevved on one of them so let's go. i do not believe in rankings so i will instead be offering my commentary in current drivers championship standings order

max verstappen - i wont lie i know he's not everyone's cup of tea but i do find him quite sexy. do not understand the overwhelming tit hype on this website because this man would have to clench for his life to fill a victoria's secret training bra but it's fine because his beautiful autistic rizz and enchantingly bold nose make up for it. points deducted because i can tell his skincare routine is dish soap

lando norris - 2019 lando norris is like, i am honestly too old to have found him sexy if i'd been into f1 at the time bc even though we're only like 2/3 years apart in age he looks about 5 years younger than me. but i can completely get how if you were like 16 at the time he would seem like the cutest boy on the planet. like up all night era one direction vibes you know. unfortunately his 2024 styling with the weird desperate attempt at facial hair makes him look like a man who uses snapchat for evil

charles leclerc - objectively beautiful man crafted by the gods themselves but i can't honestly say he makes me feel anything carnally. i look at him as i would a marble sculpture in a museum

oscar piastri - he is not a bad looking guy but he does nothing for me. partially an age thing and partially his complete lack of rizz. he doesn't have time to be sexy he's got a job to do and that job is scaring the pants off lando norris every time he's within DRS range

carlos sainz - sometimes i think he is one of the top 10 sexiest men ever to exist on the planet and sometimes i think he looks like that really angry eagle off the muppets. he's got to work the right angles

lewis hamilton - much like charles leclerc he is someone who is so deeply objectively sexy that it almost reverts to me feeling nothing wait a second somebody just beamed psychic images of those interviews from like singapore 2019 where he had his hair up but with a couple bits framing his face so gorgeously and now i can't form words or think of anything else

george russell - the thing you have to understand is i went to oxford and i went clubbing a lot in oxford and so i have made out with a number of george russell lookalikes that is easily in the double figures. and i have zero regrets

sergio perez - he's not sexy he is like a cabbage patch doll whose nose i want to boop so fondly as i very gently whisper in his ear to DRIVE FUCKING FASTER

fernando alonso - i don't find him sexy but at the same time i can understand why lance stroll does

nico hulkenberg - i feel like you either have to be a really really straight woman or a really really gay european man to find him hot. and i am unfortunately neither

lance stroll - i'm refraining from answering until he grows his hair back out. at which point i will still refrain from answering but moreso for my own dignity

yuki tsunoda - we must not underestimate the rizz of a man so short he could be a back up dancer on sabrina carpenter's short 'n' sweet tour. i can unequivocally say i would

alex albon - you see physically he is not really my type but being engaged in conversation with him for more than five minutes would have me so horny i can barely breathe. i just love a dork yknow. i feel like i'd match with him on tinder by the strength of his bio even though his selfies are a bit shit and then i'd be actively drooling throughout the entire date

daniel ricciardo - in 2018, yes. in 2021 onwards, no. was he in some sort of reverse dorian grey situation where his portrait has gotten both hotter and attained better f1 results? who knows

pierre gasly - if he brings back the long swoopy hair with the frosted tips we are back in fucking business quite frankly

ollie bearman - i know he's technically an adult but he looks so young that even including him in this poll as an aside feels noncey to me

kevin magnussen - i have nothing to say. next

esteban ocon - he's tall, i suppose

franco colapinto - once again it's an ollie bearman situation where i can objectively acknowledge that he's a handsome lad but i've been following him since he was 19. i CANNOT see him that way.

zhou guanyu - i feel like his inherent swag is wasted in f1 i'd probably fancy him a lot more if he was some rando catwalk model i saw reblogged onto my dash precisely once when he was walking the runway in dior's latest collection at paris fashion week or something

logan sargeant (rip) - i really can't knock the people who fancy him because i feel like if you're american making out with 5000 guys who look just like him at college parties is my equivalent of making out with a ton of george russell impersonators at oxford. but thus i cannot see it due to our vastly different life experiences

valtteri bottas - he's hot in the way that like i walk into a gay bar and see the posters of men in leather jockstraps plastered around the place and go you know what this is not targeted to me but i can see why this is hugely titillating to the people these pictures were actually put up for. he's the closest to 1980s gay porn we have on this grid and i have to hugely respect that even if he's not my personal type

bonus liam lawson round - he looks like he was meant to debut in a boyband circa 2014 but accidentally got locked in a portaloo before their first recording session and they just kind of forgot about him there and he's just stumbled out into the daylight right now for the first time in 10 years and he's a little startled and hasn't learned about modern fashion yet but he's still kind of hot to people who would have desperately fancied luke from 5SOS were they above the age of seven at the time that band debuted

[jaymesyourplaything]

TRANSPARENCY

ver they/them is sherlock he/him mod

john he/him is johns mod.

all purple are links.

hello,, i think to start this, i will have to be very transparent. this is going to push a lot of my comfort zones, and... well, writing this is going to... be very difficult for me. i'm sorry. if i give too much leeway, some friends may be upset. if i speak at all, i fear i'm losing some automatically.

but, i wanted to speak up. push myself. my friend gave me the okay, and along with bewitched they are both giving me the courage every day. 🥺🥺🥺

i struggle with speaking up. my co-mod was always the one who, spoke for me. in my life; i am very much a wallflower. in my personal life, people don't like how i am so very willing to see the good in people, even if they hurt me. this is because i was abused and neglected started from a young age.

due to my abuse;

i have a dissociative disorder

it makes it very hard for me to interact with people around me in my day to day life. whenever i am stressed, whenever i feel i should be quiet-i was conditioned well-or if anyone so much as changes their tones, i'll be gone. it's questioning when i come back, but it's often when i'm more comfortable.

so, when someone is out of line, or otherwise mean to me, i would dissociate, and often forget about it. my caretaker once commented on how i wasn't there mentally, i didn't have the ability to hold a grudge. it was not because of a mental deformity, but the neglect i suffered.

i was only ever "real" during happy moments. i would lose focus during un-happy moments. it was easy to create false memories, especially if all i had to go on was my (caretakers) retelling of any story.

my memories, my thoughts and feelings on people, are based entirely of whatever i can remember of them at that moment, and what other's tell me about the memories/people. my reality is easy to be altered. (which is why i stepped back so long, all my thoughts are based on my partner of 10 years, childhood friends who do not interact with this website or anyone in it, or some of my friends who have been helping me correct my behavior who have all stayed out of it for their general lack of like of drama and also it helps me tremendously to interact with the world "alone" and learn how to proceed in my life/process. alone as in they don't interfere, other than advice i ask for. mostly i'm saying i purposeful stepped back from ver and bewitched -and john- anyone involved and spoke to those not involved for my opinions here. )

the best coping mechanism we found is to be extremely grounded. the last year has become the best year of our life after we became aware how severe the abuse was and why i've been the way i have. (we as in my partner and i. we have been together for 9 years now. )

this is why i struggle keeping a narrative for long. i'll lose it, i'll go through various stages of understanding, or memory loss. my narrative is based on those around me and what i see, and other things i can trust. it takes awhile, so i can gather what other's think of what's happened around me, so i can base the truth off it.

(i stayed out of this because i couldn't just, listen to everyone when this is /my/ experience. hence why i talked to my partner, or other -childhood friends not related to anyone here in this space- about such topics for so long, or other trusted friends, until i could gather an idea that isn't biased from my friends. because i trusted john, it hurt a lot for this to happen, it was hard to believe, hence dissociation and why it took so long. heughhh... )

also, yes, co-mod

i co-moded this blog once. if you know who the co-mod is, please keep it private. we have since talked and he has agreed to stay out, he's leaving me to handle the experiences on this account. he has remained quiet by my request. he now has only commented on his own experiences on his blog, only. john never knew the identity of this other person, in fact i don't think i told him my identity either. we spoke as "i" or "we".

edit: gdi pookie i said keep it private wts

my co-mod quit the fucking whore

thats a joke i don't mind they quit. poor communication, i would dissociate and he disapproved that i was continuously supporting him [john] even though i was clearly, by my own mind's definition, in discomfort talking to him. i wanted to be a good mod, keep contact with the other mods. ): i didn't like how he treated people behind the scenes, gossip and stuff. devaluing sherlock for a long time.

my friendship and thoughts on john and ver

i don't think ver is emotionally manipulative, but i didn't think john was abusive either. john has certainly shown he has been abusive since the split at least, but it suspects he could have always been abusive.

john planned replacing sherlock with his friend, from early january at least, but i suspected it back around august 2023

he said early on ver would deserve being replaced. said mine would be a better sherlock once, said he was tired of ver's sherlock, supported the idea of the other sherlocks popping up since jan but said they were also crazy and not to talk to them.

but anyway, here's wonderwall

aka my statement

there are boundaries. revealing personal information about ver, at first in private (with me, who else could he have? ) and then later in public, or messaging them after they (publicly ) told him to stop. then slander, or public harassment (public attempts to communicate, or throw accusations at, or now accuse of sending anon asks without proof -turn off anon asks then john. ) i don't know what happened in private, but publicly john has continuously escalated a situation that ver has attempted to be quiet and respectful on continuously.

i ended my friendship with john because of his continued abuse towards ver since he abruptly and without warning replaced ver.

uh , last thoughts? and a message from me

john was a mean girl who decided to fully bully and harass ver now that ver was free.

ver is just emotional and reacted to johns /empty/ threats of quitting.

which again is mean of him, empty threats, he knew he wanted to replace ver, not quit lol

since he kicked ver out and cut them off, he has continuously reached out, even after ver requested he stop. he has no even made a new account (sherlockbbc-rp blog ) so that he could interact with us (we all had to re-block him, or otherwise ignore him ) since we all have been trying to move on

he is obsessed with ver, which is weird when john is the one who wanted ver gone. ver even tried to help john every step of the way (and wanted the same respect and help. ) which john refused. i believe ver and believe john blew them off until he replaced him, since he's refused my help in similar ways countless times.

i hope ver can move on and recover, they do seem really shaken up and shy because of this event, and john continuously just, escalates. now that we've all done statements, i want to help ver move on. i want to plan and plot more interactions, i want to help cheer them up. i hope johns friends continue to watch and take care of him too, but i honestly am happy i'm not one of them now. it's stressful. i don't need to be friends with someone who puts that much thought into slandering and harassing someone and has no intentions of growing as a person and stopping that behavior. i've been trying, and i'm sure most of my friends would agree i'm doing so much better. i am proud of my improvements, and i am so very proud of ver for moving on and taking all steps i would have. i am not proud of john. i am proud of me for leaving john. my friends are proud, it was difficult for me, very very difficult.

this was difficult to write. as said, in my personal life, i am too soft, too nice. last ex, i remember we talked it out and ended with me saying (so us agreeing ) we were both too immature for the relationship. in reality they were cheating and petty lol. i.. i am often harassed for, not... speaking up, for taking blame, for ending so many things on good terms. two people i respected a lot even judged me when it took me so long to cut john out of my life. it hurt a lot. i've withdrawn a lot, since then. i am excited to move on from this chapter of my life, and continue growing as a person, from poor behavior to just being more assertive.

thank you for reading this, i... i feel no one really cares, but a close friend comforted me, and reminded me that even if no one else cares, that my friend ver appreciates me helping. i was silent so long, partially their request, some was a mutual agreement between me and my co-mod, and a lot was processing... what was going on with john. please be respectful, please be patient with me. this was my friend too. this was ver's friend once too. thank you to my friend, thank you to my continued friends for always helping me in correcting my behavior, or just remaining patient with me during this journey the last year with my own personal growth, and thank you to bewitched and ver for giving me the courage and help to speak out in the first place. i love and appreciate all of you very much.

john, please stop trying to contact me.

[p-redux]

Hi, so-called “shipper” here if we have to put a label on it, but I don’t believe I fall into any of the buckets you mentioned in your response to recent anon. I haven’t been here that long, I have no need to project any of my fantasies onto actors, I have read lots of opposing blogs, and I’m not mentally ill. I don’t think Sam and caitriona have 5 children (which much of anon’s argument is based on, I might add). I have some of the same questions as anon, yet on the flip side, there are enough other things that don’t add up that make me think they might actually be together. I won’t proclaim to “know” things but I am discerning enough to see which “receipts” could’ve been completely made up by someone with an agenda vs. which come straight from a source. Also, in response to a comment about how ES would lose it if faced with this logic: I think that exemplifies the problem with this fandom. We all have our different beliefs and are focused on reinforcing those and proving others wrong. There’s no room for polite discourse and collective brainpower to try to solve for the things that we can all likely agree are fishy…even if we won’t admit it to each other. I think I know what a lot of counterpoints to that would be, so maybe it’s not worth saying. Point is, we all have access to different “facts” and we all believe different things accordingly. It would be nice if we could be more kind to each other as a result. Thanks for reading.

I appreciate you reaching out, Anon. But given I've been in the Outlander fandom for 9 years and know all the back history, I have to disagree with you. You DO fall into one of the categories I mentioned in my previous post. You are still in category #2. 👇

You have fallen down the rabbit hole of shipper blogs and are prey to their manipulations. I have to admit some of them are very good at making their cases. BUT, the good news is you've found my blog, where you will see the TRUTH. Just scroll through my archives and there is no room for doubts. If you look at actual facts and truth, REALITY is clear: Cait and Tony have been together since 2014, have been engaged since 2018, have been married since 2019, and had a son in 2021. No matter how Extreme Shippers skew the truth, there is NO getting around the MULTITUDE of people who actually KNOW Cait, Tony, and Sam, who have publicly stated that Cait and Tony are together, and Cait and Sam are just friends and costars.

There is NO getting around the pics of Cait and Tony when he proposed to her New Year's in Australia and her FRIENDS publicly congratulating them. There is NO getting around CAIT'S MOTHER talking on an Irish radio interview about Cait and Tony being engaged. She mentions Tony by name. There is NO getting around Cait herself showing off her engagement ring and acknowledging her engagement when she was on the red carpet for the Golden Globes. There is NO getting around Cait kissing Tony on the lips and then mentioning Tony by name when thanking him at one of the awards show when she won. There is NO getting around the church announcement at St. Mary's Church in Bruton, Somerset, England that the church was booked for the wedding for A. McGill (Anthony aka Tony). And then ALL of Cait's family and friends posting on Instagram FROM Bruton at her wedding. There is NO getting around fans paying for Cait and Tony's MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE from the official UK government marriage license website. The official legal document clearly shows Caitriona Mary Balfe marrying Anthony (Tony) Gerard McGill on August 10, 2019. Both their fathers names are in it. There is NO getting around Cait herself announcing the birth of her one and only son in August 2021. Those are indisputable FACTS.

If you want to say the HUNDREDS of Cait and Tony sightings, pics, and confirmation by family, friends, fans, costars stating that Cait and Tony are a couple, and Cait and Sam are not, can be explained away. Fine, but you CANNOT explain away official church announcements, legal documents, Cait herself telling you, and God help anyone who would be dumb enough to DARE say Cait's mother was lying about Cait and Tony being engaged. The Irish are tough people and no one messes with an Irish mum.

Anon, as for everyone has different opinions and have access to different "facts." There is ONLY ONE FACT/TRUTH. Cait and Tony are married and there is a legal document from the UK government public registrar that PROVES that. You can have an OPINION about this FACT. But you cannot say that "fact" is in dispute. FACTS are by their very definition factual, truthful. The FACT is Cait and Tony are married. Your opinion can be that you don't like them being married. But you can't dispute that they are indeed married.

If after ALL the proof, including the legal document, you don't believe they are actually married, or you have your doubts, then you are not using your full mental faculties. I'm sorry to be so blunt. But there's no sugar coating it. Any rational, reasonable, logical person with a fully functioning brain cannot be faced with a marriage certificate from the UK registrar (a copy that MANY fans were able to order and pay for) and then say it's fake. The ONLY ones trying to convince people that it's fake are Extreme Shippers. Literally the only ones. The rest of us accept REALITY.

I do appreciate you wanting to be kind and asking for kindness in return. The thing is it's difficult for me to be kind to Extreme Shippers who have made MY life hell for the last 9 years. And have also attacked and harassed Cait, Sam, Tony, any woman associated with Sam, Diana Gabaldon, any cast, crew, family, friends, and any fan who got in the way of the Sam Cait ship. Here is a previous post where I talked in more detail regarding Extreme Shippers' horrible treatment of me and anyone who got in the way of the SamCait ship. 👇

In summary, the FACTS and ONE AND ONLY TRUTH is Cait is married to Tony and they have one son together. Why would I entertain talking about anything that isn't THE TRUTH with people who literally tried to ruin my life and other peoples' lives? If they want to still sell their LIES to unsuspecting new fans, that's on them, but I'm not going to dialogue with terrorists. Their only goal is destruction. And there's no room for discourse or civility when that's the case. And make not mistake, that IS the case.

Thanks for stopping by, Anon. This blog started in 2017. You have YEARS of posts to catch up on. My previous blog was called @fortruthseekers I stupidly deleted all my posts. God, so much proof on there. BUT, luckily people's reblogs of my old posts are still out there.

Always remember and never forget, THE TRUTH, there is only ONE.

[backtothestart02]

FANFIC TAGGING GAME

I got (honorable) tagged by the wonderful @theartofdreaming1- thanks!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? - 321

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,322,068 words (at the moment)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Still writing for The Flash, but every once in a while a new show/movie grabs my fancy and I write a few fics for that.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

An unimpressive bunch but here goes: Muse (456), Replacement Scrunchie (393), Fallen Star (357), Inconvenient Inspiration (343), and Drabbles (277). Muse is a handful of one-shots based solely off spoilers before I saw the eps they were for. Replacement Scrunchie is my sole fic for the TATBILB fandom about Peter & LJ's first date (which was way less impressive than what the sequel movie gave us, WOW). Fallen Star is my most popular westallen fic to date, so that one's actually not too surprising. But both Inconvenient Inspiration and Drabbles are requested (the latter) and spontaneous (the former) brainstorming ficlets and snippets for The Flash/WA. Bo-ring.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Eventually.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh, gosh, I have so many unfinished fics that it's hard to remember the complete ones that I finished that didn't end so happy, of which there aren't many. Maybe...Breaking Point though.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All the others have happy endings. Go read them. Lol.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

When I wrote for another fandom I did, but not really in The Flash fandom, which is nice.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yep. And uh...descriptive, I guess? I'm def not the best out there, but I do my best and for the most part smut-lovers seem to enjoy.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've attempted a couple crossovers, but I haven't completed any or gotten far with them, usually because there wasn't an audience for it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yeah, I discovered a whole bunch on another website years ago.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

In the process of it!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Stuck on Westallen atm, but I used to write Chair, and I was highly obsessed with them as well.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh god, I have SO MANY WIPs. One that I really want to finish but fear I won't though has got to be He's MY Barry Allen. I'm just stuck on what the next chapter will look like, and as of yet no one has come forward with a solution. Lol. The Problem is Tony Woodward is another one like that.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'd like to think I can hook people into my fics fairly well and drop enough cliffies to keep them coming back for more. But ofc the smut helps too. Most of my fics include at least some smut, even a single scene.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sometimes I have trouble making a chapter (or a scene for that matter) all that long. I've seen people write like 10k+ for a chap, and unless I'm crazy inspired, roughly 1-3k is what you're getting.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I actually dabbled in this a little bit for a westallen fic where Iris was learning Italian, I think? I did some research and managed to sift in enough for that one-shot, but I can't imagine I'd do it repeatedly or for a multi-chap.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I believe it was the STAR WARS prequels, but it might've been The Day After Tomorrow.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

It's unfinished, but there's so much untapped potential in my Flashpoint fic. Lots of world-building that's present as it rides the line between canon divergent and AU. Hopefully one day I'll get back to it.

...

As much as I'd love to tag a bunch of people, I can't recall anyone who still writes fic that I follow on here, so I'll just shout out my bestie @simplylove101 who is prob done with writing but may want to answer these questions either way!

[exsqueezememacaroni]

I'm sorry, for God's sake, I don't mean to offend anyone. I'm just a very distrustful nerd, and I'm always picky. I'm skeptical of these Q&As. I can't help but think we're being tricked. Maybe it's some kind of trolling or prank? Mike doesn't answer any of the questions, I get the impression that his "manager" answers all the questions for him. Why Mike would answer anything at all is not clear. Unless as "proof" that he is supposedly around? No clear explanations about upcoming projects, tours. It's not clear from her words at all if there will be any tour at all? When? Maybe yes, but it's not certain. You feel like you went to a gypsy and she read your cards. I'm surprised Mike didn't make some kind of slippery joke about Trevor, as Mike usually liked to do. Just recently during the Mr Bungle tour Mike was more bold in his statements, joking and flirting a lot with Trevor and calling him a porn star, and in this answer to a question about Trevor's butt he's strangely restrained. 'She' in general it's like she doesn't know anything much about Mike's friends, even Roddy Bottum will give away more information about Trey than anyone else. She hasn't revealed anything new about Mike and Trevor's friendship. (Better go to Trevor's website and read his answers to questions about their friendship, he told you everything there a long time ago, and then "do the math.") She doesn't sound like his significant other that he's in a relationship with, but a fan who knows about him as superficially as we all do. A lot of what she revealed we already knew or assumed. All this crap about him being an Aquarius man and into s&m and being hot and having a great butt, I hear it all the time from female fans. And what are we, the fans from the tumblr, so special that just for us "10 people" he decided to be frank, to answer our vile questions about his personal life? Why would he even waste his time on us? Someone wants to believe that we are the chosen ones, our community is special? I'm sorry, but this is bullshit. And I'm confused by this video and the pig and hippo toys. It could have been recorded and sent by anyone. Just like the "Source" could be anyone, any crazy fan who wants to pass herself off as his girlfriend. Why is the "Source" so afraid of this getting out of Tumblr? [Am I having deja vu?] What's so secretive about it? Nothing secretive was said except that this lady called herself his girlfriend. It's like a Polichinela secret. And more importantly, why is she doing this? Why does she want to talk to her boyfriend's fans on Tumblr? Do she and Mike care what strangers think of them? If Mike wants to be candid, he has the facilities for it, he can host a youtube stream for example, yes anything. And if he doesn't want to, why bother trying to find out something about him through someone else? I'd rather not ask him any questions at all. His life is none of my damn business, I'm just here to talk to other people about him. Sometimes strange things happen here on Tumblr, it has its own atmosphere and some people get too involved, starting to think they are too close to the idol. Sometimes it ends badly. There was already some mad girl on Tumblr trying to pass herself off as Trevor's girlfriend. And the whole story was creepy and traumatized many people. Please be sensible, everyone!

Ahh, thank you, I was wondering when the tumblr drama was going to start! (joking, joking I'M JOKING)

Listen, I am (mostly) glad you wrote in, anon. I've had an account here for just about 10 years now. I've been in the trenches, I've seen some shit. I've scoured the old Mike accounts, I know about the Trevor girlfriend drama, I know about the Titi boyfriend drama...or at least as much as is remaining from deactivated accounts.

So, yes, I too come from a place of skepticism. Everything I've ever wrote here about the Source also comes with the caveat that I've never met her. And you've never met me. And if you want to just truly ignore those posts and treat them as unreality, you can ask me to tag them and block them, or hell, just block me if you want. But I will admit that the turning point for me was that video and the audio I received. Am I 100% positive that this isn't all just an elaborate prank/delusion? No, but like....I'm 99% there at this point. Yes, there is AI, yes we live in an age where deep fakes can get really real, but I think of Mike as having one of those voices that is really hard to deepfake - he's so dynamic I can't imagine AI would do a good job of capturing it...but I will admit I myself haven't tried it to see...I am actually curious and might try....

To the anon in my inbox wondering if I will release the audio - no - I ask the Source and she said Mike wouldn't want it out there...so again you can choose to not believe me in this, no prob.

To address Mike's answers - I promise, in the audio at least, it comes off more like any interview where he's being asked ridiculous questions...why would he answer sincerely? And I wasn't even expecting any input from him at all. He does make fun of Trevor when asked if they were "a thing". I think the question about how he's doing really does throw him.

To address the Source's answers....I actually would be more suspicious if they were more revealing...I know it can come off as knowledge that any superfan would know plus some plausible deniability thrown in but....eh...the way that this has all unfolded, plus some stuff that I will not reveal....it reads to me, personally, as someone who wants Mike to be more out there, for his own comfort, so he doesn't have to be a hermit....that he can be a little more interactive (but fuck.....not fucking Reddit AMA interactive) and if we're all chill about it, may just maybe he'll step out a bit further into the world...

To address the "keep this on tumblr" secrecy - *that is ALL ME* it has nothing to do with the Source. Can you imagine? I'm just like...a person? Do *I* want to broadcast that I might be messaging with Mike's gf that no one knows anything about? That doesn't even come off well in tumblr...if that got to fucking IG? Or reddit (fucking Reddit???)?!

Are the 10 us on here special? Well, ya, actually I think we are...like I've mentioned, I'm only here - I don't have a Mike fan account any other place, and I barely have personal social media elsewhere. I think of this current iteration of Mike fandom here to be really kind, supportive - of each other, and of Mike. No one is really screaming at him for cancelling the FNM tour, no one is saying he's an asshole for not doing hardly any interviews the past 4 years, no one (for the most part) is fucking....staking claim to their Mike pics like we're fucking panning for gold out west? If there is any place for celebrities to hide and mostly quietly engage with fans, you and I both know that place is tumblr.

That video and audio wasn't made for us - they were made for the Source, presumably because Mike loves her and she asked. And she trusts us that little but more, and for that I am grateful.

Listen - I gotta go eat breakfast and teach...this is mostly incoherent stream of conscious thoughts, but like....I've live my whole life trying to find an existence where I am not a sucker, but on the whole I am open to people being kind and special things happening. I haven't fallen for a prince of nigeria scam, but I have received a level of support and truthful revelation from people that you wouldn't think is possible. Like I said...people like to tell me things.

OK for real, gotta go

[sophieinwonderland]

Here's an ask that (probably) stands out: Tell us, your followers, about a time where you or someone else from your system rolled a natural 20. (Figuratively speaking.)

Ghost: Soph spent a long time trying to figure out a good answer to this and drew blanks. She did come up with several but they all seemed too boring to her. So I'll snag this one.

And share a picture of my Maleficent!

I don't collect Funko Pops. Never had even the slightest interest in them. But Maleficent here is surprisingly one of my most cherished possessions.

Something you need to know about me is that I don't put myself out there. Ever. I like Reddit because it's safe. Nobody knows who I am there. Nobody even remembers my user name. Even on here, there's a reason I was more than happy just being known as "the host" for the first year of Soph's blog, only settling on Ghost when we decided to have a system blog.

The few times I've tried to dip my toes into something, I get scared and back out.

Being like I am, I don't actually have many accomplishments to speak of.

But I do have this one so I'm going to talk about it.

Some years back, I signed up with a fan website called... um... you know, I can't for the life of me remember what that site was called.

But that doesn't matter. There was a fan website where you could post articles, and I had recently read about The Disney Theory. This theory attempted to link together all Disney movies into a shared universe, using cameos from the various films to tie them together.

Now I grew up in the 2000s, with cartoons like Lilo & Stitch, Kim Possible and American Dragon: Jake Long. All of these shows crossed over, placing them in the same universe. And with Lilo and Stitch, they could be linked to the wider shared Disney Universe.

In American Dragon: Jake Long, there was a character called The Dark Dragon. As you can see here:

The Dark Dragon's color scheme bears a striking resemblance to a classic Disney villain. I'm sure you can guess who.

The Dark Dragon ends up getting a makeover in season 2 with a different color scheme with the purple replaced by dark blue, but the sharp purple spikes on his back get replaced with jutting black spines resembling Maleficent's dragon form.

They clearly wanted the Dark Dragon to retain his Maleficent influence, even if in a different way.

Additionally, Maleficent functions like the dragons in ADJL, having both a normal form and a dragon form.

Working off of these intentional design motifs and their connection through the Disney Theory, I theorized that the two were related somehow.

The theory that I presented was that Maleficent is the half-fairy daughter of the Dark Dragon.

And she likely would have been the World Dragon of her area. A World Dragon is a dragon that presides over a specific country in ADJL. I don't recall if the term "world dragon" is used in the show or if it's just a fan term, but the concept is very much present in the show. It's why Jake isn't just an American dragon, but he's "The American Dragon."

This would further contextualize Maleficent anger at being snubbed from Aurora's birth. World Dragons are supposed to be guardians of the magical. And during this period, humans and magical creatures were closely connected. One would imagine that a World Dragon would be highly respected, making it a severe insult when lesser fairies (who she refers to as "rabble") are invited but Maleficent is snubbed.

The site's staff would select a number of articles every week for their top list, and mine made it!

And then they sent this Maleficent Funko Pop with a letter congratulating me for making it into the top 16.

It may not be a huge accomplishment, but I'm proud of it. And I think it was really cool of them to personalized the Funko Pop to what the article was about.

To someone else, that Maleficent is a $10 toy. But to me, it's a trophy.

Unfortunately, despite common wisdom, things on the internet are not, in fact, forever. I believe the site I posted that theory on no longer exists today. But I still have my Maleficent.

[duhragonball]

Hey, im just wondering, do you have any other socials we can follow you on? I'v heard some forboding things about Tumblr staff layoff spelling the end of this site

You can find me on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/duhragonball

That's it, other than my AO3 account, which isn't much of a social media platform, and my decades-old livejournal, which I haven't touched in years.

I misread your message and thought you were referring to something ending Twitter, and I was all set to talk about how people have been predicting the downfall of Twitter for over a year now. I believe it will probably meet a bad end, and sooner rather than later, but the way the userbase talks Twitter already shut down six or seven times already. It still basically works when I use it. It's gotten shittier, but it was pretty shitty when I joined. It amazes me that people are nostalgic for the days when Jack Dorsey was running things.

Anyway, you said Tumblr, and I don't know anything about that site's woes. I will say that I only got active on Twitter because there was a nonzero chance of Tumblr imploding after the 2018 pr0n ban. There's still a nonzero chance, but 2018 was five years ago, and we're all still here. I'm not holding my breath.

Let me ask the question, since it's been a while since I brought it up: What's the move now with social media? Is Blue Sky any good? I could probably bum an invite from someone since lots of Twitter folks are giving them away, but I don't want to fool around with setting up a new thing and then never use it.

Same thing with Pillowfort. I was curious about it when it was announced, but I'm like the opposite of an early-adopter. I like to wait a while and see if things will stick. And there doesn't seem to be much news coming out of it. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.

I have no interest in the Facebook/Meta/Instagram mess. YouTube and Tik-tok are non-starters, since I'd have to waste a bunch of time producing videos. What else is there?

I have a discord, but I really need to sort out how I use it. A few years ago I had envisioned making a server and inviting people to join it, but I'm not sure I have the motivation for something like that anymore.

These days, I've got half a mind to just run a shitty personal website, like the one I had in 1996. Back then, you only had 10 megabytes of space to work with, and it would take all damn day to put a picture of the Emperor from Star Wars on it and get it to display correctly. But at least I knew it'd be there the next day. Wait, no I didn't.

Anyway, the internet's always been an ephemeral beast. I won't say it hasn't changed, but I can't claim it was better in the Olde Days either. I saw someone complain recently that all you can do with it now is watch videos and shop, and back in the 90's you couldn't really do either of those things easily, so you'd just read text pieces with funny pictures, and maybe download a .wav file of the Incredible Hulk theme song.

But I'm getting off track. I'm on twitter. And here, and that's about it. I'm open to suggestions.

[fatummortem]

Meet the Mun

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘɪᴄᴋ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴍᴜꜱᴇ(ꜱ) ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ?

Erm.. Let's see... Just skip to a muse lol.

Rosie, a friend suggested her some twenty years ago for this elite comic book RP guild. She's the only one I kept from that time. I never heard of her before that & when I read her I remember saying 'she's such an angsty little shit. I love her.'. Her background is like casebook 'what happens if you have a poor support system' in a way.

Ryouta (daken/fang canonly), well he's that guilty pleasure villain everyone enjoys reading about for me I suppose. In another way I get curious about nurture vs nature. Which is something intertwined with his chara i think. (it's a dark past) What inspired me to write him, well he had a slow progression away from his villainess nature you could say. And I am a sucker for growth. It was his appearance's in All New Wolverine that made me go 'oh i'm going to write him'.

Somnus somehow turns stabby villains into teddy bears and i thought it was hilarious.

Bobby, well I wanted a silly gay polyamorous muse & I had been itching to write him for awhile but at the same time wanted to write with a Bobby more so held off. Gave in about a year back i think?

Malicia, well she's pretty AU of one of my favourite comic charas growing up. And well I'm a tad nervous writing her main verse so I just did something with a twist for fun.

TJ I've written a few times over the years. Normally when a friend has me going 'Hell yeah!'. One time I believe a friend was making a Blink (the bestie). This time around I started talking to a few friends about her & then got to talking with Armin about her relationship with her dad. A similar thing happened with Billy. I ended up bringing him back after talking with a friend who writes his twin Tommy. As for originally, I sadly do not recall.

Cloud, well as I said i'm a sucker for growth & his story is full of it. I also enjoy picking apart ways people display or write PTSD & show how it can be displayed in society or be a danger creatively. I also have PTSD, which can range on my reactions to things depending on my environment. So in a way it's one of the ways I learn about myself. Though his mental state has more of a twist to it as he has the lifestream & Jenova influences. Which can come across as confusing as it can seem similar to different forms of DID.

I also have a disability involving memory and memory issues brought on from trauma. So it kinda pulled me in more, I normally don't write muses that are popular to write or I lose the want to write them quickly. Which is not the case with Cloud, he's my rule or norm breaker. (might be why I'm not writing Tifa or Zack tho I'll be honest)

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ?

Erm *nibbles pen* flat out don't like? Random bits of rage filling arguments. Thought that's mostly when Anons do it. Mainly for the fact it doesn't go anywhere. I prefer my angst long lasting & with the ability to have a back & forth.

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ?

There's a lot of things. Slow burns. Small bits of seriousness that leads to progression of a relationship (friendship or ship). Crack seriousness (threads where you have to squint to see the crack), Smut (picky with that), Angsty pain, healthy ships, snarky *jazz hands* ships, Silly friend/fam moments. etc...

ʜᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ?

^_^; So I have the habit, of writing detailed notes & accumulate data (websites, youtube videos, games/comics what have you). I normally write detailed dossiers but lately they turn into 10+ page essays so I've been slapping on wiki pages. Clouds is mostly how his mental state is, how it works & alters along with a lot of lore on locations and Materia to help myself & it's mostly jumbled quick notes with no flow. yeah i just went 'i'll put this over here for later'.

But I basically bury myself within a segment of lore to work it through my head a few times. Then I try to see if I can make it fit into how I feel I'd like to write the muse. Comics can be a bit tricky because there's no mainline writer or books get canceled, one writer makes what another put in place meaningless.

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ɪɴ ꜱɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴍᴜꜱɪᴄ?

Both! it really depends on my mood, if i'm into the music if my muse wants to jam so on so forth...

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴘʟɪᴇꜱ ᴏʀ ᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇᴍ?

Both! It depends. For close connections or like someone that might be someone mine knows I can ask peeps questions to get an idea of a same flow or idea going. Other times I'll wing it entirely while some i'll just give a brief info dump and ask if someone down for it. Then there's plotting while the thread is being written just to throw out ideas or okay things. There's also the excitement of eating popcorn just because I'm wondering if it'll turn tortuously cute or like a thriller in the next few goes depending on what's going on. xD

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘɪɴɢ?

I love ships ^_^ especially when ya talk hcs or just build upon things slowly. I have a weakness for slow burns ^_^;

ᴡʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀʟɪᴀꜱ/ɴᴀᴍᴇ?

I'm Glow, lovely to meetcha. ^_^

ᴀɢᴇ?

My siblings went to see ET in the movie theatre when I was born.

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ?

June 18th.

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ(ꜱ)?

The shade black, any shade of purple tho normally lavander, any shade of blue, a few shades of red.

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴏɴɢ(ꜱ)?

It actually alters over time so it's hard to tell. Currently have 'let it snow' stuck in my head if that counts.

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

Uh, went with a friend to see Elementals awhile back

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

Murder Drones or Hazbin Hotel? Kiddo is heavily into them right now & I try to get into her fandoms

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱᴏɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ?

the Alexa at work has the habit of throwing on death metal when I'm there so idek.

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜰᴏᴏᴅ?

Mmmmm, Gumbo but not that northern watered down gumbo the Cajun one where you wheeze and shove bread in your mouth after a few spoonful's. ohhhh homemade Cheesecake with pralines crushed into the bottom layer & drizzled over the top. Mongolian grill with crab & steam mixed heavily with veggies & my own sauce cocktail. Red beans & rice but not the cheap ass sausage, ya need the good stuff or it tastes wrong. Slow cooked in a way where the-- ya shouldn't ask a cook about food.

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ?

Rainy Summers

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴛᴜᴍʙʟʀ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ?

I doo~ Does it count if most of them aren't around anymore? I have a few here abouts too.

Tagged by: @lastflowerpetal

Tagging: I never know who's been tagged already, so if you wish to just tag me in it so I can take a gander. ^_^

[electricprincess96]

I can't be the only one who finds it so childish whenever I see someone post something like:

"Gross I just found out I was following a *insert shipper of ship this person doesn't like* I can't believe it their art/stories/meta etc. Was so good but they are now *insert some random bad thing like misogynist or pedophile or abuser even though 9 times out of 10 whatever they accuse them of does not apply to the ship in question at all* thus I have unfollowed them and everyone else should also unfollow them and block them and basically cut them off from their online community for the crime of *checks notes* liking a ship I don't like *and in most cases it's not even liking that ship its not liking the rival ship that the poster ships instead*.

Its childish. If I decide I don't like what someone I follow is posting I unfollow them and I don't bother to announce it to the world. I have NOTPs, I don't assume everyone who ships them are bad people and before anyone tries to pull up some shit I've said in the past I've been on this website since I was a teenager and I am now 26 years old you will not get a "haha gotcha" from dredging up some dumb shit I said when I was younger, people change and mature.

Like I don't particularly care for Claude x Hilda for example but I'm in a Discord Server where sometimes art of it gets posted. And I don't care. I don't like Leon x Ada in RE but again I just try to ignore it.

I really am not a fan of Kazuma x Ryuonosuke in TGAA because of various reasons but I acknowledge its fucking popular and its fans can have their fun so long as they leave me alone in my corner with Kazuma x Barok and Phoenix x Edgeworth.

I won't even bother the fans in the DMC fandom who ship Spardacest cause again so long as they are leaving me alone I won't judge them its fiction after all, not like they're actually away pulling a Jaime and Cersei in real life.

[musashi]

alcoholic dyke here and i think a lot of nuance has been lost in this conversation.

i've been here for all of it (i don't know if you have, OP, so forgive me if this sounds condescending at all) and i pretty much watched it happen and was annoyed and upset the whole time, 'cause you are fundamentally correct--being marginalized is a hell all its own, that is the root of why we have higher death and addiction and suicide and mental illness rates. i don't think anyone was ever insinuating otherwise, at least not anywhere i've seen it.

but from what i saw on this website & other online spaces vaguely adjacent, it went like this:

this post was made:

2. young queerfolk, alcoholics, disabled queers (with both physical & sensory sensitivities), and many other groups that fell in agreement with this for their own personal reasons added onto the sentiment. at the time (over a decade ago, give or take?) it was not the norm to have many other options besides 1. bar/nightclub or 2. GSA, if you were lucky enough to have one at your school/university.

3. of these groups that showed support for this sentiment were sex-repulsed asexual people who felt uncomfortable with the sexual nature & unspoken pressure to 'hook up' at gay bars & night clubs.

4. around 2014, exclusionists on this website decided that it was trendy to violently abuse asexuals & aromantics for clout. every single thing the aroace community did on tumblr was met with meangirl backlash at best and relentless vitriol at worst. this more or less destroyed the aroace community and it has still not recovered to this day.

5. one of the most potent forms of propaganda leveled at the ace community was malicious reframing of sex-repulsion as a concept. the sex-repulsed ace is, obviously, just minding their own business and living their truth--but exclusionists intentionally framed them as virulent, homophobic prudes who went around telling the ~real~ queers where they were and were not allowed to have their Gross Faggot Sex, etc etc.

6. one of the most effective ways they propagandized this was by out-of-context circulation of posts like the one i posted above.

(and, occasionally, actual psy-ops where users would pretend to be asexuals and intentionally post cringey, anti-sex, anti-kink, homophobic nonsense and of course the 'no internet skepticism skills' website believed it)

7. posts like this stopped being read in good faith. seeing a post like the above, tumblr users before the ace discourse instilled brainrot in half this website would see it and think "yeah! it would be awesome if we had more options." after the ace discourse, the reaction a lot of those same people would have would be more like "i cannot believe the cringey aces on this website are still acting like gay bars and night clubs are depraved sex dens full of rambunctious horny dykes. they don't even know how homophobic they are."

8. miraculously, eventually, the ace discourse freaks all either 1. moved onto bi/pan lesbians (and so far are doing a pretty shit job) or 2. were run off the site/out of communities because people unpacked shit and realized they were on the wrong side of things.

9. arguments in defense of the original point came back out of the woodwork. "now that the ace discourse has died down, can we please fucking get back to rallying for more queer spaces other than bars and clubs? the autistics, the mobility aid users, the children and teenagers, the sex-repulsed asexuals, and the alcoholics deserve options for community too."

10. presumably, these posts are circulating now, because they make good points.

i don't think any queer alcoholic is going to genuinely say that gay bars are the reason we have a higher alcoholism rate. we have that because society wants us dead and you have to find a way to survive knowing that. but 1. the alcohol companies know that and intentionally prey on us, see them setting up their rainbow floats at pride every year and 2. the lack of sober queer spaces makes it hard, often nigh impossible to stay clean and sober. it's hard enough to stay clean and sober as a cishet, alcoholics bleed friends like fucking crazy when we make the choice to stay sober or even just cut back. 12 step programs are largely bunk, but repeated studies have shown that the reason they work on accident is because they are a social space where addicts can find community without the pressure to use.

so if cishets struggle that hard, we struggle much harder. and, yes, the lack of sober queer spaces is a huge part of that. back in 2014, we addicts on tumblr were largely laughed out of every room we entered, every point of discourse we tried to spur on. i got a multitude of pretty violent threats on here back then for talking openly about intoxication culture and how addiction was a disability. and that was before the ace discourse ramped up.

so i think probably what's happening is queer addicts are finally feeling emboldened again to discuss this and perhaps some nuance is being lost in the many, MANY layers of telephone over the years. perhaps some of them are remembering the shitty discourse and how they were swept under the rug and persecuted as homophobes/apologists because they, for their own reasons, dared to share similar opinions with asexuals in 2014.

no, going to a gay bar doesn't turn queers into alkies, but it sure as shit is a lot easier to not die of alcohol poisoning at age 27 when you have the choice to walk into a social club or a cafe instead of a bar.

alcoholism is a problem in the lgbt community yes but there's something weird and mentally disconnecting about trying to say that's because there's too many gay nightclubs or whatever instead of the reality that being lgbt is just genuinely oppressive and will push people to maladaptive coping mechanisms. like did we forget that people become alcoholics for a multitude of more reasons than because they went to a club once

[shortstack-21]

Rant:

Working in a company as one of two marketing specialists for an entire international company with four divisions is so crazy sometimes. Plus the language barrier is very hard but I love my overseas coworkers. So,I handle two divisions and the other guy we will call Norman handles the other two.

And let me tell you something, Norman doesn't know shit. I've been trying to do a lot of things to get this company on the right track and one of them is addressing or SEO and lack of marketing tactics. Now, I'm not usually a competitive person but after two years of being bypassed or not seen as someone who STUDIED digital marketing but... I surpassed them in domain authority and lead generation! I got them to the point where we brought in MULTIPLE multi-million dollar leads from the website and gave them a platform to be proud of (I work in the med device industry)

My main division that I work on had a domain authority of 10 and within six months of hard work I got us to 45!

Now here's the main reason I'm going to not be humble or modist (that might be the better word here) and move on. The other division is sitting at a 25 and they have refused to let me assist when I brought it to their attention that there are things wrong with their website and I can help them because they don't really have the man power to do it.

I was dismissed and told that I was still new to the company even though I've been working for two years. In the same meeting he goes and says okay ladies you can go we have important materials to go through. I was dismissed like I was nothing. I am the marketing coordinator and these materials included my two divisions regarding trade shows and lead generation goals.

I, a disabled woman, fought hard for my position as a marketing coordinator and I got my division on top! It's a small thing and I know that but it took me fighting for over a year to get the tools to be able to get them where they need to be. It was rough and I wanted to quit every time I was asked why leads weren't coming in. When they asked that question I would have to remind them we weren't advertising or doing any type of marketing. I would give them a marketing plan and was told they weren't ready or belittled me because I didn't have enough experience.

I will still hear how Norman needs to give his opinion and be dropped off all important marketing decisions until it is brought to my desk with a lecture on why it's not finished yet. Meanwhile, Norman thinks colors and brand consistency doesn't matter and he refuses to work with me. He believes blogs will save us all (news flash it doesn't. It's only one SMALL part of digital marketing). Norman has been here for ten+ years and can't even define simple marketing terms and tells me "I don't know I just do what they tell me." Like this man can't even think for himself!

But for now I shall bathe in this victory that I a disabled woman who has only worked in this company for two years got my division to it's goal and blew the other division out of the water!

With the recent election I just hope my company sees me as a person who has worked her ass off to get them high quality digital leads. Still job searching and if I honestly didn't have an apartment or need health insurance I'd quit.

Okay my rant is over... ALL THE SEXIST AND ABLEIST MEN IN MY COMPANY CAN FUCKING SUCK IT!!!!

Okay now I'm done.

[powderblueblood]

What is your favorite thing you've ever written? Why is it your favorite? If you're down, share it with us! - 🖤

i spent my entire work day agonizing over this lmao because i honestly like to believe that whatever i'm writing at a given time is my favourite thing i've ever written (hyperfixation teas) THAT SAID i know you're sick of hearing me talk about HAI because it's the only thing i've written on this blog

so let me do you one worse

a fandomless story that started 10 years ago on this very website borne out of an rp group i used to run that was a blatant sons of anarchy rip off, such was the fashion at the time. tl;dr on this is it's about a cast of characters in a fictional town in the american west, the main players including the matriarch/acting old lady supreme of a motorcycle gang, a biker-turned-detective and a preacher moonlighting as a drug lord. the plot is involved and spans from the late 1980s to the 2000s and lives in my google docs. the thread that runs through it is enemies to lovers, classic me.

anyway, here's something from that that i do always go back to because i feel as if i know these characters like they live in my skin. it's my favourite because it's been with me longer than most things. 3.5k words of oc bullshit.

  Following his cameo appearance at her Christmas party, things were tentative between Rita Rader and Ezekiel Saylor. They acknowledged one another, but only if the ceremony actively called for it - and that wasn’t much. If anything, they were avoiding each other’s gaze. Rita still figured it was a case of shame on Ezekiel’s part, accepting help to steal out of Prosaic from the damned Diabla herself. She figured they would play out this ignorance for as long as Ezekiel could stand it - which, given he was a holy man, gave him a bandwidth of something like forty days and forty nights. She figured he’d only call on her if something from home came calling first.

   So you can imagine the depths her stomach dropped to when his name appeared on her caller ID one blistering Wednesday afternoon. She was working on stripping the wood of the white, brushing the detritus from her jeans as she stood up to take the call.  

   “I got a proposition,” he said, a volume booming in his voice that harkened back to his preachin’ days - he had her on loudspeaker, she could hear the rattling of his truck. “For you.”

   “Wanna start carpoolin’ to work?” Humor was usually a good way to throw him off.

   “How much you know about the Clover Hill crowd?”

   Rita set her lips into a line, set her paint scraper on the porch railing. “Not too much,” she told him, and that was the truth. The most she’d heard about Clover Hill was from Roscoe - it was the wealthier end of the town, which had a hard divide between significant riches and the poverty line. It was unproven but widely suspected that the residents of Clover Hill hadn’t come by their affluence by innocent means, but they were cunning as all get out about hiding it. And if Rita knew Ezekiel Saylor like she did, he was bringing them up because there was something worth knowing. Not that he’d ever tell her, of course.

   “Good,” he said. “Less you know the better - now, I’m not sayin’ this particular proposition doesn’t guarantee you a good time but a certain amount of ignorance, shall I say, will be bliss.” 

   “You gonna close in on the offer any time soon, Zeke?”

   On his end, Ezekiel barked a single chuckle and tightened his grip on the wheel. “Well, truth is, Rita… I’m in need of a date.”

   “A date. A date? You’re shittin’ me.” Rita’s eyes widened on her end - the pause for effect indicated he wasn’t kidding around, and he knew that she was a cat with a killer penchant for curiosity. 

   “See now, I got me a very exclusive invitation to a very exclusive party,” Ezekiel told her. “The kind only awarded to high ranking members of this here society we find ourselves part of - owing, I imagine, to my standing with the church.” 

   “And you’re askin’ me– why? Why not bring that sister of yours? Or how ‘bout that, uh, whatsername… your little church mouse secretary? Miss Barely 21?” 

   “Beecause, Rita, huh… the nature of this party is a little more adult. I ‘on’t think I’d very much want my own sister in tow.” 

   Alright, now she was really interested. “How adult we talkin’?” 

   “Keys in a bowl,” he spelled out for her.

   It was Rita’s turn to bark. “They invited a Bible banger to a swinger’s party?!” 

   “No leather jackets, that’s all I require. That, and your confidence.” 

   That was the real favor here. She knew she could go her whole life without knowing what went down at a Clover Hill swinger’s party, and Ezekiel knew she couldn’t resist the opportunity to find out.

   “Don’t tell me what to wear unless you’re buyin’.”

   “Duly noted.”

   “Oh,” Rita added, “and rent a car. You know I can’t be seen in your fuckin’ beat up truck if we’re gonna keep this on the DL.”

   “What, like I’m takin’ you to prom?” 

   The line clicked. 

   Rita’s growing bitterness for the Jericho Hallow PD needing Roscoe on so much overtime was tamed that night - thank God he was outta the house on business. She was at a loss the entire day as to what she’d do if Ezekiel Saylor came calling at eight while her man was still there. Didn’t even occur to them to make a plan for her to sneak out, something she was rightly very good at. That was likely down to Rita wanting to think about the implications of this as little as humanly possible. 

   This is bad, she thought, this is bad. But if this is a favor, then after that, we can call it square. No more doubletalk, no more danger. No more moving around in the dark.

   She buzzed with nerves and sank three bourbons before headlights flooded the darkened living room. But– hold up. 

   “Are you outta your fuckin’ mind?” she came hissing out onto the porch as Ezekiel eased his way out the rental car. “A Lincoln?” A lawman’s car. The same model as Roscoe’s car. 

   “Serious as the grave. See, I figured this would be beneficial just in case you are spotted - your alibi bein’ that you were out and about with your detective beau.” 

   “He’s workin’ a case, Zeke.”

   “Come on,” Ezekiel about rolled his eyes, “You’re tellin’ me he hasn’t taken a break from the line of duty to spend a stolen hour or two with his woman?” She had to hand it to him, he wasn’t wrong. “Don’t overthink it. We need to get ready.”

    He tossed a garment bag her way and headed into her house, uninvited, and she stalked her way up the stairs. 

   The dress Ezekiel had picked was black, shimmering, form-fitting to an almost tailored degree - not the kind of thing she would have expected from him. With her shoes on and hair unrolled, Rita looked like bonafide arm candy. She descended the stairs with a certain wariness, finding Ezekiel gazing up at her from the foot. “Alright. Well. It fits.” 

   “Ain’t you just the image of duplicity?” he breathed, smirking. 

   “Fuck you,” Rita sneered, “Let’s do this.”

   The car ride was silent save for Ezekiel briefing Rita on the Clover Hill lineup. This particular smattering of extra-marital enthusiasts was made up of the very people you’d least expect, and most expect - turns out the churchman himself got an invite by flirting with the right funeral parlor owner’s wife. Little did that poor woman know of the duplicity Ezekiel Saylor himself was capable of. 

   “So you show up to the swingers party for blackmail material. Exploit the so-called perversions of so-called upstanding people. Smart,” Rita assumed. 

   “Au contraire, Miss Rader. Folks’ sexual proclivities are their own concern,” said Ezekiel, “But–”

   “Ah, here it comes.”

   “--that don’t mean I can’t take advantage of the vulnerability readily displayed in their inner sanctum.”

   Always with an angle. Rita clicked her tongue. “And where do I come into this? Just a side piece, right?” 

   “Don’t underestimate yourself so, Rita!” Ezekiel slaps the steering wheel, pulling a bemused grin out of the side of Rita’s mouth. “You come from a place where you have to anticipate the violent emotional swings of violent men. You have a trained ear for hearing things far above your station. You have the confident demeanor of a well-weathered confessional. What I would like for you to do is to look, and to listen. Make ‘em comfortable around you, but not too comfortable, of course. Wouldn’t want to compromise your feminine integrity.” 

   “Little late for that now…” But she had to admit, hearing Zeke go on did have a certain effect. She knew what he was doing - making a concentrated effort to boost her ego. The thing was, he was right. And the thing was, it was working. “Sure. Whatever.” 

   “C’mon now, girl. Don’t pretend you ain’t a little excited.”

   He was alight that night. It was pretty amusing to watch. “I’ll never tell.” 

   “Now, just one more thing…” Finger held aloft, almost like Columbo. “In order to sell this, we gotta play the part. That includes… body language. I hope you won’t think anything and will in fact excuse a soft touch here and there. Just to, uh, sell us as a unit.”

   “Just don’t get fresh, preacher.”

   The dark heart of Clover Hill was your typical antebellum mansion, the grandiosity and the certain history of which put a sour taste in Rita’s mouth. Soon as they crossed the threshold, they were greeted by a booming voice. 

   “Fresh meat!” A dark, commanding figure that Rita recognized from somewhere stole up the remaining light of the room, coming toward them with his own long-in-the-tooth arm candy in tow. And in turn, Ezekiel placed his hand square on Rita’s lower back, as if to activate her. 

   “Ezekiel Saylor, I’m guessing. We haven’t had the pleasure… at least face to face.” 

   “Elmer Sloan. Why, you are everythin’ I hoped for and more,” Ezekiel said, voice humming like licked crystal. He looked like a dastardly wood sprite next to Elmer Sloan’s dark, hulking frame. 

   “If you come to flirt with me, you came to the right place.” Sloan’s eyes glided swiftly from Ezekiel to Rita. “Ma’am–”

   “Rita,” she purred, hand out, steel eyed. So this was the big boss. “And now I feel a little left out, ‘coz I ain’t had the pleasure at all.”

   “Why, Mr Sloan here is the sound overseer of all that passes through Jericho Hallow, Rita,” Ezekiel informed. 

   “And it took you this long to wheel the welcome wagon out?” Rita quipped, eyes mooning and never leaving Sloan’s. She could feel Zeke bristle a little, tap a finger on her back. 

   “Well, if I’d known a sweet thing like  you was ridin’ into town, I’da met you right at the county line.” Sloan shucked off his girl and offered his arm. There was suspicion there already, and Rita hooked her arm into his, playing the pantomime. “Check your jealousy at the door, Saylor. This is a house of sharin’ and carin’. You like moonshine, Rita?”

   “Love it.” She tossed a glance to Zeke, half wondering what kind of shittoss she was about to walk herself into. That she had let him walk her into. But he reassured her with a curt nod, and let them play on. 

   Cigars and moonshine. What a godawful combination. That was the plate du jour at a table surrounded by men, none of ‘em lookers. Two seats vacant - one for Sloan and one for Ezekiel, Rita assumed. Sloan settled, eyes lingering on her a minute as if offering her the chair. Then they snapped to Zeke. “Go on, son.” 

   Rita took her cue seamlessly, resting hands on Zeke’s shoulder and whispering just audibly enough, “I’m gonna go make myself familiar.”

   “How is it you know her?” Sloan asked. Rita greeted the segregated women at the bar, but kept in easy earshot. She knew fifty percent of them would be listening as well, the other fifty too concerned with not dancing with who brung them. 

   “Childhood friends, as it happens,” Ezekiel confirmed. One hell of a way to put it. 

   “How is it that a friendship manages to stand the test of time that way?” Sloan said, patronizing him in a way that was surely killing Ezekiel inside. 

   “Well, myself and Ms Rader have certainly had our differences… but our values have always aligned, though sometimes in parallel. We exalt loyalty above all else–”

   “Yeah yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. Too smart for the thugs y’all ran with,” Sloan cut him off, and Rita, from her eavesdropping perch, smirked into her Old Fashioned. Zeke hated to be interrupted.

   “What brings y’all to Jericho?” She could feel Sloan’s eyes boring into the back of her. Chills raced across the skin exposed in the low back of her dress. 

   “A fresh start. We wanted out of the west…”

   She was real good at talking pretty to these southern belles, and real good at passing the time while doing it. Truth of it was she was just doing her best Pearla Kelly impression - a Diablo old lady and her good friend out of Santa Cruz. All was going like gangbusters, ‘til a shadow cast over them and the ladies scattered. 

   “Rita Rader,” he hummed. 

   Rita placed her glass on the bar and angled herself toward him. “Elmer Sloan.”

   “I knew I recognized that name.” If he says that her reputation precedes her… A cold sweat threatened to gather. “Prosaic, right? You used to run with them… biker types.”

   “Used to being the operative, yeah.”

   “Hard life to get out of. Almost impossible, really.”

   “Thank god for little havens like this, then.”

   “Listen, girl,” Elmer Sloan growled, “I don’t appreciate outsiders comin’ into my holler and not wipin’ their boots on the way in, you catch my drift. Your man over there wants a piece of the pie.” 

   “Little forward,” Rita had to agree, “he oughta know you don’t put out on a first date.”

   “Good read. You’re used to dealin’ with men like me.” 

   “I’m a peace broker,” Rita said, eyes dropping a touch. 

   “You’re a glorified brothel madam,” Elmer levelled. A gaze like his bored right through her skull, right into her soul, right into her truth. “Or were. But that don’t mean you don’t got acumen of a variety.” 

   She resisted the temptation to take offense, though a less wise version of her might have. “What’s he after?”

   “Heroin.” Elmer laid it plain. “He wants in on heroin.”

   Rita’s eyes widened against her will. “Here I thought we were still in the flirting stages.” 

   A grin split Sloan’s terror-inducing expression in two. “He ain’t got the grace of communication you do, it looks like. 

   “No, he–” here’s something she never saw coming, “he’s brilliant. But Ezekiel is not accustomed to bending to anyone’s will. He’s a– he’s a doer, he’s not a charmer.”

   “See now, that’s where I say you come in. You’ve been in this racket before.” 

   Rita shook her head with a firmness. “Not directly, Elmer.” 

   “No, but close enough. I know what goes on. Shit, I probably know more about you than you’d care to guess,” Sloan produced a jar out of seemingly thin air with one hand, tossed the orange peel left over in Rita’s glass out with the other. “I know that despite your lawman boyfriend, you ain’t never turned stoolie, despite it all. And lucky for you, that puts me under the impression I can trust you.”

   A heat of panic chases across her chest. A flash of anger angled toward Zeke. Favor her ass. “No, I–” 

   “Came here under the guise of a bauble? Fuck off. You know what you’re here for. And if you don’t, he do.” Elmer pours her a curt serving of moonshine. Price of entry. “Fact is, I’m only gonna work with Ezekiel Saylor is if you’re part of the package.” He pushed the glass toward her with solid intention. “I want your connections.”

   “I was a biker’s old lady, I–” 

   “Don’t bullshit me,” he lowers his town again, not a growl this time but something closer to gravel. “I knew Bruno Mercer. And I know you kept some dirty shit quiet on his behalf. I know you know where things came from, where they went, and who to hit if they went missing. You know that list of names better than your choir boy over there knows the Lord’s Prayer.” 

   Rita glanced over Sloan’s shoulder – Zeke knocking elbows with the dumber faction of the Clover Hillians, teeth glimmering in a shark smile. Assured of his elevated intelligence, with no idea what was unfolding between her and the kingpin of the county. 

   “I want immunity.” She said it plain, and knocked back the liquid fire of her shot of moonshine. “You say you know what happened, then you know what kinda fire could be comin’ for me. I want protection for me and mine. You know how far I can spread this product for you? You know what territories my proxy can secure for you? You know that I know the names you need to secure your take of the kingdom? What I want in return is loyalty.” 

  “Exalted above all else,” Elmer smiled. “You keep me spread… I’ll keep you safe.”

  “And don’t use my name.” He quirked an eyebrow, but Rita was serious as the grave. “Don’t ever use my name. I’ll give you a fool proof link for every channel I can think of, but it can’t come from Rita Rader. Ever. First promise you make to me– tonight’s the last night you ever mention my name.” 

   He locked eyes with her, dark and serious, before the other party goers with Ezekiel included, started to swarm. “On my dearly departed Rosaline, I swear.” 

   “Elly, Elly, Elly, quit hoggin’ all the fresh chow!” One of the rowdier characters chuckled, slaps on the back aplenty - but no one touched Sloan. Rita could see that Zeke was a little more buzzed than she was, easing his arm around her waist real slow. She almost shoved him off, but they were playing the part. Rita turned her eyes on him. “Folks, I’m sure you’d hate to stop basking in that famous Saylor glow, but could I steal him away for a second?” 

  Humoured groans abounded, but Elmer gave a silent okay. His turf, after all. Rita led Ezekiel away, that initial panic fizzling out into adrenaline now that she had gained at least the illusion of security. And then as soon as they were in a dark enough corner, she started on him. 

  “You wanna know what he told me, Zeke?” 

  Misplaced confidence was bubbling out of him, the shine having buffed off his edge toward her. “Lemme guess, he tell you you was too fine a woman to be showing up someplace like this with somebody like me?”

   “Heroin, Zeke. He told me you want heroin.” Rita watched his face harden and could have slapped the shit out of him right then, right there. “Don’t you think you shoulda let me know just a little about the proposal before you walked me into this fuckin’ snake pit?” 

   “I–” Ezekiel swallowed whatever fight he was about to put up. At least he could call when he was in the wrong. “I was trying to keep your role in this as clean as possible, Rita. I swear. I didn’t mean for you to get cornered like that.” 

   She rolled that around on her tongue a second. How naive he was, given everything. 

   “He doesn’t trust you,” she told him. 

   “What?”

   “He doesn’t trust you. He knows,” Rita let out a shaky exhale, “about Prosaic. He knows about the bridges you burned, and the meth operation that went bust. How in the name of that good God you pray to do you think he’s gonna let you run heroin?”

   Ezekiel shook his head. “I got my methods–”

   “Fuck you,” Rita spat. “You got one method. And that’s me.” 

   “Woman, what the hell are you talkin’ about?” 

   Her voice dropped from a whisper to a hiss. “Saylor, is your head so far up your own ass you haven’t thought about the fact that I have far more connections than you do? Sloan tar could be runnin’ from here to the silver beaches with all who I know and you know that.”

   He knew that because that was the very reason he was hellbent on destroying the Lone Diablos in the first place. 

   “So what does this mean?” He was mad. The kind of mad she could see thrumming under his skin. 

   “He wants me to run point with you.” 

   Zeke’s eyes flashed at her. Alarm - that too many names might spoil the pot. “And if you say no?”

   “Then Elmer Sloan will make my fresh start in Jericho Hallow very messy and very painful,” Rita sighed, a laugh bubbling out at just how fucked up this had so quickly become. “And you’ll be blackballed.” 

   Ezekiel’s knuckles rapped against the dark wooden wall Rita stood at. He was conflicted. “And what’s stopping you from using them prized connections to throw us all into the hellfire, huh? What’s stoppin’ you from goin’ to the law?”

   “You trust me, Ezekiel.” She watched a couple of gawkers out the corner of her eye and remembered they had to sell this. “Why else would you have brung me here?” 

   Ezekiel, lost in his knot, barely noticed when Rita leaned in. Until she caught his eye, mere inches from his face. His jaw softened, and the smell of myrrh and moonshine and cigar smoke tingled at her nose. To any outsider, this would have looked mighty intimate. “What you just dragged me into, you’re gonna pay for it. Heavy.” 

   She watched as his eyes became heavy lidded, as irises traced the expanse of her face through his dark lashes. This was a banner night for men examining her on a non-sexual level. “The image of duplicity,” he whispered, and she could feel the heat of his breath on her face. “Fresh start indeed.”

Fuck you, Rita cursed him again, silent this time. For effect, for a push, she stroked her fingers along Ezekiel’s neck. Could have sworn that she felt his pulse quicken under her touch. “You best get me home before the lawman comes lookin’.”

[forgotten-daydreamer]

i was going to comment on one of your recent fics (which i kinda liked) until i saw the abrasive author's note berating people for bookmarking without commenting. you don't know why people bookmark things - for many people, it's equivalent to a recs list. just like fic readers aren't entitled to receive fics, fic authors aren't entitled to receive feedback. i'm saying this as both a fic writer and a reader (both long-term, so i have plenty of experience dealing with a lack of feedback). there are many many reasons why readers choose to leave comments (or not), and as a writer you'll be much more content if you can make peace with the fact that there's very little you can do to change that, and instead encourage the commenters that you do get. it sucks, but it is what it is. desperate and abusive author's notes, however, do turn people off. ps: i asked if you read others' fics because i find it hard to believe that you yourself leave a comment on every single fic you read and fanart you reblog. i'd be happy to be proven wrong, but my point still stands - i understand the desire for more comments, but you're going about it the wrong way.

I love when people completely miss the point <3

So, I'm not writing all of this again so go give it a read and come back later. I specified multiple times that ofc saving fics for later without commenting is fine (wouldn't make sense to comment before reading it). And yes, I do comment on every fic I read, multiple times too (I can't guarantee for fics I bookmarked ages ago, but I'm 99.9% sure I always left at least one comment). I don't do it with fanarts because I reblog them compulsively, what I do instead is leave anon messages in the artists' inbox. Although I also leave comments sometimes!

"Abusive" is a strong term, I'm just getting creative because you people are exhausting, as simple as that. As I said in the post I linked (again, read it, thanks) you're all so used to tiktok and such that you think it's okay if people who give you stuff you like for free never get to know your opinion. Wrong. We're humans. We deserve to know what you think. It's the bare minimum.

I'm tired of all that "OMG that fic broke me, I wish I had someome to talk about it with" because we authors are right fucking there.

We are entitled to receive feedback. I've been posting fics for nine fucking years - on an Italian website first, then on AO3 with a different acc that I then deleted, and then with my current one - and reading them for just as long. So excuse me for wanting feedback, excuse me for noticing how the readers' attitute towards giving feedback has shifted now that you're all on tiktok/insta 24/7 constantly bombarded with content that only takes you 10 secs to consume and makes you think "Yeah okay, I can't leave a comment on each and every thing I consume, it'd take longer to leave the comment than to consume the content." (and it's true, like, I know it is)

And trust me, this "if you read without bookmarking you're a jerk" thing is new, check my other fics (I posted over 100 works, but as you can see I only have 40-something now because I delete them compulsively, sorry, orphaning fics isn't for me) and even if you go check the oldest ones (I think the fist fics I posted with my current ao3 acc are from late 2019?) I never said anything. But I'm tired and annoyed. I talked to multiple people here who told me that they'd never thought about this thing until I (and others) shared our honest opinion on it, so, I guess you're kinds on your own in this holy crusade of yours against common decency. Feel free to never read my works again, I'll live.

And I'm not saying you're just finding excuses, but huh, I just checked and the first note regarding this issue is on day 5 (/10 I've written so far) and that one just says "be decent" before I escalated so huh. Yeah. Holy crusade against common decency.

Be fucking for real. Should I put a tw for strong language next time? Is "piece of caca" upsetting? "Meanie"? The only mean one is "cunt" actually. Like I'd be offended too. But the rest? Be for real.

FYI these are all the instances - I didn't add anything to the notes of the other works because I was running out of space. And again, sorry you totally missed the point. Sorry my notes shocked you to the point that you couldn't even comment :o

Peace.