#Either way I won't be as active. I need a break from Tumblr just to be with my family for the holidays. Especially for personal reasons

[piko-rose]

I'm going to be away from Tumblr until the New Years, or sometime in the end of December. I needed a break from Tumblr for a while now. I wanted to post a fic before that happens but I haven't really posted any fics since March because of two reasons: 1, Writer's block was hitting hard because of personal life reasons which I will not get into, and 2, no one really reblogs posts anymore and likes don't really do anything, so my stories remained lost forever...

I guess that's the real reason why I'm going to take a break lol

But still, I'll be back soon. I'll still be here posting something dumb every couple of days or weeks, but I'm still gonna be away.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, and please, stay safe out there once the new year arrives. It's gonna be scary for a while, but I want you to stay alive because you matter and you are loved. This world needs more beautiful people like you. <3

[rosazoldyckk]

𐬾𐬽Life with the Zoldyck family HC’s𐬾𐬽

Pairing: Yandere!Illumi X Kidnapped!Reader. Fandom: Hunter X Hunter. Genre: fluff?? Idk tbh. TW’s: mentioning of kidnapping, manipulation, violence and possessive nature. And Illumi.

Disclaimer: I posted this on my last tumblr account but it got deleted and I can’t get it back. So it will be posted here😅 this post got a lot of attention on my last account so if this post is recognised from anyone then I want to say this hasn’t been stolen and is my original work <3

684 words

Living with the Zoldyck family is scary..... and strange.

There was fear and the constant paranoia that you were going to die—either in the hands of Illumi himself or a member of his family, you didn't know which.

However, you have nothing to fear, Illumi, in his weird and creepy way, always finds a way to reassure you that as long as you love him (and only him) you have nothing to worry about!

Of course, it takes sometime to get used to the sinister and grim place—along with the unerving, and dark, humor some of the family members have. *cough* Milluki *cough*

Illumi, as well as the rest of the Zoldyck family, are well prepared to deal with your timid and skittish personality. 

Anything assassin related is kept to a low (demanded by Illumi) and you won't be exposed to any Nen until he feels as though you won't faint at the sight.

Surprisly, Illumi isn't as mean or harsh to you...but don't let that fool you. He is, without a doubt, a manipulator. The dark male could go two ways on how he treats you as you adjust to your new life.

Be submissive and accepting your fate will earn you more freedom (ie allowing you to accompany him and his family to social gatherings and being shown to the public. Heck, you might even be allowed to come along and watch him do is job, fun right?).

 Be difficult and distant...he will have his fun breaking you. You will be chained to him (literally) with no free will whatsoever.

  If you need to pee, he has to permit it. Oh? You're hungry? That's too bad! He's stuffed from dinner (in which you had to watch). Exhausted, my dear? Maybe you shouldn't have been a brat and you could sleep.

It depends on how you take it, but, eventually, you will start to love the male and he will bask in it.

Silvia and Zeno absolutely adore you. Zeno finding your "love story" with Illumi to be romantic as their parents and Silvia being glad that his eldest son has found a 'submissive' keeper. (Not like Illumi will ever let you go)

Kikyo however is pretty hard to get along with but she'll never seem to understand that. If she considers you an outsider still, then she is very cold and standoffish.

She'll even go as far as to try to chase you away with physical and verbal attacks. (Until Silvia intervenes at least)

It will become worse if she decides to treat you like family, she is very possessive of her children. So once she considers you good luck, contrats you have one protective and doting fan.

She will be a bit borderline creepy but hey that just means she likes you

Other than that, You get along with almost everyone in the house

almost everyone.

Milluki has a problem with you. 

Whether it's because he doesn't find you worthy of the Zoldycks' name or because he can't stand how caring and soft looking you are.

Maybe, it's because he has his own crush on you? 

Or perhaps he's upset because he can't play with the new toy? Either way, he finds you a useless nuisance and will make things difficult for you to adjust.

Mulling over the idea of Milluki having a crush on you, I can see him being a bit of a voyeur.

 Watching you and Illumi when you both indulge in sexual activities and sneaking peeks at you as you bath or sleep. 

He's jealous of his older brother and will eventually challenge him to a fight over you (of course that only happens when he manages to get close to you, which once again will be impossible). 

(And lets be honest would he really win against Illumi? I doubt it. But I bet it would be funny to see him fight haha)

All in all, living with the Zoldyck family is without a doubt overbearing and scary. But, be a good girl/boy and play along with Illumi and all will go smoothly. You will gain the families upmost respect and be treated like a member, and Illumi will treat you with the highest respect.

But be difficult and refuse to comply will only lead you with heartache and misery. Illumi won't hesitate to stick a couple needles into your head until you behave.

[sharpth1ng]

Hiii Sharpie sharpy sharp knife guy, do you have. Any WRITING TIPS. ANY AT ALL./nf 🧍‍♂️

Trying to work on a fic it was going so well broski ! I lost all my writing knowledge overnight jelphelp help HELP 🙏

I mean it sounds like you're stuggling with writers block so I do have some specific suggestions.

Don't panic, you haven't lost your writing knowledge. Creation isn't a consistent, linear process and its normal to have it fluctuate. Usually when we feel like we've lost skill or have plateaued our brains are actually just processing and working through things we'll be able to use later. I promise the knowledge isn't gone and writers block won't last forever.

If you've been working on the same project this whole time and you're having trouble moving forward on it then try working on something else. When I get blocked working on my main fic I either jump ahead to work on a scene I had planned for later or I switch to work on a wip for a while. Doing this can give your brain a little break and allow you to passively process. There's actually a lot of research indicating that we a whole lot of processing when we aren't actively thinking about the thing we're trying to process. Also working on something else might help you see what you're working on from a different angle, which could help you overcome the block.

If you're struggling with figuring out a specific detail, conversation, or character reaction, it can help to spend a little time on background world building. This is why I have wardrobe moodboards, playlists, and a number of other pieces of characterization that may never be mentioned in the fic but that help me understand my characters and the world they inhabit. Not all details need to be explicit and present for the purpose of your story, but I think it does help to fill them out as much as possible for your own purposes. Another way to do this is to find some of those ask lists that float around tumblr and answer them as that character. Sometimes the character wont have an answer to a question, or they may think its stupid or flat out refuse to answer it, and that's an important piece of characterization as well. A character is as much defined by what they wont say as by what they will.

I think those are my best pieces of advice I can come up with rn! But just in case, here's another post I made with some writing advice in the past:

[ftmcutiepie]

Fakeboy Pride Month Challenge

Heyyy guys💕💕💕

It's been a while since I've actively posted on this blog instead of just reblogging, I was too busy with/stressed about IRL stuff to even do anything kinky, let alone post about it. BUT now I'm back AND my roommate will be out of the house for about a month, so what would be a better time to get back into this kink than now?🥰

💖 Rules 💖

Get back into edging. I have been way to stressed to edge the past few months and I've been cumming a lot. As it was kind of a break from kink I needed for my mental health, I won't "punish" myself by adding any more edges or even resetting the edge counter. The number of edges I have to complete is impossible as is, even if you don't factor in that I have a life outside of tumblr, but I'm too stubborn to give up the challenge as a whole, so I'm just gonna complete it on my own terms.

Edge to hypno files at least once a day.

Before leaving the house every day, I have to suck a dildo for at least 1 minute.

Wear panties as much as possible. Buy more if I don't have enough to wear every day.

When at home, always wear skirts either with a thong or no underwear, decided by a poll every day.

When at home, wear lipstick.

Fuck myself* looking at myself in a mirror minimum once a day repeating "I’m a good girl" the whole time until I edge. Inspired by this ask https://www.tumblr.com/ftmcutiepie/741240421769003008/new-rule-fuck-your-cunt-looking-at-yourself-in-a?source=share that I received in February and then I never got around to actually do it

Eat at least one meal a day naked on all fours out of a bowl on the floor.

💖 Mini Challenges 💖

Buy more girl clothes. Recommendations welcome!

Buy more sex toys. Recommendations welcome!

Piss myself in boxers.

Piss myself in panties.

Sleep with handcuffs on at least once.

Sleep on the floor at least once.

Several other challenges in my asks and DMs I'll reveal when I actually do them.

If you have ideas for more rules or mini challenges, feel free to send me an ask or comment them here! <3

My limits are scat, anything illegal, anything involving other people IRL and for this challenge specifically shaving.

[theshinazugawaslut]

i hope this isnt rude or anything but how come you get so much interaction? because compared to other blogs youre relatively small, not in a bad way just i dont think youre as popular as i wish you were. as someone who just started their account, your account grew so quickly... from what i can tell it feels like its because youre very welcoming but i wanna know your "recipe"

First of all, do not worry at all, this is not rude whatsoever!

Honestly, I'm very surprised that I became as popular as I did, and I'm genuinely so, so grateful. I don't have a 'recipe' per se but my Wattpad was nowhere near as successful as my ao3 and Tumblr! I'd say this is because of a multitude of reasons:

Like you said, I think you need to make your blog a nice place to be — I avoid hate, negative vibes, or just complaining overall since I believe it unintentionally puts an almost cynical, bleak cloud to be associated with you. I try my best to answer everyone's questions, write their requests though I do try to make sure it's clear that I won't tolerate disrespect to anyone on my blog. I also avoid drama since it irritates me and it feels immature.

Also, you need to be grateful for what you have, it'll help your mindset. A lot of people focus too much on 'reblogs, notes' which I do understand but I find that when you focus on it too much, there's actually a less likely chance of it meeting your high expectations which sets you up for sadness or disappointment. Though I do find that I personally get annoyed by blogs who constantly complain about low interaction but their blogs are either not the most inviting or they're getting so much interactions but still complain; I understand that it can be disheartening but it often makes the people who do interact upset as well.

This is the most important thing I will say: do it for fun. Don't, and I repeat, do not, pressure yourself to shovel out content and do not feel pressure. When I say I plan on writing everyone's requests, there is never any pressure on me since I don't let it, I take it in my own stride and do the best I can when I can. Don't burn yourself out. Take breaks. Reward yourself. Often, I've found that people immediately take pressure on themselves or make it a sin to take a break. For example, when I realised I needed to withdraw from writing for awhile to shift my focus and attentions elsewhere, I simply just did; I interacted as much as I could/wanted to but I never forced myself to sit down and just write when I'd rather do something else.

Now, for the actual content-aspect: keep it diverse! The things I write range from drabbles, one-shots, one-liners, long fics, multiple-chapter fics! If you have a wide array of things on your page, it keeps you active and it gains more followers! I'd also suggest making a masterlist/navigations page!

I hope this helps !!!

[its-actually-minicika]

I don't think there is any right way for me to put this. And I would like to apologize to everyone who will be disappointed by this message.

This last week has been incredibly hard for me. Starting with the weird wave of hate anons accusing me of being "cliquey" and not welcoming enough with small authors in the HotD community, to the issues I had with Sam (blackdreamspeaks here on Tumblr), to some heartbreaking news I just received today from people I considered my friends... I just can't do it anymore.

I am going on a small hiatus. I will post the next part of THW when I deem it ready, as well as the continuation for Dragon Sickness. After that, I might move most of my writings to Ao3 (@ItsActuallyMinicika).

I don't want to say anything for certain, as I am extremely hurt and confused, and I recognise I'm not in the right mindset to make any important calls right now.

I would like to thank everyone who supported me and still does so to this day, who believed in me and encouraged me to write my fics and say the truth, no matter how hard that may be ♡

I'm just not in the right headspace to stick around right now. I feel unwelcome in both my IRL circles and some smaller ones that I created on Tumblr. So I need to use this break to decide what's best for me.

Writing has always been my escape from real life. I'm a med student who functions on 3-5 hours of sleep a day, and I have manuscripts to learn and a bunch of manuals to master. In between all my tasks, I write and post here. But I don't feel seen or heard anymore, and going on an app that makes me feel sad would just be masochistic and not at all the correct moveset. It felt as though I was crying wolf when I spoke to people about my worries (but that isn't anyone's fault but my own - perhaps my expectations are too high, and I put too much pressure on always doing the right thing, no matter who gets to benefit from it), so I'll take some needed distance.

Either way, yep, hiatus.

This might take a day or two, or a full blown week etc. I'll still be working on the requests I got, and do my best to post them soon. I just won't be very active here.

If you read until here, you're awesome and I love you. See you guys really soon!

Mwah ♡

[compassionatereminders]

Vent, and quite a long one - feel free to delete or ignore especially as on anon but need to vent and just. Don't want to do so anywhere off anon and you said vent sent to you is okay?

Nothing gets me to do anything not aligned with Immediate In Front of Me or Inscrutable Whims of Brain. Seeing donation posts and subsequently ignoring them whilst working self up into guilt spiral till can't function for like an hour probably worst way to handle them short of like. Sending hate. Helps nobody and actively harms you. And yet. That's all I ever do. Every single time. I try to block them and cannot escape. I cannot blame people for being frustrated. I cannot blame people for thinking me a bad person for ignoring, I do not even wholly disagree. I have the resources to help, after all, the money and time, and yet...

I don't. I don't buy myself things without days of agonizing unless I can ride a spontaneous snap decision or also get some for a sibling. I don't help anyone unless it's both right in front of my face and incredibly easy and also I don't have to deal with it up close. I just get overwhelmed by Seeing Distress and shut down to avoid melting down and making it all about me.

But I want to make it all about me so bad but I can't but. I see people in distress and don't help and hate myself for it and know I will do the exact same thing next time, just maybe better at hiding it.

I've tried scheduling volunteer work, it fell through once and I never tried again.

I see donation posts bemoaning how people have stopped caring. Hating it, decrying how complicit we are. I am.

I agree.

It doesn't change my behavior in the slightest.

Nothing does. And I hate myself for it, until I can stick my head in the metaphorical sand and ignore everything until another crosses my dash.

I know I don't need to take on every problem in the world. But I won't even try to help with just one unless it directly impacts me AND a chance falls straight in my lap. And until I fix that, every call to action anywhere just makes me feel guilt.

I have material resources and loving support systems and I just won't extend help unless to those already close to me and even then it's a tossup if I just shut down entirely instead. And I don't even know why beyond presumably ADHD and autism having a hand in there somewhere.

I don't know. I know this isn't great but. I can't get myself to do otherwise. Maybe if I tried harder, came at it differently, just did it... I don't know.

I want to be better. I want to help. I don't do it. I never do.

Sorry for the rant. I just needed to get it off my chest somewhere, I'll be fine, no need to worry or anything, just already in a mood today.

If you are getting this torn up about tumblr activism, either filter your dash better or take a break from this app. You're not helping anyone by wallowing in guilt if it doesn't change anything about your actual behavior. This guilt is just hurting you, it's not actually improving anything. You don't explain WHY you can't or won't donate, so I can't get into that, but this isn't healthy regardless.

[bigcityroadie]

⠀⠀⠀☆ — Janie Jones ׅ⎖

⠀Word travels through roadie crews, Janie ends ⠀up hearing about this app, Tumblr. Seeing all ⠀the rockstars on it, he decides to give it a try.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ Don't like? Don't interact.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀... more info below

Before you follow / interact

I am new to rp on tumblr so please be patient with me while I figure everything out, but I am not new to rock star rp! I've written an array of rock stars on twitter that I plan to move here!

I prefer not to write with minors!! Just a personal comfort thing as I'm nineteen turning twenty soon! 16+ is okay just be warned! (If I accidentally follow you and you're 15 or below please block, asks are fine though!)

Nsfw and such is fine, I don't mind it! (Anything descriptive is for dms only! and please be respectful, I won't hesitate to block.)

My writing is usually literate, so changing layout forms is gonna be awkward for me, but I'm learning!

I also write the darker topics that come with rock stars and the 80s, which is another reason I don't write with most minors! If anything might be triggering, feel free to block!!

This is an original portrayal, and has nothing to do with nor any relations to Brent Muscat. It is simply an fc for an original character.

My asks are open so feel free to either interact ic or ask questions about me ooc! (Please label anything ooc if so that way I won't get confused. Just don't be creepy!!)

Single-ship seems to be the standard on tumblr, but I prefer multi-ship. If you don't like that it's fine just don't judge me about it. (A main ship will be reserved with proper chemistry.)

My activity may be on and off, so don't expect me to be active all of the time!

My private messages are open too, so if that's preferred we can write in there or just chat!

Ooc is labeled with // !!

I go by Swine, my pronouns are he/him. I'm available on discord for roleplay too! I don't automatically respond ic as it's my personal discord, so don't send ic starters and such.

Other blogs are @outofthecellar @whitesnakez & @breaking-thechains

Personal blog is @quiet-riot-breathless

⠀⠀⠀ Now onto Janie!

Set during the 80s, Janie works for any band around, and isn't set with any band specifically.

Janie first started working as a roadie at the age of 17, and has been doing it for several years now.

Known for being charming and pleasant company, he's gained a reputation amongst roadies!

A hard worker, Janie knows how to maintain most instruments, gear, and can even fix minor clothing mishaps.

Janie even knows how to play a bit of guitar too, but never fully pursued it.

Often mistaken for a woman, it's where the nickname Janie came from, which eventually stuck. His real name is Jacob.

In the rare moments Janie has downtime, he rides his skateboard or reads books.

Janie doesn't constantly dabble in drugs and alcohol, but he loves to go to parties when invited.

Unlabeled! Not really closeted or open about it either. What happens in the back of the bus, stays in the back of the bus!

Totally cool with affection. He doesn't really seek it out, but loves to give hugs or cuddles to whoever asks or needs it.

⠀⠀That's all for now folks!

[katyspersonal]

I really need a mental health break from social media, sorry.

I just can't recover from what happened this summer. Like.. sure, Percy-nal Offence finally slipping and sending their harassment mail off anon let me sigh with relief at last, but not only it was a bit too late to heal the damage from being stalked and harassed that much, but also it was soured by a person that backstabbed me and my friends earlier (I just call her A here) coming to me right after, to lie that she never doubted that anon was them (when she literally chose to throw me away all because she defended Percy and I blew up over it) and worse yet, victim blame me for being angry at her betrayal. Could not be happy that the truth finally came up when I had to hear "well yeah I threw you to the wolves but you are really mean still being salty about it :/". ...and, then, in August, someone else betrayed me, with empty promises. Yes, the guy that crawled to me begging to live together and claiming his life was nothing without me, but then changed his opinion 10 days later and ditched me like dead weight that "wasted his time", although I've been there for him through his worst and lowest and tolerated his BPD abuse, when his current friends that are oh so much better than me are only there for him when he is stable and happy.

Normally I am able to cope and distract myself and just.. bear with it. Like A is pretty much thriving and very active on Tumblr, so most of the time I have to see her somewhat and it is fine, but recently something seriously opened the wound again. And with the guy, TOO many things remind me of him, and yesterday something reminded me of his broken promise again and I just.. I just can't. I broke into a sobbing, helpless mess completely.

The problem is, my mom left in another town (really has to do some stuff there). For like, a week... I am feeling at my lowest, and for at least a week there won't be anyone to control me if I want to do something bad. I don't have any help right now. I have no more irl friends left since everyone left the city/country and the last one ditched me when she found a boyfriend. I can't seek a therapist in my sorry financial state, I can't count on my online friends since our timezones are very different and they're either too busy with work/school or have their own problems to deal with. Like... I am scared. I am very unstable and no one will help me for at least one week. The only choice I have left is to remove myself from everything that could remind me of either of those two people, or otherwise destabilize me.. And that means avoiding first of all, this fandom, especially on Tumblr, until mom is back or better yet, until I am stable again

Just, don't worry about me, okay? I've done urgent removal of myself from social media before, and it often helps to stabilize emotionally. It is just all a very, very bad timing, and I am constantly exposed to things that provoke bad memories and make me spiral, and there is no way to do anything but to let the time make me not care anymore. But I can't ALWAYS be strong and distracted with memes and fun things that make me happy. I've just cracked, but I can't afford trusting myself with social media at this time. I'll come back later, okay? Okay

[angelicsunsets]

•°~BTS roleplay search~°•

Hello there fellow roleplayers, I'm looking for someone I can share my writing with and pass time. I am 18+ so no minors please. I'm currently only interested in doing BTS based roleplays for now but may expand later. Here's what I'm looking for:

Style

Third person

A minimum of two paragraphs. Detailed paragraphs largely preferred, but not required. The length of my replies vary from a few paragraphs to novella but I tend to match my partner!

It's understandable when you are stuck and unable to write much of anything. That happens to me too. If needed, we can always discuss what can be said to move on or it can be skipped altogether :)

Quality over quantity—please have effort when writing.

NO doubles. My brain can't comprehend it and it's a little overwhelming 😭

Activity

I may give one or two replies or more per week (depending on my desire to write, it could be less or more.). I'm patient with replies and won't pressure you for one and I expect the same treatment. I may give a gentle nudge/check up if it's been some time without any response and you may do the same.

Please tell me if and when you are not able to respond, especially for a long period of time. If it's something unexpected, I won't be upset if I don't hear anything so don't worry lol. I will do the same. I struggle with mental health issues and may need to take a couple mental breaks.

I understand that you will not be able to be online 24/7 as I will not be able to either.

Ships

I'm not picky, I do them all. Although my fav are the more popular and common ones; taekook, jikook, yoonmin, vmin...yk.

I'm also willing to play any member. However, I have most experience playing as maknae line + Yoongi.

Only member x member.

Platform

Discord only as I like to keep all my rps in one place. Though rping here on Tumblr is an exception if you don't have discord.

Other

I don't have any triggers except for extremely detailed gore (that I know of) but please do tell me yours if you have any just so I could avoid it because I usually incorporate some dark/angsty topics into my roleplays :) however, if it's a heavy topic, I usually like to check in first to make sure I won't upset you on accident! If I do happen to say something, please do tell me and I'll immediately fix it.

I could honestly go with or without smut so either way works for me! The only thing I ask for smut if that there needs to be an actual plot that goes with it and isn't pure smut. Also..no bathroom kinks. That's just gross, sorry not sorry.

Click here to see my list of tropes I enjoy writing (or would like to try) if you'd like to check that out. Be prepared because it's quite long lol. However, I'm always down for anything!! (Hint: I'm a huge fan of a good mix of fluff and angst) I also have many plots in my drifts I'd like to use.

Dm me if you are interested and have a lovely day <3

P.s I don't mind ooc interaction as I'd love to make friends with my partners.

[salsakiyoomi]

Hiyo! congrats on the 1k followers!!

I'm usually a lurker and more active on twt but Ive been easing back into tumblr again to post fandom stuff, theres a niche corner on tumblr where I got comfy in and I happens to find/followed you there! I hope I'll be seeing ur posts around! I want to throw a hat in this event for fun! Thanks for the oppertunity!!

Fandom: Spiderverse/JJK Name: Gato ヾ(•ω•`) About myself: I'm a 5'2/ 160cm, Taurus/Capricorn rising, 24yo bi INTJ-T I'm 88% introverted and I work from home so I don't usually see the sun unless it breaks into my house. I love natural documentary videos and random analyzes videos on yt if they last more than 2 hours (play in bg while I'm working) My taste in music is whatever yt auto play next, I'll listen to J-Rock, Kpop, indie to folk but I will also work in complete silence for 8 hours straight if i forgot to put on anything. ( the grind dont stop )

I'm pretty easy going and I definitely know what I'm doing @ work, I love to show people the rope if needed. Anything kind of socialize outside my job, I'll run out of wits. I've never flirt my entire life and I won't start now ( I might be aroace but its debatable lol)

Ideal type: My type of guy and gal is definitely the no-nonsense one who tell me straight up what they want. I can't say I'll give them the same treatment tho I'm not always honest with myself :))) but I'm deeply devoted and I don't do anything half way.

It's very difficult for me not to challenge any kind of authority figure on sign, I'm allergic to condescending people. Still I find assertive people very……..hot!! (please pair me up with one, itll be so funny)

Season: whenever it rain! Summer, late autumn Favorite trope: Shared room! team up! Hurt/Comfort, maybe a truce? or 'we both stuck between a rock and each other and we might not get out alive'

HONEYMOON MATCHUP WITH : MIGUEL O'HARA

— honeymoon :

– miguel was an asshole, a certified one at that — your first day at hq wasn't very thrilling with him throwing you nasty looks left and right, the worst part is, he didn't actually say anything rude or mean to you, but he wasn't all that friendly either, so when you came up to him with a scowl on your face and demanding that he tells you why he keeps looking at you like you just spilled the milk over, he simply looked you up and down and said something along the lines of 'just get back to work' not really offering much context or explanation before leaving you to head back to his 'office' and from that day on, you were sworn enemies — you couldn't stand his authority figure persona and he couldn't stand your stubborn self because you never abided by his rules, so everyday was to you was a back and forth argument with him, and it didn't help that you'd get paired up with him for alot of missions — talk about bad luck.

– slowly but surely, the two of you eased up to eachother, yeah it took like nine months but it worked out — your arguments started to turn from actual heated conversations to more of a fun back and forth bickering — miguel would deny it any moment you or anyone would ask him about it, say something about how he thinks it's annoying but the small grin on his face when he talks to you doesn't go unnoticed, no matter how much he tries to hide it — yeah, he's a tough shell, closed off and repulsive but he isn't all that bad after all, at least that how you were starting to see him — like hey, he brought you empanadas from the cafeteria with him, he doesn't do that with anybody else.

– soon enough, it's been a year and a half since miguel has known you — you still don't really know him that much but you settled for a truce and you warmed up to eachother. the day came where your walls were broken down and the rain was pouring over your head, seemingly amplifying your bad mood because it felt like such a cliche for it to heavy pour on the day you felt at your worst — but you were soon shielded from the icy cold droplets when an umbrella came over your head, and surely enough it was miguel who was holding it, he threw you a glance, his face the usual blank expression he worse but his eyes were soft, he mumbled something about 'don't want you catching a cold, you have a mission tomorrow' and the rest of the walk to your place was in silence, not the heavy kind, miguel wasn't a talker after all, but you appreciated his presence — no matter how silent it was, it was still comforting.

what's on the radio : art deco, lana del rey

a/n : had to pair your up with miguel after you said you didn't like authority figures 😭 i like a good enemies to lovers — although it's more like office drama but whatever — THE NAME GATO IS SO CUTE I LOVE IT SHSJWJSK, and yes so true the grind don't stop 💪💪 must keep going no matter what's the circumstances are ✊✊ i love miguel sm too also look at the way he's lowkey pouting in the second pic he literally looks >:c ahhhwhee i wanna play with his cheeks 😭 tysm for the request gato, hope this did you justice i also really love your blog <33

[soleminisanction]

I still cant get over how mean spirited some people who ship t*mst*ph are about him dating bernard now and them off-screening their break up, when the way they got together in this continuity was off-screened as well and without any proper buildup at all to why they fell in love. it's just so exhausting to stumble onto someone proclaiming what a crime tim's relationship with bernard is and how they never should have broken up such an 'iconic' couple. and the comments like that are incessant and they are everywhere if you dare to venture out onto comic related sites or reddit. sorry for the rant, but I just feel so deflated and turned off from the fandom after seeing yet another case of this. there's like no safe place to be.

You're valid anon, but to be honest, I think you just need to change your perspective, curate your experience a little, maybe stick around Tumblr and stay away from Reddit, because the people who're being bitchy about it might be loud and obnoxious, but they're very much in the minority.

So seriously, just ignore and block them. And stay off of Twitter, it's actively detrimental to human life. Eventually, the homophobic assholes will either get over it or get out of the fandom, and either way we won't notice because we'll have blocked them ages ago.

I do have to laugh anytime someone tries to claim that anything involving Steph is "iconic" though because like -- one of the problems with her character is that she has nothing iconic about her. Nothing at all. She doesn't even have an icon, the one time she needed one in the comics it was literally a blank circle. The original Spoiler look had style, but ever since they stuck her in those stupid generic track suits she just has no personality, no history, no motivation, no anything.

She's a basic suburban white girl in a generic costume who clings to iconic legacies like Batgirl and Robin because without them, she's completely empty. It's kinda sad.

[platnumpaz]

#   𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒛        an   indie.   pri.   sel.   roleplay   blog   featuring:   an   extremely   headcanon   based        pacifica   elise   northwest     of   g.ravity   f.alls;   low   activity.   mutuals   only.   written   by   sean.   (   he/   him.   twenty-seven   )   READ   RULES   BEFORE   INTERACTING.  ( rules under cut )

| | | ☆ ₀₀₁ VERSES. (tba) ☆ ₀₀₂ PINTEREST. ☆ ₀₀₃ SPOTIFY. ☆

an exploration of ; rich girl problems , breaking the cycle , other things that i will put here later lol

follows   back   from   @piinetrees​, also at @shootiinstars && @siixers !!

✨ CREDITS : post divider saradika-graphics , icon border template by jessources , banner template by yellowhelper , && pinned banner template by OPPALUS

▍ ❝ 001. ACTIVITY.

This blog will be very sporadically active, taking long hiatuses without much or any warning. I'm sure everyone in the rpc can understand it when I say muse come and goes and it can't always be prevented or predicted! ▍ ❝ 002. REPLIES.

Replies can come kinda slow and usually get published on the weekends since I work full time. I format with small text and icons, though I am more than willing to accommodate if my partners need larger text. please, do not pester me for replies or messages on either discord or on Tumblr. If it becomes excessive, I will block. ▍ ❝ 003. FOLLOWING.

personals can follow just so long as you do not reblog headcanon posts/roleplay threads. I am willing to write with minors, however in no way will I write NSFW with minors. blood/gore/ injury nsfw is okay though! There is no special unfollow stipulation; you can unfollow/block me if you need, no need to tell me why. Just know that I will also follow this rule and might unfollow/block without warning. ▍ ❝ 004. TRIGGERS & NSFW.

This blog will feature many, many dark themes, as I will write and emphasize the horror of weirdmageddon, bill cipher, and pacifica's shitty parents, as well as other potentially triggering subjects including; anxiety, PTSD, depression, murder, suicide, etc. I tag my posts with // ( ie. blood // ), please let me know if I miss any! NSFW may be present on the blog, but nothing sexual for hopefully obvious reasons. FANDOMS I PREFER NOT TO RP WITH : rick and morty, harry potter, homestuck, && stranger things. OCs created for these fandom are negotiable. *if you run a multimuse with muses that come from any of these fandoms I may still follow! ▍ ❝ 005. SHIPPING.

I LIKE SHIPPING WITH CHEMISTRY, but force shipping will result in a block. obvious nastiness won't be tolerated, and there will be no nsfw even in pacifica's older verse. dipcifica is my favorite ship but i am open to mabcifica and anything with ocs just so long as there is chemistry! ▍ ❝ 006. ET CETERA.

✨ THIS BLOG WILL NOT BE SPOILER FREE. I will not be tagging spoilers for Gravity Falls or The Book of Bill, so if you do not want things to be spoiled, I suggest you finish the show/book before following! ✨ My portrayal of stanford is through the lens of my own experience with mental illness and trauma — so many might consider him very headcanon based instead of canon compliant. ✨ all graphics and psds are made by me unless otherwise stated! ✨ Just don’t be an asshole and we’ll get along great ! <3

[respectable-username]

🔐 Why You (Probably) Don't Need A VPN

A rant by a software engineer sick of VPN ads from her favourite YouTubers

TL;DR:

Here are some legitimate reasons the average internet user might want to use a VPN:

To connect to their company's internal network

To bypass the Great Firewall of China (or other types of website blocks at country or organisation level)

To watch Netflix etc as if you were in another country

Here are absolutely rubbish reasons to use a VPN:

Privacy

And today, I'll tell you why.

Hang on, won't a VPN stop hackers from stealing my passwords?

I mean, it does encrypt the web traffic coming from your device.

You know what else encrypts web traffic coming from your device? Your browser.

Yes, in the year 2021, pretty much all websites on the internet are accessed over HTTPS. The "S" stands for "secure", as in "your request will be securely encrypted". If your browser is using HTTPS, nobody can capture the data you're sending over the internet. More detail in the "I like too much detail" section at the bottom of this post.

It's very easy to check if you are using HTTPS by looking at your URL bar. In most browsers, it will have a lock on it if secure:

(From top left to bottom right: Chrome on iOS, Safari on iOS, Chrome on Windows, Edge on Windows, Firefox on Windows, and Safari on Mac. Screenshots reflect the UI at the time this post was written. Oh gosh this has taken over 4 hours to write.)

But isn't moar encryption better? What if somebody breaks HTTPS?

For starters, nobody's breaking your HTTPS, and there isn't any benefit from double encrypting. This is because of the maths behind encryption/decryption!

Encryption works kinda like a lock and key, except the lock is maths and the key is a special number only known to the person allowed to unlock the information.

The important thing is, without the key, all the locked data looks like complete and utter garbage. Completely unusable. Barely distinguishable from random noise. There's absolutely no way to tell what the original data was.

The other important thing is that the key is nearly unguessable. As in, with current technology, will generally take more than the lifetime of the universe to guess by chance. And when technology gets faster, we just make the numbers bigger again until they're once again secure.

For any major website you use, they will use a strong encryption algorithm (ie lock) with big numbers so your keys will be strong enough to withstand an attack. This means your data is safe as long as that lock icon is in your URL bar.

A VPN will not make the existing garble any more garbled. The extra $10/month or whatever you're paying for does not buy you any extra protection.

If you want to know more about how encryption and HTTPS in particular work, see the "I like too much detail" section at the end of this post.

Something something viruses

How's a VPN going to stop viruses? It controls the path your internet traffic takes, not the content that gets sent down that path. I guess it could block some known virus-giving hosts? But if it's known to the VPN provider, it's probably also known to the built-in antivirus on your computer who can block it for you.

(Oh yeah, 3rd party antivirus is another thing that's not worth paying for these days. Microsoft's built-in Windows Defender is as good as the third party options, and something something Macs don't get viruses easily because of how they're architected.)

Honestly though, keep your software up to date, don't click on anything suspicious, don't open files from sources you don't trust, and you'll be right most of the time.

And keep your software up to date. Then update your software. Hey, did I mention keeping your stuff updated? Update! Now! It only takes a few minutes. Please update to the latest version of your software I'm begging you. It's the number 1 way to protect yourself from viruses and other malware. Most major software attacks could have been prevented if people just updated their damn software!

But my ISP is spying on me!

Ok, it is true that there are TWO bits of data that HTTPS can't and won't hide. Those are:

The source of a request (your IP)

What website that request is going to (the website's IP)

These are the bits of information that routers use to know where to send your data, so of course they can't be hidden as the data is moving across the internet. And people can see that information very easily if they want to.

Note: this will show which website you're going to, but not which page you're looking at, and not the content of that page. So it will show that you were on Tumblr, but will not show anyone that you're still reading SuperWhoLock content in 2021.

It's this source/destination information that VPNs hide, which is why they can be used to bypass website blocks and region locks.

By using a VPN, those sniffing traffic on your side of the VPN will just show you connecting to the VPN, not the actual website you want. That means you can read AO3 at work/school without your boss/teachers knowing (unless they look over your shoulder of course).

As for those sniffing on the websites end, including the website itself, they will see the VPN as the source of the connection, not you. So if you're in the US and using a VPN node in the UK, Netflix will see you as being in the UK and show you their British library rather than the American one.

If this is what you're using a VPN for and you think the price is fair, then by all means keep doing it! This is 100% what VPNs are good for.

HOWEVER, and this is a big "however", if it's your ISP you're trying to hide your internet traffic from, then you will want to think twice before using a VPN.

Let me put it this way. Without a VPN, your ISP knows every website you connect to and when. With a VPN, do you know who has that exact same information? The VPN provider. Sure, many claim to not keep logs, but do you really trust the people asking for you to send them all your data for a fee to not just turn around and sell your data on for a profit, or worse?

In effect, you're trading one snooper for another. One snooper is heavily regulated, in many jurisdictions must obey net neutrality, and is already getting a big fee from you regardless of where you browse. The other isn't. Again, it's all a matter of who you trust more.

For me personally, I trust my ISP more than a random VPN provider, if for no other reason than my ISP is an old enough company with enough inertia and incompetence that I don't think they could organise to sell my data even if they wanted to. And with the amount of money I'm paying them per month, they've only got everything to lose if they broke consumer trust by on-selling that data. So yeah, I trust my ISP more with my privacy than the random VPN company.

But my VPN comes with a password manager!

Password managers are great. I 100% recommend you use a password manager. If there's one thing you could do right now to improve your security (other than updating your software, speaking of, have you updated yet?), it's getting and using a password manager.

Password managers also come for free.

I'm currently using LastPass free, but am planning to switch after they did a bad capitalism and only let their free accounts access either laptop or mobile but not both now. I personally am planning to move to Bitwarden on friends' recommendation since it's not only free but open source and available across devices. I also have friends who use passbolt and enjoy it, which is also free and open source, but it's also a bit DIY to set up. Great if you like tinkering though! And there are probably many other options out there if you do a bit of googling.

So, yeah, please use a password manager, but don't pay for it unless you actually have use for the extra features.

No I really need to hide my internet activity from everybody for reasons

In this case, you're probably looking for TOR. TOR is basically untraceable. It's also a terrible user experience for the most part because of this, so I'd only recommend it if you need it, such as if you're trying to escape the Great Firewall. But please don't use it for Bad Crimes. I am not to be held liable for any crime committed using information learned from this post.

Further reading viewing

If you want to know more about why you don't need a VPN, see Tom Scott's amazing video on the subject. It's honestly a great intro for beginners.

I like too much detail

Ahhh, so you're the type of person who doesn't get turned off by long explanations I see. Well, here's a little more info on the stuff I oversimplified in the main post about encryption. Uhh, words get bigger and more jargony in this section.

So first oversimplification: the assumption that all web traffic is either HTTP or HTTPS. This isn't exactly true. There are many other application layer internet standards out there, such as ssh, ftp, websockets, and all the proprietary standards certain companies use for stuff such as streaming and video conferencing. Some of these are secure, using TLS or some other security algorithm under the hood, and some of them aren't.

But most of the web requests you care about are HTTP/HTTPS calls. As for the rest, if they come from a company of a decent size that hasn't been hacked off the face of the planet already, they're probably also secure. In other words, you don't need to worry about it.

Next, we've already said that encryption works as a lock and a key, where the lock is a maths formula and the key is a number. But how do we get that key to lock and unlock the data?

Well, to answer that, we first need to talk about the two different types of encryption: symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption such as AES uses the same key to both encrypt and decrypt data, whereas asymmetric encryption such as RSA uses a different key to encode and decode.

For the sake of my writing, we're going to call the person encrypting Alice, the person decrypting Bob, and the eavesdropper trying to break our communications Eve from now on. These are standard names in crypto FYI. Also, crypto is short for cryptography not cryptocurrencies. Get your Bitcoin and Etherium outta here!

Sorry if things start getting incoherent. I'm tired. It's after 1am now.

So first, how do we get the key from symmetric crypto? This is probably the easier place to start. Well, you need a number, any number of sufficient size, that both Alice and Bob know. There are many ways you could share this number. They could decide it when they meet in person. They could send it to each other using carrier pigeons. Or they could radio it via morse code. But those aren't convenient, and somebody could intercept the number and use it to read all their messages.

So what we use instead is a super clever algorithm called Diffie-Hellman, which uses maths and, in particular, the fact it's really hard to factor large numbers (probably NP Hard to be specific, but there's no actual proof of that). The Wikipedia page for this is surprisingly easy to read, so I'll just direct you there to read all about it because I've been writing for too long. This algorithm allows Alice and Bob to agree on a secret number, despite Eve being able to read everything they send each other.

Now Alice and Bob have this secret number key, they can talk in private. Alice puts her message and the key into the encryption algorithm and out pops what looks like a load of garbage. She can then send this garbage to Bob without worrying about Eve being able to read it. Bob can then put the garbage and the key into the decryption algorithm to undo the scrambling and get the original message out telling him where the good donuts are. Voila, they're done!

But how does Alice know that she's sending her message to Bob and not Eve? Eve could pretend to be Bob so that Alice does the Diffie-Hellman dance with her instead and sends her the secret location of the good donuts instead.

This is where asymmetric crypto comes in! This is the one with private and public keys, and the one that uses prime numbers.

I'm not 100% across the maths on this one TBH, but it has something to do with group theory. Anyway, just like Diffie-Hellman, it relies on the fact that prime factorisation is hard, and so it does some magic with semi-primes, ie numbers with only 2 prime factors other than 1. Google it if you want to know more. I kinda zoned out of this bit in my security courses. Maths hard

But the effect of that maths is easier to explain: things that are encoded with one of the keys can only be decoded with the other key. This means that one of those keys can be well-known to the public and the other is known only to the person it belongs to.

If Alice wants to send a message to Bob and just Bob, no Eve allowed, she can first look up Bob's public key and encrypt a beginning message with that. Once Bob receives the message, he can decrypt it with his private key and read the contents. Eve can't read the contents though because, even though she has Bob's public key, she doesn't know his private key.

This public key information is what the lock in your browser is all about BTW. It's saying that the website is legit based on the public key they provide.

So why do we need symmetric crypto when we have asymmetric crypto? Seems a lot less hassle to exchange keys with asymmetric crypto.

Well, it's because asymmetric crypto is slooooow. So, in TLS, the security algorithm that puts the "S" in "HTTPS", asymmetric RSA is used to establish the initial connection and figure out what symmetric key to use, and then the rest of the session uses AES symmetric encryption using the agreed secret key.

And there you have it! Crypto in slightly-less-short-but-still-high-enough-level-that-I-hope-you-understand.

Just realised how long this section is. Well, I did call it "too much detail" for a reason.

Now, next question is what exactly is and isn't encrypted using HTTPS.

Well, as I said earlier, it's basically just the source IP:port and the destination IP:port. In fact, this information is actually communicated on the logical layer below the application layer HTTPS is on, known as the transport layer. Again, as I said before, you can't really encrypt this unless you don't want your data to reach the place you want at all.

Also, DNS is unencrypted. A DNS request is a request that turns a domain name, such as tumblr.com, into an IP address, by asking a special server called a Domain Name Server where to find the website you're looking for. A DNS request is made before an HTTP(S) request. Anyone who can read your internet traffic can therefore tell you wanted to go to Tumblr.

But importantly, this only shows the domain name, not the full URL. The rest of the URL, the part after the third slash (the first two slashes being part of http://), is stuff that's interpreted by the server itself and so isn't needed during transport. Therefore, it encrypted and completely unreadable, just like all the content on your page.

I was going to show a Wireshark scan of a web request using HTTP and HTTPS to show you the difference, but this has taken long enough to write as it is, so sorry!

I could probably write more, but it's 1:30am and I'm sleepy. I hope you found some of this interesting and think twice before purchasing a VPN subscription. Again, there are legit good uses for a VPN, but they're not the ones primarily being advertised in VPN ads. It's the fact that VPN ads rely so heavily on false advertising that really grinds my gears and made me want to do this rant. It's especially bad when it comes from somebody I'd think of as technologically competent (naming no names here, but if you've worked in tech and still promote VPNs as a way to keep data safe... no). Feel free to ask questions if you want and hopefully I'll get around to answering any that I feel I know enough to answer.

Nighty night Tumblr. Please update your software. And use a (free) password manager. And enable two factor authentication on all your accounts. But mostly just update your software.

[melodythebunny]

Time to ramble about your OCs. Any OCs you have, tell us about them? What's lore do you wish to tell of them? Funniest things about your OCs? What inspired your OCs?

I wanna ramble about my original work ocs... Bc its been a while since i talked/thought about them. Let alone drawn any of them.

So ill answer this with my original characters if that alright

👉👈

i have a bunch of ocs. Many are still in drafts cuz ive been busy with fan works. But i have two to 3 series one i am trying to turn into an animation series (@the-mis-adventurers ) and another that is gonna be a collab comic series with @strawberry-mangoprincess (she's more active one her Insta compared to me lol) one is just merely a fun concept i think about every now and then.

Overall my ocs are inspired by other fictional characters. mainly from whatever media i consume and enjoy.

Starting with the concept one.

I only have two ocs made for it so far. Ember and Crystal. They are sisters with fire and ice elemental powers hence their names. Ember like fire embers and crystal like ice Crystals. Orphans dunno who there parents were. Not clear if their powers ran in the family/curse/etc.

Ember always had trouble controlling her powers especially with having a fiery temper. She's the more friendlier sibling however. Crystal despises her ice powers. She has an easier time hiding them so she can blend in with normal people. (I gotta draw them again sometime)

Crystal doesnt hate her sister but isn't close to her either. Feeling the need to take care of her since she's the last of kin.

And now for my (slightly) more thought out ocs from my wip series, the misadventurers

In a nutshell i want this series to be about the power of friendship (i blame my mlp phase for this-)

There's four main characters. All girls bc why not?

Their names are mink, jing, Raine and jennifer.

Mink is the more calm and responsible one out of her friends. Mom friend type. Her hair was actually blonde but turned pink to unknown reasons. (I took inspiration from lofi music when creating her) She proudly owns a pet turtle named fern. Will kick butt if her friends are hurt.

Jing is a goth who enjoys making music. she plans on startd her own band someday. (Eventually she does with her friends. Its called rock n pop. Pending title for now) has a rivalry with another oc of mines, Lillian. Loves to scare the others with pranks and horror movies.

Raine is the artist of the group. She tends to break the fourth wall whenever she wants. Also whatever she draws with her paint brush becomes real. her name is also a pun. Raine strom. (You can see her on my tumblr header harassing my old sona) Very zany in a good way. Has a crush on a dense boi*

Jennifer is a social butterfly. Heart's too big for her sleeve. Pacifist. Tends to let wild animals in the house. And thats how she got a pet goat who may or may not actually be one. Her mother wishes she'd be more responsible.

Now for some reccuring characters-

Lillian - famous star, used to be childhood friends with jing. And now they hate eachothers guts. Primadonna gurrrrllll. All she ever wanted was the worrrrldddd(Took alot of inspiration from the song for her) is an attention hog and will do anything to be popular.

*Milo - Also known as peppermint boi/j. But seriously look at his color pallet-. He does enjoy mints and always passing one out to people. Very dense and doesn't get when he is getting on someone nerves. Just as zany as raine. Uber positive. Don't let him get too excited tho. Cuz he'll LITERALLY explode.

Cole - college drop out. Wonders why the haystack milo and raine won't leave him be. Also tends to be their third wheel on their 'not' dates. He hates it. Very moody. Legend has it he's never laughed or smiled before.

Derek - just some rich dude. Comes up with so many back stories like Horst from ratatouille so its hard to tell which is fake and what is real. Tries really hard for Jennifer to fall for him but doesn't work out.

I already rambled to you about max and min. Buttt I can tell you a it more about them at least about their absent/missing parents

Thymes (pronounced Times) and Divid are the twins and Equan’s Parents.

They are both scientists who worked for [REDACTED]. Thymes and Divid were both pretty much crazy but in a ‘not so dangerous’ type of way.  always ready to invent stuff even if it held no actual purpose.

It did concern them greatly when Equan started going through a Frankenstein phase. At least they assumed it was. Probably didn’t help much they were pretty much working even at home leaving their kids pretty much unattended(And boy oh boy did they learn…)

And sadly disappeared due to unknown circumstances.

[spacetwinks]

It's good to see you on here! I've always wanted to ask you as a long-time follower, first-time caller just how you deal with Twitter and all the dumb bullshit that goes with it? Specifically not caring about what people say about you, follower count, amount of positive reactions to your posts, etc.

It feels like Twitter has legitimately affected my mental health because all I ever get exposed to on there is CONSTANT negativity. Even from folks I generally tolerate. I would love to just stop using it, but everytime I try it feels like I'm missing out on a lot. Plus it's where most of my friends are.

How do you shut out the voices in your head that make that website a goddamn nightmare?

part of it is just curation of who you're following, actively muting certain terms and phrases that might make things bad for you in your head, having a locked account for venting shit (this is one i think is crucial because sometimes you still want to post just to get bad energy out of you but you need a space where it won't be seen by EVERYBODY - maybe just a few people, or maybe even just yourself, tho in the latter i'd recommend getting a regular ass journal for that purpose), all that sort of regular social media stuff but part of it is for me, personally... i just had a break a long time ago with wanting to be The Funny Guy.

because i’m me, this is gonna get long. bear with me.

it's something i actually brought up forever ago on tumblr itself, and how i approached this platform in contrast to my existence in other online spaces before it, my approach would be I Just Post. from serious shit to funny shit to dumb shit, i just let it out of my head, emptying it out. in times WAY long ago in my personal life i would want to be The Funny Guy because that was how i saw myself as having value, which pushed me into unhealthy patterns, needing to 'perform', needing to be 'on', and losing my own sense of value if i wasn't making people laugh, wondering if i'd be pushed out of friendships or social spaces if i let my true self out. i'd keep all sorts of my real feelings inside of me and just simmer with awful thoughts because i had to be The Funny Person, at least that's how i thought of it at the time.

so i fucking ditched it. it wasn't healthy for anybody, not for me, not for the people who came to see me as The Funny Guy either and what preconceptions they might have of me because of it. this also lead to giving less and less of a shit about having high follower counts or whatever. people get it really twisted 1. what a high follower count *actually* is and 2. what it means, materially, for the person who has it. i got 27k on twitter and to someone who doesn't have 1k followers on twitter, yeah, that'll seem like a lot, but here's the thing:

follower counts don't pay bills. follower counts don't help you eat. the only time these numbers are materially useful to me in any way is when i have something new to sell, a twine, a pack of photos, or whatever. and even then, i still have to regularly advertise that stuff, because this relative high follower count doesn't automatically translate to success, to money, whatever. a lot of the people following me are a lot like me: they do not have a lot of money to pass around. this isn't the pre-'08 crash era where we're all tossing 5 bucks at some webcomic's paypal donation bar to get some 800x600 computer wallpapers, everything costs more and everybody has less disposable income. people with a lower amount of followers have, i think, an understandable assumption that high follower count = something materially beneficial, but... no, not really. if we all had more disposable income again, maybe.

but we don’t.

and i'd be fucking miserable if i approached my online presence that way too. just trying to get more followers, focusing solely on that above all else, to get bigger to achieve - what? i get a couple more freelance writing job offers that pay 50 bucks to, at most, 300 dollars? fucking god awful, man. that's not a life i wanna live.

also, seriously, digging in more into how 'high follower counts' are relative: it's not just that my numbers are nothing compared to actual literal celebs, but they're also frequently nothing compared to, say, some random fursuiters i might've never seen before, who are, again, themselves nothing in follower count compared to actual celebs. i think sometimes fixate on a random person who SEEMS popular and get lost in how that 'popularity' can be extremely relative. it's good to step outside of it and see where other people are much, much more popular, and then also to check if THAT greater popularity actually translates into something material for the person with it. it's less common than people tend to assume!

same goes for the ‘not caring what people say about me’. it’s not a ‘haters gonna hate’ deal, it’s ‘sometimes people just won’t like you’. some people just won’t like me. that’s fine! maybe it’s because they think my jokes suck, or i post too much/am too longwinded (these are incredibly justified reasons to dislike me in particular, i do post too much and am too long winded), or for whatever reasons. so long as someone isn’t like trying to start shit with me over it, it’s... whatever, y’know? there’s people i just don’t like too. trying to make it so Everyone Likes Each Other or Trying To Make Everyone Like you is disastrous for everyone’s mental health, especially one’s own. i’d very much rather not end up like fucking amanda palmer obsessing over some Guardian reviewer who didn’t like her work, or a YA author finding some student from several years ago mildly dunking on their books in the article of a small town college newspaper and blowing their top over it. and some of those fuckers - like amanda palmer there - actually make a SHITLOAD of money. they could be jet skiing all the time on a private island, but instead they just fuck themselves up over the fact that some random critic didn’t like their music. not healthy for amanda palmer - or for the critic!

other thing about twitter: it’s the fucking Id of social media platforms. no other site is more ‘everyone is just dumping out what they’re feeling with zero thought for curation’ than twitter. it’s just not designed with curation in mind! i’ll post about whatever the fuck comes to mind, because it all gets into the ‘waterfall’ of people’s feed, people EXPECT things to be all over the place on twitter, ESPECIALLY if they follow a lot of people. someone following 2000, 3000 people, and i’m one among them? my thoughts are just one of many, bursting forth and then disappearing into the flooded ether among the rest! i don’t worry about being ‘consistent’ or having a ‘presence’ because twitter isn’t built for it nearly as well as anything else. i talk about depression, beat ‘em up video games, communism, and which version of master splinter i think is the hottest, maybe all of them in the same day, and it’s just fuckin’ whatever. i find it personally so much preferable than trying to ‘be’ some particular performance, like being ‘the funny guy’ how i used to.

also: right now? twitter is gonna be a lotta negativity in particular! the world is in all sorts of fucked up flux emergency states right now and worse yet for many of us there’s no structure in our lives that actually values and gives time for us to pour out our grief and worry and fear in a healthy way and with the dedicated time necessary to do so. it’s all just sorta scrunched into one fucking cube. some people will handle it okay-ish, for various reasons. i think i do okay-ish, largely because i’ve just been extremely online since i was a kid and i’ve absorbed so much poison that i’ve immunized against a lot of it and process it different. other people won’t handle it as okay-ish, and there’s... nothing wrong with that! not the fault with them for not being able to handle it, but the fault of our societal structures that they don’t give us any real means to handle it but just ‘rugged individualism’ bullshit.

if going cold turkey sounds too much for you right now, i’d say instead just take large steps back from it instead of throwing it out completely, cut down your numbers of who you’re following and/or temporarily deploy more tactical mutes, make a locked account for brain venting purposes, and put more time and mental energy into fulfilling hobbies elsewhere during times you’d spend more on twitter.

you can’t eat twitter clout, you can’t pay bills with it, caring about ‘getting big’ on twitter or w/e is bad for the self and for others. dramatically reassess and change how you interact with that website, find ways to do so that are better for yourself, build other means of communities with your existing friends (and making new ones), do what’s right for you. take care, anon.