#I can only include so many links and pictures in a single post

[the-feminist-philosopher]

Debunking the Trans-Exclusionary's Pseudoscience: a thread

Yes, all embryos start with the same template. No, this template is not "female." Ovary and testis development require complex genetic regulation. Neither can really be said to occur by "default."

"We have just begun to glimpse into the mechanisms underlying ovarian development. Convincing evidence challenges us to reconsider the existing paradigm that describes ovarian development as a default system. The default concept was first proposed in the early 1950s when Jost performed the groundbreaking experiments to demonstrate mechanisms of sex differentiation of reproductive tracts (Jost, 1947, 1953, 1970). The term “default” was not originally intended to describe the developmental status of the ovary. Instead, it is referred to the female reproductive tract or the Mullerian duct based on the fact that the female reproductive tract forms in both XX and XY individuals in the absence of gonads. Indeed, now it has become evident that early ovarian development is an active process involving intrinsic cell fate decisions and complex crosstalks between germ cells and somatic cells. Most intriguingly, the appearance of testicular structures in XX individuals where Sry and its downstream components are absent..." -Yao 2005

Sex determination in mammals involves the development of a bipotential gonad into either a testis or ovary. Studies have suggested that at the start of mammalian reproductive development, both male, sperm-carrying reproductive tracts and female, egg-delivering reproductive tracts are present. Depending on the sex of the embryo, one set of tracts usually disintegrates as development proceeds.

Ovarian development is centered on beta-catenin protein stabilization by WNT4 secretion, and this is believed to inhibit the expression of SOX9 (which is pivotal in male sexual development).

Do not let them fool you. Ovarian development is a very active process. Nothing can be said to happen by "default."

Continuing to spread this narrative actually contributes to spreading the patriarchal idea of "male" as inherently active and "female" as inherently passive.

Sex differentiation is a feature of the patriarchy that posits that “men are men” and “women are women” and the two ought be and fundamentally are separate from each other. It is responsible for the social prescription that each group must stay within certain bounds of public and private life as well as certain bounds of behavior and certain bounds of presentation. One such social prescription is assigning to men the role of Actor and Aggressor and to women the role of the passive Recipient of aggression. This gendered association decreases the perception of women as empowered agents (and even human). This social prescription also encourages men to act on behalf of women from making financial or relationship decisions, to deciding when and where and how a woman has sex, to the definition and social prescription of "woman" and "female," and to the reproductive alienation of those assigned female.

Please, for the love of fuck, do not spread the myth that the vagina has a natural spermicide. Does a "female" system cull most sperm? Yes. Because our species developed the ability to cull potentially "off" offspring that would be detrimental to species survival. In evolution, if it hurts, it goes. If it's disadvantageous, but has limited benefit, it stays. If it doesn't hurt, it also stays. The two-tailed sperm swimming in circles- for example- isn't staying.

Yes, there are women with immune infertility whose immune system attacks sperm. Yes, white blood cells will kill off lots of sperm. Yes, lots of sperm will literally get "lost" or "caught" in linings. And, yes, lots of sperm die because of the acidity of the vagina. HOWEVER, when the egg follicles mature and prepare for ovulation, the pH of cervical fluid rises, bridging the gap between the acidic vagina and the alkaline sperm. The egg literally releases hormones to better allow for fertilization while the semen forms a gel which provides protection for the sperm from the acidic environment of the vagina. In fact, contractions in the reproductive tract can propel sperm toward the oviducts. And there's also a reason there are about 200 million sperm in a single ejaculation.

The vagina DOES NOT have a built-in spermicide. PLEASE, please, wrap it before you tap it. DO NOT let misinformation like this convince you that your vagina will just kill the sperm and reject any and all pregnancies. The body both helps you get pregnant or helps you avoid it depending on the compatibility or survivability of the sperm and the pregnancy material. If there's something real screwy (including being malnourished), it's not making it. BUT that doesn't mean you CANNOT get pregnant.

SPERM can survive in the female genital tract for up to FIVE whole days. Sperm are very-very tiny and they can, and will, make it. Additionally, bleeding and getting pregnant are not mutually exclusive. You CAN get pregnant while on your period. Don't take risks because of misinformation like this.

I'm scared to know how this person thinks people become pregnant.

I-- didn't even know what to make of this when I read it. What a way to stigmatize female genital tracts as an "other" by describing it as "reptilian." So, I want to take a moment to talk about the vagina dentata and the patriarchal association of women with the monstrous, often snakes or other reptiles.

While not all of them do, many vagina dentata folk tales explicitly articulate male fears of castration in the act of PiV sexual intercourse. These myths will warn of the necessity of violently or forcefully removing the teeth from women’s vaginas to transform her into a nonthreatening sexual partner. In most cases, these myths can be read as the patriarchal attempt to render female sexuality non-threatening and strip it of it's "danger" (temptation) to men. There is one author I remember reading who spoke of a connection between this myth and the practice of FGM and rape epidemics.

These myths seemed to act as a cautionary tale to men to beware where they stick it, least they lose their dick. Unless, they first forcibly broke the teeth (rape) or neutralized the temptation (marriage) or removed a woman's "promiscuousness" (genital mutilation).

The Greek figure of a Gorgon is representative of this concept, as is the mermaid. The "devouring mother" in many religions and mythologies often took the form of a serpent or a snake woman. The fearful aspects of the feminine were also sometimes represented by a woman with a phallus. But, once all her vagina teeth were knocked out by the male hero (sometimes a son), the devouring mother would lose her masculine characterization in these tales, transforming from a Terrible Mother (a manifestation of the Great Mother archetype) to something desirable to men (the Kindly mother). Many of these myths served to portray the feminine as terrifying as well as something negative.

Now, I'm pretty sure that she's referring to the squamous cells, which *look like* fish scales. The only context most people have likely heard this term used is in reference to cancer. For context, it's these thin, flat cells that you likely looked at under the microscope in 9th grade biology class:

These cells are found in the tissues that form the surface of the skin, the passages of the respiratory and digestive tracts, and the lining of the hollow organs of the body (such as the bladder, kidney, and uterus, including the cervix). They can be keratinized or nonkeratinized. Reptile scales are keratinized. No, your genital tract is not "reptilian." It is very much mammalian and human.

Another thing I want to tackle is the teleological argument briefly touched on in this post. Teleology is the idea that something has a telos- a purpose, goal or final end. Evolution does not have a purpose. It makes no conscious decisions or sets any goals. There's no final end to evolution. Our insistence that evolution has an end and an overarching purpose is a remnant of Social Darwinism. Menstruation in mammals has no inherent purpose or end. Menstruating makes no decisions and it sets no goals. A vagina, similarly, has no inherent purpose or end-goal.

When educating people on reproductive tracts, many people may use teleological phrasing, saying that the vagina's purpose is to receive a penis or hold sperm until it can pass into the uterus or provide a passage for childbirth.

Unfortunately, our language is limiting. Because *function* can mean something has a certain *purpose.* So, I want it to be clear that I use "function" to mean something which carries on an action, rather than something with a set objective or end to be attained. In this case, saying that an organ has a function is thus very different from talking about it's purpose. Through evolution, we developed tissues and organs with specialized functions. These organs can carry on specific actions. For a vagina, these actions include 1.) providing passage for blood and mucosal tissue from the uterus, 2.) providing passage for sperm to the uterus, and 3.) providing passage for live birth.

Now, I am being very careful with my language full-well knowing that if I simply say, "The function of a vagina is also to provide passage for live birth," a trans-exclusionary will shoot back, "So, you think the purpose of female organs is to give birth?" This retort, and the fact the featured poster says "[f]ar from every woman gives birth [and] [m]any women have no desire for penetrative sex," makes it clear that "rad fems"- including the featured poster- are making teleological arguments.

Because I am saying that, during the course of evolution, we developed organs that carry on specific actions. I am not saying they were *designed* for a purpose, but that they developed to operate specifically and perform specialized functions. During the course of evolution, we developed kidneys to filter blood of toxins and turn waste into urine. This does not mean the kidneys were planned nor does that mean that a kidney designs to find impurities in our blood. Kidneys do not have a goal or an ambition or an aim.

Their equivocation on "function" and "purpose" serves to hide teleological arguments behind "scientific" sounding language as well as turn their assumption that we're operating with teleological statements around on any dissidents. This way, when someone points out that species developed reproductive tracts which perform reproductive functions, they can accuse you of reducing a woman's "purpose" to childbearing and taking dick.

However, their insistence that *they're* operating only based on "the science" allows them a degree of plausible deniability when women, feminists, and LGBTQ+ activists and allies tell them that their definition of a woman ironically does exactly that: reduces a woman to a reproductive purpose. Women and feminists and queer activists alike have noticed that the transphobe is operating off of teleological assumptions and trying to hide behind science and "biology" to mask this. They recognize that "a woman is an adult human of the sex that can bear offspring and produce ova" is an also an "ought" statement: a woman ought to be someone who bears children and produces eggs.

It might *seem* grammatically declarative. However, when we are naming something, we are also categorizing it, saying it performs at least one function sufficiently enough to meet the requirements of the description, and saying it performs that function well enough to be named one thing instead of another. We are fitting it within certain bounds, and thus giving it social meaning and value.

A mutual (@/dark-and-sparkles) gave this example:

"This is a chair," doesn't simply describe a chair or declare that a chair is present. A chair is an object with a specific form, function, and social meaning; when we are naming something a "chair," we are evaluating it on its ability to serve our purposes as a chair. If it didn't perform these functions well, we either would see it as faulty (another socially loaded description) or wouldn't pick it out as a chair at all."

Making linguistic and categorical distinctions can have teleological implications.

No organ has a primary "purpose." Organs have basic functions and features which operate specifically. So, yah, not every woman will give birth or have penetrative sex. But those social decisions mean absolutely nothing when we're talking about how- during the course of evolution- we developed certain organs to carry on reproductive functions and that these organs carry on these actions in the event of reproduction. These social decisions do mean something, however, if you are addressing a teleological argument that posits that because a female reproductive tract has the capacity for pregnancy, that means it's *purpose* is to produce children.

They're arguing that the *purpose* of the female genital tract is not to produce children because its purpose is instead to pass tissue from the uterus. Neither is correct because organs have no final ends. (And they call themselves monists.)

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As for the rest of this section...

I first find it ironic that they spent the paragraphs above arguing that we should not conceptualize a uterus in terms of its fertility and a relationship to sex, only to say that a uterus is essential to one's health in areas such as fertility and sex drive.

Now, I want to be clear that "greater risk" does not me you WILL get dementia or depression or "other serious inflictions" if you have a hysterectomy. Yes, a hysterectomy *may* increase *the risk of* cardiovascular events, certain cancers, the need for further surgery, early ovarian failure and menopause, depression, and dementia. It is important to note that most studies on this examine possible associations, causality, and hypotheses instead of causality. Part of this increase in health risks- like cardiovascular complications, memory complications, and metabolic changes- is hypothesized to have to do with the earlier onset of menopause because some of these potential long-term risks are common with the onset of menopause. Earlier onset of menopause is thought to lead to greater risk. People who start menopause earlier without a hysterectomy as well as people who start their periods later (also not something achieved through surgery), and people with a longer reproductive period also have an elevated risk in many of these same categories.

Absolutely none of these facts "prove" one sex's superiority over the other. Because there is no "superior" sex.

(Also, would the OP take a similar stance on birth control, which women also use to treat similar conditions which a hysterectomy is used to treat? Because birth control carries many of the same health risks. Is the moral here, "Don't undergo treatments if they carry health risks" or have we run into the Raymond effect? Where a "whole" [natural] state is "better" than an "altered" state? So, a hysterectomy would make someone "incomplete"/"broken" and keeping the reproductive trace makes someone "whole" and "complete." Based on the rest of the paragraph and post, I'm guess it's another iteration of Raymond's argumentum ad naturam.)

I also have no idea how any of this relates to challenging ideas of male supremacy. How does "Getting a hysterectomy could be detrimental to your health" combat ideas of male supremacy? Male dominant society is all about creating a system where people with a uterus and ovaries keep them and use them to become mothers. This point is really unrelated to combating those ideas. Does she think arguing that getting a hysterectomy could lead to health problems down the line supports some "power of the uterus" argument? Because a hysterectomy is a medical procedure designed to treat severe and emergency health conditions.

An example: My mother bled every day for months on end with cramping and bleeding so heavy, she was passing out. She asked for a hysterectomy and the first doctor asked "Are you sure. You're young and could have more babies yet." She got an ablation that didn't work. She went to a second doctor who told her that the uterus absolutely needed to come out. The only thing that ended her bleeding was the hysterectomy. When you go to the Mayo Clinic website and they list "heavy periods" as a common reason for a hysterectomy, this is what they mean. They aren't referring to the couple hours you utilize a heating pad or that time you attached a TENS unit to your back for cramping.

Another example: Doctors found an aggressive cancer in my grandmother's reproductive tract. So, she got a hysterectomy. The surgery was effective. From subsequent testing, it seems the cancer did not spread, and so my grandmother is still with us. I'm seeing her for dinner in two days.

These are reasons women get hysterectomies.

So, I don't know why the OP has seemingly taken issue with a medical procedure designed to treat severe medical conditions and problems. Does the issue maybe instead lie with someone like myself who elected to get a hysterectomy because I didn't want the potential to bear offspring? Or does the issue instead lie in someone, again, like myself who gets a hysterectomy for "gender" affirming reasons, namely, to never bleed again? In which case, let's have that conversation about bodily autonomy.

Next, your body does not "fall apart" when you remove your uterus. Do organs shift around? Yes. Does this mean you'll pee more? For a while, yes. Most complications arise not from the mere absence of a uterus, but from damage during the surgery itself. Doctors might nick something, for example. Like with all major surgeries, there is a risk of clotting afterwards. But, no, the uterus does not help hold the body together. Your body will not fall apart in its absence. Unless the OP is talking about a prolapse, which is not caused by a hysterectomy, but a cause for a hysterectomy. A prolapse certainly *will* cause such "serious complications" as fecal incontinence and bladder control issues because other pelvic organs prolapsed too. Is there a risk of prolapse after a hysterectomy? Yes. That risk is some 1%-15%, with the risk being highest in individuals whose hysterectomy was necessitated by a prolapse. In fact, hysterectomy is not a risk factor for prolapse when preoperative prolapse is taken into account.

As for that last point... "women have better cognition and memory than men and their reproductive organs are the reason for that." For a group that claims to reject the idea of "female" and "male" brains, they sure are willing to embrace it. I know that a hysterectomy uniquely impacts spatial memory in rats, but I am unsure whether this holds true for humans too. I also know that high estrogen- a hormone secreted by the ovaries- in older female mice can improve spatial memory consolidation, and that this effect can be weakened by progesterone, but I am unsure whether this holds true for humans too. I do know that in one of our closer evolutionary cousins, the estrogen steroid hormone, Estradiol, enhances "some aspects of spatial working memory in aged monkeys despite many years of estrogenic deprivation." I also know that estrogen increases the risk of breast and uterine cancers.

You can read an overview about the role of sex in memory function here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028920/. Here's a snapshot of this overview:

I am always cautious to automatically attribute such things as memory to sex difference; to claim that the reason this happens is purely biological. And the reason for that is because I know characteristics considered an inherent and immutable part of sexual dimorphism in humans are physical conditions reinforced by a patriarchal gender system. For example, a woman's weight and height will increase under systems of greater gender equity (There was a study done in Chile on height and greater gender equity and there was a study done in India on weight and gender oppression). I also know that women have a better memory than men in middle age, but decline faster, and it is believed that these difference will shrink in the future because education levels for women have been increasing over the last several decades, leading to higher cognitive reserves and less risk for dementia.

“…there are unnecessary and potentially inaccurate linkages made when binary categories of sex are exclusively drawn on to interpret sex-associated biology. The use of binary categories of sex in this way can inadvertently contribute to the normalization of culturally recognized 'typical’ biologies and undermine capacities to see variation even within these categories defined as 'normal.’ When used in this way, the categories themselves are interpreted as proxy for pathways and thus biological differences are concluded to be 'sex-based,’ as opposed to driven by some other mechanism.”

DuBois, L. Z., & Shattuck‐Heidorn, H. (2021). Challenging the binary: Gender/sex and the bio‐logics of normalcy. American Journal of Human Biology, 33(5), e23623.

One's reproductive organs are not a reason or cause for superiority over the other sex. This is literally just reproducing the exact same forces of socialization that the patriarchy does, something which these women claim to be critical of but then embrace if it means gaining power for themselves.

[feralhoekage]

Welcome to the Genjutsu

I dare you to fall into my rabbit hole...

Hi Sweeties!! ☺️ I'm finally making a pinned post!!

First things first, I do NOT allow any minors on my page, if I find you, you will be blocked immediately, trust me.

Links: ASMR TikTok | CashApp | Ko-Fi | Instagram

You can call me Olivia, Liv, Livi 🤍 I go by many names

I will never post or send you nudes! Don't ask, it's tacky, & lame. && Please don't fill my submissions with dick pics I didn't ask for.

Since I have been asked a few times, of course you can blow my notifications up & reblog as much as you want 🥰 my pictures included! 🥰🩷

A little about me: I am 26, in my first year, getting my degree in botany. I'm pagan/wiccan, still very new though & something I keep close to myself because people can be cruel. I am a mom, I have three kids. I am also bisexual. Don't take my non-response to your messages as ignoring you. I'm very busy and cannot reply to everyone, every single day. Also if I repost something but don't reply to you, please don't be offended! I promise if I'm not responding, I am most likely in a shitty ass mood and I don't want to take that out on anyone. I am 5'5, and between 120 lbs. I have one tattoo, and one piercing. I'm a libra, October 21 is my birthday, and Halloween is my favorite day of the year. I am very shy, but can be very clingy... ugh.

I use tags HEAVILY on my page, click on the ones at the bottom of the post to navigate around a lot easier :) I promise you'll thank me

Enough of that, now! On to the kinks portion of the tour: (This list is still growing/I haven't figured all of mine out yet- so this list will change a bit most likely.)

Breeding | DD/lg | CNC | Corruption | Fauxcest | Masochism | Pain/Degrading | Size Difference | Somno | Age Difference | R@pe Play | BDSM | Slight bondage (this one is newer) |

Hard NO's!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I give one- maybe two depending on the person- warnings, then you will be blocked if you cross my boundaries.)

Anal (Traumatized from my experiences.)

Bathroom ... Things... - not for me.

diaper stuff - no hate, just not for me (:

Cheating/Poly - to each their own, but I don't like it.

Other things I enjoy since I am human and sex isn't the ONLY thing I think about(it's up there lol): Nordic mythology, Vikings(in every aspect), I want to be an author eventually(maybe), I smoke weed, I play video games. DC comics are my favorite but I do like marvel as well. Anime is my favorite genre. DnD! I absolutely love food. I can bake🥰 I do not look like I can eat but I can lol. I will 100% talk to you about tattoos all of the time 🥰. I am obviously in botany, so plants and trees are my favorite thing! My favorite colors are dark green, pink, and yellow 🩷 I'm very much into the dark and spooky side of everything, but I love the girly side of me and life as well.

Taken Anon Emojis: 🤠, 🦥, 🦀, 📌, 👑, 🐻, 🐺, ⚡,🐕, 🍀, FPFL , 🐯, 🦊, ☠️, ❤️‍🔥, 🌷

I follow people back, but it's based off your profile, I read bios. Your age has to be in your bio for me to follow you back. But if you have taken/married/open relationship or anything like that in your bio, I will not follow you back :) and I will not flirt with you if you're in any type of relationship 👍🏽 if I also find out that you have been flirting with me and are in a relationship you will be blocked immediately. I will not be lied to, by omission or otherwise. Please be respectful 🤍

[spiders-around]

YOU MUST MAKE A WEBSITE

Oh wow, look at that! YET ANOTHER post urging you to make a webbed site! What a completely new thing that people haven't made a thousand masterposts for already!!

• Making a website might look scary. It is Not.

At first, I too thought making a website was too much work. It really isn't! It turns out that all you need is

an HTML file,

a web hosting service and

w3schools tutorials,

and that's about it!

This post will point you towards these resources, and others I found useful while figuring out how to make a website.

• VERY QUICK EXPLANATIONS:

What's HTML and CSS?

HTML is the content of your webpage, the skeleton of it. What shows up in a webpage is what's written in the HTML file!

CSS is the way the HTML is styled; the colour of the background and the letters, the size of elements, the font, all that!

Do I absolutely NEED JavaScript for a website?

Not at all! You don't need to worry about learning it before getting started.

• What do I make a website for? What do I put in there?

ANYTHING AND ALMOST EVERYTHING. Here's some ideas for pages from a post of mine were I was very normal about websites:

You can make a page that's only pictures of your pets.

You can make an interactive adventure.

You can make your own academic blog full of your own essays or articles.

You can just post a ton of art or make a full music page.

You can make a blog and infodump eternally, give book reccs and reviews. You can host a thousand virtual pets and nothing else.

Upload entire books in a single html file. Make a wikipedia for your ocs. Make a fake site for a random fictional place (restaurant, hotel, whatever). You can make a thousand fanpages/shrines about your favorite media. You can upload your own webcomic and make it all like a fancy website and shit.

I could keep going but, for the sake of "brevity", I won't.

• WEBSITE EXAMPLES!

If I started listing the websites I know, this post would be bottomless. Here's only seven:

https://publictransit.neocities.org/ - A webbed site, for sure

https://ribo.zone/ - A personal site

https://leusyth.neocities.org/ - An art archive

https://solaria.neocities.org/ - Personal website with A Lot of stuff (it'll come up in a bit, because it offers web making resources)

https://hog.neocities.org/ - The Hogsite

https://thegardenofmadeline.neocities.org/ - Another personal site! It also has a web resources page and has made another masterpost like this one (but better)

https://spiders.neocities.org/ - My own website, which must be weird to see in mobile . sorry

• You've convinced me. I want a webbed site. Where do I start?

https://neocities.org/

FIRST OF ALL: Neocities. It is a free web hosting service, and it's the one I and the sites I linked use!

When I first started, my website was a black page with red letters and a drawing, and nothing else! It was like that for a month, till i started picking up on how to do things.

Here's what helped me get an idea of how to make things work:

https://sadgrl.online/learn/articles/beginners-guide-neocities

An absolute beginners guide to neocities -- while when you make an account there you get a tutorial page from the site, this one's extra support for that.

https://www.w3schools.com/

Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and MANY other coding things for free. All the tutorial/reference pages have live testing windows for you to mess with!! helped me a LOT while figuring this stuff out!

https://htmlcheatsheet.com/

https://htmlcheatsheet.com/css/

Cheatsheets for HTML and CSS, respectively. It includes a JavaScript one too!

https://sadgrl.online/webmastery/

Sadgrl's webmastery resources! Also includes the next resource listed here:

https://sadgrl.online/projects/layout-builder/

Sadgrl's layout builder; not a lot of customization at a first glance, but I've seen wildly different websites all using it as a base, plus it works using CSS Flexbox, so it generates a responsive layout!

(basically, a responsive layout is one that translates well in different sized screens)

https://www.tumblr.com/fysa/728086939730919424/wikitable-code?source=share

Tumblr user fysa made this layout imitating a wiki page!

https://brackets.io/

At some point, you might want to do things outside the Neocities code editor and get one outside the site. I recommend Brackets, because my old as fuck computer can run that and absolutely nothing else apparently, and it works wonderfully! Though I recommend either turning off the code autocomplete or using it after a good while of already using the Neocities code editor, so you get used to coding on your own.

http://www.unit-conversion.info/texttools/text-to-html/

Turn your text into HTML code! i use this kind of pages for my lengthy blog entries that I don't feel like formatting myself.

https://imagecompressor.com/

COMPRESS YOUR IMAGES.

The heavier an image is, the more your site weighs and the more time your page will spend loading. You don't want that, specially if your site is heavy on graphics. This might help!

https://solaria.neocities.org/guides

Some CSS, JavaScript and Accessibility guides! Worth checking out!

https://eloquentjavascript.net/

This is a free, interactive book for learning JavaScript! NOTE: It is very intuitive, but JavaScript is HARD!! I still haven't learned much of it, and my website does fine without so don't worry if you end up not doing much with it. It's still useful + the exercises are fun.

And now, accessories!

• Silly stuff for your page :]

https://gifypet.neocities.org/

Make a virtual pet, copy the code and paste it in your HTML file! You'll get a little guy in your webbed site :]

https://www.wikplayer.com/

Music player for your website!

http://www.mf2fm.com/rv/

JavaScript silly effects for your site :]

https://blinkies.neocities.org/geoblinkies

Blinkie search engine!

https://www.cbox.ws/

Add a chatbox to your site!!

https://momg.neocities.org/

Infinite gallery of gifs. i've spent hours in there looking at moving pictures and out of them all, the ONLY gif i actually ended up using on my site was a rotating tomato slice. it is still there. trapped.

https://wrender.neocities.org/tarotinstructions

A widget that gives you a random tarot card!

https://www.websudoku.com/widget.php

Sudoku widget!

That's about it for now! I don't know how to end this!!! Remember to have fun and google everything you don't know :]

[dommeana]

Contract Contest Winner

omgjustapervs contract with added twists from other participants

15 days splits the contract into two parts nicely.

During the first part the players @dommeana and @deniedpet agree to an edging contest with a twist. Then a rest day to see results, followed by a reward and punishment week.

The edging contest

Both players each need to see who can edge the most, but to keep things fun both have rules about what they must edge too. Ana is only allowed to edge to censored pics (including handbra, blurs, pixels and so on), with no more than 2 edges to any single pic. Pet must do all her edges to the model Chanta Rose, one of Ana's favourites. Will she imagine being cucked by Chanta? Of course her censored training is still in effect, so any edges to uncensored pics require 3 slaps afterwards. How many censored pics of Chanta are there out there?

For every censored pics that Pet posts to help Ana, Ana must slap her tits twice before she can edge to it. For every pic of Chanta Rose that Ana posts, Pet must edge to it using a shoe. Pet's rules about pussy slaps still apply if it's not censored.

During the first week every pic that either posts containing a lady giving the finger to the viewer counts as a boast. Boasts will result in extra punishment for the loser.

All edges for both must be distinct, that means at least a 3 minute gap between edges. Edge counts must be reported to gooncaps69 at the end of the day, who can give hints about how the scoring is going. Any edges to a disallowed pic result in a zero score for that day. The player who edges the least during a given day has to slap themselves once for every 3 edges that were done by the players in total that day. If one of the players can’t contain herself and goes over the edge she needs to ruin the orgasm and has immediately lost the game. At the end of the week the desperate and horny lady with the most edges is the winner.

The reward week:

The loser must immediately edge 10 times to pictures with captions saying that she is a loser. In addition before the end of the challenge the loser must put nipple clamps on and edge one more time per edge they were behind, as a makeup edge. Edges without clamps are allowed, but they don't count towards this score.

This is when boasts come home to roost. Every boast the winner made results in the loser having to put on nipple clamps, go topless and do 5 jumping jacks. Every boast the loser made results in 20 jumping jacks.

Ana wins:

If Ana wins then she can demand Pet go into panty mode anytime they are online together all week. If she is online and it's safe for her then Pet can't refuse. Panty mode means Pet either needs to give herself a wedgie with her panties, or take them off and go pantyface. While Pet is in pantymode Ana can post a lovense link and come all she wants with her tumblr friends. While Ana cums Pet will be denied, in panty mode, kept in her pantry and thinking of Ana. She is allowed to listen in to the conversation with Ana (technology permitting), but is not allowed to talk. If Pet has to leave pantymode then Ana has to turn the lovense off. Ana can't cum any other way. During this week Pet must continue to edge only to Chanta Rose, or to conversations & posts about mutuals cumming. Any edges Pet has to non-censored porn require double the usual slaps. As the winner Ana has no edging restrictions. Ana opens her ask box, and any asks Ana receives require Pet to slap her pussy 10 times or her tits 20 times (Ana's choice, say what it is when replying to the ask).

Pet wins:

If Pet wins then she has won a single orgasm. Since her blog description includes pleading for us to keep her denied she is able to gift that orgasm to either Ana or to Tanja or to keep it herself. Ana or Tanja are allowed to try and convince Pet to get the orgasm. I hope to see some good begging during that rest day. The rest of the game plays differently depending who gets the orgasm.

If Pet keeps the orgasm herself then she must orgasm to a censored pic of Chanta Rose, and it must be taken at a time when Ana isn't online and be done using her shoes. In this case as the loser Ana must continue to edge to censored pics all week, as the winner Pet has no edging restrictions. Pet must make a post about her orgasm, and during the punishment week both must slap their pussies once per like, slap their breasts 5 times per reblog, and slap their face once per comment (spam excluded).

If Ana gets the orgasm then Pet can choose if it's full or ruined, but either way it must be done using a pair of shoes or heels. It must be taken when they are online together. Despite winning during this week Pet must continue to edge only to Chanta Rose, or to conversations & posts about mutuals cumming, and must only edge using shoes or heels. Despite losing Ana has no edging restrictions. Both Ana and Pet must open their ask boxes for questions, and as her punishment for stealing her Pet's well earnt orgasm Ana gets slaps for asks. Each question to Ana results in 5 slaps to Ana's pussy. Each question to Pet results in 10 slaps to Ana's tits.

If Tanja gets gifted the orgasm then she can ruin, and I'd agree that there is no punishment for the ruin from her edging game. During this week Ana and Pet must both do at least one edge each day to a model in the pose, and reblog that pic for Tanja to enjoy. Ana must spend an hour investigating nettles. Are there any she could access locally, how does her hand react to being pricked with them, etc. Just some extra knowledge in case she needs a future punishment. Pet meanwhile must agree to have another edge date with Tanja (which doesn't include the free ruin mentioned above). If they can't work it out then Pet must go to her nettle patch and take some home, and see what its like to wear some in her bra for a short period

@deniedpet

@dommeana

[lookinghalfacorpse]

hello

In what way do you think Dream is disabled/affected post-prison and if he does, what do you think he does to hide it?

permission to yap granted

this is what i do in most of my fics, so i have a good amount of content to go through. i could keep yapping, honestly, but i wanted to include the main things that cause my brainrot. gross pictures under the cut.

muscle atrophy. this happens quickly as the body enters starvation mode and begins to burn proteins. there would be a visible decrease in muscle mass, he would feel very weak and his limbs might tingle. recovery is possible, but isn't as easy as i think many people portray. the body is smart and will reduce its basal metabolic rate to adjust for a long period of starvation, and even after leaving the prison, his body would be primed and ready for another period of starvation. his body has learned that his environment doesn't provide consistent food. the body cannot 'reset' after a normal calorie intact resumes. the body keeps the score, or whatever they say. (i looked at a lot of pictures from 'the starvation experiment'. it lasted a little less than a year and was a setting where participants were carefully kept alive. most men lost 25% of their weight and only returned to their pre-study weight after 2 years of extensive treatment and therapy. u know cdream ain't seein a therapist. pictures under the cut)

quickened mouth decay / mouth dryness. on the topic of starvation, the mouth is actually one of the first places affected during a period of starvation. we don't make the saliva that we should when we aren't eating, and without saliva, the mouth begins to rot. this, along with fasting headaches, would be one of the first things he notices in the prison. it would be fixed pretty quickly upon eating normally.

seizures. many things can cause seizures to begin in someone who wasn't born with an epileptic condition, and dream's experienced most of them: starvation, head trauma, nerve damage, severe vitamin d deficiency, severe sodium deficiency, severe stress. these may decrease in frequency as he heals, but he'll be at greater risk if he fasts for any amount of time or if he's stressed. low-level muscle spasms are also going to be common.

impaired night vision/ decreased overall visual acuity. malnutrition does a ton of funky things, including to the eyes. he'd probably have a harder time adjusting to nighttime; i imagine returning to the prison is comfortable for this reason because he can control the brightness. hazy, eroded corneas are also common and might be visible to others. i put a picture under the cut. notice the green hue.

weakened immunity. like many others have mentioned, he will emerge from that cell with a paper-thin immune system. he'll be particularly weak to pneumonia and other respiratory diseases-- muscle atrophy also effects the muscles of the lungs.

essential tremors. just a fancy word for constant shaking. these could be psychological in nature, given the, you know, torture, but there are some links between malnutrition and tremors as well. he might try to hide it with weighted gloves.

improper amputation. "improper" is certainly a word for it, i know, but i want to emphasize that the kind of chop c!quackity would perform is nowhere near the level of a professional, surgical amputation. wearing a prosthetic would be very painful to say the least, especially if it isn't hand-crafted to suit his residual limb. i think cdream would probably try to endure that pain for the sake of hiding a major amputation, ie leg or arm, but i'm not sure he'd worry much about something like a finger. losing fingers doesn't affect grip strength as much as you might think, and i feel like thats all he'd really care about.

panic attacks, ptsd, memory loss, depression, hallucinations. just being locked in a single room for that long, let alone being tortured in it, would be enough for any of these symptoms. we have canon evidence for many of these, of course.

whatever other symptoms his injuries caused. depending on what tendons/muscles/bones quackity targeted, we might be looking at some different symptoms. i'm a big fan of concussion headcanons, and stiffness/immobility around scar tissue.

ultimately, i think the best bets for cdream as far as HIDING these effects are thick clothing, ill-fitting prosthetics, weighted gloves, moving in daylight, and avoiding confrontation. he'd probably want to prioritize mobility training to regain some dexterity and coordination, and to ensure that he can run away even if he can't fight.

^ eroded cornea

^ the starvation experiment

[have-you-been-here]

Welcome to Have You Been Here, a blog that gauges where tumblr has been!

If you'd like to submit a place, please read the entire FAQ under the cut BEFORE you send it in!

FAQ

Q: What kind of places can be included?

A: Anywhere! Places can be as specific or as vague as you'd like: both The Milky Way and 123 Main Street, Frankfort, Kentucky, USA are both perfectly fine!

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A: Use the ask box! After opening a ticket with tumblr, it turns out submissions and polls are not compatible.

Q: What should I include in my ask?

A: When you submit a post, please include: A picture of the place, the name of the place, and the location of the place, if applicable. You must include the country. Please. PLEASE include the country.

Do not include anything else!

The preferred format is image first, then text in big letters.

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A: Please try to limit yourself to two images! Depending on the size of the images I may let submissions with 3 images slide, but submission with four or more will have me asking you to resubmit with two images. If you can't decide which images to keep, consider making a collage that condenses them into a single, smaller image! Example [one] [two] [three]

Q: How do I make sure I don't submit a place that's already been added to the queue?

A: Use this link to see a spreadsheet of every place that's been posted and added to the queue. Do NOT submit the same place multiple times!

Q: Anon is off, but I don't want my username attached to my submission. Am I out of luck?

A: Not at all! If you'd like to submit a place anonymously, send in an ask as usual and mention that you'd like it to be anonymous. I'll take the submission and make a separate post without tagging you. The ask will be answered privately so you know that I've seen it and added it to the queue without your name involved. NOTE - posts that ask to be posted on anon do take longer on my part and tend to fall to the bottom of the inbox, so if you really want to see a place posted quickly, consider not asking for your name to be removed.

Q: It's been a while, but my place still hasn't been posted! Did you delete it?

A: Probably not! The queue posts six times a day, and there are a LOT of posts in the queue and in my inbox! I don't add posts in the order that they were submitted, so it's likely that your place hasn't been queued yet. The only reason I delete asks is if the place has already been posted or added to the queue!

Q: I run a similar gimmick blog and would love to tag each other for publicity!

A: Awesome! I'm all for it; send me a dm from your gimmick blog and I'll tag you at the end of this post :)

Happy travels!

[feralcreaturescave]

Find Me in Between the Lines

“Would you teach me?” “What?” “To read as you do.”

“There are not a lot of wizards that suffer blindness,” he replied with a chilling intonation. “I suspect you can learn of other things that may be more useful than this.”

“Is it so bad I’d want an excuse to spend more time with you?”

Word count: 3.9k

Pairing: Ominis Gaunt x F!Reader

A/n: I only posted this story on AO3 and Tumblr, if you find this anywhere else- it wasn't me!! Link *here* for the rest of the series this story is from!!!

Ominis Gaunt couldn’t remember a time in his life where he was fond of people. Not even his family made it into his good graces, no matter how much effort he attempted to include them in his personal affairs. The only person he could think of that showed him the true meaning of familial love was his own aunt: Noctua Gaunt. He was told she was a great beauty with wits to match. She shared the pale blond hair of their father’s side and dark eyes that witnessed many of the Gaunt’s dark secrets. In his loneliest moments, Ominis tried to picture what Aunt Noctua would look like. Whenever she spoke to him, he always heard the smile in her voice and the lightness within her heart- a trait that was regrettably limited to only one of the Gaunts. 

The rest of his family had not been so kind. 

Noctua would often send him letters laden with treats local from wherever it was she was visiting; she would ask how he was, what he was up to, what were his current favorite books.. The letters stopped years ago and Ominis was left with silence. It took him weeks to work up the courage to write to his father about her and to his surprise he received a letter back, albeit with a short and curt response. 

‘I do not know.’

He was left to guess what really happened, until a few days ago where an unfortunate event transpired. 

Noctua Gaunt’s remains were laid to rest in a part of the school that hadn’t seen life in thousands of years. In the pursuit of truth did she perish within the confines of Salazar Slytherin’s scriptorium. A fate that Ominis himself had resigned to until Sebastian and his new friend found a way out. 

“Ready?”

“I’m ready.”

A pause, then- “Crucio!”

The details were secured within his mind and rose to perfect clarity whenever he required. He remembered covering his ears as she screamed. He wondered if that’s what his siblings heard? With a sound that horrible- why didn’t they stop on their own accord? It didn’t help that her body was cold when he caught her, breaking her fall. Her speech had been slurred so much that he had a difficult time translating what she was saying. His worst fears had come to surface that day. There were stories of the Cruciatus Curse that haunted him late into the night. Stories that involved people losing their minds had the curse been inflicted on them long enough; that was if they survived the initial bouts of pain. Some had their bodies simply give up due to the duress. 

They were the lucky ones. 

The ones who survive would have their minds reduced to nothing. Not even a single thought would light up their heads, nor inspiration nor recognition could be formed ever again. 

The House of Gaunt was naught but a shadow in his memory with mere ghosts that haunted its walls and called him ‘brother’ or ‘son’. Family was a foreign and strange concept; though of course, that all changed when Sebastian Sallow, and his sister Anne, came into his life. The days he spent with the two of them brought the most warmth to his days and he loved them for it; and despite Sebastian’s callous claims that Ominis didn’t care enough about Anne, he did. Though no cure was worth delving into whatever hole Sebastian found himself in.

A hole I helped him find. The quill in his hand had nearly snapped at the thought that intruded. He hated himself for allowing the secret of the Scriptorium to be leaked, but Sebastian’s friend had spoken such sweet promises and reassurances that he didn’t mind at the time. He was partially grateful that he finally learned the truth about Aunt Noctua and was given a chance to perform a proper send off near the lake where he stacked stones smoothed by the waters atop each other. He left a bouquet of her favorite flowers by the makeshift cairn and inhaled the familiar scent of Narcissus lilies that once resided within his aunt’s perfume bottles. There wasn’t anyone that comforted him the day he held a small ceremony to say farewell to the only blood relative that saw him more than a burden. He told not a soul, not even his closest friend, when he remained in the Undercroft and cried.

He straightened his back against the wooden chair and forced himself to refocus on the task at hand. Turning the page seemed achingly loud and he took more care to flip them apart as he fingered through. There was nothing quite like a location that forced people to be quiet no matter the circumstance. He found solace within one of the tables towards the back. From the cooler ambient, he knew it was one that lay concealed in shadows. This was one of the best spots where few bothered him, that is, until he heard someone walking his way. 

A subtle waft of something floral snuck into his nose. “What are you doing here?” 

“How did you know it was me?” The voice of the new student whispered softly to him. 

“I have to recognize people from something besides looks.” She was quiet and he hastily added: “Don’t look too far into it.”

“How can you recognize Sebastian?”

“His walk. No one else could convincingly brandish that amount of swagger without making a fool of themselves.”

She laughed. “You’re right on that.” Something shifted that sounded a lot like heavily bound books. “May I sit with you?”

“Why?” his question shot out like a spell, quick and with reflex.

“I, er, I was looking for a quiet place.”

“It’s a library,” he responded coolly. “You may find quiet places almost anywhere that aren't occupied.”

There was no response for a few seconds and he imagined she had already left, until she spoke softly again. “I understand. It was nice seeing you, Ominis.” Her footsteps had begun to recede until he spoke up.

“Wait.” The footsteps stopped. “I.. I’m sorry. Please, take a seat.” A chair next to him moved and groaned as weight was introduced upon the cushion. The first time he had met her, he was rather sweet and welcoming. But the instant he learned that Sebastian introduced her to the Undercroft without alerting him had left sour grapes on his tongue. He also heard rumors of Sebastian spending time with Hogwart’s latest mystery out of school grounds. It was enough to send an ugly tendril of insecurity with no small part of jealousy added into the mix. Has Sebastian tired of him already?

“..How are you? I didn’t think I’ve asked yet.”

Ominis scoffed. “I should be the one asking that. Not you.” Her screams surfaced into his mind from memory. “You were out cold. Sebastian and I were nearly hysterical.”

“Is that so?” she chuckled softly. “I don’t remember a thing beyond closing my eyes and drifting off into sleep.”

“Quite so. We haven’t argued like that in a long while.”

“Regardless. I’m grateful to both of you for not leaving me in the Scriptorium.” She paused. “Whose idea was it to sneak me into your dorm?”

“Mine.”

There was stunned silence. “That’s not who I expected,” she admitted shyly. “The Slytherin Common Room is gorgeous, makes me wish I’d been sorted in.. Imagine my surprise when I woke up in bed with Sebastian. We were so close I could count the freckles on his face with ease.” 

“I bet he would have enjoyed that.”

“You think so?”

“He fancies you.”

“I believe it’s more because he needs me for something than that.”

“You’re far too gracious. He’s been beside himself with worry. All he could talk about was how you looked when you sat limp in my arms..” Ominis trailed off, realization striking him. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding him?”

“He’s noticed, has he?”

“Yes. And he won’t stop pestering me about it. I would consider it a personal favor if you talked to him and requested that he stop.”

“I will. I just need some time to think about things.” 

“Very well. I’m sure you and Sebastian have your own secrets.” He knew full well that there was a hint of jealousy in his voice. A part of him hated how quickly Sebastian took to the new fifth-year, while another part of him was merely curious. 

“You and I could have some as well. I’ll confess something..” He heard her clothes rustling and assumed she was making herself more comfortable. “Yes. I’ve been avoiding Sebastian. I’ve been cursed before- by people far worse. But none of them scared me like he did.” She swallowed and continued, breathless. “I know you have to mean it when you cast you-know-what. But it’s a different sort of pain when it comes from someone you care about. I hope that makes sense.”

Ominis knew exactly how that felt. 

“Never mind all of that,” she urged. “I’m more curious about that magic you were using earlier on one of your books.”

He felt hot behind the ears. How long was she standing there to watch him transcribe the letters inside his book into Braille? It was not as if she was working up the courage, surely? “It’s a spell my aunt helped me develop,” he started tentatively. “It changes letters into Braille and vice versa. Since not all of wizard kind suffers from my ailment, it’s rare that I find any book that suits my particular needs.” 

“Your aunt sounds like a spectacular person.”

For the first time in a while, a warm smile lit up his face. “Yes. She was.”

“Would you teach me?”

“What?”

“To read as you do.”

At that moment he didn’t know how to react. Maybe he should be angry? Suspicious, perhaps? He settled for a probing question. “Why?”

“Because, it seems handy.”

“There are not a lot of wizards that suffer blindness,” he replied with a chilling intonation. “I suspect you can learn of other things that may be more useful than this.”

“Is it so bad I’d want an excuse to spend more time with you?”

And just like that, the ice had drained from him. Clearing the fields as the sun did for the frost-bitten valleys come spring. It was replaced with embarrassment and the irresistible urge to make up for the way he’d been treating her. Hesitantly, he slid over a book and began pointing out the alphabet in order. “This single dot means A.. These mean B.. When you put them together..” He appreciated that she was silent as he taught her each letter one-by-one with only a short hum to let him know that she memorized the latest letter down the row.

“This may take some time to get used to,” she whispered.

“It’s not so difficult,” he murmured back. “Just like with any concept you must learn. The symbols come first, then understanding.” Sliding the book over, he felt her arm move up, brushing against his as she passed her fingers to the page. Her movements were quick, unsure, and Ominis sighed. “Start from the left towards the right.”

His patience rescinded and without thinking, he searched until he found her hand. Only then did he realize how cold his skin was compared to hers. Ominis refocused on his task. Taking her through the motions, he showed her how he would usually read. Starting from the top left, skimming all the way to the right before shifting to the beginning of the next sentence. 

There was surprise in her voice. “I don’t believe I can learn that fast.”

“Sebastian tells me otherwise. Now try again.” She mimicked his movements, going down the list with his finger close to hers. 

She spoke as she read along. “The… Go..Goblin R.. Rebellion of… 1612..” 

“You’re doing well.” 

“Only because I’ve read this passage before and memorized it.” 

“Then let’s do something you haven’t memorized.” He took another book entirely and flipped to a random page. His wand tapped the page. “ Intra Intellegentium! Try this- no peeking.” Her fingers found the page and he listened as she struggled to sound out the words. 

“‘H’..h, right? Let’s see. ‘H..o..” She paused, her finger rubbing over a specific set of bump again. “Ominis-”

“Horklumps,” he confirmed after running his hand over it. “‘Horklumps can be found in varying numbers depending on humidity, light, and if someone had perished on the spot they sprouted on.’”

She laughed to herself. “I may need some practice.” 

“Indeed you do.” He let her memorize the alphabet on her own just as curiosity burned through him. “In the Scriptorium, Sebastian mentioned that ‘between the two of us, he was starting to feel left out’. What did he mean?” 

She was quiet for a bit, then- “I won’t lie to you again, Ominis. But that is something I must tell you about another day. I’m sorry. I can’t risk having you involved, too.”

'Too'? Is it another one of Sebastian’s games? “What are you talking about?”

“Ominis,” she insisted. “It isn’t wise that I involve more of my friends than I need to. Trust me. When it’s all over, I’ll tell you. I promise.” He heard her begin to pack up her things. “It was nice spending time with you.”

There was no time to respond as her hurried footsteps told him she was in a rush to head to whatever grand adventure she had waiting. He sat for a moment before packing up his things and departing himself until he stopped and blinked. Ominis felt as if he was hovering in a dream as his thoughts came as fast as someone who tried to run through muck. Did she just call him her ‘friend’? 

***

“What does she look like?”

“Sorry?”

“Your friend. Describe her to me.” 

He heard Sebastian shift his weight as he sat up in bed. “Why do you want to know?” Suspicion had made his voice lower in tone. “You never seemed to care much before.”

“I’m curious.”

“She looks like a girl.”

“Come off it, Sebastian.”

“She has a face.”

“Very well. If you insist on continuing this charade then I’ll ask her myself.”

Ominis pulled the sheets over him and turned his back to Sebastian’s voice.

“Wait-” he heard him sit up more. “Is she talking to you?” Ominis didn’t say anything. “Ominis. Has she said anything to you recently? Why isn’t she talking to me?” When he didn’t reply, he heard Sebastian let out a disgruntled sigh before he too pulled his cover over him. 

The next day, she found him in the library once more. He memorized her hurried footsteps and found it amusing how they never seemed to slow down no matter where she was headed. Their spot was almost exclusive again as they both made themselves comfortable. Only the sounds of light tapping on an ink pot and quills scratching against paper accompanied the peace. Ominis reached forward to where his ink pot was and felt his fingers brush against something warm.

“Sorry,” came a low murmur. 

“It’s alright.” Ominis set his quill down. “I must ask: why do you insist on spending time with me?”

“You’re the only one who doesn’t think to ask me anything besides peace,” she answered and sounded so earnest that he felt as if she was telling the honest truth. 

“Are you leading me to believe that everyone you’ve met has thus asked you for a favor?”

“Yes. I don’t mind lending a helping hand, but it gets exhausting. Sometimes I would like to simply sit down and read and not be bothered-" her voice sounded muffled and he assumed she covered her face with her hands as he only caught tidbits that sounded like 'goblins', 'poachers', 'magic', and 'keepers'. 

“You and I are alike in that regard then. I enjoy my silence.” Ominis thumbed through the pages of his copy of the ‘History of Magic: An Unabridged Guide’. “Actually, I may have to break that accord.”

“What is it?” There was a cautious edge to her voice.

This made him chuckle. “Don’t worry. I won’t ask you to delve into old ruins in search of a family heirloom or fight another troll. I simply wish to know what you look like.”

“I- hm.” She hummed. “I don’t know where to start. Shall I start describing the color of my hair?”

“Here-” he motioned for her to come closer. “This is much more simple and straightforward.” At first he hesitated, but when he felt her warmth come closer, he had a blossoming sense of bravery. 

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Hold your face out,” he said with such simplicity and calmness that even the tone of his voice surprised him. Reaching forward, he felt around the air until he came into contact with skin. The flesh under his fingers went rigid under his touch and he quickly urged her. “Calm yourself. I simply wish to learn what you look like. I can’t say I fancy picturing myself talking to a mannequin for the entirety of our relationship.”

At his words, she relaxed and let his hands see her face. 

His index trailed upwards to follow the hairline and felt her hair and how soft it felt, next, he accidentally brushed against her ears and didn’t reprimand her when she told him that it tickled. Her eyelashes tickled him back in revenge when he passed over her eye to the bridge of her nose to her other eye. His palm lay flat on her cheek with the rest of his fingers stopping there to let the thumb go on without them. Next came the tip of her nose before going down to press against her lips. His heart seemed to catch in his throat when his thumb grazed her bottom lip. For a second he believed that she pushed her lips against his finger and left a kiss there, but both of them said nothing to each other in that moment nor the one after. Ominis pulled back, a silent ‘thank you’ was uttered under his breath. 

“Do you know what you look like?”

“I haven’t had the pleasure,” he stated curtly.

“May I do you the honor of describing you, then?”

“You may try.”

The sound of scraping wood grated his ears as her chair was being pushed closer to his. A presence was more noticeable at his side where she leaned in to get a better look. She hummed, tapping her fingers against the wood and seemed to take what felt like ages to decide where to attack first.

“You are very handsome,” she concluded. 

Ominis felt he would sputter his words and kept his mouth clamped shut instead. “Your skin is pale. There are moles here-” her finger traced over his face and tapped where the marks were, “-here and here.” She traced down the bridge of his nose. “A pointed tip, and sharp lips that seem to always be fixed into a frown. You truly do have an air of austerity about you.”

“I do not-”

“Shh.”

The finger was placed against his lips and remained there until she was sure he wouldn’t open them again. She traced along his jaw now and in that moment he felt what she must have when he was examining her face. For lack of better description, he felt naked beneath her scrutinizing gaze. 

“Rather sharp jaw,” he heard the frown in her voice. “It seems you were blessed with looks at birth. Are you aware of what the other Gaunts look like?”

“I’m told my family possesses some sort of allure. Mother always praised my older siblings on how handsome they were.”

“It’s an apt description. You are.” The bell tower announced the time somewhere in the far distance, a sound that was followed by a chair scraping against wood. Warmth left his face like the sun retreating behind a large mountainside. “I’ve got to go. I’ve an engagement I must hurry to.”

“I wasn’t aware you and Sebastian had something planned today.”

“Because we don’t. It’s.." she hesitated. "Complicated.” Her finger seemed to tap along the wood of the desk in a nervously paced rhythm. 

“Will you keep another secret for me?”

“I suppose I can. What is it?”

“I’m meeting a goblin. He has information I need and working with him might prove beneficial. Just don’t tell Sebastian this yet.”

“I shan’t, but-” He raised his brows. “You’re aware he’s not overly fond of goblins after what happened to Anne, correct?”

“Yes, I know. I will tell him in time, just not now. I fear his reaction may be a bit too much to handle at the moment.” She sighed heavily. “Still, it feels good to get that off my chest. Thank you for listening. You’re a good friend, Ominis. We should spend more time together.” With that, he heard her take off towards the front of the library. 

***

I hope my owl finds you well. I’ve transformed the letters into Braille and hope with sincerity that you cannot make sense of it. Should you ever find yourself in dire need of a reading partner, find comfort with the knowledge that you may ask me. 

It’s also my displeasure to report that the time I spent with you in the library was not as bad as I previously imagined and that I do not mind repeating the experience. 

Sincerely, 

Ominis Gaunt

[beomiracles]

SERENE'S 500 BASH

THIS EVENT IS NO LONGER OPEN FOR REQUESTS.

wow, recently this blog hit 500 followers which honestly was a milestone I never even considered reaching! I only started posting somewhat regularly back in late February and since then so many of you have tuned in to support my works and I'm forever grateful for every single one of you! 🙏💕

so...in order to celebrate I thought I'd host a little bash (bare with me since this is the first event I'm ever hosting...)

・everything related to this event will be tagged with, #serene's 500 bash ! and can be found on a separate masterlist linked here and on the main masterlist.

there are plenty of ways to participate in my celebration and the more that interact the happier you'd make me ! ↴

TO REVISIT AN OLD DREAM one request per person

・to revisit an old dream means that I will write a small part 2 or an extended scene (500-800 words) to one of my existing fics! this can also include different povs.

・for example you may request a bonus scene for Stranded or Thin Walls from Beomgyu's pov!

・you can find all existing dreams on my pinned post and here.

note that any ongoing series cannot receive a request for a bonus scene, that list includes, pretty princess, criminal conscience and watch my six.

SEND ME A PROMPT one request per person

・send me a prompt of any kind, can be nsfw! And I will write around 500 words based on said prompt.

・make sure to specify which member you'd like me to write for!

if you're looking for inspiration I suggest this list.

MOST TO LEAST LIKELY free range, send as many as you want!

・send me a small statement and I'll answer with who in txt I think would be most to least likely to do said statement. These can also be nsfw.

example -> "who in txt would be most likely to enjoy breath play?"

please heed my guidelines before sending a statement !

BUILD YOUR OWN DREAM one request per person

・this is perhaps the most interactive part of my celebration, and the most difficult one to explain ─ but stay with me okay?

・to build your own dream basically means that you are in charge of the plot to the fic I write. All you have to do is draw a basic picture of how you would like the dynamic between the mcs to look as well as the au/storysetting ─ from there I will write a scene from your "fic" ranging anywhere between 500-2k words.

if that sounded complicated then see my example!

"for my dream the mc and Soobin are sworn enemies of different kingdoms. They hate each other and just as they're about to draw their swords against one another, the cave around them collapses, leaving them enclosed in the darkness together"

from here I will continue to write a scene of your desired dream! make sure to read my guidelines beforehand and specify if the reader is gender neutral or female (I do not write for male reader). These dreams can be nsfw but keep in mind that I will write with a female reader in mind in that case.

・the more detailed your description is the better the scene I write will turn out so don't be afraid to go all out!

please note that all requests must be sent via my inbox where you specify that your request is for my 500 bash!

with that said I hope you guys will enjoy this little celebration and once again I'm so thankful to have you as my readers, much love from Serene 💕

[partikari]

Well howdy there, friend! We are pleased to announce this year’s Partikari Week, an open participation fandom event running from October 6th to October 12th. Here are the prompts!

10/6 - dawn / dusk 10/7 - hat / scars 10/8 - role swap / octopuff 10/9 - holiday / marriage 10/10 - job change / gods 10/11 - traveling / cooking 10/12 - au / family

The rules are pretty simple!

The main pairing should be Partitio/Hikari. You can add background pairings if you want, but Partikari should be the focus.

NSFW is allowed. Please use the appropriate tags especially for potentially triggering content. This goes for any entry.

Use the hashtag #partikariweek24 so the mods can find your work!

Confused about what all this is? Click on the cut below to read our FAQ!

WTF is a Partikari? It's a bird. It's the romantic relationship (or “ship”) between the characters Partitio Yellowil and Hikari Ku from the game Octopath Traveler 2! The ship is also known as Hikartio, which is a brand of cereal. But I'm pretty sure it's a bird.

What is Partikari Week? It's a weeklong event celebrating the Partikari ship! Each day from October 6th, 2024 until October 12, 2024 will be associated with a set of two prompts. Participants are encouraged to publish Partikari-centered fan works based on those prompts during that time frame. 

How can I participate? By creating fanfiction, fan art, cosplay pictures, or anything else (alternative media such as craftwork, fan songs, etc), based on one or more of the provided prompts! If you are unable to produce anything because you don’t have the time, the inspiration, or for any other reason, you can share social media posts containing content for Partikari Week! 

Where can I post my submissions? Twitter or Tumblr. Of course, you can publish fanfiction on AO3, FanFiction.net, or wattpad as long as you post a link to it on Twitter and/or Tumblr. Remember to use the tag #partikariweek24 when posting on social media sites so the mods can find your submissions.

When can I post my submissions?  Typically, on the associated day of your work’s prompt. For example, if the prompts for October 8 are allergy / tea, and you have a work based on “tea”, you would post it on October 8. However, if you can’t finish it on time or have other scheduling issues, you can always post it later (or even earlier if you’re going to be busy for the rest of the week).

What are prompts? Prompts are single words you can use as the inspiration for an entry. For example, if the prompt is “rain”, you can make something about Partitio and Hikari being caught in the rain! You can use as many or as little prompts as you like—e.g. if a day's prompts are rain / dust, you could have Partitio and Hikari dusting on a rainy day (achoo)! Or you can just make something about dusting. Whatever your imagination comes up with!

Do I have to participate every day and/or make something for every prompt? Heavens, no! It's fine if you submit only one thing for the whole week or more things than there are days and prompts! It boils down to what you can do and have time for. Make sure to prioritize yourself and your own comfort!

I don't ship them romantically but I like their friendship. Can I submit platonic content? Unless it leads to romance, no. Partikari Week focuses on their romantic relationship, so purely platonic content would not be in the spirit of the week. 

Can I include other ships? Yes, as long as Partikari is the main/focus. Please use either the relationship or additional tags on AO3 if you are including or alluding to another ship, as some readers may want to avoid content of those ships.

Can I include other ships involving Partitio or Hikari? If it is a past relationship and does not take up much space in the submission, yes. Otherwise, Partitio and Hikari should only be involved with each other in your submission. Please note this also includes polycules/OT3s, admittedly a gray area since Partikari is involved and you can certainly make OT3 content that does focus on them primarily, but since the OT3 is its own ship it’s probably for the best to leave that for something else.

Can I include Shadow Hikari/“Hikari” in my entry? Sure. The angry guy can come. I guess. 

Who are the people behind the curtain? captwaddledoo (she/her) runs the Tumblr partikari account. Her username is the same on Tumblr, Twitter, Bluesky, and AO3. She has a cat named Bernie and might like the color green, sunflowers, and coffee. We can’t say for certain.

Bad0mens (she/they) runs the Partikari Twitter account! They go by bad0mens/badomens444 on Tumblr and AO3 respectively and by mystrscatisland on Twitter. Notable features include: a caffeine addiction, being tormented by visions, and cursed hands.

[ink-and-dagger]

Heyyy Inky!!! Guess who it is! (jk) It's me Galaxy!! I've written the DWM song!!! And recorded it! It's called 'One Drink'. (hehe) It's not done professionally in any way, shape or form, but it's certainly finished. It's just a demo of me singing (badly-ish, ignore my baby voice gah I sound like a twelve year old) with a guitar backing, but I do imagine that if I ever do record this, it will be with more instruments than just guitar. 😅 I really really really really hope you like it. Really. Think of it as a love letter from me to you for writing DWM, because it really has been a major part of my life <3 This link will take you to the audio recording (it's on a google drive. Copy and paste it into your browser!): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QWXoZ8yZHFXhCAlHE4OZURTQGXzL9tlU/view?usp=sharing And I WAS gonna include a link to a google doc with the lyrics on it... but tumblr's being fussy and won't let me insert it. So, I've decided to just put the lyrics at the bottom of this ask, which is gonna make it very long but oh well. Shit happens. Also, if the audio recording link doesn't work - please please please tell me. I'll figure out another way to send it!

Anyway, the recording is accessible for anyone to copy into their preferred browser to listen to (if it works), so if any other DWM fans see this feel free to listen/read! Again, I hope you like it, Inky. Love you and everything you do <3 - Galaxy P.S. Inky, I would love love love to know every single one of your thoughts on lyrics as well if that's possible!

One Drink - Lyrics. A DWM song <3

Saint was a sinner

And he was feared by almost everyone

He was a ruthless killer 

A devil, modern to our time. 

She, oh she wasn’t perfect 

But compared to him; an angel from our sky.

Astrid. Always searching for her horizon

But it seemed like something she could never find.

She shared a drink with him one night

Apparently she’s the only one that would 

He pulled the bottle off the shelf, his inhibitions down you can tell

There’s something he’s suppressed

And the walls began to fall

I guess opposites attract after all

One drink that started it all x3

They, oh they weren’t perfect

They would fight all the time like you and I

One fight, got a little too consuming 

The pain was a knife through her heart 

He thought he jinxed them

He thought this one was a little too far gone

Their only saving grace was the rose tattoo upon her waist 

A symbol that in time they’d be alright

And the walls began to fall

I guess opposites attract after all

One drink that started it all x 6

Saint was a sinner

But she found her horizon in his eyes 

GALAXYYYY

I'm squeezing you so tight that you'll need to visit a chiropractor to straighten you back out again. I absolutely love this and i'm so honoured that my story inspired you to create a whole ass SONG?! Thank you so so much.

Also what are you on about singing badly? You've got a great voice! Really pure and folksy - it suits the style of song so well, especially with a solo guitar. Can totally picture you singing this song at nighttime sitting by a campfire with the local townspeople hanging off your every word. Also it's so damn catchy - I was already singing the chorus to myself after just the first listen (I may have listened to it 10 or 20 times since hehe)

Here's a one click link for anyone who wants to listen to Galaxy's amazing song!

And I LOVE all the lyrics! They convey the core essence of Silco and Astrid's characters and story so effectively. That's some serious skill my friend. You did in 200 words what it took me over 138k words to do lmfao.

I started to attempt to write out all my thoughts on the lyrics in this post but I had so many thoughts that it quickly proved too crazy to format on tumblr. SO, I put them in a google doc instead lmfao. You should be able to see my comments on the highlighted text but tell me if not.

Thank you again, truly from the bottom of my heart.

[timebegins-onopeningday]

Time Begins On Opening Day 2024: Round Up Post #1

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to Round-Up Post #1! This post includes links to all works posted in the first half of the season + details about First Half Commentfest which begins today and goes through the weekend.

Soft Deadline #1 offers us 20 (20!!) fanworks for five teams and 104 prompts across several teams as well as some broad and open-ended prompts! For a small fandom and only halfway through the season, that's pretty cool. If you're just finding this prompt meme now, or if you didn't finish something you were working on before the deadline, never fear - this prompt runs the entire length of the 2024 season! There is still plenty of time create.

Enjoy the works, slam that kudos button, leave a comment, and enjoy the second half of the MLB season!

Soft Deadline #2 is September 29, the end of the regular season.

🌞 First Half Commentfest 🌞

First Half Commentfest runs this weekend, from Friday July 19 to Sunday July 21. As we catch up with all these amazing works (fic! art! poetry! y’all are amazing!!) my challenge as a mod for us is to get every single one of these works at least five independent comments from five independent readers by the end of the weekend. (So we’re not including creator responses in that comment count!)

Why? Because it’s very easy to feel isolated as a creator – particularly in a small fandom like baseball rpf. We all know how easy it is to hit the kudos button and move on, but in a challenge designed to inspire creators for a very small, very spread out of fandom, a little encouragement can go a long way.

justleaveacommentfest has a list of resources for helping write comments on fic here and hxphaestion wrote some notes on what kind of comments resonate with artists (scroll for reblog) if you’re not sure where to start.

Let’s get all these works some comments!

🌞 Fanworks from the first half of the season 🌞

That we got as many fics as we did in the first half makes your mod SO happy, because we’re already past what we had last year!! This was a pain in the ass to put together because there were so many links and that delighted me. Shout out to you all, you’re all amazing.

I organized these by fanwork type, then grouped works by team and sorted alphabetically by the creator’s name + title (with the exception of one set of works, which are grouped in order of the series). Enjoy the works, bang that kudos button and COMMENT 🥳🥳

Art

Baltimore Orioles

[collage] heat waves by sapplyandherfriend

a celebration of dingers and slug edit: WOOOOOO TONY IS AN ALL STAR

Toronto Blue Jays

[collage] cheer on your team! by idlt

a toronto blue jays collage made on a 6x4 index card with a bunch of junk from the recycling bin

[collage] love song (show elation) by idlt

a vladdy and bo collage made on half of a page of cardstock with a bunch of junk from the recycling bin and a pile of old magazines that I got from someone in my neighbourhood who was going to throw them out, plus a few star stickers and a picture of vlad and bo pasted on top digitally

Poetry

Toronto Blue Jays

come home (the way they need you to) by idlt

A short poem about Vladdy and home and being seen.

Fic

Baltimore Orioles

one warm summer night (fireworks outside) by Settsplitt

Technically, they’re kind of hidden, standing a few steps down the tunnel, with their teammates all turned towards the fluorescent night sky, eyes fixed on the show. But still, Kyle thinks, as Adley tucks his hand under the hem of his pants, slipping his fingers beneath his belt and digging until he finds bare skin, this can’t be a good idea.

Milwaukee Brewers

In Stadium Light & Shadow by TheGlobeLifeBarn 

A thin satellite in orbit of nothing.

Philadelphia Phillies

Pressure Point by caltrain

Bryce fucked up his hammy and he’s being an enormous baby about it.

you think it’s different but it’s always the same by palimpsestic

Florida’s always so fucking humid, even in February—the air is sticky with unshed rain, hangs heavy with anticipation.

Who’s on First by powerblu (bluspirits)

A lot may have changed since Rhys first got called up to the Phillies: the size of the crowds, their record, the fact that they're playing in the World Series. But one thing is exactly the same: Bryce Harper is still there on the other team, annoying the hell out of him.

put some moves on you, babe (i know you need it) by pronoe

Bryson reminds himself to be careful where he sucks his marks on Alec’s skin, with the way he keeps his jerseys half-unbuttoned.

Seattle Mariners

Broken Foot and Cuddles by Anonymous

turns out that record-breaking pitch had actually been “breaking” in more ways than one. Poor Ty, with the foot fracture.

Toronto Blue Jays

Fiber arts for first inning starts by caltrain

There’s a hot guy no one has ever seen before at the softball clinic. He crushes three balls out of the park off of Kevin and pisses Kevin off so bad that Yusei slings an arm around his neck and kisses his cheek. “Can we get him?” he says happily.

5 Times The Blue Jays were Blue Gays: Number 1 Will Shock You! by idlt

George Springer is writing for the first edition of the new Blue Jays newsletter, organized and edited by Davis Schneider. George's first assignment? Clickbait the fuck out of everyone with the most unbelievable listicle ever (except somehow it is actually that gay)! Here's what he wrote, plus what Davis had to say about it.

he said i have bisexual swag! by idlt

An ode to Jordan Romano's short-lived yet glorious septum piercing (in the format of 2 idiots texting)

the grip of artificial chaos by idlt

Davis and Ernie sneak a moment in the dugout as the fireworks go off.

Out of Left Field by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Danny Jansen and Daulton Varsho were rivals playing on opposing baseball teams in high school. Now, ten years later, they are playing on the same team for the Toronto Blue Jays. As they weather the ups and downs of the baseball season, Danny and Daulton find an unexpected companionship in one another. But there is a lot on the line and neither knows if it is safe to indulge these feelings or if they are better left buried in the past.

Cover Your Bases by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Ten years after being high school rivals, Danny Jansen and Daulton Varsho started playing baseball on the same team for the Toronto Blue Jays. Their months together brought them closer as teammates, friends, and then something more. Now they need to decide what risks they’re willing to take if they want to make their relationship official.

Swing for the Fences by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Danny Jansen and Daulton Varsho are officially dating. Unfortunately, being public figures in a major league sport makes that anything but simple. They’ve agreed to keep things private until the end of the baseball season but that means Danny and Daulton must balance their blooming relationship and their work while navigating the ever-present media attention.

The Longest Road by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

After their nightly game of Settlers of Catan, Davis has a heart-to-heart with Spencer about his growing feelings for their mutual friend Ernie. Spencer offers some valuable advice and reassurance, which gives Davis the courage to accept when Ernie asks him to forgo the living room couch and share a bed for the night.

Therapy with Daulto Varsho by OneWhoSitsWithTurtles

Daulton has always been a listener rather than a talker. Whether it’s good news or bad news, he’s there to hear out his teammates. Sometimes, this leads to unexpected revelations.

[ultimate-sword-showdown]

Welcome to the Ultimate Sword Showdown!

In this poll, the coolest swords in media will battle to the death. Before we begin, let's go over some rules.

What defines a sword?

A sword must have a blade and a hilt--your nunchucks, hammers, and shurikens belong in another tournament.

The blade must be at least 1.5x longer than the hilt--no knives or spears here.

Any sword following these guidelines is welcome--longswords, short swords, broadswords, katanas, or anything else you can think of.

Addendums:

Swords from all media are allowed, including books.

The keyblades from Kingdom Hearts are allowed.

Dual-wielded swords may be submitted together.

Sentient/talking swords are allowed.

Characters who transform into swords are allowed, as long as a sword is their primary form/primary non-humanoid form.

These criteria should cover most edge cases--if you are unsure if a sword counts, you can always submit it anyway, and if I don't think it counts I will simply not include it.

Structure of the form:

The following questions are included on the form, with only series of origin being required to answer.

Name of the sword (e.g. Master Sword, Galaxia, Ludwig's Holy Blade). If the sword does not have a name, leave this box blank and fill in the other boxes to the best of your ability.

Series of origin (e.g. The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, Bloodborne).

Wielder (e.g. Link, Meta Knight, Ludwig). If this sword is wielded by both the player character and another character, specify the other character, as in most video games the player wields the majority of swords encountered in the game. If the sword is passed down from generation to generation a la Vampire Killer, list the family rather than a single person (e.g. Belmont Clan).

Describe the sword. You may describe the physical attributes of the sword, but please also describe the sword's accomplishments as well if possible. If the sword was used to level entire cities, tell me about it. If the sword is imbued with a special power that grants its wielder unique abilities, include that information. I will be including descriptions of all swords in the polls, and detailed descriptions will drastically cut down on the amount of research I have to do myself for this tournament.

Provide a link to a picture of the sword. This once again cuts down on the amount of extra work I have to do for the tournament. If possible please use a picture with the sword isolated (i.e. not held by its wielder). If no such picture is available, I will make do.

A link to the form can be found here.

Structure of the tournament:

I am not sure how long the submission period will last, but it will not be open past April 4th (1 week from now). I may close it early depending on the number of submissions I get. I will warn you 3 hours before closing the form.

After the form is closed I will work on making the bracket. Polls will begin 1-2 days after the bracket is posted.

I will be choosing submissions based not on how many times each sword was submitted but by which swords I personally deem cool enough to enter the bracket. This will be based on a mixture of appearance and accomplishments. Do not complain if your sword did not make it in.

I will limit this to three swords per series. If necessary, prelims will be conducted to determine which swords will make it in.

Rules:

You may submit as many different swords as you would like.

Do not submit the same sword multiple times--this bracket is not based on number of submissions, so this only serves as an annoyance.

Propaganda is allowed and encouraged--send it via reblog on the poll, an ask, or tag me in a separate post.

Be civil. I will not have wars in my tournament. If you do not respect this rule you will be blocked and will not be able to participate in the tournament.

I as the mod am the final call on decisions. I decide what swords make it into the bracket, and I will determine what to do in case of ties or other unusual circumstances. If this does not please you, you...too bad.

Miscellaneous

Mod goes by The Bladesmith, pronouns are they/them.

Tags:

#sword showdown -- all posts related to the sword showdown.

#not sword showdown -- any posts not related to the sword showdown.

#sword showdown polls -- all sword showdown polls.

#sword showdown propaganda -- all propaganda.

#sword showdown updates -- important non-poll posts related to the sword showdown.

#the bladesmith answers -- answered asks.

#the bladesmith speaks -- general posts.

Tagging other tournaments for visibility:

@divine-swag-summit @vg-soundtrack-showdown @blondbitchbeatdown @sapphicshipshowdown @mad-scientist-showdown @failgirl-tournament @anti-canon-trans-showdown @losersbracketofficial

[paperstorm]

please research before you spread misinformation.

here’s a list of people who have more co2 emissions from their private jets and no one says boo hiss about them

https://x.com/paigelovests/status/1755044352785551801?s=46&t=JifbNPSlNW49-5zn3cZcUg

and the college person she’s ‘suing’ (no law suits have been filed) is not a climate change activist like people are making it seem. he’s stalking every one of her flights and is pictures in private jets himself. Also was in Forbes 30 under 30 list

https://x.com/aidan7501/status/1755006326055248035?s=46&t=JifbNPSlNW49-5zn3cZcUg

Okay, let's do this. First of all, the fact that other billionaires are also emitting tons of co2 is not a reason to not talk about the verifiable fact that Taylor Swift is doing it. She doesn't get a pass on destroying the planet just because other people are doing it too. It is instead a reason that we should be talking about all of them, including her, so for others to view, from the first link in this ask, here are the names of some people who are also racking up insane co2 emissions (for transparency I don't know when this list is from, there are many articles saying Taylor is the top carbon emitting celebrity of 2023).

Shame on every single one of them, including Taylor.

Second, the Forbes 30 under 30 is a list of influential people who are "changing the world with their ideas and innovation". It's not a list of billionaires it's a list of people who are doing things Forbes thinks are important. Jack Sweeney was placed on the list in part because he's the same person who Elon Musk kicked off of twitter because he was tracking his jet too, for the same purpose: shaming a billionaire for taking 14 minute flights on his private jet and ruining the earth. The link you sent leading to pictures of Mr. Sweeney with a private jet is clearly meant to suggest he is actually a billionaire himself, but a very quick google search finds that his father is an American Airlines technical operations controller. There is no information to suggest he owns a private jet. You can very clearly see the plane is on the ground. Here is an article where Mr. Sweeney confirms he took that picture during a business conference and has never flown on a private jet.

Taylor's lawyers are calling what he's doing stalking (yes, in a cease and desist letter and the threat of a lawsuit, none have yet been filed), but he is posting what is clearly public information and she is by far not the only billionaire he's doing it to. His stated goal is transparency on how much billionaires are dooming us. Posting public information to social media while being physically nowhere near a celebrity is not stalking. He's been doing this to Elon Musk for years, there's an argument to be made that if it were possible to sue him over it for stalking, Elon would have already done that. You can argue whether Jack Sweeney should be doing what he's doing, but the cease and desist is clearly a PR move because Taylor's team's job is not telling the truth, it's to reduce negative attention on her, and this is generating negative attention.

There. I've done some more research. Perhaps you should do the same before assuming a picture of someone sitting in a parked private jet means we shouldn't care that Taylor has emitted so much carbon in the last year that she'd need to plant over 2000 trees to offset it.

[p-the-simmer]

Hi there! Sorry that I was (once again) MIA, I'm busy with college but also haven't really opened my game in quite a while. However, I've been working on something along with @syninplays and thought it was worth sharing it since many of you might benefit from it.

To further explain; we both enjoy building in the sims quite a lot, and often like to use real life references from house exteriors or plans, though certain pages (real state websites, mostly) delete the posts after the houses have been sold, which leaves us without that lovely reference we liked. And though we've been hoarding images from these websites for quite some time, we decided to put them to good use and share them with the community.

That being said, at the end of this post you can find a link to a dedicated page I created, with proper filters so you can search for the perfect house that suits your sim's families.

Houses can be sorted by number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and by other facilities/extras such as having a garage (some houses have a dedicated space within the lot where a car can fit, but as it's not inside/an actual garage, we agreed to not consider those spaces as a garage), a pool and lastly if they're castles! We might eventually add more filters if we find it necessary, but the existing ones should do for now. We are very likely to add more houses too, though it depends on what we find and like enough to save/make an archive of.

Note that every single house posted in that page, if you click on the image, has a "preview" button which will take you to a Google Drive folder with the house's plans plus some other pictures; not every existing image of the house is included, as we only download those that we believe showcase the house's exterior/interior features best - aka no ugly interiors unless they somehow help understand the layout.

Last but not least, we don't take any credit from the house's pictures or the plans. Most pictures were taken from Savills or Inigo House, and you may be able to find the listings (if the house wasn't sold) if you search by image using the pics we shared.

Here you can see the tumblr page with filters (we strongly recommend you don't try to preview this from the app, as it won't work)!

[pudding-parade]

Fancy Asprise by dbnecz

And now for something completely different! Y'all, I love alien worlds. I love the terrain painting they usually have and the bizarre landscapes of them. I horde them. So, I will definitely be featuring some of them in world overviews.

This one is one of my favorite alien worlds. It's what I think Lunar Lakes should have been. Its backstory is that it's a human-inhabited ex-mining/prospecting colony on an alien planet, not an alien world inhabited by aliens. So, it's basically familiar sorts of architecture with an exotic backdrop, with a mix of futuristic and grungy. Many of the houses really do give me a vibe of houses that originally were prospector shacks that were haphazardly added on to over time because their layouts are pretty bizarre but yet functional and interesting to look at.

But before we get to that, the relevant info: It's a large, unpopulated world, 2048x2048, but it's built in a pretty compact way, basically in concentric circles on different levels, so it doesn't take forever to get around in it. I'm pretty sure it needs all EPs, and it needs at least a few of the stuff packs, namely Town Life for its grocery rabbithole, and the Katy Perry and Fast Lane packs for deco stuff on various lots. It may need more than that; I suck at identifying this stuff, I'm afraid. Hopefully I'll get better at that as I do these overviews. According to the world's download page the only Store content required is the Lucky Simoleon Casino lot, and so far as I can tell, that's accurate. I think it could have done with some of the Lunar Lakes stuff, but I'm guessing the creator was trying to limit the required Store content. You could always add that stuff yourself.

According to its Exchange page, the world has 41 residential lots and 36 community ones, and I'm assuming that's accurate. I didn't count them. Most of the residential lots are on the small side, many with only one bedroom, but there are also some larger ones with more bedrooms. So while this isn't a world where you'd be able to play lots of large families, if you want to play singles, childless couples, and smaller families, it will work very well.

The world has all spawners except for the Island Paradise and Into the Future ones, but it doesn't have a lot of spawners. Just a few of each of them. (Frankly, I'd add nanite spawners and bot-building facilities, but maybe that's just me.)

The world doesn't have a few things you may or may not want/need it to have:

Military, science, and school rabbitholes.

A fortune teller wagon and a Vault of Antiquity

A library

A festival lot

Consignment shops

A dedicated public pool, though the gym lot has a big pool on it and one of the lots designated as a beach is actually more like a pool.

It does have all the other rabbitholes, including the Into the Future observatory, two fairy arboretums, and multiple diners. The city hall is the ItF one, so if you want the military career available, an easy way to get it would be to use the Transmogrifier mod to turn that into a multifunction city hall/police/military rabbithole. Then, on the lot that currently has a police rabbithole, plunk down a school rabbithole instead. And to fix the lack of SCIENCE!, the world has this big, odd 64x64 park that's mostly concrete (kind of like Hidden Springs's big park) and that only has a little building with restrooms and a small room with a coffeemaker on it. I'm thinking I'd put the ship-shaped science rabbithole from Lunar Lakes there to add science careers to the world.

As usual, the title of this post is a link to the world's Exchange page or I have uploaded a .world file here. The latter goes in your game install files under GameData - Shared - NonPackaged - Worlds.

Oh, and just a note: I took these pictures with this lighting mod in the game (edited so that the moon is super-huge) which I think goes very well with this world's landscaping and overall "feel."

More pics and info behind the cut!

Here are Edit Town and map view of the two main areas in the world. There are a couple other smaller areas, too, but I don't want to do too many pics of this type.

This is the area with most of the rabbitholes. There are also a few parks, a fire station, some residential lots, and the casino lot.

This area has mostly residential lots, but also a fishing spot and a Showtime venue.

Now for some community lots!

This is a fishing spot. It has lots of alien sparklies on it, and it makes the alien sound, too. It's pretty cool. I love the rainbow rocks.

This is supposed to be a mining site, I think. I expected it to have rock/gem spawners, but it doesn't. It does, however, have lots of mushrooms. So if you need a mushroom for, you know, whatever reason.... ;) I'd add rock/gem spawners, though.

This is a dance club, with an Egyptian theme, only in hot pink. Trippy! The world also has a dive bar, an exclusive lounge, and the casino. So, along with the Showtime venues, there's quite a bit of entertainment. Speaking of Showtime venues...

This is a Showtime performance park. There is also the Flying V lot (there's a pic above the cut) and a private venue. So, you can do the Showtime careers in this world, if you like to play them.

This is the back of the junkyard.

This is a cafe lot with a barista and a professional bar, bubble-blowers, and lots of deco from the Katy Perry pack. And that's my Sim blowing bubbles. Just 'cuz.

This is the fire station. And there are lots of other interesting, original (aside from the Store casino lot) community lots, too.

Now here are pics of some of the residential lots in various sizes:

I just love how random they are. All of them are different, all built by the creator of the world and, like I said, they are mostly on the smaller side. Even the larger ones will sometimes have only two bedrooms, so as-is, they aren't really suitable for large families. You could possibly re-partition some of them to make more bedrooms, though. The first pic in this batch is the largest house in this world. It has five bedrooms, while the others have fewer. Overall, there are some very interesting builds in this world.

And we'll finish out with a couple extra scenery pics mostly because I'm in love with the big damn moon.

[tropetember]

[Image description. Image reads “Tropetember”, in the background, a picture of a mug placed on an open book in front of a blanket invokes a cozy feel. End id] Thanks to @supericelight​ for the image description!

We’ve tried to answer as many common questions as possible below, but if there’s anything else you want to know, our ask box is open.

How do I post my work to the Tropetember AO3 Collection?

When you go to post a new work in AO3, there will be a section that says ‘Post to Collections / Challenges’. In the field next to it, type ‘Tropetember 2024’.

Do I have to post my work to AO3, or can I just post it to Tumblr, or a different site?

You can post your work wherever you like! As long as you make a submission through our Submissions form, or mention us @tropetember in your own post including either the link to wherever the fanwork is hosted, OR the text of the fic, we will post it.

You can also post only to the AO3 collection if you don’t want your work on Tumblr.

How do I tag/format my submission to the blog?

The most important thing is to check the box for #R-tropetember if your fic is NS/ FW (AO3 rating of M or E).

You can also choose from the other checkboxes to tag your work, but please make sure to use these responsibly and correctly! For example, don’t check all of the different types of media unless your work genuinely falls under these categories. Each submission needs to be individually checked and posted by the mods, so please don’t make our job harder - we’re already putting in many hours of work!

Incorrectly tagged works will have all nonessential tags removed and will therefore not show up in the search results.

Please make sure to include your fic’s TITLE, TROPE & SHIP (if applicable). For ship fics, the commonly accepted ship name (main ship only) should be included in brackets after the title, if you know it, and also the main trope/prompt(s) you used in the fic.  Any further courtesy or content warnings are appreciated, but not required.

What do I do if my submission isn’t posted?

Give us 24 hrs to post your submission - both of us work, so we aren’t always online. If it’s been longer than that, it’s either Tumblr screwiness or human error, so please do send us a message or ask so we can check we received it. We want to post all your submissions!

What kinds of fanworks are allowed?

Anything and everything! You can post fic, art, craft, fanvids, playlists, original music, audio, or whatever you like, as long as it fits a trope.

Can I skip some days?

Absolutely. You can do as many or as few days as you wish.

Why are there multiple prompts listed for each day? Do I have to combine them, or can I just pick a single one?

We listed various prompts for each day to give everyone as much choice as possible. You definitely aren’t expected to combine them (but you can if you want!).

Is Tropetember open to any fandom, character or ship?

Yes, it is! Feel free to create content for whichever fandom you want, including crossovers.

What if I miss the day for the prompt I want to do? Can I do the prompts out of order?

It doesn’t matter if you miss the specific day - please go ahead and write the prompt that caught your eye! Feel free to do any of the prompts on any day of September.

What if I’m late and don’t finish before the end of September?

We’ll be allowing late entries for one week after September 30th. If you miss that deadline, the AO3 collection will remain open until the one for next year is up and you can still post your works there.

Can the fills for the prompts be a new chapter of an existing fic, or part of an existing series?

Yes, that’s fine with us. Go ahead!

Can I combine the prompts with another event or bingo?

Absolutely!

Will you reblog NS/FW or controversial material?

Yes, in general we will. However, anything NS/FW or particularly controversial will be tagged with 'R-tropetember’ at the mods’ discretion. Please make sure to block this tag if you don’t want to see NS/FW content.

We will also attempt to tag works with any other relevant tags for blocking, including the ship name if possible. However, we won’t necessarily read all works ourselves, so we won’t be able to tag for all work content. Please heed the AO3 tags.

Remember the first rule of fandom: ship and let ship. :)

Why do you post and reply at strange times?

We don’t live in the USA, so our time zones are different. :) One of us is European and the other is Australian.

What’s with #27, “gay panic”? Isn’t that a discriminatory legal defence that allows for hate crimes against LGBTQIA+ people?

We (the mods) are both members of the LGBT+ community and we are very much aware of our gay history and the way this term has been used against people like ourselves. However, this phrase has a history of being thoroughly reclaimed by fanfic authors, with use dating back well prior to our own entry into fandom (and we’re old enough to remember the days of Livejournal, Wordpress and Fanfiction.net!) Feeling an initial sense of panic over one’s sexuality is something that is highly relatable to most people in the LGBTQIA+ community and that most of us have experienced, and the use of the phrase “Gay Panic” to describe a crisis of sexuality is part of our intertwined communities’ history.

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Welcome to Tropetember!

Tropetember Prompt List

Tropetember Hard Mode Prompt List