#I don't wanna clutter people's dashes))

[ariaste]

listen i've had a 100 degree fever for four days and i have not been able to string any thoughts together except for gently rotating Devil's Minion in my brain and the bleary conclusion i have come to is this:

we know armand is a control freak

we know armand has spooky psychic powers of imposing his desired reality on top of other people's lived realities

the interview is happening despite armand supposedly claiming that he thinks it's a bad idea

Armand gives in to participating in the interview awfully quick. including a theatrical reveal of his true self at exactly the right moment for maximum Drama.

therefore, stay with me here, I will argue that armand DOES ACTUALLY want the interview to be happening. Who else is going to be pushing for it? Louis??? If Louis pushed for something Armand didn't want, Armand would simply wipe it from Louis' mind and move on with his day. He has that power, and yet he didn't USE IT in this case. So that means that the little tissue paper objections are mostly for show and to camouflage his true intentions (see also, though: the scene in Paris where Louis comes in and is playing maitre and Armand offers just a teeny resistance of "oooh but i'm looking at Sam's new pages", so it's a documented behavior pattern). There is one exception, but we'll come back to that in a sec.

So then the questions are: Why does he want it to be happening now as opposed to any other time? What is his motivation for having it happen again at all? What changed between 1973 and now that caused this?

(the rest under a cut bc this is gonna get long and i don't wanna clutter people's dashes too much)

my wild fever hallucination theory rn is that armand (my canceled wife who i stand with) is manipulative and psychopathic enough that he may have looked at daniel at some point in the 1970s and said to himself "you know what, the one thing that I would change about him is if he was like 40 years older, because i'm kinda into that, and also maybe he hates me a little bit, because i'm kinda into that as well" and then set Daniel on the back burner to basically finish cooking into the Perfect Daddy Boyfriend.

so why is he doing this whole charade again? Because the first time Daniel had the interview, the end result was "omg omg omg make me a vampire PLEAAASE", right? So Armand's insane little brain is like "ok, so we do it again, and replicate the same results :) and this time i will win and get everything i want, just like always :))))"

Going back to the tissue-paper objections i mentioned above, the one exception that strikes true for me is when Armand tells Louis that he's lost control of the interview. What control? What control, babygirl? what are you trying to control about this interview? what is the goal that isn't being achieved rn? Are you worried that Daniel seems Jaded and Cynical and Unimpressed nowadays? Are you worried that Louis does not seem to be selling the Allure Of Being A Vampire as effectively as he did back then and that Daniel is not going to beg for it like he used to? Armand is so used to being around people who NEVER EVER CHANGE in hundreds of years and so maybe he has forgotten that mortals do change actually. Oh no. Science experiment cannot be replicated. Results are going awry. PANIC.

this would also explain why he keeps explaining himself to Daniel, censoring the diaries, and lying about his involvement in things. could it be that he thinks Daniel won't play along with what he's supposed to be doing (ie: being deeply into him) if he knows upfront that Armand is Fucknuts Crazy?

that is where he is wrong tho. Daniel thinks fucknuts crazy is irresistibly hot. Daniel "I want BOTH [to survive AND the book] >:\" Molloy, aka Daniel "YOU BOTH FUCKED LESTAT? :DDD" Molloy aka Daniel "Fascinating Boy" Molloy loves mess. he loves mess. he's an investigative journalist who interviews KGB agents and the most dangerous people in the world because he's an adrenaline junkie who sincerely loves the thrill of hanging out with people who might kill him. He has been chasing that high since 1973 (and I use that phrasing intentionally). Every time Armand tries to control the narrative and woobify himself and act like he's not absolutely insane bc actually he's innocent and blameless, he is shooting himself in the foot re: the pursuit of his endgame goals. And that's extremely funny to me. Bc Daniel's love language is "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU [enraptured, intrigued, captivated, fascinated]"

and in conclusion, that's why they're the ship of all time, ur honor. defense rests.

(will this make coherent sense once i'm not sick anymore? idk.)

[vntako]

vn* in a bottle: petit game collection vol.1

hm, i guess there's a bit of an irony talking about this before needy girl, but here we are. i played this with my darling and had a really nice time

this game is a spin-off of needy girl overdose / needy streamer overload. it's collection of 3 minigames and a developer's notes room. it's retro goodness, not that i'm that old to know. i did play toradora portable though, and that had some extra content similar to this. i guess that main difference is that you're paying for this extra content, huh. i feel it's pretty worth it if you really like needy girl

only one of the minigames is a vn, so let's talk about that last

break out kangel

it's kangel breakout. this one is entirely in japanese. it'd be fine if there wasn't a little bit of dialogue, but otherwise you're not missing anything

i'm not sure how common it is to have strip breakout as an extra minigame in vns, i've only played one other that has something like this, but it kinda feels like a staple to include if that makes sense? i could be wrong. i don't exactly know what to search online to find that kind of info, too

anyway this is just strip breakout. break the blocks, collect the falling power ups and uh remove kangel's seifuku. simple as that. she's ofc wearing smth under that, there's no nudity in this game

don't die, kangel!!

this one may generally be found to be more enjoyable than breakout. it's a shmup where you shoot your fans with meds. i like the art, it's super cute. though i could say about every kangel and ame art in this game

there's a bit of story that's mildly engaging, i found it neat. you're typically here for the gameplay though

the street is just a background, you stay entirely on this screen. you have pills to use as ammo, and your only objective is to not die (like the title tells you). after a few waves of nerds, a boss appears. and there's three bosses to beat

after a wave you get to pick a new pill. picking the same type of pill upgrades it. they're pretty self-explanatory. then it randomly shuffles some of it into your ammo every time you reload. also you reload with RMB, which also lets you dash a bit

it doesn't take that long to beat (this is stage 1's clear screen though). i had a fair bit of fun with this one. you do have to beat the boss, but you can let every other nerd just pass you

kangel's room

this is the credits. the people who worked on the game have stuff to say, so listen properly!!

ame's happy happy dating game

i couldn't screenshot this one properly, so please forgive the clutter. i don't really wanna crop it all so in exchange i offer you uh, you get to see my wallpaper

it's been that for a few months now

ame wants to go on a date with you, so you better choose well!! i think the most interesting part of this game is that it let p-chan monologue their thoughts. they're kinda messed up

ignoring the fact that i only took this screenshot now, you get to pick where you wanna take ame on a date for the next few days

since you get to pick, there's a good and bad ending, naturally. better not give her a bad time, mmkay?

i realized once some cgs showed up that this is where people have been getting those nice ame wallpapers from. the art for the vn is nice, it's really neat and clean, and ame looks super cute. the music is mixed a bit weirdly at times (kangel's theme is so loud) but overall i liked the aesthetic direction here

p-chan is here to give us a description of the world as someone really close to ame. however they describe things reflects how ame sees it. ame is fleshed out so much more than we see her in the base game through p-chan's monologues here (the base game does it great though lemme just clarify). i mean more to say that this format lets people stay and really be with ame past the webcam app on p-chan's screen. it feels a bit dangerous, to occupy the same space as her. and of course it is, ame being who she is. though that goes the same for all humans

i think the bad ending represents a lack of consideration and care one might have towards people. i went for it "just to see what it would be" without regard for how someone might feel about it. it tracks given the conditions for that bad end, too. impulse, disregard, the absence of seeing while doing.

going for the good end kinda feels like a chore, given you have to see everything in the game. though, it's supposed to feel more like a prayer, i think. a connection with ame, of sorts? seeking out and trying to understand her through the places she goes and hearing what she thinks. it might not be something you'd consider pleasant, but few things in life really are. even less so for humans. ame is a human

it's easy to connect with angels, all you need is the internet. i want to connect with human beings, too

[disfrutalakia]

I wanna vent (? Not sure if that's the best word but I will tag it as that) a bit about the qsmp right now so don't mind me ^-^ under the cut too as precaution, I don't want to clutter people's dash

Like if anyone has ever talked to me in private you know that I usually prefer to stay positive, to hope for the best always but it's tiring always doing that, and yes I try to be level headed at all times when it comes to the admins situation but it's hard when we don't know what's going on truly and I get it, we are not entitled to those informations and many things can be being resolved behind the scenes but it's hard to not get anxious and think that the worst is going to happen soon.

Again, I try to not doompost but my brain gets the best of me sometimes and when I'm like that I try not to post and I'm sure everyone has noticed that I'm posting a lot less this year when compared to 2023 and the truth is, I'm tired, not of being here or posting really, I love being here it feels nice and comfortable most times but everything feels so unstable right now that I'm afraid of posting into the main tag now and irritating someone, and I dunno it's weird and complicated. Just a lot has happened as we all know and it's hard to remain positive for most of it.

This is nothing really, I just needed to talk before I exploded so really, I don't mind if nobody reads this, I just needed to talk a bit

Anyway guys I love all of you still and want to be around, it has just been... hard you know?

[oleander-nin]

🥑🧸🌻🥐

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help? - I wouldn't text a moot for this, but Leon or Stan ig(idk if they wanna be tagged, but hi pookies ily)

🧸 ⇢ what's the fastest way to become your mutual? - Write or draw? idk, I'm weirdly picky with who I follow(I hate 'cluttering' my dash), but if someone talked to me often + made themselves known I'd end up following them after a while. Especially if they made some form of posts that's not just reblogs(I almost never reblog from people I see, I reblog from the original poster). I really hope that didn't just make me sound conceited.

🌻 ⇢ tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis - @fried-milkfish @yanteetle (sorry for the tag, but I love you guys)

🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh  - idk if this counts but responging "that's rough buddy", "Cowabummer", or "Womp Womp" to anything

[catboii]

((just a "little" (ha) update I guess, nothing major, just a note that I'm sorry if I post alot this week with seemingly no regard for my/my muse's vast presence on the dash, or if I end up writing alot of short weird drabbles to vent.... if there's questionable stuff it'll be tagged like always <3

I understand if you need to unfollow me to keep your dash clear for other people if you're mobile etc. or if you need to blacklist my muse's url for a bit if it's overwhelming

After xmas everything may have settled and if you wanna refollow then I'd welcome you back and wouldn't ask any questions. your comfort (whatever that may classify as in the context) is my utmost priority!

normally I try not to clutter, and I try to keep general post reblogs minimal and just queue most of them. I'm just... not doing too good rn

then again it's a 50/50 that I'll be posting nothing at all, just making my muse's presence known if it wants to sorta wave at someone from the depths of my brain hell jail.

I'll still be checking in around xmas stuff bc this muse gives me v happy bubbly vibes whenever I write it and that's honestly what I need rn.

I'm sorry if your muse reblogs/replies to one of mine's posts or smth and I seemingly glance over it. I genuinely just didn't see it. I always try and respond to stuff, or if it doesn't know how to reply I at least acknowledge that my muse saw it by liking it. but I might not have the mental capacity to actually keep up w stuff

...

BASICALLY I'm either gonna be kinda quiet or rly hyperfixated on not being in my own head for the next week or so.

I'm obv stressed anyway bc I need to do xmas shopping still and it's a struggle bc online it probs won't come in time. we're going "late night shopping" on thursday though so hopefully we can get a bunch of stuff then

but mainly an old work friend of mine passed away today. He's been unwell for a few years, and I dunno if he knew what it was and was just keeping it quiet, or if they genuinely couldn't work it out. last I heard he was getting MRIs.

I had a complicated relationship w him (positive) bc he was either bipolar or had BPD like me (although he wasn't diagnosed with either, but it was obvious he at least had bipolar), and if you know anything abt BPD you know what an FP (favourite person) is, and we were sort of each other's when we were working together? I think. like I say he wasn't diagnosed, but it felt like that. we hit it off really quick and were both really comfortable with each other, and he was just the sweetest most supportive person. he was one of my FPs, which basically means my brain was cursed to be in intense friendlove with him. He would tell me that he loved me and appreciated my friendship, was always saying you need to tell people you love them, however you can, however you mean it, because you don't know if you'll ever get to tell them again

he always showed off the little things I made him and made sure everyone knew exactly where he got the silly little origami animals on his desk, or who made his juggling balls that were his favourite thing in the whole world bc I made them for him by hand, and picked the fabric out specifically for him.

One time around xmas, bc of covid, we had these big plastic screen dividers between our desks and I used posca paint pens to draw him a HUGE Robin in a scarf and santa hat (his name was Robin and people always got him little Robin themed things, he loved them) on the one by his manager desk, like a name tag, but Facilities told him he needed to clean it off and chastised him thinking he did it, and you're "not supposed to vandalise work equipment" even though they're literally washable and it was xmas. we were sticking decorations everywhere, how is it any different? but he played along but he was really mad. He didn;t wanna say it was me that did it, because he thought I might've gotten in trouble, but he also wanted to argue that I'd put alot of work into it. I hadn't put that much in, it was just for fun and I liked drawing it, and he got to see it! That was the important part. and I said so. but I cleaned it off and drew him a new Robin on a piece of paper and he kept it at his desk like a retired picket sign, and told the story to anyone who would be polite enough to listen

mostly though, he gendered me correctly (and he was in his 60s so being so passionate abt they/them pronouns was just really sweet, though he was clearly bi but still in the closet, so it was maybe a little projection, in a way, or just straight up quiet queer solidarity), and literally agressively made sure everyone else did too, when he realised I'd been just letting people at work use whatever pronouns, he got really proactive and made sure all my paperwork was marked as "them" officially (with my permission). if anyone misgenered me he would get visably annoyed or disgusted, and there were a couple people who "forgot" (every time) and he actually got angry at them about it and reported them for harassment, which might've been a little extreme, but I honestly felt so validated, and I'm tearing up thinking about it. I don't think anyone's ever fought that hard in my corner, especially after only knowing me for, at that point, less than a year.

We worked together in a couple different parts of the business for a couple years, until some stuff happened that I shouldn't say bc I need my rp blog(s) to stay far away from my professional life, but we were gonna be working together doing something else, but it wasn't his thing, it was stressful and there were other reasons, but he just lost it and walked out.

we had a little joke when we were training before he left, he had this soft toy robin that he let me borrow because I was really anxious, and I gave it a little notepad and pencil and wrote something silly on it for when he got it back each time. usually some out of context joke on what we learned that day, so we could both laugh about it. but when he left I still had it, and I messaged him saying I would get it back to him sometime, but he said to keep it to remind me of him.

I put it away to keep it safe, but I'm gonna have to go and find it, because it's one of the only physical things I have left of him.

[azrahelhasmoved]

gonna be doing a softblocking spree momentarily. people who have followed me within the past week / week in a half, no worries. you're safe in this. my dash is just a little cluttered and i'm starting to feel like a number / source so lemme fix that before i end up being forced to move blogs again and i really don't wanna do that.

[lynslegion]

Hey hello how about 01, 12, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and 55 for the HORRIBLE ask game

Ye shall rejoice my friend

I'm gonna answer these under a read more just so I'm not cluttering people's dashes up ^_^

01. Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

Well, no not really I suppose. My mom passed away although I don't think she'd like who I am now if she were still here. Never met my dad, he left before I was born.

03. Do you regret anything?

Plenty of things I suppose! I guess most of all is not taking better care of my body so now I'm constantly having health issues because of it. Slowly fixing myself back up though so here's hoping that it'll be smooth sailing now ^_^

05. What is your relationship status?

Willingly single. I wouldn't want to date right now since I kinda wanna focus on getting my own life together before worrying about dating and all that.

08. Played any sports?

Youth baseball and soccer. Wasn't much of a fan of baseball but soccer was fun! I eventually fell off with it but I have fond memories of it.

12. Have you ever stayed up 48 hours?

Oh yeah, for sure. Longest streak was uh...4 days I think? I had just been put on Adderall and had started playing Conan exiles with my friends so I stayed up for like 4 days straight playing the hell out of it. It was a lot of fun xD

13. Do you hate anyone at the moment?

I mean aside from obvious answers like billionaires and all that, not really! If I don't like someone I tend to just not interact with or think about them.

21. What are your plans for this weekend?

Playing Fallout 3 and New Vegas as well as searching for Christmas gifts! Cutting it a little close I know, I just ran out of time tbh lol.

34. Who/What was your last dream about?

Oh goodness I have kinda abstract dreams, I like to consider them more like movies that I have a first person view of I guess? I can't quite recall what the dream was about specifically but I remember riding around in a cramped car with two people. That's about all I got sadly!

55. Are you mean?

I used to be very mean I think. It's taken a lot of work but I think I've managed to make myself a much nicer person than I was. I try to be very positive now and compliment people and all that, and be much more understanding of mistakes and miscommunications. I used to be very short tempered and would lash out, but I realized that I wouldn't want to be around someone like that so why should I do that to other people? Anyways I'd like to think I'm not mean anymore.

Thank you for all of the questions, I really appreciate them! I hope you have a wonderful day! ^_^

[garrettwrites]

Also: if you have a """vibe to keep""" or, like me, are running an art blog on the side and don't want to clutter it... literally just create a spam sideblog. A sideblog where you reblog fandom stuff, random posts, make your own fandom theories or give irl opinions... it's not hard. In fact, you can use the reblog feature to get people to interact with your sideblog too!

As an artist, seeing some of my art have 150 likes and only 15 reblogs makes me wonder what the point is. If those 150 likes were 150 reblogs - hell, even half of that - my work would probably have tripled the amount of people it reached (or more).

But this is NOT JUST ABOUT ART/OG WORKS EITHER. Likes do jack shit for this website. They don't show up on the dash. NOBODY goes to your blog to check your likes (unless they for some reason wanna find something about you). Hell, most people have their likes and following tabs hidden - and those ONLY APPEAR on your MAIN BLOG. Your likes are good as acknowledgement tools and bookmarks, but that's it. They do jack shit.

Reblog stuff. Create a sideblog for your fanart spam or whatever and link it in a pinned post. Say fuck it, tag your stuff properly, and just share content on your main blog.

Sure no one can tell you what to do. It's your social media. But the point of social media is to, well, be social - likes on Tumblr honestly should be disabled forever because they contribute almost nothing to such a simple function. And making likes work like they do on Twitter wouldn't work either because Tumblr fundamentally goes against such a system: you have sideblogs for different stuff. If I follow your baroque history sideblog, but your main one is about Videogame A and Hello Kitty and multiple conspiracy theories on the properties of Napoleon's asscrack I just don't wanna see that on my dash. Why would I? I followed your history sideblog. It would never work if it got implanted.

if you’re a new tumblr user from tiktok or IG or something and only like posts and dont reblog them yeah people will think you’re a bot and block you but you will also make this website actively worse. they want “algorithmic” users like you, served recommended posts through likes, not people who just follow each other and respond to the direct chronological feed. there is a reason this website is still better than the rest, even with all its problems, do not ruin this

[heartscfvalor]

9 personal blogs

Personal blogs as in....having a personal blog or allowing personals to follow an RP blog?

If it's the first, I think it's a grand idea, if you have the patience for it. Especially if you wanna reblog and post things that might otherwise clutter up the dash and some people don't wanna see it all the time, you know? There's a lot of muns who want to have their dash be only rp threads and rp memes to throw at their mutuals. A "clean dash" they call it. Having a personal blog can lessen the chances of having a cluttered dash, and you have your own little corner of tumblr to yell into the void. Hell, I had a personal when I first joined tumblr, and then I discovered the rpc and was like, "Hey this looks neat!"

As for allowing personals to follow the rp blogs... I used to do that. And I still do, but only with people I know for sure won't steal my threads. Unfortunately, when I had to eventually implement the "no personal blogs unless you're a hub/have an rpc sideblog" rule, it was due to personals reblogging my threads and then getting angry at me when I asked them to delete what they reblogged.

One guy had the audacity to tell me if I "didn't want my stuff reblogged, I should have tagged it as such" like... That doesn't help either? I remember three different blog cropping up that purposefully went into the "do not reblog" tag specifically to reblog posts to make people angry.

So... I don't have anything against personal blogs specifically. I block on sight if they don't have an rp sideblog simply to protect my own stuff. And I don't follow a lot of personals for the same reason. Personally, I like keeping my blogs the way they are. If I ever wanna make a new personal of my own, I might use it to promote some of my fanfics and reblog a bunch of my interests and hyperfixations. I'm not sure yet.

[musedriven]

@littlebadger memed // 📝 + Danny Phantom, hehe~

now this is a fun question. I already do RP Sam, Danny, and Ember ( gotta make sure she's on my muse list idk if I ever properly added her on there ) BUT since I want to challenge myself to characters I'm not already writing -- I'd say probably Penelope Spectra and Kitty. they both seem fun to write for different reasons. more in depth reasons under a read more bc I don't wanna clutter up the dash too much.

she would be fun because there is so much angst potential with her. she feeds on insecurities and fears to make herself young. she has a human 'skin' that lets her blend in easier than any other ghost. she psychologically analyzes people and uses their fears and weaknesses against them and I just think she's Neat and would be a fun villain to write. i'd love a chance to actually flesh her out more and give her more depth as to why she feeds on negative emotions and just play around with her more in different scenarios. i also just really like writing angst and the idea of a character that feeds on misfortune and negativity has a lot of potential for those kids of threads. specially in crossover scenarios.

kitty would be fun to write because she was never actually fleshed out that much in canon. she was Johnny's Girl. she was a girl in love and protective of her partner but she got hurt trying to leave the ghost zone and needed to possess someone to be able to leave. more than once it's shown that she can't just leave the ghost zone on her own and i'd love to play that up more. the episode girls night was fun too though ; but i like the idea that she got so badly hurt during the first escape attempt that she physically cannot keep her form outside of the ghost zone now without a host. and honestly I'd just love to give her more of a personality than just 'clingy stereotypical girlfriend'.

[piningpercussionist]

(I dont wanna keep reblogging their piece back and forth to answer so doing this)

@noizepushr yeah, it's mentioned in the blog description now actually! Reblogs are mostly run on queue; sometimes I straight post something and I'll make a note of that in the tags. I like to have posts still going when I'm offline, and I don't wanna clutter people's dashes super bad or anything.

The fresh posts to the tags have slowed a little bit maybe, so it's probably more manageable to just reblog the things I want to reblog, but I like the system I've got going. It sometimes leads to funny coincidences with things leaving the queue relative to other posts I end up making.

I also schedule some stuff to post earlier in the queue, for like, a nice mix of new and "old" stuff.

It's mostly just because of my anxiety I think-- I get stressed out sometimes before I go to reblog something, so if I queue it, it's more out of my hands I guess?

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

boutta drop a whole mini-essay on how we've gotta stop assigning morality to feelings that I just drafted in one go for no reason except that I was thinking about it in the shower the other day and tumblr is just the best place for me to come with such thoughts until I can get to college and find people to talk to there

[theprofessionalpromptmaker]

(I’m feeling like reading something inspired by stuff from this blog, but google isn’t helping me find anything so if you guys know any untagged/uncredited/etc. fics/drabbles/etc. that you wrote or have seen inspired by one of the blog’s prompts, please send them my way! I’m really curious!)

[rosalithe-blog]

for     every     promo     i     see     on     the     dash     i     will     queue     to     promote     them     <3

[fletchfeathers]

hi hello i received the bat signal from @danniiiyyyl but i had too much to say to fit in a Regular Reply lmao so i hope you don't mind a rebagel! i've dropped my ramblings under a cut just to not clutter folks' dashes too much bc it got Long, but if any fellow transmascs following me wanna chime in gopher it

disclaimer right out the gate that it's been a WHILE since i've done a full-time bind; lockdown really kicked the habit when i wasn't going into an office and being perceived by the general public every day lmao so y'know take this with as much salt as you feel appropriate.

otherwise though i'm just gonna go through and answer your questions as best i can!

Am I supposed to measure myself bare chested?

yep! measuring for a binder is similar to measuring for a bra fitting. you want to be sure you're getting as accurate a size as possible, especially since you say you're looking to bind full-time (or near enough); if you're on the cusp between sizes, go up a size rather than down - which might sound counter-intuitive but trust me, your chest and spine will thank you later. it'll also help your binder last longer since going down a size means you might wind up stretching it out and making it lose its effectiveness a lot quicker.

Are there any brands that I should absolutely steer clear of?

SO gc2b used to be really good, and the binders i have are gc2b ones from a few years ago and have served me well; however i have heard that in recent times their quality has really deteriorated as they've started cutting corners to meet demand, so if you do swing for a gc2b binder you may have better luck trying to get one second-hand if you can. i also don't know that i'd recommend them as far as your next question - they'd be fine if you were just looking for something more occasional but probably wouldn't stand up to wearing them all day every day, at least not without some wear and tear pretty quick.

i'm not sure where you're based, but if you're in the UK i hear on the grapevine that Spectrum are a good option! i haven't tried them personally but i've seen enough people say they're good to at least point you in their direction. if you're not UK-based, i actually hear underworks have really stepped up their game, so they may be worth looking into! again, haven't tried 'em myself, but they're probably where i'd start looking at the very least if you're not in the UK!

Which brands, if any, would be safe to wear for my full work day (8-9hrs)?

this is kiiiind of a tough one, because it's not so much like ... unsafe, it's just that there's potential for a lot of discomfort (short- and long-term) if you're not careful about making sure you've got the right size and such. i would tend not to recommend wearing one for that long without a break if you can help it, and that is from experience from some very sore ribs/back muscles from binding 9 hours a day 5 days a week minimum without a break.

i do fully get though that it's not always feasible to find time to take it off (or at least like, roll it up past your chest a lil bit) so i suppose my recommendation here is just making sure you're taking it off as soon as you get home, and definitely not wearing it to sleep or for any strenuous activities or anything like that (also guilty as charged lmao, do not follow in my footsteps i make these mistakes so you don't have to)

i would also suggest, if the dysphoria allows (bc dysphoria is a bitch and doesn't always, i feel your fuckin pain) - once you have one don't jump straight into wearing it full-time. if you can, wear it for like, an hour at first before taking it off, then two, then three etc. just to get used to it and make sure it's gonna be comfy during those longer stints at work - better to find out it sucks after 2 hours and be in a position to take it off easily than be like, 2 hours into a workday and being stuck with it for another 6-7 hours.

Do any brands specifically account for variances in shape/position of breast tissue? I have never been able to find bras that fit my shape 100% correctly, so this factor is a bit important to me.

so binders work differently from bras, obviously, in that they're more about compression than supporting your chest, so it's gonna be one of those trial-and-error things starting out, a little bit - binders don't take shape really into account, so you'll kind of have to adjust yourself to where it feels the most comfy to begin with.

it takes a bit of patience and practice starting out but the best way i've found is pushing your breasts sort of out to the sides, to around where they would naturally fall when you're lying flat on your back; that usually gives me, at least, both the best compression and the most comfort. your mileage may vary but that's hopefully as good a starting point as any!

also, as far as like, styles starting out: i like the half-tank ones that only cover your chest rather than going all the way down over your stomach (don't worry, the compression on the full-length ones is still only at your chest; the bit that goes over your stomach is stretchy but still tight to the skin) because the full length ones can ride up during the day and feel weird, they're easier to ~adjust if you need, and obvs they're a lot cooler in the summer lmao. it's very much a personal preference thing though! i'd maybe go for a full-length one if you have a Larger chest, just to make sure everything is Contained (sorry i know that's not the most ideal way to put it but i am running out of word steam LMAO). cons of the half-tanks are also i've found they stretch out/lose their compression quicker than the full-tank counterparts, so if that longevity is important then it's worth keeping in mind.

also don't tumble dry them - machine washing is fine ofc but make sure you're air-drying them as tumble drying will also nuke that compression material real quick in my experience.

OKAY now that i've written you a novel i hope any of my rambling is useful, and feel free to hmu any time if you have any more questions or anything!! if i can't help i can at least try and point you towards people/places that can!

and good luck, godspeed, you got this <3

My fellow transmascs i NEED your help. I have gotta start binding because this dysphoria has HANDS but I have so many questions. Every online resource is dogshit and I can’t get answers so if you can help with any of this, please do:

Are there any brands that I should absolutely steer clear of?

Which brands, if any, would be safe to wear for my full work day (8-9hrs)?

Do any brands specifically account for variances in shape/position of breast tissue? I have never been able to find bras that fit my shape 100% correctly, so this factor is a bit important to me.

Am I supposed to measure myself bare chested?

[snazriel]

thinking about remaking nyall