#I honestly don't know the rules of this site anymore

[sheep-from-rad]

How would the batfamily react if they found out that the singer/influencer reader was dating one of the villains?, imagine the reader has friends with benefits from the villains

(What kind of jokes do you like?)

Batman is so scary, even bullets are afraid to hit him. That's why they aimed for his parents. (sorry)

anon 🦌

Note: 🦌anon please send more jokes. After the Solmare announcement regarding the Obey me series, I am one push away from drinking every wine in my fridge.I’m gonna need more jokes (˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥) I don't give permission to have my fics posted to other sites, copied, or fed to AI. Thank you.

Masterlist 

divider by: @strangergraphics-archive and @strangergraphics. Please do support them ♡

You heard that? That’s the collective sign of every Batfamily member sighing in disappointment and collective glare towards Bruce. Like father like child, of all genes to be inherit you inherited his taste (ಠ_ಠ). Getting entangled with a villain is not something new in the Batfamily because they are either related to one (Cassandra, Stephanie, Damian) or romantically involved with one (Bruce with Talia, Poison Ivy, Catwoman and sometimes Harley. Dick with Catwoman II. And Jason with… you know what let’s not talk about Talia and Jason. That one is weird on all levels). 

If you’re romantically involved with someone who does not know Batman’s real identity then it’s not much of a problem. The family is just going to visit said enemy and scar them for the rest of their mortal life. It will be so bad they will just quit being a villain and leave Gotham all together. If you’re romantically involved with someone who knows Batman’s real identity, then it will be a chaotic event. Bruce is already fighting villains and now he’s fighting his blood pressure too. 

Riddler would be so smug about it. He would rub it in every Batfamily member’s face and would constantly drop your name in fights like ‘How would they react if you hurt me?’ or ‘Oh they will be mad if I come back bruised!’. Riddler would be so insufferable like the madman he is. If you’re dating Harvey Dent, you’re technically dating two persons (in most media depictions, Harvey is the same age as Bruce so let’s go with that one). His incorruptible part is basically filling every space that Bruce neglected to fill. He’ll teach you about legals and laws, tell you stories about their days and he protects you from those who dare to come close. His corrupted part, Two face, is kind of mean. He will never miss the chance to remind you of the potential parental issues you have. 

Headcanon that Harley will make it her mini mission to keep you away from Joker because let’s face it, Joker will not love you. He will only use you and break you like how he did to Harley. 

Honestly, it doesn’t matter if the relationship you have is good or bad. To the family it’s a parasite that needs to be terminated immediately before it grows. You’re grounded. You’re not allowed to go out alone. If you don’t live in the estate anymore, you will just randomly find your apartment sold to someone else and you’ll be taken back to the estate. No metahumans in Gotham rule but Damian already has the permission from Bruce to have the Titans stay for a while as reinforcements. Even Jason is patrolling more and everyday now he will make a report to the estate. 

During those days they were full on babying you to the point of infantilization. They’ll give you ‘the talk’ especially if you’re in a friends with benefits relationship with a villain and sometimes they’ll go so far into showing you every other person they had been with. They are not above poisoning the relationship too. They’ll show you expertly doctored photos showing their ‘infidelity’. Guilt trip you into reading old cases and gaslight you. You’re not in love with them, you were just manipulated into thinking that you are. 

But of course, what is a Wayne if not stubborn? Month of being grounded and being in heavy watch and you’re done. You already have their shifts memorized down to who checks on you at night. After hours once you’re certain that everyone is now asleep or busy on their patrols (or finished checking your room), you start acting out the plan of running away. You passed each security detail without triggering them, passed every room without alerting anyone, and passed Titus without waking him up. However before you can even reached the doorknob, you heard Dick and Jason behind you:

“Looks like someone took lessons from Catwoman” 

“You know we saw your lover today. We were going to let them go but I guess no one’s picking you up anymore” 

The next time you wake up, you are greeted by the fresh warm breeze and the sound of water hitting the shore. As you descended down the stairs, news about a villain going missing was on the headlines along with the date on the screen saying ‘Thursday’. It has been three days since you got caught by Jason and Dick and Tim just entered the door carrying take outs from Mad Yak cafe. You’re in Happy Harbor, far away from Gotham and your lover is missing. Was the no kill rule violated? You can only pray it’s not.

[wait-what-pancakes]

It's quite something to have this post slap you in the face after dusting off the Tumblr app after years thinking "Hey, maybe I should upload some of my content here too"

writing fanfiction is just. i’m being so creative and original. i’m plagiarizing everyone by accident. i’m a genius. i’m cringe. i’m too angsty. i’m too cheesy. this is not in character. it doesn’t matter that it’s not in character because these are my characters now. i love my hobby. this is the worst possible use of my time. i’m seeking validation. i’m projecting my own personal problems onto this story and i’m barely hiding it. i know so many words and i’m using all of them wrong. im on tumblr posting about it instead of writing it.

[theereina]

Bad News Pt. 2

Pairing: Terry Richmond x Plus Size Fem Black!OC "Bella"

Wordcount: +1.4K

Warnings: MDNI (18+) mature content, such as cursing, no smut, heavily dialogue-centered, mental health mentioned (anxiety), *emotional distress*, angst, heartbreak, chronic illnesses mentioned, health conditions mentioned (c*ncer, PCOS, endometriosis), infertility, slight verbal ab*se

A/N¹: Remember, I just got back into writing. I'm open to critiques, but I am a little 🤏🏽 sensitive about my writing. Please, don't be too harsh.🥺 Feel free to bring my attention to any typos. Divider by @firefly-graphics. Also, this work is not to be plagiarized or reposted (on any site other than here on Tumblr). I do NOT give consent for any form of republishing or rewriting.

A/N²: I am not a medical doctor. Please, forgive me if my knowledge of any of the mentioned medical conditions is incorrect.

Bad News Pt. 1=> 😢

Walking into the room, my heart was crushed even further. All of the feelings I wish I could explain; I couldn't. Terry and his bags were gone. I hadn't even heard him leave. He didn't even care enough to at least say goodbye. After all these years, I wasn't worth a goodbye. Two seconds just solidified that this relationship wasn't worth any more of my energy.

I couldn't understand it. How did we get here? Had he always been like this? Was I that blind? I guess I was so busy trying to find love that I forgot the most important rule— love wasn't supposed to hurt. Then again, every version of love I've experienced was painful, manipulative, abusive, and damaging. So, maybe I found what I was familiar with. I mean, why else would I be so comfortable putting up with this?

But, what do I do now?

*2 hours later

The room was covered in crumpled and torn pieces of notebook paper. I have tried and tried to write this letter. My hands were stiff, and my head was throbbing. I just wanted him to know how I felt because my mind was already made up. I'm done, and this is over.

If he would've just listened, we wouldn't be in this predicament. If he hadn't said those words, there would still be hope in my eyes and love in my heart.

Better yet, fuck this and fuck him. He doesn't deserve a letter. This doesn't concern him anymore. I've already changed my flight for tomorrow morning. I leave on the first flight out. Since I no longer have anything to say to him, there is no need to wait. I can return to the West Coast and be at home with my Godmother and Godsister when I receive the news.

*The next day

“I will never like flying’. I don't care!” I said stepping out of the bathroom after showering. I was dressed in a pair of sweats and a plain black T-shirt. I had wrapped a scarf around my head to protect my hair during my shower.

My Godsister, Shante, was waiting for me. She was relaxed on the bed with her back against the headboard. Her satin black bonnet and black fluffy robe made her look so much like her grandmother. “What?” she asked turning her head towards me. “You look like Nana Elsie!” I laughed into my hand. “Shut up!” she said slinging one of the pillows at me.

I walked to the bed and sat on the edge closest to me. I was tired. I knew why she was in here. She wanted to make sure I was okay. Honestly, I wasn't. My life was shit right now. Leaving Terry was just another stab to the heart. All I could do was pray to God that I didn't lose anymore. I couldn't possibly see myself being any lower than this.

“You wanna talk?” Shante asked rolling on her side facing my back. “Not really, I just wanna wait until they call,” I said solemnly. My shoulders were beginning to feel heavy again. I didn't want to think about what the doctor would say. I already knew this day was coming.

After years of medical neglect and misdiagnoses, I was finally given a proper diagnosis of both endometriosis and PCOS. I had been ignored for years when I complained of a forever-growing mountain of signs that something was wrong. I was told to “lose weight” to alleviate my symptoms. When I lost the weight, nothing changed. Some symptoms even seemed to get worse.

I had grown tired of all the referrals and guesses. I had explained to my original primary care physician years ago that I suspected that I had PCOS. It was dismissed as anxiety and medical hysteria. I tried again with three other physicians to be met with the same fate— try to lose weight, take this metformin, exercise daily, change your diet, etc.

This could have been treated years ago if someone would have just listened.

*3 hours later

I was in the kitchen eating when my cell phone rang. I picked it up thinking it was the call I had been dreading. I was eager to get this over with. Just say it, and let's move on.

“Hello, this is Bella,” I mumbled into the phone. I was on the edge again. Trying my hardest to breathe and stay calm. “Bell, where are you?” asked Terry. “Terry?” I asked pulling the phone away from my ear and looking at it. Fuck! Why didn't I look before answering? Why didn't I block him?

“Bella, I'm s—,” he started to speak before I interrupted him. “Save it. I… I don't care anymore,” I said through tears. “Bells, I was—,” he started again. “No,” I said sobbing into the phone. “Could you just—!” he yelled into the phone. That was it. I didn't have to deal with this. I hung up the phone and laid it on the table in front of me.

Pushing the plate away, I laid across my arms crying with my head down. My Godmother and Godsister were both gone to work. That left me alone once again with my emotions— all of them.

ring ring ring

Not again. I picked up the phone in anger. “I don't want to talk to you!” I screamed into the phone. “Isabella? It's Dr. Moore. We need to speak about scheduling your surgery immediately,” he said in a startled tone. “I'm sorry, Dr. Moore. I'm having a…,” I said taking a deep breath. “I can call back if—,” he said. “No!” I blurted out. “Sorry. Please, tell me now,” I whimpered. I was flying between emotions faster than my body could manage.

“Well, honey. I'm sorry to bring you such bad news at this time, but we're going to need to remove your left ovary. The cysts were quite large, and… Unfortunately, the biopsy indicated they were cancerous. The safest option is to remove the affected ovary and all endometriosis deposits. Later on, we can discuss any further changes,” he said. “Changes?” I questioned while sniffling. “If it progresses any further, we may have to perform a hysterectomy.” Dr. Moore continued to talk, but I had dissociated from the conversation. This was it.

My mind was overflowing with questions. Will I be able to have kids? Would this even get rid of the cancer? If it did, would it come back? Would life ever be normal for me?

I don't know. I'll probably never know.

*Later in the day

ring ring ring

Hours had passed since the call ended. I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to move. I didn't want to think. I had planned my whole life around me and Terry's relationship— kids, a house, a minivan, a dog, all of it. Now, everything was gone. Maybe my mother was right, I am cursed.

ring ring ring

“Who is it?” I sobbed into the phone. “It's me, Bella. Baby, can you please just listen to me?” Terry pleaded over the phone. “Why, huh? What’s there to listen to? You said everything you needed to say,” I yelled. All of my feelings were being overshadowed by my anger.

“I didn't mean it, Bella. That wasn't supposed to happen. I love you. You know that!” Terry yelled. “I don't know that, Terry. If you loved me, you wouldn't have said it. You meant it with all your fucking heart. You stood on it when you left without saying a word. No goodbye. No sorry. Nothing. That's not love,” I blurted out. I was beyond tired of holding my tongue. “Stop being so fuckin' childish right now and use your brain. You're always so damn emoti—,” he said cutting himself off. “Nah, say it! I'm too fucking emotional, huh? Ain't that right, Terry?” I screamed again. Tears were streaming down my face falling onto the kitchen table.

“I’m always sick, and… and I'm… I'm always emotional. That's what you… that's what you said, right? THEN, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU WITH ME?!” I screamed as loud as I could. I threw the phone across the room. It hit the wall and shattered. Good. No more phone calls. No more doctors. No more — Terry.

Taglist: @avoidthings @brattyfics @slutsareteacherstoo @pocketsizedpanther

@nahimjustfeelingit-writes @blowmymbackout @5headsupremacist @creartivefairy

@insidefeelingofanadult @revealingco @keyaho @jimmybutlrr @gg-trini

@nayaxwrites @miyuhpapayuh @poektiou624 @gwenda-fav @nayaesworld

@ittsstephanieee @beenathembo @blyffe @thegreatlibraryofalex @persethegawd

[technically-a-kiwi]

Okay guys, time to correct and rewrite some stuff about the cosmic AU

I've read my older post developing on the story and this was basically my reaction

So yeah my older posts are full of off details and inconsistencies, brace yourself for some redcons and new concepts

Starting with :

Redcons:

• Cosmic entities are allowed to interact with other mortals ,because I'm sick of the trope of "powerful being who shape the universe must stay out of site at any cost or else it's the end of the world" or whatever, it's just drama for the sake of drama in my eyes and it doesn't add much of a mysterious vibe. Besides it adds more possibilities story wise :) .Let's say that it's something very discouraged among cosmic entities, it's okay if they fuel legends and folklore, but if an entity actively tries to get well known and mediatised in a universe, only then will they get in trouble.

• Stars are no longer needed for someone to turn into a Cosmic entity, basically I put stars in the mix to seem more cosmicy (if that's even a word...) and I didn't really knew what a star was myself, for now on stars are the sparkles you see floating around cosmic entities and are the physical manifestation of said entity's emotion, appearing in different shapes depending on how the cosmic entity feels.

•Cosmic entities are no longer bound to travel in the universes they're assign to, I put this to make their power not too OP. It's useless to restrict them to some universes and it doesn't really add much to anything relevant.

• The Noise is allowed to have more than his TV show as a form of media (such as journals, radio stations and more, although his most popular form of media is his TV show), limiting The Noise to only having a TV show really contradicted with the idea that he's his own boss, he's free, he can now do as he pleases and shoose what he wants to do in his show ( in his universe The Noise was forced to do what his higher ups told him to do, such as filming ads, promoting stuff he didn't necessarily like, and things that generaly bothers and annoys him), nonetheless his show is still limited to the cosmic realm (he does break this rule sometimes and bring random people in his show to torment them and satisfy his sadism but shhhh no one has to know this okay 🤫)

• There's no such thing as a title of ultimate prankster anymore, I just put this notion to solidify the idea that The Noise is an asshole, but does he really need an official title? The Noise is a little shit and his actions are enough to prove that.

• We don't know how old Peppino and The Noise are, honestly I shared their age to solidify the idea that they are older, more mature, and also to prevent people from thinking they were thousands of years old (seriously I hate this fucking trope. You're telling me you lived several times the age of the Earth yet you still act like a 10 years old, like do you live at the same paste of a snail for years to go this fast ?!!!) they both are very recent cosmic entities and are not super old, but you know, you can tell by how they act that they're more experienced and mature (the same goes for every cosmic entity by the way.)

And finally

• Cosmic entities don't have the power to manipulate their environment, this was the first thing that threw me of, like what? No they can't, that would be a huge loop hole ! I guess I put this in there to make them seem more powerful somehow? Cosmic entities can only travel between realms (mortal, cosmic etc, the afterlife is the only realm they are not allowed in) and between universes, they can stitch a ripe in reality but ONLY with a special thread provided by the court, they don't make it themselves. Only far more older and powerful cosmic entities have the ability to manipulate their environment as they pleases (more on older cosmic entities later)

Okay I think that's it for the redcons, if I want to redcon other stuff I'll reblog this post with those modifications.

Now brace yourself for

The new stuff :

• the difference of power and look depending on a Cosmic entity's age : there are three very distinct stage in a cosmic entity’s life: dwarf (they arbor a red color scheme in reference to young stars, it's the stage any cosmic entity starts at, only having the ability to travel between universes), minor ( in reference of smaller constellation, is the state our cosmic duo is at right now as well as most cosmic entities. After some years as a cosmic entity, roughly 20 years, they arbor a more colorful color palette and gain the ability to hear thoughts, feel what other beings feel and summon objects they own, that already exist.) and the last is major (reference to bigger constellations, idk they get bigger, sparklier and more colorful? I haven't figured that out yet... After several hundred years, cosmic entities gets tremendously stronger and gain several abilities, on the physical plain they can create or fix a ripe in reality through shear will, manipulate things around them, twisting and reshape reality as they pleases and create anything on commande [the only thing they can't create are living beings tho], on the spiritual plain, they can see things that are invisible for the average mortal being, that earlier stages couldn't see, such as ghosts, angels, demons and the soul of mortals, and also [this is the creepy part] they can manipulate not only other beings emotions [including their own] but also manipulate others memories, changing events in others mind, create new fake memories or erasing them completely. Basically they become a discount version of Discord from MLP... But they have more ✨✨✨ you know ?)

• How the Pizza Tower cast is seen in the cosmic realm : (Before I start this, keep into your mind that Pizza Tower is the only media in the multiverse, yes it brings down the idea of infinite universes, yes it restrict a lot of possibilities, but I think it's better to work with a smaller scale and focus on stuff that specifically interest me story wise, besides I really didn't want to go on a crossover kind of story 😓) When you think cosmic entity, you think of beings like you see in marvel comics right ? Huge menacing individuals, wise and intimidating, well that's exactly what were cosmic entities before the PT cast arrived. You see since most people in the tower absorbed cosmic particles, some of them became cosmic entities. At first the court didn't like this, what are those cartoon looking creatures doing in a society of grand powerful being? Of course they are some entities who are "cartoony" but not to the extent of Pizza Tower characters. Thankfully the first people of the tower were quite efficient as cosmic entities and set a good image for their "kind", so the court kept turning people of the tower into cosmic entities thinking they were still promising individuals (for most of them at least). In general the cast is considered like the babies of the realm, most of the other cosmic entities are completely fine and interact with them as if they were equals, it's only with the higher ups and oldest cosmic entities that you see they're kind of looked down upon, considered as not really inferiors, but kind of like idiots, not worthy of the title.

• The constellation system: After accomplishing several tasks, cosmic entities are rewarded with stars, but not any kind of stars, these stars appear directly onto the entity's body and serve as some kind of merit badge, gain enough stars and you get a constellation, gain enough constellations and you get your ticket to complete freedom and you can stop watching over universes, giving your spot to younger cosmic entities. It's kind of a retirement system, entities tend to get enough constellations around the end of their minor stage. You'll see on some designs that constellations are not the same depending on'the individual (it's gonna be a huge pain in the butt to keep track of who has what but anything for consistency ✊👁️👄👁️)

And finally and probably one of the darkest aspect of the AU

Loss of memory: To make sure cosmic entities eventually get rid of what attached them to their universe and former life, the court enabled a memory wiping system that will make all cosmic entities forget where they come from, who they knew and what experience they lived, only conserving memories regarding who they are and what they did in life. Things like memoirs and diaries are forbidden and if the court finds out an entity has any of this kind of things, it will be immediately destroyed an the entity will have their memories wiped even faster. Major cosmic entities all have forgotten who they used to know in their earlier life, family, friends, all experience that shaped them into the person they are, with who they are and what they do in life being the only memories they have left.

And that was it for the new stuff, if you made it this far congratulations ✨✨✨. Like for the redcon part if I want to modify this part I'll reblog the modifications.

And now comes the part I shall call

Random trivia ✨✨✨

Like the title suggest, it's literally just random trivia I couldn't efficiently put in the post, regarding anything and everything.

The way someone turns into a cosmic entity is simple, after death, the higher ups of the court propose you to either go to the afterlife or become a cosmic entity, only one version of a being can become an entity (to put that in practice, if Peppino from a random universe decides to become a cosmic entity, it won't be possible for other Peppinos to become a cosmic entity), there can only be two cosmic entities per universe, the entity will start off as a dwarf entity and as time goes on their body and power will evolve.

Cosmic entities may have the ability to hear others though, they generally don't use this power as often as you may think, most of them prefer not to do it because it's a huge violation of privacy and for entities that don't care about privacy, they often find out the "downgrade" of hearing others thoughts... If you know what I mean. Cosmic entities generally prefer just sensing the emotions of other beings around rather then hearing their thoughts expressively.

Here's the main PT cast as cosmic entities, in the chronological order of when they turned into cosmic entities

John & Gerome

Brick

Mr. Stick

The Vigilante & Pepperman

Gustavo

Pizzahead

Noisette

F. Peppino

Peppino & The Noise

( Beings after our cosmic duo will be shown later in the story)

Of course there are far more beings from the tower but this is why I call them the main cast, most of them have yet to be properly designed but they'll all appear eventually I swear.

All cosmic entities arbor a "scar" on their body hinting toward what killed them in their earlier life. For example the dark gradient you see flowing down cosmic Noise's head hints toward the fact he passed away from a head concussion, or if you were to look at Peppino's back you'd see a huge burn mark looking scar hinting toward the fact that he passed away from a bomb exploding inside of him. In most cases the scare is a warmer color than the rest of the skin ( Watch out tho, the color is warmer in the scientific definition, where red is the coldest and purple is the warmest ☝️.)

The cosmic realm is composed of multiple environment, expending as far as the eye can see, the most populated place is of course the main city : Cosmopolis, a city so huge it's surface equals our Moon ! It's basically your very populated cyberpunk city with huge buildings and bright light, with floating roads and boutiques at every corner. Outside of the city you have the Lux plain, very chill and on the country side, it's the perfect place if you like silence and stargazing, it's also where Peppino's pizzaria is located. Also outside the city you have the Firefly park, like the name suggests, it's a huge park with benches you can sit on of course, lakes you can admire or fish in, everywhere where the grass is a little high you'll see little fireflies fly by. And anything outside the plain and park is not mapped out, all we know is that it seems to go forever and there are several extraordinary places yet to be found and recorded.

Peppino can summon his scooter just by whistling and it will appear out of nowhere and go directly next to him, as if it had a mind of it's own, that goes for Noisette's umbrella too that she uses like a mode of transport like a witch's broom. The Noise tho has to snap his fingers and a limo will appear, crushing anything in it's way in a comically absurd way

Despite being forbidden, very few cosmic entities keep a record of their earlier life with everything they remember, for example Peppino keeps a diary with the name of everyone he knows, what's his relationship with said people and memories of his past life. As long as no one finds those records, he can keep what attaches him to his mortal life.

And finally

The only way to kill a cosmic entity is by saturating them with cosmic particles, too much cosmic particles is very dangerous, if an entity has too much cosmic particles inside of them, their body will slowly melt into a puddle of star and will eventually evaporate into cosmic particles. After that the soul of the entity will go to the afterlife, without the possibility to turn back into a cosmic entity.

And that's all folks!

Congratulations to all the mad lads who made it this far ! , I'm sorry this post has no illustration whatsoever, you had to eat consecutive paragraphs with no yummy colots, I am aware that most people like this AU because of the art, today was not an artsy day alright 😓 !

If you have any questions feel free to ask them,with that being said, remember that lasagnas are pasta cakes and see ya ✌️

[theprismyyy]

Honestly, I read on several different platforms, both here on Tumblr, and on Wattpad, ao3 and others... and so, in general, they are all great apps with great stories to read, but there is one thing that bothers me about all of them, mainly and especially on Ao3, and the amount of disgusting content involving serious subjects like incest, rape and others that I won't bother mentioning here; What irritates me most about this is the lack of filter in the app.I'm only saying all this because the following happened, I was simply reading some stories about Gwen Stacy on the said app (ao3) when I came across atrocities like a fanfic whose plot was literally an incestuous relationship between Gwen and her father....man , I just wanted to read some fluffy fluff and not come across unnecessary and unsolicited material, I didn't bother opening this (obviously) and I didn't even want to, I was honestly disgusted... Also, I came across another whose plot idea was even more horrible... I don't know, it all just made me think that maybe these apps need more serious and firm rules and punishments in the face of these things; such serious and criminal topics being written in a sick manner to normalize and entertain more disgusting and sick people is still dark, it's even darker how little we talk about it and how little the developers seem to care, I imagine dealing with demands so big ones must be extremely difficult but we don't even see a movement to deal with these things...IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S JUST A CHARACTER, IT DOESN'T MATTER HE OR SHE DOESN'T EXIST, FUCK YOU AND YOUR SICK SHIT THAT USES THIS AS AN "ARGUMENT" TO WRITE CRIMINAL THINGS AND FEED YOUR FANTASIES DISGUSTING!!!! WHAT WE WRITE AND CONSUME SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE TYPE OF PEOPLE WE ARE AND IF YOU CONSUME IT AND DON'T SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS TYPE OF CONTENT THEN PLEASE FUCK YOU

Anyway, this was just me venting because honestly I was extremely uncomfortable, I just wanted to read some nonsense and I had to come across something so sickening.

Edit: Apparently this is necessary as I may not have been as specific on some points and some people don't seem to understand (or don't want to understand)

It wasn't a personal "attack" on the Ao3 platform, I just used it as an example because that's usually where this type of work ends up appearing more.

2. Yes, I know and use the filtering system, Still, I think they are very often very flawed... besides, many of the people who write this type of content use tags that have nothing to do with the plot of the story to achieve greater visibility.

3. Yes... teenagers have sex 😱 wow what an incredible discovery!!! I know a lot of movies, shows, etc. portray this openly, I personally don't feel comfortable writing smut in general and everyone has their own opinion about it, but I understand there are a lot of writers who do this normalization and trivialization of a CRIME!

4. I know that many people use writing as a coping mechanism, but I think it is very unlikely that a person who has been through a situation, such as rape, for example, You'll write about it like it's something sexy or the best experience you've ever had in your life, like a lot of these types of writers do.

5. Yes, one of the joys of writing is that we can explore the deepest, most complex aspects of humanity without directly hurting anyone, and I love that, but we need to take responsibility for that.

6. There was a guy here who literally said that it's because of people like me that you can't have porn on Tumblr anymore...but why would there need to be porn here? Why just not open on an adult site like pornhub or xvideos?

7. I was indirectly called a facist through a Hashtag.... not supporting the normalization of rape, incest, etc. apparently makes me a facist😍

(I really am completely willing to hear opinions and comments, but I will not tolerate disrespect in the comments. That's it and thank you)

[aroaceleovaldez]

Not ask-blog related, then, but how would you get into role-playing?

honestly, just find an RP space/community (that's accepting new members) and hop right in. If you're nervous about your writing not being up to snuff, RP spaces are in my opinion the way to build up your writing. We all start somewhere and RP spaces are a great place to start and often full of beginners. You will pick it up and improve very quickly, have no fear. The general rules to be aware of in any RP space is basically just be nice and don't powerplay (which means don't do stuff like start controlling other people's characters, or deciding things for other people's characters without their permission, don't make everything in the RP about only your character, etc etc. Generally just treat everybody else and their characters with general courtesy). Also if everybody else in a space is doing only script or only paragraph format rp, try to match that. And try to make sure your writing is legible as a general courtesy cause otherwise people will have a hard time joining you in RP even if they want to - so avoid letter replacement/typing quirks (unless it's specific to the RP - see: Homestuck, though even with HS rp there is sometimes a site toggle to turn typing quirks off or similar) and do a quick scan to make sure your posts aren't super full of typos or etc.

more advice below the cut cause whoops this got long:

The finding the space is really the hardest part - RP-designated spaces are becoming more difficult to find since forum boards have started disappearing (though they have also started making a resurgence!). My old forum stomping grounds have since become an adoptables pet game site - though I do know a lot of online pet game sites have very active forum communities that usually had plenty of rp. I know for a fact Flight Rising has an active RP community. Rarely you can also find some other forms of RP-designated sites, like MSPARP used to be the big one for Homestuck and had some pan-fandom offshoots, but I don't know exactly what the status is for that stuff over there. I believe MSPARP doesn't exist anymore and I don't know anything about the rest of all that.

I used to also play some RP-dedicated multiplayer games and those can be a great option, depending on the game and your personal tastes. The main one I used to play a.) i would not recommend to people lol and b.) i'm pretty sure is very dead anyways so I don't have any exact recommendations there. I hear Roblox is a good place to find RP servers in a similar vein to that type of stuff but I never got into Roblox so I cannot confirm/deny that. You can sometimes find public Minecraft servers that have rp spaces but those are harder to find nowadays. There's a ton of discord RP communities you can join though. It's a bit more difficult to search around and get a feel for them just with how discord is but there's definitely plenty of 'em.

And I am not very in the tumblr RP community spheres (or other social media rp spheres - though i have dabbled) but to my understanding with those you either find an active group and ask if they're open to new members/if you can join, or you just jump right in to making your own blog/account/etc for it. Make some prompts/rp starters for people to potentially hop in and join you with or otherwise just kind of find you and rope you into their rp group or whatever. And of course you can always start a group with your friends.

The major things with RP is just kind of figuring what type of RP you want to be doing cause that informs everything else. Do you want to do script rp (usually formatted along the lines of [CHARACTER]: *runs around*) or paragraph/prose rp (the "[Character] ran around in circles before coming to a halt before the door." type format)? Do you want to do more of a video-game type rp where you have an avatar? Do you want to do something more like a TTRPG/D&D? Do you wanna do just straight up LARP (i can't really help you with that one much that one. you'd just have to search for local LARP groups - sometimes you can find them at your local conventions)? All those things are going to point you in different directions for what you want to do. In general, if you can find RP forums you can usually find both script and paragraph rp though paragraph rp is more common. Chatrooms and video games are more likely to lean script rp format due to chat limitations though this is not always the case. Social media rp is kind of it's whole own beast and everybody does it differently or different groups do it differently but if you want to do RP stuff primarily on your own and maybe pick up a group as you go then in-character social media can be a fun route for that. Or if you're not particularly looking for collaborative RP but want to do some interactive story stuff in a similar vein, then making an askblog might be more your style.

In general right now though, looking for RP discords is a relatively easy one or you can start your own and advertise it. Tbh if you find Warrior Cat RPers they may very likely have a designated area for non-WC rp (in the past Warriors RP sites/groups/etc ive been a part of, this has been the case in all of them). Also Warriors RP is like, everywhere. You will find it. It's like a constant of the universe or something. Actually doing a quick search i found some newer WCRPG forums and they look beautiful and yes, they do have non-Warriors rp sections. Idk much about RP communities in other fandoms but you can always count on Warriors. And as mentioned before, social media RP is an easy one.

Hopefully something in all of that helps a lil bit.

[orangekittyenergy]

what are your unhinged gale thoughts?

Honestly, I had trouble answering this because I don't even know what's unhinged anymore!?! My scale for what was considered unhinged has been fundamentally altered. The goal posts have been moved into outer space. The depths of my mind have been scraped. The previous rule book has been set on fire and then I buried the ashes and danced on the grave of what I used to consider normal.

Everyday I come onto this site and see a new 'thing' and I'm like....'yep, would.'

It would genuinely be easier at this point to list things I wouldn't do with/to/for/on Gale. And that is not fucking much.

I will say, the one idea that has been tumbling around my brain recently is the (much discussed) use of Mage Hand during sex. Gale holding you down with mage hand. Pinning your arms down or holding your hands behind your back. Teasing you before he even touches you himself. Using it to grab you and go in places when all his other appendages are busy. The possibilities are endless. 🤌

So yeah, I can't answer that because I don't think I have any hint of what is or isn't unhinged anymore when it comes to Gale.

[thessalian]

Thess vs General Elections

So this hasn't quite hit the news sites yet, but breaking on former-Twitter is that Sunak is going to be having a private meeting with the 22 Committee. Which ... I mean ... I just cannot anymore. For the non-Brits, here is the skinny on what that could very well mean.

What's the 22 Committee? Okay. So. There are 22 backbench MPs whose main job is to take letters from other MPs in the party calling for a Vote of No Confidence in a sitting Prime Minister. That's the 22 Committee - or just The 22. If someone is going before The 22, it means that they're facing a buttload of in-party infighting and are looking at being unseated as PM.

Wait - didn't you guys just get a new PM? Well, a year and a half ago, but yeah, kinda. The Tories have had five PMs in the last fourteen years, three of which have been in the last two years or so. First there was Cameron in 2010 - voted in during the Conservative / Lib Dem coalition government where the Liberal Democrats basically faded into the wallpaper and let Cameron and the Tories do whatever the hell they wanted. Cameron resigned after the Brexit vote in 2016 and, without being given a vote, we got Theresa May. She got ousted in favour of Boris Johnson in time for the 2019 election. Johnson was forced to step down in 2022, mostly because of the absolute disregard he showed for Covid lockdown rules, but a few other scandals in there too, and was succeeded by Liz Truss. Truss lasted less than two months, during which time she absolutely destroyed the UK economy (amazing how fast that can happen), and they put Rishi Sunak, Johnson's former Chancellor of the Exchequer, into the PM-ship in October 2022.

Isn't that a lot of elections? You'd think, wouldn't you? But nope, that's not how it works here. We don't vote for the Prime Minister. We vote for the Member of Parliament in our constituency, and the first party that gets a certain number of seats gets their party leader becoming the PM. So it's the party that's in office, not the specific party leader. Party leaders are chosen by a vote, yes, but not from the public - from members of the party in question. Doesn't matter if the new PM has massively different ideas of how to run things, whole different manifestos, anything like that - if the party chooses a new leader, that leader becomes PM if the party won the last election. And the Conservative Party is the worst of a bad lot, since their membership is 160 old white men. Rich old white men. So the manifesto of the party in government has changed three times in the last two years on the say-so of 160 rich old white men ... and hell, the last time we didn't even have that, I don't think, since most of the people standing as party leader bowed out in favour of Sunak. Anyway, we've had five Prime Ministers and only one election - that in 2019.

You've been talking about there being an upcoming election... Yeah, that's the other thing. For all this wibbling around the place with changing PMs, we are still constitutionally obliged to have a general election once every five years. Johnson was elected in 2019. That means that there has to be a general election by the end of the year, no matter who's acting as Prime Minister.

So why would they be changing party leaders again? They want someone more electable, is why. Not that there is anybody, honestly - Johnson more or less destroyed the Conservative Party in the same way that Starmer has been destroying the Labour Party: by driving out most of the reasonable individuals in favour of elevating sycophants and yes-men. Hence why we've had increasing levels of bullshit from the PMs we've had the last few years. But the party's looking at Sunak and looking at the MP defections and going, "Yeah, know, if we want to stand a chance, we need someone new for them to vote for".

But you just said people didn't vote for-- I KNOW. Unfortunately, almost no one else in this country seems to. Even those of us who do know that we're voting for MP rather than PM kind of have to vote tactically in most cases, because if our constituency seat ends up being won by a MP from the party we don't like, that's a greater chance that the party we don't like get enough seats to have their leader be PM. Add to that the fact that our PMs campaign like US presidential candidates and you've got a recipe for completely fucking up an already fucked-up electoral system.

So how did Sunak fuck up? Well, sane people would say the question is "How hasn't Sunak fucked up?", but currently he's having some issues at least in part because of his insane clinging to the Rwanda Act. I've spoken about the Rwanda Act, where he wants to deport "illegal migrants" (read: refugees) to Rwanda if they turn up here despite the fact that doing so would violate several international laws; the House of Lords isn't playing ball when Sunak just wants to rush it through. Maybe it's so he can say he did something in government, or maybe he's got a lot of money riding on it somewhere along the line, but so far it's been a massive waste of time and tax money and even Rwanda doesn't want in on it anymore. Anyway, there's that and there's the whole thing where health care workers coming into this country on work visas are now no longer allowed to bring their spouses or children. So partly it's the xenophobic bullshit ... and the other part of it is his not being xenophobic enough, because a few Tory MPs are defecting to Reform UK.

What the fuck is Reform UK? It's our Ultra-Right Horrorshow Party. See, it used to be UKIP - the UK Independence Party, whose primary mandate was to get the UK out of the European Union. Which ... has now happened, so both UKIP and the Brexit Party are kind of obsolete. So anyone who wants to be a real fascist joins Reform UK. For example, Lee Anderson, who's insisting that "Islamists" are controlling London and that Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, is a puppet for "the Islamists" ... as is Labour Party leader Kier Starmer, according to Anderson. When he refused to apologise for his bullshit, the party withdrew the whip - which means they booted him out of the party, basically. So he joined Reform UK where he can be as much of a fascist as his little (possibly nonexistent) heart desires.

I've heard that name before, I'm sure: Lee Anderson? Sure. 30p Lee, they called him (and still do). He's the one who insisted that you can make meals for thirty pence per day. Not even per meal - per day. Hence his idea of withholding food parcels from food banks unless people took budgeting and cooking courses. Never mind that the 30p figure came from a batch cooking website and involved buying a lot of things in bulk, which doesn't help anyone who can't afford the initial outlay of bulk foods or, frankly, the time and effort it takes to cook that kind of thing. Anyway, we're getting off-topic.

So you guys are really looking like getting yet another new PM before the election later this year? Maybe. It could be that he's just calling the election early. I just kind of doubt it, since the last thing in the actual news has been that he's having a standoff with the House of Lords over that Rwanda thing. It's possible that he's bailing out so that he's not the one remembered for screwing that particular pooch - the way Cameron resigned after the badly-handled Brexit vote. But 'bailing out' could mean 'resigning as PM' or it could mean 'calling the election for May this year'. We don't know, and until it hits the actual news outlets, we aren't going to.

Fact is that it's going to suck no matter what we do. Both parties are focused on treating the economy like a household budget, and the Shadow Chancellor (the person who would be Chancellor of the Exchequer if the Labour party got into government) is celebrating Margaret Thatcher as an economic model to aspire to. This is the LABOUR PARTY - the one that was started by labour unions and is supposed to be for the fucking workers - and they're quoting Thatcher. Sunak and Starmer, for all they yell at each other across the Commons during Prime Minister's Questions, seem to stand for the same things:

kindness to corporations

cruelty to refugees, trans people, the disabled, and the poor

denial of climate change in favour of fossil fuels (see point 1)

curtailing of human rights

It's both of them. We can hope Starmer's lying to court what he sees as the popular vote, but ... I doubt it. And I'm very, very tired of living in a fucking dystopia.

But hey. Even if Sunak resigns tomorrow, at least he lasted longer than a head of lettuce.

[httpknjoon]

“JIN CROSSED HIS ARMS” This is what i’ve been reduced to trying to read their body language because we have nothing and so much at the same time all these theories and 😭😭😭😭 - just read the Y/N qs 2! She learned the piano and how to knit that’s so cute omg

question for both:

“ What do you think of all the articles written of yourselves? for jin, going out with people and having rumours begin straight away? and for y/n having assumptions about why she’s on a break? do you try not to think about it or deal with it by, for example writing?”

Thank you! 🖤

we have nothing and so much at the same time

note | 😭😭 oh, anon. sometimes I do leave something in their body language, so I guess you'll get something there 💀 anyway, thank you so much for sending questions! ❤️

main masterlist | drabble series

"It's a bummer, really." Jin laughed. "But I think it's part of being a public figure. Everything that we will do will be watched and judged by everyone around us. People, particularly the media, don't care about privacy."

"The articles that were written about us are often exaggerated and supported by unreliable sources. It sucks because the media loves to make everything an issue. It honestly makes socializing or even making new friends hard. Also, we have to be careful about who to approach. You tell someone one thing and the next thing you know, you have a rumor going around everywhere. It's hard to trust people in this industry." he laughed again, shaking his head.

"It can be suffocating but I just got used to it really. I try to go on with my life casually. I know I cannot stop these news sites to make these articles about me and all I can do is probably do whatever I'm doing. And if the gossip starts to affect my personal life, I'll gladly do something to at least lessen the damage."

"Oh, man. I'm tired of them. They have been around ever since I was a kid." you scoffed, rolling your eyes. "I was fifteen when I had my first pregnancy rumor from a teen magazine and it affected me a lot before. So, when the pregnancy gossip came after I announced my break, I don't really care anymore."

"People can think whatever they want to think. Especially since I didn't leave any reason why I took a hiatus. It was unexpected, I'm aware." you laughed.

"But it's fine. I don't really think about the assumptions anymore. Sometimes, it can ruin a good day for me. But I just deal with it by doing my hobbies. I shift my attention to something else that would make me calm and happy."

taglist rules

THE A-LISTERS TAGLIST

@seolaquotes @jub-jub @yoontaethings @kissme-ornot @sleepy-daydreams @veronawrites @cuteipat @ratherbefangirling @babystarcandy-gcf @akirawhore @alpacaparkaseok @rjsmochii @lovesickbangtan @zealouslightcookiebasketball @rapmonie2047 @btsiguess-kpop @angelarin @walkinganxiety0 @bloopkook @yoooonie @amara-mars @firesighgirl @zwiehe @hiii-priestess @lojocas @juju-227592 @singukieee @eshtravagent @canarystwin

PERMANENT TAGLIST

@dunixxd​ @cixrosie​​ @jksjx​ @embrace-themagic ​@buttvi​ @starbtslove​ @missseoulite @vanntaesworld @kenqki @miyukihoshi @stopeatread

[quickdeaths]

☢ What fads/trends are you so over?

❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you?

☀ What's your rp pet peeve?

☢ What fads/trends are you so over?

Gosh do I even know any trends, who is to say.

Colored text on dash. I know a lot of people are very taken with it, but differently colored dialogue between characters just reminds me of RPing on vBulletin forums in like 2007. I don't mind it on people's actual blogs, but something about it against the white space on the dashboard is just not aesthetically pleasing to me.

Group Promos/Those "RP Finder" blogs. Basically anything that clogs up the tumblr RP tags with people directing to discord groups or 1v1, for two reasons. One, I run a tight ship here and don't follow a bunch of people, so I use the tags to find new mutuals. Probably once or twice a month, minimum, I go trawling through various general and fandom rp tags to find partners, and those posts clutter up the search. Even worse, while you can block them so you don't see their posts, there's a problem with tumblr (functioning website that it is) where if a search returns too many blocked posts at the start, it'll just never load more, so I have to keep these blogs visible so I can get to the good stuff.

The other reason I dislike them is because they're just not a culture fit for what my idea of tumblr rp is. I don't like huge group RPs where there's an expectation on writing with people because you're in the same group, and I don't often like the RP culture of some other sites, or discord, where people often have existing plots they want you to write, or where OC/Canon "doubling" is expected. I don't like that being brought to tumblr, especially when it's taking up our tag functionality to funnel people off of the site anyway.

I don't know really what to call this one but I guess RP toxic positivity? I don't want to come down too hard on it, because I think everyone's hearts are in the right place, and I don't know if that's really the best term for it, but you know what I'm talking about if I describe it - those posts that are like "I don't care if you take a year to reply, real life is more important!" or "You don't owe anyone anything, your blog is your space!" or "RP is a hobby not a jobby, don't ever feel like you have to take is so seriously!" and things like that.

I think it's a good mindset to understand that writing on Tumblr is not the be-all, end-all of life, and to give yourself some grace about things, but I also think as a collaborative hobby, we do owe each other things. Investment, moderately quick replies when possible, putting in what we want to get out, etc. I think people should curate their space as they like, yes, but also be understanding of the fact that not everything works for everyone, and that's okay too, and people who want some amount of commitment or schedule aren't bad people, they just experience the hobby different.

❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you?

FCs, not really. Honestly, I don't use icons anymore most of the time, and I can never keep up with the rules around stuff, who "can" or "can't be" used, what's too popular, what's "stealing" someone else's FC. I do think it's funny when people make OCs that use like the most visible characters of the most visible series of the year or whatever, but honestly, I don't really mind either way.

Characters... not permanently, but maybe temporarily. If someone's portrayal really rubs me the wrong way - like, for example, a super comedic portrayal of a character that I connect with or relate to a lot and that I think has a lot of depth - I usually just don't engage with that portrayal long. What more sort of puts a character on ice for me, at least for some time, is when I've had a close interaction with someone, and for OOC reasons, there was a falling out.

In a couple of instances over my, like, 11? 12? years writing on this site, I've had a ship partner or someone who I was very close with, where we ended up falling out as friends for various reasons, and that does always put me in a complicated position. On the one hand, I love the characters they were writing for their existence in canon, but also a great deal of what those characters were to me was defined by the specific portrayals my friends were writing. It would feel weird to move on and pretend those portrayals hadn't meant something to me, even if the friendship was over, and I didn't feel good about finding a new person who wrote that character quickly. Even connecting with the character in the original media felt kind of tinted a certain way, so I put those characters on the shelf for a little while, until some feelings had faded and it felt good to go back to them, whether that was the original material or someone else's portrayal, instead of bittersweet and complicated.

☀ What's your rp pet peeve?

Already answered!

But I will give you a bonus one anyway that we're both very aware of hahaha. People who treat OCs/female muses/female OCs, and their writers, badly. There's a feeling that those characters need to prove that they're worthy of people caring about them, while whatever hot hunky anime guy is in the flavor of the month anime deserves attention just for existing (I am thinking of a Specific Anime Man but y'all will never guess who). Another frustrating wrinkle is that tons of people acknowledge this is a thing that exists, and will lament it as it affects their own characters, and then immediately ignore it when it comes to who they're interested in.

In my many travels, I've encountered people who will write female OCs and make long, sad posts about how no one gives female characters/OCs a chance, and then their own blog is entirely their character interacting with male canons, so in that sense, the little secondary pet peeve here is people who do not practice what they preach on this kinda thing. That will never be me I am an irl girlkisser and girlenjoyer, give me your girls, female muses to the front of the line my characters would like to be your characters' friends and/or rivals and/or deeply complicated emotional and romantic-coded friendship that ends in the most devastating friendship over breakup ever and then who knows

[castshed]

I dunno if it's just the mental state talking or if maybe there's some truth behind what i've been thinking about since I got off work this morning....

But it truly feels like my time on this site might be more limited than I'd like it to be. Sure, there are some people that still seem like at least somewhat interested to entertain the thought or action of writing with me, but... the majority seeningly don't. Maybe it's my rules? Am I not lenient enough? Am I too weird 'cause of a simple lousy (kind of) fetish I have for taller women? I honestly don't get it.

I've been on this site consecutively for.... I have no idea how many years now. And sure, I've taken my breaks, some rather abruptly and unannounced, but they count... This feels different.

I usually have cycles where I want to do nothing but watch YouTube videos or tons of movies or start series' i've never gotten a chance to get to, or do nothing but play video games. But in the end I would always come back to writing.

Recently, I haven't wanted to do the latter. It just seems so... grueling, like a 9-5 job you don't wanna do but need to because it appeases some sort of agenda or just 'cause you have to pay bills on time and eat.

And trust me, I'm one of those people that doesn't see this site as a job, nor do I feel like writing is a chore. USUALLY.

But the lack of people's interest in things (idk if it's my muses-- me as a person) or the lack of reciprocation to things that take all but a few seconds to lift someone's spirits... has just really turned me off. (Not to mention broken notifications, the new dashboard - y'know all of Staff's TERRIBLE choices)

People also have jobs, I get it. Or school... kids, a life. This is truly something you do in your down time because you enjoy it and may have found the time to actually sit down and relax for once without the overbearing weight of other responsibilities holding you down - I just.. I honestly don't know anymore.

Now normally I wouldn't try and sound so much like a beggar or some kind of attention-seeking child, but is it so hard to send positivity in return sometimes? - Like I get that I may not be active 90% of the time lately, but at least I make the time and put in the effort to show that I care and still enjoy seeing actual people on my dash. - I always send it in and hardly get it back. And sure, maybe within the answer to my initial interaction there's something said. But that's more of a response than an actual attempted effort. At least, to me it is.

I also understand that I haven't been the best at replying to sent in memes, or asks in general, but that's because my muse has been at an all-time-low for ALL of my muses, save for like... ONE of my OCs (Sophie; though even now, I'll admit, she's kinda gone too.), and I get sick of staring at them, irritated that I can't muster up a SINGLE word to reply to any of them with... so eventually I delete them and hope to TRY from an empty slate.

I guess I just miss having that person or small group of people that I could count on all the time for things, regardless of our moods, what time of day it was, what we were doing -- etc. I've only ever been affiliated once, and... it probably wasn't the best choice. But the intentions at the time were nothing but good, and it wasn't heavily enforced, save for MAYBE a single ship, or two. Not having that security anymore just shakes things up too much and I guess it's one change that I could never get used to.

Regardless, the thoughts of this morning have me leaning toward either some kind of indefinite hiatus, or a massive reboot to start anew and maybe find a new place to settle. Those of you that want me around can keep me on discord and continue to chat with me there. But if not, and IF I do decide to go that route, I bid thee farewell and I hope for nothing but good luck in your future endeavors.

[pebblysand]

okay, i'm going on a rant and i might make enemies but honestly this has been brewing inside me for weeks and i can't hold it in anymore.

i've seen a lot of content lately (and this is no one in particular, just a general trend) of people getting mad when fanfic writers 1) try to monetise their craft and 2) try to link their ko-fi/patreon/what-have-you to ao3. the general consensus seems to be that this endangers ao3 as a platform, that these "gen z-s" who aren't scarred by anne rice don't know the risks they're taking, that everyone will get sued, etc.

now, for the record, i do not put my own ko-fi in my a/n-s because a) i do want to respect the rules and, b) i don't really need to make money from ff, but:

i wish people would mind their own fucking business sometimes. if someone wants to take the risk to monetise their work because they need to, then that is their risk to take, not yours. stop acting as though Money Is The Devil. money allows people to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. i've always found it sort of ironic that ao3 keeps lamenting every year about their struggles re:staff turnover and lack of diversity when only very fortunate people with a lot of time on their hands can actually afford to dedicate hundreds of hours of their time to allow them to function. not everyone can afford to work/do art for free. and, sure, we can all agree capitalism is bad but also that is the world we live in. you want to change it? revolt. have a revolution. don't report people to a fucking website.

this is tied to my first point but when it comes to links on ao3 specifically, just because AO3 has been the best site so far, doesn't mean it cannot be questioned ever. for the record, i love ao3. i think it's a great website. it's a fantastic idea. but, after spending an evening looking through their public accounting (yeah, i'm ✨fun✨ like that), i have loads of questions about the hundreds of thousands of dollars they seem to be hoarding year on year and refusing to reinvest to "keep it safe". ao3 as a website are extremely risk-averse in their functioning. that is their ethos. and, it can be a good thing (i'm not denying that) but that can also be a bad thing. we should at least be allowed to publicly debate certain decisions without being called "traitors" who want to bring the website down. it's healthy to debate.

for the love of jesus, mary, joseph and all of the people of jerusalem, stop telling people that if they make money off fanfic they will get sued and die. first of all, the legality of the monetisation of fanfiction is a lot more complicated than tumblr discourse makes it out to be. i don't want to go into too much detail because i have a life but know that: just because you monetise, doesn't mean you will get sued (and lose). at the same time, just because you do not monetise doesn't mean you won't. since these people love quoting anne rice as an example, i will say this: the people who got cease and desist letters, as far as i know, were not monetising. that is because monetisation is one of four factors related to the fair use exception, not The Only One. this is me making an educated guess here but i suppose that when they refuse to monetise, ao3 is actually just protecting itself and its users (again, that ngo, risk-averse strategy). they are not only leveraging that in a potential fair use argument, they are also taking a gamble that the lack of monetisation will discourage lawsuits. this may come as a shock but very few sane people sue each other for no money. it is thus safer not to monetise fanfiction, but not safe. making people believe in that dichotomy is misleading.

building on the above, i think the misunderstanding here comes from the fact that ao3 has become so mainstream and has outdone itself so much that the use of it has superseded its primary purpose. ao3 sees itself as an archive first and foremost, not as a reading tool/content host. its purpose is the safekeeping of History, which is why it's so risk-averse. but, that might not be what we need anymore as a collective. i don't know. but the idea that AO3 is going to get sued and disappear immediately if people start profiting from fanfic is flimsy at best. ff.net runs ads and monetises, so do tumblr and wattpad. they're fine. yes, it is a more difficult position to defend, but not an impossible one. tumblr even lets you put your fanfiction behind a paywall if you want, and the money transits through them. sure, that means that their terms of service push the responsibility onto you to respect copyright laws and defend yourself if you get sued (it's obviously a very different business model) but it is a thing. the fear-mongering about the doomsday of ao3 if anyone at all sought to question their system is ridiculous.

which brings me to my next point: stop blaming this on gen z. who allegedly don't remember what it was like "before," when we all swam in a sea of cease and desist letters and fanfiction websites were collapsing left, right and centre. this is not the first time i make this point online but why are we, millennials, turning into our parents, questioning young people's capacity for intelligent reasoning? even if the above was a realistic picture of the 00s, it was twenty years ago. times have changed. fanfiction has become democratised. we do not know what would happen if people started earning money off fanfiction. we don't know that they would get sued. if they did get sued, we don't even know what would actually happen because very few fic-like cases have been litigated. so let's just step back and let people do what they want.

lastly, a lot of people seem to think that bringing money into fanfic (even the smallest amount) would ruin their enjoyment of it, and would ruin the whole medium altogether. i understand this, i feel it sometimes myself. but, that's sort of a me problem, isn't it? we are projecting our own issues about how we feel money would decrease our enjoyment of fanfic onto other people. but that's for them, not us, to decide. to each their own.

and, bonus point: this is HP specific but if you are one of those people who only buys merch off etsy creators because you don't want JKR to profit and then scream at fanfic creators for trying to monetise, you are making literally no logical sense.

which is all to say: the conversation about the monetisation of fanfiction is a fascinating one, and a very complicated and nuanced one. there is no black and white. i have doubts myself and i have been thinking about these things for a long time. i do still feel very uneasy about the idea of the exploitation of someone else's property by another without their consent. it's tough. but i think it's important to sometimes get off our high horses and see both sides of a story, and feed intelligent discourse, not fear-mongering.

#rantover, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[ruvviks]

🐉🍎 💘 🍔 🤔 and 😞 for any oc of your choice!! or two ocs if you're feeling up for it [:

oc asks! / preferred ocs!

🐉 DRAGON — what is your oc's favorite mythical creature?

rafiq is a big fan of mythical creatures in general and loves watching shows and videos about it, or listening to podcasts during slow days at work. he's an avid reader of the revenant (a blogging site for paranormal investigators) and used to keep up with posts of the conspiracy group known as the hive, before they seemingly vanished at some point in time and stopped updating regularly. he loves the idea of bigfoot specifically but isn't in the right state of the country to investigate himself :( if he had the chance for it he 100% would though

since teddy works for CALAMITY which is an organization specified in monitoring and sometimes capturing strange phenomena all over the world, this is exactly the kind of thing that he works with. which is also exactly the reason why he HATES them LMFAO if anything they're all just troublemakers to him and he would like to get some rest. back when he still worked an office job for the organization he got very attached to some dustcatchers which are basically just little puff balls that cause chaos in the most dusty place of your home. that's about as close to a favorite mythical creature as it gets for him

yancey LOVES zombies. probably a little bit too much but i can't blame him because honestly same. he's watched every zombie media he's managed to get his hands on and will continue to do so for as long as he lives. it's funny because in this universe zombies do in fact end up as a thing somewhere but that's still a couple of years away so yancey doesn't know that yet. don't even worry about it

🍎 RED APPLE — where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?

rafiq was born in san francisco! very far away from where he lives nowadays and he does miss it a lot more than he likes to admit, but also wouldn't wanna go back there even though he is still very much welcome with his parents who still live there. the place has too many bad memories and rafiq wouldn't be able to live there comfortably at all anymore

teddy was born and raised in raleigh, which is not all too far away from blightwood crossing. he moved to the west coast at some point when he went to join CALAMITY and ever since he's been on the move, visiting towns all across the united states and sometimes even to another country to do jobs for the organization. he's been in blightwood crossing for a while now; the job he's doing there hasn't been going well at all and he's lost contact with CALAMITY, so he's just stuck in town without direction

yancey is from atlanta and only recently moved to blightwood crossing, after a series of events caused him to no longer be welcome at home. despite his mixed feelings about the town now, he does still really love the place and its energy and often wishes he hadn't been forced to leave; but there's not much he can do about that now and he knows he's better off far, far away from there

💘 HEART WITH ARROW — what and/or who do(es) your oc consider the most important to them?

rafiq loves his parents to bits and misses them a lot. he also has a small group of friends in blightwood crossing, mainly his coworkers from the diner he works at, and he cares a lot about them too :^) eventually during the story he gets together with teddy and yancey and he loves them soooo much. btw. if you even care

teddy is very lonely in town. he doesn't have contact with his family anymore since he's not allowed because of CALAMITY and their rules, and he didn't really have many friends at the organization either; so he's stuck in a strange town where nobody likes him all that much and no one's out there missing him either :( during the story he grows closer with the other main characters and he ends up ride or die for them, being a very loyal guy in general

yancey is hesitant to make new friends in town despite it coming naturally for him, and he does end up caring a lot about the other main characters. he's very scared to have all of them ripped away from him in one sweep without warning, just like what happened before with his ex friends and family back in atlanta, but also knows there's no way to predict or prevent that from happening if it were to happen one day so he tries to ignore it as best as he can and not let it get in the way of enjoying the time he has with them

🍔 HAMBURGER — is your oc good at cooking? are they good at baking? which one do they prefer?

rafiq is decent enough at cooking. his father sends him a lot of recipes to try out and he can follow them well enough on most days, but often has to simplify them a little. baking is also not his expertise but he still loves doing it! usually does it with friends so it's a group effort (and a group failure if it doesn't go well) and it's more to have an excuse to hang out with them

teddy is a very good cook but just doesn't do it :/ he's living on instant noodles, microwaved rice, pizza, any meal he can get from the diner and then leftovers of that for the next day, tater tots, questionable quality dry bread with cheese, and sometimes he will pensively have a vegetable. he doesn't like baking all that much but also does enjoy hanging out with rafiq so he will bake with him. just this once (<- said every single time)

yancey is a GREAT cook which is why he ends up as a cook at the diner :^) he loves experimenting with cooking and coming up with his own recipes and while it doesn't always work out for him, he uses the knowledge from that to make something that DOES work out next time. also pretty good at baking but does that significantly less because he's stuck in the belief that baking is mostly sweet stuff and he prefers savory things. clearly this man has never had a pizza muffin before

🤔 THINKING FACE — what are some of your oc's quirks/mannerisms?

rafiq is very expressive and a very active listener, which can take some getting used to when you're getting to know him. he likes actively adding his thoughts into a conversation and is good at relating to other people, which always makes for a very lively conversation :^)

teddy is basically a brick wall. you can't tell what's going on in his head you can't tell how he's feeling and sometimes you may even wonder if he just fell asleep standing up with his eyes open (it's not the case but with how far away his brain has zoomed out it may as well be). he's very easily distracted and gets lost in his own brain a lot which causes him to speak slowly and sometimes he just doesn't finish his sentences. he also cracks his knuckles a lot

yancey can be very witty at times but his brain lags behind when there's too many people talking so he doesn't control WHEN he gets to be witty. he does finger guns at people a lot or a little thumbs up because he never knows what to do with his hands so adding in a little gesture like that gives him something to focus on. it's very endearing :^)

😞 DISAPPOINTED FACE — does your oc attract others, or do they tend to be left alone?

rafiq is a people person and loves to chat with people, which is why customers at the diner tend to stay a lot longer when he's on the workfloor because he'll just end up talking with them for hours. despite being surrounded by people a lot, he can still get very lonely easily because actually connecting to people in a deeper way takes a lot more effort for him

teddy is probably the loneliest man in blightwood crossing at the start of the story. he mostly just stays at home and goes to a nearby bar and the diner and that's IT. sometimes the grocery store. he mostly just talks to the diner's waiters rafiq and yukiko and then the bartender and cashier and he's a regular in those places so they would recognize his face but they wouldn't even know his name. he's always been a bit lonely and just focusing on the task at hand by himself so it doesn't really bother him, but also just isn't aware of just HOW lonely he is so once he starts talking to people more he's like "ohh so my life was just really fucked up before. ok"

yancey makes new friends very easily because of his fun and kind nature and he's good at making other people feel at ease with him :^) he values his alone time a lot but also knows when it's time for him to get out of the house and hang out with people again, which is why his new job at the diner is very good for him. it gives him something fun to do that he also gets paid for AND he gets to hang out with his new friends because they all work there :D easy right? what could possibly go wrong

[blue-corvid]

Tumblr Live Hot(?) Takes

The thing that really kills me about Tumblr Live is honestly that it could have been fine -- useful even!

I already follow streamers on Tumblr! I follow artists, comedians, video game let's-players, tabletop gaming nerds, all of whom stream somewhere that isn't Tumblr! If I could watch them stream on Tumblr, I would absolutely do that!

But Tumblr. My beloved. You fucked it up so bad. You immediately made it as sketchy and annoying as possible, and now... by the point that “everybody hates it” is the thing most people know about it, i can’t imagine it would be easy to save.

So this is my open letter to Tumblr (I don't know who to direct it at -- @staff? I hope that's okay) -- here’s where I think you went wrong, and how you could fix it (if it is, in fact, fixable.)

Tumblr Live appeared silently with no warning.

When it first showed up, the only thing I heard about it was “what the fuck is this?” I Googled it and found basically nothing, and then when I looked it up in Tumblr’s support pages, it wasn’t super clear what Tumblr Live was or what it was for. Streaming platform was only my best guess.

Most of the article was about how you could make money off it. Tumblr, I can’t make money off of it if I don’t know what it is, how to use it, or how to explain it to anyone.

This isn't the case anymore, but it was a serious problem early on.

(Seemingly) no effort to make it look appealing or useful.

It looks and acts like an ad. It’s positioned like an ad at the top of the dashboard. Like an ad, it doesn’t have any connection to what I do or care about on Tumblr.

It looks to be a bunch of still shots from the live chats that it’s promoting and this is just such an unbelievably bad idea.

See, here's the thing: Tumblr has a running problem with porn bots, most of which can be quickly identified by their avatars, which are almost always (stolen) pictures of attractive women, often in revealing clothing.

Guess what every single image I can see on the Tumblr Live ad banner is? Did you guess pictures of attractive women, often in revealing clothing? See the problem? Regardless of my feelings on or desire to interact with cam girls (which are, for the record: I’m not interested personally but I wish you good vibes and good luck and respectful clients), my gut reaction upon seeing the Tumblr Live banner is, “That looks like a bunch of porn bots.”

When you add this to how hard it was to find information about Tumblr Live, how poorly its terms of service were explained, and the state of the internet right now (with every social media site gunning to get its teeth into its uses' throats to vampire as much sensitive personal data from them as possible), Tumblr Live looks dangerous.

When Tumblr users got annoyed with it, there was (seemingly) no effort to fix any of the problems.

Instead of explaining clearly what Live is and how it works and making it inherently less intrusive, Tumblr made excuses about how they had to try to make it profitable and doubled down on making it as annoying as possible with its stupid “snooze” feature.

Every time this stupid porn-bot-looking ad banner popped up on someone’s dash after a week of being lulled into a false sense of security, they hated it a little more.

Tumblr basically hand-crafted a sitewide campaign to yell about how bad this feature is once a week.

How could it have been better?

It’s all well and good to sit here and pass judgement, but was it not just doomed from the start? Could Tumblr really have done any better?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

Here’s how you fix Tumblr Live:

Get rid of the ad-banner-style preview placement.

Instead, mimic what people are doing for their Twitch streams already. Send out a notification on my dashboard when a blog I follow goes live. Respect the rules for normal Tumblr posts when it comes to visibility: let people blaze and reblog them and don’t push them out to people who wouldn’t normally see posts from that blog except according to users’ dashboard preferences.

For persistent notifications (since streams aren’t one-and-done like posts), put a list of blogs I follow that are currently live in the sidebar.

Because these features are no longer intrusive, you no longer need an option in the settings to toggle them off, and people who initially wrote off Live can explore it if it ever becomes valuable to them instead of making it disappear forever.

Get the stream previews off users' screens as soon as humanly possible.

Tumblr has a porn bot problem. Because people's (especially women's and especially cam girls') pictures get scraped for porn bot avatars, Tumblr users are gonna associate pictures of real live non-celebrity people (especially women) with internet scams. Forget this "keep it clean" shit -- whether it looks "clean" matters less than whether it looks like someone wants to steal my credit card information. (And on the other side of that, please understand that sex worker positivity doesn't help sex workers if a feature they use gets shut down because your average Tumblr user thinks it looks so sketchy that they won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.)

Replace the stream preview with the streamer's avatar and the stream title and/or a streamer-selected cover image.

Get help from actual streamers.

Go find Tumblr users who regularly make posts announcing Twitch streams and introduce them to Tumblr Live. For people who already use Tumblr, already stream stuff, and already use Tumblr to tell their audience that they're streaming, having a streaming platform attached to Tumblr could be a real convenience. If you have premium streaming features, find some popular streamers who use Tumblr and give them free access to those features for a while. Even better, maybe ask them for feedback on those features.

Most importantly, get people who stream a variety of different things. Even if Tumblr users don't hate Tumblr Live, if they're under the impression that it's only for one thing and that one thing is something they're not into, they're never gonna use it.

...That's it, that's all I've got. I know this post is a monster, but if anyone reads it: thanks. Good luck in to all in this new era of Tumblr.

[azems-familiar]

ulic.

My first impression

oh this man's a bit arrogant isn't he. kinda hot though

My impression now

i am chewing on the walls.

Favorite thing about that character

he's got gifted kid syndrome out the ASS

(i love everything about him. he's so fascinating he's my little blorbo i want to spin him around in my brain)

i also really love his relationship with his brother, Cay (the song "the killing kind" on the playlist i linked below is for their relationship). it's deep and tragic and it hits so hard every time

Least favorite thing

EVERYTHING about his ending. this is not his fault but Holy Fuck i cannot believe what they did to my boy

Favorite line/scene

"how do you plead?"

"i don't plead with fools."

KING!!! KING SHIT!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAA.

Favorite interaction that character has with another

when Exar shows up to rescue him on Coruscant and they spend the whole time bantering and bitching with/at each other. i'm so normal

A character that I wish that character would interact with more

....Exar. okay outside of that? Mandalore. i honestly think their relationship is fascinating and i wish it was focused on more than just as brief mentions for why Ulic has the Mandalorians' loyalty for war

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character

from the SAME fandom, i accidentally made my Revan a massive Ulic parallel, so. there's that. uhhh from another fandom....hm. that is a difficult one. i'm....not sure i can think of any? he reminds me a lot of Anakin Skywalker in some ways, the golden son who fell and became the very thing he fought against, but most of the other media i enjoy doesn't have quite that same like... vibe about that narrative that star wars does, you know?

A headcanon about that character

i am not going to go into excruciating detail about my entirely made-up backstory for him but the important big deal is that his father was from House Panteer, the Alderaanian ruling family, and was only a few degrees removed from inheriting the throne, so Ulic is a royal and could, with some judicious assassinations and court games, actually end up the lawful heir to Alderaan

A song that reminds of that character

let me just.....

An unpopular opinion about that character

i do not fucking care what the comic tried to do and say, Ulic wasn't "under the influence" and "out of his mind" the whole time, his fall was a choice, it was intentional, the dark side poison made his anger stronger but he chose to stay, he chose to do all that! also cutting him off from the Force was the dumbest and least cathartic ending possible. ugh.

Favorite picture

i don't have it on hand because you can't screenshot from the site i use to read these comics anymore, but the panel where Arca is dying in his arms and he's on his knees holding his body? yeah. that one.

[katieskarlette]

You might have seen it already but, there's an official Wrathion plush now!

I saw. He's adorable and I'm sorely tempted. I just wish they'd made him years ago when I was really obsessed with the character. Oh well, I had a very cuddly dragon plushie (the "Merlin" one by Douglas Toys) that was "my" Wrathion.

I should probably update this blog with the status of my interest in WoW, since it's been a long time.

I wish I could say I'm back in love with Warcraft, but I'm not. My subscription ran out several months ago.

TL;DR version of the part below: Not feeling the WoW love anymore. Wish I was. I'm not really on this site much these days, either. This blog will continue to exist, just with very few updates unless I suddenly feel the spark again. I've been doing original writing instead these days. Hope everything is well out there in Tumblr-land.

Due to changes and crap at my job I didn't have any PTO left to take like I normally do for Blizzcon, but I'm just kind of numb about the franchise these days so I honestly don't think I would have taken it off, even if I had the option. Which is depressing, because that was a tradition for me as long as Blizzcons have been livestreamed.

Shadowlands just plain killed my love for the franchise to such an extent that even a dragon-centric expansion couldn't revive it. I wanted it to so, so much, but if that didn't do it, nothing can. Maybe I shouldn't blame SL completely, though, because I'd been playing since vanilla and that's a long time to be deeply immersed in any fictional universe. Maybe it was just time. I don't know, but it still makes me sad that I can't get dopamine from WoW anymore, when it was a sure-fire supplier for so long.

I'm not 100% ruling out that I'll get back into the game at some point in the future, but I'm not feeling it these days.

This blog isn't going anywhere. I have literally thousands of posts, hundreds of screenshots, and many years invested here.

However, my motivation for Tumblr kind of fizzled at around the same time my WoW love did, so I haven't scrolled through my dash in ages. I sometimes will search for a topic or see a post I like as I pass by on my way to update the blog for my original universe, @kavrillia, so once in a while I reblog something to @skarletterambles, my off-topic/multi-fandom catchall blog, but even that's pretty dead these days.

I've spent most of my leisure time writing, editing, and drawing for my original universe these days--which I'm enjoying a lot, but nobody else is familiar with it so I'm basically doing it all for myself.

*insert self-deprecating joke about how not many people read my WoW fics so what difference does it really make*

Anyway, sorry if this post is a downer. Like I said, I wish I still got the enjoyment out of the Warcraft franchise that I did for so many years, but I can't force my brain to feel a certain way. I hope if anyone actually read this far that they're still having a lot of fun with WoW. Thanks for following my blog!