#Long and complicated and vagueposting

[teal-fiend]

a pred and prey who are enemies for non-vore related reasons.

It's rather that they have ideological differences.

But The pred thinks that the prey doesnt like them largely because they are a pred.

However, that is not the case. In fact, the prey finds predators frustratingly attractive. The prey tries their best to hide this.

The predator feels insecure about their eating habits, but they try to put on an aire of confidence. The prey seems somewhat disgusted (?) By the pred, but the pred still makes an effort not to hide their stomach, or conceal the fact that they eat prey.

They dont make a big deal about it. Sometimes their stomach looks a bit full, thats all. The prey seems to have an adverse reation every time though.

Meanwhile the prey is tortured by a pred who is clueless to how they affect the prey. Each time the prey notices the pred post meal, they cant stop imagining who they ate, imagining different people the prey knew, ending up in there... imagining themselves... in that stomach.

Does it make it better or worse? That the pred has no idea that they are so implicitly attractive. Just in the way they naturally act, when their belly is curved outwards, hands on their hips, annoyed for some external reason, all the while their stomach works so diligently. Being a predator is so normal to them, they hardly pay attention to their prey - it really is just food to them.

The pred may be weirded out if they knew how the prey felt.

And besides, the pred has some bad values. They're in a pyramid scheme or something. A red flag . The prey cannot get entangled any more than they have to be.

The pred is of the belief that the prey is simply a hater. Unfortunately their aversion to the pred only makes them more self conscious. The pred doesnt like to feel insecure, and so they are enemies.

[nihilnovisubsole]

something i've been thinking about as GDC comes around again: it's amazing to sit in the same room with Real Industry People and hear the truth of why certain story decisions happened the way they did. studio games are odd group projects that take a really long time to make, and there are many irons in the fire and many interests at play. sometimes the stars align and a team gets a laser vision, creative freedom, and the budget they need, and they ship the thing they meant to ship.

but not always. if a character you love got killed off, it's entirely possible that their original writer left or they couldn't bring the voice actor back. or leadership wanted to close down old story arcs and tie up loose ends, or someone felt new characters would bring in a new audience. if a series seemed to drop a plot thread in a sequel, it's possible that the narrative team wanted to include it and it got cut for scope. or shareholders wanted to appeal to a different part of the playerbase. or the team had internal creative conflict, or any number of reasons as simple as "it got lost in the shuffle because we did so many rewrites". [important disclosure: i'm not vagueposting about specific games here. i'm just rattling possibilities off. resemblance, unintentional, etc.]

and of course that's not a phenomenon unique to video games. tv shows make snap decisions when they get canceled before the planned end of the story or a cast member wants to leave. movies' plots can change when a new director comes on board, or they bring in a script doctor, or an actor's problems interfere with the shoot. even louisa may alcott changed little women's ending over concerns that if jo remained unmarried, the book wouldn't sell. i'm not sure whether it was her publisher or she worried about it herself, but the point is, something got altered, and it can happen anywhere.

as a fan, i found these developers' stories both comforting and vindicating. for a long time, i've felt like someone riding two horses at once: the fanfic-and-OC girl playing on other writers' playgrounds, and now also the staff writer who sees how the sausage gets made. i've been affected - probably overmuch - by a character's sad end, only to learn that some third party or outside motive influenced it. i've met writers who also didn't like where a plot was going, but didn't have enough seniority on the team to protest it. i've heard stories along the lines of, "we were trying to make lemonade, man," and what shocked me more than the revelation is the peace i gained from it. it's a miracle the games shipped at all. the things that got made, got made. between professionals, it's neither heretical nor some wild flight of irrationality to ask, "what if things had gone a different way?"

and, i mean, it would be both cynical and incorrect to wave it all off and say that no storytelling motives are ever wholesome. some characters die because it's the logical conclusion to their arc. some universes with complicated worldbuilding benefit from narrowing their focus and shaving off a few subplots. i'm just saying many things are possible. when you only sit on the fan side, it's easy to feel like Canon™ looms above you, inviolable, when you're really in conversation with it. there's a lot of power in saying "i respect the team's accomplishments, but i would've made different choices." you'd be surprised how often the team agrees with you.

[widevibratobitch]

Hi! It's me, the rant anon again. I wanted to ask about two things:

1. What was the drama with opera bracket? I've only heard legends but nothing certain.

2. Who is your favourite living opera singer? And what do you think of Diana Damrau, Rolando Villazon and Dimitri Chrostovsky?

Sorry if I'm bothering you with questions. Love, S

hiiiiii anon dear <3

1. WELL. long story short: basically it was just an innocent poll contest that got a little heated and split operablr in two. some people "took it too seriously", some not seriously enough perhaps, which resulted in a wild vagueposting storm from both sides, some blocks, some frankly hilarious memes, and finally ended with a beautiful callout post (happy anniversary btw, it was exactly one year ago <3) and the most mediocre opera of all time ultimately winning.

2. now that is a complicated question since there are opera singers nowadays whom i have a lot of very indulgent fondness for even though i personally think they don't sing that well at all (some of them genuinely sing Very Badly lol). there are also some that actually sing quite well but i just cannot fucking stand them alas.

from the ones who are alive and still active, I'd say Saioa Hernandez is worth checking out, god knows she has her issues, she's been becoming more and more wobbly these last few years and just lacks the idk. grace? in her singing but damn is she loud + i don't know of any other soprano (OR mezzo for that matter) who uses her chest voice this freely and audaciously in the very old school fashion that's been steadily disappearing since about mid 20th century to the point where it's near nonexistent nowadays (and I'm a bit of a chest voice fanatic fyi). to me she's akin to Alessandro Moreschi aka the last and only castrato we actually have a (wax cylinder actually, ha!) recording of - basically, you can tell the technique and execution is not quite it, but with their singing we at least get the idea of what it Could have sounded like.

Damrau - absolute fucking wreck of a singer, im sorry but she's a disaster. i get physically tired just listening to her. totally inaudible live too. i do enjoy her totally over the top acting sometimes tho lol

Villazon is I'd say somewhat self explanatory. He completely ruined whatever voice he had and is now singing as a baritone if i recall correctly? Good technique doesn't do that to a singer. Don't hate him tho, he seems like a very sillygoofy dude and i remember him being somewhat entertaining.

Hvorostovsky, ah yes, certified operablr sexyman. He started out really, really good and kept like that for a while, went downhill from there but I do acknowledge his severe health problems. I get where people obsessed with him are coming from and I have a lot of respect for him. he just never quite did it for me, we never really vibed, sorry. Definitely a solid artist tho.

so. definitely not bothering me! quite the opposite actually! i love talking into the void about things im passionate about and sorry if i sound like a pretentious big-headed cunt, that's probably because i am just that, peace and love <3 totally seriously tho, thank you for asking!

[paragonrobits]

One of the things I've been working on behind the scenes and I've vagueposted about it a lot here but I've never actually written anything down because its a work-in-progress and I feel weird about committing to any definitive statements, is a pair of on-going projects; the Exalted Project (an story and exploration of characters in the Exalted setting, using a system to emulate natural character growth by expending experience point and determining story events based on what they purchased) and the OC Project, creating various original settings and a group of characters to focus on, and they're linked because most of them are derived from the Exalted Project overall

and one of the trickiest bits is adapting stuff from Exalted that's integral to a character concept, but making it original or not strictly bound to the particulars of Exalted's cosmology.

Let's take one of my favorites from the Exalted Project; the Infernal Exalted whose working name is Mazrogul (working title: the Brass Beast). She is from the Slayer caste, meaning she is empowered to excel at combat and her primary patron among the titans of the setting is Malfeas, whose iconography, visual aesthetics and powers are just so goddamn COOL that he is 90 percent of the reason I like Infernals almost as much as I love the robotic pseudo-Transformers/Reploids of the Alchemical Exalted.

There are a few interpretations to be made just from this description. Just going on what Malfeas' powers do narratively for Infernal characters, you can infer that in translating her into a purely original character not tied to Exalted, she probably has powers based around tanking attacks (Malfeas grants high defense powers), getting stronger the more she gets hurt (more Malfeas tricks) and overwhelming power by doing Hulk Smash type stuff (Malfeas' basic power grants superhuman power to any action as long as you do it with overkill and overwhelming power), but some stuff gets complicated.

An example.

One of Malfeas' most iconic powers is called Green Sun Nimus Flare, a basic and reliable attack that does more damage, causing wounds to erupt in green fire. Upgrades make it stronger; doing more damage, attacking entities normally immune to physical attacks, manifesting it as an energy weapon, making it a ranged attack that can act freely... its all very cool and a huge part of this character's imagery, and not too hard to disassociate from Exalted. Just make it all Asura's Wrath projectile punches but green.

But this same skill tree is also closely associated to themes of radiation; this is very literal.

Malfeas' charm tree, starting with that particular power, thematically draws on the most horrific aspects of nuclear radiation and its effects on the human body. Killing with these powers produces a fungal cloud that burns people's shadows onto the floor and gives people nightmares for thousands of years, for nothing less suits the limitless hatred of Malfeas, he who was once King of All Kings before he was cast down into the obscenity of physical form (or so his lore goes).

It gets horrifying; these attacks often inflict a magical form of what is very clearly late stage radiation sickness. No detail is spared, and it is gruesome, horrific and unspeakably painful.

So, stripping all the context from it and making it just something she does, what does it say about this character that she has such powers, whether or not she has conscious control over them?

The thing about it is that in Exalted, her patrons are Malfeas (raging, cruel and destructive beyond measure) and Kimbery (a vast acid sea, of impossible expectations and overwhelming hate at any betrayal or failing to live up to her expectations, motherhood played as grotesquely as possible, and sea imagery in all its Lovecraftian horror). Both are cruel, sadistic, violent (and fundamentally tragic, broken entities), and they suggest a bloodthirsty berserker who craves violence and cruelty, either breaking people into pieces for mild disrespect or murderously torturing allies for percieved betrayal.

She is, instead, the heart and soul of the team; a steadfast guardian and protector, a mild-mannered and easy going person who'd rather not splatter people all over the world. World's bad enough as it is, she says, no need to hurt people worse unless you don't got a choice. While her powers are horrific in nature, they don't compel her to do those things, and while her character is clearly modeled after the likes of the Hulk at his most fearsome, she is ALSO modeled after Hulk at his kindest and most tormented, as well as Steven Universe and Hellboy. Part of her core concept is 'what if Steven Universe was exactly the same except all his powers were unspeakabiy horrifying and he had to work around those limitations?'

So, in making her specific to an OC-verse, the question is, do I lean into those themes? Do I try to nullify their most gruesome themes, or lean into them on purpose to raise questions about herself, or give her a challenge; she COULD win fights easily by leaning into it, but what about the cost to herself?

Does she look into a mirror and ask herself what it says about her if she's capable of such things, or do I skirt away from it? Would it work better if I leaned into this as hard as possible, playing monstrosity as a theme both in terms of positive (beat the living SHIT out of tyrants everywhere) and negative (she doesn't wnat to think about what it says about her that this is the shape the power of her soul takes; revealing the monster inside for all to see as her misery, hatred and rampaging hatred blossoms).

[tswift]

agree !! feeling like this space is super charged and i dont agree w all of the things being said, but know that if i express any of that all i'm going to get is vagueposts about how i am too far up taylors ass. when thats nothing ti do w it, i just believe that what's going on is not as important as everyone is making it out to be. arrrghhhhh

Oh I am sure people are vague posting me already hjgdsgd but I do believe that it is important. But it's also super complicated. How long she's known him, the fact that he's so enmeshed in her closest friends' lives, friends that she deeply respects. Like, how much does she know? How much of what we're even being told is true? What kind of conversations are being had? Are any conversations being had? There's just no way to know unless Taylor herself makes a statement.

Do you do an internet deep dive before you become friends with someone? Can people change? Can they be redeemed? Is he even sorry? Is all of this just an incredibly misguided and offensive bit to spark conversation like certain people close to him claim? Is there even a genuine bone in his body???

Why are men like this so easily protected??? Just A LOT to discuss it is not as simple as "Taylor is evil now and doesn't care" or "Taylor owes us nothing, shut up!"

[izamationbroker]

Gee, I wonder who they're talking about! ☆

Now, before I get into the nitty-gritty about this post, I want to make clear of one very important thing:

I don't care whether they headcanon Izaya to have ASPD or not.

In fact, this post isn't really going to be much about Izaya at all. Sorry if you were hoping for a big debate, but per my disclaimer about fandom discourse, I really don't care when people disagree with me. Everyone has their own headcanons, and they're free to enjoy those headcanons however they want.

However,

What rubs me the wrong way about this post is the vaguepost slander and blatant ableism they cite as their evidence.

The language they use to describe people who headcanon Izaya as having ASPD is consistently and intentionally derogatory in an attempt to emphasize inexperience and discredit. That's crossing the line for me from "let it be" to "stepping on my lawn". I know they didn't directly mention me, but it the statement above it's hard to think of anyone else they could have possibly been referring to. That's a deliberate attempt to put me down and start beef from my perspective.

I addressed this at the very beginning of my original essay on Izaya, making clear that I was not a psych professional and that I relied a lot on basic research and the experiences of loved ones who had ASPD. I admitted that I hadn't read all of the novels. I wrote that essay in response to an ask from a friend who wanted me to go in detail about it. Naturally, differential diagnosis is a thing, and on top of that, this is a fictional character we're talking about. It's only fair that different people will interpret the text in different ways.

I was in no way trying to make the case that it was canon, because the only way one could argue it's canon is if Narita said so himself. I won't step on other people's toes about their headcanons if I don't agree with them. Just because I don't personally headcanon Izaya as autistic doesn't mean I'm going to make a long-ass post "debunking" the very possibility and vague the guy who did a writeup on how Izaya fits the criteria (No, in fact I was actually inspired by that post for the format of my own on ASPD).

This person, on the other hand, felt such a visceral disgust to the very notion that this fictional character could possibly have ASPD, that they felt the need to make a post to "debunk" it, like some kind of gross rumor. What does that say about how that person views ASPD and the real people who have it?

That brings me to my second issue with this post: The blatant ableism.

This post makes two main points about why Izaya couldn't have ASPD, and both of those points reek of ablism. "Lack of remorse" is a complex issue in the realm of ASPD, and I see it all the time with my brother and partner, who both have ASPD. From what I understand from the post, the poster seems to believe that people with ASPD are simply incapable of feeling remorse. That is really not the case. In fact, the quoted diagnostic criterion in the DSM V they are referencing says this:

"7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another"

It's more than just a "lack of remorse," the DSM expands further to describe that this criterion is met when some either displays indifference or otherwise rationalizes their actions. Furthermore, there is a marked difference between regret, guilt, and remorse. Like I said, it's a complicated matter.

I know my partner has talked about it already on their own blog, but I wanted to restate it here: People with ASPD are capable of feeling remorse is select situations with select people. For example, in my essay about Izaya, I mentioned that he regrets how Mairu and Kururi turned out because he raised them. They're his family, and very close to him. It makes sense that they would be important to him and exist as an exception to his tendency to rationalize everything he does.

My brother and partner regret things all the time, but usually that's more because of outside consequences rather than internal belief that what they did was wrong or that they hurt someone. Sometimes they feel guilt, but it's quickly rationalized away before they could ever take action on it. In certain circumstances, they have felt true remorse, and because they almost never deal with it, it's probably one of the most painful things they've ever experienced. To make the blanket statement that people with ASPD simply do not experience any form of this complex emotion is extremely dehumanizing and ableist, disregarding the possibility that people are complex and should not be limited a stereotype.

The second point this poster made was that Izaya's disregard for social norms could be explained away by his IQ, and to that I say

What year are you living in?

IQ is a funky little quiz that tests your logical and spatial reasoning rooted in eugenics as an excuse to dehumanize people who don't score high enough. There is nothing social about it, and even if there was, science in this day and age have discarded its relevancy. It's been reduced to a quirky number that puzzle game apps use in their mobile ads to entice you to download them. "People with an extremely low IQ are not capable of understanding the social norms"? Just say they're r*tarded and call it a day. Seriously. Autistic people everywhere (myself included) would be disgusted at this display.

TLDR: Don't gossip and spread ableist propaganda. Oh, and

Stay off my lawn.

[stilettobitearch]

NAME?: fable! PRONOUNS?: he/him MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S)?: cece is my only tumblr one rn, but ellie lives in my head 24/7 and i might be bringing her to a blog soon… self-control? i don't know him RP PET PEEVES?: oh, i have a few of these... the biggest one has to be vagueposting, or doing that thing on the dash where you're like oh i'm just going to log off for the night, no-one wants me here anyway, i haven't come here to be guilt-tripped into writing with you, and if i follow you, i do want to write with you! but vagueposting in general. bleh. EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS?: oh no (on tumblr, 10 years, off tumblr, 15+ ish? i can't remember when i started but it was a goodly while ago)FLUFF, ANGST, OR SMUT?: yes. (if there's angst, i do like to do some fluff to balance it out for my achey breaky heart, but its not a requirement) PLOTS OR MEMES?: memes for starting interactions, but there's nothing like a little bit of plotting, too. anything that lets me make pinterest boards and spotify playlists,,,, LONG OR SHORT REPLIES?: this fluctuates depending on the thread and the position the stars are in, but i am a little bit of a waffler in my writing, i end up writing longer than i mean to even when i try to keep it short! sometimes though, you want those quick little rapid-fire threads TIME TO WRITE?: when i'm not in pain and can think straight, so who knows. this being said, of an evening or late into the night is wonderful ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: this one is complicated, bc like, no. no i'm not, except for the ways that cece is exactly like me when i was 20. obviously the bloodlust wasn't really my scene, but there is an amount of secret's self-doubt, jealousy, and general Charming To Hide The Pain that definitely came from before the therapy started working better for me.

tagged by: i shamelessly stole this from @lunarrepel tagging: @hxllowedblood @sporefound uhm idk who has or hasn't done this, so if you see this and want to, you!! tag me so i can read!!

[ratabethchase]

i looooooove to comment on fics i will comment paragraphs and paragraphs. one time i wrote a comment that was 1000 words long. but oh my fucking god!!!! authors (really just 1 author i have seen that i suppose i am vagueposting about lol) need 2 stop guilt tripping readers!!!

this is not about when authors are like. please comment. this is specifically like, putting in your notes at the end of your fic "i guess you guys hated this one 🙄 you are all just draining me of my energy and not refuelling my tank by engaging"

like okay!! comments are vital and i definitely think readers do not comment enough. you also sound like my mother !! you can have a good point and still be really fucking annoying about it.

and i don't want it to get misconstrued, (although this IS tumblr and of course we piss on the poor) i think authors asking for comments is totally fine, and sometimes needed for people to actually comment. its just this one author is continually guilt tripping readers into commenting, and then not even replying to any of the comments they do get! and its not like theyre getting zero comments, they are getting like average 15-20ish comments from what i have seen.

i know this may be a little selfish to say/admit, but part of the reason i love writing really long comments is because i love to see the authors reaction to my comment. but if an author is going to make people feel like shit for not leaving really long comments, and not even acknowledge any of the comments, why should i bother?

i don't know if this is super entitled of me to say, but i feel like if ive written a paragraph, i'd like to know its at least been seen! i don't even need a thank you or anything, just a reply with a heart or something idk.

only one or two comments if any at all get replied to by the author, and usually they are because they have asked a question or said something that the author feels the need to correct. i feel like i would be a lot more lenient and less annoyed at the guilt tripping if they simply REPLIED to comments! even just a random emoji!!

idk . am i being an asshole here? i am very open to feedback i genuinely dont know if i am sounding like a huge sack of shit and need 2 rethink my thoughts.

tldr; an author is guilt tripping readers into comments and it makes me NOT want to comment, especially because i often write long paragraphs and don't get acknowledged for it.

[moonstandardtime]

I want to vote and offer advice on your polls but I feel like it really depends on what you mean by cyberstalking and whos safety and why its for safety reasons yknow

this is gonna read kinda like an aita. under cut bc its a LOT of vaguely explained personal drama. content warnings in tags.

i have three roommates. ill call them A, B, and C. A and B are both 24 i think, and C is 21. i was roommates with C in 2023 in a college dorm and we got along great. currently planning to move to a different place together. he was friends with B prior to the two of us meeting. B and A are dating. A and B both followed me on tumblr until all of this.

C is not currently living here due to Drama with A and B. will not be elaborating on that here bc its very personal on both sides + just generally pretty complicated. hes staying with his boyfriend currently. (who also sort of roomed with us in 2023 by virtue of spending most of his time in our room.) C left in i think october. or november. idr.

at the end of october i got fired from my job bc job-induced burnout was making me. extremely unproductive. i also happened to run out of adhd meds at Exactly the same time and wasnt able to get them refilled for a month. so for most of november i was both recovering from burnout AND off my meds, so the executive dysfunction was Super Kicking My Ass.

at some point in november i asked A (who i had not spoken to directly very much at all; this was our first one on one conversation Ever) to do a very little something housekeeping related. he immediately got on my ass for not doing chores. to summarize most of the very long text conversation, there were some communication issues caused by C trying to keep exactly this from happening, A used the words "stupid" and "useless" to describe how i do chores, and A is not my dad.

i, extremely frustrated, came onto tumblr, softblocked A (and tried to find B's account to softblock him too, with no luck) and made that "google how not to tell someone to kill themself when youre kind of frustrated" post. A and B saw that post and decided that i meant i actually for real wanted A to kill himself.

that whole exchange ended with me leaving the house crying at like 8 or 9pm to spend the night at C and his bf's place.

fast forward to december. B has blocked me on tumblr. kitchen looks like a hoarder house. i ask A very nicely to clean up in the kitchen, he says B was actually already working on that. problem resolved. and then B texts me two massive messages about how hes seen my posts about hating my roommates and hes 24 and im 19 and he "frankly doesnt feel like having beef with me". i ask how hes seen my posts when i have both of them blocked. (important note that this actually isnt true—id forgotten that i only softblocked A and couldnt find B. but B blocked me after the first incident anyway, so neither of them should have been seeing my posts without specifically going to my blog and looking for them.) he brushes that off and says that if i have a problem with them i should just say it instead of vagueposting in a public space. (the reason i was not just saying it, if you cant tell, is because i didnt want to have another panic attack from being berated.) (also, the only irls of mine who are active on here are my sisters. so im still not sure why it matters if its not negatively affecting them as long as they dont, yknow, stalk my blog.) he also pressures me into sharing info about the Drama that i very clearly stated i was uncomfortable sharing without express permission from C.

this exchange ends the same as the last. except worse. i go home early for winter break the next day.

over the course of winter break, i make one or two violent posts referencing the situation with A and B. bad idea in retrospect dont do that. they are alarmed by this, which is understandable, but they VERY CRUCIALLY SHOULD NOT HAVE SEEN THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. especially since in the previous exchange i expressed clear discomfort regarding them doing that and was brushed off. LUCKILY this third exchange a couple days ago did not end in a panic attack, but A did reveal to me that he recorded that previous panic attack because it sounded violent. which is fair it did sound violent because i was throwing things at my wall (as i do when i have a particularly bad panic attack—rip those two school owned chromebooks from high school), but when i asked him to delete it because it was just a panic attack and not a murderous rage or whatever, he refused. he also said that what he and B were doing wasnt stalking because i hadnt actually blocked either of them, and also its fine for them to do because they were doing it for their safety. (interestingly, ive realized while making this post that they should not have seen the posts they were so concerned about if they hadnt already been looking through my blog (after i showed discomfort, too).)

so. thats the situation. A has since been blocked but B still has be blocked so i cant access his blog to block him. so it SHOULDNT be a problem anymore.

[bbg100]

Vaguepost that I refuse to reblog the content for

'you have a finite but nonzero amount of disposable income' I literally do not. My disposable income is zero. The only reason I don't ebeg is a desperate desire for independence. Using up my (actually finite but nonzero) amount of free time to read a very long post that just tries to make me feel stupid or illogical for not donating to Gaza is an overstep that has me Pissed Off. I know the logic would be to go 'oh, I'm not the target audience' and move on, but because of the purposefully obscured nature I already sunk my time into it. Not to mention the fact that the hypothetical is designed to over complicate the situation instead of simplify. Lecture instead of connect.

The implied insistence that the (finite but nonzero) amount of donations to Gaza, would increase if only people could mentally comprehend the benefits of donating, comes from a place of ignorance at best. I would prefer to attribute a different reason, but I cannot think of any. People have lots of reasons to not donate, such as feeling insecure in their own financial situation (regardless of reality), lack of trust that the money will be used correctly, interest in other values (ie donating to abortion causes over donating to humanitarian), cluelessness on where to donate, and many more.

You didn't even direct people where to donate.

Normal translation: that post is acting like people are stupid, it's not very nice. I'm mad it's acting that way, and I don't think it's useful. It doesn't try to get to know people, it just assumes everyone's stupid. That's fucked up.

[ajora]

Fic stuff

Cut because maybe 3 people care.

I've been writing a lot more than I have in a while. Chapter 10 is done and I'm about 3000 words into Chapter 11. If momentum keeps going, I'm hoping I'll be done with the game novelization part done by the end of the year and can move on to exploring the fallout of smashing worlds together that had been separate for 1000 years + complications of maintaining a long-term taboo relationship in one place where there's not a lot of privacy.

I'm thinking of spacing out chapter releases instead of dumping them all at once.

Marginally related and kinda selfish thought: I really wish other people would write/draw F/L without me pushing them to. It would just be nice not to be the only one on this boat for longer than a day or so. I miss being able to flail happily about my ship and not get frowned at and vagueposted about by fandom thought police who can't just scroll past and/or block.

[cdroloisms]

honestly, i think some of the problems plaguing current dreblr is because of the lack of meaningful disagreement, the more i think about it? dreblr has always had some problems about being conflict averse, truth be told, but when the greater fandom was more active a lot of conflict invited itself to our door anyway. at the same time, though, i think there was a sort of sentiment that evolved that because we were the only ones "in our corner," so to speak, we should agree with each other as much as possible and limit infighting. and i mean, to be clear, infighting kind of sucks. but disagreeing about analysis shouldn't be considering infighting, and for the meta scene to like, exist, we have to have room to actually debate, yknow?

like, when i see takes i dont agree with, i want to comment my thoughts ... mostly bc i am the fucking yapper LOL. i love talking about this server and c!dream and when im posting about them it's largely bc i just, want to talk abt the dsmp and c!dream. that being said, i also don't want to step on toes, which i think has prevented me more than few times from posting the meta i want to write, which is another symptom of the problem i feel?

outside of dreblr being a place for a more /pos reading of c!dream, there isn't any other "required" consensus (the "c!dream /pos" requirement only existing bc that's the point of dreblr, lmao, not that every dsmp fan ever has to be c!dream positive) -- but i think there's a sort of social pressure both bc of the history of this fandom and bc of how certain bloggers may be perceived that makes people feel like there's a "correct" way to think about c!dream on dreblr, and that the more everyone here agrees the better. and honestly i think this has a ripple effect that kinda sucks for everyone, across the board -- definitely for newer fans, who don't feel like they can post anything when it's not "in agreement" with the consensus, but also for those who get kind of seen as 'authorities', who then feel like they have to watch what they say lest people react badly about them having a differing opinion.

i do think that personally, i also prefer direct debate -- mostly bc i, once again, am the yapper, and will take any excuse to dump thoughts about c!dream anywhere, and other people's arguments are thought provoking and often inspire thoughts of my own so i generally would like to see them! that being said, i also completely understand why vagueing happens and why people prefer to do it; a lot of people feel much more comfortable about their own blogs as their "personal" space where they're able to set boundaries for what they feel is acceptable/unacceptable behavior. just as an example, if someone made a vaguepost about something i wrote saying that they feel [xyz] language i used was inappropriate (ex. I think it's problematic when people write meta describing c!Quackity as sadistic--), even if i stumbled onto that post and drew the conclusion that it was about my own meta, it's a fair enough opinion for them to put on their own blog. if they replied to me with that directly, though, i'd probably roll my eyes at the tone policing. does that makes sense? imo the etiquette when you jump onto someone else's post and make your own vaguepost can be pretty different, but that's my own personal judgement, so obviously it differs person to person. never mind the complication that exists because of tumblr asks.

all of that being said, tumblr is a public space and posting meta/analysis, in general, is kind of fandom academia lite. which circles back to my lack of real feeling on how to "solve" the problem of vagueing, bc i don't think any meaningful limits can really exist as long as people aren't doing things like encourage their followers to attack someone (which is another reason why someone might vague, though the actual efficacy of such a strategy kind of varies -- some people may make the judgement call not to directly reference any one blogger they disagree with by name/rb them directly in order to prevent their followers from going on crusades on their own) -- it's a source of natural conflict and friction, especially within a small group such as this one, but especially when we're talking about meta analysis i do think it's a format of disagreement that will continue to exist and kind of has to continue to exist. at the same time, though, i don't think people should feel "punished" for writing meta, which can be what it feels like when there's an overwhelmingly negative response by others in the group.

more open disagreement in the meta scene here would probably be good for everyone, honestly, imo? i can think a take is bad/wrong/incorrect but that doesn't mean the take shouldn't exist, and it also doesn't mean that i should feel obligated not to share my opinions in the part of dreblr that is specifically meant to be about sharing opinions about the work, and the same goes for everyone. i think having more open discussions might also lessen the feeling of being more personally attacked or targeted, or feelings of "disrupting the peace" or "rocking the boat," when it's more openly acknowledged that people here won't always agree and that the disagreements are more obviously talked about. i think direct conversations are probably more productive in that sense than vagueing, truth be told, but is vagueing still going to happen? well, yeah, and i don't think that that's a bad thing necessarily -- nor do i think it's something that can be excised from the fandom without an uncomfortable amount of policing what people do in their own spaces.

i don't want to come off as just saying "don't take it personally when someone calls you an idiot for your take," because i mean, it's hard not to take it personally when someone calls you an idiot for your take. but meta and other fanwork, while obviously often in conversation with each other (oh 7y being a riff of the fandom, never not hilarious to me), definitely play by different rules. but i'm not gonna act like it doesn't get awkward either, bc yeah it gets awkward 😭. i feel like a lot of the problems right now come from there being not enough conflict so that everyone reacts a little too strongly when there is any (when meta + analysis conflict should be restricted to being about the work moreso than being about any particular blogger) and that more obvious diversity in opinions would probably be good for everyone here, but that doesn't exactly eliminate the fact that the ways that people disagree and react to said disagreement are still a source of discomfort and friction -- and i still don't really think there are any easy answers.

thanks for the thoughts elm !! :D i hope that having a more active discussion ig might help with the issue, or at least help people to feel that the issue is being acknowledged ... ? and obviously im just one person saying my own thoughts, i don't expect everyone to agree with this

a little ramble about dreblr, meta, and the ever evolving nature of this fandom, i guess?

i don't mean to soapbox, this is mostly just going to be vomiting some thoughts into a post. some recent stuff and a post or two have had me thinking about this fandom and how different it is from when dsmp was ongoing. it's,, pretty obvious that the fandom is quite a bit smaller and less active than that time, and there are generally a lot fewer people actively posting meta and such every day--which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and is natural obviously considering that the dsmp ended almost 2 years ago, but does mean that the culture around (?) meta and such has shifted, as well. it's one of those things too i think that is felt so much more obviously in dreblr, which is an even smaller group within this fandom that formed in response to uhhh being very much considered unwelcome by the greater fandom at the time.

that being said, as is the nature of all fandom, dreblr is still a community of people who are largely strangers who have gathered together because of one commonality: very strong feelings and often very strong opinions on the dream smp and c!dream. and i think when the fandom was more active, the entire fandom felt a lot more like a "pvp enabled" zone, lmao -- it was every other day when there'd be some new batshit meta about c!dream or some stream to react to and analyze and fight people about and whatever. since then, though, with the dsmp gone, the fandom has become quieter -- which i think has allowed some of the variation in opinions within dreblr become more and more obvious? and also become a sort of source of friction.

again, this is normal for any fandom. i'm certainly not here to agree with everyone about c!dream always, lmao. but the vagueing of takes is always more awkward on both sides when it's someone where you share more of the same circles. at the end of the day, it's up to each individual blogger's discretion to choose what they will or won't post on their own blog, but at the same time ... when it comes to the community, just speaking for myself, i don't want a super high barrier of entry when it comes to people feeling like they can't join this fandom unless they've got [xyz] experience or [xyz] takes.

when it comes to actual analysis of the source material, though, keeping meta a safe place for people to say "no, i don't agree with this take because of [xyz]" is important as well, which always raises the question of how said disagreements should be handled. and again, i'm no authority, i'm not here to tell people what to do. personally, when it comes to my own blog, i don't like to post very much directly about any one blogger, but I know I've definitely written posts inspired by specific takes before as well as screenshots of takes from the fandom's heyday, etc. i don't necessarily feel uncomfortable with this ...? but at the same time, i know that vagueposts can be a source of discomfort, especially if they're about your take in particular (speaking from experience) -- so it's you know. not the easiest line to draw, I guess, especially when we're talking about a community where different people are going to have different levels of comfort with what they post on their own blogs and what other blogs do in response to their takes. and whatever.

vagueposting, i think, has been common in the tumblr dsmp fandom for a long time, and especially in dreblr -- direct engagement in the past errr usually went badly, so a habit formed of keeping everything we did kind of within our own spaces (hence why many of us don't even tag c!dream or even dreblr on most of our posts; keeping everything untagged, or keeping the tagging system restricted to our own blogs, limited the possibility of trouble). that being said, vagueing within dreblr has become more common, i think, as disagreements within dreblr have become more and more obvious in the time since the dsmp ended. (just for the obvious example: i think it's a bit of an open secret that i, personally, strongly disagree with much of the common depictions of c!drunz in this fandom. i've written some meta about this before, as well as some responses to meta--which i enjoyed greatly, believe me--but i've also noticed (perhaps coincidence) an uptick in c!drunz positive meta every time i or someone else makes a post that maybe skews more negative. which is normal, don't get me wrong, but also a pattern i've noticed. i'm also very aware that someone the arguments i may bring up as counterarguments or structure my posts around arguing against are based on actual arguments i've seen while in this space, which i'm aware is an easy source of friction within dreblr.) and it's easy to say "don't take it personally when it's just metaanalysis," but that's easier said than done, lmao, especially depending on the tone of the vaguepost and a myriad of other factors.

i'm not saying that i have the answers. or, for that matter, a single answer. the boundaries i set aren't going to be the same as the boundaries other people set, for one, and i have no desire to police what other people do on their own blogs. i do miss, sometimes, the more collaborative and discussion-based meta experience of this fandom when it was more active--i might try to more actively reblog posts (including those i don't necessarily agree with) to discuss this server and these characters, bc at the end of the day that is kind of why we're here. personally, i've always drawn a pretty sharp distinction between fanwork and analysis -- i think it's pretty bad form to criticize people's AUs In General (not that i've not. been guilty of it in the past, but i try at least to keep it to criticizing more general patterns within fanwork; look, i'm not going to claim a moral high ground, i love bitching way too much and should probably get a handle on that but asj;lkfdsaf) but when we're talking meta about the source material, barring shit like. you know, harassment and otherwise abusive behavior, i do consider it more of a free-for-all. at the same time, i know that these standards can lead to newer fans feeling like they're going to be booed out the door for sharing their thoughts, which, i mean, isn't great 😭😭😭 fresh eyes can bring a lot of really cool new insights, and it'd suck pretty damn bad to miss that because they don't feel welcome, yknow?

anyway, this is a very inconclusive post, but i thought i'd just throw some of my thoughts out as someone who has been here for a decently long time. and if you want to discuss w/ me, inbox and dms are always open :)

[no-psi-nan]

Me: I only have a little bit of time to work on fic rn. Maybe I'll just work on the next platonic chapter!

Aiura: so it's time for .*✨ quantum physics✨*.

Me: ...girl help...

[eledhrim]

//

[sour-n-salty-citrus]

I'm screaming,,please talk more about aftoncest!! When you mentioned fnaf and shipping, I thought you were talking about Gregory and glamrock freddy

AHAH, i have seen gregory and glamrock freddy around (which looks very 👀👀👀 might i add), but I haven't gotten onto security breach quite yet.

Yes, it's true, the ship i was vagueposting about was aftoncest! I figured it was time i got back into fnaf (the last time i was "into" the series was... oof, 2016 probably?) so i looked up a lore guide. I knew afton was the child killer at this point due to osmosis and occasionally hearing something, but I wasn't aware he had kids! (I remembered the crying child from fnaf 4- and very very vaguely knew about the girl from sister location). I saw Michael's sprite and was like "oh hey, he seems like the oldest- Michael, huh, wonder how he fits i-" and then it went "the Mike Schmidt who's the protagonist of fnaf1" and I was like he's THAT MIKE????

I was curious to see if he had any voice lines so i looked it up, found a video on the SL cutscene(?), played it, and immediately heard,

"father."

...

And yup, that did it for me, I was 100% sold. I already figured Michael and William probably had a twisted relationship (i mean it's the fucking purple guy and his son akdhajdhaj *wheeze* how could they not) but then I read more of the lore and wow. WOOOW. These two uh- they have... well they have a relationship-

It's really interesting to me! I mean, from what I remember of michael in fnaf 4, the kid was kind of a bully (RIP crying child lmao)- even if I'm sure he didn't actually mean to ever hurt Evan. It makes me wonder, what kind of a parent Afton was to his children- was he so absent that this behaviour went unchecked for so long? Did Michael just think that it was okay- that teasing and bullying was a natural part of showing affection (just think about those implications for a second oh no-). Maybe Michael took the brunt of all his father's bs, and that's why he lashed out at Evan, in the form of pranks and teasing (even if it crossed the line)- maybe on some level he hated how free Evan got to be, he still got to be a crying child, blissfully ignorant, whereas Michael was more grown up, was less illusioned to the reality of what went on inside their house- not to project or anything, but as the eldest lemme tell ya, we absolutely get the brunt of any issues with our parents. Maybe Michael wants his father's love and attention, but also sees the truth behind who is father is (even without the child murdering ajdgsjdhsjdhsj)- which makes their relationship delightfully complicated.

Michael becoming an adult makes it even more interesting. Michael still clearly respected William enough to do what he said without question seeing as, well, not just anyone will do you a favour and go put your dead daughter/their sister "back together", endangering and dying themself in the process. It makes me wonder about how close they must have grown. How the absense of Michael's mother, Elizabeth and Evan must have affected their relationship, how it might have twisted from already unhealthy to codependent. Michael suddenly overlooking all his father's flaws and mistreatment out of guilt and desperation to keep him around. William growing obsessively attached to the only person he has left. I feel like William is attached to Michael, too- he's the only person he trusts, and, well, when someone is willing to do almost anything for you, you're going to feel fondness for them (as twisted as it may be). I like to think of it as a really fucked up lowkey servent and master dynamic- Michael is William's favourite little tool, whom he can use and abuse but is strong enough not to break under it (until he does- but its fine, because he can always pick up the pieces.)

(He's good at that. Breaking things and putting them back together.)

Just hnghfnfhfnfhdhd these two! Ah! They're basically the protagonist and antagonist of the series, and you know i love me some hero/villain ships sometimes. Its so delicious, you get to add a whole extra topping of manipulation and inseparability and obsession and all kinds of spice to the mix with this ship! The familial ties making it so that they'll always be connected to one another, the attachment, the history! *mwah*, brilliant, 10/10.

[ahappydnp]

A trend i’ve noticed lately is some of the phandom has gotten mean. There’s Dan (no explanation needed) and with Phil when he was silent for a while people were saying he abandoned us and didn’t care but it turned out he was dealing with health issues. He’s unlisting LAP videos and people are saying he’s trying to get rid of the old phandom when it’s probably more complicated. People are also upset about the paywall for members posts when we always share them right away and no one misses out but it seems like dnp can never do anything right to some people. How do you deal with all the negativity?

Honestly, I deal with it by heavily curating my fandom experience. I fully support blocking/muting as much as you want and not engaging in things that upset you or you know are incorrect. I don't respond to anons who want to talk about discourse (I'm answering yours since you've asked how to deal with it).

I just stay out of it and keep my experience here a positive one most of the time. And honestly, I find that ignoring those kinds of ridiculous takes is the best thing to do because when you reblog to argue or vaguepost about them...you're still spreading around their message. So my best advice (and how I've been able to be here for so long while still very much enjoying the phandom space) is to keep what makes you happy and yeet the bullshit. Don't let it take up space in your brain! This is your happy place and you're allowed to curate it