#Op this is such a good post you have no idea

[ckret2]

Hey, well I am a follower of yours. Also someome who has posted some stuff here on Tumblr. What advice would you recommend to get attention to posts?

I love that you make pretty art to lure in readers too. Content is good.

pretty art. You've figured that part out.

tag ur posts. With the fandom, with the characters, with the kind of content it is ("art," "headcanons," "gifs" whatever). Tumblr's tagging system is, in fact, functional these days, and people do use it to find posts they like! I do! When I wanna find stuff that might interest me I browse actual tags 20x as often as I look at the for you tab

use RELEVANT tags. On some sites it's normal to throw on irrelevant tags "for reach." On tumblr it makes you a douchebag. If I'm browsing a character's tag and I see a piece of fanart that doesn't include or even mention the character I'm looking for and yet has their tag, I will block that artist and never see anything they make ever again.

make your blog easy to navigate. This ties into tagging. idk what you make but let's say art. Tag all your art "#my art" or whatever you want and link your art tag in your pinned post. If somebody sees one of your art posts and likes it, they're gonna want to go to your blog and find more. MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM. if you don't tag any of your art and there's 200 reblogs in between your art posts they're just gonna leave rather than scroll long enough to find the next one.

interact with other people. I don't mean fishing for interactions, "hey your art's cool wanna come look at mine?" Just TALK TO people. You see a post you like the ideas of, reblog it and compliment OP's work in the tags, or leave a comment continuing the discussion they started in the post, whatever. When people see your name regularly they'll probably click on it and look at your blog and THEN they'll see your stuff. If they like it they like it. If they don't, you'll still be having more fun because you're participating in your fandom rather than standing on the side hoping someone looks at you.

don't cringe at yourself for your own creations when you post them. "here's my art sorry this looks bad," "I know this is kinda shitty," using something like "#[your name] shut up" or "#[your name]'s shitty writing" in your personal tags. Not only does it make you feel worse about your creations, it also TELLS THE VIEWERS that it's shit and they should see it that way—and that has a subconscious effect. Just put it out there, don't apologize, don't discourage the people who DO like it. If you've gotta cringe at yourself do it IRL or in DMs where people browsing your blog won't see. The more amateurish or corny or self-indulgent you think your post is & the more you're afraid it might embarrass you, the more important it is that you post it without flinching.

the most important point is "make stuff that interests people and that they wanna look at." I don't know how to teach you how to do this. I have no clue what appeals to people, I'm the person that keeps getting questions about Bill Cipher's menstrual cycle.

[r0semultiverse]

Small indie artists in need of support for moving out by September!

💜 These lovely folks [@QuinsCurse (they/them) & @sswitchblade03 (xe/xem and he/him)] are part of a small queer-owned Youtube community I'm in. 💖

💖 If you could lend a helping hand by reblogging & queueing this post up until the start of September, I'd greatly appreciate it & I'm sure these fine folks would too! 💜

⚠️ Do not tag as d*nations or anything like that! ⚠️

"Hi everyone! Requests are officially closed as I am opening emergency commissions! Please consider supporting me as we are getting kicked out and have managed to find a place that’s affordable but need to save up 5k by the end of the month! Anything helps! I also have a dontations page if you are willing to help do that! All the money received from commissions will be going to the deposit! https://ko-fi.com/quinscurse/commissions https://ko-fi.com/quinscurse/goal?g=32"

⚠️ Do not tag as d*nations or anything like that! ⚠️

"https://ko-fi.com/sswitchblade03/commissions https://ko-fi.com/sswitchblade03/goal?g=0 EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS!! My roommate ‪@QuinsCurse‬and I are needing about $5000CAD for a down payment on a new place as we need to be out of our current place by September! Every bit counts! My goal is to be set to $3000CAD. I will draw anything (coloured and rendered) for $5 CAD each! If you are willing to give more it will be appreciated. Examples of my work below!"

⚠️ Do not tag as d*nations or anything like that! ⚠️

[hyakunana]

Interrupting all my chores for a very important event

[benkaben]

Babygirl, I'm blocked by blogs I don't even know about <3

[elftwink]

also can we start being meaner to those meme pages that post screenshots of tumblr posts. nothing drives me up the wall like a 14 pixel jpg of a tumblr thread stretched out to fit into a single screenshot and half of these people are only posting it so they can eventually change the op to be a link to some dropshipped garbage anyway. i am actually so sick of blogs that only exist to make worse versions of posts that are already on this website and for what? tumblr clout? MONEY? if you run a "meme blog" i hate you and your days are fucking numbered

[elceewunjo]

Yes to all of this, the OP and both reblogs.

Even if Astarion gets the chance to heal, the scars are there (both physical and mental), and the scars will keep hurting probably forever. It's not the open wound it once was, sure. And sometime he might even get to be happy enough that he will forget the scars are here for a little while. But if someone (or something) pokes at it, the 'hurt animal' behavior is going to come back and bite back.

I always think that Astarion's first coping strategy is anger (his second, in my opinion, being dissociation and/or aloofness because it's easier not to feel things). Which ties into another post about how he's not portrayed as the typical idea that most people have of a victim, because he's not a damsel in distress and he will lash out. And the thing is, even when you're out of the abusive situation, and on the path of healing, coping strategies don't disapear overnight. So I do believe Astarion will keep being angry and bitter for a while whenever things hurt him. Or whenever his companions decide it's a good idea to help people when he's not gonna get anything out of it, relaistically.

I agree that the effects of his healing path are very visible very quickly, and that it's mostly that way for narrative purposes. For me, it'll take years for him to let go of his rage and bitterness. Maybe he never will let go entirely, even when he does help people in the end. And that's okay.

As a side note, I also grew up in a family where half of them at least believed that 'suffering enobles' (amongst other stupid harmful beliefs -religion can really screw people up, sorry, no offense to any religious people). It took me moving to a different country and being far enough from some of the most toxic people from whom these ideas came from to realise how fucked up that was. Only then did I realise the harm it causes to suffer in silence because you've been taught that it's the 'right thing to do' and that being a 'martyr' is what gives you value. And my reaction to that realisation, was, surprise surprise, anger. (I mean I already had a lot of that for other unreated reasons, ups) And almost 10 years later, I'm still dealing with that anger, even if it's miles better than it was. I'm not sure it'll ever go away completely. So yeah. Astarion's anger and unwillingness to help : relatable. And imo, totally justified.

Astarion discourse i guess??

Good morning!

I'd like to preface this by saying this is all based on what I remember, I've only scoured Astarions lore a few times, so if I get anything wrong you are more than welcome to correct me politely.

I've been trying to think more critically about my favorite fictional characters recently. More specifically why I'm so drawn to the morally-grey-borderline-evil-but-secretly-misunderstood type of character. Who in the end, most of the time tries to do the right thing. Whether its by their nature or by a learned behavior later in the story. It's like I've always played the devils advocate for them, and I'm not sure if that would totally change if they where real, either. I think it's because I, too, had a villain arc of sorts. Not nearly as flashy as say Loki or even Astarion, but I understand in part why they are the way they are. I relate, in a way. Specifically I've been thinking about why Astarion disapproves when you help others near the beginning of the game. [[GIANT RANT INCOMING]]

I was reading up about a couple of different areas you can get some extra points with him for fun, and I just saw a lot of hate. "Why would he be so awful? How could he not want you to help (insert person here)!" And I took a second to sit with that. Because yeah, shit, after all that he had been through, wouldn't he want to be the person to help others out of that same situation?

And to that question, I ask you this. Can you really even fathom how long 200 years is?

People always respond to that with "Oh well he was a corrupt magistrate and the gur beat him to death." First of all, yeah, he could've been a bit of a dick, but holy shit the gur have always been temperamental pricks. We don't know what ruling led to that, so its purely up to interpretation. 

The worst part is, if he really was an out of touch magistrate, even then, he couldn't have been nearly as bad as everyone makes him out to be, but then being turned into a vampire sex slave for nearly the average of 3 human lifespans didn't fucking help! As someone who has experienced trauma her whole life, especially the worst of it as a kid, closely thematically matching the type of things he went through, holy shit. Yeah. After that type of thing happens to you, and you have nothing you can do about it, after crying and screaming on the floor for days on end to whomever god might be listening and still not being released from something like that, you become fucking jaded. I'm still struggling through my trauma, and I've been in therapy for 3 years going on 4 for things that happened to me when I was a kid.

When the only way to escape from a bad situation is to get into another, almost equally bad situation, you do not want to help anyone. Its only with time to reflect, move past, and heal from the things you've experienced, that you can move past the more self-centered feelings trauma besets upon you and want to help others. It comes easier to some than others, and this switch flipped in me at about 12 years old. But then it got so bad that I didn't start helping myself until I was 18. Two sides of the same coin I suppose. I don't know, maybe I play the devils advocate because I too, am a devil. Maybe I'm not a good person. I try to be, though, even if I wasn't a long time ago, and I think thats what counts.

[novorehere]

Bite-Sized Tidbits:

A snapshot/character of what life might look like with the seven avatars of sin. Contains a lot of fluff, a little angst, and soft/safe vore with you and the seven Obey Me! brothers themed around their respective sins. I’ve been working on this on and off for quite a while now, so I hope you enjoy.

Written for Vore Day, 2023

—

—

Pride

“I can give you your punishment now, or we can wait until later.”

The edges of the demon’s lips crept up into the beginnings of a smirk. All without breaking his gaze from the stack of documents which he straightened against his desk with a tap tap tap.

“However, I will be leaving for tea with Lord Diavolo as soon as my work is finished. So unless you’d like to spend the evening with Barbatos’ chiffon cake, I’d recommend making up your mind in a timely manner.”

Both of you knew very well that “punishment” wasn’t the right word. Lucifer’s infrequent office calls were less of a punishment and moreso a game, an unspoken routine in which you continuously tested the Avatar of Pride’s patience by indulging his younger brothers’ schemes.

It was a game that toyed with the balance of power, one where you pretended like he couldn’t just shrink you down whenever he wanted and that you couldn’t order him to stop with a single word. It was a game that indulged his pride, one that Lucifer would always win in the end.

It was only a matter of minutes before you were seated in his gloved palm. His ruby eyes lording over you with a gaze that anyone else would find annoyingly high-handed. But after playing his game for so long, to you the affection hiding behind them was obvious.

“Are you ready then, my Lamb?”

He was the morning star, eldest of the seven rulers of the underworld.

Yet despite all of this, Lucifer knew it was you who had him utterly wrapped around your little finger.

—

Greed

Reclining his head against the arm of his couch, the Avatar of Greed kissed his fingertips in mock satisfaction at the burp that rolled up his throat. A barely audible complaint of “gross” only caused him to chuckle and pat his stomach triumphantly.

“Maybe ya shoulda thought about that before bein’ so damn filling.”

A sound like “Guh” escaped the demon’s mouth as a swift kick to his liver interrupted his musings.

“Oi! The Great Mammon’s gonna start chargin’ 10,000 Grimm for damages every time ya do that!” Ya oughta learn some basic respe-”

And there it was, the familiar flutter of tiny fingers rubbing circles into him from inside. Perhaps it was your way of saying sorry… though more likely you just wanted to shut him up. It was annoying how easily you could reduce him to a blushing mess without uttering a single word.

“Hey… ‘s not fair. You’re playin’ dirty…”

Mammon rolled onto his side in an uncharacteristically gentle motion. He couldn’t help sneaking an indulgent glance at the scene reflected in his mirror. There he was, splayed out amongst piles of his belongings with his shirt ridden up and his belly rounded in his lap. If any of his brothers saw him like this, he would never hear the end of their teasing. But luckily for Mammon, not even you could know the way his face became soft as he teased a finger around his navel too gently for you to feel.

“Why’d ya stop? C’mon, now… keep goin’.”

It didn’t matter how much Mammon gambled away or how many centuries it had been since he’d hit the jackpot at the casino. When he was with you, Mammon felt like the luckiest demon in the three realms.

But sometimes it was hard to put it into words. Which is exactly why he treasured moments like these, the moments where his greed got the better of him. The moments where he could steal you away to be his and his alone.

After all, it was much easier to express how madly in love with you he’d become when he didn’t have to meet you face to face.

—

Envy

“You know, this is just like that one scene in ‘My Life as a Shut-In Reincarnated as a Worker in the Shopping Mall Dimension’ where Prince Alfonso goes to the food court kingdom and-”

Leviathan groaned, burying his face into his body pillow as if that could somehow hide him from the voice in his middle.

“You can’t use my own otaku tactics against me, it’s… *hic-* it’s not fair!!”

Your muffled laughter reverberated off the walls of his bathtub, accompanied by the occasional hiccup and the tip of a serpentine tail nervously thumping against porcelain.

He didn’t mean for his horns to sprout from his head when you tried to leave his room that night. He didn’t mean for a serpentine tail to wrap around your ankle, wordlessly begging you to stay. And he certainly didn’t mean for his stomach to loudly vocalize the thoughts that had been plaguing his mind the entire night. What was this, some sort of tropey romance manga?

But here he was, face as red as a bouquet of queen of jealousy and stuffed to the (decidedly metaphorical) gills in his own bathtub. The Grand Admiral of Hell’s Navy, reduced to a blushing, hiccuping mess. And he had nobody but himself to blame.

But really, how could he have resisted? Especially with the visions of what could have happened instead playing through his head on repeat. Asmo whisking you away to some club filled with normies who could actually hold a real conversation, Mammon snatching you up for an unauthorized night drive in his Demonio 666 Lexura, Beel getting a little too peckish and… he couldn’t bear to think about it.

Leviathan knew wanting to be your one and only was unreasonable. He knew that he was a terrible, horrible friend for thinking these thoughts and becoming so troubled at the prospect of anyone else showing you affection. After all, no one would want to be with a gloomy shut-in that wasn’t worth the scum in Henry’s tank-

But as soon as they had come, the negative thoughts washed away like a speck in the ocean as you snuggled closer to his hand, a muffled voice reassuring him that there was no place you’d rather be tonight.

—

Wrath

“With a flourish the detective tipped his hat to the dame, as he disappeared into the evening fog like the curls of smoke which danced from his pipe…”

The demon’s inner monologue was cut short as a violent squirming sensation roused him from his novel. Your ears detected the unmistakable sound of a huff and a book closing, muffled by layers of flesh and fabric.

“Restless as ever, I see…”

Normally, Satan would be more than offended to have his attention ripped from the pages of a good book. But this time the annoyance that swelled in his chest turned not into rage, but affection as the fire settled in his stomach and melted away… You tended to have that effect on him.

It was a relatively new sensation. Having been birthed from wrath in its purest form, emotions such as happiness had to be taught to him by his brothers. And for that Satan was thankful- he had long since accepted them as family. But as a human, you were a better teacher of peace than any demon could be. Though a cat curled in his lap was a close second.

The blonde sighed fondly, gazing down at the bump in his sweater.

“…Would you like me to read aloud to you? Perhaps that will help you settle some.”

Pulling the covers up a bit higher around his navel, he tucked them in snugly around his sides. A rare smile crossed Satan’s face as he admired his handiwork. The man reached over to his nightstand, finding there exactly what he was looking for in the dim light. A paperback atop the haphazard piles of hardcovers strewn about, placed there with care as not to crease the art on the cover he knew you loved so much.

With both of you tucked in for the night, it was easier than ever to melt into the gentle rumble of his voice.

“Our story begins in a world of monsters…”

—

Lust:

Asmodeus knows that true beauty comes from within. How could it not, when the skin of the human that emerges from his lips always feels so much softer and smoother than before? He makes sure to bring it to your attention every time, doting over how the glow of his inner beauty rubs off on you so easily. Despite everything, he thinks you look so gorgeous lying in his palm. Layers of mucus, tired bags under your eyes, and all.

But sometimes it’s hard to feel beautiful inside or out with wings dyed black and pointed horns replacing the light of your halo.

—

A delicate, painted fingertip wipes a stray bead of drool from your face. The other hand is busy at your head, gently combing the tangles from your still-damp hair with the tiniest heart-shaped hairbrush. Asmodeus had been ecstatic the day it arrived, practically bowling over Levi before snatching the Akuzon package from his arms with a squeal.

It was a ritual at this point, the way he pampered you after letting you out. Swaddling you in a soft, lilac-scented hand towel warmed by the gentle breeze of his hairdryer, wiping you clean as he hummed a familiar tune.

“Baby, you want my love


No matter who you are


I want you to show me


I fell in love with someone


Besides myself for the first time”

He didn’t need to be the “Jewel of the Heavens” with you as his jewel, a precious pearl to tuck away beside his heart where all the things he loves live.

And he had so, so much love to give.

—

Gluttony

Beelzebub was on the verge of snapping when you came to him.

He was breathing heavily when you found his monstrous, horned silhouette hunched over the empty refrigerator. Frightened eyes were glazed over with a hunger that threatened to swallow you up with their very gaze. His mouth opened in a silent plea- perhaps an apology for eating your favorite pudding- but it was drowned out by the roar of his stomach.

Sometimes it felt as if no amount of food could put out the fire that raged within him. The burning sensation could only be briefly dulled by each cooling mouthful that slid down his throat. But then it was gone, claimed by the emptiness inside him that demanded “more.”

But you… you were different.

Simply being around you made him feel full, and for that he was ever grateful. But sometimes he needed more than a feeling. He needed to be sure you were there, to know that you were alive. To feel the weight of that missing piece that left him the day that he fell, your warmth reassuring him that his choices were the right one.

But despite what he needed, he still required your explicit permission to take it.

“Can I…?”

“Of course.”

With your words, Beelzebub gave himself over to his gluttony. He didn’t mind the demon he had become, as long as his strength could help protect you. Or perhaps you were the one protecting him? He wasn’t sure. But one thing was for certain.

No demon in hell could devour you as lovingly as he did that night.

—

Sloth

Beneath the attic room comforter, an incoherent mumble could be heard from a demon-sized lump in the sheets.

Belphegor rolled onto his stomach as he nestled deeper into his nest of blankets. It didn’t take long at all for a lazy smile to crawl across the Avatar of Sloth’s face. Even though you were undoubtedly squashed in this position, he could still feel your tiny hands working their magic just like he had asked.

Oh, how you spoiled him rotten.

It was hard not to with the way Belphegor expressed his desires so plainly. To borrow your jacket to use as a pillow, to keep quiet to Lucifer about skipping classes, to stroke his hair while he lay on your lap. The others weren’t too thrilled with your coddling, but Belphie couldn’t care less.

After all, they had gotten so much more time with you than he had. They got to know you, to love you, to taste you… all before you even knew his name.

Belphegor was the Avatar of Sloth, not envy. But there was once a time when the unmistakable tingling warmth of his twin indulging in you left the bitter aftertaste of jealousy on his tongue. It was a strange feeling, his brother’s affection for a human. One that, until recently, he couldn’t quite understand. And at the time, he had no desire to.

Nowadays the sensation was far from unwelcome. But ever since that night at the castle when he gifted you his pact, Belphegor had found that he much preferred having you all to himself in person. All to himself…

A small yawn escaped the youngest’s mouth as mind wandered to his twin. Could he feel it too, he wondered? The phantom weight of your touch?

…Perhaps he’d ask Beel about it later. But for now, he had a very important nap to get to.

—

Neither of you were conscious enough to know it, but that night as Beelzebub carried his brother down to his own bed and tucked him in, he whispered not one, but two good-nights.

[leatherbookmark]

screaming the OP of the prev has this in their pinned post

ONE OF THOSE THINGS IS ETC ETC

[teh-nos]

sometimes the clue that a tumblr post isn't true/accurate is that most of the 100,000 notes are some variation of someone saying "i had no idea!", "today i learned!" or "can't believe they hid this from us!"

sometimes you just haven't heard of something, sometimes you're enthusiastically reblogging a bunch of nonsense and the reason you'd never heard about it before is that the OP made it up.

[astrid-beck]

I have to agree with you, I mean if somebody embodies catholic guilt....

Caleb Widogast was raised with the empire style christian-inflected "walk in the light of the dawnfather" religion but also he believes in sin and the soul and damnation and heaven. And while many would have you believe these are areligious concepts I won't be fooled.

[skrunksthatwunk]

ive started a brainstorming doc for the kaiji koi-koi fic and a large large amount of it is just trying to figure out what works about kaiji and how i can innovate without diverging too much from the tone or themes etc. anyway ive been thinking about how the modifications fkmt makes to the games in kaiji function (i.e. minefield mahjong, restricted rps, one poker, etc), and how they each tie into key traits/feelings of playing to original versions. minefield mahjong centers and intensifies the feeling of waiting on a crucial tile while trying not to leave too much of a trail, one poker leans heavily into the bluffing via raising/calling elements of poker, and rrps sort of flips rps' main issue(?) on its head by removing its arbitrariness (while preserving at first the illusion of arbitrariness), and thus making it like.. something you can win via strategy and not just luck. ANYWAY i think ive figured out the key thread to pull for koi-koi and im very excited about that

[utilitycaster]

trying to decide if it's more productive to elaborate on the D&D post and make it clear that at least a large number of people do not want to hear about your game in the tags and you should reblog the d&d post and then make a separate post that rambles on at length if you ACTUALLY want to keep this between you and your mutuals; or if I should keep doing as I have been, namely, treating it as a glue trap and blocking everyone who's like "lol too bad I'm telling you about my game and you'll deal"

[elftwink]

one thing i try to remind myself about this place when im getting annoyed at the dash is that MOST posts that go viral are written for a much smaller audience than they got, and are very often written in anger or upset. frequently i see posts that i think are overly aggressive and confrontational, have no chance of actually changing anyone's mind (and sometimes directly insult the reader by calling them stupid/lazy/immoral), lack contextualizing information, and/or catastrophize about the issue. i get irritated about these because my first thought is "why the fuck would you even post this when all it does is make you look bad and your position look unappealing" but like, most people are not posting in order to debate or justify their position. they're just venting, often assuming the people reading it will agree and validate their anger or upsetness— which is often why these posts get traction in the first place, since they also tend to be about topics you would rightfully get upset about.

relatedly, i (and maybe you too) have a tendency to assume that every post on tumblr that seems like the second half of a debate is a response to a different post on tumblr (the 'who is even saying that' response), but this is kind of unfair to the op since they could be responding to any number of things in their personal or professional lives, and are going to tumblr because it is a place where you can post whatever you think and be mostly assured nobody you know will see it. countless of my own posts are prompted by something irl but look to readers like just another tumblr discourse post. i think it's important that when you think 'who is even saying that' about a post to consider that the answer might be like, "op's shitty coworker" rather than "a large and vocal subsection of tumblr i have never heard of"

[shorelinnes]

it’s really gotten to the point where half the posts I see about Palestine are just full of misinformation. social media is not and never will be a reliable source of information. never fact checking or thinking critically about the posts you reblog is irresponsible and can negatively impact pro Palestinian efforts.

please please please just go to the BDS website and get your information from there. It is a Palestinian run movement that has years of experience organizing boycotts. they do their research and they know what actually works.

[mitamicah]

Okay so I think I just overshared to the Max to a tattoo artist i've never met 🤣

She asked for descriptions of our dream tattoo and I went way over the text limit when explaining not one but two ideas for her over ig dms 😆🤣😅

[katyspersonal]