#Our Flag Means Stamps

[swashbuckling-sweethearts]

A smattering of stamp images for mine and @ghostalservice 's sticker Kickstarter! Will reblog with more after I finish the next batch 💜

Join the Kickstarter!

[gaypirateslife4me]

Imagine though, you are finally, finally getting to hit that fine ass, but you have to stare at your boyfriend's bitchy note-to-self tramp-stamp the entire time.

Nobody is doing it like Ed & Stede. Nobody.

[bloomeng]

a new lesbian had been added to the roster

[perpendicularpotatoes]

The Marks Left On Your Skin [Fic]

Chapter 2 just went up and I made cover art now!

The Marks Left On Your Skin (2706 words) by PerpendicularPotato Chapters: 2/7 Fandom: Our Flag Means Death (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/"Calico" Jack Rackham, Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Original Male Character(s), Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Israel HandsBlackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet

(Find the myriad additional tags below 😅)

Summary:

Even years and countless miles of ocean removed from the home of his childhood, his body still was not his own. Idly searching for distraction from the open wound of his back, his gaze caught on the nearest jar of tallow.

For weeks now, Edward had been waiting for Jack to crack and breach the plausible deniability. In this case, however, he seemed determined to drag it out—or was he waiting for Edward to crack?

Alright then, fuck it! Maybe he was done being coy. He fucking wanted it.

----

An exploration of why one would get a "Trust No One" tramp stamp (that tattoo did not look fresh!), since that feels less like a reminder to yourself and more like a message to the people topping you...

Which ended up becoming a character and relationship study, exploring amongst other things the learning and unlearning of (internalized) toxic masculinity through seven times Ed had sex with various people and the illustrated history of his tattoos spanning from Hornigold's ship to Post-Canon Era.

First chapter is only mature, but the explicitness will ramp up. Chapters 3-6 are about 90% done, chapter 7 about 50%.

[libraryoffangirl]

And what if Stede got a tattoo of Eds name over his heart

[disastergay]

TRANNY FLAG ♾️

(requested by @lovelesstranniedykefaggot)

Black: in memoriam of the trans people whose lives were claimed by hatred. Dark blue: the joy of finally discovering your true self Magenta: making the choice to accept yourself no matter what, even if it means losing loved ones Light blue: borrowed from the blue stripes in the transgender flag. Pink: borrowed from the pink stripes in the transgender flag. White (stripe only): borrowed from the white stripes in the transgender, genderqueer, and nonbinary flags.

The ouroboros, a snake that eats its own tail for all eternity, represents two things: the never-ending cycle of self-discovery we all experience as we learn and grow, and our inability — our refusal — to be stamped out of existence. It is scientifically impossible to eradicate us, no matter how hard some people will try.

Its single fang is a reminder that, whether we're fighting against dysphoria, fascism, or harmful myths about ourselves, we're not helpless to defend ourselves.

The stripes of this flag are warped and glitched out — by the ouroboros, as it slices through the white center — to symbolize the way we inherently challenge gender norms and society's expectations, pulling them apart at the seams and turning them back into thread, which we can weave a new tapestry with together. Before we can build a better foundation, we have to break free from the institutional restrictions that hold us back.

[writingwithcolor]

Running Commentary: What is “ok to do” in Mixed-Culture Supernatural Fiction?

Dear readers: 

Today we are trying something new. To give you some insight into our process in the Japanese moderator section, we are presenting our response in the form of running commentary to show you how we dissect and answer long asks. We hope this makes clear what points are useful and not useful when sending us a query. As always, this is for learning purposes, not callouts. Be prepared: this is a long one. 

To summarize: the asker is looking to create a comic drawn in Japanese manga style, and has provided a long summary of the story and worldbuilding which involves a mix of “reimagined” Japanese yokai mythos and cultural symbols from many other sources. They have questions with respect to cultural appropriation, coding etiquette, and “what is and isn’t ok.” 

Opening Comments

I know a common advice when it comes to the thing I am about to ask is to talk to people involved in __, but I struggle with opening up to strangers for reasons I'm uncomfortable explaining. 

Marika (M): This is already a red flag. If you want to engage with another culture without talking to people from that culture, then research is going to be very challenging. You won’t have members of that culture to guide you towards sources and perspectives they feel most accurately represents public opinion. If I were in your shoes, I might start with tackling my discomfort when engaging with other people, if only to improve my work. If you aren’t ready to engage with a culture and its people directly, then I think you should wait until you are. 

I should note, reaching out to the Japanese mod team at WWC does count as engagement, but WWC should not and cannot be the only point of contact because there is no single, legitimate cultural perspective. 

Rina (R): Also, you don’t need to “open up” to strangers or talk to them in person to get perspectives. Asking specific research questions anonymously to a forum or on social media requires very little vulnerability. You managed to do it here on WWC. So give it a try! 

Anyway, my question basically amounts to the what is and isn't ok [sic] in terms of depicting fantasy creatures and concepts outside of their respective culture.

R: So, the reason why we turn away rubber stamp questions by that ask “is XYZ okay?” is because “okay” & “not okay” 1) is vague and 2) creates a dichotomy where there isn’t one. 

When we say something is “not okay,” do we mean:

It’s offensive to the general majority of XYZ group? 

It’s contentious among people who ID in the group? 

It has a potential to be interpreted in a certain negative way, but may not be a red flag to everyone?

Insetad try asking:

What are the reasons this subject is offensive? 

What makes cultural appropriation bad? 

When might it be “okay” to intentionally discuss a difficult or controversial topic?

What is your reason for including something that may be interpreted as offensive and can it be sufficiently justified? 

What stereotypes or tropes might it be consistently identified as or associated with, and why? 

When might it be justified to bring up these tropes?

With That In Mind...

Let’s get into the rest of the ask below. 

…a story I've been working on in recent times is largely inspired off the Japanese yokai, and the setting is basically Earth in the far future, as far as when the next supercontinent may form. These yokai, although portrayed differently here, do retain their main characteristics [...] Included in this world are two goddesses of my own creation, primarily representing the sun and the moon. [...] There will be thirteen nations, named and based after the Chinese Zodiac, and the life force found in the living things in this world, called qi, comes in two forms that are always opposing each other but can never fully overpower the other, this being based off yin and yang. They're even directly named this; yin qi and yang qi.

M: This reads more like using Japanese and Chinese culture for the “aesthetics”, not the cultures themselves, which I personally feel falls under cultural appropriation. From a world-building/ coding standpoint, the actual use of concepts is workable, and, dare I say, typical, given how Chinese cosmology influences Japanese culture. However, naming a concept “yin qi” or “yang qi” is the equivalent of naming something “- charge” or “+ charge”, respectively. That you don’t seem aware of this tells me you are pretty early in your research phase. In that vein, we’ve covered translating terms and names from foreign languages in fantasy before. See the following article linked here for our recommendation against using RL terms outright but instead encouraging people to create their own conlangs. 

R: Worldbuilding-wise, I think you would have to figure out the chicken-or-egg of the zodiac nations. Did the nations come first, and the zodiac later as an origin folk story (which you would have to rewrite to serve the nation-building narrative)? Did the zodiac come first, and the nations named (most likely re-named) by a political entity? What is the justification? Otherwise, again, it’s a shoehorning of aesthetics. 

There is also a third, lesser known god based off of fox spirits and trickery and I imagined he's the patron deity of a family that honors and worships him, but his influence on them has transformed them into Kitsune-tsuki, which I depict as fox-like anthros. 

M: Not related to this ask directly, but I have jokingly ranted about how often non-Japanese people prefer using imagery related to kitsune-tsuki in Japanese coded world-building (link). This makes me feel the same level of petty irritation. See my troll answer below for a similar experience.

R: Same. It’s boring tbh. 

M: Troll Answer: I get that kitsune-tsuki are very sexy furries, but Japanese folklore has other sexy furries too! These underrepresented demographics also deserve recognition and appreciation!!

The plot of the story is this; modernization has left the goddesses neglected of their worship and forgotten, something that is necessary in this world to stop them from fighting each other. The Moon Goddess awakens first, punishing the humans by unleashing the yokai. Then the Sun Goddess wakes up to fight in humanity's defense…

M: This could feel rather like Shinto-like coding (Ex. the myth of Amaterasu and the Cave, or Tsukuyomi slaying Ukemochi), but something about this scenario feels a bit too binary in terms of themes of good v. evil, light v. dark to be Shinto. The plot also feels more Gaelic/ Nordic in influence for me as a person raised in a Japanese Buddhist and Hindu household. I imagine this dissonance could have been fixed with better guided research. 

…but their fighting has caused a perma-eclipse and this world is in danger of ending. The yokai have run rampant; some are loyal to the Moon Goddess, and some aren't, and it lies to the main characters to bring balance back to Midgard. Yeah... the name of this future Earth is Midgard. I debate changing it since it and some other things I will mention sorta feel out of place.

R: Marika, looks like you were right on the Gaelic/Nordic influence /j 

Also, worldbuilding question: if the Earth is in the far geologic future, how long has it been since modernization (19th-20th century)? Centuries? Millennia? How long has this fighting gone on for? What triggered the perma-eclipse, and why now? Why is this time depth necessary? 

One of the main characters in question is a humanoid woman with wolf features named Ling, and she is a descendant of the dynasty that had first ruled the one of the nations, particularly the one based off the dragon zodiac. She accidentally summons the other main character to this world as she's praying at a shrine, a humanoid with dragon features--I call them drakon--named Angelynn.

[on the names of characters] is it appropriating by not having the world entirely based on [Chinese, Japanese, and Indian] influence? it's a little weird to me how worldwide the creatures are referred to as yokai, implying a strong Japanese influence not unlike how it is today with Western culture being so dominant, yet there are still names like Keith and Kiara.

M: I will give you credit for recognizing you have unconsciously veered towards white-washing/ race-bending: either presenting European cultural influences (drakons, Angelynn, Keith, Kiara, Midgard) as default or utilizing general E. Asian cultural influences and aesthetics for a Western-style story (Ling, qi, Chinese zodiac, yokai). I agree with you that this creates a sense of cultural dissonance. At this point, I’d say you have a clear choice: write a Western-style high fantasy using a background with which you have more familiarity, or get some better guidance on research with East Asian cultures so you can code the story more effectively. 

The focus of this story is centered around meeting all these yokai and showing that there's more nuance to them than Ling believes, all while saving the world. But I worry if I'm appropriating these concepts and creatures by 1, drawing from more than one culture--I initially imagined that there would be a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Indian influence because according to a website I am getting the info on yokai from, the yokai in question already draw inspiration from or have been based on something in Chinese mythology or Hinduism [...]

R: Sure, some yokai have Chinese or Hindu parallels as that tends to happen with folk tales. But not all–some are unique to Japan, and some are more modern. Sometimes it’s very political–some people consider the Ainu Korpokkur as being a “Yokai of Japan” despite it belonging to the indigenous culture. It’s up to you to research, untangle, and understand these influences. 

The fact that you bring up that the Asian continent has seen a lot of cultural exchange is not a sufficient reason to randomly combine influences for the sake of visual appeal or “coolness.” That is appropriation. These influences must be understood in their historical context so that you know how/why certain things combined or morphed into another, and what makes sense to combine/morph. 

M: This also indicates that the character views the yokai as evil/inherently bad, which I would argue is not a typical stance for much Japanese folklore. Again, this shows a deficit in research. 

2, reimagining these yokai in a new context even though I have done the research on them, because one thing I kept seeing in regards to cultural appropriation is that it's bad to do that […]

R: Refer above to my note on “okay” and “not okay.” The thing with folklore and fairy tales is that every–and I mean every–folk tale is reinterpreted with every new iteration of it. Reimagining in a new context is what people do every time they pass on a story or tell a story with the same plot or characters. Do not think of folklore as an “original” that is altered and rebooted, but rather a living document that gets added to. Reimagining is not the inherent issue. HOW you reimagine something matters. 

So I suppose my question is...if someone were to do research upon the creature they want to use, given they are allowed to use it, and gained an understanding of what the creature or concept stood for, are they allowed to pick it apart and reimagine it? Alternatively, is it ok if it's explicitly pointed out that it is derivative of the original?

It has actually become my biggest fear that I may have internalized something that could both continue to do harm long after the fact and attract the wrong people to me work. I don't wanna let people down!

M: As Rina has noted several times, I think the problem is in trying to ID a set of specific variables and circumstances that make a thing “okay” or “not okay.” I want to recommend that you read my joking response about writing in secret rooms while wearing a disguise (Linked here). Who can you hurt if no one knows what you are doing? There’s a difference between creating for oneself and creating to share. 

You have internalized a message incorrectly, but not the one you cite. The goal of many recommendations against cultural appropriation is to avoid causing direct harm to people who have seen their cultures demeaned, discredited and devalued, especially in shared spaces. Assessing cultural engagement, whether we are talking about appropriation, appreciation or exchange is not a measure of personal virtue or a collection of commandment style do’s and don’t’s. Rather, I believe engaging with other cultures is the state of mind of acknowledging that when using these cultures’ in one’s own work, there is value in consulting members of that culture and giving credit where credit is due. This will be challenging if you are only comfortable engaging with all of these cultures in a distanced, minimal capacity. 

FWIW, I’ve written stories that probably will offend people from other cultures and backgrounds, but I don’t show them off. I don’t think writing these makes me a bad person, but I also don’t see the need to give unnecessary offense, so those stories are just for me, to be written and read in my own secret room. However, I’m not ashamed of having written them, and I’m also comfortable to “let people down” provided that my own shared work reflects my personal principles of what I consider to be sufficient research and engagement with other cultures,  As a creator, my work wouldn’t be mine if I didn’t first please myself. I think the trick to the creator role is deciding what to keep private, what to share and what constitutes sufficient engagement. 

P.S. 

We’ve referenced the need for research multiple times in this ask, and in some of the other asks that have gone up this week, so we thought this would be a good place to plug a beginner’s guide to academic research created by the mod team.. Look for it soon under WWC’s pinned posts!

[freekicks]

I suppose I’m not sure what you want me to do here. I could explain what a kink is or do some psychosexual analysis on why some men are into “daddies,” but I think all that would accomplish is bringing us both five minutes closer to our last breaths on earth. If it’s not something you’re into, and it’s between two consenting adults, then I don’t see why it’s our business. I’m also unsure how, as someone who is reading erotic stories in their spare time, “daddies” is the subject that compelled you to write a letter to your local advice columnist. I have read things in the realm of smut that would make the common “daddy fetish” story look like “Goodnight Moon.” Come back to me when you reach the cold, hard bottom of the slash fic iceberg. You also seem to be conflating real-world relationships with erotica. These are not the same. Sure, there can be overlap, but to go from “this fictional character crossed a line in a fictional story” to “and that’s why I’m uncomfortable with people who remind me of that character” suggests, to me, that you took a wrong turn or two navigating this ethical corn maze. It’s not even a script limited to gays. I mean, mainstream pop culture is littered with what I would consider “daddy trope” dynamics. There’s a whole genre of beauties falling for beasts. There’s a popular children’s movie about it with a singing teapot and a fruity candelabra. What is a beast, if not a daddy by another name? You be the judge. I’m certainly in no place to dictate what makes you uncomfortable. I can see how you might look at, say, a large age gap between two adults in a sexual dynamic and think, “weird!” I’ve had thoughts like that as well. But I think discomfort in and of itself is not always a surefire sign that something immoral is afoot. Discomfort can be caused by any number of factors—personal experiences, biases, preferences, and so on. [...] Sadly, it’s all too common to see people exploit power dynamics—experience, money, fame, access, etc.—for personal gain. But this isn’t exclusive to age. All three times that I’ve been violated by men, the men have been around my age. Abuse can happen in any dynamic, and while I, too, find comfort in the notion that abuse can be easily sniffed out ahead of time, that there will reliably be telltale red flags, that’s just not how things typically work. I’m also reluctant to abide by the increasingly popular belief that “power dynamics” are inherently manipulative. The reality is, there are power dynamics in every relationship. If you are involved with another person, then you have entered an uneven playing field or two. No two people will be exactly the same age, same economic class, same appearance (I hope????), and so on, and so forth. This is not violence. This is dating. These are things that have to be worked through and navigated with mutual respect. There is risk involved, yes, but risk cannot be entirely avoided in life. I hope I’m not coming across as harsh, Confused! I think, or at least hope, that you’re coming from a place of genuine concern for others and, to be sure, I’d never want to outright dismiss anyone on a subject as serious and prevalent as abuse. But on the other hand, I find myself a member of a community presently under attack by accusations of “grooming” and predation. It’s made me particularly sensitive to insinuations from any political stripe that the gays are sex monsters trolling for their next victim, or that we’re all just victims in waiting, idling around until one of those nasty older gays creeps up and takes advantage of our vulnerabilities. I’m not saying that’s what you’re doing here, but again, what two consenting adults (ADULTS) do is not my business. I can make my own judgments, but I don’t have to give my rubber stamp of approval on it. I don’t have to formally condone or condemn it. If harm hasn’t been explicitly stated, then I won’t read harm into it just because I’m uncomfortable. I am not entitled to a perpetual state of comfort.

-Advice Columnist Hola Papi (aka John Paul Brammer) responding to a letter writer who was uncomfortable about the prevalence of daddy kink in gay erotic fiction.

just thought this might be relevant to a certain fandom right now...

[ofmdlovelyletters]

This is a lovely letter for @ofmdlovelyletters 🥰💕

As well as being the wonderful amazing fairies that you are, spreading love, kindness, and helping the bread to rise, your stamp-game is on point! Every little piece of art you share is so cute, and so relevant to whatever lovely letter you’re sharing (sometimes hilariously so 😆)

Thank you for everything you do!

💜

This is so extremely kind of you to say! Truly, we think we're the lucky ones to have a front-row seat to seeing just how much this fandom loves and supports each other. We started this blog at a time when the sadness was so heavy that it seemed like we all needed a bit of a boost. Now, months later, it's so gratifying to see fans continue sending in their lovely letters, shouting out people for their friendship and their art and their fic and their meta and just for being here.

We love having fun with all of you, we love finding ways to surprise you, we love helping to boost your spirits, we love fostering this community, we love Our Flag Means Death, and we love this fandom.

I guess, when it comes down to it, we do it all...

[swashbuckling-sweethearts]

OUR FLAG MEANS STAMPS

sheet two! Posting more as a reblog below bc Tumblr only lets me post 10 at a time 💜

[cowboycostume]

AMVS for Palestine 🇵🇸

I am joining a group of amv artists in fundraising for Palestinians. @amvs4palestine (check out the master post for the basic terms and to see who all is participating)

I have made amvs for Supernatural, Hannibal, Our Flag Means Death and Lord of the Rings - check out my youtube or amv tag if you'd like to see what my work is like.

DM me @smokerdean (sideblog so I can keep track of requests) with proof of minimum $10/€10/£8/etc donation to crips for esims for Gaza, one or more fundraisers from @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi’s vetted list, or an esim donation directly to esims for Gaza*

the minimum donation will get a 35-60sec vid (ex: 1 2 3 4) for their chosen media/character/relationship, please see under the cut for list of possible media choices & request guidelines. higher donation amounts can request longer or narrative work.

I have ONE open slot - they will reopen after all videos are completed, and be completed in order of submission. donations above $30/€30/£25/etc and/or 2 or more 30 day esims can request priority**

*if donating nomad esim(s) use code NOMADCNG for 5% off or code MIRA25JV for 25% off if it is your first time buying from nomad - please also include ss of your email to Gazaesims@gmail.com with your proof of purchase

**priority only possible for standard length (35-60sec) videos

please send a youtube link to the song you are requesting & the character/media/episode(s)/etc. if you'd like a specific section of the song please include the time stamps or specific lyrics.

I will edit to anything but would prefer not to do any taylor swift, edm, metal, or hyperpop.

all videos will be uncaptioned unless requested otherwise. all videos will be posted to @cowboycostume (ofmd to @izzyhandsapologist) & my youtube, unless requested otherwise.

available media (things already on my drive)

Supernatural, Our Flag Means Death, Ted Lasso, Lord of the Rings, Venom, Hannibal, Ready or Not, Spiderman No Way Home, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

additional shows I would be able to edit for (shows I know well enough to pull from & know I can get a dl for)

IWTV, WWDITS, Succession

willing to edit for any single episode of basically any show and most movies, if you provide a download.

feel free to chat with me ahead of time to see if what you want is a fit with what I am able to complete or capable of <- especially if requesting narrative work do this!!

@spnamvs

[alittlepudge-neverhurtnobody]

kinktober #4

Leashed 🔗 / Hologram ✨ (both...ish!)

Arthur’s been in his new flat for just about a week when he takes home the guy from the bar. He’s only half unpacked, but with no one breathing down his neck and no cleaners to worry about impressing, it’s a hell of a lot harder to care about the state of the place. 

Moving to Nottingham is the first thing he can say he’s ever really done for himself, and even though he’s proud of it, part of him still feels sick with doubt every day that he doesn’t roll into the slick white marble lobby of Uther’s firm and punch the lift button for the 25th floor. The move was supposed to herald a new era of going back to school, finding himself, and pissing off his father, and even though so far it’s mostly just heralded a lot of anxiety spirals and takeout, it seemed like as good a catalyst as any to start being bisexual in practice rather than just in theory. 

So he’d gone out, and he’d had a few drinks — a couple of beers, first, and then, once he got up the courage, something off the cocktail menu that Uther would have scoffed at — and he’d flirted with the angular, ethereal barman until his shift was over and he could join Arthur for a couple of drinks, and then they’d talked until he felt confident enough to invite him back to his, and then — 

And now he’s slumped at a table, a dull headache still thumping behind his eyes and the waistband of his jeans biting into his belly. He’s put on weight, between all of the stress eating he did while trying to convince himself to quit the firm and all of the workouts he justified skipping by telling himself the time was better spent packing or applying to postgrad programs. Half of him — the half that’s afraid of never being enough — worries that it means Uther is right: he is lazy, undisciplined, tender. The other half finds it perversely satisfying and itches to do more. Uther loathes any sign of softness; becoming soft himself might be Arthur’s ultimate act of rebellion.

“Arthur,” says Morgana, poking his soft side. “Don’t you dare fall asleep. We’re counting on you to know all the sports questions.”

Arthur groans and straightens up some. Morgana is the only reason he chose Nottingham rather than simply closing his eyes and pointing to a map, but he’s realizing now that he might live to regret it. Doing a pub quiz while hungover is hardly his idea of a good time.

“I’m fine,” he mutters, flagging the server and ordering himself a burger, chips, and a beer. Hair of the dog, and all that. Who cares if he’s technically already eaten dinner. “Just tired. Getting the new place in order, you know.”

“We’re happy to help unpack,” offers Morgana’s girlfriend Gwen from across the table, sipping her cider. “Just say the word, we’ll pop round.”

“Thanks,” he says, fiddling with his napkin. “Who’d you say we were waiting for?”

“Our fourth,” says Gwen. “A friend of mine from uni.”

“You’ll like him,” says Morgana, her green eyes flashing. “Another queer.”

Morgana and Gwen are the only two people Arthur is out to, and for most of their adulthood he’s only seen them at holidays or talked over text. It’s strange to hear his sexuality spoken aloud so casually, and he tenses for a moment before realizing that no one else here could possibly care. The Hologram is clearly a gay bar — the ’80s-style decor is colorful and campy, and when Arthur told the host he was meeting a party for the pub quiz, they’d stamped his hand with a sparkly flower design that Morgana explained is an Oscar Wilde reference — and although it’s not Arthur’s first gay bar, it’s certainly his first in a long time, and he doesn’t quite feel like he fits yet.

“Merlin’s genderqueer,” Gwen adds. “They use he and they, just so you know.”

Arthur sits up straight. “Merlin?”

“Chosen name,” she says with a smile. “It really suits him, though.”

Their server drops off Arthur’s beer, and he slugs half of it down as Gwen’s face lights and she waves to someone behind Arthur. He doesn’t dare turn. How many queer Merlins can there be in Nottingham?

“Hiya,” says a new voice, warm and lilting, and Arthur stifles a belch as his stomach drops.

He’s been wrestling with the memory of last night all day, trying in equal measure to convince himself it was fine and normal and forget the whole thing altogether. He’d been drunk, but not enough that he couldn’t consent or wasn’t acutely aware of what was going on. At the time, the lack of inhibitions had felt like a free pass to act on his desires without second-guessing himself; now, he thinks maybe inhibitions exist to keep you from doing things you have to examine critically the next day.

It would have been fine if they’d just had sex. Arthur can do just sex. It was how Merlin had looked at him with wonder, how he’d touched his stomach and hips so appreciatively. He’d kissed Arthur’s jaw where there’d once upon a time been definition and now was just soft. He’d run his fingernails down Arthur’s stretch marks; he’d moaned hungrily when Arthur laid his full weight on top of him. It had made Arthur hungry, too. 

Arthur pinches the bridge of his nose. He’s going to need more paracetamol.

Gwen and Morgana are saying their hellos, complimenting Merlin’s sweater and asking if he’s had his hair cut. And then Morgana says, “Merlin, this is my brother Arthur.”

Merlin slides into the other side of the booth next to Gwen and grins at Arthur. There’s a knowing in his blue eyes that sends dread scuttling down Arthur’s spine. 

“Hello again,” says Merlin, grinning, and Arthur manages to pull his face into something that’s only half grimace.

“Hullo.”

“Oh,” says Gwen, “do you know each other?”

“Not really,” says Arthur, as Merlin says, “A bit.”

Gwen and Morgana exchange a look.

Blessedly, the server returns with Arthur’s food, and he diverts himself to his plate, filling his mouth before he can say anything else incriminating. He looks up after a few bites to find Merlin watching him.

“What?” he says, mouth full.

Merlin gives him a crooked smile. “Nothing. Just looks good. Might get one myself, if they’ve got a veg option.”

“They have excellent chips,” puts in Morgana — for whose benefit, Arthur isn’t sure. He’s aware, at least peripherally, that he and Morgana might have similar — proclivities. It began as suspicion — Gwen is substantially softer and rounder than she was when she began dating Morgana three years ago — and then last year at Christmas, Morgana wouldn’t shut up about it when she and Arthur stole a couple bottles of wine and hid out in the carriage house after dinner. 

It’s different for Arthur. While Morgana took Uther’s tyranny about food and bodies and turned it outward to her partners, Arthur absorbed it and pointed it inward. It’s all twisted up with shame and self-doubt, but it’s there, indelible and only just starting to be accessible now that he’s out from under Uther’s thumb. He wants to eat whatever he wants. He wants to indulge himself, savor the illicitness of it, fall asleep full and totally sated instead of half-empty and anxious. 

Which is why, last night, he asked Merlin to feed him.

They’d gone once already, and Arthur was out of breath. He’d realized, hauling loads of boxes down to the lobby of his old building, how out of shape he was, and he’d hired movers to take care of the rest of it. There’d been a thrill to it, running parallel to guilt, and he felt the same way now, with Merlin lying half on top of him, idly kneading and jiggling his plump belly. 

“Your body is incredible,” murmured Merlin, and in his old life Arthur would have scoffed. He would have convinced himself Merlin was lying, because how could it be true? But now, he let it soak in. Merlin didn’t know him any other way — didn’t know how he’d whittled himself down again and again for his father’s approval, didn’t know what he’d looked like straight out of college football. And he’d still said something nice.

“Want to go again?” Merlin asked, laying a kiss on Arthur’s collarbone. 

Arthur nodded. “Yeah. But — maybe —” No. He was not going to lose his nerve after kicking up a fuss to himself about this being the start of the rest of his life. He was never going to see this person again. What did he have to lose? “Maybe … we could try something else with it?”

Merlin pulled themself up to a half-sit. “Sure. Like what?”

“Erm.” He threw his forearm over his eyes, but he could still feel Merlin’s cool blue gaze on him. “Like … you could, er, feed me first. Or during.”

He slid his arm a couple of centimeters so he could peek at Merlin’s response. His head was cocked like an inquisitive dog’s, and, gently, he moved Arthur’s arm from his face.

“Feed you?”

“Like … with your hands?”

Merlin nodded. “Sure, if you want. Can I … can I add something?” 

“Er, sure.”

“Do you have a necktie or a belt or something?”

Arthur shrugged. “I don’t think I’ve unpacked that box yet. Why?”

Merlin shifted their weight. “If you’re okay with it, maybe I could … tie your hands?”

Arthur’s mouth went dry, his stomach filling with heat. “Erm. Yes? That’s — yeah. We can try that.”

“I’m sure I’ve got something,” said Merlin, unfolding his spindly form and climbing off the bed. Arthur watched the long, pale lines of his body as he crouched where he’d thrown his bag in the corner. He was lovely in a strange, not-quite-of-this-world kind of way, like the fae in old folk tales. 

“Merlin?” he called. Now he had to know.

“Yes?”

“Are you fae?”

“That depends. F-e-y or f-a-e?”

“... Both.”

“Then yes,” says Merlin, catapulting himself back into bed and landing with a knobby elbow in Arthur’s gut. Arthur oofs and Merlin says, “Sorry, sorry!” and holds up —

“Merlin. Is that a dog leash?”

“Um, yes? I’m in vet school. And I walk dogs. It’s all I’ve got with me.”

“I thought you were a bartender?”

Merlin dipped his head. “I’m also that.”

Now, Arthur asks, “Aren’t you cheating on your other bar? The — what’s it called?”

“The Sidhe?” They pronounce it shee, and Arthur’s glad he didn’t try to say it aloud. “Yes, I am. Don’t tell. We’re very sensitive about not having an organized pub quiz.”

Arthur scowls into his beer. Morgana kicks him under the table, and he glares at her.

“Ouch! What’s that for?”

“I need to borrow you for a moment,” she says, eyes narrowing. “Father’s calling.”

Morgana hasn’t voluntarily taken calls from Uther in at least six months, so this is an obvious ruse, but he hauls himself out of the booth and she herds him to the opposite corner of the room. 

“What are you doing?” she hisses. “Why are you being such a dose?”

Arthur avoids her eyes. “I slept with him last night.”

“What?” she fairly shouts, and he cuts his eyes at her. 

“Shut up!”

“Was it bad?”

Arthur crosses his arms over his gut. “No.”

She widens her eyes. “Then why are you so moody?”

“It was weird, okay?” Arthur bursts out. “It was like — kinky. I don’t know. I don’t know how to feel about it.”

Morgana’s eyes light up. “Kinky how?”

“I really don’t want to discuss this with you,” he grumbles. 

“What do you want me to feed you?” Merlin had asked, kneeling by Arthur’s hip. “Anything in particular?”

“The cabinet on the right of the fridge,” said Arthur, feeling slightly high on the words. “There’s a bunch of stuff in there, crisps and biscuits and the like. Anything from in there. As much as you like.”

“All right,” said Merlin, and they’d disappeared for a few minutes. Arthur listened to the sounds of them rustling through his kitchen and tried to tamp down the feeling of electricity rising through his belly. 

Merlin returned with an armful of snack foods — Arthur had said as much as you like, but even then he hadn’t really expected Merlin to choose more than one or two things. But he’d come loaded down with two flavors of crisps, a package of chocolate digestives, Jaffa cakes, and a sleeve of shortbreads.  

“Too much?” he asked sheepishly, and Arthur yanked him down and kissed him.

“Perfect,” he murmured into Merlin’s mouth, and Merlin gave the soft mound of his stomach a little pat before straightening up. 

“All right, love. Let’s get you tied, yeah?”

Arthur raised his arms obediently, and Merlin gently bound his wrists around the rail of his headboard. “How’s that feel? Not too tight?”

Arthur shook his head. “No, it’s good.”

Merlin nodded, sinking back down beside him. “Are you ready, then? I thought we could start with some sweet, then some salty, then back to sweet to finish.”

“Yes,” said Arthur, rolling his hips. “Yes, that’s brilliant.”

“Gentle or rough?” they asked, and Arthur faltered. 

“Er — gentle, I suppose? And then maybe we can reevaluate?” God, was he at a business meeting? Reevaluate? “I mean — we can try the other way too.”

Merlin tore open the shortbreads. “Just say the word.”

“You can tell me,” Morgana wheedles now. They’re standing by the bar’s speakers, and some kind of synth throbs against Arthur’s headache. “You know my stuff, you can trust me with yours.”

It’s somehow so much more mortifying that it’s the same stuff, just inverted. Sometimes he still instinctively bristles at all the places he and Morgana overlap, thanks to the years Uther spent pitting them against one another. He’s long past any real resentment toward her, but sometimes now she feels like a mirror that shows not only his vulnerable parts but all of the twisting and pruning that made him that way. 

The bar is broadcasting Man U versus Arsenal, the screen a few meters behind Morgana’s head. He focuses his eyes there, on the familiar reddish blur of the uniforms. “Similar to your stuff,” he mumbles. “Just — opposite.”

Morgana’s gaze instantly drops to his gut, but only for a split second, which he appreciates. “Oh, Arthur, I’m so happy you’re exploring that. With the right person it really is wonderful.”

“I don’t know if he’s the right person!” Arthur yelps. “I barely know him. He tied me to the bed and fed me and we fucked and that was it. He had to leave early for his other job. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again or I wouldn’t have even asked —”

“Oh, and now you’re not going to let yourself keep having something nice because you’re embarrassed?” Morgana’s hands are planted on her slim hips. It’s not Halloween for another few weeks, but she’s already fully transitioned her look from Summer Goth to Autumn Witch. A new tendril of mossy green hair hangs down toward her face, and her eyes and lips are shaded a smoky purple-gray. 

“I’m not embarrassed, I just don’t want to discuss my sex life in the middle of a pub!”

“Then why don’t you go talk to Merlin instead of giving out to me?”

“You started this!” Arthur complains. Morgana rolls her eyes. 

“Because I couldn’t risk you being a pain in the hole all night and ruining our chances of winning a year’s free wine and cheese subscription.”

Arthur glares at her. “I’ll behave, but if we win you’d better share.”

“We’ll see about that,” she snips, but she gives Arthur’s hand a quick, reassuring squeeze as they make their way back to the booth.

“Gwen,” says Morgana, reaching out for her hand, “come to the bar with me. Let’s get something to split.”

Gwen’s brows furrow. “All right?” she says, scooting out of the booth. Morgana throws an arm around her ample waist and shoots a pointed look at Arthur over her shoulder.

In his absence, Merlin has also ordered something — falafel and chips, maybe? — but he pushes his plate away once Arthur is ensconced beside him again. “Hey,” he says, and his voice is bright but cautious. “Everything okay?”

Arthur nods, taking a gulp of his beer. “Yeah. Just family stuff. It’s fine.”

Merlin nods, rolling their lips together. “And us?” they ask, their eyes not leaving Arthur’s. “Are we okay?”

Arthur was just the right balance of still-drunk and sleepy to get chatty. He was spent and practically too full to breathe, but the words spilled out of him as Merlin stroked his hair and rubbed his bloated belly. 

“I’m trying really hard to, like, like my body,” he’d said, trying and failing to stifle a burp. “Oof, sorry. Like, I’ve never been thin, not like thin thin at least, not like you, unless I’ve been really making an effort, and it’s not really fun and it makes me feel bad so, you know, why should I keep doing it, right?”

“Mmm-hmm,” soothed Merlin. He was definitely less drunk, but he’d gone out on Arthur’s fire escape a while ago and come back smelling faintly of weed. “You don’t need to do that if you don’t want to. Your body is perfect. However you want it to be is perfect. Maybe it doesn’t feel natural for it to be thin.”

Arthur nodded sleepily, head lolling against Merlin’s bony chest. “My dad was always on us about it. It really fucked us up, I think. I mean, he really fucked us up in general, but my sister had an eating disorder for a while because of it and honestly I think I did too.”

Merlin paused in their stroking. “I didn’t just enable your eating disorder, did I?”

Arthur scoffed. “No. God no. That’s … something else. Something good, I think. It feels good to just … let go. When I was eating less it never felt good. It always felt like I was teetering on the edge of disaster, you know? Like one wrong move and I would ruin all my progress. This doesn’t feel like that. I promise.”

“Okay,” said Merlin, kissing the nape of his neck. “I want you to feel good, okay? You deserve to feel good. You did so well for me tonight, you ate so much. How do you feel?”

“Good,” sighed Arthur, hiccuping. “I feel really good.”

Merlin took one of his hands and brought it slowly to their lips. “Good.”

Arthur is trying not to tense up the way he’s used to when he feels threatened. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m not — I don’t do this much. And I didn’t exactly plan on spilling my guts to you about, like, my family trauma and everything. Or my, uh, my … kinks, I guess.”

Merlin’s lips curl up at the corners. “I bring it out in people. I’ve been told I have a very trustworthy face.”

Arthur laughs against his will. “It’s probably more that you serve people alcohol.”

“No, even at my real job! People tell me all sorts of things about themselves and their dogs and their divorces, it’s so odd. But it’s nice, in a way. They need to offload those things, and I’m a neutral party.”

“You were not a neutral party last night.”

“No, I was quite invested.” Merlin grins. “I’m sorry if I put you on the spot earlier. I didn’t realize you and Morgana were related. Believe me, I’ve heard plenty about your father already; it’s not as if you cast the first stone.”

“Can’t blame her. They’ve barely spoken since Christmas; she’s got a lot to complain about. He’s, erm, very uncool about Gwen.”

Merlin nods, their grin falling away. “So I’ve heard. Is that why you moved out here?”

“Sort of. He doesn’t really — we were always closer, my dad and me. He thought I’d grow up to take his place in the firm, and that I’d want to — golf and have business lunches about quarterly reviews. I haven’t even told him that I’m — that I’m bi. He was so hard on Morgana that I wasn’t brave enough.”

“I think getting out is plenty brave,” says Merlin. His hand finds Arthur’s below the table and grips it firmly. “What do you want to do, then?”

Arthur deflates a bit. “I don’t know. I’ve been applying to Classics programs, but that’s not exactly a career either. I just think they’re interesting.”

“Well, let’s hope we get a category about the Odyssey then, yeah?”

“And what do you contribute to the team, hmm?” asks Arthur, draining his beer. “Not many questions about veterinary science, are there?”

Merlin grins. “Bartender. Food and drink, love. Lots of questions about cocktails. And I’ve got some other interests that’ve made me quite well-versed in food.”

Arthur raises an eyebrow. “Oh, do you.”

Morgana and Gwen are making their way back to the booth, and he catches Morgana’s eye and nods: all good. Merlin squeezes his hand.

“I’ll have to show you sometime,” they say. “For now, d’you want the rest of my chips?”

Arthur does.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ofmd s2e1 rewatch where i pause to jot down my thoughts and other random shit

not quite a reaction post bc i've already watched the whole thing. not quite a liveblog bc it's one post and it's probably gonna take me a full hour to get through a 28 minute episode at the rate of pausing and typing i'll be doing

s2e1, s2e2, s2e3, s2e4, s2e5, s2e6, s2e7, s2e8

anyway, pirate time:

i love how much fun con is having choking on his own blood

dream!stede's extremely teary face right before he takes off running down the beach is doing psychic damage to me

also dream!stede's stupid ridiculous outfit with all the long ribbons and shit...

ed and stede make contact so hard shjfkhsgjkfd the loud OUGH sounds from both of them

also the return of ed's old beard! i didnt expect to see her at all this season, so that was a surprise.

"babe" "love" im tearing out my own hair

stede has yet to learn that ripping ass near your beloved can be a love language

stede is a terrible fucking roommate just deal with wee john's gas in silence like the rest of them. goddamn.

WHO HAS THE OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH TRAMP STAMP. WHO IS THAT.

i like when the background OST is familiar to me lol the little strings when stede starts his letter throwing me back to s1

olu: that–that's the swede the swede: Im the swede roach: he's single ;) me: *pissing my pants with laughter*

also the direct confirmation that the swede literally doesn't have a name. incredible

shjkfhdhfkj the crew encouraging him. stede's "it's okay" and roach "be brave" im CRYINGGGGG

stede doing customer service is something that can be so personal. "reservation?" "eat my fuckin' shit" "right! walk-ins, then" average restaurant experience

the random background guy saying "my favorite hand!" abt getting stabbed in the hand is making me giggle. i love the humor on this show

why does stede have so much shoulder movement going on when he's walking through the bar. whore behavior.

"this is for mom!" sorry but i want to know more abt whatever's going on there

also the purple mohawk. dope.

buttons is so distressed LET HIM RETURN TO THE SEA THESE CONDITIONS ARE INHUMANE

"i know the odds of you finding this are slim but so were the odds of us finding each other in the first place" IM RIPPING OFF MY OWN SKIN

also stede's lil sad hopeful smile after throwing the bottle... i care him

i love how they make this wedding fucking suck so we don't feel too bad abt the whole massacre thing. "the natural condition of humanity is base and vile. it is the obligation of people of standing, such as yourselves, to elevate the common human rabble through the sacred transaction of matrimony" if i was at a wedding and the officiant said that i'd also start killing people probably

yayy murder montage :)

FANG BREAKING THAT GUY'S SPINE OVER HIS KNEE

the whole cake scene is so fucking funny im sorry. i love u jim drawing the line at attacking a shitty wedding. i love u archie who wasn't here for the good old days so you dont really see a problem with how things are. i love u frenchie with ur box in ur brain that u never open again. i love u fang it's gonna get better i swear. i love u frenchie again bc u just took the cake right out of fang's hands while he was fucking sobbing hfjhgkjhdkjkf

I MISS IVAN JUSTICE FOR IVAN. wish they could've said he'd just fucked off somewhere instead of dying but i think that would've raised the question of why hasn't anyone else fucked off since they all seem so miserable

very relieved that stede isn't taking the racist/antisemitic caricature drawings of ed to make like a boyfriend scrapbook like some people were theorizing. would've been overkill if after episode 4 from last season stede still didn't realize that ed hated these sorts of depictions of him.

INTERESTING DETAIL THO the background music in this scene is "a pirate's life" aka the song frenchie sang in the pilot. it's an instrumental version obviously but yeah i recognize that tune

also more cool background ppl with dyed hair man i love this show

zheng yi sao flirting with olu is so good. he deserves it.

how nice of ed to offer his drugs to the crew. sharing is caring.

also it's so funny to me that the thing izzy is tormented by is ed saying "you can't do the job, someone else will" the toe thing's happened three times and apparently that was fine but the thing the show edits together right before izzy breaks down into the most pathetic aheemheem whimpers isn't any of that it's ed threatening to fire him

also they cut ed throwing knives at izzy!! what the hell.

releasing the clip of izzy crying kinda ruined it for me when it came time to watch it in the show bc i watched it several times since it dropped and now seeing it in context i was like "ok i've seen this already fast forward." i mean i didnt fast forward through it but i did kinda zone out bc i've seen this bit already. this post kinda sums up my thoughts on it

"trifling ingrate plan" dshkjfshgdskhfjkhgkjh

"SEMI-CLEAN WATER"

JACKIE CALLING THE SWEDE "BOO CAKES"

"i know that guy we had breakfast together!" "you'll be having a lot of breakfasts-es together" "oh, okay" i fucking love this whole dynamic like i can tell they're writing the swede out of most of the episodes for budget reasons (sorry nat faxon) but by god do they give him such an excellent fucking send-off. can't wait to see him again when he's in his trophy husband number 20 era

roach is upset abt not being able to cook, buttons is tied up so he doesn't go running back to the sea (i assume). stede you are not giving your crew the environment they need to thrive.

olu being an optimist :)

buttons opens his mouth to drink the rain and in the background u can see roach yanking the rope around buttons back fhdjskgfjhgkjfh STEDE YOUR SEA WITCH CANNOT THRIVE IN THESE CONDITIONS

stede tries to make things sound good in his bottle letters to ed but out loud he says his actual insecurities... it's so fucking tasty tho that he thinks ed could be doing better without him and THAT'S why he's been stalling so much. not afraid for his life even a little bit he just assumes he's not wanted. brb i have to cry now

"im sorry if that's a little bit creepy" "you are creepy" in this scene where they're soaked from the rain. ofmd said this prince ricky guys is creepy and wet.

stede's fucking FACE when prince ricky says "you're my hero" his fucking "clearly you dont own an air fryer" face I CANT STAND HIMMMMMM (affectionate)

prince ricky "these rubes" "men of our standing" yeah i cant fucking stand this guy (derogatory) i love how he's barely even in this episode

stede's face when the swede is talking abt how happy he is with jackie... my man believes in love so much im gonna cry

also in what fucking way does the swede owe them a life debt. roach and buttons literally tried to eat him

izzy's "you know me better than anyone knows me and i daresay the same about you" this is literally so false i dont even know where to begin. izzy in e6 being like "if i didnt know any better i'd think maybe ed might possibly maybe be actually enjoying bonnet's company" while ed and stede are giggling and making each other friendship bracelets. this guy doesn't know ed at all.

also i cant get over how izzy wont make eye contact he's like staring blankly into the middle distance delivering these lines so flatly until he goes to say "i have... love for you" and in that moment he looks like he'd rather ed were feeding him more toes.

"im worried about you, we all are" not gonna lie my dude you've had a weird way of showing it thus far. where was all that worry when you told him he was better off dead than wearing a robe and singing songs?? where was that fucking love then?

and NOW izzy wants to talk it through. izzy literally voted to make blackbeard great again and now he wants to give open communication a chance???

lmao there's a limit to how many characters can be in a bulleted list so here's fucking. part two. on the same post:

ed asking everyone if the vibe is poisonous and fang cant stop crying and ed's face is just like "eh good enough" im fdhksgfkjtdkh

anyway ed with a loaded gun under his chin talking to himself is hurting me so fucking much actually. ed my beloved babygirl for whom i would die. this poor traumatized man. yes he is making this workplace toxic as hell but god. GOD. im gonna throw up.

the way ed is so fucking casual about shooting izzy in the leg. just calm and jovial as he promotes frenchie to first mate. stepping over izzy all crumpled on the floor. everything about this is so fucking good. i mean it's horrible for ed and everyone around him but for me watching the show this shit is DELICIOUS. i love when the pirates get violent and unhinged i love when this shit gets fucked up. ed's mental state is so bad right now and it is causing me severe anguish but also it is so tasty. fuck.

anyway frenchie trying to turn down the promotion fhjkghdfjkhf

the cut to the swede performing the husbandly duties is INSANE. COMPLETE TONAL WHIPLASH. I LOVE THIS SHOW.

"fuck those hammies up!" spanish jackie i love you

black pete why are you so fucking loud AND WHY WOULD YOU JIX IT LIKE THAT???

why is prince ricky so small. he's like a full head shorter than stede. also this guy is insufferable i love how stede just fucking abandons him fhjkgdhkdfghkj

"the calf muscle is the most mysterious of alllll the muscles" what the FUCK does that even mean. oh swede i will miss you

NOSE REMOVAL FUCK YES. I LOVE THIS SHOW.

obsessed with the swede playing dumb. the dramatic gasp. "wow, so bad!" fhjsghdkjf

"aint you that soup bitch?" "im the money bitch" i love women.

sfdsjkh spanish jackie being into double-crossing. and slapping the swede's ass on the way out. i love this show

i love how zheng says "this much indigo is worth three times what i paid" while spanish jackie and the husbands are still like, right there. and they just don't hear that bit. incredible.

OUGH the back of jim's weird rope armor looks like a ribcage that's so cool

i love how jim is so fucking bad at telling this story. i love how the monkey's paw comes into it. i love fang asking them to do the voice. i love archie trying to hold back her laughter i love jim and fang giggling together I LOVE THIS SHOW

ed's fucking voice breaking through his whole convo with frenchie. im tearing out my own teeth

HEY DID YOU GUYS KNOW THEY HAVE POST-CREDITS SCENES IN THIS SEASON?????????? WHAT THE HELL

i take back what i said about jim being bad at telling this story their version is so much fucking better. squeaky voice "I pray to you, Dark Lord, to make me real flesh! I want to be real flesh!" IM FUCKING OBSESSED. JIM I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

[lovesick-level-up]

Editblr Community Survey ~ Results (Part 2)

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

the first question of this section is what fandoms people edit for! we had a preset list, but had an option for adding your own, so there are a lot of options lol. the most common fandom to edit for is project sekai, at 59.49% of people editing for it. the next most common is vocaloid (at 57.4%). but, a lot of people edit for all fandoms outside of their blacklist, making up 55.4% of the editors. shout out to the multiple people who were like "too many to list!!", which, is a mood. and to the person who completely missed milgram on the list lmao.

the next, is what edits people offer! to the surprise of no one, the two most offered edits are layouts (at 93.1%) and icons (at 88.1%). the most common custom edit is color picked pride flags (at 2%), which i cannot believe we forgot. the distribution on this is really interesting, i had no idea moodboards and stamps were offered at about the same rate!

this was an interesting question that had us giggling at some of the responses. how do you guys manage to have had more than 4 edit blogs, let alone 6+??? we've kept this one for the last three years lmao - we've had two overall. if yall are wondering, all those extra responses mean the 4+ catagory is around 17%, making it the second biggest catagory. the majority of people have had 1 edit blog.

we were also pretty curious about this question. the most common editing related side blog people have is a resource blog (at 49.3%). it seems only about 65% of people answered this question, meaning the majority of editors do not have any sort of editing related side blog.

the next question is about how often you change your layouts. the majority of people change their layout whenever they feel like it, which makes sense from what we've seen. we tend to change ours every couple months-ish.

similar to the last question, this is about changing your urls! the majority of people have never changed their url, at 42.6%, with another 9.9% not changing their url, but moving blogs instead. it seems most people if they do change their urls, do so rarely or have in the past.

this next question was about what demographics people see their blog as geared towards! the majority of people (59.5%) see their edits as for anyone, with the most geared towards group being kinnies (at 22.8%).

these results actually surprised us. i don't know why we didn't know the majority of editors have under 100 followers (at 41.6%) - it makes a lot of sense. i think we got very, very lucky with ours, as have other more popular editing blogs. the majority of blogs have under 500 followers (81.2%), with 18.8% of editors having more than that. only 2% of editors have the maximum listed 2500+ followers.

→ part 3

[ahfeiandhisdao]

Xiao Shunyao

Aka our dearest Ah Fei in real life

However in this post, we are not going to talk about his biography, nope. We are about to focus on a much deeper aspect. *Sigh*

Simping!

Yes, more precisely simping about Xiao Shunyao's piercings and tattoos.

So let's buckle up and dive in!

Xiao Shunyao - Piercings and Tattoos

1. Eyebrow Piercing

Our beloved YaoYao sports a stunning eyebrow piercing in his left eyebrow. He mostly films after taking them out, so you might've noticed a scar there.

Picture courtesy to : AP and Ybybyb on weibo

2. Nip piercing

Ahem well, this might be partially mature themed and if you are uncomfortable with such, you might consider avoiding reading further.

Yes, Xiao Shunyao has a nip piercing and you can see that here. (Picture Courtesy: Xiao Shunyao Official Weibo)

Now, TATTOOS!

Yes. He has tattoos. SEVERAL of them.

1. HUSTLER

From the medias Xiao Shunyao had shared beforehand, his biggest tattoo is on his left bicep. It says 'Hustler' in decorated cursive. (Please note this is very old. About 10 years old. He might have modified it by now.)

Picture Courtesy : Xiao Shunyao Official Weibo (in the first image it might look that it's on right arm, but that's a selfie.

2. 23 a cute little curved ♡ and a little triangle

Even though the tattoos are unexplained and mostly covered probably because of China's broadcasting rules, Xiao Shunyao is often seen sporting a small 23 and curved heart tattoo. And further up, there's a litte triangle, just above 23.

Picture credit : Ybybyb on weibo (left) and Xiao Shunyao Official Weibo (right)

3. The Stripe Sleeve of Inscriptions (undisclosed)

There's quite a wide stripe of inscriptions tattoo running down his right arm, from inside of his wrist to all the way to the base of shoulder joint. Please note that this tattoo is also very old and might have been modified (mostly added new elements) in the mean time.

Even though it's undisclosed for whatever reason, from the look of it, it might be a Tibetan sloka script. But it's just an assumption.

Around 2013:

Around 2023 (only a sneakpeek):

Picture Courtesy: Xiao Shunyao Official Weibo and Xiao Shunyao fanclub on weibo

4. Five little stars! ⁠✯✯✯✯✯

One of his small tattoos, on his right wrist (outwards). There's five tiny stars, with one relatively bigger and an arc of four smaller ones and as @qinzai has pointed it out, the closest decipher of the stars representing the national flag of China.

5. TRAMP STAMP

LAST but definitely not the LEAST! THE LOWER BACK TATTOO!!!!!!! (OH MY GOD HOW CAN THIS MAN GET HOTTER!!???)

IT'S A SPIDER

even tho looked like a crab on first glance. However (Hot damn man??! Wtf)

Okay, this was it! Well, not really, I wanted to rant and simp more and flood with pictures but Tumblr limited the number of pictures. Hence I'll be posting sneak-peeks of his Piercings and Tattoos on twitter and link it in here! Take a look if you feel like ~♡

P.S. - I am thirsty bye-

[broken-dollhouse]

This exists in relation to all of our stamps.

Our stamps, with the exception of r/adqueer && explicitly [pro] e/ndo flags / creators , will cover nearly every term , however we are very discourse unaligned & don't care for it , meaning we won't engage in it at all. Us creating a stamp for a flag does not directly mean we endorse it , we create these stamps for others. Basically saying don't assume we are one way or another and don't bring discourse to us either. These stamps are a resource for others.

However we are very much autistic + intersex , which influences how we are as someone who has struggled with self-id for years , we find no reason to judge someone elses id unless they are actively harming someone else. Meaning we are generally neutral on good faith ids.

Posts with stamps ;

Assorted flags 1 [link] Gemstone trans flags [link] Lesbian + Gay flags [link] Lesbian + Sapphic flags [link] System flags - Butternuttered [link] Assorted flags 2 [link]