#This may or may not be last post on this app

[sewn-with-lilies-fair]

Last song: Sing, Windstorm, Sing, English cover by my friends.

Favorite color: Blues and dark greens, teal mostly.

Last book finished: Beren and Luthien, by Christopher Tolkien

Last movie: Sad to say, I don't remember. It may have been Goblet of Fire, because my roommate was watching it for the first time.

Last show: Show in general? Last Trial, 28 Nov 2024 broadcast. Last show in person? The circus tour that I'm doing.

Sweet/spicy/savory: Savory.

Relationship status: Single; curious but hate dating apps.

Last google search: Error message when trying to post an Insta story. *facepalm

Current obsession: I'm a bit too overworked and tired and sick to have something grab me strongly right now, but the pull of Tolkien is deep and eternal.

Looking forward to: Nefarious progress this week.

Tagging: whomever wishes <3

Bit late but I got tagged by @cassyapper ily <3

Last Song: Born Under Punches by Talking Heads

Favorite Color: Teal green and light blue (Anything that looks like the ocean

Last Book: House of Leaves (Yes it's great, yes it did break me in ways I didn’t think any piece of media could)

Last Movie: A hallmark Christmas romcom that I watched with my mom called “Christmas on Call” (honestly a pretty good movie, would recommend tbh)

Last Show: started watching Dandadan

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Spicy and sweet (but sweet in the way mangos and maduros are sweet)

Relationship Status: I’m Demisexual and single

Last Google Search: alice collin twilight (was trying to remember what her hair looked like when my friend mentioned it on a Discord call lol)

Current Obsession: JJBA (duh)

Looking Forward To: For my best friends coming back down to Florida for the holiday (miss you guys) and working on art and our comic project!

No pressure! @astronomical-bagel @hierophantstar @devotedlittlefreak

[spookyyenna]

TW: Mentions of sui3ide, self-harm, and depression

I'm honestly at the point in my life where I honestly have nothing else to live for. These past 3 years have been nothing but fucking torture and there were times where I wanted to get a knife out of the kitchen and just get it over it. Or at least start cutting so I can actually feel something because what's the point of continuing? My mom's dead. My best friend/ex is dead. All of the happiness and joy I had died in 2019 and whatever I had killed itself during the pandemic. As for me? I'm next. So, whoever reads this, friend, bot, or someone who doesn't give a shit...thanks for reading. Hope you have better luck than me.

[nervousdemeanor7]

King and Sir origin story

Neil decided to take his bicycle today while running errands. His last stop being the grocery store to grab miscellaneous ingredients from a list Andrew texted him before going to visit Aaron.  

By the time he pulls into the bike rack and locks up the bike it was cloudy. The bike rack was clearly rarely used by the chipped paint and rust covering it and the litter of empty boxes half crushed and empty cat food cans. He takes one last tug to his bike lock and takes his bag out of the insulated box in the back that he uses for bigger grocery trips and makes his way inside. He was going to be quick, he wanted to get home before it started raining. 

He only has a handful of things to get, fitting most of the items in his backpack and carrying the cartoon of eggs to put in the box on the bike so they don't get crushed during the ride home.

When he reaches his bike again, the top to the box that he must have left unzipped after grabbing his bag is folded in on itself. He starts pulling it out, but is met with a hiss and a thud noise from something hitting the side of the box. retracting his hand from being startled he sees the culprit. A short haired gray tabby, still small enough that its hair sticks out weird and can see a faint outline of its ribs.

He sighs, reaching in again, now slowly to remove the lid from inside to give the cat more room. The cat stays in the corner hissing at him and so he takes his chances of lowering the eggs into the box, earning a scratch from his wrist to his knuckles, cutting easily over scarred skin, bleeding way more than it should have and stinging with more pain than he expected. 

Now standing there, cradling his bleeding hand to his chest he makes the only logical decision. He heads back into the store, a heavy duffel bag of groceries still draped across his body and hand still bleeding. He heads to the bathroom first, trying not to drip blood as he makes his way to the back of the store; washing the cut and holding scratchy paper towels to it until the bleeding stops. Then back out he travels the length of the store until he finally finds the right aisle. With way too many options and different textures of canned cat food he grabs the one that has a cat that looks most similar to the tabby in his box right now and heads to the checkout counter again. 

He returns to his bike with a heavy plastic bag of cat food. He checks to make sure it's still there before removing one of the cans from the bag and opening it. He hastily places it into the opposite corner of the box met with more hissing he half dropping it to avoid getting swiped again.  

With his mission complete as the can of food is now in there, the cat’s nose out smelling it but refusing to get any closer. Neil takes this as a win and begins half way zipping up the box just enough so it stays closed and the cat can’t easily jump out while he is moving. The rain starts coming down only giving him a few scattered drops as a warning.

He unlocks his bike and slowly backs out of the bike rack, maneuvering his bag to make it easier to ride with.

–

Andrew is back home by the time he pulls his bike into the driveway besides the cars and decides to bring his bags in before handling the situation in the back of his bike.

When he opens the door he is met with a pile of unbroken down boxes, photos of happy cats covering most of them. 

He tries to make sense of the boxes, thinking he somehow called Andrew after seeing the cat and forgot as he keeps walking down the hall to the kitchen catching a glimpse of Andrew before getting the full picture. 

Andrew glaring at a fluffy white cat that is currently sitting on the counter with a now broken pot that previously sat there on the counter, now spread across the floor. 

Andrew looks up to meet Neil’s gaze. With an eyebrow raised “What? You can’t fit an umbrella in that ugly duffel bag you refuse to get rid of?” he looks past Neil at the trail of water he is probably dripping everywhere and now that he thinks of it maybe also now mud as he hasn't thought to take off his sneakers yet. Thoughts turning back to the ball of fluff on their counter, “Wha-?” Andrew cuts him off, “Don’t ask stupid questions. I would hope you know what a cat is considering you've been trying to convince me we should get one. she's a little shit by the way".

"uh..." Neil says, still frozen at the kitchen entrance. Andrew picks up on the weird tension before Neil starts laughing. A deep laugh that is uncontrollable evident by uneven intakes of air as he doubles over not noticing the once again dripping blood that must have come from his long grip on the handle bars. 

"what did you do?'' Andrew asks walking over to Neil and pulling his hand away from his stomach turning it this way and that to check for a reaction and the source of the blood. Neil can't stop laughing enough to tell Andrew he has a surprise for him too, dropping the bag of canned cat food and his duffel bag onto the counter adjacent to the ball of fluff still lounging on the other.

Andrew catches a glimpse of the contents through the brown plastic bag before repeating himself "what did you do?" Now with false exhaust evident in his voice. He watches Andrew make his way to the door before him, now ignoring the path of water and mud Neil tracked in.

With the rain barely a drizzle now and without a single full word of Neil’s mouth Andrew is already making his way towards the bike, slowly unzipping the box.

After looking at the clearly stray cat that somehow got into Neil’s box and refused to get out as evident from the scratch on his hand. Andrew looks back at Neil still making his way down the front steps. He tries to remember why he didn’t kill Neil when he had the chance back in South Carolina. “Surprise?” Neil says with a big grin that causes the scars around his mouth to stretch and his eyes to squint. Fuck. 

“You’re an idiot.” He says before turning around to head back into their house. He contemplates locking the door so Neil can’t come back in, but instead makes his way to their guest bathroom to set up the tub to accommodate a definitely flea infested cat. 

[kevinsbitch-panini]

fanfic friday: aftg edition

Mug Diplomacy by DragonCat223 (@dragoncat223)

Summary: Jean is using mugs the way the Chinese government uses pandas, but Jean has something the Chinese Government does not: A sense of humor. Aka 2100 words of Kevin being the dramatic bitch he was born to be, followed by 1200 words of Jeremy being confused.

Tags: post tsc, Post-Canon, Fluff, i think, Kevin being dramatic, but that’s not new, Jean is enjoying his ceramics class, Minor spoilers for tsc, Jeremy desperately wants to solve the mystery of the disappearing mugs, no beta we die like men, NOW WITH EDITS

Words: 3,453 Chapters: 2/2

y'all this is the shit i live for. you had neil josten being a little shit? well turn your eyes to Jean Moreau, Little Shit Extraordinaire. also kevin is a Dramatic Bitch in this as well so really it's just amazing. anyways, jean gets into mug-making and kevin gets jealous, bless his dramatic little heart <3 (also the summary didn't make sense to me but the chinese government features a lot less in this fic than the summary implies)

check out the writer's tumblr and ao3 (both linked above) <3

[marsbotz]

good news for all my haters: im not coming back. not properly. i think social media and being around ppl in general is destroying me so im gonna just focus my energy on other stuff

ill probably still be a little bit active occassionally but for now i think il just stick to posting art etc. im moving to sheezy.art (which is down for maintenance rn but opens for registration again on fridays!) bc the energy there is much nicer for me.. but ill still post on here and insta. im also gonna be working on building my own website again!! so bookmark it and maybe some day itll have cool stuff on it.... :]

[exopelagic]

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME BURROWS END WASNT FREE

[danakatscullys]

Trying to track down a fic! See tags

[izzy-b-hands]

Just got three more job apps out and on a list for employers to reach out to me if they think I'd be a good fit! (It had a lil essay spot to tell what u can do, what u like to do for work, etc and I think I did well in that spot!)

Got some filming done earlier so now all i need to do is edit that, post it, get the vacuuming done, do some Prolific, and figure out something for Housemate's bday bc Bday is coming up! (which is all I'm saying cuz i know ae will see this post. Not a huge surprise or anything but just A Little Something bc i want to 🫂)

I know im probably gonna drop tomorrow and get nothing done, but for today. For today, I am vaguely productive 🙌!

[tragedykery]

I want to make a post analysing mai & ty lee’s appearances in return to omashu but idk how to word things. hatred and rage

[blackpearlblast]

you can give seven days of internet connection to someone in gaza for just 6 USD

gazaesims.com is a website dedicated to helping people donate esims for people in gaza. (for the ultimate guide to donating an esim, see http://tinyurl.com/gaza-esims) there are multiple options for where to purchase an esim to donate, for the price i listed you want to use nomad esims. you can get a $3 discount by using someone's referral code from the notes of this post. it also will give the referrer credit to buy more esims! (you can only use a referral code on your first purchase) @/fairuzfan also a tag for esim referral codes here, some of which are nomad. BACKPACKNOMAD is another code to get $3 off your first purchase, it's been working for some people but not others so try out a referral code instead if you can't get it to work. also it took over an hour for the email with my information to come through so don't panic if it doesn't show up right away. (logging back into your nomad account seems to have helped some people get their emails to send!) NOMADCNG is a code for 5% off any middle east region nomad esims from connecting gaza. it can be used on any purchase, not just your first but is generally going to give less off than the first-purchase only codes, so use those first. it can be used in combination with nomad points. AWESOME NEW CODE: nomad esim discount code for 75% off any plan, NOMADCS25 do not know how long it lasts but this is an amazing deal esp. since they are really low on esims right now! (nomad promo codes do not work on plans that are already on sale, unlimited plans, and plans under $5)

weekly tuesdays only code on nomad web, PST timezone! it gives 10% off plans 10gb and above. NOMADTUE

for the month of may, first time referrals give 25% off for a person's first purchase and 25% off the referrer's next purchase! it's a great time to use someone's referral code from the notes if you are a first time buyer.

troubleshooting hint 1: if you are trying to pay through paypal, make sure you have pop-ups enabled! otherwise the payment window won't be able to appear.

troubleshooting hint 2: if you are trying to purchase an esim using the provider's app, it may block you from purchasing if your phone does not fit the requirements to install and use their esims. use their website in your browser instead and this problem should go away.

edit as of 5/21/24: holafly (israel and egypt), nomad (regional middle east), simly (palestine and middle east), mogo (israel), and airalo (discover) are currently in the highest in demand. here is a purchase guide i made that covers all of the esim platforms, including these three platforms. if it has been more than 3 weeks since you initially sent your esim and your esim has not been activated, you can reforward your original email with the expiration date in the subject line. you can see gothhabiba’s guide for how to tell if your esims have been activated. if your esim has expired without use, you can contact customer service to renew or replace it.

[billgenbrough]

As AJR once said

Oh, I'm spiraling now

[apocalypticdemon]

to my advisor who encouraged me, a master's student, to take only doctoral courses......... why..........

to me, who knows my limits and chose to ignore them bc someone else thought i could handle this....... even bigger why............

[cigaretteparfum]

on android at least from version 10 upwards, your OS should have this thing called Digital Wellness that can be found on your Settings.

[ID: Android 11 settings page screenshot on my device, a Realme 3 Pro, where "Digital Wellness & parental control" is located between "App Management" and "Battery" settings.]

this is what the Digital Wellness settings page looks like:

[ID: Digital Wellness page screenshots.]

at the top is the diagram showing what apps you've been using for this date with the total hour spent on all of them cummulatively at the centre. if you click on that, or the "Dashboard" settings below it, you'll be taken to another page where you can set duration limit for each app's usage.

[ID: Digital Wellness' Dashboard page.]

click the hourglass icon to the right of the app to set the time limit. your options range between 0 hour and 0 minutes to 23 hours and 55 minutes. limit will be reset at midnight, your device time.

[ID: Application timer settings, this one is set for YouTube. the default time limit is 30 minutes.]

now, if you've set this, whenever you've hit the time limit whilst using the app, it'll automatically close and get blocked from usage. worthy of note that the time limit works with a 24 hour duration and only reset at midnight. that is to say, if you set the time limit for Tumblr at 1 hour, after you've used the app for 1 hour in a day then it won't be accessible anymore until past midnight.

Wverlaek's Block app for Android does the exact same thing, but with an additional feature of the ability to set timer for each hour instead of one whole day (though the daily block option is also available). so if you set the time limit for Tumblr at 25 minutes per hour, the timer is reset at the next hour. useful for apps you kinda do still need at the regular but can also easily suck you down an endless rabbit hole, e.g. Wikipedia.

additional note: Block also has the feature to: 1) make it so that upon phone reboot, app blocks immediately resume instead of you needing to manually reactivate them by opening the app; and 2) make it so that the app is unable to get uninstalled just for that extra measure in case you have times where you're so desperate to get your digital fix that you'd rather just uninstall the app instead of waiting for the limit to reset. (<-definitely have had that happened to me before.)

there are multiple Firefox add-ons with the same function. LeechBlock was what i used back when i still had a laptop (lol rip in peace). as far as i remember it worked similarly to Wverlaek's Block with both the daily limit and hourly limit features available.

anyway, endless scrolling can definitely be dangerous (no hyperbole; just look at all effects of doom scrolling, majorly sponsored by endless scrolling) and it's preferable that it's an optional feature. but until all sites and apps actually implement a toggle to turn it on/off, then i'd highly suggest at least giving app limits a try.

p.s. thowwy apple users i got nothing for you.

[mikkeneko]

In various places -- here, the bird app, even YouTube comments -- I keep running into people with some variation of the same question:

"Does Scum Villain have a teacher/student romance?" And every time I want to answer with: No, But Also Yes, But Also Not Really, It's Complicated (And That's On Purpose.)

Which is an answer that's too long to fit in a tweet or a YT comment, but fortunately tumblr has no (effective) post limit! So here I go.

1 - No

In the very straight forward porn cliche sense of "oh but professor, I really ~need~ to pass this class or my life will be ruined, can't I do ~anything~ to get you to change my grade?" *bats lashes* and "Hoho, my pretty young teen student, I've got your good grade right here in my pants, if you ~apply~ yourself..." then no.

No sex or romance between a teacher and their student in the bounds of a teacher-student relationship happens in this book. No deliberate grooming of an underage student on the part of a teacher occurs in this book. No sex or a romance between an adult character and an underage character occurs in this book, nor is the adult 'waiting' for the minor to reach adulthood to initiate one.

2 - But Also Yes

No sex or romance between a teacher and their student in the bounds of that relationship happens in this book. Two people who were formerly in a teacher and student relationship do enter into a sexual and romantic relationship by the end of the book. Also the nature of the society they're in further means that even though they are no longer in the schooling environment, it is socially assumed that the deference owed by a student to their teacher lasts forever, even after the student leaves that environment, and they continue to regard themselves and refer to themselves in those roles even though the teacher no longer strictly speaking has authority over the student.

Also, the student was really hot for his teacher even when he was still a student. (The teacher was oblivious to this fact.)

3 - But Also Not Really

By the time sex and romance is even on the horizon for these characters, their relationship has so drastically changed from that of a "teacher and student" that it is barely recognizeable as such. The power/authority dynamic between a teacher and their student is subsumed pretty much entirely by the facts that:

A. The 'student' has become a medeival fantasy warlord of such unsurpassable magic and might that literally no other person in this world can stand up against him, 'teacher' included, and the 'teacher' is well aware of that.

B. Also, the 'student' is metaphysically endowed (heh) with the Protagonist Halo, a literally active force within the setting they're part of, which means that not only can he not be defeated, he ontologically cannot be denied anything that he desires; what he wants, he gets, and what he doesn't want, cannot be forced on him.

C. ...But also, the teacher in this setting is a metaphysical outsider to the world order the student is part of, which means that he is aware of all of the above, and can and does manipulate it to suit his own agenda, which may or may not align with giving the student what he wants at any point in time. Assuming that the teacher has the correct understanding of what the student wants. (He doesn't.)

D. ........But also also, for all his power, one harsh word from him can destroy him. For all his knowledge, one tear can devastate him. (Which one? Both.)

4 - It's Complicated (On Purpose)

*throws the chalk against the wall*

Between a teacher and their student, who has the power? Between an emperor and a scholar, who has the power? Between a hero and the villain he is predestined to destroy, who has the power? Between a character and the reader who's read ahead to the end of the story, who has the power? Do we find some of these power imbalances more acceptable than others? And if so, why do we?

Trying to track Who Has The Power or Who Has An Unfair Advantage socially, physically, and metaphysically between this particular pair of characters is damn near impossible and that's on purpose.

The Scum Villain's Self Saving System is a lot of things, but one thing that absolutely defines it is that it is a parody. It's a parody and a deconstruction of a lot of things -- the 'stallion' genre, the 'isekai' genre, the 'pay-per-chapter webnovel' genre, the 'gay drama' genre and, most relevant to this conversation, it is a deconstruction of teacher-student romance.

What kind of a teacher-student romance has a clueless, fish-out-of water NEET in the role of the Wise Old Mentor? What kind of a teacher-student romance has a black-hearted, demonic, domineering feudal warlord in the role of the Blushing Virginal Student? What kind of a teacher-student romance has the two principals so close in age -- by the end of the book, they may be as little as a year apart -- that they're more like peers than teacher and student? What kind of audience are we, going into a story like this one and finding ourselves cheering for the teacher to fall in love and lust with his student, only to be disappointed when that doesn't happen because the teacher fails for three books straight to recognize love and lust when it's literally looking him in the face and crying?

Asking "does Scum Villain have a teacher-student romance?" is sort of like asking "does Galaxy Quest have a lot of high science fiction concepts?" No, but also yes, but also not really. It's complicated, and that's on purpose.

[redgoldsparks]

My very last comic for The Nib! End of an era! Transcription below the cut. instagram / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my book / redbubble

The first event I went to with GENDER QUEER was in NYC in 2019 at the Javits Center.

So many of the people who came to my signing were librarians, and so many of them said the same thing: "I know exactly who I want to give this to!" Maia: "Thank you for helping readers find my book!" While working on the book, I was genuinely unsure if anyone outside of my family and close friends would read it. But the early support of librarians and two American Library Association awards helped sell two print runs in first year.

Since then, GENDER QUEER been published in 8 languages, with more on the way: Spanish, Czech, Polish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portugese and Dutch.

It has also been the most banned book in the United States for the past two years. The American Library Association has tracked an astronomical increase in book challenges over the past few years. Most of these challenges are to books with diverse characters and LGBTQ themes. These challenges are coming unevenly across the US, in a pattern that mirrors the legislative attacks on LGBTQ people. The Brooklyn Public Library offered free eCards to anyone in the US aged 13-21, in an effort to make banned books more available to young readers. A teacher in Norman, Oklahoma gave her students the QR code for the free eCard and lost her job. Summer Boismeir is now working for the Brooklyn Public Library. Hoopla and Libby/Overdrive, apps used to access digital library books, are now banned in Mississippi to anyone under 18. Some libraries won’t allow anyone under 18 to get any kind of library card without parental permission. When librarians in Jamestown, Michigan refused to remove GENDER QUEER and several other books, the citizens of the town voted down the library’s funding in the fall 2022 election. Without funding, the library is due to close in mid-2024. My first event since covid hit was the American Library Association conference in June 2022 in Washington, DC. Once again, the librarians in my signing line all had similar stories for me: “Your book was challenged in our district" "It was returned to the shelf!" "It was removed from the shelf..." "It was moved to the adult section."

Over and over I said: "Thank you. Thank you for working so hard to keep my book in your library. I’m sorry you had to defend it, but thank you for trying, even if it didn't work." We are at a crossroads of freedom of speech and censorship. The future of libraries, both publicly funded and in schools, are at stake. This is massively impacting the daily lives of librarians, teachers, students, booksellers, and authors around the country. In May 2023, I read an article from the Washington Post analyzing nearly 1000 of the book challenges from the 2021-2022 school year. I was literally on route to a festival to talk about book bans when I read a startling statistic. 60% of the 1000 book challenges were submitted by just 11 people. One man alone was responsible for 92 challenges. These 11 people seem to have made submitting copy-cat book challenges their full-time hobby and their opinions are having an outsized ripple effect across the nation. WE NEED TO MAKE THE VOICES SUPPORTING DIVERSE BOOKS AND OPPOSING BOOK BANS EVEN LOUDER. If you are able too, show up for your library and school board meetings when book challenges are debated. Send supportive comments and emails about the Pride book display and Drag Queen story hours. If you see a display you like– for Banned Book Week, AAPI Month, Black History Month, Disability Awareness Month, Jewish holidays, Trans Day of Remembrance– compliment a librarian! Make sure they feel the love stronger than the hate <3

Maia Kobabe, 2023

The Nib

[implied-gay-sex]

May or may not delete this app

“Why are contemplating this?” Well, it’s become boring and the only thing thats keeping me here are my mutuals (or other things).

Another reason is with people not respecting my boundaries, it’s been tiring having to tell people who post nsfw or have 18+ in their bio that I’m a minor and to stop interacting with my content, if you can’t respect my boundaries like you want your boundaries to be respected that I would rather leave and not have to deal with it at all

Also people with minors dni in your bio respectfully f**k off, I don’t want you here, thank you.