#Tumblr mobile is quite the experience

[akwardsilince]

hi, do you by chance have any prompts for online friends? thanks!

Person A: "...why are you online at 3am."

Person B: "WHY ARER YU OONLIEN"

Person A: "I'M IN A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE???"

[mokeonn]

So I heard that Tumblr is slowly being abandoned (they seem to be laying off a majority of their staff and keeping a skeleton crew) and we might be nearing the end of this webbed site. I don't think it's currently worth panicking over, but I'm definitely going to start making that neocities website.

I'll make a post soon about other places where you can find me. Unfortunately, I've spent quite some time these last couple years getting rid of a majority of my social media because most platforms were bad for my mental health. I do not plan on going back to these platforms, so if tumblr goes down, I'm going to be only on non social media.

Maybe if one of the new social medias being created, actually take off (like bluesky or pillowfort or whatever else these days) I might join, but if not I might be entirely on personal websites, patreon (I will start posting regularly like a blog and make more free posts), some old websites I deleted but not because I hated them (such as ko-fi, which I deleted due to inactivity) and possibly furaffinity. I'm still on the fence about furaffinity. I might also finally start using my toyhouse but that is an oc sharing website and not much of an art sharing website.

I really do hope Tumblr doesn't go down, this is my one social media and if it does go down I am going to lose nearly all of my audience. I can make do by creating a personal blog and using whatever I have left in terms of "can post my art there and people can find me", and it won't discourage me from making my personal projects. I can make do, and I will make do, but I don't really want to make do.

Anyways, that's all I have to say right now, I'll make a post later once I set up some alternative sites to find me at, but for now I want to give the heads up that if I'm gone, you're not gonna find me on twitter, Instagram, or whatever third option there is. I'm likely going to just make do, be offline more, and likely just become active on the discord servers I'm on.

[hyper-pixels]

How to Grow Up

A guide on how to grow up. It was originally posted by @/friendliness but half the links were broken. So I took what links weren't broken and added other links and more things to know.

This is USA based resources

Personal

Reasons to Stay Alive – A Tumblr post of 116 reasons to stay alive by @/friendliness.

How to Get Better At Asking for Help – Website is Harvard Business Review. The article is “5 Ways to Get Better At Asking for Help” by Wayne Baker.

What to do if you Can’t Afford Therapy – Website is Psych Central and the article is by Steven Rowe.

How to Quit Smoking – “The 22 Best Ways to Quit Smoking” by Debra L. Gordon and David L. Katz M.D. from the Healthy Digest.

How to Legally Change your Name – Website is Forbes.

Wanna Learn Something New? – A Tumblr post made by @/hamletthedane with various new things to try from language learning to ballet.

Free Harvard Courses – Harvard University’s free online courses.

Getting a New Computer? – A quick and dirty comprehensive guide by WIRED on what to look for.

How to Sew – Website is Autodesk Indestructibles. The article is ��How to Sew” by Jessyratfink. Having a small sewing kit (that you can pick up from nearly any craft store) is super handy and has saved my life and clothes.

What to Look For in Clothes A YouTube video by Alyssa Beltempo titled “How to Identify High Quality vs. Poor Quality Clothing | Slow Fashion”. Here’s a WikiHow [x] if a YouTube video isn’t your style.

Dealing with Executive Dysfunction – A Tumblr post made by @/compassionatereminders. It's a list to more links on how to deal with executive dysfunction.

Another List Like this One – A Tumblr post made by a now deactivated account. It's a list much like this one.

Home

What’s a mortgage? – Website is realtor.com and the page is called “What is a Mortgage? Home Loan Basics Explained” by Cathie Ericson.

First Apartment Checklist – A checklist PDF. Here’s another link to a Tumblr checklist [x] 

What to Ask Landlords Before Renting? – “25 Questions To Ask a Landlord When Renting a Home” by Morgen Henderson.

What’s Renter’s Insurance? – Website is Forbes Advisor. The article is by Jason Metz and titled “How to Get Renters Insurance”.

Plant Care – A master list of how to care for plants made by @/difficults

Job

Time Management – Website is Entrepenuer and has 10 time management tips. One I personally recommend is keeping a physical calendar book on hand. I keep mine in my bag with a designated pen.

Finding the right job – Website is The Muse and it has 13 free career assessment tests.

Make a resume – Website is Resume Now. Many hirers look at your name, the middle of the page (where your experience list is) and skim the rest.

Job Interview Tips – Website is Linkedin. The article is titled “10 Job Interview Tips to Land The Career of Your Dreams” by Caren Merrick.

How to Write a Cover Letter – Website is The Writing Center. University of Winsconsin, Madison. It’s titled “Writing Cover Letters” and I can’t find the author.

Money

Couponing! – Website is Coupon Database :: Southern Savers. It has a list of mobile apps for coupons to places.

Call 211 for Help – the website leads to 211.org. It's anonymous and can help you get connected to food programs, paying bills and things like doctor appointments. Here’s a Tumblr post about it [x] by @/poessionisamyth

Groceries! – This is a Tumblr meme post, but scrolling through tags/reblogs/replies and there’s plenty of good tips. The post is by @/charlotten

What To Do if You Can’t Pay Your Bills – Website is Nolo. The article is “When You Can’t Pay Your Bills: Thiings To Know” that was updated by Amy Loftsgordon. 

Are You Paying Too Much for Your Phone Bill? – An article by Beht Beverman titled “How Much is Too Much to Pay for a Cell Phone Bill?”.

54 Ways to Save Money – Website is America Saves.

How to Do Taxes – Website is Wiki-How.

The 70/20/10 Method – Website is Business Insider. The Article is “A Beginners Guide to the 70-20–10 Budgeting Method” by Paul Kim.

Side Hustle Ideas – Website is Forbes. “30 Side Hustle Ideas To Make Extra Money In 2024” by Krista Fabregas.

Emergency

Your Rights When a Cop Pulls you Over – Website is Business Insider. Cops are allowed to lie to you, and they will, so be careful.

Hotline List – The website is DoSomething.org. Depression/Suicide, domestic abuse, child abuse and runaway/homeless/and at-risk youth hotlines.

What to Keep in Your Car – Website is MentalFloss. I live in a snowy area that gets blizzards and bad ice. I keep blankets, water and other aids in my car as well as a knife and road flare. I also own a self jumping car battery and it has saved my ass more than once. Heimlich Maneuver – A one minute video by the Mayo Clinic.

The Heimlich Maneuver on Yourself – A one minute video by The List Show TV.

What to Keep in Your Wallet – Website is PureWow. The article is by Rachel Bowie. Keep your drivers license, medical insurance card, and an emergency contact in your card. If you have a pet home alone make sure that you have a card detailing this. Free printable one here [x]

Traveling

Packing List – Website is Smarter Travel.

Traveling with Little to No Money – Website is Nomadic Matt.

How to Pack a Suitcase – Website is Real Simple. The article is by Thersa O’Rourke.

How to Apply for a Passport – Website is WikkiHow.

Making a Travel Budget – Website is Travel Made Simple. “How to Make a Travel Budget” by Ali Garland

[yappaccinocookie]

demon snow!

yn cookie with an ability like kyouka from bsd, how would and ancients and beasts react?

I only did the beasts that have been released (seen in the story) so far. I haven't finished watching bsd, so i used most of my sources from wiki! since cellphones don't exist in crk (that I know of) the inanimate object that is used to control her ability is not described as anything else but an "object." stupid tumblr also deleted all of my work, so I redid this. i didn't proofread, it's just straight brain to paper (digital paper maybe) i also didn't know if you wanted them grouped together so I did them all separately this is why this ask took forever. you can take this as romantic or not!

LOWER CASE INTENDED!

context (from wiki) : her ability, demon Snow (夜叉白雪, Yasha Shirayuki), materializes demon snow, a ruthless sword-wielding phantom that only follows orders coming from her mobile phone, which allowed Akutagawa to control her ability in the past.

— ANCIENTS

White Lily —

"Really? That's... terrifying— wait not to degrade you I think it's neat!"

she was terrified at first, after learning about your ability she felt guilty knowing you couldn't control this winter beast in you, instead it was controlled by a phantom that wouldn't listen to you. this poor cookie over thought everything.

she immediately (although patiently) asked you for more information, to see if she could do anything to make sure this ability wouldn't harm your dough or cookies–a–like that are near you during transformation.

white lily noted everything she could discover about your ability, although she was terrified at the possible outcomes she was also intrigued with what it could do. this phantom would only listen to that object you hold around, and it made her paranoid considering somebody could steal it and use your ability for bad. she started working around ways to make it safer for you with the information you provided and the things she could find in every nook and cranny of the library.

at the end, when she's done all she could do she'll just help you maintain a healthy relationship with your ability, and even though she kind of shivers watching it destroy everything in the battle field there's always a glint of amazement in her eyes.

her reaction is a mix of confusion, curiosity and fear. know she just wants the best for you, and she's also trying her best for you! if you need help you can ask white lily, she'll find a way.

Golden Cheese —

"Wait really? That's pretty cool, what can it do?"

she found it badass, and didn't look more into it. golden cheese is a god herself with godly abilities, so abilities aren't new to her she won't be that curious, I don't see her as the type to do much/serious research other than a few random questions.

golden cheese is eager to battle the phantom though, it didn't seem like a cookie like everyone else. it would be a fun experience! only if you want to though, maybe it could get out of control and she knows that's unsafe for both you and her.

her reaction is like "OH COOL!" a few 5 year old questions and then she doesn't look into it much, unless you want to talk about your ability or you want her to talk about it.

Dark Cacao —

"That's quite a dangerous ability, are you able to control it properly?"

the answer to that is no, the phantom won't listen to you, anyway dark cacao isn't really concerned about what you can do but what it can do to you.

you cannot underestimate anybody, nor can you be too comfortable around companions, and he's had bad memories with curses and swords, so he is kind of stiff when you mention it. there's this random part of him sometimes that wonders if the phantom will act up and slice him with a sword.

dark cacao observes the object that controls the phantom, wondering its importance, considering there are multiple of rare objects the phantom could've chosen why this one?

he's pretty chill, but if you tell him that the object got lost or got stolen, all hell will break loose and he'll order his subjects to turn his kingdom upside down, backwards, reversed, whatever just to find it.

his reaction is more of a "I see..." thing, he gets flash backs of war since he's old. he'll be concerned for your wellbeing, but if you're alright he'll be okay. even if companions are not to always be trusted, he wants to make sure his companions (you) are safe too!

Hollyberry —

"Ooh, that's amazing!"

hollyberrys eyes shine like never before, full of curiosity and contagious amounts of excitement.

after seeing the phantom fight in your frail cookie body, she deems you and the phantom as a worthy opponent and, like golden cheese, asks for a battle. she won't pressure you, but she also won't admit defeat. that won't be the last time you hear her asking for a battle, and if you accept win, or lose, hollyberry is giddy after and before the battle.

she wants to see its full potential, but makes sure you're safe too. hollyberry would take you on expeditions with her to various places to see how this snow demon fights, with her fighting along side you.

hollyberry would also ask to see the object that controls it, but becareful she may be high and mighty but she's not slow and steady she might drop it! she'll be looking at it for a while, like she's seeing all the stories it's been through, through one glance.

hollyberry is definitely the one that reacts the most enthusiastic, she's always up for a new adventure and she sees this as an opportunity to learn more about her pal! (you)

Pure Vanilla —

"Fascinating, I've heard of this ability but never seen such in person."

considering pure vanilla is all–knowing he's already seen a bunch of cookies with strange abilities, he's seen yours in one of those library books from back when he was still young!

he knows alot, but not all. there are times where the phantom just straight up controls you to communicate with this guy, I don't know why, but pure vanilla seems to have that nature.

if you're having struggles, like white lily cookie, pure vanilla wants to help you to the best of his abilities. he's known for guiding cookies to the right path, and this doesn't exclude you, even if cookies mark you as dangerous.

he'll tell you all he knows, and make sure the thing that controls it is safe—also this ability is yours, not his, and if you can handle it then he will only support your decisions!

like for example, he will not stop the phantom from attacking enemies, but only shield and tell the allies to back off or becareful around it.

like everyone else, as long as you're okay it's not much of a problem. the phantom doesn't seem hostile to cookies who haven't angered it, so he focuses on the host (you) and make sure you haven't irritated it lately.

his reaction is most the most chill of the bunch, but he does get concerned once in a while when it breaks loose.

— BEASTS

Shadow Milk —

"What can you do for me?"

beasts are evil, this is no surprise to anyone. Shadow Milk wouldn't cause harm on YOU specifically but the things around you. Beasts had live long enough to know alot, so he knew already about what your ability can do.

he's not afraid of the snow demon, but knows others can be, and uses it to scare little cookies playing. "there's this scary cookie with a monster inside of them! they're gonna eat you!"

you're gonna have to stop him before fairy tales of a scary snow demon start popping up, it's his way of teasing you since he has no peace with anybody.

do NOT show him the object that controls it, once you blink he's already taken that and hid it somewhere you won't see. Shadow Milk is very sneaky.

he'd steal the object that the phantom follows orders from, and has let it break free and cause alot of accidents. ones you've felt guilty for, but he won't kill anyone, only fires and house destruction.

unlike pure vanilla, he would not have a nice relationship with that phantom. he'd probably make fun of it by stealing its sword, and/or fight it depending if it would hurt you or not he doesn't want his old pal dying on him! he'd probably be a trigger for it to come out, and if it does come out he'd plan scripts as if he was doing one of his carnival performances.

when you tell him to stop he freaks out, and either stops being all smiley and scare the living crumbs off of you or he cries out and tells you to stop being cruel and let the him have fun. either way he won't stop, but will subtly make his pranks less damaging.

the only time he'd shut up is when he's observing the phantom fight, there's a glint of admire, he likes destruction no matter what type.

his reaction was more of him realising the power you hold, and what he can do with it! (100 crimes would be committed if you don't make/set boundaries.)

Mystic Flour —

" ... "

mystic flour is closed off, and she barely speaks on your ability unless you guys are really close. it may seem like she doesn't care, but trust me she's really intrigued just not to the extent of the others.

she's neutral about the whole thing, and wouldn't use you for bad or let it break free for the joy of wanting it to destroy things. infact she finds it pretty annoying when she just wants peace and quiet.

mystic flour sees the phantom as greedy, and won't listen to any sob backstory of why it controls you. if you show her the object she'll look at it for 5 seconds and then give it back. maybe she knows too much.

fighting or communicating with it is not her forte, she prefers hiding away. she won't listen to the phantom if it begs for a fight, but if YOU specifically ask her for a battle she'll hesitate, but give in.

her reaction is empty, it seems not even that unique demon snow ability of yours can make her care enough to move away.

Burning Spice —

"At last, you're not boring like the other dough!"

you've captured this beasts attention! burning spice wants to destroy the phantom, he would definitely want to fight it. actually, not a want, he WILL fight it no matter what you say.

each fight with you/demon snow entertains him, because you/it can catch up with his speed and be as ruthless as him. he does remember you're but a frail cookie made from dough, and only ever fights it once it's out and you seem healthy/fired up to fight. this is not a boundary (although that would be nice) it's him preventing you from dying so he won't get bored.

he secretly admires it's strength, but always makes degrading remarks to it. "weak!", "I can do better", "I will destroy you!"

speaking of destroy he will destroy the object that controls it unless you never let him hold that thing. it's impulsive behavior and he has no self-control if it doesn't harm him, himself.

his reaction is terrifying, not for him, but for you!

Silent salt and Eternal Sugar aren't here...

[ms-demeanor]

since twitter has become actively hostile to its users, so they came to tumblr, and reddit has become actively hostile to its users, so they came to tumblr, what do we do now that tumblr is becoming (more) actively hostile to its users? i’ve been here for over a decade so i know tumblr users are the type to cling on despite everything and revel in undoing every change, but i’m so tired of the way this website breaks the way it fundamentally works in order to appeal to new users. the twitterfication of the site seems so much worse than when people jumped ship after the porn ban, and even then, only small communities (and twitter) cropped up as solutions. you might not be the person to ask for a definitive answer, but i figured a tech blog might be interested in considering - what do we do when there’s nowhere left to go?

Okay so, I mean this very seriously: how has tumblr meaningfully become like twitter?

I don't personally find the sidebar view obnoxious and it seems to me like just another layout change that's pretty typical to tumblr. New users are getting signed up with a bit more emphasis on algorithmic feeds, but that is still very easy to change (MUCH easier than on any other social platform) and the algorithm has been there for everyone for quite a while, we just typically don't notice it because a lot of long-term tumblr users don't go into the "for you" feed.

I don't think that tumblr *has* fundamentally broken the way that it works to appeal to new users. My dash now is still very much like my dash in 2019, and still very much like my dash in 2018 (though much less pornographic). Reblogs are still reblogs, likes are still likes. Replies, for all that they seem like they've been around forever, are new and good and I think they work well. I'm irritated that the notes menu doesn't have a "view all" option but I think that's a worthwhile tradeoff for an easy way to see tags.

I *do not* understand why tumblr has broken linking back to previous reblogs but I don't think that's out of an effort to act like twitter; it is a bizarre choice that I dislike and don't understand but I also don't think that it has fundamentally changed the way the site works and i mean you've been around long enough that I'm sure you've had the same experience I have of going into the notes of a post and randomly clicking until you found a version that you wanted to reblog without a bunch of bullshit at the bottom. Tumblr has always kind of sucked, this change DOES suck but it doesn't suck in a way that is particularly novel or insurmountable. (For instance, I think this change sucks MUCH LESS than when they made posts with links invisible to the search, that is something that is genuinely bad that has been long lasting but doesn't get brought up much in lists of the ways that tumblr has gone wrong)

Tumblr *is* changing, but I think it is changing more incrementally and less terribly than other parts of the internet. I also hate the floating clown, the login walls, the dash-only view for blogs (you can't archive it and I HATE that), and - to an extent - the new lightbox on mobile. And I dislike that less than I thought I would but I don't think it's a fundamental change that necessarily impacts my interactions with the site - it *adds* a feature that I don't care for but it doesn't *break* anything that I require to have a good time on tumblr - in that way I think of it very much like Live. People hate Live so much and I find that perplexing because it is so easy to simply ignore it.

But that's not really your question; that's just some stuff I want people to think about because as much as tumblr has changed in the last two years it is nowhere near as fucked up as the recent things that twitter and reddit have pulled.

So, as to your question: where do we go?

Well. Not to be an extremely old person on the internet, but damned if I don't miss email lists. And forums. God I miss forums. Neither of those things has all the bonuses of platforms like twitter or reddit or tumblr or facebook, but they were great ways to hang out with people you liked on the internet.

The internet is changing. I can feel it, you can feel it, I'm pretty sure we're all like cattle in a field lifting our noses and hearing some distant rumbling and becoming slowly aware that it's almost time to run. There's a coming stampede and it isn't here yet but you know it's on its way. You're not imagining that, that's how things feel right now and there are a shitload of things contributing to it.

Things like SESTA/FOSTA and KOSA (which has not passed yet but is a big red flag waving on the horizon) have been eroding away the way that users on various platforms can function. Some platforms have consolidated in ways that harm users; some new platforms have popped up and shaken up the map of the internet; some platforms are being torn apart brick by brick by owners who don't care about the users. It kind of seems like people are actually looking up and realizing that advertising is A) bad and B) doesn't actually work and I think we're running straight toward another advertising-based crash like we saw in 2017. It feels like all the desperate things that tumblr is doing is just rearranging deck chairs on the titanic as the internet as a whole starts to sink into the ocean.

Honestly, I don't think it's that bad. I think it *feels* bad, but I think we're looking at a slow whimpering death of the platforms, not a bang. I think tumblr is going to hang on at least for a few years and I think it's going to end up like livejournal and myspace, which both still exist as websites that are recognizable as updated versions of the sites they were in 2004-2010. The thing that I think would really, honestly hurt tumblr in a fundamental way is if it moved to a more algorithmic and data-sales based model of advertising, and I think that's still pretty distant. I think Automattic is aware that killing the chronological feed would be the one unforgivable sin that would cause a mass exodus and a final crash, and I think when we see that, when we can't just scroll through the feed and see what our friends did that day in order of when they did it, that's when the party is over here.

But that's still not answering your question.

So, where do we go? What do we do? Well, for now, I'd say it's a good time to get contact info for your friends across various platforms. Get email addresses, get phone numbers.

Now is also the time for you to set up a personal website. NeoCities is currently the best place to do this, though it takes a lot more effort than just starting a blog on tumblr. I think that various oldschool blogging sites like Wordpress and Blogger/Blogspot/whatever the hell the google one is are a better place to have your emergency backup than a more platform-y platform if you aren't up to doing something with NeoCities.

If you've got the ability to do so and a group of people who are interested in the same core subject, set up a forum. There's a decent amount of off-the-shelf forum software out there and a text-and-small-images forum isn't prohibitively expensive, but it's never going to be huge and you're never going to have the kind of spread and virality and random connections that you would on a platform with millions or billions of users.

If you can't set up a forum, setting up or joining a discord server for your friends is a decent enough option at the moment, and may be a very good option for people who are looking to keep their interactions more private.

But yeah i think right now is a great time for people to start setting up their own personal websites, to start visiting actual webpages again, to start bookmarking their friends' websites, and to start collecting contact info that isn't tied to platforms.

[wszczebrzyszynie]

i’ve been reading through the space miner au posts and the rancher essay just sent me over the moon (haha). i MUST know more about imp and skizz when you have the time thank you <3

Unseparable since childhood, they know each other better than anyone. Both went into space mining (which is how they met Tango) very early in their life, probably as teenagers, which would make them basically veterans now, and therefore very experienced in all things mining related. After their last mine and base collapsed, leaving Impulse without an arm, they both left and settled for something different; not entirely sure what they do now, other than harboring a wanted terrorist every now and then, but its something radio and communication related. Quite a jump from their last job, but after the collapse space mining left them with less than positive feelings

(More more or less related things to explain some things below, so that it wont be a giant wall of text on the dash. Fixed because tumblr ruined formatting)

i feel like this is a good moment to mention a bit more about what space mining even is, other than being just... mining in space. there are a few different layers to space mining as a profession, depending on the ore and place (its stability, temperature and everything else needed to be taken into account with human workers); it doesnt really target asteroids (which is why i dont call it asteroid mining), only planets and moons. Despite being assumed to be a more presigious job, it really isnt, at least most of the time; Jimmys experience, for example, is very much comparable to mining on earth, and payed as such. Impulse and Skizz, on the other hand, got to do the cool sci fi idea of space mining, much more dangerous (in places that arent in any way friendly to humans that the miners cant really leave easily before the end of their work season, i guess. not sure how to call it), but also more fun, as it includes the use of mobile suits. This is how sculk is mined, as it tends to exist in places humans shouldve never been in.

(Jimmy also has a mobile suit license, as it just... comes with doing that job, but never had to use one on any of the mining sites. When i talk mobile suits think less Eva and more... chunky and grey. something like the demi series from gwitch. I wanted to include mechs because i like mechs 👍 and i think using giant robots for mining is really cool)

the idea itself is not based on any real-ish possibilities or whatever of asteroid mining; i would much rather it be read in a way youd read a space sci fi from the space race era. specifically from the side of the eastern bloc... its where the retro part of retrofuturistic comes in this au. If i had to introduce the world more, id say that space colonisation started more than century and a half ago (for the time of the au, that is) and durning space race itself. Even though the cold war has been over way before all characters were even born, there still is a clear space divide influenced by it; not all places are avilable for everyone with a spaceship, but it slowly starts opening up and mixing with itself. It very much goes into alternative history but its not the focus of the au so ill just leave it at that. Bit of a worldbuilding thing. I say all that because i find the idea of what esentially is space juma (travelling to germany from poland specifically to steal and traffic small high value items and also cars durning the 80s and 90s and still today sometimes) and all things similar stupidly fun. Thats why Tango has to hotwire his spaceship. Theres a chance im the only person who likes this kind of story atmosphere and its ok its my au. Sorry for going off topic from the ask it just kind of happened. Bless

[emotsper]

Hi!!!!!!!!

You’re like the szai person on tumblr, and even tho I’ve been playing proseka for like two years, I still don’t read a lot of the stories………

So as the certified szai tumblr person, since you kinda own the tag, would you like to explain to me why szai is such a popular ship? I really didn’t read much of anything…

Have fun!!

let me be brief (1/350) (no bc its actually gonna be a long ramble. apolocheese.) (also sorry if formatting is awful im a mobile user and I literally just type whatever)

FOR REAL THOUGH. PLEASE JUST DO ME A FAVOR AND READ MMJ MAINSTORY...... not only its a good source of szai cocaina you get to experience the entire mmj mainstory. i was normal before mmj mainstory and i was less normaler after mmj mainstory.

it simply went even more downhill when i read tenshi no clover. genuinely the one event story that first made me cry (second one was ice drop event but thats a bit biased)

okay now lets get to the main meat of it. szai.

admittedly i was kind of normaler early on but one of my tipping point was Chasing the radiance event especially chapter 7. please read/watch it. please. this specific chapter sent me into my trip of insanity when it comes to szai. it also opened my eye to specific scenes in their side stories/mmj mainsto that i skimmed early on especially bc im a jp only player so fan tls may not be super accurate back then 💔

to start off, airi was a girl that was often made fun of for being tomboyish, and seeing idols for the first time made her feel a glimmer of hope that maybe she can also bring hope to other people. she finally manages to reach her goal and became an idol after several of failed auditions (very deserved especially after her hard work) while shizuku became an idol purely out of luck from the idol grand prix context her friends convinced her to join 😭😭 From the start their relationship feels a little bit doomed with how jealousy is kind of unavoidable from airis side. but against all odds, you get to see airi go to shizuku and cheering her up by giving shizuku her towel and telling her to wipe those tears especially with such a pretty face like hers (MACHINE CLANG CLANG RACK SFX) they are so crazy for this. especially when you realize that shizuku kept the towel until now. (the towel is her area upgrade item)

from this point, airi thought nothing much of shizuku yet other than her being her new rival (and that shes rly pretty) but shizuku sees airi as her main reason to keep going in this idol stuff at that time, and that was enough.

(okay purely for this next part im forgetting a bit so do remember it may not be fully accurate 🙏)

after training minori for awhile, szai went thru a mini divorce arc where airi was telling minori that being an idol isnt all fun and games and that minori should consider quitting, continuing on with how she flopped in the industry bc she was more popular as a reality show figure. but shizuku disagreed and kept saying how airi was an idol through and through and that she shouldn't have quit, but that just tipped airi off and she shouted at shizuku, unloading all her pent up jealousy that she had for awhile now. iconic as hell scene in the most angsty way possible.

u can easily tell this wasn't received well by shizuku. at all. airi you done fucked up. shizuku left her idol group the next day.

(addendum i forgot to add. shizuku truly believed that airi was the first and if not, the only person who sees shizuku as shizuku hinomori herself, without all the idol filter that people plastered on her. so when airi admitted that she was jealous w shizuku getting everything good in the industry, that basically broke shizuku. (color of myself is a nice one to read when it comes to this 🙏 also the i am we are event is a crazy good conclusion to shizukus current arc))

at this point airi realizes just how much shizuku was influenced by her past actions without her fully knowing about it. girl you done fucked up.

this scene is still one of the biggest and strongest kryptonite for szai fans. especially with what happens after.

after confronting shizuku about her choice knowing full well its airis fault, airi, angry at herself, goes immediately to cheerful*days training place (she knows the place since theyve kinda shared the spot iirc) while the rest of mmj follows. she started threatening arisa and almost threw punches but she held back and told the rest of cheerful*days that shizuku is more of an idol than everyone in the room (i may be hallucinating this one. do lmk)

they finally leave the place, and both apologies to each other. at the same time, they both admitted that they were each others idol

and then shizuku goes to tackle hug airi. what the queer

that only concludes the mainstory section btw. upon realizing it may be too much of a recap instead of actual explanation ill be brief w the rest of it (keep in mind i dont read EVERY szai story, just ones i was made aware of bc im playing on jp and story content is a bit harder to see/consume)

Main szai crazies for szai fans

1. chasing the radiance ch7. airi yet talks again about how shizukus hands are slender and elegant while hers are short and chubby (she compared her hands to a manju) and shizuku was mad at her about this and went on a long tangent about how airis gentle hands were the ones who pushes minori and shizuku forward when they think they couldn't.

this is probably the fifth time ive read this story and it still gets me. i hate these fruitsssss. please read the full chapter ive linked it near the start this chapter is so special to me.

2. my ideal idol (airi 5, jp only event for now)

Bro i Dont Even Know What Else To Say. Just Look At This Card

but if we're being serious . lets talk about this one specific card and the story shall we.

this card was a blast to the past; pre-mmj szai again.

we start off with present mmj getting ready for their turn in the joint performance with a new junior idol group that they were paired with. airi was a bit nervous and shizuku noticed it. so she offered to do something that would hopefully lessen the nervousness for both of them. shizuku softly puts her head on airis back and whispered several word of encouragements. shizuku reminisces to the past.

pre-mmj szai. shizuku was very nervous as she was waiting for her first performance ever as an idol. airi was also there, and it was going to be her first too. airi shows up to say hi to shizuku but she noticed that shizuku was really nervous and at the verge of crying. airi knew she had to do something and told shizuku to turn around, shizuku did. shizuku lets out a little surprised yelp as she feels airis hands and head pressing against her back. she could hear airi muttering some encouragement but we never get to hear what the words were, only that shizuku thought about how warm airis hands were. (i need to be euthanized)

back to the present, shizuku says that she hopes that this gesture can somehow "repay" for what airi did to her back then. i think im losing it. sorry

OKAY IM DONE IM DONE ITS ALMOST 1 AM MY BRAIN IS NOT GOING TO WORK ANYMORE IF I KEEP TYPING..... my brain can handle so little. anyways i hope this wall of text ramble can convince u to read mmj mainsto and consume more mmj stories........ i admit its not perfect or whatsoever bc i haven't read the mmj mainstory for awhile and i have a wee memory issue thats paired with my deafness so. yeah. enjoy. haha.

[orionsangel86]

Content Filters - Your New Best Friend!

I dont think we take advantage of content filters enough. So I'm putting together a little tutorial in case anyone isn't aware of them.

Now we may all be aware of tag filters, both via tumblr saviour and also tumblrs in built tag filtration system.

But that still runs into issues as some people just dont tag their posts, and therefore some posts will still find their way to the dashboards of people that dont want to see certain content that they have blocked.

If you are in a small fandom, sometimes popular content that you arent interested in can become quite prevailent and unavoidable even if you have tags blocked. But there IS a way to avoid that content regardless of whether people are tagging their posts or not

CONTENT FILTERS.

Content filters work by blocking certain words that appear in posts. If there is a certain thing that you really want to avoid, you can just block that word or phrase and boom! You'll never have to see it and everyone will be happier for it. If you don't know where the content filters are, I can show you. On tumblr mobile go to account settings:

Then scroll down to "content you see":

Here you will find the filtered tags:

And if you're anything like me you'll have a nice long list of blocked tags to curate your feed.

However if you just scroll down to the bottom of your blocked tags list, you'll find this:

Here is where you add words you wanna block. You can block trigger words, you can block things like "blood" if thats not your jam, you can block "omegaverse" if that gives you a squick, and you can also block ship names and names of whole fandoms if you find them annoying (blocking Supernatural may help with your mental health lmao).

It can be overzealous, so its best to block phrases more than random words as those words can be used in many contexts after all (which is why its excellent for blocking fandom ships as those are usually portmanteaus that wont appear in regular language). Blocking the word "omega" may be a bit too wide a net for instance, but blocking something like "omega Dream" will work wonders and calm those buldging temple veins.

Now this is just a tumblr app tutorial but I believe the content filters are in the same place on desktop. Its not hard to find them and I strongly suggest everyone uses them.

We all want to have a peaceful pleasant fandom experience, and as always, the best way to do that is to CURATE YOUR OWN SPACE. I'm someone who loves searching in the fandom tags, so I dont rely on following/unfollowing to curate my feed. I often expose myself to things in the tags i may prefer to avoid, or maybe I follow people for some content but dont wanna see other content they reblog. Either way, the content filters protect me from triggers, things that squick me out, and content I just find annoying.

Whilst we can all ask that people tag appropriately, it is never the OPs fault if you have seen something you don't want to see. You have all the tools available to you to avoid everything you dont like. Use them.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Role call. Who on Tumblr was politically active during the Free Tibet years?

I'm going to establish this post as an anchor space to have a conversation about the Lessons we learned from Free Tibet and how we may or may not be effectively applying those lessons to our work around Free Palestine as a current socio-political banner.

If you were alive, aware, and involved during Free Tibet's groundswell into and out of the public eye, your stories, reflections, and thoughts are welcome. This goes doubly for perspectives within the movement such as the experience of seeking and obtaining allyship/solidarity from the international community as some living in or with family in Tibet, ground work in organizing the dustribution of funds, resources, or resistance, publicity and public awareness/consciousness, etc.

I'll start. I was (admittedly) young when this was happening, but already had been engaged and involved for a year or two in politics more broadly. I had been working with the UUA youth programming on a variety of community initiatives when a delegate of ministers traveled to meet with the Dalai Lama and several Tibetan activist communities both in their home mountains and abroad in exile. They've done this quite a few times over the years, before and since this particular delegation. One of the ministers who worked with us attended. He was gone for 18months sabbatical/spiritual and social development work on the trip, and when he came back, he led the district's interfaith activist groups through dozens of trainings and salon conversations to help us understand what he'd learned and what he wanted US to learn.

He came away with [and invited us to come away with] a few major foundations

1) any act of imperialism or colonization is a cause for profound and expansive grief. In fact the grief itself was part of the point because until we see the suffering of every person on earth as a violation of and offense to the humanity of EVERY person on earth, we will struggle to hold ourselves accountable for our own complicity.

2) complicity can be coerced, and that is always the accountability of the coercive authority structure, not the accountability of the individuals being coerced. This is not mutually exclusive with the need to repair the harm done to a community following coerced complicity as a form of reintegration into the healing process of a fractured social order.

3) we needed to operate with two paths of possibility - diasporic and indigenous. Ultimately, the preservation of a people, their culture, their humanity, their communities, is a complex one with very few guarantees. Every effort should be made to answer the intracommunal calls to action that are being made so as to ensure that on the micro/mezzo level (individuals, families, and small regional communities in particular) people are able to self-direct towards a diasporic-mobile preservation path or an indigenous-remaining preservation path as best suits their needs in the moment, and that a diasporic-return path is being established and maintained as effectively as possible (erosion of this path should be considered a warning sign of high risk actions being taken against the indigenous-remaining [coerced/autonomous] population). The goal, this minister explained, was always to preserve access to autonomy on both the individual and communal level, and that sometimes this would look like things we didn't understand or didn't want to understand as victory. As long as it came with the community in need at the helm, it was our job to wrestle with that possibility proactively rather than risk imposing our own needs-assessment on them. [Disclaimer: this came in the wake of concerns around the possible death of the Dalai Lama's reincarnation and heir being selected/identified by an imperial assembly rather than by the existing Tibetan process of identification, and specifically in the wake of the Dalai Lama's statements that all, even his own role, must one day end which had incited many difficult conversations around the world]

4) resistance was both an imperative and an active tense verb, meaning that any of us engaged in resistance needed to be in real conversation with others about it or we were NOT in fact resisting anything

5) slogans are catchy, but they can't be all you have. It is too easy to say the same words as others while acting against them, both intentionally and unintentionally.

I really was present in the tail end of this work's public prominence, and while I have done my best to stay aware since my initial exposure, I lack some of the necessary current reflections on the experience from various people and perspectives. Others who were engaged and involved, especially if it has remained in your primary focus of activism, what were your lessons so to speak and how have you grown or developed your approaches in response?

[what-even-is-thiss]

hi! i just saw your post about your struggle with addiction, and it really resonated with me i guess, and i hope youre doing better now. ive been struggling a lot with being,,, lets call it ‘reasonable’ about my weed consumption and im feeling so overwhelmed trying to slow down with it and so ashamed that im even struggling with this in the first place, do you have any advice from when you first realized you had an addiction and like how you went about dealing with it?

im just really scared to ask my friends and family (outside of tumblr) for help because i worry that itll change how they think of me, or that theyll start treating me differently or something, especially because my parents are the ones who keep enabling this.

if youre not up to giving advice about this sort of thing i completely understand, and obviously our experiences and vices are very different, anyway sorry this is so rambly, and i hope you have a lovely week :)

An addiction counselor or a therapist might be better than me but I’ll try.

What has worked for me in the past with some things is removing the thing from my life completely and then later when I’m better seeing if there’s a healthy smaller way I can bring it back into my life.

Sometimes there isn’t. When it comes to opioids for example I can’t have those even once or my addiction immediately reactivates. Like with me it’s so fast. I become dependent on them immediately. Same with self harm. Hurting myself leads to my brain immediately wanting more of it to get rid of my emotions and it’s bad for my health so i just need to not do that.

When it comes to gambling and mobile games however I’ve been able to find a happy medium with that. I have maybe two mobile games I play that I don’t spend money on and I play more one time purchase games now without micro transactions. With gambling I put a hard limit on myself at 20 bucks a month and for the most part I’ve been able to stick to that.

Also I know that if I drink alcohol more than twice a week I’ll become addicted to it because I can feel it happening. So I just don’t drink more than once or twice a week.

You don’t have to go cold turkey. That doesn’t work for everyone. You might carefully measure out a ration for yourself for the month or week. You might not even have to give it up entirely. Or maybe you might.

I’ve found that talking it out with people in your life you trust can be helpful. The hardest additions to beat for me have been the ones I’ve never told anyone about. And part of the reason I’ve never become alcoholic is because I’ve told my friends and family about my problem and if I have more than three drinks at a party they know to tell me to cut it out.

I’ve found in general that people are more understanding than you think they’ll be. And if they aren’t then find someone who is. Even if they have to be a therapist or something.

I think the worst thing you can do when trying to beat an addiction or if you know you have an addictive personality is to isolate yourself. If you’re alone then it’s just you and your thoughts and your thoughts are what got you into this in the first place.

There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you find quitting hard. Addiction is hard. It messes with the pathways in your brain. It’s okay if it takes a while. Just keep trying.

[washblog]

2024 is Washboard's final year of operation

Washboard was released to the public a whopping 11 years ago (I was a boy back then!). It served a valuable & unique purpose at the time, offering people a way to filter out posts they didn't want to see on mobile platforms. But, in case you missed it, Tumblr's mobile app has had tag & content filtering for years, effectively patching the gap in functionality that Washboard was made to fill.

It's not just redundant, either - Washboard's age means its tech stack is incredibly outdated & vulnerable to security threats. I've accepted this burden for years, but the risks of keeping it online will inevitably outweigh the benefits at some point. I feel that Washboard has been past that point for quite some time; I hope you'll understand.

As such, I'll be taking Washboard offline later this year. The domain name was just renewed, but I will likely allow it to expire in the next year or two as well.

Washboard was my first creative coding project that I feel left a positive impact on the world. If I had infinite time, I'd try my hardest to preserve it online, but nothing moves faster than time. I hope I was able to help you better curate your online experience for awhile!

[jhuzen]

cold touches [gn/m.reader]

i come not in peace >:( i’m here to hurt some men and make people cry,,, so i present to you a bit of role reversal. this is my way of avenging the poor readers in those angst fics lmao. i got u, u beautiful being. also excuse the sudden tiny letters, i’m still experimenting with the formatting in tumblr mobile :”))

this is just angst. hurt no comfort, but do let me know if you want that comfort or if you want to hurt more men nyehehehe. the sacrificial lambs for this fic are zhongli, childe, diluc, kaeya, and ayato :D

Ayato

Were you always this cold?

Ayato wonders often if he’s trapped you in a marriage. But it didn’t seem so on the very day you promised yourself to him as he did with you. There was a deafening silence in the wake of your emptiness, and a terrifying coldness that suddenly jumped out at him with little to no warnings.

He sat on the head of the table and watched his sister and Thoma converse so happily, and he wondered when did you start missing out on meals just like that. He seems to recall a time when you too would join in on the lively chatter that reverberated through the Kamisato estate. You and Ayaka often brought him or Thoma into the spotlight of light humiliation as you teased relentlessly.

And then suddenly, you were gone.

“Thoma,” he found himself speaking, unable to hide the light tremble from the corner of his lips. There was a familiar pit of disappointment that nestled within him. “Where could [Name] be? They’re not one to miss dinners, no?”

The chatter ceased and Ayaka looked at him with a smile and Thoma with an equally carefree look — and something twisted at him. How could they look like that knowing that you were incomplete, and on the very day that he was finally free momentarily of responsibilities too.

“Ah— well, it’s hard to say. They rarely show up to dinners recently, my lord. So I have been keeping my lady company more during dinners.” Thoma laughed a little, though there was an edge to it.

Ayaka’s smile was still there, but her eyes glimmered with loneliness, something Ayato felt significantly sorry for. You were her first friend above all and Thoma, but she was understanding and probably did not question your absence either.

“[Name] told me they had business to handle. They have been quite sporadic with their presence, brother.”

His sister and his trusted keeper understood, so why couldn’t he? There was something that gnawed on his heart at the thought of you constantly out and about — and how hypocritical of him; as if he wasn’t doing the same.

“Ah.”

The chatter resumed with little regard for your absence.

The late night fell and Ayato was deeply unsettled. Your spot in bed was so, so cold. He tossed and turned and imminently ended up facing your side, where he always assumed you would be. At least up until recently. He wasn’t aware of this development in your schedule at all, why wasn’t he made aware of it in the first place anyway?

His stomach sank at the thought of you disregarding his opinion. He never did that to you, did he? Ayato always sought you out when he dealt with important matters. Was he not as important as he thought to you? For you to just… disappear apparently — was he at fault?

And his worries quelled when the door slid open. He quickly sat up, eyes dilating at the sight of you arriving quietly. Only that when you looked up, you met his gaze and his heart dropped when you flinched. What was that? You never do that around him.

He stilled his thoughts with an iron grip as he flashed you a loving smile, undeterred by your odd behavior, “Hey there, my moon… you’ve been quite busy, I heard.”

“Ah. Yeah,” you shifted your footing, something you did when you were inherently uncomfortable in a situation. “Sorry. I thought you’re asleep already.”

“No… I was waiting for you,” he braved through the tiny cracks that he could feel his guarded heart make and coaxed you still, shoving away the million questions of why on earth could you be so… uneasy in his presence, your spouse. “All day, actually.” He clarified with a small smile.

You nodded in acknowledgment before disappearing into the closet attached to your bedroom.

Ayato could only wait in silence. A silence so piercing. What happened? Did you have a bad day? Were you in a difficult position? Surely he of all people can help. He would do anything to keep your wits intact and to keep you safe, anything to keep your happiness in this marriage.

And his heart melted at the sight of you when you emerged from your closet in your patterned yukata.

“Are you feeling alright?” He asked as you sat on your side of the bed. “You seem under the weather.” Ayato had to choose his words carefully, the least he wanted to do is tick you off even more than you probably are right now.

“Mhm,” you hum out your response absentmindedly. “I’m fine. Good night.”

Ayato could no longer hold back the heartbroken frown that tugged on his lips as you slid into the covers. And he was hit by yet another wave of silence, yet this time, he could hear his heart shattering through the dim room. He watched over your figure that slept facing away from him.

“Good night, I love you.” He tried again.

Whether or not you were awake or asleep, he never knew from your lack of response.

And Ayato didn’t know what could be more heartbreaking — was that whether you went to sleep without your endearing proclamations of love to him or that he woke up with another cold empty spot beside him.

𐂂

Diluc

Were your eyes always this hollow?

Amidst all the work that Diluc has done for Mondstadt, even he couldn’t deny the following neglect you have probably succumbed to. And that, he truly felt sorry for. And he did all that he could to catch everything within his hands, juggling Mondstadt’s wine industry with his business and acting as the great vigilante of his city.

He has fought countless monsters and has been wounded from his countless exploits — something he couldn’t exactly avoid. And back then, you would welcome him with worry and fear in your eyes that you patched him up, through your blurry eyes from all the tears threatening to escape.

Since then, Diluc has learned to lessen his casualties in fear of pushing you over to the brink of insanity from all the times he has to come home late at night, possibly injured. He cared so much for you that he started to care for himself even more. It’s the least he could do for his fiancé after all.

And finally the day Diluc craved arrived, a good few days that he will spend in your arms and nothing more. Sure, he couldn’t retire his duties as Mondstadt’s night hero, but according to the outrider that he so often saw within the streets, there was less hilichurl activity and that knights can actually afford to rest quite a bit.

That was enough for him.

And when he crawled into the bed with you that night, he thought about finally tying the knot with you. You were engaged for far too long, Diluc figured you and him have waited quite enough until finally exchanging your vows and spend your eternities together recognized as each other’s spouses.

Diluc hoped to face the next morning lazing around in bed with you that time, only hoping then that Adelinde would have enough sense to just leave you two be than to insist on getting the day started regardless of the little vacation.

But he woke up without you.

The sun was already high up, judging from the view outside the window of your shared room. Diluc thought it adorable — that you were thoughtful enough not to wake him up. You were always so understanding and he couldn’t be happier to be with you, and now that he has time, he intended to show it to you with all his might.

By planning that wedding you and him have been waiting for.

He was in a particularly good mood as he got ready for the day, opting to head down and hopefully catch you doing something. Diluc couldn’t wait to see the look on your face once he breaks the news to you, and sure couldn’t wait to be with you, attached to your hip for the remainder of what he calls his self-appointed holidays.

As he descended the stairs, he visibly brightened at the sight of you already eating beside the head of the table, with Adelinde serving you more of that sunsettia juice that you so loved.

He was courteously greeted by the staff present and he did so too, opting to ignore that you weren’t one of the ones that greeted him and initiated instead.

“Good morning, dear,” he greets with a smile as he pulled back his chair to take a seat.

“Morning,” ah, your greeting was strangely bland, but nothing Diluc should worry about. There were days you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and he could just as easily soothe it with his own presence. And with the news he’s about to break, surely nothing could make you happier.

“I’m surprised to wake up in my own company earlier. Did I keep you waiting?”

You shrugged a shoulder, completely attuned to the paper you were reading.

Diluc prodded one more time, “Something wrong, dear? You seem off today.”

“Am I?” You absentmindedly responded and yet he couldn’t hold back the wince from your cold tone. “I’m feeling perfectly fine.” You muttered, but it was loud enough for him to hear.

In his time spent knowing you, he already knew the tells of when you were untruthful or when you were serious. This was the former, as it seems. And he opted to dispel your troubles away with his own news. Yes, that’s right. Maybe you were only hinting that you’ve been waiting for far too long. And Diluc has heard the anxiety from men and women who were betrothed, afraid that their loved ones would suddenly disappear in the middle of their betrothal.

But to you, he could never do that.

“I have quite a lot of free time today and for the following days,” Diluc smiled, and though you couldn’t see him behind the papers you were reading, he was basically radiating off the warmth of joy. “And I thought… it’s a good time for us to plan our wedding, yes?”

“Huh?”

His heart skipped a couple of beats at your lackluster response. And while he welcomed the sensation usually, this was a heartbeat that did not lean into happiness.

And finally was he met with your gaze that were often so soft—

Why… are you looking at him like that? With those eyes that stared so hollowly, void of any happiness or excitement, it contained nothing but pure and utter confusion.

Diluc felt the dread crawl into his system but stomached it, “Did I say something wrong?”

The unnerving stare you held was something he could never forget as you turned back to your paper.

“No. You’re fine,” you waved him off. “Sure, we can do that.” You agreed.

You agreed like it was not a big deal, like he only asked you do something remotely casual with him. Like he didn’t ask you to plan the most important part of your lives with him.

Diluc felt like he swallowed needles when his gaze fell into your hand.

Clean and ringless.

𐂂

Kaeya

Is it just him, or is the distance growing bigger?

You were always an exuberant fellow and perhaps that was why Kaeya felt compelled to sweep you off your feet, not knowing that it was you who would do such a thing in the end.

Since the day he promised his forever with you and you with him, Kaeya has never felt more complete. In his cold, cold world filled with betrayal and pain, you were the fiery oasis that melted what gnawed within him like persistent termite. Your compassionate touches were always something he looked forward to, leaving him gasping for air and writhing underneath the skin of your touch.

He took care of the flame that you handed to him so generously, and he didn’t care whether or not it was slowly melting the icy guard he managed to put up. Let it melt for all he cares, from it, he can flood you already with so much love that you deserve for even putting up with him on his hardest days.

When you refused to abandon him whenever Diluc would kick him out of the tavern, he could feel the warm fuzzy feeling in him chipping away at the glaciers of walls he worked so hard to build up. When you came by all the time to ensure he was getting his sustenance, the heat of your compassion was slowly melting the jagged spikes of ice he had in his heart to ensure his protection.

And to him you were his world. You were Kaeya’s one and only soulmate.

The world that you and him lived in could burn to the ground for all he cared, as long as he was by your side for all of eternity.

You gave him so much of your warmth that he slowly started to break free from that metaphorical ice prison he kept himself inside in for so long. You held the key to it and he could not be more grateful to be saved by you and only you.

So then why is it that when he started to cave into your warmth, you decided to huddle into the blistering cold?

Why can he see the familiar icy walls slowly sprout around your heart?

Why was the flame you gave him, the one that he carried and took care of for such a long time slowly dying out?

Why were you refusing every single chance that he tried to give back to you, to also melt your slowly freezing heart?

All of a sudden, your touches were hauntingly cold. They were so light that they could’ve been nonexistent in the first place and Kaeya dreaded that feeling. He grabbed onto you with all his might but why are you suddenly miles away from him? Why were you being imprisoned in that same icy cell that he locked himself into?

Last he checked, you were the one that taught him that he could be free with you. So why won’t you do the same with him?

But Kaeya was not him if he wasn’t a man of determination. He took on his missions with gusto and absolute persistence and he was not going to back out soon.

And as he cradled your weakened flame in his heart, he tried, and tried, and tried.

“Been awhile since we’ve been on a date, huh?” He refused the temptation to crack. His grin was intact much like always, trying to invite you back in his arms for once.

“Really? I never knew,” your words were so unfocused, so vague, and so inattentive… so unlike you— the you that hung onto every word that he said (like he did to you), the you that spoke so accurately, little to no details left behind (something that he would brag about you). “Sorry, I guess.”

It hurts to see you apologize so unapologetically. But perhaps you were going through a rough patch. You had been there for him when he went through his, what’s stopping him from doing the same to you?

“Do you want to then?” Kaeya offered, but even then he could feel the way his smile trembled, unstable and something he’d never be caught dead in. “It would be nice.”

He ignored the light scoff that came from you and ignored the pang in his heart when you rejected his offer.

“Sorry, I’ve got official business. I’m departing for Natlan soon.”

Sorry. His brain echoed. Was that your sixteenth apology for the day? Kaeya wonders how much more he can take. But even if he couldn’t he would break, and break, and break just for you. He’ll make as many considerations as you did for him.

“Oh. How long are you going to be away for?”

“It won’t be for awhile. It’s diplomatic relations after all, so I can’t give you the exact estimate of the duration… sorry.” There it is again, that cursed word that you chanted like a mantra, dooming him into an endless spiral of your empty apologies.

Kaeya nodded, suddenly feeling meek as he looked down on his book.

Sure, you’d put up with him in the early stages of your relationship, and sure he would apologize over and over again until the words ‘sorry, my bad’ didn’t even feel like actual words anymore. But surely he wasn’t this bad, right?

Surely… he wasn’t this distant, right?

But as his eye watched you walk away, grabbing your coat from the rack and leave, Kaeya counts the days.

And for you, he will wait, and wait, and wait.

𐂂

Tartaglia

Since when were you so busy?

From your shared home, he watched as you wrote something relatively unimportant to some paper. Surely whatever it is, it doesn’t warrant you to deprive him of your attention. Sure, he has been busy for a couple of weeks, but he was here now and suddenly you were the one who didn’t have time for him?

That sounds wildly self-centered, but Childe could care less at this point. He still made effort to sprinkle in little bits of love on the rare occasions that you would see each other inside this house.

And he gave it all, gave all that he can to you and only you. And Childe watched with delight as you relished in every affection he had given you.

Time and time again.

Until suddenly your reactions that warranted him the sweet joy of being with you were no longer evident and felt by him. Something pierced through his heart the very first time he took notice of when you lamely pressed your cheek against something that wasn’t even his lips and called it a goodbye kiss.

Though he supposed he was delusional enough to say it was cute, that you were probably just tired that you couldn’t muster the energy to be smothered in his undying affection for you. And he easily forgave that excuse.

But then every gesture dwindled in love. You gave hugs that barely had any heart to it, kissed him so emptily that it only left him feeling just as hollow. Childe would frown and hope you take notice, but you were back in your own world, brushing him off like he was a bother to you.

So he ought to try this time. He made sure everything was set in motion for you.

Back then, you always mused about having a lovely picnic by the Luhua pool and he figured now’s the perfect time to grant that wish of yours. It may be a couple of months too late, but he needed to be with you so desperately and he figured doing a nice picnic outing would be the perfect activity for the both of you.

Childe, ever the efficient man he is, had cooked up every single thing, from your favorite dishes, to your desserts, and had planned the perfect spot to be in. He even scoped it out prior to the official date that you and him were going to. He made sure that hilichurls, treasure hoarders, and abyss mages would steer clear of that one lovely spot.

All of it, he would do just for you.

So then why?

Why did you look at him with such mirthless eyes, contrasting his that brimmed with nothing but excitement for the day planned ahead.

“Heeey my little cabbage!” His tone held nothing but merriment as he drawled his greetings out. His eccentric greetings were always one to get a blissful and heavenly laugh out of you. He ignored the slight stinging pain that stabbed through his chest when you barely even acknowledged him, still sucked into your… work.

He heard no responses from you but a sole grunt that had the unvoiced question. Childe persisted with a smile, “I’ve got a surprise for you! Why don’t you lay off your work for a moment, hm? I’m sure you can spare some time for your beloved boyfriend, yes?”

His heart hammered against his ribcage as the suspenseful silence filled the space between you and him. It felt like awaiting orders from Pierro, but even so, it wasn’t this dreadful in terms of waiting.

“No thank you.”

Childe felt numb when he his anticipations of your acceptance got curbed with your collected rejection.

Did you even consider in those few seconds of silence? Did you think your decisions through? Heck, were you even interested in his surprise? Or did you ever listen?

“Aha! That was a trick question! The only right answer to that was a ‘yes’, I’m afraid!” Childe regained his footing in the conversation, hoping to reel you back into his arms.

And finally, you granted him mercy when you looked at him, “I can’t exactly put this behind, Ajax. Sorry.” You said, and yet Childe felt your lack of remorse upon your refusal. “Why don’t you take Mr. Zhongli out?”

The way you were quick to disregard him was something Childe never thought he could ever prepare for. And he almost staggered back when you uttered the words he so loved to say to you back then;

“I really can’t today. Maybe next time?” You offered, but somehow, Childe knew that was nothing but a hollow promise.

He could only close the door from your personal study and looked at the basket neatly packed. There was something squeezing at his chest, a sensation he didn’t like in the slightest bit.

Childe didn’t know if it was the disillusioned part of him that sank into the abyss, but he gathered himself and fooled himself into thinking that nothing much has changed and nodded, taking your promise to his slowly shattering heart.

Ah. Well. Maybe next time then.

𐂂

Zhongli

Were you finally getting tired of him?

The adoration you and Zhongli shared was something to be admired. Countless people have watched you and him walk the pier and occasionally chat with vendors. The couples in love always expressed their sentiments — at how they hoped to embody even just a fraction of what you and Zhongli had.

You looked at him as if he shaped the mountains (and he technically did) and he relished into your unbridled attention. He enjoyed the time you spent with him constantly, you listened to his stories from the past and not once did you turn away from him as he spun his experiences into tales that only you of all people would appreciate.

Every word he uttered, he dedicated to you and only you. He wanted to share every piece of him with you and though the stories he told was barely a quarter of his life, he would tell a hundred more just to see you smile.

And he deeply cherished these moments, you brought fresh insights into his stories and listened so attentively. He loved you through the stories he told and you loved him through the endearing expressions you showed throughout the tales he would tell you.

Not a day goes by that Zhongli wasn’t thinking about you, of course. By the minute he wakes up, his mind automatically sifts through the many experiences he has been through, ready to give you more of his stories. This was your way of bonding after all and he appreciated every single moment of it. There will always be room for his storytelling in your otherwise busy schedule, you reassured him that much.

But then you started missing out.

The first instance was when he had patiently waited for you at that one spot just outside the harbor, the tea he had graciously prepared growing cold. And just as he was about to call it a day, you appeared, completely disheveled and out of breath, like you ran for your life.

Nothing warmed his heart more than seeing you try for him. Zhongli was already a man that felt the dedication of his people, but it always felt different when it was you who put the effort in.

After your frequent tardiness, you began to stop showing up altogether. Disappointment would flood his system when he would see Xiangling approach him with a smile that contrasted the sad news that you could no longer make it because of some other pressing matters.

But Zhongli was forgiving, he forgave every meet you missed, every time his stories started to go from one ear and out the other. He was determined to keep it going because, surely, this was only a one time thing, right? Perhaps your work has been doing numbers on you and what could he exactly do but only take care of you and soothe your worries with his tea and his stories.

Zhongli was forgiving, but he wasn’t completely unperturbed. In fact, there was a seed of anxiety that started sprouting within him as he roamed the streets of the harbor alone. He could feel the missing warmth of your arm around his waist as he talked to the usual vendors, not missing the sympathetic gazes and the not-so-hidden grimaces when he recounts that you have been all too busy.

And he wonders why you’ve grown so quiet inside the house.

When you could laugh so hard in the presence of someone else.

As soon as he heard that tinkling laughter of yours, he was quick on his feet, eager to see that smile that you so cruelly hid from him. Only to see you with someone else.

A young woman, by the looks of it, long hair and dressed in the most pristine clothes. Zhongli wasn’t completely flabbergasted, you could have friends that could make you just as happy, but the fear nipped at him when he watched the woman leave searing touches on your body, clearly with intent and you made no attempts to reject them.

There was an unmistakable pang of envy in Zhongli’s chest when he saw the way you so freely entertained this woman’s stories when you can barely spare him a second of your time.

Zhongli was thwarted back into the pain of reality as he compared the way you seem to be so much happier in the company of this woman in contrast to your recent interactions with him.

And he could feel himself grow cold. So, so cold when he realized that you were slowly showing hints of pure disinterest in him. The way you refused to look at him at times and when you could barely muster a word out when he would ask you about your day.

But he figured this was a sign from the fates, that he ought to take you back this time. That maybe you have been spending far too long of time away from his embrace.

And so he made sure to indulge you as best as he could when you finally arrived back home.

As you sat on the dining table that night, Zhongli had to jump through the many hurdles of pure anxiety just to finally initiate a conversation with you. To this, he could only hope his centuries of wisdom from being one of the oldest archon can aid him with you.

He took your hand in his, strangely cold and closed off, but he did not let it discourage his attempt, “Beloved, I seem to have noticed your sudden… disinterest in our conversations…” he began his little intervention. “Would you mind telling me what’s bothering you?”

Zhongli squeezed your hand in comfort, and he could feel his heart drop when you didn’t return the gesture, instead sliding your hand away from his grasp.

“You’re imagining things, Zhongli.” You claimed so casually as you continued with your meal. “And you already know I’d tell you anything that’s bothering me.” You said, looking at him with a small smile.

And yes, he knew. Zhongli knew you would.

But he also knew that when you lie, your eyes were like the abyss and that smile of yours didn’t reach your eyes.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

good evening sex witch!

once upon a time i think i remember seeing you talk about asexual folks who are into kink, either in passing or because someone else asked? i can't find the ask anymore but also i'm on mobile which is famously difficult for tumblr searches. so.

i've been IDing as (and quite comfortable in) what i thought was sex repulsed asexuality for several years. lately i've started wondering if maybe that reservation was rooted in an expectation of "conventional" sex and how much i can't stand mouth action, which - thanks to you in part - i have been reminded there's totally other ways to sex that don't involve mouth acts, etc etc... long story short i have probably had some secret kinks for a while and am just realising now that that's what they are. (this isn't particularly necessary information, but it's more of a grand revelation than i thought it would be and it's not something i can tell any of my friends.)

anyway, while i'm still in this state of tentative figuring things out re. what Sex could mean to me in the future, would you happen to know of any good books/articles/readings regarding asexuality & the kink scene? i think i've heard somewhere about participation without sex, which intrigues me somewhat, but i'll take pretty much anything i can get. information gathering and all of that. if you're willing to share!

(i really appreciate all you do with your sex adventures. i've been following you for a long time and have learned a lot about my body, sex culture, and also the general strength of communication and boundary setting. so. thanks!)

hi anon,

you may have a good time exploring the back catalogs of Evie Lupine, Morgan Thorn, and PupAmp (cohost of Watts The Safeword) who are all youtubers who talk about kink and are on the ace spectrum!

in general, any halfway competent resource on BDSM should be perfectly applicable to you as an asexual person. kink is all about deconstructing expectations around intimacy and building it back up to be a highly personal experience with all the stuff you like and none of the stuff you don't; there are tons of people, ace and otherwise, who are doing kink in ways that have nothing to do with sex. as always, you can do whatever you want forever. if you want to watch other people have sex or get flogged or get used as a chair because you enjoy that in a way that may or may not be sexual, that's completely fine and there's probably a thriving community of people who would love to play that out with you. tl;dr: do whatever you want forever.

(source: my asexual wife and our asexual housemate, who are freaks.)

if you have two hours to kill, Evie Lupine talks a lot about how asexuality fits into the kink scene on this episode of the Ace Couple:

[sasaranurude]

I'm a loser who both spends too much time playing gacha games and loves to hear myself talk, so here's another game review style post, this time covering my first day playing Break My Case. This time I'm not even being a little hater! I'm a lover! I'm cringe! I'm free! I love you Coly! I love you ikemen gacha games!!!!!!!

Break My Case is a new puzzle-music-adventure mobile game from Coly, the developers behind Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku and On Air. More relevant to BMC/BreMai is their game Stand My Heroes, with which it shares a writer, some gameplay elements, and of course a naming convention. Coly has developed a bit of a cult following for their unique status in the Japanese mobile gaming world: they're a company that was founded by women and hires women to make games for women. They put a lot of soul into their games. From the start, BMC is no different!

"Could you have pulled a clean version of this image from the internet so it didn't have all the game junk" no. it's my tumblr and you get my screenshots.

I (with help from friends) overviewed the initial Break My Case announcement back when it dropped. You can read that here! I said in that post that I thought a "dark rhythm game" would be a really cool direction for the game… and that's more or less what we got! GO ME!!!!!

First: the game's presentation is fantastic. Super slick graphical design and just amazing atmosphere. The sound design of this game is incredible. Genuinely. Really, really, good. All the music is amazing—I'm not knowledgeable enough to say anything other than "IT SLAPS!", but it totally does slap. The illustrations for the cards are all wonderfully atmospheric in and of themselves, and are just a delight to look at on the homescreen with its chill background music. Even just navigating menus is a sleek, seamless experience. The live2d is well-done, although it clashes a tad with the art style for a bit of an uncanny look at times. 

The atmosphere! The atmospheeeeeeere!!!

Of course, the draw to this game is the characters and story, so let's jump into that. I'll admit right now that I read the story through a machine translation—I have aaaalmost enough Japanese knowledge to fill in the gaps, especially since the story is fully voiced, but I'm definitely not getting the full nuance of the story that someone fluent in Japanese is going to get. THAT SAID, after completing the prologue, I was definitely intrigued enough that I want to continue slogging through the MTL just to read more! There's a great setup, centered around the bar Aporia and its three modes—a daytime cafe, a nighttime members-only bar, and, secretly, a "fixer" service who'll help anyone with any problem. Our main character, a woman who was just forced to quit her job at a corrupt company, gets hired to replace Aporia's eccentric owner while he goes on a who-knows-how-long vacation. The owner also has the role of "tail"—as in, the tail a lizard sheds to avoid being eaten. If anything in the fixer service goes wrong, it's the owner who takes the fall and the blame. This hasn't come to mean much in practice yet in the (quite short) prologue, but it's a fascinating setup. The story promises to touch on themes of the threads that weave our lives together, how small meetings can lead to massive life changes, and whether any human being is truly replaceable, even in our modern corporate world where people are treated like cogs in a machine. According to a staff interview, there are a handful of references to Stand My Heroes in BreMai, but the games' settings aren't otherwise closely linked.

Rough translation in alt text. The Aporia manager Ai may be the most mysterious, intimidating character, but he also beefs with a parrot the first time you meet him, so...

All the characters are staff at Aporia with various unique roles and background. The prologue just gives you a little bit of each of them, but everyone does show up, and they all have interesting dynamics with each other already. Ai, the stern manager, has some history with the MC that he refuses to divulge, and goes so far as to force psychologist Riku to agree to not look into it. The range of relationships among the staff run the gamut from the calm and mature friendship between fortune teller Kiho and art teacher Kyoya, to the unfaltering dedication of Yu to his ex-mafioso savior Tomose, to the ridiculous Takeru and Soyogu who spend their first appearance waking up after having gotten black-out drunk together the night before. My favorite dynamic of all so far is that of Kou and Mao—Kou is a playboy who insists he's not a playboy, and is introduced evading a woman by… asking the icy Mao to pretend to be his boyfriend so that she thinks he's taken and gay and leaves him alone. Which Mao exasperatedly agrees to, telling Kou that he's used up his allotment for this month which ohmygod how often does Kou do this. Kou if you're asking this guy to pretend to be your gay lover so often he gives you a monthly limit I think you might just have to admit you want him to actually be your gay lover, Kou, oh my god— 

Rough TL in alt text. Kou is letting the implication do all the heavy lifting here. He technically never said he was dating Mao. Technically. 

On to the gameplay. There's gameplay! Unique gameplay! Good unique gameplay! Oh my god, uncharted joseimuke territory! The main gameplay mode is a match-3 puzzle game with rhythm elements. As in other rhythm games, each song in the game is its own level, more or less. (Each character has two unique songs, and three songs shared with the other members of their unit.) You set up a team with cards you've collected from the gacha, which determine your power level and special skills. The "leader" of the team has to be the character whose level you've selected. The puzzle gameplay is a tile-swapping match 3—think bejeweled or candy crush—but the tiles you've matched are only cleared once a bar sliding across the screen hits them, clearing them in tune with the song. Everything cleared in a single swipe of the bar ups the combo counter. There's also a life system, where if the bar slides across the screen without clearing a single match, you lose a life… But the bar moves pretty slow. You're not likely to game over or even lose a single life any time soon. There are more difficult versions of the levels I've yet to unlock, so I'm sure the life meter becomes relevant then. There's also "auto" and "loop" features if you want to grind a level over and over for exp and items, but, of course, the computer can't score as high as you playing it yourself.

And, really, it's fun to play, so why would you want to!? The sound of matches clearing with the music is so satisfying and really makes you want to combo as high as possible. Once you've matched some tiles, you can't move them again, nor use them in a second match (eg, in a cross shape), so if you want to maximize your combo and make as many matches as possible with what's on the board, you have to think ahead about which matches you're going to make. The bar slowly crossing the screen adds a visual timed element that gives some urgency to putting all the matches together. It definitely feels like a game you can pick up an instinct for over time, which is super fun. 

All in all, a really solid, enjoyable little puzzle game. It would be fun to play even without the promise of anime boys. Stand My Heroes is also a match-3, for the record, which is what really cements the two games as being part of the same series.

Admittedly, the anime boy staring at you while you play musical candy crush is a little disconcerting.

The second gameplay mode is "Snap'n Spin", a… gameplay-lite mode that just puts chibi characters in random strange situations and lets you take pictures of them. The mode is explained to be a video game within the world of BreMai, so it's not even trying to be realistic or relevant to anything else in the game. Once you take your pokemon snaps of the boys, they get a fun little caption. You can save up to 40 pictures in your album. Other than being cute, the main way this mode interfaces with the rest of the game is that it's the primary way to unlock card stories for the cards you pulled in gacha. 

This gameplay mode is... cute? I guess? It being so disconnected from the style and aesthetics of the entire rest of the game felt weird. The chibis are adorable, so it has that going for it. And I do like some of the captions you get on the photos afterwards. My favorite were the scenes you catch of a character drinking, and then the caption reveals their current favorite drink. That's a delightful detail for a game set in a bar. Mostly, though, this mode left me wondering "why?" ...And I imagine the answer is something like "because merchandisable chibi characters are a requirement for joseimuke games." This mode could've been anything so long as these cute, starry little dudes were in it.

Urara here hated the drink and the caption revealed that, lately, his favorite thing is sparkling water. He's the youngest character in the cast, so I guess he hasn't grown into booze yet...

One last feature I want to mention is the jukebox. Like many games, BreMai has a music player that lets you listen to tracks from the game… But its music player is, genuinely, a fully-featured music player app with shuffle, repeat, lyric displays, and even background play that works when you're in another app or your phone is off. What! Wild! When I first learned a few days ago that BreMai had a built-in player for its BGM tracks, my first thought was "Well, what's stopping someone from downloading the game just to use the music player and never spending a cent on it? Wouldn't you rather have the songs on spotify so you at least get a pittance of ad revenue, in that case? It's more than nothing."

But having played the game now, I see what they did to prevent that, lol. You don't unlock the songs in the jukebox until you get an SS score on the song's level. Which, I mean, that's normal rhythm game stuff, of course. Can't fault that decision. But, as in other gacha rhythm games, your score in a level depends on the power of your team of cards, and the cards you get from the initial handful of pulls aren't gonna get you anywhere near an SS score without significant investment. So you're either buying in-game currency to buy upgrade items, more gacha pulls, or both. Of course, you can also put a bunch of time into grinding for upgrade items—they drop from levels. Gacha currency is harder to come by. So you're not getting songs in the player without actually playing the game lmfao. The character solo songs in particular (the ones with vocals rather than just instrumentals) also require you to build up rapport with that character—the game calls it "Nice". You build up Nice with them by playing their other songs and using their cards in levels. It takes 1000 Nice on a character to unlock their song. In my first day of playing, I was able to get one character to about 250 Nice, another to 200, and a handful more with a few points, so it builds at an okay pace. There's ways to pay to speed up the grinding for Nice and for upgrade items with things like level skip tickets. So, basically: you're not getting that music player to a useful state without investing either money or time, lmao. Is paying-or-grinding to get cool music you can listen to while not playing the game more "worth it" than the usual freemium game goals of better units, new in-game outfits, or prettier card illustrations? ...Honestly, maybe it is? It's novel, at least.

All gacha rhythm games have the same card select screen, don't they. These were my cards' levels after my first day of play, and you can see they didn't quite reach a suggested score of "A", much less the maximum "SS".

But I do want to stress, the monetization is, for the most part, pretty easy to ignore. Nothing in-your-face. The button to go to the shop screen is a different color, but it's not flashing with an eternal indicator, it's not popping up at every second, it's just sitting there alongside all the other menu buttons. The game isn't shoving timers in your face at all times—there's a stamina meter, which is mildly annoying, but you get ten plays when it's full, and if you're just playing casually you're probably not going to want to play the puzzle game over and over enough to fully deplete that. I know the bar is on the damn floor here but Tokyo Debunker seriously made me realize how bad it can be with mobile game monetization. BreMai is freemium, yeah, but as far as dark patterns go, it's not egregiously bad.

So, the verdict: if you're a joseimuke game fan and aren't afraid to play a game that probably won't get an English port and doesn't even have a fan translation yet (which I realize is already counting out 99.99% of people), definitely give this one a try. See if you like the gameplay—it really is worth trying—and do check out the story if you've got the ability. Or just look at the pretty anime boys. 

[fedoraspooky]

I haven’t been here long. What irritating changes have been made?

Credit where it's due, some changes have been good, like polls and stuff! But the big recent changes thus far that I would classify as irritating are:

- The UI change. This one may be less irritating for newcomers because it's basically the same layout as twitter and instagram, but for a lot of folks who've been here a long time, it feels cramped and like a loss of identity for the site. For many, the appeal of tumblr is that it ISN'T an algorithm hell like twitter or insta. Also, there's the annoyance of having to relearn where everything is, because it all got moved around.

- The users being lab rats for various tests the devs wanna pull out of nowhere without consenting to beta testing new site features- like the one that took away user icons on the dash for like half the site. They finally put them back after getting enough feedback that said NO, but users were so used to their feedback being disregarded that they were half expecting the change to be pushed through anyway.

- The Netflix tie-in advertising being pushed even to people who had PAID tumblr for a no-ads experience. Complete with them somehow thinking it would be a good idea to put an unescapable-by-scrolling spooky clown on peoples' dashboards that u had to use ublock to get rid of. While I'm not scared of clowns and often find them quite charming, it sucks that staff didn't take coulrophobia being a common fear into account.

- A wave of fully sfw trans posts being wrongfully marked Mature and staff doing little to nothing about it. Not sure if this is still ongoing, but it destroyed a lot of trust and good will. (LGBT+ users have been having to fight a constant war against censorship ever since the adult content ban on tumblr, so yeah... Nevar 4get the list of banned search words that would bring back no results, like 'girl')

- The site gradually moving away from customization. Tumblr is a BLOGGING site. But it seems to have lost sight of that fact, because most new users don't even know you can fully customize your blogs with css and stuff (an option that is now off by default for new accounts!), because of the in-dash viewer giving you only how blogs look on mobile, which is a lot more uniform. There, it's more like every other site- you get a banner and icon. Oh, but you can change colors and fonts from a drop-down list too, that's cool I guess. Though they recently took away custom color schemes on Message windows, just another little bit of personalization taken away.

- TUMBLR. LIVE. Basically tumblr teamed up with a skeevy dating app partner to allow for livestreams- but not the cool kinda livestreams like on twitch where you can draw or play games, no- to a site full of people who value anonymity, they decided to push phone cam only livestreams. Not only that but by agreeing to the terms, you're giving out tons of personal data including your location to said skeevy dating app partner and all of THEIR third-party ad partners. Needless to say, most people didn't wanna use it, so instead of users it's flooded by p*rn bots (which is ANOTHER issue we've been dealing with for a long time and have been getting an even bigger influx of FROM tumblr live) and scammers. And thus, since tumblr likes to put a carousel of current streams on people's dashes, you often get softcore p*rn thumbnails from the bot streams with no way to avoid it except for toggling off tumblr live entirely.

- Oh wait. That's right. You CAN'T toggle it off. Because you can only snooze it for a while until BAM, you're jumpscared by a carousel of ladies licking your screen again! But hey, at least they made the snooze 30 days instead of the 7 it used to be, right? Yeah, except for the fact that you can't get rid of the tumblr live button itself on the app anymore, and now it's front and center with a NEW notification tag on it, overlapping your dash and cramming useful stuff like the search button out of the way.

NOW- A lot of this stuff CAN be at least mostly fixed on desktop by installing ublock and xkit and tampermonkey + dashboard unfucker... But that's a lot of stuff just to make the site usable, you know?

[ms-demeanor]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but we spoke a few months ago about Tumblr Support’s response to seizure and eyestrain inducing ads. And while it is good to report that they’ve added a feature to report those ads, I wanted to ask for some advice

I’ve messaged staff no less than ten times about this feature not working. The same ads show up on my dash, over and over again, no matter how many times I report them. I’m up to date with my software, and still I’m put in danger by being on this site, and I can only use mobile as I do not have a desktop

Should I just quit tumblr at this point? Staff really don’t seem to care. I tried my best to give them my patience, but this has been disappointing for months now, and none of it is getting solved regardless of how much people message them. Is there anything we can actually do about it? Nobody outside our sphere is taking notice

Some of this unfortunately just has to do with the way that ads are served. Reporting the ad will get that instance of an ad removed after a certain number of reports, but depending on how that ad is served, you might be seeing the same flashing visual ten times and the ad system considers it a different ad each time (think of it like ads on a bus - you are reporting the ad on bus 249, but not the ad on bus 250 even though they are showing you the same image; sometimes the flashing image will be one campaign - so all on bus 249 - and it won't get served to you again, sometimes the flashing image will be scattered in a dozen different campaigns with different names and metadata perhaps with the explicit purpose of getting past user reports because advertising is a garbage industry full of horrible shitheads). Unfortunately I'm not sure there is anything that can be done beyond reporting the individual ads in terms of getting them removed; online advertising is generally minimally supervised by humans, which is how you end up with things like starvation-bait diet ads getting blasted all over the site with a terrible history of pro-ana networks.

Since you're using tumblr exclusively on mobile, it seems like your two other options are:

Turn off autoplay which should (in theory) stop any video (including ads) from playing in the app unless you allow it. Here's how to do that on iOS and Android.

Use the app exclusively from your mobile browser with an adblock enabled (won't work for iOS, changes the user experience pretty drastically).

There's one possible other option that I am not *recommending* I am simply stating that it is an option to explore: you could look into an adblocker like AdLock that does global video blocking on a mobile OS. The reason I'm not recommending it is that these kinds of adblockers cost money and are not known for being very reliable. It is something to investigate more if you are out of all other options

It seems likely that you've already turned off the autoplay, so that's probably not useful advice. If you haven't tried using tumblr in a mobile browser with ads blocked, that might be worth giving a shot before you give up on the app as a whole.

It's a really shitty situation and I'm sorry you're dealing with it.