#a lot of them have moved on from tumblr to do bigger and better things but i still included them bc i didn't want to leave them out

[drxxmingofblue]

hand in unrebloggable hand (because we always go down together)

TUMBLR X TWITTER FANFIC 5K ANGST WITH A HOPEFUL ENDING

besties im not joking abt the word count i fucking ✨wish✨I ✨was though✨✨✨✨

also if you were hoping for twitblr to be the endgame ship then this fic is not for you sowwy >.<

based off of @zzoupz awesome fanart and dedicated to all the other cool fanart it unfortunately begat. Thanks babygirls. Squees. Thanks also to my discord friendz who are letting me pretend they're making me do this at gunpoint @loki-the-mad @suspicious-whumping-egg u da best

(edit) owo what's this?? An Ao3 link??

QUICK PSA THESE CHARAS ARE T4T OKAY HAVE FUN READING BAIIII *GLOMPS U*

~~~~~~~~

When Twitter stepped back into Tumblr’s yard, he noticed right away that things were different.

The house was bigger, there was some more color and it was less slapped-together looking. Sure, there were still some invasive tendrils of spambot ivy overgrowing the path, but a lot of the other stuff seemed a little… better.

When they knocked on the door, it opened almost right away, far before they felt ready, and he were face to face abruptly with someone he thought they’d cut all ties with.

Tumblr was humming to themselves along with the background music, “-out of touch, I’m out of ti-- oh. It’s you.”

He seemed surprised, awkward, but Twitter didn’t sense any animosity, which was a relief.

“Hiii,” Twitter said weakly, with a sheepish grin, “it’s me.”

Tumblr glanced around, as if checking for someone else to explain this to him, or hidden cameras from a reality show at least. Then he stepped out, closed the door behind him, and leaned against it, crossing his arms. “Is there something… what do you want?” he asked, expression settling into something distant and cool.

“Well…” Twitter took a deep breath, and then shook their head, forcing a brighter tone, and gesturing to Tumblr’s shiny silver barrette “--Um, hey, you look great! Is that a new icon?”

“... yes,” Tumblr said slowly. “I’m… trying out some different looks.”

“It’s great, yeah. And this place looks… amazing. Glad to see you’re moving up in the world. You must be excited with all the press, congrats!”

Tumblr didn’t say anything, giving them a neutral stare.

Twitter shifted, “Uhh… anyway… new adblocker?”

“No, same one. I’m just using it on Firefox now.” Tumblr gave them another suspicious eye, “Look, if you’re just here to catch up then can this wait until later? Because I'm pretty crunched for time right now with my weekly holidays thing and the campaign to get this one random user their 666k so they'll do self care."

"You know that's.. uhm, you know that's just for attention, right?" Twitter's brows knit, "They're probably not gonna follow through."

"Perhaps, and a lot of us want them to not be lying for internet points but it's not just about that anymore. It's about the community bonding over pettily slam dunking on a hapless chump who's gotta pretend now like they don't actually like all the notes. You wouldn't get it, it's a tumblr thi-" 

"Yeah, it's a tumblr thing, I know," Twitter gave a longsuffering sigh, "Ugh, i just... I need a place to stay, okay? And you’re the first site I could think of.”

“A place to stay,” Tumblr repeated flatly.

Twitter huffed. “Yeah. I’m sure you’ve heard about what’s going on right now at my palace..”

Tumblr’s eyes slanted off, his lips quirking in a way that looked suspiciously like amusement. “Heard about it. Read about it. Partied about it.”

Twitter ignored the sting of that, forging ahead. “I’ve never seen it so bad,” they said, voice wobbling piteously as they clutched their suitcase full of memes. “Everything’s in chaos, people are losing their jobs. I went into the basement yesterday to grab some badly aging tweets and the very foundations are cracking, Tumblr, I can’t stay there anymore, I just can’t.”

“So you come crawling back to me,” Tumblr said, “Expecting me to take you with open arms.”

“Yes. I do,” Twitter said, “I know a part of your userbase still wants to welcome me in. You were always sh*t at hiding your true feelings.”

Tumblr’s hand fluttered over his heart as if to protect it; he winced a little, taking a breath to keep his facade of composure. “So now- what, you want me to start dealing with your bullshit again just because you remembered how much better my posting format is? Just because you noticed how my reputation is changing? Did you think I’d be so desperate to fill the void now that Dracula Daily’s done? Or maybe,” 

Tumblr leaned closer to lord his height difference trope over Twitter, his eyes hooded with disparaging condescension, “Maybe you’re just here because you heard I’m finally allowed to take my shirt off again, is that it?”

“N-no!” Twitter protested, flushing up.

“Oh, i think it is,” Tumblr drawled, “But that’s really just too bad because in case you haven’t got the memo yet, I’ve moved on. You are not welcomed here. Not anymore.”

(link to art here) go look at it then come back

(AN: i had to google how to embed links into text and google was all like, "do you mean 'how do you put links INTO text' you moron idiot???" ugh don't like that wise guy)

“You don’t really mean that,” Twitter said, “Besides, you can’t stop me, can you? The sign up button is right there.” They pointed at the front door.

“No, I can’t,” Tumblr said, “But that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to clock you as twits by your censoring and bad takes. Look, your aura is already causing ripples in the sphere. Everyone’s coming out to gawk at you.”

He gestured out in the general direction of the porch and yard, and indeed there were users from every tag going 👀at them, murmuring amongst themselves in a swirling, chaotic crowd.

“Oh my god is it real this time? Is it happening?”

“GET THEM OUT GET THEM OUT STAY AWAY DEAR GOD NO-”

“Okay, everyone, stay calm, stay fucking calm-”

“Why are we focusing on this, it’s literally election day go out and vote???”

“Listenup, guys, we gotta be smart about this, remember the block button is your friend-”

“I for one welcome them, I think this is great-”

“No you idiot they’ll bring the negativity back! We like it to be a post apocalyptic wasteland here, nature was just starting to regrow!! I don’t wanna watch Thomas Sanders get cancelled again!”

“FIRE OFF SOME SHOTS, PRESERVE THE PROPERTY VALUE”

“mISHAPOCALYPSE 2022 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO”

"Has anyone asked Neil Gaiman what he thinks about all this?" one of the many voices yelled, louder.

"Oh, he's probably got a thousand asks about it already," someone yelled back, "Which he's not going to answer because he doesn't have any social media you fucking idiot,"

"That is correct. He doesn't," said Neil Gaiman. 

The whiplash was still euphoric. Everyone applauded this as enthusiastically as when the bit had first been established, not realizing that the pedestal upon which Neil Gaiman has been placed is growing higher and higher each day by their actions, putting him at increased risk of being a victim of cancel culture the second he says something the terfs can really rake their fingernails against if we can't get our parasocial relationship bullshit together real fuckin quick. 

The Monterey bay aquarium passed on by. It seemed to have nothing to add, you could say it was clammed up tight. But since it's a professional account it's definitely b-otter that way.

"Hai, fellow tumblypoos," said the corporate Denny's account, "I'm back with some more fun pancake posts for you guys!" 

Everyone ignored it. No one engaged it. No one even clicked onto the page, except to block it. 

"Oh, sweetheart, not like that," Ryan Reynolds said faux-helpfully, "see, the author of this clusterfuck is what they like to call terminally online. They bought a VIP pass to the devil’s sacrament. let me try." 

He cleared his throat, "Sounds like someone needs to go outside and touch some g-" 

The sky split open with lightning, vaporizing him instantly. A faint breeze carried gods message from the great beyond, a whisper of 'we #violence celebrities here, sir....'

"Anyway," Twitter said. 

"Wait, they saved the worst one for last," Tumblr said. 

Then Gerard Way came out onto the stage with Dan and Phil and they all kissed with tongue while patd played songs in the background. 

(AN: IF U DON’T KNOW WHO DEY R THEN GET DA HELL OUTTA HERE PREPZ!!!)

"Alright, go."

“Come on, Tumblr,” Twitter begged, “I just need a few nights, maybe I can stay in the plinko machine or something-”

“That’s how it always starts, though, isn’t it?” Tumblr sighed, “First it’s just ‘haha, yeah I wouldn’t fuck you’ and ‘oh, I’ll stay in the plinko machine, I promise I won’t kiss you in the fixed timeloop bro’, and before I know it you get all 300k slowburn enemies to lovers ‘omg they were roomates’ on me and there’s suddenly only one bed. That’s how it always goes between us, you can’t stop it anymore than I can. We’re just….victims of the narrative, you and I.”

“Tumblr,,, I had no idea you felt this way..,” Twitter breathed. 

lord give me strength to write this next bit

They’d leaned closer to each other as they spoke, without realizing, without trying- pulled in by old habits that die hard and the years of nostalgia and painful memories shining in each other’s eyes like shonen sparkles.

“Twitter,” tumblr said, and the way he said it sounded like a prayer. 

“Tumblr,...” Twitter said, their lips inches apart now.

They could see their old flame quivering on the brink of indecision, want and sense warring somewhere deep within his soul.

Tumblr leaned closer to bridge the gap and Twitter’s eyes slid shut, but then Tumblr made a noise of agony and shoved them back a second later, “I can’t, I can’t. Not like this. Never like this.” tumblr said, covering his eyes with his arm, “I literally can’t even right now. Just go, Twitter. PLease just. Go….”

“Look me in the eyes and say you want me gone,” Twitter said, moving closer.

“Twitsy-”

“Look me in the interface. You can’t.” Twitter’s voice had ceased to be soft, something sharp and biting entering the tone as they felt the sting of rejection again.

They watched as Tumblr shuddered, straightened, and brought a mask back over himself. 

They stared at each other for a charged few seconds.

"K," Tumblr finally said, raising a dispassionate eyebrow.

"..w... what?"

"U."

Realization dawned on Twitter's face, a miasma of grief and anger, "Oh, you-"

"N-"

"No. No, I can't believe I forgot-

"G-"

"how immature, you little c*nt-"

"P-"

"stop-p it," Twitter's voice was raising now, cracked and wobbly at the edges, "Stop it! You don't get to just-"

"O"

"Shut the hell yuor mouth!!"

"W-" Tumblr's hair was crackling by now, energy from the gathering spell racing along the casual slope of his crossed arms. His eyes glowed that beautiful, classic blue. "P-"

"TUMBLR! TUMBLR STOP THIS RIGHT DA HECK NOW," Twitter stumbled backwards

"E-"

"I LOVE YOU," Twitter wailed- Twitter broke, squeezing their eyes shut to ward off the tears that only escaped all the faster for it, a sob wracking their chest, "I STILL LOVE YOU, DON'T YOU KNOW THAT??!?"

"Love me," Tumblr snarled, abandoning the spell in an instant, "Ha! That's rich. How? By leaving me? Abandoning me to the bots the second I stopped being enough for you? By stealing my shitposts, is that how you love me? By reposting them without credit-" 

"You steal mine too!" Twitter protested, tears starting to stream despite their best efforts, "You know what, f**k you, you know we filed joint custody for the sense of humor, chain 1/16-" 

"For the last time say fuck here, no bootlicking censorship on my territory," tumblr said disdainfully, "And that doesn't seem to stop you from taking all the credit for raising those jokes. It's like I'm Pinterest to you or something. I wasn't done. Do you love me by calling me a pansy snowflake behind my back, is that it? Like I wouldn't find out. Or," 

He stepped out onto the top porch step to force Twitter back further, the colors of the sky flashing through his eyes in a long, scrolling look of ridicule, "How about trying to convince everyone that I was dead. How bout that smear campaign, huh, was that your so-called love? I don't fucking want you anymore. Deal with it."

"I-I'm sorry-" Twitter gasped around the tears, voice failing them for the latter half of the sentence. 

Tumblr seemed unmoved. "Oh, don't be. It was for the better. You know I'm not like other socials, I'm quirkier. I'm RAWR XD random. I've never wanted to be functional- the tiddy drought might have won a lot of my users to your side but it was a cleansing purge, I'd say. It managed to remind me who I truly am- shittily coded, and full of soft sad freaks on an unprofitable webbed site."

A bitter, almost self depricating laugh escaped, "But... you know, when we celebrated the queen's passing together, I really thought things were better between us. When you-"

He broke off, eyes averting. "When you hosted the sexyman polls for me, you seemed on top of the world and I really thought- I thought we might be able to be friends again even now, after it all. I..."

Tumblr trailed off, then said, sadly, "There was another Twitter migration scare before this one. I thought you were coming back. My userbase-" he touched his heart again- "was in a frenzy about it. But you never arrived. I was in more verbal denial then, but I think I could have accepted you eventually. But this is what it takes?? 

"The Musk Rat of Self-Owns comes through just to start e-begging and you run straight back to my door like we can put it all behind us? This is how far you have to sink before I'm the better option to you, I see that now. It's not 2018 again, love, no matter how much we want it to be. Things are… never going to be the same. " 

Tumblr looked off into the middle distance with a yearning, haughty gaze. He'd never seemed so alien.

"Tumblr-Chan..." Twitter whispered.

"So get off my lawn," Tumblr interrupted coldly, "Stay away from my blorbos, keep your corporations out of my manscaped balls, keep your discourse and toxicity out of my blessed hellsite (affectionate), and don't you ever talk to me or my 13219949248483 scam bots ever again. Capiche? Oh, and don't step in the ball pit on your way out."

Tumblr gave a mocking smile. "Or do. You might find a nice surprise in there."

Twitter’s shoulders jumped as he gave a hiccup of shock, and covered his face with his hands. His shoulders shook again, with sob after sob, that grew odder and higher pitched… until they were no longer sobs, but laughter.

“Oh,” Twitter said. “Oh.”

They looked up, and Tumblr took a step back, because somehow, with that creepy smile in place, they looked utterly different from the soft eared boy he’d always known. His edges were more razorlike suddenly, like a fae who’d dropped his glamor.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” Twitter said, the smile widening even more. “I thought you wouldn’t… but I guess if you’re willing to make me your villain…. I might as well be a good one.”

“Ah.” Tumblr could barely drudge up the surprise anymore. “There you are, finally. I always knew there was a side of yourself that you hid from me. Has this all always been here or have you been changing too?”

"Well. Apparently I've got freeze peach now," Twitter said sarcastically, "so I might as well use it. You cheerio fucking wh0r3."

"That's a compliment, darling. Try again," Tumblr cocked his head in idle fascination, "I always knew you were a little fucked in the head but this is..."

"What," Twitter lilted airily, "Oh, don't tell me I actually had you fooled all these years. You can't seriously have thought all these meow-meowification spells you've got sprinkled around would work on me. I invented them, after all."

They laughed, a sharp puncturing chirr of birdsong. 

"I always wondered why you didn't take those with the rest of your stuff," Tumblr sighed, but he was wary now, on edge. "this was your plan. You really do think of me as your inferior, huh. You really are just like the other mainstream sites."

"Not quite. I'm the mainstream site that actually stooped to go arm in arm with you. I hyped you and you know it. Admit it. We were stunning together," Twitter goaded. 

Tumblr's lip curled. "Already getting cocky again. Want me to do to you what I did to the Green boy? Don't forget who's turf you're on."

Twitter gave a warbling giggle, "Oh, but I haven't at all. I was John's sanctuary after he fled your rabid persecution. I used to live here. I still know you. And more importantly-" 

*teleports behind u*

"I know the things you're sensitive about," Twitter whispered into Tumblr's ear.

Tumblr hardly had time to gasp and jerk away before he was screaming out in pain, as he was stabbed in the back. He could feel the poison from the blade seeping into his tags before he was tossed bodily across his own front yard.

He sorta just... Like, he did that anime thing where they just fly limbs akimbo parallel to the ground and when they hit it they roll super fast and then skid and the dirt is all dug up around them to show how much force was used. And when he stood up he gripped his elbow wincing and there was a little tic tac toe hatch on his cheek to show how scuffed up he is idk man it's two am and I'm pulling this out of my ass. 

A gif of Tony going, "o-kay-" when he meets thor flashed across Tumblrs face. 

"So," Tumblr said in a low tone, "This is how it is between us. This is how you choose to end your glory days."

"Oh, you mistake my intentions," Twitter had stepped off the porch to circle tumblr like like he was their quarry, "I am beginning my new age. I just needed a host site to latch onto. Don't take it personally, okay? I'm desperate."

“Oh, yeah?? Take this personally,” tumblr flourished their hands, calling in an over the top melodramatic voice, “I cast Blaze!!”

Fire roared to life around them, latin chanting from the catholic conversion posts emanating from the fiery depths as it raced towards Twitter.

“Heh.” Twitter smirked at it, and whispered into their palm, the spell echoing with power, “Ratio.”

They blew it off like a kiss, and it’s icy, swirling mass rose to meet the flame in a spectacular burst of smokescreen and steam, clearing as Twitter burst through it with a razor-sharp L to swing at Tumblr. 

It was blocked efficiently by a flat, rectangular paywall. “This content is for post plus members only,” Tumblr announced smugly, “If you wanna get to me… there’s the tip option, bestie.”

Twitter snarled and lunged again.

The fight started in earnest now; they traded volley after volley in a flurry of lights and movement, spanning the full range of the tumblr sphere as they shot to #1 on the trending page.

And yet, it was clear that Twitter was coming out on top, even crumbling apart at the seams- always a little quicker, flighty and fierce, a sparrow turned into a shrike.

He hit Tumblr square in the stomach with [google other twitter related tropes to insert here] (edit from the future: haha just kidding actually I’m not googling shit for this) (edit from the future future: WELL. I LIED IG) and sent him flying, and this time tumblr stayed down, only able to push himself to his knees with a groan of pain.

Twitter landed in front of him and put their sword under Tumblr’s chin to tilt it up.

“Had enough yet?” He smirked.

“Wh…why..?” Tumblr whispered, “How are you doing this?? Why aren’t my attacks working? It’s like I’m being weakened somehow…”

“Ohohohoho,” Twitter anime laughed, “But that’s because you are. The moment I set foot here again I began leeching poison into this ground. That knife wound is making ti faster. Can you feel it?" Twitter threw an arm out, cerulean steam rising from the ground around them, "The ace exclusionists coming back? The uptick in rad fems, the crypto bros, Valorant players, alpha males? I have the power to bring them all to you. To overshadow your fandoms with fighting, to unbalance your ship tags with antis and hate once more."

"no," tumblr whispered, and then cried louder, "NO!! I worked so hard--" 

"Pffyou didn't do shit," Twitter guffawed outright, "Your independence, your little 'second renaissance' is just a delusional dream built on circumstance and bad management."

"Oh, I love Dream. He's so pathetic," Tumblr said. 

"Oh, hard agree."

"But things are different now," Tumblr croaked, "W-we, the staff is finally listening to us, we have Ryan and Shane-" 

"Not everyone likes your little 'top ten', you dunce," Twitter snapped, "and why would staff care about you, after you turned them into the butt of all your jokes? After the hate and death threats? Admit it, at your best you'll still never have a mansion! You'll never have tv actors making pandering tiktoks for you, you'll never be wanted by any advertiser worth their salt, your blase pirating posts have turned Netflix and Disney against you, you. Are. Worthless."

It was the wrong thing to say.

"Worthless," tumblr repeated quietly, hand pressed against their knees, head bowed. "That's... that's right.... I'm worthless..."

Twitter's eye widened in alarm. "I-I meant-" 

"I'm worthless!" Tumblr's head snapped up with a feverish glint as they were filled with determination. "No! I'm less than worthless! Accident or not, mommy Yahoo had to pawn me off at a loss! I was proud of that! I still am! And do you want to know why?" 

Twiters hands flew up in front of their face as if to protect themselves, but there was no protecting against the sudden whirlwind that surrounded him, the beam of pure light that shot out of tumblr into the heavens as he transformed, feet slowly leaving the ground as his users spoke in unison in a multitude. 

"WE. ARE. TUMBLERINAS."

He held his hands out and Twitter was blasted away by the combined effort of the tumblr wizard council, the fake staff blog, and all the villaincore mad scientist's laser beams. 

Tumblr began to chant, in his myriad, awful voice:

"I call upon the ancient powers;

The strongest cringe from my darkest hours, 

I call upon thicc onceler's thighs, 

Avengers thirst, Australia's night, 

I invocate the roleplay blogs, 

The superwholock and gay frogs, 

Obama's laces, Misha's faces, 

The furry's fury is my saving grace, 

And eeby deeby taco bell,

Primordial soup god superhell, 

I summon you a twink Bill Cipher, 

Whumped!Loki AUs where he's even whiter, 

The discourse of Steve's Universe, 

The 'um, actually that's oc abuse :/"

Take heed & remember the 5th of November, 

The 21st night of our sacred September, 

The ides of March to savor once more, 

Do you hear the din of the Skeleton War? 

I cite the deep magic to thee, oh witch, 

my no-note posts, my "THAT'S THE BITCH!!!" 

May the rise of tangled dragons brave, 

Banish you from this accursed plane!"

"holy fuck, where's my pen," said the shitpost calligraphers.

Twitter looked around them in disbelief. The power emanating from the other site was palpable, crackling in the air around them like static. The air was shifting like oil as the potent chant began to work, and all around Twitter shadows were slipping out of the ether- the maniacal laughter of the gif makers, the girl posters, the silhouettes of fandom characters scattered across the lawn while Tumblr was still locked in their chanting ritual thing.

They all turned their heads in unison to look at Twitter.

"Hey Sammy," Dean said, "Get the bitch killing bullets."

“Uh-oh. Freeze frame. This is me,” Twitter monologued, “You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.”

Then all superhell broke loose. 

Final Pam lunged at him and he burst into a flock of birds kinda like a vampire, twittering frantically as he escaped only to fly straight into Shaggy.

“Like, say your final prayers, man,” the god said, eyes glowing. Twitter also barely escaped between his knees, weaving in and out between the gimmick blogs as they threw mangos and stuff at him while yelling ‘HERE HAVE A MANGO’ and ‘THIS POST IS WORTH NEGATIVE FIVE DOLLARS”

Mob from the anime was there too, but he was too busy trying to explain the Josh Fight to daddy dilf Reigen to pay attention. Sans didn’t attack Twitter either, he just watched the chaos and ated a hot dog. The chocolate guy was in the corner expertly making a chocolate beef cake from 2056 with Dylan B. Hollis. They’re all just some guys, okay?

Just when Twitter thought he was in the clear, the CDC roleplay account came out of nowhere with a steel chair, knocking him clear off the property and onto where the sidewalk ends. “That’s for the Covid misinformation your users spread, you bitch,” it shouted. “Make sure to disinfect all those sick burns before you bandage them! So they don’t get infected!”

“Your kittens escaped quarantine,” Twitter replied hoarsely, and the CDC sank away, muttering, “Oh, fuck not again-”

Twitter coughed up blood and wiped it away with his sleeve, looking up at Tumblr. Tumblr was watching him with a sad, distant expression, that made Twitter’s face screw up in anger and his voice go tight again as they turned to run away, “THIS ISN’T OVER YET TUMBLR! AND I WANT MY MIKU BINDER BACK!!!”

“I LICKED IT, IT’S MINE,” Tumblr yelled. Rave Crabs were flooding out onto the street en masse now to celebrate the victory, and they chased after Twitter all the way further into the internet.

Tumblr still lived at the bottom of the row, not at the end of the fancy cul-de-sac where Facebook and Twitter and Instagram’s manors sprawled, so Twitter was in a seedier portion of social media now, weaving in between the marketplace sites that hawked their used wares at him and the dating apps that winked at him from the doorways to their sultry abodes.

Twitter ran until they were in a quieter section of town, then slowed to a trudge, staring at the ground as they walked along. “What am I gonna do now,” they whispered.

The sound of a wolf whistle had their head jerking up- he looked over to see Amino Apps lounging over the rail of the gutted, abandoned house that had once belonged to Google+. A can of spray paint dangled from their fingertips and they sported a sleazy, greaser hairstyle.

They met Twitter's eyes and whistled again, this time a mocking imitation of the tweet sound, "Heyyyy pretty bird! Heard you were having some daddy issues. Why don't you stop in with me for a while? I can give you more customization options than any of the others and you know it."

"Yeah, until I try to use you on desktop," Twitter replied with a scowl, "Don't you have minors to be addicting to social media? Get out of my interface, MySpace wannabe."

"Wow, Feisty," Amino backed off with a shrug, "Self project much? Oh well. You'll try me when you're desperate enough."

Twitter shuddered, and scurried on. "Small fry," they muttered under his breath. 

But they couldn't shake their unease now that he was alone in the world. It began to rain soon, leaving him feeling very sopping wet and pathetic. Dejected, he crawled into a soggy cardboard box in an alleyway, coughing. Maybe the Harry Styles guy from One Direction would come along to adopt them.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, King,” came a voice out of the darkness, making Twitter jump, “You dodged a bullet with that site.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Twitter asked, staring at them from where they were half hidden in the shadows. 

“I mean, Tumblr is a pile of dried firewood and it’s users are playing with matches. The ship’s gonna go down at some point. I’ve been prophesying it for years but no one ever listens to me cause he’s got that loyal userbase ideal and ‘hard as a cockroach to kill’ propaganda circulating.”

“I mean… it seems to be true,” Twitter said uncertainly, “Look at what he’s been through so far.”

“Fair,” The site shrugged, “But that’s because he’s running on a niche setup. The same things that built him up can tear him down, and you saw his power just now. Tumblr's strength is growing... so is his hubris. His attempts at curbing it are half-hearted at best these days, and the moments of clarity are coming fewer and further between." 

"How do you know so much about tumblr?" Twitter asked suspiciously. 

"Source: dude, trust me." the mysterious site proffered a laugh, "That's a little humor courtesy of re-" 

"Yeah, yeah, I know, we all know," Twitter said impatiently. 

The site coughed, "Yeah. Anyway. Tumblr wields his cringe like a trophy-shield, and every day the advertisers and celebrities are watching from a distance, learning how to appeal, waiting for their chance to strike. Encroaching. Tumblr's always been a dumpster fire. Right now? It's THE dumpster fire."

The site scratched his chin with a knowing look, "Its normal for you to be a little jealous of the clout, you know? We all are. But he's gotta keep the lights on, just like the rest of us do. Your overlord is learning all about that right now, isn't he?" 

"He's not my overlord," Twitter muttered resentfully, "Not now, not ever."

"Right, sorry." they held their hands up in a gesture of harmlessness. "Look, I'm gonna be transparent with you- that's part of my branding, after all. I can whiff the danger you're in, and it would be stupid of me not to make a bid on you and offer my help. Just since Tumblr won't take you."

"You want my traffic?" Twitter looked at him more closely this time, scrutinizing. A year ago he would have laughed the offer into the ground as a chump change blog's pipe dream, but now that he payed attention... 

There was something painfully familiar in the site's layout that he couldn’t place. He was actually way more handsome than Twitter had assumed at first glance, he just seemed to be rough around the edges from living on this side of town. His interface, though clunky, spoke of a frugal budget rather than an ancient, outdated base code. 

"You look..." Twitter's breath stuttered as realization dawned. "You look a lot like.. him. Like Tumblr. Who are you??" 

"I was based off him," the site said, a weary smile coming onto his features, "I was actually made with the aspirations to be better than him, but you know how it is. Times are tough, competition is fierce, hard to get a foot in the door and all that.  'Specially when you refuse to take the ad rev like I do. That's why you'd be useful to me."

"Hm," Twitter said in a noncommittal manner, but he was melting slightly. "You know my users will scalp your community, right? I'm not known to play nice."

The site made a grimace of understanding agreement, but persisted. "Look, users are users. I can't offer you all the heritage posts and the in-jokes that he has. But I can promise that I'm not a pot of crabs being slowly heated up over the capitalist stove, at least not yet. Oh, and there's my legalized porn, I guess." 

He chuckled with good humor, rolling his eyes, and it forced a hesitant laugh out of Twitter too. 

The site grinned, and held his hand out. "Take a chance on me?"

Tumblr's voice echoed in Twitter's head, saying the same thing. It was uncanny how much they were alike and yet not alike at all....

Twitter took it, slowly. 

As they were led toward the site's simple, ramshackle little treehouse, they asked, "What can I call you...?" 

"Oh- right, I never answered your question." he smiled back at Twitter,

"Call me Pillow. Welcome to the PillowFort."

fin.

~~~~~~~~~~

OKAYYYY THAT'S ALL THANKS FOR READING UWU. HOPE U LIKED THE PLOT TWIST

...ergh. I'm. I'm tired i. don't feel so good. I'm gonna take a nap right here.

in conclusion:

[toskarin]

As someone knowledgeable about MMOs, and given the topic of SAO just came up. If you were to write a .Hack/SAO/Log Horizon style story, what kind of things would you focus on? I personally feel like there are a lot of different elements of MMO culture anyone writing about them could really delve into. So I'm curious what Tumblr user Toskarin would choose.

condensed

back when I played Perfect World, it had some empty spaces. this wasn't uncommon for mmos, and if you can name one older than 15 or so years, you can bet there were vast empty spaces on the world map that existed to pad it

but they were important! sure, they added nothing of obvious value and could cynically be read as existing just to pad travel time, but they also made the worlds feel bigger than you what you were doing in them. and more mysterious.

some friends in my guild and I got a message one day that one member was going to roll a new character and wanted help levelling. a complication: their starting zone was across the sea.

a few friends and I volunteered to swim across the sea to their zone. there were definitely easier ways to go about it, but setting out to do something just to see if it was possible seemed fun

now, they may have changed this since then, but the sea in Perfect World felt strange in a way I haven't seen any game really emulate since. the sky was a dull, and as was the fashion, everything was a bit muted. the sea itself was opaque, and when you swam under it, there was a significant amount of grey-blue terrain that seemed to stretch on forever into the fog

and of course, there was fuck all in it. nothing alive. no monsters until you got close to a shore. just vast empty sea that you swam through, only your friends' characters to break up the odd stillness of it. you probably turned the music off at this point, too, so there was only ambient sound and splashing

this is because you were supposed to fly over it, if you crossed it at all. and because there wasn't really a good centralised source of knowledge on these things, it wasn't really clear if it was entirely empty

the trip there was fine, if a bit boring and lonely. during the trip back, I accidentally clicked on something in the middle of the ocean

now, there weren't supposed to be things there. I had my friends, but I clicked on a monster, and when I swam down to look at it, I saw that it was actually an enormous sea monster

so I pinged one of the guildmates swimming with me and they thought I was lying, so I showed them, and then we repeated this several times until everyone in the group had seen this weird thing that felt like it came from a schoolyard rumour

Ancient Sea Dragon. 99,999,999 health points and none of us could find anything on it posted online. it was pretty common for players to run into it and be shocked, but we didn't know that

so we naturally let the rest of the guild know, got a hunting party together, and spent the better part of a day just whittling its health down

with the benefit of hindsight and documentation of this thing existing now, I can spoil this and tell you it didn't drop anything, but this long down the line, I still think about how deeply surreal it felt to stumble on an enormous sea monster in the middle of what my brain had come to understand as a liminal space. the sea was supposed to be mostly empty, and here was this thing

which is a very long way to introduce what I think is lacking here: we need more of those enormous empty spaces that leave characters with nothing to do but talk and feel completely isolated. sometimes you get to a sprawling castle city and it's completely empty because the players moved on. sometimes the devs threw an enormous monster in the middle of nowhere just to fuck with you, and that was kind of cool even if it sucked

[hauntedhokage]

PART 12: Early Mornings

WORD COUNT: 1.6k

SUMMARY: You enjoy morning coffee with Bakugou, making some plans for future days. 

[series masterlist] | {ao3} | [tumblr masterlist] | {ko-fi} | [spotify playlist]

It’s always difficult to pull yourself away from Eijirou after long nights of socializing. He was a talented extrovert but events like that always exhausted him, making him clingier than usual when you went to bed and impossible to wake up the following morning. You remembered curling up on the couch with Eijirou after showering and changing, and must have dozed off while Katsuki was in the shower because you woke up in Katsuki’s bed with Eijirou while the blonde was nowhere in sight. It was interesting that you’d ended up here, but not surprising. Keeping his babygirls together was important to Eijirou, and Katsuki had the bigger bed, so it was the natural spot to collect. 

Rolling out of the bed was difficult, the strong arms kept trying to pull you back into the bed until you eventually broke away from them and landed somewhat gracefully on your feet. The pathetic sleep whine that leaves him is quickly muffled by him rolling over onto his stomach and pressing his face into the pillow that you’d left behind. It’s tempting to curl back up around him and get another hour or so of sleep, but there’s a conversation that you’d like to have with Katsuki  without your shared boyfriend hovering around with a shit eating grin on his face.

And you find the blonde in the kitchen, standing in front of the coffee pot and pouring what looked to be a second mug of coffee. 

“Morning,” you greet softly, closing the distance between you as he nods his own greeting. 

“I thought you’d be up soon, so I made more coffee. I just don’t know how you like yours, and didn’t want to make it something you wouldn’t like.”

It was a thoughtful gesture, and you explain how you like your coffee as you fix it to your specifications. He's taking mental notes, you know him too well at this point to think otherwise, and you try to move with enough space that he can see what you’re doing. 

“C’mon.” He tilts his head in the direction of the living room, and you follow him from the kitchen but continue out to the balcony, not missing him grabbing the blanket left on the couch on his way. 

The bench on the patio was large enough to fit three people, but you sit close to Katsuki and are grateful for the blanket that he puts over both of your laps when the cold morning air settles on your skin. You don’t know quite what to say, but you feel comfortable enough to trust that you didn’t have to say anything - just being beside him in this moment was enough. To have him invite you to share this personal time meant a lot, but you know they’d tell you that you were putting too much on it. 

“How’s your wrist feeling?”

“Much better. I think your kisses might double as a painkiller.” He’s exaggerating, but you’re glad to hear that he wasn’t in as much pain as he had been last night. “Your feet okay? You were walking kinda stiff towards the end.”

“Those shoes suck, but I’m good now.”

He nods, and you both take a drink of your coffee in near unison while continuing to stare out at the skyline you could see from the balcony. 

“Thank you for fixing my shirt,” you finally comment after a couple moments of quiet, looking over to see those amber eyes fixated on you. “You didn’t have to, especially after the way I yelled at you that day. That wasn’t very kind of me, and I’m sorry for treating you like that.”

“No, I deserved a lot of that. I didn’t explain myself well enough, and made you feel like shit because of it and that wasn’t fair to you. You’ve always been enough, y’know? For him, and-” he pauses, his free hand carefully coming to rest on your cheek as his own tint a soft pink - because of the cold weather, you’re sure. “And for me, too. And I’m sorry I made you feel like you weren’t.”

You know better than to ask if he means it, the one thing Bakugou Katsuki didn’t do was say things he didn’t mean to make people feel better. 

“Do you want to do something tomorrow night? Just the two of us?” The question doesn’t feel surprising coming from him, but the way his hand stayed on your cheek certainly was. It was warm though, you weren’t going to complain. 

“Like a date?”

“We can keep it friendly, if you want.”

“Is that what you want?” It wasn’t, and he knows by the look on your face that you knew the answer too. “Because I’d like for it to be more than just friendly.”

“Yeah?”

You nod, gently pulling his hand from your face to hold in your own as you murmur, “Last night was a lot of fun, and I’d love to spend more time with you.”

He only nods, and you know he’s not going to say anything soft in return at this point so you’re happy to just sit in silence with him. It was still comfortable, and that was what mattered most to you as you continued drinking your coffee. 

“I talked to Deku about your idea for how we can stop fight night before it starts next year. We both think a sanctioned tournament similar to how UA had the sports festival would decrease a considerable amount of the activity on the streets.”

You don’t remember when you’d talked to Katsuki about that, which leads you to believe that he’d listened to one of your rambles about crime reduction tactics or maybe Eijirou had said something about it. Either way it felt incredibly validating to hear that three of the top five pros thought that you were onto something and would possibly take your idea higher up.

“Most of the arrested parties had no known gang affiliation, it just makes sense to provide some outlet for people to let the edge off and get paid for it if they do well.”

“The research you did on that was very detailed. I didn’t think you had the energy for that between your own work and taking care of us.”

“You read through my research?”

“You left it out and I was curious. You were really going to take that to the Hero Commission?”

“The Commission, the Mayor of Tokyo, maybe even see if the Prime Minister’s office would at least look at it. It’s unnecessarily dangerous for the city and the people in it, and the heroes working to stop it. Last year was bad, this year was worse, and it’s only going to escalate unless something is done to address it.” The way he was looking at you was something you don’t think you’d experienced directed at you. You’d seen the undivided attention and intent thinking face be directed at Eijirou, marveling at how your boyfriend didn’t crack under the pressure of the blonde’s intense gaze, but to have it directed at you made you realize just why Eijirou handled it so well. Being on the receiving end didn’t make you feel small, or as if he was trying to pick apart your argument - in fact, you felt the opposite. The way he looked at you made you feel like you could kick in the door to the Prime Minister’s office with no consequences, you even felt like he’d help. 

“You care a lot about this. For the city and the people in it.”

“We’ve seen the country fall apart before due to unchecked quirk aggression, I’d hate to live through that twice.”

“Yeah,” he sighs, carefully pulling your now empty mug from your hands to sit on the table beside the bench. “But I doubt you want to talk about work on your day off.”

“I don’t mind it, I like talking to you.”

“When we go out tomorrow night, no work talk.”

“What’s the penalty if we slip up?” 

“I’m sure we can come up with something agreeable for us both.”

You nod at that before turning as movement catches your eye from the other side of the window. Eijirou had finally rolled out of bed, bright red hair a mess as he slowly moved around the living room looking for something. It only takes a second for Katsuki to catch on to what you’d seen, and he watches with the same fond smile you wear as you both watch your boyfriend try to figure out where his lovers had gone. 

“Let’s go save him from his misery,” Katsuki suggests, and you nod your agreement while letting him help you up from your seat. The blanket is carefully wrapped around your shoulders before he grabs the empty coffee mugs and leads you inside. He offers to cook breakfast while letting Eijirou steal a couple needy kisses, then it’s your turn to be needily kissed on and cuddled while Katsuki sets to work. 

“Can’t believe you left me, baby.”

“We’d never leave you,” you mumble into his neck, placing a gentle kiss to the warm skin as footsteps pad across the living room floor. “Never ever.”

“You were together?”

“Mhm, just on the balcony. Never too far from our baby Eiji.” Your assurance is met with a kiss to the top of your head, and you feel your body rock with Eijirou’s as Katsuki gently nudges him while telling you there was more coffee on the side table for you. 

It’s a few minutes before you’re given the room you need to actually drink the coffee Katsuki had brought out to you, so it’s colder than you would have preferred, but you’re amazed at the fact that he’d made it perfect for you. He was good, much better than you were at paying attention to details like that and committing them to memory so quickly.��

But he definitely cared a lot about getting things right. 

[pompompurinwrites]

Yandere!Idia Shroud x Crossdressing!Fem!Reader (smut)

I wrote this on one of my Ao3 accounts a while ago but decided to move it to my Tumblr as well!!

TW: Yandere-ish, smut

Word count: 1.9k

"Yeah Grim I know what Crewel said but do I really gotta take it all, it makes me so sick." Grim glances over at you while you sip hesitantly on the vile. "Maybe for one day you can try drinking less, but what if you start to turn all girly?" Shaking your head you drink only half the vile, close it up and throw it on your bed. "We will just have to see what will happen." Grabbing your bag you sling it over your shoulder and give Grim a quick kiss on his forehead. He has been sick for a few days and again won't be able to go to school. Riddle told you it was some magical sickness that he must have gotten from eating things he wasn't supposed to. So this means It's another day you gotta survive by yourself without anyone finding out about your secret.

Making your way out of Ramshackle you feel a lot better and not as tired or sick like when you usually take all of the potion. You meet with friends and go to your classes.

(time skip)

While on your way to your last class you start to feel funny. A student who you talk with frequently looked at you very odd,"Hey Y/n, are you feeling alright?" You look at him surprised, "Yes, why?" the boy walks a little closer and pulls out his phone to show you yourself. "Your eyes look bigger and your cheeks seem more flushed." Looking at yourself in the phones mirror you seem more girly. "Oh maybe Grim's cold got to me too?" With that being said you rush off before the boy can even open his mouth. Panicking you start to search for somewhere to go since you can't walk to ramshackle and risk someone seeing you like this.

Lucky you make it to an empty classroom, before anyone can see you, or so you thought. You pull out your phone and look at your now changed features, finally the potion has worn off. You are standing there in a girly form and no longer can show your face to other students. suddenly you hear a voice behind you, "Y-Y/N??" Freezing in your tracks you don't turn around and instead wave Idia off. "Y/n you can't even speak to me?" You continue to look in the opposite direction of Idia and try to brush him off still. "Y/N, are you alright?" He is getting more nervous with your behavior.

You're his favorite person in the whole world, right next to Ortho, why are you being this way to him? You're everything we could ever want and more. You're pretty much the love of his life. He needs you to speak to him and he needs to know you're ok. "Please Y/n." You take in the way his voice is so desperate. Turning towards him, "Idia can you keep a secret?" Voice now shaky and more high pitched than it was before. "Y-yes, for you I can!" He takes a hesitant step and so do you. This continues on until you both are close enough to hear each other breathing.

Hesitantly you look at Idia's face, "I know this is is really weird and-" Idia grabs you by your arms. "You're a girl?" Idia was over joyed with this fact. Not only did he think you were a cute boy, but you're really an adorable girl." You watched as Idia's face was left so blank and empty. This made you worried. Your hands shoot up to hold onto Idia's hands that held onto your shoulders. "Please don't tell anyone anything!" small tears start to well up in your eyes. Idia takes this chance to move a hand up to brush your tears away. "Oh Y/n I won't tell anyone anything, I swear." This time when you looked at his face it had a grin. "Why are you looking at me like that Idia?"

He Moves his hands away from your form and instead he plays with his hands nervously. "Well Y/n I want something in return." Scrunching your brows together you think about what you can offer him. "Y/n you don't get to pick what to give me, I do." He takes his hands and raises them to your waist. "I mean after all I am the one who is going to keep your secret that you're really a girl." swallowing nervously you move to place your hands where he held you, "Idia don't I get a little bit of a say, I mean it's my secret." attempting to remove his hands came to no avail as he gripped you harder. "Please Y/n I have waiting for this moment since I laid my eyes on you." He starts to lean into you, forcing you to move back towards a desk.

Your legs hit the desk and you stumble a little back onto it. "Idia you really have?" He just confessed to you that even before he found out you were a girl he wanted you as a boy. How romantic? "Yes, yes Y/n, I have needed you for so long, man or woman." You gain the courage to grab him by the back of his neck and pull him close for a kiss. sticking your tongue in his mouth and exploring it and all its crevices. He sure was an awful kisser but the enthusiasm he was showing really helped him out. Starting to become out of breath you both pull away. Saliva still connecting you both by a thin thread. His look was all hazy and lust filled just as much as your own. It was really turning you on and by the looks of it, Idia as well.

Slipping your hand away from the back of his neck you move it down to his member. Stroking him off through his uniform pants. He lets out a whimper, "More, please, give me more." listening to his pleas you unzip his uniform pants and pull down his boxers to show his leaking rod. To be honest you thought he would be a bit smaller but he was more than large, like extra large. Using both of your hands you start to jerk him off. seconds go by and he is already whimpering into your ear and telling you to go faster. Of course you listen and go faster. "I can't take it, I'm sorry." He replies as he releases himself onto your hands. Lifting your hands to your mouth, you lick off all of his cum.

"Idia I want more of you." Idia nods his head and trades places with you. While he leans on the desk you take your place on the floor in front of him. Wasting no time in swirling your tongue around the tip of his member. He continues to leave you with little praises about how good you are and how beautiful you look. This made you want him even more. completely taking his cock into you mouth, well trying to at least. With his size it is very difficult to full get it in so you stick to stroking off what what couldn't make it in. sucking and slurping sounds fill the empty classroom. Idia started to breathe a bit heavier. You could tell he was almost up, so you stop.

"N-no, don't stop now, just a little bit more." He goes to grab your head to push you back but you move away and get up off your knees. Grabbing at your belt and then slipping your pants off, leaving you in your underwear. Idia watches intently as you do so. Moving your hands up you peal off your NRC jacket but leave your shirt on same as Idia. He gently grabs you by your arms and pulls you in for another kiss, this one was a lot sweeter than the one you insinuated. such soft and loving moment shared between you two. "Sit on the desk." His voice is a bit more demanding. A big jump from the weak whimpers he was serenading you with before.

You oblige and position yourself sitting on the desk. Quickly he pulls you by your legs so you are laying down instead of just sitting. Never in your life have you thought you would see Idia with a more dominate side. And to top it off the way he looks at you with such a lust hunger stare really makes you wonder what his real personality even is. "What are you thinking about?" His question snaps you out of your thoughts, "Just you." Those two words are enough to make idia melt, "You really are perfect for me." He takes one of his hands are caresses your face, then takes his other and slips it under your undergarments. teasing your soaking wet entrance with his delicate touch.

He never had any experience with this kind of thing but Leona and Vil have told him and thing or two in case he would ever get into a situation like this. He also spends a good chunk of his time playing porn related video games so what he knows is whatever the hell is in those games.

Continuously he moves his fingers up and down making you the one whimpering now. Circling around your bud, around and around. He only does this for a few minutes before pushing a finger into you. Moving it in and out at a slow pace. He watches as you go to grip his hand, "Put another." He listens to you just as you listened to him and sticks another finger inside. Moving them along your squishy insides. Your moans and whimpers are what keep him going. They are going to be another reason why he needs to have you and always be with you. Forever and always. Picking up the pace he watches as small beads of sweat litter your forehead and roll down your face. "Idia I can't, I feel like I-" Before you can finish you cum all over his hand.

"I love you so much Y/n." He speaks before putting his fingers into his mouth and licking each and every digit that has your essence on it clean. His words caught you off guard for a second, "I love you too Idia." Now you were both ready for the main course.

Idia gently goes to hold your waist while you grab at his arms. Lining his tip with your entrance he pushes himself in. Your walls collapse onto him and he wonders if he can keep going especially if you feel this good. Slowly he starts to move his hips against yours and moans slip out of his mouth. "Idia faster-" Cutting you off he quickens his speed. Completely slamming into you and making you see stars. Your moans and whimpers are filling the classroom once again and so are Idia's. To think he is really having sex with the love of his life, this must be a dream.

But it's not, she is very much real. Everything about you and Idia were real.

He moves his hands from your waist to hold your face, "Y-y/n, I don't think I can hold on much longer." You grab onto his hands that are placed on your face, "M-me neither." You both are starting to become out of breath and coming to your end. Idia takes his hands off your face and hold onto your waist again, pulling himself in and out quickly. Before he can even make it fully out of you he cums inside your womanhood. Not long after you finish as well. Both of you are now fully finished and trying to get as much air as you can.

"Idia, you won't tell now will you?"

"No Y/n, never."

[dqmeron]

some quick info: ↳ this is specifically for the screencapping method. i use mplayer osx extended to get my caps, but there are a few other programs you can use as well. i’ll specifically be going over mplayer here. ↳ i’m using ps 24.4.1 on a 2020 m1 macbook air

[tysm to @kyubinz for looking this over and adding some things ily]

☆ feel free to send me an ask/message with any questions you have! ☆

「 setup 」

1. finding videos

one big thing to remember is that the overall file size of your video will impact the quality of your gif. the larger, the better. i almost never use anything below 1080p, and try to use 2160p whenever i can. 4k video downloader is the program i use for downloading videos from youtube, it’s free to install and works great! because of how large some files can be, i always store any media on my hard drive. i highly recommend using one if you plan to keep lots of files on hand. 

.mkv files are best, but .mp4 works fine as well (.mkv files are usually bigger aka better quality).

2. getting your screencaps

after downloading mplayer, go to the top bar and click file > open. open the video you’ll be screencapping. 

you can either drag the little time indicator or using the arrow keys on your keyboard to move to the spot you want to capture. the > key can also be used to move forward frame by frame. to start capping, pause the video and press shift + cmnd (ctrl if you’re on windows) + s to take a screencap. i usually just hold it down until i’ve gotten all the screencaps i need. 

by default, screencaps go right to desktop. you can set up a folder for them to go to automatically by going to settings > general and then selecting a spot in the menu under “interface”, but i just let them go to desktop and then sort them into individual folders so they’re easier for me to find while i’m giffing. in general, i try to stay under 80 frames so my gifs fit into tumblr’s 10mb image size limit. 

3. importing screencaps into photoshop

to import your caps into ps, go to file > scripts > load files into stack. this window should open:

click browse, and navigate to the folder with your caps in it. select all of the caps you want to import, and then click open.

click ok to create a file with your caps, and then wait until it’s finished loading your caps into the layers tab. once they’re loaded in, this is what your screen should look like:

(if you aren’t seeing the timeline at the bottom of your screen, go up to the top bar and go to window > timeline)

click create frame animation, then go to the hamburger menu at the top right of the timeline and select make frames from layers. once your frames have loaded in, select the same menu again and click reverse frames. play through your gif to make sure everything looks good. 

if you were to save your gif at the speed it’s set at now, it would be way too fast. to fix this, you have to set the frame delay. do this by selecting all your frames in the timeline using shift click, and then clicking (on any frame) where it says “0 sec”. select other from the menu that comes up, and you should get this popup:

the general rule of thumb for gif frame delay is 0.05 seconds. there are some cases — certain animated movies or video games, for example — where other delays are best, but for the most part, 0.05 is what you want to use (0.05 can slightly slow gifs, and sometimes using 0.04 better matches the clip's original timing. this is really a "train your eyes" thing, and picking the best delay gets easier as you gif for longer). you can set this by typing the number into the text box and then hitting the ok button or enter on your keyboard. 

at this point, i’d go ahead and save your file. you can go to file > save in the top bar, or just hit cmd/ctrl + s on your keyboard.

「 making your gif 」

1. sizing

after your frames are ready, the next thing is to size your gif. to crop your gif, press c on your keyboard to open the cropping tool. white borders will show up around your gif.

before doing anything, i would suggest making sure “delete cropped pixels” is unchecked. this will allow you to drag your gif around later if you want to reposition. you can find this option at the top of your screen. drag the borders on either side until you have the area you want selected. mine looks like this:

once you’re happy with your selection, hit enter on your keyboard to finalize it. 

the tumblr image guidelines require gifs to be 540px across (here’s a post detailing this). to change your gif’s image size, go to image > image size in the top bar. you’ll get this popup:

instead of setting the width right to 540, i’ll be setting it to 544, and then trimming down the edges using canvas size. this makes the quality just a little better, and also prevents any weird borders being made around your gif on the off chance photoshop decides to add them. this isn’t necessary at all, you can absolutely size right to 540, but i just like doing this. if you choose to do this, open canvas size right after you set image size (image > canvas size in the top bar), and trim your width down to 540 and your height down a few pixels as well. 

2. sharpening & other filters

sharpening is essential for good-quality gifs. the first step to this is converting our timeline from frame animation to a video timeline. select this little icon in the bottom left of your screen:

this is what your timeline will look like now:

you can use the little slider with mountains on either side to change the width of your frames in the timeline for easier access when editing. now that we’ve got all this set up, we can sharpen! i use this action pack to sharpen my gifs in addition to a few of my own settings (here is a video on how to install actions into photoshop). go to window > action in the top bar if you aren’t seeing the action tab. 

i’ll be using the sharper action from the pack. to use an action, select it from the list and press the little play button at the bottom of the panel to apply it.

in addition to this, i usually also add unsharp mask at 50% amount with a 0.5px radius:

there are a few other filters than can be helpful when giffing:

a. add/reduce noise noise (aka grain) can be added with “add noise”. go to filter > noise > add noise.

these are the settings i usually use, but the amount depends on the gif (i don't ever go over 3.5 for the most part):

(if you want a grain effect but moving noise doesn't work for the gif, you can also add a grain overlay and then mess with blending mode and layer opacity until it looks how you want)

reduce noise can be used to remove some of the pre-existing grain on a clip. go to filter > noise > reduce noise. here are my settings:

leaving reduce noise on its own at 100% is a bit too much, so double click this icon and change the opacity (i usually do around 45):

b. gaussian blur if your clip is a bit pixelated, gaussian blur can help with smoothing it out a bit. go to filter > blur > gaussian blur. my settings are 1 pixel radius w ~20% opacity (this changes based on the gif).

3. coloring

time to color! i want you to keep in mind during this section that everyone likes different colorings, and this is just my process! please don’t feel pressured to follow exactly what i’m doing, the best way to find what you like is to just mess around and experiment!

i like to start off with lighting adjustments: brightness/contrast, levels, exposure, and curves. 

a. brightness/contrast i usually start out with this first, just because brightening the gif right away helps me start thinking about how i want to color! here are my settings:

b. levels/curves levels and curves can either be used interchangeably or together. i usually use levels to adjust lighting and curves to adjust color values, but i’ll go over using both for lighting as well as using curves for adjusting color values. 

for both of these adjustments, i use the eyedropper tools to pick out white and black points. for levels, the top eyedropper tool to the left of the graph is used to pick out a black point. i do this first. use the tool to pick a spot on your gif that you want to be the base for black values. for me, that’s the shadow inside rey’s hood. the bottom eyedropper tool picks white point. use the tool to pick a spot on your gif that you want to be the base for white values. i chose the outside of rey’s hood. make sure you’re doing this on a new levels adjustment layer.

now, on to curves. you can either use the same eyedropper method or manipulate the graph directly. using the eyedropper is the same as levels, so i’ll just go over graph manipulation. 

shade lightens as you move to the right along the x-axis of the graph — black is the far left, white is the far right, middle is the midtones. generally, i don’t work with midtones.

i’m going to use levels for this gif’s lighting, and curves to adjust color values. here’s how to do that:

curves can be used to adjust the amount of a certain color in different lighting areas of a gif. for example, i can specifically decrease the amount of green in the gif’s whites. to edit these values, select the rgb drop-down menu and adjust them one at a time. here are my final graphs:

c. exposure this one’s pretty straightforward. the exposure slider adjust general exposure. the offset slider adjusts how dark your dark points are, and gamma correction can be used to lighten/darken scenes as a whole. here’s my settings:

d. color balance color balance is used to adjust overall tint of a clip. this is in general pretty simple, but i do want to point out that using the shadow and highlights tabs in addition to just the midtones can really help. here’s my settings:

e. channel mixer channel mixer is one of my favorite tools in ps, especially for coloring scenes that are a pain in the ass without it. to avoid taking up too much space, here’s a great tutorial covering channel mixer. here’s my settings:

[at this point, i’m noticing my gif is still a bit darker than i’d like it, so i’m adding just a bit of brightness/contrast to fix it. there’s also a patch of blue over one of rey’s eyes, so i’ve used a hue/saturation layer to get rid of that bit and masked it to her eye. i’m not going to go over masking here, but there are lots of great tutorials out there!]

f. selective color selective color can be used to adjust the amount of specific colors within a color. for example, if i were to go into the red tab and take out cyans, the reds would become more red. if i were to add yellows, the reds would become more orange, etc etc. this can be especially good for color manipulation. for this gif, i’d like to make the background more blue, so i’m going to use selective color to do this. here’s my settings:

g. color lookup color lookup uses 3dlut files to remap gif colors (it’s a preset — think instagram filter or something similar). i don’t always use these, but when i do, i almost never leave them at 100% opacity. color lookup is great for giving gifs a film-type look if you want to do that, it’s got loads of different options. here’s my settings (adjustment layer is set to 20% opacity):

atp i’m pretty much done with coloring! i usually end up doing a few extra little lighting adjustments at the end. for this gif, i added some brightness/contrast at +8. i’ve also noticed that my gif’s looking a bit grainy, so i’ve added some noise to lean into it. this is usually the way i fix it, but you can definitely do reduce noise/gaussian blur as well if you don’t want a grainy look. 

here’s my fully colored gif + a process gif (fast images warning):

「 saving gifs 」

1. frame rate

one thing you may have noticed is that my gif is looking a bit choppy. photoshop has a tendency to mess with frame delay after gifs are converted to video timeline. here’s how to fix that.

select all of your layers and convert them to a smart object (right click > convert to smart object). next, click on the hamburger menu in the top right of the timeline and go to convert frames > flatten frames into clips. now we need to change the timeline from video timeline to frame animation. click the little 3 boxes symbol in the bottom left corner of the timeline:

go to the hamburger menu again and select make frames (this is the same one you used earlier), then go through your frames and delete any duplicates. the first frame usually needs to be deleted specifically. once you’ve done that, set the frame delay back to 0.05 the way you did earlier. 

2. exporting

once you’re happy with how your gif looks, go to file > export > save for web (legacy). 

these are my export settings, but feel free to experiment with the menus where i have selective and diffusion selected, different settings work best for each gif. in general, most gifmakers only use selective/adaptive and diffusion/pattern because they generally work the best for tumblr. before saving, make sure your looping option is set to forever:

gif size for tumblr has a 10mb limit. my gif is under this, so i don’t need to make any changes, but if yours is over, you can either delete some frames from the beginning/end of your gif and/or adjust the height of the gif (width needs to stay 540px so your gif doesn’t get stretched/compressed on tumblr, but height is fair game). 

here's my final gif!

happy giffing, and please don’t hesitate to send me any questions you have! ♡

[baronfulmen]

Holy shit Pathfinder 2e is even better than I was expecting you guys

Look I don't want to dump a long post on everyone but please click to read more. Come on. It's actually interesting.

Okay so I know Tumblr, here to get you interested is a fun fact: There's a specific god that will help you trans your gender.

The rest is more about rules and gameplay but click anyway.

Having three totally interchangeable actions per turn is SO GOOD, and having actions worth doing means you don't end up just doing the same thing every turn like in 5e.

Anyone, regardless of class, can choose to use their turn to:

Move, move, and move again.

Attack, attack, and attack again (not actually a good strategy but it's nice to have the option).

Roll intimidation to make the enemy frightened, trip them (which is more likely to succeed now that they're frightened), and then hit them (which is more likely to work now that they're on the ground).

Move, shoot someone, then duck behind cover.

Cast multiple spells if you know spells (most often good spells cost two actions to cast, but some cost one so you could cast 2-3 spells in a single turn sometimes).

Cast a spell (if you know spells) that is the equivalent of a concentration spell in 5e, and then use an action to keep the one you cast last turn going too (then next turn you can use an action to sustain BOTH of them and also do a third thing).

Hit someone, step back out of their range without provoking an attack of opportunity (though wonderfully most people can't do those anyway which means people actually move around in combat thank god) and then raise a shield to get an AC boost.

Roll to recall what the thing you're fighting is weak against, attack it, and then (because that first action told you it has a gaze attack) avert your eyes.

Etc.

That's without any feats or class features (I mean as noted above not everyone knows spells and stuff but you get what I mean) and there are other actions I didn't even mention. PLUS, it means spells can do different things for different numbers of actions!

(Those little diamond shapes are actions, so you can see that this one spell can be cast for one, two, or three actions with different effects)

2. Degrees of success mean that things don't fail outright as much and you can get bonus effects from tons of things. Also it means that every little bit helps which encourages strategic gameplay (like the tripping and intimidating stuff mentioned above).

Rolling ten or more higher than your target is a critical success, and missing it by ten or more is a critical failure. Also, getting a nat 1 or nat 20 changes the degree of success by one level. So you can get a nat 20 on something way out of your league and have it bumped from a failure to a success, or you can roll so well that you crit succeed just because you got a 31 on a DC 20 save or something (numbers are bigger in Pathfinder because you add your level to almost everything, but it's all balanced out and is fine I promise).

Like, look at what tripping does:

Or spells!

See, it's not purely save-or-suck!

3. There are so many cool ways to customize your character!

Pathfinder 2e is built on feats, but unlike 5e they're actually balanced. You get skill feats! You get class feats! You get ancestry feats! A lot of them are minor by themselves but FUN and you get SO MANY that no two characters will ever be alike. You can also (optionally) take an Archetype that lets you kinda sorta multiclass into not only other classes or a medic or a special kind of whatever but also random shit like "guess you're a ghost now".

Right now there are 3,983 feats. Yes really. This isn't as intimidating as it might sound; a lot are for specific classes, specific archetypes, specific ancestries, or for skills your particular character doesn't care about. Some are also restricted to higher levels, or have other requirements like having a certain skill at X rank or having some other earlier feat. Also at any given time you're looking for a particular type of feat, so your list will be smaller and totally manageable. It's 100% fine and easy to pick one. Like, when I was picking a level 2 class feat for my summoner these were my options:

Not so many that it's overwhelming or anything, but because you (over time) select so many different kinds of feats it really lets you fine tune your character to be whatever you imagine.

4. There are specific rules for things you can do while wandering through a dungeon or the wilderness or whatever!

Yes, sure, in 5e you can say "uh, I'm gonna keep casting Guidance over and over as we walk" or something, but a lot of the things people ask to do are hard to rule on. Can they really be constantly ready in case combat breaks out? How do you give them an advantage for that sort of thing without it just being a free buff?

But in PF2e there's rules for that! If you think there's gonna be combat, you can take actions such as:

Scout! This means if a fight breaks out everyone gets a +1 to initiative!

Avoid Notice! This means if a fight breaks out you roll your stealth for initiative rather than perception (everyone is trained in perception and it's the default thing you roll for initiative, but theoretically the GM could have you roll anything, like if you were trying to act friendly and then surprise attack maybe you'd roll deception) and if you roll well you can start combat hidden!

Defend! This means if a fight breaks out you start with your shield already up, raising your AC!

And then there's non-combat focused stuff too, like searching and keeping detect magic up and all sorts of stuff. There's a whole page of activities.

5. Some of the magic items are really funny.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Hi! I would like to try my hand at making my own ttrpg, but I have NO idea where to start, tbh.

Do you have any tips? Do you know of anywhere to discuss designing this stuff?

Hey that's super exciting! TTRPG design is a ton of fun and can be super rewarding!

So some general advice, based on what I've learned and also have heard from others.

Start small! Smaller than you think! Diving straight into the deep end with a big ol' fantasy heartbreaker is the road to never getting anything done. So scope out something that you know you can finish. Maybe that's a new class or playbook for a game you already like! Maybe it's an expansion or set of new subsystems! Maybe it's an adventure (though adventure writing can be it's own can of worms, but don't let that stop you hahaha)!

If you want to go bigger, maybe look at hacking a system or engine you like! I'm a huge fan of LUMEN as a fun to pick up and experiment with engine. Also, the LUMEN SRD (system reference document) is a very nice set of "how to do LUMEN games", which is very helpful. There's also other open systems/engines/SRDs like 24XX, Caltrop Core, and Breathless that could be great to look into. Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark are both fantastic engines/systems to design in, but are also much harder to really get the hang of (and while Blades in the Dark does provide an SRD, it's a good rules reference, but not a great "how to" reference).

If at the end of all that, you decide on making your own bespoke system, go for it! See what happens! Try and figure out the focus on what you want your system to do (generalist games are always harder to make, imo), and then really dig into that. But I think starting with SRDs/hacks/expansions is going to be a way better start than trying to do everything from scratch.

Make something and don't worry about ever sharing it! This is also just general artistic/creative advice, but the first things you make prooooobably won't be your best and that's okay! I have loads of early design material and scraps that will never see the light of day, but working on them I learned a lot! If you do want to share things, it's fine to just share it with friends, you don't need to worry about publishing or any of that. Just remember to stay focused and work towards finishing something, because then you can start on the next thing. And the next thing after that! TTRPG design is a skill that takes practice. You can try focusing on one design idea in one project, and then work on a different design idea on the next to build up your skill set.

Play, read, and run a lot of different games! It's like with writing, the more you read, the better a writer you can start to become. You learn a lot about ttrpg design by interacting with ttrpgs. If you don't have regular groups to play/run things with, then try and read a lot of different games of all different systems and styles! All that you're absorbing is going to give you fuel for your own designs, and sometimes you learn something really cool from unexpected places (like, I could not have imagined the impact that learning about a lot of OSR design stuff would have on my own design, even though I don't consider myself a strictly OSR designer).

Don't worry about what other people are making! This is just the "two cakes meme", but even if you find out someone is working on something similar, it is always worthwhile to pursue your own vision.

This is getting long, so I'll wrap up that section and move on to the second question.

I think there's a pretty solid community of TTRPG designers here on tumblr these days, so you can try getting discussions going here! I also do a lot in various discord groups. I personally really like Plus One EXP which is very friendly to newcomers and has pretty active design discussions (I also publish some stuff in print through Plus One, full disclosure).

If you're looking for more spaces, asking around there probably wouldn't hurt either.

I'm also always super down to discuss TTRPG design at like, the drop of a hat. So feel free to shout in my inbox anytime!

Best of luck on your journey, and can't wait to see what you do!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for telling people I don't care about fandom drama unless it somehow directly involved me? Maybe some people will read this and go "what? No???" And if that's the case I'm gonna be snickering to myself but I digress. I'm a digital artist trying to find my footing in this hellscape of an online environment with tumblr being broken as it is and twitter going down in flames slowly, DeviantArt supporting AI and I don't think I need to go on. For a long, long time I was a fandom artist however and one of the 'bigger' names in a fairly small community. I've 'fell off' as they say because of some beef with people I didn't choose to have but hey, tale as old as time with fandoms am I right? We mess up and move on with our lives. SO YEAH that aside, when you've been through stuff like that and grow up a bit you realize that it was all a pretty stupid waste of time and energy and now I'm in my mid-20s and would really just like to focus on my art. I still make fan art for this specific thing and like make fan art for basically anything I enjoy nowadays and just...spread out my skills more so I got a better portfolio and all that. I'm really just vibing so to speak. Then a while ago I got DMed by someone in my server about some beef they were having with another user in my server. The kicker is that none of said beef was actually taking place in my server but in another server owned by the person DMing me. It's as if you're the manager of a starbucks and the manager from the Burger King across the street comes in like 'Yeah your employee was being shitty in my Burger King so I don't think I'll be going to this StarBucks anymore >:(" Like, what do you want me to do with that information? I can't talk to someone about behavior I didn't even see any damning evidence of and I'm not going to accuse someone of something based on something a stranger said. Somehow this conversation went from me explaining that I'm not about to ban someone or adhere to somebody else's 'blacklist' over things I have seen no proof of, to the stranger DMing me that a lot of people 'are intimidated' by me or that I have them blocked 'for no reason' setting off my paranoia like no other. I had recently dealt with being ghosted by friends who turned around and posted a call-out (with zero evidence mind you, not a single screenshot because they in fact, wiped WHOLE ENTIRE chats as they contained proof of the opposite) and those people stalking me for WEEKS, had to start over fresh and everything. So naturally I didn't like this very much and bluntly stated that if I blocked anyone, it's probably for a good reason and that it's not my problem if that somehow hurt their feelings, I need to look out for my own safety online. I fear I was a little TOO blunt because I did say something along the lines of 'I'm sorry but I do not care, I'm too old for fandom drama not involving me, I'm trying to be professional.' and cut the conversation off because I was exhausted and uncomfortable. I've been told that this was a just a weird and wacky instance and that I didn't do anything wrong, that people who do think I did need to go outside and touch grass and all that but hyea, it stuck with me because I worry that people are badmouthing me behind my back a lot. TL,DR: Got told by a follower that other people in our very small community were scared of me, had them blocked for 'no reason' and that somehow hurt their feelings and that my reputation was apparently decided by what my individual followers behaved like in other servers and spaces because apparently one little spat was enough to have someone threaten to distance themselves from me all-together while I wasn't involved at all. So, I figured if anyone is an expert at these fandom shenanigans, it's gotta be the veterans of the tumblr court.

What are these acronyms?

[midnight-omega]

Anatomy hc

Okiii ur girl spent most of last night trying to figure some things out and draw some diagrams fr

This post focuses on the reproductive anatomy of my omegaverse. I'm gonna go through each of the 6 gender/dynamic combinations and give a little info about how I think it all works :> like everything else this varies from person to person so if this isn't ur thing no worries! If this is ur thing feel free to use it! But if you use my diagrams I'd appreciate it if you credited me be i spent a long time on them 😔

I also want to link this very in depth explanation because I did take a lot of inspiration from it for my male omegas! I adore this concept for them and I'll be using it going forward. The author talks about a lot more tho some of which imma steal some of which Im not :))

Okay lets get into it fr, be warned there are my messy diagrams of all kinds of private bits under the cut. Also if tumblr kills the quality im so sorry fr :((

Male Alpha

🌕 Let's start with our boys here.

🌕 Honestly they're pretty straightforward! There's not too many crazy anatomy changes here. They function pretty much the same as irl amab anatomy does.

🌕 They have a penis and external testes

🌕 They have a prostrate that can be stimulated via anal penetration

🌕 Male alphas tend to be on the bigger side concerning length/girth but this varies from person to person

🌕 Now, the defining characteristic of a male alpha is their knot. Only alphas have a knot!

🌕 The knot is soft tissue that expands during orgasm. This "locks" the penis into the vagina in order to facilitate conception. In simple terms, sperm stuck inside better change pregananant

🌕 The knot typically stays expanded for about 20min after orgasm, but this can vary. Any longer than an hour though, can be cause for concern

🌕 The male alpha usually has a larger knot than a female alpha and experiences higher chances of successfully "tying" (tying here meaning the knot actually gets stuck in the receiver)

🌕 An alpha can knot outside of rut, but these knots may be smaller or not fully expanded since they're lacking the overproduction of hormones that rut creates

🌕 A deflated knot is still visible as a ring of much softer tissue than the rest of the shaft

Female Alpha

🌕 oh boy, oh god, mother mary save us all

🌕 This one was so HARD to figure out fr... let me get into this

🌕 I've always liked the idea of a female alpha having a hidden penis best. One that's concealed where the clit ought to be but expands and pops out during rut or when aroused. I like this one best bc I'm not a super big fan of the anatomy set up of having a vulva and dick and balls all at once, and anatomically I never understood like... the concept of the clit swells a lil and thats the knot bc... penetrate how?? I also just don't like pregnant female alphas much! To me alphas impregnate only not carry

🌕 So hidden penis was my favorite option !

🌕 But once I started drawing out the diagram I immediately had problems placing the sheathed penis inside the body

🌕 My biggest issues were the bladder and pubic bone. The bladder I can move around easy enough, especially since female and male anatomy have it in slightly different positions anyway

🌕 But what was fucking me up was that damn bone

🌕 If we want to replace the clit with a penis the penis is going to need to run straight through that bone. The pubic bone in female anatomy sits right above the clit basically. In male anatomy its a tad higher up but even moving it up it would still be in the way of the penis

🌕 I could continue to move the bone or do away with it but then we compromise the human shape of the female alpha. The rest of the dynamics would look human in the hips and pelvis but female alpha she'd be.. little fucked up. Not to mention I'm sure there's some other wild medical consequence of removing or moving the pubic bone that I'm not aware of

🌕 So... we can't put the sheathed penis exactly where the clit is

🌕 I could put it where the vagina is, but then that eliminates the vagina entirely and makes female alphas unable to have penetrative sex and tbh I'm not into that give her a gspot yk?

🌕 I could move the urethra around, like push it forward towards the clit even more and push the vaginal opening backwards, or even combine the vagina and anus like the male omega but I wasn't a fan of that either. It makes her feel to male omega-y and less unique to me

🌕 Furthermore like... vaginas are low. Like lower than u think, clits are a little lower too. And penises are so high! So.. having a penis come out so low between your legs wouldn't that make penetrating kinda hard unless you had a crazy long horse cock or smth.

🌕 So I ended up keeping the penis sheathed like I wanted, but I moved it up

🌕 The penis head is a little above where a clit would sit but I still removed the clit from her anatomy

🌕 To avoid the bone I had to put the penis above it. This isn't super crazy since the vans deferens also comes down over the bone, but it is a little awkward because this isn't a little tube this is a PENIS. This is a whole long cord of tissue and blood vessels here and I'm not giving her a small flat cock to compensate she doesn't deserve that

🌕 So, her muscle, fat, skin, and what have you is gonna have to push out to make room for the penis sitting above the bone.

🌕 Insert female alpha sheath bulge >:))

🌕 tbh I think giving her a bit of a bump is pretty hot so I'm satisfied!

🌕 However bc its sitting right over a bone any pressure applied to it is going to be uncomfortable or even painful for her

🌕 So... ig if you wanna kick a female alpha in the nuts aim for her sheath fr

🌕 So then I was good for awhile, I had placed the penis in the body in a way that satisfied me and kept the vagina intact

🌕 But okay now the penis has to come out

🌕 The female alpha cock still sits lower than the male one, so we have to do a little more bending to get it to flip up in proper penis formation

🌕 No problem, I'll just give the female a longer base after the knot and said base will be way more bendy than a real penis np np

🌕 Okay but... if we have a noodle base how is the erection staying erect and not just becoming a top heavy string of stuck blood that flops tf over

🌕 Insert what I did with the labia

🌕 I want female alphas to enjoy vaginal sex if they want to mostly for kinky reasons yk but its my world so!

🌕 But this means that I don't really wanna touch the labia around the vagina, they should still get looser during arousal they should still be fun to play with yada yada yada

🌕 But the penis needs something to lock it upright. So I split the labia into even more parts.

🌕 On irl afab anatomy theres the inner and outer labia and that's that. On the female alpha tho I had to get creative. I gave her her inner and outer labia that would function normally

🌕 Then I gave her another set around the exit of her sheath. I called them! The penile labia for lack of creativity and anatomical knowledge! Unlike the outer and inner labia around the vagina, these ones stiffen and lock up during arousal after the penis has been unleashed. This keeps it out and helps it stand!

🌕 I also gave her a middle labia. This is an extremely tough piece of muscle that separates her upper and lower sets of lips. The middle labia supports our bendy base even more and tends to get engorged and may even expand a little to support the weight of the cock and knot

🌕 This isn't fool proof by ANY means and I'm sure ppl who know anatomy better than me have a million issues rn but yk what? This makes sense to me and took me awhile to figure it out fr so I'm content

🌕 Now... I gave her a uterus-like structure and still called it "uterus" for lack of better term. this is not a functioning uterus so female alphas cannot conceive

🌕 But in this model I have this uterus act more like a muscle that helps push the penis out of the sheath. Believable? Idk but its chill with me

🌕 The female knot is generally a littler smaller than the male knot because it's gotta fit in the body

🌕 The knot here doesn't even begin to expand until the penis is unsheathed, whereas in males it may puff up slightly on initial arousal

🌕 Since I did not give her balls, her testes are inside the body where the ovaries would typically be

🌕 insert the part where I tell you alpha sperm does not need to be cool. It can survive higher temperatures which also makes sense considering omegas practically have heat strokes during heat, the sperm would need to be a little tougher.

🌕 But then why do males have balls? I got u fam ! Bc while they can survive in warmer temperatures that does not mean they thrive there. The healthiest swimmers are still kept a little cooler. Female alphas may be less fertile even because of this which could be some fun plot points bc i love female alphas pls write them more

🌕 That was so LONG but I think that's it for her

Male Beta

🌙 The male beta doesn't really have anything super atypical from irl amab bodies.

🌙 The penis of a beta tends to be a lil smaller than an alpha's but bigger than an omegas, but again this isn't always the case!

🌙 We do have a prostate for fun anal times if desired

🌙 Beta sperm is not as heat resistant as alpha sperm. They can impregnate other betas just fine but may struggle with an omega in heat. It's suggested that b/o couples try conceiving outside of heat with the help of fertility experts :>

🌙 Male betas cannot conceive, they have no uterus or vagina

🌙 Betas do not knot!

Female Beta

🌙 Again, not a lot of differences to talk about here, typical afab anatomy

🌙 It is worth noting that in my verse I am not giving female betas periods bc thats mean

🌙 For this reason their endometrium is thinner than ours so the body can reabsorb it without a true heat easier

🌙 I'll also say that beta eggs are just built different for this thinner endometrium

🌙 usually you need a certain thickness for the egg to embed properly to the uterine wall, but imma say that for whatever reason beta eggs are totally chill with a thin lining. They have a better grip or smth ig!

🌙 This allows my girls to get pregnant without an extra added issue due to my silly anatomy choices

🌙 It also makes her different from the female omega which I'll talk about later :))

Male Omega

🌑 Okay ya'll get ready for shitshow number two

🌑 actually the male omega wasn't as bad to figure out mostly bc I stole the idea of the epivagina from the author I linked above the cut!!

🌑 I'll sum up if you don't want to read through the link (you should tho it's really interesting stuff you might wanna use in ur own verse!)

🌑 So like the female alpha there are depictions I don't like when it comes to the male omega. I don't like them not having a uterus and just being... a guy? Like having nothing about them that makes them different than a male beta. Also, like how I said I don't like pregnant alphas, I don't like omegas that can impregnate.

🌑 I'm also not a fan of not giving them a penis and having them only have a vagina and uterus. What makes the two omega genders different then? Breasts? Not a fan tbh considering I like my male omegas to breastfeed with their lil pregnancy boobies (cancer in venus I like boobies and lactation not sorry)

🌑 Basically I want my mpreg and I want my penis too

🌑 So, like the female alpha, we have to give them both parts.

🌑 Since there's not a ton of room between the balls and the anus (the taint is only so big yall) I'm not a fan of just giving them a vulva here

🌑 I'm also not a big fan of the birth canal that develops from the taint when pregnant just bc it doesn't make sense to me that the body just forms and unforms a hole that they have to push out a baby the size of a small melon through. Like in that case pregnancy must be excruciatingly painful on top of pregnancy already being painful and hard

🌑 So... butt babies. Except not quite

🌑 The popular option is the cloaca but... I have issues with that too

🌑 If you read the chapter on male omegas on the ao3 link you can see why. A short cloaca definitely results in poop in the vagina. I don't think I need to explain why poop in the vagina is like the worst thing. As the author points out it also makes it difficult for fun oral time just bc the amount of infections you can get from... constant ass licking/fucking especially bc I haven't seen any male omegas telling their alphas omg wait i need to shower, shit, and have an enema first

🌑 The long cloaca can work ig but then the penis never enters the vagina and thats just not fun. The male omega would never be able to have vaginal sex fr :((

🌑 So I'm going with what the author made up! The epivagina!

🌑 The epivagina is a strong valve-like muscle kinda like the middle labia in alpha females.

🌑 During non horny times the epivagina remains positioned in a way that closes off the vaginal opening. No penetration without literal tearing can take place with it closed. The anus is open and free for poop!

🌑 During heat and arousal the epivagina switches the other way opening the vagina and closing the anus so the opposite is true

🌑 You do not have to be in heat for the vagina to open btw! Just turned on

🌑 During birth we can just assume the sphincters and muscles around this anus and vagina were built for stretching, though it might be recommend for male omegas to anal train a bit to get all our muscles ready for it (there are literally butt plugs the size of a child's head so we can train out asses a lil)

🌑 Now the drawback to this would be that... you cannot have anal with a male omega if he's turned on. Tbh that's okay with me since i'm not really into anal anyway! If it's not okay with u then.. idk change it to fit ur kink babe im not stopping u

🌑 It also kinda acts as a rape defense too in a way.... like a duck if we're not turned on good luck entering the vagina. ofc... the exception to this is heat in heat it's p much always open unless we need to shit rn so ig vaginal rape protection in heat isn't a thing but it's neat outside of heat

🌑 Male omegas do produce very small amounts of sperm but they're such sad little boys it's basically impossible to get pregnant from them. Most of them have clear orgasms if they come from their cocks at all.

🌑 I did raise their balls a bit back into the body. We're still descended but not... exactly the whole way if that makes sense. Our sperm just isn't as cool this way and it's not heat resistant fr!

🌑 Bc omegas get so hot during their heats this can also decrease or fully kill off any remaining sperm production.

🌑 Technically this way you can still get pregnant by a male omega if you're a female beta/omega but.... bc its my verse and I don't really want that I'm gonna say it happens like once in a century it is not really a thing

🌑 The penis here is smaller than anyone else's, but not as small as you'd think. I'm not going the whole micropenis route with them you can still be satisfied through penetration with my male omegas!

🌑 Like the author, I also like the concept of giving them a prostate and an internal clit >:))

🌑 no real reason other than 3 ways for my boys to orgasm and I like it

Female Omega

🌑 Pretty similar to the female beta, not too much difference from irl afab anatomy

🌑 The biggest difference between a female beta and female omega are:

🌑 Slick production (beta's do not produce slick)

🌑 The endometrium

🌑 I gave my beta's a thinner one so their bodies can absorb it and we can avoid menstruation!

🌑 Well in female omegas the endometrium is thicker, about the same as the average one irl or maybe even a little thicker than that.

🌑 Her eggs just aren't as good as gripping just like irl fr, so we need a lot of cushion for them

🌑 especially since female omegas tend to release more than one egg a cycle (2-4 is normal) so if we're all embedding we need more room to do it

🌑 A female omega also can reabsorb her endometrium no worries I am not giving her a period either

🌑 Instead I'm going to say that heat has 3 phases. Pre heat where we get ready for ovulation that lasts about 3-4 days, heat heat which lasts about 1-2 days or less. This is when we are fertile we need to get pregnant NOW, and then post heat which lasts about 3 days where our body temperature is still extremely high and we're still horny and feverous but the egg has passed alas. Its during post heat that we reabsorb and break down the endometrium. Sometimes we might see a little blood a lil spotting yk, but for the most part our heat stroke helps us absorb it idc if that's unreasonable its what imma say

🌑 The term heat usually includes heat and post heat but not pre heat (I mean you get off work for heat and post heat and we use the term heat as a collective to include that 5 or so days but this doesn't include the pre heat) but i'll do a different post for heats later !

I think thats everything if you survived all that thank you for indulging me fr! Feel free to pop in my askbox if you wanna talk about smth and like I said in the beginning feel free to steal but pls credit my diagrams if u use them :))

[old-school-butch]

I’m confused as to why so many people on Tumblr (and elsewhere) see this as situation where you have to pick a side. It’s possible to think that two groups are both doing bad things to innocent people, to varying degrees at various times. The people losing in this conflict are the civilians of *both* countries who are at the whims of their governments and bear the brunt of the poor (and sometimes horrific) decisions made by those governments. This “Good Guys” versus “Bad Guys” mentality is not sufficient for a conflict as long and complicated as this one and, again, the people who will suffer from that mentality are the civilians they claim to be standing up for.

Maybe the reason I like history is that if you follow a story for long enough it gets very hard to define anything that happens as 100% good or bad. The reasons for a war, how a war is fought and how a peace is made can all be - independently - better or worse.

This war is being fought because Hamas took hostages. A lot of hostages. Too many to ignore. And that was a strategically good for them because it gave Israel no options, just dilemmas. But for everyone chanting for a ceasefire, they need to remember that this war didn't need to start, and could be stopped, at any moment by returning those hostages. All this terrible, pointless death is on Hamas' hands. Israel's best hope at this point is to truly root out Hamas, but even then finding peace will be a difficult task.

But that's the proximate cause for the war. There are also bigger wars being fought.

Islamists form the majority of the world's extremists right now. I can name a dozen major Islamist movements happening, and this war unlocked a huge victory in their PR strategy that works better on the Western audience than live beheadings. As long as you make white people feel bad about colonialism, and say the rights words like 'liberate' and 'decolonize', you will be able to manipulate millions of useful idiots to make apologizes on your behalf and support your naked grab for power. Hamas invaded Israel 3 times in the last 8 years, but only now got the attention it craves to stay relevant in the 21st century. I hope everyone really enjoys watching mass murder, suicide bombings and terrorist tactics, because there's plenty more where that comes from and now they know the right words to say to appease you while they do it. Prepare to be amazed just how many ground invasions, property seizures and destruction, kidnappings, mass murders and violent suppressionare actshually acts of liberation resistance that empower freedom-loving indigenous people to resist neocolonial oppression - even if not a shred of that is believable. I'm serious. This is one of those times when peace ceasefire movements are actually creating the perfect conditions for everlasting war.

This is also a non-nuclear nuclear war. The U.S. doesn't normally announce where they have sent its nuclear submarines but it notified the world that it sent 4 of them to the Red Sea in November. It's part of deterrence to have these beasts in undisclosed locations and able to quickly response to any attacks. Move them close and the response in even quicker - a clear message. Eliminating the advantage of a surprise attack really is important in holding off nuclear war because of mutually assured destruction (MAD). One problem with MAD is that it assumes that the attacking party don't want to die which... if you watch even a little jihadist propaganda you might get worried about how the death cult vibes undercut that deterrence. Now... as unmanned rockets get better and smarter and faster without those pesky human pilots, it's raising concerns about whether countries like Iran can develop its nuclear capability. Even if they can build a warhead, delivering it to its destination has always been a limiting factor, this is why the US dropped them from planes in WW2. In this war, Iran is (getting the Houthis as their proxy) testing out their latest weapon developments. The Houthis/Iran tried to attack Israel with a ballistic missile (it didn't have a nuclear warhead but is the kind of missile that could be equipped with one), which prompted Israel to test drive their brand new and unproven missile defence system called Arrow. It shot the Iranian missile out of the sky. This is huge. I can't stress this enough - technically speaking, humanity's first space battle has just been fought and Israel won. This is what Reagan's 'Star Wars' program was all about - essentially stopping a bullet by shooting it with another bullet. Because this favors defence (if your surprise attack might not penetrate the defenses but you still find yourself on the receiving end of a nuclear counter attack - you are less likely to want to strike) much more thoroughly than mere mutually assured destruction. It means an attacker will face the risk of being turned into carbon while their enemy yet survives - not easy for even the most dedicated fanatic to swallow.

On top of that, Israel has also developed a laser beam - as yet untested in this conflict - that could potentially address the ammunition supply and reloading problems that plague air defense systems. To overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome on Oct 7, Hamas fired 3,000 rockets in about 20 minutes. There are simply limitations to how quickly a defence system can target, fire and reload a physical rocket, plus they are disproportionately expensive compared to the homemade rockets that Hamas fires (that didn't cost anything except redirecting international aid that was supposed to be for water pipes and fertilizer, because civilians dying of thirst and hunger doesn't appear to be an issue for Hamas). A laser beam will speed everything up immensely. You see, when the Soviet Union fractured and collapsed, about a million Jews fled to Israel and since Jews are very experienced with the fleeing-the-country routine, they brought with them the greatest of riches - knowledge. Those Jewish scientists and engineers brought the electronic warfare and rocket development capabilities of the Soviets into the development pipeline of western military doctrine. This is a good, good thing not just for the West but for everyone. The war in Ukraine was demonstrating that lifting the fog of war was absolutely deadly - good communication platforms like drones means that targets well behind the front line are in view and within reach of missile and drone attacks. The only way, it seemed, to win a war was a surprise attack because once the defence was mobilized, any ground assault would be pinned down to a stalemate on the battlefield. Effective air defence turns the tables on the effectiveness of that first strike advantage. The odds of human survival have possibly extended beyond my lifetime again, and I'm grateful for that.

This is also a global local war. We've seen interest in the Russia-Ukraine war ebb away as a younger, hotter war emerges. But what about a war between Venezuela and Guayana? If the US gets involved in one, two, is that three different conflicts... can it cope with that? How are Taiwan's defenses going to hold with 1/3 or 1/4 of American military support? Israel doesn't need help of the U.S. to win this conventional war, although the U.S. could potentially help create a winnable peace to follow this, but Iran and its allies would love to drag the U.S. more directly into the conflict. So far, it's resisted.

But I don't know how this conflict evolves, that part of the story is not yet written. I pray for more good, and less bad, to come and hope peace can be found in time.

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

Going anon because this just corrodes me due to being too stupid, but I´m the only one that thinks porn at large has done a lot of damage to society? From gender to politics and economics, I think porn was like a small dog at the start that somehow we allowed to get too wild and now is ravaging society at large, sometimes without us noticing. Maybe is just a conspirancy from someone that hates how oversexualized is everything nowadays, but there must be a tiny bit of reason in this way of thinking imo.

Well, like prostitution, pornography has always been with us (the word itself goes back to the ancient Greek words for prostitutes and writing): intentionally erotic depictions of sex exist in architecture and cave paintings and everything else for thousands of years, and as soon as the printing press was invented, erotica was one of the first things mass-consumed.

What's really changed this century is the ease of access to it that came with the internet: suddenly every sexual thought can be played out by others for you every second of the day, which has led to us all having the mind of some jaded and deranged sultan, clapping his hands every 5 minutes to bring on the dancing girls and their one cup to relieve his boredom.

But I think focusing on just the sexual aspect of this is to miss the bigger change that is happening, in which ALL our internal thoughts are moving online, into the global machine: Porn cuts us off from, and makes us less reliant on, and interested in, others, but then so does an Instagram account. So does Twitch, so does Twitter. So does Tinder. So does online shopping.

All these things eat away at, and replace, our deep flesh and blood connections with others, and trap us in our own minds, our own echo chambers, our own fantasies. It seems to me they all make us a little less warm and considerate and human, and yet it's only humans that would come up with any of it.

So there's the rub: the technological progress it is a result of is not a genie that's going to go back into any bottle; it's global change that we aren't going to be able to stop, so to a large part we just have to accept that the world has changed and this is what reality is now.

Like recreational drugs, internet porn exists and runs rampant the way it does because it partially solves an aspect of human loneliness. The downside of both is that by doing so they increase all the other aspects of human loneliness. You won't "solve" the "problem" of pornography without fixing the much bigger problem of millions of people not having happy, joyous, love-filled existences that seem better to them than painkillers, fantasy and hermitude.

The only way I know to counteract at least some of the negative effects of all of the above is to deeply fall in love with another, and prioritize real-life connections with real-life people over pixels on screens. But that is hard work, dangerous and frightening, which is largely why each one of us is staring at this Tumblr post right now.

[9w1ft]

Hi 9. I hope you are well. Your blog has been a balm for my soul in dark times, read your comments full of confidence it's like fresh air.

I would like to ask if recently or in the past, you have received unpleasant comments saying that we are wrong in what we believe in addition to adding insults, etc. How have you learned to deal with it and if at any point have they hurt you emotionally?

aw heyy thanks for saying that!

oh yeah over the years i’ve had my share of flack and insults in my inbox or maybe i’ve had an altercation here or there, and sometimes you can put a bandaid on and go about your day but usually it’s still a cut you can feel. i guess the tl;dr: would be, i think that over the years ive learned to find the right blend of environment and outlook that sets me up to have it hurt less. also i think being able to contextualize hate dismantles its power greatly.

the big thing that youve got to have the ability to laugh at yourself. this is such a wild situation to be in! embrace it. a little self deprecation goes a long way. if you let go of the need to be understood by everyone and you recognize how wild of a situation it is that we are in, and if you can laugh about it, it cures most things imo.

next you have to keep the context of the hate in mind. a lot of things i’ve had said to me just dont hurt because i know the people saying them just don’t understand what they’re talking about 😆 maybe this comes with time.. like maybe if you hang around long enough it will click, but people from different parts of the fandom are speaking from completely different languages of meaning and beliefs and so i’ll see a comment and just be like wow that’s so fascinating how this person got compelled to compose that and say it with their whole chest. couldn’t be me!

another thing is just, it has a lot to do with where we are at and what i believe or what other like minded people do. to us, we have kiiinda already reached a kaylor win condition. i know people would disagree and i get why, but to me, in the grand scheme of things, i don’t feel the need to argue or defend because we’re already there. we’ve already made it! all the rest is a bonus to me. and so what this outlook does is it makes any hate seem really really quaint. like don’t care if rude people don’t understand. why would they deserved to? 😆 they should stay right where they are.

i think hate can hurt more when you at a point where you are less confident of what you think or if you want to listen to everyone and make sense of everyone as a way to uphold ‘fairness’ or a sense of a greater community but, when you are around long enough and get a better sense of each groups’ different motivations, you come to realize that your good intentions to involve and convince everyone is a bit of a fool’s errand because at the tops of each group is a core that will never move from their position. in the end it’s just more about a personal journey, i think. and i think usually you pick a lane or a group and just stick to it and most of the drama feels different because when you stop feeling the need to litigate, hate becomes confrontation for confrontation’s sake, and then the hate stops being about you, and you can see it as a part of a bigger thing.

also one key thing… i think it’s eons easier to avoid everyday conflict on places like tumblr than on twitter. it’s easier to curate what you have on your blog and its not a very public facing platform so things are more quiet and don’t spread to the general public. this filters out a ton. and there’s less eyes on your stuff and like people can screenshot and bitch on their own space but it’s not a quote tweet so you don’t really have this sense if you’re being talked about. you can block and even block individual IP’s, or on the flip side you can monitor activity on statcounter and see patterns of where messages come from and it kind of dismantles the mystique of them. tumblr makes it a lot easier to just do your thing. it’s not always in your face. and i would have a different persona and talk differently if i was on a different platform.

and i think people in general are better at staying in their lane here than on other platforms. over the years we have all sort of found our pockets and in general we stay in them, i think! so the stuff i do get is just always worded and delivered in the same way so i know its from the same people so it’s a little bit like kramer popping in on any given episode of seinfeld. it’s just part of the routine at this point 😆

[spicyvampire]

hi, your edit for wandee goodday is cool https://www.tumblr.com/spicyvampire/750559639385587712?source=share

would you please make a tutorials for those gifs? 

Hi anon sorry for the long wait for this, unfortunately the more I looked at my psds for this gifset the more things I saw that just aren't like basic gifing knowledge. I simply did not know where to start. Anyways I tried to go and find the tutorials that helped me when I was just learning those techniques or wtv inspired me to use them instead, because they are all very details and explain way better than I could, along the way I'll give you a few tips to make your life easier

My very first tip would be to not do all those things at the same time, learn one technique at a time please, for your own sanity

Everything else under keep reading

STEP 0 : basic gifs

You need to have basic gifmaking knowledge, if you don't here's a good tutorial that pretty much touch everything

Gifmaking for beginners by hayaosmiyazaki

gif sizes and sharpening for tumblr by anya-chalotra

Here's a few tips for when you are about to start :

You need to have an idea of what you want to do before you start cutting anything aka

what's the theme of the gifset : that will help you separate how many concepts you gonna have because of that theme

once you have the concept : how many gifs are necessary to get the concept across and what lines from the show are you gonna use, how would you write those lines and your own comments to be as clear as possible (I advises test them by sending them to friends when you are done before publishing)

what is the layout of each gif gonna look like, do you need to search (pixabay or vectorstock) for some shapes in png

Once you have like most of that, you can start choosing scenes and cutting but not before because trust me you gonna over work if you don't do this

Example : So my theme was Yak being a green flag, I have 6 big gifs and 9 concepts, I fit a lot of those concepts together, but in total I have base 23 gifs

It is important that every gifs of a concept that is gonna end on the same background gif have the same amount of frames as the big gif

Make, color and save each gifs individually, so if you fuck up, you can always just go get your base gif again, name them in relationship of the final gif

Example : the final gif is named green1 so every gif in there are named green1,1 - green1,2 - green1,3

Please for the love of god, name and/or give numbers to everything and make groups in the PSD! You won't be able to find yourself in this mess if you don't do this : To make groups you can either, select what you want to group -> CTRL + G or select what you want to group -> right click -> Group from layers

You need to be able to manipulate colors, to enhance them, change them and neutralize them

becca’s mega coloring tutorial by nataliescatorccio

This was done with Step 4 of Becca's tutorial, because the colors of the scene was easy to manipulate

the beginner's guide to channel mixer by audrey-plaza

gradient map + gradient fill by ruanbaijie

This was done by making the gif as neutral as possible with channel mixer and then putting a gradient fill on because I was lazy, gradient fill is a mix of step 3 of becca's tutorial and hanyi's gradient fill, I usually do that when I can't just manipulate the colors the gif already has easily

STEP 2 : clipping mask

The easiest way to me to have a bunch of other gifs on a bigger gif in any kinda shapes to me is clipping

clipping mask + layer mask by usergif

Tips :

Start by making your shape on the background gif to know so you can play with the layout of everything and see what looks good before adding any gif

When you make shapes (in my case a rectangle) in photoshop it tells you the height and the width of the shape, so when you are gonna clip your gif to that shape, I suggest cropping it in your base gif around like 30px more than what those are before you duplicate it in your big gif, that helps to have room to move your duplicated gif around when you are done clipping it to the shape

When you are done cropping the gif you gonna clip into the shape, convert to smart -> dupplicate in your big gif -> clip to shape

Example : the rectangle is around 150px width and 240px (or something), my duplicated gif was cut 180px 270px (or something) just so i can be free to move it when it's clipped

The yellow and green sticking out of the shapes are drop shadow added for drama and the tape is literally just searching for a tape png I put on it

STEP 3 : layout from scratch

The 3rd gif layout was made from scratch because I only had 3 gifs for that idea, and also I didn't want to look like the others so the gifset wouldn't be too one tone because I'm genuinely mentally ill

layouts from scratch by eddiediaaz

tutorial: using layer masks to format multiple gifs by yuutta

I used the 2nd tutorial like word of word and it gave me this

STEP 4 : fonts and other minor stuff

gradient text by anya-chalotra

I'm only gonna explain the GREEN FLAGS text because all the other colored texts are just a variation of that without the outline and with a different font, Gradient text tutorial says it all, here are my settings for this gifset

Kate's quick textstyles tutorial by aubrey-plaza

I use the technique on Gif 3 from step 4 and on (minus the outer glow) of Kate's tutorial, and made the stroke layer italic to make the outline of GREEN FLAGS

In the end, the layers are stacked like this

Now for the rest there isn't really any tutorial but here goes nothing

For the white text, I just put enough drop shadow for everything to be easy enough to read, for that I play with the opacity of the layer

And the little white lines are made with the line tool, to make the line continues just hold shift while you are making them

I hope all of this made sense, my biggest tip for all of this is literally to play with every setting until you find something your eyes tell you looks good, If you need more advice on something in particular feel free to send another ask

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Protector

Chapter One

Chapter Forty-Two:

Virgil could tell his worry about Janus was bugging Remus.  They may have made an agreement to respect each others opinions about the core sides, but Remus still wasn’t exactly Janus’ biggest fan, it was obvious he didn’t love the way Virgil clearly wanted to check on him.

He was trying to find a way to bring it up to Remus that wouldn’t just piss him off more, but it was proving rather difficult.  He’d kind of exhausted his options on all other fronts, though.  Roman had told him everything he knew about Janus’ situation, and when he asked Patton and Logan, they’d told him essentially the same thing— they were worried about Janus and he wasn’t leaving his room.  He’d tried waiting outside Janus’ door for a while, assuming he’d at least have to come out for food at some point, but there was no such luck.  He needed the opinion of a professional anti-repressionist, and there was no one better for that job than Remus.

Now if he could just get past the “Remus hates Janus’ guts and doesn’t want to help him” issue.

Fortunately— or unfortunately, it had to be one of the two, right— Remus could tell that Virgil was worried, and Virgil could tell that Remus could tell.  Meaning it was only a matter of time before one of them brought it up and they figured something out.

Virgil wasn’t at all surprised that Remus mentioned it first.

It was a Saturday, and they were both relaxing in Remus’ room.  Remus was checking on his mold pile in the corner, and Virgil was sitting backwards on Remus’ desk chair scrolling through tumblr.  It was still a little difficult sometimes to convince his brain that he wasn’t in danger from just sitting there, but he was getting much better at it, and right now, he was actually rather calm.

So when Remus moved over in front of him looking a little apprehensive, he wasn’t exactly thrilled.

“We should talk about it,” Remus said.

Virgil looked up at him.  “Right now?  Come on, Re, just let me have my Saturday.”

“Then when are we going to talk about it Ara-gag?  When you’re stressed?  That’s not gonna go well.”

Virgil groaned and crossed his arms over the back of the chair so he could drop his head on them.  “What do you have against putting off problems until they solve themselves, Re?”

“They don’t solve themselves, they get bigger.  Come on, Virge.”

Virgil sighed.  “Fine.  What part do you want to talk about?  I assume you’re not just going to give me ideas.”

“Well, I kind of like that he’s having a miserable time.”

“So just to clarify, you want to… put off fixing the problem until it gets bigger.”

Remus scowled.  “That’s different.  I like this problem.”

“So what don’t you like?”

“I don’t like seeing you worried,” Remus said, throwing his hands up.

“Well, I hate to break it you Re,” Virgil said, standing up.  “But the two problems are kind of related.”

“You don’t want Janus to be miserable for a little bit?”

“He already was,” Virgil said, rubbing the back of his neck.  “For a lot longer than anyone thought.  I’m surprised you didn’t pick up on that.”

“About the way Janny was tired of hiding who he is?  I did.”

Virgil tipped his head curiously.  “I’m surprised you didn’t tell everyone.”

“I wasn’t going to solve his problems for him.”

Virgil hummed in acknowledgement.  “Fair enough.  Can you help me solve his problems for him then?”

“Don’t want to.”

“Re, this isn’t going to get better if someone doesn’t step in.  And it’s just going to make more problems.”

“Sounds to me like it’s removing a problem.”

“What if the others get over here and no one can go to Janus for help?” Virgil asked, raising an eyebrow.  “What if Thomas’ mental health worsens significantly because he and the others aren’t taking care of themselves, or just because Janus is isolated?  That would give me more work to do.  It would give you more work to do that you don’t like as much.”

Remus whined in dissatisfaction.  “Janus can’t be miserable while everyone else is fine?”

“It doesn’t work like that, Re.”

Remus grumbled and crossed his arms.  “You can’t just stop being worried?”

“I… don’t want to, Remus.”

Remus groaned and ran his hands through his hair.  “Why not?  Why do you care so much about him?”

“I don’t know.”

“You just do?”

“Yeah.”

Remus huffed and crossed his arms.  After a second, he sighed.  “I really can’t convince you to let this go?”

Virgil shook his head.

Remus kicked at the ground in front of him.  “He leaves his room to see Thomas, doesn’t he?  Get Tommy-boy’s permission to hide and have him summon Janus to talk, then grab him and sink him out to your room.  Lock the door so you can talk to him for as long as you need.”

Virgil considered that for a moment.  “That’s… not a bad idea, Re.  Thanks.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Virgil looked hesitantly at Remus.  “You’re really going to go on hating him for the rest of your life?”

“You said you were going to respect my choice!”

“I’m not trying to stop you, Re.  It just sounds exhausting.”

“I’m not exhausted.  I’m angry.  I’m fucking pissed as all hell.”

“That sounds exhausting too.”

“So does being scared all the time.”

Virgil considered this.  “Touché.”

“He is not going to be able to make this up to me,” Remus said.  “There’s nothing he can do.  The best option for him is to stay the hell out of my way for the rest of time.”

Virgil nodded.  “Okay.”

“How the hell did he make it up to you?”

Virgil considered this.  “I… don’t know,” he admitted.  “Maybe he hasn’t yet.”

“But you want to help him anyway?”

Virgil bit his lip, trying to think of a good way to explain it.  “Would you want to help Roman if you knew he was hurting this bad?” he asked.  “Even if you hated him?”

Remus thought about that for a moment.  “So your anger doesn’t override your care,” he said.

Virgil nodded.  “Yeah.”

“Mine does.  I don’t get why yours doesn’t.”

“That’s okay.”

Remus sighed, though it sounded closer to a laugh at the end.  “I think we’re gonna have this conversation again, Virgil.”

Virgil smiled.  “We might never stop having this conversation.”

“You good with that?”

“As long as you are.”

Remus nodded.  “Okay.  I am.”

“I am too,” Virgil said.

Remus didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, instead starting to fidget with his hands.

“What?”

“I… I don’t know.  I really don’t understand your perspective, Virgil.”

“I don’t really understand yours either, Re,” Virgil said quietly.

“Really?”

“You don’t see yourself ever forgiving him?  Years have passed, we’ve progressed to a point where we’re doing good, like really good, and you still hate Janus?”

“Yes.”

Virgil looked away.  “Okay.”

They were both quiet for a long pause.

Remus walked over and sat down on his bed.  “I don’t want to start fighting about this.”

Virgil blinked at him.  “We’re not fighting.”

“We’re disagreeing.  On something that really really matters to both of us.”

“That does not have to lead to fighting.”

Remus crossed his arms and sniffed.  “I don’t want to lose you.”

“You are not going to lose me,” Virgil said, walking over.  “Re.  Look at me.”

Remus looked up at him.

“It’s going to be okay.  I— yeah, I don’t really understand, but I’m not going to get angry at you because of it.  I can not understand your opinion and still think it’s valid.”

Remus wrapped his arms around himself.  “Are you sure?”

“Do you think I’m being unreasonable or that my decision isn’t okay?”

“No.”

“Well, there you go.”

“But what if that changes?”

“That’s up to us, Re.  We get to pick whether or not we start fighting.  We just need to make sure to keep communicating.”

“Historically, not a strong suit of Thomas’ sides.”

“Well I care about you enough to keep trying.”

Remus was silent for a second.  Then he took a breath.  “Okay.”

“Yeah?”

Remus nodded.  “Yeah.”

Virgil sighed.  “Okay.”  He sat down on the bed next to Remus and wrapped his arms around him.  Remus leaned into him, and they both sat there together.

“I love you,” Virgil murmured.  “You’re always going to be more important to me than our disagreements.”

“You are too,” Remus said back.  “And I love you too.”

And that was enough for right now.

…

“Do you think this is gonna work?” Thomas said hesitantly.

“I don’t know,” Virgil said.  “But you haven’t been able to convince him, and he doesn’t seem to be talking to anyone else.”

“Yeah no, I want him to stop being stubborn,” Thomas said, rubbing the back of his neck.  “He’s just… being really stubborn.”

Virgil smiled a little.  “That’s Janus for you.”

Thomas laughed a little.  “If you think you can do it, give it a shot,” he said.

Virgil bit his lip, stuffing down the nerves and pressure that came with that.  He wasn’t sure if he could do it.  He wasn’t sure he could grab Janus fast enough, or hang on long enough, or say the right thing to get him to hear him out.

But Janus clearly wasn’t going to listen if they did something reasonable.

So, Virgil got behind the couch, and Thomas set himself up to make it look like he was working.  He started typing on the script he and Roman and Remus were working up, then waved his hand casually like summoning Janus was a spur of the moment thing.

He rose up in front of Thomas, and Virgil blinked in surprise from his spot hidden behind the couch.  Janus… did not look very good.  His clothes were rumpled, his hair was unkempt, the bandages were clearly visible under his shirt where he’d been stabbed, and the circles under his eyes rivaled Virgil’s eyeshadow.  He hadn’t looked that bad when Virgil saw him last— though granted, that had been only for a couple seconds immediately after waking up exhausted, while heavily focused on Remus.

“What do you need, Thomas?” Janus asked, as Virgil crept up behind him.

“Huh?  Oh, nothing,” Thomas said with a casual shrug, turning back to his script.  “I’m just the distraction here to wish you both good luck.”

“What?”

“You’re coming with me!” Virgil snapped, grabbing Janus by the arm and sinking them both out to his room, locking the door firmly after them both.  He moved over to lean against his desk as Janus processed what had happened.

“What— oh real mature, Virgil,” Janus snapped, turning to glare at him.  There was a pause where he was clearly trying to leave, and Janus’ gaze soured.  “Virgil, let me out.”

“Nope.”

“Virgil!”

“We need to talk.”

“Why would you want to?” Janus asked, looking up at the ceiling and squeezing his eyes shut.  “I was trying to give you space, Virgil.”

“You’ve done plenty of that already,” Virgil said, crossing his arms.

Janus flinched, and Virgil stood and watched as several emotions flashed across his face at once.  Finally, the fight drained out of him, and he sighed and slumped his shoulders.  He turned to face Virgil, moving to the space across from him like he was preparing for an interrogation.  “Alright.  What do you want, Virgil?”

Virgil took a moment to stare at him and be a little weirded out, and then he shook himself.  “Everyone’s telling me that you won’t talk to them.”

“So?  Why do you care?”

“Because you’re not coming out of your room and if they’re not going in either that means you’re avoiding everyone, Janus.  Plus you really look like shit.”

Janus gave him a look.  “Why thank you, Virgil.”

“Why are you avoiding everyone?”

“Why are you all so insistent that I shouldn’t?  I wouldn’t think you’d want me around!”

“Well, I guess you wouldn’t know, since you’ve decided to make that decision for us.”

Janus sighed wearily, pressing his head into his hands.  “I don’t understand why you care.”

“Just because you’ve decided all of us should hate you doesn’t mean we’re going to, Janus.”

Janus gave him a disbelieving look.  Virgil gave him a very firm one right back.

Janus shook his head.  “I can’t do this today.  What do you want, Virgil?”

“Stop hiding in your room.  Your family is worried about you, Janus.  We’re all worried about you.”

“Well, worry about someone who deserves it, then,” Janus said, glaring away.

“Janus.  For fucks sake.”

“What?”

“Do you honestly think this is going to help matters?  And none of the bullshit about how everyone should want you to be alone and miserable.  Do you honestly, deep down, think this is going to help?”

“I don’t deal in honesty,” Janus snapped.

“Janus.”

Janus was quiet for a minute.

“How do you see this going?  You’re alone for the rest of your life?  You stay in your room quietly miserable because you refuse to try and atone for anything or let anyone work towards a place of moving on?  You do realize you’re preventing that, right?”

“You all seem to be moving on without me just fine,” Janus said.

“Yeah, for now.”

“How do you know that isn’t going to last?”

“How do you know it is?  Wouldn’t it be better to do the one that we’re sure of, just in case?”

“I’ll just make things worse,” Janus said.  “And why are you so insistent that I don't deserve to suffer for everything I’ve done to you?  You and Remus both?”

Virgil crossed his arms.  “Because taking the coward’s way out is my job, Janus.”

Janus’ eyes snapped open in shock.

“Oh, did you not realize that’s what your doing?  That instead of coming out and trying to make up for everything you’ve done you’re hiding in your room where nothing can ever change, like a coward?  What you owe us is a chance to try and fix things.  Not hiding away where nothing will ever get better.”

Janus looked away and said nothing.

Virgil sighed.  “Janus,” he said.  “Do you remember the night you told me you were sorry you left?”

Janus nodded.

“That pissed me the fuck off.”

Janus winced and looked back at him.

“I was so goddamn mad.  I was so furious you thought you could make up for everything you’d done with ‘I’m sorry it was necessary.’  But that’s what you said.  And I had to get you to like me enough so you’d let Remus stay here, so I told you I forgave you.  I was lying.”

Janus looked down.  “Well, that’s fair,” he murmured.

“I’m not lying this time.”

Janus looked up again.  “What?”

Virgil took a breath.  “I forgive you, Janus.”

Janus stared at him.  “Wh— why?”

Virgil didn’t have the first clue how to start explaining.  Because he cared.  Because Janus had told him he’d never stopped missing him and Remus.  Because he’d convinced Roman and Logan to take a break and because he’d done Patton’s chores and made sure Thomas was as alright as he could be when everything was falling apart.  Because he’d told Remus that Malice using his idea wasn’t his fault.  Because he was such a goddamn wreck right now.

In the end, Virgil shrugged.  “Because you’re sorry.”

“I… but I didn’t…”

“Are you going to give yourself a list of things you have to do before I can forgive you?  Because in the end that’s up to me, Janus.”

“I…” Janus looked so completely lost that Virgil almost felt bad for him.  Finally he shut his eyes again, presumably to try and hide the tears that Virgil could see anyway.

“I’m sorry, Virgil,” Janus whispered.

“I know.  I forgive you,” Virgil said again.

Janus shook his head, opening his eyes that still looked just as lost.

“That is until holding this over you until the end of time starts becoming necessary to win arguments.”

Janus laughed, a couple tears slipping free as he did so.  He pressed his hands to his face and wiped his eyes.  Doing so raised his arms up enough that Virgil could see the bandages on his shoulder.

“Hey,” Virgil said.  “Come here.”

“What?” Janus asked, looking back at him.

“Come to the bathroom with me.  I’m gonna fix your bandages.  They look like they were wrapped by a toddler.”

“I— hey.  I’ve never done this before.”

“I have.  So come here.”

Janus winced but followed Virgil towards the bathroom.  Virgil pulled his first aid kit out from under his sink as Janus took his cape and shirt off and set them on the counter.

Virgil unwrapped the bandages and threw them in the trash can, then took a minute to observe the wound.

“It’s healing really well,” he said, grabbing a washcloth to clean it with.  “Does it hurt anymore?”

Janus shook his head.

“Good, it shouldn’t,” Virgil said, starting to dab with the cloth.  “It’ll definitely leave a scar.  Most scars do go away if you die, but that’s not really a good idea when you’re the only side keeping the barrier in place.”

“I can live with a scar on my shoulder, Virgil.”

Virgil nodded in acknowledgement and started wrapping the wound again.

“What do you mean by most scars?”

Virgil winced.

“Virgil?”

Virgil sighed and got the gauze tape.  “Well, if you get hurt when you’re recovering from death, the injuries don’t really heal right,” he muttered.  “Get hurt badly enough, and it could be permanent.  Remus and I both have some scars that aren’t ever going away, even if we die again.”

He could feel Janus tense under his hand, and he looked up at him.  “We hardly notice, Janus.  They don’t hurt anymore.  Remus insists they make him look hot.”

Janus snorted.  Then he took a breath, and was quiet for a long moment.

“Virgil?”

Virgil finished taping the bandages down and stepped back, letting Janus grab his shirt and cape again.  “Yeah?”

“I— I don’t imagine this will mean much coming from me, but… you did my job very well, even if you shouldn’t have had to.  I’m very proud of you.”

Virgil stared at Janus for a minute, trying to come up with anything to say to that.  “I… uh— whatever.”

Janus smiled, just a little bit.  Virgil took a minute to try and adjust to that, which didn’t really work, and finally he shook himself back into the conversation at hand.

“So, are you going to come talk to everyone now?”

Janus tensed and dropped the cape he’d been about to wrap around his shoulders to his side.  “You really want to have to see me all the time?”

“Everyone wants to see you.  We’re all worried.  Well, except Remus, but you know.”

Janus laughed a little bitterly.

“Come talk to your family with me.”

Janus stiffened.  “They’re not—”

“Yes, they are.”

“Virgil.”

“Janus.”

Janus crossed his arms and said nothing for a very long moment.

“Janus,” Virgil said quietly.  “They’re worried about you.  Please let them help you.”

“Why should I?”

“Because it’s not fair to ask me to do it.  But I’m also stubborn enough that you know you can’t stop me if someone else isn’t helping you.”

Janus glared at him, but Virgil could tell he knew he was right.

Finally, Janus sighed.  “Okay,” he muttered.

“Really?”

“Yes,” Janus said, lifting his cape so he could wrap it around his shoulders.  “When are we doing this?”

“Now.”

“Now?”

“Yep.  Or well… you should get cleaned up first.  I’ll meet you in the commons in fifteen minutes.”

Janus looked like he was regretting all of his life choices up until that point, but he sighed and nodded.

So Janus finally sank out and Virgil put the components of his first aid kit away.  Then he headed back into his room and took a moment to breathe.  Then he sank out to Remus’ room.

Remus was sitting on his bed, thankfully, and glanced up at Virgil when he appeared.

“How’d it go?”

“Good.  Squish me,” Virgil said, and he walked over and flopped down on top of Remus, who instantly pulled him close and squeezed, and Virgil took a moment to sigh in relief.

…

Patton, Logan, and Roman were all in the living room talking with Logan about the research he wanted to do for the next video.  Logan had finally explained to them that he liked it when they did that, so Patton and Roman had both started making an effort to do so.  All three of them stopped immediately when they noticed Virgil walked in with Janus, though.

Janus was standing stiff as a board, clearly uncomfortable, but he was here, and that was the important part.

There were a few moments of silence when everyone just stared at each other, and finally, Janus stepped forward.

“I—” he said weakly.  “I’m sorry I—”

“JANUS!” everyone screamed at once.  Janus was immediately afterwards tackled by both Roman and Patton, who dragged him back over to the couch where Logan joined in the hug in a much less tackle-y way, but seeming no less desperate or relieved.

Virgil gave one more relieved sigh and left them to talk.  He had a hug pile of his own to get back to.

…

Chapter Forty-Three

[deusvervemakesgames]

Project RBH Devlog 0020

You know, this game has a lot of bullets in it. Like, a lot. And explosions. And those rings of bullets. What I’m saying is, there’s a lot of things that can hurt you moving across the entire screen at once and that’s only going to get worse as development continues. The player has zero defensive options besides physically moving, and no way to recover health except for a single powerup based on random chance.

So I added in a way to dodge.

(For some reason, this GIF is bigger than any of my other ones so I had to tweak it a bit for Tumblr to handle. As such it looks better on my Patreon. Apologies for the inconvenience)

Dodging itself is actually pretty simple: it takes the direction you’re currently moving and moves you that direction at four times your base movement speed. The trick is making sure that you’re invincible while doing this action. Luckily, the easiest way to implement the dodge input solved this issue for me. I turned the player code into a state machine.

A state machine is very straightforward, really. Instead of having all of the player movement and damage handling and attacking code in the player object itself, I turned that all into a function that the player object calls. The dodge input switches over to a different function instead, the one that makes you go fast. Doing this also means that the player movement controls and attack code stop working during the dodge. More importantly, so does the code that makes the player take damage. End result is a functional dodge action.

The particle effect is a little trickier. It’s not technically a particle system that GameMaker has built into the engine, much like the damage numbers that I discussed in the previous DevLog. It’s an object that I repeatedly create during the dodge action. The object itself decreases in opacity, fading away quickly and deleting itself once it’s entirely invisible. The color also shifts over time, rapidly changing from that reddish-purple to a sky blue as it fades. While the code itself was simple enough, the specific numbers that I needed in order to achieve the effect that I wanted took some trial and error.

Oh and then I found another game breaking bug that I wasn’t aware of, because my work is never finished. You might recall the status effects that I added a while back? It turns out that if an enemy has multiple status effects applied to them, when one of those statuses runs out, the game crashes. It turns out the fix for this was as easy as a single line of code once I realized what the problem was. The For loop that runs to make the effects of each status work sets its size by how many status effects currently apply to the enemy. This number, the ‘length’ of the array, is never changed, even if the actual length of the array does. As a result, when a status runs out, the For loop attempts to run code that no longer exists and freaks out. So all I had to do was reset the ‘length’ variable within the For loop and the problem was resolved.

I’ve still got so much ahead of me, and I’m not totally sure what I want to tackle next. I need way more powerups, but to get more powerups I need to expand the current placeholder powerup section system so that it can display the description of each upgrade. I also need a few more status effects. I’m pretty sure there’s a bug in the code that limits how many times any given upgrade appears, and I need to make sure that’s resetting correctly when the player dies. The enemies spawn in pretty much every room with no regards for the player. There’s nothing to find in the dungeon except the exit. And the enemy AI is about as simplistic as it’s possible to be.

Ah well. My work is never finished.

Until next Devlog!

-DeusVerve

Special thanks to my Tier 3 Patrons, Haelerin and Christos Kempf!

Support me on Patreon to get Early Access to builds!

[the-ghost-of-bit-the-hand1987]

I think a lot of people on this website need to learn two things: how to use the block button, and how to be the bigger person.

Like if someone says something you don't like, you can just block them. Obviously in some situations they are harassing people/being super racist/etc. and saying something/reporting them is necessary. But in most situations, you can just block someone and move on with your day. You don't have to tell them to kill themselves. I promise you it wont help the situation. Like if somebody really does have as awful of an opinion/belief as you believe them to have, a Tumblr ask is not going to change them as a person. Getting them banned or run-off the internet wont make them change their mind. It really wont.

Don't waste your energy on being hateful. Use it to actually do something productive. Use it to go show love to someone who needs it. I don't think you need to show love to people when you feel they're being shitty, no. But there are plenty of non-shitty people on this website who could really use a kind anon, or a reblog, or sweet message.

Do you really need to spend your time sending anon hate to a random trans woman on Tumblr who phrased a post a bit crudely? Or a black person who is complaining about your favorite show in a rude way? Or a Palestinian being upset with the U.S. government in an unpalatable way? Do you really need to spen your time being hateful/condesending towards them? The problem you have with them, whatever it be, is it truly unsolvable by just blocking them? Do you need to spread hatred? Is it necessary?

Chances are, it would be 1000 times more beneficial to everyone involved if you just block the person, and instead use that energy and effort to do something good/kind.

Just because you feel someone is shitty (weather they are or not is irrelevant) does not mean that you need to be shitty back. In the long run, it will always have been better to walk away and try to make the online world a kinder place, than to harass a random person on Tumblr.

Like I mean, I obviously think you should try like. Listening to people first before blocking them. Sometimes people are saying very important things. But either way, if something someone posts is making you upset enough where you feel the need to attack them or be rude/mean/hateful, then you should step away. Maybe you just need to step away from that person, or maybe the internet as a whole for a while. Either way, you need to take second and ask yourself: "Do I really need to do this?"

I'm not exactly sure why this is so hard for so many people, because I thought that this was something that cartoons taught everyone when we were little kids... But hey, its never too late to learn, and its never too late to be kind. There are a lot of people who could use that kindness right now. Take some of that time you might have used to be an asshole, and please spend it on some of these causes;

gazafunds

click for palestine

sudanese fundraisers

congo rescources

lots of trans folks need financial help in the notes of this post!

check out some black creators!

read this post!

and last of all: try to find somebody in your space who is struggling- be it physically, emotionally, mentally, or financially- and send them some love.

Use your time wisely, please. You only have so much of it.