#also if you reblog this to just like give me your two cents on why pH doesn't matter or whatever

[whatdoeseverybodywant]

All Falls Down - Chapter 3

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Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated ❤ 

All OC Characters belong to me

Taglist: @christinabae @southerngirl41 @reci1996 @jeyusos-girl @jeyusosgirl @melaninsugababy @baconeggndcheez @bemybabiibish @purplehairgawdess @jstarr86 @nbanenefrmdao @arination99 @alyyaanna @m3llowww @gomussy @jeysbae @empressdede @harmshake @theninthwonder @badbitchcentralinc @romansnumberonegirl @raya-hunter01 @kawaiisadoglu @saintaquarius @bebesobrielo @venusesworld @babysyhsyh

If your name is in bold tumblr won't let me tag you.

With Josh away on the road, it gave Kiyana plenty of time to think. She knew she wanted to divorce and leave his ass but he was all she knew. He was her first everything. Her first boyfriend, her first kiss, her first and only sexual partner and now her first heartbreak 23 years later.  

She had thought back on the past four months to see if there had been a change in Josh, but she couldn’t think of any. From what she could remember he was still the same caring and loving husband which gave her the ultimate ick. Because how could he act like he wasn’t doing her dirty while he was on the road?  How could he act like everything was normal? 

She knew that would always love Josh, but she would never forgive him and she would never trust him. 

Josh felt alienated by his family. Since he stepped foot into the area that morning, he had been getting the silent treatment from everyone except Jon. Trinity had damn near slapped the taste out of his mouth the second she saw him. He knew it was coming though. Trinity and Kiyana were instant best friends ever since they met 14 years ago. He had figured Kiyana had told Trinity but he didn’t plan on his whole family knowing he cheated on his wife.

Kiyana told Trin who told Jon who then told Sefa who told Jeremiah and Jeremiah snitch ass called their mama who called Josh and cussed his ass clean out. Talisua was disappointed in her son. She had reminded Josh that infidelity was the reason why she and Solofa weren’t together anymore. He had also cheated on Talisua while he was on the road working. 

 Kiyana had been with him for 23 years so his family was her family… shit her family. He could only guess what her brothers had to say. Her brothers were never his biggest fan. They always thought that their sister could do better than Josh and they were 100 percent right. 

Everyone was disappointed in Josh and didn’t try to hide how they felt. 

“Still can’t believe you fumbled Kiyana Jackson.” Then there was Joe’s ass. He seemed to find this whole situation hilarious. “And I mean with Shanté?!” Joe laughed loudly. “I always knew you were the dumber twin but damn.”  Josh grinded his teeth together as Joe kept going on and on.  He stopped sparring with Sefa and glared over at Joe. 

“This shit ain’t funny Joe. And I ain’t fumble shit. She is still my wife.” 

“Yeah but for how long?” Joe snorted, stopping his lap around the outside of the ring and leaning against it, staring at Josh. Joe laughed again, seeing the look on Josh’s face.. “And with Shanté? Shit half of the roster slept with her.” Trinity , who was sitting on the ring steps talking with Mercedes, snapped her head over to look at Jon who held his hands up. 

“Aye, can we stop talking about my personal life?”  Josh rolled his eyes before turning back to Sefa. He groaned and let his head fall back when his eyes fell on Shanté who was sitting in the ringside seats watching him. She gave him a flirty wave before looking back down at her phone. 

“If I can add my two cents..-” 

“You can’t” Josh cut Mercedes off and she just rolled her eyes and continued. 

“I mean ,I’ve met Kiyana a couple of times and y’all were like so in love. What made you cheat?”  Josh inhaled a deep breath. At this moment he wished he never told Kiyana shit, cause now everyone was in his damn business. 

“Cause he’s stupid.” Having enough of Joe, Josh picked up the nearest water bottle and hummed it towards Joe. 

“Shut yo’ bitch ass up!” Josh rolled out of the ring and stormed up the ramp towards the backstage area. Joe dodged the water bottle easily still laughing as he walked over towards Shanté who was glaring at him. 

“Aww you mad cause I made your boyfriend upset?” He mocked then snorted. “You know you ain’t gon be nothing but the mistress right? I mean Josh is stupid but he ain’t that stupid to not fight for his marriage.”  Joe laughed again when Shanté stood for her seat and stormed off after Josh. 

“Josh, wait up!” Fuck my life  Josh thought as he put a little pep in his step to get away from Shanté. “Josh, I know you can hear me!” She yelled running as fast as she could in her heels. Josh sighed and stopped walking. 

“What? Whatchu’ want?’ 

“Oh so it’s like that now?” She scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Don’t have an attitude with me. I aint do shit to you.” 

“Look, I told you it was over. I don’t wanna see or talk to you anymore. Whatchu’ not getting?!” 

“You can’t dictate when this is over. We were technically in a relationship and I didn’t agree for us to break up.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Josh frowned his face up at her. 

“Shanté, it was just sex and you know it. We weren’t in no damn relationship.” 

“It wasn’t just sex and you know it. If it was just sex, you wouldn’t have gotten so mad at me for going on that date with Theory.”  

Josh sucked his teeth and walked away from her. “I hope she divorce’s yo cheating ass!” She yelled out after him. Rolling her eyes as he flipped her off.

Josh stormed outside and kicked the trashcan before letting out a frustrated scream. “Wasn’t her fucking boyfriend.” He grunted and kicked the trashcan again. 

Sefa had followed Josh after he stormed off. Sefa had  heard his conversation with Shanté and honestly Sefa wanted to pummel his older brother. He made his presence known by clearing his throat, causing Josh to jump and whip around to face him. 

Josh let out a sigh and stared back at Sefa.  Sefa had taken Josh’s infidelity harder than his other brothers. Sefa and Kiyana were close. Closer than he was with Josh.  Josh didn’t know it, but Kiyana was Sefa’s first crush. While everyone else had treated him like a kid and damn near bullied him, Kiyana was always kind and didn’t mind if Sef had tagged along with the group of teenagers

“Say what you gotta say, Sef.” Josh grunted out. 

“I’m pretty sure you know what I wanna say.” Sefa said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Josh. 

“So fuckin’ say it.” Sefa shrugged and walked closer to his brother. 

“You're selfish. You had it all, the wife, the kids and you fucked it all up for what? A hoe that damn near everyone slept with?!” Sefa had tried to keep his voice down but he couldn’t. “You so damn stupid it’s fuckin crazy.” 

Josh felt his anger rise as Sefa kept berating him. “I fucking know! Y’all acting like i’m not trying to get her to forgive me for fucking up. I know I fucked up Joseph. All y’all don’t gotta remind me every fucking minute.” Josh yelled before storming back inside the building. 

Kiyana had gone to a local bar with her best friend Samara. Talisua had taken the boys again, giving her a free night that she desperately needed. “I say we hop on the next flight to Boston and whoop his big Samoan ass.”  Kiyana chuckled as Samara, her best friend since Pre-K shouted over the loud music. When Kiyana had called her to tell her about what Josh did, Samara was on the first flight back to Pensacola. “No seriously. Twenty-three years you stood by his side and raised his kids while he traveled all over the world and this is the thanks you get?’ Samara was pissed and rightfully so. 

They all grew up together, Samara, Kiyana, Josh, Jon and Joe. So she knew first hand what Kiyana went through with Josh and how much she thought they loved each other. 

Kiyana shrugged and took a sip of her whisky sour. “And he expects me to just be okay with it. Like I'm supposed to just forgive him and move forward.” Samara snorted. 

“Girl, fuck him. You gave up way too much for him and he doesn’t even realize how good of a woman you are. Like you turned down a whole full ride scholarship at Duke to go to West Alabama with his ass. And he didn’t even graduate!” Kiyana shrugged again and looked down at her lap, playing with the frayed strings of her jeans. “Did he tell you who she is?” 

“No.” Kiyana huffed and rolled her eyes. “He won’t tell me her name. But she has to work with him right?” 

“Oh, she definitely works for WWE, that's gotta be the reason why he won’t tell you her name. What other reason can it be?” Kiyana shrugged, as she was about to reply to her friend someone interrupted  them. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt.” He started smiling at both of the women. “But I had to come over her to tell you how beautiful you are.” He said, turning his attention to Kiyana, who blushed under the intensity of his stare. “I’m Malik” He held his hand out to her. 

“Kiyana.” She shot a quick look over to Samara before placing her hand in his. 

“Nice to meet you, Kiyana.” He smiled and brought her hand up to his face, placing a soft kiss on the back of it. “Can I take you out sometime?” 

“Oh,” She blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry but I’m mar-” She jumped when Samara kicked her leg. “I mean, yeah. We can go out sometime.” 

“Aight, cool.” He bit his lip as he gave her his phone. “Lock your number in and I'll text you.” She nodded and took it from him, adding herself as a contact and taking a quick selfie for the contact photo. He took his phone back and winked at her before walking off. 

“Girllll….” Samara smirked. “Get. your. lick.back.” 

whew, lot to unpack with this one. Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated ❤  Lemme know what y'all think.

Will she get her lick back with Malik or will it be someone else?? 👀

this is Malik for those who are wondering.

🎄MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THAT CELEBRATE 🎄

[jjuwuni]

caught in his web ; choi yeonjun ch. 1 | SWEET DREAMS

pairings — yeonjun x afab reader

genre — smut (lots of it so minors dni please), fluff, angst, college!au, friends to lovers, drama

word count (for this chapter) — ~2.3k

summary —  You thought you’d be immune to Choi Yeonjun's charms, turns out you were completely, utterly, shamefully wrong. 

And what’s worse? He’s your new best friend's boyfriend.

Wanna hear something even worse than that? His dad and your mom are dating.

MOA University: An educational institution created for the 1%. The elite of the elites. Those who are to inherit large multinational companies, take oath in office, and represent Korea's future in business and politics. This is where it begins.

warnings — almost-stepbro!yeonjun but not really since your parents are in the early stages of dating, kinda slow burn yes, black haired!yeonjun, bad boy yeonjun, all of you are trust fund babies, all the tubatu's make a cameo and are in the same friend group, might reference some other 4th gen idols, alcohol, drinking, drunken mishaps, lots of sex, profanity - lots of it, yeonjun is a menace but he's so cute wtf i'm screaming, jealousy, making out etc. minors dni istg! i'm watching y'all..

A/N: hello! bela here! my apologies for dipping after posting the preview. here is the official first chapter! hope you guys like it. i'll try to update more frequently. 🙏 comments and reblogs are very much appreciated xoxo also please do let me know if you'd like to be tagged for the next parts!

MASTERLIST: [ preview ] | [ 1 ] | [ 2 ] | [ 3 ]

————-　★　-———— . ————-　★　-————

“O-oh..” You clear your throat after telling yourself to get it together about a million times. Opening your mouth after what seemed like an eternity, “I uh.. Uncle Minjun? It’s nice to meet you. I’m y/n.” You offer your hand out to the man who was undeniably a splitting image of Yeonjun - just older.

He was dashing and had an air of charisma around him. One would know that being in the real estate business, you need to have some type of charm after all, so you're not too surprised that he owns the biggest housing and commercial property business in Asia. He seemed like the type to be able to sway you easily into buying things without much hesitation. 

Also explains why your mom fell for him.

“y/n.. Very nice to meet you finally. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you from your mother, you seem like a very smart lady. And as expected - beautiful too. Surely you have a lot of suitors by now, eh?” He says in a playful manner, as you finally take a seat to join them, right across from Yeonjun. 

“Oh, trust me, dad. Soobinnie's all over her.” The male across from you nonchalantly points out, making you cough right as you scoop the clear soup into your mouth. 

“Oh? CEO Dongwon's son? Well sounds like he’s a decent man.” Your mother for sure wouldn't pass off the chance to give her two cents, “Why didn’t you tell me this, sweetie? You should invite Soobin here sometime.” She lets out a giddy laugh as you grimace into your soup.

"Well, we’re not an item, Mom. And you know I want to focus on my studies first…” 

“It’s rare you hear that nowadays eh? I wish my son would see education the same way as you y/n. Maybe you should teach him a thing or two, huh?” Minjun replies, sipping from his scotch glass and giving Yeonjun a look to which the younger male replies with a sarcastic scowl. 

“I’m sure Chaewon’s got that covered.” You take the opportunity to tease back, it was your way of repaying him for bringing Soobin up. “They’re a really cute couple.” You smile the sweetest one you can muster and look over at his dad who seems to suddenly be interested at the mere mention of a girl. 

“Well, if you’re serious about dating her, son, stop bringing random girls home. You know the guards see you when you do that, right? It's quite distasteful really.” 

Your eyes widen upon learning this little piece of information, he was still bringing girls home, even though he’s dating my friend?  You think to yourself. You could feel Yeonjun’s glare directed at you from across the table, but ultimately decide to avoid it and just eat. 

“I-I’ll go get the dessert.” You shoot up from your seat not too long after, wanting to do anything to get you out of that semi-awkward situation. 

“I’ll help you y/n!” Yeonjun chimes in, walking behind you and following you into the kitchen- giving you no other choice. 

“Ahjumma, can you please take out the cream cake my mom bought this morning? I’ll cut it myself.” You say in a polite tone and a smile to match, watching the older lady walk out back to the refrigerators to go grab it. 

You let out an exasperated sigh, leaning back against the expensive Italian marble countertop. “Not even an hour with you and I’m already tired.” You glare at the male.

It’s true, there’s a reason why you never got along with him, as he was always picking on you. But it was more of a welcomed gesture for you because even though it was annoying, you were just glad you are not a part of the population of MOA-U girls who have fallen victim and succumbed to his charms. 

“Well, you do know what this means… right y/n?” Yeonjun asks, almost in a teasing tone from what you can pick up.

Soon, his hands lay flat over the countertop, on each side of your hip - effectively trapping you in. 

You swallow hard, you’ve never been this close to him before. 

Chaewon always had somewhat of a fence around him in school, which is why we’ve never been face-to-face like this. You find yourself taking note of his prominent features- from his black locks, which complimented his hazel eyes, his strong jawline, his raised nose bridge, and even that cute, boyish smile. 

“H-huh?” Great, what was that part about being immune to his charms again? 

“We’re going to be siblings," He says, arms wrapping around your waist, "..so you’ll see more of me around, most likely.” His smile stretches out even more, and it was like he enjoyed that you were flustered by the mischievous glint in his eyes.

Like a shark being able to smell fear from a few feet away. 

"You're... You weirdo." Was all you were able to say, and it took all of your might to push him off of you, and right on time too, as the help finally came back with the cake to save the day. 

You leave the kitchen as fast as you could, and even as you briskly walked away, you could feel Yeonjun smirking behind you.

————-　★　-———— . ————-　★　-————

"I don't know how I feel about it, honestly." You say as you plop down on one of the couches in Chaewon's living room after school that day. 

"My best friend and my boyfriend becoming step-siblings? Who would have thought..." Chaewon says with a smile, though you couldn't tell if it was a sarcastic smile or one that was of genuine nature. 

"I know my mom's been a notorious magnet for rich dudes but I never thought she would end up in the arms of Choi Minjun, tsk. This is driving me nuts." You whine out, pulling at your hair and punching the throw pillow repeatedly.

"You do know there's some business strategy side to this, right unnie?" Minjeong suddenly speaks up. The youngest in your group rarely opened her mouth, which is why all four of you were all ears whenever she decides to give her input on things. 

"How so?" You ask, trying to make sense of the situation and guessing where she was going with this statement.

"Mm well... Yeonjun oppa's dad owns a lot of properties, and you guys own a lot of department stores.. So if your companies merge... Then, your mom can expand to more places and oppa's dad will acquire more patrons because of the brand - since your mom does have an insane amount of fans. It will be the merger that everyone in Korea will be talking about." 

"Wow.. I never really thought of it that way." You say in a hushed tone, trying to put the pieces together. 

"At this rate you'll be richer than all three of us combined. With the exception of Chaewon, of course." Yeji says in a joking manner, her statement causing Chaewon to flip her hair over her shoulder. 

You laugh it off, "Ah, well- that's.. that's really not my concern now. All I know is that my mother needs to get her life together.." 

"Well look at the bright side y/n, at least you get to look after my baby for me," Chaewon interjects, putting her hand over her chest. "You know, you can report to me and tell me if there are girls who try to flirt with him and all that. You’re basically going to be his younger sister anyways." She points out, nodding her head a few times. 

You stay silent, suddenly remembering that one little fact that his dad gave away at dinner.

He was still bringing random girls home at this point. 

There was an inner battle in you suddenly - should I say something? Or should I keep it under wraps since their relationship isn’t my business anyway? Something prompts you to go for the latter, not open your mouth and just nod.

You'd rather not be caught in the middle of the drama.

————-　★　-———— . ————-　★　-————

As expected, there was another party that night at Chaewon’s house.

There were indeed perks to being inheritors to future companies: your parents were more often than not, too busy to take note of anyone's whereabouts. Which is why you have the luxury to party whenever you wanted.

Surprisingly, you were actually in the mood to party then. As you’ve managed to down a few shots of soju as well as soju bombs with Yeji.  

And not surprisingly, Chaewon was all over Yeonjun that night.

You could feel him staring at you from time to time though. Nevertheless, you don't think much of it- as you’ve always made it a point not to.

He's probably waiting for me to f*ck up or something so he can tattletale on me to my mom next time we have a ‘family’ meal. 

“How’s my favorite girl?” Soobin’s voice made its presence known as he wraps his arm around your neck and pulls you into a hug. Your arms instinctively wrap around his torso, and you stay that way for a few minutes. 

“Ah- y/n! Before I forget! Remember how you were looking for that limited edition version of that manga we both loved?!” He asks as you pull away from the hug. You, of course, nod quickly.

The two of you have a lot of similarities, and your love for mangas and graphic novels was one of them. 

In a swift motion, he then pulls out something from his bag. And lo and behold, in its pristine condition, was the same novel you've been searching high and low for. 

“WHAT! NO WAY!!!” You shout over the music, enough to draw attention from the people around you. You envelop him in another excited hug out of gratitude. “I can’t believe you found it?! How did you do it? I had my mom’s assistant look all over for it. Even my grandparents’ staff were searching for it.” 

“Ah well, I have my connections. You’re not the only one, y/n.” Soobin winks as soon as you pull away to take the manga and read through the back cover. 

The rest of the night was spent with Soobin and a few more soju bottles. And by the end of the night, you were feeling the ugly effects of alcohol. 

Cuddled up with him on one side of the couch, with the two of you talking about all the animes you’ve watched the past week. It was pretty fun to have someone with whom you could nerd out, especially in a group of socialites such as the one you both have. 

“Ah, you’re remarkable. I can’t believe you like the same things I do.” He said, pinching your nose which causes you to scrunch it upwards. 

“y/n...?” He suddenly grows quiet after a few moments of just staring at each other. 

“H-huh?” You ask, your forehead creasing in curiosity. Unfortunately, right on time, your vision starts to blur, and the dimmed-out lights in the living room turned party area wasn’t helping. “W-what is it?” 

“C-can I k-kiss-- Y-yah.. y/n?! Hey! You ok?!”

That was pretty much the last thing you hear before passing out. 

And that was it, your dear old friend alcohol got the better of you, knocking you out on his lap. 

————-　★　-———— . ————-　★　-————

“Yeonjun, I don’t understand, you know I can bring her home safely.” 

Was I dreaming? 

“I know, but I promised her mom I’d take care of her, and that’s what I’ll do so hand her over.” His voice didn’t falter, standing firm to the promise he made to your mom.

W-wait.. I can’t see anything.. I can’t open my eyes. I’m still dizzy,  I can only hear faintly.. Ah, what is happening to me?!.. 

“Pff, alright, fine Jjunie.. But you better not try any funny business.” 

You could feel another pair of strong arms underneath you, cradling you as you shifted. The air is crisp and cold as it brushes through your legs. You were outside.

“Babe! Where are you going?! You can let Soobin handle her and the party’s not over yet.” 

That was Chaewon’s voice..

“I have to go Chae, I’ll bring her home first and make sure she’s settled. I’ll see you tomorrow in school hmm?” 

————-　★　-———— . ————-　★　-————

You wake up to music, a hummed lullaby of sorts. It was soothing and pleasant to hear. You can feel the soft mattress under your tired body. With how familiar it all felt, you could tell you were in your bed.

Apart from that, you can feel someone stroking your hair. 

Your eyelids felt so heavy as you open them, curious to see who it was. But you could barely see, vision still blurry no thanks to the after-effects of alcohol.

Add that, and the fact that it was rather pitch dark around your room- signaling that all the lights were off.

Someone was in your room, that you knew. Because you can hear him and his melodic humming, and whoever it was- he was unmistakably sitting at the edge of your bed next to you. 

“O-ow..” You croak out, feeling the throbbing in your head.  Pressing the palm of your hand against your forehead almost immediately, the melodic, soft voice cuts as you note the mattress' weight shift when the person beside you leans in to check on you.

“y/n, don't get up, just get some rest…” That voice, you know who it belongs to, but it took you a while to process it. 

Yeonjun’s voice? 

Even though you wanted so badly to keep your eyes open and verify if your guess was correct, you've had way too much to drink to keep up.

You couldn’t believe it though. How can someone so rugged and nonchalant about things have such a sweet voice? Plus, the mere idea that he’s here to make sure you're okay- that definitely does not seem like something he’d do. 

Or have you had a skewed vision of him this whole time?

Soon after, You feel his lips against your forehead. His soft buds leave a small peck and a tingling sensation on your skin, and you swore your cheeks felt a lot more heated than it was before.

At that point, you weren't sure if it was all a dream. You feel your stomach churn. Was it butterflies? Nah, it must be the soju. You tell yourself.

“Sweet dreams, y/n.” And with that, you drift off into dreamland.

[ropebuny]

Oof. I'm pretty sure I'm the guy you were referring to about being disappointed in my girl obeying "too well." I'd like to clarify, probably more selfishly than anything else.

A) I appreciate you not actually tagging me because oh buddy that was a ride of comments and reblogs.

B) I absolutely love and married this girl. She is absolutely not boring nor am I disappointed with anything about her. She's amazing.

That was really a tongue in cheek snap shot of something that happened, more of a joke than anything else. Albeit maybe not the most well delivered or received.

C) We communicate literally every time we have sex. To make sure she's ok, satisfied, something that was too much or not enough. We talked about her being "too good" right afterwards and we both laughed about it. In the fake disappointment that she doesn't give me a reason to punish her more.

D) I do appreciate the advice and input and criticism. I am absolutely not perfect and have never claimed to be. I started this blog originally to learn more about kink and how to do things better/safer, find new ideas, explore things, yada yada yada. Not like there was a course in college I could take. But now I'll add some of those comments to new things to try and ways to spice things up.

In the way of kink, I very well might be boring compared to some. But I'm doing my best to be better for her. So honestly, thanks for the criticism.

-K

thank you for taking the time to reach out and write out your thoughts and further explain everything. I definitely see where you’re coming from now. sometimes it’s a caught in the moment thing, where you wanted to perhaps feel ‘justified’ for punishing her but then couldn’t do so since she was being so good that it felt kind of frustrating not being able to have a ‘reason’ to punish her, but not frustrated in a ‘genuinely mad’ type of way. and it’s cute how the two of you can joke about her being ‘too good’ afterwards too. that is always important in a dynamic, to be able to express yourself and make silly jokes with each other

I just personally would have taken it very to heart if my dom expressed their dissatisfaction and used words such as ‘disappointing’ and ‘not of any fun’ and I know that many other subs would agree. how your sub takes it and whether or not she is offended or hurt by your statements, is entirely your own personal experience and business between the two of you to work out. to a lot of people though it seemed like you were lacking in being able to communicate this dissatisfaction with her obedience, as it came across as being, so they put in their two cents. I didn’t want my criticism to come across as me attacking you or being hateful, that is also why I never tagged you. that is never my intention. your post got me thinking about how insecure I personally would feel if my dom shared those feelings and expressed them openly for others to see on tumblr, so I wanted to perhaps start a small discussion between my mutuals. it felt disrespectful in my eyes, because many doms unfortunately do not value their subs as much as they should, or some even at all. and it’s saddening to see as a sub

the post eventually, to my surprise, gained traction and lots of people weighed in their opinions and experiences which I think is lovely in this community, how we can dissect these things and try our best to help one another. what matters is that you and your sub have a respectful and healthy dynamic, my issues were personally in the specific adjectives you chose to use to describe her obedience which felt disrespectful to me, and it got me thinking how I would feel if my dom shared these thoughts. and it got me thinking and ranting. I apologise if any of this hurt you, since I and my post are the reason this specific situation is even being talked about in the first place.

it’s an important quality to be able to take criticism, so I admire your ability to do so. it’s especially important to be able to take criticism and assess it, especially in an environment such as the kink community where people can so easily get hurt or scarred/traumatised. and I myself have received criticism and have seen people’s disdain towards my words, so it’s important for us to always realise that we can always better ourselves and better how we communicate with each other and to be aware or how certain actions/words of ours can hurt others. good on you for taking accountability and thank you for taking the time to reach out to me and explain yourself, and most importantly defend your sub and openly express your love and respect for her. and I again apologise for any discomfort this has brought onto you, because it was truly never my intention for you to see that post and have others bashing you. I never expected that post to blow up nearly as much as it did

[redredribbon]

Just ran across a really well-articulated post that has unfortunately had to turn off reblogs but it did finally help me put into words some of what didn't come together for me with the banters and character interactions in DATV. I'm gonna discuss below the cut.

Post is here, linking a version that has a great follow up example from WoW: link here

I've been trying to find words that are more expressive than "everyone is too nice," because that drastically oversimplifies it in a way I'm not aiming for. I like the hopeful tone. I don't feel like it needed to be more grimdark, personally (though I understand that critique), I feel like it's bleak enough with the plot implications of what's happening. I'm also not saying people needed to hate each other more, I'm not missing the level of argument that makes me question why these two companions are still even working with me.

What I am missing is healthy conflict, and banters with worldbuilding purpose. OP gave an excellent example in that post about Taash and Bellara. I think an example of this done well in another game was Bull and Dorian. They are on opposite sides of a big conflict in the world: Qunari vs. Tevinter. This is not a conflict you as the player have much reason to care about because it doesn't directly affect the plot, necessarily. But presenting it to you through two of your friends sniping at each other accomplishes a lot: it gives you personal reason to care, and gives you a digestible chunk of worldbuilding in an engaging way that puts no pressure on you to invest but gives both the world and the characters way more color and flavor with minimal effort. It also results in the two of them starting to see the holes in their own arguments, and find better understanding (even love).

Of course not all banters result in understanding. Not all people are going to be friends, and that's okay, but you could still do that in DATV if that's the goal. I love the DATV companions, and I love their friendships. With the Lighthouse, you could have had so many extra opportunities for them to have talks like that, and find common ground, without shying away from conflict. I think a lot of people are afraid conflict will make the characters hate each other, instead of be honest enough with each other to have more genuine connections that don't ignore their differences. In fact, it often brings more depth to that connection!

Anyway. Just my two cents. Not looking to rain on anyone's parade. I enjoyed the game enough I'm playing it again! But I think it's good to talk about what didn't work, too.

[gallavichthings]

Hoping you can put this out for all of the artists and writers that participate in your events. Just wondering how everyone deals with the feeling of posting something and having it completely flop? Those of you that have had it happen, how do you come back from that?

Hello, dear anon! I'm posting this so that anyone who wants to reply may do so, as you requested, but I also wanted to include my own two cents.

First of all, let me tell you I absolutely understand your frustration. It can be very off-putting to post something you put effort into to just have no one apparently notice it. There are a lot of posts saying how we should write/make art for ourselves, and not for others, and while I agree with those to a certain extent, once you actually post something, the goal is clearly to have it noticed by your peers.

That being said, I do encourage you to try to redefine what a flop means. Is it no notes at all? Because I hardly think you're getting no notes at all, especially in this fandom (but if you are, maybe there's something off with the way you're "marketing" it, so let me know and maybe we can help).

I assume by flop you mean getting less notes than you'd expected, so I think it's a matter of expectations. Are you comparing yourself to others? Because let me tell you right away, that won't do. Some people are more popular, period, and who knows why that is. Sure, most of the time these people are really talented, but usually it's that they make something that resonates with people, but I couldn't tell you why some do and some don't. It's absolutely impossible to predict what the fandom will or won't like. Even if you compare your works with your other own works, that will happen. I can't tell you the amount of times I've written something thinking people would love it only to get just a handful of kudos, while some other fics I've written on a whim, thinking no one would care, got way more attention.

Number three: give it time. Sometimes things aren't appreciated right away, but eventually they get further. I still get daily kudos on fics I wrote 8, 9, 10 years ago.

Finally, and this is a message to everyone, not just the anon who sent the ask: this is why fandom is important, and this is why you have to share the things you enjoy. Leaving likes/kudos is a great thing, but once you reblog it or add it to a recs list, that's when other people get to know stuff. That's literally my main job here, that's the reason I created this blog, so it would be an archive for the fandom. Yes, I organize events as well, and I answer asks and all, but the main point of this blog has always been and will continue to be reblogging. (I unfortunately don't have as much time to go through the tags as I used to, which is why I have my dear @sickness-health-all-that-shit helping me out, but it's still possible we miss things, so you're always welcome to tag me or send me your posts if you notice it's been a week or two and we haven't reblogged them yet - please do wait a bit though, as we do have a queue to go through.) Also, please do leave replies/comments/tags, those are so important and encouraging to the artists/authors!

I hope this eases your heart a bit, anon. And I look forward to seeing what everyone else will say.

Cheers,

GT mod.

[spacedustpan]

I almost tagged the original before deciding that I do, in fact, like my peace and realizing that the people that make posts like this and the people supporting this viewpoint are the people that would start Internet Beef over my tags so I'll do this on my own post with screenshots of the tags.

Here is the post I'm referencing:

Here are the tags I considered adding but ultimately decided not to:

I'm so tired of popular blogs trying to shame the general tumblr populace into not tagging their blorbos because they don't like the borbos that are tagged.

Whats funny is a lot of the popular blogs will then turn around and agree with the general tumblr gripe these days that it sucks that no one reblogs anything anymore.

But like

MY SIBLING IN CHRIST!!!

YOU MADE THE ENVIRONMENT HOSTILE TO REBLOG!!!

WHY WOULD SOMEONE REBLOG A POST IF ANYTIME THEY TAG A RELATABLE POST THEY RISK BEING NEGATIVELY JUDGED AND THEY'LL BE DEEMED A CRINGEFAIL LOSER FOR REBLOGGING WITH TAGS THE OP DIDN'T LIKE?????

I've seen other similar posts, this is just the one that finally annoyed me enough to give my 2 cents.

Like Jesus I wouldn't be following were-ralph if they didn't derail a post with their Werewolf Boyfriend!!! And my tumblr experience would be worse for it! They're hilarious and have great taste in music!

Blorbo tags on relatable posts sometimes lead you to a piece of media or genre of media that you might enjoy.

Like I get that you don't like Blorbeau and Glup Shittaux and find them annoying and that's valid.

But like let people use the website without shame over liking fictional characters. 🙏 please.

ALSO ALSO that made me remember!

I never would have read this post :

If someone didn't blorbo tag!!!

I DON'T EVEN LIKE STAR WARS.

This is a post that somone liked and came up in my feed. I wasn't even following the tags for it but because the tags were made they inspired someone else who delighted someone else enough to create writing and technically art of this silly text post.

And I'm considering watching the prequels along with whatever Commander Cody is in just to get the context for these blorbos because I LAUGHED MYSELF TO TEARS reading this!!!

It was wonderful! And despite my general lifelong passionate disinterest for Space Wizards and their Lazer Swords I absolutely have to see what the fuck is going on with these two!

THIS IS WHAT TUMBLR IS ABOUT!!!!!

Sharing what's cool and fun and funny about your special interests in the hopes that other people will see how cool and fun and funny it is and join you!

That's what this website is built for!!!

[vastly-fixated-devotee-667]

Did you see what I said about the ship Romesse? Cause when I rebloged that I did it from your post specifically. I wanted to see what you had to say about my take

i did. i think your analysis is well-written, but i don’t agree with your ideas lol. but that’s okay, i mean, my ship opinions are not end-all-be-all. just because i don’t like or understand it doesn’t mean i’m going to say you’re wrong for liking it. live and let live 🙏

personally, my two cents, i’m just not a fan of ship dynamics based around a villain being redeemed by their victim. especially not when the villain is as powerful and destructive as Romeo. it just doesn’t appeal to me. i’ve always preferred happy, fluffy dynamics. i like angst but not stemming from one party in the relationship mistreating the other(s). enemies to lovers can be fun but i usually only like it in certain circumstances. i can maybe understand why people like it in a post-Romeo redemption context, but i’m admittedly not a very canon-divergent person and usually look at things as they are in the canon events of the game. you are incredibly right though that Billdip is quite possibly one of the worst examples of villain x victim, i will give you that lmao

but also… i just don’t like Romeo that much and that certainly affects my shipping opinions lol. and perhaps this is a pessimistic view to take but i don’t see much redemption for him, especially after everything he did in Beacontown. the amicicide and psychological torture prison were bad enough, but those things along with a dictatorship is hard to make up for, let alone come back from.

all that plus i guess what you could call my age headcanons and it just doesn’t add up to something i like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[saiyanandproud]

6 and 8, and 25! :0

Munday Mumbling Asks - send a number for me to talk about one of the following topics!

6. Excessive OOC

I must say I only had a few occasions on this blog where I have witnessed excessive OOC behaviours. Also, it's a bit hard to determine what is 'excessive', it's all very subjective, so I will list a few examples that come to mind and could fit the definition.

First of all, I don't mind OOC posting about a mun's worldbuilding, characters, writing approach, headcanons on their muses and so on. If anything, I really like to read about them, they give me a lot more insight on their creative approach and are a big source of inspiration for threads to suggest them! The only excessive aspect I might think of it is when there is A LOT of that and... None of the actual interactions. Aka: it's great to read about all this stuff, my friend, but if you don't actually offer any chance to put this into practice and roleplay with you, it might feel a bit pointless. I had instances of finding very interesting blogs, but once I scrolled through their posts, it was a lot of OOC talking and... None of the writing. Which makes me a bit suspicious about what to expect from it, so I might choose not to followe because I like to keep my dash focussed on RPing as much as possible. The fact that I live in a GMT zone which is different from most of my mutuals makes it challenging to follow dash activity already, so I'd like not to fill it with content that wouldn't be relevant to my hobby here if possible.

Another instance of excessive OOC that comes to my mind (again, according to my perspective), is toxic OOC. We all get salty, it's human, but if every post a person makes OOC is to throw shade and sourness at others / the dash / anything in a constant manner without ever considering dialoguing, my wish to interact with them will plummet. It's not too different from real life stuff -- no one likes to engage with someone who is constantly negative and criticises everyone and everything, and I personally prefer when issues are discussed (and hopefully fixed) rather than casually dropping complaints and never being proactive in making the situation better (and fixing the issue in private where it's due rather than ranting about it publicly). The odd moment of irritation is fine, but if looking back one realises that they are constantly irritated about anything, well, maybe they should consider if it's not a matter of the way they process stuff, and whether it would be worth changing approach. Again, this is just my two cents on the matter.

8. Reblog karma

I am a fan of reblog karma -- in fact, it's in my rules. This is for a couple of reasons: one, I have been treated as a source of memes by certain blogs that followed me but never cared to interact, write, or even reach out, only reblogged the memes I shared and that was it; as I find it quite rude, I usually give it three strikes until I choose to block the blog because of it. Second, which is kinda linked to the former, because RPing, while being a personal hobby, does happen in a community, hence why I think that, as a common effort to keep the fun going and interactions flowing for everyone's amusement, it's a simple matter of kindness to send an ask to the blog we reblog a meme from -- it takes 0 seconds, it fulfills the purpose that meme was reblogged for by the RPing blog in the first moment, and it enhances the possibilities of more people engaging in the meme/game and make it all more enjoyable for everyone.

I completely understand that sometimes you might not have a way/reason to send a certain ask to said mun, not even on anon. But that's why I think that, in this case, is just better to reblog the meme from the source (that's what memes blogs are there for!). I personally prefer to engage as much as possible, but if people don't, reblogging from meme blogs/sources helps them thrive, takes nothing, takes the burden off your shoulders, and doesn't make the other user feel 'used'. Again, a personal opinion.

25. Your character

Oh boy. What to say about Mariko? I can't believe I have been writing her for... Eight years now. It's sweet to say how she has changed in the meantime, and at the same time, how she hasn't changed at all, which makes me both proud and annoyed about her.

Well, let's start with the positive stuff I guess. I am happy that Mariko seems to draw in sympathy from the crowd. I've had a few people telling me she's well written and feels 'alive', which I'm glad to hear (especially considering that I really could treat her in a way more serious way when I write her). I do my best to make her flawed and as imperfect as possible, not becuase of the 'Mary Sue' complex (we all grew past it I think), but mostly because I think flawed characters are the most intriguing ones, and imperfections are great triggers to spike rich threads.

On the other hand, I wish I could write Mariko in a more 'serious' way sometimes. Part of the reason why it doesn't happen is my own selectivity, both in terms of mutuals (not a massive issue here, I consider myself kinda lucky, it's just that simply I need the right muses sometimes), and in terms of story. There are certain narrative knots in Mariko's storyline which I wish could go in a specific way, but I don't want to force anyone on it. Like, the way she finds out she descends from Goku -- it would really challenge her perspective on her life, her predjudices on his historical figure and so much more, and I would like to dedicate it as much time and introspection as possible, but I know this is my need and mine only.

The issue with Mariko is that she isn't born out of a story I had in my mind already; I just wrote down the premises (her life on Earth) but everything about her story from once she arrived in Conton onwards has been litterally shaped by RP interactions. Which has been beautiful, and unexpected, and lots of fun! Some key threads (like the ones with her mentors, with Fu, with Shallot) did a lot to make her grow in Conton, and by accomodating to mutuals turnover and so on, other opportunities to develop her came naturallly -- Mariko's devotion to her mentors, for example. The mutual who wrote both Nappa and Raditz back then is no longer active, which sparked a sense of 'abandonment' in Mariko's character, a nostalgia for her acquired family in Conton, and a need to cling on their figures whenever possible, reflected in later threads with @risingsouls). So yeah, by extension, Mariko's storyline relies a lot on the interactions I get here. Which, while it can be creative and surprising, it can also limit my chances to explore the character because of this approach, based on the availability or people/threads/muses/anything.

Another "issue" (kinda) I have with Mariko is the way she grew. I decided to progressively age her at some point, so each year that passes is a year she gains. Mariko is currently 23 (or 24? Did I update it this last July??), and I might decide to stop at some point, or not. However, not sure if because of her faceclaim appearance, or because of her attitude, or because people first interacted with her when she was younger, I still struggle to make her come across as more mature -- she seems crystallized in a trope that I struggle to free her from, and it can be frustrating because sometimes I feel like it hinders chances of more serious topics and threads involving her. Maybe it's also the way I write her, and the bratty attitude she has at times. Then again, it is really part of her personality, and while she has become more mature over the years, it's hard to picture her without her 'youthful spark' at times. Not sure. Inputs and constructive criticisms are more than welcome, as always.

[thekimspoblog]

More chatting about BCS w/ @brilliantalpaca

Them: I read the whole thing, Ill reblog it later because there is some stuff I want to give my two cents on

But this is wild to me

Hello? He graduated from law school? Why is blud in charge of the mail?

Me: I mean OP is right; Jimmy isn't OWED a partnership at HHM. The problem is that when Jimmy and Kim ACCEPTED that the firm wasn't going to promote them and struck out on their own, HHM still interfered. I do think Jimmy has a bit of a NiceGuy complex, but not nearly as badly as Walt did. "NiceGuys finish last, so if you're pulling ahead you were never really that nice" is definitely a theme of BCS. But "Who is watching the watchers? Who gets to decide who the gatekeeper is?" is also a theme. Plus... Kim is a god and when she asks for something, you give it to her or you die. Granted, Howard and Chuck had no way of knowing that last part, but still.

Them: The whole middle part is so cracked

Cooked with gas

In any case, and considering Jimothy started a law firm inside a beauty parlor, I think he would have been happy at HMM the second he stopped to push a cart, at least for a while

Like, I dont think the man is ambitious for power or a title or authoritas, but for respect

Thats why he leaves the firm at... You know, the cocobono table place, sorry its been a while

So I think if his brother had respected him a little bit more, well

Me: On the one hand, he just wanted to work next to his brother and his girlfriend. But like... he got that opportunity with Davis and Mainn and he hated it. That place was stuffy; he needed his freedom. It's one thing for Chuck to say "I don't think my brother would be a good fit at my firm. Even if he is talented, his eccentricities are a liability; I don't want to hire him"; I mean that's basically the same conclusion Kim reached. The problem is we never see Howard do any actual work, so the impression we get is that HHM siphons off labor from its employees, then refuses to compensate them adequately or even acknowledge their role as contributing partners. And again, there was definitely some sort of discrimination going on with the way Chuck penalized Kim for associating with Jimmy.

Them: They also put him an intern-copter on his ass, which would sit badly with anyone

And Chuck actively tried to prevent him to practice

Which is very messed up

Me: Again, I can't really blame them. Frankly Jimmy should have treated Erin with more respect; she had worked there longer and even if she was kind of passive aggressive about it, she was just trying to show him the ropes.

Them: I can't blame them either, but thats because I know Jimmy

In any case, trusting the narrative at one hundred percent and confusing Jimmy with a poor little meow meow is something I'm guilty of

Ill admit that

When he usually makes his own bed

Me: Under normal circumstances, I would say wanting to get someone disbarred for sabotaging you is pretty understandable. But again, Chuck started it by stealing Mesa Verde. Jimmy loved Chuck, but he wanted Chuck to admit that he too could be a bit of a hypocrite and a sleazebag. That he wasn't better than Jimmy. And the truth is he really wasn't.

Them: He really really wasnt, he just dressed it up better

Chuck is such an university profesor its insane, they nailed him

Me: To by a hypocrite is to be human. And honestly I think you're an irresponsible lawyer if you CAN'T acknowledge your own biases.

Them: I also didnt realize that yeah, we never see Howard doing... Work on his own, huh?

Like he's there at meetings, with Chuck at the Mesa Verde hearing

But what does he *do*

Me: I assume Howard does actually do quite a bit of paperwork. But this is a tv show, so if they didn't want us to see him as a symbol of the owning class, as a wage thief, they should have framed the story differently.

Them: It is implied, if not stated, hes riding his dad coat tails, right?

I dont know, he may actually just... Be there

Well, no, hes at court at times

Because if we didnt had anything, you know, to a point that becomes a conscious choice even if hes a secondary character ok a tv show

Me: The main reason I'm inclined to cut Jimmy some slack is that on some level, Jimmy knows that he's just plain bad at making choices for himself. He wants to be bossed around, just by someone he trusts. He spent half his life outsourcing his ethical code to his brother, and the other half just following whatever marching orders his wife gave him. So at least in the later seasons of BCS, the best defense to the idea that Jimmy is a bad person is simply "That part was Kim's idea; you want to complain, take it up with management". Right or wrong, he's a man who can biblically submit to his wife; that kind of puts him in a whole other moral universe.

Them: The show also makes ir very easy to fall into the "Jimmy logic hole", where everything he does gets justified by a slight that happened six episodes ago

Me: But like I said, this is why him going to prison is kinda fucked. Instead of growing the hell up and thinking for himself for once, Jimmy surrenders and turns his agency over to the ultimate daddy; the government.

Them: Lel true

Thats actually a good reading

Me: I think it's best to think of Hamlin-Hamlin-McGill-McGill-and-Wexler as just one big firm that ended up cannibalizing itself; neither half of the entity ever became fully independent from the other, and eventually fighting over clients sunk both halves of the business. Kind of fitting with the theme of wildflowers growing on an unmarked grave, I like to think about Iris's relationship to that business and that building. This big, bombastic story we spent six years chronicling, in just two short decades nothing will be remembered about it besides a "how I met your mother" anecdote. George Hamlin wanted to build a family business... well, he got one.

Them: The causes of the firm's undoing bring writing on its own foundation

You know, George Hamlin bringing his son and Chuck bringing his brother

Kim getting dragged into the drama of the whole thing and doing what she does in the show

Me: yes exactly

Them: It all becomes inevitable

Me: Instead of having a long(er) life in prison, my timeline ends with Jimmy dying at age 69 from a heart-attack while fleeing a protest-turned-riot, being remembered as a beloved patriarch martyred for a righteous cause. It's a happier ending than what Vince and Peter would leave him to, but it's still supposed to feel a little perverse: this was the path Kim put him on when she got him out on parole, and on some level she knew this. Iris blames their mother for what happened, and they're not wrong, but at this point remorse is an emotion that doesn't come easily to Kim anymore. She gave him the best life she could, but nothing lasts forever. Still, nothing is set in stone. Jimmy will be a martyr for Kim's revolution if he lets her make him one. But saying "no" to her - AND MEANING IT - is the hardest thing to do. Especially when he knows she's right; that Iris is going to inherit a police state if the parents don't act preemptively.

[baejax-the-great]

Hi! There are two 🕯on this list, so either one you'd prefer to answer, please.

🕯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

Ahhh. Listen. It is so hard. I got way more asks today than I expected from this list, and if I were a stranger looking at my blog, I'd think like, wow, they're really popular, they already have so many fandom friends and admirers, they are cool and know how to talk to people, and like all of that is false. I'm just some guy.

When I first joined fandom, I got so intimidated so easily by the relationships other people seemed to already have, and I still do sometimes! It's a little bit different now, because I've made some friends, but I still get those feelings of like, idk why this person would even want to talk to me, they probably already have all the friends they need, I'll probably be really weird and embarrass myself, etc etc.

Unfortunately on the internet, like in real life, the only way to connect with people is to put yourself out there. By writing fic, I think it's an easy access point for others to engage, because they know exactly what the author is thinking about today (patrochilles in my case or whatever), but it's still intimidating as hell. And sometimes two people, through no faults of their own, simply do not click.

On the other hand, it can be super fun! Answering these asks today was fun! Thank you! And if you poke an author, often fic will fall out! If you give them insane AU ideas, sometimes they write it! Great things can happen when you approach people. Or nothing. Sometimes nothing happens.

The key to staying healthy in fandom, I think, is not to think of your fandom friends in transactional ways, aka "I reblogged their fic so they HAVE to reblog mine or they're a bad person" or other thoughts along this line. Would it be nice? Sure. But once you start keeping score, your friendship is already taking damage. There are a million reasons why people do or don't do things, and if they are a friend, don't you want to give them the benefit of the doubt?

This also applies also for comparing yourself to your fandom friends. Once you start comparing stats or whatever, you've already muddied that friendship. It's not a competition. Envy happens and it's normal, but it's very easy for those feelings to warp into something like "I can't believe people like THAT fic when blah blah blah." Not only are those feelings damaging to your friendship, they also will never make you feel better about yourself. It's better to let envy pass through you to the best of your ability and figure out how to be happy for other people (or just not care).

That's my two cents.

[thefanficwriterscraft]

Hi!! This is going to be very long-winded so I apologize in advance.

I just discovered you guys yesterday so I am catching up on episodes. Today I listened to the OC one and it really made me want to throw in my two cents about x reader/x you fanfic written in second person because as of this summer it was pretty much unknown to me and now it's all I write.

A little backstory on me -- I first started writing fanfiction at 13 for House MD believe it or not. Which tells you basically everything you need to know about me lmao. Actually, Jo, when I heard your username, pebblysand it actually triggered a deeply distant memory for me, like I had seen your name somewhere before. Then when you mentioned you also wrote for House MD I was sure that is where I had seen it. I was also in the Harry Potter fandom (moreso was there for Snape) but never wrote for HP.

Anyway, bringing us up to present day, in college I wrote for both Fable and Once Upon a Time, but after that I stopped writing fic for about 10 years. It wasn't until early June of last year that I fell in love with a certain metalhead that took the fandom world by storm -- Eddie Munson.

Coming back into fandom like this after being away for so many years was a bit of a shock for me. It took me a while to feel it out and find my place in it all, especially when it came to writing fanfic. Actually, this fandom was my first encounter with second person fic writing, in fact it is the most popular ship in the fandom -- Eddie x Reader. Even wildly more popular than Eddie x Steve (Steddie).

I immediately fell in love with this concept and thought it was actually quite brilliant because at the end of the day, that's what we want. To be able to insert ourselves into a story where Eddie falls in love with us. Not through some OC as was the norm before. But going further than that, what I really wanted to get into was that depending on the length of the story, these reader characters really are OCs. But because they are never given a physical description it is so much easier to insert yourself into their role in the story, which is why a lot of us read this kind of fic in the first place.

In the podcast, it seemed like the two of you didn't have a ton of experience reading this kind of fic, so I wanted to elaborate on the concept. In some cases, yes, people are writing based on request. Especially for oneshots and drabbles where characters can be a bit more vague. Physical descriptions are kept to a minimum as a standard, but in a lot of cases, people like myself do give their reader characters fully fleshed out backstories and room for character development just like any other leading character in a novel. The story I am writing at the moment is truly a novel with all the benchmarks of one, but written in second person.

You would think that this would defeat the purpose of x reader but quite the contrary, in my opinion. When reading second person it really allows you to immerse yourself into the story, for you to pretend to be someone else for a while. That's the real beauty of it for me, because I'm not constantly jarred by seeing someone else's name and picturing their OC as if I'm watching it from a 3rd person pov. It removes the barrier which typically turns me away from reading character x OC fic and allows me to really be immersed.

I adore this trend. I think it's the best thing to happen to fanfiction in recent years. It doesn't appeal to everyone, but it functions beautifully in storytelling.

I also adore this podcast that you've created together! It's a gift, thank you so much for it.

Thank you so much for this amazing message, this is so interesting. For anyone who needs context, our episode on OCs is here:

I (@pebblysand) will add my thoughts in here and I'll let @copper-dust reblog if she has anything to add.

Firstly, as a side note, the fact that you know my username from House is wild, thank you so much, I'm in awe that you remember me haha. Also, interestingly, one of my House fics (which only exists on ffn and is really bad) is actually from a second-person POV (though no reader insert). I haven't written second-person POV since but as I said on our POV episode, I really do like it when it's done well (which definitely wasn't the case in that fic, lol).

Regarding the reader-insert info you gave us, thank you so much, that is so interesting. As (I think) I said on the ep, the only fandom that I'm familiar with where I've seen this be quite an important trend is Peaky Blinders, though I have seen quite a few people talk about them on TikTok as well. I can imagine it being prominent in real people fandoms, I can see how it suits the appeal that you've described so well.

I think (IIRC) I was quite dismissive of this trend in the original episode, and for that I apologise. I think my struggle was very much rooted in what you're describing in your ask, which is that these reader-insert characters generally seem to be fully-fledged people! The ones I've skimmed through on Peaky Blinders seem to not only have a certain appearance but most importantly fully-fledged personalities. Thus, I've always struggled to see how a reader "inserts" themselves in them. To me, it feels like this is the complete opposite of a self-insert, it's like being asked to insert myself into someone who isn't all like me 😅. To give you an example, I'm someone who is quite loud IRL, so if I read a reader-insert that's like "you are small and quiet," I'm like, "well, no" 😆 and that kind of puts me off. But now that you've explained people use these to basically cosplay in the story as someone else, that makes a lot more sense. And, I can totally see how having a second-person narrative also helps with that because obviously, you're probably having an easier time including the character in the story.

I think I've also wondered at times if those reader-inserts aren't actually self-inserts on the part of the author, but I suppose that is just the same deep-rooted biases we all exhibit when it comes to assuming that there's a little bit of the author in every OC (which isn't true). And, also, as @incalculablepower said in their original ask, even if some OCs are self-inserts, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as they're well crafted.

So, yeah, thank you for reaching out and defending your trade, it really opened my eyes to some things. I don't think it's a trend I would particularly like to dive into - personally - but I can now totally see the appeal, and I definitely think that regardless of how you write them, creating OCs requires a lot of work and mastery of the craft, which is super commendable. This is making me want to do an episode on real people fandoms and reader-inserts now (lol), so if you'd like to come on to talk about that, give us a shout! I have so many questions haha.

[anabantoid]

Altering pH, what's it for, how do you do it?

We've heard it a lot before, "I don't need a certain pH, I just need a stable pH" and we've never questioned it. And why should we? What is pH, the measured scale of acidic to alkaline, and how does it effect the lives of our fish in the aquaria and outside of it? 

First let's start off with what it is. As mentioned above, pH is a scale with which you measure the acidity or alkalinity of a liquid, your soil, even some parts of your body, and more. Here's a good chart.

Here’s the short and sweet version:

You can’t just dunk in a bunch of pH down to lower your pH, or you’ll cause the pH to drop, then rise back up, and kill your fish.

You have to determine your kH and pH from the tap

High kH will prevent your pH from being lowered because of its high buffering capabilities, low kH will make your pH swing wildly because of its lack of buffering capabilities

Play around with altering your water in an unstocked tank to get a feel for the procedure and how much remineralizer to use or chemical buffers to use without harming your fish.

RO/DI will give you water with 0 kH and 0 gH. Use Salty Shrimp gH/kH+ to remineralize. A kH value between 4-6 will allow you to safely alter your pH without it swinging. You need to add gH because it contains essential minerals fish and plants need to live.

Use botanicals, such a leaves (refer to the charts!) or seed pods, to release tannins and lower the pH OR you can use an active aquasoil (refer to the paragraph above for the pros and cons and further explanation).

You can also use chemical buffers like acid buffer from Seachem that will soften your water (lower kH) and allow for your pH to be adjusted, or you can use neutral regulator the same was as it brings your pH to 7 and softens the water.

Stock accordingly, check your kH, gH and pH often to make sure it’s all correct and stable.

Have fun!

Here’s the long and meaty version:

In the wild, there's multiple factors that lead to waters being more acidic, more neutral and more alkaline. In Amazonian rivers, as well as peat bogs in Indonesia, the concentration of decaying organic matter like leaf litter and wood releases tannins.

Tannins are an organic compound found in plants, and in some trees the tannins help prevent predation from insects, as well as operating as an antimicrobial and antifungal. When the parts of the plant fall into the water, the tannins are leached out and released into the water, which alters the water's chemistry by making it more acidic, and over time, softer. This is what gives peat swamps and the Amazon their rich, dark colored waters, and makes them soft and acidic. Another friend that helps out with this is humic acid, molecules present in plants that help them receive nutrients. Blackwater is filled with tannic and humic acids because of the decaying plant matter!

In reverse, the minerals in bodies of water will alter its chemistry. Karstic lakes are bodies of water carved into dolomite, limestone or gypsum, which are all rich in hard water causing minerals like calcium carbonates, and those minerals in turn can make the water very hard and alkaline.

We all agree that Rift Lake cichlids and saltwater fish need a certain water chemistry, they've evolved to live and flourish only in those water conditions, and taking them out long term can be detrimental to their health and cause illness and shorten their lifespans. Fish that evolved to be acidophiles evolved a specific way for a reason, and a few generations in captivity doesn't change that. In fact many breeders don't breed in hard water, but soften their water using RO/DI for these acid loving fish, and raise them in these conditions. This is why when you bring home cardinal tetras, you see a massive die off because you're taking fish kept in neutral to below neutral waters and adding them to a tank that had your tap with a pH of 8 and it shocks them and kills them.

Okay, great, you're thinking, you told me a bunch of stuff but haven't told me how to change my pH.

In order to to adjust your pH, you need to know your kH (carbonate hardness). It's the carbonate hardness that determines your pH in MOST situations (Sulawesi need not apply, the waters there are soft but the pH is alkaline!).

My friend @justnoodlefishthings can explain it way better than me: "Carbonate hardness, or kH, is the measure of calcium carbonate in the water. Calcium carbonate will dissociate into calcium and carbonate ions in water. The carbonate ions are unstable and unhappy and thus will readily suck up all available hydrogen ions in the water. The more hydrogen ions you have in water, the more acidic it is and vice versa for basicity. So, if you have a high kH, then there are not a lot of H+’s floating around to make the water any more acidic than what it already is. This prevents the pH from swinging wildly in any direction."

What this means is that it's crucial to know your kH in order to adjust your pH. You can't just add tannins and go "well that should do it!", otherwise you'll get alkaline tea water.

This is the range you're looking for when altering: 4-6 kH. The higher you get, the harder it is to lower your pH, and the lower you get, the more your pH will swing randomly without the buffering capabilities of your kH. That means your pH can swing to bother very acidic levels, like a peat swamp, or very alkaline levels, like a Sulawesi lake, despite having no kH.

Alright, so then how do I actually do it?

After testing your tap and determining your starting pH and kH, and you know you wanna keep specialized acidophiles, you realize you gotta do something. Your kH is reading at 8 and your pH is reading at 7.8, both of these things are the opposite of what you need. How can you fix this?

The safest is way is by getting RO/DI water from your LFS, or investing in a system of your own. They're not expensive compared to other tank equipment, roughly $60 can get you a nice RO Buddy off of Amazon. Your LFS prices may vary, but my advice is to get about ten gallons of RO from your LFS (it'll usually be $10-$15) and you can always try out altering the tank before getting any stock and seeing how you feel about this. You need to remineralize the RO/DI water, Salty Shrimp gH/kH+ is what I recommend so that you can have some kH for its buffering and stabilizing properties, and you need to add gH back into your tank. gH, calcium, magnesium and other minerals, are vital to fish and plants and all bodies of water contain varying amounts. 

Remember, you want your pH low, but stable, so aim for that 4-5 kH sweet spot. You can play around and get used to mixing the water and finding out your ratios before worrying about if you'll harm your stock if you do this with an empty tank. 

Adding botanicals to your water once it’s at that sweet spot will bring and keep your pH down. Botanicals would be any organic matter that releases tannins and humic acid; leaf litter, seed pods, coconot coir, etc. Here’s a fun chart that shows the different leaves you can use (and you can collect yourself) as well as the tannin outputs.

And this is how those leaves can effect your water.

(From here, also a good article expanding on botanicals and how to collect them yourself)

You can also peruse the catalog of Tannin Aquatics to get some fun things, but be aware that seed pods do eventually rot and you’ll want to periodically pull them out if you notice it being a bit too funky. A slight sulfur smell is okay, that’s the organic material breaking down, but if it smells like rancid farts you’ll want to cycle it out with a new pod.

Another, more expensive route, is to use an aquasoil with your RO/DI water. Aquasoils are things like ADA Amazonia, UNS, Fluval, etc. They’re clay-based, high CEC (cation exchange capacity) which means they’re excellent for your planted tanks. They absorb nutrients from your water and hold onto it so that your plants can use it continuously. It’s also an active soil, it will buffer your pH to around 6 and keep it there without needing to use an additive to raise your kH, but you will need to raise you gH, which would be your calcium and magnesium and other minerals that are vital to fish and plant health. There’s downsides beside the cost; they leech a lot of ammonia when you add them, and can take a month to subside, though this aids in starting a cycle. They will break down over time and turn into mud, and you can’t disturb the soil or have digging fish otherwise they’ll generate massive mud clouds. They also eventually need to be replaced every two years or so, and if you’re like me you don’t like the idea of needing to break down a tank every two years. This is, however, a good option if you’re okay with the above downsides.

You can also use chemical buffers to do all of this work, acid buffer will break down your kH and create co2, and allow for your pH to drop, neutral regulator will soften your water the same way but keep your pH, well, at a neutral 7. I’ve used acid buffer successfully, you just need to follow the directions on the bottle, but you can also experiment with this the same way you would with the RO/DI water.

Remember this, though, below a pH of 5, most bacteria that aid in the nitrogen cycle are unable to live because of the highly acidic conditions. In these extremely low pH environments, they’re peat bogs typically, and peat bogs have one important kind of plant that makes it a peat bog; the sphagnum moss. The sphagnum acts as the beneficial bacteria in this situation, as it takes in the ammonia and nitrogen the bacteria typically would, and uses it up, eliminating it from the water. This is how low pH peat bogs and swamps “cycle” themselves! And why leaving the sphagnum moss alone in these places is important, because they’re the very livelihood of the swamps and bogs. You can always obtain sustainably grown sphagnum moss if you’re looking to replicate a peat bog of your own and allow it to float on the surface in a mat of other mosses, leaves and organic matter, just like you’d see in a real bog.

[justatalkingface]

Hey! I've been reblogging some of your stuff and throwing my two cents in what I think. So I come here with a simple question...

What're your thoughts on Shota Aizawa?

Because for me, he's no different than the teachers in Aldera when it comes to handling Izuku. He's also a flatout hypocrite by getting onto All Might for favoring Izuku when he does the same with Hitoshi.

And I'm not even mentioning how he uses his trauma to justify his bs teaching ways

...Hahahahaha! So, you have no way of knowing this, but I've basically been preparing for this moment, to make this rant, for the longest time. More than probably any other character in this series, I've thought about Aizawa, tried to put into words what bugged me about him, scoured the internet for opinions to broaden my understanding, to find the right words. Quite a few posts have been yours, actually.

The short answer is that, simply, I hate him. Once I got past his Kakashi Aura from my first impression, I didn't like him, but fandom hype for Dadzawa, as well as the fact that usually comes with horrifying levels of bashing for people like All Might (ironically, perhaps the most unsung hero in the setting, seeing how few people seem to like his character) curdled it deep into loathing. Still, I'm going to be try to be objective as I talk.

The long answer is more complicated, and very, very long, but still overwhelmingly negative. For me, part of it is that Aizawa is easily the winner of the title of being The Favored Mouthpiece. This is a mixed blessing for him, to say the least; on the positive side, this fact has done a lot for his positive reception and total screen time, the the narrative bends over backwards to agree with what he says, time and time again. On the negative... for all that I'm aware that he's just lines on paper, on deeply visceral level I have sympathetic disgust for all the times he's been used like a puppet to parrot one agenda or another, and it muddles the water on who his character actually is. Honestly, it's been going on for so long, and it's still going on, I wonder if I should just... accept these random outbursts as part of his actual characterization.

At a fundamental level, I've had this question burning inside of me for a long time now: does this man even want to be a teacher? No, this is a serious question: he is effectively working two jobs, and managing it terribly (unlike every other UA teacher, who are all heroes for no apparent reason, and especially Present Mic who somehow has three jobs and still is full of energy. Does that man ever sleep?). He seems to hate the daylight. He seems to hate being clean. He seems to hate children. He hates, if not teaching, then teaching people that don't vibe on his level. He hates being on a schedule. He hates following authority. Really the only part of being teacher he does probably like is the actual paycheck.

So, again, why is he a teacher? I know he likes taking someone under his wing, but that use of a singular pronoun was very specific: he wants one person, one that fills whatever bizarre and unknown criteria, to teach (I'm still not sure what made him look at about five minutes of Shinso and say, 'This, this is the child I shall give all my skills, all my knowledge, and even my physics defying combat weapon.' Like, do they have to be his mini-me? Bear the soul of Grumpy Cat? I really don't know), an apprentice, not students plural. From what I gleaned from the Vigilante manga (which I should probably reread at some point), it's that desire, but misunderstood, combined with nostalgia, loneliness (his friends were already at UA) and peer pressure, that motivated him to start teaching at UA.

I don't really need to say it, but those are terrible reasons to become a teacher, and probably help explain why he's so bad at it.

Before I get into that, I want to address one thing: I've seen, online, that Aizawa's role as homeroom teacher is something completely different in Japan than it is for anywhere English speaking. So these various comments and what not say is, in Japan, these home room teachers aren't actually supposed to teach. They're supposed to be... something like councilors, I believe: they stay with the children and help guide them, and so on, and that's why he's a better teacher than we think he is. I've never actually seen anyone counter that argument, just agree, and I've had this response waiting for a long time now: when do you see Aizawa do that?

I know the Final Exam arc is supposed to show us that, yes, Aizawa is perceptive and does notice things about his students, and does care, but that's shit. His inner monologue tells us about Momo and her lack of self confidence. The implication of that, that he's only dealing with this now, means he's been sitting on this for... how long? However long he noticed that, I guess? So, from a time period ranging between the first day of class, and just before they prepared for the test, Aizawa noticed Momo had confidence issues and apparently did nothing until that test, probably because he wanted to be 'efficient' and deal with two things at once. Why do extra work and deal with a student's issues, when you can do it while they struggle to pass their final exams? Wow. A+ job there, teach.

On Shoto... just... just no. Come back to me, someone, anyone, when Aizawa even acknowledges that that mess is made out of red flags: the fact he doesn't use half of his goddamn Quirk until Izuku beats some self reflection into him. The fact he unsubtly hates his father. The fact he doesn't seem to know how to be a normal person. The burn scar on his face when he's heat resistant. Anything. Anything. I don't expect him to look at the kid and magically realized he's abused, but there's enough there that if he's a good teacher, or councilor, or whatever, he should probably be low key probing for information on his situation, see if there's something wrong in the most general of senses, because there's clearly something wrong there.

Literally anything about Izuku or Bakugou, though I'm putting a pin on discussing that mess until later.

See, the problem with saying that Aizawa is supposed to be the class's... councilor or something, instead of a teacher, brings up the fact that he's a shit councilor. Even if it's true (I'm not Japanese, I have no idea), this doesn't make his character better, this just brings up different problems instead.

Alright, so now that that's out of the way... now I need to point out that Aizawa is a Kakashi clone, and that's a good deal of the reason he's so popular; he rode off Naruto nostalgia. Let's list off how many traits he blatantly got from him. It's more than you think!

Aizawa is like Kakashi in that: he's a teacher that doesn't want to teach, his students include the Great Hope of the setting and his 'rival', he's traumatized from a friend dying when he was young, he deals with his heavy PTSD with unhealthy coping mechanisms, he has an eye based power that turns his eyes red, he loses an eye, he takes on an apprentice that reminds him of himself and gives him his signature technique/equipment, his dead best friend is alive, his dead best friend is the enemy, his dead best friend has been heavily experimented on, his dead best friend has warping powers, his friend group consists of people more cheerful than him who respect his skills, his best friend is overwhelmingly cheery in a way that balances with his low key behavior.

...When you list it out like this, it starts to get a little nuts, doesn't it? I wonder, sometimes, how much actual thought went into the character Eraserhead, and how much was Hori just... copying the copy ninja.

Here's the problem with that though, beyond the laziness of it all: Kakashi is a ninja. He is a mercenary, a child soldier, has killed more people than we have names for in all of MHA. He lives in a military village, under a military dictatorship, and is expected to kill. The teaching system he's part of is largely involuntary, though he avoids in in part because he's so good that everyone looks the other way when he ducks out of it. These students are also ten. There is just... just so much there, so much that is utterly alien to how MHA works, that putting a copy in is... flawed, to say the least.

That's why the Bell Test Quirk Apprehension Test is so bad: Hori put that in, as a blatant echo of Kakashi testing Team Seven, without thinking once of the differences in the setting.

He's in a school, and his job is being a teacher. His literal, actual ass job is to teach students (or 'help guide them', either way). This is something he chose to do, of his own volition. Kakashi trying to ditch his potential students is him trying to avoid an unwanted burden and him avoiding poking at this massive issues with teammates and responsible and everyone he knows and loves dying around him. And when he's forced to take some on? He tries his best to teach them, and he does: think about the first Battle of the End. The way Naruto and Sasuke fought each other. Think about how Naruto used to fight. Where did he learn to throw a punch like that? Kakashi. He may show up late, but the man did his work off screen.

Aizawa trying not to teach his students is literally a man too fucking lazy to do his own job. We all know Hori retconned it with 'he just wanted them to get a taste of death' via expulsion (which, apparently in Japanese culture is something that would set them back in their prospects for life) but it's so nonsensical that it's hard to take it seriously that he just... does this. Was planning to do this the first day, because they were excited about being heros, like that deserved a taste of death (They aren't in the military, you ass, they're in high school). Is allowed to do this. That he did this to an entire class for some reason but not Bakugou, when Bakugou exists.

Which means it's time to wade into the mess that is Aizawa and Izuku and Bakugou. Let's start with Bakugou, first, since I already started.

Blatantly, obviously, Bakugou has plot armor in how people react to him, or don't, as the case may be, and one of the worst victims of it is Eraserhead. The fact that Mr. 'Taste of death' and 'Expels entire classes' doesn't at least punt Bakugou into detention, or more likely a 'taste of death' to threaten the other students (because that's how you teach your class of high schoolers! By fear!), after he actively attacks Izuku, is just... mind boggling. The way he constantly refuses to acknowledge which of them is the aggressor, which of them is the first to throw a punch, which one is constantly threatening the other....

The obvious conclusion here is that Aizawa likes Bakugou, for whatever reason, but... I don't think it's true. The thing is if he liked Bakugou, you'd think he'd... spend time with him. Try and train him. Something. But no, by and by large he acts like Bakugou doesn't exist, right until Hori needs someone to compliment him for the readers, or someone to defend him after he does something bad, yet again, and then all of a sudden he's singing his praises. This is where the downsides of being The Favored Mouthpiece comes in: every time he's complimented Bakugou, every time he's said that this mess of a child is going to be a great hero, every time he cries desperately that he, 'Still needs to be Number One!' or whatever the hell that bullshit was? That was Hori. That was always Hori. Aizawa basically isn't allowed to exist near Bakugou without Hori running interference for him.

Izuku, on the other hand, is half the opposite, half Aizawa's own biases coming in. Part of it is Hori needs Izuku to feel stressed to pump up the tension, make cliffhangers, and get Jump selling; Izuku can't have a normal school life, he needs a heart pounding one. In most shonen school settings, this is easy to accomplish because they're generally hell holes that put their students in life and death situations on the regular, and live in hierarchies based off power levels. UA, though? It's a normal, or at least "normal" school, if exceptional, in the "real" world, plus some super powers. There are standards, is the thing; they can't and won't send their students off to maybe die because of they're a secret society or whatever. They have accountability (to some extent) to the general public, in other words.

So where does Izuku's cliffhanger filled school life come from? Well, Tomura and the Tomura-ettes, for one, but for all the other times... Hori turned to his teacher.

Let me say this again, because I want to emphasis this: part of the reason Aizawa exists as he does, is so that Izuku can feel threatened at school by his teacher. Why? Because Izuku's suffering sells.

Meanwhile, though Izuku does get pulled into Bakugou's plot armor sometimes, and suffers for it (more), but as a person and a character, I think Aizawa unironically disliked Izuku from the start. He grows out of it, to some extent, but....

Let's backtrack a second, back to the Quirk Test. Izuku, at this point, is ripped. Even without his Quirk, he was throwing around fridges and working all day and night to prep for UA. He was at the peak of realistic human fitness, instead of whatever increasing soft cap we have for heroes is.

Toru is invisible. Sure, she's in shape, since she passed the exam, but Izuku clearly focused on his body in a way most of the other students aren't, and she has no Quirk that'd help her pass the test (a test that, as many have pointed out, Aizawa would have failed). She's a nice girl, sure, but there's no way she could have out performed Izuku in raw physical ability, even before the ball throw which was one of the best of that category, and far beyond whatever she could have done.

Yet Izuku was the one at the bottom, not Toru. Why? Well, you could blame Hori, and that's technically true, but the thing is, unlike Bakugou, Aizawa acts like he doesn't like Izuku. He blames him for everything, he refuses to do anything as he breaks his bones constantly, he calls him Problem Child, and anyone who thinks that's affectionate, and that Izuku should as such, and that it's a cute little nickname needs to consider that through the lenses of Izuku's low self esteem, much less from a teacher who constantly threatens his students.

Aizawa sabotaged Izuku's scores. He did it because, you're right: he's just like the teachers at Aldera, if more restrained, and for different reasons. Not because Izuku is Quirkless (though he would if Izuku was, because the man honestly is Quirkist), but because he has the wrong Quirk. Because Izuku had the audacity to come to a school to learn about how to use his Quirk, instead of practicing it illegally, or inside his own house where, at that power level, one wrong move could accidently his house. Because he apparently didn't read the files that said Izuku got it a month ago, or didn't care. Or maybe it's just he looked at Izuku, and realized that having him learn to control that was just... too much work?

At the end of the day, which reason he did it doesn't even matter. What matters is he did. The same way he plays constant mind games with his students for shits and giggles, in ways that should undermine their faith in him, the same way he paired a bully with his victim so they could 'work it out', the same way he puts minimal effort into so much of the work he does, and it's why I loathe him as a teacher.

Aizawa is a good hero, but the moment Nezu let him into a school was a mistake.

[saetoru]

ok since the entire dash is on about reblogging n stuff i think i'll leave my two cents bc we all know i can never not give my two cents sdjshdgf

anyway i think reblogging has two main purposes—at least to me—and that is either sharing something you enjoyed to the rest of your followers to help spread it, or to leave feedback / comments to express that you enjoyed it.

if you are a blog with a following, as in a blog such as my own, where thousands of people follow you and are likely to see your posts on dash, you should feel inclined to drop a reblog of content you enjoy or content of a mutual that you see to boost it. that doesn't necessarily mean you have to reblog everything you see on dash, but writers tend to have much larger followings in comparison to readers, so if you are a writer who for the most part does not reblog other writing, you are a LARGE part of the problem. and "i don't read as often as i write" is not an excuse bc i don't read that often either, and i do usually prefer ao3 over tumblr if i do read, but i try to reblog what i stumble across on dash to offer a work some more exposure. and while we're on the topic, i think "fic rec blogs" essentially kill the purpose of reblogs because your followers are on your MAIN BLOG not your fic rec side blog. lets all be honest no one ever really follows rec blogs and you are essentially sharing your work to nobody. tbh tagging ur reblogs will organize them just as fine as having them on a separate blog, so kindly consider sharing works to your main blog with ur following and not one that is close to empty.

if you're a reader with a blog with little to no following, i think tbh leaving a comment can be just as good as reblogging. i know there are a lot of readers on here who basically have no followers and don't see the point in sharing a work onto an empty blog, or if they do have followers its friends who they don't want to see the things they read, so i get it, sometimes you'd rather not reblog. but leaving a comment on a post instead of reblogging onto your blog is also a great option—and tbh, i think that serves the same purpose if you don't have people to rly share the posts to. the main point is that if you enjoy a work, leaving a comment here or there—whether thru a reblog or on the post itself—can go a long way for a writer, more than you think !! liking and moving on does little to indicate you've enjoyed something since a lot of ppl just like posts to save something for later, but if you take the time to leave comments on the post or thru the tags, you can really help a writer find the motivation to produce more content. please also kindly kill all mentality that being a writing blog has to tie a blog to being only writing—that is very unfair to a writer's personal interests and passions and ultimately reduces them as someone you only think of as a means of entertainment rather than an individual who shares work out of passion for their hobby.

the moral of the story is reblogging is important, especially if you have a decent following, but at the very least leaving a comment can be nice. being offered a form of feedback is the reason why writers share their writing, not why they write.

[clanoffelidae]

There’s never a way to be 100% sure, but I’m going to throw in my two cents that this smells very much like a scam to me.

The predominant evidence is:

- a relatively new blog; this one seems to have done a slightly better job at covering its tracks, a lot of scam blogs don’t even bother staying up for more than a few hours before they start begging, whereas this one’s earliest post is February 6th

- among the blog is no indication of any personal information right up until the asking for money begins; personally i am all in favor of owing people on the internet no information about yourself, but having a completely impersonal account right up until you make a post begging for money and then proceeding to dump out a lot of personal information at once is a pattern common among scam blogs; they’re willing to put in effort to make the blog look populated, i.e. reblogging things to show that there’s activity, but not enough to spend time crafting an actual human identity because why would you when things could fall apart at any moment and you’d just have to start over? It’s not cost-efficient.

- sending random asks to strangers asking them to reblog a pinned post begging for money. This happens with real fundraisers too, but those are also often perpetuated by the individual’s friends and the like, as they have an actual human presence to reach out to. Scam blogs, meanwhile, are completely impersonal and have no options beyond hoping they can get complete strangers to believe them, and so this is their only method of gathering attention.

- a sad story made to play on the asker being a vulnerable individual in need of your money NOW, there’s no time to wait, no time to stop and think about if it’s real, you have to act NOW NOW NOW GIVE GIVE GIVE; these stories also tend to play on common hurts/fears among the communities they’re imitating, a cruel stepfather with no mention of anyone else besides the older sister; where is the rest of the family? Are there no friends who could lend help? Why is the first go-to asking strangers on tumblr for money?

- a lack of a continuing story; many scam blogs make the one post and then spam asks to people, with no further information or updates ever being given, whereas the majority of real fundraisers i’ve seen are constantly providing updates on the situation and showing a continually progressing situation more reflective of the real world, scams often just put up the initial heartstring puller and then say nothing else, there’s no storyline because there’s no actual story

Now, none of these things mean that the individual is NECESSARILY a scammer, there’s always the possibility of them being genuine! We’re all strangers on the internet and there’s never a 100% way to be sure unless you literally know the person in the real world, but I’ve gotten plenty of scams in my inbox before and gone deepdiving into their blogs to search for evidence of realism and tracked down every individual in the to alert them notes when I could find none. I notice these patterns now and all I can say is that this looks like a classic scam blog to me, it ticks just about every box on the checklist, the only exceptions being that they put in the effort to start populating the blog a few weeks back (though there is still only a few scrolls worth of posts present) rather than a few hours as most do, and the absolute balls to go for a major blog instead of preying almost exclusively on small and unknown blogs, counting on them not having the network to catch on before it’s too late.

We can’t know for sure, and if you’re genuine then I’m so sorry for everything you’re going through sweetheart, but I personally doubt it is as you look like a scammer through and through.

hi mister gaiman , would it be alright to ask for you to reblog my donation post ? my transphobic step-father kicked me out just a few hours ago and i could use every bit of help i can get .. it's on my blog , but it's also linked in my pinned post . thank you for reading !

Good luck.

[thestalwartheart]

I want to chime in re the last ask on whether Bond is a good person but i haven't had caffeine yet let's see how well this will go 😅

I found myself nodding along to everything you said in your reply. And even in canon I think there is some good to Bond.

I think whether someone is objectively a good person or not is ultimately very boring question because let characters be flawed and messy without taking out the minute judgement day scales to forensically weigh their good deeds and bad am i right. But.

Whether intentionally or not, canon ends up with a Craig!Bond who is made of contradictions. He is selfish (*waves in the direction of the Spectre ending*) and also very selfless; he can be so casually cruel and also goes so ridiculously hard for people he cares about, such as in Skyfall with M and has such kindness for strangers. He is the kind of person who holds a shaking Vesper in the shower without an expectation of return, who runs into a burning room to get Camille and holds her when he thinks there is no way out; he may be an ass but he won’t ever take advantage of a drunk Madeleine. And he is the kind of person who gets people (and especially women) killed and discarded once they served their purpose without batting an eye.

So I think my favourite kinds of fics are those that acknowledge the rougher, unreliable or unpleasant sides of him, but still brings to the table the good too, whether that's what he already has or the potential he very much so has in him to be the higher, better version of himself. And that’s why i love *your* fics so much, for how well they get just that, and they thus rarely if ever read as OOC to me.

Perhaps this is personal preference (I was very impressed by how articulate anon was and they are very valid in their preference) but "canon!Bond" does not mean a dark and scheming bond taking and destroying all to me. I think even at his worst, he is more than that.

You said you nodded along to my take, well I've just done exactly the same to this! I think even at his worst, he is more than that is a wonderful observation, as is the point you make about allowing characters to be flawed and messy.

(I could ask the question "are any of us really good people?" but I won't because I'm not a philosopher, and my brain would likely explode).

Doing bad things doesn't necessarily make you a bad person, just as doing good things doesn't make you a good person. I love love love complex characters, and I remember a post I reblogged recently that said something like 'I don't want my favourite character to be good/happy, I want them to be interesting'. I 100% ascribe to that way of thinking.

I think it's important to acknowledge that there's both good and bad in Bond. Let's face it - if he was only ever dark and scheming, he'd have worked for Janus, or for Silva. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's an unreal fic in that. I don't think he sees himself as any more honourable than the agents he's fighting on the other side, but at least fighting for England/M gives him a sense of purpose and some reason for staying on the side he's on.

All those moments you pointed out are excellent examples of that quiet goodness I think he probably tried to claw back for himself every day. Those are the parts of himself I think he could live with. I'm never sure how he lived with the rest - the discarding of women (or his friends when it was convenient - i.e. Mathis), the killing, the manipulation (Q, Moneypenny, all the rest). He must have felt it, even if he felt the job justified it. Part of me thinks he couldn't live with it in the end, and that's why NTTD finished the way it did. Without his family to try and better himself for, it must have seemed like there were only ghosts to live with.

The warring dark and light in him is fascinating to me. I really should explore it more.

Thank you for adding your two cents! ❤️