#and it is always from people who can pull 100 notes on a shitpost. Like... come on guys lmao

[alltimefail-sims]

Maaaaan I typed up this kinda long ass post about the aesthetic conversation; not that I think anyone would particularly care about what *I* have to say on the subject, but I digress. I'll just mind my business 😂

[lastoneout]

Okay I just want to stress again that I'm not mad at all, and I 100% understand that Anon is just trying to be helpful, but also this is a good time to cover another facet of how Tumblr works and some basic etiquette I really think ALL of us could stand to be a bit better about, especially with all the new people joining as of late.

Due to how Tumblr's reblogging system works there are often several "versions" of a post going around at any given time. It can be as few as one or two for small posts that don't have many comments or don't get reblogged a lot, or as many as a hundred for huge posts with tons of comments and reblogs.

So, you can have a situation like this:

Essentially, OP makes a post that picks up traction. At some point, someone responds and OP responds to them. This chain gets passed around a bit. However, the original version of the post without any added comments is still on OPs blog and showing up in searches, and maybe someone finds it and reblogs and says something funny or witty or whatever, and THAT version of the post blows up, ending up on everyone's dash WITHOUT whatever OP added.

On top of that, edits are not consistent across every reblog of a post. If I go back and edit the original version of this post after reblogging with this comment, the version with this comment will stay unchanged(hell, I'll go add something to the post after this as an example so you can see). This quirk has actually been used to make some pretty funny memes, but it's worth remembering that if I say, worded things a little badly, even if I fix it on the original post, EVERY reblog out there will still exist with the bad wording and STILL BE REBLOGGABLE. You can't even fully delete a post; if it's been reblogged, it's saved. Even if you delete your entire blog those posts will still stay up on the blogs of everyone who reblogged your post. There's nothing you can do about that. Even turning off reblogs won't take the post down, it will just make it so it can't be shared anymore.

So, some version of the above happens and OP then has to deal with a bunch of people in the reblogs and replies and tags and in their ask box asking them why they didn't address x concern or add y context, even though THEY DID, bcs they did on the version of the post most people DIDN'T see, and none of the hundreds of people responding took a few minutes to look through the post's notes or OP's blog to actually SEE if OP had said anything before chiming in. They just assume bcs it isn't right there in front of them on that version of the post OP must not have said it, which is not always the case.

I see this happen all the time on here, on posts about important topics and on shitposts and memes, and like, I know it's not always the end of the world, and we can't stop it from happening entirely, but I just think maybe we should all take a moment to remember that just bcs the version of the post in front of you doesn't have the info on it doesn't mean OP isn't aware of what you want to bring up, and it's worth it to take a second and check to see if your concern has been addressed BEFORE sending messages or leaving a reply.

Anyway, this has been your Educational Post About How Tumblr Works of the day. Hope it was helpful o7

And also yeah, Anon is right. Telling people to kill themselves is against the TOS and can, and probably will, get you banned, bcs me and all the rest of the sensible people on here are gonna report your ass if we see you doing it.

Edit: I actually forgot, I can pull up the reblog web of the post Anon mentioned! This is only showing about half the reblogs on it, so you can see why it's possible not everyone is seeing the version with my comment about Tumblr's TOS.

You should also tell those people that no, they absolutely cannot tell people to kill themselves on tumblr.

It’s against tos to promote suicide or self harm and anons can now be traced by the staff, so if someone they tell it to reports it, they absolutely will get their account shut down.

I genuinely mean this in the nicest way possible, but if you have time to click on my blog and open my ask box and type this message and hit send then you have time to go into the notes of that post and see that I made an entire addition covering exactly that yesterday.

[tes-trash-blog]

ElaborTe

So if you like Nords or stan them or cherish them as much as I do the Snow Elves, you might wanna skip this one.

TW: White supremacy, Neo-Nazism, the trash blog going completely off their shits

From the early days of the Elder Scrolls, the Nords have always been.. Well, Norse-coded. As far as races and their lore-evolutions go, they’re the only ones who have held steady in their Nordy McNordness throughout the series. They’ve always been hardy, fair-haired men and women from frozen reaches of Skyrim. They’ve always had a foothold in that tundra, as early as the days of Labrynthian, first featured in Arena. They’ve always preferred axes and steel over magic and guile, and before anyone says anything about Project Tamriel or out-of-game lore or whatever Kirkbride said about robots and wasabi, I’m talking explicitly about canon here, as canon is what most gamers see in these games.

From their appearance to their armor and weapons to the draugr and ancient gods, the Nords are very much the Elder Scrolls’ answer to the Fantasy Viking, which in itself is based on the Vikings of yonder year.. Give or take a few embellishments. Their axes have harsh-but-intricate carvings, their armor is lined with fur and made from honest steel, they have names like Hulda and Sigrid, Roggvir and Thongvor, their voice actors hail from Sweden or can put on a Scandivan-esque accent. They look, sound, act, and dress Norse.

In media studies, this is called coding, a relatively new term in academia and so far still largely used in queer studies. Unlike allegory, which is an intentional one-to-one comparison of something vis a vis Lion Witch and the Wardrobe or Ender’s Game, coding is by and large unintentional, or at least unclaimed and not explicitly stated. It is a byproduct of beliefs, biases, and bumbletyfucks the writer possessed as they created a work, and left unchecked it can lead to problematic elements.

This isn’t to say that coding is terrible, or Bad, or Problematic (though it often is at least one, and sometimes all three), but rather, it is a limitation of being human. Most writers are human as are most of the audiences the media reaches out to, and as such are bound by their worldview and preconceived notions and biases. Just because it can be problematic doesn’t necessarily mean it always is going to be problematic. A skilled writer can recognize this and work around it, or even play with the preconceived notions the audience has. I’ve seen very few white writers accomplish this, even fewer that were cisgendered men, but it’s doable.

However, if these notions are left unchecked, unchallenged, and uncritically accepted, you end up with uh, things. Things like, oh, the Khajiit who steal and deal drugs and travel in “caravans” (oof), the Bosmer who are the only brown Elves in the game and are also cannibals (yikes), the Reachfolk are dressed in untanned animal skins and wear antlers and do guerilla warfare and fucking yikes Bethesda what were you thinking???

You also end up with the Nords, who really took a nosedive from Fantasy Vikings into Gleeful Killers with Magic Shouting come Morrowind, where the Snow Elves had a proper introduction if only to show that the Nords of old were mass murderers, but, y’know, felt kinda bad about it after a child soldier killed their leader. It makes for a sad story, but it’s a cheap, Ender's Game-esque out so the viewer doesn’t have to feel bad about rooting for them. “They felt bad, guys! It’s okay!”

These deeply problematic aspects of Nords-as-homicidal-maniacs only became more apparent with the arrival of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

Here’s where that white supremacy warning I gave earlier comes into play. You still got some time to check out and enjoy your day.

Still here? Alright.

It was a perfect storm. As I said in a previous rant, Skyrim came about in a time of unprecedented White Anxiety. I cannot stress enough how much white people lost their damn minds when Obama was elected president. There were threats on the then-President’s life, on his wife and daughters, on a daily basis. Gun sales reached record highs out of fear that the boogeyman Democrat would take their guns away. Libertarianism soon became a shorthand for a white supremascist who likes to smoke weed. The so called Tea Party screamed about “freedom of religion” while openly applauding anti-Islamic hate crimes and calling the President by his middle name/dogwhistle “Hussien”, white supremacist hate sites saw an influx of traffic; Stormfront, the oldest of the bunch, saw a jump from 23,000 users in 2004 to over 100,000 in 2008, and this was before bot users were a thing admins had to weed out, this was before a certain foreign power took a keen interest in installing a useful idiot.

This was home-brewed vitriol.

All the while, right wing media went batshit. Fox News had their Mustardgate “scandal”, a dogwhistle to their populist audience that their leaders weren’t like “the average American”. Conspiracy theories sprung up right and left (pun intended) about the Obama administration and “the shadow government”, of which those neo-Nazi sites, with their surge in fresh-faced users,  were a wellspring for. Being the Internet, their memes and “facts Big Media doesn’t want you to hear” spread like a cancer to the greater Internet-- Reddit and its subsidiary Imgur, Tumblr, Twitter, 9Gag, countless other pockets of blogospheres and forums and media platforms. It was, and still is, fucking inescapable.

And of course, Nazis love them that Norse aesthetic. They love the cold where only real men could survive, unlike those weak-willed patsies and *checks notes* dijon-mustard lovers. They love the pale skin and light hair of the people as that’s their idea of genetic purity. They love the runes, the affectations, how the Norse folk of old just invaded and pillaged and were so strong, they did Blood Eagles and were so masculine.

And therein lies why I hate the Nords. I hate how they went from Generic Viking to Murder Men, I hate the direction Morrowind and onward took with them, I hate how no one had the foresight to either tone down these aspects or put a spin on them like they seemed to do with other races. I hate how quickly actual racists took to this fake ass race, I hate how they tried to pull a “both sides are the same��� in that stupid Civil War questline when one side is an actual ethno-nationalist paramilitary cult. 

I hate how the writers of Skyrim were cowards, and I hate that they apparently looked at Ur-Fascism and saw a checklist. I hate that they gave the Nords, and by extension you, the player, a moral justification for rallying against a “high-brow”, “elitist”, “globalist” “oppressive”, distinctly non-Nordic and non-Mannish group of people because they “threaten the Nord way of life”. But let’s make the Elves the Nazi allegory so there’s no qualms whatsoever about siding with the Fantasy Republicans. I hate that every other stereotype of non-Nord races can be found in that game, from the skooma dealing Dunmer to the thieving Khajiit to the bootlicker Imperial to the fucking High Elves. I hate that they only expanded on the morally-justified genocide of the Snow Elves with Songs of the Return, and then further reinforce how “good” that was by having you meet the guy who slaughtered children. I hate how, barring one easily missable side quest that still uses bothsidesism there is no challenge to this bullshit way of thinking. I hate that a sizable chunk of Stormcloakblr are also very clearly racist. I hate that my Ysgramor/Pelinal shitpost started to gain traction after someone with a rage face icon reblogged it with a “Kill All Elves” tag. I’ve deleted it since. The meaning is lost on those wastes of breath, and was 100% the cause for this rant.

I hate how the writers could have done better, but didn’t.

[heavenlyexiled]

                       AAAAAA WE DID IT!!! 100 FOLLOWERS!!!

i cannot tell you guys how long i’ve waited for this to happen! not even for the numbers, but to feel like that many people wanted to interact with my original character! i’ve struggled with this blog for nearly two years & i have wanted to delete this blog after months of having little to no activity. thank goodness i didn’t! i know original characters have a pretty bad rep and are memes to a lot of people in the rpc, i’ve struggled with that as well, along with so much anon hate for several months and i just...i’ve swallowed plenty of words to lash out with. i honestly don’t deserve any of you. you guys are so kind to me and i don’t know what kind of good i’ve done to deserve all of you.

i know i don’t talk with a lot of you who are mutuals with me, but i just don’t want to scare you guys off. that tends to happen when i message someone, they’ll just....soft block me which i completely understand and hold no grudges! i still love & respect those guys to this day!! enough with my mopey shit, time to thank some very lovely people.

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@antibuttons - my wife, the original to my character, the cheese to my mac. i fucking love you so much. and the way we FIRST met seems so unreal and that now we’re basically wives and fucking shitpost together despite me BULLYING YOU WAY BACK IN 2013 I STILL AM SO SORRY TO THIS DAY I WAS SO RUDE BACK THEN. you give me confidence when i sometimes question if i should keep this blog running or not.  you always tell me to just keep going, to calm down and just try to hold on NOW LOOK AT ME. LMAOOO but thank you for being with me ever since day one.

@wxlriider - MY OTHER WIFE. YOU ARE SO FUCKING PRECIOUS YOU DON’T EVEN UNDERSTAND your art actually gives me air, i breathe it in every time i see it. your writing??? i’d kill 3000000 men for you to keep writing. you are so sweet and kind and honestly at first I DIDN’T KNOW HOW OT APPROACH YOU, I DIDN’T FUCKIN KNOW SHIT I WAS SO SCARED OF YOU BUT YOU’RE MY OTHER WIFE AND I WANNA CRY

@prototypc - oh my gOD you don’t know how much i want to thank you for accepting my oc. you were the FIRST d.bh blog to actually follow me back after i tried to reach out to so many blogs and i remember getting the notification of you following me back, i was sitting in bed and i just, stared at my phone, staring at your url and i just screamed and then cried. you have been so kind to me, you say you like elizabeth all the time and that???? makes my heart soar with glee. i know we haven’t known each other long, but i owe you so much. i am so grateful to have you here.

@risea9 - i know our messages have been memes, toe slapping and the only time i actually talked with you was when i was trashed, but i want you to know i appreciate you so much, we haven’t roleplayed together and i hope one day we can???? i just suck at coming up with ideas, but i admire your writing, there’s something so unique about it and it just, pulls me in. i love reading your threads i see on my dash, your replies to memes from others, you write markus with so much passion and it shows, and i just----want to hug you???

@codebreak - OKAY. I KNOW WE HAVEN’T TALKED REALLY MUCH BUT I DO LOVE YOU AND YOUR BLOG. i think you were the one d.bh blog to  follow me first. and ngl, i was confused. like???? i’m an oc???? DO U HAVE THE RIGHT NUMBER????? and i will never forget that because it just spoke volumes to me. i’m not used to someone following me first and it’s a blog i’ve never seen or heard of before. so you do have a spot in my heart because of it. and i’m sorry i don’t message you that much, but i’d like to! i’m just very shy! but i love your war with crabs. made me almost cough up a hernia it was so funny to read that stuff on my dash.

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i know this post got long, sue me. BUT TO ALL OF YOU. i’m so sorry i don’t message you guys like at all and if i do, we don’t continue talking. i’m not good with keeping conversations with people i’m getting to know. got that juicy social phobia----but i’m trying to reach out you know? but you guys don’t know how bad i want to throw some ideas, some notes, headcanons, plots, etc with you and our muses! i just----am very insecure since elizabeth is an OC and people are touchy about that, and i completely understand! i just wish it didn’t have such a strong hold on me like it does...BUT!!! I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY FOLLOWERS. you guys are what keep me here and i just----LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

[jhaernyl]

So, I stopped reading perhaps two posts ago, by the time I finish writing this maybe five posts ago, because I need to get this shit off my chest.

(Because Alas Going To Work does not mean someone actually stops the shit posting. It's really just a convenient "Mic Dropped, I Am Out Bitches" ending to a shitty fucking post that shits all over the people who have been in the corner and you have been mistreating, while setting you up to be the victim of those bad people who will not stay around for you to shit on them after you already used them, got your back patted by and then ignored in favor of bemoaning how alone and victimized you are).

@poplitealqueen (because when you talk about someone you should do them the favor to @ them rather than just drop their names thus calling them out without immediately alerting them you called them out personally) how about you stop with this fucking woe-is-me bullshit?

Woe is not fucking you.

You are a decently known author. You are not deadcat-famous but you did not spend more ten years writing a fic through huge life changes, sticking by it and determinedly trudging on without unleashing a constant stream of Witness My Self-Victiminization posts. You are known enough in the circles of the people who like the kind of fics you write that people answer to your posts and send you asks, ask you thing and show you support, as well as reading and kudo-ing your fics. Maybe less than they once did, but fandom is fickle, always has been fickle and always will be.

People have their own lives and they move on and then sometimes they come back and sometimes they do not. Some fandoms get their heyday and then the more dedicated people stay on and then the show goes off the air, the comic stops publishing, the canon is completely erased in favor of a new one and people get interested in things that offer new content. That's life and it might suck but hey, darling sweet little girl, IT SUCKS THE SAME FOR EVERYBODY.

You know how it feels to sit down with someone, give them complete support and try your damn all to make them see the good sides of things and comfort them by saying that people will be there for them, only to log on and look at their account and find them answering asks and having long convos with people and getting funny posts that get 7k notes (the Luke-in-the-tlj-trailer one) while your posts are big when they get over 80 notes in a few weeks of activity (and only when boosted by other people with more popularity than the OP) and when you publish memes no one gives a fuck about asking about your OCs?

No.

Because you are the person moaning and bitching while having it better and I am the person who gave you support while being fully aware of my much less active and noticed blog. I am the person who sent you asks and reblogged your memes (you know, the ones I later on see you say SEND SOMETHING IF YOU REBLOG about but you never answer when it's me blogging them?). You are the person who does not see reality as it is because it's not convenient to them.

Yes, I said convenient.

Why?

Because you are the kind of person who likes to, as we say in Italy, bask in their own broth.

By which I mean: you are milking being the Depressed Artist Who Nobody Likes shtick for all it's worth, hooking people up on your drama and using them (like you used my Lee, before you dropped her like hot coals once Senpai FlameThrower Noticed You) only to later on shit on them (like the bullshit you said about me not having reached out for you in weeks, which I can disproves with fucking screencaps of our chat, darling, so do not try to pull the "I Am Bad But She Abandoned Me [So Clearly I Am The Victim But You Are Supposed To Get That From Contest So I Can Be The Victim When The Other Party Gets Angry]" move).

I am pretty sure you are not aware of it and people have trouble either telling it to you (it is a brutal thing to say, made even more brutal by the fact that it's true) or realizing what is going on, but you *are* doing it. Oh boy are you ever doing it.

It does not matter what other people do.

It does not matter that I was inspired for a few days straight to work on fanarts for you.

It does not matter how many people send you asks and support and take time out of their own lives to hold your hand and put their arm around your shoulders and support you.

You are still constantly posting that nobody likes you, nobody cares about you, nobody gives you notes on the posts you like, people do not answer to your posts.

Except that when I get around to seeing things (after I sleep, do my fucking job babysitting two kids I cannot take my eyes off of lest they kill themselves or each other and actually spend time with my mom and fiancee) I do but I get no answer back from you, I suppose because I am somewhat contractually obliged to do it with you but the opposite does not apply to you when you can spend your time posting depressing Mood Things rather than engaging into further interaction.

Except that when I get around to checking your blogs (after the same things as above), I like all the stuff I can look at without being spoiled for things I want to see.

Except that I kept reaching out in the chat and being met with silence for days on your end.

And, again, all of that does not matter at all, not to you, because being Mood Depressed Unloved Artist is more important than actually getting off your ass and making the changes you need to make.

You say "I have resolved to be positive" and then it's day after day after day of depressing Mood Posts and NOBODY LOVES ME.

People love you, you just make it hard for some of that love to prosper, given how you do not nurture it, you do not work with the other person, you prefer to shitpost about being unloved.

You know why people unfollow you?

Because you are a negative fucking person to be around and because even after they have given you time, attention, support, the notes you wants, the kudos you want, you still make shitty call out posts that allow you to play the victim and react to them cutting your negativity out of your life with the classic Fandom Shit Move of "Way To Abandon The Person Having a Breakdown."

Darling, I know you told me you have maybe one breakdown per month but I need you to sit down and listen to this.

You have a breakdown per week, sometimes twice per week.

Many of these breakdowns lead you to shit even more than your usual on the people who are there for you.

Having any kind of mental illness does not excuse the behavior you have been exhibiting or making your actions acceptable.

I am also not contractually obliged to let you spew bullshit about me and still stick by you. I signed no piece of paper or clicked ok on any internet document that said "I have to put up with you whining about notes and Patreon not expanding fast enough and people not giving your due for the work you do, when my Patreon never went past three people and 15 dollars and you get a little bit more than 100 dollars per month".

I am not trying for sainthood here, I am not going to just stand by and smile and nod and pat your back while you spew things that hurt me in public rather than reach out to me and talk about it.

Like I said we could and should do? Like I encouraged you to do? Like I told you that you could do at any point and we would talk things out and resolve them? You remember that chat or has it been conveniently removed from your memories so you can justify your behavior to yourself? In that case, please dear, do scroll up our chat and check it for yourself. It's a conversation we actually did have.

You are 21, not 11 and the kind of call post you did today was uncalled for and very primary school of you. Shitting over people on public while setting you up as Poor Victim Miss Pops unless people haste to run at your side and declare their friendship to you is not how friendships get mended, it's petty emotional manipulation meant to make other people feel guilty and force them to come to you in a way that puts you in a position of power and (fake) superior moral ground.

You do not have the superior moral ground and I am not giving you that power.

You can either get your head out of your ass, stop being someone who is constantly negative and reach out to me on your own, ready to meet on equal ground to mend what could have been the beginning or an actual friendship or you can play the victim further, keep down the road you are on and enjoy basking in your broth.

I will not unfollow you, I will keep reading your posts and liking the ones I like, I will keep enjoying your writing, I will keep being happy when new fic from you shows up in my inbox, I will keep giving you kudos and I will keep supporting you as an artist on Patreon and both my email and my chat on tumbrl will always be open to you (with the understanding that I will answer you when I get around to have the time for it depending on the day I am having). If inspiration strikes again, I will make more fanarts.

Have a good work day.

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: Criss-Crossed

This week, @soundofez​ dropped by to chat about her 2016 Resbang, Criss-Crossed! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: What was your favorite scene to write?

fez: Fave scene hands down was the opening scene, it was one of the first I wrote. I had a lot of fun with Spirit's texts though. x)

Q: Did you always plan for two pairings to be developed simultaneously or did it pop up in the middle of planning?

fez: Deffo planned for the two pairings and it was HARD AS BALLS.

Q: How did you decide which characters would be temporary villians?

fez: I just wanted the villains to be recognizable characters with significant ties to either Soul or Maka? There's actually a pretty neat split: Tsubaki and B*S are the friends, Wes and Spirit are the family units, Tsubaki and Wes are Soul's, and B*S and Spirit are Maka's. Stein and Marie, of course, were there to be relevant to their plotline, and Crona is the forever villain. Arachne used to be Medusa until... um... canon parallels + plot relevance. In terms of who tf knows what's going on between her and Lord Death? Certainly not me. Medusa was going to have a creepy fixation on Stein.

Q: Did you secretly plan to make people fall in like with ML? *eyebrow waggle*

fez: Yes. Unequivocally. Ngl I want it to be an ML gateway fic. :^)))))

Q: ACTION SCENES. HOW DID YOU APPROACH THEM?

fez: ACTION SCENES WERE #STRUGGLES. I just sat down and like, forced myself through them. Like, k. Where are they? What are weird things that lucky charm can take advantage of? I freaking h8 lucky charm fjadsklfjasklfjka. A goddamn DIY PROJECTOR IS A CANON THING LADYBUG DID AND I SALT 5EVER.

Q: My question is why did you make Maka Chat and Soul Ladybug instead of vice versa?

fez: Uhhhhh 95% aesthetics, but tbh Maka's approach to fights is really a lot more like canon Cat Noir/Adrien, and Soul has more than enough self esteem issues to parallel canon Ladybug/Marinette. I h8 h8 h8 red-eyed cat, and I might be like wayyyyyy too attached to green-eyed cat Maka. You don't understand, I drew cat Maka and bug soul [in] like... October 2015. I have been on the cat Maka/bug Soul train for eternity.

Q: So, sequel??

fez: MAYBE SEQUEL BUT ONLY WHEN ML GIVES ME MORE CANON THINGS TO WORK WITH, AND NOT A MOMENT BEFORE.

Q: Why'd you decide to go for "they're superhero friends and irl enemies" instead of the love squad?

fez: Superhero friends + irl enemies was 100% a product of ml origins episodes. And to be fair, Soul didn't really hate her. Maka just... Maka.

Q: Did your plot outline always stay the same?

fez: NO, MY PLOT FREAKING BOUNCED ALL OVER THE FREAKING PLACE. I mean, the big overarching plot was the same b/c ch8 was like... the second chapter I finished writing? But. Man. Kid used to be like an actual student. He got lost. Crona was supposed to be more... present ahaha. Everyone started as freshman (w/ upperclassman b*s) but then like... idk I kept writing soul and I just... "bb u r not a freshman. 2 mature." Medusa, ofc, used to be the main antagonist in the way early drafts. TWO CHAPTERS SWAPPED PLACES ON ME LIKE TWO WEEKS BEFORE POST DAY. Franken used to be a doctor instead of a grad student struggling to publish. There used to be a Rachel/Arachne/Excalibur mashup villain in the works That one made it into my claims summary lmao.

Q: Omfg. What would have been their supervillain name?

fez: Idk but the chapter title would've been "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Q: Do you have deleted scenes? :)

fez: YOU KNOW I HAVE DELETED SCENES, I CRIED TO YOU OVER MY TOO MANY DELETED WORDS. I THINK I HAVE LIKE 50 DELETED SCENES. 7K. 7K DELETED WORDS.

Q: How do you have a villain mashup of Excalibur and Arachne? I NEED TO KNOW.

fez: I don't even remember how this Rachel/Arachne/Excalibur villain was supposed to go, I never got farther than just "this villain exists I guess." This was before i like.... logicked out that the villains should be tied to Maka and Soul somehow. 

fez: Also for cat Maka and bug Soul: look just loOK AT HOW PRECIOUS THEY ARE: http://soundofez.tumblr.com/post/132631437973/its-a-love-square-between-two-people-x-the. 

fez: I already knew that Blair would be Maka's kwami. I have Kwami Headcanons and this fic was the perf time to Indulge. Part of those headcanons dictate that cat Soul would never be able to have a kwami like Blair. And like... what a waste man. That's more ML territory so idk if I wanna go into em here? But yo, dm me and I will give you All The Things.

Q: What kinda music, if any, did you listen to while writing this?

fez: I'll have a more complete list in a moment but the big one was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdQpngguJpM 

fez: maka// this is halloween, marilyn manson  soul// l'autre valse d'amélie, yann tierson stein// fairy blue, ama lo & dj lee (i think?) marie// fuck you, lily allen tsubaki// cosmic love, florence + the machine sebastian// immortals, fall out boy spirit// take a break, phillipa soo wes// fragments of memories, ffviii crona// demons, imagine dragon arachne// come little children, erutan more songs: everytime we touch, cascada thinking out loud, ed sheeran E18, detektivbyran grey, project ml

Q: The antibug and catastrophe scenes were some of my fave scenes, did you draw from the Envy chapter for that scene? Bc it seemed that way to me, esp with Maka's breakdown, but I wanted to check and also just hear you talk about your thought process for those scenes.

fez: OH YES DEFFO. My notes have "see Eibon chapters" lmao. Like... man Maka has Issues. So many issues. And I wanted to address them. Maka is not an angel, ok? She petty and she has to Learn. She does not forgive, and that's why her arc is so focused on forgiveness. Like... one of the first lines I wrote was "cat, you are just not nice" b/c I Knew I had to. OH. LEMME SEE IF I CAN DIG UP MY SHITPOST. fez: http://soundofez.tumblr.com/post/153369132853/me-needs-maka-to-come-up-with-her-alternate 

fez : DESTRUCT-O-CAT. I DIED LAUGHING, I THINK I TOLD LIKE EVERYONE I COULD. INCLUDING ML FRIENDS LMAO. Originally Soul was gonna be lucky bug, then I realized no. He derp. And [I needed to] give Maka a reason to love him... accidentally? I need the crushing. And Maka was gonna be black cat b/c she is not French, no sirree. And then, well... Destruct-O-Cat. I almost squeezed that into a scene. Originally B*S and Maka were the ones who were gonna get littled.

Q: How'd you come up with Soul's kwami?

fez: Oooooh. I struggled? B/c I didn't want him to be an OC but he... definitely wound up being an OC. I considered using Wes but... you know... actual brother lmao. [He was] strongly inspired by Tikki for sure.

Q: Kid being Death's kwami was one of my favorite lil gems. At what point in planning did you come up with that?

fez: KIDDO HAPPENED ALMOST BY ACCIDENT. I was just trying to wrap up ch 8 and I realized Kiddo exactly follows the kwami name scheme. It was a Moment.

Q: How did you work out Soul's mom as a character? Did anything influence how you portrayed her?

fez: Ahhhhhh I never liked Mama Evans? Something about her feels like the Smother, in my head I mean. And like... man idk. Been dealing with Unpleasant Feelings at the state of the world, partly directed at oblivious rich people who just... don't get it. They think they're the sun, moon and stars but they really really aren't. I do think she came out flatter/more stereotypical than I would've liked but I also wrote her like... the week of posting rip. I vaguely wanted her to run into Shibusen and be like, ridiculously charmed. Enough to resolve her wanting Wes to Do Better For Himself, but it didn't happen :') I wish I had time to like... make her not so shallow, but I'm also not sure how I would've pulled that off. I mean she's intuitive she just... happened to be wrong about the maid lmao. I enjoyed writing that immensely, ngl. Random humor in the middle of this lady is nuts. She sees what she wants to I guess? Or she assumes. She thinks Wes likes the xxx so she... yeah. There's probably history involving bad first times and short ex relationships in there.

Q: Ahahaha omg which reminds me, that was such a different portrayal of Wes. Most people do write him as into xxx, how did you come to it?

fez: Ahhhhh man i just... I like uncommon interpretations of characters, and I like playing with Wes's character b/c he doesn't have a canon one, and I just thought... everyone makes him super different from Soul but what if he's really not? He's just a grown Soul who Soul thought had his shit together b/c he was so much older. He'd Learned how to be Perfect for his parents but like.... that doesn't mean he liked it. The thing about Soul and Wes going to separate colleges was deffo lifted directly from my college experience. I applied to my brother's uni but I didn't gun it b/c I knew my mom would move down with us if i got accepted and... I love my mom, she is much better than this version of Mama Evans, but No. Nooooo no no no no.

Q: Was there a scene you super struggled with writing or found easier than you thought??

fez: Uhhhh, I thought Soul and Maka would fight more in the library in ch 6, but they settled down pretty quick ahah. Almost too quick?? I was Nervous like... what? Is this okay? Are they being too logical? What's going on? I thought it would be +500 words of Whispered Library Fighting. Most of the action scenes slid past once I sat down to write them? I just didn't like writing them. 

fez: Deleted scenes: so many reveal iterations, so many cat confesses iterations.

Q: Omg pls feed them to me, I loved the reveal.

fez: "'I’m in love with you, dummy,' Maka snaps, feeling her face burn." There's [also] a Soul POV ladybug-reveal iteration. It's... kinda long tho. Do you just.... want the doc? lmao: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11DbejHYa3Cow5frrf2yhO9zHRPac5Zqkv-gvuVD2BJM. [fez would like everyone to know that the doc is, in her opinion, messy ;D]

Q: You did multiple resbangs, how did you manage balancing art and writing?

fez: It helps to like... not have a job or school or anything. When crunch time came I just kinda gunned it. I got lucky that all my resbangs posted so late too, b/c it gave me more time to finish. [For] Dolly's I probably could've uploaded the sketches for all the pages, b/c those were done Super Early. Lining comics takes so long orz. I really love Anne's, we just had so many headcanons in common. Her Resbang was actually the easiest for me to work on. Whenever I worked on it I was like... dang I already have this bit done???? :thumbsup: Julie's I honestly wish I spent more time on b/c her resbang is gorgeous and emotional and mkaldsjfklsadf. I wanted to collab with amanda and do a song mv with her song like I did for Anne but n o p e. And then ofc I just buried myself in ML AU.

Q: I liked that Soul was ladybug.

fez: Ladybug Soul is my beb.

Q: That decision kinda bugs me. (I say it solely for the pun, it is a wonderful decision.)

fez: In hindsight I know it defeats the idea of female protag that ML has? Oh good, I was actually worried. But I just... ladybug Soul.

Q: I semi-wish Arachne would have used spiders.

fez: Haaaah yeah. I didn't want to diverge that much from ML canon, and I tried to nod to the spidery thing with her scene? I think I tried for web imagery there. I don't remember if i succeeded rip. 

fez: Have some of my posting day struggles lmao:

fez: I am... a Mess™.

---

Thanks so much for swingin’ by, fez! Stay tuned for more transcripts!

[terminalpolitics]

A Short History of My Blog

I made this blog a few years back so that I could talk to various friends from an MMO after the game forums got overmoderated and complaining about racist behavior by a player earned you a ban.

In the beginning, I mostly used it to discuss things about that video game and to socialize or reblog pictures of charming cats. My friends would always cheer me on when I defended Obama or talked about how morally reprehensible Republicans were. They were also very happy with my call-out posts in which I archived evidence of sexual predation or bigotry by members of our small MMo community.

I noticed then, though, that when the creeper in our community was popular –or worse, one of their buddies– they suddenly took a much more “tolerant” veiw of when things like racial slurs were really in bad taste.

While posting more politics in defense of Obama and against Republican obstruction, I ran into Tumblr’s white supremacist and neo-Nazi community. Now, I had been antifascist for years and I have warned for a long time against the rise of the far-right and the dangers of rightwing extremism – in person as well as online.

So, I got into a lot of fights with Naziblr, and I got a lot of notes from folks (mostly anonymous) who thought I was being “unfair” or who wished my blog “went back to how it used to be”. And because I did feel bad springing Naziism on people’s dash, I made up a special tag for my anti-Nazi posts so that folks could filter it out and just enjoy MMO talk and cat photos.

A similar thing happened when I wanted to talk about Putin, Russia’s anti-LGBT bigotry, and the resurgence of the far-right globally. It got to be a bit much for my followers so I had to make a special tag again.

As I became more and more disgusted and realized that Obama was not the progressive we had voted for, and I began to criticize the United States more – attacking fuck-ups like the thankfully-late Chris Kyle, I got less and less “^^this”s from my friends.

When the Democratic primary happened and I started posting in support of Bernie Sanders, my friends (who were largely with her) started vague-posting anti-Sanders responses to my posts, but acted all “I don’t know what you mean” when I tried to discuss it directly. So, I (you may have guessed it) made a unique tag for my pro-Bernie Sanders posts so that people could block them. I also made a separate unique tag for my criticism of Hillary Clinton, and used #politics so if somebody wanted to ignore the whole election, they could block that too.

Then, having not really been connected to my MMO community in awhile and being bored of blogging in general. I shutdown my blog for a couple of months.

When I restarted it, I changed the name and informed everyone that it was 100% political from there on out. Bernie had lost the rigged Democratic Primary and I was now supporting Jill Stein and the Green Party as they were the only progressive act in town.

Well, that was completely unacceptable.

Though they knew I was planning on voting third party, my friends repeatedly reblogged memes and shitposts insulting third party voters. When I responded to these posts, they usually gaslit me and said I was actually attacking them by objecting to their post that insulted me.

And because I was voting for the wrong white women, they smeared me as being racist and sexist – in vague-posts or MMO chats of course.

At the same time, they posted ridiculous and objectively sexist things about Jill Stein. When I responded negatively, they lamented what I had “turned into” and called Jill Stein a “cunt” and “bitch” and added that I was a “pussy.” Yet, somehow I was the person being sexist here.

When I called out the clique who were responsible for the trolling, my friends again tried to gaslight me and acted like it was a coincidence or something that they all frequently dogpiled my posts.

In some cases, I asked people who obviously hated me to unfollow me and they refused because “Um, I kinda read some of the news you post even though I think you are a scumfuck.” So I blocked them.

Then, I just blocked everyone who liked the “Jill Stein is a cunt” post and suddenly about 90% of the trolling that my admittedly controversial blog received dropped off.

While blocked, whenever I made a post about something like Clinton’s complicity in the right-wing coup in Honduras and subsequent assassination of activists, there would be a spate of mirror-posts arguing that Rightwing coups were actually progressive. And I’d be told about it by our mutual friends.

When I didn’t respond, a “friend of a friend” made a parody of my tumblr called @terminallystupidpolitics that’s profile read something like “hurr durr Jill Stein mah white privilege.” I was told about that by another mutual friend.

And of course when Trump won it was my mostly my fault according to my friends. But I had blocked them, so I only heard echoes of it when mutual friends reblogged their sentiments.

I don’t tell you this because “Oh, I’ve had it so rough!” I haven’t. A few appleheads hating on you over politics comes with the territory. Even losing friends over politics is completely normal – especially when the politics reveals that your friend was only ever concern-trolling when it came to social justice.

The reason I tell you this is because I tried to self-censorship and I tried not to rock the boat, but that wasn’t enough. It isn’t enough that you hide your position or just keep your social justice on the downlow.

The very fact that you are committed to social justice is a threat to people who secretly feel that your committment makes theirs look bad. They can’t allow you to exist even on the margins because if someone says “I won’t compromise on this issue” and they will compromise, they suddenly feel bad about themselves.

And when people feel bad about themselves, the easy option is for them to take it out on someone else. 

Rather than recommitting to social justice which is hard, they can just discredit the person who is more real than they are – you see this done constantly by the Democratic Party on a much larger level.

Self-censorship gets you nowhere and just stifles your message. Your friends don’t want your civility, they want your conformity. Only when you stop having opinions outside the party line will you be allowed back into the fold. “Agree-to-disagree” is just shit they say when they are losing the argument and smearing you instead behind your back.

You can only be true to your own beliefs. You gain nothing by moderating your beliefs so that your friends will be more accepting of your difference – it is not your difference they value, it is your likemindedness. They want their biases and values confirmed and justified. They don’t want you to fuck up the bubble by offering an alternative.

These days I feel much happier being able to post what I want without pulling any punches. I like to think that I am expressing myself openly and honestly and people can either take it or leave it.

I do still see comments reblogged by mutuals from folks that gaslit and smeared me, but it seems pretty distant now – like we were all different people. Or maybe we just got a better look at each other.

I value the work that people are doing on tumblr in spreading truly progressive and antifascist messages. I think that a lot of good can come from that. If you think to yourself, hey, maybe I should start a political blog, my advice is to not worry about what your friends think – if they can’t handle you talking about social justice then they were pretty shitty friends to start.

As Trump consolidates power and the press and political system normalize his bigotry, it is more important than ever that we speak our minds. We cannot hold back because of society’s centrist propagnda, or because it might upset our friends, or because the Democratic Party tells us we aren’t allowed to criticize them.

We need to be real, and that is what I aim to do with this blog for the rest of my time here and I hope you will join me.

[dearkyeom]

check in tag! tagged by @xuseokgyu thank u belle hehe tagging @kyeomshine @jonghan @scoupsy​ @seohoshi​ and.. caratblr... ♥ also i’m so sorry if you’ve already done this i’m very out of the loop LOL

1. Why did you choose your url?

“dearly beloved” by yoko shimomura aka the main theme to kingdom hearts is one of my favorite songs. the name is pretty too, so i would pick it up as usernames/urls wherever i could. most of the times it’s taken, so i try to incorporate either “dearly” or “beloved” into different words or phrases. so dokyeom + dearly = dearkyeom. incidentally it also happened to be the name of a dokyeom fansite...

2. Any sideblogs? If you have them name them and why you have them

this is a side! i have a few private ones for storing reblogs, and an exo one that is now inactive. i actually moved it to a different main tho bc i wanted to tidy up my main here.

3. How long have you’ve been on tumblr?

february of 2010 apparently... [stares off into the distance]

4. Do you have a queue tag?

q: just queue it! which is a pun for booseoksoon’s “just do it!” ... speaking of which, booseoksoon comeback when? that said i rarely queue posts bc i’m lazy...

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

a school friend of mine introduced it to me. i was mostly using blogger and sometimes like xanga (i know) before that and wanted to try a new blogging platform. i actually really just used it to keep in touch with friends and write original posts, like about my day and thoughts. then i got into k-pop shortly after and it was all downhill from there. LMAO

6. Why did you choose your icon?

seokmin and minghao qcute and finger heart and red. good combo.

7. Why did you choose your header?

seokmin and minghao cute and seokmin playing guitar and minghao being fond. good combo.

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

LOL it’s this one gif set i very lazily made in literally like 10-15 minutes of woozi choreo parallels between don’t wanna cry and fear. i did not think it would get more than 100 notes at most.

9. How many mutuals do you have?

xkit mutual checker hasn’t been working for my sideblogs so i’m not really sure tbh. :pensive: ... definitely more than... 10..?

10. How many followers do you have?

on this blog, 811 which is wild to me. it’s the most followers i’ve had on anything!

11. How many people do you follow?

90. i used to follow way more but like sometimes too much content stresses me out? LOL just anxiety things. some people i don’t actually follow but i check their blog regularly!

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

does my “my favorite genre of music is dokyeom outsinging the back track in live performances” post count? or the “hey can you pull up google maps i got lost in minghao’s eyes” one fdsfsdfds

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

on average maybe like... 1-3 hours? my activity is sporadic tho bc it depends on what my brain has latched onto for the week.

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

no, i don’t think so interestingly enough. i’ve argued with people on twitter tho maybe like three times in my life and i’m still recovering from the psychic damage to this day. i hate twitter.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

shrugs. i could go into an incredibly nuanced take on this, but i am not gonna Bother. i think it’s good to spread important information. does anyone ever need to reblog a post bc some random internet user told them to? that’s up to you.

16. Do you like tag games?

yes, even if i don’t always do them bc my brain said no, i actually do really enjoy reading people’s responses to games like this... it’s the socializing without actually directly socializing.

17. Do you like ask games?

yes, but i rarely choose to be the askee bc i... don’t think i usually have anything particularly interesting to say?? like i don’t mean it in a self deprecating way i just am like.. vibing... that or i’m too afraid to speak my full opinion on something bc i think i can be kinda harsh for most people’s liking LOOOOL. but i love sending people asks when they reblog ask games.

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

none really? iiasha and kyeomblr have both made posts that got spread quite far though HAHA

19. Do I have a crush on a mutual?

they all have my affection meter maxed out ofc hahaha. no but seriously you guys makes such great content it’s always a joy of mine to come on here and just see y’all existing... it’s nice.

20. Tags?

:)

[consumedkings-archive]

tagged by my loves @adelaidedrubman @shellibisshe @strafethesesinners and @scungilliwoman thank youuuuuu <3

1: Why did you choose your url?

it's one of my favorite bosses in dark souls (lol). oceiros the consumed king!

2: Any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

baby this IS the side blog. my main is lux--aurea and i generally don't rb onto it; one day i'll make the move to pull all my stuff over onto a main blog but today is not that day.

3: How long have you been on tumblr?

as soon as i could sign up i did, so probably 13 which would make it....12 years? ouchie i'm old lol

4: Do you have a queue tag?

yeah! they're just tagged "q" or "scheduled post"

5: Why did you start your blog in the first place?

this one i started because i decided that ao3 felt too much like screaming into the void when i posted my stuff, and i wanted to have a writing blog. also, people irl know me from my main blog so how am i supposed to post my pokemon fanfic on there, huh?

6: Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

it's my golden girl varya, and she's been revived recently by the sequel so i am: emo

7: Why did you choose your header?

pretty! botanical! matches my icon!

8: What’s your post with the most notes?

definitely the gifset i made of chorizo. this is guapo erasure and i won't stand for it

9: How many mutuals do you have?

idk man i barely know how to use tumblr. maybe like........15? 20?

10: How many followers do you have?

144!

11: How many people do you follow?

i always keep my following under 100, i like to be able to reach the end of my dash.

12: Have you ever made a shitpost?

this is every post i make what are you talking about

13: How often do you use tumblr each day?

pretty much every day & frequently throughout the day!

14: Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

no, there's no point in arguing with people on tumblr lol. just block and move on

15: How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

i feel hardly anything at all about them

16: Do you like tag games?

yes! i am just terrible at doing them lol

17: Do you like ask games?

YES AND I AM JUST TERRIBLE AT DOING THEM

18: Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

they are all tumblr famous to me, in my heart

19: Do you have a crush on a mutual?

i think we're all well aware that @starcrier is my lover my life my shawty my wife, but ofc my babies @shallow-gravy and @vasiktomis are there too, and lici the angel @blissfulalchemist. and my atrocities to god @faithchel @belorage @tomexraider i kiss u all. but lbh i crush on all my mutuals <3

20: Tags

uhhhhh idk i think pretty much everyone has done this so i won't tag anyone! but feel free to tag me so i can see your cool secret lore c: