#at a certain point with some posts tags are completely unnecessary

[therenaissancedungeonmaster]

Things I have learned about Tumblr dot com from my ISAT fanart that should be pretty obvious in hindsight. Tumblr:

Has a large population of chronically ill people who are very happy to be seen AND

Loves memes

[aroaceleovaldez]

the show chb logo was also ripped from fandom, like in the past decade all the official chb shirt had the logo without the circle and then the fandom started doing and the show went for it, sorry your tags reminded me of that

[Link to post/tags in question]

Yeah, I know Delphi Strawberry Service has done more circular-based CHB shirt designs for ages, and I've seen the more circular-based designs floating around for awhile. I think Magicbysab's circular-based CHB shirt designs also predate the show design? Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I understand on a level that if they did base it off fandom designs, particularly if they're basing anything on widespread fanon or fandom-based concepts, it can be difficult to pin down credit or may even seen unnecessary. But if they're going to be doing that I feel like at least they could hire like, a fandom consultant of sorts? Instead of just ripping off from the fandom, hire someone from the community who produces that already so at least there's some recognition and acknowledgement of where it originated.

Heck, in some instances if you ask around in the fandom it's not hard to pinpoint who specifically popularized certain concepts! I could talk for ages about Cherryandsisters being a driving force behind photokinesis!Will, or Saberghatz with plague!Will (tbh between the two they spearheaded a ton of early Will/Solangelo fanon), and I swear Drksanctuary alone is behind like 50% of Alabaster fanon, etc etc etc. People in the fandom know these things! Heck, we know ReadRiordan company knows how to do that kind of thing! They commissioned Viria for the official art, and the UK Riordan newsletter reaches out to fans all the time to feature their work (with credit, they're one of the better ones)! Though in Rick's book tours he did showcase Viria's art (at least with credit) without asking before she got commissioned, and during the Tower of Nero book tours they actually straight up stole a solangelo edit from Pervysloth with completely zero credit (link is to my canon url readriordan parody blog).

I think it doesn't help as well that Rick and his editor allegedly use the fandom wiki in place of a series bible. The PJO wiki is notorious for putting inaccurate information or fanon onto pages at random and having no sources. (What I wouldn't give for the PJO wiki to have frequent book/page sources a la Warrior Cats wiki...) There are what, now almost 18 books in the main series alone? Of an extremely renowned best-selling series that's 20 years old and now being adapted for TV? And they STILL don't have a series bible? That's like, step 1 of writing a series. This kind of reliance of the fandom for resources and concepts definitely isn't new for them.

It just feels so bizarre as to what it says about how the ReadRiordan company views the fandom and the creatives within it. I understand that trying to figure out how to give credit to the concept of "CHB shirt design, but circular!" is difficult, if you even can find out who did that first or popularized it. But if you're going to rip things from fandom, at least find somebody to try and credit? Show that you put in even the tiniest amount of effort? And if you get it wrong and people know, they'll correct you and that's that! But ReadRiordan just keeps trying to actively obscure these kinds of things, even with their own media, not ripped from the fandom, which makes it feel all the worse when it gets pointed out. And a lot of the time the whole reason those concepts get popular is because they're filtered through big names in the fandom! The fandom is a community! We know these people! We can point to them and explain exactly what they popularized! Remember how Velinxi popularized long haired Piper with the heart-shaped flyaways? Goodness only knows how many fandom designs are heavily influenced by Viria and Minuiko and Burdge (and Indigonite and Fuocogo and Ikimaru and Thecottonproject and Joker-ace and Sixofclovers and Vikingmera and Saber and Cherry and and and-). If you are in the community this stuff is easy to find. But Rick and the ReadRiordan company clearly being ~5 years behind with fanon pretty obviously tells me that they're not in the community at all, and aren't bothering trying.

[akoyaxs]

Dangerous Games - II

✮ Pairing: Aonung x Tayrangi/Omotikaya fem reader ✮ Tags: Reader POV, oral sex (m and f recieving), slight voyeurism if you squint, banter, fluff, friends w benefits ✮ Read Part 1 here Note: this (backstory and character dynamic) is heavily based of my wattpad fanfiction "Dangerous Game", it's just a little more mature than I would post on my WP so I'm doing a Aonung x reader part now instead of the Aonung x OC in the fanfiction ˙ᵕ˙

So maybe things didn't go exactly to plan - not that there had ever been a plan in place.

But when you and Aonung returned back to the village, the others hardly failed to notice the marks you'd left all over each other.

Neteyam had been quick to notice the nips and hickeys along your neck, and Lo'ak's eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw the scratches you'd marked along Aonung's back.

The two Sully boys had instantly pulled Aonung aside. By their gleaming eyes and slight frowns, you could tell they were torn between their obvious disbelief that Aonung managed to have sex with you and their brother-like protectiveness of you (which was completely unnecessary as you outranked them both put together).

Kiri and Tsireya had been raising their brows at you, which you ignored after sharing the whole story with them. Tsireya had been slightly disgusted with her brother yet amused with your easy control of him, whilst Kiri had just listened intently with an incredulous grin on her face.

Unfortunately, in the moment where you and Aonung made that bet and engaged in certain activities in that soft forest clearing, you hadn't though about the longer term consequences.

One of them was Aonung himself. He couldn't stop shooting you strange glances despite your insistence that it meant nothing.

You had thought that finally giving him a taste would satiate his inexplicable fixation with you, but if anything, he was just seems to want you more.

You sigh as you walk out of your hut, forgetting the crucial fact that your kelku was next to the one the Metkayina were staying in.

You're striding past without your weapons when you hear a voice call your name from inside.

Tsireya is smiling at you from the entrance, nestled comfortably against Lo'ak. You can spot Kiri and Rotxo by the fire, chatting with Neteyam.

Not spotting a certain someone, you follow Tsireya's welcoming wave and duck into the kelku.

Yet upon entering, you realise you made a mistake in assuming Aonung wasn't there, because your foot catches on a thick turquoise tail, and you find yourself promptly falling into someone's lap.

Stupid ass skxawng, leaving his tail lying wherever for people to trip over. Why does he just have to be so stupidly massive.

You grumble a little as you push yourself up, finding Aonung's face suddenly inches from yours, an amused little smirk on his face.

"Shut up and get off me fish lips," you snap, gripping his shoulders to push yourself out of his lap.

"You were the one that sat on me," he points out, before he cuts himself off.

You don't miss the way his eyes instantly travel over him as you sit up and push yourself away, but before you can snap at him that your eyes actually aren't on your tits, Tsireya speaks up.

"You look beautiful," she gasps, smiling at you. "Where are you going?"

"There's a party tonight," you say, frowning at Lo'ak.

"Oh yeah," he says, shaking his head slightly. "I forgot about that- that's why we came here, to invite you!"

Immediately, your eyes widen, but Kiri's grabbing Rotxo's arm and begging him to come.

Which only means-

"You're coming too bro, right?" Neteyam asks Aonung.

Aonung clears his throat and peels his gaze away from you. You hadn't even noticed him staring- you'd gotten so accustomed to his bright blue eyes on you.

"Yeah," Aonung shrugs, and Neteyam grins.

"We had some good times in the reef- now it's our time to show you a good time in the forest."

"Here's your chance," I whisper to Aonung, so only he can hear.

"Chance to what?"

"To fuck around with some villagers and leave me alone," I hiss, grinning at him.

"I think you like having me around sweetheart," Aonung whispers back, not in the least deterred by the words.

"And what gives you that impression? My overwhelming love and affection for you?" you taunt.

"That and the way you were moaning in my ear the other night," he grins, teeth glinting sharply, and you feel the places where those very fangs lightly sunk into your skin prickle under his bright blue gaze. "Oh yes, yes, yes-"

"Shut your stupid mouth," you snap, quickly checking that the others couldn't hear your whispered, furious conversation.

"I thought you liked my stupid mouth," Aonung grins, before you whip his leg hard with your tail. "Ow."

The others turn to see him rubbing his leg and wrinkling his nose at you.

"Sorry, accident," you say, rolling your eyes.

"Yeah well, we should go before you murder Aonung," Kiri smiles, hauling you up and away from the stupid skxawng. 

You allow yourself to be led away by Kiri, Rotxo on her other side, and the others trailing behind you as you walk together towards the party.

You can hear Tsireya giggling at Lo'ak's stupid jokes, and Neteyam and Aonung are having a low, quiet conversation, though you can feel eyes burning on you.

You'd bet anything they were a very familiar ocean-blue set of eyes with that strange, unreadable expression.

Thankfully, you get a distraction as soon as you arrive at the party - alcohol.

It's been a long fucking week, what with training Aonung and scolding Aonung and avoiding Aonung and the other business with Aonung, and this is a time where you can just get away from fucking Aonung.

It's so stupid, the way he just always seems to be there, and when he isn't physically, it's just imprinted in your mind.

You don't love him - you don't even like Aonung - but there's just something about him that just remains with you wherever you go.

It's something about his faint sea-breeze scent lingering after he's been in the forest for weeks, something about the way his large blue eyes glitter no matter if they're illuminated by sunlight filtering through the foliage or the forest bioluminescence.

You grunt, downing a sweet, very strong drink of some unfamiliar sort.

You can still almost feel the ghost of his hands all over you, feel your fading nips and hickeys prickle when he's near, hear the faint groans and curses he left, messy and hot, along your neck as your back arched against his muscular chest.

Fuck, this isn't good.

The alcohol isn't drowning away these constant thoughts of Aonung.

Never once have you ever spared two flying fucks for a guy after you fucked.

It's not like you like Aonung, but you've hardly ever felt this level of... awareness... with any other guy before.

Each encounter has been the same, a quick fuck then you leave before things can get awkward, or worse, intimate.

So okay, maybe seeing your whole clan get murdered and destroyed by sky people at a young age could be traumatising, maybe even give you a few silly little intimacy issues, but your total aversion for intimate affection had always been uncomplicated.

You didn't need people to protect or defend you, you didn't need someone to take care of you.

Not once had you ever wished to stay and be cleaned up and praised and loved after sex; sex was just meaningless escape and occasional enjoyment.

These repeated thoughts of Aonung didn't mean anything. Nothing at all.

The next drink is even stronger, a whole coconut full of some shiny sapphire liquid that tastes faintly of lime, and you sloppily down it before swiping away the droplets.

Aonung didn't matter- it doesn't matter that you can feel his eyes on you from across the party.

But you only notice the burn of those ocean-blue eyes when it suddenly disappears.

You frown, turning to where you last saw Aonung, to find him speaking to some other girls.

Ha. Ninat was, simply put, a slut. She was named after her obviously egocentric mother, who Neytiri had once told you had put quite a few moves onto Jake.

Now Ninat 2.0, not exactly improved, was giggling obnoxiously at Aonung, twirling her long dark hair and batting her long lashes at her.

You just scoff and turn away, sipping another coconut. You don't like Aonung, but you know he can do better than that.

"Quite a step down, don't you think," a voice whispers in your ear, before you realise Neteyam's standing beside you.

"What do you mean?" you ask, frowning drunkenly at your friend. 

"Come off it," Neteyam grins, rolling his eyes. "It couldn't be more obvious you fucked Aonung, he's even more pussy whipped than before."

"He's not pussy whipped," you mumble. "He's just-"

"Totally obsessed with you and everything you do and everything that has to do with you?" Neteyam suggests.

"Sure," you shrug, too hazy to argue with him as you down another drink.

"But I mean, who isn't," Neteyam grins. "All the other guys in the clan are furious - they know how picky you are about lovers and the fact you chose an outsi-"

"Gross Tey," you swat at him. "They aren't my lovers, I'm just having fun. I'm still young, just let me live, mighty warrior."

He laughs, but lightly holds your arm to steady you.

"Look, Khalo has been glaring at Aonung this whole party. Moy'ka is working up the courage to come talk to you, and those five guys over there are literally fighting over who gets to shoot their shot."

"What's your point," you frown. 

"My point is that you are literally the most desired girl in the clan, and it speaks volumes that you're fucking a guy that has been here for weeks when every other guy has been bending backwards to get you to look at them their whole lives," Neteyam says sternly.

"I'm not fucking Aonung," is all you reply with. "It was a one-time thing, and now I'm ready to move on and forget about it."

"He won't."

"Come on Tey," you grumble. "I heard a million stories about Aonung when you were in the reef, he was fucking girls left and right and he never got hung up on anyone. Why would he be so obsessed with me?"

"Because you aren't falling at his feet," Neteyam points out. "Look, Ninat is practically trying to suck his dick already, and he couldn't give two fucks. You have him hooked, and I know you're intrigued by him too."

"You mean annoyed," you grumble.

"No I mean intrigued," Neteyam says sternly. "I mean, why else would you be avoiding him, then having all these weird whispered conversations with him when you think we don't notice, then taking him so far away to train?"

"I take him far away so no one can hear his screams of pain," you grin, drunkenly cackling a little.

"You're fucking demented," Neteyam says fondly, tucking your face back behind your ears.

"True," you shrug carelessly feeling eyes snag back onto you.

You don't need to sense that it's Aonung looking, but you turn to meet his gaze anyway.

He's shameless about his staring, pupils tiny slits in large blue eyes like an ocean trench, before a voice interrupts you.

"Hey," Moy'ka says nervously, holding a small wrapped leaf of meat. "I brought this for you."

"What is it?"

"Yerik meat," he says awkwardly. "From my hunt. I saw you hunting one a few days ago with um... with..."

He trails off nervously, and you follow his gaze to where Aonung stands.

Aonung looks normal, half-listening to Ninat chatter on about some stupid shit, but you can see his tail flicking agitatedly behind him, and you can sense the hard coldness of his gaze from here, snagged right on your face.

You have a moments hesitation before you turn back, ignoring Aonung and smiling at Moy'ka.

"So I hunted it for you," Moy'ka says nervously.

How cute, going to the trouble of hunting a hexapede and bringing you a meal. It's not much to impress the best hunter and warrior in the clan, but you accept it graciously, and he looks so relieved and jittery that you can't help smiling.

This is another strange idea that the men in the clan have, bringing you gifts from their hunts as tokens for your "affection". It never seems to occur to them that you could easily hunt for yourself, could easily murder them too, but it seems to be some pathological need for you to accept their silly little gifts.

Moy'ka seems to be mumbling about something or another, about hunting and archery, and you find yourself thinking more about his large hands then the words he's speaking.

"Really?" you sigh, struggling to pretend you aren't bored out of your fucking mind.

"Well," Moy'ka says, before looking nervously down at you. "We could discuss it in a more private area."

At this, your ears prick up.

You're drunk and need a distraction and to be frank, you're horny.

So you grin agreeably up at Moy'ka, and follow him away from the party.

It's a little shy and messy, your head banging uncomfortably against the back of the tree you're propped against as Moy'ka clumsily holds you up.

You've barely been at this for more than a few minutes, which is undoubtedly long enough for you to realise that your standards really have slipped.

First Aonung and now this, bumbling, clumsy fucking with this endearingly nervous but not at all worthwhile guy, who's grunting - like a hog - his praises of your tightness and sweetness and beauty and other stupid fucking bullshit.

This is what you get for trying to be nice, you think. Give a sweet nervous guy a chance opposed to the cocky stupid ones, and end up with steadier rhythm of your head slamming into the tree than his thrusts.

You'd never ever fucking admit it, but Moy'ka feels like a fucking twig compared to Aonung.

You can tell Moy'ka is getting close - a good fucking thing so this can be over and you can go sleep - and he looks up at you.

"Can I-"

"Yes, yes fine," you wince, reaching up to clutch the branches in an unsuccessful effort to stop your head knocking.

He comes undone in an embarrassingly quick, loud groan, shaking with the orgasm and the effort of holding you up and against the tree.

When he finally pulls out, you wince and steady yourself on the ground, feeling extremely disgruntled and unsatisfied.

The one good thing about this interaction was that you smartly chose to go near the river, so you quickly slide away from Moy'ka.

It's only when you turn back, you spot the figure in the shadows of the trees. There's no mistaking that massive outline, or the distinctly paler, more greenish tint of their skin. 

But it's the large blue eyes, seemingly gleaming out of the darkness with cold amusement that makes you shiver slightly. You duck underwater, knowing he saw you notice him, before resurfacing.

"Are you alright?" Moy'ka asks.

"Yes," you say, trying not to sound bitter about your overwhelming lack of pleasure. "You should be going."

"Are you sure?" he asks, looking slightly hurt. 

"Yes," you say, eyes travelling over Moy'ka's shoulder to Aonung again.

Moy'ka also looks, and completely freezes when he sees Aonung.

"So I'm fine," you say pointedly, waiting for him to leave.

"Are you um..." Moy'ka says nervously, his gaze constantly flicking between you and Aonung. "Are you alri-"

"Yes yes I'm fine," you grumble, resisting the temptation to roll your eyes.

Finally, he slides up and tentatively steps away.

He gives Aonung a wide berth, cautiously avoiding his gaze as he scrambles away, and Aonung steps forward.

"What, skxawng," you grumble, not bothering to look at Aonung as you slide out of the river.

"Nothing."

You glare at him, able to sense the waves of his amusement from miles away.

"Mhm, and how long were you standing there?" you ask suspiciously. "Watching him fuck me-"

"Is that what that was?" Aonung scoffs. "It looked more like he was trying to hammer your head into that tree."

"Perv," you scowl. "Don't you have better things to do then stalking me?"

"Not really."

"So you were stalking me then?"

"I was going for a walk," Aonung says elusively, and your eyes narrow. "Then I heard him grunting like a fucking pig. Oh, you're so fucking tight- uhg, uhghhhhhh-"

"Didn't sound that different to you," you snap, feeling your face grow hotter.

Aonung raises an eyebrow and straightens up, so he's a good head and a half taller now.

"At least you had a good time with me," he grins.

"You are such a dick," you snap, glowering at him.

"And you have terrible fucking taste. Besides me, obviously."

"That was just one thing," you say hotly, "It wasn't that bad-"

"Not that bad," Aonung repeats incredulously. "That wasn't bad?"

"Well-"

"He was literally about to send you through that fucking tree," Aonung scoffs. "You looked so uncomfortable, I thought I'd have to come rescue-"

"I don't need your rescuing," you hiss.

"No, I think you need a good fuck," Aonung grins. "Because if that 'wasn't bad' then someone's royally fucking up with you, princess."

"Well I tried, didn't I," you hiss. "So I didn't get a good fuck, I admit it. Can you fuck off now?"

Aonung just scoffs.

"Is that really what you want?"

"What else would I want," you snap. "The great pleasure of your delightful company?"

"Have you had a good fuck?" Aonung asks instead, ignoring your sarcastic words.

"Yes."

"Besides with me," Aonung says.

You turn to glower at him, but instead of finding the expected cocky smirk on his face, you find him looking genuinely interested.

Ugh, why does he have to be so fucking invested? Why is he actually fucking caring?

"What does that matter?" you grumble.

Aonung blinks, looking sincerely engrossed.

"You haven't?" he whispers.

"I have," you grumble. "I just... I don't have very high expectations when it comes to guys."

"Oh paksalin-"

"Don't call me that," you snap at the name, which seems taunting and cold in this conversation. "I'm tired and unsatisfied so-"

Aonung settles back slightly, leaning against the same tree you had just been fucked against, if you could even call it that.

You're disgruntled to see that because of his stupid height, his head is resting against the same spot yours had repeatedly been knocked against.

"I wouldn't leave you unsatisfied," Aonung says coolly.

It takes you a moment to process his words before you snap up and stare incredulously at him.

"Really?" you say dryly, trying not to let your emotions get the better of you. 

What is he on about now? Is he saying what you think he's saying? Aonung nods simply.

"I think you know I wouldn't," Aonung whispers, tilting his head a little so he's looking down at you.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

But also you're tired and impatient and still annoyingly unsatisfied, so fuck it.

"Get to the point," you snap. "Or get lost."

Aonung doesn't waste any time, pushing himself off the tree and striding towards you. It seems like he only took a single step, but suddenly he's a foot apart and you're having to tilt your head to look up at him.

"Do you want me to help you?"

His question tumbles in front of you, seemingly trapped in the little space between your body and his.

He's a smug little skxawng. He knows what the answer is, but he also knows how fucking impossible it is for you to say the answer.

"Yes or no?"

You growl under your breath, growing more irritated by the minute, but the air between you is thick and charged with tension and you can feel the anticipation growing inside you.

It's pretty fucking obvious where this is headed, but it's just so... infuriating.

Infuriating that what you want happens to be offered by the most annoying dick you've ever known in your life.

"Fine," you grumble under your breath.

"What was that princess?" he asks, fangs glinting in his familiar grin.

Not bothering to speak at all, you just crash your lips onto his and snake your hands around his neck.

There's no need for the kiss, and both of you know it. The deal was for sex and sex alone, pleasure alone, and you know what it means that you kissed him.

You kissed him.

You can feel his heartbeat picking up against your chest as he shifts, one of his hands on your waist and holding you up so your faces are closer, the other tangling in your long hair.

He smells good, like amber and sea-salt, and his lips are so soft and warm that you nearly forget about everything else and get lost in the kiss.

Then it deepens further and everything is hot and warm and tangling, his hand sliding lower, nearly at my ass.

It hardly ever occured to you how little you've kissed in your lifetime- probably less than you've fucked, but now here you are, pressing yourself as close as you can to this infuriating, uselessly hot skxawng.

If you weren't so fucking horny then yes, maybe you would have paused to think, to remember your previous distaste for him, your principal for not giving in to his amused and persistent seduction.

But you are so fucking so you just kiss him harder as one of his hands cups your jaw, the other clasping around the back of your neck and tilting your head farther up to meet him.

Your height difference seems ridiculous, and after a few moments he smiles against your mouth.

"Up," he whisper, hands travelling down.

He catches you as your legs wrap tightly around his waist, arms snaking around his neck to steady yourself.

His hands automatically move to hold you in place, one on your back and waist, the other arm propped under your ass, the hand gripping your thigh.

The kiss is messy and airless and hardly graceful, but you wouldn't have it any other fucking way.

You're all greedy and breathless, desperate for anything, and the feeling of his soft lips against your own, his fangs lightly sinking into your lip before his tongue lightly licks away the small pearls of blood just... does something.

You can already feel him growing harder below you - you think he might have already been hard before you even noticed him, watching you get clumsily fucked against that tree.

Now your head is spinning slightly, and you feel more hungry than ever.

It's infuriating, but you know out of most of the clan, this stupid outsider with his massive body and pretty paler skin is probably the best person to be doing this with.

The knowledge - knowledge you'd never speak aloud - that Aonung is the best you've ever had by a long fucking shot doesn't exactly piss you off in the way you think it would.

It isn't some aggravating, world-shattering fact, because you simply know that Aonung would be more than happy to be in this position again, offering you more pleasure because he cockily knows he can give it.

And with that, you're suddenly being pushed against the tree again, but it's different.

His hands are easily holding you up, arms cushioning under you so you aren't knocked against the hard wood. You hadn't even noticed him slide your loincloth away, but suddenly your legs are tossed over his shoulders and he's gazing up at you. 

It's that same fucking look. Of the smitten, puppy-dog variety, but also with a note of hunger and lust that makes you clench around nothing.

You just look back, and there's a few moments where you just stare at each other, both of you hungry and silent, then before you know it he's dived between your legs.

It's too risky to grip his braids as you had last time - you don't want to fall down even though you know Aonung wouldn't let you drop - but you need something to hold anyway. Your hands fly to the branches above to steady yourself, nails digging shamelessly into the bark.

"Fuck," you growl under your breath as he flicks and kisses and sucks, pressing his tongue against and in you as you throw your head back against the trunk.

It isn't just his admittedly amazing talent for giving head that is just so overwhelming- it has something to do with the way he's so effortlessly holding you up, something to do with the little growls and hums he lets out against you, something to do with the realisation he's not holding himself back.

Last time, even though he had been trying to impress you, he had still restrained himself somewhat.

But now he knows your hungry, and he could probably get away with doing anything.

His hands are holding so tight to your thighs you can already see the little purple blooms of a bruise under his fingers, and he's making sure to sink his fangs lightly into your inner thighs every now and again.

The tiny pearls of scarlet blood are smearing with slick and spit all over the lower half of his face, but he's just humming delightedly against you, his tail swinging happily behind him and a dopey, self-satisfied grin on his face.

Your legs begin to shake around his head, eyes rolling all the way back as you moan louder and claw at the branch you're desperately clutching. 

"I- I'm fucking close," you manage to choke out between loud moans, and Aonung growls against you, not even bothering to look up. "Don't you want to-"

Aonung pulls away, looking distinctly disgruntled that you're talking to him and making him stop his relentless attack on your cunt.

"Go ahead, I'm planning on satisfying you much more than once princess," he says off-handedly, before diving back down with more fervour than ever.

The words you were going to say die in your throat as you gasp loudly, and before you know it, you're tumbling over that edge he had you teetering on.

He licked your essence greedily, growling with every swallow as though he was starved. But he didn't stop, continuing to lick and suck with reckless abandon, grinning at your increasingly whiny moans.

"Okay, okay," you laugh shakily, pushing lightly at his head. "I got-"

"Just one more," he mumbles against you.

You're about to protest, to tell him he doesn't need to, when he gives you large, pleading eyes and you realise this isn't just about you.

He's sincerely enjoying himself - your taste, your moans, your heels digging into his back and legs trembling on his shoulders from the increasingly overwhelming overstimulation.

You just whine loudly when he blinks pleadingly at you, but you aren't about to back down now.

He's watching you carefully, eyes flicking between your trembling body and your rolling eyes and shamelessly loud moans.

Your breath is so shaky that your body trembles with each desperate inhale you attempt at, but it's hard to beat off your moans and whimpers for a moment long enough to draw breath.

Finally you just let go, squirting all over Aonung with a keening cry, trembling all over and nearly going limp in his arms.

You're mortified at how intense your orgasm was, even more so when you open your eyes and see yourself limp against the tree, propped up carefully by Aonung.

"Are you alright?" he asks, looking distinctly pleased with himself but also a little concerned.

"Sure," you say with a shaky laugh as Aonung sets you back down. "Where did you learn that shit?"

"I picked it up," Aonung shrugs modestly, at complete odds with the cocky confidence gleaming in his ocean eyes. "Just here and there."

"Right," you say, rolling your eyes at him, before noticing the bulge in his tewng.

He's painfully fucking hard now, and you can see the seams of his loincloth straining.

"Do you need some help?"

Your questions surprises you both. But then again, he did do a great job with you, and you weren't selfish. You're happy to help him out.

"I'm supposed to be helping you," Aonung points out, shifting slightly to cover his erection.

"You did," you argue. "Don't be up yourself, you can ask for help too."

When Aonung just stares at you, you shift closer and lightly trace his bulge.

Instantly, his breath hitches and his body instinctively moves to follow your touch. You teasingly let your hand drop and he exhales as you turn to raise your brows at him.

"So?"

"Yes," he breathes.

"Yes what, Aonung," you ask, feigning stupidness.

"Please help me," he begs.

It was easier than you thought as you grin and oblige, moving to your knees and sliding his tewng down, reaching out to grab his cock before it smacks against his admittedly very toned abs. 

It feels fucking massive in your small slim hand - the smooth teal colour looking prettily pale against the azure blue of your forest na'vi skin, the glowing blue tahnì gleaming invitingly at you.

You pump his cock a few times, grinning as he chokes out a groan, and lick a stripe along him before closing your lips around the tip. Instantly, his hand closes on a fist full of your hair as his head tips back against the tree, swallowing a choked groan as he watches you take him into your mouth.

He jerks when you open your mouth wider. You don't hate the way it stretches your lips - he's the biggest you've ever had and it makes the hinge of your jaw ache as you force him down your throat. 

When he hits the back of your throat, he groans loudly and inadvertedly thrusts his hips forward. You choke a little and his grip on your hair loosens slightly as he mutters a bashful apology, but you just grin slightly to yourself before taking him even deeper, suckling on the head and the sides over and over. 

You're pulling groans and curses out of him as easily as he pulls your head gently up and down on his cock. You don't mind it, he did a good job and this is his reward.

You feel him getting closer, twitching in your mouth. His moans are getting louder and breathier too, and his grip on your soft dark braids is only getting stronger and stronger until you're just letting him move your head, mouth open for him and eyes watching him all the while.

But as he's nearly at his peak, he pulls you off him, not wanting to cum in your mouth, but you just grab his hips and push him deep into your throat, moaning slightly and sucking faster. 

That alone makes him come, letting out a stream of low groans and softly mutter your name again and again as you keep moving through his high until he's cursing, catching his breath and lightly pulling you off him.

His pupils are blown wide, large black spheres ringed in a fine line of bright icy blue as he looks down at you, hand absentmindedly moving to cup your face and gently wipe away the rest of the mess he left on your face.

"Sorry," he mumbles. "You didn't have to do-"

"I wanted to," you say without thinking.

Aonung blinks, still struggling to catch his breath as he realises what he's doing and quickly drops his hand away.

"Well," he says thoughtfully. He looks like he's trying to wrench his gaze away from you, yet those large blue eyes stay stubbornly fixed in yours.

You don't exactly want to look away, but you have a strange feeling that even if you wanted to, you wouldn't be able to tear your own gaze away either.

It's something about the way you're both standing, him hunched and slumped slightly against the tree, you drawn to your full height, and the fact that he's still nearly a foot taller.

Then there's a shout of laughter through the trees, and you remember about the party and the village and every other single fucking thing that you just happened to forget when you were with Aonung.

Stupid skxawng.

"We should go back to the party," you say quickly, the first words that jump into your mind.

You know what you're doing. For the first time in your life, you're backing down. And it's not because he intimidates you- quite the opposite.

It's what you see as the possibilities that frighten you. Because sure, the night was obviously going to end with you and Aonung doing that, because the fucking tension was just unbearable. Because when he looks at you like that, it's pretty fucking obvious what he's thinking.

Neteyam was right, but he isn't just fucking pussy whipped. Despite all of Aonung's cocky joking comments, he doesn't only like you. He's not just attracted to you. 

He wants more than these little forest quickies, and you... you just have no idea what you want.

So maybe you have intimacy issues. What do you do now? This has never happened, feeling a desire to overcome those very issues.

WHAT HAS THIS STUPID, MASSIVE, FISH-LIPPED, MUSCULAR, INFURIATING, HANDSOME, RIDICULOUS, COCKY, SWEET, GENTLE SKXAWNG DONE TO YOU?

Aonung just nods, eyes still following you as you pass him his loincloth and slide on your own.

"Hey," he says, nudging you slightly as you walk back towards the village. "If you're ever left unsatisfied, just come and find me again."

"I'm pretty sure you'll be the one to come and find me if I'm hooking up," you grumble. 

"At least I can deal with you," Aonung shrugs. 

"Same with you," you grin with raised brows. "Seems like we can't have a conversation without you getting hard."

Aonung swats lightly at you, and you shove him into a bush.

"So is that a yes then?" Aonung calls after you, struggling to stand back up and brush the leaves off himself. "We'll help each other out? Friends with benefits?"

"Not friends," you point out. "We'd have to like each other to be friends."

"I don't have a problem with you," Aonung shrugs. "I think you're quite fantastic."

"Okay I already sucked your dick, don't try to get in my pants again," you grumble. "I'll see you later."

"Alright," Aonung says, grinning at you as you return to the village.

No one pays any attention to the fact that you returned together, though you notice Neteyam's golden eyes on the pair of you as you walk towards your kelku.

You don't bother saying goodnight as you and Aonung split up to go to your neighbouring homes.

But as you duck into the shelter of your kelku, you can still feel the burn of that icy gaze on you.

Friends with benefits?

You're still pretty drunk, but you can't bring yourself to bother about anything else as you crawl into your woven bed.

You can worry about the events of tonight tomorrow, but it's not like your agreement to Aonung's proposal means anything. Just sex- just helping the other out.

Nothing intimate.

At all.

[bluginkgo]

Quick announcement (before the diarrhea of information):

I'm gonna go on a semi-hiatus for a week or so. I'll still be around, just not posting any drawings. Need to replenish my energy and drawing reserves cause I'm dead >_<

Sleep behind scenes!

So... Ginkgo why the hell did this take you so long? Sorry, sorry 😅 Here's what happened. I got burned out after like 10 pages (specifically the manor backgrounds killed me, plus having the full gang in the story) and then got sick and was not feeling all that great. Working through the burn out, sick, AND college work on top was quite hard not gonna lie though, but I wanted to finish it ^^

Alright, now as for little unnecessary Easter eggs, I added as nods to the show and my other interests. ^_^

1. Undertale save point. Undertale had me sucked in for a good long while, and for some odd reason decided to re-emerge in a form of the star save. Made it purple for Uzi's effect over N. She made him more rebellious, so he started to question why is it his memories and dreams are strange/corrupted/missing instead of just going with the flow.

2. Ep3 nod. V and N have history, history that I wish we get to see. V was nicer, kinder, in my opinion, prior to the absolute solver going rampage. So it makes sense for them to have some sort of friendship at the VERY least. So I decides to give it a small spin to it too. A direct quote from ep3 ^_^

3. Ep 2 + 5 nod. I kinda pulled the moment when James dismissed N from ep2 together with events that follow after N leaves library in ep5. Chronologically, these events don't fit together, seeing as ep2 is when N first meets Cyn and ep5 is when she's already set up the massacre. But this is exactly what I was going for. N's memories are jumbled at best, so I took liberty in mixing, matching, and editing his memories just as the admin program would probably.

4. Absolute Solver symbols nod. My chats with @absolute-solver (sorry for annoying you with tag 😅) made me realize that the absolute solver ought to have more presence now. It's activated and running systems in the background for Uzi. Whiiiiich means that drawing absolute solver should start now. BUT, it's rudimentary at best. Symbols don't really make sense and are not completed for most of the time. Not until Uzi at least sees the error message in ep2, when she truly starts questioning what that weird symbol on her visor is. I headcanon that N does know or at least feel that the absolute solver symbol is familiar, hence the little comment.

5. Absolute Solver Nori. Why is there so many absolute solver Nori around? I'm certain she went back to normal, just like in pictures Khan showed us in ep4 post core collapse. But I connected the solvers together here. Uzi's absolute solver string is up and running, and because the solver is a hivemind, it'd connect the memories and warp them a little. So that's why Uzi's doodle of her and Nori at the end (and during memory recall) was so full of absolute solver. It's slowly taking root, whether she wants it to or not.

Personal touches/added/cut ideas:

N's tail wrapping around Uzi like a hug. Originally, Uzi was supposed to look more nervous, but not for the reasons you might think. I cut the nervous look to a more upset look so it wouldn't be confused for fear. Uzi's never scared of N (yes, I don't count ep2 either, that was a lot of events at once and very little time to process them). The nervous look was more of a "Why are you butting in?" type, you know? Being a loner makes you cautious, so when N prods at feelings, I figured Uzi would be a bit defensive.

Cyn is fully rendered and yet I glitched her so much I felt bad. So here's full absolute solver Cyn eldrich monster thingy. ^_^

I pulled a Hazbin hotel moment. Did you see it? Abracadabra GONE! All the scraps from first couple pages with NUzi chatting POOFED out of the existence. Did I get lazy and tired? Yes, that was the tell tale sign of burn out, when I stopped keeping track of background details and just kept the pod.

These progress shots show pretty well how the story boarding goes and how I change my mind too easily. 😅 storyboard is still as much of a mess as ever, sketch shows you I was gonna keep Uzi's hat, but decided against it in final product. I figured this. Nori gave Uzi the jacket whenever Uzi got a bigger body + hair. These are the same jacket and hair Uzi has in canon. Uzi's body is just upgraded again and her hair gets shorter in that regard. The jacket would be big on her, and cover her hands, but what's up with the fluff if I draw canon jacket more spiky? And where's the death battery drawing? I headcanon Uzi drew those on once she got into the angsty teenager stage. The jacket is more spiky from wear and tear.

Fun fact! You can sorta tell who's gonna show up in the comic by what memes I post prior. Here's some examples ^_^ Cyn showed up, and that was first practice with maid outfits and Cyn's eldrich form. Closely followed by manor gang, the second/final form of maid and butler outfits and prime practice for those scenes. This example is a bit spoiler for a meme I'm working on right now! I've never drawn Nori before, so I quickly sketched out the idea and continued on with the comic (otherwise, I'd lose my steam and procrastinate on it again). Memes are filler for you guys while I work on the actual projects (comics), and along the way, they give me practice and change in drawing style ^_^

Is it a coincidence that this comic is called Sleep with the release of a certain horror game? Actually, yeah pure coincidence 😅 I had this drafted allll the way back in November, and didn't take particular interest in poppy playtime until I saw lanky boi, which was actually during a stream I watched on release day of the chapter.

(I didn't know tumblr, or at least the phone app, had a tag limit of 30, BOY was I surprised @brookiedaaroacecookie that must have been THE tag city, sorry 😅)

Next comic is Loneliness 1 and 2

This one is split into 2 POVs from both Uzi and N side, thus its 2 separate comics. That one will be more NUzi centered, too, a slight angst and comfort spin to it. That will come... sometime. I have a few more projects I wanna finish up with prior to starting on these guys ^_^

Why are you still reading this? Omg, have a cookie 🍪 you made it. Have a nice day now ^_^

[yellowhollyhock]

Why do people think it’s mean? I am referring to your tags on that 2003 post. I thought the humor was funny I dunno I guess I am not understanding what the meanness is. They are teenagers teens can be jerks.

post and my tags on it were 03 season 6 and 12 season 1 but I'm answering about 03 because I've watched it more recently and more often

First thing: it isn't a criticism of the characters (who are fictional and would be very pointless for me to nitpick their behavior) but a comment on the writing

And specifically how the writing is different because it's from that era. Mean-spirited humor is always a thing, but it was popular and mainstream at that time in particular (and having been a teenager at the time who didn't find it funny or participate and was therefore labeled as--well, mean, I guess in a way, or at least a stick in the mud, I have some strong feelings and biases against it).

(That said, not being a teenager anymore and having a bit more media literacy, I do want to add, humor changes, what's socially polite changes, it's not the end of the world, and by saying I hate what the writers did, I don't condemn them as people, we were all there together and we move forward together. Personally I still find season 6 enjoyable, just have certain issues with it. Which is what I will be focusing on since it's what you asked about)

So, the point: in earlier seasons the boys are mean to each other in ways that are believable, match their maturity level, and serve a purpose in the story to show them responding to stress or teach us about their characters. Sometimes they cross lines simply making fun of each other, but there are always underlying story beats. It isn't just the writers saying 'look this one's dumb let's laugh at him'

Season 6, especially with Mikey and Raph, feels like the writers are using them as comic relief in a very mean-spirited way. Sometimes that's reflected in the way Splinter, Leo, or Donny treat them, but it's also sometimes just the way the plot moves to exaggerate and poke fun at their flaws, ignoring character growth from past seasons.

When Raph used to call Mikey shell for brains and Mikey called Raph ugly, they were being teenagers. It was a thoughtful piece of characterization showing that being close friends doesn't make them perfect, being isolated is hard and they lash out at each other sometimes. Mikey was especially hard on Raph when he was having to share his space with April; it served a story purpose of showing the difficulty for the turtles in letting another person into their life (not something they've had to do often). I'm blanking on times Raph was harder on Mikey but the point is that he wasn't needlessly mean, sometimes it was played for a joke but it also had a purpose in the narrative.

Season 6? Oh it's sooo funny how no one wants to go watch wrestling with Raph, something he has literally wanted his entire life, btw don't forget he hates the future, isn't it fun to watch the angry turtle be homesick and isolated? Like Leo and Don are certainly less interested and helpful in that scene than they would be in earlier seasons, but the point is that the writers are being mean. We aren't supposed to understand Raph's brothers as being inconsiderate, we're supposed to laugh at him for being sincere and excited :/

Mikey's intelligence is also a huge example. Mikey is extremely clever and competent, but in season 6 they just constantly make him either pick on Raph or obsess over video games and forgot the rest of his character. Okay, so they flattened him a little, that happened to everyone. But it's worse because his apparent lack of intelligence is constantly made fun of. Donny makes a lot of just completely unnecessary comments that don't serve either of their character arcs, and come across much more as him speaking for the writers (and the audience, supposedly) to mock the dumb turtle.

I hate that extremely.

My brain is not in a good space for more examples. But the principle is that the type of humor popular in that era (which the op referred to) (2007ish to like 2014 I think) is, idk the best way I can describe it is emotional slapstick? mocking a character's emotions or lack of intelligence, almost creating a 'straw man' to beat on. Of course that type of humor has always and will always exist but it was a real mainstream popular thing; we don't usually call it 'literary movements' when it's shows and movies instead of writing but idk how else to explain it.

It's very much a thing in early 2012 writing as well, but I feel that sort of worked better because it landed at the beginning of the show instead of the end, so even though it may or may not have been deliberate (I honestly don't know 12 well enough to say), it worked well to play into their growing up arcs. As opposed to the 03 situation where their social maturity from the first five seasons just evaporated (and after a slow believable buildup too 😔)

tldr: the writers' humor is what I refer to as mean-spirited, not the characters. And yes I do think it's mean to mock the act of having emotions or not knowing enough information or struggling with discipline or being homesick (all things Raph and Mikey were mocked for, not just by other characters but by the narrative in a variety of ways)

[saetoru]

About that entitled ass post about x reader, op was definitely wrong but a small point was made.

I agree with your response but I'd like to add that, unless you've stated that certain characteristics or features will be present in reader, certain kinds of ambiguity is necessary, especially in appearance.

To make a character completely void of any backstory or personality is just bad writing period but to add an appearance is a little ...

As a black reader, reading about certain things that are supposed to reflect the reader is genuinely disheartening. I'm talking about things like referencing imagery of lighter skin (such as refering to readers skin as pink, pale, creamy, etc) or something like a character running their fingers through the reader's hair or having a hair washing routine that can be done in the time it takes to have a regular shower. I know with people with big bodies, having descriptions of small, light bodies is also disheartening.

Bc, once again, unless it's been stated that those are a part of reader's appearance, it's a little unnecessary bc it shows that although it's x reader it's definitely not for us.

I don't expect writers to write about specific events or characteristics about different cultures and such bc that can also go south REAL quick if you aren't properly educated or aware but a little diversity never hurt anyone

I know that some people do this out of genuine dislike of darker skinned/bigger people but I know most people do it out of genuine ignorance.

Unfortunately, you cannot bring up including people who don't fit typical beauty standards (pale/light skinned, long straight hair, thin/slim bodies) without people telling you that not everyone has to cater to you.

But the thing is, we're not asking you to cater to us; we're just asking you to include us in your vision of reader. You don't need to add specifics of everything regarding different races or cultures but you don't need to add specifics that exclude them.

And then when we go to create our own stories that do envision us, we're met with so much hatred and backlash about it like that one deleted comment on op's post.

I'm sorry for ranting about this but it so frustrating sometimes when people don't understand this. I brought up something similar to this topic once before and got death threats in my mentions for weeks (that's why this is anonymous)

ALSO, I'm not accusing you of any of the things I've mentioned in this ask. Based on what I've read from your work so far, the reader is actually someone you can enjoy reading about without feeling excluded when appearances are mentioned

Btw I adore your rich boy gojo series and would love to continue reading your work ❤️

im afraid you missed my main point and also, u are talking to someone who is literally a POC so i am definitely not in need of a rundown of how important it is to write reader in a manner that does not perpetuate western beauty standards. writing a reader that is inclusive for people in a manner that doesn't solidify western norms is important, but writing a reader that is an all encompassing fit all type of thing in terms of personality and decision making is not

its not that their point ab mistagged gn! readers and white/western physical features weren't valid—it was, but it was sprinkled in their main point that writing reader with personality is an oc and is not belonging in the tags and writers should focus on writing generic hcs instead. they used the issue of race and gender and other minoroties to support their idea that readers have to be ambiguous from all fronts, and that is a very twisted way to use actual real issues to justify your tantrums ab not liking dialogue or what the reader chose to do. my point that i was trying to make is that writers are entitled to write however they please as long as they tag what features of reader are set there. if they mistag that, then yes, that is something you should bring to their attention (politely) because then it misleads ppl to think this fic includes them. but that also is not done through a rant in the tags because that does not belong in the tags

quite frankly, to pair racial and gender representation issues as comparable to not aligning with the choices a reader takes to develop as a character and to put those two on the same boat takes away from the issue of inclusivity. inclusivity of a reader does NOT equal to how they think, process, feel, and progress in the storyline. not fitting in with the actual character of reader is incomparable to racial representation issues and misgendering tags and etc. the latter are REAL issues. the first is simply complaining bc u did not see urself in a plot

the actual problem with their rant was that they were using REAL issues to justify entitled complaining and that is why i did not validate them in that. yes writing reader as white and not tagging it is an issue. yes giving little to no thought to poc readers in writing is an issue. yes mistagging something as gn! while using gendered terms is an issue. but they should not be the backbone to an entirely different argument that essentially censors people

[vintagesimstress]

Iron Age Colour Palette

Based on some Internet research and certain photos I took in the ancient village of Biskupin some... 16 years ago? 17? My my, time flies... I created a colour palette to use for my Iron Age creations/recolours. 'Iron Age' in a very broad sense - you could as well call it 'natural dyes palette', so you can safely use it also for many later eras.

Includes 40 colours.

Apart from pigments you could get using plants native to Europe (where the GBSC, obviously, takes place, so this was my reference point) I included also some which are a bit more exotic, but I felt like richer people would still have a chance to obtain them by trade. I mean here mostly dyer's madder, which afaik grows only in warmer climates. What I didn't include are dyes coming from very faraway places. So if you've already noticed the striking absence of indigo and wondered what happened to it, that's your answer.

On my Patreon page you can find three attachments:

a .txt palette file for my fellow Paint.net users - you can just paste it into Dokuments\paint.net App Files\Palettes

an .aco file for those of you who use Photoshop (BIG shoutout to @peebsplays who just went ahead and made it for me from hex codes in the txt file 😭 Thank you!) - though I'm afraid you have to research yourself where to put it, as I don't even have Photoshop 🙃

a .pdf file with some completely unnecessary info, just in case you're interested in where those colours come from. Here a little side note: in some cases you can get WAY more colours from a certain ingredient than I listed, but because I already had similar ones on the list, I skipped them. Take apple trees, for example: I remember seeing so many yellows and greens in that 'dyeing with apples' post, but as I already had them in the palette, the only apple shades included are pinkish or brownish.

Oh, and I feel like I should add a disclaimer: as in reality I've never dyed anything, let alone with natural dyes, it totally might be that I made some mistakes. Don't quote me on this in your PhD thesis ;)

Please tag me if you use it, I'd be excited to see it!

DOWNLOAD (free on Patreon, no ads)

[atla-confessions]

I don't think I'll ever understand fighting over ships. You like one ship? That's great, but i dont think there's a reason to butcher other characters to make it happen.

I don't see why some people feel the need to purposefully type hate comments under ship posts of ships they dislike. I think there's a necessity to learn how to be nice towards others and enjoy what you like instead of hating on a ship you don't like.

It's a complete time waste to try and talk someone out of shipping something, because who are you? I don't think anyone would stop shipping something just because you don't like it and keep spamming hate and fighting eachother.

If you dislike something, obviously you can talk about it. In anti tags, you can bash it however you want because again, that's what you feel like and you can speak of it but targetting PEOPLE?? It's just wrong to hate spam on actual people over FICTION.

I've also seen people hate on non-canon ships and particularly m/m Or f/f ships are called a fetish. When, in fact, they are fictional, so to ship in the first place you're fantasizing them already, babes.

I've seen people get offended at m/m ships and f/f ships because in the original series they are het but where is your imagination? I kid you not I've seen m/m ships be called sexist somehow. It's really not, enjoying a certain dynamic and writing about them in a relationship is not a crime. If it's not your cup of tea it's fine but being so worked up about it that you have to hate on people who do ship them is so weird.

And, I've seen (I'm not saying that everyone's homophobic so dont take it that way) people say that they're canonically straight and that's why it won't happen. That's why it's a non-canon pairing? Not all M/M and F/F shippers are fetishizing them? Is that too hard to understand that there are always bad apples in a space. And if you find them then call them out but hating on the whole group of people? Like, shipping crackships, fanon ships or nevermet ships is completely fine.

I'm so sick of the canon-ship shippers that (and only them who do this ->) bash on non-canon ships just because they are non-canon. Seriously, non-canon ships don't deserve the amount of hate I see them getting. If you don't like dynamics or think they'd be objectively bad partners for each other it's fine but hating because they're not canon??? That's the point. They are not canon, they are what-if's. Sometimes people don't like canon ships and prefer another dynamic and there's no problem in that.

Same goes for fanon-ship shippers that go ahead and bully canon-ship shippers. It's weird. It's really really weird. Just because someone ships something canon does in no way mean they are unimaginative. Hating on real people to defend fictional people is so horrible. Yeah, at least your pixels look happy. Just, it's okay to be attached to something but it's downright awful to attack others.

Fandom is supposed to be FUN. But some of you just manage to suck the life out of it! The discourse is just so unnecessary and it makes it uncomfortable for the people who aren't in the shipping aspect of the show because, obviously ATLA is not about romance at all.

I just now realised how big I've written, I'm so sorry to the mod and anyone who reads this, did not need to ramble lmao. At least I'm self aware 🥲🥲

X

[lasplaga]

「𝔖」 I updated my dynamics page & reformed it into a full BYF dynamics page to vet writers which are fundamentally incompatible. ( Not out of malice, I'm just not comfortable writing or bending on certain things. I also want writers to be explicitly aware ahead of time in the case of triggers. At the end of the day I would like this hobby to be enjoyable for me. ) The link is HERE if you want to take a gander for yourself, but I'll be including the most prominent changes under the read-more. Some of it might be a little sensitive, so be advised. Regardless, I'm sure, or hoping, that my current followers have read the page before I updated it just now.

Last thing to note is that I added a weaknesses portion to his power list, scroll PAST his biography to see it, on the off-chance people were curious what exactly he is vulnerable to in case they wanted to use them for interactions. That's all, take care!

The most prominent change is that I won't EVER entertain Ramon X Osmund as a romantic pairing upon this blog. I won't be going out of my way to harass users who ship & write this ( Nor will I post URL's / socials, don't ask! ), but nothing in canon suggests Osmund exhibits pedophilic or incestual tendencies. Adoptive family is still family & Osmund has canonically raised Ramon before he was 8 years old. I feel that Lord Saddler ( & Los Iluminados by extension ) is ridiculously evil enough as is, so I find this dynamic wholly unnecessary & squicking for me. ( You don't need to voice your opinion about the ship in the replies, I'm just establishing boundaries. ) Continuing, other Canon's or OC's that suggest or include in their biography that Osmund ( or his religion ) exhibits pedophilic or incestual behavior will also be avoided as well. It's just not compatible & personally uncomfortable for me when nothing in canon even remotely suggests it.

I also included a section on triggering dynamics you should expect that is more or less seen in canon, mostly to cover my own ass & so people are WELL AWARE whether they want to interact with this character or not. I also included a link to my character analysis post of their sexually perverted behavior, which has been vastly expanded with links to the source materials. You can find it HERE if you don't feel like scrolling.

In terms of new mutuals interacting the first time without plotting at all beforehand, I had to think up something that was plausible as Osmund is an isolationist & hardly travels. So, from now on, I will assume 99% of the time that your muse approaches the village first & is overwhelmed by an ambush. If your muse is an outsider & it was not plotted beforehand they were permitted entry, their welcome will be treated VERY poorly. Though they do not recklessly kill outsiders, they will first be kidnapped & held captive before being given fair judgement. Judgment does not necessarily equal death. This welcomes opportunity for a wide variety of conflict & resolutions, it is VERY in character, so I feel that it works fine.

The last two are separated under the bar as they pertain to the lore of Las Plagas. I am a firm believer that antagonists should be represented appropriately ( no matter how terrible ). Also, that writers should be consciously aware of what the bioweapon represents before picking them, careful to tag triggers, not force interactions, etc., & that if crucial elements are removed it is a bastardization & / or woobifying the villain, which I don't do here. The bioweapon itself represents fascism, various forms of oppression & even sexual violence --- even if they preach peace. Removing that completely for aesthetic purposes I think is a disservice to the source material. If you personally don't like it, that's fine, at that point I would suggest just going with Mold as they also utilize Nematodes / Worms, without the assault aspect. But if you choose to write otherwise with Las Plagas, then our portrayals simply won't match.

Starting off, Las Plagas CC's or OC's that do not include elements of mind control & / or they are entirely free of mind control, have escaped Valdelobos / Kijuju but maintained their infection whilst living a normal human life, etc. --- will be fundamentally incompatible as I abide closely to the lore. Osmund is the highest hierarchy of the caste & cannot be influenced by lower castes, but still regresses. Lower castes are subject to Osmund's influence on a spectrum. Las Plagas without elements of mental / bodily domination is lore-breaking & just does not interest me, I'm sorry if this is inconvenient for any of my current mutuals ( but I don't think it is ).

You are fine to portray your mutant as you deem fit, but Osmund’s faith would not support prejudice, xenophobia, or racism towards hosts belonging to Type-2, Type-3, or Type-4. All Plagas species function under the same caste system & under the same hivemind. They desire to bridge relationships between all nations & creeds. It would fundamentally go against his remake characterization to support hatred towards hosts of different plaga strains. If your mutant exhibits this type of bigotry, they will be called out for such, if not worse.

Lastly, Their God is incorporeal & suggested to have cosmic desires before dying upon Earth, & I will never depict he worships a different deity / person in his main verse that is not himself / another Prophet. Only Osmund Saddler is confirmed to be the last surviving in possession of a Dominant Plaga. "The Amber" IS NOT CONFIRMED to be stronger than him, only speculated without firm evidence, & they possess the same abilities / are the same species.

[roostertuftart]

Amporella and Allymumu need to learn better how to behave around minors. 

I really did not want to make this post, but I’ve come to the conclusion that my decision not to in the past was cowardly and I’m honestly tired of avoiding this as I have been, as well as having since lost all reason to keep quiet about it in the first place/learning new information that has made me increasingly uncomfortable with the situation. It has been on my mind near daily since some newer information became clear, and I need to talk about it. I also want to take full responsibility for not making this public sooner as I should have, as I played a part in letting this happen when I knew I should’ve spoken up back then.

To be clear, this post is not made with the intention of sending harassment toward either of these individual’s ways, nor am I trying to police who you are allowed to follow/interact with- I don’t care. As gross and damaging as I find this behavior, I honestly do not believe either of these people are predators, but I also think they need to grow the fuck up and stay away from minors until they learn how to act their age, make it clear they’ve stopped doing things like this, and apologize.

That being said, it has been almost a year, so maybe things have changed, but I haven’t seen any evidence of so, as well as a rise in generally toxic behavior and a tendency for these individuals to often interact with minors that I just find concerning given everything I know now.

As some of you may remember, in February, Allymumu and Amporella created a South Park server revolving around Kyle. They had asked for help with the creation and moderation of it, and as I was their mutual and had had many positive interactions with them before, I offered and the server was started up with me involved. This server was a mess of discussions of harassment of certain individuals in the fandom and just generally was just not moderated very well, and I found myself increasingly uncomfortable with being a part of the moderation, but I stayed on and was even involved in some of the gossip which I now do regret.

We were having a discussion one day in the server and the topic was edging NSFW in nature, and up until a point, I was a part of it. It’s also important to note that in this server, there was a NSFW section for adults only and a general section for everyone to interact, but this conversation was not in the NSFW section. At one point, Amporella sent a link to a NSFW fanfiction, and it was only at that point did I realize that we had been having this conversation in one of the main chats among minors. I cannot remember exactly how I responded, but I believe I deleted a few messages that were particularly edging NSFW territory and said that this conversation wasn’t appropriate, to which we moved to the mod chat to discuss. Here are the screenshots from this interaction:

Now, for anyone who doesn’t understand why this is wrong, an adult sending NSFW/discussing sexual topics with a child normalizes the idea to that child of having this content sent to them by adults, therefore making them more vulnerable to groomers, and overall is just a very creepy thing to do. I can understand this happening by mistake in a server, as it can be easy to forget that the little name tags around you might have a child behind that screen, but when this was pointed out, the correct measures to undo this damage were not taken and were in fact rejected- Ella and Ally (and Onix who no longer appears to be active) were not willing to do the right thing no matter what I told them, and that is what I find the most concerning and creepy- That my explanation of why this is so bad completely went over their heads as unnecessary and for what?? We had a NSFW channel that these conversations could be had in!! I cannot fathom any good reason that this needed to be discussed in a chat full of minors but that was somehow the conclusion they came to and I cannot understand why it was so important.

After I had left the server, a few members DMed me wondering why I had left. One who wishes to remain anonymous discussed the situation with me and sent me a drive of screenshots and described it to me as Ella and Ally discussing another user on tumblr negatively with minors involved in the conversation, including the nature of said user’s ships. I won’t go into detail on this nor do I have any interest in discussing the validity of the ship discourse itself, but the conversation was about them shipping incest.

When I was told this and sent the long folder of screenshots I honestly… Didn’t read it beyond skimming a few of the screenshots. I should’ve, but it just didn’t sound serious to me, as I didn’t think Ella warning minors about a user they found to be engaging with problematic things explicitly bad.

It was only recently that while discussing this whole thing with a close friend, who had I sent the screenshots to, did they read it and find that Ella had in fact been lightly pressuring one of the minors who I believe was 14 at the time to create a callout post on the individual who had been deemed problematic, as in the screenshot below:

Although they didn't directly ask the minor in question to create this callout, I think it's very clear that they were leaving that open for them to do so when they absolutely SHOULDN'T have been involving them in this deep, and I believe that the appropriate thing would've been telling the minor not to interact at all with this person. It is incredibly inappropriate to be sending a literal child to fight your battles for you, pressuring them into a situation where they must engage with this problematic material directly as well as communities engaging in such, and a situation where they may face harassment from someone who has been deemed toxic and dangerous enough to be called out at all and for what?? Because you don’t want to get your own hands dirty? I cannot stress how revolting this is.

At the time of the initial situation, for whatever reason, I thought Ella and Ally were around 18-19 and I’m not really sure exactly why I believed this? But I was, for some reason, under that impression. Onixtas was also confirmed to be fairly young, though I don’t remember their exact age. And while 18-19 year olds are still adults who should know better, I felt uncomfortable spreading this information as I did not want to ruin their image with these screenshots seeing as there are people out there who may go as far as to accuse them of being pedophiles, which I truly do not believe either of these people are, and I think it is more understandable that an 18 or 19 year old may make a stupid mistake like being too vulgar in a public chat.

That being said, I recently found out that Ella was in fact 24 when this happened, much too old for this to be understandable as being a bit irresponsible for her age! She should absolutely have known better. And honestly, I was wrong in keeping these private even considering the ages because it could still be incredibly damaging to the minors who were involved. Moreover, given that I gave them every chance in the world to understand why what they were sending was wrong, they should have stopped what they were doing right then, whether they were 18, 24 whatever. I was wrong for keeping this private and I do regret it and take full responsibility for doing so, but knowing that they were 24 made this all the more worse for me to fathom. Ella, Ally, I am begging you both to grow up and learn how to act around children. This is genuinely damaging and you need to step back from interacting so much with minors until you’ve shown that you understand why these things are wrong and aren’t going to do them again, though I find it personally really weird that you’ve made such an effort to be so surrounded by them as you are. It’s just not appropriate, and you’re way too old to be engaging this way with actual children online.

This post is not a callout with the intention of taking either of these people out or ruining their online images or to tell people that they’re bad for interacting with these users, but I’m done staying quiet about this and I want people to know because I want to be certain these things will change. I should’ve opened up about it far earlier and I hope that at the very least opening this information up will still have some effect in negating any damage caused by these people/potential future incidents that may have occurred. Thank you for reading.

[haleigh-sloth]

4, 8, 18 for the violence ask game!!

I don’t remember the last actual blog I blocked honestly. I block too many bots to remember lol. My space is so insanely curated it’s hard to come across shit I strongly dislike anymore. The only time I do is when mutuals reblog from people whose blogs I don’t like, which usually isn’t an issue until I start seeing really rank shit on my dash repeatedly. I’m pretty tolerant but after seeing like…certain stuff I just kinda decide I’ve had enough. But at that point if it’s a mutual I don’t block, I just unfollow. Any time I block someone it’s because they’ve come into my space via reblogging and commenting whether that be on the actual post or in the tags something I don’t like, leaving it in the comments, or sending asks (which is usually done on anon).

I’m beating a dead horse here but like, pretty much anything with the LOV I disagree with like majority? It���s either one of two extremes—the “they’re irredeemable psychos” takes that I can’t take seriously, or the “they’re a loving found family trying to make the world a better place by fighting for justice” takes. Those actually annoy me more because they often come hand in hand erasing everything that makes the LOV interesting. I also get annoyed by them more because I USED to think that. I know why I thought that and how I got sucked into it, but it’s annoying looking back at how miserable it made me to read it that way. It’s annoying that I got out of it and am super stoked with almost everything the manga does now but the space I was in just stayed there and continues to spread unnecessary negative bad faith takes based on…ideas that the manga has stomped on and tossed out. These are the types of takes that mutuals put on my dash that I’m more or less tolerant of until I’ve had enough lol.

The Tomura Izuku dynamic. I used to wonder if I was looking too deep into it but NO like dude all the art Hori puts into them and their dynamic and the way the story is panning out RIGHT NOW tells me that no, I’m not looking too deep.

It gets ignored in favor of like…the LOV. I get finding the Tomura/LOV dynamic interesting because I was there at one point but it’s so…not what I thought it was (back then). It’s not as explored or deep or significant as everyone tries to make it out to be. In fact often times posts I see looking at them this way have nothing solid taken straight off the page to base that take on. I find that often it’s taking small moments of characterization and just blowing them out of proportion to overshadow everything else because it paints a nice idealized picture I guess, idk.

Tomura’s and Izuku’s roles in each other’s arcs get ignored and overlooked. “They’ve only talked twice 🙄” “Izuku tried to kill him in the PLF war he’s not heroic 🙄”. Like these takes completely ignore Tomura’s perception of their relationship (actually their LACKTHEREOF—BUT NOT TO HIM) and ignore how desperate Tomura actually is to latch onto an ideal (saving someone from the heart, saving no matter what, saving everyone within your reach) and a person (Izuku) who represents that ideal. Izuku represents the core of everything Tomura’s wanted growing up and people just…ignore that in favor of some headcanon which I think is criminal.

[isa-ghost]

@staff​ out here once again saying the dumbest, most untrue shit about their site in the universe. When the fuck are you guys going to listen to your userbase? We’ve been telling you things that ACTUALLY could improve this site for eons and again and again you start trying to speak Miserable Corporate Data-Mining Hellscape at us like we’ll be stupid enough to listen.

Maybe read the above reblog and rethink this trillionth post spewing utter bullshit. I don’t know where you get your analytics for these claims, assuming they aren’t completely baseless (which wouldn’t surprise me), but I have never read something that fails to understand the Tumblr climate more in my entire 6+ years of being on here. Tumblr is SO INSANELY EASY TO USE. Literally any site is “hard to use” if you’ve only been on it for like 3 days and haven’t taken the time to fuck around and find out how it works. Have y'all seen ANY of the super helpful, lengthy posts from veteran users giving new users tips on how to have a good time and use this site properly? I swear to god we do a million times more work than you bumbling shitheads do when it comes to user experience. It’s laughable.

And on the note of new users, do you like. Realize that Tumblr has become a SANCTUARY SITE? Reddit is crumbling under greed, Twitter I don’t even have coherent words for without turning this into a novella. And guess where the users on those sites who don’t want to be tormented by algorithms, ads, and other corporate soulless “content” bullshit escape to? HERE. Why and how the hell are you going to sit here and claim Tumblr is failing and confusing and clunky when you’re getting floods of refugees from other falling sites who are immediately in love with the climate and culture here? I’m seeing nothing but positive feedback from posts that cross my dash and yet here you are claiming there are masses of users saying Tumblr is a terrible site with awful interface. Which is blatantly false.

You know what parts of Tumblr have become terrible and clunky and hard to use? The ones you changed despite there being nothing wrong with them, like the tags or moving tons of shit around on the mobile app. For the umpteenth time: Start following the concept of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” Time and time again you’ve made completely unnecessary and at times totally tone-deaf changes to Tumblr as if there aren’t countless posts with bullet points of ideas that would ACTUALLY improve how Tumblr works; some which have existed for longer than some of us have been on this site because there have always been certain features users widely agree would be amazing to add.

Like the above reblog said: stop treating your users like they’re stupid and incapable. In fact, that attitude feels like you’re implying users are brainless and need constant streamlined and instant content no matter it’s quality or source, like a bunch of needy monkeys straight out of some dystopian sci-fi movie. STOP. Tumblr isn’t a fucking feeding trough and we aren’t pigs who’ll just devour whatever gruel you put in front of us be it ads or actual user-made stuff. We know how to curate our own experiences on here and we do it well. We do it strictly. We even implement add-ons made by fellow users to make doing so even easier, since you can’t. We curate our things CONSTANTLY.

For once, just actually fucking listen to input from your users for once. Put out feelers, ask questions, just SOMETHING properly communicative that takes genuine and intelligent effort so you can get REAL, factual feedback rather than taking these ridiculous leaps in thought and action based off claims that your core userbase cannot for the life of themselves figure out where the fuck you got them. Maybe if you did this, you’d stop being met with nothing but venom and spit in your faces from every user who sees you spout this kind of stupid shit.

Oh, and, as always: Maybe forget dicking around with things that don’t need changing on this site and START TAKING ACTUALLY EFFECTIVE STEPS TO ERADICATING YOUR STUPID FUCKING BOT PROBLEMS. If we started a drinking game where every user takes a shot every time you start fiddling with something on this site that doesn’t need to be fiddled with instead of solving the bot problems somehow finally, Tumblr would ACTUALLY collapse then because we’d all die of alcohol poisoning. You can start being actually useful instead of spouting out buzzword-ridden capitalism algorithm bullshit that’s untrue about the site literally any time. We’re all waiting.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[miranimarketing]

How to do SEO for Your Website: A Complete Guide

Enhancing your website's exposure on search engines like Google requires search engine optimization (SEO). By optimizing your website, you can attract more organic traffic, improve your search engine rankings, and increase your chances of converting visitors into customers. As recommended by experts from Mirani Marketing a digital marketing and advertising agency, a structured approach to SEO can yield significant benefits for your online presence.

Step 1: Keyword Research

Keyword Research is the foundation of SEO. Finding the appropriate keywords that your target audience uses when searching will help you produce content that appeals to them. Start by using tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find high-traffic keywords related to your industry. Use a combination of long-tail and short-tail keywords in your focus.

Short-Tail Keywords: Broad terms like “digital marketing” or “SEO services.”

More carefully targeted keywords are called long-tail keywords; examples are "best SEO services for small businesses" and "affordable SEO packages in [Country Name]."

Incorporate these keywords naturally into your website's content, titles, meta descriptions, and headings.

Step 2: On-Page SEO

Optimizing certain pages on your website to raise their search engine rankings is known as on-page SEO. These are the main points to remember:

Title Tags: Write catchy, keyword-heavy title tags for every page. Make sure they are distinct and appropriately sum up the page's content.

Meta-descriptions: Put useful keywords in your descriptive meta-descriptions. This text appears under the title in search results and should encourage users to click on your link.

Headings: For content organization, use headings (H1, H2, H3). Include keywords in headings to help search engines understand the content hierarchy.

URL Organization: Create informative URLs that are easy to understand and contain relevant keywords. Avoid using complex URLs with unnecessary parameters.

Content Optimization: Make sure the content you write is worthwhile, interesting, and keyword-optimized. Use keywords naturally rather than jamming them in.

Optimizing Images: When naming files, be sure to include alt text for photos. This makes your images more accessible and aids search engines in deciphering the substance of your photos.

Step 3: Technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures that your website is properly indexed and easily crawled by search engines. Some technical points to think about are as follows:

Site Speed: Optimize your photos, make use of browser caching, and reduce server response time to increase the speed at which your website loads. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to test and enhance site speed.

Mobile-Friendliness: Use responsive design to make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. A website that is optimized for mobile devices adjusts to various screen sizes, enhancing the user experience on tablets and smartphones. XML Site Map: Make an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines. This facilitates search engines' ability to locate and index your pages.

Robots.txt: The robots.txt file allows you to control which pages search engines may index and crawl. Ensure it is properly configured to avoid blocking important content.

SSL Certificate: To activate HTTPS, secure your website with an SSL certificate. This not only improves security but also boosts your SEO rankings, as Google considers HTTPS a ranking factor.

Step 4: Content Creation

Content Creation is central to SEO success. Longer visitors to your website are attracted by high-quality, pertinent information. Follow these best practices:

Blogging: Regularly update your blog with informative and engaging posts related to your industry. Use keywords naturally and provide valuable insights to your audience.

Guest Posting: Write guest blogs about your field for reputable websites. In addition to increasing backlinks, this raises the authority of your website.

Infographics and Videos: Create visually appealing infographics and videos to complement your written content. These can drive traffic and improve user engagement.

Content Updates: Update existing content frequently to ensure accuracy and relevancy. Fresh content tells search engines that your website is up-to-date and active.

Step 5: Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside of your website that have an impact on your search engine rankings. Key components include:

Backlink Building: Acquire high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites. Make an effort to obtain links from reliable sources in your sector.

Social Media: Use social media networks to promote your material to grow visibility and traffic. Your SEO may be indirectly impacted by social signals. Local SEO: By claiming and maintaining your Google My Business listing, you can improve your website's visibility for local searches. Promote client testimonials and make sure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data is accurate in all directories.

Step 6: Monitoring and Analytics

Monitoring and Analytics are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Track important indicators with the use of programs like Google Analytics and Google Search Console:

Traffic Sources: Keep an eye on the sources of your traffic and the most popular keywords.

Bounce Rate: Analyze the bounce rate to determine if users are finding what they need on your site. A high bounce rate may indicate content or usability issues.

Conversion Rate: Track conversions to measure how well your SEO efforts are driving desired actions, such as form submissions or purchases.

Rankings: Regularly check your search engine rankings for targeted keywords to assess your progress and adjust your strategy as needed.

Conclusion

Implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy involves multiple steps, from keyword research and on-page optimization to technical SEO and content creation. By following this step-by-step guide and leveraging high-traffic keywords, you can improve your website's search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic.

As emphasized by Mirani Marketing a digital marketing and advertising agency, a well-rounded approach to SEO, combined with ongoing monitoring and adjustments, is key to achieving long-term success. SEO is not a one-time task but an ongoing process that requires regular updates and optimizations to stay ahead of the competition. If you need expert assistance, consider consulting a digital marketing agency to help you navigate the complexities of SEO and achieve your online goals.

[rosebuds-painted-my-cats]

I love this website cause unlike other websites that leave character limits on everything on Tumblr I can go in the tags and ramble about interacting with cats for 2 paragraphs and nothing will stop me

[wangxianficfinder]

I have a question, im only a beginner at ao3 i was wondering if someone could tell me what does fall under the line of something you should definitely report? For example when i was just starting i came across fanfics about pedophilia, Cannibalism, rape non con and i still do, I understand personally the reason people might write about these trauma's, but some i have read are just completely writing CP, I've wanted to report it for awhile but I have no idea if its Against Ao3 policies to do this even if it is CP? Also, if someone has chosen not to use archieve warnings, But the fanfiction is something that dearly dearly needs it, what is the best course of action? Do i ignore that? @geraltofriviafan

Hi! I personally wouldn't report those fics unless they are actively causing harm, i.e the author links to real CP, Cannibalism, Rape...etc or references them IRL in a very suspicious manner.

Usually fic is just that, fiction.

While I don't condone these things in any way or form, someone writing about something is very different from them actually doing that thing.

Even the AO3's terms of service state it's not against policy despite them also not condoning some of the types of fics posted, "As provided in part I.E.3 of the Terms of Service, the OTW is not liable to you for any Content to which you are exposed on or because of the Service.

Unless it violates some other policy, we will not remove Content for offensiveness, no matter how awful, repugnant, or badly spelled we may personally find that Content to be."

My point is, if you don't like a certain type of fic, and the author isn't actively causing or promoting harmful things, just block the tag.

As for things to report, again, if an author is being actively malicious, (ex. Causing unnecessary cruelty or promoting harmful ideals, linking to things they shouldn't be, especially without warning, being annoying by spamming people/arguing with intent to purely annoy...etc..) or stealing work from other authors without permission/giving credit/linking to the original author, or spamming by posting the same fic or comment multiple times.

Here's a link to the full list of Terms of service on ao3.

As for fics that aren't tagged properly/don't have a tag you think it needs, I would personally, kindly ask if they could add it through a comment on the fic. Most of the time, authors will gladly add a tag when asked, if they don't, then don't press it. It's easier to just click back and forget it then chance an unexpected argument with them over something easily done. I know a few authors don't tag what they should because they don't like "spoilers" even though that's exactly what a tag is for.

Anyway, Sorry for the long reply 😅 I wish you luck with AO3, most of it is trial and error until you figure out how to best use the site for yourself.

I do have two suggestions to help have a good time on ao3 though!

1. The back button is your friend. Instead of complaining about not liking a fic in a comment and potentially upsetting the author/yourself, just hit that back bar and forget it even existed. Trust me, you will have a much better time if you do.

2. Make use of the filter bar, excluding tags really does help a lot with avoiding fics you know you won't enjoy! Even if it doesn't get all the fics, it gets more than it would without!

- Mod C

Hi! I didn't know you could report a fic on ao3, would you mind explaining to me how i could do it? Unfortunately im also on other fandoms where people repost other people's works and won't delete them

Thanks in advance!

The way I know how is you scroll down to the bottom of the page until you reach this ↓

Click on Policy Questions & Abuse Reports under Contact Us. It will bring you to a new page, scroll down until you reach this ↓

Fill everything in and press submit. If you do it from the page you want to report, the link to page line will already be filled in.

If there is another way, please leave it in the replies so I can add it here ^^

- Mod C

(I am so sorry! I thought I had it wrong the first time but I didn't! I mixed up the screenshots but it IS fixed now! Please reblog this updated version and not the other one!! Again, I am so sorry my brain is broke 🥲)

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!