#because no one botted it and we didn't have the numbers to get a lot of votes organically

[pseudophan]

i love that we get special treatment on the rpf pills because even though they’re an actual couple which would normally get them disqualified we were just so batshit insane for so long that they let us stay anyway

it's sooo funny watching people try to submit other actual couples and getting rejected cause they don't qualify meanwhile phan is both on the list and recognised as an actual couple by the host of the poll. it's only right though like even if they'd been a confirmed couple for 20 years at this point they would still be one of perhaps a handful of quintessential rpf pairings of all time

i'm still botting the fuck out of the form btw and will probably continue to do so until it closes. i feel like we can't actually win it because some fandoms just have a lot of people willing to bot it non stop like this but idk maybe no one goes as hard as some did last year.. i just want a respectable placing at least. but ideally i do want to win it honestly mostly because people are gonna be so mad if the one actual couple win the whole thingshchdncbfjf

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

Celebration: 88,978 Words in One Day!

Just yesterday, a few other LU writers and I, Hot Cheeto Hatred, hosted our first ever monthly (hopefully) Write-a-thon! This event ran on June 4 from 12 am EST to 12 am EST, with one goal in mind---write as many productive words within that day as humanly possible. Words included in the final marathon count ranged from storyboarding, fic writing, editing, answering comments, journalling and homework---basically, any words that furthered yourself, the writing community at large, or your stories. We utilized either the Discord Sprint bot or self-reporting to collect the numbers at the end. Everyone involved gave it their all, with most of them being present for most if not all of the run time as they were able, and I'm so proud of their dedication towards their craft. Anyways, here's the final breakdown of the numbers below, as well as the awards and titles earned by each participant, as decided by the discord server (and myself at random).

Now onto the awards:

I am pleased to report that @not-freyja (Freyja above) won the "Writer of All Time" Award, pulling ahead with 20,565 of our total words. What an accomplishment! Freyja participated from dawn to well, dawn, and they absolutely deserve all praise and awe.

I'm giving myself, @hotcheetohatred (Cheeto), the award "Writer of Some Time," as I fell behind our lovely Freyja by a mere few hundred words fifteen minutes before the clock struck midnight. Next time, Freyja, next time...

The "Actually A Writer" award goes to @marcusdoodlesalot (Marcus), who, despite the name, DOES actually write, not just draw! Who would have thought. Not Freyja, that's for sure.

The "Early Bird" award goes to @lerikwrites (Lerik), who solely sprinted in the wee hours of the morning (my time, at least). Terrible. Good job.

"Star Commentor" goes to @elle-rosewater (Eliot), because I stole most of her words for the count from my own comment section in the BDOR Prologues. We love you, Eliot :3 Can't wait to see you next month.

"Cheerleader" goes to @la-sera, who gave us much encouragement throughout the day. I stole your 19 words from you saying you were excited to read Estelian's work. Hope that's okay, because I really wanted to include you---you provided a lot, even if you didn't write with us this time <3.

@whumpitywhumpitywhumpity (Dowsemaxxer) earns "Spirit-ed Storyboarder" for all of his lovely, informative talk on Spirit and just what makes him so great as a rather underappreciated LU boy.

Two awards next! "Chief Editor" and "Most Student" both go to @unexpectedstormy (Stormy) for faer work on getting. stuff. done. Fae did a steady amount of work, so proud.

"Editor (of Word Count) in Chief" goes to @tashacee (Tash), who, at reporting time, was scrounging up 100 and 200 word bits like spare change while I desperately tried to do math. I love you, never change.

The title of "Specter" goes to @somer-writes (Somer), who logged in very few sprints, but participated with the rest of us and pulled up at the end with a whole 7.5K words and a bunch of fics to post at the end, with a lot of it being Ghost AU! He's amazing.

The award "Better Late than Never" goes to our resident artist and recently turned fic-writer @estelian-01 (Este), who joined only in the last half of the marathon but managed to pull a whole 4K! Pictures might be worth a thousand words, but Este wrote a couple more anyway.

@across-violet-skies (Riv) gets the title "Mover and Shaker (of Blorbos)" for managing to participate and get quite the hefty wordcount only a DAY after moving. They're a trooper, that's for sure.

@anime-obsessed (Vio/Nene) earns the award "Most Old School" for writing with pen and paper for most of the day. Please go rest your wrist after all of that.

The award "Head in the Clouds" goes to my bestie and beloved beta reader @needfantasticstories (Skip), who spent the day listening to music and writing Skyloft drabbles. I am nervous/excited to see if those drabbles turned out fluffy as a Loftwing, or perhaps into something more angsty.

@noorahqar (Qar), my lovely fragile Victorian wife, earns the title "Chatty." You know why. But you were there nearly all of the run time, and so engaging and encouraging throughout---a blessing to us all. And even then, you managed to pull so many words. I'm impressed.

And finally, @rosehipandroots / @rosetintedtears (Rose) receives the titles "ndskanefnre" (self chosen) and "Birthday Santa." The first was borne of panic of being asked to choose a title---the second of her relentless effort to get her birthday fics done. Great job.

I'd like to thank everyone that I tagged for participating in the write-a-thon, and thank all of you for helping me draft this post as well. If I messed up any word counts or details or pronouns, you want to request a title/award change, or I missed someone, please DM and let me know! The next Write-a-thon will be held on July 1 from 12am to 12am GMT, and we'll be trying to beat our record. Can't wait to see all of you then!

[wordycheeseblob]

*Clinks glass with spoon*

I've seen a couple of people so this and wanted to say a few words as well.

Tumblr dot com is the first and only place where I learned online connections can change lives so much or be so genuine. It's never about numbers. Each blog breathes life of the unique person behind it. So many colorful personalities brought together...

And we've been through a lot.. the great bot purge of 20', the AO3 siege, the battle of Halloween on Christmas eve, Auburn shipping wars....

I never knew I could know such friendship. I wish I could tuck in each one of my moots and give you a goodnight kiss, a hug when you're in a dark place, and scream into the void together about our interests (because what am I if not an enabler :) )

You've changed my life in so many ways and you have no idea

My wonderful artist friends, I've wondered how can the same hands that create such disaster (affectionate) manage such breathtaking art @clavissionary-position

And breathe so much life into the canon world with their own enthralling iteration (seriously somebody let him on the Devs team) @devonares I don't see you two so often around here anymore but I do hope we meet again some sunny day

thank you @mllorei for being the ride or die friend i never had, and an amazing talented writer (and artist!) And co-conspirator. Listen, this word count is severely limited for all I want to say (*whispering* like fix your sleeeeep goddamit) @krenenbaker you're a puzzle I will crack some day... A mystery yet to be solved. An evil little box of pandora. A secret mastermind of destruction *squints* but for reals, from what I've seen you're a direct and genuinely good person with a shared passion for historical fashion! (or ARE you...? Hmmm)

@venulus man you're just so iconic I have no words

@dove-da-birb another fantastic writer, I got to know you and @azulashengrottospiano somewhere at the same time. Hehe what the latter doesn't know is I orchestrated most of the shipping wars hee hee :3 and Dove, at first I wanted to bully you a bit with crowleg (please forgive this peasant) but then I think I accidentally adopted you. You, @keithsandwich and Lorei are the best crocheters I know <3

Myara's gold handiwork is honestly out of this world. Also thank you for sending me stuff and thinking of me, I really appreciate that.

@vivislosingitagain and @vioisgoinginsane 's sistership is of legendary status, and I think Vio is like a sister to Vivi. (They're clones they're clones)

Isn't it wonderful how through billions of people on earth, you've found eachother?

@thewitchofbooks my literature loving friend! (And I found out recently, great artist too??!) I hope to see you more this year, I get so happy when we interact you won't believe it...

Thank you @violettduchess for always making me smile and persevering in the face of hardship. You're strong, stand proud. @leonscape I wish you a year full of Leon, don't give up! He may not be everyone's cup of coffee, but he is to you and that's what matters.

Thank you for always being there, I see you around a lot and just wanted to thank you and wish you a new years too! :]

@candied-boys @altairring @otomefreak876 @solacedeer @this-is-war-peacock @here-for-gilbert @dear-sciaphilia @chi-the-idiot @serynhe @katriniac @mymumisasquid @olivermorningstar @caffedrine

@happy-pup you helped me a lot, I will never forget you ^^

And my new friendos here @v-anrouge @saint-garden (the gremlins) @ikemendrew @officialdaydreamer00 @jade-s-nymph @crheativity and @nuttytani I hope to see more of you this year too!

Phew... I hope I didn't forget anyone, that's a lot of people! Even a small act of kindness here has made ripples throughout the world, it reached so many people... Many things will pass but I sincerely hope,

if you're here or not, I hope this new year treats you well. And you continue with a newfound strength into the future

[flxrartsstuff]

Tojixfem!Reader OneShot, 18+

Authors note: Inspired by a bot on chai. Toji comes home angry, slams the door because he has once again taken part in some bets and lost money. But that doesn't intimidate you in the slightest. You were his girlfriend, his partner, and you wouldn't just put up with his behavior.

»Stupid horses!« I heard him cursing and slamming the door so hard, that I could hear it in the living room. Sitting on the sofa, I had unsuspectingly watched some program in which I almost fell asleep from boredom. Until I heard him storming in. A few moments later, he came into the living room. His tall stature built up in front of me, I could notice a slight smell of alcohol.

»Every time the same with these animals! They take the piss out of me!«

I slowly rose from the sofa and looked at him in surprise. He was tall, broad and intimidating. My friend. My partner. My lover. The tall dark-haired guy, with the skin-tight black T-shirt that all the women looked after. I already suspected what his problem was. But I still winced a little when he slammed the paper in his hand down on the table.

»I bet a lot of money and lost it again, Y/N. I don't have it anymore.«

Besides the fact that I didn't like it when he bet, I liked it much less when he got so loud. And he knew that, actually. That's why I was quiet about it.

»Come on, baby. Calm down.« I wrap my arms around his body from behind. I feel him quivering and restless inside.

»Calm down? How can I go on like this without money? I swear to you, I will kill all those cursed horsemen.«

I let go off him, went to his side and put a hand on his chin to turn his head in my direction. I have to smile because I can picture him picking off one rider after another.

»I know, baby.« I chuckled slightly before giving him a quick kiss. »But you're smarter than that. You'll get your money back.«

He grumbled something unintelligible, still he is not raving anymore. »How am I supposed to do that?«

I thought briefly, remained calm although I did not like his tone at all. But well, that was a problem for later. I nevertheless thought him somewhat provocatively with a raised eyebrow, which he merely acknowledged with a snort.

»Hmm, maybe I can help. An old friend owes me a favor. She might have a job for us.« Then I still continued calmly but firmly, also holding his gaze with no problem. When it came to me, he should know perfectly well that I was not the one he could intimidate so easily. No matter how angry he was at the moment.

»We don't work together on stuff like this anymore, Y/N. It would be dangerous for you to get involved.«

I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, not in the least intimidated or worried.

»Everyone knows we're fucking. That's why I'm involved enough. Already forgotten how well we used to work together?« The memories of that make me grin again.

»You just know how to seduce me, baby, don't you?«

Now he was finally smiling again, that cheeky audacious smile that made my knees go weak. The anger in his voice had also subsided, giving way to his darker, harsher manner.

»Mhm, yes I do.« I kissed him quick on his cheek, before I leaned back and took out my phone. »So, I will try to contact my friend now and maybe she has some work for us to do.«

He groaned, but didn't protest anymore. »You do that. I hope that works.« I felt his gaze on me as he silently watched me dial my friends number. After a few rings, she actually picked up and I got straight to the point. While I explained to her what we're going to do, the next moment I felt his muscular arms close around my hips and he pressed me against him.

»You are amazing, baby.« He whispered which made me smile and giggle slightly. While I was still on the phone, he starts to cover my neck with soft kisses, his hands run over my sides. It's harder for me to concentrate and not sigh into the phone right away. I try to reason with her and understand what she's telling me, grinning from ear to ear and realizing that even she on the other side of the line must be a little irritated about my strange behavior and the way I talked. His hands wander up under my shirt and gently stroke my skin, pampering my breasts. I hear him whisper words softly, it all blends together with my friends words on the phone. Just a minute, Toji, you’ll get that all back. I won't let you off that easily for yelling at me.

»Shhh...« I finally hiss in his direction still had to bite my lip so hard because I couldn't get rid of the grin on them any other way.

»What's so funny?« He continued to tease me like a boy and suddenly a hand was on my butt, reaching for it of course. His voice was dark, murmurs seductively in my other ear. »Does your friend find something interesting for us?«

I tried to keep talking on the phone and sure enough, she has a job for us. A short story, more precisely a bounty that was put on some rich guy who had holed up in a hotel. »Thanks...we will call you back when it's done.« I answered her on the phone before I turned back to face Toji.

»You're unbelievable. But your girlfriend is it too. I got a job for us.«

»And where would that be sweetheart?« he smirked at me playfully, raising a brow. I couldn’t look away, my eyes are glued to his lips and his little scar.

»There's a guy who needs to be eliminated. Theres lot of money for his head. He hides in a expensive hotel and that's where we get him.«

Without any warning, he grabbed my face and pressed his lips against mine hard, his tongue sweeping into my mouth roughly. »That sounds like a job worth doing, baby.« he pulled back slightly, grinning cockily down at me. There was his confident behavior I loved about him. »Let's get to work then.«

»You're happy now?« I asked provocative, not willing to let him go so fast. He laughed, his eyes glinting with excitement. »Oh you can bet your ass I am.« He leaned closer again and kissed me, his hands roaming over my body in a rough possessive manner. »And don't worry, I'll take good care of you after we take that bastard in the hotel.«

»Sounds nice. Well, let me take care of you, now.« I grinned into this kiss and although I knew we have something to do now, something important, his body is pressed against mine so hard which makes me wanna go Wilde right now.

His eyes rested hungrily on me, his anger from earlier blown away. »I like it when you're getting rough like that, baby. You're so fucking dangerous and sexy.« And without that I could notice anything, he already pushes my shirt over my head and exposes me in the bra in front of him. His hands tracing over my curves. But I let him do it. For now.

»Just being me, I suppose.« I grinned, feeling a big wave of lust starting to grow all over my body. »This is the last time you're going to be in any bets.« I said whispering right close to his lips, grabbing his pants where I could clearly feel his hard member. He gasped a little in surprise at my direct yet simple way of understanding and immediately realized what awaited him. And by God, I didn't want to make it easy for him. Instead of being somehow irritated or even intimidated by it, he seemed to await his punishment with a grin and genuine joy.

Toji chuckled, his eyes bright with excitement. »I know, I know.« he tried to play it cool, starting to bite my neck, a growl rumbling in his throat as he kisses and licks the delicate skin.

»You think you can get away with it, don't you?«

He only chuckled again at my words, reaching up to wrap his fingers in my hair, holding me in place as he moved against me. His breath was hot against my neck. »With what?« He asked without stopping and pressed a passionate kiss to my jaw, a low growl rumbling in his throat. He held me close, whispering sweet nothings, before pressing another kiss to my mouth, his tongue slipping past mine and dancing around inside my mouth.

»I would be more than happy to explain.« I sighed aroused, and pulled him back from me by his hair, like a dog. Forcing him to look me in the eyes, I pushed him to the sofa, making him sit on it while I right moved onto his lap. He looked up to me with an excited gleam in his eye. I began to move my hips against his. Slowly and steadily, more urgently with every second. His body reacted immediately as his hands settled on my ass, kneading it possessively. I kissed his neck, my tongue played around his Adam's apple until he groaned throatily. I could clearly feel his excitement between my legs and our clothes. But I didn't stop. My movements only became more intense and, as if he actually expected me to go further, his hands moved to my waistband to undo the button of my jeans. I grabbed his hands and quickly placed them back on my ass.

»Hold still.« I ordered and began to undo the buttons of his jeans. Naturally, I reached in, pushed his boxers aside and grasped his now hard length. He growled in my ear, like a lion in front of a closed cage. »Keep your hands still or you'll never touch me again.« I made it unmistakably clear to him that he shouldn't move and that I would let off steam on him. His look was pleading as I stood up briefly and undid my jeans myself, pulling them down agonizingly slowly. My panties followed and landed on the floor as well. I took place on his lap again, letting his cock slide inside of me. Slowly.

»Don't you ever take your anger out on me again. Is that clear?« I almost poked a hole in his chest with my finger, but I was completely serious. I began to move on his lap as he clawed his hands firmly into my ass. He moaned darkly and slightly frustrated, wanting to move his hips with mine but he realized I was right and held back with all his might. He'd had no reason to shout at me like that about his bets. So I would have my fun now. I rode him like a cowgirl, using him like my personal toy. I rubbed my pussy so hard against his cock and moaned hotly in his ear.

»Of course, Ma'am.«

* To be continued…

[dropintomanga]

AI Can't Be the Whole Solution for Manga

So this week I found out out a Japanese start-up called Orange, who wants to be the Netflix of manga by translating a lot of manga with new apps and tools for the world to fight against online piracy. And to do so, the company will use AI to machine translate all of their manga into English. They also received $20 million USD in funding (one of their investors is Shogakukan) for their goal. This company wants to release up to 500 titles a month at some point.

I honestly don't know how to feel about this.

I read a more in-depth report from Deb Aoki of ComicsBeat and Mangasplaining about this whole startup. There's a lot of tout given by Orange about how this will help the manga industry overseas. Terms like deep learning, accessible content, influencers, reducing cost of localization, etc. are thrown around. Orange already has done some work for Shueisha for some of its MangaPlus titles. While it's apparent that the North American market only gets a small fraction of the manga published in Japan, there's concerns over whether this endeavor will end well.

A good number of manga translators and editors in the North American localization scene have commented on how bad this can be. AI machine translation is far from perfect. While DeepL (a Japanese language translation app similar to Google Translate) is arguably better than Google Translate, there's still errors abound. AI machine translation doesn't seem to be at a stage where you can just show it off to the world and have it translate something like a research paper with context. And even if the translation was good, there still needs to be people to fix errors AI will miss and the jobs to fix those errors don't necessarily pay well since they're the equivalent of "data entry" jobs.

And speaking as someone who reads up on mental health news, AI is not good for picking up nuances and differences that can help people for the better. It's only good for standardizing universal treatments. AI can not be open to the vulnerabilities of other people. One recent story I read last year was about a eating disorder helpline that created a chatbot to help those with eating disorders and how it bombed. There were complaints about how the bot didn't address patients' concerns that they were feeling down or bad about their bodies. Even worse, the chatbot gave some horrible advice by telling people to follow behaviors that led to their eating disorders in the first place. The support staff was fired in favor of the chatbot and while the chatbot was taken down after the complaints, it still left a bad taste in my mouth because mental health problems can never be solved without the human element.

I see this with what's apparently going to happen with manga. I don't see this creating a better world for manga readers. I'm well aware that there are a few professional manga translators in the scene who aren't doing a good job, but I feel they're doing fine for the most part. There's a glaring issue though that most people aren't thinking about - the amount of content we have out there.

We're in a golden age of having so much catered to us that it's ridiculous. Anime, manga, webtoons, video games, board games, music, etc. There's a lot out there. And to have a Japanese startup proclaim that they want to put out up to 500 titles a month, who realistically has the time to read all of them? I wonder if that's the point of these ventures - beat down consumers with so much material to consume that they become apathetic to what's going on behind the scenes.

I do want people to read manga, but I don't want them to become so overwhelmed to the point of burnout and numbness. That's the last thing any manga fan should want. I'm already hearing complaints from my fellow manga peers about the amount of manga we're getting here. It's nice to see bookshelves and libraries filled with manga, but which titles are really being read?

I also think there seems to be no universal standard that EVERYONE can agree with regards to localization. You have the professional side that knows a lot due to being inside the industry, but can be hindered by the Japanese publishing side and pestered by fans who think they know better. And you have the fan side that thinks they know everything because of scanlations and miscellaneous fan translations.

If you're a professional, it's a rough job and I applaud all manga freelancers who do it. Sometimes, I may not agree with the localization choices. But I'm not going to raise a pitchfork and treat them like they're witches. I know a few of those folks in-person and see the human in them.

If you're a fan, you can't expect a very casual reader to understand Japanese terms being spoken out right off the bat. It takes a while to get used to those terms. I'll use myself as an example as a riichi mahjong player. I throw out terms like suji, kabe, mentanpin, ryanmen, etc. to my fellow players. However, if there's an absolute beginner I'm talking to, they will have no idea what the hell I'm talking about.

I know some fans are like "Whatever, understanding those terms make me stand out. Yeah, I'm different! Screw the normal world!" But that makes it sound like gatekeeping to a certain degree. It's fine to have that kind of knowledge, but binding it to the very fabric of your identity is not healthy when circumstances change.

Orange seems to want a universal standard for manga translation by incorporating a variety of people into their process, but the fact that people will only be involved AFTER the translation makes me skeptical and the company is being called out for some things on their website. Both professionals and consumers will be screwed here. AI is being pushed so hard by corporations because it can readily applied to real life jobs and regular people in many ways, compared to cryptocurrency/NFTs, which applies only to people with a crap ton of money to spend. I've seen instances of AI usage at the company I work at - some of it good, some of it bad.

But nothing will beat the will and heart of the people. I think that's what scares AI-promoting people. Turning us into total mindless consumers prevents us from being mindful people that want to do right by others. Sure, reading manga makes me happy. But I don't want to be the only one who's happy. I also want people to make informed choices about what to consume.

I also want some people to stop assuming that Japan is the most "anti-woke" country alive out of their rage against localization because it's totally not. Japan has problems and there's people living there speaking out against them. They're "woke" in their own way. I swear that almost everyone who thinks Japan is better than the West hasn't lived there at all and are basing things from a very filtered point of view. I actually feel sorry for them because their lives are just so focused on consuming without thinking for themselves - a perfect market for the AI-pushing crowd.

I'll finish by saying that this AI-powered manga translation venture needs to happen with the right kind of people already on the table through the whole process and where everyone benefits. Everything bad with AI, as far as I've seen, has left people behind with no compassion or empathy. Manga has taught the wonders of compassion and empathy for all and I don't see the Japanese business side of things preaching what their works speak.

[kicksnscribs]

"Ah, you want me to talk about the Twins huh?"

"Not much to say about em, really. Used to run the subway system in Iacon way back before all the slag hit the fan. Damn good at it too.

Nicest lads you'd ever met and practically inseparable! Where one went the other was close by, almost as if they were joined at the hip. Rough upbringin's will do that to ya or so I've heard

Couldn't believe it when i saw the white one on the side of the 'Cons, even less so when i realized he was by himself. We captured him one day as a POW one time. Took a lot of us to pull it off but we managed eventually. That's when I heard the story of what happened to his...I guess brother is what you humans would call them if you absolutely needed a word to describe him. Figured the 'Cons promised him a way to get him back somehow if he joined up with them and he took the offer in a desperate attempt to find him.

Though I doubt they ever did give him anything to really go by. Recruiters will say just about anything in order to get bots to join their cause. Especially when it comes to getting their servos on big, strong fellas like the Twins.

He eventually escaped us somehow; found a way to cut through his bonds and was lost to the night before any of us could even blink. Heh, and I thought his brother was the more crafty of the two.

What d'ya mean 'creepy' smile? Rude lil' thing aren't ya?

He's always been smiling like that. Well...not exactly like that but... you know that mech never had a frown on his face that I'd ever seen. Though I will admit there's something...different about that smile now. Not at all like what I seen back in Iacon. Something sinister...

Not the only one to notice it either. Ol' Rung reckons that being separated from his brother for so long did things to him. Spark twins can't be without one another for very long without it messing with their coding n whatnot, you know?

Though, Ratch knows more about the kid's situation than anybody here on this ship. Says that he apparently had done some things in order to get his brother back. Supernatural things. Things smart mechs should know to leave well enough alone.

Wherever that mech went to get his brother, he didn't come back alone....

Such a shame, he was always a sweet kid. Had a bit of a mobility issue but only when he was excited about something I think? Which was a good thing for all I care. You need to have joy in the things you love 'n he had that in spades.

Did not really understand the concept of personal space though 'n it sometimes got 'im in loads of trouble *laughs*

The black one? Whats there to say about 'im, honestly?

Incredibly polite mech, always there to lend a helping servo or two when needed, a little older than his brother i think? He would always mess with him about that little fact.

Very gentle in situations where his brother would be very harsh, but not like in a mean spirited way, more like an excitable way if that makes any sense? You would never think that what with the constant sour look etched on his face at all times *laughs*

Never liked to talk much. Though not for a lack of ability but more of a 'can't control his volume' situation. He can hit Siren levels of loud when excited enough about something or other and feels bad about it when he does. I don't mind it though, means he's found something to be happy about and that's a good thing in my book if that's worth anything.

Really hurt to hear that he went missing millennia ago. His brother looked absolutely destroyed when I saw him in that camp. I'm glad to see he made it back.

Primus the years haven't been good to him, though. Wherever he went it did numbers on his frame.

He creaks when he walks now, and his gaze has that look of a mech who has seen far more than he should have. He still has that gentle nature about him, though. Which is good, because I think he is going to need it if he ever hopes to succeed at getting those demons running through his brothers brain module out.

I got faith in them though, they're as strong as they are inseparable. They'll get through this like they did every other thing they faced,

together.

[Pulled from the personal Datatracks of Ironhide, Chief of Autobot Security]

[mama-qwerty]

Robo Knuckles

Okay, a bit of discord writing. Something something, Knuckles is either turned into a robot, or his entire personality and everything that makes him who he is is downloaded into one. Think Metal Sonic, but in this case the bot kinda IS Knuckles. In a way.

I don't remember if we said this was by Eggman, but I don't think it was. Some other group of scientists or something. I dunno.

ANYWAY, this takes place years and years in the future, when Silver finds the long abandoned base where Robo-Knux is still living, his protective and guardian instincts still driving him.

This was started (as a number of these things usually are) by @nights-nonsensical-ramblings, and then I took it over because my brain went GIMME GIMME. I've noted the different places that Night contributed.

Night

As soon as Silver starts fixing up the old base the robot starts to assist. On closer inspection he can see that the robot has been trying to keep this place maintained, but it’s been a losing battle. The stubborn loyalty to his home reminds Silver of the original Knuckles, and he can’t help but feel deja vu from when he’s watched Knuckles work on Angel Island.

But that’s for another day. He still needs to help this poor abandoned robot and he promises he’ll return with more supplies to help fix the base tomorrow.

And for the first time in many many years a promise of fixing is kept.

Me

As they work together to get the place semi-functional again, the robot seems to be more eager to help. He's often standing at the front, waiting for Silver to come back. He doesn't speak, and Silver can't figure out if it's because his audio circuits are damaged, or if he simply can't.

Memories of Metal Sonic flicker through his mind, but Silver dismisses them quickly. This robot doesn't seem to have any ill intent. He actually does seem to be very much like the Knuckles he remembers.

Over time systems are brought back online. Lights flicker to life. Computers long dead blink awake. Silver isn't as good at technology as Tails was, but he can manage. He flicks through various programs, most of which are of no use or long since defunct. Until he finds the one pertaining to the robotic guardian.

Night

The robot stands beside him as he opens it, watching and observing him as he often does when there’s no task to be done. Silver found it creepy at first, but the robot’s gaze seemed oddly soft, like he was both curious and keeping a watchful eye over him.

Me

A lot of the files are corrupted. Silver can't tell the origin of the metal being next to him, but ultimately decides it didn't really matter. He was here now, what point was there to discovering how he'd come to be? The hedgehog decides to search for diagnostics and schematics instead, trying to make sure his new friend is functioning properly.

It's slow going. Silver isn't really technically inclined, and he needs the robot's help to decipher what a lot of the symbols and labels mean. Through trial and error they slowly begin repairing the metal guardian. Fixing some mobility glitches, patching a few frayed wires. They work for days on what appears to be a vocal speaker. Silver nearly fries the robot's ocular input sensors as he attempts to access the necessary components, and that scares the hedgehog so much he backs off, not wanting to do anything more.

Silver's retreated to the far end of the room, arms hugged around himself. What was he doing?? He wasn't Tails, he didn't know anything about machines, this robot trusted him and he'd nearly caused unfixable damage! He should go. Why was he here anyway? This place didn't exactly seem to be a threat, it wasn't useful to keeping the rest of the world safe. Why was he wasting so much time here? Just because this robot looked like someone he used to know?

Heavy footsteps behind him, drawing closer. He turned, and found the robot echidna mere feet from him. His singular functioning LED eye—the one Silver almost damaged—flickered softly as it locked with Silver's own.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Silver said, and he wasn't sure why he spoke aloud. He wasn't even sure if the robot could hear or understand him. "I don't want to hur—damage you any more than you already are."

The echidna-bot stared for a long moment, before reaching forward and taking gentle hold of Silver's wrist. The bot pulled Silver back to the computer terminal, gesturing to continue.

Silver hesitated. The robot stared, tilting its head toward the console. When the hedgehog still didn't move, the bot reached forward and turned him more square before the computer, and gave a little shove.

A little smile curled Silver's lips. It didn't just look like Knuckles. It seemed to have the same impatience, too.

"You sure?" His voice was soft, with a hint of shake. He really didn't want to mess anything else up. "I might make things worse."

The robot gave a curt nod, before pointing with its large metal mitt.

Silver heaved a sigh, before turning back toward the computer. "Okay. Let's do this."

Hours later. Through careful examination, meticulous comparing the picture on the monitor with the innards of the robot, and more than one near panic attack, Silver worked to repair the metal being.

They'd searched through drawers and cabinets, and managed to find a replacement LED for his . . . its right eye. It was bright green instead of violet, but it worked. The bot gave him a thumbs up when it flickered online.

The voice box was more intricate, and the two had argued over the design. Silver managed to remove what he thought was the speaker, but the robot kept gesturing toward the monitor, pointing at a different area.

"That's in your back, why would your voice box be there?"

The robot pointed almost angrily.

"I see it but that doesn't look like what we need!"

More pointing. A loud whirring sound emanated from its chest. It sounded almost like a growl.

"I don't think that's . . . ugh FINE. I'll check it out."

The bot nodded and turned to allow Silver access. The hedgehog was only doing this to show this stubborn bot that this wasn't . . .

Well, damn.

"You were right."

Silver pulled around the little device the robot had pointed to, and it did better match the schematics of the vocal emulator. The robot held its head up a little, and Silver could imagine Knuckles' smug little smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Finding it is one thing. Fixing it is something else."

It took a long time. Days. The wires were so fine, and the innards so delicate, Silver used his psychokinesis to maneuver around inside it, and even that was painstakingly slow.

But eventually it seemed back to functional order. He reinstalled it, triple checking that everything was connected properly before attaching the last wire. Once done, he stood back, brow furrowed in concern.

"Okay. Try to boot it up. Or whatever you call it."

The robot turned to face him, and its LED eyes flickered slightly as it accessed the repaired component. At first there was nothing, and Silver thought he may have either messed it up, or it had been damaged beyond repair. But then a loud, high-pitched whine split the air, and he slapped his hands over his ears.

The whine cut off, replaced with static. The robot beat its chest with a fist.

"zzzz . . . st-- . . . --pid thi-- . . ."

Another solid pound, and something clicked inside it.

". . . did it work?"

Silver's eyes went wide. His hands dropped to his sides and he stared at the robot.

It didn't just look like Knuckles. It didn't just act like Knuckles.

It sounded like Knuckles, too.

[theoceanoasis]

Hot rod & soundwave in the middle of battle with soundwave finding hot rod heavy and full of sparklings.

He was what the autobots were trying to keep hidden, him and the few other bots carrying.

Soundwave made sure to relay visual feed to Megatron before taking Hot rod for himself at Megatrons call for a retreat.

Now that they knew autobots had carrying bots Megatron could lift the law of no carrying. He only placed it because autobots would offline carrying decepticons in efforts to keep their numbers low.

With an even playing field, he could allow his soldiers to breed to their sparks content and what better way to reward his communications officer than to allow him to have the bot he wants most of all?

Soundwave overriding the other mechs cna

Recently he'd discovered the Autobots secret base. He thought it was filled with secret weapons and important supplies. Which is why the Decepticons needed to destroy it. Because of the weapons they couldn't just bomb it. Instead they needed to take over the base and take control of those weapons so they could be used for their cause.

The plan had been going perfectly. They were inside the building taking out the last few Autobots who were defending a room with their lives. He'd never seen them fight so viciously until then and it made him wonder what was inside. Taking down the last Autobot, he opened the door and froze. Instead of weapons they found people.

It was a horrible sight. They were chained and obviously carrying. Left in the cold dark where they must have been freezing. However that wasn't the worst part. It was the energon spilled. He looked around in disgust. The Autobots had killed them. All of them were dead, with their bodies covered in holes.

"What now?"

Someone nearby asked and he didn't know what to say. Not at first, he was still in shock. He knew the Autobots had no problem killing carrying bots. They'd killed many Decepticons who'd been carrying, but this was disgusting. They'd obviously been using them for breeding purposes. Forcing them to have sparklings with their captors.

"I don't trust the Autobots with their bodies who knows what they will do."

Around him his fellow Decepticons nodded and walked inside. He followed them picking up the dead and taking them out.

Scanning the bodies he froze in shock recognizing one of the faces. It was a rebel from Nyon named Hot Rod. They'd occasionally hook up when he was given missions there by Ratbat. He never knew he was a carrier. Then again that's not something you'd want to advertise especially nowadays.

He looked him over. Noticing he didn't have a sparkling bump. He didn't know if that was from starvation of if the sparkling wasn't very far along. Not that it mattered now.

He went to pick him up. Wanting to honor his friend with a proper funeral. Only to gasp when instead of touching cold lifeless metal it was warm.

"I think I've got a live one."

He looked Hot Rod over moving the bodies of his fellow carriers out of the way and scanning him for injuries.

A medic appeared next to him and scanned him.

"He's alive. Let's get him out of here."

He nodded, scooping up Hot Rod he went back to the ship. Going to the medbay Hot Rod woke up looking around in confusion and adjusting to all the light.

"Where?"

When Hot Rod noticed him his optics widened.

"Soundwave."

"I'm here. I've got you."

"Where an I?"

"you're on my ship I'm taking you to the medbay."

"My sparkling."

Hot Rod put a hand on his belly.

"How far along are you?"

"Three weeks. Is my sparkling okay?"

"We'll do everything we can."

Hot Rod nodded and then asked.

"Will you stay with me?"

"Of course."

Later Hot Rod wiped the tears from his face looking distraught.

"I can't believe they are all dead. How could the Autobots be so cruel?"

He put his hand on Hot Rods trying to comfort him. Which helped a little.

"You've been through a lot. Why don't you get some rest?"

Hot Rod nodded even though he couldn't sleep. Noticing Hot Rod was lost in thought he asked.

"What are you thinking about?"

"What I'm going to do about this sparkling. I want to keep it, but I'm scared it will look like my attacker. I don't want them to be my sparklings sire."

Hot Rod looked at him in distress and he found himself blurting out.

"I'll be the sire. It's still early and the sparkling will need donations anyway. I can override their coding. If that's what you want, of course I know you've been through a lot."

"I would love that. If anyone would be a good sire it would be you."

They both smiled at each other. Hot Rod putting a hand on his belly.

Later he went to Megatron and showed him everything he found. He'd been angry and disgusted.

"Of course they would stoop so low."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were more."

Megatron sighed looking tired.

"I need to get rid of the ban preventing people from carrying. I thought it would save our people but now I realize it's only harming us. The Autobots are kidnapping carriers sparked or not and if we do free them. They won't be able to join the Decepticons and receive the benefits they and their new spark need."

Megatron glanced at him and asked.

"What are your intentions with the carrying mech you found?"

"His name is Hot Rod and I knew him before the war."

Megatron gave him a surprised look motioning for him to continue.

"He's asked me to override his attackers CNA."

"Do you plan to?"

"Yes. I will care for Hot Rod and his sparkling if you would allow me."

Megatron put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his optics.

"Soundwave my most loyal soldier and closest friend. I will allow you to have Hot Rod because I can already see how happy he makes you and I know you will take care of him and his sparkling."

He nodded already drawing up plans for a nursery. Megatron smiled at his friend. Happy he found someone.

"I'll let you get back to him. I know carrier's don't like to be far from their sires."

He nodded and went to find Hot Rod where he shared the good news and Hot Rod asked to sleep with him. He'd been surprised and asked if he was ready. Which Hot Rod said yes.

The two of them made love all night. Soundwave worshipping Hot Rod and making him feel loved. By the end Soundwaves CNA easily overrided the other sires. Meaning the sparkling was his and when they were born they looked exactly like Soundwave.

[pianocat939]

Imagine how PISSED the turtles would be if m/c had a close friend in the isekai/sentient bot au. Especially if said friend tried to drag m/c into another fandom over rottmnt.

M/c’s friend better send his prayers because they are FUCKED once their reality is breached by the turtles. Heck, Raph wouldn’t even hold back!

The turtles would probably be so livid they would target m/c’s friend and kill them directly after they kidnap m/c. They would walk through the portal towards m/c, coated in blood…

The moment m/c starts spending just slightly more time with them than the turtles (they consider m/c watching them on tv as ‘spending time with them’) is when all hell breaks loose. They probably would go for the kill while m/c is watching, just to make sure they know that the turtles are their only lovers friends :)

Also, I love your idea on Mikey getting angry when one of his bros says they can hear m/c as well. I doubt he would get far with telling off others and claiming they are lying, considering they can all hear m/c. After a while, he would kinda have to warm up to the idea that they can all hear m/c. He may develop the belief that m/c is some sort of divine being that watches over him and his family… giving small pieces of guidance as they go on…

…Either that or Mikey gets humbled by his bros :/

Either way, m/c‘s only real chance of escape is to destroy any piece of tech near them, break any connection with the show (if it is a sentient bot au, they would have to block the numbers and wipe the phone before destroying it), make a fake identity and change your physical appearance by a lot (m/c would most likely have to have some form of surgery to make distinguishable features disappear), and move to a completely new state/ country…

But even that may not be enough��� I mean, DNA is a thing m/c can’t really change, so, depending how much info the turtles have of m/c, their only hope of escape may be to hide in THEIR universe as a mutant… just hope m/c doesn’t become a turtle :/ (that would be kinda funny tho- m/c attempting to mutate themselves to escape and ending up a turtle. Yeah, they wouldn’t be hidden for too long. Oh, the sweet, sweet irony).

And how would m/c’s friend escape? Well… let’s just say that they are the first person the turtles are targeting once they realize m/c has went into hiding… and m/c’s friend knows where they went… looks like m/c may not be so safe anymore after all…

Tw: implied past murder, blood, delusional perhaps- and uh... maybe implied future kidnapping?

“Shh…I’m right here, my divinity, your devotée is right here just for you.” Mikey shushes, rocking you in his arms as his blood-covered body stains your clothing. You stare at the all the blood dripping off their bodies.

Are they the reason why your friend hasn’t been responding to you?

You couldn’t move, too much in shock to even blink. You couldn’t even shed a tear, from horror and fear swallowing your heart.

“They were keeping you away from being taken care of by us! For me to take care of you…” Leo tried to justify, his arms reaching out to caress your face.

Donnie crossed his arms and glanced away, not wanting to witness the sight of his brother coddling the person he was obsessed with. “Keeping you from taking care of yourself..." He mumbled quietly, eyes narrowed as he grips his staff tighter. Grimacing at the blood that pooled around his feet. "They were hurting you...mentally and perhaps even physically."

Raph walks beside Mikey and pats your head, his eyes showing a sympathetic expression. "I know you didn't want to see them...disappear, but we really couldn't stand you being away from us anymore. But don't worry, we'll treat you way better than they ever did."

You could only continue to stare in cold terror.

[get-rammed]

Hiya Ram!! I really wanna hear about Monty and Anon’s backstory allot more.. kinda like how Anon got the job and started it all out. Mostly because we don’t get much backstory, not trying to seem ungrateful about your posts n such (they keep me goin fr) and I’m really sorry for asking, but I’m just curious. 💟 💕 (also thanks for listening to what I have to say on discord **ALLOT** ,appreciate that)

letters-numbers 💟

Don't be sorry! People don't really ask about it so I haven't really talked about it! :0!

The story I have had in mind goes kinda like this.

Handler positions alongside a load of other peotoions were all posted online. Just needed some light machine knowledge for the Handler potions, they'd teach you eveyething you needed to know there.

The Anon is hired on before opening. They were hired specifically for a Handler position. They knew it was going to be a lesser bot, but still a big one, but didn't know who when they were hired.

All the Handlers had a number of different meetings and classes so they knew how to interact with the endos and how to avoid dying to an avoidable injury. Lots of "don't stick your arm here. You'll lose it." Lots of classes learning where the safety switches were at an such. How to properly maintain them. Stuff like that.

By the time the Handlers meet the endos fully, they have their personalities loaded and they know how to interact with people. But they're all a little shy since they don't know their Handlers. Some get along immediately, and some don't. In the case of Anon and Monty, they didn't.

Monty was incredibly sassy. A little too sassy, and they weren't expecting it. He had a lot of learning to do. He was a little too mean to the test guests, and Anon had a lot of work to do.

They added flirty to his personality matrix to balance out his sass. Which resulted in Anon having to teach him which jokes were appropriate for guests depending on age. An how to read their guest profiles to know who's okay with what jokes, and how to alter their profile to update which jokes are okay.

Monty never really hit on them because they always brushed off his jokes of the flirting nature.

When his sass started getting too bad again, they absolutely RIPPED into him, and he chilled out so fast. Realizing he was our of line. Which was when they starting communicating better and became better friends.

Their relationship in the beginning was strictly tense coworkers. But once they figured one another out, they became friends, then later good friends.

[lino-ppang]

—possible reasons why you're blocked by me and/or other writers | lino-nyangi

so yesterday i found out that i probably have well over 1.5k blogs blocked for not respecting my blog rules when interacting so i decided to share this guide. i'm posting it on my sideblog so that blogs that i have already blocked can also see this.

this is a bit of an exhaustive list. i don't think all writers have these rules, so i ordered them by priority. meaning from those who ALL writers mostly likely block for, to least.

• you're a default blog. meaning your blog looks anything like this:

creepy. looks like a bot— which is a common thing in tumblr. bots interacting with your content can risk getting your blog shadowbanned, which does so much damage to writers. i for one am not taking that risk.

how to fix it:

put a profile picture on, it can be anything. name your blog, don't leave it as "untitled". i will get to more points as i go.

• you don't have an age indicator anywhere on your blog.

me and other nsfw writers impose this rule because we do not want our content anywhere near minors. if you don't have your age or 18+ (if you're uncomfortable putting a specific number), we can't guess if you're of age or not. so we block just to be safe.

that being said, all nsfw works do have explicit disclaimers. most of my fics have a "smut/minors dni" and/or this before the cut:

still, ageless blogs continue to interact with it. which i think is rude tbh. please respect the rules set. i know this doesn't prevent minors completely from having access to nsfw content, but disclaimers and blocking ageless blogs are the most we as writers can do to make it less likely. the rest of the responsibility falls on the minors themselves to stay away from content that's not made for them.

how to fix it:

easy! put an age indicator on your bio. you can edit your bio by tapping the 🎨 icon in your profile. if you still can't get it to work. make a new post, type in your age and any other stuff you would like to say about yourself (who you stan, what you enjoy etc) then hit post. once it's posted, tap the three dots on the top left corner and then tap "pin post". that way this post is the first thing to appear on your blog and writers can easily access the information.

• you have an empty blog.

tumblr mainly works through reblogging content, likes don't really do anything. here is a very informative post by @tasteleeknow on why and how to reblog to support your favorite writers ♡ please make sure to read it.

an empty blog leaving silent likes on fics is not only creepy, but leaves the writer with mixed feelings. you read the fic, you enjoyed it, but didn't bother to reblog it. did they not enjoy it enough? what didn't they like about it? and more stupid questions can make their way to the writer's head. reassure them with a reblog!

how to fix it:

i'm not asking you to post anything. a lot of people have blogs just to browse around. but reblog the posts that you see and like. fill your blog with things you enjoy/agree with. gifs, quotes, shit posts, fics. use your blog.

that being said, blogs with one single post reblogged or that haven't been active for months/years also get blocked. you're obviously still on the platform if you leave a like on my post. so again, use your blog.

• you have posts reblogged on your blog, but none of them are fics AND/OR you only "like" fics.

personally, i also block blogs who consume fics but don't reblog them. if you have no writing reblogged, either from me or other writers, i probably don't vibe with you. i don't expect everyone to enjoy everything i put out, but surely you enjoy other fics, don't you?

i'm not asking for everyone to interact with my content, i'm asking the ones who read it, to show that they did.

if you're a spam liker, you're most likely getting blocked too. i don't mind empty likes here and there (and to be honest it's too much work, most writers get empty likes daily. just look at the like/reblog ratio on any fic and you'll understand). but if you go through 5+ of my posts in a short interval without reblogging any, you're getting blocked. it risks getting my blog shadowbanned and makes me uncomfortable.

how to fix it:

if you like a fic, please don't just tap the heart and move on. reblog it. it lets the writer know you enjoyed it better than a like does, because it helps the fic reach more people like you that might enjoy it.

if you like to keep fics you want to read in the liked tab, a better option would be to reblog them with hashtags like #to be read or #reading list etc. that way when you search up the hashtag in your blog you can find all the fics you're been wanting to read. it can get easily messy with likes, as it's essentially the same thing as hoarding instagram posts in "saved" or tweets in "bookmarks". separating them with tags is much more organized and practical.

if you have a sfw blog with minors following you and you don't want to share nsfw content there, it's totally fine. i once again refer you to the post linked above where jade explains how to open a sideblog for reblogging fics and using tags.

tumblr is not social media, or at least i don't consider it so. it's totally anonymous, so you don't have to worry about anyone judging you for reblogging that fic with a weird kink. nobody cares, we're all mad here.

please please please don't be a passive content consumer. give back to artists and writers who spend a lot of time and effort on their work.

• i simply don't vibe with you.

now this is the least likely reason that you could be blocked for by me. but if you don't check any of the boxes above, it's probably the case. tumblr is all about curating your experience and so blocking/unfollowing blogs/content you don't really want to see is encouraged. less stress, less drama.

there isn't really a way to fix this, i probably won't be unblocking blogs i blocked for this reason simply because i did it for the sake of my own peace of mind.

—how to be unblocked

you can get in touch with me here via ask or private messaging to ask to be unblocked. i do, of course, expect you to fix the things that you might've been blocked for, or else i don't have a reason to unblock you.

[you may have also noticed that i have anon ask option off on this blog, that's because i need to know your username in order to unblock you. other than that, i just simply don't want to receive anon asks on here.]

i know there is a small chance that this will only encourage silent readers to be silent and not interact at all to avoid being blocked, which is way worse. but i'm begging you, -and i shouldn't have to do it- to not be a silent reader.

i hope this post was informative enough for you to realize why me or any of your favorite writers that you can't find anymore have blocked you. please consider fixing these things about your blog. we don't like blocking people, if anything, we want our fics to be enjoyed by everyone (of age). but please respect etiquette around this hellsite.

thanks for reading, have a good day! ♡

[materassassino]

fic writer questions

I wasn't strictly tagged by @liesmyth but I was told to do it, so that counts, in my book!

how many works do you have on AO3?

Precisely 120. I've not anoned or orphaned anything so that's the exact number I've ever posted, as well. (although I guess if it's just fics it's 118, because two of those are artworks, and even then it's probably 117 because I'm listed as a co-author for a fic I just had the idea for, and I will never touch that to change it because it was written by my friend Socks who passed away.)

what's your total ao3 word count?

921,788. We'll break a million at some point, I imagine. I'm a slow writer.

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ever Decreasing Circles [Star Wars]: 2478 (makes sense, it's my only real multichapter)

Not Going Anywhere [Voltron]: 1832 (I have no excuse for this, the brief Klance lunacy at the beginning was a shameful moment)

Smile with the Rising Sun [DC Comics]: 1354 (this genuinely surprised me, I guess the people yearn for JayRoy Christmas fic?)

Fledging [Star Wars]: 1191 (this one makes sense, the people yearn for happy Skywalkers)

Kick the Beam [Dragon Age 2]: 1037

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I do genuinely try to respond to all of them, I love getting comments most out of everything. If I didn't respond, it's because I forgor.

what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really do unhappy endings, it's just not my style, but I think it's either Schwanengesang [Hetalia], a human AU where Gilbert freezes to death on the Russian front, or The Baffled King Composing [The Silmarillion], which superficially ends on a hopeful note but The Reader knows exactly what happens to these very characters, and it's not good, so the characters are blissfully unaware of their own doom.

what's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Write What You Know [Star Wars], I think. Not entirely sure. It's a lot more lighthearted, imo, and it ends with a wedding and a fuckton of money, so that seems pretty happy to me, lol.

do you write crossovers?

Not usually. It takes a very specific set of circumstances to make me write them, and that's the two different canons being able to mash together coherently in my head. I've written two, and the issue with those is they're both crossovers with fucking Neil Gaiman shit, which makes me annoyed because Sandman crosses over so fucking well with The Old Guard (When Shall We Threen Meet Again?).

(The other was Rise of the Guardians+American Gods. Don't know why I wrote that, it made sense at the time and does not in hindsight.)

have you ever received hate on a fic?

Only bot hate, unfortunately. I don't really write anything super controversial, I'm mortally vanilla, so I dodge a lot of aggro, tbh. There is an instance of something where I strove for historical accuracy, but even that only sparked an actual mature discussion on Twitter and not any flames. Context helped there, I believe.

do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Yes. I would say I prefer to write m/m, but tbh the most smut I ever wrote was for Shallura (to the point where that was my reputation lmao). I've struggled with it a bit over the last few years but I'm getting back into it. I tend towards like really fucking sappy emotional stuff between people who are in love, like I said, I'm very vanilla and not kinky at all, it doesn't interest me.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. I don't think I've ever been big enough in any fandom to attract that sort of attention.

have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Three of them, two in Chinese for Write What You Know and The Jacket Fic, and one in French for a Free! fic. I like it when people ask first, but I will usually give permission. :>

have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not actively. I'm a co-author for the fic mentioned in the first question, but other than that, nothing. I'd like to, though, I feel like the accountability would be useful to me, lol.

what's your all-time favorite ship?

This is not a question that's possible to answer. I hyperfixate and then move on while maintaining a general fondness for the old ship once I've switched fandoms. So it's more of a current OTP thing going on than One Ship to Rule Them All. Also there's things I've shipped really strongly and never written anything for. At the moment the big OTP is JoeNicky, before that it was DinLuke, before that it was Wangxian and so on and so forth. A comprehensive list would be tedious.

And the HMS Terror, of course.

what's a wip that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I'd like to finish my handful of DinLuke WIPs, but I don't exactly foresee that happening now. I've pretty much moved on (although to be fair once you've been into Star Wars it does become a cornerstone of your personality, a bit like Tolkien). I will try extremely hard to finish the Battle of Yavin Anniversary Gala one, at least.

There's also a Glorestor fic I've had jangling around in my head since 2014, in two different iterations, but when that will ever be actually witten is anybody's guess, lol.

what are your writing strengths?

I'm never good at self-analysis, tbh. I think my prose is pretty good in general, and I'm good at character voice and staying in character. I've been told I'm good at developing well-rounded and enjoyable OCs with very little actual information on the page, so I'll call that a strength because it doesn't detract from the canon characters.

what are your writing weaknesses?

Action: writing punchy, effective scenes that are actually exciting to read is really freaking hard, especially with any form of combat. There are only so many ways to describe a swordfight. Environmental description: people who take three paragraphs to describe a room are fucking insane, I'm sorry, I can use my imagination perfectly well, thanks. Smut: I'm ace so I always feel like a goddamn imposter, despite the fact that I've also never been a freaking Jedi, or I've never been to Renaissance Rome, and yet I'm perfectly fine writing that.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Depends on the context. I am guilty of huge blocks of text in other languages (conlang or not) but I do try and always include interactable footnotes for those. Like idk, learn Italian ya wimps, lmao. I've put whole speeches in Mando'a in Ever Decreasing Circles, and bits and pieces of other languages in Old Guard fic. That said I will always, ALWAYS transliterate if it's a language that doesn't use the Latin alphabet. Never leave that shit unreadable for people. I can't read Mandarin, I can't read Cyrillic, if you put that in the text all I am reading is Charlie Brown adult noises, it's like hitting a brick wall (as much as my transliteration requests constantly annoy the people who help me translate those languages, sorry guys!). Also, unless it's a single word, never use Google translate ever. Always find someone who actually knows those languages and get them to do a quick translation for you. The global nature of fandom shouldn't make it that hard, it's not really an excuse for using Google translate. It'll stop your bilingual readers' eyes from bleeding.

(I did always swear to myself I would never put random endearments in other languages if the characters were speaking English in general... but I've failed miserably at that by now, lmao.)

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

Naruto, in like 2007/2008. I never transferred those fics over to Ao3, they're too old and terrible.

what's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

When I was in the Mo Dao Zu Shi fandom I really wanted to write some Wangxian, but I was far too intimidated by the fandom. A lot of people on Twitter talked about how white people shouldn't be writing any fic for it and I internalised that heavily to the point where I just... didn't. Looking back it was a little silly of me, no one is the sole arbiter of what should and shouldn't be written and what counts is doing research and being respectful, but it's too late now. I have written a little bit of SangCheng now and that's enough for me.

As for the future, who knows? I do not control the hyperfixation.

what's your favourite fic you've written?

Even in Another Time [The Old Guard] and Toccata [Hetalia] (yeah, sue me, I'm still proud of it 12 years later, it still reads well).

Now I get to tag people~

@dangerouscommiesubversive, @wingsofbadass (sorry I make you translate so much stuff), @veradragonjedi, @non-un-topo, @raedear, @maered613 and @ctrldao3.

[xavigav]

Making My Own Tumblr Year In Review

So tumblr is not doing the individual years in review for 2023 like they did the last couple of years :(

This is the first year I’ve really been active on Tumblr and used it as my primary social media, so I was really sad to hear that. But then I decided…why not do it myself?

I posted 1837 times in 2023. That’s 5 times per day.

1748 (95%) of my posts were reblogs, and 89 (5%) of my posts were original.

Blogs I think I reblogged the most? Not in order.

@yipeewahoo

@hoodie-sys

@94erz

@namchyoon

@heybaetae

These are just based on me cmd-f'ing my blog using the names of blogs I remember reblogging a lot. It's probably wrong.

My top 15 most used tags (not 5 because i love tagging and want to show more):

#bts - 1045 posts (yeah obviously)

#bts pics - 803 posts (yeah obviously x2)

#queue attack my heart - 691 posts

#memery - 312 posts

#namjoon - 308 posts (i am so mentally ill)

#hoseok - 167 posts

#jungkook - 166 posts

#seokjin - 138 posts

#jimin - 138 posts (i wrote down seokjin's tag first so i put it higher)

#yoongi - 119 posts

#fic & writing - 108 posts

#taehyung - 103 posts

#bts birthdays - 99 posts

#serious posts - 92 posts

#namjoonposting - 59 posts (my favorite tag)

By the way this was so fucking annoying to do. The archive does not show how many posts you have in a certain tag. For every month I counted the amount of rows in a tag, multiplied it by 8, and added in any rows that didn't quite get up to 8. Then I added all those months together. I had to do that for every tag. Tumblr why is there no easy way to see the number of posts in a tag.

My top 5 posts of 2023:

5. Luffy Tab - 20 notes

Still can't believe we just. got a luffy tab. i just woke up and had a luffy tab

4. BTS Post Search - 27 notes

As it turned out. the poster changed their name to something else so that's why i couldn't find the post from tumblr user soupmoths -- they were an entirely different person. oopsie

Also I ended up being able to reblog it! Someone tagged me!

3. 3D Rant - 32 notes

This post got me my first hate reblog <3

In case anyone is wondering. I still agree with everything I said here.

2. Porn - 99 notes

Not doing the big link preview for this one since that on its own is kinda nsfw. Minors don’t click that link.

But yeah. That makes sense.

Even though there’s only 5 reblogs people find it semi-frequently (especially the past few days, no idea why), so I guess it’s spreading somehow? Which makes me happy :)

The Reddit Post - 2.1k notes

Obviously that was going to be it lol, over 20 times the amount of notes than anything else. My notifications were Dying.

Also, this stuff wasn’t in the actual Year in Review(s), but I’m adding them in for fun.

I liked 21k posts in 2023.

I followed 426 blogs in 2023 (not including the accounts I unfollowed).

I gained 69 followers in 2023 (excluding porn bots and regular bots). Nice.

I started 4 blogs on this account, 1 main blog and 3 side blogs.

I gained 15 mutuals in 2023 <3

All this data was as of December 18th, 2023.

[captainkranos]

Dreaming of Metal- Part One A story for those wishing they were robots

This is my first major foray into writing, so id love constructive criticism! This is part one, and it doesn't contain any smut, but I am planning for future parts to have it. Hope you enjoy!!!

It was a cold evening. February was always cold. The local coffee shop was closed, so you had to go a lot further than usual. It was the nearest one that wasn't a chain. Starbucks was definitely worse now after the Apple buyout, and you're gonna need quite a bit of coffee if you plan to finish the coding project tonight. "602nd and 28th..." You mutter under your breath. Just a few more freezing blocks. Neo York City was big. After the Monopolization of 2350, corporations started buying out whole cities. The extra 300 streets added seemed like a good idea to most, but it really just makes the good parts of the city further away from each other.

Power walking down the sidewalk in an attempt to stay warm, a pink, blinking, neon sign catches your eyes. "Order a Robotic Companion Today! Keep you company! Great at coding!" That last tagline stuck in your mind as you remember the 457 bugs last time you tried to compile the latest project. And your last romantic partner walked out on you last week after suggesting those cybernetic enhancements... How were you supposed to know a cyborg killed their grandma? You only suggested them because you weren’t brave enough to get them installed in yourself anyways. "Dial 1-800-ROBOT today!" The number was easy to remember at least. You look down the street again, and spot the coffee shop your personal navigator directed you to. You make a mental note of the phone number, and head off to get fuel for the long night ahead of you…

“ITS DONE!” You exclaim as the compiler notes zero bugs found. It's a tool to help organize blog posts for your favorite website. The site creators should have added this years ago, but you're glad to have it done now at least. You sit in silence, appreciating your handiwork… but it's a sad silence. Your old partner helped write the start of this, and now they'll never see it completed. Your thoughts flashback to that sign you saw today. A robotic companion sounds so nice. Someone to confide in, to understand you, who would understand how you feel about robots. In a bout of weakness, you pick up your holophone, and mash in the phone number that's been spinning in your head all day. 

“Q.P.R.A.U. Robotics! Where we match you with the moving metal of your dreams! How can we meet your emotional needs today?” The voice on the other end sounds synthesized, but not automated. “Uhhh Hi? I think I'm looking for a companion bot?” “Sure! How would you rate your emotional starvation from one to ten?” Even though it's only been a week, the rate at which your apartment deteriorated into disrepair would put a bull in a china shop to shame. “...Ten” “And would you like to sign up for our alternate payment services?” Oh thank goodness. You really didn’t want to shell out too much for this. Most companies use these alternate options as a way to obtain and sell your data. A body scan or a blood donation will usually make rent much easier to pay each month if you want to buy something nice. “Yes I would.” “Great! We will have your order shipped out to you within 3-6 weeks! Have a great day!” The call ends. You never gave them a name or a shipping address? Maybe they scraped it from your IP address? You really didn't care. As long as a friend gets shipped in the mail, you would put up with anything.

March. It's been a tough few weeks. The coding commissions have been few and far between. At least the apartment complex therapist is back on call. He has really been helping you get through the emotional weeds of life. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK You peel yourself up from the chair in your office and over to the door. It's probably the neighbors again, their cat is quite the escape artist. Opening the door, standing in the hallway is a synth, with a metal box the size of a large person. If they were not a robot, you would ask to help with it, but you know that their electronic muscles are at least 100 times stronger than yours. You wish you could lift that much… “Is this the residency of anon?” “Yeah… what's this?” “Your package! Courtesy of Q.P.R.A.U. Robotics!” You had forgotten everything about that night. Getting hammered off of French nano-wine tends to do that to you. “Do I need to sign anything?” “Nope! Heres your package!” The synth walked into your apartment and placed the box right in the center of the entryway. It came down with a rather hefty thud. You already knew the downstairs neighbors would be filing a complaint. “Have a nice day! And good luck with the alternative payment services!” The synth walks out with a jolly expression. They always seem happy, probably because they are made of metal… Glancing back at the metal box in your entryway snaps your thoughts back to reality. How the hell are you going to move this anywhere? Your eyes are drawn to a blinking red button on the side you hadn't noticed before. Hopefully it’s the “Open” button and not “Self-Destruct”. With all the confidence you can muster, you press the button and wait for something to happen. An agonizing silence follows, until distinct gear turning and motor wrrring noises begin to emanate from the box. Like a birthday present made of tinfoil, the metal begins to unwrap itself and pour an unknown smoke out into your apartment. Your first thoughts are of the fire dampening systems firing off, but knowing your landlord, they probably haven't worked for years.

The smoke clears, the metal lies in a pile at your feet, and a shiny silver figure stands before you. Its form is definitely feminine in origin, but the steel plates that make up the body are all that fill your mind. They have to be at least a foot taller than you, as you stare up into its blank but imposing expression. “Uhh… Hello?” A rather cute set of chimes ring out from a circular design in the machine’s chest as pink lights spread outward from the center out to the limbs. The last line of lights to reach its goal is the one moving towards the head, as the eyes fill with light and the body hums with the moving of cogs and belts It’s head slowly turns towards you and a smile creeps up its face as a mixture of fear and excitement fills your heart.

“Hello! I'm Daniella and I'll be your new mistress!”

[transingthoseformers]

I think the reason Bayverse Optimus is so unhinged is because the man clearly didn't get any necessary therapy. No doubt the war in this universe might be even more brutal than IDW and he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. RoF definitely wouldn't be 100% himself as no one comes back from the dead the same again. Can't forget the betrayal that dwindled his team's number which essentially broke Optimus further. War is ugly and can change a man for the worst.

Rung will have sessions with this Optimus as he can see the cracks way better. Although in person is gonna take awhile since our dear therapist got Decepticons to find first. The smaller chances of a fight breaking out between the two, the better.

He can't forget about Sam's glasses either. Rung will need a bit of an opening since Witwicky already has Bumblebee at the moment. Can't exactly have both factions run into a accidental trap since the Cube is in his servos.

As for the name for this whole thing, I think 'Bells In The Bay Have Rung' would work.

I've posted more than a few times about this, yes

So many factors in bayverse Optimus's life have fucked him over and we actually see him get worse throughout the pentology

Yepppp. Rung has to play this well if he wants to help mecha out

Nope nope nope, we do not need to snare both bots and cons in this accidental trap ^w^ why did my brain just compare it to wasps in a pop can

That's a lovely au name

[auxiliarydetective]

Thank you for your response but literally I'm not sure how to take it at face value because I witness on real time you reblogging stuff for the fyeah blog and there's a number of people you passed over whilst acknowledging others. I just take it because you know them but it's put me off big style because handpicking 'popular' creators to interact with is pretty common on here. I know you can't interact with everyone but it's just suspicious you only pick people with their posts commanding a lot of notes. There's a lot of random people making OCs so I'm guessing you're making sure what is most beneficial to you subconsciously

Don't worry about it we interact with the community in different ways so it's cool you do it your way and I'll just keep away and do my own little thing and won't tag the fyeah blog etc

I think there's been a misunderstanding here. If you want reach, tag the fyeah blog. That's the best way I know and how I met the friends I have right now. I reblog stuff for the fyeah blog, yes. But I only reblog stuff for the fyeah blog that has the fyeah tag. That's how fyeah blogs work. The fyeah blog is an old concept and I'm just a worker bee for one of them. The people whose posts I reblog have that many notes probably because they got reach through the fyeah blog or through the ocappreciation blog. You've got your causalities mixed up, but I get why that would happen. There's no way to tell when a post got its notes. Also I tend to be fairly late on some of the reblogs because I'm busy studying, so that might be another reason.

If the people I passed over have the tag #fyeahonepieceocs on their posts, I honestly don't know how I managed to miss them. We had a phase where all mods were busy and nobody had the time to reblog anything, but I was convinced that we had caught up. If the posts are older than the fyeah blog then that's also a possible reason. The only other reason I could think of is that I could have someone blocked, but I don't block any blogs except ones that look strikingly like bots. Which, for any new Tumblr users: If you haven't changed your profile picture and don't have a description or anything, people will assume you're a bot and block you just to be safe. That's nothing against you personally, that's basic Tumblr safety.

Either way, my point being: I don't reblog posts based on popularity, I reblog posts solely based on whether they have a certain tag, which is stated in the blog description. If there's posts that I'm missing, please let me know. The process for fyeah blog reblogging is literally: I check the fyeah tag, then I queue all the posts since my last check in chronological order. That's it.

My second point: Please, do the opposite of what you said in your last paragraph. I'm asking you to send me a message so I can get to see your OCs. How do you expect me do find your OCs if I don't even know what your URL is? Or just send me your post somehow? If you want me to appreciate your OC, I need to see it, so let me see it.

I hope this cleared things up in case you were confused about how reblogging for the fyeah blog works. If this is a me problem of me not seeing posts in the fyeah tag, I can try asking someone else to help out, but otherwise I don't know how to help you. We as a mod team do not have the capacity to go through the entire one piece oc tag, especially since I'm currently solo-ing the blog because everyone else is busy, so we narrow it down to just the fyeah tag. If your post isn't in that tag, that's not our fault.

Once again, hope this helped, hope it didn't come off as rude and hope to get a message from you with your OCs!