#but you won’t find people talking about this stuff on social media unless you know where to look

[aurosoulart]

I know this was a while back but how did the thing with Disney go?

it was incredibly amazing 😭

not only did I get to meet the actual descendants of Walt Disney, but I got to see SO many people experience XR art for the first time, which is always such a magical experience….. they all just light up with joy, instantly, and seeing everyone’s reactions made me feel like I was experiencing it for the first time again too.

and on the last day, I got to be on an artist’s panel answering audience questions! people asked about what the future for this tech might hold, and I got to talk about potential use cases for haptic gloves and replacing certain physical objects (like toys, balloons, measuring tools, other things) with virtual ones, which could cut down on a lot of manufacturing emissions and waste.

everyone was curious, hopeful, and very friendly. I would love to do another gallery show like it in the future

[miwiheroes]

Bylers, we need to talk about something…

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts pertaining to what will happen in season 5 relating to byler recently, as have we all, but I’ve also been wondering about the audience’s reaction to it if it happens.

Actually, i’ve been more concerned not about the GA’s reaction, but our reaction to how they handle it. I just want to say beforehand, that I might be projecting my issues with negativity and conflict (i’m a very very optimistic person it’s rough being on social media these days lmao) and I also very much believe that they will make byler canon in some way or another. It just makes sense with the narrative. But I fear we will never be happy with how they do it and we never learn from our previous mistakes lmao

Before season 4 came out, I sort of was a fan of byler, but i was very very casual, as in I didn’t interact with many fan theories, I wasn’t on twitter (still not on there because I have a phobia of negativity eek) and I wasn’t on tumblr, I would occasionally check out the edits and fanarts and I think I was just Aware of it, because I always root for the gay ship to happen ofc..

So when season 4 vol. 1 came out I was excited about the direction they were taking byler, and I could see that it was finally canon that Will was gay, rather than theorised. When season 4 vol. 2 came out, I had not been on sttwt or st tumblr during the time between the volumes because I had other fandoms prioritised around the time. I watched the Van Scene with my parents and suddenly I was acutely aware of just how gay they were (because I always get scared of watching anything queercoded around my parents lmao).

By the end of season 4, I was like YES! this season was amazing for a byler set up next season, although i was more focused on other characters too. I then kind of saw the byler script stuff but not the full extent of it, and I saw many edits and fanarts of them but that was it!

Now it’s 2024 and I have a major hyperfixation on byler, (due to the season 5 bts and the fact stranger things keeps popping up on my fyp it’s crazy) and now I’m on byler tumblr (not twt tho .. sorry) to find all the evidence I can and get all hyped up for s5! But I’ve also seen old posts from around 2022…

Literally every single one was extremely disappointed from season 4 vol. 2, and I was confused, seeing as I was very happy with it and I liked byler (my fave byler scene is from vol. 2 and no it’s not the van scene). If I’m being totally honest, and I might get some hate for this, I think we all had wildly, wildly high expectations and the disappointment was our own doing.

I personally never really judge a show before it’s finished (obviously not sitcoms and shows like that) unless it has really really terrible writing ofc, but I always choose to reserve judgement until all the character arcs are wrapped up and I can look back and see why things were made to be.

I understand the whole anger with Mike’s behaviour towards Will and how Will was treated poorly by him, but isn’t that the point? Mike loving Will back in season 5 would then be more satisfying after all that. It’s a set-up for the next season, no?

I don’t know why or how people thought that Mike would suddenly resolve all his internalised homophobia or something during that season, and I reckon if the whole season had come out at once instead of two volumes (i hate the two volumes thing sm omg) people would have been much happier because we wouldn’t have had time to create insane theories or unrealistic expectations that, let’s be real, were not in line with what we have seen so far with byler.

So, I just want to say that I’m a little afraid for season 5, because I know that byler will likely be canon, but people just won’t be happy because it won’t be in the exact way that they had theorised. Sorry to break it to you, but you, random person on tumblr, are not a screen writer. More specifically, you’re not a screen writer for stranger things.

I think it’s fun to theorise at the moment, but I just want to remind people that this pattern has happened before and we never learn? Like, none of our theories are coming true. Not one of them. Did I theorise the exact van scene? Did I theorise the part at the end where Mike grabs Will’s shoulder? No. But am I happy with those scenes? Hell yeah.

So on the build up to season 5, I just want to caution everyone to not assume that specific things are going to happen when it’s just a result of an echochamber (such as the milkvan breakup scene being right at the beginning or the painting being brought up). You’ll just be angry for no good reason.

The only reasons I’m personally going to be angry with how they handle byler is:

1. If it’s not canon and Will’s love goes unrequited/ he has another love interest somehow…

2. If either of them die after having a relationship during season 5 (bury your gays is stUPID)

3. If one of them dies before the other gets to tell them they love them/ kiss

4. If they get together without Mike apologising (it could be in literally any way, obvious or not) for his poor behaviour.

But that’s it, the rest of it is literally up to them.

Hope ur not too mad, but it just needed to be said.

[kissesforsatoru]

WAS IT A GENERAL YAN WAKA HC- IF SO YES BUF ALSO IF UOU ASK WHICH WAKA SPEFCICALLY BD WAKA BD BUT YOU CAN DO ALL TIMELINES

pairings : wakasa x gn!reader

summary : general yan! bd! waka hc's

⤷ cw : NSFW 18+, general yandere themes, possessiveness/obsessiveness, manipulation, gaslighting, isolation, bullying, mind break, overstim, cock warming, unhealthy relationships.

notes : i got so carried away with this, this might just be my longest hc's yet 😭

- wakasa wouldn’t necessarily be yandere right away, i don’t think; instead, he’d actually be pretty normal with you at first. you know, treat you right and all that other good stuff. the only thing off about him in the beginning is how possessive he is. he can get carried away with love bites and keep sucking sensually on your skin even as you whine for him to stop 'cause that hurts, but he’ll just pop off your neck with a lazy smile and tell you he’s sorry (he’s not). or he’ll glare intensely at guys and girls that got too close to you, all while keeping his arms tightly around your waist. but you think to yourself that it’s not that bad—that’s his only flaw, so it’s okay, right? wrong. sooo wrong.

- with him it’s a slow build, where the longer the relationship between the two of you goes on, the more his red flags start to show, but even when they do, you won’t notice them. wakasa is a very manipulative yandere, and he’ll subtly condition you to think that what he’s doing is normal or that you’re being irrational for lashing out at him. he keeps you nice and wrapped around his finger from the very beginning, making sure that you will listen to him no matter what he does.

- the first really big yandere-like thing he does is isolate you. he’ll tell you he doesn’t like your friends because they’re too touchy or they’re not good for you, he’ll tell you that your family is too controlling and that you should cut them off for continuously meddling in your relationship. you might not notice wakas red flags, but your friends and family certainly do, and they aren’t just going to sit back and let you fall deeper into a toxic relationship, but waka is quick to get them out of your life. he’ll tell you that you don’t need them anyway because you have him—he’s the only one you need, that you’ll ever need. he can take care of you, provide for you, support you, and love you far better than any of them ever could so just forget about them.

- waka is very stalker-ish despite the fact that you’re already his. he’ll have a tracker on your phone so he can know where you are at all times, he’ll have cameras in your apartment so he can know what you’re doing and who comes over, and when you move to his apartment, he’ll put cameras there too. waka will also make multiple social media accounts that he’ll mostly use to stalk you with, but he’ll also use them to rile you up and say vile things to you, spread rumors about you, i'm talking hard core bully you until your self-confidence and sense of self-worth are absolutely destroyed, all so he can have you for himself. he wants to be the only one you trust, the only one you think can properly love you since everyone else seems to think that you're disgusting and unlovable. of course, you don't know about any of this, waka is very secretive about it, so you never find out.

- with how much bullying he puts you through, waka is able to blame his possessiveness on protectiveness instead, telling you that he has to keep everyone away from you so you don't get hurt anymore, and obviously you're going to believe him because he's the only one you can trust. he'll tell you never to leave the house without him unless you absolutely have to, and if you do then you have to tell him where you're going and why you can't wait for him to go with you. he'll keep your neck nice and marked up for when the two of you do go out together so other people get the hint. he's never too far away from you anyway, at least an arm's reach away at all times so he can easily grab onto you whenever he wants. he also constantly reminds you that you're his, and that he's the only one who can love you properly, nobody else will ever be able to compare to him. and if you ever doubt him, he'll just bully you even more to remind you that he's all you'll ever have.

"you're mine, baby. nobody else can take care of you like i do."

"you don't need anyone else, they'll just use you or hurt you, so keep relying on only me, yeah? i'll treat you right like you deserve."

- waka has a lot of experience with sex. he knows all the right places to make someone absolutely writhe and scream under him, but he especially knows how to make you feel good. whether he's using his tongue, fingers, or his cock, it doesn't matter, you'll be seeing stars either way. i don't see waka being the kind of guy that praises a lot during sex, he's much dirtier with his words and likes to tease more than anything else, but if his darling is especially broken by all the bullying, he might just whisper praises in your ear as he fucks you. he shows you his love through his actions, makes you feel good with light kisses all over your body, and all-consuming, sloppy kisses to your pretty mouth. his hands explore your body fervently, rubbing on your most sensitive parts to draw out delicious reactions from you—he adores the sound of your whimpers and moans, absolutely eats them up no matter how many times he hears them. i don't know why, but i feel like he'd like to please you more than he likes for you to please him. i think he might just get more of a kick out of knowing he's pleasing you well, and he does please you well. of course, he loves to fuck you rough and use you however he likes to get off still, but seeing you all jumpy and touch sensitive after he's sucked on you for a while just turns him on like nothing else.

"oh, right there? you like that? does my baby want me to go faster? aw, poor thing. shh, i'll take care of you."

"just lay down, baby. i know you'll feel much better after i fuck you."

- waka takes to sexual punishments more than other kinds of punishments. if you act out, he sees it as you just wanting his attention, so he fucks you to set you straight. overstim is his favorite punishment, i think, because he'll fuck you so dumb you just forget about defying him, all you'll be able to think about is his cock and how good he makes you feel. otherwise, he'll make you either cock warm him or fuck yourself on his thigh as punishment. he'll wait till you're wiggling desperately on him, trying to find a release, and then he'll make you beg him to fuck you. shows you that you can't do anything without him, that you need him to do even the littlest things like please yourself.

- if you do something really bad, like try to break up with him or anything like that, then he'll just lock you up somewhere in his house and leave you there. he won't talk to you or even look at you, he'll just drop off your food and leave again. he can do this for months. he wants to ensure that you won't ever try to do something like that again all while enforcing your dependency on him. isolation is the best way to make a person lose all independence, and waka takes complete advantage of that. he'll wait until you won't even be able to think of leaving him again without having a breakdown.

- honestly yan waka is just a sneaky bastard that uses extreme forms of manipulation to get what he wants, which is actually so terrifying. he's amongst the top scariest tokrev yans.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Okay, everyone, let’s talk Taskmaster speculation. I hate how stuff about the lineup for the following season can overshadow a season before it ends, or sometimes, like in this case, before it starts. It was around this time last year that they announced the Taskmaster season 17 studio filming dates, which perfectly coincided with some live gigs John Robins had canceled, so we all took time to get excited about that s17 lineup spoiler before season 16 had ever begun to air. Now, season 18 hasn’t started yet but we’re already talking about 19.

Spoiler alert, obviously, for vague speculation. I have no inside information or anything, so if you click through, you won’t be party to anything that’s meant to be secret. Just guesses based on publicly available information, which I know some people like to avoid, to preserve the surprise.

First of all, I find this Reddit post from a few weeks ago interesting. That obviously can’t be the exact five person lineup. First of all, Scroobius Pip would be a possible NYT candidate, probably not close enough to comedy for the main show. Secondly, obviously, all-white lineup. Thirdly, there’s no overseas person on the list, and we know from Alex’s recent interview that the season will contain that.

So it won’t be all five, but it could be a few of those. Social media evidence has been surprisingly accurate before, I remember in season 12, people accurately predicted 4/5 names before the studio filming started, just based on who’d recently followed Alex and each other. This may of course be wishful thinking on my part, that such vague social media evidence means anything, because that list contains two people who are on the shortlist of my dream contestants. Josie Long and Chris Addison would both be wonderful on there, particularly if they somehow ended up on the same season as each other.

Josie Long really should be there. She was the only women on the original Edinburgh Taskmaster in 2010, where there were a lot of men. Look at all the men in this video:

The non-Josie Long contestants there were: Dan Atkinson, Jarred Christmas, James Dowdeswell, Tim Fitzhigham, Steve Hall, Tim Key, Lloyd Langford, Mark Watson, Henning Wehn, Joe Wilkinson, Mike Wozniak, and Tom Wrigglesworth. Josie Long spent a lot of years being the "only girl in the lineup" for lots of things, between when she started stand-up in 1997 and when they invented other female comedians in 2014 (I apologize to Jo Brand for that joke, who also spent years holding it down for women on panel shows before they let women on panel shows, no women were allowed to do that stuff in the 00s unless they were named Josephine). I think she should be compensated for that in the 2020s by being allowed to appear on pretty much anything she likes.

More significantly, she was also on the second of the Taskmaster live Edinburgh shows, in 2011. See if you can spot the odd one out in the contestants from The Taskmaster 2011: Bruce Dessau, Dan Atkinson, Henning Wehn, Joe Wilkinson, Josie Long, Lloyd Langford, Mark Watson, Steve Hall, Stuart Goldsmith and Tim Key. Yes, you are right, the odd one out is Bruce Dessau, for not being a comedian. Was he ever a comedian? It did not occur to me to wonder that until right now, did most comedy reviewers start out their careers as comedians, the way most sports commentators started out as athletes in that sport? I don't know. It's not important. But if he was ever a comedian, he sure wasn't one anymore by 2011, and it is notable that when recruiting comedians for his comedy show, Alex Horne brought in the same number of reviewers who don't perform comedy, as he did of women who do perform comedy.

Obviously the odd one out in the above list is actually Josie Long, as the only woman again. And I say this one is more significant because she made the finals, where she faced off against Stuart Goldsmith in a battle of who could fit the most grapes in their mouth, administered by 2010 champion Mike Wozniak:

and she won:

Mike Wozniak won the first live Taskmaster event, and he's been on the TV show. Josie Long, by rights as a live Edinburgh Taskmaster champion, should be. In addition to her being, you know, a very talented comedian and generally funny person who would be absolutely excellent on Taskmaster.

She has now done two full shows in the last five years, and is working on a third, about how she's very very busy these days, creating and then raising two children, and has moved to Glasgow so getting down for London-based comedy shows isn't so easy, so it's possible that she's been offered a spot on previous Taskmaster seasons and turned it down, which would be fair enough. But she should definitely qualify for an offer, for a number of reasons, some of which are real (I do sort of genuinely think that winning one of the original live Taskmaster events should earn someone the chance to be part of it when it becomes a lucrative television show, but obviously far more significant is that she's a very talented comedian and generally funny person who would be absolutely excellent on Taskmaster), and some of which are not (I was joking about the reparations for female comedians who were on panel shows before that 2014 rule, mostly, I mean it does feel like they should get something).

A friend of mine noticed that some gigs she did in London, back in June, had an odd hole in them that could be shaped like the filming of Taskmaster house tasks, for someone who lives in Glasgow and, if she had to go down to London to film a TV show, would want to make the most of the trip and plan some stand-up gigs around it. That, combined with the social media evidence presented on Reddit (and the fact that she surely has more right to a spot than anyone else who's not been on it yet), makes me think there's a reasonable chance of her being on season 19. I may be starting to believe this theory a bit too much, I need to pull back on that so I won't be disappointed if it doesn't happen. It's two pieces of evidence, but they're both fairly flimsy and circumstantial.

Chris Addison was also on that list of people who've moved into Alex Horne's social media orbit, and there is, of course, lots of precedent in his Tweets for making his feelings toward that show clear. First, a couple of Tweets that let us know he's not off in Glasgow doing his own thing; if he's not been on Taskmaster it's because he's not been given the offer:

And he's tried various Twitter tactics to get that offer, including showing off his knowledge of the show:

Flattery:

Selling his potential, and reverse psychology, combined into one Tweet:

And just implying that his casting is inevitable, like that'll manifest it into existence:

Chris Addison has been campaigning for ages to get a Taskmaster spot, and I think he'd make great TV if that happened. God, imagine a team with him and Josie Long together. How excellent would that be? Oh, and if he's on season 19, that's 2/3 of The Department covered in two seasons. Only one more member of that radio show they'd still need, if only Taskmaster would suddenly decide they're interested in casting someone who lives overseas, is a big name there, but maybe still has some connection to British comedy...

No, obviously I know the "overseas contestant" to whom Alex recently referred can't be John Oliver. They'll be filming the studio portions of season 19 during the peak of the American election campaign, John Oliver's a bit busy these days to fly to England and count eggs or whatever. If it was going to happen, it would have been last year during the writer's strike, when John had just done the Horne Section TV show and could surely have fit in an NYT filming. I'd love to get my hopes up, but not this time.

I am interested in the speculation about who the American will be, though. Obviously my first thought was of Paul F. Tompkins, as he's done the Taskmaster podcast twice, both times claiming to be a huge fan of the show, and backing up that claim by frequently beating Ed Gamble at knowing Taskmaster history. He said both times that he'd love to be on it, has even though about things like what his costume would be.

He was my first thought, and then I read that he's performing in the UK in September, so that seems like a pretty strong case for him. I thought I read at some point that he was doing the Comedy Bang Bang tour and then some other gigs with a possible Taskmaster-sized hole in between, and if that were true, it would be very clear evidence, either he's doing Taskmaster or he's pranking the public into thinking he is. But upon further research I don't think that's true, he'd doing the podcast tour and that's it. I still think he's a very likely candidate, just not as clear-cut as if he were doing one thing in Britain, and then another thing with a hole in the middle. If anyone else has also read that thing that I think I read somewhere that says he's doing that, and you know what that is, please let me know because I'd like to know if I've missed something and that's true after all.

My guess for the American contestant is still Paul F. Tompkins, and I think he'd be fun. Admittedly I only know him from Bojack Horseman and those two Taskmaster podcast episodes, but I generally assume anyone who was in Bojack Horseman is probably cool (partly because that show was a masterpiece, but it's not like Paul F. Tompkins wrote it, so I think that view mainly comes from a subconscious assumption I have that anyone who's ever met Kristen Schaal has to be all right), and he was very good on those Taskmaster podcast episodes.

Either way, I think this is a good time for me to jump on the Paul F. Tompkins bandwagon. I've had his stand-up on my list of stuff to get to for ages, and I think I'll watch/listen to that stuff now. If he's on Taskmaster, then great, I've jumped on a bandwagon at the right time and I'll go in knowing more about him. If he's not, I think I'll still have a good time with his comedy, as I keep hearing how great it is. There really is a lot I don't know about American comedy.

Besides Tompkins, from the vague evidence I've seen, I think Hank Green is an outside shot at the overseas Taskmaster contestant. I don't know what Dropout is and I hope Taskmaster doesn't force me to find out.

[tauforged]

do you have any tips for someone who wants to get into warframe for the first time?

- don’t start with the duviri/drifter quest when given the option. it’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but it will be very confusing and you won’t revisit any of the stuff that’s touched upon until way way later in the game. start off in the origin system, the story progresses a lot more naturally from that start point. i don’t really know why they made this an option.

- you dont HAVE to buy platinum. they start you off with like 50 i think? it’s not necessary for anything aside from buying additional warframe/weapon slots. everything else is cosmetic or optional. you can get mroe plat later on by trading with other players (if you do want to buy plat for cosmetics or whatever, i recommend waiting until you get a discount as your daily login bonus. iirc they range from 25, 50, or 75% off. they’re pretty much entirely random though so don’t feel obligated to use one if you do get it and don’t need plat at the moment so it goes to waste. you’ll get another)

- even if you decide you don’t like a weapon you end up crafting, you’ll be better off if you level it up to the maximum rank (30) before selling it rather than trashing it outright, that way you won’t have to go back and get it again later on in the game in order to complete it. the more stuff you level in full, the faster you progress through mastery ranks, and some stuff is mastery rank locked so you’re gonna wanna pay attention to your progress.

- you’re gonna wanna join a clan as soon as possible. you can find some via the recruiting channel, or probably by asking around on social media, idk. i started my own (not recommended unless you’ve got a group of friends you can rally or feel like recruiting to fill out your ranks in order to actually get stuff done) so i don’t really know what the clan recruiting scene looks like. having access to a clan dojo makes life a lot easier (and can make finding people to play with less of a hassle too)

- the story itself doesn’t really pick up steam until you start the ‘natah’ quest. in between the start and there, you’ll mostly be doing a lot of running around trying to familiarize yourself with the setting and playing catch-up. don’t worry too much about all the stuff they throw at you all at once. almost all the quests are replayable through your codex if you ever want to refresh your memory, and for those that aren’t, the wiki is… usually a pretty decent source as far as summaries go. i’d take it with a grain of salt though.

- this one especially tripped my sister up so i’m gonna touch on it: you’re going to be required to do the ‘heart of deimos’ quest in order to progress past mars on the star chart. IMHO, this quest REALLY should not be mandatory so early on in the game — you aren’t going to be able to make heads or tails of anything anyone is telling you. don’t be afraid to breeze thru it w/o paying much attention and circle back around later in the game, preferably sometime after you finish the war within or at LEAST the second dream. i genuinely don’t know why they’re throwing baby tenno to the wolves on this one. just know it’ll all make sense later i prommy

- don’t worry too much about the open world areas like the orb vallis, the plains of eidolon, or the cambion drift at first. they’re very cool (and you’ll be introduced to them via their respective quests) but they can be overwhelming to new players and the difficulty spike might be frustrating, especially before you’ve unlocked a majority of the tools available to you.

- this game has been ongoing for over ten years at this point - there’s a LOT going on. take your time progressing at a comfortable pace. don’t be afraid to ask around for help if you’re stuck on something or getting frustrated trying to farm a specific part or material.

- if people try to talk down on you for being a lower mastery rank or w/e they’re literally just being an asshole. MR isn’t indicative of skill so much as it is a representation of how much gear you’ve leveled, which is basically just an indicator of how much time you’ve spent playing - a chimp smacking a keyboard can feasibly hit legendary after enough attempts. you’re fine. hell, i’ve been here since 2013 and i’m only MR 19 LMAO

- the ‘meta’ for this game is wildly subjective due to the vast customizability of builds. take everyone’s opinions with several grains of salt and don’t be afraid to experiment on your own to see what works for you

- dont read general chat. it’s not worth it. nobody in there is as funny as they think they are

- the most important part of being a tenno is having fun and being yourself :)

[writergirl3]

when their s/o is getting talked ab on social media? like either in a bad way or good

Thanks for the request! I also added in some brief head canons about how each member is on social media, too, just for context.

Enjoy! 🧡⭐️

4 Town x Reader And Social Media

Robaire;

Robaire uses social media moderately. He likes it for interacting with 4 Townies and showing off a fit or two, but that’s about it.

Having a public relationship with you as the frontman of 4 Town isn’t easy, and he doesn’t actively look for opinions about your partnership.

If someone criticizes you, though? It won’t go unnoticed. He tries not to do anything brash and keeps you unaware of the negativity, if possible.

Instead of virtually pouncing on the hater in question, he’ll let his professional side take over. It helps him distance himself from the unkindness, making it less personal and invasive, somehow.

He’ll block them from any accounts he can and tell the boys to do the same. He’ll also let his management know.

Also, if he sees any repeatedly mean behavior, he might even post a screenshot of a post and remind 4 Townies to be kind and report any similar activity they find online.

If people are nice about you, though? He’ll definitely be liking all the positive content about you. He doesn’t really reply, at most he’ll send a heart emoji or something. He definitely takes screenshots though, and shows them to you when he comes across them on his feed.

Jesse;

Jesse’s pretty chill when it comes to social media. He takes it or leaves it, really. It’s the grandpa in him, what can I say?

He’ll casually scroll through his feeds, liking things here and there. He doesn’t really reply to 4 Townies a whole bunch, but likes their posts a lot.

But, if someone is being mean about you or anyone else in his life? He will do everything he can to tear that person down.

Although Jesse is chill, he can get a temper on him at times. For that reason, he won’t interact with the troll directly. He’ll likely make a note of the @ and send it on to 4 Town’s social media management team. They run the joint account, and have the power to have any trolls blocked from all social media accounts associated with you and the band.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to fight for you. He just doesn’t want to waste time on people who don’t deserve it. Instead of coming up with sassy comebacks to their hating, he could be out on a fun date or something with you. He won’t hide the negativity from you, but certainly won’t bring it up in conversation or anything. He doesn’t value the words of strangers, and leaves it up to other people to deal with online negativity. Boyband privileges, right?

Plenty of 4 Townies love, you, though, and that more than makes up for any bad stuff he finds about you online. He’ll like and repost any nice things he finds about you, and honestly, most of Jesse’s replies on posts are confirmations of how amazing you are.

Aaron T;

Oh boy. T honestly shouldn’t be allowed on social media. If it weren’t for verification, you’d think his accounts were fake or something.

He’s for sure one of those people who puts what should go on stories onto a whole post. He completely ignored all aspects of his social media training from 4 Town’s early days. He loves social media, and wants to use it how he wants.

Now, if he comes across anything even slightly negative about you? The whole fandom will know about it. He’s started full-blown wars on Twitter that escalated so far, he was banned from his account for a few days.

T’s obviously a nice guy who never has a bad word to say about anyone. Unless they try and say a bad word about you. He’s the king of brutal comebacks and will not rest until the hater in question apologises or is wiped from the face of the online earth.

Because T gets so caught up in fighting for you, he sometimes forgets to communicate with you about the hate. He won’t really have the brain space to hide it from you, especially if the evidence is all over his feed. So, he usually has to console you for a while afterwards and, hypocritically, tells you not to take any notice of them.

If someone says something nice about you, though? Except avid agreements in all-caps, with enough emojis to give you a headache. T’s also always reposting cute fan edits of the two of you, whether they’re artistic or pure cringe.

Aaron Z;

Z’s social media accounts pretty much lay dormant most of the time. He finds the whole idea of social media kinda icky and a waste of time. If he weren’t in 4 Town, he wouldn’t touch the internets with a barge pole.

However, the only time he really resurrects his socials is in defense of your honour. If someone’s said something bad about you online, he’ll get a heads-up from T. Immediately, Z will look up the user and scan over whatever the hater has to say.

Replying to trolls is like a reflex for Z. Well, it is when it involves you. They say that the truth hurts, and Z’s burns. Anyone who dares to say a single bad thing about you can expect a well-worded one-liner that’ll make them live to regret ever opening their mouth in the first place.

This has got Z into some trouble with management. He never gets carried away with his comebacks by any means, he always keeps himself in check so he doesn’t cross a line. But proportionally, his profile is literally just replies to trolls and the usual publicity posts that he has to put out. His social media team don’t like this much, but Z doesn’t care.

He’ll do everything he can to hide any online negativity from you. He’s also super paranoid about the privacy of your own socials and never really tags you in anything to spare your privacy.

If someone says something nice, though, he will definitely like their post. He’s also secretly obsessed with compilation videos that 4 Townies have pieced together from bits of footage from T and the others. He likes to watch them whenever you’re apart for comfort.

Tae Young;

Tae is slightly less active on his socials than T (which isn’t hard, let’s be real), but this guy loves social media. Especially Instagram; his feed is so aesthetically pleasing, and he takes lots of time over it.

If he ever encounters any meanness directed at you, he’s actually as brutal as bother the Aarons. Buuut, he won’t respond publicly. He’ll message them privately and put them in their place, but is by no means above sharing a screenshot of the chat if the troll continues to be rude.

There’s something really funny when this happens. Tae’s feed is full of animal shelter infographics, tumblr-esque photos of sweet treats and nature, and then suddenly, there’s the odd screengrab of his interactions. It’s kinda a Jekyll and Hyde thing, and 4 Townies actually love seeing the other side of Tae that’s reserved for haters.

Tae will try and hide any negativity from you, but it doesn’t usually work because you’ll find evidence of it on his feed. Like T, though, he’ll always comfort you the best he can.

When it comes to nice things about you, though, Tae will for sure shout out every bit of positivity that he finds. He’ll enthusiastically reply to these posts and share them, too. He also posts you a lot on his socials, and usually spends lots of time liking and replying to nice comments about you.

---

Musing Meaninglessly Masterlist

[moltengoldveins]

here are my New Year’s resolutions, three months late at the blooming of spring (the proper time to be making such bawdy promises.) :

I will not tell my roommate to stop singing when it bothers me, unless it is early morning and I am asleep. I have headphones and can escape whatever I feel I need to escape whenever I please; she has a right to joy and happiness in her space. There is nothing so precious as someone singing.

I will take my meds (lie) and I will drink as much water as I possibly can (true.)

I will not let my various disorders prevent me from loving the people around me. They may do so anyway, but I will not let them. That is a distinction I do not think a lot of people understand.

i will call my sisters.

I will talk to children under the age of ten. I will do so with the intent of making friends with them. They are better friends than most people who have aged out of loving well.

i will tell stories aloud.

I will illustrate a book.

I will do enough homework to pass my classes.

Every time I am drowning, I will tell at least one person. They don’t need to be someone I think can do something about it. I have a terrible burning need to be witnessed, lest I loose track of myself and where I stand according to reality, and so I must not keep silent when I am dying. There is no virtue in quiet suffering when noise will ease the burden.

i will ask to pet every non-working dog I see.

I will use my cane when I need to. Even if my family wishes I wouldn’t. I will. I will.

i will find a way to pay for college. This is a hard one, but it will happen, whether I like it or not. I am supposed to be here, so a window will appear. My job is to be ready when it does.

i will sleep.

i will swim in at least two natural rivers.

i will write poems.

i will read the New Testament. I wanted to say I’d read the whole Bible, but I know myself. If I set too high a goal, I won’t reach it. So, I’m going to read the stuff with Jesus in it, and then the stuff written by the people who met Him. That seems like a decent goal, anyways.

i will hold the base of my friend’s skulls when they hug me. This is not a resolution: I already do it. But it’s nice to see it in writing and know it is real.

i will leave my legs unshaven if I please, no matter what people tell me is ‘clean’ or ‘unclean.’ We did away with ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ over two thousand years ago; we nailed it to a bloody piece of wood and gutted it there. My friends can touch me every day of the month, and (Lord, may it never be so,) I can hold them after they die. I am already clean. Nothing can make me dirty again. I owe people respect and respectability, love and understanding, modesty and integrity. I do not owe them my comfort on a stick.

i will forgive my parents for what their parents did to them. They did the best they could, and I respect them for it. I love them despite it.

i will do better than they did.

i will tell my sisters I love them.

i will tell my father I love him.

i will tell my mother I love her.

i will tell myself ‘I love you.’

When I see spiderwebs in my rear view mirrors, or sunshine on the carpet at 5:47pm, or tomatoes on a vine, or a monarch butterfly, or moss, or a leather bound book, or an old married couple, or a child under five, or the sarcoma ribbon on my backpack, or the creek near my apartment, or a beautiful painting in my social media feed, or a photograph of my aunt that looks just like me, or a pen my friend let me borrow that I never returned, or the sunshine prismed through my glasses chain, or a million other wonders, I will tell God how very very much I love Him.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

IZMS: The Social Media Experience 1

Summary:

Across a universe, various social media posts come from a group of siblings and their friends. It tells the story of a young boy and his family, a young boy who will one day become a symbol of hope. AKA: Izuku's dad sucks, he's got a lot of siblings and he likes to tease them online. ON AO3

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Why do Pro-Heroes who have Reddit don’t worry about people finding them?

SecretNoteBook

 For me it’s because I do keep a lot of stuff vague and I actually don’t talk about myself in public. You’d know me since my name is out there but most don’t connect it with my family. My dad’s worthless and his last name doesn’t match mine or most of my half-siblings. 

 It’s really surprising what changing out of your uniform does at times. People just don’t recognize you. So me sitting here behind a screen is just another version of that. I know not a lot of people believe I’m a hero but I don’t mind.

 GreenMightBoy

 It is HILARIOUS how few people realize who you are until you tell them. Remember last week?

  PolkaDotAfro

  HA! Oh god her FACE. Realizing she’s been bragging about dating YOU when you’re right there?

    SecretNotebook

     Yeah that was fun.

-0-

What made you cut your parent off?

 SecretNotebook

 I’ve been very open about this numerous times but my dad is a dick. He’s a populationist, homophobic and generally a jackass. I’m his eldest child and he’s had six/seven more with four other women after my mom. (My latest stepmother is pregnant. Me and the siblings I talk to are betting on WHEN she’s gonna divorce him.)  he dislikes me for being intersex and infertile due to it, and has never made it secret. I was raised by him since I was around four. I went between two stepmoms and then stayed with the first when he left Japan. I barely had contact with him.

 I’m a hero and he loves using that to look good. His fifth wife tried to call me up and I basically ripped apart her worldview of him. She divorced him after that and speaking to my sister and my third stepmom. I’m nice enough just to say: I don’t get along to his business partners. But my dad knew not to push after his that.

 I fully cut him off and threatened to tell his business partners everything when he cut child support in half for my brother. Why? My brother is bisexual. I actually threatened to do it unless the child support went back up anyway. He did and we haven’t spoken since. 

-

GreenMightBoy

 My dad found out I’m bisexual and he cut child support in half which threatened my place in a safe school for my Quirk status. My older brother blackmailed him, and we all cut him off. Though my sister cut him off earlier. She won’t tell us why. 

  PolkaDotAfro

  I never will.

-0-

Siblings of ProHeroes: What is the hardest part?

-

RunnerBoy

 The worry my brother may not come home one day, or I may seen his last fight on the news.

-

PurpleCatBoy

 I have an uncle who’s a hero. Every time I see him on the news I get nervous because of the fight but I also get angry since he has an extreme mutation and he gets a lot of hate due to it.

-

GreenMightBoy

 The thirsty fan girls are going to KILL ME. MY BROTHER ISNT THAT HOT. HE WEARS A MASK. YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN HIS FACE. I HAVE SEEN HIM SHOVE ICE CREAM COVERED IN HOT SAUCE INTO HIS MOUTH. HE IS NOT MARRIAGE MATERIAL

 SecretNotebook

 Wow, thanks bro.

-

PandorasBox

 Whenever I see my elder brother on the news, I worry over his health, if he’s eating enough, if he’d going to get enough rest.

-

PolkaDotAfro

 If I have to stumble upon his fanmail ONE MORE TIME. I DO NOT WANNA READ THAT SHIT BRO. 

 SecretNotebook

 Stop snooping in my apartment.

-0-

Dear Redditors; what is something crazy that you actually did [Serious replies only]

PolkaDotAfro

 I ran away and joined the circus with a guy I met a month before. It’s been nine years and we’re married now.

 SecretNotebook

 You still haven’t given us the full story

  GreenMightBoy

  Tell us already!!

   BlueScars

   How about no?

-0-

Who is who in the superhero fandom

By KissMeYouFool

… on to Reddit, we have three big names. 

SecretNotebook; a proclaimed hero who is just branching out as his own hero after YEARS of being a sidekick. He often is on Reddit giving hints and tips to hero hopefuls while sharing stories of some more vague events. He is open about a lot. Along wth him we have his two siblings: PolkaDotAfro and GreenMightBoy. PolkaDotAfro is a proclaimed circus performer and is married to the Reddit user BlueScars who rarely posts but appears from time to time. GreenMightBoy is a young teen who posts analysis and also taunts his brother along with their sister…

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This is a story for a bigger universe I have where Izuku's dad was a piece of work and he had a lot of kids. The eldest of these kids is Kamui Woods (SecretNotebook). I didn't want to do a traditional intro to this world and instead came up with this. We have OTHER siblings to, so far an OC named Hana/Hannah (PolkaDotAfro). Izuku (GreenMightBoy) thus has a vastly different upbringing. We have other characters appearing to, a lot being related to heroes in someway. Some may be easily guessed, others less so. Have fun guessing if you want! Those who want to respond as if they are commentators on the media posts in the comments are welcome. I don't plan on this being to long? It's just world building and having fun honestly. But I hope you like!

[annihilate-this-week]

Fuck it, here’s a piece of the chapter I’m editing.

"The more humorous flirting is, the better," he said. "When you try to be too serious about it, it just gets creepy."

"Unless you're really serious, and it just gets hot," Tanya said, still grinning.

"Oh, does it?" Danny said in a lascivious tone. She could tell he was grinning too.

"It can... but only if you're really good."

"Whoa," he giggled. "I feel like we're about to have phone sex."

In a more normal tone, she asked, "Have you ever had phone sex before?"

"No!" he declared, sounding scandalized.

"What? It's not a bad thing," she said, smiling. "I have."

"Like... a lot?" he asked.

"No, not a lot. Well..." she thought for a second. "That's a complicated question."

"Well, I definitely need to hear the full story now," Danny said. He sounded like he was still amused, which was good.

"OK," Tanya sighed, curling up in the doorway and putting her hand over her face. "Promise you won't judge?"

"No no, I'm sure I could tell you some embarrassing stories about my history too. It's fine. Just tell me."

"OK, yeah. Here goes. Ummmm..." She thought for a moment. "I guess it was 13 years ago now. So yeah, when I was 26. Anyway, I was on this website that was sort of a profile/message board type thing? Forerunner to social media. And it was very hetero in tone. At the time, of course, I was so deep in the closet, not only did other people not know I was a woman, I didn't know I was a woman. Anyway..." She began speaking even more quietly than she already had been. "I was one of the few 'gay boys' or whatever on the site. And of course, we all found each other and started IM-ing and shit like that. One of them really dug me, and he actually lived in Memphis, so at one point because I'm crazy, I saved up a bunch of money and drove out to spend a weekend with him."

"I've done that kind of thing," Danny said. "Flew out to spend some time with a girl in Florida that I'd met on a Facebook group. That was several years ago. Turned out to be a huge mistake. Had a miserable time. The less said about it, the better." He laughed. "But yeah, I understand."

"I'm glad," she said. "The whole thing was a big mistake for me, but I didn't find that out for a while. Anyway, back then I still had a land line, and so did he. We had to buy long distance cards at convenience stores to call each other. And like, I think it would have been super creepy if it had happened at first, but we used to spend so much time on the phone, especially late at night, and one night... well, he told me he was really horny, and he started doing stuff to himself, and I could tell it was real. I could tell he was... aroused. And I could tell when he got off."

"Oh my god," Danny said. "I'm not sure I'd be into that."

"I wasn't sure if I was!" Tanya said. "But that wasn't the only time it happened, and by like... the third time, it was starting to really turn me on. And he'd get me to talk to him about fantasy stuff, things we could do together, and then... I started to participate as well."

"Really?" Danny's mind was clearly blown. "That is wild."

"I dunno," Tanya said, feeling self-conscious. "Maybe it was dumb to tell you that story. That's the only relationship I ever had phone sex as part of. But we did it a whole bunch. We were together for about six months, and living six hours apart, so yeah... it happened on a regular basis by the end."

"So what happened to end that relationship?" Danny asked, then quickly added, "I mean, if you don't mind my asking."

"Nah, it's ancient history," Tanya said. "Actually, you'll probably find this funny -- I can never really enjoy sex if people are thinking of me as masculine, and he would say stuff... I just wasn't comfortable. And I tried to tell him that I wanted him to see me as more of a soft sweet delicate partner, not a rough and scratchy partner. Or something like that. He didn't get it. And it bugged him. He was all 'But you're a man, aren't you?' And I didn't really answer, and he got all uptight, and I finally told him that I had women's clothes I wore sometimes. He thought it meant I did drag, and he already didn't think much of that, but I was trying to explain that it was more of a private thing, more how I, um... I guess how I wanted to be perceived in intimate situations? God, does that make any sense?"

"A thousand percent," Danny said. "I've said similar things to partners pre-transition. From the masc side, obviously, but I know exactly what you mean. It's gone better with some partners than others."

"Yeah," Tanya said, and snorted. "Did not go well with this guy. At all. I mean, that wasn't the end of our relationship, but we never saw each other in person again after that, and things were awkward even on the phone for the next few weeks. After a while, it started to seem like... why am I spending $20 on another long-distance card to call this dude who just makes me feel weird and bad? So I just stopped. Wrote him a long email, and we agreed it wasn't working out." She barked a short laugh. "So much for talking all flirtatiously with you about phone sex. Now we're just having another serious conversation."

"That's OK," Danny said. "I like that you're serious. You're a thoughtful person with a lot of history and a lot of depth."

"So I'm old and uptight, is that what you're saying?" Tanya cracked, grinning.

"You know that's not what I mean!" Danny said. "You're definitely not old. To me, you're more like... sexy older lady with experience." He laughed in a muffled way. "Sorry, that didn't come out very well."

"No no, I know what you mean," she said. "Did you just laugh into your pillow?"

He chuckled again. "Yeah, I did. I'm amazed you can hear that."

"I pay attention when I'm on the phone with you," Tanya said. "So are you comfortable right now? Is your bed soft and warm?"

"It's a little too warm," Danny said. "I'm actually lying here in just my boxers, with just a sheet over me. But it's soft and comfortable. I have this really nice bed that I bought back when I was in my last serious relationship, which I thought... You know, I thought she was the one. But I was also figuring out the whole trans thing, and I was starting to use 'they' pronouns, and wearing a binder all the time... She finally lost it on me one night and started talking about how she didn't like seeing me turning into a man, and all this, and I was sitting there like, 'Is that what's going on? Am I turning into a man?' And I decided I was, and that's what I wanted, and she decided to leave. Aaaaand now here I am, four years later, still sleeping in this high-dollar bed we bought together back then. All by myself."

Tanya's mind whirled. She could go so many directions from this story and she wanted to go in all of them at once. She settled for saying, "I would be there with you if I could be."

[moreyouread]

Lean Analytics

Steps

1. Problem

2. Customer segments

3. unique value prop

4. Solution

5. Channels to customers

6. Revenue potential

7. Cost structure

8. Key metric

9. Do you have an unfair advantage to achieve this?

Should you build this?

• do we do it well?

• do we want to do it?

• can we get paid to do it? Or rewarded for doing it?

Stages of startup

Empathy: identifies real problem thru listening

- this stage is about de-risking. Is the problem you’re solving worthwhile? Is the solution helpful?

- delete features if needed

- test hypotheses with the least amount of build work possible

Stickiness: improve the product with a small group

- this is all about retention and engagement by cohorts of users joining

- retention of later cohorts should be increasing

- it’s better to solve one problem well and completely than addressing too many problems

- too much complexity is not good

- don’t listen to what users say always unless it matches also what they do

- use customer feedback you don’t like to

- some focus too much on virality because 1/ high bar and 2/ network effects. It’s dangerous to do this

Virality: focus on growth

- focus on virality before spending money on ads

- virality can be inherent, artificial, word of mouth

- find your good leading indicator metric for D0 to growth hack

- ways to spread virality are inherent, artificial, word of mouth

- virality coefficient > 1 is holy grail. It’s how many customers your user base brings in without $ invested to acquire / existing customer base

Revenue: focus on making money

- provide slightly more detail in answers than asked to show you’re prepared

- increase in quarterly revenue / past quarterly cost should be > 0.75

- CLV > CAC to spend less to acquire than their lifetime value (CLV = profit / (1-churn rate)

- focus on improving on your strengths to make money — more people more stuff more money more often

- pivot to a new market for market / product fit

- focus on breakeven

Scale: become a big company thru scaling

- differentiate on niche market (segmentation strategy) efficient (cost strategy) or unique (differentiation strategy on brand)

- either you increase margins or decrease costs in this stage of your strategy

- you have 3 assumptions and then the 3 tactics for each assumption to be driven

Thresholds

1:3 CAC:CLV

17 minutes per day on social media platforms

5% CTR on ads is amazing and 0.08% for a blank ad baseline

Lose 5% of your traffic due to latency

23% are passive, 16% react, 44% produce and 17% contribute intensely and find new functionality, eg Reddit

If you don’t have a baseline, see when you’ve hit an asymptote and hit diminishing returns. This means you need to change your strategy or try something else

B2B products

Startups in this space often start as a consulting firm but this is not scalable/sustainable

Identify problems and build a product to solve it so you can scale

B2B companies have 3 customers - top customers with discounts, mid tier partners, and customers that cost you money. Get rid of those third type

APIs help you copy innovation or buy it

Intrapraneurship inside companies

Don’t have naysayers on the team

Make reporting and meetings minimal

Have high performers who are action oriented

Analyze after and pitch first

Get executive buy in

Build in virality to your product

You’re testing problems and solutions. Users won’t tell you what they want but they’ll tell you why they want it. Talk not just to your own users but competitors’ users for what’s missing in the market

Today’s leaders knows what questions to ask, so ask good questions

[eriellesudario]

How this whole thing started

Unless you follow me in social media or we’ve talked in DM’s and such, you should know that there are multiple opportunities happening to me right now! I was selected to go to Fiji for a university work and study tour, my creative writing piece ‘Waiting For You’ will soon be in production and become a short film, and indie alternative band Far Away Stables asked me to film and take photos of their Sydney gig! I didn’t know that I would be able to do these things… but I am. I didn’t know someone like me would make it this far. This girl who has average knowledge on how things works and has to self learn every single thing in order to make it to where I am; I find it hard to believe that I’m standing here doing the things I enjoy doing and people are willing to give me opportunities for me to improve and promote my craft. I don’t care if it’s volunteer work, it is a start of something amazing!

So how did someone like me made it this far?

Well… Back then

In the beginning, I was really not interested with this whole media, film production, photography thing. It just wasn’t me and even if I do attempt to give it a shot, most of the time, I get discouraged and sometimes being told to stop. But I did have some interest on being in front of the camera when my family creates their home videos. ​ But the telltale signs were there because around 2008, I wanted to give film making a shot but I had no idea where to start + my family wasn’t really happy with me watching YouTube videos (I was banned for 3 months just because I was watching Club Penguin fan videos). I also joined this blogging site called ‘Multiply’ and I consistently write stuff about my interest plus I contribute to a Club Penguin page when a new mission comes. ​ But I still had no interest or intension on pursuing it in the future.

I soon gained a bit of more interest when I was in high school, around year 9. There was a student film contest and I wanted to join. I got a group ready but unfortunately, not many people were interested plus we wasted a lot of time that we’ve done nothing. Then in year 10, I gave it another shot but stuff happened that I was unable to be there during the filming but I was there during the planning. ​ It was also around 2011-2012 that my friends convinced me to try making youtube videos. So on October 2012, I uploaded my first YouTube video which was a recording of my pet slime’s funeral in Minecraft. My early videos were just really bad gameplay recordings of my favourite videos games but it did grew my channel a bit. ​ Then came year 11 and I had to do photography because I was missing 1 unit. It was really fun and I enjoyed taking photos using my dad’s camera. It was also by that point that I was re-evaluating my life as I wasn’t enjoying the subjects that I was doing. Around this point, I’ve decided to put more effort onto film making and uploaded my first vlog which talked my experience in Vivid Sydney. ​ Two more vlogs later and I soon found enjoyment and decided to do media as a career. ​ Eventually, word has spread about my hobby of mine when I recorded my classmates goofing off in the music room. People started to watch my content just to see this other side of me that I don’t publicly share offline and they gave me tones support and told me to don’t stop doing this strange hobby that soon became a part of my life. ​ But then a lot of drama and misunderstandings occurred that I was forced to start over. It did hurt but it did make me stronger and I started improving on what I’ve been making and I wanted to do more with this. ​ So I’ve improved with my videos, I tried to take more photos when I’m on the go, I started on my own small projects like my song writing and my blogging hobby that I knew that if I work hard, I can make use of these skills. It took a lot of convincing to my family thou that I wanted to make this my future as they fear that it won’t be a stable path for me to take. ​ 3 years later, my friends and family were convinced about my decisions as my videos that I made using my iPad got me 2 early entry offers for university plus my grades don’t lie when my assignments requires me to make or write something. And as my channel is still continuing to grow, that my parents we’re willing to try to accept that this is a thing I want to do.

University was really supportive about this hobby of mine that it was one of the reasons why I try to improve with the skills I’ve got. They encourage me to start early and keep on practicing as it will be useful in future assignments plus perhaps in my future endeavours. ​ The music side of my story… it’s just hobby that I just want to share to the world. ​ If I could give any advice about doing this, even if it’s just a hobby, I would say the following.

Start of small – Figure out on why you want to do this. Just post a few things from time to time and see what happens. I have friends who tried to do this but gave up eventually.

Don’t buy the expensive gear… yet – I started out with an iPad air and editing them with the iMovie app and my earlier gaming videos are recorded using Hypercam, edited using Movie Maker and my mic was just old headphones. Even if the quality is shit, you can make something out of it. If you think you are ready to tackle the harder techniques, by all means spend your money wisely. I currently use a Canon 70D, a rode videomic and edit using Final Cut Pro (and sometimes Adobe Premier).

Don’t set up high expectations – You’re just starting and you have no idea how people will interpret your work. Starting off with a simple introduction is a good start and keep practicing as you go.

Have fun with it – The longest time I’ve been trapped in my bedroom just to edit was 9 hours. It was really hot and it was annoying rewinding the scene time and time again but I was at least having fun when doing so. When doing stuff like this, you need to be enjoying it as it determines the quality and content of your projects.

Don’t stop and keep practicing – If you want to make this a thing, you can’t stop learning. This is why I’m doing a university course about this. Sometimes, I look back in my videos and think, how can I make this better? I take note if it and make sure I imply these in my next project. At the moment, I’m trying to learn how to use After Effects and Adobe Premier so I’m taking my time and learning new programs because I know it will be useful in the future. ​ I do hope this gives you a better understanding on why I do this and why I want to keep on doing this! I do hope someday that I will find some sort of success as I do this and if that day comes, I can always look back and remember where I started…

A girl who started vlogging using an iPad.

[lunarticxenia]

Moon Signs Pt. 1

My take on moon signs based off people I know! Now personally, I tend to have more strong opinions on my favorite moon signs than favorite sun signs. I feel like moon signs really indicate more about a person’s personality than their sun sign, imo. It does rule emotions and behavior after all. With sun signs I struggle with picking favorites because I do genuinely have people I like of every zodiac sign. I just go by the number of people I like from each zodiac sign. Anyhoo, here’s my view on each moon sign! 

Note: These are p long bc I have such strong thoughts on moon signs so I’m splitting it into two parts. :) 

🍂 Aries Moon: Ahhh, my moon sign. I won’t be biased though, I promise. So Aries moons based off other people I know is that we low-key got anger issues LMAO. Every single Aries moon I’ve met besides myself has anger issues, with the exception of one person and she still gets irritated easily. Aries Moons are also extremely sensitive, and they tend to be overlooked for that since they’re fire signs. I’ve found that a lot of what they get angry about has to do with their feelings, if they feel they’ve been wronged this really can make them angry as they are super sensitive. They also get angry when they feel like people aren’t listening to them, as they take this very personally. I’ve also noticed that Aries moons are EXTREMELY honest, they will tell it how it is and they are extremely blunt. They don’t like to beat around the bush, and they are very direct with how they feel about something. Aries moons are also extremely passionate and spontaneous especially in relationships; they’re the ones who wanna kiss in the rain and ride horses into the sunset, that is if you can get them to settle down with you LMAO. Nah all jokes, they’re picky about who they want, but once they really fall for someone it’s very hard for them to let go. They’re also so competitive, they will play dirty. My grandpa used to let me win in checkers as a kid, my dad (who’s an Aries moon) NEVER let me win. He said me losing would help build character LMFAO. He just didn’t wanna lose.They also have strong personalities and can be SUPER impulsive. Also, if they wanna do something, they WILL do it. No one is gonna stop them. If they wanna go somewhere at 3am, they’re doing it. Sorry. You can’t stop them. LMAO. Aries moons also love to be in touch with their inner child, my dad is an Aries moon and bought himself an arcade machine out of nowhere LMAO. I also like to collect shells and watch Disney movies to remind me of my childhood. They also tend to change their views and opinions on things a lot, and mind you they have intense emotions about these things. So it can be hard to keep up w them. 

🍂 Taurus Moon: Taurus moons are just so calm, it’s scary LMAO. I know a few of them, and even if they’re anxious about something you can never tell. They always have this calm demeanor and just seem so unbothered by everything. Taurus moons also LOVE money and the finer things in life. The male Taurus moons I know work a lot just so they can have a lot of money. One of them literally said to me “Money talks” after explaining to me why they work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day doing two jobs. The crazy thing is, despite doing all that extra work, he just seemed so unbothered about it LMAO. The female Taurus moons I know tend to love really expensive clothes and dressing up. This Taurus moon I work with has such nice clothes and always dresses like she’s on a Vogue cover. Like I said, Taurus moons LOVE money and the finer things in life like expensive clothes. If they aren’t the types to dress up or be workaholics, they desire comfort. They would rather lay in bed and take hot bathes than be bothered to do all that extra stuff. They also might like to eat out at expensive restaurants, and are “foodies”. They also might be big lovers of music and have lots of different music tastes. Also, Taurus moons? STUBBORN. Good luck trying to get them to change their mind on something. Also, despite them wanting all the luxuries and comfort of life, they are SUPER grounded. They do not live in a dream world, they see life for what it is, and prefer to be on the ground than have their heads in the clouds. Also, Taurus moons, I’m sorry, but y’all can be lazy. I work with three of them, and they can be lazy. They will not do more than the bare minimum. Also, their anger is low-key scary. Especially since it can come out of nowhere since they’re calm all the time, you never know when they’re angry and if you catch them at the wrong time... well, rip. They also tend to be introverted- even if they’re social, you will not know anything about them unless you’re besties with them or related to them. Doesn’t matter how well you know them, they don’t air their dirty laundry and keep their private life private. Also one last thing, omg these people sing all the time. They love singing to themselves, every single one I’ve met does that LMAO. Anyway, love my Taurus moons. 

🍂 Gemini Moon: Gemini moons love to make people laugh LMAO and love to just sit down and have good talks with people. Their minds NEVER stop working. Good luck trying to get them to stop talking once they know you. They can and will talk about anything for hours. Now, I do admire that, but sometimes I just wanna relax and they won’t stop talking to me LMFAO. My dad’s girlfriend is a Gemini moon and at family gatherings she loves to dance around and try to get everyone else to dance. I find that Gemini moons are very active and love to move around, and try to get everyone to have fun. Definitely the life of the party. They’re super amusing and also love to tell jokes and funny stories. Now not all of them are extroverts especially if they have an earth sun sign. So that is something to consider. My cousin is a Gemini moon and tends to be more introverted, however, once she’s comfortable around someone and knows someone she’s super goofy and loves to make people laugh. Gemini moons also love to learn, they’re always teaching themselves about something. My cousin who’s a Gemini moon just randomly started teaching herself how to do sign language (she’s good at it also)! These people are also SUPER adaptable, they can get along with any kind of personality and can adapt to any situation. I’ve also noticed that they love to playfully roast people and annoy them LMAO. I have noticed that they struggle with reading the room, they tend to just continue to annoy someone and can take it too far, which can get kind of annoying. They’re also extremely curious and are always asking questions. They love to ask random questions without any context. It’s a quirk a lot of them have. Trying to tell a story to them can be frustrating because if you mention certain terms they’ll ask you what they mean LMFAO. My dad was telling a story about how he used surfing to explain physics concepts in class and his girlfriend asked what the concepts were and what they mean. Also, they’re really good at giving advice. These people would make great psychologists imo. This girl I used to talk to (who’s a Gemini moon) actually is becoming a psychologist, so there you go LMAO. 

🍂Cancer Moon: Oh Cancer moons...you guys are so sensitive. They feel everything and anything. I haven’t met a Cancer moon that isn’t an empath. They are extremely good at reading other people and sensing their motives. My mother is a Cancer moon, and she’s always been able to tell who’s toxic in my life. She doesn’t even have to meet them either, just based off of stories I tell her, she can pick it up right away. Now, everyone always says Cancer moons are super close with their family and that’s definitely not always the case. The Cancer moons I’ve met have actually had a lot of problems with their family. Now the thing that I’ve noticed with these placements is that despite how toxic their family is, they always stick by them. Even if they’re not close. So I wouldn’t say they’re all super close with their families, but they always stick up for them, which can be an issue if their family is toxic. Also, Cancer moons, SUPER MOODY. I’m sorry but like I’m a Cancer sun and they’re ten times more moody than I am LMFAO. I’ve always said they act more like the stereotypical Cancer than Cancer suns. Also, this is a super underrated placement for humor. Every Cancer moon I’ve met has been super funny. Also, a super underrated placement for anger issues. Everyone says oh yeah Aries moons have anger issues, like yes, BUT HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN CANCER MOON ANGER?! Y’all Taylor Swift is a Cancer moon and wrote a whole album about how fed up she was about the media mistreating her and the whole Kimye thing (rightfully so) but y’all see my point. They can and will fight you. They also tend to be introverted, even if they’re social, (which I rarely see), they would much rather keep to themselves. I’ve also noticed that they’re very nostalgic a lot. My Cancer moon ex used to just randomly go through childhood photos and would show them to me. They’re also EXTREMELY protective over people they love, they will KILL for the people they love. They also love to talk about their dream homes and interior decorating a lot? My Cancer moon ex was OBSESSED with coming up with his dream house and would literally draw out diagrams for me to see. My mother too, she wants to redecorate her apartment and was showing me all the potential furniture that was gonna be put in. Oh Cancer moons, LMAO. 

🍂 Leo Moon: Oh Leo moons. You guys can be so dramatic LMAO. Every Leo moon I’ve met is so dramatic; these are the types of people who get up and move around when telling a story and also do dramatic hand gestures. These are the types of people who post a black screen in middle school on Snapchat saying “Don’t hmu.” LMAO. My Leo moon friend gets so mad when I make that joke, but it’s so true. These people are also naturally super creative, the Leo moons I know love to decorate and draw. Even if they don’t do any outright creative hobbies, they have a creative streak to them. It’s weird though because despite them being very dramatic when it comes to them being angry, they struggle with expressing their personal problems to other people. (This however can be changed with other placements, but I’ve found this to be true in many cases). They don’t want people to think that they’re weak, so they put up a tough front to hide that they’re hurting. Also, Leo moons, are indeed the hype friends. My Leo moon friends gas up my Instagram posts so much. They’re also extremely loyal and don’t like to leave people out, they hate that kind of shit. They’re also extremely accepting of others, my Leo moon friend was the first person I came out to, and they accepted me right away. They also love to take pictures of EVERYTHING. Like when you go out with them, they will make you wait before eating your food so they can take video of your food together LMAO. They love to capture every moment, I personally find it very endearing. Also, a lot of people say Leo moons are super cocky. I don’t find this to be true. They can come off that way, but I’ve found they tend to actually be pretty insecure and they try to hide it by coming off as confident. I feel like Leo moons tend to put on a show a lot to hide how they truly feel, which makes it hard to get to know them. It makes me sad because they truly are such kind hearted people and all they want is to feel validation. I also found that they love to go above and beyond to make sure everyone else is happy and tend to put themselves last. I wish y’all didn’t do that, you deserve to be happy too. ;( 

🍂 Virgo Moon: Workaholics. That’s how I’m starting this LMAO. My friend is a Virgo moon and works her ass off. She goes above and beyond in school for starters. For this anatomy course we had together, she sent me a whole diagram she made of the human brain on Notability and it was so intricately made. She also works her ass off at her job and takes care of her siblings. I feel like this falls into Virgo placements putting others before themselves. Virgo moons are definitely the types to be like this. They want to make everyone happy and they want to feel useful so they do all these extra things to feel that way. Virgo moons are also super smart, and have the best study methods. Low-key jealous. They have this incredible drive and are always on top of things and have a routine. Also Virgo moons LOVE animals. My friend who’s a Virgo moon, works at a dog sitting business and has 6 pets at home. They LOVE animals. They also like honesty and bluntness; they will provide you with that as well. They don’t like beating around the bush or lying to make other people feel better. You wanna know if you look bad in a dress? Ask a Virgo moon, LMFAO. I’ve also found that they struggle with wanting to be perfect all the time, and struggle with anxiety. As I said, they want to be the best at everything, and this can be a big source of anxiety for them. These people also find themselves attracting people who they want to “fix”. They also give amazing advice and are super reliable. Also, last minute plans? They HATE them. Want a Virgo moon to hate you? Try making spontaneous plans with them LMAO. Virgo moons also have great memories; they’ll remember every little detail about you. Also Virgo moons are the types to take charge in a group project and run the whole thing because they don’t trust anyone. Virgo moons also always appear to be calm and collected, even though many of them frequently deal with anxiety a lot. Also, they’re low-key underrated for humor. They have a very dry and self-deprecating sense of humor LMAO. They also go above and beyond in relationships because they enjoy seeing the people they love being happy. 

Anyhoo, this wraps up part one!  Also these are just my opinions, so don’t get offended I tried to praise and drag all of them equally <3 

Part 2 here. 

[glowingbadger]

Can I get some SFW and nsfw modern day Kaeya and Diluc stuff? Ty ty!

Damn I hadn't even thought about ModernAU Genshin before lol should be interesting- lesgoooo~

Side note- Genshin refuses to make actual sense of any of the ages of its characters, so I'm going with, like... mid-20's, semi-recently out of college for these two.

Kaeya, Diluc x GN Reader - ModernAU! headcanons

SFW (nsfw below the cut)

Kaeya:

- He's in law school, and has a real knack for discovering hilarious and exploitable legal loopholes. It's also a field that suits him for a number of reasons- it makes use of his infectious natural charm, and keeps him entertained with the 'stories' you happen upon working with people's legal and personal problems. He's also the best dressed in any of his classes, and in any given courtroom. Those who know luxury clothing when they see it can't help incredulously wondering how he affords his wardrobe while still technically a student.

- Kaeya is such a shitposter. He habitually 'likes' any and everything you post on any and all social media platforms- but he'll also comment "mmm who's that sexy thing" beneath the most innocuous images of you. He sends you dumb memes at concerning hours of the night- frequently while intoxicated, and especially when you've had a stressful day.

- As a partner, Kaeya is surprisingly loyal. His friends (and yours) will joke about him being a total slut, how you must have to keep him on such a short leash. He doesn't take offense to this though, and in a way, he gets a kick out of being perceived this way. But in truth, since he's been with you, he's never once considered anyone else. When you're alone together, there's a warmth in his gaze and a gentleness to his touch that no one else has ever seen.

- Everywhere Kaeya goes, he seems to "know a guy." He's always got an in- and an elaborate story of how he met this person and why they're, frankly, worryingly open to doing him favors. It's rare that a date with Kaeya goes by without you being offered free drinks, free desserts, a better seat at a restaurant or theatre, etc. Generally, when pressed, he'll wave a hand and say, "Babe come on, you know me- I just love making friends." Though you've heard whispers that some of his "friends" are just people who can't afford to be on his bad side.

Diluc:

- Was on track to become a police officer for some time, but it took barely a month from completing his training for him to become entirely disillusioned with the entire system. He quit (bluntly and forcefully, I might add) and now works as a P.I. His quietly thoughtful and serious nature puts clients at ease while allowing him to examine each case efficiently and effectively. I also figure we'd still carry over the "bartending at night" angle from the games- it's a great way to network and gain intel while undercover.

- His phone is basically a device for work, the news, and sometimes for contacting you, and absolutely nothing else. He hates the constant noise of social media, and refuses to jump on trends when things move too fast to get meaningfully invested in anything. Still, while he tries to angle his screen so you won't see it, he has set a picture of you as his wallpaper.

- Diluc loves the quiet, domestic side of your relationship. He treasures things like cooking together, cuddling on the couch with a movie, or even working on chores and projects together. He comes from money (though he doesn't talk about it much), so the more down to earth life that he's made with you is precious to him, and he appreciates all of the little moments that reaffirm your bond. That said, he does have an excellent memory for things like birthdays, anniversaries and such, and he is not shy about spending some cash on such occasions.

- Your friends all think he's super hot (and they're right), but are also a bit intimidated by him. Once, you tried showing them a sweet message he sent you drowning in heart emojis and they insisted that couldn't be him. Now there's a running joke in your friend group about your secret side-guy who leaves you nice voicemails when you've had a bad day and has flowers sent to your work- since they're convinced someone as serious and put-together as Diluc couldn't be your incredibly affectionate boyfriend.

NSFW 18+ v

Kaeya:

- Kaeya loves showing you off, especially in an outfit he bought just for you. It seriously turns him on to watch you over a nice dinner out wearing something a bit risque that he selected for you, noting the appreciative glances in your direction from others nearby, and knowing that you're his. The way his line of sight wanders your body all night makes it exceedingly clear that he can't wait to tear that lovely outfit off of you when he has you alone.

- Definitely the adventurous and experimental sort when it comes to kink, and he especially enjoys a bit of exhibitionism or semi-public fooling around. During a similar date night, with you looking so positively delicious across the table, he'll watch with a wolfish smirk as you squirm from the vibrations of a toy he pushed inside of you earlier that evening. He reclines in his seat and levels his gaze on you, saying, "My, darling, are you feeling alright? You look a bit flushed..." as his hand fiddles with the toy's remote. Then, once he gets you home or- even better -to a hotel, he'll press you against the window as he fucks you into panting, mindless bliss. Sometimes he doesn't even want to wait that long, and he'll find somewhere to park his car and fuck you in his back seat

- Kaeya has sending dick pics and lewd selfies down to an art. Seriously, his pictures are beautiful- of course helped by the fact that his body is gorgeous as well. Naturally, he loves to receive erotic images of you as well, and will save each and every one of them for "later use." If you're into it, he'll gladly send you a video of himself stroking his cock just for you, while describing every filthy thing he imagines doing to you in explicit detail.

Diluc:

- Generally speaking, Diluc wants to wine and dine you before the spicy business. He's a romantic at heart, and he wants you to know that he adores every part of you- and your body just happens to be one item on that list. He's not as obvious with his desires as some, but lingering gazes across the dinner table, or a hand at the small of your back trailing around your waist, all make his intentions clear. There's no doubt your lovely evening together will end with his strong body pressing you against his matress, his lips at your throat and your thighs clinging around his hips.

- He's generally fairly private about his sex life- not shy, per say, but insistent that your mutual pleasure is something for only the two of you. He's also not likely to sext or send lewd photos unless you really, really want them (and he's kind of adorably awkward about it at first even if he does try for you)- but if you tease him by sending him something naughty, his mind short circuits. His face burns crimson and he stops whatever he was doing and just stares at your beautiful body on the screen, as though he can already feel you in his hands.

- Diluc is a busy man, so there's likely to be stretches when the time and energy for sex simply isn't there. But once he's wrapped up a case and he finally has some time to breathe, you can bet he'll lift you into his arms and carry you to the bedroom the first chance he gets. You might even start to suspect that it's a way for him to vent his work stress when his thick cock pounds into you so nice and steady and deep- but you're certainly not about to complain, especially when you've been without him for so long.

[ghoste-catte]

I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.

[whatdoyouwanttobecalled-1]

I've been seeing a lot of posts about this all over social media, and while the majority of them are fine and just people expressing their opinions, a lot of people from both sides of the argument have been saying some really inexcusable stuff (such as telling people on the opposing side to off themselves, etc) and it's really pissing me off. Pls everyone idc if you agree w me or not but at least try to be mature and respectful when engaging in these conversations bc the goal is learning, understanding, tolerance, and cooperation (working together to find solutions to problems that will benefit all of us). So here's my stance on the issue, and feel free to reply, ask questions, or dm me and start a conversation regardless of your veiws. Just be nice! Here's my opinions, based off my own personal experience:

To start off: pansexuality is not inherently biphobic and/or transphobic

Yes, there are pansexuals who are biphobic, and yes they harm the transgender community in that sense. This is because generally pansexuals who are biphobic say they bisexuals are transphobic and essentially invalidate binary trans people's identity as a man or woman by saying that bisexuals are only attracted to cis men and cis women, not trans people. However, the majority of pansexual people do not think this way. Personally (and most of the pansexuals as talked to agree w me), I do not believe that bisexuality is transphobic. Why? Trans women are women, and trans men are men. If you will not date a trans person simply bc they are trans, then you're transphobic, but that has absolutely nothing to do w your sexuality. My own and most people's understanding of bisexuality (and the definition you get if you Google it, and the definition that most bisexuals will give you), is that bisexuality means attraction to 2 or more genders (which yes, could mean all), with a preference. With. A. Preference. I identified as bi to myself for years, and came out as bi for almost a year, never feeling as if the label fully fit me or that I was fully understood by the community bc there is always sm emphasis on the fact that bisexuals have a preference, while I never have. I don't think anyone is less than anyone else for having a preference, or better than anyone else for not having a preference. Pansexuality simply allows me to be apart of a smaller more specific community that fully understands my experience w attraction. I also know that bisexuality can be used as an umbrella term for anyone attracted to 2+ genders, but in the same way that it's not biphobic for lesbians to prefer to date other lesbians bc of their shared experience, I like having a smaller community that specifically experiences attraction in the same way that I do. I've also seen a lot of people talking about how people seem to think that bisexuals only care about sex, and that pansexuals think theyre better bc they're uwu innocent babies. I'm not entirely sure I'm not on the ace spectrum somewhere but lemme tell you that does not make me any less of a whore. No one is better than anyone else for how much or little they think about or enjoy sex.

2nd; bisexuality is not inherently transphobic.

Yes, there are bisexuals who are transphobic, but this is not the majority of the community. Most bi people consider trans women to be real women (which they are) and trans men to be real men (which they are). I will say it again; if you won't date someone just bc they're trans, you are transphobic, but that has nothing to do w your sexuality. As for non binary people, yes, bisexuality includes them too. Bisexuality is not inherently transphobic.

3rd; all mspec labels are fucking valid.

Whether you identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, or polysexual, you are valid. You can use bisexuality as an umbrella term if that's what you're most comfortable w, or if the definition perfectly describes your relationship w attraction then that's cool too. If you feel that pansexuality, omnisexuality, or polysexuality better describes you and you enjoy having a smaller more specific community to fully relate to, guess what, that's also cool. No one is better than anyone else, and while there are members of every community who feel that they are, they do not represent everyone.

4th; panphobia/omniphobia/polyphobia only comes from the mspec community, if it comes from outside, it's probably biphobia

Let me explain; there is no problem that comes from people who are not attracted to multiple genders that everyone on this spectrum doesn't face. Bisexuality is a spectrum that we all fall on, an umbrella term that we all fit under. This means that unless it's coming from a person or group on this spectrum, it's probably biphobia you're facing. There are 2 types of biphobia: the biphobia that comes from mspecs, and the biphobia that comes from people who aren't on the spectrum of bisexuality. The biphobia that comes from inside is only against people who identify as bisexual, and the biphobia that comes from outside is against anyone who is attracted to multiple genders. I'm not saying there aren't a few instances of people who arent mspec targeting a specific group and not every mspec identity, but most of the time, if it's from the outside, it's classified as biphobia, bc that includes all of us.

In conclusion, this is what the mspec sexualities are and some of my final thoughts;

Bisexuality = attraction to 2+ genders with or without a preference. It can be used as an umbrella term by the whole mspec community, or as a specific label on it's own. It includes trans and non binary people, and is not a transphobic label. There are transphobic bisexuals, but the fact that they are transphobic and the fact that they are bisexual are not related in any way. They are not more or less than any other mspec identity, or sexuality in general.

Pansexuality = attraction to all genders without a preference. It is not biphobic and/or transphobic. There are biphobic and/or transphobic pansexuals but the fact that they are biphobic and/or transphobic is not related to their pansexuality. Many people who identify as bisexual describe their attraction in the same way as pansexuals. This is 100% valid as bisexuality can be used as an umbrella term and the label you identify w is all about your comfort. They are not more or less than any other mspec identity or sexuality in general.

Omnisexuality = attraction to all genders w a preference. It is not biphobic and/or transphobic. There are biphobic and/or transphobic omnisexuals but the fact that they are biphobic and/or transphobic is not related to their omnisexuality. Many people who identify as bisexual describe their attraction in the same way as omnisexuals. This is 100% valid as bisexuality can be used as an umbrella term and the label you identify w is all about your comfort. They are not more or less than any other mspec identity or sexuality in general.

Polysexuality = attraction to more than 2, but not all genders. It is not biphobic and/or transphobic. There are biphobic and/or transphobic polysexuals but the fact that they are biphobic and/or transphobic is not related to their polysexuality. Many people who identify as bisexual describe their attraction in the same way as polysexuals. This is 100% valid as bisexuality can be used as an umbrella term and the label you identify w is all about your comfort. They are not more or less than any other mspec identity or sexuality in general.

Honestly, I think we all get enough hate from inside and outside the lgbtqia+ community and we need to stick together and have each others backs. It's not the microlabels that are causing problems, it's the exclusionists. Invalidating eo's experiences and saying that biphobia is a bigger problem, panphobia is a bigger problem, omniphobia is a bigger problem, or polyphobia is a bigger problem, isn't gonna help anyone or solve anything. We can have slightly different experiences and still relate and support eo. Also, even if you have a problem w a specific label, pls just ask your questions genuinely, and try to understand the opposing side. Just have a mature conversation. If you're too young or immature to do that then you probably shouldn't be on social media. Calling eo names and telling eo to off ourselves isn't helping anything and there is no excuse for it. I've always loved the lgbtqia+ community for it's love and acceptance, but the more active I become within the community itself, the more I realise how toxic it can be. Sometimes I'm genuinely embarrassed to part of this community. Especially when it's grown adults acting like children that is causing the problems. Pls do better. Thank you for your time, thank you for reading, I love you, have a nice day!!!

Also I just want to add that ik there are more mspec identities than this, and you're all so valid. These are just the sexualities that ik enough about to give a proper statement on and the ones I've seen mentioned in this discourse the most. I'm actively trying to learn more about the mspec identities I mentioned, and those that I didn't. Pls feel free to give me any info on any sexuality (doesn't even have to be mspec I just want to learn more so I can be good ally for everyone), or ask me any questions about my own sexuality, and pls let me know if there is anything I should add or any misinformation in this post (I will not be including blatant blankphobia against any mspec identity so don't even try it bitches)

[ordinaryschmuck]

An Issue Worth Discussing: Freaking Out Over Spoilers

I’ve been looking through @incorrectlumityquotes‘ posts lately, and I can’t help but notice how...frustrated they’ve been as of late.

All of which is guided by the fact that people give them crap about making/reblogging posts that talk about an episode, but not marking spoilers for them. Now, something like that would be warranted...if the stuff they’re posting were major spoilers. Stuff like who Philip Wittebane is or what happened to Raine. But, for the most part, it seems like they have low context moments that don’t really ruin much.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a person who is 100% for keeping things locked up tight. The best part of enjoying any story is the experience, and I can get the anger of having that ruined, even just a tiny bit. With that--

YOU PEOPLE NEED TO CALM THE FRICK DOWN!

I go on the subreddit for the show, and all I see are blurs, even for stuff like the reveal that Skara was in an episode. Oh, no. How awful. Even though we’ve seen it in promos and screenshots.

Going all koo-koo-crazy over something so minimal is nothing to worry about.

Amity calling Luz a sweet potato in Spanish?

Steve making a cameo?

Lilith’s outfit change?

You shouldn’t freak out seeing stuff like this before an episode. Yes, they’re technically spoilers, but they’re light spoilers.

They’re stuff you’d see in trailers, promos, stills, and just about anything that would be used to promote something. Just look at Spider-Man: No Way Home, for example. That’s a movie with big surprises and amazing moments, but the movie needed to promote something. How can they show the plot of the movie while never showing a single one of the villains in that movie? They couldn’t. It’d be impossible.

True, if you’re a person who wants to go in completely blind, you’d get a little ticked to see this.

But, if that’s true...what the hell are you doing on the internet?

Do you not internet?

This place is filled to the brim of people talking about their favorite thing, which just so happens to be YOUR favorite thing.

Going back to Spider-Man: No Way Home, it came out on December 17th and I couldn’t watch it until the 27th of December. Yeah, I know. It was only ten days. But I avoided all social media like the plague, knowing all too well that there would be people spoiling things and not tagging them. Not just the small bits, but the major ones too. Because that’s 👏 how 👏 the internet 👏 works 👏. You’re going to find spoilers no matter what you do, even if you filter things out. I get the anger of finding something you wouldn’t want to, but, if I’m being honest, that’s still kind of on you. You were the one already playing with fire by being on social media in the first place by being on social media. Not everyone is going to be courteous.

Besides, if you do see something you didn’t want to, do what I do: PURGE!

Watch a bunch of random nonsense to help forget about what you just saw. It always works unless you think, “What was that thing that got spoiled for me?” Just stop having thoughts like that, and you’ll be golden.

Now, this isn’t saying that people shouldn’t tag their spoilers. That’d be ludicrous It takes less than two seconds to tag, and it’s absolutely the other person’s fault at that point for not filtering those tags out. But, if someone just wants to share a small screenshot that doesn’t reveal too much and either forgot to/didn’t feel like they should tag spoilers for it, don’t get up in arms about the whole thing.

If it’s heavily plot related or something involving the characters major development, I won’t blame you for getting angry.

But please, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t get upset over someone gushing about Luz calling Amity, “hermosa.” It could not be LESS of a big deal.