#do aesthetic blogs still exist on tumblr or do i have to post that one bit of really dumb clone high fan art on here lol

[yarrayora]

Idk how to explain properly, but I’m a really big fan of the dynamic you portray between Marcille and Falin. I’ve always loved . idk how to say.. divorce? trouble-in-paradise? arcs/portrayals that look at problems in otp, and yours is super interesting. Sorry if this is weird just wanted to say :)

not weird at all! im flattered, thanks!

i wasnt really into farcille at first, mostly i was just impressed an f/f ship managed to be the fandom's no1, basically proving that when two female characters in a mostly male dominated cast are allowed to bond with each others and be their own characters people will latch on to them

mostly though aro touden siblings is still my no1 and even back then i didnt care about shipping because any type of romantic relationship in dunmeshi is less interesting than the potential of political intrigue the worldbuilding set up (yes, even chilchuck's failing marriage is less interesting to me than how living in the dungeon was safer for the orcs than being neighbors to human civilization) (shocking, i know)

but it all changed when i saw the daydream hour about marcille thinking falin looks cute in feminine clothing while falin herself is obviously uncomfortable with it

i can't sleep. i have to think about this. i have to think about how it's their first love and their first relationship and one is going in blind while the other set up her expectations based on a harlequin romance novel. they are NOT in the same wavelength at all and neither of them are particularly good at communicating their intention, with falin who grew up a convenient kid because she thought it was the least she could do for her family and marcille who frankly speaking was used to being treated as someone superior back at the magic school

thank god kabru exists because who else is going to give them a real advice for their very real relationship? chilchuck will be like "okay just break up" while not seeing the mirror to his own relationship with his runaway wife. senshi, wise as he is, is never in a romantic relationship. laios would be like :((( you guys are fighting? and gets stressed out on his own which makes it even more stressful to the girls. namari is like. "i, uh, please talk to kabru."

anyway theres also the bonus comic about falin inviting marcille to watch daltian clan's opera adaptation and while there is something to say about marcille thinking the humans playing elves doesn't fit her aesthetic (and the difference of societal expectations of dressing up as a different race in dunmeshi universe compared to in ours) all i can think of is that in modern day au where daltian clan has a movie adaptation marcille has a tumblr blog where she posts Hate on the daltian clan movie tag and calling it criticism which it is but also not the place, girl, go to rotten tomatoes for that

falin also has a tumblr and she and marcille had no idea the other is a tumblr user. falin made a post like "just watched daltian clan with my gf i get why shes really obsessed with it now" and marcille, against her better judgement replies to the post like "really sorry that you were misled by your girlfriend like that, you should read the novels instead, it's way better."

laios who sees falin looking shocked at her phone asks whats up and then after receiving the answer says "wow sounds like a real jerk! just block them"

anyway thats my modern day farcille when there's no high fantasy problems involved

[22ndnervousbreakdown]

Which social media would Sherlock Holmes characters have, according to a discussion I had with my friends in the middle of a night a couple days ago. This is ACD Holmes I think but leaning onto Soviet movies somewhat.

(And yes I'm aware telegram isn't popular outside of russian-speaking internet but just let it be part of the joke i guess)

Holmes: a lot of fake accounts on every website ever, but the only place that he actually posts on for himself is his telegram channel about tobacco varieties that has almost no followers. When Watson learned that Holmes has telegram, he was pissed because he thought Holmes is there to buy drugs.

Watson: he's a really popular ao3 writer. Also has a tumblr blog and an insta where he posts pictures of food, pictures of Holmes and sometimes his drawings (which he photographs with a lot of random stuff in the background for "aesthetics"). He also created a number of "official" Sherlock Holmes accounts without telling Holmes and makes all the posts there himself.

Mrs Hudson: facebook, where she posts recipes, household advices and stuff like that, and occasionally grumbles about Holmes and Watson. Also whenever they do something that really pisses her off, she would list the flat for rent, but always take it down shortly.

Moriarty: tumblr where he mostly posts about maths and a personal website to advertise as a private math tutor. Also a private telegram channel that Holmes somehow managed to follow from a fake acc.

Lestrade: EVERY social media ever. Most notably, twitter, where he always gets in fights (especially with Holmes's fake accs). He also set up an official Scotland Yard tiktok where he just makes really bad edits of policemen just walking somewhere with some music and lots of filters on.

Irene Adler: Instagram. Also onlyfans where she posts really rarely and she's always fully clothed, but she still has like thousands on thousands of followers there.

Mycroft: an official twitter that he hired someone to manage. Also facebook.

Mary Morstan: She doesn't actually exist, it's just one of Holmes's fake Instagram accs where he posted pictures of "Watson's wedding" to escape rumours.

Sir Henry Baskerville: onlyfans with only one subscriber whose username is infusoria666. Everyone but sir Henry himself knows it's Dr. Mortimer. Also Dr. Mortimer tried to set up a travel blog for him but ended up having to post there by himself.

Dr. Mortimer: tumblr blog full of skulls and also a youtube channel. He's also one of the few people who follow Holmes's tobacco telegram, and probably its biggest fan. When they met, he mentioned his youtube channel a lot, hoping that Holmes will ask for a link, but he just ignored even the most obvious hints.

Also:

Baker Street irregulars all have tiktok. They force Watson to watch skibidi toilets.

Lestrade writes with a lot of errors and uses emojis excessively.

Moriarty writes immaculately with all the capital letters and punctuation and periods in the end of every sentence. Holmes does the same but with no capital letters.

Holmes followed Irene Adler from one of his female fake accs. She in turn followed his tobacco channel from a male acc, and commented under one of his posts recommending him to follow a blog on autism.

Once Watson posted a photo of his lunch on his insta and after that a photo of Holmes with a caption "desert :)" and refused to delete it.

Holmes made a youtube channel about beekeeping when he retired.

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

Image Descriptions and Accessibility in General on Tumblr for New Users

What are Image Descriptions

Image Descriptions are text following a picture explaining what’s in that picture. They are primarily for blind/visually impaired people with screen readers and visually impaired people who can read text but have issues with pictures.

They also help people who have trouble:

focusing on/understanding a picture

reading text on images (ex low contrast, weird fonts, etc)

getting images to load

Without image descriptions posts are not accessible to many people, so if you can it's best to include a description or alt text every time you post an image.

Alt text vs image descriptions

Image descriptions are written in the body of the post itself, and have some kind of text before and after, to explain that what's coming up. They typically begin short and concise, but can expand to more detail.

Alt text is added to the image itself, and is what is read by screen-readers (which will otherwise just say "image"). There is no need to add any explanation before the description so you can just say "a description of the image". Alt text can only be added by the original poster, by clicking on the three dots in the bottom right corner of the image and clicking 'update image description.' It is typically short and concise.

On tumblr, alt text is currently available on web by clicking on the alt button (or via new xkit - accesskit - move alt text to captions below image). On mobile, alt text is available in some versions of the app through clicking on the alt text button. Image descriptions are visible on all posts, although if you put them under a read-more, that makes them less accessible. (Thanks to @911described for helping with this section)

How to Make Image Descriptions

Awhile ago I made this general guide. I learned from examples, so here are descriptions made by a bunch of different people. I've also made templates for a lot of common images you'll see on Tumblr.

Other Concerns

Gradient or all caps text make most screen readers read out the word one letter at a time. In addition, these plus text that is bold/italicized/underlined, in colors other than black, or in weird/fancy fonts are difficult for many people to read.

How Filtering Works

You can filter out both words/phrases and tags in the filtering section under the general section in the settings. When filtering out words from a post, it will look at both the text of the post/reblog chain and at the url of op and the rebloggers. When filtering out tags it will look at the tags of the specific post on your dash, and at the tags of the original post.

Tagging for Common Triggers

Don't sensor trigger warnings (for example don't tag suic!de) because then people who have them filtered will still see it.

Tagging for Flashing Lights

If you post a gif or video in a post that flashes, you should tag it with something like "flashing lights" and Not "tw epilepsy" because if any of the tags in the original post contains the world epilepsy it will show up in the epilepsy tag, which is dangerous. Check out this post from @photosensitive-despair for more info about tagging photosensitive content.

Tagging for Unreality vs Misinfo

Things that could trigger delusions/psychotic episodes/etc should be tagged with unreality. This includes:

content that has existential themes related to reality/things not existing (example: a philosophy such as solipsism, do not look up the term if unreality stuff is triggering for you)

extremely surreal content(example: sometimes content such as weirdcore/dreamcore aesthetics can fall under this umbrella but again this is very subjective)

content that reinforces or encourages common delusions(example: that one "im living in your walls" meme)

Things like rp blogs and fake/edited tweets should not be tagged with unreality, unless they contain triggering content. Consider tags like "fiction" or "misinfo." See this post for more info.

Edit:

Addition from @mindflamer

You can look through the reblogs of a post to see if someone's already written a description. There is a button to see just comments vs. comments + tags which makes it easier. Scroll through looking for brackets [], ID, or Image Description. This is great to do if you can't write your own IDs for whatever reason, so that you can at least spread the version of the post that's described if there is one.

If you're not able to write IDs consistently, some is better than none. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You can use the tag #undescribed to make it easy for those who need them to filter out those posts. Similarly, if you primarily tag triggers but can't for certain posts, you can use a separate tag on that to be filtered such as #untagged.

Please, if I forgot something, sound off in the notes and I'll update this post with it

[unhappy-last-resort]

PGR Fanfic Recommendations

Just wanted to compile a little list of my favorites.

These range from 18+, to fluff, to angst, to suggestive (smut will be labeled 18+)

Knight's Longing - Sensabo

If you know my blog, this is not a surprise at all. I think I've talked about this fic like three times on here. It's gold if it were words. This is...not really angst or fluff, more of a character study if anything.

In This Moment - Sensabo

You like Noan? You like pain? Well do I have the fic for you! This is a slight canon divergence AU that takes place around CH26 / Cradle's Parade. If you know, you know.

|18+| 2023 Kinktober, Shameless - Starry

So, I did forget to mention (and was also self conscious about my writing so I lowkey didn't want to), but the Vonnegut segment is partly responsible for the existence of Forgive Me, My God. So...thank you for inadvertently enabling me?

Bloodbath - Starry

Yandere. Roland. Blood. My favorite things. Do I need to explain more? Like probably most people who are getting into the PGR fandom on tumblr, Starry's fics where one of, if not the first fanfics I read and this was absolutely the first Yandere PGR fic I read.

Am I The Only One? - Chronoshot

To be honest, these two fics by Chronos are a little special to me. Sprial of Chronos is one of my favorite patches and it's the one where I really got into PGR so it holds a special place in my heart

Luck Had Your Name - Chronoshot

This one I love a lot. The writing and use of color really emphasizes Lee's sincerity. On that note, this person is just a very good writer and you should read their stuff beyond this!

Regret - Les

a very cute little Chrome fluff fic that I read many, many moons ago but still warms my heart.

Marks & Claims - Les

A little Noctis fluff fic, one of the few that exist in English, I believe and I still remember being excited when I first saw it.

You Don't Have To Knock Next Time You Come In - Squishy

I still love this little yandere drabble from Squishy. They were the first one who really encouraged me on my blog and those asks and interactions I still hold dear to this day.

|18+| Twilight Falls (Bloodborne AU) - enupairdepartment

I, unfortunately, have yet to play Bloodborne, but I am obsessed with its aesthetic. Have you seen some of the scenery? Or the bosses? Terrifying, elegant, beautiful, and horrifying, are some of my favorite things. Hence why I had to read this AU. The ideas and potential this has definitely kept it in the back of my mind ever since I first read it.

Side Note: This author writes primarily Character X Character ships including Camu/Roland, Lee/Liv, Lee/Vera, Bianca/Watanabe so if that's something you've been looking for, consider checking them out!

Untitled Work - Shrimp Dumpling

Shrimp is one of the lovely people who participated in my PGR Writing Game, they have some lovely little fics that are honestly just a lot of fun to read.

Cherished Dreams - Eden

Do not be fooled by the author's ominous name, this is a fluff fic! With our one and only Wanshi written very beautifully.

|18+| Yandere Alpha - Rei

Look man, I have to include this okay. Ms. Lightning McQueen herself broke into my house and threatened me to do it, it's not my fault.

That's all that will be in this post, I will probably do this again at some point, but regardless I hope you found some new writers you'll enjoy. Remember to let them know that you appreciated their fics if you do!

[mirkwoodest]

My hard to swallow pill is that you aren't owed reblogs and if your stuff isn't being reblogged, either your stuff isn't being seen or it's not resonating with people. While like/reblog culture on tumblr might be different than it was in 2014, people still reblog stuff. Posts still blow up. Including fanart. Including gifsets.

2014 was also the era of reblog-or-else posts, those horrible aesthetic ~click for more pastel grunge~ links, and "competitions" that included a requirement to follow OP and reblog shit. Aka, clout chasing. That culture died and the result is a like/reblog ratio that isn't what it used to be, but tbh I prefer this.

"Artists will leave tumblr/you are failing gifmakers" the artists and gifmakers obsessed with numbers and clout left years ago. If you're still here then you must realize on some level that what exists here offers something beyond that just maxxing your engagement. In my experience, you get smaller, close-knit, talkative engagement here. Additionally, you DO sometimes have huge viral posts that ruin your notifications for days at a time. This still happens regularly.

I'm not going to argue with the advice "if you love something and want more of it, reblog it!" because that's great advice, but will never stop rolling my eyes and unfollowing people who complain and blame current tumblr culture for not giving them big enough numbers because you either

Don't have a big enough audience/community yet/anymore

It's not resonating enough for people to want it on their blogs, which is not their fault. You can't get mad at people for not wanting to hang stuff up on their walls, even if you worked hard on it

You're prioritizing bigger numbers over building community/rapport. This is just not a good website for that anymore. Maybe that makes you want to leave. Okay. The people who stay are the ones who get tremendous joy from gathering in their huddled micro-communities, making what makes them happy, and passing it around their little circle together. That persists because it brings a different kind of pleasure than the kind of engagement you get on other platforms (although to reiterate, posts blowing up is a thing that obviously continues to happen here)

Obviously if you work hard on something and it doesn't get the response you want, that's hard. I don't mean to belittle those feelings, but the woe-is-me "back in my day / you're all at fault for society's decline" type posts have GOT to stop.

You're just using this website wrong.

[educating-bimbos]

The Pinned Post 2

new pinned post because tumblr hid my old one from my view so I can't see, edit it, or reblog it to add an addendum. I only have a few things to add, so I am just going to copy and paste it.

Who is Educating Bimbos?

My name is Nicolette. I am a technical artist, musician, and an outdoorsy type of gal. I enjoy the finer things in life, and I fancy myself a traditional woman and a bimbo. I don't really enjoy mindlessly obsessing over labels, but if it helps people gauge where my brain is at, I am pro-patriarchy, in favor of traditional gender roles and dynamics, an ex-feminist, and before all else a believer in one's ability to exercise personal freedoms. My beliefs, mannerisms, and presentation attract the ire of feminists, born-again-religious types, and any number of anti-fun douchebags. At the end of the day, just remember that behind this silly blog is a silly person.

What is Educating Bimbos?

It is a blog and small community of bimbos looking to learn more about and express a traditional lifestyle. It is also about people who may not be familiar with or comfortable around things like BDSM get a nice and soft introduction to it without being exposed immediately to the idea of how people can enjoy things in a pseudo-sexual context. At the end of the day, it is a blog and community where I and other like-minded people can express silly ideas without the fear of being lambasted by people seeking to harm others.

Where is Educating Bimbos?

Educating Bimbos can be found in one of these two places.

Why is Educating Bimbos?

Well for a while I was annoyed by the lack of communities that focused on a kind of "hyper-feminine" aesthetic while also promoting more traditional ideas. There was also the issue of communities that have tried this before of devolving into bigoted and abusive communities that would do everything under the sun to create an insular and ToS breaking community. I spoke with a friend of mine who runs a similar community a while ago and she inspired me to give this a shot. Now - close to 3 years later - I have a steadily growing community that pulls from all corners of ideology, cultural, ethnic, and interest level and the discord has been almost completely drama-free in its whole existence.

When is Educating Bimbos?

I am alive and doing silly stuff all day, every day. Except when it is nap time in which case I will be in the realm of dreams.

What's an ex-lesbian and why do you call yourself that?

For a number of very personal reasons, I have decided to call myself an ex-lesbian. I did this of my own volition, and I was not pressured into doing so. For a long time, I had thought of myself as a lesbian, mostly because of socialization and how all the girls around me were so might as well follow suit. I experienced a number of harmful and traumatic events when I considered myself a lesbian and it effected how I view myself. After a while and talking to some friends who I trust dearly, I came to the realization that I am not a lesbian and that it really isn't a thing I identify with the same way others do. I am still trying to come to grips with that given I only relatively recently had that realization. I also feel that people use that term in bad faith to harm people and to push bad narratives and ideas so I thought "hey might as well try and take back what should be an innocuous phrase."

In short, I think an ex-lesbian is just a way of identifying one's sexuality similar to asexuality or demisexuality. It is not that I am one sexuality or another, it's that my sexuality is defined by my experience and coming of age.

I have had a number of people confront me about this, talk to me about it in sincere curiosity, and even attack me. I welcome anyone who is curious or has a genuine contention to come to me in DMs, I am not a mean person, and I will love to talk honestly and respectfully. I find that disagreement is not grounds to discredit or avoid befriending people, I hope you can do the same.

Further questions for Educating Bimbos?

If you find that these questions are unsatisfactory in any regard, or you wish to try your hand at doing what I do, follow these two links!

Ask me anything!

Ask me anything you want! I have some personal rules with regards to what I can and cannot upload, but this is generally the best way for me to answer any question you may have. I also have anonymous asks enabled just in case you are shy.

Submit a post!

If you think I should be made aware of something, post something, or if you just want to signal boost something try this. So far, I have no real rules or expectations so do whatever you want with this button.

[electrosquash]

Totally objective Tumblr audio post ranking

mp3 upload <3: The one and only. Humble, inobtrusive, doesn't depend on third party web services being reachable, fun to collect, works with mobile, can post multiple in one post, and without taking up the entire dash, proves your're a true musichead, with a collection to match, doesn't take you away to another site, works in reblogs, clear rules on what can be uploaded (files smaller than 10mb - i'm using this to downsize to exactly 9mb), can use the remainder of the space for posting album art (a dying art!)

bandcamp embeds: still quite humble, direct link to support the artists, bugs out quite often

soundcloud embeds: i don't understand how people get mp3s to not get taken down there or even how to find them but it works i guess and the posts are aesthetically pleasing. negative points for forcing you to login at some point

mp4 upload: i mean, i guess it counts. better than youtube links at least.

youtube embeds: ugly, bulky, subject to the whims of youtube (who will keep compressing media more and more as time goes on), doesn't force you to login though. as of yet. and did i mention they're ugly. like i don't get what makes them so different from mp4 posts but youtube embeds on tumblr are so aesthetically unpleasing i don't want them on my blog.

lyric posts. and pretend you're bopping your head. do do, pi do, do do, pi do. no audio is still better than ...

sp*tify embeds: UGLYYYYYYYYY, needlessly big, thinks it's the center of the world, will only hand you a snippet, singlehandedly responsible for the decline of music culture, like really so many people don't even know how to get mp3s anymore, and give up when facing a song that can't be found there - can you imagine just not hunting down a song you heard once and is now forever stuck in your head, forces you to login exclusing half the userbase, tries pushing you towards spotify premium, keeps demonitizing songs so you might pirate them as well anyway or better yet go to bandcamp, GEOBLOCKS, presents a force to stay in its ecosystem - like try getting off that shit when you've abandoned your local media library - though it's doable. let the purple bird take you up into the music sky, 404s all the time, won't exist forever and then all the links are broken, which is an actual danger since so much of music sharing on the internet relies on spotify now that content ID discovery systems are ubiquitous - think of all the dead links in ten years, like jesus christ STOP USING SPOTIFY cool tumblr users have the spotify tag that it automatically adds blocked.

[magpiefngrl]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "magpiefngrl"?

Hey, anon!

Oh fave fics! I love talking about fics and books, though I feel I talk about fics everyone knows and have nothing new to offer, esp since I've not read much in the last 2-3 years. Still, narrowing it down to 10 is super hard, so I've looked at my bookmarks and chose the ten fics that I've reread the most.

1. Bound Skerry by Frayach (drarry, M, 2.3k)

I've read this a hundred times and I'll keep coming back to it. Possibly my most read fic. The reason it's one of my Forever Fics is the prose. Absolutely stunning writing.

2. House Proud by astolat (drarry, M, 23k)

The original House Magic fic and the best one. I particularly love the hints of dark faerie magic, the horror elements and the brilliant worldbuilding. Astolat's prose is super readable and the pacing is excellent.

3. with exactness grinds he all by thistle_verse (drarry, M, 6k)

An aching fic with beautiful, lyrical writing. I've reread this so many times.

4. Art in Life by northofallmusic (tofsla) (wangxian, T, 2k)

I feel I'm repeating myself but this has excellent prose and it's aching and tender and made me feel all the feels.

5. Out of the Dead Land by orphan account (stucky, M, 63k)

OK so this hasn't stood the test of time because I finished it a few days ago, but WOW. Absolutely brilliant. I'm not even a stucky fan or anything. But I kept thinking about it when I was doing other stuff and I set aside the books I was reading so as to finish this. Now it's days later and it's still on my mind. I can't remember the last time I had a book/fic hangover. A very angsty fic and a fantastic exploration of Bucky's trauma. This is by one of my top authors of all time, who's now orphaned everything.

6. Mr Webster's Wager by Fahye + orphan author (same one as above) (Ash/Webster, E, 27k)

Now we're getting into the horny fics. This one is based on a KJ Charles short story which is the best romance short story ever written in my not so humble opinion. This takes the original story and the horniness of that scene and expands it into many horny scenes. It's masterful, very very hot, and just a fantastic fic.

7. Unhook the Stars by jad (drarry, E, 70k)

One of the first drarry fics I read and one that made a huge impression on me. Super kinky, lots of sex scenes, I've reread this a LOT.

8. IDK My BFF Hermione? by lettered (drarry, E, 19k)

Extraordinary. Phenomenal. It will always have a place in my Top 10. Also, very filthy, which is a huge plus in my book.

9. a better happier st sebastian by halsinator (Jonathan Strange, E, 6k)

Another one I reread a million times. Stunning prose and vibes and beautiful yearning. I keep coming back to it.

10. live from new york by varnes (wangxian, E, 87k)

A masterpiece, a classic of wangxian, this is a Saturday Night Live AU, which is such a bizarre choice for an AU--and yet it works. I don't live in US, I have never watched SNL, but I adored the fic.

I've left out a ton of favourite works and authors I adore, but for more of my faves, my AO3 Bookmarks is the place to go.

I have to say, this exercise has been quite illuminating: I don't think I've ever had such a clear glimpse of what makes me tick. In short, sublime prose, an aching, yearning mood and/or filthy porn.

*****

As for my username, here's the story: I joined tumblr a gazillion years ago (way before I got into fandom) and my first blog (still exists: @magpie-x ) was mostly what you'd call an aesthetic blog. I'd reblog cool pics and quotes and occasionally post a personal post about my life. I named it magpie because it was a place where I collected everything shiny, like a magpie. I rarely used it after a while tbh. Years later I read The Raven Cycle and fell heads over heel with pynch and knew that the only place I'd find fans was tumblr. I got into the nascent TRC fandom and soon I needed a space exclusively for fannish posts. I created a sideblog called magpiefangirling and when I later got an AO3 account I shortened the name. Years later I got into drarry, I became very active on tumblr again, and the sideblog wasn't enough so I deleted it and created a brand new blog with my AO3 name.

In short, magpiefngrl, means magpie being a fangirl. It was a random decision but it has now shaped me and I think of myself as Magpie in fandom spaces, and even chose that as my pen name for my future original romance books.

[kaiserkisser]

mutuals appreciation post <333

hello, everyone. this is my end of year mutuals appreciation post to thank each and every one of you here, who has put up with me enough to be friends with me. I simply can't put it into words how much I love yall and how much im grateful to all of you for being here, but I'll still try. I wish all of you a very very happy new year ❤

@delusina kaz, thank you. thank u sm for everything. you were my first mutual and i love you sm for that. almost all the friends i have right now, they're thanks to you. i still remember sending you cat pics every week in the beginning (im sorry i forgot to continue that 😭) and you and vi are the reason ✿❀ anon exists <3 ilysmm <333

@floraldresvi VIVI. ILYSM. ik ive already sent you a new year ask but still i can never express my appreciation for you enough <3 thank you sm vi for literally always being there for me, and i hope i can return the favor whenever you need :) i lovelovelove seeing you in my notifs :)) also baivi rules <333

@chosokisser mai my bbg my love /p again, ive already mesaaged you, but still, im so glad i have you in my life. if you need absolutely anything, if you just wanna talk to smn, or anything, ill always be here. in fact, we can even commit arson together if you want :DD and remember that me and choso adore you to heaven and back <333

@haithamvoid again, thank you sm for being friends with me. <33 im literally so glad for the day i opened tumblr to find mai forcing us to socialize XD we seem to have a bunch of shared interests and i remember the times we sent each other a bunch of kaiser (and gojo??) pics ehehe (also if you play genshin then on which server-)

@damyoujackson uhm thank u sm for being my irl bestie. I mean it. honestly i dont think ive actually had a friend i clicked with as much as i did with you in a long time. ik its probably not easy putting up with someone weird like me so erm tysm.. in all seriousness im really glad we're friends <33 ( we do NOT talk abt this in school OKAY.) (<- me being awkward)

@noomon you are an absolutely amazing, warm and pleasant person to be around! (And i love your aesthetic too omg) anyways you're very caring and nice and i always perk up whenever i see you in my notifs or inbox <33

@mikacynth mikaaa its been agesss i hope you're doing alright and uni is treating you well </3 again, one of my first mutuals that i interacted with bc you were a 'mutual in law' of mine hehe :) you're also an awesome and fun person to be around, so remember that me and kaeya love u <333

@yinyinggie yingg! You're such a big blog, so thank you sm for interacting with me! you're totally wonderful, and im so glad i got to participate in the ebg hosted by you hehe that was SO much fun <333(and it hurt my heart too but nvm-) anyways ilysmm <33

@alexisomnias aaah alexisss we dont interact much these days but still, i love you so so much, you are someone i always love seeing on my dash or in my notifs <3 and i adore alekav too its so cutee <333

@kitorin omg yes soutaa you're another person who shows up on my dash often and i love that you do <3 i hope you dont mind all the times ive tagged you in smth ahshshdhb i also always smile whenever i see u in my notifs so thank u smm for being moots with me <33

also to @ilyuu @m1shapanda @supernova25 @chooodles @camvrin @meidnightrain we havent interacted much this year, but ive loved seeing you guys often on my dash so i hope we interact more this next year <333 please dont mind me tagging you dhshsh

Happy New Year to all of you!!!! I hope you all have all the joys of the world and that all your wishes get fulfilled, because you guys totally deserve it 💕

I found a little something too here that i wanted to share with all of you since i thought you guys might like it <333

[nohoperadio]

Since you responded positively to the first question, I'm also curious about the significance of your url

I just straight-up stole the phrase from the title of a Robert Christgau essay about Radiohead. The Christgau title, in turn, is playing on "no soap radio", an old anti-joke/prank that involves telling a joke that deliberately doesn't make sense and trying to trick someone into pretending they get it. I didn't particularly have anything in mind when I chose it as an url beyond that I thought it was a cool evocative phrase that kept running through my mind long after I read it (like, I think there were several years between me reading that essay and making this tumblr, that's some potent brain noise).

I guess if I were to analyze what I like about it, the implied existence of a radio station--which is a project that (at least traditionally, if internet radio doesn't count) requires the coordination of large amounts of resource, capital, skilled specialists, and the presumption of having something interesting and valuable to offer to a broad audience--the idea of a radio station with all that behind it which just exists to disseminate a message of no hope is vaguely paradoxical in a way that appeals to me. Perhaps also making it the name of a blog brings the implied framing that my posts and reblogs are in some way transmissions from this imaginary radio station, although I don't think many of my posts are tonally appropriate for that reading to make literal sense. Nothing in this paragraph I had explicitly thought about in these terms before writing this answer although I do think something like that was always somewhere in my mind.

(Tangent: I don't really read Robert Christgau anymore, my aesthetic values have drifted pretty far away from his over the years, but I read his weirdly comprehensive, weirdly web 1.0 website a ton all through my teens, he must be one of the writers I've read the most total words of in my life and he definitely impacted the shape of my developing brain in lots of ways that still hold true, maybe I will have a proper effortpost to make about this man someday)

[amemenojaku]

What about Reimu for the character ask meme....

I just did Marisa now I have to do the most important woman in the world

General opinion/How much I care about them: GIRL OF ALL TIME. My blog is a Reimu love zone ONLY and no slander will ever be tolerated. Her impact on nerd culture and on the internet as a whole is unparalleled... (ok Miku is up there too but they're sharing the throne) She embodies the series so well and I love her so much for that. It's so good how each new installment offers a different perspective on her personality... it makes me a bit emotional to think that we've never seen who Reimu "really" is. I'm particularly interested in her role both in the current setting and as the latest in a long line of shrine maidens, and how she feels about it all. Of course I also love her silly moments and her carefree side and her desire to just live :) She makes me feel happy and then when I think about her more deeply she makes me feel like there's still an endless amount of things left to do with her character and of fanworks to create which is the best part of Touhou to me!!

A ship I love: Reimari is my favorite for the reasons I wrote in the Marisa post, but in general she's the character I most easily enjoy pairings of. She bounces off others really well and there's a bit of everything for everyone, whatever the genre you prefer I think there's a good Reimu pairing for it! Some other characters I love seeing her with are Yukari (can't go wrong with a classic, the aesthetic is immaculate and it's good food for thought), Seija (this one is uhhh. a lot. don't really have the space to detail it here), Alice (either pure angst or pure fluff like there's no inbetween lol), Akyuu (they are THE SAME and IT HURTS!!!)...

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Her friendship with Shinmyoumaru is really important to me but since I already talked about it at length I'll say Aunn! It's super cute and I love to imagine doggie Aunn snuggling up to baby Reimu when she sleeps, even though Reimu isn't aware she exists... Another excellent addition to the Reimu solar system. This girl desperately needed another pet

The NOTP: Oookay the fandom's gonna burn me at the stake for this but I don't like reisana very much anymore. It's cute and I used to enjoy it quite a lot but stuff happened and now it's just there I guess. shrugs

My biggest headcanon about them: There's so many... I think there were mementos or diaries of the past shrine maidens kept somewhere in the shrine and Reimu found them. She's hidden them somewhere else so they wouldn't be taken away or damaged by anyone.

An idea for a fanwork I would like to make/see about them: I want to make a collaborative Reimu zine with other artists/writers SO badly... I definitely think it's possible to do it on tumblr but I've already ran a bunch of events for the community and it requires energy that I don't have anymore. Maybe one day!

Something that makes me think of them: Japanese indie band chouchou!! Here's a few songs I associate with Reimu specifically: dawn and sign 0

[a-heart-like-a-sparrow]

September 2nd, 2024 - Favourites

+ ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . +

I had a sad day. But instead of doing the same old entry about that, I decided to do something different.

Yesterday I checked my drafts and noticed that I never finished my top 5 things.

So... here it is. My favourite things. Because why not.

Singers/Vocalists

Hope Sandoval. Ex-vocalist of Mazzy Star and current one for Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions. I really cannot explain why I love this woman so much. I listen to her music all day, every day, and I never get tired of it. I'm completely in love with her voice, her harmonica, and her whole vibe. She's just so AAAAAAHHHHH.

Victoria Legrand. Vocalist of Beach House. I hate a thing for very emotional singers/bands. Sometimes she sings like she's on the verge of tears, and UGH I love it. I feel her. Oh God. And she's so beautiful, to??? Now everytime I see a redhead with wavy hair I think it's her.

Björk. I don't wanna hear anyone say a single negative thing about this woman's work (Kate Bush reference?). She's a genius. Like, I totally get it. Yes, queen. Totally. I don't know, I just think she's very creative.

MARINA. Formerly known as Marina and The Diamonds. She was my favourite singer for a long time. I still love her songs, but now it's mostly emotional attachment. She's like my second mother, she gets me.

Gustavo Cerati. Ex-vocalist of Soda Stereo (RIP). I love blasting his discography when I go on car rides with my mother. I mostly listen to him there, not a lot during my daily life. He's still really cool.

Tumblr blogs

Most of these are just aesthetic blogs. That's what I mostly see and search for on Tumblr. Aesthetically pleasing displays of images.

whimsigothic

cheezitofthevalley (this one is actually for blog and web resources)

ultraviolencesaints

carm3n-carm3n

stainedglassjam

Honourable mention: Yours! Even though you don't post anything. I like its existence.

Food

YOU shut up about my pasta with meat sauce. SHHHHH. Zip it.

Rice. Specifically my beloved simplified risotto. I have a borderline unhealthy obsession with that meal, I could eat it every day if that wasn't so bad for my body.

Noodles. Usually with cream and tuna (I swear it's delicious). Or I could use garlic and parsley. Or just some piece of beef. I don't care, it's pasta, and I love it.

Cheese. It elevates ANY meal. Seriously. It has to be the best invention in the world. So what if I get health problems because I eat too much cheese? It'd be worth it.

Tomatoes. I worship tomatoes. The best fruit in the world. You probably don't wanna see me eating one when I crave it.

Beef. My favourite type of meat. The others are fine, but there's just something about cows. I love it. And if there's no beef, pork is okay, too.

Imagine a combination of all those... Dream meal.

Since when are someone's favourite foods completely healthy?

School subjects

Philosophy. It completely drains my brain in under an hour. But when I finally understand everything, I feel some kind of epiphany. Pure euphoria. Also, I somehow do really well in it. And I love my teacher!

History. I like reading about the stupid mistakes that old men made in yhe past centuries to fill the void in their souls with money, power, and glory 😍 (Lana Del Rey reference).

Literature. I hate those activities we do after reading a story or a novel, but the reading itself is very nice. I don't understand why most or even all of my classmates hate it.

Math. I don't know why. I like solving exercises sometimes. Only when I understand it. If not, it's absolute torture.

Physics. The same reason as in Math, but this one is a bit worse. I don't know how to explain it.

Instagram accounts

sotce. Including her other accounts sweetrelease08, and flower808080808. I don't understand a single thing of what she posts, and at the same time I fully get it. I feel seen. I don't know how to explain it. I don't even remember how I found her lol

ihatekatebush. They're just so cool. They're the reason why I downloaded Substack and I gotta thank them for that. Love ya, beautiful soul. I know you won't read this ever.

takatoy999. My actual favourite artist. Completely in love with his work. It's perfect.

mako_vice. One of my favourite artists. MAYBE my own drawings are a bit inspired by theirs. I just wish I could afford their merch.

odilepauline. What a woman, oh my god. She's beautiful, interesting, simply perfect. I uses to be more active in the comments but then I got shy lol

Honourable mention: Girlbloggers. Specifically:

atelierlaurenjane

brokenlipstickgirl

clownluvrr

girlblogger2008

luckydaygirl

pinkmotel444

unbalancedfemme

I'm not ashamed to say that I fucking love these girls.

Two quick ones now.

Decades

90s

2000s

80s

60s

70s

Nail combos

Just straight up black. A classic.

Aqua and red (middle and ring fingers). Yeah, that's exactly why.

Green and black (middle finger and thumb). So brat. So Julia.

Black and light blue (with blue sparkles). For some reason it's really "Among My Swan" by Mazzy Star.

Black with blue and hot pink. TV Girl reference.

I'm not talking about my favourite albums because I wouldn't finish this ever.

AND THAT'S IT. It took me longer than I expected. But I had fun anyway.

Now I'm gonna do my Religion homework at the last minute. Just like I said yesterday lol

Rest well.

+ ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . +

[smolfangirl]

Saw a poll about why we came to Tumblr and that made me flashback to my Tumblr origins and you're never going to believe this

The short answer: the German Federal Agency for Civic Education

Now you might be thinking why the fuck would a German federal agency be the reason you use Tumblr, and I'm procrastinating doing my thesis so I'll tell you the long version:

I'm in high school. There's a big annual book fair in spring that I've heard from. The Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Bpd, said federal agency) will be there too. They've provided materials for classes before, and I know they're trying to be cool and cater to The Youths. (Which worked surprisingly well on me. They had free magazines and info booklets. They were *good*.) At the book fair, they hand out free planners that don't actually suck like most free planners do holy shit. I've seen someone else use them, and of course I need to get my greedy little hands on this planner if it's the first thing I do at a book fair. (I don't actually remember who showed them to me and my sense of time sucks, but I suspect @hummingbooks. Please confirm) So I'm at the fair, and I make sure I get myself a fun free planner. It's useful, it looks good and it's mine! Throughout the planner there's tidbits of information, fun facts, quotes, tips and most importantly to this long-winded story - a list of websites the staff of a German Federal Agency wanted to recommend.

And on this list?

A random Tumblr aesthetic blog. I'm sure there was a second Tumblr blog on that list, one of those early 2010s meme cards blog, but I can't remember what it was about.

So I went and checked this "Tumblr" out. It looked cool, I liked this aesthetic blog, actually, so I kept going back to it. It took me a while to register, because I could look at the blog from my laptop and stay up to date this way, but eventually, inevitably, I signed up. Not on this blog, this one came into existence years later, but I still have access to my first one. I even became mutuals with that first aesthetic blog. I wonder if she knows her blog was posted in a free student planner by the BPD...

Anyway, that's how the German government is responsible for this girl's Tumblr obsession

[can-of-pringles]

Your OCs have just made tumblr accounts of their own! What are their usernames, and what things do they blog about?

Good prompt.

Arline Lanes: (I honestly don't know what her user would be) but I think she'd be a quiet lurker mainly, and reblog aesthetic related stuff.

Silas Petersson: I think his username would be something punny like @/thatrocks (which is usually related to music maybe but also could refer to rocks) Also not that active, but would reblog and post stuff related to music and also geology. Maybe the occasional Moomin posts.

Arith: @/werewolf-of-london (similar to if he had an insta) Doesn't really have original posts often, just likes to reblog stuff. Media, fandom, music, etc. His interests.

Iriel: @/constellation0ftheheart or @/oh-deer I think she'd create it and then kinda forget about it and only reblog stuff when she remembers it exists. I think she'd mainly reblog stuff about her interests but also occasionally post pictures of the animals she fosters sometimes or her horse.

Kaia: @/salt_and_sugar_babe (same as her insta) I think she would reblog aesthetic fashion stuff and other aesthetic stuff but would also slightly use it as a diary and post about her life. She doesn't care much about people finding out because no one would believe she's telling the truth (and she doesn't have a lot of followers anyway)

Odel: @/cinnamonrollsoul (similar to her insta) Would reblog a bunch of pink aesthetic stuff or cute stuff in general.

Marigold Rosales: @/flowerglass (play on hourglass) Would use it to post pictures of her gardening stuff. And reblog other stuff related to her interests.

Rosie Rosales Maximoff: @/rosieposie or @/duck.duck.rosie (her insta) Would post about (big surprise) ducks and also share her drawings and creative stuff. Also reblogs fandom stuff.

Allison Dahir: @/allie_waves (the same as her insta) Would reblog stuff about rollerskating, iceskating, surfing, and being trans. Also a lot of memes.

Lee Quinn: @/leebeansharkqueen (came up with the user when she was way too young to be on tumblr and still kept it all this time due to nostalgia reasons) It's practically canon that she used to have a tumblr come on now. Such a little fandom queen. Posts about all her favorite fandoms and stuff. Also I'm sure she's dabbled in writing fanfics.

[inky-thoughts]

"not reblogging posts slowly kills this site and discourages artists and writers from creating and/or sharing their work" and "you can use reblogs and likes however you want" can exist silmulatenously and can both be true.

yes, if you only want a specific type of posts (political, art, aesthetic gifsets, idk) on your blog, you do you. there is, however, the option to create sideblogs and a lot of people use them! hell, my main blog is where I post my art and reblog works by fellow artists. I also have a sideblog where everything else that I enjoy, find important or funny, gets reblogged to. I even have a blog I specifically created to collect resources, tips etc so I have an easier time finding posts again that I find good to have at hand.

don't get me wrong, receiving a like as an artist is nice. it's a sweet notion. however, especially on this site for a very long time, likes have been not much more than a private bookmark for the user. there's a multitude of ways to utilise the like function, but the artist won't know what you personally use likes for. a lot of us use this site for a decade or more, so only leaving a like always has the implication that the work isn't considered worthy of sharing around, and it stings after a while. it even makes creating art harder because is the time and effort you put into it even worth it?

yes most artists create for the sake of creating! but it is still disingenuine to ask of artists to create and especially share their work for virtually nothing in return. most often an implied "deal with this later only to forget it even exists".

yes you can do whatever you want with your blog. we don't even ask you to reblog every single post that comes across your dashboard. tumblr is about curating your experience.

but please be empathetic towards artists and writers. it hurts to read "why doesn't your stuff have more notes?!?!?" while nobody follows through and reblogs your stuff, the single most best way to give posts notes on this website and share them around.

it's nice that you find cool stuff on your "for you" page, the thing that is actually influenced by likes. but, realistically speaking, how many use the "for you" page, especially on a regular basis? how many go into art- or writing-specific tags instead of fandom-specific ones (yes imagine that, there's a bunch of people on here who don't majorly draw fanart or write fanfics)? how regular is that?

if you truly want to help creative people on this website, please consider reblogging their work. it's hard enough as it is.

[liz-allyn]

how can I get my fics to get attention like yours do? working your ass off and then getting 20 notes sucks. and I’m trying to become a better writer and honestly crave the validation like you get from your followers. hopefully you’ll see this! Obsessed with S&V

Hi my fellow 🖋️!

Thank you so much for your comment, and thank you for thinking so highly of me!

answers for fic writers after the cut

So honestly? I don't know how to get followers. This blog has been running since 2021, and I only started writing fic < 1 year ago. I've become so much more well known (ha) in the TASM fandom because I've hung out here a long time. I don't have a secret to engagement or understand how tumblr 'works' that well (ie the algorithm that social media sites use to decide what to put in front of you). There are still people I freakin' worship on this site who don't interact with my fics at all, haha. AND flip side, some of the best writers I've ever seen are on here and their fics have less than 100 notes. I have learned that persistently I'll look over into other peoples' yards and be like "fuck. how did they get 4K followers?" or like "wow, she just posted this yesterday and it has over 1k notes."

as for working your ass off and getting 20 notes—CAN CONFIRM: that sucks. some fics I wrote for fun. some fics I wrote for the creative challenge. but pretty much on all of them I've left a little piece of me, of my soul and the lessons i've learned in my meandering partial journey. blood on the keyboard. and those fics? the really great ones (or ones just as good as sugar and vice)? they still don't have many notes.

But I will acknowledge that my following dramatically increased when I started posting S&V. I think I had ~900 and that blew up to 1.5k. There are a few factors in this:

Always post fics with fic art (with gifs! if possible) - This is the number one thing that draws me to read fic. I like art that looks cool. I also have been playing around with Canva Pro for 3-4 years (it's my fav) and I'm animation-adjacent as a day job, so pushing myself to think about graphic design has been really good for me. I find it fun to come up with a whole aesthetic for your story, whether it's a mood board or a color scheme (I usually have 'branding' on the brain). If you don't want to play with fic art, at least find an appropriate gif. Use the actor's face. I also think the gif search on Tumblr sucks balls but it's really worth it to have the right gif.

Pay attention to the hashtags of other popular fics in your fandom - when I started paying attention to notes, this was the best advice. I was using all kinds of tags that made sense to me, but weren't effective. In the web version of Tumblr, I can search for a tag and see how many followers it has. It's significant if #peter parker x reader has way more followers than #tasm!peter x reader. Also trends come and go, tumblr has their hotboy of the month and it rotates. there have been months were TASM Peter was non-existent in the last year, and months where we're getting *fed*. Pro tip with tags: I have a separate Google Doc with a list of hashtags that I copy and paste to save time. After a while, you should try reblogging with different hashtags

Use a spelling or grammar checker - I'm not a grammar fac*st but if I open a fic and everything is misspelled, almost no punctuation is used, and I have to work really hard to understand your story, then it's not going to go far. (With respect to writers who post work in English, and it's their second language). I never pay much attention to the occasional misspelling or grammar mistake, but when it looks like you sent your fic via text message or tinder chat, I just can't. I personally use Grammarly, but I also hate it and think it's buggy and overpriced. If anyone else has a better option that works with Google Docs, let me know!

Never write your fics in Tumblr's post editor. That has nothing to do with engagement but that shit is buggy as hell.

Avoid putting too much text up front before the fic. I put author's notes at the end. I try to keep summaries short. I try to focus on what someone absolutely needs to know to understand this fic, and I *mostly* try to avoid apologizing to the reader ahead of time for what they're about to read, for it being too long, for it being weird, bleh bleh bleh

If you're writing a series, make people reblog to be tagged. I've seen lots of people do taglists and then they give up because it's a pain to manage (and it is), plus you have a bunch of people that go "add me to the taglist!" or "next part, when?" and they didn't even reblog what you've already written. I think that's been one of the really big factors behind S&V's success

Make navigation as easy as possible - this is web design 101 (which I flunked repeatedly), but a masterlist is good to have. If you're in a series, a link back to the previous chapter + next chapter is good to have, I've also recently started putting a link back to the masterlist. people that know more things about stuff than me told me that you want to make things as simple as possible for viewers to get from one page to another. (that's why youtube links are shit on tumblr, even videos are meh, but GIFs work so well and attract so much attention). this is a visual site, so big images or headings or links with color help to draw the eye's attention.

Write what you want to write. Because you really need to gain enjoyment from writing, and it should never feel like you're a content factory. Do this 9 out of 10 times. The 10th time, write what people want to read. My first mob fic was These Violet Delights which I thought was so smart, and I was so proud of, and I planned this whole series out for. But also I tag things accurately, and some people (even my moots) are uncomfortable reading about those topics. Then when I started S&V I was extremely self-critical because I didn't want to write something filled with tropes and cliches. And then I sort of got off my soapbox and let S&V be its own thing, full of tropes and cliches, because they're popular for a reason, and they're fun to read, and it's okay to have candy for dinner every once in a while. And I've been able to pivot my plans and create something I'm pretty proud of.

It does help to stay consistent in the fandom you're writing for. Either by writing or reblogging other writers. Just don't make yourself feel like you're a slave to Tumblr and you must stay active at all times f o r e n g a g e m e n t. Everyone should take breaks when they need to.

Don't listen to my advice because no one knows how to hack tumblr. There are some posts that have sooooo many notes and I'm like 'why?' Meanwhile, my heart's been ripped open in LED pixels on screen and sometimes it passes by.

I hope that this was useful! And if not, I'm sorry for the long post. I look forward to reading your fic (whoever you are), and feel free to tag me when you write your next thing!

💜