#do i know better than to post my opinions online? sure

[tixdixl]

I keep seeing folks talk about what Femme Vil would be like, and it really hammers home to me just how much people are missing out on because of the localization. And honestly, with absolutely 0 shade to the folks who love those headcanons- cause they are FASCINATING headcanons to me- it makes me genuinely heartbroken to see it. It makes me genuinely heartbroken to know how much of Vil's intersectionality is lost because the English localization erased her gender expression.

She... is.... femme. She's canonically trans in the Japanese. Whether she is transfemme or some form of gender neutral is unfortunately not explicitly stated. However, in the Japanese, her self-identifying language and her explicitly feminine mannerisms exemplify how she views herself. The way that other characters speak of her is also extremely telling about how the audience is supposed to see her.

Speaking from a language perspective, Vil uses the female only "I" pronoun あたし [atashi] whenever she speaks, would be approximated to "she/her" in the English.

Vil uses either feminine or strictly gender neutral connotated grammar patterns, which are commonly used in anime/manga to notate levels of formality, rudeness, as well as self identifying information about the character. You can also see these patterns used subtly in real life conversations in Japan, though often difficult to actually catch in conversation. (There is a whole conversation about this and how it is intertwined with formality and gender-roles/expectations but that's not the point of this ramble.)

Vil also uses predominantly feminine connotated intonation patterns, often stereotyped and used to identify alluring femme tropes in anime. Again, while sometimes heard in real conversations, you are more likely to hear the explicit feminitity in certain circumstances and/or in media.

Not to mention, most of the other characters refer to her only by name or strictly with gender neutrality. And because of the behind closed doors mentality that Japanese folks have, along with the sense of 建前 [tatemae] that is displayed between Vil and the other characters, it makes total sense why the other characters say nothing directly, but linguistically acknowledge that there is some form of discrepancy between Vil being at an all boys school, and Vil using the Japanese equivalent of "she/her". Because of their omoiyari [思いやり] - literally "compassion" but culturally is the deliberate action to notice and consider others, it makes sense that at the bare minimum, they would refer to her with that modicum of formality and respect.

We could also have a very real conversation as to why she wears a women's kimono in the New Year's event; why she wears a woman's cut suit in Tapis Rouge; why she deliberately uses makeup and hairstyles that in Japan read as feminine or "female"- especially in a society that accepts post-transitioned Transness as it conforms with the overarching collectivist society; in a society that accepts those changes so long as they are done behind closed doors and without disruption. And this is done in a society that believes heavily that the exterior is a direct reflection of the interior - the house/clothes are a representation of the person who inhabits them. So her choices in her appearance are a direct representation of who she wants to be, who she is becoming, and how she wants others to perceive her.

The audience is left to draw conclusions about Vil's sense of self and her incredibly strong connection to feminity, beyond strictly her connection to the Evil Queen. And as I've mentioned in a previous post, it really adds a layer of intersectionality to the multi-layered tension and cultural conflict between her and Epel.

Idk... I just think the English absolutely ignoring her joseiteki [女性的]- female-like gender expression, her rashii - specifically onnarashii [女らしい], or lady-like mannerisms, and her sociolinguistic choices, as well as how they impact her dynamics with the other characters results in a loss of understanding of her as a character and a loss of depth to the story in my opinion.

For those of you who are genuinely interested in the conversation of Transness in Japanese media, how it's presented, and how its been deliberately and historically erased in Western localizations, this extremely well-informed video essay is a phenomenal place to start:

This is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart as someone who studied Japanese Anthropolgy and taught various courses on Gender and Language in higher education. The cross-cultural divide here is something that I am so so passionate about, and anyone who knows me knows that I could absolutely rabbit hole on the topic for hours with credible resources and citations. It's also something that I first-hand experienced a bit of while I was in Japan. And because of that, as much as I know its a risk to share these thoughts publically, I do feel like it is an important discussion to have.

[mx-pastelwriting]

Saving My Fanfiction Work

First. Side note: This post was only intended to give resources to fanfiction writers and enjoyers. My talk on recent political events was a context/reasoning on why I made this post. Also I’ve had to add more information to this post over time due to people’s confusion in my comments. Explaining it was to make sure that this post didn’t come off as out of the blue for my followers and this community. Which is fanfiction.

Also, why I made this post was from people asking if they could download my fanfiction because of the recent political events in America hence why I named it “saving my fanfiction work” and added my context. So this was also a post to tell people that liked my fanfiction they could download it as long as it was for their personal collection. I merely just wanted to list resources to people who wanted to download fanfiction and don’t know where to start or don’t have the immediate resources. I’m not here to fear-monger. I am just giving resources and the reasoning on why I’m giving them along with urging people to look into those information/recent events as staying aware is important. I respect everybody who’s given their opinion and yes, some of my grammar in this post is not adequate as this post was merely made for giving/stating resources.

Lastly, I will no longer update this post with comments as I’ve said my peace, nor will I pay attention to the notifications as they are muted. As my page is for fanfiction not politics. Thank you for the people in this community who share this post for the resources see you around the tags! Stay safe friends!!✨ Remember I love you! And you are loved!💛

-

Due to the recent events in the United States. To clarify the recent events being Trump becoming president of the United States, Project 2025 more than likely going to be integrated. If you are not familiar with Project 2025 I urge you to look it up.

Along with the KOSA bill that has many problems and it has passed the senate now needing the finally vote in the house, which both are majority red. Go here to learn more on why it needs to be stopped and how you can. This is another component that will harm our communities. Go to: stopkosa.com

With all of its harmful plans some of the plans are to take down/restrict internet sites that have LGBTQ+ communities that means communities like the fan-fiction communities/sites in the United States.

I am only giving resources to those inside and out of the US in case they banned sites that hold fan-fiction. Better safe than sorry.

Being that I live in the US the possibly of mine and many others Fanfiction has the possibly of being in danger. Therefore I'm giving you recourses. (I'm not leaving or stopping my writing, I'm here for the fight!)

For those wanting to save my fanfiction, I give you permission to download them off of AO3 and to be used for your personal collection. Meaning, your eyes only. To clarify I’m saying this as others have asked if they could download my fanfic so for those who would like to you can.

If you do not know how to download them many others on online have tutorials on how to download them and add them to our phone libraries.

Here are some links to tutorials:

Downloading Fanfic

Adding to Iphone & Android Library

Adding to Kindle Library - Video on How (On TikTok)

Adding Book Covers (At the bottom) - Good EPUB Cover Changer (I use this)

Types of Files and What they mean

Please stay safe out there! Remember to follow the rules below.

DO NOT share the downloaded file anywhere online.

DO NOT repost the downloaded file under your name.

Fanfiction is protected under copyright law when plagiarism is involved. If you plagiarize my work, either a piece or whole in any language, I will take legal action. Inspiration or the same idea does NOT apply to this, only word-for-word plagiarism in any language.

♥ mx-pastelwriting does not consent to their fanfiction being copied, copied & credited, translated, used in videos and/or audios, screenshotted, used in AI, or reposted on any other platform without permission.

♥ mx-pastelwriting does give consent to "reblog," sharing links to direct work, and being in recommend lists.

Please stay safe out there friends! I love you so much! Know that there will always people that love you and in for the fight to make sure you are loved!

And here are some resources in case you don’t feel okay! Resources here

[micer2012]

a reflection on MatPat's plagiarism

Hello, my name is Della, or micer2012, and 2 years ago Game Theory plagiarized three Tumblr posts of mine, making a video that now holds almost 6 million views.

My posts explaining his plagiarism made their rounds on Reddit, Tumblr and Twitter, but despite the Hermits and Pooka commenting on it (generally in support of me or saying they don’t know enough details about the situation to say either way), MatPat and his team have never owned up to anything, and no mention of my name is present on the video. The one Reddit post they made denying it (which was made before my detailed takedown, which they have never responded to (though the mods on the r/GameTheorists Reddit were kind and made sure it stayed up)) didn’t even mention me by name, just referring to me as “a tumblr user”. (Though one of the screenshotted comments in the body of the post does say my name)

This experience was baffling, but it’s overall had a positive impact on my life. r/Hermitcraft gave me a Golden Apple Award (post of the year, 2021). My inbox was filled with excited fans, wanting to ask me questions or pose their own theories, far more than the hate I got. (Though the hate I got from Game Theory fans was VERY funny. I wondered why none of them gave me shit about saying “MatPat misgendered Evil Xisuma” before realizing none of them read that far into the post.)

And getting on a more personal, and much more important note, I met most of my current online friends through this, including my partner. It helped me grow closer with my irl friends as well and gave me an entertaining story that I tell whenever I have the chance. It was one of the first things in my life that really made me feel like my talents, my autistic hyperfocusing and analyzing of things I love, could be valuable. Useful. Exploitable. It blew my mind that MatPat thought an autistic kid’s ramblings about a Minecraft Youtube joke character were good enough to steal. To put an audible sponsorship on. To get 6 million views off of.

And that’s why I’m writing this post, this update years later. As you might’ve been able to guess, Hbomberguy’s Youtube video on plagiarism reopened this wound. It was really hard for me to sit through, it took days of pausing and taking breaks, because I had experienced everything he was talking about firsthand. 

In my 10 page long takedown post, I wrote about how his rewording of my sentences made him say things that were incorrect, just like Filip did. The content farm production style that made big companies like Cinemassacre take one creator (AVGN/MatPat) and turn him and his content into a brand, a voice that reads out scripts by other people with other opinions/theories, is a history shared with Game Theory. What really hit me was Harris talking about how big creators only do this to people they think they can get away with doing it to. How they view their victims as lesser, as not deserving of their words, repackaging them as their own to give to an audience that can gain from hearing them, but deserves better than to have to listen to the original victim.

That’s the thing, I 100% think a video version of my theory to expose to a bigger community than “Evil Xisuma Fans on Tumblr” is a great idea!! Near the end of the video Harris talks about how video adaptations of things could be a great market, even an accessibility tool, and I completely feel that about my posts. I wrote them quickly assuming the reader was someone well versed on Evil Xisuma lore, after not even watching most of the CarnEvil series, and the diagrams I made to explain them are even less comprehensible. Harris makes a joke that I completely agree with, 

“I’m sure some of my videos would do very well if someone translated them into English.”

I don’t think I would’ve ever made my posts if I didn’t have autism, and a special fixation on Evil Xisuma and Hermitcraft. I made them because I felt the character was being done an injustice, and because I wanted to share with other superfans this theory that might explain it away. I do think that MatPat plagiarizing me was ableist. I used to wonder a lot if this would’ve happened if my posts were articulated better, if they had been peer reviewed, if the posts themselves had been spread to a wider audience before MatPat made his video. At one point when the discourse was fresh (before I had the time to write out my 10 page rebuttal), a bigger YouTuber (100k subs at the time) messaged me and started talking on Discord, interested in possibly making a video on the discourse, but I think my style of typing and general enthusiasm drove him away. You can tell by a single look at my blog (or my original 3 posts!) that I don’t usually type like this. This post you’re reading now has been peer reviewed and edited, and took me hours to format correctly. That video could’ve been huge, the entire outcome of this MatPat situation would probably be much different.

I also used to stress a lot about “being the one who ruined Evil Xisuma’s story”. If you didn’t know, to me S8 Evil Xisuma’s story got wrapped up pretty quickly and unsatisfying (in my personal autistic opinion). (though this might’ve been due to s8 being experimental and ending early with moon big) There was no real culmination of the plot points and arcs going on, and I don’t want to blame myself, but when Xisuma said on stream (when the MatPat thing was first going on) that he didn’t want to focus on the discourse or draw more attention to it, it makes a lot of sense to me that he just wanted to wrap it all up as quickly as possible. For a while I beat myself up about it, of ruining the story of this character I love, but it’s not my fault. If anyone’s, it’s MatPats, but I don’t think it’s useful to just blame someone else. That’s how the story ended up going, and that’s fine. This is Evil Xisuma we’re talking about, their inconsistent lore is what made them such an interesting character. And notably, Pooka made an animation with an awesome culmination of Jeff, the Dreamer, Evil Xisuma, and his own sona’s story, and it makes me so happy to watch. Whatever Pooka does is of course his own choice, but I’m glad he got to give this personal story his own ending (if it is an ending, and not just the start of a new chapter!). 

Typing this all out and getting it off my chest has made me feel a lot better. For a while I wanted to make my OWN video essay about Evil Xisuma’s lore and CarnEvil’s lore, actually going episode by episode to explain it instead of just assuming you knew as much about Evil Xisuma as I did. That idea is still not off the table, but MCYT isn’t something I’m that into right now. Maybe if something else comes out about Evil Xisuma I’ll get back on it, but for now I’m fine with letting that go. But I want to make other videos, share other theories and analysis… if I have the freetime I’d love to make YouTube videos, and if I don’t have the time I’ll continue posting to my tumblr and infodumping to my friends. Apparently my infodumping is valuable enough “content” to steal! Writing this out has made me feel a lot better though, I’m really glad I got it out.

If anyone ever wants to talk to me about the things I’m obsessed with, or reach out to me as a source in a bigger discussion about Game Theory or other channels, my inbox is more than welcome :] Thank you for reading! 

Sincerely, a tumblr user.

[moonastro]

Groom persona chart

Asteroid groom (5129) in the house

what is a groom persona chart? this chart exhibits qualities that your husband will have and possible placements that can be seen in their chart. it is simply a chart all about your spouse in a woman's chart. the asteroid groom can be identified using the code 5129.

So the asteroid groom within the gpc will indicate the overall feeling and overall summed up vibe that your spouse can be linked to. This can interpret what kind of husband he can be and how he may be after marriage.

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[before you read this post... i want you all to know how grateful i am for each and every one of you <33 i took a little break from posting but will hopefully be back and consistent and hopefully will finish this series quicker.]

{ALSOO.. if you like this series and would like to support a small creator, go and check out my readings here--> 🤍🤍🤍}

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Groom in 1st house: your future husband can be a real me person. Can really be self aware and just be a confident and bold. He can be a real star and know himself better than anyone else. he is someone that can have a short temper and can have bursts of anger from time to time. although, your spouse can be a very energetic and confident individual. depending on the sign, it can make him become selfish and mine mine mine. especially if in scorpio can tend to hide things that they own or buy and just may not share as much of important information with you like any other couple would do. your spouse can be quite demanding but will give back always. can be a very attractive individual, takes care of his appearance and for sure can spend time by himself emotionally. this does not mean that he will be totally absent but he may just need his own space to just breathe and think.

Groom in 2nd house: so your husband can be a very much material mann. someone who is literally not afraid to spend money on himself and you. depending on the sign especially Saturn aspected or Capricorn, can indicate hoarding so not wasting money neither on themselves and on you even if they have a lot. spouse can be a comfort person, someone who is there and will listen to you and they dont even need to speak a single word and you will feel as if they have helped you a ton. your spouse can be very protective of you physically wise, especially if in the sign of aries, they will be ready to throw hands on anybody who upsets you or just handles you very badly. can tend to be very gentle with you and be very patient with you whether if its when you are facing your problems or when you need time to figure something out hell be waiting there.

Groom in 3rd house: so your fs can be a strong communicator whether it’s him talking for hours and hours or him being a very good listener and a good companion to those who he is in conversation with. This is an indication of your spouse being chronically online whether it’s not that big of a deal, expect him to know everything that’s going on the internet. Since he may be of curious nature, best believe your spouse is the one to even search and do his research when something interesting comes up on his social media feed. He might even post a lot online too. he can form strong opinions and often tend to make up arguments out of the most silliest of things. he may require lots of attention from you and he may just crave the attention a lot of the times. on the other hand, he is someone who is intelligent, smart and very humble and a person that is comfortable to hang and be around with.

Groom in 4th house: spouse can be very traditional and by that i mean that your future spouse is the one who takes roles of the home very seriously. have a leafy faucet, he will take care of it, you try to fix a light bulb, uh uh uh nope, he is taking care of it that sort of thing. he feels like you already have so many responsibilities so let him take care of the handy ones. if groom is in the sign of taurus or virgo even cancer, they will almost be looking out for you and doing the services in prevention to you getting hurt. so they will be like no sit and rest. furthermore, your spouse can be very witty and love to be too comfortable towards you. sometime referred to as 'tmi'. he can share a bit too much information at times and you may have to just pause that for a second to realise what just happened. but that just means that he is very comfortable and trusting towards you.

Groom in 5th house: this placement gives me real childhood sweetheart vibes and i just love ittt. just imagine the one boy that you met on a summer holiday that you later meet in life and you're just like "wait..🤔i know you". so basically with this placement your spouse can be someone that brings out the most inner fun, exciting, adventurous, romantic person within you. he is someone that will laugh when you are crying, cry when you are laughing literally match your energy in any type of situations. this placement is a very peaceful yet chaotic vibe, it gives the sense of seeing no one as beautiful as you, seeing no one but you, laying eyes only on you. he is literally the ray of sunshine to the point that you may literally crave them, like you'll be at work or something and you just NEED to be near him or to be within his presence.

Groom in 6th house: your future spouse can be what you think a normal town guy looks like. not that its bad but he can be very natural and not have too much going on. can work a job that he has had for many years and be too afraid to move on from fear of not knowing what to expect and how it may turn out to be like. on the other note, he can be a very heart warming and positive guy, that tries to live his life to the fullest. he is someone to be the first when it comes to help people out, he finds warmth and comfort in achieving good deeds. this placement is actually very good for those who need someone that does their own thing and have their own responsibilities. they may not like to be tied down to something so maybe staying at home for too long is not his go to and so forth.

Groom in 7th house: ommggg this placement is the biggest definition of a charmer and a spouse that wants fair share of everything so literally his money is your money. may share on bill payments so he may have the rent and you maybe the electric and so forth. he is someone attractive to a lot of other people so can cause a lot of jealous people around you because they may be jealous of the man that you have and they may hate you for it. your spouse is soft spoken and tries to be positive at all times, he can appear to be someone from a Disney book, can be absolutely perfect in your eyes especially if venus is conjunct with groom. your future spouse can be very into beauty and aesthetics, so he may like your house to have a specific colour, design, sets of cutlery, and so forth.

Groom in 8th house: spouse is full of surprises, can be very mindful and very picky of the information that he wants you or other people to know. he is very careful of the words and actions that he does. depending on the sign, like for example if in capricorn, can be a very isolating individual that like to stay away from people, on the other side can have a secret income of money that you may not know about until later on in the relationship with him. another example would be if in pisces, can be an individual with a lot of mental blockages and a lot of mental baggage. this is not me diagnosing your future spouse, i am only stating what this COULD possibly mean because the whole chart should be taken into consideration. on the brighter side, he can be a very emotionally smart person, the one to understand what your feeling or even thinking without you needing to tell them anything. he can also be very emotionally encouraging and comforting individual. also a very highly indication of them only allowing certain people to view his true emotions, can often appear to be hard as a rock but inside could be different.

Groom in 9th house: your future spouse is most likely a genius and an individual with great wisdom. He is full of ideas and creative finds that sometimes has no place to put them into the world. He most likely is smarter than he looks or he is always doubted by his intelligence. This is a STRONGGG indication of your husband being a foreigner or you meeting them in foreign land. Depending on the sign this can tell us the details of how your spouse may reveal his intelligence by. So in Gemini, may talk in a very sophisticated way and can reveal his wisdom through his words and writing especially. He can be a unique and self taught writer whether it’s for work or for himself. If in Taurus for example, can reveal his wisdom through cooking and money making, he may be a very experimental chef and a great cook with a ton of knowledge on recipes. Another thing about this placement is that your spouse may travel a lot, may go on trips a lot and meet foreign people a lot as well. He definitely has good humour and is someone who is known for his attractive humour.

Groom in 10th house: your spouse is mr. worldwide business sugar daddy rich. 🤭no but fr he can be a very chill yet providing person. may not exaggerate as much but will go with the flow and follow your rules in a way. if the sign is in leo, capricorn or jupiter is involved this for sure can indicate a spouse with his bank full. very mature, can indicate an older spouse physically and mentally. perhaps a spouse that is like your mother figure or reminds you of your mother. he can be serious and can take things seriously too much of the time, unless in sagittarius. can be quite an introvert, awkward person but can be an attractive kind of awkward if ya know what i mean. your spouse is the man that gets stares from strangers when in public and literally all eyes on him. there is just something magnetic about him that pulls others to him.

Groom in 11th house: spouse can usually act inconsistently. Meaning that he is really unpredictable in any situation given. Spouse can be quite isolating and may spend time alone or just refuse to do anything with anyone. This isn’t all the time as someone with good aspects can have a spouse that is social, and great with their social life, but this house is rules by Saturn so there is some strictness, discipline and alone time that is a big part of your future spouses personality and overall being. he can be with his friends a lot of the time though, so maybe he can have friends over to the house a lot of the times or him going over to theirs and all. he may have a sense of equality and sense of achievement that he may want to pursue. your fs can have goals that he is eager to reach so slowly he may like to show off his interests in these things with you.

Groom in 12th house: spouse can be distant in a way after marriage. with that i mean that he can always be away somewhere, travelling for work etc. especially if for example in Sagittarius your husband can be away travelling overseas or simply if he is a foreigner can be away visiting family a lot of the times. spouse can become quite lazy in a sense, of course depending on the sign and aspects however with this placement your husband after marriage has this reaction of already having this milestone completed and they know in a sense that they are secure and safe and comfortable and thats why this can make them a bit lazy. furthermore, your husband can become more and more in love with you the more that he is with you. this may really be a very beautiful placement if in the sign of libra or venus is conjunct groom asteroid.

thats it for now, i hope you enjoyed this post and have a good rest of your day/evening/night <<33

[plurapony]

Are you faking? And if so are you a Bad Person?

For this post I want to ignore those who fake having DID for popularity ie DissocaDID or people who admit they don't have the disorder ie transDID

So, most people that are accused of faking on an online platform are said to be misinterpreting their symptoms. However it's important to mention that sites like r/SC and r/FDC are full of a lot of misinformation so I'll need to declare some nuance regarding their opinions.

DID is Covert: Not true, It is the majority however whilst 80% are covert, 20% of DID patients present overt. Most of them CAN mask with only 5-6% of overt DID patients not being able to mask. (We have Overt DID!) Sure it's not the majority but if 100 people with DID get put into a room that's still statistically 20 people with overt DID. More importantly there's no need to mask symptoms on an online platform and covert DID can seem like overt online!

Commborid Disorders (ie autism): If you have commborid disorders then it WILL affect how your disorder presents. Autism can cause a higher likelihood of getting the disorder (due to the disorder itself and the fact children with disabilities are more likely to be abused) and autism can cause a higher likelihood of introjects. Which brings the question, are they faking? Or just showing additional symptoms of autism?

Now that we've got that over with. Let's talk about misinterpreting symptoms and the harm that brings online. Which is minimal at absolute most. If you do happen to have another disorder the only real person you're harming is yourself as you're delaying treatment for what is actually causing you grief. But then again most people online who have DID are already in therapy and working through their trauma, so if it turns out later on they don't have DID - does it really matter? They worked through their trauma which is an objectively good thing.

So no, you're not faking. And you telling people about your symptoms online and classifying them as DID is not harmful. Your experience may differ from someone else's but hey that's okay! Our brains are all incredibly individual and naturally DID will follow that pattern and be very individual too. Keep posting about your symptoms and finding like-minded individuals if it helps you! (I tell my therapist about our Tumblr blog and she thinks it's a positive thing)

Do what's best for you and don't listen to dumb fucks online who have no idea what they're talking about. And FYI a doctor or medical professional having a degree does not automatically mean they know better than you. If you feel unheard or dismissed - ditch them and find a better one. You deserve to be seen, heard and understood.

Happy healing! And always be yourself, it's the best version you can be 🩷

[IMAGE ID: ponyville is a (pro) endo free zone break dni and get blocked loser ! END ID]

[stormyrainyday]

apologies this is far from a coherent shower thought but i think it's time we like. decided to detach our identity a bit from the things we do. it's fine to just read. you don't have to be a reader. it's fine to just game. you don't have to be a gamer. you can be those things but i feel like in a quest to find ourselves and open our hearts, especially to others online (because i know, the first thing we do when on a new platform is say hi im [name] i like these things we should talk, i know, i do, my pinned post is literally that), i feel like we forget that we are more than the things we do and even the things we love. we, to borrow words from slay the princess, contain it in our multitudes.

it's a sentiment i've felt for a long time as someone who has been on the internet and in fandom spaces for a good decade now, and like. i find when we hold these things so close that they become us, we become too defensive over them. how many minor fandom disagreements spiral into threats, name calling, doxxing even? i find, especially younger users in fan spaces, tend to take even small differences of opinion and take them personally. saw someone blow up and call people awful names over believing only one person could top in a genshin ship. another left a server i was in because they disliked a popular character, and other (respectfully), decided to share why they did like her. i get that things like rejection sensitivity are a thing, but i think this failure to recognize the self as an entity apart from the things you do and the thoughts you have definitely contribute to this. phenomenon i suppose.

it's genuinely slay the princess that has given me the vocabulary to express and understand this thing i was already thinking. i think, though we are not gods, it's important to understand that we are not things so easily defined. we consist of our thoughts, our actions, our perceptions, our beliefs, and more. even the outside world's perception of us reflects some part of our nature. but not all of it. it's impossible to define oneself in one, two, three words or even an essay.

because like we don't exist in a vacuum. part of our existence is defined in our interactions with others. but not all. never all. there is no one who can truly know you, and we cannot truly know ourselves. our principles bend to the whims of circumstance no matter what we tell ourselves otherwise, so we can't decide what we are or what we would be in a situation for sure, ever. and that's not a bad thing, but if we can't ever truly know ourselves, then how can we assign such great importance to something as superficial as the things we enjoy sometimes?

we are both a constant and the capacity to change. and to take just a handful of things and call it your identity, even subconsciously, is a disservice to the self. in an effort to be seen we break ourselves down into easy (i hate to say it but) marketable pieces.

take being a reader for example. it has always felt like vague slang for booksmart, thoughtful, likely quiet and introverted as well, just as much as it means "i like to read books". theres an aesthetic to it involved, and a whole subculture. do you write in your books? do you keep them museum-fresh quality? do you read smut or classics or high fantasy or satire and what does it say about you? if you say audiobooks aren't real literature, are you signalling to others about quality and sophistication, or are you a pretentious asshole, and ableist to boot? these connotations assigned to such an otherwise benign thing about someone are i think are reflective of the construct of identity and perception. i could go on about it in a way that's more coherent but i, a student, have other things to do right now.

(does being a student make me intelligent? does it impress you to know i study medicine? what if i told you i average Cs in my classes? what if i told you i dislike patient care? what if i told you i'm not here for the money OR to make the world a better place, and that i'm here purely to serve my curiosities about the way the body functions and to absolve my obsessive need to understand just what are we? does this change what you think of me? does it matter? what if you knew the guilt i felt for seeing so much suffering, but still hating patient care enough to worry endlessly about being stuck in it as a career? am i better for it? but i have not acted on this guilt. it is a mere feeling that only i know. knew. is it different now that i've confessed it? does it matter? does any of it change who i am, fundamentally? or am i a thing detached from it all? or. as i like to believe. is it both? your shifting perceptions of me and the way i change shape and form (so much like our beloved princess in slay the princess) in your eyes, they make up me just as much as the soul or the self or whatever other philosophical name you assign to it. at the end of the day, isn't the most important thing that i am just me? both devoid of and constituted of the sum of my parts? what is found in the spaces between my cells? impulses and chemicals. is that me? is it all me? can i ever really know it? and why, why, why define it at all?)

[qqueenofhades]

what gets me is whenever any of these people says not to vote, and you ask them what the alternative is, they usually throw some tantrum about how it shouldn't be their job to fix this country and they're not expected to know (or start calling you a neoliberal or a bootlicker lmao) and i just. i don't get that? not voting, especially in the current climate, is a big deal. i don't think it's unreasonable to ask anyone who advocates for that what the alternative is. i'm not expecting you, online leftist, to magically know how to fix everything. i am expecting something from you if you're gonna tell me not to vote, especially when we both know that helps the gop. like, how dare we ask them to defend this big choice they're telling us to make?

their position boils down to helping trump and the republicans but any time you remind them of that they get upset. what is the alternative? what plan do they have? it would be one thing if there was another option that they'd come up with, but they haven't and don't seem interested in doing so. mutual aid and organizing is only going to take us so far and it'll be a hell of a lot easier to do it with biden in office than trump

The whole "it doesn't matter who's president/in charge of the government because mutual aid and organizing is the only valid way to do community engagement" is the leftist version of the Brexit nutcases who, and I swear I am not making this up, argued that it was fine if the UK left the EU trading sphere/single market/customs union with nothing to replace it, because "Britain is a nation of farmers and can grow food in our back gardens!!!!" Yes, because you're so devoted to your stupid ideology that you think the large-scale collapse of society, a major world power, a western democracy, and everything else will have no effect, and you can just do your little Facebook mutual aid groups and happily shout on Twitter at anyone who disagrees with you. Never mind the fact that this would obviously and immediately harm vulnerable people the most and that nobody, not even the Online Leftists themselves, actually wants to live in the Violent Revolution Total Anarchy World they masturbate to. Maybe this makes me a neoliberal corporate shill, but I'd rather that the world got better, instead of worse. I would actually prefer that myself, my friends, my family, my whole life, the whole country, and the rest of the world wasn't sacrificed on the Great Revolution Altar, but I shouldn't worry. We have mutual aid. At least as long as a) you have never said anything the Online Leftists even slightly disagree with, since they're sure as hell not the kind of people I would trust to have my back in any large-scale societal collapse, and b) I guess they'll all be growing food in their back gardens too, rather than using any of those dirty "government" or "society" things to supply their basic needs. We're saved! No need to worry. Bring on the anarchy.

Aside from the fact that Online Leftists, as I have said before, think that moral action begins and ends with posting the Right Opinions on social media at the correct timeframe and any other action or engagement with a flawed system or basic reality is heresy, they don't like being challenged -- i.e. "if we don't vote, then what do we do?" -- because a) it questions their authority as supreme arbiters of morality, and b) it means that there should actually be an action in place of cutting out something so consequential as voting, which likewise clashes with their "everything will be fixed by Magical Thinking" viewpoint. They don't want to be asked what to do in place of voting, or in anything at all; they want to think their correct thoughts and judge anyone who doesn't, regardless of how logically incoherent these things are or the inevitable outcome of those decisions, because nothing bad is ever their fault, or even the Republicans' fault, or anyone else at all except for the Democrats and/or "the West." I mean, yeah, if they're going around to preach the Don't Vote Because It's Actually Evil gospel, it's the bare fucking minimum to expect that they have something to offer in return besides Ye Olde Bolshevik cosplay fantasies. Since they don't, they get tetchy when you point that out.

Also, while I know it's the social media fashion that everything has to be the worst thing ever and we have plenty of the "Biden is also a genocidal fascist but I guess vote for him or something" utterly-minimum-standard posts going around, I will point out why that rhetoric is a) wrong and b) unhelpful. (Not that I expect it will make a single difference to anyone who has to get their internet cred by yelling about how Biden is a fascist, but still.) No, Biden is not a fascist by any logical definition of the word, you would have to do a lot of work to convince me that he is personally genocidal beyond what is demanded of any post-1948 American president who exists in an extremely complicated international sphere with long-standing alliances (such as, yes, with Israel) and indeed not quite a bit more progressive than literally every one of his predecessors, and it makes those actual words useless. If you claim that "Biden and Trump are both genocidal fascists," you are utterly effacing those categories as any kind of critical or useful distinction. You can't argue for any difference, you can't point out policy essentials or nuances, you can't make the most basic of empirical observances or come to a judgment on whether any part of that statement is true, because language has been deliberately stripped of meaning and used to score Cool Internet Leftist points. How can we explain what fascism or genocide actually are and what to do about them, if it's just what you call everyone as a matter of course whenever they disagree with you? You can't. That's the point.

Once again: I strongly disagree with the idea of just giving Israel/Netanyahu a blank check to keep committing atrocities, but I also need to repeatedly point out that Biden isn't doing that. His initial unconditional support of Israel after October 7 (which at the time was the correct response) has shifted to a much more measured and conditional approach where he has muted the overtly pro-Israel statements and started talking about a two-state solution and the need to protect the lives of civilians and trying to keep a lid on what could become a REALLY bad situation with all kinds of war-hungry powers eager to jump into the Middle East and blow it completely to hell. As I have said in my other posts, Trump will not do this. Trump will do the exact opposite. Which is why Netanyahu, who doesn't like having his hands tied precisely in the way Biden is doing, is trying so hard to get Trump back in. This also extends to the people who think that the West/the U.S. is the source of all evil in the world, but they're somehow the only people that can make actual choices or have real agency. Everyone else is just an American puppet; everyone is being lied to or manipulated by America/the West; nobody ever chose anything of their own free will; America/the West could roll in and put a stop to everything bad if they "really wanted to," but choose not to because etc. etc., Evil. As such, this completely fact-free belief is basically the central starting point for Online Leftism, which as I have also said, is now beyond useless and verging on just as deranged and actively dangerous as the fascists, especially since they are 100% willing to enable far-right fascism however and whenever they can because something something, That Will Show Us.

Anyway. Yes. Whew.

[kuruk]

do tumblrinas and twitter lgbts forget what the real world is like actually. I guess because all topics have already been covered and it's assumed we're all on the same page about other realer issues but the bi girls with boyfriends topic is so overblown it's more people complaining about people being bitches towards bi women dating men than people actually being rude about those women.. I've seen like 20 different unspecific posts about it already just the vague idea of these bitchy as fuck lesbians getting passed around after a handful of people expressed bad opinions a few times. I'm not sure if people realize how their biases show through that because if they're aiming to fight against a certain perceived prejudice it means they're automatically just in doing so. but it's not a real widespread issue and even if it was it's still more of a matter of hurt feelings and insecurity than genuine hatred and bigotry that would affect anyone in the real world any further than feeling bad about yourself after reading a rude post. which yes it's rude of course but what is all of this for what is the obsession? it's insulting sorry it's rude to automatically do this every pride it's overcorrecting for an issue with a minority of lesbians.

when I got my first boyfriend after my parents previously thought I was a lesbian for years I was suddenly treated much better and during that period my dad stopped beating me because he saw more hope for my future. and yeah of course he didn't see me as bisexual because he didn't believe in that but I was treated better than I had been before because I now had a boyfriend and had more worth and was deserving of my place in society. so I don't know it feels so tone deaf for this to be the one big issue getting talked about every fucking year like as if bisexual women's greatest enemies are online lesbians you think are bitchy, when I'm sure that's not at all their biggest problem or even an issue that makes the list at all. like either you're just talking to talk and you wanna make a rebloggable post or you're trying to alleviate your own insecurities and guilt by claiming there's this overwhelming hatred for you and your boyfriend coming from dykes that just isn't there. and if that prejudice is there on such a scale then this is still a very uncompassionate and misguided reaction lacking empathy that doesn't make sense coming from people who sling words like dykefag around like it's nothing

[solarwynd]

There is no denying members like each other and are close to each other... But there are still these things they do that come off as rude there's no other way to see it. I already had a bitter feeling with "I did some lyrics" And "everyone is winning" comment right when jimin won something. But this time it's like there is no hiding for these ppl. I am side eyeing jin too at this moment. What's even more insane is that if rm really wanted to show how disappointed he is with the fandom that he didn't get billboard entry, he should have posted this when JK's never let go , a fan song debuted in hot 100 and not well promoted rm songs, but he decided to do it when jimin started breaking records. It's the same for seven release too, he had all good things to say about 7 when it was breaking records but "everyone is winning these days" when jimin won a music show. It's like when JK achieves something, it's inevitable and that's bound to happen, no questioning, but when it's jimin, starts guilt tripping the fandom lol. The translation tweets quotes are full of pity party as if armys don't usually do it whenever jimin songs do good, now members started adding fire to it.

“He did it on purpose, that man is active on every social network, he practically watches over them, it's obvious he knows what he can cause with his words, now I see how many are streaming out of pity, this harms him more than Jimin in my opinion. I don't think RM is bad, but he does feel envious of Jimin's achievements, I saw some asking why he doesn't do it when JK uploads something, but come on, what JK does is dirty unlike Jimin and that surely bothers him. I thought he was smarter, after all that Jimin did for him, he listens to him with the purest intentions and he pays him like this.” - #2 anon

I distinctinly remember him doing a live last year saying that he thought what JK was doing with his career was great (and this was after 7 dropped) Then again I don’t expect him to go on a rant condemning JK about the fraudulent activities surrounding his charting out loud so 🤷🏾‍♀️

But it is interesting how some of the members, armys and BH all have the same “chosen” view towards JK.

With him obviously going to Bang and demanding better promo and radio for RPWP, I’d say he just wants a chance at substantial commercial success and has blinders on for it. So Bang and Scooter gave him crumbs and he took it. And that’s why I don’t really think he cares about what’s “dirty” from what’s not or that he prizes Jimin’s means of success over JK’s. (Not that simple radio is in anyway dirty.) Now knowing that the image itself is from last year but he chose to post it now has me looking at him even more sideways though. Because he has consistently been online and the one time he posts during Jimin’s release is to moan about charting again. I don’t like that. And I’ve always said he’s justified in wanting his work to do well just like any other artist would, but again the timing was shitty. Cause armys are just using this to further their “Jimin is privileged” belief and to divert attention from his comeback to other members out of guilt and pity.

And the timing still would’ve been in bad taste had he done this post when NLG debuted on hot 100 though. Openly showing bitterness towards your team mates success like that especially when you’re the leader of the group would not be a good look at all.

Like OG anon there is love there and history, but with BTS there is such a frustrating lack of support and tact when it comes to certain things especially towards Jimin. It would take absolutely nothing out of any of them to write a simple “all the best” or w/e on weverse or a hype post on insta, but nothing. Even Jin gave the most indirect acknowledgment of MUSE with nothing else to follow. The only one who had any real type of well wishes was Hobi. And no one can tell me that Jimin asked them not to make a fuss cause he’s the type of person who loves praise and thoughtfulness from other people. It’s not about getting the validation either, like at bare minimum y’all are teammates. So the way the bulk of them act towards him just irks me.

[cocoatonedcurls]

become an academic weapon 📚🔫✨

hi all !!

with my GCSEs this year, and only a few weeks before back to school, I decided to really lock in yesterday 🫣

so I thought I'd take all the info I've come across while scrolling through studytok and put it into a little post for everyone looking to improve in their studies (& for my benefit as well 🙈)

motivation

this is probably the biggest factor when it comes to locking into your studies, motivation can quite literally make or break your academic achievements (😦)

so, its very important you motivate yourself, and moreover, stay motivated 😭

i've made it sound daunting but motivating yourself is lowkey easier than you think, here's a few ways to do it:

picturing yourself in 10 years, where all your studying and hard work has paid off - you can't be that person without doing the work that they did 😬

you can also do the opposite of the above - imagine how disappointed you'll be if you didn't work as hard as you could have and failed

"revenge studying" - the most toxic yet probably the most widely effective technique - working hard so you can beat than the people who are better than you

make studying aesthetic - create pinterest boards, look at quotes and tiktoks, make success your greatest desire

make it an addiction - if you're bored? study. had a bad day? nothing like setting yourself up for the best future. having a great day? go make it better by making yourself smarter.

get a motivational study app - i LOVE 'Study Bunny' I've been using it for two days now and it genuinely motivates me to be more productive to keep my bunny happy 🙃

resources

obviously, you need some help where you can get it despite all the controversies surrounding studying and the use of the internet, there are some amazing online resources you can use that will actively help you 📚

Quizlet/Anki - both of these flashcard platforms are incredibly useful - Quizlet is a fun platform and you can search for flashcards made by other people - Anki, in my opinion, is better than Quizlet for memorising, and you can import flashcards from Quizlet.

Mindnote - A mindmap making software online, a user-friendly interface + is quick and easy to make them - Great for visual learners

YouTube - the teachers on YouTube are incredibly helpful and can explain any topics you're confused about very quickly and very thoroughly

Spark Notes - great for English literature, with in-depth analysis of your texts and modern translations

Physics & Maths Tutor - free past papers and topic questions for core subjects and a few others, great for active recall

Study Bunny/Flora - helps keep track of your progress and keeps you motivated, I recommend Study Bunny because I can see how much work I've done of each subject and tick off things on my checklist

these are just a few out of many other resources so go do some of your own research, especially if there are websites that help with a specific subject

techniques

different study techniques work best for different people, no technique is a one-size-fits-all, some people are visual learners, others perform best by memorising & etc.

active recall - the only one-size-fits-all method - is a cognitive function that you carry out to remember things in tests, so practising this is a must -> the best way to do this is by completing topic questions and past papers using minimal amounts of notes. basically just testing yourself before the actual test

Spaced-out revision - one of the best ways to make sure things stick in your mind, revise a topic/subject and revisit it every few days, eg. 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, 30; and by the 30-day mark it should be stuck in your mind because your brain believes its something that you need to know in the long run and stores it in your long term memory

Flashcards - great to memorise content for the test, especially subjects that are tested with orals

Scribble method - scribbling on a piece of paper while revising the content in any form, reading, listening, etc. helps your brain store the information you're consuming more effectively

Feynman method - basically just explaining the topic you're revising to someone, this helps you develop your understanding and catches out any areas you're unsure about to revise later

making mindmaps - this is great for visual learners, especially if you use different colours for each section of the map so that you can associate each concept with each colour and recall them easily

again, those are just a few that come to mind. do your own research and find out what works best for you 😇

while studying

knowing how to study effectively is also a crucial aspect of success (obviously) 🤭

here are a few tips:

don't listen to music with lyrics, instead you can listen to lofi tracks, cafe/library asmr, brown noise, jazz music (my favourite)

set yourself a study slot, like 2 hours every day at a specific time & set a focus filter on your phone for the duration of your study time

make an aesthetic/cute study space so you can enjoy your time in that space and it doesn't feel like a chore

get a whiteboard to make learning more interactive & fun

light a specific candle whenever you're studying so your brain knows to associate the scent with working

have regular breaks eg. every half hour for 5-10 mins

reward yourself afterwards, so you associate studying with a good experience

consistency is key, the more you study the easier & more fun it becomes 🙃 the more you study the more you are likely to succeed and fulfil your dreams ✨

remember though, academics is not everyone's thing:

"you cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree"

everyone is good at something, and it doesn't make anyone lesser or greater 🫶

if you try your best, that is all that matters 🫠

- li 🌘

[daughter-of-sapph0]

what do you gain from sending cruel anons? satisfaction? approval from others? does someone pay you to do it? I never understood why you freaks do that bullshit. it's useless anyway.

I'm not publishing your anonymous ask. no one deserves to look at that slop.

it doesn't even hurt me. nothing you say to me can be worse than the pain I've already felt. your words mean nothing to me. you can tell me to kill myself all you want. you'll never be louder than the voice in my head who almost convinced me to do it.

I've already reached my lowest point in my life. I've gotten better. I love myself too much to let you take that away from me.

you, on the other hand, are sitting alone in your room and copypasting the same generic message to random trans people you see online, because your life has literally no value, because you will never do anything of note, because you're unworthy of any sort of affection from others, and you will die alone, unhappy, unfulfilled, unaccomplished, and your last dying wish as you sit on your death bed surrounded by no one is that you could have spent more time being a cruel heartless bigoted irredeemable cunt to people online.

meanwhile I'll be living my best life. I'll forget about your entire existence later this afternoon. I'll continue to spend time with the people I love, and help spread positivity to people who need it. I will outlast you. I'll live my life to the fullest while you rot in your isolation. I will outlive you. my legacy will continue after I'm gone while people will try and pretend that your ilk never existed. I will outlove you. I will be a reminder that your negativity and hatred is but a momentary stain on existence that will be washed away by unconditional love and support.

I'm no longer speaking to that anonymous asker. instead I address this to my followers, as well as anyone else who may see this post: do not answer anon hate ever. it's not worth it. those people do not care about your response, and only receive gratification from seeing you suffer.

I know a lot of you weren't online in ye olden days. but back then, we had rules for the internet. and one of them is to never feed the trolls. feeding the trolls mean they win. somewhere along the line some of them managed to convince people that blocking the trolls means they win. that's not true. blocking means you win because you'll never have to see their disgusting horrendous comments again. the block button is your best friend. use it.

if you get anon hate, delete it. block the sender (which I'm pretty sure now ip blocks whoever sent the ask), and if it continues, turn of anons, or even turn off asks in general. do not let them hurt you. do not engage. do not respond. do not answer them. they aren't looking for a debate. and you won't change their mind. answering their ask just exposes their slop to all your followers. and none of them want to see that shit.

remember that for every hateful anon message you get, there are 100 people who love you unconditionally and care about you. do not let the loud hateful minority win.

maybe what I'm doing counts as feeding the troll. I'm not directly answering their ask, but I'm still getting involved. but fuck it. I'm turning their hate into positivity. I'm using this as a moment to spread awareness to others.

if you're a person on the internet who's received hateful messages, especially if you're trans, I promise you that you're not alone. ignore them. find people who care about you and love you. I promise that the small annoying obnoxious voice does not represent the opinions of society as a whole. I promise that nothing they say is true. I promise that you are loved. unconditionally. forever. simply because you are you.

[moons-of-dewclan]

I was curious how to get your clan really set off? I recently (LIKE EARLIER TODAY JFJSJFJ) started my own clangen blog but idk if it's worthy of Tumblr😭

How can I improve my art and improve my process? You're one of my BIGGEST inspirations ngl you're literally him (or her or they I'm so sorry I never caught your pronouns) but I was just curious on how to be better? If you wanna look, don't. It's like, rlly bad so.... save your eyes. Have a lovely nighttt <33

HELLOOOOO I'M NOT 100% SURE WHAT YOU MEAN BY SET OFF I'M SORRY :{ if you mean to get people reading it, i think it's vastly just luck also appealing to an audience by accident i posted my art online for 10 years (i started posting in 2010 as a wee ka- told you i'm an adult haahahueu) before anyone showed consistent interest and i valued those two or so commenters who occasionally had something to say about my stuff, so much LAKSNLKD. that entire decade i got between 2 and 30 favourites for every piece i posted- usually between 2 and 10- until around 2021 when a making a comic aANNND joining a wolf ARPG group exposed me to many kindred art-enjoyers that wanted to keep up with my goofy stories then for some reason, i posted Dewclan's first page on tumblr and it got way more engagement than any other piece of art i've ever posted SO LAKSDNLKDAS WE CANNOT PREDICT THESE THINGS.. at least i can't if you're looking for engagement, pLS AIM FOR ENGAGEMENT THAT FEELS MEANINGFUL over anything else IN MY OPINION, and it's just my opinion- part of being 'better' is, first and foremost, being able to enjoy your art alone. and then being excited with what you choose to share! even if you don't care about your quality of art, care about the story. if you don't care about the story, care about the process and just having fun. but you have to have fun in doing it, and do it for your own eyes primarily. like if you were alone in a room and creating only for yourself! because, until you happen to find others who like what you're liking, you are then when someone is interested and you get to share that excitement, even that ooone comment on something you care about is OOGHHH SUCH A NICE FEELIN. enter communities, comment on other artists' work, try to make friends! but make sure to remember, if you create with the hopes others will like it, without liking it yourself, you're going to be really broken down if someone doesn't like it FOR you :{ loving your own art is tough work but it's integral to your longterm relationship with drawing ON IMPROVING.. for me, nothing is more integral to improving than finding a way to practice that suits you (looking at live figures doesn't help me at all. i don't know why. it's insane), and having fun doing it. i can't grasp anatomy unless i break it down with shapes. SHAPES ARE EVERYTHING. study the shapes of what you want to draw. break em down by tracing simple shapes over your subject. see if the leg is the same length as the head from muzzle to neck and lock that info in. STUFF LIKE THAT on the technical side of things, it can be super helpful to dedicate half an hour or so to drawing a day- eventually it becomes a habit and you just default to 'oh i think i wanna draw' when you've got nothing else to do. more drawing, more improvement!

HONESTLY THO another important thing is not putting yourself down. i know it's a hard habit to break (i struggle with it outside of art myself!), but it doesn't do you any favours. the more you rag on yourself, the more it'll manifest as something that actually damages your art, AND your relationship with it. let it be fun- don't sabotage yourself! you can be critical of your work and still kind! little tip here, improving can take a while, but experimenting with styles can make an INSTANT shift in how you perceive your stuff. ALSOOO EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT BRUSHES FOR SKETCHING AND LINING. I PROOMISE. PLS DO IT. IT'S LIKE A MAGIC TRICK. i cannNNNOT sketch with a hard brush. everything looks horrible. marker brush tho?? so smooth. full of character. lovely. binary brush sketches? suddenly i'm Anime. pencil brush?? i digidevolve back into baby ka who loved to crosshatch and do semi realism. airbrush??? i explode into atoms actually

i find for a lot of people, they don't need to improve or be 'better' at art, they need to learn to enjoy what they're capable of doing now, and improvement is a byproduct. from what i've seen through the years, unless you work to curb it the negative view of your art will stick with you no matter what 'skill level' you get to bc the calls' comin from inside the house, yknow what i mean 3: it can be a long process to learn to accept your art, and sometimes you just plain grow out of it over time! but in the meantime it can't hurt to make efforts to fight your d e m o n s

I'M SORRY I WROTE SO MUCH IK YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS ALL IT ISN'T JUST TO YOU, ODESSY-CLAN BLOG RUNNER, IT'S AIMED AT ANYONE WITH ARTSY SELF DOUBTS. i hope i phrased everything kindly bc i meant it all kindly 3: i hate to see an artist doubt their work, but THERE IS NO SHAME IN IT. i want to encourage loving it regardless of any flaws tho, even though it takes time!

[hazz-a-bear]

AS LONG AS I'M WITH YOU, wen junhui

♡⸝⸝ maybe you should have given Jun a little more time to prepare himself to meet your parents.

.ᐟ fluff. established relationship. jun is a ball of anxiety. so many pet names. mention of emotional distress/anxiety. mention of reader bringing home a girl. very brief mention of homophobia ( only if you squint )

a/n: my first work to be posted on tumblr! I hope everyone likes this, don't hesitate to give me feedback

masterlist | taglist

"So you're one hundred per cent sure that what I got is enough? I feel like it's not. Oh yn, you could've let me get the tea set too!"

Jun whines from the passenger seat for the hundredth time. His mouth has been working overtime since the two had gotten in the car - questions, complaints and fusses leaving his mouth nonstop through the entire ride.

Approximately two weeks ago, on a random Tuesday night, you had casually thrown a question at Jun over dinner. "Mom called today. She wanted to have dinner since I hadn't visited them in a while. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me? They can finally meet you, Jun"

The simple question that came out of your somehow resulted in Jun choking on his next bite of rice.

If you'd thought Jun was overdramatic before (affectionately), you had definitely underestimated to what extent he would go after you had invited him to meet your parents.

The last two weeks had been hectic for Jun. As soon as he processed the invitation, he immediately made it his mission to get something - a first impression gift, he said - for your parents. When you firmly told him that he doesn't need to get anything, he looked at you like you just told him the Great Wall isn't in China. "Do you want your parents to hate me, yn? He had scoffed. "You weren't expecting me to just show up without anything, right? That's literally the easiest way to look bad in front of any parent"

Since then, Jun had been lurking on every single online website - hunting for household items with a concerningly deep determined look in his eyes. On Friday, he dragged you to a home appliance store nearby, immediately demanding your honest and brutal opinions on the porcelain tea sets on display. And that's when you admitted that maybe Junhui was a little more insane than you thought he was.

Surprisingly, you managed to convince Junhui to only stick to a couple of scented candles, incense sticks and coasters in the end. But it still didn't stop him from whining about how he still could've made a better impression with one of the tea sets he had been eyeing.

"Jun, sweetheart" You sigh, eyes set on the road ahead of you "There was no way I was gonna let you buy a whole ass tea set. Mom has plenty of sets at home, she doesn't need another one"

"Yn, I love you, but, the tea set isn't meant to be given as a function. I don't expect her to put it to use. It's more of a symbol of appreciation"

Damn your boyfriend and his ability to speak complete nonsense and somehow make it sound reasonable. "A symbol of appreciation? For what?"

"For letting me have their daughter, yn, obviously!" From the corner of your eye, you can see the way his arms are flailing around as he tries to argue with you. It's amusing, really - the way this got him all worked up and sweating like he's at dance practice.

"Respectfully, Jun, they didn't let you have me, you know?" You smirked, a teasing lilt to your voice. "They just didn't know and when they finally did, it was already too late. You were way too deep in love with me"

"You're right" Jun surprisingly agrees with you, making you look towards him with slightly raised eyebrows. Usually, he would have picked a fight. Arguing about how you're the one who fell first and the biggest simp in your relationship. So when he actually agrees with you without snapping back with a witty remark, you realize that his mind is preoccupied with the nervousness of the dinner with your parents more than you had realized.

"Jun?" You call softly to get his attention and wait till he replies with a hum. "Are you okay, love?"

Jun is silent in his seat. You take a quick glance at him to see him looking out the window, lips pulled under his teeth while he seems to be deep in thought. His hands are resting on his lap, fingers wringing each other in an attempt you recognize as him trying to calm himself down. Your eyebrows furrow in concern at the sight of Jun twitching in his seat, clearly anxious about this whole ordeal.

Looking in the rear mirror to see if you can slow down, you reach out to him with one of your hands - the other holding the steering wheel tighter. Jun almost jumps when he feels your cold hand settle on his before he laces his fingers with yours, his hold tight.

"Sorry," His voice is quiet, almost apologetic. "I'm just- I'm fidgety, cause, I'm nervous"

"Don't be sorry, baby, no" You assure him with a squeeze of his clammy hands. "It's okay if you're nervous, it's completely fine. Remember when you took me to meet your mom and dad? I was almost crying by the time we got there"

"Yeah, I remember" He sighs. "But I just- just can't help it, you know? What if they don't like me, yn? What if they think I'm not good enough- all sorts of what ifs"

You understood what he said, you really did.

When Junhui asked if you wanted to meet his family two months into your relationship, you had been anxious to the same extent - if not more. What was different was Jun had asked you almost a month in advance, giving you enough time to freak the fuck out about it, let it process, come to terms with it and finally get ready. When you think about it now, it makes you feel bad realizing you had only given Jun approximately two weeks to prepare himself for this.

"Junnie, I'm sorry if this is so sudden," You say, making him turn to you on a whim. "Fuck, I should've given you more time to get ready. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for you to get anxious, Jun"

"No, no, yn. It's not your fault, baby" Jun is quick to reach over the console, a clammy hand coming up to press under her chin in an attempt of reassurance. "It was sudden, true but this was going to happen sooner or later, no? Meeting your parents? I'm just the normal amount of nervous, okay? Don't worry baby, you didn't do anything"

As if to emphasize his words, Jun brings your laced hands to his lips, pressing a kiss to the back of your palm and another one to your wrist. You relax a little into your seat, his words starting to make sense in your mind.

Soon, you're putting out the right turn signal before making a turn off the main road. You can feel Jun's hand tense around yours a bit more and you give him another squeeze of assurance. He watches out his window as you drive along the road that leads to your house. All the houses in the neighbourhood are gates, screaming sophistication at any guest that passes by. You know that compared to other neighbourhoods, yours is considered to be a bit more upper-class and rich. And Junhui is definitely enamoured by it.

"Yn, you actually grew up in a fancy neighbourhood" His mouth is almost hung open. "All of the houses have gates!"

You laugh at the excitement that takes over his features, the anxiety seemingly slipping away from him in the process. You can't help but take occasional glances at him as you continue to drive up ahead. It's only when you turn towards a clearing that with an already opened gate, he suddenly tenses again.

"Oh god," You can hear him mumble under his breath, both of his hands now coming to hold on to yours that rest on his lap. The gate opens to a paved driveway, large trees carefully sitting on both sides. You slowly pull inside and at the end of the long driveway, the house you once called home stands proudly.

The closer you get to the house, the fidgety Junhui gets. His knee is bouncing up and down in clear distress so you hold on to him a little tighter, reminding him that you're right there. He waits as you drive to the side of the house, stopping the car next to the garage which holds your dad's cars. You can almost feel the anxiety that bounces off of Junhui, circulating the car like a scent and it makes you sad, knowing he's this nervous about meeting your parents.

As soon as your hand leaves the steering wheel and pulls on the parking gear, Junhui is almost scrambling to your side of the car over the console and immediately hiding his face in your shoulder.

"I'm so scared" He's mumbling into your your skin once his face is pushed against your neck, shaky breath fanning over you warmly.

You bring up your other arm which isn't clutching Jun's to put around him before pulling his body towards you. It's a weird angle considering how he's almost leaning his entire upper body over the console of the car but neither of you could care less about the way the gear is pressing into his tummy in a way that is not comfortable. What matters right now is the fact that you're there to hold him while he freaks out about what will happen once he gets out of the car.

He sighs again, relaxing a little in your hold as you press your lips to his temple. "What if...what if they don't like me, yn? What do I-"

His words are unceremoniously cut off when you pull away by a little, only to press your lips against his in a quick manner. He shuts up then, closing his eyes and deepening the kiss, trying to drink in your entire being if you're offering. It's evident in the way he unconsciously tries to chase your lips with his when you go to pull away.

"Baby, no" You assure him in a hushed whisper, forehead resting against his temple. "They're not gonna hate you, I promise. They won't, darling"

The look on Jun's face remains the same, unconvinced and doubtful even though you put up the most certain voice you're able to. There's a slight crease in his eyebrows and the way his eyes fail to focus on yours says enough though - he's terrified.

"Baby" You croons, freeing your other hand from his before bringing them both up to his face.

Jun's cheeks are cold under your fingers, probably a result of the blasting AC in the car. Your hands must be cold as well if the way he flinches when they rest on his skin says something. Yet, his eyes slightly droop on the contact, almost leaning into the touch with a small smile that paints across his lips. It makes you smile too, the way he's so willing to lean into the warmth ( or the icy cold feel ) of your hands.

"They'll be nice, baby, I promise. Don't you think they'll at least try to be nice to the first boy I've ever brought home, hm? It's a new milestone"

His cheeks are immediately flushing at your words - the knowledge of him being the first to meet the parents settling something warm and fuzzy in his stomach. You smile to yourself as you see the mischievous little smile that stretches across his face.

"How do I trust you, huh?" He says with a slyness to her voice, looking up at you from the gaps in his lashes.

"Trust me about what?" You play along while your fingers brush away locks of brown stray hairs that fall across his forehead.

"When you say I'm the first boy to meet your family?" His usual playful smile is now etched into his face, making him look young and boyish. Now that he doesn't seem to be as worried as he was before, you realize he's up to no good. Jun is skilled in knowing just how to pull the strings and make you the right amount of annoyance at any given time. "Does that mean you've brought girls home, hm? What if you're just saying it to make me feel better?"

"Oh, jun, baby. If I had brought girls home, I would've gotten kicked out a long time ago, don't you think?" You chuckle despite the heaviness of the words that come out of your mouth. Jun smiles too, seeming to agree with you. "And trust me, you'd know why I haven't brought anyone home all this time once you meet them, okay?"

And just like that, Jun's face is crumping again in your hold before he's whining in a high voice while leaning away from you. "Yn, why would you say that? That sounds even scary"

You chuckle while Jun fake cries in his seat, suddenly ranting about how he would not hesitate to break down in actual tears if your family intimidates him enough. While he goes on and on about the miserable state he's in, you reach behind you and grab the bag of 'first impression gifts' Jun had brought.

When you got in the car earlier, you had jokingly pointed out how he's only doing this to suck up to your parents and kiss their ass. And Jun being dramatic as he is had dismissed you with a sassy flick of his wrist saying 'Yn, it's not kissing ass to bring something as a visitor. It's basic human decency. It's an unwritten rule of Asian households. You should know that!'

As soon as you grab the bag from the backseat, Jun is shuffling to take it from you, sticking his hand inside and mentally checking out a list of the things he's gotten to make sure he hasn't forgotten anything.

As you wait for Jun to finish, you turn off the car, pocketing your keys and wallet. Jun has finished his counting when you turn back towards him. He's leaning against the door on his side, bag resting on his lap and hands once again nervously twitching on top of it.

The look in his eyes is fond as he looks your way, but it doesn't take a genius to understand that it's only masking a lot of nervousness and unease behind them. His lower lip is caught between his teeth as he rapidly chews on it, purely out of habit. So you reach before carefully thumbing under his lips, trying to get him to stop.

"Take your time, Jun. There's no rush. We have all the time. Let me know when you're ready"

Junhui had always been naturally fidgety when it came to approaching new people and being introduced to new conditions. And even more so if it's related to your past that he hadn't been present in. Jun tends to care a lot about first impressions - always fussing over his appearance, his behaviour and his attention to detail. As much of an extrovert as he is, it's always quite hard for him to take the first step towards instant socializing.

In disparity, you're the one who's capable of grounding him whenever it happens. Even though he's freaking out of his mind, as long as he's able to feel the familiar sense of your fingers lacing his, nudging the right amount of pressure against his skin, he's good to go. So even now, as he's trying to regulate his breathing and try not to scream in dread, the feeling of your lips pressing into his cheek in the form of security, assurance and a promise - it's enough to hold him from falling apart.

thank you.

[luvtonique]

I realized something this morning.

This is probably gonna be a long post. (Edit, yep)

I'm a pretty fairly public figure on the internet, and I very regularly interact with a huge amount of people. From YouTube Comments to Discord to Tumblr Asks/Comments to Newgrounds Reviews to MMO Chat to Mic-Chat on Games to Twitch Chat to Stream Chat, blah blah blah.

I've, for years now, over a decade (hell over two decades) talked to probably thousands of people, and have been able to get a gauge on a pretty safe to say "average" of collective human intelligence on the internet.

I've come to realize that not everybody has that kind of experience talking to people online as I do. I've talked to literally thousands, probably near ten thousand, people online in my life.

This is a staggeringly high number and puts me in an outlier position among the rest of you, who likely have only interacted with a double digit number of people online in your life.

Now that you have that information in mind, here's what I realized this morning.

I realized that the reason I don't listen to people, ESPECIALLY when it comes to politics, is because I have learned through talking to all these people that fucking nobody knows what they're fucking goddamn talking about.

I study a lot of things in my spare time, and history is a huge one that I study. I very regularly read and listen to multiple sources talking about historic events, and I make sure to look at as many sources as possible, sometimes including reading encyclopedias in my own home that we've owned for like 40 years.

I cross-reference all of these things and paint a picture of the most likely truths through various means.

Why's that important? Because sometimes a 14 year old on Twitter, literally nearly less than a third my age, will occasionally come along telling me that I'm wrong. Not about history necessarily, but about some opinion that I have based on my own experience and my own knowledge that I've researched myself.

I usually ask them where they got their information, and I'm met with boldfaced idiocy. Completely braindead shit like "180,000 people said it on Twitter," or they link me a Tumblr post with 100k notes, or they say "It's common knowledge," (which is the biggest red flag of them all because not only does it prove they have no evidence to back up what they're saying, but as this post will go on to explain, "common knowledge" is quite literally the worst source of information on anything. People commonly think the earth is flat and that Scientology is real. People commonly think that walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror gives you bad luck. People commonly think that naturally blue food exists.)

In my life I have met thousands of people, and THOUSANDS of them are fucking idiots who very very smugly state completely incorrect knowledge. Earlier today someone tried to tell me that the creators of Beat Saber never sold the company to Facebook, and I showed them proof and they went silent for 3 hours and then went "Yeah so what, Facebook is still a good company" and I wanted to beat my head against the desk.

The internet is full of people who are fascinatingly ignorant. I'm not calling myself "better" or "smarter" than anyone here, I'm just saying that I have learned better than most people that people on the internet are not, and never fucking will be, a good source of information. I don't care if they're your best fucking friend, the coin-toss of them knowing what they're talking about or actually having the facts is so heavily weighted against them, it's seriously like a 98% chance they have no fucking clue what they're talking about.

I urge everyone to take a moment and realize that the internet is, in fact, a good place to find information and do research, but PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET, especially MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA, are NOT SMART PEOPLE AND ARE NOT GOOD SOURCES FOR YOUR INFORMATION.

These are angry, smug, annoying little idiots who are likely 14 years old with a 1st grade reading comprehension who aspires to be a TikTok content creator as a career, and under no fucking circumstance should you ever, ever, EVER listen to any social, financial, religious, gendered, medical or political advice they give.

The world has gotten vastly out of control with how much people think "A lot of people agree with me" is a good enough reason to solidify your opinions. "A lot of people agree" is the biggest red flag ever, because people on the fucking internet are complete fucking idiots, I'm sorry, but I'm someone with far more experience talking to people on the internet than literally any of you reading this. I talk to people on the internet as a career and have been doing this for longer than most of you reading this have been alive.

So what's the point of this? What's the take-away?

The take-away is that I'm saddened by how many people will attack each other vehemently, cut off friends and family members, label people as toxic or problematic, jump to conclusions, etc. based on complete and utter misinformation spouted to them by people who have never once in their entire life actually looked up what the fuck they're talking about. They treat random strangers on Twitter as "experts" because that person is well articulated or put together a YouTube video with really good editing that's softly spoken by a British accent guy and has scary music whenever some "evil" person is on the screen.

The take-away is that people, like yourself (don't you dare try to deny it) will just believe whatever they read on social media, or whatever their Discord friend-group is talking about, because they are living in a complete falsehood that people on the internet know better than they do.

You are not incapable of doing your own research. You are not incapable of finding the truth. You are not stupid. Just do your own research, look into things yourself, cross-reference, use the scientific method, go to a library, read books, for fuck sake please adopt the basic social skill of "If someone says it on the internet it is most likely not true and I should look into it myself."

Because the current state of people is monstrous.

Y'all get so fucking mad about things that are just plain not true, and you revolve your entire life around things you were told by complete idiots and/or children on Twitter and other social media websites.

Stop.

Look at yourself, look at how angry you get about things, and consider that there may be a possibility that anger stems from a complete lack of any foundation or truth in your own beliefs.

Consider the almost 100% guaranteed possibility that you have been blatantly lied to by people who have no fucking idea what they're talking about, and that you are violently upholding standards that are incorrect because you have placed trust in the word of untrustworthy people.

Look up confirmation bias, read about it.

Look up manipulation tactics, read about it.

Look up "Plato's Republic" and read about it.

Absolutely, under no circumstances, should you ever, EVER, form your social or religious or political or financial or gendered or sexual etc. opinions based on SHIT YOU READ ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

And while we're here, don't listen to the news either. They're just a bunch of parrots saying what needs to be said to get you all fighting with each other so that the government can fuck things up while you're distracted. Do your own research, check multiple sources, don't consider social media or regular media to be a 'source,' get every bit of information from every angle, and for fuck sake, stop attacking people for disagreeing with you when you, yourself, only believe what you believe because your friend group believes it and you know that if you disagree with your friend group they'll all attack you so you'd rather be on their side, which only further proves my point that y'all need to fucking chill.

"Democracy will never work. If 3 medical experts tell you that you must eat a ginger root to cure your ailments, but 100,000 idiots with no medical experience tell you otherwise, you're more likely to believe the 100,000 idiots. They are louder, there are more of them, and you will gamble on the hope that among those 100,000 idiots, there must be more than 3 medical experts. The voice of the ignorant will always drown out the voice of the educated."

-Plato's Republic, 375BCE (Paraphrased)

"I can't believe Jay just called us all idiots and expects us to listen to him"

-Someone in the comments of this (It's gonna happen)

PS: If you looked up "Naturally Blue Food," and found out it does in fact not exist, good for you for doing your own research!

[necromeat]

A schizoid POV

Feeling nothing towards compliments or criticism is kind of crazy. I know these are positive and negative things, and that people often strive to get more compliments than criticism, and I know people often get happy of the former and upset by the latter, though I know both are essential in healthy human interactions. But I really, really don't give a damn what someone thinks of me or if they try to make me happy or upset. I guess it's just the schizoid way.

Like, I genuinely don't understand why someone would go out of their way to seek compliments, or how, at the end of the day, some criticism should make you upset. I mean, sure, if I put a lot of effort into something, let's say a drawing, and someone says it looks nice, I can say it makes me happy to hear, but more in a logical sense than in an emotional one. And it's even better if they tell me what specifically they like about the drawing, not because I would feel complimented and emotional, but because I like to analyze. And honestly, they could even tell me what they don't like, and then I can perhaps improve in those aspects more, because I always strive to improve, even if at the end of the day I don't feel particularly proud of myself or my accomplishments in an emotional sense. I mean yes, if someone sees my drawing and gives me nothing but rude remarks about how ugly it is, I will feel like it's unfair and unfounded, but even that is more from a logical perspective.

Nothing really feels like anything.

I don't know why, but often when something I do online gets a lot of traction or a lot of likes, I don't really feel any sort of way about it. Should I? I mean, if anything, attention just makes me feel kind of overwhelmed. And this often leads me to just… ignoring that attention until it blows over. However, I do also notice a pattern of valuing my posts through the attention, not in an emotional sense but as in, big number good, small number bad, as if it's a game. When this happens I recognize I need a break, and so I close the app for an indeterminate amount of time.

I always wonder what it's like to feel accomplished or emotionally fulfilled or perhaps even proud of yourself. Lacking in this is probably some kind of hell in itself, but it's all I've ever known. I may throw around some phrases like "I feel proud of myself today because of x", but in reality, under the mask, I don't really know. If you compliment my looks, I can lie and say it made my day, but I don't need you to say I look good when I already knew it beforehand. If you give me your opinion of me unprompted, give me something substantial.

I could go on a tangent about how this reflects the way I treat my friends, though this isn't really about that. Often the conversation around SzPD surrounds our relationships and especially the amount of friends we have. I think I'm pretty social for someone with SzPD, actually. But there's so much more to life than the amount of social interaction you have. And I would go as far as to say that I enjoy the periods of my self in exile. I think it's only good to take a break sometimes and focus on whatever else there is to life than other people. However, as social animals, we do need to return at some point. We need others to stay healthy.

I view everything as a cycle. Everything is kind of temporary. The good things, the bad things, everything in between; it comes and goes. The worst day of your life might as well be followed by the best, and you might not even notice it. Friendships don't last forever with me, and I've already accepted this a long time ago. I'm not trying to be nihilistic, rather, I'm trying to explain how neutral I stay to everything. I still like people despite everything, and always will. Other people are immensely interesting, from a logical standpoint. A lot of people say they can be themselves around me, and I take pride and purpose in this, at least as much as my brain allows me to. I'm an observer, a listener, and it may not be enough to sustain a long-term friendship, but I've made someone happy and comfortable, and sometimes that's enough.

I don't know if this makes much sense anymore, but… Sometimes a compliment makes someone's day, sometimes some gentle criticism helps someone out, and sometimes all they need is to sit down and have someone listen in an unopinionated way.

So go ahead.

[wandringaesthetic]

I think it builds character for a piece of media you were really, really looking forward to to totally disappoint you.

Do you know how much tiny me looked forward to the Animorphs TV show? Online video basically didn't exist at that time, so I watched Nickelodeon all day to try to get a glimpse of one of the TV commercials for it. It was like 30 seconds long and it didn't show much and I think the network was already not confident in it because it didn't air often!

And when the show came out, it was bad. It was very bad. It was a pretty high concept sci fi thing that had a shoestring budget. They could have saved it by leaning more into the horror/suspense that everyone you know might really be an alien brain slug but they were not that smart. The writing wasn't good. Only a couple of the actors were good. It didn't have much respect for the characters or the plot or continuity or tone of the books. Of its twenty something episodes there are maybe 2 that are kind of tolerable! I never watched the last few of them!

(the opening is good. I do like that theme song)

Animorphs fandom was some of my earliest internet experiences , so I went to the Animorphs forums on the official Animorphs Scholastic website, and I want to be clear, this place was usually not very strictly moderated if it was moderated at all before this. I think it had some filters for language but beyond that it was the wild west in there. And all of the comments about the show were positive! Even fifth grade me knew to call shenanigans. They were deleting negative posts about the TV show!

And I had to deal with the little "watch Animorphs on TV!" stamp on the covers of the books for a couple years there, thinking "no. don't." whenever I picked them up

And you know, I'd like to say I learned from this, but I didn't, because a couple years later the Star Wars prequels happened. Now, I actually quite liked The Phantom Menace, and 25 years later I stand by that, but Attack of the Clones....

I was pretty online and absorbed general fan jabber about Phantom Menace so by the time Clones came out, you know, I was a high schooler instead of a callow middle schooler, I knew things, I was beginning to doubt my earlier stance about TPM.

but Clones made me feel this sweaty cognitive dissonance. I liked it less than TPM, but like, fans and mainstream media alike seemed to like it better than the last one, and I already had a poster for this movie on my wall and....

To this day I am of two minds about that movie. I can explain why better now but I'm still not sure what Lucas' intentions were with parts of it, so....

To me, the Star Wars prequel trilogy is Phantom Menace, the soundtrack to Attack of the Clones, a hundred and twenty whatever episodes of Star Wars The Clone Wars and some mishmash of the Revenge of the Sith movie and the Matt Stover novelization.

Anyway. I feel these experiences gave me perspective. Gave me confidence in my own opinions while also not feeling like I have to make them known to everyone. A fandom where most of the people are unhappy with the piece of media they're gathering around is not a fun place to be. I'm very capable of walking away from things that aren't making me happy without complaining about them ceaselessly or acting like my distaste is a moral issue or needing to convince myself that this part is actually good, really! None of this is that serious and we're supposed to be doing this for fun.

I won't say that I haven't felt betrayed by any piece of media since, but it's rare, and when it happens I'm really good at shutting up about it and pretending it doesn't exist unless someone specifically asks me about it. I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. It also makes me cautious about getting on hype trains.