#feel free to blacklist the tag anyone

[queenofbaws]

! Pride Month Challenge 2024 !

Well hi there, everyone! With May winding down to a close and June just around the corner, it's about that time again...the time where @jadedsunshine, @unicornaffair, and I host our yearly create-a-thon! 🥳

What's the Pride Month Challenge, you might find yourself asking? Well, this year it's a little bingo game we've put together, featuring some classic tropes. The aim of this particular game? Make something!!! Anything! Just get those creative juices a-flowin' and see if you can snag a B-I-N-G-O along the way!

This challenge is open to everyone and anyone who wants to take part, whether you know the three of us or not! We're going to be using the tag #pridemonthchallenge2024 for the stuff we create, so if you decide to join in on the fun and games, feel free to stick that tag on whatever you make, too! If you're interested in more details, you can check below the cut or reach out and ask ;)c

Either way, happy almost-pride, and happy creating!!!

I don't write fic - can I still participate?

Ab. So. Lutely!!! We've done this challenge for a few years now (we've missed a year or two for weddings and other life stuff, whoops!), but in the past we've had people doodle, sketch, draw, make edits, create props or other physical art, and even curate playlists! The three of us are writers, so you're very likely to see fic or ficlets from us...but you? Oh. Oh, you can do whatever your heart desires!!!

Are there word limits/expectations for a finished product?

NO!!! :D Zero. Literally zero expectations. We aren't putting together an exchange, we aren't holding a competition, we're just trying to get the spirit of creation in the air. That's it! So whether you're writing 50 words or 5,000, whether you've made a rough sketch on a notebook page or fully lined/colored a scene, you're good! You're so good. As long as you've made something, you've earned a stamp on that bingo card, baby!!!

What if I don't want to do something fandom-y? Can it be OCs/original work?

OF COURSE!!! 100%. You don't even have to ask!!! Show the world your OCs! Tell the world about your story's worldbuilding! It's all fair game :)

What if I don't want to post what I made?

Don't sweat it! Again, this is...the farthest thing from official. This is for fun, and this is for the sake of making something. Sharing your work can be nerve-wracking - don't feel like you have to! We'd love to see you playing along with us, of course, but as long as you've made something that you're proud of, you've earned that stamp! No ifs, ands, or buts!

Is it cool if my creations aren't necessarily pride-themed?

Totally! We host this challenge during pride month because (1) it traditionally works better for the three of us than NaNoWriMo because of our schedules, and (2) we're queer creators ourselves! But if you're feeling a prompt and can't find a way to make it relevant to pride, PLEASE don't sweat it! As I've been known to say (and then get laughed at for saying), this challenge is no rules, just right, Outback Steakhouse :P

Let's say I get a bingo...what do I win?

:) Nothing. <3

Wait, really?

:) Really <3 Hehehe, in all seriousness, this challenge has been a fun way for us to sit down, take our minds off of life and our bigger projects and just...make some fun stuff! In our humble opinion(s), being able to point at a finished piece and say "I did that! I made that!" is its own kind of reward. The bingo board itself is really more for bragging rights ;)c Which, of course, we encourage wholeheartedly. Nothing wrong with a little bragging!!!

We hope to have you along for our month-long adventure! Again, we're going to be using the tag #pridemonthchallenge2024 for our own stuff, so if you'd like to use that tag - or tag any of us!!! - in whatever you end up creating, feel free!!! We love seeing what everyone comes up with, and this challenge is always so much more fun, knowing other people are taking part! <3 Hope to see you along for the ride!

*The bingo board was made by the lovely @jadedsunshine 🥰

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

and that's that!!

[blessphemy]

once in a while when i'm in the murderbot fandom tag i see a shark fin of ship discourse and i'm like wrow... i guess there's shipping out there. so anyways.

[unluckyxse7en]

New house rule because people have gotten shittier and shittier about this: no more fundraisers on my blogs.

I get it, but in practice I'm sick and tired of how passive-aggressive and manipulative things have gotten, and I do not have it in me to sympathize as everyone harasses and shames others for not doing enough as if any of these causes can be taken care of simply by going door-to-door, when given how many of them there are.

I'm putting something in my blog headers for it going forward. I'm not pro- any side at this point, I don't want anything to do with 'for charity/good cause' type fundraisers. Any of them. I'm deleting any further messages and blocking anyone who either spam-messages or follows. Anyone who assumes I'm "ignoring" them simply because I wasn't online reading messages right then is getting reported as spam.

I know I'm being an entitled ass, I'm privileged etc but I have a limit and this has been Months of ongoing harassment that's just. Socially acceptable, except it keeps getting nastier and more guilt-trippy as time goes on as if it's some random lower/middle class tumblr user's fault their pockets aren't deep enough to bail out everyone from a fucking war/genocide/anything of a governmental scale and not individual one.

Empathetic burnout is a thing, and I hit my limit a long time ago. Pass by my house and move along, you'll save time and energy for more constructive avenues for yourself that way.

[kohakhearts]

choosing violence /lh. ship ask game- LEASTTTTTTT favorite pokeani ship for the ask game?

JDFGJHFHJFD OH GOD. OK. i try hard not to be a hater on main but i guess now is my time....sorry folks </3

amour/shipping: don't ship it :(

why don't you ship it?

see the thing that sucks so bad about the dynamic is that like. i could genuinely get behind it if every scene that was made to make me WANT to wasn't so awful. i think ash treats serena terribly 90% of the time, and her behaviour around him is uncomfortable to watch except for times when the narrative doesn't want you to think about the fact that she's got a crush on him (which is...very rarely, but those moments DO exist). from the wearing his clothes and pretending to be him when he's sick and can't battle someone (???) to The Kiss, there's just a lot of........ick factor for me. i want so badly to like it i really do but it crosses too many lines in ways that are Framed as Cute UwU for me to operate around that

what would have made you like it?

more scenes like the snowbelle serena throwing the snowball at his head scene maybe to be honest. i think that was actually a good moment for them in the sense that like...she forced him to acknowledge that he was making her feel like shit! which i think he does a lot throughout xy and it just. sucks. i agree that he does treat her differently than his other female companions - he treats her a lot worse than them, and i genuinely think it all comes down to how hard the writers were actually trying to push the romance angle. if they had just had more opportunities to be open and honest with each other As Friends, idk. maybe then

despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

look there are like. a small handful of ships out there that i at this point would genuinely consider notps. 2 of my biggest of all time, i actually now ship through the process of writing them myself. i desperately hope one day to count amour among them but right now. all i've really got is that they're funny to clown on. which doesn't feel very positive but i can't think of anything else JDFGJHFDKFHJ

send me a ship!

[collidingxworlds]

4.what’s one thing that always manages to get under your skin?

Truthful Tuesday || Accepting !

Ngl, picking just one thing is a little hard for me, because there are a few behaviours that get on my nerves always and anyway, online and IRL alike. Perhaps I'm too salty or maybe too touchy when it comes to certain stuff, but I can't help it. And tbh? I don't want to help it xD

I guess that if I have to choose, I'd go for hypocrisy. People who know me have heard me complaining about that stuff endlessly (and I admire you, mates, for putting up with me xD), so the choice is probably no surprise. Besides, hypocrisy is something the rpc doesn't lack of.

I could write a novel on this topic, even without mentioning its ramifications IRL, but I'll keep it short for everyone's sanity. In short, I hate it with passion when people preach one thing and then don't care at all to do it themselves. They don't even pretend to do it, they are absolutely shameless about how they don't do it and it drives me fucking nuts.

General examples are people reblogging PSAs about engaging mutuals or showing interests or whatnot and then never those behaviours. Or people liking posts where someone complains / points out something as to say "you're absolutely right" and they are guilty of it. Or people moaning about lack of interactions and how no one engages them when they are the first who never reply to the people who reach out to them and who never try to engage other first. People who point their fingers and call others names because of something fucking harmless and demand not to be seen as bullies.

...And the list is still long, but I think that's enough examples.

I'll end this little rant by saying one extra thing tho. Those people really make me wonder. Sure, go ahead and be a shitty self-centred person, cool my ass. But...Are they so stupid to think that everyone else can't see right through them? Or do they just care so little that they are more than happy to flaunt their hypocritical asses around?

[kallypsos]

top 5 football fanfics?

let me preface this answer by saying i dont read y/n fanfics so this is gonna be gay. amen lets go

You and Me by hpdm4ever: a leo messi/sergio ramos soulmate au that got me into football fanfics. i read this twice and i cant wait to forget about it a bit so i can read it again lmao

Wrong Door by bytheriverblue: this one isnt slash, its basically a long conversation between leo and kylian (about sexuality, motivation, football) and i love it

Heart on Fire by JamesJoints: neybappe, kylian isnt famous and they meet playing call of duty au. this fic made me feel joy and pure happiness like few others.

our horizons meet by crys_crys: neybappe coming together after the divorce era. if i remember correctly this takes place during one evening and it was like being there in the room for the whole time

Carnations by Chance by kyluill: neybappe time travel au. if i see carnations i cry and its bc of this fanfic so that should tell u everything

thank you for your question!! <33

(i have more but these are probably the top5)

[charlie-rulerofhell]

hi sorry can I ask a question about your tags on the last post? you mentioned "rowling's rage fit about lotl" and I haven't seen anything about that, what happened? totally ok if you don't want to talk about that anymore ofc <3

Hey anon! Thank you for asking and sorry for the somewhat late reply. You might have seen it yourself by now, if not I made a post about it here where I included three screenshots of her tweets.

Since I don‘t really enjoy giving myself the headache to check Rowling‘s twitter page very often, I only found out about it through German newspapers (some of them didn‘t get her sarcasm though, so yeah, for some people in Germany she will have the reputation of liking gender-queer Goth-Metal now, which is kinda funny because it would totally annoy her :D).

Basically she dedicated around 10 sarcastic tweets to them, more than to any of the other contestants. Some of them may make it seem like she actually liked the performance, but knowing her stance about gender queerness and also seeing some of her replies to other users make it clear that her words were only mocking. So it wasn‘t really a 'rage fit' (kinda exaggerated there for stylistic purposes, sorry :D), but given the amount of attention she spent on Lotl, just seeing male-presenting people freely expressing their gender identity must have really made her blood boil.

One more thing that I cannot stress enough: Don‘t look (too much) on social media these days, such as the replies to Rowling‘s tweets, but also the comment section under Lotl‘s performance. There is so much triggering homo- and especially transphobia there, it‘s bizarre. Just know that whatever you feel, however you want to express yourself, you are not alone.

[adwox]

making my worlds collide by discussing which weapons i think the main trios in mega man + the x series would use

mega man: i feel like the rapid blaster is the most obvious option. but rock with the og splattershot is fitting in its own rightt

bass: if you were going by how he plays in games, clash blaster would be appropriate, but range blaster fits his personality so much more imo...

proto man: SPLAT BRELLA BABEY built in shield with hard hitting but not fully reliable damage: its a no brainer

X: i think the new S-blast '92 would be nice because its very diverse and has a lot of hidden potential atm (iykyk). alternatively rapid blaster pro would be a fun choice esp if rock was the regular rapid blaster

zero: splatana stamper. obviously

axl: splash-o-matic again is probably the most faithful weapon (fast shooter with no rng) but come on my guy deserves the tetra dualies!!

[teaandinanity]

Tropes Game

Rules

How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

-10 → very dissuaded 0 → don’t care either way 10 →  very enticed nope → if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged.

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

yoinked from bendingsignpost because I went OwO and placed under a cut because it wasn’t short to start with and as per usual I have talked way too much

TROPES:

Age gap: I'm gonna give this a 5 in favor because I am HUGELY into mayfly-december romance and the normal flavor of age gap usually won't send me screaming into the hills unless there's other factors (and tags) sending it spelunking into squicksville.

Codependency: 5 in favor when it is unhinged fantasy soulmates shit. I also really enjoy fiction where characters have matching baggage and trauma that interlocks. If it's set in the real world this gets creepy very quickly.

Enemies to lovers: 5 again because I like it when it's done in a specific way - where there's plenty of interaction and respect before any feelings crop up and once they do one or both parties are enraged about it - but I so often see this as allo bullshit where I just want to scream 'STOP KISSING HIM HE'S A FUCKING REPUBLICAN.'

Enemies with benefits: -10, I am insufficiently allo for this.

Fake dating/relationship: 1. This tag by itself is like a sprinkle of pepper. It's nice but I'm not ordering dinner based on that.

Found family: 5. I quite like it but I will generally not read things purely on the strength of this tag.

Friends to lovers: This depends ENTIRELY on the characters in question. My default for this is honestly probably like -3 in isolation but a friend and I have OCs who fit this (hi Tina!) and that is like 10/10 A+ love it EXACTLY my shit. Obviously. Since OCs. Anyway if there's a bunch of hesitation to take the step because of course they love you but do they LOVE you and speaking up will change things and what if it's not GOOD change and-- that's the good stuff. I just want characters to suffer and this is often too simple and fluffy for me.

Friends with benefits: -10 unless it's paired with one-sided or mutual pining. I am not allo enough for this.

Hurt/comfort: 10. Gimme. Make 'em earn that happy ending. Make the stoic ones display vulnerability and I will be fully helmo.gif about it.

Love triangle: -10. Hate it. HATE. I actually skipped one of my fave fics in one of the fandoms I'm in for Literal Months because it had two pairings tagged for the PoV character and I was like 'absolutely the fuck not' until friends told me 'no really you'll like it it's not A Triangle.'

Mistaken/hidden identity: 7 I think? Not an automatic read but I do enjoy it substantially.

Monster-fucking relationship: 9 hell yeah like I'm into monster-fucking but then you add RELATIONSHIP where they probably have misunderstandings and feels? Yes absolutely.

Obsession, possessiveness, etc.: 10, as long as it's not presented as normal and fluffy. Like. Healthy people don't do this. It's just that I do not want characters to be healthy I want them to be INTERESTING and obsessed with each other.

Opposites (like grumpy×sunshine, etc): 5 I guess? But it definitely gets a multiplier if they Get Each Other better than anyone else in spite of that surface opposites thing.

Poly: Varies wildly. If I'm really into the characters individually and also their dynamics as a group, this can be a major plus - like, there have absolutely been things I've read where I was like 'WHY are you two getting het married when Character C is right there and you both have two hands' - but at the same time I hate love triangles and all other affection geometry so this is not a COMMON experience. More typically, I am here for my OTP and in that case this can make it down to Nope. It's very hard to figure out what this tag would be in isolation because it's SO heavily dependent on other factors!

Pregnancy: This can honestly run the gamut from Nope to +5, because I have read it and thought it was sweet and read it and thought it was hot and irl the idea of being pregnant makes me want to give myself a DIY hysterectomy. So yeah.

Second chance: -8. This is not a Noope but it is a hard sell. I've skipped fics I wound up really liking due to a 'getting back together' tag. I think one of them I skipped more than five times in sort-by-kudos and then other people's bookmarks and browsing the author's works (because I loved their other fic) before I finally said 'FINE I will try the green eggs and ham.'

Sex to feelings: Normally? -10 or a hard Nope. If one of them is pining and the other is an oblivious moron who just doesn't KNOW they're pining yet? That's excellent and I will eat it with a spoon directly out of the carton. But like. I am not allo enough for this without feelings. SOMEONE better be having them or I'm gonna back right out of that.

Slow burn: 10, yes please, give me Yearning.

Soulmates: I'm gonna give this like an 8 because I LOVE it in theory but I have also seen it done badly (as a shortcut that removes the need for buildup or communication of any kind, for example) like. A lot.

Arranged marriage: There's a range but this probably averages out to like -2. Mostly because as an aro-ace person this sounds like a horror movie and even if the rest of the tags pinky promise it's gonna be soft and end happily part of my hindbrain does not believe them and is just facing the sky to more fully unhinge its jaw and shriek, AAAAAAH!

[autistichalsin]

Periodic rent-lowering-gunshots:

Fiction is not reality.

You can enjoy things in fiction that would be awful in the real world. Like playing a murderhobo in a game! In the real world, being or supporting a murderer-thief would be pretty damn awful, while in the game it's just good fun. Same with anything else you choose to do with the pixels on the screen, like kinks that don't affect anyone real, so they're okay in fiction, but would be pretty damn bad in real life.

No one else is responsible for your online experience. They are required not to harass you, but they are not and never will be obligated to not post about ships, kinks, or tropes you dislike just to avoid you seeing them. It's up to you to blacklist words or phrases, block tags, or even block users as needed to avoid seeing content that upsets you.

No one can force you to read anything against your consent. Any content you don't like seeing can be instantly avoided by closing out of the offending post/fic.

You are not owed an online experience free of discomfort.

Nothing that happens in your imagination can ever make you a bad person. Words you write or read about fictional characters will never make you a bad person.

The claim that media consumption influences real-life behavior is intellectually dishonest and serves only to excuse the behavior of real offenders.

Fiction is a safe way to explore horrifying or confusing concepts. Therapists agree that fiction, even (or especially) about taboo topics is a good coping mechanism, especially, but not exclusively, for trauma survivors. Fiction is to adults what play therapy is to children. This doesn't stop being true if the work in question is of a sexual nature.

Sex isn't an inherently worse or better motivation than anything else. A work written to create feelings of arousal isn't dirty, shameful, or in any way less pure than works written to entertain, provoke moral questions, or for other reasons. And worth noting is that multiple purposes can exist in the same story, especially fanfiction.

You aren't entitled to an explanation for why someone reads, writes, or otherwise enjoys certain works, kinks, tropes, ships, etc.

[ouroboobos]

some newer items in my shop

[neverendingford]

.

[incognitopolls]

Happy Halloween!

Ask hours are over! As always if you have questions about how the blog is run or anything like that, feel free to ask, but I'm no longer taking questions about individual missed/deleted polls as it's after 6pm EDT!

For today only, I’m answering queries about polls that haven’t been posted. If you’ve submitted a poll in the past and haven’t seen it come out, send me an ask and I’ll let you know if there’s a reason I didn’t post it, or give you a link if it was posted and you missed it.

Please:

Send queries by anonymous ask, not by comment or DM

Tell me what your original submission was– I won’t be able to find it by your username or any other way.

I'll try to answer questions that are sent before 6pm EDT (UTC-4) today, October 31. After that cutoff I won't be able to take any more of these questions.

Poll submissions are still closed. This is for anyone who has submitted in the past but hasn't seen their poll come out.

Blacklist/filter the tag #submissionqueries if you don't want to see these posts when I'm answering questions.

[horrorshow]

Can you talk about why you think blocking and moving on is a bad thing? I thought it was a way to curate your space and avoid drama

idk maybe i'm too idealistic but fandom is a much more friendlier, welcoming, supportive, creative, engaging, active, diverse and interesting space when it's treated like a community where people are encouraged to participate and talk about their interests and where there's space for niche or more unpopular opinions without these people having to worry about being blocked and feel unwelcome by the majority of the fandom they are in. i can't stand how blocking everyone you disagree with has become the first thing to do.

you say its 'to curate your experience'. but blocking people does not only curate YOUR experience. you're also forcefully curating other users' experiences. and not for the better.

people say 'i will block you for literally anything' and then those same people wonder why engagement is down, why no one sends asks, why no one reblogs, why rarely anyone talks in the tags anymore and why this place feels so dead and boring and quiet. i wonder why!!!!

people treat real people as annoying ads they can dispose of at their whim. but that's not how a fandom or a site like tumblr works. (besides, if you really care about people curating their own experience you wouldn't block people. you can filter and blacklist and never see them again while still granting them the same freedom instead of actively making their experience worse.)

you say its to avoid drama. but seeing a post you dont agree with is not 'drama'. and blocking is not solving anything except for you personally. fandom was more fun when we remembered that every user is a real person you share a space with, and probably some mutuals as well, so you find a way to live with each other. starting with a restraining order seems a bit excessive and is not contributing to anything. it's not that hard to be respectful and tolerate others and acknowledge people have different opinions and interests and still co-exist in peace. its not that hard to be nice to people and try to find common ground with them and interact with the stuff you DO like. you do this in every aspect of your real life, so why not online?

i hear you say: 'but that requires WORK and i don't NEED to do any of that bc i can just block them'.

yeah, you can try to create your own bubble and only hang out with like minded people but you wont EVER fully achieve that (no matter how much you block, social media WILL keep feeding you posts you disagree with bc it makes them money). social media WILL pressure you into an 'us vs. them' mentality where you constantly feel like everything online is a threat or an argument you have to win and where being mean and unnuanced gives you the most notes and where you don't even see, let alone be able to treat, other users as people anymore bc you don't interact with them anymore other than to block or fight them. that's not how i want it to be online. it's not fun to me. and maybe i'm a pessimist but i think it will eventually be the death of online fandom and sites like tumblr. look at the state of twitter right now. DOES blocking give you a better experience in the long run? i doubt that it does. overall, i think it makes people even less tolerable and more vulnerable to hate and fear mongering, and social media an even more hostile place.

it's everything i hate about social media and everything i want to fight against and WILL fight against. i won't pretend my meager contribution will change anything, but i LIKE to just scroll past posts i don't vibe with and not see every argument online as a personal offense. it keeps me curious. most posts aren't that bad when you know the person behind it. i mean, you do you, i'm not gonna say what you should or shouldn't do bc that's up to you, but i recommend it: free yourself of the block button and bring back supportive user communities based on a shared love for the same thing and focus on what you have in common with people, just like you would do in real life. save the block button for the rotten apples who DO keep trying to pick fights and exclude others.

(which is, now that i think about it, probably the main difference: most people see the block button as a neutral way to prevent worse. but. that's only the case on an individual level. and treating everything online as an individual choice to which there are no further consequences, especially if they happen on a larger scale, is already a loss.)

[isthatbloodonhisshirt]

So apparently I haven't been active on Tumblr for a year, which just goes to show how fast time can go when things are crazy ahaha, sorry?

I just went through my whole dash back a whole year (I am OCD, it had to be done or I'd explode, and don't ask how long it took, the answer is too long. Positive note though, Tumblr does let you go back that far, it just freezes every 5 seconds and makes your browser weep).

Anyway, all this to say I am going to be responding to asks for the next little bit, but I don't want to like, bombard people with asks so I'm going to space them out in the queue along with art and whatnot. Anyone who doesn't want to see responses to asks can blacklist "Blood's yakkity yaks."

Also because I loaded my queue up back a year, I might have accidentally crossed wires on some things that belong on my other blogs, so if I messed up and put non TW stuff on here that's not tagged "Not TW," it means it was an accident and feel free to let me know. (Also please tell me if I reblogged AI art, I noticed a few while going through my dash but some might have slipped through the cracks given how many things I was staring at the whole time I did this).

Moral of the story: If you have OCD and have to go back to the last thing you saw on your dash, do not ignore your dash for a year because you will suffer.

- Blood