#get this poll more data I'm curious

[lifeamongtheamazons]

For my linguistsics degree, I did a project on why I'm seeing more people saying "on accident" instead of "by accident." I looked at almost a million pieces of writing pulled from news sites, blogs, academic articles and television transcripts. I found almost three hundred cases of "on accident" being used. It was a surprisingly even spread across sources. Even more interesting, I organized the hits by date and tracked an upward swing in use as time goes on. This means that the use of "on accident" is increasing over time, and may eventually supplant and drive out the classic usage of "by accident." I like to call this prepositional shift.

Now, looking at my data and looking at the age ranges of the writers or speakers, the majority of them were under the age of thirty. So I interviewed a panel of people, choosing twenty with a spread of about half above thirty, and half below. Those older than thirty years of age felt "strongly" or "very strongly" that "on accident" was wrong in all cases, and that "by accident" was the only correct phrase. However, those younger than thirty were much less rigorous, with more than half feeling "ambivalent" or "less strongly" about which was correct. This demonstrates a generational link in preposition usage.

When presented with options for the definitions of "by" and "on," we also get some interesting data. For by, there are two main definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary: 1. Identifying the agent performing an action. Or 2. Indicating the means of achieving something. Whereas "on" has many more definitions, the pertinent ones being 1. To indicate the manner of doing something or 2. To indicate active involvement in a condition or status. By the above definitions, either "by accident" or "on accident" is a correct usage of the term. However, native speakers of English could not successfully define either preposition, instead just choosing one, the other, or both as "sounding correct."

The only evidence for a rule-based shift that I could find was a correlation with the paired phrase for the opposite condition "on purpose." While the younger interviewees were ambivalent about the correctness of "on accident," they uniformly rejected the correctness of the suggested phrase "by purpose." So the shift can only be in one direction according the the native ear, towards the preposition "on."

Whether this means that the particular usage of "by" is becoming archaic or the definition of "on" is expanding is a possible subject of further study using a wider range of phrases. But I found the wider acceptance of "on accident" versus "by accident" to be a fascinating look at how prepositions can shift meaning and usage over time.

So now I'm curious, five years from my initial study (and itching to try the Tumblr poll feature):

[incognitopolls]

Hello!

I was wondering, what are the chances of not getting your question posted for whatever reason? Like, maybe it wasn't considered appropriate for some or simply you didn't want to post it (and that's is completely fine and understandable). Like, how often does it happen? I've been waiting for about six months for my question to get posted, I just would like to know how likely it is to be left unpublished

Thank you and love the blog! :)

Another anon asked:

just a curious question - how many repeat polls have you received ever (or maybe how common idk)

I get a lot of repeat submissions! I haven't ever counted– and for the most part, I just delete them, so there would really be no way to count. I have a (partial) log of a bunch of the duplicate and off-topic submissions at @incognitopolls-inbox. You can check over there to see some of the polls I receive that I don't end up posting.

I looked through a random 3-day period of my inbox that I knew I haven't touched yet. Between the three days, there were 78 submissions that I would post, 18 submissions that I would not post, and 7 that I'm not sure about. That's a total of 103 submissions, meaning about 75% (of that particular sample pool) will get posted. Some of those "no"s are duplicates, some are off-topic, and there are one or two where I just couldn't figure out what was being asked.

Some that fall into that "I'm not sure" category are questions that are highly localized to somewhere that is not very heavily represented in the users that these polls reach, like "Belgians, how did you feel about [Belgian event]?". Nothing against Belgians, you just won't get much useful data from a poll blog whose results show that a vast majority of the sample pool is Not Belgian. Sometimes those are still fun to run, but I tend to "no" them more often than not.

Aside from duplicate and clearly off-topic submissions, there are a few other (less common) reasons I might not post a poll. It's impossible to give an example of every possible thing I'd veto, but some of the ones in that batch are things like "who should be allowed to say XYZ slur?" which frankly has never been a productive conversation to have on tumblr. Likewise with "Do you think [oppressor group] has a [moral/legal/religious/historical/biological/whatever] right to oppress [oppressed group]?"– there are some submissions that won't even see the light of day via @incognitopolls-inbox. No thanks.

[starsabovethesun]

Okay, Tumblr, I'm curious about something. (I'm doing the main six + Pixal first, then I'll do others if this is something people like)

This poll is process of elimination, so the winner of this poll will be removed in the next poll!

I added Pixal because I like her and she's part of the team :)

(Add propaganda if you wish, I'd love to see your opinions! Please be respectful though)

Reblog so I can get more data for my science experiment-

[emotionallyattachednerd]

Storm's Heat Part 2 | IDW Drift/Deadlock x f!robot reader | NSFW 18+

Word count: 4900+ ( 2400+ each scenario )

Warnings: Smut ( spike in valve, breeding kink and knotting ), some violence and attempted/mentions of non-con. NSFW 18+.

Notes: Finally, I've managed to get something done with writing. Sorry for the delay in posting anything. Was very busy over Christmas and than I caught a terrible bug that lasted weeks, and it's still lingering.

Even with the poll I still couldn't decide, so I did something with two scenarios. Am I crazy? Yeah, sure, why not? Normally the polls help but I just couldn't stop thinking about both outcomes. This is a two part story, one of each with a different scenario of events. Hope you all enjoy. 🥰

☕ Coffee

Becoming part of The Lost Light crew wasn't something you imagined yourself to be in, but you were really grateful and honoured to be offered such a position. Your job is to monitor and analyse data, simple enough for you, and you are eager to meet the crew.

Ratchet is the only one you've met before a number of times, and it's thanks to him that you got yourself on this crew. He was your first visit as you made your way towards the med bay, the only place you imagined the old medic to be lingering.

However, you managed to get yourself lost along the way down the endless halls, and as your helm was spinning you weren't paying attention and ran into someone, knocking your data pads onto the ground.

"Slag! I'm so sorry!" You hurry to gather the number of pads without looking up in your frazzled state.

"It's quite alright, it was an accident." They say before helping you gather what you dropped. The voice sounded strangely familiar, making you look at them finally.

They meet your gaze, confusion filling both his and your optics, before yours brisky widens. "Deadlock?"

He stares back at you, mute and bewildered that you're here, and calls him by his old name. He looks completely different, but you knew it was him, and his autobot badge even catches in your view.

Finally, he's able to find his voice in his startled state. "That's not my name anymore, darling. It's Drift now."

The way he called you darling makes you smile a little. It's been a while since you've last heard from him. In your last encounter you remember him as Deadlock, a decepticon you found yourself trapped within in your outpost, and decided to let yourself go and grasp into the unforgettable desire he provided.

Standing back up he offers back your data pads and you smile as you take them back. "Dead-Sorry, I mean Drift. What happened to you? You joined the autobots?"

Drift offers a tender smile. "A lot did happen, it's a very long story."

"Maybe we could catch up later?" You ask without hesitation. All you wanted was to talk with him, find out the story, if he wanted to speak about it that is.

For a moment he continues to stare before smiling more fondly. "That would be nice, of course we can. Where are you headed?"

"Medic bay, I wanted to speak with Ratchet, he's an old friend."

"Old friend? I'll need to hear that story." He smirks softly causing you to return the same. "Come, I'll walk you there."

It wasn't until much later that both you and Drift managed to find the time to meet and catch up. You were curious about his story, and just how he became an autobot. You end up meeting in his quarters just so you both had some privacy, his idea, and you sensed he had some things to say to you.

And a lot he said.

"Told you it was long. Banished Decepticon. Wreaker. Autobot. Interrogator. Public Relations Officer. And now, third in command aboard the Lost Light." Drift finishes with a light shrug as if it was all nothing.

"That's impressive. You've done and been through so much. You should be proud of yourself."

"I know, but not everything is perfect. I've done a lot of terrible things still, taken innocent lives, rained chaos as a decepticon. That's something I can never forget and I have to live with. That's what I've accepted."

"But how will you find peace then?" You ask for furrowing your optics slightly.

"Maybe I was never meant to find peace?"

"You've been given all these chances to become better, and you have. Punishing yourself won't change the past, but you can still find peace."

Drift listens and offers a soft smile. "Well, I found you again, so that might mean something?"

You can't help but blush a little. "Yeah, I believe so." He offers you more energon and you accept. It's quiet before he speaks again.

"You look well." Drift says to break the silence that lingered, and he looks as if he's nervous around you. You honestly thought it's cute.

"Thank you. You've changed a lot, but it's a good look on you."

He sits beside you on the sofa and fiddles with his servos, rolling his digits while staring at the floor, pondering over his thoughts. "I'm glad we bumped into one another. There is something I would like to say. What happened at the outpost, I'm sorry."

You furrow your optics a little. "Sorry? What do you mean?"

"I took advantage of you, it was wrong of me to do that. I've done a lot of terrible things in my life, many mistakes were made, a lot of innocent lives were taken by my servos, and that's something I'll live with forever. What I did to you, again, I'm sorry."

You continue to stare at him, still confused, and let your own thoughts ponder through your mind. "Do you seriously believe what we did was against my will?"

"Yes?" Now he sounds confused. "At least I pressured you, pushed you, didn't I?"

"I don't remember it like that." You shrug before thinking back to that moment. "I remember an autobot and a decepticon were trapped together in an outpost in the middle of a bad storm that lasted at least a month. In the moment, fractions didn't matter, and I wanted it to happen because I was so uptight about being cooped up. You showed me a pretty good time, and I never once held any regrets. Not once did I ever consider what happened was forced on me."

Drift listens as you speak, letting everything sink in through tender optics before letting out a long and quiet vent, as if relieved.

"Are you certain I didn't hurt you?"

"Not once did you hurt me. I promise." You touch his servo under your own, offering an assuring rub. "I'm...I'm glad we got to meet again, I was hoping we would cross paths."

"How so?" Drift is curious by what you mean.

You decide to not without holding back. Even if he rejects you, at least you could finally move on with him out of your thoughts, maybe. Leaning closer you meet his lips with your own and share a tender kiss.

You feel him tense, but it quickly departs, and then you feel him leaning into it, welcoming the delicate smooch. Tilting your helm you deepen it a little and coil your glossa with his own, which he softly eagerly accepts while moving his servos across your waist.

This entices you to straddle his lap and press yourself against his chassis, letting every moment of this last for as long as possible, because you didn't know if this will ever happen again or what Drift was even thinking at that moment. All that matters is he is kissing you back, and you are craving more from him.

Finally, the kiss is broken, but you remain close as you gaze into his optics, taking in the softness that swims in them. All you can do is offer a sheepish smile before speaking.

"Call me crazy, but I was hoping to find you again. You kind of left your mark, I couldn't stop thinking about you." The confession gets you all shy. "I don't know, just that...guess I like you. You might've changed your life, your name, but you're still you, and I feel drawn to you."

Drift listens, letting her words sink in before giving a tender smile, reaching up to caress her cheek plating. "It's not crazy. I'll admit, I thought about you from time to time, wondering where you were and what you were doing with yourself. I honestly didn't expect to run into you again, but I'm grateful I have."

You return with a smile, a weight lifted off your shoulders hearing him speak words you were hoping to hear. "So, what now?"

"Would you like to keep going?"

You nod, because you didn't trust your own voice to stutter through the elation growing through your system. He brings you closer and kisses you again, your servos moving behind his helm once again while deepening the kiss together.

His servos skillfully move over your hips and waist, holding you against him while his glossa coils playfully with your own, letting out soft moans together while the kiss plays on.

You decide to keep going for more and descend your servo down between you both, running your soft digits against his heated panel, earning a hitched vent from him against the kiss.

He doesn't hesitate though and retracts his panel, his semi hard spike emerging out, and there he still has his knot, making you giggle lightly.

"Well, guess not everything has changed."

Drift smirks through a light moan feeling your servo wrap around his throbbing spike. "Can I assume you missed not just me, but my spike as well?"

"Maybe." You tease, sharing another gentle kiss with him as you stroke him, right across the thick base of his knot and caressing around it with a gentle squeeze causing him to let out a stuttered vent.

"Well, I can happily say that I'm ready and eager for your lovely valve. Think you can handle that again?" Drift asks through his heated vents, waist wiggling a little against your stroking of him while you continue to pump him gently.

"I can handle it, all of you, always." You sound so confident, and you were, very much, and Drift's smile stretches more as you answer this.

Keeping your servo wrapped around him you lift your hips up to hover over his throbbing spike before sinking down, feeling him pulse through your channel, quickly meeting with his knot that settles against your valve lips. You missed him, so dearly much.

"Drift." You call him by his name, forgetting his decepticon name, gracefully wiggling your hips and grinding down on him, rubbing your node against him that creates an abnormal, yet sensual rolling moan from him. "Oh Drift...."

Your body rocks in motion against him while wrapping your servos around his neck, bringing yourself closer, and you can't help but smile through your heated moans as you hear his alluring purrs, silky sounds that swim around your audios. His servos hold securely against your waist while helping to guide you more down on him, though you were doing most of the work yourself.

His knot endlessly grinds against your valve, desperately seeking the velvet warmth that already surrounds his spike riding through you. You want it, all of him, so much, and you eagerly respond by pushing yourself down more firmly to try and get that knot in you.

Drift lets out a rowdy moan, feeling you grip all along him while attempting to bury yourself onto his knot that throbs rapidly, his spike increasing in size little by little, before he helps by pushing you more harshly down on him, and this is the help you needed before you feel his knot push past into your valve, locking you both together with his knot expanding, creating a elegant throbbing bump against your valve.

A sharp cry echoes from you feeling sudden stretch expand through your channel, every ridged pulse sending waves of electric shocks against your inner walls that boil through your frame, embracing him tightly with your face buried against his inner neck, letting out ravenous moans that join his growing purrs.

Within moments, you're rolling your waist skillfully and firmly against him, feeling his knot tugging at your valve at each grind you deliver against him. He meets with your movements in sync, harsh grunts hitting your lips before kissing him deeply and joining your glossa's together. It's you that overloads first, clamping down on him and letting out a buzzing mewl against his lips as the shocks rush through you. Then you feel him jerking against your frame before stilling, warm thick ropes of trans fluids soaking your depths while his knot expands more and prevents anything from leaving.

Resting against his chassis you let out heated vents as your fans kick in to cool yourself off. Drift doing the same while his servos wrap around your body, holding you close against him, his knot buried deep within your valve as you clench around him eagerly still. You missed feeling so stuffed by his spike and knot.

"So, would you like to go on a date?" He manages to ask and you answer through a beaming giggle.

"Yes, please. That would be nice."

Drift caresses your cheek plating and leans forward to share a kiss with you. It's so tender, gentle through your senses. "I look forward to it, darling."

It's a date.

AU where Decepticons win the war...

Its a living nightmare for all autobots. This wasn't meant to happen, least not how you imagined it would turn out, and now you find yourself a prisoner of war, captured with your group as you attempt an escape off the planet, only to fail.

Optimus Prime was offline. The decepticons have won the war. Cybertron was under Megatron's control. Autobots were spoils of war. All the worst and horrible things were happening so quickly.

Your group is led off a shuttle and shoved into a building, no one knowing what's to happen. The autobots were at the mercy of the cons.

You're trembling, lips quivering as your bound servos clench tightly to try and ease your nerves, but this doesn't help in the slightest. You're terrified about what your fate is to be, or just what might happen to you. After all, you're a femme, not a lot like you around, and that makes you stand out more.

Rough servos suddenly grab hold of you, tugging you out of your group, and you find yourself in the grasps of a decepticon who is staring at you with the most putrid smile.

"Well ain't you fine and dainty. You're coming with me, sweetspark. Me and the boys are going to have a lot of fun with you." Your optics widen as you're suddenly dragged away, the shouts and curses of the other autobots are heard but ignored. They couldn't help you.

"No, no! Please!" You plead as you try to dig your pedes into the ground to stop but fail as you're pretty much dragged across through the erupted crowds and into another rowdy building, music and cheers screaming out from it. They were celebrating, and you are their next taste of victory.

Upon entering, the catcalls and whistles cut through your audios that make you tremble more, trying to hold back your tears as the grip on your arm tugs you through into the center.

"Got us some entertainment! Let's show the auto-slut how we like to treat a femme!" The con announces before shoving you into a group, and chaos erupts.

Your screams and pleads were silent through the decepticons' own shouts and calls, each trying to grab and tug at you, before being yanked away again by another. Your helm is spinning, you're tired, and your vocals hurt, you just wanted this nightmare to end.

Things only got worse when the decepticons now start fighting over you and punches are thrown, one managing to knock the side of your helm and throwing you to the ground. Your audios start ringing from the impact as you try pushing yourself up off the floor. Escape. You needed an escape.

Another pair of servos grab you and you start struggling again, only to stop when you hear a familiar voice against your audio.

"I've got you, darling."

"Deadlock?"

"The one and only." You can feel his smirk as he lifts you into his arms and loops your cuffed servos over his helm.

You don't answer but you do act instantly by holding onto him, your saviour, as he attempts to take you away from the others that still try to grab you, though Deadlock wasn't going to let that happen. He'll tear them all apart if he must.

Grabbing his blaster he shoots one nearest to him in the shoulder, not killing them, but enough to send a message for the others.

"Get back!" Deadlock snarls at them all. "She's mine!"

Energon splattered across your face as the shots rang out but you didn't even flinch, you have much more to worry about in that moment.

Everyone knew who Deadlock was and just knew how dangerous he could be. Though the message was sent, it didn't mean they were stopping.

"You have no claim over her! She's nothing but war spoils!" The one who had dragged her here argues.

"What the fragging pit is going on?!"

A thundering voice cuts through the air and sends shivers through you, making you hold onto Deadlock more letting out a whimper as he offers quiet shushes against your audio. You peek your optics up, only to face an enormous con approaching Deadlock.

"Having fun with the spoils boss!" Another cackles which earns them some eager chants.

"Turmoil, do you really want this kind of greasy behaviour in your city? Your troops allowed rape anyone they please?" Deadlock knew his commander. As blunt and taciturn as he was, he wasn't one to approve of that kind of pointless behaviour.

"Whose brilliant idea was it to bring the femme here, to a bunch of riled up horny soldiers?!" Turmoil raised his cannon, swinging it around causing the others to duck for cover, but he wasn't interested in shooting anyone. " That's why we got brothels, to handle your needs! Stupid. The lot of you!"

That was it then. No further attempts were made to get you.

Turmoil fixes his optics on Deadlock. "Get her out of here. I don't care what you do with her." That answer is good for Deadlock, and carries you away from the scene.

It's over. You're safe.

"Thank you, thank you..." You feel yourself cry softly into his shoulder, a sickening weight is lifted off and you're now safe.

"I won't let anything happen to you."

Deadlock brings you back to his apartment, which is rather nice, and makes you wonder just how important he was. You sit on his berth, cuffs gone, and he offers you energon which you accept before he then starts to tend to a few minor injuries on you.

It's been so long since you last saw him when you were stationed at that outpost. After the storm had passed, you both parted ways, and that was it. Deep down you missed him, no matter how much you told yourself how wrong it was, you couldn't help but feel the need to see him again. Did you fall for a con? Yeah, you think you did. Now here you are, ruined again.

Seeing you again wasn't something Deadlock had expected to happen, but he was glad he came across you in your situation just in time before it could escalate. He didn't like his property touched, and made that clear when he started shooting them.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" He asks once he's taken care of the ones he visibly saw.

"I'm alright." You whisper back, still trying to process everything. Then you feel a touch against your cheek plating and meet his optics. How could someone look so dangerous and harmless at the same time?

Deadlock is sitting beside you on the berth as he takes in your cute face he had missed, his digit gently tracing across your cheek plating while tilting his helm, as if trying to read every detail about you while you lean into his touches, before you find your voice again. "What happens now?"

"You'll remain with me." Deadlock doesn't hesitate. There's no way he can let go of you again. "Turmoil is my commander and I'm his SIC, he was given the city by Megatron. Things are still adjusting and new laws are being laid, but I'll make sure he knows you're not to be touched by anyone else."

At least Deadlock could do this to make sure you're not bothered. "What you said before, 'she's mine', what did you mean by that?"

"It means exactly that." He leans closer, his ravenous optics lingering through your own closely. "You're mine, everyone will know this, I'll take good care of you."

It should've made you feel degraded to be owned, but it doesn't. You see it as protection, a safe haven, but best of all you'll be with Deadlock. The autobots lost, there's no point in resisting, not that you wanted to towards Deadlock. In fact, you crave for this touches already. Calmly, you lean into his servo still lingering against your cheek plating and offer a delicate smile. He returns the same with an upturn smirk before closing the distance between you both and kisses you. Kissing him back you tilt your helm, deepening the kiss you both share with your glossa's coiling together. Oh, you've missed his lips, those pointed dentas, everything about him.

He's the first to break the kiss but he keeps close, letting out a satisfied purr while he nuzzles into your face, making you smile more, the most you've smiled since your capture. He speaks again. "Why don't you use the washranks? Get yourself soaked in fresh oil, and I'll help with you polish after."

"Thank you." Getting up you run your servo across his shoulder while keeping your optics on his, a light tease that makes him smirk softly again in return. In the doorway you stop and turn to face him again, noticing he was putting away the medical supplies he had used on you. "Would you like to join me?"

Deadlock meets your gaze again before giving a rather pleased smile between his sharp dentas as his amber optics glowed wildly. "I would like that, darling."

In the washranks you both settle within the fresh oil bath together as you straddle yourself within his lap. Your servos glide across his armour, digits trace across his decepticon badge, and move them back up to caress his cheek plating fondly, admiring every inch of him.

Deadlock watches you, curious and pleased to see you exploring. He knew you were a smart femme and you weren't going to cause trouble. He missed your cute face, that innocent smile, he could never forget about you after your time together at that outpost. Letting out another purr he leans his cheek plating into your servo, kissing the inside of your wrist before leaning across to claim your lips again. He tugs you closer against him by your waist while the bubbling heat grows between you both, a crave you'll both be unable to shake of. You already knew he had become your obsession, an addiction you'll never want out of your life, your knight in shining armour to love and protect you.

"Fragging pit, you're so beautiful darling, cute little femme." Deadlock murmurs through his growing hunger against your lips. "I bet you've missed me, not just me, but my knot as well. I ruined you for anyone else to satisfy you, didn't I?"

"You did." You answer honestly. It's true, and sure, you've shared the berth with a few other partners after Deadlock, but none of them ever got close just how good he made you feel.

"Good." Is his amused answer before you let out a startled gasp when you feel his servo glide across between your legs and against your panel, only for you to retract it immediately for him.

His satisfaction is visible before he pushes a digit inside, and instantly you're rocking yourself against him, moaning loudly while clenching your already soaking valve around his curling digit.

"So wet and eager." Deadlock couldn't hold back anymore. "Turn around, I want that aft nice and high for me."

Obeying his command you turn yourself and lean over the edge of the in floor basin, lifting your hips with your exposed valve in view and dripping with oil while you wiggle, teasing him as you send a lustful glance back over your shoulder.

Deadlock lets out a deep sound from his chassis, a profound growl that runs through his entire frame at the sight of you. Retracting his panel, his already throbbing spike slides out, along with his thickened knot as the whole length pulses. He lays himself across your back and takes hold of the front of your throat, tugging you back and kissing you firmly that you eagerly return, rocking your hips back against his heated spike that glides against your valve lips, ridges stimulating against your node.

He humps you, getting off the intense stimulation, before directing himself against your valve and thrusts forward firmly. A choked gasp erupts from you, feeling his pulsing thickness stretch you wildly, forgetting just how big he was. His swollen knot presses against your valve and he keeps still, savouring your clenching valve as he moans loudly against your audio.

"Oh darling, I've missed your tight valve." He growls in desire as he rolls his waist, earning a cute mewl from you. "I'm going to frag you always, claim you day and night, always ready for you. Would you like that?"

"Yes!" You let out an intense loud whimper. "Please, make me yours!"

Deadlock is overwhelmingly pleased, giggling through a grin between sharp dentas before he starts moving, grinding against your aft with his servos wrapped around your middle to hold you tightly and sets a shallow and firm pace, thrusting his spike into your depths. There's no holding back from either of you as he breeds you to his desire, rutting wilding, earning constant lascivious mewls from your vocals, his helm resting against your shoulder as his heated grunts press into your audio.

You feel his thickening spike plunging deeply through your channel over again, heated possessive grunts hitting your audio while you fall apart under him, letting him breed you as he wanted. His knot hits the outside of your valve repeatedly, grinding against your node perfectly, sending shock waves through your entire frame.

The wet sounds you hear causes you to quiver more, enjoying just how silky your valve is for him, willingly welcoming every possessive thrust he delivers. Your metal armour clangs against him over again as does the oil swish around against his excessive movements. His grip around your middle tightens as he starts to grind himself more firmly, and you know what is about to happen.

All you can do is spread your legs more for him and move back to meet his strong movements, trying to help him knot you, as this is what you both seek and become tied together.

"I'll fill you deeply with so much of my warm fluids, your chambers are flooding, and maybe we'll have a sparkling. Is that something you would like, darling, huh?" His words roll out through heated purrs.

The very thought of having his sparkling sounded perfect. "Yes, yes, please, I want that!" You'll give him as many as he wants.

"Wonderful."

That's your only warning you get as he grinds himself firmly against you harshly, followed by sharp thrusts that rock you forward and makes you squeal out while he tries to push his thick knot in. It takes a little more effort, but eventually he manages to push through your valve, tying you both together. You cry out in bliss feeling his swollen knot imbed you, spike pulsing widely and tip pressing into your chambers while he keeps thrusting, your mewls loud and eager.

Lost in the moment you lose yourself and overload hard, clenching tightly on him as you cry out in bliss. He snarls through his violent thrusts, and he uses his dentas to bite into your shoulder to lock you in place before shooting thick ropes of his warm trans fluids into your chambers and soaking through your channel. His bite only adds to the arousal, as does the growing bump over your valve where his spike and knot lock you both in place together. His movements slow, turning into slow jerks that cause you to whimper as your cooling fans kick in and rest against the edge of the basin, knowing fully well you'll both be there for a while.

You find yourself drifting in and out of stasis, with the lack of recharge you've had your systems struggled to keep you alert. At some point you end up in his berth again, cleaned and polished, resting within his safe arms as his servos ghostly graze against your back in a soothing manner. Easily, you've fallen for him, love perhaps, and you want to be with him always.

Deadlock feels pretty damn lucky to have found you again, his special cute little autobot, and he had no plans ever letting you go. One day he'll convince you to switch the symbol on your chassis, joining you to the winning team and giving you the life you deserved.

"No one else can ever have you, you're mine. Only I can provide you with a good life, and that's right at my side. Do you understand?" His words whisper into your audio, making you respond through a low hum.

"I understand."

"That's a good femme."

[pathetic-gamer]

random, deeply unscientific poll time because I'm curious how well this website reflects the overall labor force lol

before you mark "unemployed," READ THE EXPLANATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

DETAILS AND INSTRUCTIONS:

*The number listed beside each category is the number of job positions available to the total workforce, not necessarily the number of people who are actually employed.

*Not having a job does not automatically make you "unemployed." Unemployed means you are a participating member of the workforce but don't have a job currently. To be consider part of the active workforce as defined by the BLS, you MUST be ALL of the following:

16 years of age or older

residing in the 50 states or DC

available for work

actively seeking employment in the last 4 weeks

not on active duty in the military

DO NOT select unemployed unless you meet ALL of the criteria above.

Examples of not having a job but not counting as unemployed: stay-at-home parent (I know this one is a bad reflection of reality, i know i know pls dont yell at me), a full-time student not currently working, a 25 year old who hasn't applied for any jobs in over a few months, someone with a permanent or temporary disability who is either not working/seeking employment or on FMLA.

Other notes and explanation:

This is a list of all non-agriculture industries that employ 10 million or more people, based on the most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The math might be way off bc I wasn't very careful lmao. If you have more than one job across more than one industry, pick the one that makes up the majority of your income.

A handful of familiar sub-industries that make up a portion of a larger industry but are less than 8 million people are listed in the "Other" category so that the much larger sub-industry can have its own line.

For example, healthcare belongs to "healthcare and public services," which is around 22M and includes childcare and social support services. Because direct healthcare delivery makes up such an enormous portion, I separated it out. The rest is fewer than 5M and thus does not get its own line, so they're included in "Other." (Insurance specifically is included in finance.)

More things included in "other":

Construction

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction

Utilities

Real-estate

[walkingstackofbooks]

If you write hurt/comfort, what's the difference between the ratio of h:c you WANT to put in your stories, versus the amount you ACTUALLY put in your stories?

Average it out however you want -- I'm just curious because I know I always aim to put in far more comfort than I usually end up doing!

I've reblogged with Poll 2 so please answer both! I crave data! :P

*If this poll isn't for you then I'm challenging you to schedule this post to reblog in a week so you can see the results then, rather than Clicking This Button :P

[snifferish]

writing my novel has slowed down a lot lately and tbh I think its cause my brain is doing too much, overcomplicating everything. I mean don't get me wrong you can fit a lot of different themes and plotlines in to your literature I just think the more you add the more skill you need. I want to map everything out, or cut stuff out because its become quite the jumbled mess.

Also I'm devastatingly stuck between third and first person perspective, I love them both, they both have their perks, it's just hard to decide.

not that I'm planning on using a tumblr poll to decide but hey, its good data. Also I'm generally curious.

Maybe I need a break, or a short story writing exercise. I hope that with the cold season my motivation comes back.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Anecdotally I definitely would say my center of gravity has shifted much lower since I went on estrogen! Propioception is difficult for me, so exactly where is unclear, but I think somewhere below my belly button at this point.

Though funnily enough, even before then, when I did the basics of parkour dad would always get onto me about focusing too much on my lower body and not enough on my upper body--my weight was distributed relatively top-heavy but something about what felt like the most natural way to move always prioritized the lower body.

AHHHHH this is so cool!!!

I love hearing from other trans people the different ways we're noticing our embodiment of gender change (or NOT change!!!!) in response to our medical transitions. I just think it's so much fun learning more about how and why bodies do things lol

Anyway, I really think it makes sense that it would shift! Because like. It is working in coordination with your strongest force applying muscles surely! So surely it tracks for the CoG to get "dragged" up or down a bit depending on how that has changed in response to our hormones???

I would REALLY love to know more about that tho! Like WHY is it happening and HOW (not least of which because I'm about 8-9 months on T now and I want to know how I might need to learn to carry my body differently)

But ALSO now that you mention it, I think you might be onto something????

Because my center of gravity is "high"! At least in that I need railings set around like. Lower rib cage height??? In order to feel less like I'm "following my CoG over" into that vertigo feeling? And I would say that I have always tended towards a leading CoG somewhere between my belly button and my bra band.

Okay I'm officially curious! Roll call! Where do people notice their center of gravity BEFORE and AFTER medical transition or HRT of any kind - intersex siblings, this includes us - (and what hormones got added to your system) if you've done that?

And secondary rollcall! If you HAVEN'T started medical transition or HRT of any kind, what is your gender, and where is your center of gravity? I don't actually know that it will be helpful in this to include whether you're cis, gnc, trans, nonbinary, etc, but feel free to include that as you're comfortable!

I'm going to reblog this shortly (or link to a new post as appropriate -> HERE BE LINK IF THERE BE LINK) with the "low" CoG poll

[kiragecko]

Now that I'm approaching 1,500 followers, I have some data about how the experience shifts.¹ Starting at 500, because back when I had less than that, the site was ... different.²

500 followers -

a bad post may get no notes. A good one might hit 75.

Notifications of any type are exciting - many days I don't get any. I check each one by looking at the post, and reply to pretty much everyone who replies or tags.

I rarely get messages - I have a friend who sends one occasionally.

750 followers -

A bad post gets 2-3 notes. A good one might hit 200.

Notifications are exciting - I usually get a few while scrolling my dash, and come back to 2 digits when I get up in the morning. I check each reblog by looking at the post, and respond to all replies and pretty much everyone who tags.

I rarely get messages - I have a friend who sends one occasionally.

1000 followers -

A bad post gets 3-10 notes. A good one occasionally blows up, and just keeps circulating.

Notifications are exciting - the speed I get them while scrolling my dash tells me if posts are doing well. I check each reblog with tags/comments by looking at the post, and respond to all replies and people who say interesting things.

I rarely get messages - I have a friend, and an anon, who send one occasionally.

1,500 followers -

A bad post gets 6-20 notes. But somehow, I make more 'good' posts than I used to! Maybe once a month a post starts circulating - not going viral, but getting enough momentum that it keeps trickling notes back to me for the rest of the month. I regularly get over a hundred notes, even on weird stuff with niche appeal.

Notifications are actually getting normalized. I fought this happening, but I'm starting to skim over likes, a bit. I get a new like every few minutes. I usually only check reblogs if their tags interest me. I respond to various types of tags or replies only once - subsequent people are out of luck. Sometimes I get slightly annoyed with myself for reblogging something, because getting notes for THAT post doesn't provoke a sense of belonging. I'd rather people enjoy a DIFFERENT post with me. I'm spoiled by people regularly reblogging with good comments, despite the site culture seeming less and less interested in doing that.

I rarely get messages - I have a friend, and an anon, who send one occasionally.

-

I think the numbers are different for everyone. It depends on how zealous you are about blocking bots. What kind of people are interested in your posts, and how social that group of people is. Whether you reblog polls or not. Many many things change numbers and engagement.

But I can definitely feel that the way I'm interacting with tumblr is shifting as my followers go up. I'm not social enough to engage on the same level I used to. And it's not like my social skills have improved at all! Maybe my post writing skills, but I still don't have a CLUE what to do when people actually talk to me.

I can see why many popular blogs mostly only interact with close friends. Otherwise, Tumblr could become REALLY lonely - a sea of people, none of whom actually know you. I'm not at the point of needing to shut most people out, yet.³ But I can understand why it happens. That's a healthy way of dealing with things!

-

¹ I was always curious about this kind of stuff when I had less followers. I still am. I want to know what the experience is like for other blogs - both with more AND less followers than me!

² People actually sent asks and had reblog conversations. My amount of real interaction was MUCH higher a decade ago.

³ Especially since the blogs I think of as my friends ... do not seem to have any more social skills than I do. They are not carrying the conversational burdens that I'm unable to bear for me! We're all in this together.

[lolottes]

so I'm starting to get fed up with people asking not to use the "danny phantom" tag. I'll continue if I find it relevant because of an argument against it: companies use filters for their studies. They will use the "danny phantom" tag data, they will never take into account the specific crossover tags. it is the same logic as selling tools specific to the disabled (physical; invisible or not, or the various ways of being neuroatypical) to the non-disabled to help their development At the same time, I'm the type to use a lot of variants of tags to express that they're crossovers and I put them first so that they're very visible, even if it means making my tags "interesting" unseen by most people. so yes in the hope of more (good) canon content danny phantom i will continue to use his tags if it is relevant in my post or reblog and here I'm curious if we're like me who thinks the effort to block is worth sending a message of interest to the industry

afterwards it must be said that since the name of a fandom is also that of one of the characters, this does not make things any easier

[infiniteglitterfall]

Okay, here's a strange poll topic. But bear with me.

I went to a fucking AMAZING college. Mills College, in Oakland.

It was for marginalized genders. It had become majority queer, and majority students of color. 41% of its students were first-generation college students. A ton of students were resumers, finally able to finish their college degrees.

Going there meant you got something marginalized people almost never get: the sense of a history, a curriculum, a world built by and for people like you.

It had awesome interdisciplinary programs. You could learn anything, really, and figure out how it connected to your major somehow. Major in Biochem with a focus on environmental science, and gobble up all the Ethnic Studies classes you liked, then do a senior project on the impact of climate change in the global South. Do Data Science and take all the Book Arts classes, then, idk, create open source software that lets people print art books on 3D printed mini presses.

So OF COURRRRRSE the clueless Board of Trustees decided that it wasn't profitable enough. Not businesslike enough. Shut it down. And gave all its assets to global chain school Northeastern University.

But also: OF COUURRRRSSEEE we cannot leave it at that.

We have all the collective knowledge to rebuild it, as a low-residency university. Where you have a one-week in-person intensive each semester, (with remote options for accessibility), and the rest is online.

I'm working on rallying the alums and planning this out.

What I want to know, more than anything, is -- assuming this was a doable price and/or you got a scholarship --

This poll is not legally binding, obvs. I'm just super curious about how many people on Tumblr would hear, "hey this is basically a queer/trans school with some cool cis women," and jump at the chance.

Even if you skip the poll: if you think it would be nice for this to exist, please reblog.

[random-thought-depository]

I am curious what percentage of the population fits Jacopo-Belbo's definition of a functional adult (or, at least, the part of their definition they communicate in that post).

Jacopo-Belbo's declared standard for functional adulthood, in case you don't want to click the link (I'm not reblogging their post or tagging them on this because I judge it likely they'd be annoyed by that):

Re: ongoing first aid kit discourse, if you don’t have the following you’re not a functional adult: in-person Stop The Bleed training (USA, I don’t know about equivalent training in other countries, Google is free, stop asking me), NAR combat application tourniquets, Celox z-fold gauze, TacMed OLAES pressure dressing, NAR chest seals, and an annoying little bag to carry it all around in.

My offhand guess is that most people are not "functional adults" by this standard, so "if you don’t have the following you’re not a functional adult" here is roughly equivalent to "if you're a good person you wouldn't eat meat"; you can't really prove it wrong because of the inherent subjectivity of moral statements, but you can correctly point out that it's detached from the material conditions and normal standards of the society it was made in (and the person who made it probably knows that, and the statement reflects their belief in the superiority of their own standards over the normative ones of their society) and that lots of people who aren't "functional adults" by Jacopo-Belbo's definition are functional in the sense that they're getting by.

I don't actually have much data to back up that guess though, just some observations and inferences from my own experiences. So I decided to take advantage of Tumblr's new poll function to make a little calibration test of my intuitions. Also, that post does seem to have a lot of notes, and I'm curious how much of that is full agreement vs. reblogging to spread around the links and partial agreement but not fully endorsing it, and I think this poll might give me some sense of the probable rough breakdown of that.

I know Tumblr polls can be pretty unrepresentative because of social network effects, but I think this matter is probably going to be pretty orthogonal to the ways people who read my blog are likely to be unrepresentative of the general population.

Of course, one possible biasing factor is the post this is responding to stigmatizes not having this sort of preparation, and my poll question reproduces their framing for brevity. If it helps, a quick Google search says votes in Tumblr polls are anonymous, so you need not worry about being embarrassed, and you are completely free to reject Jacopo-Belbo's moral judgment about what answering "no" would say about you as a person (your thoughts are your own, after all). I'm not particularly interested in having a discussion about the reasonableness of their standards (which is why I haven't given my "take" on that question here), but I will note that at least in the richer and more stable countries nowadays most people will never have to treat a serious wound without assistance from medical professionals and this sort of wound-care training and supplies is one of those things where you'll probably never use it, but it's better to have it and not need it than to encounter a situation where you need it and don't have it. I'll also note that I suspect that post has an element of staking out a maximal position in response to maximal positions in the opposite direction (original discussion is here, here, and here if anyone wants to review it, I confess I have not done so because... well, look at the note count on the first one) and I'm not sure whether it's fully unironically endorsed by its own maker (the last criteria seems a little tongue-in-cheek).

Please note that I do not intend this post as an incitement to send internet hate mail to anyone; if you disagree with one of the participants in the linked threads and want to express your disagreement directly to them that's your right, but, like, I'm not encouraging that and if I wanted to start an argument with someone here I'd have reblogged or @ them. You do have my permission and encouragement to reblog this post to increase the sample size of my poll, though I'd prefer if this didn't get spread around too much.

I might pin this to the top of my Tumblr for a little while, to increase my sample size.

I think I forgot to switch the poll duration from 1 day to 1 week in my previous version of this post and I can't edit the poll once I've posted it, so I deleted and reposted with a 1 week limit. Sorry! However, @aurpiment already responded to my first version of this post, so I preserve their reply here:

Oh that’s my mutual! They were using hyperbolic language in frustration with another post on which there was discourseabout whether it’s reasonable to expect a household to have a first aid kit. Some people on that post thought first aid in general was unnecessary. I think you’re rather focused on the functional adult terminology. The spirit of their post is “of course you should know basic first aid, are you kidding me? It saves lives. It’s embarrassing to say first aid isn’t important. Go learn first aid for serious physical trauma.”

[re-locative]

Making an app feel like a place: real-time, persistence, pictures and words

The first room in Experiment 2.

I've always been fascinated with apps that convey a sense of things happening "in the same place." From Minecraft servers to shared Google documents, many virtual platforms seem to foster a sense of shared geography by virtue of their design.

Ever since the research survey, I feel like I'm approaching a sense of what makes a virtual platform feel like a place, and the most succinct way to state those insights thus far is that it's a combination of:

Real-time

Persistence

Pictures, and

Words.

To break this down a little: the platform should support a back and forth of interactions between users who are present at the same time. This makes up what some refer to as co-presence (Schroeder, 2002). It should also support scattered, accumulative interactions between users who are not present at the same time. Changes made by one person should alter the app's state for everyone else, but also remain in place for subsequent users to see and engage with.

As for what media actually gets sent/placed in an app like this, this varies massively across platforms with different aims, but for something to feel like a place, it seems that the minimum is a combination of both spatial (i.e. visual or positional) and precise (textual) communication. (While media types aren't the focus of this post, it's a curious hunch that I will explore later.)

All of these traits would ideally be woven together into a single continuous interaction experience (rather than separate texting, drawing and streaming features, for example). The user does the rest of the work: the feeling of place emerges from what they do with the platform.

And it largely cannot be forced. But when it happens, it can be exciting.

---

So, let's start designing a place-like app from first principles!

It's easy to take for granted all the design elements needed to project an app's capabilities. People don't automatically "buy into" the synchronicity and asynchronicity of an app: it must be built to telegraph these features. They must be made aware that:

There are others are "present" on the same platform,

Their actions are being broadcast to all concurrent users as they happen, and,

Their changes won't simply vanish after the browser is closed.

#3 seems complex to telegraph, but it is actually the easiest solved. New users should be introduced to the app via an instance (document, room, world, whatever) that is not blank. Ideally, it would already been altered in deliberate ways.

Oftentimes, having something already there is simply the natural result of a user bringing a friend into the experience, but if you're the one launching it, you might want to put something clearly hand-made in the very first instance you publish, an exemplar to "seed" the possibilities of the app. Approach it playfully.

Now for the pricklier part. We would like our place-like app to feel synchronous, so it should update in real time. What are some ways to do this?

While I don't want to bring too much jargon into this, we can't really discuss this in abstract without at least touching on what technologies are available to us.

Before the PhD, all my synchronous apps worked by polling a server. For lightweight apps without much of a userbase, it does the job. It's how my first PhD related web project, Two Map, works, actually. An app that tacitly plots movement on a map, it sends your location data back to a server and retrieves any updates since the last call.

(My supervisor called this a "stalker app," which isn't wrong! I figured that any location-based app I made would have to explicitly request consent from the user before starting, or give the option to pick a location. But that for another post.)

But polling a server becomes a problem if more people are using an app and too many simultaneous updates emerge as a real concern.

The most accessible solution for web development is websockets, and for ease I went with Pusher, which lets you set up a websocket server with a free plan + paid tiers scaling to number of messages a day. Most programming languages/libraries that interface with the internet support TCP or UDP sockets in some form and one can pick based on needs and resources.

Whatever the protocol used, these are low-overhead connections that are kept open between app instances to relay very short segments of data - enough, usually, for you to convey and update positioning, URL pointers, and text content, or to signal for an app to refresh.

Pretty cool! But beyond the technicalities, we also need to think about how to show users that this open connection exists. The easiest and perhaps most obvious is real-time visual updates. A user adds something to the page, that thing shows up on everyone's page.

But what happens for a user who's using the app at a time when no one else is online?

That seems little outside of one's control, but there actually is a way to telegraph synchronicity even then: by letting past concurrent users record their synchronous interactions in a clear, textual way.

From the first board in Experiment 3.

This is where the persistence of communicative features is paramount: if a user sees something pop up, they can react immediately with text or an image, and said reaction is preserved on the canvas. This demonstrates to fellow users, present and future, that the interaction happened as a back and forth!

Future users may not necessarily come to this conclusion from seeing past interactions, but it certainly doesn't hurt to support it.

Finally, there are more explicit ways to show that there are other people around, from user icons in a corner, to a "N users online" slug, to cursors or avatars on the page. These are often collectively called presence indicators in corporate speak.

I like to employ spatialised presence indicators (like cursors that show "where" other users' cursors are), but implementing realtime cursor indicators can be heavy on the TCP/UDP server, so since I am lacking a budget, I settle for an indicator that updates when the user makes a significant interaction (e.g. clicking the canvas to open a form).

As with everything else, this requires buy-in from the users. They need to want to play with it! There are ways to invite play, and that could be the subject of another post. But set up the platform right, and you're at least delivering an open invitation for such interactions.

That's all for today - thanks for reading! I'm excited to delve into each of the experiments in more detail next.

[nsfwrpg]

Greetings and happy holidays from me to you!

We would like to do another go at giving recognition for your hard work over the past year. Fixing last year’s mistake is our top priority this time around, so we would like to ask your readers to let us know what their favorite work from you is! No generalized categories designed to snub anyone or ruin another’s confidence, it’s practically a general survey this time around.

Please give us your consideration and thoughts!

Well, I decided that this was definitely more reasonable than what you guys did last year for the other writers. So I decided to open up a poll to make it easier for you guys to gather the data (definitely not just because I'm curious as well...)

So here's the poll, it contains the fics I've posted in the past calendar year, so January 1st and on. So 6 fics over 12 months... not too shabby from someone whose life changed so quickly. In this poll, you can vote for multiple fics, and I decided to let you guys vote unlimited times because if you really like a fic of mine then feel free to vote as many times as you like. It will close on the last day of my semester (December 16th, at 11:59pm, just like how my profs assign due dates) so you'll have plenty of time to get your votes in and I'll post the results the day after.

[eight-years-revolution]

I've finally closed the poll! You should be able to see the results here. Thank you to all 123 people who participated!

Of course it's only a small sample of the amount of people who have played through the chapter, so the results are to be taken with a grain of salt, but I'm still happy with how many of you decided to answer the poll!

Most of the results are pretty expected, considering the previous polls, but there are a couple of surprises too!

I'm going to go in a little more details about them under a read more.

Of course, compassionate is still the most popular trait and most people still favor charisma as their main skill. I do find it interesting what people chose for their secondary, tertiary and last skill though. Charisma is not only the favorite first choice, it's also the favorite second choice! And while guile is the last choice when it comes to the 1st skill, people seem to have martial prowess as their weakest skill most of the time.

The hobbies are fairly evenly spread overall, with music being the most popular. Shout out to the 2 people who managed to unlock wall climbing as their hobby lol.

Ajmal is still a very popular romance option and most MCs seem to have a good relationship with Zanetta. Felice is the newcomer, so I was very curious to see how players would handle them and I'm actually pleasantly surprised to see the results. They're a lot more divided than for the other characters and I think that's a good reflection of the ambivalence I wanted to create.

But what surprised me the most was how many people actually got to read Marli's backstory. This one is hidden under so many conditions that I thought very few people would even find it. To get the whole story, you need a heard-of-hearing MC, have martial prowess as your main skill, train with Marli, get him to leave to the kitchen and follow him there.

That's all I wanted to go over for now, I'll let you explore the rest of the results and if you have any questions about any of them, don't hesitate to ask!

[onepiece-polls]

Why make your life hard? 32/64 bracket that is fair via number of submissions? Like why make more bracket stuff than you have to? Polyships are popular enough, I'd think, to make it into this.

But, you have the data and know yourself and we all love and appreciate you doing these polls that spark lots of joy. So, in short, you should do what ~you~ want to do. We're just here for the ride.

I suggested the seperate poly ship bracket mainly because I just love poly ships and that way more of them would make it in 😛 (but also more duo ships, so win-win 🤷‍♀️)

There will probably be a time when I would regret that (that time when I have to make the polls), but for now it still sounds like fun!

But anyway, I couldn't really decide, because on the other hand I'm also curious how the poly ships would do when they're up against duo ships so... I thought I'd let you decide.

Whatever the outcome will be, it will be a tough decision when it comes to which ships with the lower submissions would get in. (that's why it might not be fair to do a poly ship bracket seperately, especially when it would let in ships that have 1 submission - since duo ships with 1 submission won't make it in either. But that's up to you to decide.)