#hey look! it's the content this blog was originally supposed to have!

[bunnwich]

It's Supposed to Be Fun

(a letter to my friends in the twst fandom)

I've been wanting to make this post for a while and these thoughts may seem scattered but I’m gonna try to express them. 

Lately, I have seen many friends and moots that either are leaving the fandom or feel guilty over not having posted in a while or losing interest in twst. On the other side, I also have friends being harassed.

This a reminder to remember why you joined this community to begin with. I know that keeping up with the fast-moving pace of fandom and comparing ourselves to others, can skew our perspective on these things.

It’s supposed to be fun. 

Why do we post art or write? Sure, partly for recognition, there's no denying that. But, why do we create, I mean really? For enjoyment. Not for others, not to be “popular” FOR JOY.

So, whether you’re dealing with people critiquing you or feeling guilty about not creating. My question is this: Why waste so much of your time on something that makes you miserable?

Did it stop being fun? Why? Haters? Loss of interest?

To my friends who feel guilty for not creating and not sure if they lost interest in twst: 

Don’t feel guilty. At one time, the creation of your twst content was natural. It's what you did for fun with friends or for yourself. Revisit that mindset and think - if creating twst content now will bring that same joy it did before.

If the answer is no, then maybe it’s time to pivot. It’s okay for interests to fade. It doesn’t mean that time, memories, or the friends you made are lost. Connect with your friends, we will understand! We still love you! It's not a race there's no time limit, just pick up were you want to. Draw fanart of old events or OCs.

To my friends who have been harassed: 

I say this with sincerity…. People who harass others over fictional characters are fucking losers.

Like… There’s no other eloquent way to encapsulate it. I’m starting to not care for the reason anymore - If you harass or be shady to others over a ship or fictional character. CONGRATS! YOU ARE A LOSER.

We all join fandoms as a hobby, for fun. We’re all just kids in the sandbox playing pretend again… and if you are the type of person to go up just to “kick the doll out of someone’s hand" or make commentary on how “their way of playing is wrong." You’re a loser. I have a life outside of twst, we all do. Someone saying my ship is wrong or cringe is just so laughable to me. We have to make fun of these people more for being so goddamn lame.

Imagine being so unhappy that when you see someone having fun you HAVE to comment on it. By all means, if it gets you through the day...talk shit to close friends or even post about it on your own blog. (THAT WAS ALWAYS ALLOWED.) Don't bother creators directly. Don't be a loser. I sure see tolerance leave people’s bodies when they see a fandom opinion they don't like. (And this is coming from someone who has lots of opinions on these things! But that's why I always put the disclaimers that, hey this is just MY opinion.)

Discussion is one thing, unhelpful comments are another. We shouldn’t give these people the time of day. Curate your online space. Yes, when you post things online you are subjecting yourself to scrutiny. But, we as creators need to stop letting these people have power over us. Period. We do this for free!! FOR FUN. The best thing you can do is create shamelessly.

Delete weird replies, block whoever you need to do to rid yourself of these people who have nothing better to do. Keep your peace. It’s supposed to be for fun. You don’t owe anyone a response.

The twst fandom is like a little family to me and I guess I feel protective over the people in it?  I have made many friends and memories because I joined it. And even dispite a handful of the negative experiences (AKA: A couple of “losers" that I’ve had to deal with.) I’ll always look fondly back on this time.

The key for me has always been to just…create for myself. I originally made bunnwich for me and one friend to make fun little arts about our Yuu’s and now I get to have lots of friends to share it with! I’ve transitioned from an OC blog to probably more of an Oc x Canon blog…but I don’t care tbh. I just…draw what I feel like. I know there are people who probably dislike me for that or feel strange about my content and that’s fine. I’m still gonna keep drawing it, loser.  

And I just want you guys to do the same, twst or not.

I can’t forget that all my followers and friends are a bonus, if I had never joined tumblr I’d still be drawing the silly shit I draw in peace. And while yes, I do want to grow as an artist and sell more merch and keep growing... I can’t forget my initial excitement for this silly little game. I like to talk about it. I like to write about it. It inspires me.

It’s supposed to be fun. Please remember that. I know it can be discouraging to have others being shitty to you. Or going through a creative drought. But, try not to let this stop you from creating what you love.

[thewritergremlin-rae]

Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall - Who's the Most Alien of Them All?

Pairing: Loki x Reader Characters: Loki, Thor, Brock Rumlow, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Frigga, Heimdall Rating: T Words: 3229 Content: 2nd person, kidnapping, chloroform, manipulation, soulmate AU, Hydra!SHIELD at work, set during/post Avengers 1 Summary: You'd never thought there was anything strange about your soulmate in the mirror, apart from how handsome he was, but as fate would have it - he's trying to invade New York. Ao3: HERE Notes: I am an absolute sucker for Soulmate AUs so here we are! I'm thinking of using this same AU for some others (Bucky and Steve) but I'm not sure if it'll be in same universe

In this AU, you see your soulmates face as your own reflection~ THIS IS A REPOST OF MY OWN WORK I accidentally deleted the original post so the read more doesn't work on my own blog 😭

Banners by cafekitsune

Something considered normal would rarely be considered wrong. 

So, registering your soulmate’s image via looking in a mirror at 18 and having a photo snapped had never worried you.

Everyone did it.

It was normal.

It was safe. 

It was how most people found their soulmates, and even then some just didn’t.

This early spring day started as every day usually did. You got up and ready for work, took public transport to the office, and logged in at 9 a.m. 

Lunch came and went, spent with the coworkers you got along with best, all venting about the small annoyances of the morning. You all returned to the office and the afternoon crawled by.

Last minute, your boss asked you to finish a report now rather than tomorrow morning and you waved goodbye to your co-workers with a shrug and a put-upon smile. They’d all been in your position at one time or another. No-one found it strange.

The report dragged on for a few hours and you had no idea why it couldn’t wait until tomorrow, but your boss was hardly known for his patience. He at least had the decency to stay behind too. 

You sighed and printed a quick copy before knocking on the door to your boss’s office. 

He called out and told you to come in, taking the report when you handed it over. His eyes barely scanned it before he spoke again; “Hey, I know it’s late, but we have a visitor in the conference room. Go keep them company, will you? It will just take a couple of minutes.” 

You bit back the sigh and the roll of your eyes, knowing both could lose you your job. Stupid, tight ass boss. “No problem, boss,” were the words that came out of your mouth, a false smile before you turned and left - heading to the conference room.

You took the liberty of rolling your eyes hard before you plastered the smile back on and pushed the door open. “Hello.” You stepped into the room and held out your hand as you gave your name. “Mr. Dickson is sorry to keep you waiting, but how can I help you?” 

Not the normal sort of client, if a client he was. Most clients showed up in suits or some sort of business attire, but this man wore a black T-shirt, combats, and a jacket certainly not of the suit kind. 

“Brock Rumlow.” He smirked over at you and you saw the way his eyes gave you a once over. Slowly. Urgh. Double ugh when he continued with; “No problem at all, sweetheart. Don’t suppose you could get me a coffee?”  He nodded over to the machine as he eased back into his seat. 

“Of course, sir,” you answered with a smile.

“Feel free to grab yourself one, too. Your boss sent you in here to keep me company, huh?” 

“Something like that, Mr. Rumlow.” The pot only needed warming before you poured two cups and offered him one, taking a seat opposite the man.

“I hope he doesn’t make you stay this late all the time, I hate it when my boss makes me work overtime.” He snorted and rolled his eyes as he took a sip of his coffee. “Do this, do that, clean up some mess, collect an alien’s soulmate, kill that politician, clean up more mess. Not a day’s rest I tell ya.” 

You nodded politely, staring down at your cup as you fully processed his words. Aliens, soulmates… killing politicians? You didn’t know which was the most out there. “I-’m sorry I’m not sure I follow…” 

He only looked more delighted at your confusion and the way your body had stiffened. “Well, you see, sweetheart, there’s this guy, Loki, who showed up outta nowhere and, see, he talks a big game about taking over the Earth and we figured, seeing as you’re his soulmate, that he might rethink those big ideas if we offer you up instead.” Brock shrugged as if this was just casual conversation and didn’t have you frozen in your seat. “’Course, if that doesn’t work, maybe threatening to harm ya will change his tune. But what do I know about aliens? I’m just part of the STRIKE team.” 

Brock smiled, as though he hadn’t just threatened you or spouted what sounded like absolute bullshit. A beat passed as you stared into the cup in your hands, eyes unseeing. “So why don’t we-” 

He growled angrily as you threw the coffee and the cup containing it at him and jolted to your feet, running for the door, pulling it open-

Your short-lived escape attempt ended when another similarly dressed and built man stepped into view. His hands clamped down on your arms and the panic really set in as you protested and tried to escape. “Let me go!” You kicked and thrashed, hoping the noise might cause your boss to call the cops, but that small slice of hope was soon ripped from you. He appeared from his office, face like thunder. 

“You said this would be quick, hurry up before someone hears this racket.” 

Brock huffed from behind you, fingers sliding into your hair and tugging hard to drag your head back. “We coulda done this the nice way, bitch, but that’s off the table.” He pressed a cloth to your mouth, harder than necessary.

The thought of not breathing hadn’t even crossed your mind before the fumes entered your body and you soon slumped into unconsciousness.

You woke already knowing you weren’t at home. Everything felt off and you hadn’t even opened your eyes yet as you laid on what felt like a bed. You took a shallow breath, trying to remember, but everything before falling asleep stayed fuzzy at the edges. 

You had been to work and… right, your boss had made you stay late and there had been coffee and…

Your eyes snapped open but so far it seemed like you were alone. The edge of the bed wasn’t far from the wall and you hesitated before rolling over. Good. No-one there either and this side of the wall had windows.

You shuffled over to them, eyebrows furrowing at their size. Small and curved at the edges. you slid the blind up to be met with the sight of clouds and uninterrupted sky. 

You scrambled to the edge of the bed and the one door that led in and out of the room. “Hey! Hey!” you yelled, banging on the door, fear skittering through you. How long ago had last night been? What time was it now? Where were you now?

“Quit ya banging!” A stern thump that made the door rattle had you stumbling back and falling down to sit on the edge of the bed. “We’re nearly there, no need to get your panties in a twist, bitch.” It sounded like the man you’d met in the office… Brock if you remembered correctly.

He’d certainly changed his tune, but you had thrown coffee at him. Bastard deserved it. 

“Where are we going?!” You had no idea if he would answer, if anyone would. Did it even really matter?

You were to be offered up as some consolation prize to an alien invader in the hopes he might go away. 

You weren’t convinced of the plan; who would change their plans for the mere idea and appearance of their soulmate. You probably wouldn’t if you were in Loki’s position. 

“New York,” came the answer before you heard footsteps leave the door. 

You sank to the bed and flopped back on it, unsure what to do with yourself or for the rest of the flight.

You sat in what had to be some kind of interrogation room, a bit rich considering these guys had kidnapped you. A window made up much of the wall in front of you; the blank expanse of glass left you with nothing to look at but the reflection of your soulmate. It hadn’t changed for several years, but you’d noticed recently his hair had grown longer and it didn’t seem as well kept as before.

The sharp lines of his face had always left you flustered, but now they left you worried at the gaunt paleness that clung to him. What had happened? You couldn’t possibly know, you didn’t even know his name. Well, you hadn’t.

Loki. An alien. An invader. 

You continued to sit silently in the chair, not knowing that an agent and your soulmate’s brother were busy deciding your fate.

“Father will not be pleased. Midgardians are not welcome to our realm and Loki is likely to remain in prison the remainder of her short life.” Thor spoke calmly but firmly. “Besides which, you tell me she is dangerous? A criminal? Why should Asgard take a criminal of Midgard to the golden realm? I do not think our prison is the best place to introduce them.” Thor couldn’t be certain, but he doubted the two would get along from what SHIELD had told him. 

His brother would likely perceive another criminal as a threat or he would keep his guard up. Loki was not one for letting people in so easily. Especially not now. Whether she deserved kindness or not, he doubted Loki would afford her any.

“What if your brother wants to bring her?” 

Thor’s eyes narrowed, giving the agent a sidelong glance. Hardly normal to accept a prisoner’s request… but he did love his brother fiercely - despite his recent tricks. “If,” Thor stressed, “Loki wants to bring her… I may agree,” Thor conceded. But he doubted such a thing would happen. “I will speak with him.” 

Neither you or Thor knew the thin thread by which your fate hung.

The car rumbled through central park, you seated in the back wearing handcuffs and some gag like thing over your mouth that stopped you speaking. You still wore the bright orange scrubs and white shirt as though they’d plucked you from a prison somewhere.

You were free of Rumlow at least, you didn’t even know if the agent driving knew that you hadn’t been picked up from a penitentiary. This new one aligned more with what you imagined an ‘agent’ to be. Black suit, white shirt, sunglasses. Very Men In Black, which, ironic, since you were about to meet two aliens. 

The car came to a stop and you looked out at the people milling around. You only recognised two for sure - one of them being your soulmate. Tony Stark confused you, for a moment, before you recalled his shift into heroism the last few years. 

An equally tall, blond man held your soulmate's arm just above his elbow, so you had to assume this was the brother you’d heard murmurs about. 

Your car door opened and a hand grabbed similarly below your elbow to help you out. Curious eyes turned on you and all you could do was silently, desperately, plead for someone to step in. Someone to take the gag off. You just needed one of them to be curious. 

“Er… I don’t remember any plus ones going out to this little party.” Tony Stark gave the agent at your side a look over the top of his sunglasses, his gaze briefly sliding to you. 

“She’s Loki’s soulmate,” the agent replied, no judgement but not much other emotion in his voice. He turned and marched you towards the pair of aliens. 

“Now, hang on a minute.” A different voice objecting this time and you craned your head behind you to see a blond dressed in a check shirt and a brown jacket. You thought you might have seen his face somewhere before, but you weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders and you couldn’t place him. “She might be a criminal of some kind, but you’re going to send her to another planet?” 

“I’m sorry, Captain, but it seems she may be more dangerous than a Midgardian prison could handle,” Thor answered. “My brother told me he has made many a visit to her on Earth.” Fucking news to you! Your eyes flicked to Loki, brows furrowed, but he didn’t meet your gaze. “I do not think he could have taught her many of the tricks he uses, but SHIELD assures me that they have indeed met before.” 

Now you understood the reason for the gag. Can’t contradict made up bullshit if you can’t speak. You were about to turn a furious gaze on the agent that brought you out of the car when the soft clinking of a chain drew your attention.

Loki curled a chained arm around your waist, grip firm, and tugged your back flush against him. The action forestalled anything you had been about to do or say and you attempted to catch his eye. He ducked his head and you felt the cool press of his own gag to the top of your head. 

The gesture had you stilling in surprise and seemed to only cement the story that Thor had been spun.

You felt eyes on the two of you, studying intently, before Loki’s little stunt seemed to be accepted as proof and preparations began again. You assumed for travel to this Asgard, but how exactly? There weren’t any space ships nearby and you were fairly certain the car you’d arrived in wasn’t about to escape Earth’s atmosphere.

Something with Loki here?

Thor reappeared in your line of sight holding one of two handles of some canister. A blue cube glowed inside, but it didn’t make any more sense than it had a few minutes ago. He caught your eye, his look intense and serious. “Make sure you do not let go or you will be lost to space as Loki was before he came here.” 

You felt like meaning lay beneath the words, something you were supposed to glean from them, but still struggling to process what had happened the last few days you simply nodded and took hold of the other handle. Loki’s hand settled beside yours, overlapping slightly. Unsure if this stemmed from kindness, or an attempt to be sure you didn’t let go. or something else to drag you further into the fiction and lies that had been created around you... Well, you had no way to protest, anyway.

You hoped nobody would spend too long looking for you. Maybe the local police had already told everyone you were dead, covering up the act that you still couldn’t quite understand. 

You wondered if you would ever see Earth again after this.

Your hand unknowingly reached for Loki’s at your waist, gripping tightly in fear of what was to come and in sorrow that you didn’t know what mess you were leaving behind. 

Silence as Thor turned the handle, anticlimactic, but you felt it as your stomach dropped similarly to when an elevator descends too quickly and you were pulled upwards. The blur of colours was almost too much for your eyes to bear as your vision blurred, but soon enough your feet settled on solid ground once more. 

You desperately blinked back the blurring at the edges of your vision to take in the bright gold that lined the room you had landed in. Or maybe an observatory of some kind.

“Welcome home,” a deep but firm voice greeted, your eyes drawn to a man in gold armour whose eyes glowed just as brightly as the metal. He sheathed the sword into the metal stand in front of him and approached the three of you.

You thought you could see something sad in his gaze as he touched the metal on your face, drawing it easily away from you and returning your ability to speak. “I am sorry you were dragged into this mess, miss.” 

“How did you…?” 

“My name is Heimdall and my duty is to watch over the Nine Realms. While I cannot see all at once, and some have managed to evade my sight in the past,” At this he gave Loki a look before returning his gaze to you - eyes softening once more, “I have kept an eye on your journey these past few days.” 

“Heimdall, of what do you speak?” Thor asked in utter confusion. 

But you found the words and breath to speak first. “They lied to you, I’m not an inmate! I’ve never even gotten a parking ticket!” you protested, courage mounting with every word you got out. “I was just doing my job like always and a couple of thugs came to the office and kidnapped me.” A squeeze at your waist reminded you of Loki’s presence and you pulled out of his grip, turning your annoyance on him. “And we have never met! I’ve only ever seen his reflection.” 

“Loki-” Thor growled at his brother, but received only a simple shrug and a look that lacked all remorse in reply. “Why did you-?”

Warm hands took your wrists and distracted you, your gaze drawn by watching Heimdall break the cuffs on your wrists as easily as if they were made of paper. “My apologies, miss. I had no way of letting anyone on Earth know of the misconception.” He didn’t smile, per se, but he seemed genuine and his greeting kind. 

He took a step back and you breathed with relief to finally be free of all your chains. “At least someone knows what’s going on.” Though Loki had to have known too, so why had he lied to Thor and SHIELD? “How exactly am I supposed to get home?” you asked, looking between the two brothers as if scolding children. 

“Heimdall is to use the Tesseract to restore the Bifrost and once it’s fixed, he will be able to send you home. If I can, I will return with you and explain the situation to the Avengers - they’ll be sure to help,” Thor rushed to assure you.

To be fair, they had tried, but Thor had been so convinced by SHIELD… Well, he just seemed to have gotten all mixed up in all of this so you nodded. “So, I’ll just have to wait until the bridge is fixed?” 

Thor smiled brightly this time, like the sun bursting through on a cloudy day. “Yes, just until it is fixed. I’m sure Mother will be happy to provide hospitality.” 

“I see my son is already volunteering me.” Her voice sounded light and happy despite the situation, drifting over from some as yet unseen doorway off to the side. 

“Your Majesty.” Heimdall bowed to her and you quickly followed suit - you didn’t want to end up in the dungeons for however long it would take to fix the Bifrost. 

You straightened up to find her gentle smile turned your way, her beauty and motherly face stealing your breath. “I’m glad to finally meet you, though you are such a familiar sight that I feel as though I know you already.” Her arm settled softly around your shoulders and she started to steer you along the beautiful bridge you stood on. 

Loki huffed behind you and you wondered if he might be embarrassed? No, probably not.

“I’m sorry you were brought here under such circumstances, but welcome to Asgard.” Weird space travel and spy stories coming to life aside, maybe spending some time in the golden city laid out before you wouldn’t be so bad. 

Want to be tagged in future parts or future Loki fic? Go here

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

hey, im assuming its a mistake but just fyi the whole vague "noticing patterns" language is an antisemitic dogwhistle: https://www.tumblr.com/onethirdofimpossible/726829590062006272?source=share

no idea who the account you shared from is, just wanted to pass this on!

Okay so I got this message when I woke up this morning and decided to delete the post until I got around to checking out the OP's blog. Nothing about their blog has anything to do with antisemitic movements or even hints at potential content like that.

The original post is this

It's specifically referring to literature and academia (don't love that it's tagged with harry potter but I know that fandom is still tied up to those circles)

I think we have to be careful about policing speech and "calling out" things that may not actually be there. I get that the point of a dog whistle is that no one is supposed to understand what it means except the Nazis. But these people really aren't as slick as they think they are with this sort of thing.

A good example is the "okay" sign that got co-opted as a white power dog whistle. It's been used pretty obviously by white supremists who think they're being really clever about it but like... they're using it in the middle of a "white power" rally while waving Nazi flags. It's not exactly subtle.

Whereas we also used that sign in scuba diving to signal "okay", with a thumbs up being "ascend" (which confused the hell out of me as chronic "thumb up-er" when I was learning). I'm pretty sure when we're signaling "okay" 20m under the ocean we're not secretly signally "white power". Context is important.

This post and everyone reblogging it is not talking about any sort of conspiracy theory - just how being in a fandom and being excited about something makes you notice patterns and parallels. It's also kind of an "autism meme" too.

But idk... I know when people reach out to "let me know" about something, it's in good faith but it's... frustrating when the context is pretty obviously not that. Being paranoid about dog whistles is kind of the whole point of them.

White supremists/antisemites ect. like having power over others by making them question reality and gaslighting them. But again, they're usually about as subtle as a brick wall about this sort of thing. Not saying they can't be quiet about it sometimes but ... it usually isn't hard to spot. Especially on personal blogs.

Maybe I'm just tired that leftist spaces continue to try to tone police and "call out" their own in-groups *just in case* someone might be a secret Nazi while the real actual Nazis and Christian Nationalists are quite literally taking over the American government (which affects the entire world, especially countries where I live like Australia that are allies with the US and extremely influenced by their politics).

And actual Nazis aren't even using dog whistles any more, they're marching in the streets loud and proud because they feel empowered enough to do so...

So idk... maybe lets focus on that and work on mobilising and organising against what is going to be a really rough 4 years.... Though I wouldn't even be surprised if it goes beyond that, looking at past history and what happens when fascism takes power...

[ntmx8783]

Nakata's Sri Lanka Diary

Title: Nakata's Sri Lanka Diary Author: Nanako Tsujimura Originally Posted: November 26th, 2019 -- First posted in the The Case Files of Jeweler Richard Fanbook

TL under the cut in full. I had a lot of fun translating this one! I hope to translate some other short stories from the fanbook soon too, but it may take a while.

I suddenly have free-time.

Hey, Iggy here.

Just like the title says, I suddenly have some free time in Sri Lanka. The client I was supposed to visit had to go on an urgent trip, so it turns out I have the whole day off.

Since I have the chance to do whatever I want, and my Boss said I couldn’t study, I’d like to ask for your opinions on what I should do. I’m pretty sure there aren’t many people living in Sri Lanka that read this blog so general suggestions are fine too. Whatever you like to do to relax and stuff.

By the way, I usually like to cook when my friend from work visits me here, but I recently realised I don’t really cook for myself. The curry from Sri Lankan restaurants is just too good.

Ely_03 Heya, Iggy! I always have fun reading your blog here in Greece. My daughter is studying abroad in Japan right now so I’m interested in Japanese culture. I’m really happy I’ve found this blog.

1975Hallelujah Are there any nightclubs? Have you tried finding one? Greetings from Egypt!

BB_Typhoon How about cleaning your room? It’s probably surprisingly messy.

Archangel Hello, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Iggy. If you’re in Sri Lanka, I've heard there’s a type of spa called an ‘ayurveda’. Because it’s a cultural aspect you haven’t experienced before, and because you happen to have the day off, wouldn’t you agree it’d be nice to go see what it has to offer?

I found this place online. I think it looks rather pleasant.

[This link can only be seen by site administrators.]

Please take care on your day off.

I went to an ayurveda spa!

Hey, Iggy here!

Thank you for the comments on my last post.

I was super excited to try something new again, so I ended up going to the spa Archangel recommended. Those sorts of places have a bit of a reputation as being somewhere only women go to in my country, but it ended up being so relaxing that I wish I had visited one sooner…

Also, the masseuse there spoke Tamil! I wish I had been able to talk to her a bit more.

I feel really refreshed thanks to you guys.

Well then, until next time!

Archangel Mr. Iggy, there’s truly nothing better than having pleasant days. I consider the most effective method for your studies to be thinking of language and gemstones as two wheels on a bike. By learning about them in tandem, I hope that the study of both will become more enjoyable henceforth.

Punk_Of_England I always have a blast reading about whatever fun thing you’re doing! If there had been a ‘Like!’ button, I’d probably have spammed it by now. Take care of yourself, yeah?

Man, anonymity sure is convenient.

Three-Wheeler

Hey, Iggy here. Sorry for the lack of updates recently.

Does anybody remember the last time I posted, when I mentioned buying a small type of car called a three-wheeler? Well, I’ve become a bit addicted to driving it around lately.

I had a license back in my home country, but I was the type of person that didn’t own a car or bike or anything, so it wasn’t until I rode one of these here that I realised how fun it could be.

The one I have is the version that only has a canopy overhead instead of a roof. Feeling the wind on my face is great!

I drove past the water reservoir and spotted waterfowl on the lake there. Seeing that made me feel really content.

Well, I’m going to go study now. I might even go for a drive in the three-wheeler when I finish. It seems like it’ll be fun!

Archangel Hello, Mr. Iggy. I’m very pleased to hear that you’re enjoying your new vehicle. This may be a bit excessive, but if you’d allow me to express my concerns, I’d like to ask you to be careful while riding. Though it is a great casual vehicle, it is not suitable in preventing crime. What I mean by that is that there are no walls to protect you if an assailant were to come at you from the side while you were stopped. I suspect your senior and your boss have already told you that it’s better not to use a three-wheeler when carrying around valuable items, but please be careful regardless.

Iggy > Reply to: Archangel

Thanks for all your comments. I do recall my boss telling that to someone too…

I don’t carry any valuables when I drive so there’s no need to worry, but I’ll keep that in mind anyway. Thanks again!

Ilovestones I just read the post about buying the three-wheeler. How cute!! I never see those sort of cars in my country, but it looks fun to drive. I bet that’d be super convenient for when you want to check out all the strata near your house or something. I’m so jealous!!

Punk_of_England Man, I feel like peoples’ quirks really come through in their comments even though it’s ‘anonymous’. But I really can’t tell if he doesn’t actually know it’s them, or if he’s just ignoring the fact…

Men in Skirts

Iggy here. Just like the title says, I passed by a ton of men wearing skirts today. I guess it was some sort of traditional clothing? Anyway, it was so colourful and had such a casual look that it really surprised me! I can’t tell if I was staring rudely or not, so if I did, I’m really sorry! It was unintentional!

Archangel > Reply to: Iggy

Mr. Iggy, you are correct, that is a traditional Sri Lankan textile called a ‘sarong’. Please refer to the URL below for more information.

[This link can only be seen by site administrators.]

It is my understanding that they’re used for formal occasions, so I would assume that the group of men you saw were part of a wedding ceremony. Please do not be discouraged if you were staring.

I received a sarong!

Iggy here! First of all, check out this image.

[This image can only be seen by accounts authorised by site administrators.]

It has a red and blue gingham pattern! It’s really nice!

I assumed it would be since the locals wear it, but it’s really breathable and prevents sunburns… and that’s not to mention how easy it is to walk in!

As you can see in the photo, it only reaches to my ankles. But it helps a lot that it’s longer than a Scottish kilt. I was told that these are often worn to weddings, which is awesome, but the best thing about it though is how suited it is to Sri Lanka’s climate. A sarong is definitely better than the bermuda shorts I’ve been wearing.

I received this one from my neighbour, but I like them so much that I plan on buying a couple more.

I probably can’t wear them daily though…

Singhalion Sri Lankan native here. The fact that you’re interested in my country’s traditional wear pleases me greatly. Sarongs have recently become very fashionable to the elite college students, so if you happen to live in a neighbourhood near one, the boutiques nearby will be your best bet in finding another. I hope you continue living a comfortable life.

By the way, I’ve noticed one user leaving a large number of comments. Are you alright? If they become a nuisance, there is a block button you can utilise. Well then, I’ll leave my concerns at that.

Archangel > Reply to: Singhalion

Singhalion, it is nice to meet you (I presume). Please cease saying unjust things about people you haven’t met.

Too Many Sweets

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I made way too much…

That’s a photo of coconut rolls, pudding, and date caramel.

I obviously can’t eat it all by myself, but my neighbour also refused to take any and got a bit mad, saying it’d be bad for their kid’s teeth… What on earth should I do now…

My Coworker Visited!

The excess sweets didn’t go to waste! Man, that’s lucky. What a crazy coincidence too! I’m really glad though. I wonder what I should make for him the next time he comes to visit.

Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions! Right now I only know about Sri Lankan ‘watalappan’ and the sweets sold at the Otoha Station kiosk. Rolls, cream bread, coconut dango… stuff like that. But even that’s delicious too.

Anyway, please let me know your suggestions!

Archangel Mr. Iggy, I’ve read your posts with great interest. However, I think it’s important not to forget the purpose of your internship. Please use your days in order to improve your skills, mind, body, and soul. For that reason, I believe the type of sweets you should make are the ones you already have skill in making. What do you think?

Singhalion > Reply to: Archangel

Overprotectiveness becomes a vice when taken too far. Haven’t you learned that already?

Archangel > Reply to: Singhalion

Singhalion, please stop speculating on things you know nothing about. You and I know nothing about each other.

Punk_of_England Whew! Things are getting interesting here! I’ll keep watching the events unfold!

Ilovestones Um, can you guys leave it at that? You’re probably bothering Iggy. This is his blog, after all.

Archangel I’ll be more careful in the future.

Singhalion My apologies.

Punk_of_England Sorry!

Mura_Shimo Yo, Iggy! It’s your good friend H.S. here! I came to check out your blog! Man, there’s a lot of comments here, fun! It’s pretty impressive considering you said you didn’t advertise it at all. Is this just part of your natural charm?? We gotta meet up and chat again sometime soon! Let’s catch up!!!

I’ll do my best with guitar practice ‘till then!

Punk_of_England The chance that he was overlooking it just plummeted to zero, didn’t it? Mr. A, are you okay? Or are you seriously gonna stay silent forever?

Archangel I have no idea what I should say, so I am hesitant to comment. Silence may be the safest option.

Archangel_of_Archangel Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Iggy.

I read your entire blog. It looks like you’ve been having a lot of fun, huh? That’s a big relief. Though it wasn’t Sri Lanka, I have experience working in a Southeast Asian country myself, so reading all the fun adventures you’ve had made me remember that time when I was younger, which in turn caused me to laugh and cry. What a wonderfully vivid blog to bring your colourful days to life.

Seeing all the people in the comment section watching over you brings tears to my eyes as well. Speaking of which, is it really true that the commenters have no actual connection to you, and are just watching over you from this blog alone?

> Reply to: Archangel Mr. Archangel, can I speak with you again?

Mail Account:

Sent From: Richard@xxx.uk Sent To: N_Yasuhiro@xxx.jp Message: I will contact you using the regular number.

Sent From: N_Yasuhiro@xxx.jp Sent To: Richard@xxx.uk Message: Understood. Thank you for always looking after my son.

The number of comments decreased?

Hey, Iggy here. Ever since my last post, the people who usually comment seem to have gone quiet… Did I write something weird? I guess this request will also be weird, but if it’s not too much trouble, please go back to being lively. Since I have a lot of times when I’m on my own, reading the comments gives me the energy to keep going.

The city is bustling with preparations for the Perahera Festival. It looks like there’ll be a lot of events happening in the summer! I wonder if I can experience them here too.

Until next time!

Archangel Greetings, Mr. Iggy. I will leave a long comment for you soon.

[trollsgalore]

Well our fame came to an all time high so I suppose it's time to explain what's going on and I truly wonder just how many people will be reading this. Either out of anger or curiosity or those who enjoy drama.

Long time ago I joined this fandom with a few of my friends and we enjoyed art over the years. blogs came and went and so did artists. My friends and I thought "oh hey what if we just dumped a bunch of pics online and see peoples reactions." So we took a vote and put together this blog.(the nsfw blog was from a couple of us so we thought we would throw that in here as well) It really wasn't supposed to be coherent or stable. i mean hell we came up with writing very broken english on purpose. But what truly shocked us was the amount of shall we say feedback? we got on here. We laughed tbh. A few of you respectfully asked we take their stuff down and we were about to until the pure passion arrived! So we took votes and decided to just wait and see what would happen. And boy did we! i mean one person (I won't mention because you'll get your fame from us even more!) literally took who knows how long of their time to call us out. we took that time from you. Well i stole life from you (i was handling this blog that day). So many limited breaths and your life was shortened but, that's not the point. I posted those ss to show, not out of pride, but to call those who supported this blog out. I mean, look at those likes! and we took roughly 15 ss. but decided to just shorten to the better well known blogs. hopefully you're still reading this because of one reason or another. We could say we were ginger or the pro trump jim blog or tunafish or any one who was just some rando weirdo hiding in the shadows as the cult of the one fic which we shall not name haunted this fandom back in 2019. seriously it wasn't that good. i wrote that just now to see how many people got mad from it. changeling jim sucks. do original content people. and fanart of fanart? lame. be original. but hey, look at that. lots of artists and others banded together in a lynch mob to tear down this blog and new life from hate sprouted in the trollhunters fandom once more. we took a vote and decided we had our fun and if this post gets enough attention we will in fact take this blog down because lets be honest literally every blog on tumblr could report us and the staff wont do shit. we wanted to make memories and now we have and we or at least i feel pride for it. oh another reason for the art picked by hand was because it was from very ancient dusty blogs or ones just not alive anymore so we knew the newer fans would be made aware of them. and that about covers all of it. i could add in more of what my group decided to write but ultimately its just repurposed explanations of what i wrote. i had to cut this down tbh. and as a random side thing you should for absolutely no reason check out these archive links!

excited to see the reactions we're going to get from this! and if you just are reading this because you cut to the chase. Well, we're happy we brought you another memory of the fandom =)

[samantha-and-her-chaotic-desires]

Hey y'all!

If I made original content, would yall be interested in it? It's slowly being developed and I wanna make it known.

It's gonna be call Crushed Crown. It's a little bit of everything at once, but the main genres are horror and drama.

Six college students—and best friends—visit their old high school during winter break, only to discover it's now abandoned. It dials back to last year's prom, which ended in bloody terror—they wouldn't have known because they graduated a year before, and prefer to not look back on their dreadful highschool years. College is supposed to be fresh start!

Follow Macintosh "Mac" Jennings, Janelle Hart, Akasha Kotarski, Daniel Sasaki, Dolores Arbelo-Estrada, and Ezra Agresti as they uncover dirty secrets, clues, and hidden details about last years horrific high school tragedy...

All with facing the past that they never wanted to look back at.

I do have concept sketches of them, and I want to make a blog for it. Would anyone be interested?

Also would anyone like to see the designs 👀

[kharmii]

not sure if you have noticed but there is someone in the submas tag whacking the beehive with some mean sounding posts and honestly I think it's hilarious and I'm all in for it.

The fandom bullies need to be pushed off their high horses and brought back to reality that they are just some rude bullies on the internet harrassing people for having a different opinion on fictional characters

And honestly the person is also right: they are frustrated because Ingo in LA took a lot of the shine off the original cast of the game. It is a tragedy he's there but it's also a shame the other cast gets sidelined so much.

And the fandom makes it difficult for others to enjoy the content. It's basically that bird meme with the crow being submas fandom being so obnoxious and loud the other part of the LA fandom gets totally overshadowed.

And I say this as a submas fan. I love the twins a lot. But the fandom is on the brink of becoming unbearable. At least the loud annoying obnoxious part, I actually think the "unpopular" side is much more calm, chill and friendly. And much less in your face.

The fandom needs to get down off their high horse and become a more calm fandom again.

I didn't get along with either side of the fandom, and truth be told, I think a lot of them are the same group of cowards and hypocrites playing politics. This fandom is smaller than I thought. Recently, someone on the crazytrain tag inadvertently let me in on the spice Twitter of one of the very first antis who blocked me. The twitter has 'Proshitters DNI' on their pinned post, (hurr durr durr, get it? Pro SHITTERS. How cleever..) and yet the whole blog is full of fat furries with top surgery scars. FOR SURE that person has a blankshipping side blog FOR SURE.

Side note: I'm into men, but Rule 63 isn't bad if the female version is hot. There's nothing grosser, however, than seeing a male character made into a fat gross furry with top surgery scars and a vagina. IDC about your trans representation. That's GROSS. IDG why trans is such a prevalent social contagion when it's represented in a way that makes me throw up in my mouth a lil like, ..ew..ew..ew..ew..EWWW!!1!1 Why would you wreck him like that?!

Nobody on earth wants to see that shit unless they are into that specific fetish. I doubt even trans males want to see that shit. Hey, you want to be a real male, right? That's the ideal right? Then represent yourself as an actual male and not a gross looking morbidly obese mutilated biological female with a rank dog's head. Fandom is supposed to be escapism, so spare me your harsh, repulsive reality.

Anyway, not only does that person have a side blog, but I'll bet they were on the blankshipping tag putting the most stupid of stupidest head canons out there, like 'RICH WIDOW OMEGAVERSE INGO, YO!!' Where Omega Ingo is yeeted to Hisui, and everybody assumes his alpha (his own brother) is dead because his werewolf bite mark is fading. Everybody in Hisui is pressuring him into choosing a new mate so he can crank out a litter of ass-puppies from his bunge-womb and save Hisuian society from a population crash (Omegaverse totally isn't dog-fucking, but like all the terminology is dog-related).

Almost everybody in the blankshipping tag was into Omegaverse or general werewolf bullshit, so don't even act like you don't know what I'm referencing unless you joined this fandom last week. Other than that, it was annoying when people would use their autism to be obnoxiously antisocial (I only want 'likes' or conversations in tags), or like when people had an issue with me reposting slim beautiful bishounen twins from Asian artists off Pixiv or Twitter. People have been doing that since Tumblr began, -there are entire blogs devoted to it- and yet it only became a problem when I started doing it.

*checks* I think I found the blog this ask was referencing. It's a fun blog because it gets people talking. That and Emmet month has the fanart picking up. My drafts are packed. There's a lot I disagree with though, like how Ingo overshadows the other characters and makes them less relevant. Actually, people being into the Train Twins might make the PLA characters MORE relevant. PLA might have been a forgettable game to some people, but love for submas angst made the other characters grow on them.

Also, they complain that the PLA tags on AO3 are either full of Train Clown fics or Volo x underaged Akari. In the absence of the twins, Volo x Akari would be the ONLY thing you'd see on AO3. You'd probably see even less of the other characters. The Volo betrayal might be the most interesting part of the game for most people. -So many people got taken in by how he pretended to be your friend, tried to get Giratina to kill you, then made you feel sorry for him at the end.

That last part was a guess, btw. I've read very little of both Submas and Volo fan fiction on AO3 outside of the specific ships I'm into, and I've read very little of those too. Most fan fiction comes across as dismal and unpleasant, so I make sure not to read it. That's the responsible thing to do. If you read something in a description you don't like, then don't read it. IE: Not once have I ever clicked on an Omegaverse after holding the bridge of my nose and reading the description of what it is. It's still fun to take the piss though, like....hey maybe people would write more Adaman x Irida -or- Commander Kamado x Beni if there wasn't so much RICH WIDOW INGO MAKES A NEST TO PLANT HIS ASS-PUPPIES INTO11!!1!!!

Art credit: ばた@bataabiiru Twitter.

[senasadventures]

Hey! (It's me, almathecolormaniac just in asks tumblr only lets the main blog to ask)

Do you mind if i ask here, about your comic?

Like how did this story come to your mind, or what is your motivation to make tangible. (i mean my ideas for stories never get further than my mind 😆) And what does the drawing process look like for you?

When did you found alta and what is that you like about it, do you like to read fan fictions too?

Or just ramble as much and about anything or nothing really, no pressure i dont mind at all.

If anything, thanks for your art and have a good day!

Hello there! Thanks a lot for your message!

I’m posting this as public because maybe it could help somebody else too. When I first started making this comic, I was really overwhelmed and wished there was someone to share their own experience to help.

This is going to be long!

When I first started with Sena's story, I was not intending to write a tangible story or make it into an actual comic. I was simply drawing a character as I was fantasizing about an Avatar story.

Just with this little drawing, there was immediately a concrete picture of what kind of character this was in my head, along with her age, her name, her possible path... Other characters followed in much of the same way, without even trying to create them. It was like they were just there. Sometimes the stars will align and such things will happen.

It's interesting how it all started with Nina (whom you do not know yet) and not with my main character Sena. But it's not strange as I always loved drawing waterbenders the most (and their hair loopies)! Nina gave me the headstart to imagine all the rest.

Wishing to give these characters the story they belong to, I began writing , in book format, without any plans on what to do with it later.

I talked about this in another post before, but one of my biggest motivations was that I wasn't content with what followed after the original show and really wanted to see what I'd do with the Avatar Universe. I wanted to prove that a story didn't need to have war, epic battles, villains or "edgy" superpowers to be interesting. And I wanted it to be about "kids", having the same naive and simple (yet deep) quality that I love about AtLA.

Much of the initial writing came naturally to me, and I was influenced by the themes that played out in my own life. Many of Sena's struggles are also my struggles and it means a lot to me to find out where they lead in Sena's case. I write the story as I go and although there are certain events I already know I want to lead into, much of it is still uncertain.

( One of the influences to this story was The Neverending Story, which I had read shortly before I started writing this story. Some of Sena's characteristics were inspired by Bastian, and Kai's were inspired by Atreyu. )

At some point I decided to make this into a comic, which I was hesitant since I knew it would be laborious, but it was the medium that this story would really flourish and catch other's attention as well. And I did want to share it.

There were a lot of tasks ahead of me before I could actually start drawing the first pages. I have different locations in this story, different cultures. I needed a visual language for them.

Shun Fei is a culture that borrows from both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, but it's not supposed to look like either of them. On top of that, it has some of what may be called Western influences to it, as it carries the kind of values that in our world, first came to be in the West. In order to incorporate that while preserving the Asian aesthetic of the Avatar Universe, I borrowed some subtle elements from both Roman and 19th century European aesthetics, or even a little bit of medieval Europe. The pillar architecture of the Shun Fei government building, or the white shirts with puffed sleeves and raised collars of Shun Fei citizens are examples to that. For the color scheme, I went with white, black and brown. It's weird how that hadn't immediately occur to me, but was the most sensible choice, given everything about Shun Fei.

At times, I kept some colors and elements from Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation fashion, but I think it was too much. I actually generally dislike this frame anyway :D

When you're making a comic, there are so many details that are invisible to the viewer, but you nevertheless have to work on. To be honest, it was driving me crazy, because I was unable to produce anything visible for a while. It's best to know this beforehand and be patient with the early stages of your work. It is going to save you so much time later on.

Once I started drawing the pages, there was once again, a lot more that was driving me mad.

I was trying to be authentic with my visual language of the comic, such as the design of the frames and the flow of the story, because I wanted this to have a "book-ish" feeling and a little bit of ancientness to it. I didn't want it to feel like a modern comic. This was taking a lot of effort, because there isn't anything exactly like it that I can imitate.

Secondly, drawing comics is A LOT OF work. It takes so much time that I was unable to move forward with the story! I went from fully colored to monochrome, and later from hand-drawn to all digital. I tried a lot of different approaches and if you look carefully, you can see how the style changes throughout the pages, which I think is not a good thing professionally, but fortunately this is a personal project from which I'm learning.

What I currently do is, I make a storyboard on paper with adequate details to use as a sketch under my digital lineart process later on. I have at least 3-4 other pages' storyboards ready before I start drawing a page digitally. I used to make the storyboards from the text I wrote when I began writing the story in book format, which was difficult to adapt. Nowadays I'm working on a segment which I hadn't written in text and I directly write on the storyboard.

I still don't know how some people can draw so many pages in so little time, it's a mystery to me. But I did get faster and more efficient in time, mostly because I understood how to do things and don't have to think every single thing through anymore.

Another thing with my process is how much I've found it difficult (and mostly still find) going consistently at it. There were many long breaks along the way and it took me longer than 2 years before I made 20 pages and started uploading this comic here.

All of these things can be very discouraging. I questioned my ability to be professional a lot, which I do want to be, since I don't want Sena's Adventures (and other stories I want to make) to just be my story and stuck with me. I want to share it with the world and do it in the best way possible. (It was my dream ever since childhood) To do that, you need many practical skills. But these do come in time and I feel a lot more confident now. I love this story, I've had a bond with it and I love doing something related to AtLA, my old time love. And I really wanted to see where this experience would take me, so I stuck with it.

A lot of people, like me, miss the Avatar of their childhood. I wanted to make a story that had the same kind of feeling. I tried to stick to the original spirit of the show, while incorporating elements that matter to me on a personal level and which I believe are on the same line with AtLA.

-----------

For your second question,

I used to see AtLA on TV as a kid and at some point I started to get interested in it, and later became a die-hard fan. It was 2008 and I was 12. This also marked my entry to digital art and the DeviantArt community, which became a huge thing for my life. I kept making Avatar fanarts until I was like 14-15, some of which were fairly popular back in the day! Good times.

As a kid and teen, I was someone who always lived with fantasies of my current favorite show in my head, the most long lasting one being AtLA. I wonder how many nights I must have fallen asleep thinking about the next romance story between Aang and Katara.

I occasionally had attempts to illustrate stories in my head throughout the years, but these were mainly childish attempts (although there's nothing wrong with that) and always left too early, so I never knew what a professional effort would look like until I began this project. It has been a great learning opportunity.

[jolikmc]

Hi. I run the DSP Minecraft Mirror account on YouTube. I noticed during the 2015 DSP Minecraft multiplayer session you were one of the players. I'm wondering if you were the person who created the custom MC skin that DSP used?

Wait, what? There's a dedicated Darksyde Phil Plays Minecraft channel on YouTube, now, with all of Phil's jolly jaunts into the blocky world of Minecraft and related content on it? Whoa. I didn't even know he'd played it since that one time. Might have to check that out; it seems like a great way to spend some free time! (I wasn't asked or paid to say any of that. Trust meee. (; )

So, let me see if I understand the situation correctly.

You saw a random message at the end of a Darksyde Phil multiplayer Minecraft session from 2015 by someone claiming to have designed his skin.

You looked up the user who said that message on some Minecraft username lookup site and found that they had changed their name.

You searched for their current username and found my blog then, lastly, you sent me a question about the aforementioned stream and the one-off statement that was made.

… you, my friend, are a pretty dedicated sleuth. (;

Yeah, I'm the one who made that "KoH" Darksyde Phil Minecraft skin, back in 2015. I forget the context of why, but I either volunteered because I heard he was playing Minecraft, or the folks who ran the server put out a request and I answered. Ah, what fun~

Rewatching the video, I notice that he mentioned that he was sent "a bunch more skins" for potential future streams. Since you went to the trouble to find me, I'll show you what he was talking about.

I made, like, eight other variants of that one skin which includes some plain-colored shirts, a tie-dye shirt, the three shown above (a Nuka-Cola™ shirt, his face on a shirt, and the "HATE" design from his store). I also made crowned variants of all of them, just for a laugh. (Homage to / playful satire of his "King of Hate" title). Basically, I wanted Phil to have his pick instead of just making him wear one random design. He went with the "King of Hate" one, that session – probably because it was the most straightforward design.

I'm really happy that he liked what I did. That was pretty cool he took a minute to talk about the custom skins on stream! I'm also glad he didn't name me by name – I didn't make those for "glory" or anything. I was just a fan, at the time. I even made a point of not crowding him or stalking him, all of that stream. We kept bumping into each other, though, because we were both wandering aimlessly. I think he got a chuckle out of my character's "DSP face" shirt at the start, though, even though he "didn't know what my skin was supposed to be". (It's no one, in particular; just an original character of mine.)

You know, I'm disappointed in my past self and wish I hadn't made that comment at the end of the stream. I just couldn't stop myself. But, hey. It led you to search for me, and here we are! That was me. I made the 2015 skin. I have been uncovered and the truth is now known! And now that you have this information, what ever will you do with it? Use it for good? Use it for chaos? The choice is up to you~ (That goes for anyone else who reads this ask, too. (; )

Thank you for your question! I hope you have a wonderful day!

(… my first recorded message on that session was "Is someone throwing snowballs at me? *laughs*" Geez, ha hah~)

[cyle]

Hi, in regards to the public api, will 3rd party apps be affected in any way by upcoming changes ? The one I use - multitab Tumblr - is primarily for mass media browsing, so when I click on the "via" blog username attached to a post , it takes me straight to the blog, instead of the previous reblog.

This is obviously unrelated to what anyone is saying about viewing parent reblogs, since that's for conversations, reading previous tags and removed comments. My use case is just for the sake of finding blogs that act as human driven curated collections of media interconnected by this "via" feature. So empty reblogs are incredibly useful to me. But I'm worried they'll get pushed under the rug if this whole system gets redesigned and plastered across the public api.

To make it clear, the user being able to traverse the entire stretch of the via chain isn't important for this particular use case. Simply one via per post - the blog which this post was reblogged from, the blog directly before. So the entire via chain still needs to exist for any via to exist - but it doesn't need to be readily available to traverse by tapping the via. Essentially, if the via acts as it currently does in multitab Tumblr, and the android app I believe - ie tapping it takes me to the via blog of the post I'm viewing, as opposed to the via reblog of the post I'm viewing - that would be perfect.

Maybe I'm asking all this a little too early since I'm still not fully sure how this new post redesign will work. But multitab Tumblr seems to have adopted all the new post and reblog interface redesigns that the default Tumblr app has employed so far. Reblogs are no longer displayed as stacked and indented username lists with lines like they used to be in the old school tumblr textpost screenshots that float around the internet. So the posts have already had a redesign from their original design. and I'm not sure if this new design will be steamrolled over the current one over there too, through API changes. I'm not sure if the multitab Tumblr developers chose to change it, or if they had no choice because the api changed.

Closing thoughts: if Tumblr does end up looking and acting like twitter, that's fine because I like twitter and its many clones, I think it's kinda nicely coded and I like the modularity of posts and threads and how everything links together to facilitate conversation. And it's intuitive, which is why it's popular. However, Tumblr is and always has been the best site for human driven content curation in my opinion, because of the via blog being easily accessible in every post that is a reblog. So by all means , make it flashy and modern and twitter-like, but please don't remove the via blog, at least keep it in the public api.

Tumblr has a media focus, an archive view, pagination by date and post count through the API.... All these things which separate it from twitter in that its focus isn't entirely on conversations, but also media and curation and mass browsing. Essentially Tumblr = twitter + are.na + magic (the via). Please keep it that way. It's such a sweetspot between all these things. And this new post redesign could make it even better if only the via stays.

I suppose it's a niche ask? But a lot of people I'm sure find new blogs they like through clicking on the via instead of the source. I really think it makes tumblr what it is for people. Some blogs are so interconnected and I can see that they've clearly used the via to find a new blog to reblog from, again and again. It just makes everything so interconnected. Thank you times a million. I hope everything is as clear as possible hence the lengthy ask.

hey, yeah, there are no planned changes with the public API. if anything, myself and others on staff are continuously campaigning to open it up more and more, it's just difficult to prioritize that among the many things we have to do. i agree with basically everything you've said here!

"Tumblr = twitter + are.na + magic" is a fun way to put it.

[transienturl]

maybe ridiculous to say but like

it seems so much more difficult to get to know someone without tumblr?

I think the microblog format sitting in this vaguely defined space in the middle of these other extremes of what you're supposed to post on social media sort of helps people find a place on the spectrum of how much you express yourself that they might otherwise have no reason to find. like, so few people actually go out and make "a blog," in the traditional sense, not just because of the technical process of setting that up but because there's an expectation that when you post on your blog you have something to say. it's like how many youtubers have their main channel only have big projects once they become popular and wind up with a personal channel or shorts or tiktok or whatever for content that doesn't feel in the moment like, oh, this is part of my oeuvre, this is just casual, you know?

while tumblr, I guess, has the reblogging-without-comment thing that you could be doing every day, because oh, you know, I'm just an aesthetic blogger or whatever, right? or oh I just reblog memes it's a fun time. but then, hey, you can talk in the tags if you want, no pressure. hey if there's something on your mind there's a full post form right here. don't worry, posts are pretty ephemeral, it'll get buried in your reblogs anyway, it's not a big deal, you don't have to put any effort into it. but, whoops, you're learning to express yourself, bit by bit. maybe you get 20 notes on a fandom post and go, hey, that's what it's like to communicate with a group, I think next time I'll adjust my wording a bit or whatever it is that that teaches you.

we always joke, you know, that we know so much about the people we follow on tumblr re: what they like and what they believe but so little about e.g. basic demographics, because it's true. but I think you can look at that from the perspective of like "haha tumblr means you don't know people's faces and real names," but also from that of like "look at all of these people who you wouldn't otherwise have known anything about at all"

I guess that turned into a post about something else, but the point I was originally going to make is that when the opposite is true, when you meet someone and learn their face and real name, it's hard to be like hey, how can I get to a place where I can talk to you about the things we have mutual interests in, from a shared context? sure I can try to pull information out of you and you can try to pull information out of me, but that just seems inefficient. the tumblr model allows one to organically find that overlap, by mutually pushing things out into the world instead of pulling on what's potentially the wrong thread. it just gives you a lot of information, because it provides a natural way for people to put that information out there.

I dunno. just thinking about this because of someone I'd like to be friends with who for various good reasons doesn't use public social media. and it's like, sure, I can have a regular conversation, that's not fundamentally a problem, but it's just so much complete shot in the dark where to go with it, as compared to people on tumblr I've never talked to directly but easily could.

[nickgerlich]

Battle Of The Brands

I have long preached the importance of brand protection. A brand is one of those things that typically takes years to build, and once you have established yourself in the minds and memories of consumers, it behooves you to do everything it takes to keep it there.

Sometimes a company will do a rebrand, which can involve an entirely new look and feel to packaging and logos, as well as the product itself. How it is positioned, which is effectively the “fifth P,” is usually changed then as well. It’s like hitting the Reset button, getting a do-over because the market has changed.

But what about when a company ditches a branding effort that has been in place for 51 years, and is still working well? Now that’s something that raises eyebrows. Take a look at HBO now. That’s Home Box Office, the long-time king of cable services that has been trying to find its way during the streaming era. It recently announced its HBO Max streaming service will now simply be called Max.

The company thinks it is a better umbrella name for its growing array of options, which recently saw Discovery+ come along for the ride. Essentially, they want to reposition themselves such that they are not viewed as just adult content, but also kid-friendly.

The only problem is that HBO’s second-tier brand, Cinemax, has that nagging suffix. Cinemax was always where you went to watch older movies, those that had run their course and lost some luster. The fact that they even combined it with the name HBO for streaming was enough to make me wince, but now to completely ditch the name that made the company what it is? It’s terrible.

Imagine if Coca Cola Company decided to gather up all its many brands and flavors, and rechristen them all Sprite. Sprite Cola. Diet Sprite. Cherry Vanilla Diet Sprite. I could go on. Fortunately, Coca Cola is smart enough to know how valuable its main brand is, and they will protect it until the end of time.

I know. HBO execs think they know what they are doing. Acquiring Discovery+ was a great move, because it helped build out their portfolio. But Disney is likely to finish acquiring Hulu next year, and do you think they’ll rename their streaming bundle Hulu? Not a chance. Walt would be turning over in his grave.

And what about Facebook renaming itself Meta, and Google now being Alphabet? What’s up with that? We consumers haven’t stopped referring to them by their original names, just like for anyone raised in Chicago in the late-20th century, it will always be the Sears Tower. None of that Willis Tower stuff for us, thank you very little.

Apparently HBO thinks that all the time, money, and effort they put into building the HBO name since 1972 now has little or no value, that we will automatically think of them when we see Max, and then go on as if nothing happened. To be honest, they will probably survive, and maybe even thrive, but this is still not a text book example of good branding.



Of course, I felt the same way when Cingular renamed itself AT&T. I loved the wordplay with Cingular, and I knew the history well regarding the splitting of the legacy AT&T company—much like Standard Oil—in years prior. Hey, Verizon just left their name intact. Cingular was a good name, but in the end, AT&T has still worked. And, I might add, happily takes my money every month.

Still, HBO has provided a good example of a potentially very bad thing. You just don’t mess with what is working, even if you might get away with it. And when I tune in Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones next week, I’ll still be telling everyone it’s on HBO. Not Max. Somebody’s gotta show these guys how it’s supposed to be done.

Dr “You Can’t Fix What’s Not Broken” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[gcldfanged]

whyfor have I followed thee~?: I admit, as a fellow 30+ queer transmasc human, seeing such in a fellow writer AND their muse somehow acts immediately as a draw. There is a fellow vulnerability that frequently lends to the greatest and most heartbreaking and mending creativity I've ever been priviledged to be involved in. Jae-hyo's history itself was also a draw. From his traumatic entrapment beneath his abusers, to his freedom clawed and kept primally against his scars with enough pressure to make the soul bleed-- he as a character that enthralled me from the very first. I admittedly also jumped for joy at finding another person unafraid to explore the darker aspects of fiction. For me, there is catharsis in writing the blacker shades of angst and being in control of the outcome- in putting my own creations through hell- one of my own ocs has history of being enslaved, and... you were just an amazing blog to behold.

Whyfore doth mine steps continue to dog thine shadow~?: one of the first things to catch my attention in original characters tends to be depth. do they breathe? are the variety of actions sensible to THEM as a person and not just an empty reaction to what is going on? do they MATCH the event? and sure, some of that comes from the variety of prose folx can use and one's writing style. but i regularly read your rp posts and literally visualise whatever is unfolding out. I'm regularly engaged with Jae-hyo's internal exposition, invested in the glances and glints of his past through such. Sometimes when it's a full look and the name and pronouns change, I mentally go 'it's okay darlin', it's not forever!!' XDDDD

You allow me to be educated as well. Which I am infinitely grateful for. Your ooc is also a delight (even when life shits on your flapjacks x.x), and your humour has more than once made me laugh aloud. I wanna write with you so bad, and I hope life begins to treat you better soon~.

Hey friend, I'm making food/thinking over my reply, but I really want to give you a heartfelt thank you- It really means a lot to me that you feel something from my work and enjoy the kinds of themes I explore with Jae… I often worry that people will look at the darker content and think I'm a try-hard or that Jae is a Misery Stu made to entertain an author boner for the 'over the top' and 'melodramatic', as if these very events don't happen in REAL LIFE and affect 'regular' people too ('regular' people, like ME, for example).

It really seems like critical thinking is dead these days. I remember reading a very excellent gay romance/fantasy novel that happened to examine slavery and sexual slavery in it's society and the overwhelming amount of negative reviews it had on GoodReads was shocking- All because it dared to even have slavery as a topic in the book, without examining the context in which it affects and is seen by the characters themselves. Literally, all the reviews were the same, basically saying "this book is garbage because it has slavery in it, ew" kind of vapid and mindless refusal to engage. Which, granted, they have the right to not engage, but oh my god???

It just honestly makes me mad- Am I supposed to be impressed other people choose to be ignorant and have a superiority complex about only enjoying characters they see as morally good or if they're not morally good, have the capacity for redemption? Or they're only good simply because they are 'relatable', like people need to step outside the narrow scope of their own experiences, I am begging-

Similarly, I have been stalking your blogs and I know things have been pretty rough on the both of us outside of roleplaying, so I'm always more than happy and willing to chat whenever we have the free time and spoons. Your portrayals and characterizations have been feeding me well despite absences and hiatuses between the both of us.

Thanks again for the kind words and time taken to express them, it's definitely helping me be less anxious about the idea of publishing my original works...

[void-galaxy-healing-journey]

Pinned Post

¡Hey hi hello! My name is Nico, & we’re the Void Galaxy. We’re a traumagenic D.I.D. system. This blog is just for original content, especially realizations we’ve had along our healing journey.

I might add FAQs later on, but until then, have some info on me/us to start this new blog up ☺💜 ~Nico

⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️

Gender:

Collective Identity: transgender + non binary (variations between headmates on fem or masc, but none of us are women, even our fem enbies are not women)

Collective Pronouns: he/they/xey on paper, but if used in good faith we accept some alternate pronouns

Collective Gender Expression: androgynous overall, but sometimes we go more intentionally fem or masc

Personal Identity (Nico): boyflux / masc nonbinary

Personal Pronouns: (Nico): he/they + a list of neo & old English pronouns (I have a list)

Gender Expression (Nico): varies day to day tbh. some days I'm intentionally androgynous but my Safe Outfit™ (tism) is relatively masc (t-shirt, button down, form-fitting sweatpants; t-shirt is a plural pride one).

⛓️

¿Transition?:

Social: Yes, already did 5+ years ago

Medical: on T (May 2nd 2023), want surgeries for ourself, but don’t believe it’s obligatory for others. also I/we want the body to look intersex because that’s what it was supposed to be, so we’re not aiming for cisman appearance.

Legal: In progress. Name changed, but want to update gender marker & birth certificate when possible.

((we don’t believe any of this is necessary to be trans or nonbinary, just comfortable sharing what we wanted to/are doing for ourself))

⛓️

LGBA+/Queerness:

Collective Orientation: “I dunno, queer? leaning t4t?” (difficult to generalize)

Personal Orientation (Nico): technically I lean t4t & I’m still aspec (demi/demiro; T shifted us a little further from full acearo territory but not out of aspec entirely), but simply put ‘no matter what your gender is, I’m gay for you’

Polyam/Non-Mono/Mono: Polyam collectively, but how many partners we individually attract to/would date varies

⛓️

Physical Disabilities:

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Mental Illness/Disabilities & Neurodivergence (AKA what we’re growing & healing through/may post about):

Autism/ADHD: Both, & both are professionally diagnosed (finally 😭) - includes Sensory Processing Disorder

Professionally Diagnosed: bipolar disorder (we only noticed depression thanks to amnesia & slower swings, until psychiatrist dx & medicated); complex PTSD (on paper as just PTSD because complex isn't in the DSM-V (hopefully will be in the next rendition)); Dissociative Identity Disorder/D.I.D. (or as Spirit (headmate) puts it (combining OSDD-1 & D.I.D.), ‘Dissociative Amnesia with Plurality’)

Diagnosis/Professional Investigation In Progress: eating disorder (unspecified); anxiety disorder (unspecified); synesthesia

⛓️

General Rules:

- Hateful replies will be deleted & blocked

- Hateful asks, anon or otherwise, will be deleted & blocked. This doesn’t include poorly worded questions attempting to understand.

- Ask box is open to questions, even if you don’t think you can word it respectfully. If you’re wondering it, someone else may be too. We will decide whether to answer & what’s comfortable, so you don’t need to quiet your curiosity. (We may do ask games if requested later on.)

- This is a personal blog. None of this is to be taken as professional advice, & we can’t diagnose people. That said, if you think you might have something we have, it’s okay to ask about potential coping skills for symptoms/traits you struggle with & it’s okay to ask what next steps to take if you just found out you’re plural or neurodivergent. Please note that our advice will likely include ‘please go to a medical/mental health professional if you can’ (we do understand that financial, racial, or other socioeconomic barriers might stop you).

- You can ask us for song recommendations if desired, but we won’t be responsible for feelings that music gives you if you choose to ask or listen.

- We can’t and won’t share or boost donation posts on this blog. This is a space for us to share original content & our healing journey. Please do not ask. We don’t think you deserve to suffer or struggle, but we cannot help.

- We are not responsible for misunderstandings of any of our content. We post what we feel & think. You read through your own lenses, & may miss pieces or interpret unintended meanings.

- Not everything that traumatized us will traumatize others. PTSD forms due to surrounding circumstances as well. Many of our “small”/“inconsequential” traumas became PTSD because we did not have community, support, love, appropriate attention, etc. afterwards. In some cases we were outright gaslit, shamed, guilt tripped, invalidated, &/or minimized. No, you don’t have to be traumatized by the same things. We won’t accept invalidation here either.

⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️

[kaoarika]

I have this slight idea that I came across that particular "benevolent hellsite" blog months ago. Maybe no that one, but a previous one or a similar one. Or something... and I remember that maybe one of them claimed they were "not really affiliated to Tumblr Staff or smth".

Of course, I only find about this time later after the fact. Past actions were still done, so I did answer the survey(s).

It was not a survey that would take 10 minutes... but I am sure it took me over 20 because the comment boxes were too small (in some instances) and since English is not my first language, imagine trying to respond the things as much as you want, lol. I think I could have pointed my issues more clearly on a Feedback form with more patience than these, so, welp.

Both surveys are identical to a degree, ngl, and I should've suspected a thing about them being fishy, given the similarities between them (I think it's valid to have two versions of a similar-content survey) or the fact how the questions (again, in some instances) are too vague to respond something (at least those were "optional") on them.

I don't think I should be worried (for myself) considering the only "personal info" I gave may have been my age and gender and the country I am from... basically, I think, it's "too general data" (the email thing I was like, "lmao, no, don't contact me back, don't wanna" and didn't give it). Dunno what the people behind this blog want to do with this, especially with how many ppl may have responded it (Are my survey responses anonymous?), but... I dunno.

(Looking at that blog, they say "hey, follow us and see a screenshot of the results of these surveys"... but they have never posted them, so :'D. They also claim they are doing "studies", so I'm partially convinced this is some kind of social experiment study through Tumblr's userbase - so, not exactly a scam... but it's not like Tumblr is unknown to weird "social experiments" before).

And... the thing is... look, I'm not expert if these surveys look "professional" or not. I think they are passable to a degree? and I suppose, the people behind at least have been on the site for a while for the way the questions were written. Again, to a degree.

Looking at the original (the previous one) blog, it looks like the person behind the blog "genuinely"? wanted to guide new users to navigate through Tumblr... but MAYBE it was a mistake later claiming they are "affiliated" to Staff? I dunno. I would've taken that with a grain of salt? I dunno what to think.

Mistakes were made. First, I don't blame the original user who reblogged the post and put those links on it... it's understandable because we are all stuck in uncertain times and we are angry (to various degrees) and we are very, very exhausted about it. However, I am feeling bad about sharing the post, responding the surveys... and I'm feeling a little worried about the whole survey data thing, tbh (despite, again, the email thing was optional at best... SurveyMonkey says that MAYBE OP could have recollected IP addresses, but I am not sure about that...? ._.

One thing I would say is that, despite that Tumblr seems to not be listening on some obvious things that could be fixed if focused on those (the mobile app, to put an example)... they are transparent in the changes implemented to the site. It does seem they are listening about the new UI they have been testing? So... there's that, too. They have never been this transparent in the ye olde days of pre-2020. The only problem I do see is that most of the things going on are not exactly a Staff or Support or engineering thing and it's most on the executive chair of the CEO or the owners of the site that still wanna see it as more profitable (their "manifesto" for things to come post) despite... *gestures vaguely* you know, Tumblr's infamy online and other social media (Twitter and Reddit) falling for stupid decisions because pettiness and/or profit from their owners.

(If it looks like I'm defending Tumblr... no, I don't. I'm a very tired user that has been on this hellsite for 14 years and has seen and been through any single change that it went through since. I do appreciate the little transparency they give, though...)

I always suggest this, but... if you REALLY, REALLY want them to listen, Feedback is probably the most secure and direct option.

You look for Help -> Contact Support -> Category: Feedback and then write all you want to (as polite as possible, obviously) as long as it isn't over 5000 characters, :'). They seem to listen. Something.

[tomsmusictaste]

recent twitter refugee here, I'm kinda still gettin the hang of this place and still looking for people to talk to about any kinda rock music. you seem to have good taste so if you could give me some pointers that'd be ideal 🤘 tysm

Hello! Well first of all welcome, happy to have you here!! 😸🤘

Pointers eh? 🧐 Well, as well as following blogs you can follow specific tags (you should get the option to do that whenever you use the search function)

So then you’ll get the occasional post related to that popping up on your dashboard, regardless of whether you follow the op

Also when you’re on the homepage there’s a tab called ‘your tags’ which you can filter with as many or as few of your followed tags as you like

• Tag Tips: It can also be useful to use more specific tags if you’re searching for a particular artist, especially lesser known ones. Quite often you’ll see a post for a band, but it’s tags will include several similar bands, which is an algorithm thing I suppose, but it can make it quite hard to find content about specific artists — I personally make a point not to do this, I always only tag with the band or bands that are related to the post, but it does seem to be a fairly common practice :/ BUT! Here’s how to get around that problem:

Let’s say you want to see some posts about Seaway, instead of typing Seaway into the search bar (and being met with several Neck Deep posts that happen to have the Seaway tag on them) it’s better to search ‘Ryan Locke,’ (or any other member of the band) or ‘Seaway Lyrics,’ or in this particular case where the band has their own cute nickname then ‘Seaboiz’ — then you’re more likely to see posts that are actually about the bands you’re searching for

Oh and if you’re on the search page, swapping between the ‘Top’ and ‘Latest’ tabs can be a good way to find new stuff 👍

• Follow Freely. That said, in my experience, following blogs is better than following tags — if you keep seeing certain usernames around the content you like, if you see me or any other blogs you follow rb-ing from the same person a lot, then check out that blog! Maybe reblog some of their stuff, give them a follow — and hey, if it turns out they don’t post quite what you thought they might, it’s okay to unfollow later. Or if they post a mix of stuff you like and stuff you really don’t like, the Tumblr settings allow you to block certain tags - then you can follow whoever and just get the good stuff (assuming it’s tagged properly, which it sometimes isn’t, but alas, ‘tis a risk we must take)

• Reblogs Rule! Speaking of reblogging, reblog. The reblog feature is what this site is built around, a scrapbook in which we all just share stuff we like for our followers to see. If you see stuff you like reblog it, that’s what helps the community thrive. You may also find yourself on a blog that has been inactive for many years but has some older content that you like. You absolutely can and should reblog that content. Timestamps don’t matter over here, if you like it then share it, regardless of when it was originally posted or if the op is still active 🤘

And speaking of reblogging, when you do you’ll have the option to add tags – now you can simply add tags for search purposes; reblogging a post about Fall Out Boy? Tag it with #Fall Out Boy and then when you search that tag on your blog, you’ll be able to see that post again — but you also have free reign to put whatever you want in the tags, almost like a ‘soft comment’ a little bit of commentary regarding your instant reaction to the post, such as #omg I forgot about this song or #hell yes this bands rules or #whoa this edit looks super cool for example, but you can really write anything, and that can give the person you reblogged from a bit more insight into your thoughts and feelings regarding the artist or the post in question

• ‘Laundry Listing.’ Oh, and I just thought- it’s not as common nowadays, but a little while ago you’d fairly often see people post something along the lines of ‘Hey I’m looking for other people that are also into [insert laundry list of bands] like/reblog if any apply’ — so it could be worthwhile making a post like that, or if you find a post like that then reblogging and tagging it with the ones that do apply

• And last but not least, in fact perhaps the most important tip of all I can give you is this:

“Build It And They Will Come”

Basically, if you yourself post* about certain bands or artists, more often that not you’ll tend to find fans will gravitate towards you and follow you/reblog your stuff. In my experience, this is always felt like the best way to find like-minded fans of certain artists

*and I say post, but this can include reblogged posts from other people as well as your own posts

I mean, part of the whole reason I made this blog in the first place was I could barely find any content about some of my favourite bands (Every Avenue, The Downtown Fiction, The Academy Is…) so I thought ‘fuck it, I’ll make it myself’ — and that’s what I did. People started following me, I followed some of them back, and now here we are

So there you go! This is all just based off of my own experience here, and sorry if this was a bit of an info overload or if you already knew some of it, but still, those are the main tips I can think of, I hope any or all of this helps, and I hope your twitter refugee journey goes smoothly! Thanks for the ask!🤘🖤😸

Tl;dr - frequent reblogs and follows are good, post about what you like and you’ll tend to find people who post what you like as well 🖤