#i don't care if folks want to reblog the post its fine

[rainydaypaperback]

My mother recently passed away after a long period of fighting several chronic issues. She was 84. I lived with her as caregiver while also running my bookstore.

That took rather a toll on finances because I often needed to close unexpectedly on short notice to care for her. Plus her final expenses. Everything will be fine in six months once estate is settled but right now, OOF, that is a cash crunch on me. It's basically drained all my savings so if one more thing goes wrong, keeping store running becomes difficult.

I've run this store for 23 years, come February 1st. While I carry all types of books, my specialty is queer books. That Pride flag flies year round!

So I could use some support right now and as all The Everything is happening.

Come visit me in person! I'm at 81 Greenwood Ave. (route 302) in Bethel, CT. 11-6PM Tuesday through Friday. 10-5PM Saturdays (exvept Sat. feb. 8th 2025) I'm also within walking distance of the NYC Metro-North train station, Danbury line. There's two other bookstores within walking distance, so you can spend a whole day looking at books!

If you're not local, but have friends in the Southwestern Connecticut or New York/Connecticut border area, please let them know I exist!

If you want to recommend me to a friend or family member in area that doesn't use Tumblr I also have a Facebook account and an Instagram. I also send out a weekly email with some featured books, events going on in the Bethel & Danbury area, and a featured adoptable pet. See a sample email and signup.

If you're not local, I have my inventory online and you can get lots of weird, out of print queer books from small presses. Order some books!

If you need audiobooks, I also have a Libro.fm account. I get a small commission when you get your audiobook downloads or subscriptions through the link. If you're doing a new subscription, you get two additional books through the affiliate link.

I also am on Bookshop.org if you want to buy new books that I don't have. If you go through the link, OR set me as your "local" store, when you buy new books I get a little commission.

I run the book club for Pride here and you can see the upcoming picks on either the front page of the store or on the Bookshop.org page with the club picks. We alternate fiction and nonfiction each month and do a hybrid model where you can either come to in person on 3rd Saturday of month OR do a text only chat on that 3rd Friday & Saturday via Bethel Pride's discord. For text chat, just hop in and post in bookclub whenever your schedule allows! and respond to other folks.

I also host a monthly plant swap with Pride here on the second Saturday. EXCEPT THIS FEBRUARY 8th. I am away at a conference for running Pride events! I am off working on the gay agenda! So plant swap resumes in MARCH.

For plant swap, you can bring plants or take plants. You can drop off without taking more home and pickup without having brought any. It's indoor plants only til May, and then its time to get wild with outdoor pals.

And I really appreciate reblogs! you never know where your followers live and this may make them shriek like a pterodactyl because they never realized how close by a queer bookstore was to them! ROADTRIP TIME.

[aclassitag]

Announcing Krem Week!

#kremweek2024 — 22-28 July 2024

background art credit: @xfreischutz [link to original post]

*text prompt list under the readmore

This year will mark 10 years since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition! In celebration of that anniversary and the game that gave us our first trans character, here is a prompt list - and dates - for any who would like to participate! All sorts of creative content is accepted so long as they are not A/I generated. (See examples below)

*If you want to portray Maevaris Tilani instead, that is also fine!

Please read the guidelines!

If you have any questions, reply to this post and I will do my best to answer :)

Prompt list:

1 — Anniversary 2 — Euphoria / Expression 3 — Casual / Formal 4 — Family / Love 5 — Respite / Fight 6 — Play / Satiate 7 — (Free space!)

Guidelines:

Use the tag: #kremweek2024 (@ this blog is fine too) — If you want to portray Maevaris Tilani instead of Krem, that is also welcome! Please @ me so I can rb :) For non-Tumblr folks that somehow got here: You may post submissions, please link your socials. You may choose one of two prompts in a day or do both. You may also combine as many prompts as you want from any or all of the days into a single work, just mention it somewhere.

Types of content allowed:

Illustration and writing are the most obvious forms of art allowed, but they're not the only ones! Literary arts fanfics, drabbles, poetry, plays, lengthy headcanon/meta posts (for headcanon and meta posts, minimum of 100 words+) Visual arts doodles, paintings, graphic design, photoshop memes, photography, animation, tiktok skits, abstract, fiber arts (embroidery, knitting, etc), ceramics Audio art fanmixes(curated playlists), original or cover songs Other crafts are also welcome! e.g. culinary, resin, woodworking, etc etc ..essentially, whatever type of art it is, I'll accept it so long as it falls within rules and is related to Krem or Maevaris :) For things that are more abstract, do include an explanation of your thought process on how it relates to Krem. E.g. you made Krem's Seheron Fish Wrap or Rice Pudding, take photos of your cooking, and post that (with the explanation that it is Krem's recipes) - that's an acceptable submission! You're allowed to explore different mediums everyday! You don't have to stick to one form of art for the whole week. I will be attempting to schedule reblogs in the 'prime time' for engagement, and in the interest of fairness, things like headcanon posts, fanmixes, and WIPs will not take priority in that time slot over fully rendered illustrations or complete fanfics. They will still be reblogged, but scheduled for other time slots.

Content Rules:

No A/I generated content. (Specifically GenAI content) As above, any and all forms of art is welcome. It must be human made, and by you. The whole point of working off a prompt is to explore a creative process, anyway - do yourself a favour and just enjoy making something! It doesn't have to be pretty! No reposting of other people's works. This must be your own creation. Obviously, no transphobic content. No harrassing others over their specific headcanons - be it in regards to any trait or quirks that come with being a person. People come in all sorts of wonderful variety, please respect that. In addition to above: No whitewashing, racism etc. Please note that Krem is not pale-skinned in canon, and I will not be reblogging content of him being portrayed as pale. 18+ works need to be labelled. On this blog, its tagged as "#adult art". Please add content warnings as appropriate. (E.g. portrayal of binding with bandages should have a warning label of "cw: unsafe binding", etc.) If your post/submission is lengthy, please insert a read more. This helps readability on the dashboard. Progress / WIPs are fine too!

General tips:

First and foremost, do what you are able to! Don't feel pressured to complete a full week if you need to take care of yourself first. Some people work on the prompts before the week even begins, and only post it day of. You are not required to do this, but if you really want to fill something for each day, this helps reduce stress day of.

Mod things:

The mod isn't from the Americas, so due to timezone differences, there may be a delay in reblogging people's works. Either way I will not reblog the moment that it's posted in order to screen properly. Posts will be queued between 30mins-1hr apart, if there are multiple entries being submitted at the same time. All submissions will also be requeued after a week for later perusal :)

[riggedtraps]

IT'S ALL BULLSHIT, IT'S ALL A LIE...

...AND I'M JUST A PAWN IN YOUR STUPID GAMES.

Hi, I'm Amanda. Or you can call me Mandy, I don't care. I'm 29. I guess I'm a woman, but I don't care about that either. She/her or they/them is fine, maybe even he/him if you want. Definition of the 'mean lesbian' stereotype.

I work for Jigsaw, so watch what you say around me. He helped me and maybe He can help you, too. DMs and asks from anyone is fine.

I should probably mention I have BPD. Petulant, impulsive and self destructive. So if I'm rude, it's probably me being a cunt, not you.

that intro better be in character or ill cry </3

anyway ooc introduction!!

i'm gia, i use they/them pronouns. im agender (and so is amanda, she just doesnt know it yet!). i also have bpd too, so yes, will be accurate to my experiences. im a minor so nothing too nsfw or gross.

literally anyone can interact! whether ur a rp blog or not, i will literally roleplay with anyone, even oc blogs (y'all are so cool). send me asks or dm me, whatever works. any ships too, i dont mind, though ofc mandys only romantically interested in women and nonbinary folks, but platonic ships with anyone works! :3C

i'm making this because im obsessed with saw rn its my special interest and i kin amanda so hard <3 first ever roleplay blog ive ran, so excuse any mistakes. gonna try keep amanda in character as much as possible, but may add a few headcanons in here and there. if she's ooc, please excuse that too. 🙏

of course, it's amanda so there's gonna be triggers for self harm, suicidal tendencies, mental health, and then general triggers for the saw franchise. will tag things such as self harm with 'tw self harm' or 'tw cutting' so block those if you don’t wanna see it.

also gonna reblog stuff i think amanda would like, so stuff like punk, goth, music stuff—but also blood, weapons, horror. not full gore but implications of it. will trigger tag them, so block those if you don't wanna see it.

gonna use ❪ ❫ for when out of character. e.g ❪hii!! :3❫

'꩜—mandy rants' : making in character posts

'꩜—gia rants' : ooc posts

'꩜—mandy answers' : tag to keep track of answering asks

'꩜—mandy rps' : for roleplay threads

'꩜—mandy writes' : short stories i imagine amanda wrote as a hobby/vent

my main blog: @messyscarletdreams

'♫—mandy's playlist' : songs i associate with amanda/think she'd like

each blog i interact with will have their own tag of their user for easier tracking

each character i interact with has a tag with amanda e.g '❪ john & amanda. ❫'

my saw oc blog: @poor-impulsecontrol

[front-facing-pokemon]

Yes, Honedge!

Something i'd like to point out about its face:

It doesn't have a goofy face, the holes in the scabbard just make it look that way. In reality, it just has a single eye.

With that in mind, could you please do a version without the scabbard?

iiii figured this was common knowledge enough to not warrant an additional form, but alright:

some of the guard disappeared but it's okay. i never even saw that part of the scabbard as a face—the blue eye is very obviously an eye. i don't know if anyone actually thought that was its face. however, i do find it interesting that even after removing the scabbard textures, it still has textures for that "face" remaining:

which implies it's a face more than anything i've seen of the matter before this point

anyway there's so many asks in the box right now so let's just go through all of them:

in order from oldest to newest, here we go:

this is true. most of the models are shiny, unless they have a "colladamax" variant

ahh it's fine. i considered it might have been a request but i also doubted it considering pangoro was literally next so i assumed you were just excited. me complaining about requests was unrelated—another ask i got around the same time

well then maybe it's not a bad thing. you certainly phrased it like one, it seems, but that might just be unfortunate connotations with the way you said it? glad we could clear up the confusion i guess

we do need more snakes, but i also like the bipedal pokémon, as a furry. back when everyone was begging sprigatito not to stand up, i saw through their thinly-veiled furry hate and was begging sprigatito to go against the grain and stand up anyway. and then they did and now meowscarada is one of my favorite pokémon. get fucked, normies (i am sorry for saying this)

↑ i didn't know this until i looked it up! this is interesting. stuff like the male version learning misty terrain but the female version learning more type coverage. this is very strange but i like it. only girls can use magical leaf and charge beam sorry boys

thank you! i can explain it. it is because pokémon are getting very close and staring at you as for the inspiration for this blog, it was mostly snivy. i remember one day thinking that snivy's big nose would make it look very silly from the front, and being like "damn. someone should compile a list of what every pokémon looks like from the front. damn. that would make a good tumblr blog bc some of those would be really funny. damn. i should do that" and then i did. but that was back in 2020—pretty soon after i ended up starting college which didn't allot me a lot of time for updating this blog, and although i kept swearing i'd go back, somewhat soon after that i went through a breakup and just wanted to take a while for myself. a bit after that, tumblr user sewatari reblogged one of the posts on this blog again (the weedle post, i believe?) and singlehandedly revived this blog by reminding me that they still cared about it. and that's fucking awesome?? tbh?? so thank them for this blog's continued existence. if you scroll waaaayyyy back far enough in the archive, you'll probably see that miniature saga. the images back from the first gen and onwards were a little bit icky as i got grips on how to actually go about this blog and manipulate the models in the right way to get them to work, which is why i can never really recommend folks scroll all the way back in the blog, but it's a look back into my own personal history, i suppose

apologies for breaking the magic, although i don't think anyone keeps up with the "i am a pokémon taking real live pictures of other pokémon with the camera right in their face" lore because no one pays attention to the backgrounds of the images (which used to change much more than they do now, but that's just because no one ever noticed or pointed them out. the background is not the focus of the image—it's the pokémon itself; thus, why look at the background? staging the pokémon in a setting used to be important to me, but now i don't worry about it and cycle between the same few backgrounds) or the asks, really. it's the commentary in the tags everyone comes here for, of course

she's a fully-grown woman with a house

then you'll love the top of this post

they probably wouldn't think it looks like anything because they aren't familiar with what honedge looks like so they would just picture nothing in their head. or they would just make up what they Think honedge might look like based on its name, or something, and then imagine that front-facing

i don't know which one of these is the real one. but we have some discrepancy here. also apparently this is a wider-spread belief than i thought

OKAY. i think that's all of them. if you read all the way here to the end, that's. powerful. for those of you who stuck around this long, i'm live right now with a test stream having some breakfast and playing pokémon. come join in, if you're bored this morning!

edit: it's over but i'll probably do it again some time, more likely at a more reasonable hour next time. considering the idea of doing a fully voiced pmd series—perhaps that'll be the next stream. or i'll leave another test one for it. who knows!

[gynaephora]

💥- - pspspsps - -💥

[NOTE: Most words in square brackets are meant to eventually be a link. These posts do not exist right now. Wait a bit!]

Hellohellohello! I'm Ursa, though you can call me just about anything nameswise and chances are I'll respond to it. I use it/its pronouns [almost] exclusively, and I'm over 18, both in body and mind.

Minors can interact, as this isn't an NSFW blog and I don't reblog much of anything explicit, but mind the tags and please block the tag "#mdni". I'll have to start blocking if I see likes on those posts from minors! Which I don't want to do!

I'm a fictive of Loop, and while my own identity has changed quite a bit since forming, the exaggerated version of source seperation some like to promote that you shouldn't identify with your source in the slightest is not something I'm interested in. A part of me is still Loop. [Please respect that.]

💥- - Before You Follow - -💥

I don't take these sections too seriously - DNIs don't work the way people like to think they do - but for those it matters to, the system I'm from is very firmly pro endogenic systems, and that won't be changing. Syscourse asks will be deleted, annoying people will be blocked, we literally don't care.

💥- - Miscellaneous - -💥

1 - While this is technically just meant to be my sideblog, I do have a tendency to blur with a few other members. If you see the tag "guest stars" on a post, someone else is around! Overall, though, this will mostly just be me. Go head to @cordysys if you want to talk to more of us!

2 - I'm really [strange] about conversations, in general. Picture a cat you just got, and it doesn't quite know how to cat - that's me! That being said, as long as you're not acting overly familiar when we haven't even spoken to you before, you're probably fine. For those who like having slightly more to work with boundaries-wise, the word "strange" is a link that goes more in detail.

💥- - Cool People - -💥

A list of folks you should go check out! pspspspsps

mutuals, no particular order:

@celestinecerasus | @luxdraconia | @ace-of-loop | @eldragon-x | @change-maiden

[tylwer34567]

Character Analysis: The Boogieman (RGB) Part 2

Continuation of The Boogieman (RGB) Character Analysis (link here: https://www.tumblr.com/tylwer34567/775681378989867008/character-analysis-the-boogieman-rgb?source=share)

tagging mutuals: @king-mera @differentsublimephantom

Also forget to say that this and the first post is for 100th posts and reblogs milestone, thank guys :D

Closet Case (NOW Comics)

I like that the cover doesn't have anyone present in it, it's only the Ghostbuster's phone ringing in the dark.

Speaking of dark or darkness, Boogie just like his second episode is hiding in the darkness as he stalks and scares his new victim, Tommy. Frankly, I wish he did stayed shadowed cause he's very ugly in this

Okay, so I'm still confused as to what happen in the beginning. I'm putting a link to the comic for context (https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Real-Ghostbusters/Issue-26?id=124700). But I guess Boogie decided to not only wreck the living room, but also wrote "Revenge Egon Spengler Revenge" in whatever the red stuff is supposed to be. Is it blood? Whose blood is it? IDK

Can I say one thing real quick? I enjoy reading these comics, but the ads are annoying. It constantly breaks up the story and had me laughing even when there's nothing funny about a scene. No NOW Comics, I do not want to read about Bonk's Adventures/j

So the reason Boogie is out is because a previous story had Samhain opening the Unit for his army, so our big gremlin decided to use the fear generated by the event to sneak out while the Ghostbusters were busy. Clearly, the subtext is "Samhain was doing his business, Boogie was doing business, the two don't care for each other at all." But that's boring, so let's go with my gay subtext of "Boogie gives Samhain the biggest puppy dog eyes and Samhain being the ever loving partner decides to leave a small hole for Boogie to crawl out of"/lh/j

Peter saying that he would rather have Drool than Boogie is funny and adorable (Ghostcorp, plz bring back good boi)

Oh my goodness, I don't want to complain AGAIN about Boogie's design in this, so all I will just say is that Boogie does not look good in green or orange.

The "Yes, but first I need some quality time for myself" line is getting depressively more true each day.

I have no words for Egon's whole speech, it's perfect. He really roasted Boogie's ass lol

In The Box (IDW Comics)

Okay, so the fact that at the end of the story it's revealed that Boogie was pretending to be Samhain to manipulate new ghosts and later eat them whole is really messed, especially since Samhain is seen as a father figure to ghosts who follow him. Its like a predator trying to get access to their victims via pretending to be someone they could trust. It's dark, but I like it.

Also Boogie calls Samhain pumpkinhead. It may be a small ship made of duct tape and gum, but its a mighty fine ship/lh

Boogie spent this whole miniseries trying to eat this one ghost (Ralph) only to say that it wasn't as satisfying as he'd hope it would be. This is why I love him folks.

Ghostbusters World Story Mode

Can I say that after watching the Story Mode on Youtube so many times I'm still slighty confused?

Samhain, Sandman, and Grundel being super vague and talking about "the master; their master; it" and then it turns out that its Boogie doing the invasion.

Egon: Boogie, why did all of them called you Master? Boogie: How about we stop talking for a little while.

But seriously, it's suprising that Boogie is the one who convinced the rest to join him; you'd think it would be Sam, but I digress.

All of the villains have one sprite in Story Mode; Meanwhile Boogie and Grundel has a second one just to show how bratty they are.

Boogie talking shit about the Ghostbusters using ghosts to fight their battles is soooo ironic since you can capture him and force him to join your team ingame (at least he looks cute/lh)

Peter casually insults his mullet

Egon giggles when he realizes that he's weakening Boogie; Every time Boogie gets hurt, Egon smiles more/lh

Not important to the Story Mode, but Boogie ingame is so adorable meanwhile his Story Mode is REALLY ugly.

Spirits Unleashed

There really isn't that much to say about him in this, since there's no story mode for him still disappointed . But he looks cool and his emotes are cool.

[confessions-official]

I don't want your pity! Stop pitying me! It makes me want to shrivel up and hide in a hole and keep QUIET about my problems, not talk about them. I just want friends! People who actually interact with me and treat me like a person and a friend and not just someone they need something from or to have small conversation about shared interests that don't go much deeper! I want people who reblog posts saying shit like "if we're mutuals we're friends" and actually mean it for once! I want people to WANT to talk to me without me always Always ALWAYS being the one to try and do it first (not that it matter, since it gets ignored anyway)! Always saying they wanna talk about stuff, but when I try to, BUT WHEN I TRY TO, I never ever ever hear anything back from any of them! Stop telling me it will get better. Its been over a decade! Its not getting better. I hardly had any friends growing up and never had a best friend, now I am an adult with no friends. I am in my 30s and still dont have any deep or meaningful connections to anyone because nobody will even give me a chance. It doesn't matter if its offline or online. The results are always the same. I have people at work who share my interests, who KNOW we share interests, but there's 0 effort to try and do more about it even when I try to! Why do people act shocked when folks like me want to kill ourselves. People only care when its too late. And then lament they could have done something. And then it happens again. And then they lament they could have done something. And it happens again. And it happens again. And it happens again. "Things will be fine!" "It will work out!" "It will be okay!" Ok but when? when? when? When I turn 40? 50? I can't wait any longer on a "when" that's actually a "maybe." I need a "now" to know I can start LIVING or at least a "the truth is, it never will" so I know there's no point in continuing and wasting mine and everyone's time. I'm running out of time and refuse to waste any more of it being pitied.

 

[dime-ideas]

Hey I don't usually make actual posts on my blog, but I've been noticing a reoccurring theme in my feed. I don't know who's been reblogging them and I don't want to go through the hassle of finding out, so I'm making a generalized post.

I've been seeing alot of posts circulating how its empowering and progressive and cool it is to harrass "be disappointed" in streamers who play Hogwarts Legacy and coming in droves to personally tell any and all folks playing the game that. And I have no stake in the game or the HP universe or anything and didnt care either way, but I just took a look outside the echo chamber and realized

those folks who do that are a bunch of fucking assholes

Is JKR a rich billionaire transphobic asshole? Yeah. Is Hogwarts Legacy and the HP franchise rife with anti-semitic themes? Yeah it is. Did the early access game cost $70? Yep. I don't plan on consuming any of that media because of it. I've got no interest in the franchise whatsoever.

However, thats not a cue card to go harrass other people who wanted to play the game or enjoy Harry Potter. It's never fine to go harrass people for liking something! I'm tired of seeing posts of people patting themselves on the back that they won the war after finding people playing the game and ruining everything for them. It's not okay!

Take a step back and objectively look at the behavior you're promoting. Don't justify it, don't say any buts. Just imagine if people were acting that way towards others for consuming literally any other franchise. It's just plain awful and helps literally noone. Hate the game and move on.

[princemick]

i feel like you're a pretty good judge on this because of this current drama but i'm also a little scared to ask because you're arguably one of the biggest f1 content creators so this could majorly backfire in case of a block....

i know you're anti-max and you seem to have some experience with people that are like anti-lewis or i've seen a lot of anti-lando on my dash or anti-danny ric in the tags so i'm just wondering if you know what the opinion is on people that don't really care/reblog or post about all the drivers?

because i'm pretty new to the fandom so i've just been reblogging stuff from all drivers and feel neutral about them so far but if i want to interact with more people in the future i might need to stop that because what if i post something about lewis and get blocked by anti-lewis folks or i reblog a gif set of max and suddenly the anti-max people block me and then a large part of the fandom becomes inaccessible because i can no longer interact with gifs and stuff like that

f1blr seemed more relaxed than some other hardcore divided fandoms i've been in but now i don't know, in another fandom a creator that's almost the sole content creator for a specific character blocked me for posting about a different character so that just kind of ruined the whole fandom and i'd rather experience that on f1blr as well because it's really nice so far and i really enjoy the races

oh pls never worry abt asking stuff! I'm not gonna block you for being curious

and ofc I can only give my own opinion on this but I think most people will just be confused abt it. like this is a sport being neutral is...strange its just not something that really happens a lot.

but if you stay neutral and peace n love then people shud b fine, theres a problem when you post hate about a driver without making it clear in some way dislike the driver/team or dont tag it right.

like I only block people if they're assholes to me or my friends I follow and am mutuals w a good few max/carlos blogs.

idk tumblr is very much a curate ur own experience thing and people r more likely to unfollow u then block u i think

[wyvolf]

INTRO/PINNED

Howdy! Please take the time to read this before following/interacting!

-> For Commissions: https://wyvolf.carrd.co/ -> Art Blog: @wyvolf-art

basics Please call me Wyv(ern), Gun, or Courier! Either pick one or use interchangeably.

My pronouns are: he/him/his + jet/jets/jetself, they/them is fine so long as it's used sparingly. Please do not call me by she/her or it/its. Thank you!

Trans man, gay queer (nebularomantic, objectum, demisex/rom towards fem folk NOT bi/pan), probably ace spec somewhere I don't know. Non-woman liker basically. // T DATE: 9/09/24, non-human/alterhuman (+therian / dragon otherkin)

ADHD / autism, questioning OSDD-1 (on and off since like 2016 lol, i could very well be wrong seeing a professional abt it ASAP), I experience memory issues, paranoia issues, dyslexia, depersonalization/derealization, and other stuff. Please be patient with me, but PLEASE for the love of whatever call me out on something. Do NOT baby me.

boundaries / important things to note

-> sometimes i alternate between "me/myself/i" and "we/us/our". -> I don't censor words. Basically I don't put asterisks or dashes or numbers in (such as k*ll, or s///cide, or using numbers in place of letters). It actually makes it harder for me to read. -> this is my account i post/reblog what i want, i'll tag what i can but i won't be tagging niche/uncommon things. -> please do not interact if: very argumentative people, people who engage in LGBTQ label/flag discourse when there are bigger things to worry about (i.e. pedophiles trying to claim to be LGBT, saying trans mascs cannot be 'lesbians' or trans fems cannot be 'gays', etc), 'drama queens' (you know: the type to constantly stir drama, drag others unrelated in... like get a life!), and similar groups. It depends on the individual generally. -> i don't care about system discourse, that shit is a headache and a half. -> as said please do not baby me, i'm a grown man who drinks beer like twice a week. -> my triggers are my buisness only. pay me exactly $200 per trigger to know.

no public DNI. I block out of comfort or if you give me a nasty vibe. (typically racists, xenophobes, anti-LGBTQIA, fascists, Zionists, pedophiles, zoophiles, rad queers, etc).

my interests list / stuff i'll likely reblog n' yap about: -> interests renty (ones that I am currently active in, bold = major) SCP, Creepypasta, Marble Hornets, Warrior Cats, Wings of Fire, South Park, Cult of the Lamb, Fallout New Vegas, Transformers.

userboxes (yay)

(what a mess / things can change, if you have questions you are free to DM me about it).

[bigsoftmarshmallow]

It's fine! Really!

And, honestly, it was actually a bit rude of me to ask in the first place, so how about we call it even?

I guess it just gets a bit frustrating sometimes, is all. And I understand. I used to not tag my more risqué stuff with "nsft" as diligently as I do now. Like, I just wouldn't even think. Then, I got an anon ask saying they were underage & were uncomfortable with that sort of content.

And I was horrified, so now I tag anything I post or reblog that has that sort of content with the right tag & try to encourage others to do so as well.

... Sorry, rambling. That tends to happen.

And, to be fair... I hate that we have so many Judge Frolos, too... but one thing we have to remember is to not generalize. People are just people. And that means that there are gonna be some rotten eggs in every carton, unfortunately.

Like, I could certainly name some really bad agnostics, but that'd be petty & rude, so I'm not going to. Especially considering how nice you'd been.

Also, if you happen to encounter Christians who act in such a way again? My suggestion is to point out how un-Christian their behavior is, possibly with scripture as proof that they aren't behaving how God expects us to. If they actually love Him & legitimately want to do right by him, then if nothing else, it'll at least plant a seed. And if they don't change their behavior, then they might not be as Christian as they pretend to be.

I don't know about anyone else, but that would give me pause & cause me to reexamine my behavior.

Well, whatever. Bless! And thanks for understanding.

Oml I adore you!!! You are absolutely right. I do my best not to generalize and remind myself that not all of one demographic is assholes (I live in a 99.9% Christian area, and its hard to not lump them together as they all really behave the same.)

You were perfectly fine calling me out on my posts if you truly did not enjoy it, especially if you are a follower and enjoy the 99% of my posts that are not religion related! Even if you are a fellow random who stumbled onto my domain, you are very brave for speaking up. I appreciate it.

Judge Frolos, lol. I appreciate the reference. You neat. I have been going that route when I come across folks of that nature, just... The folks of my town don't care, sadly. They continue with their false righteousness of hatred and bigotry and sadly, there is not enough people of the correct righteousness here to help fight back. It's a damn shame, and I admit it has clouded my judgement of many Christians in general. I am sorry for that, and I will do better in the future.

I will certainly try to do better about specific tags. Many may fall through the cracks, but I will definitely put more effort into taking notice of reposts of that nature at the very least.

I wish upon you love, luck, and happiness, my dear Relig Anon. May you be blessed in your endeavors, and may Jesus be with you. Feel free to drop by my asks in the future should you ever wanna chat about religion in a more open discussion or for any other random matter!

[bethanysnow]

I've been tagged by multiple people, but idk. I understand how hard words are to come up with? How hard it is for writers and people who consume writing is to accurately describe their emotions to something? In this, I've written like 20 something chapter fics where I dedicated my entire soul to and got nothing, so I made the decision early on to not super duper care? As bad as that is? I have written hundreds of thousands of fics in my time as a writer and have gotten nothing for a long time. So I decided as long as I am happy with it? That's what matters. As long as I am happy with whatever I wrote then it can never go wrong or I won't ever feel bad about something 'not doing well'. So I don't put any weight into how many notes or reblogs I get with things I write. I have my group of friends if I want them to read it I share it with them or tag them. To know they read it is enough for me. I don't need big long paragraphs of commentary. Just that people read something I wrote is good. I write for me, not to have people heart it or reblog all though it's nice. I never put notes as an expectation for writing on tumblr. I have lots of works with no notes and that's fine with me because I am proud of it.

Or I do not think the amount of buzz around something is equal to or determines how good what I made is. I don't pressure myself to write when I don't feel it and so I don't feel pressure or feel a need for people to comment or write or reblog or what have you. If someone has said in their notes they want feedback or comments I'm happy to. But idk the vague 'oh I love it' always felt like in school where you had to critique others' work and you didn't know what to say or didn't really read it. Which is also totally fine. This isn't a post or opinion that this isn't a problem, because we should be a community. We should support one another. I just don't think people should only validate their writing by comments or reblogs because then that's all you will write for.

~I am a vague blob of ink do not take what I say seriously~ ~I am a gelatinous cube of maybe sentiance~~These are just thoughts of a mad woman high on migraine medication~

TLDR: I think its sweet when people do comment, but I don't think its necessary at least for me? Writing for me is an introspective process and I write for me. Only me. Not for others as amazing as other folks are.

So I don't feel like I should have a voice on this topic because it doesn't bother me as it does other people. Kinda feel bad this is my thoughts, but idk I've had too many fics die in the graveyard that was 2015 tumblr.

Hi all, so, basically I've been having a lot of thoughts and feelings about the state of fanfiction these days. Specifically, I've been thinking about the relationship and interactions between writers and their readers within the fandom (talking about my fandoms in particular, but I know that similar things seem to be happening across the board). I know that authors have been talking about how they've been getting less and less comments and feedback in general on their work. I haven't said much about it because I don't want to appear ungrateful to the people who take the time to leave detailed feedback — I'm incredibly grateful to them and they've played a huge part in keeping me going for this long. If you've left a comment on any of my works and see this and wonder if you haven't done enough, trust me, you have.

Still, if I'm being honest, the amount of silent readers is starting to take its toll on me. It's gotten to the point where when I write something, if it's a decently long piece (let's say over 4k), I'm likely to get less comments on the work than I've put hours into writing it. It sometimes feels like I have to beg for comments and that is not a nice feeling. As an author, it's hard to see that and not think that it says something about the quality of the work you've put out.

I've been trying to think of things that could help, I have a bunch of thoughts that I'll probably try to organize at some point (namely i think a network for writers to have constructive feedback, which doesn’t always mean negative feedback btw, could have a positive impact — feel free to let me know if you’d be interested but also i’ll probably make another poll for that). For now, I wanted to ask: as readers, if you don't leave comments, is it because you're not sure of what to say or how to articulate it? If so, would it help if I made a post detailing things you can tell writers in the comments (other than the classic, but always good 'I loved it')? In general I'd love to know more about why people don't leave comments.

Expect a couple more posts on the subject once I've collected my thoughts and in the meanwhile, here's a poll to let me know if it would help. Reblog to increase visibility/sample size, etc.

[thenixkat]

Like? Ben is a white fuckboy who’s personality is ‘likes a popular cartoon franchise aimed at his demographic’, ‘shit neglectful boyfriend who cheats at the drop of a hat’, ‘protagonist centered morality’, and ‘lowkey racist towards aliens, like that borderline white liberal racism’

Now my boy Martin Mystery is also a white fuckboy, but he’s very fun.

[tlbodine]

Socializing 2.0 - Talking to People Who Are Upset

I was trying to write this as a reblog to my other "how to socialize" post and it keeps glitching out, which is very irritating. So here, let's try it on its own post.

Last time I talked about some tips for making small talk, and some scripts/talking points for how to show interest in what people are saying even if the topic doesn't excite you.

Now, I want to talk about a different scenario that can be really challenging for everybody (but, I think even harder for folks who don't come by empathy easily). Which is: How do you talk to somebody who is upset or having a tough time? How do you express sympathy without making the thing about you and your feelings?

While I'm by no means an expert at this, and I can't claim I've got the solution for every scenario you might encounter, I do have some tips and techniques that have helped me along the way and hopefully they can prove useful to you, too.

STEP ONE: Identifying that a person is upset

Sometimes it's very easy to tell that someone is upset, because they will yell "ARGH I AM SO MAD ABOUT THIS!!!" or they will be crying or some other obvious outward sign. Other times, though, it can be kind of tricky to tell. It's even harder in text, where you sometimes have to guess whether someone is jokingly mad or mad-mad when they post keysmashes, all caps, angry emojis, etc etc.. Folks also sometimes deflect from their actual emotions by joking them off. Or they'll say something you feel is alarming, but then don't act like it's a big deal.

People are complicated, in other words. So it's OK if you get this wrong sometimes. Everybody does.

In general, some signs that people might have something the matter:

Obvious outward expression of emotion (yelling, crying)

Acting more withdrawn or subdued than normal

Appearing distracted or disengaged

Looking more disheveled than usual

Acting unusually rambunctious or like they're compensating

If you notice somebody seems upset but you're not 100% sure, you have a few options:

Politely ignore it.

Let them bring it up if they want to. This is a safe bet if you are not very close -- ie, they're strangers, coworkers, acquaintances etc. HOWEVER, if you choose this route, you can still do this person a kindness by not imposing on them.

For example, if your coworker seems upset about something and you have a question about the job, could you ask someone else instead of approaching upset coworker? Could you quietly do them a favor? For example, could you offer to take over for them at the register and let them work in the back? Offer to watch things while they take a break? Small kindnesses can make a big difference in someone's day. It's not always possible, but it's nice when you can!

If nothing else, try to avoid dumping anything on them while they seem upset. If you're also having a shit day, you can probably find someone else to rant to.

Ask if they're okay.

This is more appropriate if you have a rapport with the person. If they are your friend or romantic partner, or if you have a rapport with them and want to express that you care, it's probably best to acknowledge that you've noticed something is wrong. Avoid saying anything that might be perceived as aggressive; don't way "What's wrong" or (even worse) "What's wrong with you?" Instead, try, "Is everything okay? You seem a little down today."

They may respond:

I'm just a little tired

I'm kind of distracted

What? Oh, haha, no, I'm fine...

Sometimes they mean this at face value, but more often what they actually are communicating is "I'm not OK but I don't feel comfortable talking about it."

That's fine. Don't pry. Drop the subject, and proceed as above -- politely ignore their perceived signs of discomfort, but be kind to them and avoid dumping anything on them unnecessarily.

Do not be surprised or alarmed if, after some time has passed, they come back around to reopen the subject and start to open up about whatever is bothering them. Then again, don't take it personally if you never figure out what the deal was. Maybe they really did just have a headache. Maybe they had an issue they figured out on their own. Either way, it's no longer your problem.

(note: this is a little more complicated if it's someone you live with and it goes on for a while, but that scenario is out of scope for this post).

STEP TWO: They Told Me They're Upset

Okay! So whether you started here with them, or this just came up after you asked if things were ok, you now have confirmed that a person is upset!

If they tell you the gist of what's going on, it's a good idea to acknowledge it. But stay fairly neutral about it and avoid value judgments.

For example: "My grandpa died"

An appropriate response might be, "I'm sorry to hear that" or "Oh jeez, I'm sorry :("

Some other great all-purpose responses when someone says something bad happened are: "Dude, that sucks :(" and "oh no!" or "oof."

Next -- and this is really important -- you should follow up by asking, "Do you want to talk about it?"

(you can also use that question any time someone says something vague like "I had a shitty day today" or "I'm so pissed off.")

If they say no, they don't want to talk about it, follow up with, "Well, let me know if there's anything I can do." And then, ideally, volunteer a couple options of things you can do, depending on your relationship and what you are capable of doing: cover their shift, approve their time off, take care of a chore, listen if they change their mind.

If they DO want to talk about it, by all means, let them talk.

Ask if they would like advice or if they just want to get it off their chest. If they don't ask for advice, don't give them any.

Use your active listening skills and ask questions. Avoid prying or traumatic questions, but don't be shocked if you receive more intensive answers than you expected. A safe question to ask when someone says someone died is to say, "Were you close?" or if a pet died, "How long did you have them?"

Validate their emotions, but avoid bringing your own judgments to the table unless they ask for your honest opinion. For example, if someone is ranting about their romantic partner, it's cool to say, "I'm sorry that happened. You shouldn't have to put up with that." but it's not so cool to say "Your SO sounds like a dick, you should leave them."

Ask if they would like a distraction or to be cheered up. If you're in person, and you're amenable to the task, "Do you want a hug?" is also acceptable. (just respect whatever they said).

You'll want to be mindful of your energy. I personally have the best luck with projecting calm, neutral, slightly joke-y vibes. "It do be like that" and "Dude, that sucks" delivered with some genuine warmth in your tone or an empathetic emoji can go a long way.

STEP THREE: How to Not Make It About You

There are a few ways you can unintentionally make something be about you when someone else brings up something that's upsetting them:

One-upping them. "That's nothing. This one time, I had...."

Invalidating them or passing judgment. "That's not a big deal" or "What an asshole!" (you can agree with them that someone is being a dick, bit they need to be the one who says it first)

Trying to relate to them by telling a story about your own experiences, which ends up taking a really long time, or puts them in the awkward position of feeling like they have to comfort you.

OK. So a couple things.

Relating to people with relatable experiences is not a bad thing! In fact sometimes it can be really helpful! HOWEVER if you go that route you need to be really cautious of a couple points:

The story needs to be brief and stick only to the most relevant details. it's FINE if you don't provide the full absolute context of the entire scenario. You just need to tell them the relatable part, and then relate that back to them and how they are feeling.

For example:

"I'm so sorry to hear your dog died. I had to put my cat to sleep last year and I remember how guilty I felt, worrying whether I waited too long. Did you have a lot of time to prepare with your dog or was it pretty sudden?"

This is good! Here you are relaying information that you understand some of what they're going through, introduce an emotion that may or may not resonate with them, and then hand the conversation back to them with a question. Now they might tell you all about how, yes, they worried about that same thing too! Or no, their thing was really sudden and unexpected. Or whatever they tell you!

Then you can respond to that thing like, "Oh wow, I can't imagine how rough that must have been." or "Jeez, that's so hard. How are the kids taking it?" or whatever else seems appropriate in that moment.

STEP FOUR: OK But Now They Won't Shut Up About It?

One downside to expressing concern in other people's affairs is that this can sometimes mark you as their new confidant, purely because people so rarely just listen and care about other people.

If it's just the occasional bit of ranting, it's probably fine to just let them do their thing. And if they're coming to you to rant and off-load their stuff, then it's probably fine and expected that you can respond in time and maybe you guys are just ranting buddies.

But if you end up in a scenario where they can ALWAYS complain about their thing, but you can NEVER complain about your thing, that is a toxic dynamic! That requires some intervention! Friendship cannot be built on that foundation.

If you've expressed your condolences or listened to someone rant about whatever is pissing them off and you feel you have nothing more to offer the conversation, you can just say that: "I don't know what else to say, really. It's a tough situation and I hope it gets better for you."

And then you can just. Exit the conversation.

Some additional lines to keep in your back pocket include:

"I think that's beyond my pay grade to help with. Have you spoken with (a therapist/counselor/clergy member/whatever)?"

"That's so frustrating! You should definitely go talk to (the person they are complaining about) about that."

"Well, if you ever need someone to (specific thing you actually are willing to do), let me know."

Being kind to people and showing concern for their problems does not mean you have to become an unpaid therapist or doormat. You get to maintain boundaries about that stuff.

Anyway! This is super long! There is so much more I could get into here but I'll leave it at that. I hope this is in some way helpful to you.

[cutekittenlady]

Yo

Just to address this after getting a few asks about this subject.

When it comes to writing fics based on the "Emmet and Elesa in Hisui" concept, I am largely going by the honor system here. I somewhat understand folks asking me where my limits for the idea are given that they may want to take a shot at the idea with different events/different character but, to be frank, the biggest defining aspect here isn't so much the exact plot details/what I claim as mine as much as it is the expectation that if you saw my posts about this idea, got inspired to write it/write something remarkably similar to it then just give a shout-out.

Thats all.

If you wanted to drop the conductor shipping, or if you dont think Ingo had been accused of anything, or otherwise just add your own stuff etc. then that's fine. But if the root of whatever you make was inspired by the posts I made then all I ask for is a quick shoutout to my tumblr or ao3 account.

To be absolutely clear, ANY fic anyone writes is theirs not mine regardless of where the idea came from.

The reason I say this is largely running on the honor is system is because I have absolutely no way of proving if/when anyone is inspired by my ideas or not. I mean, it is not at all uncommon for people in a fandom as large as, well, Pokemon to come up with remarkably similar ideas completely independent of each other. I mean its one of the biggest franchises in the world, and legends arceus is the most recent games. There are literally thousands of pokemon fans on tumblr who might never see any of my posts and still come up with a similar idea.

I have no way of proving if any individual person has seen my posts and I dont really intend to follow up and check if anyone who IS writing anything based on any of my posts has linked me or not. I simply don't care that much. I mostly just ask for a link back because it's just whats always been done in fandoms I've been a part in.

Its not even really an ownership thing, more of a "oh hey this is what inspired me to write this fic if you're intersted in seeing more!" kinda thing.

Dunno I got a lot of asks recently from someone who was very concerned about all this and I felt a little bad. I mean, after all it's not like I claim ownership to all the tropes I've ever used in writing. But really its not too complicated. If you've seen the posts, and you know they're the source of any fic you want to write, I'd just think it'd be cool to link back to my blog or hit me up with a link to the fic so I can reblog it or link to it on ao3 so everyone else can see it yknow?

So really, don't sweat it everyone. I said I was okay with people using the idea and I meant it. It'd be fun to see so many different takes.

Thanks for listening to this poorly thought out response ramble. XD

((also thanks to that anon who gave me the idea for the "e&e in hisui" tag or simply "e&e". Srsly it is gonna make it so much easier to organize this blog so thanks for that. I hope this post has addressed the core of your concerns.))

[sorikkung]

Hey, so I read your post about including more gender neutral reader insert fics on writing blogs, and the only reason I haven't done so is because I have no idea how to write smut for a gender neutral reader. Because obviously they don't identify as either gender, but their body has either male or female genitalia, but if I write them as having female genitalia, then people will think it's a female reader insert fic. I was hoping you could help me out here.

i can absolutely help, thank you for reaching out to me! it's really nice to see people consciously making an effort to include everyone <3

so here's my comprehensive guide to writing gender neutral reader insert smut!

for the record, i invite people to add anything if you think i've missed something helpful! reblog to save a writer's life <3

smut is tricky to do gender neutral, so it is entirely acceptable to say gender neutral reader and specify their genitalia, as gender =/= sex. you'd want to label that at the start though, so like [member] x gn!afab!reader or gn!amab!reader depending on which parts you choose.

in case you don't know, afab means Assigned Female At Birth and amab means Assigned Male At Birth, so it specifies the biology without necessarily implying a gender identity. agab = Assigned Gender At Birth.

if you don't want to specify the reader's assigned gender at birth, that's doable too! it'll be a little more vague, but everyone has a hole and a part that's sensitive when touched, so it can be worked with. if the reader is bottoming, just maybe cut out the descriptors of being wet from being worked up and replace them with some actual prep with lube. instead of pressing circles on their clit, something vague like slipping a hand down or putting their mouth on their pants/between their legs works too. when the reader tops, you can just describe a dick and the reader can imagine if it's a real one or a strap-on, so long as you don't describe it hardening vs going soft or actually ejaculating.

that'd be my number one tip for writing gn smut without a specified agab - don't be afraid to leave it up to the reader's imagination! if they're old enough to be reading smut, they should be able to put two and two together. you don't need to specify the details of every individual action. something as simple as "he sank down between your legs and put his mouth to work, obscene sounds filling the air" or idk maybe less lame sounding than that but like point is. you can omit a lot of specific vocab by giving enough context clues.

alternatively, if everything is strictly anal that's always gender neutral. LMAO.

cleanup scenes are also important and imo not written enough tbh. if ur not specifying the readers agab its even More important bc if a reader was imagining it with a dick, there'd probably be cum somewhere, and even if not, there's always some kind of fluid alright just get a wet wipes in there or smth like it only needs to be a sentence or two but thats a personal pet peeve of mine, lmao.

other things to consider would be replacing any mentions of breasts or boobs with just chest - amab folk can still like their nipples played with, so that's safe and fine, but no bras or binders mentioned ideally as that can be implied when the reader undresses anyway. even if you are writing an afab reader, if they're still gender neutral, it's safer not to write abt boobs since most afab non-women get chest dysphoria and its not fun. lmao.

as for dialogue, this is the easy part. there's plenty of gender neutral pet names like baby, sweetheart, love, angel, kitten, etc, that you can utilise, but you'll want to be careful if you're going into the explicit dirty talk kind of dialogue. we'd want to avoid things like "you're so wet/hard for me" if you're not specifying an agab, alternatives could include "you're so sensitive/responsive for me" or if you want to be real vague, a simple "aww, all this, for me?" gets the job done as well.

if you are specifying their agab, it's still totally okay to include that in the dialogue, too, as its not inherently gendering them to talk about their parts. i'll reiterate that sex =/= gender, men and nb folk can have a pretty little pussy and women n nb folk can have a massive veiny cock too, or whatever else tickles your fancy. just avoid calling them a good girl/boy or anything like that, alternatives could be like... idk good pet, or just simply "that's my baby."

lmk if you guys want and i'll write up a gender-neutral smut dialogue prompt list for yall, that could be fun. or if you have any questions, whether that be for writing specific scenes you dont know how to word or if you want tips on writing gender neutral reader inserts outside of smut, my inbox/dms are always open for that too <3