#i usually do always search the url in the search bar

[spacenintendogs]

https://www.tumblr.com/spacenintendogs/759087561241231360/hello-dear-friend-i-hope-you-and-your-family-are

sweatybasementkoala/Lucia Sungura is a documented scammer profiting off of the genocide. they have previously run this scam under the names Millicah Nyaachi, Angeline Ikwabe, and Movih Otieno, and they used to be @/massivegalaxytragedy and @/socandyfest. the account they say has vetted their campaign does not exist

https://www.tumblr.com/azalea-alter/759223565473234944/august-19-update

https://www.tumblr.com/hufflpuffin/758397510031228928/hello-dear-friend-i-hope-you-and-your-family-are

https://www.tumblr.com/kyra45/759176447884722176/sweatybasementkoala-lucia-sungura

https://www.tumblr.com/kyra45/759175634081792000/i-think-the-family-in-sweatybasementkoalas

would you mind deleting their scam from your blog, or clearly labeling it as a scam so it doesn't spread to others?

please remember to use the tumblr search bar to look up the text used/paypal account names/usernames to check if these accounts have actually been verified. you can also search through the first link i included or kyra45’s blog for other documented scams on tumblr

thank you! i deleted my post

[mangocheesecakes]

the scammer @/rescueplease has now been deleted, but since a lot of people are still reblogging my posts about it, i'm changing my pinned post to a list of currently active scam accounts

scammers with the same m.o., sometimes similar profile pics and linktrees/paypal addresses:

> numberonegoateeeagle (paypal name 'Jeff Owino') new

> nour-samr (paypal name 'Nour Samar') >> nour-samr0 new/remake

scammer pretending to be a sick Black person, using the paypal name, 'Alafred Opondo'

> enchantingqueencreator

the 'insulin scammer''s latest blog (at least i think it's their latest blog:

> fancycoffeepeanut

empty blogs who are mass-reblogging the scam posts and are likely just the scammers sock puppet accounts used to pad the notes of their posts, pls block them too:

> chopra-79

> futuristicphilosopherartisan new

deleted/deactivated/changed url:

maina-3

immariaanszz >> iammarinassaa >> iammarinassaass

jovialsuitdonutai (paypal name 'jeff owino')

khalilhan (paypal name 'samuel obiya') >> khaliilhan

marylinfwaznassar (paypal name 'maryline lucy')

stickytreephilosopher (paypal name 'jeff owino')

perfectlyminiatureface (paypal name 'jeff owino')

optimisticalpacalady (paypal 'jeff owino')

omarkhalini (paypal 'fred odhiambo')

marylinefwaznassar (paypal 'maryline lucy')

khalilhani (paypal 'samuel obiya')

weepingpersondestiny (paypal 'jeff owino')

as always, please block and report these blogs, and more importantly, warn your friends, mutuals, and followers if you see them reblogging their scam posts. if you see a donation post/blog that you believe may be a scam, please do look their url up first on the tumblr search bar to see if someone has already called them out. i will try to update this post with the scammers' new accounts/url as we discover them. please also go to @kyra45's blog, as they are faster and more thorough in updating about newly discovered scams.

some red flags to look out for before sharing donation posts/donating:

new blog, or a couple years old but has only a few random, sporadic posts

backdated posts

spamming asks to a lot of other users, even the ones they don't know or have just followed, and even when the user has made it clear they don't want to receive requests to boost dono posts

is asking you to answer their asks privately, or is sending you a message directly

is straight up asking you for money, and usually for impossibly large amounts

do not put their paypal/money transfer links on their post itself, usually claiming it's to protect their 'privacy'

is using Zelle for their money transfer account, especially if the person is claiming to be in Palestine

please don't be so quick to entertain donation requests and to give away your money, especially if the user ticks a lot of these boxes. if you are familiar with the place they say they are from or the language they are supposed to speak, try conversing with them for a bit to see if their claims would hold. you can also browse my 'donation scam' tag or kyra45's blog to compare if the user has any similarities with past scammers that we've discovered.

that's it po. let's all try our best to look out for each other and make sure that our resources are going to the actual people in need, especially in the case of Palestinians asking for help. the last thing they need right now is for shitty lowlifes to use their suffering to make a profit.

[dnfao3tags]

Finding Deleted Fics: A Multi-Method Guide

i feel like we are the fandom who needs this post the most any fandom has needed it ever.

all of these methods require you to know the title, author and/or link of the fic.

[disclaimer: the fic i am using as an example is not deleted, i just can't think of any other fics to use as an example right now.]

Method #1: Wayback Machine

this is my go to method that i always try first.

steps:

every fic on ao3 has a url of archiveofourown.org/[specific-numbers]. you're gonna need that url, doesn't matter if it doesn't work anymore.

eg.

2. now you're gonna go to archive.org and enter your url in the search bar.

3. something like this will come up. it probably won't be saved as many times though, just once or twice.

just click any of the links now, either the dates marked blue on the calendar or the earliest/latest date. that's it.

drawbacks:

often, a problem arises when searching for fics rated mature or explicit.

the site will have archived this page but not the actual fic. though, maybe lady luck is on your side and clicking proceed will lead you to a saved version of the actual fic. but usually not. and not all fics are saved here. in those cases, i have some more methods.

Method #2: Search Engine Cache

search engines like google and yandex often save a cached version of sites, though yandex is much more reliable than google. i'll give you a tutorial for both.

steps (yandex):

the link isn't completely necessary, just the title and author of the fic will suffice.

go to yandex.com and search for your fic by either entering the url or entering the title and author as such.

3. this will probably immediately come up.

just enter the captcha and it should let you in on the first go but there's a glitch i've encountered where you could be entering the captcha completely correct but for some reason the site still won't let you in. for that, you just have to keep trying again and again until eventually the site lets you in. might take more than 10 tries.

4. once you're in, search results will pop up. directly clicking them will only lead you to the not found page. what you're gonna do is hover over the box of the search result and you'll see 3 dots pop up on the right.

click those and a dropdown menu will appear. click the first option 'saved copy'.

and thats it! this is a much more efficient method especially for explicit or mature fics.

drawbacks:

for some reason, when i open yandex in google chrome, i can't see the 3 dots. i can in firefox though. don't really know what thats all about.

i'll show you how to do it with google too just in case yandex doesn't work.

steps (google):

in the url bar, type cache:[link of fic]. that's pretty much it. google doesn't have a lot of fics saved though so you'll probably get a 404 page.

Method #3: Reddit

there's a subreddit called r/DeletedFanfiction that can probably help you out. either search for the fic as it may have already been posted or req it and someone will probably get you a google drive link soon enough. u/throwthisaway11112 is my lord and savior.

afaik it's still up and running fine despite the reddit protest thing (which i recommend taking a minute to look into).

Method #4: Archive.org Database

okay, now you're gonna need a lot of memory on computer for this one. i'm not gonna even bother and try to explain it, i'll just link you to the original post. thank you once again to the anon who sent me this method!

Method #5: Fandom

if absolutely none of those methods work, you can still just send me an ask and maybe my followers or i will have a saved copy. same for any other fandom, i recommend asking around in popular fandom spaces, someone is bound to have it.

[phantomcodes]

blueberry | theme by sage

get the code: $8 - static preview / version 2 as suggested, a theme inspired by windows 95/old windows versions!

features (more info below the cut):

toggle: tags on click, music player, updates, the explore menu as a whole, and explore info, explore navigate, & explore blogs

headerbar includes blog icon & name, scroll to top, day/night & tumblr controls buttons

sidebar includes links for ask, archive, follow button, updates button, & up to 3 extras, an uploadable image, and custom description

explore menu: carousel with panels for a description & image, info stats & likes/dislikes, navigation with up to 3 link sections (each with unlimited links), and blogs

customizable: blog title, description, colors, body & title fonts, and font size

responsive design, 4 corner options, 3 post margin options, phosphor icons

nothing needs to be changed in the code, everything can be changed in the customize panel!

terms:

reblog if using

do not touch the credit

view all terms / faq

credits listed in the code / credits page

please consider supporting me ♡

colors

the colors for this theme are important!! you can ofc use whatever colors you like but this is my advice for it to look right:

your background color should be slightly darker than your posts color

your shadow color should be darker than your background color, how much darker you make it is up to you but i’d recommend making it pretty visibly darker

your highlight color should be lighter than your posts color, as with the shadow i recommend making this visibly lighter

this is more general and applies to most of my themes that have a color gradient - your gradient accents should be either much lighter or much darker than your gradient colors, i usually use either white or black for the gradient text colors

footer

includes the sidebar button (start button), search bar, and explore menu & music player buttons (toggleable)

sidebar

the sidebar is always toggleable with the start button, it will disappear on its own when the screen width gets smaller but you can always toggle it back on

the sidebar includes by default links to your askbox (if it’s enabled) and archive, as well as an updates button (toggleable) and follow button

the sidebar image is uploadable and 350px x 300px

updates

includes up to 5 updates each with an icon and text

explore menu

this is a carousel with sections for a bio with an uploadable image, info stats & likes/dislikes, and blogs or friends

biography panel: the explore image is 250px width and whatever height you want, the text will wrap around your explore image and the panel will scroll if it gets too long

info panel: up to 6 info stats, unlimited likes/dislikes

navigate panel: up to 3 link sections each with unlimited links

blogs panel: up to 8 blogs with blog url and some text

likes/dislikes section (explore menu)

leave the likes title blank if you don’t want this section

leave the dislikes title blank if you only want the likes

FORMAT FOR BOTH: <li>like dislike text here</li>

wrap each of your likes/dislikes in <li></li>, you can put as many of these as you want

this section can be used for whatever you want it doesn’t have to be likes/dislikes!

photo example of the format below

navigate section (explore menu)

leave explore links 2 title and/or explore links 3 title blank if you don’t want those extra link sections

FORMAT FOR LINKS: <a href=“/linkurlhere”>link text here</a>

put as many links as you want! photo example of the format below

music player

this player uses an image link - see my faq if you have questions

uploading your song: i recommend using google drive to host your mp3 files - below is a brief explanation for how to do this but you can also see the resources provided here by glenthemes and more links on my credits page

to start you need an mp3 audio file, once you have the one you want go to google drive and click: ＋ New ➞ File upload

select your mp3 audio file and click open

open your newly uploaded audio file in google drive and click the three dots on the top right, then click Share and under General Access change it to Anyone with the link can view

copy the sharing link provided, it will look something like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pBA6KdlLEzoEZPQ6hmaSr9LGLeCQGPxz/view?usp=sharing

go to the following site and paste your sharing url in the first box provided: https://www.joelgrayson.com/drive-download-link-generator

your final product should look something like this: https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1pBA6KdlLEzoEZPQ6hmaSr9LGLeCQGPxz

make sure the music player is toggled on in the theme, paste your audio link in the Song URL field

i think that covers everything, make sure to check my faq if you still have questions!!

[avescorviidae]

TOYHOU.SE TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

Hi! I’m new to Toyhou.se, and only started dipping my toes into coding a few months ago.

Although I can’t code properly yet, I still have some tips for getting into use of the website.

Disclaimer: This is only useful for very new beginners, I am not claiming to understand any of what I’m talking about!

1. FINDING YOUR PROFILE CODING THINGY

To code your profile, you need to go to settings, as seen here:

It’s going to be a bit overwhelming, but familiarise yourself with each tab of your settings bar.

Here is where you want to go:

The biggest part of using this HTML code box is to disable the WYSIWYG, which will allow you to actually input HTML and run it.

You do that by tapping this:

You can find HTML templates by browsing. 

The search page is pretty self explanatory, just have a flip through and familiarise yourself with the search settings. These settings are very diverse, and you should have no issue perusing the website to its full potential.

If you want to find codes type “profile” into the tags bar, that usually works for me

IMPORTANT NOTE: When using a template or code made by someone else, remember to read the rules of the code, boundaries are important! And make sure you always credit. The credit will often already be provided, so make sure to not obscure that. If it is, add credit somewhere visible on the page.

2. UPLOADING A CHARACTER

You can create a character here:

It will always be customisable, so if you need to customise it after submission, here’s how you find it again:

You’re gonna want to click on the characters icon:

And from there, search for CONTROL SETTINGS in the bar to the left. It will be in Manage Character > Edit Profile:

3. WEBSITES THAT WILL BE YOUR BESTEST BUDDY FOREVER

For Coding:

Circle Journey - https://th.circlejourney.net/ 

For Icons

Font Awesome - https://fontawesome.com/search 

For Image URLs:

ImgBB - https://imgbb.com/upload 

Image Colour Picker: https://imagecolorpicker.com/en

Other Colour Hex Websites:

https://redketchup.io/color-picker 

https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_picker.asp 

https://htmlcolorcodes.com/ 

4. CODE LINES THAT MIGHT SAVE YOUR ASS SOME SEARCHING ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION

For Full-Page Backgrounds:

<div style="position:absolute;top:0;bottom:0;left:0; background:url(IMAGE URL HERE) fixed center;background-size:cover;width:100%;z-index:-1;"></div>

For Full-Profile Backgrounds:

<div class="col-lg-2 col-md-3 hidden-sm-down sidebar" style="height:75px;position:fixed;right:inherit;left:0;bottom:0;"></div> 

<div class="card rounded-0 border-0 col-lg-10 offset-lg-2 col-md-9 offset-md-3 p-0" style="overflow:hidden;position:fixed;bottom:0;top:0;left:0;z-index:-1; background-image: url(IMAGE URL HERE); background-attachment: fixed; background-size: cover; background-position: center;"> </div>

For Colour+Opacity:

style="color:rgba(0,0,0,0.1)"

(add in the RGB values (not HTML code) into the first three 0s for your colour. The 0.1 can be adjusted, i.e. 0.80, for the opacity)

5. LINKS!

Full Page Background Image Troubleshooting:

https://toyhou.se/~forums/16.htmlcss-graphics/195730.add-full-image-background

https://toyhou.se/~forums/16.htmlcss-graphics/214765.adding-a-background-image-on-profiles-in-html 

Music Player Tutorial:

https://toyhou.se/6560537.-music-player-tutorial-f2u-

On my page I use codes by these wonderful people!

https://toyhou.se/jiko 

https://toyhou.se/Lechet 

https://toyhou.se/BlipiTheDog 

https://toyhou.se/Pinky 

And my profile is this:

https://toyhou.se/AvesCorvidae 

Please feel free to DM me if you have any other questions, or if I got something wrong!

If you’d like to, we can also be mutuals on toyhou.se

That’s all, thank you!

[kimjuncottton]

Hi friend! I hope you are having a wonderful day. I saw your post about slowing down/stopping sf9 updates again so I wanted to reach out.

First off, let me say thank you so much for your service thus far 🫡 I feel as if international Fantasy is a very small fanbase and it’s hard to find content/translations schedules etc for them so it has been wonderful to have it all in one place.

That being said, I have also always wondered how you’re able to stay so on top of it! It really feels like a full time job.

I have been wanting to be more active as an international fantasy and help where I can in providing content updates for the boys and more content in general (edits, compilations, things of that nature) and I was wondering if you had any tips on what sources you generally follow to update, suggestions on a schedule etc if someone were to start to keep up the updates. I wouldn’t be able to translate or anything like that so I’d have to keep that in mind.

I know that’s a big ask, so I appreciate you even taking the time just to read through that all if you have 🤣 Please don’t feel pressured to respond with an answer. If nothing else I do hope you know there are Fantasy out here who have really appreciated your efforts in the time being ☺️

Hi! Thank you so much 🩵 this was a very sweet message! I hope you are doing well too 🩵

I definitely started posting because it really felt like I couldn’t find a ton of sf9 content on here so I thought I’d just do it lol I got burnt out tho lol. It was like a full time job tbh updating was the first and last thing I did every day too lol it was tiring tho (especially bc I do have an actual full time job too lol)

I can definitely help out with some recommendations for where to get updates! I can’t add links in an ask so I’ll just type out the @ of the person and what site they’re on!

So any of the official accounts!

- Group twitter: Sf9official, Sf9_fanclub, sf9_official_jp

- Member’s twitters: Hwiyoung (0_rbsl), Zuho (zuho_jp), and Dawon (xleexekdnjs),

- Each member has their own ig, there’s also their official ig and japanese ig.

- Zuho’s new company (haewadal_entertainment) often posts pics of him on their instagram story

Fan run accounts:

twitter:

- sf9_unofficial (only official updates/news and schedules highly recommended!)

- sf9armydays (only about member in military)

- colorsdw (random sf9 updates)

- rokartrider_ (random sf9 updates)

- notsf9cloud (selective fromm updates)

- zuho_tasty_ (random zuho updates)

- 704chat (zuho fromm)

- 724chat (dawon fromm)

instagram

- sf9_updateaccount

- sf9.fantasy_

other:

- rokartrider_ also posts any kind of their videos on youtube their url is @ jamie1927! If you search that with the @ (no space in between the @ and the url) in the search bar it will bring up their account on youtube

I also was using some fansites for fantaken photos I usually just came across them on twitter and I always added a link to their post for credit. For translations I always added the credit if any of the above accounts added translation. I also used the translation site papago for translating the Korean. It’s the most accurate in my opinion lol. Also a lot of sites like Twitter and instagram captions can be translated on the site so you can use those too just know they aren’t super accurate all the time. I usually checked it on Papago too lol. Sometimes I just put the korean and moved on lol.

Let me know if you have more questions I tried to be as thorough as possible! So it took a bit to respond lol but thank you again for your message 🫶 good luck! And just a tip from someone who got burnt out don’t feel too pressured to always update just do what you can and what you want but don’t overwork yourself 🩵

[kitconnor]

idk if you made a post already about it but can you please explain a bit more about track tags and how to use it? your blog is such a big help thank you for taking the time to make tutorials

hey there ! i'm so sorry for the late reply, i've been away for 10 days 😭 i don't have a post about it but i'm more than happy to help you out !

what are tracking tags? in order for gifmakers to gain exposure on their gifsets, they will often use a tracking tag. in creating a user unique tag, they will follow it and then reblog things they are tagged in.

how do you create one? a 'tracked tag' is just a regular tag. common formats are: '#userx', '#tuserx' and '#userrx' or someone's username. they typically use the user's name (in place of where the Xs are on my above examples) but depending on whether or not someone already tracks that tag is whether or not you choose to use it yourself. once it's created, it's always good to follow the tag, simply because it makes it so much quicker to find in your tumblr search bar as a shortcut to quickly see if you've been tagged.

how do i determine whether that tag is taken/how do i know if someone uses that tag? to find out if a tag you wish to use is already in use, go to the search bar on tumblr, type in 'userx' and then click on the search that also has the hashtag beside it (you want to search the tag, not the words) and then it'll show whether or not it's being used. if there's no results and that tag is empty, great !! you can start using that yourself. if you search it up and posts are already there, you're best to check the dates on the post. if the dates are recent, someone is likely still actively using it. if the dates are old, that means the person who has used it has likely gone inactive and people stopped tagging them. if you try a few different variations and all of them are in use (this can happen with common names), often people will just use their username. there's no problem with it, but it's less common because people change their urls. some people even do '#user[username]', but you still need to account for changing of urls.

how do i get people to tag me? make sure you've got your tracked tag somewhere on your blog, and if you just decided to start tracking one, make a quick post letting people know ! then they'll know to tag you in things you like.

how do i tag a gifset? apart from single user tags, there are also source blog tags (i'll refer to them as SB tags). gifmakers will typically tag these source blogs depending on the content of the gif and what that blog says they will reblog, ie. #usermusic <- reblogs music content/musicians, #usergay <- reblogs lgbtq+ content from tv/film/celebs, etc. user tags are the '#userx' ones i've already talked about. users will tag people who share common interests or whoever asks to be tagged, (usually a discord thing) as they know that can be a guaranteed reblog. keeping in mind you now have space for 30 working tags, you can tag heaps of people and get more exposure !!

help - i've tagged a SB/user and they still haven't reblogged my work? there can be a few explanations for that. the first one and most likely one is that the blog runs on a queue. almost all SBs do so, in order to keep the blog constantly running. users do it for the same reason, but some will like your post once they've added it to their queue, to let you know they've seen it. it's less common for single users. the second possibility is you've tagged them in something they don't like/don't know/don't reblog. some users have content they don't want to be tagged in listed (often in 'about' pages, on their web theme or a mobile navi.) on their blogs, so you know. it's also often that people only reblog what they actually know; if you tag a user who is predominately sci-fi/fantasy media in your post about a rom-com, and you've never seen they reblog rom-coms or that rom-com before, then they chances of them reblogging your post are lower.

what's the point in tracking tags? exposure !! if you tag blogs that get more attention than yours, or blogs that are a well-known source in a particular fandom, and they reblog your work, they you will get more reblogs as a result.

let me know if you need anymore help :)

[fountainpenguin]

Can you share some of what your planning process for long fics is like? What kind of outlines do you do or what prep do you do to get in the zone?

Thanks for the ask! [Tagging #ridspoilers for minor plot outline, birthday, and alien planet calendar spoilers for Origin of the Pixies, Frayed Knots, and Factor It In]

---

I write on Google Docs; it might not be for everyone but it's what I've found to work well for me after a lifetime of writing (Ex: When I was a kid, I used WordPerfect and Dropbox and it would take hours to sync my documents before a long road trip... I travel between two locations a lot, so these days I just pop open the Google Docs app on my phone or use the Edit Offline extension on my laptop and it's always up to date, which works great for me!)

I also like Google Docs because I can link between documents and have lots of open tabs [along the top of the browser] in "one tab" [along the bottom bar], which isn't something I was able to do as a kid or with Microsoft Word, and it just helps me feel clean.

---

Masterlist Doc [1 per fandom]

I keep all my Fairly OddParents 'fics in a doc titled FOP 'Fic Masterlist. I have my most important resources at the top and they're all broken down with clear labels and doc links.

This way, even if I haven't accessed a doc in a while [meaning it doesn't come up when I type its name in the URL search bar], I always know where I can find it. Also, thanks to my edit offline extension, all I need is this one link and I know I'll be able to open any doc I need.

I have a lot of 'fics, so this doc is several pages. If you've ever read my FFN or AO3 bios and saw that note about how I keep a queued Tumblr post containing links to my unfinished 'fics in case I unexpectedly die, that queued post links to this doc!

You'll also notice that I have distinct scrap docs for Origin, Knots, and the 130 Prompts. I change or cut a lot of stuff and it's nice to keep the old WIPs in case I ever want to look back on them (each of those docs is 25k words just of scraps). Sometimes those scenes get recycled, but usually they just sit there. It's a lot easier to cut things from a story when you have a place to put them and you're not deleting them forever.

[Cnt'd under the cut]

---

Table of Contents Doc [1 per long 'fic]

All my long 'fics have a table of contents doc, which I highly recommend for anyone doing a large multi-chapter project. I always slap the cover image, a height chart, or a character reference on top to make it pretty, then the doc will contain some notes I might need. For example, Origin's doc has two height charts:

and this-

Makes it easy to know where to find things. Also, you don't have to draw your own height charts, but I recommend keeping a list of heights on hand. Even if you don't tell the reader someone's exact measurements, it's always nice to get a feel for how characters compare to others and whether they should be looking up or down.

Come What May's doc has this screenshot comparison on it, which I put together by measuring different characters who appear next to each other as carefully as I could, and it works too:

Obviously Kevin and Molly never appear in the same episode, but since they're about to become step-siblings in Come What May, it was important to me that I knew how tall they were, so I measured Molly against Timmy and then Timmy against Kevin. Same for Mrs. Crocker, who I measured against Timmy to get a feel for how tall Kevin is compared to his grandma.

I know it's a fanfic so it doesn't really matter, but you have to do self-indulgent things sometimes :)

Frayed Knots also has Sunnie's character reference [i.e. Anti-Cosmo's patron nature spirit, the water dude], which I just want to show off because this is still really good art for something I drew in 2017:

Other things I keep in my table of contents docs are lists of episodes where certain characters appear, random notes that I need to keep track of (like any canonized character addresses or allergies), and chapter title ideas. I also keep track of the starlight levels [i.e. which season it's bright outside vs. dark], school year reminders, and Anti-Fairy migration season.

I keep my Vatajasa name chart in Knots too:

Factor It In's table doc contains a list of villains who appear in the 'fic (Red for ones who don't appear, green for those who do). It also links to the Wiki page for the Evil Villains Association so I can remember which villains are and aren't in it. It also has my timeline details:

---

Timeline Notes

Factor It In is set in 1998, and my table doc has all the notes I used to narrow down to that date (ex: I originally planned to set it in 1987 because I felt that the late 80s fit the technology level we see in the show before I re-watched the episode "There's No V In Team," which specifically refers to the year 1987 as having happened in the past).

One of the reasons I liked using 1987 originally was because Factor It In is a story about Kid Math training under WordGirl, and it takes place shortly after the Kid Math episode, which aired in 2014. Factor It In opens in early January, so I like the Easter egg that the 2015 calendar would be the same even if we took its airdate literally. 1998 was the only year in the 90s that also matched the calendar, so that's what I ended up with.

I like keeping my timeline notes around so if I take a hiatus, I can always come back and remind myself why I picked stuff. Also it's way easier to expand your worldbuilding if you kept your notes... it's awful if you threw your math away and have to start over (I once redid an entire timeline because someone said I'd messed up the dates on my chart, and I believed them and redid it all, only to realize several months later when I ran into a timeline problem that my math had actually been right all along :') Don't be like me. Record your work and leave notes explaining why.)

[I always use THIS calendar website when I'm planning timelines. It tracks moon phases, which was important when @zachbrightside and I were working on the FOP timeline and heavily relying on moon phases as a guide, and you can easily type any year and month into the URL bar so it's super easy to navigate.]

---

Birthday Notes

I also kept all my notes on determining birthdays (very important for long 'fics with lots of characters that take place over several months! One of my FOP resource docs is specifically for birthdays and annual events, ranging from parades to anniversaries to carnivals).

My headcanon for Becky Botsford's birthday is July 28th. We know she starts the series at age 9 and has a birthday in Season 1 episode 4, meaning she's 10 for much of the series. There are at least two episodes where she cites her ages as "10 and a half," and we saw that in her next birthday episode ("A World Without WordGirl"), her cake had 11 candles on it.

Show canon implies that time IS passing and that the show doesn't exist in a timeless void (see also, Timmy Turner wishing to freeze time for 50 years), so it was important to me that I nail down her birthday. I knew I wanted it to take place after Rhyme and Reason if possible since there are no more birthday episodes, though I would also be fine with having "Rhyme and Reason" shortly after her birthday [to ensure she stays 10 and 11 for the majority of show canon].

Here are some of my notes on her birthday for anyone interested (Hopefully they're not too squished):

^ Like I said, I switched 1987 to 1998, but yeah. Rex's birthday comes out to June 13th, 1989 and Becky's is July 28th, 1986.

Clickable links for Rex and Becky on the age calculator if you're curious... Important for me since one of Rex's math powers is to always know how old someone is to the day.

Fun Fact - I deliberately gave Rex June 13th as a birthday so he would share a birthday with Foop, who is also a Season 7 Episode 1 debut kid over in Fairly OddParents :)

---

Having birthdays planned is also nice for when I want to write multiple 'fics in the same world, even if they're not the same 'fic. In my story "Flypaper," which takes place in early June, Rex is eagerly awaiting his 17th birthday and Becky muses on how she'll be turning 20 at the end of the summer... Just a nice detail not only to set the scene, but also to help the story feel grounded and realistic since one of the themes of "Flypaper" was that Becky felt time was slipping away from her.

It's also important to note that Rex and Becky are always among the youngest in their school years since they have summer birthdays. Tobey is 12 for most of the time Becky is 11... Little details that don't take a long time to plan for, but can really help a story feel like the author put effort into the world.

Again, I highly recommend leaving clear notes to yourself about why you're doing certain timeline things. I much prefer having the breakdown of the episodes I looked at over simply leaving a note to myself that Becky's birthday is July 28th!

---

Character Arc Notes

Before planning the events of the story, it helps to get an idea for what themes and character traits you want to focus on. Frayed Knots is about love and betrayal- it's about Anti-Cosmo pushing for what he wants even though it hurts his loved ones (appropriate theme for a villain backstory 'fic).

I want to show some notes I have for Factor It In because I think they're interesting. Factor It In is my first attempt at doing a story that deliberately focuses around two protagonists and their separate but equally important character arcs, and I'm excited :)

Everything that's in my doc is the "tell" part of "show don't tell." The story tries to show what I have in my notes:

Rex arc - Lack of Stability / Lack of Control - Failing, getting tricked, being unwanted, not good enough, not understanding things. Being in foster care is scary. Unfamiliar planet is scary Show Kid Math always being super inquisitive. He always wants to learn. He knows the most, he is the best, he gets upset when he's fooled or when he fails. He was 2nd best in school. He feels lost when he doesn't know what's happening in his future. Gets upset when WordGirl doubts his decisions. In the opening scene of Factor, he's mind controlled by Mr. Big. Literally has no control Kid Math clings to his superhero certification / Hexagonian education. He was raised by his aunts and has basically no relationship with his parents (though he tries to hide the fact that this hurts him). He feels like a burden; he feels like his mom considered him "too much work" and that his father considers him "not worth bothering to visit." Rex constantly struggles under this fear that he's a burden. He wants to prove himself a good superhero so that his education (and life) aren't "a waste." Conflict: Kid Math has already spent his entire life feeling like he's no one's first choice; that he's only "second best" (because he was second to top of his class in school). He understands that he and WordGirl are sharing the city, but it's important to him that he's considered an equal. He wants people to like him. It hurts when WordGirl comes on too strong and makes it obvious she lacks faith in him, because he feels like a burden: his worst nightmare. Throughout the story, Rex internalizes his successes and failures. He cannot separate his superhero identity from his civilian identity. He always sees himself as "Rex, who trained to become a superhero." He calls himself Rex and has no distinction in his mind. His secrets slip, he uses his powers when he's Rex, and he expects people to attribute KM's failures to Rex (Ex: school kids laugh at how he falls for tricks as Kid Math and it upsets him as Rex). Rex values control, and will do all he can to avoid losing control. His deadly sin is Wrath, but he has a lot of emotional control and will try to remove himself from the situation. As long as he has his safe space and his comfort things, he's okay. We get several scenes of him wanting to break stuff when he's upset but he holds back... with the underlying tension of wondering how long he'll last before he snaps (pitting his nightmare of losing control against Becky's nightmare of losing his friendship).

I want to highlight the part about how Rex cannot separate his two identities. This is something I showed even back in "AlgoRhythm" - Rex always calls himself "Rex" inside his head, even when he's dressed as Kid Math. However, when I write from Becky's POV, the third-person writing swaps between calling her "Becky" or "WordGirl" depending on how she's dressed.

I also have notes about how Rex's character arc relates to the story's finale, but that's spoilers. Since Rex's character arc is about how he hates not having control, then the worst thing that could happen to him is not having a say in things: hence why the plot about bouncing between foster families is such a hard thing for him to go through. Eventually, he'll also be put in a position where he needs to think about who he is as Rex vs. who he is as Kid Math, and we'll see that in the story climax.

Becky has a fun arc too:

Becky arc - Loss / Change - People being hurt, losing her friends, hurting or losing her family. Fear of change. Show WordGirl being upset when relationships fracture, even with people who aren't super close to her. She struggles with the idea of Kid Math befriending her villains or losing her position as a hero and getting replaced by Kid Math. Put simply, WordGirl is a control freak who refuses to admit this to herself. WordGirl struggles to relinquish control to Kid Math (which is where they come in conflict since he ALSO feels stressed when he doesn't have control). WordGirl is a bit of a helicopter mentor; she hovers around Rex, interferes with his work, and just generally gets in his way (which is pretty funny imo since Rex never got in her way during "Kid Math"- he's capable, he just causes problems with social interaction and not with the actual fighting... WordGirl gets the social interaction part but definitely gets in the way). Conflict: WordGirl doesn't enjoy having Rex around, but she can't tell him that because it might hurt his feelings and that would cause her "loss and change" pain. She would feel guilty and sad. Rex being Exposition Guy's foster kid is a big source of conflict between them, as Rex believes he should "get dibs" on info EG shares. WordGirl stresses when Rex doesn't do things "her way" and Rex gets frustrated that she doesn't trust him. Tensions keep rising because WordGirl starts seeing "the bad" in Rex; she keeps seeing Miss Power traits in him and she worries that Miss Power might have been his teacher back on Hexagon. Her nosiness strains Rex's trust in her and he starts pulling away emotionally... sending her into a spiral about change and loss (especially as more and more villains and civilians grow familiar with Kid Math and start to think he's cool). Lots of resentment towards Kid Math for "replacing her" even though she NEVER admits that to herself; she still has trace amounts of jealousy towards him in later stories like "Flypaper..." WordGirl doesn't mean to be jealous or greedy, but it's always been one of her flaws (i.e. someone else getting a key to the city, or when she snapped during Miss Power special about Chuck getting a collectible unicorn, wanting to show off a bit during "Invisible Hand"). She's a very nice person but Envy is absolutely her deadly sin.

So yeah! Fun times ahead; I'm excited.

We've already started seeing cracks form between her and Chuck... In Chapter 4, Chuck confronts her, asking if WordGirl is retiring and if he'll still get to see her. Chuck has his own little character arc in the background, which is that he broke his foot a few days before the story starts- he has to sit on the sidelines watching the other villains get "WordGirl time" while he has to watch Kid Math go through hero training.

A lot of other characters have small arcs too, though Chuck's and Victor Best's are probably the most notable-- Chuck and Victor are both characters who struggle with being "the second best" compared to a more successful sibling, so they resonate heavily with Rex's character arc.

WordGirl's arc is about control, so Mr. Big and Tobey (mind control and robots) are pretty obvious choices for her, along with Dr. Two-Brains... but actually, Granny May and Eileen are two villains I really wanted to look at in Factor It In. Granny May's life hinges around being a "people person" (to the point that she had an episode about how she could be way more successful with a different schtick; she just likes talking to people too much to trade that for success).

Granny May is super calculating and manipulative and she also struggles with little losses of control in her daily life (getting on in years, mobility issues, and the episode "Granny's Book Club" where the Evil Villains Association tried to force her to retire). I like Granny May because she looks like this sweet old lady but she also, like. can fly and has a robot suit, which is SO funny.

With her cold, calculating patience and her manipulative ways, Granny May represents the worst of Rex AND Becky at the same time, which is great. I'm excited to get to her chapters. Eileen is also a fun villain to juxtapose Becky because she's the embodiment of envy, which Becky struggles with, so I'm looking forward to that too.

A lot of characters are also working on school projects, so they always have "something to do" or "something that is causing them stress." Mapping out the background character arcs and conflicts can help the story feel more alive, and I think that's a useful part of outlining :)

---

Once you know your character arcs ["What is my character's biggest fear, what is something my character will do wrong, what event forces them to face their fear, and how do they resolve this situation in a way that shows them growing as a person?"] then the story sort of writes itself :)

Make sure you have a goal or a problem and make sure there's a reason they can't achieve the goal or solve their problem in the first chapter. Here are some examples from 3 of my long 'fics:

Origin of the Pixies - Fergus (i.e. H.P.) fears being responsible for others... His father wants him to study psychology and take over the family therapy business (Wish Fixers) even though carrying the weight of others' emotional problems sounds like the worst fate imaginable... so Fergus cuts ties with Dad, drops out of the Fairy Academy and runs away from home. Now he only looks out for himself, can start his own business if he wants to, and he can drink and party all the time. What could be better than that?

Fergus's nightmare of being responsible becomes unavoidable when he (a pixie) starts reproducing asexually... during a time when no one really knows what pixies are and Fairy World has a baby ban in place. Fergus pursues a life of business and money-making, fighting to provide for Sanderson and the rest of his clone offspring (some of whom are predisposed by their genetics to kill him when they come of age, which is fun). Things get even worse when Fairy World and Anti-Fairy World go to war... Being responsible for kids during a time of peace was hard enough, but war? Forget it.

After successfully navigating the chaos of war, Fergus is ready to settle back into a peaceful life, but tumultuous politics keep him on his toes. His best friend - the leader of Anti-Fairy World - gets overthrown by hotshot Anti-Cosmo, and Fergus is forced to re-evaluate his friendships, priorities, political alignments, and personal needs if he wants to maintain political piece between the Pixies and Anti-Fairies.

While raising his pixie clones, Fergus has always kept them at arm's length and called them "interns" or "employees" or even "nephews" to avoid calling them his sons. The older he gets, the less he's able to do the things he liked to do in his younger years - goof off, wrestle, attend parties - and the more he needs to think about putting his pixies first. As death looms nearer and nearer, Fergus grows increasingly desperate to ensure his pixies will still thrive without him... and he'll do anything, regardless of who it hurts or how badly he endangers the magical world, to ensure they do.

-

Frayed Knots - Anti-Cosmo fears being unloved; his father isn't in the picture, his older brother is aloof, and his mother isn't kind to him. He's desperate to not grow old without a soulmate by his side. When he fails to match with a partner during a betrothal ceremony, he lies his way through it and tricks his peers into believing Anti-Saffron is his fated match.

As the centuries pass, it becomes more difficult to maintain the lie and Anti-Cosmo begins questioning whether maintaining his relationship with Anti-Saffron is even worth it. Breaking things off in a society that believes in luck and fate, however, is incredibly risky and could get him labeled as an outcast for the rest of his life.

Anti-Cosmo struggles to balance his dying feelings for Anti-Saffron with his growing feelings for Anti-Wanda, and things get trickier and trickier as his friends realize he's been lying all his life and start pushing him away. Finally, Anti-Cosmo has to choose between his comfy lies and his betrothed or else throw away everything so he can chase after Anti-Wanda... who might abandon him too, just like his friends did, and leave him alone and unloved.

Anti-Cosmo maintains his lies as long as he can, hurting his loved ones in the process, and struggles to pick up the pieces left behind. Even if no one else forgives him, he can't keep living in the past; he has to learn to forgive himself if he hopes to be approachable and trustworthy again. Being an evil villain, though, I guess whether or not he grows as a person is up for some debate...

-

Factor It In (Rex) - Rex values his personal achievements; he finds joy in superhero work and regularly brags about himself, his schooling, and his home planet Hexagon in general (right down to the fact that his planet has "the tastiest raisins in the universe.") Unfortunately, he's stuck in a cycle of giving his all but never feeling satisfied with his achievements because he's "never the best." One of his greatest fears is being confronted with evidence that he really is a burden and a failure, which would absolutely crush his spirit.

Rex doesn't love the way that Becky pushes him around; she's not mean, she just tries to guide him towards foster care even though he doesn't want to go. He doesn't speak up about it because he wants to put his faith in her and believe that he can learn from her and become a better person (since "being a good person" is the one thing he values above personal pride). He still feels inexperienced and overwhelmed in the early chapters, so he's hesitant to speak up and explain why he doesn't like what Becky's doing... up until she starts crossing his boundaries and then he has to draw the line.

Rex's desire for independence leads him to trust very easily. He puts his faith in Victor, Tobey, Chuck, and Granny May, who steer him down a wobbly path of moral grays. Becky keeps pushing him further away, so Rex continues bonding with the villains because he feels safe with them. Obviously this doesn't end well and he has to face the consequences of choosing the villains over his friendship with WordGirl.

In his determination to mend things with WordGirl, Rex accidentally lands both of them in a terrible situation and puts them (and therefore the rest of the city) in danger. In order to fix this, he has to push through his personal pride (Ow), accept his mistake (Double ow), and go against his training (which became useless while Bad Situation is in effect) so he can find a new way to save the day.

-

Factor It In (Becky) - Becky values her identity as a superhero and how much work she puts into protecting the city. She fears that Kid Math will be a worse hero than her (endangering people) but also fears Kid Math will be a better hero than her (blow to her self-confidence).

She can't resolve this problem in Chapter 1 because she's scared of hurting his feelings and would rather try other options to avoid direct confrontation; instead, she deals with her concerns by trying to "fix" Kid Math. She trains him and pushes him towards foster care. As long as she feels like she's helping him, she's assuaging both fears: she's proving she's "better" and she's helping him not be worse. Ergo, she "no longer has a problem."

Becky's already on a path that puts her in conflict with Rex, who desires control over his own life and has to deal with her pushing him around until he can't take it any more. Conflict arises when Becky oversteps boundaries and breaks Rex's trust in her. Things get worse when she makes a mistake that sours the city's attitude towards her. Her worst nightmare is coming true: she's "not as good as Kid Math" and people might get hurt without her.

As things keep getting worse for the city and Rex is struggling, it's obvious that she and Kid Math need to team up again. That means repairing their friendship... which she can only do if she proves that she really does trust Rex to do things by himself. Therein lies the pickle...

---

Anyway, I really rambled on there, but... Point being, a lot of fun stuff goes in my table docs, and this is the type of outlining I like to do for characters and story plots.

I highly recommend having a table of contents doc for long 'fics. You don't need to bog it down with all your worldbuilding notes (Hopefully you have a separate place you can put those, like a Tumblr blog or other docs), but for things that you know you'll definitely need and are worried you might not be able to find again, I highly recommend keeping them in the table doc.

You shouldn't normally be editing your table doc after you've done your outlining, which means you're less likely to accidentally delete important notes (compared to keeping them in a story doc) and you won't bog your story doc down with stuff you need to scroll past.

---

Chapter Docs [1 per chapter]

I have links to all my individual chapter docs (important to me since my chapters are normally 10k+ words... Can't fit everything in one doc or it would be a pain to navigate and take an age to load).

Here are some snippets of my outlines. As you can see, the descriptions I have in my table docs are loose and vague:

This is from Come What May:

Come What May is special because it takes place over just a few days (while my long 'fics span months or even thousands of years). It's based around Kevin's appearances in Fairly OddParents Season 10.

I wanted to share this because even though my notes for "Cold Shadow" are basically nothing, it still gives the info that's actually important for me to know when returning to this project after a hiatus: "Here's exactly what day it is in the timeline. This episodes shows kids turning in a homework assignment on the founding fathers, which means we need to see Kevin doing this homework assignment (or at least acknowledging it) in prior chapters.

Regardless of the weird supernatural stuff Kevin is dealing with in this 'fic, it's still intended to be canon compliant, and I know that's a detail Future Me could easily forget but would want to know. It's like what I said earlier about birthdays and timelines: leave yourself clear notes. You'll never regret having too many notes, especially if you intend to return to a project after a long hiatus.

-

Origin - I unfortunately scrapped my descriptions for all previous chapters of Origin and Knots so forgive the "spoilers," ha ha

Origin was originally drafted in a single document, which I later split into separate chapter docs. That's why I have notes like "Hawkins hand scene." I know exactly what that's referring to and my table of contents doc helps me remember which chapter it got moved to.

-

Knots - I wanted to show these to emphasize how vague some of these are:

Even though they're vague, you can get a good sense of the direction the story is going. Outlining doesn't have to be a painful, in-depth process. You can knock out the basics in a single afternoon if you just sit down and do it.

I picked one chapter and opened it at random ("Fox's Folly") and it has 8k words in its draft right now. "Tipping Scales" has 15k. At the time of making this post, Frayed Knots only has 34 chapters posted in public, so we're at least 1 or 2 years away from getting to this point, yet there's already a lot of draft info I can go back to. I've added a lot of bits and pieces to these chapters over the years and sometimes I just open them when I'm in the mood for reading something fun.

Having the documents already set up in advance brings you one step closer to opening them and throwing stuff in them and I highly recommend that.

-

Factor - These chapter outlines are more detailed (minus the early ones... the first 3 chapters were drafted as 1 chapter originally). If you've actually read Factor thus far, however, you'll notice that the scenes in my outline don't match perfectly with the finally chapters. And that's okay! The outlines are just guidelines and the final chapter can be different:

Lots of screenshots but I feel like my Factor doc is the most authentic look at my outline process (since it's recent while Origin and Knots were outlined like 7 years ago). I use black on my initial draft and red for things I change on a later sweep.

There are little notes to myself and sometimes I switch the order of things around. Also, "Torus" was written from scratch (no outline) since I came up with ideas for it later, and the nice thing is that I felt comfortable doing that without feeling like I'll write myself into a corner or wreck the pacing.

Having a story outline and all these separate docs means I already know where the story is going and I can jump in and write from anywhere in the timeline when the mood strikes. I think having a lot of options on what to write is the best way to fight writer's block, so this system works well for me.

Origin was drafted in 2016 and Knots in 2017. I create new scenes all the time (and scrap others), but a lot of the early story beats are still the same.

That about covers what I do in my outline process :) Thanks for asking and hopefully this was a fun and interesting read!

[jinanreona]

@fireandfae sent:

“Kingscholar!” He bursts through the door of the room, leaving the poor thing hanging by one hinge, though he’s far too excited to notice such insignificant details at the moment.

“Look what has been announced!” Without taking any notice of the fact that Leona is currently sitting in front of his computer, his stream turned on, he slams down a brochure for the nearby museum on the desk in front of him.

“They plan to devote an entire week to the topic of gargoyles.” His eyes are sparkling, as if he were a child about to be turned loose in a candy shop. “An examination of the history and evolution of the gargoyle from ancient times to the present.”

“Come,” He grabs at his elbow. ‘We must reserve our tickets at once - oh.” He finally notices the computer and spares it a fleeting glance. “Are you doing your - internet - things again?”

The apartment for once, Malleus seemingly entertaining himself with a walk out in the town. Leona had wasted no time in setting up his stream when the dragon didn't immediately return, seizing the chance to have some privacy. Despite how random they could be, his followers always seemed ready to go, the number of watchers growing rapidly before he'd even finished his usual greeting.

Of course, all good things must come to the end, which came in the form of a sickening crack as wood splintered from the (very unnecessary) force of an impatient dragon. Leona only has enough time to pull his headphones off as Malleus starts rambling and showing off the gargoyle exhibit brochure.

Oh no. He knew that twinkle in the other's eyes. The same that a puppy had when presented with a new toy. The chat behind him could only swoon at the endearing sight, though Leona felt quite the opposite. After all, the other's enthusiasm didn't change the fact the big oaf had just broken down the poor door as if it hadn't even been locked.

Leona's lips part to try and scold the other for barging in and breaking the door... again. Before he can though, Malleus is already taking him by his arm, rearing to go buy tickets as if they would sell out at any moment. As if. It doesn't take long for the other to recognize he'd been busy with something, seemingly recognizing the screen and the unimpressed look the lion gives him.

When the other finally pauses, Leona's already shoving at his face to keep him from looking at the chat too closely. Thankfully by now, the chat's attention had shifted from lewd comments to laughing emojis mixed with excited exclamations about the dragon. Ugh. Once more, any chance of Leona continuing the stream was dead, already knowing he wouldn't be able to calm the chat down.

At least Malleus's appearance was getting him hefty donations, the numbers shooting up in the background as Leona stands up and starts to push Malleus towards the door. "I will when you fix my damn door. Didn't you learn after you broke the window last week," he snips back, shooting the dragon a glare.

One that wavers when Malleus's expression falls to one of deep disappointment at the sharp words. He looked like a kicked puppy, Leona thankful their faces weren't visible to the camera at this distance. With a roll of his eyes, he takes the brochure as he leans in just enough to mutter into the other's ear, "I'll buy the tickets after I finish here. Now quit yer moping."

With one final push, he gets Malleus out of his room, stubbornly looking anywhere but at green eyes so as to not see the other's reaction. He picks up the destroyed door, leaning it against the doorframe to give him some semblance of privacy (Never mind the fact Malleus's horns could still be seen from a crack at the top).

Turning back to the livestream, he can still see the heart emojis filling the screen, making him huff once more. "...Technical difficulties~," he dismisses, the sultry tone from earlier replaced with a serious one before he ends the stream. A beat passes before he opens another tab, typing in the museum's URL on the search bar. Stupid lizard.

[masterjedilenawrites]

Hi! so I have some questions based on operating a blog (i’m new and i have no clue what to do… sorry)

what would you recommend putting on a pinned post? how do you put links of other posts (like stories/hcs/etc) onto another post like for a master list? when you start a post for hcs/oneshots do you do it in drafts or on another app and copy and paste it? i’m sorry if this is a lot to ask :,)

Also! i love your blog sm! your writing is so good!!

Hello there! No apologies necessary! Happy to answer any and all questions about this sort of thing 🙂

I'll answer your questions in reverse order. So, starting with drafting posts... I personally have always used Word or Pages when I write (and I was cool with using Google Docs in college as well). And honestly, I would recommend others do the same, mainly to avoid issues with Tumblr drafts not always saving properly. There is no worse feeling than losing all your hard work and not being able to recover it! Tumblr's post editor is just, not the greatest, to put it politely. It's glitchy, difficult to format certain things, and way too easy to mess something up or accidentally delete it altogether. For peace of mind, draft your stuff in a more reliable app and then copy over when you're ready to actually post.

Links... The one thing I'll say in Tumblr's defense is it does have a fairly easy way to link to other posts.* You don't need to know html or coding or anything. I'll explain as a step-by-step:

Copy the url of the post you want to link to. Best way is to click the three dots in the top right corner of the post and then "Copy Link." You can do this part on mobile or a web browser.

Create or edit the post you want to contain the link. Highlight the words you want (ex: Read here!) and a little bar of options will pop up (below the color options on mobile, above the highlighted words on the web). Click the symbol that looks like a chain, then paste the url you previously copied into the designated area. That's it!

For a post with multiple links (like a masterlist), you need to do it on a web browser. Keep the post you're creating up on one browser tab, and then open additional tabs to grab the links to your other posts for copying.

And then one note of caution (because even though it's easy, it's not perfect lol): If you edit a post with links it in, like changing the wording or moving things around, the links will sometimes "break." So I usually open two tabs, one with the post in its original format, and one where I'm editing it, and I can grab from the original if I accidentally mess it up.

*These instructions are for adding links in a post. If you want to set up links in your blog's bio/description section (like in mine), then you do need to use some basic html codes. I referenced this post when I set mine up.

And then finally, pinned posts... this is really up to you. Personally, I think you can't go wrong with some kind of a masterlist, or a "welcome" type post that includes a link to a masterlist. As a reader, whenever I find a new writer I like, I want to be able to see their bibliography, to see a list of all the other stories and things they've created. It helps me get to know them, their style, their fandom preferences, etc. And if I ever lose it or want to go back to it later, it's easy enough to just pull up their blog without having to scroll or search their whole posting history.

But it really depends on what you want visitors to your blog (and yourself!) to see first. Is there an issue/take/sentiment you're especially passionate about? Pin it. Are you running some kind of a game or focusing your writing on a particular prompt list? Pin it. Is there one story you are really proud of? Pin it. And the best part, you can change your mind and pin something else later. I currently have pinned an "I'm back!" post after I went MIA for a bit last year, because idk, I figured that was important for people to see. But I'm probably going to change it back to my masterlist now that it's been a while and I miss seeing that dumb meme I edited for it 😂

I hope I answered your questions and explained everything well! Again, happy to answer anything along these lines! I know starting out can be overwhelming, but a lot of it becomes second nature the more you play around and take note of what other blogs are doing. Then your focus can be on just having fun with your writing!

[vampishdyke]

hey fellow canadians just a little fun fact uhh switch to firefox! there was a new bill passed a couple of months ago that requires companies to pay a fee in order to show canadian news outlets on their sites. predictably, both google and meta have decided not to pay this fee and are now blocking and banning all canadian news companies on it.

switching to duck duck go or opera or whatever will NOT HELP as they are google based. another option you have is collect the news sites you usually gather news from (ex. cbc, ctv, etc.) and go directly to the website by typing the URL in the search bar (you should really be doing this anyway i think. get a list of canadian news outlets and bookmark them so you can look and absorb situations from different points of view)

this is soso important i cannot stress this enough. the government knew this would be the result and are using this as a way to keep us ignorant to the happenings of our literal own country. please consume news always.

you should be switching to firefox anyways because privacy reasons. there's a bunch of guides here on tumblr about how to get started on firefox with extensions and what not.

[pillsarchive]

The two of us are dying.

Edward Nashton (Riddler)/ Trans male! Reader

Reader is a trans guy and he/they pronouns are used (but I can totally switch the pronouns + descriptions and make other versions if people are interested)

Synopsis ;

Reader is a True Crime freak, Edward is a freak freak, reader finds his stream one night and the riddler takes an interest in him.

Warnings ; Edward is an incel, stalking, creepy behavior on Edwards part, mentions of smut, kidnapping, terrorism childhood trauma, murder, mention of rat cage torture, the usual.

No real tangible smut (for now ;;;;))))

No one has ever really liked Edward Nashton.

As a child he was always picked last in gym, blankets and coats were missing when he came back to the orphanage from school, even then people were put off by him. Now as an adult it isn’t any better, still alone, still wanting for more. Even with his newfound purpose the prospect of isolation, lifetime isolation, it scares him. His fans fill the hole in his chest a little bit, but they arent nearly enough. It’s like he hasnt seen anyone face to face in years.

If someone asked you why you spend all this time learning about criminals you wouldn’t be able to tell them. You’ve never been violent (save for in thought), you dont have trouble empathizing with people, you never wet the bed or killed animals or suffered head trauma as a child, you dont even like torture porn movies. None of that matters because night after night you find yourself reading about gothams criminal history. Lately that’s meant learning about him. A masked serial killer in army fatigue, the man (at least you assume he's a man) you’ve been obsessing over for the last four weeks calls himself the riddler. Dorky name. Really really silly, you think, especially when you consider there’s another serial killer named ‘the joker’ locked up in arkham. The riddler and the joker, its hard to be upset by how absolutely shitty gotham is when most of its criminals are so goofy. That’s sort of what.....impresses (you aren’t sure thats the right word) you about the riddler - he’s horrifying in spite of the name. You weren’t really around town when the joker was free, but even after reading the accounts of what he did you cant imagine he was ever as chilling as this new one is. You’d like to meet him, the riddler, you think. See what he’s like with the mask off. See if that’s worse.

Just as your mind reaches to start thinking about gothams man in green again, you remember two things.

One, you aren’t allowed to think about weird shit at work - lest your thoughts spill out of your mouth and you scare your coworkers.

Two, you’re supposed to be on opening shift. Opening shift means you were supposed to unlock the doors five minutes ago. Yikes.

Thank god your boss isnt here and thank god there’s no one at the door.

You sigh and walk back to the counter.

Another exciting day of customer service.

That’s the thing you hate most about your job. Inconsistency. Some days the customers are sweet and they tip well, some days (cough today) are grueling - the people are rude the work is hard and at the end of the day you feel weak.

As you turn on your laptop you wonder ; what better way to wind down than watching a murderer livestream?

A url is typed into the search bar, you must have forgotten to clear it last night.

For weeks you’ve been trying to get brave enough to actually click ‘enter’ when you type in the website, but you just haven't been able to do it. He’s good with tech and smart, what if he figures out where you are? What if you get arrested for neglecting to report criminal behavior? Is that even a thing the police can do? As your finger hovers over the enter key you weigh the pros and cons. Pro, entertainment for the night. Con, might get arrested or something. Pro, you get to see the real deal in all his terrifying, terrifying glory. Con -

Your cat brushes up against you, you twitch, and to your slight horror you hear a

click

Shit. No better time than the present, you guess.

The screen of your laptop goes black and after a few seconds a bright green

Appears on the screen.

< A new one. Though I’d like to congratulate you now, finding the website in a sea of fakes is no small feat, I want to play a game first.>

He's definitely seen saw more than once.

<My two hands never stop moving but I dont work or play, I am immortal but I can still pass, I am valued but I dont exist - what am I?>

True to his name, he does like riddles. You are kind of disappointed he doesn't really say "riddle me this", you've always thought the phrase is funny. After a few moments of thinking you type out the answer to his question.

<Time, right?>

<Smart - It didn't even take you twenty seconds. >

In spite of yourself your lips upturn into a small smile at the praise.

<Thank you :)>

<Quite welcome. What's your name?>

Fear pooled in your chest and you felt your mouth begin to dry. Hopefully he meant usernames.

< Is ‘lucretiamy’ taken?>

<No. Lucretia - you're a girl or a sisters of mercy fan?>

Should you say? On one hand, lying will probably piss him off, that’s kind of his whole thing, on the other hand those school PSAs told you never to state your gender to any strangers online (and those are normal strangers, strangers that havent violently attacked and killed anyone in the past week). Plus, you've hung around this crowd online long enough to know a lot of them aren't really too eager to *not* be awful to trans people.

After a minute or so you’re still deciding and another message pops up.

<I can tell you the answer, its publicly available information really - instagram bio, but you wont answer?>

A shaky breath leaves your mouth as you type.

<Didnt figure you'd understand. Some of your supporters havent been very welcoming to me.>

< I cant accept that kind of behavior, cleaning up gotham doesnt just mean getting rid of politicians, it means getting rid of people like that too. If you dont give out your personal information there shouldnt be any negative attention, but if it anyone does talk to you about it here let me know. >

Ha. The man that just found your instagram account, your personal instagram account, in almost a minute without a username telling you not to give info to strangers online. You smiled a little bit. He seemed......nice, as nice as someone like him could be.

<Thank you, I mean it. I will.>

< :] . Play safe, have fun.>

The chat screen closed and a stream setup with a timer in the middle of the feed replaced it. A chat box on the left scrolled slowly down, two people were figuring out how to "riddler pill" their family members. You expected to have some time left before the stream, but the timer noted there was only about 3 minutes. Sitting and waiting made your nerves act up more than talking to the guy. You were expecting him to be strange, cut off, incellish. So far he seems shockingly...... fine. Then again, ted bundy was also a normal person, so was BTK, etc. Still some part of you didn’t register the fact that this man was dangerous.

You pulled out your sketchbook as you waited for the timer to hit 00:00 and sat down on your couch.

After a few minutes of sketching, a beep sounded off. You jumped and looked down at your computer to see a blurry feed of the masked man staring up at the camera.

When he spoke you leaned forward in your chair. His voice was gritty, filtered, but there was an underlying softness to it.

“Hey guys!”

He waved at the camera, excited.

“So - “

He clapped his hands together.

“I want to take a break from talking strategy today and welcome a few new users! Feel free to say hi in chat guys, introduce yourselves, get to know each other, I do want this to be a community.”

He seemed to wait for the fans responses.

Cautiously you typed out a “Hi, everybody!”

Responses ran through the chat, mostly reply hello's and smiley faces, until someone asked you a question.

<What brings you here, lucretia?>

You had to think for a moment before you started typing. Honest response - "I want to watch a serial killer livestream his murders for fun after work" or, the other one. The answer you've been coming to terms with for a while now.

The ladder would probably go over better.

< It irks me - ive only lived in this city for a few years and I dont have it bad, not by any stretch of the imagination, but the way politicians ignore every problem thats real, that effects people, in favor of culture war non issues makes me angry. You can drive down main and see it, people sleeping on the streets getting the cops called on them, getting told to move away from the rich people's sky scraper apartment buildings to poorer areas so no one has to look at them. Arkham asylum has the highest death rate of any prison in the country, its known for being a hell hole where they send people to die, the people who finance this city - run things, dont just let it exist they ship people like that joker guy there. No one does what he did without having serious mental health problems. They lock him up instead of trying to help him by getting him the care he needs. Same with drugs, same with housing crisis, same with muggings. It's gross. At least the riddler's doing something.>

You didnt really have a problem with the riddler, just how he went about things. The mayors son found him, no kid should have to go through that, but would the justice system have dealt with Mitchell correctly had he been caught and turned in the old fashioned way? Hell no. It was a grey area. Violence is never the answer except when it is, but can this much violence really be necessary? As the riddler read the chat his eyes lit up.

“Yes! It should get to you, it should make you angry and hurt, they see us everyday and they dont do anything. Every one of them - they dont do anything. Drugs are only a problem because the people on top are trying to make money instead of help us, if we just treated people like people we’d be better off. Thats why they dont get humanity. On the news when they all whine and cry about the poooooor dead mayor awww he was a great guy wasnt he? - NO. No. He doesnt treat us like people so we’ll repay the debt. We’ll leave every one of them hanging out the windows of their million dollar a month high rise apartments like livestock and see how they fucking like it.”

He was almost screaming now. You arent sure how the other people in his apartment block cant hear him through the walls. For the next hour and a half you watch him walk in circles, moving erratically like he’s in some sort of trance. Still he's strangely compelling, charismatic. Even the people in the chat are intimidating, all seemingly well read, smart, angry, the whole thing scares you.

Still, your bi - nightly routine becomes sitting down to watch his streams

(and his nightly routine becomes watching you).

Things went on as usual for the next few weeks. You went to work, sat around and served people drinks for a few hours, then you came home and watched his streams. After the first chat you two had you'd assumed there would be more, to your slight relief (and slight disappointment) no green text had popped up on your laptop screen in almost a month. You knew it was weird - sickening almost - but you hoped he at least thought about you from time to time. He was sort of cute when he wasn't screaming about politicians ruining his life, and he didn't do that as much as you thought he would. Most streams ended up being him interacting with the chat, asking for tips, talking, getting to know people. Tonight was one of those nights. To your dismay your boss had scheduled you for the early morning shift instead of the evening shift you usually had - that meant you'd have to miss stream. You logged on really quick to tell everyone that you were ok, you'd just have to go to bed early tonight. A few of your acquaintances (you wouldn't quit call them friends) typed out their condolences, but other than that your absence notice seemed to fly under the radar.

That is until your screen went black and a familiar question mark symbol showed up.

&lt;;?>

<Why do you have to miss stream?>

A small smile crept across your face.

<Aw, are you going to miss me?>

<You didn't answer my question.>

<My boss scheduled me for a morning shift without asking. He's rude that way - I have to be at work from 12 - 5 >:(. >

Behind his screen, the riddler giggled.

<Maybe we'll see each other.>

<How do you mean?>

<I usually go out for food after stream, I might see you around.>

The thought filled your stomach with butterflies, or something more violent than that - birds maybe.

<I hope you do.>

He took a while to type out his next message.

<;Really?>

<Yeah. I think it would be fun to meet you IRL. Talk on stream is usually centered on "the big event" - you cant be too personal or someone might figure out who you are. You're interesting, I want to know what kind of books and movies you like, If you own pets, shit like that. >

<Para social relationship fantasizing, I know, Im sorry. Lol.>

You quickly added.

It seemed like hours before he responded. You were almost considering closing out of the window - maybe you'd scared him (ha). After nearly five minutes a message popped up.

<Maybe we should meet. >

<Are you fr?>

&lt;Yes. >

As if it wasn't already too ominous for your liking, he sent another message.

<I'd like to get to know you too, maybe meet your cat.>

<I'll see you soon. Dont get too worried about it.>

<Goodbye.>

Oh god. "Your cat" meaning your one cat, a specific number and a specific animal. He could just be guessing to try and scare you, maybe you accidentally dropped the information in chat (you did love showing him off - he was a beaut, and your only son), but something tells you he gleaned the knowledge a different way. Something tells you he may be more interested in you than you first assumed.

Going to work after receiving that information was a struggle. You were a man broken into thirds. One part of you wondered if you were over reacting and making a big deal out of nothing - he knew you had a cat big deal that didnt mean he was stalking you. The second part was horrified, he was dangerous and pretty unstable, you knew that much. Now he was following you. The third part was the one that scared you the most. You liked it. You knew he was probably watching you, looking at you, he probably had been since you made an account on his website. You knew full well what he was doing and you liked it. You couldn't stop yourself from venturing further down, letting the image of him in his mask and his gloves slam you against a wall and choke you out, threaten you, maybe even draw blood. Your hand instinctually went for the waistband of your boxers but you stopped yourself, rubbing circles into the front of your thigh instead.

Fuuuuck, you had to work, you couldnt dwell on him right now.

You grabbed your keys and put on your leather combat boots and jacket (one of the small victories you had won over the short, sour little man who you were unfortunate enough to work under. He hated the boots and the jacket but you were a good worker so he couldnt fire you for adding edge to your stupid old fashioned baby blue diner outfit. You relished in this fact) and walked out the door.

People usually didn't bother you on your walks. You weren't rich, you weren't a girl walking home by herself, you looked just as aimless and tattered as the rest of the gothamites that hung around on the sidewalks at night. Black dyed hair with your roots showing, piercings, some tattoos. Still, you never wore headphones. The walk to work was short and you'd rather deal with city noise than risk getting jumped. Gotham was getting colder now, it was nearly november and the air had already chilled enough to make water freeze over. When you arrived at the diner and stepped inside it was a welcome relief from the cold. You greated your other coworker, jack, and walked into the locker room to put your things away. The locker looked like it was from the dump. Rusted in spots, bent, stained. The only redeeming quality it had was a thick metal door and a built in lock. The back door to the diner was always open in case someone wanted a smoke break (at least that's what your boss told you so he would have to admit the metal is fucked up and to get it all the way closed he has to pull with the full force of his 220 pounds. ), sometimes people came in and poked around looking for money.

You quickly grabbed your sketchbook and a few pens, shut the door to the locker, and walked out to stand at the till and wait for the next customer. An old man with weathered skin and a tattered jacket sat in the back booth and sipped on a cup of straight black coffee. Aside from him the place was a ghost town. As you leaned against the counter you started to sketch in the little black book. What would he look like in real life? Would he be average looking, unremarkable, the most beautiful person you'd ever seen, or would he be a girl? Pretty, long hair, short hair, eyeliner? You figured he would be an eyeliner person. Faces quickly filled the spread, all the same but different in some ways, all smiling. When there was no more room to draw possible faces you began to outline a large question mark in the middle of both pages. It was already almost half way through your shift now and there was still no one. Your boss said it got slow at night but you didn't think he meant this slow. You leaned over the counter and grabbed a butter knife, laying your hand flat on the table and slamming the tip to the cold linoleum visible in between your fingers.

Suddenly, the doorbell jingled.

You nearly jumped out of your skin. For a moment you forgot the greeting that had been beaten into your brain by a year and a half of customer service.

"Sorry sir, I was spaced out and you scared me. Feel free to sit anywhere, What can I get for you?"

He smiled wide when he spoke - messed with his hands too. Like he was a child standing in line to buy a new toy. Giddy.

"I'd love a latte and a slice of pie"

He paused, then quickly added -

"Please."

You grinned back at him, it was genuine - not a customer service obligatory. The guy was sort of cute, brown hair, glasses, nerdy in a good way - and he seemed happy. Most people drudged around the city like their pet dog had just died, dripping with sadness and anger. It wasn't like you couldn't understand it, you were sure you looked the same way walking to and from work, you just enjoyed it when other folks seemed like they were in a good mood. It cut through the miasmic despair that seemed to hang over gotham.

"Sure thing, ill bring that right out for you."

He giggled and you almost made a cooing noise in front of him - went awwww like you would when you saw a cat. You'd never heard anyone audibly go "tee hee" before, at least.......

Not outside of the riddler's streams.

You quickly walked over to the display in the counter and cut a slice of pie to put on a plate, then made the latte. As you watched the coffee drip into the cup you bounced up and down on the soles of your feet, this could go badly if you weren't actually right and the guy at that table had seen the news but you really didnt care that much. Youd just offer him a refund. You had a gut feeling now that the connection had been made in your mind and you weren't about to ignore it. If you let him leave without giving him a way to talk openly with you you'd kick yourself everyday for the rest of your 20s. When the frothed milk had settled on the top of the coffee you grabbed a stirring stick and traced out a <?> shape.

Letting out a sigh you turned around and walked over to where he was sitting. As you set the cup and the pie down the man looked up at you in confusion.

"Edible art?"

Your heart sank. He didn't get it, he wasnt the one.

"Yeah, sorry. I draw a lot and I get bored on the night shift - sometimes I make people coffee art. "

You plastered on a wide smile to hide your disappointment.

"No, no I like it. You're talented, I dont think I could manage to scratch out a smiley face in a latte."

"Thanks. Do you need anything else?"

"Nope! Thank you."

As you walked away you stiffled tears, grinding your nails into your palm as you tried not to sob in the middle of the diner. It was a bad habit, sure, but you couldn't really stop. On bad days - days when it was harder to get out of bed, to eat, something as small as running out of your favorite hand lotion could leave you messed up hyperventilating on the floor for hours.

No one came in for the rest of your shift. You doodled more riddler, but this time it was just him. Just the mask and the jacket and the gloves. The not - riddler - riddler looking guy left 10 minutes before you got to go home. With a small smile and a 20 dollar tip, he made his way out the door. Your insides still felt heavy, your organs dense, but the mans kindness still made you smile to yourself. You took the tip and tried to split it with jack, but he had already left when you checked the kitchen. Probably at a party - he was two years younger than you were and a freshman in college, his earnings from the diner were always financed back into house parties, movies with friends, beer. You liked him. He was kind of a stereotype but he was a great coworker, pleasant, responsible, funny. With some disappointment you realized you hadnt chatted much before he left. You were too focused on -

yeah, you two hadn't talked a lot.

Sadness colored your movement as you put on your jacket and your messenger bag. Tonight you guessed you would wear headphones, listen to some leathermouth and blow off some steam. Front door - locked. Lights - off. Kitchen stuff - off. Back door - locked. You walked out the back and started walking back to your apartment.

Something felt off - like someone was looking at you. You spun around as you walked, checking to make sure no one was following you, the street was empty. The music you were playing drowned out the noises of the street and the cars, the night air was cool on the back of your neck. You looked out at the street as you walked. As much as you sort of hated gotham, the lights were night. Neon signs, cars, apartments, all gave off light like fireflies when it got dark. Even though you did miss the way the night sky seemed to be endless, black and void where you grew up, you liked it here too. The light pollution made you feel like you weren't alone.

All at once you felt leather covering your mouth, someone pulling you into an alleyway, and the feeling of being clamped by two arms to a warm body. You bit the hand but it didnt do anything, you just tasted leather and heard the person behind you snicker. Screaming didn't do anything and your attacker was too strong for you to properly loosen the grip he had on you - after a while you didn't have enough energy to kick or shake around anymore.

They held you close to them as you both breathed heavily, his were deeper than yours even though he hadnt been the one fighting for the last five minutes, you both just stood there and panted for what felt like hours.

The person holding you smelled like an old laboratory. Dust, cleaner, bleach, chemical.

You tried to speak.

"What now?"

It just came out as a muffled, garbled "wha whww".

A deep voice whispered in your ear -

"My footfalls make no sound yet Im quite a big thing, some people like me, some people hate the uncertainty I bring, when im around people often give presents, sometimes im good and sometimes im menace.

What am I?"

Your eyes went wide and you smiled into his glove out of relief.

"Riddler?"

He giggled behind you.

"Silly, that's not the answer."

You thought about asking him to cut to the chase, let you go, but he'd probably get mad if you didn't amuse him and give him a response.

After a minute you had your answer.

"Surprises?"

"Correct!"

With that he released you, you stumbled away from him and tried to regain your balance. You took a deep breath in and slowly turned back around to look at the man in the mask.

Your gaze swept over him, taking everything in. Your spit on the palm of his left glove, the worn combat boots wet from the rain, the glasses.

The glasses. The same one's the man in the diner wore. Guess he underestimated how smart you were. As you locked eyes with him you realized he was smiling.

"What do you think?"

You felt the corners of your mouth quirk up as you answered.

"It's beautiful."

[versegm]

A beginner's guide to tumblr

So you did it. You decided to check out this hellsite everyone keeps mentioning and made a tumblr account. Welcome! Now, the question is: how the fuck does this website works? How do you find people to follow? Are there any social rules you need to watch out for?

Here is a brief post to help you getting started.

Your dash

Your dash, your feed, your tl, call it however you want: the things you see when you open up tumblr, basically. Your dash will feature the following things:

Stuff posted by the blogs you follow

Stuff reblogged by the blogs you follow

The occasional ball-shaving ad if you’re American

All in chronological order. That’s it. No algorithm, no showing off posts that are in people’s likes, nothing. Just what you signed up for. That is the website’s main selling point.

But, you ask, how do I find people to follow? Well no worries, I gotcha.

Tags and search system on tumblr

You see that search bar up there? You can use it to, surprise surprise, look shit up. If you type up “blorbo” in there, the search function will return to you a bunch of posts that feature the word “blorbo” in the tags or in the body of the post. You can sort these posts by most recent, or by most popular.

I’m gonna be honest with you. No one really knows how the search function works. But it’s always a good starting point to find people who create the kind of content you want to see. One cool thing about the search function is that it will only show you original posts. Someone reblogged a post and added an annoying comment? Only the original post will show up, not the comments. You’re looking up a ship and someone’s url happens to be that ship name? You’ll only see the posts featuring your ship.

That search function is also why you will see older users censor the names of various shows/characters/ships when they’re salting about them. It’s a courtesy to ensure their posts won’t show up in the search function, since most people who look up “somethingsomethingshipping” are here to see ship art, and not random user #34 talk about how much they hate this ship. I encourage you to do the same; if you want to bitch about how this character is soooo overrated, by all means, please do! But censor the bloke’s name so their fans won’t accidentally run into your post.

Okay. Now we’ve covered the search system. But what if you only want to see posts tagged with a certain thing? Not “the tags include x” but solely the stuff with a singular tag about it.

Well don’t you worry! We got you covered. Just type in the url “tumblr.com/tagged/[whatever you wanna look up]” and the whole tag will be open for you!

TL;DR:

Use the search bar (or tumblr.com/search/blorbo) and you will find posts that are tagged “omg look at my blorbo” and such.

Use the tag function (tumblr.com/tagged/blorbo) and you will solely find posts tagged “blorbo”.

Tags and search system on personal blogs

So here’s a secret about the tags and search function: all that shit I just told you about tumblr? It also works on people’s personal blogs.

As you’re probably aware, you can see someone’s tumblr within tumblr itself, or you can look them up directly by typing “[username).tumblr.com” And if you do just that, the tags and search functions also work here!

[username].tumblr.com/search/blorbo will return a bunch of posts this user has posted or reblogged that contain that word. It also works in mysterious ways, but it’s always a good start if you’re trying to find content or blogs to follow or whatever.

[username].tumblr.com/tagged/blorbo will return all the posts this user has tagged as such. How effective that is really depends on how the blog owner uses them. Usually you will see artists tag stuff as “my art” or similar stuff, which is how you can binge someone’s entire art blog easily. Even if it’s been posted years ago, if it’s been properly tagged, you can still easily unearth it and get the engagement going.

Likes

You can like post by clicking on the little heart button. It will add it to your list of likes, on tumblr.com/likes. The op will get a notification that you liked their post.

That’s about it. Personally I use likes as personal bookmarks of posts I need to look at later. They don’t really do much aside from that. 

Reblogs

Reblogs! The bread and butter of tumblr. Reblogging means sharing someone’s post on your own blog while keeping a link to the original poster. Anyone who follows you (or manually checks out your blog) will see that post. Reblogs are what get the engagement going, which is why you’ll often see artists talk about how “reblogs > likes” and such. 

You can reblog something directly, or you can add it to your queue, and it’ll be posted automatically at set intervals. If you see someone’s posts being tagged with “queue” or the likes, it’s probably because that post was queued.

Speaking of tags! You can add tags to the posts you reblog. That way you can organize your blog as you wish. It’s also useful for blacklisting purposes. For exemple, if I know one of my friends who follows me is triggered by pancakes, and op didn’t tag it because they’re a background element of their painting, I can tag “pancakes” so my friends can filter it and not see it.

You can also add comments to the posts you reblog, but I advise you not to do that. When and how it’s socially acceptable to comment on posts is subject to social rules no one agree on, and honestly it warrants its own how-to post. In case of doubt, if you want to add something to a post, add it in the tags. Wanna compliment op? Say it in the tags. Wanna talk about a funny anecdote related to what op wrote? Add it in the tags. The tags are your best friends. On tumblr everyone babble in the tags. It’s a non-intrusive way to add your grain of salt to posts.  

TL;DR

Use tags to find shit you like. Use tags so others can find your shit. If you like something, reblog it. Use tags to comment on the shit you’ve reblogged, and check the tags of your posts to see people’s comments on them. Have fun.

There are a ton of features and extra details I didn’t talk about here cuz I wanted to keep it short, but that should give you a good idea of how to get started if nothing else. Also, general disclaimer that I’m not The Authority On Tumblr ™, I’m merely some guy who’s been in their own corner of tumblr for a very long time. I’m sure plenty of people will reblog this post with their own inputs on how to reblog and tag ect ect. As with any social space you want to join, I encourage you guys to lurk and observe how people behave & talk to each other here to get a better grasp on how shit works. Godspeed, have fun!

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML Fic: Per-Chat to Dream (Preview)

(So I have been working a bit on this fic idea. Which if you guys like it, I will be willing be setting up as my next big multi chapter fic. So make sure to comment and reblog if you like it.)

_____________________________________________________________

The beeping of the alarm reverberated through the room

"Ugh..."

Adrien's eyes opened lazily.

He sat up and stretched his arms upward as he yawned.

"Morning Plagg." Adrien yawned as he got out of bed.

He sheepishly walked to the bathroom.

"That akuma last night really wrecked my sleep time." Adrien commented as he brushed his teeth. "Don't even remember how we beat it. But at this point, I can take a guess on how."

He finished brushing his pearly whites and quickly tamed his bed head to resemble his trademark hair style.

"I am sure Ladybug is just as tired as I am."

He quickly got dressed and made sure his backpack was packed.

"Come on Plagg, I know your sleepy, but I need you to get up."

He realized that there was no response. Normally the small cat kwami would be complaining that his alarm clock is jealous of his loving relationship with sleep.

Adrien walked over to the part of the bed Plagg would call his home.

"Went under the pillow to try and sleep more? Typical plagg." Adrien rolled his eyes with a smile.

He pulled the pillow up to reveal nothing.

"Plagg?"

Adrien felt his tiredness turn to annoyance. He didn't have time for hide and seek with the grumpy god. Thankfully, he knew a trick. to find the clever Kwami.

"Plagg! Claws out!"

After a few seconds, nothing had changed. Adrien was still very much Adrien, just posing like an idiot.

"Plagg! Claws out!" Adrien shouted louder.

Still no transformation.

"What is happening?" Adrien pulled his hand back and his eyes went wide to realize, the miraculous was missing!

"Oh no..."

Adrien felt his skin turn pale and a pit of worry in his gut. This felt like the worst case scenario. He needed to find his ring!

Adrien rushed to his bed, pulling up the covers, sheets, pillows and anything that could be potentially hiding his ring. He started looking around his bathroom. He checked the floors, tables, shelves, any small crevice he could think of. He had turned his room upside down with no success.

He felt his mind racing, where could the miraculous be? Did... did they lose that fight last night? Was that why he couldn't remember?! Did the akuma take the miraculous and Hawkmoth was victorious?!

He stops for a moment. He needed to calm down.

'Hold on, that can't be what happened. Wouldn't the world be all grim and depressing with butterflies everywhere if he won? I know! I can just check the ladyblog. Get the details on the akuma attack last night. Maybe I can get some details on what happened.'

Adrien rushes to his computer and goes into his favorites tab, only to find the Ladyblog wasn't in it. He shrugged it off, he can type in the URL manually. He quickly types it into the site search bar... only to find nothing.

"The Ladyblog is gone?" Adrien spoke in a stunned whisper.

He exited out of the browser only to take notice of his computer wallpaper.

It was a picture of him, and a beautiful girl. They were smiling. Her cheeks were rosy and her black hair was down. Her blue eyes as blue as the sky. He looked at the picture of him closely, the way his eyes weren't even looking at the camera. They were fixed on the girl. He felt his heart beat a bit.

When did he have this picture taken? The last girl he dated was Kagami, and they didn't have any pictures together like this. Who was this gorgeous girl in the photo?

The blond teen looked closer, he knows she looked familiar. He felt like he knew her... He shook it off. Right now he didn't have time to figure out who the cute girl was, he had to figure out what happened to Plagg, to his miraculous.

"If only I could contact my lady..." Adrien sighed deeply. This would have been one of those situations where knowing her identity would have been beneficial.

He gets up from his desk chair. He needed to head to school anyway. He was relieved that his father probably wouldn't notice him leaving the house later then normal.

He grabbed his backpack and carefully made his way downstairs, when he heard something highly unusual, Laughter. But even weirder, it was his father laughing.

Adrien felt a chill go down his spine, was there some sort of akuma that was forcing people to laugh? And he didn't have plagg to help.

He rushed down the stairs and pushed his back to the wall. He listened closely. He needed to know the situation.

"...And thats when you said it?" a voice that adrien recognized as his father asked. The voice sounded like it was trying to hold back laughter.

"No, that was before I was heading to the car. He was so keen on keeping me there." another voice spoke, it sounded so familiar to Adrien but he couldn't place it. The voice felt warm and comforting.

"Right, that was when he was offering to pay you double for reshooting the scene." Gabriel stated.

"Yep, and I said. 'I don't care if you triple my pay, I haven't seen my husband and son for 9 months! I am heading home." The woman emphasized.

"And then he tried to say he'd black list you?" Gabriel chuckled.

"Thats when I turned around, walked up to him, looked him dead in the eye and said: 'Look Jeremy, I don't give a butterfly's buttcheek about your threats. You should be thankful I decided to even act in this colossal disappointment of a movie. I am going home, and you can kiss my ring once your movie gets nominated for an Oscar."

Adrien realized he knew that voice. he moved from his hiding spot. Standing in the entry way of the dining room.

"Mom?" Adrien barely managed to speak.

The blond woman in the chair in the classy light pink business suit stood from her chair.

"And so my little sunshine rises. I was wondering when I would see you up? Sorry I haven't gone up to see you yet, I just got home and I needed to tell your father about the ordeal I..."

Adrien hugged his mother. Holding her tightly.

"You're back right? like this is really you?" Adrien was trying to figure out what was going on in this world. Was this really his mother? Was this all a dream? A crazy roller coaster of a dream.

"I missed you too honey." She hugged back. She turned her head to Gabriel. "Remind me to call Jeremy after this, I need to give him another verbal lashing for making my son miss me so much!"

"Will do." Gabriel nodded.

Adrien released the hug.

"I have so many questions..." Adrien started. But Gabriel noticed the time.

"Trust me son, you can ask your mother all about her latest movie after school. You are going to be late if you don't head off." Gabriel instructed.

Adrien felt this day get weirder. Seeing his dad so... happy felt like such an oddity.

His mind was a medley of thoughts that just didn't make sense.

"R-right. I will see you... both after school" Adrien said as he started heading to the door.

"Hold it!"

Adrien froze, his mind still processing the fact that his mother is here and very much alive.

She walks over to him. She kisses his forehead, the blond feeling a sense of calm he desperately needed. His mother always did know how to put him at ease.

"I am finally back, so you need to talk with that lovely girl you have been talking with and set up a time for us to all have dinner together."

"Girl?"

"Yes, don't try to play dumb. The girl that you have been dating for well over 6 months now. Just because I am away doesn't mean I don't follow up with things going on in your life. Your father has sent me some photos of the two of you, and I must say, your father should ask her to help model with you."

Adrien felt his cheeks heat up, he did see the photo of the girl she was referring to. So apparently that girl is his girlfriend?! He would probably feel lucky if he could figure out what exactly was going on.

"I... I will talk with her about it." Adrien managed to answer.

"Great! Now off you go!"

Adrien walked out the door and headed to the car where his driver was waiting like usual.

Though as he was about to get into the car.

"Love you!" he heard his mother call out.

Adrien looked to his mom, a smile slipped on his face.

"Love you too mom."

He hopped into the car and the driver drove off to the school.

_____________________________________________________________

[neopronouns]

a quick guide to searching for mogai terms by name!

if you know the name of a term and want to find its flag, coiner, etc., here’s my steps for finding it as quickly and easily as possible! this is a great way to find flags for edits, make sure you have the correct definition of a term, etc.

i also highly recommend that you at least do step 2 for a name you’re thinking of using for a term, especially if it’s simply ‘[word]gender’!

1. first, i check the pride-flags deviantart page — this is a great resource with thousands of high-quality flags, many of which are older and more commonly used terms, so it’ll be a great general resource.

2. [i typically use google next, but if you’d prefer to save google for later, skip this step and go to step 3!] then, i go to google. placing quotation marks around the term itself ensures that all of your results will include that term! here are the best ways to search in order of how i do them:

1. “term” mogai flag

2. “term” mogai’

3. “term” flag

4. “term” tumblr (or ”term” twitter, “term” reddit, whatever other site)

^ (searching ‘“term” tumblr’ can sometimes yield links to tumgir, tumbral, or other tumblr mirror sites - i don’t recommend clicking on those, as you usually won’t even see the post it’s trying to link you to.)

5. “term”

2b. i may also check duckduckgo if nothing turns up on google! i often do this when i can see that the term exists somewhere on pinterest, since duckduckgo will sometimes return more accurate pinterest links.

3. then i check mogaipedia - you can absolutely skip this step if you’re uncomfortable with the site itself, but it provides links to archives of term coinings, so it can be helpful. however, there are some misattributions of terms on this site, so always double check before citing someone as the coiner of a term!

^ mogaipedia no longer exists as an actual site, but you can still find a lot of the terms that were archived on it using the internet archive! here’s a post with links to the site’s urls. the page they’re listed on has search bar (it says ‘filter results by url or mime type’) that you can use.

4. then i use archive blogs! my very favorite is @/radiomogai, especially for more recently-coined terms, but i also check @/variant-archive and @/lgbtqiarchive if i don’t find it there.

5. then i actually go onto tumblr and twitter (the two most common sources of mogai terms) to search for the term by name, both as a general search and as a tag search. sometimes this yields better results that just google, especially  if the term is from twitter. you can check other sites too, such as instagram and pinterest (though pinterest’s results for term searches are genuinely awful)

6. if you’ve done all of these and can’t find the term, it’s likely something coined by gendersanciau, since he’s coined thousands of terms. you should just be able to search for it, but tumblr’s search function can sometimes fail, so you can message him to ask if needed!

7. if all else fails, check out genderpedia and the lgbta wiki! the lgbta wiki has some issues and genderpedia currently only catalogues coinings from other sites, which is why i check them last.

i find that google is typically the easiest way to do this! that’s why i always go from the pride-flags deviantart to google before using any other resources, but that’s just my preference.

if you ever go through these steps and still can’t find a term/flag, i can try to help you out, just send me an ask!

[tacitusauxilium]

Pinned Post

Hiya guys~

This is mainly for mobile users who want to check out the blog and what not. Most of these have been updated. 

Bio // Updated Lore + Headcanons // about her + older brother

Verses

Social Links

Current RPs / Replies (fixed and updated!)

Rules

Permanent Starter Call

Interest Checker~ [fixed!]

Multimuse RP Hub

Shipping Bias // pt. 1 // pt. 2

Twitch (livestreaming monday-wednesday if possible)

I currently have an almost 3 year old son and I am so exhausted most of my time off. So, my priority always goes to my son and family first, and then RPs. It has been a while since I’ve been on here, but I will get to RPs usually within a day or two if possible. I usually get to replies during night time while the little one is sleeping.

Those that are Personals following me: you may like and reblog pictures (from the original poster if possible) but PLEASE do not reblog interactions or RPs. Besides that, we should be able to coexist!

When it comes to replies: if you have reblogged post of mine, then it SHOULD be up there. This will be updated as soon as I can with new interactions. If you haven’t seen anything from me, then check your URL tag in the search bar of my blog and you should be able to find all our interactions! ❤️

!! IMPORTANT REMINDERS !!

-> These muses below + blog are shipped exclusively with Fuuka. @dxfiedfxte​‘s Minato Arisato @aragakiis’s Shinjiro Aragaki

Current updates/issues: work schedule has changed atm -> Thursday - Sunday 10:00-20:00