#i wont know until i try

[boyswanna-be-her]

I'm trying my first shift of a new volunteer gig on Friday (i dont wanna say what it is in case i end up doing one shift and not being tough enough for the position). Please send me your best choice vibes bc this means a lot to me and I've been looking for a new volunteer home where I can dig in and make a difference for three months now.

[baeshijima]

u know what would be a cool genshin fic idea? isekai/transmigrated reader, but instead of appearing within the general timeline, you come into the genshin world 500 years prior to the start of the storyline in khaenri'ah.

honestly it could be either a little before the cataclysm, giving enough time to delve into some relationship building + explore some world building with characters like dainsleif, traveller's sibling (which would probably be lumine bc i actually do like her as abyss sibling & aether as traveller), and npcs like halfdan (still crying over him to this day ;w;) and possibly the khaenri'ahn royal guards (assuming you either join them or have a good enough relationship with them), OR it could be you appear during the crisis, completely and utterly lost as to why you were brought amidst the chaos and bloodshed as you watch everything you barely knew about this nation crumble before your very eyes.

either route will still result in reader's existential crises and constant "why am i here? just to suffer?" monologues because really, who would be fine after going through that after coming from /our/ world? and not to mention you've had to endure the next 500 years wandering with no real set path because you don't know this world— this era of teyvat or of genshin. you're merely stuck, unable to die, and forced to live a life of uncertainty with no clear direction for you to go to.

despite it all, you've at least been able to see dain during this course. while your meetings pass far too quickly for your lonesome, and his solemn demeanour is something you're yet to be accustomed to after having been with him before the fall of khaenri'ah (assuming it's the route where you appear before the cataclysm), you're glad to see a familiar face every now and then. after the messy departure with the lumine who left for the abyss order, you've come to appreciate his quiet presence more and more each time.

and then you decide it might be time to settle. you soon realise it's difficult to do so when your lifespan has become far more than that of a human's — of a mortal's — and so you find yourself becoming used to staying in one place for a few years before setting off for the next. rinse and repeat. over and over. it's come to a point where you've witnessed the nations undergo various changes each time you visit. you know change is inevitable, and yet your heart stings each time you witness it; a testament to how the world is ever-changing, yet you're stuck in place as a bystander.

one thing you're grateful for, however, are the bonds you've established amid your back-and-forth over the centuries. from archons like zhongli and venti to long-life beings such as neuvillette and the adepti to regular mortals who have showed you kindness as if one of their own... you've grown to cherish those memories, often reminiscing them when the nights get too long and surroundings too quiet. it was difficult at first, and still is, but you've become used to the inevitable change and the passing of those you once knew.

and after 500 years, you find yourself face-to-face with one you haven't seen since before you appeared in this world; the protagonist of this world, and the one you eventually join in hopes of finally finding a means to an end, aether.

little side notes/extras:

from /our/ world, you would probably know the storyline from up to around current (5.0) or maybe a little after the fontaine aq conclusion. it gives a lot to work with, but you definitely won't remember a lot of the lore after so long other than some main events, especially since most of your knowledge is pretty irrelevant for the next 500 years,,,

i think it would be cool if you had an inteyvat on your person as a little homage of khaenri'ah, which may or may not invoke some opinions from certain characters (*cough* aether immediately being reminded of lumine and having an existential crisis *cough*)

post-cataclysm you would go through a, uhm, long phase of helplessness, wondering why you were even brought to this world so far back if you couldn't even make any contributions. it does eventually morph into a resolution to do what you can to help those you come across if it's within your capabilities, but the nightmares and helplessness come back every now and then as a reminder for what you can't do :D yippee :D

honestly i'm on the fence whether you would have a vision or some other type of abilities (think on the similar lines of aether/lumine's and dain's), but i think having some type of purification mechanic would be a must in your arsenal !! would definitely lead to some moments between you and characters like dain or zhongli who suffer from the erosion as you give them a slight reprieve from what rages within and corrodes them

a little self indulgent, but i'd like to think your first /proper/ meeting with zhongli happens during a lantern rite festival, wherein you're admiring the lanterns in the sky after making a wish of your own and he comes up from behind with "they're beautiful, wouldn't you say so?" and !!

also as for love interests, as much as i would love for human/mortal characters, a part of me feels like this story would be better suited for the immortal/long-life characters as love interests?? idk i feel like considering that 500 years is, well, a long time, the bonds you would have with them compared to characters like, say, alhaitham or diluc would be way too different ?? though i would definitely still add them as love interest bc i am a sucker for so many of the human characters ;w; it would also add to the angst and hurt/comfort ahahha...

anyway thank you for reading this massive brain dump of a fic bc i absolutely would put this as a long term project, and if u made it this far then i would like to say that dain solos—

[arom-antix]

Hey, just wanted to reach out to say that I found you pointing out and calling this person was really great and you shouldn't have apologized. It was incredibly true what you said, and to be honest it seems out of touch with the reality of a great deal of the japanese fandom, the nuances and their culture. Also, it was as you pointed out, extreme and may I say rude. I want to mention too that the way it was written, as if entitled of the knowledge and the 'explanation' made it all worse in context of the 'fucked up'. The original poster always gets away by using the 'well-written academic'' statement of their 'metas' as an excuse to do or say and make everyone else agree and if not, uses victim narrative and discourses exactly selecting wording for people to agree on it or feel bad.

I don't know if they tagging you in the way they did made you reblog and apologizing/backing up, but no one thought bad about you pointing it out. On the contrary, a lot of people had been bullied and discriminated by this person when they called them out/disagreed going onto lenghts of sending their friends to harass people, and the other persons can't even defend themselves because they are effectively blocked. To quite a few people in the fandom has been done, even accusing them as 'acephobes' (when they're not) or even Nazis by spreading lies. So yeah, I just wanted to say that. I think you were right to call them out publicly.

Thank you very much for this ask. To be completely honest I agree with everything you said here and don't actually feel bad about pointing anything out. I mainly apologised because I didn't want any potentially poor phrasing from my side to cause unnecessary hostility and because I myself have gripes with this person's behaviour but didn't want to cause a scene.

My honest opinion is that they have a serious issue with taking accountability for their own mistakes and highly overestimate their own intellect. If you're reading this, @thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai, sorry if I seem harsh, but it's true. I saw your post lamenting how you're the only academic meta writer / fan in the fandom and I didn't interact then because I honestly do not care enough to start that drama but with the information Blonndiec has just given me, I think it's necessary that someone calls you out.

You're not an academic. You're not beyond the mental capabilities of other fans. You're actually incredibly childish in your metas and analyses and I am not kidding when I say that I was halfheartedly writing essays more academic than every analysis I've seen from you when I was barely a teenager. I don't know how old you are and I frankly don't care. You're not as clever as you think you are.

Also, don't think I didn't notice that you didn't reblog my correction (link here to my correction and here to their "response" for those who didn't see that exchange) of your post so that you could control what your followers saw of the exchange. You're the opposite of an academic. You control information to tailor the narrative, you don't cite your sources properly if at all, you don't format your posts in anything close to how an academic analysis would be, you make unbased claims, you reference posts and canon material without in any way indicating where that information is from, you reference your own (equally unacademic) metas and your conclusions from them without indicating what post it's from or that it's your own theory this new one is based on and instead present it as a common fact, and I could go on and on and on. Your posts are also riddled with logical fallacies and you talk in absolutes and opinions when there's no canon basis to claim such things. I'm sorry, but that's not academic in the slightest.

To be clear, you don't have to be an academic to post on the Internet. You don't have to be anything at all. You could up front be a genuine idiot with no remorse and that's fine. But when you claim to be an academic and also put down the rest of the fandom for not being on your level, you have to be able to back that up. It'd still make you sound like a prick but at least your arrogance would have a basis. It currently does not.

I haven't personally seen the discussions that Blonndiec is referencing and I'm not going to claim anything definitive (because that would be unacademic of me, take notes) but if what they're saying is true and did happen as described, which I have empirical, if anecdotal, evidence to believe could very well be (a friend of mine has personally been blocked by you after they criticised you without actually mentioning your name which I of course can't prove is the reason for the block but the timing is awfully convenient), you should know that you should be ashamed of yourself.

If there's context missing, feel free to enlighten me and call out any incorrect accusations. You have every right to defend yourself. However, I encourage you to cite your sources since you're such an academic. If you don't, then it's just your word against Blonndiec and anyone else who might comment's word and that doesn't prove anything. Don't misunderstand, acephobia and nazi rhetoric should absolutely be called out but only if it's actually happening. False accusations can ruin lives. I hope you know that.

I'm not a fan of calling people out publicly and, again, thank you for this ask, Blonndiec. But considering many of the issues I've personally seen and those I've been informed of by second hand sources were posted publically, I don't really feel bad about calling this out. I could do a full breakdown of just the insulting "academic" comments alone and how there's no academia to be found in said academic metas and, Samurai, if you give me reason to, I will show exactly what I mean point by point (and academically just to give you an example of even low level academia).

If you respond to this, do it in a reblog. That's what a real academic would do. If I'm wrong and you can prove it, you'd have no reason to not show my post in your rebuttal. If I'm right, you'd have every reason to be upfront about your mistakes and how you intend to rectify them. There's nothing wrong with being wrong but there's a lot wrong with refusing to admit to it in a way that lets others peer review you (academic thing, look it up) and come to their own conclusions about the situation. That's what you did when you just @'ed me instead of reblogging my response. A true academic wouldn't hide a peer review. You'd know that if you were one.

I swing in many academic spaces and yet that doesn't make me any kind of expert and I don't claim to be one because I'm not. But since you want to be one so badly, reblog this with a response and show us all how smart you are. I'm dying to know what your academic take on this is.

[cantgetworsethanthistbh]

hmm expanding on this a bit rn cuz the scene is soo in my mind rn and i just wanna play it out sm dhbdudhdh

~~

There was a flash. Blinding white light where everyone was floating in less than a second and longer than eternity. Nothing existed. Nothing exists.

Stan is face planted on the ground now, and the place is a wreck. Things are scrambled in his head, with white noise practically on his tongue and even without his hearing aid on the fritz, sound is nothing but a thin line ring. It takes him a moment to register there's dirt in his mouth, and on his face. That he's the one face planted onto the dirt. Dipper's talking, and he pushes himself up to look. The portal's still on. Even though the rest of the husk is pretty much destroyed with sparks flying from every wire , the portal is still on. It worked. It worked!

Even better— a dark shadow that looks like it's walking away from the glowing light is approaching. Exiting the portal, no, entering their world again. Stan doesn't need to see their face to know who it is, his chest swelling inside at the billions of emotions running through his mind. He can't hope, but he does. He knows who it is. He knows it's true.

The figure walks out, stepping onto the dirt ground with a strong presence.

Ford!

"Brother," Stan gasps, and there's dirt in his eyes making it sting. Stan stands up, the reunion speech on his tongue finally coming to use when Ford stops, right infront of the entrance. He's looking back, not even paying attention to Stan, his whole arm still stuck in the entrance. Stan stops from approaching, looking confused while Ford is seemingly tugging at something from behind the portal, speaking loudly but Stan can't hear it.

"Ford?"

Ford twists, then jumps right back into the portal. Stan's heart drops, then he panics, running to the portal again.

"No no no! Stanford!" He can't stop running, the distance between him and his brother too wide again. He can't lose him again! Not after everything he did! He prepares to hop into the bright white hole too until he feels tiny bodies land on his back, pushing him off his feet and face first into the ground again. He cranes his head up, eyes glued on the portal, heart running miles while the children pin him with their weight. Dread makes his blood go cold when the portal flicks like a faulty lightbulb.

"Kids! Let me go, please!"

"Grunkle Stan, calm down!"

"You can't go in there��"

"I don't care!" He has no time for this! He almost throws them off his back when he feels a heavier weight join them, then hold him up by the arms, apologies from Soos filling the air for sure but Stan can't hear any of it.

He's stuck. The light flickers again. No. No! "Kids, please!" Stan kicks and tries to punch and struggles, his veins about to burst. They're yelling at him but he just can't hear. He's watching in horror when the light blinks rapidly again, no sign of Stanford coming back. Fuck. FUCK.

It can't be like this. It just can't! Thirty years of his life, and a whole nother decade of pain, for nothing? Nothing? How could Ford jump back in? What the hell could be on the other side that's more important than his home, his planet, his brother? Stan had so many plans— he had everything he wanted to say.

He's sorry for pushing him in. He missed Ford like his dying breath relied on it. He's sorry for the project. He wants to hold Ford and kiss him until it is his dying breath. And Ford would thank him— thank him for doing everything he could to bring him back despite it all. He loves him too, never stopped just like Stan. Ford would've done the same for him.

The portal blinks, turns white to gray. Getting dimmer and transparent by the second. No!

No.

No...

Stan grits his teeth, ready for his whole life to mean absolutely fucking nothing while his family holds him back from following the love of his life one more time, for fucking good. He's sobbing maybe, not like Stan can reallh tell where all the salt in his mouth came from with the blurry vision he gets.

This is it.

Then the portal spits out a— two dark clad bodies then shuts down completely, nothing but a regular hole in its triangle body. Stan doesn't give a shit. He gives out the biggest heave of relief in his entire life.

After the whole business with the CIA, with Dipper, Mabel and Soos, with fucking everything over the last four decades, his old heart just can't take anymore of this. But it's okay.

Should be.

Ford, the bigger one, and Stan doesn't have to see his face behind the scarf and goggles to know it's him, has his arms around the smaller one, who's swinging his limbs around wildly like Stan had just a moment ago and dressed the same as his twin. He's smaller only in comparison to his brother— it's a very pretty heavy guy with soft looking parts, strong looking other parts and a tall height but looks like got room for more.

He's screaming, and Stan can hear he's right with his guess— it's a teenager. With a rough voice, almost gravelly. Stan can recognizs a kid who's been smoking at the back of the school too much and permanently fucked his voice up. Stan pauses, realization slapping him just now.

There are other humans in that hell hole?! As young as teenagers?!

"Let me go!"

"No, would you just—"

"I almost had him!"

"You could have been killed!" Stanford growls, and the guy swings at him with his fist. Stan almost jumps up, the instinct to protect Ford at the forefront of his mind with who the hell is this and who they think they are??? with the need to defend his brother, with Soos' grip losening as him and the kids turn their attention on the arguing pair.

Ford catches his fists tho, to Stan's surprise, and twists the guy's arm around to force them back onto his own sides. Ford catches the guy's large built into his own, holding him in some restraining bear hug and pulling them flush together.

Stan feels a spike in his throat watching Ford's new, strong arms wrap over the guy's chest and waist, seeing them way too damn close for a defensive move. The guy must have something in his throat too, and Stan can almost feel that guy's blush under the goggles and scarf.

The fuck...?

"I am not about to let you die."

"Sixer, I swear to God—"

"Hi, excuse me," Mabel chimes in with sugar in her voice and all the men turn to her (while Stan flicks between her and the pair infront of them). She smiles politely, then says "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!"

The guy looks at her, then at Dipper, and Soos, before finally landing his gaze on Stan. Then he shrieks, scrambling out of Ford's hold to hide behind him like some kind of wuss.

"AH— Sixer?! What the fuck is this?!"

"Hey, no swearing infront of the kids," Stan gruffs, finally pulling himself from Soos' hold, even though he agrees with the guy's sentiment because what the fuck is this indeed.

The guy's panicking, clutching to Ford's back like Stan is a god damn nightmare on legs. Yeesh. Clingy much?

"What the, why does he look like you? Is this another you again?"

"No, I don't think any version of me would be this foolish," Ford sighs out, and okay, Ouch. Ford pulls his goggles and scarf down, a scowl on his face— directed right at Stan. Marching from the guy's hold, Stan barely sees a six fingered fist draw up and—

"Ow! What the heck, Ford?!" Stan says, now rubbing at the pain blooming on his cheek.

Ford answers with balling his fist in Stan's shirt and tugging him close. His ears are pink, and oh boy it's not the kind of pink Stan thought would happen. Ford is glaring at him, downright seething that Stan could feel heat from his skin.

"You idiot," He stresses, long spear going straight through Stan's chest. "This was a very, very risky move, opening the portal like that. What on Earth were you thinking?"

Well isn't this just fantastic. "I was thinking of getting my brother back, you huge jerk."

"You could have destroyed the universe!"

"Destroyed-schmoid," Stan waves his hand flippantly, and boy did that piss Ford off more. Well, Stan's pretty fucking pissed too. Where's the love? Where's his bear hug that Ford's throwing around like candy?

"How about a thank you for saving you from that sci-fi, sideburn dimension, huh?" Stan says, hoping the jab at his brother's hair would mask the hurt in his chest. Ford lets go, looking at him up and down.

"Thank you? You really expect me to thank you after what you did thirty years ago? Are you out of your mind, Stanley?!"

"After what I did?! Why you ungrateful—!"

"Stanley?" The kid pipes up again, quietly but everyone heard it judging by how everyone turns and looks at him. Stan feels his eyes drawn to him, with the gears turning in his head as he asks again who the hell is this and who do they think they are. Puzzle slots fitting into gaps and grooves the picture so clear, but with one missing piece at the center. Almost there. On the tip of Stan's tongue, almost there.

The kid reaches for his goggles and scarf, pulling them off to reveal a mess of dark shlrt curls, then a large nose with soft cheeks, strong jaw and a face dotted with pimples. His dark brown eyes have that little gleam in his eyes, one their Ma always told Stan he had and that's how she could still tell them apart even when he and Ford aould swap clothes and hide their hands in their pockets to pretend to be each other.

He never believed what she said was true— Ford's eyes were a whole other beauty of their own— but for a second he sees it, right in the confused stare of the teenager.

It's like looking back in their bathroom mirror back in Jersey. Except real, flesh and blood staring back at him, and it's clear to him more than ever who that is. Who Ford is approaching again and holding with a protective arm over the shoulder of a brother— and even more.

Dipper croaks. "What the..."

"Dude..." Soos follows. And really, out of all of them, Stan's never been prouder than he is of Mabel, saying what everyone is thinking once more.

"Let me repeat: WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!"

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Culinary appreciation

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[rui-drawsbox]

morning *olba dump*

my favorite baxter face is lost in the sauce™

+Ruri outfits for the moments! Do not tell me if the Drinks outfit isn't formal enough it's literally *my* best outfit and all the parties i ever been were formal-casual

[puppppppppy]

whenever someone asks me for help or advice i want to beam all my lived experience and advice that helped me through it directly into their mind to try and spare them as much pain and stress as possible, but because i cant actually do that what ends up happening is i dump everything i know related to that topic hoping something helps them like

[mangosaurus]

wait a second. yasmina isolating herself on an island as a trauma response and sammy struggling to bridge the physical and emotional distance between them as a result? NOW WHERE HAVE I HEARD THIS SONG BEFORE ...

[anxiousgaypanicking]

me when i want to accept writing commissions vs the depression thats been eating me inside and out

[dimonds456-art]

Maladaptive daydreaming.

[outfoxt]

so. in a shocking turn of events that nobody could have foreseen: I'm going to work at a summer camp for a month. unfortunately this means that I probably won't have good Internet most of the time, which is making me really nervous about the gift exchange. I will try my very hardest to get everything done on time, but if I can't, my apologies 😔. I don't want to change the final deadline because people are under enough stress already, but I wanted people to know in case something happens.

[moeblob]

A succubus and a demon! (The succubi don't have names but the demon is Kronos and the succubus is one of his bosses in Hell and he's not /fond/ of the succubi for many reasons but they all adore picking on him)

Also because I love them and like to point it out, the succubi act more as pleasure dealers in the sense of they offer up whatever a human wants most in exchange for their soul. It's rarely of a sexual nature since it's what they want MOST in life. And most people's ambitions are outside of a bedroom. (happy pride, asexuals are able to get affected by a succubus now without discrimination)

[mspaintpetfinder]

getting back on the grind

[bunnithechubs]

It’s late and I just had a melatonin. Send me asks about anything! Ocs, slate extras, random stuff?!

[idiotsonlyevent]

if someone here added manga warnings to the anime doesthedogdie page, could you please remove them or move them to the separate manga page?

[mrghostrat]

trying to promo a new fic idea of mine on tumblr but i have..... 0 of an idea how to improve ☠️ how on earth do you go about with elevator pitches on a website like this? You pitched the idea of BNF and Streamerguys so well and naturally !!

to be fair, i have a bachelor degree in game design, and one of our early assignments had us make 25 game pitches in 2 weeks. then we had to throw 20 of them out and create 10 more. so i've got enough practise under my belt from that alone 🥵

elevator pitches are daunting, but fandom is so nice to us because we've already got the ao3 tagging system and handy trope vernacular. use them!! i try to mention my main tropes in all my fic summaries because they're such a succinct way to describe sooo much about the story (like "Enemies to Lovers")

the rest of it comes down to the actual storytelling process, and how well you can recognise your main themes and conflicts. for slower going stories (i.e. Streamer AU), the setting can also be a helpful detail to mention.

one of the hardest things about an elevator pitch is holding back information. you only want it to contain the most pivotal points, even if it feels like you're leaving out tons of important detail that people might like. when it's particularly difficult to cut a pitch down, i separate it into multiple summaries that focus on a different part of the story, and alternate which one i use when i post about it.

SO to try and wrap this up, here's a checklist for things you can use when making a pitch/summary, and some examples:

the main relationship trope/tag (i.e. enemies->lovers, childhood friends, fake relationship, new neighbours, professional rivals, online relationship, celebrity/fan, secretly pining)

the primary conflict, or the catalyst for the story (i.e. aziraphale signs up for the paris trip, not realising his worst enemy is going too // crowley and aziraphale are mad for each other but legally can't date or crowley will lose his job // crowley wants to take a clipping of a rare rose but priest aziraphale wont let him into his garden)

a pre-existing work it's referencing (i.e. movies and tv show plots you're using, like The Office, Harry Potter, Love Actually etc)

the setting (incl locations, time period, character employment) (i.e. two shops on the same street, school field trip to paris, wedding planner, Through The Ages, coffee shop, actors, authors, musicians etc)

any other trope/tag for flavour if you need to flesh it out (i.e. coming out, meet cute, summer vacation, crowley is good with kids, angst with a happy ending)