#i’m pretty sure i reblogged a very similar post to this recently

[s0ftand0nly]

big scary crime boss being harassed by random clones he does not even know the name of who are coming to see their DARLING BABY BROTHER

[biaonww]

“the very first night”. rin itoshi based • angst to fluff & based on the ts song. • (part 2 to foolish one) sorry 4 the delay!

may contain errors, similar content is coincidental.

months pass. but you never really dared to keep count of how many months did pass. (you still did, and it was 10 months). so, it’s been 10 months after rin left to go to paris. … 10 months after that last conversation between you and him passed. “i love you, but i can’t commit.” sometimes you just doubt his words. if he did love you. or were you just something he was using to make the time pass by? you heard from your friends that he was here in japan again. temporarily.

your friends also told you that, in a recent interview, he mentioned he’d only come back to japan for something special to him. … shouldn’t you not care anymore? isn’t that irrelevant to you? wasn’t your relation unhealthy for the both of you? but you also still can’t seem to get over him. every single path or road you take, was always going back to his house. they all lead back to him, huh?... bothered by the door bell, you get up from your couch to open the front door— — and there you see, rin itoshi. standing on your porch. he’s panting and sweating. did he run going here? or are you just being delusional right now? “do you know how much i miss you?” “rin, what?” “i’m sorry i left— okay? i was an asshole for that.” "i came here to pick up something really fucking special, that i lost 10 months ago." "yes, i kept count of how many months has it been and i'm really pathetic right now but i—" “— i miss you like it was the very first night.” “no one knows how much i miss you.” “… i still love you.” "you’re leaving soon. rin— you can’t just barge in my life again, plus we’re two different people with two different lives, so we'd have different schedules—” “— are you over me?” “because i know i’m not over you.” “but if you did move on, then you would’ve shut the door already.” “if you were, then you wouldn’t be standing here, right?” “i won’t leave the country if you give me another chance.” “i won’t go too fast, so you can keep up with me.” “we can walk beside each other, instead of you always being in the back.” “so please, let me now make you one of the highlights of my life.” “let me be the man who spends all his tomorrows with you, and you only.” "s'il te plaît mon seul amour." you stay quiet, starting to tear up. by reflex, he wraps his arms around you. “then take me away, to you.” “gladly.” — fin.

sorry i didn't post yesterday !! ok so i'm pretty sure i still suck at fluff but, reblogs and likes r very much appreciated (comments too!! feedback would be so lovelyy) <3 there are still other fics coming out this week though, so keep out for them!!

[levisgirll]

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐞 (𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐢 𝐀𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫)

→ Text: hello everyone!! I went through my drafts and realized I never got the chance to post this and felt the need to do it (with some editing). I have decided to combine these two requests together to bring out and make a very fluff but some angst headcanons, it was actually interesting for me to do something like this. I did this because they had a similar theme and I wanted it to have a very fluff ending and longer writing for you all since I keep seeing more likes and reblogs in my account so thank you so much to all after all this time! Enjoy it :,)

synopsis: coming from the underground and having to adapt to a new environment is quite challenging for anyone, especially having to deal with people constantly bullying and picking on y/n just because she is different. Y/n is a very determined person and always tries her keep on going. Although, it does get hard on her later and Captain Levi does take notice of that. He usually doesn’t worry a lot about new cadets, but y/n coming from the underground, Levi could relate, and actually feel sympathy towards her. He slowly begins to worry for her more and care for her which leads to him being protective and enjoying being with Y/n....but something happens and Captain Levi does not hold back anymore. 

word count: 2.2k. fluff, comfort, angst, warning: slight picking on, bullying, aot world, headcanons & fanfiction ♡ —

Finally, y/n was free from that damned place. It felt like she was going to be there for the rest of her life but she finally made it out. Apparently, the military needed some more people to join the Survey crops since a lot had left, were injured and many died recently in the last expedition when they rescued Eren the titan shifter from the enemies. 

A lot hesitated, but y/n did not care. She just needed to leave this toxic environment that was draining her each day. But little did she know, the outside world was going to be the biggest challenge she had to face.

“Everyone salute and welcome your new cadets!” Mike Zacharias, the instructor, yelled out across the field that you were pretty sure your eardrums were going to burst. 

“Hey I heard there is someone from the underground that joined the survey crops, is that true?” someone uttered which you overheard as you looked at them. They quickly glanced at you, staring at you deeply with a look of judgment. ‘Yup, this is not welcoming at all.’ Y/n thought as she looked away and started to introduce herself. 

“I’m Y/N L/N, I hope I can keep up with everyone’s pace and learn from you.” Y/n said eagerly, finally it was a new start for her, no more getting bad treatment in the underground, no one being rude to her. She heard a lot about being part of the survey crops, you finally get some respect from people as part of a famous regiment.

“Where did you come from huh?” Someone yelled from the crowd, ‘Huh? why is he asking that, does it really matter where I am coming from?’ Y/n thought as she gave a look of concern and worry. “Um, from....the underground.” As soon as she uttered that, the whole vibe changed and everyone looked at each other.

The squad leader just gave a sigh and left. It seemed like he knew this would be the start of a big problem and did not want to be responsible for it. But, he glanced back at Y/n, “Please....don’t cause any trouble.” Then he finally left.

Y/n was now even more confused. Was there a reason that there would be trouble in the first place? She decided to just let that thought slide since it had no answer and decided to go into her cabin.

—

Okay, now she gets it. It’s cause she was from the underground and no one was from there and treated them differently. It seemed like any place she went to would never be welcoming. The group of trainers had started to treat her differently, when it was lunch time no one would sit with her, or if she needed advice they would always ignore her or tell her to ‘figure it out’. Y/n had no friends and no one by her side, she accepted that fact but then wondered...Was there something wrong with her maybe? She kept doubting herself now and that was the last thing she wanted.

Although, not everyone was treating her differently. Corporal Levi was their instructor for the use of 3D maneuver gear. Apparently, he is known as the strongest soldier who performed exceptionally well in everything.

Levi was observant, that was not something hard to guess coming from a man who is very much experienced. He noticed the gap between the recruits and...Y/n. He did find that odd and probably thought perhaps she didn’t take a shower.

Well. Yes, he was not treating her differently because Levi actually treats everyone the same! So perhaps Y/n would take that as...fair treatment for once?

“Alright, that’s enough for today.” Just as everyone was ready to go have dinner and relax Levi stood in front of Y/n. “You. I’m gonna need you to stay behind and follow me.”

Okay scratch that ‘fair treatment’. Y/n was wondering now what she had done after following Levi. She noticed then that he was quite muscular from the back and he really...did look quite attractive upfront. Later on, she noticed that she was in his office.

“So what’s the deal with you?”. Hearing that suddenly once he sat down on his chair made Y/n nervous but still stood her ground. “I... dont think I understand, Corporal.” 

“Listen, I need to know what’s going on. Being part of the survey crops means we need to collaborate together, but if there is an issue then I’ll need to hear it, Hm?”

Was he concerned about her perhaps? Y/n then decided to go ahead and tell him about how she was one of the newer recruits that joined coming from the underground and was the reason everyone was giving her that behaviour. Levi was completely off guard, he looked at her with surprise that she herself never seen.

“Okay....I think I get it now. Clearly, there are some shitheads that I need to deal with.” Y/n now was the one who stood off guard. “S-Sir? I didn’t mean to complain or anything!” She was now worried. Scared knowing that maybe now she had done it for herself and made this a bigger problem as it is.

“Don’t worry, just go back for now. I’ll see you in the morning.” He said as he got up and then put his hand gently on her shoulder. “You are....doing a great job. Hang in there.”

And with that, she was left alone in his office, but with a warm feeling, so warm it warmed her heart. He was indeed not what the rumours said about him. But perhaps, it was the same with her since she knew there were some nasty rumors going around. Then she thought ‘Just maybe....I found someone I can relate to’

—

Ever since then, Levi seemed irritated with the other scouts as he did notice and heard some remarks about others mocking Y/n. As well as the way they were just really acting like a bunch of kids who were not mature and had no idea what was coming from them. They truly were pathetic. “You know, it’s best not to be with such pathetic people.” He said suddenly as he was helping Y/n fix her 3DMG which mysteriously got jammed. 

Y/n felt these past few weeks that Levi was caring for her.....but in his own way.

Whenever they had a break, he would go over to Y/n and have a small chat. Nothing big just simple talks. “Make sure to wear good clothes...you know the winter is around the corner.” Y/n quite liked the small chats, it was a while since she had such a nice refreshing chat with someone. But she did not expect Levi to be the one, as he was not very vocal but she noticed actions spoke louder than words for him. Always giving her water or some biscuits for her to have, and checking on her equipment. It felt like she was cared for once and it did make her have an unknown feeling. It was quite complex for her to figure out but, it made her feel happy for sure though.

Whenever she got bullied by the other scouts on how she was just a nobody and just a junkie from the underground, it really made her feel embarrassed and she started wearing a hood over her head just to not be seen or known by others. However, that did not work for Levi as he spotted her quickly as she was sitting beside a tree. “Y/n? Why are you hiding there.” She looked up and saw him with a concerned look. But she gave a small smile, he was....different that was for sure.

“I just wanted to be alone, that’s all.” 

“Oh. Then, would you like me to leav-”

“No!” Y/n did not realize that she had just now raised her voice, but not only that....also grabbing the Corporal's wrist! She quickly backed away and before she was about to say something, Levi just started to....laugh? The whole atmosphere changed within seconds and Y/n just found herself smiling like an idiot. 

“Yeah, I am convinced now that you are an idiot.” He sat beside her and looked at her with a reassuring smile. Now she was a blushing mess, she just knew her face was heating up! Just being beside him the whole time, made her forget about what even made her upset from the beginning and not feel insecure anymore. Levi made her feel that just being herself was nothing wrong, nothing to be embarrassed about. Just spending time with Levi made her realize that, as someone like himself who really doesn’t seem to care about what others say about him while doing what he has to do was the highlight for her. She was y/n, her own person, and also....maybe an idiot according to Levi? But she will take that.

Y/n wasn’t sure what this unknown feeling was, but she wanted to keep feeling it for way longer. As time went by, she felt Levi’s worry and care for her. Whenever they passed by each other, he would look at her with a small smile, and sometimes when they were alone he made y/n to call him Levi.

—

Again, her 3DMG wasn’t working. She was quite disappointed in herself for not maintaining her gear, this would definitely not make her survive outside the walls if she had this problem occurring.

Y/n looked over at Levi who seemed quite angry and annoyed. She felt something in her gut that today...something was gonna happen.

“Alright, who done it.” The whole training area in the forest got silent. Everyone looks at each other with fear in their eyes. ‘What...? Don’t tell me.’

And that’s when Y/n figured it out, someone was tampering with her 3DMG! It was not just a coincidence after all.  However, that left her feeling terrible. Levi could see that and that’s when he snapped when seeing just how hurt Y/n was.

“No one is leaving here till that disgusting shithead who is responsible comes out.” No one had really seen Corporal Levi like that, the atmosphere changed so bad that even Mike felt it without sniffing anything. ‘I said no trouble...cause I’m afraid of this.’

Everyone now started to back away and look towards the guy who was trying to hide in the middle between the scouts. Y/n quickly noticed that it was one of the main people in the scouts that really was bothering her and came to the conclusion after seeing his fearful face that he was the culprit indeed.

Levi didn’t need to guess who it was and went walking slowly, straight up to him. “Was it...You.” Now, Y/n was sure that guy might have probably taken a real shit right now. He started sweating so badly and then got to the floor. “I-I’m so sorry Corporal!!! I mean to..!” Levi looked down at him with such disgust. “You are indeed pathetic. I did notice your shitty behaviour lately. But to go this far...doing that to another comrade? No. You are no longer a trustworthy scout, let alone a decent citizen and I’m officially taking you out of the whole Training Corps.”

The tension was so high, that everyone backed away from Levi and the bully, who really started this whole problem. Y/n just stood there with sadness and confusion. Seems like she probably will never know why she was the one picked on, like always.

—

After a long day, Y/n was called into Levi’s office during the evening. She went over there and inside his office. Levi noticed immediately the sadness in her eyes and the change in her vibe. He wondered why, why was she still upset? Did they bother her afterwards? He was about to ask when.

“Why did you do that for me? Was it for the good of the scouts to remove someone who doesn’t collaborate with others or....was it for me?” With that last word, she looked up with tears in her eyes that made her eyes come out looking more beautiful than ever. He stood in front of her now, and slowly, gently grabbing her hand. He looked at her with a lot of affection this time. “Idiot. It was because I care for you.” Levi said it so quietly, as if he just wanted Y/n to hear it and no one else even though they were both alone in his office. But, he said it in a way that made him blush just slightly, he was definitely not used to talking in a way to make someone acknowledge how he cares for them but also....for someone who he seemed to like.

“I was from there too you know.” He said suddenly, “So I understand.” Levi was now softly wiping the tears that rolled down Y/n’s cheeks. Levi didn’t need to say more, nothing more. Just that look in his eyes and the feeling that they are both feeling right now. That Unknown feeling was reassuring and what Y/n only needed. Nothing else. Y/n then brought her arms around Levi’s shoulders and hugged him, she wanted to feel his warmth on this cold winter night and comfort for her heart that she never knew she needed till tonight. Levi, hugged her back tightly with affection around her waist, also needing some more warmth that night and they stood there, hugging each other while outside his office window, it started to finally snow.

note: okay, I’m glad to have posted this! I’m not sure if anyone will read it or like it but I felt the sudden urge to post it and it was on my mind lately! I’m also finally done with uni and taking a break, so I decided to come back to post this and see whoever wants to read it and enjoy it. The world is crazy atm and I hope whoever reads this gives themselves a break once in a while <3

[alister312]

13, 15, 19!!!

thank u!! in reference to this ask list

13. Most shippable character

Kenny, absolutely. He’s just got that sort of vibe that I can agree working with most anyone! There’s Kenny ships that i much prefer to others and Kenny ships I’m not so enthused about, but overall if shown a new Kenny ship of any kind I’d at least say “Ok sure, I’ll think about it.” Second to Kenny might be Bebe, I really like a lot of ships with her. And hey, I love her and Kenny together too! What puts Kenny above Bebe tho is that he’s character who I feel can very easily attach to another established couple and make a throuple work? Like, I think he works in Stylenny and Creekenny!

15. Favourite poly ship

AND SPEAKING OF KENNY BEING A PART OF PRE-ESTABLISHED SHIPS—

Recently I’ve really LOVED the idea of Chrisgornny (Christophe/Gregory/Kenny). There’s literally only one fic out there with them and it’s nsfw so there’s not much in the way of developing dynamics. However, I love thinking about character dynamics. You’ve got Gregstophe which… god, just read literally any of my fics or posts about them and you’ll Understand. But then you’ve also got Kengory, which I discussed in the last ask but basically, they have a lot of similarities that would mesh nicely. Lastly there’s Kenstophe which I do love SO so much?? Similar to Kengory, I think they’re very similar people except instead of similar goals w different approaches, I think they’d have similar approaches w different conclusions. There’s so much to unpack from their differing conclusions on being cursed by God alone— Christophe being angry down to the bitter end but Kenny eventually getting tired and giving up. Due to his immortality, Kenny is also one of those characters who can exist in odd AUs well, which is also where Gregory and Christophe tend to work best. Kenny’s already been a vigilante, why wouldn’t he decide to join them in being a revolutionary? Especially after his dad took him to a worker’s union meeting and radicalized him.

I’m realizing now I could talk about the three of them forever. I’ll stop for now but they will always be in the back of my mind, I assure you.

19. Ship that you never expected to ship

There’s a LOT of ships I’ve started shipping in my second foray into the fandom that I never would’ve shipped the first time around (Crenny comes to mind). However, I think the #1 surprise ship I now love is Dyde (Damien/Clyde). For one, I used to headcanon Clyde as the token straight guy amongst all the others, and I was pretty dead set devoted to Clybe and Dip. I’ve become much more of a multishipper now though. Anyway, @/honey-creek got an anon request for Clyde/Damien, I reblogged it with a comment and idea that made them laugh, prompting an art trade of me writing Dyde while they drew me something related to my longfic Just Business (hoping and praying Kas someday posts the piece bc I love it to death). Somewhere along the lines of writing, “lmao this is a funny pair” turned into genuinely love of the Dyde dynamic. You’ve got Clyde, Just Some Guy™️ of all time, a little dense and concerned with superficial stuff but ultimately sweet and sensitive. Then there’s Damien, literal demon and son of Satan, Prince of Hell but longing to be accepted and liked by others. I’ve only written two fics about them but I love the idea of them SO much….. talk to me about them at all (or Kas and King) and be inducted into Dyde nation 👀

[businesstiramisu]

Some specific responses the OP Pitch (I know staff probably doesn’t read reblogs but I’d like to list things out for myself):

1) “Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up”

Yeah, people hate this. I’m frequently not logged in, but I want to share a quick link  with friends through messaging apps (mostly Discord). Your changes to force logins are making this HARDER, and it’s not convincing me to sign up (again?) or my friends to sign up, it just makes them less likely to engage with content on Tumblr in any capacity.

2) “Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds.”

Sure, manipulate the tags or the “explore” window, none of us are using it. But does “all feeds” include the chronological dashboard? Because large numbers of current tumblr users keep telling you that we don’t want algorithmic adjustments to that. We want chronological. Leave it alone!

3) Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

okay I’m not sure I understand the specific features proposed in this one. Well, some of it isn’t very specific (” Address the confusion within replies and reblogs”??? I don’t think you’re gonna fix people’s reading comprehension, Staff). Some of it we already have (”collapsing reblog threads”). And Some of it i might even be in favor of (”removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed.“) if i’m understanding it right. But the vague ones Have Me Concerned

4) Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Okay, this is more out of my wheelhouse, I only barely count as a “creator” on here I think. I will say that I see people complaining about uploading problems (image resizing, overcompression, files getting lost) a fair amount, and I think fixing that will have a bigger effect than whatever skinner box rewards you might come up with. I do like “ Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral. “ -- thing like bunching similar notifications together (e.g. when 30 people like the same post); and ability to mute notifications on posts.

5) Push notifications and emails

To be honest I don’t use the phone app and have all your emails going to a spam folder anyways, so I won’t notice any changes Tumblr makes here.

6) Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

Again, seems mostly like stuff for the app, I have no insight/opinions there. I will say the browser experience on my laptop has been pretty reliable, maybe even getting faster (or possibly other websites are just getting worse faster). Either way, I’m pretty happy with the recent performance of the nonmobile browser experience. The mobile browser experience is basically unusable b/c it pushes you to login and download the app, but that was covered under point 1.

Conclusion: Not all of these changes are bad. But please keep in mind the parts of the UX that are already working well  for your paying customers, and don’t sacrifice them to convert non-users who are very unlikely to become paying users.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[fanby-fckry]

🕯️🧃

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

Thank you for the ask!

🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

Hmm, I’m gonna say 8. I actually do enjoy editing quite a bit.

In the earlier stages, I can find placeholders which are usually pretty funny, and even barring that, I just kinda like it.

There are definitely times where I get too into my own head on something, or when spellcheck/grammarcheck are annoying, but more often than not, it’s nice.

Idk if HTML formatting counts as part of editing, but I like doing that, too. It’s a little monotonous sometimes, but it gives me a chance to reread my work because I manually add HTML to my google doc in order to copy-paste it to AO3. (Is there a better way to do that? Probably. But I like my way. :P)

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

When I first reblogged this, I thought this meant like… character lore, not my lore, but after rereading, I’m pretty sure it means me?

Hmm… How about a 2 in 1?

I mentioned UH3!Alastor’s father recently – how he was an on-again-off-again presence in Alastor’s life while he was young, and how this contributed to Alastor developing BPD symptoms.

This is based on my own relationship with my father! Unlike Alastor’s parents, my parents were married – were, they’re now happily divorced – and living together, but my father was very much an absent father despite that.

Content Warning: child abuse/child endangerment, both real and fictional

…

…

…

My father worked a lot during my early childhood, and it seemed like when he came home, it was basically just to yell at the rest of us or enforce some kind of control/punishment.

He also used to just leave me places when I upset him. Oh, you’re 11 years old and being “disrespectful” in my car? Pulling over now. Get out and walk. Doesn’t matter if we’re in another town hours from home. This makes you a target for stranger abductions? Shoulda thought of that before you talked back (read: said “no,” cried, asked for clarification, tried to withdraw from the conversation, etc.).

I honestly think that I would have less abandonment issues and possibly not have BPD at all if my dad had fucked off permanently when I was a baby rather than sticking around and being a dick about it.

I’m writing Alastor’s situation as being very similar. He would probably be less fucked up if he was raised exclusively by his mother, but nope! His father pops in every now and again to be a negative presence in his life. And then seals the deal on Al’s abandonment issues by finally fucking off for good only once Alastor is old enough to register it.

Also, the dude definitely left baby Al in the woods on at least one of those hunting trips Alastor mentioned in Bloodlust and Butterflies. Just got pissed off and left.

And I don’t think Alastor told his mother because he didn’t want to bother her with it.

[shadowcutie]

Here’s some resources to help you make text-based interactive fiction games!

Totally unprompted!  There’s certainly nothing going on in a certain forum right now (or rather an on-going issue).  Nope, I just thought it would be nice to share some resources.  ;)

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Twine

Twine is such an easy tool to use.  It uses its own scripting language Sugarcube (there’s also Harlowe and Snowman, but they don’t have the same functionality and creator support as Sugarcube does to my knowledge), Javascript, and CSS.

Twine is FREE!!!

Sugarcube literally gives you a save function (which does browser and save to desktop)!!!  Be the save-hoarding goblin you were born to be!

It’s criminally easy to make games with Twine.  They make it easy to make stats, relationships, and other info pages.  When setting up the paths you can literally see arrows pointing where they lead, you can move passages around visually so you can group them up by chapter/scene/etc......to be fair once your game gets BIG it can get messy and confusing.

I have coding experience prior to finding Twine, but I’m absolutely certain anyone can make great games with Twine.  If all your doing is making text-based ‘more story than game’ games, then you’ll be doing minimal coding (setting variables, if/else statements, using text boxes, etc) so you shouldn’t have any issues.

If you do have issues I’m 99% certain someone has had your issue before, and the answer is one google search away.

You can use Twine in your browser, just be careful to not mess with the data/cookies or you can lose your games (totally not speaking from experience)....archive your games often if you use Twine in browser.  You can also download Twine, so you can use it offline!

Links:

Twine

SugarCube v2 Documentation - Your new best friend.

With the Settings API you can add a mature filter, different style themes (great for light/dark themes and color blind themes...or just different themes to look cool), difficulty settings, volume control, etc.

HiEv’s SugarCube 2 Sample Code - An ever-expanding collection of code, tips, macros, widgets.  A good mix of fun and useful stuff.

^ Includes a great pronoun widget!!!  To be fair it’s not the most user-friendly widget at first, especially if you aren’t a coder, but in the long run a widget like this is a great tool for customizing pronouns.  It allows you to write a character in the code with one set of pronouns throughout the game ($They $are a great $person), the widget selects the correct word through an switch (aka a fancy if/else) statement when the character is assigned a pronoun......so when playing a female it would display as “She is a great girl”, a male would be “He is a great guy”, and nonbinary would be “They are a great person”.  You can add neopronouns this way too!

Chapel’s custom macros - Chapel has a lot of cool macros, but a lot of them are more advanced.  Very few have been useful for the kinds of games I want to make, but they may be useful for you.

r/twinegames - Twine has some older forums, which are still up (though not active) and have helpful answers on them, but the current forum is found on reddit.

w3schools - When it’s time to style your game, this will be your lifeline.  Even today, like...seven years after first learning CSS I still come back to w3schools all the time. !!!Twine has funky class/id selectors for it’s built in stuff so refer back to the SugarCube Documentation!!!

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Itch.io

Itch doesn’t take ownership of your content!

It doesn’t have DRM!

You can host your games for free, paid, or free with donation.

It does take a cut of your sales “The Company shall be entitled to a share of the revenue Publishers receive from Transactions which shall be calculated on the gross revenue from the Transactions“ (I’ve seen 30% but I’ve also seen “Lets you choose what to give them” so I’m not exactly sure how much their cut is).

THERE IS NO RESTRICTION ON CONTENT ASSUMING IT’S LEGAL (though if collecting payment you may be under different restrictions per the payment provider’s policy), so please make all the twisted, dark, disturbing, and/or sexual games you want!!!

Links:

Itch.io

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r/interactivefictions

r/interactivefictions is a good place for game recs, coding/writing resources, etc.

Links:

r/interactivefictions

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Tumblr

Tumblr is...well we’re all on here so we know how tumblr is like.

Great tags to look at: #interactive fiction, #interactive novel, #interactive game, #twine game, #dev log, #IF, #if game, #upcoming game, #promo post

Tumblr is a great platform, but as every creator knows...Reblog!!!  Reblog!!! Reblog!!!  The lifeblood of tumblr is reblogging.

I’ve found SOOOO many games I would never have known existed through if-creator’s blogs just because they reblogged a post from another if-creator.

@interact-if and @iorifd​ are doing great work!  They collect games, share helpful coding/writing tips, etc.  Go show them some love!  Interact-if runs the subreddit mentioned above, and iorifd is working on a database for visual novels and text-based games.

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IFDB (Interactive Fiction Database)

IFDB is a database for interactive fiction games.  You can add new game listings, write reviews, make game polls, make game recommendation lists, etc.

IFDB seems to like their parser games (parsers being where you type in commands like “go west”, “open door”, etc).

It actually has a pretty good filter and ignore system.

Links:

IFDB

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Obviously this isn’t the end all be all of dev tools or hosting platforms for interactive fiction.  Ink is a scripting tool similar to Twine I’ve only heard of recently that might be interesting to you.  Ren’Py, although primarily a visual novel engine, can be used to make text-based games.  The only other hosting alternative I know is DashingDon, I THINK they only host ChoiceScript games and I don’t think you can sell through them, but it’s a good place regardless.

Cheers! :D

[xieyaohuan]

#honestly looking at some of the posts/comments in the discourse it's hard to tell humans from bots#based on the mindless repetition of slogans#but that's a different story ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#I guess more to do with indoctrination? via @fantasticpants

I may also try to tackle indoctrination at a later point in time, but for now, I think I want to talk a bit more about humans and bots. I may go a little overboard because managed bot and troll networks are one of my nerdy research obsessions. They are also a really interesting topic that we'll probably be dealing with for a while, since especially with AI tools like ChatGPT and other similar programs it becomes easier to generate high quality content that can pass as human-created.

There’s been a lot of posting about how ChatGPT data is actually getting contaminated and results may be getting worse, but I’m not sure this is necessarily true for all programs. For instance, a colleague noted recently that there are quite significant differences in quality between paid and unpaid versions of programs, and those gaps are growing. So if one only has access to unpaid versions, it becomes increasingly difficult to assess where we’re at in terms of the frontiers of what’s possible. I haven’t looked into that claim or how big the gap really is, but it seems very plausible that this would indeed be happening.

Ultimately, even the unpaid version of ChatGPT is capable of generating content on various political and current topics that reads like authentic, human content. We recently tried this for a project, where we simply said: “Generate a post on topic X emulating the style of twitter account type Y.” It was impossible to tell the difference between the “real” posts and the AI-generated posts. Now I strongly suspect that a lot of the posts from accounts of type Y were indeed also originally created with the help of artificial intelligence. That's because the twitter account type Y we looked at is reasonably well-funded, and even some (most likely) less well-funded social media bot/troll network programs from the same country were already looking into using AI-generated text back in 2018 or so (if I remember correctly). Anyway, most of the stuff I personally have looked at either has a strong human component or combines automation with a human element (e.g. one person being able to post content across multiple social media accounts with a single click through a designated app), and many of them still included real humans writing text, but this may not be representative of how many other state and non-state actors do this (or not anymore, given advances with AI).

While we know a lot about political bot or political organized troll army activity on Facebook, Twitter, and even Youtube, we know next to nothing about similar stuff on tumblr - in part because tumblr isn't considered politically important enough, so it doesn't get studied much and probably gets very little pressure to actively monitor these things proactively (compared to say, Meta). Obviously, there are bots here, but how many relevant state and non-state actors actually maintain bot armies on tumblr for propaganda purposes? We really don't have a clue.

You can certainly find examples of relatively crude operations. For example, I'm pretty sure that most of the accounts that got this post (originally discovered by Albert Zhang) to over 4k notes are part of an info-op bot network, presumably originating in China. I'm primarily making that call based on behavior taken together with the content of the message: The original poster impersonates the Milk Tea Alliance, impersonation in itself being a red flag. Many of the accounts that reblogged the post are nameless and don't have any other activity. Then some accounts reblogged it multiple times with the same comment text. Other accounts have more content but still tick boxes for suspicious behavior such as content with political messages being posted multiple times with no or very little other activity. The Milk Tea Alliance example is pretty crude, which makes it relatively easy to detect the coordinated inauthentic behavior. It likely did not break contagion on tumblr despite having 4k notes because most (if not all) of these notes seem to be coming from the bot network itself. And let's face it, the rest of us can only dream of this kind of like-to-reblog ratio:

I unfortunately don't have the expertise to look into bot networks in the context of Israel and Palestine, and since this kind of research 1. mostly focuses on Russia and China and 2. is so rarely done for tumblr, I also don't know of anyone else who has looked into it (it's actually quite likely that nobody has). I will say that anon asks like this one certainly look like a fluke in some kind of bot system to me. It reminds me of a bot/troll management system (maintained by a subsidiary of a government news agency) which I looked into a while ago where one required feature was supposed to be the ability to monitor the posts of certain people and send out notifications to bot account admins when certain people posted new activity on social media so that they could be countered and/or harassed immediately. But ultimately, I don't know if that's what we're dealing with here - it could be something completely different or just a copy/paste of an overeager fan or hater gone wrong. A bot system fluke would be quite difficult to confirm definitively, and I would have to look for more clues and context before making a more educated guess (which would still not be definitive).

Anyway, I hope this didn't end up too nerdy and incomprehensible. But my main points are: 1. There is evidence of political bot activity on tumblr (at least for China), but we have no clue about the extent of it, which political actors are engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on this platform, etc. 2. The bot activity I've seen is quite crude, but that doesn't mean more sophisticated info ops don't already exist here, just that the state of research on bot activity on tumblr is really pathetic/possibly non-existent. And 3. I really wish someone started looking into this a bit more systematically, but I guess nobody really cares enough about tumblr to invest the time and resources.

EDIT: Meta included tumblr in their latest report from August and also mention some of the posts I came across that are of Chinese origin. As they point out, this is a cross-platform operation.

Would love to hear some propaganda 101 from you if you're ever so inclined c:

I think I'm going to start from current events, what I've been seeing on tumblr, and why I would categorize most of what I see here not as propaganda but rather as propaganda-related phenomena, namely the largely organic amplification of propaganda messages, ideologically motivated framings, and heaps upon heaps of misinformation. Ultimately, I actually find what we see here much worse - if all we saw on here was propaganda in the stricter sense, I would find that comforting and reassuring because it would suggest that maybe fewer people than we think actually buy into the views currently being spread (because more of the work would be done by specific groups with organizational structures and a budget for propaganda). Now, I personally still think that much of what we see on here is the outcome of various long-term, organized propaganda campaigns that have been driven by multiple groups with different if sometimes overlapping goals. And a lot of these groups are probably still actively contributing to the current wave of propaganda/information manipulation, but there's a huge organic component as well. Hopefully by the time I'm done with this post, it'll become clear what I mean by this. All lessons for media literacy still apply.

If we look at the definitions of propaganda, it's pretty clear why many of the posts on here don't qualify. There are a large number of definitions for propaganda, each with slight variations, and I should probably point out that many people working in this area reject the term per se because it has been thrown around too much and used by people simply to refer to content they disagree with. I personally still use 'propaganda' to refer to systematic and coordinated information manipulation in service of broad or narrow political goals, and so do some other people. Basically what most definitions of propaganda (or the alternative terms used by those who don't like the term propaganda but, at least in my view, still analyze the same phenomena) have in common is a set of ingredients/boxes to be checked for something to qualify as "propaganda." The one I'll use here is the ABC model, which looks at Actor, Behavior, and Content. I'll tackle these in reverse.

Content: This is the content of a message that is being spread. In many ways, this is the weakest and least meaningful checkbox of the three, though it can and should be used in combination with the other two to assess whether something is propaganda/coordinated information manipulation. When you look at content, one of the things to look for is whether something is true or whether it is disinformation/misinformation. (Generally speaking, the term disinformation is used to refer to false or misleading information spread intentionally, while misinformation is used to refer to false or misleading information spread either intentionally or unintentionally/unwittingly. Just like a lot of people don't like using the term propaganda because it has been thrown around too much, some people have started shunning the term disinformation because they argue it has been abused to much. I have no strong opinions here one way or the other. False or misleading information, whether spread on purpose or not, can range from anything that is outright falsehoods, conspiracy theories, etc. to more subtle forms of manipulated information, such as an incomplete and one-sided picture, selective presentation of facts, the promotion of specific narratives, and framing/selective presentation of reality, either quite literally by literally showing only part of the picture, but also, for example, by presenting facts through a particular ideological lens).

Behavior: On its own, content only tells us so much. False information could be an honest mistake or spread unwittingly. Framing is also something most humans do automatically to make sense of reality. All of this occurs organically pretty often and therefore on its own does not qualify as propaganda/systematic information manipulation by pretty much any standard. This is where analyzing behavior comes into play. This includes stuff like whether there is coordinated behavior, such as multiple accounts spreading the same message either because they are part of the same network or because they have agreed in advance to do so. (An example of coordinated behavior might be the use of a WhatsApp group to push out messages to hundreds of ideologically aligned tumblr users to alert them that another user has posted something "problematic" and asking the members of the group to harass the "problematic user.") A further step is coordinated inauthentic behavior, such as bot or troll networks that are used to promote certain content or pile on/harass others in a coordinated fashion. There are certain ways how analysts can detect inauthentic behavior, especially in more obvious cases when large numbers of accounts created within time frames of each other all start pushing out the same messages, use repetitive language, jump from one topic to the next in unison, etc. but if it's smartly done and involves a strong human component rather than pure automation, it is often harder to detect. (I've done a lot of research on bot/troll networks in their various forms. Political bot/troll networks exist on tumblr, but they have negligible impact as far as I can tell.) Transparency is often used as another criterion when analyzing behavior: is someone transparent about their identity and their goals? Behavior can also include the use of certain (rhetorical and other) techniques used with the intention to manipulate. Intention matters a lot to determine if something qualifies as propaganda. People can spread propaganda unintentionally, but that does not turn them into a propagandist (rather, they would be a potential resource that a propagandist/an actor engaging in organized propaganda could try to use). The point is: somebody somewhere has to be doing something on purpose. This is where the actor comes in.

Actor: When looking simply at information manipulation, an individual can qualify as a relevant actor, but most definitions of propaganda would look at collective actors, such as state actors and non-state actors (religious groups, lobby groups, etc.) pursuing specific broader or narrower political goals. Yes, a single tumblr user can engage in intentional information manipulation for a number of reasons ranging from trolling to acting in service of a larger ideological conviction, but most definitions of propaganda would not count the relatively unsystematic actions of an individual as a propaganda campaign (unless maybe they're Elon Musk and wield massive resources en par with that of a government or a political party to promote their messages and further their goals.) Some definitions of propaganda might include individuals, but in my opinion, that's unhelpful because it potentially turns everything into propaganda and makes the concept useless both analytically and in terms of practical responses. So it is better to look for a collective actor with a goal. The goal is usually to change the behavior of people in a way that is favorable to the actor, for example by starting to support a goal pursued by the actor, by opposing something the actor opposes, or often simply by deciding to refrain from doing something that the actor doesn't want people to do. (The goal can also be simply to confuse people and to create the perception that everything and nothing is true.) In practice, when looking at individual pieces of manipulated information, the actor is not always clearly identifiable, but for something to be propaganda/coordinated information manipulation in pursuit of a political goal, there absolutely has to be an actor acting with intention. A criterion that I personally use to determine whether something is propaganda in the stricter sense is whether the actor has an institutional structure (usually with a budget, however large or small) in place that is dedicated to propaganda, for example a government's propaganda department, a military's press liaison bureau, a company's press or publicity department, a political party's press office, a religious group's communications office, etc. Now just because a state or an organization has a structure in place dedicated to communicating with the public does not necessarily mean it is engaging in propaganda: this is where you have to look at the kind of behavior it engages in together with the content it promotes. This is why A, B, and C are looked at together to make a judgment call on whether something should be treated as propaganda/systematic information manipulation.

Based on all this, when I look at tumblr, what I see is (probably) very few actors that would qualify as actual propagandists (though I'm sure some are active here as well), but still massive spread of messages that contain false and misleading information through largely authentic networks that are not engaged in organized propaganda themselves, but that possibly feature in the resource and ecosystem analyses conducted by actors that do engage in organized propaganda. Where and how organized propaganda and organic networks intersect on this website would require much more detailed analysis that I am personally not capable to conduct in this particular case.

[shotorozu]

Hi! Before anything I wanted to lyk I've read through some of your work and you've easily become one of my favorite writers :) I was wondering if you could do a bit of a comfort post? If not that's totally okay! If so, could it be hcs for Bakugo, Shinso, and maybe Aizawa (but not in like a relationship kinda way for him, like a student opening up to their teacher) telling them about being gender fluid? What would be their reactions? How would they adjust to the name change and using different pronouns? I recently told my bf and he didn't seem too up for it, eventually I told him to use my given name and she/her, kinda bummed lmao. I totally understand if you don't want to write for this, tysm either way! Have a great night/day :) (I'm so sorry this is so lengthy lmaooo)

reader coming out as gender fluid

character(s) : bakugou katsuki, shinsou hitoshi, aizawa shouta (bnha)

legend : [Y/N = your name, D/N = deadname] gender neutral, quirk not specific

headcanon type : hurt-comfort, fluff (x reader; platonic)

note(s) : first of all, i’m sorry about what happened with your boyfriend, if he cares about you, then he should’ve been supportive. it’s disheartening knowing that you decided to have him address you by your birth name, and by she/her. it should never be that way, especially when you felt comfortable coming out to HIM as gender fluid.

anon, i really hope this post gives you comfort, and if you want to talk— my dms are open!

»»————-　♡　————-««

bakugou katsuki

he wasn’t so sure on why you were acting all skittish all of a sudden, and he just wished you told him what was up

as much as he doesn’t want to admit it, katsuki really hates seeing you this down— and if only he could ‘kill those pesky emotions!!’

after a long day at school, katsuki decided to demand an immediate answer, on WHY you were acting like this

you express your concern, and even though katsuki’s rough words say otherwise— he’s willing to help (as much as he could)

but he wasn’t expecting you to come out as genderfluid

the entire pronoun thing had him confused, and it wasn’t in the “huh?? why would you want that?” type of confusion

it was rather like the “i thought they/them were plural pronouns?” confusion, but don’t be misguided! a quick google search fixed it up, and now he gets it.

with the name thing,, it took him two tries for him to get it right— but he’ll treat you like royalty if he accidentally slips up. he doesn’t mean to disrespect you

out of everyone here— he would be the most confused at first, since he hasn’t had anyone come out to him in like,, ever

katsuki feels so honored to have you feel comfortable enough to come out to him.

everyone is so intimidated by his short-tempered demeanor, to the point that no one has shared such an important, and personal detail to him

he’ll pull you in for a hug, large warm hands rubbing your back— and he’s trying to be gentle, okay?

“you really thought i was gonna say some bullshit about this, huh?” was what he first said to break the silence “i could care less about what you fucking identify with, you’re still you.”

and he means it

if anyone disrespects you, he’s blowing them up into space— enraged that anyone would try to disrespect you.

katsuki’s also very quick to correct someone if they ever deadname you “IT’S Y/N, NOT D/N!”

rip to them

shinsou hitoshi

as soon as he notices that something’s wrong, his eyes will be on you— and only you.

he wishes he had some sort of mind reading quirk— he wants to know what’s on your mind, just so he could help you

hitoshi doesn’t want to be pushy, so he can only wait for you to come to him— but he will leave subtle hints that you could tell him anything that was on your mind.

so that’s when you decide to tell him your worries, and everything— feeling that you’re ready to come out to him as gender fluid

a small genuine smile will grace his face, pulling you into a loose embrace— “thank you for feeling comfortable enough to tell me.”

the next thing he does is ask you if you want to go by anything else— just in case you do want to be addressed differently.

you’ll still be his kitty anyway, so it’s not like this change would negatively affect him.

you’ll never catch him slipping up

i’m sure he’s probably familiar with different types of identities— so gender fluidity isn’t a stranger topic to him

so because of this, he adapts pretty easily— cooperating with the new revelations with ease

rip to anyone that has the audacity to deadname or misgender you, it’s not something he takes very lightly similar to bakugou and aizawa

he’ll understand if it’s a innocent mistake, but he still won’t be pleased with the offender— that’s strike one for him

i swear— his glare will make anyone shart their pants in a second. it’s ruthless

hitoshi won’t hesitate on using his quirk on anyone that purposely disrespects you— and for once, he doesn’t care about what others will say about him.

they shouldn’t have disrespected you 🤷‍♀️ just saying

if you wanted to buy clothes that were a lot more gender neutral, he’s perfectly fine with that too!

hitoshi doesn’t care if you strip him of every single penny and dime that was in his wallet for hoodies and sweatpants.

he just wants your happiness to be at it’s highest at all times— because a happy Y/N makes a happy hitoshi <3

aizawa shouta

even though he has to take care and supervise 23 growing teenagers, he still manages to notice if something’s wrong with one of them it’s impressive!

of course— aizawa’s a busy man, and he’s constantly tired. but, it would make him feel a lot better if all of his students were content with themselves

so seeing you down was something he noticed since the moment you came in

it’s not like he could FORCE you to tell him what was wrong, that’s not the approach he’s looking for

and besides, if you told him that everything was fine, then he couldn’t really push it. his concern didn’t really die down though

a few days later, aizawa decides to talk to you again— basically consenting you to come talk to him when the time’s right

but he didn’t see this coming

so that’s when you decide to come out to him first, spilling out your concerns, and the worries that plagued your mind— worried that people wouldn’t accept your new identity as a gender fluid person

now, aizawa has met a lot of people in his life. from different ages, people with different quirks, and of course— different identities

he asks you why you decided to tell him first, and you told him that it’s because you felt comfortable knowing he knew first

“thank you for telling me, Y/N” he thanks you calmly with a comforting hand on your shoulder “i’m proud of you.”

he asks you if you want to go by a different name, and he’ll make sure to start calling you by that name (even though he calls all of his students by their last name)

oh, and he immediately switches pronouns! i know that should be expected but,, it’s so natural wow

of course, he won’t out you to anyone if you’re not ready to come out to the rest

and because of how natural the pronouns switch is, no one notices it when aizawa started addressing you with they/them

but if you’re ready to come out, he’ll be there— silently making sure that everyone accepts you.

okay but he’ll get so defensive if anyone misgenders you or dead names you— his capture tape will start floating, and his eyes will shine red

which is weird because.. who has the guts to dead name/misgender AIZAWA SHOUTA’s student?? anyone that does that in front of him is INSANE

in short, he’s very supportive— he won’t blow it out of proportion, because he knows how uncomfortable that’d feel if he did

but he’s glad to know that you decided to share such a important detail to him— aizawa might be always tired, but he wouldn’t dare to forget such detail

you’re his student after all, he cares about you lots— if you’re content with yourself, then that’d bring him inner peace

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission

[midzelink]

So, as some of you might know, one of my GIFs was recently featured on the Tumblr Radar - which is pretty cool!  I was fairly happy with how that one turned out, especially considering that I made it rather last-minute on a whim to acknowledge Valentine’s Day.  It understandably received a lot of attention as a result of this, and I’ve loved reading through all the comments and tags (especially all the ones about how people want to eat the heart containers from TP); however, I wanted to clear up a bit of a misunderstanding surrounding the creation of that GIF, as there were additionally a lot of tags along the lines of #3d art or #artists on tumblr in that influx of reblogs.  I don’t want to take credit for something I didn’t do, even accidentally, and so allow me to be perfectly clear: the heart container GIF is not something I modeled and rendered myself! It is the original in-game model, recorded in-game using the Dolphin GCN/Wii emulator, with very little done in the way of post-processing in Photoshop.  If that sounds impossible or confusing (which is perfectly understandable, for those of you unaware of what Dolphin is capable of), I’d like to take this opportunity to give you guys a bit of a “peek behind the curtain,” as it were, to show you guys exactly how I made that particular GIF, as well as similar ones I’ve made (such as those in my #items tag).  

I didn’t take screenshots of my initial process (nor did I save the edited textures I used), so I’ll be recreating it from the ground up for the sake of demonstration, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

First thing’s first: finding a heart container! For this particular GIF, I wound up using the one that spawns after the Morpheel fight at the end of Lakebed Temple.  I’m sure many others would work just as well (I think, at the time, this one just happened to be the most accessible to me), but let’s use the same one for the sake of it.  

Morpheel: defeated.  And I didn’t even need Zora Armor! (Seriously, we do that in the speedrun.  But I’m getting off-topic.)  Of course, we’re going to need clean, close-up footage of the heart container rotating in order to do what we want to do, so let’s shift into first-person mode and and get a bit closer to the thing.

Now, because the only UI-element in this shot is Link’s health (and it’s in the corner and relatively non-obtrusive), removing it isn’t strictly necessary - but I’ve already made a texture pack that removes UI elements as part of my Text Free TP project from a while back, so let’s load it anyway, for the sake of being thorough.  This shot is also still a bit too far away, so next we’ll be utilizing Dolphin’s free cam feature (which can be accessed by going to Graphics > Advanced > Free Look and checking “Enable” in Dolphin) in order to get the heart container in a more central position. Now we’re left with this:

And we’re already looking well on our way to making a nice, solid color background GIF.  But how do we get the solid color? Well, that’s where more texture editing comes into play - and here I have to give credit where credit is due, as this is a trick I picked up from 186px, after wondering how they were able to make this GIFset of Link fighting Ganondorf in The Wind Waker in a great, black void.  (Seriously, shoutouts to them, their stuff was and still is amazing.)

But, very basically, we’ll be using Dolphin’s texture dump feature in order to find the textures that need to be edited so we can replace them with pure black ones.  Texture dumping can be enabled by going to Graphics > Advanced > Utility and checking “Dump Textures,” and the file path for these dumped textures by default is Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Dump > Textures > [Game ID].  (In the case of Twilight Princess, the Game ID is GZ2E01).  After dumping the textures in the Morpheel arena, my GZ2E01 folder looks like this:

When editing textures, sometimes you’ll have to endure a bit of trial and error until you find the correct ones.  Luckily, in this scene, the textures making up the sand floor and the stone walls are rather large, so let’s isolate the ones we’re pretty sure are responsible (plus a few others that are obviously environmental, just to be safe).

Now, when loading custom textures, it’s important that the file name you’re trying to load matches up exactly with the original texture that you’re trying to replace.  I have a plain, black, square PNG that I keep on my desktop specifically for this purpose; I copy the file names of the textures I’ve isolated, then rename and drag and drop the black PNG into the folder where custom textures are loaded (Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Load > Textures > [Game ID]).  Like so:

And now, to refresh our custom textures by disabling and reenabling them in Dolphin’s graphics settings:

And voilà! We have something that very nearly resembles the GIF I made (well, a still of it, at least).  I skipped over a few details, such as the fact that TP has a pretty significant amount of bloom surrounding just about everything, which I’m fairly certain I disabled using cheat codes when I made the original GIF in order to give it an overall cleaner look.  It’s hard to tell from this still, but TP’s heart containers also sparkle considerably in a way that’s random and not loopable; I found the texture responsible for this sparkle and replaced it with a transparent 1x1 PNG, in order to remove it entirely (as well as the texture behind the “glow” of the thing).  After that, it was as simple as recording the game with OBS, dumping the MP4 into Photoshop, cropping and cutting it to make it loop, and adding some adjustment layers for contrast and color.  So...yeah!

I hope this has served to clear up any confusion about some of the things that I’ve made in the past.  I’m not a 3D artist - just a person with an emulator and way too much free time on their hands.  This stuff is really, super simple, and also lots of fun, so I would highly encourage anyone with the means to mess around with emulation on their own some time to see what they can do!  (Even if you don’t have Photoshop and can’t make GIFs, there are always edits, such as this one I made of Midna.)  For Twilight Princess in particular, I also highly recommend checking out TPGZ; it’s a patch you can apply to a clean ISO of the original game, designed with the purposes of helping folks learn and practice the speedruns (yes, I had to bring up speedrunning one last time, kill me), but it’s got nifty features like built-in savestates, cheat codes, and HUD removal, as well as the ability to freeze actors while maintaining the ability to move the camera freely, among other things (all things that are very useful as far as making unique graphics go).  Sorry this post got as long as it did, but I at the very least hope that some of you found it educational and/or interesting.  Cheers!

[jimines]

Whats actually happened between you and taemaknae? I read about it on the tea blog and still confused

This is an insanely long story so I'm going to put it below the cut so for anyone interested in this absolute shit show, continue on.

Essentially, I posted these headers about a month ago:

It was a set of like 8 colours and it was the first time I had ever posted any headers or anything. The issue nic had with these, was the ripped paper bottom. Because apparently you can trademark that. I had asked a (now ex) “friend” of mine if she knew where I could find the ripped paper effect because I had seen the effect on the header of her network blog and I had been trying to find a similar thing for months and google images never gave me anything good. She ended up referring me to google images anyways and after like an hour of dedicated searching, I found this ripped paper effect and used it. This ex “friend” went on to tell another friend of mine that I had "asked where nicole gets her resources for her headers" and then screenshotted my dm as "proof", which still confuses me because I never mentioned nicole there lmao. I've seen the screenshot.

Tell me where I said nicole. It was literally just a question born from seeing the header they had on their network lmao. I feel it’s important to mention I didn’t know this person ran said network at that time, which is why i said “these people”.

This other friend then came to me and just said my headers "may be seen as similar to nic's” and said she noticed it on her own and never mentioned my other “friend” approaching her. I was confused because other than that ripped paper effect that I know many people on tumblr use, I saw no similarities. Nic's headers are usually more complex and more than just a coloured background with a little effect in it. I just wanted to make some simple headers for fun because I was bored. But, regardless, I messaged nic about it to make sure she didn't feel the same way. I told her a friend of mine was worried nic might think my headers are similar to her's and I assured her that if she found them similar I would take them down, no questions asked. Nic told me she was surprised this friend brought it up and told me that it was entirely up to me if I found the headers similar. She never once told me she felt they were the same, never mentioned anything about them, she insisted it was up to me to do as I pleased. So, since I genuinely found no similarities, I left them up.

About a week went by and things between nic and I were fine, or so I thought, based off the fact that she was interacting with my posts, sending me cute asks and replying to a lot of my comments and stuff being kind and whatnot. Then, I decided to post a small list of my creations and the series I had running at the time. 

After that, all of a sudden I got an influx of rude hate anons:

To anyone I mentioned the anons to, they agreed with me, you cannot trademark circular icons. This anon also accused me saying “just the fact that you had an anxiety attack about it proves you copied them” Like no sweetie, it’s called three strangers walked into my house and I got anxious.

Despite me not seeing the issue, I messaged nic, assuming she wouldn't care about the icons (it wasn't like I was taking her exact work and copying and pasting them as my own) and that made her very upset. When she responded to me, she was incredibly heated and gave off the vibe she was waiting for me to message her about it. 

She said things like "this has actually been bothering me for a while", "i expected you to be able to read between the lines and delete the headers", "i don't know who that anon was but clearly they recognize my style". For starters, she never told me that she was annoyed with me, she was being very kind to me publicly. And I have no idea how I was meant to “read between the lines” of what she said especially considering how kind she was to me the following days. I also never accused her of knowing this anon, she just insisted it wasn't her and she didn't know them right off the bat. She also insinuated that I copied my gifs from others as well, which ticked me off because I made my 100+ layer psd myself thank you very much. But I kept my cool, and I told her I had no idea she felt the way she did, and I told her I would delete the headers (which i did as the conversation was going on), and that I would stop posting my icons and bringing attention to them because no one ever paid it any mind before that point. And I asked her “please tell me straight up the next time you have an issue with me because I am generally pretty dumb with social cues”, I have my adhd to thank for that. And instead of replying, she just blocked me. And conveniently, the hate anons stopped dead right after we blocked each other and I haven't received any since.

Also, these are the kinds of icons I posted:

Looks pretty generic and idk, universal, right?

Then, as I've recently found out today, she was in an "anti-loverjimin" groupchat with at least 2 other bloggers. 

Which explains why this all went and fell into place. I know who the two other bloggers are because of what happened two days later but I won't name them just yet, but these two people had been "friends" with me for several months. So, a day or two after nic blocked me, all of a sudden some good friends of mine were blocking me and not talking to me when I asked what was going on. I found out soon after it was because nicole and those two now ex “friends” of mine had taken old dms I sent them and were showing them to people. And I will go into detail about them but I won't name the people they are about for privacy reasons.

Before I move on, to clarify some lies nic has been spreading about me, I never once shit talked nicole to my friends. One of these ex friends also said I was trying to get people on my side. I would have reacted to this all very very differently if that were the case. I would be dragging everyone through the fucking dirt but I don't get off on drama or micromanaging what my mutuals do. My issues are with these people, if you're still friends with them that's your decision i could not care less. So, back to it, the only thing I said about nic was that she and I had a stupid small fight over icons and that she was spreading lies about me, based off of what nic said to jordan.

That exact message, or slight variations of it, was sent to anyone I interacted with because I didn't know if nic was going to stop at jordan or try and get to everyone I fucking knew lmao. Some of the people I messaged this to told ME nic had done this kind of thing before, that she has sent hate anons, launched hate campaigns, cancelled people, etc. Over stupid shit like icons lmao.

Here are some responses I received after I mentioned nicole:

And nic or one of her friends also took it upon themselves to send anons to that tea blog to blow shit up and named everyone and made it an even bigger mess when they saw no one was actively trying to fight me after the dms got out. 

I also love that in this following ask, they named my two “friends” that were behind the whole dm drama and backstabbed me, as well as two other people I never badmouthed, that story was twisted. But we’ll get into those details shortly.

And she also told people I clout chased big blogs and only cared about notes. At one point, yes, I did care a lot about my statistics. However, never once did I think clout chasing was worth my fucking time or energy, Nic is the biggest clout chaser on this damn site and there are receipts of that, ask jordan lmao. And I couldn’t give two shits about my statistics anymore lmao, much less anxiety that way. Do I still crave validation sometimes? Sure. But it's not a driving force of my tumblr experience like it used to be.

But, moving on to the dms, the first one was sent when I first came back to tumblr full-time and didn't understand why people self reblogged things, I found the pretence of self reblogging annoying and greedy and I complained about it and it was a comment fuelled by two bloggers that i would see sr a lot on my dash. But I never thought THEY were annoying, as these people are saying I did, it was self reblogging I found annoying and as you can see I have come to understand why people sr and I do it myself too. I didn't even know these two bloggers at this time either. That dm was cropped to hide the fact that this "friend" agreed with me and hid the date as well so it seemed recent, and was sent to one of the bloggers I mentioned as an example, someone I had since become good friends with. 

I didn’t befriend one of the people I mentioned there until mid to late June. That friendship is now over thanks to this drama and all the lies. The second friend of mine they went after was never spoken about in dms, they went and turned her against me through lies and manipulation so that friendship has ended too. And while those two were doing that, nic went off to try and turn jordan against me.

There was a particular user on here that I did say some nasty things about but we weren't friends, as many people have been made to believe. I was particularly mad at this person in those dms and was hurtful, I admit, and I have since apologized and owned up to all of it to these people. I did call them fake and/or two-faced. 

And what in the gassing me up bullshit was their response though lmao. I also sent this following dm before I even talked about the issue with this person. They urged me to continue and to name drop the person, and I stupidly thought they were trustworthy.

My reasoning for what I said wasn't unwarranted though, I don't make a habit of going around shit-talking people, unless they do something to me first. I vent when I am upset and this person had sent me a passive aggressive ask and then denied sending it when I asked and I thought that was just very fake, especially since she was so kind to me in dms before the ask came in. But all of these dms were cropped too to hide timestamps and responses, and in most cases, like those screenshots prove, these "friends" either gassed me up or egged me on to continue ranting or to name the people i was mad at and they had agreed with me on several, several occasions. Turns out they were trying to get dirt on me to use in their cancel campaign. But the point is, nic has made me out to be this horrible person that befriends "big blogs" (an overrated statement) and then shit talks them behind their back without remorse. Yet it was one person I said rude things about and I, again, owned up to it all and apologized to them the first day. I would've done it sooner had I a) remembered feeling the way I did all those months ago or remembered the dms themselves or b) felt that way still after meeting them. But neither is the case.

I find it really amusing though that these people wanted things to be kept quiet and didn’t want anyone they spoke to to talk to me about it because I was going to “out them on my blog” and “make a big scene”, then they three went and made it a big fucking scene and ruined my friendships. I’m familiar with this pattern of manipulation as it has happened to me in real life before and it’s the most childish bullshit to witness.

Before this callout day for nic, I had never once been directly rude to or about her, same goes for those ex “friends” that betrayed my trust and friendship. The fact that they plotted against me in a group chat while still actively talking to me and being all buddy buddy is just disgusting. Both of them were talking to me that day at the same time they were sharing the dms and shit-talking me to my friends. But yeah, that's my side, the untwisted side, of the whole story. I tried to be mature and talk to nic and when I didn't do what she wanted me to do, she blocked me and launched the hate campaign with dms and the power of photoshop. I’ve been hesitant to make any of this public because it was meant to be a silent ordeal but I’ve grown tired of her constantly publicizing everything without consequence while I remain silent like I promised.

[baya-ni]

The Queer Appeal of Sk8

Recently @mulberrymelancholy reblogged a post of mine with a truly galaxy brain take about how Sk8 “is a show made for queer fans” and generally how sports anime often depicts love and relationships in a way that’s more accessible and relatable to ace/arospec people than other mainstream media does.

Just, *chef’s kiss* fucking brilliant. I urge you to read their post here (note I’m referring to the reblog not the actual post).

And basically, it got me thinking about this concept of Sk8 as a Queer Show, and the kinds of stories and dynamics that tend to attract queer audiences in droves, regardless of whether its queerness is made explicit or hell, whether that queerness was intended.

And that’s what I’ve been pondering: What are the cues, markers, or coding, in Sk8 that set off the community’s collective gaydar?

I obviously can’t speak for the community. So here’s what aspects of the show intrigued me and what, for me, marks Sk8 as a Queer Show beyond the subtextual queer romances: a punk/alternative aesthetic, Found Family, Shadow as a drag persona, and The Hands.

1.) The Punk Aesthetic

All three of the above screenshots are taken from Ep 1, and every single one of them depicts background characters. They’re nameless and ultimately unimportant characters, yet each of them designed so distinctly and so unique from one another, one could mistake each of them for the main character(s) of another story.

Of what little I know about Punk subculture, I do know this: that the ethos of Punk is heavily built around a celebration of individuality and non-conformity. Sk8 seems to have incorporated this ethos into the very fabric its worldbuilding, and the aesthetics and culture upon which it takes inspiration appeals specifically to a queer audience.

I don’t really need to explain why Punk has such deep ties with the queer community. For decades, queer people have found community and acceptance within punk spaces, and punk ideology is something that I think is just ingrained in the queer consciousness as both lived experience and a survival tactic.

Therefore, a show that adopts punk aesthetics is, by association, already paying homage to Queer culture, intentional or not.

Queer fans notice this- like recognizes like.

2.) Found Family

This also needs little explanation.

Too often, queer individuals cannot rely on their “born into” families for support and acceptance. Too often, we are abused, neglected, and abandoned by those who we were taught would “always be there for us.”

And so, a universal experience for queer people has been redefining the meaning of Family, having to build our families from scratch, finding brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers in people with whom we have no blood relation, and forming communities tied together by shared lived experience rather than shared genetics.

And this idea of Found Family is also built into Sk8′s narrative.

Like, for example, the way that Reki promises MIYA that he and Langa will “never disappear from [his] sight,” filling the void that MIYA felt after his friends abandoned him.

And in the way that JOE becomes a paternal figure for Reki, teaching him ways to improve in skateboarding, and ensuring that Reki doesn’t self isolate when he’s feeling insecure.

And in the whole Ep 6 business with Hiromi acting as babysitter to the Gang.

Hell, even ADAM (derogatory) is associated with this trope. Abused as a child, he finds solace in an underground skateboarding community and culture he helped create- his own found family (or some powertrippy version of it anyway).

Again, queer fans see themselves depicted in the show, but this time in the way that the show gives importance to Found Family relationships between its characters.

3.) Shadow and Drag

This is one that’s more of an association that I personally made. But I was intrigued by the way that Hiromi adopts his SHADOW persona. He wears SHADOW like a mask, and adopts a personality seemingly so opposite to his day-to-day behavior.

Further, the theatricality and general “gender fuckery” of his SHADOW persona, to me, just seemed so similar to a the characteristics of a drag persona (I don’t know a whole lot about drag but enough that I’m drawing superficial similarities).

There’s also this aspect of a “double life” that he, and actually all the other adult characters of the show, have to adopt, which is a way of living that I’m sure a lot of queer viewers see themselves reflected in.

4.) The Hands

Ohhhh the Hands.

One of the things I noticed very early on is the way the show constantly draws our attention to Reki’s hands, which I thought was a little strange for an anime about skating. After all, skating doesn’t really involve the hands, or at least the show doesn’t really draw attention to hands within the context of skating.

I count 3 times so far between Eps 1-9 in which hands are the focus of the frame.

First, when Reki teaches Langa how to fist pump after Langa lands his first ollie, second, when Reki and Langa make their Promise, and finally, when Langa saves Reki from falling off his board.

And you know what they say, twice is a coincidence but thrice is a motif (no one else actually says this I think I’m the only one who says this lol).

I’m not really certain why hands seem to be such a shared fixation among queer people (at least among those I interact with). All I know is that gay people are just fucking obsessed with them.

I have a Theory as to why, and at this point I’d love for other people to chime in and “compare notes” if you will, but I think it basically has to do with repression. And in the same way that queer people have had to redefine the meaning of family, we’ve also had to redefine intimacy.

Being overtly physically affectionate with someone of the same sex, even if they’re your significant other, or often specifically BECAUSE they’re your significant other, can still be dangerous, even now despite the “progression” of society. Queer people know this, this vigilant surveillance of our environment and ourselves, always asking ourselves, “Am I safe enough to be myself?”

Already, Western culture is pretty touch-averse. That is, it’s considered taboo to touch someone unless they’re a family member or a romantic partner. And to touch a person of the same sex in any way that could be misconstrued as romantic (which is most things tbh) is a big no no.

There’s just A Lot to unpack there.

But basically I think that queer people, by necessity, have had to learn to romanticize mundane or unconventional ways of being physically intimate so that we can continue to be romantic with one another without “being caught” so to speak.

Kissing and hugging is too obvious. But a handshake that lingers for just a second too long is much more likely to go unnoticed, braiding someone’s hair can easily be explained away as just lending a helping hand, touching palms to “compare hand sizes” is just good fun.

But for queer people, these brief and seemingly insignificant touches hold greater meaning, because it’s all we are allowed, and all we allow ourselves, to exchange with others.

God, I’ve gone off and rambled again. What’s my point? Basically that the way the show draws attention to Reki’s hands, and specifically how they’re so often framed with Langa’s hands, is one of the major reasons why I clocked Sk8 as a Queer. It’s just something that resonated with me and my own experience of queerness, and I know that I’m not the only one who noticed either.

~

So in conclusion, uhhhh yeah Sk8 the Infinity is just a super gay show, and it’s not even because of the homo-romantic subtext (that at this point is really just Text).

Because what’s important to understand is that Queerness isn’t just about same-sex romance.

Queer Love isn’t just shared between wives/girlfriends, husbands/boyfriends, and all their in-betweens. Queer Love can be two best friends who come out together, queer siblings who rely and support one another, a gay teacher who helps guide one of their questioning students, a queer community pitching in to help a struggling member.

And that all ties with another important thing to consider, that what we refer to as the “queer experience” or “queer culture” isn’t universal. In fact, it wrongly lumps together the unique experiences and struggles of queer BIPOC all under one umbrella that’s primary White and middle class.

So I think what drives a lot of my frustration about labeling a show like Sk8 as Queerbait is this very issue of considering queerness and queer representation within such narrow standards, and mandating that a show must pass a certain threshold of explicit queerness to be considered good representation.

I get that someone might only feel represented by an indisputable canonization of a same-sex couple. That’s fine. But labeling Sk8 as Queerbait for that reason alone ignores the vast array of other queer experiences.

The aspects of Sk8 that resonate most deeply with my own experiences of queerness is in the way that Reki and Langa share intimacy through skating (intricate rituals heyo). For me, them officially getting together ultimately doesn’t matter- I’ll consider Sk8 a Queer show regardless.

Similarly, @mulberrymelancholy​ finds ace/arospec representation in that very absence of an on-screen kiss. A bisexual man might find representation in Reki, not because he enters a canon relationship, but in the depiction of Reki’s coming of age, growing up and navigating adolescent relationships. A non-binary person might feel represented through CHERRY’s androgyny.

That’s the thing, I don’t know how this show will resonate with other members of the queer community, and it’d be wrong to make a judgement on Sk8′s queer representation based on my experiences alone.

That being said, Straight people definitely don’t get to judge Sk8 as Queerbait. Y’all can watch and enjoy the show, we WANT you to enjoy these kinds of shows, and we want you to share these shows and contribute to the normalization and celebration of these kinds of narratives.

But understand that you don’t have a right to tell us whether or not Sk8 has good or bad queer representation.

And even members of the queer community are on thin ice. Your experience of queerness is not universal. Listen to the other members of your community, and respect that what you might find lacking in this show may be the exact representation that someone else needs.

[salt-volk]

How To Follow Asks/Submissions On Your Favorite Salt Blog

A step-by-step process by salt shaker Chi (not Cro)

Keep in mind I have an Android smartphone, so how Tumblr appears on my device may differ from yours. I think we should be seeing very similar user interfaces (if not, wtf are you doing tumbr?). Desktop is pretty similar so you may be able to follow this if you’re on a laptop/PC, too. If you’re still confused, feel free to reach out in the notes. I’m not the greatest tutorial maker.

1. Start out at home

We’re currently staring at Tumblr’s homepage. The chat icon (with the smiley face) is where your notifications are housed. Click on that.

2. On your notifications page, click on All Activity

3. Go to Custom

4. Adjust your filter settings as needed. Uncheck “group similar notifications”

Uncheck “group similar notifications” if you want to view the notifications individually. This is extremely helpful because you will now see individual responses to the asks/submissions you’re following!

Since I only made this Tumblr account to follow DV salt blogs, I turned on all notifications minus the grouping one.

Once you’re done, remember to click Apply.

5. Go back to your homepage. Click on the bubble of the ask you want to follow

The Bubble icon directs you to the notes on that ask or submission.

(Note: Make sure you’re already following the salt blog so the salty asks/submissions appear on your homepage.)

6. Hit that Bell icon

Now you’ll get notifications for all new notes and reblogs to that ask/submission!

Extra Tutorial

Asks/submissions that receive a lot of comments will look like this:

You might wonder how you can interpret this. I’ll show you:

• The most recent commentor will always be on the far left.

• If you click on any of those blog icons, you’ll be directed to the notes of the ask/submission.

• Clicking on Aa will send you directly to the ask/submission post!

Hope all of this helps! Feel free to ask for clarification.

[corvidares]

as per your last reblog i’ve been searching for advice and i don’t know who to ask so you’re my victim (/s) my partner recently came out as a trans man and i’m so happy and excited for him and i love him very much but i’m so committed to the lesbian label. i love being one, i love calling myself one. i still like girls, but i also still love him. what do i do here??? does it even matter??? you seem like you’re so wise with this stuff. could you help me out?

well i can give you my input, at least! its a pretty personal matter, but i am flattered you deem me "wise" enough to ask LOL

but yeah, i wanna make clear that this is ultimately up to you, and your partner. it could definitely be worth having a conversation about; for example, would he feel uncomfortable with you identifying as a lesbian? would that feel invalidating to him? 

im sure i dont need to tell you there are plenty of good adjacent labels like sapphic, queer (a personal favorite), just plain ol vague gay, and of course bi pan etc. or no label at all! but you know that, and i know how hard it can be to let go of a label that provides you a lot of comfort and joy. 

in the end, queer ppl in irl spaces care waaaaaay less. you could continue to call yourself a lesbian, and likely most people wont bat an eye. (again, assuming your partner is comfortable with that)

yes, lesbian is most often understood as "someone who does not date binary men" these days but like that post says.. our history and terminology is fluid and we, as humans, are too!  labels are tools for us to use and signifiers to find community. in the end, despite what online queer spaces will try to tell you, no one but YOU can determine how you label. and if they do, fuck em. block and move on. 

i have a friend who went through a similar experience - he at the time identified as a lesbian, and ended up dating his then (male) best friend. so he switched to pan, only for said partner to come out as a trans woman! (theyre engaged now :) ) my friend has realized since that hes attracted to men / masculinity as well after all. case in point! we're complicated creatures. 

i know it's a bit of a non answer, but i cant make that choice for you! i wish you and your partner all the best tho, and congrats to him figuring himself out :D 

[pepsiwriteswords]

Favorite Tropes Tag!

And another one @emelkae tagged me in, but more recently this time. XP

Thanks for the tag!

Favorite Big Dramatic Fight Trope:

Wait, like . . . physical fight or verbal fight? If I even have an answer for this one. XP

I’m trying to think of fights I’ve read/seen on TV/in movies & got invested in/agreed with & that weren’t just . . . incredibly manufactured bc the characters had to have their third-act-break-up thing.

I think, like . . . when a character lashes out bc Trauma, or when the fight/argument mirrors something that has Happened Before, or the current dynamic is just so similar to one they’ve been in, so the character essentially flashes back without actually having a flashback? (Like the Jesper/Kaz argument in Crooked Kingdom, where Kaz calls Jesper by his brother’s name?)

It doesn’t always hit right, but when it does . . . oof.

Favorite Backstory Reveal Trope

I’m not sure I can choose just one. It might depend on just what the backstory is.

Scar reveal/question backstory reveals are great. Backstory revealed during an argument/after an argument is great. Any reveal happening just bc the characters are being good at communicating with one another are great. Backstory reveals where earlier in the piece the character said a thing real casually so it got brushed off just to reveal later it was actually hella serious is great. Accidentally getting pieces of someone’s backstory bc of mind-reading is great. Vague allusions to the Thing hurt a lot & I love it. (AKA, AFTG, pretty sure it’s the last book, Andrew telling Neil ‘I was six, I believed him’? Ouch, & I have read smaller allusions to different backstory things in other books, & I think I’ve seen it done well a few times in shows or movies I’ve watched, & most of my favorite fics have little one-line allusions to smth & have all but caused tears & it’s fantastic.)

Favorite Parent/Parenting/Child Interaction Trope

This will be the shortest answer, I think:

Character that is usually grumpy/rude/just a straight-up dickhead to the other adult characters is fucking great with kids.

& depending on the character, the ‘adopts every child they come across’ is usually great, too.

Favorite Romance Trope

Hmmm. Not the ‘because I love you!’ during an argument trope. XP

I think . . .  god, I dunno. Do I have to pick one? Can I just say like, ‘everything Aziraphale & Crowley have going on’? Bc like, I know I’ve seen & reblogged a post that’s like ‘they have just about every possible romance trope they could have‘ & just. Yes. Bc ultimately it’s all in how the trope is written & I’m probably pickier about romance tropes than anything, so I could love this trope in this book/movie/fic & absolutely despise it in this other thing & I really don’t know that I have a favorite.

Favorite Character Archetype

. . . Ummm . . . generally ‘the most traumatized bastard in the cast’. XD I am also very susceptible to fanon (for TV shows/movies tbh) bc roughly 50-90% of the time I don’t actually watch the source material & learn about a thing & get attached to it just bc a couple people on my dash are super into it.

(Like, I got into the Untamed very late & have never actually played or watched any LPs for undertale & am very attached to Klaus Hargreeves despite only watching like one episode of season one a couple years ago . . . etc.) XD

This should make it pretty obvious who of my OCs makes it onto my favorite list xP just look for the poor kid with 10x more trauma than anyone else. (Or watch me try to make it more equal between a couple bc I can’t pick in that given WIP)

Annd umm open tag bc it’s been a minute since I’ve done any of these tag games & I’m bad at interacting with y’all anyway lol. If you see this, assume you’re invited to play along! ^^

[demonlandline]

“I wanna know what people assume about me because of my tumblr.”

HA! Ok I’ll do this off anon bc I’m feeling 2022 brave over here:

- Generalization: I’ve literally never met an Australian friend or acquaintance who wasn’t awesome. I have indeed heard that there’s lots of conservatives in the country but every friend I’ve made or person I’ve met from the country is not only incredibly nice and SUPER fun, but really witty and with the best sense of humor. So you’ve definitely just bolstered that assumption/impression with your posts and tags. (There was one about lightbulbs and elephants, I think, that fucking made my week).

- Specification: talented like WOAH. and honestly so impressive to have such a defined and polished style at such a young age. I get the feeling that while your art has probably/will probably evolve, you give so much to it that you will always take your style to a similar state of being really developed and expressive. The breadth of media that you employ (visual art, writing, music, fashion, anything else I have failed to acknowledge) is incredible. People in fandom who give such incredible and selfless gifts to all of us who devour them…y’all are the best. Someone who gives so so much of themself in those gifts- such as you- deserve acknowledgment and specific gratitude.

Wishing nothing but the best for you in the year to come. 🖤

Oh my god hello!! We love a bit of 2022 bravery here

first up, in my experience most Aussies are pretty cool, we've definitely got our shit too. But the city I live in is in large part beautifully queer and creative and I've found a lovely little safe bubble here.

And yeah we are all hilarious it's true, it's true. I can't believe my elephant figurine power source metaphor post resonated with someone that much lmao

second up, OMG THANKYOU!! I can't tell if you're assuming I'm younger than I am or if 27 is still a young age in this context lmao. A lot of people think I'm younger than I am, like I recently had someone check I'm over 16, despite all my visible tattoos. It's the transmasc experience of looking like a teenage boy forever.

Anyway, I feel like my art style has really clicked into place recently. Being able to pour a lot of my emotional state into my art is a relatively new thing, and I'm so grateful to have that outlet. Not sure how I'd cope without that means of exorcising some of my demons. Guess I'd have to resort to blood rituals and Latin or something?

This message made me very emotional and I really really appreciate you taking the time to be earnest and thoughtful. Messages like these, and all the comments in reblogs and the encouragement I get from people just as overly invested in fictional worlds and characters as I am is what keeps me making art here. So you can all claim some credit too.

Sending you so so much of the affectionate gesture of your choice and wishing you all the good things for the year ahead <3 <3 <3

Make an assumption about me