#instagram is worse than tumblr but better than tiktok

[adlibitur]

-

[dostoyevsky-official]

it's all phones and, in a distant second, YA lit. all phones. tumblr and twitter are a little better than instagram and tiktok, which turn your brains into mush. having a baby on an ipad should be deemed as negligence. it's all phones, 100%. students weren't reading the whole books for decades, but it's worse, and it's phones. get rid of the phones and your attention span slowly regrows

[shinning-whammy]

What if: Still Alive

your comment @nerfergamerboy1225 give me this idea and how this what if for red theraphy born, this is no canon for the original Au because here dogday's friends are alive

also since this comic born because your comment here on tumblr this comic will be post here before than twitter or other social media

here a little points about what happen on this what if

player save dogday's friends and all them were alive but catnap kept them locked up and away from dogday making he belive they are dead long time ago

dogday always have nightmares about fight or listen to his friends ask for help so each time he wake up hyperventilating catnap is there to calm him dow as reminds him they are already dead

dogday help catnap to keep playcare save there 1006 is happy for them being a good team

for canon about the Au Red Therapy Au 1006 add the red smoke to dogday corrupting his white smoke the only diference here, this works well making his corruptig smoke works like catnap

the corrupting white smoke with the red smoke dogday used to had become pink and this smoke is worse than red smoke.

the pink smoke doesn't make you sleep but it easily makes you fall into an illusion that makes it difficult to know what is real or not. makinng easy to dogday and catnap kill the prey or "heretics"

dogday can withstand the red smoke now but he is mentally and emotionally unstable making easy to catnap or 1006 manipulate him and triggering Red Dogday appear to attack

dogday since he lost his friends and only having as friend catnap made it easier for him to join to 1006

each time dogday feel sad or broken he talk with catnap or 1006 to feels better and no alone

Dogday has a trauma where he felt he should do the best when the Playco workers asked him to. But since they are dead he now does his best for 1006 to keep the site safe.

catnap no kill dogdays friends cause he was waiting to sacrifice them for 1006 few to few there they still alive

each time they escape or try to talk to dogday catnap put to asleep both and then messing with dogday's mentally about them be dead until he believe it even if this made him sad for a whole day

to the end of this comic player escape with bobby and hoppy with poppy to the other level from the factory

the only ones are dead by catnap and dogday were bubba, kickin, picky and craftycorn.

dogday don't believe he kill his own friends he all time believe is defending the place from rebels toys or how catnap like to call them heretics

dogday gets very angry when the red smoke mades him see illusions about his friends being there when needs attack other toys, the only way to believe he is into a illusion is catnap who tell him what is front him because he believe catnap is no affected badly by the red smoke as he can be

if you notice theres a panel where dogday is cryig whiles is chasig his own friends this mean he is a little aware of what he is doing but he doesn't understand why these illusions made those rebels toys take the form of his friends.

you can see more about my art on my other social media

patreon - Deviantart - youtube -instagram - twitter - kofi - webtoon - Tiktok - comissions

[secretmellowblog]

I’ve heard people argue over whether Tumblr is worse/better for artists than other social media sites— but in my personal experience Tumblr is just more consistent and predictable, for better and for worse.

When you post art on Tumblr, you tend to get the level of interaction you would expect from your follower count and the popularity/activity of a fandom. Things tend to level out and remain the same. My Les Mis art posts, for example, always tend to get abooout the same amount of notes every time — because it’s always a combination of my followers and people in the Les Mis fandom.

Posting on Tiktok or Instagram feels more like pulling a slot machine lever. 🤣Sometimes your post will get picked up by the algorithm and shown to everyone, including people who aren’t actively following you or actively engaged in your fandom. Other times the sites will arbitrarily decide your followers don’t want to see anything you post, and refuse to put it up in their feeds, so that you get basically nothing.

I have over 1000 followers on Instagram and regularly struggle to get more than 10 likes. On Tumblr, the amount of notes I get on a post actually IS correlated to my follower count, for better and for worse 😂. I rarely get more than I’d expect, but I also rarely get less.

Art getting popular on tumblr is also slightly more of a “meritocracy?” If something gets popular on Tumblr, it’s because a lot of people shared it; if something gets popular on tiktok/Instagram, it’s because something about the SEO tag combination arbitrarily made the algorithm favor it.

I think that’s part of why I find Tumblr less stressful than Tiktok or Instagram. Sure it’s rare that things on tumblr will artificially blow up and get shown to a million people, but (when you have followers and mutuals) it’s also rare that things will go completely unseen. And I really prefer that reliability to the “slot machine” approach you have to have towards other social media.

[katy-l-wood]

Delete your Threads account. You know what Meta as a company has done, you know the kind of person Mark Zuckerberg is. You've lived through Gamergate, the elections, covid, the fucking lot of it, and yet you're still willingly making an account on Threads. How can you possibly justify that?

Second ask: Scratch that, I hadn't read your most recent posts. Sorry for being so rude.

Third ask: "Still going to keep an eye on it" For what exactly? For it not to be as bad as it is? For it to get even worse before you decide it is wrong? You know who Mark Zuckerberg is. You know what Facebook is. Be up front: you don't actually care or stand for anything, you're only afraid of losing business. Have some dignity.

So you decided to be rude as fuck, "apologize," and then come back and be more rude?

I was incredibly clear in that post of why I am going to keep an eye on Threads, despite the concerns: Twitter was a valuable source of live news, especially during natural disasters, and Threads is the first potentially viable replacement for that. IDK if you actually follow me, but if you do you'll know I do a lot of work around natural disaster communication. Twitter was invaluable as a communication source during natural disasters. Full stop. It is not up for debate. But hey, if you want a source with more authority than a random tumblr blog, here, have a nice shiny research paper:

Mind you, that was written in 2010 and the importance of Twitter as a communications tool during natural disasters has only increased since then. There is no other tool out there, no other website--news or otherwise, that can provide such granular, specific updates when shit hits the fan as Twitter did. The only better, quicker source of information I have found during natural disasters is listening to actual radio chatter from the departments involved in whatever problem, and that can be very tricky to do if you don't know where to look or have the right equipment. There is no other site where I can go specifically follow so many of my local fire departments, my local emergency services, my local National Weather System stations, and get live pushed updates from them every single time they post.

When Twitter DDOSed itself last week and put a limit on the amount of tweets people could view and forced people to be logged in to view anything at all, the effect was immediate and BAD. People suddenly couldn't view things like missing person alerts, or weather alerts. I had people messaging me because they were trying to check the National Weather System autoalerts for their area on Twitter due to being caught in a sudden storm, but they couldn't get on to check.

Love it or hate it, Twitter had an immense amount of value and it got that value--at least in the case of natural disaster communication--because the stubborn ass government decided it was big enough to be trusted with official lines of information. Very, very few other social media sites have ever had that trust from the government. Look at how they banned TikTok on all government devices. But they DO trust Facebook, and Instagram, and Meta. Which means their chances of trusting Threads and migrating over there when Twitter finally takes its last breath are ASTRONOMICALLY higher than expecting them to go anywhere else.

We can debate the privacy and moral issues of the Metaverse and those involved until the cows come home, but it does not change the fact that if my mountain is on fire I'm gonna get information about where that fire is from wherever the fuck I can. I'm not going to wait around for it to maybe show up in a "live" updates news article from CNN from some reporter half a continent away in New York who doesn't know anything about where I live and gets the roads wrong because they just don't know. I'm going to go to the website full of my neighbors and local firefighters and see what's happening right that second.

Do we need to fix the privacy and moral issues? Yes. But we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater either. Not using Threads or any other Meta product isn't the answer here. Using them with extreme caution and only for very specific needs, for the time being, is. Long term, we need to be focusing on privacy based legislation that would finally put these companies in their place. But until then, again, I'm going to keep following my local fire departments wherever they go.

P.S.: If you're going to keep the shitty attitude, fuck right off and unfollow+block. You're not wanted here.

[courtana]

https://www.tumblr.com/staytrueblue/759888268499222528?source=share

reblogging stolen gifs yet again stolen from jay (collinnmckinley)

It’s time for her big cod blog mutuals to call her out and actual apologies. This shit is not okay.

this is infuriating. time and time again, we've asked people in the cod fandom not to repost our gifs without permission & credit. @staytrueblue knows this too because we've spelled it out to her before she blocked @collinnmckinley and refused to take actual accountability for her stealing. but looks like she's at it again, and of course, this fandom does not give a fuck.

honestly, the fact that @kittykittyneowmeow69's text post with Jay's stolen gifs (i really hope she does the right thing and heeds @deadbranch's words to either add credit or to better yet remove the stolen gif) received more than 100 notes shows how fucked this fandom's culture is with regard to respecting the creative work of others. that includes traditional & digital artists, 3d render makers, graphic designers, gifmakers, and, yes, also writers. anyone who produces any creative work of their own in this fandom has been fucked over somehow.

and of course, bigger blogs—whom i won't name—have posted publicly and loosely stated "oh, i spoke with straytrueblue and i feel that she's learned from her mistakes from the past and we shouldn't stay upset with her. it was a misunderstanding on her part blah blah." i appreciate the fandom wanting to find amicability and peace and not end up breaking into more factions. especially nowadays where cyberbullying and harassment feel like they're at an all-time high in this fandom. but it shouldn't be at the expense of the people who were actually wronged by theft and dishonesty. some random blog with clout shouldn't be the one to absolve staytrueblue of all the gifs she's stolen from not just Jay but from other call of duty gifmakers as well! that's between the gifmaker in question and the person caught stealing to settle.

it's up for gifmakers who were wronged by blue to decide whether we should forgive her, not for other blogs who don't produce visual graphics just because 'oh it seems like she's nice and i like her smut fics idk why we're mad at this girl waahhh.' and by the looks of it, it seems like staytrueblue has not learned her lesson in terms of actually treating gifmakers with basic respect and being willing to dialogue with them. and this is why literally every call of duty gifmaker i've spoken to has said they resent this fandom for how they're treated. just yesterday, we had a white man pretending to be a MOC harassing [primarily latina & asian] gifmakers on his instagram, twitter, tiktok, and tumblr accounts (yes all of them) since we asked him to take down stolen gifs [source] [source] [source]. rather than learn from this and spread awareness about this recurring issue, people go on their merry day.

and because this behavior only seems to be getting worse from cod fans, every gifmaker i know feels discouraged from making more gifs. why continue to make gifs—even if we do love the process—for a group of immature people who don't know how to apologize or learn from their previous wrongdoings and view your art and creative labor as unimportant? don't be surprised if people stop making gifs and you have no one else to steal from.

[bottomlouisficfest]

We hope you’ve enjoyed the fics from weeks 9-10 of the Bottom Louis Fic Fest 2023! Every two weeks, we’re compiling all of the fics from that period into one roundup post so they’re easy to find for anyone looking to catch up on fics they missed. Enjoy these amazing fics and give them the love they deserve!

part time soulmates (full time problem)

A fic by localopa on AO3 | @voulezloux on Tumblr

12k | Mature | Tumblr post | Twitter post

sworn enemies harry and louis are soulmates. everything is going smoothly until the pain hits.

--

Spaces Between Us, Hold All Our Secrets

A fic by Whoopsiedaisiesss on AO3 | @shining-louist on Tumblr

6k | Not Rated | Tumblr post | Twitter post

The thing about Harry is, is that he is the most wonderful guy you´ll ever meet. He is kind, compliments you on things you are usually insecure about, which shows he truly pays attention to who you are as a person. And he befriends everyone. Except Louis. --- Or the one where Louis suffers from anxiety. His rivals with Harry makes this even worse. Until one day he accidentally calls Harry during one of his panic attacks. Harry just wants Louis to feel better. He always does.

--

Bend the Rules

A fic by youreyesonlarry on AO3 | @youreyesonlarry on Tumblr | @youreyesonlarry on Twitter

17k | Explicit | Tumblr post | Twitter post

Prompt 588: Lous hires a ‘ghost cooking’ service because his family is worried he’s not eating well and he wants to impress them by showing them what an amazing cook he’s become. The service includes sending a discreet cook to your house and have them get everything ready so that you only serve and take the credit. Problem is, his sisters (can be OCs if that’s more comfortable) get to his flat earlier than planned and the actual cook has to hide in the master bathroom for hours. Louis is mortified. The cook is amused and helps him to clean and well. Gives him a thorough service. Feel free to pick your fave as the cook.

--

The Writing on the Wall

A fic by stylinsonwritingpalace on AO3 | @stylinsonwritingpalace on Tumblr

7k | Explicit | Tumblr post | Twitter post

When BookToker Louis receives a gift basket filled with all his favorite sweets, wines, and stuffed animals alongside the new Harry Styles book, he's shocked at the story he finds in the pages. ----- For BLFF Prompt 85: Louis is a literature teacher who spends his free time either making videos on Instagram or TikTok (author’s choice) talking about his favorite books. His audience knows how obsessed he is with a specific author, from his poems to his novels, he reads and gushes about every single one of his works because he always feels as if they were written to him. That was why when he receives a special PR package with his favorite sweets, wine, and the author’s brand new book, it only took him hours to finish the whole thing. Only this time, to his shock, the story on the pages of the book were too familiar to him. It was the story of how Louis broke his ex’s heart.

--

Define me again

A fic by Hazzascul_07 on AO3 | @hazzascul on Tumblr

54k | Mature | Tumblr post | Twitter post

He's never felt so frightened in his life before, so fucking terrified for himself. And Louis. He looked down at their hands, which seemed to have been connected throughout the incident. He looked at the ring on Louis' hand, for the nth time that day. His heart hurt so bad now, he was terrified. He wanted to do so many things, he wanted to check on louis, if he- if he- God he couldn't even think about it. "Louis," he tried to whisper, but nothing but air came out from his mouth. "I love you, Harry," whispered a voice. But it was nowhere near him. Visions attacked his mind, rapidly flickering through like one would do the pages of a book. He was terrified. His entire life literally flashed in his mind, vision growing more and more weak and he fought unconsciousness. Memories and the picture of Louis lying unconscious in front of him altered and flickered, so rapidly that he felt dizzy with how fast his mind was whirring. What happens when you die? God he was so, so, so, fucking terrified. All his senses gave out, last thing he felt was Louis' hand in his and then, everything went black.

--

in deep devotion

A fic by ifthat on AO3 | @lovehl on Tumblr | @omegalouis on Twitter

11k | Explicit | Tumblr post | Twitter post

With no signs of presenting at the age of sixteen, no official designation by age eighteen, Harry was no match for the line of Alpha suitors Louis attracted with his sweet, gravitating disposition and breathtaking beauty. His presence commanded attention. His movements were graceful, his skin tinged by the sun, his smile infectious, and his eyes the color of the sea.

--

You Were Always Mine

A fic by GoldenSunflouervol6 on AO3 | @sunflouervol6 on Twitter

6k | Explicit | Tumblr post | Twitter post

Prompt 45: A/B/O fic where Louis and Harry have a lot of mutual friends but they don’t get along (mostly Louis doesn’t like Harry). One day, Louis turns up on Harry’s doorstep covered in blood and asking for help. (Inspiration: Prompt #126 from the BLFF 2021).

--

give my heart a holiday

A fic by Ashisinlove on AO3 | @ashisinlove28 on Twitter

14k | Not Rated | Tumblr post | Twitter post

AU where Louis and someone else both like Harry but Harry obviously likes Louis and is oblivious to the other person with scenes like Harry’s sitting with his legs on the coffee table and the other person wants to walk across and Harry doesn’t see them, so they have to say excuse me, but when Louis wants to cross he doesn’t even have to say anything because Harry sits up, puts his feet down, and gives his undivided attention to Louis.

--

always tell the truth

A fic by anditsonlyforthebrave on AO3 | @HARRYSC1NEMA on Twitter

5k | Not Rated | Tumblr post | Twitter post

Harry is Louis' dentist and getting a wisdom tooth removed shouldn't be the end of the world.

--

Wait For Me

A fic by cherrygelb on AO3 | @cherrygelb on Twitter

17k | Explicit | Tumblr post | Twitter post

Moving to a new place always comes with a few challenges. For Harry, it’s trying to start over after his divorce, while still doing his best taking care of his son. Though just like every parent, he is not infallible, so some mistakes are bound to be made, settling into his new role as a single-dad. For his son, Davie, moving means he has to get used to all the changes happening in his life through no fault of his own. Discovering a secret passageway on their new property lets him form an unlikely friendship with the young man and his dog he finds on the other side. BLFF 2023, Prompt 391: Harry’s son gets very attached to Louis! Maybe they just randomly meet at first (possibly neighbors?) and then the kid just keeps running back to Louis without telling his dad.

--

Remember to give these fics kudos and comments, and spread their fic posts!

--

All roundups will be linked here:

Weeks 1-2 Roundup

Weeks 3-4 Roundup

Weeks 5-6 Roundup

Weeks 7-8 Roundup

Weeks 9-10 Roundup

Week 11 Roundup

[whizzochocolate]

hi hello, long time no see - or text i suppose.

it's been quite a while & i'd like to apologise for my sudden disappearance.

i isolate myself whenever i'm stressed. it's a terrible habit & even worse coping mechanism. 0/10 do not recommend.

there has been some good stuff happening in my life... such as visiting a friend & attending a show. the first big event i've been to since 2019. i did it completely on my own. from planning to attending to organising meet-ups with a group chat we had for it. it was so much fun & i'm really proud of myself. i came home the most exhausted i'd ever been lol.

but not everything has been lovely. i've been struggling with a lot of overstimulation recently. due to the event i ended up downloading different social media apps again to get in touch with people & it worked! we were a strong group of 36 but now that everything's over i feel like i've fallen back into a literal pit of doom.

twitter is like a live ticker for terrible events. you get 20 tweets on your timeline that you don't care about, mostly people complaining or reminders on how sick & twisted the world is. yet you're stuck reading through all of it.

tiktok is tiktok. what more do you want me to say? and instagram has turned out to have a terrible algorithm & is more of a newspaper to my friends' lives now than it is anything else.

i've spent so much time on these apps recently. i'm afraid it's finally been enough to affect my health again. not to mention how much i've been disliking the lack of sincerity & the overwhelming amount of unseriousness on the internet.

tumblr – specifically this account – was my safe haven when i was active back in july. it feels like the only social media app that still works for me because i'm allowed to be silly while simultaneously having the platform to write long texts such as this one & indulging in my favourite things without judgement.

i want to come back but i'm still too on edge to do so. i like to say i'm not addicted to my phone but addicted to curing my own boredom. just this last week i had almost 20 hours of youtube screen time & 10 on twitter. over a day. it's absolutely ridiculous & needs fixing.

i am someone who has spent & continues to spent most of their time alone. back when i was active on here i had successfully fought a lot of my thoughts & was pretty tuned into keeping my screen time low (still too high but 6 hours is better than 12).

i spiralled back & it happens. it's okay. it has happened in the past & i'll beat it again.

i'm planning on reading more books. my current read is a very good self-help book. right now i'm sitting across the lot of python books on my shelf that deserve a read. i've been writing, scripting, filming recently. things i haven't done properly in years. i go for walks. i want to get back into my video games & back to movies. i need to watch more spooky stuff before halloween (my favourite season even if it isn't all that celebrated where i'm from).

as you can tell: i'm working on it.

i'm on a mission to delete a bunch of stuff off my phone. tonight & tomorrow. keeping tumblr this time.

i've seen all of your sweet ask share games i've been getting & i appreciate every single one. just the way i appreciate everything on this app. i'm so sorry to everyone i've grown closer to on here & have abandoned in this spiral (special mention here: @memorial-sewer & @knoxoverstreet16 ). i'll get back to everyone very soon!!!

enough of the yap. thanks for reading :)

see you by the end of the week.

- gray ☻

[gaelic-symphony]

In relation to the anon who shared the Christmas tree misinformation on tiktok,

Tik tok is the worst for antisemitism. I would say it's worse than tumblr and Instagram.

I literally saw a video of some woman saying that some world organization faked the NYC nye ball drop broadcast as there was a pro Palestinian rally going on around the same time and so many people attended that there was no way time Square had that many people attending.

She then went on to elaborate that the reason as to why some world organization would fake it is because they want to hide the effect that the rallies are having on the war and keep up the appearance of Palestine losing.

5k likes and literally every comment agreed with her.

You said you were glad you weren't on tik tok so this is another reason to avoid it like the plague.

Also tik toks algorithm is based off of anger so will show you videos that you will disagree with to keep you on the platform. Took me 2 weeks on consistently going, not interested on antisemitic videos as well as blocking those who made them to not get antisemitic videos on my feed regularly. I still get them occasionally but it's better than them being every 5 or so videos.

It's like all of TikTok is competing to see who can make the most virulent antisemitic conspiracy theory 💀

[ne0nwithazero]

With the recent news in regards to Tumblr, it's just really disappointing but I guess also expected that things would turn out like this

I predict that nothing much will be changing, website layout-wise, but the bot problem will get consistently worse, moderation will find ways to get worse, and the website either becomes inhospitable or by some miracle, gets some sudden surge in popularity that will cause the staff to try and invest in it again

Regardless of the outcome, I don't really have much hope either way

Tumblr and Twitter are my only active social media as both have the only format I'm able to tolerate using (With such intense curating on Twitter that I'm aggressively making sure my timeline only shows things I Want to see and any post out of line gets send to the void LOL)

Instagram is one of the most miserable platforms for me to use, I feel like I use mine out of obligation to remind people that I exist

Tiktok is an Absolutely Not, I am not subjecting my mind to that, and I do have a Bluesky, but I can't really bring myself to use it since it's basically Twitter but without my follower base and harder to curate

My Neocities has felt the most rewarding because it's allowed me to enjoy my work regardless of how many people see it (And somehow people have still come across it so that's fun!)

But it can get lonely because I do understand the learning curve to learning HTML/CSS can be difficult for people (But so worth it, I swear!!)

Social media just feels so hostile nowadays to anyone who just isn't interested in the fast-paced TikTok format that everything wants to adopt nowadays...

Tumblr is the only place where people actively engage with and respond to what I post, so it's disheartening to hear all that's happening. Other social media just isn't rewarding and it overall just brings so much unneeded stress that my RSD absolutely does not need

This may age poorly, but right now, my Discord server is the best way for keeping up with my work as I post stuff there way earlier than anywhere else (Or sometimes only post to the server and nowhere else)

Here's hoping for a better internet...

[the-kitsune-queen]

I’ve barely posted a thing in the past two years and my follower count has not changed

You lot just forgot I existed didn’t you 😝

I’ve been thinking of slithering my way back to Tumblr lately anyway. Tiktok is so loud, Instagram makes me compare myself with influencers, or worse, my own friends, and who really posts on Facebook anymore??

And what better outlet for my neurodivergent ramblings and niche hyperfixations than the good ol’ Tumbly dot com?

[bugswarm]

The thing I find hilarious and sad about tumblr making all of these changes to be more like other social media sites is that the more they do that, the less I use tumblr and just go use those other social media sites. Like, if I wanted an algorithmic video stream when I scroll on a video, I would go on tiktok. If I wanted to see no icons that tell me who reposted/reblogged what, I would go on Twitter. If I wanted the double click to like a post function from instagram, I would go on instagram. If I wanted longform discussion of topics, I would go on reddit. The whole reason to use tumblr is for microblogging. No other even semi-mainstream social media does microblogging. But instead of trying to cater towards microblogging and really get good at it and make the site useable and give people a reason to come here instead of other sites, they just... keep trying to make a microblogging site into the other sites. And I keep finding myself on tiktok and reddit way more than tumblr because why bother coming to tumblr when its just slowly becoming a worse version of 4 different sites with wildly different usecases? Ive been on tumblr consistently since 2010. Its been bought multiple times. Porn got banned and most people left. Some many changes have happened. And ive been here for all of that. I don't want to see it fail. I don't want to leave it. But the more it tries to change into a conglomeration of other social media sites, the more there isn't a point in coming to tumblr when those other social media sites all do their own functions better than tumblr will ever be able to imitate.

[betwixtbeasts]

— betwixtbeasts

Hello! I'm Bellamy Novak (they/them), also known as betwixtbeasts. I write mostly on 18+ erotica and high-heat romance, with a variety of pairings, though my characters are usually queer.

I'm also in my early thirties, acespec, bisexual, genderfluid, and non-binary. I'm a college student, and I have adhd, depression, chronic pain, and social anxiety. When I'm not busy writing or studying, I'm usually reading or gaming on my xbox or switch.

my hope is to make some new friends, find more to read, and also learn more about writing here on tumblr. and maybe promote my own work a little, as well!

a note; this tumblr may contain nsfw text and/or images. if you are under 18 or feel uncomfortable with that kind of content, please do not follow. thank you!

— links

twitter // instagram // tiktok // wattpad // ao3 // patreon // ko-fi

— works in progress

The Dragon Queen

To protect her people, Aellys must marry the dragonking, unite their empires, and defeat the leviathans who would rule them all.

Dragons and humans have been mortal enemies for as long as anyone can remember, and Queen Aellys hates dragons more than most. They're monsters who deserve nothing but death and destruction, and she will personally hunt down every dragon that sets foot on her land or wing in her sky.

But something worse is coming.

The leviathans are slowly emerging from the sea, great beasts of legend who once had aspirations to take over the world. Only when humans and dragons united were they defeated before. And it is only when humans and dragons unite that they will be defeated once again.

Aellys doesn't want to marry. She has little interest in men, and even less in dragons, but she will do whatever it takes to save her people

As she joins the dragoncourt, she finds King Roaneth is nothing like she expected.

But the leviathans are rising, and time is running out.

Requiem

A hundred years ago, vampires, witches, and werewolves emerged from hiding, revealing themselves to humanity. Soon after that, they took over the world. Forming the Triumvirate, the three ruling races, humans became second-class citizens, serving their supernatural betters.

Oliver is one of the eclipsed, illegally hidden by his parents at birth so that he could exist outside their restrictive rule. Living in society, but apart from it, he steals what he needs and hides during the night. It's a hard life, but one he wouldn't trade for the world.

Until he is caught.

The punishment for not registering yourself at the age of eighteen is harsh, and Oliver is auctioned off to the vampiric elite as a bloodslave. Won by Kazimir, one-third of the Trinity who rule the country. As Oliver is introduced to the decadent world of triumvirate society, he’ll learn nothing is as he thought

[blueberry-lemon]

[blog thoughts] artists can't catch a break lately

The past 12 months have not been a fun time for professional artists. Whether you're working as a freelancer or trying to get your portfolio out there for employers, every few months seems to bring a new infuriating obstacle for your future career.

Let's review the past year:

1. Ever-shifting tweaks to social media algorithms that are opaque and seem to punish posts that link to to external sites (stores, crowdfunding).

2. An attempt by crypto-bros to lure artists (and consumers) into commoditizing art into crypto tokens that exist solely to fluctuate in value and be flipped for profit.

3. The emergence of popular AI-powered art generators that learn by being fed hundreds of samples of stolen artwork. People found them hilarious at first (DALL-E memes) but they're quickly getting much, much better and are being used to intentionally emulate living artists.

4. Massive layoffs and cancellations for various TV animation studios as CEOs struggle to see streaming services as profitable.

5. Major social media platforms, which have become integral to making a living as a freelancer, being completely sabotaged by the decision-making of their owners. Notable with Instagram pivoting hard to short-form video, but now even more evident with the crumbling in trust at Twitter.

I think it is very easy for people who are outside of this world to shrug it off. Success on social media isn't a human right, obviously, and people "got by just fine" before these platforms existed. But let's be real, that's not gonna cut it.

The world of art, design, crafts, and independent work is much more competitive now than it ever was. Yeah, maybe a local freelancer in your town used to stand a chance selling their work for the holidays in 1998, but now every creator is competing with Amazon, Etsy, Target, and every other site and service that has online shopping and delivery. Consumers are, naturally, swayed by convenience. It's much easier to One-Click buy a print or pillow on Amazon than to even bother seeing what freelance artists have for sale.

It's also a constant competition for attention.

Yeah, your webcomic might have done pretty well in 2004 with a Paypal Donate button on its website and a few links of creator friends who share your affiliate link. Now, you're fighting in a sea of thousands of comics. Even worse, you're not just competing with fellow webcomics. You're competing with Marvel and DC's digital comic apps, you're competing against Netflix and every other streaming service, and you're competing with TikTok, Instagram, memes, video games, everything a person could be doing with their free time.

There's really only like three ways you can succeed as a freelance creator these days.

1. Get funded or supported by some sort of person or group or publisher who has wealth to spend.

2. Amass as many followers and views as possible.

3. Cultivate a small subset of your following that is passionate enough to be willing to spend money on you.

And these things are really not easy. If Twitter folds as a company (or becomes nearly unusable) it'll be even harder. Tumblr allows for virality, but doesn't allow for as much ownership over your posts or for easy networking and socializing with your peers. Cohost implicitly discourages virality for a more personal blog. Instagram has strict rules about content (must be image or video) and strict rules about linking to external sites. TikTok and Youtube, obviously, require video-producing and video-editing.

This doesn't mean hope is lost. This doesn't mean that we should give into despair.

It just means that we need to adapt. We need to post across multiple platforms, and tweak how we post to fit the culture of that platform. We need to stand against art theft and art as a speculative financial asset.

Most importantly, we need to lift each other up. When you love someone's work, let them know. Let the world know. If you've got money to spare, check out your favorite creators' Patreons or digital tip jars.

We don't know if we can depend on the virality of massive platforms anymore. We might return to the old, fragmented web, like boats pushed to distant islands. We'll need to take things into our own hands.

Make art, make rent, help others do the same.

[hiimawarish]

I managed to annoy my friends already. They're already sick of me crying and whining about watching Nanami die tomorrow, and I can tell you that that is not helping me feel any better.

I wish they understood that, in this fandom, people seldom tag spoilers so it's not like blacklisting those tags will keep me safe. I wish they understood that I would rather sit through it myself and agonize by my own hand than have a jumpscare while I scroll on Tumblr. Or Twitter. Or Even TikTok or Instagram.

I also wished they understood that bringing up that now Gojo is also dead doesn't make me feel any better. If anything, it makes me feel worse. Yes, I know Gojo died in the manga two months ago. I know. I was crying at 2am when that happened. But that doesn't make Nanami's death any less painful. It doesn't make my watching it animated any less agonizingly painful.

So yeah. I'm here feeling like a fool because I really annoyed my friends into ignoring me whenever I speak about how terrified I am for tomorrow, and I also feel terrible because I need to let it out somehow but I can't. My mom is doing remote work today and she will not be understanding if she finds me crying about a fucking man that doesn't even exist. And I can't even speak to my friends because, apparently, I have already complained too much and they're sick of me.

[seakicker]

Miss Seakicker HI! 🦦 anon here, I just wanted to pop in and ask a question but before that;

How have you been? I’m loving the new theme and layout for your blog! I hope you’re drinking enough water and taking enough breaks. We can’t have Fertility archon Juju getting sick!

I started playing Tears of The Kingdom and there’s a place called Joju-u-u Shrine in the game (we almost had Juju Shrine!) I went bra shopping earlier (nothing spicy, just needed some new ones).

I’m not really sure how else to ask this but do you have any advice for when the insecurities about one’s body image start to get…loud? Like some days I’ll feel good in a pair of pants because i fill them out really well but then there’ll be bad days like the time i spent 2 hours on an online site buying a kazuha cosplay because I didn’t want to admit i was a size bigger. (I bought the bigger size in the end and that one fits like a glove)

Feel free to answer this whenever you like! - 🦦 anon

HELLOOOOOOO SWEETHEART GAH i’m very late in answering this because i’m just tryin to find the motivation to use tumblr consistently again, but i was thinking about this ask again today bc i’ve had it in drafts since you sent it to me. i’ve been working a ton but i’m alright; drinking water and working on eating healthier for myself 😊❤️ what kinds of things do you think we’d do at a juju shrine… 🤔👀

as far as the insecurity part goes, honestly i’ve found that staying off the internet entirely on days where you’re maybe feeling a little worse about yourself is extremely beneficial. with how prevalent bodychecking and diet culture BS are on tiktok and instagram in particular and with how advanced filters and photoshop have gotten (remember when people considered it impossible to use filters/edits on videos? good times), taking a bit of a detox and staving off of doomscrolling rlly go a long way on days where i may not be feeling the best about myself. like, i’ve seen people recommend eating an entire block of cream cheese under the guise of health because keto influencers love spinning nonsense and trying to make you genuinely believe that an entire brick of cream cheese is inherently better for you than a single piece of bread for toast, lol.

at any rate, i think it’s good to remind yourself that you are real and your body is real and not everything you see online is real— most people are able to (rightfully) internalize that they shouldn’t compare their bodies to digital art or anime characters, and i think that mentally should extend to just about any 3D picture you see online— while i’m not inherently anti-photoshop or anything like that, i DO think it’s harmful for these people who participate in photoshopping their pics or using filters to pass it off as (A) all natural genetics and/or (B) simple diet and exercise because no amount of genetics, diet, or exercise are gonna give you a 13 inch waist and 42 inch hips. even pictures of real life people can be twisted to the point where they might as well be fictitious, but your body is real when you look at it and real in anything and everything you wear, so why worry about how it stacks up compared to a picture that’s certainly edited?

i first read this on pinterest in like high school but it’s honestly sound advice and something that’s really stuck with me— we don’t get mad at our feet for being too small/too big/too wide/too narrow when shoes don’t fit, we just buy a different size— shouldn’t the same idea extend to all our clothes? our bodies aren’t made to fit clothes, clothes are made to fit our bodies— and buying a bigger cosplay to fit you better isn’t a fault of yours nor your body’s. you got this ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️