#it is‚ however‚ mortifying

[scrambled-eggsed]

a tattoo artist just put a SUUUUUPER low price on a flash i really want but idk if i should get it before having to go to [REDACTED] bc A. money B. healing time?? C. i also want to get my ears pierced at some point so again money:( D. idek if there are appointments available at the EXTREMELY LIMITED TIME WINDOW I HAVE

[citrus-moonlight]

As I often do, I've seen a few posts going around lately lamenting the lack of interaction with fanfiction/fanart here on Tumblr as well as AO3, but after reading a particular comment last night I just need to say this:

If someone tells you that the lack of response to sharing their writing is making them feel so upset that they're thinking of quitting writing altogether, don't tell them that's not a good mindset to have and they should just have fun with it and write for themselves. (have you just tried not being sad? you'll feel so much better!)

Even if you're a writer who felt that way once upon a time but then you changed your mindset so that you don't rely on others' feedback for validation and now you're so much happier, that's not helpful. Because that's obviously not what the person who is feeling sad and defeated is able to do right now, and for most writers/creators that's never going to be possible.

And it shouldn't have to be.

Especially here. Especially fanfiction.

Fanfiction is something that's created because someone loves something and wants to share it with others who love the same thing. And this is specifically a fandom space, somewhere that is supposed to be a community where discussion and dialogue can and is encouraged to happen between the people who write and the people who read. So when there's radio silence when you share something in this kind of space, do you really not see how that would be discouraging?

Because of course I write for myself - I would never get anything down on the page if I didn't - but I share because ultimately I want someone else out there to read what I wrote, and with any luck, to get some joy out of it. But if no one tells me they did, how am I supposed to know? As far as I know I've just been yelling into the void. As far as I know, all that work wasn't worth it.

A metaphor I've seen as an example is that it would be like having someone invite you over and cooking an entire delicious, heartfelt meal, you eat it all without saying anything, and then just leave. Do you not see how that would be upsetting?

We put so much of ourselves into what we write, bits of our hearts and souls and the things that we love and are exploring and are interested in or confused about. It's such a vulnerable thing to share something you've created, so when you tell someone that they shouldn't care if someone else reads what they wrote or tells them that they liked it, you're dismissing a very real and valid experience for so many creators out there.

Because regardless of how slow or fast a writer is, or how big or small their fandom is, it's still hard and takes time and energy and dedication and love - all of it in between our day to day lives from the mundanities to the heartbreaks - to even get something to the point where we're comfortable sharing.

Now, I know that not everyone thinks that writers are silly or selfish or entitled when they ask for feedback. Before I started writing again after many, many years, the main reason I didn't really comment on fics very often wasn't because I didn't think that the authors deserved feedback, it was more that I didn't really think that it would matter. That my comments would just be noted - if read at all - and brushed aside and then they would continue on about their day.

I could not have possible been more wrong. You might think you're just one person and it's just one comment but it's amazing how it can turn a day (or week, or month) around. How it can encourage someone to finish a story, or make a connection they'd been struggling with, or even just manage to add 500 words to a WIP. It is truly incredible to hear that someone loved something I wrote, and if you've ever commented on or reblogged one of my fics, please know that it truly means the world to me.

I've gone through a rough time with all of this lately myself, but I'm doing a bit better now (for the moment), so I just wanted to say this, in part to remind myself when it inevitably gets hard again:

If you're reading this, whether you're a friend or you've never seen me on your dash and never will again: I'm sorry it hurts right now. I'm sorry you feel discouraged and lonely, that it doesn't feel like it's worth it anymore, that you're struggling to find a reason to continue.

But I desperately hope that you keep writing. I hope you keep sharing. You're worth it. I know it's hard, and if you don't want to and you're just tired of the cycle of giving so much of yourself and getting so little in return, I understand that, too. It's ok to be in your feelings about it, it's ok to feel drained by it, and even though knowing you're not alone in your experience doesn't change anything and it still sucks, it's normal and valid and there's nothing wrong with you feeling the way that you do.

But I hope that you are able to find the joy in it again, because you deserve it. ❤️

[espurr-roba]

Part two of the Brain name saga with the Missing Link crew >:3

Bonus, elsewhere:

"what do you MEAN i'm in history books??????"

(shoutout to @sir-cookieton for the blaine tags from the first part, I'm obsessed with this headcanon now lmaoo)

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Because the bedsheet ask was so random, I have another random ask…

When you wash cups, do you let them air dry or dry them with a towel…

How did 2024 get me to this point?

Now, listen up, maggots. Picture this:

There you are, posed in front of the sink (no dishwashers please, I'm too broke to know how dishwashers work, I've only read about them in Drarry fanfics). You stand there, and wipe the sweat from your forehead with the back of your hand.

Your cup, that you drank tea from but it was actually spiked with alcohol because your third cousin gossiped about your sister's husband to her mother-in-law and you're the go-between, is in your hand. You have just washed it.

The drops of water glisten in the noon sun. You wonder, briefly, why adulthood has you drinking before 1 pm. Then you brush that thought away like you did your sweat. Some things are best ignored.

What is important is the cup. You look at it, so wet and glistening and ready for you, and you wonder how to do it justice. Should you take the towel and gently rub it until it's dry and clean? Surely you should! You look around for the towel.

There hangs the towel, on the hook by the sink. It is coarse, and off-white, like eggified precome. Have you been reading too much fanfiction? No. Anyway, you reach for the towel, but pause midway.

The towel has been hanging there, moist from the last rubbing, fermented with bacteria and protozoans that yearn to feel its wetness and consume it. The fungi have not arrived yet, you take care to wash the towel enough for that. Or do you?

You hesitate, you do not remember the last time you washed the towel. Aftercare is a lost art, fading away like handweaving and ironworking and the knowledge that crumbled in Alexandria.

You look down at your darling cup, cradling so trustingly in the palm of your hand, still wet but not so much anymore, warming in the sunlight.

No, you decide. You will not sully your cup. You lay it aside to airdry, and cast one lingering glance at it before walking away.

The towel still remains on the hook, hanged for its crimes, left to its fate. Always to clean, never to be cleaned.

You have made the right choice. The cup will be pristine. The towel wilts in the noon sun, before hardening like plaster. A statue, a work of permanence, the mortification of the filth in flesh that the first ascetic Christians who settled in Ancient Rome preached.

All is well.

[borealopelta]

horrifying development in my education: i spend 4 hours per week looking at one of my profs like this

[flebus]

okkk this is my lamby my lambchop my special boy. his name is Ark (short for Archangel) (nobody calls him that) he thinks he's the digital messiah. he got kicked out of his influencer friendgroup for getting turbo canceled & he's six months in on a psychotic break about it. he's running a custom built OS that is so bogged down with incomprehensible cosmetic UI graphics it's hard to look at. he's on sheep HRT. he sucks really bad. i like him.

[possamble]

i feel like i need a transfem sensitivity reader at this point but i have nothing to offer as compensation lmfao

[anonymouspuzzler]

buckposting never stops. in my heart (text is from a post by lukewarm-beef-stew)

[Image ID/transcript under cut!]

[Image ID: A four-panel black-and-white comic of Puzz's OC Buck (a middle-aged, barrel-chested white man with a bushy mustache and balding hair, wearing a turtleneck and slacks).

The text, progressing from panels one through three, are from a tumblr post by lukewarm-beef-stew and reads: "being debilitatingly touch starved is so embarrassing tbh. like ooo look at me im so big and tough and strong unless someone hugs me and then i completely forget how to function. ooooo look even the slightest touch makes me hyperaware of my skin and i'm constantly daydreaming about being held. oooooo look i can't sleep without hugging a pillow and being buried under a weighted blanket bc im so lonely that it manifests as physical symptoms. like what??? im literally clinically unloved that's so CRINGE."

As the panels progress Buck goes from looking grouchily embarrassed in panel one, one hand in his pocket and the other resting on his temple while he looks off to the side; to mockingly gesturing with both hands in panel two; to slumped over with a lightly pained expression of resignation in panel three. In the last panel he is hugging his boyfriend, Davey (a middle-aged, lanky Black man with curly hair in a ponytail, a diagonal scar across his face and a thin mustache, wearing a loose tank-top and baggy shorts), tightly with a teary expression. Davey looks down at him with a warm, sympathetic grin, hugging him back and resting his chin on the top of Buck's head. End ID.]

[fluorescentbrains]

i am not immune to videos of beautiful women telling me about weird atrocities

[cephiius]

is there... a japanese yaoi game about noli me tangere ... ?

as a filipino who loves jose rizals works and respects him, but also a person who casually likes shounen ai ... i am EXTREMELY conflicted of the existence of this

[pochapal]

they're studying omelette route in undergrad english classes

[maraczeks]

+

[possumtailpark]

you're just discussing the relationships you have with men in your life and then the groupchat posts a link to lundy bancroft's why does he do that.............

[hella1975]

my sister is currently doing her nightly *douse myself in water for 5 mins despite it leaving PUDDLES EVERYWHERE BTW and then spend 20 mins applying imported skincare i spent all my money on* in SILENCE sans any form of music meanwhile she walked in on me having a party of one (1) at myself in the bathroom mirror to set it off of all things. it's a bit funny that we are related by blood

[snuuufi]

they need to invent a desire that doesn't feel so rotten

[finalset]

hilarious part is I literally don’t have problems attracting men my stupid ass just wants real love what is wrong with me