#like i'm struggling to write the hashtags

[askablindperson]

In what way does alt text serve as an accessibility tool for blind people? Do you use text to speech? I'm having trouble imagining that. I suppose I'm in general not understanding how a blind person might use Tumblr, but I'm particularly interested in the function of alt text.

In short, yes. We use text to speech (among other access technology like braille displays) very frequently to navigate online spaces. Text to speech software specifically designed for blind people are called screen readers, and when use on computers, they enable us to navigate the entire interface using the keyboard instead of the mouse And hear everything on screen, as long as those things are accessible. The same applies for touchscreens on smart phones and tablets, just instead of using keyboard commands, it alters the way touch affect the screen so we hear what we touch before anything actually gets activated. That part is hard to explain via text, but you should be able to find many videos online of blind people demonstrating how they use their phones.

As you may be able to guess, images are not exactly going to be accessible for text to speech software. Blindness screen readers are getting better and better at incorporating OCR (optical character recognition) software to help pick up text in images, and rudimentary AI driven Image descriptions, but they are still nowhere near enough for us to get an accurate understanding of what is in an image the majority of the time without a human made description.

Now I’m not exactly a programmer so the terminology I use might get kind of wonky here, but when you use the alt text feature, the text you write as an image description effectively gets sort of embedded onto the image itself. That way, when a screen reader lands on that image, Instead of having to employ artificial intelligences to make mediocre guesses, it will read out exactly the text you wrote in the alt text section.

Not only that, but the majority of blind people are not completely blind, and usually still have at least some amount of residual vision. So there are many blind people who may not have access to a screen reader, but who may struggle to visually interpret what is in an image without being able to click the alt text button and read a description. Plus, it benefits folks with visual processing disorders as well, where their visual acuity might be fine, but their brain’s ability to interpret what they are seeing is not. Being able to click the alt text icon in the corner of an image and read a text description Can help that person better interpret what they are seeing in the image, too.

Granted, in most cases, typing out an image description in the body of the post instead of in the alt text section often works just as well, so that is also an option. But there are many other posts in my image descriptions tag that go over the pros and cons of that, so I won’t digress into it here.

Utilizing alt text or any kind of image description on all of your social media posts that contain images is single-handedly one of the simplest and most effective things you can do to directly help blind people, even if you don’t know any blind people, and even if you think no blind people would be following you. There are more of us than you might think, and we have just as many varied interests and hobbies and beliefs as everyone else, so where there are people, there will also be blind people. We don’t only hang out in spaces to talk exclusively about blindness, we also hang out in fashion Facebook groups and tech subreddits and political Twitter hashtags and gaming related discord servers and on and on and on. Even if you don’t think a blind person would follow you, You can’t know that for sure, and adding image descriptions is one of the most effective ways to accommodate us even if you don’t know we’re there.

I hope this helps give you a clearer understanding of just how important alt text and image descriptions as a whole are for blind accessibility, and how we make use of those tools when they are available.

[befemininenow]

This is who you really are and you're ready to move forward with your true interests. (P.S. If you're a trans girl and are struggling to accept your shifting interest in men, this may be for you. However, this is not meant to be a "sissy caption". I don't like doing that kind of shit.)

Late Flashback Friday post... posted on a Sunday. Anyways, I had this caption finished just today and I wanted to post it for a reason: straight trans women exist. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much acknowledgement to them either because they are outnumbered by trans girls of other sexualities or because straight trans girls assimilate with the rest of society. The latter reason isn't without problems either as they also face sexism and transphobia from cisgender men who view them as "crossdressers", "traps", or "sissies"*. Then, there's the chasers who only go out with them to fulfill their "dirty little secret".

As of me writing this, I'm so glad there's a subreddit of straight trans girls who support one another and talk about their problems and solutions as embracing your shifting sexuality and interests can be challenging for anyone transitioning. The caption here isn't meant to persuade you into a straight girl who lusts for men. It's meant to support those trans girls who are realizing they're only attracted to men, but are afraid to accept their change. If your sexuality suddenly shifts, don't be afraid to accept it. Try it out and find out if it feels so right for you. It's part of your journey of transitioning into a woman. At the end of the day, straight trans women are also women and should be respected as such.

*P.S. To the sissies viewing this caption and reading this post, you are welcome to like this post and reblog it if your like. However, I ask you to please refrain from using hashtags like "feminine sissy", "faggot sissy". "cocksucker sissy" or whatever explicit tags you guys use to share with other blogs. Straight trans girls are not gay or lesbians, much less a sissy. They do not automatically turn into girls after having action with men. They have always been women inside.

[bones4thecats]

What Are They Like With A Rafiki! S/O?

Type of Writing: #7 - Poll Result Characters: Cater Diamond, Leona Kingscholar, and Lilia Vanrouge Name: What Are They Like With A Rafiki! S/O? Original Poll Link: Here

A/N: My hands are currently dying! I'm making the special stuff for the 19th! Also, I will not be posting that much that day, since I'll be out of my home for the day to spend time with my family. Anyways, I do hope you enjoy this!

✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅

✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅

💎 Cater first heard about you from Ace and Deuce, and he had to admit, you sounded quite entertaining

💎 You were noted by many to be quite nutty-sounding, as, whenever someone came to you for advice, you'd offer it in tounges. Words sewn together for the listener to figure out for themselves

💎 Even he'd have to admit, for someone who uses hashtags and quite a bit of social-media related lingoes in his sentences, your words were confusing!

💎 But, once he got past of all of that and he saw how tame you were with maintaining this 'Circle of Life', which he guessed you meant by how things chase others and whatnot, Cater grew to start admiring you

💎 The reason you used those metaphors to drive many insane was because it taught them to think and learn that wisdom is not something you can just grab, but it's something that one must learn, with difficulty, after all, as you say;

" Nothing is easy to obtain when it comes to wisdom. Wisdom is something that pushes and pulls on your struggles and weak spots like children playing tug-of-war in elementary school. "

💎 Cater loves to mess around with people, especially when you come into the mix and make them not only annoyed, but confused beyond belief

💎 It also makes him laugh when you play chess with your old friend, Leona. You're basically the only person that he knows that can beat him in the strategic game

💎 He also adores watching you draw things using some random items, such as fruits and flower's petals/colorings to make one colorful

💎 Your boyfriend loves posting stuff on his Magicam, and ever since he noticed how amazing you were with both magic and hand-to-hand combat, he would take videos of you training in Savanaclaw and post them with a classic Cater-style hashtag

" Oh, my lovely S/O is so talented with that bakora stick! " #caycay'sdarlings/o #caycay'ss/otraining #caycay'saveragedaywiths/o

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✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅

🦁 Leona and you grew up together

🦁 While his ego blocked him from doing so, deep down in his heart, he admired how talented you were with magic and your words

🦁 He also found it entertaining watching you speak with your words twisted around to confuse everyone, including his older brother, Falena, and his wife

🦁 Leona first became interested in you when you began to study the darker-parts of magic, the stuff that your family and ancestor had banned from being learned in your home

🦁 Due to your flaw in 'rule-remembering', you were transferred into Night Raven College, just after your first years at Royal Sword Academy and NRC respectively

🦁 People from all different dorms could tell there was some tension between the Savanaclaw housewarden and the vice-housewarden, and Ruggie used this to his advantage a lot

🦁 Or, he attempted too...

🦁 The two of you are very strong apart, but when you come together against something, those you have seen you fight know that that person better just hand in the towel, unless they want to get their asses handed to them

🦁 Leona loves watching you use your wisdom to your advantage, teaching your under-classman about the value of knowledge and acceptance of all types of magic

🦁 He also adores watching you train with a new member of Savanaclaw each year, using your mandrill-beastman abilities to leap into the trees to hide and plan you next attack or use your bakora stick to whoop them into place

🦁 By the way, he plays chess with you whenever he maintains energy, and he gets very grumpy when you win. And by that, I mean he doesn't let you get up from your napping-sessions for two hours

✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅

✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋄✧��⋆⋅⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋆⋄✧⋄⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅

🦇 You were the mentor of the Kingscholar brothers, so, when you walked up to their group of four Night Raven College students when visiting the beastman's homeland for the Tamashina-Mina Event, he gained an extreme interest in you

🦇 He noticed that Leona was appearing annoyed, but in his eyes he held a glint of adoration and joy at seeing you so joyous at meeting his so-called 'friends'

🦇 When he asked Leona about you after you left, he learned everything

🦇 You and your friend Kifaji were the maintainers of their home and helped raise the boys whenever their parents were busy with their royal duties, and you had been the main caretaker of the younger of the boys

🦇 From teaching him about magic styles to the many ways to fight hand-to-hand, you were the person who Leona was closest to, and Lilia had to admit, he was smitten by your personality from the start

🦇 Despite your age, you were a very well-versed person. You were fairly eccentric and happy-go-lucky, and the way you spoke made everyone who heard you confused

🦇 All except Lilia, who understood exactly what you were saying

🦇 Lilia and you quickly bonded and began spending a lot of time together, and when he went to perform his part of the event, you gave him a big thumbs up, showing your support full-on

🦇 Leona wasn't very happy to see his only parental figure being close to such a 'fae-dickhead', but, he had to admit, seeing you so happy and carefree with the guy made him feel slightly good

🦇 Before he had left to go back to his adoptive son(s), he gave you his number, winking at you and slyly telling you to message him sometime

🦇 He has never felt thing young in years!

[genericpuff]

I caught up with LR and I love Hades freaking out over liking Persephone and trying to find reasons to stop but it makes me really sad because he's so unused to happiness and kindness that he freaks out over the first signs of both. Part of what drew me to LO at first was the journey Hades went through, going from miserable and pushing away anything that made him happy to accepting that he can be happy and it's okay. I'm glad that's showing up here as well and I can't wait to see where you take Hades' character growth.

I really love all the characters in LR. More fleshed out than LO, more accurate to the myths and character stereotypes they fall into. Hera certainly acts more like royalty, Hestia seems genuinely kind, stuff like that. I like the story line better and I like how Apollo is characterized so far. The build up in Kore and Apollo's relationship is done so much better than LO and I can't wait to see where you take the relationship.

It looks like I can leave comments on Dillyhub. Is that where you prefer to get positive feed back or do you prefer asks like this?

Aw thanks so much! Writing Hades is definitely fun, I know all too well that feeling of arguing with your own emotions, especially when it's concerning matters of the heart, so writing Hades' own struggles and perspectives in that way is very entertaining. I also personally just love writing male characters with Big Feelings(tm) regardless of whether or not they're capable of communicating those feelings (Hades definitely isn't there yet LOL) Guys are capable of feeling giddy / bashful / emotionally overwhelmed too and I feel like we don't see that enough in a lot of romance stories these days. He's got a lot to unpack but we're taking it slow so that neither he nor the audience get overwhelmed LOL All in due time though !!!

To answer your closing question - I'm usually checking notifications at least a couple times a day on Tumblr, reddit, and Dillyhub, so honestly, where you want to leave feedback or your theories / ideas / speculation / etc. is completely up to you! There are a variety of ways to interact with my work, either directly through the comment section on either Tumblr or DH, or indirectly through the #lore rekindled hashtag or the /r/LoreOlympusRekindled subreddit ! (which exists now thanks to some very cool fans!) We also have a community Discord if you want to discuss your theories 'n such with other readers 🤗💖

[reidsaurora]

You Are Invited To:

It's time!!! It's officially my third birthday celebration, so I think that makes it a tradition officially 🥹

As always, I wanna say ahead of time, thank you to all the friends and mutuals have sent me things in the mail or even just sent me a happy birthday message. You guys truly are the sweetest people and the greatest gift I could ever receive 💗

Anywho, now that I'm done rambling, onto the challenge!

The Concept/Rules:

So, this is very heavily inspired by this challenge by @carolmunson that I totally meant to write a fic for but it never got finished bc ✨️writer's block✨️ lol

Anyway, the concept is:

I'm going to give you some phrases and props that you must include in the fic.

If you can't fit them all in, it's totally fine! I know I'm including kind of a lot!

These items and phrases can be depicted however you'd like! Whether they're just mentioned in passing or if they have a deeper meaning is totally up to you!

Your fic can be however long or short you want, however fluffy or angsty you want, with any Criminal Minds muse(s) you want!

Whether it's Character x Character or Character x Reader is totally up to you!

It doesn't have to be birthday themed, but can be if you'd like since this is all in celebration of my birthday!

There will be prizes! More to come on that later 🫶🏻

I will start taking submissions on August 1st, and submissions will close August 31st! If for some reason, you find yourself struggling with the deadline (girl me 2), just send me a DM!

Make sure to tag me in the fic and use the hashtag #reidsaurorabdaychallenge so i can see it!

The Props:

A Bottle of Wine/Champagne, or a Wine/Champagne glass

Candle

Card (any type! birthday card, credit card, playing card, etc)

Piece of Cake (can be the item or as a phrase!)

The Prompts:

"Hand it over."

"Are you happy now?" "Very."

"Best. Day. Ever!"

The Prizes:

First Place - a personalized fic written by me OR a fic of your own beta read by me! (up to 5K words)

Second Place - a fic of your own beta read by me! (up to 3K words)

Third Place - icon pack with a Criminal Minds character + episode of your choice!

The Thank Yous:

As always, I could never get through the year without my besties and mutuals, so to go without tagging you guys would be a shame!

@dungeons-are-too-cold @rupsmorge @reidsbookclub @sadgirlml @writer-in-theory @serenity-lattes @reidselle @broken-stardust @gay-prentiss so many others! I love you all so so much, thank you all for being the absolute best people in the world 🫶🏻💗

[sarahjtv]

My Hero Academia Chapter 430 Spoiler Talk: The True End of An Era (Part 1)

This is it, the final chapter of My Hero Academia. A series 10 years in the making has finally ended. It's really insane to think about. This series has done so much good for a lot of people despite the fandom's flaws. MHA was both people's introduction and even reintroduction to manga and anime. It's bittersweet to write about the final chapter, but I will do the best I can to honor the series I love. This is going to be a very long one. Also a lot of screaming.

Now, please, if you want to wait until the official translation releases on Sunday, PLEASE TURN AWAY NOW! Save this post and come back to it on Sunday when everyone has read the chapter. I will be using spoiler hashtags for this, so if you end up spoiling yourself because of my post, that's on you. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING:

Here we go. We first start off with our Final Color page for the series! It's a gorgeous double-page spread featuring all Class 1-A (Now 2-A) kids that we've grown to know and love throughout the past 10 years including Shinso, Aizawa, and All Might of course. Izuku Midoriya AKA Deku, our beautiful MC who I will miss with all my heart and soul 💚, is leading the page and his friends towards the bright future they all fought so hard for. It's a wonderful way to conclude the series and I will make sure to get a high-quality version of it to use as my computer wallpaper.

The final chapter is titled "My Hero Academia" because of course it is 🥹. This was truly My Hero Academia.

OH FUCK WE GET A TIME SKIP TO THE FUTURE SOMEONE HOLD ME 😭

KOTA IS THE THE UA HERO COURSE AND IZUKU IS HIS TEACHER IT'S SO PERFECT FOR HIM!!!💚😭 I BET MR. AIZAWA AND ALL MIGHT WERE BIG INSPIRATIONS FOR HIM TO TAKE THIS PATH 🥹

IT'S ONLY BEEN 1 PAGE AND THIS CHAPTER HAS ALREADY ENDED ME IT'S SO JOEVER FUCK

BTW, Deku is saying a more optimistic version of the "Not all men are born equal" narration he told us at the beginning of the very first chapter of the series. Very nice way of bringing the story full circle.

Ok, the next 2 pages have a lot of things in them, so I'm going to try to sum it up as best as I can:

Izuku finally came home to see his mother, Inko, at their apartment and she looks happy 💚

All Might is out of his wheelchair and helping old Gran Tarino walk with a cane (how he still survived I have no idea).

All the kids running in their gym clothes in what looks like their second Sports Festival (god, what I'd give to see that in its entirety).

Miriko is very happy with her new prosthetics including one that looks like the Bullet Bill from the Super Mario series.

The kids struggling taking either mid-terms or finals written tests. Bakugo is still using his left arm to write, so I assume his right arm is still barely usable.

Shoji and Kota shaking some prominent mutant's hand I assume from their contributions towards the war.

Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods working together as usual!

Tokoyama meeting up with Hawks.

KOTA AND ERI HOLDING HANDS AND GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL WITH MADALAY'S APPROVAL THAT'S SO FUCKING CUTE 😭❤️🤍

Endeavor being followed around by his sidekicks and Hawks.

Aizawa and Present Mic visiting what I bet is Shirakumo's grave 😢

The fan translator says that the kids finally meet Melissa from the first MHA movie! We don't see her face, but I'll take what they say is truth.

Spinner's book selling and Compress reading it in jail.

Bakugo going through rehab to get his right arm back!

Deku and Ochako spending time in the snow.

OUR KID'S GRADUATION OH MY GOD MOST OF THEM ARE 18 THERE AND THEY'RE OFFICIALLY PRO HEROES I'M SO FUCKING PROUD OF THEM 😭❤️ Interesting though since none of them really look much older except for maybe Iida and Shoto, but it's hard to tell from the scans. And Bakugo and Monoma keep the crazy graduation tradition of blowing things up as their goodbye present to UA!

And finally, we see the embers of One For All slowly fade away in Izuku's hand until there's nothing left...

Oh, god. The time skip takes place 8 YEARS in the future geez. So, if this is 8 years since we left the kids in Class 2-A, they would be about 24-25 years old now damn. We're actually going to see them all grown up that's crazy.

The next page shows us a middle school class very similar to how we saw Deku and Bakugo at the very beginning of the series. The teacher asks them what they want to do in the future and we get to see small glimpses of other characters now such as Hatsume who has her own lab (go, girl!), and LaBrava who seems to own a company with Gentle!

The main kid we focus on in this class is Dai, the young boy with dark blue-ish dotted hair who was looking at the All Might statue in Kamino before the first war started (I don't blame you for forgetting; I had to look him up too). He says he wants to be a hero, but everyone else says that his Quirk is too weak for him to become one. Despite that, he still goes to the All Might statue (which sounds like has been rebuilt) for inspiration. Sound familiar? 🤔

Next we see Shoji accepting a prestigious award for his efforts in resolving mutant prejudice-based incidents! He looks SO BULKY HOLY SHIT DUDE 😳 And his hair got longer to the point of putting it in a ponytail! Also, Koda and the glue Class 1-B kid (I think his name is Bondo or something) are there to congratulate him too! I bet you that Shoji making it to the top 10 in the final popularity poll helped Horikoshi give him a little spotlight and it's a good way of following up on what happened after his bout in the Final War.

Next up, we see Ochako, Tsuyu, Momo, and Iida visiting schools across the country! Ochako has also set up a Quirk Counseling expansion project that's become one of the most essential things in the future society!

Ok:

1: It's hard to tell with Iida, but the girls all look slightly older especially with their hair being a little longer.

2: Their future costumes look great! It's not a 100% match to what we saw in Endeavor's vision, but it's still great! Iida's armor got more detail to them; Tsuyu's frog goggles got gogglier?; Momo is finally coving up her cleavage and showing less exposed skin took you 10 years, but you finally got there, Horikoshi; and Ochako's got updated headwear, the two dots on her outfit are side-by-side instead of on top of each other, and her collar thing looks similar to Deku's hero mask which I know was intentional.

3: Good for Ochako for doing something about Quirk Counseling. Definitely inspired by what happened with Himiko Toga. I hope this means that we won't have another incident like Toga had and that kids are now able to get help with their Quirks as opposed to being villainized. I hope Ochako's making good money out of this too for her family like she originally intended.

We also see a teenage Eri going to her music club with a guitar on her back! She has a normal girl's sailor uniform, so my best guess is that she's either still in middle school (I think she would be 14-15 at this point) or she's not in UA like a lot of us thought. Either way, she wants to pursue music instead of Hero work so I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't go to UA at all. It also looks like her horn did fully grow back, but whether her Rewind Quirk still works the same is up in the air.

And we see that Mr. Aizawa is still working at UA, BUT HE CUT HIS HAIR SHORT 😭 WHY DID YOU CUT HIS BEAUTIFUL, LONG LOCKS, HORIKOSHI??? OF ALL THE PHYSICAL CHANGES YOU GIVE OUR CHARACTERS THIS IS THE MOST DEVASTATING 😭

*BREATHS* But, he shows Deku and us a video of Bakugo SCREAMING AT A CIVILIAN FOR FILMING HIM TOO CLOSELY 😂😭 PLEASE NEVER CHANGE, KATSUKI BAKUGO 🧡 I'm also really glad he still got to be a Pro Hero despite his injuries.

AND NOW WE SEE MY SWEET FAVORITE BOY, SHOTO TODOROKI WHO CUT HIS HAIR A LITTLE SHORTER!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS, I LIKE HIM BETTER WITH SHORT HAIR AND STILL LOOKS LIKE THE BEAUTIFUL PRETTY BOY HE ALWAYS WAS! STAY PRETTY, SHOTO!!! 🩵

Anyway, Shoto patrols day and night and is very nice to his fans! Kind king 👑! He's also become his own man to the public now as he's barley called "Endeavor's Son" anymore. That's a real relief because I know for a fact that that was haunting him for years. Also, there's a chance he'll pass Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and even Mirio in the rankings! I'm so proud of my fave! 🩵❄️🔥

GAH! I'm actually hitting a world limit here! I have to make a Part 2!

[postplus-protest]

Hello, friends-

I had some really great intentions of getting posts organized and reblogged as a greatest hits farewell tour package before my planned deactivation at the end of February. Alas, life has gotten in my way. Not to make excuses for that but, well here's some excuses.

First, I've had COVID twice since starting this blog and the most recent time (only a few months ago) has left me with a lot of frustrating Long Covid symptoms. I have a hard time concentrating for one, especially with reading and/or writing. Anything longer than three paragraphs is a Herculean struggle. Forcing myself through it drains my energy and doesn't mix well with my now zero energy self.

Second, the past week and a half has been spent taking care of my dad. He's a cancer survivor with a permanently compromised immune system. He too had Covid and has long Covid. He's now fighting RSV and to be quite frank and vulnerable? We're struggling and I'm a little scared.

The most I get to do in my private time recently is to quickly scroll my private tumblr feed then go to bed.

Now, since I haven't got things squared away like I want them I'm extending the farewell out to March 30, 2024 in hopes I can get some things done between now and then. Also, if things can be worked out behind the scenes (I probably shouldn't even hint at it in case it doesn't work) the archive won't be completely deactivated but that's another post for another day,

I'm kinda exhausted now so I'm gonna call it a night. Remember to reblog any posts with the post+ protest archive hashtag to help keep posts in circulation. Hoping things will lighten up this week and I'll do my own reblogs! Keep creating, keep being kind!

Lots of love,

Aunt Triple P

[writingquestionsanswered]

I''m determined to write whatever I love, but I'm curious about the idea of finding audience for that. My WIP is about 3 adults doing sci-fi missions, there's no intention to aim at Middle-Grade or YA audience, but I have no desire whatsoever of including strong violence, any sexual themes and not even alcohol or any kind of non-medicinal drug. Media for adults without these events is something I struggle to find and I wanted to know if you think if there would be audience for that.

Adult Fiction Doesn't Have to Mean "R-Rated"

If you struggle to find science-fiction for adults that doesn't include sex, drugs, alcohol, or violence, you're not looking hard enough. It's definitely out there and there's definitely an audience for it. In fact, there are a lot of people who would very much like to read genre fiction that doesn't include those things. The key is figuring out how to find that audience and plug into them. You can start by finding the books... do searches for things like "sci-fi books without violence" and "sci-fi books without drugs" and see which books land in all of the relevant searches. See where those authors post, pay attention to hashtags, and you can start to get an idea of where you can find and target those readers. :)

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[myokk]

20 q's for fic writers

tagged by @crushribbons love you Laney😙😙😙😙💓💓💓

How many works do you have on AO3? I am a humble baby writer so I only have three...so far

What's your total AO3 word count? 99,211...before I joined tumblr and fanart hell (affectionate) I was writing SO MUCH...I started in January bahahahahhahahahahahahah

What fandoms do you write for? Hogwarts Legacy, but in the future I'll probably do Tomione…beginning of death eaters super evil but sexy 1940s Tom Riddle making Hermione turn evil… (among others). Tbh (fanart-wise NOT writing) I also want to draw harvest moon…stardew valley…x files… I would love to attempt writing for P&P bc I have so many ideas, but I am too lazy to make sure they're historically accurate and it would drive me crazy if they arent so I'll just enjoy them hehe

Top five fics by kudos? I only have three published so far, but the most popular is my Ominis oneshot, legilimency. I have no idea how that one actually got readers...but I'm happy bc I really like it too and I reread it sometimes!! My main fic is actually doing a lot better than I expected too, bc when I started posting I was just shouting into the void and I wasn’t part of the community or anything🥹 the little excerpts I post here too, that go along with my writing, also do a lot better than I expected and it makes me so happy to read your comments💓

Do you respond to comments? yes!!!!! Comments/hashtags always make me SO HAPPY and these interactions are the fun of sharing these things with you all. I get swamped by notifications sometimes so I might respond super late but I always try to bc I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? my main fic...I have a horrible ending planned but I might chicken out at the end and make it happy. in my fanarts I can make them happy so that might be enough for me...and I’ll go with the evil ending muahahahahahaa

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? the Imelda/Poppy fic. Honestly it's not popular but it holds SUCH A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART...it’s popular to me😤 I reread it a lot...my love letter to Imelda

Do you get hate on fics? I don't think so...If I do I'm out of the loop bahahahhahahahaha. Honestly I've had haters before on other platforms and it's not something that really bothers me bc if I don't personally know someone, I don't care what they think...and like Laney said...if they don't like something they should just make what they want to see instead lol

Do you write smut? yes😳

Craziest crossover? None I Am A Boring Girl

Have you ever had a fic stolen? not that I know of!!!!! But I also just started writing this year. I've had my art stolen sooooooo many times before though on IG and tiktok (not here yet that I know of…). If it's just copying my art I don't mind that much with these fanarts because that's how you learn and a copy will never look like the original but...

Have you ever had a fic translated? nope!!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No but I'm collaborating with @versailles-black for fanart shenanigans bc our MCs are cousins🥹💓 plus the whole Leo/Bea thing with @the-ozzie …I’m actually considering writing a oneshot about the two of them so I think it counts!!

All time favorite ship I have two...Elizabeth/Mr Darcy have had me in a vicelike grip for my whole life...but so have Scully and Mulder...

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I really really really want to write my Ominis longfic that's a continuation of my oneshot, but it's hard to find the time to write lately bc I've been so busy!!! like...even finding time to do these fanarts is a struggle these days. I still have hope I'll finish it though bc apart from ME wanting to read it there are a few others who are also looking forward to it!!!

What are your writing strengths? no idea🥲

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? I personally like it!!! But only if it's used correctly...I've seen Spanish in fics before where the person CLEARLY doesn't speak it and it drives me crazy, esp if the character is supposed to be Spanish-speaking. Or...when people add random phrases in with the rest English, bc as a bilingual person I feel like it doesn't really work like that lol. I added some Spanish to the Imelda oneshot I wrote and I like to read it when it's done naturally, and if anyone asks me for translation in the comments I’m happy to oblige🥰

First fandom you wrote in? Hogwarts Legacy is my first fandom ever bahahahhahahahahah

Favorite fic you've written? tbh I love all three that I've written so far!!!!!! I can't choose🥹🥹

Laney said there's no 20th question…I love you all😙😙😙

zerooo pressure tags for @kay9leo @writing-intheundercroft @heyitszev @noxxytocin and anyone else who thinks it would be fun to answer🥹💓😙💓😙

[rainbowsky]

Dear Rainbow Sky,

I was the one who asked u the earlier question anonymously. I wish to send my heartfelt thanks to you for taking time to respond so fast even though I posted anonymously. Sorry for the long essay.

I did not know what is the right etiquette as I am new to tumblr (i created this account just so I could read your blog which I really enjoyed reading.) and IRL, I am just a middle aged asian lady who is not too internet savvy, stumbling into this, and honestly a little confused why I feel so emotionally invested in this, as you say!! (Sorry new turtle)

Wishing you a great weekend ahead! My thanks once again!!

🙏🙏🙏

This is in reference to a previous post.

Hi new turtle! 💛🐢💛

I have some advice for new turtles, so let's dig in.

Thank you for writing back, kaijumama, it is nice to be able to put a name to the message! No need to apologize or feel you've done anything wrong. I know I can come off as brusque sometimes, but I've gotten a lot of a certain tone of message lately and I'm trying to set some boundaries around what ends up in my inbox.

Anyway, I know what it feels like to be emotionally invested in GG and DD and their relationship. It is a difficult thing to explain to anyone who's outside of the fandom, but it's a feeling and a connection that builds, and sometimes it can become very emotional or feel very personal.

All I can tell you is, take your time, relax and find a region of turtledom that feels soothing and warm, and everything will rapidly improve for you.

When you are a new turtle it can feel like everything has a lot of significance. It can feel like everything is either proof they are together or proof they've broken up or never were together in the first place. I think a lot of turtles go through that phase and it can be a roller coaster.

It's important for all new turtles to realize that if a claim or narrative you're being told about GGDD or something relating to them makes you feel horrible about yourself and about being a turtle, chances are really good that it was intentionally crafted for that purpose by haters. Avoid, block and ignore.

Usually that experience becomes a lot more stable and relaxed as time goes by and you become more familiar with the fandom and with the various ideas and theories and bits of information we base our beliefs on, but getting there can be a struggle emotionally for people who are very invested.

All I can say to that is:

Enjoy GG and DD and their works. That should always be our main focus as fans. It has the added bonus of being very enjoyable and enriching to our lives.

Take your time to get to know other turtles, get familiar with relevant social media accounts, and get to know the core turtle content and theories.

Avoid and ignore anti messages (and if a message makes you feel like a bad person or like being a turtle is bad, it's an anti message - yes, even if it seems friendly. A lot of antis phrase things in a concen-trolling kind of way to get under people's radar). Block and ignore.

Exercise patience and restraint around new information and claims that seem unsettling. Don't immediately freak out. Take your time to learn more. Trust that if experienced turtles are not freaking out, tearing out their hair and crying, then everything's probably just fine. It's so easy to get sucked into despair and confusion as a new turtle because you don't yet know the significance or lack of significance of something. Experienced turtles do.

Use your feelings as a signal about where you should be. If you feel really bad and stressed out, you're probably in the wrong area or among the wrong people. Find a corner of turtledom that makes you happy and avoid the ones that don't.

Stick to turtle spaces at all times - especially if you're a new turtle. This is for your own well-being, so you won't get misled and abused by antis. That means staying away from all hashtags on Twitter (even bjyx and yizhan ones, because antis frequently post to those), this includes staying away from hashtags of GG and DD's individual names (staying off Twitter entirely, IMHO). Avoid all solo spaces, including GG and DD's individual supertopics and fan clubs. More on that here.

Do not engage in fan wars or arguments, especially if you're new. You'll get eaten alive, and nothing will be resolved. You're not going to change anyone's mind.

Understand that we will likely never be directly, clearly acknowledged or thanked by GG and DD as fans in a clear, unambiguous way. Quite the contrary, GG and DD will sometimes have to distance themselves from us for the good of their careers and to mollify solos. GG and DD give us what they can, but there's never going to be a grand public declaration of support and appreciation for us. The situation will never allow for that. GG and DD will always have to cater to solos above us, and that will always lead to solos feeling superior and being dicks to us. That's just the way things are.

Realize that part of being a turtle is being marginalized and hated. There are so many groups that will be out to get us. Homophobes, GG's solo fans, DD's solo fans, people who are against what they view as 'shipping real people' (I don't 'ship' anyone, I believe GG and DD are in a real relationship), people who think we are delusional creepy weirdos, people who are against fandom in general, people who hate celebrities and fan culture, people who hate GG and DD, people in our daily lives who 'don't get it' and feel annoyed by our fixation, etc. etc. It just goes with the territory.

Embrace uncertainty. This is not a fandom of knowns and for sures. GG and DD will almost certainly never come out and confirm their relationship. Most of the theories we have will never be confirmed or factually fully substantiated. We will likely always have to deal with a certain measure of doubt and uncertainty. That's just the nature of this fandom.

Remember turtles have shells. Build yours, because you're going to need it. Being a turtle is not for the faint of heart.

One important thing I can say to you and all new turtles:

Almost nothing we see about GG and DD will be significant to their relationship.

A lot of new turtles try to evaluate every bit of info about GG and DD through the lens of whether it proves they're together, or whether it proves they're not. In reality, almost none of the information we see will have any significance or connection to their relationship either way. Viewing things through such a lens is unnecessarily stressful and frankly a bit foolish.

They're both individuals first and foremost, so while it's nice to hunt for candy sometimes, it's also important to keep perspective and remember them as individuals who have their own lives. The vast majority of things we see/hear about have absolutely nothing to do with them as a couple. More on that toward the end of this post.

It's best to avoid seeing/interpreting everything through the lens of whether they're a couple or not. Most joy/pain extremes can be avoided that way. Just enjoy them and their works, and the rest will follow over time.

You might also find my fandom survival guide helpful.

As a new turtle you might also find my masterlist post helpful. A lot of older topics, common questions and background can be found there.

Here are a few posts I recommend for new turtles:

BXG Glossary

BXG Calendar

About Kadian

GG and DD’s projects

Is YiZhan real?

Which do you love more?

Proof they’re still together?

Fandom Survival Guide

BXG Fandom Etiquette

Why so much hate from solos?

“I came across a nasty rumor about them online”

[darkstarofchaos]

Ableism in Transformers: EarthSpark

So I didn't plan to post this during Disability Pride Month (I actually started writing it before Season 2 came out), but you know what, it's thematically appropriate, this post was nearly done anyway, might as well finish it off.

Also, happy Disability Pride Month.

Transformers historically does not handle disability well. From the earliest days of Chip Chase - a disabled character - declaring that no one is truly disabled as long as they have courage, to TFA Blitzwing being a DID stereotype and beyond, ableism runs rampant in the franchise. So when EarthSpark made Dot disabled - thus giving us a disabled character who isn't the villain or a stereotype - I actually thought it was a step in the right direction.

Then I saw someone point out that the hero got the disability that can be hidden, while the villain's disability is scary and deforming. And you know what? They're right. In fact, not only is Mandroid's disability portrayed in a far more disturbing way, Dot's disability just never comes up outside of plot-relevant moments (this includes episodic plots like that of Bear Necessities).

I'll come back to Mandroid's Disabled Villain status later, but suffice to say, the show's ableism only gets worse as it goes on. Credit where credit is due, I liked the bit in Bear Necessities where Nightshade learns not to mess with Dot's prostheses. That was a good message. But we do see a lot of other characters fall into ableist tropes. I might miss a couple, but here's at least some of the major ones (under the cut for length, but also, minor references to Season 2 ahead):

Jawbreaker Jawbreaker is widely perceived by fans as having autism, and while he's not confirmed as such, his struggle finding an altmode does feel like an analogue for delayed development. Which makes it kind of infantilizing that he's the one portrayed as sweet and naive. Yes, he's very young and socially isolated, and yes, people mature at different rates. But his siblings are also young and isolated, and they all get to grow as characters very quickly (well, most of them).

Twitch, Thrash, and Hashtag all start in a similar place of innocent enthusiasm, but their personalities develop beyond that within a few episodes. Twitch is shown to be more responsible than Thrash long before she takes on a leadership role, Thrash's initial rebelliousness fits well with his later cynicism about inheriting the consequences of the war, and while Hashtag matures a bit more slowly than her older siblings, she has distinct hobbies and interests. Nightshade doesn't really have much emotional development, but even they have clear interests (anyone who says their character revolves around being nonbinary is willfully ignoring both their scientific proclivity and their instant and enthusiastic attachment to a sci-fi/fantasy novel).

None of the triplets get as much development as their older siblings (yes, I'm saying that Thrash, largely ignored by the narrative, gets more development than they do. I'll talk more about Hashtag in a minute), but two of the three at least have their own identity. But what about Jawbreaker? What does he like to do when he's on his own? What are his interests? Aside from a passing mention of wrestling, I have no idea. There's not a whole lot to his character except "sweet", "naive", and "wants an altmode".

Don't get me wrong, I like Jawbreaker. And it's not ableist to show a character feeling left out or less capable because he can't do things other kids his age can. But he should have been allowed to develop as a character, regardless of what he can or can't do, and he wasn't given that. His entire motivation and defining trait prior to having an altmode was wanting one, and lamenting his inability to help the others at various points because he doesn't have one.

Originally, I finished the above paragraph by saying that has to change now that he does have an altmode. However, I can no longer say that because Season 2 took all the problems of Season 1 and made them worse. He still has no motivation or personal goals outside of those shared by the group, still has no clear interests, and his naivety has been boosted to socially oblivious, overly trusting, and a stereotype of chattiness who can be outright told he's bothering someone and keep doing it. Even thought he's more confident now (and good for him, truly), his portrayal has somehow become more infantilizing. Someone give this mech a hobby and a focus episode that isn't about how sweet and naive he is, please.

Grimlock Soooo. Character with trauma gets triggered and attacks people. We're really going there, huh.

Honestly, I'm not sure I need to say more about this. Grimlock's episode was one of the most disappointing S1 episodes to me for a lot of reasons, but his rampage at the end was the icing on the cake. Even if you assume Grimlock was one of the (rare) cases of trauma leading to a violent reaction, literally nothing was forcing him to go into town. If he was overwhelmed and upset, there is no reason why he would beeline to the most stimulating area possible instead of literally any other direction that wasn't as busy. Entire latter half of the episode was just manufactured drama to hit a robot battle quota.

(Random PSA, Grimlock does not have PTSD. Not yet anyway. A diagnosis of PTSD requires symptoms to last at least a month. If they resolve sooner, it would be Acute Stress Disorder instead).

Additional tangent, but I personally think that episode should have been a Hashtag episode. Or at very least, her side role should have been more relevant to the fact that she and Grimlock both experienced the same thing. Yes, Jawbreaker needed to get his altmode, and I understand making him the focus of the episode because of it, but there would have been plenty of time for Hashtag to have a talk with Grimlock or one of the other adults if the whole rampage thing was cut. Maybe she couldn't tell Elita what happened to her because the kids weren't supposed to be out that night, but she could have asked if Grimlock was okay and learned a bit about trauma that way. And it would have been a natural steppingstone to her being surprisingly insightful with Starscream later.

But no. We needed "dino rage". Because apparently some people are just inherently violent. Really do not like that episode. And speaking of episodes I don't like:

Robby I know this post is the ableism edition and not the "things happen because plot" edition, but I just need to throw out there that the entire episode where Robby got hurt should not have happened. The entire series is about keeping the Terrans hidden from GHOST, neither Dot nor Optimus should have even considered that a secret field trip to GHOST Headquarters might be a good idea. Not for the human kids, and especially not for the robot kids.

Anyway.

Not gonna lie, I thought they were going to go in more of a chronic illness direction with Robby when he was struggling in the following episode. He seemed fine apart from not being able to keep up with the others (okay, not fine, but I didn't look at him and think, ah yes, this child is dying. No one was treating it like it was that serious). I don't think it would have been too dark, either - certainly not as dark as Robby almost dying to this thing twice - because there are plenty of kids out there with acquired disabilities. It happens (in retrospect, the action cartoon for kids was not going to take one of the main kids out of the action, but I still feel like it was a reasonable assumption at the time).

And of course, we heal the mysterious illness with magic in the end. Even though they could have just, y'know. Made it nonlethal and chronic, and then they wouldn't have needed a magical cure. Or even just nonlethal and lingering, there were plenty of options apart from deadly and cured by magic. I guess I can't complain too much about the magical cure when the illness might have been magical in origin, but honestly, if I can't complain about that, I'm just gonna complain about the lack of explanation regarding the illness instead.

Twitch Honorable mention goes to Twitch having an optic broken and then magically repaired a minute later. I actually didn't mind the magical life tower that much - the healing powers were foreshadowed with the above Robby arc, it may have been a copout, but it was a copout that made sense with the established story - but I was really annoyed that Twitch's optic got repaired. Specifically because I had an OC once who was blind in one eye, and while roleplaying with my brother, he decided to magically heal the character. Magical eye-healing has been a weirdly specific pet peeve ever since.

Hardtop Honorable mention #2 goes to Hardtop, not because of the show, but because of the viewers who keep asking why his arm isn't fixed. Neither side has a medic, and it's unlikely the Decepticons have the knowledge or the resources for that kind of repair. I'm sure Hardtop, like many disabled people, would love to get the medical help he needs. Alas, that requires having access to it. And he doesn't.

I guess we should get to the elephant in the room now, shouldn't we?

Mandroid So. Yeah. Disabled villain who's a villain because he's disabled trope.

I gotta be honest, I had no interest in Mandroid as a character. We didn't get enough time with the villains to fully develop more than one, and I'd rather have seen more focus on the leader of the evil organization that the heroes were working with (I am admittedly biased, since "protagonists are forced to work with antagonists who have all the power" is a favorite of mine and we don't see it enough). But of the characters who actually needed more development, we could have used a few more sentences for Mandroid. We could have had them, too.

I don't have a problem with a villain claiming their path to villainy started when they were disabled. I don't even necessarily mind if they believe it, because harmful people will use whatever they can to excuse harmful behavior, including disabilities. But if your villain is going to use it as an excuse, it needs to be clear that it is an excuse: not "well, I was disabled too, and I'm not a villain", but "they were always the kind of person who would do something like this".

To put it another way, Mandroid's hatred for Cybertronians should predate his becoming disabled. At bare minimum, he should have been predisposed towards hating them (not seeing them as people, working with them only grudgingly, resenting both factions for bringing their war to Earth, etc). This way, he's already antagonistic towards them before becoming disabled, and it's a logical step to blame Cybertronians as a whole for his injury. And we even had a means of learning this information, because Alex knew him. A bit more insight into that history could have told us a lot about what kind of person Mandroid was before the war.

Would this have fixed the problem? Maybe not. Frankly, the best solution would probably have been to make his disability incidental to his motivation and not the reason he started down this path. But disabled people are still people, and sometimes people suck. Better to show that they always sucked than to make them suck because they're disabled.

[desceros]

Hey, if this is too personal totally feel free to disregard this! But I've seen you mention having adhd more than once, and I know a super common symptom is executive dysfunction. The professionals I see aren't sure if I have adhd specifically, but they agree that I definitely have major executive dysfunction issues. Like... it feels like an actual, physical wall between me and the things I need to do, and even want to do. This wall feels... impossible to scale. I think that's just executive dysfunction in general, though, and isn't really unique to me. I just wanted to know if you have any tips that help you do the things you want to do or need to do even when it feels impossible? I've tried so many of the tips I see online, I've done quite a bit of research into the mental illnesses I do have and even the ones I likely have, and... I don't know. I still just feel stuck. Sorry if my thoughts are disorganized or hard to follow, I'm sorta really going through it right now. I'm fine, just... stressing myself out. Any tips you feel comfortable giving would be so, so appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this!

yes indeed, i am hashtag officially diagnosed with what i like to affectionately call my dumb bitch disease (not that anyone else is allowed to use that term for it.... well. maybe my very close friends. but yeah. gotta laugh at the awful things so you don't cry, right?)

so the thing with adhd (well. any kind of mental health issue) is that it's all a spectrum. every human person on this planet is somewhere on the euclidean axis of how many neurodivergencies they have. some people have no recognizable symptoms in any of the recognized areas we have. some people may have mild issues with things, and it's a bit fuzzy if they "have adhd or not." when you talk to a professional, there's a particular line of demarcation that happens when someone is looking to diagnose you with something.

do these symptoms interfere with your day to day life? are they severe enough to rise to the level of DISORDER?

it's completely possible for you to struggle with executive function and not have adhd. you may have something else, as executive function disorder is not exclusively in the domain of adhd, or it might just be that those particular neurons are cranky in your brain. what you're doing here—recognizing symptoms and looking for ways to address them—is really good, and basically what adhd therapy does, anyway.

all that being said, honk shoo honk shoo, let's get into a What The Fuck Are You Talking About for people who want more information on the subject, and some advice i have for you. i'll start generally, then talk a little bit about the writing thing specifically since it's a bit of a special beast for me.

what you are describing does indeed sound like issues with executive function to me.

first, for those new to the idea, executive function is the fancy term for the "executive" of your brain. the guy in a fancy suit who makes shit happen. when you walk by a dirty plate, you have the thought "oh i should put that in the dishwasher." executive function is the gap between the thought "oh i should x" and doing x.

a lot of the problems that neurodivergent people have, especially those with adhd, is that this function is impaired. some days, it's just fucking impossible to move that plate.

and it's not consistently, or predictably. some days, you will be perfectly able to do the thing. yesterday you put the plate in the dishwasher. today you put the plate in the dishwasher. tomorrow you will put the plate in the dishwasher. but tuesday comes, and you walk by the dirty plate, think "oh i should put that in the dishwasher," and then you stand there and stare at it without moving it. and you're like, c'mon. it's easy. you did it yesterday. all it takes is moving your hand. picking up the plate. walking into the kitchen. putting it inside the dishwasher. isn't that so easy? why can't you do it? why isn't your hand moving? are you lazy? are you stupid? this is infuriating! you literally just did this yesterday! you've done it a hundred times! what the fuck is wrong with you?! and then wednesday comes. now you have two dirty plates. now the task is twice as hard. maybe you can do it. maybe you can't. it's a harder task now. now you have three plates. now you're guilty because you have all these dirty plates, and it's a mountainous task now, and your roommate is giving you stink eyes for leaving dirty plates out, and you're a fucking adult who should be able to take care of some dirty plates, and you want to, you WANT to take care of the plates, but every time you THINK about them you flop into a cold sweat—

this is executive dysfunction. it's one of the more insidious side effects of adhd in my experience. that said, there are a lot of little tricks i've gotten from therapy specific to addressing this problem, so i'll give you a list here.

DO I HAVE TIME? this is best used for small, quick tasks like our plate example. you walk by the dirty plate and think "i should put this in the dishwasher." do you have time, right now, to do it? will it interfere with the thing you were doing? for example, if you're on the way out the door because your ride is honking, the answer is no. if you're on the way to get another glass of water while kicking back and watching some youtube, the answer is yes. if you have the time, do it now. now let's say you bring the plate into the kitchen and open the dishwasher. it's clean. you haven't emptied it yet. now the task has changed. but that's okay; do you have the time to empty the dishwasher right now? maybe you only get an hour a week to kick back and watch the youtube, and it's a special time that you need in order to recharge. the answer becomes no. well the plate is in the kitchen now instead of your room. victory.

COIN FLIP GAME. this one i actually got from the anti-planner by dani donovan, which i can Not recommend highly enough. there is a task you have to do, and you want to do it, but you're having a problem getting started. or maybe you have to do it but it feels icky, but you do really need to do it. the important thing for this trick is that it is not time sensitive; if you don't do it right now, it's okay. so you flip a coin. heads, you do it. tails, you get to wait until you have the thought that you need to do it again. if you get tails, then you are allowed, guilt-free, not to do the thing. if you get heads, sorry champ but you're doing the thing. gamifying it in this manner kind of... cheats your brain into approaching things differently, which can help you get around that brick wall.

TASK INITIATION. sometimes, it's not that the task itself is the problem; it's because you're having problem with what's called "task initiation." getting Started doing the thing is really fucking hard. if this is your issue, you can try and approach it a different way, usually by going "backwards" down the order of operations. so say for example, laundry. i have a lot of trouble with laundry. if i think to myself "i need to do my laundry," i have difficulty with the task initiation there. so what i do instead of "starting" at the shoving clothes into the washing machine part, i'll go into my room and make sure i've picked up all the dirty clothes and sorted them out. check my bathroom for towels and washcloths. sort them away. now i'm standing in front of my dirty laundry, and i'm "doing laundry," so it's easier to pick up one of the organizer bags and take it into the laundry room. i went backwards down the line and found a place in the task list where i could begin without the hassle, then i basically tricked myself into continuing past the point where i was having trouble.

BREAK UP THE TASK. this one is good if you feel like you're looking at a mountain and it's so overwhelming you just. don't do the thing. you'll hear it a lot: "just break it up into smaller tasks!" but. what the fuck does that actually mean? what does it look like? it's going to depend on You, but let's look at our plate example. so we just walked by the plate and we know we need to put it into the dishwasher. well. let me start by looking at the plate. can i do that? can i pick it up? let's say the answer is no. well, why? maybe i'm so stressed from work that this is just one too many things on my, haha, plate right now. okay. maybe don't worry about this right now, then. or maybe i'm having trouble because i know that the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, so it's not really as simple as "put the plate in the dishwasher." so, bring the plate into the kitchen. put it on the counter. maybe that's enough for now. or maybe i can open the dishwasher. look inside. it's full, and i don't really have the energy to unload it right now. ...or maybe i do, but i'm just looking at this huge thing that feels too big. maybe i can put away one plate. okay. that wasn't so bad. maybe i can put away all the plates. plates are easy. my trick is i take all the clean dishes OUT of the dishwasher and put them on my kitchen island without worrying about putting them away yet. then i load the dirty things into the dishwasher. well now i turn around and i have all the clean dishes pilled up nicely here. momentum really is everything. one task leads to two leads to five leads to done.

TASK BUNDLING. this is useful if you're trying to be more consistent about something and you already have something else you do consistently. for example, i have dogs. every night around six pm, i feed them supper. now, historically, i've had problems with remembering to eat/feeling like cooking when i wasn't hungry/being hungry but having trouble cooking. i don't need to tell you how unhealthy that is, hahaha. so what i did is i bundled my supper together with their supper. they will eat every night. they will Not forget to remind me that they want to eat. i make their supper every day. so i make their supper, feed it to them, and bam! i'm in the kitchen. preparing food already. so it's really easy for me to keep going and prepare My food. let's say you want to drink more water. every time you open tumblr, bundle together the task of checking to make sure you have a glass of water with you, and take a sip. let's say you want to take a vitamin. keep the bottle by your toothbrush. and get weird with it! don't let social norms hold you back. i have a toothbrush in my shower. i have medicine on the bookshelf next to where i play video games. these aren't the "usual" places for things, but they Work for ME. find the places that work for you, and bundle things together. you'll be a lot more likely to do them if they're tied to something else.

BODY DOUBLING. this one is HUGE. i've actually infected my neurotypical friends in discord with this one, it's so powerful, hehehe. basically, you externalize the executive function. there are a couple of ways to do this. if you want to do something, ask someone to be in the room with you. they don't have to be doing the same thing, or anything, really. but having another Person there (another BODY, if you will) will make it so you can do the thing. you can also do this over discord. for example, my friends and i will open up a voice chat, and we'll be doing things. i'll be writing, khaya will be drawing, yorsh will be writing or drawing, keisha will be writing or drawing... and because we're all there together, we're super productive! it smashes through that brick wall a bit. there is a whole genre of youtube videos i LOVE that target this thing. find "study with me" type videos where you have someone doing homework or something, maybe they have rain, or lofi music, or just the ambient noises of a coffee shop; whatever you find most helpful. i actually body double with a little fox timer i have on my desk. i turn him on for an hour, and since he's "working," it's really easy for me to be like "ok i gotta work too." silly? yes. does it work? yes!

BULLET JOURNAL/APPS. i don't mean the pinterest pretty things where you end up spending way too much time on making a pretty spread. i mean the actual basic bullet journal that the original creator developed because he has adhd and needed something to keep his shit straight. i did this for a while, and i found it somewhat useful? eventually i found more success with the app TickTick, which is so good for me keeping my tasks straight and accounted for, i pay for the premium bc fuck yeah. if you're the kind of person motivated by streaks (think, like, doing something because you don't want to break a streak. i am very much this person.) then i've gotten a lot of good mileage out of the Today app. i don't use it much anymore, but it's very good if that's a motivating thing for you.

WEAPONIZE ANNOYANCE. i do this one a lot. i have certain things that annoy me a lot. like, being wasteful with water really annoys me. so that means i don't like to wash laundry more than once. which means, if i put something in the washing machine, i WILL move it into the dryer. so if i can put my laundry into the washing machine and get it started, i have defeated the demon of moving it into the dryer by weaponizing my own irritation against myself. same thing with gritty bathroom floors. my cat's litterbox is in my bathroom. i Really hate stepping out of the shower and feeling litter under my feet. so i'm pretty meticulous about keeping the bathroom floor clean, even though sometimes i have a moment of executive dysfunction about vacuuming every day, because whenever i hit that brick wall i think. ok. well. we can look at this brick wall that's here. now think about the sensation of stepping out onto cat litter out of the shower. aofjalsfjadlskfjslakfjsalkfj. and that's enough for me to reach for the vacuum. so you can use your preferences against your weaknesses, especially if they're things that you're Very particular about.

RECONTEXTUALIZE. my therapist will sometimes stop me and say "you are should-ing all over yourself." and this is when i'm saying things like "i should x" or "i should y." i should be able to put away this plate in the dishwasher. i did it yesterday! i should be able to do it today! the moment you catch yourself thinking these things, stop. think about it differently. instead of "i should be able to put this plate away," think "i want to be able to put this plate away." now you can say. well. why do i want to put the plate away? because it's dirty, and dirty dishes will attract bugs. i don't want bugs. i want my room to be clean and smell nice. i want to enjoy being in here. now, instead of a chore that needs to be done, you can think about it as a positive thing you're doing. sometimes this is enough to get around that wall.

now. you've asked me about writing specifically, which is. kind of a special beast for me. you said it seems like i have a compulsion to do it—and it really does kind of feel that way. if i go too long without writing, i feel uncomfortable. antsy. like i'm not doing what i need to be doing in order to be Me. as such, it's usually not that difficult for me to convince myself to write. if i start seeing a brick wall about it, i can go "...but... think about the COOL SHIT that's about to happen in symphony!!" and i'll go "OH YEAH" and break right the fuck through that brick wall kool-aid style.

that said. i do experience executive dysfunction with my writing. there are days when i want to write, i have the scene in my head, i have the time, i'm in my special writing place, and i sit down and—and i can't do it. i can't write. i keep clicking into tumblr. i close tumblr on my computer then pick up my phone. i watch youtube videos. it's like no matter what i do, i can Not focus on writing. even though i am screaming and rattling at the cages because i want to!!! i want to write!!! i want to do nothing MORE than write!!!!

often, one of the tricks above will work for me since i've learned how to use them over the years, and i have practice tricking myself. i find particular success with the body doubling in particular for writing. but some days, it just. Doesn't Happen. and here is the ultimate truth that i will bestow upon you:

it's okay if you don't do the thing.

so you don't pick up that plate today, and tomorrow you have two. so you don't do your laundry, so you have to do it tomorrow. so you miss a meal. you go a day without writing. it's okay. as long as you're safe and healthy, it's okay. tomorrow is another day for you to try and do the thing.

stressing out about how much you want to do the thing is counterproductive. you're just going to make yourself ill doing that, and then you'll be less capable of doing things. just... chill. relax. breathe. do what you can. try the tips i gave, look for some more and see if those work, and if they don't... all right. it just isn't meant to happen today. no big deal. do something else today. maybe you don't pick up that plate... but you do fold that laundry that was giving you a brick wall a few days ago. maybe you don't write that fic today... but you do read that book you've been putting off, and now you have a new favorite author you want to pick apart and study. life is short, and precious. don't should on yourself.

[nanakibh]

We gotta do everything ourselves...

Earthspark S3 Spoilers Below

Man, idk what other people are feeling, but I'm just going to pretend that there's only one season of Earthspark from now on. I foolishly thought that things could improve after S2. It really feels like the people who are working on ES now have no interest in anything that ES actually was. Maybe it's also corporate meddling. Whatever it is, I hate it.

I guess I'm glad they brought back the Chaos Terrans because it was pretty messed up for them to kill them off. But I don't think they were ever good characters and I would not have missed them.

The Fairmaestro sucks. He just sucks, dude. I can give his first episode a pass because it introduced Isabel and Cosmos, but this second episode was pure filler. Had nothing to do with the overarching plot. They only had seven episodes for S3 and they chose to completely squander some of them. Infuriating.

Speaking of Cosmos, he was just kind of there. I fail to see why they introduced him and then brought him back if they weren't really going to do anything interesting with him.

I think their treatment of Schloder is extremely fucked up. In S2, they brought him back just to use him for a laugh in the shitty Fairmaestro episode, and now they only brought him back for a couple silly scenes again. I'm going to turn into the Joker. He was one of the best human characters on the show. Genuinely one of my favorite characters overall. The way they've ignored him and turned him into a joke AFTER HE WATCHED HIS SISTER DIE is just disrespectful. It's bad writing.

The whole plot with Isabel was.......... It was something. The way she totally evaporated as a character after the reveal sure sucks. I expected there to be some hint that she really did like Robby even if she was just pretending to be human, but nah. Nah, forget about it.

There were a lot of little moments like that where I thought they were going somewhere interesting with something, but then it went nowhere. For instance, I thought that the Terrans might have been messing up the drive-in theater experience for Robby and Isabel on purpose because they were secretly jealous of Robby spending time with someone other than family. But nope! They're all just THAT incompetent now!

Dude, I'm so tired of them making Jawbreaker look like an out-and-out idiot. I'm so tired of them making the others be mean to him for no reason. It feels like the writers actually just... don't like him? Or at least they don't understand him.

My biggest problem is with the treatment of the Decepticons. They literally just... shipped them off to space? Are they just gone now? I honestly want this show to get cancelled at this point, but I'll also be mad if the show officially ends with the Decepticons just leaving.

Remember in S1 when Dot said that there are no bad Decepticons? Remember that great episode with Tarantulas? Remember Hashtag's heartfelt moments with Starscream? ...And now she's literally stabbing him in the back?? I refuse to believe that she would do that. I think there is a very valuable lesson to be made about how maybe it's not worth giving a person another chance after they've betrayed your trust multiple times, but I don't think that's something the writers were thinking about here. It feels like S1 wanted to redeem Starscream. S2/3 does not. The S1 writers wouldn't have given up on him the way the S2 writers have.

It feels like they were totally stumped about what to do with Starscream in this season, so they kept him locked inside the Titan. That's crazy. lmao I wrote a fic where Soundwave suggests that they should look for Skyfire, someone who actually stands a chance of redeeming him. It was just a small part of a much larger megasound fic, but if I can come up with something like that off the top of my head, I don't know why these writers struggled so much. I'm sure that Starscream fans out there have come up with much better plots for him in the ES universe. (I'm going to assume that they were told that they had to keep the Decepticons as villains. Which you can do! While still making them sympathetic like they were in S1! You can do that!)

This is the part of this rant where I feel the need to say that if you liked S1 of ES, you should write whatever kinds of fics you want and ignore S2/3 at your leisure. If you think something sucks, you don't have to acknowledge it. We can fix it ourselves. I truly believe that popular fanon can overwhelm this shitshow. If enough people say "Actually, Starscream WAS redeemed", that can be our reality.

Soundwave is barely a character at this point, which sucks because he's my favorite character. It seems pretty obvious to me that his feelings of betrayal in S1 came from the fact that he was always so loyal to Megatron. The S2/3 writers seem totally uninterested in examining that at all. We got no meaningful interactions between them. Nothing.

S1 Breakdown and S3 Breakdown are different characters. They actually had the audacity to walk back his S1 character development. And for what? He could have joined the Autobots in this season, but nah.

We simply did not need the Quintessons, but if they had to be there, the Decepticons should have been helping the Autobots fight them. Like, I'm pretty sure a natural trajectory from S1 would have included the Autobots rehabilitating the Decepticons and then fighting a common enemy together to further build trust. That feels like the spirit of S1 to me.

I feel like the status of Cybertron's condition is something that should have been completely left a mystery. If they had to reveal anything about it, they should have saved it until the very end where everyone (including the now-reformed Decepticons!) decide that they're going to stay on Earth even if returning to Cybertron is possible.

Idk how to end this. I'm sure that I'll just keep thinking of more things that bothered me.

Edit: Already thought of more. Jesus Christ... I like Prowl. I don't think this was a terrible rendition of him. But I don't think he added anything meaningful to the show. Again, I'm going to assume that they were told that they had to add a new Autobot for the sake of making toys or something. But why are you going to add a character if they don't add anything to the overarching plot? He literally existed just to give us a ship that would be used to get rid of the Decepticons so the writers wouldn't have to worry about what they would do with them during the Quintesson battle. Especially infuriating when you consider what I said about how they should've been helping the Autobots fight them. Like, we saw this in S1... We know that the Decepticons WOULD help in a fight... That wouldn't be out of character for them... God, this shit is so ass.

[honeyhotteoks]

First off: you're my absolute favorite fanfic author! The way you write the characters and their emotions and dialog is just beautiful! Into the Aurora and This Night Together inspired me to actually give my writing a fighting chance!!!

With that said...how did you start posting your work? I really want to, but I'm sooooooo nervous!! What if no likes it? What if everyone hates it? And is there a certain way to format the post? I'm fairly new to ✨️actually✨️ posting on tumblr and have no clue what I'm doing 😬

oh my gosh, thank you so much!! i’m so honored to know that i helped inspire you to write fic 😭

this is a great question!! i have lots of advice for you, check under the cut~

okay so as far as how i started posting, this is probably not the post helpful answer. i’ve actually been writing fanfic since i was probably like 14 for various fandoms, i used to post on ff.net then on ao3 and now here, and it’s just been years of publicly posting fandom works online. that being said…… at some point you will just want to rip the bandaid off and when you do, i have some advice

there are going to be people who don’t like what you write, it doesn’t matter what you write or how you write. you like my work and i have a lot of followers, but i’ve had people give pretty negative feedback about aurora, tnt, and some of my one-shots. or reviews that aren’t “mean” necessarily but are “constructive”…. however, i’m a big believer that in the world of fan fiction, unsolicited constructive criticism doesn’t belong in comments when the author is posting their hobby for free. all i’m saying is that it’s gonna happen at some point, but you have to remember that the people doing that aren’t writing fic, and i genuinely do not care about the critical opinions of someone who’s never put themselves out there creatively before.

something that hurt when i started posting was the lack of engagement, and i know this is something a lot of writers still struggle with, especially on tumblr. there are fics i have written that are like deeply dear to me and i’m really proud of but have so few notes compared to other fics and that used to really bum me out. what i’ve learned is this:

people actually aren’t perpetually online they just seem it, so if you post something once and never mention it again, people with busy lives are going to miss it

the time you post doesn’t have to matter… but if you’re trying to drum up engagement, then consider the time of day you’re posting. tumblr has good analytics to tell you blog engagement stats and stuff like that, i find that can help with knowing most of your followers are from XYZ time zone and they probably will not see something you post at 2 PM during the work/school day vs. 7 PM or something like that

try not to be sad if you get a majority of likes and not reblogs. i personally like tons of work that i intend to read later, i treat my likes like bookmarks, that doesn’t mean someone didn’t like your work enough to reblog it, it means they use their likes differently OR potentially they have a blog where they don’t feel comfortable reblogging fanfic, especially nsfw fic.

if you’re posting anywhere, know your tags. don’t post something with two hashtags and assume it’ll find its way. unfortunately it won’t, so make sure you tag everything appropriately so it lands in people’s suggested feeds

if you do all of that and then your fic gets some notes but not that many….. and you’re wondering….. why didn’t more people like it? well part of that might just be that it’s not showing up at the top of people’s feeds anymore. if you want to establish yourself in the writing space, engaging with readers is important. if you get a really nice review in a reblog, don’t be afraid to reblog it back. if you get a certain number of notes, don’t be afraid to reblog your own fic and say thank you for 100 notes etc., just to push it up on people’s feeds.

if you’re posting on AO3, just make sure that you’re filling out all the tags, warnings, pairings, etc. AO3 has been around a while and is a well oiled machine, and i know a ton of readers on there use the filters to find the exact niche of fic they want to read. i cannot tell you how many fics i pass by that don’t have tags, are missing a good description, etc.

okay now as far as formatting goes…… here are my thoughts after a lot of trial and error:

before you decide on anything formatting wise, just remember that readers engage with fic on tumblr in a variety of ways. some people are on desktop, some people are on your actual blog web address, and some people are just on mobile. before you teach yourself html coding for fancy lettering in ombré colors…… are your readers going to be able to see it in dark mode? if not, maybe don’t invest the time, because the first thing i do when i see a post like that is scroll because it’s taking me too long to know what’s going on

so yeah, are there rules to format? yes and no. content “yes”, visual “no” but people do follow a particular trend. what i like to do is keep it simple to avoid the formatting issues i mentioned above, but i also invested a little time in figuring out a “look” for my posts so when people are scrolling they might see my layout and know it’s me. details below->

1. a header image or header images, it’s the quickest way for people to get a vibe and it might capture an aesthetic. some authors have a header made for them as an author, some do a custom one per fic, but i typically just make an aesthetic black and white collage and go with that because it looks cool but i don’t have to learn photoshop to do it. go with what you know on this one

2. a title and a SHORT description, i think ‘untitled’ is tough…. people won’t read or remember your fic. no description means people are guessing and might not click, and too long means people might scroll. my rule of thumb is a couple sentences.

3. content tags, and this is VERY important — people need warnings or clarity on what the fic is about. most people skim the tags to find out if they want to read it over a description, especially when we’re talking very short form fic or smut. that’s why tags might be funny or informal, but it’s also really important to tag anything that might be triggering in a variety of ways. something i always make sure i include is every sex act or kink (i never know what triggers one person and not another), and anything related to: violence, abuse, self harm, mental health, physical injury, death, food/diet content, and body descriptors of reader. if you’re writing self insert and you’re describing the reader a particular way, that’s fine but you should disclose it. some of my fics are specifically written for ‘curvy’ reader in mind and its tagged that way vs. like …. ‘short/small/size-kink’ reader. Gender is also important here, i always tag fem!reader because i feel like that works, but i often see more trans inclusive terms like afab!reader etc., so it’s up to you! but we definitely want to be mindful of readers who could feel dysphoric if surprised by pronouns/body-parts/etc.

4. a clear identifier of the ships in the fic. i.e. put the ‘yunho x reader’ or ‘idol!yunho x fem!reader’ tag high up so people know who they’re reading

5. otherwise, i personally recommend keeping the top of the post short, putting in a cut, and then posting everything under the cut because a long post is just a lot to scroll through etc. i favor the small text for my fics headers and regular size text for the actual body of the fic just to keep it looking nice.

hopefully this helps! i’d be happy to talk through anything else too, i love getting into this stuff. my biggest recommendation would be to ask yourself what kind of work you want to post and invest some time in developing a style for your format etc. - even if it’s close to what other people are posting that’s okay! just keeping it consistent and looking good helps get readers to click, so search around and see what you like and then play with your posts in drafts before you do anything.

good luck!!!

[pupkou]

this is opening a can of worms so im sorry but I do think it's really silly that people can't hear other people's experiences without feeling like it's a personal attack on them. me sharing my personal experience with transphobia as a trans man doesn't mean I think I have it harder than trans women, and just because they have it harder because of transphobia + misogyny doesn't mean that I don't also go through transphobia in a way unique to my presentation and experience. it also doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to share those experiences. it doesn't have to be an either/or of who experiences transphobia because we all do. there's different types and they are all terrible.

trans men and transmascs insisting that there is a specific type of transphobia aimed at masculine trans people should not even be controversial. we are not cis men saying we're persecuted for being male/masculine/etc. we are not the ones oppressing and hurting trans women. insisting that we're transmisogynists for creating an ONLINE INTERNET LABEL to make it easier to talk about and refer to the transphobia we specifically as a transmasculine population face is not the activism you think it is and also does nothing to bolster your own community. does it help you to hurt others? or does it tear down a vulnerable population in your community that is not hurting you by posting on tumblr dot com? don't act like you're the virgin mary for fucking calling out transmascs to a wide audience and getting them harassed for having an experience different from yours and daring to share about it

seeing someone hurting because of the transphobia they face and making it about you and then invalidating their struggles is so uncompassionate and cruel. youre doing the same thing to us as you don't want done to you. we know we're not oppressed for being men. like please be so seriously fucking for real. most of us lived as and grew up being treated like women (and many of us still are!!!!!!!) and so we KNOW how terrible men can be-- many of us are victims of them. we KNOW that men are not oppressed and we KNOW that being a man in this world provides you with a privilege. we're saying that despite what being a man supposedly awards you according to patriarchal society, we are not always privileged in that way. and we don't think that it's right that men are privileged nor do we want that system to continue.

the anger and hurt is not directed at disappointment/anger at not being advantaged "as promised", it's at the fact that we're being harmed. that's it. and then when we share that harm, we're dogpiled and called misogynists and people write fucking callout posts over us being like "this transphobic thing happened to me as a trans man." makes sense!

the term transandrophobia is not meant to water down or lighten the idea of transphobia or transmisogyny, it's just supposed to clarify and provide a word for what we go through and feel. transandrophobia is NOT "I'm oppressed for being a man and I'm oppressed for being trans and I suffer equally from these things. hashtag not all men!!!!!", it's "I suffer because of how the world treats me as a transgender man/transmasculine person and I have not been allowed to talk about that because people think I'm saying that I'm oppressed for the man part and not the trans part."

we are on trans women's side and claiming that we also face transphobia in a specific and vicious way does not take away from the fact that trans women face it from an intersectional front of facing transphobia and misogyny in tandem. we are just saying "this is our community's flavor of transphobia and we would like to seek comfort and understanding from people who have gone through similar experiences." we are supposed to be brothers and sisters and this entire argument between what is supposed to be a community is so stupid

[raisedbyheathens]

A thing. A thing I hate.

I just saw a little comic on here that talked about some of the struggles and the weird reactions the artist gets when revealing to strangers they are non-binary. In the tags, they included. hashtag I pay bills.

And I'm not knocking them for that. Because I do it too. I'm a 'grown up' a fully middle aged woman who writes fanfic- a hobby that even now carries disdain for being a thing that 'sad horny teens do and isn't real writing." And I am forever defending myself with "I pay TAXES" or bills. That I have a job and a 401k. Like participating in capitalism makes me somehow worthy of pursuing the hobbies that make me happy.

Anyway I hate it and wish I could move into a cave and just make cheese for barter and post free fanfic porn of generally better than average quality.