#live writing my reaction to my discord like i would be if it was twitter fr

[oookaline]

you know what, ima say it, I wish twitter was still a thing because it would be hillarious looking through the presidential debate tag rn

[godbirdart]

first off, i just want to say that i love your art, you are a huge inspiration to me and i love how expressive your characters are! would you have any tips for someone trying to grow a following from their art? specifically within the furry community ideally. im just not sure where to start

i hope youre having a great day!

thank you so much!!

okay i gotta preface this with: i have been doing commissions for over a decade. everything i say here i've been doing since roughly 2014, but my career as an artist didn't really Take Off and become reliable until 2019. success isn't immediate. some artists will grow faster or slower than others, not every tactic is going to apply / work for every artist; and that's okay. just keep pushing yourself and adapting and figuring out what works for You!

i’m putting this under a readmore as it got a bit long. every time someone asks me for advice on professional Anything i always write up a five page essay despite trying to bulletpoint it oof

post on multiple platforms and keep them all updated. i’m putting this one in bold because it is possibly the Most Important thing. we’re all watching twitter sinking over there, and many of my mutuals there were floundering because they hadn’t established themselves on any other social media site. i strongly recommend three or four socials minimum. my main four sites are tumblr, deviantart, twitter and toyhouse. furaffinity is also good. inkblot and artfol are new and i use them frequently as well. if you don’t like posting manually to every site each and every time you post art, Postybirb exists and is what i use to crosspost all my art to most of my socials at once.

avoid venting a lot on main. we all have frustrating days where our art isn’t getting the recognition we hoped, or we’re feeling petty about a controversial topic or the latest drama. it happens! it’s okay! however, many people just don’t like seeing dozens of negative posts on their feed. most people will sympathize, but if your negative vents are constantly clogging their dashboard they’re not gonna stick around.

shamelessly self promote yourself. reblog your own art. retweet it again. repost it. mention your other socials. we live in a world of timezones! when you post art, only a fraction of your audience is going to see it. i recommend reblogging / retweeting one to four individual pieces periodically over the course of a day and change it up each day. you can also repost your own work into photosets and title it “recent commissions” or the something like that.

don’t hide your linktrees and carrds. seriously! the amount of times on twitter i went to try and follow someone on another platform only to find they had no carrd or linktree link,, it is infuriating. put your socials link in your bio or pinned or SOMEWHERE readily at the top of your profile that’s easy to spot.

if you’re offering commissions, make a telegram channel or discord server for your announcements / openings.

post regularly. this one is a lot harder for artists that don’t make a lot of content, but posting even a status update once or twice a day can go a long way - especially if you’re on twitter with that platform’s hideous algorithm. alternatively as i said earlier, just retweet/reblog your work a few times a day and you should be good.

art trends are cool and fun and an easy way to get your work seen by others. see a “draw your sona in this outfit” meme? go, have fun with it. this one’s a bit tricky as timing is everything when it comes to ~trending~ content, so try and draw quick. that said, it’s never outdated to drawover reaction memes with your fursona.

try not to clog your socials with memes and shitposty images. this one is directed at twitter specifically. with twitter moments now gone, your media tab is the last way for people to hope to find your work organically on your profile without having to use the twitter search. they can’t get invested in your work if they can’t find it!

it’s okay to change course if you’re not vibing with where you’re headed. if you want to move onto a new aesthetic - that’s fine! you may lose some followers if they don’t click with your new vibe, but you’ll inevitably gain some new ones.

avoid frequent name changes. so many of the artists i follow have changed their brands / urls over the years that i don’t recognize them anymore.

tag your work properly. on tumblr, the first five tags on the original post are the tags your work will pop up in in the search feature. make those first five tags the Most important ones; example: #furry, #anthro, #art #fursona etc. twitter’s algo seems flip-flop if it likes tags or hates them. if you see a tag trending, repost your art in a photoset with the hashtag in the post [example: if #pokemon is trending, repost some of your pokemon fanart with the hashtag in the post body]. if the tag isn’t trending,,, i’ll be honest it’s a gamble if twitter likes your post or not at that point. i have no advice for that hell algorithm.

hosting raffles or doing a mini art request event [example: “leave a ref and i might draw your oc”] is good for traction while simultaneously giving back to the community + your audience a little!

try and reply to / like comments on your work. it’s not required per se, but it’s good to express gratitude.

engage with other members of the community. comment on other peoples work. like it. retweet it. follow other people. obviously don’t be disingenuous about it, but this is what the professionals call ~networking~

don’t compare yourself to others. this one is one you have got to keep in mind constantly. you’re going to find 17 year olds with huge followings and 30 year olds that are doing professional industry work whose level feels alien and almost out of reach. if you’re not doing as well, don’t let yourself get discouraged. we all gotta start somewhere!

related to the above point: be nice to your followers. venting on main about not having the same audience volume as others can come off as a huge middle finger to the audience you already have.

gaining a following takes time. unless you get a really lucky break, it’s going to take a lot of work and self promotion to build up your brand.

slap your name on everything. i mean it. any art you do - sign it. watermark it. people can and will share art in telegram channels and discord servers, and if the art interests someone they can easily source it back to you if your name is on it.

you can buy adspace. if you’re catering to a furry audience specifically, you can buy adspace on furaffinity pretty easily. inkblot i believe also offers adspace for artists though i haven’t looked too deep into it. this is really a “if you’re okay burning money” situation, as the huge chunkk of internet users have adblockers now and it’s a gamble if people will see or even click on your ad.

just have fun and do your own thing. you can hop on trends and draw art that caters to your audience’s tastes, but don’t forget to draw what YOU want and what YOU’RE about. Draw what makes YOU happy.

hope these help!! ;w;

[screwtheprinceimtakingthehorse]

Top of the Stack, Issue 26

Greetings friends,

just a quick hello from me before the month is out! February was rough in so many ways. I only posted a few updates on Twitter and kept folks up to date through the discord server, so if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been kinda quiet, here’s a sign of life!

I’m ok! My family’s been put through it this month, with first my godfather passing away, then my dad suffering a stroke just three weeks ago, and now my mum’s apartment being uninhabitable thanks to a broken heater that the landlord isn’t really fussed about repairing. In the middle of winter. There’s other stuff going on I won’t go into here, but these next few months will be eventful. Something something unprecedented times.

The good news: after three weeks in hospital, receiving genuinely excellent care, my dad is back home! He’s made a remarkable recovery. Thankfully, mum can stay with him while she looks for a new place to live — it means she’ll worry less, and he can help her with the paperwork. It’s very German of him, I think. Give a man paperwork to do and he learns to walk again.

I took a break from streaming and everything throughout all that because there was no way I could have even pretended to be a functional human being. My sister and I also both stayed with our mum for the first week after dad’s stroke, and every single day was so exhausting, emotionally and physically. As healing as it was to have all four of us together, and see how much it helped my parents to have us show up like that and be present, there’s still a cost to it. You’re running on survival mode — the three of us had to remind each other to eat, to drink enough, to take sit down — and at the same time there’s a want for normalcy. To enjoy the time together, to dig for another silly joke, another laugh. For my dad, it was a huge part of his early recovery: to know that this was not the end.

Once I came back home and things were looking so much better than the week before, I just let myself rest. I went back to work, but the remainder of the time, I played video games. I’d torn through Horizon Zero Dawn the first weekend to distract myself, and then it was straight on to Forbidden West. The right amount of game, at the right time. (I really mostly played it to turn my brain off, but it turns out I caught thoughts in spite of myself: there’s a blog and video essay coming about knowledge as an objective and theme in both games’ narratives.) I’ve slowed it down now, but I still sit down nearly every evening to play more. I can enjoy it for what it is, and playing it doesn’t bring anything back up. But it really helped.

Can a video game save a life? Yes. Without that distraction, my mind would have turned itself inside-out with grief. It is grief, even when you’re not (yet) bereaved. Only time will tell how we all process this. Thus far, the relief over my dad’s quick progress has bolstered us, I think. But there’ll be more to deal with, as there always is.

I’m back to streaming and making videos and writing now, after taking time to adjust to everyday life and recalibrate my energy. I did a recording session for Bioshock first; sort of as a practice run for to-camera stuff and interacting at least with an asynchronous audience. This gave me the added safety net of being able to just stop at any point without having to manage any (even positive!) reaction in the moment. That went well, however, so I felt confident in streaming again on Friday. I enjoy it so much, and I knew that taking a break was the right choice precisely when my feeling switched from being glad I had nothing on on a Friday night for a while to being excited to stream again.

Now we’re heading into March and I hope that it will be a kinder time for all of us. Be gentle with yourselves 💜

[warlocks-and-phoenixes]

I posted 183 times in 2022

That's 183 more posts than 2021!

44 posts created (24%)

139 posts reblogged (76%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@teaparty-in-ruan

@twilight-skies

@aaronisawhore

@vyladromeave

@coelakanths

I tagged 181 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#minecraft diaries - 143 posts

#lmfao - 55 posts

#pretty art - 30 posts

#garroth ro'meave - 28 posts

#aphmau shala’shaska - 24 posts

#aphverse headcanons - 23 posts

#mystreet - 19 posts

#aphmau - 16 posts

#writing - 15 posts

#zane ro'meave - 14 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#jess could’ve at least made it like dante was threatening aph and their greatest fear is her being in danger as they’re helpless to stop it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

!18 Hours Before End of Round One Voting!

(X)

(X)

13 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

#4

APHTOBER DAY 4: JURY

13 notes - Posted October 5, 2022

#3

APHTOBER DAY 6: DEARLY DEPARTED

14 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

#2

Twi’s Headcanons: The Aphmau Multiverse

So, two days ago I had a sudden idea to make the photo below, explaining all of my HCs of how the universe/dimensions/multiverse worked. I then spent an obscene amount of time in the middle of the night and the next day making it, and I decided it’d be cool to share it here instead of just discord (for once. I really love hc posts but I never get around to them usually unless prompted) (this post is 1666 words long oh boy)

Under the cut is a transcription of all the text in case it’s hard to read, along with my HCs concerning the Divine Dimensions specifically, as well as an explanation of the “inter-universal breach” in the bottom-left with VOID: Paradox’s universe. I think everything below explains enough, but feel free to ask if there’s anything else you’d like to know!

(Tumblr ate the quality so click on the photo to make it look better)

A Guide to the Aphmau Multiverse (As Headcanoned by Twilight)

Basic Info:

The Multiverse Itself: Every large purple circle is a universe. A singular universe may have many different dimensions inside of it, some being unique, but all of them have the fundamentals of life: a form of Material Universe, an Astral Weave/Garden, Gateway/Door of Judgment, and Aether/Afterlife.

The Universal Barrier//The Void: The Barrier is an infinite abyss of nothingness that separates each universe. If the Barrier is broken in any way (an object or being traveling between universes), the best way to describe its reaction would be like that of an immune system overreacting to some viruses; it begins attacking itself in the goal of destroying the threat. In such an event, The Void; an unstoppable parasitic force of nature, is released into all universes involved in the breach, essentially killing/destroying the entire universe and then resetting it completely.

The Dimensions within the the MCD/MS Universe:

Mortal Plane//Known Galaxy//Material Universe (including Earth): The world of Diaries, PDH/PDD, and Mystreet.

The Nether//Shad The Destroyer’s Dimension: the equivalent of Hell in Divine mythology, though Judgment does not actually send anyone there of their own accord. [Reached from the Mortal Plane via unstable ritual magic; Connected to the Astral Garden via Shad’s interference in the natural cycle of life/death.]

Astral Weave: Where the threads of reality weave together to create souls in preparation for the birth of a new being. [Unreachable to living or dead beings]

Astral Garden: Purgatory/where souls go after death and before Judgment. [Unreachable to living beings; Connected to the Nether via Shad’s interference in the natural cycle of life/death.]

Door of Judgment: The gateway into the Afterlife [Unreachable to living beings]

The Aether//Afterlife: The equivalent of Heaven in Divine mythology. [Unreachable to living beings]

Yggdrasil: An Alternate Dimension home to the humanoid race known as Elves. The majority prefer to keep their existence mostly unknown to Humans, but they have established a permanent link between dimensions in the Arctic Mountains of Earth. [Reachable via portal created by Elven sorcery in the Arctic area of Earth]

Wyvern Realm: An alternate Dimension home to the intelligent draconic race known as Wyverns. [Reached from the Mortal Plane via unstable ritual magic]

See the full post

22 notes - Posted July 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Twi’s Headcanons II: The Region of Ru’aun

After making that last post about the multiverse, it only seemed right that I also do one exploring my own map of Ru’aun, its history, and its politics. It’s also definitely needed in order to understand the other non-canon places in my rewrite, so without further ado:

(Oh shit it’s 3.5k words this time lmao. Also Tumblr ate the quality again so click on the photos)

(NOTE: The in-universe calendar used in various places here counts upwards from the birth of Irene. In my version season 1 takes place 482 years after the divine, and season 3 is 500 years later, not 900. AI stands for “After Irene” and BI means “Before Irene”. Comparable to BC & AD)

Khasia & Scalesia:

[Pronounced kah-sia and skay-lee-sia (sia as in ‘Asia’)]

See the full post

38 notes - Posted July 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[ikubaes]

i'm not sure if you will ever look back on here after interaction we had on friday, but i want to write this anyway... i wanna answer everything you wrote in your post... and i think this is just me subsequently wanting to talk to you more.

i have to admit, i was a little confused as to why you broke no contact with me first on the 3rd and then writing to me on the 12th... if we weren't gonna talk... this could just be my confusion, but i always thought reaching out first meant having a conversation with the other person? i guess maybe i didn't reply fast enough? the message and post gave me a lot of hope for a future "us" would that look back at this moment in time and just laugh at how silly we were being.

things in your post made me think you did wanna talk, so i was a bit surprised by the reaction i got when i approached you. i knew it was your birthday and there's a million other things you'd rather be doing, but i don't know... it confused me a lot. this isn't me being upset that you didn't want to, it's just the way i was processing everything... it's okay, though. i told you that i wouldn't rush you. not that you ever have to talk to me either... i feel like the ball has always been in your court when it comes to us reconnecting... it's really your call... your comfort. i'll always want to. not because i think of you fondly because you loved me so dearly, i want to because i truly feel as if we're meant to be in each other's lives if we carry holes in us that are entirely shaped like the other.

i want to talk you again, be in your space again, feel you trust me again, laugh with you again, link arms with you while we walk down the street again. i genuinely love you. i never stopped. i guess the problem was that i never really cared what we were, as long as we could fall on each other and talk... maybe that's my fault.

i'll list my contacts here that are quicker than tumblr if you do wanna talk... i won't bother you on instagram again.

discord: mostlyfate / twitter: @idluanymore

i really don’t know how to start this off. i don’t even know how many days have passed since i finally saw what was on your blog. it’s kind of funny, actually. i’ve went back and looked on here a bunch of times throughout the past year but i never felt able to check the stuff on your blog. it felt invasive, for some reason. even though we kind of built this together (didn’t we?) it felt like i wasn’t allowed to go back on there, so i didn’t. but that day i was having a particularly hard time and i was feeling your absence in a way that just saying “missing” doesn’t seem to cut it. i was talking with a new friend who doesn’t know much about you and i guess i said something in relation to you that made them say something along the lines of: i don’t know what happened because you don’t talk about this but i can tell this is still hurting you. it caught me off guard, i guess it’s never nice to be called out. either way, that night i was really looking for your words. i felt silly but i read plenty of tomin and i wanted to remember what you said to me in letters. i vaguely remembered you maybe addressing me at the end of gifts, so i finally checked your blog. imagine my surprise, i wanted just a paragraph of you telling me i was valued and i came across all that. it froze me, it’s frozen me for several days. i find myself in a state where i don’t know where i stand and i don’t know what to do. i regret never getting closure but i didn’t dare to mess with how it was ended.

that is kinda funny that you were never able to look at my blog... i looked at yours a lot, especially the little note you wrote me at the end of tomin's 500 days. sometimes it would make me cry. sometimes it would make me smile. on the tail end of 2023, it would mostly make me cry. we did build these blogs together and now we're here, tip-toeing around each other on them years later. i also miss you in a way that "missing" doesn't encompass either. i'm sorry the thought of me still hurts you, i really wish i could do something about it; i really want to. i don't really say sorry a lot either, so i really mean it when i say it to you. i'm happy my words were able to reach you. i hope you could feel the fondness and love i still hold for you in them. this part "i find myself in a state where i don’t know where i stand and i don’t know what to do. i regret never getting closure but i didn’t dare to mess with how it was ended." is what made me think you wanted to reconnect with me, on top of the message from the 3rd.

with the topic of you talking to your friend who doesn't know a lot about me, i had a similar experience. i made a new friend last year who was also a taylor swift fan, i also kinda delved into her music a lot more after we stopped talking because i always told you i liked her girly, country albums more than her newer stuff and it was also just an excuse to feel close to you in some way. at least we'll be listening to the same songs. so, it was when she dropped her eras tour dvd thing online. we were watching it, making commentary and the song 'the 1' came on. i busted into tears. it was so uncontrollable, we had to pause and all i could do was cry about all of the memories of you flooding through my mind about how you said it reminded you of me.

i’ve thought about you throughout the year. i’ve thought about you, your sister, your brother, your friends. i’ve thought about the “i hope you get everything you’ve ever wanted and i hope i never hear a thing about it” quote. not in a negative way, of course. i wish for your happiness because i still genuinely think you are deserving of love but i don’t think that’s something that will ever include me. i think you remember me fondly because i loved you so desperately and i believe you will be able to find other people, like me, who will love you like that. it just won’t be me, and that’s fine. all the love i showed you is yours to keep and i hope you know that.

i thought a lot about you too. i've thought about those around you and how jealous i am of them. the quote does hurt, but i really hope i do get to hear about everything good that's happened to you even if it doesn't involve me. i still think there's a chance for us, so i do think you could be involved if you wanted to be. i don't remember you fondly simply because you loved me. i remember you the way i do because despite all of the stuff we went through together, we could always smile at the end. i think about you so sweetly because you were my rock, the person i went to everything with, the person who would sit with me for hours, bantering and creating and allowing me to love her. i'm sorry the kind of love i was capable of back then wasn't what you wanted. i truly am sorry. i recognize now that to a person who feels one type of love so strongly, being around the object of their affection that can only give another form of love must've been really hard. we had so many memorable times together... so many of my formative moments in my late teens and early twenties were with you. a part of me grew up with you. i love for for many reasons and not one of them is simply because you loved me.

it does make me feel less lonely to realize you remember me in such kind ways. in my constant self-villanization i feared the occasional aches i felt were one-sided and i was nothing more than just a fleeting memory to you. i wrote this down a lot. do you miss me? do you think about me? are you fine with all this? am i carrying this all alone? i guess i’m not. it makes the burden a little less heavy and then you wonder, isn’t this kinda ridiculous? but i don’t know.. i don’t know. i guess i wanted you to know that i still carry you too. in the small things, the iu and the red velvet, the fromis 9 and the furuba. that silly black cat is still in my bed, but now he wears a cinnamoroll hat and goes by a new name. i changed a lot this past year, mostly my interests. i realized half-way i was just pretending there was a three year gap where nothing happened, avoiding things i shared with you and sheltering myself in things i wouldn’t find you in, even though i always found you. did you know jeonghan from seventeen’s favorite movie is my tomorrow, your yesterday? did you get the 1004 from him? i always think about these things. do you remember when i told you juyeon from the boyz was kinda jeongmin coded? do you remember when we made an idolverse and i ripped off their discography? do you remember jeongmin? a lot of people are surprised i kind of stopped caring about twice. but how could i? i couldn’t even explain it. i walked around with holes i forcibly ripped away until i found something else to patch them up. i made new friends, factory reset my life.

i do miss you. i do think about you. i wasn't fine with it and i still am not fine with the distance between us. you're not carrying anything alone. why is it ridiculous that we both miss each other dearly? did we not love each other for 2 years? do we both not wish we could still be around the other? i never really tried to forget you, if i had to be honest. of course it stung, but i took it as me just simply still caring about you. after the initial pain had waned, i think my love for you simply crystalized in my heart; it was still there, just condensed and solid in place. i never really tried to change my interest either, i thought in retrospect, it was kinda sweet that our voices would echo behind the others' whenever we spoke about common things we shared. i'm happy you still carry the black cat around with you, even if she's different now. to be loved is to be changed, no?

i hope one day you'll be able to enjoy the things you enjoyed with me with yourself again... and if you don't want to, that's okay, too. interests change all the time. i rewatched our beloved summer this past summer because i missed you the most then and all i could think about is how we ended up paralleling yeonsu and ung.

i didn't know his favorite movie was my tomorrow, your yesterday! dang, does that mean we're both basic? /lighthearted and i got 1004 because it means cheonsa in korean! i always thought it was cute, it's cute that that's his birthday, too. i also happen to like juyeon these days. the boyz, not so much, but i do like seeing juyeon's photoshoots. he is jeongmin coded, isn't he? i still remember jeongmin. my favorite muse to ever exist, of course! i remember everything about him, you could still quiz me now and i'm sure i'd get a 100% on a minnie quiz.

coincidentally on the 3rd, i accidentally typed jeongmin's name instead of jeongin for a show i was watching with a friend. i was surprised myself that his name was still engrained in me.

i'm happy that you have a good crowd around you. i'm also surprised you can't find yourself being invested in twice anymore since i remember they were the main group you collected. i hope that changes since they were your girls for so long.

saying it like that kind of makes it sound miserable, but i’m not, or at least i’m not most of the time. i don’t want you to think i am struggling, i think i’ve managed to hold myself up pretty alright. though i am emotionally unavailable in ways that surprise me when i look back at us, the person who i am today vs. the lover girl i was… please always cherish that love because i don’t know if i will ever be able to give it away like that. so devoted the lines blur. my new friend said it’s concerning when i said i let the people that love me do whatever they want with or to me, but i don’t know. maybe one day i will learn, but please don’t let all that i gave you be in vain. if you still have those days where you feel too difficult, always remember there was somebody that really loved you and would’ve done anything for you. i don’t need it to be mutual anymore, i just want it to be acknowledged.

i'm glad you have been living a good life. i truly am. i hope you have brighter days than you have dark. i do cherish all of the love you gave me. i just wish you would let me give it back to you in a manner that i couldn't back then. so devoted the lines blur is a beautiful way to put it. i do still have days where i feel too difficult, that's all i could think about the first couple of months that we didn't talk. how inept i was. how i couldn't seem to get it through my thick skull that you did love me. i wrote about this in my first post to you and a little bit in my second, too. how i couldn't seem to get a grasp on my interpersonal problems that made me feel so unlovable. get a grasp on my sexuality. asking me to believe you loved me back then was like asking an atheist to believe in god. they simply couldn't. i think we argued about how i didn't feel like you cared for me a few times because the way you portrayed it wouldn't register in my worm-infested brain or something like that. the problems we had back then really escape me now. i know a lot of it was because i had a hard time admitting i had feelings for you because of my confusion in my sexuality, how turbulent my life was at one point, how moody i was, too, and how we never really talked about it afterwards. how things just were swept under the rug because we wanted to salvage what kind of relationship we still had with each other. i think we were both really insecure with the other, too. i know i was really immature too. short with you, too. couldn't understand why you kept saying or doing things that upset me. i've healed a lot in therapy, i'm coming up on one year in therapy soon. i've done a lot of work pertaining my family problems and my emotional dysregulation. i think i saw my therapist 3 times a week during the summer because i really needed someone to talk to about everything. my therapist does know a lot about you... i hope you don't mind. i recently came out to a lot of my friends and loved ones, too... learned a lot about my sexuality through other queer south asian women and it was a very healing experience. which is funny because i remember you clocking a long time ago that my man-chasing shenanigans were just me displaying "fatherless behavior" and well, it was true. you clocked a long time ago that i was comp-het and a flaming lesbian in denial, too. i still laugh thinking about how i told you how much i loved women growing up and you just called me gay. i know you said you didn't wanna hear a lot about me, but i did wanna share this with you.

i’ll always remember you. i’ll remember how you said that you liked how i loved you like a puppy, how willing i was to do anything for us. you’re someone i’m always going to remember because you showed me how much love i am capable to have, to feel and to give.

to this, i want to tell you that there will always be a chair, decorated with stickers with matcha bubble tea sitting on it, waiting for you, at my table for you. there's always space in my heart and life for you if you ever decide you want to be there. i wouldn't have to make space because it would simply always be there. i see a future for us. i really do.

p.s.: i tell people you were my ex girlfriend. it’s much simpler that way. is that okay with you? almost one year no contact, can we finally admit we were in a two year long relationship? it’s okay if not. i always felt i would’ve been easier to love if i had been a boy.

i admit we were basically in a relationship with each other. i'll happily be your ex girlfriend. you wouldn't have been easier to love if you were a boy. not in the slightest. i'm sorry if i made you feel that way in a state of how underdeveloped i was back then. i love you for everything you are.

i think about that question, "if you were in a room full of people you loved, who would you go to first?"

undeniably, irrevocably... i would go to you.

i hope you had a fun birthday. i really hope i hear from you soon. if i don't, i hope my words touch you once again.

as always, i love you and i'm always here for you.

[prettytanuki]

Why Mastodon Sucks #2: No Reblogs & No Like Button

One thing I think most people don't realize is that Mastodon doesn't have a reblog function and it doesn't have a like button. It has a "boost" function and a "favorite" button.

So what does "boost" do and "favorite" do? In practice same thing as reblog/like. Or retweet/like. EXCEPT:

It's called something else.

"Boosting" shares something with your followers, but you can't add a comment to it/alter it.

So why does this suck? Let's start with "boost".

The ONLY function of "boost" is to LITERALLY "boost" the reach of a post by pushing it to the feeds of your followers.

This ain't how the fucking social media works! People want to SHARE THINGS WITH THEIR FOLLOWERS NOT "BOOST" SOMEONE ELSE'S HOT TAKES!!!

You can't for example share someone's photo of a flower to your followers and write underneath "this is my favorite flower (✿◕‿◕)" that's fucking illegal in mastodon we just boost signal here.

Why does "favorite" suck?

Because it completely misses the point of why people use a "like" button, which is ironic because mastodon users also just completely miss the point of why it's called a "favorite" button instead of "like" and just use it as if it were a "like" button making the whole damn thing just very ill-designed!

It's called "favorite" because it's actually supposed to mean your favorite posts that you save there to see later. If someone clicks on it you'll get a notification saying someone "favorited" your random worthless shitpost and you'll be left wondering why the fuck would anyone even do that???

Why people use a "like" button? It's not that they actually like posts. It's a quick easy frictionless reaction. It means just "cool". It's a way to tell the poster that you saw their post without having to write a comment.

Without a single-click button to leave your "I was here" mark there, a lot of people will see posts, "like" them in their minds, not bother replying to them, and go on with their lives. They won't interaction. From the side of the poster, it looks like nobody is even seeing your post. And if nobody is seeing it, why bother posting it?

There's a mastodon kind of thing called misskey that has reactions like in discord plus a dozen others crazy features. It looks LIVELY AS FUCK. Take a look at this:

Thousands of reactions. None of these people needed to write a single comment, just click a button! If this was mastodon it would look DEAD AS FUCK because most of these people wouldn't bother leaving a comment!

Social media mean socializing and socializing means interacting with others. Mastodon only cares about "interacting" in the sense of writing to them and back. It's really like "e-mail" in the sense e-mail is boring.

Reddit lets you buy an award to gift another user that stays marking their comment. This is just like a reaction and sometimes users buy "wholesome" awards for the most not-wholesome comments. THIS IS INTERACTION. The platform provides a way for users to interact, and a culture is built as users explore how they can use those means of interaction. Mastodon lacks pretty much everything.

Why does Mastodon lack so much?

It seems to be purpose so it will never get "fixed." If you don't like how it feels right now, bail, it won't change. Mastodon looked at twitter and saw only the defects so it removed them.

You can't add comments to "boosts" because twitter's similar quote-retweet feature was used to call your followers to attack someone else by quoting a 140 post out of context.

You can't like things and there aren't numbers anywhere because it figures that makes people addicted to social media. That's literally just dopamine. If that sort of logic was applied in real life it would be illegal to say "good morning" to people because acknowledgement may turn them into greeting addicts.

[yumeleta]

do you have any hcs on how lxm boys would act around a crush? like if theyre a gentleman around them, express their love or dont etc! You dont have to make this into an actual fic i would love to hear your ideas though ❤️

hey anon! thanks for dropping by my inbox <3.

as for the headcanons, i definitely have some in mind for the boys.

after realizing he had fallen for you, luca would be shy, sometimes clumsily fumbling with his words whenever he converses with you through voice chat. he notices that he finds himself staring at your discord dms a bit too frequently nowadays. despite being extroverted, he starts to enjoy it more when its only the two of you in a collab, or in a game playing together. he finds more ways to mention you in his livestreams even if it has nothing to do with you.

shu, however, is a different case, except he is going to be more bold with his actions. he drops little flirtatious remarks here and there, but at the same time he would treat you in a gentlemanly manner. he'll make time to hang out with you, whether it's playing on a separate minecraft realm or just chatting together during ungodly hours. he sends you pictures of baby penguins hugging together with a message attached to it, reading, 'us? nah i'm kidding. unless..?'.

i think we can agree that ike will be the sweetest one out of all of them. he would willingly be all ears for you to talk for hours, listening intently to how soothing your voice sounds to him. he'd write letters to you, describing how much he thinks you're amazing, but he keeps them away in a place you won't find them for now. if you complain about your broken gaming mouse, you'll suddenly find one right by your doorstep. hm, i wonder where (or who) that came from?

as concerning as it sounds, mysta would be greatly anxious around you the minute he finds out about his ever growing crush. he notices that he never seems to stop talking whenever he's with you. he subconsciously filters his words during collaborations with you, and not a single dirty joke slips through his mouth (which pleasantly surprises the mystakes). the detective's heart runs a million miles a second when you start complimenting him. he also shares random conversations you had with him with his chat. he sees you like an angel in disguise, so kind to him even if he thinks he doesn't deserve such grace. please tell him he deserves it.

vox would be the most open about his affection for you. i highly doubt that he'd even deny those feelings! he will become your number one supporter, immediately promoting your projects whenever they go live or dropping by your streams with an akasupa bomb. the demon is always the first to greet you in anything, whether it's staying up until midnight for your birthday or being with you during your first subscriber milestone. he never stops flirting with you on twitter, goofily teasing you just to elicit a flustered reaction. he loves how you accept him for him, and that was the selling point to why he even fell for you in the first place.

[duraxxor]

Finale? Or Perhaps See you Later

I’d like to take the time to apologize for a lack of content or communication. So to make amends for all of this, I will be making this post. Who knows, I may delete this later and things may change. As of now, however, it’s time I came clean about how I feel. I’ve kept a few writing things on pause between @jacobdcheshyre , @xvampireslullabyx​ , and a couple others for quite a bit. At first, I thought it was just because I would get busy and I’d be unable to reply because of the lack of ability to think. However, over time I’ve come to realize... it’s more than just simple lack of. 

I was already struggling to write due to the decline of World of Warcraft’s failure to deliver for Shadowlands as it was because I watched as others gave up on the storyline. I’m not blaming those people that took a back seat at all because I too did such. I didn’t play World of Warcraft for a year and a half. Recently, I returned to my roots of playing Wrath Classic and I felt this nostalgia that I expected. It felt like I went back in time before I was a writer of any variety whatsoever. My mind would reflect back to Duraxxor himself, how the story began back in Mists of Pandaria where I created one of the coolest things I had ever played with:  An elven vampire known as the San’layn. At the time, I was judged from both fronts by those that decreed it god-modding and against lore because there was literally no proof they still existed and the Twilight comments... Oh man I remember them well. Look where we are now? I’ve never been so proud to see so many people love these vampires just as much as I have. 

Another thing I’d like to put on the table is that back in July, someone I considered a dear friend and I completely parted ways without so much as a conversation as to why it happened. All I know is that we both made mistakes that I felt could’ve been communicated but the damage is done. Nothing I can do about it. 8 years of on and off friendship out the door and I have to let that go. I’m not going to give names because I would rather those people live in peace than be harassed by anything connected to me. It’s another phase in the wonderous thing known as life. We watch people come and go, willingly or not, and it’s just a cruelty in itself. Let’s not ramble to much on that though, shall we? There’s a point to be made here I’m sure you’d like to hear. 

I believe after much consideration that I may not to take a backseat on writing. There’s this gnawing feeling I feel whenever I try to conjure up some form of writing. I don’t enjoy it as much as I use to. And that’s no one’s fault at all. That’s all me. ALL ME. Events and things that keep plaguing my mind and the enjoyment of writing certain things just isn’t there for me anymore right now. It almost feels like a hassle just to try and keep up with the times. Not to say I don’t joy the interaction with the people but there’s just this... I don’t know? Nagging? Gnawing? Prodding? It’s almost like I’m chasing something that I can never get back. A desire to write but an inability to put it on paper the way I want to or need to. Almost like I have to force reaction from my characters. It saddens me more than anything really. There’s even things of the past that have haunted my mind once they were pointed out by someone that I hadn’t wrote with in years. And right now, I’m absolutely stressing myself out over it. I want to have fun with it but I look at my hands right now as I try to type this and I go:  “ What the hell is wrong with me? “ I know I may lose more followers of this but... it was never about the followers, it was always about having fun and enjoying sharing my experiences in this grand scene that taught me so much about my language. I feel like sometimes I’m a completely different person when I write. So I want to thank every single one of you for that. 

I won’t say this is the finale, but more of a ‘See you later’. If you have a Twitter or Discord, look me up sometime so we can chit chat. I want to keep my friends without feeling like I have to keep an obligation to always writing. I want to feel more than just my character. I want to get to know the people that forged these wonderful avatars and characters. The artistic abilities and fluid language that follows. Who knows what may happen? I may even be able to come to some sort of a conclusion?

Thank you all, you know who you are but you are all special!

[struggling-with-time]

How the lack of a nickname can become something more [Corpse x reader]

Paring: Corpse husband x Gender Neutral!reader

Summary: “Hi! Sorry if this is weird, it’s my first time making a request but could you maybe write something for Corpse Husband where the reader is a streamer that’s very friendly and always calls her friends/people she’s playing with these cute nicknames (like babe, sweetie, hun...). But she has a crush on Corpse, so she never uses any of the nicknames on him and everyone thinks it’s because she doesn’t like him, so she has to explain to her stream?” requested by @voidcaine

Warnings: fluff, sorta angst

Words: 1.9k words

A/N: I had a good idea where this was supposed to go, then it went the complete other direction. Also does anyone want to read my original stuff?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Hey guys!” You join the discord call with the group of people to start a game of Raft. Tonight, it’s going to be you, Rae, Sykkuno, Toast and Corpse. You all greet each other and exchange pleasantries.

“Hey Y/N, how was your time off?” Toast is the first to ask about your 2 weeks off from streaming.

“Thank you hun, it was pretty nice. I got a lot of things done, and I can soon tell the date of my next project.” You tease your audience.

The rest have already played the Raft before, leading to them giving you a chaotic introduction to the game. Leaving you more confused about what you are supposed to do than before.

“Rae babe, am I supposed to know what’s going on?” You don’t have to wait long, as Rae immediately responds.

“No. Not at all.” Resulting in a laugh from everyone.

You join into the game, and slowly start figure the controls out. Mostly you are just following Sykkuno around and trying to do the same things as him, yet somehow you do it worse.

Sykkuno ends up falling off the raft and gets killed by a shark before long.

“Sykkuno nooo! Not my sweetheart this world is too cruel!” You act dramatic, before he respawns.

“Does this mean I’m a ghost now? Because I will haunt you for pushing me off.” Sykkuno pokes right back at you.

You share another laugh before getting back to trying to make the Raft as big and confusing as ever. Some more time goes by as you head onto your 4th island this stream.

“Hey Corpse, can you get an axe from the Raft when you get onto the island? I forgot to bring one.” You don’t think much of not giving him a nickname like everyone has one. Well you do, more so you can’t bring yourself to give him one, because you are currently harboring a crush for him. Which means calling him an affectionate nickname, feels like lying to yourself about a future that will never happen.

This goes on for the rest of the stream, nobody mentions it, but in the goodbye section of the stream, everyone is on edge but you. The rest convinced that you have something against Corpse, including Corpse. Especially Corpse.

You stay in voice chat so the 5 of you can bid goodbye without your individual audiences listening in.

“Hey thanks for today, it was a good stream!” You cheerfully tell the others.

“Y/N, what was that?” Rae is the first to ask, bringing the issue the rest has had on their minds since the beginning of the stream.

“What was what?”

“What was not giving Corpse a nickname? You give everyone a nickname. If you look on twitter, there are already people asking if you don’t like him.”

“Rae, I can talk for myself, you don’t have to give me a nickname Y/N.” Corpse adds onto the conversation, now that you think about it, the upbeat mood of the stream has started to falter out towards the end of the stream.

“I’m so sorry Corpse! It wasn’t meant like that not at all! I don’t hate you!” You are quick to respond. If you could see Rae right now, you would be able to see her face, realizing what was going on.

“You know what, how about we leave the two of you to talk it out? Yeah? Yeah.” She quickly kicks Toast and Sykkuno from the call and then leaves herself. Before any of you get a chance to say goodbye.

“So… We are alone now…” You try to break the silence.

Corpse doesn’t respond, he can feel himself starting to go through the worst-case scenarios. That you hate him, and don’t want to be friends anymore. He thought the two of you had become close.

“Corpse I’m sorry, I hope you didn’t start to doubt yourself. I didn’t mean to make you feel like this, I’m so sorry. I’ll release a statement or something. I can fix this. I promise.” You have already thrown yourself straight into panic mode, especially after what Rae said about people thinking you hate Corpse.

Corpse can’t help sigh of relief when you start apologizing, “Y/N it’s alright, but why don’t I have a nickname?” Corpse is unsure if this is alright to ask, he wants to know, the two of you have been friends for close to half a year now, and you usually have a nickname for people with in your first time streaming or playing with them.

“I don’t think that’s something we should talk about over discord.” That was how the conversation dried up, a bit of small talk happened before the two of you bid your goodbyes. Leaving you frustrated over knowing Corpse would only think the worst.

The air between you two had thickened after that day, and everyone you ended up streaming with could feel it, while the two of you could hide it from your fans, your friends was a whole other thing. They had caught on to the two of you not being on the best speaking terms.

You wanted to explain yourself but felt that it was better to do face to face. He wanted to tell you he missed talking like the two of you used to do.

Then a chance finally came, Rae was hosting a party, and you were invited. Your first reaction to hearing it was asking if Corpse was coming too. Rae had told you he said yes, so you booked a ticket to the big city from your small town in Colorado. You would be able to stay at the collab house with Rae.

You were excited to meet the others again, you had only been able to meet up with Rae twice before. So, this was a good chance for you to talk to the others some more, and not to mention come clean to Corpse.

You settled down in Rae’s room quickly, and greeted everyone as you walked around the house, waiting for more guest to arrive. You kept looking for Corpse. Making you not the greatest conversational partner as you barely listened, only agreeing, and disagreeing on the right times.

You notice his mop of black curls quickly when he comes into the living room. You immediately leave the conversation you were barely listening to, you try to wave him down, but he doesn’t seem to have noticed you.

You head his way instead; he’s currently talking a bit to Rae probably thanking her for inviting him. You stand a bit to the side not saying anything just waiting for your turn, as to not interrupt their conversation. Rae points to you, and wave you down. You try to act surprised, not just having stood there like a stalker and watched their entire conversation.

“Hey,” you smile at him, and he returns it.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Rae walks away, totally not having planned this so the two of you could meet. Rae had after the awkward conversation gotten the real reason out of you why you didn’t want to give Corpse a nickname. While she had enjoyed teasing you about your crush, she had never spoken a word to anyone else about it.

“So… we finally meet.” You try to break the ice.

“We do, do you want to go outside?”

“Oh, thank god, yes.” You follow after him, not noticing Rae pointing the two of you leaving to go outside to Sykkuno that she might have told your secret to by accident.

You find a bench and settle down, the weather being pretty decent, no wind to be felt.

“You said, you wanted to talk about what has been bothering you face to face?” Corpse gets straight to the thing that’s on both of your minds.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about it, I really am, I’m sorry, I know I’ve been cryptic and-”

“You don’t have to keep apologizing, we’re friends. Don’t apologize for existing.” Corpse reassures you.

“Yeah, sorry about that… I don’t know how to tell you this, and I really don’t want to ruin our friendship and I mean that. And I realized I had caught feelings for you, it wasn’t on purpose I swear.”

“Why would-”

“Please let me finish before you ask anything.” You look at him pleading. He nods to let you continue. “I didn’t want to give you a nickname, and I know that’s my entire brand at this point… I just couldn’t get myself to call you something affectionate and keep it platonic in my mind. Because I wanted more, I still do. I don’t want to just be your friend, and I don’t want to ruin what we have, because you are a good friend, one of my best.” You rub your hands over your face.

You can feel the awkwardness radiating off Corpse.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” You get off the bench and prepare to walk away when Corpse grabs around your wrist.

“Didn’t I tell you not to apologize for existing.” You can’t help but laugh a dry laugh, you can feel the tears ready themselves as you wait for the inevitable rejection.

“Corpse, don’t drag this out. I like you okay, and I don’t want to be more hurt over it.” You try to tug your hand to yourself.

“What if I like you too?” He might not have been as in tune with his feelings as you had. However, he had come to realize he had feelings for you. They had crept up on him in the form of suddenly missing you whenever you hung up after talking. They had come at him slow and over a long time, while your feeling had washed over you as a tsunami coursing through your heart.

“Corpse, it’s okay, just let me down gently.” You take you free hand to dry the tears that are now seemingly escaping.

“No Y/N, what if I like you too. Because I do. I like to hear your laugh, I like when we talk so far into the night I can hear your roommates alarm go off. I like when you say my name, even if I was you would give me a nickname.” He can’t help but chuckle. “ I like you Y/N.”

Your tears are now streaming out not of sadness but of the pure happy feeling of having your feeling returned from the guy you never thought who would return them.

He pulls you into a hug.

You can’t help but whisper to him.

“I like you Corpse.”

“I like you too Y/N.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

[changkyunsmilitarywife]

Obey Me! Headcanons

𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳

- kins Hannibal Lector from Hannibal NBC

- has a secret Only Fans

- enjoys dishing out punishments & tying people to the ceiling a little bit TOO much

- big dick energy

- he also has big milkers

- loves MCR

- I can see him as a total emo or scene kid in the early 2000s

- wine mom

- whenever his brothers are loud he's like a teacher that says "I'll wait" with his arms crossed

- constantly gets his cape/coat thing flipped over his head by Mammon whenever he walks the halls

- forces his brothers to do community service stuff with him for 'family bonding'

- has a Keurig that Diavolo gave him

- sets the Thermostat to 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit)

- “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” energy

𝘔𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯

- deez nuts & your mom jokes

- unironically kins the Joker

- Kpop stan

- pretends to hate kids but actually likes them

- or he absolutely hates them. There's no in between

- unironically relates to Creep by Radiohead (but I think most people do so it's okay)

- plays Animal Crossing and owes lots of Bells to Tom Nook

- afraid of Barney, Big Bird & the Kool Aid man

- committed tax fraud at some point (if taxes exist in the Devildom idk)

- flat earther ☹️

- took him too long to learn how to tie his shoe laces

- or he just straight up doesn't know how

- uses axe as his choice of deodorant

- scared of spiders & bugs in general

- makes children cry (maybe that's why he doesn't like them or pretends he doesn't like them)

- he's a discord kitten for money

- cat fishes old men for money

- probably was one of "The Boys 😈💪🏻🦍🔫" at some point

- doesn't know how to swim

- bottom

- got his ears pierced at Claire's

- into bitcoin and cryptocurrency

- makes & sells shitty NFTs

𝘓𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯

- bullies kids online for fun

- wall puncher when he loses fortnite ☹️

- fucking sucks ass at Minecraft

- scared of Minecraft mobs esp the spiders

- discord mod....

- twitch streamer; secretly popular

- has a maid dress & wears it on stream

- participates in NNN...but fails

- when he says lol out loud he says it like "el oh el"

- had a nightcore phase

- his piss is a bright highlighter yellow color

- drinks G Fuel or Bang Energy

- "I have the power of god and anime on my side!"

- the weird kid who sits in the back of your class

- has the Creeper zip up hoodie

- unironically likes & listens to Bo Burnham

- "paper cut survivor 💪🏻" in his bio

𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘯

- goes live on tiktok or devilgram & reads bedtime stories

- wears cat ears

- secretly has a Wattpad account or a tumblr where he writes fanfics

- he probably writes smut too tbh

- runs a podcast

- the type to start drama at RAD with asmo because they're bored

- actually likes Macbeth 🤢

- your average nickelback enjoyer

- accidentally fell into an animal’s cage at the zoo when he was a kid

- likes americanos ☹️

- super passive aggressive

- has one of those weird millennial signs that say stuff like "girl boss" or "don't talk to me if I haven't had my coffee yet"

- cat meme/reaction pic user

𝘈𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘶𝘴

- runs one of those school 'tea' & 'confession' accs on devilgram for RAD

- very famous beauty guru

- has an only fans & twitter

- unironically likes the kissing booth ☹️

- the type to start drama at RAD with Satan because they're bored

- moans super loud during face time/on a call if someone else walks in your room

- if he was in It he would think Pennywise is hot and try to seduce him

- Light Yagami apologist (I mean me too he's hot sorry not sorry)

- watches Ru Paul's drag race

𝘉𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘻𝘦𝘣𝘶𝘣

- tattles on any of his brothers if Lucifer bribes him with food

- takes gym class to seriously, especially dodge ball

- plays cooking mama on his crappy old DSI

- Candy crush player (weirdly good at it)

- good at pole dancing

𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘳

- Radiohead stan

- likes fnaf & the lore

- hot topic or Spencer's employee

- con artist for fun

- avid True Crime podcast listener

- has the strawberry or chocolate cow scented pillow pet

𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘰

- has a folder in his photos that's just full of pictures of Lucifer

- has a prayer candle with Lucifer's face on it as a "joke" (or is it ?🤨)

- "blackmails" Lucifer with candids Diavolo took of him (mainly the shirtless ones he took when they were on vacation)

- he radiates energy of that one dad who tries to be 'hip'

- had to get bailed out of jail by Lucifer (Ik he's the prince but idc)

- says memes like "may-mays"

- he probably accidentally summoned the wrong person/human for the exchange program

- scared of roaches

- his favorite Disney movie is Ratatouille

- kins Remy the rat

- big mommy milkers

- has a pickle hate page on devilgram where he just posts pictures of pickles and slanders them

- King Julien

- also enjoys Ru Paul's drag race & forces Lucifer to watch with him

- pours milk before cereal

- has a pair of crocs that are decorated with jibbitz with Barbatos & forced Lucifer to get a pair so all 3 of them can match

- likes minion memes

- has a Burger King crown

𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘴

- weirdly good at hacking and coding??

- business major vibes

- or engineering major

- runs a tea devilgram acc where he reviews and rates different brands of tea

- malewife & girlboss energy

- goes on Omegle with Diavolo

- knows how to Doxx people

- takes Diavolo to Chuck E Cheese

- has those old lady candies in his pocket

𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯

- actually a super horny mf

- he is not innocent as you think

- "that's what she said jokes" but says it in his head

- doesn't get worried when Luke is gone bc he knows that Luke will come back

- uses Facebook

𝘓𝘶𝘬𝘦

- has a burn book that features all of the demon brothers

- has Pokémon cards and is actually pretty good at the game

- Jiggly Puff is his fav Pokémon

- jumps around with a contorted face whenever he stubs his toe because he REFUSES to curse

- has the frog Build a Bear plushie

- knitting/crocheting master

𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯

- sucks at card games so he subtly cheats with magic

- trolls on twitter or any app tbh

- Star Wars fan

- doesn't know how to drive

- or if he does know, he's just shit at it

- does magic at kids birthday parties

- likes Harry Potter but critiques it with how “inaccurate” it is

- turns the brothers into toddlers for fun

- he definitely banged Asmo at some point

- listens to Weezer

- uses Uno cards to do Tarot readings

[wisehq]

Mission Debrief: Chapter 43

...IT’S HAPPENING! IT’S HAPPENING! IT’S HAPPENING-!

Alright, before we get into it- full disclosure; the hivemind is in full swing at the Operation Strix discord server, so pretty much anything I write here is going to be an amalgamation of all the conspiracy theories and reactions we vomited out as soon as the chapter dropped. On that same note, I think writing these the day after will start to be the norm. Just so I have the chance to calm myself before going on a twenty-page tangent about everything Endo may or may not be planning.

Okay [deep breath] let’s get into it.

First, let’s start off with Franky, before we get into the juicy stuff.

When the chapter first started, I thought we were going to get backstory on Franky. Endo seemed to be alluding to this on his twitter page, and I was actually interested in possibly seeing more about his and Twilight’s relationship. Of course that didn’t end up happening; instead we got another side story about Franky trying to get some action by finding a lady’s lost cat, but seeing as how it’s Franky we’re talking about it seemed appropriate. Also, how can I be upset when-

The princess herself arrives! I gotta say, I loved the lightheartedness of most of this chapter. Yor’s always a delight, and pairing her together with Franky was a smart move on Endo’s part. They built off each other’s wackiness and I love this moment with the two of them. Just like with Twilight, we see that Franky genuinely wants to make the world a better place (and also get rich along the way) and Yor’s so impressed with him. I also liked that moment where Franky is surprised to find Yor still playing Loid’s wife even when he isn’t there- much like how he was with Anya while he was babysitting her. Just another little nod to the fact that he sees the Forger girls as being more than players in a game of elaborate house.

Then- just a quick thing before we get into what I know we all want to talk about- it’s interesting to me that Franky isn’t a one-man operation. He has a whole network of informants that he works with, and it makes sense that someone in his line of work has a many ears on the wall as possible. It’s a surefire way to stay plugged into the goings-on of the Ostanian underworld, unless of course...

...They get taken out by Garden.

AGHGHGHGHGH ALRIGHT, OK LET’S GO-

Garden. We finally have a name for Yor’s group now; we thought it was The Shop for the longest time, but apparently that’s only part of it. Yor alluded to this briefly back in ch. 29 when she described The Shop was being in charge of information gathering, and once their job was done it was Yor’s turn to come in and do the actual assassination. In this sense we see The Shop was being more of a support role in the same way that Franky is, though it’s still safe to assume the Shopkeeper is still in charge of both The Shop and Garden. At least for now- until we get more information to say otherwise, anyway.

Of course, the interesting thing is our silhouetted figures standing in this panel- not to mention the fact that Franky states that all the members are capable of taking on a whole troop of soldiers (for reference, a troop ranges between 9 and 100 men, though it usually hovers around 50). We know Yor is capable of doing this, but now that we also know the other assassins of Garden are as well, it begs the question; is Yor’s strength truly a unique thing in this world? And if it isn’t, what could be the source of it?

OSO-R, the drug used during the Tennis arc, was described as being in its trial stages. I originally chalked up it’s fast development time as just being part of manga logic, although I’m now starting to question that theory. It’s possible the roadmap for OSO-R has been around for much longer than first thought, and may find its traces back to when the war had just ended. Loid describes Garden as having been around for some time. We also know that Yor was just a child when she started up her assassination gig, so it’s possible that she and others like her may be have been exposed to a serum similar to OSO-R a decade or so before. Given Ostania’s track record of human experimentation, the scenario is possible.

Also going back to what Franky describes as “the shadow government”; it’s interesting that we’re hearing rumblings of a government operating outside the public’s view literally one chapter after we were just introduced to the concept of a royal class at some point in Ostania’s past. There’s a lot of things that cab be construed from this (such as Garden serving an authority that doesn’t necessarily align with Donovan and the government) but listing everything would just turn this review into one long-winded mess. So instead, we’re gonna entertain a fun theory- one that may or may not be true, but if it *does* end up being confirmed later on down that road, you heard it here first.

*ahem*

Mr. Green is a part of Garden.

Allow me to state my case.

When ch. 39 came out, I found it very unusual that a brand new character we haven’t seen before got a majority of the panel-time alongside Damian and the boys. It wasn’t very suspicious at the time, given that we’d just been introduced to Becky’s maid Martha, so we all just assumed Endo was building up his side characters a bit. For all intents and purposes, that may very well be the case.

However.

I know one person in particular who latched onto this panel right here, and for good reason; why would a security guard stationed at a school nowhere close to the border know about code words being used by people trying to cross over illegally? Yes, he was supposedly in the navy, but the way he phrases it here heavily implies that these code words are a recent affair, or at the very least are still being used currently. Why would he know that? Even if he was in the military, it’s information that has absolutely nothing to do with being in the navy.

Mr. Green is also very strong; strong enough to make the boys think they were going down rapids when in actuality it was just him rowing so fast. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever paddled a boat before, but it’s hard work- and it’s certainly difficult to the get that boat going at cruising speed, let alone fast enough to cause rapids. Yor’s the only one we’ve seen with strength like that and- yes, Green was supposedly in the navy, but at this point in time we don’t know anything else about him. We don’t know what he did after the war, nor do we know how he wound up in Eden Academy in the first place.

This is where we start going deep down the rabbit hole. Hang on.

This gentleman who we’ve never seen before is clearly aware that Garden exists, or at the very least is privy to Yor’s actual job. Much like how WISE has plants within Loid’s hospital, this man likely works to support Yor in some way. If such is the case, we can likely assume that- because the shadow government is supporting Garden- they would have their assassins posted in key areas for various reasons, likely to keep an eye out for traitors or to keep them spread out to cover a wide area should the need ever arise to deploy them.

We’ve only ever see Yor target traitorous politicians and outright terrorists (I realize this one is just a daydream, but you get my point). It would make sense, seeing as how she works at city hall and it would likely put her in an advantageous position when hunting them down. Of course, politicians aren’t the only people who might catch Garden’s attention. Given the amount of political and economic unrest that is currently going on in the country, there likely would be some people who would be fed up with the state of things. Such people may not be like Franklin Perkin- someone who would take direct action against the government- but instead would rather try to steer others towards a mindset that stands in opposition to Ostania. Such a person may try to target more impressionable people- people who are likely to listen and learn from an authority figure in their lives. People like...small children.

Eden students.

Garden. Eden. I see what you’re doing there, Endo.

Traitorous professors? Renegade academics? It would make sense to have a Garden assassin stationed at the most prestigious school in the country; the amount of information and contacts that are positioned around there are second to none, and what better way to suppress insurrection than at the source, at the very foundations of knowledge itself? Also, for kicks and giggles, let’s not forget that the name Mr. Green certainly fits with the plant motif Endo is going for with his assassin group (Garden. Thorn Princess. Briar. You catch my drift?)

Am I grasping at straws? Probably lol. I’d also like to reiterate that this is in no way all my thinking- a lot of crazy people put their brains together for this one, good or bad. But hey, it’s about all we can do until the next chapter! And at the very least, it’s a lot of fun to wonder what-if!

Also, BONUS

...She’s coming.

[levyfiles]

Noting that you wrote a twt thread supporting Watcher for giving lgbt youth just a little tiny fraction of their revenue for reluctantly splashing there shit w/ rainbow aesthetics and they even used a line from Shane acting so weird around a person for saying they're bisexual. Like are you kidding me? Even you didn't find that funny! how can you feel good about yourself? are you that braindead about your perfect Steven?

Ohhhkay. To start off with, congratulations, your ask was the least abusive one lambasting me on this topic so yours is the one I've decided to give a platform to.

So, as someone who has been present with Watcher since their launch, I can attest that I and many others were actively campaigning for pride merch the moment we knew we could make suggestions. When we heard the merch shoot was coming, I and many other fans were thrilled they were finally unveiling a line that was specifically like a love letter to us. We wanted to enjoy the thing we liked while also enjoying the fact that a company loved its supporters right back and knew to express that every other day of the year. Queerness is deeply interwoven in so much of their content, the people they have on as guests, and they, I have said this in my tweet that offended you so, they have queer employees who they are paying well to whom they, unlike most companies, ensure have appropriate holidays and full benefits! And then of course, this calls into question why so many of us are adamant about not forcing people to out themselves in defense of engaging in queer culture and media until such a time that we find it inconvenient?

Let's put the rest under a read more because I got a lot to say.

Secondly, the entire premise of the discourse over rainbow capitalism and its harms is that the companies that are guilty of it are not only conglomerates who with one hand peddle the gay aesthetic during June but with the other turn around and donate to organisations and lobbyists who actively seek to harm and destory the lives of queer people all over the world. Watcher is a company we watched being built from the ground up and watched push through the most devastating year for small businesses because they took care of their employees. During an AMA on their discord, at some point, Katie confessed that she thought she would be out of a job last April but they powered through this and even offered to pay Matt Real for work he was rendered incapable of doing due to the pandemic. This is not even a hugely established company with loads of investors. They have done what they can to keep afloat while also pressing the largest efforts toward making their audience feel included and accepted. It is also a big deal that they work with a supplier for their merch that is not only on board to make the best quality of the Pride merch they can but willing to match their donation. That's a whole 30% of proceeds (some of which go to Gianthugs anyway).

Thirdly, the saying. I would challenge you to actually go back through my old asks and posts about Shane's reaction to Tonya and find where I didn't even find Shane's saying funny. I think the way he said it and the timing of his delivery is in keeping with how deeply he wants his audience to know where he stands and it should also tell you a lot more about how absolutely terrible Shane is at weighing in on discourse next to his cofounders; if I can take us back to some older discourse about Shane's very obvious silence during the anti-asian hate campaign as well as BLM.

Lastly, the Steven thing. Just. Really? I hesitate to engage over this particular brand of hate because it lacks conviction. Moreover the fact that you took a broad leap from your transgression with Shane to try to pin that on Steven is so transparent to me. People will write endless disclaimers about why they're so weird about Steven simply because he's religious and religious trauma is a thing and believe me when I say that I know how that feels as a queer mixed person who grew up firmly esconced in the brainwashing of fundamentalist christianity but then again, I find that more of the prejorative weight of historical harm practiced by the christian church was perpetrated by white colonizers and somehow and in someway people take Shane at face value. It's almost as if the weight of a community's actions can only be demonstrably forgiven with the future actions of their descendents.

Earlier today I saw someone ask one of the people pushing the "Steven is homophobic" campaign that if they really think Steven hates queer people wouldn't that make Ryan and Shane guilty by association and the person actually replied "no because grown adults are allowed to have different opinions than other grown adults even if they're friends with them" which?????? That is the exact reason the twitter teens got so mad at Steven lol I'm reeling. Guys, just do better. Actively interact with nuance please. Step away and afford yourself the luxury of participating in conversations with other queer people that isn't black and white and for god's sake, if your last defense to people disagreeing with you is to cite the way they enjoy fandom as your thinkpiece, maybe you're not really fighting in defense of marginilised people; maybe you want to center yourself in a campaign that makes allowances for you to bully and harrass people.

[bisexual-books]

Dustin’ off the ole blog (or why I don’t feel bad for Becky Albertali)

Hey guys.  Wow.  Its been like two years since anybody posted here and three since I wrote anything of substance?  In my defense I adopted a teen so life got super duper busy around that time, but now that I’ve (mostly) sorted out the day to day parenting stuff, I’m back.  At least for today.  Because whooo boy do I have A LOT thoughts and feelings about the situation with Becky Albertali.  

So let’s jump right in : I don’t feel bad for Becky Albertali .  Not at all.  I think she is wrong and am not moved by her medium post.  I think Gabby Dunn is on the right track to criticize her and I would like do so as well because I think she is wrong.  

What Albertali (and her twitter fans) seem to willfully ignore in her medium piece is that readers don’t side-eye straight authors without good reason.  We do it because over and over and over again, straight authors do a shit job of writing about queer issues, creating realistic queer characters, and discussing queer issues.  How does an author earn the ability to avoid that side-eye? How do they avoid questions, comments, and concerns about their ability to do those things in their writing?  By being an open and proud member of the queer community ie coming out.  Coming out is important and difficult work in a fundamentally heterosexist society, and hence is rewarded as such by our community.   If you don’t do that work, why exactly should I or any other queer person give you that cachet?  

Fundamentally I see Becky Albertali wanting the socio-emotional bennies of queer author status, without doing the work of coming out.  And I’m just not finding much sympathy for that. She is not owed the benefit of the doubt by readers, particularly queer readers.  She has to earn it.  Yes, it probably was difficult for her to be questioned about her orientation while questioning, but those questions are reasonable and legitimate.  

Queer readers don’t just sit around like a dragon hording legitimacy and saying ‘mwhahaha’ to poor little straight authors.  We do this as a self-protection mechanism with good reason. We’ve experienced characters that are just a grab bag of stereotypes.  We’ve been gutted when straight authors we trusted as allies say horribly offensive things.  We’ve read arguments about queer people that bear no resemblance to our real lives and we’ve literally cried ourselves to sleep over disappointing, nasty, rude, offensive, and heartbreaking books (at least I have).  

If Becky Albertali and her defenders want to make life easier on queer authors, then instead of blaming queer readers for asking those questions, they need to interrogate why those questions need to be asked and how to reduce that need.

Instead I see Albertali in her medium piece blaming queer readers for needing to protect themselves, for needing to side-eye, for needing the explicit power of #ownvoices and support of out authors.  I don’t see her piece putting rightful, blame on straight people and straight culture that created these situations in the first place.  Blaming queer readers for daring to question her is a pernicious type of victim blaming, and I have no time or patience for that.  We erect these walls to protect our own hearts and souls, not because we’re big meanies.  If you don’t want to be on the wrong side of the wall, then help dismantle the need for it.  Don’t blame us for its existence. 

I’ve seen some people on twitter say this is somehow gatekeeping or cutting people off from exploring/discovering their queerness in art.  And I think that argument is off base.  No one was preventing Alberteli from making her art.  She could have written in a notebook or on Smashwords for all the days of her life.  People can make a dozen deviantart accounts or twitter accounts or AO3 accounts or tumblr accounts or discord servers and post their queer art creations all over the internet while they work out their queer feelings.  It is easy and free and no one is stopping anyone else from doing so. 

However I think when you cross the line from creating your queer art to profiting off your queer art, something fundamentally changes.  The stakes go up.  Queer readers need to know so they can decide who to trust with their hard earned cash.  We live in capitalism, man.  If you think that sucks, help dismantle that too. 

Albertali looked back in her piece, so I also want to cast back to early 2015, when Albertali first published Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda.  Bi YA author Corrine Duyvis woudn’t coin the term/hastag #ownvoices until September of that year.  And it was A LOT easier to get a YA book with LGBTQ characters published if you were straight.  How do I know that?  Because it was like pulling teeth to find queer authors writing queer characters outside of small queer presses.  I was hardcore book blogging at that time.  The mainstream publishing industry side-eyed YA/kidlit queer authors, especially those who were less polished due to poverty/educational attainment/systemic racism/disability, to favor straight white authors with post-graduate degrees along with a handful of token queer authors that were already a part of the publishing industry.  This was slowly changing but it hadn’t changed that much.  It was still easier to get a queer YA published as a straight person.

And Albertali knowingly entered into and profited off that system.   

She literally has cash in the bank off the publication of the book Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, the subsequent film that became Love Simon, the subsequent book reprints and merchandise under the name Love Simon and the subsequent Love Victor show on Hulu.  They sold Love Simon shirts at Hot Topic for $20 for crying out loud.  She was able to obtain that money, prominence, and influence because she presented herself as a straight woman.

There is no comparable story in queer authorland because queer authors are simply not given the opportunity to turn their queer novels into multimedia cash cow franchises.  The closest thing I can think of is Armistand Maupin’s ‘Tales of the City‘ and that took 20 years to be made into a tv miniseries with subsequent books.  That was 27 years ago and to my knowledge, no one sold shirts.  So for most of my/ Albertali’s lifetime, there has been no viable path to create a queer media empire as a queer author.  None. 

Until Albertali did it while pretending to be a straight girl.  

She says that she legitimately did not know she was queer when Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda was published or when Leah on the Offbeat was written.  It does suck that she had to figure that out while living such a public life and I feel bad that it was hard.  But honestly it sucks for everyone to figure that out.  It sucks to figure that out as an isolated teen or a professional adult.  Its just an emotionally grueling process.  Wanna make it better for future people?  Again work to disable heterosexism and heterocentrism in wider society.  Blaming queer people for that heterosexism and heterocentrism, and chiding them for not giving you unearned benefits of the doubt doesn’t do anything to disable those systems.  No one forced you to sign a movie deal or do a ton of interviews, you did that all on your own.  Ignorance of the consequences of your own actions doesn’t exempt you from having to deal with them.  

Only very very recently has the publishing landscape shifted so #ownvoices is a selling point instead of a liability.  Only very very recently (and I would argue very minimally) has the publishing industry valued #ownvoices authors enough to nurture and polish their skills with open submissions and contests for people who don’t have grad degree levels of writing skills.  And Albertali is upset at being excluded from this?  When she literally has the educational privileges of a doctorate and significantly more money than the average queer author has made in my lifetime?  

The closet sucks but no one forced Albertali to stay in it and queer people didn’t create it.  She chose to publish and license her work to reap the benefits, and as such also reaps the consequences.  Apparently one such consequence was that it was personally difficult for her to understand her sexuality and her mental health was poor.  Well.... until we can disassemble heteropatriarchy that is the world we live in.  Get your queer house in order before you go pro and open yourself up to real reactions from queer readers.  But if like Albertali, you don’t do that while choosing more and more publicity and raking in wheelbarrows full of cash, well, don’t expect much sympathy from me.  

- Sarah 

[myaekingheart]

As I approach a very raw and emotional arc in the story that I’m writing, I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort characters, coping mechanisms, and fandom. Specifically in the lens of curating your own fandom experience and trying to navigate other people’s perceptions of your comfort characters. 

Like, one of my favorite things about fandom is the fact that we have this tendency to so often latch onto characters that mean something to us or that we see parts of ourselves in. We get really, really attached to characters and fall in love with them and even create these fabricated narratives (that are sometimes also romances, self-insert or not) as a way to feel some sort of bond with these characters. We feel like we know them and end up feeling like we share some sort of fictional relationship with them and it can be extremely comforting. It can be extremely comforting using that fictional relationship and the stories we weave as a way to cope with things we’re dealing with in our lives, to work through these complex and raw thoughts and emotions in a way that foregoes more dangerous routes. The intrinsic value of hurt/comfort and even whump in transformative works in terms of coping with mental, physical, and emotional pain cannot be ignored. And this is great! The right to take a comfort character and use them as your own personal coping mechanism is truly one of the most wonderful things about fan culture. 

If this was all there was to it, then that would be fine. And if you’re kind of solitary in your fandom endeavors, then that’s likely all there is to it. When you start engaging in fandom and with other people, though, I feel like that’s when things can so easily go awry. Chances are, you are not the only person who takes comfort in a specific character. And you are not the only person who uses that character to cope and process through transformative works. It’s an amazing feeling to find someone who shares the same love for a character that you do, and who is on a similar wavelength as you in terms of using that character as a way to cope, and the things that you each use that character to cope with. But then there’s the darker side, when people use your comfort character to cope with things that make you uncomfortable. Or even just use them as a player in a story that makes you uncomfortable. It can be extremely difficult to be so deeply attached to a character and your own personal solitude in them, the idea of them protecting you from something bigger than yourself, and then so suddenly find someone else using that very character to create stories heavily focused on the very thing you’re trying to combat. The most common reactions, I feel, are typically anger, fear, confusion, hurt, distrust, disgust. A part of you might even begin questioning how well you even know this character to begin with, or if everything you’ve thought you understood about them was way off the mark and you’ve been fabricating this false, out-of-character idea of them. But more than anything, you begin to feel like the one character in which you sought comfort has been turned around to hurt you. And that can be an extremely distressing thing to try to manage. 

It can be even more difficult when the version of this character that is so heavily focused on something that’s harmed you is widely accepted or at least presented in a fandom space. It can feel isolating, like you constantly have to watch your step and vet everyone that reaches out to you or follows you. It can be tiring. It can leave you feeling like you just want to remove yourself from fandom spaces entirely. A personal example: one of my favorite characters is very commonly presented in fandom in a way that feels very close to an incident from when I was younger that traumatized me. And seeing this character presented in this way can be incredibly distressing, disturbing, and disgusting. More often than not, I end up having this very visceral reaction that leaves me nauseous, angry, and self-conscious. Because seeing a character I love occupying a space reminiscent of someone who hurt me is unsettling, and even moreso when it’s so much harder to avoid. 

So that begs the question of what to even do about this, because I’m sure that this experience is universal to anyone engaging in fandom in one capacity or another. There are plenty of options. There is leaving fandom entirely, whether that means detaching yourself from your entire fandom experience or resorting to enjoy fandom quietly, silently, alone. This is an easy and safe option. This is like the abstinence of options. You can’t put yourself in the line of fire if you never engage in the first place, right? But it’s also incredibly isolating. It’s cutting yourself off of the positive experiences in fandom because the negatives seem to outweigh them. It’s throwing the whole thing in the garbage because one piece broke off. Another option is policing other people. This is considered in poor form. This is unhinged and unempathetic. This is the angry child stomping in the grocery store insisting that if you can’t have a piece of candy, then no one can. Because people are going to continue to write and create whatever content they want regardless of whether or not it makes someone else uncomfortable. Sometimes especially if it makes someone else uncomfortable, because that is the point that they are trying to make in their art. But also because so often the very things that make you uncomfortable are the very things are bringing comfort to someone else. It’s their way of coping, just in the exact opposite way as you. And policing them would make them feel the same way as someone policing you. It feels restrictive and hurtful and, again, isolating. So if you can’t stop other people from creating what you don’t want to see, and you can’t bring yourself to remove yourself from the situation, what other options do we have left? 

Managing your fandom experience is like a balancing act. It requires not censorship, necessarily, but well-intentioned warnings. Tagging and unfollowing and blocking and blacklisting. The only reliance this has on other people is for them to maintain courtesy by listing the contents on the front page like the ingredients on a package of food. Not everyone does this, which is another problem entirely, but the ones that do are doing all that’s required of them. The rest is up to you. The rest relies solely on your ability to blacklist your triggers, unfollow people who do share content that triggers you without tagging (which can be difficult when something that triggers you is very niche and vague, like a specific perfume or a woman with blue hair). Block people who follow you that share triggering content, even if you’re not following them, because we know that even them just appearing in your notifications and the temptation of looking at their content can be unnerving--despite how much we all certainly like to believe we have some semblance of self control. Blacklist the tags that bother you so that you can continue engaging with a friend’s content even if they share things that you don’t enjoy or want to see. Tumblr makes this easy with options like Xkit and Tumblr Savior. 

But what about other places? What about on Twitter and Discord and AO3 and deviantART? What about when you run into uncomfortable content that you can’t avoid? When all other options have been exhausted but you still just can’t escape it? What do you do then? I’m still trying to figure that out myself. I’m still trying to find a way to navigate certain unsettling waters in the most balanced and respectful way, while also respecting my own triggers and mental health. And sometimes it’s really fucking hard. Sometimes there’s more to it than just blocking and blacklisting. And I wish I had answers for what to do in those situations, but I don’t. Not yet. And I hope one day I will. 

All of this is just to say: fandom can be a murky and dizzying experience and sometimes you’re bound to run into things that make you uncomfortable, or things that don’t sit well with you. Sometimes you’re bound to run into interpretations of your comfort character that make you sick to your stomach and want to punch a hole in the wall and delete everything you’ve ever written and shot out into the world for reasons you don’t even quite understand. And sometimes all of that can feel really isolating, or like you’re just overexaggerating and being a wimp, or like you’re being a bad participant in fandom spaces. Sometimes it can be really hard to want to stay involved in fandom when curating that experience can feel like so much work. And because as much as you can tag and blacklist and block and unfollow, that doesn’t always completely erase the feelings that running into that triggering content comes with. You can do all of these things and still feel nauseous and angry and uncomfortable and like you desperately need to reach for the eye bleach. And that can be really hard to navigate, especially when seeing that content makes you feel separated from the one character you would turn to to actually cope with this. Sometimes it can begin to feel like the way you see this character or feel about this character has been irrevocably changed for you now, because all you see attached to them now is your trigger, and that really hurts. I wish I had answers for how to manage those feelings, or how to rewire the circuits in your brain and load an old save up, to cut out the moldy part of the cheese and enjoy the rest that hasn’t yet been spoiled in your mind. I wish I had answers for how to cope with those sorts of things, but I don’t. I just hope one day I will. 

[badstargateimagines]

how do you think various sg1 peeps would be reacting to Everything That's Going On Right Now™?

Oh god definitely a loaded question. So I assume they’ve been home but on call through the whole pandemic. Or I can assume gate travel has been halted as to not spread Covid to other planets unless the entire base is on lockdown, no one in or out which would be an entirely new can of worms. For my purposes, I will assume the first option because it’s more fun if they have contact with the outside world. (also this is very late I apologize)

Daniel: Acknowledging his own racism, working hard to change his speech to cut out microaggressions and racist terminology. Attended protests while maintaining safe social distance and mask wearing protocols. In the initial quarantine, he went on a deep dive into various internet subcultures as well as catching up on reading his journals. He’s currently very angry and ready to punch the president in the mouth. ACAB. He also wanted to learn how to bake bread because he saw people on twitter doing it but failed miserably each time. Way too much uber eats. Accidentally got emotionally invested in the New Brunswick provincial election because he kept seeing memes about it on twitter.

Jack: Has had talks with Sam and Daniel in regards to how to be more anti-racist as a team. Deeply upset by everything that’s going on and wants to help in anyway he can. During quarantine and even after he disinfects groceries. Either calls in his orders or goes at like 6am. Wishes he had the forethought to go on a fishing trip before Covid happened. Has had words with the General about the President. Plays a lot of video games. Misses gate travel deeply. Wishes everyone would wear a fucking mask even though he resisted a bit. Wears a John Wayne bandana and a cowboy hat on grocery runs. Watched Sturgill Simpson’s Sound and Fury after mistaking it for the Simpsons but now loves the album with his whole soul.

Sam: Also acknowledging her own racism and working hard to unlearn any racist notions she had even passively. Attended protests with Daniel. During the quarantine period, she invented a way to make gate travel 10 times more efficient if they’D JUST LET HER ON BASE. Also found the time to learn to bake the perfect brioche. Cannot bake any other type of bread. Read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and it changed her life for like 3 days. Caught up on reading the journals she had lying around. Currently teaming up with Daniel to punch the president in the mouth. Has really neat masks. Supporting BIPOC owned businesses wherever she can.

Teal’c: This man watched Tiger King and you cannot tell me otherwise. Really missed his friends while they were off base. Also started ordering stuff online. Now he has oddly specific shirts like “Yeah I was born in November and watch hentai. Deal with it” Has no idea what they mean but the confused reactions fuel his passion for weird shirts even more. Made memes on MS paint, printed them out, and sent them to Jack via post. Jack always writes back thoughtful letters and Teal’c always sends him more memes. Refers to Covid-19 as the Vile Plague. Watched Chef on Netflix but has only ever heard it referred to as Chef on Bluray and thinks that’s the name of the movie. Became a shitposting god. Has a meme page on instagram with 100k. Very upset by police violence and Daniel explains most of what’s going on over discord with him. Wants to help but can’t really help how he wants to given he lives on base and it’s no one in or out. Has petitions, fundraising and resources on his instagram everyday.

[frenemiestolovers1]

Warning against Kirinowa server (part II)

First of all, I want to apologize to my followers and any people who will be bothered/disturbed by this post (in advance). I know that I said in part I, that I hope it will be the only time I will make a post like this. Well, nothing has changed since making the first post (in fact, things got only worse) and I uncovered new things that I feel necessary to mention in this post. So, here I go again. 5) Kirinowa it’s a pathological liar So, according to two sources that I had, Kirinowa's reaction after seeing part I, linked on twitter, was to lie to the members of her discord server saying that she didn't know how to mention beta-readers.  And why I call her a liar again? (I know I mentioned this point in my previous post). Because, when I first made my account on AO3, I didn't know how to mention beta-readers, either ( I was totally clueless). But because my sense of morality (which Kirinowa lacks) wouldn't let me post fics without mentioning the people who helped me, I looked for tutorials. And what do you know? I found a tutorial where it was explained how to do it. So Kirinowa lied to the members of her own discord server, telling them she didn't know how to do it, when in fact she never planned on doing in the first place. She only lied to placate them in my opinion. 6) Kirnowa it’s Romanophobic So, I never wanted to reveal my nationality because I know how my people are treated in foreign countries, but in the given situation I must take a risk. Plain and simple, I am Romanian. So, now, you all wonder, why I didn't mention this fact in the previous post? Well, in the previous post I was clueless about some signs that were there (and maybe subconsciously I tried to avoid thinking like that, because I always choose to see the best in people). So like I mentioned in the previous post, Kirinowa made a statement (at the time) directed towards me and the other moderator (who, like you all probably guessed, it's Romanian, too) about us bashing the other ships in the discord server (while we didn't do such thing). Plus the fact that lives in the UK, it's pretty much a red flag, too.

And here are some articles that will strengthen my point of view: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Romanian_sentiment and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Romanian_sentiment#United_Kingdom .  So to me the fact that she called out me and the other Romanian member of the server for doing something that we didn't do it's pretty telling. And I feel bad that if she had kids (I don't know for sure, but I don't care) that is probably teaching them how to be Romanophobic. And that she teaches the members of her discord server, also. And also the fact that she didn't mention me as beta-reader was due to this. She planned things very carefully, I will give her that. On her fic on AO3, she chooses to moderate her comments, so that I would be unable to tell people that I was the one who beta-read that. Though like I said in the previous post, I don't want to be mentioned anymore (why I would want to get more involved with a Romanophobic ?). Though if she would have a backbone and some morality, she would delete her fucking fic from AO3 and FFN and instead will write a simple message: "I'm a Romanophobic and because I mistreated my beta-reader (in many ways, not just one) who, by the way, is a Romanian, I decided to delete my fic". But she won't do it, because that's the way she is. 7) Kirinowa doesn't care about the opinion of the members of her servers So, I mentioned here and in the previous post, two sources that showed me how nasty of a person Kirinowa is. So, one of a few members of that server with a sense of morality, I might add, who it's against art theft, tried to talk to Kirinowa, on my behalf, about the importance of mentioning the beta-reader in a fic.  I don't know many details about what went down, but the thing is that she (Kirinowa) lied to that member about not knowing how to mention a beta-reader (her favorite lie so far, if you ask me) and then out rightly refused to do so.  Funny thing, it's that member called me a bully, while the real bully here, it's Kirinowa (and I would never understand how that member, consider her still a good person, while she is far from it). And now something that represents Kirinowa. 🤣

So folks, like I mentioned in the previous post, if you receive an invitation from this twitter account: https://twitter.com/Kirinowa1 or any of its followers, I urge you, do not accept. I will keep up the good fight and will expose the true colors of this Kirinowa person (in other ways) to any Kirinmaru and Towa shipper (I already made one shipper aware about how toxic Kirinowa is and she will never join her server). Also, if I find new things about Kirinowa, I thnk I will edit this post for further references. Here is the link to part I: https://frenemiestolovers1.tumblr.com/post/653063452840148992/warning-against-kirinowa-server