#not 'fake claiming' or whatever i just think its fucking horse shit how even mental illness is commodified and neatly packaged

[vamp--dad]

People on tiktok will think oh no I'm having a panic attack and then sit on the floor, take out their phone, hit record, film 8 seconds of hyperventilation and add #spreadingawareness #neurospicy to the description

[radfem-gossip-archive-blog]

moderation guidelines for gossip blogging:

Your original RFG moderator is getting old and weary and sadly, must move on. I don’t know how many RFG moderators will be added in the future or how many URL moves will be made to facilitate gossiping, but I do know that RFG is now an institution in the tumblr radfem community. I want some of the guidelines to be posted for transparency’s sake, and to help anyone trying to start a gossip/drama blog of any sort. 

Your main job as a gossip blogger is to solicit asks and submissions and make a record of notable happenings. If you have a dilemma ask yourself: will this encourage, or discourage submissions? Without your faithful gossipers theres nothing to discuss, be grateful even when they are annoying the living shit out of you.

This is also why you must shut the hell up most of the time. If you are writing a reply, you must delete it more than half the time. Keep yourself out of the equation as much as possible. Pick your battles. Reply to non-admin related material a maximum of once a week. If people dislike you it will discourage submissions. It is better that they don’t know you at all. If you reply try to choose topics that 99% of the community agrees on.

Blocking: Blocking non-community members is fine at any time, but it is a pain to track them all down so I would recommend blocking whoever is annoying you.

Only block community members if it is absolutely necessary. I have blocked in the following cases: non stop sexual asks being sent to me, death threats, repeated asks with graphic violence, threats of litigation, severe mental illness episodes that make it in the member’s best interest to be blocked, being cursed with death. 

queueing: queue everything you can so that no one tries to play internet detective about what your main/other blogs are. Adjust the queue to try and make sure that asks are usually posted within 24 hours of submission.

private messaging: its better not to say anything if you can avoid it. Say as little as possible but be polite. People WILL try to be your friend in order to get favors like having posts deleted at their request. Don’t be friends with people on this account for that reason.

Bumping asks/submissions:

If the community is on fire with a certain topic you may want to bump asks to facilitate discussion. Also bump anything that is urgent, like a community member is in danger or needs money to escape an abusive situation. Use your head, you’ll do fine. 

Episodes of mental illness: always encourage the poster to seek help IRL. It does not matter how mean they are to you or what they say, if they are in danger you must encourage them to seek help IRL.If you know of other members who know the person IRL reach out to them directly. 

Threats of litigation: Most states have anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws that make it illegal to sue others into silence over unpopular opinions. The word “gossip” is protective here also, it is not meant to be taken as a serious source of news, so it is hard to claim that anyone can really have their reputation damaged by its contents. That being said, serious accusations will be made from time to time. It is a good idea to ask for evidence directly in such a case, or note that you have not seen any evidence of what is being alleged. If you do get into legal trouble, contact ken white of popehat, he hooks people up w pro bono lawyers who dislike rich people using their money to shut up free speech online. It is more likey that tumblr would simply delete your account and you would have to start over again, bu they, c’est la vie. 

deleting asks: deleting asks should be taken seriously. Sometimes askers truly are beating a dead horse and you would make the blog less entertaining by publishing all of them. You can choose those that best summarize the wave of asks in your inbox and publish them. Other asks are disgusting or obviously fake, you can publish these to make fun of the poster or you can delete them, whatever you think would irritate the sender the most. Take whatever biases you have in yourself and try to mitigate them. If you agree with one position in an argument make sure you are more liberally publishing the opposing side to keep yourself in check. I no longer publish single insults asks like saying someone is ugly, dumb, etc. Context is needed or it becomes boring. Always publish asks sent about your main.

outside advice: everyone will tell you how to run the blog. Most of them are wrong. You can try different things out to improve the blog but never worry too much about those who act like they are entitled to your work, they won’t ever be happy with what you do anyway. 

charity posts: seek out as many posts as possible about fundraising or charity and publish them. Help out the community. 

Leave others alone outside of the confines of your blog: Reblogging isn’t fucking with them unless you add a bunch of mean commentary, which you should never do. You are there to present something notable happening, not add your opinion. If a person blocks you, leave them alone. You can screen cap without mentioning them in the text or otherwise drawing their attention to you. It is fine if people do not want to interact. Never send anons to stir the pot or any other crap like that. Believe me you will have plenty of content, even if it is somewhat cyclical. 

Drama summaries: these are a pain to write. If I were more organized I would have started a draft and added to it each week, but I didn’t so it was a nightmare. Ditto w tagging. Be organized or stop giving a shit, whatever works for you. Read some tabloids if you need an example of the writing style. 

adding mods: do what you can to protect the content, like moving URLs. Some people would love to help just to delete everything because they hate this place. They are free to not visit it! Try to choose mods that won’t get flustered when asks about themselves are sent in.

[theshatteredrose]

A Typical Morning (Guardian Chronicles) - EOUntold2

Summary: Bertrand meets some of the Guardians only for things to turn slightly strange due to a fainting hexer.

AN: And as the summary states, this chapter is from Bertrand’s pov ^^ Hope you enjoy reading!

Bertrand didn’t exactly like mornings. It wasn’t that he hated them. He honestly didn’t mind getting up early. It was the act of waking up early and crawling out of bed in the morning that he disliked. The bed was warm and soft, after all.

Flavio was usually the first up while Bertrand was the last (hey, he liked sleep in all its forms), so he had to make the conscious effort to get up out of bed the moment he awoke from his sleep. It wasn’t easy, mind, but he consoled himself by telling him it was just for this one morning and he can sleep in again tomorrow.

He had a special reason to get up quickly this morning, however.

After what had happened at the restaurant, after seeing how well Flavio and even Fafnir got along with this Guardian Guild, Bertrand thought he should at least make the effort and meet them as well.

He had heard all about the Guardians from numerous people; Cass, Hanna, Abigail just to name a few. So, he could say that he was slightly curious himself.

Flavio really liked them, and seemed to get along with them well, which is hardly a surprise. The kid could make friends with a fence post. But it was Fafnir’s interest in them and in Flavio’s interaction with said guild that really caught Bertrand attention.

He doesn’t want to make assumptions, yet alone voice them, but it almost felt as if Fafnir was encouraging Flavio to get deeper involved with the Guardians…for just in case something happened to him.

Of course, he could just be jumping to conclusions. Maybe he just felt a sense of kinship with this guild. Anything was possible.

As Bertrand descended the stairs, he could hear laughter and voices from the direction of the dining room. He quickly entered and was somewhat startled to realise that one of the voices was familiar. In the far corner of the room, Flavio was leaning against a window frame as he spoke with a small group of explorers. A redhead with his feet up on the table they were gathered around, a blonde sitting cross-legged on a chair at the far end of the table, and a brown-haired kid that stood in front of the table and seemed to be talking animatedly.

While it was unsurprising to see Flavio chatting with other explorers, Bertrand could honestly say that he had never witnessed the kid laugh so…freely before. He was usually on edge and tense, busy looking out for everyone else while maintaining that fake smile of his. But he seemed comfortable and relaxed around them.

They must be members from the Guardian Guild.

Flavio idly glanced over in his direction, seemingly just looking around as was habit to survivalists before he abruptly did a double take. “Bertrand?” he said, surprise clearly in his voice and posture. “You’re up early.”

Bertrand resisted the urge to roll his eyes; instead he folded his arms across his chest and walked over to him. “Happens occasionally. Before you start, there’s nothing wrong.”

Flavio flushed a light pink and tried to glare at him. “I wasn’t implying there was.”

“Sure kid.”

The kid tried to scowl at him, but honestly it came out as nothing more than a disgruntled pout. His expression abruptly lightened, however, into a look of realisation. “Oh, right, you haven’t met,” he muttered before abruptly launching into a quick introduction. “This is Bertrand, my guildmate. These guys are some of the members of the Guardian Guild. Axel, Tobyn, and Macerio.”

“Hey, how you doing?” Bertrand said as the three returned short greetings of their own. A few ‘nice to meetcha’ and whatnots. The usual stuff, though they did sound somehow sincere.

He recognised some of the names and faces, though. The one with the long blond hair was the survivalist who killed that fire drake with one arrow and the brown-haired kid was often seen hanging around at the bar, laughing at the drunken fools. The redhead was also seen at the bar, mostly breaking up the fights, though.

Before they could return to their conversation, however, a tall blond quickly made their way over to them, seemingly making a beeline for the redhead. Bertrand also recognised him as being the protector they had met in the labyrinth the same day they met the silent survivalist. His name was Jhon, if he wasn’t mistaken.

“Hey, Axel,” he called out as he paused near Axel. “Just ran into Benedick.”

Axel lolled his head back and released a low, disgruntle groan. “Not that obnoxious dick. What did he want?”

Jhon pulled out a chair between Axel and Tobyn and quickly sat down. “He was actually looking for Rahas.”

“Good,” Axel muttered as he stretched his legs out on the table. “He can have him.”

“Who’s Benedick?” Flavio was comfortable enough around them to ask. “Do I want to know?”

“Benedick Richardson the Third,” Jhon explained before a wry smile appeared on his lips. “Or something to that extent. We just call him Dick for short.”

Axel snorted lightly, seeming irritated by the mere thought of this Benedick person. “Green hair, four foot tall, claims to be a prince of a faraway land,” he continued. “Obnoxious little shit. Met him on the first floor where he completely lost his shit about the ragelopes. All because they neighed like a horse.”

“Yeah!” Macerio piped up, the brown-haired kid all but cackling. “He was all ‘Deer don’t neigh! That’s poor evolution! They should be ashamed of themselves!’”

Flavio laughed, honestly sounding amused. “Ashamed of themselves?”

“He was ranting and raving like a lunatic,” Jhon explained as he rolled his eyes, but with a small smile on his lips nonetheless. “We thought he had been hit by a baffling step. Lynus tried to use refresh on him, but he turned pale and told us he’s actually perfectly fine and was completely serious.”

“He's completely right,” Tobyn unexpectedly added as he reached forward to pick up his coffee mug from the table. “If you disregard the fact that the ragelopes are over seven feet tall, have purple fur, and live in a giant fucking tree.”

Bertrand felt a smirk play on his lips. Their blatant sarcasm and scepticism was surprisingly refreshing.

“If you’re over seven feet tall and can kill a man with one strike, you have the right to sound like whatever the fuck you want,” Axel commented which caused a few chuckles to arise from the group.

“Macerio wanted to shoot him,” Jhon added, indicating toward the grinning gunner with the tilt of his head. “I think we all wanted him to, actually.”

Flavio folded his arms across his torso in an attempt to quell his chuckling. “He doesn’t want to go to the second floor then.”

A half smirk appeared on Axel’s lips. “The dinosaurs or the flowers that spit fire at you? He’s fine with those, apparently. It was a deer neighing like a horse that sent him over the edge. You gotta draw the line somewhere.”

Flavio was openly laughing at his point.

“The little fuckers know exactly what they’re doing,” Axel muttered under his breath.

Tobyn nodded his head as he took a sip from his coffee. He then glanced over at Flavio and abruptly lowered his drink. “Sound like a horse and leave prints like a horse? Non-explorers would think it’s a horse and then proceed to get the shit kicked out of them,” he explained.

Flavio immediately made a sound of understanding. “I never thought of it that way,” he admitted before he held his chin in thought, probably making the mental note to add that new information to his own monster codex.

“Morning, everyone.”

“Morning, Lynus!” Everyone greeted loudly as a short young man with orange hair and donning a white medic coat walked over to them.

Ah, so this guy is the famous Miracle Medic, huh? Bertrand had to admit that he was somewhat surprised by how young he looked, but he knew that one didn’t earn such a nickname without just cause. Especially in this city. He had to have earned it through hard work and dedication.

“Oh Flavio? I am so sorry,” Lynus suddenly said as he reached out to lightly touch Flavio on the arm. “I didn’t mean to send Zeryn after you.”

“No no, it’s fine,” Flavio immediately replied with a reassuring smile. “Not your fault. I’m sure I would have bumped into him anyway, right?”

Lynus chuckled. “He would have found you eventually, I’m sure.”

“Anyway, this is Bertrand, my guildmate,” Flavio promptly introduced, even going as far as reaching out to light tap Bertrand on the chest. “Old man, this is Lynus.”

“Hey,” Bertrand said simply, while Lynus smiled politely in return.

“Nice to meet you,” he said.

Lynus’ gaze suddenly flickered down to Bertrand’s right arm and he furrowed his brow. Out of habit, Bertrand folded his arms across his chest, taking on a slightly defensive posture. Lynus turned his eyes toward Bertrand’s before he abruptly winced and looked away, seemingly turning his focus back toward Flavio.

Bertrand idly wiggled the fingers of his right hand. There was no doubt that the kid had sensed something…off about his arm. From his reaction, he knew that it wasn’t an injury. Bertrand was pretty sure he would have asked if it was healing properly.

There was suddenly the sound of a thud behind them. The sound was rather distinct, like that of a body hitting the ground suddenly. Either someone tripped, falling so quickly that they weren’t able to soften their landing, or someone had fainted.

Lynus immediately whirled around in the direction of the sound, his expression passive but with concern in his eyes nonetheless. He, however, unexpectedly sighed softly, sounding somewhat exasperated.

“Sorry, excuse me,” Lynus said as he quickly departed from the group.

Curious, Bertrand glanced over to find Lynus kneeling on the floor next to a body covered in torn maroon robes and gold chains. A hexer, by appearance, their long white hair sprawled out across the ground. It appeared that they had literally just dropped to the ground, their face hitting the floor.

“Let me guess,” Flavio unexpectedly said. “He’s name is Mahogany?”

“Pfft,” Macerio half snorted, half laughed. “That’s him. Does that way too often. Can’t take him anywhere.”

“Don’t be rude,” Jhon chided the gunner. “He’s under medical treatment now.”

Macerio held up in hands in a pacifying manner and sighed. “Right, right,” he muttered.

Under medical treatment, huh? That must mean that the guy dropping to the ground suddenly had been happening for a while now. Well, that was actually pretty obvious; no one seemed overly concerned when they saw him lying face down on the floor.

Idly glancing over at the hexer, Bertrand noticed that Lynus had gotten him up off the floor, Mahogany resting on his knees. Lynus appeared to be asking a multitude of questions, no doubt about what was hurt, what kind of mental sensation he was going through. The typical questions that a medic would ask.

“How you doing, Mahogany?” Axel called out. “Another vision?”

Climbing to his feet, Mahogany shook his head, carefully patting down his greyish white hair with his hands. He didn’t appear to be like regular hexers. If the strange curse makers could be considered ‘regular’ by any stretch of the imagination. In any case, most hexers preferred to rely on their psychic and magical abilities to move and lift up objects, keeping their limps within the confines of their robes and cloaks. Mahogany, however, had his sandal covered feet firmly on the ground and was willing using his hands, running his fingers through his hair.

“I’m fine,” Mahogany replied as he trailed his fingertips idly over the red hair band around his forehead. His piercing red eyes suddenly landed on Bertrand and they seemed to narrow suspiciously. “My collapse was due in part by that man.”

Bertrand was taken aback, but he tried not to show it outwardly. He simply stared back at the hexer, even though his gaze was unnerving.

“Bertrand?” Flavio questioned, his tone heavy with confusion but also with a sense of concern. “What do you mean?”

Mahogany made no attempt to verbally respond, he kept his firm gaze focused on Bertrand. It was like he…knew something about him. As if he could see all his problems, knew of all his secrets.

Damn…it was intimidating, to be completely honest.

“What?” Macerio muttered, seemingly trying to break the tension that hung in the air like a storm cloud. “Enthralled by his rugged good looks?”

Bertrand turned and gave the brown-haired gunner a half amused, half indignant look. “You are a sarcastic brat, aren’t you?”

The grin that Macerio sent him told him all he needed to know. He really needed to keep an eye on that kid. He looked like the walking definition of a shit-stirrer.

“No,” Mahogany responded quickly, but surprisingly not all that harshly. “He should be dead.”

Everyone lapsed into silence.

“Mahogany!” Lynus spluttered before he reached out and firmly took Mahogany by the elbow. “Sorry, excuse us.”

Lynus then abruptly pulled Mahogany out of the room, the hexer giving Bertrand one last knowing look before he disappeared from sight.

…Well, that was certainly something.

“That’s hexers for you,” Axel suddenly commented, sounding and even looking completely unfazed and unconcerned by what he had just witnessed. “A class of their own, all right.”

Flavio, unfortunately (especially for Bertrand himself), looked genuinely worried. “Does…does he say things like that often?” he asked as he glanced at Bertrand from the corner of his eye.

Everyone answered at the same time, their expressions bland. “Yes.”

…Well, that was somewhat reassuring. For Flavio at least, the tension in his shoulders relaxing a little, seemingly satisfied by the Guardians’ dismissiveness of the hexer’s sudden accusation.

Bertrand, however, was suspicious. That medic, Lynus wasn’t it, kept looking at his arm and had ushered off the hexer a little too quickly. He knew something. That much was certain.

He might have to find the medic later and ask him about it. Or maybe it was best to leave it hanging for a while?

…Tch, as if he didn’t have enough drama going on.