#reblogs are not obligatory but are highly appreciated

[qqueenofhades]

Hi! This question has been noodling in my head for a few weeks, and I’ve been really curious to hear your opinion. I’ve appreciated your very thoughtful commentary on the ways the online left in particular have hurt the real and concerted efforts that have been made to navigate through the Gaza war in support of Palestine. I’ve seen a lot of outrage online about Biden bypassing congress in order to make another emergency weapons sale to Israel, which does indeed read as counter to helping to the Palestinians facing endless and indiscriminate violence. I understand that you might not want to answer this ask, because the work that you already do in your life offline and the work that you do here on tumblr to respond to and explain these issues is exhausting enough. Thanks so much for your time and your thoughtful contributions! It’s always really helped me remember to slow down and think critically about the media I consume.

Because you have asked this thoughtfully and in good faith, I will return the favor and give you a careful and extensive answer to the best of my ability. However, obligatory top-of-post disclaimer that I will disable reblogs at the first hint of any wankery in the notes and I will not answer any follow-ups or secondary asks at this time (unless I decide to do so, but I engage with this topic sparingly, judiciously, and only in small doses, so don't count on it).

First, let me say that the moment, I disagree with substantial portions of how Biden is handling the two main foreign-policy crises (Ukraine and Gaza). In regard to Ukraine, I think he's backed off, taken his foot off the gas, and otherwise given Republicans ammunition to keep delaying or watering down a new aid bill, is refusing to disburse military aid packages from the $4 billion of funding remaining that was previously approved by Congress, hasn't sent long-range ATACMS and other critical military hardware that might bring the war to an end sooner, and is not (as of the moment, though recent reporting suggests this might change) pushing hard enough for frozen Russian assets to be transferred to Ukraine for military and/or humanitarian financial assistance. However, I am also aware (unlike, it seems, much of the left-leaning internet) that I am basing these judgments only on my personal impressions, on what is reported (or not reported) in the media (which has plenty of its own problems) and otherwise what is formed in my role as an ordinary American citizen without any kind of special, classified, high-level, or government access. I know nothing more than any of you, and I also know that a lot of what goes on behind closed doors does not appear on Political Twitter and/or the Washington Post or the Guardian or Daily Kos or whatever other aggregate sources of information I or any left-leaning person typically consumes. So it's highly possible (and this is my cautious academic instinct speaking) that I do not, in fact, have a full picture of events. There are also contributing factors that Biden cannot simply handwave aside, even if he did, say, dip back into the $4 billion pot in the meantime. Congress will need to pass a new funding bill for Ukraine aid and the MAGA Republicans have been enthusiastically blocking it to the point where Putin's cronies on Russian state TV praise them effusively for it. We all know about the Republicans and Russia's mutual love affair. So.

The same goes for Gaza, and even more because we have already had reporting about how the Biden administration is walking a behind-the-scenes tightrope in a number of seemingly impossible tasks: keeping the war from spreading to a larger theater, pressuring Netanyahu to dial down, y'know, the rampant genocide (when Netanyahu notoriously doesn't like Biden, was very close with Trump, and would be happy to keep the war going in order to boost Trump's chances of being re-elected and save Netanyahu himself from his own criminal prosecutions), and pursuing a complex policy toward the state of Israel that does not follow the antisemitic Western Online Left's fever dream of "Israel suddenly disappears overnight and falls into the ocean and all Jews die or disappear." We have had multiple credibly sourced reports about this. Blinken is back in the Middle East right now trying to keep the war from spreading. The US under Biden has criticized Israel's essentially empty policy document for post-war Gaza as not being remotely feasible (because it's so vague) and gone so far as to voice support for a two-state solution with Palestinian self-determination (which is itself quite radically different from previous administrations). However, they have also vetoed UN ceasefire resolutions and other essentially meaningless political theater (the UN as a whole has been ruthlessly exposed in the last few years for being completely useless) that are easy to gin up outrage about, and that's what the internet focuses on, rather than any of the other complicated actions taking place.

All of this is to say that no, in fact, I don't blindly support everything the Biden administration is doing in regard to either Ukraine or Israel right now, but I actually have a sense of real-world perspective about it and understand that there are certain immutable realities that we are working with and which will not be erased by some absolute jackasses yelling at Biden in a historically black church at the commemoration of an anti-black terrorist attack. Likewise, as I've said it before and I'll say it again, and as plenty of other people have noticed and pointed out, the Western left is using this as an orgy of pseudo-revolutionary fervor that focuses on using Hamas as a proxy for their own fantasies of violent uprising against their own governments. Because while yes, anti-zionism and antisemitism are two distinct things and represent different aims and goals, it's become more or less irrelevant in allegedly pro-Palestine Western leftist spaces. It's just increasingly rabid, accelerationist, and nihilistic antisemitism all the time, or the obvious usage of "Zionist" to mean "Jew." It's not good. There is no concept of actual restorative justice for Palestinians or other people, such as Ukrainians, Syrians, Uyghurs, Taiwanese, etc, either undergoing genocide or facing the threat of it, because Western leftists have latched onto this cause solely as a stick to beat the Democratic Party with and have no actual moral interest or concern in stopping genocide elsewhere in the world or repudiating it as a method overall. They just want the state of Israel (which they characterize as a "proxy state for white western colonialism" despite the many, many things historically, religiously, and politically wrong with that statement, because it means it now Contains the Right Buzzwords to Oppose It) to be destroyed altogether in the name of "opposing colonialism," but it really seems to be all about opposing Jews. Hmm.

Simply put, Biden is not ever going to pursue a policy of "let's totally abandon Israel tomorrow, never sell it any weapons or allow it to defend its own civilians, and agree that Hamas is actually a good representation or advocate for the Palestinian people" in the way a number of Western Online Leftists seem to think he should do. There is still the fact that Israeli civilians do exist and that Hamas has continued to launch missiles at them daily, inconvenient as that fact might be for the Hamas fanboys (and fangirls) who now populate much of what passes for Western leftist discourse spaces. (Either that or they don't care, because in their view, Israeli civilians are fully acceptable collateral damage by virtue of simply living in Israel in the first place, which -- yikes. Fucking yikes. That is all.) The number of people professing to be lifelong leftists who are Just Shocked at all the antisemitism, or thinking that any and all antisemitism is just artificially introduced into leftist spaces by bad-faith right-wing/Nazi psyops either has not spent any actual time around leftists, or (more likely) simply does not listen to what they openly say. The antisemitism is virulent, constant, and only getting worse. On the most basic level, regardless of the other difficulties around the founding of Israel as a state in 1948 and the fact that doing so on some of the most bitterly religiously, politically, ethnically, and culturally contested territory in the world for over two thousand years was always going to be a massive clusterfuck, the fact of its immediate post-Holocaust creation simply cannot be ignored the way many Online Leftists do. Israel exists because of the worst antisemitic mass murder in recorded history (and that's a high bar). That fact must be incorporated into any actual discussions about its right either to exist or to protect its own civilians. But this gets turned into "Israel exists only as a puppet state of white western colonialists" which is just bad on so, so many levels.

The collective Western Online Leftist feeling seems to be that Hamas are innocent and wronged freedom fighters who are begging for a ceasefire and the cruel Israelis aren't granting them one. This is not true. Hamas has rejected multiple ceasefire opportunities, and continued to launch missiles and retaliatory attacks, because they are terrorists and they do not want or represent any serious opportunity to negotiate in the framework of western liberal democracy. They are treated as helpless woobified blorbos by much of the Western leftist-leaning internet. They are not. In that case, Biden bypassing Congress to sell Israel weapons (which was just something like 100 million of artillery shells, which is not nothing but still not a huge systematic thing like, say, Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal) is not great. I do not support anything Israel is doing to Gaza. It is abhorrent. However, there are reasons for Biden to provide some limited amount of weapons to Israel without congressional approval that do not automatically and mindlessly equate to BIDEN SUPPORTS TOTAL GENOCIDE IN GAZA!!!!!!1 Especially when as I've said, the Online Leftists only care about stopping genocide when it fits their political self-righteousness, and absolutely not at all the rest of the time.

This is representative of the fact that Western Online Leftism has now completed its all-out descent into blind Noam Chomskyism. Chomsky has never met a "leftist" or "anti-Western" genocide he couldn't deny, excuse, or openly cheerlead (going all the way back to the 1970s and Pol Pot/the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and going up to the minute with Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Palestine). Noam Chomsky is the leftist Henry Kissinger. His ethics and morals are equally abhorrent, he's just as willing to justify total genocide in the name of advancing his preferred political ideology, and while there were (justifiably) celebrations and gloating memes across Tumblr when Kissinger finally bit the dust, Chomsky's beliefs are replicated with slavish adoration in many other Tumblr spaces and spread in some form or another to the rest of the website, which now takes them as leftist gospel (and let's not even talk about Twitter). This represents my absolute frustration with the fact that Western Online Leftism has devolved to such a degraded, mindless, useless, and malevolent level that "cheerlead for any anti-western/Leftist TM terrorist group or state" is taken to be the be-all and end-all of their moral philosophy. Someone remarked that ISIS peaked too early; if they were still at the height of their powers today, they would have a legion of devoted white so-called progressive Twitter users shilling earnestly and angrily for them, and Christ, isn't that the fucking truth.

I know we live in a hard, frightening, complex, and difficult world, and it's hard to sort out what our moral responsibility and action should be at any given time, especially since the answer is always so frustratingly partial and incomplete. Nobody of basic good sense and decency wants to see Gaza leveled while the Israeli state continues to apply a number of violently cruel collective punishments even outside the actual daily bombing of civilians. But for the love of god, let's get rid of the idea that the continued mindless violence doesn't benefit Hamas (because it does; unsurprisingly, sympathy for their cause has soared in Gaza) as much as it does Israel, or that Hamas is some kind of benevolent peacemaker that is being thwarted by the cruel imperialist US/West. And going back to the incident that prompted you to send me this ask: white leftists have often and repeatedly demonstrated their withering disdain for black people, Democratic voters, "mainstream" Americans, and anyone else doesn't buy into the twisted tankie fantasy land where getting rid of Biden would somehow be a massive coup for social justice (by getting Trump, now openly announcing at every turn that he will be a dictator, back into office! Very praxis, much justice. Wow.)

In short: if you, a white person, stand up in Mother Emanuel AME -- one of the most sacred sites for Black churchgoers, who are indeed often heavily Democratic voters -- in the middle of a remembrance service for victims of white supremacist terrorism, after the Black pastor has asked you not to protest inside the church out of respect for the Black community coming together to relive its trauma -- just so you can heckle Biden and feel good about yourself, then Jesus Christ. You don't care about restorative justice for people of color, or literally any justice at all, much less "stopping genocide." You just want to use them as props for your Chomsky cosplay revolutionary fantasies and your sense of self-righteous superiority over literally everyone else, regardless of the real-world consequences. So I have no hesitation whatsoever in telling those people to get fucked. Often and repeatedly.

[elvenbeard]

Reposting the boyo for a little interest check!

No mysterious third or fourth options, but if you have an opinion not covered by the poll, feel free to leave a reply! :D

I'm asking cause I had fun doodling Kerry and I love doodling stuff for others (and it would be a good excercise for sure too!). AND also I'm obviously asking cause I could use the money xD I'm still paying monthly rates for my current laptop since my old one broke at the start of 2023 and I'd be so happy to finally have that monthly monetary burden off my back xD So I'd open a whole bunch of slots - not sure yet how many (probably between 30-50), and how or when I'd go about working through them (most likely a google form where you submit your ref pic - as these would be simple sketches 100% based off of ref pics). I could also imagine streaming some or all of it, for some additional entertainment value xD

A "not more than 1 hour spent per drawing" kinda deal, or even something like pay what you want style comms. Also yeh, not just Cyberpunk as a fandom obviously, anything goes, OCs as well, (and I'll also draw your mom or your pet if you wanna xD) as long as you have 1 good reference screenshot/photo for me to work with! (obligatory disclaimer that exceptions may apply in a few highly specific cases - when in doubt just ask!)

Would super appreciate some feedback and if you'd reblog this so more people see :D tysm!

(also, my regular comms are also still open btw! link in my pinned post!)

[ladyimaginarium]

𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫 !

From left to right, top to bottom: Pile 1, Pile 2, Pile 3, Pile 4, Pile 5, & Pile 6!

Instructions: Use your intuition to pick a card that calls to you most, then scroll to the bottom underneath the read more and find your pile(s) to receive your message!

Disclaimer: take what resonates, leave the rest of what doesn't & don't force anything if it doesn't fit your situation, keep in mind that energy and outcomes can always change & nothing is forever set in stone, you have free will in every choice you make !! keep in mind that this is a general collective reading so the messages here may not apply to everyone. as a general message: my readings are for entertainment purposes only and don't replace professional medical/legal/business help. feedback and a review after a reading is given, whether public or private, is obligatory. you can do that by reblogging ( only if the reading was made for you specifically ), dming or emailing us privately on the matter. if you do not provide this, you will be added to my greylist and won't be given anymore readings, free or paid, until you give feedback. keep in mind it's more than okay to pick more than one pile if you feel you have messages in other piles! don't just leave this in the likes, reblog and support your tarot readers, my time and labour aren't for free. while it isn't necessary, if you'd like to tip, here's my p/ayp/al. I have personal paid readings available which you can fill out the form here so tips, bookings & feedback are highly appreciated considering i plan to do this for a living!

decks used: Disney Villains Tarot & Dark Wood Tarot & Pink Tarot & Killstar ( or as we lovingly call it Memento Mori ) Tarot & Horror Tarot & GANGSTA. Tarot.

Pile 1: You have Justice! First things first is the most obvious in terms of synchronicities: the movie Big Hero 6 may have some significance to you, or East Asian culture, particularly Japanese culture. You may either live in Japan or have traveled to or plan to travel to Japan. You may be born in San Francisco, California, or California as a whole may also be significant to you or you may be American. When I look at this card, my first intuitive thought is that you may be worried about the state of the world right now, and honestly, I wouldn't even blame you, so am I, but I need you to know that things are not hopeless. If you raise your voice and spread awareness to things that matter to you like the way things are going right now and you genuinely care about other people, then you're doing the right thing. You yourself could be an activist or at the very least if you're not officially one, you could care greatly about social justice. The number 11 could be significant to you. Justice is ruled by Libra so you may have those placements or someone you know or someone important to you could have those placements. On a less grander scale, I can see something being made right for you in a situation that's been going on in your life, I'm specifically seeing for a lot of you this could be a relationship - I'm mostly getting romantic relationships here but it could be a friendship dynamic - gone wrong or someone who refused to hire you for whatever reason. You'll likely either reconcile with someone or alternatively for some of you, you could be getting a better offer. Regardless, though, if this resonates with you, congrats, Pile 1, I'm so happy for you!!

Pile 2: You have The High Priestess! You may be intuitively drawn to the occult or your faith, should you have one, right now, and you may be isolating to look at the situations in your life introspectively. The color green may be significant to you. A feminine energy may be significant (it doesn't necessarily have to be a woman!), whether it's a mother, a sister, a girlfriend, an elderly woman, an ancestor of yours or maybe even a feminine deity who wants to reach out to you. You yourself may be interested into getting into tarot and I say if that applies to you, go for it! The number 2 may be significant, it may be a date of the month that's significant, something could happen in 2 days or 2 weeks or 2 months, or, alternatively, since February is the second month of the year, something important could be happening this February! Cancer, Scorpio & Pisces may be significant, you may have those in your placements or someone you know may have those placements considering its ruled by the Moon.

Pile 3: You have Strength! This is completely random but I'm getting that at least some of you who get this card and picked this pile are furries, otherkin, alterhuman and/or someone who has animal deities that they follow. Some of you may literally be lionkind if you're otherkin or you may have a lion as a fursona if you're a furry or if you are a system, you may have a system member who's a lion. You may also be neurodivergent, I'm getting for a lot of y'all autistic specifically, considering the infinity symbol. The color pink may be significant to you because this is my pink tarot deck. I'm getting that if you practice and believe in crystal healing, get some rose quartz, especially if you want to attract love, especially romantic love, into your life. Lions may pose some significance to you, and if not lions, then felines. You yourself may have a cat. You may be spending more time with your cats. The Lion King may be significant. For very few of you you may actually work with wild animals, especially big cats, which if that's the case that's literally so cool! This was what I read for someone last month when I told y'all that you'd have to be resilient in something you're doing because someone may be testing your patience and I'm getting that again. Make sure to set healthy boundaries with someone if necessary! Leo may be significant, whether you have those in your natal chart or someone you know has those placements. The number 8 could be significant, something could happen in 8 days which is little over a week from when you're reading this. This is random, too, but I'm getting an intuitive hit to buy flowers for yourself if you're alone by yourself on Valentine's Day if you're reading this by the time this post is written. Someone may want to give you flowers, or flowers in general may be significant to you. Regardless, though, I know for a fact that you'll be slaying anyway no matter what you do! SLAY!

Pile 4: You have The World! I'm immediately getting that you're about to or already have completed a cycle in your life and to that I say congratulations, Pile 4!! I'm getting a ringing in my right ear so that just confirms it!! Maybe you've FINALLY managed to achieve something you've wanted to do, maybe you're feeling a little more at ease in this new chapter in your life. For some of you I'm getting that you may have moved to a new place! If that applies, that's awesome, Pile 4!! The number 21 could be significant, you yourself could be 21 or something could happen on the 21st of a month. The Earth element rules The World may be significant, so Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn may be significant to you, and since Saturn rules The World, Capricorn and Aquarius may also be significant to you, whether you have any of those placements yourself, or someone else you know may have them. The symbol of Ouroboros may be significant to you, too. Regardless, though, I say y'all are doing wonderfully and I'm hoping y'all will stay on the top of the world !!

Pile 5: You have The Chariot! You may be struggling to move forward with a decision you've made or maybe even debating on what to choose. Usually in the traditional Rider Waite tarot there's two horses representing two choices, that isn't present here as there's only one horse here. To that I say follow your heart and your intuition most of all and it won't lead you astray. I'm getting this... very specific message for a lot of you, but I need y'all to know this, okay? It's okay to leave the past behind. It's okay to let go. Horses may be of significance to you. For very few of you I'm getting you may be equestrians or have ancestors who were equestrians, notably Mongolians and Scythians or any of the Plains Turtle Island Indigenous Nations, but that definitely won't apply to everyone. For some of you the Celtic deity Epona or perhaps even The Legend of Zelda may be significant because I'm getting The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker's opening theme playing in my head ehehe. The Chariot is ruled by Cancer so Cancer may be significant to you, and the number 7 may be significant, something could be happening a week from now when you're reading this which is what I'm getting for a lot of you and for others your birthday could be the 7th of a month, alternatively, you could be born in July. You've got this!

Pile 6: You have The Empress! HOOO BOY I'm getting for a lot of you who picked this pile, y'all may be lesbians and/or sapphics of some kind because I just got, like, psychically blasted in the face with some really gay shit and specifically sapphic yearning LMAO. I don't know, I'm just getting that vibe and not just from the character Gina Paulklee from GANGSTA. herself who she herself is canonically a lesbian/sapphic. For a few of you, the animanga series GANGSTA. may be significant to you, or you may want to read/watch it as you may find some messages in there that may be important to you. For some of y'all, a strong maternal figure could be significant like a mother, an aunt or even a deity who's really powerful who may be trying to reach out... I'm getting Athena (Hellenismos) and Sekhmet (Kemeticism) for a lot of y'all, and for fewer of you, I'm getting Amaterasu (Shinto), Hera (Hellenismos), Hathor (Kemeticism), the Morrigan (Celtic Paganism), Freyja (Asatru), Oshun (Yoruba Ifa, Candomble & Santeria, Black/Afro-Latine exclusive, if you're nonblack don't touch!), and Sky Woman (Huron-Iroquois/Haudenosaunee, if you're nonnative or not a member of any of these nations don't touch!) so any of these deities may be significant to you. If it doesn't apply, let it fly. You could be in your divine feminine energy (everyone has this energy inside them regardless of gender, sex, orientation or presentation!) and stepping into your own personal power. Some of y'all may be exploring sensuality and your own sexuality or for any of my lesbians/sapphics in this pile, you may be getting a girlfriend. This my baddie pile and I don't necessarily mean in an Instagram baddie way (and you don't have to be a woman to be a baddie!) although you could fit or like that aesthetic, but I moreso mean in the sense that you're gaining confidence in yourself and what you do, and in other words, you really are That Bitch TM & I'm so happy for y'all if that applies !! The Earth element rules The Empress so that may be significant, so Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn may be significant to you, and Venus rules The Empress and for some of y'all I'm getting that Aphrodite (Hellenismos) and/or Venus (Religio Romana) literally may be wanting to reach out to you to work with you if you don't already. The number 3 may also be significant, so something could be happening in March as its the third month of the year and as I'm posting this the month after this month, alternatively, the 3rd of a month may be significant, or something could be happening in 3 days from now, or weeks or months, but I'm getting for y'all it's likely 3 days. With that said, that's about all I have for your reading, thank you so much for being here!

[gonchillunchis]

Gonnmissions 2023

Hi there, I’ll be opening this year’s commissions a bit earlier. I need to cover some college and medical expenses still, so any reblog, or donation is highly appreciated. If you're interested please contact me via Twitter DM for a better communication, as I don’t log in to Tumblr everyday. However, feel free to ask me anything through Tumblr’s Chat option, or through my askbox for general questions regarding my comms.

More info, such as prices, terms of service and conditions down below 

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Simple Doodle --> 10 US$ each

+ 1 character --> + 5 US$

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Clean Line + Flat Colors --> 15 US$ each

+ 1 character --> + 10 US$

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Full Illustration (complex shapes, textures, shading) 1 character --> 20 US$ 2 characters --> 20 US$ !! + 1 character starting from the second --> + 10US$

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Doodle Sheet --> 40US$ Complex Colors, Extra-complex Full Illustration --> 40US$

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Both digital and traditional!!

-> Will do: Fanart / OCs / Soft gore / NSFW / real people caricature -> Won't do: Complex backgrounds / machinery / furries / anything I’m personally not comfortable doing

Terms of service:

* There’s a limited amount of slots (7) * Please provide references and detailed explanation * Pay at least 50% of the total fee in advance before I start the commission * Payments via PayPal only! * Tips are not obligatory, but they’re highly appreciated. * For specific requests that don’t match the examples shown, such as tattoo designs, posters, character design, concept art, merch, please DM so we can discuss it. I’m open to do any of these but the pricing must be discussed in detail. * I will show the progress of the piece as I'm doing it, if there's something to be changed, please notify me with time * The finished piece will be sent via e-mail or Google Drive link. Formats are either .TIFF or .PNG

* ! ! Commissioned art work is for personal use, do not resell. Copying (digital or printing), tracing, remixing is allowed as long as it's *non-profit*  ! ! * This includes NFTs and/or AI feeding

[ghetsis]

highly unpopular opinion, but...

absolute reblog karma makes me reluctant to post memes at all. like even if I send one to the person(s) I found it from, someone else might assume I found it from them and didn't send one in (especially if it's an anon meme). it's like you either need to interact with enough people to be noticable or not post memes at all.

I get that it's shitty to use people as meme sources and not even interact with them, but if someone is RBing from the source, how do you KNOW they found it from you, specifically, and how do you KNOW they didn't send a meme to the person they did find it from?

personally, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I don't really want someone to send a meme just because they feel guilted to pay the obligatory meme toll. so as always, reblog karma is appreciated, but not mandatory here.

[phantaemon]

obligatory self promotion (ADOPTS OTA)

A TOYHOUSE ACCOUNT (or willingness to make one- I'll do my best to find you a code if so) IS REQUIRED TO ADOPT, NO MATTER THE PAYMENT METHOD

Hey hey, I have two adopts up for offers on my toyhouse! Please refer to this post for details. Reblogs HIGHLY appreciated Design previews:

[sincerelymina]

go ahead & cry, little girl

content: death island leon x female reader. age gap. suggestive content. he works with your dad so kind of dbf? he isn't a creep who has known you since you were under eighteen though. kind of angsty. but hurt/comfort. lots of pet names. not proofread. yeah! author’s note: it's been a hot minute since i posted because i have had zero motivation but pls enjoy. i'm not joking when i say di leon sitting me on his lap would actually fix me i love this old ass man. this is very self-indulgent i was in my feels ok. reblogs & comments are highly appreciated !!

leon didn't know how he ended up in this predicament, with you straddling his lap, lips clashing softly against his. his mind begged him to get a grip on reality, realize that he shouldn't be doing this with you of all people, but his body betrayed those thoughts.

still, his hands remained firmly on your waist, holding you flush against his frame. they slithered up your sides, causing your shirt to ride up ever so slightly, exposing your soft skin. all restraint and resolve he might've once held had been drained away, now left with pure, unadulterated need.

finding his co-worker's daughter on his lap wasn't apart of tonight's agenda, not at all. he swung by at your parents' request, your mother once again throwing one of her many extravagant dinner parties, this time in homage to you, who'd just completed your stratcom training.

it was supposed to be your special night, but you felt anything but. many of the other agents and older adults there tonight you knew merely by name, most being co-workers or close friends with your father.

of course, you got the obligatory congratulations from guests, but after about fifteen minutes or so they'd all mellowed away from you and got engrossed in their own conversations, all having nothing to do with you.

what shocked you the most was the fact that your own father hadn't said a word to you about your accomplishments. hadn't even acknowledged the fact that you were now joining the same field as him. no matter what you did, you seemed to never win his approval. it left a queasy feeling in your stomach.

you step out to the balcony, desperate to catch a breather, and shuffle past the stuffy environment downstairs. with a lukewarm can of coke sitting on the edge, you stare off at the night sky, the cool air enveloping around you.

a glum expression is worn on your face, one you can't seem to shake off. for a moment, you really thought your father might be proud of you. truth be told, joining the dso was never really your thing—you did it for him.

"everything okay sweetheart?" an all too familiar voice calls out from behind, turning around to face the figure standing in the doorway. it's leon, a sympathetic look playing on his features. he knew something was off when the star of the show was nowhere to be seen.

of course, it was leon who noticed your absence, it always was him. he helped hone your skills during your stratcom days and carefully curated an agent better than himself—at least, one day he hoped you were.

you can't fight the slight smile that creeps onto your lips at the sight of him, your heart fluttering in your chest. after a night of zero attention, this was like handing candy to a baby.

"hi leon," you don't answer his question.

"not doing too hot, i take it..?" leon asks softly, padding towards you. his presence alone seemed to comfort you. he leans his back against the balcony, arms crossed below his chest. he's close enough for you to smell the scent of his cologne. you inhale sharply.

at your silence, he adds, "i thought this was supposed to be a night for you to celebrate."

you shake your head, "no, it was just an excuse for everyone to get drunk. i should've known," you grumble, sighing defeatedly as you take a sip from your can.

"don't say that," leon tells you with an apologetic frown, his tone reassuring, even if he knew what you were saying was the truth, "look, if it's any consolation, i'm proud of you. you've worked really hard for this, kid."

kid. a subtle reminder that you shouldn't be harboring a little crush on leon. he didn't see you as anything more than his co-worker's daughter. it was bittersweet, knowing he cared for you, but not in the same way you did for him.

"thanks leon," you muster up a full-fledged smile for him, staring at him appreciatively.

he takes the opportunity to grab your shoulders, squeezing them gently, and says, "i mean it," leon smiles as you melt against his touch, "don't let those old geezers get to you." his thumb brushes over the fabric of your shirt soothingly.

"you're my favorite old geezer," you finally grin, a soft chuckle following suit. he chides back with a playful "watch it brat."

you didn't know how to feel about leon. guilt creeped beneath your skin whenever you acknowledged the fact that you might be attracted to him. or, were you just relishing in the attention he gave you, making up for what you never got growing up. it was messy, and made your head hurt.

his arms trail down yours, clasping onto your waist as leon pulls you in for a suffocating hug. you bury your face in his chest, inhaling both the smell of his cologne and the faint whiskey on his breath. he rests his head on your shoulder, and tells you, "i know it sucks, but above everyone else, you should be proud of yourself, baby."

the nickname drips off his tongue like honey, slow and sweet, as he continues, "you don't need approval from someone who's blinded by their own ignorance," his tone takes a bitter edge, "screw him."

leon had always known your father as an earnest man, brave, with unwavering self-righteousness. brutally massacring zombies and the sons of bitches who created them was his specialty. leon could only assume the man's offspring was just as ruthless.

and that you were. but beyond that cold mask, was a girl who truly only wanted her parents to see that she was strong and capable, more specifically her father. but fate decided otherwise.

he respected your father, but the more he got to know you, the more that respect slowly withered away. being cruel on the battlefield was one thing, but acting that way towards your own flesh and blood?

it was shameful.

a single tear rolls down your cheek, leon's words striking a chord in you, the realization settling in your bones. sure, what he was saying was true, but you couldn't shake the feeling off. this was your father. you couldn't shove him under the rug and move on like everything was okay.

but if this was the way the man wanted to act, it was truly what he deserved.

"i guess," you sniffle, "i just thought—"

leon cuts you off immediately, his jaw tensing, "no, sweetheart, you don't have to prove yourself to anyone." he pulls back slightly, wanting to see your face, the sight only weakening his heart. you poor girl. "especially not to your old man. he's just got his head so far up his ass he can't see you for the perfect girl you are."

the stern, yet gentle look on his face made you swallow hard. he really did care a lot for you. he saw how desperate you were for love and approval from your father, and it hurt to watch you struggle for something that would never be given.

"i don't know what else to do," you mumble weakly, your bottom lip quivering. the dam broke, allowing tears to flood out of your eyes freely, and trickle down your cheeks, soft sobs tumbling off of your lips. you came undone right before his eyes, a gut-wrenching sight.

"hey, don't cry," he coos, his voice much softer than usual. a frown tugged on his features as leon brushed away your tears with the pad of his thumb. he sighs sharply, blue eyes piercing through yours.

leon pulls you closer once again, wrapping his arms around you for emotional support—he knew you loved hugs more than anything. you don't say anything, simply crying in his embrace, years of frustration bubbling to the surface. he doesn't care as you stain his t-shirt with salty tears.

"it's okay, honey, i got you," the pet name rolls off of his tongue way too easily, but to his luck, it comforts you, "i know, i know," leon mumbles, pressing a soft kiss against your forehead. again, the gesture only seemed natural in the moment, and you relished in it all.

the kiss, albeit chaste, ignites something within yourself, already vulnerable and drunk on misery. your heart thuds heavily in your chest as you become acutely aware of the position you're in. despite it all, this felt so right. god, you could just kiss him.

eventually, your profuse sobbing calms down, mellowing into soft whimpers as leon keeps your face buried in his chest. he likes having you like this, all wrapped up in his arms. you're such a pretty thing, sweet too. it tugged at his heart strings seeing you all upset.

"better now?" he whispers, his voice a tender murmur. leon's hands smooth up and down your back soothingly, trying to relieve you from all the stress you were under.

you sniffle a bit and nod, "mhm."

your breaths were slow and steady, reeling back in after your little fit. still, you wanted him to kiss you 'til you were senseless, but you knew leon would never, much to your dismay. he was too old to be messing around with a twenty-two year old.

sixteen years wasn't just a slight age gap, it was nearly two decades. he had so many years on you, so much more experience. you yearned for someone mature and caring, though, even if that was a naïve thought process to have.

the intimacy of your situation hadn't gone unnoticed by leon, but the thought of pursuing a relationship like that with someone so much younger left a sour taste on his tongue. even if you were such a precious, pretty girl. you were the daughter of a co-worker. you were off limits in more ways than one.

your teary doe eyes bore into his, a maelstrom of thoughts swirling around your mind, all telling you to take different courses of action from here on out. you wanted to kiss leon so bad, just wanted to feel something. he looked like he was a good kisser. lust clouds your gaze.

leon's breath hitches as you lift your hand up to cup his cheek, the feeling of your thumb tracing the line of his jaw sending a pleasant shiver down his spine. his heart shouldn't be beating this fast, he was a grown man for god's sake. but there was something about your gaze that made the simple gesture so much more intimate.

this was a bad idea, leon told himself. he wasn't an idiot, he was all too familiar with the certain glimmer in your eyes. he just didn't think you feeling that way about him was even possible. he knew you were incredibly vulnerable right now, as delicate as a porcelain doll, nothing like the tough agent he was well-acquainted with. that's why he didn't question your affection.

for now, at least.

the fact that not a single soul had gone searching for you in your short absence left a bitter feeling beneath your skin. just leon. everyone seemed to be busy drinking their hearts out and laughing nonsensically. it pissed leon off just as much. a girl like you deserved so much better than this.

maybe it was for the best, no one finding you and leon in this compromising position. it would be hard to explain, that was for certain.

his mouth goes dry, finding himself unable to get a grasp on reality, simply reveling in your gentle touch. would he even stop you if you leaned in for a big kiss?

the answer was no. because a moment after that thought occurred in leon's mind, your lips find his, your free hand making its way to his other cheek, cradling his face as you lean in closer. leon freezes, unable to process what was going on—one minute, you were sobbing in his arms. the next, you were pulling him in for a kiss.

it felt wrong, yet so right, your lips soft and sweet like ice cream. he kisses you back, out of instinct, rather than better judgement. your lips move slowly against one another, gently testing out the waters, exploring your boundaries with little pecks. still, leon couldn't deny the guilt that burned hot beneath his skin.

you let out soft noises of satisfaction while feeling leon's hands get a little more bold, pulling you flush against him. he was only human, leon tried reassuring himself—it wasn't like he exactly hated the predicament he was in, given how perfectly you felt in his arms.

his hands trail lower, now resting precariously on your waist, inching towards your ass. leon's mind was pleading with him, begging him to step away and remember who you were, but his body betrayed those thoughts.

instead of being the older, more mature person in the scenario, he pushes you up against the edge of the balcony.

breathlessly, leon whispers, lips still plastered against yours, "sweetheart, we really shouldn't," but he couldn't bring himself to part from you. you had him hooked, line and sinker.

his words fall upon deaf ears. you beg to disagree, moving in for a few more kisses, all placed haphazardly on the lower half of his face, his stubble prickling your chin. you can't even say anything in response, too enthralled by the feeling of kissing someone you deemed off limits. your fingers tangle in his dark hair, threading through the strands as your tongue slips past the crack of his lips.

leon groans softly, feeling your legs wrap around his waist. his hands grip onto your thighs tightly, hoisting you up into place. with your lips locked, he stumbles backwards, falling onto a nearby couch. he knew he was too far gone, already surrendering to the desire that coursed through his blood, causing it to run hot.

and here you were, straddling his lap, kissing him like a starved man. leon's mind raced, still finding this whole thing ineffable. he knew you as a rookie he trained, a total sweetheart. but just by the way you opened your mouth against his proved your thoughts right now were less than pure.

mixed saliva drips down your chin, making no effort to wipe it away, as you shift over his lap, subtly trying to grind your clothed cunt against the rough denim. leon's breath catches in his throat, "fuck, sweetheart— what the hell are you doing?" sure, his cock might've been half-hard right now, but you were too vulnerable to be getting yourself into something like this. reality was creeping back in for him, unfortunately.

your breaths come out in short pants, tits pressing up against his chest, "need you so bad," you mumble, plush lips still on his.

you didn't know what you needed, leon wanted to tell you, but he kept his mouth shut.

"no, not like this," he couldn't let his emotions get the best of him, even if you felt so good. leon had no idea how he would face your father after this, knowing his little girl was swapping saliva with his co-worker of all people.

but the fucking look in your eye, the pleading puppy eyes, begging for more kisses, and maybe even more...leon was only human. one with a weak resolve at that. "well we're not continuing this out here," he says lowly and sighs, “you poor thing.”

it wasn't long before leon was carrying you in his big arms, heading straight for your bedroom, grateful no one had noticed both of your disappearances…yet.

[elcorhamletlive]

fandom: MCU (Post-Civil War) ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Pining, POV Tony Stark summary: Steve is trapped in a dream machine, programmed to make him believe he's living his happiest fantasy.

Tony goes inside to wake him up, but what he finds is a lot more complicated than he expected.

If somebody asked Tony what would happen the next time he and Steve saw each other, he’d say they would fight.

He wouldn’t say it out of pettiness. It was just—well, what seemed likely. Even right now, two years after their fight, while Steve and the other rogue avengers are in the middle of renegotiating the Accords with T’Challa’s help, Tony doesn’t think that would make a different between the two of them, when they were in the same room again.

He’s not even angry anymore. Well, most of the time, at least. It’s just. That’s just how he and Steve work, apparently. It’s foolish to hope for anything else.

(Sometimes Tony gets those dreams – dreams of Steve stepping inside the lab. Steve walking straight to Tony and taking him in his arms, his smell a sweet, musky scent flooding Tony’s senses, whispering things in his ears. Sometimes he whispers I’m sorry, other times he says I missed you, and sometimes—

Doesn’t matter.)

When Tony received Natasha’s call, he—well, he thought she was wrong, for starters. Natasha’s track record stands against that, of course, but Tony just couldn’t help but think what she’s saying – Steve being attacked, Steve being kidnapped, Steve not answering any communications – just didn’t jive well with reality. It couldn’t happen. It just couldn’t.

He wants to punch something.

To be honest, he just did a fair amount of punching, taking down a bunch of goons in this base that could easily be in a picture right next to a dictionary’s definition of villain lair. All of Ross’ men are laying on the floor, some knocked out, others tied up, waiting for the arrival of the CIA agents who are supposed to clean this mess up. And what a mess it is – Ross had apparently taken chasing Steve’s team to chasing the Hulk levels of obsession, to such a point he was not happy with the idea that they could get a pardon through a diplomatic negotiation. He had decided to take matters on his own hands, and Tony can only imagine the paperwork that’s gonna come out of this.

His men are neutralized now, though. Tony leaves the task of watching over them to Vision and Rhodey, flying out of the main chamber and into a hallway.

He’s headed for the last room, from where Natasha sent him a signal when she confirmed that was, indeed, the place they were looking for. As he rushes towards it, FRIDAY shares some readings of tech waves and signals she picks up, but Tony doesn’t hear it. He can’t hear anything right now.

When he gets to the room, he punches the door open.

He looks around, vaguely acknowledging Natasha’s presence along with many panels showing a flood of data. His gaze darts around the room, and he stops in his tracks when he finds what he’s looking for.

Steve Rogers, handcuffed to a chair not unlike a torture device, face pale and eyes closed as if he’s—

Asleep, Tony quickly completes. His stomach turns, but he tries to ignore it. He looks asleep, which is exactly what he is.

It’s still not any easier to watch. Steve is restrained on the table, and if he were anyone else, Tony would guess they had arrived too late, just from how pale he looks.

Tony controls his mind and stops himself from going down this road. Some sort of comma, Natasha had said. He turns towards her. She’s typing commands on Ross’ computers, no doubt trying to get all the data she can find.

He opens his mouth to speak, but she’s faster than him: “It’s a mind controlling device.”

Tony raises his eyebrows, turning back towards the chair. There’s nothing on Steve’s face or body other than the restraints, no cables connecting him anywhere. “A wireless signal?” He comes closer, thinking a loud. “Of course not, why would it affect only him? But if it isn’t…” he trails off, a bitter taste filling his mouth. He turns towards the panels, watching the data flow, a feeling of bile rising up to his throat. “Nanites,” he says finally.

Natasha nods.

Tony clenches his fists so tight his hands hurt.

“Clint’s got Ross in the other room,” Natasha says. “He’s not being very talkative, but that’ll definitely change when the CIA gets here. For what it’s worth, we think Steve was supposed to work as a test subject. I think Ross only wanted to neutralize him, but whoever he partnered with had other ideas, possibly of applying the device to others. They had your research on nanotech as a first step, and then if they wanted to expand, to be able to control other people… I imagine the logic was that if it worked on a supersoldier, it would work on anyone.”

“How do we get him out?” Tony interrupts. It vaguely occurs to him Ross must have partnered with a tech company, definitely a Stark Industries rival. He feels no curiosity over who it was, though, not now, when the only thing he can see is Steve’s pale face and the only thing he can think is my tech; my tech did this.

There’s a small pause that makes Tony want to puke.

“Ross claims it’s impossible,” Natasha says, her voice just the slightest amount quieter.

Tony would deny it to his final breath, but he’s shaking as he approaches Steve’s body, so unbearably still in that fucking chair, and starts undoing his restraints. “We’ll fucking see about that.”

Read the rest on ao3!

[connor-sent-by-cyberlife]

Ho Ho Ho - I bring prompts for you

Welcome to my sixth Detroit: Become Human Prompt Challenge. In celebration of December and all the winter holidays here is another whole month full of prompts that will hopefully inspire you to get creative.

It will take place from December 1st - 31st, 2021.

As always, I hope for lots of participants and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with this time. Let's get cozy and festive! Or use the prompts in any other way that comes to your mind ;). You know I'm simply happy to see them being used no matter how.

Prompts:

December 1st - Wednesday: snowman

December 2nd - Thursday: ice skating

December 3rd - Friday: childhood memories

December 4th - Saturday: holiday shopping

December 5th - Sunday: A Christmas Carol

December 6th - Monday: snowed in

December 7th - Tuesday: eggnog

December 8th - Wednesday: holiday traditions

December 9th - Thursday: sharing a blanket

December 10th - Friday: mittens

December 11th - Saturday: Christmas firsts

December 12th - Sunday: hot beverage

December 13th - Monday: mistletoe

December 14th - Tuesday: decoration

December 15th - Wednesday: winter wonderland

December 16th - Thursday: I'm not wearing that

December 17th - Friday: obligatory Christmas photo

December 18th - Saturday: scarf

December 19th - Sunday: Christmas tree

December 20th - Monday: nightmare before Christmas

December 21st - Tuesday: lonely

December 22nd - Wednesday: greeting card

December 23rd - Thursday: last Christmas

December 24th - Friday: Christmas Eve

December 25th - Saturday: Christmas morning

December 26th - Sunday: leftovers

December 27th - Monday: cozy

December 28th - Tuesday: when the lights go out

December 29th - Wednesday: fireworks

December 30th - Thursday: New Year's Eve/New Year

December 31st - Friday: New Year's resolutions

Information and Rules:

The tag for this challenge is #dbhcarolsandcircuits (thanks to @veilder who came up with the name when I struggled to find one). Please use this tag for any of your contributions and follow it in case you want to see what other people do with the prompts

Any kind of art or writing is most welcome

You’re free to choose any character or ship from the D:BH fandom (no OCs) you like

Show/Write what you want, but please make sure to tag your content correctly, so people who don’t want nsfw/gore/a specific ship/whatever on their dash don’t have to see it

Don’t bash anybody for their chosen ship or content!

You can contribute more than one piece per day

Of course you can pick single prompts from the list, you don’t have to do all of them if you don’t want to

If you can’t finish a submission in time, you can always post it belated

Not a rule, but I’d really appreciate if you’d tag me ( @connor-sent-by-cyberlife ) if you contribute something to this challenge

Reblogs to bring attention to this challenge would be highly appreciated

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask

Thank you for your interest and support!

[afinepricklypear]

I’m writing this largely in response to angel-rhetenor’s replies on my recent reblog with comments of the post “Why is the BSD fandom so terrible about leaving comments?” The replies I received from this person and the OP were understandably emotional responses but also problematic because they made claims of there being some hidden meaning behind my statements that wasn’t there and accused me of attacking OP, which I didn’t. I’m not posting to defend my statements or place blame, I stand by what I wrote and encourage people to read it, rather than the replies it was given, to decide for themselves. Unfortunately, I know that most people won’t. It is long and it’s easier to see the responses, and because those individual’s posed arguments that are easy to agree with (yes, it is wrong to call someone stupid or to say that their work is low quality when you haven’t read it, and, yes, it’s equally wrong to suggest that writing shorter stories, shorter chapters, one-shots, and/or rare-pairs makes your writing bad – btw, a ludicrous assertion to claim I said, not least of all, because I do and have written all of these things).

As well there were issues that these individuals claim I either ignored or did not speak to, which was simply because the primary intent behind my comments was to discuss analytics, how they work, how to interpret them, and how to use them to improve your own work.

Quick side note, I also briefly want to acknowledge remarks made about my comments being “well-researched” – I deleted the credentials from my original comment, I didn’t think it lent anything to it, but I’ll add them here: I have a BA in Anthropology, I’m two semesters from a BS in Computer Science, and I work as an Analyst for a public utility company. Data, data analysis, and interpreting data as it relates to population behavior, not to mention, research is all, kind of, my thing.

There were a number of issues that were raised by these individuals, and some points made in their replies that I’d love to address, but there is one I really need to talk about that was brought up in angel-rhetenor’s reply: reposting fanwork. This is a big issue in regards to any kind of intellectual property, and angel-rhetenor posed it as being analogous of the issues regarding feedback and whether people “owe” fanfiction writers or, really, any content creators compensation (in the form of likes, feedback, comments, etc.) for enjoying their work when it is provided free of access. This person concluded their statements with the bold, and yes, true assertion that artists and writers deserve recognition for their work.

So, if this conclusion is true, what can I have to say about it, right? This person must’ve really proved me wrong.

Well, the biggest problem I have with this argument is that, as presented, it is a false equivalency. Meaning, the issues behind reposting and giving feedback are not the same. In fact, the issues behind reposting and giving recognition, as this person indicated, are not even the same.

To be clear: The issues behind reposting are not about feedback, not about showing appreciation/gratitude to content creators, and not about recognition.

Now, before you run to your keyboard to react to this statement, let me explain.

These may seem on the surface to be the same thing, they may even feel related to one another, they certainly feel like they derive from the same place in the audience, but it’s important to understand the distinctions between them if you are posting your work online especially because reposting someone’s work, unlike the other issues discussed, can be a legal matter. If find yourself in the situation where your work has been stolen, you need to understand the difference between these issues and why. Although some of the concepts behind these other issues do inform legal problems in the real world, it is not in the way that you may think. 

Feedback

One of the things that really set me off about the post that started all of this was OP’s comments to another individual reply on this post that Kudos/Likes are not showing gratitude, that she doesn’t even look at them, and they aren’t real feedback. To an extent, she isn’t wrong. Feedback/Comments and Kudos are not exactly the same. Kudos/Likes are a form of positive feedback only, they do show gratitude for the work, they do indicate that the work was liked and appreciated – that is their entire meaning exactly. An author may decide that they want more than kudos from the readers, but it is up to the author to determine what they are looking for in return from posting their work online and then finding the appropriate forum to get that return – in which case, if you don’t want Kudos, AO3 is probably not the place for your work.

If all you want is praise for your work, that’s what Kudos are, but feedback in general isn’t always given because someone liked your work. In fact, feedback in an open forum is often given by people who just felt strongly about your work one way or another. That is unless you’ve directly asked someone to read and give you feedback – in which case, these kinds of obligatory transactions need to be arranged with the individual up front rather than after the fact, otherwise you are getting into ethical issues of scamming, conning, and manipulation ß this is actually the basis behind “Unordered Merchandise” complaints, which you can read about more on the FTC website. There are ways to encourage people to give feedback that don’t include any of these sticky problems, such as, starting the conversation for them (via the notes section of your story) by asking questions or making your own comments about the work, or simply being clear about what kind of feedback you’re looking for from the readers. Some good examples might be:

·        Making speculations about the plotline, “I wonder what this character is really up to…”

·        Highlighting parts of your writing you really want people to notice, “Feeling proud of that dialogue, really hope you guys agree…”

·        Or calling attention to areas of the writing you feel shaky on, “Not really happy with how that action scene went, felt clunky…let me know what you guys think?”

Additionally, if what you are looking for is feedback to improve as a writer, I might mention that the fanfiction community is probably not the best place to go for it. I love the readers, I’ve been highly impressed by the quality of comments I’ve received on AO3 over the comments I’ve gotten on FF.net, but many of the readers are younger, not writer’s themselves, and, while they can tell whether something is “good” or “bad”, they can’t necessarily tell you why or give you the constructive criticism necessary to develop better writing skills. Additionally, readers tend to be more generous in their feedback because they have received the content for free, in which case, you’re not getting the most honest feedback. Feedback is better received by joining/starting a writing group, teaming up with beta-readers, or hiring an editor. But I don’t want to turn this into a discussion about how to get feedback or use it to improve, that’s not the point of this post.

Given this definition, I hope you can better see how feedback and reposting are not the same thing. While reposting poses the issue of diverting feedback from the creator, there is a vast ethical difference between whether I should be required to give you my opinion on your work or not and me posting your work elsewhere.

Appreciation/Gratitude

Many arguments presented by the OP of the “Why is the BSD fandom so awful at leaving comments” post and angel-rhetenor are predicated on the idea that everyone who read or looked at your work liked it, they were entertained by it, and, thus, should show appreciation or gratitude to you for it. Of course, this is the understood socially accepted behavior, isn’t it? I’ve given you this ‘gift’, and now you tell me “thank you”. As I’ve already argued, this is what Kudos are designed to do. However, beyond gratitude and appreciation, Likes/Kudos also serve as forms of endorsement. It means, I’ve read this and I approve of it. Now, this type of endorsement is stronger in social media systems like Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr, where the newsfeed algorithm is going to push to me those posts that people I follow (read as: opinions I trust) are liking and, therefore, helping to grow that person’s audience. In AO3, public bookmarks are actually a better form of an endorsement in this sense. That said, if I’m trying to decide if something is worth my time to read, I might jump to the Kudos to see who else liked it, furthermore, if a story has a large number of Kudos, that means that a larger number of people endorsed it and stamped it with their seal of approval. You might feel that Kudos is meaningless to you, but that is someone giving you a show of support that serves as a visual indicator to other potential readers that your work is worth reading.

Of course, this also touches on the concern raised by angel-rhetenor of audience entitlement. The issue as stated was that audience members feel entitled to a creator’s time and that they are allowed to demand that a creator makes work or delivers new works for free.

The thing is, they are allowed to make those kinds of demands of a creator, at least, until that creator blocks them on social media. In the same vein, you are perfectly allowed to demand people leave comments on your fanwork that you’ve posted to AO3. But just as readers are not obligated to leave you feedback, creators are not obligated to provide free content. You can scream into the wind as loud as you want: GIVE ME FEEDBACK! GIVE ME CONTENT! No one has to listen to you or deliver on it. There’s nothing obligating them to do so. That said, if they like your work and want to see more of it, then yes, they should understand that showing support is going to be the way to ensure new work appears without shaming or guilting or emotionally blackmailing them into it. As I said in my last post, if I have one reader that likes my work, I’m going to write for them. If I don’t have any readers liking my work, I’m less likely to continue that story, I’ll probably just keep writing and posting until I lose interest. But that’s fine. Yes, once again, I get that it can be frustrating especially when you see other works that you, maybe feel aren’t as good as your own, getting more attention because they hit the nail on the head of what their audience was looking for. But you can’t force or obligate the readers to give you that feedback, especially if they, maybe, aren’t interested in supporting your work even if they did enjoy reading it.

As for the comments regarding monetization, and the attitude that “because this is provided free, why should I pay for it from you”…uh…they’re not wrong. This is ECON-101, supply and demand, and, despite popular belief, it is NOT exclusive to fanwork. Every business has to overcome this problem. What are you offering consumers that goes beyond what they can get elsewhere and is worth them spending their money on to get from you?

angel-rhetenor also accused my comments of promoting, rather than discouraging, what they feel is an erroneous and harmful thought process, that “Everyone can make fanwork”. Here’s the thing, everyone can make fanwork. Everyone out there in the fandom is capable of it, that’s what makes it great and accessible to people that want to create. You have to figure out how to set your fanwork apart and how to effectively sell that. It might help to pose this in real world terms: Microsoft Office is a relatively expensive word processing software. Microsoft Wordpad is also a word processing software that comes free with your Windows operating system. So why do people spend money on Office, when Wordpad accomplishes the same thing without additional expense?

You set the value of your own work, you determine how much your time is worth, but the harsh reality is that just because you’ve decided that this is how much you want for your work, that doesn’t mean everyone, or anyone for that matter, is going to agree to pay that much for it, especially not if they can go to someone else and get what they’re asking free. Does that mean that those people are right and you need to start giving your work away for free? No. It means you need to figure out what it is that you’re selling that they should want to pay for, market yourself. Is it higher quality, is it a cleaner more polished work, do you have a better vision or take on the characters, is it a better display of skill. Are you selling them Microsoft Office or are you charging them for Wordpad when it’s a free software? You’ll still have people that are willing to settle for less, Wordpad is still around for a reason, but there are those who will pay you for your work because they want your work.

However, if no one wants your work for the price you’re asking, you need to revisit your business model, and that might mean that you need to improve what you are trying to sell. In terms of artists, there are decidedly better artists out there than others who are posting and sharing their work. Now I may hit the ‘Like’ buttons for a beginner artists’ shared artwork to show them support and encourage them to keep trying, but I’m not going to buy their artwork until they have developed their skill. A slightly better artist, I might pay for their work, but I’m not going to pay as much as I would for artwork from a master artist. This isn’t to say that the beginning artist sucks and didn’t work hard on their artwork, but to claim that they should receive the same return on their product than a more experienced artist who has spent many more years developing their skill is unfair to those artists that have put in the hours to develop their craft, and actually does more to harm people who are trying to monetize their work than helps by belittling and devaluing what it takes to develop a skill and build a following around their work.

Now I know where people are going to go: doesn’t saying it’s okay for people to share their work free with no obligations support the idea that people can also just take your work if they want it? You can go ahead and jump to the Reposting section to get the full answer on this, but in the meantime, consider this example: Imagine you’re shopping for a couch. You go to the store and decide its way more than you’re willing to pay, decide to shop around some. On your way home, you come across someone dragging their couch out to the curb, you go to speak to them, turns out it’s brand new, past return date but too big for their place so they’ getting rid of it and yes, you can take it if you want. Does that mean I can now go back to the store and just take the couch they had on sell there for free? No. The idea that because someone else is giving their work away for free, doesn’t then justify you taking someone else’s work for free.

Posed like this, I hope it’s obvious to see why demanding endorsement (in the form of Likes/Kudos) is, once again, not the same issue as reposting someone’s work, and, a bit of how these concepts relate to monetized works. In fact, many people who are reposting works when confronted with this perspective would easily counterargue that they are showing appreciation/gratitude by reposting someone else’s work. They see it as a sincere form of endorsement and support to that creator. They say “imitation is the highest form of flattery”, right, so outright copying must be the height of love? Which brings us naturally to recognition.

Recognition

It is a true statement that artists should be recognized for their work. Recognition is not feedback nor is it appreciation or gratitude. Recognition is just saying, “This person created that”. This is the most flummoxing part of angel-rhetenor’s argument regarding reposting because in terms of reposting, it is not enough to say that the artist needs to be given credit, and giving credit is not the issue regarding reposting. Someone can repost my story on Wattpad, complete with name on the byline, a link to my AO3 profile or email so that readers can contact me and ensure that feedback comes to me, and then they could even leave a comment praising my work and telling me that they’ve posted it on Wattpad for me, “You’re welcome!”.

So, what’s the problem here, huh? They’ve given me feedback, they’ve given their readers a method to forward me feedback, they even let me know that it was posted there, made sure proper credit was in place, and I can’t think of a higher form of endorsement, or show of gratitude/appreciation, than going to the trouble of reposting my work elsewhere for me in an effort to help give my work attention and grow my audience. Gosh, aren’t they nice? Isn’t this wonderful of them? They seem like they did all the right things.

Except, I don’t want my work on Wattpad. That’s why I don’t post it there.

Reposting

It is easy to get confused on what the real issue is in regards to reposting someone else’s work, especially because there are so many other concerns that get lumped in with regards to it that, reposting may affect, but those issues don’t have any relevance to the ethical reasoning behind reposting. I hope I made it pretty obvious in my last example, that there are ways that reposting work can look, on the surface and, in some instances maybe even truly, be beneficial to the creator. The reposter can seem to do all the right things in terms of addressing those issues, but it’s still wrong. At this point, many of you are probably thinking, “Well they needed permission before doing all of that, duh!”

But permission isn’t the issue either. The issue is ownership.

It is incredibly important for a content creator to understand the concept of ownership in terms of intellectual property, because this is the way it will be argued in terms of the law, and this is the information you need to gather before you post your work online (what are you agreeing to in terms of your ownership of your work when you post to a platform) or make claims of theft. It’s also important not to conflate this issue with things like recognition, showing appreciation/gratitude, or giving comments/feedback, because those are strawman arguments that are easy to counter. They don’t actually support the notion that you shouldn’t repost another’s work even though they may all represent reasons that a creator doesn’t want someone else reposting their work.

When I post my work to AO3, I am only granting people access to read my work for free through AO3, I grant AO3 permissions to distribute my work through its various networks, and while a reader is able to download my work from AO3 for their own individual use, no one else is allowed to distribute it. This is the explicit contractual agreement that authors and readers make when using AO3, and in that sense, exactly as I have stated, no one owes you anything for reading and enjoying your work, because you are giving them that access to it for free. Arguing that they are then obligated to give you feedback after the fact falls into the same realm as ‘Unsolicited Merchandise’.

However, you are not giving anyone ownership of your work just because you have made it available for them to read or view. Retaining ownership of my work means that I get to dictate where and how it is distributed and displayed. For a real-world example, let’s take into consideration holiday decorations. I might decide to decorate my door with a Holiday Wreath, it is free for people to see, they are not required to come to my door and thank me for the decoration, but they also cannot take my wreath and move it to my window or to their own door or to the door of a neighbor down the street. Depending on what they do with my wreath, it can be classified as vandalization or theft.

This is a problem that just about everyone that shares their creative content online is going to run into, and it is difficult – in many instances, impossible – to fight against. This is not a widespread issue, as angel-rhetenor suggests, in the sense that the majority of people are purposely doing it despite knowing the reasons for why they shouldn’t. Most people actually want to do the right thing, they just don’t know what the right thing is, and when you confuse all of these elements and complaints within the fandom, it can be difficult to determine what is right. You will see people reposting artwork asking who the creator is, unintentionally contributing to the problem and if they don’t know who the source is or what the permissions are for sharing that work, they should not be reposting it. You’ll see people remarking to a reposter that they need to give credit to an artwork, when, no, unless they can prove they have permission to post it, they need to take it down. These people are not trying to do wrong in most of these cases; they just may not recognize that this is a problem at all. Some might even misunderstand and argue that “because it was posted in a public place, it is now public property”, but the flaw with that argument is that it was not posted in a public place. It was posted to a private platform for the use and purposes of that private organization that owns that private platform as contractually detailed in that private platform’s Terms of Service, which you agree to when using that private platform’s services. AO3, Tumblr, Twitter, etc., all have written into their ToS that their content providers retain ownership of the content they share via these platforms. When you repost someone’s work from AO3 or Tumblr or Twitter or…so on and so forth, you are not just stealing someone’s property, you are in violation of that platform’s Terms of Service.

Does that mean that there aren’t individuals in the community that do it knowing full well that they shouldn’t, and having been given the reasons why? Absolutely not. Criminals exist. They are a thing. The question is, how many of these people fall into that category? Not as many as you think, most are willing to take it down when they understand why it is wrong, but it is made more difficult that many people don’t understand IP to be property owned by someone, IP Theft is often considered to be a victimless crime, and the fact that when you post something on the internet it becomes difficult to control where it is spread.  

Unfortunately, if your work is not monetized, damages are hard to prove over IP Theft and usually take more effort/resources to combat than what you’ll get out of winning the fight, you may not have much in the way of a copyright claim unless someone has commercialized your freely distributed work. In other words, if someone stole a story, I wrote to share with people free on AO3, and posted it to their website which is monetized through advertisement, they are now profiting off my work and I have grounds to sue them. People who do monetize their work have a bit more of a leg to stand on in terms of copyright claims, because they can demonstrate financial damage caused by the theft or plagiarism of their work. But it is still an arduous process that causes more than just emotional distress over “nobody likes my work”.

So here is the bottomline: If you are posting your fanwork on free-to-access platforms, no one is obligated to give you feedback and no one is obligated to Like/Kudos your work. That is endorsement and support that goes above and beyond what you’ve agreed upon by posting on that platform. It is a nice thing to do and does help to ensure that your favorite content creators continue to create work. They will most assuredly stop if you do not give them encouragement. That said, content creators should not be telling their audience that they need to or they are required to give feedback or comments on works they’ve read/enjoyed, or to shame those who do not, on the grounds that they are “not being grateful or appreciative”, because that is emotionally manipulative and, overall, unethical. If you want feedback on your work, that needs to be arranged and agreed upon before sharing it.

Reposting someone’s work without their explicit consent isn’t just morally wrong, it is a crime. Equating it to asking for feedback or showing appreciation trivializes the severity of the issue. These are not equivalent, and while not giving someone feedback on their work may hurt their ego or lead to them feeling discouraged from continuing to create, reposting someone’s work can have real world economic consequences for the creator and cause tangible damages.

[pen-in-hand]

So despite the fact I have NO free time right now* I still really want to do some icon/header/wallpaper sets so just out of curiosity what are your ‘biggest’** fandoms right now?

Reblog with your responses either in the tags or in the comments!***

Link in my description for some of the stuff I’ve done in the past****

*subject to change - don’t quote me on that

**not based on popularity but your current hyperfixation

***not obligatory but highly appreciated

****yes I know I need to get the icon page back up that’s on my to-do list

[ladyimaginarium]

𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐀 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐘𝐨𝐮!

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: Pile 1 with the candy heart & Pile 2 with the cherry lollipop!

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Use your intuition to pick a card and/or a yummy treat that calls to you most, then scroll to the bottom underneath the read more and find your pile(s) to receive your message!

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: take what resonates, leave the rest of what doesn't & don't force anything if it doesn't fit your situation, keep in mind that energy and outcomes can always change & nothing is forever set in stone, you have free will in every choice you make !! keep in mind that this is a general collective reading so the messages here may not apply to everyone. as a general message: my readings are for entertainment purposes only and don't replace professional medical/legal/business help. feedback and a review after a reading is given, whether public or private, is obligatory. you can do that by reblogging, dming or emailing us privately on the matter. if you do not provide this, you will be added to my greylist and won't be given anymore readings, free or paid, until you give feedback which you can fill out in the form listed down below. keep in mind it's more than okay to pick more than one pile if you feel you have messages in other piles but for this reading I'd suggest just picking one! don't just leave this in the likes, reblog and support your tarot readers, my time and labour aren't for free. while it isn't necessary, if you'd like to tip, my paypal's below. I have personal paid readings available which you can fill out the form below so tips, bookings & feedback are highly appreciated considering i plan to do this for a living!

BOOK A READING | FEEDBACK FORM | TIP JAR

𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝: Horror Tarot, Pink Tarot, Hermit Tarot & The Hidden Truth Oracle.

Pile 1: You have The Lovers & Two Of Cups! Ooh... your person's thinking some spicy thoughts about y'all and if y'all are going to partake in intimate activities, they're gonna wanna cuddle you afterward, especially if y'all are already together! They REALLY wanna feel you, Pile 1! What did you DO to this person?! LOL While this isn't inherently a NSFW/18+ tarot reading, if the literal depiction of The Lovers is anything to go by, they may be into kinky stuff or maybe even BDSM, I'm getting voyeurism or maybe you yourself, Pile 1, are into voyeurism & public sex, for some of you. No kinkshaming here if any of this applies to you and/or your person !! Some of you may be in an interracial relationship and some of you may have tan or dark skin and have dark hair. I'm getting some of you reading this may be Latina. For a few of you I'm getting sex magick may be involved here in magickal rituals. The Two of Cups are my soulmate/twin flame card so either of those labels may resonate with you. This person has very deep, fiery and passionate feelings for you, Pile 1, whether you know them or not, whether you're with them or not, although I'm getting that for most of you, you know exactly who this person is, whether you're with them or not. If you're reading this by the time this post drops, your person may want to be your valentine this year, and if you're not together with this person, they may ask you out.

You got: "I imagine you naked", "I meant what I said", "I just wish things were different", "I am addicted to you", "I dream about you a lot (too much...)", "What do you want?", "I can't stop thinking about you", "I'm so attracted to you", "I love you unconditionally", "I want to be more than friends", "I look for you everywhere" & "I'm starting to understand our connection". Oh man that's a lot of spice and passion, WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR PERSON PILE 1?! Oh my g-d ehehe! That just further proves my point that I think this pile is predominantly for those who're already in a romantic and or/sexual relationship at best & maybe for some of you may be friends with benefits but that'll only apply to a few of you!

The number 6 could be significant to you or alternatively something could be happening in May, the 6th month of the year. Gemini rules The Lovers so that could be significant to you, whether you have those placements or someone else who's important to you does, maybe even your person but it doesn't have to be. Gemini season ( May 21st-June 21st ) in the late spring to early summer could be significant. The Suit of Cups rule the Water element so Cancer, Scorpio & Pisces may be significant to you, you may have those in your placements or someone you know may have those placements. Honestly, this one is really on the nose, so if this applies to you, especially if already you're with someone romantically and/or sexually, I'm& really happy for y'all and wish y'all the best in the romantic ( & sexual if that also applies ) department, have fun, y'all !!

Pile 2: You have The Empress & Queen Of Cups! Pile 2, you are SLAYING and your person thinks so, too !! The color pink may be significant to you. A feminine energy may be significant (it doesn't necessarily have to be a woman!), whether it's a mother, a sister, a girlfriend, an elderly woman, an ancestor of yours or maybe even a feminine deity who wants to reach out to you, although I personally think The Empress may represent you. The Empress showed up in a previous reading of mine yesterday so you could be returning from Pile 6 if you've read my previous reading, and if that's the case, hiiii, welcome back! The Queen of Cups represents a lot of love to give and emotional maturity and I think that applies to you, Pile 2. I need you to know that there's nobody in this world like you. OOF! Y'all made me dress all glowed up in my black dress for this pile! You yourself may be inspiring others to glow up, too! The Empress represents all the Queens in the minor arcana combined (again, you don't have to be a cis woman, anyone of any gender can have this energy!) so your person may think you're emotionally and financially mature while also being fiery in your own way and if that doesn't resonate, you very well might be on your way to becoming that potential, to that I say if that resonates, keep going in that energy, it'll take you far! You could be in your divine feminine energy (everyone has this energy inside them regardless of gender, sex, orientation or presentation!) and stepping into your own personal power and your person may like that a lot about you. Maybe you weren't always that way and you had to fight for what you had. I'm getting that a lot of y'all in this pile may either be single and looking for love, recently broken up with or in separation with someone right now, mostly because I'm taking the interpretations as literally being on your own as the cards depict and that's the vibe I get so I'm going to divide this up.

For my singles, you may or may not know who this person is, but if you end up meeting this person, this person will adore you through and through. For all my people who've recently got out of a relationship, your person may have regrets about losing you, very much a "you don't know what you have till its gone" type of situation. And, honestly, if your cards resonate with you I gotta agree here, they really didn't know what they had til they lost you because you seem like the kind of person who gives all of themself into a relationship and it's never fun feeling like you've been taken for granted! Believe me, I've been there! I feel called to say this because I feel that someone needs to hear it, but regardless of whether or not you want to get back together with this person if you're broke up / separated, you're a wonderful individual, Pile 2, and how someone treats you doesn't define you or your worth as a person!

You got: "You already know", "Have I lost everything?", "Please give me time, I've never felt this way before", "This love scares me", "I am terrified", "What do you want?", "I couldn't let you get too close to me", "I know that I crossed the line with you", "I remember every detail of that day", "I hope that you can forgive me one day", "My life is not as together as it seems" & "I wish I had treated you better". Yeah... yeah, this person has a lot of regrets losing you, Pile 2. For most of you I'm getting that this is some type of ex, but for a few of you I'm getting this may have been an ex friend. Maybe they said or did something that seriously hurt your feelings, I'm getting the feeling they may have stabbed you in the back in some way, but whatever it was, they seemed to have crossed a boundary with you and whatever it was it deeply hurt you. I'm really sorry, Pile 2, I know that's rough. Maybe they may be keeping a mask on or are trying to keep you at a distance for whatever reason, whether it's pride or they're trying to get over a past lover, I'm getting for some of you this may be a past karmic partner they may have had in the past. Maybe your person wasn't ready for the amount of love you gave them. Maybe this insecurity stems back from your person's childhood. If they do put on a mask and act like they don't give a shit, that's total bullshit and I'm telling you that right now. Your person has a lot of regrets in how they treated you and you very may well be the person that got away for them. This person deeply adores you and wholeheartedly regrets losing you and they may want another chance, especially if you were together. Just know that you should never put your life on hold for anyone, Pile 2, even if you do still love this person. If it's meant to be, it will be, and you both have free will here in this seemingly very complicated situation. If you decide to walk away from this connection, that's also just as valid, you're not obligated to let someone back into your life if they've caused you a great deal of pain and heartbreak. Whatever you choose, that's entirely up to you.

I've said this in the previous reading but the Earth element rules The Empress so that may be significant, so Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn may be significant to you, and Venus rules The Empress and for some of y'all I'm getting that Aphrodite (Hellenismos) and/or Venus (Religio Romana) literally may be wanting to reach out to you to work with you if you don't already. The number 3 may also be significant, so something could be happening in March as its the third month of the year and as I'm posting this the month after this month, alternatively, the 3rd of a month may be significant, or something could be happening in 3 days from now, or weeks or months, but I'm getting for y'all it's likely 3 days. The Suit of Cups rule the Water element so Cancer, Scorpio & Pisces may be significant to you, you may have those in your placements or someone you know may have those placements. That's all I have for you for this reading, thank you so much for being here and have a lovely day!

[moonlight-at-dawn]

Any recommendations for your followers things outside your main passions on Tumblr? (FFXV and Full Metal Panic!)

MOST OF MY RECS ARE SO OLD I CAN’T MAKE GRAPHICS FOR THEM AHHHHH

BUT HERE!!!

Video Games

Mana Khemia ~Alchemists of Al-Revis~

PS2/PSP

Robust NG+, Multiple Endings, Character Affection

Part of the Atelier series of games and my personal favorite of the lot

Cry with me over Cat Dad Sulphur

Atelier veterans can be amazed over PLAYABLE!!! PAMELA!!!! (and her SKILLS!!! SHE’S OP!!! AS!!! FUCK!!!)

Infinite Undiscovery

XBox360

Writers are Shouji Gatoh (Full Metal Panic!) and Ryo Mizuno (Record of Lodoss War)

NG+, an amazing postgame dungeon that can make you cry if you’re as attached to a certain character as I am

Canon romance is realized before the end, so you get to experience some of it in more than just a ~happily ever after~ way :3

Fantastic cast, lore, cutscenes, an interesting battle system that I personally love and can be challenging at times, especially during the obligatory “separated from the party” section of gameplay

I can’t count how many times it made me cry okay

Lunar Silver Star (Story/Harmony)

multiple systems, best bet today would be PSP -Harmony version

A fucking CLASSIC, every JRPG fan should experience it AT LEAST ONCE

Okay I’ve sadly never watched in Japanese but TOMOKAZU SEKI’S FIRST(?OR DAMN NEAR?) ROLE WAS AS KYLE OKAY, I LOVE HIM, HE’S MY FAV SEIYUU

Disclaimer: Some of the humor… has not…. aged well… I realize. There’s some slightly predatory-gay/predatory-trans tropes in, but not every character views those random NPCs that way at least??? Jessica doesn’t seem to mind the trans priestess at least?

Look, I’m one of those people that tends to love the mascot characters that everyone else calls annoying, and I WILL DEFEND NALL WITH MY LIFE, YOU WILL RESPECT HIM, GIVE HIM FISH, AND THANK HIM WHEN HE RESURRECTS YOU GODDAMMIT XD

(And hug Nall in Lunar 2, Ruby isn’t as useful as he was, but she’s cool too)

Maybe I’m a baby but again, I cry, multiple times lol

LOVE STORY OF THE CENTURY, ALEX AND LUNA ARE GREAT AHHHHHH

Atelier Series in general

I recommend Mana Khemia first and foremost, but most of the Atelier games have their own charms :3

They all tend to have some angst, yes, but are ultimately feel-good and 💖~

Not as scary as all the time limits for jobs might seem. The time is very generous as long as you aren’t screwing around until the last minute lmao so it is great for casual gaming~

AUTHORS/BOOKS (I have a fantasy bias lol)

Tamora Pierce

I started reading her books something like 20 years ago, and I still enjoy them to this day

I bias towards Tortall books, but the Circle of Magic is also amazing (and one of the main 4 from it is a lesbian POC blacksmith~)

My favorite set is the Beka Cooper trilogy. These ones were also a bit experimental in style, in that they’re written as diary entries aND SO!!!!!! GOOD!!! It PAID OFF BIG TIME, I WAS BLOWN AWAY

Mercedes Lackey

I’ve only indulged in her Valdemar/Velgarth novels so I can’t speak on her other series’ bUT

I seem to have a thing for when authors break out of their comfort zone lol because my favorite of these are the Mage Storms trilogy. This one is very broad, focusing not just on Valdemar, but the main character is actually a Karsite (the historical enemy of Valdemar), and the Empire also plays a big role and just, ahhhhhh, I love seeing more than just Valdemar and the Hawkbrothers and Shin’a’in ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Magic’s Price ;;o;;

Brandon Sanderson

I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of his books lol

His Cosmere books all interlink so when you read outside of wherever in it you started, it’s really cool to see all the similarities and the few worldhopping characters that make appearances in multiple worlds

HIS WORLD BUILDING IS FUCKING IMPECCABLE OH MY GOD I COULD JUST STUDY HIS WORLD BUILDING TECHNIQUES FOR MONTHS IN FACT I HAVE BEEN

Really amazing and diverse cast of characters, social aspects of the ‘verse is almost never divorced from the characters, their experiences, and their story. It’s really amazing to see it all~

Magic systems involve clear rules for manipulation of existing forces. Things don’t happen just because ~magic~

Stormlight Archive is where I’ve started and I’d also highly recommend it just because I cannot stop loving this cast and revisiting it over and over and over I’ve listened to the audiobooks like 4 times and they’re all between, what, 38~52 hours long?

Even when you might not like a character at first, revisiting their story is just… HNNNNN NEWFOUND LOVE AND APPRECIATION

ELHOKAR, I’M TALKING MOSTLY ABOUT ELHOKAR

One of the spren in this world, the Cryptics, represent “the fundamental mathematics by which natural phenomena can be explained” tO GIVE AN IDEA OF HOW ROOTED IN REALITY THIS STUFF IS LOL SANDERSON GOES HARD HE DOESN’T FUCK AROUND WHEN HE BUILDS HIS WORLDS

Uhm…. That’s mostly it for my recommendations I think lol, I don’t really watch much in the way of TV….. (I’d recommend NCIS seasons 3-11 though - Ziva David is my reason for life but her leaving made it hard for me to continue and then the writers broke their fucking promise not to do her dirty while she wasn’t around and while it made for a beautiful story for DiNozzo’s departure, THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO DO THAT)

and when it comes to my taste in anime, it’s fairly easy for me to find stuff to reblog lol… so…

WELL NO, HERE

SWORD ART ONLINE

YEAH I SAID IT

It’s “cool” to hate on it but it’s not nearly so bad as people make it out to be. People just like to spread vitriol about it because it’s popular, and you know how popular shit gets treated like the fucking devil around here. Asuna’s not some damsel in distress not even when she’s a prisoner in the ALO arc, she’s always got her own agency and is always working towards her goals and freedom and victory

And wtf is this nonsense people like to say about Kirito cheating on her?????? HE DOESN’T. HE LOVES AND RESPECTS HER AND HE DOESN’T FLIRT WITH OTHER GIRLS YOU GUYS JUST DON’T HAVE A SENSE OF FUCKING HUMOR APPARENTLY CAUSE YOU THINK JOKING = FLIRTING

Anyways, great romance, I love the iconic line from BEFORE they got together when he says the whole thing about “Wouldn’t [learning something new about the one I love] mean that I get to love them even more now?” like HE’S SUCH A FUCKING CUTIE

*coughs* Don’t let the hate that spreads around about this (or anything else really) deter you from checking it. Wipe your minds of what you hear and let it stand on its own, decide for yourself how feel. Don’t go “Oh I hear they reduce Asuna to a crybaby in s2″ and then see it that way because it’s what you expect to see. This is a THING, by the way, if you get told something is great or bad for whatever reason, you’re a lot more likely to see it that way. So just, keep that in mind, and try to empty yourself of preconceived notions before looking at it, k? K. That’s my last recommendation for this post lol cause I’ve rambled on forever.

Let things stand for themselves, not on the backs of hearsay.

[drsallygrissom]

Hey folks! How are you doing post-finale? What did you think? A few things:

I’m not going anywhere-this blog will probably be active as long as the fandom is (maybe even longer!) That said, it’s definitely slowed down recently. Does anyone want me to reblog some classic aP posts? Poetry? Fan creations? 

Just a reminder that I have a tags page here and an archive here, so feel free to immerse yourself in aP goodness whenever you want.

For a final fandom hurrah and show of appreciation, a bunch of us teamed up to create a list of 129 of the reasons we love ars PARADOXICA! If this document didn’t cross into your correct timeline and you have the burning desire to throw more love at @arsparadoxica, feel free to add more of your own as a reblog/reply!

If the lack of new ars PARADOXICA content makes you feel like you’re trapped in a black box away from all human contact for eternity, you’re in luck! Whisperforge has two other audio dramas called The Far Meridian and brand new Startripper!!, and if you like aP, I highly recommend that you give the others a try! (Obligatory plug for the Startripper!! fanblog run by @douglaseiffels and I.)

While I’m still in the ars PARADOXICA Discord, I (and most of the fandom) am most active in the consolidated Whisperforge server. Come join us! 

I recommend that you become a Whisperforge patron-it feels really good to directly support the art you love, and you can get some cool goodies too! If you support Startripper!! on Patreon, you can access a super cool patron-only discord server where you can talk to the creators and other fans about whatever your hyperdrive desires!

Phew, that was a few more things than I intended! Oh well.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Thank you for being such an awesome community-your passion and friendship has meant more to me than you know.

[hqvalentineexchange]

faq (edition 2020-2021)

Table of contents

General rules Doubts and concerns (before you sign up) Creating and publishing gift

General rules

Is a NSFW/R18 content allowed? 

No, sorry. Not everyone is comfortable with such a content, plus we have no way to confirm peoples’ ages and we don’t intend on exposing minors to this kind of content.

What else is off-limits?

Romantic relationships between minor and adult characters or family members (so minor/adult ships and incest). Some possibly trggering things could slip our minds at the moment though so if you have any concerns, please feel free to message us!

What can I make?

You can either draw a fanart or write a fanfic. There are no other options at this moment, because determining the minimum for things such as playlists and edits is difficult. Maybe it will change in the future, if there are next editions of this event!

I changed my URL. What should I do? 

Just send us an ask, email, message on Tumblr or any other social media (we linked them in our about!) with your previous and current URL. We’ll inform the person making your gift about the change.

I can’t find the URL of the person I’m making gift for. It shows me the URL is incorrect. What do I do?

Send us an ask, email, message on Tumblr or any other social media (we linked them in our about!). It is possible we didn’t send you an information about the change yet, or the person you’re making the gift for forgot to inform us about them changing their URL. 

Can I tell the person I’m making the gift for, that it’s me? 

Nope. Keep it a secret until the February 14th, when it’s a time for a big reveal. 

Can I message the person I’m making the gift for to get to know them and their preferences better? 

You can send them anonymous asks if they have Tumblr and enabled anon asks or anonymous asks on CuriousCat if they have one, but please, keep your identity and details about your gift a secret.

Doubts and concerns (before you sign up)

Is it a stricly shippy event?

No! We appreciate all the kinds of relationships in this house! It can be shippy, but it can be 100% platonic, too!

Do I have to make a work centered around Valentines? 

No, if the person you’re making gift for didn’t include it in their prompts. You can make a Valentine-centered work if you’re stuck and don’t have any inspiration tho. You can use the prompts:

❀ the first date or the perfect date if they asked for romantic relationships

or

❀ found family or all that glitters is not gold (as a methaphor for “not all love is romantic”) for platonic relationships instead, then.

Do I have to create a work for a pairing I don’t like?

Nope! We’ll match you with someone basing on relationships, favourite characters and the prompts/likes. We’ll do our best to make sure everyone is happy!

What if somebody drops out and someone won’t get a gift?

Hopefully some people will want to be a Pinch Servers - people who’ll make an additional gift in place of the person who dropped out. We’ll try our best to guarantee no one will be left without a gift. 

How can I contact you and how will you contact me?

You can contact us through Tumblr (we’ll answer asks on the blog), various social media and email (just email us back once we send out the match-ups), but we will always contact you through your preferred means of contact. There is a question in the sign-up form where you can specify how you want us to contact you.

I’m signing up through Tumblr. Do I have to sign up with my main blog?

No, you can sign up with your side-blog, too! Just add your main blog’s address in the brackets next to your side-blog’s URL in the sign up form, so we know it’s you.

Creating and publishing gift

I got informations about the person I’m making gift for! May you remind me what exactly the sections are? Do I have to follow all of them?

You don’t have to follow all of them! Only the favourite romantic/platonic relationships and prompts (with a small exception mentioned above in the “Doubts and concerns (before you sign up)” section and explained below once again) are mandatory to follow! Obligatory thing to do is also to avoid things listed in the triggers section and possibly not using the things from dislikes field.

Favourite tropes are there to guide you in the right direction. They help to gauge general likes of the person you're making the gift for. You can use them, but you don't have to!

Other romantic relationships are optional. You can use them as background relationship, but you don’t have to.

Little Things are small details and headcanons that aren’t exactly prompts, but would make the person you’re making a gift for smile. They can be general or linked with one of the things they listed in the “Prompts” section. Little Things™ can be only mentioned in passing or used somewhere in the background, be an important part of the work or not included at all, it’s entirely up to you.

Favourite characters are greatly appreciated! They’re usually part of the pairing anyway.

Triggers are absolute no-no, as I explained above.

Also remember that in dislikes you could list (besides characters, notps, AUs and other things) also the (possibly exagerated) tropes or headcanons that became widely accepted fanon, but not everyone likes!

Do I have to follow the prompts the person I’m making the gift for gave me? 

It’s highly recommended. But if you’re stuck and don’t have any inspiration, you can use the prompt the first date or the perfect date or found family or all that glitters is not gold (as a methaphor for “not all love is romantic”) instead. Don’t make up your own prompts, please. 

How does my gift should look like? What are minimum requirements?

If you’re creating an art: don’t create a small piece.

If you’re making digital art, the minimum is 1600x1200 pixels.

If you draw traditionally, the minimal size of paper sheet is A4, make sure the scan is in high quality (if you can’t make a scan - make sure the photo is in high quality too, sharp and with good lighting).

The sketches are not allowed, the piece has to be finished - either colored or monochromatic. 

If it’s multi-part comic, publish the first part between February 14th-21st and finish it later.

If you’re writing fanfiction: at least 1500 words.

It can be a collection of drabbles, too, but the word count for all the drabbles in total has to be at least 1500 words, too.

It can be an oneshot or multichapter, but please, if you’re writing a multichapter, publish the first chapter between February 14th-21st and finish it. 

Are we allowed to include profanity in the fics?

Sure! Just put a warning (regardless if it will be “literally one f-word” or “[character A] swears a lot” or something else), just in case.

It’s not allowed to write NC18. That is rate E on AO3. What about T and M? Not too much mature content of course but like… can we briefly mention it? Or go into it smoothly? For example are we allowed to write detailed kissing/ little bit of make out?

We think make-out sessions and detailed kissing are okay as long as that’s where it ends.

Can I make more than one gift? 

Of course!

When we exchange gifts are we just going to send them to our assigned person or are we going to send them to you first oooor are we going to do it another way?

It’s up to you, to be honest! You can:

a) submit your gift here and we will publish it when the time comes (you can find recommended formating in the question below),

b) post it on your own blog (you can find recommended formating in the question below),

c) post only the link to it - for example if you’re writing fanfiction and you publish it on AO3, FF.net or whatever platform you use,

d) if you decided to post your work outside of Tumblr, you don’t even have to make a separate post to share it here, you can also send the link in private message.

There are only two rules regarding posting the gift:

1. If you’re posting it outside of Tumblr, don’t do it before the posting date (so you can’t post it for example February 10th and then share the link on February 14th. You should post it Febraury 14th (or later, but the deadline is February 21st) and then share the link right away. If you know you’ll be busy then, consider publishing it on Tumblr first (because you can queue it), and only then sharing it on the outside platform later, too).

2. If you’re not tagging this blog using “@” nor using the tags (you can find more in detail explanation in the question below) or you’re using the way from the point d), send us a message that you did share your gift (more details below).

Is there a special format I should use while posting my gift? 

Not really. Just make sure that you tag the person you’re making the gift for by using the “@” and, if you want us to reblog it to this blog, tag your work with #hqvalentineexchange or #hqvalex2021 in the first five tags. Just remember - Tumblr is sometimes a meanie and doesn’t show posts in the tag, so if you tagged your work properly and we didn’t reblog it, shoot us an ask or a message to one of the mods. You don’t have to link to the event blog, but it would be greatly appreciated.

Though if you’re writing a fic - you can include a pairing, rating and word count, and consider putting the story under a read more for convenience of others. You also should include the things that can potentialy trigger others, even if the person you’re making the gift for is fine with such content (for example - the person you’re making the gift for asked for super angsty and dramatic zombie apocalypse au with a happy ending. You should warn others there’s violence and blood, and maybe gore, even if your giftee is absolutely fine with it). 

I published the gift! Is that all?

Well, yes! Just one more thing - if you have sent the gift or the link to it in private message or didn’t @ this blog or didn’t use the tags we recommended in the question above, please, let us know via email, ask or private message on one of our social media that you did share the gift, so we can keep track of if everyone got their present!

Feel free to send us an ask, if you still have any questions!

[ladyimaginarium]

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: Pile 1 with the pink "do not touch me" rabbit pin & Pile 2 with the hot pink "final girl" pin!

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Use your intuition to pick a card and/or a pin that calls to you most, then scroll to the bottom and find your pile(s) to receive your message!

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: take what resonates, leave the rest of what doesn't & don't force anything if it doesn't fit your situation, keep in mind that energy and outcomes can always change & nothing is forever set in stone, you have free will in every choice you make !! keep in mind that this is a general collective reading so the messages here may not apply to everyone. as a general message: my readings are for entertainment purposes only and don't replace professional medical/legal/business help. feedback and a review after a reading is given, whether public or private, is obligatory. you can do that by reblogging, dming or emailing us privately on the matter. if you do not provide this, you will be added to my greylist and won't be given anymore readings, free or paid, until you give feedback which you can fill out in the form listed down below. keep in mind it's more than okay to pick more than one pile if you feel you have messages in other piles but for this reading I'd suggest just picking one! don't just leave this in the likes, reblog and support your tarot readers, my time and labour aren't for free. while it isn't necessary, if you'd like to tip, my paypal's below. I have personal paid readings available which you can fill out the form below so tips, bookings & feedback are highly appreciated considering i plan to do this for a living!

BOOK A READING | FEEDBACK FORM | TIP JAR

𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝: Dreaming Cat Tarot & The Barkana Tarot.

Pile 1: You have Six of Swords, Seven Of Cups, Ace Of Wands, Queen Of Pentacles, Seven Of Pentacles & The Magician !! I& feel as if it's possible at least some of y'all could be going on a trip this month !! I& usually don't get that for the Six of Swords but with the cats here on a boat going over the river I& feel as if this may be applicable to some of you. Maybe you'll be going with family member or somewhere with your kid(s), if you're a parent, because I& can't help but notice the kitten here. If you're traveling lemme know where y'all are going, I'm& curious !! You may be leaving behind a cycle or a connection that no longer serves you. With the Seven Of Cups I& feel as if you'll be getting many opportunities, especially creative opportunities to flesh out your passions. You could also be getting a lot of career or romantic options if that's what you're looking for & that's awesome !! You could also potentially be daydreaming & manifesting a lot whether you intend to or not, but make sure to choose carefully, especially if you have several options that may overwhelm you !! I& feel like for the majority of you, though, this is going to be creative opportunities.

With the Ace Of Wands, you may be receiving a creative spark which just connects to the Seven of Cups as I mentioned earlier & get new inspiration to start your creative projects with new passion & enthusiasm, but these could also be offers of love & sex, particularly on the more sensual side of things, if that resonates with you. If you're asexual & you're sex repulsed, though, don't worry, this is likely just a new initiative !! Hell, you could even be getting candy from a friend. Maybe for some of y'all it's around your birthday? If so, happy birthday my Aries Suns !! Whatever this opportunity is, take it !! Don't self sabotage yourself !! The Queen Of Pentacles showing up is extremely interesting as this showed up for a reading I& did for a dear friend of mine& for their birthday so if you're reading this, hi Els !! & for the rest of you, y'all could be out here sitting real pretty on your throne living lavish for a bit, y'all could be just enjoying what you've gathered for yourself & to that I& say SLAYYYYY !! You don't have to be a woman to have the Queen of Pentacles energy, everyone has feminine energy btw !! The Seven Of Pentacles just further confirms the Queen Of Pentacles energy as that card represents your harvest, rewards & results of your hard work !! So for some of y'all this month you could be getting a reward for something you did !! That's amazing, y'all !! Although we have all the elements in the suit of swords (representing air), cups (representing water) & wands (representing fire), there's a LOT of Earth energy in this spread with the pentacles !! The number 7 could be significant to you, too, as there's two Sevens in this spread.

Finally, we have The Magician !! Omg look at you, Pile 1 !! You're number 1 !! It's as I& said earlier in the Seven of Cups, you could very well be on your way to manifesting this or even have already manifested whatever you goal you wanted in your life !! Some of y'all could've even used specific manifestation techniques or used the law of attraction or even magick & witchcraft or just a simple prayer to whatever deity you pray to if that's applicable or even just your sheer willpower. I& can't help but notice the infinity symbol & I& feel called to say this but some of y'all could be neurodivergent, specifically autistic, especially because there's a lot of golden symbolism here in this card, but you don't have to be !!

All in all, I& don't think this gonna be a super eventful month for you, Pile 1, specifically because most of these are in the Minor Arcana & that represents your day to day everyday life rather than lifechanging or otherwise major events in your life. With that said, that's all I& have for your reading, Pile 1, thank you so much for being here & have a lovely day !! <3333

Pile 2: You have Queen Of Cups, Ace Of Wands, Ten Of Swords, The Hermit, The Chariot & Strength. I& feel that for the vast majority as if this already happened whether this was recent or for some of you maybe even years ago, particularly the first half of this reading so for some of you I'm& getting this could've been a relationship, romantic, platonic, familial or otherwise that you gave all your heart to, because the Queen Of Cups indicates a very warm & loving, generous person & The Ace Of Wands (which showed up in Pile 1, btw!) indicates an action & an offering, & in return you got The Ten Of Swords which indicates a tremendous loss, ruin, failure, bitterness, betrayal, victimization, collapse & exhaustion. Oh no y'all...

Someone could've walked away from you or you yourself could've walked away from a situation or a relationship (which is what I'm& getting for most of you) that no longer served you. Maybe this person betrayed you in some way or they just weren't giving the way you gave to them or maybe they were emotionally unavailable for whatever reason. I& very much intentionally do not channel toxic or otherwise abusive relationships into my& readings so I& don't think this was an abusive relationship, just someone that could've really broke your heart. For most of you, this was a romantic relationship but for some of you it could've been a platonic or familial relationship, because, contrary to popular belief, friends & family can break your heart, too !! That's really rough, I'm& so sorry. You didn't deserve any of that. Oh... I'm& getting a channeled lyric from Waco, Texas by Ethel Cain where she said "Held you in my arms / I swore that I'd be good to you / and then sat and watched as you walked away from me / Christ is cruel but you're so crueler" so that song or the artist Ethel Cain may be significant to you. Jfc y'all this one's REALLY heartbreaking. This could be a separation of a soulmate connection or a twin flame connection (& I& don't throw around twin flames lightly because that's a very rare type of soul connection!!) Ironically, I'm& also processing a relationship in April that went wrong years ago... so idk, maybe I& needed this message & I& think this is my& reading, too, ehehe.

Regardless of your situation I& need you to know that how someone treats you or lack thereof doesn't define your worth as an individual. I& want you to try & store that Queen of Cups energy into yourself. It doesn't have to be fancy bubblebaths (but if you wanna go ahead!!) & candles, but I& want you to have compassion for yourself. If you can & it's warm where you are, go to the beach & play a bit like the dog in the Ace Of Wands here !! The Hermit indicates a moment of solitude to process & think, spend time alone with yourself & do things you like to do. Btw, stop doomscrolling. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it right now or I'm& bonking you with a stick. (/lh). The Hermit is ruled by Virgo so that may be significant & the number 9 could be significant. Just understand that there's a light ahead of the tunnel like the cute puppy here has with the lantern in The Hermit card !! This puppy wants you to know how loved you are !! The Chariot indicates movement & going forward & Cancer, whether you're a Cancerian or have those placements and/or your person does may be significant as The Chariot is ruled by Cancer. I'm& getting that if you can & you have a vehicle, literally drive around !! Go to a place you like !! Go to a retreat if you have the means to do so !! Maybe even go on a roadtrip with your friends !! Alternatively, your friends could be taking you out to cheer you up. Finally, we have Strength !! Look at you, Pile 2, you're like a lion, untamed & fierce !! Some of you could even be lionkind if you're otherkin, maybe you have a lion fursona, maybe some of y'all like The Lion King or maybe you may wanna watch that movie if you wanna receive some subliminal messages or you may just like lions in general. For some of y'all I'm& getting you're asoiaf/game of thrones fans & y'all may like the Lannisters, I& have no idea why that's coming in so I& guess that could resonate with someone ehehe. I& need y'all to understand that you're stronger than you know !! Strength is arguably the fiercest card in the deck, people gotta watch out for you, Pile 2 !! Y'all got this so go SLAY !!

This seems much more eventful than Pile 1. With that said, that's all I have for you for this reading, Pile 2, thank you so much for being here & have a lovely day!