#save our internet

[markzschiegnerii]

If these bills pass. Kiss fandom and privacy goodbye. Please sign the petition’s and call your representatives and tell them to reject these bills.

Fighting to continue the era where online communities are free

I understand that some of you are waiting for me to update some fanfics. However, I've been embroiled in what could only be described as a fight for the internet to stay open. For those who aren't aware, there are various bad bills surrounding the internet that are either in committee or on their way to the Senate Floor. They all share one thing in common: overly broad provisions that could lead to mass censorship of various things online and a complete chilling of free expression, especially if you're part of the LGBTQ+ community or other marginalized groups. I've already spoken about these bills on this blog and the fact there are talks of a possible package being made is continuing this discussion. Thankfully, I'm not alone in this fight. EFF, Fight for The Future, and the ACLU are all fighting against the bills and starting Thursday, will bring out a mass protest. That said, the protest can only get big if you guys come in. That's why I'm making this post.

These are blog posts made by two of the organizations I mentioned. They both hold petitions for you to sign in order to oppose these bills, but the latter site made by Fight For The Future allows you to actually call your lawmakers so you could tell them to oppose these bills. They give you scripts and everything. The deadline given by the organizations is July 28th, which is when the Senate is supposed to go into recess. If we can prevent any of these bills from going through before that, we can consider it a mission accomplished. If you need more info on some of these bills, let me provide you with some Linktrees.

I know it feels like I'm asking a lot from you guys, but I hope you can do what you can and spread this around. We're facing a massive wave of bad news and we've seen a glimpse of what could happen thanks to the DDOS of AO3, but we cannot let ourselves be toppled over by them. We have to push back and ensure a better future for ourselves, the people around us, and the children who deserve to gain a free voice in the future.

[raavenb2619]

I’m not sure when exactly this happened, but I think it’s clear that the aro community really is a community, now.

For the longest time I’ve felt like we were still in stasis, not quite there; a proto-community, yes, but not quite a community. But we have more history now to lean back on, more of each other to talk to and laugh with and cry with and learn from. More people that’ll go forward and make a part of modern aro history. More people that believe us, believe in us, will stand with us if we ask them.

I wouldn’t consider myself an aro elder yet, though each year I’m surprised at how long aromanticism has been a part of my life, how long I’ve been free of doubt or insecurity about my aromanticism, how far we’ve come since I was questioning. Then again, when I was questioning, some of the people I looked up to for guidance were probably close to the age I am now, so I might be there sooner than I think.

And, I’m so so hopeful for all aros, young or old, new or not, because we’ve come so far. Day by day, progress is slow (and yes, it’s unfair, it should be so much faster), but looking back it feels fast. We are our own role models, the people we look up to for guidance. We carve our own path through life, making things up as we go. I used to find that terrifying, because I had no idea what the future would bring. But it’s actually amazing, because I can ignore all these silly “rules” and guidelines about what my life should be, and instead ask, “what do I want my life to be?”

Younger me, you have no idea how awesome your future is gonna be. I’m sorry about the pain and hardship you’ll go through first; it won’t be fair and you shouldn’t have to deal with it. But you’ll make it through, and one day you’ll be me. I can’t wait for you to get here.

[ricksanchezbignaturals]

okay but the fact that in episode TWO rick was wearing leather and nipple clamps, getting walked on a leash by a gnome with a boner, and some people argued that he's straight for the next 10 years is hilarious. besties i do not think that was a necessary diversion in incepting mrs. pancakes actually

[0xeyedaisy]

It seems I have lost all of my art on my computer. Very unfortunate

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

Screw telling GRRM about feudalism! Tell him to get up here and squash all the Jon is a bad swordsman takes with immediate effect! Tell him to post on his blog that Jon is 100x better than Samurai Jack could ever wish to be!! Tell him to hold a press conference and say that Jon is better than Jaime, Barristan, both Daemons, Arthur, and the Dragoknight COMBINED!!! Tell him to say Jon is swordmastering Goku!!!! Tell him to powerscale Jon so hard we have to create a new category for him beyond multiversal!!!!!

[ezziemagpie]

Fanfic authors, please, I implore you, from one writer to another, DO NOT DELETE YOUR WORKS. Change the account ownership, make a different pseud to put it under, anonymise or orphan them, it doesn't matter, just please, please, PLEASE, do not delete them. Please. Even if you think they're badly written, or out of character, or a decade old, or 'cringe', or whatever, there will be some poor schmuck out there who loves what you've written and will cry over its deletion because they forgot to download it. - Sincerely, some poor schmuck who loves what someone wrote and has spent the last ten hours trying to track it down because he forgot to download it.

[cake-dykerator]

HEY YALL

I disappeared due to some issues with my medications but today is my birthday so if your reading this you should pretty please take a look through either the families I've reposted here or the operation olive branch spreadsheet and donate $22 (or an amount of your choosing) to a family trying to escape the war in Gaza. I know not everyone has the ability to donate which is fair but you should take a moment to go follow the families who's asks I've answered on here and show them some love🫶❤️

Ive not really been one to post on public social media much? It freaks me out usually, so apologies if my formatting is hot garbage I am trying

[alilbatflies]

Hi there, just found your "just cake" fic and I am interested in how it continues.

What i'm saying is, please continue this fic, villainxhenchman is now one of my favorite writeblr tags.

-@the-agency-archives

Hi! I'm glad you liked part 1. Now get ready for...

...

Just Cake #2

The commonly known thing about old-fashioned traps was that when they failed to trap you, you got to tease the creator of it relentlessly. A net, seriously? People have tried before, sweetheart. Better luck next time.

The inconvenient thing about old-fashioned traps was that when done properly, they did their job damn well. It was exceptionally embarrassing to get caught in one. You should have seen that coming. Alas, you didn’t. Fool.

The henchman had tried pushing the villain out of the way once they noticed the trap. So now they were both caught. The villain hovered over them in the really quite cramped space of the net. Wasn’t that wonderful?

The villain gave the net a testing jerk. It didn’t do them any good.

“Who the fuck even uses nets these days?” the villain hissed.

“It does seem we’re quite literally trapped, boss.”

“No, we’re fuckin– not–” the villain tugged on the net violently– “UNSTUCK YOURSELF!”

“That’s not how traps work, boss.”

It was a definitely never to be mentioned ever again kind of situation, really.

The villain settled into a relative silence. They clawed at the net with one of their blades while growling and cursing occasionally. They tended to be silent most of the time, but the henchman knew very well just how varied their cursing vocabulary was.

They were sure the villain had far exceeded their word limit for the day. Their voice was furious. Cutting.

But not cutting enough to slice through the ropes.

Henchman smiled at their internal commentary; glad they didn’t blurt it out like they so often managed.

There was nothing better to do, and so they watched the villain struggle. They hung really quite skillfully above the henchman, somehow not falling down on top of them. Not that the henchman would especially mind. It was quite cold out there.

They briefly wondered who would even set up a trap that far out in the woods. The obvious answer was someone who lived around. Secret hideouts and all that jazz.

The thing which bothered them the most however was that whoever set the trap up was skilled. Skilled enough to have them both trapped. The villain especially was not easily trapped. Once that whoever came around, they would still be stuck and practically at their mercy. The henchman doubted there would be mercy to be found.

The net moved under the villain’s persistent attempts.

Cold air breezed past. The henchman came to the conclusion that someone showing up was better than freezing to death. 

The villain’s yell startled them out of their thoughts.

“SCREW THAT!”

“Screw me,” please.

The villain obviously stopped themself from cursing again, turning to look at the henchman. “Hm?” they said, which henchman translated as ‘you’ve said something?’

“Nothing.”  Here we go again. Saying stuff.

The villain measured the few nicks they managed to inconvenience the rope with. They huffed an exhale. “That’s not going to work, is it?”

“I’d presume we won’t be able to get out of a net specifically made to capture and hold magical things, boss.”

The villain huffed another exhale. They hid their knife. Then they looked down at the henchman, slumping slightly.

“Do you suppose I could sort of hm… flop down on you? Really uncomfortable up here.”

“Conserve your energy.”

The villain slumped on top of them.

The net was quite uncomfortable under their back even before, but with the added weight, it reached a whole new stage of discomfort. There was nothing the henchman could do about that. Except for maybe miraculously breaking them both out of the trap and acting like it never happened. A minion could dream.

“You’re warm,” the villain said.

“Huh.” The henchman didn’t really manage to figure out a better reaction. They felt too warm entirely, just about bellow the boiling point. It definitely had nothing to do with their proximity. Nope. Not at all.

They both stayed perfectly still.

The henchman considered shuffling, but they had a feeling it would be even more uncomfortable than before.

“Do you regret anything?”

The villain seemed to mumble that mostly to themself, but given the whole situation, the henchman caught it anyway.

“Don’t think about dying yet, boss. We’ll have plenty of chances to make it out.”

The villain hummed, unconvinced.

The henchman hardly convinced themself, so it was no surprise. They decided to answer the villain’s question at least. Death loomed over them with the deft finality of a trap shutting down with chilling-to-the-bones precision. Just like it did.

Nothing to lose but the vague concept of dignity, huh?

“I regret ruining your birthday cake.”

The villain was perfectly still for a moment. Then they lifted themself to look the henchman in the eyes. “My what?”

“Well… you see, the thing that splattered on your doorstep… on your birthday day?”

The villain blinked.

The henchman looked away. It was such an awkward thing, wasn’t it? Of all the things they could have chosen… then again. You make someone cake and then you drop it like a clumsy tool. The sole act of baking the villain cake was borderline ridiculous and entirely unprofessional, too.

“You know when my birthday is?”

“You mentioned you were born on Vampire Day once, in relation to the Candle Parade, so that’s a day after the autumn equinox, so… That’s that.”

The villain hummed quietly, thinking. They rested back down.

The henchman held perfectly still, as if that could somehow remove all of their embarrassment. They measured their breathing, for all it was worth. They had a feeling the villain could sense how uncomfortable they were anyway, but hopefully played it on the whole stuck-in-a-net situation.

“Nobody’s ever given me birthday cake before.”

“Oh, really?” The henchman tried to see the villain’s face. It was a whole new of an uncomfortable movement, so they stopped.

“You’re the first.”

“But I’ve…” Ruined it. Splattered it. Fucked up spectacularly. “…dropped it.”

“Worse things happen,” the villain said. “I appreciate the effort.”

“I didn’t even wish you… anything.” It had been a busy day. The henchman forgot about the villain’s birthday, except for all of the inconvenient times when they really couldn’t say their thing. Like in the middle of a fight, when they were in the bathroom, or when the villain finally fell asleep and the henchman didn’t want to wake them up.

Might as well fix that now. “Happy belated birthday.”

“Hm. Thank you.”

It made the henchman very comfortably warm. Convenient for the villain, they supposed, since they were being used as a personal heater at the moment.

“What’s your regret?”

“Hm?” The villain sounded almost startled.

“Your regret.” Henchman tried to adjust their head to get at least a little bit more comfortable. It only got worse. They rested back to the way they were. “You know my regret. I want to know yours.”

It took the villain a long time to make a sound again. The henchman thought perhaps they crossed the professional line too far, stepped just beyond the acceptable. They prepared their sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that but the villain spoke first.

“I suppose that’s fair.”

They are very fidgety all of a sudden. But at least they sounded like the henchman’s head might stay on their neck.

“So.” The villain cleared their throat. They searched for words and seemed to come out short.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’d prefer not to.”

“No, I’m…” The villain inhaled deeply. In a wave of composure, they spoke at once: “Actually, it partly involves you—I mean, it entirely involves you—and the thing is that you, sincerely–”

The villain’s attention shifted.

The henchman felt the silence settle over them. The last words were like stones falling into the lake, vanishing to leave but circles running on the surface.

In the silence, the henchman finally registered the someone moving closer.

The villain shifted in an attempt of a defence position despite the power-suppressing net and the inconveniently squished henchman underneath them. They bared their teeth in a snarl.

“Look who we’ve caught,” an entirely too sweet voice said. “Well, aren’t you two adorable?”

...

Part 3

[cheddar-baby]

that public sex poll is a really good blocklist. If you lose your mind seeing someone get a shaky awkward handjob in a park you can't handle being on my blog i promise.

[nebulacritter]

my thoughts on the KOSA situation

I'm very scared of this law. It's not protecting children at all. It is thinly-veiled xenophobia, abuse of power, and unnecessary censorship all at once.

It will wipe away most of the things that made our internet fun and diverse. It will wipe away queer content, the support for Palestine, and even sex-ed. For that last one, it just prevents kids from learning how reproduction works.

KOSA even allows the government to invade your privacy by spying on every single account on the internet. I'm not a political expert, but that doesn't feel constitutional at all.

I'm unsure if this law will pass though. One part of me thinks the politicians will finally succeed in ruining the internet, but another part of me thinks it's impossible and unrealistic for them to do so.

Also, I've seen millions and gazillions of users (like you!) protesting against KOSA, and I gotta say, keep up the good work! I've seen you talk to your senators about the damage it'll do, and I've even seen a truckload of votes in Bad Internet Bills! Honestly, I couldn't do it without you guys.

I can't really do much about this situation, but I can make a self-care list to get my mental health back into shape.

[hychlorions]

For the sake of auld lang syne...

[savelockwoodandco]

Have you ever thought of crowd-funding?

Thank you so much for the question and for your support -- and for the support of those who've asked similar questions.

We got a few like this, so we figured we'd answer them all in one (and our apologies if we've missed your question -- our inbox is apparently very hungry, eating asks before we get them, and we have quite a few people who have to try three or four times before their question ends up in our inbox).

Crowdfunding comes up every now and again as a solution, especially when people see other fandoms doing it to purchase ad space (such as the OFMD fandom recently). We've seem many fandoms do this over the years and many fandoms avoid this, and there's pros and cons to each approach.

As far as we're concerned -- speaking here as Twitter and Tumblr Mod, not by any means speaking as the One True Voice of the Fandom -- crowdfunding is very often a slippery slope. There have been a few things crowdfunded within this fandom -- space at cons being the one that comes to mind -- and in our opinion that kind of thing makes sense. It's small and personal, and has a real, tangible result -- aka a booth -- along with a set price and very little wiggle room for presenting where money is going. You've probably seen posts on this blog alerting the tumblr space of these happenings, and we're comfortable with that.

Crowdfunding for ad space -- billboards, blimps, electronic ads, and their ilk -- on the other hand, gets tricky very quickly. There have been dozens upon dozens of crowdfunding scams within fandoms -- not saying within ours, saying that with our decades of experience in fandom, we've seen more than our fair share. Crowdfunding attempts that start out with a small group's passion can turn ugly very quickly, and it's a big ask to trust strangers on the Internet not just with your passion and time, but also with your money.

And while there's a chance for high visibility, even if everything goes perfectly, it's a lot of outlay for little to no tangible benefit. There have been fandoms who use it who have had their show picked up; there have been fandoms who use it without any effect whatsoever. It's not a guarantee; it's not even something that always does something.

We the mods invest our limited time and humble talents. We're always amazed at how LockNation has gathered to provide their prodigious talents and time to make this campaign something to be proud of. Knowing the inherent risks of a lot of crowdfunding campaigns, especially ones as directionless as saying (random example we made up but have seen in past campaigns) "donate to save the show" with no other information, causes us to be extremely wary of such efforts.

Once again, we don't speak for the fandom at large. At its core, and like we say in our pinned post, this blog is primarily a place for a lot of information to be gathered in one place and for positivity and encouragement -- celebrating the wins, keeping up momentum, and marveling at what LockNation has managed to do, all in less than a year of the show being out, and less than 9 months since Netflix's hissy fit (as we call it). Others may use their allotment of time and energy and, yes, capital, as they see fit.

There's a post about 2 weeks ago on this very blog from our friends at the Discord, looking for donations to get a booth at GalaxyCon Richmond if you're looking to get your wallet involved! If you have the power, more power to you. We're huge fans of the power of cons here on this blog.

Being the Fandom Grandmas (affectionate) that we are, we've seen nebulous crowdfunding events go south a few too many times to try to organize anything ourselves, and you won't see a big sweet to buy ad space on Times Square anytime soon originating from the mods. We're comfortable with the constant, measurable successes we've been able to bear witness to and help along in some small way here on this little blog.

Above all, we all love the same show, and we're all working towards that awesome day that we get the S2 announcement! Let's work towards it the best ways we know how. We'll be at the finish line before we know it.

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

Sunny possible January premiere, you guys better drop me the links to watch those eps live sooner this time or I'll crumble into dust, I can't do next day downloads this time, I'm not strong enough, I wasn't strong enough last time, but I did it, going through the work day a bundle of nervous edges, physically ill in anticipation, avoiding tumblr like the plague with great stress, but seeing dtamhd live was like watching the Mona Lisa be painted and I need that again, I need to soak in every second, devour the season like that diamond, blood dripping down my face

[eskawrites]

word randomly deciding to fuck with my files and screw up the saving process is going to give me a fucking heart attack

[ali-ali-al1]

Im having one of my "technology fragile addicting Bad" phases and need to yap about it. Of course the internet is such a valuable tool, but please remember that it's not forever. Order those freeprints- you don't know if you're lose access to your best friend's face when you can't see them day-to-day anymore. Write or print those poems. WRITE THOSE RECIPIES bc God knows there's no usable recipe websites left for all the ads. The internet is getting less and less inhabitable by the day, bunged up with AI bullshit like phlegm and mucus. Abuse free newspaper trials (after checking their credibility first ofc), READ FREE LOCAL NEWS (big ups LeftLion). Idk. I get more and more nervous about the internet every time I have one of these.

[microgeneration]

1986 DisplayWrite manual