#so most of my issues would probably be solved if I find a site with better subs

[fluffykitteninabox]

¿Thoughts on Deku vs class 1-A?

(Also unrelated but yesterday at school the girl I have a crush on called me "a very cute and kind boy" and then hugged me and I been happy ever since and wanted to tell someone)

hi cute question mark anon (^w^)

congratulations on getting compliments from your crush!!

here's some good luck sparkles so that it may happen again ✨✨✨✨

I also feel like I should apologise for not answering your previous ask 😔

I did not expect to have to think about it so much. I just didn't know how to answer it, not in a "I don't know how to express my opinion" , but more like "I'm not sure what my opinion is". I'm working on it though.

Anyway Deku vs 1A:

I'm going to assume you mean both the actual fight and the before and after stuff.

warning: some salt about denim man and heroes in general because I can't help myself! - minor spoilers for Avatar the Last Airbender - nitpicking about superhero tropes

The before stuff:

First of all I love how the entire class barged in Nezu's office to force Endeavor to talk to them. The way the top heroes were operating using Izuku as bait was extremely stupid and didn't help at all in the end since Izuku just run off on his own and honestly did more work than any of them.

look at them, they're serious, they won't take no for an answer 😎

I like that they have like a class meeting about this and make a decision and they they go all together to present their demands to the administration.

Not much else to talk about here, I just think showing how they made the decision was cool and it reminded me of the meetings we have at uni. (though they didn't vote for the decision in this but it was clear they all agreed so it still counts)

The fight:

I think the actual fight and what the class told Midoriya was great. The voice acting and music were as always top tier.

I prefer the manga fight over the anime. Probably mostly because the subs I watched were a bit confusing so I couldn't keep up and get as emotionally invested because I was focusing too much on trying to read.

The animation was ok. I like the atmosphere with the rain (AND THE GREY SKY OMG I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE BONES LEARNT THAT WEATHER EXISTS!!) The fight was animated amazingly of course.

But there's some parts before and after that felt like they were missing dynamic movement. I'm guessing a lot of it has to with the time they had to do this and most of the focus going on the fight. Animators are extremely overworked and underpaid so I'm not going to hate on them for this. I'm guessing they might add stuff or make corrections for all episodes when the bluray comes out.

Also the fact that they shout their moves took me out a bit, which really is just a personal nitpick I have about the entire anime in general. In the manga you can say it's just a narrative tool so the readers can recognise each move more easily. And it works well. I'm currently also rewatching the third movie and I recognised Shouto doing hell spider without him saying anything. I think it's a bit too silly for characters to announce their moves out loud mid fight. It ruins the tension for me and also it's kind of stupid in the same way as shouting "SNEAK ATTACK!" before attacking is.

I think it's cooler when they don't say it and it's just a neat little detail for fans who recognise them. (also no this gif isn't the atla spoilers! 😂)

Bakugou's apology had me bawling in both manga and anime and Uraraka's speech was just amazing. The new episode with the bath scene was also a bit confusing but again I think that's a problem with the sub I'm watching. I'll go read that in the manga later. (these are all parts I hadn't read before so maybe that also played part in the confusion)

Overall I love how this part of the story shows the bond class 1A has and also how great they work as a team. I just love them they're my children 😭💖😭💖😭!!

The aftermath:

I dislike how Nezu and the top heroes talk about Midoriya like he's an object. Jeanist especially talks about him in an extremely dehumanising way imo.

I have kind of said this before about different parts of the story, but I feel like the child soldier stuff is never really properly addressed. From what I understand Horikoshi probably doesn't consider the way UA operates as a child soldier program, but he probably considers what Hawks went through a child soldier program.

I think both are terrible, and UA is just the lesser of two evils.

Now I understand that this is a shonen and the kids are going to be the ones in the middle of the plot. This was handled perfectly fine in earlier arcs with the kids making the decision on their own and then being reprimanded by the adults for putting themselves in danger needlessly, or being forced to defend themselves against villains.

However this seems to have stopped happening after the kids got their hero licences. Now the kids are being sent to the front lines of the war and suddenly everyone's ok with that. Which unfortunately accidentally implies that the pros and teachers were only actually worried about paying the consequences if a child under their supervision got hurt.

I'd personally prefer the adults we're supposed to consider good role models didn't treat their trainees they supposedly care a lot about like weapons and send them to fight a war without informing them on why they're there!!

*spoilers start here*

In ATLA during the invasion the kids and adults fight along side each other. Is it still fucked up that the kids in ATLA had to fight in a war? Yes. But the adults in ATLA (the ones we're supposed to root for) prioritise the kid's safety. Parents leave their kids behind to go fight in the war, they don't send their kids to the front lines. When the kids fight it's because they organised the attack, they chose to do this and they fight together with the adults as equals. There's no one being kept in the dark, they all know why they're there. And when the situation becomes hopeless the adults make sure the kids escape and they are the ones staying behind. This isn't really a direct scene comparison, but I don't think it's outlandish to assume that none of the good adults in ATLA would ever try to use Aang as bait or a weapon. Anyone that tries to is presented as bad for doing this.

*spoilers end here*

I tried to be as vague as possible so I don't think it's too spoilery

anyway conclusion: ATLA adults>MHA adults

Unless of course this issue gets addressed and they all lose their jobs because they're honestly terrible at them! But considering the way Horikoshi portrays them I doubt something like that would ever happen.

The reason I brought all this up is because I wanted to bask in how much better Uraraka's "Izuku is just a normal person like all the rest of us"👌😭😭speech is compared to bastard Jeanist's "let our weapon recharge here so we can use him again later"🤮!!

I think Uraraka and Bakugou are the true highlights of this whole thing. They were amazing. After them I think it's Iida and then the rest of the class. But I will point out Jirou and Mina specifically because the both really got me emotionally and I didn't expect it.

the flashbacks the other characters had I expected. Iida with the Stain fight, the sports festival flashback with Ojiro, even with Tsuyu it wasn't a surprise. But I didn't expect the callback to Midoriya helping Jirou with her notes. Because as she stated it was something that seemed so small and insignificant. Why would anyone ever have a flashback about that?

Anyway emotions AAAAAAAAAA!!

But the way the scene is recontextualised really shows that it's the small things in life that people will remember.

Edit: I forgot Mina because I was too busy being emotional about Jirou! Yeah... um.. death is sad and Mina made me tear up when she said she doesn't want to lose anyone again

[transmalewife]

does anyone have any leftist reading on the subject of tourism to recommend? Specifically about how travel for fun, education, sport, friendship or whatever might work in a communist or anarchist or socialist society. Because like yeah, open borders or no borders whatever, cool. But that usually only gets discussed in the context of permanent immigration

Idk I guess I just find it hard to imagine how it could be organized since where I live the most obvious ways capitalism has made things worse over my lifetime have all happened because of and through the lens of tourism. Rents literally doubling over the last five years, while the standard of living falls because apartments are bought, split into tiny pieces and renovated to accomodate a couple days of living at most. The specific kind of gentrification that is NOT being pushed out by richer people moving in permanently, who might cause more expensive shops and services to replace the affordable ones, but do still need the basic necessities everyone does to live. Instead, all hairdressers, repair shops, clothing stores (especially thrift shops), pharmacies, post offices etc etc close and are replaced by luxury boutiques, clubs and stores whre you can only buy snacks, alcohol and microwave meals. Restaurants and bars hiking up prices because most of their clients come from places with stronger currencies etc etc.

At the same time though I believe travel is a crucial part of a fulfilling life for most if not all people. I believe people have the right to see and appreciate the culture and history of other places and also like... maybe go somewhere warmer and lay on the beach sometimes, even if they prefer to live and work somewhere colder. Or go skiing even if they chose to live somewhere warm and without mountains. Or even just like... vacation in a big city if they live in the countryside and vice versa. Or pop over to another continent to visit an online friend maybe. Although obviously intercontinental travel would have to be hugely limited until and unless we find ways to do it that don't destroy our planet.

At the same time some precautions do have to be taken to protect historical and especially sacred sites. Like, I don't think endless crowds should be allowed to trample through historical buildings and also open borders obviously doesn't mean white tourists get to go camping on Uluru. But on some level I do believe everyone who wants to should get to see Venice at least once in their life. But that's probably not feasible so like... who gets to decide? On what merit? Are historians, artists, journalists privileged? Or should it be a lottery?

Also I think there's a significant amount of tourism that would simply die out if going to that place wasn't a status symbol. Like you cannot convince me that if you spend 2 weeks by the pool in an enclosed luxury resort it makes a difference that it's on Hawaii rather than like... in florida. And then theres places like the Hamptons. What the fuck is the point of the Hamptons, other than bragging rights?

Obviously I know none of this is even remotely the main pressing issue to solve about a potential communist society, but then again, that's why I'm asking for reading materials, because it so rarely gets discussed. I mean I bet Marx wrote about it, which, great, point me to the relevant fragments please and I'll have a look but also this is an issue where a modern perspective would be really important. I don't think Marx, for all his wisdom, really has a solution to "what are the ethics of taking an 8 hour flight to visit a tumblr mutual".

Or maybe this whole thing is me being cynical and this is another place where things would sort of just regulate themselves. Anyway. Send me reading recs and let's very unscientifically try to check if it could work. Do try to be honest, like I've been several times as a kid and I would still go again in a heartbeat.

btw the goal of the poll is to get some kind of percentage that can be compared with the world population and how many tourists venice can support per year, though I obviously know tumblr skews mainly american and european

[fandomsoda]

I do not think you’re a bad person, I do think you need to realize you’re part of the problem. People leave for a reason, and yes you do deserve better communication, you also aren’t innocent

I never said that I was.

Listen, I absolutely know that various struggles of mine are part of the equation. I’ve known since almost say 1 of being on this site that I was a total spitfire and needed to start finding a way to get a handle on myself and learn how to shut the fuck up/manage my tone and emotions.

And trust me, the first person I blamed was myself. Even if I still felt what the others did was shitty, I still went “ok if I’m the common denominator, it must be me”. And I’m not saying it’s not. However… I did endless internal searching and battling, I practically tore myself apart trying to figure out what about me was wrong. And of course I could point out my issues I was already aware of, and these were things I was actively working on… but I couldn’t figure out the exact behavior patterns that were the issue, much less how to spot them or curb them.

Because most people, myself especially, can’t solve their own problems all on their own. Self awareness is hard, and once you’ve achieved it, trying to figure out how to change things is even more of a mountain to climb. With the things I have problems with, I’m effectively blind to myself most of the time, and while I’m trying to become more aware of myself I still need people to help me identify my problems. This is something I have been saying up-front for a very long while now, this is a disclaimer most people get when they start getting chatty with me. “Hey, I struggle a lot with regulation and tone, if I screw up let me know”. That’s been part of most first conversations I’ve had with to-be friends.

I’m trying to trudge through things and improve myself by myself as much as I can, but learning is a very slow and painful process and I won’t get there alone. I need someone who actually cares to be willing to talk to me. Because the people who I do talk to acknowledge and see my flaws, but none of them really have the ability to grasp what others’ problem with me is. Of course I’ve come to them with “hey, this is a problem I have, a thing I keep doing, a mistake I keep making, do you have any advice?” and while I’ve gotten some good answers, nothing life changing has come of it.

I need someone who is willing to tell me what’s wrong with me in an actual proper conversation format, I need and want to have these difficult conversations, I want honesty from someone who wants to see me grow. Because the things I get told via anon can’t actually help me. A lot of the time I don’t know what the specific criticisms mean or are referring to, so I need to be able to have a dialogue and ask questions and I shouldn’t have to do that via the damn ask box.

And I know a lot of people have said “well if you’re snappy in public or casual conversation, you’re probably gonna be worse in serious ones”, but at least in my case that’s just not true. I struggle more in casual conversations due to it being just that: casual. I’m watching myself less and it’s harder to catch things if I’m trying to be a bit loose. However, if someone asks me to have a serious conversation? I am sitting down, I am gathering myself, I am watching myself, I put every single break on to try and ensure that conversation is productive and that person is heard.

And yes, I know I can’t expect someone to just come along and start trying to help me fix myself, but I also know that nothing else I have at the moment is doing much. I wish I wasn’t so helpless, I would have fixed myself a long time ago.

Thing is, so far my journey of growing on this site had been going great.. because the first time I had a bad moment on this site, someone didn’t say “what’s wrong with you?”, they asked if I was ok. And I was able to have important and difficult conversations with people, I’ve been able to grow, the people I cared about were also the people who were willing to call me out and tell me what was up without damning me or treating me like garbage.

But for some reason, that’s really not the case anymore. And since this whole thing started, I can feel myself getting worse. The pure mental strain has been making it harder and harder to manage myself, which has just led to more and more problems.

And let me be frank… a lot of the shit that’s gone down can’t solely be blamed as a byproduct of my own behavior. There is no excuse for a lot of this shit.

If someone is genuinely asking you if you’re uncomfortable, if there’s anything they can do to make you more comfortable, if they’ve upset you, if you’re ok, etc, and you chose to lie to that person, then that is on you. No matter how you slice it, that’s your fault. The blame falls squarely on your shoulders for actively choosing to keep that person in the dark. You cannot then get mad at that person for not changing if they didn’t know that anything needed to change and had even been told that everything was good.

And there are many times where I actively chose to handle something in a more mature and nuanced manner due to the fact that my head was clear enough for me to consider that choice, and have been totally flamed for it. When every single adult or more mature person in my life that I told about that situation told me that what I did was the right thing to do. And then I’m called a hypocrite for displaying growth. Total fucking bullshit.

And look, I very much understand that basically everyone involved in this whole mess (myself included) are a bunch of disoriented depressed mentally ill teenagers, and people aren’t always going to handle things well or in a way that makes sense and that’s ok. But that courtesy is never extended to me in these conversations. And even then, like I said, there’s a massive difference between coping with things differently and actively neglecting things.

And most importantly… all these punishments just don’t fit my crimes. What I’ve done doesn’t warrant this level of mental and emotional torture, it really fucking doesn’t.

I know people always look at others bringing up their mental health or emotional pain as some sort of excuse, but I am dead serious when I say that given the amount of physical and mental pain this has caused me, the amount of strain, the amount of pure desolation it’s left me with, a lot of people wouldn’t survive something like this. It’s a pain I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but I genuinely wish I could convey just how terrifying and horrible everything has felt.

This whole mess has left me with scars that may never heal. But to the people who wronged me? This was nothing more than an inconvenience.

The reason that that whole “people are tired of you” anon tipped me off was because… this time I genuinely can’t figure out what I’ve done wrong. Any other day that would have either been something I ignored or would have made me despise myself even more. But this time? I can’t figure out what I did… at the moment it seems like all I did was tell someone that I cared about them too often. And I’m certain that’s not the actual reason, just saying that sounds incredibly stupid and woe is me, but it’s all I can glean right now.

I’m not angry at you anon, and I appreciate it, you seem great and like you would have good advice, but I need you to understand that while I am not innocent, that doesn’t change that what’s happened to me is uniquely wrong, at least from how everything has looked and felt from my end. If this was normal friend break-ups, I wouldn’t resent them so much. I just… I understand where you’re coming from, and change on my end is also very important, but… there’s no such thing as a perfect victim, and I can’t fix myself on my own or in a short period of time.

[gildedanxiety]

Welcome Home Restoration Project Halloween Update

So, there are gonna be spoilers ahead to the welcome home website if anyone doesn't wanna see that then I suggest ignoring this post and moving on.

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Still here?

Good.

I'll give you a final warning because this is going to be a wall of text and ramblings but whether you stay or leave, enjoy.

Now then, I'm someone who enjoys my fair share of investigation, and if you're like me, then you were one of the people on the website to realize the misplaced letters could be arranged into url's. This in mind, you probably noticed that since the last updates before this months halloween update little colorful bugs could occasionally be caught skittering across pages. This could be taken as a sign that the website itself is "bugged" since we've all seen how what is assumed to be Wally replying with notes to the letters in the guest book(Of which I have my own letter, though he never put any art to it, I'm still glad I made it on before the cut off! I am the proud letter writer E in the guestbook ^^). I try to regularly check the website due to this colorful cast of characters stealing my intrigue, thus bringing me to what I would like to discuss with this post. I have found my fair share of stuff on the website before most others from what I can tell, but I also don't really like to come out with it, so I've waited a bit to post this. On the most recent update, I was just scrolling through on autopilot when I was greeted by a little spider(?) like bug that was basically halloween incarnate, so, knowing what I know about the bugs I looked into the little guy/girl/bug and found a video which I will include the link to here(https://www.clownillustration.com/00).

I don't normally have issue finding little details within media like this but something about how forward the video and imagery was unsettled me. Especially because in my opinion the site rarely just GIVES away information. I mean, when the site first came up I was on the side that was SURE the little guy was purely innocent, perhaps even being manipulated, but, this has unsettled me with the sound, lighting, cutting of audio, enhancing, and the general movement of some items that I'm looking to see if anyone at all has some ideas of what the hell the little devil is trying to show us. I'm also quite solid on the fact the darling of the show is aware of all of us digging for answers. Perhaps he is still innocent. Perhaps he just needs help. But no matter the case, I plan on tracking down the answers. It doesn't matter how far I'll need to dive into the waters of this TV shows seemingly innocent cold case.

Thank you for reading my ramblings, and if you like, let's solve this mystery together! I won't post on this often, but if I were asked to look into something, I would hardly hesitate to post with my findings.

[nowis-scales]

After finishing Blood-Splattered Child you should post a behind the scenes with all your struggles writing it and call it Blood-Splattered Writer����

Oh my goodness, can you imagine? It would contain such wonderful segments as:

• Yes internal critic, I know you think Ryoma is out of character here, but that’s because he tends to repress his emotions, and the whole point of this fic is to make him stop doing that

• Haha you thought this was therapy JUST for Ryoma? No, whole Hoshido family, figure out your issues

• Oh my god wait this research site says the attachment type that best matches Ryoma’s isn’t all that likely for him?

• Ah great now I’ve gotta make Ikona more of a dick for realism

• WAIT A MINUTE that attachment style is most likely to happen in a situation where the parents inconsistently respond to the child!! Why is Camilla an anxious attachment style? She’s the one who should be disorganized! Poor Ryoma. His more likely attachment style is only considered sexy on Camilla but not on him. No “I can fix him energy” for you

• Anyway yeah Ikona still has to be worse, but this just proves that the writers didn’t do their research… which I guess at the very least doesn’t disprove my pitch here so crisis averted!

• If we want to go by Fire Emblem’s “medieval” shtick I’ve technically pulled Japan’s (Hoshido’s) attempted colonization of Korea (Seonbi) like waaaay too early considering I literally watched propaganda films they made, but… it’s still the Meiji era so fuck it, it counts, it’s an inspiration anyway

• Oh okay if I want to write some of these symptoms Ryoma would probably need an ex… I guess I have to make up a girlfriend for hi- WAIT. Akitomo is born.

• Aw shit, I shouldn’t’ve done friends to lovers with Ryotomo, now I’m attached to them as a couple and they’ve already broken up

• Alright and now I am going to write some of Ryoma’s insecurities and- whoops, that’s Takumi

• How do I write Ryoma and Hinoka close enough that she’s got some more insight than the others, but not so close that people start misconstruing their close relationship and telling me they don’t want to see either of them get with Camilla or Ryoma get with Felicia, and instead want to see them get with each other

• How do I get around having to research Meiji-era Japanese toilets for this scene?

• Spoiler alert: I did not get around researching Meiji-era Japanese toilets

• I need to think about balancing how often Ryoma’s problems are solved by his own volition and how often he is guided by the lesbians

• God, needing characters to come in and out from other countries is so annoying. Why’s everything gotta take so long? Can I use the Water Travel for the Vallites at least? Please?

• I am not writing Sumeragi close to how he canonically was, I’m just a child who was blessed with a great dad, so my reflex now when presented with this figure that is ambiguously a good dad is just to make a guy similar to my dad

• Oh fuck someone asked me why I made a particular choice and I can think of why I made it, but it needs evidentiary support, but I can’t find the evidentiary support anymore, goddammit!

• Oh god I almost implied that Ryoma and Felicia were already married by referencing the scene from their S-support where he makes the riceball for her during a platonic scene

• I need to stop putting my emotional intelligence onto Ryoma. He does not have that. It may be one of my strong points but it is not his

• Actually I need to stop doing this with the entire Hoshido family, they can’t all be emotionally intelligent but still have this many issues

… And that’s probably only the twenty I could come up with lol. If we tack on the actual personal life stuff that has happened while I’ve written it, then it could go on for much longer

[redrosesshadowwolf]

I used to love writing. I mean I still do, and I get sparks of creativity all the time.

I never seem to get past a few chapters for a fic so I rarely post my writing.

But that's not what this is about.

You see, there is this thing people used to do. I have no idea where I remember this happening. But when I was younger I read several works people had done together. Whether it be POV shifted with alternating chapters, or they worked together for the whole thing.

I've always loved that type of work. I've always wanted to do such things.

But finding someone to write with you? Someone who has the same brain worms?

It can be hard.

Despite having been perusing tumblr for a long time, I didn't make an account till a few years ago. And I've enjoyed how people jump back and forth adding to prompts in the notes, it's a smaller version of what I enjoy so much.

I've done that, I've verbally jumped back and forth making short stories with friends as well. But finding time and motivation between people to bring about one central idea hadn't worked our for me too well.

So I guess why I'm saying this all is so I can see if anyone else has this issue, if anyone knows a platform that works best for such things.

I'd try and find people to write with. But that takes a little more than just spotting a person and agreeing to write with them.

I have also seen group things like this done for short prompts from large discord servers I'm Fandoms and such. But I think one of the most unique times I've seen this done was for some old zombie apocalypse story I had read on Wattpad when I was like 11.

Because yeah, I'm part of the time before making sure there were proper childlocks on every site and device.

Honestly kinda feel bad for the kids who are stuck with such things. I would have hated it.

But I understand they're important for kids who don't know any better.

Also, some people really need to just teach kids to click away or turn off things if it makes them uncomfortable. Because some people grow up instead just going through with watching or reading stuff that fucks them up in the head. Or they complain to adults and the adults turn it off or get rid of it for them and the kid gets like no problem solving ability for such thing.

I don't know many kids, but somehow I've still seem both issues prominently displayed in real life and on media platforms.

Anyways ignoring my beef with people, and other such things. I really do love back and forth about writing and with writing.

I think when I was in like elementary or middle school one of my teachers had a few assignments where I had to do such things. And that really opened this can of worms of me loving the idea.

Because I've never done sports or been a part of a large team, but I have had to team up in academic environments and doing creative writing with people who also enjoyed writing was just an incredible experience. Even if it was more likely you'd get stuck with someone who didn't like writing and they'd make the experience so very annoying and horrible, those few good times outweighs the bad for me through this type of writing.

It's once again, probably why I love tumblr so much. Because we do this in small doses throughout fandoms and general writing prompts. Some people ask that people don't add on or elaborate on their writing. But so many more seem rather happy if someone takes their beginning and adds a middle, even if they plan on writing their own middle and end.

It's honestly a fantastic thing.

[fairykukla]

Season's Greedings, 2023!

Every year I try to post my Greed List (What I want for Christmas" which includes the even more vital "Do Not Want" list.

Do Want:

1. A functional dishwasher.

We have one, we've had it serviced several times, and I don't think it's ever going to properly wash dishes again. It needs to go away, a new one needs to be installed, and I have terrible decision fatigue about figuring out which one I want. I want it to wash dishes. I don't even fully understand the choices I'm faced with.

You can contribute in one of the following ways: cash or electronic transfer donations to the dishwashing fund, solid recommendations for a specific make and model, or bad "features" I should avoid.

2. Laundry on-site: I own a washer and a dryer. The washer is down in the basement, but has nowhere legit to drain. The dryer is still at my neighbors' house, in the garage.

You can either be part of the team to bring the dryer home and set it up, or throw some cash at the plumbing problem, or offer assistance to solve the plumbing problem.

Those are the Big Things. Here's the little stuff:

A handcrafted card. I'm a sucker for those, and it will be kept, treasured, and probably displayed every year for a long time.

BJD shoes. All my dolls have lost shoes due to the vinyl or adhesives disintegrating. I need all kinds of shoes, particularly in 1/4 and 1/6 scale.

Shoes for me. I need a good solid supportive pair of shoes to wear to work.

Feed my dish collections: black octagonal glass pieces are always welcome. (They say "France" on the bottom.) Also Steubenville Woodfield pieces, particularly the dinner plates which seem hard to find. All colors welcome.

DVDs: we can't stream, so I need hard copies of anything I want to see. I'd particularly like Marvel stuff (especially recent movies, I'm way behind), Leverage Redemption, anime, or something unusual that you love and aren't sure if I've seen it yet. Ditto for CDs.

Funny collectables: I still love gnomes, mushrooms, fairy aesthetic items, the Nightmare Before Xmas, Tea Party items, etc.

Cat toys. My cats like them and I love to play with my cats.

I do like shiny jewelry, but I appreciate handcrafted items the most.

Hand crafted items. Support an artisan and it's like getting two gifts in one.

I still love to get Lush gift cards. One year I got several and it was The Best Xmas Ever.

Toilet Paper. I am always delighted to receive disposable paper products like TP, paper towels, paper plates, etc.

Food: teas are always welcome. Heck, just bring me a bubble tea and I'll be thrilled! Candy is super tricky; I'd rather get a card and warm wishes than candy. Baked goods are welcome early in the season, but I really don't want a bunch of sweets in the house the week before I give up sugar altogether. (Jan 1) There are very few places I can go to eat, but I'd love gift cards for Thai Nivas, any sushi place, Panera, Cafe Mochi, or Pearl.

Food that you canned yourself. Jam, jelly, apple butter, even regular pickles (because my partner likes them) or, if you want to see me happy-cry, pickles with no garlic or onion in the mix.

Experiences: indoor things are fraught. However, if you want to give me a gift card for The London Tea Room (or better yet, offer to take me for tea) I would love it. Outdoor concerts or performances might be ok, but talk to me about it first.

Do not want:

I have a lot of post Covid issues, as well as my pre Covid IBS problems. Add in my Big Sugar Fast from Jan 1st to late March, and suddenly certain holiday standards don't work for me.

No MSG. This means soup bases, seasoning packets, salad dressings, flavored snack chips, etc. It also means no Alfredo or tomato sauces, and no mushrooms.

No garlic, onion, chocolate, coffee, or peanut. None. Zero. I can't have it in the house. Cross-contamination is a problem. If one molecule gets in the food I can't eat it. These were all things I loved to eat before Covid; now they are completely and totally ruined for me.

Try not to make me part of your Christmas cookie baking. May I suggest instead that you bake some salt dough "cookie" ornaments, and paint one to give me for my tree? Cookies and sweets are cruel unless you give them to me very early in the season.

I hope this helps.

[a-tale-never-told]

Important Annoucement!

//Okay, so this is mostly frustrating. If you are all wondering what I'm exactly referring to, I'm talking about the clusterfuck of a dashboard. Before then, the Dashboard unfucker was still present for me, and I was able to carry out the story chapters with relative ease.

//But since yesterday, the shitty layout has returned and it has rattled my head beyond comprehension. What bothers me the most is how it returned? Why did it come back when I still had the unfucker with me? I think the main answer is that the Tumblr staff removed it from me, but the question is how did they find out exactly?

//I'm 100% sure that a bot was among my followers and just reported it to the Tumblr Gestapo over there, at least that's what I think. I don't know exactly if that is truly the case or if the computer simply malfunctioned yesterday, but regardless of the reasons why, the dashboard layout is still here as of now.

//When I first saw this, I was in absolute shock. I franticly closed Tumblr for a bit, then re-opened the site to see if it was just a glitch, but No! It was literally still there. I tried to download again the Dashboard unfucker multiple times, with all of those attempts being a failure. Once I finished, a stark realization went through my head as I tried to process what had just occurred: The shitty Tumblr layout is back, and it's going to stay for perhaps the duration of the story blog.

//Obviously, this was complete and utter dogshit, to the point where I made a post pretty much in an angered state, expressing that I wanted to kill myself. I just want to say that I apologize for stating that notion. I was never going to do it, but I was just having a really awful day, in particular, yesterday, and seeing that layout again just literally destroyed my sanity or whatever sanity I had left.

//But I'm sure you're all going to probably ask the question related to all of this: What's the future of this story blog? Obviously, I'm not that much of a quitter, as I've come way too far to give up now, but it's becoming evidently clear that I can no longer do normal story chapters like I usually do thanks to these chucklefucks, so I currently have two solutions that I have in my head, and I need to decide on which option is going to be better for this blog.

//The first option I have is to do the same type of strategy Creeper and Mod Poi are doing with their story blogs in terms of story chapters, where they reblog their chapters and usually post several continued parts to further advance the story. The problem is that I personally dislike that type of strategy as it just makes the story posts more filled up and overcrowded. Hell, even Creeper himself isn't a fan of this strategy, he only did it because the Tumblr staff fucked everything up.

//The second option I can do is to adopt Freeze's way of solving this, which is that I can extend the rest of the story through the asks, which is something that is very familiar to me if you have read the earliest phases of the story. The only issue is that I made it absolutely clear that I do not like that strategy as it takes away more attention from the story chapters and the main story as a whole, and I consider that to be one of the bigger flaws of this arc that's currently has been solved.

//Perhaps I could do both at the same time, adopting the reblog strategy while also trying to extend the asks, but then the amount of time would just completely exhaust me, given the other stuff I have to do in my life. So after much deliberation and thinking, I've decided to adopt Mod Creeper's method, as it's at least something related to the story chapters. I wholeheartedly apologize for choosing this rather confusing and uncomfortable strategy, but I seriously have no choice.

//On the bright side, I at least figured out a decent time schedule for how I'm going to post these stories in my free time. But I will post the time schedule in a separate post later on, so it doesn't overlap with this post. I seriously don't even know what's going to happen from here on out, but I promise to all of you that no matter what happens, this is NOT the end of the story blog. Oh no, we're just getting started, and even though most of my ideas have now been complicated thanks to the return of this layout, I have a sharp mind on my shoulders, and I will at least try to improvise if things go wrong.

//I just want to thank @a-student-out-of-time and @poisonrozen for trying to help me during this troubled time for me yesterday. You guys are genuinely amazing, and I honestly wish you success for the rest of your stories. As for Tumblr, the absolute banal joke that is the staff have mismanaged the properties of this website in ways Elon Musk could only think in his wildest dreams. It can only go downhill from here.

//But anyway, I hope that this is the very last announcement I make on this blog and that we can continue with the story because I have big plans for the story going forward. This is Mod Sam from A Tale Never Told, and I will see you all later as I watch the first trial of Sdra2. Have a good day!

[kittycatsco]

How to Locate The Kitten of My Dreams Answered

How to Locate The Kitten of My Dreams AnsweredYou are ready for a new kitten or cat addition to your home. . . and now the search begins. BUT, Scammers Are Everywhere (Almost) The persistent problem of scammers posing as breeders of gorgeous cats and kittens with the sole goal of getting you to send them a deposit via Venmo or another payment service with zero accountability scares and concerns most people today, which is why many choose to go to a shelter: to see the real cat or kitten and fall in love with the purrball in their arms. Now solving the puursonality mismatch issue is another, where you simply fall in love with the purrball that goes on to destroy your home. Other things are weighing on you as you are considering as a new kitten PURRent, such as supplies, toys, litter, and food, aren't quite populating in your head, yet, just the dream and desire of a new kitten all curled up in your lap and next to your computer, is coming to attention. Should I go to the shelter and look, or should I hope to get that stunning breed I've been dreaming of, forever. I know these kittens are probably going to be hard to find and then, how much will it cost, and will it be near enough to me to go and get this dream kitty. So I started searching on Craigslist first, as I didn't know of other sites at the time, and I luckily found a dream of a kitten, with gorgeous pictures, so I decided to inquire. I sent the reply via Craigslist email, and never heard back from the person who made the listing. I start to wonder when I would hear back from them, so I went back to see the listing and it was removed, vanished, gone, so I figured all of the kittens were taken. I start googling the breed and found another site, and spent 45 minutes searching for the breed, not to locate any listings. I continue my search and go back to Craigslist a couple of days later, only to discover the listing is back up. So again, I send the reply email.  I did get a reply, they wanted my phone number to send texts as their preferred form of communication. The texts were saying the kittens are available and are being reserved fast so I need to send a deposit via Venmo now to reserve a kitten.  Wait a minute, I haven't even seen any more pictures of the kitten I would be receiving, the final price, the health status, vet records, color, male or female, nothing.  Just send the money to Venmo to reserve. I was very hesitant and decided to continue looking.  This seemed outrageous to me, I need more information before I send money for an unknown kitten and even where they are located. The next day, I get another text message from the person at the other end of the text for the kittens, only this time, It wasn't a nice tone at all. More demanding, It doesn't seem like they would be nice to kittens with this tone so I replied and said I am not interested. That wasn't good enough, The texts just kept coming as if on a fast-moving train, sounding more demanding and desperate with each text. I was going to miss out! On what, I thought, I don't know enough about the kittens to make a decision and the information isn't coming that I ask for, just the reservation deposit demand.  I blocked their number and was done with them, and it was a very disappointing experience for me. I figured this was a near-scam attack that I barely missed.  I also figured that's why their listing was removed, and flagged because they are professional scammers. As I continued my search for my dream cat, I found another site, GoKitty, which certainly has alot of listings, with "beware of scammers" banners, warnings, and disclaimers, so right away, I wonder how legit these listings are after my last experience. I did look around and discovered some kittens to inquire about.  The email system used is good, although many breeders do not respond to inquiries. While Communication is slow with the back-and-forth email from their site, it is a delayed experience and takes time to achieve any thorough communication. I did run into the same encounters with similar pictures and decided to go to my local shelter and see if I could rescue a wonderful kitty that I can see in person. It seems like actual videos of kittens are a missing experience and to use actual videos, I would at least get to see the actual kittens and their living conditions.  And see them age as they grow.  It seems like I could get to know the purrsonality as well with videos. As I reflect on the process, I concluded that scammers are way too prevalent and widespread and something needs to be done to address this.  As a potential PURRent, I was very disappointed in the entire process and hope that someone will figure out how to solve this. Finally, as I googled one last time, I came across a new site, KittyCats.CO. The thing that struck me is they are setting examples right from the start and all over their site, that Scammers will be permanently banned and that all precautions are taken at the start.  They don't want regular cat listings, but more the Appreciated Breeder which comes with thorough steps taken to achieve this Badge listed on their listings, complete with actual video in the listings and a direct communications platform so both parties can directly communicate or schedule a video call, audio chat, instant chat, email and communicate together by sharing pictures and updates of the kitten I reserved. Yes, I found my new love there in KittyCats.CO. And I get to see the updated videos and pictures communicate with my new breeder friend and after I get my kitten, we can share all the love together in our own group or as friends on the social platform.  I loved the PURRfect Match Adoption Questionnaire and filled it out. KittyCats.Co team sent it to the breeder they thought would be a good fit based on my answers, and then, after we agreed on all of the details, the Deposit Reservation Form and Verification, worked like a charm.  Both parties are assured they are real, and it's a secure way to find the love of your house this way. Read the full article

[yourcherrywriteslove]

༺ Pairings: MinChan

༺ Rating: M for language

༺ Genre: Drabble, Humor, Domestic Fluff

༺ Word Count: 433

༺ Warnings: N/A

༺ Main Account

༺ Author’s notes: This story is cross posted on multiple sites under the same username!

“I’m having issues with your marriage status.”

“But I’m not married.”

“Now you see my problem.”

Chan stared at Minho in confusion, not fully grasping what the problem was. How could Minho have an issue with his marriage status if he wasn’t married? Furthermore, why even bring it up? Of course Minho knew what his marital status was, they were dating. For nearly 5 years now. How was his marital status supposed to change when he was so deeply committed to his boyfriend? Chan didn’t believe in cheating, and never once did he have wandering eyes.

Minho was his one and only. A decree that Chan upheld to the highest standards.

“I’m so confused.”

Minho’s blank expression was the only response he needed, though its exact meaning was still up in the air. The younger man was most probably over Chan and his inability to read the room, but Chan would argue that that was one of his more charming traits. If anything, it usually brought a laugh to his boyfriend and a fond eye roll. This time, however, he didn’t get any of that. Just a blank stare.

“I want a divorce.” Minho declared after nearly five minutes of their silent staring contest.

“But Min, we’re not marr- oh.”

“Yeah, oh, numb nuts.” Minho scoffed, but there went that lovely eye roll, followed by a slight smile that Chan knew Minho was trying to fight off. And just like before, Chan was reminded of just how much he loved the other. “You should really fix the issue.”

“I should.” Chan nodded his head slowly, looking away before letting his eyes trail back over to Minho, lingering on his face. “Would you marry a numb nut like me?” He found himself asking. The shocked expression was quite satisfying to see as Minho struggled to find an answer - the other’s mouth opening and closing like a fish. “Is that a no then?” He asked and sighed. “Oh well, guess I can’t fix my marriage status.”

“Oh, go fuck yourself, Bang Chan.” Minho finally snapped, though his threats were empty and tone light and airy. “Of course I’d marry you.”

“Really? Perfect! Guess that solves my issue then.”

“Yeah, but now you have a different issue to fix.” Minho pointed out. Chan’s brows furrowed as he cocked his head. Minho simply held out his hand then, wiggling his ring finger. “My finger is naked.” Chan stared at it for a moment before reaching out and taking hold of it, lacing their fingers togethers.

“Fixed!” Chan grinned happily.

“Chan!”

“I’m kidding, let’s go ring shopping, beautiful.”

Prompt #1068

"I'm having an issue with your marriage status."

"But I am not married."

"Now you see my problem."

[softluci]

hello yes can i just say i l o v e d your gen z hcs and may i acquire more

for starters, i am not religious, but i am PRAYING you don’t think i was ignoring your ask. i’ve been thinking about it since i got it, it’s just that i’m a college student with worms for brains, so hopefully you understand. this is something that i’ve had on my mind for a long time [i’ve been at this on and off for months], and it most definitely can be associated with/attributed to gen z. 

for a fleeting, wonderful period of time, there was a trend on tiktok that went, “buss it, buss it…” are you familiar? 

that should be enough of a summary, right? ah—for future reference, “o7” is like a saluting emote, for anyone who might not know. reader is g/n as usual, enjoy!

[a/n: so because this is so long, this part is going to be, like, the lore, and then the actual headcanons will be right here]

trendy 

the two things most corrosive to the human spirit are easily named—capitalism and boredom. while it would be easier and less taxing to explain the former, the latter was the problem at hand. it’s not that there was nothing to do in the devildom—quite the opposite, actually—it was just that you wanted some time to yourself every now and again. the trouble with trying to take time for yourself in a completely new location, the residents of which are always enamored with you in one way or another, is that there isn’t anything to do. the house was full of adventures for you to take—the trap door under the rug in the library, the other trap door under the dining room table, the small door behind the couch in the living room, and whatever other poorly hidden doors your seven roommates thought you didn’t know about. 

trouble was, you didn’t want to leave your room. you, intelligent creature that you are, knew that the chances of you running into mammon or satan or beel or asmo were all too high, and even higher were the chances of you agreeing to spend time with them if they asked, and you knew they would. what were you to do? 

you stared at your ceiling from your bed, d.d.d. resting on your stomach as you let your mind wander. your d.d.d. was full of things for you to do, the devildom’s ethernet at your fingertips, but you weren’t interested in finding new things right now. you wanted something familiar, like—like your phone. 

what was the point of lucifer taking your phone, anyway? it’s not like you could use it—being here rendered it a useless brick of glass and metal, so it wouldn’t have been a big deal if you still had it. it was funny, though, that you couldn’t use your actual phone when it was still possible to access the human internet from down here. 

at least, you assumed so. 

how else would levi be able to keep up with his human idols, get tickets for their shows—the works, you know? luckily, you were fully capable of asking. 

d.d.d. now in your hand, you rolled onto your stomach and found your messages with levi, nails clacking against the glass as you tried to reach him.

hey, you texted, can you help me with something?

his reply came faster than you expected: ?? what do you need 

how do i access human websites and apps, you asked, rolling onto your side. you know how to, right?

lololol, it’s not possible :p

a grunt, more aggravated than you’d care to admit, escaped from the back of your throat.

don’t lie. 

a few minutes passed with no response, and you wondered if you were too harsh. 

“he’s a sensitive guy,” you mumbled, inhaling deeply. “i probably came on too strong or something.” 

just as you started typing out an apology and a, “forget i ever said anything,” you got a response. 

a vpn and a proxy site. 

a smile crept onto your face as air came out of your nose, the closest thing to a laugh you could muster. 

can you set it up for me? 

after another few minutes of no response, you sit up, wondering how you could’ve possibly fucked up a second time, your d.d.d. buzzed. 

levi sent you a file and a link, with a host of instructions. 

click on the file and it’ll take you to the vpn you need to download. don’t worry about bugs or anything, i made it myself. 

you let out a low whistle, flopping onto your back once more. 

“this guy gets up to more than i thought,” you said, eyebrows raised. “someone get this man some physical affection.” 

you continued to read, growing more fond of him with each sentence.

once you install it, pick the country whose network you want access to. from there, you’ll have a list of that country’s most used applications available for you. again, don’t worry about bugs. 

what’s the link for? you asked, excitement getting the better of you. 

for when you download internet applications. it’s added security, paste the link in before you search anything or you’ll trigger the firewall alarm. 

you blinked. 

you’ll trigger the what? 

i’ll trigger the fucking What? 

levi’s response was the fastest one yet: the Fucking Firewall Alarm. barbatos’ design. he has no idea i know how to bypass it. just do what i said. don’t try to solve any potential issues on your own, come to me for everything.

roger that o7, you replied, thanks levi ^_^

yeah, yeah. come to my room for a hxh binge tomorrow night.

you snorted. what a fucking nerd—in the greatest way possible. 

of course bestie :] ily

ily2 normie -_- 

in his room, unbeknownst to you, levi felt like he made a mistake of some kind. it’s not that he didn’t trust you, it’s just that you had a tendency to end up in undesirable situations, even if it wasn’t always on purpose. he was probably just worried over nothing, or so he tried to tell himself, but whatever. this isn’t even about him.

you sat up once more, this time leaning against your pillows as you started setting everything up. everything went so quickly that you barely wondered if all of this—subverting hell’s firewall, personally designed by a man eerily similar to a 2D crush from when you were in middle school—was worth accessing a few silly apps from the human world. 

a few minutes later, your d.d.d. now a much, much cooler copy of your phone, any and all thoughts of regret and hesitation were absent from your mind. 

your first order of business on your upgraded d.d.d. was logging into your tiktok account, however surprising it was that you even remembered the password. you put your headphones in and adjusted your volume, going back into the dumpster fire that is your for-you page with open arms. 

after around half an hour of stifled laughter and small, offended gasps from being targeted by the algorithm, you came across a rare dancing video. the person on your screen was in casual clothes, making minor, silly dance movements as the music dwindled, only for them to drop into a squat in time with the music, suddenly dolled up. you shot forward, taken aback by their transformation and by their dancing post beat drop. did you watch it on a loop for a few minutes? well, that’s nobody’s business but yours. you clicked on the sound in hopes of finding similar videos, and much to your relief, there were plenty. about ten videos in, a smile still on your face, you got an idea. 

you slipped your headphones out, arbitrarily looking around your room, before whispering to yourself, “i could—i could do that. i could totally do that.” 

and you were right. you had nice clothes and makeup from various shopping occasions with asmo. your room had led strips, courtesy of levi ordering the wrong ones and being so kind as to give them to you. you could do it. 

levi was the only person you’d spoken to since you retreated to your room a few hours ago, and the lights have been off the entire time, which meant that if you worked quietly enough, everyone else had reason enough to assume you were asleep. good! how could you possibly explain what you were doing getting all dolled up at, like, 11:00 on a wednesday night? you couldn’t, even a little bit—not in a way that convinced anyone, anyway. 

come midnight, you were sitting cross legged on your bed, watching your final product. not to be vain or anything, but you were looking very respectfully at yourself. since when could you move like that, anyway? the wonders of being alone, you supposed. 

you didn’t post it publicly, electing to save it as a draft just so it would save to your d.d.d. maybe you’d post it once you were back in the human world, when your friends wouldn’t swarm your comments asking where the fuck you were. 

yeah, lucifer told you, “everything was taken care of,” but regardless of whether or not you believed him, you knew it wasn’t a good idea to risk finding out if he missed something. 

boredom creeping up on you again, you elected to go through the messages on your d.d.d. it would be better to make yourself laugh before you were fully bored again, right? you stood up and stretched, opening the group text with the adults. luke doesn’t know about it; he thinks the one with everyone is the main one, and everyone lets him think that so he feels included. 

walking around your room in small circles, you scrolled up to the older conversations and read through them, rolling your eyes and chuckling to yourself. very rarely did they talk about anything of importance. it was mostly diavolo, barbatos, and simeon making quips and jokes at lucifer’s expense for everyone to see. it was gold in its purest form. 

you contemplated sending one of the many cursed things sitting in your camera roll, just to keep them on their toes, but just after opening your gallery, you resigned not to, figuring it would be best to leave him alone. 

you stretched again, the hold on your d.d.d. a bit looser this time. it nearly slipped out of your hands, but you caught it, tossing it onto your bed. as soon as you resigned to start getting ready for bed, you turned back around and picked it up. 

there was no rhyme or reason to your actions; if someone in that moment were to ask you why you did it, you would’ve said, “just ‘cause.”

human intuition is a wonderful thing.

your d.d.d. was still on, still open to the group chat. you’d sent something, evidently a second ago, as indicated by the time stamp. the thumbnail was of you, in casual clothing—the casual clothing you were wearing before you got dolled up, actually. huh. 

huh. 

the weight of your mistake came crashing down on you in full force, a chill sinking into your skin and running up your spine.

you were suddenly acutely aware of the concept of time, how it was of the essence and you had absolutely none to waste.

what were you to do? it wouldn’t be long before your favorite person saw it. you had to do something. 

you could say nothing. you could tell the truth and say it was an accident and that you were embarrassed, but that was even worse than saying nothing because it meant you were set to be the target of teasing you didn’t even wanna try to imagine. you could say it was an accident and be confident about it, telling them, “enjoy!” but that was a dangerous game to play, and you knew it. 

well, i do admire you for taking time to think, but, unfortunately, there was a checkmark next to your message. oh, a number as well—eleven. you just can’t catch a break. what were they all doing up at this time, anyway? it was a school night🤨. 

[troublesomeshika]

After all this time, I'm still into you  (2)

shikamaru nara x reader word count: 3.4k warnings: swearing

You were nervous. You didn’t wanna have this conversation, but you knew you couldn’t let anymore time go by or else it might be too late. Dragging your feet, you turned down the street the Nara head house sat on. The lights were on, he was probably home. You grimaced before raising your hand to knock on the front door. After a few seconds it flew open, “Y/N!” You weren’t sure what you had been expecting but it certainly was not Yoshino pulling you into a hug.

“Oh, we haven’t seen you in forever! Come in come in!” You were thrown, you’d been ready to bare your soul and grovel, you’d screwed up all your courage and now you were being pulled inside Shikamaru’s house by his mom? You slid off your shoes, mumbling something about not making a fuss before Yoshino waved her hand at you. “Nonsense. I’m just finishing up making dinner! It would be wonderful if you’d join us.” She looked at you expectantly before you simply nodded, eyes wide, still trying to comprehend everything that was happening. You rounded the corner, being led by Yoshino, to see Shikamaru and Shikaku sitting together playing Shogi, a site not unfamiliar to you. Yoshino ushered you over to the two where you sat down, examining the board. “I’ll be done soon, just give me a few minutes.”

“Haven’t seen you in awhile,” Shikaku said lightly, “what’s my move here, Y/N?” You stared at the board. You weren’t good at Shogi, and he knew that. He’d tried to get you and Shikamaru to learn, but it was such a long winded game that you’d always found it quite boring.

“Sir, you know I’m terrible at this game. Please don’t make me.” He chuckled before moving a piece himself.

“It’s good to see you around again. Shikamaru’s quite boring company,” he laughed as Shikamaru scoffed and moved his own piece on the board. The three of you sat in silence, the awkwardness growing bit by bit until Yoshino called out for her husband. He stood, still looking at the board, “I’m sure I can trust that you’ll beat him, Y/N. I’ve already gotten you most of the way there, all that’s left is to finish out the game. I’m off to help with dinner.” He walked away, glancing back at you as you shifted to take his place. He was right, he had gotten you most of the way there. You felt a soft smile grace your lips as you moved a piece. You didn’t speak a word, waiting for Shikamaru to move. It was agony. The silence was thick and you couldn’t keep your knee from bouncing as you picked up one of his captured pieces, turning it over in your fingers. Hearing the sound of a piece moving on the board made your eyes snap to the game again. You picked up another piece and moved again. Back to sitting in silence. You watched Shikamaru’s face as he studied the board before rolling your eyes and tracing the writing on the piece in your hand. You took a deep breath looking around, wondering if you could leave before dinner started. A chuckle brought you back to reality and you looked at the board. He’d maneuvered you into checkmate.

“Guess you owe me lunch, loser pays right?” Shikamaru said looking up at you.

You simply rolled your eyes. “Fine.... I guess.”

He cocked an eyebrow, “You guess? Do you need me to explain how you lost? I thought you would’ve remembered that at the very least.”

“Whatever.” you shook your head, a small smile ghosting your lips. You both sat in silence for a moment more. Breathing deeply, you tried to calm your shot nerves. You opened your mouth, ready to apologize, and Shikaku returned.

“No. How could you let him win, Y/N?” he sounded angry, but his grin told you otherwise. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to start your training again. You must be rusty after all this time not playing.” You felt your cheeks go red from embarrassment.

“Is dinner ready?” Shikamaru cut in.

“Yes, your mother sent me to get you two.” He tilted his head, motioning for the two of you to follow him.

You stood, extending a hand to Shikamaru, who stood and looked at it. “You won.” He nodded and shook your hand before turning and following his father. Walking into the dining area, you saw the table set for four with gyoza and dumplings. Yoshino smiled from her seat. You took your place across from Shikamaru before the meal began. You’d been here before, eating over wasn’t uncommon when you and Shikamaru were younger, but just like all the things you’d shared as children, it had been awhile. At some point the conversation turned to relationships.

Yoshino looked towards you, “So, Shikamaru mentioned that you were dating Kiba?”

“Mom I said-”

“How are you two?” She smiled.

Swallowing your mouthful of food, you nodded. “Uh, yeah. I was dating Kiba for awhile, but we recently ended up calling it quits. Just wasn’t working out you know?”

Her face morphed into one of sympathy, “Aw that’s too bad.”

You smiled sadly, “It’s alright, it was mutual.”

Shikaku looked up, “Don’t worry, you kids have lots of time to find someone. I had loads of girlfriends before I met Yoshino here.”

“Mhmm, and I had lots of men asking for my hand before Shikaku finally got around to asking me,” Yoshino said, holding his gaze across the table with a tight lipped smile.

“And how lucky I am that you chose me.” He raised his drink to her.

“Yes well, anyways, I’m sure you’ll find someone.” She said looking back at you. You smiled, looking down at your food. Before you could stop yourself, your eyes flickered up to Shikamaru. He looked bored and before you could look away, his eyes met yours. You immediately dropped your gaze again, feeling your ears heat slightly. It had been years since you’d felt like this. You took another bite, determined to drown the butterflies in your stomach with food. The conversation moved onto missions and you recounted your most recent B rank mission. Part way through, you’d mentioned a fighting style you’d recently learned and Shikaku launched into an explanation of why it was dangerous, and its weaknesses. You listened respectfully, knowing he meant well. Once dinner was finished, you helped Yoshino clean up before excusing yourself, mentioning some paperwork you had to get done back at home.

“Alright well, I’ll have Shikamaru walk you home,” she offered.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, ma’am. I don’t want to trouble him, he’d probably think it’s a drag.” You laughed.

“No, no. He needs to be more active. A walk will do him good.” she brushed her hands off on her apron, glancing out into the living room where Shikamaru laid, asleep. “Shikamaru!” she called. “Wake up and walk our guest home will you?” He muttered something under his breath and Yoshino narrowed her eyes, “What was that?”

“Nothing nothing,” he sat up, looking at you. “Ready to go?” You nodded, giving Yoshino a hug and thanking her for dinner. You waved and said goodbye to Shikaku before walking to the door and sliding on your shoes. Shikamaru appeared beside you and opened the front door.

“Thanks.” you said, stepping outside. The two of you walked in silence for a bit before you turned to him and spoke up. “Really, I can walk myself home, it’s not a big deal. I won’t tell your mom you ditched me, it’s fine.”

“Tch, she knows how long it takes to get to your place and back. And besides, we’re already halfway there, it’d be a drag to go home just to get yelled at.” You nodded and a silence fell over the two of you again, this time more comfortable and familiar. You found your mind wandering back to the day you’d first kissed. You knew you were romanticizing it from nostalgia, but you couldn’t help that little bit of you that wanted to believe what Ino had said earlier. There were only a few more blocks to your apartment and you decided to say something when you got there, that way you had an easy out if it got too awkward. Once you’d decided that, your nerves began firing, causing you to pull out your keys just so you could fiddle with them. “I can’t believe you’re still so hyperactive. Thought you would’ve mellowed out by now,” Shikamaru’s voice pulled you from your thoughts.

“Always commenting on my energy. Is it because you’re jealous I have so much of it?”

“God no, I’m glad you have it. Better you than me.”

“Would it really be all that bad if you were a little more active?” You poked him with your keys.

“Uhh yeah. It most definitely would. Somebody’s gotta watch the clouds go by and that’s my job in this world. Can’t do that if I’m always going like you.”

You laughed, rolling your eyes. “Of course you’d say something like that.” You chuckled, gazing at him as you walked, a smile on your lips.

“What?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re staring. What is it?”

“Oh nothing, just glad we’re back to normal.” You said, turning to look ahead again.

His jaw tightened. “Oh.”

One word and your stomach dropped onto the road. You kept walking but you’d definitely left it behind in the dirt. Shit. What had you said wrong? Did he not think the two of you were back to normal? You wanted to hit yourself over the head. You took a deep breath, but as you opened your mouth you rounded the corner, coming straight up on your apartment building. You and Shikamaru both stopped and stood still. “Would you like to come up?” You asked hopefully.

“I should get back-”

“Please?” You stared directly into his eyes. You had to talk to him, otherwise what was the point of the night.

He gave in, shrugging. “Alright, fine. But it needs to be quick.”

You smiled, leading the way up the stairs. “Don’t worry, I just”-- you paused, ready to say it but unable to--”I have some paperwork issues and I need a genius to solve them.”

“Troublesome, roping me into doing your work for you.”

You scoffed, “As if. No see, I actually want my work to be done, not just half completed.”

“Okay, do you want my help or not?” You glanced back and saw the corner of his mouth tilted up in a smirk.

“Yes please, c’mon in.” You unlocked the door and held it open for him. Slipping your shoes off inside the door, you flicked on the light, immediately noticing the mess. It wasn’t bad.... but you hadn’t gotten around to those errands earlier today- one of which was cleaning up your apartment. You immediately hurried to grab some of the jackets and trash, blushing out of embarrassment. “Heh, sorry for the mess. I was a little busy today.”

He waved a hand dismissively, “Y/N I’ve known you how long? It’s not surprising or weird to me, I really couldn’t care less.” He sat down on your couch, stretching out his legs. “So, the paperwork?” Just when your stomach had finally crawled its way back into place, it dropped to your feet again. Paperwork. Your eyes shot all over the room before landing on your recent packet that you had yet to fix. Thank god. You grabbed it and walked over to the couch. Staring at him, you stood waiting.

“Well?” he raised an eyebrow at you.

Rolling your eyes you shoved his legs off your couch and sat down. He raised his legs and threw them across your lap causing your heart rate to spike.

“It’s this packet,” you tossed the packet into his lap before putting your own feet up on the coffee table in front of you and leaning back, “they gave it back and told me I did it wrong, but I don’t know which part of it is wrong and I’ve stared at it so much that it all looks wrong at this point.” He hummed in response, reading over the pages.

“Here,” he pointed it out and you leaned over, looking at the page. “You shouldn’t have put that there,” he proceeded to explain the error, but you couldn’t stop yourself from looking at his lips. Every time you caught yourself you forced your eyes back to the paper in his hands, but it continued happening. “There, now you can fix your paperwork.” He handed it back, putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. You reached forward and grabbed a pen, beginning to fix your mistakes. You glanced over at him. Back to the paper in front of you. Scribbling a bit, you snuck a look at his face again. And back to the paper. When you looked at him again, one of his eyes was cracked open watching you. Your ears began heating again, just as they had earlier that night as you forced yourself back to the task at hand.

“Would you just spit it out already?”

You stared at the paper, trying to focus on the words in front of you. Scribbling you asked as nonchalantly as you could manage, “Spit what out?”

“Whatever it is that’s making you act so weird. You were like this at lunch too. If it’s that time of month I’ll gladly leave you be.”

You reached out and slapped the side of his head. “Man, fuck you.” you couldn’t help but laugh. “I hate you so much, you know?” You threw the paperwork on the table in front of you, shaking your head.

“Mhmm. The feeling is mutual.”

You let the silence hang again. For the third time that night, you screwed up your courage, intent on saying something, anything. “Alright, cards on the table, there is something I’ve been wanting to say. As much as I love your mom’s cooking, that wasn’t why I showed up at your house tonight.”

“So I was right.”

You rolled your eyes, “Not the point.”

“Ah ah. Say it.”

“No, it’s irrelevant.”

He lifted his legs and dropped them back into your lap.

“Uhf. Ok, jeez, you were right.”

“Thank you, you may continue.”

You sighed. “I just....” pausing again, you began subconsciously tracing small circles on his leg.

“If you’re gonna go soft on me just get it over with.”

You glared at him. “Fine. What I wanted to say was, I’m sorry.” You let the phrase hang in between you, letting him decide the route of the conversation.

“What for?”

“For getting us here.”

“I’m still confused. I think we both walked here with our own legs, and aside from that, I’m pretty content right now.”

“Shikamaru. That’s not what I mean. I let our friendship die. And then I turned to you expecting you to be there for me after I’d willingly pulled away. And now it’s weird and awkward between us.”

“Ehh you were with Kiba. It wasn’t that surprising. And it’s only awkward if you make it awkward.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it was okay. Ino told me about how it wasn’t a good time for you, and I’m sorry because it was my fault.”

He groaned beside you. “Troublesome Ino. Can’t trust her to keep her mouth shut. What exactly did she say to you?”

“Well, she said that it wasn’t a good time for you, and....” you stopped, trying to decide how to phrase your next words, “she may or may not have thought you had feelings for me.” His leg twitched almost imperceptibly under your hand. “But I told her she was wrong. Neither of us has felt that way about each other, we were always just best friends.”

He sighed. “I’m gonna kill that woman the next time I see her. Well, she didn’t lie to you.” Your heart stopped and your hand faltered on Shikamaru’s leg. “But don’t worry I’m over it now. It was a temporary thing, so no need to feel uncomfortable.”

“Oh, alright.” You said, trying to hide the hurt in your voice. “Well anyways, I wanted to say I’m sorry for breaking our friendship and I just want us to go back to how we were before. Are you.... good with that?”

He opened his eyes. “Of course. You women and your need to have a conversation about everything. Anyways, does this mean you’ll take tomorrow off to cloud watch with me?”

You sighed, “If I must. Although, I have to turn in this paperwork first, and I really do need to go grocery shopping, and I have-”

“Ah ah. Meet me at noon at Ichiraku and you can buy that lunch you owe me. Afterwards you’re taking the day off to watch some clouds. I don’t care what you have to do, get it done beforehand.” He pulled his legs to the floor and stood up. “Please don’t make me come looking for you, I don’t have the energy to chase you around the village, but I will if I have to.” He extended a hand which you gladly took before he pulled you up off the couch, his hand lingering in yours for what felt like a year.

“Alright alright. Noon tomorrow. See you then.” You walked him to the door before pulling him into a hug. He seemed startled, but hugged you back, albeit awkwardly. “Thank you Shikamaru. I really did miss our friendship.” It was the truth, although you were also starting to realize you’d missed quite a bit more about the boy as well.

“Are you sure it’s not that time?”

You pushed him away as he chuckled. “Get out of here, pineapple head.” He raised a hand in farewell and made his way down the stairs as you closed the door. You sighed and walked back to the couch flopping down. You could still smell the slight scent of trees and grass that seemed to follow Shikamaru everywhere. Groaning, you stood up and stared at where he’d lay minutes before. “Shikamaru Nara, you are going to be the death of me.” You shook your head before walking to your room and laying face down on your bed. It was a weird feeling, to be back in the same position you’d been in as children. Except now you knew for sure that the feeling wasn’t mutual, and that you’d missed your chance. All you could do was hope you got over your resurfacing feelings quickly and quietly. You weren’t going to screw up this friendship for a second time and if that meant quietly shoving down your feelings, well then, that’s just what you’d do.

Bonus:

As he walked down the stairs of your apartment complex, Shikamaru paused. He turned back towards the top of the stairs. Raising his hand to his face, he squeezed the bridge of his nose before continuing the way he’d been going. He made his way back to his house, mulling over the night in his head. You’d seemed so shocked about him ever having feelings for you, what choice did he have but to tell you he’d gotten over it? Besides, he hadn’t lied. His feelings had been temporary. They had to be. He had only felt that way because he was jealous seeing you with Kiba when you were meant to be his best friend. And that had somehow morphed into what he had thought were feelings for a brief time. That was all. That had to be all. Because if he had feelings for you, he was going to end up losing your friendship again, only this time it would be his fault. You didn’t feel the same, that was clear enough from your reaction. So platonic was what it was going to have to be. He sighed, opening the door to his house. Walking into the living room, he faced his parents who were sitting together.

“Y/N got home safe?”

“Yeah, it’s not like there’re murderers just casually walking around Konoha, Mom.”

Yoshino rolled her eyes as Shikaku spoke up, “It was nice to have her back over. Haven’t seen her in awhile, I was missing all that energy.”

“And she’s recently single, that’s interesting.” Yoshino looked at her son who simply rolled his eyes and turned to walk towards his room.

“Oh leave him alone,” Shikaku scolded as Shikamaru wandered out of earshot and slid the door to his room closed. He sat down on his bed and laid back to stare at the ceiling.

“I’m just excited to be friends again, that’s all.” He lied to the empty room. “God, why did I insist she come cloud watch with me?” He groaned and turned onto his side, not bothering to change out of his clothes. “What a drag.”

[hopeymchope]

How would you rank the 18 Class Trials from THH, DR2, and V3 from worst to best?

This is... virtually impossible for me, lol. Comparing the trials from each game to each other?

How about I just rank them within each game? That'll make it a little easier for me to deal with...

DR1

6) 5th. It's driven by lies and ultimately rushed to its end before the characters can draw any solid (pointless/meaningless) conclusions. So of course it's last for this game, and it’s probably last for the entire series as well. If there are any saving graces to this trial, it’s the surprise when your closest ally is willing to let our protagonist die... and that this trial contains the fake/bad ending route.

5) 3rd. Although the main culprit is pretty obvious from the jump, it requires some surprising twists to explain how everything got to be the way it turned out. But did I always find those twists plausible? Errrrm... not really. 

4) 2nd. Pretty good trial that's hurt for me by the fact that there'd barely be any need for a trial at all if a certain third party didn't dick around with the evidence for no reason. Also, the dual nature of Toko is an incredibly predictable reveal. Without those two aspects dragging it down, though, this could easily go higher.

3) 1st. Sure, the major hint given and, subsequently, the eventual culprit are pretty obvious, but this one establishes so much about how the trials work and how much the details you observe will matter that it’s still pretty fun that first time around. The initial surprise of the first victim makes for a great way to keep you invested in the trial experience. This trial is damn near iconic now, so it feels almost mandatory to respect it.

2) 6th. DR1 still has the best "final trial,” easily. SO MANY great reveals, and they all totally work for me. Nothing rings false or disappointing, and it also features Makoto finally coming into his own and taking the lead. I nearly labeled this my top pick for DR1, but...

1) 4th. It's easily the most emotionally dramatic/satisfying for me, and there’s something weirdly inspirational for me about Hina’s incredibly harsh stance during it. This one GOT ME IN THE FEELS, and in part that was because I saw so little of it coming. After the more predictable elements of the first and third trials, this felt like the writing was firing on all cylinders. 

DR2

6) 2nd. You have to accept a couple leaps of logic to make this trial keep flowing, and the fact that trial is ultimately reliant on someone noticing a candy that’s very small and hard to see while the person is also in a stressful situation and they are groggy from being drugged/asleep and it necessitates the person retaining this seemingly useless detail inside their brain .... that’s always bugged me.  The “escape route” conversation even retroactively raises questions about the first trial. Oof. On the upside, the reveals it brought us about Fuyuhiko and Peko were incredibly important, satisfying, and legit surprising turns. And it’s pretty cool how it’s basically a two-for-one combo trial because you have to solve the Twilight Syndrome case before you solve the current case. 

5) 3rd. Other people have pointed out the leaps of logic and missing pieces of this trial, but at the same time, the candlelight hanging is so intense and the ultimate reveal of the culprit is such a brutal turn that I have to give it some props. The culprit’s primary plan is ultimately one of the most ingenious in the series, IMO, and definitely one of the most twisted/fucked-up, which earns it some points. 

4) 4th. This is probably the single murder case in the franchise that I understood the absolute least about when entering the trial, for better or worse. On the one hand, that made it really fun to see the mystery gradually unfurl, but on the other hand, it made it tough for me to provide the right answers at certain points in the trial, leaving me fumbling. A big part of those issues was how it was initially hard for me to wrap my head around the nature of the funhouse via the provided 2D graphics... but once I eventually got there, I had to respect the creativity that went into devising such a “weapon.” Also, it can be hard to tolerate Komaeda in this trial. He’s even more of a know-it-all-but-reveal-none-of-it jackass than ever before, and his turn towards overt cruelty towards the others (and Hajime in particular) left me raging. The culprit reveal is good, but the motive does beg the question of why he didn’t just come forward from the jump.

3) 6th. There are a lot of great reveals in the final trial that totally reframe how you see the characters, and some of them are deliciously twisted. There’s also a ton of great dialogue provided, and in retrospect, it’s actually sort of neat to have one endgame mastermind reveal in this franchise that doesn’t involve the “They were hiding among us this whole time” trope. All that plus the surprise return of our surviving heroes from the first game! However, this is also where they officially reveal a core element of DR2 and its setting that I've never liked. This knocks the trial down a few pegs for me. Of course, by the time you reach the trial, I'm sure 99% of players have already figured that particular "twist" out. There’s adequate evidence to predict it in the first freaking chapter, and I know this because I DID predict it in the first chapter of my initial playthrough... which further hurts the supposed “reveal” of the island’s true nature when it comes around. 

2) 1st. Probably my favorite of the “first trials,” there are lot of components that go into this one. There’s a combination of two premeditated killers plus one spur-of-the-moment accidental victim, there’s a satisfying (though admittedly maybe too easy) reveal of the killer being one of the most unpleasant people to be around during the first chapter, and I really dig how audio became a very important component of the mystery due to the total blackout. This is also the part of the game where we learn just how twisted Komaeda really is, which is HUGE both in terms of its immediate shock factor for a total newcomer and in terms of its impact on the game as a whole. Of course, since it’s a “first trial,” it can’t be too complicated... but they still manage to confuse so many of us with “MEAT ON THE BONE” :P

1) 5th. Again, I will almost always give the most emotionally intense one the top slot. The “traitor reveal” is obviously THAT MOMENT in DR2. I also love how this one used the strange internal logic established early in the game RE: Komaeda’s luck to develop the eventual solution. And forcing us to make use of evidence gathered in multiple locations outside of the immediate site of the body/murder? That more complexity of that type that I see relevant to a trial, the more I appreciate it, and this one has loads of that stuff. Although I guess the investigation isn’t technically part of the trial itself... but it’s still very relevant to it. 

DRV3

6) 4th. I found this whole trial to be just... extremely predictable. Maybe it’s because I was so far into the series that I’d gotten used to its tricks by this point, but this was the most predictable trial for me since the first one in the first game. The whole looping/rollover map setup of the VR? Obvious. The murder weapon? Obvious. Our culprit’s ongoing confusion at everything discussed? Obvious. There were only a couple of points I didn’t have already figured out when I walked into the trial room, and those turned out to be basically irrelevant (such as the bottle of poison). The eventual motive is at least a surprise, but I also found it hard to accept that this culprit would really kill people over it. Overall: Super lame. 

5) 3rd. Another double murder trial, and once again one murder overshadows the other. The séance murder is definitely clever. Sure, you know the culprit pretty early on, but the methodology is the good part. However, the real fascinating one for me is the art lab “locked room” murder. Going into the trial, I couldn’t fathom how they were going to explain that one, and I found the answer both smart and satisfying. It’s funny to imagine how many times the culprit had to try that stunt with the lock before it actually worked, heh. This is probably the best of the three “double murder” mysteries in the series, but the trial isn’t as emotionally affecting as the 3rd trial in DR2 to me. Moreover, the trial loses points for the most infuriating Hangman’s Gambit of the series and especially for the motive reveal. When the killer’s motive can be boiled down to “they’re basically just a psycho serial killer,” it’s not very interesting.

4) 6th. The first part of the trial, which deals with re-assessing the first case? It’s pretty damn on-point. That leads to the mastermind reveal, which... isn’t great, really. It’s not a terribly interesting character to make the mastermind, they have no interesting motives or characterization to unevil, and they’re ultimately just a pawn behind another, off-screen group of masterminds. But then things get uproariously funny to me. The metatextual stuff is just so goddamn ridiculous. It’s frustrating and annoying how much of our not-mastermind’s explanation is clearly full of lies and half-truths that we’ll never have complete answers on, but that’s also part of what makes it all fascinating. We get to swap protagonists like four times! There’s a fake-out Game Over! These are really cool things. But it all leads down the road of our protagonist arguing that fiction does affect reality (yes, good), that fictional people can still matter (definitely) and that... fictional lives are equal in value to real ones? Uhhhhh slow down there, champ. That only works for YOUR universe, where fictional people can be made out of living, breathing individuals. But in light of the metatextual stuff you’re surrounded by, you kinda sound silly AF right now?

3)  2nd. Look, this is still incredibly irritating to me. Also, if you go down the alternate “lying” route at one point, you are forced to accept that these piranhas were somehow trained to only eat dead things, which is just... so deeply dumb.  But what is good is the entire ropeway conceit (which is a very significant part of the trial!) and the idea of the partition inside the tank. This was a murder with an elaborate, intelligent plan that is very well-executed. And the motive reveal? It’s one of the best in the series! I respect that stuff. (If I had the right to toss the execution in as part of the soup, I’d say that it’s also one of the series’ best. Let’s call it the icing on the cake.)

2) 1st. The writing that made this trial work is undeniably clever. The way the narration told us exactly what was happening without really telling us what was happening? It was a masterstroke of both great writing and perfect localization coming together. When it becomes clear during the trial what is about to happen, it’s a huge shock. The transition to another protagonist with the lights flickering out and back on is beautiful. Even the core concept of a protagonist who was willing to step up and try to kill the mastermind immediately is just deeply interesting. And obviously this one made my emotions run high. HOWEVER! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Kaede Akamatsu was a more interesting, unique, and compelling protagonist than Shuichi Saihara ever was. Ultimately, the protagonist-swap, no matter how well-written, was a mistake because they shifted us from a unique character with an interesting new perspective to a character who is, in many ways, “Makoto Naegi with even less self-esteem.” Yes, I know he has aspects that make him distinct as his own person, but there’s still just too much there that feels like we’ve done it before, and he never fully escapes from that. It feels like a massive waste and a huge missed opportunity to ditch Kaede like this. Now, if they had just done the protagonist swap in reverse — making us start out with Shuichi before flipping things over to Kaede — we could’ve had ourselves something amazing here.

1) 5th. I know I decided that I couldn’t rank all among each other, but if I did do that, I feel confident that the 5th trial in DRV3 would rank very high indeed. You go into the trial unable to even determine who the victim was due to the fact that two people are missing and there was nothing left of the body that spoke to an identity. Going into it, you naturally figure that one of the two missing parties has to be the victim and the other one is probably the culprit. But even with just two friggin’ suspects, the amount of turnabouts in the case that made me rethink all my assumptions was insane. Sure, the explanation for how the person inside the Exisal can maintain “character” is pretty damn thin, but once you get past that, I don’t think there’s a single false note in the trial. It even breaks unprecedented ground by continuing into another Non-Stop Debate after everyone has already voted. And of course, it culminates with a lot of intense emotion. Even the execution is emotionally satisfying! ..... although I’m not sure if I should count the execution as part of the trial, but hey, still. As far as Dangan trials go, the fifth one in DRV3 is basically a masterpiece.

[nyxelestia]

Vox article about the infamous wall of tags fic.

tl;dr at the end

What it’s about and why we care / article quotes:

All that, by itself, isn’t enough to make STWW remarkable — not on a website as wild and unpredictable as AO3. Yet the fic has become impossible for many AO3 users to ignore thanks to a unique quirk: Its author has linked it to more than 1,700 site tags (and counting).

Guides to how to block the fic have cropped up. For example, I use a Chrome extension that blocks fics with too many tags (you can specify how many tags is too many — I picked 50); there’s also simple site code that you can add to your custom site “skin” to block the fic completely from search results, as well as other workarounds.

But the usefulness of these options is limited. Site skins only work for logged-in users. Website extensions don’t work on mobile. Many other workarounds aren’t compatible with adaptive technology like screen readers used by disabled people and others — and if you think having to scroll past the tags on a phone is obnoxious, imagining getting stuck on it while a screen reader laboriously recites all 1,700 tags out loud.

(Emphases mine.)

My take on this specific fic:

I was sympathetic when I thought that maybe the author is just unaware of what they’re doing - but they have been made aware, they know exactly the effect they are having on other users and the community at large, and they’re still doing it.

[The author] acknowledged the controversy around their fic but emphasized that they were operating completely within AO3’s rules. “If AO3 has a category or a big red warning checkbox to say ‘click this to read crazy fics’ then I should put my fic in there,” they joked. “People are free to search (my) fic or exclude the fic using tags.”

Virtual1979 also remained steadfast when I pointed out that their fic was breaking the site for disabled users, stressing that the onus should be on AO3 — not them — to make enforceable site changes.

So now my sympathy’s all dried up. I do not remotely believe them when they say they aren’t a troll. Maybe they truly didn’t start out trolling, but they were repeatedly asked to stop, told about the impact they were having, and have themselves admitted on their Twitter account that they are laughing all the way to the bank.

A tweet they have since deleted - I did not think to grab a screenshot. So here is a screenshot of them saying they routinely delete their own Tweets, and their reaction to people who ask them to stop over-tagging their fic:

Maybe they started out as a well-intentioned new poster, unfamiliar with AO3 or how tagging works. And knowing fandom, I’m sure they faced some harassment for it. However, given they’ve been repeatedly asked to stop, and explicitly told how they are negatively affected so many other users’ ability to interact with the fandom and the website as a whole...and do not care, and continue to keep at it?

Freedom of speech gives them the right to be an asshole, but it also gives me the right to call them an asshole.

But, I do understand why AO3 isn’t banning them, and I agree with AO3′s current decision not to remove this fic. There needs to be some deeper changes, but banning this specific author or fic right now would likely cause more problems down the road than it solves right now.

What is the line for “Too Many Tags”? What would it mean for authors of non-anthology works? What impact would banning this over-tagged fics have on other over-tagged-but-not-as-badly fics? What will it mean for our culture of curating your content and experiences if blacklisting tags gets compromised due to such limits?

I’ve been frustrated by over-tagged fics before, and I certainly hope this will make other, well-meaning, good-faith authors reconsider decisions while compiling anthologies of their disconnected works going forward. Neither of these mean fans should expect AO3 to respond to mob rule and ban this fic.

My take on this article beyond this specific fic:

I disagree with the implication from the article that this is related to fandom’s longstanding issues concerning racism (and other -isms and -phobias) in fanfic. After all, the vast majority of fandom’s racism, sexism, misogyny, etc. isn’t tagged. At most, you can expect that certain ships or tags probably mean there will be certain racist tropes.

This does a disservice towards fans of a ship who don’t partake in or propagate those racist tropes - I myself included in that group. I routinely got comments on my fic from people who expected me to use racist tropes and fanons because of the ship tag on my fic, as these tropes were (and really, still are) so strongly associated with the ship. More importantly, there is no reliable way to tell from a fic’s meta-data whether there will be something in the fic the author doesn’t identify.

The fundamental problem with racism in fandom is not “people are making these racist things” but “people refuse to acknowledge these things they are making are racist” - and AO3′s meta-data is entirely self-identifying.

If an author does not think their work is racist, then they will not tag it as such, which means the rest of us will have no way of knowing until after we’ve already read the racism.

“Curate your own reading” is very applicable to things authors are willing to identify and tag in their own works - such as kinks, violence, etc. But if it is something the author did not intend, and does not agree with/identify, then readers who oppose it cannot curate against it.

Which is why I find this paragraph so misleading, specifically the part I bolded:

Throughout 2020, during sustained discussions across social media about structural racism and other toxic elements in fandom, AO3 users repeatedly requested that the site add basic features that could help users avoid involuntarily engaging with fics they found toxic or harmful. For example, currently there’s no real way to officially sanction a writer who includes racist elements in their fanfiction — the site’s abuse policy FAQ doesn’t mention race, and there’s currently no way to “warn” readers about racially charged elements in a fic. (You can warn readers about other controversial fic content, like character deaths, non-consensual scenarios, and underage characters.) And there are many readers who’d like to avoid engagement with fics and authors they deem to be racist.

These are tags an author can add onto their own work...but readers cannot warn other readers about an author’s work! And to be clear, I think that’s a good thing overall - readers being able to add their own tags to someone else’s work leaves way too much room for abuse, which would happen far more than readers warning other readers about things the author refuses to identify or tag. My point here is that apart from “how to deal with works and authors you already know are assholes”, there is no connection between this specific fic and its ensuing mess, and the broader problems of pervasive racism in fandom.

The only thing the wall of tags situation and the fandom racism situation have in common, at least in relation to AO3, is that fans want to block certain authors or works whom you already know are assholes. This, the Vox article got right.

However, there are many, many ways to be an asshole other than racism. There are many reasons to block specific works or authors besides racism. There are many types of abuse and harassment besides racism. Acting as if “blocking toxic works or people” is inherently and automatically about the on-going discussions about race in fandom reduces racism to individual acts and actors, and ignores its nature as a systemic problem.

tl;dr

While there are work-arounds to avoid that fic with 1700+ tags (and others), these workarounds are very limited in their helpfulness.

Author has the right to do this, but freedom of speech also gives the rest of us the right to call them out for their poor behavior. I 100% believe they are now an intentional bad-faith actor / troll, even if they did not necessarily start out as one.

Despite my disdain, I understand and agree with AO3′s decision to not remove the fic or ban the author, however much I hate them both. All of AO3′s decisions have ramifications and implications beyond the immediate situations they are made for. This one fic/author should not get to chip away at AO3′s mission against censorship.

Apart from the very broad nature of blocking toxic people or abusive works, I don’t think this situation has anything to do with racism. Implicating individual behavior and tagging as a related referendum is reductive to the systemic nature of fandom racism.

[tzeetzeethirteen]

Here’s a short sad story:

Be me, using FFnet’s docmanager to post stuff to AO3

Uploading documents to the docmanager and copy pasting the text from the document in it to AO3′s Rich Text Editor

Wants to stop using FFnet’s docmanager to avoid having to depend on an online site

Starts to copy paste directly from Microsoft Word and Libreoffice to the AO3 RTE; all works well... apparently.

Catches an error in one of the recent chapter updates, goes to edit with the HTML editor, discovers the HTML code is a eye-watering mess and it’s almost impossible to read.

Discovers that copying and pasting from Libreoffice/Word causes the HTML to become bloated in the first place. Copying and pasting from the FFnet docmanager the same document nets clean HTML code instead

Has borderline obsession with cleanness, can’t tolerate the HTML to be as ugly as it is

Tries multiple methods to solve the problem, including but not limited to:

Trying different WYSIWYG word processors to see if copying and pasting from them nets better HTML; some applications simply crash upon opening the pre-existing stories or even by just copying pasting the stories into a new document, others bloat the HTML code when copy-pasting to worse, almost nightmarish levels.

Trying to find solutions to clean the code directly. Wants to avoid online tools since that was the whole goal in the first place (not having to rely on an online site), which conveniently removes 95% of solutions as a result

Tries google docs. Discovers it has the same exact HTML bloating problem as World/Libreoffice when copying from it and pasting to AO3.

Tries scripts to install into google docs to clean up the HTML, specifically made for AO3. Doesn’t work, the code is still bloated with <span> tags.

Tries to find offline scripts to clean the HTML code locally on the computer. Most don’t work or require installations of dependencies or software I’d have to learn from scratch and spend days doing it.

Tries various options within Libreoffice to stop the bloating from happening in the first place. None work. Find people with similar problem, apparently it’s a known Libreoffice Writer issue that’s been around for years and was never fixed.

Tries creating a document from scratch in Libreoffice and write from zero, discovers the bloating comes up literally as you write. You can’t avoid it.

Realizes it’s 1 AM and I haven’t written a single fanfic word for the next chapter of one of my WIPs as I originally planned to do this evening

Cries

Tests a crude alternative method, finds out it somewhat works, decides it’s enough and dives into the bed

The morning after, here’s the final verdict: to get clean HTML - without losing the basic formatting I sometimes use - going back to using FFnet’s docmanager appears to be my best bet. Besides me being stubborn about keeping things clean, shorter and less bloated HTML code would also mean that some of the offline downloads generate way smaller files that are less likely to give issues when opened for reading, it would make the webpage of the fics itself lighter, and it would make things for myself much easier when editing out mistakes, so there is (somewhat) a practical reason for doing this and I’ll try to stick to it.

In the event that FFnet ceases to exist, I’ll fall back to the alternative method I found in the end. It’s as simple as copying and pasting the text from the word processor to a notepad-equivalent text editor. That way you’re sure there are no HTML tags whatsoever, so the bloat is removed. Then, I can substitute newlines with double-newlines (\n --> \n\n) and then manually add the <em> and <strong> tags for italics and bold to get an AO3-ready HTML text to copy paste into the HTML editor. Other minor details can be added back directly on AO3 with the RTE.

It’s slow, but it works and it is not unreasonably slow, so it’s fine for me. Was it worth the hassle? Probably not :O

TL;DR: Random internet user and fanfiction writer loses an entire evening spending hours finding solution for a minor problem with HTML code

[kingreywrites]

Patience

Fandom: Tangled

Word Count: 2920

New Dream Appreciation Week Day Two: Royal Duties

Summary: "If you were in danger, I would do everything for you too, you know? I… Maybe that makes me a bad Queen, but there's not a lot I wouldn't do to save you."

"That's the thing, though," he smiled, something wistful about it. "You're not a bad Queen."

[Or Rapunzel remembers that sometimes, being Queen meant being able to do what she must, not what she wants.]

Note: i feel like this is super rushed (i did write it really quickly asfgshd) but i hope you’ll still enjoy!!

Read on ao3

@gleamful-lanterns @autumn-ravenclaw

Rapunzel's meeting with foreign dignitaries had been going for half an hour when they heard it - the loud, distant sound of an explosion, powerful enough to shake the walls around them. Everyone got up in panic, their personal guards swarming in the room, but Rapunzel didn't try to regain the calm immediately. Instead, she rushed to the window, opening it in a big movement that let the cold air enter. Then, she leant out as far as she could, looking for-

There. A huge column of dark smoke was rising from the west wing of the castle. Even from here, she could see the little silhouettes of people rushing away from it. Her heart skipped a beat, and she realised that it was coming from the exact room that had been the original location of this meeting, until Eugene and her decided to change it this very morning.

The dignitaries were already trying to leave when she turned back, cold wind biting at her neck.

"Everyone!" she called, immediately gaining their attention. She knew she had to seem calm, so even though she could feel her hands trembling, she tightened her fists and kept talking. "I know you're scared, I know you want to be safe, but I'd rather not let you all get dispersed in the castle as long as I'm not sure what kind of threat we're facing. Please follow my guards, they know exactly how to handle this."

Despite the please, it wasn't really a suggestion. Her eyes met the ones of the oldest Corona guard in the room, Henri, and he gave her a little nod, taking over with his own instructions. Now that she was sure her guests would be safe, Rapunzel's eyes strayed back to the window, and the smoke that was now visible even without leaning out, thanks to the wind. Rapunzel's first reaction had been to act as a Queen, but the dread in her heart was all her own - someone had attacked the castle. People might have been hurt.

Eugene might have been hurt.

"Your majesty?" a guard asked her, and with a start, she realised that she was the only one left here.

"I'm coming," she exhaled, voice shaky, mind swirling as she tried to remember Eugene's schedule, and their conversation from this morning.

------

"I still don't understand how you can like these meetings so much," Eugene said as they walked through the hallways together, early in the morning. "I'd hate having to play nice with all these stubborn people."

"Aww, you're being mean Eugene, not all of them are stubborn! Most of the time, they just want what's best for their kingdoms," she smiled, pushing her short hair back behind her ear. "And it's actually quite fun to try and make everyone agree on something, especially when you know what kind of things each of them like."

"I'm sure you're amazing at that," he grinned, "but yeah, I definitely couldn't do it."

"It's okay, I couldn't do your job either."

"Are you joking? You'd be the most amazing Captain of the Guard ever!" Eugene exclaimed passionately. "You've got the brain, the brawn-"

"The brawn?" she laughed, blushing a little at how eager he was to compliment her.

"I've been carried by you, I know what I'm talking about!"

They kept joking about how amazing of a Captain she could make, until they arrived at the room where her meeting should be held in the afternoon. They both wanted to check it out, Eugene for security reasons, and Rapunzel because she wanted to make sure that everything was in order for her guests. However, they hadn't expected the room to be freezing cold when they opened it.

"Geez," Eugene grumbled, immediately going to hug himself.

"Someone forgot to close the window," Rapunzel noticed. They exchanged a look, because honestly, no one on the staff would forget to close it - not in the meeting room, and especially not when it was the middle of autumn, and the air outside was too cold to simply be unaware of an open window.

Eugene went to close it, as Rapunzel surveilled the few documents that stayed here, trying to see if anything had been stolen. He started looking around with her too, when the window opened slowly again.

"Huh." Eugene tried to close it again, and the both watched as it opened, again. "Well, mystery solved, the lock is broken," he announced, a shiver running through him.

"I can't have the meeting here," Rapunzel sighed, already trying to think about another room which could do the job.

"Clearly not. Maybe you could take it to the east wing? It's basically the same layout, and that way I won't have to change the security's planning too much."

She nodded, thinking that it was the best course of action. Eugene promised that he would get someone to fix the window in the afternoon, and they went to check out the new room, making sure that it had no issues.

------

The dignitaries had been comfortably installed in a giant bedroom, turned into a sort of living room for the occasion. Some were already complaining loudly about not being able to go where they wanted, and Rapunzel started to think that she had been too nice earlier - Eugene was right, some of them were very stubborn. It was the third time she had to remind them that maybe the threat of a loose bomber wanting their deaths should be enough for them to understand that they couldn't visit the royal gardens right now.

It also felt very hard not to burn circles into the ground with her pacing. Rapunzel knew, as Queen, that she needed to put these people's lives first, and her own too. It was her duty, then, to stay with them, and show them a good example by staying put…

And she absolutely hated it.

There was little to no information on what happened right now. The explosion had definitely been targeted, it had caused a lot of damage and a fire that the guards were trying to put out. Thankfully, for now, the reports she got seemed to say that no one had been too seriously wounded (or worse, her mind whispered). But that didn't mean she felt better about staying there. She was practically in the dark, and the only thing she wanted to do right now was help.

All she could do was pace and worry. And try to keep scared people calm. And try to make them understand for the fifteenth time that screaming at the guards would not help. Did Rapunzel say already that she hated it? Because she did, oh she did.

(She didn't know where Eugene was right now. She tried not to think about it, but her mind kept reminding her that he said he would find someone to fix the window, window that had probably not been broken by mistake, and that was right where the explosion took place. What if- What if he had been there? What if the reason she hadn't heard from him was because- because he was wounded, and bleeding, or worse, and she couldn't- she couldn’t-- She couldn't think about it. She had to focus, focus on her guests, on her duty, because she trusted Eugene, and she knew he would be alright.)

(He had to be.)

"Your majesty?" It was Adam, a young guard she knew quite well, who had called her from the door quietly.

Rapunzel immediately went at his side, desperate for news. There was soot on his uniform, and she could guess that he had been near the explosion site. "Adam! Are you okay?"

"I- yes, thank you your Majesty," he smiled. "I was just in charge of moving some of the rubble. I came here to tell you that the fire is out, and that we searched through the castle, and found no one suspect. We think the bomb was planted during the night, and that the bomber isn't in the castle anymore."

"That- That's good, that's good," she nodded, feeling a little shaky. "I guess that we're still staying confined here a bit more, though?"

"Uh, yeah, that's the orders I've received," he agreed hesitantly. "I'm sorry your Majesty, it's just to be safe."

"Don't worry, I know how this works." Her smile was tight with worry. "Say, Adam, did you- did you see Eugene? Was he the one to give you these orders?"

She could see from the corner of her eyes the other guards, who had been protecting the door ever since they started to hide here, turning towards them to hear Adam's answer. But he didn't even have to say anything - he grimaced, and her heart dropped in her chest.

"I- I'm sorry, no. I don't know where the Captain is. No one has seen him since…"

He trailed off. Rapunzel closed her eyes tightly, until she was sure she wouldn't cry.

"Thank you," she said faintly, trying to gather herself against the dark thoughts in her mind. (He hasn't seen Eugene since the explosion. No one has. Eugene is dead.) "I- We'll stay here," she nodded, "at least until you make sure there's really no threat."

She didn't meet Adam's eyes, or the ones of the guards around them, but she could feel their pity anyway. (Eugene is dead.) Her heart was in her throat as she raised herself up again, trying to look a little more queen-like before addressing the dignitaries. (Eugene is dead.) She needed to do her best so there was no panic, because that was her duty as a Queen.

(Where was she when Eugene died? Was she smiling, pretending that nothing was wrong, because that was what a Queen should do?)

"Alright," she said, turning back to her guests as if she didn't feel like a sword was going through her heart. She didn’t know that Eugene was dead. And she… She knew he could handle himself. She knew he would do everything to stay alive, so she would trust that he was fine, until- He was fine. And the Kingdom needed her to stay focused. "Here is what we're gonna do."

------

"You know, I'm kinda glad you're Queen sometimes," Eugene had whispered once, tracing mindless patterns on the skin of her back as they laid together on their bed.

"Really?"

"I mean, there's definitely advantages to being royalty," he said, and she could hear his grin in the tilt of his voice - could feel it when he kissed the nap of her neck, making her laugh and turn towards him. His eyes were soft as he looked at her. "But I… you know, I'm glad that if they're something wrong or- or if there's any chance that you could be hurt, I can do everything in my power to get to your side and make sure you're okay, and no one is gonna try to stop me. You're the Queen, after all. That's kinda selfish, I guess, but I couldn't-- you're always my priority, Sunshine."

"And you're mine," she answered with a frown. She hadn't thought about it that way, but she didn't like the idea that she couldn't do the same for him. "If you were in danger, I would do everything for you too, you know? I… Maybe that makes me a bad Queen, but there's not a lot I wouldn't do to save you."

"That's the thing, though," he smiled, something wistful about it. "You're not a bad Queen."

He pushed her hair back, but she didn't let him, instead raising herself on her arms to really look at him. She wanted to protest, to say that she truly would do anything for him, but she couldn't find the words. She remembered all too clearly sending him to a possible death to save her parents the first time she acted Queen, because she knew the Kingdom needed their guards. She had… She had put his life second to her duty before. Would she do it again?

"Hey," he said, raising his hand to her cheek again. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm… I don't want you to be right," she sniffled, eyes prickling. "I- If anything happened to you, I don't know what I would do."

"Well, I'll make sure nothing happens to me then. I'll always do everything in my power to come back to you, be it to make sure that you're okay, or so you can make sure that I am. I promise," he whispered, knowing how much weight these words carried.

His smile was hesitant, and she leant down to taste it, feeling his arms envelop her again. She'd hold him to that promise.

------

An hour passed. The black smoke from earlier had disappeared entirely, when the guards finally told her that they could start evacuating the guests. She accompanied them all outside, making sure that they had all they needed to have a safe travel back, promising them to make light on today's events, and to keep them informed. Thankfully, as annoyed as some of them seemed, no one looked like they wanted Corona to owe them a debt. The problem might pop up later, but Rapunzel would take any victory she could have.

"Your Majesty!" she heard someone yell as she watched the last guest leave. It was Adam again, running towards her at full speed and stopping right next to her.

"Adam?"

"I saw the Captain!" he exclaimed. "He's fine, he was stuck because of the explosion but he's okay, and he told me to tell you that- your Majesty are you okay?"

Rapunzel wondered if she had visibly paled, because the relief crashing over her certainly made her feel faint. She put her hands over her heart as she breathed in, head buzzing as she closed her eyes.

Eugene was fine. Eugene was alive, and he was fine, and he had talked to Adam, and he was alive- he had kept his promise.

"Thank you, Adam," she breathed out. There were tears in her eyes when she opened them again, but she didn't bother hiding them this time. She had been the Queen for long enough - now she was Rapunzel, and she wanted to make sure that the love of her life was alright. "Where- Where is he?"

"He went back to your bedroom, he, uh… He needed a wash."

That was all she needed. She thanked Adam again, exchanged a glance with the other guards in charge of keeping her safe, and ran back towards her bedroom, anxious to actually see Eugene - to touch him, too, and make sure that he was really here.

Honestly, she didn't think she had ever ran as fast.

She opened her bedroom's door quickly, letting the sounds coming from their bathroom guide her to Eugene. There he was, kneeling in front of their bathtub, his jacket and his gloves off as he seemed to be washing his hands.

There was red in the water.

"Eugene?"

He didn't answer. He wasn't even moving, just looking at his hands blankly, his back to her. She walked over him quietly, unsure of his state of mind.

"Eugene?" she repeated, her voice softer to avoid startling him. This time, he heard her. He turned his head, and his eyes widened when he met hers.

"Sunshine," he breathed, and just like that, his eyes were filling with tears.

She got on her knees next to him in one swift movement, in time for him to throw himself at her, hugging onto her dress tightly with his soaked hands. She hugged him back just as harshly, feeling something in her heart settle for the first time since she heard the explosion. Eugene was here. He was… he was alive. Maybe not okay, given how much he trembled in her grasp, but here. His saccaded breathing, his tears, his skin… She could feel him in her arms, and she never wanted to let go.

"Are you… Are you okay?" she asked, knowing the answer would be no. She felt his head move, his soft hair tickling her chin.

"I-" he tried, before interrupting himself for a few more seconds. "I didn’t get hurt. Just- Just a little burn, and some bruises, nothing bad, but… Lucas- the guy fixing the window, he-- We were stuck together, under the rubble, and he was losing so much blood I thought- I can still feel it," he whispered, trying to get even closer to her.

"Oh Eugene," she murmured, feeling lost. "Is Lucas...?"

"He's alive, thankfully, he's… They got us out, and they- they told me- he should be fine," he stuttered, "I just can't- I- I--"

I was so scared. Eugene didn't have to say it, because she heard it anyway. So she held onto him, ready to do so forever if he needed, because she knew she needed it too.

"You did everything you could, and you probably saved his life," she said, feeling how he melted against her. "I'm so glad you're okay."

He probably could hear the emotion in her own voice.

"The- the only good thing down there, was the fact that I knew you were okay," Eugene answered, voice so quiet she barely heard him. "I- I love you, Rapunzel."

"I love you, Eugene." Her tears were falling too, landing on his hair. He was here. He was fine. They were fine, and though they had faced a lot today, they had survived. That was all she could ask for.