#then vote log out repeat!

[wonderwallmp3]

do more voter fraud we can’t lose we can’t lose…i would do voter fraud if i knew how but alas

i’m doing this shit manual style since tumblr doesn’t make you verify your email but UNFORTUNATELY i have to go to WORK so my voter fraud crimes are on pause…but as soon as i get home assuming i am still alive i’m clocking right back in to the voter fraud factory!

[alrightiguesstheblameisonme]

Jiminettes, take a bow!

Logged out last night sort of upset because there was once again the rinse and repeat scene of Jimin not being prioritised in the fandom. A clear indicator of if it ever comes down to him and another member, it will never be him. The resentment was so so palpable. Anyone who wanted to vote for him was met with “he has a daesang already”, “Jimin will be happier if the other wins”, “we need to prioritize the leader this time”. I understand the guilt and shame of not being able to give RM what he deserves, but so far the voting policy has always been “who’s got a better chance”, and it’s switched up once again. And once again, it’s totally okay if they all decide to vote for RM, but the mass outcry to not vote for Jimin even towards those who wanted to, was so gnarly. The announcements of how they would be sad if JM wins, were startling. One really stuck with me - it was this Spanish ARMY claiming how they would be heartbroken if JM wins this and that’s somehow not an anti-Jimin take. They are so resentful of Jimin and the awards and wins he’s gotten, that him winning one more would make them upset because the other doesn’t have any. But I guess that’s what happens in a fandom that can’t accept all seven of them can’t and won’t ever have an equal chance at success. That’s the perspective of someone who thinks all seven of them deserve the same wins, and if somehow it doesn’t happen, the ones to pay the price should be the ones who have succeeded somehow. Woke up this morning to see Jmn charts and Jimin BR have struck a handful of voting collabs. So many! 

I have always said this, PJMs are the miniature version of the OG army which I was a part of (2015). The well organised, driven, hardworking fandom. I am so glad despite everything else, Jimin has built himself this fandom. Yeah there are some utterly unhinged ones in there, but if you put 10 people together, there will always be at least one bad egg. Overall though, when it comes to efforts, this is an absolute dream of a fandom. This is the kind of fandom artists long to have. Jimin will be okay. They have got his back. So grateful for you all’s hardwork. I don’t know if we will win this, but today was a clear testament to your resilience and what you are capable of. 

[blizzyblitz]

Broken Halos - Chapter One

Pairing: Prince! Sung Jinwoo x Gn! Angel! reader

Warnings: Fantasy/Royalty AU, cursing, slight religious themes (reader is an angel)

A/N: Thank you to everyone who voted on the polls to decide what this would be about! I love you all 💖

Masterlist

Pain is all you can feel. Through your closed eyelids, you can see a shining bright light. You lift one arm, moving each finger individually to make sure nothing is broken. You then repeat the process with your other arm and both legs. After laying still for a moment longer, you carefully push yourself up into a sitting position, clutching your throbbing head.

You slowly blink open your eyes, seeing that you're on the outskirts of a small village. Lush green grass and bright flowers are growing all around you. You turn your head, wincing as the throbbing intensifies with the movement. As you look behind you, you feel your heart stop.

No wings.

You feel around the top of your head, panic quickly setting in.

No halo.

You look around frantically and spot the two dull pieces of your now-broken halo. You crawl over to them, gently picking them up and holding them back together. They don't stick, reforming into your normal glowing golden halo. Instead, they stay as those two sad-looking pieces of what now feels like metal. You sigh, sticking the halo pieces into your pocket. Wait, pocket?

You look down at your clothes; you aren't wearing Heaven attire anymore. Instead, you're wearing a dark green tunic, pale brown pants, and dark brown boots.

What could've happened? Are you not in Heaven anymore?

Taking another look at your surroundings, you get your answer. There are humans within the village, going about their daily lives. Real, living humans.

You aren't in Heaven.

You're on Earth.

"Hello there, dear."

You start at the sound of someone's voice. Turning around, you see an elderly human wearing a pink dress with an apron over it. She's holding a basket that's filled with colorful vegetables.

"Um, hi," you murmur.

"What're you doing out here all alone?"

You hesitate, struggling to think of an answer. How did you even get here? "I got lost," you answer. It's vague, but an acceptable explanation.

The lady nods. "Well, I can bring you to the village, and I hope you'll be able to find your way home from there."

You nod, standing up on trembling legs as you follow her through the woods and into the small village. The houses are made of stacked logs, and there are some small vendors set up.

The lady gestures to a large building near the center of the village. "That's our inn," she says. "I'm sure you'll be welcome." You smile at her, walking towards the inn.

The innkeeper is a short-ish elf wearing hunting gear; the lobby appears to be some sort of tavern, with beings of all species and professions gathered around and drinking. The innkeeper smiles up at you. "Well, how do ya do and what can I do for you?"

"I'd just like a room for one, thank you," you say.

"I've got it covered! That'll be twenty silver."

You freeze. You don't have this world's money. "On second thought, I think I'll be fine."

The innkeeper gives you a questioning look, but merely shrugs as you leave.

You now know one thing for certain.

You must get back to Heaven as soon as possible.

* * *

"My lord." Igris bows before Jinwoo.

"No need to bow, my friend. What is it?"

Igris stands up straight, though seems a bit hesitant to speak. "You remember that strange light we saw last night?" The prince nods; the previous night he'd been woken by a bright beam of light near the outskirts of Hemlock Village. "Well," Igris continues, "I've recieved reports of a strange person who appeared outside Hemlock. Beru and I believe they may be related to that light."

Jinwoo stands from his throne, patting his friend's shoulder. "Then I suppose we're taking a trip to Hemlock."

[guess-that-ship]

Guess That Ship Tournament Season 15: Submissions CLOSED!

The Concept: You describe your ship* to me, I pick out the submissions which I find most compelling and pit them against each other without revealing who they are, people vote on them, and their identities gets revealed once they’re eliminated.

Quite a few things have changed this time, so even if you're a regular, I recommend you read through the rules carefully!

Every other season, ships from fanon (something unofficial derived from the canon of a work), fanworks, and OCs will be allowed. This is the case for Season 15.

Submission Guidelines

*For the purpose of this tournament, relationships do not have to be romantic in nature. (I’m sometimes going to use “ship” as a shorthand, just know I mean “relationships” in general.)

Relationship can be between any number of characters.

Real people are accepted if they’ve been dead for more than 100 years.

Roleplay characters are accepted as long as the description only pertains to the characters and not the players.

Ships from fanon and fanworks (including crossover ships and crackships) are accepted. (If the fanwork is lesser known or on a smaller scale, please do not submit any ships from it without permission.)

OCs and OC x Canon are accepted. (Please do not submit other people's OCs without their permission.)

No overtly NSFW submissions. (Mentioning they have sex or are a sex worker is fine, but try to avoid anything more than that.)

Two submission per person. (Do not submit the same ship twice. I cannot enforce this on Google Forms without forcing you to log in. So just be champs and respect this rule.)

Failure to follow these guidelines may result in all of your submissions being disqualified for this season.

Summary Guidelines

Selection Process: I will read through the list of descriptions submitted without reading their names and pick the most compelling submissions. Then, I will check the name to make sure there's no repeats.

Keep it concise, but also bring something unique to the table. Make sure to describe their relationship, not just summarize the events of the story.

Previous submissions for reference. The ideal submission should be 1-2 paragraphs, but you can make it as short or long as you want. Please keep in mind the longer your submission, the less likely it is to get in.

Tips on what to avoid while writing a summary can be found here.

Descriptions should be based on the canon of the source material (e.g. You can say “they love each other” instead of “they’re lovers” if their romantic nature is debatable.). If you are writing a description based on how they appear in a fanfic or your headcanon, it is considered as fanon and should be labeled as such in your submission.

Avoid author commentary. (e.g. "They're canonically x," "I love them," "Play/watch/read this," etc.)

Use canonical pronouns.

Avoid identifying information or setting specific giveaways. (i.e. ninja village, space necromancers.)

When submitting OCs, please make sure to at least put a name somewhere. (e.g. "John and Bob by anonymous" or "OCs by Joey.")

The more popular your ship is the more vague the description should be.

Exclusions

Generally, ships that have been accepted into previous seasons will not be accepted. For a complete list, please look here. (No need to look through the whole list, just Ctrl+F to find the ship you want.)

Due to them winning S14, ships containing the characters Mira Marchand and/or Delnys Raethran from Trials & Trebuchets will not be accepted in S15. Ships containing them will be allowed again in S16.

Any submissions from Harry Potter will also not be included.

Notes

I will not vet the ships/pairings for problematic content.

If you participate in this tournament, know that you run the risk of unintentionally voting for your nOTP. The mod does not take any responsibility for any distress that may cause you.

There will be a limit of one ship per media in the bracket. You may submit two ships from the same media, but keep in mind only one ship will be able to get in. (A series or franchise will generally count as one media, but they will be evaluated on a case by case basis.)

There will be a maximum number of fanon ships and OC ships accepted into the tournament. The maximum number will depend on the bracket size, but for a bracket of 16, the maximum number will be 3.

Submit your ships here! Submissions will be open until Sunday, March 9th at 9 PM EDT.

Please reblog this post to spread the word! The more submissions, the better!

[mugentakeda]

the weirdest thing about it just being the four of them is how insistent lu ten is about him and azula getting a vote in everything. hes trying really hard to stop feeling weird about it.

at first, zuko was more than okay with just going with whatever mom and lu ten have in mind. theyre the grown ups, after all, and they make a good team. they haven’t been captured, or even chased, so that has to mean something. it never really hit him how well they got along until now that theyre alone. he can’t help but start wondering about how long they knew each other before he was born.

and things between him and azula have been… awkward. he doesnt really know what to do with how well shes been taking this. something her and lu ten both do is that when they think nobody is looking, they get these really tense and faraway looks on their faces.

zuko is pretty sure it has something to do with dad and uncle.

it might be bad of him, but hes not all that upset about being away from dad. hes terrified of what will happen if they get caught, yeah.

but they wouldnt have any kind of fun in this crazy new life if dad was here, would they?

last night, lu ten grilled a bunch of big red fish over a fire, with some steamed bamboo. mom acted out a story for them as entertainment. its something she hasnt done in… well, forever. but she would stop and ask both him and azula what happened next, they both would yell out the possible answers, and mom would pick either or and change the story depending on which she chose to make the ending unpredictable.

its the ease he feels on ember island when just the four of them go, just in a different place. so maybe it’s not as weird as zuko thinks it is.

mom and lu ten decided that leaving was the only way to be happy and have opinions, so they left. the palace rules stopped that, and nobody went along with palace rules more than dad. so he didnt get to come with. mom and ursa aren’t very upset about that, so neither will he.

at the cost of his dad, yeah, and thats traitor talk, but hes alive, isnt he? agni hasnt struck him or everyone else down for being glad dad isn’t here, has she? he’s okay with that and they’re okay with that.

zuko decides as he stares up at the blue sky peaking between the tree tops, that he wont feel bad about wanting to be happy and giving his opinion anymore. and he’s not weird for that if mom and lu ten aren’t weird.

azula is way weirder than everyone that’s weird on the whole earth combined, though. so it might be harder for her to not feel bad about wanting to be happy or giving her opinion. or being happy about things that arent weird, because only the weirdest things make azula happy.

lu ten is better at talking to her than anyone else, but…

he scoots next to her on the rotted log she’s resting on, watching mom comically struggle to help lu ten prepare breakfast.

“do you miss mai and ty lee?” he asks her, forcing himself to sound casual. she hasnt tried to set his butt on fire since they left, but who knows what might change that.

“miss them?” she repeats, but not like shes mocking him for the question- more like she’s asking herself again.

“like, do you wish they were here too?”

his sister makes a face. “why would they be here? this is a family affair.”

“just go with it. for the sake of the question.”

azula rolls her eyes, but hums thoughtfully. trails off.

he tries something else. “do you think mom’s storytelling last night wouldve been better if ty lee was there doing interpretive dance?”

to his surprise, she snorts. “probably,” she replies. “and mai would probably enjoy the macabre of it all. the more drama and bloodshed, the better. you wouldn’t know mother likes all the dark ones just by looking at her.”

azula turns to him, suddenly. there’s something mischievous in her eyes that zuko immediately distrusts. “why are you asking? do you miss mai?”

his face immediately flushes. “no! i was just asking, cus, well…”

“oh, don’t feel the need to explain yourself to me, zuzu. its just the four of us in the middle of nowhere, after all-“

“i was just asking, cus you haven’t seemed… well… sad. about leaving. dad and the palace and stuff. you didn’t even say much when we had to burn our old clothes and wear this green stuff instead.”

azula pauses. she doesn’t quite scowl at him, but she furrows her eyebrows and twists her lips in this weird, thoughtful way. she turns back away from him and sighs.

“cousin lu ten didn’t carry me out of the palace like a little baby. he had to convince me why i should choose to come with. so this is me, standing on the decision i made. why should i be sad about something i chose?”

“i was asleep the whole time, but i think i would’ve said yes to mom if i was awake, too. i just wanted to know why you said yes. cus you… had more going on than i did, back home. this is… way different, for you.”

zuko really wants to believe that she didn’t just agree because she knew that dad wouldn’t punish her if they got caught. and he won’t know if shes lying to him about it either.

“i don’t think i would’ve said yes if mother was the one that came to get me instead of lu ten. even if, deep down, i wanted to come with. and then i would’ve been mad about it forever, and hated her and you and lu ten for leaving me. because mother just took you while you were mostly asleep, and now shes just lucky that you ended up being okay with it anyway.”

zuko startles at how easily she’s talking about this. maybe it’s the distance?

“but lu ten and i… are in the same boat. we’re the same, like how maybe you and mother are the same. and he told me how he felt. and i guess i figured i’d feel the same. so i decided to do the same as him, too. and i have yet to falter, just like how lu ten hasn’t faltered.“

his sister turns to him, very seriously. “father wouldn’t have done interpretive dance to mother’s stories. one day i’ll do interpretive dance to mother’s stories, and so will you and lu ten. so only people that are willing to do interpretive dance to mother’s stories are missed by me. does that make sense?”

he thinks he gets it. in this crazy situation, not feeling bad about wanting to be happy and having opinions probably would mean the same as being willing to do interpretive dance.

“i think my interpretive dance would be better than yours,” he blurts, instead of answering.

azula blinks, then narrows her eyes. “you wish.”

[dozing-marshmallow]

Can you do some fluffy Chris x non-binary!reader where the reader is a 19-20 year old camper on the island, please? ^v^

Sorry If you’re getting too many requests and this is annoying! :(

It’s okay, my love! Your request wasn’t annoying at all, and though I’ve had to temporarily close my asks, you don’t have to worry about it! In the end, I chose to receive them under my own awareness, but I appreciate all the concern!❤️Enjoy!!

CHRIS MCLEAN X NB! (ADULT) CAMPER! READER FLUFF

The host wasn’t shy with favourites.

Hence why you were summoned by him on the beach, at a time where everyone else was too tired to strategise.

You arrive, finding the ambient to be carefully idyllic with the swish of the sea and Chris sitting at ease.

His face was dark orange in certain angles from the effulgence of the campfire he crafted not too long ago. Though that was the only source of light in the wildlife nighttime, you can see his eyebrows tilting at your appearance,“Why are you wearing a hoodie?”

“It’s Canada, Chris.” you gently rub your shoulders,“That campfire isn’t enough to warm the entire air.”

“Fair enough.” he reaches over in his sitting position for an opened bag between his feet,“I had some leftover marshmallows. Thought it’d be nice to toast them together.”

You come to sit down next to him on the log, noticing two conveniently thin sticks on his other side,“I’d like that.”

He squeezes a marshmallow from the packet onto the top of a twig and handed it to you. He repeats the same with the other twig and sticks it out lightly above the flames and snuggles against your shoulder,“Talk to me. Remind me how it’s like to be two decades old again.”

“You’re such a funny man, Chris.” you rub your hand on his thigh as you slowly spin your stick with the other,”For one, I finished college, the funniest years of my life. My first year, I didn’t take anything seriously and neither did my friend. During our class tests, we would share an earbud on one of our ipod players and we would leave more than half of the paper blank.” your lips widened upwards as your mind relives the glassy experience of reckless youth.

“Terrible, dude.” clear Chris didn’t feel the same,“I couldn’t care less about academics, but ranking lowest of the low on purpose? You better not be thinking about doing the same here.’

“That’s what my mom was saying after parents evening. So, thanks to her wise words, I graduated, two years before my friend, who’s in catchup school right now.” a laugh forced its way out of your dry mouth after you finished narrating.

“Right now?” he blinked consciously,“An evening class?”

You drew your tanned treat out the smoke for a bite, confirming,“It only seems late because we have no energy left after putting up with your challenges all day and you call it night the minute it’s dark. You ruined our perception of time.”

“Sure did.” his teeth takes a proud dive into his toasted squishy,“Someone’s gotta teach you kids that staying up late isn’t good for your well-being.”

Says him who made the entire second challenge about just that!,“We’re not kids, Chris! We’re adults. We can drink, vote, smoke, fuck. Do all that you can.” the kind of contestants he was dealing with. You hoped that would put things into a new perspective for him.

“Yeah yeah, secure yourself something that pays you at least six figures a month, then come back to me.” he rolls his eyes, fishing another marshmallow out in the fiery centre,“Soooo? Where are your plans for that? You going to work after this? Uni? Apprenticeship?”

You silently shiver.

Only the crackling of the campfire occupied the air.

“Uh, dude?” he waves his hand in front of your wordless face,“Helloooo? (Y/N)?”

“Yeah?”

Chris didn’t appreciate that,“If you didn’t know, it’s kinda a poor show of manners to not reply when people are speaking to you.”

“I know...” you thought the silence was a better answer,“Sorry.”

“Are you saying that because you have nothing to tell me?”

You nod.

“Oh. Wow.” he wasn’t actually expecting that,“Really though? Like you’ve never thought about what you wanted to do after you left school? Not even when you were younger?”

“Nunca. I had other things to worry about.” feeling awkward, you removed your shoes to allow your bare feet to explore the grains of the sticky sand.

“Well! It seems like another inexperienced troubled thing has stumbled across my path, still not knowing what they wanna do with their lives even if they are too old to go back to elementary.” Chris’ time as an actor paid off in his voice at the pretend moment of theatre,“Why don’t you work for me?”

“And end up paralysed for the rest of my life?” you sneer at his suggestion,“No thanks.”

“Don’t be so down, (Y/N)!” he exclaims, pinching your cheek,“Am I that bad that the first job you assume I’ll give you is internship? Heck no! You can be my assistant, secretary, something. Whatever the title is, it’s not really important, but it won’t be internship. Genuine!”

“I don’t know...” hesitation dresses your tone,“Wouldn’t this be obvious to the other contestants that there’s some favouritism if I worked with you after the show? I don’t want them to ridicule me.”

Laughter from Chris in this context was...a reaction you didn’t wholly list out,“Why do you care about what a bunch of lifelong jobless people think? Besides, it’s in the contract, you’re legally obliged to do any role I may ask of you. I’m the one in charge here.”

You quickly remember Chris by his job. The host. The host with the most.

An accepting exhale longs out between your lips,“I guess you’ve decided my fate then, Mr McLean.”

“Practicing formalities already? Hm.” he dramatically puts a finger to his chin, a smirk tapping on his face,“I think I’m liking this employer and employee relationship between us.”

“Gross!” you guffaw, shoving him jokingly on the shoulder, already having his title shattered in your brain,“We’ll have plenty of time for that once I’m in a suit.”

“Who said I want you in one when it happens?” your eyelids disappear. He did not just say that,“We’re on an Island for God’s sake! I’ll allow you to wear something more casual.”

Oh my God, he’s good.

Oh my God.

“W-We’ll see...” you stuff your stutter with another soft goodie, way before it could get golden.

“You bet I will.” Chris had winked at you there, similar to the flash of the campfire, melting your marshmallow as he did your heart.

Cheesy, but it’s the truth. Your life’s barely started and it’s been signed away to an anticipating celebrity.

Ha! When you’ve already won him over, who needs a hundred thousand dollars?

[aces-and-angels]

a deeper look into enid's ascent to partnership at park & davis (below the cut):

westview medical center (wmc), one of nyc's top hospitals, once faced threat of bankruptcy after being hit with a class action lawsuit. the cause? a major data breach affecting > 350,000 current and former patients. names, addresses, ssn's, medical records- all and more potentially compromised by an unknown hacker.

a case of this magnitude would usually be delegated to a higher ranking attorney, and it was. donna may was originally appointed lead for wmc's legal team. enid's initial role on the team was to be donna's subordinate- tasked with handling research, interviews, etc. the goal: absolve wmc of any fault regarding the breach.

one of enid's sources: ginovesi private detective agency. more specifically, her connection to cameron rose, childhood friend (they also briefly dated in high school) and one hell of a private investigator. their combined efforts unveiled the identity of wmc's hacker- and who hired them. xavier m. dupont, president of wmc, was the main culprit of the breach. surveillance footage/phone records pin dupont for hiring the ever-illusive hacker, kingpin, to scrape hospital records.

dupont's involvement in the breach posed a significant complication for his legal team at park & davis. protect their client's interests or reveal an imperative truth?

it was enid who suggested the team's legal strategy to have the wmc board hold an emergency meeting to vote dupont out of his position, effectively eliminating him as their client while maintaining the interests of wmc. enid's plan (along with the fact that donna may was simultaneously dealing with a nasty divorce at the time of the trial) allowed her to take on the role as lead attorney for wmc.

the compromised data was found still encrypted with no signs of being sold to a third-party. under oath, dupont confessed to his involvement, revealing the data was shared only to "high ranking staff members in the know." his group sought patients' insurance information to "skim off the top of their insurance claims." needless to say, dupont agreed to out all involved parties in exchange for a more lenient sentence.

what was supposed to be millions of dollars worth of settlement money turned into a slap on the wrist coupled with a one-time penalty fee. all courtesy of enid's legal prowess in court. this win landed park & davis several new and lucrative contracts and it gave enid a well-earned promotion.

ginovesi agency was left to hand over any evidence found in regards to dupont's insurance fraud scheme to the nypd. cameron was (unfortunately) tasked to facilitate this exchange. while logging document #too-many-to-count, two very familiar names caught her eye: dr. arnel and dang mendoza. enid's parents.

records on records of both of them filing fraudulent claims on behalf of their patients for years. it was enough to get their licensed revoked. face jailtime, even.

'enid needs to know,' cameron thought. she couldn't undo the damage, but at the very least she could save her friend from being utterly blindsided.

enid took the news in stride- well as much as a person who just found out her parents are criminals could, anyways. she and cameron got drunk that night, commiserating with spirits was enough to lift theirs back from rock bottom.

if only cameron knew how her kindness would ultimately backfire.

weeks passed before she realized what enid had done- when the times listed all the now disgraced doctors from wmc, including all but two people.

enid remains tight-lipped about the whole ordeal to this day. who she paid off- what happened to all that incriminating evidence- not a word of it has ever been repeated out loud. what cameron has on her is circumstantial at best. at least that's what she tells herself.

"what if it were your parents, cam? if you still could, wouldn't you want to do everything in your power to protect them?"

enid's words twist into cameron's chest like a knife. she always knew how to hit her where it hurts. which is why she afforded enid one final kindness: to turn a blind-eye.

---

bonus for anyone who made it this far:

dr. arnel and dang mendoza, ✨recently retired✨

art credits: dossier by @/choicesbookclub | picrew (enid) | picrew (enid's parents)

[dykevotions]

How do you commit tumblr poll voter fraud

open up diff browser than your normal (or log out of ur main) and use a (not already used for main tumblr) email to sign up for a new account. vote in the poll, deactivate that account, repeat using same email 👍

eventually tumblr will block ur ip from making new accounts for a bit however u can just use a vpn and switch locations each time it happens 👍

[phatcatphergus]

I'm sorry but your last few anon are taking the award show way to seriously

Quackity said this isn't community voting/competition.

Quackity didn't kick Tubbo out of the call; he couldn't join because of probably leaks, and he's doing a subathon. Quackity felt bad, and he said he should've been specific (which I agree, lol). For the record, Tubbo isn't mad at or taking it seriously.

You should have expected the award show to be scuffed; it's the first one. This isn't the Grammys, Emmys, Oscars, the streamer awards, etc. This award show is meant to be unserious. I can tell how much Tubbo was having fun, laughing, and not getting mad.

I understand you're mad, but at the same time, it doesn't matter who won/lost. At the end of the day, it's just an award show; it ain't that deep LMFAO

Okay well there’s a few thing here that I think we can agree on bc yes, it was a miscommunication and quackity didn’t kick Tubbo out of the call. People were upset at first because it seemed like a  hypocrisy to let pol in the call when he was streaming too. After everything was cleared up people were fine.

Also, I don’t think I saw anyone actively upset about how scuffed it was. People expect it for live productions and most people were just joking around about it. I think there could have been more testing done beforehand (I think quackity said that it was the first audio test) but overall I don’t think anyone had incredibly high standards for it either. This isn’t the streamer awards lol.

Now I also agree that the awards weren’t that deep. It’s a silly awards show and it doesn’t make or break anyone career. But no one was really angry at the awards show, they were angry at repeated behavior towards creators that don’t deserve it. It’s not hard to point out the sever lack of French representation, the lack of art for certain creators (some who play a shit ton more then other), and the lack of animatics that has become the standard for the qsmp at this point. The qsmp awards was just another arrow to the back of repeated negligence and disservice to creators that play the server every fucking day of their lives. BBH and tubbo haven’t stopped playing the server even when the eggs stopped logging on and both had trouble staying positive and inspired.

They also both defended the admins and purgatory, and were two of the few people who actually played purgatory as it was intended, only to be harassed and targeted by people. Which we later come to find may have been purposeful. Both BBH and Tubbo had incredibly involved and amazing lore that got one image in the museum while other people who played maybe once a week had 3. How was it that purgatory 2 had 5 members of the server actively participating but most of the clips were of the rats or cellbit and baghera who were on for one day after not playing for weeks?

So no, people weren’t necessarily mad about the awards themselves, it’s about a pattern of behavior that hasn’t changed in the slightest and continues to sideline some of the most active and supportive members of the server. If you want to see a more in depth look at the bias then this post lays out how many nominations people received.

[soundofseclusion]

21. "A Minecraft Movie" Live Event

Event Period: March 25-April 7 2025 Completed: April 4th, PC (Minecraft: Bedrock Edition) Play time: ~2h 43m

Sometimes Minecraft does these "Live Events" which coincide with significant happenings, such as mob votes, major updates, crossovers, or--in this case--a movie. They exist as multiplayer servers that can be joined from the main menu and offer unique gameplay not found in vanilla Minecraft. I tend to try checking them out, unlocking whatever cosmetics they give out for the character creator, seeing what the new map and minigames are like, etc. Usually they are entertaining enough to warrant a few days' play time, and I get to connect with the playerbase of mostly 12-year-olds and answer questions like "is anybody going to see the minecraft movie," or "how do i get the buckchuckets," or "do you guys like minecraft," or "ok so am i the only person seeing the minecraft movie," or "am i the only person who likes minecraft?"

This event was special because it is one of the strangest things Mojang has done in recent memory. For the most part, it's a passable collection of three mini-games themed after scenes from the movie. The mini-games are all decent, with interesting and detailed maps to explore and varied gameplay. But also, this is a very very corporate product. This exists to make you buy movie tickets.

The first thing you see when you log in is Jack Black in his Steve clothes. Every eight seconds or so, he will deliver one of his five wacky phrases, such as "I... am Steve," or "let's go save the overworld!" At one point I stared at him for ten seconds and he said, unblinking, unmoving, "there are dark forces who want to destroy this world." Then a player with a battle axe tried to kill him. I went into the armory and he kept repeating his funny phrases from outside the building. Faintly, I could hear him repeating that he is Steve.

What also really stands out is the artstyle of this server's map. So, obviously, "A Minecraft Movie" is based on Minecraft. Well, the "A Minecraft Movie" Live Event is based on "A Minecrat Movie." So the blocks in Live Event look like interpretations of "A Minecraft Movie's" set, which is, again, an interpretation of Minecraft. Am I conveying this adequately? It's an interpretation of an interpretation, except it exists in the source material. Visually, it looks like they examined "A Minecraft Movie" and said, "how can we make this in Minecraft?" Instead of, I don't know, making it look like Minecraft. I don't know why it's like this. It's fucking bizarre. I feel like an insane person trying to explain how weird it feels.

Anyway, that's all I really have to say about it. It's accidentally one of the funniest things I've ever encountered but it's also just a fun if somewhat uninteresting mini-game collection. Thank you Mojang for the free capes.

[pokeshippingweek]

PW23 POLL OPEN!

We've received all your submissions, we've put 'em all together, and we present to you now the poll for the last Pokeshipping Week of this format!

As always, we've consolidated themes that were identical or similar, and we've left out repeats from past years. Voting will be via Google Form, where you can choose up to seven themes. You do need to log in to your account and you can only vote once, but you can edit your vote whenever you like as long as the poll's open. In the event of a tie for seventh place (meaning we have more than seven themes), there will be a run-off vote.

***VOTE HERE! ***

Voting closes at 6:00 PM PST, September 15th, 2023.

Please reblog this to spread the word out there! Thank you for all your help!

[manonamora-if]

The Roads I Maybe Should Have Taken

The TRNT Post Mortem

Oye oye! As was promised, so it is! The Post Mortem for The Roads Not Taken (which hopefully won't be as long as the actual game...)

Follow me into my journey of once again speed-running my way through a competition, and coming out scratched and bruised and still not learning my lessons!

First, some links:

if you haven't played the game yet, I recommend you do before reading this!

you can find its IFDB page here (if you want to leave a review?)

and the STF version source code here for the code curious!

shortened version of the PostMortem on IntFic

Then, a little Table of Content:

The Idea

The Story

The Implementation

The Reception

The Do-Over?

And finally, we start! (under the break because it will be long - LoL at me writing 1/5th of TRNT as a Post Mortem)

I should preface this Post Mortem with I entered the SpringThing on a whim. I had just come out of a conga line of competitions and game jams since last Summer (log of release/update), and had plans on finishing working on other projects instead of this one (which I probably should have... sorry The Rye in the Dark City for abandoning you...). But I obviously didn't do that because here was another new fresh game! And then another two of those just after... whooops...

The idea for TRNT just popped into my brain one day and would not leave me until I implemented it, no matter what (yes, I am still weak willed, I have not learned my lesson from The Thick Table Tavern, the one about not rushing a project and publishing it at a later date when it is truly ready). I did have that thought in the back of my mind that if I do do this, it would be very likely I would end up with a repeat of TTTT, as in: half-full drink with too much ice, and expired garnish falling from the very pretty fancy glass.

Also I did not start working on the entry until the SeedComp was in its voting round (so around the 4-5th of March?). I really wasn't kidding about the speed-running thing....

Another thing: I had never created a parser game before this point AND suck real time at playing them! This was also indicated in my Author's comment.

Nothing obviously stopped me anyway, because here we are...

1- The Idea

A few weeks before the opening of the SpringThing intent, the French IF community was streaming some older parser entries, including Aisle* and Pick-Up the Phone Booth and Die, two games where the player can only do one action before the game ends. I'd never really experienced this kind of game before (the closest being having a sudden death/continue the story choice). It packed a punch, it was funny, and also so very weird. It left me dissatisfied and super intrigued. I wanted to try and do that too someday. *Funnily, someone on the French IF discord thought DOL-OS had been inspired by Sam Barlow's work (it wasn't, but TRNT def was).

Not, I am not going to be hella pretentious and full of myself by putting TRNT on the same level as those games (because I don't think I did a good enough job to merit a comparison), but the one-action-only gameplay and multiple endings drew me in (I love abrupt endings, cf P-Rix). I've mainly written longer form of IF rather than short bites, and I thought it would be fun to try to constrict myself as much as possible, by having just one thing, one action, one outcome.

And also: parsers. I had only dabbled with the Choice-Based/Hyperlink format, so I thought it was time to try the last unexplored part of my IF journey: parsers. Since the SpringThing Festival is a nice place to experiment, I thought why not try to make one then! I could not have survived the anxiety of the IFComp reviews for that one...

Still, it was not going to be without a challenge. I had very little experience with parsers, and I honestly didn't think I could learn how to use a parser program in such short amount of time*, when I had a lot of other stuff at the same time. So I thought, why not make it in Twine**, at least I know this program inside-and-out(almost). There would not be a steep learning curve there... What could go wrong? *lol at me, having made an Adventuron game in a non supported language in about 2 weeks after that, without ever having tried the program beforehand. I could totes have managed!! **Also, when I got set with Twine, I realised how fun it would be to maybe put people's expectations upside down by doing something you're not supposed to with Twine... or parsers!

Well, it was going right at first...

2- The Story

I really wanted to recreate the same gameplay of Aisle with its only-one-action-and-it's-over, so I started listing possible actions and put them into a context where this choice of action would mean everything for the PC - because it is the only action you have. Which might not have been a good take? Aisle works because the setting is incredible mundane, and there are no stakes.

The context pretty quickly drew itself as the player will chose a profession/career path, and if they do/choose something wrong, then...😬too bad for them, they made their choice, deal with the consequences. While, in reality, we are not stuck in a life because of one choice, but with a myriad of them (and still we can change this trajectory), it's still a big pressure you get as a youth, having to choose where to go and what to do when you are done with highschool, and what path to take. It's a lot of responsibility that sometimes feels like it will affect/haunt the rest of your life. Do I still have some of that school/parental pressure from when I had to make that choice ingrained somewhere inside? probably...

But the more foolish idea was to let my brain continue to think more about that context and create a world and story further than the choice. Instead of going forward with the consequences and the hints of what could have happened or just let the choice being the centre piece, the brain just went backwards and created a society (some sort of futuristic one) and vaguely described beings (that are not humans), and the ritualistic culture of this society, etc... While it was fun to think about all of those, and maybe provided a fun setting and enticing story for the player to go through the game, there might have been a bit too much of it. I think, in hindsight, this may have devalued the choice itself (which became even more watered down when I continued on writing the first screens).

And so, the job choice soon became the player is going through some sort of ritual (v trope-y) to determine their place in society. If it has a vibe of The Giver, it shouldn't be too surprising, the book is on my shelf.

So we still have the one-choice-to-rule-them-all, but now there is a also backstory and setting... and I have to include it somewhoeeven if it means cramming it somewhere, anywhere.

Oh wait, I thought, I'll just make it like a prologue to build anticipation for the choice!

And so the brain went on zooming again to create the waiting room, and the agonising walk in the corridor, and the finding your way to the altar, before you cant finally make your choice..... only to end up with two(-ish) paragraphs for each endings. wow - what a good balanced game this is becoming...

Speaking of endings, I had originally listed over 50 actions, each planned to have a different ending.... only to end up with about 11, 7 of those were actually related to the final countdown choice. It made me sadder than when I cut onions :(

It wasn't just the player that needed to make...

At this point, we were two weeks away from the deadline. I had the backbone of the code (-ish), a good third of the writing wasn't complete (and this was mainly those 11 endings), and no one had tested the game yet. There was no way I could have included all 50 original options if I wanted to make the deadline. might have been good in hindsight to remove those choices, especially with the current command system.

So choices had to be made and a buttload of planned things had to be cut. I narrowly managed to finish the needed endings in time (which required re-writing some of those into a fake choice), at least.

At the end, I strayed quite a bit from the Aisle concept of a mini intro - one action - an ending puzzle-y feel (and making the player piece the story together from the endings), to arrive at... well... this anxiously geolian walk to one's doom (or dream). Making the story quite... well... linear.

And from going somewhat wrong, it went a little wrong-er...

3- The Implementation

Wanting to avoid the headache of learning a new program, I had settled on Twine pretty much from the start (SugarCube, because that's how I've been rolling for the past almost 2 years!).

The big problématiques of this project were:

Twine is not a parser program (duh)

SugarCube has its limitations still (and macros that don't always work the way you want to)

I had never written a parser game before and suck at playing them (thank you, French IF streams that helps me enjoy them without experiencing the frustration of not finding the right combo!)

I still suck at JavaScript/jQuery to do weird things with the page (and probably fix all those issues)

and well did I already say Twine is not a parser program?

So I tried to get to the basic of parsers (an input box and text revealing itself onto the page when a command is entered) and prayed for the best. Easy, right?

WRONG!

SugarCube has an input box, but can only autofocus* inside one specific place (so you can't lock it somewhere else but the passage itself, which means you need to add it to every screen...) and when the passage is first loaded (doesn't work if the input box is added later on). *I have also hurt some kitten by overusing autofocus, which was only compensated by offering the the SugarCube God some bug reports about it so those issues could be fixed for the next update (TBA). But you really are not supposed to use autofocus as much as I did... 😬

SugarCube has an input box, but you can only move to another passage after you press Enter. So you can't have some fancy input checks, and you stay on the same page... without some custom listener macro* that is (Bless you Maliface and your Listen Macro) - or I guess some JavaScript code, but who has time for that... I had included a button as an alternative to confirm the commands (which was how I had coded it for DOL-OS), but it would have made the parser experience much worse if using Enter would not have loaded a response (this was a criticism from DOL-OS, which now that I know how to fix, I really should do so...). *at least until the next Sugarcube update which will include a listener.

SugarCube has an input box, but doesn't have a bank of commands, or set object indicator (like with the parsers). While you can technically separate the inputed words with some JavaScript**, whether you do so or not will end with the same amount of spaghetti code at the end, with the different conditional statements for each actions on each screen to show the correct text bits (mine amounted to almost 600 lines of code for 7 screens... without included the printed text! -> see the source code). Now that I've messed around with Adventuron, I can see how easy it is to make a parser game (set up commands and rooms and interactive object), when you have a bank of built-in commands and not have to worry about how to add the new text on the screen. Twine really added a new layer of complexity to this.... Was there a better way of doing this? probably, but don't look at me to find it. *this was how the name chosenname command came to be, and how it only printed the chosen name on the following screens. That and the autofocus being messy...

SugarCube can add text bits to a page, but unlike parser programs, it won't automatically scroll down to the bottom of the page, or at least to the added element. Adding a scroll down to the bottom or scroll up to the page was not too hard (I had some leftover js code), but it was not the solution: the UI is mobile/tablet accessible (smaller screens), which means scrolling to the bottom would make those players having to manually scroll back up (and I am usually quite verbose in my writing). So very much EH.... NOT GREAT! After quite a lot of testing, broken pieces of code, way too much swearing, and re-doing the base of the UI, I did manage to find a solution.... a month into the review/voting period.

But even with those limitations, I pushed through. I knew it was possible to make it work, so I either tried to find work arounds (and gave up the scrolling, at least until the deadline), and pushed through, banging my head against my desk because of what was achievable...

LIKE BUILDING A WHOLE COMMANDS SYSTEM...

Wanting to make things easy for myself (and the players), I thought maybe removing all verbs would make it easier to go through the game, even when having to interact with objects or people around. Enter the bolded word* from the text as the input, press enter, and read the new text! *It was important for me to have some sort of "easy" mode where the interactive things were obvious to the player, coming from a scene where parsers are not the norm/favoured.

Simple right?

This idea... stopped working as soon as I introduced physical actions (sit, stand, jump, etc...), directional actions (the story might be linear but it still has multiple rooms), but most importantly as soon as I wrote flavour texts for one same object. Even if I could get away with removing X/LOOK/EXAMINE*, adding verbs at the end was a necessity (I didn't want to see all the already written variation go to waste...). *I did include look in the code, but mistakenly didn't think about its synonym <- shows the no-knowledge of parser, and not having a bank of commands built-in.

So verbs were added, and then some of its synonyms (but evidently not the most important ones 😬), and then some prepositions just in case, and noun synonyms with adjectives because of how it is described in the text, and then.... so on and so forth. And because of how SugarCube is set, I ended up with lines like this at the end:

<<if ["initiate", "look initiate", "look at initiate", "remember initiate", "initiates", "look initiates", "look at initiates", "remember initiates", "recall initiate", "recall initiates"].contains(_cmd)>>

(and this is not even a correct or complete command list, since it is missing EXAMINE and X)

Et rebelotte for all the interactive words on the page, as well as the added variations requiring another set other verbs. There's not really a verb/noun aliases list to help...

BUT WAIT

Because I always like to make it difficult for myself and not think of the amount of work my ideas/plan will require, I had to make some bits of text appear only once (even if some commands could be used more than once on that page) OR removing the player's ability to make a different action when they do a specific one AND have some bits of text only appear after a command has been used on that page. Pushing the player through extra invisible gates on top of the different rooms. I could have made it easier on myself to break scenes further than I had already done, but nooooooo

And I did this not just once. BUT THREE TIME! When the player is called to get in line, in the corridor, and just before the big doors.

I could have fed myself for a whole week with the spaghetti that came out of my code.

But Manon, I can hear the little devil on my shoulder say, Why all the whining and excuses? You could have stopped if it turned out to be a bad idea, especially if you couldn't implement it properly. Why not have made the story in something else than a parser?

Well...

because Time (wa)s running out and I wasn't going to let all this hard work go to waste by changing everything up at the last minute (it could have worked/been easier, that's true)

because it was still a fun puzzle to solve, even if frustrating most of the time,

because you learn more when you fail than when you win

I'm not a quitter :P (hiding my too many WIPs waiting for me....)

Even if I doubted myself with finishing the game on time, I still pushed myself to cross the finish line, since I knew I would not have finished the project otherwise. Thought it could have been fun to get the 12 angry men passing judgement on my Twine monstrosity making a mockery of parsers had I submitted it to the very serious ParserComp instead. /jk lovingly

So after some "extensive" testing (rushed in the last week, because I am a nightmare to people, sorry @groggydog and @lapinlunairegames for making you go through this, but also thank you for your help!!), I made it to the end!

Well... barely. Ended up with a few bug fixes update along the way.

4- The Reception

(it was like that in my heart)

Like TTTT, this was not explosion of praise and accolades. And I fully expected it. You can't make experiments omelettes without cracking a few programs/rules eggs. At least my omelette didn't have too many eggshells :P

Looking at the numbers, at the time of writing this posts, TRNT is currently sitting at 5 stars (4 ratings) on itch, and 3-1/2 stars on IFDB (2 ratings)*, with 4 reviews on the Forum (bellow the median/average this festival). None of the ratings game with reviews/comments. *When some of the reviews will be moved to the IFDB, I do expect this average to get lower. The itch one is nice (really happy 4 peeps loved it!), but most people only rate when they didn't like it or when they loved it.

As for the feedbacks gotten, they came from a few sources: the people who playtested TRNT, dms on Tumblr and the Forum, the Twine server, and the awaited reviews on the Forum.

Overall, the people who liked the game really enjoyed themselves, from the writing and the worldbuilding being intriguing, or how pretty the UI was. Even with the issues raised during the festival, quite a lot of people (who sent me comments) thought the experiment was either a success, something really cool, or impressive considering the limitations (of the festival and/or of the program). Even in the more critical comments, this experiment was seen as an interesting one to be commended (with a bit of a why did you bother... sprinkled in there). Someone told me TRNT reminded them of the Divergent series (and fair comparison, considering the whole ritual to put you in one job for the rest of your life).

The most surprising thing was that people who never played parser before (or didn't really liked them) found the game entertaining and fun to go through, managing to get to the end without too many issues; while the reviewers with more experience in the genre had a bit more restraints due to the command system I put in place.

Whether my giddiness about verbose writing was to the liking of the player or not, I was honestly happy comments about my grammar didn't make much of an appearance this time around (yay, progress!), and that I would get kudos for the vague story behind the experiment itself, and the structure of the story itself.

But this doesn't mean that it was all sunshine and rainbow here. TRNT had some obvious issues, which should have been squashed during the testing phase had this one been longer (yet again, me speed-running through comps when I should take my time... when will I learn...). There were two main ones: the commands and the UI.

The biggest issue came from the commands, being either unclear or confusing, especially when it came to the cardinal direction, the choice of synonym for the actions, or special actions like the name input. Even if you could go along the story with just a noun or press C until you reached the end, missing important verb commands did not help the game feel complete (EXAMINE/GET/the shortcuts). This is where having some Parser knowledge/experience would have come handy, he.... As for the cardinal directions, it was probably most confusing because I used them as synonyms for forward/back/left/right instead of N/S/W/E (that and it wasn't clear where you were able to go in the text either). Quite a few players were also getting stuck in the corridor (after you come to a stop, you hear some thing up front and your choices are to move to the side/jump or stand still). Special actions like the name input or the final choice were felt a bit off/broke immersion. Party due to the way SugarCube is, partly due to how I organised the game. Having a simple input where the player is asked for their name before the game start and have a say name command, might have worked better there. That and a better hinting system. Fix for those TBD.

Closely followed was the UI being annoying (which ;-; bc I pride myself on creating good UI, but it was fair critique), from the scrolling being an absolute ass, to the confusing bolding of the start of passages being the same as the interactive words (if you didn't change the colour in the settings), to the back/replay last choice command on the END screen not going to the right spot, or the responses of computing an inputted command not appearing/being confusing (in relation to the scrolling), some quirks with the UI being wonky for some screen sizes, etc... Thankfully, all those have been fixed.... but too late for the reviews already published. A quick revamp of the UI base + solving the scrolling issue + slight reformatting of the printed new text bits solved if not all of those issues. Still... too little too late... That's what you get for making a UI in a large screen and only checking different width but not different heights....

A SIDENOTE ON WHY PARSER AND NOT HYPERTEXT

Or me going a bit on a rant. Scroll down to pt 5- The Do-Over to resume coherent levelled conversation.

Still, making a parser a Twine was a CHOICETM, which didn't work for everybody. I don't know if it was because the game was put forth as a Twine game before being a parser, or because the story was maybe a bit too linear/not very interactive compared to other parsers, or because I set out to make a parser before thinking of a story and it showed for some, (or probably because the parser system was not very well implemented) but I did have a few commenters wondering if my choice of making it a parser was the correct one, as in why would you use parser when hyperlinks would have probably worked better?

Maybe a cop-out answer would be Why not. Why not try to break the rules and the codes of what is a Twine game or what is a parser? Why not push Twine to where it is probably not supposed to go (sorry, TME)? Why not blur the lines of the divides between the subgenres of IF? I wrote some part while having a bit of a fever, and my notes had Why not make parsers less puzzle-y/more linear choice-based like? and oh boi is it good to re-read yourself... Cause yiekes what a load of BS.

The other part of the answer is Because experimenting and doing weird thing is fun! Doing weird thing, writing bad code that should probably not work but it does, putting the program on a lifeline, making up stories that are nonsensical, etc... and breaking people's mind in the process with what could be done. Also it was just fun to find out whether it was just possible to do it at all. The rush of happiness when you the puzzle is solved is so incredibly gratifying. It was really fun to try something different (for me but also for what Twine can generally do), to solve a puzzle of mashing two things that don't/shouldn't go together, to find what makes them tick and make it all work, and to challenge myself to do something new (did I mention before it was my fist time making a parser?). AND, having fun creating! And the SpringThing has always been a beacon to promote experimentation with the genre and more out there stuff. So it's was kind of like the stars aligned or something :P

Also Because it was possible!That one is pretty self-explanatory...

Maybe a bit more presumptuous of me: Because experimenting keeps Interactive Fiction fresh and exciting! I'm not trying to set a trend or anything here (honestly, it's not too strange, TRNT's weirdness kind of follows my previous work with TTTT and its mixology element, or DOL-OS with it computer interphase), but isn't fun to see what else can be done in IF, or what new area can be explored now that funky stuff has been tried, or what else should probably not be done (hopefully this doesn't apply to TRNT lol, I think it should be fun to have more parser in Twine). Even if my entry was not really a novel idea even in the gameplay (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C), I still think there should be more weird stuff out there, so I contribute to that where/when I can! It'd be sad if IF became same-y and stale... It'd be fun if someone did something like this because they played TRNT and thought it was neat :P

And Because it didn't fit with my original vision of the game. Even if the game changed quite a lot along the way, the parser element was something I would not compromise with, no matter how good or bad the final product was. Sorry TME for the kittens lost in the autofocus of the textboxes...

I did wonder for a while how many people opened the settings at all 🤔

5- The Do-Over?

Ha.

Haha.

Hahaha.

No.

Honestly... If I was going back to the start, I don't think I would change anything. Even if the length of the testing was more than minimal (still haven't learned my lesson), even if I rushed into the competition (again, not learned my lesson), even if I made errors along the way (well, maybe fixing the UI earlier instead) or let the story stray that much away from the original idea (honestly it was probably for the best that it ended not being too close to Aisle at the end, I might have gotten eviscerated in the reviews). It did what it was supposed to do, and checked all the boxes from what I wanted to try. At the end, to me, it was a complete (and stressful success).

Will there be some changes in the future?

Just a bit, at some point, TBD and TBA. Just to fix the commands a bit, maybe rearrange some passages, add a bit more variation/hidden codex entries, maybe even a new ending or two! But it wouldn't go further than that. TRNT was an experiment through and throuh.

==================== THE END ====================

Anyway, my weird hybrid beast of a parser in Twine and I are done rambling about my awesome show of tricks that may or may not have landed badly and with a broken skateboard. We will go collect our ribbons, now!

Make IF weird, Do word crimes, Have fun

I do wonder if me submitting the game in the Main Garden rather than at the Back Garden played into the expectations of the reviewers, since the BG is meant for more experimental IF. But in the same vein, there was the Kuolema running on a Google Form and people flocked to it so 🤷 It's probably the quality that made things the way it is whooooops :P

[strifetxt]

So it seems that Tumblr may have caught onto my shenanigans and prevented me from frauding further. However, Harumichi fans, not all hope is lost! You can make a difference! Because, you see, it is actually pathetically easy to do fraud on Tumblr polls!

The basic principle is just making a bunch of alternative accounts and using them to vote in the poll. And you may think, okay, sure, but to make a new account you need an email address, and then Tumblr makes you verify your email and follow a bunch of tags and blogs before it lets you do anything else, and that's such a drag, right? Not so!

You see, Tumblr is a broken platform, and there are three big holes in its system that make voter fraud so easy:

When you enter an email address to register, Tumblr does not check to see if that email address is at all valid. Emails I have used include vote123@vote.com, ajfhkdkhfl@ymail.com, vote+harumichi@gmail.com, khdld@hdlxi.com, etc. You get the picture. All Tumblr checks for is that the email seems like it's theoretically an email address, i.e. [some string of characters]@[something that looks like a domain name]. It does not require you to verify this email address in order to vote in polls.

When you register, Tumblr does automatically take you to the "Getting to know you" screen, which is where it will tell you to follow a bunch of tags and blogs before it takes you to the dashboard. You do not have to do this! You can easily get around it by just typing "tumblr.com" into the address tab, which will take you to the dash, or in this case, going directly to the poll post where it will then treat you as a logged in user and allow you to vote.

Lastly: if you delete an account, Tumblr will allow you to immediately sign back up using the exact same email address. So you don't even need to keep coming up with different emails! And votes from deactivated blogs still count towards a poll's total! You can just have one email address and password, sign up, go to the poll, vote, deactivate, and then start the process all over again. And the benefit of reusing the same email every time is that you can save it to your browser's autofill, something that's worked wonders for me.

Below are the more granular directions for voter fraud that I sent out back during the first iteration of this bracket, when I was trying to give Wangxian a boost, which I then reused for Hualian and Griddlehark. Sadly, it doesn't seem that anyone took me up on it. Admittedly, it's pretty unhinged to be doing all this over Tumblr polls. Yes, I should probably touch grass. But we make our own fun in life, and I love to click buttons and win. So if you like Harumichi, and want to fight the fight where I cannot, here's how you can do it!

Open the poll post in a private/incognito tab.

In a second private/incognito tab, go to tumblr.com/register

Enter a random email address and password. If your browser has an autofill function, saving these will make the process faster. If not, just make sure you can recall them for later. Using the same email/password every time will help!

Enter a birthdate. Any birthdate will do. For maximum efficiency on desktop, simply type J - Tab - 1 - Tab - 1, to autofill January 1, 1999.

Enter any random username/URL. A keysmash will do. Click "Sign up".

Tumblr will take you to the "Getting to know you page". Ignore this. Instead, switch to the tab with the poll in it. Refresh the page and cast your vote.

Switch back to the other tab that had the "Getting to know you" page. Use it to go to tumblr.com/account/delete. Having that link saved to your clipboard during this whole process will speed things up so that you can simply paste it in every time.

Enter the previously used email and password and delete the account.

Tumblr will give you a "Sign up again" button. Click it, and it will redirect you back to tumblr.com/register

Repeat until satisfied!

As an alternative to steps 7-9: instead of deleting the account, you can go to tumblr.com/logout. This will then take you to the login page, which has a link to sign up again. The difference with this method is that you will need to use a new email/password every time you register. The plus side is that it can be a random keysmash every time!

Generally, what was happening to me before was that after about 40ish repetitions of this, Tumblr would block me from registering further, but I was able to get around this by using a VPN to change my IP address, and it usually reset this limit after an hour or so. More recently though, it seems to have blocked me completely; maybe they've instituted some sort of device limit? Unsure. But either way, every vote counts! Go forth and fight!

Top Femslash Ships Bracket - Quarterfinals

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with some of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement of anything included in the bracket, and refrain from harassment.

[guess-that-ship]

Guess That Ship Tournament Season 13: Badly Describe Your Ship! Submissions CLOSED

The Concept: You "badly" describe your ship* to me, I pick out the submissions which I find most funny and compelling and pit them against each other without revealing who they are, people vote on them, and their identities gets revealed once they’re eliminated.

Submission Guidelines

*For the purpose of this tournament, relationships do not have to be romantic in nature. (I’m sometimes going to use “ship” as a shorthand, just know I mean “relationships” in general.)

Relationship can be between any number of characters.

Real people are accepted if they’ve been dead for more than 100 years.

Roleplay characters are accepted as long as the description only pertains to the characters and not the players.

Crossover ships are only allowed if the crossover is official.

OCs are accepted. (However, OC x Canon is not accepted. Please do not submit other people's OCs without their permission.)

No overtly NSFW submissions. (Mentioning they have sex or are a sex worker is fine, but try to avoid anything more than that.)

Two submissions per person. (Do not submit the same ship twice. I cannot enforce this on Google Forms without forcing you to log in. So just be champs and respect this rule.)

Failure to follow these guidelines may result in all of your submissions being disqualified for this season.

Summary Guidelines

Selection Process: I will read through the list of descriptions submitted without reading their names and pick the most funny and compelling submissions. Then, I will check the name to make sure there's no repeats.

Bring something unique to the table. Make sure to describe their relationship, not just summarize the events of the story.

The description of a badly-described ship is ideally one or two sentences long. Descriptions should not exceed 100 words.

Descriptions should be based on canon, not headcanon. (e.g. You can say “they love each other” instead of “they’re lovers” if their romantic nature is debatable.)

Avoid author commentary. (e.g. "They're canonically x," "I love them," "Play/watch/read this," etc.)

Use canonical pronouns.

Avoid identifying information or setting specific giveaways. (i.e. ninja village, space necromancers.)

When submitting OCs, please make sure to at least put a name somewhere. (e.g. "John and Bob by anonymous" or "OCs by Joey.")

The more popular your ship is the more vague the description should be.

I will be more lenient with submissions this season, given "badly" is subjective, but you should still keep these guidelines in mind when writing your summary.

Exclusions

Ships that were accepted in Season 7 onwards and ships that at least reached the semifinals in Season 1-6 are not allowed. For a complete list, please look here. (No need to look through the whole list, just Ctrl+F to find the ship you want.)

Any submissions from Harry Potter will also not be included.

Notes

I will not vet the ships/pairings for problematic content.

If you participate in this tournament, know that you run the risk of unintentionally voting for your nOTP. The mod does not take any responsibility for any distress that may cause you.

There will be a limit of one ship per media in the bracket. You may submit two ships from the same media, but keep in mind only one ship will be able to get in. (A series or franchise will generally count as one media, but they will be evaluated on a case by case basis.)

Submit your ships here! Submissions will be open until Sunday, October 6th at 9 PM EDT.

Please reblog this post to spread the word! The more submissions, the better!

[k1ssesinthewind]

hey! idk if you remember me fSDFsd-- we talked about Death Cab for Cutie recently! Anyways-- I listened to We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes a couple of times... and aough. Wow. I really like it!! Company Calls Epilogue for some reason has just been LOOPING in my head... and Scientist Studies was also really good... aghhh man.

I really loved the sound of the album!! I've def noticed a stylistic variability in their albums, and this one reminds me more of Narrow Stairs (which I've been listening to a lot recently). Idk, it's really cool! I love how they cover a wide variety of vibes with the sounds of their songs.

I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on WHTFAWVY if you want to share! I hope you're having a great day/night! :D

hi lavendertrash!!!

I feel so bad but just now logging on and replying back to you. I just finished up my semester with school and started some new chapters in my life so i had to take a break from tumblr </3

but I have been wanting to talk to you about dcfc since i saw your ask come in!!!

it brings me so much happiness to hear that you enjoyed WHTFAWVY!!! company calls epilogue has something written into it that is just undeniably addicting to listen to. the song almost has this melancholic, distant, eerie vibe to it and it leaves the song and the listener feeling almost haunted. that's just the way it makes me feel though hehe.

I think my favorite lyric from CCE is "and when they lay down, the fish will swim upstream / and I'll contest but they won't listen / when the casualty's rate is near 100 percent / and there isn't a pension for second best / or for hardly moving" something about his line delivery and the way the music kinda swells at the last line..... exquisite.

I believe it was you who i was talking about Codes and Keys with as well!! I finally gave it a listen and i am so glad i did!!!! first off, the song "codes and keys" oh my god so good,,., SO GOOD!!! the chorus makes me feel like doing front-flips and twirls jumping and just going ham dancing lmfao.

the guitar riff in You Are A Tourist played on repeat in my head for weeks tbh it became a vocal stim of mine lol. & I loved the sounds of Monday Morning and Underneath the Sycamore!! I mean, I just really enjoyed Codes and Keys in it's entirety. I loved hearing how their sound changed over the years and enjoyed hearing familiar bits of pieces of early 2010's indie folk rock in the album. idk if they would be classified under that but i think u get what I'm saying hehe.

thank you again for reaching back out to me!! I am so sorry I took so long to respond, i hope to be more active on tumblr since i have a lightened work load!!

are there any artists or songs that have been on repeat for you? I am always looking for new music so please share anything that you've been listening to lately!! <3

[maybekatherine]

I know I flounced, but I logged back in this morning because this is the only place I have to doomscroll, and there's something I want to say:

In 2016, I was in student housing. About five minutes after Pennsylvania went red, I heard a door slam, footsteps pounding down the stairs, and then outside on the pavement a woman start wailing. The next day in class, one of the professors talked about how when Reagan was elected one of the other professors at the school she was teaching then raised the flag upside-down, and she said, "We survived Reagan, we can survive this." And I thought, you fucking lesbian you should know damn well we didn't survive Reagan.

(It later turned out she was a radfem, and probably didn't see anything wrong with gay men dying of AIDS.)

(And, because history repeats itself, there's a new disease for people to die from while their neighbors don't care. So we really didn't survive Trump either.)

I watched the Daily Show that evening, and it was obvious that everyone was trying not to cry. A bunch of comedians, at work, trying not to cry. And I thought of that one humor columnist who, on September 12, 2001, just wrote, "Nothing is funny right now," and that was the sum total of his column.

Right now I'm thinking of all the blatant, so blatant voter suppression in the states that went blue four years ago. They were running scared. They knew if they wanted to guarantee a win they needed to stack the deck. And they stacked it so high.

My instructions to you now: Look up your state online. Check news outlets, check social media, check everything. If there is ANYTHING that suggests that some votes weren't counted, contact your Division of Elections and make sure you were counted. If you open a search engine and type "(state) division of elections", you will find their website. Find a phone number and call it. If there's a local office and you are able to, go there in person and make sure your vote was counted. They lost last time to the mail-in vote. If you voted by mail, regardless of what state you're in, contact your Division of Elections and make sure you were counted.

One person can do so much damage. It can feel so much like your vote doesn't count. But even if your vote doesn't count, do you know whose vote does? Your state senator's. And your state representative's. Their votes can't stop everything. But they can stop a lot. Our checks and balances system may be broken to hell and back right now, but the scaffolding is still there. There is still enough there to repair, for now.

And if you need a little bit of good news: they said let the states decide on abortion. And seven states said yes.