#this is so cluttered and idk if there's even a point made here

[incesthemes]

yknow i think about this tiny little scene so much it's probably criminal

because for one, i read this scene as like, a glimpse into who jopson is off duty, when he isn't tending to his captain. he's hunched over, eating directly out of the can, not particularly concerned with appearances. it's a side of him crozier has probably never seen.

and on top of that, the way jopson and little exchange this knowing glance with each other when that bell rings—because jopson is needed again, and they've all probably heard this bell ring dozens or hundreds of times by now. a steward's duty is never quite done, and jopson just scoops a last bite of mystery meat into his mouth and rushes off to his captain's side without hesitation. his expression seems to say "welp, here we go again," but there's no malice in it. if anything, he looks fond.

it just lives in my brain rent-free because it's such a different jopson than we get for the rest of the series: relaxed, casual, easygoing. when he's around crozier, which he is in nearly every other scene he's in, he's more alert and caring and gentle, consumed by crozier's presence. and between crozier's jopson and hickey's jopson ("my aim's fine, mr. hickey") and this unclaimed jopson, he just drives me insane. i don't even know how to express the point i'm trying to make really, i just think the genuine thomas jopson underneath his rank and role is so interesting to look at. and also how eager and willing he is to come running to crozier at any moment's notice.

[heliosunny]

What if lucky egg with Cealus + Stelle as twins / 2-in-1 combo (although I just found out you gave the girls their own series of sorts so idk if this works) or maybe there are others that can be a wambo combo of 2-in-1 disaster

I thought about this, and even considered making one for Robin and Sunday since I think someone will ask eventually. Maybe I'll have a seperate fic for them x reader. But here is:

Yan!CAELUS x Reader x Yan!STELLE

The garbage dump wasn’t the most glamorous place to scavenge, but you had always believed in second chances. What others discarded, you saw as potential. A chair missing a leg could be fixed. A rusted lamp might just need rewiring.

And today, you found something, or rather-someone, far more unexpected.

Two figures lay slumped amidst the wreckage, their bodies still, almost lifeless. At first, you mistook them for broken mannequins. Their skin was too flawless beneath the layers of dirt and bruises, their limbs unnaturally still. But as you stepped closer, you saw it—the slow rise and fall of their chests.

Your heart lurched as you knelt beside them, brushing away debris. They were young, their silver hair matted with grime. A boy and a girl��twins? Their identical golden eyes flickered open at your touch, unfocused and glassy.

“…Hey” you murmured. “Can you hear me?”

The girl blinked sluggishly while the boy stared at you in eerie silence.

What were they doing here? Why had no one come for them? The sight of them abandoned like this sent a pang of anger through you. No one deserved to be thrown away.

You chewed your lip, debating what to do. The smart thing would be to call someone, maybe the authorities. But something about the way they looked at you, so empty yet searching, made you hesitate.

With a sigh, you made your choice.

"Alright, let's get you out of here" you said, offering your hands.

The moment you did, they moved. Their fingers curled around yours, too tightly for mere exhaustion. Their gazes locked onto you, too intense for simple gratitude. And as you led them away from the ruins of their past, you failed to notice the way their grip refused to loosen.

The walk home was unsettling.

You had taken in strays before—wounded animals, abandoned junk, things most people wouldn’t bother with. But never people. Never like this.

Caelus and Stelle walked in eerie silence, the only thing they told you was their name, their golden eyes fixated on you the entire way. They barely reacted to anything around them. No questions, no complaints, not even a sign of discomfort despite their tattered clothes and dirt-streaked skin.

Most people would have stumbled, wavered, maybe even clung to you for support. But they followed your every step without hesitation, as if they had known you for years instead of mere minutes.

Still, they needed help. That was all that mattered.

When you reached your small, cluttered home, you pushed the door open and stepped aside. “Come in. I’ll get you both cleaned up.”

They entered without a word.

Inside, the place was far from pristine, but it was yours. A mix of salvaged furniture and makeshift repairs, old things given new life. You had always loved fixing things—maybe, in some foolish way, you thought you could fix them too.

“Bathroom’s that way.” You pointed down the hall. “There’s a shower. I’ll get you some clothes.”

Caelus and Stelle exchanged glances. Then, without warning, Stelle reached forward and hugged you.

“…Thank you” she murmured, voice hoarse as if unused for a long time.

Caelus followed. “You saved us.”

“It’s nothing. Just get cleaned up, alright?”

They obeyed, disappearing into the bathroom. As you searched for old clothes that might fit them, you couldn’t shake the feeling that you had invited something into your home that could never be thrown away again.

And somewhere behind the bathroom door, two golden-eyed figures whispered to each other.

“They’re ours now.”

Years passed.

Mornings in your home always started the same way.

You woke up sandwiched between two warm bodies—Caelus on one side, Stelle on the other. It didn’t matter that you had a bed big enough for space, they always managed to close the gap, pressing in until you were trapped between them.

Stelle stirred first, arms tightening around your waist before she nuzzled against your shoulder. “Morning...” she mumbled, her voice heavy with sleep.

You groaned softly, trying to shift, but Caelus’ grip on your arm kept you from moving far.

“Stay a little longer” he murmured. His voice was barely above a whisper, but you could hear the plea beneath it.

You sighed. “I have to get up.”

Neither of them moved. Stelle only curled around you tighter, while Caelus, still half-asleep, buried his face against your sleeve.

Moments like this were common. You had once thought their closeness was because of what they had been through—that it was a lingering trauma response. But over time, you started noticing that it wasn’t just that. It was them.

They refused to let you slip away, even for something as simple as getting out of bed.

“Breakfast” you tried again, pressing against them lightly. “Come on, I’ll make your favorites.”

That worked—partially. Stelle was the first to relent, stretching lazily before finally rolling off of you. Caelus was slower, but he eventually let go, though not before stealing a lingering touch against your wrist.

You quickly got out of bed before they could pull you back in.

Breakfast was another ritual.

You stood in the kitchen, flipping pancakes while they sat on either side of you, never leaving your space for long. Caelus hovered by the counter, offering to help—though ‘helping’ mostly meant standing too close and watching your every move. Stelle sat on a stool, chin resting on her palm as she studied you.

“What are we doing today?” Stelle asked, eyes locked onto you.

You glanced over. “The usual, I guess? Cleaning, fixing up that old chair. Nothing special.”

Caelus hummed. “We could go out.”

Your hand froze mid-flip. “Out?”

Stelle smiled, but it wasn’t entirely innocent. “Yeah. You never go out without us anyway.”

You knew what she was doing. The reminder was subtle but deliberate—you never go anywhere alone. It wasn’t a rule you had made, but it had become an unspoken law in your home.

“…I just feel like staying in.” you replied carefully.

Caelus leaned against the counter, watching you with those sharp golden eyes. “Are you sure?”

You forced a smile. “Yeah. Just one of those days.”

They didn’t look convinced, but they didn’t push.

The day started out normal.

Breakfast, cleaning, fixing up the old chair—just like you said. Caelus and Stelle hovered around you as always, their presence never far, their gazes always lingering. But you had long since grown used to it.

What you weren’t used to was the sudden knock at your door.

You rarely had visitors. You weren’t sure if it was because you lived on the quieter side of town or because Caelus and Stelle had a way of making people… uneasy.

So when the knock came, you froze. Caelus’ head snapped toward the door. Stelle immediately straightened, her expression sharpening.

“Stay here” she murmured, already moving before you could say anything.

“Wait—”

Too late. She was already at the door, opening it just enough to peek outside. You stepped closer, but Caelus blocked you with a firm grip on your wrist. He wasn’t rough, but he didn’t let go either. His golden eyes flickered toward the entrance, but his body stayed positioned between you and whatever was outside.

“…What do you want?” Stelle’s voice was flat.

Whoever was at the door hesitated. Then, a voice you didn’t recognize spoke.

“I’m looking for Y/N.”

You tried to step forward, but Caelus held you firm.

“They’re not available.” Stelle said, tone cold.

A beat of silence. Then, the person outside sighed. “Look, I just need to talk to them. It’s important.”

Something in their tone made your unease worsen.

Who was this? What did they want from you?

You finally pushed past Caelus, ignoring the way his grip tightened before reluctantly letting you go.

Stelle’s expression darkened the moment you appeared beside her. A man stood outside. Dressed in dark clothes, hands tucked into his pockets.

“Who…?”

His gaze flickered over you before he smiled.

“There you are” he said.

Before you could respond, the door slammed shut.

You flinched. Stelle had shoved it closed in an instant, her hand pressing against the wood like she was restraining herself. Caelus was already moving, locking every latch with precision.

“Who was that?” you whispered, heart pounding.

Stelle didn’t answer right away. Instead, she turned to you.

“You don’t need to worry about it.”

Caelus stepped closer, his fingers brushing against yours. “We’ll handle it.”

You had the sinking feeling that whoever that man was… he wasn’t going to get a chance to knock again.

You didn’t sleep well that night.

The stranger’s voice echoed in your head, his sharp gaze burning into your thoughts. He hadn’t looked random. He had recognized you. But from where? And why?

Caelus and Stelle had refused to speak about it after locking the door. Every time you asked, they brushed it off. You don’t need to worry. We’ll handle it. That was all they said.

And that terrified you more than the man himself.

Because you knew them. You knew what they were capable of.

You had seen it in small ways over the years—the way they seemed to know things they shouldn’t, the way people who got too close to you disappeared.

You had never questioned it. Maybe because a part of you had been too afraid to.

But now? Now you were in the dark, and you hated it.

So you waited until the house fell into silence, until you were sure they were asleep. Then, carefully, you slipped out of bed.

Your heart pounded as you moved toward the front door, every step light, careful.

You just wanted answers. That was all.

But as your fingers brushed the doorknob, a hand caught your wrist.

Caelus stood behind you, his grip firm, his golden eyes half-lidded with sleep—but even in the dim light, they gleamed with something sharper.

“…Where are you going?” His voice was soft.

“I just… I needed air.”

A second later, arms wrapped around you from behind. Stelle pressed against your back, her chin resting against your shoulder.

“Liar” she whispered.

Your blood ran cold. You hadn’t even heard her wake up.

Caelus’ fingers brushed against your palm, slowly prying your hand away from the door.

“You don’t have to worry about him anymore” he murmured.

“What… what do you mean?”

Stelle’s grip tightened, her lips barely ghosting against your ear.

“He’s gone.”

Gone.

But the question lingered, gnawed at the edges of your thoughts. Who was that man? What did he want from you? And more importantly—what had Caelus and Stelle done to him?

You kept your routine normal, or at least, you tried to. Breakfast. Cleaning. Small talk. But things had changed.

They were watching you. Not in the casual way they always did—this was different. Tighter. Sharper. Like they knew you were thinking about him. Like they were waiting for you to break the silence.

And you almost didn’t. You almost let it go.

But the moment you stepped outside to take out the trash, you saw it.

The street was empty, quiet. But something was missing.

That man.

The stranger who had knocked on your door the day before—there was no trace of him. Not even footprints. Like he had never existed.

You turned back toward the house, only to find Caelus standing at the doorway, watching.

You jumped slightly, pressing a hand to your chest. "God, don’t do that."

"You don’t have to think about him anymore."

"Caelus—"

Caelus stepped closer. "He was looking for you."

"Why?"

Stelle’s voice came from behind you, and you nearly flinched when she wrapped her arms loosely around your waist.

"Does it matter?" she murmured.

"Yes."

Silence. Then, reluctantly, Caelus spoke.

"He said he was… an investigator. Looking into missing persons."

Missing persons?

Your mind whirled. That couldn’t be right. You weren’t missing. You had no family looking for you. No ties. No reason for someone to be searching.

Unless—

He wasn’t looking for you.

He was looking for them.

"What did you do to him?"

"He’s gone" Stelle said simply.

"He wasn’t going to take you away" Caelus added."We made sure of that."

You never brought it up again.

Days passed. Then weeks. You pretended everything was normal, smiling when they smiled, laughing when they laughed. You played the role of the devoted one—their precious savior, their home.

And for a while, it worked.

They eased up. They didn’t watch you as closely. They let you wander the house without standing behind you every second. And one day, when they said they had something to take care of, they left you alone.

It was your first chance in a long time.

You had to take it.

The moment they left, you went straight to their room.

It was strange being in here alone. Their space was eerily neat—too perfect. But you didn’t have time to dwell on that. You needed to know.

Who they really were.

What they were hiding.

And most importantly—what they had done to that man.

You searched through drawers, shelves, anything that could hold information. At first, it was just the usual—spare clothes, little trinkets they had taken an interest in. But then, tucked away in a locked box under the bed, you found it.

A stack of old ID cards.

You picked one up, your hands trembling slightly.

Caelus. Except… the name on the card wasn’t Caelus. It was something else. A name you didn’t recognize.

Your stomach twisted as you checked another.

Stelle. But again—wrong name.

These weren’t their real identities.

And there were more.

More names. More IDs. Some with different faces. Some that looked eerily like them, but off, like versions that weren’t supposed to exist.

Then, at the very bottom of the stack, you found a file.

You flipped it open, your heart pounding.

And there he was.

The investigator.

The man who had knocked on your door. His face staring up at you from a report—marked MISSING.

Your hands started shaking.

Missing. As if he had never been there. As if he had been erased completely.

Who were they?

What had they done?

And more importantly, if they found out you knew…

What would they do to you?

The front door creaked.

They were back.

You shoved everything back into place as fast as you could, heart hammering. You barely managed to step away when the bedroom door opened.

Caelus stood there, golden eyes scanning the room.

Then, he smiled.

“We’re home.”

And just like that, you were trapped again. You couldn’t look at them the same way after that.

Every time they touched you—every time they smiled, whispered soft words, curled around you like you were the most precious thing in the world—you could only think about the IDs. The missing investigator. The way they had erased everything, rewritten themselves into something else.

Caelus and Stelle weren’t just lost souls you had saved from the junkyard.

They were something bigger. Something worse.

And the worst part?

They knew you were starting to figure it out.

Stelle would brush your hair behind your ear and murmur, “You seem different lately.”

Caelus would linger a second longer when he hugged you, fingers pressing into your back as if testing your heartbeat. “You’re thinking a lot.”

They didn’t ask what you were thinking about. They didn’t need to.

But the real moment came one night.

You were sitting on the couch, pretending to read, when Caelus suddenly dropped a stack of books in front of you.

Your stomach twisted as you saw the titles.

Psychology of Fear. How to Spot a Liar.

Your fingers trembled slightly as you looked up.

Caelus smiled. “I thought you might find these interesting.”

“You’re so smart, you know?” Stelle murmured. “You always pick up on things.”

They were testing you.

And one day, the opportunity came.

Caelus and Stelle had stepped out for something. They didn’t say what, and you didn’t ask. But the moment they were gone, you were back in their room, digging.

This time, you looked deeper. Past the ID cards. Past the stolen names.

And then—at the bottom of the box, tucked beneath everything else—you found it.

A document.

One that wasn’t fake.

One that wasn’t changed.

One that detailed who they really were.

Your eyes scanned the paper, your heart pounding.

It was about a program.

You read faster, hands shaking. They weren’t just runaways. They weren’t just nobodies. They were experiments.

Altered. Engineered. Created.

And the program that made them? It had been shut down. Destroyed. Every trace erased—except them.

They weren’t supposed to exist.

But they did.

And now, they had you.

They weren’t lost souls who needed saving.

They were ghosts of something much bigger and they had made sure that you were theirs. No wonder people had been looking for them. No wonder the investigator had come. And no wonder he had never come back.

You clamped a hand over your mouth, trying to steady your breathing.

They had killed for you.

You were tangled in something so much bigger than you ever realized.

And as you slowly, carefully placed everything back where it was—one thought kept pounding in your head.

They already suspected you knew.

And when they confirmed it—

You wouldn’t be able to run.

The front door creaked open.

You barely managed to slip out of their room before they saw you.

But as you stood in the hallway, trying to act normal, you heard a soft voice behind you.

“You’ve been busy.”

You turned to see Stelle- stood there, eyes half-lidded, her usual lazy smile in place. And beside her, Caelus tilted his head, watching you in a way that sent chills down your spine.

“You’re thinking again” he murmured. “A lot.”

They knew.

You were out of time.

A sickening tension filled the room, thick enough to choke you. Caelus and Stelle stood just a few steps away, but it felt like you were cornered. Like a rabbit caught between two wolves.

“You’ve been snooping” Stelle mused.

"I don’t know what you mean."

A soft hum. Then—before you could react, her fingers brushed your cheek. "Liar."

Caelus sighed, stepping in behind you. “We didn’t want you to find out this way.”

You forced yourself to stay still. If you ran now, if you panicked—it would be over.

"Then tell me the truth."

“You already know the truth, don’t you?” Stelle said,

"You're not who I thought you were."

"You saved us" Caelus corrected. "That part was real."

"Everything else was a lie" you shot back.

Stelle let out a soft laugh, her fingers trailing down your arm. “Is that so bad?”

You flinched. "You—you killed that man."

Caelus sighed, resting his chin on your shoulder. "He was going to take you away."

"He wasn’t after me."

Stelle’s fingers suddenly curled around your wrist, grip tightening. "It doesn’t matter" she said. "You belong with us. We couldn’t let him ruin that."

"What now?" you asked, voice barely steady.

Caelus exhaled softly "Now? Now, we make sure you don’t get any more bad ideas."

Stelle pressed closer, her lips barely brushing against your ear. "Don’t worry" she murmured. "We’ll take care of you. Just like you took care of us."

You felt it before you saw it. The dizziness. The way your thoughts started to blur.

"What… what did you do?"

Stelle tilted her head. "Oh?" she hummed. "Something wrong?"

The world swayed around you. You tried to piece your thoughts together, but they were slipping—memories flickering like a dying light.

The file. The IDs. The investigator.

You knew something important. Something terrifying.

But—

Why couldn’t you remember?

You stumbled back, gripping your temples. "What did you do to me?!"

Caelus stepped forward, "Shh, it's okay."

Your vision blurred. Your knees buckled, and before you could hit the floor, Stelle caught you, lowering you into her arms. She pressed her forehead against yours, her warmth suffocating.

"We didn’t want to do this" she murmured.

You struggled to hold onto something. Anything. But the more you tried, the more your mind felt like it was slipping into water, sinking into something deep and dark.

When you woke up, the world was… quiet.

Warm sunlight filtered through the window, and the scent of breakfast filled the air. You blinked slowly, your body feeling oddly heavy.

"Morning, sleepyhead."

You turned.

Stelle sat at the edge of the bed, smiling.

Something felt… off.

You frowned slightly. "I…"

What had you been doing?

Your head was foggy, like a dream you couldn’t quite recall. There was something important. Something you had been searching for.

But the harder you tried to remember, the more it slipped away.

Caelus peeked his head in from the kitchen, beaming. "Breakfast is almost ready."

Warmth filled your chest.

…Right. That was normal.

You lived with them. They were always here.

Everything was fine.

Stelle leaned in, brushing her fingers along your forehead. "You’re thinking too hard again" she teased. "Relax."

Caelus chuckled softly, watching as you settled back into the sheets, the last bits of resistance fading from your gaze.

"It’s okay" he whispered. "You’re safe with us."

And somewhere, buried deep in the part of your mind they had locked away, a voice screamed.

But you would never hear it again.

[3liza]

i mean the truth is that we do not need and should not have all this stupid plastic clutter in or houses. no one should be producing or selling this shit. everyone make your own merchandise and charge a living hourly wage to sell it 🤷 sorry to be so simplistic about this but it's one of the results of the lack of class unity specifically in the means of production-owning creative class, who is not mentioned or dealt with by the core Marxist texts as far as I know (i asked about this earlier on here, did marx ever address in his analysis people like, for example, a professional photographer who owns a camera ans prints his own dagguereotypes? or a portrait painter or idk, independent milliner or seamstress? these people all own the means of production and do not employ anyone, and the answer from better educated people than I was that no, Marx didn't mention them), I'm not well read on this at all, there is just a big void where leftist analysis of what modern economists call "the creative class"

I'm getting off topic. my point is make your own keychains in your kitchen. it's actually not hard. you can even mass produce (on a small scale) little plastic crap if you want, with resin and a UV lamp, or a 3d printer, or a laser cutter and acrylic sheets (or just use balsa wood damn, at least its biodegradable and less tacky).

all this stuff is available to little creators AND there are hundreds of people who already own these machines who will take work for you and produce your designs. you just have to actually find them and know them and email them. that's what I mean about the class unity issue with creatives. we have no large scale union, we have no large scale class consciousness, and we're all sending our orders for little plastic crap to sweatshops instead of emailing a guy with a laser cutter in his garage and saying "hey Keith can I get uhhhhhhhhhhh 50 laser cut keychains of this twerking Diggler design I made, like how much would that cost" and he's like sure here's the work and materials cost and tbh it's always always less than i think it's going to be. you just have to do some basic arithmetic and then order shipping, and I hate order fulfillment with my life but you can actually pay or barter with someone to do that for you too. learn to delegate and then factor that into your unit cost. this is basic shit every commercial creator needs to know. they should teach you this in art school but they dont

don't give me crap about "I can't afford a laser cutter" either because I just told you to email Keith. and all these machines get sold secondhand when a manufacturer or hobbyist needs to upgrade. i got a color laser printer perfect for making zines and wheatpastes and shipping labels from a retired lesbian on capital hill for $75 and it was still full of ink. my friend gave me her 20 year old canon dslr because she just didn't need it and didn't want to bother selling it. it works fine because I spent the time finding the right drivers and shit for my computer. and card readers exist. Craigslist. Facebook marketplace. nextdoor sales section. eBay. everyone always forgets eBay. eBay lets you save searches and will email you when it finds a guy selling his vinyl plotter in your city with local pickup. I'm serious

[amandabbbbb]

summary: stalker!rafe who saves pogue surfer!reader from the obx storm!

tw: stalker!rafe, dark!rafe but that’s just him tho, a storm, idk anything about boats or surfing

word count: 564

you were used to big waves. surfing is your life. you are no professional but you thought you could handle the obxs storms waves but turns out the roughness of the salt water was too much for you.

“hey hey it’s not safe out there come here i can help you get home,” a tall man yelled from his yacht, reaching out a hand for you. you felt stupid being out in a storm. when you lost the pogues and got pushed out to sea you knew your idea had become deadly so the strangers help might save you.

“here lemme help you. you are way too delicate to be out here in these tough waves, pretty girl,” rafe smirked, pulling you out of the water.

“i’m fine but i guess i’m used to smaller waves,” you said with an insecure giggle. “i’m y/n. um i live on the cut. you said you could get me home?” you said with a nervous smile, never meeting this handsome man before.

“why don’t you stay a while y/n? i got fresh clothes that you can wear and beer and snacks if you’re hungry. seriously whatever you want. i’m rafe.”

rafe was so excited to be around you. he’d been watching you surf from his yacht for months. staring at your body from a far wasn’t doing it for him anymore so when you took off your wetsuit rafe audibly moaned, standing up fast and coughing staring at your body in the pink bikini he only saw from a far distance.

“thanks, rafe but i need to get home. you’re really sweet but my friends will be worried since i got pulled into sea by the waves.” rafe made a fast excuse looking out on the horizon.

“i don’t think my boat will make it to shore. it’s just pouring now and it uh l-looks real bad. we um should probably just stay out here for the night.”

“are you sure because i think a yacht this huge can handle a storm like this.” you laughed staring at him confused.

“you think you know yachts y/n? you’re a pogue, stick to your surfboard,” rafe said laughing. you didn’t like his obnoxious joke but brushed it off.

“ya whatever, i’m a pogue. so what? can i get some clothes? i’m about to turn into a ice cube.” you rolled your eyes while walking down to the cabin exploring the living space of the boat. it was a scene straight out of a frat house nightmare, old beer cans and porn magazines.

amongst the clutter, a picture caught your eye: a girl in a pink bikini, surfing on a vibrant wave, laid provocatively on his bed. you reached out to inspect it, but he snatched it away before you could get a closer look “umm so you live here, rafe?”

“does it matter?” rafe frowned as you put on his old shirt and sarah’s sweatpants over your bikini, you asked “no but um where am i gonna sleep stranger? you know this is a major stranger danger situation right now.” you laughed, pointing at the both of you.

he smirked at your bubbly personality that he’d seen from afar as he would watch you at kook and pogue bonfire parties.

“next to me,” rafe said, watching your every movement. “no, that’d be weird. i don’t even know you. i’ll sleep on the couch, it’s no big deal,” you said so casually. mad at your rejection, rafe stood up, hovering over you.

“just seriously y/n. you can trust me ok? just stay in the bed with me, it’s cold out,” rafe said with intensity. as you noticed his blue eyes getting darker and his body getting closer, he gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear, his touch sending a shiver down your spine. “you know,” he whispered, his voice sending ripples of unease through you, “you always fidget with your necklace when you’re nervous, your fingers trace its outline when you’re anxious.”

your heart skipped a beat. how did he know about that? it was like he could read your mind. feeling exposed, you backed away. his gaze locked into yours, making you feel vulnerable and like he had uncovered parts of you that were meant to stay hidden. you noticed the storm seemed to be calming down since rafe pulled you up on the cameron’s yacht. a perfect getaway.

“you know what uh i- i can handle these waves. don’t worry about me. thanks for helping me though,” you said as you bent over to pick up your wetsuit and surfboard. he grabbed your bicep forcefully pulling you up. he thought of every excuse but couldn’t manage to create one.

“no, no you can’t leave ok.” rafe stated, grabbing you by the wrist firmly. “yo dude, don’t fucking touch me. i don’t even know you.” as you scoff at him, you look deep into his blue eyes and recognize him, letting his rough hands grip onto your waist. you couldn’t put your finger on where from.

“dont fucking dude me. god you are such a pogue. y’know you do know me. i’m rafe. i’m someone you can trust y/n. imma proactive person. if i wasn’t there to help you get out of those waves who knows what could’ve happened to you. i protect you. i’ve been protecting you for months for fucks sake and you don’t appreciate me.”

a/n: idk maybe a part 2 is needed??? send me ur thots!

[pocket-lad]

Angsty idea 😈 (After the events of ch 17)

Ian returns to his house in Texas, and decides to cut into the wall where Adelaide lived. (Out of morbid curiosity or a need to feel more connected to her. Idk). But he finds the picture they took on Halloween and other memoried of their time together. Trinkets she made for/from borrowing and the gifts he gave her. Her room, her nest and her drawings.🥲🫠

Uh oh.

~~~

Without a real grasp on fine motor skills, the door slammed harder than intended. Whatever. Ian immediately found whatever drink was both closest and highest in alcohol content.

He and Sarah got into another fight. Again. It wasn't relationship-ending, but it was big enough for him to angrily storm out and drive the twenty hours to Austin. Already he couldn’t remember what the argument was about, even though it had only been about a day or so.

Regardless, they’d make up soon. They always did. For the time being, he was going to get wildly drunk.

***

The hole in the corner of the backsplash really wasn’t that large. Five inches maybe? But it may as well have taken up the whole wall for how much attention it drew. He couldn’t look away from it.

There was no point in covering it up. He knew it was there. There was no point in fixing it. Beforehand, somebody used it. Nowadays, he was hardly home. But when he was home…

How long had it been? A year? Two? Five? Did it matter? Whether it happened yesterday or a decade ago, Adelaide was gone, and she’d be gone every day thereafter. And it was his fault.

Something warm and wet tickled Ian's skin as it trickled lightly down his knuckle. Then the stinging, searing pain set in. It seemed as though he had punched a hole in the drywall. Hm.

Splintered pieces of wall fell away as he slowly withdrew his hand. Before he could turn away, a brief glimmer within the foundations caught his eye. Stupidly, he investigated.

The first thing that stuck out to him was an Altoid tin. It looked like fabric had been hastily pushed off of it and its lid sat ajar. A pencil ran the length of the room, at least from what he could tell, and various trinkets hung off of it - rubber bands, thread, safety pins, paper clips, even a screw. Most of what was inside was obscured by darkness, though.

Just as he suspected, Ian had accidentally found Adelaide’s house. Out of all the places he could have put a hole into his wall, it was here.

God, she would be so unbelievably pissed right now. If she were here. He could imagine the absolute thrashing he would receive for putting a hole through her entire house.

Then, to his horror, he realized: He put a hole through her entire house. He was strong enough to put a hole through her entire house. His hands were large enough to put a hole through her entire house. Ian regarded those hands as if they belonged to a monster.

Against his better judgement, he peered back in. He couldn’t see much and, since there was already a hole, there wasn’t any reason to not make it bigger. He took out a pocket knife and carved further.

With enough light filtering in, the home became much clearer. It was messy, cobwebs having nearly overrun the place, but despite the clutter, it was hauntingly empty. Someone had clearly lived here once. A long, long time ago.

A matchbox served as a table, and it was slightly open so that the matches were accessible. Other lighting sources made themselves present through birthday candles and Christmas tree light bulbs. Another table was crafted from a button and broken toothpick fragments, and for a chair, she used a cork for the seat and cardboard wrapped in fabric for the back. Her bed just looked to be a pile of fabric scraps.

There were plenty of things Ian recognized as his, such as an overturned shot glass and a stress ball he got from some conference somewhere. One thimble and three plastic medicine cups sat full of water, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the playing card that hung on the wall. Adelaide had drawn a mustache and glasses over the Queen.

Ian took his time shuffling through and studying each item. Adelaide was always so private for reasons opaque to him, and without her here, he indulged his urge to snoop. It wasn’t like she was using any of it anymore…

Some stuff had to be pulled out for him to see, and even then he couldn’t properly make out what half of it was, though if by some miracle he could, he still didn’t know what it was for. There were pieces of paper with miniscule images clearly drawn on them, but it was anyone’s guess what they depicted. Ian wouldn’t be able to see them if he tried, even with a magnifying glass, and the papers themselves were so tiny that they could easily be swept away with a gentle breath.

Everything in the house looked so lived in and purposeful. When removed from context, however, each piece just looked small and dinky in his grasp. A particular woven basket came apart completely in his large, clumsy fingers.

Not only would Adelaide be furious that he destroyed her house, she’d be even angrier when she learned he was going through her things, and angrier still when she learned that he broke some of them. He could almost hear her voice scolding him in his head.

Stop talking about her like she’s here .

His gaze landed on a large polaroid. Well, large compared to its surroundings. Ian instantly shut his eyes, wishing he had never carved into the walls in the first place. It was the picture of them from Halloween. He remembered her makeshift spider costume and his own costume that was so half-assed he couldn't even tell what it was. He remembered how freaked out she got when he pulled out the camera, and how he let her have the picture as consolation. He remembered how the flash went off before they were both ready, resulting in the horrible image resting against the wall in front of him.

Finally, Ian stepped back and saw the situation for what it was. A giant mess he’d have to patch up. Great. This brought an immediate headache, and what was it all for? To find closure, or something of the sort? That rarely worked, and it obviously wasn’t working here.

Closure…perhaps he should just get rid of it all. Keeping Adelaide’s belongings only fueled the delusion that she would return. If he trashed it, that was clear acceptance. Burn the old, make room for the new.

Did he want to accept it, though? He should accept it. But did he want to? He should.

The deliberation grew to be irritating. Mind made up, Ian stumbled his way over to find a metal bucket and, refusing to think about it too hard, grabbed fistfuls of Adelaide’s belongings. He could feel some of them snap under the pressure, and what didn’t break in his gigantic hands certainly didn’t withstand the fall into the bucket.

He lit one of her borrowed matches and dropped it in, watching the contents burn.

***

Not one to exaggerate, this was perhaps the headache to end all headaches.

Ian groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes. He felt his bare feet on the floor, felt the warm sun shining through the window. He drew the curtains closed.

Next thing he knew, he was trudging through the kitchen, and his eyes landed on the massive hole in the wall, as well as the debris that collected underneath it. He groaned.

Then, he noticed the metal can from the night before, but it was knocked over, its charred contents spilled out everywhere. Hm.

He couldn’t say if it was the right decision. He certainly couldn’t say if there was a right decision. It didn’t make him feel good, though. In fact, quite the opposite.  Everything Adelaide owned, all gone, and with it, Adelaide. There was no getting it back, just like there was no getting her back. Fitting, he supposed. In a logical sort of sense. Emotionally, however, devastating. Pretty emotionally devastating.

Nothing he couldn’t sweep up, though. Broom in hand, he shuffled all the dust back into the bucket. Most of it went back in, but the broom kept catching on something. He gave it a few more hearty tries, each time growing more and more irrationally frustrated. Just short of breaking the broom in half, Ian finally bent down to pick up whatever it was and slam it into the bucket.

Once his hands closed around it though, his heart sank, and the spot it once occupied filled with dread. One by one, each of his fingers curled slowly and securely around the item, his gaze fixed on a distant wall, expressionless beyond the tightness in his jaw.

He squeezed it, feeling the sharp edges of cracked glass, feeling the burnt leather crumble away. Ian didn’t even look at it, knowing it would break him. He remembered when that thing went missing. He remembered when Adelaide gave it back to him as a gift, as if it wasn’t already his to begin with.

So perhaps it was foolish, selfish even, that he marched to his room, opened a drawer, and shoved the ruined watch into the back corner. Ian never hoped for anything. Hope didn’t result in action. If Ian wanted something, he got it. So even though he refused to acknowledge it as such, his decision to keep the watch was a declaration of his belief in hope. Because he didn’t have anything else left. There wasn’t anything he could do about Adelaide. But maybe hope would prevail, in the end. What did he have to lose, anyway?

[hypezombies]

And they were roommates!

I got the idea to try and create a possible Byler dorm room in the Sims 4 so here it is!

I imagined Will would be majoring in art and Mike in literature.

Since there wasn't much I could do to decorate based on "literature", I got inspired by the guitar he has by his bed in S4, that's why there's one on his side of the room, as well as some other music related decor.

I also got inspiration from one of the costume designers saying that he’s gravitating towards a more edgy look in S4, so that’s why I used darker posters on his side and chose the black guitar.

I put the Sims' version of the famous "one way" sign pointing to his closet, as well as some other random signs he could have stolen along that one (the arrow sign is so far from the dresser because it would disappear if i tried to put it any closer).

There’s also a basket of blankets, ‘cause I headcanon both of them as always being cold and because I imagine they have so much stuff that they don’t know where to put it anymore, hence the cardboard box full of things by the dresser (let's be honest, their room would be waayy messier and more cluttered than I made it).

His desk is filled with more books than Will's, since I imagine he would have to read a lot. Also I put blue and yellow books on his dresser :)

(I also imagined they would push their beds close together, but it looked better to keep them apart in the Sims)

Now to Will's side!

I imagine the pride flag, as well as the little plant I put by Will's desk, belong to both of them, but I put them on Will's side for space reasons. Also he strikes me as someone who likes aliens, that’s why I put that poster there.

I also put the stars on the windows because they’re cute and they reminded me of Will the Wise (and they're lights, they look adorable at night).

(I’ve been saying this a lot so sorry but) I imagined that those posters by the easel are probably an assignment he had to do and Mike liked them so much, he insisted Will would hang them somewhere.

I also gave them a cute little plant, even though it probably wouldn't last more than two months lmao.

The wizard poster is a nod to Will the Wise and the dragons are a nod to his painting, as well as the many times he's been associated with them in the show.

I put the striped cat ‘cause it’s the closest thing to a tiger I could find (I would have liked to mimic his bedroom in S4 and put a lot of tigers here and there, but I couldn’t find any in the packs I own). 

The cameras are there because I thought he would also develop a passion for photography, maybe inspired by Jonathan too :) (idk how an art major works honestly, but I imagine photography is probably part of the studies too).

Also lots of CDs because he's Will, of course he would have lots of CDs. And poster of the artist on one of the CDs (please imagine it's Bowie and not that weird dude).

This is pretty much it, enjoy some more screenshots :)

[jerreeeeeee]

i read the eleventh hour graphic novel, here's some praises and criticisms. unfortunately it’s mostly negative, but i did truly try to give it a fair shake and have an open mind

things i liked:

-prelude with jack and june and mysterious red robe was a good addition, it's intriguing, it fills out the world, it introduces jack and june in a fitting way (sidenote to that, why does jack look more like magnus than magnus does)

-ANGUS hi angus :) whatever else in the gns i bitch about know that angus is perfect

-having the lunar interludes be little moments of memory as they’re dying was a cool and clever way to include them

-time stamps are super helpful, i remember the podcast always got a little messy and confusing with the timeline of the hour to me at least

-REN hi ren :) her design isn’t like awesome or anything she also kinda suffers from ugly blue blonde elf syndrome (or purple and whitehaired i guess. although she’s a drow so it makes more sense) but i am glad they made her fat

-getting rid of the diamond stuff was a great way to cut down on noncritical runtime. even in the podcast it was very clearly just a way to get thb to go to different places and stuff, which is appropriate in a dnd actual play but not so much in a graphic novel. having the prophecies fall according to istus’ whim is also much more thematically relevant and introduces istus earlier than like.. right before she shows up. good decision all around

-really glad they kept most of the verbatim wording of lucretia’s admission to merle about her choices and the loss of her dear friends, and while i don’t hate the way merle responds, i do kinda miss “you do have faith, it’s faith in you.” going further in on merle’s insecurities and doubts is great but i also love the way in the podcast he was so reassuring to lucretia and she felt like she could confide in him and receive wisdom. and also pointing out that lucretia does have a really strong faith and conviction and commitment to doing what she thinks is right. determination and reliance on herself are big traits of hers, for better or worse, and i really liked that line

-i enjoyed the extended istus scene where she explains what she does a little more but is still very vague and mystical and deific. and her saying that in this world the force of fate is less laying things out in a predetermined exacting pattern, and more making a pattern and story out of events as they happen and as they are about to happen. she’s a chronicler of sorts. she’s continually weaving the tapestry. nice little bit of expansion on that idea and her role thematically. also istus sorta resembles lucretia facially, which i’m not sure if its intentional or just the similar face syndrome the whole thing suffers from and the fact that carey sometimes struggles to draw people of color (<- she's gotten much better at it, to her credit, angus and kravitz both look very good). if it is intentional it’s a nice touch

-changing merle’s regret to be leaving his family. obvious choice but a very critical one. the reason adaptations have their advantages. merle’s kids were presumably not even thought up yet by this point in the story in the podcast, but of course it makes so much more sense to bring them in here

-taako remembering that magnus asked after julia in crystal kingdom is cute. he cares about his friends :)

-in general: the environment design, colors, and panelling is consistently good. no problems there, refuge looks very nice.

things i didn’t like:

-got rid of the line where taako says its probably better for boyland’s family not to remember that they lost him. it’s a tiny thing and more or less inconsequential but it hits me like a truck whenever i relisten to the podcast

-taako’s outfit is ugly sorry. he’s always ugly and his color palette is awful but this one was especially egregious to me idk. eleventh hour should’ve had fun outfits that look good. magnus’ and merle’s aren’t terrible but they’re kinda cluttered and uninteresting. not as bad as taako still. the skirt looks weirdly thick? i guess i can’t talk cause i’m terrible at drawing skirts too but idk it almost looks like winter clothes to me, weird and out of place. also stop giving him heels just because he’s gay. weird choices all around. i don’t like it. i don’t like blue taako. in fact i hate his ugly ass. had to be said so i can ignore it for the rest of this post

-roswell doesn’t look as cool as they could but the bird is cute

-taako doesn’t tell angus about glamor springs!! that sucks!! that was an important moment of vulnerability and connection between his past and present relationships with his apprentices!! i know they want to keep the reveal of the poison further in the book with only vague reference/foreshadowing beforehand but. idk i hate that taako’s moment of honesty with angus is gone i feel like that was important to that arc

-i know “something about the dying feels familiar” doesn’t really work since its narration but they could’ve like. asked each other if they were ok or something and worked that into the dialogue or had it be a thought bubble or something. eleventh hour is so huge for themes and foreshadowing etc and i feel like they just blew right past that. what’s the point of the time loop and the deaths if you aren’t examining the consequences at all. also skipping over so many of the loops for time and just showing a bunch of them in a montage makes sense for the format but it also gets rid of the futility and exhaustion that the time loop is like… literally meant to engender. i don’t know what the fix here is but something’s been lost.

-NOT a real or valid criticism since there’s literally no way to do it in a visual format but so much is lost from paloma’s character without her batshit bjork accent i miss her

-sad that luca and redmond were cut, i don’t think they were like, super important, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for it to be ren instead? i liked luca i thought he was fun i like seeing religious characters in dnd worlds and the moment of him and redmond raising the temple is more cinematic and gives weight to the threat of the time loop, that if they don’t do it in time they have to start all over, and gives the temple a sense of respite and divinity in its place frozen in time. more than magnus just sprinting away to unlock it with a random key after the others already died. also it’s very much… barebones hehehe… but rip the like smidgen of foreshadowing with pairs of siblings where one of them is a skeleton in a cave lol. i don’t think this was a bad decision per se i understand why they did it but still a little sad

-junebug scene sucked. too rushed in the monologue, no sense of stakes or urgency as taako’s reading the diary, immediately cut away before roswell could even react?

-pacing is a huge problem in general for this book and i’ll wager to guess it’ll be a problem in the suffering game too. i know seven is a nice and thematically significant number of books to have but they really should’ve split at least this arc and the remaining arcs into 2 books. spells disaster for stolen century and story and song all being in one book

-“patience is not one of my strong suits” fuck off actually. taako is canonically a great teacher and also fishes as a hobby, the two things that require the most patience in the world. he hangs back and waits, he’s specifically not the impulsive impatient one. maybe this is nitpicking but i don’t care. these little mischaracterizations, especially ones influenced by common fandom mischaracterizations, are small on their own but pretty prevalent, and they piss me off. the graphic novels want tres horny boys to be stupid and immature and one dimensional for laffs sooo bad but you can’t have them be like that all the time or the impactful moments just fall through because they’re unearned!! you have to strike a balance!!

-why was merle given the chance to decide whether to stay in the final hunger battle as his gift?? taako was the only one who even considered taking it??

-why is sazed’s name changed? philippe?? is the name sazed trademarked??? kind of annoying

-changing the convo to be instead of taako rudely shutting down sazed’s presumptuous ambitions, to just be him being cruel for no reason to ‘the help,’ i don’t like that. don’t get me wrong taako was an asshole, i want him to be an asshole in this scene, but like, he doesn’t wield an employer’s power over sazed because he’s a snobby brat who relishes stomping on those below him, ‘the help,’ it’s because he’s unused to being on the advantaged side of a power dynamic and, more crucially, allows himself to be closed off and selfish regardless of the harm it causes to others. you know, the character flaw we see him struggle with in the canon era and as far back as the stolen century. he’s not a fucking aristocrat who thinks servants are inferior. idk i think sazed is quite important to taako’s arc, actually, so changing it like this is not welcome for me. especially in conjunction with the fact that angus was so distanced from the reveal of that part of the backstory, and taako making the same mistake by lying to ren to take advantage of her adoration (and subsequently apologizing and bettering himself) was cut out entirely, etc, etc… like what’s even the point now honestly.

-WAIT OK I READ FURTHER ITS EVEN WORSE. it almost seems like taako already knew sazed was responsible?? where is the guilt?? where is the relief at it not being his fault?? the lingering guilt that even though he didn’t poison them he still feels like he drove sazed to?? come the fuck onnn i know we’re dumbing down their arcs and their characters but that sucks so bad like Literally what is the point of showing us this if it doesn’t actually matter and results in no consequences or growth or story at all

-“if you wanted me to blame myself for their deaths you should have gotten to me before my therapist” WHAT DO YOU MEANNN so we’re just gonna have all character development happen offscreen?? what the FUCK. is the therapist thing a joke? is it serious? neither makes any sense?? why did he struggle with and come to terms with this traumatic event and major part of his arc completely OFFSCREEN I FEEL INSANE. i was afraid i was unfairly judging the graphic novels because i think the character design is bad but it turns out the writing is too. what have they done to my fucking boy. should i even bother to keep reading.

-

i did finish the book. all in all, the things i liked were mostly obvious choices for an adaptation to make, and the things i disliked were major fumbles in narrative and themes.

i’ve seen a lot of people say, “well, it’s a different story, you can’t compare it to the original and not appreciate it on its own, it’s its own thing.” first of all, it’s not its own thing, its an adaptation, of course you can compare it to the original, that’s how adaptations work. and second of all, i can’t appreciate it on its own, because without the podcast for context, it wouldn’t make any fuckin sense! it’s poorly written in general but it especially expects the reader to have a familiarity with the original story. and with the podcast for context, i’m consistently disappointed, because it’s just a worse, more simplistic, less impactful rehashing of the story that takes all my favorite characters and moments and renders them shallower.

so all in all, i remain unchanged in my opinion: the graphic novels are not good. they are, in fact, bad.

[blockgamepirate]

I mean I say I chose to vote for the cabins because I'm emotionally compromised, but to be absolutely clear, it's not the only reason, I'm not just being sentimental here

Look, Tango is clearly a better builder than Techno and Phil and the Citadel is one of the best demonstrations of that (altho not the best IMO, I actually think his s9 starter base was more impressive; not in terms of scale obviously, but in terms of the artistry and originality)

But I also feel very strongly about the fact that building skill isn't the only thing that matters, often what I personally value more than impressive builds is what the builds are for, what they mean, what stories they tell, what their history is

The Citadel is amazing but it's also hollow, it's basically just a façade. I mean it didn't need to be anything else, it would have been a complete waste of time to fill the whole thing with pointless rooms. Maybe if Tango had had more time or a whole team to help him they could have done that and maybe even made it part of the experience; maybe hid some lore into the castle, maybe even some shards, who knows. But it wasn't necessary and he didn't have the time, it's fine

Still, that does affect my view of it, because it really has no point other than to look cool

Meanwhile everything about the cabins feels lived in and real and full of history and stories and meaning. All the clutter, all the bits that got a bit messed up, all the ways in which they were adapted along the way, like adding basements and the bridge and even Phil's cabin itself, and how everything has a reason to be there, whether it's a practical reason, a sentimental reason, or a silly reason

It feels real because it is real, it might be digital but it's a place where people lived, in Minecraft

I mean yes to be fair the Citadel also has some stuff like the two big entrance halls and then later adding the waiting room and the practice rooms, and also the backstage has its own life very much in the way the backstage of a theme park attraction would have

Which kinda is what Decked Out is, isn't it? A really really cool theme park attraction

And that's partly why most of the Citadel is empty, because it's not actually a citadel, it IS a façade

So basically I guess what I'm saying is that this is like asking if the castle in Disneyland is a better building than some guy's log cabin in the woods where he lives with his friends and hides fugitives from the law, like idk man, by what standard?

[m00nj3w3l]

Well here I am (ONS chapter 128)

Ok I'm finally writing out my thoughts about ONS' 128. Idk how long it'll come out (extremely long as I'm writing it it seems...) and also as always I want to hear others' opinions on this, but as a warning it will be mostly negative. I actually did a similar post back at the start of the year with BSD, but BSD at least managed to bounce back full force and do what it needed to do while ONS shows no signs of that.

I'll break it down into the following points:

>I'm also getting tired of the flashbacks (as many already did)

>I miss the Shinoa squad (will touch upon Mitsuba specifically and y'all probably know why)

>The belief that MikaYuu fans are getting much better content and why I think that's bs (will probably mention my theorem of "Mika, along with literally all the women of the franchise, got hit with the mysoginy stick")

So let's go I guess, under the cut so I don't clutter my non-ONS followers' dash.

>The flashbacks: I... Did not mind them up unti now, if I've got to be honest. Let's be serious here everyone probably expected a batshit crazy backstory for the characters, ESPECIALLY Yuu and Mika, and that's what made me not really complain. Now it has been like? 8 chapters of ONLY flashbacks??? Only things of the past with NO break and NO POV switches to at least let us know wtf is going on in the outside world. Christ. The fact that irritates me the most is that all of this adds nothing to the plot either!!! What are the MCs supposed to do now that they've seen one of them (WHO HAS BEEN 4 DIFFERENT SPECIES TOO SINCE THE START OF THE SERIES???) sacrifice for the 3rd time!!!! AND IN THE PAST AT THAT!!!! HOW IS THIS USEFUL FOR THEM OR ANY OF US AGHHFHGHHG. We got other gays going at it tho and that's just funny to me. This is just a BL masked as a battle shonen lmaoooo.

>The Shinoa squad: I feel like this is obvious. Where tf are they? They obviously are looking out for where Mika and Yuu are, how did we not see them again yet??? Some progress in their hunt (let's call it that) for those two??? Shinoa literally threatened to kill Mika (and, for a number of reasons, let me say this: ew.) I'd at least like to see her and how she's doing. And didn't Kagami promise us Mitsuba would get more screentime soon? THIS IS LITERALLY A PERFECT SETTING. SHOW ME HER AND SHINOA BEING IN CONFLICT CUS SHE WORRIES ABOUT HER FRIEND AND WANTS HER TO COME TO HER SENSES!!! SHOW ME HOW THEE LITERAL KIDS ARE DOING AFTER BEING ASKED BY A FULL ON 24 Y.O TO CHOOSE THEIR FAMILIES OR THE WORLD LIKE BE SO SERIOUS THE SETTING WAS *DECENT* (wouldn't say perfect cus I'm not the biggest fan of the "bring everyone back" plot but ok) FOR IT ALL I'M *explodes*

>MikaYuu: Oh boy ok here we go. So since I came back after my rewatch and catch up to this manga which resulted in hyperfixation again I noticed that the narrative of MikaYuu shippers getting better content cus a lot of the chapters now focus on them is... common. And for a while I just thought "ok" and moved on but now I'm fully on convinced it's just. Not true. Not because the content isn't there, I would be lying if I said that, but because it's... Not good. Good content, for me (as someone who clearly loves these two if you scroll for even 2 minutes down my fucking tag), would be seeing actual growth between them, some actual substance in what they are doing as of rn, and we are not getting any of that. Since when did we see them actually DO something? Last time we saw Yuu in his actual body and actually saying something was last chapter and he was EATING. Then we went back to them just passively staring at everything that went on. And to add onto this, I dislike demon Mika as a plot IN GENERAL because it recessed any development both for HIM and for Yuu himself. Yuu acts stupid (wtf happened to him after Nagoya I'm being so serious Nagoya Yuu I miss you so much) as shit cus anyway Mika IS strong enough to let him get away with it but not enough to oppose Yuu at some point and this was addressed as a problem for like 2 seconds and then nothing. Oh my God. And not only that but this fucking thing also shows that Mika did, indeed, also get hit with a mysoginy beam, but that's another topic I want to talk about in another post if anyone even really cares about it.

So... Yeah. I'm not tired (I only started catching up in March after my rewatch, so I'm still curios about how this will go), but I AM sad. I really miss the earlier arcs and the potential they all had that now seems like a long lost memory. Can we all collectevely just go back to the Nagoya one like if the series stuck to that path I would be able to excuse its flaws up until a point because GOD. The eyeball with its Seraph shit or whatever the hell it was doing was cool tho.

As always y'all can tell me what y'all think, but I'm mostly expecting this to get lost in the void given how dead the fandom is. So yeah, see ya.

[qelper]

As much as I’m enjoying Tumblr, Reddit had one thing that I miss, and I fear won’t ever return. The feeling of being able to have a conversation on Reddit.

Here, there is a single post and maybe a reblog. Unfortunately, it’s rare for there to be multiple reblogs to one post, and therefore it’s feels like more of just a one off post. On Reddit, the way comments were formatted made it so easy to have in depth conversations, be a part of them, and have a lot of people seeing them.

Idk, I just think Tumblr lacks that ability to have genuine in depth discussions. Reddit culture often ruined these comment threads obviously, but in fandoms it made discussing the material so much more interconnected.

I think the main thing was that there could be multiple threads under one post. Comments on Tumblr fall under one thread, and reblogs are usually not used for continuing a discussion. This makes Reddit have the ability to take one post and have tons of different takes in theory (though again Reddit culture often ruined this).

Though to be fair I’ve only been on Tumblr a few days. It could turn out that I’ve been using the site wrong, and it’s totally possibly to have these discussions. But for now I just wanted to vent about how much I miss that aspect Reddit had. And no, regular forums don’t work for this purpose because each thread is easily cluttered and is not as contained.

I still think I’m preferring Tumblr though, mainly due to the much more vibrant Queer community. I also like that I have much less incentive to do things on here. Reddit kinda pressured you with things like Karma, which simply doesn’t exist here. Plus, I can just say whatever about the fandoms I’m part of, and there’s a lot less scrutiny.

I don’t even know where I went with this post, this would not be a good college essay. I think my main point is I just miss the discussions on Reddit. This blackout just makes me sad, but I can’t continue using Reddit knowing just how terrible it’s about to become.

Anyways that’s all, I just wanted to vent about this. I hope soon I get to start posting dumb shit, with serious posts like this every once in a while, because that’s what I really want to do.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Can I be honest?

I really do not care about Missing Link.

I'll admit that the most recent trailer probably made me more interested in it than I ever have been before, but even then I'm just kind of like... ehh.

And this is for a few reasons, I think.

A large one being that it's a mobile game. And I shouldn't have to explain why that's a huge reason as to why that's helping to kill my interest in this game, even though it looks like this game should be a lot better than KHUX and Dark Road, thankfully (but I'm also somewhat reserving judgement on all of that until we get it).

The fact that it's a game like Pokémon Go was also sort of ruining things for me, since I really can't walk well anymore. But according to the trailer and Nomura, it seems like that you don't really have to travel in order to do things in the game. So we'll see how that pans out.

But I guess I'm just getting to the place where some casuals were before, were--in some ways--if it's not about our main cast, I almost feel like I can't be bothered (and I do feel bad about that, in some ways).

I'm somewhat tired, I suppose, of having to play a million different games, in order to understand the next mainline installment. And I know this is just one between III and IV (if you don't count the Re:Mind DLC and Melody of Memory), but it does sort of feel a bit like "same old, same old" to me.

I also just... I don't know. Really feel like we didn't need this part of the timeline filled in? And I would almost prefer if that wasn't happening, so it could be a mystery and we could imagine it for ourselves? I feel like the only reason it's being filled out now is because of the Scala ad Caelum stuff in KHIII. And probably because this next saga is partly going to be saving the people from the KHX saga. But if we didn't get Missing Link, that plot point could have been delivered in another game.

Now we're just going to get more characters introduced, and clutter up the roster even more, and gah!

I know this game is surely to partly tide us over until KHIV, which is definitely nice. But IDK. I, personally, would have rather had one of the plot lines they teased at the end of Re:Mind as a game (Kairi's training with Aqua, Mickey in Scala, the Wayfinder trio in the Realm of Darkness, or Naminé looking for clues about Sora's whereabouts in Roxas and Xion's memories). Or waited a bit more and just gotten KHIV and then the Verum Rex game (both as console games, of course), because you know they have to be making both of these games right now.

I really don't mean to complain. Because I know a lot of time and work has surely gone into this. And it's something. And I'd rather take something over nothing (for the most part. Don't start giving me KH NFTs, Square). But unless something changes, there's nothing about Missing Link so far that's really grabbed me, personally.

And maybe it will. I'm sure it will, eventually. It won't take much to do it. But the fact it's a mobile game will always hurt it. It's weird to say, but I kind of miss the days of the handheld KH games. At least they were better quality. Oy.

Edit: And back to my one point, I feel Missing Link is going to add even more to the KHIV stuff now, when there's already so much it needs to conquer that I have no idea how it's going to do it all. Like, I was thinking that maybe some of the point of Missing Link was to flesh out this new saga... but there's already so much going on here.

Edit 2: However, Missing Link, and all the stuff with the story of Scala ad Caelum, seems to be a story Nomura-san wants to tell. And that is most definitely his right.

[loumauve]

thanks for tagging me, @novastellaris

Were you named after anyone? accidentally, not on purpose. very much to the dismay of my mum. (my dad forgot that his mother's middle name is the same as the name they picked for me)

When was the last time you cried? earlier today, or maybe late last night? been crying a lot lately, ever sínce my other grandma passed away. I'm always glad when I end up crying over a moving scene in a fic, or some lyrics in a song instead, ngl

Do you have kids? not unless my plant children count? I have quite a few, not as many as I used to, but still plenty. (I think current count is 55, though it used to be over double that at some point)

What sports have you played/do you play? I played soccer in kindergarten/elementary school (still salty over being the only one dressed in pink) but that was nothing serious, and then my asthma got worse and was no longer able to run for long periods of time, plus the hip issues I was born with flaring up a little every now and then. spent ten years in the circus though, which is kind of like sports? poi and juggling, dancing (mostly hip hop, swing, tap), mini trampoline stuff (where I nearly broke my nose and made a bloody mess of my friend's math homework), a lot of balancing (walking/doing tricks on the ball, unicycling, some tightrope walking.. incidentally the same tightrope I smashed my face into during my over-enthusiastic front flip off the trampoline), trapeze.. all kinds of stuff, really. loved it, still remember that time so very fondly even if it left my body a little too wrecked for comfort (my wrists are a mess and my ankles still roll every so often, my ribs still feel bruised whenever I gain too much muscle around the bottom of them, lol) also have dabbled in climbing, mostly indoor bouldering, which I really should get back to, these days the social anxiety gets the better of me though. inline skating which I love and my hips and knees hate, sadly enough.

tldr: I love all kinds of being active and moving around, it's just that my body doesn't agree with most of it.

Do you use sarcasm? a lot of the time, more so when fed up and grumpy or defensive

First thing you notice about people? clothes, maybe? hair, perhaps. faces, but also not in a way where I really remember them? I'm not sure, actually. but the first two are the things I tend to remember the most even long after I've last seen someone

What is your eye color? blue-grey, depending on the lighting it can be either near completely blue or really grey. idk

Scary movies or happy endings? both, preferably together. though, I'm not a fan of artificially happy endings, sometimes bittersweet and a little sad is the best you can get and that's fine with me. more true to real life that way anyhow

Any talents? hm. maybe it's finding all kinds of wonderful knick-knacks and integrating them into my flat to make it wonderfully chaotic and cluttered, but welcoming? (it prevokes either extreme joy or utter despair in visitors who come to my place lol) not sure that counts as a talent though.. I guess I'm real good at getting back up every time life does its best to crush me into a smudge on the sidewalk? can you call that a talent? it's either stubbornness or just straight up spite, definitely not a pretty sight but I make it work, somehow

Where were you born? Dresden, home sweet home. (home of old-ass architecture, the beloved Frauenkirche and Zwinger, eternally indebted and cursed by the river Elbe, sadly haunted by right wing politics) born and raised here, only lived elsewhere for a year and a half, or so. missed it terribly while I was gone, a blessing and a curse, really, but I don't think I'd ever want to move away again, no matter how haunted some places are for me now. I'd miss the river and the Elbsandsteingebirge too much.

What are your hobbies? a little bit of everything. collecting hobbies is another talent of mine. most hobbies last me a few weeks at most before they rest in limbo until I pick them up again, but here's a few: book binding, sewing, painting, video games, board games, reading, dissociating to the perfect (at the moment) song on loop for hours/days straight, sometimes (very rarely these days) writing - fic and poetry, dreaming (a fave, ngl. wouldn't mind if my life was nothing but), finding the most amazing terrible horror films to watch, collecting dice and rolling them until they all show the same numbers, collecting and looking at Magic: The Gathering cards and building decks that I then never end up playing with because I have nobody to play with (rip), making DnD characters that I will never play but have entire backstories for nonetheless, taking care of (and multiplying) my various plant children

Do you have any pets? not at the moment, I used to keep garden snails for a bit, but then I felt bad for them never experiencing the outdoors so I released the latest batch of them to where I found the parents originally. I hope they're alright out there. I'd love to have pets again, but I'm allergic to most furry beings, and my flat isn't a good place to keep non-furry animals either because it gets really cold and draughty in winter and far too hot and stuffy in summer, and I'd rather not subject any critters to that. plus, most of everything in here vibrates whenever I used the washing machine since I live in what used to be an attic space with wooden beams all around, so anything that needs structural integrity (like an aquarium etc) is out as well. I guess at the moment I do have a few visitors though, two tiny spiders that live in my bedroom and bathroom respectively, tucked away in corners where they don't bother me and I try not to bother them, and I regularly get bird visitors outside my bedroom window since I'm still putting out bird food that's left over from me feeding them over the winter, so I have a flock of 8 or so pigeons, a few crows and a few more magpies. not pets, but daily companions nonetheless.

How tall are you? 164 cm, which according to google is around 5'4''

Favorite subject in school? English (as a second language), Art, and maybe Biology? used to be German but then German became all about remembering boring dates and I lost interest

Dream job? no idea, I go where the winds of life blow me. I mean, in an ideal world (where my knees don't suck) I supposed I would have loved to be a graveyard gardener for the rest of my life. that was my favourite time at work ever. OR if we lived in a different time, maybe a lighthouse keeper. sometimes I still dream of that, or of roaming some deep dark woods and I feel so very at peace

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 25: Daria Music Resource

I was reading a reddit thread about where Daria and Jane’s music tastes might diverge because that’s what happens when you go down internet rabbit holes on the weekend, and since I’d already sort of been thinking about characters’ canonical music tastes, I thought I’d make a list. A lot of people seemed to think Daria would be into death metal, which was never the vibe I got, but to each their own. There were also one or two people who said classical music; I got that vibe even less. And at least one who said she didn’t listen to music—unrelatable, truly, and anyway there’s headphones and a CD player included as part of the perpetual clutter on her bedroom floor, so I think it’s fairly obvious she does. But there were also some interesting points made that I would accept as headcanons, or that merged with some of my own ‘I have no evidence for this but it’s the vibe for sure’ thoughts that I’d already had.

Personally, I think their music tastes are very similar and if they diverge it’s because Daria likes some stuff that’s more obscure and weirder. I think Jane has a wider, broader taste, and I also think she’s probably more into music—she has the big-ass stereo in her room, the musician brother, the headphones she wears while running, etc.

But what I wanted to do really was more along the lines of a resource based in textual evidence, to start off with. I definitely think people should just use the general vibes of things, or what is most relatable to them, for headcanons, but I also really like being able to base headcanons and other beliefs in the text and there’s more evidence than one might think. One confusing point is that the show has—or had, haha, in its original run—a LOT of music in it, because in every scene that would usually just have a TV score they were using recently released music instead. I do not count any of this background music as specifically indicative of a character’s taste unless it’s shown to be playing in a way they can hear. In a very general sense, sure, the music played in Daria the TV show might be indicative of the musical taste of Daria the character—but that music is pretty eclectic, so it’s quite wishy-washy as evidence.

So, here’s what I’ve found:

Daria:

Boss Hog – written on a CD in Dara’s bedroom in Café Disaffecto; I might be reading this wrong since it looks a little like “Boss HxxS” where the X’s are illegible, but I can’t think of who else it could be

Bog Men — written on a CD in the same scene

Also in this scene is a CD that looks like it has “Delta” written on it, idk what this is, and a partial title “GH” at the end of a word.

The Beatles – gives Ted a tape of The Beatles in The New Kid

Jane:

Boss Hog – big poster in her room visible in multiple episodes

The Foo Fighters – Color and the Shape poster in, I want to say IICY, or something else toward the end of the series

The Presidents of the United States – Peaches was playing in her room when Daria walked in on her and Tom in DDMD (this is per Outpost Daria; I can’t personally identify it in the fan-restored version or remember it from when I first watched the show)

10Speed – Jane was listening to Space Queen in her headphones when ‘speed walking’ with Helen in Lane Miserables

NY Loose – Spit playing on Jane’s stereo in Esteemsters during the commercial break before Sick Sad World

Radiohead - listening to Paranoid Android through headphones in The Misery Chick

Theme from the Poseidon Adventure - favorite song per Sappy Anniversary

Trent:

Korn – poster on his wall in That Was Then, This is Dumb

Slipknot – poster on his wall in the same episode

Nirvana – he’s practicing the intro to Come as You Are, per Jane, in The Invitation

General alternative/grunge – Jane refers to the Zen as a “grunge club” (Ill) and Trent and Jesse want to go to the Alternapalooza (Lolapalooza c. 1997) in Road Worrier; this probably also applies to Jane, who invited herself to go with them, and possibly Daria as well

Jake and Helen:

Jake, showtunes – he’s singing Give My Regards to Broadway in The Teachings of Don Jake and talks about his own attempt at writing a musical in The Story of D

Helen, Joni Mitchell – quotes Big Yellow Taxi in the flashback in The Teachings of Don Jake

60s Classic Rock – they did not go to Woodstock, but Jake was at Altamont, where artists like Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and The Rolling Stones played. Also… they were hippies. Enough said.

That’s all I can remember for now. As far as headcanons go, I definitely think Daria would be into some classic rock through her parents. I think Jane would be into post-punk like Joy Division (personal major hc for me lol). I think they’d both be into punk, grunge, alternative stuff; that seems to fit with the bands they actually are shown to be listening to. I’m neither the right age nor the right level of coolness to name names lmao but I think these bands and the other bands used in the show (with the caveat above that they aren’t canon interests technically and with a priority to scenes with the character in them) would be a good place to start spinning out headcanons or brainstorming band names for fic purposes etc.

[what-if-nct]

So good morning, friend! I come bearing another NCT related dream. Very short though:

I was back in the realm of NCT X, cause I was finishing practicing a routine with my girls, and the 127 boys were practicing after us. This was a completely different building and everything though, so idk what’s up with that, but I remember staying behind a bit and seeing Jungwoo practicing with Mark and Yuta I think, and some Hulk Hogan looking man came up to me and asked what I was looking at. I was confused who he was and just said, my band mates.

Then, a female manager came up to Jungwoo and said something (I couldn’t hear because apparently I was outside a glass window/door) and I just saw him GO OFF. He kept pointing and gesticulating something over and over. Whatever he was saying obviously bothered him to his core, because even the manager looked scared and upset.

I was so confused about what was going on. I looked at the Hulk Hogan man and I asked him if he had any idea what’s happening. He responded back “it’s none of our business so all you need to worry about is keep dancing and looking pretty.” I was so appalled and flabbergasted. I almost punched him. However, my manager came up just in time and took me away. I turned and asked my manager, “do you know why Jungwoo is so upset?” My manager told me that it had something to do with another female idol in the company but to not worry about it, it was being handled. I didn’t like that answer and I wanted to investigate further, but apparently I was told that I was needed for a photo shoot with the entire group.

I went out and I ended up seeing Johnny and Ten and I wanted to stand next to Johnny for the picture, but Ten wouldn’t let me. He claimed that I have been avoiding him the entire duration of being in NCT so I offered to standby him, and I even hugged him. I have nothing against him. I don’t know why he would say this.

I also kept saying that I felt like there were more people than what we currently have, and not only was it the new dongsaengs, but also RIIZE and it made me cry to see Sungchan and Shotaro back with their papas and uncles again. Also my unit was there, and Shoko kept messing with someone I didn’t recognize. It was my IRL crush. And I was like, “whatchu doing here man?!”

That’s all I remember cause then the old Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond was taking over my dream begging for youth and then something something, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. But that was my dream, no explanation

Wait okay so now I'm invested with what was going on with Jungwoo and that girl, the drama and no answers, you gotta ask Jungwoo cause I wanna know. And no like he low-key deserved to be punch cause what? Like let you be nosy for a second. And Ten being upset you haven't paid attention to him, and you having to give him extra affection to reassure him is so cute. Okay this is only reinstating RIIZE is just a secret NCT unit like once neo always neo nothing can change that. They're a part of NCT, that's it. Plus they are so chaotic on TikTok and aware of the chaos they're creating like I love them. Also the conflicting unrelated voice over during the dream I can only imagine it being so cluttered. My Taeil dream last night was my first NCT dream in a while. My dreams have been weird lately like super disjointed and vague cause I keep waking up in the middle of the night.

[fullmetaldroid]

I was gonna keep this in the tags but idk I feel like trying to articulate it better so heck whatever

I don’t know how to feel about most of these. I think the way Tumblr is right now works really well for the existing userbase (from what I can see at least), and any talk of changes this big makes me worried about it losing it’s unique feel. 

More so than chronological feed vs. algorithm-based feed (Twitter also has the option of seeing posts chronologically!), these points make it clear that the intention is making Tumblr a website that can appeal to and retain new users. Which, you know, fair! It’s understandable! It’s what everyone else is doing.

And that is exactly what makes me skeptical because yes, Tumblr has gone through big changes in the past. But in the current context going through big changes could very much mean trying to engage in direct competition with every other big social media website. And I could be wrong because I mostly use Tumblr but idk I feel like every other social media website for the past like 5 years has felt very... samey?

Tumblr is appealing to me because of it’s different and unique experience. It’s very weird and unhinged, but also very chill and relaxed somehow. The way people interact with posts here is completely unmatched by any other website. It creates this sense of humor, and even sense of interaction in reblogs that can’t be replicated. The way things are displayed is a HUGE determining factor to the kind of, pardon the term, “content” that is made here. To me at least it’s even weird talking about tumblr posts in terms of content in the first place! Is there really such a confusion about likes and reblogs? Is it really difficult to follow the conversations on posts? Or do these just work differently here?

Removing “clutter” in the conversations? What does that mean? How many existing iconic posts will be affected by this? How will that change the way interaction happens in reblogs? What even IS considered clutter? And by who??

There’s also... the talk about searches landing within blog networks and blog view and that making people not wanting to keep using tumblr. Does that mean... Seeing the unique ways people customize their blogs is not appealing?? Would they rather make everyone have the same layout the same as in every other social media instead of profiles being interesting ways of self expression? I suck at this so my blog layout is really bland, but I’ve seen some genuinely amazing things people have done with the way their blogs work, and that was one of the things  that made Tumblr interesting in the first place.

Anyway there’s a million other things that can be pointed out in this post by staff, and I’m sure other people will do just that. What I want to express the most is my concern that in pursuing these changes, trying to appeal to everybody in the way other social media websites do, Tumblr will shoot itself in the foot losing the things that make its existing dedicated userbase be so dedicated in the first place. It could become the same-y, uninteresting, uninspired, generic flavor of bland of everything else. 

Stop trying to be the next Twitter, stop trying to be the direct competitor of Instagram or tiktok or whatever. Make changes that will benefit the experience of the current users and their interests. I agree that being more  accessible to new users is important, but it shouldn’t happen by taking out the things that are unique to Tumblr and deeming them unmarketable. Sorry for rambling, hope any this makes sense. As I said, I’m still trying to understand how I feel about these. Most of these are so vague I can’t even imagine what they could mean.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[like-wuatafauq]

OH SORRY that's totally my bad, I read your reply last night when I was super sleepy so I must've jumbled up the details in my head >:(

But now that I think about it... 22 years wouldn't even make sense romantically speaking IDK what I was thinking 😭

Your dad is absolutely horrible for abandoning you like that though. I'm so sorry you had to go through something so painful. You don't deserve that kind of heartbreak and betrayal from a parent. That's just unforgivable :(((

But woah 8 years of pining romantically is still a really long time...

I feel you on being hopeful about finding real love someday. Don't put too much pressure on yourself about running out of time! 24 is still pretty young in the grand scheme of things. Plenty of time for your soulmate to come along ^^

And in the meantime if you're looking for volunteers... I mean I'd be happy to keep you company :D

Oops! Haha... just kidding... unless...🧍‍♀️

And I totally get not vibing with media that glamorizes something like love triangles or player behavior but Nana has a special place in my heart because it helped me get through some really tough times years ago. It also made me realize I had super heavy comphet back then LOL

Speaking of... you mentioned your English isn't very good. Does that mean you have a different native language? If so, what is it? :O

AND HAPPY PRIDE MONTH BTW!!!

From ♡

It's okay sometimes I answer asks really late too. And yeah I always hear that "you're still so young to find love" except in my mind if I want a family someday I have to build up trust with someone and its already hard for me to believe ppl.

As for ppl keeping me company, honestly I think I'm gonna wait it out, if my soulmate finds me I want her to know I waited for her. If she wants her spot warm then I'll be the only one sitting there.

And then she can sit on top of me when she gets here

Lmaoooo I'm so sorry about that,

But as for the Nana I'm glad that helped you :) fr fr ,don't get me wrong I love the art and a lot of the cute pictures of them together but when I find out more about it I get dizzy. (I genuinely get physical sickness when things involve player stuff)

And I mean I'm fluent in English it's not some drastic thing cuz I type/speak often in English but it's just I look up a lot of words meaning almost every single day. And if someone speaks quickly I might not fully catch it. I often don't understand phrases or words someone tells me. ive tried googling the phrases but google doesnt understand what im asking 🥲 in my mind I have English words cluttered in groups so a lot of the times I misused them when I speak or write. I feel so so so so bad when I do that.

For example one time I wanted to tell someone "I don't want you to think I'm codependent" because i was trying to express how i would like to have them around all the time but if you want space id like them to enjoy it(jfc even now i cant word it properly), anyway the point is I forgot the word codependent so I typed "I don't want you or need you"......yeah it was bad bro.

When me and my bestie were roommates I would say stuff and he thought I was mad but it's just my tone I say it and the words I use. I fuck up sooooo bad I'm constantly apologizing to ppl. So im fluent its just wonky but My native language is Spanish tho :)

Happy pride month to you too!!!

Do you have any pride month plans??