#this is the last post on the queue for now also! wow!

[aegis-elle]

Lately I’ve been doodling my catsona Alba a lot, she’s just really really fun to draw!!

[marciliedonato]

lmao just noticed one of those big-ish curator blogs blocked me and at first I was like '??? why lol what did I do when sndjdjfhf' and then I saw a post of theirs and remembered the other day since I was out of content for my sideblog queue and had a bunch of stuff back in august bc I have so much in my likes that was buried that I wanted to bring back up so I was mass liking old likes from early last month but I only remember that one post of theirs and they prob have a lot of followers/a lot of notifs so I'm just like why me lmaoooo like why me specifically ....also you're a curator....and posting on the 'liking posts' website....my brother in christ idk what to tell you tbh......

[jaggedcliffs]

#yeah like #he’s feminine bc 1) he’s been put in a role that was reserved for female characters #2) the skills he uses to survive are the skills women were more expected to have and also the only skills they may actually have #women weren’t wanted or expected to be able to get out of Situations with physical strength and intimidation #or even necessarily logical tactical strategizing skills #what women were expected to do was keep sweet and be quiet and obedient and avoid pissing him off in direct confrontation #and yeah the reactions to him are so blatantly misogynistic and also homophobic tbh #like Motherfucker did you read the book? he lived!!!! he got out alive!!! (via @citizen-zero)

Okay so, tis the season of "Jonathan is a gothic heroine and also very feminized in Dracula's castle" and I would agree with these sentiments wholeheartedly, but when I look at how he is treated in adaptations (good and bad) and even in some well-meaning fics there's this sort of sexist undercurrent to feminizing him that ignores and undervalues the real skills he is employing to keep himself alive and it always bugs me. Alan Moore calls him a milksop (? Or was that Coppola) and Mark Gatiss calls him a wet noodle and it's just. He is a damsel in distress and he's very skilled and resourceful and active and trying to help himself. When he has his panic attack, and then sits down and thinks what he has to do, and decides that he should try to find out more about the Count and spends dinner that evening tactfully asking questions that keep the Count talking- like that's huge! That's a hugely important thing to do and it shows his interpersonal skills very well and that is not to be undervalued. Like if all you're going to do with a fem!Jonathan is keep him in Mina's purse you've really missed the mark, and you're ignoring his skillset. Only someone who is good at regulating their emotions, good at reading people, good at intuiting desired behavior, good at pretending could survive this. An assertive, direct approach to this situation would get Jonathan killed super fast. His "feminine" qualities are keeping him alive, and I want to see this aspect appreciated more than I do.

Also... I get why "feminine" and "masculine" qualities are called that, and I super agree that society deems things like emotional intelligence girly and so that needs to be discussed- but as someone who loves to read and write Mina in a masculine role and Jonathan in a feminine role... that's not exactly how I think about it tbh. Like to me the point is: emotional intelligence is obviously both masculine and feminine because Jonathan is emotionally intelligent and a man, not "Jonathan is a femboy." Like "feminine" qualities and "masculine" qualities have a societal meaning but in practice they're bullshit because both genders are capable of all qualities you know? And in my opinion that's what stories that play with gender roles should be saying.

[bomberqueen17]

looks like i picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines

no no that's a quote from the movie airplane. i tried amphetamines, by prescription, and i know i didn't find them particularly helpful, but i don't remember why. i've spent the last couple of weeks aggressively checked out of reality almost completely lost in my attempts to write a novel about solarpunk tall ships and the hot bisexuals who sail them, and that has been hella fun (i should share a snippet sometime. i will.) but it also means my car is still overdue for inspection and i need to figure out how to pay my physical therapy bill and i have several other urgent tasks piled up plus i still have an enormous quantity of luggage and things i removed from my cabin to winterize it piled in my house's entryway etc. so.

so anyway i've resumed amphetamines, since i had a two-week supply and only took one of them. and we'll see how that goes.

(yeah other friends of mine who've gotten diagnoses have had doctors insist on them monitoring their like, cardiac health or blood pressure with these, and it is slightly surprising to me that nobody has asked me about those things, but on the other hand, i seem to have been fine, so i guess this is ok. i found this guy through my insurance company so this isn't like. well. i don't know. it's the finest supervision i can get through my shitty insurance i guess.)

anyway. tall ships bisexuals is actually going pretty well but extremely disorganizedly. i need to get that under some kind of control.

i bought a stand mixer but haven't gotten it yet.

I also just forgot what i was going to write here, so this is going really well, score another one for the vyvanse. yes yes i'm keeping a comprehensive journal.

wow no really i don't remember where i was going with this. heck! welp. oh yeah no, i've been queueing enormous numbers of political posts and then going back and deleting them as unhelpful, so you're welcome. facebook memories helpfully showed me my post from eight years ago on this topic and mostly i'm like oh wow i was on facebook eight years ago? but if i look, mostly i was not. lol i signed up for facebook almost twenty years ago and decided it was Not For Me almost fifteen years ago and it still sends me twenty emails a day about my friends it's holding hostage, this is kind of amazing. anyway.

well i've been sitting here trying to lure my agitated cat to sit down and kick me out of the recliner, and after literally half an hour it has finally worked. so, off i go to drink like three gallons of water because that is the one thing i remember about being on meth that was really really important. you think "ah i need some more water" and you pour yourself a cup of it and it's gone and you're like "where did that go" so you drink three more cups and then you're like "wow i'm thirsty did i forget to drink water" and you wind up drinking incredible amounts of water and never peeing so. anyway that's a lot easier now that it's winter and i'm living someplace with running water, so. thumbs up.

woof i took a multivitamin and a fish oil capsule at the same time and i can taste that fish oil capsule, well done me =_=

[evajellion]

Mean Bean Tsuu Demo Review

Wow, cool. This is a thing that exists as a work in progress. Gonna shoot my shot and give criticism while praising some stuff, as I do.

Biggest praise right away, love the graphic and soundtrack adjustments to to the main gameplay. The remix of Green Hill Zone is great. The main three now also use the final boss theme that Dr. Robotnik had. It's a neat touch.

Actual criticism I have (that isn't the lack of offset rules, they are gonna add that in the full game) so far is that apparently this game is going to follow "a story more in line with that of Japanese Classic Sonic canon"…

I mean not for nothing, but the whole appeal of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine is that it's set in the AoStH universe and has the characters. I would lean more into that aspect than just using generic Badnik designs. I asked what some other peeps thought, and they agreed.

I love the effort put into Coconuts, but… as much flack as DiC gets, I definitely always thought this design was an upgrade from Sonic 2 to the cartoon.

There is room for compromising the designs, which would have been to use the reboot Archie comic one-

But yeah, I mean, I would have reskinned Humpty into DOS Holiday instead of altering Coconuts for the demo. And of course, I think they should just use characters from the cartoon. AoStH does have good designs despite how out there they are.

Also- not criticism, but damn, how do you expect me to pick on poor Humpty when he's so sweet? I could never. 😭

Not sure if the fan favorites are gonna be removed from the final, that doesn't bode well, given how popular Davy Sprocket always was with deviantArt users.

One last thing I would like to go over, is that although the game is based on Puyo Puyo Tsu, it probably isn't going to have the… frankly, insane roster it had for the time. A whooping 33 opponents (37 in the Sega Saturn one), with a score system that determined how quickly you can get through the game. That's a tall order that no one could easily fulfill unless you reskin Puyo Tsu in its entirety.

But I do hope the full game does at least have more than 13 opponents, and includes the "first boss of the first game becomes a penultimate enemy" that was done with Draco. Arms deserves a redemption arc. :)

Besides offsetting, I hope they add the rest of the Puyo Tsu features such as "ALL CLEAR", Rule Henka (Point Puyo and Hard Puyo), and how crazy the nuisance queue can get.

Maybe also make a silly name for the title, since the whole "tsu" thing only works in Japanese. "Robotnik's Eggspertise Machine"? "Mean Bean Part 2: Electric Boogaloo?" I dunno.

So yeah, dunno if anyone from SHC will see this post. I don't have an account there and joining the Discord makes me nervous, so this is just a drop in the ocean I'm making here lol.

Hope my silly yaps are taken into consideration. If not, then that's okay too. We AoStH fans will take anything at this rate.

Demo can be found here if anyone wants to try it out.

[moonchild-in-blue]

*ahem*

I'm

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

💙🌙🌷🍊🦋💫🥺🍓🌧️🐸💖🌈🍷🌝☔🌊

Hello hello hello hi hello I'm here I'm back no longer on timeout helloooooooo 🥹💃🤸‍♀️

I've missed you all sooooo much muwah muwah how is everyone doing babes??

I'm gonna be going through my tags and stuff today so bear with me. Let me know if I've missed anything important or funny or silly or whatever. Or idk, say hi if you wanna 🥺👉👈

IN THE MEANTIME, I have at last gone through my ask box! There was a lot! Wow, am I bad at this!! At least you'll get plenty of doodles from me (most of them are sky/moon pictures because of course they are).

I don't want to spam you all babes, so I have scheduled them to be posted* throughout this week starting tomorrow 💙 queue will also be back on tomorrow

* (there are about 2 or 3 or so that I will be hoarding for a little longer, but with all of this done, I can at last spend a little extra focus on them 🥹 if there's anything I missed I apologise 🩷)

NOW, I have quite a few drafts I made during these past 2 weeks. They are weird and cringe and highly specific. I'm gonna post them all today / tomorrow because I don't want to deal with them any longer. Sorry but also not sorry 😌✌️

I'm giving them a "Timeout Drafts" tag so you know these don't necessarily reflect my mood for today (most likely they do - i stand by my opinions lmaoo).

Uhhhhhhhh and that's that I guess? Happy Halloween and all! 🎃🍂🍁 Today is hot as balls (damn heatwave), and I'm not having a wonderful time (also on my mensies 🥺) but hey. At least it's for a short time, I'm very looking forward to hoa hoa hoa weather.

Hmmmm what else, what else. I changed my blog a little, it looks cute! My ukulele arrived and SONGS are being LEARNT (learned? meh).

Hmmm, I catched up on a lot of shows. I've already posted my reviews on TUA S4 (🤢🥴💔💀🥲) and KAOS (🥹💖😚🥰❤️‍🔥) (i am indeed re-watching it), but I also finished Emily In Paris (LOVE the Italian guy, second part was much better than the 1st), and FINALLY watched S2 of Fleabag (oh my GOD YOU GUYS!!! I AM IN SHAMBLES!!! WOAH!!! PAIN AND AGONY!!! 🥺💔).

Uhhhhhhhhhh I think that's it. I need to cut my hair and bangs. Hope everyone has been eating good and drinking water and missing me a lot 😤🫵

====☁️=====☁️=====🌞======☁️==

🌲🌳🌲_🍄_🐇🦫_🧃🥪🧁🍇_🐿️🦔🐁_🍄_🌲🌳🌲

🌱 forest friends having a delicious picnic 🌱

[clover-system]

Allow us to introduce ourselves

Half a year active, over a hundred followers, the majority of which are veteran tumblers from that one 60k note explosion, and we still haven't properly introduced ourselves. Time to fix that.

We are Clover, an endogenic plural system. That means we are multiple people sharing one brain and body, and we aren't plural because of trauma. We do not have DID. (nor do the vast majority of endos)

I am Bethany, the headmate who fronts the most. Bethany is not my real name, but it could've been, and it's an alias I've been using for a few years.

Edit 2024 August 1: Quincy split into Eliza and Mia. Eliza's egg opened easily. Mine crumbled painfully. We now share the host role and this blog. There isn't much difference between us; we both inherited Quincy's memories.

Edit September 18: I live.

Edit November 12: Quincy & Eliza merged into Bethany.

There are a lot of people on here who say that it's impossible for a plural system to form without trauma, but as you may have seen from our syscourse (system discourse (expect a lot of sys- compounds)) reblogs, they rarely cite any credible sources, and that's because they're wrong. I am not a LARPer and I do not claim to have DID. This really is every hour of my life, online and offline. If you have any more questions about plurality, feel free to send me an ask.

Though if we're talking about origins, "not from trauma" is overly vague for my taste. If we're really talking about how the system formed, I prefer "dreamgenic", because everyone originated from some combination of nightdreams and immersive daydreams which I had varying levels of control over.

The second most active headmate, Victoria Penelope, has her own blog @victoria-penelope-clover. She posts more infrequently, when she's able to front/cofront/proxy, and is currently mostly focused on syscourse, with occasional slices of life. She's my older syster.

Headcount is currently in the upper teens. Some more may be mentioned occasionally but I'd rather not have a list of private details about everyone easily accessible here for anyone to see. For the most part, all you'll see every once in a while is some colored text indicating a distinct voice.

Anyway, enough plural stuff! Now for typical bio stuff!

Fleed Reddit to come here and wow Tumblr is way better. Always happy to commune with fellow Rexxitors!

For obsession I circle between Chess, Minecraft, Geometry Dash, Warrior Cats, and Undertale. Fandoms I am on the edge of getting sucked into include The Amazing Digital Circus and Death Note. I also plan to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender at some point. Ever since our syscovery, I've consumed next to no fiction for fear of more headmates.

I have a few projects in the works but I've promised myself that I won't post them publicly until I've actually made substantial progress!

No DNI! Maybe it's just because I'm not jaded by years of wasted time with unproductive trolls, but I think assuming someone is in bad faith just because they disagree with you about something heated is bad actually, partly because I've seen what happens and how long progress takes when left-of-center people generally refuse to interact with, for example, transphobes. Relatedly, I will only block you if I think you're a bot or if you really, really fuck up.

Do not be surprised if I casually shit on something you believe in without warning.

I have an ever-growing queue set to post five times per day, and I try not to post too much more than that. I also try to keep my dash at less than 100 posts per day, which is apparently uncommon here.

Reblog reblog reblog! Not just my posts, but everyone (unless you have a good reason not to, like with this intro post). Reblogs are what keep Tumblr alive! Likes do next to nothing.

That's all for now! If you have any more questions, send me an ask and I might add it to this post!

[nagumoshoma]

tag game ✨

i was tagged by my beloved esme @itsallaboutbl, thank you!!

1. why did you choose your url?

i'm in love with him HAHAHAH he's the best

2. any sideblogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

i have two kpop blogs @kimjaehan and @joyirene, and a cottage blog for comfort etc @rinscottage <3

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

since i was 12 which was 2008. omg.

4. do you have a queue tag?

not a special one, just #q.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

this one is a space for me to be crazy on main about my gay little blorbos :D

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

bc he is everything to me genuinely one of the characters of all time

7. why did you choose your header?

every day i think about 'i cannot reach you' rooftop scene so that's my header bc i want to look at their hands forever and ever

8. what is your post with the most notes?

it's from my old blog but it's a gifset of king from bed friend getting railed :D

9. how many mutuals do you have?

idk how to find that out dkfhds

10. how many followers do you have?

on this blog i just hit 350! which is bonkers bc i'm the worst most inconsistent irritating little fucker known to man dfkjhd also it's a newish blog so wow, i sincerely appreciate u guys though <3

11. how many people do you follow?

200 i think ksjfk last time i checked!!

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

i think in all my time on tumblr i probably have but i don't remember

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

literally all day skdfhks i check it so much

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

no omg i'm too shy but my sister did call someone a cunt on my behalf one time bc they were harrassing me omg that was a while ago now

15. how do you feel about 'you need to reblog this' posts?

i don't like being pressured into reblogging things but i understand why people create them, i just reblog the things i want to.

16. do you like tag games?

i LIVE for them they're so much fun omg when i get tagged in games i get so happy

17. do you like ask games?

they're fine but i'm shy so it takes me a while to answer bc i get nervous about saying smth dumb

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

omg mona @thitiponqs, which is so well deserved bc she makes fantastic content and is inspo for a lot of other gifmakers on tumblr <3

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

all of them omg but notably @sanvees, @benzatthanin, @cankersoregirl, @zhouxiangs, @itsallaboutbl, @patchanons, @sherrymagic, @chersoyei, @bibimbinge, @pharawee, @blmpff, @puppy-phum.. the list goes on and on like i genuinely love everyone so much i could list my entire following list sjhfkds

20. tags?

everyone i mentioned in question 19, consider yourselves tagged <3

[a-lovely-christmas]

year update: my absence

wow guys...it's been several months since my last post. i promise this is not a dead account, and i do plan to continue it's livelihood. this past year has just been absolutely insane, and i had a lot of distractions keeping me away from my blog. where to even start?

so, i was hospitalized last december (the week before christmas) for a kidney infection and sepsis (blood infection). it was very sudden and very scary, but i made it home in time for the holidays and have been relatively healthy since.

i'm not sure if i had posted an update about this before, but i went through a hard breakup with someone i had been with for four years at the end of last october. then subsequently went through the most brutal 6 month situationship that ended last may.

i'm currently in a new relationship, coming up on 2 months "official", 3 months of dating. he is the sweetest person i have ever been with, he treats me so well (better than i deserve), and things are going wonderfully.

i graduated college with my bachelors in psychology in april, and started a new job in the field working as a psychiatric technician in june. it is an extremely challenging position and has caused a lot of stress on my mental health and a lot of hardships for my day to day life.

im working in a residential adult foster home for individuals simultaneously diagnosed with both at least one intellectual disability and one mental illness. while it is, like i said, extremely challenging... it is also very rewarding. and it is something i feel very passionately about.

that's just a snapshot of my life the past several months, my birthday is coming up this tuesday (about to be feelin' 22!). i hope to be a LOT more active, especially as summer starts to wind down and the colder, cozier months approach us.

moral of the story...this is not a dead account (and i hope, despite it being the year 2024, that tumblr is still a decently alive app). christmas and my blog are two things that hold a lot of love and light in my life and in my heart. i'm going to work on building back up my queue and answering any abandoned asks, messages, etc.

i encourage all my followers to help me in this through simply interacting. likes, reblogs, comments, messages, asks, and everything above and in between are so encouraging. recommendations for other active holiday blogs are highly wanted and appreciated as the majority of those i follow have been inactive for quite a time now.

thanks so much for sticking with me through this, and for taking the time to read my ranting. and, as always, may your blogs be merry and bright <3

[fanby-fckry]

Ignore what I said about queuing this. I wrote the rest of this post when I was in a better headspace; now I’m petty and pissed off, so I dug into my queue and grabbed it.

Do you ever get hate from a stranger on a post and wonder… How did you even find this post??

Still getting used to the idea that fandom antis will apparently purposefully browse the tags of the thing they hate because it seems so genuinely pointless to me, but ok. I’m starting to understand that some people just choose to be angry, I guess.

But what blows my fucking mind is that I got hate on a vent post???

I don’t tag my vent posts with anything but my tags and content warnings. And I tag them #[topic] cw so it’s not like people are finding them in the main tags for that thing.

Reblogs are turned off, so it didn’t get thrown onto their dash by someone they follow that follows me and reblogged it in good faith.

So this person had to:

Choose a thing to be intentionally hateful about.

Choose to search not just for that thing, but instead to search #thing cw.

Find a post made 12 hours ago with 5 notes on it.

Decide, Yup, time to be an asshole!

I try to assume ignorance before malice. I try to assume someone’s having a bad day before I assume they went out of their way to be an asshole.

But I genuinely do not understand how you could accidentally stumble upon an unrebloggable vent post only tagged with cw tags.

How?? Why??? Wtf?? Why do you even care? Do you gain anything from this? Does this make you happy?

Or are you scrolling, seething about how much you hate, hate, hate a certain group of people? Are you clenching your jaw? Is your blood pressure rising? Do you need to take a break and do some breathing exercises?

Fucking go touch grass.

I’m writing this post for the same reason I made my other vent post: because it helps me process. Sometimes, I just need to scream into the void without bugging my partners or taking up time in my therapy sessions. And sometimes, my mutuals comfort and/or commiserate, which is nice.

But I genuinely cannot think of a world in which hate-scrolling an obscure tag would in any way positively impact my life or anyone else’s.

The last time I hate-scrolled, it was through a repost account in an attempt to go find all the original artists that the blog had stollen art from. I found one, and a few other artists had already been tagged, but eventually, I got so angry I couldn’t focus anymore.

So I stopped. I blocked the account. I moved on.

And the only reason I didn’t do that from the start was because it was genuinely helping someone for me to hate-scroll. It helped the artist I contacted. If I had been the first to get to a few other works I recognized, it would’ve helped those artists too.

I also didn’t seek out this blog; one of their stollen posts showed up on my dash and I went, Wow, that’s stollen art! Time to go fuck shit up!

Who does it benefit when you seek out other people’s posts when you know the content is upsetting to you, just to hate on them? What does that accomplish besides marginally increasing the suffering in this already shitty world?

Queueing this rather than posting it so that it won’t be obvious which vent post I’m talking about, but holy fuck this makes me feel things.

[ursogoldenn]

omg i lowkey forgot about this blog, i havent posted in a while even the queue died out i think lmao

i think i should just say about today is that ummm... so zel and millie are gone. of course im happy for them and im glad that theyre focusing on themselves and are gonna be happy but omg im gonna miss them so much :(( def didnt cry when i first saw millie's post 😅😅 then i decided that i should distract myself and opened netflix to finish dead boy detectives but the last two episodes were FUCKING DEPRESSING AND NOW IM EVEN SADDER but im fine i think. ill be fine. we all have lives outside of tumblr and im so glad that people are doing what's best for them :)

but ughh how i hate school and this time of year close to exams and finals where everyone is busy and also just winter and the mental stuff that comes with the cold season </3 i do hope that everyone stays safe and takes care of themselves. tho selfishly i do wish people would just take a break from tumblr instead of deactivating, i completely understand.

this wasn't meant to get long. but wow. i just... didn't expect that when i woke up today.

any moots who see this ilysm and i always will <33

[waitmyturtles]

A post-Only Friends Old GMMTV Challenge update! Let's do it this:

1) Tomorrow, I unleash a long review of Love of Siam, a seminal film from 2007 that has long had artistic influence on the Thai television BL genre. I only wish I had watched this film chronologically from the start, because I think it's clear that it's had a ton of impact on Thai BLs since the genre was born. It's a tough film, but well worth watching, and I got very nerdy about it. Many thanks to the dear friend @bengiyo for reading my post in advance and for recommending the film as a must-watch for the project. Despite its toughness -- it was fantastically done.

2) Later this week, I'll post a review of a very. different. kind of movie. in 2014's My Bromance, which I took on to learn more about yaoi tropes in Thai queer media, and to see Fluke Teerapat and Fluke Natouch in pre-BL roles. Woof.

3) Last week, I DEVOURED Tee Bundit's Lovely Writer -- Y'AAAALLLLLLLLL! I'm just like! If you read around here regularly, you KNOW how pissed off I was about Step By Step, and I hadn't even seen Lovely Writer yet, which now explains to me why a lot of folks stuck around with SBS. I'm just like. HOW did the SAME FILMMAKER make TharnType, AND Lovely Writer, AND SBS? I have no clue. But Lovely Writer was SHARP, LAYERED, SMART as hell, managing MANY THEMES with artistic fluency. The special episode was also well worth watching -- and that was at the usually-expected Tee Bundit length of nearly two hours! When I get to reviewing LW, I will focus heavily on the show itself, but I'm just like, WOW, Tee, my dude, whoa. What's going on there.

4) I have a few reviews in the queue coming up over the next few weeks: Manner of Death, A Tale of Thousand Stars rewatch, and Lovely Writer. I've pressed pause on the OGMMTVC for one hot second to CONSUME Jojo Tichakorn's The Warp Effect as prep for Only Friends, and fuck, am I glad I did -- I will throw out a review of TWE in the midst of all of this.

5) And finally! Whoa, whoa! Last Twilight in Phuket and I Promised You The Moon is on deck for my viewing pleasure this week. Teh's looking at Only Friends, being like -- crazy game meets crazy game, playas! See y'all tomorrow with a Love of Siam review in hand!

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Now That's What I Call Music! 8 2001 R&B / Pop / Teen Pop / Alternative Rock / Pop-Punk / Post-Grunge

Welp, folks, it looks like we're nearing the end of the earliest days for this beloved flagship series that's known for constantly delivering reproductions of the day's biggest pop hits, but I still have a couple more of these albums in my queue to enjoyably sift through. And just like the other seven installments that precede this one, Now That's What I Call Music! 8 also makes for a pretty great trip down commercial radio memory lane as well 😍.

But before we dive right on into it, how about we have some nostalgic fun with the ad for this release first? See, If you had placed an order for Now 8 by credit card or with check-debit, you'd also receive a free limited edition collector's box that you could store all of your other Now CDs in too! Wow! How considerate! Thanks Now! 😎💖

But we actually start off on a few somber notes here... 😔

Now 8 was the first dispatch from the main series to be released after 9/11, and so, I feel like the inclusion of its final track, U2's "Walk On," which never even made it onto Billboard's Hot 100 chart, was done solely in order to try to console an American psyche that had been deeply wounded at that time. "Walk On" was released as a single in February of 2001, and was actually about the plight of Burmese peace activist Aung San Suu Kyi—who, years later, would despicably do nothing as Myanmar's head of state to address the genocide of Rohingya Muslims that her own military was perpetrating—but in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the song found itself resonating with a lot of Americans, serving a sudden and newfound purpose as an anthem of perseverance for them.

And that's pretty much undoubtedly why Now chose this song to close out the album. Had 9/11 not happened, this comp's last track would've probably been a song that had actually charted on the Hot 100. But because this album was slated to release in November of '01, the Now brass probably thought it best to end with a song that could acknowledge that then-current moment of anguish and turmoil, rather than awkwardly and tone-deafly just loading up their CD with fun pop hits from the summer that had just passed.

But less than three weeks before 9/11, R&B star Aaliyah had also tragically passed in a plane crash after filming the video for her beautifully soft and sensual, final single, "Rock the Boat" too. So Now not only included that song on this release, but they dedicated the whole album to Aaliyah's memory, and also donated part of the proceeds from the triple-platinum seller to her memorial fund as well.

And last with the sadness, rest in peace to the great Steve Harwell. I absolutely despised your band's cover of The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" when I first heard it (which appears on this album), but I still genuinely dug your work more than most are willing to admit, and really also loved the critique you had about the commodification of social movements in "Walkin' On the Sun," which is something that many people probably overlooked because they had nothing nice to say about your band that, unfortunately, became a Shrek meme. At the end of the day, Smash Mouth made a bunch of fun music, man 😞.

OK, on to the rest of this album...

So, the album cover for this release says it comes with 20 chart-topping hits, but in reality, only three of these were actually Hot 100 #1s. There's Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious," which, to go with their Survivor album's theme, intended to use the opening guitar stutter from "Eye of the Tiger"—by the band *Survivor*—but had to settle for Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen" instead; Usher's "U Got It Bad" ballad; and Joe's "Stutter," which isn't actually the most famous version of the song, but is the "Double Take Remix" instead, that was done by Allen "Allstar" Gordon Jr., and sampled both the iconic west coast alternative rap classic, "Passin' Me By," by The Pharcyde, as well as the song that that song itself sampled, Quincy Jones' "Summer in the City." And it also features now-canceled rapper Mystikal, which represents his third overall appearance in this series.

And speaking of remixes and samples, the famous Murder Inc. remix of J.Lo's "I'm Real," featuring Ja Rule, doesn't appear on here, but instead, it's her underappreciated and poppier original version that sounds nothing like the remix, and samples from classic Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra's digi-chirping "Firecracker," which ends up naturally giving the tune a sweet 80s throwback kinda vibe.

Other songs worth mentioning are the brilliantly produced and super light and smooth Janet Jackson jam, "Someone to Call My Lover," which sampled from folk duo America's "Ventura Highway;" and a terrific tune that was actually originally released in 1998, but rose to US fame because of its inclusion in a 2001 Mitsubishi ad: "Start the Commotion," by UK duo The Wiseguys. That one's very much in that Fatboy Slim-helmed UK big beat vein; gotta love the blaring and swingin' sampled horns on it! 🤩

And there's a solid handful of other songs on this CD that I could devote some space to as well, but I think this post here is already long enough as it is.

So, another terrific nostalgia rush to be had in this trip all the way back to 2001. And I only have one more of these Now comps left in my queue, but I think I'm gonna save it for later.

Highlights:

Destiny's Child - "Bootylicious" 'N Sync - "Pop" Jennifer Lopez - "I'm Real" Joe feat. Mystikal - "Stutter (Double Take Remix)" Janet Jackson - "Someone to Call My Lover" Christina Milian - "AM to PM" Aaliyah - "Rock the Boat" Usher - "U Got It Bad" Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood" The Wiseguys feat. Greg Nice - "Start the Commotion" Sum 41 - "Fat Lip" Blink-182 - "The Rock Show" Fuel - "Bad Day" U2 - "Walk On"

[tfrarepairing]

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in the Rare Pairing Fest wrap up, but the fatigue hit like a truck last night after work and mod eerian (who has the graphics) just ate dinner and went to sleep. 😂

But wow, everyone! 2023 was, without a doubt, the MOST SUCCESSFUL Rare Pairing Fest we have ever had the privilege of hosting. Yesterday there were 36 fics in the collection (only one of which was written by a mod) and dozens of art pieces on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. Every one of our platforms had at least one fill, and Tumblr was so busy that the queue is still running!

GREAT JOB EVERYONE!!!

Now, if you have a piece you're still working on, please go ahead and finish. We still want to see it and one of the mods will be looking in on things for the next few weeks (before being eaten by winter holidays) and they will share as things come up! The AO3 collection will remain open for your Rare Pairing Fest fills until November 15, but after that you can still post to the general TF Rare Pairing collection (found here: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tfrarepair_challenges/profile ). Dreamwidth and Pillowfort are always open for posting, and you can tag us anytime on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram for a share!

And of course, you can ALWAYS share your work for your favorite Rare Pairing, even if it's not Fest time and we'll share that with just as much delight!

But you're really here for your prizes, we know. 😉

All participants for the 2023 round of Rare Pairing Fest get this banner by hours_gone_by (and our heartfelt thanks):

And everyone who finished the 14 Day Challenge (that was posting new content fills for all 14 days of the fest) get this special banner, also by Hours:

Display them proudly on your website profiles like we did in the old LJ days, hoard them in your saved files, add them to the headers of your fills, the sky is the limit. But you earned these, so please be proud! And bask in the glory of creativity well done.

Thank you so, so much everyone. We'll see you next October.

[always-andromeda]

teehee hiii hello! :D im very new to the danonation community, despite being an admirer of mr paul for almost a year now,,, there's so many amazing people and content they make but, it's really overwhelming and a bit scary to explore on my own! you're one of the few people i instantly felt safe to approach so, would you be so kind as to direct me a little bit? which danonation blogs are active right now, or maybe even personal friends of yours, just to start my journey in this community? i really really wanna participate, but since i don't have a single creative bone in me and can't contribute in art or writing, the least i can do is give love to all of you lovely people!! 🥰 thank you for your time 💛

p.s. if you don't mind, i might have more questions later!

p.s.s. your blog themes are always so adorable and so so aesthetically pleasing it's amazing 😭💞

Hey hi hello, my friend!! Thank you so much!! I’m gonna leave all of my account recommendations under the cut because wHOO I went a little bonkers! Other than that, you’re always welcome to shoot me an ask whether you have a question or you just wanna say hello! Super glad to have you here and I hope that you have fun getting to know everyone and everything!!

@lost-in-sokovia

I couldn’t get through a post about talking about creators in Danonation and/or my friends without mentioning Soph. Not only is she immensely talented, but her ability to shift between writing the sweetest moments and angst is basically unmatched. Shoutout to her for warming me up to the concept of having kids tbh bc wOW I did not see that one coming! She’s also one of my closest friends on here and I would heavily recommend giving her a follow and sending an ask; she’s absolutely precious to me and deserves all the love this community can possibly give her (but that’s just my opinion 🙄).

@quietsounds

Now, if we're talking about my friends, I have to drag my wonderful Storm into the conversation as well since we met through Danonation. Storm has a wiiiide range of interests and gifs a lot of different things bUT his gif sets are fucking phenomenal. He hasn't been super active on here lately but I would still recommend dropping him a follow because lmao I am hugely biased (because I love and adore him) and because he's one of the most creative people I know and his work deserves to be seen by as many eyeballs as possible and fully appreciated.

@riddlersbimbo

Okay, I should preface that Bowie is on a bit of a hiatus and they’re kind of running on a queue schedule. However. I still adore Bowie with all of my heart. I genuinely cannot explain it; all I know is that I was born to be Bowie's biggest fan. Aside from that, they are such a pillar in this community. The work they put into giffing every Paul movie?? And furthering the Chubby!Eddie agenda?? And the bimbo agenda?? Listen, on this account, we’re all Bowie stans (lmao, new mandate, friends; we’re all Bowie stans now).

@puzzlekinq

It’s only been for the last few months that I’ve been following Ethan bUT LEMME JUST SAY. I cannot fathom how my dash survived beforehand. You can be sure that Ethan will always have something either slightly unhinged, horny, or downright hilarious to post. They also write a bit as well and it’s some damn good writing if I do say so myself!! Also literally every time they post this plays in my head (but that piece of information is more for Ethan's benefit than anyone else's lol).

@riddlers-den

I feel like almost everyone in my little circle has read or at least heard of Max’s Edward fic, Disarm. And I can confirm, Disarm is fantastic. But I also adore basically everything else of hers that I’ve read. Max’s interpretation of characters (specifically Eddie and Calvin) just makes my writing brain so happy. She is also incredibly funny, a massively talented artist, and a very lovely person to talk to and I couldn’t imagine this little community without her.

@finniestoncrane

I should preface this recommendation by saying that Finnie doesn't post purely Dano content and is more in the realm of the DC fandom in general. I would also give her content warnings a once over beforehand since they might not be everyone's cup of tea! But I still wanted to include her here because, her work and her personality has always inspired me so heavily and...goodness, I love being able to call her one of my mutuals. Her sense of humor is top notch; like truly, whenever she posts her little pictures where she draws herself as a stick figure wrapped around one of the Rogues, I lose my absolute mind. Anyways, stan Finnie too, Finnie is the coolest.

@bloomdolly

If you are in the market for a cutesy, coquettish aesthetic and Paul content wrapped up in one super sweet and kind person? Look no further than Ushuaia! I swear, every time I interact with her it feels like I’ve been hit was this pastel ray of light complete with lace frills and ribbons. She’s the absolute sweetest and the bits of her creations that she’s put out reflect that entirely and I can’t wait to see what else she can think up!

@the-odd-devil

Goodness, it feels like Odd and I have been mutuals for literally forever because they’ve been there pretty much since the beginning of this account?? I always love getting a chance to interact with them and it’s been so cool seeing them start to develop their own ideas (and I swear, Odd, I will get to your dark academia college!Eddie fic as soon as I get a chance to actually sit down and read it). Also…their 70s Pornstar!Jimmy Tree headcanons…god if they ever post about them, I will actually lose my mind.

@starlightsearches

Fun fact: Star was among the first fic writers I read from when I first got into Danonation! They are a multi-fandom blog but again, I just had to include them because their writing is fucking intoxicating and I'm sorry but I'll never get over it.

@danoberry

So this serves as apology to Wren for being awful at keeping up with fics lately because ages ago I know I promised to read one of her Calvin fics and then I never did sO I AM SO SORRY. But this also serves as me taking the chance to gush over her work. Like y'all know I will fawn over anything Joby Taylor related and her Joby fic, i'm so sick...GIRL I'M SO SICK ARE YOU KIDDING MEEEE. Like truly...I lost my mind for part of a day when she followed me because hahahah I'm a nervy little guy and I am always so hesitant to make new mutuals (especially when they're this talented goodness gracious).

@jeusschrist2005

Okay, I will admit that I'm also a little newer to their work! But goodness gracious, just from the bits I've seen of both their Joby fic and their Eli stuff, I love what I've read so far and I really wanted to include them on this list as well!!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

STEPH!!! hi!!!!

*even more hugs because we all deserve more hugs!*

sooo you seemed interested in my babbling and my book recs so here i am 🙃🐢 hope you don't mind...

i just finished reading "another day" which is basically "every day" by david levithan but from the GIRL's view! i swear this author just keeps stealing my heart-

i cried AGAIN at the ending oh GAWSH THE FEEEEELS HOLY CRAPPIDY POOH!!

it's sooo interesting and fascinating and the writing style 😩 *chef's kiss* if i could i would marry it seriously- i read this one on my kindle and i highlighted every second paragraph i feel like xD

Rhiannon falls so hard for A and you never realize until you read another day!!! it's so cool... and A suddenly realizes how much they are missing from having to switch bodies (tho there are advantages of course)

(i'm suddenly thinking of all these people that follow you and are super confused what this weird turtle is talking about... lemme throw in an apology abou that - sorry turtles!)

anygays it was awesome (apparently i have read it but i had no memory if it lmao) and i discovered there is a THIRD BOOK WHICH CONTINUES THEIR STORY!!!!

gaaaahhhh i'm so excited for it!!!

i'll decide if i will write a johnlock AU after reading that book (it's called "some day") but it would be a fun project!!! even though i am not sure how to write this in my own style and ig it would be giant but i am so hooked omg!

PS: i probably just should have reblogged one of the other posts... oops. sorry about the inconvenience!

PPS: it's 2:45am where i live and i am like staaarving and it takes SO MUCH willpower to not just start the next (and last 😭) book... (okay i already got a sneak peek but still!!) yk when you're just so entranced by a book/story/universe you wanna keep reading forever but also can't wait to get to the end?? my gosh readers are poor creatures..

PPPS: omg i am so sorry this got so long!!! i'll stop now! hope you're okay/doing better! you are awesome!

all the love and much more (flowers? chocolate?)

-turtely 🐢

(following up on this post)

HI TURTELY!!

Listen, I love when all of y'all come here to ramble and be excited! It makes me very happy to know when Lovelies are happy, and it's comforting to know other people have hyperfixations like me, y'know?? I think it's amazing!

Wow, that book series sounds SO amazing!! I hope you write an AU for it, I think it will be awesome!!!!

And don't apologize, I usually miss reblogs until it comes back through my queue, so it would have been another month LOL. Sending another ask is fine HAHAH!

AND GO TO BED!!!! You're so silly!

And I'm doing okay, just very tired and very stressed, and looking forward to the long weekend coming up in a few weeks, since I booked a day off and we have Monday as a stat day, LOL.

Thank you so much for sending me this ask, it always makes me smile :) AND THANK YOU FOR THE HUGS!! I am so starved for affection and human touch, LOL.