#this week has been rough i haven’t really been thinking about tumblr :(

[chanstopher]

🐺🫧240323

[floral-hex]

woke up at 4am feeling the weight of my life crushing me, so I’ve been sitting out in my car for the last couple of hours because I just need. to. be. somewhere else.

[desmorotu]

more redacted headcanons!!!

some might be angsty? most of them?

꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ

- i saw a hc where milo isn’t necessarily short, but the other guys are just unbelievably tall. in my head milo is 5’11, ash is 6’5, and david is 6’9. tank is the only one who looks deceiving bc they’re like 5’10 in my head but their wolf is as big as david’s. ppl from the outside make the joke that shaw security is secretly a tall person club

- guy was a music major before he switched to writing. i mentioned it in his playlist post but i get those vibes HARD. he also writes honey poetry because he knows they secretly like it

- i like the idea that darlin and angel came from a rough family upbringing because 1. it’s relatable to a lot of ppl and 2. it would explain why tank shoves themselves into harms way and why angel is so outgoing now. it shows different responses to trauma imo.

- babe sometimes has crippling panic attacks on the thought of angel being a latent empowered and leaving them alone as the unempowered person of the group, but in my mind babe is the latent one and they’re a fire elemental.

- sweetheart feels guilty sometimes for being empowered while the other mates aren’t. they know it has absolutely nothing to do with them and that they can’t do anything about it, but sometimes they feel a pang in their heart at the fact that the other two won’t feel their core swell and warm up when looking at their mates.

- starlight has night terrors about the time they fell down—both times. they also think about when avior fell and they can’t help but intrusively picture what he looked like when he finally landed. it makes them physically ill. avior has to be extra careful when talking back about their experiences sometimes.

- lovely is still goes to therapy every week to work through the trauma of adam, dying, and now they’ve added the summit on top of that. they’re withering away into a husk of themselves. they’re so exhausted with dealing with all of this pressure, but they’d do anything for vincent (and i think that’s going to be their downfall).

- gavin has been brought to tears on multiple occasions at the thought that freelancer loves him for him and not just because he’s an incubus. he’s had to muffle his sobs because he genuinely does not know how he deserved someone so loving. he hasn’t brought it up to them yet.

- i think that freelancer is on the ace spectrum (greysexual maybe?) and that gavin was the only person they’ve ever really had sex with, or wanted to have sex with. they trusted him enough to “show them the ropes” and he built their confidence to where it is now. gavin helped build their relationship with sex and while they’re still on the spectrum, they’re more positive about it and they enjoy that kind of intimacy with him.

꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ

that’s all that i can squeeze out of my brain rn >:( i haven’t been on tumblr that much and UGH it’s just bc my real life is more interesting than my redacted life (which is a very good thing, but still it makes me sad) and i have no motivation to post 💔 but here are some hcs that have been on my mind lately :3 i hope they make sense

k byeee 💟

[yeowangies]

Want You

❧

PAIRING: Vegeta/Reader RATING: Explicit CONTENTS: Explicit sexual content, loss of virginity. WARNINGS: A little questionable behaviour on both parts, mainly Vegeta, but nothing too intense (I guess). WORDCOUNT: 7215

Summary:

Vegeta looked bewildered when you kissed him, and stunned when you touched him a little lower than usual. You would have associated the blush on his face to his shyness, but now you’re starting to think he isn’t just shy around women. And his kiss had felt… inexperienced. 

No way. Vegeta is a virgin. 

Notes:

Tumblr found out about virgin!Vegeta, a lot of great fic authors gave their takes, and now it's my turn. Can yall believe this fic was initially 4k words?

I kinda mixed this with Yandere!Vegeta but it's very light, it's just a little questionable but nothing too heavy lmao. This fic technically takes place in the three year gap but I don't think I made the Vegeta during that time period justice, so...

Songs that inspired me: LOL and I Got Love, both by Taeyeon.

@dreadsuitsamus @carnal-lnstinct (and thank you for helping me with a few ideas @vegeta-bananabluish)

Vegeta being Bulma’s new houseguest caught your attention from the very first moment. You don’t judge her at all, but she used to be terrified of the Saiyans when they arrived, first Raditz, then Nappa and Vegeta, so you didn’t expect her to invite one of them to stay over at her house. It also surprised you that he voluntarily stayed. 

Most of the time, he spends his day training in the gravity room Bulma had built, so you rarely even see him when you go to stay at her house. But when he stops his training and actually steps out in public to eat, or for whatever reason, you cannot help but stare a little too long. Are all Saiyans this attractive? Goku certainly is, and so was his brother and even Nappa. But Vegeta has a different kind of charm, like it would hurt to even touch him with his palpable ‘rough around the edges’ attitude. 

It amuses you to no end to watch Bulma tease Vegeta whenever you’re around, because that’s when his walls come down a little. He looks so incredibly flustered when he hears a comment that’s remotely suggestive. Who would have thought that such a regal, proud man would seem like such a prude? Bulma wasn’t even being her most vulgar self most of the time, that would have surely scared him off forever.

You can’t help but want to tease him a little as well whenever you see him, just to see his reaction. And you try to do it, one time when you’re in the kitchen and he just happens to walk in, obviously looking for food to replenish his energy after his training. 

“Hey, Vegeta.” You singsong as soon as you see him. Vegeta only grunts, not even looking your way as he heads towards the fridge. “Whatcha doing?”

“Don’t you have eyes?” He retorts with spite.

“Are you gonna keep training after this?” You ask, ignoring the rudeness in his tone.

“Obviously.”

“You should relax a little.” Vegeta looks at you then for a brief second before carrying an insane amount of food to the table. He doesn’t actually reply, so you go on. “Your body needs to recover, especially after training as hard as you do.”

He starts eating without acknowledging your words, and you pout angrily. It’s not the first time he ignores you, so you let it go, focusing on watching him eat instead. Being a Saiyan, he eats as if he had been starving for weeks, though he does it with slightly better manners than Goku. It still entertains you enough to watch him gulp down entire plates as if it’s nothing. 

“Why do you keep staring at me, woman?!” Vegeta suddenly yells, startling you. 

“Well, I… You eat as if you haven’t eaten in ten years, and it’s funny…” You offer him a small smile, but he only scoffs in response. “Besides, you’re really handsome too.”

Vegeta visibly tenses, and the tip of his ears get red instantly. You smile, delighted by his instant reaction to such a small, innocent comment. 

“Your race is so distasteful, I can’t stand it.” He mutters mostly to himself, but you heard him loud and clear, and it only makes you giggle. He seems ready to insult you directly when you do it, but he winces suddenly, and you know it’s not because of you. 

“Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?” 

When you stand from your seat and approach Vegeta, reaching your hands towards his shoulder, the place where he seems to be hurting, he slaps your hands away. 

“Don’t touch me.” 

“Vegeta, if you’re hurt, you should really take it easy-”

“What the fuck do you know? If I don’t train, your mudball of a planet is doomed.” He spits before swallowing down the rest of his food in one go. “I don’t need your help.”

You glare at him, but when he hurriedly walks out the kitchen, you let him go.

The next time you see him, he is, for the umpteenth time, resting in one of Bulma’s medical rooms. 

“I told you you should take it easy.” You say when you walk into his room. Vegeta groans when he sees you, obviously not too pleased to hear an ‘I told you so’. “I brought you dinner, by the way.”

You leave the capsule full of food by the nightstand; it is easier to carry an insane amount of food that way. Vegeta doesn’t even look at you when you take a seat by his bed, and he looks nervous that you’re even there, for whatever reason.

“I’m supposed to check on your bandages, you know.”

“I don’t need your help, woman.” You roll your eyes, sitting on the bed this time and startling Vegeta, making him sit up abruptly. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”

“I’m gonna change your bandages, idiot!”

“Don’t you dare-”

You’re not really paying attention to his words as you lean over his body, removing the sheets down to his thighs as you reach for the bandages on his torso. Before you can even touch him, his hands wrap around your wrist, tightly, making you wince. 

“I told you not to touch me!”

“Why are you so stubborn?! I need to check your injuries!”

His hold on your arms gets even stronger, and you whine loudly, because it’s starting to actually hurt. Vegeta lets you go, to your surprise, but he doesn’t look any less sorry for hurting you. 

“I’m just trying to help you, Vegeta.” 

You glare at him, and he returns the same look as he locks eyes with you. You attempt to reach for his bandages on his chest again, and he lets you this time, remaining silent as you get rid of the old material and replace it with new bandages. His eyes are fixed on your every move, and it feels like he’s burning holes right through you. 

The next few days, when you check up on Vegeta again, he doesn’t protest when it’s time to change his dressings. What you do notice is his cheeks getting a little pink when your fingers linger a little too long on his abdomen. Your touch is not exactly accidental; you had been ogling him way too much before this incident, and now you could touch him. It’s not like you’re touching anywhere private anyway, so you let your fingertips drag a little down his stomach before pulling away. 

“I know what you’re doing, woman.” Vegeta suddenly says as you finish wrapping up his bandages. 

“Helping you heal?” You remark, snarky.

“Crossing dangerous lines with your hands.”

“Oh?” You smile knowingly, leaning a bit closer to his face.

You’re playing with fire, you know it quite well, especially because this guy could literally obliterate you in a second. But the red color on his cheeks encourage you, especially as he keeps getting redder the more you lean towards him. 

“Should I stop?” You ask him in a low voice, one of your hands slowly trailing down his abdomen. 

Vegeta actually looks frightened, with eyes opened wide when he slaps your hand away, but he doesn’t actually speak. You know you must look surprised yourself that he had pushed you away like that (and harder than you expected him too), but he hasn’t actually told you to stop. 

Your hand reaches for the sheet covering his lap this time, carefully just in case he slaps it away again, which you would take as a definite sign to stop. He doesn’t move at all when you slowly drag the sheet down, and when you look down, you finally understand why he’s so flustered this time. 

He has an erection. Simply because you have touched him. 

It must be obvious how startled you look to find his hard-on straining his boxers, especially because Vegeta pulls at the sheets to cover himself after a moment. You stop him, putting your hand over his as you lock eyes with him again. He’s still very red, but if anything he also looks a little ashamed. It works well for you that he hasn’t tried to kill you yet; but now that you’ve seen this, you can’t deny that you want to have a little taste.

Trying to ease him into the plan you have in mind, you lean closer once again, stopping when your face is only an inch away from his. He doesn’t push you away or even move. Closing the space between you, you press your lips to his in a small, innocent kiss. Vegeta keeps staring at you when you pull away, still taken aback, but no longer ashamed. There’s some kind of dark glint in his eyes that speaks a thousand words about how interested he is in your attention. 

With a sudden hand on the back of your neck, he suddenly pulls you in for another kiss. A hungry, more urgent kiss, albeit a bit sloppy, as he just glides his lips over yours. You cup his cheek, humming when you slip your tongue inside his mouth, pleased when he mimics your moves. 

Breaking the kiss, you pull away a little, giggling when Vegeta leans in again, expecting more. You rest your hands on his hips, slowly trailing them towards the hem of his underwear. 

“I can help you relax, if you want.” You whisper, sliding your fingers down the fabric of his boxers. 

“What a lewd woman you are…” Vegeta replies, his eyes just as intensely fixed on you as they have been the entire time before he captures your lips in another searing kiss, which you return just as hungrily. 

Pushing down his underwear, you reach for his dick. His body tenses when you wrap your hand around it, and you make a surprised noise against his lips. You should have known how big he is with an attitude like that. You take your time stroking him without pulling away from his lips, delighted when he grunts into your mouth. 

As you start pumping him, you pull away, licking your lips as you take in the sight of your hand wrapped around his length. Your fingers don’t even touch from how thick he is. You don’t want to waste any more time, so you shift on the bed to better position yourself before leaning down.

Vegeta practically screams when you wrap your lips around the head of his cock, and for a second you think you actually hurt him if it isn’t for the way his hips jerk upwards. Encouraged by the groans that leave his lips when you swirl your tongue around the tip, you slowly take more of him in, your lips descending around his length as you run your tongue on the underside. He grunts and gasps with every glide of your lips over his dick, and you’re so thrilled to actually hear those noises coming from Vegeta of all people, you can’t help but moan around him. His hips keep snapping into your mouth the more you take him, until finally the tip grazes your throat. 

You try to hold him in place for a second before pulling back, letting him enjoy the wet warmth of your mouth, but his hips keep moving, seeking more friction. You try to speed up, bobbing your head up and down, pressing your tongue against his cock as you move. Vegeta curses under his breath constantly, in between groans, and when he gets louder, you know he’s about to come. Way faster than you expected, actually. 

The head nudges the back of your throat as you eagerly suck, and that’s all it takes for him to come, his dick throbbing in your mouth as he spurts cum down your throat, forcing you to swallow. You do so, a little annoyed he hasn’t actually warned you, but you let him ride out his peak, his dick pumping into you until he suddenly stops. 

Pulling away, you clear your throat, trying not to cough as you straighten up. Vegeta is still blushing, though you know it’s from the strain of your ministrations rather than shyness. His eyes are unfocused, half-lidded, and sweat is adorning his forehead. Your chest swells with pride; you have reduced the Prince of all Saiyans to this flustered mess. 

“Get out.” 

Vegeta’s voice startles you, especially because he’s telling you to leave. You frown, opening your mouth to tell him that after what you’ve done, he should treat you nicely, but he speaks again. 

“Get. Out.”

“You’re such a fucking jerk!” You manage after a minute of staring at each other angrily before getting off his bed and practically sprinting towards the door. 

You feel a little humiliated as you walk away from his room as fast as you can. Your blowjob must have been good by how fast he came, you would have thought he would be nice afterwards. Return the favor, even.

Freezing on your spot in the middle of the hall, you gasp. 

Vegeta looked bewildered when you kissed him, and stunned when you touched him a little lower than usual. You would have associated the blush on his face to his shyness, but now you’re starting to think he isn’t just shy around women. And his kiss had felt… inexperienced. 

No way. Vegeta is a virgin. 

The more you realize that’s surely the case, the more embarrassed you feel. If you had known that before, you would have been a little more delicate about it, though you doubt Vegeta would have wanted to admit he’s in fact a virgin. Moreover, if you confront him about it now, he still probably won’t admit it. You consider apologizing for coming off so strongly, but you don’t want him to get mad at you for implying he’s inexperienced. But why else would he have told you to get out like that, too?

You’re more convinced about it when a couple of days go by and you don’t even see Vegeta. At all. He hasn’t even healed yet, but he’s nowhere to be found inside the house, at least not when you go over to check on him. And the gravity room is turned on, you can hear the vibrating sounds it produces. You would smack him if you could, but you’re pretty sure he’s avoiding you.

To your amusement, he walks by the kitchen when you’re there one time, and he freezes the moment you lock eyes with him. For a second, you assume he’s going to flee, but he walks in, doing his best to ignore your presence. It’s both insulting yet hilarious; he seems like a teenager who’s trying very hard to ignore his crush. You’re not sure he has a crush on you, but he sure acts like he’s incredibly embarrassed about it. 

Your embarrassment and need to apologize fade away pretty quickly with this attitude he has now. 

“Are you gonna ignore me the whole time?” You ask him as he sits by the table to eat. He doesn’t reply. “After I gave you the best blowjob of your life?”

You laugh when he sputters, spitting all the food he had in his mouth. 

“You little vulgar woman!” He retorts, face red from both choking on food and from embarrassment. 

“Oh, shut up, you liked it.”

“I-I- How dare you?!”

“How dare I? After you kicked me out of your room like that?”

“I don’t need to explain myself to a human like you.”

“I suppose you don’t,” You stand up from your seat, a little more angry than you’d like to admit. “But I would assume a prince would be a little more considerate, especially because I wouldn’t mind doing more things like that in the future.”

Vegeta gapes at you as you walk out the kitchen. 

His attitude towards you doesn’t seem to change, he still avoids you whenever you’re at Capsule Corp. And you’re pissed, initially, but as days go by, you simply get used to the idea that he probably didn’t even want what you did to him in that room. Maybe he doesn’t even like you enough. You feel insulted, but you can’t blame him. 

You were expecting more, though, so you do feel a little disappointed. 

You run into Vegeta occasionally, mostly when you’re in the kitchen, and he keeps ignoring you, but you can feel his eyes on you as you move around. Neither of you speak to each other, and you’re getting used to the silence. But his eyes feel like they are burning holes right through you. And the more you get used to that feeling of being constantly watched, you start to feel like that in other moments throughout the day. Like when you’re in Bulma’s garden, or in her lab, helping her with whatever she needs. 

It starts to get a little uncomfortable when you feel it as you walk back to your own house. 

You aren’t sure if what you’re sensing is Vegeta’s eyes on you, but it certainly feels that way; after all, you don’t feel ki like the rest of your friends do. But if this is him you’re feeling nearby, then what the fuck is he doing? 

“Vegeta,” You call for him one day when he walks by the living room in Capsule Corp. He stops in his tracks and looks at you without uttering a single word. “Are you stalking me?”

He freezes in his spot, and he looks at you with wide eyes. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? Because I feel your eyes on me wherever I go.” Vegeta frowns, his fists clenching on his side. “If it’s not you, then I guess I have another stalker.”

“Stupid woman…” He mutters, and you roll your eyes. 

“Vegeta, as a woman, I know when someone is following me.”

“What does gender have to do with that?!”

“It’s gonna take a while to explain.” You thinned your lips, looking him over. He looks slightly embarrassed, and you have to remind yourself that he’s an alien. You’re not sure why he would follow you around like that, or if this attitude has anything to do with misogyny. But you’re going to have to drag this out of him, especially if you want to know why. “Vegeta, I’m not mad at you, but… I just wanna know.”

He doesn’t reply, averting his eyes towards the nearest wall. You sigh. Maybe you are a little annoyed. 

“Fine. Whenever you wanna talk, I’m sure you can find me.” You tell him, passing by him as you walk out the room. 

You don’t think he would want to talk to you at all, at least not any time soon. So you’re surprised that night, when you’re about to walk into your own house to hear his voice right behind you, calling your name. You yell instinctively, startled, and turn around to slap your attacker, only to find yourself face to face with Vegeta. 

“Relax, woman, it’s me.” He says, with a little amusement in his voice. Your hand has actually collided with his face, but he seems unfazed. 

“Fuck, why did you scare me like that?! And what is your face made of?!” Your hand tingles; it feels as if you had hit a rock. 

Vegeta chuckles when you hold your hand tightly to your chest. It makes your heart flutter to actually see him entertained by something, even if that something is you being in pain. 

“Are you going to walk in?” He asks after a moment of silence. 

You nod wordlessly, opening your front door before walking in with Vegeta trailing behind you. Your place is not nearly as huge as Bulma’s home, but it’s enough space for you, the living room and kitchen being more than enough for you to feel comfortable if you want to have people over.

“Your house is small.” Vegeta comments.

“More like, Bulma’s place is enormous.” You scoff. Leaving your bag on the couch, you turn to face him, trying not to show that you’re a little mad at his attitude. “Well? Have you or have you not been following me around these last few days?”

His shoulders tense visibly as his gaze connects with yours. 

“I have been… following you.”

“Why?!”

Vegeta crosses his arms in front of his chest, but he doesn’t look as arrogant when he does it as he normally would; he actually looks wary. 

“Isn’t that what human women like?” He asks with a slight edge on his voice.

“...What?” You stare at him, confused, as he turns his gaze towards the side, his cheeks flushing a light pink. You’re not exactly sure what he means, so you don’t even know how you should react. 

“I’ve been watching those things you humans have on TV.” He says after a while, still avoiding your eyes. 

“Huh?”

“You heard me!” 

“I… I still don’t understand…”

Vegeta growls, brows furrowed and shoulders tensing even more as his eyes finally lock with yours.

“Human females like to be followed around, don’t they?! That’s what the TV showed!”

“I… Hold on, you’ve been following me because you think I like that?!”

Vegeta nods, and you look at him, bewildered and surprised, and a lot of other emotions at once. He has been following because he thought you like that. You have to briefly wonder what kind of shows he's been watching to get to that conclusion, but you also wonder why he would do something that he thought you might like to begin with. 

“Ok, we have a lot to unpack here.” You say, taking a seat by the kitchen table. “I don’t know what you’ve been watching, but… women don’t like stalkers, okay?”

“Then why-”

“I can’t explain the entire human history to you right now, but trust me on this, okay?”

Vegeta looks at you, confused and with his brow still furrowed, but doesn’t argue. You try to organize your thoughts before speaking again. 

“I wasn’t trying to hide my presence when I followed you.” He says, interrupting your thinking process. “That’s why you could feel I was watching you.”

“...Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Maybe to you, but I need you to say it. Especially after you stalked me for days.”

Vegeta groans, fidgeting in his spot and looking around the room to avoid your eyes. 

“I was trying to court you…” His gaze finally meets yours, and you smile.

“Wow, did you like the blowjob I gave you that much?”

“You-you indecent little-”

You snicker when his entire face turns red for the umpteenth time. Half the time you have seen Vegeta, his face seems to be permanently red, and it’s all thanks to you. 

“Vegeta, I told you that if you were nice to me, we could have done something like that again.”

“That-that’s what I was trying to do!”

“Oh…” You can’t help the smile slowly growing on your lips. “So, that was courting for you?”

He nods again, his eyes gauging your demeanor. 

“How do Saiyans court, normally?” When Vegeta looks at you with a knowing gleam in his eyes, you scoff. “Oh, don’t tell me you fight people you wanna have sex with.”

“That’s exactly what we do.”

“I see, I guess that’s why you looked so terrified when I got close to you.”

“You silly woman, I was not terrified of you!”

You snicker when he yells at you, obviously nervous about the tone of this conversation. 

“Then what was it?”

“I had no idea human females were so… forward.”

“Is that bad?”

“...No.” Vegeta seems genuine when he answers, so you don’t question him anymore. “Do you do those kinds of activities with other men?”

“What? No, of course not!” When he keeps staring at you, you feel the need to clarify. “I mean, only with the ones I like…?”

When Vegeta smirks, you feel your face heat up. If how much you were attracted to him wasn’t obvious before, it is now. As if you going down on him wasn’t enough of a sign. You stare at him as he approaches you, freezing on the spot as he leans down and puts his hands on the top rail of your chair, effectively caging you there. You wait for him to get even closer, to kiss you even, but he remains unmoved, his eyes fixed on your face.

“I don’t get it,” You start, licking your lips as you take a quick glance at his. “If fighting is how you pursue someone, then…”

“The fight isn’t always physical.”

“Oh…” You smile, slowly putting your hands on his shoulders. “I should argue harder, then?”

“I do like it when you argue with me.” He says, smirking.

Vegeta kisses you decidedly on the lips, one of his hands reaching for your cheek to cup your face. It surprises you that he would kiss you first, but he did say he has watched some TV shows, and the way his lips are gliding over yours seem enough proof that he had even been paying attention to this as well. This is softer and more sensual than the frantic kisses you exchanged the first time, and it warms your heart that he’s kissing you like this. 

“Vegeta,” You whisper, pulling away to catch your breath. “Is this the first time you’re doing something like this?”

His eyes are dark, but as those words left your lips, he seems annoyed. You confirm it when he suddenly pulls away. 

“Wait,” You grab his arm to keep him in place. “There’s nothing wrong with that! But…”

“But what?” He growls.

“I would have done things differently?”

He keeps his gaze focused on you, and as seconds pass by, you’re pretty sure he’s going to leave. 

“Do you want me, Vegeta?” He doesn’t reply, but he doesn’t pull away from your touch either. Sliding your hand up his arm, you gently stroke his bicep, trying to be as comforting as you can. “I want you. I meant it when I said I want to do this with you.”

You trail your hand down his abdomen, stopping at the hem of his pants to emphasize your point. 

“Tell me you want me… and I’ll show you some things.” 

Vegeta eyes you intensely before he abruptly grabs both of your hands to pull you upwards, making you yelp as you stand up. 

“I want you, you insufferable brat.”

You chuckle quietly as he leans in to capture your lips in a fiery, heated kiss. The more you kiss, the more unabashed he becomes about exploring your mouth and your body, his hands letting go of yours to wrap themselves around your waist. You hum contently, sneaking your arms around his shoulders and kissing him back just as hungrily. 

In a matter of seconds, you feel his erection pressed insistently to your stomach, almost begging for attention. You step backwards a little, his grip on your body not letting you move much, but he seems to understand your reasoning. You guide him as best you can to your room without breaking the kiss, until the back of your knees touch your bed. 

Vegeta pulls away first, practically pushing you down on the mattress as he stares down at you like a predator. You’re not entirely sure how much Vegeta knows about sex, and by the way he reacted before, you’re not going to test your luck and ask him now, not when you’re so close to being able to freely touch and please him. But he’s staring at you like he’s expecting something, so you open your mouth to nicely ask him if he knows what comes next, but he talks first.

“Use your mouth, like you did before.”

“Excuse me?” You quirk an eyebrow, staring at him incredulously. 

“You heard me.” Vegeta says, looking as arrogant as ever. 

“What’s the magic word?” You singsong, grinning widely. When he looks at you, confused, you clarify. “If you say ‘please’, I’ll do it.”

He growls quietly, seemingly considering not even doing it, but to your amusement, he does.

“Please.” He mutters quietly, momentarily glaring at you.

You keep smiling as you reach for his hand, gesturing for him to sit down on the bed next to you. When he does, you kiss him, tugging at his shirt to get it off him, only breaking the kiss when he pulls it up his arms. 

It’s your intention to take things a little slow as compared to that first time, especially knowing that Vegeta is inexperienced when it comes to intimacy. You can show him how nice it is when foreplay is done right, so you aim to please, one of your hands sneaking towards the front of his pants to stroke him. He grunts, hips jerking into your touch as you trail your lips down his neck.

Vegeta is more impatient than you expect, as he suddenly slaps your hand away to pull down his skin tight pants. His dick bounces when he pushes down his underwear, and your conviction wavers; foreplay is important and all, but you want him in your mouth again. You wrap your hand around it, stroking it gently as you lick up his neck, softly nipping at his jaw, pleased to hear him groan when you do it. 

One of his hands finds your shirt, pulling it swiftly off you, leaving you in your bra and pants. He stares at you as you stand up before sinking to the floor right in between his legs, moving your hands over his thighs. He shudders, his eyes threatening to close the closer you get to his erection. He groans loudly when you dart out your tongue and run it up his length before flicking it over the tip. Thrilled by his reaction, you smile cheekily at him before wrapping your lips around the head of his cock. 

Vegeta is loud as you move your mouth and tongue over his dick, just as loud as he was the first time, and it sets fire to your insides knowing that you’re the one making him do all those wonderful noises. It takes you a couple of moves to get him to fully fit inside your mouth, but when the tip hits the back of your throat, he growls almost desperately. One of his hands finds your head, fingers threading through your hair and pushing you down for a moment before he lets you go. You don’t complain, only pulling back before bobbing your head up and down. You write a mental note to remind him not to push you too hard. 

When his hips start snapping with urgency, and his groans get even louder, you recognize that he’s close to an orgasm. Keeping things slow, sliding your lips back towards the tip, you consider pulling away altogether. If he comes now, you’re going to have to wait for your turn. You don’t get to decide when he suddenly thrusts into your mouth, once again the tip grazing your throat, and he comes, gasping and spilling his load, making you swallow. 

You pull away with a wet pop once his hips stop moving, steading yourself with your hands on his thighs. The sight of Vegeta post orgasm is truly something to behold; he’s panting and looking at you almost enamored, which you understand, considering this is only the second time he’s received a blowjob. 

As soon as you stand up to get on the bed, his hands are on your hips, pulling down your pants and underwear in one move. You yelp as he basically throws you on the bed, crawling on top of you less than a second later. He’s staring at you carefully, taking in the sight of your body, and you take the opportunity to do the same. You can’t believe the fact that this man, currently naked on top of you, is going to be intimate for the first time in his life with you. His body looks like it’s been sculpted by Michelangelo himself, with skin surprisingly soft, you notice as you run your hands down his chest, despite his many scars. Surely he must have had plenty of chances to be with whoever he wanted in the past. Though it suddenly dwells on you that he might not even have had the chance, being under the control of a space tyrant and all. 

Pushing your thoughts away, you notice Vegeta is staring at your chest, your bra the only piece of clothing still on your body. You move to take it off just as his hand reaches for one of your breasts, groping it gently once you’re fully naked. You choke back a gasp when his thumb brushes your nipple experimentally. 

“Do you like that?” He asks, genuinely curious. 

“Yeah…”

Vegeta hums in acknowledgement, once again running his finger over your nipple with a little more pressure. You don’t try to hide your moan this time, arching into his touch when he squeezed your flesh. His hand trails lower then, skimming down your waist and hip, caressing your body until he reaches your thigh. You have spreaded your legs a little to accommodate him when he got on top of you, so he could clearly see your entrance.

Sitting back, his hands spread your legs even more, exposing more of your sex to him, and you have to fight the urge to cover your face. You don’t mind that he looks at you, but this feels scrutinizing the more he stares. He swipes his thumb over your slit, making you flinch when he grazes your clit. He repeats the same action, this time with his eyes lingering on your face as he moves his finger over your sensitive skin, and you gasp when he touches your clit again. 

Smirking as if he has found the secret to immortality, Vegeta runs two fingers up and down your entrance before pressing his thumb to your clit, purposely rubbing it. You can’t help the sounds spilling from your lips as he stimulates you with obvious intent, gripping the sheets tightly to anchor yourself. Your hips stutter when he suddenly presses two fingers, slowly sliding them inside you as you moan loudly. Despite his smug look, he’s handling you with extreme care, carefully gliding his fingers in and out of you. 

For someone who was obviously naive when it comes to intimacy, it sure seems like he knows what he’s doing, especially when he presses his thumb to your clit again, moving it in time with the digits inside you. You only wish he would kiss you, but he looks content, staring down at you with dark hungry eyes as he pleasures you. 

You’re not sure if Vegeta can read your mind, but he leans down, capturing your lips in a sloppy kiss before pressing his lips down your neck. When he nibbles your jaw, you realize he is imitating what you did to him earlier. 

You frown, a little confused, when you hear him taking a deep breath against the skin of your neck.

“Did you just sniff me?” You ask, moaning at the end when his fingers curl inside you. 

“You smell pleasant.” Vegeta murmured into your ear.

“It-it’s the perfume…”

“No, it’s not that artificial scent you put on. You smell pleasant.”

You’re left speechless when his fingers start moving faster inside you. You mewl, wrapping your arms around his neck to keep him close, and you gasp, surprised, when you notice his dick poking your stomach. You weren’t paying attention so you don’t know when he got his renewed erection, but you’re eager to have him inside you now that he’s available. 

“Vegeta…” You moan, holding onto him tighter as he mouths at your neck. “Stop teasing me…”

“Aren’t you enjoying yourself?” He chuckles against your skin. 

“I- Yes, but… I’m ready for you, ah!”

He turns to the side to kiss your lips, swallowing down all your noises as his tongue slides into your mouth. You hum, clinging to him desperately as his fingers keep touching you just right, getting you closer and closer to edge. 

“Vegeta!” You call for him again as your legs start twitching. “If you don’t stop… I’m gonna…”

Pulling away from you, Vegeta watches your face carefully as he keeps up his moves, his digits curling and stroking your insides insistently. You moan, throwing your head back and digging your nails into his shoulders. Your hips move against his hand, seeking more of him as you feel warmth suddenly spreading inside you. You come with a shaky moan, your body trembling underneath him as your mind turns blank. 

As you come down from your high, his fingers slide out of you, and you watch him bring them close to his face. You gasp in horror and embarrassment when he licks your release off his digits, and he stares at you with a smile, obviously amused at your reaction. You don’t dare to say anything, and you’re glad his only response to your surprise is a smirk. 

Vegeta shifts, sitting back to position himself better in between your legs as he guides his cock to your entrance. You put your hands on his shoulders, bracing yourself when you feel the head nudging your skin.

“Slow…” You instruct him, looking down at his impressive length so close to your core. He is big, and you’re not sure if you can handle someone with that size who also happens to be an alien with superhuman strength (who also happens to be a mass murderer, but you don’t want to go there). 

“I will not hurt you.” Vegeta says, glancing at you. His voice is flat, but the look he gives you is comforting enough to know that his words are genuine. 

A strangled groan escapes his lips when he pushes inside you, and if you didn’t know any better, you would assume he’s being tortured. You hiss, the stretch feeling too much at once, and he isn’t even fully sheathed yet. He remains still for a moment before moving again, pushing more inside you. 

“Fuck…” Vegeta grunts, holding onto you so tightly you know there’s gonna be marks on your skin. “You’re so tight…”

Once he’s up to the hilt, you gasp, closing your eyes tightly. You have never felt this full before, and it aches, muscles you have never been aware of stretching to accommodate his cock. He remains surprisingly still as both of you get used to the sensation. It surprises you how considerate he’s being at the moment; he must want to relieve himself, but he’s looking at you, obviously noticing that you’re not fully comfortable yet, so he stays still. 

You reach for him, with a hand on the back of his neck to bring him down for a needy kiss. He grunts into your mouth, kissing you back rather shallowly as you hold him close. Your body soon relaxes, and you tighten your legs around his waist, letting him know that you’re ready for him to move. He pulls away enough to watch as his cock slides out of you before thrusting back in slowly. You moan when the tip hits inside you, filling you up to the hilt once more, and his dark eyes fix on your face, checking your reaction to ensure he hasn’t hurt you. 

Vegeta keeps a surprisingly slow pace, carefully gliding in and out of you, handling you with such care, you would have never thought he’s one of the most powerful beings on the planet. It’s fine at first, you’re also getting used to his cock and the stretch, after a while you need more. 

“Vegeta, you can go a little faster…” You say, locking eyes with him.

He looks at you with curiosity when you move one of your legs to prop it up his shoulder. He seems impressed by your flexibility (though you know being on a bed is what helps), and he smirks in response, one of his hands holding tightly onto your thigh. 

You whimper loudly when he starts thrusting into you with newfound vigor. You know he must be holding back his strength, but damn if it feels like he can already snap you in half with the pace he’s currently setting. The bed is creaking insistently with every move of his hips, the headboard hitting the wall up to the point you think it might break. But you really don’t care if the bed splits in half, or if the wall comes down; all you care about is Vegeta and his wonderful cock currently ramming into you as a tight familiar warmth starts blooming in your lower abdomen again. 

For a long moment, you forget that this is actually Vegeta’s first time, especially with how good it feels to have him inside you. But his body starts to shudder, and with a couple of powerful thrusts that makes pleasure run through your veins, he comes. You get to see his face, fully contorted in bliss, brows furrowed and mouth hanging open as his cock pulses inside you, filling you up to the brim and making you moan. He growls as he pumps into you, riding out his orgasm before he finally comes to a stop. 

He leans over you, burying his face in your neck, panting as he comes down from his peak. Your legs shiver slightly, feeling the weight of his body on top of you and twitching in response; you didn’t get to come this time and it feels a little uncomfortable, but you’re not mad. You take his effort into consideration, and he did make you come before, so you’re content. 

When you run your hands up and down his back soothingly, you feel his muscles tense after a moment. 

“You didn’t finish.” Vegeta says, pulling back to look at your face. 

“...I didn’t, but that’s ok. It’s not always necessary-”

He pulls away from you altogether with an angry grunt, making you hiss when his dick slips out, and for a second you think he might even leave. It startles you when you feel he’s rubbing himself against your lower lips, grazing your clit and making your legs shudder. 

“Are you telling me human men don’t care if their partner finishes?” Vegeta asks, almost annoyed. 

“Well… some of them don’t…” 

“Then what’s the point?”

“Um…” It’s getting harder to think as he keeps stroking himself against you, a few quiet noises escaping you as you try to find the words to speak. “Intimacy, I guess…?”

Vegeta tuts, and you gasp when you feel his cock nudging your entrance in what surely must be a record time. You look down to see for yourself, and you’re still stunned he got hard again, just minutes after he had come. Saiyan stamina sure is something insane. 

“To be clear,” Vegeta starts as he slowly eases himself inside you again. “You will always finish when you’re with me.”

His words sound almost like a threat, but every thought effectively leaves your brain once he’s fully inside you, and you stutter a moan when he starts moving, that heat in your stomach steadily growing back up and turning your brain into jelly. 

[theronanlynchshow]

band season reflections pt1/?

tw: venting, mental breakdowns, and my potty mouth 🤬

this has been a really rough season for me (and i think, our guard as a whole)

The band directors are pushing us WAY TOO HARD (no shade on our guard coaches tho, we love them & they are trying to help)

people are passing out, throwing up, and having anxiety attacks/panic attacks after practices WEEKLY

AND THEY FUCKING DO NOTHING (again, not guard coaches)

HALF OF THE GUARD IS GOING TO QUIT AFTER THIS SEASON BECAUSE IT’S SO BAD

like, i plan on staying through senior year because I really love guard and i’d feel bad leaving the guard with only 6 people having over a season of experience

BUT UGGGH THE STRESS IS GETTING TO ME

i’ve been having stress breakouts, I don’t eat, i have to do all my homework over lunch, I haven’t had free time to do hobbies or even just scroll through tumblr in the last week, I haven’t had more than 5 hours of sleep per night since FUCKING AUGUST AND IN 2 WEEKS SPEECH SEASON STARTS AND IM NOT FUCKING PREPARED BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE TIME OUTSIDE OF BAND, AND I HAVE FUCKING PANIC ATTACKS AND DISASSOCIATE AT PRACTICE EVERY OTHER WEEK THEN GO HOME AND CRY ABOUT IT IN THE SHOWER

LIKE I KNOW THAT WE WERE STATE CHAMPIONS THE PAST 2 YEARS IN A ROW AND WE ALL WANT THAT AGAIN BUT NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF MY SANITY

this is a goddamn HIGH SCHOOL EXTRACURRICULAR not a fucking job jesus christ

anyway, state is in 9 days and after that i have a week to regain sanity before speech season starts and then goes until march

(if you read all that I actually love you so much!!!, have some boba 🧋🧋🧋)

[bots-and-cons]

Hey a while back I sent in an ask that wasn’t an ask it was more like a submission. I didn’t think about it getting deleted when I re-deleted my account. I do that during collage semesters to fight the adhd urge to scroll and put off schoolwork but I pop in from time to time to check on old friends and interact.

Long story short this is the inspiration for the asking each respectable mech to take care of their tortoise Shelldon when they are gone. (Thanks for writing that btw😄) I went with an African spurred tortoise because it’s own-able. The real life Shelldon is an endangered and federally protected gopher tortoise that I think is about 3 years old now because he showed up in the spring of 2022 and mother gopher tortoises have been observed allowing offspring to hunker down in their burrow for their first winter.

But yeah dude showed up when I was replanting lettuce in my greenhouse and he started rummaging through the plants I just tossed on top of the compost pile, then he dug his burrow against my fence, and in a cat like fashion I have tortoise now and thus can never move 😂.

Due to him being a wild and protected tortoise I don’t want him to become dependent so I feed him only every so often and avoid dropping food (and I do a ton of research on what he can and can’t have) at the same time of morning or afternoon. I typically give him stuff most during the dry season since we’ve had droughts and in the winter when things die back. I will sprinkle stuff in the yard occasionally so he gets assorted veggies, I bought a small cylinder of grassland tortoise pellets, and he gets calcium fortified tortoise treats to find when out foraging every so often. But my biggest thing has been planting native grasses and a little patch of dandelions and wild pea plants against the fence.

I mean I probably shouldn’t interact with him at all legally but he moved into my yard and seemed to have a rough first year on his own, I had to move him back to his hole a few times because he got lost in my yard in 100 degree heat at the hottest part of the day when tortoises or really any animals avoid being out and started pacing in circles by the walkway because he knew he couldn’t get back to his hole in time and his shell was scalding hot those times I had to pick him up but he has seemed to have learned his lesson on what time of day is appropriate to be out and I haven’t had to move him since.

But yeah thank you for answering my ask, sorry for the ramble, and I hope you have a great week! 😄

I was wondering what happened to the ask, I thought tumblr was just being tumblr, because the amount of asks in my inbox didn't change but the ask itself disappeared. At least now I know what causes the phantom ask thingy to happen.

Anyway, I love all kinds of tortoises/turtles, and I think they're super cool, and Shelldon is also very cute. All of that is also really interesting, honestly I don't know much about tortoises in general even though we used to have one when I was a kid. Shelldon has a cool story to go with him too I see :D I think the way you're taking care of him is very reasonable and it's good you're not making him be dependent on you. Idk about the legality of it, but I don't think it's a bad thing. He looks very cute in the pictures, one hungry boi :D

[beaker1636]

So no clue where this came from but it just happened like a month ago and I haven’t had the guts to post it yet but my friend Paige keeps telling me to soooo here’s a very smutty Chris fic.

Please be gentle, I don’t write smut at all, this is my first attempt. And I absolutely hate it despite paige and another friend saying it was really good. Also sorry if formatting gets fucked up, I type these on my laptop but can’t remember my tumblr password so I cut and paste it from a document on my phone into tumble so sometimes it gets wonky.

“Hey baby, I am sorry but things are not going how I wanted so I will be done late, we will have to move our date to another night. As soon as we finish this song I will come to your place and we can watch a movie or something,” you read the message from your boyfriend Chris for a second time, your mood instantly dropping.

This is the third time he has had to cancel date night in the last couple weeks that he has been home so that they can continue working on the new album at night. You understand that this is what he does for a living but you are getting really tired of this happening all the time. Honestly, it is making you start to feel like you arent important to him and that maybe he doesn’t want you around as much as he used to.

You sign, before responding to him. ‘Okay, don’t worry about coming over tonight if you are going to be late, you can go home and rest so that you are ready to work tomorrow.”

You get a response rather quickly, catching you off guard. “I want to come see you, I feel like we haven’t had any time together with both of our jobs.”

That message is what finally breaks you, that makes you snap and let out all your frustration in one strongly worded message that you send back.

“And that is somehow my fucking fault, YOU are the one who has cancelled on me yet again. Go fuck yourself, I don’t even want to see you tonight now,” you type out, fighting tears of frustration that are threatening to fall as you hit send.

You quickly shut your phone off and throw it on your living room table so that you don’t have to see what his response is. You had a rough day at work and really needed to be with him tonight but that doesn’t matter anymore, nothing matters anymore.

Storming off to the bathroom you start to wash your face of your makeup, its just going to get ruined when you eventually stress cry, which you know is going to happen. You also say fuck it and change into pajamas, theres no reason to be dressed up just to spend the night alone in your apartment.

You follow this all up with getting a large glass of wine before going to your room with your new romance book to read and drink your feelings away, hoping that it would give you a much needed distraction so that you don’t spend your night sulking about your fight with Chris.

About an hour later it has worked, you are so drawn into the story that you don’t hear your front door open rather hashly, nor do you hear the footsteps leading to your bedroom until your bedroom door slams open.

You look up and gulp when your eyes lock with Chris’, his eyes showing you very quickly just how pissed off he currently is.

“This is seriously what you have been doing while ignoring my texts and calls? Reading a book?” He seethes, glaring at you to the point you are uncomfortable and glance away.

Fighting the tears that are now threatening to fall down your cheeks, you decide to be quiet for a minute to think about what you want to say.

“Maybe if you actually made time for me and didn’t always put me second I wouldn’t want to ignore you.” You finally say, quietly, feeling rather small in the moment. You hate confrontation so to know that Chris is upset with you really has you anxious.

“You know we are recording and have deadlines we have to meet, I can’t just leave in the middle of a song,” He spits out, growing more frustrated.

Feeling like Chris isn’t even listening to you and not wanting to get yelled at even more you decide to go back to reading your book, this conversation can be finished once he has calmed down some.

This is the last straw for Chris however, who is not going to let you continue to ignore him. He storms over to your bed and quickly rips the book out of your hands in annoyance, his eyes scanning the text on the page that you currently had the book opened to.

“Seriosuly, you are ignoring me so that you can read about other people fucking eachother?” His eyes darken as they scan your face, watching for your reaction.

Finally having enough of his tantrum yourself you finally crack. “Yeah, I am. It could have been us if you would actually show up for a fucking date.”

If he wants to fight then fine, you will fight back. He doesn’t get to be a dick when it is his fucking fault that you are upset and fighting right now. You match his glare, not wanting to be the one to back down at this point, too riled up to give in. But slowly his glare turns into a smirk, and he makes his way to the other side of your bed, climbing in next to you.

“You want to read your book so bad, fine. Read it, out loud,” he challenges, thrusting your book back into your hands.

“What? No I…. I can’t. That just, what? No Chris,” you struggle to come up with a coherent response, feeling awkward and honestly embarrassed at the thought of reading out such a dirty scene out loud in front of him.

“Why not? You seem like you have plenty to say tonight, so come on. Put your words to good use and read it to me,” he teases you. Chris knows that if he pushes you enough that you will do exactly what he asks you to, because you always do.

“Ugh fine,” you grumble.

You know Chris well enough to know that he is playing some kind of game with you but what exactly? You aren’t sure.

“‘You’re already so wet for me,” he whispers, his tongue running flat alone the darkening marks along your neck. He drags his fingers up the length of your heat’”.

You cut off suddenly with a gasp as Chris slips a hand inside your pajamas and your panties to do what you just read to you, removing the garments from your body.

“Keep reading, you wanted to ignore me for your book so bad so lets see if you actually can,” his voice grows deep as he continues to tease you.

You suck in a shakey deep breath before you continue.

“‘What do you want me to do to you,” he asks, your thighs shifting around his wrist. “Hmm?’

‘To touch me,’ you whisper, your voice barely audible in the quiet room.

‘You’re going to have to be more specific,’ he informs you. ‘And aren’t you forgetting something?’

‘Sir?’

‘Much better.’ He nod his head and you withhold a sigh, you’re never going to remember that. Before you can utter another word, two thick fingers are inside of you, you being wet enough to where he has very little resistance as he thrusts them knuckle deep.’”

You hesitate, swallowing as you try not to make a sound as Chris yet again does what you just read. You don’t want to give that cocky bastard the satisifation of knowing what he is currently doing to you.

He stops moving, glaring at you again. “You stop reading, I stop touching you.”

“‘ He pulls his hand back enough only to thrust them back inside you roughly, causing a deep whine to leave your throat at the sting of pain and pleasure, shivers immediately crawling up your spine.

He pulls away slightly, watching you under a heavy lidded gaze as his fingers continue to thrust into you, rough, forceful and unforgiving…”

You cut off, finally giving into Chris, whispering fuck this, throwing your book onto your bedside tabe before grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling him in for a kiss.

He resists, not giving you the kiss that you are craving so desperately.

“I always get what I want,” he says with a chuckle. “And don’t think that after the way you spoke to me that I am going to let you cum that easily.”

You try to hide your disappointment when his fingers leave where you need them most.

“Now clean up the mess you made,” he demands, holding his hand infront of your face.

You learn forward, taking his two fingers between your lips, tasting yourself. You decide to take your time to make sure you actually get them cleaning, hoping that maybe if you do what he says that you will get what you want from him. He removes them, resting them on your lower lip.

“Good girl, now tell me, how bady do you want me y/n?” He asks, his eyes meeting yours.

“Badly, please Chris,” you whine, deperate for him to touch you again, to take care of the ache that he has created.

He slides your shirt off, smiling at the fact that you had already taken your bra off when you changed, leaving you bare as he stands up.

“Then how about you show me how much you actuary want me,” he commands, making you shiver at his tone of voice. “Get on your knees for me baby.”

You don’t hesitate to get up and do just as you were told. Reaching out to open the button and slowly slide the zipper down on his jean before tugging them and his boxers down in one movement, his hard cock finally free much to his relief.

He tugs your hair harshly, pulling you forward and silently urging you to do something, anything, just as desperate as you are for what is to come.

You wrap your hand around the base of his shaft before running your tongue along the underside, only to then teasingly lick around his head tasting the pre-cum there before dipping lower, not missing any of his length.

“Stop teasing,” he groans at your actions, growing frustrated as you continue to do so. You want your revenge for him doing just that to you earlier.

You can’t help but smirk up at him, glad that you could make him crave you just as much as he makes you crave him.

Finally you decide he has had enough and take him into your mouth, slowly lowering as your hands strokes what you can’t quite take. He tugs on your hair to make you look up at him as you hollow your cheeks and start to actually bob your head, ready to drive him crazy like he does to you. His eyes meet yours as you take him even deeper.

“Fuck, I love how great you are with your mouth,” he groans, knowing that the praise always motivates you, makes you work harder in hopes of receiving more of it.

He starts to pull on your hair, taking control away from you as he urges you to go faster. You gladly let him, loving that he is making you do what he wants, taking what he wants from you with no restraint.

He groans, pushing deeper, your eyes watering as you keep swallowing around him, trying not to choke as he gets rougher and rougher with you.

His eyes close as he leans back slightly, letting you deep throat him as he shudders, getting right to the edge. After a moment his grip on your hair tightens again as he pulls you away from his throbbing cock, you gasping for breath.

“Get on the bed, hands and knees for me baby,” he growls as he helps you up, pulling his shirt off as you crawl on the bed, looking over your shoulder at him.

You tense in anticipation when he climbs up behind you, pulling you back towards him by your hips and making you both groan at the friction that it creates. His hands pull you up by your hair o that your back is pressed against his chest, leaving kisses that trail form your neck to your ear.

“I’m about to fuck you, hard,” he whispers as he reaches around, cupping your breasts before pinching your nipples which makes you jerk back into him, causing the much craved friction between you both again.

You fail to fully process his word as all you can think about is your want, no your need to finally cum.

He gives you a kiss before letting you go, you falling back on your hands as he enjoys the view of your ass and the fact he is able to have his way with you without you putting up much a fight.

He can see just how wet you are as it glistens in the dim light from your lamp. It pleases him to know how much he can make you crave and need his touch, that only he can do this to you.

He cam tell that you are growing impatient as his fingers make their way to your hips yet again.

“I bet you still want me to go home, don’t you,” he murmurs, not wanting to give you what you want just yet.

You glare over your shoulder at him, barely holding on to what little resolve you still have left, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how badly you actually crave him.

“Use your words y/n, I want to hear you beg for me before I even consider touching you. You wanted to use them so badly to get me to leave earlier” he demands of you, harshly thowing back your words from earlier in your face.

You still refuse to answer, which just frustrates Chris, so he harshly smacks your ass, instantly making you whine at the sting.

“I still don’t hear you.”

“Oh come on, you can clearly tell how much I fucking want you. Just fuck me already,” you groan, annoyed that he is making you do this. Any other time you don’t mind begging but the angry part of you is still holding on weakly, making you want to put up a little more fight that usual.

“Good girl, thats more like it,” wraping his fingers around himself, practically pulsing from how close you had him with your mouth.

Without warning he roughly enters you, making you gasp in surprise. You press your face in your arm, jaw clenching at the sudden sting from the action.

He starts out rather slowly, deciding that he is still going to tease you before he finally starts to get rougher and rougher with each thrust, pulling your body back to meet his with each movement.

You lose your breath and close your eyes as you get closer and closer to the edge. Enjoying that he is being so forceful that it almost hurts, loving this new and rougher side of Chris that you have not seen before.

He’s slamming into you with no restraint, pulling you right to the edge but still not giving you enough to actually cum yet, the need tormenting you at how close you are.

His fingers slip around your waist to tour clit, making you cry out from the pleasure as he enjoys the sight of the bruises forming on your hips from the hold he just had on them.

You suddenly clench around him, making him groan.

“Please, Chris, I’m” you cut yourself off, not able to finish what you are saying as you beg him for your release, knowing that the only way he would give it to you is if you do.

“Fine, cum,” he demands as he presses his body down into yours on the mattress. “Cum.”

You finally do, your vision going a bit blurry as you cry out, loud enough that Chris secretly hopes that your neighbors have heard you.

His rhythm slowly becomes erratic as he can’t take it anymore and spills himself inside you with a low groan “fuck”.

His arms slip around you as you both go limp, him gently rolling you over onto your back as you lay there for a few moments, catching your breath, still pressed together as you lowly regain control of yourselves.

He slowly pulls away, gently helping you get more comfortable as you let out a sign in exhaustion. You barely notice that he left the room until he returns with a damp washcloth, helping you clean up the mess that you both let on your now very sore thighs.

“y/n, do you need anything? Are you alright?” he asks after he finishes, laying down next to you in the bed, pulling you into his arms and bruising your damp hair out of your face.

You nod, not quite ready to answer his question.

He gives you a very gentle kiss, almost as an apology before speaking.

“I’m sorry I haven’t had much time for you, I promise that I will take tomorrow off to spend with you, just us,” he says softly, toying with your hair in the way that he knows you love.

“Thank you,” is all that you mange to get out, not feeling like any other words need to be said as you oth lay there, slowly falling asleep next to eachother, glad that the fight has ended.

[ff7-has-taken-me-over]

Okay take two because I think tumblr didn’t let me submit this unfortunately but I won’t stop talking about baby girl soap!(Thank you for answering all my asks I get excited to bond over my interest with people and I love always seeing your writing <3)So let’s say prices goes on leave for a couple of days (man's need a vacation from dealing with everyone’s shit) and gaz just gets even more menacing when price leaves. Him and soap do bets and dare more than ever since price and gone even with ghosts tells them to stop (gaz see’s that as a challenge and plans to make the 2 weeks that price is gone living hell for the simps) . So he gets to work and dares soap to wear a ghost's hoodie for the day (ghost definitely ran to get soap, a hoodie he would forever deny that tho) and he literally loses it when he sees soap in his hoodie. The other beg soap to wear their clothes he does and quite often to the point it’s a regular thing and they lose it gaz takes it a step further to get the best blackmail he makes soap wear shorts, thigh highs with a matching collar that broke the dam so people try to flirt with soap they are immediately met with the most threatening stare from like 4 different guys.

Firstly) I fuckin love baby girl Soap. God damn is it good.

Secondly) Thank you so much!! I actually love responding to asks and people’s prompts, it’s so much fun. So I’m glad you’ve been submitting them 😁

Thirdly) I realised I’ve been writing these with the sort of idea of Soap getting with everyone (just Ghost being like the first or main) and I haven’t been tagging everyone else! Guys, I’m so sorry. I’ll fix it when I get the chance.

But onwards!! So I can imagine Soap actually trying to steal Ghost’s hoodie at first because he’s more than fairly sure the man won’t let him borrow it for the bet he just lost with Gaz.

Ghost catches him obviously and Soap very nearly loses his fingers for it but when he says he has to wear it because he lost a bet Ghost nearly carks it. Man’s freezes and stares and imagines the sergeant in every piece of clothing he owns and fuck… he’s gonna give it to him.

So there Soap goes, walking around base with Ghost’s hoodie for the day with said man following close behind. Soap’s pretty built, no doubt about it, but Ghost is even more so. So the hoodie sits a little loose on the younger, sleeves slipping past his palms and hem sitting just below his ass, it’s a sight that’s for sure.

When the rest of 141 see it they immediately try and ask him to wear their clothes. I reckon Rudy would try getting the man to wear his track pants because he likes wearing them a little tight whereas Soap wears ‘em loose, so the pants are just a bit of a squeeze for the man with an ass but he manages.

Alejandro likes getting him to wear his turtlenecks because while he’s taller than Soap the other is just a little wider than him. So Johnny fills them out really nicely but the sleeves and hem sag a little at the ends of his torso and arms and it’s really fuckin cute.

König I reckon gave Soap a hoodie once (because one look at the rest of his wardrobe and they were immediately out of the question) and the shorter was absolutely swimming in it. It was beyond adorable and everyone found themselves hard pressed to be jealous or disappointed when Soap was peeking out from under that hood with the brightest smile and sweater paws.

Johnny - poor, oblivious, adorable Johnny - has no idea why everyone is suddenly giving him clothes to wear and why half his wardrobe has now been replaced. He’s not really complaining because he finds it comforting to have things of his teammates with him. Likes the comfort of sleeping in König’s jumper when he’s going to sleep, and the way Rudy’s track pants and Alejandro’s turtle neck show off his hard earned muscles. He also loves curling up in Ghost’s hoodie when he’s had a rough day because it smells like him and it’s comfortable.

Now that Gaz knows Soap barely owns any of his own clothes he ramps it up a notch, positively ecstatic to send his captain this next batch of blackmail material because it’s absolutely glorious and he feels as if his captain might be getting a tad bit bored while on his leave. So he gets these footy shorts he saw while in Australia one time - they’re short, black and silky feeling - along with some thigh highs and a collar and a slew of other things.

Soap fuckin hates him for it but he’s a man of his word and he’ll be damned if he lets Gaz hold that over his head (never mind all the embarrassing outfits and humiliating scenarios he gets in)

So next time Soap walks into the mess hall, blushing a deep af red but holding his head high regardless, he very nearly causes some severe accidents. The bet this time was the footy shorts and Ghost’s hoodie, which means there’s only a strip of black showing at the edge of the jumper before it’s just pale legs and bare feet (cause Gaz is a shit and stole his shoes)

The 141 are in varying states of horny silence and utter shock while the rest of the base are in all sorts of disarray. Some guys are already making fun of him, pointing and laughing, while others are in the same boat as the 141. Soap’s a looker, it’s hard not to be attracted to him.

Then the thigh highs and matching collar come out and it’s too fuckin much. Rudy’s praying for strength, Alejandro is trying so very fucking hard to speak English but his brain has left the chat. König could very well be passed out on the table at the moment - nobody knows - and Ghost is about two seconds away from slinging the man over his shoulder and making an escape with him.

The 141 are quick to snap out of it when some rookie - a new guy from the latest squadron on base - goes up to Soap and starts flirting like his life depends on it. Now it wouldn’t be too bad if Soap was his usual oblivious self and just returned it with a smile and friendly nod, but he doesn’t.

Johnny ‘Soap’ MacTavish - maybe for the first time in his entire life - catches onto the flirting and returns it. He blushes and plays coy, hiding the bottom of his face behind the collar of Alejandro’s turtle neck as he laughs at whatever the fuck the rookie is saying and it’s enough to send the whole squad into a murderous rage.

Ghost is the first to move, hand already pulling a knife out as his eyes stay zoned on the asshole that’s got his hands on Soap. Rudy and Alejandro aren’t far behind cursing up a storm in Spanish as König lumbers after them.

Ghost uses his bulk to get between them, Rudy and Alejandro blocking Soap from the rest of the base’s eyes as the former takes off his jacket and hangs it on Soap’s shoulders. König uses his height and bulk to pick Soap up and hide him from view before leaving with him. It’s such an obvious claim and blatant ‘don’t touch what’s ours’ that the rest of the base quickly learn to avert their eyes whenever Soap enters a room dressed in anything less than military gear.

Gaz feels as if he should feel bad for what he’s done but honestly? It’s too funny. Plus, Price left him a very detailed message on what he would do to the guys if he came back and he was one military personnel short because of Gaz’s stupid bets and dares.

[hyunin]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 🥳 🎊

HELLOOOO EVERYONE i am going to make a new year post after all! currently beginning working on this at 11:32 pm because i know it’s going to take me a while and i thought it would be nice to spend the turning of the new year talking about my friends. i also hope you enjoy this header i’m using it because i’m too lazy to make a cute one and i might later and also one of my friends said do it or no balls. 

honestly this year went by incredibly quickly for me. it was pretty uneventful, which might be a good thing!! i did get to meet two of my best online friends in the world when i saw stray kids live this summer, and that was probably top 10 days of my life!! so i’m really thankful that happened this year if nothing else. i’m one year closer to graduating community college as a part time student, and i’ll be turning 26 this month 😭 but you know, making it another year in itself is a big accomplishment if nothing else! i’m proud of everyone that made it another year and thank you for being here with me to read this post. i really appreciate all of you, whether we’re close friends or simply beloved casual mutuals, or if you’re even just a follower of mine; thank you for putting up with and even enjoying my sporadic posting and vaguely unhinged tags and gifs and other content, whether here or over on yangjeongin.

this will be my third turn of the new year i’m celebrating with everyone on tumblr upon return from my seven or whatever year hiatus, and it’s crazy that i’ve been giffing again since 2020. some of you have been with me since all the way back then and i’m so thankful!! i didn’t spend a ton of time on my dash this year (thank u to my bad internet that takes forever to load thereby making it an incredibly frustrating experience!) but i have more in the past several weeks and i’ve really enjoyed it!! i’m hoping that only continues into 2023. 

i do want to specifically thank some people for making my life on tumblr (and in general) better in 2022, but know that even if i don’t write you a specific message i still am so thankful for you keeping me company on tumblr dot hell in whatever way you have this past year!

i’ll put all my love for everyone under the cut and i know i will forget someone and feel bad but i cannot overstate how much i love all my mutuals enough!!

first of all, to @minijeong @miyawaki @redvelvetcult @bataranqs @seulggi my awoo9ers, thank you for being part of my life every day. i love reading back what u guys have said in the gc and i love seeing your content and chatting with u and your wacky n wild senses of humor, being your friend for the past few years has made my life better and i’m looking forward to making more memories in 2023 🎉 i love u!! i do want to call out a couple awoo9 members in particular though because i have more specific things to say!!

iwin - @anyujins ; hiii i feel like there’s so much to say but also so little?? but we started talking at the beginning of this year and have talked so much since and i just wanted to say i have really loved talking to u and getting closer to you this year. i genuinely feel like i can talk to you about anything and i am soso thankful for that and for u supporting me and i’m really glad that i can do the same for you! i know 2022 has been a rough year for you so i hope 2023 is better. for both of us!! haru - @minhos ; u probably won’t see this post and GOOD because i hate getting mushy with u. gross icky ew. but you know how much i appreciate and love you (or at least i hope you do) thank you for being my friend for so many years and for essentially creating my personality bc i think all of my interests are your fault SDFSDGSDG but thank u because in the end it’s all made my life better and so have you tee - @ddonghyun ; we haven’t talked much (or at all?) this year but i think you were the first friend i made upon my return to tumblr so know i am really thankful to you and still think about you a lot whenever i’m on this account <3 i haven’t seen you on my dash in a while and i don’t know if it’s just bad timing or you are finally escaping the black hole that is tumblr but either way i hope 2023 treats you well! eri - @wonjinist ; ultimately we haven’t been mutuals for that long but u deserve ur own message because every time i see u, despite us rarely speaking and just being mutuals that see each other and support each other on dash, i’m like omg that’s my friend eri. i simply consider u my friend regardless of how much we’ve actually interacted so thank u for your effortlessly friendly warm and kind personality that makes it feel so natural to simply be your friend <3 i hope u have a great 2023!

then we move on to the stayblr pals!! there are a bunch of you that have made my life on tumblr better in the past couple of years including (but not limited to) @agibbangs @binsuns @hyunchanz @hanjesungs @seunges @minzbins @leenow @cherry-heartss @huiracha @avocadomin @innielove @jisungs thank you for all of your wonderful content and personalities on my dash! i hope to see more from y’all in 2023 and maybe we can talk some more too!

li - @connecteds ; hi beloved!! another year of me on tumblr means another year of being friends with you. sometimes it’s fun on here and sometimes it’s not but even if my time here was an absolute terrible garbage shitshow it would be worth it because i got you out of it. i’m getting emotional and i’m sitting in the living room watching new years specials with my mom rn i can’t cry LMAO but thank you for always making me laugh even when you’re having a hard time and for otherwise being so full of love, and every day i’m so grateful that some of that love is for me <3 i told you we’ll always be friends as far as i’m concerned, no matter how much or little we talk, and i really mean that. no matter what we do or where life takes us there will always be love in my heart for you. i know 2022 was really hard for you so i hope the world finally gives you back some of the love and happiness you’ve put out into the world in 2023 💫 and u know i’m gonna be here for it!! adri - @skz-films / @hyunebear ; i’m not sure which account to tag you on asdfasdgdsg i know we’ve like never spoken but i think i will always remember the gifset you made for us on yangjeongin and how much you said we inspire you that really touched my heart so thank you again :( i think about that whenever i see you on my dash and it makes my heart feel a little warmer every time i do and i think we can always use more of that in life, so thank you for making mine a little brighter this year kep - @seungknow ; kep i miss u!!! i just wanted to say hi because you deserve your own message. thank u for being my friend, and i’m glad(?) we have moved from being together in stayblr hell to pc collector instagram hell. great. amazing. may 2023 bring us many dream photocards ✨ abia - @seungminhos ; abia! i didn’t talk to you too much in the past year but i couldn’t just lump u in with everyone else it felt wrong!! missing u and the seungminhos content but i hope 2022 was okay and regardless, that 2023 is better because we can leave all that in the past now. love u <3 luna - @seunglixes ; i wanted to give you your own shoutout just to say thank you for all you do for createskz! i know life is so crazy for you sometimes but you still always do your best to keep up with the net and i think you do such an amazing job, i really admire u for that so thank you for your work and for creating such a great place for stay ccs to come together and find other great content agnes - @hyunjinz ; agnes angel beloved the fact that we have not actually spoken very much outside of tumblr tag conversations blows my mind bc you are so dear to me! thank you as always for supporting me in my stayblr endeavors even before yangjeongin existed, and for continuing to, and for being such a cornerstone in this community whether you’re making content yourself or not. you do such an amazing job of supporting everyone and i think that’s so admirable of you and really shows what a pure and kind heart you have. i hope 2023 treats you with just as much kindness!! marie - @seo-changbinnies ; marie comedic icon, free stand up show every time you’re on my dash, your tags will always be legendary. i know you’ve been going thru it recently so hang in there and know i appreciate u and miss u but it’s also so okay to take your time and focus on more important things than silly little gifs on a goofy blue website. i love you and hope 2023 brings you only good things!! vilma @hyunpic ; vilma angel...even writing this about u is making me sleepy...i’m just kidding i was already sleepy. i have always loved u but i love u even more now that we are talking more, it has been lovely!! thank u for your unhinged tags and absolutely abundant love and kindness not just for hyunjin but for everything around you. you are genuinely such a sweet person and just seeing you around boosts my serotonin so please continue doing what u do and i will message u next time i’m having trouble falling asleep <3 happy new year SZDSDGG lotta - @jizung ; lotta i think last year (or the year before?? idk) i made a post like this and said ur tags were funny and that i hope we talk more AND I FEEL LIKE WE SUCCEEDED?? either way i do consider you a friend now and also wanted to say, do not tell anyone else, but u are like in my top 5 if not top 3 ccs on this entire site i think your gifs are so nice i think u could just send me a link to every new thing u make and i would be overjoyed to see it. so here’s to another year of us making content and talking occasionally (maybe more in 2023?), i hope it’s the best one yet! ri - @foxinys ; ri!! omg u know we’ve only been talking more in the past few months mostly because of unfortunate circumstances but i regularly think about it like, well, a lot of shit is going on but at least i’m talking to ri more and that’s nice??? and i do rly enjoy talking to u! and your gifs of course. i will never forget ur gemini abundant birth chart and the fact that i guessed correctly (sort of) despite us barely talking at the time SDSDGSD and i love that <3 my astrology friend said based on the charts of people i’m friends with i tend to be drawn to gemini heavy people i think this means we were meant to be friends so may 2023 bring us friendship under better circumstances! and many other good things mia - @seungs ; mia honest to god i’ve been working on this post so long i’m getting tired ASDFSDGSDG but i love u and your content, thank u for the support and for being mary’s #1 fan in particular, sometimes i still think abt that anon that asked what grip mary had on u and laugh. i hope 2023 brings us many good things and more mc lino gifsets ✨ mona - @hyunsung ; same as above i am sounding like a broken record at this point but!! love your content and i appreciate our tag communication. we are friends as far as i am concerned i have decided this i hope u agree SDFSDGSDG but much love and good vibes for the upcoming year!! i hope we can talk more in 2023 also cassie - @seo-trashbins ; i know i talk to you like every day so i could say all of this to you anytime and i think you know all of this but i wanted to include you in this so you could see something nice next time you check tumblr. i love you very very much meeting you in person this year was genuinely one of my favorite experiences of my life. thank u for being such a good friend for all of these years. 2023 will be TEN YEARS of us being friends. thank u for loving me even when i was an annoying 15 year old and all the time in between to now. i love you!! you are funny and kind and otherwise a wonderful friend and person that i feel very lucky to know at all let alone be friends with. one day i’ll come visit you in toronto and maybe u will have ur own place and i will simply move in and live under your bed. that’s like actually the dream for me i’m ngl. but until then i’m really happy to go into our 10th year of friendship and that it’s so many of them at this point that it doesn’t even feel like that big of a deal for another new year to pass. i hope we’re friends forever 💗

OKAY ENOUGH!!!! if you read all of these for some reason you’re insane btw but thank you??? and for anyone that isn’t on here, i will once again reiterate that i appreciate you regardless. i did just get kind of burnt out i could only write so many of these SDFSDGSD but much love, i hope this post brightens your day a little and helps 2023 get off to a little bit of a better start ✨ happy new year!

[russeliarat]

Hi! :D I heard you were having a rough time, so I just wanted to pop in and say I always enjoy seeing your name pop up in my notifications and though we haven’t interacted much I know you are kind and considerate and care about others. I still remember an ask you sent me months ago about my writing and it makes me smile. You deserve all the hugs and love, school can be such a pain in the butt and absolutely terrible for your physical and mental well being. I hope you’re able to take a breath and take some time for yourself to try and make everything stop spinning for a while. Either way, we’re all here for you ❤️

Honestly, tumblr and everyone on here has been helping me combat the issues school gives me. I think I might have developed a dependency on it woops. I guess it kinda just shows how wonderful LU and the Zelda communities are if you've helped me this much.

I'm not sure why people have suddenly flocked to check up on me coz I'm kinda just a lurker that posts about Four every so often, but I'm really glad that you all have. It's been rough the last few weeks and it's really brightened up my day.

[brooklynbrunette]

Hi blog,

Been a while, but that’s the norm here. Lately I’ve been getting such a strong urge to write, to get all of my feelings out on paper (or doc, or tumblr post, whatever) but by the time I finish the work I have planned from the day, I’m to exhausted to think. These past two weeks have been rough. Lack of sleep, tons of headaches, and just having a mind that refuses to focus and nail a task one at a time, but rather stay in a freeze state when it sees the much bigger picture of everything I have to do.

Don’t get me wrong—yes I am stressed, busy, tired all the time, but I also think my mind being all over the place has to do with the fact that I am falling for a boy. I just haven’t really gotten the chance to sit and write and express my feelings on the matter. So here I am, four months into knowing the guy, one month into dating, and I don’t know if what I’m feeling is love or not, because I’ve never really loved anyone, romantically at least.

For the sake of not spilling names I’ll use initials: I was obsessed with E, discarded D, and lusted after V. I don’t even count L, although I have to say I am learning that he was kind of my only test-run at an adult relationship. He took me out on dates, walked me home, cared for me. It was sweet. But it wasn’t what I needed nor what I was ready for at that time. I was still very immature with my emotions and needed to “play the field” a bit more.

What I didn’t realize is how I almost talked myself out of my first date with K, now I can’t imagine my life without him in it. I am usually stressed, moody, angry, and even though seeing him means I have to sacrifice more sleep I really cannot afford to lose, he calms me. He makes my brain go quiet. And that to me is no small feat. I feel protected, I feel safe, and I feel like I can be soft around him. I’ve never felt that way before.

Which begs the question—is this what love is supposed to feel like? What are the signs? Am I in it? How will I know? SHOULD I know? Am I moving to fast? Will I regret this? And more and more questions pop up as I try to figure out what I’m feeling. It’s so odd. I feel like I can’t keep my hands off him, like I need his body heat to feel okay. But I’m so fucking skeptical.

I was always the one saying I wouldn’t conform to dating in the culture, because I couldn’t see it happening. I could never see myself yearning for the cute relationship where you talk about marriage and kids and futures. That. Was. Never. Me.

With K, I feel like my realities have shifted. I’m trying to do it all—to expand my goals and dreams for myself and my career while also standing by someone’s side. To not feel like I’m alone. To truly care about someone, and drop the act. And every time I think he’ll be afraid to know everything about me, he proves me wrong. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.

I told him how things with V ended, but I told him the whole story. I didn’t want to hold any details back because I felt like it was important to know: would this stop him from seeing me and thinking of me in such high regards? Would it bring him back down to earth? But no, he held my hand, he squeezed it when my voice was getting shaky, and he reassured me that everything was going to be okay. And whenever I find myself stressing out about work and wanting to do more, be better, screaming at myself that I’m not doing enough, I have that same notion in my head: no matter what, everything is going to be okay. And it is. It will always be.

So yeah, maybe I do love him or I’m still falling in love with him but as much as it enlightens me to get that out of my system, it terrifies me. I’m scared of how much I want to impress him, impress his friends, impress his family. How much I want to be perfect for him, but also perfect for all the people I work for. How my mind is so scattered that I completely missed an important work call that I should’ve been a part of. How I’m losing sleep and doing the bare minimum of work. How as much as I want to grow in my career, more work terrifies me because I’ll see him less. But on the flip side, it terrifies me that I find myself blaming him for my lack of constraint over my work schedule. My forgetfulness.

I have a lot I want to do with my life. I’ve stated it, written about it, typed about it. I know I was put here to make something of myself in whatever way, shape or form that I see fit. Right now I see myself growing brands, growing businesses, and being known as the person who comes into a company or a brand and flips it. Makes it better than it’s ever been. Brings more meaning to its message. I want to be known as that person. I want to turn myself into a brand. To be recognizable.

Recently I talked about my loss of respect for one of the women I was working with that I saw as a mentor. That loss has fueled me to be even better. I want K in my life, but not at the expense of my career. I want his affection and attention, but not at the expense of my aspirations. He’s been so supportive of me and I plan to be the same for him, and I think we’ll be alright. I just had to say that I will NOT change myself and my course.

I do have a lot to better about myself. I need to be on top of my game in all things me: self-care, doctor’s visits, personal time, gym routine, SLEEP. I can’t just give 110% to the people I work for. I have to give that to myself first. This right here is a reminder when I check back in to my blog - DO BETTER FOR YOURSELF. See how big of a difference it will make in your life.

[kittyfairyblog]

June 6 2023 cont.

 I am back here again, I know I just might run my blog ragged for how many blog entries a day I post. This neko boy just has been going inside and outside a number of times with Kylie our dog. It is humid outside but not really that bad. There’s a breeze blowing outside making the weather bearable. I really want my cell phone back. I know I already mentioned how badly I miss my cell phone. I haven’t had my cell phone around 3 weeks. I haven’t had the ablitiy to get on Facebook or text message my friends. I know I might be complaining but this is rough. I had been looking on Indeed and various job sites looking for employment but I haven’t found anything in my area that I could go to. Meow this neko boy didn’t know that it’s going to be like this for awhile. I hope my cell phone and my other missing belongings get mailed back to me quickly. I haven’t yet gotten today’s mail yet. The mail hasn’t yet arrived. I thought that I could get a nap in but some part of me just couldn’t do it. So here I am on Tumblr typing this entry out while listening to some music on YouTube. I might try agian to lay down on the couch but I just can’t do it at the moment. I might go to my room and continue typing out my novel that I am working on. Not go to my room but bring my sheets of paper that have my writing on it and type it up in the living room. I really don’t think about doing anything other than going outside a couple of more times with Kylie our dog. Nya this neko boy really again misses my cell phone. I don’t know why but I haven’t been watching the usual stuff that I had been watching on YouTube. I really don’t miss it. I want to do other things than be trapped on YouTube. Meow I know that I am watching or listening to music videos on YouTube while doing other things but that doesn’t mean I am watching it. My mom, sister and her kids won’t return from their walk in the mall until 4 pm. That leaves currently 3 hours until they return since it is almost 1:30 pm as I am typing this. Nya I really don’t think I can take a nap with what’s going on in my head. I put away the dishes already and also did my laundry so that’s it for now as well as made my bed. Like I stated in a entry previous to this one today I got up around 8 for an appointment that didn’t take place and I got back home to try to nap. I was unsucessful in getting a nap in earlier today. School is out for the kids for this summer and they won’t return to school till August. I just hope I don’t have to deal with them. Hopefully I can find work or keep my mind occupied these months that the kids are out of school. Meow well that’s pretty much it. When I get my cell phone back I might start posting pictures on this blog. Until then later. 

[commander-erwin-smith]

I’ve been really neglecting Tumblr and social media in general the last 4ish months. My mental health has been a roller coaster and that’s all because of my mom. She behaves like such a narcissist and she’s very controlling too.

The breakup with Jay has been incredibly hard on me because it was all my mom’s fault. He couldn’t deal with her harassment anymore. I think I also might have hurt his feelings too by letting my mom’s nonsense doubt him and that really sucks too. It also doesn’t help that his psycho ex girlfriend is talking to my mom and saying all kinds of hateful stuff about him to her, but is still in love with him and stalks him and calls and texts him multiple times a day all while she’s still in a relationship with the father of her kids and was still with this other man when she was seeing Jay. It’s also my fault too that she’s in contact with my mom…if I wouldn’t have laugh reacted to a couple of the ex’s lovesick posts on Facebook she probably wouldn’t have come after me or found my mom…

Jay’s had a rough life growing up: mistakes he made as a teen, eating disorder, depression, cancer. Then had to deal with his ex not leaving him alone and then my mom sending him hateful texts whenever he and I went out, my mom leaving two notes on his car at work threatening him with lies, her screaming at him in the work parking lot to leave me alone. He didn’t deserve that and I don’t blame him for breaking up with me 😢

My mom always acted like a victim whenever I defended myself and Jay and my relationship with him from her. She just wants to be in control of my life. Me a 26 year old. Not to mention how she dragged a few other family members into the drama and had enough nerve to blame me and jay when my love life was nobody’s business in the first place.

Everyone at our work department that knew about us was so accepting of me and Jay’s relationship despite our 21 year age difference. It sure is telling when strangers and acquaintances are more accepting than your own family member.

I know I made a post like this recently, but this Saturday (the 22) will be 3 weeks since the breakup and I’ve been struggling every day since. I haven’t been able to go a day without crying and it’s so hard.

I believe fate brought Jay and I together and that’s a whole other story for another time and I’m trying to hang onto the hope that fate will bring us back together but it’s so hard when you’re a negative sad broken hearted person like me. 💔😢

[razglowe]

Fandom Recap! - Raglowe's 2022 Edition

OKAY, THIRD ATTEMPT AT WRITING THIS WITHOUT TUMBLR EATING IT, LET’S GO!!

I’ve been back for about a week or so and I’m settling in nicely. Genuinely enjoying being back so much! I'm using the queue more and having a lot more of a relaxed time here than when I was active last.

Thank you so much for sticking with me!

Since it's been awhile, I wanted to do a rundown on my interests. ! It’s also super fun to reflect on how things have changed in fandom over the past few years.

Let’s get to it!

OLD STUFF I AM/WAS INTO

---------

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

“Riiiiise of the--”

Ninja Turtles is so entwined with my DNA at this point, even if I can’t watch things on the regular any more. I’m still here though! Happily vibing away passively.

While I haven’t watched Rise of the TMNT series yet (tried the first ep, wasn’t my cup of tea, but I want to try again), I’ve managed to sit down and watch the movie.

D u d e.

RotTMNT, genuinely, has some of my favourite takes on the main cast. Changing things up while still keeping everyone true to character is such a hard needle to thread but I think the creative team stuck the landing. Especially with Leo being more chill and arrogant without the pressures of being a leader. I love it!

I’ve also been keeping up with IDW. If you’re a new turtle fan and want to get into more of the franchise, I can’t recommend it enough. It brings in some fresh takes on old characters while giving room to new characters as well.

Being a turtle fan is fantastic right now between Rise and Shredder's Revenge, and I do really feel we are in a new renaissance period. Keeping an eye out for Mutant Mayhem news next year!

Batman/DC Comics

“I am vengeance. I am the night. I am—“

I was originally writing this the day before word broke about Kevin Conroy. It’s… rough. And it really made me reflect on how I have been feeling about Batman recently.

These past few years saw me fall out of love a bit with Batman and DC Comics. I love these characters and this universe so much but I started to feel lost with it. From the movies through to the Nu52 comics, I just really wasn’t vibing with the darker tone I was seeing more of. But I always had that familiar, comforting thought that we had some of the old regular voices still reprising their roles.

That has certainly changed now.

Kevin Conroy was a man that I didn’t – and still don’t – know about in detail save for glimpses into his personality from interviews and his close friends sharing memories of him. He was kind. Empathetic. Talented and insightful. Full of love, passion, and genuine joy and admiration for his fans all over the world. And he was probably one of the few people who fully understood Batman dual nature on a fundamentally deep and personal level.

I want to revisit Batman again after hearing these stories about him. His joy and celebration of DC and Batman is truly infectious, especially after seeing his interviews.

I’m keen to give new things a go too! Batman 2022 in particular looks like a fun take on things, and I’ve been falling back in love after seeing The Suicide Squad (2022) and Peacemaker’s TV series. Genuinely, thank you James Gunn for reminding me how much I love DC, and thank you Kevin Conroy for reminding me how much I love Batman.

Especially Kevin Conroy. Thank you. So much.

Doctor Who

“Allons-y!”

Boy did I pick a time to come back to Doctor Who.

Around the end of 11’s run I was getting weary with Doctor Who. I really wasn’t liking Moffat’s writing style and wasn’t a fan of how I was being a wet blanket about it. Chipnal’s run wasn’t for me either. So, I took a step back. I checked out some of Capaldi and Whitaker’s episodes between then and now – I love their takes on the Doctor so much! I don't think most of the eps are for me, but I love the highlights I've seen!

But here we are now, with Russel T Davis back and David Tennant back (at least temporarily).

As much as I love Tennant’s Doctor, I’m honestly far more excited to see Ncuti Gatwa finally get his chance to show us his Doctor. I’ve heard nothing but praise for his acting and really excited to see what stories he will get to weave with Davis. (Though having Tennant back as the Doctor temporarily is a fun bonus too!)

I've otherwise been having a great time listening to Big Finish stories. Been a great way to experience the older Doctors and gaining a love and appreciation for all of Who these days. Really happy I did that!

Pokemon

“So, what? I'm lower than a Pokemon?! I already got self-esteem issues, man!”

While Scarlet/Violet have been buggy as all hell, I’m having a ton of fun with Pokemon! I haven’t missed a game still and I’m so excited to see what direction future games will head in. (Also please Game Freak, slow your mainline game rollout so people can fix the bugs more… please…)

Round up via generations! From most recent to least!

GEN 9 - Scarlet/Violet: About a third of the way through Scarlet right now. Really starting to like more of the new Pokemon designs. Grafaiai is a current frontline favourite for Gen 9 with me!

Legends of Arcus & Pokemon Snap: LoA was such a highlight for me. It was super fun and I’m still needing to get through end-game, but I’m having a ton of fun when I get the chance. And the new Pokemon Snap was a fun surprise to boot! So many fun ways to see Pokemon in the wild again.

GEN 8 - Sword/Shield: It was a fun time! I think this game does world building the best of all the games so far (yes, even over Scarlet/Violet). The gym leaders in them are probably some of my overall favourites so far! I wasn't as sold on the story, but man, seeing Pokemon as an actual competitive sport like soccer is still one of my favourite things to see

GEN 7 - Sun/Moon: Did you know that I was completely unaware that Guzma was a Tumblr Sexy Man until the Tumblr Sexy Man voting meme went viral? Hell yeah everyone good taste. On a serious note - loved these games a lot, and I think Team Skull became my favourite evil team after playing it. Love these knuckleheads.

Gen 3/4 Remakes: I played a lot of Alpha Sapphire when it came out! Really loved how they did shiny hunting with it. Wasn't so keen on Diamond/Pearl's remake, which is a shame since I really love those games. Still at the first gym with it... hopefully I can get time to play soon!

Hopefully we can see some bug fixes with Scarlet/Violet. I'm so keen to see what else is ahead in this game!

Warcraft/Overwatch

“The world could always use more heroes!”

This is… a rough one. I love Warcraft. I love Overwatch. I love both worlds. However, I’m not keen to be in those worlds much these days.

For Warcraft, I’m not a big fan of how the storytelling is going. And that’s fine! If it’s not my cup of tea, I’m happy to step back. Same with character direction in Overwatch. Again, nothing wrong with this. At times you and franchises you love grow into different things. The time together is none-the-less treasured.

There’s also external issues with Blizzard that have been well documented. I won’t be going into them, but they do not align with my morals (to say the least).

Always happy to reblog any Junkrat art or Warcraft silliness if I see them, but for now I'm done with both. They’ll always be a part of me! But I'm happily moving onto other games in the meantime.

Homestuck

“Dave: oh shit”

Yes, I know about the Epilogues and HS^2. Yes, I read them. No, they aren’t for me and that’s okay.

Other stuff

I’m still into a lot of things still! Still loving Lupin III, still happily reflecting on Mass Effect (haven’t played Andromeda still, just need time to play it!), and just having a grand old time living life.

If you want my thoughts on anything I’ve missed here, give a shout and I’ll reply!

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten into other things too!

NEW STUFF I’M INTO!

---------

FFXIV

“Remember us. Remember that we once lived.”

I’m not kidding when I say this – I genuinely think that FFXIV is going to be looked at as “video games as epic literature” one day in the far future. But with more big tiddy bun girls.

It’s such a wonderful winding tale where every character feels full of an important weight and value, ranging from minor characters through to major players. It is so wonderful to see and it’s such a contrast to what I’m used to with Warcraft!

I’ve been playing for about a year now, even though I originally picked up the game in about… 2018? 2016? It’s been awhile. But I needed a hook. So, I powered on through with friends and that was the hook I needed at the end of the day. Shadowbringer has been the peak of it all for me, but each expansion just keeps building up and up!

There have been so many character journeys that I’ve become attached to, and a lot of character growth that feels natural and earned. Won’t ramble too much here, but I have been enjoying everything immensely!

Splatoon

“Stay Fresh~”

I’ve always been interested in Splatoon but never quite really jumped on. I was a bit too late for the hype for Splatoon 2 (alas, never really experienced a proper Splatfest in there) but I really fell in love with the world. Hearing Splatoon 3 get announced got me excited and I’m so happy to see how much love it’s getting!

Also, no joke, the deep lore on this game is wild. I love it. Please read it one day if you get the chance. It’s hilarious and heartbreaking. Look, if we all wipe ourselves out, just know we’ve got squid kids to learn from our old memes at least.

(Also, Off the Hook is the best idol group, I’m sorry Deep Cut!)

Borderlands

“I just bought a pony made of diamonds! Because I'm rich.”

Tales From the Borderlands was running rings around me back when I was on Tumblr, but I just couldn't afford to play it back then (my computer was struggling to run smaller games ahahah;; ). I was curious but never enough to play it. So in my time away I eventually went “alright, show me what you’ve got”.

Yeah… yeah I regret not getting into this sooner.

Borderlands in general is such a fun world! I’m so glad I got to eventually experience it! I’ve played through the whole catalogue save for Pre-Sequel, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and New Tales now. Original TFTB also has the honour of being “game that made me cry with laughter” so that’s a big tick in my book.

I’ve defs played through Borderlands 3 as well. Gameplay was great! Story was good but I was missing some of the dramatic meat, but it absolutely brought the heat with DLC.

And yes, can confirm, Handsome Jack is an absolute bastard, 10/10 fantastic horrible dude, deserves all the hate and love.

The lack of a presence on the Tumblr Sexyman list when he had such a chokehold over Tumblr back in the day is a travesty :(

Genshin Impact

“Hey Traveller! Over here!”

So, I’m not so much into Genshin right now but I’m slowly warming to it. More here for the vibes and fanart than anything else.

Not too sure what else to say really. The characters seem fun! And people seem to be having fun with them. I think that's neat!

[dashboarddiaries]

Dashboard Diaries is a production of Atypical Artists, hosted by Lauren Shippen and Cherokee McAnelly. Our theme was composed by Lauren Shippen and mixed by Brandon Grugle. Art by Shae McMullin. Transcription by Laudable.

For bonus clips, ad-free episodes, and more, become a patron at patreon.com/dashboarddiaries

Transcript under the cut!

[intro music]

Lauren: Hello, Tumblr users, new and old. I’m Lauren Shippen, Professional Writer, who is currently in their third decade of Tumblr usage – as in, I was a teenager on Tumblr. I was in my 20’s on Tumblr. And now I’m in my 30’s on Tumblr. 

Cherokee: That’s beautiful, Lauren. And I’m Cherokee McAnelly, Head of Entertainment at Tumblr, and also a legacy Tumblr user. I am on year ten of my Tumblr journey. Lauren, it’s just been a special one.

Lauren: Ain’t it incredible? The tin anniversary with Tumblr. This is Dashboard Diaries, a podcast for you – the folks who are in this internet bunker with us. 

Cherokee: We talk about what’s going on, on our favorite hell site, get into what we like to call “tumbl-lore,” do fandom deep dives, and share the times when we’ve gone feral over a new ship.

Lauren: And this week we are going to be giving you a rough and ready guide on how to use Tumblr if you are joining from Twitter, and we’ll start as we do often which is just talking about our weeks on Tumblr. Cherokee, it has been quite a week on Tumblr. How have things been over in your corner of the internet?

Cherokee: Has something been going on, Lauren? It’s been pretty low-key, chill, not really much ... 

Lauren: (laughs)

Cherokee: So, yeah, it has been quite a week, quite a fun week. So, what’s been going on, on Tumblr? Obviously, we have some wonderful new members of our community. Welcome, to all of you who are joining the affectionately called “hell site” that we like to call home. Our little internet bunker. But yeah, so this week on Tumblr I think obviously the biggest thing, and kind of I would say the elephant in the room, or the blue checkmark in the room ... 

(laughter)

... is that we launched a feature where you can ... for the low, low price of $7.99, but two blue checkmarks, not one, but two! And get this, Lauren, if you would like more, you can buy up to 12 or 24 total checkmarks to really-

Lauren: I have seen this because I have seen some blogs with just a row of checkmarks next to them. (laughs)

Cherokee: So, you can be as special on the internet as you want. We’re really excited about it. I obviously have purchased a double checkmark for my very important primary blog.

Lauren: Perfect.

Cherokee: So,  yeah, it’s been really fun to see the reaction and just honestly it’s been such a fun week scrolling and seeing all the blogs coming back. There are blogs that I followed for years that maybe went a little dormant and are coming back. And it’s like, oh my gosh, logging back in and seeing an old friend who you haven’t talked to in forever but you’re just right back to kind of where you started. 

Seeing a lot of that, seeing a lot of, “What is going on here?” and confusion and fun. And a lot of, “Welcome to Tumblr!” posts, and kind of in-depth posts from the community saying, “Hey, did you just come to Tumblr from Twitter? Welcome. Here are my tips.” And I just think that’s really wonderful to see kind of like the community response. Obviously, we have the sass of course because chaos is key on Tumblr. But I think it’s welcoming. We’re razzing our new users, right? It’s like a rite of passage.

Lauren: Yeah.

Cherokee: (laughs) How about you, Lauren? What have you been seeing on your dash this week?

Lauren: I mean, yeah, I’ve just been loving the utter chaos and sort of the perfect micro chasm of Tumblr over the last 15 years kind of contained into a few week period. Right? Because it feels like we’re getting all of the level headed helpfulness that has kind of come out of Tumblr in the last couple of years.  I think Tumblr over the last couple of years especially has become a place that’s really been occupied by people who really want to be there. And we all kind of understand how to behave and we all understand how to treat each other. And there’s been a nice I think earnest move to help bring new  users in and teach them kind of how to use the site to the best of your ability. But then also there has been what I’m seeing lovingly called “firing gunshots to keep your rent prices low in your neighborhood.” 

Cherokee: (laughs) Wow. Yep!

Lauren: (laughs) Which is Tumblr users bringing back cringe posting from 2012, which I mean, yeah, if you go to DashboardDiaries.Tumblr.com you’ll see some re-blogging of these. I’m going to queue some posts from 2012 that are sort of the original relics of what posting on Tumblr used to be like and then people trying to re-create it which just involves a lot of really earnest cringe-inducing sort of fandom references as well as lots and lots of Supernatural gifs and all of that kind of stuff.

And all of that stuff still exists on Tumblr these days. And I think we all agree that cringe is dead, long live cringe. But there is a different flavor to it when it’s got that 2012 spice on it. (laughs) And so I’ve been seeing a lot of that, and enjoying a lot of that. And also, yeah, really enjoying the blue checkmark of Tumblr. And just to really clarify, Cherokee, what does the blue checkmark get you on Tumblr?

Cherokee: Lauren, it gets you a blue checkmark right next to your name.

Lauren: Yeah.

Cherokee: Yeah. That’s it.

Lauren: Perfect. (laughs) 

Cherokee: Oh, it gets you ... Excuse me, I misspoke. Lauren, it gets you two, but up to 24 blue checkmarks right next to your name. And look, you can put them on all your blogs, all your side blogs, the only thing is, currently you can’t do them on group blogs. But I’m sure that will be coming. I don’t want to speak for our engineers, but I have a feeling it will. And so yeah, just go ahead and get your blue checkmark and that will be on your ... it’s currently web only so it’s not mobile yet, but again, with time we hope our blue checkmarks will be everywhere. And you can have them even floating next to your head, which you actually can ... we’re selling pins of the blue checkmark. So, you can have those on your person as well. 

Lauren: Oh, perfect!

Cherokee: Yeah. So, I hope everyone feels very special on the internet on Tumblr. 

Lauren: Oh yeah. I think one of the really unique things about Tumblr and the reason that it started and stayed and is currently still my favorite social media site is that ... we understand that we live in a world in which things need to be monetized. But it’s monetized in such a way that it doesn’t actually drive shaping the platform in a bad way. Right? 

Twitter is driven by advertising and things like that. Then your algorithm is going to be feeding your certain things. And you as a participant on the social media website only have so much control over your relationship to both being a product and paying for a product. Right?

Whereas I think on Tumblr those lines are really well defined. If you don’t want any ads on Tumblr you can pay for an ad free experience. If you want to promote your post, you can promote your post. And also you control your feed and you control the things that you see. And then you also can still opt in to like, “I want to see the things that are trending.” “I want to see the things that are in this particular section of Tumblr.” So, it really is a much more user defined experience.

And personally, for me, as a user of Tumblr, makes me more inclined to buy things from Tumblr because I then want to support its existence. Yeah, so the blue checkmark is just another in a long line of wonderful shit posting, chaotic, commoditization avenues that Tumblr has introduced over the past year. Which I really, really love.

Cherokee: Well, I completely agree and not just because I obviously work, you know, at Tumblr, but I’ve worked here over eight years now, been on Tumblr over ten. And it is absolutely because it continues to be my favorite social platform. I love that you can have a chronological dashboard. I love that it feels ... Obviously we have advertising as does pretty much every platform, but I do love how ... I don’t know ... genuine and kind of honest it feels. It’s like, yeah, here’s an ad because ads exist. We weren’t listening to you have your conversation ten minutes ago. 

Lauren: Yeah. I have yet to pay for ad free Tumblr. Not because I’m reluctant to pay for an ad free experience, but because I’m perfectly happy to. But because the ads are kind of part of the lore and the eco system on Tumblr. Sometimes there will be a particular advertiser that will go ham on getting advertising on Tumblr. And it will become like part of the in-jokes that you share with the website. And so it’s like sometimes I like looking at ads because I want to be able to participate in the larger conversation. (laughs)

Cherokee: I mean, Lauren, what if you missed Pika Man? (laughs)

Lauren: What if I missed Pika Man? Where would we be? So, before we get into a deeper guide on how to use Tumblr, let’s dive into our own archives and see what we were shit posting years ago. Cherokee? Do you have a dashboard confessional for me this week?

Cherokee: Do it. I absolutely do, Lauren. It’s one I think you will really enjoy as well. So, this is from November 17th, 2015. And I linked it in the  little doc there. So, the background on this is Tumblr launched its gif maker in November 2015 and so I was going ham on making gifs with everything I could. And these were my two roommates at the time, Pete and James, who you know James, playing leap frog-

Lauren: Yes! Oh my gosh! (laughs)

Cherokee: ... in my little apartment. And I saw this and I was like, well, how could I not select something heritage gif post original content and also a person you know!? So, there’s a fun little ...

Lauren: This is incredible. Yeah, I don’t think we’ve talked about this on the pod yet, but Cherokee and I , we live on different coasts, but when I was in New York over the summer we actually finally got to meet in person and go out for dinner and stuff. And we discovered that your old roommate is a guy that I knew in high school because I went to high school and san a cappella with his cousin.

Cherokee: Yeah, and we just happened to go to the same college and lived together after college. He was one of my best friends throughout school. Just what a-

Lauren: And someone that I exchanged mix cds with when we were like 15!

Cherokee: What a small world! I truly can’t get over that. 

Lauren: Yeah, really, really astonishing and it’s just incredible to see him leap- frogging in this gif, in this homemade gif. 

Cherokee: What’s in your dashboard confessional this week?

Lauren: So, I have a fun little time capsule for a couple of reasons. Which is it’s from eight years ago. So, this would have been 2014. Right? And yeah, November 14th, 2014. And it is a re-blog of a gif of Will Graham from Hannibal. And the caption is, “Was this the last time Will smiled? It wasn’t even reality.” Because the gif is from a dream that Will has in the TV show. 

And the thing that is particularly I think telling about the eco system of Tumblr with this post is that I mean, A) Hannibal obviously has been a big fandom on Tumblr for a long time, it was a big fandom of mine, and my archive is littered with Hannibal posts, but this post in particular was posted by NBC Hannibal. Which was the official NBC Hannibal blog that was on Tumblr. And very active when the show was on. And I personally would like trade posts back and forth with NBC Hannibal sometimes. I won’t tell you which particular post, because then I will reveal my secret blog to you. But it was such a fun and particular time on Tumblr that I think it’s kind of, that era has ended, right, of official TV blogs or official brand blogs participating in shit posting to such a degree that those posts would kind of breech containment and get into the larger Tumblr eco system. 

Obviously, Denny’s is probably the most family for being a fantastic brand blog. But NBC Hannibal, whoever ran that account, if you’re out there, if you happen to hear this, know that I love you. And that I’m proud of you. (laughs) Because they did such a good job running this Tumblr and participating with fans. And obviously no one kept it up because the show was cancelled after three seasons and it’s like why are you going to keep up a blog for a show that’s no longer on the air? But it’s something that I’m curious to see if that will happen once again now that Tumblr is kind of having a resurgence? And especially since some people are getting on to Tumblr. We’ve got some celebrities who have come on to Tumblr in the last couple of weeks. And so I’m excited to see kind of what that creates.

Because I do think that it can be quite fun when actual social media for TV shows or for whatever else or actual celebrities participate in a way that is appropriate to the Tumblr eco system, like Neil Gaiman. We talk about Uncle Neil all the time. He very much knows how to use Tumblr. And I think that there is always a possibility that other people will also figure it out. So, that’s just a little relic from that particular era of Tumblr TV show blogs.

Cherokee: I love this. I want to re-blog this to entertainment and all the other blogs that this would fit on.

Lauren: Perfect.

Cherokee: I love it so much. I also like that they re-blogged and replied to themselves. That is one of my favorite little Tumblr things-

Lauren: Yes!

Cherokee: ... that you can do. Obviously, you can reply to yourself elsewhere, or comment on your thing, but re-blogging yourself and making your own reply chain is one of the funniest things. And I love seeing those kinds of heritage posts come across your dashboard, especially when people will change their username for each post. 

Lauren: Yes.

Cherokee: Or something ... or comment with their side blogs. It’s ... yeah.

Lauren: Yeah. The other thing I love about the Hannibal account is ... and this is a great example of Tumblr tags, which we will be talking about in-depth this episode because it’s like an extremely important part of Tumblr user experience, but so this original blog on Tumblr is tagged Hannibal, NBC, television, Will Graham, Hugh Dancy, gif. Those are the first six tags. Right?

But then (laughs) it’s tagged: channels twisty the clown and starts shaking dolls and pulling tissues out of my sleeve to make Will smile again, no success, starts punching the cage and throwing things. What does that mean!?

(laughs)

Cherokee: Oh, my gosh.

Lauren: And it’s just a perfect use. Whoever was running this blog clearly understood how to use Tumblr and it’s an art, not a science. 

Cherokee: Ooh, I love that. That’s beautiful. Yeah.

Lauren: Yeah. (laughs)

Cherokee: And everyone has their own special way of doing the art, and it doesn’t make the art any more or less amazing, you know? It’s just all different styles. We have our realists and our abstract artists on Tumblr. 

Lauren: Exactly. And we are going to get into how to at least learn enough of the science that you can make your own art, but first, a quick ad break.

[synth music]

All right, so for our main topic this week, we thought it would be helpful, and a couple of listeners also asked, if we could do a user guide for any of you who are coming over from Twitter, fleeing the sinking ship, and finding dry land on Tumblr. Or ... those of you who maybe had a Tumblr account 12 years ago and want to get back in the groove. So, we’re going to run you through some basics that you need to know in order to get the most out of the platform. Some do’s and don’ts. 

Another place to start might also be to listen to our second episode, if you haven’t already, because it goes over some Tumblr vocab as well as some sort of like Tumblr in-jokes that might be helpful to know in order to get the sort of conversations on the website.

But first, I figured we’d just sort of start with the basic mechanics. So, the basic actions you can do on Tumblr are posting, liking, and re-blogging. Cherokee, do you want to give us like a quick run-down of what those three things are?

Cherokee: Absolutely, Lauren. So, the first one: posting. There are seven post types:

TEXT | PHOTO | VIDEO | QUOTE | LINK | CHAT | AUDIO

So, thought they’re all individual post types, any one of your posts can be comprised of essentially any combination of these things. So, you pick what you want to start with, either on desktop or on mobile. Say you want to post a video – you upload the video and then there’s a little icon below when you do carriage return and you can pick the other post type. So, you can put a video, type in your caption, and say below that video you want to put a gif from the video. And then you add any of your tags. 

First off, add your tags, that would be relevant to the title. Say, it’s a video of the cast of Black Panther, that’s on my mind because we just had that Q&A go live last week and the film came out. I can’t wait to see it. But so for Black Panther you would tag it #blackpanther #wakandaforever #marvelstudios #ryancoogler, the name of the-

Lauren: #MCU

Cherokee: Yeah, #MCU, the name of the cast, any of that. And then for example we did a reaction time with the cast where essentially we showed them Tumblr posts and had them react to them. And one of the Tumblr posts had the word “simp” in it. And Tenoch who was reading the post was like, “What is a simp?” And everyone else in the cast was like, “Yeah, what is a simp?” And Ryan Coogler goes-

Lauren: Oh, bless ...

Cherokee: ... “I’ll tell you guys later. I’ll tell you guys later.” 

(laughter)

So, obviously I think the tags would be like “What is a simp, I’ll tell you guys later” or something along those lines. So, you add your fun little tags. You hit post. And then your post is live. And now people can hit “like.” If they like it, it goes into their categorized likes, which you can always go back and find. It’s saving your content just as you would on any other social platform. And you actually have the option of having your likes public or private.  So, most people opt to set them private. It’s totally up to you. You can do that via your blog settings, which we’ll talk through later. 

And then re-blogging. Rule number one of Tumblr, or at least in the top five, is re-blog, do not re-post. The engagement-

Lauren: Yes.

Cherokee: ... on Tumblr, the way that people really get their following, get the engagement on their content is re-blogging. And when you re-blog you essentially share it to your own blog. You can share it to your own, or secondary blog (another thing we’ll get into). But the great thing about Tumblr is it really ... I would say the limit does not exist in terms of re-blogging and sharing content that you like. 

For example, I’ve re-blogged 50,000 things on my Tumblr over the years. And I have had days where I’ve hit the re-blog limit or the post limit, which I believe is around 200 ... the limit per day is 200. I have re-blogged 200 things in a day. And all that really does is increase your engagement. So, yeah, you can re-blog things. 

And you can also schedule your posts to go live at any time you want them to. That is also an option. Like, when you’re hitting the post drop down menu, you can post it, you can save it as a draft, you can schedule it for a time you want to go live, or you can put it in your queue. Your queue is essentially something that you can set up to automatically post things between a given time period. So, you could have your queue set up to post five times a day between 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM. And you can just put posts in your queue, a set it and forget it kind of thing, and that can keep your blog active for as long as you want. 

So, I took posting, liking, and re-blogging a little further than ... initially there were a lot of tie ins there, but that’s how to make a Tumblr post and do a lot of other stuff in a nutshell. 

Lauren: Thank you for that incredible explainer. That is so much more coherent than I think I could have explained it. I think two things to kind of call out about the post type. So, yeah, you’ve got those seven post types and typically the thing that you’re clicking on is sort of going to be the main part of the post, right? And so it’s like if you’re clicking to post a link, that link is going to sort of be the top of the post. It’s going to be the most prominent thing. But you also can link lots of things within a post, by hyperlinking. Right?

So, I think the thing I wanted to call out is that there are two post types in those post types that I think are a little bit unusual. Which are quote and chat.

Quote is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s like if you are pulling a quote from a book that you love or a TV show or whatever else, it literally puts it in quotes kind of like in a big text and then you can kind of label where it’s from in a smaller text. Which again are things that you could do in formatting in a text post, but it’s just like a little bit of a short cut to doing that.

Cherokee: Yeah, I think therefore I am, Abraham Lincoln. I know he did say that.

Lauren: Yes. (laughs) But also that’s a great example of a shit post. Right?

(laughter)

And then the chat post feature is not ... there is Tumblr Chat, which we will get into when we talk about how to talk to other people, but clicking the chat post option kind of automatically gives you format and it’s got a different font than other Tumblr posts. It’s sort of more of a typewriter font. And it basically has sort of a format of you put [Name: what they say] and then below that put [Name: what they say]. 

And it’s something that’s used a lot for incorrect Black Panther quotes, right? Where it’s like you would put a conversation between T’Challa and Shuri that’s like maybe from Parks & Rec, right, and you sort of mash up the quotes and make it so it looks like the characters are having a conversation. That’s primarily what I see the chat function post used for, is sort of those incorrect quotes or imagines or yeah, just any kind of conversation between characters or between people. Less so, you know, an actual like conversation that is canonically happening. Oftentimes people will put those into photo sets or something like that.

Cherokee: Yeah, it’s kind of format wise like a script and so you’re writing out your own little mini kind of script for whatever you’re writing a chat post about. And i would say incorrect quotes is really where these types of posts shine. 

Lauren: Absolutely. And to talk about the queue a little bit more as well I think that when it comes to using the queue, there’s a couple of things that I’ve noticed through the years. And a couple of different ways that people use it. On my personal private blog, not actually private but just private in the sense that it’s secret, I use the queue pretty much exclusively. Because I like to space out my postings. 

Sometimes I’ll be scrolling Tumblr for an hour and I will re-blog like 70 things, but they’re all going to the queue so then when someone who follows me is scrolling through their dash they’re not getting a wall of posts from me, a wall of re-blogs. It’s sort of being mixed in with the rest. But also some people just do the wall of re-blogs and it’s up to your personal preference. 

The other thing that is up to your personal preference is a lot of people have tags specifically for their queue. And that can be everything from just like the letter “Q” to a cutesy thing like, “I’m with Q to the end of the line,” if you’re a stucky blog. I personally do not have one of those tags. And I don’t bother. And a lot of people don’t. But people like to organize their blogs in different ways. Which is probably a good transition point into tagging in general and sort of the tagging system. 

What would you say are sort of the most important things to know about the tagging system, if you are new to Tumblr?

Cherokee: I would say tagging is essential on Tumblr. One thing that I love about the tagging system on Tumblr is that the tags are separate from your posts. On other socials you put in a tag and it’s kind of part of the copy or it’s very visible that it’s part of the caption, right? On Tumblr there is a separate kind of grayed out bottom area of the post where you can put all your tags in. You can add up to 20. Technically, the first five are the most important. Those are the ones that really get categorized or are the most discoverable. So, those first five tags are going to be the ones that you want to include first. 

So, say you took a really beautiful photo of some moss on a stump, it would be like: #moss #photographersonTumblr #goblincore #cottagecore #green or whatever you want to say. And then you would say ... like, the next tag could be like #iwanttotakeabiteofthismoss #wouldyoueatthismoss #letsgoeatmoss Whatever you want to put. The fun kind of jazzy sentence additional tags. And a lot of people will just put ... maybe they’ll put a line or two in the caption or maybe they won’t add anything at all to the caption and their caption will really be what you can find in the tag. So, tags are a mix of something that is very useful that is where most people will find your content if they’re not following you. Of course you’ll get your re-blogs and people can find you that way, but tags are really an important way to find people. 

And you can also follow tags, like you would follow a person. And you have your own separate tag dashboard where you can look at the people you’re following, the blogs you’re following, and then the tags that you’re following as well in a separate kind of area of your Tumblr. So, it’s really, yeah, tags are great. I love the tagging structure and just I don’t know tagging community. I wouldn’t call it a community, but the kind of way tags are used on Tumblr is really fun and interesting.

Lauren: And it’s really unique. I mean, another important thing about the hashtags is that you don’t need to type the hashtag yourself when you’re typing in your tags. And you also need to include spaces. Or you should include spaces. Right? Because it makes it a lot easier to read. And also because if I am searching Marvel Studios on Tumblr it’s going to bring up the tags #Marvel #Studios, right? And in terms of actually typing the tags ... what you do is you type out what you want to type out and then you hit enter and then it automatically hashtags it for you. And the other thing that it’s going to do when you make that post is it’s going to create a tag that you can click on on your own blog that will then show you all of the posts of that tag. 

So, yeah, the way that I like to think of tags in terms of when I’m writing them out, if I’m making a post, is I will write ... yeah, the first five tags are always who do I want to see this post? Right? So, for instance, I’ve been posting on my friend-facing blog, TheLaurenShippen.Tumblr.com, I’ve been posting a lot of Andor content recently, because I’ve been freaking out over Andor. 

So, I will post, I mean, if I were a little bit more organized with it I would post #Andor #DiegoLuna #DisneyPlus #StarWars #LucasFilm. Right? Those might be sort of the five tags that I post to make sure that people find my post if they’re looking for any of those things. Typically I’ve just sort of been posting just #Andor as the first tag, because it’s a TV show that is currently on, people are ... I’m jumping into #Andor every single week, it’s trending every week on Wednesday when the new episodes come out, and so when people click on #Andor they will see my post pop up.  So, those first tags are about who you want to see your post. 

The rest of the tags are your thoughts on that post, or whatever commentary you want to add. So, I’ve been putting some screenshots from the show and then I’ll sort of put my commentary on the screenshots into the tags. And then the very last tags, because I almost ... I use the 20 tag limit constantly. And I also use the 120 character limit for a tag. You can write a very long run-on sentence in a tag, but it will eventually max out in number of characters. 

Cherokee: I didn’t even know that was the character limit. Thank you for enlightening me. I am impressed [crosstalk 00:29:00].

Lauren: Yes, it is. (laughs) I often hit those limits. And I think of the very last tags as like my organizational tags. Right? Those are sort of the little labels that I’m putting on the tag just for myself. So, for instance, like if I’m making an Andor tag on my blog I might do #Andor #StarWars #ohmygodIwannatouchDiegoLunasfluffyhair #lookathissadeyes. Those might be some of the other tags of the commentary I’m making. And then at the very end I’ll put like #SW because for me, #SW is my personal abbreviation for Star Wars. On my blog, because I don’t necessarily want to type out Star Wars every single time I am re-blogging a Star Wars post because I re-blog a lot of Star Wars posts! 

But also, if you search “SW” on Tumblr just as its own tag, I imagine a lot of things would come up. And so yeah, it is important I think to think about the sort of categories of things that you want to be in, in terms of what people are searching, and then the categories of things you want to organize your own blog by. And you might ask, “Well, Lauren, if you’re making Star Wars posts all that much, why don’t you just ... wouldn’t everything then be organized into Star Wars?” Yes, but the thing is, if I’m making a post, I’m going to tag it #StarWars. If I’m re-blogging a post about Star Wars, I’m probably not going to tag it with Star Wars. I’m probably going to use my shorthand label, because ... and this is where the tag conversation comes in ... and correct me if I’m wrong about this, Cherokee, but when you are re-blogging a post those sort of like front-facing I’m looking in the Tumblr tag tags become significantly less important? In terms of if I’m searching Andor on Tumblr, I’m seeing posts that have been tagged that when they were posted, correct?

Cherokee: Yeah.

Lauren: Not necessarily someone who is re-blogging something, like a quote from a book and saying, “Oh, this gives me Andor vibes.” Right? I’m probably not going to be seeing that in the tag.

Cherokee: Yeah, you wouldn’t. You might see it low, like far down, because sometimes it will pull in stuff that’s in the copy and not just in the tag. But say someone posts something, the original poster tags it #Andor, and then it gets 500,000 notes or whatever it is, and no one else tags it #Andor, that doesn’t matter. That first tag is really all that matters.

Lauren: Right. Exactly. I saw a screenshot of a tweet on Tumblr (laughs) this morning, asking basically how to use tags. Right? Do I have to add my own tags to a post that I’m re-blogging? And the answer to that is – no, you don’t have to. I think that when you’re re-blogging a post, the only tags you need to add are just if you want to organize your own blog in a particular way. Right?

For instance, on my Lauren Shippen Blog, I re-blog a lot of fan art for the podcast that I make. And so I will always re-blog a post ... I’ll write a bunch of tags reacting to the art, and then my last tags will sort of be like, “The Bright Sessions Fan Art.” Because then I can go into the fan art tag and I can sort of look at all the fan art from chosen stuff. 

So, I think, yeah, you don’t have to put Star Wars in a Star Wars that you’re re-blogging unless that’s the tag you’re using to organize your blog. I think the important distinction of typing something into the body of a post that you’re re-blogging versus writing into the tags, and this is something that’s been discussed plenty on Tumblr these past couple of years and also we’ve talked a little bit about on the podcast in the past, is that typically these days, it’s considered good etiquette to put the bulk of your reaction in the tags. Right?

So, it’s like if I am re-blogging a funny tweet, I’m not going to put, “LOL, this really made me laugh,” in the body of that post. Right? I’m going to put that into the tag because when you re-blog something and you put something in the sort of re-blog body itself, then if anybody re-blogs that from you, that is going to carry through to the people who are following that person, and so posts can get quite long if everybody is kind of responding right in the body of the post.

Whereas there’s sort of this peer review process where if you write out tags and the tags are particularly funny or insightful people will screenshot them and post them in the body of their re-blog. I would say the exception to this is sometimes I’ll see people discussing something and they’ll be like, obviously Tumblr is the internet, right, there is a degree of misinformation that occasionally gets passed around and things like that, although it’s not nearly as bad as I see on Twitter or TikTok. 

Oftentimes someone will post something like an article or something and then someone will re-blog and be like, “Yeah, actually this article is not from the most reputable source. Here’s actually the real sources on this particular thing that’s happening in Ukraine right now,” or whatever it is. And that’s something you want to put in the body of the re-blog because you want other people to see it. And that’s another kind of way of thinking about it, right? 

If you’re adding something to the body of a re-blog, you want other people to see it, and you think it’s important for other people to see it. Versus writing something in the tags is kind of just for you and your followers.

Cherokee: Yeah, exactly. If you’re adding on to, say, a re-blog chain where someone posted something a lot of people are adding on funny reactions and it becomes more kind of a conversation and then you want to re-blog it, in that case the full conversation. If you were on Tumblr in the days of yore you may remember scrolling through just lines, vertical lines on a long re-blog chain because they would refresh and categorize and it was just so confusing to read a long Tumblr post with a lot of replies in the copy. That has now changed. It’s now kind of listed in a very easy to understand way. 

But yeah, I agree, it’s always fun to look at the tags versus, yeah, when a post is a conversation or a back and forth, or yes, someone has something that’s important to add context or information, body of the post, default to tags most of the time. 

Lauren: I have conversations in the tags a lot. Right? Where it’s like ... and this is something that we’ve talked about prev before as well. Which is becoming a common tag, which basically just, it’s like prev, prev tags, things like that. Which in my opinion you should only do about the tags of the person that you’re re-blogging from. You should not do prev, prev, prev, prev because then somebody’s just going to have to ... at that point just copy tags over, right?

But that’s a great way to talk to the person that you’re re-blogging from. And I do this with mutual’s. I do this with people that I follow but who don’t follow me. Where I’ll be like, “Prev , you’re so right.” And then I’ll add my commentary. Right? Sort of like giving that sort of plus one thumbs up to somebody. 

Another important thing that we should say about tags that is very different from Tik Tok and that is extremely important for people to know is that Tumblr, thankfully, does not have the same weird censorship thing that Tik Tok has. Where you have to put “unalive” instead of “dead.” That’s not a thing. And please don’t do that. If you are re-blogging a gif set from a horror movie that’s got lots of gore in it, tag that “gore.” And tag that “trigger warning,” “TW killing” or whatever else. And you don’t have to ... and spell the word the way that it’s actually spelled. Because the other really important thing about the tagging system is that people can then make sure that they are not following certain tags or look at the tags of certain things, and protect themselves from seeing posts that they don’t want to see. 

And so it’s very important that we all ... and that’s inclusive of if you’re re-blogging a post and you are tagging it with your own trigger warnings, because that is something that, yeah, the tag won’t carry over. So, if somebody following you has a certain tag that they don’t want to see and you don’t add that tag to your re-blog then they’ll still see that.

Cherokee: So, if you go into your blog settings ... So, you hit the little kind of snowman on the far right of your dashboard on your desktop or on the app you’ll see a menu drop down. There is a gear icon that says “settings.” When you go into settings you’ll see a section that’s pretty big that says “content you see.” And so you can from there filter tags. You can put in any tags you don’t want to see. You can filter post content. So, you can actually type in the content of the post or a mentioned in a post copy that you don’t want to see. And then you can also go down and decide how much kind of sensitive or technically NSFW content you want to see from mature content to drug and alcohol related or substance related content, violence and sexual themes. You can hide those, blur them, or show them.  And you can also toggle on/off/hide additional potentially mature content. 

So, you have a lot of control over the content that you see on Tumblr. You can essentially curate the experience that you want throughout the platform, not just from your following but also from what you’re not following.

Lauren: Yeah, and this is why it’s important for all of us to tag things appropriately so that we can make sure that these features work. Right? So, making sure that you tag something with violence so that then the Tumblr back end can understand that that post has violence so the people who have filtered that out won’t see that. Right?

Yeah, of course you can block users, all of that kind of stuff, to really make sure that your experience is what you want. And while we’re talking about settings, something else I wanted to mention in terms of setting up your blog, right? Picking your URL, your username, picking a theme is all kind of stuff that you can play around with. But I would say one of the most important things is to make sure that you upload some sort of icon, right? In the same way that if you were on Twitter and somebody followed you who’s just the egg ... it’s like you might think that person is a bot or spam or a weird person. It doesn’t have to be your face at all. It can be a picture of your favorite character.

A lot of people make Tumblr icons and so you can also just search on Tumblr icons and then search for a particular fandom or whatever. But it’s just good to have a photo in there. Because I know that when someone follows me, especially on my really personal blog, if somebody follows me and they don’t have a picture and they have nothing in their blog and nothing in their bio ... again, in your bio, it doesn’t need to say anything about you. It can just be like, you know, “Huge Black Panther fan,” or whatever it is. Right? That can be your whole thing. But that just helps me know that you’re an actual person using this website for a reason and not just like some sort of bot. 

Cherokee: Exactly. 

Lauren: Is there anything else about setting up your blog that you think people should know?

Cherokee: I mean, we could go into themes and all the customization. Obviously, there’s just so much to say about Tumblr that ... and I don’t want to ... not in a way that it’s a high barrier to entry. It’s really easy to get set up and get ready to go. But there is so much personalization that you can do. So, if you want to, you get ... when you join Tumblr you have a theme which is called Tumblr Official which is just the regular run of the mill theme. There’s a header at the top that you can select what goes in there. You can pick the color scheme and it’s just one post at a time when you scroll. 

If you go to www.Tumblr.com/themes there are a ton of themes. We call it our Theme Garden. That you can install. Those will be for your desktop dashboard. So, the blog that when you go to your blog URL. For example, mine is www.Chero.Tumblr.com. The theme that I picked kind of looks like Windows 98. And so I wanted to go with an old school fun theme.

In the app itself, which obviously is where kind of most of our users are, they’re on IOS or they’re in our IOS or Android apps, you can also customize the color scheme, the header, all of that kind of stuff so that when someone goes to your individual Tumblr from within the app, it is also personalized. So, that is just again through kind of your settings. There’s a little edit appearance section that you can go to, to add all of that in. And I think that it’s really fun to change your theme. We’ve done custom themes. We did a custom theme with Taylor Swift for Midnights where people could install like a Midnight scheme. So, yeah, I would say themes are a big one.  

You can really customize it. And for tagging and categorizing tagging as well. As Lauren was saying, you can actually have those tags or whichever tags you want visible. So, when someone goes onto your Tumblr on desktop essentially for example on the Netflix Tumblr ... www.Netflix.Tumblr.com ... it’s categorized by title. So, whenever they re-blog something they tag it the title and you can see all the Sandman posts, all the Shadow and Bone posts, all the posts from Netflix what-have-you. And so it also helps on the front end for people to kind of see the sections of your blog.

Lauren: Yeah. Absolutely. Cherokee, are there websites, perhaps, that Tumblr has where you could learn tips and tricks about all of these kinds of things?

Cherokee: Oh, Lauren, I’m just so happy that you asked me this question. There absolutely are. So, the main one is just www.Tips.Tumblr.com. We call that Hell Site High. And we kind of formatted it like it’s lessons on different things on Tumblr. So, if you scroll through there’s a lot of fun posts including about theme customization and tagging on all of that. That can kind of take you through it. 

In addition to that, www.Staff.Tumblr.com is great to follow. I believe ... actually, no, I don’t believe, I know it’s true, when you create a Tumblr you automatically follow www.Staff.Tumblr.com just like when you created a MySpace back in the day, Tom was your first friend. And so Staff has a lot of our updates, and a lot of our campaigns and content, things like that is shared. And then www.Changes.Tumblr.com – that is updated I believe weekly with any new updates to the platform, bugs that are fixed, all that kind of stuff. So, those are some three big accounts that I recommend following to get yourself started.

Lauren: And the other thing, if after you get used to Tumblr and you want to level up your experience is you can turn on Tumblr labs, which I like doing, because you can kind of test out these new features. And that’s something that pops up as an option for everybody’s blog, right?

Cherokee: Right. Yeah, so you can go into, again hit the little snowman on the right of your dashboard and that will take you to a section that says “account dashboard notifications” all the way down at the bottom you’ll see “labs” and you can toggle labs on and you can also toggle on certain labs that you do and do not want to try.

For example, right now you can turn on a popular re-blogs tag which kind of sounds like a For You page that you can essentially ... is its own page. Blog Subscriptions tab, where you can subscribe to certain blogs. A trending tab, a favorites tab, so essentially we’re just creating a den of different tabs, and then you also can have ... there’s a new queuing system that we’re testing out. So, you can turn on queue 2.0, re-blog graphs – those are really fun. You essentially, that shows you the journey that posts take. So, you can kind of see a post that has a ton of engagement – was there one Tumblrer that kind of created that or what have you? Just a fun way to kind of see how they explode across the platform.

And then, yeah, there’s a ton of different experiments and things that you can turn on and off. And it’s just a lot of fun to play with. I love Tumblr Labs. And I love that it’s open to all of our users to kind of test and play with, play with our products. I think that’s another one of my favorite things about Tumblr is the relationship that our community has with our staff and vice versa. It feels very open and consistent dialogue. And we are watching. We are listening. And we are trying to always improve based on the feedback that we’re getting.

Lauren: Yeah. It’s really nice. It does sort of feel like a more collaborative space. Both from within the community and then, yeah, community to staff. I have to say, the fast queue Tumblr Labs feature is just like the best, because I queue everything, having to re-blog, type in my tags, and then click the drop down and click on queue instead of re-blog, just like an extra step, and just being able to hit the queue right away is awesome.

Cherokee: I agree. Yeah.

Lauren: So, the last thing I think because I know that we’ve been talking for a while, and this is a lot of information to absorb ... the last thing that I would love to kind of talk through is, Cherokee, how do you talk to people on Tumblr? How do you personally engage with people? What do you see as the different ways to sort of find a community on Tumblr?

Cherokee: Gosh, where to start? Because I think the special thing about Tumblr is it is one big community that is also comprised of a ton of separate but very powerful and engaged communities. So, I would say the way that I mostly engage and have engaged with mutual’s kind of over the years is mostly through re-blogging. Replies going back and forth either in the tags or in the body of a post. 

And I also, the way that I’ve kind of found who I am following and kind of, I don’t know, created those relationships is I love kind of going on a little re-blog journey of who the people that I’m following are re-blogging. So, if I like the thing ... so, I see someone that I follow, they re-blogged this person, I’ll go to that person’s blog, and maybe re-blog some stuff. And a lot of the time when you re-blog a few things from a blog and give them a follow, they’ll check you out and then you might have a mutual. And then you can kind of start going back and forth on your posts. 

That is the way that I think really initially engagement and conversations started on Tumblr. And it continues. You can also reply to a post. And so people have conversations in the replies. And then on top of that, there is also a chat DM’ing functionality. I mainly use the DM’ing function with people who I already know. Either people who I’ve created a relationship with on Tumblr and we send posts back and forth just you would on another social, or people who I know who I know from outside of Tumblr who are now on Tumblr. But even those people are all Tumblr related because they’re all my Tumblr co-workers and previous co-workers and things.

But yeah, so I would say the chatting functionality and the re-blogs. There’s also a great ASK functionality. I love that you can turn on asks and submissions on Tumblr. I think that’s a really unique and fun thing. So, if you want to, again, in your settings, via the little snowman, you can toggle on your ask box. You can allow people to submit questions to you privately or anonymously or not. And when you, you can either reply to those asks publicly, so on your own blog, Neil Gaiman does this a lot, that’s really how he engages and talks with his community, is responding to asks or re-blogging and replying to posts. Or you can respond to it privately, if you would like. 

Similarly, a lot of blogs have you can turn on a submit tool. So, say, you run a fan blog for Taylor Swift and you want to turn on submissions so people can submit their Taylor Swift fan art. You can do that and it’s kind of the same thing. It goes to the back end. You could post it with credit. It will add tags and all of that. 

So, I think those are, yeah ... there’s a ton of ways to kind of create and develop your community on Tumblr. What about you, Lauren? How do you mainly do that?

Lauren: Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I think it really depends on which blog I’m using and it also depends on the way in which I’m hoping to engage, right? So, for instance, on my www.TheLaurenShippen.Tumblr.com I mostly sort of engage with listeners of my podcast and things like that through the ASK function. So, people send me asks and I currently have it just set to asks are open, but I don’t allow for anonymous asks. And so that means that I can, because you can’t answer anonymous asks privately. Of course, because you don’t know who you are responding to. 

And so that way if someone sends me a message saying something really personal about the way that a podcast that I made impacted them I can respond to them just directly, kind of like almost like an email. But then if someone has a question around, “Hey, I had this question about this character on this podcast, and it’s something I think other people would be interested in.” I will answer that. And I have a tag answered so that anybody can kind of go through and see all of the various asks that I’ve answered.

That said though, I do occasionally get DM’s through that blog that I will respond to. But I don’t sort of typically have long conversations in there. Because that blog sort of does function to an extent as I am a public figure to an extent. And so my relationship there is a little bit different. But on my personal blog, I really use a mix of things. I mean, I have an answered and asked, I haven’t received an ask in years (laughs) ... but that’s because I’m mostly a re-blogger, not a poster. And I think that those kind of foster different kinds of engagement.

But typically, my personal blog is really my fandom blog. It’s where I just go ham in the tags over ships. I’m just like that’s the deal. And so oftentimes I will find people ... I also do sort of the re-blog hop, the sort of mutual to mutual to mutual ... okay, I’m mutual with this person, they’re mutual’s with that person, let me follow that person. And sort of that radiating circle of friends. But I also will like just hop into a tag and re-blog stuff, maybe there’s one blog that I see that’s posting a lot that has very similar interests to me, and so I’ll follow that person. 

And yeah, then I will often engage in the tags. I think what’s nice too is that your relationship to various other blogs is going to run the gambit. Right? There are blogs that I follow that I re-blog from and I know that I am one of thousands and thousands of followers of them probably because another thing I love about Tumblr is that the follower number is not public, which is amazing. So, I am sort of re-blogging from them a little bit more passively. There’s not an active relationship there.

Versus people that I have found through particularly small fandom’s where we will re-blog from each other and we’ll sort of have conversations in the tags, and then also those are the types of things in which you might participate in either ask chains or tagging games with your friends, right, or with people that you follow or people who follow you. Which essentially is something I’ve experienced in the fan fiction community for things that I’m in. Right? Where it’s like six sentence Sunday and you share six sentences from your most recent fic and then you tag ... because you also can @ people, right, in the body of a post or in the reply. You tag your friends and you sort of re-blog or re-post or whatever. Not re-post, but sort of do your own version of the post and say, “Thanks so-and-so for tagging me.” 

And those things also can happen in ASKS sometimes as well, where somebody will re-blog a post saying, “Ask me questions about my fic,” or whatever. And there will be a bunch of prompts and people will then have conversations that way.  Then also I think there’s ... I just had the experience the other day of I was going into the tag for a video game that I’ve been playing and it’s not like a huge Tumblr tag and so all of the posts had somewhere between 50 and 100 notes and I was re-blogging and sort of freaking out about some fan art and stuff.

And one of the fan artists freaked out in the tags of their art and so they messaged me being, “Thanks, I’m so glad you liked it! I also really love that ship,” or whatever else it was. So, yeah, it’s like I think there’s also the understanding that if you are having a conversation with somebody sort of in the tags you can still bring that to chat. Or if you send somebody an ASK then you can then re-blog that ASK and respond in the tags. Right? The conversations happen across all of the different features. I think dependent on your own personal style and also how much you want to engage. 

For a very, very long time, I did not engage with any other human being beyond just re-blogging. Right? But I wasn’t actively ... I didn’t actively have mutual’s or talk to people, and that sort of changed because a couple of fandom’s I’m in, and I’m sure it will continue to change. So, it really is what you make of it. And I think just taking your time to sort of ease into using it and figure out what parts of the website you want to be in, what fandom’s you are in, or what interests you are in, if you’re not there for fandom reasons. And then just being nice and community-minded to everybody you interact with, and just finding your own rhythm. 

Cherokee: Yeah, and I don’t really think I could have said it any better, Lauren. It’s so unique that you can kind of pick exactly the way that you feel the best engaging. I similarly, for a few years I was using Tumblr by just re-blogging constantly. And wasn’t really replying. Now I have so much fun adding things in the tags. And one of my favorite things to do is when I find a post I really like, yes, I re-blog it but then I spend a lot of time kind of scrolling through and seeing other people’s ridiculous and funny tags and responses. 

It really is one of the most fun parts of a post-

Lauren: Totally!

Cherokee: ... is other people’s responses to that post. So, you can go as deep as you want. And it is a fun rabbit hole to fall into.

Lauren: We could genuinely talk about ways to use Tumblr until the end of time. But Cherokee, before we move into our Feels Corner, is there anything else that you feel like new users should know before they dive into this wonderful weird world?

Cherokee: Well, I thought we could close by just sharing some of our favorite Tumblrers to follow. So, maybe give some people a place to start off.

Lauren: Yes!

Cherokee: So, what are your favorite accounts to follow?

Lauren: www.HertiagePosts.Tumblr.com – which is I think also a great place to follow and to dive into to understand the larger Tumblr’lore, which again our second episode about Tumblr vocab talks a little bit about certain Tumblr’lore. But it basically is a blog that you can like submit to and that sort of crowd sources posts from classic Tumblr. So, these fandom relics, these famous posts then got screenshotted and shared on Twitter, and sort of just a great way to kind of see Tumblr culture through the ages. That’s one of my favorites.

I’m trying to think of other blogs that I follow that I love that won’t give away everything about the fandom’s I’m in.

Cherokee: (laughs) Well-

Lauren: What about you? What are some favorites?

Cherokee: I can share some others while you ponder. So, I have a few. I wrote them down. And there is one very common theme between all of them. So, my first favorite Tumblr account, which actually is one that recently ... this user went dormant for a while and has recently re-joined Tumblr  ... So, welcome back to Tumblr:

www.GodPenis.Tumblr.com

(laughter)

Lauren: Incredible.

Cherokee: I love this account. I have been following it since before I think I started working at Tumblr. It is just a straight up shit posting and meme account. It is excellent. Really fun follow.

www.2000ish.Tumblr.com.

Another great-

Lauren: Oh yeah, that one is great.

Cherokee: ... account. We’ll do a post with all of these recommended accounts or re-blog some of our favorite posts from them. That’s another really great nostalgic early internet account and also memes.

www.AnimatedTexts.Tumblr.com

So, this account is great. It’s a really fun follow. This is this artist Kat Frasier who we worked with a lot, Kat actually did the designs for www.Tips.Tumblr.com and Hell Site High. But this account is just essentially Kat makes animated texts kind of like Microsoft Paint or Microsoft Word formatted gifs. And essentially you can submit a request and it might get made on animated requests. And it is, once again, lots of memes for example. One of these ones is in Comic Sans it says, “Romanticizing life by treating my needs as rewards.” Very cute. 

Lauren: I love that.

Cherokee: Or, this other one says, “Time to yeet these teets.” Or, “I’ll do absolutely nothing if I have to.” It’s just, yeah, a really fun ... they look cool, fun shit posts in a fun format.  And then:

www.TheMonterrayBayAquarium.Tumblr.com

Lauren: Yes, I do follow them.

Cherokee: Excellent follow. Mostly memes. And also fish.

Lauren: Mostly memes.

Cherokee: Yeah. There’s obviously a vibe that I go for here. And then finally:

www.NASA.Tumblr.com

They have a great account. And they do a lot of exclusive images or first looks at things. They did that for the Webb Telescope, they did a lot of Q&A’s, yeah. Some great follows to get you started on Tumblr.

Lauren: Yeah, I also follow, on top of staff and WIP, the Tumblr fandom, right, like that official blog is great. A couple of blogs that often pop up sort of on my dash that I don’t actually follow, but that I see a lot are “One time I dreamt” where people put weird dreams that they’ve had, or “facts I just made up,” which is exactly what it sounds like. “Bad jokes by Jeff,” is excellent.

Cherokee: “Shower thoughts,” which is ...

Lauren: “Shower thoughts,” a classic.

Cherokee: That is actually a bot, essentially. 

Lauren: Oh, really!?

Cherokee: Shower Thoughts scrapes any posts tagged shower thoughts and just compiles them. 

Lauren: Amazing.

Cherokee: So, it’s a really great account, because it just has like a whole bunch of people’s chaotic thoughts there. And then yeah, Fandom as you said is a really really great one to follow for kind of what’s going on, on Tumblr, finding your communities, or finding something new that you may like. Yeah.

Lauren: I love that.

Cherokee: I love Tumblr.

Lauren: Yeah. 

Cherokee: I love it here!

Lauren: I do, too.

Cherokee: Speaking of ...

Lauren: While we’re in our feels ... about Tumblr ... every week we close out with our Feels Corner where we talk about anything and everything that’s getting us in our feels. 

[gentle music]

Cherokee, what as you in your feels this week?

Cherokee: So, my feels this week ... I have been reading, or I just finished, Robert Jordan’s “The Eye of the World,” which is the first in his Wheel of Time series.

Lauren: Nice.

Cherokee: And so I watched Wheel of Time, the Amazon series, when it came out about I think almost a year ago now. And I enjoyed it and it made me really want to read the book, or books, plural. So, I read the book. It took me all summer because it’s 800 pages and I’m easily distracted. 

I just finished it and I started re-watching the series now that I’ve read the book. It’s just been really wonderful having that kind of reverse experience. It feels like I’m watching a whole new series. But I have been spending most of it being like – this is different than the book, this is different than the book, why didn’t they do this, it was better in the book. 

So, my feels this week are ... yeah, I just really love these characters and I’m excited that I have so many more books to read, honestly. I think that is the thing that most excites me. I haven’t had a big book series to really dive into in a while. So, yeah.

Lauren: I love that. 

Cherokee: The Wheel of Time is getting me in my feels this week. And the passing of time is also getting me in my feels this week.

Lauren: As always.

Cherokee: As always. What about you, Lauren?

Lauren: I swear, listen, there’s only two episodes left. I eventually will shut up about Andor. But this is not that time.

(laughter)

Yeah, I mean, I’ve been in my feels about Andor now for ten weeks. There have been ten episodes, but this past week especially the episode was just really, really, yeah, really phenomenal and really both inspiring and heartbreaking and just so well done. And had one of the best TV monologues I’ve seen in a very, very long time. The character Luthen gave this monologue that was just like beautifully written. 

A thing that I did the day after the episode aired, because every single week the title theme has come on and I’ve been like this is different than it was last week. And finally,  I bothered to go and listen to all of the themes in a row and they are all different. And so in just the classic hyper fixation manner I made a long Tumblr post on www.TheLaurenShippen.Tumblr.com doing my very rudimentary break down of why each Andor theme is different and what it says about the content of each episode. 

So, if you are also freaking out over Andor, please go check that out because it did eat into an entire hour of my work day – just listening to these themes over and over again.

Cherokee: I love that so much.  Incredible.

Lauren: So, I am deep in my feels on that. But next time we record will be two days before the finale, so the next time we have an episode out Andor will be complete. So, I’m excited to get part of my brain space back from this show. 

Cherokee: Should we do an Andor episode for the finale, Lauren?

Lauren: Maybe we should.

Cherokee: Yeah, I think maybe you need that. (laughs)

Lauren: I think maybe I do.

(laughter)

And with that ... I’m Lauren Shippen, and you can find me at www.TheLaurenShippen.Tumblr.com for that Andor post and many more Andor posts.  

Cherokee: And I’m Cherokee McAnelly and you can find me at www.Chero.Tumblr.com. This has been Dashboard Diaries. And ... 

[outtro music]

Lauren: May your anons always be loving.

Cherokee: Your dash always refreshed.

Lauren: Your gifs always be loading.

Cherokee: And your ships always canon.

Lauren: May the fics you’re reading always be finished.

Cherokee: And the answers you seek always in the re-blogs.Lauren: Thanks for scrolling with us!

Are you fleeing the sinking ship of Twitter and wondering where to hang your social media hat? Good news, Tumblr is still here for you! This week we talk about how Tumblr has responded to the Musk meltdown and give you some insider tips on how to get the most out of your Tumblr experience.

Credits and transcript in our reblog. You can find transcripts for this, and every other episode, here.

Find the posts discussed in this episode in this tag!

And for some good tips blogs, be sure to follow @tips, @wip, and @staff!

[thecompletebookworm]

My roommate twice my age: I want to apologize for getting so mad at you about this thing you do.

Me confused: I don’t see what you have to apologize for. You told me something I do in a public space negatively impacts you and I can work to change that. You said it in a polite way and I’m sorry I didn’t notice the problem. I hope this won’t be a problem in the future.

Her: I’ve been so mad about it for weeks. Like it’s driving me crazy and telling you about the problem reminded me of a time someone called me a fat bitch, and I know I didn’t call you a fat bitch, but still.

Me internally: God I’m a mess and I don’t know what’s going on. But I’m pretty sure I’m a horror to live with.