#to be fair I don't see these kinds of comments on tumblr very often but I see it on Pinterest allllll the time

[twilight-good-yall-dumb]

a part of me dies every time I see fanart of a book character depicted with the most bland, conventionally attractive, instagram face features possible and there's somebody commenting "wow, this is exactly how I pictured them!"

okay so you have no imagination? so you can't fathom a reality where your favorite characters aren't a perfect mold of contemporary beauty standards? this is simply a mannequin with the same hair and eye color as your character. where is the soul? where is the individuality? your mind is so corrupt by the onslaught of artificial beauty that not even fictional people can escape the standards you've developed.

dumb. boring. lame. unsexy

and these are the same people who will see the most gorgeous, well developed fanart of a character who's been given (oftentimes book accurate) "imperfections" or unconventional features and will comment "why'd you make them ugly?"

grow up!!!!!!!!!!

[creekfiend]

for what it's worth. i look up to you as a very kind and socially insightful person and it's really amazing to feel my brain in real time reshape itself around the fact that you can be snarky and annoyed with strangers while still being overall a very kind person. it sounds so dumb but yeah. thanks for inadvertently teaching me the ways of persons, soon enough i hope to see myself as one too

this is a hard line for me to walk lmfao I know EXACTLY what you mean fwiw 🤝

I manage it largely by having little rules and checks for myself like. I try not to fight people who make dumb comments on my posts most of the time bc 1. it's not worth it 2. let people be annoying 3. I have so many viral posts if I did this more often I would do nothing else

but sometimes if there are like, PATTERNS and the same thing KEEPS HAPPENING OVER AND OVER I will get nerky. and then I think to myself. this person came into my house. the issue isn't not understanding the post. like it's not COMPREHENSION or lack thereof, for me. it's that if you fail to comprehend you have CHOICES as to how to BEHAVE about that. you can scroll past. you can ASK THE OP CLARIFYING QUESTIONS! but when people use their lack of comprehension as a way to be like "Ooooo, I bet I could say something snotty about this to make myself Look Cool And Smart On My Blog" then I will say. it is fair game for me to be like "this is a behavior that I Hate. I am going to express that with a measured post of my own in which I do not engage in cruelty or make assumptions or statements about you as a person while still indicating that I Hated That"

in dog socializing terms. I imagine Tumblr as The Dog Park. I am an older dog who is hanging out at the dog park and there's a lot of other dogs here and a lot of interactions with dogs I don't know. and FREQUENTLY dogs interact with me in socially inappropriate ways and I am 90% of the time employing de-escalation techniques that indicate "no thanks" without confrontation. e.g. yawns, lip licks, looking away, putting my ears back etc. and sometimes? if enough dogs at the same time are mobbing me and they don't pick up on my cues bc they're too caught up in "but I'M having fun trying to one up you!!!!"

then I will go

BARKBARKBARKBARK ARK ARKBARKBARKBARKBARK

anyway. I hope this helps. I put a lot of thought and energy into how I interact with people these days lol. it's about figuring out what my own boundaries are and trying to make my expectations for interaction fairly clear.

[genericpuff]

(disclaimer, this is coming from a heartstopper fan! i love heartstopper this is not hate!!)

i think at least part of the annoyance with heartstopper isn't just that isn't a light fluffy ya series, it's also that its another example of how the queer media that gets the most mainstream attention tends to be this kind of light fluffy ya stuff that focuses on two conventially attractive queer boys or men and it also tends to be written by people who aren't queer men on top of that, so not only can it feel very samey but it can feel like other queer people are relegated to side characters in the stories of cis gay men. and as someone who loves heartstopper i get that on some level.

btw by "written by people who aren't queer men" NOT saying that isn't not written by queer people. alice oseman is genderfluid and aroace, becky albertalli is bisexual, etc. and while i think the point is still valid there is a misogyny element in that a lot of the focus is put on things that are written by women or people they perceive as women while tumblr darlings like good omens and ofmd (written by presumably straight men) don't get the same treatment.

nah y'know what, that's fair, I can get how frustrating it can be for a lot of popular queer stories to feel samey, I've definitely gotten BL-fatigue in the past on platforms like WT and Tapas because many of them ARE the same and feel like they're just piggybacking off trends for the sake of clout (and this is a problem in the heterocis romance stories too, don't get me fucking started on how dark romance has turned into torture porn where vulnerable women are constantly being victimized by rich powerful men and we're just supposed to root for that ??), but it's one of those things where like, what might be seen as just more corny shit could very well be the revelation another person needs that they're gay / trans / etc. that the story helped them realize. there's just a point where i see these arguments against cheesy popular queer stories that teeter dangerously close to being queerphobic and, as you said, misogynist, simply because "it was written by someone who i perceive as a woman so that makes it BAD!"

and I didn't mention it in the original post because I didn't want to @ OP in any way but in the comment section they literally said "i dont think heartstopper itself is all that bad but it has pretty much aimed the direction of all mainstream gay comics towards wholesomeness instead of anything more interesting so i want to destroy heartstopper to destroy heartstopper clones" and that gives me massive ick because it implies their sole reasoning for including it was "chill and happy queer stories bad, if a character doesn't suffer enough then they're not interesting"?? why can't LGBTQ+ audiences have more 'vanilla' stories that aren't all sad and angsty all the time? are we not entitled to the same corny romcom vanilla shit that the heterocis are entitled to? why do LGBTQ+ characters - and by extension, people - have to suffer to qualify as being 'interesting'? You're already interesting, you're you! like i'm sorry, are we trying to scare people straight??? 😭 shit, that's even a plot point that's touched on in Heartstopper itself where Nick is questioning his sexuality and he starts googling shit and it's just ALL the terrifying news stories of queer kids being ostracized / bullied / murdered / etc. and as much as it's important to be aware of the ongoing issues so we can keep fighting for our rights, we ALSO need to find balance and remember to celebrate the stories that AREN'T that because we need something to be hopeful for, something we can find peace in. I don't think Heartstopper is some deeply profound piece of work, but it also doesn't seem like it's trying to be? It's a low stakes celebration of the LGBTQ+ experience that's very warm and comforting, especially for those who are the same ages as the main characters who are often being persuaded by the grown-ups around them that it's a death sentence to be gay / trans / etc.

and it's not like we HAVEN'T had popular pieces of queer representative media that explored things outside of cheesy BL, like are we forgetting about Nimona which explored both the gay and genderfluid experience in a very accessible and fun way while still being mature and not pandering to its audience over how society has made monsters out of queer people?

(and even then I'm sure there are folks who would argue "actually, here are the issues with Nimona" , and that's fine tbh, we can like media and appreciate what it brings to the table while also discussing what it lacks in, such as what we're doing now with Heartstopper! progress is a never-ending journey!!)

and also okay, not me trying to be argumentative in the slightest BUT I don't really get the argument that 'other queer people' are being sidelined for the main characters? unless there's something I'm missing here lol (I will apologize for that because it's admittedly been a while since I've re-read Heartstopper so I should probably go do that to refresh myself on it). like i say that in the sense that Heartstopper is clearly meant to be about two gay male teenagers. just like how Nimona is about a shapeshifter who is not a girl or a boy (they're Nimona!) and a gay man who are both trying to change the system that's other'd them for years for the better. that is the story Heartstopper is trying to tell and it achieves that. it also has a trans character plotline that I could see people arguing feels sidelined but I think there's a massive difference between 'sidelining' and just having a B plot ? my honest take with that is not every piece of representative media is going to be able to cover every single topic, it's just not doable for one piece of media to be a monolith for everything, the same as how one person can't be a monolith for an entire community of people. BUT that doesn't mean works like Heartstopper and Nimona can't inspire others to also lend their voices into the medium and create that representation that's needed. That's why we need ✨variety✨ and Heartstopper is part of that variety by offering a more vanilla cutesy story full of good vibes for people who want that sort of thing.

IDK, I think there's just a lot of nuance that's being missed in that poll, and in the difference between Heartstopper inspiring more people to write happy cozy BL stories vs. implying that it's had an actual negative influence on modern art and media in the same way that series like Homestuck and LO have to the point that people think it needs to be destroyed, like wtf LOL Like they're not even comparable IMO and a lot of the arguments I see people making about why it is just feel a little backwards, and those arguments obfuscate the real issue which is just "popular thing is popular and people like to piggyback off popular shit". That's a fact for basically any niche and genre, these trends come and go. Even if the whole cutesy BL trend passes one day (which it will) it'll be replaced by something else that people will also inevitably find samey and boring after a while. This is not a concept that's unique to LGBTQ+ media, it's universal.

Balance is important and I think finding that balance is as much a responsibility on the shoulders of the consumer as it is on the creator. And I don't think Heartstopper deserves to be put into the same camp as stories like LO which literally straightwashes its canonically queer characters and gives those queer identities to nothingburger characters who are easy to shoo out of the plot to make way for the heterocis ones (while still parading itself around like it's actually 'queer rep' which... it really isn't.) Like all three of the comics in that poll are vastly different, serving different audiences, with different goals and intentions. It's comparing apples to oranges to pineapples.

The worst Heartstopper has to offer is just a low stakes plot that might not appeal to everyone or feel 'samey' which yeah, valid, but in the grander sense of whether or not it's had a negative effect on queer media just for being... cheesy? And inspiring other people to write stories like it? I don't get the argument, it feels like it's severely missing the point of what we're fighting for here - to live happy little unbothered lives - but that's just me ╮(￣ω￣;)╭ I'm definitely not trying to be a dick about it in any way and I don't want anyone to think I'm not open to the opposing points here, I do agree with you on the oversaturation of samey BL stories, but it just rose some massive red flags to see Heartstopper next to frigging Homestuck and Lore Olympus LOL

[skynight110]

Child Of The Monsters

A monsterverse fic:

You can't remember when it all began. When something changed. Or maybe you could, if you thought deep enough on it. All you knew now though, was that you were alone. Because of them. Because of Him. If only you weren't so young when this all began, perhaps you could have prevented everything; the death of your parents, being one. Being forced to give up your childhood "for the sake of humanity" being another. But alas, nothing could change what has happened, and all you could do now was try and escape this hell that's been built around you, and pray to whatever deity is out there to grace you with luck. Because if they find out, if He finds out.....

The sake of the world, the sake of your life, the sake of every little good thing you've managed to keep, will be at stake.

•••

Hello, hello. I've decided to post my story here on Tumblr just...because lol. You can find it both on ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/55869871

Or wattpad https://www.wattpad.com/story/366621677?utm_source=android&utm_medium=link&utm_content=share_reading&wp_page=reading&wp_uname=KnockoutRules

Updates will most likely be posted on these two first, and I'll post when I remember to on here. However, to be up to date I'd suggest reading on either of those platforms.

Like on both of those, here is important information that I insist you glance over before reading:

This story is definitely inspired by Screaming into the Voids "Y/n, Child of the Monsters///Platonic!Yandere!Godzilla/Titans x Child/Teen!Reader" on Quotev, I suggest going and checking it out, however it is incomplete and I'm unsure if the writer is still interested in finishing it. With that out of the way, this will be a "yandere" type story, and will have normal Godzilla movie themes in it such as

- death

- canon-typical violence(cmon, it's godzilla, he's going to end up ripping something in half)

- spoilers for the movies(except gxk, I haven't seen it yet)

and themes I've added in. There will be

- "talking" kaiju, however they don't physically speak to humans, rather its an insight into their thoughts/feelings

- mentions/forms of telepathy

I personally headcanon that mothra can "tap" into others, and while she can't speak fluent, she can send emotions or brief thoughts to others that aren't close to her. Godzilla can do similar things, but it takes more focus for him, and it works better through touch. But it doesn't happen very often.

- some forms of experimentation, both on humans and kaiju

I want to make it clear that there is no romance in this, it's purely platonic.

I've tried to align readers age with how the movies are set in time, so here's a quick guide if any of you get confused:

Reader is born in 2009, they are 5 during the events of 2014.

By the events of Kotm, reader is 10.

Gvk, reader is 12, and this is mostly where the story will take place, and continue onwards.

In GxK, reader is 15.

I also won't be adding in much from the comics because I haven't read them, but there's a chance I'll add in some small things that I've managed to find out.

As for plot family wise, as stated your parents don't appear for too long. They ded. But you will have other family members! For my own sake to make it easier for me I'm gonna make reader related to the Russels; Mark being your uncle and Madison being your cousin, simply because of plot wise it makes it easier for me to use them.

If there are any questions, feel free to comment them, I'll do my best to answer them to best of my ability.

ALSO

Fair warning now, even though I like writing, I lose motivation VERY fast. So if I fall of the face of the earth for a bit, don't be surprised. I have stuff to do in my life too, seeing as I'll be graduating next year and need to get my stuff together. If you're worried that I'll be discontinuing this story, just ask in the comments, I promise I'll answer, later or right away. I'm the kind of writer that will have random spouts of motivation in the middle of the night when I'm tired, or in the middle of the day when I'm busy.

But, I will try my best to commit to this, because I really want to write this to give both myself and everyone who finds this a story with the Big G, because there are so few out there.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Tumblr isn't letting me find again @fictionadventurer's and my own posts on epistolary novels, but I have been thinking about it again, because I fell down a Goodreads review rabbit hall and I have thoughts again.

So many people dislike the style, and honestly, I don't blame them, because it's so often done... not well. It is in some aspects, a deceptively easy one, and in others, deceptively hard. And because I'm trying to write a novel with this format myself, I have been thinking about what makes or breaks an epistolary novel.

I talked yesterday about TGLPPS, because it is an interesting case to analyze. I have thought many times about it, and cannot think of a single non-merely-aesthetic reason for it to be told in an epistolary style. A lot of it depends on -British- people who have survived some terrible war conditions willingly opening up to a stranger about their experiences, and that's made... even more difficult if the medium is letters? typically writers will appeal to tropes like making the reserved character drunk, or have them share an extreme experience in isolation with the stranger to create sudden intimacy. None of this is possible in writing; if anything, one is much more self-conscious about the things one writes than the things one says; verba volant, scripta manent.

It seems to me the story would have flowed much more naturally if Juliet had been stranded on Guernsey for some reason -like the first author herself!- suddenly Dawsey commenting that he got a book from her library makes so much more sense! Yes, certainly, if you met a stranger out there, and they introduce themselves and you realize you have a book that once belonged to them, you would tell them so! And it is in this way that the epistolary format does violence to a story that would otherwise sound much less contrived.

Another problem is the large cast of characters and multiple settings. For all I complain about Dracula, Stoker manages this pretty well (of course he has the model of The Woman in White, but TWiW has fewer povs), at least on the first half, because structurally the storylines of the characters are converging, and that does a lot to guide the reader in the understanding of the character's relationships. TGLPPS's relationship structure is more of a multidirectional flow chart, and that becomes confusing really fast.

Another novel I read reviews for recently is one set in WWI, composed of back and forth letters between two lovers torn apart by war, and one common complaint was... that the climactic scenes, the times they meet, etc all happen... off-camera. It is a fair complaint, but also one I cannot really blame the author for, because that's what usually happens with real life compilations of letters of that kind. Sure, usually the editor/compiler will fill in the blanks sometimes and add an epilogue of sorts explaining what happened afterwards, and that is possible if you are writing it fictionally too, but some may think it spoils the effect of immediacy and whatnot, which, fair too.

But it makes me think of how aware Jean Webster was of these difficulties, and how deftly she managed them in both Daddy Long-Legs and Dear Enemy. Both novels have aged badly in terms of content and message, but they are very interesting stylistically.

DLL is a bildungsroman with a dash of romance; through Judy's letters to daddy long-legs we can see how she grows as a person, gaining independence intellectually and economically, and as a writer, as her grammar and vocabulary change and grow. Between making Judy an orphan who hates the orphanage where she has lived her whole life, and one where she lived past the usual age of being thrown into the world, Webster does away with the need for letters between Judy and her friends and family: all her friends and family are her college roommates and her benefactor, who is the person she writes to. The benefactor scheme also makes it so that she doesn't have to write dll's replies, which in turns makes it much more natural and acceptable for the reader when Judy writes him the ending's love letter describing the feelings and impressions of their finally meeting in person and in truth; Judy has become a writer, and she is so used to write to him as another person all the time, that it just makes sense for her to write to him one more letter at the point where her benefactor and her lover become one and the same person. She has written a novel where the core is the correspondence between lovers AND managed to include as well all the moments of their meetings that we would otherwise miss.

Dear Enemy is a similar, but longer and more ambitious story. Instead of one relationship-connection (Judy and Daddy's), we have Sallie as a nod of connections: she's Judy's friend, Jarvis' "employee", the boss of several characters, has a tense colleague-boss relationship with the visiting doctor, a boyfriend of sorts in Washington, and a family we have met before. It is, in that way, a similar setup to TGLPPS: a urban girl of means becomes a fish out of water in a different setting till she ends up assimilating to it, and settling definitely through marriage. But Webster does a few things differently to make it click.

For starters, it is clear to her that this is the story of Sallie's maturation -I have sometimes talked of Dear Enemy as a novel where a Mary Crawford-like character undergoes a transformation arc. The happenings and stories she meets and tells Judy about along the way serve this arc, besides standing on their own as case studies to illustrate the problems, ideology and solutions proposed to the secondary themes of the story (education and social reform). I feel like TGLPPS is much more interested in Guernsey's survival through the war, in which case Juliet's story is already a frame, which, again, makes the epistolary format cumbersome rather than complementary.

Dear Enemy adds more correspondents, but it is very austere/economical with them, and narrows the letters we see to only those Sallie sends. YMMV regarding if it was too much cutting or not, but the undeniable effect is structural soundness; you are never confused by what is happening or who is writing to whom. We can guess the Honorable Cyrus Wykoff probably wrote some indignant letters to Jervis, and those would be funny to read, but... would they be worth the break in the flow of the narrative? I don't think so. To this effect, just having Sallie write a line to the effect of "I expect at this point you have at hand an irate letter from the Hon. Cyrus" is enough to paint a picture for the reader. Perhaps a letter or two from Dr. MacRae would have helped develop his character more -definitely a first read of the story obscures how much misdirection there is in Sallie's narration to Judy, which in turns tends to create an impression of suddenness to the closing letter that doesn't come across well to the reader.

The choice of Sallie mainly writing to Judy is, IMO, a really good one too. It not only establishes a connection with DLL, but it also allows for the intimacy that makes disclosure believable (something TGLPPS struggles with, as I mentioned above). When you add a few letters to the doctor and Gordon and Jervis, you also get a better perspective of Sallie's personality, how she deals not only with a friend, but with acquaintances, romantic partners and coworkers.

From all this it is pretty evident that for Webster the main function of epistolarity as format is aiding in showing psychological and moral development. But that's not the only thing the format can be really good for: perspective is another, and Austen uses it to great effect in both Lady Susan and Lesley Castle.

Both stories deal with mainly static characters, but who have very strong perspectives of the same situation, and it is this singularity of setting and story that anchors the narrative to avoid confusion, while the variety of perspective brings interest. In Lady Susan, we are dealing mainly with the marrying off of Frederica and seduction of Mrs. Vernon's brother, Reginald. There where Lady Susan paints Frederica as an undisciplined, irrational and ungrateful daughter, her sister in law, Mrs. Vernon, paints her as a sweet girl and a victim of her mother's ruthlessness and lack of love. Both agree that Reginald is being seduced, but, of course, with opposite goals: Lady Susan wants him to succumb, Mrs. Vernon, to escape, and this is a delicious struggle for the reader to follow!*

Lesley Castle being an earlier effort, and unfinished, does show some of the defects I have mentioned before (mainly, the relative confusion of having several correspondents in separate storylines), but illustrates well this same perspective effect: Margaret writes to Charlotte about the new Lady Lesley, and the new Lady Lesley writes to Charlotte about about Margaret and her sister... and in these contrasts lies the main interest of the narrative.

Some conclusions to these musings, then:

Not every story is suited to the epistolary format.

The epistolary format seems to work the best when it is used for either A) showcase psychological and moral development B) to play with perspective on people and/or events.

One of the main difficulties of the format is finding a narrative element to anchor and structure the letters around.

It must have a core couple of correspondents, or at most, two. More than that will make it confusing (unless, perhaps, the story is very short and about a single event or two).

A delicate balance must be found so that the secondary correspondence doesn't cut the flow of the main one, and if possible it must feed into it.

*It is interesting how Love and Friendship, being such a delightful -and I sustain one of the best ever- Austen adaptation, is by force of the perspective switch towards a more impersonal third person, more about a love story between Frederica and Reginald than a struggle between Lady Susan and Mrs. Vernon. Which isn't dissimilar to how adaptations of DLL end up being more about the romance between the leads than Judy's coming of age in college; tropes aside, I feel like if the epistolary format is well embedded in the story, it's going to be nearly impossible to reproduce the effect in adaptation.

[kquil]

THE SWANS : MY MUTUALS + ANONS

a post where i treasure and love my darling moots, they're the light of my life here ♡

@astonishment / @aastonishment | my honey, my darling! mal is such an incredible person and is a very talented writer! she inspires me to write better but also inspires me to be a better person, she's so sweet and deserves all the love in the world! she writes like an angel with gold ink and i still get giddy and shy whenever i interact with her. she's the type of person who makes you feel warm and you would want to run up to and hug every time you see her. i truly hope she continues receiving all the love and appreciation she deserves and more! she's truly perfect, i wouldn't be surprised if she's hiding wings and a halo

@tiensmamains/@sageskisses444-deactivated20230 / @never-fair | my darling sage, even though she's not on tumblr anymore, i won't forget her - she always made me smile and laugh and happy just by being her. her taste in memes were impeccable and she was so easy to talk to. my friendship with her, although early and brief is one that i will treasure forever! i appreciate her and miss her so much, i hope we cross paths again soon ⏤ quick edit: she's back! hehehe~

@futurecorps3 | lola is the most supportive and sweetest person i have had the pleasure of being friends with. she's also so talented in writing and deserves so so soo much more recognition and love. she makes me feel at ease and appreciated, she truly has a heart of gold and is a friend and fellow writer that i will treat as preciously as she treats me so naturally. true kindness embodied in a person, that's lola!

@loving-and-dreaming | such a sweetheart, i love her so much! her excitement for my writing just rejuvenates me (o´〰`o)♡*✲ﾟ*｡ she's so supportive and kind and so lovely to talk to. she's a great friend and her friendship is precious to me. she is someone i feel like i would do anything for because she's that precious of a person. a cinnamon roll embodied, that's the best description of her, adorable and sweet but also with the biggest heart!

@prongsio | lola! darling! she deserves so much, she supported me from the very beginning and another writer i look up to, though i also look up to her for aesthetic goals - she is the queen of aesthetics! i don't know how often she changes her blog's 'looks' but i anticipate each one without even knowing it's coming. lowkey, she gives me cool older sister vibes even though she's younger than me so i still get shy around her (i've always wanted an older sister ｡(*^▽^*)ゞ)

@its-sappho-biotch | bibi is so supportive, ugh! i'm so grateful, words can't even describe how much i adore her (┳Д┳) every comment, not matter how small means so much to me, coming from her. every writer would be blessed to have a reader like her indulging in their works and i'm one of those lucky writers! i will treasure her always! she's the type of reader i aspire to be because she lets them know how much she likes their writing but i get shy and i over complicate my words! i want to be more like bibi!

@wicked-sprite-66 | another reader that im so lucky to have in my life, at this point, my darling has become a life line to me, without her, i wouldn't be writing! she's so sweet and appreciative of my work that now i'm conditioned to smile every time i see her hearting or commenting on my writing. i adore her so much, such a precious sweetheart that i'm so lucky to have in my life, supporting me! no words can describe how much i adore her (┳Д┳)

@diputy | eryn! my kindred spirit! we are on the same wavelength when it comes to fanfiction tropes and i love it! it makes me so happy every time i get to fangirl in the comments with her, she has me kicking my feet and rolling around in my bed acting like a teenage girl chatting with her bestie about her crush! ahhhh! i love it so much! it makes me so so sooo happy, she makes me happy! ₍₍ (ง ˙ω˙)ว ⁾⁾

@neeezza101 / @cassandra-nerezza-black | my darling that i want to protect from all bad things in the world! she's another sweetheart that has won my heart and won't give it back! she's supportive and sweet and such a lovely person to talk to! she is a very precious person and having her support means the world to me! if anyone hurts her or makes her sad, i will do everything in my power to make them pay! no one hurts her or they will get everything that's coming to them!

@somewereinthegalaxi / @thebestofoneshots | rose! omg...where do i even begin?! ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º· she's such a friendly person and so easy to talk to, she's incredibly kind and such a sweetheart as well. anybody would be lucky to have a friend like her, she's just so bright and warm and is definitely someone who can get along with anybody. there's something very magnetic about her that i could talk to her forever if i could! she's been so supportive of my writing too! she and her friendship are truly a blessing in my life! i have yet to read her writing but i'm such she writes as beautiful as she is as a person and a friend ٩( ^ᴗ^ )۶

MY ANONS

🌸 : anon

STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION ... MORE MOOTS TO COME + PRAISE FOR BEING A DARLING

[eastgaysian]

I get the food motifs on the show because, you know, same. But I never understood the animal motifs. I get roman/dog m and kendall/water motifs but I see many others floating around tumblr that I just don't get. Maybe I focused on the food too much to notice the rest? 🤔

[guy who only thinks about succession animal death motif] i feel like there's plenty of recurring ideas around animals/nature/hunting if you keep an eye out for them tbh

i honestly feel like the dog motif is a little overemphasized tbh... dial it back for a second, come back later once you've calmed down, and we'll see what connections are actually supported by the text. like these are things that recur periodically and with consistent meanings throughout the show but not everything has to be about dog all the time. also i think it's fair to say roman gets hit with the dog motif more often or memorably than other characters, but people can get myopic about this. the idea of being (treated like) a dog gets brought up with all of the main cast.

[^ i'm literally the doggy suit guy so feel free to think i'm full of shit]

i don't know what specifically you've seen floating around tumblr wrt animal motifs in succession, so i can only comment on the things i've seen or talked about. generally speaking on succession, animal metaphors are employed when characters want to gesture towards a 'natural order' of things, some kind of hierarchy or strong-rule-the-weak theory of the world. comparing someone to an animal can be dehumanizing-demeaning or dehumanizing-mythologizing, suggesting innate (biological) traits and behaviors because that's just how an animal is, as opposed to humans being complicated and capable of change or self-determination. the stronger animal wins, because it's the stronger animal, because it was born with the sharper claws and the stronger jaws compared to the animal doomed to be prey. ofc this is also dependent on a very simplified narrative of animal behavior lol

off the top of my head, scenes/lines i'd point to underscoring this idea (excluding Dog): - lawrence's 'you just invited me into the chicken coop' line to kendall (domesticated, sheltered, helpless animals before a predator) - stewy calling logan a 'brontosaurus' in s1 finale (doomed to extinction, not adapted for the current environment) - boar on the floor ofc - nan pierce 'you've brought me animals' to frank in tern haven abt the roys lmfao - cut logan 'i'm a lamb, i'm a fucking lamb' in the all the bells say confrontation (rolls around my head a lot, lambs as the symbol of purity and innocence)

obviously animal death motif is kind of my baby i love to rotate it in my mind. this rambly post gets at what makes it stick in my brain so much, the idea of their inability to cope with animal death/refusal to engage with unclean or demeaning labor becoming a point of weakness and potential site of resistance. which is ultimately futile. exchange value completely disconnected from use value humans completely disconnected from the 'natural' world. animal death motif ^_^

maybe this sounds a little too obvious but like, if your interest is how food is talked about and used in the show, then in the context of hunting specifically there's a direct connection between killing an animal and eating it. in the episode hunting, the roys/associates are absolute shit hunters (completely removed from the reality of having to exert physical effort or interact with the environment to sustain their livelihoods) and their dinner of the boars they killed turns into a punishment game with their family and colleagues as the boars fighting for sausage. it's easier for them to turn on, hunt, and eat each other than to hunt actual animals. and they can all stomach it.

also in return when caroline warns shiv and roman about eating the pigeon because there's a lot of shot in it. killed for eating in a way that made it inedible. unnourishing queen give us nothing <3

i hope this wasn't a totally incoherent answer...? obviously i do have a fair amount of interest in succession's animal motifs haha so i appreciate the opportunity to talk about my thoughts.

[coraniaid]

It probably shouldn't irritate me quite as much as it does, but I wish fewer people on Tumblr would use the word 'normal' as an all-purpose synonym for 'polite' or 'respectful' or 'kind' the way they frequently seem to do.  

I very often see posts on here urging people to be 'normal' -- about trans people or Jewish people or disabled people or homeless people or whoever else -- in contexts where I simply don't think that that is what the original poster actually intends to suggest. The word 'normal' does not mean any of those things I listed earlier.  In common usage, something is 'normal' if it is typical or expected or commonplace.  There is no reason to assume that ‘typical’ or ‘expected’ or ’commonplace’ behavior is actually virtuous or worthy of praise, or that it is a suitable yardstick by which to judge your own actions. There is nothing inherently good about being normal.  

In fact, very very often the ‘normal’ way to treat other people -- by which I mean the way the majority of people do, unthinkingly and without drawing comment, every day -- is actually pretty terrible.  Rather than asking yourself if something is 'normal' to do, why not ask yourself explicitly whether it's fair or reasonable or courteous?  Why not worry about whether it's nice?

Yes, language changes and evolves over time, and yes, strict linguistic prescriptivism is a ridiculous position to argue for.  Yes, you probably assume that most of your target audience knows exactly what you mean when you say ‘normal’, and you're probably not wrong.  But, at least outside of Tumblr, most speakers of English do not use the word 'normal' the way you are using it, and I think the world would be a somewhat better place if we didn't needlessly confuse the urge to fit in and conform and not attract unwanted attention with the aim of being a good person. Because these two things really aren't the same at all.

Please be normal about the word 'normal'.

[hootfort]

one hit update when??

Hi gamers!

So, if you've interacted with me in any sort of passive way, you'll probably know my life is always some sort of trainwreck. I've had a chapter (well, multiple, given their length) of One Hit ready to go since I last updated, but life has gotten in the way.

For the people who have left comments, sent asks, or messaged me and not received a response, I'm sorry. I see pretty much everything, but mentally, it's hard to find the energy to reply in a manner that feels fair to you. I want to meet you with the same attention and care that you have shown me, but my brain hasn't been up to it.

TL;DR - One Hit will get updated now that it's summer. I can't promise when, but I promise that it will happen. I'm studying at a place that lied to my face and has driven me to my limit, not academically but mentally. Picking up the pieces and creating a future that I can survive is exhausting, but I'm getting there. The lovely messages and comments are often the highlights of my month, and I am utterly grateful for all of your kindness. All of you are wonderful, and this fandom has been one of the driving forces for me to reach the finish line.

In no particular order, I was and still am enduring a lot of harassment/discrimination in my academic life. It's to the point where I'm facing the very real prospect of having to move to another university to continue my education beyond my current degree, but this final year and the state of my department is... a lot. I'm dealing with the aftermath of turning against a nonprofit that got me started with writing; the cornerstone of my identity since 2017 is in shambles, and that organisation was why I went to university to study what I do.

I don't want to out myself too hard here, but I cannot emphasise how crushing the sequence of events has been. Everything that we were promised when enrolling in this place was a lie. When I last updated, I was attempting to get out of a predatory internship that I had to quit THREE SEPARATE TIMES, and this was an internship shared by my university. I was being felt up, for lack of a better explanation, by a former driving instructor who took thousands of pounds from my family and utterly destroyed my self-confidence and my trust in the world. A large part of who I am and who I want to be is gone, and reconciling that has been difficult.

So, yeah. My life has been a mess. For more reasons than this, but those are my biggest feelings.

I'm getting there. I'm not even sure this is all pertinent information, but I logged into Tumblr and saw all of these alerts, and I feel like I owe it to people to tell them why I was gone. Because I love this fandom, I love the people in it. I love your art, your fanfics, and the countless other things that you do for a world that can seem so dark.

The world is lucky to have you guys in it, and I really want to thank you profusely for what you've done for my life, even if it wasn't visible through updates. My little corner of the internet makes me so happy, and it brings me great peace and comfort to know that now I've survived hell, I can enjoy hanging around a little more for now.

Fingers crossed that it won't take me forever to update this time.

- Min :)

[whereforartthoumisthios87]

[20 Question Fic Writer Tag]

Tagged by the rad @scottysketches, thanks!!

How many works do you have on AO3? I have two, one on two different accounts to separate the fandoms lol

What is your AO3 word count? One account is: 99,568 The other: 125,471

What fandoms do you write for? I have written for many different fandoms over the course of my time here on tumblr such as the Supernatural fandom (many still up on tumblr) but currently I write for Assassin's Creed Odyssey and the MJ fandom!

What are your top five fics by kudos? The Odyssey That Should Have Been: 71 The Way The Wind Blows: 7 (this one is newer lol)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Absolutely!!! After the initial bit where I'm mushy and gushing over said comment, I try to be a bit more constructive in my response LOL

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? It's not finished yet (maybe never will be lmao) but 'The Odyssey That Should Have Been' is based off the First Blade DLC so it's got it's fair share of super angst but also humor and romance and joy!

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? All of my characters must get a happy ending, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!!!!!

Do you get hate on fics? I haven't yet and honestly, if you hate on someone's piece that they put a lot of work into - fuck you lol

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Indeed I do - it is pretty much always romantic smut between two lovers because I am a hopeless romantic at heart lol

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I've never really dabbled in crossovers but it could be fun to try one day!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No and I s2g please don't do it!

Have you ever had a fic translated? No but feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to do that!!

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? No, unless you count roleplaying on roleplayer.me in the early-mid 2000s, then yes LOL

What's your all-time favourite ship? From my blog bio: "Resident Kassandra/Natakas shipper" ;)

What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will? ....All of them.

What are your writing strengths? I'd like to think I'm pretty good at A) dialogues, I just feel like I'm really good at writing what my characters are saying and I find myself often being like "oh that was a good line" LOL and B) historical facts. I pride myself on being somewhat historically accurate and to the time I'm writing in.

What are your writing weaknesses? Probably descriptions of scenery though I do my best. I also overthink when I'm trying to write a very simple scene and people 'nod' or 'chuckle' and 'look' too much lol

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I already sort of have Greek and Persian words for certain things in 'The Odyssey That Should Have Been'!

First fandom you wrote for? I couldn't tell you but I believe it may have been an MJ story when I was like 12 or 13, maybe Big Time Rush? IDK LMAAAAO

Favourite fic you've ever written? Probably 'The Odyssey That Should Have Been' simply because it was my first big labor of love in terms of fanfic writing and the first one I published for all to see on AO3!

I'm tagging (with absolutely no pressure as always!!) @aeide @blue-mono @solareias @findusinaweek @wickedwitchofthewesninski @ainulindaelynn and whoever else writes and wants to do it!

[decepti-thots]

re: writing fandom meta and why there might be less of it recently - the fandom spaces I started out in ~15 years ago didn't have any meta, at least not in the way they have now, so the whole thing is comparably new to me. and then the meta I see always posts that seem to take SO MUCH of canon/background knowledge into account, so many things that I haven't even heard of. and there's so many posts criticizing (parts of) fanon and common fannish opinions, which I often understand, but which also feel a bit elitist and doesn't make me wanna try putting my thoughts on a piece of media into words just to get criticized. finally, I also don't know how to - last time I analyzed media was in school, and I was never good at it.

Thank you for this ask anon, first off! All of this is really interesting to hear, and a lot of it lines up with things people said in shorter responses directly on the post, so it looks like there's definitely some overlap in terms of common pain points in terms of this stuff. (And not just "pain" points, to be clear- folks also basically said that they preferred expressing their ideas through fiction, which is fair, and not really a thing that exists as something causing friction, per se, as much as an active enjoyment of fanfic as a way to express ideas.)

I hope you don't mind if I use this response as a launching point to give a few of my personal thoughts on this, because you so happened to bring some stuff up I kind of wanted to give a perspective on anyway. Not necessarily as a direct response in all regards, but it seems as good a place as any to touch on my own feelings? (Under a cut, feel free to skip this, if you do then thanks again for responding!)

The point you make about how meta wasn't much a thing in fandom spaces you were in 15 years ago is interesting, because one of the things I always think when I see the argument there's universally "less meta" now than there used to be is: does at least some of this stem from the folks saying(/bemoaning) this come from them being in different fannish spaces that the ones they're in now and not realising? It's a similar thing to when people confidently assert "people comment less on fics than they used to", where I can't help but wonder how much of that is just that the fandoms they are in today have different ways of engaging with fanwork, or different expectations, or that the fandom spaces they used to be in commented a lot relatively speaking. 15 years ago, I was in fandoms mostly based around LiveJournal communities, which were often assumed to be the obvious "centre" of fandom activity by folks in said communities. (Incorrectly; LJ only looked like the "main hub" of all online fannishness if it was where you and your fandoms mostly clustered, IME.) A lot of those were media fandoms (though not all) and those tended to have a lot of meta, I would argue at least in part because LJ as a "format" encouraged the posting of long, pre-mediated posts that lent itself well to folks wanting to write meta. But some other fandoms (a lot of anglophone animanga fandoms come to mind) tended to not have nearly as much because people were mostly engaging with them in places and communities where those things didn't line up in a way that encouraged it. The move to Tumblr and even Twitter as big fannish platforms where things work differently is then probably also of note, idk!

(Sidenote: the AO3 meta wars when it launched are probably worth mentioning, since the push to allow fannish nonfiction on AO3 was in part a result of Tumblr seeming like a very bad replacement for LJ when it came to posting essays!)

Anyway, a really common thing that seems to be cropping up is the "if I post an opinion as meta, it opens me up to [potentially virulent, potentially bad-faith] criticism, and that sounds unfun" fear. Which on the one hand is not necessarily untrue because I think even now fannish norms around meta are just a little different than other forms of fanworks, yes. Meta is usually seen as, on some level, an invitation to discussion in a way that e.g. fanfic often isn't. What I do think is interesting to think about here is it seems like there's not a lot of faith that there could be productive, even fun disagreement on specifics and readings. I'm not saying that wariness is necessarily wrong, to be clear. (I have been on the receiving end of plenty of virulent, bad faith "criticism" in my fannish life, haha. Or just... like... bad criticism that is tiring and unproductive and unnecessary, lol.) I mention it more because it seems worth explicitly saying that the assumption that being contradicted, corrected and/or argued with is an inherently unpleasant or even disciplinary way to experience fandom is one that seems to be pretty deep-rooted in fandom right now, and it seems worth pointing that underlying principle out.

To bring that back a little to the "platform shapes the fandom engagement" thing, I do think the way Tumblr works contributes to that. Reblogging to add additions has a very different impact that replying to someone else's static blogpost, and reblogging is (as people do keep pointing out on viral posts, haha) the primary encouraged form of interaction on this site. It's different in multiple ways; a person reblogging something often feels like they are talking about your ideas in the abstract and not by talking to you as a person which can encourage a very different tone and approach on their part and make their addition read very differently. And it also means that your post may not just be contradicted, but the contradiction may wind up being exposed to huge numbers of people as the default way of seeing your post and opinions. That makes the idea of being subject to that disagreement higher stakes, I feel, and also the idea of productive back-and-forth functionally impossible a lot of the time. (It also means having a full conversation often requires constantly spamming your followers, let alone multiple convos.)

So I fully get it. But I do also think it's a shame that it can be really hard to imagine fannish communities where disagreeing back and forth on different ideas about a canon or text is... fun? I guess? I sometimes find that stuff fun, is the thing! When done in a good faith way and an environment it works in. You wind up with all these interesting perspectives that may run very contrary to your own but still have interesting ideas in them, and sometimes you wind up with opportunities to expand on ideas you had but hadn't yet found a way to articulate them. I don't think that's going to be fun for EVERYONE but I think it's a shame that it seems so universally... terrifying, for a lot of people? Fandom is a very good place, if nothing else, to practice getting comfortable with low-stakes intellectual disagreement. (Because for most things, it really is low-stakes as hell.)

I do want to touch on the elitism comment though. I find that... a strange perspective tbh? It's true that doing analysis generally holds a baseline expectation of familiarity with the canon, but I can't really see how that can reasonably be called "elitist". Similarly I think there's a sense where someone will sometimes see people strongly dislike a thing they enjoy and feel the need to argue why that person is "wrong", such as when folks defend their fave fanon against folks who find it tiring/uninspired/etc. I think this post really sums my thoughts on that up, tbh. Sometimes what can kneejerk feel like a person passing judgement on you is actually them being a bit bitchy in their own space knowing full well they're talking about their own taste and nothing more. IDK.

[purenguyening]

N A O L I C E + Q T

This one will definitely be long, eheh..

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Bellow mostly applies to Touhou Project:

More character analysis based on how they appear in the games. It doesn't happen often but I think talk centered round how Touhou characters express themselves through spell cards can add a lot of depth that doesn't come through in fanworks.

More fanworks that draw from their historical inspiration (this limits to a small cast of characters but I feel like Historical Touhou is very rare...I also understand why this doesn't happen much mostly due to high barrier of entry and in general requiring more work.)

Also a huge fan and will always welcome Touhou designs that pull from the artist's nationality. It's a fun twist and I'm always impressed when they incorporate design elements from the original outfit into the clothes.

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

Sakuro and Cleru during my Summon Knight: Swordcraft Story playthrough made me laugh a lot. Sakuro is a very, very silly Craftlord. They have a very similar dynamic to Steven and Brendan's relationship from Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (though I feel like Emerlad is probably the better fit to their dynamic).

There's a few others but Giyuu/Tanjirou and Sabito/Tanjirou are on my mind because of [this fanart]

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Alright, I had to have Youtube randomly shuffle my Summer Recap but it pulled up Fifty Fifty's Cupid and it just reminds me of Devil Survivor as a whole for the sole reason I read all eight volumes while listening to this song on loop at 1.25x speed. It's really funny of all the songs I put on loop throughout the summer, it happened to pick one I actually have some association with a fandom....

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

Major spoilers for Swordcraft Story: I really like Ureksa a lot as a character, he's portrayed in a pretty sympathetic manner and I think how he patches things up with Cleru/Pratty is really refreshing. While I don't love the suicide bait and switch, it really does feel clear to me even if he made some pretty bad decisions, I do think he's a kind person at heart. He's a very prickly person, but I think it makes sense from his design (a lot of spear specialists tend to not be very direct, which makes sense for their fighting style, the game specifically sets up spear users to fight at a range).

Now that I think about it, Matsuoka Rin (Free!), is also someone I warmed to eventually because I liked seeing him be a mentor to Aiichirou and Momotaro. I think that's part of his character design though...

As an aside, it is possible to send me this prompt multiple times since there's very few characters I actively hate and I always have something tucked away in the back of my mind. Most of the time is me wanting to comment their role in the story, but I think that can be read as me recognizing their purpose....

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

Not tumblr, but on Twitter, I do think it's really easy to lose interest in fandom because it's very easy to fall into negative spirals. There is a general shift in fandom overall that made me feel the need to keep my interests separate with side blogs and I tend to be more active through a very closed off account on Twitter.

Maybe one day I'll be courageous and blog about my interests from my one main blog, but that's still an option off the table for now.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Toyosatomimi no Miko/Soga no Tojiko the popular fandom portrayal just gets on my nerves and I find it really annoying when sometimes posts still appear because the ship name is not mentioned anywhere in the tweet. I do have a specific portrayal but I'm hesitant to say if's romantic, but i do think their dynamic is interesting, I just can't bring myself to think of it as romantic.

This might be more closer to me complaining I wish I had post block on Twitter/Tumblr Mobile.

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

I think a long time ago I made a joke about how the fanon portrayal of Shinichi drinking coffee is a subtle way for him to drive away people bugging him. (Caffiene is a natural insecticide, hence the word play). Truth be told I'm not 100% sure now if that was the inspiration for this post I made...

I think maybe you can still find it in the KaiShin discord, but I felt like there's a lot of innuendo to be had knowing Toichi and Yuusaku having a back and forth with just a question mark and exclamation point. (The symbol that combines both the question mark and exclamation point is called an interrobang and it looks like this: ‽)

I don't think either of them spawned too much in the fandom, but I realize my sort of humor needs like a short essay just to explain the context and this is probably why I don't really share my more cracky/insane interpretations....

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

I think the only true fandom I've completely abandoned is Harry Potter? Aside from the obvious reasons, I've learned I still do really love the concept of magic, but I would rather have it manifest itself in different ways. I love fantasy and magic, but I think I end up preferring it to be a back drop or the setting rather than the primary focus. I guess it's more closer to, I like it more as an aesthetic, but dislike it when it becomes the center focus.

Even more controversial fandoms I never can quite fully bring myself to fully abandon (the one that mainly comes to mind is Hetalia). A lot of other fandoms that are less contentious I tend to just cast aside for a while but after a few years I end up picking it back up again for one reason or another.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

Listen, I know it's basically confirmed now that Futo killed Tojiko as of Strange Creators of Outer World, I still refuse to believe Futo actually did it. The closest thing I'll compromise on is Futo's definition of killing Tojiko is "she was not present to stop the murder." That's about it.

I'm basically a Futo apologist and I'm sorry you had to find out this way.

[olivieblake]

Hi, Olivie! Catching up on your latest “Not Reading” video and I have to say I’m just stunned people tag you in bad reviews??? Like, I realistically know it happens all the time to authors on bookstagram, like I use booksta every day, but I’m still flabbergasted people think it’s okay to tag authors in the most negative posts known the mankind??? Like where is the basic human decency and common sense?

On a side note though: I often tag you in my TBR posts or like, general praise posts on my bookstagram (I’ve been reading your self-published works since early 2021 and just love to show off my indie copies and rave about your work in general, especially because you’re one of my comfort authors. Moreover, I tend not to write super critical thinkpieces on bookstagram for any book because I find Instagram to be a very gimmicky place and not actually conducive to discourse in general). Anyway, are you generally okay with being tagged in positive reviews of your works? I just wanna know what you’re specifically cool with as pertains to booksta and tagging? Thanks, and have a great summer!

I’m into my reread of One For My Enemy (first time reading the newly published version) and it’s like hard drugs in the best way possible.

I think after a certain level of perceived popularity (perceived being the operative word) people stop thinking of me as a human being, much less one who receives notifications. and to be fair, there is a lot that I don't see—instagram loves to hide things in my spam folder and I gave up on even trying to deal with my DMs a long time ago. I don't always read everything I'm tagged in, it just seems like on those days where I'm like "let's see what's on instagram!" it'll backfire cosmically. also, instagram likes to put only the meanest reviews in my notifications, which is like one out of every fifty. I have no idea what the plan is there, engagement via misery? in any case I try to stay out, because you're right—it's not really conducive to conversation. it's not like two active users on instagram at the same time are engaging in a meaningful way, like what can occasionally happen on twitter or tumblr. anyway, to answer your question, yes go ahead and tag me! I can't promise I'll see it and if it's a review I likely won't read it, since even praise isn't necessarily good for the art and any stray comment could have a weird effect on my brain. but I like to share posts when I can so that I can direct people to accounts they might have interest in

so basically don't worry about it. the risk of complaining about social media users who do things like that is that they aren't listening, but the people who behave conscientiously are, so it's kind of a preaching to the choir thing

[notebookmusical]

I saw your vent post about reading, and I get it! Hitting a book slump sucks, and I know there's nothing I can really say to make it better. I just wanted to let you know that I, for one, am majorly impressed with how many books you read! Honestly seeing your books read log makes me so happy, I love seeing your thoughts on your reads and it's one of my favourite things about your blog! I also know how it feels with the whole 'making your hobby feel like a commitment' kinda thing and I just wanted to let you know that I feel for you 💜💜 and I really hope soon you'll get a new fire for reading and will fall in love with another new and grand adventure!

good morning 🤍 this was so so sweet to wake up to; i really appreciate your kind words. 🧸

my pre-coffee self got really ramble-y this morning, so i put this under the cut! 💌

reading is a very solitary activity for me, and so i'm often in search of people to chat about books with/a bookish community, and it's just really nice to know that you enjoy seeing my thoughts on books i've read!

i was recently telling one of my friends that i feel like tumblr is the only place i feel like i can be most authentic in my thoughts/ramblings about books — just because it is my least ... influencer-y platform (unlike my book twitter, or bookstagram, or my proper book blog). i have a fair amount of people in the publishing industry, authors, etc. who follow me on my bookstagram + book twitter (although i'm over on my book twitter a lot less nowadays), and i never want to hurt anyone's feelings. i firmly believe that reviewers are for readers, but i also know that things we accidentally come across (or things we intentionally come across) can sting. and i don't mean this in the way that my comments on books are inauthentic, just that i'm more likely to only talk about the positive bits of a book on my bookstagram, etc — or i'll only highlight books that i truly love. tumblr has always been a very refreshing place for me, that is completely different from bookstagram and book twitter and my proper book blog, and i think being more intentional about coming back to tumblr was a really good choice for me, even if i'm not editing as much as i used to (if at all).

last night's vent post was just a culmination of a long day, and after aggravating an old injury, i was just very ... frustrated and upset. i think i've just been feeling like a bit of an ... imposter, really, on here + in my other bookish spaces, which is just very, very silly. and on some level, i sometimes (often) feel like i'm undeserving of the ARCs i get/partnerships i get/followings/etc. that i have, especially on bookstagram. it's all just very, very silly! i ended up calling a friend (who is very removed from bookish things and influencing things) and they said a lot of things that i needed to hear, which was really helpful.

i ended up putting the ARC i was struggling with aside for now — it's not out for a couple months, and read two books last night (another result of not sleeping well)! all things considered, i'm really not doing that poorly with the amount of ARCs i've got; it's more so the books i've been gifted that i'm struggling with, but that's okay! i'll get to them when i get to them — as my friend helpfully reminded me last night, none of this is that serious.

i think i'm going to try to read something different (maybe a play or an audiobook) next to see if that'll help me get back into the swing of things! and i think i'm going to give myself some grace with reading "fewer" books in april (hopefully finishing some annotation projects that i started earlier this year too), especially since i've got a lot of exciting things in coming up! maybe i'll do a reread of some favorites to remind me of why i love reading!

i'd love to know what you're currently reading / what books you've been loving lately / what your favorite reads are 🤍 and i hope you're able to separate your hobby from your commitments too, whether that's reading or otherwise!

this truly was just the sweetest message and i appreciate you dearly 🤍 x

[fujijori]

✦ 𝐋𝐄𝐎 or 𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌 (18) | any prns!!,, TECHNICALLY ON HIATUS, sfw writing blog branched from @seraphicsm, mainly circulating around genpact (genshin impact). multi-fandom author / dc + nsfw free / vv nice, 10/10 would friend. reqs & thirsts are permanently closed, do not ask for 'em ✦ m.list / taglist / carrd.co / spotify / wattpad / ao3 ✦ affiliated w/@favonius-library, @goldfishhie, @kshahrewarr

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ✦ EASY ACCESIBLE RULES BELOW ✦

𝐋𝐀𝐖𝐒.

𝐈. Please remain polite and kind on this blog; I do not tolerate rudeness, nor toxic readers. If you are simply here to shit on me and make other people's days worse because you're bored, find another blog, as I will block you if I ever see interactions coming from your blog. That being said, keep Tumblr discourse away from me; I do not want to get roped up into that sticky mess. I want to remain simple and tranquil, not have my blog end up a new target for discourse posts.

𝐈𝐈. Likes and reblogs are always appreciate, truly, they are! But please refrain from spam liking/reblog on my posts, as I will then assume that you haven't properly read through my works and fics. Some people who do this will think that liking the posts on any social platform will gain them some fans and grow out their blog. There are many many other ways to gain followers and readers, so please, find them, and try not to spam-like my fics. On that note, reblogs are very much appreciated, as liking the post doesn't really get the word out. Don't get me wrong, I love it when I see people liking my posts, but truly, if I want to spread my works through the world of Tumblr, I will have to settle for reblogs over likes.

𝐈𝐈𝐈. This is a completely SFW (safe for work) blog, in which I post/write SFW fics. The only exception is the occasional gore/angst/violence, which is probably going to be often circling my blog as my current project (as of January 2023) involves war and violence. I will not be writing NSFW posts on this blog (I might eventually on my main blog), and the only exception for that is I may write/reblog the occasional suggestive post (ie: making out, getting a little touchy, mentions of intercourse, etc.). I interact with dc (dark content) + NSFW authors, so fair warning.

𝐈𝐕. My updates on this blog are inconsistent, which means that I update/write when I want to and when I have the time to. Do not expect me to come barracading through Tumblr with dozens of story/fic ideas. My motivation is not always with me (espectially now), so please bear with me if you're waiting on an update/another part to a series I wrote. Do not write in the comments section or reblog "when's the next update?" or "part two???", as that just causes my anxiety to further spiral. I don't want do disappoint any of my readers, and for that reason, I ask that you please be patient with me. Quality over quantity, as others might put it.

𝐕. Unless I ask for constructive critiscm, please do not critisize my works, as I'm still trying to get a hold of my writing style. Most of my works are WIPs (works in progress), so if there are multiple grammar/spelling/general errors, that is why. I'm going to be honest, I don't take constructive criticsm well, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to try and get better with handling it. My works/fics on this blog first get read-through by me, and then by a friend or two before I actually post it. That being said, that doesn't mean that I won't accidentally make mistakes or skip over a few. I make mistakes; it's human. So please understand if I make mistakes, it's because I probably missed it.

𝐕𝐈. This blog will also contain non-spoiler free posts, as I reblog a lot of posts regarding my fandoms (anime/manga/tv shows/movies/books/games), so please keep a look out for posts with the spoiler tag in them. Since we're on the topic, I will probably be re-blogging posts more than writing anything, so consider this a shitpost + writing blog because I like to procrastinate by scrolling through Tumblr. If you don't like that, then I'm sorry to hear that. The only reason I ever reblog or search around is because I look for inspiration for my works (ie: writing prompts, dialogue/incorrect quotes, art, etc.).. I also write fics relating to the fandom GenPact (Genshin Impact), but keep in mind that I am not limited to that only fandom, nor am I simply labeling myself as a GenPact author. This blog is mainly going to be for my miscellanous works (original and fandom-related), so I'll make sure to mark them as their fandoms or original if they were written by me.

𝐕𝐈𝐈. This blog will also include LGBTQIA+ characters/themes; if you're not comfortable with that, then simply skip over it. If you're here to be homo/transphobic, kindly get the fuck off my blog, I do not want you here. If you still interact with my blog and posts, I will block you. I myself am a part of the community, and I do not tolerate that kind of hate on my blog, nor will I accept racism, sexism, fatism, abelists, pedophiles, and pro-shippers. If you are any (or all) of the above, get out. Yep, the door is right there, just, leave. Thank you! ^^

𝐕𝐈𝐈. I welcome asks + DM's from my readers, but for certain reasons (cough, sex bots, cough), I only allow messages from my mutuals (aka, people I follow back). Asks, however, are welcome to everyone and anyone! Just remember, if you're here to shit on me or spread hate, or just be a bad person in general, I will not be answering you asks, and they will be promptly deleted! ^^ For those of you who simply just want to chat and be friends, I can't wait to get to meet you!

𝐗𝐈. This one's a quick rule, but, harrass any of my readers or friends and I will report you faster than you can say "fuck you" <3

𝐗. I will most likely be cursing a lot (which probably isn't healthy or good considering I'm barely considered an adult, but what can you do?) throughout my posts, so, just fair warning. I mainly ever cuss when I get upset or really excited about something, so that shouldn't be too often, right? I also use tone tags occasionally (tone tag list with meanings), so if I use something with a slash (ex: /j or /hj), just know that it wasn't a typo or me just casually spamming my keyboard and that it means something.

thank you for reading my rules (i hope you did); i can't wait to interact w/yall, and i hope you enjoy your stay here on my blog! ^^

[crackrodent]

Dear Anon, the person you are sending these death threats to is the reason I smile when I see the color pink. Pink is the color of her words when she spreads love. Pink is the color my face turns when she takes my crazy ideas with value. Pink is the color I hated for years until I met her.

Dear Anon, the writer you are sending this to is the first person who I ever felt actually comfortable asking for constructive criticism from. She was the only person I knew could be clear, fair, and kind. She's the only person I ever felt wanted to see me improve enough to actually lend a hand.

Dear Anon, this is the mutual I get most excited to see reblogged my work. I just know that she can take a story I felt I failed to do the concept justice for and turn around and tell me each of her favorite parts. She's the reason I want to keep trying out new ideas—ideas that may be too odd for some of the fandom.

Dear Anon, this is the person who saw one picture of me and immediately started calling my greatest insecurity "cute". She's the reason I hate one less thing looking in the mirror.

Dear Anon, I am a very annoying person. I have been called it frequently in my life. To the point, I am often convinced all my friends secretly hate me but this person, right here, the person you have told "if u died the world would be a better place loloololol", is one of the few people who has made it a point to show me that she actually does like being friends with me. And I don't even think she noticed.

I am not sure if you ever read the story about the little kid chucking starfish off the sand back into the water, but I am going to link it here. Red has tossed a lot of us starfish back into the water. I hope someday to be able to help as many people as she can.

Dear Anon, I love getting to be friends with Red. Beyond her writing on Tumblr, beyond the amazing work she does on the VoxTek Discord, beyond simply floating in fandom space together, her smallest words bring so much light to my life.

Dear Anon, I hope you learn someday not to be a fucking cunt. That way we can all just enjoy the fandom together. Only a coward hides behind online anonymity.

Dear Anon, before you criticize a writer's work you should at least learn how to spell. Really? ur, u, cuz, urself. This isn't old-school Twitter where there's a character limit. I doubt you are typing on a 2008 Nokia. You can spell your words correctly.

Dear anyone else receiving hate from shitty anons, you deserve better. No one deserves this kind of hate. This is shitty people needing to drag everyone down with them. People who need to go anon to "defend their beliefs" or "make a stand" already know they are being assholes for no reason. They anon so they don't get hate back.

Dear people who are friends with people who send shitty messages online anonymously, tell your friends to stop. Tell them about the harm they are doing to people for no reason other than their own inability to learn how to block content they don't want to see. Tell them that this type of shit isn't funny or helpful to any form of protest they are attempting to have.

Dear people who think "Who cares, it's just stupid comments", you're right. The comments are stupid. But its the axe's job to stop chopping not the trees' fault for getting fucking struck.

Dear Red, I love you. Please never stop being you.

PSA: Hate Message/Bullying

This will be my last message regarding the negative messages I’ve been receiving. To the person or group responsible, you’ve crossed a line. While this message is directed at you, it's also meant for others in the Hazbin Hotel community who may be experiencing similar negativity and feel isolated.

Please remember, you are not alone.

CW/TW: inflammatory language, suicide, death threat, provocative language

Annonie, when I woke up this morning to over 20+ messages, I felt confused. As I started reading through all the hate, I found myself wondering, "What did I do to trigger this?" But then I stopped and realized—it’s not me. It’s YOU.

For a moment, I thought about quitting. I honestly considered giving up writing here because it didn’t feel worth the constant barrage of negativity, especially when I’m already juggling so much stress in my real life. But there's something stubborn in me—a part that refuses to back down, even when faced with such blatant, childish hate. Maybe it's my age, or just my nature, but I found myself trying to understand you.

I want to tell you to stop before it goes too far.

Words have power. Have you ever been taught that?

I don’t know if you write stories yourself, but if you do, you know how words can evoke so many emotions—joy, comfort, sorrow—giving someone an escape or a friend in the pages. But words can also destroy. They can crush dreams, steal hope, and even push someone to the edge.

I lost a friend to online bullying. One of my closest people was taken away because of hate-filled words from a stranger. Do you understand the weight of that? They were a lover, a friend, a family member, and in a single moment of hatred, that person lost their future. Someone’s thoughtless words robbed them of happiness, of possibility.

You see, while I can take your hate, I worry about the others in this community who might not. I’m more concerned about the impact you might be having on someone else who’s already struggling.

It only takes one bad day to ruin someone’s life. And isn’t that just heartbreaking?

I’m not asking you to be a hero or a saint.

I’m asking you to be a human being—to show some compassion.