#too much serious fic. we need shitposts.

[windupnamazu]

smells like sardine spirit!

ffxivwrite2023 #07: noisome having an extremely offensive smell.

Lunya, @hqmillioncorn's Babycorn and Cherrypit, and @perrytheplatyborg's Himbo Hooters. A Realm Reborn, flowrverse (shitpost flavour). 1155wc. ⮞ A little deodorant would go a long way, but I'm not sure you'd remember what that is either.

It was a normal day in the Lavender Beds. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Babycorn Corn was eating mud.

Just last week, «flowr»'s FC hall finally finished construction after a gruelling week of its members running around gathering as much gil as they could. The very last of it came from Lunya, who apparently squeezed an Ul'dahn merchant so dry she came back with not just his gil but the clothes he was wearing that day and the rights to his nextborn child, the contract of which she promptly set on fire. While the house was fully built, what it wasn't was furnished, and with no kitchen to dig through the cupboards of and unwilling to swallow her pride and ask anyone for lunch, Babycorn did what she did best: improvising food.

"Thish mud's pretty tashty," she told her baby brother between mouthfuls of the wet dirt. Cherry babbled a giggle out as he slapped his oversized sleeves to the ground, splashing their midday meal onto his face. "But itsh kinda hot today, ishn't it?"

It was an impressive 32 degrees Celsius, of which the Eorzean equivalent is unknown to me, reader, and remarkably humid. It had rained that morning and left the Shroud quite muggy.

As the siblings alternated between rolling around in the mud and eating it they didn't notice the hulking figure stumbling up the hill towards the cottage, water and mud dripping from his form with each tired step as he searched for sanctuary. As he reached the gate he teetered and fell straight through it and into the middle of Babycorn and Cherrypit's lunch with a huge splash.

"So… hungry…" he moaned into the mud with a horribly deep rumble of his stomach.

Babycorn's pom nearly flew off her head in alarm, kept on her head simply because it was weighed down only by the layer of mud he splashed on her.

"MONSTER?!" she shrieked, diving for Cherry and whisking them both out of their puddle.

Snapping into consciousness, the so-called monster straightened up and looked around in a panic, mud dripping from pearly white fangs. "MONSTER? WHERE?" the monster shouted, only to be hit once more by the sheer heat of the day and how dehydrated and hungry he was. His head hit the mud once more with an exhausted groan.

"Babagaga," Cherry said wisely from the safety of his sister's arms.

"Oh, not a monster?" Babycorn wondered, poking the not-monster with the toe of her boot. "...Do you think it's edible?"

Moments later Lunya rounded the corner carrying a tower of cardboard boxes taller than Vertical Height herself, which she promptly dropped upon seeing Babycorn about to take a bite out of some stinky and unconscious stranger. She started caterwauling, sprinting towards them at an impressive speed for a girl wearing stiletto boots on wet grass for some reason.

"BABYCORN CORN," Lunya howled, shaking a fist in the air, "PUT THAT THING DOWN, YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE IT'S BEEN!"

"Party pooper," muttered Babycorn, blowing her bangs out of her eyes as she dropped the arm of what upon closer look was a sopping wet catman. No, not the Miqo'te kind, but a larger, fuzzier variety.

Lunya came to a screeching stop next to them. The mudcatthing was snoring away, blowing bubbles into the mud in a way that would have been comical if it wasn't ruining some perfectly good food. She grimaced at its filthy appearance and the bizarre smell radiating off him. "What's a Hrothgar doing in our yard? And why does he smell like he dove through a fish market's post-closing garbage processing center?!"

"Beats me," huffed Babycorn, already uninterested since she wasn't allowed to eat the guy.

"He doesn't seem injured," Lunya said contemplatively. "Just… stinky." With a whirl of her pointer finger a hose came flying around the corner of the house followed by bottles of dog shampoo and conditioner. "If he has to lie unconscious in our yard he should at least have the decency to smell nice while doing it."

Babycorn hissed at the hose as it passed by, which Lunya thought was a nice bit of character development from the last time she had to bring the hose out and Babycorn tried to bite it. Setting the nozzle to 'angle', Lunya hit the Hrothgar with a blast of water.

"BWHHHHBWHWHBBRHHBWHWW," the Hrothgar spat, sitting upright in confusion as he was assaulted with each of the settings on Lunya's latest beloved acquisition from the Gridanian garden centre while she looked for the best one.

"Oh, you're alive!" Lunya said cheerily. "Cherry, do you wanna soap him up?"

"Sop, sop!" Cherry agreed. Or maybe he was saying soup. That was a bit more concerning. Either way, he took one of the floating bottles of dog shampoo and handed it to Babycorn, who uncapped it, handed it back to him, and took four steps back. There was no way she was going to get forcibly given a bath today, no sir!

Cherry promptly dumped half the bottle onto the Hrothgar's knee.

"Would you mind getting out of the mud for me?" Lunya asked the Hrothgar, who was only getting increasingly more confused by this bizarre turn of events. "It's kind of making the whole point of this moot."

"Uh, okay?" the Hrothgar said, and he got up and walked over to a clean patch of grass dripping dog shampoo and mud and water with Lunya and Cherrypit following behind.

"So, what's your story?" Lunya asked conversationally as she rinsed him down and revealed he was, in fact, really a Hrothgar. "Got drunk at the Mirror Planks and fell overboard and washed up here? Alcohol abuse is bad, you know. You got a name?"

"Ba!" echoed Cherry.

The Hrothgar stammered. "H… H… Something with an H…Hem… Him…?"

"Bo," Cherry said with a satisfied nod.

"Himbo?" Lunya wrinkled her nose. "Weird name. I mean, I guess we have a Vertical and a B'ig and a Babycorn, so it's not really that weird in the grand scheme of things—"

"My name is not weird!" Babycorn cried, stomping her boot in the mud and splashing more of it up her leg. "Your name is weird!"

"And you're getting a bath next," Lunya threatened, turning and pointing the hose at her. Babycorn screamed.

"I don't, um, really remember anything," 'Himbo' admitted over Babycorn's furious shrieks that no, no, no, you can't clean me! Na na na na na! I hope you trip and slide on a soap bar!!! "Who I am or where I came from or, uh, why I'm being given a bath. I just know that I'm hungry."

"Well, we can fix that last part, at least," said Lunya. "You wouldn't be the first amnesiac we've taken into our fold. How do burgers sound?"

"What's a burger?"

"Lunya," Babycorn gritted out from behind the tree she was now hiding behind, "this is dire."

[sneppu]

Hello! Welcome to The Sneep Zone

You may call me Nagi

Main blog: @nagoo (I'm also on Bluesky! absolutely NO MINORS on the bluesky, no exceptions. nsfw art will be going there.)

@headmasterseverussnape and @sevsbestfriend are my beloveds

u better be able to tell fiction from reality i stg.

first and foremost: fuck jkr. i do not endorse her. i do not agree with her. we dont do that weird shit here.

we do different weird shit instead (bask in the decadence of The Sneep)

This sideblog is for me to post all my Snape art and Snape related ramblings! I am addicted to snape fics, and have found myself needing to make fanart for some of my favorite writers. such things will be posted here!

Severus Snape is my favorite guy!

I am known to refer to him as: Sneep, Snorp, Sneb, The Sneberous Sneb, The Snebulous One, He Who Sneeps In The Dark, SneepSnorp, Mother, Sneppu, El Sneepo, Snorpo, Snib, The Best One, The Only One That Matters, The Community Boyfriend, Babygirl, etc.

rest assured, I am talking about Severus Snape every single time

I ship him with everyone! yes, even [insert character]. I always tag ships so block the tag or w/e if theres one you dont like.

I truly and genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, do not care even a little bit about The Grievances u may have about my ships or my sneeps. I cannot stress enough how much that is not my problem. If you're the type to throw a tantrum over ships and fictional content I'm just gonna block you tbh.

Dark/Fucky content WILL be found on this blog. Snape was practically MADE for that shit and I like to project my traumas onto him so like. ykno. I expect ppl with critical thinking on here ONLY.

in my ideal world, everyone would love and cherish Sneep. I tend to focus on marauder's era Snape

not to be rude, but i kind of only care about Snape really. the slytherins are cool and chill too (especially Lucius, Rosier, and Mulciber), but i mostly care about how they interact with and potentially fall in love with The Sneep. the marauders are rat bastards and i ship them with Snape in a "grovel eternally for the scraps of his affection" kind of way. I am not sorry.

dont expect nothing serious from me unless im waxing poetic about Snape or heavily projecting my own Tragic Past onto him tbh, and even then...

i have zero interest in any debates whatsoever. i cannot emphasize this enough, my thoughts are disjointed and nonsensical. The mere thought of having a serious debate about anything is stressful and unpleasant. I mean it as kindly as possible when I say it makes my eyes glaze over.

i am just here to draw Snape and shitpost about my favorite little guy.

i dont care that he's mean.

he shouldve been meaner, actually.

he's better than me and he's probably better than you too, because i wouldve absolutely lost it big boy style.

Art tag: #nagi nyart

Have you ever written a fanfic about Severus Snape? If so, please PLEASE read this post Here

this shouldnt even have to be said but please do not??? take me stuffs and completely re-upload it without credit or permission?? dont do that to anyone, actually? like idk basic courtesy towards artists or w/e. you know better, i know you do.

BUT that said.. using my stuff for your header or profile pic is fine with credit somewhere easily visible, like the profile description, or pinned post!

[angelsdean]

a lot of issues in the fandom stem from the fact that there are various different types of fans and viewers here. and we're all lumped together into this space and we cross paths but many of us are not doing the same things or engaging with the show and characters in the same way.

you have the people who do serious meta and analysis, who delve into canon and do frequent rewatches and are really familiar with the source material. then you have your more casual viewers, people who haven't rewatched much and their recollection is hazy. they forget details, fill things in with fanon. then there's the spn fandom-fandom people, people who aren't all that interested in the show, maybe haven't even seen it, they're just here for the fandom. maybe they read fics, but most of their knowledge of the characters comes secondhand. then there's people who don't even really LIKE the show (some of them are fandom-fandom people), who are just here for shitposts. some flavors of these fans also come with weird parasocial actor-hate that then bleeds into their perceptions of the characters. and of course then you have the different x-girl factions, the rabid deancrits who can't stand that most of the general audience and fans love dean. all these people, all in one place, all making posts abt the same show but coming from wildly different ways of experiencing the show and these characters.

so then you end up with people in headcanon land coming onto posts from the analyzing-canon people and arguing abt stuff that is Real To Them bc they're experiencing the show in a different way, maybe not even watching it. and they feel righteous that their headcanon / interpretation is correct, but the canon analysis people are gonna go "wtf is this nonsense? that never happened! those claims are unsupported. i'm not incorporating this headcanon into my beliefs about this character." and headcanon people get mad bc they're so married to this idea of the character they've created in their minds. and then we all go round and round arguing abt it.

like, people need to accept that their headcanon may not be shared by others. your interpretation is not my interpretation, especially if you made it up! i'm under no obligation to believe that.

people can play in their sandbox forever, headcanon what they like, but there's a real problem with some people going onto other people's posts / inboxes (usually when someone is discussing canon) to argue their headcanon, often in a negative way. and then these same people get mad when the person they went to with their argument responds negatively. and then there are some people who take things too far, who send threats and harassment to others for simply having a different opinion abt fictional characters. that's not a normal response to have. yet somehow it's the people responding to the hate / negativity they get that are called "bullies."

anyways, people need to accept that others are not living in their head, sharing their headcanons and we're all experiencing this show differently. some posts aren't for everyone. sometimes you can just scroll away when you disagree with something instead of making an addition or being negative abt the post in the tags. we're all here to have fun, at the end of the day.

[lovesongrecs]

god. okay, so my mutual on twt was kind enough to link me the fic she'd posted she'd been reading for sillies and shitposts but i, ever the depraved shinestar, was HOOKED on the little snippet of the end of chapter 2. it felt like the walls were closing in on me when i realized i had just inadvertently gotten scammed (in the best way possible, ofc!) because... 🫠 no smut. just unbridled edging. like omg... all that built up tension... the anticipation i had for what i thought would be the most nastiest, toe-curling smut i'd ever lay eyes on in my entire life... taken away from me within seconds. anyways, that was my fault for not peeping the lack of smut tags on ao3. nevertheless, i was absolutely enthralled by the plot progression so i continued reading and i am so so So glad i did.

my mind is all over the place... where do i even begin 😭 i quite literally just finished reading the latest chapter and. There's just so fucking much i feel just as overwhelmed as mc because... what the fuck!! like actually, what the fuck 😭😭 everyone in atz and itz need to perish omfg it does not cost us anything to be kind to each other... greek life shouldn't ever be this serious, but then again, they're mostly all filthy rich freaks who'll make dollars while the rest of us work our asses off to make dimes. such a sick world we live in... can't even escape the horrors of capitalistic greed in a frat!atz au...

but it's this greed that makes everything so interesting! the amount of layers to the plot is so sickening, i'm appalled by the reminder that this is just fanfiction and not the script of the next hit show everyone and their mom is raving about. i mean, hello? the character depth? the backstories? the way every single relationship between the characters is so intricately intertwined with another that just the slightest altercation between people tangled in this little web could (and did) set everything off? i need to figure out how to get you into the writer's room because this is insane. even just the mystery behind everyone's motives and end goals? this kind of talent is so rare that i find such immense pleasure in being able to pick it apart and put it back together in the form of a silly little review for the author to read. you all deserve to know just how in love i am with your mind!!

the way you write is impeccable. i don't ever use that word because, i'll be honest, i'm a little picky with my compliments! but i feel like you really deserve to hear that after the absolute whirlwind you just spun me through. from dialogue and nicknames for mc that are so specific to a single character, to the deliberately placed actions between them that give this sense of realism, and the endless detail used to create the setting you've envisioned for a scene... talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it – or whatever lady gaga said. everything fits together so perfectly and flows so seamlessly it imitates the state of being when you're completely, utterly immersed in a story it feels like you're actually there. this is such an important thing for me as someone who has grown up reading all sorts of literature. a fic i've read and reblogged in passing will eventually lose itself in my memory but a fic from a writer, whose voice and style is so strong it transports me into an alternate reality, will live with me forever.

i'm forever praying that there will be better days (and friends, god does she need better fucking friends) ahead for mc because so far... it's not looking too good for her. just when she thinks she can trust and open up to someone, they're already five steps ahead with their plan for her certain demise. i mean, come onnnn 😭 it's one thing to hook up with someone at a frat party, but to secretly pray on her downfall is just ridiculous. you're supposed to be sleazy, not a conniving little bitch in cahoots with this mysterious hbic, who's in close contact with the president of the sorority the girl you just slept with belongs to, and making a pledge go through the wackiest initiation for some undisclosed reason... literally what goes on anymore omfg like even the confrontation with wooyoung and hongjoong kicking him OUT of the frat? mina lying about her brother's whereabouts and creating such an elaborate sob story just to keep a two-timing jackass (according to vice president of all jackasses, apparently) who doesn't even want her? all while one of the sisters is literally fucking missing and no one has any information about her whereabouts? this b-plot is DISGUSTINGGGGGG (compliment 🙂‍↕️💗) – like it's actually so fucking ridiculous how the universe is just playing in mc's face right now... i'd have been in jail by now after putting every single one of those snakes in a saw trap. i can't even wrap my head around what seonghwa could possibly want out of this, who hbic is (i'm thinking mina or isla...), or... anything, really. i'm so shaken up with how everything's unfolding, but it makes me all the more excited for the next chapter 🫶🏼

Nasara University Home Page ✧ Meet ATZ ✧ Meet ITZ ✧ Tag

That one fucked you over last year, this one is fucking you over this year, you had no idea she was involved with him, someone over here has been lying to you, you didn't mean to end up in that ones bed, he told you he loved you... Does anyone even trust anyone anymore?

[one] - 'i can do it with a broken heart' ~ taylor swift

[two] - 'we can't be friends (wait for your love)' ~ ariana grande

[three] - 'tell ur girlfriend' ~ lay bankz

[four] - 'nonsense' ~ sabrina carpenter

[five] - ‘teenage dirtbag’ ~ wheatus

[six] - 'because i liked a boy' ~ sabrina carpenter

[seven] - ‘no church in the wild’ ~ jay-z/ye

[eight] -

~ more to come ~

read it on ao3 ✧ talk to me ✧ my masterlist

[xnchxntmxnt]

Welcome to the party!

I hope you're ready for a fun time! I'm very happy everyone could make it and you all look great. More on the party later, I have a few words to say first.

I started this blog a year ago today after having barely any idea what the hell I was doing. All I knew is my wonderful friend Poe got me into a new anime and I'd absolutely fallen in love with it. I'd had a love of writing since I was ten, and I thought it was time to put that talent to use.

Words cannot describe how happy I am to still be active. I may not be as active as I once was, and I cannot update once a week like I used to, but I still appreciate all the support I get nonetheless.

Since then I've made so many friends, met so many people, got into new things and done things I never thought I would. I could talk for hours about all the friends I have because I love them all, but I'll try to keep these short so we can get to the more fun part...

@emswordss you were my first mutual and we still talk almost every day and that makes me so, so happy. you're so incredible and i'm happy i could be part of the journey you're on and help you with the crazy shit that is teenage years.

@domestic-void/@nekomas-kuroo my second mutual ever! i am so glad you let me write that lev fic its still the longest fic i've ever written for this (besides that one selfship thing but we aren't counting that)

@shoyotime/@miyamours my first wife <33 we havent talked in a while but i remember how much we did especially when i was first starting out. thanks for all the confidence boosts and all the weird conversations <3

@shirari we havent talked in so long !!! how are you? i don't know if you're really active anymore but i feel badcwe kinds lost touch

@ellesmain/@ellewords I MISS YOUUU ik finals suck i do but i miss seeing you on my dash!!! need my big sister once in a while yk <3 i hope finals are going well and that you're doing ok too! mayeb by the time you're back I'll have another taylor swift cover for you

@maizumis i havent seen you online in forever either !! we gotta talk soon!

@possiblypoe THE OG!!! this brilliant person got me into haikyuu it's her fault you all have to deal with me. poe you are so so so so so incredible and i KNOW how long you've been waiting for your matchup so go read and text me/send and ask and tell me your thoughts!!! love you (/p)

@mysterystarz/@nekonovs wife #2!!! thanks for being the crackhead in my discord dms over the summer /j. no but actually i know we dont talk as much as we did over the summer, mostly because we're both busy, but youre so amazing really. thank you for all the late night conversations and the akaashi brainrot

@k-kazvha i think you were my first genshin moot?? also happy late birthday!!! have fun dancing the night away with diluc. i said some of this yesterday on your birthday but i am SO glad we met you're so funny and honestly great to talk to. i ma not always comment on it but your posts make me laugh a lot (usually the shitposts). you're an incredibly talented writer thank you for being amazing

@rqkuya you literally know all my ocs in and out and you're so so so incredible to talk to about them. you always ahve the funniest one-liners and little ideas to add, and no matter how much you yell at me for throwing angst at them, you love me for it anyway. thank you so so much for making me feel like i always have someone to talk to about anything (usually characters, but even serious things) tor.

@merciemer DAD !! high key you're very like an older brother for me and i talk about you deadass all the time. you give me gender envy a LOT (but in a great way) and youre so pretty in like the most gnc way possible. you're absolutely hilarious and i feel my own parent friend instincts kick in once in a while when we talk but its because i care i swear <3

@animated-moon my fellow tendou simp. we really need to sit down and watch howl's moving castle one of these days. i'm still proud of that tendou fic for you i wrote not too long ago (or maybe it was, i have no perception of time) but it was really fun to write and you're just. so much fun to talk to we really need to talk more bc youre a riot in the best way ever

@kage7ama ANGEL THAT INTRODUCED ME TO THAT SONG— ok i still scream sing that and in the back of my head im thankng you for showing it to me i LOVE it thank you. i was so worried when you deactivated but its ok bc i got the new url <33

@kodzukoi ANOTHER ONE WHO HEARS ABOUT MY OCS i am so glad you're as into sk8 as i am (or almost, idk) and know that langa is giving u a forehead kiss rn. as am i (/p). but you're so easy to talk to and constantly reminding me that im not talking too much which i appreciate also you give the best compliments. jun kinnie (affectionate)

@rudolphsboyfriend AAAAA I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU TO READ UR MATCHUP URS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES. but youre so talented like what the hell??? talented voice, talented writer, my irls hear about you all the time jfc i need to shut up about you sometimes. but yeah i just think you're super awesome man

@sunalma i missed you on my dash !!! im glad youre back though even if it's not as much. fun fact: i was SO SCARED to talk to you for so long but the more time went on the more time i got over myself and tried not to hit the send button on inbox asks and throw my phone to the other end of my bed

@miyagem LAST BUT NOT LEAST i think youre my newest mutual??? we talk a decent amount though so i already call u my friend <33 i definitely need to bother you more tho its fun youre great to talk to

that should be everyone its everyone in my notes w an emoji at least. if i forgot you i swear i didn't mean to !!!!

and an extra extra shoutout to all my anons + anyone who just likes to interact, even if through reblogs! ur messages/tags/anything else mean the world to me !! your support is mostly why i keep doing this and i wouldn't have hit 1 year if not for you.

nOW THAT THE SAPPY STUFF IS OVER BACK TO ME WRITING PROFESSIONALLY

quick preface: when in doubt assume everyone is 22. i don't care how that affects the plot of the original story your character is from, everyone is 22 so we can all drink champagne (if you choose). carry on

The night opens in a giant, golden, open ballroom, perfectly set white tables taking up a decent amount of room. Other tables line the walls, all covered in food (all with various coverings on it so it doesn't get too cold). Come in, take a seat wherever you like. Dinner starts soon.

The room is quiet, save the chatter of people finding seats. Three people stand in the center of the room with various kinds of musical nstruments—L, in the center, (@rudolphsboyfriend my beloved) Blue to their side and Semi Eita on their other. All three are smiling, however L is the most, seeing everyone make their entrances.

Once everyone is seated, he explains: one of his biggest passions is music and he has two incredibly talented friends that agreed to play with him for the first part of the night, then dinner, then the rest of the party as everyone pleases.

They make a speech about how appreciative they are for everyone (see above for that) and the three of them play their set. Music kicks on, they announce dinner is open, and the rest of the night is yours for the choosing.

Do enjoy and tell me how spend your time!

Event Content!

playlist for the night

✧ drabbles ✧

@merciemer - dancing with matsukawa issei @kage7ama - people watching with diluc ragnvindr @animated-moon - eating dessert with tendou satori @rqkuya - xiao (yours didn't get a name but i swear its for good reason) @terushimatwinn - balcony conversations with miya atsumu @kodzukoi - car conversations with langa hasegawa

✧ matchups ✧

for @emswordss ✧✧✧ for @keijinn ✧✧✧ for anon ✧✧✧ for @duckymcdoorknob ✧✧✧ for @possiblypoe ✧✧✧ for @rudolphsboyfriend ✧✧✧ for 🌱 anon ✧✧✧

✧ other additions ✧

my evening with kaoru sakurayashiki

If you didn't get a chance to participate and want to (or you did, and want to add onto what I came up with), please do! Send it in as a submission or inbox message, or just tag me in a post you make! I'd love to add it to the main post!

Only rule about this is you cannot double characters. There are a few taken already, but if you would like to participate, please choose someone else that hasn't been listed in one of the drabbles/matchups to save everyone the confusion.

Thank you all so much again. I could not have done this all without you and I appreciate everyone that follows and interacts with me more than you all know. I hope to do something like this next year around this time if life permits. Other than that, get a drink, some dancing in, talk to new people—the night is yours! Enjoy the party.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Response to an ask from Ophelia:

Ophelia! Hello! You're not upsetting me, you're okay. I'm not overly stressed about the discourse as much as I have been in the past (like when it first started) so I'm okay listening to you! My anxieties were more a sudden irrational worry that people were upset with me, but it's mostly passed :). I'm answering your ask under the cut for space!

Entirely fair to not want to get involved! In the past that's also pretty much how I approached discourse (unless it directly affected a friend, which happened once or twice), I'm just getting more involved this time because as one of the bigger tumblr blogs I feel a sort of responsibility to among other things, but that's unrelated

I think your frustration/confusion is entirely fair! "White humor" can mean a lot of things and is a wide generalization. I think (may be wrong here) that it was more of an offhanded comment than a serious, analytic observation of tumblr that then spiraled out of control. I don't think the person who said that ever intended for it to even get any attention. You make an excellent point about hypocrisy in understanding humor. If the sites have different humors it seems almost expected that different understandings would lead to confusion like this.

What you're feeling right now is entirely valid and okay. You're not wrong for having a reaction. It's possible that part of what's creating that situation where they felt cruel and then acted like they weren't is because we don't know who is saying what on IG. Some people identify themselves, but otherwise it's a bunch of anons. So while one is saying one thing, another says something different and maybe that muddles it a little because we can't keep track of them the way you can keep track of us.

I think it makes sense that your brain made the connection between your own experiences. I don't think it's 100% the same, but I can 100% see the similarities and don't think you're making it up or anything. I'm sorry about your sibling and the things they've said/done to you; I know it's got nothing to do with me but I'm trying to express compassion over the situation. It doesn't make you a bad sibling to avoid them for your sake; they're being a bad sibling by treating you that way. I know this wasn't the point of your ask but I wanted to mention it

As for the tumblr fandom, if this is too stressful and you need to take a break or leave, that's entirely okay. I can say though, as someone whose been around for a while (four years), that I have complete confidence that this is all temporary. The fandom has been through some rough discourse in the past and it has always gotten itself back together and calmed down afterward--I mean, you finding it calm is proof of that! that calm was after discourse had happened. This isn't the first discourse there's been and it won't be the last, but it won't last forever.

We'll still go on making headcanons, making art, writing fics, hosting events, making shitposts, and everything we've done before. All that being said, if leaving is what's right for you then I 100% support you and just hope you'll keep in touch from time to time as I happen to like you and talking to you. But if not I understand; I am pretty wrapped up in kotlc.

That's a long way of saying that your feelings and stress about the situation are entirely understandable and valid. I know I've definitely had my own sets of frustrations as well. It's not a fun situation, and if you need a break I wish you the best!

Emotionally, I am tossing goldfish crackers and a glass of water into your emotional black hole so that you can have some sustenance <3

[sonybees]

mutuals appreciation post!

i seriously CANNOT at all process this

literally i do not know how this even happened but i am so inexplicably grateful for every single one of you! i love all of you so so much!

i was maybe thinking about making a sleepover but school has been kicking my ass lately so i just decided on making a little mutuals appreciation post! to all my other mutuals, i love all of you so much and i literally want to smother all of you with hugs and kisses. i am so grateful for all of you. thank you.

this might be a little long so it’s under the cut! there might be a lot of mistakes snsjd

@lunaleonorah leo!!! you are an absolute blessing. i love your kindness and the amount of affection you give me literally makes me wanna break down and scream. in a good way of course sjjs. i love our conversations where we just talk about our days and all that. i wish we could always be friends and you can tell me anything you’d like. i love our friendship because we can talk to each other whenever we’d like and will always bring comfort to each other. i always look forward to having conversations with you everyday. ilysm and you deserve the world <3 all the love, pluto.

@gredmforge rory, my wife! i love talking to you about nonsense, it always makes my day and your fun and carefree personality always makes me smile. no doubt that we will be great friends in real life. the little asks you send in my inbox always make me laugh and i’m very excited for whatever future works you have. you always seemed so nice and sweet ever since i first interacted with you and i am so happy that i asked you where you got your memes because look what that got us to! shsjdjd. no but seriously, i love talking to you about our obsessions and just saying hello to each other. ilysm and i hope you always remember that! :) <3

@crookedhag my lovely eliz, i’m too lazy to make another one of those fancy scrolls that i did earlier but that doesn’t stop me from showin gmy appreciation for you. you are such a sweet and amazing person. you are also so talented and i am always so happy to see your name pop up on my notifications. you were always the first one to send me an ask for ask games and you always check in on me and i love you for that. i wish the very best in everything you do. you have great taste in music and i’m starting to think that you’re in every single fandom i don’t know jsjsj. but i love talking to you and ily! mwah! ◡̈

@oldschoolkiddo hero! the first time you ever interacted with me, i already knew that i would love having you around. you are such a fun person and all the tag games that you make and tag me in are always so fun! you are an independent person and i love that so much. you speak your mind and that is so powerful. you are so very sweet and your personality is so fun. i hope that you have many great days in the future and you can always talk to me whenever you need to. let me know if you want a distraction from anything or if you just want to rant, i will be here. ily!

@krasivayadarling my lovely ant! i am so very glad that i built up the courage to say hi to you when you made that post saying you wanted to be friends with new people. you are one of the best people i’ve ever met and you are so sweet, kind, talented, funny, and supportive. i am also so grateful for your support in my fics. you were my first ever supporter and i was really nervous for someone to read my works but you were so nice about it and i love that. i wish you all the best. ily, ant! sincerely, soap.

@whatthefuckimbisexual the loveliest persephone, you are such a bad bitch. JSJS NO BUT SRSLY ILYSM. you are such a fun person and i love how we can relate to each other a lot. i mean, staying up til 3 am and fuck aral pan yk? ejekdj. i really wish you the best in everything and i hope that we can interact more! you are truly one of the most fun and energetic people i’ve ever met and you are so very sweet and funny. thank you for being a great person! all the love <3

@falconxbarnes maddie! you add such a sweet and great person and when you reblog and like my posts, my heart fills with joy! your blog brings me so much comfort and i love our short little conversations. you remind me of going out at 5 am when the sun is almost out. the joy is always evident when that happens just like how i feel when i talk to you! i wish to eat pancit canton with you one day! i really wish you the best in everything and you deserve so many good things. mwah!

@amourtentiaa liane! you are literally so talented and it amazes me every time i read your works. you are so fun and chill and seeing your name always makes me happy! your blog page is filled with so much comfort in my opinion and our first conversation ever was so fun and you are so polite. you also really remind me of the night. i can’t explain why but like i said, you are chill and brings me a lot of comfort! i really love the way you interact with others as you are so kind. i hope you are doing well and always will feel well. ily, yannie!

@puntuations oh my gosh, ysa! you followed me first and i didn’t exactly understand why because you seemed too cool and mature for me djdj. but i am so glad you did and i am so grateful that you’re my friend. thank you for tagging me in dps related things! i really love that and it brings me so much joy. you were always so kind to me no matter what and you are so respectful. i appreciate you and your blog always makes me smile. thank you for being an amazing friend. ilysm, ysa. mwah!

@tofeeltaller joy! you bring me so much joy! sjdndjdn sorry, i had to. you are so so sweet and kind. i was always so scared to interact with dps blogs because they seemed intimidating but so nice at the same time (idk why i’m sorrydhjd), i thought y’all were too cool for me and i didn’t know how to approach you guys but after i got the courage to talk to you, i felt a lot more comfortable. you are so sweet and kind and you deserve so much more blessings. you truly are an amazing person and i hope that your days will get better and better. giving you so many warm hugs and kisses, mwah!

@lolremuslupin dkndkx omg you are so sweet! i don’t interact with you much but we do talk sometimes. i am also very glad that i decided to pm you to try and make new friends and you were so kind about it. you are such an amazing person and i love staying up at 3 am talking to you about random crap. i wish that your life will go well and that you are always safe! warm hugs!

@punkrific soaf, my twin! i really love talking to you and your energy is always so great. you are an amazing and fun person and having a twin like you always makes me feel like the luckiest ever. i am so so grateful to have you as a friend and your dashing personality always gets me. ilysm and i wish you the best! love, the ugly sofia <3

@freddieweasleyswife sweets! i’ve never met someone as sweet and kind as you are. you’re an amazing person and you deserve so much and you are so talented. i wish to write like you one day. my day is always better when I see your name in my notifications being friends with someone as amazing as you are is so great and i wosh to interact with you more. i miss talking to you and you’re always so kind and ready to comfort anyone. ilysm and you deserve the world. sincerely, sweetpea. <3

@sam-winchester-is-my-bitch rae! i love talking to you and seeing your pets! you are so kind, sweet and understanding and you really know how to make me smile. whenever i talk to you, it’s always so wholesome and nice and you give off so much good vibes. you really are like the color yellow to me, sunny, nice, but can be serious at times. but is always ready to cheer someone up. i wish you the best in everything and i hope that we can talk more! all the love <3

@daltonacademia kendi! i know you’re on a short hiatus at the moment but i just had to add you in here. i really hope that you are doing well and i hope you know that your writing is literally one of the best that i’ve ever read. you are so sweet and kind and you always have that little fun and sunny personality and i love talking to you so much. you are so respectful and you deserve so much. i’m sending you all the love and comfort. you are amazing and i hope you know that. stay safe, kendi! i really love that nicknamejsjs

@thatswhywilliamagedlikesourmilk dear! i am so glad that you followed my page and i am so so grateful that i’m friends with you. you are one of the best people ever and you are so so sweet. the most adorable person ever! talking to you feels like hugging a teddy bear and i am aware that that doesn’t make much sense but it just feels so comfy and brings me joy. i really hope that you’re doing well because you also deserve everything! sending you so many hugs <3 mwah!

@fredweasleyismyloverman alex, my dear! you are so kind and nice! i’m really glad i followed you. just a little fun fact, i actually found you through ant or @krasivayadarling . i was reading through some people who she gave ships to and i saw yours and i was like “oh my gosh, this person and i are literally the same.” and i went crazy because it looked almost exactly the same as my description hdjdjd. i’m actually not that sure if it went like that but that’s how i recalled it so i just always remember thatsbns. i literally relate to you so much and your shitposts give me life. you are so wise and amazing and i would love to talk to you more! ily, dear! mwah <3

@daisyyy2516 daze, dear! i am so happy that sab led ke to your page! literally, you are so damn talented and i just cannot i am always so amazed every time you show your works. you are so kind and sweet and such an icon. you bring me so much joy and everything you’ve ever said to me has always been something sweet and funny. ilysm and you deserve the world. i’d like if you dm’ed me once you’ve gotten your work displayed at some huge art exhibition. you are so amazing and i want you to know that. everything will be better. i appreciate you and i am so glad that you are in this world. i love you sm, daze. frd weasley loves you too. all the love and joy, soaf.

@sirlorelai lorie!! you are so nice and kind and sweet. i’m very glad that you weren’t angry at me spam reblogging your postsjsjd. i love our conversations and i wish we could talk more! you are such a kind and funny person and everything you’ve ever done has put a smile to my face. you are so fun and energetic and i love that. i hope that life is going well over there and that everything will be better if it isn’t at the moment. you deserve so much and ilysm, mwah!

@quadrupledeckertaco lorelei, dear! i miss talking to you! i really love our conversations and your soft but fierce personality is so great and it brings me so much joy. your writing is literally so amazing and like i said, i aspire to write like you one day. i miss you so much and i really hope that everything’s well. i wish you the best and sending you so much love, sofia. <3

and to all my other mutuals! thank you! i love all of you so much and interacting with all of you brings me so much joy. thank you for everything. have a great day everyone!

[kiseiakhun]

Anon did not ask me but I'm going to give my unasked for opinion anyway. Okay, so, what are you getting out of the attention and comments? What is it doing for you? That's not a rhetorical question, btw, I'm being serious. What do you get out of your fic "doing well"? What's the most important part to you?

For me, I liked watching Number Go Up because it made me feel important and worthwhile and that people wanted to hear what I had to say. It was the sense of community that made it worth it to me. It's easy for me to write about any niche thing if I know that at least one other person is also going to appreciate it. Attention and validation from my friends matters more than attention and validation from strangers I've never talked to. As soon as I became friends with people who are also into the exact things I'm into, and were genuinely enthusiastic about my ideas even if we didn't have the same blorbos, writing niche fics became easy.

I also like writing rarepairs as a challenge to myself. I'm still chuffed that my Garth/Roy fic has over 1k hits because I expected to get like, 400 at most. It stokes my ego to think that I'm so good people will read about ships and characters they normally wouldn't read for 😌 hell yeah, I'm just that good.

That's what worked for me, though. You might want something else out of the attention. Is it a community to belong to? Do you want to see people earnestly discuss your ideas? Do you just like watching Number Go Up? If it's the last one, unfortunately, there's really nothing to do for it except to write for the most popular fandom in the most popular pairing. For most people, though, there's usually a deeper reason beyond just wanting attention. Why do you want the attention? What does it do for you? What unfulfilled need is it filling? Do you want other people to get excited about your ideas? Are you lonely? Maybe you need a fic cheerleader to hype you up. Maybe you need to join a discord channel for the thing you're interested in. Maybe you need to start a new sideblog and make funny shitposts so you have people in your notes constantly telling you you're funny.

Wanting attention isn't a bad thing. And it can feel awful to post something and feel like you're screaming into the void, that you put all that time and effort into a fic only to be answered with crickets. I don't think it's a bad thing to want attention and validation for all the hard work you've put into something. Writing is hard, and it's crushing to think that you've worked so hard on something only to be answered by silence.

But it's the same as with other stories. Those designed for wider appeal become more popular, but they're more depersonalized. People don't attach to it as hard because there's a thousand stories just like that for them to read. Stories designed to appeal to a specific niche do less numbers, but the people who appreciate them tend to appreciate them more. Writing for a smaller audience makes what you write more special, because there's less stories to sort through. Like, yeah, two cakes and all, but for smaller fandoms it's like... you're craving cake. You want cake so bad, you're craving it so much, you would literally kill someone if it means having a cake, but you live in a small town with no bakery and there's no cake in sight. And then you, the writer, comes in like the cake fairy and bestows one slice of cake like upon the ravenous populace and they fall to your knees and worship you as a god. Because they want cake so bad. Two cakes is like the height of indulgence. They don't even get one cake.

I don't worry too much about my stories being unpalatable and not appealing to everyone, because I've had those times where I've read a story, fanfic or otherwise, and is like the author reached into my chest and wrung out my soul like a soggy dish sponge. Like they just get it. They put words to things that I've never even thought to spell out before, that I never thought someone else would understand. The fics that do this are rarely the popular ones. They're dirty and raw and personal in a way that doesn't give them mass appeal, because the more personal and authentic you get, the less people will relate to you. For those who do relate, though, it feels like a metaphorical lightning strike. It feels like they're stuck underwater and suddenly suck in a breath of fresh air. Those are the stories I remember. They're the ones that stick with me for years and years to come, through many fandoms and many birthdays. I want to be that moment for someone. I want them to read my words and feel seen in a way they've never felt seen before.

That's why I think you should write for less popular characters, less popular tropes, less popular pairings. You could be that moment for someone.

I saw another ask where you encouraged someone nervous about writing non-Batfam fic to “Be unhinged. Be horny for your own writing.” Not to be a dumbass on main, but how do you do that? How do you replace self-doubt for your writing with horniness about your writing/ideas?

Signed,

Someone who keeps getting fic ideas for other DC characters but can’t stop thinking about how much better the fic would perform if only they changed the idea to focus on [Batfam character]

I think, in all honesty, that the only way to do that is to stop giving a fuck. And by this I mean that you need to stop caring about what you think others want to read. If you're using your free time, your energy and craftsmanship, to write a story, then god fucking damn it, you better make sure it is something YOU like, YOU wanna write and YOU wanna read.

DO NOT do it thinking of others. Be selfish about it. It's your own hard work and no one's entitled to it. You deserve to enjoy the product of your work. You deserve to write something YOU like despite what you think others will like.

You are only killing your own potential by focusing on things like "what's more popular" or "what will do better in fandom". You're going to end up with stuff you don't like and stuff that does not reflect who you are as writer. You're selling away your identity and for what? A chip and an acorn?

I know I've said this before but I gotta repeat it, readers are FICKLE. THEY COME AND GO. If you tie yourself to them and your worth as writer to them, then you will be fucking miserable more often than not. It is NOT worth it and it is a surefire way to kill your own passion and love for writing.

You honestly need to learn to let go of that need to impress and please others, you need to be selfish and say okay, here's what I really wanna do and I will do it!!! And guess what! That thing you end up doing? It's going to be so honest and raw and fucking sexy that it will make you feel truly accomplished.

Fuck, some of my personal favorite fics are the ones I wrote because I wanted to, and I did not care about popularity or readers when I wrote them using a second person pov, or when I didn't include ships, or when I used tropes that aren't as appreciated.

Because at the end of the day, I want my writing and my hard work to be meaningful to me. Life's too short and bitter to try and cater to everyone all the time. I don't have the patience or time for that. I do not care about that.

And also, you're doing yourself and your writing a disservice by restraining yourself in this way. You're not giving yourself room for growth.

Stories deserve to be told even if you think no one will read them. Because guess what? You're wrong. Someone will. And someone will thank you for it. And that someone may as well be yourself, because you also deserve to have something that's catered to your tastes.

[cinnaminsvga]

zee if you want to sh*tpost (literally and figuratively sorry i'll take my joke and leave) you can! if you want to post nothing but that 24/7 then good for you (wait does tumblr still have post limit) good for me too cause idk i love your brain honestly.

if you got nothing to post that's okay too! whatever works for you...

but can i ask what is a shit post in your drafts that you'll be willing to share now? (i have like 78 drafts (cause i delete them after a bit) all random rambling or sh*tposts lmao)

i mean to be fair, i already don't post anything so i've already got that one down HAHAHHA but yea i've honestly been shitposting more on twitter bc i have less followers there and i feel?? less intimidated versus doing it here where there is a Large Number of People who could potentially see my shitposts but yeah :D i think i will be posting my shitposts here (including my shit-related stories) more often!!

and yeah i've shared a few shitposts a couple days ago, and i gotta say... i have like 500 drafts and i'd say they're like 60% nonsense, 20% old fic drafts, and 20% actual shitposts so i'll share like... this snippet of a discontinued fwb shitpost au that never saw the light of day enjoy (it's kinda nsfw but yea... it's dumb)

(basic plot is that yoongi and y/n are childhood best friends turned fwbs but!! add a large heaping spoonful of mutual pining and miscommunication and you get this >:D anyway this is the scene near the end where y/n is trying to confess but yoongi is mad bc he has a dick rash from too much sex lol)

“Yoongi, are you awake?”

The man in question lets out a soft grumble, his eyes still clenched shut even when he responds. “Wish I wasn’t. Why? If you’re gonna ask me if we can fuck, I’m going to strangle you.”

You squawk indignantly, pinching his underarm fat in retaliation. “Hey! I don’t always ask for sex.”

Yoongi snorts. “Well, say that to the rash on my fucking dick. Which, by the way, is entirely the reason I can’t sleep right now.”

You roll your eyes. “Stop overreacting, you big baby.”

At your taunt, Yoongi’s eyes shoot open. “What the fuck?!” he growls, shoving your shoulder. “You saw how it looked like! It looked like a squirrel nibbled on my cock like it was a fucking churro."

You level him with deadpan stare. "What do you mean? It already looked like that before the dick rash happened."

Not deigning your with a response, Yoongi shifts an inch away from you, turning over with a loud huff. "Go back to sleep, Y/N."

"Yoongi, come back," you whine, shaking him by the shoulders. "This is actually really important. I think I've had an epiphany."

"Really? I didn't think that could happen. Aren't you required to, like, have a functioning neural system for that?" Yoongi drones, voice dripping with exhaustion. You honestly feel kind of bad for annoying him when he clearly just wants to go to bed, but you needed to talk to him before your caffeine-induced confidence ebbs away.

"Yoongi, please. I'm not kidding."

Yoongi yawns, snuggling deeper into his blanket. "So am I. We can talk when it's not deadass o' clock, okay? Sweet dreams, Y/N."

There's a beat of silence. You wait to hear if Yoongi's breath to deepen, but it doesn't come. You count to ten in your head slowly, before releasing a sigh filled with so much melancholic emotion that it surely could have landed you an Oscar nomination. Or at the very least, it gave you Yoongi's attention.

With a resigned sigh of his own, Yoongi rolls over to face you, his bedhead momentarily blinding him (but not protecting him from the foul stench of your morning breath). He brushes his bangs away and is greeted by the sight of your normally cheerful face scrunched up in worry. “Oh. Are you being serious right now?”

“I’m always serious,” you scoff. “I’m so serious that business majors probably get wet dreams about me.” You pause, thinking. “Or something like that. I don’t actually know what business majors do and I’m too afraid to ask at this point.”

“Y/N, we are literally sleeping on your Dora the Explorer bedsheets that you got for sale at a garage sale two years ago. This is the farthest thing from anything serious."

"Okay, no need to be project your dick rash rage onto Dora and Diego," you huff.

"I DO NOT HAVE DICK RASH RAGE?" he seethes.

"Spoken like a true dick rash rager," you respond calmly, further aggravating him. "Listen, I am trying to be serious here and you're honestly making it very hard right now—"

"Sorry," he says, sounding somewhat genuinely remorseful.

"—which is suboptimal, considering your dick is very much out of commission right now—"

"ALRIGHT ASSHOLE I AM GOING BACK TO SLEEP!" Yoongi threatens to turn over once more, but not before you can sling him back towards you until your noses were just barely touching.

“Yoongi, you know that I value your honesty very much—”

“What the fuck,” Yoongi interrupts. He levels you with an incredulous stare, his eyebrows arching comically. “No? You don’t? You literally tell me to shut up every time I tell you that your shoes are fugly as hell.”

“Those are my Crocs® and I would greatly appreciate it if you would keep your unsolicited opinions to yourself,” you counter. “But this time, I actually need your opinion on something so you’re free to be as brutally honest as you’d like.”

“Ah yes, my favorite pastime... Being a dickhead, but consensually,” Yoongi drawls.

[pro-bee]

Houses aren’t the only things in need of fixing

(this went from a 1am shitpost to an actual fic. This was not the story I meant to write this week, but it is the one we need, apparently.)

Paris is everything they ever wanted. It is an absolute dream.

But it is not home.

With the passing months, she feels the pang, even as she strolls along the Seine and sips her coffee at their favourite cafés and walks her daughter hand-in-hand to school every morning and exchanges polite Comment allez-vous aujourd’hui Ziva? / Bien merci, et vous? with the other parents on her way out the door.

It was inevitable, then, that she and Tony find themselves packing up their beloved French pied-à-terre once summer rolls around, and crossing the Atlantic once again, for good, to return to their home, their actual home, in DC.

They are every bit the HGTV cliché as they begin house-hunting in the city, until they finally settle on a brownstone with just enough of a backyard to seem like a novelty to Parisian-apartment-raised Tali, but tall enough hedges for Ziva to feel safe. 

(Part of her craves the anonymity of living in the middle of a chaotic city. The other part of her wants to move to a farmhouse in the middle of the country where their only neighbours are miles away and they can remain forever cocooned. These thoughts she knows she must temper every day.)

The townhouse is close enough to the bustle for all of them to get their walkable-city fix after living abroad for so long, but gives them just that much more breathing room to relax into their new surroundings.

It just fits.

One day, just after they move in, every room still covered in boxes, Gibbs stops by to check in. (He's determined to make a better effort of this. So is she.)

"Nice place you got here."

"Thanks. We fell in love with the neighbourhood as soon as we found it. The houses have so much character. Tali’s new school is great.” 

He's looking up at the crown mouldings, faint cracks visible in patches.

"Bit of a fixer-upper."

She notices his stare.

"Oh, yes, that. The inspection said the bones were good, mostly, but it needed a little ABC."

He squints for a second, but then he realizes what she meant and chuckles.

She doesn't know what is so funny, but she's long since learned to press on.

"A lot of it is just cosmetic. But we do have some projects on our hands. The kitchen has not been touched since the eighties, but is functional for the moment. The bathroom upstairs is a gut job. And Tony wants to refinish the basement to turn it into his dream home theatre." She rolls her eyes at that last point, but her lips turn upward in a familiar smile. "We are going to look for contractors once we settle in."

He gives the moulding another glance before they move on to work and friends and milestones. (They do this now. Again.)

The following Saturday, Gibbs shows up at their house at 8am, coffee in one hand, and toolbox in the other. To say Ziva is confused when she answers the door is an understatement, her puzzled expression asking the question for her. He sidesteps around her as he pushes through the entrance, past the staircase, heading left towards the living room. 

"You're better off getting some of this stuff out of the way first. Otherwise you're just gonna have to pack everything back up when you start renovating."

"What are you talking about?"

"The mouldings are a quick fix. Just gotta patch 'em up and repaint. The bathroom, it's a pain, but it's small, and once we tear it all down, I should be able to get that redone pretty quickly. The kitchen is a bigger job, we might need to get someone in for that one. The basement shouldn't be too hard, if DiNozzo helps to take down the old drywall and insulate it so he doesn't complain about freezing when he's watching those Super Galactic Revenger movies."

Tali, still clad in her pajamas, abandons her cartoons and comes to greet them, curious about the commotion, and about the older man her parents both seem to know so well, even though he is a stranger to her.

“Hey, Tali, wanna give me a hand? You can help me bring some of this stuff in from my truck.”

The girl doesn’t need to be told twice. She makes a beeline out the open door, barefoot and all frenetic energy, excited at being given a task in this strange affair.

Ziva tries to call out to Tali to come back and put her shoes on, except she doesn’t even know what is happening herself.

“Gibbs, you cannot be serious. I would not dream of asking you to... renovate our home,” she manages to finally stammer out, unsure of what she could possibly say.

“You didn’t ask. I’m offering.”

“Gibbs,” she softens, touched at the gesture but overwhelmed at the magnitude of it, “it is too much work. And you already have a full-time job.”

“Yeah, and I bet I could still get it done faster than some of those bozos out there who do this for a living. At least you’ll know it’ll get done right. Besides, I’ll have help.” He flashes a conspiratorial grin to Tali, who has by now returned with a bucket of paint brushes, and she giggles in response, instantly in favour of whatever is going on here. (Maybe leaving everything she knew and coming here wasn’t so bad after all.)

Ziva presses her lips together, words failing her, but that doesn’t matter, because her mentor is a man of few words himself. He meets her gaze and he nods at her, silently pleading with her to let him do this for her, for them. To let him take care of them. 

“Old houses like this, they’re beautiful. They’ve got stories to tell. But they got scars that need to heal too, only they can’t do it on their own. So that’s where we come in, fixing what needs to be fixed and bringing them back to their former glory, better than ever for their next chapter. New memories.”

She understands him completely.

“Thank you.”

It hardly seems sufficient. Yet it is everything.

He smiles at her, one of those ones that makes his eyes crinkle and give her a glimpse of the boyish charm she knew he must have possessed before he lost his way. (Like she had, she supposes.)

“We’re gonna do these mouldings first to get them out of the way. After that I’m gonna take measurements in the bathroom so we can figure out what we’re dealing with, and take it from there.” 

He returns the next day with even more coffee, and a child-sized belt with miniature tools for Tali, along with rough sketches of their plan for the bathroom.

And this is how, over the course of the following months, Gibbs becomes a fixture in their home, quickly earning the respect of his pint-sized apprentice who spends hours at a time observing him work, even in silence. 

(For anyone who has met the youngest DiNozzo, they know keeping her quiet is perhaps the biggest feat of them all.) 

Together on their upturned crates, they sit and work and sip on their juice boxes (the harder stuff will have to wait), as the house becomes a home.

For all of them.

[forehead-enthusiast]

Dream Team

genre: short agent!au with noren!!!!! basically just a convo i had with @floral-jaemin

a/n: these pics were vvv adorable and inspiring, so here’s one of those bullet point shitposts about it (i really don’t know if this counts as fic,,,, it probably doesn’t but what else am i gonna call it????)

ok so OBV renjun is the tech-y guy, surveillance, hacker, you feel me

jeno’s the less than smooth field operative

he causes much stress for renjun, who is just screaming into his ear piece constantly

he’s a little too soft for this line of work, and often ends up whacking henchmen with the back of his gun because, “Renjun, they’re just following ORDERS!!”

“Jeno, you moron, they’re SHOOTING at you!!!!!!!”

“STILL!!!! I BET WE COULD BE FRIENDS IF HE WASN’T WORKING FOR THIS GUY!!”

when jeno has to try and seduce someone to get information, renjun tries to hiss instructions into his ear and makes the somewhat competent jeno into a complete wreck with his awful advice

“JenopretendtonotevencareIreadonlinethatwomenlikeitmorewhenyoudon’tcareareyoulisteningtomeJenoareyoupayingattentiongivemeasignalifyou’relistening”

“RENJUN, SHUT UP- oh no wait no please come back ma’am please don’t call your boss oh shi-”

cut to Jeno sprinting away as henchmen bust in

renjun’s good with tech, but needs to realize jeno would do a lot better, maybe even do well, if he let him be in these kinds of situations

honestly I’m smiling just thinking of jeno refusing to kill anybody

anyway he finally gets to the big boss, and he’s all serious and all business but the boss’s got the classic villain cat and immediately jeno is like awwwwwwACHOO

he scoops up the cat in one arm and defeats the big bad with one hand (and the help of renjun making it there just in time)

I mean can’t you just see jeno on the ground, big boss above him after a long fight with a gun pointed down on him, until a laptop is slammed on his head from behind by ya boi renjun

who ran to save jeno because even though he’s an idiot who could’ve done this alone if he hadn’t picked up that freaking cAT

they’re FRIENDS dammit

renjun, huffing: “you KNOW…… I’m not cut out………. for FIELD WORK……… never make me do this again…..”

meanwhile jeno’s all bloodied and bruised, still clutching the cat (probably sneezing) with a giant eye smile on his face

“no promises, partner”

[gffa]

I've been thinking about a couple of your posts, about how the Jedi's real problem was PR, and what if one of them (Obi-Wan) realised it and set about changing peoples hearts and minds? Like, he sets it up so reporters that he knows and is friends with (because Obi-Wan has friends everywhere) get to report on things Jedi have done, or arranges for like a documentary series or just reporters doing some war reporting while accompanying the Jedi and Clones.

I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT THIS.  I love love love @forcearama‘s Jedi Docu-series so much and if someone wants to write approximately a dozen fics on it, I will read them all and flail happily about them! And I’m probably going to give you way too serious of an answer for what should have been a ridiculous shitposting answer!  Yet the heart wants what it wants, so bear with me as I take Star Wars way too seriously again.  ;)But there are three reasons why this would have been an uphill battle, even if someone like Obi-Wan were to say, “You know what?  Let’s stop trusting that our actions and our history will speak for itself, because people are terrible and believe propaganda way too easily, so let’s get on this PR thing.”One – they already do some of this, to some degree.  I immediate thought of the Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu comic, when a local scumbag set himself up as a Jedi because the planet was facing a plague and he wanted to sucker people out of their money.  Mace and Cyslin Myr are there to figure out what happened to their missing Jedi and to assess the situation.  Part of what the Jedi have already been doing on this planet is:

We see that temple in the background, it’s no small undertaking (though, hardly ostentatious, either):

They already set up outreach temples at places that need them, I’m pretty sure it’s not a huge leap to think that they would have such a thing on Coruscant as well, if people wanted to ask about them or get spiritual/emotional aid from them.But, probably more importantly, two – people didn’t really understand the Jedi and probably would have had a very difficult time understanding their intrinsic motivations (versus what so, so many people assume are extrinsic motivations).Drooz says it plainly:

He cannot fathom that the Jedi wouldn’t take advantage of their abilities for their own profit and power.  He does so in their name and people buy into it so very easily (all the more so because they’re desperate and there’s no way to solve this plague they’re suffering from, other than what’s already being done), because people don’t really get the Jedi.It’s a them in the Age of Republic: Qui-Gon Jinn #1 as well:

People don’t really get the Force or why the Jedi follow it, there’s an element of something entirely unexplainable about it, why it’s not just a power that allows them to do these miraculous physical feats or even to sense the emotions of the people around them.The Force is so, so much bigger than that, it’s the connections between all life and death, it’s how they see the world, it’s how their minds connect to everything around them.People of the GFFA don’t really get that (and let me mourn how little worldbuilding there is for the Jedi even in fandom, where this kind of thing should be rife, but there’s almost nothing that explores what that kind of psychic ability means to them, how it changes the way they interact with the world–it’s not surprising that the people in-universe don’t really get the Force, even when they witness it firsthand over and over, if us nerds don’t explore what the Force means for someone who connects to it, how George Lucas laid out what the Force is and how it’s used) and I’m not sure they really wanted to.  Not in a galaxy that was willing to vote to buy more people to fight their war for them, so they didn’t have to fight for themselves.And three – the Jedi were exhausted.  Mace says even as far back as Attack of the Clones, “Our ability to use the Force is diminished.”  And Geonosis REALLY fucked them over, for all that it’s not necessarily made a huge deal of in canon (because suddenly there were twenty new tire fires to be put out that had priority), A LOT of Jedi died there.

And this is at the beginning of the war!  They’re still reeling from losing more Jedi than they probably have in centuries, they’re being faced with two really shitty options and try to choose the better path (because they can’t just let more people die, which is exactly what would have happened if they hadn’t joined the war) and it’s only going to get worse and worse with every day.The Jedi are a religion/culture that had faith in the Force, they believed that their faith in things working out would be rewarded (and I tend to believe it would have, had Anakin not literally gone against the path the Force set out for him, that George Lucas literally said he was going against what was Fate, what was natural in ROTS), so they knew that their PR wasn’t great, but they believed their faith in the Republic would be returned.  (Spoiler alert: Holy shit, was it not returned.)The problem is that the Jedi were busy putting out twenty tire fires EVERY SINGLE DAY, while more and more of them died and that meant there were less and less of them to help, as well as they were exhausted and the Force was darkened and their guiding light was diminished because of it, and the war was only supposed to be a brief thing.  It wasn’t supposed to last years!  And they believed that people would be able to see the truth.By the time they would have really needed a documentary series, they would have had to fight back against all of the above and that’s even WITHOUT factoring Palpatine into things, who was a master at propaganda!It’s not an impossible task and I firmly believe that, with a little more breathing room, the Jedi could have worked this out, that they almost did work it out, until Anakin fucked it up for everyone by allowing Palpatine to live/killing Mace, against what the Force and Fate was trying to ask of him, (also, see: @stonefreeak‘s Supreme Chancellor Kenobi fic series for an excellent exploration of how the Jedi might have gotten five minutes to just breathe and enough elbow room to actually make a difference in an incredibly believable way!), but so much of what we’re able to pinpoint as the problem (ie, that the Jedi had terrible PR) comes with hindsight and an omniscient pov of the story.The Jedi had far more roadblocks to overcome and much, much bigger problems to tackle and reasons why it would not have been all that easy.  Given how, every time I look around at the political landscape today and despair about what people will believe, I’m not sure how easy it would be to change the minds of people within a fictional world, either.

[haljathefangirlcat]

still thinking about that “we Have To Talk about how quips are ruining fandom by destroying meta and turning all fic into shitposts” post @ms-demeanor wrote a great rebuttal to, and about the other posts she wrote about it and about the You’re Doing Fandom Wrong attitude in it, and about the notes on those posts. not gonna reblog or reply to any of those because my thoughts are admittedly kind of random and jumping from place to place and probably OT to the point of the discussion, but you know. still thinking.

so, uh. not trying to start wank or anything but enjoy the ranting that got way out of hand under the cut.

so, like... that one “we can’t just block everyone who quips and shitposts because some of these people also write actual meta but then they unfortunately go back to Not Engaging With Canon by writing quippy shitpost-y stuff” line, or however it was actually phrased? besides the blatant entitlement with the “you have to fandom ONLY in ways I like, I can’t just engage with the part of the content you create that I’m interested in and scroll past the rest” thing (which kinda reminds me of the whole “you can’t CNTW on some of your fics, I should be able to read ALL of your fics” thing, in a way) and the ”I refuse to curate my fandom experience and I’ll make it some stranger’s problem” thing (which... reminds me of a few other things, but tbf it has probably been around since the very first days of fandom), what if someone doesn’t even see meta and quips/shitposts as fundamentally different and mutually exclusive approaches to fandom? what if they see them as just two ways to be interested in a specific fandom and interact with it, and maybe even closely linked together, so going from one to another is actually very, very easy for them? hell, what if they (gasp!) even mix quips and meta together sometimes?

I have a few posts about what I think Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese might have been doing with mythological references and themes in Dark, and about what I got from the series finale. some are meme-like, phrased in a joking tone, probably even shitpost-y? another one is literally just a gifset plus me having intense Feels in the tags, and the last one is an edit of the kind I’ve seen people complain about as “those cringey unoriginal tumblr aesthetics that all look the same” in at least a couple of occasions. does that automatically mean I only wanted to “win” at fandom (with my hard-earned prize being... a handful of notes in a fandom that’s not even that big compared to others) and that I haven’t actually spent probably way too much time thinking about the significance of Martha’s Ariadne play as a commentary on character interactions/plot/narrative themes (and honestly still do from time to time), or that I don’t occasionally read the captions under other people’s gifsets and suddenly feel very much enlightened about why the Ariadne play mentions the myth of the Flood of all things? that I didn’t start reading posts and comments and reviews and theories about the series finale as soon as I finished watching it? that, just because I didn’t write 10K+ words of Perfectly Serious Seriousness about all that stuff, I simply refused to Engage With The Text? 

... and if I said that I feel a little irrationally self-conscious at the idea of writing down all of my (often rambling, sometimes jumbled) thoughts about a series that to me actually does feel very deep and complex, so adding memes and humor to that or finding different means to put my ideas out there makes me feel more comfortable expressing myself while also taking off the (admittedly made-up) pressure of having to write a whole coherent essay where I have to find a clear and explicit way to explain where every single thought comes from and how it leads to the next like I’m gonna get graded on it? or that a lot of those thoughts stem from memories of spending five years of high school translating and analysing ancient Greek poetry and reading and watching and discussing every available interpretation and reinterpretation of it from Nietzsche to Vernant to Dürrenmatt to Christa Wolf to Pasolini to a lot of others and from certain things in Dark violently hurtling me back to those times without even asking for permission, so a part of my self-consciousness is actually “I probably don’t actually know/remember enough about this to base a whole in-depth analysis on it even though I do think there’s something there” and another part is “shit I’m too lazy to dig through all of my old textbooks and homework and additional readings to hunt for the thing I feel the desperate need to reference or figure out who might have said it, so no extended explanation here either”? I guess in the end it would all boil down to “there’s an amount of effort and physical and mental energy I’m willing to put into fandom but I also have limits to stop something that makes me feel happy from becoming a chore”, which. considering the whole “you have to put all your resources into constantly pouring out 100% serious meta and nothing else because that’s what I like, no deviations allowed” thing? yeah, I can see saying stuff like that would still make me a blight upon fandom. and/or Not Engaging.

which, I realize, it’s a thing I keep coming back to. but that’s because I really, really, really hate it? seriously, what even counts as Engaging With The Text correctly? not shitposts, and not quips either, apparently. Regardless of the fact that humor and crack have existed in fandom since forever and that it’s actually not uncommon AT ALL for them to be born out of looking at canon from different angles, pointing out whatever the fan in question finds surreal/strange/implausible/convoluted/awkward/just kinda funny about it. 

also, not canon divergence/what if fics motivated not by a desire to “fix” something that made us feel bad when it happened in canon but by a desire to actually fix what we felt was objectively a poor writing choice from the author, because we shouldn’t Engage by analysing the text to criticize it or to think over how and why certain aspects of it don’t work for us or how we think the structure of the text itself could be modified or even improved, we should Engage by... writing meta and/or writing canon-compliant fics with perhaps a little allowance for slightly-to-the-left-of-canon-compliant missing moments fics, I guess? 

from what I’ve gathered from reading other fandom discussion some time ago, AUs are also out, especially Modern/No Powers AUs, because those are always just an excuse to slap your fave’s name on your OC/disguise your original fiction as fanfic to get comments/ignore all that’s interesting about canon to write yet another dumb syrupy high school or coffee shop AU, even if I’m honestly not sure what kind of AUs people are even reading to never get to the “there’s no supernatural threat so let’s focus entirely on the fucked-up family dynamics and blatant mental issues in a world where you can’t just ignore them by marrying off your daughter or sending your son to be someone’s squire” AUs or the “this is pretty much what happens in canon but adding new dimensions and different outlooks on the themes by moving everything to a new context” AUs. seriously, I could rec you a pretty great “this guy would be a horrible father and treat his children horribly in any world, it’s not just the feudal society around him, it’s him as a person” AU and that’s literally just the first thing that came to my mind. but, hey, maybe Engaging is only engaging with the canon plot and setting and nothing else, what do I know.

... fuck, thinking about it, I’m not even sure if by “not shitpost and not quips” I should even mean humor/crack? because it’s not like the OP was clear about it in any way? maybe it’s just all that’s weird and tropey and not-canon-compliant? I can see the “everybody gathers in the main character’s stuff to smoke weed and weird shit happens” fic I got a chuckle out of some time ago being one of the dreaded tumblr-born shitpost fics that are supposedly ruining fandom by ensuring that fans stop thinking (?), but what about the “everything is the same but this one character is a catboy, not for any particular reason but just because” fic I’m currently following and loving? people have been joking and shitposting about catboys a lot on tumblr lately (I distinctly remember that the last catboy joke to pop up on my dash was the “I’m your catboy gf and I’m stuck in a wall” one...) and finding an always-a-catboy!AU initially got an amused smile out of me, so is the mere premise enough to make the fic just a joke/just taking a trope and running off with it/just part of a shallow trend? even when the author literally goes “oh shit just realized this is all a metaphor for neuodivergence and masking” in the story notes? unless writing a character who’s never explicitly stated to be neurodivergent in canon as a being literally or metaphorically neurodivergent in your fic is always shallow projecting or posturing issuefic... instead of, y’know, looking closely at the text and Engaging with it by interpreting it that way....

I feel all this ranting/venting might end up plunging into Why We Slash discussion territory now, so I better stop here.

anyway, in short, good to know I’ve been in fandom for years yet I’ve always been just a Fake Fan who Can’t Think and is constantly Doing It Wrong (by Not Being Transformative Enough, possibly). gonna do my best to stay exactly like that in the future <3

[canon-rivamika]

Fuel to the Rivamika fire - A Rivamika shitpost 🔥

Shipping Rivamika has been a journey with ups and downs, but definitely a lot more ups than downs. Looking back, I can’t help but feel like Isayama has been constantly blessing us with huge motivators to ship our OTP. So I’m going to list 8 big things Isayama has done for our ship ever since it started out as a small crack ship. You could say this is a Rivamika timeline in a nutshell to remind you why shipping Rivamika is so amazing!

⛽ 🔥 Chapter 30

Before this chapter, people crack-shipped Levi and Mikasa because of their parallels as the strongest soldiers in their group, because of Mikasa’s initial animosity towards him (ahh, love-hate relationships are the best) and because they were the most popular male and female characters in SNK respectively. One day, Isayama decided to dish out some fanservice by making these interact and fight together as well as having Levi keep Mikasa from harm’s way not once but twice. I’ve lost count of how many shipping tropes I spotted in this chapter alone, but oh did they kickstart our ship in the best way imaginable?!

⛽ 🔥🔥 The first databook & Chapter 37

Levi worried about Mikasa as much as Eren. This one came as a surprise to the (still few and far between) Rivamika shippers of that time, since Levi’s relationship with Eren was much more developed than his relationship with Mikasa. It seemed like Isayama put this detail in out of nowhere, since Levi’s only real interaction with Mikasa besides chapter 30 was during Eren’s trial and when he saved EMA at the end of the Trost Arc.

But then we remembered the databook came out AFTER chapter 37 was released... And it all started to make sense! Yet, it still seemed that Isayama wanted us to know there was something else going on with these two. What if Levi knew something else about Mikasa? Fuel to the fire.

⛽ 🔥🔥🔥 The Uprising Arc

The Female Titan and Clash of the Titans arcs came and went by and the only conclusion we got to the developments of chapter 30 were MIkasa’s acknowledgement of Levi’s abilities, her regret for indirectly causing his leg injury and her promise to keep her emotions in check and not making a blunder again. Rivamika shippers were satisfied with that, because for a crack ship that was more than enough material and development. Most of the Rivamika fics from that time started from that point in the story, building a trusting relationship between the two. But then came the Uprising Arc, and that’s when Rivamika shed its crack ship status for good...

... because starting from chapter 53, Rivamika fans finally got what they’ve wanted for so long - not only Mikasa reciprocated Levi’s concern for her, we got Rivamika fighting side-by-side in not just one, but multiple battles, building trust and camaraderie between themselves, just like everyone dreamed of! But that was too good to be true, right? Because soon came the...

  💦 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 Chapter 56 - The Ackerman reveal

...and it came as a shock to everyone, shippers or not. Sure, Levi and Mikasa were similar because of their unparalleled battle prowess, but everyone thought it was just pure coincidence or that, at most, it had something to do with the special “Asian bloodline” (now known as the East Sea Clan bloodline). No one could’ve guessed Levi and Mikasa would be related through the other side of her family! With the (huge) possibility of these two being closely related, romantic Rivamika went under heavy attack and was practically considered sunk. On the other hand, a lot of shippers like me who were in for more than the romantic aspect of their relationship were very excited about this chapter’s revelation, because Isayama finally gave Levi and Mikasa a deeper connection in the story, something new for them to relate to - with endless possibilities ahead!

⛽ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Chapter 63 - The Ackertalk

This was the chapter every Rivamika shipper was waiting for since the Levi Ackerman reveal - the (prelude to the) Ackertalk, a.k.a. Levi and Mikasa talking about their past and their Ackerman connection. It was a very intimate scene that made the other characters feel out of place at that time, and despite the Ackerman reveal, it fueled the flames of our ship again! Sadly, they didn’t get to finish that conversation - yet.

⛽ 🔥? The Live-Action movie trailer

Let’s be honest, the live-action movie was bad, and Shikishima (pseudo-Levi) didn’t compare to Levi. But back when the movie trailer was released, we didn’t know (or care about) that. Pseudo-Levi and Mikasa kissed, and that’s all that mattered. RivaShikimika was officially the first ship to kiss in the SNK universe, even if it wasn’t in canon, but a spin-off. As you can imagine, the fandom went nuts (both sides of it).

⛽ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Chapter 65 & The second databook

Following up on the huge fanservice that was chapter 64 - Rivamika fighting side-by-side, covering each other’s backs *dreamy sigh* - Isayama finally graced us with a very important flashback about both Levi and Mikasa’s bloodlines. The “Asian bloodline” was just as special as the Ackerman Clan (?!?) - fuel to the Rivamika fire! Most importantly, Grandpa Ackerman’s words implied that Levi and Mikasa were third cousins at the closest, since it seemed his family branched out at least before or during his father’s time. Romantic Rivamika was back in the game and stronger than ever. But for many people that wasn’t enough to stop the incest argument, right?

...because as if Isayama hadn’t made himself clear enough with chapter 65, the second databook’s release ended the incest argument once and for all with the inclusion of the Ackerman/East Sea Clan family tree, confirming that Levi and Mikasa were indeed third cousins at the closest.

⛽ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 The Ackerbowl

Cue the Return to Shiganshina Arc. Rivamika was still in the game, but they didn’t interact nearly as much as in the Uprising Arc. We didn’t get any Ackertalk, either. Now, every Rivamika shipper (or not!) at some point wished Levi and Mikasa would test their skills against each other, be it sparring or, in the worst case scenario, a serious fight. Levi and Mikasa still had some leftover tension between them from what happened at Eren’s trial, after all. The serumbowl was the match that lit that fire.

It was the worst case scenario. Levi had made Mikasa cry. But it was also everything Rivamika shippers wanted. Not only did we get multiple sexy shots of our ship struggling for the serum box ON TOP OF EACH OTHER, they avoided hurting each other and in the end Mikasa got Levi’s message and was later forgiven by him when he told her to not make him regret his decision. Isayama gave us the most emotionally charged battle we could possibly have wished for between these two, adding much needed drama fuel to our ship.

⛽ 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 The 4-year time skip

A new story arc started and the Walldians were nowhere in sight! But the news that four years had passed since the last Battle of Shiganshina kept us avidly reading SNK months later, hoping to see everyone grown up.

For us, that meant Mikasa was now 19-20. Not only it would be acceptable for Mikasa to be in an adult relationship, the age difference between Levi and Mikasa would become less significant as she aged. Suddenly, there was nothing stopping a possible romantic Rivamika relationship anymore in current canon.

💣🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (NEW) Byproducts of Titan Science and the Ackerpaths

Long ago I wrote a theory about the Ackerman power saying that their battle prowess was actually a product of their accumulated memories passed down from generations of soldiers. Chapter 93 finally revealed that they were byproducts of titan science, which would go on to explain their supernatural strength and high body mass. But it still didn’t explain their battle prowess, or like Levi and Mikasa said, “suddenly knowing what to do”.

Then came chapter 112, and Eren dropped the bomb: The Ackermans were connected by [the titan] paths and that’s how their accumulated battle experience was passed down. Levi and Mikasa shared this unique bond, and their many parallels now made much more sense. Our ship was connected in ways no other pairing could ever be!

--

Look how far we’ve come. From a crack ship to a sunk ship to a sexy battleship... it has been an amazing journey. TL;DR Isayama ships Rivamika🔥

Updated 08/26/19!

[ava-rosier]

Ta-dah, have a preview of my Theonsa tumblr fic. More like ‘I wanna prove to @theonbaejoys and @soapieturner that I haven’t forgotten about it’. It’s untitled because I haven’t thought up the perfectest wittiest title yet. 

Rated Mild-for-Theon, with a little kick.

“I can't believe I've never done this before.”

“What- slept with me?” Theon wriggles his eyebrows suggestively.

By this point in her life, having known him for fourteen years, Sansa's eye roll is reflexive. “Me on your couch while you were in your bed doesn't count as sleeping together. Or is the number of women you've claimed to have had sex with inflated?” she retorts, making Theon hold his hands out in show a of halfhearted self-defense. She knows he isn't offended, he's teased her worse than this and she's snapped back at him harder than this.

“Hey now, don't go casting aspersions on my ability to count. I'll have you know every single woman left me knowing I'd fucked them so good their mothers probably felt it before they were even born.”

Sansa groans at the tasteless modifier; he snickers. This is classic Theon; he's always been a horndog chasing after girls and, to hear Robb tell it, he's equal opportunity about college women and horny divorcées nowadays.

She holds up her wine glass, waving it in front of his face. “I meant this. I've never drank alcohol before nine in the morning. Actually I don't think I've ever drank alcohol before noon. And drinking at a club at two a.m. doesn't count!” She rushes to add the last before he could catch her on a technicality.

“Math and alcohol at 8:38 on a Sunday morning. Well, you can always count on me to provide you with new experiences here, Princess.” The old nickname rolls off his tongue easily, but it settles on her differently.  Here, thousands of leagues south of where they'd grown up, Theon's pet name for her feels like a special, secret language shared by only them, that no one else knows.

Blinking away this strange, intrusive thought, Sansa glances around the empty pub backyard instead. It's a chilly Sunday morning in Blackcrown and the skies are just gray, gray, and more gray. Even with the building in the way of the wind, it blows strongly enough that droplets of rain periodically hit her in the face. The Salty Hoar has all the markings of a dive bar: sticky, banged up wooden tables that rock unsteadily when you place any weight on them, chairs that don't match, and a very basic bar selection that reluctantly includes some greasy fare. She can see how Theon loves it.

Despite the cloudy day, they both wear sunglasses, and neither can claim to be hungover. The shades do make them look like they have no fucks to give, which perfectly accessorizes the Naval-brand sweats she is borrowing from Theon to wear on the train back to Oldtown in lieu of the rather fussy and dramatic black dress she'd worn the night before, which is now folded up in a plastic shopping bag.

This is the strangest walk of shame she's ever taken.

She takes advantage of the relative anonymity provided by the sunglasses to study the man sitting next to her. Theon slouches in his chair, looking out at the homes and businesses situated on the hill below them, leading to the shoreline. He's always been boisterous and cocksure, perpetually in motion and in your face. But now there's a genuine self-assurance about him, a contrast from his teenage years. Clearly the military has been good for him.

His head nods to the rhythm of a song only he can hear, fingers lightly drumming on the side of his glass. Sansa isn't sure why it feels so alien to be sitting here with Theon Greyjoy, someone she's known over half her life- laughing and talking with him until her cheeks hurt.

Robb. That has to be it. The answer comes to her with the sort of quiet clarity that makes her feel external to the moment. She had only ever interacted with Theon as Robb's best friend. That has to be why it feels so...taboo...to be here without Robb in between them.

“Thanks again for rescuing me last night and letting me crash at your place.” Harry had never treated her particularly nicely, she could see that now. But what she'd thought was a sweet summer flirtation that could grow more serious had only become tense and distant once the fall term had begun and everyone was back in Oldtown.

He'd been too cowardly to tell her outright he didn't want to be in a relationship anymore and instead had resorted to treating her like shit until she got fed up and called him out on it. Of course, she had decided the last straw was when they were out of town and he kept passively-aggressively complaining about every activity Sansa wanted to do. Hence how she had ended up abandoned in an unfamiliar place at a very late hour of the night.

Theon shakes his head, making a little moue with his mouth. “Nah, don't worry about it. And I meant what I said before. I know some guys. Just say the fucking word and we'll castrate this douchenozzle.” He sounds gleeful at the thought.

A wave of fondness sweeps through her.  She's glad, rather than irritated, with her older brother now for having the foresight and determination to put Theon's number in her phone before she moved so far away from her family. “There's no need. I am in a sorority, after all, and all I have to do is tell a few of my sisters what Harry did, and they'll spread the word. He'll be symbolically castrated at the Cit.” She smirks as she fishes through her purse for her phone, having now remembered Margaery's demands of an update this morning. Her friend might actually be awake by now.

“A patented Sansa Stark revenge, nice!” Theon whistles before taking another slow pull of his beer. “I always knew you were gonna be a sorority chick by the way.”

Sansa arches an eyebrow. “Did you now?”  He looks altogether too smug, chest all puffed out.

“Yup.  In high school, you and your girlfriends were into the whole 'wear tiny pajama shorts and have pillow fights to tease the boys' thing. That cute friend of yours, Beth? It always was obvious she wanted a bounce on Robb's cock. Sororities are basically the same thing, just times ten.”

Sansa is torn between gagging at that mental picture, and smacking him over the head because of the warped stereotype about sorority girls. “One: I really don't need to hear about my brother's penis, thank you. And two: we don't have pillow fights, we support each other and organize charities,” she argues. He is unrepentant, however.

“No, but you get all dolled up and go clubbing, don't you? I betcha have lots of guys panting after those legs of yours in a tight skirt.” If it weren't for the sunglasses, Sansa suspects she would see Theon's eyes roving over her body. Did you pant after my legs in those tiny pajama shorts? She wonders with a small frisson of excitement.

“Maybe so.” To distract herself from the way her body is flushing, she scrolls through her notifications before unlocking her phone. Bran had texted her something with the latest meme sweeping through the internet, one or two of her friends had asked what her plans tonight were, and there are a few Tumblr notifications.

“Anything from Dick Move?”

“Nope. I kind of want to block his number outright,” she admits, “but I'm also hoping he'll try to get a booty call out of me someday just so I can completely ignore his text.”

Theon slides his palm through the air in front of him. “Read 10:23 pm.”  He chortles at the thought.

“Exactly.”

She goes to her Tumblr app, promising herself she won't eat through most of her monthly data in one go.  When the page loads, there's a gifset from her favorite historical fantasy show, she makes sure to like it on the spot. Before she can stop him or tilt her phone away, Theon's bending his head close to see what she's got on the screen.

"You’ve got a Tumblr too? No fucking way!” he exclaims.

Why does he have to be so loud? At least she doesn't live in this town and there's barely anyone within earshot. Sansa hisses as she hits the home button on her phone, glaring reproachfully at him. “What's so 'no fucking way' about me having a Tumblr?”

He shrugs, shaking his head in the way men do when they know better than to tell the truth. “Nothing, I'm just surprised. Dunno why.” There's something different about his attention now, even though she can't see his eyes.

“Too. You said 'too'. That means you've got one. If anything I should be surprised you're on that site,” she says accusingly.

“What can I say, I'm a man of surprising depths.” She snorts at that, which he accepts with good humor. He snaps his fingers and points at her, grinning. “You know what you should do? You should give me your url.”

She gives him a look like that's the stupidest thing in the world. “I'm not sure I want you to know the depths of some of my fandom obsessions.”

“Come on,” he cajoles. “It's Uncle Theon-”

“Ok, that is so creepy. Never do that again.”

“Fine. But my point still stands. It's me. D'you think there's much that's going to shock me?”

She bites her lip and contemplates it. Maybe it's the weirdness and giddiness of having wine in the early morning, but Sansa finds herself grabbing a pen and scribbling her url down on a napkin and handing it to Theon, who slides his sunglasses to the top of his head to read it.

“'lemoncakess'. Cute. I bet it's very aesthetic.” As he chuckles at the url that had taken forever for her to settle upon (all the good ones she wanted were being hoarded), Sansa finds herself mentally scrolling through her tumblog's archive, trying to remember if there were any incriminating text posts or embarrassing reblogs.

“Don't diss the aesth. I bet yours is full of shitposting.”

“And then some.” He winks, folding the napkin and shoving it into his jacket. “Expect a visit from T-money in the next few days.”

“Is that your url?” It's horrid enough that she's cringing with secondhand embarrassment.

Her assumption only gets her an eye roll. “Nah. I just figured that if 'Uncle Theon' didn't fly, then neither would referring to myself as 'Big Daddy'.”

“But T-money seemed more acceptable?”

“It's what my buddies call me. It all started this one time I was dared to act like a stripper at a bar. I had tons of chicks- and some dudes- sticking their easily-earned stags in my smalls.”

“That I can believe.” She deadpans.

Theon has a wicked grin on his face even as he drains the last of his beer before grabbing his keys and standing up. “C'mon, sweet cheeks, let's get you to the station. I have the depths of a blog to plunder.”

[ark-of-eden]

R is drunk and raving (not in the party way).

(R:) Additionally, I’m procrastinating like a fucking champion at working on fic construction, so you know the best use of my time is going off about random social media crap on the internet.

tl;dr: Putting all commentary in tags on Tumblr makes R cry and shit thousands of words into the Internet.

Every social media site inevitably develops sets of unwritten social conventions. Some of them actually make sense as being derived from meatspace etiquette and therefore you don’t really have to stress about remembering them as long as you play nice like a decent creature.

And some of them just don’t make any fucking sense that I can see. Folks on Twitter using a deliberately space-limited form of media to write a page’s worth or more in a string of 30+ rapidfire tweets? This is just how it’s done over there? (Tweetlonger exists but for some reason these massive chain-tweeters never seem to use it. Same with posting the whole thing in a long-form site like LJ/DW/Tumblr and just linking it to a tweet.)

And Tumblr has things that I literally had to put effort into learning after I migrated here, and after I learned about them I frankly decided to ignore them because I couldn’t see the point in them. Tumblr has this bizarre allergy to commentary and, likely derived from that, the practice of instead commenting by putting it all in awkward tags that render the tagging system not especially useful and are harder to get to if you’re actually interested in an individual’s thoughts about a thing and not just the twelfth instance of the same post crossing your dash in a day or two. It’s not like you can’t engage with people, because asks and messaging and such exist, but like...there’s this strong sense that it’s Terribly Ill-Mannered to weigh in with your own impressions right there, in the body of the post, typing your own words in that seductive, wide-open text box that appears all on its own when you go to reblog something. The properly-socialized Tumblrite eschews that tempting text field and instead posts weird sentence fragments in tag form (interspersed with actual tags that might serve to usefully categorize the post’s content), to the extent that some people can add on a good couple paragraphs of material down among the hashtags where others need to go looking for it on purpose if they want it. (I, at least, haven’t been able to find a plugin or something that automatically expands full tags on all posts so that I don’t have to fuck around with extra interface elements to get to them. I admit that I haven’t looked super hard, though.)

Preserving the original form of the OP’s post is a noble practice that I heartily support, but how is adding commentary a problem if you’re only adding a separate thing, not taking away or altering anything in the original...? This was already a practice/convention/code of social interaction on Tumblr when I got here, so I was never in the front row to witness this element taking shape. I suppose it must have made good sense at the time, but every time I see ten people reblogging the same post with no additions and a paragraph of tags appended to it, it’s like a splinter in my brain that has been digging into me for years now.

And I’m not hating on people who do that! I get that that’s The Way It’s Done Here and I am the deviant weirdo for continually adding comments directly onto things that I reblog. Tags are where individuality lives here, unless you’re producing your own original posts, which I guess other people are then supposed to reblog without commentary so that you have to go hunting after all the reblogs individually if you want to get an actual sense of what these people were all thinking when they reblogged your thing. It all just seems...so...WORK INTENSIVE, refusing to use site functions as they were intended??

Look, I absolutely know that my commentary is not the work of incisive genius that unfailingly adds value to every post I find worthy of my attention. We’re pretty much solid shitposting on this blog. Because I’m a little loaded at the moment and that gives me a handy excuse to run my fingers like an idiot (plus I put that readmore up there, so if your eyes are actually consuming these words, you have only yourself to blame for being here), let me run down relevant history of how we got here.

LJ was home for a good long while. Then shit got seriously messed up and Dreamwidth was created as a better LJ, so we migrated all our stuff over there. And journaling sites along those lines still feel like a native environment. I, in particular, am the most long-winded piece of shit we know and I am honestly incapable of talking about anything of worth in short form. It’s a sickness and I just sort of have to own it. :/ But that’s why journaling sites are a good place for me to live, because that’s where people go when they have the inclination to read meandering scrawls about the depths of other people’s lives or whatever.

We went to Twitter for a good while because all the cool people we knew from LJ were going there for some unfathomable reason. These people wrote things that were complex and fascinating to read, so all of them jumping ship to a place that limited them to 140-character chunks made no damn sense, but we loved those people and wanted to trust that they knew what the hell they were doing. And they probably did, and a couple of us were actually okay with Twitter, but I, being the long-winded shitpiece, spent a lot of time frustrated and kind of overstimulated.

Then things started going to hell more and more consistently for me personally (and us generally by extension, but that’s unnecessary detail). Bunkering down specifically to protect people that you care about from the fallout of your crazy is a fairly common thing for mentally-ill people to do, I think. So I’d shut up online until I felt stable enough to talk to people again. Those periods lasted a few days, then a week or more, then a month, then eventually I stopped talking entirely. I missed the LJ/DW format, but in the past I’d written about life events and things I was thinking about and such, so...at the time, all I really had to write about was the bad stuff. So LJ/DW was basically unusable as well.

I literally came here to be as shallow as I could possibly manage. Tumblr had a rapid, chaotic flow similar to Twitter, but could hold longer content like LJ/DW. We’ve never really used the site’s full functionality at any point, though. For at least a year, all we were following was the most lightweight, zero-calorie entertainment that we could find. (We actually came here for Flight Rising content, so there was a lot of that.) Being engaged with fandom in any consistent respect is an extremely recent thing.

And I’m not saying that fandom hasn’t got depth and complexity because it absolutely does and that’s one of the beautiful things about shared fan experiences. I kind of got into that sort of fandom by accident after getting here and rediscovering Transformers. But the unvoiced policy that I’ve always had here is to avoid the Too Real and dodge serious topics whenever possible. Thus, no gender theory, no neurodivergence or multiplicity, no nonhumanity, no religion or UPG, nothing with real substance behind it that bared real vulnerabilities. (Apparently this was a good move anyway because the nonhuman and multiplicity situation here on Tumblr is a bit of a clusterfuck? I honestly wouldn’t know, as I haven’t made a lot of effort to link up with those folks.) That’s still the policy. That might remain the policy forever until I reach some vaguely-defined threshold of sanity that makes me worthy of talking about those things in places and formats that other people can interact with.

And I’m sorry for all this talk about mental illness, but it’s simpler just to explain things clearly. I likely won’t go into any more detail about it on Tumblr. Or anywhere else, because I care about people even if I’ve never met them or talked to them at all and I still want to keep it all in the bunker to protect good people from the crazy. Sometimes, all you can do is just prevent the damage from spilling out into other people’s lives, and that’s the place that I usually operate from.

I’m still pretty drunk, so I’m allowed to ramble from too much truth serum, but all of that explanation was to get around to saying that the format of online communication that is most intuitive to me is the long, oversharing gut-spill of random people talking about things that are really meaningful to them - not in the sense of elaborate philosophy or artsy epistles to the cosmos, but just people being super real about things that are meaningful to them and going into lots of detail about them because gushing about things you love is great. And it’s possible to get that sort of discussion and gushing in Tumblr fandom, and I love it because it reminds me of better times, and the fact that I love it is WHY IT MAKES ME SO GODDAMN FRUSTRATED that Tumblr culture is basically stifling discussion and feedback and RESPONSE to things that people find interesting!!

Like, here’s how I see it. Unlike on LJ/DW, where you were limited to hyperlinking to a cool post in one of your own posts if you wanted your readers to go check it out, on Tumblr, if you find a super cool thing, you can pull it directly into your space and let other people experience it directly, exactly as you experienced it. But the thing is, I also subscribe to the My Blog My House concept. If I pull a thing into my “home,” I do it because there’s something homelike about it; it belongs in my home for some specific reason. I don’t take “ownership” of an item in the sense that I’m claiming it in place of its creator, but I’m taking ownership of it in the sense that it’s part of my Stuff now and it’ll get my fingerprints all over it and be blended into the general morass of Stuff that I recognize as my home. I don’t just pull random crap into my home for no reason at all.

And I just figure that other people are similar in the sense that they reblog things for distinct, unique reasons, not in the sense that they have some master plan for their blog content (some do, but it’s not necessary), but just that they have compelling reasons why they pick certain bits of content out of the larger river of their dashboard and put it in their own space for people to experience with them. I follow people based on the interesting things that they find interesting. I’m interested in why they’re interested in those things. They seem like interesting people to me because they’re interested in what they’re interested in.

But the WHY is a really important part of the equation for me. Did this person reblog that photo because they’ve been to that place themselves, because they like that kind of tree, because they reblog photos with that color scheme every Thursday? Did that person reblog that piece of art because they love that character, because they’re studying that art medium, because it reminded them of something funny they saw somewhere else? People attach their own context to things that they latch onto. It’s so freaking weird to me that people have to hide their interpretations or impressions in tags here on Tumblr, making them unimportant and optional in the process of sharing things they like with others. (Okay, people also share a lot of things they hate, but reasons for outrage are still part of the context that one adds to content.)

I WANT TO KNOW WHY YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING ME. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT TO YOU. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT MAKES YOU THINK AND FEEL. Even if it’s a blurb about how giant robots fuck or a cute kitten video, I NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS.

Not in excruciating detail or with insightful analysis or even a lot of text at all. Mostly, the things that people put in tags are things that, to me, are a really crucial part of the experience of being able to go into someone’s “home” and see the Stuff that they chose to put in it. Reducing oneself to a glorified signal repeater is...okay, I guess, though it turns a Tumblr blog into a kind of faceless stream of other people’s material a lot of the time. The personal touch is what makes it all interesting. And I’m just unutterably frustrated that, somewhere along the line, it was decided that personalizing an experience by sharing one’s own impressions of it became rude enough that polite society decided that it had to be hidden away in tags. I want all of it, so I do go looking for it, but omg it requires MORE EFFORT and BURNING CALORIES and BODILY MOVEMENT and WAAAAH, you know what I mean. :P

And possibly Tumblr society is right and it’s done for a good, decent purpose and I’m being pigheaded and uncool by insisting on doing things my way without bothering to try and understand the local customs. I’m not usually that much of an asshole, but I am about this, for some reason. And I admit that my craving for those personal touches could very well spring from how utterly isolated and lonely I am, so maybe normal people really don’t need all the extra info and actually do just want mostly-impersonal streams of content. And that’s fine, since I know I’m kind of a weirdo even on my best days.

I’m pretty sure that that was all that I really wanted to say. I’m probably overreacting about the whole comments-in-tags thing. Like I said, it’s kind of an irrational irritation. Also, I need to stop before I write myself sober and no longer have an excuse for all of this. If you actually read all of that, you are an awesome, generous person and I’m pretty damn certain that I love you even though I have no idea who you are.