#tumblr has been hell on desktop

[edgepunk]

Marina spammed me while I was asleep and now this shit won't disappear

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

day 1259

dios mio

[puppyluver256]

where the hell did my inbox button go

look at the top right there is No Envelope Button

[tiesthatbind-tf]

If you’re on a desktop, please full-view these lads if possible! Tumblr  compressed the hell out of the preview unfortunately, but so much love was poured into them that it’ll be a shame if y’all didn’’t full view for the goods ;u;b (click, then right-click and open image in new tab!)

I’ve always held a deep fascination of for the Lambros, though for whatever reason, media beyond G1 seem allergic to actually making them brothers, or at least brothers who LIVE till the end and have something resembling a healthy/active relationship, so it was something I wanted to explore with TTB’s version of The Lads--Serafino and Sergio Saverio--who, despite being Twins, are very distinct individuals (Sideswipe in particular has a narrative focused on self-realization after a past of being constantly second best/in Sunstreaker’s shadow, and establishing healthy boundaries, even with those closest to you) with their own occasionally intertwining stories

They’re the team’s Battlefield Hellions, a pair of Feral Elric Brothers willing to punch open multiple Gates of Truth for each other, and who despite their flaws---especially Avowed Bastard Sunstreaker, whose protectiveness and care for Sideswipe is, at times, seemingly his only saving grace---will never have anyone questioning their love for each other. 

You can find their (2881 words, this one’s a doozy!) pre-war full story below the cut! 

Born to a Manual Class couple in the Little Italy neighbourhood of Lower Manhattan, the Saverio Twins could have easily gone the path of Cain and Abel, and given the lopsided treatment they received from their parents as children, it was a miracle that they didn’t. 

Serafino Saverio — hair kissed by the sun — was the much-welcomed firstborn upon whom their hopes were pinned on. 

Sergio Saverio – hair tainted with blood – was the surprise second and didn’t even have a name until after a week of his birth (he could only assume they were hoping he didn’t make it that long, being the twin with ‘complications’) as the unplanned and unwanted spare mouth to feed in a household which had always been intended for a family of three, and not a day of his young life passed that he wasn’t reminded by his parents that they had kept him as a favor.

The favoritism was as blatant as it was malicious when it came to food, praises and gifts—all of which were afforded to Serafino, all of which were an afterthought for Sergio who always took everything with a smile, having been told to simply be thankful he had a family, and that Serafino had to come first.

However, Sergio’s treatment didn’t go unnoticed or ignored by Serafino—sharp and cunning for his age—who began to question why his brother had less than him, why his brother was beaten for doing the things which he himself would simply be given a stern talking to, why his mother’s tone fell and rose so drastically between her sons and why his father never had a kind word for a boy who constantly bent over backwards for a fraction of the love they afforded him. 

The aching sadness the older twin saw in his brother’s eyes when they were seven and had received their birthday gifts—a beautiful hand-crafted wooden sword for him, a cheap gas station tin Lamborghini for Sergio—gave birth to childhood defiance as he exchanged his gift with Sergio to the surprised dismay of their parents who were stuck awkwardly trying to explain why he couldn’t do that and why they saw it fit to treat two brothers so differently on they day they were born together, only seconds apart. 

It was here that the seed was planted of Serafino’s protectiveness over Sergio–his best friend, his playmate, his shadow—and Sergio’s near-unwavering loyalty to Serafino—his defender, his confidante and the only one of their family who truly cared for him. 

They grew up tight as thieves as Serafino’s disgust at their parents’ attempts to drive a wedge in between them burned ever brighter, because if they would not treat his brother the same as he, then he would act out in defiance until they treated him the same way they treated Sergio out of sheer frustration. 

They walked hand in hand in the streets, always looking out for each other, and sparred fist to fist on the apartment rooftop where they would learn to fight together because the world wasn’t kind to little Manuals—and they had the cuts and bruises to show for it—but from up here where that world seemed so small beneath them, they could dare to dream of a better one where Sergio could be the dashing fighter Serafino’s sword allowed him to see himself as, and where Serafino would be able to one day own and drive a car similar to the little model he had traded that sword for.

School was no more kind to them than the streets were—at twelve, Serafino had learned to read the people around him and kept an aloof and guarded presence, but Sergio — eager for warmth and connection — forged friendships openly and recklessly, class divisions be damned.

His perceived insolence to The Way Things Were earned him the ire of a group of law enforcement prodigy picks when he befriended a girl among their ranks, and they set out to teach him a vicious lesson about staying in his lane despite her protestations. 

He fought back hard, but it was Serafino’s fury that was unmatched when the older twin came across the assault in progress and leapt into the fray to back him up. 

When the dust had settled, the brothers stood tall among the twitching bodies of five prodigy picks, the leader of the group beaten up so severely by Serafino that their dislocated jaw had to be wired shut for a month. 

Serafino earned the scar on his jaw from this altercation, and as the twin who had dealt the most damage, was suspended from schooling indefinitely and put to work to help pay off the medical bills forced upon his family despite open confirmation from the girl at the center of the fight that the brothers’ role in it was that of self-defense (and it was reasoned that if he was so quick with his hands, he best put them to a more productive use). 

His reputation as a pugnacious, split-knuckled hellion preceded him among the rough-and-tumble warehouse workers he was stationed with, and, for better or worse, they accepted him into the fold as ‘one of the lads’ despite his youth.

Over beer and cigarette smoke—a vice he embraced too early—he became privy to how truly hopeless their lives were, born in the same class as their parents and their grandparents before them, destined to die in the same class no matter how hard they worked to climb a ladder whose rungs seemed to increase every year, and it made him all the more bitter to the world. 

When he crossed paths with one Tulio Hoffman — a stag Beastman attempting to evade authorities in an alley — while on his way back to the workers’ hostel, he made a split-second decision to cover the man’s tracks and pointed the cops elsewhere out of spite for them. His chutzpah, as Tulio called it, earned him the Stagman’s respect, and having seen the calluses on his palms and the crowbar he wielded with unusual expertise for his age, Tulio—who revealed himself as the elusive Thunderhoof, an up and rising don— extended a hand to him with the promise of a better life, one that didn’t require him to slave away in a warehouse for an eternity. 

He agreed, seeing a chance to wrest the life he wanted for himself—and by proxy his brother— by force, and pledged loyalty to Thunderhoof who initially employed him as a scout and informant. It was work Serafino excelled in — his relentlessness to get the job done won the Stagman over, and he was quickly promoted to Thunderhoof’s personal assistant, following the don on business deals and clandestine meetings across the city and helping the man keep his ledgers and income on track.

He experienced the High Life for the first time—fine clothes, good food, a fast car—and it was a lifestyle he grew an insatiable taste for and was desperate to keep for himself (attempts at sharing this life with Sergio were politely declined, and there was an understanding of their different approaches to climbing out of the dregs, even if they did not always agree with the others' methods)

The big money Thunderhoof made from taking part in illegal pitfights seemed like a natural progression given his prodigious skill with fisticuffs, and his first win when he was 18 was one the Stagman—who had taken on the role of a somewhat twisted adoptive father—celebrated and honored by gifting him the neck chain he wore, which also served as a symbolic gesture from Thunderhoof that the business would one day be passed to him. Serafino continued his career as a much-feared pitfighter with a rumored body count— the dreaded ‘Aureleone’ (Golden Lion) of the rings — all the while rising up the ranks of Thunderhoof’s mob until he was the man’s underboss, and keeping an eye out for Sergio like any good big brother worth their salt.

Sergio’s scar above his eyebrow remains a daily reminder of the day the system came for him and his brother, and while he was allowed to remain in school, he was transferred to a heavily-manual establishment which would ‘better suit those like him’. 

The situation at home became even more unbearable than it already was, as his parents blamed Serafino’s downfall on his carelessness and stupidity—despite Serafino’s assertion that the bullies deserved everything that happened to them and he would reoffend on sight if they hurt Sergio again—and he began to spend more and more time outside, visiting Serafino at work whenever he could to repeat the day’s lesson during breaks so his brother still had access to education and sneaking into worker’s rallies by the docks. 

It was here that he was drawn to the music and effortless charisma of a young dock worker and union figurehead, Jace Zayden (Jazz), which whom he struck up a friendship, and where Thunderhoof brought Serafino deeper into the underbelly of the city to escape the system, Jace gave him hope that change could happen on the surface, in the sun. 

After a blowout with his parents when he was 16 where they’d made it clear he should never have been born, he finally left the house. Not wanting to burden Serafino who had already suffered enough for him in his eyes or be indebted to Thunderhoof (who he respected for taking care of his brother, but understood was a dangerous man with an agenda), he roomed with Jace who had taken on the role of his mentor and helped him find employment as a warehouse worker so he could save up to afford rent for his own place once he was old enough to sign a lease. His nights were divided between helping Serafino with supply runs and stock-checking for Thunderhoof’s contraband goods, and joining Jace at union meetings as well as helping the man with his activism and protest plans. 

When Jace was arrested after a brutal crackdown on a workers’ rally and never came back to the neighborhood, Sergio feared the worst but wasted no time stepping into Jace’s position when their local union chapter began to flounder so he could continue their fight for a better life. 

Like his brother, he had become intimately acquainted with the injustice perpetuated by the neverending cycle of poverty their class was intentionally, systematically trapped in, but rather than abandon it and the people in it as Serafino had chosen to do, he wanted to help break it so his community could rise above it with him. 

As the most prominent figurehead of an unprecedented, rising tide of unionization in Manhattan  which started from across the pond in the UK, he was marked out as a person of interest by local officials desperate to keep the status quo, and his increasing clashes with local cops tasked with bringing those behind these ‘public disturbances’ to heel brought him in contact with a face he remembered from his school days—the same upperclass girl he had tried to befriend, whose testimony had helped keep him and Serafino out of juvie and who was now a tough-as-nails rookie with a reputation for breaking ranks. 

Stella Armstrong (Strongarm) was more than a little surprised to find out that the scrawny, bright-eyed Manual scrapper who had suddenly disappeared from her classroom after the Big Fight was now a feisty, quick-talking, hot-tempered rabble-rouser with a careless smirk and a witty comeback for every police warning lobbed at him. 

Regardless of his teasing and her scoldings for the ‘trouble’ he made for her whenever they crossed paths, Sergio kept eye out for her on the streets—good cops didn’t last long in the ranks, he knew this much—and vouched for her being an ‘honest one’ whenever she was stonewalled for information regarding her cases. 

In turn, Stella spoke out in defense of him whenever her colleagues brought him in and attempted to remand him for a period much longer than the minor infractions he was hauled in for could justify, and stopped any attempted violence on him and his community in lockup, making enemies among the force in the process.

When several prominent union supporters began turning up dead to the radio silence of the police, Sergio approached Stella for help in investigating the matter, and she agreed to do so after finding out that reports filed on the murders had been closed before any investigations had wrapped up. 

She gave him a burner cell to keep their communications private after the two agreed that something about the situation smelled like a cover-up.

All of this was confirmed when Stella called him with a warning that the killings were tied to the current mayor who had pro-functionist ties, cops on payroll and was desperate for a re-election in the coming month.

She had also found documents approving the use of Mnemosurgery on a list of union figureheads to turn them into Trojan Horses on their own movement and communities—a list which Sergio’s name headed, which meant he had to go into hiding before the next minor infraction brought him back to lockup. 

When she couldn't give him an answer on if the breach of classified information could be traced back to her, he feared for the worst again—the unsolved fate of Jace still hung heavy in his mind—more so when further calls he made to her went to voicemail. 

The next call Sergio received from her sent him on a hunt for her in the winding alleys of Brooklyn, where he found her bleeding out from a through-and-through gunshot wound to the stomach she received from her own colleague, after it was revealed that the drug bust she was a part of was a front to get her in a vulnerable position so they could take her out.

Her refusal to back the thin blue line at all costs, newfound knowledge of wide-spread corruption in the ranks and growing friendship with a ‘target’ had made her a liability, one they had orders to get rid of. 

He raced her to a back-alley clinic, unable to bring her to the local GH because of the real danger of the rest of the force coming over to finish the job. 

Stella survived the ordeal with his help, and the two of them went into hiding together to plan their next move; As she had never turned off her body camera, she had damning evidence of the hit which she had immediately downloaded to the burner cell for safekeeping in case the footage was later remotely wiped, and she had taken pictures of the documents beforehand. 

To Sergio’s surprise, help came from two unexpected places; Jace, who returned from self-exile in the UK after it was discovered that the same thing planned for Sergio had earlier been planned for him, and Serafino, who had broken the Mafia Code and put aside mob work and pitfighting the moment he caught wind of the target on his baby brother’s back. (When Thunderhoof had demanded that his loyalty to the mob come before his loyalty to his brother if he were to take over the mantle of Don, he balked at the idea)

As it turned out, Jace was part of the Resistance movement back in the UK which had branched out worldwide and inspired the rising workers’ protests in the States as well, and worked as a saboteur who had experience in exposing corrupt men in power for filth. 

Stella’s near-death experience and the ongoing risk to her life made a strong case for her filming a dying confession which Sergio delivered along with her body cam footage to her father, who then passed both to an attorney whose services her family had employed to find justice for their ‘missing’ daughter. 

The documents and list made it to the ACLU’s New York office, while Serafino and Jace both worked on a sting to catch the mayor red-handed, as they posed as bounty hunters looking to collect on Sergio’s head. As Sergio played his role as defiant captive and tactically bandied words with the mayor to lead the man to a full confession, Jace’s colleague, Brandon Shen (Blaster) hacked major digital billboards at Times Square to air the footage in real-time, destroying the man’s name and political career in the span of fifteen minutes. 

Regardless of their victories however, both Sergio and Stella had become far too big of targets to remain where they were, and Jace offered to bring them all into the Resistance’s fold. 

Sergio, for his own safety, had to hand over the reins of leadership to a new leader of the Manhattan Movement, though his community, knowing full well the risk he had put himself through for them, encouraged him to find safe harbor with Jace’s team mates who could afford him the protection he needed. .

He had carried on Jace’s work when Jace had to leave, and there would be others to continue the work here.

Serafino, chafing harder and harder against the control that Thunderhoof was rapidly losing on him, threw all caution against the wind, chose the codename Sunstreaker and joined his brother. --now codenamed Sideswipe -- as the new frontliners of the wider Resistance movement.

Whether he would come to regret the decision was still up in the air, but brothers stuck together, and the path ahead was one both of them would forge back to back with each other as fate damn well intended. 

[foxgirlmoth]

Actually I'm deleting the app. Peace out Tumblr, its been a hell of a decade.

Cohost, Bluesky, twitter, Steam, Twitch, and Discord are all: Windfaemaiden

Might be all lowercase on Discord, and thats the best place to reach me. After that I might be on Cohost, my Twitter is a bit dead, and bluesky is. Eh. Talk to me on steam if you wanna game.

My alt accounts here are Windfaemaiden for my art blog, and my alt blog which is 18+ is mothgirlmilk.

I might check desktop tumblr in a while but this place has become too hostile and its just painful. I met the love of my life here by talking about Metroid. I love this girl so much and the place we met has been so actively hostile I just can't be here any more and it sucks so much. I get sentimental about so many things and I'm crying over losing the place I met my wife. Fuck.

I'm gonna miss a lot of you, if we ever even exchanged a reply or dm or ask or two, I would love to hear from you in the future. If this place gets better I might even be back, who knows. So many of you have become friends and people in my circle who I love to learn about.

💕💕💕💕💕

[seenoversundown]

Amongst The Stars: Chapter Eight

Josh x Quinn (Nonbinary OC)Warnings: Craig, pining, general feelings of self doubt, guilt Word Count: 4.4k Summary: Josh has always loved love,  and he's finally found it. Buuuut, he can't exactly tell anyone. Join him as he navigates the ins and outs of his sweet, secret romance. Author's Note: Sorry this is so late! I had a crazy day at work. But, here we are. I am not gonna lie to you, I don’t love this chapter. Not because of the content, or because I’m unhappy with it. But, I don’t love it because I know what happens next :) Again, forgive any weird formatting. Desktop Tumblr hates Josh, you heard it here first, folks!

“Hold you in my arms, I just wanted to hold you in my arms” Starlight - Muse

Being this excited about getting my things from Craig’s house feels wrong. I threw a years-long relationship away. I should be at least a little bit upset, but I can’t find it in myself to care. My only regret is that Willa can’t be here with me to help pack. She had some work thing and couldn’t get out of it since everything moved so quickly. I wasn’t anticipating Josh being so willing to help, but I had to jump on the chance when it was offered. It has been an absolute pain in my ass not having access to my clothes or my entire stock of art supplies. I haven’t even had my sketchbook. It was the one thing I meant to grab before heading to Willa’s house, but I managed to forget it. Before I get too into my feelings about it, my phone buzzes, and I know it’s Josh. I grab my canvas bag and head out the door without even pulling it out to check. 

When he notices me hit the bottom step, he scrambles out of the truck and walks around to the passenger’s side. 

“Hello, dear,” he gives me a shy smile as he opens the door. “Do you treat all your guests this way?” I laugh, jumping up and settling into the seat. He leans against the door, watching as I buckle myself in.

“Only the ones I like,” he winks, shutting the door before I can say anything else. 

Why is that attractive? Get it together; he’s just helping you move. 

He walks back around to the driver’s side and hops in. “I really appreciate this, you know.” “It’s nothing. Friends help each other out.” Right, right. Friends. 

“Wanna put the address in?” he asks, handing me his phone. 

I’m slightly taken aback; Craig would have rather died than hand me his phone for anything. I opened Apple Maps and typed in my old address before returning the phone to him. He fiddles around with the music app for a moment before putting the truck in reverse. 

“I hope you’re okay with pop music,” he looks at me from the corner of his eye, “It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.”

I smile as the opening notes to “Feather” filter through the stereo. 

“Perfectly fine by me. Your song choice is weirdly appropriate,” I laugh. 

“What do you mean?” “This song played in my car as I left Hobby Lobby the first day we met. My ex begged me to turn it off. I should have taken it as an omen.”

He barks out a laugh, and I quirk an eyebrow at him. 

“I’m not laughing at you, I promise. It’s just that’s the first day I ever heard this song. It came on shuffle when I went home, and I immediately fell in love with it. Added it to the playlist at my brother’s bar and everything just to piss people off.” I can’t help the wide smile that makes its way to my face. 

“Hell of a coincidence.”

“Indeed it is.”

We continue our ride in comfortable silence, letting the GPS guide us toward my old life with Craig. The end of my old life with Craig. Joy swells in my chest at the very thought of being completely done. 

Josh enters the apartment complex's parking lot and parks in the first free spot he sees. He shuts his car off, and his eyes soften as he looks at me. “I’m ready whenever you are. We’ve got all day, so if you need a minute to prepare yourself, take it.”

My heart squeezes. 

Josh continually amazes me with the care he shows those around him. 

“I really appreciate that,” I say, patting the hand he placed on the center console between us. “But I’m ready. I want to be done.”

He nods, unbuckles his seatbelt, and practically sprints out of the car to get my door for me. “You are entirely too sweet,” I laugh, unbuckling my seatbelt and taking his hand as he helps me down. “Nah, I just try to be a gentleman when possible.”

Why is that attractive? 

I internally shake myself. I don’t need to have these thoughts about Josh. He’s a friend who is doing me a simple favor. Even if he was into it, I can’t start a new relationship immediately after leaving Craig. How would I know it’s real and not some weird rebound situation? 

I couldn’t do that to Josh or me. 

“Get stuck in your head again?” Josh squeezes my hand to pull me out of my spiral. 

“Mmm, yeah. Thank you.” 

“Well, no time like the present.” Josh moves a hand to my lower back to guide me toward the apartment. 

Just another show of how caring he is. 

“I’ll warn you, Craig can be absolutely terrible. Just ignore whatever he may have to say to you.”

He flashes me an easy smile. “Oh, I’m not worried about him one bit. I’m here to help you, so let him act however he wants.” 

“If you say so,” I suck in a deep breath, then begin the slow ascent to the apartment. 

“I’m sorry that you kind of have to help me pack, too,” I fold my three-hundredth worn-out band tee and place it in the cardboard box in front of me. “The breakup happened so fast that I couldn’t pack anything before leaving.”

“Quinn, how many times do I have to tell you that I’m happy to be here? If I didn’t want to help, I wouldn’t. So, please stop apologizing.” 

I shake my head and roll my bottom lip through my teeth. 

“What's up?” Josh asks. 

“Nothing; you're just so different from what I'm used to.” 

“Well, hopefully, I can continue to surprise you.” 

“Oh,” I giggle, “I am certain you will.” 

Josh grabs the full box from me and tapes it up before scribbling “Shirts” on it and setting it aside. “I’ll take a load of boxes down to the truck in just a minute.”

Our conversation is interrupted by a minor crash outside the bedroom door. I roll my eyes. Of course, he’s throwing stuff again. Why couldn't he just stay out of our way? I immediately turn to apologize to Josh; it's not fair that he’s being subjected to Craig’s moods. But I notice that he’s walking toward the door. 

“Hey, Josh..” 

He ignores my warning and opens the bedroom door. 

“Hey man, can you keep it down? We’re trying to get out of your hair as quickly as possible, but we can’t do that if you're throwing shit around and distracting us.” 

I creep up behind Josh, peering over his shoulders at Craig. I know I shouldn't press this, but I have to see the look on his face when Josh calls him out. I see a faint look of recognition cross Craig’s face. That’s strange.

Craig didn’t initially spot us when we came in. I assume he was in the bathroom, but he definitely doesn’t look happy to see us now. His face contorted in rage, and I grabbed Josh’s arm, preparing for whatever he was going to say. I brace myself, knowing how Craig can be, and I can only hope that Josh is ready to face it as well. 

“This is real fucking nice, Quinn,” Craig bypasses Josh altogether, shifting his head to make eye contact with me. “What?” “It’s real nice that you bring the dude you’ve been cheating on me with over here to help you move out. What’s he gonna do, pack all your shit up into his truck, and y’all are gonna move in together like some kind of–” He cuts himself off. “Some kind of what?” Josh straightens his back and speaks directly to Craig. 

“Some kind of. Some kind of U-HAUL LESBIANS??” I burst out in an ill-timed fit of giggles at the sheer absurdity of it all. My giggles cause Josh to chuckle, and I see Craig’s face go beet red at the perceived slight against him. “You do realize that to be ‘U-haul lesbians,’ both of us would have to be women?” Josh says between bouts of laughter. “And neither of us are.” Recognizing that Craig has limited patience, I decided to try to smooth things over before Craig could try to hit Josh. “Also, not sure if you forgot, I’m moving in with Willa.” Craig opens and closes his mouth a few times. “As friends,” I add in to stop his floundering. I see Josh roll his eyes at my addition, clearly understanding what an absolute moron Craig can be.

Sometimes, I daydream about what my life would be like if I never got involved with Craig. Would I be happy? Would I have met Josh organically?  Would we be together? That’s ridiculous, Quinn. Why would you even be worried about that? He is your friend and nothing more. I scrub one hand down my face, trying to will those thoughts away. It’s too soon; my heart is still, for some reason, vaguely battered by the messy breakup with Craig. Though, at this point, I don’t know if my heart is battered because of Craig or because of the years I wasted with him. 

“It was lovely to see you, Greg. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” Josh punctuates his point by slamming the door in Craig’s face. I let out a relieved breath. “Thank you, Josh. You didn’t have to send him away. I could have done that.” “It’s no trouble, darling,” he says, placing a hand on my back and rubbing soothing circles between my shoulder blades. “I think you’ve dealt with him enough.”

I lean into his touch, accepting his small comfort before quickly remembering myself and pulling back. “Let’s just get this done and get out of here.” “Whatever you need, darling.”

That small sentence, whatever you need, darling, may be the death of me. This behavior comes naturally to Josh; it’s plain to see. He was born to be a light in the world, and he is slowly proving that to me over, and over, and over again. I only wish I could accept his light without feeling some type of misguided guilt. I owe Craig nothing, so why is he still dictating my feelings? Why is he still hindering the way I interact with other people? I pull myself out of my thoughts and begin surveying the room. 

“We really don’t have much left. I’m choosing to be the bigger person and leaving him the furniture because I don’t want him to have anything.” “Mm,” Josh adds a noncommittal noise to let me know he’s still listening. “What?” “You’re just a better person than I am.” I scoff, practically begging him to explain himself. He is sunshine incarnate, there is no way I am a better person than he is. “Well, if I were you, I’d be removing every single thing I paid for from this house. I’d tell him to figure it out.” I let out a small chuckle. “Oh, I could never do that; that’s horrible. He can’t get ahead, should he ever get his shit together, if I start him off on his own with nothing.” “See, you’re a better person than me. In my eyes, he made his bed, and he can lie in it,” he crosses his arms over his chest, “Or.. not. But, you know what I mean.”

His tough facade cracks as he starts laughing, which sends me over the edge. I fall into his side as we dissolve into a fit of giggles, and I feel his arm wrap around my shoulder, pulling me closer. I lean my head against his shoulder, trying to reel in my laughter. I shift my head to look at his face, taking in how his eyes crinkle up and his dimples are on full display. The laughter dies on my lips as I take in his pearly white smile and his plush, pink lips. I pull back from him like I’ve been burned. Too close for comfort, get it together. I watch as the smile drops from his face, and he clears his throat, walking over to the boxes we set in the corner. 

“Well, I’m going to take these down to the truck,” he pats the top box on the stack. “I, uh, I can help with that.” “No, no! Please finish up here, and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Uh, okay..”

I watch as he heaves the first box and opens the bedroom door, revealing Craig eavesdropping. 

“Oh, hey, man.” “I just wanted to talk to Quinn for a minute.” Josh turns to me to gauge my level of comfort. Just another way he’s perfect. Stop that. I meet his eye and slightly nod. He huffs a small breath out of his nose as his face falls, just a hare. 

“Of course,” Josh steps aside and lets Craig enter the room. 

Once Josh exits the room, Craig stands in front of me, picking at his cuticles. “You don’t have to do this, you know,” he refuses to look at me. I give him a sad look, knowing that he is in denial and will not take well to the rest of this conversation. 

“You know that I do, Craig,” I start, gently patting his arm. “No, I really don’t,” He flinches away from me, and my heart cracks a little bit more. “How can you not? We have done nothing but argue for the past few weeks,” I pause, “Actually, it’s been longer than that, and you know it.” He scoffs, refusing to meet my eyes and instead choosing to look around the now sparsely decorated room we once shared. “So, you’re just taking everything?” “I’m leaving the furniture. But, yeah. Pretty much everything else. I either made or bought all the decor. So..” “I’m supposed to just look at white walls?” “Look, Craig. What is this? What are you trying to do?” He kicks his foot against the rug that our - his - bed sits on top of. “I’m trying to stop you from making the worst mistake of your life,” his eyes, filled with determination, whip up to mine. “You’re trying to what?” “You heard me, Quinn. We love each other, and you’re throwing it all away.” I want to roll my eyes all the way back in my head, but instead, I fix Craig with a tight-lipped smile. “I think that you should be quiet now, Craig.” “Why? Are you starting to realize I’m right, and you don’t want to think about it too hard?” “No, Craig. I’m starting to get mad.”

I turn away from him, trying to calm myself down. I look at the bare walls of our bedroom, expecting to feel some form of loss, but instead, I just feel determined. I know in my blood and very bones that I am making the right choice. I let my determined anger lead my actions. 

“You’re getting mad?” “YES, CRAIG,” I shout, “I’m ANGRY. I’m furious that you keep putting me through this shit. I have given you everything, and you still don’t think it’s enough. It’s never been enough for you, and it will never be enough.” “It’s always been enough, Quinn.” “Well, you’ve never shown that, and I cannot keep begging you to,” I hang my head and sigh, “I will not keep begging you. I don’t want to keep begging you to. So, we have nothing left to say to each other. This is done, there’s no salvaging it.” Craig flinches as if I’ve slapped him, and I may as well have. He’s always been less than stellar - understatement of the century - at handling his emotions, so I know that that statement likely felt like a physical blow in his mind. 

“What do you mean there’s no salvaging it?” He says as he takes a step closer to me, clenching his fist. I step back, but the tension in the room deflates as the bedroom door flies open, revealing Josh and his windswept curls. His eyes widen as he takes in the scene before him: Craig, with his fist held tight, creeping toward me. “They said what they said, Craig,” Josh interjects. “Didn’t ask you, Josh.”

Wait a minute, I didn’t introduce them. Craig knows the name Josh, but they’ve never met. The wheels start turning in my head as I look between them. They’re caught in a stalemate, staring each other down. 

“I wasn’t aware you knew each other..” Craig looks at Josh, then me, his face morphing into something cruel. “Oh, you didn’t tell her?” I roll my eyes at Craig’s slip-up, knowing he only does it to hurt me. “No, I didn’t tell them. We don’t exactly talk about you.” “So, you talk often, then?” “I’d say so, but never about you.” A lie.

I quickly turn and head toward the boxes stacked in the corner. As I move to pick one up, Josh rushes to my side. “What are you doing? I can help,” he says, placing his hand on my wrist. “The testosterone is so high in here, I can smell it. I don’t really care to be around it, so I’m taking my stuff to your truck.”

He looks properly chastised, opening and closing his mouth, trying to formulate an apology. I’m not sure if I care to hear an apology right now. From either of them. They’ve been keeping secrets from me and bickering like old maids about it. I couldn’t really care one way or the other for an apology or an explanation. I just want to get my things and go. Josh nods his head and uses his thumb to rub a soothing circle along the inside of my wrist. I struggle to suppress the shiver that runs down my spine. I meet his eyes and let a small smile creep to my face. He pulls his hand back from my wrist and gives me a shy smile in return. 

“Are you kidding?” Craig practically shouts, breaking the peaceful moment between Josh and me. 

I clear my throat, fixing him with a glare. “I don’t think you’re the one who gets to ask questions right now. I actually think you, both of you, owe me an explanation.” My annoyance bubbles to the surface again. I can’t believe Josh kept this from me. Craig, yes. Josh? My stomach feels slimy at the thought. It feels wrong that my new friend would keep secrets from me when I’ve been an open book to him. If I ignore the amount of misplaced pining I've done over him. It’s not pining; it’s normal to think about your friends. “Quinn, believe me,” Josh starts, “I didn’t want to keep this from you. But, I figured it would hurt you more than help you to know that Craig came to see me at Hobby Lobby.” My eyes slide from Josh over to Craig and I cock an eyebrow, asking him to continue. “Uh, yeah. I did.” “And he came into my brother’s bar,” Josh adds, hoping that being honest now will save him from my ire. Craig looks over at him and rolls his eyes. “Telling Quinn all your secrets isn’t going to make her like you.” “I don’t care if they like me, they deserve honesty.” “You didn’t seem to think so when you told me not to mention it.”

Did Josh really decide to keep this secret? I could see Craig, but it just hurts worse knowing that Josh chose this. Would Craig have told me if Josh hadn’t sworn him to secrecy? Thoughts rattle around in my head as I try to keep the hurt from flashing across my face. I slowly blink a few times. Am I taking this too hard? No, Quinn – You are allowed to feel your feelings. Yeah, well why does it feel so annoying then? Pulling myself out of my internal struggle, I lock eyes with Craig. “Elaborate. Right now,” I huff. 

I listen in stunned silence as it tumbles out of Craig’s mouth that he basically stalked Josh and harassed him at work and again -  allegedly by accident, though I’m not sure if I believe that - at the tavern that his brother owns. I can’t help the shock that shows on my face as he elaborates on the fact that he talked down on me and Josh came to my defense. I glance over to Josh, while Craig finishes his story, allowing my eyes to trace over his features. I catalog the slope of his nose, and the spot I know a dimple pops out in when he smiles. I can’t really be mad at him, I think as my eyes get caught on the shape of his top lip, He’s too cute to be mad at. I shake my head, dispelling the thought. I should be angry with Josh. He may not have sought Craig out, but he certainly kept it a secret from me when he had ample time to tell me.

“This is insane, you know that right?” I look between Josh and Craig, ensuring that they realize I am talking to both of them, “In what world would you think that keeping this secret from me was a good idea?” 

I see the regret immediately flash across Josh’s face, Craig following shortly behind. 

“You’re right, Quinn,” Josh Starts, “I should have told you, but I didn’t want to get in the middle of your relationship.” 

“Littlelateforthat,” Craig huffs under his breath, causing me to roll my eyes. 

I turn to Craig, raising an eyebrow, “Well, do you have anything to add.” 

Craig simply shakes his head and leaves the room, putting an end to our conversation. I sigh, turning away from Josh and moving to pick up my final few boxes. 

“Whatever’s left in here is staying,” I say in a clipped tone, hoisting a box into my arms. I’m annoyed with Josh. I’m annoyed at the fact that I’m not more annoyed. It hurts that Josh didn’t tell me, but it hurts more knowing that it doesn’t matter. I was going to break up with Craig regardless. Hell, Portland’s a small town, they likely would have met each other eventually. But that should have been on my terms. And it shouldn’t have been a secret. “That’s fine,” Josh responds and picks up the last two boxes, following me down to his truck. 

The drive back to mine and Willa’s apartment is frosty to say the least. Josh has kept his metaphorical tail between his legs since the confrontation with Craig earlier. The only sounds that pass between us are the sounds of the radio and the occasional GPS direction. 

When we get back to my apartment, he wordlessly puts his truck in park and jumps out to open my door for me. We carry each box up to the apartment and into my (new) bedroom in complete and utter silence. When Josh has dropped the final box on the floor of my room, he finally heaves out a long sigh. 

“I’m sorry, Quinn. I didn’t want to keep it a secret.” He ducks his head, picking at his cuticles. 

“I believe you, it was just a shock.” He looks up at me with the most hopeful look in his eyes and I crack. I can’t stay mad at him. “Do you mean it?”

“Of course, Josh,” I smile, “But, I really should get started on unpacking.”

Josh nods his head, “Need help?”

“Oh, I couldn’t ask that of you, but I’ll walk you out.”

We make small talk all the way to the door, and I open it to usher him outside. 

“I really appreciate your help today. I couldn’t have done it without you, truly.”

He gives me one of his dimple-popping smiles and pulls me in for a hug. 

“Anything for you, dear,” he whispers into my ear, crushing me against him. 

It would be so easy to just… before I can rethink it, I turn my head and capture his lips with mine. It lasts just a second, a ghost of a kiss, before I pull back. What the fuck have I done? I quickly put a little bit of distance between us, taking in Josh’s wide eyes. “I’m so–” before I can finish my apology, Josh closes the distance between us and presses his lips against mine. I let out a small gasp and he takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss, sucking my top lip between his. My hands completely of their own volition wind their way into his unruly curls. He lets out a small Mmph at the feeling. His hands find my hips and pull me closer against him as his tongue traces against my lips, begging for entry. As if he’s searching for any possible way to get closer, closer, closer. 

Who am I to deny him? 

I sigh, giving him what he wants, and our tongues tangle together. 

I lightly tug at his hair and he lets out an almost growl as he lets his hands gently, tentatively, roam my body. 

His right hand trails up my back before coming to rest on the back of my neck, pulling me closer, closer, closer. 

He backs me against the wall next to the door and pulls his lips from mine, before moving to kiss down my neck. 

“Fuck,” I hiss as his teeth graze a particularly sensitive spot. 

No. But actually, FUCK. 

“Josh,” I start. 

“Mm,” He ignores me, continuing to press open-mouthed kisses and nips along my heated flesh. 

What am I doing? 

I shove him away from me. 

“What the fuck is this?” I say more to myself than Josh. 

“You need to go. I need you to leave immediately.” 

“I, uh, I,” He stammers. 

“No! Leave. Now! And please, just… don’t contact me. Clearly we’ve done enough.” 

I watch as he nods his head and leaves. 

Was Craig right? Is Josh the reason our relationship went to shit? Am I the one in the wrong? 

I can’t stop the guilt and thoughts from swirling through my head as I spend the rest of the night settling into my new home. 

I let the guilt eat at me even hours later, as I tuck myself under my comforter and ignore Willa’s frantic knocks on my door. 

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[commodorez]

Hi! I'm so sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm completely clueless on computers, but I want to learn about them. Any places you'd recommend starting for bare bones beginners? I'm also interested in early-mid 90's tech particularly too. I'm guessing I have to figure out the basics before I can move onto specific tech though, right?

You're really knowledgeable and nice so I figured I'd just ask. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you! :]

That's an excellent question, I don't think I've been asked it before in such a general sense. I was raised with the benefit of being immersed in computers regularly, so providing a solid answer may be a bit difficult since for the basics, I never had to think about it.

I had computer classes of various types throughout my school years. We learned how to use a mouse, typing, word processing, programming -- and that was all before middle school. We got proper typing, html, and general purpose computer science courses in middle and high school, and you can bet I took those too. I also have the benefit of a bachelors of science in computer science, so you'll forgive me if my answer sounds incredibly skewed with 30+ years of bias.

The biggest suggestion I can give you is simply to find a device and play with it. Whatever you can get your hands on, even if its not that old, as long as it's considered past its prime, and nobody will get upset of you accidentally break something (physically or in software). Learning about things with computers in general tends to have some degree of trial and error, be it programming, administrating, or whatever -- try, learn, and start over if things don't work out as expected the first time. Professionals do it all the time (I know I do, and nobody's fired me for it yet).

Some cast-off 90s or early 00's surplus office desktop computer running Windows would be a good start, just explore it and its settings. Start digging into folders, see what's installed, see what works and more importantly what doesn't work right. Try to find comparable software, and install it. Even the basics like old copies of Microsoft Office, or whatever.

I recommend looking through the available software on winworld as it's an excellent treasure trove of operating systems, applications, games, and other useful software of the time period. I'd link it directly, but tumblr hates links to external sites and will bury this post if I do. If you're a mac fan, and you can find an old G3 or Performa, there is the Macintosh Garden's repository of software, but I'm not the right person to ask about that.

Some of you might be like "oh, oh! Raspberry Pi! say Raspberry Pi!" but I can't really recommend those as a starting point, even if they are cheap for an older model. Those require a bit of setup, and even the most common linux can be obtuse as hell for newcomers if you don't have someone to guide you.

If you don't have real hardware to muck about with, emulation is also your friend. DOSBox was my weapon of choice for a long time, but I think other things like 86Box have supplanted it. I have the luxury of the real hardware in most cases, so I haven't emulated much in the past decade. Tech Tangents on youtube has a new video explaining the subject well, I highly recommend it. There are plenty of other methods too, but most are far more sophisticated to get started with, if you ask me.

For getting a glimpse into the world of the 90s tech, if you haven't already discovered LGR on youtube, I've been watching his content for well over a decade now. He covers both the common and esoteric, both hardware and software, and is pretty honest about the whole thing, rather than caricaturish in his presentation style. It might be a good jumping off point to find proverbial rabbits to chase.

I guess the trick is to a find a specific thing you're really interested in, and then start following that thread, researching on wikipedia and finding old enthusiast websites to read through. I'm sure there are a few good books on more general history of 90s computing and the coming internet, but I'm not an avid reader of the genre. Flipping through tech magazines of the era (PC Magazine comes to mind, check archive dot org for that) can provide a good historical perspective. Watching old episodes of the Computer Chronicles (youtube or archive dot org) can provide this too, but it also had demonstrations and explanations of the emerging technologies as they happened.

There are so many approaches here, I'm sure I've missed some good suggestions though. I also realized I waffle a bit between the modern and vintage, but I find many computing troubleshooting skillsets transcend eras. What works now can apply to 10, 20, 30, or sometimes even 40+ years ago, because it's all about mindset of "this computer/program is dumb, and only follows the instructions its given" . Sometimes those instructions are poorly thought out on the part of the folks who designed them. And those failures are not necessarily your fault, so you gotta push through until you figure out how to do the thing you're trying to do. Reading the documentation you can find will only take you so far, sometimes things are just dumb, and experimentation (and failures) will teach you so much more about the hard and fast rules of computers than anything else. I'm rambling at this point...

So, let's throw the question to the crowd, and ask a few other folks in the Retrotech Crew.

@ms-dos5 @virescent-phosphor @teckheck @jhavard @techav @regretsretrotech @airconditionedcomputingnightmare @aperture-in-the-multiverse -- anything big I missed?

[xx-psych0-rabbit-xx]

pokepasta masterlist

masterlist of all pokemon creepypastas ive read so far, at someones request+for funsies.ranges from "everyone knows this one" to "deviantart user heaven" to "wiki recommended at 2 am"

(note ill be linking each pastas latest version if they have been rewritten, either by the creator or done with their permission.shouldnt be hard to hunt their original versions if you wanna see smth you remember from old days)

lost silver (fan game in link)

strangled red

glitchy red (r slur is used in a certain part)

buried alive (rom hack)

hypno's lullaby* (song cover)

easter egg:snow on mt silver (fan game) (fan game 2)

(creepy) black (rom hack)

lavender town syndrome (supposed original song)

ash's coma

satanic lavender town (rom hack) (alt ending rom)

HM slave

tommy boy

my shining star

forever mine (TW for suicide in this one)

explorers of death

bad egg manaphy

nasty plot

pokemon dead channel

pokemon dead channel 2

pokepark wii:pikachu's return

ashamed

.194

my guardian angel

pokemon:perfect

pokemon lovelost

flames of life

fallen leaf

jessica

event gone wrong

little red rabbit

disabled

braid

tarnished gold (short rom)

battery ditto

dark green

abandon lonliness (rom hack)

prevention of evolution

lonely pikachu

blue tears (rom hack (flashing cw))

bittersweet

i love you, doll!

hell bell

stained silver

ketsuban

false pokémon copies news report

*as far as i can tell the creepypasta is mostly the song, as looking it up shows multiple different stories based off of it+w the fnf mods name its now impossible to properly hunt a supposed original down as it takes over the results

bonus:

escape from lavender town:game maker game using assets of pokemon yellow based on the lavender town syndrome rumors, very short, heavy flashing warning, the sequence after the game is closed might induce nausea.

uhcakip.exe and it's prequel pokemon death version:screamer games with some flashing by the creator of IHATEYOU.exe, the much more known mario creepypasta game, they're no longer downloadable but have full gameplays up

pokemon monochrome ask blog:ask blog made by person responsible for a lot of the stories linked here! has full art n photos, huge recommend! (note:the chrono tag feature is usually broken on mobile tumblr, open it on desktop mode on a browser if it leads to an empty page)

purin's lullaby:archival wiki for an old DeviantArt ARG, the link will take you to the timeline page, i havent looked much myself but i believe enough links have survived the test of time you can understand it (not to be mistaken w FNF's purin, they just share the design)

this list will be updated as i read more, feel free to suggest any not here

[strykingback]

Okay TL;DR: A Response to a an a/nti-r/wde person who fell for satirical jokes while I provide proof of what I said last night.

Without further ado enjoy.

Alright P/apitimefire177. You wanted me to go band for band. Alright then. Let's go Band For Band.

Okay so you first kick things off by saying I didn't cook you cause I was drunk? No I was not drunk the other night. If I was drunk then there would have been three key things to tell if I was drunk.

I would have rushed to post this yesterday.

There would have been a MULTITUDE of spelling errors and what not

The post itself would have been completely rushed out with those things akin to Reasons 1 and 2.

And the BIG ONE of it all.

READING THE FUCKING TAGS AND SEEING IF IT SAYS:

TW: DRUNK POSTING

No I do not think that you are stupid for doing your research on the actual definition of Aryan. Now it could have been used in a satirical manner. Let me repeat it for you.

SATIRICAL.

Which Satire is used as a form of humor to ridicule, criticize, or exaggerate a vice whether it be visual, literary, or other works.. In no way was Doom saying that Jaune was a Naz/i or a White Supremacist. It's a JOKE that you once again decided to be belligerent about and I believe that you again stalked Doom's Blog just to make that post. Which if I'm correct you posted this as well:

Gee, its not like you also stalked Doom's blog just cause he made a JOKE about Jaune making you LOOK LIKE A FUCKING HYPOCRITE. Which yes I will admit I did have to look at your blog as well from the last post to break down what you said and posted. Which I will put myself there, but I'm not going to stoop down to your level and continuously find reasons to hate on you versus you who goes to stalk one person because they like Cardin or going into their DM's messaging them slurs, making every single post about them.

Lets also not forget that while on tumblr desktop R/WDE and A/nti-R/WDE stuff cant be seen. BUT On mobile it can be seen even if you mention it or post everything extremely properly.

I made now two posts about you, first one calling you out for your aggressive behavior, the second time was in response to what you said. This is the third post I had to make about you. and also

No, you hating on Jaune does not offend me at all you dumbass. BUT. I am a fan of the Cardin becoming the Reformed Bully Trope. Which in my opinion should have been done in Vol 7-8 of RWBY, where we see Cardin actually apologizing to Blake about his racism and that he is doing his best to learn.

Gee.. its not like we also see actual racists and people learn and forgive IN REAL LIFE AS WELL. (Video by VICE: Covering Up Racist Tattoos: Erasing the Hate)

Oh Heres another IRL Example! ( Video By WTAE-TV Pittsburgh: Former White Nationalist offers apology and seeks forgiveness for past lifestyle)

Or how even a DISNEY MOVIE SHOWED THAT A BULLY CAN LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES AS WELL AND OWN UP TO IT. (Zootopia: Gideon Gray apologizes to Judy)

I aint gonna stay too long on this, but I'm just going to move on as well.

Papi... you fell again for a SATIRICAL JOKE of me comparing you to DJ Akademiks. In no way am I calling you a fucking PDFile or for r-wordist. The only reason why I compared you to DJ Akademiks is because of the actual person himself being devoted to Drake. Which is why I called you "The DJ Akademiks of Jaune Stans" not because of what he has been recently accused of but for his devotion towards Drake.

Here are some examples of DJ Ak's devotion:

DJ Akademiks Top 5 (Which was during the CLB Album release in which at one song he fell asleep)

DJ Akademiks reaction to Drake being in Astroworld/Sicko Mode

DJ Akademiks Reaction to Drake using a clip of DJ Akademiks Top 5 snippet in his Diss

This is what I MEANT by calling you a DJ Akademiks of Jaune Stans. Now I'm not saying every Jaune Stan is bad, hell at one point I was one too before I realized how shit he is as a character.

Yet at the same time you gave a half-hearted apology about the slurs you used so casually, while also not addressing the DM's of harassement you sent, while deleting the posts of you attacking other people in the RWDE tag because you got caught lacking. You never apologized to them...

that is not a sign of maturity. That is a sign of immaturity and not taking accountability for your actions. Because guess what you think you got away scot free but I think you forgot.... ONE LITTLE THING ABOUT THE INTERNET.

WHATEVER YOU POST EVEN IF YOU DELETE IT STAYS ON THE INTERNET.

Okay what the fuck does Tauradonna have to do with what we are talking about here. STAY FOCUSED ON THE SUBJECT OF WHAT YOU ARE ARGUING AGAINST.

Psst, I see A belligerent jaune simp. My biggest problem is that you called me a "RWDE Person" who uses R/RWBY as a "Valuable Source" which I replied to in a mature manner while also telling you that I used reliable sources. I am aware of Cardin being racist in Volume One, which please refer back to above where I am a fan of Cardin becoming a "Reformed Bully" Trope along with some examples of actual racists and neo-n/azi's taking accountability for what they did and doing what they can to clean themselves up as a person.

Now I did mean to say, it's time for me to pack it up which was an error on my part (I was once again not drunk.)

Plus, at the end I told you to do some self-reflection, drink water, and to have a good one. While also before that I even said in my first call out to BLOCK AND MOVE ON and to not witchunt you. Because I wanted to give you at least SOME FORM of peace.

I once again provided proof of why you fell for these satirical jokes while also getting your ass chopped up and cooked up at the same time.

Now if you may excuse me I got better things to do instead of having listen to your hypocrisy.

[queenimmadolla]

Alright, before I start posting any more smut, let me go ahead and teach you guys how to shit on, oops—i meant change your community labels provisions and give you some 411 on them:

COMMUNITY LABELS

So, if you’re on tumblr—over the age of 18 (or not, I’m not gonna be one of the many liars on this website and say I wasn’t devouring smut about bands i looked up to when i was younger than 18, but you will not be interacting with me if you’re tryna read what I write and you’re not 18 years or older) and you Iike to read fanfiction or you like to browse through art, odds are you’re missing out on a lot. See, last fall, maybe end of summer, tumblr introduced these “flagging” guidelines they call Community Labels. If what you write or draw meets the “requirements” (spoiler alert, even if they meet none of the requirements, tumblr will still flag it as Mature should someone recommend it be labeled for their dumbass petty reasons) for Mature Content, they give you the option to flag it so it no longer appears on the dashboards or searches to anyone who does not have their Community Labels setting on to show it. What tumblr does not tell you, is that BY DEFAULT, those settings that would allow you to see that content should you wish to are automatically off, unless you’ve gone in and changed them.

See, at first i thought maybe this was a good thing. It wasn’t too hard to give my account permission to see the Mature Content tumblr would flag, but that was until I realized this was just another way for tumblr to censor things without making it outwardly known.

When I changed my settings, I was able to do so on the tumblr app. This was available when the Community Labels first rolled out. Then, when people started to actually change their settings, tumblr made it desktop exclusive—or at least hard as hell because I have not been able to find those settings on the app since. Tumblr also picks and chooses what works/posts to flag and essentially hide (because again, if you don’t have your settings set to show Mature Content, you are not seeing a lot of content and it will be rarely interacted with). Tumblr often goes against their community guidelines and the guidelines they set forth for what falls under ‘Mature Content’, several of my works in particular that are not at all Mature have been flagged. I was given a reason by tumblr support that even though it didn’t meet any of the criteria for mature content, it still needed the mature content label. No, you read that right. Mind you, I’ve tested the flagging, I created another tumblr account, wrote some dirty ass smut, flagged it from that other account, and tumblr decided that post did not meet the criteria for Mature Content even though I described c*m eating. And it gives literally anyone the power to censor your work, be it mature content or not, since Tumblr mislabels posts because they don’t actually review it and they don’t care. While I can’t help you remove these labels, not even tumblr support will help you do that, I can show as many tumblr users as possible how to still view and interact with this content. And a little reassurance, once you have your settings changed, YOU will be able to CHOOSE whether or not YOU want to view a post that has been flagged (labeled) as mature, as you’ll have the option to show it or hide it from your feed. So if you don’t want to see something, you don’t have to, rather than not getting a say at all. Here’s how to fix your settings on desktop:

STEP ONE: GO TO SETTINGS

STEP TWO: Once in your settings, scroll down past ‘Content you see’

STEP THREE: Locate ‘Community labels’ and ensure all of the bubbles under ‘Show’ are selected.

You see the little ‘Hide’ selection at the bottom? Yours will be on, so turn that stupid bitch off with as much aggression as you can because it’s not only evil and hiding mature content, but a shit ton of harmless stuff as well. The amount of times I will scroll through my search and see something stupid fluffy and cute flagged as mature is RIDICULOUS.

So, yeah, fuck that and fuck tumblr for removing these settings from the app to make sure people can’t access it easily and if you didn’t know how to stick it to tumblr by changing your settings, now you know. Congrats and go read/look at whatever you want!

[tryan-a-bex]

Writing patterns meme

Rules: Share the opening of your last ten published works or as many as you are able and see if there are any patterns!

From this post by @dancinbutterfly https://www.tumblr.com/dancinbutterfly/735744268412534784?source=share

I'll mull about patterns here because I put the last two after the cut due to warnings. So, about half of them start with dialogue, which is how I started writing--a lot of dialogue, minimal else things. The other half start by getting inside someone's head--internal dialogue, basically, so not that different I guess. Also I try to start with something funny or at least interesting, to hook the reader? I don't know if it works.

Endless Family Trick or Treating

“It’s not a sphere!” argued Dream, swinging his jack-o’-lantern trick-or-treat bucket against the leg of his vampire costume. “It is a sphere!” insisted Desire, twirling the tail of their demon costume in their hand again. “I learned it in school and it’s round like a ball so it’s a sphere.”

2. Velma Meets the Family

Velma stared at the gently lapping water of the river, leaning her elbows on the railing. The rest of the gang was fast asleep in their motel, but she hadn’t been able to sleep so she’d come outside to think. The water sounds were restful, but her mind refused to stop whirling. 

3. Freddy the Robot Vacuum

It was amazing what a person could get used to. Hob had enjoyed his first robot vacuum. It was nice, and not a very difficult adjustment, to get used to the vacuuming being done automatically for him while he was out. The little phone app notifications were cute, and he was only human so he anthropomorphized his vacuum, naming it Freddy. Getting used to the anthropomorphic personification of dreams hanging around in his flat… took a bit more time.

4. Life is but a Dream

Rose put her head down on the desk. Why? Why would the words come in the middle of the night, and never when she had her laptop out and on? She’d even tried writing her thoughts down, but found that she actually couldn’t make out her sleepy handwriting in the morning. She looked at the tumblr icon on her desktop, sighed, and got up to get a cup of tea instead. That would be a shorter distraction. Probably.

5. Death is not easy to cheat

Unity poured tea in both cups and sat down across from Rose, pushing the plate of cookies toward her. “How are you doing, dear? You look tired.” “Oh, Unity! It’s been so stressful lately! I can’t seem to think of the right words when I sit down to work on my novel, but then they keep me awake in the middle of the night, you know? And during the day Lyta is either freaking out about Daniel being with Uncle Morpheus and Hob, or freaking out about him being so white and growing up so fast.

6. Trials of a Shapeshifter in Love

“Lucienne has been working so hard lately,” Gault explained to the Dream King’s head cook. “I’d like to do something nice for her. I was thinking a surprise romantic dinner over candlelight in the library.” “Ah, yes, I think she would appreciate that very much.” They put their heads together to plan the meal when suddenly Gault heard a familiar voice from the hallway.  “So, what have you already tried?” Lucienne asked. “Hell, all the normal plunging and clawing didn’t fucking fix the goddamned blockage, and it’s a fucking hassle taking the whole damned drain apart all the way back into the fucking wall.” 

7. Naga No-Go

“Lucienne.” Lucienne’s head popped up from the book she was studying. Lord Morpheus’ summons sounded just a little bit more… strained than usual. She turned her head, using her raven senses to triangulate the direction of the summons. His chambers??? This… could not be good.

8. Which Witch (Okay I'm cheating here because this isn't published yet. but if you want more, let me know and I'll post it on ao3 or send you a link.)

“You can’t just come in here without a warrant.” The cantankerous old witch put her hands on her hips and stood squarely in the doorway. Eldie sighed and rubbed the shaved hair at the nape of her neck. “Please let me come in, ma’am. Your daughter hired me to clean and cook and help you out, and I can’t help if you don’t let me in.” “I don’t need help, you shameless hussy! Who does she think she is, that gossiping busy-body! I’m fine here by myself. You can go now!”

Okay, under the cut are mentions of spiders, and non-con body horror. (The fic is not bad, the backstory from canon is, and that's where I started.)

9. Arachnophilia (mentions of spiders)

Zelda stared down at the cafeteria mac and cheese on her plate. The only thing appetizing about the middle school cafeteria food was that her mother wasn’t glaring at her and criticizing how she did or didn’t eat it. Instead, everyone ignored her, tucked into a corner. She would feel hurt about being shunned if she had any desire at all to interact with the other children. She didn’t. She closed her eyes and shoved a forkful into her mouth, thinking about her science project to distract herself from the taste. Spider webs were actually incredibly strong for the size of the filament, and they came in such an extraordinary variety of shapes and sizes. She couldn’t wait to get back to the library for more research. She opened her eyes as she swallowed, scooping up more food and quickly scanning the room. 

10. The Order of the Knights of the Dreaming (the actual fic I wrote is pretty sweet without much actual violence, but Alice's backstory from InCryptids is intense, so skip this next paragraph if you don't like mentions of non-con and body horror)

Alice closed her eyes and felt her memories and skin being ripped from her once again. It hadn’t actually been like that. In real life, she hadn’t figured out her memories were being adjusted for years, and she’d undergone the flensing willingly. But once she learned that her mind had been altered without her knowledge and that removing her skin had not been necessary but was done for the profit of her “uncle,” well, the nightmares about being violated had been unceasing. 

If you made it this far, congratulations, consider yourself no-pressure tagged!

[quinnhills]

Good to know you're feeling welcome! :D this is our little place in the internet, and we've decided to make it trans and gay as hell (n i gotta say, i did think "they-them gang! :o" when i found out you started using they/them too a while ago X3 ) n if you received this ask more than once, my tumblr bugged out before i could finish, sorry (。_。)

anyways, and sorry if this is long, but Woe- More Tumblr Things Be Upon Ye:

there used to not be an image limit before, causing a few- interesting posts… tho that changed a few years ago and recently, at first the limit being 10 images per post to now 30 images per post (you can also move the images around a bit)

if you plan on staying long term on tumblr and use desktop the most, i recommend getting the browser extensions Xkit &/or New Xkit cuz… yeah, tumblr is pretty nice, but it sometimes gets hard to use. it also adds extra useful things to the tumblr experience, which is nice to have. i'd say tumblr is like living in a cheap apartment in a calm area of the city. the place's great for what it is, just gotta be sure to leave rat traps near holes and dont worry about the Beast down the hall,

speaking of rats, we got an infestation. you may or may not have heard of it with the voter fraudage going with the polls a bit ago; since tumblr has little to No email verification, people outside tumblr buy bots to get in here and start posting malicious links. tho the bots are surprisingly easy to identify (often times blank blogs with very weird descriptions + stolen picture of lady or ai generated. you'll know it when you see it), and the protocol here is block and report spam so staff can deal with it

and btw if you want to keep a post for as long as your blog stands, i recommend rebloggin! thanks to how tumblr is build as, even if the original post or that blog is gone, the reblog will stay with you (+ tags on reblogs dont really make a post expand outside of your own blog, so many use this to create Very intricate personal tag systems to make easier finding posts, bc once a blog gets 1k+ post in it, it gets hard finding anything on it... <- knows this from experience u.u)

oh and last thing before i go again (and something i found out recently), another browser extension ive been loving: Stylus! with it you can customize a ton of sites to your liking And with a specific style found in the archive of this extension, you can change how the dashboard looks! even changing the background to any image you might want :D

so yeah, thats it, for now. i got more info if you want it, just lmk 👉👈

and you probably already noticed this, but there isnt really any word limit for posts or asks around these lands. tho on tags, the character limit on a single tag is 139. but you can put a Lot of tags, so there! be free mx quinn, no character limit holds you down no more ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ

Thank you so much for the knowledge!

Some Quinn Facts:

Mx., Ms. and Miss are all acceptable :)

I use “gay as hell” as a sort of tongue-in-cheek shorthand, but I also identify as trans as hell, queer as hell, non-binary as hell, lesbian as hell, and anxious/depressive as hell

I’m a vegetarian

My favorite food is pineapple pizza (controversial, I know)

For a few years in the early 2000s, I was a licensed auctioneer

The most times I’ve ever cried during a movie is 5 times during Happiest Season

I like the idea of books, but I’m bad at reading them

Overalls give me gender euphoria, and I don’t know why

I hope to release a solo album within the next year

I hope to direct a feature-length film by the time I’m 40

Coming out was the best thing I ever did

[tonbanereblogs]

Becoming addicted to contacting Tumblr support for any change I dislike lmao. I sent this rn:

Hello!

We are all here on Tumblr because of how unique it is and how it strongly defies evil zucken-musk-bezos website trends and algorithms.

That's why I was pretty bummed to see the new desktop layout with all the side bars. Tumblr has always prioritised desktop and landscape shape, and now it just looks like a vertical phone app slapped on a computer screen.

ALSO! Please do bring back the previous chat background. The one in which the colours of the chat match the colours on the blog of the person you're messaging.

It was a small detail with a lot of personality and uniqueness, and very subtly made it very hard to accidentally message the wrong person. You kind of felt like you visited their own home and recognised the colours :).

If this change has been made for accessibility reasons, just give us an option to toggle it on or off.

Honestly in all seriousness, ALWAYS give us an option to toggle off whatever changes you implement. Tumblr thrives solely because we put our work here, if it becomes hell like twitter, we'll leave as well. Please take care of us!

Thank you for your time. Please let me know if there's any changes :)

[dominateeye]

I forgot to write my "goodbye Cohost" post on Cohost a few days ago. I guess that's pretty emblematic of my relationship with the site.

It was a really cool idea that I always assumed was surely taking off, because it deserved success at least as much as if not more than any of those fediverse things I don't pay attention to. It was a site that had personality, had character, in a way far more believable than Tumblr's ever was. But because of several intentional and reasonable choices, it wasn't a site I really felt a need to use. It wasn't better than Tumblr for me, it was different to it. And while that was a great thing, it wasn't compelling enough to get me to risk losing contact with people who were still on here.

I think a successful social media site does need an algorithm, or some kind of discoverability of new content that is enabled and put in front of the user by default. One reason people go on social sites is to find new things; if they only ever want to talk to their existing friends, they'll start a group chat on any number of messaging platforms, or by text. I don't think such a mechanism has to become any more addictive than literally anything else on Earth is, and without ads, it's a hell of a lot harder to exploit for financial gain. I also think a successful social media site needs an app, even a sideloaded one available only on Android in order to dodge rules prohibiting porn, because using a site that already has a UI with the UI of your mobile browser also taking up room on a phone screen and having entire pages load each time instead of just the new content does create an appreciable difference in experience. Cohost on my phone was just a web browser, with all the clunkiness that entails. Par for the course on desktop; not so on mobile, where I use social media 99% of the time.

That's not to bash the site. Those decisions were purposeful; the Anti-Software Software Club team had good reasons for those decisions, to guard against the sense of dependency other platforms tend to create in their users whether intentionally or not, and to ensure that people could post what they wanted without having to worry about whether advertisers and investors and app store administrators would find it palatable. Those decisions made sense for Cohost and the kind of website ASSC wanted it to be. But while I admired that intention and that vision, and the home it became for many people, those decisions meant it wasn't the kind of website I was looking for. So I didn't use it. I just assumed it would be there in case Tumblr was no longer habitable.

I have to wonder how many other people thought the same thing.

I forget who on Cohost said this, but in among the discussion of open-sourcing the site (something I believe would be/have been a virtuous end unto itself regardless of logistical concerns, because it would allow more people to make more things and that is a Universal Good if there is such a thing, but I digress) someone opined that carrying on Cohost doesn't require open-source code, because that code was not really what the site was. Cohost was a belief that we deserved something better, that it was possible to make, and that it was possible to keep alive and make better, and that even if it failed it would have been worth it to try. Keeping Cohost alive is keeping that belief alive, and anything made because of that belief is a continuation of Cohost. Even if it isn't Cohost (jump) 2. I don't know how true that idea is, but I do like it.

One other thing that came out of this discussion was @hms-no-fun's observation that the people who use a social media site put in labor, too. Posting and chatting and participating in a community is time and effort spent intentionally; that's labor, even if it's never paid, and it's essential to keeping a community alive. Cohost was the legal property of Anti-Software Software Club, it was funded by two mysterious benefactors (one of whom started talking from their position as such in the site's final days and had some interesting things to say), but as users it was our site that we gave purpose to. Perhaps we should have gotten more of a say in the direction the site took. Perhaps we should have been given the chance to try to keep it alive. Perhaps shutting it down instead of reaching out to us for direct help did harm us in an avoidable way. But on the other hand, the team was never more than, what, five, six people? The site ran for about a year and a half, and we know those people were putting out fires for almost all of it. That's exhausting. I can't blame them for not wanting to run themselves even more ragged and take the inevitable risks of bring users into that side of things as well. Really, everything that's being said about Cohost is understandable. Because everyone involved had an investment in it, and as such, even in different ways, it belonged to all of us.

So if you're reading this, and you cared about the site, then so long, and thanks for making Cohost.

[slybluehologhost]

Admin housekeeping incoming — just wanted to write a few updates on some upcoming projects.

1) I've done some major redesigns to my tumblr, so hopefully it will be nicer to look at & easier to use. I will note, however, that some pages might be better suited to desktop viewing & minor decorative pieces could look a little off when viewing on a mobile browser. I don't use the tumblr app, so I'm now realizing that I have no clue how things will look there at all... whoops. If you happen to find something massively broken, send me an ask & I'll look into figuring out what went wrong. It's worth noting that I've set up redirect pages for the two old static masterlists, but you'll need to click the link on them to redirect to the new navigation page since every auto redirect code I found uses JavaScript.

2) The DMMd re:code Materials Book will take a little longer than I originally expected to get up. TL;DR, my day job has been kind of wild this month & the scanner I use was out of commission for a while. I'm hoping to finish it sometime during March, so long as no more wrenches get thrown into my plans.

3) Work on TCN 2009 is progressing relatively smoothly, so I'm still crossing my fingers for things to be finished by White Day. Eagle-eyed folks might've noticed that the new masterlist page for TCN also includes a third event... That DVD will be arriving at some point in the future, but I'll likely work on it during the summer/fall so I can upload some other items first.

4) I have... a lot of things to scan. Like a LOT. We're talking probably close to 1k scans. It's immensely tedious. I will get through everything eventually, but if things get slow around here, it's likely because I'm in scanning hell.

5) Some VK things will eventually be posted on here as well, primarily because I just want someplace to put them. It won't become the focus of this account, & some of it will be of interest to DMMd fans anyway.

6) Lastly... If you're interested in seeing something in particular on here, send me an ask. I can't make any promises — especially if I don't have access to whatever it is — but I will take note if it seems like there's a big interest in something. I'm just one person & I'm paying for everything with my own funds, so please keep that in mind.

If you read all that, then thanks, haha. Hope you're enjoying things here!

[biased-tsams-confessions]

Thanks. Having to write this on the phone since Desktop Tumblr says I get no rights >:(

Disclaimer: This is a combination of a vent and self reflection of my own take on events. Feel free to take what I say with a complete grain of salt

Disclaimer out of the way for people passing by. I can actually talk about stuff

I have been dealing with online bullshit since I was first on the internet as a child. I’ve had people come and go on the internet but there’s some that just can’t seem to get the hint to leave. One of them being one of people who helped write that recent doc about me. I haven’t read that doc and don’t play to but from what little I did see people mention about it it’s both surprising and unsurprising. I mean keeping shit I said as a child that I apologized for that is atleast 6 or 8 years old that I didn’t do a repeat of to prove that I’ve been a horrible person?? What level of distain and hatred do you have to be to pull this?? I know who it was too, they’ve been a problem in my online life for so long. As a adult now I can see how in the wrong I was for what I said and what my reactions were, but like all of those who say they are my victims, to paint the picture that I was the sole problem is leaving out so so so much. There is so much left out to paint me as this non-human and it hurts. It’s scary. This person for years due to being a minor and having clear ignorance and having mental illnesses was on and off in contact and complacent with my online stalker. The person who for more than 10 years stalked all of my socials, told me to kill myself multiple times, has called me several slurs and so on. It’s been HELL online for me due to this stalker and them. They have gone on livestreams and videos with this stalker to call me retarted. To trace and color over my art and claim they drew it. To secretly stalk my socials. The only times this didn’t happen was when I played nice and told them I’ll be there friend. But even then that wasn’t enough beca when the doc a year ago dropped they played dumb to me in dms and on voice call as if thy didn’t write that doc. Hearing my panic in my voice because I had no one else to be on call with to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. They even lied in my dms claiming the art thieft 2 or 4 years ago was due to their older brother only for Jade to claim it was a alter of theirs.

1/?