#when there's tags on the reblogs or even commentary on the post itself... it gives me life

[bloodshedbabys]

can we make this a post that people reblog with things that are needed/wanted/appreciated by those that are unhoused besides just cash?

[qveenofgluttony]

Beelzebub's Masquerade Ball Schedule

Mun’s Note: This is not a strict schedule.* I will move activities/events around slightly if needed or if something comes up. This is just a general outline of what to expect during the event. Once again, the event itself is not chronologically locked. Even before the event resumes the next couple of days or when it ends everyone is still welcome to continue event threads if they wish. If you would like to participate and still have not received an invitation, please feel free to like this post.

*Reminder that this schedule is in Central Standard Time (CST)

Friday

6 pm - Opening Words/Guest Arrival

- I will post an opening drabble that will kick off the event. After which, muns are welcome to make their own posts or drabbles of their muses arriving at the ball. Please tag either of my blogs @/infernal-feminae or @/qveenofgluttony if you would like me to reblog your arrival posts for visibility purposes.

7 pm - Beelza Opening Performance

- I will be posting a lyric drabble of Beelza performing for the guests. Muses are welcome to make dash commentary with their reactions or interact with Beelza afterward if they wish.

8 pm - Costume Contest

- I will post a link of all the submitted costumes so everyone can vote for the one they like best. I will try to give guests a couple of hours to vote before announcing the winner of the costume contest.

9 pm - 10 pm - Open Floor Dancing

- Pretty much down time for muses to mingle with other guests, grab drinks, explore the venue, etc.

10 pm - Costume Contest Winner Announcement

- The top three finalists and the winner of the costume contest will be announced!

11 pm - Midnight - Cool down

- More mingling, dancing, food and drink until guests are ready to retire to their guest rooms or go home and rest until the next day.

Saturday

3 pm - Ball Resumes

- Just as it says. The ball resumes!

4 - 5 pm - Dancing “Contest”

- The generated pairings of the muses participating in the dance contest will be announced. The paired muses are encouraged to interact with each other during this time. Muses who are not participating are also free to comment or react. Once the hour is over the paired muses are free to continue to interact or leave the dance floor. If you would still like to participate in the dancing contest, you can like this post here.

5 - 7 pm - Open Floor Dancing

- The rest of the guests are allowed to re-enter the dance floor after the contest is over. Also more down time for muses to mingle with other guests, grab drinks, etc.

7 pm - Verosika Mayday Performance

- Same as Beelza’s, I will be posting a lyric drabble of Verosika performing for the guests.

8 pm - Midnight - Cool down

- Another chill time for the guests to mingle, drink and eat, and dance.

Sunday

3 pm - Ball resumes

- Just as it says. The ball resumes!

4 - 8 pm - Open Mic

- Beelza will open the stage to anyone who wishes to entertain the rest of the guests with their musical talents. If muns would like, they are free to write a short drabble of their muses “performing” with a song of their choice. Please tag either of my blogs @/infernal-feminae or @/qveenofgluttony if you would like me to reblog it for visibility purposes.

8 - 11 pm - Open Floor Dancing

- Down time for muses to mingle, dance, etc.

10 pm - Beelzebub’s Identity Announcement

- Beelza will invite the guests to come up and try their luck at guessing Beelzebub’s identity before she reveals herself. The first muse to guess correctly will receive their reward. If no one can correctly guess then she will reveal herself instead.

11 pm - Guest Closing Performance

- A mysterious guest will give the closing performance!

[thebreakfastgenie]

this is one (1) redeemable voucher to complain about AO3's tagging system (if you like)

Thanks for the voucher!

I probably should have phrased that post differently because upon reflection what I hate is more downstream of AO3's tagging system. The system itself does what it's supposed to do: it organizes the archive. Of course, users get cutesy with it (and I'm guilty of this myself) and other users will use inaccurate tags on purpose to get more attention (this is not acceptable behavior), but neither of those things are the system's fault.

But because the tagging system is so robust and fics are tagged based on tropes, this culture has developed of hyper-curated, trope-based reading habits. This didn't exist before AO3 because it just wasn't possible to filter fics to that extent. Some of my favorite fic reading experiences have been fics that I stumbled across by mistake because I didn't know what they were or because I had to comb through broader categories.

And this is where I start sounding like Ted Gup. Ted Gup wrote this essay in the late 90s called The End of Serendipity about how computers being so efficient at retrieving information was going to bring about the end of people stumbling upon topics they wouldn't have otherwise explored. I had to read and respond to this essay in English class in middle school and I raked Ted Gup over the coals, because I was writing on my laptop with dozens of open tabs. I still think I was right to point out Ted Gup's failure to foresee the wiki walk, but now that I'm older and technology has developed more over the last fifteen years, I'm starting to think he had something of a point.

I was thinking about this in a fanfiction and fandom context because I recalled a post I reblogged recently saying (paraphrased) "I have nothing against shipping but some of you are too focused on shipping to the exclusion of everything else." I agree with that post, but for me part of the problem isn't even the focus on shipping, it's that the shipping content is often so formulaic. Fandom talks a big game about diversity and creativity in fanworks, but a lot of the actual output I see is incredibly formulaic. In my opinion that's related to the extreme focus on tropes. Tropes are great, but if you're only looking at fic as a list of tropes you're taking a very narrow view. I don't know what the direction of causality is here, if there even is one, but I think the tagging system and the way the tagging system is used facilitate this reductive trope-based outlook.

I'm from the fanfiction.net era and I find the character and relationship tagging on AO3 useful, but I don't really care for the additional tags. I had to train myself to even read them. I prefer to select fics based on titles and summaries, because those are created by the author. Obviously writing a summary is very different than writing a story (and in fact it's a different skill and it's hard!) but a summary is still written by the author, so it gives me some sense of their writing style. When authors actually include an excerpt in the summary it does that even more. Tags can be useful in conjunction with a summary, because well-selected tags make me curious how all the elements listed in the tags fit together. But I don't want to sort by Enemies to Lovers or whatever.

I don't expect everyone to read like I do, this is nothing more than one crank's ramblings about my personal dissatisfaction with the current state of fandom. Maybe it resonates with someone, and if it does they're welcome to reblog it, but I'm not trying to do social commentary here. Maybe it doesn't, and that's okay too.

I also don't know if the trope focus on booktok and in the traditional publishing world comes out of fanfiction or not but it's even more distressing to me there and I think it bothers me in the fanfiction sphere because of the possibility that fanfiction is contributing to that trend.

[angelica4equity]

Fandom Ettiquette

So I recently posted an interview with Simone Ashley that implied there could be potential for a Kanthony spin off.

Considering the mixed response to season 3 I noticed there was a lot of sadness/bitterness in the Kanthony tag and I wanted to bring some positivity. When I found an article from Simone Ashley talking about a potential Kanthony spinoff, I was so excited to share it and discuss with everyone. The post had a few likes and no quotes or reblogs with commentary. That's fine, it happens...

So imagine my surprise when I see not one but TWO Kanthony blogs that I follow answering asks that directly quoted my post and even went so far as to use the screenshots I provided without crediting the original post or me!?

I recognize that this is a newer fandom and I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt, so for future reference it is in incredibly poor taste to not credit someone for their contribution to a tag. I do not blame the blogs for answering the questions because they may not have seen my post, but an easy alternative on the asker's end could have been to either copy paste the link of Tumblr post in the ask itself, or even better engage with the post directly and tag the person who you want to see it (such as the Kanthony blogs).

I was really excited to share that news and talk about it in order to inject some positivity in the tag but instead I was completely cut out of my own post by people who claim to enjoy the same fandom as me. Please do not do this! Act right.

[aj-lenoire]

welcome, twitter refugees!!

here's a quick and friendly tumblr how-to:

DOs & DON'Ts

DO reblog posts!! regardless of whether or not you add a comment, either in the post itself or in the tags, the OP will get notifications of everyone who likes the post via your reblog and who reblogs it from you! comment as much or as little as you like

DON'T repost things! fanart, fanfiction, etc. this is different from reblogging, a repost is when you copy/save the work to your computer and reupload it in a post of your own, rather than reblogging it

DO follow tags as well as other blogs!! really like one specific character from a tv show? a certain ship? search their name and follow the tag, and you'll see posts that mention or tag them even if you don't directly follow the person who made that post

DON'T rely too much on the search function, it's broken. if you want to search someone's blog for a tag, you're better off going to the URL: tumblr.com/[blogname]/tagged/[tag]

DO tag liberally! you can use the tags to add comments that you don't want to directly add to the post, to make it easier for people to search your blog, or to make it easier for yourself to find things later on

DON'T use tiktok censorship speak when tagging things!! it will make it actively more difficult for people seeking to avoid certain topics. instead of "tw: abu$e" just tag "abuse" and anyone who has blacklisted the tag "abuse" will not see your post.

similarly, DON'T tag things like "epilepsy" - instead, tag "flashing lights" so people can still use the epilepsy tag to discuss epilespy without risking seeing triggering flashing lights

DO use the follow and the block buttons liberally! this site has absolutely no algorithm, so it is entirely up to you to curate your space exactly how you want it!

DON'T send hate to people via the askbox on their blog, either anonymously or not. just block people who annoy you or post horrible things

DO participate in polls! tumblr only got them recently, less than a year ago, and people immediately went ham. vote on stupid things like which bug emoji is superior, which ship is the best, and how much vanilla extract should go in a cake! but remember that you cannot edit the original poll after you post it

DON'T use or endorse "AI" generators like chatgpt! don't reblog AI images and or AI endings to unfinished/abandoned fanfictions

DO cite your sources if you want to educate people on something in a post, we all love to learn, and informative posts on everything from current political events to which geodes could be made into useable dildos, but misinformation is prolific, so make sure anyone reading your information can refer to a real source!

jargon

notes - likes, reblogs (with or without comments or tags) and replies to a post are all agregated to give the number of notes, which is basically the number of times a post has been interacted with

OP - the Original Poster of a post, for example, me, aj-lenoire, with this post. i am op.

hellsite - tumblr itself. this website is insane and unprofitable and broken and we wouldn't have it any other way. hellsite can be either (affectionate) or (derogatory) and often both at once

blorbo - your favourite character, your rotten soldier, your sweet cheese, your good time boyy. post about them frequently and with weird, frenzied gusto

squick - something you personally don't like, such as a ship or a character or a trope, but is not actually bad or harmful - it's just not for you. it squicks you out.

blacklisting means you've blocked a specific tag rather than a blog/person. for example, if you don't want to see anything with spiders, blacklist the tag "spiders" so you don't see any! if someone you follow reblogs a post and tags it with "spiders", or the OP of the post tagged it with "spiders" then your dashboard will hide the post from you and tell you it was tagged with "spiders" and you can choose whether or not to view it

passing peer review means you added commentary to a post in the tags, and someone who reblogged that post from you saw your tags and thought they were funny, so decided to screenshot them and add them as a comment so everyone could see them. congratulations!!

breaking containment is when a post about a niche subject and/or from a blog with not many followers gets super popular because it's funny, and often OP despairs at how their notifications become unusable from the sheer number of notes from this one post

KUNGPOWPENIS - if someone posts something bigoted, tumblr will ban together to reblog, one letter at a time, k-u-n-g-p-o-w-p-e-n-i-s. only do this when the bigot is the OP, because only the original poster will get a flood of single-letter reblog notifications from every single branch of the reblog chain

tips & tricks

pornbots and bots in general are not uncommon here. whenever you get followed by someone, check to make sure they're not a bot by visiting their blog. if they only have a few reblogged posts on random topics, or no posts at all, and their profile picture is a beautiful woman, they're a bot, and you should flag and block them

old posts can and do get reblogged and liked all the time, there's no point at which it becomes cringe to interact with a post. we even have some from 10+ years ago that're considered 'tumblr heritage'

long posts will cross your dash from time to time, the most infamous being colour of the sky. you will see it and it will madden you with how far you have to scroll - inflict your followers with the same frustration by reblogging so they can see it too!! if you're on desktop, pressing j will skip to the next post.

read more allows you to shorten a post with a 'click to read more' link that takes the reader to the root post on your blog. this is especially handy if you're publishing fanfiction or a very long analysis of something.

toggling reblogs lets you choose whether a post is rebloggable or not, for example something personal you may want to delete later, turning off reblogs means there won't be any copies floating around after you delete the root post

follower count is not visible! the only way anyone will know how many followers you have is if you tell them. follow blogs based on whether you like what they post, not by whether they're super popular or not

memes are frequent and long-lasting. tumblr plays with jpegs like dolls and there are some memes that have been here for years. a current favourite is the destiel confession meme which has warped into a shorthand for breaking weird news

important dates

tumblr loves a goofy-ass-holiday!! here are some of the standouts:

ides of march - 15th march, celebrate julius caesar getting his shit rocked

pride month - june, tumblr is generally a very pro-queer space, so expect everything to be decked out in rainbows for the entirety of june and most of the rest of the year, too!!

halloween - the entire month of october and also a week in july, this site loves some spooky scary skeletons

destielputinelection - 5th november, reminisce about the absolute chaos that gripped the internet during the 2020 usa presidential election

blog recs for new users

to each their own, and a main draw of tumblr is that there's something for everyone, down to the very, very niche. so, search for stuff that interests you and follow those blogs! however, here are some blogs that are fun for everyone:

heritageposts - your one-stop blog for all the best, weirdest, oldest tumblr posts will all the drama, expect to see a lot of destiel

staffs-secret-blog - (not actually staff)

one-time-i-dreamt - full of weird and wonderful posts, made all the better by the fact that no one reads usernames here, so inevitably there is panicked confusion over what the fuck is going on

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses - one of tumblr's most ubiquitous shit-posters

aj-lenoire - that's me!

that's pretty much the basics, but most people here are really friendly, so if you're unsure, just ask someone! have fun!!

[wromwood]

While I've decided not to buy any more FNaF books, I'm still curious enough to check them out when my local library decides to offer them. And recently, they added the first graphic novel collection for their Tales from the Pizzaplex stories.

To those of you who remember my previous commentary on the graphic novels for FNaF short stories, you'll know that these adaptations are rarely good. They're often riddled with errors, strange design choices, and overall adequate comic making skills that I wouldn't expect from a Scholastic-published book for a popular franchise. But has this changed for the new graphic novel?

... Yes and no.

Overall, the art has steadily improved since the graphic novel adaptations came out. I do appreciate the choice to have a different artist for each of the three stories per installment, and since the artists periodically return across the books, I can see the improvement. However, each story has its fair share of things to criticize.

Let's start with the first story in this volume: "Under Construction."

At first glance, nothing appears to be wrong with this art style. It's detailed, colorful, and there is even creative usage of comic panels. Sadly, there are two areas that are still lacking. First is this font that's used for signs.

Hand-lettering takes effort. I can understand switching to text. But that doesn't take away from the fact that they still used it in a way that looks lazy. The font/lettering doesn't look natural in the world itself. You can tell it's just a text box put over an image, not really text that's naturally on the sign.

This is even more apparent for signs that should be more detailed or unique, like this birthday banner:

Or the sign for the Mega Pizzaplex:

Second, this story makes some weird choices regarding food. This actually isn't uncommon for these adaptations. Food is usually depicted in an either unsatisfactory (doesn't look good) or incorrect way (doesn't match the story or dialogue). But this story's art style is strong enough to make these errors stand out. For example...

The award-winning coffee cake. The protagonist even points out that it should have cinnamon, hinting that this is a traditional coffee cake. However, that's not a coffee cake. There's no crumbly stuff on top, and the icing looks pink.

You'd think they got the second cake right with all the roses. Until you see this...

That icing is white. There's not even a hint of green. I know pistachio doesn't necessarily mean neon green, but any comic should know that "pistachio" equals some kind of green. Otherwise, it just looks like a vanilla cake.

You'd think that I'd give the comic a pass for depicting a store bought cake that's supposed to look disappointing. The more disappointing, the better, right?

OH COME ON.

No store bought sheet cake looks like that!

Oh, don't forget the reappearance of the coffee cake, which looks totally different for no reason. And still not like a coffee cake.

All right, moving on to story #2: "HAPPS."

This art style is the weakest one to me, so I won't go over all of my criticisms. I'll just point out that it either doesn't show what it needs to, or it shows what it needs to in a disappointing way. Like this:

That first page is the only context we get of the laser tag fight that the protagonist was in. But it's up to the dialogue to tell us the important stuff: that the protagonist got elbowed by bullies and that there even ARE bullies. We don't see them anywhere else in the story. "Show, don't tell" is good advice for almost every occasion, but this is especially the case for a GRAPHIC NOVEL.

But it's not like the showing is all that good either.

This is the depiction of the protagonists scaring two little kids away. It leaves a lot to be desired.

Aaaand I've hit the image limit for this post, so I'll reblog with my criticisms of the third story.

[accessible-flatland-art]

Pinned post.

[ID: The icon for this blog, which is a black right triangle on a brown square background, with text following the diagonal of the triangle, reading, "Let irregulars enjoy fandom too.". End ID.]

Please copy and paste the image description I write into the original post for your art, rather than simply reblogging it from me. (You can also reblog it too, if you want, thought!). Plain text (what you're reading right now) is more accessbile than ALT text because tumblr is a glitched mess.

The image description should go directly below the image being described, above comments, and stay in normal sized, black text, without italics, bold, or colors. It may be indented (like above) to make it easier to distinguish from the rest of the text in the post. This is in fact more accessible.

This blog is run by @rjalker so it's easier to keep track of which Flatland art has an ID already, and so people have an easy place to find it all.

Anyone can reblog from this blog, even if I have you blocked on my main. I block people sometimes just to filter posts and then forget to unblock...RIP

Please note: I cannot describe posts with eyeburningly neon colors, flashing lights, or audio that is difficult to hear or very fast paced.

If you list your OCs names, pronouns, and shapes in the post itself, it will make it much easier for me to describe.

___

Posts on the blog so far: 404 Posts still in the drafts: 1,022

Blog created on September 18th, 2023 Numbers last updated: September 7 2024

(The drafts consist of all of the undescribed Flatland art, and art that is described but I still have to tag, that I could find in the whole tag going back to January 2022, at which point tumblr started giving me random unrelated posts instead. Not sure if it ran out of Flatland posts, or just stops actually keeping track of tagged posts after a year...?)

Here is a link to a post with many places to read, watch, and listen to Flatland, all for free, because the book is public domain.

Very important note:

Very important edit: Ladd Ehlinger, the creator of the 2007 film that’s free on youtube, is an extremely racist and misogynistic conservative. He made a political ad so blatantly racist and sexist that youtube has literally resstricted it, so that you can’t share the link outside the site. Simply google his name and you will see dozens upon dozens of articles about how bigoted he is.

Please be aware of what kind of person made that movie when you watch it. His bigotry is baked into the movie, and is why he refused to actually do anything with the original political commentary from the book.

You are not a bad person if you already watched the movie and enjoyed it, but you do need to be aware of what kind of person made it and how that affected the movie, and make sure others are warned. He is also here on tumblr with the username filmladd. I highly recommend blocking him.

___

The tagging system for this blog is under the cut so this post doesn't get too long. More tags will be added as I find more art to reblog.

The tags in use so far, which I have saved to a notepad so I can just copy and paste them as needed.

Some tags are newer, so might not show up on all art! Let me know if there's any that should be added to specific posts, or if there's any tags you want to see to be able to search for!

_

please copy and paste into the original post for accessability no credit needed! It should go directly below the image and stay in regular#text without color italics or bold though you can make it indented like I have it here! Image descriptions are like subtitles for blind ppl

described images, described art, Flatland, Flatland art, Flatart,

transcribed audio, transcribed lyrics, lyrics, music,

Photoedits,

Physical books,

Flatland a Romance of Many Dimensions, Flatland Illustrations,

Book collections, Flatland collections,

The Color Revolt, Configurationism, Circularchy,

Stylized form, Literal form,

Gijinka,

anthropomorphized, humanoid, anthropoid,

objecthead,

Flatland animals, Flatland rabbit, Flatland bees, Flatland horse, Flatland chicken, Flatland dog, Flatland cat, Flatland mouse,

Flatland technology,

Flatland anatomy, Flatland worldbuilding, Flatland cosmology, Flatland structure,

Spaceland worldbuilding,

maps,

A Square, The Sphere,

The Sphere 1965, A Square 1965,

A Square, A Square 2007, A Sphere 2007,

Spherius 2007, the Sphere,

Adam the Square, Spherus the Sphere,

Kormance the Sphere,

The Grandson of a Square, A Square's Wife, The Wife of A Square, The Sons of A Square, The Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather of A Square, The King of Lineland, The Monarch of Pointland, Chromatistes, Chromatistes the Pentagon,

memes, Flatland memes,

Public domain characters in Flatland, Flatland versions of characters,

Public domain characters,

Family Trees, Comic, Animation,

Flatland OCs, Original characters, Flatland original characters,

Character reference,

Disabled characters, Characters with disability aids, Characters with glasses, Characters with visual impairment,

Disabled characters, Neurodivergent characters, Physically disabled characters, Characters with mobility aids, Characters with disability aids, Characters with prosthetics, Characters with canes, Characters with walkers, Characters with swimmers, Characters with glasses, Characters with wheelchairs, Characters with chairs, Characters with sleds, Characters with crutches, Characters with rollators, Characters with scars, Characters with facial differences, Characters with limb differences, Characters with visual impairment, Blind characters,

Queer characters, LGBTQIA+ characters, Gay characters, Bi characters, mspec characters, Lesbian characters, Trans characters, Nonbinary characters, Characters who use neopronouns, Characters who use multiple pronoun sets, Aroace characters, Aspec characters, Omni characters,

Black Characters, Characters of color,

Irregular characters, Deirregular Characters,

Werestars, Stellanthropes, Shapeshifters, dragons, serpents, weredragons,

Characters with wings, Characters with tails,

Sphereland, Flatterland, The Arts of Being, The Breaking Point, Neopronouns in Action, Flat Dreams, Flatterland, Flatland the film 2007, Flatland the movie 2007, Flatland 1965, A Visit to Numberland, Numberland, Flatland Heist 2013,

Neopronouns in Action 062, Neopronouns in Action,

Neopronouns in Action 090, Neopronouns in Action,

A 2024 Flatland Summary,

Tarzan of the Apes, Mickey Mouse,

Dayo,

Esther Flat Dreams, Nora Vigenere, Nora Flat Dreams,

Pollux Codex, Madelyn Schwarz-Carver, Hunter Schwarz, Marianne Smith, Michael the Misogynist Pentagon, Providence, Nature, Providence and Nature, Germs, Mr Square, A Shape,

Oblisi,

Liam,

A Son of A Square,

Cy,

Frau Line,

Lily Cipher,

Ruth Galton, Ruth, Liz, Elizabeth Huntsworth, Stella, Orbis, Irene Huntsworth, Mama Huntsworth, Chief Jr, Atlas Huntsworth, Atlas, Vance,Vance Huntsworth, Elijah, Elijah Huntsworth, Jasper,Jasper Huntsworth, 01 Isosceles,

Vincent, Trey,

Rutabega,

Hauntlight the Irregular Line, Cenotaph the rabbit aether, Sirenade the Irregular Multiangulus, Raptigan the _, Avispa Oro, Beatris Baker, Mo Guy, Unnamed characters, Billie Bob and Joe, Billie the Straight Line, Bob the Circle, Joe the Hexagon,

Jerult the Irregular Kite, Cairis Garret the Equilateral Triangle, Letel the Isosceles Triangle, Aralinda the Straight Line, Leteralinda the Straight Line, Ambrosine the Straight Line, Lucille the Straight Line, Carolayn the Kite, Tristram the Isosceles Triangle,

Arsenn Lupin, Arsene Lupin, AScrossover, Arsene Lupin crossover, Ortence Daniel, Hortense Daniel,

Flyssa of Ib-Wa, Dearg of Ib-Wa, Lieutenant Kellite the Configurationist, Grandna Tuokeli,

Angelica Tessan, A Tesseract, Abel Spherious, A Sphere, Anthony Squaur, A Square,

Vikki Line, Victoria Line, Lee Line, Jubilee Line,

Huffy,

Bill Cipher, Gravity Falls, GFcrossover, The Book of Bill, , Flatfalls, The Mother of Bill Cipher, The Father of Bill Cipher,

Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Ford Pines, The Axolotl, Andrew Kryptos, The Mosaic,

Carlton,

Randie,Gravity Falls, GFcrossover, Flatfalls,

Flatsune Miku, Hatsune Miku,

Astrum, Astrum the five pointed star, Funis, Pi,

Ted the vwindir,

A Squared shipping, Quadsphere shipping, ASquarexTheSphere, Squaresphere, Squeer,

Spacelanders, Flatlanders, Linelanders, Pointlanders, Hyperspacelanders, Exter Dimensional beings, Higher Dimensional Beings, Beings From Unknnown Dimensions, Planiversers, Numberlandians,

Walking Flatlanders, Swimflying Flatlanders,

Alternate Universe Forms,

Video, autoplay, GIF, Autoplay, WIP animation, Unnamed Animation 001, Animation,

games, downloads,

Flatland Merch, Art you can buy, Art you can print,

public domain art, public domain designs, public domain characters,

Square characters, Sphere characters,

Straight Line characters, Irregular Line characters,

Triangle characters, Isosceles characters, Equilateral characters, Scalene characters,

Rectangle characters, Irregular square characters, Kite characters,

Circle characters, Irregular circle characters,

Pentagon characters, Hexagon characters, Septagon characters, Octagon characters,

unspecific characters,

Art templates,

plush, plushies, arts and crafts,

Ty for adding it to the original,:), ID added in reblog, ID in original,:),

Plain text ID added in reblog, Original ID in ALT text, :),

[masterdreamweaver]

i have further commentary about this that i put into the tags at first but i think it should be part of the main post so it doesn't get lost in further reblogs;

#like hey with all due respect. you are conflating a good handful of things (i don't think i said this part right but that's not the point)

checking tumblr on the phone when you're in the bathroom is a habit. combing your fingers through your hair when you're nervous is a habit.

saying "i can't form habits, the habit forming part of my brain is broken" is. in and of itself. a habit.

hello. i have been professionally diagnosed with adhd twice. it is so much easier now that i am medicated about it. yes. but also quite literally. op is Right.

#i have a life threatening disability that will genuinely kill me if i forget to take my medication #i forget to take my medication a lot. i know this.

#outsource your habits. outsource your motivation. set timers. set reminders. #give yourself a gold star sticker. ask your friends to tell you that they're proud of you. #there are things that make it easier and you are. not entirely wrong. but you're being a negative nancy about it.

#i don't know if i do fully believe you when you say that you've broken your tasks down to the smallest step either

#like my steps for medication are #get food. count carbs. do math. do shot. #that's not small enough. #do shot-- that's so simple and easy. right

no. i have to: - grab my insulin case. - open it. - take syringe out. - take alcohol swab out. - take vial out. - open alcohol swab. - swab top of vial so it's clean. - take backstop cap off syringe. - take front cap off syringe. - purge empty air from syringe. - draw in air. - stick needle in vial. - inject air into vial. - flip vial and syringe upside down. - draw out insulin into syringe. - inject back into vial to get rid of air bubbles. - repeat if necessary. - draw out correct dosage. - take vial off of syringe. - hit syringe with vial in case there's any air bubbles left in there - set syringe down. - expose flesh. (i usually do my shots in my stomach so this is usually as simple as "lean back in chair. lift up shirt." but it's more complicated if you're in public or wearing something more complicated than pajamas etc) - pick up alcohol swab again. - wipe flesh clean with alcohol swab. - set down alcohol swab. - pick up syringe again with one hand. - pinch flesh with the other hand. - place needle against skin. - push needle into flesh until it's fully in there. - inject insulin into flesh. - hit the stopper with my thumb a bit to make sure i get every unit. - remove syringe from flesh slow and careful. - set it down. - pick up alcohol swab. - wipe flesh clean with alcohol swab a second time. - set alcohol swab down. - pick up syringe and syringe caps again. - put both caps back on the syringe. - put syringe in sharps container. - put alcohol swab in trash. - put vial back into medkit. - put medkit back into its place (on my desk i have an organizer with all my shit so it's in reach every second)

and even all THAT. that can be broken down FURTHER. anything can be made simpler and less complicated and easier.

there's a post i need to find which is genuinely about this; "go get a glass of water" for someone without problems might have to be broken all the way down into "stand up walk to door open door go out of door close door walk to stairs walk down stairs walk to kitchen walk to cabinet open cabinet grab cup take cup out of cabinet walk to sink hold cup under faucet turn on sink turn off sink move cup to mouth drink water"

but it's. yeah. you should have made that your own post instead of venting on some genuinely well-meaning and helpful advice

here's some more unsolicited adult advice as someone in her 30s who knows there are a lot of twenty somethings and teens that follow her: if you're trying to build a new habit you really want, and are struggling, you have to break it down to the smallest building block possible. If you're failing, you haven't thought small enough. I know it's possible to hear stories of people who just snapped into new life mode one day by "just deciding", but truly what's happening there is a confluence of events and experiences that force the brain into some sort of epiphany. You cannot will an epiphany. It'll never work. For most times of your life, you will need to build habits intentionally, and that means not working against yourself and to set micro goals. like laughably tiny goals. because once that easy tiny goal is met, you can build off it, tiny goal after tiny goal until you reach your big goal.

so for example, if you want to be a morning person that gets up at ass crack dawn so that you can work out, eat brekkie, shower, and get to work at a leisurely pace, and you're not that person because you will hit your snooze button 800 times, you have to get the big picture goal out of your head. think smaller. "I want to get up 15 minutes earlier than I normally do." If you can't do that, make it 5 minutes. "I want to cook breakfast every day" hell no too big. "I want to eat something, anything, before I leave the house" hell yeah, fantastic. When you go to the grocery store to make sure there are things in the house for breakfast, if you keep buying bagels and microwave sandwiches that you ignore, you gotta think smaller. SMALLER. What's something so easy to eat that you'll never say no to. Is it a yogurt? Is it a handful of grapes? Is it a hostess ho ho? is it hot cheetos? FORGET the big picture of the fantasy put-together woman preparing a full nutritious meal that you'd be proud to admit to. Think only of the smallest goal you can achieve. If you know you can't say no to an ice cream sandwich, put a ton of ice cream sandwiches in your freezer and have one for breakfast every day until it's so instilled in you that you gotta get up to eat something you can start diversifying.

It sounds like, from the lack of habit place, that must take forever. But really it doesn't take too long to form the habit once the discipline kicks in. the trick is that you have to give your brain something easy to become disciplined to. If it's too hard, think easier and smaller. No one has to know. Literally no one in the gd world has to know that for 4 weeks when you were 22 you had an ice cream sandwich for breakfast every day. who cares. If it gets you eating oatmeal with fresh fruit in a few months who cares. you did it, yay. smaller, easier. if you can't do it, think smaller and easier. smaller!! EASIER!!! You are not thinking smaller and easier enough. break your brain thinking how small and easy you can go. SMALLER. EVEN SMALLER, SIS.

[amidnightqueery]

There's a post about reproductive rights going around by a RF that I almost reblogged with commentary, but then checked the blog and found vile anti-ace and anti-queer sentiment, so I'll post my banger tags here instead:

#i've been saying this whole time that the value of the fetus depends foremost on the opinion of the person carrying it #if the pregnant person doesn't see it as equal to their own life #others don't get to decide that the fetus is more important than them #how devaluing is that? the pregnancy doesn't even have anything to do with you. #and speaking as someone who *has* brought a fetus to term but did have to reckon with that decision #and helped others through their abortions #it isn't even seen as a matter of a (potential) life not having worth #it's just weighing the devastation of being pregnant and having a baby against everything and everyone else in our lives that we care about #including the life itself #self preservation is not selfish nor evil #honestly i always shock antichoicers when i agree that abortion shouldn't have to exist #but that view is based on an ideal world where circumstances that lead to unwanted/unsafe pregnancies also don't exist #and as long as unwanted and unsafe pregnancies exist abortion is necessary and life saving healthcare #maybe lawmakers and lobbyists should focus instead on improving the lives and health outcomes of people with uteri #and protecting the lives of pregnant people from abuse murder medical neglect etc. #which means actually giving a shit about bipoc and migrants and poor/disabled people #and improving the economy and cost of living crisis #maybe then more people will want to be pregnant. perhaps they won't #but you'll still have done something far more useful and beneficial in the long term #than legislating against bodily autonomy and healthcare.

[qveenofgluttony]

Beelzebub's Masquerade Ball Schedule

Mun’s Note: This is not a strict schedule.* I will move activities/events around slightly if needed or if something comes up. This is just a general outline of what to expect during the event. I will also be posting many plot-driven drabbles between times. And once again, the event itself is not chronologically locked. Even before the event resumes the next couple of days or when it ends people are still welcome to continue event threads if they wish. If you would like to participate and still have not received an invitation, please feel free to like this post.

*Reminder that this schedule is in Central Standard Time (CST)

Friday

6 pm - Opening Words/Guest Arrival

- I will post an opening drabble that will kick off the event. After which, muns are welcome to make their own posts or drabbles of their muses arriving at the ball.

7 pm - Beelza Opening Performance

- I will be posting a lyric drabble of Beelza performing for the guests. In addition, I will also be posting a plot-driven drabble to go along with this one. Muses are welcome to make dash commentary with their reactions or interact with Beelza during this time if they wish.

8 pm - Costume Contest

- I will post a link of all the submitted costumes so everyone can vote for the one they like best. I will try to give guests a couple of hours to vote before announcing the winner of the costume contest.

9 pm - 10 pm - Open Floor Dancing

- This is pretty much down time for muses to mingle with other guests, grab drinks, explore the venue, etc.

10 pm - Costume Contest Winner Announcement

- The top three finalists and the winner of the costume contest will be announced!

11 pm - Midnight - Cool down

- More mingling, dancing, food and drink until guests are ready to retire to their guest rooms or go home if they wish and rest until the next day.

Saturday

3 pm - Ball Resumes

- Just as it says. The ball resumes!

4 - 5 pm - Dancing “Contest”

- The generated pairings of the muses participating in the dance contest will be announced. The paired muses are encouraged to interact with each other during this time. Muses who are not participating are also free to comment or react. Once the hour is over the paired muses are free to continue to interact or leave the dance floor. If you would still like to participate in the dancing contest, you can like this post here.

5 - 7 pm - Open Floor Dancing

- The rest of the guests are allowed to re-enter the dance floor after the contest is over. Also more down time for muses to mingle with other guests, grab drinks, etc.

7 pm - Glam Sisters Performance

- Same as Beelza’s, I will be posting a lyric drabble of the Glam Sisters performing for the guests.

8 pm - Midnight - Cool down

- Another chill time for the guests to mingle, drink and eat, and dance.

Sunday

3 pm - Ball resumes

- Just as it says. The ball resumes!

4 - 8 pm - Open Mic

- Beelza will open the stage to anyone who wishes to entertain the rest of the guests with their musical talents. If muns would like, they are free to write a short drabble of their muses “performing” with a song of their choice. Please tag either of my blogs @/infernal-feminae or @/qveenofgluttony if you would like me to reblog it for visibility purposes.

8 - 11 pm - Open Floor Dancing

- Down time for muses to mingle, dance, etc.

10 pm - Beelzebub’s Identity Announcement

- Beelza will invite the guests to come up and try their luck at guessing Beelzebub’s identity before she reveals herself. The first muse to guess correctly will receive their reward. If no one can correctly guess then she will reveal herself in the next hour.

11 pm - Beelzebub Closing Performance

- Beelzebub reveals herself and gives a closing musical performance to wrap up the ball. 

[chrismerle]

Well hello there

Hey, hi, hello. I'm Elspeth. Elsa or Els work, too. Or Chrismerle if you just wanna stick with usernames. There have been a few iterations of my pinned post, but I figured it was about time to put together a new one.

I'm in my 30s. Greyromantic asexual. Nonbinary. I prefer they/them but honestly I'll take whatever pronouns you lob at me. I crochet. I make jewelry. I do tarot readings. I write (mostly ghostwriting lately, but sometimes I have time to write something I can actually share on tumblr). I edit. I do a bunch of things.

This blog is mostly a mishmash of fandom stuff, art stuff, some political stuff, and cute animals. I don't try to stick to any one theme in particular. Theoretically, I'm a writeblr blog, and I'm open to tag games or answering questions about my WIPs, but I'm very inactive as a writeblr because of work. My queue spits out 30 posts a day and is generally loaded for at least 10 to 15 days out, and I also periodically reblog random shit on the spot.

My WIPs:

#wip: threshold: Portal fantasy of mixed/indeterminate subgenre, wherein a bunch of young adults from the regular world get lured through a portal and stranded, and need to be guided back home. Complications occur. (Smells a bit like Fallen London.)

#wip: brothers: Short story exploring what it means to find your own identity when you've only ever been part of a package deal before.

#wip: eigengrau: Vaguely European low(-ish) fantasy dealing with gods and fae being fickle, zombies, cults, and a zombie cult.

#wip: ties that bind: Honestly I don't even fucking know. I've started it over twice and haven't liked it either time. It's vaguely about people finally getting to tell their own story after the world has silenced them and made up a story for them, but the story itself keeps falling to shit.

#series: rags 'n' addy: It's an oddball series of one shots primarily following the characters Ragnarok and Adam. Sort of horror, sort of fantasy, sort of rustic sci-fi. Happy to accept one shot prompts if you want to give one.

Most of my original, non-reblogged posts:

#actual journaling: Mostly me yammering on about my day or my pets.

#elsa liveblogs nonsense: My running commentary on whatever I am watching, playing, or reading at the moment.

#writeblr: All of my original fiction writing stuff, including my WIPs and some things that otherwise weren't tagged.

#jewelry drop: Stuff I've made for my Etsy shop. Not all of it is actually jewelry, but I didn't want too many tags just for the shop.

Support me:

Writing commissions

Editing commissions

Crochet commissions

Tarot readings

Etsy shop

Ko-Fi

PayPal: t.elspeth.williams@gmail.com

Venmo: @Taylor-Williams-1105

Or tip this post!

Other places to find me:

AO3 (currently locked to members only; I have extra invites if you need one)

Discord (DM me first)

[bestworstcase]

What is your opinion on all the hate RWBY gets? Does it really deserve the reputation it gets as a garbage piece of media that screws up at every possible turn or is it better than people give it credit for?

not to be facetious anon but why did u ask me this what about me splashing the fevered soup of my rwby brainrot all over this blog constantly led u to wonder if i maybe secretly think it’s garbage GKFHDJS

um on a more serious note i think a lot of rwby fans could rly benefit from ignoring the hatedom because Frankly there is nothing exceptional or uniquely vitriolic about rwby’s hatedom that is just What Hatedoms Are Like and the general posture of the online rwby fandom circles that i’ve been kind of perusing by cruising through tags and keeping an eye on what people say on my posts strikes me as almost—like i get the feeling sometimes that some folks who really do like the show have also nonetheless bought into the hatedom narrative of, oh rwby is an amateur mess written by people who don’t know what they’re doing really, and that leads to this bizarre sort of attitude that anything good must have been accidental?

bc the thing is while yes the amateur passion project of it all does show in the writing, mainly in the awkward pacing and clumsy worldbuilding in the first couple volumes, but this is a story that has excelled at set up and execution since its inception and, idk maybe blitzing through the first eight volumes has just given me a fundamentally different perspective on how the narrative is put together but it is ludicrous to me to see so many fans of this show engaging with it like they think the writing team is just kind of making it up as they go along—as if the story didn’t introduce salem by using her as a narrator three whole volumes before we even got a glimpse at her, as if the first three volumes aren’t deliberately structured to offer oblique glimpses of the conspiracy that reveals itself fully beginning in the fourth, as if v2-3 weren’t screaming the fall of atlas from the rooftops. how do you watch eight volumes of this and come away thinking that rwby is not a story that was meticulously and lovingly planned?

hdhdjvk i’m just a little frustrated that when my posts break containment there are inevitably a large handful of people who reblog them with tag commentary to the tune of “well i don’t believe this was purposeful and don’t trust the writers to do it but it would be so cool if this were right” like. god. maybe if you stopped drinking the hatedom koolaid and paid attention to what’s happening on screen you would feel more optimistic about the competency of the writing???

[kitkatt0430]

I know this is the worst timing to ask this. . . how can I be active in the arrowverse (well for the specific shows i like) fandom? Especially when half of my faves aren't present in them, anymore? Because I admire how you're still posting Cisco fic despite how he's not a main character, anymore. And I feel like too awkward whenever I remember everyone else has moved on from a specific season. My mindset's still at the season where I left them off. Thank you for reading this and sorry again!

I think a lot of people are feeling this way with The Flash coming to an end with its next season. Superman & Lois, despite originally being part of the Arrowverse and participating in the John Diggle xOver event during it's first season, has officially divorced itself from the Arrowverse to stand on it's own (which is a decision I can understand even if I find the retcon annoying). Which means when the Flash ends, the interconnected Arrowverse is officially done. No more new canon content for any of the characters and we have to hope that the characters who remain will get a send off that feels satisfying and consistent with who they've become over the years.

But the end of canon doesn't have to be the end of the fandom.

While there will certainly be people who move on from the Arrowverse, I think there'll still be a lot of people who stick around for a long while. Unless the final half season of the Flash manages to somehow be worse than the final season of Game of Thrones.

So I think first you need to shake the worry that everyone's moved on from the characters you like. It helps a lot for me knowing that Cisco is still a really popular character, something leaving the show hasn't really diminished. The tags here on tumblr for Cisco are pretty active with gifs and fandom meta. All of the Wells are still pretty popular too - there's a lot of active Wells X Reader blogs around and plenty of people still obsessed with picking apart the differences and similarities between each version of Harrison Wells' quirks. (Me included, Tom Cavanagh gives such excellent and nuanced performances.) But even characters like Hartley Rathaway still have a lot of people interested in content including him in it. And he's a character who's been in only five episodes.

The hardest part, for me, was just putting myself out there. Reblogging other people's posts with commentary, chiming into conversations... I did kind of figure out stuff like Discord isn't really for me right now. But sometimes being willing to try different ways of reaching out to fellow fans, knowing that the answer might wind up being 'not for me', is an important part of fandom experience.

And there are a lot of fandom events - both those specifically for the Arrowverse and those for any fandom - that can be fun to participate in. Those can be easy to take part in because often all you need to do is tag the blog running the event on anything you create for it. Considering there are still fandom events for games like Tales of Symphonia - a game that came out back 2004 - it's really just a matter of seeking out other interested parties.

When it comes to writing fanfic itself, it can definitely be harder to post stories for older fandoms that aren't particularly active. When I wrote a fic for Mutant-X last year, I honestly wasn't expecting to see any activity on it. I was writing that one purely for myself. To my surprise, I've gotten several kudos and there was even one person who commented a lot while I was still in the process of posting up the fic.

So while it can be daunting, I think often if you're willing to write something for an older fandom or characters who've left an active show, then odds are you'll eventually still find someone out there who is still just as interested as you are.

[sunsetsover]

as i said to liz, i think for the most part we kind of agree! obviously i didn't articulate myself super well or expand on my reasoning bc they were just offhanded tags i wrote without much thought. i had no idea it would become discourse the way it did (nor did i want it to, and honestly i wish it hadn't.)

and to be very clear: i would never try to separate the story's queerness from the story itself nor the message it's trying to convey it can't be done. without it, the story becomes something else entirely without it. i'm sorry if that's what it seemed like i was trying to do, because it wasn't and never would be. the queerness is essential.

all that said, the more i've discussed this and heard other people's opinions on it the more i've come to the realisation that i think it all just boils down to the wording of certain things. because i don't even disagree with you on akk's behaviour, but to me that all happens in the subconscious. that doesn't make them any less real, but for me personally that does change the way i would talk about and characterise his behaviour. my issue w the wording of 'specifically committing crimes against the queer students of suppalo' was always that, for me, that leaves a certain impression that, to me, felt untrue. that's literally all my disagreement comes down to.

of course akk's queerness and internal struggles are going to have an affect on how he treats the world remembers gang. i never meant to give the impression that i thought otherwise. however, as i said in the reblogs of the original post, i PERSONALLY feel like the it's doing akk's character (and the story as a whole) a disservice if we leave out all the nuance and the complications involved in it when talking about it. i just don't think there's any singular sentence that could encapsulate akk's actions or behaviours. the context is too important. the boy needs a ted talk at a minimum.

as far as thua is concerned, i will say the same thing to you as i said to liz, which is that i don't think there's any point in us trying to engage in a conversation about him. i fully admit i'm biased against him. as much as i might understand his motives logically, i will never understand them emotionally. clearly thua is a character a lot of people feel quite strongly about, myself included, but imo the things he did were far more damaging and, tbh, unforgivable than what akk did. i already went over my thoughts and reasoning (probably a little too much lmao) in the reblogs of liz's post, so i won't rehash it all, but i will say my opinion on him will never change, nor would i ever want to change yours (or anyone else's for that matter).

the beautiful thing about art is that we all engage with it differently because of who we are and the lives we've lived. that's why we take different things away from it. i feel just as strongly for you do about the eclipse but for different reasons. i'm all heart. that show, to me, is all heart too. it was bursting at the seams with love in all its forms, grief and growth and forgiveness and bravery. friendships and family and romance. of course the commentary on society and queerness and the systems in which all these people exist wasn't lost on me. it's literally baked into the fabric of the story, and you'd literally have to be watching it with your eyes closed to miss it. but that's not why i love the show the way i do! i love it because it's fundamentally so human. queerness is not a concept, it's a real life experience, and the eclipse managed to have profound social commentary without losing the humanness of it all. that humanness - that heart - was what hooked me.

i hope, even though you don't agree, i could at least help you see where i'm coming from. and i wanna apologise for turning what was supposed to be a silly post into a whole Thing. if i upset you, or ever came across as rude or accusatory i do really apologise. as i said to liz, i do have a bad habit of being a little brutal when expressing my opinions without even realising i'm doing it! but yeah these have been fruitful discussions for me. it's been interesting, and has definitely taught me to be more mindful with my words going forward. so thank you for taking the time to expand on your thoughts and giving me the opportunity to expand on mine. <3

@sunsetsover expanding on what i meant by akk "specifically committing crimes against the queer students of suppalo" on @akkpipitphattana's post here:

so part of it is that, yeah, the fact that the world remembers group are queer definitely isn’t an accident on a metanarrative level. the whole series is paralleling the rigidity of the school’s rules, and the harm that’s done in service of upholding them, with the lack of freedom and oppression imposed by homophobia. and so even though the defiance of the rules and the queerness are distinct they're so tightly wound with one another that i don't think you can entirely separate them.

at the same time. i think even outside of that it's akk looking at people who are Like Him and who are willing to be that way, unapologetically, in a way he cannot. of course he’s being brainwashed and manipulated into it. but i don’t think that manipulation would work nearly as well if akk weren’t being faced directly with the part of himself he’s desperately trying to suppress. and so even though akk himself didn’t single them out because they were queer, that queerness isn't irrelevant! it affects how he interacts with them and it affects his willingness to do everything he did.

like i want to be very clear here akk is one of my favorite characters in any piece of media. i have so much sympathy and love for him. but this is one of the reasons he (and the eclipse as a whole) affected me so deeply, is that it stares unblinking at the active harms that are done by chadok in his unwillingness to accept himself and by akk dragged along in his footsteps.

as far as the thua of it all goes. he really is a mirror of akk to me. thua is not targeted at first despite being queer because he's willing to play along, because he quietly accepts the bullying, because he's not disrupting the System. and eventually he decides he has to do something because if he doesn't nothing will change. his actions are wrong like akk's are but they're understandable just like akk's are too!

the show is addressing queerness and homophobia from many different angles simultaneously but one of them is the myriad ways that queer people themselves can contribute to it or fight against it, and the fact that akk is both queer and targeting the queer students of suppalo (the disruptive ones, the ones who aren't willing to just be quiet and accept it, the ones who won't just play along) is to me one of the crucial parts of the story.

[mistsofavalon13]

I posted 2,327 times in 2022

159 posts created (7%)

2,168 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fullyerecteggplant

@idlebirdsparagon

@spodrick

@enthusiastic-french-toast

I tagged 1,298 of my posts in 2022

Only 44% of my posts had no tags

#our flag means death - 359 posts

#stranger things - 130 posts

#videos - 68 posts

#star trek - 65 posts

#ghost files - 29 posts

#hannibal - 28 posts

#ofmd - 27 posts

#mcr - 25 posts

#iwtv - 25 posts

#steddie - 25 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i believe in aliens don’t get me wrong but stuff like ancient aliens and reptilians and stuff? cmon baby don’t listen to them you’re better!

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

i love the fact that the alien in nope looked like a flying saucer and that it fed by using what was essentially a tractor beam. it gives us the idea that in their universe, stuff like cattle mutilation has a very simple reason - a larger animal ate it. and then when it unfurls, it looks like a weather balloon! i didn’t realize that until later, but i remember thinking that the way it moved looked like some kind of balloon. the implication that these aliens have been to earth before and have been interpreted completely wrong is chilling but also so fucking cool

2,741 notes - Posted July 23, 2022

#4

can’t wait to not watch the mario movie, and instead watch the version that will definitely be released on youtube where someone cuts every instance of chris pratt’s voice

4,493 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

#3

ghost files proves that shane and ryan are the ultimate paranormal investigators because their show asks a very important question: what if mulder and scully were both stupid

9,493 notes - Posted September 25, 2022

#2

See the full post

9,596 notes - Posted September 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

the parallels between how poc are treated and how animals are treated in nope (2022) was perfect. one of the first scenes in the movie is when oj is on set for a commercial, and i was immediately as uncomfortable as he was. when he introduces himself to the white actress, she looks scared of him because his name is oj. she sees a black man with that name and can’t hide her inner thoughts. then the pa guy is confused as to where the “older one” is, clearly giving the message that he doesn’t trust oj to be a competent person. the pa sees him as an untrained boy, and doesn’t listen when oj tried to tell him not to look in the horse’s eyes. then when em explains the story of the first moving picture, we see that the black jockey and the horse aren’t even on the same level. people talk about the horse, but they don’t know anything about the man riding it.

then, there’s jupe and the gordy the chimp. jupe was a child star in a western comedy, and the poster itself gave me the wrong feeling. jupe and the unnamed black child actor he starred with were so clearly being used as a spectacle. it made me think of blazing saddles, how the idea of a black sheriff is absurd and funny. however, blazing saddles uses that as commentary and as a way to send a message, while in nope, we see that jupe was the victim of a film industry that tokenized him. then, with the chimpanzee, we see that same tokenization. a sitcom of a white family that includes an asian child and a chimp. it’s clear that both are meant to be equally funny; an asian kid is just as absurd as a chimp in human clothes and a birthday hat.

then, when we see him try to use the alien to create the same spectacle he was a part of in his youth, he realizes far too late that he’s made a mistake. that you can’t rely on an animal. his wife makes a comment about how working with trained animals is unpredictable, and we see in his eyes that he knows what’s about to happen. he put his trust in the behavior of a wild animal and now he’s paying the price and feeling the same fear he felt as a child.

12,492 notes - Posted July 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[comfy-whumpee]

Whumping Safely 101

Many people in this community have mental health problems, face various types of discrimination, and have complicated relationships with some parts or types of whump. In particular, I aim this at people who care about the experience of survivors and others with triggers – partially because I am an abuse survivor who often flirts with triggering content as part of my love of whump.

Keeping your blog safe is difficult, takes effort, and is never a perfect process. But as the community grows and grows, it’s really important that we hold ourselves to a high standard. I would argue that this is a responsibility of all content creators, but especially those of us in the messy playground of whump.

I’ve got three sections in here: content warnings, writing with care, and community interaction. I’ve tried to make it navigable. It’s about 1.8k words. Shorter than a lot of drabbles! I welcome good-faith criticism on this topic and further questions on my own views.

Content Warnings

The biggest responsibility, in my opinion, is empowering your reader to make their own decision on whether they want to expose themselves to your writing. This also happens to be by far the easiest way to help people whump safely.

What to warn

This is a big and ever-changing topic. Some things you should warn for as a rule of thumb are anything NSFW, pet whump and box boy whump, drugs and alcohol, medical and hospital content, graphic gore, intimate partner violence, and animal harm. It can be tricky to draw the line of what counts – what needs a warning? If you’re in doubt, just warn it anyway. It doesn’t hurt.

If someone requests a trigger be warned for, even if it’s something that feels obscure or tame, show compassion and agree to the request. This is someone who cares enough about being able to read your writing that they wrote in! They want to be able to read it and enjoy it. You’re being complimented.

Otherwise, look at what other blogs tag for. You’ll see some variation in styles and levels of detail, but it’s a good way to gauge what people think is warn-worthy, when we’re often writing stuff that would already be R-rated in mainstream media.

Read Mores

The easiest way to make sure people don’t see your triggering content is to use a cut. Tumblr is not a very functional website and likes to delete cuts, but a cursory check of your posted content will usually tell you whether it’s worked. With asks, cuts are very spotty, so don’t be afraid to post an ask response separately with a screengrab of the original question. People often then respond to the ask itself with a link to the post, especially if it’s a whole drabble. Tumblr is weird and bad so just do your best.

Content notices

I.e., a quick summary before the drabble, usually in bold, to state what will be coming. I like to distinguish between using content notes (CN) and trigger warnings (TW) to indicate severity. Others might use the old phrase ‘dead dove do not eat’ to indicate this is a heavy piece, and often you will see qualifiers like ‘intense’, ‘mild’, ‘mention’, ‘referenced’ (i.e. it is discussed but not actively happening), and ‘implied’ (as the opposite of ‘explicit’). I’ve also seen a couple of people use ‘vibes’, which is a really nice way of demonstrating that it’s there, but not the focus. A quick paragraph like this, or just a line, lets people make a quick risk assessment on their reading.

This is also important if you’re sending in asks or requests to people. If you want to ask about something triggering, send an inquiry first about whether the blog is okay to hear it.

Tagging

Tagging is a chore, but it’s your primary way of warning people about your content. The main benefit of tagging is that you can be as detailed as you want, because can be tagging for content in general, not just triggers.

In a best case scenario, you’d tag the kind of whump you’re doing, tag triggers, tag characters, and even your ‘verses, because tagging is your index for your blog. If you tag reliably, you help your future self and your readers find stuff, and you also make your blog really dang safe. People who have unusual triggers can blacklist tags, and will pick up on your content tags to help them.

Don’t just tag your own writing. Tag your reblogs, tag your prompts, tag your asks. Yes, edit your asks to add the tags. Tag your images and gifs. Tag your images as images and your gifs as gifs.

If you aren’t up for detailed tagging for whatever reason, just tag for triggering content, and add stuff to that list if you’re asked to. My usual technique is to make a mental note of tags while I’m formatting and editing before posting.

Be aware that your first five tags will be used in search results. If you’re using tags that are associated with kink too, such as ‘shibari’, you might want to rethink your tag order if you don’t want interaction from those blogs. Also think about what tags might come up in non-whump contexts, such as ‘collar’ or ‘PTSD’. Some tactics for getting around this I’ve seen are adding ‘whump’ after the content or writing the tags in past tense (i.e., ‘collared’).

It is also a good idea to watch out for when you might be reblogging something whumpy that is intended as kink / porn / fetish, especially in images. Tagging these as spicy / nsfw / kink is a sensible move.

Writing with Care

Okay, now for the harder stuff.

I mean here to lay out some guidelines for how to write in a way that helps your reader build good faith. This is a much more nuanced topic, and it’s different for everyone. There will always be differing opinions on what should and shouldn’t be written about, what a good depiction of a sensitive topic is, and how to discuss that topic. I tried to strip this back into absolute basics that I hope we can all agree on.

Maybe your whump involves abuse. Maybe it’s gaslighting. Maybe it’s severe mental health problems, or addiction, or slavery, or you write about or analogise real-world issues. Whump deals with the dark stuff, and that’s a big part of its appeal. But don’t ever forget you’re writing the dark stuff.

(Try to) Know what you’re doing

Some of us play fast and loose with plots, medical accuracy, worldbuilding, and other things that get in the way of the pain we crave. This is all well and good, but when we start using whump that speaks true to people’s lived experiences, we shouldn’t be careless with it. I’m particularly talking about things that get represented poorly in mainstream media, such as abusive relationships, issues around marginalisation, mental illness and disability.

Be critical of media that you’ve consumed. Think about how its depicted things that you want to depict in turn. Look for opinions on fictional representations of those issues. Be aware that you might be more ignorant of things than you realise.

Look at how others are writing these issues, particularly if they’re writing from a perspective different to yours. If you haven’t personally experienced what you’re writing about, e.g., if you don’t have PTSD and you want to depict a character who does, seek out stuff written from or with experience. Listen to the experts.

If you’re looking for stuff about representation specifically, I recommend this collection of posts about ‘Braving Diversity’ cultivated by Writing With Colour, who are in themselves a fantastic resource for this topic, and have recommendations for other blogs that deal with intersecting issues.

Listen to others

Missteps are inevitable. Nobody is perfect. If constructive criticism is offered, that’s also a compliment to your writing. Someone read your work and thought about it, and thought you’d care about improving it. They’re offering themselves as a resource for helping you see your work in a new light.

Criticism is hard and sometimes hurtful, but even if we don’t think it’s accurate, there’s often a grain of truth in it. If someone tells you that your writing is harmful, think about why they’ve said that, not whether or not they’re correct. This is an opinion! Opinions are subjective! But what drove someone to send that in?

You don’t have to respond to all your criticism and definitely don’t respond straight away. Being respectful to those who are trying to help you means taking the time to consider it properly. Sometimes, they don’t need a response. Others, you might want to learn more about what they think before deciding. You might have already discussed the topic, in which case, you might just want to reblog your previous posts.

If it’s sent in bad faith or is outright hateful, you’re well within your rights to just delete it and move on. You might get the same criticism over and over again, and that’s exhausting, and you don’t have to retrace your steps for everyone.

But if it’s new, even if it puts your hackles up, you can always stop and wonder why someone felt that strongly about your work.

Take a step back

One of my better-known characters is a pet whumper who conditioned his victim to adore and depend on him. It’s not always easy to represent how deeply messed up that is within the text – though I think that’s part of the challenge – but in meta-commentary, I am always describing him as a creeptastic bastard lacking compassion and self-reflection. I hope to always give the reader the confidence that I know just how wrong it is.

This is a really simple thing you can do just to give readers good faith in you. Show that you know what you’re writing is dark and messed up. Show your understanding for the issues you’re handling and that they’re complicated. It might seem self-evident, but when you’re writing the really dark stuff, or unhealthy relationships, or institutionalised whump, you can inadvertently create the impression that you just think it’s fun. The fact that it’s fiction does not automatically absolve you. Show that you care about doing it right.

Community Interaction

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet because I will almost entirely be preaching to the choir here.

Be polite to others. Imagine saying what you’re saying to their face.

Don’t send anon hate. Just don’t. If you can send criticism off anon, do so.

Nobody is obligated to interact with you.

Nobody is obligated to monitor their own reader base.

If someone says do not interact, do not interact.

If someone says do not interact, why they’ve said that is none of your business.

You don’t need to spread the word about someone’s bad politics.

Ask yourself if your input is needed, or if what you’ve said has already been said.

You don’t have to take a side.

Take care of yourself. Take breaks. Remind yourself that whump is a small part of the world.

That’s all from me, folks. Stay safe.