mae--bee

[looney-mooney-studio]

Been playing a lot of Cult of the Lamb lately, here’s an art of my in-game polyamorous genderfucky Butch Wife, Witness Bathin 💜

[cup1dt3a]

Well, I had an idea for you to do. The reader is a streamer who enters the Welcome website and, together with the live people, gets to know this Welcome and Yan! Wally... Well, how would Wally react to that? And as time goes by wally falls in love with the reader, how would he see the reader's fans and his job of doing live, playing games, watching videos?

-🐰

Tysm for the request! I love this idea I don’t think I’ve seen anyone do it yet but I could be wrong too! Hope you’re doing well or that things get better 🐰!

this hasn’t been spelll checked so sorry for any errors in my writing!

“Hello everyone and welcome back or to my stream! Today I’m looking at this website called “ Welcome Home.” You greeted explaining the website you found while starting your stream.

You’ve been a streamer for a few weeks, but you’ve managed to gain a lot of popularity due to keeping up with the popular topics of the months. And out of nowhere you had found the website “ Welcome Home”. You don’t know how or why it just one day popped up in one of your emails probably from some fan of yours wanting you to review it. Strangest thing about the email was how nothing was said about the website and the email even seemed to be sketchy, but curiosity got the best of you.

So without thinking or whatever had possessed you made you click on the website. For a second the bright colors and themes of the website blinded you as your eyes tried to adjust to it. The bright colors and theme of the website amazed you. As you looked further into it the website explained it was an abandoned puppet studio they had found. And wanted to revive or find out more about the old show that seemed to have been wiped from history.

You’ve heard a few things about the website and it’s fast rise to popularity so it would probably do you some good to check it out. What’s a little curiosity going to hurt?

” There’s glitches in the website?” You questioned as people flooded your comments with all the glitches in the game.

You decided to check them out after previewing the characters information about them. Though one character in particular caught your eye. Wally Darling he was the only character who ever made eye contact with the viewer. Especially in official art or any on the website his large black eyes almost followed you around in a way. It was creepy, but you guessed that might have just been something the maker of the website did.

Little did you know it wasn’t. As the lively black eyes followed you are still peering into your own eyes. Even peaking onto your stream. As you chatted to your so called “chat” about the website.

“ Hello and welcome to or back to my stream!” You said doing your usual intro for your stream.

“ Sorry if the quality is bad! I’ve been having some trouble with my computer, but that won’t stop me.” You announced.

Ever since you went onto the welcome home website you’ve been having technical difficulties with your computer. You’ve rebooted it twice, brought it to someone for repairs, and after all that you were told nothings wrong with it. Now here’s the oddest thing today as you streamed your graphics and everything was fine. No buggs or anything it was fine. Acting as if there wasn’t anything wrong with it for the last week!

“ Well I’ll just end the stream here. Thank you all watching!” You said as you finally ended the stream.

Sighing out you looked at your now glitching computer. You brought your lips to a pout still thinking of what possible way your computer would be fine. How could it be fine if it’s doing this? And what’s with the eyes that would always pop up randomly. The eyes seemed so familiar in a way too. Were you being hacked? This was just starting to get ridiculous. Who and what is doing this shit?!

Your ‘streams’ as you called them were always so interesting. He’s never really seen anything like this and you even do it for a living? A very fun job in his opinion! To just info dump, review, and give your own input on whatever you were doing sounded like a dream.

As you talked he couldn’t help but become mesmerized with your voice. It was just so addictive to just watch you all day doing your streams without a care in the world. Especially as his dark eyes watched your face contort into so many different emotions. Whether it be anger, sadness, disgust, or even adoration all of them looked so beautiful on your beautiful face. He looked forward to watching you ever day. In a way you could say he was your number one fan because he was always the first one to watch your streams every day.

But once they ended he still had front row seats to his next favorite stream. What you did when the camera was off. This was when you didn’t put on your little persona for the camera and everything was just artificially you. He loved this part of you the most. Even if you didn’t know he was there he always was watching you. You were all his thoughts had clouded over with. A fog of nothing but your sweet face saying his name in admiration just as he hoped to someday say to you.

Oh, how he just yearned to be with you! But not yet, no it’s not time. Not yet…

Tysm for reading this hope you’re alll doing well or that things are getting better!

sincerely- Cup1dT3a💖

[isolaradiale]

"Solaris, I have an idea that you're going to love!" Mimosa chimes, hands excitedly gripping the papers of what half-baked plan she'd come up with now. It isn't often that she's allowed to do as she pleases, on account of her ideas being much too chaotic and uncompromising, but the curious look on her colleague's face is enough to tell her that she may have decent odds this time around.

"Fine. Tell me of this elaborate plan you have. At the very least, it ought to be interesting." Chin in hand, Solaris sets aside the paperwork that he had been filling out, and the two of them proceed to have a very enthusiastic chat about the former's plans.

The night starts as any other in Spirale City, with citizens tucking themselves into bed and bidding good night to their loved ones. Sleep takes them, some more peacefully than others, but all experience the distinct feeling of falling as they lie on the cusp between awake and asleep. It's an odd feeling, one that almost makes it hard to breathe, but it's soon replaced with the lighthearted warmth of floating gently, gently down until they're back in their bed and the familiar streaks of morning light find their way across the bedroom. Eyes open to what seemed to be yet another peaceful morning only to be met with a strange, low wail coming from outside the windows of their home.

Curious and somewhat concerned, an investigation is surely necessary and so investigate our inhabitants do; what they find surprises some of them, but for others it's business as usual. A large, astral whale makes its way across the sky, filled with stars and planets that seem much closer than usual. The sun hangs high in the sky despite the stars being in full view, a smiling face painted on its surface. The streets are lined with various trees of differing species--some even edible--along with a light stream flowing down the roads, where some citizens are in their bathing suits with cups in hand. And some may even find that their homes have also been made fantastical in varying ways.

And somewhere far, far away sit two scientists. One looks bored whilst the other can hardly manage to stay in her seat. At Solaris's discontentment, Mimosa is intent on getting his approval, so another idea is born. "And what if they can affect the dream, too!? That'd be interesting, wouldn't it?" Her idea is met with a wave of a hand as if saying to do what she pleases. With the flip of a switch, the city's inhabitants would now find that their imaginative thoughts were made manifest but hard to control at first.

"Now, let's see how it all plays out, hm? I promise it'll be worth it. Just watch it all unfold!" Mimosa's hand slaps the top of the haphazard giant cube of a machine that now sat in front of her and Solaris. It vibrates intensely as though it's fit to burst from the seams at any moment. Truly a delicate masterpiece that holds the current dream environment all together. "Don't worry, it'll be fine…maybe!" One look at Solaris can tell anyone though that he has his reservations.

-- Welcome to our 2024 summer event, Phantasm Amalgam! As a recap, we'd like to thank our members for sticking by us this long, and here's to another anniversary event for the books! So what's going on? In short, you're all in a shared dream of fantastical and untold proportion!

Secondly, what's the TLDR read of the situation? Well, here's a couple of bullet points to catch you up to speed!

Upon going to sleep, everyone in the city was transported into a replica of Spirale, only it's entirely made up from the shared memory of it that everyone has! So, there are bound to be a few differences here and there but not anything too large.

Essentially if you can dream it, then it can happen. Anything is fair game. Whatever thoughts your characters have can become reality, all they need to do is think it into existence and it'll become real! It can even be changed by other characters as well. You can also change other characters with mun permission, of course!

Powers will be uncapped within the dream world, but someone else could simply dream themselves invulnerable to them too.

Please keep in mind that if you're interfering with what is being dreamed by another character, you'll need mun permission first!

There is no limit as to what a character can create or change. Whether it be a singular object (a lamp post, a tree, a car, and other objects large or small), an NPC, or even changes to player characters themselves. You can even change entire wards if you want to, but someone else can change it just as quickly! Take the chance to do something exciting and unexpected, the scientists are waiting for some interesting results!

As always please feel free to send any questions you may have to the masterlist!

There will be two parts to this event, with our first kicking off today and the second running from August 9th to August 16th 11:59:59 PM! As always, you'll still be able to do part 1 during part 2!

[locallygrowndaikon]

Hi!! How do you meet and make genuine friends on Sky? I’ve been playing for a few years now, but whenever I get a chance to chat with other players they either speak a different language or ask me a bunch of personal questions 😵‍💫. There seems to be so many funny and interesting people online but I never meet them in person!

I had to think about this one for a bit since im not good at making friends either JGGHFJ

I think it’s definitely easier to find people to connect with online rather than in game. A lot of the people I’m closer with in sky are usually people I find through online platforms rather than in game (though not saying its impossible to find good ingame friends, just might be harder) . A general thing would be to find those who have similar interests or humour, and as well as to spend time with the friends every once in a while, whether it be candlerunning or just hanging out to talk.

If you want a more in depth rambling of me going on about everything I know about making friends, then:

Ok well this is kinda for anyone reading this JGHJDJ

A general thing about friends is to find a common interest to talk about like OCs, art, sky in general, other games, anything basically, especially if you’re like me and bad at conversations. Even after you find the initial spark, it can get hard to keep up with regular conversations afterwards and it’s easy to drift apart. If you want to get closer with someone it’s definitely good to start conversations every once in a while. This can go from telling them things you think will be funny or showing them things to just things about your day. A lot of people appreciate this kind of thing and usually get comfortable to reciprocate it (unless you’re like me and really bad at stating conversations HFBSIC)

In sky, this can also be asking the other if they want to cr together or eden, even oobing if you’re into that. It gives the chance to hang out and talk to each other.

Of course, if the other person doesn’t respond with a lot of enthusiasm or doesnt seem to put effort into the friendship, it might be time to back off to give them space. They could either be tired and need a break or they arent interested in the friendship anymore. An exception would be if the person is already socially awkward or isn’t good at starting conversations. It can be hard to tell sometimes.

If you wanna find friends

For finding friends online, its usually finding a community and finding people within it or becoming a part of the community. if you’re social enough you can join discord servers and talk to people. Even if you arent as social, discord server can still help find people to interact with, like cr partners, heart trade, needing help people/finding help, that could lead to friendship. There’s also being on social media, though it might be harder if you dont post things or if you arent really noticed or something, though it’s not like you need to be famous to be able to find people. You can also find others on social media who are already asking for friends. Ive seen quite a few on tumblr and sometimes on other platforms where people asks if anyone wants to be sky friends. Twitch, the streaming platform yeah, also has quite a few sky creators that are willing to friend pretty much anyone, which could be another way to find a community (since quite a few people on sky twitch know each other).

For in game in sky: Moths are definitely easier to become friends with since you know guiding them and everything and watching them grow up, except moths are wild cards and some are euaheh weird and others never show up again. A lot of older players already have their own friends and friend groups and then other people play inconsistently or have different timezones/playtimes, so theres a lot more luck when making friends on sky. Best bet would just be keep talking to people and when you do find someone you bond with, continue to join and check in on them every once in a while to keep up the friendship.

Joining friends in game can be scary for many (me included), but it usually ends up not as bad as you think, of course respecting dnd spells (or cape codes if they have those). Even if you do join at an inconvenient time, its a simple “oh, sorry/mb” and you head out, leaving minimal damage and awkwardness.

Of course since this is the internet and people can be bad, if people cross boundaries even after being warned once or multiple times, or you just dont enjoy hanging out with, its okay to block and cut people off. No one is obligated to hang out with anyone nor responsible for the happiness of someone else. Having self worth and internet safety is important folks

Anyways people are complicated and theres a lot of ifs and possibilities and other stuff what not so take whatever advice i spit out mindlessly for granted JFHDO i dont know what im doing

[elliegoose]

got tagged by @annunakitty in a thing! yippee tag game!

now the tag game was to introduce yourself with:

one tv show

one movie

one album

one video game

however, i'm doing two for each category! why? because i'm cute and special and get to change the rules, of course! and also because i'm really enthusiastic about sharing my favorite things with people.

tv shows: adventure time & scavengers reign

not being able to pick between these two shows is the reason i'm doing two for each category. adventure time is my all-time favorite show hands down, but scavengers reign took second place (overtaking russian doll, which previously held that rank) when it absolutely blew me away earlier this year. i've watched it twice now and definitely plan on giving it a third watch sometime soon.

movies: i saw the tv glow (2024) & suspiria (2018)

as someone who repressed my gender really hard throughout most of college after flirting with transitioning in high school, this movie really spoke to me. i've seen it twice now and found a lot of value in the rewatch. i definitely want to watch it again at least one more time. this is an incredibly profound movie that has changed me as a person.

on the other hand, suspiria (2018) is an enduring favorite of mine for a very silly reason. it is a straight up good movie, but the actual reason it's my second pick for this post is that for like a year after first watching it, i kept seeing the mangled bodies of characters from it as sleep paralysis hallucinations. it was terrifying at the time but i find it incredibly funny to look back on, and think very fondly of this film in general. i got to rewatch parts of it for free irl! thanks, sleep paralysis demons!

albums: feather river canyon blues by pigeon pit & kudzu, devour everything! by levees

for two years now, feather river canyon blues has very unambiguously been my favorite album of all time. it's lomes oleander's bold, dense, imagery-filled lyricism at its best, backed by the full band that her voice deserves playing alt-country sounds that strike the perfect balance between gentle and energetic. it's simultaneously desperate and hopeful, joyous and melancholy, and at every moment filled to the brim with emotion and beauty. this album feels like watching every sunset at once surrounded by your best friends and loved ones. transgender folk music will save us. if you have to pick one song from this album to listen to, make it milk crates:

kudzu, devour everything! is the reason i started playing banjo. levees is a friend of a friend, and i was introduced to their music because said friend was praising this album in our friend group's discord server. i find levees' idiosyncratic manner of clawhammer playing--often very fast and full of non-traditional rhythms--to be absolutely magical. their songwriting is also excellent, full of vivid stories and characters sung about in prose that weaves effortlessly between the elegantly straightforward and beautifully dense. i also recommend listening to their album vultures, as well as quarantipilation volumes 1 & 2. it's actually not one of the songs that contains banjo, but if you have to pick one to listen to from this album, i recommend her/hymn/their, which won't embed for some reason but hey here's the link

(also, honorable mention to drink the sea by the glitch mob, which is the first album i ever really fell in love with, and which inspired little 13-year-old elise to grab a copy of ableton and learn how to make music myself. until feather river canyon blues came along, i would have probably picked drink the sea for this post.)

video games: signalis & mice tea

first off, i cried at the end of signalis! while streaming! it was really, really good!!! it has a delightfully dreadful atmosphere, great story, very interesting worldbuilding, phenomenal art style, and excellent character design. plus, it was great for practicing my german. i strongly recommend signalis to anyone who likes survival horror.

second off, yes, i am choosing mice tea, a transformation fetish visual novel, as my second pick here. judge me all you like. i stand by my choice. its story is fun! the characters are excellent! its humor and conceptual ridiculousness disarm you and make way for genuinely emotionally impactful storylines! it has a lot of interesting commentary on gender! it almost single-handedly turned me into furry! also, it's hot! go play mice tea!

now, finally, it is time to tag! don't feel pressured to pick multiple things or provide explanations like i did! i just enjoy doing more than is assigned lmao. tagging @rotten-spaceymage, @birras0, @citrusuprising, @roboticvenusian, @femboty2k, and anyone who sees this and wants to do it themselves!

[feathers-nest]

First fic I'm posting directly to this new separate blog.

I still need more practice writing for Prince and this is also my first time attempting to write Clavis, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a new suitor.

This will likely be the start of a series of fics, not exactly in chronological order and most of them able to sand alone, of a Magic/Fantasy AU with Water Dragon!Readerx Clavis, inspired by the following event and my slight obsession with magical or non-human characters (is the lack of it why I struggle a little with Prince although I want to write more for it?).

This part was written for:

By @violettduchess

Did I even finish it in time?

The event's prompt being Water and it turned to be the basis of the whole series more so than this specific fic as I didn't have the time to work on the first idea I had.

Series Maserlist // Main Masterlist // Read on AO3

“We could…” Clavis started to suggest, watching the streams of water in the air that dripped over the garden’s plants.

“No.” You interrupted your lover, trying to walk away, but he followed.

You were trying to water the plants that morning - gardening was a good hobby and a good use and training for your newfound powers - when he had approached you.

“What about…”

“No!”

“But it would be interesting, wouldn’t it? And it’s not like anyone would get hurt.”

By his tone of voice, he found your frustration as amusing as whatever ideas he had. Not that you were exactly frustrated, you just wanted him to believe you were.

You finally spun around, looking him in the eyes.

“Clavis, I love you, I go along with a lot of things” both because it was difficult not to let him drag you around and because you were willing to indulge him, “but I will not use my powers to help you on your pranks.” You kissed him, smiling softly.

Ever since you found out your family wasn’t completely human, and that you had water powers, Clavis had been trying to convince you to join him in his pranks. You had no plans to give in, but even you found it amusing to see him try.

“Is this a challenge, my dear?”

“Not at all. I wouldn’t dare challenge you. But you know I’m not comfortable using my powers in such a way, and I know that, although you insist, you wouldn’t force me to.”

“Not comfortable? What about what I saw yesterday with Emma and Linet?”

“It’s different between us. A ladies game. Why do you want me to help you so badly?”

“Is it that strange that I would like to share some fun moments with my lover? You already work so hard, I thought of making your training more interesting.”

In other words, he wanted more time with you. You were surprised, but so touched.

It was true that you had been busier since you discovered these powers, but it had been because of him, too.

“Thank you, Clavis.” You kissed his cheek and held his hand. “Sorry I have been busy, but you don’t need to go that far. I actually wanted to get better at controlling my powers to avoid an incident like last week.”

“So getting me all wet was an accident? I thought it was your way to come on to me.”

“And I was so torn between laughing and staring at how hot you looked all drenched that I just let you think so. But it was an incident. You surprised me and my powers burst out. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, but I wanted that to happen. A small sacrifice to cheer my lover up.”

“Sure.”

You chuckled and stepped closer to him again, but stopped when you felt water dripping into you, freezing when you realized you had gotten distracted when using your powers. The water streams had spread, creating a soft drizzle in the whole garden.

You panicked and tried to retreat them, but when Clavis touched you out of nowhere you nearly jumped and the water burst in all directions, drenching both of you, and by the cries you heard in the background, caught someone else too.

“Was that on purpose, too?”

“No. But it is a hot summer and you look cute with your hair all wet like this.” He pushed a strand of wet hair away from your face.

He really did it on purpose, but you just couldn’t be mad at him. You also reached to adjust his hair, laughing, while Clavis smiled at you.

You should get used to how things were going to be from now on and, sincerely, you didn’t mind much.

Series Maserlist // Main Masterlist

[snugglebug-92]

The One Where Things Come Crashing Down

After dinner on Friday night it didn’t take long for Matthew to show up at your place.

“I told you to drop it Matthew,” you look at him, tears streaming down your face. Matthew had never seen you cry. In your entire year of friendship, he had never seen it happen once so for him to be the cause of it felt like a million knives stabbing him everywhere.

“I’m sorry I just thought you were scared or embarrassed of liking a freshman. I didn’t think it was anything more than that,” Matthew shifts from foot to foot unsure of what to do.

“The reason I transferred her was because of my ex. The situation was bad. Really bad to the point where I almost died. It started out good, everything was sunshine and rainbows but soon things went bad. He got abusive and I tried to leave but he would threaten me, and I just couldn’t leave.”

“I’m so sorry I didn't know.”

“I know. But that’s why I haven’t dated anyone in the past year or taken interest in any guys. I just wasn’t ready yet but then well you know where we are right now.”

“I’ll fix this.”

“It’s okay Matthew. I’ll talk to him.”

“How about I tell him my part of how you had no idea he was going to be there and then you tell him whatever else you want to. Deal?”

“Deal.” You and Matthew spend most of the weekend together and when Monday comes around you go and talk to Jimmy after practice. You had watched how he avoided Matthew most of practice and you knew it wasn’t a good sign but when you get the text from Knies says Jimmy told him that what happened was in the past you took it as a good sign. You went up to talk to Jimmy and were quickly brushed off as if you didn’t exist. You blink back the tears and smile at Matthew when he comes out of the locker room. He comes over and you tell him that everything is okay even though it isn't. The same thing continues for the next month. Every time you see Jimmy after practice or a game, he pretends you are invisible and it’s killing you. Eventually you have to enlist his roommate. As you knock on Jimmy’s door you hear shuffling.

“Did you forget your key again?” Jimmy asked before opening the door.

“Look I’m sorry about the date I-” you start but then Jimmy cuts you off.

“Save it. I get the guys pranking me but I didn’t think you would stoop that low,” he slams the door and you slide down the wall next to his door breaking down in sobs. You didn’t understand how this boy who was so sweet to everyone was breaking your heart like this and he didn’t even know how you felt about him. You don’t know how long you are like that but soon Matthew is coming and you have never been more grateful to see him in your life.

“What happened? I got a call you were here. I thought everything was back to normal and you guys were, okay?” Matthew looks at you. You shake your head and grab his hand to stand up.

“I lied because I didn’t want you to worry. But I came here and he thinks the whole thing was a prank. He hates me Matty,” you whisper as the tears start to pile up. You look at the light and quickly blink so you don’t start crying before Matthew wraps his arms around you.

“We’ll figure it out. Okay?”

“I don’t know what there is to figure out Matty. He hates me.”

“I’ll talk to him or I don’t know.”

“It’s useless. I’ll just figure something out. I’ll be okay.” You smile and Matthew knows it’s a load of crap but he drops it. The two of you walk to get ice cream before he has to leave for a date with Abby leaving you alone with your thoughts. You sit in your empty apartment and can’t help but wonder if he’ll ever forgive you. That’s when you get the email. One other secret you had been keeping is that you had applied to be a photographer for the world juniors hockey tournament. You know it was a bit of a stretch but you had always been into photography and you had done a lot of sports photography. This was the email saying the position was yours. You were officially team USA’s photographer. Your rather shitty day had gotten a lot better. 

That night you go to bed with a smile on your face. You were happy and things were starting to look up. The rest of your week went by rather fast and soon it was game day. You went to the boy's game and they won. You congratulated Matthew and Brock before smiling at Jimmy as you left. You had decided you didn’t care if he was going to be a dick to you. You could be the bigger person and just ignore it and be nice to him anyways. It didn’t matter anymore. You were done caring.

[crystaljins]

Stars Above | 10

Characters: Taehyung x Reader

Word count: 4.3k

Synopsis: Your nagging roommate is desperate for a third person to help meet the rent and your university just so happens to be running a fully-funded government grant for anyone who signs up to participate in the Intergalactic Exchange program.

Having an alien for a roommate is just asking for all kinds of trouble, though.

Alien!Taehyung x reader

Rating: Teens

Notes: We’re at the second last chapter!! Where did the time go? I sneezed and 2022 had passed me by!!!

Anyway it’s not a proper goodbye yet but I’m starting to get really emotional to think that not only are we at the end of this series, but of this blog. I’m going to miss you guys!! 

Masterlist

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

The warp terminal is a sleek, modern building. It could be mistaken for any generic sort of office building, nestled in the very heart of the city. It has steep rates for the underground carpark, to the point that it’s almost risking the fine to park on the street right next to the entrance, and there’s a steady stream of people flowing in and out of the building throughout the day. 

Sighing idly, you kick your legs as you rest against the low concrete wall that skirts around the base of the building. You hadn’t realised there was quite so much bureacracy in merely stepping into a terminal that instantly transported you to a planet galaxies away, but you suppose it is in the best interest of both planets to closely monitor the traffic across the warp. Taehyung had promised the warp would be quick- he’d nip across, ferry his sister back, and be in the car before the parking fee could click over to two hours, but it’s now pushing three hours. 

You glance at your watch- you’ve already bought lunch from a nearby cafe, and then a fancy iced beverage. There’s a little clothing boutique that you browsed through as well. Your phone’s battery is sitting at the 44% mark but you know that there’s only so many sudokus you can do before you start dreaming about numbers in your sleep, and you’ve always stubbornly ignored Nayeon’s advice to have more mobile games than just the sudoku one downloaded. 

You’re briefly contemplating just going home and texting Taehyung to catch the bus with his sister when you feel an abrupt chill on the back of your neck. 

To your credit, you only leap about a metre in the air, whipping around to address the stinging cold to find a grinning Taehyung brandishing a chilled drink at you. 

“Was your waiting time very extended?” He questions. 

You send him a flat look- it’s not really fair to take it out on him, given it’s not like a simple text would traverse the numerous light years that separate Earth, and his home planet. But still, you feel it lacks tact to comment on the absurdly long waiting time. 

“What took so long?” You question, biting back the complaints to stretch out a kink in your neck. The backs of your thighs are chilled from contact with the concrete and they’ve left little imprints on your skin. You accept the drink- it’s sweet and tangy and leaves a pleasant fizz on your tongue but it’s not a drink you’ve ever sampled before.

Taehyung flashes you that guilty smile, the one that has been getting him out of any and all trouble ever since that damned birthday trip with Nayeon, and internally you scold yourself for being so whipped. 

“My sister had not packaged her belongings.” He admits. He steps aside then, gesturing to a young woman, probably only a few years younger than Taehyung, hovering a few metres away. 

She doesn’t resemble Taehyung that much, in all honesty. They both bear that striking beauty that is shared across their entire species, but where Taehyung’s feature are sharp and handsome, hers are soft and delicate. Her eyes are rounded and her cheeks are soft and smooth. The only thing she shares in common with Taehyung is that unique look to her eyes, like galaxies are hidden in their depths, the blue sheen and the 5 pointed pupil, like little stars nestled amidst a dark velvet sky. 

However, there’s something decidedly unfriendly in the way her gaze roves up and down your form, and instantly you are on your guard. 

“Well,” you say to him, not shifting your gaze from his sister. “I hope you know you’re covering the parking rates.” 

Taehyung nods obediently before darting over to his sister. She doesn’t have any baggage on her, but you know from experience that likely it’s just stored in some sort of tiny, neat rectangular device in her pocket, like Taehyung’s were when he first arrived. 

“This is Jina.” He says, and she offers you a curt nod. Taehyung frowns briefly at her before offering you an awkward smile. “She is shy.” He offers by way of explanation, although you suspect it runs a little deeper than mere shyness when she huffs and turns, already stomping off in the direction of the parking lot. 

Shaking your head, you sigh and follow after her before she can get lost on the way to the parking lot. If she has anything close to her brother’s sense of direction, then once she steps out view she’ll be lost amongst the 7 billion plus people and the couple of extra aliens that roam this planet forever. 

“So you had to pack for her and that’s what took three hours?” You ask Taehyung as he falls into step beside you. His knuckles briefly brush yours and you know he senses the mild irritation and the wariness you’re experiencing but he smiles blithely like he can’t. 

“Something like that. We had many things to discuss before she started her visit with earth.” He confesses. Briefly, ever so briefly, his smile drops just enough for you to realise that he’s putting on a brave face, for whatever reason, and instantly your irritation softens into concern. 

Without the veil of your own vexation, you’re suddenly alert to the tiny signals Taehyung has been giving off- the tense hold to his shoulders, the tight curve of his smile, the way his eyes don’t spark with that usual mirthful mischief that makes him so unique himself. The goofy, cheerful smiles had been forced this whole time. 

You hesitate just long enough for him to gain about a half a step’s lead on you. It’s just enough time to gather your composure, and this time you’re the one to allow your knuckles to brush along his. It’s a trick you’ve picked up since discovering your own feelings- if you focus on one emotion hard enough, then that is the one Taehyung picks up on. It’s helpful for hiding certain emotions, but it’s also helpful in letting him know what you’re thinking and feeling. In this instance, you let your concern filter through.  

“Everything ok?” You ask softly. His gaze remains fixed on his sister’s determined stride ahead of the two of you- she’s starting to falter as she draws near the parking lot, probably realising she doesn’t actually know the way. 

“Yes.” He answers absently. “Just….. fatigued.” 

You don’t have to have his alien ability to read emotions to know that it runs a little deeper than that. 

++

Despite her obvious distaste for you upon your first meeting, Jina isn’t a particularly bad room-mate. She’s quiet and sticks to herself, mostly. She brought over most of her meals from her home planet and refuses to touch human food, so you don’t have an extra mouth to feed. She sticks to her room, when you are home, so you never have to compromise in shared spaces. And Taehyung takes her out for most of the day, so you aren’t stuck ferrying her around like you had been with Taehyung when he first arrived on this planet. 

You have nothing to complain about with regards to her visit, and yet something niggles heavily at you. 

Taehyung hasn’t been himself. 

It’s nothing huge- in fact, it probably indicates that you spend far too much time thinking about him for you to even notice the change. None of your other friends seem to notice anything is amiss, after all. He’s as smile-y and happy-go-lucky as ever. He dotes on his sister, which fits perfectly with how you’d thought he’s be towards her. He’s chatty and conversational over dinner. 

It’s in just the briefest moments that it’s obvious something is wrong. Like how he’ll get home after a day out with her and then immediately head straight back out again, leaving Jina to sit in his room. Or how he’ll finish dinner and the smile will slip off his face for moments before he heads back to his room. It’s tiny, it’s minuscule, it’s none of your business…

And yet you’re worried. You don’t know how much of it bears its roots in newly discovered feelings and how much just stems from general empathy, but that pathetic little half-smile of his makes you feel like he’s punched you in the throat

You’re about a week and a half into Jina’s visit with roughly another week to go when you finally confront Taehyung over it. It’s at a bit of an impulse that you bring it up- you’d settled into the couch to watch something on netflix and are surprised when Taehyung settles next to you. 

As is his usual habit, his fingers inch towards the nearest available patch of skin. Today, it’s the top of your foot, stretched out across the cushions. It’s distracting enough that you find yourself watching him instead of the mindless comedy playing in the background. It’s been a while since it’s just been the two of you, what with Taehyung’s lengthy adventures showing his sister around the city. She doesn’t particularly like mixing with you or Nayeon, so the most interaction Taehyung gets is a brief conversation over dinner before he retired to his room or a quick and tired “good morning” before you set out for the day after breakfast. 

“How are you?” You find yourself asking. His thumb, which had been absently tracing along the arch of your foot, pauses as dark eyes flicker to you. He looks tired; his colour just seems leeched and lifeless and there’s something lacklustre about his demeanour. 

“I’m ok.” He answers weakly, offering you a tired smile that markedly contradicts his words. 

It makes you frown because Taehyung has always been open with you. From the littlest things like how his day went to bigger things like fights with his family or stressful assignments. For him to suddenly go against this is disconcerting. 

You’re not sure what he feels flicker across the point of contact between you, but it is surely unpleasant. Perhaps the flicker of hurt, or the mixture of concern and surprise. Whatever it is, it has him sighing in defeat. He leans forward and with his free hand gentle tucks a strand of hair behind your ear. You feel your heart race and your cheeks heat and it makes Taehyung’s smile widen. 

“Little human,” he says affectionately. It’s not a name he’s called you by before and you’re not sure where it comes from but something about the inflection makes your heart stutter in your chest. “I am not content with the thought of your worry.” He confesses, before leaning back to settle against the couch with a sigh. “That is why I’d prefer to carry my own burdens, right now. Please do not be hurt or upset.”

His eyes slide shut and his breathing is steady, exhaustion written into every line of his face. You think you understand the sentiments behind his reluctance to share, but the fact is, you can’t help but worry when he looks like this.

“I’m already worrying.” Is the soft answer you give. One of his eyes blinks open in surprise, and then the other opens to follow. “Don’t…. Don’t make me sit here and make up reasons for why you’re like this. I’ll only worry more- I can’t not worry when you’re not yourself.” 

A long silence follows your admission and then finally Taehyung speaks again. 

“I cannot seem to win where you are concerned.” He laughs wryly to himself. “Very well. I had just hoped…. That perhaps my sister would find more enjoyment of her trip.” He confesses, like he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Sad, round eyes flicker to you and you’re reminded of a kicked puppy. “I thought she agreed to come to Earth for my support…. But she came to convince me to return home.”

Suddenly it clicks into place- the long time it took Taehyung to arrive back at the terminal, his sister’s belligerence, his exhaustion and misery…. He’s confessed on separate occasions to you during the past few months that his relationship with his family is rocky at best. You’d mistakenly thought maybe they’d moved past it, considering his enthusiasm for her visit. But no- all this time he’s been facing pressure to give up his exchange, likely from both his sister and his parents. So it makes sense that he’s so disappointed now, and accounts for the way he’s been off. Even someone as cheerful and determined as Taehyung would begin to feel the strain to have his hopes repeatedly stepped on like that. 

“You…” he looks at you like he wants to say more, but then seems to think better of it, changing the subject quickly. “I tried taking her to the places we attended together, since I found a huge enjoyment in those experiences. But she’s so determined to not have any enjoyment that it just keeps going poorly-“ he shoves a frustrated hand through his hair. “I… don’t know what else to do to have her convinced.” 

You bite your lip. This is important to Taehyung. For whatever reason, he really likes Earth, and it’s a fairly simple and reasonable request, to have his family support that. Especially in a planet as community-based as Taehyung’s. And if it’s important to Taehyung… it’s important to you. As silly as it is, you want to do whatever it takes to make this goofy, ridiculous alien happy. 

“Well,” you speak up. “Maybe there’s one place I haven’t taken you to that might win her over?”

++

You’re not sure why you specifically thought the local showgrounds would be the place to convince Jina. But, when you think of fun, earthen events, this is the place you think of. Amusing, mechnical rides, interesting foods, and a general sense of festivity. This is the peak of humanity. 

Taehyung, at least, is thrilled. His eyes flicker from stall to stall, taking in the games and rides. Children run screeching past him, brandishing toys that flash in neon lights. The smell of fried food lingers in the air and at the end of the path, a giant, twinkling ferris wheel towers over the park. 

“This place is amazing!” He confesses, shuffling closer to one of the games where a young couple are taking turns to toss a small ball into a bottle. The guy fails and groans in defeat and then the girl smugly sinks the ball into the bottle. 

Jina is less thrilled- she hugs her arms around herself awkwardly, looking distinctly uncomfortable. The evening has well and truly set in and the last traces of sun have leeched from the horizon yet she still wears her black baseball cap like it will shield her from the onslaught of people pouring between stalls. 

“Would you like something to eat?” You ask her. 

She’s managed to master a look that conveys her sentiments towards you- a sort of squint to her eyes that screams “you are a bug and I would love to squash you”. She levels that particular look at you today and it’s sent with extra potency. 

“I don’t like human food.” She sniffs, hugging her arms around her more tightly. 

Oddly, it reminds you of the twins. They both went through a particularly fussy phase and they handled it in a similar way to Jina- you can vividly recall the pouts that is now mirrored upon Jina’s face. 

“Just one bite?” You coax, stepping in a little closer. Such an action is dangerous- you could be stepping into the den of a lion or a kitten and you won’t find out until it’s too late. “I’ll choose something and if you hate it, I’ll finish the rest?”

Something in her posture slackens just a little- you know she’s on the verge of caving. It’s nearing dinner time, after all, and likely her hunger is warring with her determination to be standoffish and angry. You spare a glance at Taehyung, who had been watching the exchange with a sort of hopeless, despairing expression. 

“Are there any flavours Jina prefers?” You question him. He frowns and pauses, muttering under his breath in the way that he often does when struggling with a translation. 

“Ah…. Sweet?” He says, posing it like a question, as if you would have the answer. But then his gaze sets into something more certain and he nods to himself. “Sweet foods.” He asserts. 

A quick glance around confirms an abundance of sweet foods, so Taehyung’s recommendation doesn’t prove very helpful. Finally, you spot a fairy floss stand a few stalls up. There’s very little that can go wrong with spun sugar and the novelty of soft, coloured and sweet clouds is hopefully enchanting enough to overcome Jina’s aversion to human foods. Idly, you shift your weight back and forth as you wait your place in line. 

The momentary space from Taehyung and Jina means the freedom to think. You think of Taehyung, and his simmering anxiety, the desperation he feels for Jina to see something good. It’s not that he cares much for her opinions of humans, although he’s gentle enough that her dislike has him feeling sorry, but that he seeks her approval. That seems to be what Taehyung has always sought, even when he’d first arrived on Earth, wide-eyed and searching for a place that would accept him. You’ve thought and known this before.

But today, you allow yourself to think of Jina as well. The year cycle on Taehyung’s planet is slightly shorter than Earth’s- numbers-wise, both Taehyung and Jina have larger ages than you. 

But time-wise, the time she has been alive is shorter than yours. It had been a point of confusion during the early days of contact between your two planets; currently, it is understood that the lifespans between your two peoples are similar and yet the other race had presented ages so much larger than humans expect to live to. It’s funny then, that in reality she is little older than a highschooler despite her age being more than yours. 

You picture your own younger siblings, and how they’d feel if you suddenly moved to another country. They cry every time you leave home to return back to your apartment- they beg you to stay with tears streaking their little faces. 

You think that Jina’s attitude may be something similar. With each new place Taehyung brings her, she sees what he likes. She sees the things he enjoys. She sees that he’s happy. You hadn’t known him before Earth, but you knew the timid, distantly polite alien that had arrived and the boisterous, eager, joyful soul that remains. For whatever reason, Taehyung loves Earth. And to Jina, that love is stealing him away. 

So perhaps the secret is not to show her the good things of Earth, but rather that Taehyung will not leave her. Well, physically he may, but at the very least, for as long as he lives, he will love and adore his baby sister.

With a sigh, you accept the stick of the fairy floss from the stall worker- it’s two toned. Soft, pastel blue, and a sweet, warm pink colour. You hold it carefully, weary of the sugar melting against your hands and leaving it sticky. 

You find the two siblings seated in a quieter section, away from the crowd. Taehyung stretches his legs out against the grass, while Jina hugs her into her chest. It’s not so well-lit here, which is perhaps it’s so quiet. Above them, the ferris wheel towers. Likely, the bright lights would tamper with the view of the outstretched city you’d gain within the carriages of the ride. The park owners had deliberately left it dark. From one window, the showgrounds would stretch in a brightly lit path, and you could watch the people the milled through the stalls- from the other, you could glimpse the sprawling, twinkling metropolitan lights. 

Taehyung would like the ferris wheel, is what you think as you settle beside them.

You stretch your arm out, towards Jina, offering her the fairy floss. She squints at it suspiciously, before accepting the wooden stick between wary fingertips. 

“It’s a sweet.” You say. “It gets very sticky, but you can pull off little pieces and eat them, or you could bite it straight off the stick.” 

She takes a small amount, nibbling at it tentatively. The way she chews is like a little rodent. 

She must enjoy the taste, however, for her mouthfuls become more sure and she plucks off larger chunks to eat. 

Finally, she pauses and her gaze flickers to you and Taehyung, watching expectantly. She swallows her mouthful and stares back for a long moment, before speaking at last. 

“I’m thirsty.” She announces. You blink a few times, before nodding and sighing. She, like Taehyung, refuses to take anything with animal products in it, but a can of soft drink should be relatively safe. 

But she stops you. 

“Him.” She demands, like she is a commander giving orders to her army. “He knows what I like better.”

A silent current passes between the siblings that warns you not to protest. They seem to settle upon some sort of agreement, for Taehyung clambers to his feet, brushing away the dirt that clings to the back of his jeans. 

“I’ll return in a quick moment.” He assures the two of you, before darting back towards the main path of the showgrounds. 

It leaves you alone with Jina, which you never actually have been before. She always makes a conscious to either avoid acknowledging your existence, or glaring at you so hard you wish she’d just ignored you. 

The silence is awkward until Jina breaks it. Then the awkwardness of the conversation is worse.

“You tempt him.” She observes. For a moment, you stare at her, incredulous, and perhaps the baffled look to your eyes conveys that you don’t understand. Her mouth sets in a thin line of frustration before she tries again. The words are slow and you wonder if maybe she’s just struggling to translate her thoughts into your language. “You lure him away. From home.”

You grimace at her. 

“I do no such thing.” You assert, slightly offended that she thinks you’d ever do something like that to Taehyung. All his actions are his own, and you’d never deprive him of the valuable right to choose his own path. She shakes her head angrily, still frustrated. 

“No, you don’t.” She agrees. “I don’t mean that you do it with active intention. I mean that your being is why he’s here. Your presence. He stays because of you.”

You purse your lips, startled at the implication, and it takes you a few moments to find words for a rebuttal. 

“He doesn’t.” Is the genius comeback your brain supplies you with. 

She gives you a flat look and plucks another chunk of fairy floss, chewing at it with more aggression than is perhaps warranted for a soft, spun-sugar snack. 

“Humans lack so much.” She complains. Sharp eyes flick to you- in this lighting you cannot make out the distinct points of her pupils- instead to round black circles stare you down. “He loves you.”

There’s a beat of silence, laden with meaning. Children laugh in the background, and snippets of the unintelligible babble of conversation float through on the night time breeze. 

“He doesn’t.” You say, because you don’t know what else to say. Truthfully, you don’t know if he does or doesn’t. You’d studiously avoided ever dissecting his actions, out of a desperate sense of self-preservation. To over-interpret his actions and be wrong would hurt. To be correct would be terrifying. Your heart is a tight ball of anxiety- the answer of “does he” or “doesn’t he” feels like an enormous, hulking beast, one you can never hope to defeat. 

Jina snorts. 

“Obviously he does. I know my brother- I see how his look has you in it. I know that he has taken changes. I know how our people have love.” Her gaze turns sharp. “And I know that he has enough of foolishness to keep him home at Earth for a human girl.” 

You swallow past a dry mouth. Should you believe her? Should you deny it?

Your heart releases, a traitorous, happy flutter. You picture that morning, at the camp- the way the sunlight had washed his hair gold, the galaxies that swum in his irises. You remember a bright smile with strawberry-stained lips. You remember tired but tender gazes as he returned from a long day. You remember the tickle of his fingers in your hair as you fought back sleep. 

Could he? Could he really love you? 

Jina groans and rolls her eyes, burying her face in her hands. She has long since finished her fairy floss. 

“Make sure that he makes visits.” She sighs, through her hands. “If he insists on staying, I mean. He has not any sense, but you do. I will accept you if you promise his visits.” 

You never give an answer, because Taehyung returns at that moment, proudly brandishing a tall, strawberry-coloured drink that probably cost an absurd amount of money. 

And yet, nevertheless, while Jina remains grumpy for the rest of her trip, there’s something gentler about her. 

And Taehyung goes back to his normal self, cheerful and relaxed, even if he looks a little sad as she steps into the warp terminal after she says goodbye. 

“You can visit her.” You remind him. “Warp travel is pretty fast, I hear.” 

He glances down at you, and his smile is sweet, fond. 

“I know.” He answers. And then he turns away. There’s a bounce in his step as he leads you home.

[faeriefrolic]

Sims Tag Meme

Thank you so much @cactusblossom for tagging me!!! This was really fun to do. I tag anyone who sees this if they want to do it too!

What’s your favorite sims death? The ranting about death is hilarious, Grim basically says fuck around and find out for that one lmao. I haven't personally seen it in game but it would be wild. But I have to go with the classic delete the pool ladder from ts1 and locking sims in a room with fireworks :)

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Maxis match! I like my game to be colorful and cartoony.

Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? Nope! I like body diversity and it's a part of their life. The only times I would cheat their weight is if it was glitched (like Madeline and Tabby at one point with the gain weight from pregnancy mod. My sliders weren't playing nice and their animations/arms were messed up)

Do you use move objects? I do, for deco objects. I don't like using it for functional objects though because sims are dumb and can't route/interact with them if they're not placed normally. I like having playable homes/lots than just aesthetically pretty ones

Favorite mod?

First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? I started playing sims with ts1 when I borrowed it and the Livin Large EP from my brother. I still have all the ts1 cds in my room (but sadly no disc drive to put them in lol rip) For ts2 I *think* it was Open for Business, I remember making bookstores with it. For ts3 I bought base game + seasons bundled at Gamestop randomly one day and uhhh oops lol. I don't play ts4, but I have the base game + cats & dogs.

Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? I pronounce it like aLive

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Crystal Leblanc, my little kitty faerie doll! She's an oc of mine and I love watching her get excited over tiny things and her cute faces. I also really love Pewter Dusk, he started as just a random sim request from @shuckleberrysims but I started a save with him and he's so adorable and fun. I love awkward fish genie.

Have you made a simself? I did long ago, but I don't think I even have their sim file anymore lmao

What sim traits did you give yourself? Cat Person, Bookworm, Shy, Supernatural Fan, Natural Cook

What is your favorite EA hair color? I don't think I really have one? I despise the gross green-brown preset in ts3 though, it's SO UGLY... especially when random generated sims had it, uuugh. So glad there's a fix for that now.

Favorite EA hair? A few Uni Life hairs are cute but my recent favorite is one that Mignonette has as a teen/ya. It's a rly cute messy updo hair with a bandana bow. She aged up into it as a teen and it looked really cute on her so I kept it! It's from Master Suite stuff!

Favorite life stage? I think you can guess lmao

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? Gameplay, I cannot build to save my life, I make ugly boxes

Are you a CC creator? No, but I'm interested in learning more about it, I've been fiddling with ITUNs in s3pe and such. I've made mods for Skyrim but I'd like to make more sim downloads (I need to put the Dusks up for download if I track down their cc...)

Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? 2016 switter gang hi!!! It's been a long time and a few of them are no longer on simblr. but I like to think I have some friends on here, though I'm very shy and go on hiatuses a lot

What’s your favorite game? TS3! I wish I could play ts1 again though :(

Do you have any Sims merch? No but I should get some...

Do you have a YouTube for sims? No, I'm pretty self conscious of my voice and I'm afraid of my game error 12'ving or crashing while recording lol. I do stream in discord though

How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? When I started playing I had very minimal cc and was very vanilla. Then I got into berries after discovering simblr, and I really like all the different colors and fun designs. I just think they're neat.

What’s your Origin ID? Honestly I don't know and I don't wanna open origin lol

Who’s your favorite CC creator? Oh gosh too many... too many slkdfjlf but to name a few off the top of my head, @sim-songs, @nectar-cellar, @poisonfireleafs hair, @xiasimla, @teekapoa

How long have you had a simblr? Since 2013! All of my older posts are gone now though when I deleted them years ago :( I wish I could look back on them. Wayback machine doesn't load the pictures and only has a few pages of my old blog.

How do you edit your pictures? I used edit with actions in photoshop before I got reshade. Now I just use @erasabledinosaur's wonderful presets 💗 I'm currently using Papercut and sometimes Strawberry Rhubarb!

What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? Honestly, University Life will always have a place in my heart as it was the first EP I bought after base game + seasons. I have really fond memories of my simself running around the uni world exploring everything about ts3, everything was so new and exciting to me. and I love the uni townies! Especially Cid and Shea. I made ocs that are loosely based on them. (Very loosely since my Cid is nothing like EA Cid lmao)

What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? Well since EA abandoned ts3 all I can ask for is the game magically becoming 64 bit 🙃

[blue-corvid]

Tumblr Live Hot(?) Takes

The thing that really kills me about Tumblr Live is honestly that it could have been fine -- useful even!

I already follow streamers on Tumblr! I follow artists, comedians, video game let's-players, tabletop gaming nerds, all of whom stream somewhere that isn't Tumblr! If I could watch them stream on Tumblr, I would absolutely do that!

But Tumblr. My beloved. You fucked it up so bad. You immediately made it as sketchy and annoying as possible, and now... by the point that “everybody hates it” is the thing most people know about it, i can’t imagine it would be easy to save.

So this is my open letter to Tumblr (I don't know who to direct it at -- @staff? I hope that's okay) -- here’s where I think you went wrong, and how you could fix it (if it is, in fact, fixable.)

Tumblr Live appeared silently with no warning.

When it first showed up, the only thing I heard about it was “what the fuck is this?” I Googled it and found basically nothing, and then when I looked it up in Tumblr’s support pages, it wasn’t super clear what Tumblr Live was or what it was for. Streaming platform was only my best guess.

Most of the article was about how you could make money off it. Tumblr, I can’t make money off of it if I don’t know what it is, how to use it, or how to explain it to anyone.

This isn't the case anymore, but it was a serious problem early on.

(Seemingly) no effort to make it look appealing or useful.

It looks and acts like an ad. It’s positioned like an ad at the top of the dashboard. Like an ad, it doesn’t have any connection to what I do or care about on Tumblr.

It looks to be a bunch of still shots from the live chats that it’s promoting and this is just such an unbelievably bad idea.

See, here's the thing: Tumblr has a running problem with porn bots, most of which can be quickly identified by their avatars, which are almost always (stolen) pictures of attractive women, often in revealing clothing.

Guess what every single image I can see on the Tumblr Live ad banner is? Did you guess pictures of attractive women, often in revealing clothing? See the problem? Regardless of my feelings on or desire to interact with cam girls (which are, for the record: I’m not interested personally but I wish you good vibes and good luck and respectful clients), my gut reaction upon seeing the Tumblr Live banner is, “That looks like a bunch of porn bots.”

When you add this to how hard it was to find information about Tumblr Live, how poorly its terms of service were explained, and the state of the internet right now (with every social media site gunning to get its teeth into its uses' throats to vampire as much sensitive personal data from them as possible), Tumblr Live looks dangerous.

When Tumblr users got annoyed with it, there was (seemingly) no effort to fix any of the problems.

Instead of explaining clearly what Live is and how it works and making it inherently less intrusive, Tumblr made excuses about how they had to try to make it profitable and doubled down on making it as annoying as possible with its stupid “snooze” feature.

Every time this stupid porn-bot-looking ad banner popped up on someone’s dash after a week of being lulled into a false sense of security, they hated it a little more.

Tumblr basically hand-crafted a sitewide campaign to yell about how bad this feature is once a week.

How could it have been better?

It’s all well and good to sit here and pass judgement, but was it not just doomed from the start? Could Tumblr really have done any better?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

Here’s how you fix Tumblr Live:

Get rid of the ad-banner-style preview placement.

Instead, mimic what people are doing for their Twitch streams already. Send out a notification on my dashboard when a blog I follow goes live. Respect the rules for normal Tumblr posts when it comes to visibility: let people blaze and reblog them and don’t push them out to people who wouldn’t normally see posts from that blog except according to users’ dashboard preferences.

For persistent notifications (since streams aren’t one-and-done like posts), put a list of blogs I follow that are currently live in the sidebar.

Because these features are no longer intrusive, you no longer need an option in the settings to toggle them off, and people who initially wrote off Live can explore it if it ever becomes valuable to them instead of making it disappear forever.

Get the stream previews off users' screens as soon as humanly possible.

Tumblr has a porn bot problem. Because people's (especially women's and especially cam girls') pictures get scraped for porn bot avatars, Tumblr users are gonna associate pictures of real live non-celebrity people (especially women) with internet scams. Forget this "keep it clean" shit -- whether it looks "clean" matters less than whether it looks like someone wants to steal my credit card information. (And on the other side of that, please understand that sex worker positivity doesn't help sex workers if a feature they use gets shut down because your average Tumblr user thinks it looks so sketchy that they won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.)

Replace the stream preview with the streamer's avatar and the stream title and/or a streamer-selected cover image.

Get help from actual streamers.

Go find Tumblr users who regularly make posts announcing Twitch streams and introduce them to Tumblr Live. For people who already use Tumblr, already stream stuff, and already use Tumblr to tell their audience that they're streaming, having a streaming platform attached to Tumblr could be a real convenience. If you have premium streaming features, find some popular streamers who use Tumblr and give them free access to those features for a while. Even better, maybe ask them for feedback on those features.

Most importantly, get people who stream a variety of different things. Even if Tumblr users don't hate Tumblr Live, if they're under the impression that it's only for one thing and that one thing is something they're not into, they're never gonna use it.

...That's it, that's all I've got. I know this post is a monster, but if anyone reads it: thanks. Good luck in to all in this new era of Tumblr.

[thetimeintheworld]

F1 Tag Game! Tag some people you'd like to get to know better! tagged by @vettels-bees

Who is your favorite driver? Ooo that depends if we're talking about of all time or current grid. All time has to be Sebastian Vettel and current is Lewis Hamilton

Do you have other favorite drivers? Yep, the Sauber duo. I just love their dynamic. There's also Kimi when he was still around

Who is your least favorite driver? Nico Hulkenberg (He's just meh to me and there was that sexist comment which put me off)

Do you pull for drivers or do you like teams as well? I tend to root for drivers and with teams it just depends on the drivers

If you like teams, what teams do you pull for? I suppose Mercedes. I'm a massive fan of their sports car programs and drivers and that carried into F1 (However the F1 side...oh boy, aren't they in a ditch atm)

How long have you been into F1? Not to long, got into it in 2021!

What got you into F1? Well this is quite a story. The first I've ever heard about F1 was from my favourite gaming youtube channel (Outsidexbox/Extra) where they kept making references about Pierre and DTS on their videos and live streams and two members trying to convince the others to watch. I started watching DTS just to understand the references and ended up enjoying it. Then came the collaboration with Aston Martin and James Bond and that's when I watched my first race and loved it

Do you enjoy fanfic/RPF? I don't really read fanfics

How do you view new fans? I don't mind them unless its those weird tiktok fans then nope

Are your friends and family into F1 as well? Just my sister who got into F1 cause of me. My friends aren't as interested but I do send over some stuff (I think they just have a quick look and ignore it)

If you could take over as team principal for any team, who would it be and why? Sauber cause surely the bar can't be that high. Just fix the pitstops and get points??

Are you open to talking to other fans/making friends? Yes but I'm shy so someone will have to make the first move

I don't really know anyone to tag but if you see this and want to do this, feel free to use me

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on EZ allies?

Gametrailers is basically what got me to start producing video reviews. My earliest video reviews were inspired by their tone, pacing, and length. I didn't have fancy CG topic transitions, but I did try and at least develop a worthy subject style with the way each segment of the video would transition with a little musical interlude.

Around the time of the first Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing review, I think I started to get away from that, because I recall people commenting that my transition segments were getting a little too long.

I continue to follow Easy Allies just for their video review content. Not so much their other content, but that was true of Gametrailers, too. I remember right after the news Gametrailers was shutting down, I finally ended up watching an episode of The Final Bosman and wished I'd been watching it sooner, because it was great.

I still occasionally tune in to EZA's preview coverage for games I'm interested in, and I used to like... watch their community round-up videos where they played popular stream clips and art or whatever, but those got to be way too long for me to focus on.

I kind of wish they'd go back to more edited, show-based content. When they first launched they kept running with the Gametrailers torch by doing retrospective videos, shows based on obscure game secrets, etc.

Now all they do is podcasts, reaction videos, and streams. Talking head stuff where they point a camera at a studio couch and they chat. But if you go back and look at their most popular videos, some of that edited content show stuff still lands in their most viewed videos of all time. Episodes of Game Sleuth, Don't Skip, or their retrospective videos, etc.

I know those take a lot more work (believe me, I know) and technically Brandon is "retired" now outside of video review voice over. But still. Doesn't matter who it is, be it Giantbomb, EZA, or anyone else, I've always been more pro-production than just "we'll turn on a live camera and see what happens as we chat." I'd like more than the bare minimum of effort. Quality over quantity.

But I guess that's not how Youtube works because there's always going to to be someone willing to do it faster and cheaper. I just don't want to cheap it out, or for anyone else to cheap it out either.

[phantom-does-a-thing]

will. bestie. i have a question thats been in my head for days but i keep forgetting to ask.

whats the flesh dimension and how bad should i be to get sent there. please. i wanna go to the flesh dimension

ok so I feel like the flesh dimension bit has way more context than it actually should. And that context went on in like a million paragraphs so I'm gonna put it under a cut bc it got so incredibly long. There is a lot of backstory behind the flesh dimension part and what's funny is there could be about 2 or 3 contexts behind this that I could explain. I always seem to come back to different flesh dimensions, but bc ik ur referring to what my discord status has been I will explain why it is that

Basically the other day my partner was streaming for me a new game that they had bought for 7 dollars bc they had seen some screenshots of the game and thought it was interesting. Song of Saya. It's an insanely weird and slightly disturbing Japanese (I believe it is from Japan iirc) visual novel that if it tells you anything I think RIGHT off the bat it gave you the option to turn the gore graphics off or adjust how bad you want the gore. And because I am evil evil evil, I told my partner not to turn the gore off at all.

Anyway. This Game. is So gory. It's awful, it's like so gross and I wish I got to see it in all it's glory but I was stuck seeing it through the few pixels that a discord stream allows me to see. Anyway the basic plot of the game that I understood (bc my partner only played like two hours of it for me before I had to go) is that this dude got into an accident and received an experimental brain surgery or some sort of neurological surgery/treatment. This guy is also a medical student, I hate the main protagonist tbh and Saya who is NOT the main protaganist but she is also there and I also hate her. The plot of this game is insane.

Anyway, the surgery messed up this dudes brain so horribly that now he is stuck in a nightmare flesh hellscape, what me and my partner have dubbed the "flesh dimension" So every person that this dude talks to all his previous friends and anyone he knows is transformed into these disgusting fleshy blobs of gore and viscera as well as everything is literally COVERED in gore and organs and flesh and by covered I mean things have now become gore. It affects all of his senses so smell, taste, hearing, sight, touch, he is essentially in every single way but literal (even though it is real to him) he is in a flesh dimension. And obviously because hes in a flesh dimension he starts to become a real prick bc all his friends just see him from the outside perspective and he is rapidly fighting every urge to like freak out and just explode.

So yeah, he became a prick bc of the flesh dimension or whatever and so yeah, he's a naughty boy that gets put in the flesh dimension. He also like VIOLENTLY rejected his friends love confession and just like threw in her face how much he hated her how much her voice and appearance made him sick (bc flesh world stuff) and how he couldn't stand being by any of them. Which yeah.

Saya is also the only "human" being that he can see. so she just looks like a normal person to him and he met her in the hospital when he was recovering and she now lives with him and eats people but he doesn't know that. He also can eat people and they actually taste GOOD for once bc everything else in the flesh world tastes disgusting. Me and my partner assume that she is actually the flesh monster that looks normal to him bc he's in the flesh world.

it's a super interesting game and a super interesting plot and like. I would put screenshots but like THATS how gross and gory it is at least from what I could see from my bad quality discord stream that I was lovingly subjected to. It's also a really weird game style bc its like not really a game you're just watching the entire thing, it's just a visual novel there's no choices or decisions you're just playing through the story, you have no affect on it. So it's a really weird game system that I feel like I've never seen before, but yeah, it's super interesting and I really like it. No idea where my partner got it from tho so idk where to play it.

me and my partner are matching statuses btw

Some notable quotes that really solidify the watching experience: "you have to go to a taylor swift concert in the flesh dimension" "Maybe the flesh dimension is a trans allegory" "his pathetic flesh world swag has bewitched her in body and soul" "dont cry it just makes you uglier" (I cant remember if I was quoting the game but I did say this and scared my partner bc they thought I meant that towards them) "Secret nurse? shes like twelve and also a flesh monster" So to answer your question: you have to get experimental nerurosurgery and or just be a general massive prick to your friends to get sent to the flesh dimension. Or hmu for more options to get sent to the Flesh World dw about the cost

[cagedchoices]

GET TO KNOW THE AUTHOR.

name:  mel 

pronouns:  they/them/theirs

preference of communication:  mainly tumblr IMs these days, but i have discord and wire and occasionally i will drop my info on tumblr, give it out privately if asked, or add if someone else is looking to add. it can take me a while to work up the courage to message someone in the first place and i'm really... not good at the usual social cues of "hey how are you/good how are you?/what have you been up to?" but i'm usually game to chat about other stuff

most active muse:  Caleb. i've had a lot of other muses but he's been the one i've been most consistently able to write in the slightly over 3 years since i first started writing him.

experience/how many years:  i had a couple false starts trying to set up rp blogs for Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Wirt from Over the Garden Wall back in 2014 and 2015? but i just never really managed to get off the ground and start writing in-character for them because i was super heavily intimidated by the rpc and too nervous to approach anyone. finally in january 2017 i stumbled across a parody of Portal 2 on youtube called the Unauthorized Musical and discovered that there were already a handful of muns on tumblr who had picked up characters specifically based on that production and regularly hosted rabbit streams where they'd watch the video again together and welcomed anyone who wanted to join to do so. i noticed nobody was really writing any antagonistic characters against them so i wound up setting up a blog for GLaDOS and following everybody i met during the stream and that was essentially how i became hooked on tumblr rp. i've been kicking around on and off for about 7 years now.

best experience: there's so many to choose from, but i think i'd have to say my best experience was when i started writing Caleb. i was just fresh off watching Westworld season 3, i was actually feeling more compelled at the time to try and write either Dolores, Maeve, Clementine or Teddy but i felt like i wouldn't do any of 'em justice. i ended up making a sideblog to my old multimuse after deciding i would try writing Caleb, and that's where i almost immediately connected with melody/aworldofyou/copiesofme and was enthusiastically introduced to a bunch of other muns residing in the tiny but mighty westworld rpc. 🥰

rp pet peeves: one is pretty much the same as Sandra said; making a new main blog in the spur of the moment. exhausting all energy on curating a distinct aesthetic for icons/banners/promos/custom themes/etc, and then completely losing interest in a week or 2 without ever getting to write that character. and then more often than not the process gets repeated down the line until that person either becomes overwhelmed from having too many blogs to manage or too many memes to answer or too many starters to write.

i also don't particularly love memes that promote making rp into a popularity contest or seeking an almost constant stream of validation from other people. things like "send a _ and i'll rate your blog on a scale of 1 to 10/using a scale template" i try to stay far away from. arguably every notification you get on tumblr is an instant dopamine hit just like all social media is but. idk there was just something about those blog rating/character rating memes that made them feel more addictive to send and receive than like, taking the time to give someone your honest opinion on how you feel about them as a person or on their writing and characters and such.

another similar thing is reblog chains to the effect of 'reblog this if you actually like following me/seeing me on the dash.' i really don't like these. there's a level of self-deprecation and guilt-tripping involved and when people already feel awfully low and vulnerable to negative self image this just makes it worse. especially when people post with side commentary like 'oh nobody will reblog this from me lol.' and i don't think they're always necessarily aware that this is manipulative behavior, but...it is. even just the way the source post is typically phrased, it preys on insecurity and it makes me sad when i do see mutuals reblogging posts written like this because then i'm like. just sitting there thinking "i'm not a spambot so...if i didn't like following you or seeing you on my dash i would not be following you??"

other forms of reblog chains like 'reblog to give the person you're reblogging from a hug' or 'reblog this and say something nice about the person you reblogged from' are far better in my opinion because they don't inherently contain that same level of insecurity. they put the focus on lifting up and supporting the person you're reblogging from instead of centering on yourself.

plots or memes: i like both but i am very much a memes person because i feel like i'm not very good at plotting.

long or short replies: i don't really have a preference! but lately my thing generally seems to be letting the length creep up so my replies just get longer and longer over time. i never expect anyone to match me, but like. the one thing that would crush my soul is me posting like. 5-7 paragraphs and getting back a one sentence or one word response 😭

are you like your muses: i have a few things in common with caleb, one of them being that we're both neurodivergent and just trying to exist in a society where it is typically seen as undesirable to be classed as such. i stumbled across a venn diagram a while back comparing and contrasting common traits associated with ptsd and autism and it has given me a lot to take into consideration in the way that i portray caleb

tagged by: @k4ndall

tagging: @gunslingcr @paddyfuck @weirdwonderful @killjoysanonymous @prettydead & you (not labeled)

[jemmo]

Watchlist tag game!! ✨

thank you to @dribs-and-drabbles for tagging me (ily💕💕). tbh im not watching a lot at the moment bc there doesn’t seem to be a lot airing, and even less that I care about, so im just gonna be honest

Currently watching

A boss and a babe: I’m like… ok with this. it’s nice and cute and easy to watch and I like it more than I did enchante. book and force are doing a great job with their characters and have great chemistry but I just don’t care about the plot. like it hasn’t grabbed me at all, and it’s one of those shows for me where it feels like nothing is ever really happening, or they’re repeating the same thing of theme or plot point over and over. so yeah… it fills my friday

Bed friend: similar to a boss and a babe, but I do like it a little more (and no, not just bc it’s spicier). net and james have such incredible chemistry and I am more invested in the story, but idk… it’s giving mame, and I can never get too invested in these stories that touch on heavier themes when it feels like they’re just doing it for plot reasons and not to actually explore that kind of trauma. which is not to say they’re doing it badly, it’s just not my vibe for a show to get invested in. so again, fills my saturday

Our dining table: watched the first 2 eps of this and am loving it so far as a pure comfort show. the premise is so lovely and im excited to see how the romance plays out within the story they’ve established. the little kid is so adorable and im a sucker for a found family troupe

Me, my husband and my husband’s boyfriend: don’t ask me why I started watching this show but I watched the first 2 eps last night and it’s interesting to say the least. I kind of have no idea how the story is gonna pan out but like… the possibility of an unconventional 3-way relationship is at least worth sticking around for, and I’m glad it’s exploring adults navigating relationships. plus… and don’t spoil… but why do I feel like the main chick has a thing with that other friend… just me?

The eighth sense: what more is there to say? this is literally the only thing I care about airing at the moment, and between the boys planet finale this week and this show ending the week after, im literally gonna have nothing else to live for. like my whole personality is these two things, and I’m gonna be empty afterwards. anyway, this show is a masterpiece on every level in every sense and literally occupies my mind 24/7. honestly the most obsessed I’ve been with something in a while and I need to shut up before I start rambling all over again

Looking forward to watching soon:

Our skyy 2: im excited to see all my favourite people again, esp bad buddy and msp and the eclipse, and I just want all the levels of cute and fluff and low stakes good times

jack o frost: idk why I didn’t watch this while it was airing but now I have time and nothing to watch, im just going through my back catalogue to fill time. and I’m excited to see what they do with this whole amnesia plot? plus i usually like japanese bls bc they have such nice vibes

To sir with love: in a similar vein to above, I didn’t watch this when it aired but I saw it pop up on my dash and people raving so might as well catch up and see what it’s all about. I am literally going in blind so…

Would like to watch but can’t for region locked/subscription reasons:

Blue sky complex: i had this in my plan to watch on mdl for some reason and didn’t know why I didn’t watch it until i realised I don’t think it was released on a streaming site like viki or gagaoolala??? maybe I’ll find it on a random site and see if it was any good, but again I’ll watch any japanese bls bc they’re usually sweet and inoffensive even when they aren’t incredible

Utsukushii kare eternal: i will be screaming internally until this is released internationally

tagging anyone that wants to do this that hasn’t 💖💖

[sleepynoons]

TIME PLACE & OCCASION – a multi-fandom series!

WELCOME to TIME PLACE & OCCASION, or TPO, for short. I know you are probably overwhelmed, so here are four recommendations, out of our many camgirls, to get you started...

PEONY – reader x kuroo tetsurou (haikyuu!!)

PEONY is our newest addition! Shy and timid, she might come off awkward at first, but she has a lot of potential and is pure sunshine once you get to know her. She is known for being very honest and gentle, so she is a stellar choice if you are looking for someone who excels at making you feel fluffy and warm-hearted. She is a busy college student majoring in biochemistry, but when she can catch a break, she likes to go out with her sorority sisters and watch thrillers!

AMARYLLIS – reader x sado yasutora (bleach)

The top of the top, AMARYLLIS is TPO's shining star – our most popular camgirl with over 2 million subscribers. You can never go wrong with a classic! Bold and feisty and very seductive, she is skilled at making anyone and everyone fall for her. She is also known for having an acute memory and incredible conversational skills, allowing her to make smart comebacks and witty remarks to maintain energy and build great relationships with regular viewers. She is currently exploring a variety of new content, so if you ever want something more tame, she also has livestreams of her just chatting with friends and playing video games.

CLEMATIS – reader x aventurine (honkai star rail)

CLEMATIS is another top-performing camgirl of ours, though she tends to only do private streams for her most frequent and committed viewers. She is known for her bratty, stubborn attitude and may or may not have a bit of a sharp tongue... well, you might just discover a new favorite kink! Most importantly, she is very private. Even I cannot tell you what she does for fun or had for lunch yesterday!

JASMINE – reader x geto suguru (jujutsu kaisen)

You can consider JASMINE your Internet best friend (but remember, we do not condone parasocialism!). Known for having the most contagious laugh, paired with a great sense of humor, you are bound to have a fun and exciting night if you watch her. She is very experimental and loves to get down and dirty, literally. She also works a daytime job, so check out her weekend streams as you unwind!

AND if you are interested in joining TPO, feel free to contact...

MANAGER – reader x togame jo (wind breaker)

MANAGER loves her girls more than anything. At first, she started this job on a whim to pay off her college loans and monthly rent, but after meeting and befriending many wonderful friends and colleagues in the industry, she has stayed for years ever since. To say she is fiercely overprotective and caring of her girls is an extreme understatement. MANAGER is also very straightforward and thinks in rational terms, though she might take things a little too seriously at times (please do not tell her I said that!)...

NOTES: Logistics and detailed information here! Please fill out this form to be included on the series tag list (42/50 slots remaining). Please only fill out this form once, so be sure to check your spelling and choose the correct blog (if you have multiple) for me to tag. If you want to be removed, please let me know, and I will also automatically remove any accounts from the tag list if they are deactivated or the owner has moved. You have to be 18+, so please indicate your age somewhere on your profile.

Camgirl-specific masterlists are hyperlinked at their names. You can also keep track of, or mute/block, this series through the following tag: #TPO – carrot writes!

For moots, if you would like to be notified of updates, please let me know via private messages, my ask box, or over Discord. I will notify you of new chapters via the same messaging channel.

As an aside, I want to thank everyone for 150+ followers! It has only been two months since I started writing, and frankly, I never expected such a warm reception. This series is, in part, to indulge in my own fantasies and writing urges, but it is also to celebrate reaching such a huge milestone! This series will definitely take a few months to complete, so please hang in there with me and give this series lots of love via reblogs, essays-long tags, and comments!