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sanguutrash · 9 months
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Seraph of The End and its plot
Let me clarify this: Seraph of The End is a masterpiece, a work of literary art. Despite this, it has a lot of problems with its plot.
Let me state the extremely obvious; Seraph of The End is on an acid trip at this point of the plot. There's a lot of plot twists, and definitely some plot inconsistencies. This is probably because Kagami is changing up stuff so that it matches with his ideal outcome/ending for it, of course. Not to say it's near, since it's still a total clusterfuck and a lot of things have to be clarified before the manga can progress (not to mention it is MONTHLY, so we get 12 chapters per year to work with).
I personally, don't understand how YUU is MIKAELA. This is physically impossible, because, we know that Yuu is the eyeball. Not the fucking human???? unless Yuu is being stupid again and misreading his memories. Like, Michaela named the eyeball, the first Yuu, you know... Yuu. That just doesn't make sense. The eyeball basically gave life to a bunch of humans, so it would more be Yuu's child than a vessel of Yuu. Michaela and Yuu do not appear to be similar at all. You can tell because of the way his personality starts out. A fearful child, and a generic tsundere teenager. He just grows more innocent and foolishly blinded by his affection for life as time progresses. Michaela isn't exactly innocent in the child-like sense, he's more curious. Curious as to why life is... well, life. Honestly, I just don't get it at all. I just have no other way to explain it.
And then, where would Mikaela get his personality from? We know he's a successful clone of Michaela, but we don't know much about him [MIKAELA] as a person. We know a lot about Yuu, he's the first main lead; who the story is about. However, the story is centric around Mika too. So, it's inconsistent and just all the more confusing.
Shinoa Squad, GureMahi, and KrulFeri. (Not using their names as shipping, but more of an abbrev. for their names since theyre seen together) What about them? We have no idea what's going on with them. Since, our original leads in the previous plot arc was centric around them too. Shinoa Squad has been there from the start, so what'll be made of that? Seriously, seems like Kagami just cut them out and forgot them.
The plot is literally inconsistent as shit. Everything went downhill from the conversion of Mika to cursed gear and forth. After that it just got so much more confusing than it actually should be. And yet again, the story falls victim to the plot inconsistencies! Wow. Surprising. The story still remains interesting, but it's still extremely, extremely confusing. This may also ward off newer readers, because it's just not easy to wrap your head around unless you like overanalyzing stuff.
[END. If you are a MikaYuu or YuuNoa shipper, continue reading.]
Alright, now there's two possible ship endings that I can think of right now when it comes to our main leads.
A.) MikaYuu. They've been together from the start, they are the epitome of "It was always you", sacrificed everything to be with each other, show parallels to a ship considered "semi-canon" according to the ship wiki (this being GureMahi, as it has the most material to have parallels be made to)., and of course is a fan favorite. This can work, if Kagami decides to please his readers with something that you wouldn't see in a shounen: queers. I can see the world ending again, with Mika and Yuu sitting together, smiling at the destruction. [Although, I picture Mika slightly less happy.] Yuu and Mika watch as their greed has caused all of this, but they just don't seem to care all that much. After all, they're together.
B.) YuuNoa. They're the main leads. Main female, main male. They display parallels to GureMahi as well (but I find they have less), Shinoa's canon crush on Yuuichirou (that I will write a masterpost analyzing later), it's a shounen there has to be some straights somewhere, maybe Shinoa's love will have some good outcome for her. For YuuNoa, I picture that Yuu decides to revive the world (with Mika being by his side, can't kill off the main guy completely), with Shinoa finally having the strength to profess her love. Yuuichirou being like "WOW!! You like me!? AWESOME!!!!" and boom, they hold hands or something.
I'm mentioning these potential endings because shounen has some kind of outcome for their main characters. (ex: naruto's marriage, goku and chichi, ichigo and orihime, etc.) Of course, it's up to Kagami with what he wants to do with the romantic tensions. As for my stance on ships? Whatever seems the most canon at that moment is what I will support. Of course, as long as it isn't fucking disgusting. At this moment, it looks like MikaYuu is going to be canon. This may change, but I'm all for some queers.
SO, to conclude: Owari no Seraph is kind of a clusterfuck, and that's not a good thing. If it's gonna be saved, Kagami has a lot of explaining to do. Potential endings with ships can happen, depending on what Kagami wants to do with the story.
Send asks about topics you want me to maybe cover!! I'd love to do that :)
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nasuversekinkmeme · 4 months
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AO3 Tutorial: Basic Formatting
So, if you've ever posted anything on ao3, you will recognize this screen:
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And today I am here to talk to you specifically about those two buttons on the right, which you might have missed at first glance.
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By default, ao3 is in html mode. It's all in the title: any text you enter here in html will be translated to the appropriate formatting. It's useful if you want to do fancy stuff. However, that also means that if you want italics, bold text, or even just appropriate spacing after a paragraph break, you'll have to manually code that in. (If you ever copy/pasted your fic in and discovered afterwards that there was no spacing after any paragraph, the issue was probably that you used html formatting.)
If you just to copy/paste your fic and have all the formatting kept from your word doc, you ought to use rich text.
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Which will also has a much more intuitive interface if you want to edit stuff.
But wait! I hear you say. When I use rich text, I get DOUBLE spacing after all my paragraphs, and it looks ugly as hell!
Rich text automatically adds a space after every paragraph breaks. Which is great, but that also means that if you're the kind of person to hit enter twice after every paragraph in your word doc, ao3 registers it as two different lines, so two different paragraph breaks.
To avoid that, don't add a physical space between your paragraphs. Instead, tinker with your text editor to have a space after each paragraph breaks.
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(This is the button you're looking for on libreoffice. Your own text editor/google doc should have something similar.)
TL;DR:
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Use rich text. Increase paragraph spacing. Stop hitting enter twice after each paragraph.
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quinloki · 11 months
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Writers - Where You Gonna Post?
Hey all, so the TL;DR of this is that I post on Wattpad, Tumblr and Ao3 - All have their pros and cons, and this post is going to get into those (with a neat little summary at the end).
Note this is not an endorsement or criticism of any of them. Just my personal understandings of each, the pros and cons I've noted, and a chance to put it all in one place.
We're going to touch on - Ease of Posting, Visibility, Tagging, Searching, Cost, Security & Visibility, Functionality, and less objectively - Vibe.
word count: 1,874
-:- Ease of Posting -:-
Wattpad: 7.5/10 Tumblr: 9/10 Ao3: 4/10
Wattpad and Tumblr have direct-from-source formatting, meaning your paragraphs, italics, bolds, etc. stay in place when you copy from Word, google docs, or - I assume, Scrivener.
Tumblr has more options for font size, color, and links within the body of the text, and so scores higher than Wattpad's more limited capacity (Wattpad does allow for centering, justified, etc. positioning of paragraphs.)
Ao3 has far more CAPACITY than both, but the ease isn't there. You have to know your HTML markups, and for so people that can be a pain. There's a very useful Google Doc markup template that can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, but hyper linking, image inserting, and other functions that are available have to be done manually.
This is great, in terms of options, but lowers Ao3 on the whole "ease of use".
-:- Visibility -:-
Wattpad: 4/10 Tumblr: 3 or 9/10 Ao3: 9/10
Wattpad has an algorithm and their tagging system - compared to Tumblr and Ao3 is pathetic. I realize I said I was going to be objective, but that is being objective. It's a spaceless tagging system, so you get really awesome tags like roronoazoroxblacklegsanjixreader and... yeah. There's also a limit on the number of tags, so if you're doing a collection of one-shots it's hard to get everyone in there.
On the upside, their search function doesn't just search by tags (would that it did though.) So having information in your summary will help your visibility. What really gets your stuff visible are reader interactions - knowing someone established on Wattpad and having them give you some shoutouts when you start is your best bet for being seen.
Tumblr's visibility - tagging, searching, etc rely HEAVILY on what kind of writer you are. SFW items are far easier to search than NSFW ones, and the Mature label hides you from people who have opted in to see Mature content, which still boggles me. The in-site search function leaves a bit to be desired, but google searches in better enough to off-set that a bit. Tagging is far more robust on tumblr, but it's also a little hit or miss, especially with new users. (I had no clue how to "tag" properly when I started, believe you me).
There's a solid foundation of readers here, so that makes it a good place to get your feet under you without being on TikTo-- I mean Wattpad.
I'm not going to say much here, because let's be fair, Ao3 was BUILT for visibility. There's no algorithm and the tagging system is robust and customizable. Searching is easy - as long as writers are decent with their tagging, and it's not too hard to find what you want, fluffy or otherwise.
-:- Tagging -:-
Wattpad: 4/10 Tumblr: 7/10 Ao3: 9/10
I've touched on this already in the other sections. Wattpad has a lot of restrictions on its tagging system, and aside from using it to "rank" stories, I'm not entirely sure what else it does. I really don't think it comes into play with searching - key words pull from titles, user names, and summaries at the minimum.
Tumblr tagging is a bless - for the most part. The site deems some words "problematic" and doesn't let you search them, which is poor practice because it doesn't differentiate smut from sex ed. (Personally, not that I want it to block anything on my behalf. If I type it Tumblr, I mean to look for it.) Fortunately, as stated, you can use external search engines to get around this.
Ao3 has probably the most robust, and most customizable tagging system of all three. This is great, as long as you know what you're doing, and terribly confusing if you don't. There's primers out there for tagging in Ao3 and other general "good to know" type things, but it's not intuitive. You really do need the primers.
And Ao3 limits neither content nor tags, so take care when searching, and use the omission functionality if you need to - Ao3 won't hold back unless you tell it.
-:- Searching -:-
Wattpad: 6/10 Tumblr: 6/10 Ao3: 10/10
Smash visibility and tagging together and you get search ratings. Wattpad can be hit or miss because of the Tikto- er - algorithm, my best advice is don't be afraid of the results on page 2 and beyond. As much as it tries to "rate" works, rating is just too subjective. You're going to have to dig, just like you do on Tumblr and Ao3.
Having fan fic reader connections is really your best bet when searching, but slugging through the proverbial trenches yields gems too - and one man's quartz is another man's diamond, so I'm not putting any writing down when I say this - what we're looking for varies, and what's out there is multitudinous and variable.
Ao3 is your best place place for good hunting - it's literally built around it. The only hangups are the limitations of what an author puts in for tags vs what you think to search. Differences in how we perceive some words regionally can limit what bounces back - and sometimes a writer might not think of the word in the first place to add it.
-:- Cost -:-
Wattpad: 3 or 9/10 Tumblr: 10/10 Ao3: 10/10
Wattpad has ads - on the mobile app. You can pay for some stuff on the desktop too, but it's not in your face there like it tends to be on the mobile app. Still, you can use it for free.
Tumblr and Ao3 both request money and offer stuff in exchange for money. Sites need money to run, so it makes sense. Neither locks functionality behind cost (neither does Wattpad, not even on the mobile app), but it's easier to ignore ads on Tumblr than Wattpad's app (and no ads on desktop at all for Wattpad >.> just fyi).
-:- Security & Visibility -:-
Wattpad: ??? Tumblr: ??? Ao3: ???
What's important about security and visibility changes from person to person and I'm not really sure how to rate them numerically.
Tumblr and Ao3 let you make your works private - member or password access only, so there's a layer of visibility control with these platforms that does NOT exist on Wattpad.
Ao3 let's people download works to read offline. Technically you can copy/paste with Tumblr and do this as well. Wattpad does not allow this - you cannot download or copy/paste a work from Wattpad (you can copy/paste when in edit mode on things you own on WP, but readers cannot).
You don't need an account to interact with Ao3 and Tumblr - I *think* you do for Wattpad, but all three are free sign ups - Ao3 is just by invitation (when did that start, btw? I signed up years ago and missed that change).
Which is best, is up to you.
-:- Functionality -:-
Wattpad: 8/10 Tumblr: 7/10 Ao3: 10/10
Let me start by saying that Tumblr's functionality for Short Form Fiction is easily 10/10 - the search limitations notwithstanding. Tumblr's functionality for LONG Form Fiction can be a real pain in the ass, hence the 7/10 overall. Linking posts is a manual nightmare, and sometimes breaks between mobile and desktop for no reason.
Wattpad's limitations on some styles of formatting and linking aside, it does have an easy to use update process, and if there's a limit to how many words can be in a chapter, I haven't seen it, or heard of it.
Wattpad's mature settings are also more functional than Tumblr's, leaving the onus of if the reader is old enough on the reader by the words of their own ToS (I still block minors, personally, since you can see who votes and comments.) They do have stricter limitations, regarding "dark" content, and there is by no means any threat to be levied against minors allowed. Shonen levels of violence, sure, but you're not posting Juno the novel on the site without some issues.
All three sites - Wattpad most recently - have blocking functionality. Wattpad's recent changes allow for deleting comments as well as blocking users, which can be a cathartic ability to have.
One thing Wattpad and Tumblr have that I'd LOVE to see on Ao3 (and if it has it I've missed it) is the ability to schedule your posts and updates. Wattpad added this recently - it's only functional on the desktop, but it works.
For those of us who can write 10k words one day, and none the next two days, it's useful for spreading out your posts. Plus there's just something nice about being able to create a backlog of content, especially if you post on a schedule.
-:- Vibe -:-
No rankings, we die like blorbos.
One of the best things - to me - about Wattpad is a paragraph-by-paragraph ability to comment. Wattpad's readers have a similar vibe as Tumblr's readers - and I mean this affectionately.
You're all GREMLINS.
It gives me life and I love it.
Assholes exist everywhere, but my general vibe of who has the most goes: Wattpad Tumblr Ao3
Maybe some of you aren't assholes, you just don't think about how your comments can be taken before you post.
Ao3 gives me the most Long Form Comments I get out of anywhere else, and I love them. Please, PLEASE, gush to me about what you loved. Feel free to toss in what you didn't vibe with - as long as you're not cruel about it, I can take it. I can't possibly write something everyone perceives flawlessly.
I post to all three, because I like the combined experience I get from them. Ao3 feeds me in ways Wattpad and Tumblr can't, and honestly you can exchange all three of those entirely.
Ao3 feels like I'm walking down the street perusing sex toy shops and someone stops me and goes "Oh I read your story and really liked it, please keep up the good work!" (sometimes maybe they throw a drink in my face.)
Tumblr feels like I'm at a rave with 500 other people and there's 50 blorbos people are doing body shots off of and we're all having fun - and occasionally some asshole comes in, but they're handled pretty quick.
Wattpad's like... being at a Barnes and Noble having coffee in the cafe that's inside the store, and there's a BDSM class being taught in the manga section that's upstairs, and sometimes people take the escalator up and right back down again cause oops.
That's my breakdown - I hope it's helped you, or at least made you laugh a little. Good luck out there, where ever, however, and whenever you post, I hope you find the words you're looking for.
(I do want to add that Wattpad does, as mentioned, have a bit of a TikTok vibe. If you don't vibe TikTok you're not gonna vibe Wattpad, flaws and all).
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die-mitri · 1 year
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Some Pre-DvK2 Bakugou Analysis!
Word count: ~4,100 (sorry lol, TL;DR at bottom)
Reading time: ~15 minutes
Note: I made lots of words bold, italicized, or colored and with a lot of paragraph breaks to make this more readable for the bitches with ADHD out there. I see y'all and I can't read either. Sorry if this makes it harder to read for others 🤷🏽
I'm in the process of trying to start a bkdk fanfic and make it as in-character as possible by trying to relate to the characters and get in their heads. While I relate heavily to Bakugou, he's also a character that's very hard to understand.
What I mean is that I relate to a lot of Bakugou's base instincts and thought patterns, but the things he gets upset about in-canon make little sense to me. To try to get into his head I've had to do a deep dive on myself and all the things I've been upset about in a similar way he has been, as well as to understand why I've felt justified acting so similar to him. Considering most people act in ways they feel justified in, I need to analyze what about Izuku would make me so bothered by him, that I would treat him the way Bakugou does. If I can tap into that feeling and try to distort my thinking and apply it to his specific situation, then I’ll have an easier time writing this mostly canon-compliant fic.
I'm gonna use myself as a reference for his behavior and will be talking about a time when I was much a worse person. I've since grown a lot and realized how wrong I was, so please keep that in mind and try not to judge 12-15 year old me too harshly. The stories I use will have fake names for the people involved to help you keep track of them.
None of this is meant to justify the way Bakugou treated Izuku, and is only meant to try to understand why he did it in a more relatable/realistic, less anime-dramatic nonsense way. Mostly, so I can replicate his thought process for accurate fic writing.
I'm gonna address this analysis in 5 different bits: fear, anger, pride/shame, building a persona, and the conclusion.
Let's go!
FEAR!
Bakugou struggles with being seen as weak/incapable. It's DIFFERENT from his superiority complex... Although connected.
It's my belief (backed up by canon) that Bakugou's relationship with his mom has affected his perception of strength and worth; and that because of her, he's attached his identity to his strength, which he felt made him more secure and better than other people. To be weak, is to be pathetic, is to be humiliated. To be clear, I don't think he did this consciously. It was just that kind of thing that seeped into the way he thought and because of it, he tried to fortify himself against any and all vulnerability. Which leads to the bullying/ “Better to hunt than be hunted” mentality. As well as his black and white thinking. If his way is right, everyone else’s must be wrong and anything that challenges his limited world view is a threat to his very being. If his strength doesn’t matter, or isn’t the best, then who is he? That’s a scary thought to me too.
It's a similar story with me, just switch the parent. My dad is a man of principle and one of his principles is that you should not be a pussy and always be the smartest person in the room. I attached my identity to being right all the time and always standing my ground. I’m sure you can guess how fun I was at parties.
So I refused to let others see when I'd actually been hurt and hated the idea of being seen as pathetic or weak. I also couldn't accept that I needed help sometimes. I wanted to be unshakable and plow through everything. 
A ridiculous outcome of that, is that I used to hate apologies in any direction. "Don't apologize to me, I don't need your help getting over this. I won't apologize to you bc that means I was thinking about feeling bad about what I did and you can't know that." 
In truth, I didn't mind being wrong, just looking like I cared. 
That’s the heart of it. I cared a lot less about the values I had, and a lot more about how scared I was to be seen not fulfilling them. It’s embarrassing.
Another, much stupider example of this in my life is that I hate being babied. Even by people who look up to me or respect me as equals.
Once at summer camp I had some friends fuss over me about something. I can't even remember what it was anymore, probably wearing sunscreen. I just got so upset. I was like "I'm not a fucking kid, I can take care of myself. Don't try to help me bc there's no reason I'd ever need help." In retrospect it was seriously not a big deal, and they're both friends that I love dearly, but my own issues with having people take care of me got in the way of me perceiving their affection like a normal human being.
Bakugou is the same about needing help and would rather die/lose than be seen as pathetic/vulnerable. Like he said during their dual exam that not even having the choice to destroy himself in order to have control win would be unbearable. If his strength isn’t enough on its own, then he is not enough.
I think this particular issue is made worse by his poor impulse control in regards to Izuku... (With everything else, he's very calculated, which I talk about more in the "creating a persona" section).
In general, I think Bakugou is just very scared/uneasy about his place in the world (that he’s not enough or that he’s been wrong the whole time [see: kacchan vs deku part 2]) and he covers it up with…:
ANGER!
Bakugou doesn't have a hard time not just being mean, but being cruel. There's little hesitation in going for the throat when it comes to insults and mind games. The same goes for me BUT only when I really dislike someone.
There was one time I was mean to some kid who was weird and pushy with me because he thought I was cool. He was not a bad guy, he just couldn't take a hint and wouldn't leave me alone. Let’s call him Liam. One day Liam made some joke and no one in class laughed. He said something like "tough crowd", and without hesitation I told him he just wasn't funny. It's not exactly bullying, but he probably felt bad about that for a bit.
It was mean tho, right? I did it cuz at the time I just wanted Liam to dislike me enough that he'd leave me alone. Sounds familiar, huh?
It was not the first or last time I acted like that. I want to highlight that I did these things feeling justified (even though I probably wasn't), which is the key component to understanding why Bakugou was so mean to Izuku in the beginning. It wasn't so much about power, as it was about getting Izuku to leave him alone for good. To get somewhere he didn't have to worry about being bothered by him ever again and follow his dream at the same time. You know, like UA? The last possible place you'd find someone without a quirk?
I think it needs to be made INCREDIBLY clear that Bakugou sees Izuku as a fundamentally different person than we, the fandom, do.
To him, Izuku was some weirdo who wouldn't leave him alone, made him feel nervous/stupid, was generally uncool and annoying, and acted like he was better than him. (let’s not forget that Izuku was quite the stalker for a while??) It doesn't matter how wrong Bakugou was, Izuku still made him feel that way and that's a good enough reason to try to get someone to leave you the fuck alone. I know I would. I mean I literally have.
There were multiple kids at my school who freaked me out/ made me uncomfortable and I wasted no time in getting them to fuck off as quickly as possible. I'm sure most of us have similar stories and definitely seemed like one of the bad guys from their point of view. (Especially given that a lot of these annoying kids were probably well-intentioned and just made you uncomfortable)
The following stories are unnecessary to understand my point, but I just wanted to tell them. Feel free to skip over it.
There was one kid in my grade who was around me a lot. Let’s call him Isaac. We walked home the same way and had a few classes together. There were two times I remember getting annoyed enough with him to actually snap at him.
One time was when Isaac tried to hide behind me in a gym class during dodgeball and he touched my shoulder or something. So I turned around and shoved him to the ground and told him not to touch me. He slid on his ass for a sec. I'm sure he was a bit embarrassed and looking back, it was mean. I could have just asked him not to do that politely.
The other time I remember, we were in science class and we were always sat at the same table because the teacher said I was best at handling the "annoying kids" (which is kinda a crazy thing to say to another student). Regardless, Isaac wouldn't stop talking and just overall bothering me. I might be misremembering this part, but I'm pretty sure he had come behind my chair and touched my shoulders again. So I got up and yelled at him. I told him to leave me the fuck alone and stop being weird. My teacher came to check up on me, not him. Asked if I was okay and if I needed help to beat someone up (jokingly ofc). But maybe I was the bad guy here. I could have asked a teacher to reseat me or told Isaac he was making me uncomfortable, but I didn't. I did what would make him leave me alone the fastest. And he did after that. For the most part at least. We still ran into each other on the walk home and would make conversation. Isaac annoyed me, but I didn't hate him, I wasn't close enough to him to. HOWEVER, had he been annoying me since I was FOUR?? I'd probably beat his goofy ass up just like Bakugou did.
AND If I found out later that he was like secretly the president's son and was only letting me push him around to hide his identity? Not only would I be mad, I'd feel so fucking stupid and embarrassed. AND IF HE FOLLOWED THAT UP WITH SOME BULLSHIT LIKE: “no, no, I was only recently adopted by the president bc I'm destined for a future greater than yours.” Are you kidding me??? I'd fuck some shit up. Punch some walls or somethin.
Like what makes you of all people think you’re better than me? You’re just some kid with ideas of grandeur. Get away from me or get hit bitch. 
I'm not saying Bakugou's right, only that I get it. He uses anger to cover up all the feelings that make him feel unsafe/uncomfortable/embarrassed. As do I. Annndddd a lot of it is about… (say it with me…)
PRIDE & SHAME!
The infamous superiority/inferiority complex. This is mostly spelled out for you in canon, so I’ll only talk about the parts that interest me the most.
We already know Bakugou doesn't like being looked down on. It enrages him. It's a pride thing. Pride is inherently attached to shame. You care less about using pride to cover up your shame the less shame you have to cover up.
No matter how hard he tries, Bakugou can't be all he expects of himself. He cares that the anger he uses to hide his discomfort makes people dislike him. He's embarrassed that he cares at all and it makes him feel like he's weak. Only a loser would let that get in their way... That vulnerability eats him up and makes him feel stupid and it all becomes a circle.
Gotta be strong > uses force to exert his strength > ppl dislike him for it > he feels hurt > he shouldn't care what they think > need to get stronger to handle it.
THEN he lost to Izuku several times, got kidnapped, AM lost his powers because Bakugou needed saving, and failed to get his hero license.  (AND HIS MOM PICKS ON HIM ABOUT IT WHICH DOESN'T HELP) He had to reckon with the fact that his way is wrong. But he's so caught up with attaching himself to the part, that it's very hard to let go. He'd have to change his entire world view and identity.
This post discusses the way he reckons with the cognitive dissonance that comes with his strength having nothing to do with what’s “right”. I'm a really big fan of the concept of Bakugou trying to use his physical strength/lack thereof, to make sense of his emotional weaknesses and lapses in logic.
I didn't want to cheap out on you and leave you without an embarrassing personal story for this bit, so I really had to dig for a story mostly about pride/shame because I feel like this section is mostly about what causes the fear and anger. Pride/shame is a common denominator rather than its own point… but here I go anyway.
When I was 14 I made my math teacher cry. She was kinda a bitch and deserved it a little bit, but I still feel kinda bad in retrospect.
I’ve always been a shit student, which didn’t bode well with the whole “smartest person in the room” deal. It was embarrassing to know that it didn’t matter how smart I was, I could never sit still and think long enough to finish my school work. And yeah, you bet my dad made me feel like an idiot for it. So I took some of it out on my teacher. 
It felt justified making her cry because she had always had it out for me. She was rude the moment I walked in the door, she refused to sit me up front so I was never able to read the board, she resented us because she wanted to teach the “smart” kids, and she always made sure to tell me how much I sucked in front of the whole class.
Now the thing about being the rowdy annoying student (especially in the lower level classes) is that most of the kids in class agreed with you. The teachers normally assume the worst about lower level students and were complete dicks, so you can be sure there was almost always animosity and distrust in class. Every time I gave a snarky response or talked over her, I was met with snickers and fist bumps. Maybe she, my Dad, my shame made me feel stupid, but the attention from the kids in my class sure fed my ego.
As bad as I feel for making her cry, I still tell the story with pride. She didn’t break me, I broke her. 5 years later and it still feels good to know that I walked away mostly unscathed, and she quit her job. I was so sick of feeling stupid, but I still do, otherwise the story wouldn’t feel so good to tell. It might not be a thing I’d do to a teacher ever again, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could sometimes. Shame is more powerful than the shield of pride; and both of them are nasty habits.
I think pride and shame would be the hardest traits for Bakugou to let go of. Truthfully, I don’t think he will ever fully abandon those traits. They’re fundamental to his character and are the driving force behind his pursuit of being the number one hero. Which is also a primary factor in what pushes both Bakugou and Izuku to grow as heroes. They wouldn't be themselves without it.
Conversely, part of what drives them to grow as people is Bakugou being honest and letting go of…  
THE MASK HE MADE!
Perfectionism, control, and the persona he created...
There’s the way that Bakugou is and the way he wants to believe he is.
Most of fans think of bkg as the person he wants to believe he is. This fake version of him is undeniably strong, laughs in the face of danger and hurdles, is mean without regard because he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him, and knows EXACTLY what he wants.
Let’s talk about the mask I made which I'm just starting to let go of.
I’ve run away two times in my life. Once when I was 12 because I hated my life, and the other time when I was 17 and wanted to make my dad angry and worried. Both of them had to do with fear, anger, pride, and shame. But both were done to break away from the mask I made. 
The first time was done because I was scared I’d be stuck with my Mom and siblings forever, always taking care of everyone and managing all the emotions in the house. I was angry that it was all my job and I had to do it all alone. I was an idiot to think I could handle the world alone as a runaway but I was impulsive and stupid. I wanted to be seen as a loose canon. Too often – and because I had gone out of my way to be seen as such, I was seen as dependable; like I could just keep taking the pressure and never crack. None of it was true. I was scared and weak and I was collapsing under the weight of my family’s problems. So I took everything and left. I just finally wanted my Mom to see that I wasn’t okay. In the end, it didn’t work, so I moved away from it to live with my Dad… Which caused its own set of issues.
The second time I ran away was the day of my high school graduation. I hardly got any days to celebrate myself. Including my birthdays, which were often excuses for my Mom and sibling to invite their own friends over. Once my birthday was forgotten all together. All that to say, I was excited to have a day for myself. As I’m sure you can guess, the day didn’t go as planned and I was sidelined for the entirety of it. When I finally got home, I went to vent to my Dad about it which didn’t go well. To summarize, he told me I was pathetic and dramatic. So I was like “Fine. Clearly no one here gives a shit about me. I’ll just leave without a word.” So I left the house, called a friend for a sleeping bag, and set up shop between a garage and some train tracks for a night.
My intentions are still a bit unclear to me, but from what I remember, It was fear that I truly wasn’t cared about, anger for all that I had lost in order to protect the mask, and shame that I thought they’d care; as well as the fact that I was hurt by how little they cared. Above all, I wanted to make my family feel bad for pushing me to the point that I thought that running away would be the only thing that got to them. It didn't. I came home the next day and no one said anything.
I had given so much energy trying to be steadfast, confident, strong, but on the two occasions I had broken those patterns no one noticed or even really cared. It put me in a weird position. Was I just supposed to give up on those things? Live my life in accordance with my true feelings? It seemed nothing mattered and in the end I did little to change.
Change I certainly did though. I gave up trying to be emotional support for my parents. I started to voice my true feelings a bit (only a little bit) more often. I even stopped trying to act any specific way in front of my family. 
Despite all that change, however minor in outward appearance, It’s not like I had let go of those values. I just reevaluated how I interacted with them. I'm still steadfast, I know what I want for my life and plan on letting nothing get in the way. I’m confident that what I’m doing will be best for me, instead of good for maintaining a persona of strength, and now I try to put the anger into standing up for myself and my truth. 
In all honesty, It’ll never stop hurting me that no one cared when I tried to show them the truth about how I felt. And I’m not sure I’ll ever stop being embarrassed that I care what they think. I still want to believe that I’m above everyone and above feeling sorry for myself, but I’m not. I’m a hurt kid who’s slowly figuring out how to live with it and become a better person.
The best parallel I can pull here is Deku vs. Kacchan 2. Bakugou’s been holding a lot of feelings in for a very long time and a huge part of his mask is hiding his true feelings. It’s true that he shows anger, but that’s part of his mask, not a crack in it. During this whole scene he’s using anger to cover up his pain and self-doubt. Just the fact that it’s a fight instead of a conversation proves this. 
Bakugou choosing to have this fight was a call for help. He needed Izuku and All Might to see that he wasn’t holding it together as well as they thought he was. This was like me running away in that it was a drastic, desperate attempt to escape the mask all while giving himself enough leeway to come back to it if he felt too vulnerable with his newfound freedom.
As a side note, I think that Bakugou sees maintaining his mask in front of Izuku as most important. To the point where he'll let himself get hurt/hurt people he normally wouldn't want to in order to keep up the performance. Izuku is the last person he wants to let see all the vulnerabilities and if getting beat to shit/spewing the most hateful things he could think of will make sure Izuku never sees them, then it's what bkg must do. (which is why the impalement and apology are so important to bkg letting his walls down)
In MHA, as well as in my life, leaving behind the persona you made takes a long time and a lot of baby steps. It’s humiliating and terrifying. I’m not sure if all of you quite understand the amount of trust Bakugou is putting in Izuku following DvK2. To Bakugou, he felt like he had bore his soul to Izuku with the intention of marking this as the beginning of his attempt to become better – as a hero AND a person. 
I see DvK2 as the first major step they took together towards reconciliation, friendship, and eventually, love.
IN CONCLUSION 
Bakugou made a loud and abrasive personality to hide his insecurities and fear. While he tried his best to maintain it, it became an impossible feat once he finally had to face that he wasn’t as strong as he thought. His rigidity, once his superpower, became is downfall. He used his fight with Izuku to break from the persona he trapped himself in, and in taking his first step away from his mask, he started a new journey to become a better person for himself and for Izuku.
TL;DR
I used personal, embarrassing stories that reminded me of Bakugou in order to pull back the curtains and try to make sense of the way Bakugou behaves in a way that's less dramatic and hopefully easier to relate to. The reason he's bitchy is that he’s a bit delusional. But me too bitch. I hope you all see him as a bit more relatable now :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was the first of ~4 character analyses, as I want to cover what Bakugou and Izuku would need to change about themselves in order for them to fall in love with each other. As it stands, there’s very little the people in the stories I used as reference could do to make me respect them enough to consider an actual friendship with them, much less love. I’ll have to do a lot of speculation once I get there (which you’ll be able to read here once I’ve written them), but it’s the best I could do, seeing as I didn’t know these people well or long enough to have stories to speak confidently of in the following analyses.
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harpieisthecarpie · 2 months
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Harp's Kongzilla (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) Thoughts
(Update ??? 6: [Mission log. I can't tell if it has been 6 minutes since I lost contact with the outside world, or 6 years. Time doesn't move the same in this space. Will I ever be home again, or will I have to make this hellscape my "home"?] Even if you don't care about Godzilla this might be fun to watch the ✨ chaotic progression of my mental breakdown✨! Who needs Kongzilla, when you can pop some corn and watch a ✨ timelapse of Harp's kaiju-inspired demise✨?)
Just got back from seeing Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in a really nice, really big theater and I have a torrential hurricane of thoughts I MUST get out RIGHT NOW.
THIS MOVIE FUCKS SEVERELY!!!!!!!!!!
(Edit: [kind of an edit I haven't posted this yet] It has been an 1hr and 1/2 since I started typing and I haven't gotten through my spoiler-free review. Kongzilla was only 1hr 55min bro. I am so fucking lost in the sauce bro.)
(Edit 2: [still haven't posted] sorry about the colored text and the bolding and the effects. It is the only way I could keep myself sane. Yes it will continue into the spoiler reblog.)
Usually the first thing I do after seeing a movie at the cinema (not including rambling about it with whoever went with me to the theaters) is look up what other people are saying on the internet. Reviewers, Tumblr, general internet surfing (I'm a nosey bitch who likes to see who I disagree with, sue me).
But I COULD NOT with this one. I turned all my notifs off. They are staying off until I fucking finish this post.
(Edit 3: [I'll post eventually] YES I intend to keep that promise until I finish the spoiler-filled reblog. I took an extra of my ADHD meds to stay up this late. I HAVE to expend that energy somehow.)
Also, I am going to refer to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire as Kongzilla going forward. I still haven't checked tumblr so it's probs a ship name but it's what I've been calling the movie in my head since I was told I was going to watch it in theaters.
Big Godzilla and Kaiju buffs PLEASE take all my commentary with a grain of salt. I don't know goddamn ANYTHING in depth about Godzilla movies or lore.
Also this is a sequel! I haven't seen the first one!! But I didn't even need to see it bc there is just the right amount of context that you don't have to have seen the 1st to watch this one! So, truly not a point against me. Rather, a point TOWARDS this movie.
The only reason I've seen so many Godzilla movies in theaters is because my brother has been OBSESSED WITH and ENAMORED BY classic kaiju movies and their successors since before my brain was able to make long-term memories, probably even before I was born.
So I go to all the big Kaiju blockbusters with him because he is my big bro and I care about his interests (and also because no matter the movie quality, I didn't pay for the ticket and I probably also got free popcorn). Pretty much ALL of what I know about Godzilla lore is from him and also manga that have kaiju (or are at least kaiju inspired).
Okay, I am gonna ramble all my thoughts. BUT!!!! If you are like me and end up checking Tumblr to see if you'll like a movie, I'll leave something for you. It starts at the TL;DR in purple and goes past the read more.
(Edit 4: [This rambling review I initially wanted to make for the tumblr interaction for fun has turned into my own personal Purgatory/Saw trap. Free me.] Moved the read more cutoff further up because I rambled MORE during my read through. I also ended up removing most of the purple emphasis coloring, bc if people don't read this fucking thing because of too much color I'm EATING THIS FUCKING LAPTOP.)
I was gonna do my spoiler rambling here too but I have been going for over and hour and several paragraphs, so the spoilery rambling will be in a reblog of this post. If you're even interested. IF YOU EVEN CARE.
TL;DR WATCH THIS MOVIE.
Even if you're not the biggest Godzilla or kaiju buff, even if you haven't seen the first movie in this series. WATCH IT.
Also, once more I am a Godzilla layman. The lore is my brother's zone. I do not speak for what Godzilla and kaiju buffs would think. Please Godzilla Tumblr fandom don't kill me!!!! If I say I thought Kong and Godzilla were kinda hot ( I mean this in the monster fucker way NOT the furry way [not that I'm bashing furries. I'm not a furry tho.]) will that make you like me more or less?????
ANYWAYS
It is fucking fun!!!!! And also the WEIRDEST whiplash between heartwarming and funny that I have never seen work before. BUT IT WORKS HERE!! SO WELL!!!!!
Even if you are jaded about seeing movies (especially franchise films, reboots, and actions) I recommend it. I am also jaded, it's been so long since there has been something I wanted to see in theaters.
And as of 1:26 AM my time, about 1hr and 30min since I left the theater (please let me ouuuut) I AM 100000% WILLING TO SEE IT AGAIN. I'D PAY FOR MY OWN TICKET !!!!! (I never pay for my own ticket! People have to bribe me into the theaters!)
The only other recent one I've enjoyed has, funnily enough, been Godzilla Minus One. And for similar(???) but also very different(!!!!) reasons.
Godzilla -1 was very thoughtful and painful and it made you sit in the despair the characters felt as their lives were razed to the ground. I also 10000% recommend you see Godzilla -1, but only if you want to experience a story that flays open a lot of the devil-may-care destruction that action (and monster) movies revel in.
Kongzilla didn't give me any fucking time to think (I mean that in the BEST way). It was 1hr 55min long (very refreshing) and it was batting me around like a fucking pinball in a Godzilla-Kong-FoundFam pinball machine. I was just along for the ride, but now I am left bereft in my many many thoughts. Which is why we are here.
Jesus I am rambling more than I expected okay uh uh. Now for a DO WATCH IF vs DON'T WATCH IF, in case my words have failed to compel you.
Pros Coloring Code
Pink = Emotional reasons to watch Blue = Action reasons to watch Orange = Horknee reasons to watch (hey, it happens) Green = ????
DO watch if:
You are a sucker for found family
You are a sucker for big monster found family
ACTION!! THRILLS!!! BIG MONSTERS FIGHT RAAAAA
You have been looking for a heartfelt, yet funny (and fun) action that actually feels like it has a heart (I am subtly critiquing you superhero movie industrial complex)
YASSIFIED PINK GODZILLA
BIG MONSTER CGI THAT LOOKS ACTUALLY GOOD!!!!
Pretty ladies!!!!! (I could see the main lady's shimmery gloss and freckles in hi def it was a spiritual experience. God shes gorgeous I'm gonna reblog so many gifsets)
Pretty men!!!!! (Australian vet weirdgirl [but man] was treated as the seductive hottie by the movie and goddamn they were RIGHT. Also conspiracy theorist dude was so fucking handsome too. I don't even LIKE men!)
A cute kid dealing with the loss of her entire world and thrust into a place she doesn't feel she belongs.
That cute kid being the DAUGHTER of the main lady. They communicate in sign and it is so fucking heartfelt and genuine!!! (more l8er)
Unexpected (to me) polycule???? Not ACTUALLY canon but bro it felt like it (even more l8er). Idc if some element was queer/ship bait. I fell hook, line, and SINKER. Get that kid 2 extra dads with her order of mom!!!!!!
Silver fox (ba dum tss) grizzled GILF Kong???? I was not expecting that the wet meow meow of the movie would be KONG, but... here we are
Seriously an alt title could be Kong and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
POW! BWAAAAA!!!!! VWOOOOOO
Godzilla destroys a nuclear facility in France.
Bro this got so long I had to go back and fucking color code.
(Edit 5: You have no fucking idea bro. Your rambling [and emotional state] gets worse!)
DO NOT watch if:
You have photosensitive epilepsy or if you feel there is ANY chance flashing or flickering lights might trigger a seizure. It fucking sucks how few movies are safe for people dealing with photosensitive seizures (or any photosensitivity issues) but this IS one of the ones that'll fuck you up. Do NOT risk your health for GILF Kong. He would want you to stay safe and healthy!
I'm 10000% serious about the warning. There is a scene where they were warping into Hollow Earth and the flashing and flickering and general sight fuckery got bad enough to make ME have to look away. It lasted for at least a minute too. Jesus.
DO NOT SEE THIS IF FLASHING LIGHTS AND CINEMA FUCKERY WILL RISK YOUR HEALTH.
In a similar vein, if you experience vertigo or really bad motion sickness this movie will be hell. The story deals with gravity and spacial fuckery and the cinematography reflects that. The opening shot was REALLY COOL but it was dizzying. You could probably get away with watching it at home, but it'll FUCK YOU UP at the cinema.
You just in general don't like back-to-back always bumping action. If you wanna see a newer Godzilla movie but don't fancy the roller-coaster movie feel, look into Godzilla Minus One.
Okay!!!! I think this is finally fucking it? For the spoiler-free discussion at least. God. Whatever is happening to me is unholy.
If i wake up tomorrow (today) and I'm still as fucked up about this movie, if this isn't just the fucking extra ADHD med, if it turns out my newest hyperfixation is a fucking Western Godzilla x Kong movie series????
I think I'll have to toss myself into a panic chamber, in case I am suddenly overcome by the impulse to buy kaiju models worth hundreds of dollars (I know there are more expensive ones but I am poor enough to know my own limits) for ME to keep instead of for my brother.
Oh Jesus, I won't even be able to ramble with him about it because I'd become fixated in a queer/monsterfucker way and either he wouldn't at all understand or I would be forced to reckon with a reality where I know my brother's romantic preferences and those preferences are giant monsters. I couldn't take that man it'd be joever for me.
OKAY WRAP IT UP LOSER!!!!
That's it for the spoiler free section! Either I will pass out as soon as I hit post or I'll end up writing for like 3 more hours regarding spoilers.
SO CHECK THE REBLOGS (not right away give me time) FOR MY SPOILERY THOUGHTS!!!!!!
I am NOT allowing myself to look this fucking thing over again. I need to have self control.
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aceparagoned · 11 months
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A quick and dirty RP policy guide
Bold all that apply to you and your blog. Italics if you’re on the fence about something. Either reblog or repost. Feel free to add anything I may have missed in the appropriate category, or recategorize something that is in the wrong place!
Tumblr media
My blog is _______
Open to all
Semi-selective
Selective
Moderately Selective
Highly selective
Exclusive
Only going to RP with mutuals
Mostly going to RP with mutuals
Indie
Affiliated with a group
Spoilers free
Spoilers tagged
Spoilers mostly tagged
Not spoiler free
I will RP with ______
Any fandom
Most fandoms
Only fandoms I know ( typically, just give me the tl;dr of your fandom and I'll be more than happy to whip something up! )
Only people in my fandom
OCs
OCs with no fandom ties
OCs who are related to/know my character in their backstory ( being a Protector / PIPE operative is more than encouraged! I never mind having others work alongside Hikaru!)
Only one version of any particular character
People who have the same muse as me
People who do not have a rules page
Multimuse blogs
People in RP groups
Indie RPers
When RPing, I like to use _______
Paragraphs
Shorter forms of text
*Action*
Icons
Gifs
Gif icons
Formatted text
Whatever my partner is using
My own style regardless of my partner’s reply
I will ship with _______
No one
Anyone
Chemistry
Select ships  
OCs
Others of my own muse
Crossovers with characters from different fandoms
Only one version of a particular character
One person in my main verse
Multiship, all ships independent of each other & main ship
One main/canon ship within my main verse
My blog WILL contain ______ in it’s content
Fluff
Light fluff
Angst
Gore
Violence
Smut
Blood
Torture
Shipping
Death
Dark humor
Cheating
Assault
I will follow ______ back
Everyone
Only some people
Most people
Only people in my fandom
Every RP blog
Only people I actively wish to RP with
People who do not post a lot of OOC
People whose posts I am comfortable with on my dashboard
To RP with me, you should _______
Follow back
Answer an open
Message me OOC
Message me IC
Make me a starter
Answer my starter
Send in a meme
Like a starter call
Other:
I practice reblog karma with memes
I expect reblog karma with memes
I expect my rules/about to be read ( especially since I've got some specific triggers that I'd absolutely love to have tagged so that my filters can appropriately catch them! )
I always read the rules/about before following/interacting
If you follow me, I would like suicide and assault tagged
I expect all smut to be beneath a read-more
I am a multiverse blog
I am multi-muse
I do not wish for my OOC posts to be reblogged
I do not wish for my threads to be reblogged by those not involved ( liking them, however, is fine! )
I expect post length to be matched
I expect icons/gifs to be used in a reply if I have used them
I don’t expect post length to be matched, but I will try to match your own. ( listen, I tend to write full blown novellas because I really like digging deep into my character's psyche, so I never expect you to match my length, but please at least give me something to work off of in your reply! )
I am patient when waiting for replies and expect the same courtesy.
tagged by stolen from: @the-composer tagging: you!!
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ina-nis · 1 year
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Hi! I think you've mentioned you don't deal with anxiety or low self-worth in AvPD (sorry, if I'm misremembering). Could you describe what that experience is like? I'm working on those myself, but it's hard for me to imagine having AvPD without those. Thank you for your time.
That's right, yes. It might have to do with the fact that I've been in therapy for a long time (huge TL;DR [sorry!] in the last paragraph if you don't feel like reading all this).
I have always had low self-esteem caused by long-term trauma.
I used to be an extremely anxious, nervous person because I was under a lot of stress constantly. Of course, I also had really bad social anxiety, lost opportunities because I couldn't get a phone call, almost failed school because I wouldn't get into group projects or talk in front of the class. I spent several years just struggling that way since I was scared of going to therapy but eventually I had to do it because I was too suicidal.
I've been in therapy for years, doing different treatments and approaches, on and off.
I started treating depression. I had some exposure for social anxiety due to job-related things, I have done DBT and it has great coping skills for crisis, I came out as trans and that helped with my self-esteem, I left many stressors behind and moved elsewhere.
I still experience anxiety and social anxiety nowadays but mainly by dissociating. It feels like my brain is using a less "destructive" coping mechanism, because I'm not as nervous or stressed out as before, since I'm in a safer place.
I still experience self-esteem issues too, but I have learned to be more gentle with myself, to stop comparisons and just be more patient with me in general.
One part of the treatment is internal. I had to treat my other mental illnesses too, just dealing with anxiety didn't do much, it would just come back over and over. Everything is connected and treating one leads to another.
The other part is environmental/external, but that can be harder to tackle since it might require actual, physical changes: be it a place or your body.
On my journey to diagnose AvPD I did stumble upon anxieties and it was confusing at first, but I experience these disorders in completely different ways: AvPD is more about avoidance and self-isolation, and fear of rejection itself; while anxiety is more situational. My fear of being alone forever has nothing to do with anxiety, it feels much more visceral. Also, anxiety feels much more personal and "mine" while AvPD feels more interpersonal and "ours", I have "my" things but not "our" things between me and others.
Best of luck with dealing with these issues and if anything, time will help you tremendously! Even if it's not possible to get therapy or leave a bad situation, it's still possible to decrease your anxiety by using many different skills, takes time and patience. For your self-esteem and worth, you have to learn to like yourself. I'm afraid there's not many ways around it, enhance what you already enjoy and change what you dislike (but don't get too hung up on "dislikes", you can find many good things about yourself and spend your energy there instead).
TL;DR: your self-worth, anxiety and other things might be all linked together:
Get professional help if at all possible (it can be done on your own, just harder and slower);
Figure out where these feelings are coming from (usually stuff in your childhood);
Exposure does work. It's great for social anxiety (but if you don't have a sense of getting better, you might need to work on other areas of your life/mental health);
DBT skills (you can do that without therapy, they're great for anxiety crisis);
Figuring yourself out helps with self-esteem (who are you? Who do you want to be? What do you like? Basically become obsessed with yourself and find out how cool/smart/talented/beautiful/etc you are/can be);
Your self-worth starts when you start putting yourself first, be "selfish" and be bold, it takes practice but it can be done and you'll thank yourself later;
Comorbidity can make things harder but it's possible to address things separately and at whatever pace you can, you'll get where you need to be;
Environmental/external factors have a bigger impact than people think (you might need to literally move out of a bad situation or cut toxic/abusive people out of your life, among other things), it's probably one of the hardest things to pull off.
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ethanmars · 2 years
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red vs. blue roleplay search!
this feels indescribably cringe but i’ve sent in asks on every roleplay finder blog i could find, hell i even went to reddit, and still my fields are barren, not a thread in sight. so i’m pulling myself up by the bootstraps here and making my very own post in the hopes that this turns the tables, because i see y’all out here and i know at least one of you (statistically more) has to be a roleplayer.
what am i looking for?
let’s start with an introduction - my name’s drew, i’m eighteen, and i’ve been roleplaying online for about ten years now. i have a literate writing style and tend to get carried away with how many paragraphs i find myself typing up for each reply, and i’m looking for other writers who are the same way!
writing isn’t actually the end all be all of roleplay, however, as i think what’s equally important is getting along ooc. i don’t just want a roleplay partner, i want a friend who i can vibe and develop things with — this being said, i’d rather stick to 16+ partners, with a preference for other 18+ writers. i’m willing to make exceptions, but i’m hesitant about getting close with people who are super younger than me.
TL;DR: i’m looking for a roleplay partner who’s passionate about threads, but also passionate about making a new friend who’s recently getting into the show! (:
no, but WHAT am i looking for?
okay, yeah, let’s get into content in case you’re on the fence. i don’t mind using ocs, doubling up, doing multiple pairings, and so on. i’m willing to do any number of pairings and interactions, and i’m even willing (shocking!) to do threads that don’t involve romance at all. if you’re the shippy type, however, here are some of my otps — characters i’m willing to write are italicized, characters i’d prefer to write are bolded.
caboose / church
carolina / york
church / washington
grif / simmons ( ← i pick favorites. )
grif / tucker
tucker / washington
... and more! :D
so, if absolutely anything i’ve written interests you, or if you have some crazy ideas that no one’s been willing to try yet? i’m begging you to interact! feel free to message me, to like/reply to/reblog this post so i’ll message you first, or even add me on discord @ kralie#1507, where i’m considerably more active. mwah!!
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po-pulari-tics · 1 year
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If you don't like what an intellectually/communications disabled (I/CD) person says, you can tell them. Being disabled doesn't make us anymore right or mean we can't handle criticism.
You might want to change how you tell us, of course. Tips that work for me (I/CD folks, feel free to add on or disagree):
Write a very clear, "I agree/disagree with..." at the top.
Shorter sentences.
More paragraphs, or break things into bullet points.
Put your main points in bold.
(Add clarifications in parenthesis.)
Don't talk in circles or jump topics a lot.
Keep in mind that lols and hahas seem like mocking to a lot of people. (When your whole childhood is people making fun of you, it's hard to see innocent laughter for what it is.)
Add a tldr if possible.
Avoid acronyms that are not popular. Best case, define them the first time you use them.
Use examples and metaphors.
Be patient. We could take a long time to respond.
And of course, never ever criticize us for how we say things. (If you try to tell us what we "really meant," you're a vile ableist.) Quite frankly, being I/CD means we will say things in a strange way, we will mix things up, and if you cannot handle that, it is best that you do not engage.
(This isn't prompted by anything recent.)
TL,DR: you can argue with us, just like anyone. I gave tips on how to be understood when you do.
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Text
A not-so-quick how-to for Ao3 work skins
Ao3 has some pretty powerful customization tools at your disposal - if you know how to use them. Did you know this entire time you could change your text colors, size, background colors, outlines, underlines, overlines, and even fonts of your works? It's fairly easy to do - you only need a little knowledge about markup languages to get started. The way this is done is through classes and the clever application of some simple CSS. Though I've written this guide around using my Obey Me coloring and work skin, the principles are applicable across anything you may want to do with your Ao3 styling.
I've done all the heavy lifting this time around, and have actually created a very, very simple skin that you may want for the purposes of your Obey Me fic including:
Unique colors for each character (sticking to WCAG 1:3 minimum contrast ratio for accessibility)
Heading font and size styling (separate from character colors)
Styled 'pullquotes' for written letters/passages/quotes (at 75% size)
Make sure to keep checking back for updates - I'll put word out here on my tumblr whenever I update, but I've also created a codepen (work skin CSS found in the CSS tab) with the latest version of the skin that you can use to play around in.
Just a heads up before you start: there is a bit of a learning curve, but I have tried to make the explanation as simple as possible, and hopefully provide enough tools and knowledge that you can run with what I've given you and start creating your own styles.
1. Markup: The Basics
I'm sorry - no matter how simple I try to make this work skin, you're going to need at least a little understanding of what markup languages are and how they work. But don't fret: I've had a few years experience now teaching this to absolute beginners so hopefully by the end of this tutorial you'll be feeling like a real Hackerman.
So what is Markup? A tl;dr
Markup is a set of instructions used to tell a program (in this case your internet browser) how something should behave. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is likely the markup language you'll encounter most often. Ordinary text like you would type in a word document is meaningless to a computer browser - it doesn't know how to read. You need to talk to it in a language it understands so that it can translate your wonderful words into something that appears in your browser. This is done through the use of 'elements'.
Like how you know "words captured in these quotation marks" are quotes (or text written in parentheses is related to but non-essential to the main body), elements are essentially markers that indicate how a thing should be read. In HTML, these elements are denoted through angular brackets <> containing the necessary info that your browser understands. These often consist of an opening tag <[element type]>with content within, followed by a closing tag</[element type> denoted through the use of the "/" slash. Every element that has been opened must always be closed. Common tags include:
<p></p> for paragraphs
<em></em> for emphasis (typically displayed as italic)
<strong></strong> for strong (typically displayed as bold)
<h1></h1> for your highest headline (and subsequent-level headings use 2-6)
<div></div> for generic sections or blocks
<span></span> for specific selections of text.
<a></a> for anchors (links)
<img> containing images <- this one doesn't have closing tags because it's special
and more!
Everything you see on the internet rests within tags like these. You don't see them because they're only for your browser's eyes. Even your fics are formatted with this - though Ao3 does it automatically. You can freely switch between Markup (HTML) and Rich Text Formatting up in the top right corner.
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Attributes
Attributes are additional information you can add to an element. Some attributes are essential, like a href (hyperlink reference) for anchor elements. Some are additional information used to differentiate between different identical elements like a class or id. It's this latter, non-essential attribute we're going to be utilizing for our work skins.
Once you have your fic in Ao3, make sure to switch over to the html editor. From there, you are going to find the element that you want to change the look of, and we're going to add a class.
We do this by finding the open tag of an element. That will probably be a <p>. Inside those angular brackets, after the name of the element, we are going to type class=""
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What we've done there is create a field for the class, but we haven't actually given the element a class yet.
It's always a good idea to name classes that describe the content, not what you want it to look like. You could change your mind down the line, but then you're stuck with a class called red that's really changing the color to blue. So rather than calling a class "gold", you might instead give it the name "Mammon" as it indicates when Mammon is speaking. This is known as Semantic markup.
Here's a few things you need to know about classes:
Class names cannot contain spaces. We use spaces to delineate new classes in the same element (like commas to separate tags on tumblr).
You can use as many classes as you want, as many times as you want.
They are case-sensitive.
You can add classes to all most html elements. That means that you don't have to just make entire paragraphs a particular style.
I have already specified several classes in my existing work skin. These are [Luci Mammon Levi Satan Asmo Beel Belphie Dia Barb Luke Sol Sim Heading pullQuote] - remember that these are case-sensitive. Feel free to use any one of these, or use your own! Put your chosen class name between those quotation marks I had you make earlier like so!
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These don't actually do anything just yet. For that, we need to now head on over into our work skin.
2. Introducing the work skin: CSS
Now that we hopefully have our heads wrapped around the basics of elements and classes, we can start using that to make things look interesting. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. HTML gives the browser structure, CSS gives the browser style.
But first, we have to create a new work skin.
Go to your Ao3 Dashboard and up in the top left underneath "Profile" and "Preferences" you should see an option for Skins. It'll land land you in "site skins" by default, so make sure to click on My Work Skins. From here you can click on Create Work Skin in the top right corner.
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In the "About" section, make sure Work Skin is selected, and give your new skin a title!
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Feel free to also include a description for your own sake. Now. Onto the fun part!
Below the "About" section, you should see a box labelled CSS. In that box, feel free to copy+paste the styles below into that box:
#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed;}
#workskin .Mammon { color: #e5a71c;}
#workskin .Levi { color: #e26600;}
#workskin .Satan { color: #00c117;}
#workskin .Asmo { color: #ff00bd;}
#workskin .Beel { color: #e80b00;}
#workskin .Belphie { color: #4f08b5;}
#workskin .Luke { color: #00c0ed;}
#workskin .Dia { color: #9b0000;}
#workskin .Barb { color: #007215;}
#workskin .Sim { color: #c1ac44;}
#workskin .Sol { color: #757575;}
#workskin .Heading { font-size: 1.25em;}
#workskin .pullQuote { text-align: center; font-size: 0.75em; display: block;}
This can also be found in the CSS section in this codepen. (disclaimer: tumblr may or may not mess with the line spacing when you copy things over. After you've copied, save your work skin and then reopen it in "edit" - Ao3 will automatically format your work so that it's nice and clean).
So what's actually happening here?
Let's read from left-to-right, top-to-bottom - because that's precisely what CSS does. Feel free to skip this part if you're not interested in creating your own styles and you're happy to just copy and paste existing work skins :)
#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }
This first part here is what is called a "selector". Here, we're specifying what exactly we want to target in order to change its looks. Every character, including the spaces, symbols, and capitals matter.
#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }
#workskin is specifying a unique ID within the HTML - one that encapsulates everything that you want to apply the work skin to - so basically your entire work. This is absolutely necessary in order for the work skin to actually function. We didn't create this ID in our HTML because Ao3 (will) create it for us automatically down the line.
#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }
Following the work skin id, we have a space, a period, and then - hey! That's a class name! The space between the ID selector and the next part indicates we're looking for things inside this particular ID. Periods are used to indicate classes. When targeting a class, you use the period, followed by the class name. So if you're targeting your Levi class, you would write #workskin .Levi . If you were targeting a class that you created in your html, you would write #workskin .[classname] (removing the square brackets, of course).
#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }
Now it's time for the fun stuff - the rules. Once we've targeted what we want to style with our selector, we use curly brackets to contain all the "rules" that we're using to make the browser appear a certain way.
#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }
We start with our property - or what we want to change. In this case it's the text colour, denoted through 'color'. Yes. It's American spelling. I have no control over this. Find a simple list of css properties here! There's loads, but the ones that are probably of most use to you at this point are color, font-size, font-weight, text-align, text-decoration, and display. Make sure to put a colon after the property - that links us into the next step.
#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }
Finally, we have our value - or what we're asking the property to do. In this case, we're changing the color, so the value is a hex color value. Color can also be denoted through rgb [written as rgb(0,0,0)]. Different properties will have different values. For example, text-align can have a value of left, right, or center (note the Americanized spelling again). If you click on the property in this list, it will tell you what values you can use!
You can have as many rules as you want in your selectors, as long as you end each of them with a semicolon. I cannot stress the semicolon enough. If your CSS isn't working - it's probably a missing semicolon. An example of multiple rules being used within one selector is in the pullquote styling:
#workskin .pullQuote { text-align: center; font-size: 0.75em; display: block; }
You can even write rules that override each other, though we try and avoid doing that. When this happens, your CSS will read from top-to-bottom, prioritizing the latest thing it has read (typically your bottom-most). There are exceptions to this, but that's not necessary for this guide.
So by this point you should have copied over the CSS I've written into your work skin, or perhaps tried your hand at making your own. This would be a good point to save.
3. With our Powers Combined
Right! So we have our work skin. We have our work formatted properly, resplendent with classes. Here's how we get these things talking to each other:
Once you've saved and closed your new work skin, open up or post the work you would like to apply the styling to. Down the bottom of the Associations section, there is an option to Select Work Skin. Ao3 already provides some work skins by default - Homestuck and Undertale - but you should be able to select your new work skin from this dropdown.
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Now here's the magic. Time to check if this worked. Go through and make sure you've applied your classes to each of the elements you want to change the look of. These can be <p> elements, <em> elements, <strong> elements, or you can even make new, unique sections using <span>. Save your work as a draft and preview it - if you've done everything right, you should see the sections of text you've added classes to have changed in appearance!
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A reminder that you can add multiple classes to one element: say for example you want to create section headings unique to each 'character', you can name both classes in the class field, separated by a space. See the example below:
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And that's about it! You can use the same work skin for multiple works - just remember that you should be using the same class names if that's the case. If you create a new class in your html, make sure to go back to your work skin and make some rules for that class!
I've created this codepen that you can play in that is using all the same classes - it also has the work skin in the CSS which you're also very welcome to mess around with.
Ao3 itself has a great guide to using work skins, explaining things just like I did here. The Modzilla Developer Network is a great resource for learning more in-depth about html and css if you want to do weirder and wonderful-er things!
I hope this has been informative and useful! Best of luck using skins in your own fics! 💛
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jewishraypalmer · 3 years
Text
Ok so remember when I made this post about Ray well I’m going to make (a shorter one bc I’m actually quite tired) about Nora. And mostly I’m just here to say that while in theory I LOVE that Ray and Nora got married, I think it was a BAD idea to do that so soon. Also going to try @puppetavasharpe‘s bold thing because that is a V good idea. 
It was established in S3 that Nora never really had a childhood because... you know... demon cult... and as an adult you mostly see her be bad UNTIL the fateful “torture isn’t the answer” scene in No Country For Old Dads. So then you know at the end of S3 Ray is like I believe in you bby here take this stone so you can break out lol. So anyway S4 is mostly about her redeeming herself and first of all I want to say that they did a GOOD job with this. Like wowie wow wow love it chef’s kiss etc... Now Nora (as a series regular at this point) is only in about half the episodes of S4, at the time this season aired, I actually didn’t mind it but then again I also thought that they would get more time in S5 (LOLOLOLOLOL) so it seemed fine to me. I also thought that since they did such a good job with Ray and Nora’s slowburn that that would... you know... continue? (again LOLOL) 
The tl;dr of that last paragraph is: a lot of good things happened in S4. Nora got redeemed. She joined book club and made FRIENDS!! She became a time bureau agent. She kissed Ray. 
But then she became a fairy godmother. And now I say again, at the time, it didn’t bother me because I thought it was just for the episode and I didn’t realize it would be a WHOLE THING. So then... season 5 happens. 
Nora (still as a series regular at this point) is in 3.5 episodes of season 5. No I am not counting Marie Antoinette because she isn’t Nora in that episode. The .5 actually comes from that one scene where she is only on video and they say they love each other. Although she also was on video for the Marie Antoinette so we can round it up to 4 episodes I GUESS. 
After her getting all of that development, making friends!! Book club!! They just sort of erase all that. And I actually do like that she gets to help kids but having her be a fairy godmother isolated her from everything she had just gone through. And then she just like... gets married. We never even got to see Ray and Nora like go on a date?? What is this the NANNY? (Sorry I just binged the Nanny and also have strong feelings about that development) 
We never actually really get to see Ray and Nora have a relationship except for like in Slay Anything but to have that one episode and then they are just like ok marriage time bby!! I feel like it is a disservice to her character because I think she still needed time to find herself. Again, SHE NEVER GOT A CHILDHOOD. Let her just like live her life for a bit. Let her have her friends. Let her have cute boyfriend/girlfriend moments!!! 
Ok so the tl;dr of THIS is: The whole post got away from me so basically it was too soon for them to get married and I wanted Nora to have more time for herself and also to ACTUALLY.DATE.RAY. Thank you. 
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Note
My dude. I promise one day I will stop spamming creators with asks, but can you please explain how to do italics and stuff on Ao3? I’ve been using the website for forever and I STILL CAN’T FIGURE IT OUT.
AND IT IS IRKING ME.
So, could you please (because you’re the only human who I have enough courage to ask) tell me how you figured it out or explain if you have the time?
(Also! You’re the only author I’m subscribed to. Everytime I get a notification for one of your fics I drop everything. Immediately. And it’s worth it.)
TL;DR: Can you explain how to do italics and stuff on Ao3 or if there’s a website or something? I love your work.
Thanks. Sorry, cause this is random, and honestly, probably rude. I’m just tired of not being able to figure it out.
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Absolutely NO worries my dude I gotchu
SO! When you go to create a new work it looks like this: 
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See how the HTML thing is highlighted in the upper corner? That means all you’re going to be putting in is just plaintext. No spacing, no italics, no nothing. I presume you already know that I’m just walking it through for my peace of mind. When you click on the OTHER one, Rich Text, your thing changes to look like this:
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You got a toolbar now! Bold, Italics, Underline, Strikethrough, and some other nifty things. Rich Text is a way for you to paste pre-formatted text in and it’ll preserve it. I never write straight into Ao3 (I mean I don’t really write straight either) so I’m always copying over my work from somewhere else. That means it already has all the italics and spacing that I want it to have. Using the Rich Text option makes it easy to make sure Ao3 doesn’t fuck up anything else. 
Now the tricky part is that only the Work Text block has the Rich Text option. Everywhere else; the summary, the author’s notes, the additional blocks, they don’t have it. That doesn’t mean you can’t use italics and underline and other stuff in them, it just means you have to do it yourself. 
How do you do that? Well, this is where you gotta know a little HTML. I won’t bore you with an in-depth explanation of absolutely everything but I will give you the ones I think you’ll need. Basically when you use HTML and you want to apply formatting--paragraph, italics, bold, whatever--you need to enclose the text you want to be formatted in a pair of tags. 
<i> if I want this text italicized in HTML, this is how I do it. </i>
If I want this text italicized in HTML, this is how I do it. 
See? You sandwich the stuff you want italicized between the <i> and </i> tags. 
<i> </i> is for italics (Ao3 also accepts the <em> </em> tags)
<b> </b> is for bold (Ao3 also accepts the <strong> </strong> tags)
<u> </u> is for underline
<p> </p> is for paragraph, helps break up the text like the enter key
This is how I italicized stuff in my summaries. Since I can’t use the Rich Text to keep my formatting, I gotta do it myself. This is what it looks like when I’m in the Post New Work screen:
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And then this is how it looks once the work gets posted:
Hope this helps! 
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nyxelestia · 3 years
Link
Vox article about the infamous wall of tags fic.
tl;dr at the end
What it’s about and why we care / article quotes:
All that, by itself, isn’t enough to make STWW remarkable — not on a website as wild and unpredictable as AO3. Yet the fic has become impossible for many AO3 users to ignore thanks to a unique quirk: Its author has linked it to more than 1,700 site tags (and counting).
Guides to how to block the fic have cropped up. For example, I use a Chrome extension that blocks fics with too many tags (you can specify how many tags is too many — I picked 50); there’s also simple site code that you can add to your custom site “skin” to block the fic completely from search results, as well as other workarounds.
But the usefulness of these options is limited. Site skins only work for logged-in users. Website extensions don’t work on mobile. Many other workarounds aren’t compatible with adaptive technology like screen readers used by disabled people and others — and if you think having to scroll past the tags on a phone is obnoxious, imagining getting stuck on it while a screen reader laboriously recites all 1,700 tags out loud.
(Emphases mine.)
My take on this specific fic:
I was sympathetic when I thought that maybe the author is just unaware of what they’re doing - but they have been made aware, they know exactly the effect they are having on other users and the community at large, and they’re still doing it.
[The author] acknowledged the controversy around their fic but emphasized that they were operating completely within AO3’s rules. “If AO3 has a category or a big red warning checkbox to say ‘click this to read crazy fics’ then I should put my fic in there,” they joked. “People are free to search (my) fic or exclude the fic using tags.”
Virtual1979 also remained steadfast when I pointed out that their fic was breaking the site for disabled users, stressing that the onus should be on AO3 — not them — to make enforceable site changes.
So now my sympathy’s all dried up. I do not remotely believe them when they say they aren’t a troll. Maybe they truly didn’t start out trolling, but they were repeatedly asked to stop, told about the impact they were having, and have themselves admitted on their Twitter account that they are laughing all the way to the bank.
A tweet they have since deleted - I did not think to grab a screenshot. So here is a screenshot of them saying they routinely delete their own Tweets, and their reaction to people who ask them to stop over-tagging their fic:
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Maybe they started out as a well-intentioned new poster, unfamiliar with AO3 or how tagging works. And knowing fandom, I’m sure they faced some harassment for it. However, given they’ve been repeatedly asked to stop, and explicitly told how they are negatively affected so many other users’ ability to interact with the fandom and the website as a whole...and do not care, and continue to keep at it?
Freedom of speech gives them the right to be an asshole, but it also gives me the right to call them an asshole.
But, I do understand why AO3 isn’t banning them, and I agree with AO3′s current decision not to remove this fic. There needs to be some deeper changes, but banning this specific author or fic right now would likely cause more problems down the road than it solves right now.
What is the line for “Too Many Tags”? What would it mean for authors of non-anthology works? What impact would banning this over-tagged fics have on other over-tagged-but-not-as-badly fics? What will it mean for our culture of curating your content and experiences if blacklisting tags gets compromised due to such limits?
I’ve been frustrated by over-tagged fics before, and I certainly hope this will make other, well-meaning, good-faith authors reconsider decisions while compiling anthologies of their disconnected works going forward. Neither of these mean fans should expect AO3 to respond to mob rule and ban this fic.
My take on this article beyond this specific fic:
I disagree with the implication from the article that this is related to fandom’s longstanding issues concerning racism (and other -isms and -phobias) in fanfic. After all, the vast majority of fandom’s racism, sexism, misogyny, etc. isn’t tagged. At most, you can expect that certain ships or tags probably mean there will be certain racist tropes.
This does a disservice towards fans of a ship who don’t partake in or propagate those racist tropes - I myself included in that group. I routinely got comments on my fic from people who expected me to use racist tropes and fanons because of the ship tag on my fic, as these tropes were (and really, still are) so strongly associated with the ship. More importantly, there is no reliable way to tell from a fic’s meta-data whether there will be something in the fic the author doesn’t identify.
The fundamental problem with racism in fandom is not “people are making these racist things” but “people refuse to acknowledge these things they are making are racist” - and AO3′s meta-data is entirely self-identifying.
If an author does not think their work is racist, then they will not tag it as such, which means the rest of us will have no way of knowing until after we’ve already read the racism.
“Curate your own reading” is very applicable to things authors are willing to identify and tag in their own works - such as kinks, violence, etc. But if it is something the author did not intend, and does not agree with/identify, then readers who oppose it cannot curate against it.
Which is why I find this paragraph so misleading, specifically the part I bolded:
Throughout 2020, during sustained discussions across social media about structural racism and other toxic elements in fandom, AO3 users repeatedly requested that the site add basic features that could help users avoid involuntarily engaging with fics they found toxic or harmful. For example, currently there’s no real way to officially sanction a writer who includes racist elements in their fanfiction — the site’s abuse policy FAQ doesn’t mention race, and there’s currently no way to “warn” readers about racially charged elements in a fic. (You can warn readers about other controversial fic content, like character deaths, non-consensual scenarios, and underage characters.) And there are many readers who’d like to avoid engagement with fics and authors they deem to be racist.
These are tags an author can add onto their own work...but readers cannot warn other readers about an author’s work! And to be clear, I think that’s a good thing overall - readers being able to add their own tags to someone else’s work leaves way too much room for abuse, which would happen far more than readers warning other readers about things the author refuses to identify or tag. My point here is that apart from “how to deal with works and authors you already know are assholes”, there is no connection between this specific fic and its ensuing mess, and the broader problems of pervasive racism in fandom.
The only thing the wall of tags situation and the fandom racism situation have in common, at least in relation to AO3, is that fans want to block certain authors or works whom you already know are assholes. This, the Vox article got right.
However, there are many, many ways to be an asshole other than racism. There are many reasons to block specific works or authors besides racism. There are many types of abuse and harassment besides racism. Acting as if “blocking toxic works or people” is inherently and automatically about the on-going discussions about race in fandom reduces racism to individual acts and actors, and ignores its nature as a systemic problem.
tl;dr
While there are work-arounds to avoid that fic with 1700+ tags (and others), these workarounds are very limited in their helpfulness.
Author has the right to do this, but freedom of speech also gives the rest of us the right to call them out for their poor behavior. I 100% believe they are now an intentional bad-faith actor / troll, even if they did not necessarily start out as one.
Despite my disdain, I understand and agree with AO3′s decision to not remove the fic or ban the author, however much I hate them both. All of AO3′s decisions have ramifications and implications beyond the immediate situations they are made for. This one fic/author should not get to chip away at AO3′s mission against censorship.
Apart from the very broad nature of blocking toxic people or abusive works, I don’t think this situation has anything to do with racism. Implicating individual behavior and tagging as a related referendum is reductive to the systemic nature of fandom racism.
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lighthouseborna · 3 years
Text
General RP style and preferences
Repost, don’t reblog. Bold what applies. Strikethrough what does not. Italicize what only applies sometimes. Elaborate on any points you’d like with a *  
Please be honest, we all want to find the people who work best with how we RP.
____
Types of RP / How I do threads
| I don’t | I just do whatever is on my dash when I’m online | Mainly asks | I do little short things mostly | I do my threads on discord | Long running threads that slowly build upon the muses |
Plotting Preferences
| Wing it | Get a general idea ooc and then run with it & plot further if need be | Long expansive thought out story arcs |
Type of threads I do / Prefer
| Oneliners only | Whatever dash shenanigans I’m online for | Para or Mulit para* | Literal Novels
*Listen we cant start with a one liner but I can effectively guarantee it will become a para on my second turn with it  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (assuming u didn’t like a ‘one-liner starter call’ and get a paragraph+ to begin with.) I like words.
Reply Speed for Threads & Consistency & Keeping threads
| I lose threads all the time & don’t usually get back to them | I tend to lose threads but please tell me if I have and I’ll reply! | I drop threads pretty easily | I’m really slow but I WILL get back to you* | I reply on a schedule/queue (specify if you’d like) | I usually reply within a week | I reply every day | I reply almost instantly |
*Generally expect me to be slow; sometimes (rarely, but it happens) I get absolutely walloped with inspo for a certain thread and will even do multiple replies for it in a day. I also generally do my drafts in the order I get them (oldest first) but this is broad and I will skip ones I just don’t have inspo for and, like I said, if I’m really vibing with something sometimes I will throw it back as soon as I get it.
Romantic or sexual ships
| I don’t do these ships (specify reason if you would like) | I’m not against them happening but it is not the main point of my blog | Ships will have to be super slow burn & discussed a lot OOC, super chemistry based (specify reason if you’d like) | I love doing ships, HMU I probably already ship it just ask! | I ship really quickly | I autoship or ship within a few interactions | I mainly RP for the cute ship fluff or smut |
Smut
| I do NOT do smut at all (specify reason if you’d like) | I’m very selective about it* | I only do it on a separate (blog/discord/specify here) | I mainly only do asks relating to nsfw headcanons on Sundays | I write it a medium amount | I write it all the time and love to | I am comfortable with foreplay and fade-to-blacks but nothing further
*I am pro nsf(tumblr) content! but also have a weird relationship with it and not a lot of experience and like.............tl;dr Shy. I am Shy. You can mostly expect random headcanon dumps and the occasional drabble/answered ask. I also have a sideblog of ref/inspo you will never, ever see. I tag all of this very liberally.
Active hours 
| Mornings 8-10 | Midday 11-1 | Afternoon 2-5 | Evenings 6-8 | Night 9-12 | Ungodly hours of the day 1-onwards | 
CST/GMT -5. I pop in.................a Lot, but I mostly do successful writing in the mornings (when I have fewer distractions) and I do a lot of on-dash shenanigans at night—into the Ungodly Hours when my sleep is hyucked up (which is. A lot.) I really should get a job and other hobbies, tbh.
Activity Schedule
| SUPER slow and sporadic, like once a month or so | Slow and sporadic week long gaps between activity | Bi-weeklyish activity | Weekly activit | Daily activity | I’m online nearly all the time |
Here a lot. Whether or not I actually Do anything about it tends to.......waffle.
Starters
| I don’t do starter calls | I want to do starter calls but often don’t have time | I do selective calls | I don’t do calls, but always fee free to ask me for one! | I do starter calls rarely/regularly/often |
AUs
| I don’t do AUs | My blog is an AU but outside of that I don’t do them | I sometimes do them but only with a lot of plotting | I have a couple of AUs already feel free to request them! | I have AUs coming out of my ears please interact with them! | I love making AUs HMU to plot if you think of one! | There are some AUs I won’t do |
I. have AUs. They are multiplying without my deliberate attention. I generally love to throw him places it’s very entertaining but I do admittedly get frustrated sometimes with feeling like I don’t get to do a lot with him in his home setting/verse, so if you’re willing/interested in meeting me there PLEASE let me know!!! but broadly I am happy to just hurl him at mach speed toward Whatever. I can make it make sense.
Crossovers
| I don’t do crossovers | I’m selective with crossovers | I love crossovers! | 
They gotta make sense one way or another.
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casijaz · 4 years
Text
Well turns out the other post won’t be the last one.
Decided not to put anything under a cut but this post is tagged ‘long post’ so you can click on it at will. I’ve added shorter sections in (brackets) to put together the point.
It’s always been like this. In fact a couple of months ago I made a silly post about it. Please stop giving each other ass-pats about how not-racist you might be. Or how your one non-white friend says whatever you posted is not racist.
White people: Stop being performative allies.
My fellow peas of the seas, or individuals who aren’t white who interact on this western website: Being a poc is not a trump card to claim we can’t contribute to specific forms of racism.
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I remember back when I was 17 I defended some (then not obvious to me) clearly racist art a white friend of mine made. I spoke to the people who came onto her art and told them they were trolling, they had to be. Spoke in all caps sometimes, had bolded stuff, all weird ways of talking with this demeaning or passive aggressive tone. I remember thinking ‘hey, do they know I’m a person of colour? They must feel silly! Here I am, a poc, who clearly says this is ok!’ But it wasn’t. In this instance the racist art depicted an indigenous person, and this was an instance of racism against indigenous people, and I am not indigenous. (Translation: Defending racism is bad, even if the people who say racism is bad might be mean to you.)
I also have defended white people who lived in a bubble of whiteness. I figured, well, they live in the bubble, or they’re young, and their actions weren’t coming from a place of malice because they didn’t know any better.  (Translation: Even if you’re a nice person, your actions can still be bad, and you should acknowledge this.)
When someone points out to you that something is racist, you shouldn’t jump to a knee-jerk defence or being passive aggressive in acceptance of this fact. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but you’ll have to go through it. Remember this is not about coddling white feelings, it’s about the reproduction of white supremacy and racist ideologies in a multitude of settings. (Translation: Even if you don’t know anything about racism, or don’t think you’re racist, you could still be. Racism is not as simple as one action. It is a global structure that influences the world.)
Reproducing racist ideologies is something that people of colour can also be guilty of. This means that they don’t have the power to be racist (as racism is about a hierarchical power structure where whiteness is as the top, aka white supremacy) BUT they have the ability to reproduce (or repeat, mimic, etc) the racist ideologies that are prevalent all over the world. (Translation: Because racism is everywhere, everyone can do it, even if they don’t wish to.)
Yes, not everyone has the luxury of being able to understand English to a level that certain concepts come across. Which is why I’ve taken the liberty of adding tl;dr to the end of each paragraph to get that point across for my fellow ESL speakers. However not speaking English well enough can be used as another excuse for condoning racist actions by others. (Translation: Saying I don’t know better is not the solution to stop being racist. Trying to understand the other person is.) 
The point is to stop making excuses. Stop defending the racist. Stop defending racist actions, no matter how small or big they are. 
It is also not up to the people who are actually hurt by this to coddle you and teach you. If you wish to learn more please follow blogs that are specifically talking about these issues. Here’s one. Here’s another. Here’s a fandom specific one. Here are also my own posts about xenophobia and more xenophobia. Unfortunately they are heavy with academic writing but I’ll hope to make a simple English version of it one day. (Translation: Here’s helpful blogs for you to learn more from!)
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As for the people of colour who talk about adding nuance, different perspectives, and how racism is complicated. Yeah. It really is. But whichever argument I see brought up about ethnic issues are still ethnic issues. That’s about xenophobia. I often talk about xenophobia and racism not being the same thing for a white audience, but I feel like maybe I’ve left fellow people of colour out of the conversation.
I’ll speak from my own experiences regarding this, because I could pull situations from all over the world but it wouldn’t be genuine nor would I be the expert. So. In my mother’s country we have many different ethnic groups who most of are not white (I’m pretty sure they make up less than 1% of the population), who sometimes get into conflict with one another. When they discriminate against one another, that’s definitely a bad thing. However when these groups fight both discrimination against ethnic groups and racial categories come to light, as the two are almost always heavily interlinked for people of colour.  (Translation: Racism and xenophobia overlap and connect when it comes to people of colour.)
This country (Suriname) was colonised by western forces so it brought along a lot of strife. While no Surinamese person would probably refer to themselves in Suriname as a person of colour, when they are put in a Western context they definitely always do. When groups fight against each other they use both rhetoric imposed on them by western colonial forces (racism) and hatred for other ethnic groups (xenophobia). Because both groups are still groups of colour, they are only capable of reproducing racism, not producing it, as they have no power to in the structure of racism. (Translation: People of colour can discriminate one another with something they have power over, and reproducing racism.)
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This entire conversation has also highlighted something that I’ve deliberately avoided in my previous posts, but my fellow black Tumblr friends haven’t, and that is the issue of anti-blackness.
Throughout all of this it seems like many different ethnicities have obviously come together and argue on different sides, but one side seems to be devoid of a certain race that has spoken up against these issues over and over. 
When black people tell you that something is racist, your knee-jerk reaction shouldn’t be ‘but it isn’t, because I’m not white, and I approve of this.’ Going back to that story of 17-year-old me, I was not the racial group affected by the drawing. I was not offended, because it wasn’t my racial identity that was being mocked. When black people tell you that something is racist, you can assume that they’re telling you something is anti-black.
Don’t turn this a conversation only about the voices of people of colour when at the heart of the topic it’s been about anti-blackness shown by a multitude of people from different ethnic groups, white or not.
I’ve seen people act like they’re on the good side because surely they’re supporting people of colour who’ve told them that the side I’m arguing on seems to be ridiculous. I’m calling people names! Making assumptions! I’m stuck in a western perspective talking over non-western people.
Then turn around and they’re not boosting black voices. They’re not mentioning anti-blackness anywhere. I see MLK quotes taken out of context. They’re clamouring to reblog or create art depicting black characters or meta about them, while that art is either fetishistic or was proven to be made by a racist (who was proven to be so like 2 whole minutes ago).
(Translation: Don’t throw black people under the bus. Listen to us when we’re talking about anti-blackness. All poc are indeed not the same, so don’t treat it like it is.)
I hope this will be the last time I’ll talk about this. But I have a bad feeling it won’t be.
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jewpacabruhs · 4 years
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hi guys! so this post is gonna be a rambly mess but fuck it, here ya go. if u dont wanna read all of it, u dont have to; skip down to underneath the tl;dr in bold text for the important bits :)
(there’s a brief & non-graphic mention of a triggering topic in the next paragraph. please be sure to skip this next paragraph if the thought of suicide is going to upset you.)
alright. so i didn't share this originally, but i spent some time in a psychiatric unit this month. suicidality related. 1000% unrelated from anything online, i've just struggled with depression for a very long time & shit happens. i didn't intend to share that at all & i certainly don't want pity; i'm telling u guys bc my time in the unit was extremely eye-opening, and i have some insight to share. since i've gotten out, with the help of my newest anti-depressant (fourth time’s a charm lol), i'm seeing the world in a better light & i finally have the energy to and the interest in exploring what it has to offer, which frankly i've never had before.
with that has come the realization that i’ve come to do something very unhealthy, and i want to break out of it. and that’s how much i’ve come to rely on my fandom life. i don’t want to get too candid publicly, but mental illness took a lot from me, and i lost most of my life, my future, and my options in the last few years. next year will involve a lot of working on rebuilding things. but in the time that i let things fall to pieces around me & i absolutely couldn’t get out of bed, i had a phone and i had a laptop. so when i couldn’t get up and physically face the world, i built up a new world online.
and i don’t think that’s a completely uncommon experience. most people are able to better manage things, and evenly juggle real life with an internet life (like i did back in middle school), because most people can’t abandon their real lives entirely like i managed to; but i do think a lot of people nowadays rely on their fandom life and their fandom friends when their irl situation isn’t ideal. and that’s an excellent coping mechanism in theory, but i think it’s debilitating in the long run.
forgive me for sounding like an old person, but i’m a heavy nostalgist and a bit of an anarcho-primitivist in that i resent modern technology's influence on society - but that hasn't stopped me from letting it be a big part of my life out of accessibility. the internet kept me occupied during my low points, and i became dependent, but i've realized i don't wanna live like that anymore. i’m vaguely grateful that it usually kept me busy enough that i wasn’t thinking the bad thoughts as frequently, but more than anything, i’m resentful that my grasp on reality got lost somewhere along the way, and i let time get away from me, too. because, again, an internet life should be a fun hobby, but when it’s a lifestyle and it becomes an excuse to avoid dealing with our real lives, bc our real lives aren’t as rewarding or as exciting, then it’s unhealthy.
everything’s at our fingertips these days, but i deeply believe human interaction, fun, and fulfillment shouldn't be spoon-fed to us through a screen. it's easy access, sure, but at the end of the day, is it any way to live? compared with how much world there is to see, i’m no longer satisfied with the thought of sitting behind a screen for another five years. i used to be, when i had no hope and no drive, but not anymore. i’m not gonna let myself settle for staying busy with the thing that takes the least amount of work & movement. not only because i’m a whole ass adult who needs to start sorting my shit out for the long run, but also because i deserve better.
and it’s fucking hard! especially for those of us who are neurodivergent. i dropped out of school three fucking times due to crippling social anxiety and utter lack of ambition and energy. i lost all my friends through that (making friends post-school is hard af); the thought of having to go out and remake friends makes me wanna fucking cry. i have a hard enough time making friends online, i’ve even come to struggle with correspondence thru text & email. phone calls? outta the question. but that’s therapy shit, and i know i’ll get there. i just have to stop putting life off by staying in a comfort zone.
and it’s interesting; depression and anxiety really took everything from me, and while i was dwelling in my own misery, my adhd worsened and decided to make my entire brain revolve around my fixations, so i didn’t have to deal with my own life. can’t think about how much you wanna die and how much you can’t function in society if you’re busy thinking about a ship you like or a character you find interesting. so i latched onto the safety of that. aggressively. problem with that is that once you let your “happiness” (as much of it as you can feel in the midst of your depressive episode, anyway) revolve around an interest, that’s all you have. so you become dependent and reliant, and that’s never good, especially if you’re someone like me who feels pathetic & ridiculous when you realize it’s all you can bring yourself to care about. 
and i think that’s what i realized in the psych ward (where there’s legitimately nothing to do; i did soooo much more thinking than usual, and i already think too much haha); mental illness will try to fuck up your lifestyle, so you have to eradicate the things that’ll let that happen in the first place. for example, like i said, my adhd tries to counteract my depression by making me hyperfixate and/or hyperfocus on something else to protect me from bad personal thoughts, and that’s good in theory (doing something you enjoy when you feel bad, to distract urself, is the number one most basic coping skill you learn), but i can’t do it in moderation, i let it run my life, and that’s made me worse in the long run. so i have to force myself out of that completely and not let myself fixate on things that make me happy in the short term, but don’t ultimately further me as a person. having fixations helped me through some awful times, but now i need to force myself to grow up, you know?
and while tumblr and other social media is an excellent way to indulge those fixations, it’s an aggressive enabler, in more ways than one. what i mean by that... okay, so while i’m the type of person who self-destructs while unhealthy, i do occasionally lash out. and i know some people completely explode rather than implode when they’re not doing well. and that’s how you get discourse, i think. because when mental illness makes us care much more about our interests than we ought to, and someone has a differing opinion about that interest, the instinct is of course to attack, if you’re that kind of person. i don’t think i am, but depression and boredom go hand in hand, and i might be inclined to care more about discourse than i would if i were healthy, purely because it’s entertaining and something to do. 
that’s a long winded way of saying, while i stand wholeheartedly by my past positions, i do regret starting shit in the first place. i’m not the kind of person who genuinely cares about much and i have little to no sense of morality (im a chaotic neutral bastard), so the fact i was bored enough to start shit really goes against my character and says a lot about how bad i’ve been. so i apologize for all that. but, again, i think that's just what happens when something is truly your everything. and i think the chronic negativity of modern fandom is a result of how damn seriously we all take it, because we care so much and we’re so dependent. fandom’s supposed to be fun, but it’s just too damn stressful this way.
idk my point in sharing all this, but i do think it'd be cool if this kinda got yall thinking. even if you don't engage in discourse, if fandom is just one of your only consistent sources of happiness, that's not healthy either. we all gotta break out & exist more & louder & more positively. and unfortunately i think tumblr fandom (and maybe all modern fandom) is no longer a place that encourages positivity and health.
but for all my criticism, i do just wanna say how eternally grateful i am that i was fortunate enough to meet the people i call my best friends through tumblr. they're my family, truly, and all the bullshit in this fandom has been worth it simply because it brought them to me. i love them to death and i always will, even if interests change, even if we grow apart, even if we quit speaking entirely in the next few years, i love them with my whole heart in a way that transcends a simple fandom friendship and i'm so glad we bonded over sp in the first place. that’ll never change.
i will also always love south park itself. now that the cat's outta the bag about my hospital visit, i can brag about my most pathetic and obsessive accomplishment; the fact that i've never let circumstance stop me from watching a new south park as it airs, and i've now watched sp on 1) an airplane, and 2) in a psych ward. i win for most dedicated fan tbfh. dsjkf & i'll keep that tradition, and i'll still watch this stupid show til it ends! it'll always hold a special place in my heart, & kyman's still my most meaningful & long-term ship. i'll never stop loving it. 
tl;dr
so, to recap; for 2020 i'm making myself step back from fandom (not just sp fandom, but fandom in general) and quit letting my world revolve around my fixations so i can enjoy the outside world a little more, mental illness be damned, and the first step is gonna be quitting tumblr. this blog won't be deleted and i may occasionally post (maybe when next season airs) but you're absolutely free to unfollow bc this'll be a mostly inactive blog. i’m also unfollowing everyone, so mutuals, please don’t take that personally. 
i will, however, try to write more prolifically, bc fic writing is something i'm able to do in moderation & enjoy, and i hope to get back into it. so if you'd like, you can keep an eye out for any upcoming fanfic i may post - my ao3 is leere. i also have snapchat, instagram, & twitter my mutuals can ask for asap (bc ill be logging out for good by the afternoon of the 31st, which is tomorrow) - though i'm not very active on any of them. still, if you wanna have access to me, i’ll be there.
i want some connection to the fandom still, albeit without letting my life revolve around it, so i'll be starting a new open-to-the-public kyman discord server! the post with the invite for that will go up soon. nvm im too anxious  
thank you for reading, thank you for the good times (thnks fr th mmrs), and i hope everyone has a good 2020! 
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