#if i included something from you as an op and you would like it removed let me know !

[liefst]

the pain & insecurity that comes with hope:

Franz Wright, "Night Walk" (via @orpheuslament) / Kirsten Justesen, "Sculpture II" (1968) / @sweatermuppet / Jennifer Metsker, Days of the God-Sized Brains via @forestgreenlesbian / unknown photographer / Tindersticks, "What are you fighting for?"

#if i included something from you as an op and you would like it removed let me know ! #web weaving #webweaving #parallels #hope #franz wright #kirsten justesen #jennifer metsker #tindersticks

[anistarrose]

I want to make my posts more accessible, but can't write IDs myself: a guide

[Plain text: "I want to make my posts more accessible, but can't write IDs myself: a guide." End plain text.]

While every image posted online should be accessible in an ideal world, we all know it 1) takes time to learn how to write image descriptions, and 2) is easy to run out of spoons with which to write IDs. And this says nothing of disabilities that make writing them more challenging, if not impossible — especially if you're a person who benefits from IDs yourself.

There are resources for learning how to write them (and if you already know the basics, I'd like to highlight this good advice for avoiding burnout) — but for anyone who cannot write IDs on their original posts at any current or future moment, for any reason, the there are two good options for posting on Tumblr.

1. Crowdsource IDs through the People's Accessibility Discord

[Plain text: "1. Crowdsource IDs through the People's Accessibility Discord". End plain text.]

The People's Accessibility Discord is a community that volunteers description-writing (and transcript-writing, translation, etc) for people who can't do so themselves, or feel overwhelmed trying to do so. Invite link here (please let me know if the link breaks!)

The way it works is simple: if you're planning to make an original post — posting art, for example — and don't know how to describe it, you can share the image there first with a request for a description, and someone will likely be able to volunteer one.

The clear upside here (other than being able to get multiple people's input, which is also nice) is that you can do this before making the Tumblr post. By having the description to include in your post from the start, you can guarantee that no inaccessible version of the post will be circulated.

You can also get opinions on whether a post needs to be tagged for flashing or eyestrain — just be able to spoiler tag the image or gif you're posting, if you think it might be a concern. (Also, refer here for info on how to word those tags.)

The server is very chill and focused on helping/answering questions, but if social anxiety is too much of a barrier to joining, or you can't use Discord for whatever reason, then you can instead do the following:

2. Ask for help on Tumblr, and update the post afterwards

[Plain text: "Ask for help on Tumblr, and update the post afterwards". End description.]

Myself and a lot of other people who describe posts on this site are extra happy to provide a description if OP asks for help with one! This does leave the post inaccessible at first, so to minimize the drawbacks, the best procedure for posting an image you can't fully describe would be as follows:

Create the tumblr post with the most bare-bones description you can manage, no matter how simple (something like "ID: fanart of X character from Y. End ID" or "ID: a watercolor painting. End ID," or literally whatever you can manage)

Use a tool like Google Lens or OCR to extract text if applicable and if you have the energy, even if the text isn't a full image description (ideally also double-check the transcriptions, because they're not always perfect)

Write in the body of the post that you'd appreciate a more detailed description in the notes!

Tag the post as "undescribed" and/or "no id" only if you feel your current, bare-bones description is missing out on a lot of important context

When you post it and someone provides an ID, edit the ID into the original post (don't use read mores, italics, or small text)

Remove the undescribed tag, if applicable. If you're posting original art, you can even replace it with a tag like "accessible art" for visibility!

And congrats! You now have a described post that more people will be able to appreciate, and you should certainly feel free to self-reblog to give a boost to the new version!

#accessibility #image descriptions

[rongzhi]

what did you mean by reblogging that post about the uyghur genocide in china? can you elaborate?

Means I agree with what op said

If you want some elaboration with points to jump off, you can read the direct follow up to their post. Check out the notes as well. I think this post (yes, it's a reddit post. There are links within) also has a good summary of some things. I don't really keep a bookmark of better sources but again, you can use the discussions for jumping off points if you like—there's a number of links from both "sides". I highly encourage you to do your own research as there is much back and forth on the issue, but I think you will find that there is a certain... spottiness... a sort of general Lack of substance but a lot Spin when it comes to the mainstream reports/sources you will generally find on the topic.

I think as you read, it can all very shocking to read the reports by the Guardian or the BBC or whoever, and that points to something that I agree with in the post that I reblogged initially: "Of course, any decent person would rather believe a claim of genocide than deny it out of basic morals, and that's part of what makes it so sickening."

I think with what's happening in Palestine, there has been some renewed discussion about various genocides happening globally. I have seen more than one well-meaning post on this site that has included Uyghur genocide on the list of genocides to stand up against. Now I'm not a particularly politically vocal person—have not really ever said much about anything on this blog until more recently—and I've never really posted on "Uyghur genocide", not even when I started this blog during COVID lockdowns and was getting anons harassing me/demanding I answer for such things (something that has died down a lot, either as I have never responded or I blocked all the anons who were doing that), but the charge of "Uyghur genocide" has always weighed very heavily on my mind; first, a couple years ago when I first learned about it, due to the sheer horror at the idea; then as I started to periodically look into it, due to a sense of guilt over the possibility that my increasing suspicion of its falsity was a sign that I was falling complicit to covering something up. But frankly I don't think that's the case. But, it really is fucked up and vile and I thought OP of the post in question summed up exactly the root of that particular emotional facet.

My own two cents (what little that it's worth) is that in the harshest light possible, you could say that there's a likelihood that human rights abuses have been committed in some cases in the broader deradicalisation effort the government has implemented. I do think that that there is likely a level of prejudice or at least an othering of especially those who live in rural Xinjiang or in bordertowns far removed from the cities (regular rural alienation in other words). Obviously none of this is "good" and should be ignored or deemed necessarily acceptable, but none of it is genocide, either. And by overshadowing any police mistreatment or such with a charge as serious as genocide, it also does a real disservice in terms of rectifying anything short of it (including the claim of "cultural genocide").

That's all I have to say about it really.

Edit: fixed typos

#text #answered ask

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

i think Helaena can be autistic but also a happy and joyful girl , autism ≠ depression. the way the portrayed the only neurodivergent character on screen as unstable, shunned depressed, and with no importance to the plot feel very ableist and weird , but then they're the ones who made the guy with a foot disability a feet fetishist 🫠

Hi OP, finally answering this because the trailer dropped and still the only Helaena shots we have are from her Jaehaerys' funeral. There is also one still photo of her. If you haven't seen it, here she is, apparently sewing the funeral shroud for her little boy:

So it seems like season 2 is going to continue on this trajectory for Helaena as a character who exists in order to suffer beautifully.

Don't get me wrong. I am glad that the show is going to wring the full emotional effect from Blood and Cheese, not just shock value. The audience will feel the real horror of a six year old child brutally murdered in his own home and the psychological torment of Helaena. It should be terrible, it should be devastating, and I hope they do not pull any punches.

What's disappointing about how the show has handled Helaena is that they didn't really put any effort into building up her character before her tragedy. It's all well and good that she likes bugs and she's touch averse, but what are her opinions? Who is she closest to? How did she react to becoming a mother so young? To what extent does she understand her visions? What does she value? She can be happy and cheerful, or she can be frustrated and angry, and hell, she can be depressed too, but I need to know why. It's telling that I can describe the basic internal motivations for each of the male children, including Luke who was a glorified plot device, but I cannot for Helaena. Aegon wants to feel loved, Jace wants to prove he's as worthy as any trueborn heir, Aemond wants what his brother has, Luke wants to be free from his family's expectations. Helaena? Fuck if I know. I guess she wants not to die horribly.

The ableism is an issue. F&B is full of women who were deemed "simple" -- Gael, Daella, Jaehaera-- without being given much else to define them, and HotD adds another (there's something, I think, to the way the "simple" Targaryens are always women and how disability kind of used as a way to remove them from the narrative and shunt them aside, often tragically). And while it's great to see an autistic person represented on screen, the show consistently has an issue with treating representation as characterization. "Autistic girl who likes bugs" is not a personality. Autistic people, (even those with horrifying prophesies I assume), do have hopes and dreams and feelings about things. The one peek we get into Helaena's life is at the in episode 8 when she roasts Aegon and even that scene is open to interpretation (and gets taken wildly out of context). Now, I can read a lot into the actor performances, but ultimately, lines that could have given a glimpse Helaena personality were cut. It's as if they're afraid that if they give her an opinion on anything she would lose that (frankly kind of infantilizing) "pure cinnamon roll too good for this world" "i would die for her" sympathy from people who are not inclined to be sympathetic for her family as a whole.

(And anon, you're right about Larys. And let me say, turning Larys' clubfoot into the punchline of an OnlyFeet joke also does not inspire confidence that they'll handle Aegon II's eventual disability with any sensitivity either, especially when Mushroom's accounts of his last few months are incredibly mean spirited. We need to start that discourse now so they get the memo).

Sadly, I don't think the show really has any intention of course correcting with Helaena in season 2. I imagine at most we'll have her try to warn Aegon and/or Aemond about Blood & Cheese but they won't understand her warning, and then this will be a vehicle to further their guilt and grief. And while we do need to see Aegon's guilt and his grief, I also want to know if Helaena blames herself, if she wishes they'd run away when they had the chance, if she thinks Aegon could have done something, if she is angry at Aemond for killing Luke, if she wants revenge. I do think, with the public funeral for Jaehaerys, they are going to show that the smallfolk are fond of Helaena, and hopefully that will be expanded upon this season and in season 3 because her death is the catalyst for the revolt that sees Rhaenyra driven from the city, and we should understand why her death has such an impact before she actually dies.

#asks #helaena targaryen #hotd critical #hotd ableism #team green

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for yelling at someone, making them cry, and indirectly making them loose their friends

This happened several years ago but it plays on my mind sometimes. Everyone in this story is 15/16 at the time, in our last year at secondary school, UK. (🏎️ for finding this)

Myself, my girlfriend at the time [F], my best friend [B], F's friend [D], and a few of our other mutual friends were hanging out at lunch break. There aren't enough chairs at the table so F and I leave to go get extra. I come back and nothing seems amis.

Adding in some context now. No one in this story is cishet. We were all painfully awkward queer teens who haven't figured ourselves out yet. So we were all bottom of the social ladder, very much 'losers'. Me and F were, to my knowledge, the only 'same sex' couple in school. So by this point I'm used to people constantly making remarks about our relationship, but that's usually from ppl I didn't know or care about.

D is the only person, at this point, at school who's openly trans and genderqueer. They got a lot of hate for it. A lot of people harassed them and they didn't have many friends. I think for transparency's sake I have to say, I didn't really like D, we just didn't jell, but I made an effort to be kind and include them bc it's hard being queer in secondary school and I'm not gonna add more hate to that when me not getting on with them was my issue not theirs. And as a fellow victim of bullying I wasn't gonna exclude them from our friend group

Back to the story. As soon as we're back in classes, B tells me that D leant over to them while me and F were gone and said that it's "so sad seeing A and [OP] together" because "I took F's first kiss" and "poor [OP]". I trusted B's word on this as at that point we'd been best friends for several years, they weren't a shit stirrer, and had no reason to lie. In fact, they were confused D even said that to them since they were barely friends and knew B was best friends with me and would tell me they said that.

Hearing this really annoyed me. While I knew F and D had dated in the past, that didn't and shouldn't have effected mine and F's relationship in any way. And they'd been broken up well before I knew either of them. It's none of D's business who F kisses, and it's a shitty idea that because they'd dated before their later relationship first didn't mean as much. It felt very much like a dick thing to think never mind say about me and F. Also, B was my best friend, who did D get off to shit talking me to my best friend?

Anyway. Usually at the end of the day, several of us walked home together, and this group included D. I get to the spot we usually wait first and when I see D I confront them. I ask them why they'd say that and if they've got a problem with me. They don't deny saying it or really explain themself at all, they just look guilty. At first I kept calm. I knew D was F's friend and I didn't want to put a wedge in their friendship because of any issue I had with D. But, I keep asking why they did that, and if they've got something against me. If they're gonna shit talk me yanno. Then D starts crying.

I know it probably shouldn't have but this made me really mad. So I start yelling at them, saying something along the lines of 'so you're going to be an asshole to me and then you're gonna start crying?' and 'you started this, why are you crying?'. They start saying something along the lines of 'I didn't mean it like that' so I ask how did you mean it? And that they knew it wasn't something fine to say, because they said it behind my back and not to my face.

By this point, other people are watching, some of which were our mutual friends. I keep demanding they explain themself or at least apologize to me, but instead they run off crying. I don't follow them. If they're going to remove themself from the situation then fine.

People start asking what the hell that was about and I explain briefly to the people I knew and told the people I didn't to mind their own business. Someone I don't know tells me Ds gone to the head of year and I tell them I don't care, let them, I didn't do anything wrong. (This later amounts to nothing as no teacher ever comes to speak to me about this, so I doubt D did go to the head of year at all)

Eventually the people who were curious about what happened leave. All of the group who walk home together show up, including F. I explain to F what happened and they're upset that D said that about me, but wasn't happy to hear that D left crying.

For the rest of the school year, D ends up avoiding me. Literally staying out of my way, moving if I even glanced over at them. I thought they were overreacting. I never threatened them, and they were the one who chose to be an asshole first. I felt they were making this much more than it needed to be by avoiding it all together. We barely had an argument before they left, but anyone would have thought I'd attacked them or something. But because I obviously was always around F, D didn't have anyone to hang out with anymore. F was their only real friend and their other sort of friends were in our friend group.

No one told them they couldn't hang out with us anymore. (I'm pretty sure because they started avoiding me, I never ended up speaking to them again.) I know they still spoke to F still, but it seemed like their friendship was heavily damaged by it all.

D later ended up dropping out and finishing the school year through home schooling. I believe this was in large part due to the harassment they got for being genderqueer openly. (I remember on several occasions standing up for D and telling people to stop being transphobic assholes behind Ds back after this argument happened. Just because we didn't get along doesn't mean was gonna let that shit slide.)

I feel like I could be the asshole because due to this whole situation, D stopped hanging around their friends and through that lost a lot of the support they had. And obviously, I did make them cry.

On the other hand, no one stopped them from hanging out with their friends. They chose to avoid me and the situation. A situation they started by being a dick to me with zero provoking. They never apologized or recanted what they said. It's hard to feel bad that they lost their friends because they were being a shitty friend

Luckily, from what I know from friends of friends, D is doing better now and is around ppl who support them

This got a lot longer than I wanted but I believe I got all the details in there.

So, wita?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[swissboyhisch]

I'd Marry You Tomorrow

Pairing: Luke Hughes x Reader

Summary: As a precautionary measure, you follow through with the doctor suggestion to collect eggs. It wasn't as an easy process as you thought.

Word Count: 2115

Warnings: Ultrasounds, surgery, hospitals, doctors, fertility.

A/N: This is Part 3 of my mini series. Part 1: Don't Want To Lose You + Part 2: Will You Be There When I Wake Up?

THE MASTERLIST JOIN THE TAGLIST HOCKEY DISCORD

Fertility. Something you hadn’t thought about much up until this whole situation came up. Or discussed kids with Luke. You’re only 19. But with the likelihood of the tumour coming back, doctors referred you to a fertility specialist. Now you have to go through the process of collecting eggs. And freezing them. For if or when you have to have your other ovary removed in the future. As a backup plan.

The first appointment after your post-op check-up was a consultation with the fertility specialist, Dr. Hartman. The best fertility specialist in New Jersey. He explained the situation in more detail and discussed the whole process, what medications you’d be taking and the retrieval procedure. 

Before the next appointment with your specialist, you had to get a few blood tests and some ultrasounds done. Including internal ultrasounds. Just some tests to make sure you were all healthy and had no undiagnosed STDs. When the results came back, your specialist went over them with you. Once it was declared you were healthy enough to go through with the procedure the date was booked. Well rough date since it depended on your period. 

You woke up one morning to Luke gently shaking you. “Bub, you got your period.”

“Nooo,” You groan. Sure it wasn’t the first time you’ve woken up to having your period, but it was still embarrassing when Luke would be home for this exact scenario. You got up from bed carefully and glanced back to the bed with another groan. It looked like a murder scene. “I’ll clean that up after my shower.”

“Don’t worry bub, I’ll clean it up,” Luke mutters. 

He pressed a kiss to your temple and gently pushed you in the direction of the bathroom. You stripped your clothes and dumped them in the washing basket. Why couldn’t you have gotten it during the day? The shower was warm as you climbed under the stream of water. Hot water soothes your body, waking you up from your morning sleep daze. You go through your morning shower routine. 

Luke peeks into the bathroom, watching you as you dry yourself. “Do you need to call the clinic?” 

“Yeah, I do.”

Once you had finished getting dressed, you grabbed your phone and called the clinic. You informed them you had started your period. They made sure to remind you about the blood test you had to take before going to buy all your hormone injections and medications. Luke had changed the sheets like the angel he is. He had a morning skate though. Luckily the arena was right by a clinic so you tagged along. 

While Luke was training, you got the blood test done and brought the 5 different drugs you needed for the process. Of course that didn’t take that long so you put the medications in a fridge at the arena before finding a seat to watch the boys. Luke spotted you reasonably quick, winking at you as he skated by. After that some of the other players waved hi. Jack got excited and started teasing Luke like the big brother he was.

Later that day while you and Luke were getting ready for the game that night, your phone rang. It was the clinic telling you the amount of hormones to inject daily. 112.5. 

“I start the injections tomorrow,” You tell Luke as you hold out his beanie. You often helped Luke with his suits. “I have to choose a time and do it at the same time every day.”

Luke frowned, grabbing your face and pulling you in for a kiss. “We’ll get through this.”

“I want it over and done with. I’m sick of medical appointments.”

“Last one,” Luke assures. 

You shrug, “We don’t know that. My ovary is a ticking time bomb basically.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’d marry you tomorrow.”

That last sentence had become a regular thing said recently between you and Luke. Something he’d say to reassure you through this whole crazy journey. No matter how many times he had said it, you still get the warm fuzzies when you hear those words. And you weren’t alone, when you replied, copying his words, Luke would grin and blush. 

The next day was the first day of your injections. You had chosen a time that wouldn’t interfere with your schedule and the majority of Lukes. Sure it didn’t matter but Luke wanted to be home when you took your medication. It was a little peace of mind. Your alarm went off and you went to grab the box from the fridge. You set your amount on the roller and cap it with one of the needles. Luke stood beside you watching what you do carefully. 

“Are you okay?” he asks, eyeing the needle.

You took a moment to try to build up the courage. “I think so.”

“Do you want me to do it?” Luke asks.

“No, it’s okay. I can do it.”

You disinfect the sight on your stomach before grabbing at it. After taking a moment to calm yourself, you push the needle into the flesh. You push down the button and hold it there for 3 seconds before pulling it out. It didn’t hurt as much as you assumed it would. 

Luke pressed a kiss to your cheek as he held out your needle container, “So brave.”

The same thing repeated day in and day out. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday you went to get blood tests first thing in the morning. In the middle of your second week into treatment you had to start getting an internal ultrasound to check the size of the follicles. 

You came home from one of your ultrasounds to the lounge room set up for a movie date. Snacks covering the coffee table, the couch drowned in your favourite blankets and pillows and your favourite movie pulled up on the TV. In a vase on the coffee table too was a bouquet of your favourite flowers. 

“Lu?”

He came out from the kitchen in a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. In his arms though was a homemade pizza. Just like when you and the family would have pizza nights during the off season. It seemed to be your favourite too, pepperoni.

“Welcome home bub,” Luke grins. 

You blush, walking into his arms after he put down the pizza. “Thank you for this.”

“You’ve had a rough week. I think you deserve a relaxing day.”

After you change from your outfit into some comfy clothes, including one of Luke’s UMich hoodies, you both set yourself up on the couch. The movie played while the pair of you gorged on food and snacks. The horror Luke’s dietitian would have if he saw the scene right now. Cuddling really was the best medicine. 

You hadn’t realised your mental health had gone down hill over the last week. But Luke could see how withdrawn you had gotten. He knew that it could be one of the side effects of all the hormones being pumped into your body. He was there at all your appointments, he had listened intently.

“I love you Lu,” You mumble as you snuggle into Luke’s side. 

Luke wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into your side. “I love you more.”

Later that week, after one of your internal ultrasounds, you got the call to take the trigger injection. One last needle. It was a relief taking that last injection knowing you wouldn’t have to deal with any needles yourself for a good while.

The day finally came in which you would be having your surgery to collect your eggs. Luke was away on a road trip, having left the day before. You two had argued about him missing the road trip. He wanted to stay. To be by your side as you went into surgery and to be there when you wake up.  You said that you’d be okay, it wasn’t your first surgery. Luke relented. Agreeing to go but only if Ellen could make it to be with you.

Ellen arrived the night before and was going to take you to the hospital in which you’d be having the surgery at. You had a small back packed with a pair of clothes and a charger, just in case you went in later than was said. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to wait here?” Ellen asked as you filled out the 10 pages of paperwork.

“It’s fine Ellen. I’ll call you when I’m ready to be released.”

After a little back and forth, Ellen relented and pressed a kiss to the top of your head before watching you head back to your room. You placed all your things in the lockable cupboard and changed into the hospital gown. As you waited for your time slot, you just read a book. The sound of your ringtone interrupted you.

“Hey,” You greet as you answer Luke’s facetime.

Luke smiled, “Hey bub, how are you feeling?”

“I’m good. Tired but ready to get this over with.”

“I’ll be back later tonight,” Luke sighed. 

“Okay Lu.”

After getting to talk for a bit, and Jack popping in to say hi, you promised each other you’d speak after surgery once you're home. You had roughly an hour until your estimated surgery time. At least your book was interesting. You read until a nurse knocked at your door.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah,” you answer, putting all your belongings into the cupboard. 

You were wheeled into pre-surgery soon after. It was weird, most of the women you saw around getting the same procedure done were older than you. Isolating. That's how it felt. As you laid waiting to go in, you thought of Luke. He hadn’t left. You weren’t actually alone.

When you woke up after surgery, you were greeted by a nurse standing in the room taking your vitals.

“Hi,” you mumble as you shuffle around in the bed.

The woman smiled, “How do you feel?”

“Fine, I don’t feel any cramping.”

“You’ve still got the drugs in your system. But make sure to get the painkillers on your way home.”

Ellen was called and you were discharged from the hospital by lunch time. On the way home you stopped by the pharmacy to pick up the meds and then brought some lunch. You got back to your apartment where Ellen set you up on the couch with your food and a huge bottle of water. You got a reply from Luke before a Facetime call popped up.

“Heya Lu.”

“Hey bub, how you feel?”

You hum, “I’ve got strong drugs so not the worst.”

“And the surgery?”

“Went smoothly,” You answered. “Looking forward to the game?” 

Luke nodded, “Yeah, got a good feeling about tonight.”

“You’ll win Lu,” You reassure. 

“And when you wake up tomorrow, I’ll be right there beside you.”

“I love you Luke.”

Luke blushed, “I love you too. I’d marry you tomorrow.”

With that you both ended the call knowing Luke would have to get ready for the game. Ellen had overheard your conversation. She was glad you and Luke had such a strong relationship. Everyone knew you both would date, it was only a matter of time. Despite you two not being married, yet, you were the daughter she never got. 

The pair of you talked about anything and everything over the course of the afternoon and evening. Discussing the off season was the biggest conversation, talking about heading to the lake house. You had a nap in the afternoon before the Devils game. You and Ellen perched yourself on the couch, cheering on the youngest Hughes brothers. The Devils had won, signalling bed time for you. After all the meds, you were surprised you were still awake by the time the three stars were announced.

Rustles of a bag and clothes pulled you from your sleep. You rolled over and peeked your eyes open to see Luke creeping around your room. Trying to keep quiet. Not wanting to wake you. Before changing, he walked over to the bed. You snapped your eyes shut. Pretending to be asleep. Luke pressed a kiss to your forehead, lightly pushing back your hair. He went to change into his pyjamas. You rolled over as he got into bed. 

“Good game,” You mumble tiredly as you snuggle against Luke’s body.

His arms wrapped around you. Both of you are getting comfortable. “Thanks. How do you feel?”

“Tired,” You chuckle.

“Go back to sleep.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Luke pulled you closer. It was like he wanted you to merge into one person. “I’m so proud of you. I’d marry you tomorrow.”

TAG LIST

@findapenny @mp0625 @hischierhaze @11zegras @lvrzegras @francesfarhadi @cixrosie @daisysthings

#luke hughes imagine #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes fic #new jersey devils imagine #new jersey devils #nhl imagine #nhl fic #nhl fanfiction #swissboyhisch imagine #swissboyhisch #luke hughes imagines #luke hughes blurb #luke hughes rpf #luke hughes fanfiction #nhl imagines #nhl x reader #nhl rpf #nhl blurb #hockey blurb #hockey rpf #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #hockey fic #New jersey devils imagine #new jersey devils imagines #new jersey devils x reader #new jersey devils fanfiction #new jersey devils fic #new jersey devils blurb

[starflungwaddledee]

do you have any tips for leaving compliments on other people's art ?? your tags are always so well phrased !

oooo oooooooooooooo uuhhhhhhhh hmmm!

firstly, thank you!! i'm rather glad to hear that! i try quite hard to leave meaningful comments so it's nice when folks notice or appreciate it!

outside of commenting on the work, i first consider the tone of what i'm saying and who i'm saying it to.

i always try to make sure that what i'm saying will be appreciated by the person! that's the point. for the most part i leave comments to bring joy to the op, and thank them for their hard work, for being here and sharing art that made me happy! if i'm speaking to a mutual or friend, there's gonna be inside jokes and probably an amount of casual yelling. possibly even a little friendly roast, if i know them well enough. if i'm speaking with someone i don't know as well i try to keep it a little more professional, but i keep in mind that this is a fandom so an amount of yelling and screaming is expected. i tend to think about what i would like from someone else.

also if i notice that a caption or a blogs about is not in english i double check. if english is not the first language of the artist i make sure to construct tags that are easily translated and i use only and exclusively positive phrases. saying things like "delete this!!!! /pos" or "eating my own hands" can be totally lost in translation. i also keep in mind the age of the OP. don't tag as though you're Looking Disrespectfully at the art of a minor, even if that's your favourite blorbo.

as for how to comment on art or storytelling itself, this is indeed a learned skill, and it can be helped by training your eye to understand different things in artwork. but it's easy to start practicing! this is intuitive to me now, but an easy way to begin is to pick out one or two things that really stand out to you on a piece. (examples could be line quality; is it smooth? neat? textured? full of emotion?, shading: is it crisp? atmospheric? realistically rendered?, or colour choice: is it vibrant? is it moody? is it perfectly on model?) and draw attention to them and how the artist successfully used them to make the piece work.

if the piece includes design-work, pick something of that which you like as well. (clothes, colour choices, abilities, parallels to other characters, totally new or unique concepts that you haven't seen before. if you see your favourite colour combos or notions, let them know, but if it's a stranger remember they made the design for themselves, and you just share (good) tastes!) if you really want to make an artist/designer/storyteller's day, try to find the Little Thing that they've snuck into their art or design that ties into the story or lore that they are telling. even guesses to this end tend to be appreciated!

generally useful things you can also comment on are how well an artist has utilised a medium for its strengths, especially if the medium is a little unusual. if someone @'d me in particular i make sure to acknowledge that too because they probably read me for something and i should acknowledge the effort!

another thing i also always, always encourage, is to try to periodically share and comment on the work of people who are either less experienced or who have less visibility than you. especially if you have more of a platform! if you want to keep your blog clean of too many reblogs for aesthetic or professional reasons you can even go through and remove them later, but sharing the work of smaller accounts- even temporarily- makes such a huge difference! and encouraging + supporting younger or beginner artists is something we should be endeavouring to do as much as possible!

at the end of the day, i always just try to be very earnest in my tags.

there is generally no reason to withhold any praises i can think of, because it's usually nice to have your work perceived and appreciated! i personally loooovvve long rambling tags, screaming tags, stuff like "AAHH NOOOOOOO (THE BLORBO)" and so on. i try to leave the kind of thoughtful comments that i like (and am lucky enough) to receive, and i try to share artwork from a wide variety of people!

#asks #it's something you can get better at with practice and with training your eye to see Little Things in artwork #at understanding the components that an artwork is made up of; and picking the bits that are actually Popping Out to you in the moment! #i hope this helps?? it just takes a bit of Time. moreso than just hitting the reblog button! so i understand why not everyone can do it #i tend to shove stuff into my drafts for weeks/months and will go through and add tags when i have some downtime. #but all my stuff is also queued for the most part. #also if i ever tag something an OP is uncomfortable with; i am trusting they would reach out to me!! #sorry to all the folks who's pictures of galacta knight i have reblogged just going like UHHHHHHH because my brain short circuited #starflungs personal tag #<- sorta?

[bxriles]

The Importance of Authors Fulfilling Promises to their Readers

Seeing people defend Gege's writing of jjk these over these last few months is WILD. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and that includes me. So here's my 900th unhinged rant on this subject because hoooo boy there are THOUGHTS on this topic.

Before anyone comes for my throat, these are my opinions. You get yours and I get mine. And this is LONG lmao.

I've seen all the justifications for Gege's current writing saying that jjk is about being different from the standard shonen manga and being more realistic in its storytelling (i.e., killing the powerful characters) and whatever and YES. All of that is true. I don't have a problem with any of that. I would say all of that is why most of us fell in love with this story to begin with. Examples of this (done well) includes:

Nanami's death. Tragic. Broke my heart. But I think Gege was right to kill him. Nanami had served his purpose at that point, he died protecting the next generation, and despite how sad I was to see him go, I thought it was good writing. There was no need to keep him around at that point. Gojo gets put in the box. This made perfect sense to me from a narrative standpoint. Gojo Satoru is a NIGHTMARE for ANY author to write. His very existence is a problem because he can solve all of the problems of the universe and remove all conflict from the story. Sealing away the most powerful character was a perfect way to take him out of the narrative while still leaving his presence lingering over everyone. This also deviates strongly from traditional shonen because no character that powerful would have ever been sealed with ACTUAL ramifications in something more "standard" like Naruto! It broke the mold in the best way possible. I'd also say that the way Kenjaku went about sealing him was excellent. There really weren't any ass-pulls to get him in that box. Kenjaku takes Geto's body (a strategic decision), hides that body from everyone at the school, executes an insane plan that he knows will exhaust Gojo and mentally push him to his limits, and then SURPRISE! Here's your dead lover's best friend's body! Now get in the box(((: I thought it was good writing and completely necessary for the plot to progress. Megumi's possession. From the very beginning, Sukuna has been interested in Megumi. Seeing that pay off? Watching Sukuna do the worst thing we can imagine to Megumi? Amazing. Wonderful. Loved everything about it.

So, I don't have any problems with jjk's previous storytelling. I thought that it was well executed, broke the previous Shonen formula, and delivered good story telling.

You know what I do have a problem with? Writing like this:

Higuruma is suddenly as talented as Gojo. Bro what? I like Higuruma, but this dude has been a sorcerer for all of what? Two seconds? He's a suicidal lawyer who just got magic powers and only VERY RECENTLY started working with Yuji and company and he suddenly has as much talent as Gojo Satoru? The man with the Six Eyes? Be. For. Real. What is the point of this? If you needed an OP character, you already had Gojo. So again. What was the point?

Higuruma's possible death. We're only up to chapter 248 at the time of me posting this, so this may change. But as of right now, we've been told Higuruma is dead. He may come back, but we don't know. Either way, we're told dude is gone. What was the point of this death? We already saw Yuji lose a beloved male mentor figure (Nanami) and we already saw someone who had the potential to kill Sukuna fail (Gojo) soooooo... What was the point? We've seen this done before and it's boring to see it hashed out yet again but with new characters.

Kenjaku's motivations and death. I personally think that making Kenjaku a mad scientist for the sake of being a mad scientist is lazy. With all of his hair brained schemes (guys, he like straight up fucked Yuji's dad, come on), you would have thought he had some legitimate motivation. I can admit this is my own personal opinion and some might like this, but I think this is a weak explanation for all the nonsense he's done. And his death? Like... Okay?? Some rando newbie sorcerer is the one to kill Kenjaku? Kenjaku--one of the top two Big Baddies? All right?? I wouldn't say this is bad per se, but I would say it feels very unearned. (And before anyone freaks out, yes I know it's technically Yuta who delivers the killing blow, but it really was Takaba who put the work in and got Yuta to that point. Again, it feels unearned.)

And finally, the big one. The one that most people are upset about and the one that most people reference when they talk about the decline in writing and one that's about to get a(nother) long ass rant from me.

The lack of any meaning in Gojo Satoru's death.

I need to be perfectly clear that I do not have a problem with Gojo dying. Again, he's a nightmare character for an author to handle so I get it. I have a problem with HOW he was killed. Sukuna using Megumi's body was great. The whole battle of the domains was decent. But the end??? Gojo hits Sukuna point blank with a hollow purple (after Sukuna said he would die if he was hit with a point blank hollow purple) and then...? Sukuna pulls out some BS world cleaving slash that cuts Gojo in half (off screen mind you), heals himself, and then is perfectly--PERFECTLY--fucking fine after getting hit by an attack that he said would kill him???? And then he isn't weakened at all? Bro what??? How is that good writing? Even if you're all about subverting expectations and JJK breaking the shonen mold, how is that good writing? How is that satisfying???

Gojo's death meant nothing. He did nothing. He didn't even weaken Sukuna. He didn't give the students a leg up. It meant... Nothing. And I know that some people think that's the point, that jjk has realistic storytelling and that it's realistic to have a meaningless death but I would STRONGLY disagree. You want meaningless deaths in JJK for the sake of "realistic" meaningless deaths? You have Tsumiki and Yuki. Sure, Tsumiki's death pushes Megumi into the pits of despair because Shonen manga loves a good bit of *man pain* but what was her real influence on the story? Outside of the Megumi thing, she had zero impact on jjk. And Yuki?? Killed off-screen for some reason??? To buy Choso some time??? When she is arguably the more important one??? All right?? Christ, fucking Junpei's death meant more to the narrative and he was basically a fucking footnote in the grand scheme of things.

The problem with Gojo having a meaningless death is that Gege as the author broke his promise to his readers. Gege sets up a story that tells us how influential Gojo is and spends quite a bit of the narrative showing us once again how important he is. Whether he meant to or not, writing a setup like that means there will be expectations from your readers that no matter what happens to that character, it will mean something to the narrative. A good example of this done both well and poorly is Game of Thrones/ASOIAF, which is another story that breaks the mold of a genre like JJK.

Ned Stark is a POV character in the first book. He's important. He's the Lord of Winterfell and becomes the Hand. He's honorable. He's good in a world that favors the wicked and people know it. And then he gets killed and his death haunts the narrative and it means something. Robb starts a war. Sansa becomes a hostage to the Lannisters. Arya has to flee. Jon has to reaffirm that he's a man of the Night's Watch and can't go help his brother. The Red Wedding. Catelyn becomes Lady Stoneheart. The Boltons take Winterfell. The North Remembers (it's being set up better in the books I swear). And it goes on and on and ON. We're told from book 1 that Ned is important. George completely deviates from the fantasy genre by killing off one of the main POV characters in Book 1, but he still fulfills the promise that Ned's death will mean something and that Ned will be important even though he's dead. Ned's death then haunts the story from that point forward. An example of this done poorly? The show. We're told Jon Snow is important. We SEE that Jon Snow is important. Jon Snow is the rightful heir to the iron throne. And what happens? We get a season of "I dun want it!" and then he kills Dany and goes back to the Night's Watch to live out the rest of his days with his boys. He's not king. Killing Dany had no real repercussions. D&D tried to show us that it was Jon's identity that made Dany snap but it felt half-assed since she was already heading down that path before she found out. A promise was made that Jon Snow would ultimately mean something by the end of the story and guess what? Absolutely none of it mattered. He didn't even kill either of the Big Baddies. And he didn't do anything with knowledge of who his parents were. He wasn't Azor Ahai. He wasn't the prince that was promised. So it meant nothing. A promise was made to us by George (and the show runners ugh) that Jon was important and then it turned out that he wasn't. And the public outcry that GOT S8 received speaks for itself on how bad that writing was.

To me, Gojo's death is no different. The narrative sets up his importance. Gege makes a promise to the readers that this character will ultimately mean something and then... Nothing happens. That isn't "realistic writing" or "breaking the shonen formula" at all. That's just bad writing. You're not any less of a fan of jjk or any less of an analytical reader if you don't buy the whole "this is good writing because that's the point of JJK--to break the shonen mold!" There are ways to achieve that sentiment that are good. And I would even go so far as to say that the people like me who are irritated with this writing have no issues with Gojo dying. We have issues with how he was killed and how poorly it was all executed. And I'm not going to be told I "don't get the point" of JJK because of it.

And then there's the fact that Gege has set his story so far apart from other shonen manga (like Naruto or BNHA) that the readers will no longer tolerate any sort of "lemme pull this out of my ass" writing that they would have otherwise tolerated from Naruto or DBZ or Bleach or BNHA. (Note: I do love those stories btw! But they're guilty of this storytelling.) So when Gege shows us that Yuji suddenly has RCT (that's fine ig, he's been training) or tells us that Higuruma has as much talent as Gojo or does some bullshit that saves Sukuna from Higuruma's sentencing or has a random explanation that he pulled OUT OF HIS ASS for why Sukuna will inevitably get his shit rocked by the students, all of which are CHILDREN, when the strongest sorcerer of the modern era couldn't do shit to him, then YEAH. I'm going to think it's bad writing.

And yes, I am aware that JJK is Yuji's story, not Gojo's. I understand. I'm not saying I want Gojo to be the main character. I'm saying that this absurdly powerful character who influences everything was wasted in the hands of the author's current writing.

TLDR: It's not "good" writing or "realistic" writing for an author to write meaningless shit that ultimately does nothing for the story when that author has already made a promise to their readers to do the opposite. Criticizing this type of writing does not make you any less of a JJK fan and it does not mean that you "don't get it." You are allowed to be critical of a work you love.

Argue with the wall if you disagree.

#jjk ramblings #rant #jjk spoilers #gojo satoru #ryomen sukuna #gege akutami #jjk manga spoilers #once again #there is no changing my mind that this has been bad writing #gege when i catch you #argue with the wall #jujutsu kaisen #hiromi higuruma

[leomonae]

What is this drama with dhampling I'm so confused but I like drama

I'm not bothering to look anything up for my summary, so no guarantees on complete accuracy. Explanation below the cut since I highly doubt anyone not directly involved is going to care about any of this.

Right, so basically @dhampling put up a post asking for BG3 fic recs the other... day? Week? Idk, I'm bad at time, it was recently, anyway. They asked for recs, various people reblogged and responded, including someone who recced a few members of this discord server I'm in - smaller creators, writers who haven't had much of an audience/exposure for their fics, and were pretty happy about the recognition. At some point, dhampling deleted their original post on the subject, leaving a message on their blog about how they didn't want to name names/get pulled into drama or some such - making a pretty vague statement that raised more questions than it answered, basically.

Some members of that discord server I mentioned were a little miffed about this, since to their minds it was removing one of the ways they might get more people finding/reading their fics. I, personally, was rolling my eyes at the incredibly vague nature of the non-explanation and questioning why they didn't just delete the thing and leave it alone after, if they didn't want it being made into some big deal somehow. Since the discord server is private/invite-only, some of us expressed said frustrations in a vent thread therein. Other people, including the person who'd reblogged and given some recs of the server's members, attempted to speak in dhampling's defense a little - they're young (which I guess they disliked being said about them once they found this out?), we don't know what prior experiences they've had in fandoms and some people can get vicious sometimes, the OP's original post may be gone but the reblogs are still out there so it's not a huge deal anyway, etc etc.

Then at some point soon afterwards, someone in the server shared screenshots of the aforementioned venting with dhampling, who apparently strongly disliked it/what was said? I know the server owner tried reaching out to talk to them without getting a response, and I gather that they blocked a few people, but as far as I was aware, this nonsense was pretty much over. Guess not, though!

Oh yeah, and around the time we were discussing the matter in the server, I went and commented on dhampling's "I deleted my post" non-explanation to say that it didn't really tell us anything at all and questioning if it was something personal or an issue with one of the stories or what, since a) I am a naturally curious/nosy person sometimes, b) a couple of my buddies were fretting that they might have done something to offend this person somehow, and c) why not?

And no, dhampling, if you were including me in the whole "I want an apology" thing you just posted, I will not, in fact, be offering one. I decided the other day upon review that I have no actual issues with anything I said at the time, and given that it was a handful of friends expressing some mild frustrations to one another in a private server, where they had every reason to expect their words would remain private rather than ever getting back to you, I don't really think anyone there owes you an apology anyway.

Sometimes people get annoyed with others. Sometimes they say so to their friends privately, rather than going and being rude to the person who annoyed them or whatever. This is normal, healthy, interpersonal behaviour. Nobody was plotting to come harass you or what the fuck ever; there would be no harm done here at all, including to your feelings, if someone from our server hadn't decided to disrespect our own members' right to have their private comments not shared with someone outside without their consent.

So let's drop this non-issue, already, huh?

#drama #fandom bullshit #what's the tag for “i really doubt most of my followers actually give a fuck but sure i'll explain from my pov”

[carlos-in-glasses]

WIP Wednesday

Thank you for the tag @catanisspicy . Please have something very very hot off the press. 🤎

Gutiérrez switches on the light, illuminating oak laminate cabinets, beige floral tiling and a matching tile-top kitchen island upon which tightly-packed rectangular parcels of beige-tinted powder are stacked in brickwork formation.

Carlos' eyes pop at the sight of it. "Are you serious?"

“Oh, relax. What do you think I do here all day – listen to true crime podcasts and make friendship bracelets?” Gutiérrez swipes an upside-down sepia glass coffee pot from the drying rack. In reaction, a stack of ceramic plates and cutlery collapses in a cacophonous domino effect. He ignores it. “Anyway, it’s flour. Decoy drop this evening should get moles out of the hole. That’s what your daddy used to say.” Gutiérrez gestures behind Carlos. Sure enough, on the countertop next to a retro-looking brown microwave, there are several empty packets of King Arthur unbleached, covered in their own dust. “My requisition didn’t go through, though, so I’m out of pocket,” Gutiérrez continues, grizzling. “But Costco loves me. The checkout girl probably thinks I’m some master baker.”

Carlos watches Gutiérrez hunt around in a drawer for a fresh filter for the coffee machine, which is as equally ancient as the microwave, the fridge, and the sink. Such can be the austerity of public-funded undercover ops. Carlos wishes he didn’t like Gutiérrez. Thanks to the nature of his own job, and his father’s job – which included the whistle-blowing of corruption within the auspices of the Texas Rangers – virtually everyone in his life occupies a dangerous position. Tomorrow, he could read in The Austin Chronical about a man called Pablo Martinez being gunned down in Chicano Park. A narcotics drop gone lethal. Carlos would have to grit his teeth while buttoning his shirt in the locker room at the precinct, hearing colleagues laugh and jaunt about another falcon removed from the streets.

“Take a seat,” Gutiérrez says, “Here, I’ll move a few of these out of your way.” He bundles up a dozen of the decoy parcels and dumps them next to a ceramic cookie jar shaped like a football.

Tagging with no pressure: @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @chaotictarlos @never-blooms @ladytessa74 @bonheur-cafe @paperstorm @lemonlyman-dotcom @reyesstrand @strandnreyes @iboatedhere @freneticfloetry @lightningboltreader @welcometololaland if you're still bored in an airport @rmd-writes @noxsoulmate @largepeachicedtea @taralaurel @rosedavid @chicgeekgirl89 @liminalmemories21 @alrightbuckaroo @goodways @theghostofashton @hoko-onchi-writes @ambiguouspenny @wandering-night19 - if you have anything you want to share! ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

#I don't know if I'm still warped by my own Gabriel-grief but I've decided these two will have some father-son chemistry in season 5 #Work in progress Wednesday #WIP Wednesday #This won't be ready for a while but I'm excited!

[elftwink]

been learning to play ironsworn (gritty fantasy ttrpg which you can play with a gm but is mostly suited for solo or small group co-op gmless play) after having the rulebook pdf for several years (stars finally aligned to remove invisible thing blocking me from reading it idk) because i'm on another solo ttrpg kick & i don't know what took me so long to get around to this game because it genuinely is exactly what i was looking for. years ago when i was playing through solo 5e modules i should have just been playing ironsworn (believe it or not, 5e isn't very suited to solo play and is extremely clunky when you try lol).

also though i have dabbled in some other solo ttrpgs, a considerable amount of them are journaling games which is fun but imo considerably more work (usually by the time i'm a quarter of the way through the journal entry, i know how to entire scene played out and i want to move on to the next gameplay thing, so i get frustrated and bored quickly. it feels like when you solve a level in a video game but don't have the coordination to pull off the necessary move so you have to spend 20 extra minutes doing something you already figured out), so i really appreciate like not needing to write something for the game to progress (ive been taking notes for my own record since im playing solo and thus am not really out loud roleplaying the way you do in a group, but i definitely could do that instead and not take notes and the game would still function perfectly)

& ive been playing by myself but also in the past ive played a lot of ttrpgs in very small groups which has been other games but is mostly dnd and like. we also should have been playing ironsworn so that having a gm was not necessary. have definitely played games where we had to adapt the rules soooo much to do something that is just base game included in ironsworn. plus it's rules-light enough to do pretty complex moves that pose difficulties in bulkier games (ever introduced someone to dnd and they tell you they want to do a sick backflip and catch something and then attack and you have to tell them that will require several different consecutive rolls and some creative liberties with how the rules are 'supposed' to let you move? you can just Do That in ironsworn. use the strike move and describe it. done!)

the one thing is that although it's rules-light enough to theoretically play any setting or genre (some with more difficulty than others), ive found so far that like... the grittiness and sense of threat is very built into the mechanics so that would be sort of difficult to work around or change (but i think it's great from a game design perspective). what i mean is like, okay: you start with 5 max hp. there isn't really a way to raise this max hp, you just slowly gain abilities (assets) that make you less likely to have to lose the hp in the first place, or that make it easier to recover. when you encounter foes, you rank them on a scale of 1 -5, and enemies on the lowest side of this scale do one harm to you, while enemies on the highest side do five harm to you. so even though encountering an epic enemy won't always be deadly due to the assets you have, they are ALWAYS capable of taking you down to 0 hp with one good hit. so the feeling of threat is much more present compared to games where your character starts to be able to just tank and push through a failure or huge threat.

admittedly also i'm playing solo, im still learning how to balance combat, and also i built a character who has NO combat talents and iron (the close quarters fighting stat) is one of my lowest stats so i personally am under much more threat than if you built a character who knew how to fight or who could do deadly harm. but also the other thing about combat is it's extremely difficult to maintain control of the fight; you have to score a strong hit to do it on basically all moves, and there's a really limited pool of moves available when you don't have the initiative, and obviously none of them really favour you. i don't know that this makes combat genuinely more difficult, but it does make you feel like the fight is always about to spiral out of your control. every second you let it drag without decisive action feels like it brings you closer to dying. like i said, this is a feature of the game design and not a problem in any way. just thinking about it because when i was initially learning i was going to try to supplant it into a homebrew fantasy world of my own but the tone just wouldn't be right. and that it is somewhat difficult to replicate the kind of worlds that i typically play or run for dnd, which tend to lean somewhat sillier and definitely much higher fantasy

but i like to try new things and tbh especially in dnd i find that i very rarely feel that sense of threat and when i do feel it, it has nothing at all to do with the actual mechanics and reality of the combat and everything to do with how well the dm sells it to me and makes it sound and feel scary and dangerous. which is a testament to what a good gm can do for you but i do appreciate the threat feeling more built-in and also being actually real.

#good idea generator #kas plays ironsworn #am giving it a tag because i will continue to talk about this. its my blog #idk i just find in dnd like. players often FEEL threatened WAY before they actually are threatened #which makes it really hard to balance combat because players treat evenly matched fights like hopeless death traps #so instead they do underleveled combat that feels boring for some hard to pin down reason #but like. the reason is even though you're nervous about the dm's description and the things the monsters can do #there is no real threat. especially in bigger parties where the players DOMINATE action economy. they are always in control #so of course it gets boring. it drags out so everyone can take their turn but it never forces you to make difficult choices #or to totally exhaust all your abilities. after awhile the combats start to feel same-y #because even if the monster is different. you never have to do anything different to defeat it #ofc this is a subjective assessment and also if youre reading this and we play dnd together this is not a gripe abt our table i love u #i think it's really easy to get trapped doing this esp in tables which like rp more than combat #because its also like. once you're used to a certain balance of combat if your dm suddenly threw you a big one #you assume that this is a uniquely large threat in the narrative as well (rather than a rebalancing attempt) #and treat it accordingly. which is to say with way too much caution because it isnt actually that big of a threat #so then as a dm when you have to maintain the feeling of threat and the mechanical threat #(especially when sometimes the mechanical line between 'cakewalk' and 'tpk' is razor thin #and is more about the initiative order and luck than anything else) #you start to prioritize the feeling of threat. which is imo the right call always #but its just after awhile when you feel the threat but nothing ever happens to anybody. the dissonance starts to affect the table #also balancing dnd combat as a dm is really hard and often requires a LOT of on the fly adaptation #because sometimes the CR is useless and you don't know how it's gonna do until the dice are on the table already #anyway. my point is that im enjoying how ironsworn handles this problem

[anistarrose]

Hello, TOH fandom, I am here once again to talk about accessibility!

[Image description: a screenshot of Lilith Clawthorne excitedly holding up a sign, which has been edited to read: "Image Descriptions for The Owl House (and why they matter)" in all caps. End description.]

Image descriptions, like the one I just used above, are exactly what it says on the tin: descriptions of the content of an image included to make the image maximally accessible.

Blind and low-vision people who use screen readers, people who rely on increased font size in-app or in-browser to read text, and neurodivergent people who have trouble interpreting elements of an image (for example, expression) all benefit from image descriptions.

And all images on the internet should be accessible regardless of topic, of course, but I've recently been trying to spread awareness in the context of The Owl House specifically because it's a show with multiple disabled and/or neurodivergent characters! In fact, Principal Bump is canonically low-vision with a service animal to help him in that regard — and I'd argue that making content about disabled characters accessible is extra, extra important!

[Image description: a screenshot of Principal Bump with his palisman Frewin removed from his head, revealing the scars over Bump's eyes. Frewin is in staff form, smiling, and Eda looks on from the side. End description.]

I know it's within this fandom's ability to make our posts about the finale as accessible as possible — and I know that because I've already seen a decent increase in described posts over the course of Season 3! I've seen more artist-described posts especially, which means a lot to me, and even more to a lot of other people, too <3

So, on that note, how to write an image description? It may seem intimidating, especially if describing someone else's post or fanart, but honestly, there's no definitive "rubric" to follow, just a list of general guidelines:

Indicate where the description starts and ends, with "end description" or "end ID".

Place the description immediately under the image, not under a read-more (this allows people who rely on IDs to experience the post the same way anyone else would, whereas read-mores are inconvenient, especially if OP changes their URL)

Minimize caps lock, italics, bold, and strikethrough, which can be hard to read and/or troublesome for screen readers. Generally, it's just best to transcribe in lowercase without particular effects, then indicate in the transcription if something is emphasized.

Likewise, don't put descriptions in Tumblr's special small text. It's difficult to read and inaccessible to many.

Don't make jokes or add commentary in IDs. If an image is meant to be humorous, obviously it's fine to phrase things in a way that tries to capture that, but it's not the place to add your own jokes, nor is it the place to declare subjective qualities like "this art is beautiful".

Descriptions can vary in length, but if one is getting long (if you're describing a comic, for example), then be sure to break it up with paragraph breaks.

Specifically, while I've heard that too many breaks (ie, every sentence) are annoying for some screen readers, long walls of text are conversely difficult for people with visual processing problems to parse. So, it's good to strike a balance.

With regards to length and amount of detail, it varies by personal preference! Most images don't need a whole small essay, but there's also value in describing certain small and symbolic details, subjective as it is.

Speaking of which, if you're the original artist, then you are automatically the expert on what you wanted the image to convey — the nuances of expression and body language, which details are important and which details are not — and for that reason, I love seeing artist-described works!

Below the cut: more on describing Owl House images specifically, on IDs versus alt text, and other possible questions!

When I transcribe TOH related posts, there's a few other guidelines I use, though these rules aren't as immediately important as the ones above. I generally start by indicating the type of image we're dealing with (a screenshot? fanart? a photo of a cosplay?), then mention what characters are depicted.

Unless I'm describing something long, like a comic, and relying on summarization, I usually mention which character designs we're dealing with (is Lilith in her dramatic black dress from Season 1? or is she in her low-battery shirt?). If it's fanart and the artist has come up with original outfits to put the characters in, I'll summarize those too.

(This is the other reason I love seeing artist-described works: because I, personally, am just kinda bad at describing fashion lol.)

Now, I'd like to go over some other questions that I've either encountered before, or anticipate:

What about alt text? Doesn't that accomplish the same purpose as image descriptions?

In a lot of senses, yes, so alt text is certainly much, much better than no description! However, remember that not every person relying on descriptions is necessarily someone who uses a screen reader every day, or uses a screen reader period. Some people do in fact read the descriptions themselves.

[Image description, identical to alt text: a screenshot of Luz Noceda from Season 2, smiling and blushing. End description.]

As you can see above, alt text takes an extra click (or tap) to access. In general, it's also prone to displaying walls of text, and — as far as I know — sometimes just doesn't show up if the Tumblr app isn't updated enough. (Not to mention that, in my opinion, making image descriptions visible to people who don't use them is an important part of spreading accessibility awareness in the first place!)

On the other hand, I've heard some people who benefit from descriptions say they actually prefer alt text, so I'm not going to come out and take a hard "absolutely no alt text ever under any circumstances" stance by any means. But, long story short, this is the reason that in my own posts, I almost always defer to in-post descriptions — the only exception might be if I'm writing a meta post, and functionally describing the images in the text anyway.

I've seen that sometimes you use [ ] brackets and sometimes you don't. Is there a reason?

Basically personal preference. I use brackets in posts like this when I have a lot of non-description writing, and want to make it extra clear where the description ends and the non-description begins. If I'm just captioning some fanart in a reblog and not adding any commentary, on the other hand, I leave off brackets because they're pretty redundant.

I'm nervous about describing images, but I still want to help make the fandom more accessible. Is there anything I can do?

Well, my first piece of advice would be to start small! Hell, start with just making sure you include a description whenever you post an image with just text, like a screenshot of a reply or someone's prev tags. You can build up little-by-little from there!

(My personal accessibility journey went from describing only tweet screenshots whose text I could just copy, to describing simple memes like cat pics, to deciding it was important to at least describe fanart of disabled characters like Eda, to finally describing almost every post I reblog. Trying to make that jump without any of the intermediate steps would've been overwhelming, but at this point, it all feels natural to me.)

But secondly, I would encourage showing some love to artists who describe their pieces! Queue up some described fanart, especially artist-described stuff, and help normalize it!

Get into the habit of checking the notes for descriptions (go to reblogs and filter by comments only) before you share! If someone describes your art, copy it into the original post, so the version of the thread reblogged directly from you will be accessible too! (And if you want to make some little tweaks, no one will be offended.)

You can also look into making your blog theme accessible, such as making sure the font size is large enough (and ideally sans serif, for readability). And if you feel more confident with describing audio, then writing transcripts of audio is always incredible as well, to help out those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have auditory processing disorders!

I've heard that AI is able to describe images for screen readers pretty well these days. Are descriptions still important/going to remain important as the technology advances?

Well, let me say first that I'm very glad this technology exists, for sure! But I'm of the opinion that human described (and especially artist described) captions are, at least generally speaking, still going to be the gold standard for the foreseeable future — AI doesn't have the context we do for our art and our fandoms; it's much less likely than a fan of the show to pick up on what's an important or symbolic detail.

Are there actually people who need image descriptions in cartoon fandoms? I mean, the source material has such a visual component!

First off, blind and low vision people do in fact watch things like TV, movies, and plays — ever notice the "audio description" option to add narration to a given show in a streaming service? That's there to provide basically the real-time equivalent of image descriptions.

And, second, I'll leave you with this — don't you think a lot more disabled people would participate in fandom if fandom were more accessible and accommodating to disabled people in the first place?

#the owl house #toh #the owl house season 3 #watching and dreaming #accessibility #long post

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

You seem very knowledgeable so I'll ask you this. What's the deal with V missing the snake shaped scar that John has? Or was the scar fake? It was used to conceal a jigsaw if I recall correctly then disappeared. But how is that possible? Scars don't just disappear. I'm so confused xD Did Ocelot forget?

Hello Anon!

Yeah, that never seems to get a full explanation in game so there are a few theories going for it.

Big Boss' scar did indeed contain a jigsaw within it's stitching. Whether he put the jigsaw in later, or created the scar to be a memory of the Boss I'm not 100% certain; and I don't recall if he still has it post-Peace Walker. I believe that there could still be remnant scarring after the Jigsaw is removed, but I need someone to confirm my memory here. Edit: I've had a little look around the web again, and the consensus seems to be that because the jigsaw wasn't that deep; he didn't have much remaining of it after he removes it. Which could also be why Ocelot didn't bother putting one on Venom. If the scar wasn't present post 1974, there'd be no need to put that on Venom.

But for some other ideas, there are a few possibilities I and others have considered, and tossed around.

Venom is so full of shrapnel it wouldn't matter if he had the jigsaw scar or not. Although his chest doesn't have the brunt of the scarring from what we see, it could be one of those 'write off' things.

Ocelot didn't think it was relevant/didn't bother. This would tie better in with Big Boss not having it jigsaw removal. No point adding something that is no longer there.

He ran out of time. Venom doesn't receive plastic surgery to alter his face in game until around 2 weeks before they escape.While they had probably been doing surgery around other periods, it's possible it was one of those things that couldn't get finished. Venom is described as being 'incomplete' due to having to be woken up before the XOF attack. Even with 9 years to work with, they didn't finish him 100%

But yeah, the most likely reason is BB not having it post '74. And just for the fun of it, some Venom and BB photo tax (including this very amusing link I found for the Venom pics with '166 days, 8 hours, 1 minute, and 59 seconds until we get Sexy Big Boss Action' in a pre-countdown before the release of Phantom Pain. I hope that OP had a great time with Phantom Pain.

I wanna devour this Venom with my bare hands.

#asks #answered asks #mgsv #mgs #revolver ocelot #venom snake #thoughts posts #character posts: venom snake

[swordsmans]

If Bonney used her power on Brook would it restore his flesh? Or would he just become a younger skeleton

whether you meant this as a joke or not, ive been rotating this in my head for like four days straight (thanks for that) and i think i've FINALLY come up with my answer: i think brook would just become a younger skeleton!

spoilers for egghead below the cut!

we don't know a lot about bonney's fruit (not even the NAME) so it's hard to pin down exactly how it works, but after rereading egghead to answer this i think her devil fruit is possibly something other than a model of the toki-toki no mi (my original assumption). the base model toki-toki no mi works strictly with time itself, but bonney's fruit seems to have several "functions" that are different from time itself.

when aging someone forward in "time", she has access to multiple possible futures (likely why the straw hat older designs in the SBS's have had multiple versions, actually). it's not stated anywhere that she has access to the true future (although given OP's shaky stance on fate, this could be a little bit of meta in and of itself)

when she "de-ages" someone, they shed jewels of some kind--it's not a "clean" time travel

and (most importantly) when she "de-ages" someone, they retain certain features from adulthood, including but not limited to scars and body modifications

in short, her fruit isn't straight across the board linear time travel, but something a little weirder, a little more ambiguous. (i'm excited to learn more about it from a lore perspective, tbh, especially with the devil fruit info about parallel universes--but i digress).

i am largely basing my brook answer on the third point, illustrated here:

jinbei has been "de-aged", but he still has a scar over his eye from later in life, and--

vegapunk has been "de-aged" but he is still missing his brain and retains the punk records transmitter even though we know he did not remove his brain until much later into adulthood. AND the transmitter still has the circumference of his adult-sized head, so it has stayed "separate" from his body despite the transformation--while still acting as a replacement for his missing brain.

with this in mind, i have two theories about her fruit: one, she cannot undo major/permanent body changes in people she "de-ages" and i suspect if she were to "de-age" luffy, he might retain his chest scar! and two, she cannot undo devil fruit powers. in short, she cannot change the "whole" of a person, just their "current essence".

realistically (lol, as realistic as we can get here) brook has had his skeleton since birth. if she were to "de-age" his skeleton, it would be his skeleton that is impacted--his "current essence". his flesh is gone, and cannot be reproduced from nothing (just like vegapunk's brain!). essentially bonney would be moving his skeleton itself back and forth in time, not the (missing) "whole" around it.

knowing what we do about oda's sense of humor (and the type of gags brook usually gets), i dont think it's unfair to assume that we might actually get this exact scenario--bonney trying to "de-age" brook and (visually) nothing happening. even if it's played off for laughs, it works with what we know of her powers! plus, there's this panel:

and who do we know that's not technically a living thing? brook! personally, i think it would be very funny (and not beyond the scope of oda's silly little mind) to give brook a semi-permanent power up by having bonney "de-age" his skeleton to a younger, stronger version of itself (again, visually no different at all lol) and then just... staying that way until she manually undoes the power or something.

of course, all of this is just guesswork. honestly, im very intrigued by bonney's age-up/future powers, and im looking forward to more of her this arc!!

#answers #opspoilers #op spoilers #this was EXTREMELY fun #brook

[tasmanianstripes]

Re that post about content warnings...

I suspect I'm the person you saw reblog this--and I think that some of the OPs original point/intention might have been lost. It is mostly to emphasize that there's some degree of responsibility on the reader -- by this I mean, you can't get mad at an author for hiding behind tags like "creator chose not to use content warnings." It's kind of a two way street. Because if you put "cw: (triggering thing)" it protects the people who are avoiding it--- but it also may spoil the story for the people who arent. This can be problematic if that major content is actually a huge plot element and having it spoiled kind of removes the shock reaction that comes.

I'm of the opinion personally that people can and should use creator chose not to use warnings and then just a vague "this is going to deal with problematic content that could trigger you; be in a good headspace to consume" type note at the start of its something specific. I reblogged because I really wish more authors would lean into that tag function; it exists to protect both reader and writer, lets us keep our spoilers and surprises while alerting the reader that There May Be Dragons here.

Anyway, I know you don't want discourse and I'm hoping this ask just clarifies why I reblogged it rather than sounding disrespectful in any way. If you wanna reply feel free, but you don't gotta. I just felt bad when I read your post, thought you might have misunderstood my intent behind the reblog, and really wanted to explain myself.

Oh no it wasn't from you, and I totally agree with you!

This is why I mentioned that option of AO3 too because I think it's a good compromise, it doesn't spoil the story but also makes it so people know there might be some potentially triggering things if you read it. When you click on that you kind of accept that risk.

I was more so talking about when there's no warning at all, not even "Hey this has some triggering stuff in it but I can't say what because that's a spoiler, read at your own risk", and my absolute frustration with it. If that is not what OP meant then my bad, but that post came off as also defending that, mainly thanks to the inclusion of the line (paraphrasing) "the author only has the obligation to add the trigger warnings the website they're posting to requires them to" which in cases for websites like Tumblr is none (or was none for a very, very long time (untagged graphic SA fics in the Moomins tags my beloathed)) and is generally a problem where websites don't really have filters like AO3. If it's only about AO3's option to not include warnings and an AO3 post that broke containment then I agree (and my bad also), because it's clear when there are triggering subjects and the author simply chose not to include them vs if there are no triggering subjects.

I still take issues with the wording even then though, though this feels like a nitpick and I generally don't like nitpicking people over wording they use. I'm just generally frustrated because it feels like the discussion of trigger warnings is about courtesy and comfort when treating it like it is is massively underselling it and feels like intentionally picking the words to trivialise the issue and making the people who need them out to be needy and nuisances. Trigger warnings are an accessibility feature, and I'm tired of people boiling it down to simply comfort of the reader, it feels like accessibility is always an afterthought and even a nuisance to some people to deal with. It's genuinely frustrating, and maybe my personal experiences affected my reading of that post.

Sorry if my post upset you also! I admit I was pretty frustrated when writing it so I wasn't the most polite. I totally agree with you here though.

#asks #thylacines can talk #ao3's filtering system is a genuienly good one imo. especially their distinction of no warnings apply vs author chose not to use warnings #i guess the nature of tumblr is posts sometimes escape containment and get misread by people who dont have the context

[justatalkingface]

I know this may be a bit of a hot take and you might disagree with me

... But I think the story would've been better if Izuku stayed quirkless.

If he did, the whole "anyone can be a hero" message wouldn't be as flat or limited. And his past wouldn't be ignored completely. Including actually seeing more of the world's flaws.

And the thing is I'm expecting him to be Batman or Ironman, I just wanna see him struggle to keep up with those with quirks and prove that those without quirks can be good heroes.

You don't need an op power or facing big bad villains to tell a good story. Sometimes internal or simple conficts like these can be enough.

Hmm... you know, you're not wrong. A lot of the problems I have (before Hori starting rushing to finish, anyways) have to do with the focus on power levels.

Granted, a lot of the plot would have to be vastly changed, AFO flat out removed, at least from the present (I don't care how crippled he is, him being trapped in a wheelchair wouldn't stop someone who has potentially all and any Quirks from being game breaking hax), and so on, but... it could definitely work; the shape of it is there.

The League, for example: early on especially, the focus on them seemed to be about their cause, about each of them had a problem with something that they wanted better. It was hard to take it seriously, though, when the only ones with any development were nuts, and those without it just didn't care to object to whatever murders they got into. Like, Dabi: in a horrifying way, he's the sane one out of the developed League members. He has a goal, he has steps to get there, there's at least a bare bones plan, and he's willing to put in the work and not blab about it to make it happen. This puts him head and shoulders above everyone else, whose planning seems to be, 'If we kill enough people everything will work out'.

Dabi is, I say this again, nuts. He's a suicidal sort-of-anarchist out to tear the present order just to watch it die and plans to murder his family, whose power set explicitly hurts him all the time. He's literally The Man Too Angry To Die; Dabi should be the crazy one of the team, not the sane one.

Meanwhile, Toga is a victim of societal and familial abuse. Toga wants to be accepted for who she is. She wants a family, love. It's just that, instead of talking about abnormal Quirks, or how society doesn't accept them, or how she wants to, like, drink a blood bag in public without issue and that's OK, her actual, genuine goal is A, to have the freedom to attack and kill anyone she finds 'cute', and B, to have a friend group that accepts that as valid.

Shove down everyone's crazy levels under the Dabi Benchmark of Sanity, take away AFO's direct influence, and suddenly the League is far more dealable for a Quirkless hero, but also has a mission statement that you can sympathize with.

Stain is, I've said, blatantly two dimensional, and tries to murder one of the most actively outgoing and helpful heroes we've seen in the series for being 'false'. Flesh him out, give him actual 'acceptable' targets, and that's a thing that could get a lot of play.

UA could still be the focus, but with less life risking bullshit, and more focus on Izuku proving himself and struggling at every step against the Quirkless prejudice that used to be a thing until Izuku stopped being Quirkless. Bakugou's assholishness, Aizawa's biases, the non-hero classes apparent jealousy of the hero course, the mediatization of heroics; all of these could easily drive the story for a long while.

Hell, All Might as the faded hero mentor could still be a thing; there's some good fanfic out there about him taking Izuku under his wing without passing on OFA. The dynamic was so wholesome while it was allowed to exist in canon that I'm a sucker for it, and it'd be great for him not to be shoved in a corner as an incompetent has-been, and instead continue to be an actual character who does things.

...Though there's a question of how much of the not Quirk powers would remain; it's clear that MHA bodies can, for no apparent reason, operate at levels far beyond human, even when it has nothing to do with anything. Endeavor gets smeared across several buildings by that High End and is still intact, Toga has not!teleportation and is a defacto super ninja for no apparent reason other than allowing her to fight toe to toe with people who can level buildings, Gran Torino gets stabbed through approximately all of his organ and lives... if you get rid of those, it'd cut down on how DRAMATIC a lot of the fight would be for sure (which is pretty much the point, just flashily smashing people into and through walls or buildings, or blowing them up, just to see it happen... also, it'd probably be good if Bakugou's building wrecking gauntlets weren't a thing), but it'd raise the stakes when someone getting punched through the stomach actually kills them, and force more time on thought out fights, and things that aren't fighting.

These, along with points I and others have raised before, could all be uses to make a tighter plot about society, about what it means to be a hero, not one guy who breaks the setting with his bullshit Quirk and his one perfect counter he accidently made then failed to stop, despite his overwhelming superiority in every possible way, for probably close to a century until it became too strong for him to beat.

Then we could go back to characters with characterization, an Izuku who we root for, a story with acknowledged trauma and biases, all the things MHA still tries to pretend to be about, even though it's clear at this point it's just about how launch the strongest blow.

In other words, restrict the scale of it to concentrate on a better story, not better powers.

#ask #mha critical #bnha critical #Plot not powerlevels #The Dabi Benchmark of Sanity #quirkless midoriya izuku #comic book 'peak' human