#if i have another case of ''shitpost art gets more notes than art i put a lot of effort into'' i will. not explode actually it's funny

[fudgecake-charlie]

beloved friend sent me one of scar's newer tweets and i HAD to draw it

#hermitcraft #desert duo #this is so rushed and inconsistent but like WHATEVER i had fun!!!! i Needed to do something fun today #didn't they have a moment like this in last life w skizz or something?? #grian #goodtimeswithscar #art out the oven #if i have another case of ''shitpost art gets more notes than art i put a lot of effort into'' i will. not explode actually it's funny #sorry about scar's wheelchair i am not referencing anything! #this is from my vague memory of the wheelchair i had to play basketball #edit: also hi gemmy im sorry youve ended up the mcyter punching bag /j this comic is gemmy erasure

[beevean]

SEGA and the eternal issue of “Sonic’s girlfriend”

[Translator’s note: here is the original article written by @latin-dr-robotnik​​, originally written on the 18th of May 2020]

Today we’re going to talk about one of the aspects SEGA is more secretive about: Sonic’s relationships.

[Translator’s note: this article was written to celebrate Seaside Hill Paradise’s 200th entry. If you’re fluent in Spanish, I highly recommend you to check it out! And if you aren’t, go follow Latin’s Tumblr blog if you haven’t already and you’re into Sonamy, analyses, gushing about music and shitposts.]

This article concludes my Sonamy trilogy, and I recommend you to read the previous two articles: “SEGA and the eternal issue of the Sonamy dynamic” and “’I love you’ – forbidden words in Sonic”. This means this is a shipping article – if you’re not interested into another essay about the love life of a blue hedgehog, I can redirect you to other articles such as “Sonic and speed: are we misunderstanding them?” and “What went wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces?”.

Everybody else, welcome to today’s article!

It should be noted that this article focuses more on the semi-official and strictly official aspects, since there is really not much to say about the fandom. Nowadays the fandom has a relatively peaceful coexistence, creating art, fanfics and more, for all kind of ships; sometimes there’s an occasional fight between ships or a ship that clearly is not appropriate… but besides that, everything seems relatively calm, at least in my experience and compared to other fandoms.

Too cool for relationships...

Few things are as mentioned and yet silenced by the official SEGA media as the fateful words “girlfriend” and “Sonic” put together. In official terms, Sonic has always been this young, cool hedgehog, with a pure love for nature and never too worried about life, but with a moral code that makes him fight against injustices. During his first years, Sonic was almost impatient and a little emotionally distant, although as it was the ‘90s and things were not so clear for the young SEGA star, different interpretations would take the character through different paths - some more radical than others. As the years went by, and going through many redesigns, certain aspects of his personality would be perfected, exaggerated, or even flanderized. His position on relationships, on the other hand, would remain relatively constant over the decades, with a few particular exceptions.

The this is that Sonic, in the words of his own creator Naoto Ohshima, has always been considered “a young man with a child's heart”, which has helped to substantiate and understand why the character would remain relatively distant from his feelings, and much closer to his own interests associated with the life of adventure.

... or is he?

Despite everything I just said, they tried in many occasions, if not succeeded, to give Sonic a girlfriend, with various results.

As carefree as Sonic is, and as much as SEGA tried to clarify this point over and over again, the people behind his character have always tried to introduce one or more relationships into his life. Even Naoto Ohshima himself has made his own suggestion as to who might be a hypothetical partner for his character. The different interpretations I’ve mentioned have tweaked Sonic’s character to make it more apt to certain types of dynamics, and the cultural gap between the East and the West (which I analyzed a few years ago with the first article of this “trilogy”) also has a considerable impact on the type of relationships that would be established for Sonic from very early in his history until today.

Author’s note: the concept of “Sonic + human woman” of 1990 wasn’t completely forgotten, no no, it was brought back 16 years later, in… well… the worst way possible.

Let’s see an example. Going back to his very origins, in his pre-Sonic 1 sketches Sonic was often depicted with a stereotypical damsel in distress, Madonna, his own “Princess Peach” that ended up being scrapped for many reasons, including the similarities with Super Mario. As the years have gone by, this concept has not disappeared, but rather the writers and directors of the series have taken it down different paths over time. While Madonna was too cliché, other candidates for the role of “Sonic’s girlfriend” would quickly appear to try different dynamics, directly or indirectly endorsed by SEGA.

Sally Acorn

For many years, Princess Sally was for Western fans the first person who came to mind when they thought of “Sonic’s girlfriend”. Since 1993, and for 2 more decades, her relationship with Sonic has gone in many directions, but fundamentally the most amazing thing about this whole situation was that she was Sonic’s official girlfriend (at least in the Archie Comics canon). It was also one of the many headaches for SEGA in the last decade.

Originally a fellow fighter against the macabre Robotnik from the 1993 animated series Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic and Sally’s relationship was always marked by their opposite personalities; while Sally tends to plan ahead and is much more focused on the seriousness of the task, Sonic was the type to destroy robots first and think later. “Opposites attract,” they say, and by the (premature, I might add) end of that series both were already more than friends. They had already kissed a couple of times.

At the most critical moment in their relationship, Sonic, after a year of being missing in space and presumed dead by everyone, returns to Mobius only to end up back in potential danger, decides to ignore the wishes and warnings of Sally, who’s clearly emotionally traumatized and stressed by both the general situation and the responsibilities she had to carry out for her kingdom in the absence of her parents. The result of this explosive cocktail was one of the most infamous scenes in all of Archie Sonic, "the Slap", where Sally finally reacts violently to Sonic's selfish statements. The hedgehog's response? Well, a long exposure to the screams about her experience - also traumatic - up to that point. In the end, both end up screaming and crying in front of virtually everyone.

What followed in the next decades was an expansion of that original SatAM canon in the Archie Comics, in which its various writers introduced varying degrees of drama and increasing conflict to demonstrate the strong bond between them, destabilizing or even stabilizing it again, multiple times. They would be together for some time, then they would be apart, eventually rekindling the flame of love passionately, until a final sacrifice on their part and the eventual resetting of the entire Archie Sonic canon.

In their last years, after the Super Genesis Wave, Sonic and Sally’s relationship went back to being platonic. a good friendship with the advantages and disadvantages of their personalities - Sally’s leadership and Sonic’s extreme confidence - while the focus was put on the flourishing relationship between Sally and her best friend (and old computer!) Nicole.

Regardless of the way their relationship ended, it's undeniable that Sally has left a huge mark. Being a product of the West, her existence was never really accepted by the Sonic’s Japanese creators, but because the bulk of the fandom is here in the West, Sally's presence has been strongly associated with Sonic, the Freedom Fighters, the comics... and also the ship wars between her and the character we’re going to talk about next. Her very existence was a living contradiction to the Japanese central canon, an official girlfriend who broke all the ideas that existed for Sonic in terms of his conception of relationships and lead him through unique paths. Whether for better or worse, Sally broke the mold.

Eimi. Rosy. Amy Rose.

On the opposite side of the spectrum there’s Amy, a character that was originally conceived as the Minnie to Sonic’s Mickey, but with her own dynamic.

Despite Amy’s existence being strongly tied to Sonic’s, once again Sonic Team tried to avoid the classic cliché (in this case to copy Mickey and Minnie), opting then to establish Amy as the one interested in a relationship, while Sonic runs away from this idea. For this dynamic to keep working, Sonic’s feelings have to be kept hidden, with excuses like his “shyness”, which leads to ambiguity, or because, as said before, of his “child’s heart”.

The most interesting thing is that Amy kept her canonical status of “self-proclaimed girlfriend” since 1993, which makes her “official” and “not official” at the same time, but there are some traces left from the Sonic manga of 1992 (which in turn influenced Amy’s original design), where a prototype version of Amy (or, as it was spelled there, Emi/Eimi) played the role of Sonic’s girlfriend (or Nicki’s, to be more precise). With this detail in mind, Amy can be considered, at least in the East, the very first “Sonic’s girlfriend”, even before Sally – but her situation is much more complex.

Sonic Mega Drive (top) and Sonic Boom (bottom), representing some differences in different Sonic continuities.

In any case, the manga would be the first and only time Amy was officially considered “Sonic’s girlfriend”, because in the following decades and in several continuities the core of their dynamic shifted to Amy chasing Sonic. Both would get closer or further away depending on each case (in Fleetway, for example, Amy ends up marrying another character, while in Archie Sonic there would be only a few instances of potential interest, quickly overshadowed by convenience or other things directly or indirectly related to Sally), but generally no continuity would establish an official relationship. In some cases, such as Japan, it wouldn’t even be necessary to clarify the state of the relationship, since their cultures accept more easily the dynamic that Sonic Team proposed as an “official relationship”. Just looking at the artwork highlighted on Sonic Channel (run by SEGA of Japan) shows how much more accepted the relationship is, even though Sonic Team’s official artwork still avoids any kind of public confirmation. (Author’s note: I’ve written more about Amy according to the East and the West in the first article of this trilogy)

Unlike Sally, there is no “opposites attract” situation between Amy and Sonic, and, at first, there is no prior friendship from which a potential relationship could flourish. We witnessed their dynamics from the first moment they met, and it would not be until years later that there would be a minimal basis for interaction from which various official continuities would bring both characters closer together.

Technically Amy already knew that her destiny was tied to Sonic and the events of Sonic CD on Little Planet, thanks to her tarot cards (an element that has disappeared since then), but for Sonic it was just another day of adventure, and although we’ve seen how Amy's feelings have progressed, mostly in Adventure 1 and 2, Sonic has never reflected on his personal feelings; it’s an aspect of the hedgehog that to this day remains a mystery to the audiences.

Also unlike Sally, Amy has appeared in multiple continuities of all kinds and because of that her relationship with Sonic has been affected in various ways. The main videogames canon has remained ambiguous and unchanged for 25 years: Amy would stay close to Sonic and offer some good moments to reflect on her feelings about him (some of which I mentioned in my post about Sonic Unleashed and Amy’s emotional support), while Sonic would remain distant, uncomfortable, shy, and, more recently, potentially affected by her apparent loss.

Sonic X is the first official attempt (by Sonic Team no less) to offer an expanded view of our characters. There’s a lot of discussion about how Sonic is slowly opening up to Amy’s advances, and these developments follow a line that we discussed in previous articles of this trilogy, and how, during the 2000s, the Japanese writers of the series kept slowly deepening the interactions between the two, reaching very important symbolic moments like Sonic X Ep. 9, 52 and 76, among several others. I am purposely leaving out specific details to direct your attention to this fantastic thread by Yvanix Rose that highlights some key details about how this continuity worked the Sonic-Amy dynamic. [Translator’s note: the thread is in Spanish]

Sonic X, episode 76.

Another essential continuity for the development of this dynamic was Sonic Boom, since, despite having been a separate continuity with its own interpretation of the characters, its existence managed to influence the main canon in some way in the years that followed its original release in 2014.

Sonic Boom made two important changes in the dynamic: Amy did no longer externalize her feelings with the same frequency or intensity (speeding up a process that already started in the main canon in 2008), and Sonic was noticeably more nervous and insecure of his feelings for her, even being jealous in several occasions. These changes got the dynamic closer to the “friends who have secret feelings to each other but they’re too shy to admit it” trope, and in the second season it could even be said that there are signals of the “secretly dating” trope. Nothing was officially confirmed yet, but the changes to the dynamic offered a fresh perspective to work from: winks and inferences about a relationship that was not talked about but seemed to happen behind the scenes.

Sonic Boom S1E16.

Sonic Boom’s approach also opened the door to working a little more on the characters’ new personalities. Taking a little inspiration from the original foundations of Sally and Sonic’s relationship, Boom now presented situations where Sonic and Amy’s perspectives actively clashed with each other, leading to discussions and moments that showed a little more of the mundane details of the friendship they had, rather than appealing to more classic behaviors of the main canon, like Sonic leaving the scene in a hurry. Considering the way things turned out the last time we saw this kind of dynamic on screen, it was pretty safe to assume that their new opposites were now attracted; the implied secret dating and so on only helped to give it more sustenance - which the fandom would eventually take to the extreme.

And lastly there’s IDW Sonic, the comic series that replaced Archie Sonic after its cancellation in 2017, and the most recent arc that offers an interesting perspective. Starting its continuity from the end of the events of Sonic Forces (which at the same time took on certain characteristics from the post-Boom era, particularly as far as Amy is concerned), IDW Sonic didn’t waste any time in presenting the way in which it would carry out its dynamic between Sonic and Amy.

Amy makes her feelings for Sonic very clear, and he is surprised but unable to match them. However, Sonic doesn’t want to outright reject her, and suggests that she come with him; she refuses, claiming that she has duties to the Resistance, setting the tone for the rest of the series. (IDW Sonic #2)

“Sonic’s girlfriend” today

As I mentioned earlier, after the reboot Sally was no longer considered Sonic’s girlfriend, and her disappearance after the cancellation of Archie Sonic in general is a sign that we may not see her ever again, even as a friend. As of today, in 2020, only Amy has been left in her “unofficial, but…” state, with various minor events taking place both in the main canon and in IDW Sonic:

In 2018 the official SEGA shop wrote a description for a piece of Amy Rose merchandise that said “celebrate 25 years of Sonic’s girlfriend”; the mistake wasn’t immediately corrected, despite the fandom pointing it out immediately.

The video game canon has remained dormant, with Team Sonic Racing in 2019 featuring more of a regular friendship between Sonic and Amy, sharing rivalries and quiet moments alike.

On the other hand, since IDW Sonic and Sonic Boom laid their foundations, we've begun to see a certain shift in the way the two characters are presented. While we’ve talked about IDW Sonic already, Sonic’s social medias have done multiple “Twitter Takeovers” where Sonic characters answer questions from fans, and Sonic has always answered more like his version of Boom to the inevitable question about Amy and his “feelings”.

Recent official animations like Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing Overdrive have shown Amy flirting with Sonic in a more casual way.

The current dynamic seems to be pointing towards “Sonic’s hidden feelings”, and I think we are at a perfect point to change the approach. SEGA in general seems more open to the idea of bringing these characters closer, probably as a marketing strategy, but without yet separating themselves from the central ideas that defined the dynamic for the last two and a half decades.

Conclusion

The idea of “Sonic’s girlfriend” has been one of the most experimental and controversial in the almost three decades that this series has been around for. SEGA has opened the door to all kinds of ambiguities, developments and interpretations, all with their pros and cons, instead of settling on a definitive position. As iconic as these characters, conceived as Sonic’s “romantic interests”, have become, they have also had their share of criticism and controversy, especially in the fandom.

The presence of Amy as the only “official but self-proclaimed girlfriend” today says a lot about the control SEGA (specifically SEGA of Japan) regained over the characters, after decades of interpretations that offered different alternatives with various degrees of success. At her best, Sally represented an ideal relationship with Sonic, much more complete and profound than the back-and-forth game between Amy and Sonic. But at her worst, this same relationship represented everything wrong that could happen by associating Sonic with the emotional spiderweb of a romantic relationship. SEGA hardening its control over the characters seems to have put an end of this type of situation where Sonic ends up being involved in a romantic telenovela, but at the same time it has revitalized the flirting game and the implicit associations that give fuel to the fandom fire.

From my humble interpretation, I think we’ve reached a point where Sonic and Amy have shared enough stories and moments to solidify the core aspects of their personalities and their friendship, allowing them to take the next step, which is to play around with the idea of “something else”. 25 years ago it was hard to see how these two characters could work together beyond “it’s SEGA’s word”; today there’s enough of a story to find a rhythm and chemistry for them, and the series of situations they've put themselves in (e.g. IDW Sonic’s plot arcs) are increasingly helping this case. The topic of “Sonic's girlfriend” may be a controversial one for SEGA and the fandom in general, but the doors have slowly been opened for this debate to develop and be investigated with interesting results, and I think that, in this new decade of 2020, there’s a unique potential to explore this kind of discussion, without sacrificing in any way the central principles of Sonic as a character. Thank you for joining me in these 200 entries, and hopefully we’ll see each other for many more.

#sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonamy #translation #analysis #long post #happy birthday latin! #this one was so hard #i had to cut a lot of shp-related parts sadly #but this whole project was very fun and enlightening

[zosonils]

A, E, F, I, K, N, P, T, X, and Z for the fandom prompts? Sorry if it’s too many

a - ships that you currently like a lot - every day my brain is filled with queerplatonic phinabella and bu[ferb]jeet, and i’ve also been thinking about canderemy quite a bit lately because it’s genuinely really sweet?? like They Care Each Other and it’s nice to have a canonically established pairing that’s really healthy and supportive and if nobody else is going to think about jeremy i will fucking do it all myself

e - have you added anything hilarious to your fandom? - i’ve definitely contributed my fair share of shitposts but i don’t think i’ve made any significant widespread impact yet lmao. maybe there’s another timeline out there where catu sparked a phineas and ferb fandom renaissance and my post about ferb and buford texting british recipes to each other has 47,000 notes [1200 of which are a violent in-character debate between two sans roleplay blogs] and haunts me every day and night

f - what’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? - i’ve been into sonic since i was 7 and i’m nearly an adult now and it terrifies me

i - has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms? - answered here

k - what character has your favourite development arc? - to be honest basically every character development arc i like is one that i made up myself in my many extensive fuck canon timelines, but i really love how whisper’s been developing in idw sonic so far :) it’s really really good to see her making friends and coming out of her shell in contrast to her first appearances while still having extremely clear boundaries, and as more of her previous trauma is revealed it’s really interesting to see how that recontextualises her actions - she’s such an amazingly written character and i love how respectfully she’s handled without the writing around her ever getting more serious than anything else in idw sonic [which is on the grim side for sonic media, literally the third arc was a zombie apocalypse and it lasted like 2 years, but it’s still pretty full of ye olde goofy sonic the heck hijinks and handles all but the darkest of moments pretty lightheartedly]

n - name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom - i already answered this one but i’m doin it again! i’m cheating and naming six babey! god may judge me but his sins outnumber my own, as they say

aro phineas [with queerplatonic phinabella optional but recommended] please please please please please please please plea

i want early flynn-fletcher family shenanigans!! ferb meeting his new siblings, the kids all getting used to having two parents, baby perry?? has anyone written this? i’ll write it damn it! i might not because writing is hard but also if nobody else is gonna do it then i will!!!!! give me shape babies god fucking damn it!

i wish more people acknowledged the fact that doof is canonically a double amputee like. i know it only comes up in one episode and is never mentioned again and was probably intended as a bit of dark-ish comedy but it’s a really cool fact about him that’s got so much potential for art and fics alike [and even if it didn’t, acknowledging canonically disabled characters even if it’s only canon on a technicality and as a probable joke is still always important!]

p - invent a random au for any fandom - i think i made exactly one post about this and then forgot about it but fuck it phineas and ferb sonic adventure 2 au. phineas goes fast. perry is a chao and he does something really cool, probably. vanessa is contractually obligated to die unfortunately because she’s the best stand-in for maria. ferb might also die but also i could decide he doesn’t if i want to because i sure as hell did that with shadow [i know he comes back but it’s bad so i’m re-killing him and re-reviving him and making an alternate timeline fuck you sega shadow wouldn’t be a cop]. baljeet causes immeasurable damage to government property while upbeat synth music plays

t - any hard and fast headcanons you’ll die defending - [SLAMS BINDER THE SIZE OF A SMALL TO MEDIUM COUNTRY ON TABLE] i literally could not name all of them if i TRIED. i have so many it’s genuinely hard just to pick a handful to showcase as example. in most cases i’m genuinely fine with other interpretations even though i like mine better but there are a select few that i refuse to budge a goddamn planck length on and that automatically make me kinda suspicious of anyone who adamantly disagrees; mostly these are autistic headcanons because what kind of a MANIAC thinks ferb ‘nonverbal no eye contact hyperfocusing king’ fletcher is neurotypical

x - a trope which you’re almost certain to love in any fandom - FOUND FUCKING FAMILY BABEY!!!!! it’s so fucking good even when some or all of the characters already have pretty good relationships with their biological/legal family, there’s a flavour of it to suit basically any group of characters and it makes my heart go bkngjbn hsbvhfnvhjf hsnvjwnvjkfn hjfvnksjvnf hfnvfjk every time :’)

z - ramble about anything fan related - i can’t fuckin do this without a prompt because my brain turns into soup when i’m put on the spot hfnvkfgnj sorry but uhhhhh autistic ferb good and i’m genuinely so so so so glad that it’s received some level of acknowledgement/approval from dan. honestly if you want an answer for this question just scroll through my blog for any length of time hjndfvkfnkbn

#i love rambling and infodumping and what have you but i'm so bad at pulling something out without a prompt to go off hjdfnkgj #this was a lot [which is why i waited a bit to answer and cleared out a prompt in another ask] but it was fun! #i sure ended up talking about sonic a lot tonight huh #maybe a returning hyperfixation is on its way. guess i'll think about my fuck canon timeline for that too #i really should write baby flynn-fletcher family meta sometime. like if nobody else is gonna do it i'll step up once more #i haven't written anything since actually i because i'm worried that was a fluke and i'm still shit at writing hjfnkbhj #i'm turning into mush i think. i've been typing at this ask for like an hour because i can't fucking be concise ever in my life whoops #sonic forces me to answer questions #ask game #theabsolutebuffoon

[citrineghost]

A Letter to WordPress

Dear WordPress,

Tumblr has been around for a good while now and many of us have been here since the beginning (or close to it). It’s become something of a comfort and a home base for many. You can understand then why it’s so terrifying and tension-setting when a new owner comes around.

This website has been through a lot of changes, very few of them good in recent years. I want to open up a dialogue from the user base about our feelings and desires surrounding this site, because to so many of us, not only its design and function, but its success and future are a big deal.

Obviously not all of the things I list below will be universal opinions, but I’ll try to outline some of the things I’ve seen the majority of users want. I’ll also throw in some things that are more personal, because I can’t claim to know everything the rest of the users want, but I can tell you where I see obvious problems.

First and foremost, here’s an obvious one. You can’t really go anywhere on Tumblr without knowing: we want the bots and the nazis gone. We need some kind of captcha system for every time someone wants to include a hyperlink in a post or response. Until the staff count gets higher, I would honestly suggest closing down the report system for everything but bots, nazis, and death threats/suicide bait.

Make NSFW content welcome again. Outside of porn bots, the pervasiveness of NSFW content is slim to none. As long as minors and those with ‘NSFW’ blacklisted aren’t seeing the NSFW content, there’s nothing wrong with it being here. A large number of the people posting NSFW content on here are artists who use this content to make a living on commissions. The ban has done nothing but make valuable members of the Tumblr community leave and take their art elsewhere. The focus should be cracking down on anyone who isn’t properly tagging NSFW content with ‘NSFW’. If the focus is put on that, the problem with NSFW content will be null.

Please keep Tumblr unintegrated with other social media. Most users will agree, the anonymity is such a huge part of what draws us to Tumblr. Other people only know what we tell them and it’s very appealing for our real life accounts (e.g. Google, Facebook, etc.) to be completely separate. When users want to share links to other accounts, they can do so easily with links on their blogs.

Replace ads with either, better, more sensible ads or members content. A large part of the ads on Tumblr make absolutely zero sense just by looking at them. Not to mention, they’re all completely unfit for the user base. I’ve seen weight-loss ads (harmful to the many people on the site recovering from eating disorders) and ads for products most people wouldn’t need or want until their forties. Most of the user base is 13-35, if I had to guess. I can tell you right now, you would make more money and the user base would be much happier if ads were removed in favor of members content. Adding a paid membership that allows users to gain access to new features (rather than restricting what’s already here) would be a huge boost in morale and company income. Use that income to improve the site. Don’t get comfortable making more than the bare minimum in profit until the website is functioning reasonably well. Hint: it’s not right now.

Keep the base functions of Tumblr. Don’t try and get radical, hoping big changes will excite the community. They won’t. We’re creatures of habit and we just want memes, fandom, and relatable nonsense. Keep reblogging, replies, customizable blogs, tags, and likes functionally the same.

Be receptive to bug reports and post change logs so that the community knows that they’re being addressed and fixed.

These are the obvious pleas of the community. Please keep in mind that the heart of Tumblr is in its users and if you ostracize us, there will be nothing left. We love this website and we want to see it thrive as much as anyone. We just don’t want to sacrifice the spirit of the community in the process.

Read more under the cut if you want to see some more of my own personal suggestions. I’d love for other users to sound off in the replies with whether they agree with any of the pleas or suggestions and also give their own!

Okay, so, here are some personal opinions that are by no means the voice of the community. I think they’re pretty sensible, but what do I know?

Change back the color. I hate this saturated navy color and I’m pretty sure a lot of others do too. I’m part of the disabled community and I know and have seen people saying that these extremely contrasted colors that were added are making their Tumblr experience worse. It gives people headaches due to light sensitivity and, frankly, it’s ugly. If you’d like to cater to those who are visually impaired/colorblind, that’s fantastic! Do so with an account setting that turns on higher contrast mode or adds patterns to things to make them distinguishable.

Add an option to blog suggestions and posts that have shown up on your dash from followed tags that says “Stop Suggesting This.” I’ve been suggested a number of blogs that I’m not interested in following. I don’t want to block the user, but I do want some different suggestions and for those blogs to stop showing up in suggestions. I’m also tired of seeing the same post twenty times from a tag I follow. There is currently an option that says “This particular posts sucks.” While I think that was a great attempt at catering to the community, I don’t want to use it because my intuition says that there’s a negative connotation. Does me saying the post sucks make it show up less for other people? Does it lose popularity? I can’t tell. The only thing I know is that I don’t want to say that a good post sucks just to make it quit showing up on my dash.

Implement some of the features that XKit uses. I would bet at least a quarter, if not more, of Tumblr users use XKit to make using Tumblr less painful. That shouldn’t be the case. Tumblr should have these functionality options available in dashboard settings.

A very hot take here that many might disagree with: Make notes viewable more like mobile has them. As it is, it’s hard to tell which ones I’ve seen on desktop. It can be tricky on mobile too, honestly, but it’s easier than on desktop. I would also heavily suggest making the unseen notifications darker so that they stand out and making a button to indicate that you’ve seen them.

Keep the dash, messages, notes, and profile as separate processes similar to how mobile has it. The trek all the way down the damn dashboard is a long one. I want to be able to see notes and messages in full size without losing my dash progress. When I switch back I want to be right where I was. I understand if this one isn’t possible or practical. It was just something I like about mobile over desktop but I’m aware that they’re two different beasts with different capabilities.

As far as the aforementioned members features, I do have some ideas, but I can’t guarantee they’re the best the user base has to offer. I’m sure others could think of better. Anyway, some things I’ve thought of are groups/clubs, digital currency, and separate dashboards. So, as it stands, You can have multiple blogs on one account. People can follow them separately. That’s fantastic. What would also be nice though, is being allowed to make separate dashboards. This would probably take up another chunk of server space, so I understand if it isn’t feasible right now, but I would jot it down. The ability to separate shitposts, aesthetic imagery, fandom content, and NSFW would be amazing. If you follow a huge number of blogs, like me, you could even make a friends dash so that you don’t miss your friends’ posts. It would just be a matter of allowing people to add and name their new dashboards. Then, when they go to follow people, it prompts them to choose what dash their content goes to. You could even simplify it by making the follow button default to the main dash, but adding a little dropdown arrow beside it. You could then choose which dash to add them to from a list. Below are some bad paint-drawn concept drawings.

Anyway, I hope this has all been helpful in some way. I’m fairly certain that WordPress will never actually read this, but it was cathartic to write and I hope it will be cathartic for someone else to read.

Sincerely, birb-ghost

#wordpress #tumblr #news #update #updates #verizon #yahoo #design #web design #developers #development #concept #concept art #art #drawings #good omens #bug #bugs #ghostpost #letter #letters

[my-miraculous-headcanons]

The Chat Drawings

I have some hcs revolving around a one-shot I’m considering on writing to start off my writing in the ML fandom (before I move on to my huge amount of multi-chapter fic ideas.) In any case, this isn’t really how I assume the fans of Paris are like, but it’s an interesting idea to me.

Marinette doesn’t like how most fan art of Chat Noir is either just plain silly or literally making him out to look like some handsome, mysterious god of the night. There’s either shit comics featuring badly drawn pictures of him or detailed portraits of him looking all suave, no in-between.

It starts to really bother her the more she thinks about it, so she decides to contribute a different sort of illustration. She makes a sweet drawing of him just smiling really widely, wearing a flower crown and bathed in sunlight. He’s a dorky, lovable goof, and she feels like he should be portrayed as such. (AKA he’s not a flirt master nor is he just a meme.)

Obviously, Alya finds out, gushes about how great it looks, and begs to post it on the Ladyblog. Marinette reluctantly agrees, after hours of trying (and failing) to convince Alya that her work isn’t good enough.

Of course, Adrien, the boy who stalks that blog like a hawk, sees it immediately and he’s positively glowing in happiness. Then he sees the name of the artist, and he’s practically bouncing off the walls.

Most of the time, people who make detailed drawings of him either make everyday action scenes as seen from civilian eyes or draw him as this mysterious hero under the moonlight. He doesn’t know why— maybe it’s the black suit? The cat eyes? 

Who knows, but what he does know is that Marinette has a totally different view of him. Instead of cold white lighting, he’s in warm orange sunlight. Instead of smirking, he’s full-blown grinning. She even drew the setting sun behind his head, a little to the side, almost like a halo. It’s strangely personal, but very warming and flattering.

He’s a little surprised that she noticed that only one of his cheeks has a dimple, and he’s very surprised by the incredibly accurate depiction of his suit, honeycomb patterns and all.

Wait does Marinette maybe have a crush on Chat Noir?

(No, Adrien, you dumbass.)

(Okay maybe she does a little.)

Adrien confronts Marinette at school the next day and compliments her work, and asks her if she’s a fan of Chat Noir. Her answer is very honest, surprisingly, and she doesn’t even stutter this time. She’s more lost in thought.

“I think people don’t really wanna see how Chat really is, and it’s a little upsetting. I mean, I’ve only met him a handful of times, but he’s this goofy, dramatic, nice guy, and it’s a shame that everyone keeps trying to cover it up by either viewing him as this walking, talking shitpost or as some smooth Casanova, you know? So I’ve been... drawing some of my own interpretations. I, uh, I guess you could say I’m a fan. But I’m not a fan of how most people in his fanbase views him.”

Probably one of the first thoughts that comes to Adrien’s mind after hearing that is “I would die for Marinette, holy shit.”

The next thought is “wait did she just admit to having drawn more than just that one drawing?”

Adrien asks if he can see more and Alya being the best wingwoman in the world immediately takes over by yelling “LOOK AT THIS SHIT, CAN YOU BELIEVE SHE DOESN’T THINK IT’S GOOD ENOUGH TO BE POSTED ONLINE?!” The moment Adrien sees it he’s also yelling “HOLY CRAP MARINETTE THIS IS AMAZING?!”

One of the pictures is of Chat Noir sitting down at a cafe table in broad daylight chatting with a group of three little old women over cups of tea. 

Another picture is of Chat Noir sitting at a public bench, a denim jacket over his suit, sunglasses over his mask, slid down the bridge of his nose so he’s looking over the lenses, puckered lips smiling around the straw of his red and black smoothie. 

Another picture, and this one’s his favourite, is Chat Noir dressed as the Dread Pirate Roberts, wielding a saber, battling a made-up akuma that looks an awful lot like Inigo Montoya. There’s speech bubbles, “Who are you?” “No one of consequence.” “I must know!” “Get used to disappointment.” It’s clever, definitely something he would say.

Now Adrien, Nino, and Alya combined are trying to convince Marinette that she needs to put her work online. Alya even mentions that since she’s posted the first one, Marinette got several thousand notes and comments on it. 

Marinette wants to fight it, but now that she has three determined heathens on her back, she really can’t do anything. Alya sets up an account for her and posts more of her work, and she very quickly gains a fanbase. In fact, her follower count explodes the moment the art is posted, and keeps climbing overnight. 

She’s now known as the Chat Noir illustrator. It’s strange, she knows that her work isn’t overly amazing or anything, but it’s ridiculously popular, moreso than most Chat Noir artists. She supposes it’s because of her unique take on him. Everyone seems to adore it, and it’s like she somehow started a movement or something.

She’s not really surprised when Chat Noir decides to make a little visit. She is surprised when he visited her in her school library during her studying time, but the actual act of him visiting isn’t too surprising. That doesn’t stop her from telling him to get lost, because they’re in public.

He doesn’t get lost, if you couldn’t tell. Instead he takes a selfie with her, posts it on his social media, and has a 3 hour long conversation with her about everything and nothing. She gets no studying done. By the end, he concludes that either Marinette has absolutely no interest in him at all or she’s just really good at handling a crush, which is more than he can say for himself.

(Yeah, he had the ulterior motive to see if she had a crush on him. So what? He’s a little shit, and if that grin is anything to go by, he knows it.)

Six new drawings are posted that night, and he comes to realise that Visiting Marinette = Art Inspiration. 

Marinette is deeply regretting the hole she dug herself into. Deeply, deeply regretting it. 

Chat starts bugging her about recreating those drawing she made in real life and quite frankly she’d rather die, but saying that isn’t going to stop him. So he buys a denim jacket, a huge pair of shades, and a dark red raspberry smoothie filled with boba. Marinette didn’t expect to be ridiculously pleased with the image. It suits him.

Now not only has she become the Chat Noir Illustrator, but she’s become the Chat Noir Photographer, the two of them going out and recreating all of her drawings. She regrets this idea a little less, she thinks, after she takes a picture of him having tea with a group of little old ladies.

She’s finally on board with everything when they convince the fencing instructor to dress up as Inigo Montoya. It was the best photo they had taken. She been sucked in, it’s too late for her, she’s emotionally invested in this now.

Adrien, Nino, and Alya don’t help they’re encouraging it. Adrien especially, weirdly enough, he seems particularly enthused. None of them attempt to talk her out of all this and she’s not sure whether to be happy or disappointed.

Shit hits the fan when everyone starts assuming that Marinette’s now Chat’s Best Friend. She may have gone too far, she thinks, dangling in the grip of an akuma, formed to look like an oversized lemur. Maybe she should... not do this anymore.

I got a little tired with this but I still love it, so I’m just gonna post it. Tell me your own HCs, additions, thoughts, etc! 

#Adrinette #Adrienette #Marichat #ML #Miraculous Ladybug #Marinette Cheng #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Adrien Agreste #Alya Cesaire #Nino Lahiffe #Chat Noir #Ladybug #Maximilian Speaks

[incorrectcadenzaquotes]

WELCOME ABOARD CADENZA

intro: yo my name’s trace andddd i’m a casual writer who spends more time in a self fulfilling prophecy loop about writer’s block than actually writing but i believe that can change with this project.

BASICALLY .. this is a piece of (idw) transformers fanfiction that will be based off of mtmte/LL in that the story revolves around a crew aboard a ship (cadenza!). the twist is that these are all OCs based off of friends of mine on a discord server. 

now, this idea originated earlier on this year (2019) anddd last time i worked on it was may and it is currently late december lmao . SO this sideblog is to make memes and shitposts from the cast so that i can both keep up my inspiration and also understand the characters better! (a starting cast of 11 and total of 19 , jesus fuck..)

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO here’s the guide to the cadenizens - our cast aboard the cadenza :D

these are all the notes i have currently - some characters are more fleshed out than others! but just an intro

CAPTAINS

pursuit - this one’s me!

psych consultant / jr tactician, autobot

speedster, black-red-gold, changes detailing a lot

prideful, relatively young, can be pretty darn bold/brash

mostly in charge of paperwork/technical stuff, public speaking

very few can get away with calling him “junior”

prowl fanboy, before cadenza was roommates with circlet and pandora

gives nicknames to everyone, this is law aboard cadenza

assigned mission by prowl to find stragglers/NAILs wherever in space (near the end of the war and prowl foresees the autobots winning soon, so it’s a last recruitment in case anyone wants to speed along the resolution)

pandora

product/weapon designer, autobot

spaceship-like alt mode, pink-purple-blue, outlier ability “pandora’s box” (details tbd)

hesitant but very positive and lighthearted, altruistic

in charge of coordinating people and asking favors/assigning jobs/communications - the more socially demanding interactions

loves to make teasing jokes about people, everyone knows she’s nice anyway so can’t really take it too seriously

circlet

artist, autobot

helicopter, lavender, rounder more streamlined appearance rather than sharp edges

neurotic, clumsy, cute until very angry

excels at graphs, organization, planning (often works with datum on this stuff)

known pursuit for basically their whole lives, practically brother and sister

THE CADENIZENS

deckout

frame designer, autobot

level headed, talks things through

he has spent far too much time with pursuit, putting up with his constant detailing and general bullshit

arc

welder/repairbot, autobot

likes order, rules, slow and steady wins the race!

mechanics = art

datum

analyst/engineer, ex-con, autobot

does his best to contribute, very organized, mindful of his past

works with circ on organizing and plans

like. truly, notoriously organized. how does he do it

armordive

revolutionary journalist, autobot turned NAIL

flying ship alt mode (likely will post separately)

loves random controversial facts that are really obscure

here to write about the crew

he’ll be picked up along the way, not part of the starting cast

roadagain

organics expert, humanitarian, secretly a rogue con, “NAIL”

softback jeep, orange-black-dark gray, camera/tripod attachments

speaks highly of original decepticon cause, bubbly, charismatic, he’s such a nerd

filming his own nature documentary

he’ll be joining the cadenizens when the crew get to earth, he’s with a group there along with stevotron, trip, and shamble

envoy

mediator/diplomat, autobot

space suv, black-red-light gray, weapons loaded into chassis but can’t use them all at once or it’ll drain her spark

easy to talk to, good listener, she has a.. mild obsession with money

was assigned to this mission by prowl 

trip

recently constructed in the war, unknown function, autobot turned NAIL

loves jokes/pranks (esp with stevotron), surprisingly intuitive at times

trainee, dabbles in everything aboard cadenza, he pretty much just helps out all around

among the group on earth

letariat

supply manager/rationer (pls . this man is an entire communism joke i can hardly handle it it’s amazing), autobot (participated in early decepticon uprisings before war broke out)

dark humor, has a gentle/serious side, he bottles up more than he should tbh

avalanche

politician turned soldier, decepticon prisoner

military truck ? thing?

disdainful of ex-cons, grammar nazi

uh he probably joins aboard along the way, not starting cast

shamble

poet, autobot, early con leanings

half of a jet alt mode, duobot (not like... just the legs or anything. he’s a whole bot)

very chill, loves plastic models/figurines from human culture

another member of the group from earth!

sicarius

musician, eukarian, autobot

beastformer, spider (sicarius desert spider)

energetic, she is fond of organics and small talk

livewire

psyche nurse, medical nurse, autobot

off color, clown-like scheme

friendly, a little more reserved in group settings

they do NOT take shit while on the job

stevotron

NAIL

the second half to the prankster duo with trip

originally had a very common cybertronian name so he picked this one to show his appreciation of earth 

the acting leader of the group on earth out of necessity more than anything else like desire for power

5P4M4

cadenza’s resident artificial intelligence

catalogs interactions, highkey wingman without anyone asking for it

and, well, the role of this last guy hasn’t been finalized. honestly all of this is subject to change though tbh 

stabilizer

security director? ex-con, not with the crew(?)

seeker, jet

hot headed, ambitious, can seem cold, dry humor, loves flying

jaded by autobots, tries to keep his cool, wants to ascend ranks despite his past

YALL IF ANYONE HAS LIKE... THINGS THEY’D LIKE TO SEE IN A FIC? OR WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS PLS SPEAK UP I DONT RLY EXPECT THIS TO CATCH THE INTEREST OF PPL OUTSIDE OF THIS SOCIAL CIRCLE BUT ON THE OFF CHANCE IT DOES THEN U KNO THE DOOR’S OPEN

#transformers #fanfiction #mtmte #lost light #cadenza #cadenizens #trainc #idw transformers #original characters

[bills-pokedex]

Pokémon Ask Blogs: A Guide

{Also, on the back of the “don’t send in fetishy stuff” post, allow me to offer up a few tips on creating your own Pokémon Expert Ask Blog. Yes, there’s a story behind why this is related to the “don’t send in fetishy stuff” post. Tl;dr, don’t powergame, kids.

Aaaaaanyway, so you want to make your own Pokémon Expert Ask Blog! Starting up might sound like it’ll be a daunting task, but it’s pretty easy once you get the basics down.

Tip #1: Start Writing, and Do It Persistently

The granddaddy of all rules when it comes to text-based blogs: ya need content. Like, a lot of it. Tumblr’s always worked against authors, no matter what field you’re in. It’s just a natural fact of life that text posts get fewer notes and less attention than photos or art, so in order to gain traction, you’re going to have to be super-consistent and super-persistent with what you’re doing. And don’t worry about writing a mini novel or anything; a lot of blogs get along just fine with only a short paragraph or two per post.

You will not have a crapton of notes on every post when you start out, and sometimes, it can take months before you get anywhere. To give you an idea, I really don’t think this blog gained traction until about six months to a year in. (Granted, some people have gotten traction faster, but remember: those people aren’t everyone. And also, don’t compare your numbers to the numbers other people pull in. That’s a good way to burn yourself out.)

Finally, queues. Whenever possible, queue content. For example, if you know you’re going to have a lot of free time on a Sunday, consider writing up multiple posts and putting them all in queue so you’ll have something for Monday onwards.

Tip #2: Tags Are a Blogger’s Best Friend

Remember: the first five tags on your post are the tags your post will show up under, so use that to your advantage. Tag your post with the pokémon that you’re focusing on, as well as well-traveled tags like “pokemon headcanons.” The pokémon is especially important because you’ll be surprised how many fans every single one has, and some folks are dying for content, seriously.

You will, without a doubt, pull most of your readers through tags when you first start to gain traction. Yes, even more so than relying on your mutuals or sending your OC off to interact with others. Sure, the latter of those two sources can help, but there’s simply a bigger market out in the tag cloud.

Tip #3: Google Is Also a Blogger’s Best Friend

So you want to play a professor or pokémon expert, but you’re a college student who’s not even majoring in a science to begin with. No problem! You can 100% fudge it with the power of Google! Research everything you don’t know to the best of your ability.

A few protips on this, by the by:

* Academic websites and papers are usually the most reliable, and they’re not as intimidating to read as one might think. This is followed by news websites, of course, but be careful about which news website. BBC, CNN, local news stations, local papers = yes; Clearly Right Wing Term News = no.

* Don’t be afraid of zoo websites, government websites, well-funded organization websites (except PETA probably), magazines, and blogs run by vets or animal experts, either. (Yes, even if the latter sometimes look like they still think it’s 2006.)

* Contrary to what high school teachers might have you believe, Wikipedia’s science articles are actually pretty solid. No one wants to vandalize the wiki entry for an extinct marmoset, but you know who is editing that? Experts who want to talk about extinct marmosets. Also, most articles on the stuff you’ll probably need to put together an answer will have a mountain of sources to verify that, yes, everything on that page is by and large accurate.

Tip #4: It’s Okay to Fudge It

When in doubt, fudge it. As in, be creative with your science! It’s your blog, so do what you want! And anyway, this is a universe where a toddler-sized rodent can generate thousands of volts of electricity, so why should anyone stop you? (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Just remember to keep your canon straight. Nothing’s more awkward than accidentally retconning stuff.

Still, word of caution about this: while the majority of your readers might not know the difference, some do, and if you’re writing a pokémon expert blog, you will probably end up getting mansplained to. It’s best to just roll with it or find creative ways to incorporate those corrections into your work. If all else fails ... limit who can reply to your posts.

Tip #5: Don’t Be a Dick

Soooooo ... powergaming.

To put it in short, that’s the act of deciding for other RPers what their actions will be—or, in a sense, playing their characters. With ask/headcanon blogs, it’s a little fuzzier what that would mean because ask/headcanon blogs feature a character talking about their entire world, but usually, it means deciding for someone else what is and isn’t canon to their blog—or, in other words, sending in-character asks that contradict explicit canon of another player’s blog or that would otherwise not fit with the way that player has designed their universe. A lot of players will let this slide, but it’s still really hella awkward to suddenly be face-to-face with a character who's asking about something that’s technically impossible for your world.

But more importantly, let’s talk about advertising. Do not use someone else’s blog to advertise yours, especially if you’re powergaming to do it. That’s kinda not cool.

Or to clarify, it’s okay to send in-character asks. That’s perfectly fine so long as you’ve read up on the canon you’re about to send or so long as you send the player a message, asking if it’s cool first. It is also okay to send in an ask to the effect of, “Hey, I just started this blog; could you promo me?” or a message to the effect of, “Hey, I have this idea; can we RP it between our characters?” The first instance involves you going out of your way to fit into the player’s universe, which then ensures that they have control over the content that they’re posting to their own blog. The second instance involves you actually going out and seeking permission to co-create content with the other player.

What is not okay is violating a blog’s canon or a player’s boundaries.

So for example, let’s say that Bill posts something like, “Komala eat coconuts.” It’s not okay to have your character go into that post, reblog or reply to it, and say, “Well, actually, komala hate coconuts, and here is a story involving my character that illustrates how this komala they know dislikes coconuts.” This is basically taking control of what is and isn’t canon according to Bill’s player.

Likewise, while it’s probably okay to send in an ask to the effect of, “Komala eat coconuts; I know this because I have a story about komala” (although please ask first or otherwise check to make sure it’s not violating canon first!), if Bill says, “No, actually, they really don’t like coconuts,” then it’s canon in that universe that komala do not like coconuts. If you really want komala to like coconuts in this case, please make a post to your own blog about it. Do not reblog Bill’s answer.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is this: a player has the last say in what is and isn’t canon on their own askblog. Period. Underlined.

Tip #6: Yes, You CAN Roleplay with Yourself

It’s also worth it to note that not every blog has to start out directly RPing with another blog. Yes, you can write independently! Granted, yes, not everyone wants to, but my point is that if your first post can just be you posting your own thoughts on the way the Pokémon world works. That and not everyone interacts with other blogs all the time. In fact, this blog got its start just making shitposts in the guise of pokédex entries not because I really wanted to RP but instead because I was trying to make myself laugh by posting as Bill. And for the most part, it’s still that; because the canon is so different compared to fanon and because this is a sideblog, I don’t really send Bill or Lanette out to interact with other people unless someone tags this blog in something. 

That isn’t to say I’m not open to it or that everyone has to be like me; it’s more saying that it’s okay if all you do at first is construct a story for yourself on your own blog. If your character and the world they live in is interesting to the rest of the fandom, people absolutely will stop by because people either love hearing about their favorite pokémon, or they love hearing about how this one scenario they’ve thought up will play out in someone else’s world. So don’t sweat it if you find yourself talking to the void for a long period of time.

If anything, consider it freedom because in space, no one can hear you yeeting actual canon out the window.

Tip #7: Yeet That Canon

Final tip: The more you think about Pokémon canon the less it makes sense. It’s just ... it’s just like that. So yes, it’s okay to treat canon like some sort of all-you-can eat buffet where no one’s going to judge you for putting the hot fudge sundae toppings on a slice of pizza. Pick and choose whatever canon you want or disregard it all. Take your blog and run with it. Eat that pizza with hot fudge sundae toppings, you absolute animal.

And most of all, best of luck!}

#from the mun #long post #pokemon ask blog #professor ask blog

[worldsandcenturiesfunposting]

There's a rather popular post (at about 48 thousand notes at the moment) going around Tumblr that in all irony is about how artists shouldn't be upset that their original work isn't getting popular on tumblr, especially in comparison to fan art, and that artists should appreciate every like/reblog/follower rather than going after just reblogs.

The post itself is incredibly poorly made and seems to exist for no other reason than to guilt trip artists for being upset that their hard work leads to nothing. After all, as the great philosopher Luigi once said: “Have you ever experienced a time where no matter how hard you tried, you failed, and the time you spent trying felt wasted?”

But this isn't going to be a point by point refutation of that post. Instead I would much rather just give my thoughts on this whole issue in of itself. Being an artist on Tumblr and not being one of the really popular (or even sort of popular) guys is difficult to say the least because it seems like everything is stacked against you. Only 4 or 5 of the tags you put in will actually be used in the search results, there's  a new algorithm in which people's dashboards will be sorted by popularity rather than chronological posts, and in order to get popular you need to rely on people going out of their way to host your art on their own blogs.

There's a lot Tumblr doesn't make at all clear about that only confuses things more. As shit as that post I mentioned was, it did teach me one big thing. Likes aren't entirely the “thoughts and prayers” button for this horrid natural disaster of a website but actually do influence how soon and often your posts show up in search results. Now a really popular artist would of course get tons more likes and their art would be featured far more as a result, but at least the feature is more than a shittier version of Deviantart's favorites feature.

Suffice to say if you're someone who's looking to get an audience, it's difficult. I think this is a point a lot of people don't understand. They think that people who are upset at all of this are upset that they're not popular, and that's the end of it. No nuance to it. They want to be popular for the sake of being popular.

Why do people post this stuff online? Why post a picture online? Why not keep it on your desktop until the sun burns out? Maybe because being online gives it more longevity and reduces the risk of it being lost if your computer breaks? Sure, but why not post it in your drafts where no one but you is able to see it?

Why do people post stuff online? Because they want other people to see it. So trying to demonize people for being upset over not having their art seen by many people or spread around is silly because one of the biggest points about posting it online is specifically so people can see it. Just like when you make a blog post, you do so because you want people to read it or when you post a video to Youtube, it's because you want people to watch it.

In order for people to see that art, it will need to get exposed to them and the best way to do that is through reblogs which is why so many artists, myself included, get incredibly salty over the subject. When someone reblogs something, ideally that picture would be presented to everyone who follows the reblogger. One person reblogs a picture and 5 or 20 or even 300 people would see the same picture and some of them might like it or reblog it themselves. That very fact that it only takes one person to cause that snowball effect makes the whole situation all the more infuriating.

Now can people's art can also be exposed through the search tags? Sure. After all, if you're starting off on the website and have no prior set ups or accounts to lead people from, that is where you're going to start. But not only are the amount of tags that can be used limited, but depending on what you tag it as, it can be swamped pretty hard. The shitty post said that fan art gets popular and that it's dumb to complain that original art isn't as popular as fan art. However, even completely pandering to the most popular things isn't an assured success. If you post something in a tag for a popular and active fanbase, that runs the risk of your picture barely being seen because of how active those tags would be.

If I post a picture in the Steven Universe tag and I'm only able to get maybe 2 likes on the art, it's not going to be seen on the popular setting which is what most people are going to look at because I don't have enough active followers reblogging or even liking the picture enough for those likes to make a difference with the search results. On the newest setting, it might be completely swamped by dozens of other new pictures (of varying quality) and especially easy to skim over by the much smaller crowd of people who visit that setting.

Is it any wonder why so many artists are desperate for reblogs?

What the artists want varies. Some want to be the biggest most popular artists around and sit among the gods. Me on the other hand, I'm more interested in a smaller but more active/dedicated following and you can't really get that unless you have a ton of people following you since statistically, a large portion of followers in general aren't going to be very active but the more followers you have, the more likely it is that some of them will be.

For example, for the longest time (and what I ultimately gave up on because it simply would not work) I was trying to set something up where people could ask me questions for the webcomic. They'd ask something about some alien species and I'd answer it through a comic. It's something I thought would be good fun and that I'd really enjoy. The amount of people who need to ask questions isn't the hundreds or even dozens. If I got like 3 or 4 questions a month, that would be pretty good for me. How would I ensure I'd get people to partake in that? Only if my art is exposed to people who (whether they knew it or not) would be interested in such a thing. How would that happen? One way is that it gets spread around just enough that it eventually crosses paths with those kinds of people.

There could be a whole niche that's exactly the sort of people an artist's work would appeal to and they might never see that art because it simply never crosses their path.

Another big thing is that everyone has a different standard of success. I know I'm not a big artist on Tumblr. My standard of success is getting 10 notes on a picture. Most of the time I can barely break 5. Take note that on my art account, I have 355 followers. Some might be following tons of people and thus will always miss my art. Some followed me for different reasons than the sort of picture I most recently posted. Some might have logged off of Tumblr, forgotten their password, and their blog is effectively dead. But out of 355, you'd think that I'd manage to get 10 rinky dink notes but no.

When someone popular does reblog my art, it can often break 50 notes which is above and beyond. This tells me that it's not even necessarily the quality of the art but simply a gamble as to if someone would be willing to take that leap and press the reblog button or not. Tumblr, contrary to what some people might think concerning artist popularity, is NOT a meritocracy. It is more luck than Vegas itself.

So contrary to what some might assume, not only is everyone salty about this not demanding the world, but even getting a small success requires art to be spread around as much as possible.

Now obviously no one owes you success or popularity. Some people are only around to browse. Some people's blogs wouldn't be fitting of the sorts of art that I post. And of course there's the fact that they just might not like the particular picture in general. I think if the success to failure ratio was much more even or better, it would be much easer to accept that some pictures are just duds and move on to the next.

But at the end of the day when you put something out there that you worked hard on and think is good and it gets nowhere, it kind of sucks. When the same thing happens over and over again, it is honestly demotivating. The fact you're putting this out online, for among other reasons people to see, it sort of says that what you post isn't good or worth seeing. Of course that's not what goes on in the mind of the people who only like the art or look at it and scroll by, but it is something that gets internalized.

Or maybe it is just me. I'm writing this because I know a lot of people get really salty about this stuff and I want to try and explain it as clear, calmly, and rationally as I can, but a lot of this stuff is also strictly my personal feelings and opinions too.

I think it's also sort of magnified by the fact that popular art becomes popular (or is just spread around a lot) mainly because people go out of their way to reblog it. There's that additional extra personal step to it that isn't quite present on Deviantart or Youtube where it's more based on algorithms. If you can't get popular on Youtube, well that's because Youtube's coding is a shit. You can't get popular on Tumblr, well that's because no one wants to spread your work.

Now for other people and not myself, they try to make a living off of their art. In that case, being dismissive is even worse. Saying “Just appreciate every like/follower you get and be happy with what you post” doesn't work because that doesn't buy food or pay bills. This may be a small population of artists on Tumblr but one of the examples used in that horrid shitpost was someone who's tags in their post was complaining about just that and the person who made the shitpost not only didn't address that, but likely didn't think a thing about it.

If people's art isn't getting spread around where it could meet the eyes of potential buyers, quite simply, they aren't going to be able to sell their art. It's not because their art is bad, it's just that it hasn't been exposed to enough people to really take off. Not everyone selling art has art worth selling but what that person posts gets only a few likes and is seen by relatively no one, that's not exactly a call you can make at the moment.

If there were ways to tell how many people have viewed a post outside of notes numbers, it would be a completely different situation. If 300 people looks at a picture and that picture only gets 2 likes, that would change the situation completely to which the artist could actually confidently say that what they're putting out genuinely doesn't interest people. Unfortunately no such feature exists. Even the stats/activity page is based entirely off of notes.

As I said before, this is a subject that gets a lot of artists salty. You might come across a post by an artist ranting and raving about how little likes help and how you should reblog their work. They may seem like an asshole but really, they're just extremely frustrated with how much things seem to be stacked against them on this website. It's no fun working on things and feeling as if the effort was wasted. They're certainly not self entitled.

If you do follow an art blog, I'd recommend reblogging something they do every so often to help them grow and move forward as an artist. Or if you find someone's art on Tumblr that you really like, reblog that too. The great thing about reblogs on Tumblr is that if you reblog something and then someone reblogs it from you and you delete that reblog, it remains on that other person's blog and exposed to their followers. You never know who will see the picture as a result of your reblogging.

Anyways I think I rambled on enough about this. It's a very touchy subject and difficult to get into words but I think I explained the situation well enough.

Tl'dr: Tumblr just isn't a good website for artists which is ironic because it advertises itself as a platform for creative people and is a place where a lot of artists post their work. Because of its poor design, it's very difficult for new artists or even just small art blogs in general to gain any traction and just leads to frustration.

#tumblr #art #reblogs

[southsidestory]

#across the stars (a wank wars story)

SUMMARY: Across the Stars dramatizes the story of the real life Skywalker clan, and fans of the show have built a legion of fractured followers across social media. Ben Solo goes by @mynameiskyloren, and his dealings with Rey, aka his rival fandom leader @jakkujunkrat, bring more than his true identity to light.

NOTES: This is the Star Wars social media fic that absolutely no one asked for. At best I can call this romantic crack with a dose of seriousness, and at worst the result of my brain weasels. Either way, it’s somewhat of an ode to tumblr and its crazy. If this isn’t a dumpster fire, please let me know! (PS my awesome husband helped me brainstorm for this, the evil genius.)

—

—

a long time ago in a fandom far, far away...

WANK

WARS

EPISODE VIII

ACROSS THE STARS

It is a period of civil war. Fans of popular historical holodrama ACROSS THE STARS squee over the Skywalker family legacy. The show’s three arcs, Republic, Rebellion, and Resistance, have earned critical acclaim and a legion of followers. In the wait between Seasons 7 and 8, WANK WARS fueled by boredom have gripped the fandom as they never have before.

The FIRST ORDER disparages AtS for its failure to dramatize the real Skywalkers' lives with historical accuracy after Season 3. @thesupremeleader, a BNF known only as Snoke, instigates drama whenever the fandom threatens to settle down.

But @mynameiskyloren, Snoke’s loyal devotee, is keeping his true identity hidden from the fandom. It’s only a matter of time before his dealings with @jakkujunkrat draw him away from the First Order, and he makes enemies of his former friends...

—

—

15 days before the Season 8 premiere

jakkujunkrat

Look @mynameiskyloren I really don’t care about the historical accuracy of seasons 4-7. Most of us are here to have fun, to write fic and make art and shitpost about our favorite characters. You and your anti brigade need to get off your high tauntauns and face facts: Across the Stars prioritizes good storytelling over everything else. If you can’t accept that maybe you should move your ass along to another fandom instead of harassing the people who are here to celebrate something we love. I mean, this is a holodrama. Don’t you have anything better to do than fight over a piece of fiction???

#ats #wank wars #first order bs #fuck you very much

mynameiskyloren

You’re a hypocrite @jakkujunkrat. You’re arguing over a holodrama too, so you must not have anything better to do either.

And in case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t just fiction. These are real people’s lives being portrayed for mass consumption. Seasons 1-3 dealt in facts, and it still managed to draw all of us in, so don’t feed me that shit line that following real events doesn’t make for a good story.

Just be honest: you’re here to ship Han and Leia, and you don’t care what their marriage is like irl as long as you get their perfect love story in AtS. Maybe YOU should gtfo and find somewhere else to fangirl.

Or you know, just stick to scavenging, since that’s probably all you’re good at.

#ats #hanleia shippers are the worst #and jakkujunkrat is their queen #fuck you too sweetheart

fn-1337

Calm down, mynameisasshole. Dragging Rey’s real life into a fandom fight is a dick move. Especially since your privileged ass probably doesn’t know the first thing about the kind of hard work Rey does every day. So sit down and shut up.

#wank wars #first order bs #leave my friend alone

—

—

14 days before the Season 8 premiere

jakkujunkrat

unpopular opinion: Yav Korren is a good-looking man and a great actor, but he is not as hot as the real Ben Solo.

#ben solo #my husband #apologies to yav #but otherwise sorrynotsorry #all these candids of ben cropping up on my dash are fucking me up #han and leia made the best looking son #they have good genes

starfleet-ace

lmao someone is thirsty. that’s an unpopular opinion for a reason, rey. you know i love you, but we’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one. back me up @fn-1337

#yav korren is almost as hot as my boyfriend

fn-1337

Sorry baby, no can do. I’m with Rey on this one.

#<3 #ily poe

jakkujunkrat

Ben Solo is boyfriend goals. Fight me.

#we appreciate ben solo in this house #don’t come on my lawn and disparage my man #ben solo

themaidofstarkiller

Sorry @jakkujunkrat, it’s gross enough to ship real people, but openly talking about a 19-year-old celebrity child like he’s a piece of meat takes it to the next level. You’re really something else. Am I right, or am I right @therealhux @mynameiskyloren

#RPF is the stuff of nightmares #creeping on a real kid is even worse

therealhux

100% correct, Phasma. I couldn’t agree more.

mynameiskyloren

I hate to ever support @jakkujunkrat, but I don’t think it’s fair to criticize her just for having a celebrity crush. Who the hell doesn’t?

And she’s right about Ben Solo. Definitely better looking than Yav Korren.

jakkujunkrat

@themaidofstarkiller I’m 18, which I have plastered across the top of my blog. You stalk me too much not to already know that, so you can stfu with pulling Ben Solo’s age like it’s a receipt.

and kylo… did you just defend me??

#is the sky falling?

mynameiskyloren

Don’t get used to it, junkrat.

—

—

13 days before the Season 8 premiere

thesupremeleader

Just a reminder to the First Order that I have a zero tolerance policy for talking to Resistance fans.

I’m not going to call you out, but you know who you are.

#stay away from the resistance #if you want to keep your place on the right side of this fandom

therealhux

There’s no accounting for taste these days.

#not that I would expect better from the fan in question #he has so much trouble following the rules #like a toddler

mynameiskyloren

@therealhux if you have something to say to me, go ahead and say it.

#vagueposts are for cowards

therealhux

I just did. Or did you miss it with that goldfish attention span of yours?

#don’t see you calling thesupremeleader a coward

mynameiskyloren

Fuck you.

therealhux

So eloquent.

thesupremeleader

I don’t think you have room to further alienate your allies right now, Kylo. You’re on thin ice.

#get it together

mynameiskyloren

sorry @thesupremeleader

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

jakkujunkrat: finn, are you seeing this?

fn-1337: you mean mynameisasshole taking heat from the first order BNFs? yeah i’m seeing it, and it tastes like sweet sweet comeuppance.

jakkujunkrat: i know i shouldn’t, but i feel kind of bad for him. he’s getting roasted by snoke and hux just for being nice to me. do you think i should say something?

fn-1337: rey. are you kidding me? this is the guy who’s been giving you hell for *four* years. remember that time he left a nasty review on your post-canon fic? he called it what… “repetitive and trite”?

jakkujunkrat: okay. good point. he can fend for himself.

—

—

12 days before the Season 8 premiere

jakkujunkrat

This is the worst selfie in the world, but here you go. My sunburned face in all its glory.

#it me #forgive me for dirtying your dash with this

themaidofstarkiller

You should change your handle to jakkuleatherface. Or buy some sunscreen.

#she’s going to look 50 when she’s 30 #jakkujunkrat

therealhux

No wonder you’re single @jakkujunkrat

#I knew that someone that bitchy couldn’t be pretty

fn-1337

Don’t listen to a word these shitheads are saying, Rey. You’re beautiful.

#say one more word and i will drag you guys to hell and back

starfleet-ace

hux: i don’t think your pasty ginger ass gets to talk about anyone else’s looks

phasma: you’re as pretty on the outside as you are on the inside. which is to say ugly af

rey: you’re stunning, and they’re just jealous.

#you guys are really reaching here

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

fn-1337: Rey? You okay?

jakkujunkrat: yeah. i’m fine. just don’t really wanna talk right now.

fn-1337: all right, peanut. let me know if you need me. i’m here all night.

—

JAKKUJUNKRAT INBOX - ask me whatever as long as it’s nice

Anonymous

Hey. I’m really sorry to see all the hate you’re getting about your selfie. I hope this isn’t creepy coming from anon, but… I just want you to know that you’re really pretty, and those guys are being assholes. It’s got nothing to do with the way you look. They’d say the same thing to any Resistance fan.

jakkujunkrat

Thanks, nonny. I really needed to hear that.

And thank you @starfleet-ace and @fn-1337 for being awesome. You guys are the best friends a girl could ask for.

—

—

11 days before the Season 8 premiere

jakkujunkrat

I need to take a break from fandom for a little while. Real life is catching up with me, and the rig I’ve put together to even get a slow shitty connection to the holonet is breaking down. I need to put my scavenger hat on and do some maintenance.

See you guys in a few days.

#it’s just a brief hiatus #i promise i’m not ghosting #personal

fn-1337

Take care, peanut. <3

#best friend #see you soon rey

therealhux

Maybe with the queen gone the peasants will settle down.

bee-bee-ate

I have a finger to point at you @therealhux. Here is a clue: it is not the index or the pinky, or the ring or the thumb. It’s the one you put up when you don’t give a fuck. :D

#choke bitch

—

—

10 days before the Season 8 premiere

fn-1337

Look, all I’m saying is that old!Han and old!Leia’s actors absolutely killed it in Season 7, and I can’t wait to see what they do in Season 8.

#my dash is flooded with promo photos of my OTP #and all I want to do is write HanLeia #ONLY TEN MORE DAYS

mynameiskyloren

Newsflash: your OTP is separated irl. Kills the romance a little doesn’t it?

If Season 8 is full of the same used romantic tropes that 4-7 was full of idk if I’m even going to stick around for it.

#god i hate this fandom #fuck the resistance

fn-1337

I’ve never prayed harder for used romantic tropes in my life.

#mynameisasshole strikes again #and for the record i only ship HanLeia in AtS #not irl #wank wars #first order bs

—

—

9 days before the Season 8 premiere

JAKKUJUNKRAT INBOX - ask me anything mean and you’ll be blocked

Anonymous

Hi. I know you said you were going to be gone for a little while, but I was just wondering if there’s an ETA on when you might be back? The fandom is pretty boring without you, junkrat.

—

PRIVATE MESSAGING

jakkujunkrat: ...did you send me that anon?

mynameiskyloren: no. if i have something to say to you i’ll say it to your face

jakkujunkrat: come off it, kylo. nobody calls me just “junkrat” but you. i’m “rey” to everybody in the resistance, and first order idiots would never send me anything that nice.

jakkujunkrat: kylo? you there?

mynameiskyloren: i’m here

jakkujunkrat: well. you sent it, right?

mynameiskyloren: yeah i did. but i can explain

jakkujunkrat: explain being decent to me? yeah that’s gonna require a fucking thesis.

jakkujunkrat: you’ve done nothing but harass me since i got involved in this fandom

mynameiskyloren: give me a break, rey

jakkujunkrat: i’m not giving you anything

mynameiskyloren: fine then there’s no point in having this conversation

jakkujunkrat: just be honest. why’d you send me that ask?

mynameiskyloren: because you seem all right. i still disagree with you about pretty much everything AtS related but… i don’t know. i’m starting to think that’s not a good enough reason to give you hell

mynameiskyloren: i think if i’d met you irl we could have gotten along. you have to admit that we keep up with each other pretty well.

mynameiskyloren: rey? say something

jakkujunkrat: i have to go

—

—

8 days before the Season 8 premiere

therealhux

Attention, all First Order fans: one of our own has been fraternizing with the resistance. And what’s more, he’s been stringing us along from day one.

@mynameiskyloren has lied about his age, where he lives, and who he is. He also has a relationship with the Across the Stars cast and their real life counterparts, which he’s been hiding for seven years.

Kylo Ren is actually Ben Solo, and if you don’t believe me I’ve got receipts and all of his personal information below the cut.

[Read More]

#payback is a bitch #mynameisalie

themaidofstarkiller

Hux. Is this some kind of joke??

starfleet-ace

@therealhux did you seriously just doxx one of your own??? wow you’re a piece of shit

fn-1337

Why isn’t anyone commenting on the fact that one of the biggest antis in this fandom is BEN FUCKING SOLO?!! ACTUAL SON OF THE REAL HAN AND LEIA!

#holy shit #it explains a lot at least #oh god i’ve been shipping his parents’ characters

fn-1337

@jakkujunkrat REEEEYYYYYYY

bee-bee-ate

This is gross. Real life identities should be protected, not revealed. Shame on you @therealhux

a-new-rose

Wow. This is crazy. I just got to this fandom and it’s kind of exploding…

#this guy can’t really be ben solo tho right?

thesupremeleader

I don’t think it needs to be said, but if anyone hasn’t put it together yet: mynameiskyloren is no longer welcome in this fandom.

#that’s what you get for lying

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

jakkujunkrat: kylo? is it true?

sorry, this blog does not exist

—

—

7 days before the Season 8 premiere

mynameisbensolo

Hi everyone. This is the former mynameiskyloren here. There’s been a lot of stuff said about me in the last twenty-four hours, and I want to clear it up.

1) @therealhux did doxx me, which is low even for him.

2) I was talking to someone from the resistance, and the reason why is that I’m coming to see the damage that anti behavior can cause. I’ll make a more detailed post on that later, but in short, it’s going to involve a lot of apologizing.

3) In case you hadn’t guessed from my new handle: yes, I am Ben Solo.

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

starfleet-ace: REY where are you?? finn is flipping out and i can’t handle a fanboy meltdown this big on my own

starfleet-ace: Rey?

—

JAKKUJUNKRAT ACTIVITY FEED

mynameisbensolo is following you

—

JAKKUJUNKRAT INBOX - don’t ask me anything about ben solo

Anonymous

HOLY HELL!! mynameiskyloren is Ben Solo?!! pls tell me what you think about all of this Rey

Anonymous

ok i can see that u don’t want to be asked about ben solo, buuuut… you know we’re all dying to hear from you, right? i mean, you made that post about ben solo being hot, and then he turns out to be kylo!! come on Rey, throw us a bone here!

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

fn-1337: rey, i know this has gotta be pretty weird, but i’m starting to get worried about you. can you please come online long enough to let me know you’re all right?

jakkujunkrat: hey finn. i’m sorry for disappearing. this is all just… a lot.

fn-1337: yeah, i guess it would be.

fn-1337: can i ask you a question?

jakkujunkrat: always

fn-1337: are you the one he was talking to?

jakkujunkrat: yep. and he followed me this morning. idk what to do, finn.

fn-1337: you don’t have to do anything. you don’t owe him shit just because he decided to finally act like a human being. not after the way he’s treated all of us.

jakkujunkrat: i know that. really, i do.

fn-1337: then what’s the problem?

jakkujunkrat: the problem is that i think i was starting to like him. and now he’s… he’s ben solo. how am i supposed to talk to ben solo?

fn-1337: he’s just a person, peanut. an asshole, but a person.

—

—

6 days before the Season 8 premiere

jakkujunkrat

Guys. I know you’re interested in what I think about the Kylo Ren / Ben Solo thing, but I would really appreciate it if you’d stop sending me messages about it. I’ve turned off anon for now. All of you have a nice day.

#sorry #this is getting to be a bit much

therealhux

So are you guys running off into the sunset together yet?

#you don’t have anyone fooled

jakkujunkrat

It looks like you can’t read: I’m not talking about Ben.

#your name should be therealilliterate

themaidofstarkiller

Our resident pathological liar certainly has the money to fly to Jakku. You two fucking yet?

#jakkuleatherface

this post has been deleted

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

mynameisbensolo: Rey? I understand if you don’t want to talk to me, but if you can, let me know

—

—

5 days before the Season 8 premiere

fn-1337

It seems like this fandom has forgotten why we’re really here. Season 8 starts in FIVE DAYS, so can we please forget about doxxing drama and focus on the fun?

#damn #ats #ats season 8 #FIVE DAYS in case i didn’t say it loud enough for the people in the back

bee-bee-ate

I am with you @fn-1337!

a-new-rose

Am I the only one that thinks @bee-bee-ate is some kind of resistance bot?

—

starfleet-ace

in entirely unrelated news, is anyone else sick of Snoke’s stupidly detailed metas with a list of citations longer than his arm? we really don’t care how many degrees you have, man. it’s just a holodrama and you’re treating fandom like a history test you have to pass.

thesupremeleader

I think it’s safe to say that you wouldn’t know much about passing history tests @starfleet-ace.

—

FN-1337 INBOX - don’t bother with hate

bee-bee-ate

Are you going to roast Snoke for calling your boyfriend stupid?

fn-1337

You bet your ass I am.

#bring it you supreme idiot #i’m about to rip you apart

—

—

4 days before the Season 8 premiere

PRIVATE MESSAGES

jakkujunkrat: Ben? I’m here

mynameisbensolo: Damn. It’s really nice to be called by my real name lol

jakkujunkrat: lol I guess so

mynameisbenolo: Rey, I know it probably doesn’t mean much, but I’m sorry for everything I did to you. I hurt you and I bothered the hell out of you, and if I could take it back I would.

jakkujunkrat: It’s not okay, but I believe you. And I guess I can see now why you were so sensitive about the show. It must be weird to see yourself represented on screen like that.

mynameisbensolo: lol yeah. Especially when the popular opinion is that Yav Korren is a lot better looking than me :/

jakkujunkrat: Well. Not to me. But I guess you know that.

jakkujunkrat: this is so embarrassing.

mynameisbensolo: i saw that you deleted everything you had tagged with my name

jakkujunkrat: what, you went looking through it? That’s not narcissistic at all.

mynameisbensolo: better than tagging a stranger #my husband

jakkujunkrat: i don’t know why i thought i could talk to you. i don’t care who you are, you’re still awful

mynameisbensolo: wait i’m sorry rey don’t go

mynameisbensolo: please

jakkujunkrat: why shouldn’t i?

mynameisbensolo: i wasn’t trying to be mean

jakkujunkrat: and yet

mynameisbensolo: Stop it. Stop acting like you don’t feel this too.

jakkujunkrat: i don’t know what you’re talking about.

mynameisbensolo: Then I’ll be more explicit. I like you. I think you’re gorgeous and funny and smart, and I’ve wanted to kiss you for awhile. Long before I had any idea what you looked like.

mynameisbensolo: Still don’t know what I’m talking about, sweetheart?

jakkujunkrat: i can’t do this right now. i have to work if I want to eat. Literally.

mynameisbensolo: please don’t disappear again

—

—

3 days before the Season 8 premiere

fn-1337

If one more person sends @jakkujunkrat another message or hijacks her posts with questions about Ben Solo I will personally escort them to the nearest burn unit.

#not kidding #not even a little bit #leave my friend alone #sologate

starfleet-ace

get these thugs, finn.

bee-bee-ate

I support this action.

#protect our scavenger queen

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

jakkujunkrat: all right. let’s talk.

mynameisbensolo: I’m really glad you said that. Because… okay don’t be mad. Please.

jakkujunkrat: ...why would I be mad?

mynameisbensolo: I’m kind of. Here.

jakkujunkrat: what do you mean “here”?

mynameisbensolo: as in, on Jakku. I’m at Niima Outpost right now. I’ve tried getting directions from about ten different people but they either don’t speak Basic or have no idea where you live.

jakkujunkrat: you’ve got to be joking. are you joking?

mynameisbensolo: Depends on how angry you’ll be if I say “no”

jakkujunkrat: You have to leave. Right now.

mynameisbensolo: Oh. Okay.

mynameisbensolo: I’m really sorry, Rey I don’t know what I was thinking. I just knew you were here, and I wanted to have a chance to talk to you in person. But if you want me to go, I’ll go.

jakkujunkrat: then get out of here

—

mynameisbensolo

Please forgive me.

#do not reblog

—

—

2 days before the Season 8 premiere

therealhux

All I’m going to say is that you got what was coming to you.

#no i don’t regret doxxing him #stop asking

themaidofstarkiller

^^^

#lol #revenge is delicious

mitakahere

Do you think they’re broken up? Or were they ever together?

#forgive him rey!! #i don’t know what he did #but pls forgive him

fn-1337

Full offense @mitakahere but this is none of your business.

#leave my friend alone #i’m getting really tired of tagging that

themaidofstarkiller

Resistance morons aren’t welcome on this thread @fn-1337

Get the hell off Hux’s post.

#they’re just everywhere aren’t they? #but finn is the worst

bee-bee-ate

@themaidofstarkiller you have a bad dye job and a worse attitude. Perhaps you should consider a personality recalibration.

#i could help with that! :D

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

jakkujunkrat: Ben?

mynameisbensolo: yes?

jakkujunkrat: where are you?

mynameisbensolo: on Hosnian Prime. Why?

jakkujunkrat: please come back to Jakku

mynameisbensolo: really? You’re not messing with me, are you?

jakkujunkrat: really. I’ve never had a visitor before, and you surprised me by just showing up unannounced. which wasn’t all right by the way.

mynameisbensolo: I know. I won’t do it again.

jakkujunkrat: stop messaging me and get on a ship.

mynameisbensolo: as you wish, sweetheart.

—

—

1 day before the Season 8 premiere

starfleet-ace

okay i think that no matter where you stand in this fandom, we can all agree that tomorrow is gonna be awesome. we’ve been waiting a year for this! don’t let us down, Rian!

fn-1337

You can say that again, love.

#ONE DAY #ONE MORE DAY #THAT’S IT #23 HOURS AND 14 MINUTES TO BE EXACT

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

fn-1337: Rey??? Where r u? I need someone to celebrate with.

jakkujunkrat: sorry finn, i’m busy.

fn-1337: what are you doing that makes you too busy to cheer with me?!

jakkujunkrat: ...you wouldn’t believe me if i told you. catch you later!

fn-1337: oh come on, you can’t do this to me

fn-1337: REYYYY

—

—

Season 8 premiere of Across the Stars

—

fn-1337

DID YOU SEE THAT? @starfleet-ace?!

#i’m fucking dying #this is the most amazing day of my life #well except for when poe agreed to go out with me #STILL #it’s great #ats season 8 #ats

starfleet-ace

yeah i saw it! best season premiere ever.

#love you finn

therealhux

I can’t believe we can agree on something.

#this is a novel experience #ats season 8 #if they keep this up the show might actually become worthwhile again

bee-bee-ate

The astromech droid is my favorite character.

#so relatable

mitakahere

Where the hell is Rey?! @jakkujunkrat

#come back our scavenger queen #we miss you

—

MYNAMEISBENSOLO INBOX

Anonymous

Did it really happen like this? Please you have to tell us!!

—

PRIVATE MESSAGES

mynameisbensolo: are you seeing this?

jakkujunkrat: of course :)

jakkujunkrat: watching Yav is pretty weird now that i’ve met you

mynameisbensolo: still think i’m the better looking one now that you’ve seen me up close?

jakkujunkrat: you know i do. at least i really hope so after last night.

mynameisbensolo: are you doing okay? you seemed upset afterward

jakkujunkrat: i’m fine

mynameisbensolo: Rey. I think we’re a little past lying to each other at this point. What’s wrong?

mynameisbensolo: was I bad?

jakkujunkrat: no! no. please don’t think that. it was wonderful, Ben, really. you were wonderful.

mynameisbensolo: so were you. and i really hope it wasn’t the last time i see you. i’d like to come back. Or bring you to Hosnian Prime with me.

jakkujunkrat: I can’t. I can’t leave. That’s why I was upset. My family left me here, and I’m waiting for them to come back for me and I can’t leave. I want to but I can’t and I probably sound really stupid right now but I’ve been waiting all my life and I don’t want it to be for nothing.

mynameisbensolo: it’s all right. You don’t have to go anywhere you’re not ready to go, sweetheart.

mynameisbensolo: And I can wait. If that’s something you want.

jakkujunkrat: It’s not easy. Waiting.

mynameisbensolo: That’s okay. You’re worth it.

—

—

#reylo #reylo fanfic #social media fic #background stormpilot #reylo crack #with a dash of serious #across the stars a wank wars story #my fanfiction #it's basically tumblr in space

[spacednp]

Zombies

TW: gore, zombies(is that a trigger?), panic attack (kinda), shitty title

SUMMARY: whats the guidelines 4 dis lmao ima need to fix this later

ADDITIONAL NOTES: the ending is BAD

 the title sucks fuck off i knoww 

yo yo follow the people below (and me cough cough) bc.. Yeet

Beta- @callmekiddo-2 (thank for putting up with my constant grammar errors fam)

Artist- my bro,,, @owlpip (Art links gonna go here when i get them)

WC: 7.3k (really short i knowww)

The sound of rushing water filled the room and the steam from it rose into the air. Small bubbles occasionally flew from the sink, floating away gently, like a peaceful and soft dance. Dan’s hands were covered in suds and began to wrinkle because of the constant stream of hot water embracing them. Dan picked up the last plate and wiped it in a swift motion with his sponge, making a circle of soap that he quickly rinsed off. He set that final dish aside before washing off his own hands and turning the water off. He then grabbed the dish towel and set to work, drying off the dishes. He swabbed the clear droplets of now cold water from each dish, concentration etched onto his face. Once each dish was dried he rushed about the kitchen, putting them all away. He and his flatmate had only been living in that flat for a few weeks and he was still getting used to, well, everything. Due to this, he was sure he had put a few things away wrong. But hey, Phil had asked him to do the dishes, and he did. Kind of.

The padding of footsteps behind him made Dan jump, nearly dropping the rag in his hand. “Fucks sake, Phil,” Dan hissed, throwing his damp rag onto the counter behind him. He came very close to knocking over an unlit candle, “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Whoops,” Phil replied, crossing his arms in the doorway, a smile painted on his face. Dan loved Phil, they were best friends, after all, but Phil was probably the least empathetic person when it came to scaring people. He couldn’t care less. Every once in awhile dan would like to hear a, “Oh, I’m sorry, are you okay?” instead.

“You’re an ass,” Dan muttered, turning back to his abandoned rag to put it away.

“Pfft, you know love me,” Phil said. (what should i do here looks kinda lame)

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Dan responded, trying to not smile. Dan and Phil had been best friends for years, hell, they had pretty much grown up together. After being essentially joined at the hip for almost ten years, the boys were pretty much family. They even started going on family holidays together, calling each other’s mothers’ “Mum” the whole time just to spite the other. The two were as close to brothers as anyone could get without the matching birth certificates.

“Thanks for doing the dishes,” Phil said after a minute.

“No problem, but you’re sweeping tomorrow to repay your debt,” Dan countered.

“What? But it’s your turn,” Phil whined. Dan turned back to Phil and shrugged, the smile that had left Phil’s face set on his own.

“It was your turn to do the dishes,” he pointed out, smile widening.

“Fair enough,” Phil sighed, rolling his eyes a little. He didn’t really think it was fair as sweeping was much harder than washing a few plates, but he didn’t say anything. After all, Dan did have a point and it was Phil’s turn to do the dishes. Phil turned and began to walk away.

“You heading off to bed?” Dan called after him. Phil turned, smiling a little.

“What, you want a goodnight kiss?” Phil teased, laughing lightly at his own joke.

“I don’t, but about eighty percent of the internet would want me to,” Dan joked back, causing both to snicker. The shipping didn’t bother the two anymore. After years of thousands of people reading into their every move, it got kind of dull. Of course they made jokes about it, it came naturally after a while. It was apart of life for them, and everyone made jokes about their life. People made death jokes because it was a part of life, they made sex jokes because it was a part of life, and Dan and Phil made shipping jokes just like that because it was a part of their lives.

“See you in the morning, Danny,” Phil shouted over his shoulder as he walked to his bedroom. Phil never really called Dan by the nickname, unless he was in the teasing mood. Just as an older brother would tease the younger.

Dan looked to the clock to see that it read about midnight, which was the usual time for Phil to turn in for the night. As for Dan, he had a sort of reputation to uphold-stay up on the internet for a few more hours until the blinding light of his laptop screen made his eyes red. Sometimes Phil would join Dan and they’d sit on their couch and occasionally tap the other on the shoulder, pointing to their own screen when they found a post they thought would make the other smile. For whatever reason that made the whole experience way better for Dan. Maybe he liked Phil being there because they were best friends, maybe it was just the presence of another person being sat next to him, or perhaps a tangle of both. Dan wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, Dan enjoyed it very much.

Dan soon retreated into his bedroom as wasn’t comfortable with just standing in the kitchen alone. He unplugged his laptop, glad to see it at full battery, and sat down on his bed. In record time, Tumblr was pulled up and he was scrolling through impressive amounts of shitposts and the occasional problematic rant by some self-righteous teen. He only skimmed through the posts, reblogging the few that made him blow a bit more air out of his nose than usual. Years of being a “full time internet homo” had that effect on him, barely laughing, mostly just exhaling more intensely.

One post on his dash stood out to him. Usually he’d scroll through phanfiction, ignoring the ones that seemed badly written by some 12 year old girl in twenty minute. That seemed to be the majority. However, every once and awhile he’d find one so amusing or highly requested he had to read it. Hell, he even found a few really well written ones that almost could be published or poetry. Naturally, when Dan found something like that he just had to read it. In any case, fanfiction was just writing-sometimes bad or… inappropriate writing, but: writing. It was better than getting high or drunk, so Dan figured he might as well support it, even if there were a few bad and emotionally damaging seeds.

The room was almost pitch black. The only sources of light being Dan’s open Macbook and the light peeking in through Dan’s window with the drawn curtains, caused by the street lamps, head lights, stars and moon of the outside world. It made the whole situation seem way more scandalous than it really was. Of course Dan would clear his search history after reading, and of course he’d deny ever reading the fic, and of course he would die if Phil found out, but that didn’t make it scandalous. Okay, maybe it did, but that was only because Dan made it so scandalous, it could be totally innocent and Dan could be open with his dirty little secret. However, that seemed too easy. Dan didn’t get much excitement in his life, so why not act like the whole reading phanfiction thing was this whole secret that was done behind closed doors and drawn blinds in the dead of night? It wasn’t like he secretly got off to it or anything, it just- he was just curious. That was it.

Well Dan being just “curious” lasted all of five paragraphs into the story. Then, he started to enjoy it. He loved the word choice, the characters (even if he was one of main ones), and even the plot. The whole story was based off of the zombie apocalypse and what would happen. Now, since Dan was such a massive nerd, the story called to him. It was thousands of words long- double digit thousands. However, Dan didn’t mind it at all. In fact, that was another thing he liked about it. If he could ignore the fact that it was he and his best friend’s names’, he could actually picture it being a real young adult novel. The writing was excellent and the pace was just right, he could actually see the characters falling in love. Shamefully, he fell in love with the characters as well. He even caught himself wondering why his Phil wasn’t like the one in the fic. If that was his Phil, of course he could be in love with him, the way the shippers wanted. That hit really close for Dan. He loved Phil, of course he did, but as a brother. The Phil in the story, however, he was different. He was more empathetic without being suffocating, he was strong and still sweet. Dan could see the resemblance to his Phil- wait, what? Dan just ranted in his own head about how great this character was, how he could have a romantic relationship with him, and then compared him to his 100% platonic best friend. That had to be crossing a ton of friendship boundaries, even for he and Phil. They were friends. That was it. But maybe it didn’t have to be… No. That was how it was. Friendship, only friendship. Period.

Dan knew that phanfiction was doing weird things to his brain. He knew he should click out, unfollow the person who put it on his dash, delete his search history and never go back. He didn’t though, he should of, but he didn’t. God, how he should of.

Instead of doing what was right, Dan gave into the alluring temptation. That had to be some kind of a sin, right? Imagine Dan being damned to Hell because he didn’t click out of a phanfiction, that seemed to be a very Dan thing to do. Rather this was true or not, it didn’t prevent Dan from reading the fic, and enjoying it. His bloodshot eyes focused on the brightness of his laptop screen and the black words on it in front of him, the rest of the world a massive blur of grays and streaks of white light shining in. Dan continued to read until the whole world went dark around him and he slipped into the warm embrace of sleep.

Dan awoke in a bed that was not his own, a warm hand on his left arm shaking him. Not wanting to wake up just yet, Dan rolled over onto his right side, away from the hand. Doing so, he was met by a sharp pain in the arm he’d rolled over on, which was luckily his right and non dominant arm. He heard a familiar voice, but it seemed distant and echoey, almost like it was at the opposite end of a tunnel. A long, dark, warm tunnel… Dan found himself drifting back into unconsciousness but was pulled out of it by the calloused hand that was still gripping him whilst shaking. Dan decided because of the the sharp pain burning into his flesh and the constant shaking there was little to no chance of getting back to sleep. The pain confused him because it wasn’t the type of pain you got when you slept wrong, it felt as if it was more of a open wound that could quite possibly be infected. Not that it would even make sense to have a sleeping pain in his arm, as Dan both went to bed and woke up laying on his back. As well as the odd pain, the weight of Dan’s laptop was gone. Had Phil came into his room, found the laptop on Dan’s stomach, and put it away for him? Oh no, had Phil seen what was on the screen? Dan didn’t remember closing the tab.

“Dammit Dan! Don’t you quit on me now!” The voice suddenly came into focus, like a camera. Once fuzzy and blurry, then sharp and clear. He knew that voice, it seemed a little worn though, broken from yelling. It was Phil’s voice.

“M’up, I’m good,” Dan slurred, opening his unfocused eyes trying to sit up. Doing so, the pain intensified, burning so fiercely Dan fell back. “What the fuck?!” Dan shouted.

“You got stabbed, idiot, remember?” Phil said, setting a hand on Dan’s chest to keep him down. When the world came into focus around Dan, he saw that the Phil next to him was not Phil. Or at least it wasn’t his Phil. This Phil’s skin was far too tan, his face was smeared with dirt (or dry blood, but Dan hoped it was just dirt), and his hair was way too long, his roots showing way too much. Dan looked at his pained right arm, seeing a white rag knotted around his slightly larger and more muscular bicep that was stained crimson with what Dan knew was his blood.

“Stabbed? What?” Dan gasped, voice coming out breathy and strained. His breathing quickened and he tucked his hands into fists, ignoring the pain caused in his right arm, digging little crescent moons into his sweating palms. He tried to force himself upright but was held down by Phil’s hand, who was ridiculously strong, so much so it was discomforting.

“Dan, you need to calm down,” Phil sternly said. Dan threw his fists at Phil’s hand, which seemed to be crushing. He just wanted to be alone, wanted to wake up in his room to the sound of Phil- his Phil, waking up obnoxiously loud. He didn’t want to be in this strange place with this strange Phil like some strange phanfiction…wait a minute. Phil’s description, his actions, Dan being stabbed- this was just like that phanfiction he fell asleep reading. But that was impossible, and even the idea of it increased Dan’s panic. He opened his mouth to scream at the weird person who was kind of like Phil, yell at them to go away, bring him back to his home, to his Phil, but nothing came out. His tongue felt too big in his mouth and his saliva felt like thick, dry cotton. He just wanted to go home! He wanted to wake up in his bed, yell at his Phil for waking him up so early, catch his Phil eating his cereal- he wanted it to be a weird dream. How could it be a dream? Dan felt pain, that didn’t happen in dreams, did it? So it wasn’t a dream? Did it mean Dan could never go home?

“Daniel!” Phil’s hand pressed harder on Dan’s chest and somehow brought him back to reality, or whatever it was, kind of. “Breathe Dan, breathe.” Dan was heaving for breath, he tried to listen, tried to breathe, tried to do what Phil said, but it wasn’t working. Dan just wanted everything to stop, please just stop. After a few minutes of struggling for air Dan felt himself start to calm down, the shaking he wasn’t even aware of started to slow, breath came easier, until he was only crying, yet another thing he wasn’t aware he was doing. He wiped his now unclenched hands on his face, trying to rid it of tears. He felt stupid, like an idiot. He’d just cried, like a complete child.

“I’m good,” Dan breathed,  relaxing his head on the pillow under it. He went to bring his hands over his face to cover it but was brutally reminded of his injury in the form of a sting.

Dan had never been one to believe in the supernatural or even religion. He believed facts. Yes, a zombie apocalypse was theoretically possible. It was also something religious, to a sense. No, zombies didn’t carry around bibles and sit in pews on Sundays, that just sounded stupid. However, there was three main things religions tended to have. A higher power, the beginning of time being created in a ‘big bang’ sort of sense, sudden and with no explanation besides before mentioned higher power, and, of course, “The End”, or, in other terms, “The Apocalypse”. In a way, it made sense. Logically, life itself had to have a start. Therefore, it also had to have an end. Who’s to say life doesn’t have to follow the same rules it creates, a beginning and and end, birth and death? However, that theory didn’t explain why Dan was magically sucked into some post apocalyptic universe birthed from the brain of one of his fans. That didn’t make any sense. Dan wished he could make it make sense. When things made sense you weren’t scared of them, you could convince yourself it wasn’t dangerous. Dan didn’t have that luxury.

“I think I need some fresh air,” Dan announced, moving to sit up. He, of course, was blocked by Phil’s hand. It was really starting to get annoying, being pinned down. He felt trapped, caged in like an animal, a beast with no humanity. He felt like Phil didn’t trust him, then again, why should he? Dan wasn’t the person this Phil knew, and deep down he thought Phil would know that. Maybe Dan should just play his part, calm this man a bit. After all, why should both of them feel lost? From reading the phanfic he knew how sickingly codependent this universe’s Dan and Phil were, who was he to rip that apart? After all, Dan knew everything the other Dan knew. They acted quite alike - this universe’s Dan and the real Dan. It made sense, after all, this Dan was based on the real one.

“Good luck finding any,” Phil snorted. Dan had almost forgotten he had spoke, so lost in his own thoughts, trapped in the prison of his mind. Phil lifted his hand off of Dan’s chest and instead used it to help Dan stand, which was a difficult task. Soon Dan was upright and he and Phil were heading to the rotted door decorated with metal locks and deep scratch marks, which were pale in contrast to the dark finish of the door. As they walked Dan noticed the many weapons and cobwebs littering the walls of the cabin, he appreciated them, though he had no idea how to use them. Phil grabbed a machete off the wall, very worn and coated in a brown substance that Dan knew was dried blood. Dan hoped he wouldn’t have to see Phil use it.

No part of Dan protested when Phil walked him out, or when held the door for him, or even when Phil rested his hand on Dan’s lower back. He wished he would have, wished he could have made himself. The truth was that Dan didn’t mind. His stomach didn’t drop, his skin didn’t burn or tingle. If anything, Dan felt safe. Warm. Content. Like what was happening was just… right. Was that insane? None of it was right, he wasn’t where he was supposed to be-not by a long run. He was supposed to be home, in bed, eyes bloodshot from his bright laptop screen. He wasn’t though, and that wasn’t right. It would be nice if it was, it’d be nice if his own kind of paradise wasn’t standing there consumed in the feeling of a man he didn’t know, a man that wasn’t real.

When the two exited the shack Dan woke up in they were engulfed by a forest. Shrubs, moss, and mushrooms littered the floor and above the canopy of the trees were so thick you could only catch a sliver of blue when you angled your head right. It wasn’t what Dan expected at all. He expected a city in ruins, bloody human like creatures digging into the corpses of children. The air, however, was just as he expected it. Thick, hot, smelling of rotting flesh, far from the musky, cool breezes a forest should carry. Dan suddenly remembered why everything was the way it was. In the phanfiction Dan and Phil decided to take shelter away from civilization because the cities… they were just as you’d picture. Gray, covered in a thick layer of crimson blood, only populated by zombies or sick bastards that couldn’t care less about you and only wanted your supplies. Evil place, the world had become.

“Zombies aren’t even the problem anymore,” Phil said, as if he was reading Dan’s thoughts. “Hell, they weren’t even the problem to begin with. People were. People created it and let it out. People… People started this mess…” Phil’s voice trailed off meaningfully. Dan understood what Phil meant, thinking back to the phanfiction. The writer had a bit of a prologue before they wrote the story. It described the beginning of the end, in a sense. It was like most starts to fictional zombie apocalypses, new drug that’s not tested enough creates a sickness. That drug was somehow leaked into the water supply and the world got sick, however, a few were immune. The drug was fought by a mutation in the genes of certain people. That gene was the blue eyes gene, which Dan did carry. Blue eyes was a recessive trait that didn’t show in Dan because of the brown eyes trait (a dominant gene) he also acquired. Phil too had this the blue eyes trait but his did show. However, those infected were given the instinct of spreading the pathogen. The only way they could do so when someone carried the blue eyes trait was via injection of contaminated DNA. Basically, if you carried the blue eye trait you were fine to drink, but it could still get the illness if you got bitten.

In Dan’s peripheral vision he spotted movement. He grabbed at Phil for reasons he couldn’t explain nor did he want to try and understand. Phil seemed unphased by this and just shook Dan off. “I think there’s one,” Dan tried to explain, pointing to where he thought he saw movement. Dan swore he saw concern paint Phil’s features for a split second before it was gone, but it was probably nothing. This version of Phil wasn’t the one Dan knew so well, it was a variation of him, but it wasn’t him. This Phil was made up by some teen girl on her laptop at four in the morning, and Dan couldn’t forget that. No matter how real this Phil seemed, he wasn’t.

Dan didn’t have much more time to fuss over his weird feelings for his friend’s character in some story he was somehow a part of (wow his situation was complicated) because they were joined by a freak of nature. The creature burst from the undergrowth, running towards them with a slight limp, arms outstretched and fingers like the talons of an eagle. The creature was just as you’d imagine a zombie; It’s pale skin was almost green but still carried the gray tint of death. It’s features were hollowed out, reminding Dan of one of those before pictures on an eating disorder recovery story. It’s clothes were torn and blood soaked. Gashes covered it, skin peeling away to show bloody and rotting flesh. Around its mouth there was the trace of its last meal, dried blood and chunks of flesh that didn’t seem to be its own. It’s eyes no longer held the glimmer of life and carried dark bags under them, far worse than the eye bags you got after a few nights of restless sleep. Everything about it was horrible and made Dan do a little sick in his mouth. A scream lodged itself in his throat but stayed there.

Phil stepped into action immediately and Dan wished he could say he didn’t find it ridiculously hot. The way he pushed Dan behind him and raised his machete up made Dan audibly gasp. If he hadn’t been so terrified out of his wits he’d consider it a turn on, which was concerning because this was Phil, Dan’s no homo best friend and roommate. Well, maybe it wasn’t Phil Phil, but still. The zombie ran faster and just when Dan was certain they were dead and Phil had no idea what he was doing, Phil surprised him. He stepped forward (towards the terrifying monster, Dan might add) with his left foot, and used all his strength and sung as he stepped, slicing the zombies head off. The body collapsed and the decapitated head rolled away. Dan was certain he was going to actually vomit.

“You’re bloody insane,” Dan breathed, staring at the open eyes and mouth of the head on the ground a few feet away from him. He felt like it was looking into his soul, and it was terrifying.

“You’re welcome, for you know, saving your life,” Phil said, turning to Dan and glaring at him.

“You’re an arse,” Dan spat, angry at Phil and not really knowing why. He had a point, without him Dan would be zombie food. He should be grateful, so why was he angry?

“Excuse me?” Phil’s eyebrows furthered and it seemed like venom laced his words. “You know what? I don’t even care!” Phil let out a dry and humorless laugh. “You know what the funny thing is? For a minute there, I thought you gave a half of shit about me, looks like I thought wrong, you don’t care about anyone. Not even yourself.” Phil growled, pushing his way past Dans and making his way to the shack.

Dan remembered why this was happening. Why he was angry, why Phil seemed like someone shoved a stick in his butt. In the fic, Dan threw himself in danger, went off without Dan and ended up getting hurt, Phil ended up saving him from getting eaten/infected, but still, a few heated words were shared. Before this, they had a bit of a, well, they slept together. Dan knew from the fic that Phil was felt that made the two more than friends, but the fic Dan didn’t think so. The fic Dan didn’t mean to hurt fic Phil he just didn’t think one night changed anything whereas fic Phil thought it meant everything. The whole thing was a mess and Dan was stuck in the middle of it, it was like if The Walking Dead was a gay soap opera. Shaun of the Dead meets General Hospital meets… gay. As for Dan, “not caring about himself” was probablybecause of when Dan got hurt, he wasn’t careful and overall it was like he didn’t care anymore.

Dan was lost in an ocean of thoughts and of course he was so deep that there were sharks. His senses failed him, he didn’t hear the shuffling of footsteps, couldn’t see what was coming as it was behind him, nor did he smell the putrid stench of rotten flesh and despair nearing him. No, all those senses failed him. However, one did not. The final sense, the one that paints a soft blanket or your lover’s hand, was the one that told him. The boney hand lacking any fat and only covered with a thin layer of peeling skin was what told Dan that he wasn’t alone. It pulled Dan back with remarkable strength for a creature with deteriorating muscles. Maybe a scream found its way through Dan’s mouth, maybe it didn’t. Perhaps it stayed lodged in Dan through, glued there by pure terror. Either way, Dan was pulled back and somehow managed to get himself turned around so he was face to face with husking skin and yellow, sharp teeth. It’s breath smelt of rotting teeth and metallic blood. Dan’s whole body was shaking and he could feel death nearing. He imagined a grim reaper lurking in the bushes near by, scythe in hand and dark cloak on its back.

The world was in slow motion, Dan felt every millisecond pass and felt like he could write an entire novel of each passing moment. Dan watched as its yellow teeth neared him, felt his heart beating out of his chest and shut his eyes tight, waiting for death. Dan wondered if this was the way out of the nightmare he had someone gotten himself in. He had heard of death being the one sure fire way out of any dream, maybe it was the same kind of thing. Maybe he would finally wake up in his own bed. Maybe he would finally be able to go hug his own Phil. Dan doubted he would sleep alone in his bed for weeks after this whole ideal, he’d just sleep with Phil. They used to do that all the time, it was just comforting. Dan was sure Phil wouldn’t mind, why would he? He always enjoyed it just as much as Dan did.

There was a swoosh sound in Dan’s ear and then he felt chunks of something splatter all over him. The grip that once help extra tight on his already hurt arm weakened and then slid off. A violent shudder ran through Dan’s body. He opened his eyes and felt tears run down his cheeks. Phil stood behind the limp body of the zombie that had previously been three seconds away from killing Dan. It didn’t even matter that it wasn’t Dan’s Phil, the real Phil. It didn’t even matter that this whole thing was probably some kind of odd hallucination. None of that mattered, because his eyes were Phil’s eyes and if Dan focused hard enough he could pretend this man in front of him was the same Phil he watched from behind a computer screen as a teenager, the one that ended up being his first and only best friend. So, Dan wrapped his arms tight around Phil’s neck and he cried, but he only cried harder when Phil didn’t smell the same as he should have and when he felt way too broad to be his Phil. Still, Phil dropped his weapon and held Dan close and at least that was comforting. This Phil still wrapped his arms tight around Dan’s waist and let him cry on him. Even if this wasn’t the real Phil, he still shushed Dan and rubbed his lower back and didn’t care that Dan was getting tears and snot all over his shoulder.

“I hate this place,” Dan sobbed, and he didn’t care that Phil wouldn’t know the truth behind his words. He didn’t care. He just wanted to be held and told ‘I know, I know,’ even if it wasn’t true. Even if it was all a lie, it was the only lie Dan would let himself believe, just for now, just until he felt a little better. They were both covered in dirt and blood, but that was okay. It was okay that Dan’s wound opened back up, it was okay that he almost died twice within an hour, it was okay that this Phil was in love with not this Dan but a different one, that was all okay.

“Let’s go inside, yeah?” Phil suggested, slowing the circles that he was rubbing on Dan’s back. Dan nodded into Phil’s shoulder and let Phil pull away and guide Dan inside. Phil sat Dan down on the bed. “I’ve gotta go get my machete, okay? I’ll be right back,” Dan nodded even though Phil was no longer looking at him and was already halfway out the door.

Dan’s heart felt sad. It was like a huge cloud of sad decided to park above his rib cage and just sit there. It was like the days when Dan would just wake up sad. Dan wasn’t depressed or anything, sometimes he just had sad days, and that’s okay. However those days he didn’t have any reason to be sad, but today he had all the reasons to be sad. He missed Phil, his Phil. He wanted to hug him, not this store brand version of him.

“Do you need another hug?” Phil asked, frowning above Dan. Dan didn’t even realize he was back.

“Yes, I need a thousand hugs,” Dan breathed. Phil smiled sadly and sat next to Dan, wrapping an arm around his waist. A few minutes passed before Phil spoke.

“You don’t feel the same way about me as I feel about you, and that’s okay,” Phil paused for a minute and moved Dan over a bit so he had more room to sit. “However, I don’t want you to lie and say you do, I can’t handle that. I’m in love with you, and you’re not in love with me, that’s okay, but please don’t lie to m-”

Dan didn’t know why he did it. But he did it. He cut Phil off by sitting on his lap and forcing their mouths together. He didn’t let Phil pull away or object; when he felt like Phil would try and stop him he kissed harder. He did that until Phil set his hands on Dan’s sides and kissed him back. The kiss tasted dirty and wrong and it made Dan’s heart sad even more, but he still did it. Even after they pulled away and caught their breath, Dan’s heart was sad. So, he kissed Phil again. He knew it was wrong and he was just using Phil, but he didn’t stop. He could tell Phil wanted him, he could tell he loved him, and that felt nice. Dan liked to be wanted and loved. He let Phil’s hands learn their way around his body and he forced his brain and heart away and just acted. He traced his hands all over Phil. He let Phil take off his clothes and he took Phil’s off as well, and he let the thing that started the first argument happen again. He let Phil think Dan felt the same way for him, but one dark truth lurked. This Phil was in love with his Dan and Dan was in love with his Phil. Dan didn’t want to believe it but he knew it was true. He wanted this, but not with this Phil.

The only way Dan could cope with his new realization was to block it out. He let fic Phil have whatever part of Dan he wanted and Dan pretended he loved this man. Because the two Phil’s were completely different people, it only got hard when fic Phil did something that reminded Dan of his Phil. That’s when Dan’s heart would get sad again. Dan would block that out too though, and soon Dan hated himself. He hated how naturally deceiving Phil came to him. He hated how no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t bring himself to look fic Phil in the eye because those eyes reminded him of the real Phil. Slowly self hatred and destruction became a habit. Even though the world was full of actual zombies plagued with a cell destroying disease, Dan still felt that the sick monster was himself. Fic Phil still took care of Dan and saved his life almost daily but sometimes Dan wished he wouldn’t. Maybe if Phil was a little late one time then Dan wouldn’t have to be the one to break his heart, it would just be cruel Mother Nature and another case of star crossed lovers.

Well naturally the one wish that did come true during that whole ordeal was the one involving Dan’s own death. Of course. It wouldn’t of made sense for it to be Dan wanting to wake up or not having one useless arm that always hurt and the second he moved it would begin squirting blood, no, that was just too nice of whatever cruel higher power put Dan in that mess. That angsty God just wanted more drama.

It happened when Dan left the wood rotted shack for a little time away from the mess he’d weaved himself in with Phil. Phil ran up and gave Dan a kiss on the forehead before he left and Dan felt he was going to be sick. Still, he smiled at the gesture and gave Phil a peck on the lips and a muttered “I love you”, still holding back his sick. He’d never really been one for mega sappy relationships and it didn’t make it easier that this whole relationship was lacking any love from his part. He wish he meant the “I love you”, but he felt nothing as he said it, only longing for someone who had aspects of this man but who wasn’t him. Dan quickly got out of that hell house of a shack and walked a bit deeper into the forest than he should have. He stood on the ledge that overlooked a gray city and a lake that looked to be covered in a thick layer of dust. He watched creatures that weren’t quite human limp about and tear apart corpses of what might of been a person that might of had a family. Then again, maybe they were the last one of the family and they wished death upon themselves like Dan did. Even if life beyond this wasn’t life at all, even if he didn’t wake up in his own world with his own Phil, maybe that was okay, at least then he wouldn’t have to lie to anyone. No matter what happened after this, Dan never wanted to lie again. Lying was too much for Dan to handle and it was tearing him apart.

Dan had a bit of Déjà vu when he felt the boney hand grab him, digging into his upper arm. He felt it began to bleed but he did nothing, not even scream. Then it dug into his other arm, the healthy one. That one started to bleed too. He felt crimson liquid drip down his body but he did nothing but shut his eyes and wait for the teeth. They snuck into the part between his neck and shoulders, they ripped through tendons and ligaments. They crunched nerves and punctured veins. Then they were ripped from him and took the chunk of flesh with them. The hands digging into his arms also pulled out of him. He heard familiar slicing and he felt his knees give out, he opened his eyes when he felt arms around him. He swore he was going to be sick. It was Phil, and as always, he saved him. Well, not really. Dan looked at him with glassy eyes and smiled sadly. He felt his resolve fading and he slipped into insanity and sickness.

“Do it,” he croaked. Tears covered Phil’s cheeks and it made Dan ache. Even if he didn’t love this Phil, his eyes were still the same three-colored ones of his flat mate and best friend, and those eyes should never cry. Dan wanted to dry his tears but he couldn’t move his arms, they were in too much pain.

“I can’t,” Phil managed, voice breaking. “I just can’t do it.”

“Please, Phil, it hurts,” Dan said, voice dripping with pain. It was like the worst flu ever mixed with open wounds and bleeding out. Phil nodded once and returned Dan’s sad smile. He got his machete and laid Dan down comfortably on a soft patch of grass.

“I love you,” Phil told Dan as he raised his weapon. He was determined to do it quickly and in one even swipe, that would make Dan suffer less, and that’s all he wanted at this point.

“I love you too,” Dan lied. Or maybe he didn’t. Of course he was grateful for this man, he had saved Dan’s life a few times, but did that equal love? Probably not. Still, Dan wanted the last words Phil heard from him to be that he loved him, even if it was a lie. He needed that, so he would give it to him.

Phil raised his machete and one minute Dan felt all his pain, then for a split second he felt incredibly sharp pain in his neck, and then he felt nothing. For a moment there was black, nothingness, but then Dan was opening his eyes in his room, in London. He felt the familiar weight of his laptop on his lap and he didn’t feel any pain. Dan sighed in relief. He got up to go find Phil, needing him right that moment.

The smell of coffee and the clinking of dishes lead Dan to believe Phil was in the kitchen. As he walked into said kitchen he was aware that his suspicions were indeed correct. Phil stood next the a counter in his pjs, stirring a cup of coffee.

“Good morning, Danny Boy,” Phil said when he saw Dan walk in. He took a minute to go back to making his coffee but then he continued the one-sided conversation. “I read last night that more people are killed by donkeys than plane crashes, isn’t that cool?”

Dan was so happy that Phil said it. It meant it was the real Phil, the Phil that he met in Manchester on the train station so long ago. This was Phil. His Phil. Dan had so many emotions that he didn’t know what to do with them, so he cried. He just burst into sobs right there, a few feet from Phil.

“Dan are you okay? Did a family member of yours get killed by a donkey? Did I just bring back traumatic repressed memories from your childhood?” Phil rambled, and Dan just cried harder. “Can I do anything to make it better?”

Dan nodded once. “Hugs, please,” he requested. Phil nodded and abandoned his coffee to wrap Dan up in his arms. Dan cried harder, happy tears, because this was the Phil he knew. He smelled like coffee, liquorice, and apples. He smelt like Phil. His arms wrapped tightly around Dan’s back and made him feel safe. He felt like he could say anything and it would be perfectly okay, so he said the one thing on his mind. “I love you,”

Phil didn’t say anything back for a long few seconds. It stretched out like an eternity, but he didn’t lessen his grip on Dan and Dan was beyond grateful for that. Only sound in the room was their breathing and Dan was nervous about how heavy his was compared to Phil’s, who kept his composure too well for Dan’s liking. Dan expected Phil to reject him or something. Phil didn’t say anything. It seemed like eons of waiting for something-anything. Finally, Phil responded.

“I love you too,” and Dan’s heart stop and he started over analyzing. Of course Phil loved him, as a friend. Friends say ‘I love you’, right? Was it just he and Phil that never said it? Or maybe they did, Dan’s mind was too fuzzy to recall. Well, there’s really only one way to find out how Phil meant it. Dan somehow managed to loosen Phil’s grip on him enough to push their mouths together. Phil didn’t retaliate for a few seconds and Dan thought he was going to die of embarrassment and waited for Phil to again, do something.

Phil did do something. Dan felt the pressure being returned and he actually thought he was literally going to die. He didn’t though and when they had to pull away to breathe Phil hugged him tighter and Dan was glad that Phil’s breathing was just as heavy as his. As happy as he was, Dan was still kind of worried for the Phil in the phanfiction. What happened to him? When Phil finally let Dan go and Dan looked into his eyes Dan felt guilty again.

“I’ll be right back,” Dan breathed, as if he was scared that if he was too loud what just happened with he and Phil would shatter. Phil didn’t say anything but looked concerned.

Dan hurried back to his room and quickly read the end of the fic and almost threw his laptop across the room. The last line was:

“After Dan and Phil shared their kiss Dan rushed back to see the ending of the story he was trapped in, wanting to know the ending.”

And then it ended. Just like that, an open ending. Everyone hates those and yet authors keep writing them. Over and over again.

The end.

#phanfiction #zombies #ooo spoopy #phan #phandombigbang #phandom big bang

[fume-knight-of-shovelry]

On Toxicity, Shipping, Creator Interactions and the Future of the Overwatch Community

This is a follow-up to my previous post.

Under the cut due to length.

I’ve never been one to write long posts on fandoms or fan interactions, but I just need to respond to some of what’s been going on recently. I’m obviously biased in favor of certain things, but have done my best to remain objective here.

My previous post was not directed at any one ship. I tagged it as pharmercy and gency (And I’m not going to slash the names, not because I want to invade anyone’s space, but because this is the kind of thing all shippers should be aware of) because those are the two biggest ships that are related to this conflict, but it applies to everyone.

If someone’s ship is invalidated by canon, that does not mean that they need to or should stop shipping it or otherwise stop making content for it. Certain specific exceptions exist for certain fandoms that I won’t go into here.

The nature of fan creations is that, whether they’re art, writing, shitposts or porn, the vast, vast majority of such things will never have any basis in canon, much less be acknowledged by the creators, even the stuff that’s in-character or otherwise resembles the original work closely. That shouldn’t stop people from having fun with stuff that isn’t canon, or stuff that’s implicitly but not explicitly canon. Even for people that aren’t super intensely into a ship or something can still use areas they’re interested in to further their art/writing/let’s playing/editing/etc.

On the flipside, it also means these people shouldn’t attack the creators for their storytelling decisions and pretend they know better than the creators do. In most cases, this builds up to unhealthy and unrealistic amounts of fan entitlement, which leads to increasingly hostile relationships with the creators. This ends with developers backing away from fan interactions, which leaves everyone worse off and further divides the fandom, and even if they don’t get driven away, you don’t want to discourage them from listening to their fans (which, unsurprisingly, is what happens when they get abuse hurled at them).

Nor does this mean that the people whose ships are validated by canon should be rude to people whose ships aren’t. Don’t gloat, brag, or otherwise be a jerk about your ship “winning”; framing ships as “winning” or “losing is inherently unhealthy and contributes to an unsustainable inter-ship environment, because it creates the illusion that “there can be only one”. While a ship getting canon support is awesome, it’s not necessarily a benchmark that shuts out other ships.

Also, these people shouldn’t turn it into validation of their every desires. The opposite of rage against developer’s design decisions is feeling that, because one ship/desire got made part of the original work, you’re owed everything else you want becoming canon. This is an entirely different kind of entitlement to the one listed above, but still reliant on a the same flawed, “I’m owed something” principles.

Plus, just because something got made/didn’t get made canon does not mean it was in response to fan demand. Depending on how tight-lipped the development team is, it can be impossible to know what was planned before something took off in the fandom and what wasn’t, and even if the decisions were made after a pairing/headcanon got popular does not mean the choice was made to address that. Fans have powerful voices in engaging with creators, but this power is often exaggerated.

I’m writing this for a variety of reasons (and I rarely spend this much time on something fandom-related). Primarily because the current state of multiple fandoms is so inherently unworkable that they can’t survive.

I’m mostly addressing this to Overwatch, because it’s my biggest media investment right now, but this applies to every combative following; Dragon Age in particular comes to mind.

Overwatch’s community can be phenomenal, producing out the funniest, saddest, and cutest content I’ve ever seen, especially around a game whose story is unfortunately sparse, its lore infrequently updated, and its characters ill-established given how initially interesting they all are.

(No, I am not targeting the writing team; they’re doing a good job. I’m addressing the pace of new information, the establishment of characters past their personalities, and the questions that have gone unanswered for a little too long.)

But it’s also so stiflingly toxic, divided, and high-strung that it feels like we can’t go a day without a new controversy erupting and igniting new fractures between parties. We’ve been at an unsustainable boiling point for almost a year. If things don’t change, the community is going to tear itself to pieces.

At this point, Overwatch’s fandom, like too many other fandoms, is proving to be an outright negative experience for me and many others for a wide variety of reasons. I’m still going to be part of it because I adore the game and have found or deepened my bonds to my best friends through it, but I just can’t picture a good future with the current level of conflict.

Something needs to change. Probably many things.

A few places to start:

1. Harassment. Not only is it rude, invasive, and potentially dangerous, it’s going to do the exact opposite of convincing people to agree with you. It’s just not a good idea. Don’t do it. And sometimes, harassment isn’t as obvious as people think it is. Especially towards prominent fan creators, well-meaning communication can be harassment. Be careful.

2. Differing opinions and stakes. This is not political debate. We are not debating basic human rights, healthcare, gun control or one of a billion other issues approaching that level of importance. We all love this game, or at least the story and characters. Try and focus on what we have in common while keeping what makes us unique, rather than attacking others for differences. You’ll find that, more often than not, differing opinions can coexist. Very few viewpoints, especially in something as comparatively trivial as fandom/communities are mutually exclusive with another viewpoint. And if someone disagrees with you, odds are they aren’t dismissing your worth as a human being, intentionally discriminating against you, or otherwise attacking you as a person. If they are...

3. Walking away. Oftentimes, in tandem with the two points above, the best course is to back off. If someone’s consistently or harshly toxic, block them and try not to engage with them. The game and the community are meant to be fun. If they’re getting stressful in any of the hundreds of ways that these things can be, take a break, block the offenders if needed, and come back later. Engage with the content you want, but don’t let it consume you. On that note...

4. Moderation. I won’t make any judgements about people’s time and energy reserves, but I simply can’t afford to engage in the kind of total concentration on fandom that the most toxic community members seem to exhibit. Don’t make aspirations towards deriving the majority of your identity from fandom; it’s a place for fun, but everyone has other things they also need to do.

5. Communication. This ties a bit into point #2 above, but I couldn’t find a way to fit it in. Try your best to reach out to people you’re having trouble with; you don’t need to make friends with everyone you disagree with (and oftentimes, this will not be a healthy friendship; I have experience in this regard), but polite and punctual contact goes a very long way towards keeping situations from escalating, feelings from getting hurt, and drama from erupting. And even if you don’t make friends, keeping emotional wounds from festering will help in the long run.

6. Tagging. This is more specific to tumblr and twitter, but do your best to not cross over into other people’s lanes. Not much more to say in this regard.

There’s probably more I can say, or more I can add, but I’m out of energy to put more in this list at the moment.

I don’t expect this to turn the fandom around. But if it helps anyone, or at least provides something to consider, I’ll consider my time and energy well-spent. And I know there are things I need to do myself to help with this.

I will tag it with a few ships, again, not to be rude or to spread hate (I certainly hope that’s not the impression anyone gets with this, and any kind of hate or harassment is not my intention), but to maximize its visibility, since I think messages like this need to be spread as far across the community as possible.

#my post #me #mine #overwatch #shipping #fandom toxicity #long post #pharmercy #gency #mchanzo #genyatta #bunnyribbit #widowtracer #symmarah

[grumpygayming]

Do the odd questions for Aim and the evens for his twin whose name I forgot

Ok, for Aimilios & Amias

Aimilios

1. Do they prefer to wear headphones or earbuds when listening to music?

As a byproduct of being a dad…ear buds, that way he can share with Theo if need be or easily take them off when Theo needs him.

  3. Do they usually eat mild, medium, or spicy salsa?

Spicy, always spicy unless he’s sharing with Theo in which case it’s mild because the last time he tried to give him spicy food Theo cried for an hour afterwards & Aim felt like the worst dad ever.          

5. How do they react to finding out someone has a crush on them?

 It doesn’t faze him all that much unless the feelings are mutual, in which case he becomes a nervous mess trying not to ruin things between him and the other person, However, they would never find out about it because over the years he’s gotten pretty good at putting his feelings aside and acting as casual & charming as possible around them. He calls it a byproduct of being a performer.           

7. How would they fare in a zombie apocalypse?

Aimilios would kick ass in a Zombie apocalypse. He would be the leader of his own group (probably his dance students, boyfriend, & son) and he would most definitely survive and as long as everyone listened to him they would too.            

9. How much ice do they put in their drinks?

The normal amount?         

11. What’s their desktop background?

He & Theo dancing in his studio on his last birthday, where a few of his co-workers threw a party for him.               

13. Did they have any phases? (e.g. emo, punk, scene…)

Is straight a phase? Cause, if so, yeah he went through attempting to be your average straight guy up until recently, he even joined baseball in high school to try & fit the mold.              

15. Are they the big spoon or the little spoon?

Big spoon most of the time, but he does enjoy being held and being the little spoon at times. But it’s not the norm.            

17. How do they like their toast?

Toasty.                         

19. What are they like as a neighbor?

Not gonna lie, Aim keeps some weird ass hours and if it’s near time for a performance he can be a pain in the as as a neighbor (if you live below him that is) because he’ll get up at three am to go over footwork, he stays quiet thought because he doesn’t want to wake Theo…so that’s a plus. But other than that he’s a great neighbor, he always has a stocked kitchen for Theo’s sake (trying to provide normalcy for his kid in a single parent household, blah, blah) so you can always ask him for a cup of sugar, or eggs, or whatever else. And he’s really friendly despite keeping to himself on account of being dead tired when he gets home after work.              

 21. What’s the weirdest thing you’re likely to find in their room?

His ballet barre

23. Do they like raisins in their pastries? If no, will it stop them from eating it?      

He hates raisins baked into most things and generally he won’t eat it but there are exceptions to the rule. Very few but they exist.

25. Does your muse listen to vinyl records? Do they use iTunes? Do they legally or  illegally download music?            

iTunes or streaming services, he does own a few vinyl records of his father’s but other than that he doesn’t listen to them.

27. Is your muse a dreamer or a realist?            

A little bit of both? When it comes to his personal happiness he’s definitely a dreamer but as far as how he can achieve things on the day to day he’s a realist.

29. What’s their Subway order?              

He will get whatever sounds good at the time since he doesn’t go to Subway all that often and when he does he usually goes for Theo and doesn’t get much of anything for himself.

31. What about themselves do they usually not tell people? What are they embarrassed of?          

His sexuality, even when it comes up, he’s still very used to being closeted  (I mean after a 13 year relationship with a woman and being closeted for 30 years…you’d be iffy about talking to people about it too lol) and he doesn’t quite know how to approach the subject. Even now that he’s in a serious relationship he doesn’t announce to the world that he has a boyfriend because of the personal awkwardness surrounding his sexuality, he does however want to show off his boyfriend all the time so it’s difficult for him.

He’s embarrassed of….nothing really.

33. White, red, or rose wine?           

Boxed? Not for the taste but he’s fond of the memories boxed wine brings, doesn’t matter the kind, just cheap, boxed wine. When he and his brother turned 21 they would drive out to their grandparent’s farm and drink boxed wine in the back of their pick up truck. As they got older and their cousins all turned 21 it became tradition to go to the farm every summer and drink their asses off together.

35. What’s their Starbucks order?             

Venti caramel macchiato, double shot of espresso & a chocolate croissant for Theo.

37. Do they believe in any conspiracy theories? Fear a zombie apocalypse/AI overtake? How do they think the world will end?              

He has no time for any of these, with how busy he is teaching, performing himself, & freelancing choreography on top of raising his son & making time for his boyfriend.

39. What would you see if you looked through their trashcan?            

Sketches, notes from his ex aka the mother of his son, old pens, and wrappers for protein bars.

41. Are they an exhibitionist? Do they ever change in front of windows? Have sex when they know people can see/hear?               

Hahhhh, he would never admit to it but he does like the thrill of other people being able to hear and see him, however, he’s a bit too shy to ever actively pursue having an audience (his brother however…..oh boy).

43. Why do people usually call them on the telephone? To complain? To ask for advice? To ask them to do something for them?               

For work, generally for his professional expertise or to help solve problems. Other than that he usually gets calls from family just to catch up & check in on him.

45. Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?            

LOTR

47. How do they go about asking someone out or confessing their feelings about someone to them?              

He’s pretty upfront, if he likes someone or wants to go out with them he’ll simply tell them or ask as long as he knows it won’t affect them negatively.

49. In the “sleep vs. grades vs. social life, pick two” situation, which two do they pick?               

Social Life & Grades, he lived that life in high school & college and has gotten quite accustomed to running on minimal sleep.

Amias                

2. What do they do when they’re feeling tired and need to stay awake? 

Drink coffee….or he’ll just sleep and hope that he wakes up in time to finish whatever he needs to get done.            

4. Pizza, McDonalds, or Chinese take-out?  

Chinese.           

6. How do they feel about unrequited love?     

That it’s shitty but a part of life. There’s no point in harping over it because if you move on you’ll have another chance with someone whose actually meant for you later on.                

8. Gold, silver, or copper jewelry? 

Silver.            

10. Do they use Instagram, Facebook, or Tumblr? If so, how much/often?             Facebook almost daily, he’s the annoying guy that post pictures of his kids and leaves comments on all of his family members content.

12. How are they at taking care of plants? 

Pretty decent, he and his brother used to garden with their mother all through out his life. He keeps a small window garden in is kitchen.           

14. How did they do academically in high school?  

Well enough to pass and graduate a semester early so he could tour with his band before they all went to college.                      

16. How do they like their eggs?     

Scrambled.                    

18. Queso or guacamole? 

Guacamole.                        

20. How do they behave when confronted with deadlines?    

He finishes things before the deadline in order to have time to review before having to hand in/present the final product.          

22. What fictional character do they relate to the most?  

 ???                  

24. When forced to do a group project with other people, what role do they usually play?            

Leader, he hates relying on other people.                 

26. How would your muse do at taking care of a goldfish?    

If it’s easier than taking care of twin toddlers and a newborn baby then he’d be amazing.                 

28. Android, iPhone, or other?

iPhone                            

30. Trendsetter, trend follower, or trend ignorer?

Trend ignorer.                      

32. What’s their ideal vacation?  

Before kids it was anywhere he and Bronte could spend days together where they barely left the bed. But now that they’ve got Charlie, Eli, and Jonah it would be anywhere that he can see the three of them bond and get the most of their time together…but of course with activities that keep them away for just long enough for he and Bronte to get up to their own fun.                    

34. Are they outdoorsy? Do they enjoy hiking, camping, etc.?        

Very much so, he and his brother spent plenty of summers camping with their grandpa and on the family farm.                     

36. What colors make up most of their wardrobe?

Black, black, and more black.                           

38. Do they play video games? If so, which ones?  

Anything he can get his hands on but he’s particularly fond of legend of zelda.                       

40. What kind of videos do they get recommended on YouTube?

Music videos, speed art, and art tutorials.                           

42. How do they feel about astrology?

Not too into it but he does read up on it out of boredom sometimes.                     

44. Have they ever had any pregnancy scares?   

He’s a hoe, so yeah…a few with girls he was with but luckily they were only scares.         

46. Do they meme? Enjoy memes? Create memes? Find them horribly annoying? How about shitposts?

Dank memes, shit posting, he’s into it. He might even be a meme economist.     

48. When do they usually go to bed?

He’s the father of twins and a newborn….what is sleep to him?              

50. What do they think is the meaning of life?

To experience as much as you can before death comes for you.              

#char stuff #aimilios kraus #amias kaus #I'll add pictures later lol

[multsicorn]

9, 12, 20, 31, 41. I am greedy.

and I am thrilled to be asked!

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?I don't know! - honestly I still feel a bit frustrated, trying to get into it, like I'm knocking at the door.  Most popular ships, including the biggest, don't interest me all that much; I'm only moderately a fan of the canon itself.  (well then, mults, why are you in this fandom?)  (i fell wildly madly in love with one tiny sliver of canon, don't talk to me, okay).  But there is definitely quite a bit of fic and art that I love so much - don't get me wrong! - (and I still haven't managed to comment on so much of it, gah).

Some best things are: @littlestpersimmon’s art, and @yoursummerfrost’s stories… and @camilliar’s and @tomato-greens' wonderfully correct Opinons ;).

But I think the VERY BEST things are the it's-always-a-hiatus random shared creativity shitposts that every so often take over my dash.  Things like @des-zimbits' bittypoots au, and @shitty-check-please-aus’ 'what if your soulmate turned into an oven.'  … and those posts are very much not just them, they are group creations!  But I can't follow everyone, so that's what I see, and that sort of shared madness is the best thing in this fandom, to me, and I wish my brain worked faster so I could join in more.

12. Who is your current OT3?Pimbits/PB&J, OF COURSE.  I think they might actually be the ot3-est ot3 I've had ever?  Because I always polyship, and I always multiship, too, so usually when I love ot3's I also love all the component otp's, and quite a few ot4s/ot5s/other polycules that include but don't end with the ot3.

But, here - zimbits is great and I do believe that they're happy and set up well for the long haul 1. Actually, a lot, maybe most, of the fic projects I have going are Jack/Parse set during the Q?  But that's never gonna end happily.  And sometimes even I want a happy ending, damnit!2. Kent/OC is another Very Excellent Option and in fact quite a lot of what I read, and makes for a great sort of story with regards to healing wounds and moving on.  Which is.  Yes.  Kind of what I'm in this fandom for.3. But Jack and Bitty are Real Live Actual characters that Exist, and I can't ship Kent with either of them in a happy ending way *without* the other… and if I ship all three of them together, it's less close to canon, yeah, it doesn't feel likely to happen, but it could!  And there's just SO MUCH potential drama and complicated dynamics there, like, that's at least a large part of what I'm #here for in a ship.

I need to make a post about it.  (And I don't need to wait for an excuse!  But now that I do have an excuse… ~scalene ot3 post coming up Next.)

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?Ha, I don't know!  On the one hand, ALL of them, cause I typically never know I'll tip over into caring about something till I do.  On the other hand, that makes it more or less impossible for me to pick specific ones to answer this question with.  I never thought I’d care about SPORTS, wtf, till I fell into omgcp; I never thought I’d care about the FOUNDING FATHERS, again wtf, till I fell into Hamilton; or a HIGH SCHOOL DRAMEDY, until I fell into Glee...

Most recently I've gotten into the idea of Jack/Shitty.  And Jack/Lardo!  Not as, y'know, ongoing Real Ships, but as 'hooked up in the past and now we're friends' things.  (why is this dynamic so appealing, @me.)

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?Many people have said many very nice things and it's always hard to think of 'the nicest' off the top of my head!  When my friends who are among my favorite writers say that I'm one of theirs; when people whose skill and taste I respect tell me that they trust me to handle difficult stories; those are the VERY BEST, generally.  I count myself thrilled that these things have happened more than once or twice!

(I'm still not sure anything has thrilled me yet more than the last time I answered this question, which is that time I wrote a fic that might've been about Blaine being manic and @misqueue said it was a good depiction thereof which was just.  Amazing.  Cause I don't know what that's like, but she does…!)

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

I'm not currently reading any WIPs, so I will make this '5 fanfics I have read and loved recently.'  WITH RECS/DESCRIPTIONS cause I remember you said that’s a thing you like!

Ain't a Rule (That Ain't Worth Breaking) by @yoursummerfrost.  bittyparse: Kent is tired of being in the closet; Bitty helps him cause a scandal.There's a zimbits-hopeful ending, but I mostly just love the way that Bitty and Parse connect in this.  Parse's mix of vulnerability and bravado - and hey, come to think of that, Bitty's too.  No wonder they could have some sympathy for each other.  And yoursummerfrost's details, from imagery to dialogue to sudden too-sharp inner observations, are always on point.  ("Bitty doesn’t even like Kent Parson. Or, if someone asked, that’d be what he said. But right now, on this sticky dance floor with the music too loud and the taste of overpriced liquor still on his tongue, he’d probably kill for him.")

i don't see your name on it by @heyfightme.  zimbits soulate au: Eric is eighteen when he meets the eleventh Jack of his life.  I love what this does with the soulmates trope, of course: at this level of fandom saturation, I don't think I could love a soulmate au that didn't put some sort of specific spin on it.  But in this case the unusual part isn't the mechanics, per se: it's how Bitty reacts to his name, and how Jack reacts to his, and just how much it, for the most part, doesn't change between them at all, even as it illuminates something about them in the story.

No Crystal Stair by @vampireisabitstrong.  gen Jack Zimmermann fic, about his Issues and his recovery.  ("Alicia just wants Jack to find happiness, whatever it takes.")  Lyrical, perceptive, and just really sad enough to feel really hopeful about it after all.  (If that makes sense.)

Stuck Inside the Silence by @omgpbandj.  pimbits: Kent lies in bed, listening to his two best friends fuck and wondering what the hell he'd done to deserve this.  It's… porn, a lot of it, and it's hot, and it's a pretty simple oneshot, but still, I just LIKE it, the character notes, the simple tension of liking someone (someones) maybe too much, and thinking they don't want it until they do.  I think part of why I love this particular fic is imagining the comfortable friendship between all three of Kent, Jack, and Bitty that's the background of it: and then part of it's the little things, Bitty's insecurity (“I wasn’t sure you’d be attracted to me"), Jack chirping Kent ("Probably Jack would have laughed at him a little fondly, like he did the first time Kent said that he wanted to buy his mom a house with his first paycheck"), I just!  Love these characters!  Okay!  And I love watching them be themselves.

100px To The Right by @jedusaur.  weird metafic: Bitty comes out to Johnson in the Haus kitchen after baking four pies in a row.  What can I say?  A short little WEIRD fic, but… it has tags like "the sociocultural context of this webcomic" and "the illogic of caring about sports", and it earns them, cause Johnson the Metaphysical Goalie comes by all his outside-the-box thoughts quite legitimately.

#meme #thank you for asking! #omgcheckplease stuff #fandom how does it work #stultiloquentia