#its not even an art app its just the generic notes app that is NOT meant to be drawn with and will fight you screeching angrily | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ask-artsy-oncie · 2 years

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For Everyone New to Tumblr

So! Your shitty social media website has become even shittier? So much so that you’re running to our beloved little hellsite? Welcome! Despite all the jokes, this is genuinely one of the last good social media websites out there that has a considerable userbase, and it’s probably for the best that its growing and people are beginning to grow used to experiences that aren’t dictated by advertisers and algorithms.

BUT

If you want to be welcomed with open arms from said userbase, you are going to have to learn how to use and navigate Tumblr.

Having been stuck here for almost 11 years, now (the fact that this is a retired Once-ler askblog should be proof enough), I feel like I’ve seen a lot of posts that have touched on many different aspects of Tumblr that new users should be wary of, but none that have put the entirety of new user advice into one big post. I feel a little bit of a lacking in both content and convenience that might make taking all this advice in difficult.

So here I go, making a big long post that new users can have as reference.

I strongly recommend that new users at least start the account-making process on a laptop or desktop computer, as opposed to a mobile phone, for reasons I will get into later, but it’s not a requirement.

(PLEASE NOTE: Table of Contents only functions properly when you view this post on my blog, sorry for the inconvenience!)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MAKING YOUR BLOG

- Editing Your Blog’s Mobile Appearance

- Editing Your Blog’s Desktop Appearance

- Your Blog’s Settings

APP VS MOBILE VS DESKTOP

MAKING POSTS

- Types of Posts

- Content in Posts

- The Tagging System

FINDING OTHER BLOGS

- Following Blogs You Already Know

- Finding New Blogs

INTERACTING WITH OTHER BLOGS

- Reblogs, Comments, and Likes

- Asks, Submissions, and Messaging

- Blocking

YOUR INFLUENCE AS A TUMBLR USER

- You Have None

TUMBLR CULTURE

- Post Circulation

- Miscellaneous Etiquette

- Tumblr-specific Memes

Let’s get started, shall we?

Making Your Blog

So, you’ve just finished making an account (or you’ve been using Tumblr with the bare minimum as a blank blog that only likes posts since creating your account) and you’re met with a screen that looks something like this:

(please note, I will be using the desktop site for the majority of this tutorial)

You have, presented to you, a dashboard full of popular, recommended blogs, with more recommendations offered to you either on the side, or, on mobile, during short breaks in your dashboard. Maybe you’re already following a few people or tags - cool! Right now, we’re not going to focus on the dashboard, there are a few important steps that we’ve neglected in making our Tumblr blog!

To get started, we’ll need to click on this little icon, here:

(on a mobile browser, you’ll instead want to click on this menu icon)

You will get a menu that looks like this - with general options above, and a list of your blogs, below. Right now, what we want to focus on is “Edit Appearance” under your blog, which, for whatever reason, is actually how you access your blog’s settings (whereas “Settings” just takes you to your general account settings)

The page will look something like this - scrolling down will offer you a myriad of options!

Editing Your Blog’s Mobile Appearance

What we can do, here, to get started, is edit the appearance of your blog for mobile devices - this includes mobile browsers and the Tumblr app. This includes changing your icon (which will not change across platforms), adding a header image, blog title, blog color, and description. (Note: If you want to include any HTML-specific content in your description, such as links, images, or special text formatting, please forgo working on your description until we move on to editing the appearance of your blog for desktop sites)

It is highly recommended that you do not use an independent artist’s (including fan-artists’) work for your icon or header image without their permission AND credit. Art theft is a huge issue on social media, and while most sites don’t actually do much to punish you for this, I will tell you, right now, that if an artist recognizes your icon or header image as someone else’s (not your) art, and notices you haven’t credited said artist, they are very likely going to be wary of you, and will possibly block you. To avoid going on a tangent, if this concept confuses you, please feel free to check the #art theft tag on my blog.

Ideas for what to use for your icon and header:

- A screenshot or stock image of your favorite fictional character

- A drawing you did

- A photo of your pet

- A photo you took

I personally like to use backgrounds from shows or games that I like as my header, and my own art as my icon.

Next, you’ll want to click on the “Background” option and select a color that compliments your header and/or icon (your header should probably take priority, though, since it’s pretty permanently attached to your background color when people go to view your blog). The “Accent” option next to it should be a color you can see clearly against your background color.

Once all the visual elements are done, you’ll want to type out a blog title. This can be anything from your online pseudonym, a quote you resonate with, or some shitpost-esque descriptor of yourself. Your description is equally “do whatever you want”. Most people give their online pseudonym or any name they’re comfortable using online, their pronouns, their occupation (most artists or writers will list that they’re artists or writers), their interests, etc. There are many things you can do with your description.

Here’s an example of what I’ve done:

(The header image is from a picture book, and the icon is from a TV show)

Looks a lot more nice and personal than the blank appearance it had, before, huh?

But WHY should I edit my blog’s appearance? Tumblr has had an issue with bot accounts which, buy and large, do not edit their blog appearances. When you, a human being, don’t bother to do this either, many long-time users will assume you are also a bot (and probably block you). Plus, having a custom-looking page is part of the fun of Tumblr! If you’re going to be here for a while, might as well make it a place you actually like the looks of!

Now, the nittier-grittier part of blog customization - editing your blog’s appearance for desktop browsers!

Editing Your Blog’s Desktop Appearance

In order to see how your blog will look outside of the Tumblr dashboard or mobile browsers, You’ll need to go to “[blogURL].tumblr.com”. By default, the desktop version will look very similar to the mobile version - but there’s a lot you can do to make it better for desktop browsers, specifically. This part is a lot more optional than editing your blog’s mobile appearance, but if you like the idea of having your own personal little website of sorts, you should definitely give this a try!

You’ll want to get started by clicking on the little paint palette icon.

If you do not use a laptop or desktop computer, you won’t be able to access this icon, which is why I recommended earlier that you start your blog-making process on a laptop or desktop computer.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll end up with a layout like this:

Look at all those options!! I suggest toying around with all of them in order to figure out what you like best - most features and options are self-explanatory. However, it might be good to go over a checklist of the things most users like to change for this version of their blog:

Theme - Selecting the “Browse Themes” option will allow you to find a number of different layouts you can use for your blog (Free themes can be found under the dropdown menu that says “All Themes” and changing it to “Free Themes”). My personal favorite theme is “Accessible” by eggdesign, as it has an option to use a font that’s easier for dyslexic people to read, and is very customizable.

Background - Can be either a color or an image, but this is what will be displayed behind all your posts. It’s best to use images that were either designed to be tiled, or very large images that will cover the whole screen.

Fonts - Most themes allow you to choose a font for your title, your description, your posts, pretty much any text that will appear on your blog. It’s best to make a short “test post” so that you can properly see what your posts will look like when you’re selecting a font and color for them.

HTML Description - In your blog’s description on this page, you can use HTML coding to make text bold, italic, add a hyperlink, add a picture, pretty much anything you can do with HTML coding. In the old days of tumblr, people used to design little HTML widgets people could copypaste into their blog descriptions, like clocks, or even simple virtual pets! If these still exist, go crazy and add whatever the hell to your blog!

After messing around for no longer than 7 minutes, I’ve got a blog that looks much different on desktop than it does on mobile!

When you’re satisfied, just make sure you save your changes before exiting!

Your Blog’s Settings

Now let’s go back to our blog settings - there are a few more options that have nothing to do with appearance, but will change our Tumblr experience a lot.

“Share Posts You Like” will create a tab on your blog that will allow anyone visiting your blog to scroll through your likes. Most tumblr users prefer to keep the posts they like private (consider the drama that people have caused on Twitter over people liking posts from accounts that a mutual might have beef with, though, most things that people choose to hide on tumblr are more for just having the option of privacy, we like privacy here!). Either way, as you’ll see later in the Interacting With Other Blogs portion of the post, leaving this option switched to “on” is not a viable replacement for reblogging posts.

Similarly, people prefer to keep the accounts they follow private. Again, mostly just for privacy’s sake.

The “Featured Tags” option is something most often used by content creators. It’ll just give anyone viewing your blog a list of suggested tags to search for on your blog, so many creators will list their art/writing/photography/what have you content tag through this feature.

Replies, asks, submissions, and messaging will be discussed further in Interacting With Other Blogs, so until you fully understand these options, I would wait to activate or change them.

Your queue is a set-aside list of posts you’ve either made or reblogged that will not be posted immediately. Instead, they will be posted at a time you chose until the allotted time or post count has been fulfilled, or your queue is empty.

Your timezone will affect the timestamps on your posts and reblogs, so if you care about that, I suggest making sure it’s accurate to where you live.

Your blog’s visibility is another privacy feature. You can choose to make your blog inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t have a Tumblr account (this will also render the desktop appearance of your blog inaccessible to everyone), and/or you can also choose to hide your blog from search results, meaning that any time you use a tag on your post, people will not see that post when they search for a tag on Tumblr’s “Search Tumblr” system.

With all that taken care of, your blog is complete! Congratulations, you’re finally recognized as a real person on Tumblr!

App V.S. Mobile V.S. Desktop

Before we get into using Tumblr, I do want to talk a little about what platform you might be using Tumblr on. You have a few options: the app, using your mobile device’s web browser, or using your laptop or desktop computer’s browser.

The Tumblr app is heavily pushed by Tumblr, itself, and sees a very popular usage, but it’s also known as the most broken, most limited, and most censored method of using Tumblr. Its draw is convenience.

Accessing Tumblr on your mobile browser is pretty much the half-way point between using the app and opening Tumblr on your computer browser. The look is very much built for mobile use and its menu system and new post layout is closer to the Tumblr app’s, but it isn’t as censored and tends to only be affected by bugs that also affect the desktop site. Its search system, as far as I can tell, is also closer to that of the desktop site’s.

Unlike Instagram and Tiktok, Tumblr was designed first as a site to be accessed by desktop users, and then was later adapted to mobile devices - closer to how Twitter is. As such, using Tumblr on your computer’s browser is probably the best way to use it. It doesn’t glitch as often as it does on the app and tends to load faster, too. Additionally, making different kinds of posts is more clear-cut on desktop. Additionally-additionally, most of Tumblr’s annual April Fool’s Day hijinks are designed for desktop, and usually don’t get mobile support.

My recommendation is obviously to use Tumblr on your computer’s browser, but you won’t lose too much using a mobile browser. Just don’t let Tumblr trick you into using the app.

Making Posts

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s time to delve into actually putting some content on your blog!

Why would you want to do this when you’re just here to look at other people’s content? Well, again, it kind of boils down to you coming off as a human being. Surely you have thoughts you’d like to throw out into the void - opinions on media you like or dislike? Thoughts on how your day went, or something you’re excited for? Maybe you have photos you’d like to share? A place you went to, an animal you saw, or an article of clothing in a store you thought looked nice?

Making your own original posts aren’t nearly as necessary as editing your blog’s appearance, but it’s part of the Tumblr experience and helps makes your blog feel more personal. It can even help you make friends on Tumblr if that’s something you want to do. The anonymity of Tumblr means that you don’t have to worry about your real-life friends and family reading your inner thoughts, or that you can say stupid things as a teenager and won’t have your face tied to it like you would on Tiktok. It’s a free-for-all, here, and things are more fun when you join in!

Types of Posts

On the desktop site, you can begin making a new post by clicking on one of various options listed at the top of your dashboard

These are all different types of posts you can make.

(On mobile, your only option is to select “Create a Post” from the menu, and then embed whatever kind of media you want into a text post)

Text posts - The vast majority of Tumblr posts, as far as I’m aware, are text posts. You can add an optional title to your post, and then fill in the body with text. Additionally, you can embed other media into the body of text posts and utilize HTML coding.

Photo posts - Kinda close to the way posting on Instagram works, a photo (or series of photos) will appear at the top of the post (and if users click on the photos, they can access a larger version of them), with optional text in the body of the post. The body of photo posts essentially function like the bodies of text posts.

Quote posts - Not used very often anymore, but still have their place if you ever want to share a specific quote, the header of these posts are any given quote, while the body is the quote’s source. Again, the body of quote posts function like the body of text posts, but I really don’t recommend you use this particular post this way unless the source is tied to a video or image (or you’re doing some next-level shitposting)

Link posts - Are also not used as often (most people just embed links into text posts) but tend to get used to share news articles or other situations where a post��s sole purpose is to share a link.

Chat posts - Used for dialogues. The vast majority of “incorrect quote” blogs use chat posts. This will automatically format a post’s body in an ideal way for sharing a script. Chat posts can not have text added to them in reblogs without adding to the original post, itself. This means that someone can reblog from you and add onto the dialogue you write, but the post wouldn’t mark them as the one who added it, nor would it explicitly label your post as edited, which can make some users believe that this was part of what you wrote. Tumblr etiquette usually dictates that it’s rude to add to a chat post.

Audio posts - For sharing MP3 files or Soundcloud links. As far as I know, the use of songs within the copyright system are a messy, gray area. Blogs have been deleted for reuploading large amounts of songs within the copyright system, before. Yet my sideblog full of early 2000′s Eurobeat has survived for many many years. Just be careful, I guess.

Video posts - For sharing video files (preferably MP4s) or links from video hosting sites (YouTube, Vimeo, etc). Like photo posts, the media is at the top of the post, while you have a body that functions like a text post.

Content In Posts

For this section, I will be using a text post as an example, as most other posts have text post qualities in them.

The most you’ll ever usually worry about when making a post is simply typing out the words you want to appear in your post

But you have a number of options for formatting and embedding available to you! Highlighting text will show you various formatting options (bold, italicize, headline, link, strike, list, and blockquote) which will change the way your text looks within your post (or, in the case of linking, functions). On mobile, you will also see options to change the color, font, or size of your text. This can be done on desktop, as well, through HTML coding (to access this, you’ll need to select the settings button and change the editor from “Rich Text” to “HTML”)

Starting a new line of text within a post offers you some additional options before you start typing anything. This will allow you to embed a photo, video, or read more link into the body of your post.

So you could theoretically make a post like this, instead

(this post is formatted very poorly, don’t make posts like this. I’m just trying to show off your options, please put some thought into your post formatting.)

One final note - you do not have to (and should not) censor your words on Tumblr, no matter how controversial. Tumblr has a rather infamous history of censorship and random shadowbanning, but for the most part, you will not lose your blog if you type out words like “kill” or “suicide” or swear words. If you don’t want to use these words, don’t talk about these subjects. If you want to talk about these subjects, use the damn word. Self-censoring prevents people from effectively filtering out words they do not want to see on their dashboard, so you’ll be doing more harm than good if you censor yourself.

Now that you’ve made your post, you’ll probably want to tag it

The Tagging System

Tumblr’s tagging system is... unique. Not in it’s functionality, but more in how it’s used in the context of Tumblr’s culture. This will come up again, but tagging is only used as a method of sorting posts half of the time, here. The other half of the time, it’s used as a sort of “whisper mode” where you can add commentary to your own posts (or other people’s posts) without directly altering the body of the post.

Let’s use another example post:

In this post, the text “Wow, I had a great day, today. I got to walk my dog” is the body, and the only part of the post that people will see if someone chooses to reblog it. The tags “#dogs” and “#my ramblings” serve to categorize the post on my blog, and Tumblr as a whole. If someone were to search “dogs” on Tumblr, they would eventually see this post. Similarly, “#my ramblings” serves to mark this post with a personal tag for my own text posts that I use to organize my blog in this hypothetical.

However, the tags “#i love my dog so much she’s such a little porker” and “#but she is a very good walker” are not tags meant to categorize. They instead exist as an aside where I’m adding text to the original post without actually altering the post, itself. It serves as an afterthought, a different way of talking on this site.

Similarly to how you shouldn’t self-censor in posts, you definitely should not self-censor in tags. Tags are the most common way that people filter content on this site. If someone is sensitive to discussions of death, for example, they will filter out the tags “#death”, “#tw death” (trigger warning death), and “#cw death” (content warning death), and won’t see any posts tagged this way. But if you tag your post as “#tw unalive” or “#d34th″ then the person trying to avoid your post will actually end up seeing it, and probably won’t be to happy about that, best case scenario.

Another thing to note is that characters like commas and quotation marks don’t work properly in tags. Commas separate different tags, so typing one will end the tag you’re currently typing and start a new one. Quotation marks prioritize tags, so anything you have in quotation marks will immediately be brought to the front of the tags portion of the post (not very helpful if you’re typing a string of sentences).

Finally, in order to use the tagging system to find a post on your blog, or on Tumblr, in a way that doesn’t rely on Tumblr’s kinda broken search system, you would need to type “tumblr.com/tagged/[tagname]” for generally searching the website, or “[blogURL].tumblr.com/tagged/[tagname]%20[tagname]” for searching a specific blog, into the URL bar on your browser. (A “%20″ in a URL represents a space in a tag, so if the tag you’re using is more than one word, you’ll have to type a %20 for every space in between words)

Finding Other Blogs

So now you know how to exist as a Tumblr user on your lonesome, but how about existing as a Tumblr user within a larger Tumblr community? Well, you’ll have to find some other blogs to follow.

By default, Tumblr will put posts on your dashboard from popular blogs or blogs that might have aligned with some interests you listed when you signed up (ironically, this dummy account I made ended up getting posts from a blog I co-own on its dash without me following said blog), but part of the appeal of Tumblr is that you don’t have to be forced into an algorithmic feed of content.

In order to achieve that, though, you first have to turn the algorithmic feed options off (in the “Dashboard” tab of your “Settings”, your preferences should look like this):

From there, you can start following people and properly tailoring your dashboard to your liking!

Following Blogs You Already Know

If you already happen to know some users on Tumblr, or have a favorite that had been popping up in that aforementioned algorithmic feed, your best course of action would be to actually follow said user rather than rely on that feed to continue to show you their posts (the algorithmic feed doesn’t show posts in chronological order, anyways, so you’ll more than likely miss out on some of their posts if you don’t follow them). This can be done in a number of ways, and I’ll use the co-owned blog I mentioned earlier as an example:

From your dashboard, you can click the “Follow” button displayed next to the blog’s URL

From Tumblr’s menu, you can go to the “Following” tab and manually type in the URL of the blog you want to follow

Or, from the blog’s page, you can click the “Follow” button found in the top-right of the screen

Finding New Blogs

But maybe you don’t already have a set list of people you plan on following, and are looking for new content? There are another number of ways you can find new people to follow!

As briefly mentioned at the very beginning of this post, your dashboard will not only display posts from people you follow, but also make suggestions on new blogs you can follow. The top portion are people Tumblr thinks that you, personally, will like, while the Radar consists of posts hand-picked by Tumblr, and are usually from artists.

Another way you can find new blogs is by searching tags relevant to your interests and looking for content you like. If a blog consistently has posts you enjoy in a tag, odds are you’ll probably want to follow them!

But if you’re going to be a participating member of a community on Tumblr, you really should know the etiquette of how to interact with other users, rather than jump in blindly.

Interacting With Other Blogs

This is the main subject I see come up over and over again on posts trying to explain how to use this site, and for good reason. Tumblr’s “ecosystem” relies very heavily on user engagement, and, unlike other social media sites, likes alone do not register as engagement. Content creation and online communities are a give-and-take social environment - if you want creators to keep showing you content, you should engage with it to show them that you want to see their content in the first place.

Reblogs, Comments, and Likes

When you find a post on Tumblr that was not made by you, you will find a number of buttons below the tags:

The number is the amount of “notes” a post has, which take the form of comments (the speech bubble), reblogs (the recycle symbol), and likes (the heart). The arrow button allows you to share a post via private messaging or external websites, but this more often than not doesn’t affect the post’s engagement, so we’ll ignore it for now.

The most important button in this case is the reblog button. This allows you to add the post to your blog (which will put it on your followers’ dashboards) while the original poster retains all credit for making the post. This directly gives the original post proper exposure and leads to more people seeing it, which leads to more people reblogging it, and so on. Think of this practice like growing a tree: Every time you reblog a post, a branch keeps growing. If you only like a post and don’t reblog it, the branch stops growing.

You’re never obligated to reblog posts - but you should consider the effect it has on posts. If everyone who saw the original post only gave it likes, then the tree would essentially just be a stump.

It’s also possible to reblog posts more than once, unlike retweeting.

When you reblog a post, you have the option to add something to the body of the post and/or add some tags that will only stay with your specific reblog of that post. Most people tend to use the tags to write additions to the post as a way to not “impose” on future reblogs of said post, but it’s ultimately your choice. If you feel like you can or should add to the body of the post, feel free to!

Another option for commenting on a post without affecting the body of the post is, well, comments (also known as replies). This will keep your comment contained within the notes of a post without you needing to reblog it. A lot of people will both comment and reblog a piece of work in order to show the original poster that they enjoy the piece, and also support the piece, but leave their comments about the piece off their blog.

It’s not uncommon, though, for people to just use the comments to get into arguments with one another without having to reblog a post over and over again, so I guess be prepared to see that.

Finally, both last and least, are likes. It’s not wrong, by any means, to like a post. It’s nice to know that you enjoyed a post enough to pay even a little bit of attention to it. Just know that it doesn’t do much for the person who made the original post. Liking on Tumblr, due to the lack of people using an algorithmic feed, and the fact that nobody cares about checking your blog’s “likes” tab, is essentially like bookmarking a post for yourself (as you can always view your likes in chronological order from the menu at any given time). Liking can even be a way to politely but quietly acknowledge a post. Say a friend of yours posts that they’ve had a bad day. Many Tumblr users would leave a like to let their friend know that they’ve seen their post, and they’re there for them.

It’s always nice to get likes, they just do nothing for engagement.

Sometimes, you might see a coin button at the bottom of a post, this means the original poster set up an option for you to tip them. This is entirely up to your discretion on whether you want to do this, or not, and many people have expressed concern with giving your financial information to Tumblr, citing worries about security issues. Again, this is your choice, just know the risk. Many creators also have links to their Ko-Fi, Paypal, or Patreon, if you’re looking for another option in supporting someone, financially.

Asks, Submissions, and Messaging

But say that you want to interact with another user without engaging with a post they made - you’ll have to send something to them, directly.

In your blog’s settings, we skipped over a few options - replies, asks, submissions and messaging. Replies, or comments, were covered above, but the rest will be covered, now.

Asks are one-time messages you can send to a blog, or others can send to your blog, so long as the recipients askbox is open (which can be toggled in settings).

If the sender has a Tumblr account, is not blocked by the recipient, and does not choose to be anonymous, then the message functions similarly to a text post, where you can embed media into it.

If the recipient allows anonymous messages, and the sender prefers to remain anonymous, and/or is not logged into a Tumblr account, then the message can only be comprised of text.

If the recipient does not allow anonymous messages, then only people with Tumblr accounts that they have not blocked can send asks.

Submissions function very similarly to asks, except anyone can send them, regardless of whether they have an account or not, and they take the form of posts, any posts that the average Tumblr user can make. It is recommended that, unless your blog is themed around submissions, you do not open your submission box, due to people having used it to send malicious links or shock videos.

If you get an ask or submission, you will get a notification above the envelope icon at the top of the screen (or next to the “Inbox” tab in the menu) that will look something like this

To answer an ask, you must simply click the “Answer” button and type out your reply. For whatever reason, there’s currently a glitch where, if you right click while answering an ask, the entire post gets deleted before you can post it, so avoid that. Once you’ve finished typing your reply, you can choose to answer if publicly or privately. You can only answer non-anonymous asks privately, and it will be sent back to the sender’s askbox with your reply.

To post a submission, you click the “Post” button, but you also have the option to edit that post by clicking on the pencil-shaped button before you post it.

Messages are a private instant messaging option on Tumblr. Only other Tumblr users can message one another, and people may limit who they allow to message them (for example, some people set their blog so only their mutuals can message them). To message someone new, you need to click on the smiley face button (or select the “Messaging” tab in the menu) and select “New Message” before typing in the recipients URL.

Please remember to be respectful when you interact with other users. Like, I know this site is pretty infamous for its vitriol, but, I dunno, the goal with this post is to keep the newcomers from ruining this place, y’know?

Blocking

Okay, so say you come across someone who hasn’t taken the advice above, is just a total dick to you, or maybe has some ice cold takes that you keep seeing in your favorite tags, or maybe you just plain don’t vibe with their content. That’s where blocking comes in.

When you block someone, they cannot message you, interact with your posts, or send you asks off-anon. You also do not see any of their posts on your dashboard or in the tags, but it’s sometimes possible (for whatever reason - likely a glitch) for you to interact with their posts. If your blog is private, then they can no longer see your blog at all.

There are a few ways to block someone. First, if you see one of their posts, say, while browsing a tag, you can click on the dots at the top-right of the post and select “block” (on mobile, this menu also appears at the end of their blog description while viewing their blog).

You can also go to your blog’s settings and type in their URL, manually, next to “Blocked Tumblrs”

Finally, if they send you an ask, you can block them from the dots at the top-right of the ask (Note: blocking anons on Tumblr used to block their IP address from accessing your blog, this feature hasn’t worked in years and blocking anons today is essentially useless. I would recommend turning the anon option off for your askbox)

OR, if they send you a private message, you can block them via the three dots at the top of the messenger window

Stay safe out there!

Your Influence as a Tumblr User

So, I am aware that most of you are coming in from Twitter and Tiktok, where the concept of a social media influencer and brand presence is very normal and common (almost oppressive). You might be wondering, what kind of influence might you have if you become a prominent Tumblr user? Well,

You Have None

Tumblr is a community that is actively and vocally hostile towards the very idea of social media influencers and brands. This site’s userbase has infamously been impossible to advertise to, and even if your non-creative (non art/writing/fan-edit/etc) posts start to get massive attention, it rarely leads to you gaining significant amounts of followers (quite honestly, all it does is get very angry people in your askbox who either willfully misinterpreted your post, or just flat out don’t agree with you). Prominent posters are rarely even known by name unless they’ve earned a degree of infamy (typically by being so weird that a lot of people will avoid them or cringe when they show up on their dash). If you make a popular post, you are “OP” (original poster) and nothing more.

Everyone’s follower amount on this site is private and there is no way to toggle it to be public, and, quite frankly, it doesn’t really matter how many followers you have, to begin with. I’ve seen people who admit to having over 10k followers average around 50 notes on their post. I have over 2k followers and I get lucky if a post I make gets to 20 notes, let alone 50. Posts you don’t want to get popular will get popular, vice versa, and you have no way of controlling anything. There is no “For You Page” that you can tag, the explore tab is underused by the vast majority of people here, everyone tends to stick to just their dashboard and maybe a few tags they like to check. There isn’t even a good “time” to post on Tumblr like there is with Instagram and Twitter.

Tumblr recently released a feature where you can sponsor your post to improve its reach, however the entire process is random and you cannot target any demographic whatsoever. We are random, anonymous hermits here. You cannot beat us, you just have to join us.

Tumblr Culture

To close this post off, I’d like to bring up a few things that you’re very likely to run into in your time, here. Basically, here are things you might want to get used to during your stay on this site.

Post Circulation

As mentioned above, non-creative posts getting popular rarely have positive effects for the original poster. As such, many Tumblr users actually abhor their posts in this category getting popular. This is usually because it floods their activity feed (especially for content creators, it drowns out the attention we get on our creative posts) and sends very angry people who didn’t like our post for whatever reason to our inboxes. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t circulate these kinds of posts, go ahead and do it, we resigned ourselves to this by joining this hellsite, but it will probably happen to you, especially if you’re noticeably the new guy (and use mannerisms specific to other sites).

On a related note, Tumblr is an ecosystem where posts circulate regularly. What I mean by this is, it’s very common for posts from years ago to continue to circulate (be reblogged over and over again) as if it were a tradition. Every Thursday I’ll likely see the Out of Touch Thursday post be reblogged again. And not, like, the video being reposted like it is on Twitter where people just make a new post, but the original post from years ago brought back to my dash through reblogs. Or fat/flat fuck Friday every Friday. This website loves its unofficial holidays, and a lot of people queue old posts to be reblogged on specific days. This is all normal, and you’re going to have to get used to it.

Additionally, posts that used to circulate a lot but were considered annoying or weird (the first ones that come to mind are “Do You Love the Color of the Sky?” for being annoyingly long, or any of the “Werewolf Boyfriend” posts for being weird innuendos) tend to survive as jokes or references in new posts, so they still end up circulating one way or another.

Miscellaneous Etiquette

In line with “annoying”, the majority of long-time users on this site have repeatedly shown annoyance with this newer trend of: liking someone’s tags, reblogging the post, and instead of screenshotting or copying the tags in the reblog, typing “prev tags” or “previous tags” in their reblog. Not only does this out you as a Twitter user (the practice is a rehash of the “LRT” or “last retweet” practice on Twitter because of the discouragement of making quote-retweets, which aren’t a problem on Tumblr), but it’s just not intuitive. Sure, someone could follow the reblog chain to whatever tags you found amusing, but just like making your likes public, people don’t want to do that, and they won’t.

On Tumblr, we don’t hold some kind of claim to tags. It’s nice if you @ the person you copied the tags from, but not really necessary. Just copy or screenshot the tags and put them in the body of the reblog.

Another miscellaneous thing related to interacting with posts: spam liking and reblogging things from people isn’t considered a worry here like it is on Instagram. You won’t get flagged as a bot or anything, feel free to do that as much as you want.

Reblogging your own posts are also considered fine, and most people will tag these reblogs as “#self rb” or “#self reblog” so that people who don’t like seeing them can filter them out.

Additionally, long posts are often tagged as such (#long post) so people don’t have to worry about spending a long time scrolling through one post if they filter the tag.

Asking popular bloggers to reblog your post is generally considered rude, but there are bloggers out there who are open to it, especially if it’s a post regarding an emergency financial situation you may be in. Still, please recognize that no one is obligated to circulate your posts for you, and many times, it isn’t personal (most people simply don’t want to open the floodgates of having all their followers and then some demanding they reblog from them, too).

Tumblr-specific Memes

There’s a lot of humor specific to Tumblr that doesn’t tend to leave this site, but you’re definitely going to find it here after staying long enough.

Gimmick accounts - Vary from accounts dedicated to specific niches of information (eg. suppermariobroth), a variant of the former except there’s a running gag that the blog will not break character on (eg. pictures-of-dogs), bot accounts welcomed by the community (eg. the-haiku-bot), and blogs designed specifically to interact with posts to induce a punchline (eg. post-store). Though some may get annoyed by the latter, these types of blogs are generally accepted as part of Tumblr’s ecosystem.

A type of gimmick account that’s died off in recent years is the askblog, which is where someone will run a blog roleplaying as a specific character and answer asks in-character. These are usually accompanied by art (usually made by the person running the account) and can sometimes end up telling narrative stories through their answers. You’re less likely to run into them nowadays, but you might find them here or there.

Ironic roleplay reblog chains (Open RP) - are instances where someone will, as a joke, prompt people to roleplay with them in completely ridiculous scenarios (or scenarios that start off seemingly serious, but devolve into silliness). One of the more common trends as of late in this category have been wizard battles between random users where they get into disagreements and then begin casting spells at one another. Related to these is the wizard council (usually posts made by user normal-horoscopes) where spells are regularly “approved” or “banned” (this is all for fun and make-believe, and the purpose of banning spells is usually so you can catch someone making an illegal spell in an RP and “report" them to the council for it in an “I’m telling mom!” sort of way).

Tumblr Scandals - Tumblr has had a pretty meme’d on history of scandals and drama that many outside of the site know of, but they still get referenced here a lot in a tongue-and-cheek manner (think “Oh, a Tumblr convention, that sounds like such a good idea! ;)” ). People aren’t big on tone-indicators on this site, so just assume that 90% of posts that propose something overly grand or something that sounds too stupid to be successful are being made in complete sarcasm.

April Fool’s - Every single year, on April 1st (EST), Tumblr staff will add a gimmick to the desktop version of the site for the sake of fun. This year they gave us a button to spawn crab emojis on our screen and we all pressed it thousands of times, until we couldn’t press it anymore because the button was covered in crabs. Sometimes users come up with jokes to play on their own (”Mishapocalypse” refers to everyone spamming a specific picture of Misha Collins (of Supernatural fame) on their followers’ dashboards, many April Fools’ ago). It’s all in good fun, even the more “mean” seeming pranks (many people tried to crash the site this year just to see how staff would handle it. It was unsuccessful and staff congratulated them on their effort) have a pretty amicable tone or conclusion. If you’re on the desktop version of this site for only one day a year, let it be April Fool’s Day.

That’s all I can think of, for now! I know all this information can be pretty overwhelming, I hope that the way I formatted this post at least made things easier to digest. If you have questions, you can always send me an ask! I genuinely do think that, despite how intimidating this site can be, a lot of you are going to enjoy Tumblr as a breath of fresh air from the algorithmic, corporation-infested, ad-ridden world out there. If you keep these basics in mind, I’m sure you’ll be welcomed here.

#tumblr #tumblr basics #twitter #tiktok #I'm going to sponsor this post tbh #I spent all day making it because my arm hurts too much to draw #For Everyone New to Tumblr

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yxstxrdrxxm · 2 months

Text

SYNOPSIS: Tattooing is a work of art. Though, he definitely saw that it can also be used as more than an art medium itself.

TW/s: yandere behavior, abstract/drabble writing, protective Xiao, he’s a dumbass but its okay, nsfw tws include targeted by the dark web, graphic depictions of violence, near abduction, stalking + sexual harassment. Please proceed with caution.

NOTE FROM HR: Happy Valentine’s Day! It would seem that today just isn't working out for you, is it, miss Ana? Well, never fear! I’m sure our lovely tattoo artist has something to help you with that… Right?

“You’re back.”

That was the first thing that Ana heard from her tattoo artist, Xiao, speak at 1 in the afternoon— a weird time, considering he wasn’t aware she had an appointment booked with him.

“Are you here for a tattoo?” he asked her, making her shake her head. Carrying the food she bought for him, he placed it on the counter, noting the small shift of expression on his face as he caught a whiff of something faintly sweet in the packaging.

“No, but I’m sure you’ve been working for hours on end,” she said, tapping on top of the package. “Here, eat up. I made sure to buy almond tofu for you.”

Now, for those who may be wondering, just how can the reclusive tattoo artist be with a date that’s the clear opposite of his personality?

It was a long story, which started from the very beginning when they matched up in the app.

Xiao isn’t the type to choose anyone on a whim. He has standards, and for him, many others failed to fit those standards. It was also obvious when he saw Ana’s, but instead of scrolling past and ignoring her, he took his time to look into what she wrote. He didn’t want to write her off just yet.

The next thing he knew, he swiped right with her and began to talk to her in the app.

Their conversation topics were all random at first: general get to know questions, their experiences, and even bits of what the two like. The two clicked on what they both liked listening to, which artists they enjoy the most, and even a few preferences for both to tune into. He did suggest a few that lean into crime podcasts, since he tends to listen to them often while he worked on tattooing his clients. Perhaps it was a strange preference, but she didn’t see it that way.

It wasn’t even long until they began to discuss matters in seeing each other in person, and the first time was because of a tattoo appointment she wanted on her arm.

“So, you want this tattoo placed… Here. Am I right?” “Mhm. Do you think you can do it? My friends had said that you were a good tattoo artist, so I wanted to be sure that it’s something you can do.”

The two were sitting at his office as Xiao was looking at the image, examining the tattoo design she wanted him to put on her. The design wasn’t all that complicated, but he knew he could add something to make it pop out easily, and especially with the detailing of her tattoo choice.

“... I can,” he answered, closing the folder as he faced her again. “However, you must pay upfront. I need to get the materials and equipment needed in our next appointment for this type of tattoo on Friday.”

He watched her nod as she handed him the payment, his hand drifting over to grab it and check how much she paid. It was enough for what she wanted, with an additional $20. Raising an eyebrow, he looked over at her and grabbed it, handing it back to his client.

“No need to give me extra,” he told her, sighing. “It’ll be a waste.”

“Oh? Well…”

He could already hear what she planned on telling him. He should take it anyway as she felt bad, or that it’s not right to not tip someone for their services, or—

“... I’ll take it back, then. Thank you again, Xiao. it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

—!

Xiao seemed to be caught off-guard at the turn it took, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second, but it left as quickly as it did. Regaining his composure, he nodded and simply stood up to lead her out of the shop.

“If you need anything from me, you know my number,” he told her, his amber eyes shifting away for a moment. “... And if you want to go on a date, call me.”

It was strange. He’s not used to romance, and Zhongli had all but taught him how. He wanted to say that he had the confidence like that old man has, but he’s still learning. And Gods, he’s unable to even comprehend how social interaction and cues work.

Still, he did hear her laugh and feel a gentle warmth on his shoulder.

It felt nice.

“Of course! For now, I need to go and meet my friends this afternoon. Goodbye, Xiao.”

As the warmth left his shoulder, he finally raised his head to watch the lady exit, his eyes drifting to her while he recalled the expression she wore in front of him.

Such a gentle smile, unwavering and confident. He had always admired those who could do it without a single moment of hesitation, and sometimes, he found himself loathing that he couldn’t do the same. To be able to smile and look onwards, like nothing was bothering them in the first place.

He sighed and raised a hand to sift through his hair. The bitter feeling rising in him was something he disliked, but he couldn’t bring himself to blame it on her.

It was their first meeting, and it was one that Xiao remembered well.

How ironic, considering the next ones were as eventful as the first, if not even more than anything he’s endured.

The second time this happened was when he was on one of the first few dates with Ana. The two were surprisingly able to her friends commenting on how she found someone and kept it a secret from them.

He didn't like to make their relationship known, and there was a good reason why— he hated to have them find out he has someone he tolerated better than others.

Even if it was just a simple drunkard. Or two.

Point is, it happened. While Xiao was dealing with her friends asking him about his occupation, he caught wind of Ana getting involved and being harassed by one of the older men that are obviously wasted. She was trying to tell them to stop bothering her, but it seems they weren't paying much attention and even touched her in areas that can warrant sexual harassment.

“C'mon, pretty girl, why don't—”

“Move. She's my fiance.”

The drunkard looked over at Xiao, his eyes narrowed as he noticed that he was one of the clients he tattooed years ago. He scowled at the sorry state he was in— the man had a job as a republican, but one too many scandals led him jobless.

Hmph. I'm glad I managed to tattoo him with that before then.

“Yours? Pfft, do you have anything that makes her yours, little boy?”

Xiao scoffed.

“That ring she's wearing. I gave that to her.”

Complete and utter lie, he knows Ana had it since the day they met. Though, the ring was placed on her ring finger…

“You're harassing my girl. If you don't move, I'll get security,” he warned, walking closer to Ana to gently hold her hand. “And you wouldn't like getting kicked out again, would you?”

The ex-republican scoffed but he slunk away, and the two watched as the others jeered and called out to the republican figure for what he's done.

How annoying.

“I didn't know you'd say that out of all things.”

Xiao's head whipped towards Ana. It was clear from the way she said it that it was meant to be seen as light-hearted, but from the tense moment they had, he was struggling to process it.

…

He scoffed and let her hand go.

“He won't back out otherwise.”

And he knew he wouldn't. No one would.

“How many people have you tattooed with that mark?”

“I don't know.”

“Oh, but you do. People tell me that the victims went to you to get tattooed and died after a few days!”

“Sounds like a load of bullshit.”

Xiao isn't fond of dealing with people. He didn't even bother hiding that fact, since he disliked meaningless drivel with some of them. What he hates is when they become overconfident with knowing what he didn't.

It was a big deal to them, but to the artist, he found it more of a joke. An impractical, unfunny joke. He'd rather listen to one of his co workers explain it and ruin it than this.

“A load of— listen to me, sir,” he spat, jabbing at his chest. It would've been intimidating if Xiao didn't think it was a bit childish, “I work with the agency. We're trying to figure out what the hell is happening, and if you don't say shit, I'll tell them you're that famed serial killer going on the loose!”

…

“Seriously?”

Xiao sighed.

Such is the way of being an idiot, he thinks. It's no wonder I don't bother tattooing people on a walk-in appointment.

“Wh— are you doubting my credibility?!”

“Not when you're harassing me.”

Watching him get annoyed, he saw the man out, watching as a certain someone came to the shop. Seeing the man storm off, he watched Ana raise her eyebrow at Xiao; a silent question, it seems.

What happened? He can read from her expression. Though, this made Xiao sigh and turn his head to the shop.

Come inside. That is what he was trying to say by his body language.

And she did.

It wasn't long until the two were talking about the incident: Ana had to hear Xiao explain briefly of the accusations he's given, what he replied due to the lack of evidence, and the childish fit that the reporter had to leave.

Still, that looming threat was never something he can let go of, nor he can't stop pondering about. Maybe it's just him, but there have been moments when that came to light.

… Or nearly, anyway.

“I see… Well, they're definitely too nosy for their own good.”

“Mhm,” he answered, cleaning up the pen he used for tattooing. “Anyway, are you here for your appointment?”

“Oh! Yes, I am. I want you to tattoo my arm.”

Retrieving the paper detailing her tattoo, she handed it to him. Examining what it looks, he simply raised an eyebrow.

Granted, the tattoo is simplistic— he can make do with outlining the bird like it was a constellation. It wasn't something he would suck at. However, the bird she chose was a phoenix.

Interesting metaphor. Though, he's simply curious on what drove her to choose such an interesting thing to be on her arm.

“... Hm. Alright. I can do it.”

Placing it down, he began to prepare the tools and lead her to take a seat on the chair. Pulling on the lever, he adjusted it so that she was facing up and he pulled up the arm that she wanted it on.

It wasn't long until the soft thrumming of the tattoo gun echoed as he worked on the tattoo, following each and every step of the stencil down to its smallest details. Sure, Ana and him conversed while he worked, but he remained silent to focus on doing the tattoo.

Silence was a comfortable thing for him, and sometimes, he can see it be a comfortable thing for her, too.

It did take hours until he was done with the tattoo, and although he had half of his mind to add that mark, he added something else that’s tied to him. Right by the wing had 保护 written on it, each line and curve made as accurately as one could with writing a different language.

It was different from the ones he’d do. And he made sure to keep it that way.

“There. It’s done.”

He observed how Ana’s eyes would trail over at the tattoo, moving as she examined it in great detail. He was one of the best tattoo artists she could ever find, but he knew she saw that print on the wing, too.

It was just a relief that she didn’t bother to ask.

“Since it’s your first time getting a tattoo, you can have this,” he added, grabbing a bag full of supplies with an addition he left there for her. “It’ll help when your skin gets irritated with the ink. Others had that happen to them.”

“Really? Well, I’ll use them if that happens.”

“Good.”

His amber eyes flickered from the tattoo gun and towards the bag, catching the gleam of turquoise peeking from inside.

It was convenient that he placed that thing in her bag.

Now, he had an even bigger reason to do what he had to do to those that dare to mess with what’s his.

“I didn’t know you’d come back to stalk her,” the tattoo artist commented coldly, his heels digging into the wound on the reporter’s side. “I’m surprised. Seems like you have the audacity to try again to ‘frame’ me yourself.”

He hardly cared for the amount of blood he spilt. For the tattoo artist, having to make someone be worried in his shop was more than enough to gun for the culprit.

“Tell me. Were you going to abduct her?”

The reporter had the audacity to laugh at his face, the pain sending his mind to overdrive. Scowling, he dug in deeper, feeling his patience wear thin. He hated to delay what could hurt his lo— friend, he had to correct himself. He didn’t want those people to get to her.

“W-What’s it to you? I thought—”

“I’m not involved, but that’s my friend, you garbage.”

With another dig at the wound and his gun loaded, he aimed it at his other leg. He was already sure that she would wind herself in danger because of what he’s done, so he needed to be swift if he wanted to reach Ana.

He can’t risk losing her. Not to those bastards.

“I’ll ask again. Were you going to abduct her, you vile being?”

Much to his displeasure, the reporter laughed again. Although, he can tell that he wasn’t in the right mind. The expression he wore simply reminded him of those bitter memories he had hid all those years ago in his time at Enkanomiya, and he loathed to see it on another person.

Heaven knows what drove him like this, but he had done something immoral. He needed to do this in return.

…

Yes. He needs to. She’ll die if he doesn’t.

“... Hmph. I suppose you’re no talk and bite.”

Click. BANG.

…

Xiao could vaguely hear the gunshot ring as blood began to pour out onto the pavement, but this time, he felt no guilt for his actions. He knew it was bad, but he could hardly care about what’s on his mind.

Turning around, he grabbed his phone and contacted Ana’s number. He needed to be able to speak to her. He needed to.

…

It rang once.

It rang twice.

It rang far more than that. It continued to ring and ring, amping up Xiao’s worry the longer she didn’t take the call.

And after God knows how long, he heard it click.

“Xiao?”

… She’s fine.

“... Did I wake you up?” he asked her on the phone, his voice lowering its usual volume— possibly due to his relief. “I thought you’d be awake.”

“Mm… Almost, but yeah,” he heard her yawn. “I was… Looking for that guy. Then I fell asleep for, uh… an hour or something.”

…

“Has anyone entered the house?”

“... No. I’m fine. I had it locked, like you told me to.”

Good.

“Say, you sound panicked—”

“I’m fine,” he told her, cutting her off. With a sigh, he looked at the body, then at the phone. “Anyway, I’ll… Leave you alone for the night. I have a few things I need to take care of.”

He’d have to ‘clean’ things up. He can’t let her see it.

No one can ever see the crime he's done.

@.throw-letter-away | do not republish or repost my works anywhere | 2024

#💌 ;; message delivery #💌 ;; from: xiao #💌 ;; to: yandere-romanticaa #💌 ;; promising letter: one last call #yandere genshin impact #yandere genshin #yandere gi #genshin impact #genshin #gi #yandere xiao #yandere #yandere writing #yandere text #male yandere #xiao #genshin impact xiao #genshin xiao

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hesokuri-wars · 5 months

Note

I never got the chance to play this game, but it looks so fun... Why was it shut down? Also, are there any other oso-san games still available?

Well, nobody here was playing around the time of the shutdown, so we wouldn't really be experts on the situation. Either way, game staff in general don't just outright tell players the reasons for discontinuation, but I think the safe assumption would be that they simply didn't have the budget to keep it running anymore. Which... honestly, was a possibility that I had been concerned about for a while, given how much the game grew to rely on its whales. I could be way off on this, but the fact that they flat started requiring to spend money to roll for premium sets had the alarm bells going off in my head.

As for the (mobile) games still available now, there are three - Pokomatsu, Tabimatsu, and NEETPro, all of which region-locked to only Japan (assuming you don't live there, if you want to know of a way to get around this issue, follow the instructions in the FAQ under "how to install the app" - the process should be the same).

And because I have thoughts on all of them, I wrote up a brief description on each game before concluding with my personal thoughts on the current state of the Ososan Gaming Experience, but I'm not sure if anyone else really cares that much so I'm putting it under a cut lol. Links to downloading the games are included below as well for those who are curious.

Pokomatsu (Apple Link / Android Link)

I kind of talked about this one just the other day, but basically, it's the game that "replaced" Hesokuri Wars. Not only does it use a lot of Heso's assets, but the Twitter account for Hesokuri Wars and Pokomatsu is one and the same.

And... that's really it as far as similarities go. Hesokuri Wars was a tower defense game, and Pokomatsu is that one game where you aim and shoot balls at objects/people that are slowly advancing towards you and have to hit them enough times to win (idk if there's a more succinct name for this type of gameplay). Also, you can collect screenshots from the anime, movies, and Heso, either by playing/progressing or by rolling in the gacha. The basic story of the game is that the sextuplets are defending themselves from having their roles as the protagonists stolen by the other characters.

Here's a sample of some gameplay, if you're curious. Note that the voice clips are recycled directly from Heso. Also, it's incredibly noisy, so I guess that's just another similarity the two share.

Mod Ichi's Opinion: If you like this sort of game, then go ahead and give it a try, but I personally can't see myself getting too invested in it. Collecting the cards is its main selling point, but even that's not really all that given that they're just screenshots as opposed to original art. Also, I think I'm bad at it because I can't get past Stage 8. Never mind, I was playing it while I was typing this and I just beat it lol. But now I can't get past Stage 9.

Tabimatsu (Apple Link / Android Link)

AKA the other big Oso game from back in the day, although it still wasn't as big as Heso. The premise is that the sextuplets are traveling to all of the prefectures in Japan to pick up money, and the gameplay is in the form of a board game where you roll a die and move around. Much like Heso, had its fair share of original outfits and events, but it's currently in a bit of a weird place because it's been dormant for the past few years; it's still there for people to download and play, but it hasn't had a proper update since like 2020/2021 aside from the occasional maintenance. It's very clearly on its last legs, but it's still available to the public, presumably because it's not as costly to run as some other games of the past.

A sample of gameplay.

Mod Ichi's Opinion: I really enjoyed this game when it was more active! I'd like to replay it for the nostalgia, but it refuses to load properly on my phone teehee.

NEETPro (Apple Link / Android Link)

This one was released in conjunction with the first movie. It's also made by the same people who made Tabimatsu.

NEETPro is by far the simplest out of all the games, being more of a story-driven visual novel and not much else - I think this is the first and only Ososan mobile game to not have any gacha function? You play as a female showbiz manager, Totoko is your supervisor (she quit being an idol), and you're responsible for managing a sextuplet of your choice. Depending on the choices you make throughout the story, you either succeed in turning him into a movie star, or he stays a NEET.

In other words, this is the closest thing to an official Ososan otome game that exists. Like I said, this game is very much just a visual novel and not much else, so it basically was just released and not really updated since. I also found a tweet posted by the official Tabimatsu account from this September announcing the app would no longer be available on the Google Play store (though people who already had the app can still play), so like. That pretty much confirms that keeping this game up to date isn't exactly a top priority of the staff.

A sample of gameplay.

Mod Ichi's Opinion: I'm playing Ichi's route and I keep trying to brute force him into letting me become his manager and at one point he grew convinced that I was secretly an assassin plotting to kill him. Anyway, I don't think you'll have much use for this if you can't read Japanese or can't find a translation somewhere.

Overall

I feel like I've been hinting at this all throughout this post, but Ososan doesn't seem to be thriving in the mobile game sphere as of late. We used to have games like Hesokuri Wars, Damematsu, and Shimamatsu, all of which were rife with content, but all three current games I described above are fairly low-maintenance to keep running, have very sparse updates, and overall just don't seem to be here to keep your long-term interest. Maybe it's not too fair to say that about NEETPro, given the type of game it is (not to mention that it mainly served as promotional material for the movie), but like. Tabimatsu? That game used to consistently get new content, until one day, all that just stopped.

Idk I don't really have a conclusion to all of this lol this isn't meant to be some thesis or anything. It's just that when I went back to see which games were still available to the public, I immediately noticed the lack of actual content, and it's such a downgrade. It kind of bothers me as someone who not only rigorously played Heso for years, but also was super into checking out every other game the staff would drop.

🐾 Mod Ichi

#SORRY ANON I KNOW YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR LIKE 80% OF THIS ANSWER BUT I HAD THOUGHTS #disclaimer that i have absolutely no clue what's going on behind the scenes i'm just making observations as an outsider #mod ichi #memorial and legacy #ask

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theladyoracle · 6 months

Text

✧ General Creepypasta Headcanons ✧

𖦹⭒°｡⋆𖦹 The Lady Oracle's AU 𖦹⋆°｡⭒𖦹

Featuring: The Slenderman, Jeff the Killer, Jane the Killer, BEN Drowned, Eyeless Jack

a/n: Just jotting down some of the general headcanons that have been piling up in my notes app! Honestly it's so much that its starting to lag down the note LOL!

Also I take requests so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE shoot them into my ask box!

cw/tw: mention of murder (obvi), mention of torture, mention of vomiting, implications of 'incidents', implications of cannibalism

The Slenderman/The Operator

10ft tall...and then some

He/Him/It

Goes by both Slenderman and the Operator. The only difference is that he makes his Proxies only address him as the Operator. Denizens (lower ranking creeps, I'll make another post about this probably for my au...) are allowed to address him as either. This is to make sure that the Proxies don't get 'too friendly' with him

Seldom cares about anything going on between the people who live in the manor unless it directly affects him. Will actually get so annoyed if people bother him with petty problems or drama. He only cares about his things, his home, and his business

Is basically a dirty, evil capitalist landlord

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss fr fr /hj

Is very supernaturally inclined. Reads books, casts spells, and brews potions. Is very knowledgeable of other realms, creatures, and magicks

Is very secretive with everyone in the Slender Woods. For all they know; he is the strongest, most powerful entity there is in the woods and they should fear him. This is how Slenderman likes to keep things

Out of touch with humanity, but sometimes its really funny! He will forget that humans need food to survive, and finds it 'inconvenient' that they need air to breathe...okay maybe its only funny to me

He finds some human things charming! Like fashion - he has a tie for every occasion and always wants to look presentable. He also loves a good riddle

Thrives with paperwork. Literally has a contract for every Proxy and Denizen. Loves structure

Will call the Denizens his 'children' at times....but will seldom ever call his Proxies his children. Proxies are regarded more as property or dogs than they are people

Jeff the Killer

Denizen (at age 21)

Is 29 years old

He/Him/His

5'10 with wide shoulders, a thin waist, and moderate muscle mass

I headcanon Jeff to be half Korean (on his mother's side) I believe this due to the traditional pronunciation of Liu's name

Loves using a knife as his primary murder method because its intimate - he truly considers it to be an art

Is close with BEN. He sees BEN as like a younger sibling (similar to Liu.) So he spends a lot of time barging into BEN's room (much to his distaste) and annoys the fuck out of him. I think he does this because he's pretty lonely too but doesn't want to admit it...

Before his psychotic break, he was obsessed with other famous serial killers. His other hobbies before murdering his parents include: manifestos, torture methods, and anatomy

Is a total metal head - doesn't listen to anything except for alternative music

Will totally ask you to "name 3 songs" if you're wearing a band t-shirt (even if he doesn't know the band...)

Owns a tattoo gun! Is really fucking bad at giving tattoos.....

BEN Drowned

Denizen

He/Him/His

I think of BEN as a sort of shapeshifter. Taking inspiration from the game Majora's Mask, I like to think that BEN is able to change his "skin" to however he wants to appear, but has a default form that gradually changes (so for example depending on who he chooses for a victim, he can portray himself as a 12 year old boy, a teenager, or even older) but his default form is one that can age as though he never drowned as a boy

This isn't just limited to age - he can use this to look as freaky as he wants. Usually this is just to make himself look more uncanny for his victims

I don't think BEN in my AU is the ghost of Ben Lawman (the boy who drowned) I think that Ben Lawman's essence was twisted and possessed by something inherently evil during his death

When he was found in the woods, the Slenderman saw the wicked potential that this new entity possessed and offered him a deal

Probably like 5'5"-5'6"

Skinny, like really skinny - despite how much he eats

BEN is a total incel :/

Frequent Discord, Reddit, and Twitch user

Despite the Slenderman giving him the incredible gift to age as if he never died, he is still so fucking immature. it's like dealing with a child

He always seems annoyed when anyone comes to talk with him. He takes everything as an attack and has the crudest, most annoying, immature sense of humor

He has to be bribed to do LITERALLY ANYTHING

His room smells like dirty socks and vape juice

Literal definition of "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM I'M PLAYING MINECRAFT"

Jane the Killer

Denizen

28 years old

Latina

Lesbian

She/her/hers

5'7" . Soft hourglass-shaped build with strong thighs and legs!

She is a woman of science and logic, and is overall just a very intellectual woman - lowkey kind of nerdy, it's sweet if you get to know her

Comes across as 'no nonsense' to newbies and people who don't know her well, but she's secretly very sarcastic and clever! She has the realest conversations, and is a powerful ally to have

There are a lot of rumors about her in the manor, because she seems to be the Slenderman's favorite

Oftentimes is doing a lot of household errands or chores for the Slenderman as part of her contract

Helps compile mission files for targets (sometimes helps with research, but mostly puts them together and then serves the assignments underneath resident doors)

Does the interrogations and initiation processes for new recruits to the manor (asks them questions to build their contract, shows them around, etc)

Quick-witted and sarcastic - doesn't let anyone talk shit to her. Literally no misogynistic comment goes by unchecked. She absolutely tears into the creeps that come at her

Has an absolute adoration for old horror films, true crime, and investigation shows

She loves solving mysteries or puzzles. Brain teasers and riddles are totally her thing! But...is like way too good at it. I mean, she can guess the answer to any riddle first or second try, and she's ALWAYS guessing the ending of movies within the first fifteen minutes. It kind of takes the fun out of everything

Usually likes to spend her down time alone. She feels like the 'mom' of the mansion otherwise (and hates when she feels like that)

Eyeless Jack

5'11" with a slim yet muscular build

25 years old

He/Him/His/They/Them

EJ is exceptionally intelligent - both in creative problem solving and just in general with his anatomical knowledge

He's is so quiet in everything he does. Sometimes this is comforting and sometimes its creepy. He's silent. He types quietly, he wraps wounds quietly, he cleans quietly....kind of just a strong and silent type kind of dude

He is the only resident of the manor that the other creeps feel safe and comfortable getting care from, because he actually keeps a sterile and clean environment while he performs operations

KIND OF RANDOM! But I think his parents were total hippies (literal cultists)

I like to think he was a vegetarian before the incident :'(

His skin looks super ashy gray but it's actually super smooth - he moisturizes all the time in attempts to get his radiant glowy skin back but it never really works with his dark gray skin

Has to wear eye masks to bed so that the ooze doesn't get all over his pillows and sheets. Usually he doesn't care if it drips on him or his clothes, but hates when he wakes up and it's all over his face

Cannot eat anything besides human organs without vomiting - and HATES vomiting. Like he's developed somewhat of a fear of it now...especially how it looks when it comes up

That's just about it for now! Thanks byyyeeee~!

xoxo -Oracle

#creepypasta #creepypastafandom #theladyoracle #theladyoracleau #creepypasta au #slenderverse #creepypasta headcanons #creepypastahc

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postinghomestuckpolls · 4 months

Text

Posting Homestuck Polls

This is a blog where I'll post whatever Homestuck polls I think of and you can, too! Send them in through the submissions (though I also accept through asks or dms), and I'll queue 'em up! (Currently polls can only be added to submissions on the mobile app!)

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Blog Rules/Notes:

This blog WILL allow nsfw and taboo content like stridercest! They will be tagged "nsft" and/or "spicy hs poll" respectively so you can filter them out

I will be only referencing the canonicity of Acts 1-7 unless specified otherwise.

Please do not put any character/headcanon/etc hate in the notes or submit any polls about "which x you dislike" or similar. I will also be avoiding polls that might stoke discourse in the notes, but that's a pretty nebulous concept, and I'm willing to work with phrasing to try to salvage it if needed

If there is a poll that references "John" and not "June," please only reference the character as "John." Same goes for the reverse, and for referencing a character as one gender over another. See note about Acts 1-7 canonicity.

I will not be including "I'm bald" as a "see results" option. If you submit a poll with it, I'll change it to "see results"

I may refuse to post polls at my discretion. This does not mean your poll is bad, just that it doesn't fit my personal vibe. I try not to do it too often, but I apologize in advance if you submit something that never shows up.

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WIP Poll Results Sheet

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Tags used:

poll - the poll

tournament - tournaments, will also be tagged with their own name

poll end - when i reblog with the results

ask jax - asks

submission - polls that weren't by me; I will also use "submitted by [name]" or "submitted by anon"

not a poll - catchall for posts that aren't polls (asks, other)

jax yacks - kind of a general catchall, used when reblogging with commentary that's not a poll end or other random things

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If you're seeing this and want to get into Homestuck, or are already in it and want some general resources, I have some recommendations below the cut:

The Unofficial Homestuck Collection: It preserves all the flash usage and even has features and mods like getting rid of slurs or changing color contrast and a bunch of other stuff!

Homestuck Made this World: A podcast that provides literary analysis of and fandom context for Homestuck. (From my understanding, fandom context ends at Act 7, though they still analyze the Epilogues. They just weren't in the fandom spaces at the time for it.)

Homestuck.net: An archive of a bunch of official and unofficial stuff. Links to Hussie's other works, official social medias, fan games, fan video and art archives, cosplay references, Homestuck analysis, and a bunch of other stuff!

This last one is more... Discourse-y, but I gotta plug Gio's breakdown of the Homestuck Kickstarter controversy. If you watched the video in which Sarah Z gets legally threatened by What Pumpkin, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, that is detailed and linked in the blog. I'm linking the category page because there are multiple entries under "The Hiveswap Saga" to check out:

#jax yacks #pinned #new poll blog #not a poll #homestuck #last updated 4/03/24

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aranarumei · 22 days

Note

you listed gsnk as an option and my dopamine receptors lit up. What dyou think about mikorin and mayu

ask me about a ship and I’ll give my opinions + classify them as does / doesn’t make sense, does / doesn’t compel me

heyyy surprise for you. yeah i actually was cleaning up my notes app today and realized I'd answered this and never posted this lol. gonna start off with a does make sense, does compel me and continue under the cut.

okay. hear me out. for a period of time I genuinely believe mayumiko was the gsnk duo closest to being, like, romantic. in a sense. horikashi, nozachiyo, and wakaseo have sure got a lot of development since then (in ch 60, kashima avoids hori and we get a REALLY good moment out of it) but like. just one chapter before that, we have ch 59. one of my favorite chapters. and at that point, I feel like the main couples have had their setup and they're really fun and comedic, but there hasn't been much... advancement, in a sense?

and then we hit ch 59, where "mayumayu" (nozaki mayu, who's been conned into posing as a girl) and "mamiko" (mikoshiba mikoto, who's posing as a girl so that he's not a creepy guy commenting on mayumayu's blog, unwittingly using the name of the protagonist of let's love by nozaki umetarou under alias of yumeno sakiko without knowing that he's the inspiration for the character's personality) basically immediately hit it off over text. seriously, past the first couple of texts where there's a bunch of people commenting on it, all they say is that they'll instantly reply to any texts that come their way. what commences is a hell of texting, probably, but it is a LOT of texting that happens. and that's not something that can be empty! both mikoshiba and mayu seem worn out by the amount of time they spend on it, but they don't seem worn out by each other in the slightest, judging by the fact that in ch 89, not only is mikoshiba still regularly checking mayumayu's blog, he's getting texts with extra art and well-wishes for his exams! they talk to each other about their lives! and it's not something that exists only online, too... mayu and mikoshiba are genuinely and obviously good friends outside of their online identities.

I'm aware not everyone sees it that way, but like, to me, ch 59 was like the most outright romantic the series had gotten. so it's very special to me. so is mayumiko! mayumiko’s so fun because they’re both soooo cool and soooo uncool. but while the mayumiko situation is objectively hilarious, the way they're friends is like... surprisingly understated? it's just something that happens and it works for both of them, even when it seems like it shouldn't. like, let's be real, mikoshiba can be kind of annoying, and mayu can be kind of grating. despite that they end up being really comfortable with each other. like. no wonder they could keep up that texting chain. they just click in general.

so we meet mayu in ch 33, and in ch 37, mikoshiba runs into him, and they've got this fun chapter together where miyako both compares them to cats. then in ch 49, mayu gets mikoshiba to lend him his... questionable? sure. questionable manga. calls him mikoto-san. and it just kind of... happens, them being friends. since they both hang out at nozaki's place. it's neat. in ch 64, post-The Incident, mikoshiba's comfortable enough to ask mayu for help with working out. and mayu knows mikoshiba enough to shout out the specific name of the fake high school from one of the games mikoshiba likes (sure, it's a super popular galge, but that's a strange thing to know well! especially for a guy who's traditionally lazy about everything but judo)

then of course we get to the mayu chapters where he's just so. iconic. in ch 76, mikoshiba needs to bring a guy to the mixer and then after nozaki rejects him sakura's like, ask mayu, who's been on the floor this whole time. side note i think its cute that when mikoshiba asks mayu, he calls himself "mikoshiba-nii-san." and mayu rejects him at first (also using "mikoshiba-nii-san" lol), but he ends up going once he's told he doesn't have to do that much work. and then he grills a girl about her boyfriend bc she says he does judo. and then tries to get some guy's number because he's apparently strong. judo freak (affectionate). and then, of course, as mikoshiba's thinking that "ah, they totally think mayu likes guys, but i guess it's fine since he doesn't seem to care" and when he's surrounded by girls mayu jumps in and says "he's mine," just like nozaki's shoujo manga advice had told him to do. love that for them. in ch 81, though it's a pain, mayu goes along with the idea that all the stuff in the back room is his and not mikoshiba's (though maybe he thought it was more of a pain to explain) and when talking about dating sims, mayu says, "well, guys or girls, both are pretty similar." love that guy for real.

then, in one of the moments of all time that make me insane, in ch 94, seo's pinning mikoshiba, and suddenly goes, it's boring without waka (makes sense! he's normally the guy she pushes around like this) and mikoshiba's like. oh! that's right! I haven't gotten a souvenir for mayu yet! (makes... sense...? because. because he's getting PINNED??? and we KNOW that mikoshiba hasn't done judo with mayu because it happens for the first time in ch 135, where after some really nice moments, mikoshiba sheepishly asks if mayu wants to try throwing him around too. it's a weird expression of care and also the fact that they're still friends after this fact, considering the violence nozaki translates it as, is a testament to their friendship.)

also in the extras for that volume, we see mikoshiba got him a smartphone case, which sucks because mayu's got a flip phone (though it's better than the hairpin nozaki got mayu) but then when mayu figures out a use for that smartphone case, he runs to mikoshiba to give him the good news! 'cause mikoshiba was sulking before... they're fun.

i think I've already said this but they really are close. and i think mayu's kinda clingy. in ch 114 when kashima rei asks to talk to him again, he's like, "go through mikoto-san." in ch 128 we find out that mayu shows girls in his class photos of mikoshiba so they make sure he doesn't get caught napping. this begs the question: HOW did this arrangement exist in the first place? because there's no way I can think about it that doesn't involve mayu and mikoshiba being at some level of closeness. and there's no way mayu can get so many nice looking photos of mikoshiba without being close to him. and in that same fucking chapter when nozaki’s making posts for his blog and turns mikoshiba into a girl, people think that he and mayu are dating. like oh my god. even in gekkan shoujo nozaki-san, when the main cast is meant to be a bit older than the canon timeline, mikoshiba and mayu are hanging out together at nozaki's place. and when mikoshiba and nozaki are getting all chummy with miyoshi, mayu walks in and he's like. ah. a challenger emerges (because he presumably wants to be pampered instead). my point is that they're close they just hang out. it's comfortable, which says a lot for both of them.

in ch 59 mayu's friends are like. his type is 1) someone who's stronger than him at judo or 2) someone older who'd take care of him and. mikoshiba's not #1 but he is #2. those two can be pretty sweetly considerate actually. as we see mayu gets dragged into quite a bit of stuff and does it. in ch 101 he actually finishes up the chapter of let's love while everyone's fallen asleep. and in the vol 14 extras mikoshiba gifts a water plant to a guy he barely knows. just because. so I feel like they're both sweet people underneath it all. and extra fact about ch 59 i know you'll feel crazy about. kobayashi (the guy who actually runs the mayumayu blog) calls mayu maa-kun. i am not joking.

anyways to me mikoshiba and mayu are both this weird security to each other. mayu’s someone who doesn’t care abt social graces and mikoshiba’s someone who cares too much. but when they’re weird to each other it’s like they accept everything. and I just think. despite all of the mistaken identity drama it’s like. idk. they just like each other. they just get along well. and for mikoshiba who’s so awkward with girls, this works out well. also the way that in ch 144 his fav ever gacha character is this kind of gloomy and lazy girl… fascinating thing you’re being charmed by. what a taste you have.

so in the end despite all of the wild situations i think it’ll be simple. mikoshiba will think a little too much and mayu a little too little. but they've gotten along well for so long that I think this will go pretty well, too. it'll just be a feeling that grows kind of slowly until it works for the two of them.

#ask #ask game #sunluvclub #mayumiko #gsnk #kiri.txt #my god i said. so much didnt i #in this essay i will

18 notes · View notes

muffimtv · 13 days

Note

this even though you dont write rn

🥑🥤💌🌻🧃🍄🪐📚🍬🦷❄️🥐🏜️<- (general art creation) 🦋🐚🐝🌸🎨🧩

YOU ARE INSANE

🥑 - you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

@fuzziecorpse @bathtubswooo and @h3xrts4-me

🥤- recommend an author or fanfic you love

sing, sweet cicada on ao3! my partner and i loved it so much that i bound a copy for him!

💌 - how many unread emails do you have right now?

22!

🌻 - tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis

@crikey01 your tag games are so silly i love them

🧃- share some personal lore you never posted about before

ooh fun question!! whenever it rains i try to go lay out on the roof of my car, it’s very fun :3

🍄 - share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

its so hard for me to pick just one pairing BUT currently jmart is on my mind so! i think martin likes having little streaks of color in his hair and jon likes to dye his grey streaks to match

🪐- name three good things going on in your life right now

i got my brother into one of my favorite shows, i’m working on a fursuit, and prom is next week!

📚- what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app?

a fic idea i had at literally 2am yesterday

🍬 - post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

genuinely i cannot think of oen LMAO

🦷 - share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

learn to sew!! it’ll have you a lot of money on things like hemming pants/dresses, repairing clothing, and making them too

❄️ - what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

i’m always a sucker for coffee shop aus man…..

🥐 - name one internet reference that will always make you laugh

my brother and i always use “empty the compartments of your pantaloons” and one of us will respond “FOR WHAT PURPOSE???” and it always makes me giggle

🏜️- what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

those ones that are like “SCREMAING CRYING SOBBING THROWING UP EATING MY WALLS”

🦋 - share something that has been on your heart and mind lately

JMART 🔥🔥🔥

🐚 - do you like or dislike surprises?

i like them usually!

🐝 - tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them

@fuzziecorpse hiii i love you <3

@notroadkills u are so funny king

@crikey01 YOUR ART IS SO GOOD LET ME EAT IT

🌸 - do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them

my baby bunny easter (she is actually terribly old)

woe, baby be upon ye

🎨 - link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

this martin art. specifically the second one 😭😭 that little image was ALL that was on my mind when i was in my ACT today

🧩 - what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

NO PARAGRAPH BREAKS OR PUNCTUATION

PLEASEEEE I DONT WANT TO READ A BLOCK OF TEXT MY EYES ARENT MADE TO HANDLE IT

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coffeeandcalligraphy · 2 months

Text

After death | Lost Gods

He looks at the skyline ahead of him, its famous shapes that tourists gape at like they’re observing a gorilla in an enclosure. It’s all grey to him, not just because of the looming storm but because the grids of buildings and lights have become boring in a way that seems fatal—this city is a dead thing on earth, he doesn’t care what anyone says. It’s all post-mortem—the blinking traffic lights, shafts of sunlight interrupted by high-rises, yellow taxis honking, honking, honking, like they’re shouting a prayer. He feels sort of like that too, caught in kitschy after death.

A little Harrison art <3 !! And an excerpt from the opening of Lost Gods!

4 years ago today I finished writing his very first solo novel, Moth Work, & I’m kind of in awe of how far we’ve come in that short time… 4 novels & 2 novellas narrated by this man who’s a little embarrassing and a whole lot profound (but you didn’t hear that from me!). A few more thoughts under the cut, but here’s a little note I made myself in 2020, the only note I’ve ever made after finishing a book (possibly because finishing this one changed my life a little).

TW for mentions of: mental illness, trauma in the mental health system, internalized homophobia

Technically I finished Moth Work at 2:34AM because I lived on the west coast at the time lol.

I don’t usually celebrate or remember the anniversaries of finishing books. But I wanted to celebrate this one because a) it’s Leap Day & I haven’t been able to commemorate what I was doing during the last one for 4 years, & b) because finishing MW was such a significant accomplishment!

I started MW in January of 2019 because I was struggling emotionally. At the time, I was racing to figure out “what was wrong with me” before flying across the country for uni in the summer (SPOILER I WAS JUST AUTISTIC LMAO), which led to a lot of stressful and traumatizing appointments with doctors. I desperately needed a book to cheer me up but a different one from my WIP at the time, especially because in 2018, I’d both discovered my voice and become really afraid of messing it up!

I also was taking a religion class at the time that was emotionally difficult for me because I felt reallyyyy alone and especially isolated in my queerness that I’d been hiding for a couple years at that point (& that I literally would not talk about at all, not even to people I trusted). When it became very clear I needed an outlet to explore my feelings (of being “unhelpable,” internalized homophobia, a general sense of aloneness/isolation) the decision of what I was going to write became pretty clear.

I’d written 3 stories in Harrison’s POV that predated MW starting in late 2018 (they were also my first explorations in third person present tense, which fun fact, I only tried in his POV because I’ve always written my notes ideas in that POV/tense combo, even when I only wrote first person!). I hadn’t written in a different POV character’s head beside’s Reeve’s since 2016, so it felt natural that the second character I felt closest to (Harrison!!!) could be a narrator. Funnily at this time Lonan was my favourite so I’m actually surprised I did not choose him but can we imagine how different things would be if I had???

I started Moth Work in my notes app (ICONIC) on January 16th 2019 at 11:37pm! The first chapter came pretty quickly, is actually quite non-linear for a bit, and was overall a lot of fun to write. I’d planned for the project to maybe be a short story or at the most a novella (does this sound familiar), nothing very long and definitely not a novel. I believe the goal word count was 5k which is so funny bc that’s exactly how Changing States & Lost Gods started!!!

And then the project stagnated, it wasn’t something I’d planned to write seriously, and I didn’t pick it back up until August of that year when my therapist at the time suggested I try to complete a “reach goal” as I was reaching Crisis and I guess I was so done with everything going on in my life that I was like okay fine!!!! I will write Moth Work as a novel!!!!

This book literally flew with me across the country… I wrote a lot of it late at night in my dorm with all the lights off after a long day on campus. I wrote a lot of it in my intro to sociology lecture LMAO. I wrote a lot of it on my phone. It was the first project (no literally) where I intentionally explored queerness, especially my own feelings as a (sort of?) catholic at the time. I explored atheism a lot! Something I needed to process my own feelings about faith & God. I explored what it’s like to be this completely unhelpable person because you’ve decided there’s no possible way to help yourself anymore (hiiii Lonan). I also explored (a bit like a premonition), what it’s like to care deeply for someone you can’t help (but that you very badly want to help).

And I almost didn’t finish the book! The imposter syndrome and insecurity went crazyyy when writing Moth Work. I didn’t feel like I was writing the First Person Retrospective Flowery Literary Fiction I’d deemed as the only possible “good writing.” (Still LOVE but I really was struggling seeing a very minor style shift, which is funnily much closer to my writing now than when I was writing the “best” way.) I deleted so much from this book. I couldn’t look at it. I was so embarrassed by it!! I made ultimatums with it!! I edited it so much but still couldn’t stand it! It was literally the safest space I had and I could barely be there a lot of the time!!!

SOOOO this is why I’m very proud of me for finishing it lol & while I would typically have celebrated the anniversary idk, in 2021, bc it didn’t exist until this year it felt apt to sit with those feelings now. I’m really proud of 17-year-old Rachel who was undiagnosed autistic & convinced I was a lost cause, who was sooo afraid of being queer I could only think of that through Lonan (& sometimes still do thx king 🫡) who literallyyyyy wrote a masterpiece in my collection that contains some of my best work (even if I only realized that 4 years later) & that’s been the start of EVERYTHING!

This is so much more than a book or an anniversary!! Somehow I made it through all the things I didn’t think were possible and now have written 2 books & 3 (writing the fourth) novellas allllll in this world. AND 2 additional novels in his POV!! Also thank you baby Rachel for Jeremiah. Like hello!!!! This is the only place I felt safe to be myself when I couldn’t be with anyone else! And there’s something priceless about that…

And it’s all bc of Harrison!!! Whoever I saw in that man in 2019… girl thank you!! Can’t explain what it’s like to grow with that character (who is sooo much more than that to me). Never would I have predicted where I am now. And IMO, that’s all thanks to him so ily fictional man in my head, this is soooo his day LOL.

& if you were here since the first MW update & made it this far… I MUST KNOW!!!!

#art #GETTING GUSHY UNDER THE CUT I COULDN’T HELP IT #tl;dr ily harrison #also everyone weigh in - what’s he listening to?????#IM THINKING OF READING SOME OF MW FROM THE PRINTED COPY #AT THE STREAM TOMORROW!!! SO COME!!!!#CELEBRATE THE DAY!!! YAYY!!!

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nettlewildfairy · 10 months

Text

Tumblr made that big long post and a lot of people are angry reacting to some like surprisingly reasonable suggestions that solve widespread long time complaints

i dont know how they plan to solve everything just yet but as someone who knows some things about the industry and jargon here are my 2 cents

Here is a link to the referenced post

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr

in an age where most social media sites are making it aesoteric and difficult to share posts offsite /app tumblr is considering making it easier to do

yall do you know how hard it is to link a long tumblr post with like a comic or funny string of replies to share with my friends who arent on tumblr? i have to take like 15 screenshots every time. IF staff is priorizing making it easier to share posts that would be so much better oh my god 2 High quality content on launch. the pessamistic assumption is that this could mean a mandatory algorithm but if you read carefully you’ll notice they never fully say thats even remotely what they are going to do. This seems to be a suggestion that the default new user experience will change.

If you like me made an account 10 years ago this looks like it won’t affect your experience whatsoever.

but like trying to sort through tags to find blogs and curate my own feed actively took like over a year to get to a place where i’m happy when i did it in 2011/2012

if feeds and tags Worked that would be good. the for you page and exploration features on tumblr do, admittedly suck right now. there SHould be easier ways to find and search for stuff on tumblr. if their search worked better and finding stuff you wanted to see was easier that Would improve the experience for most people on this site. 3. facilitate easier user participation in conversations folks if replys could be threaded in some way it would be 1000 times easeir to have convos with them. like i do not get what people are upset about here. like a person shouldn’t have to reblog their own post 15 times in a row to reply to different people about the same thing. they could make this so much better. 4. Retain and grow our creator base

it IS hard for art to see and get seen. if i had a nickle for every time i saw a post begging people to reblog art i’d have like so many nickles. I would like to see more art. and ttrpg creators. there’s like stuff i have to go to twitter for and its small time ttrpg, art, writing, and literary magazines because even when those folks are on tumblr its extraordinarily difficult to find them with the systems currently in place.

like i don’t know that tumblr has a good plan to make this kind of thing easier but if they did figure it out it would rule. and its good to know that this is a priority for the company 5. Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr

throttling notifications rules. i have commented on tumblr staff posts dozens of times for like 5+ years asking for this, thank GOD. if you reblog a lot of posts you get a lot of notes even if you have like 15 people regularly interacting with your stuff on 100 posts a day thats like 1500 notifications. it collapses some by post or interaction type but that is NOT enough and the notification bar always says 99+ unless i checked it less than a minute ago, im dying please make notifications meaningful and not overwhelming.

6: Performance, stability and quality

this is generic and means very little obviously anyone making an app wants it to crash less often. bonus: ive seen people get upset at the implication that they are instituting a mandatory algorithm but the site has had an option algorithm for like ages, it doesn't imply its mandatory anywhere or that they're taking away our option to turn it off. there are already artist showcase things on the dash on the regular, if you have adblock on you can’t see some of those, but they've had them for fully years.

its highly unlikely that they would get rid of one of the main selling points of tumblr.com they’re like a real company thats done bare minimum market research, like folks no one other than musk would do something that boneheaded

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zybilna · 1 year

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Another list of recommended non D&D TTRPGs

Mostly just a list of stuff that I personally have been having fun with!

5. Pathfinder: Look if you wanna replace dnd, this is probably the easiest way to do it. It is slightly more complex, but pf2e is WAY more beginner friendly than most people expect it to be. The main source of complication is also the system's greatest strength, in that the more in depth character customization lets you fill out your character's abilities in a more compelling way. Have you ever been frustrated because none of d&d's classes fit your character idea that well? Have you ever gotten a major class feature and not used it much because it doesn't fit your idea for your character? Pathfinder may be the system for you!

It does have a few minor issues in the form of design relics from the old edition d&d it was based on, but aside from the spell prep system most of those can be table ruled out or avoided with minor build tweaks.

4. Monster of the Week: This system is great for anyone who feels more intimidated by rules-dense systems. Being a Powered By The Apocalypse game means that if you learn one of these, you learn a bunch of other systems. Monster of the week is also very inexpensive to get into (Basically everything is free aside from the GM rulebook) and has good community support!

The genre is primarily modern Urban Fantasy with a focus on solving mysteries, but the publisher's most recent book, Codex of Worlds, expands the options so you can take those same supernatural horror mysteries into settings based on The Victorian Era, The Renaissance, The Dark Ages and even The Stone Age!

3. Thirsty Sword Lesbians: Look, this is an incredibly flexible system that has a shitload of uses so its hard to describe quickly but at its core this is another PBTA game that has more of a focus on mind games and emotional drama than the actual swordfighting mechanics. Swordfighting is just a backdrop for drama, and magic largely exists as a metaphor for the characters' personality traits, this makes the system incredibly easy to reflavor or tweak. I've seen a game run with a completely mundane fencing club, a homebrew setting based on a theater department and an official module based on a chess tournament. Anywhere people are competing and communicating can be the backdrop for this game. I should also note that despite the name and most of the art, the game is designed to work well with LGBT storytelling in general.

The core mechanics are essentially a rules-lite drama simulator, with the only truly consistent elements being romance and melodrama. The flavor is flexible and the rules have a ton of caveats that say "If you don't think this fits your character, ignore it!" Its primarily a game for people who like to really get into character to make choices and who are willing to shoot themselves in the foot for the sake of being true to that character.

2. Lancer: If rules-lite systems aren't as much your thing and you wanna take a very different approach to your new campaign setting, Lancer may be the game for you! This is a crunchy mecha combat game with a really in depth customization system that lets you make some wild shit. There are a ton of different customization options on top of an iconic series of mech frames that each have unique and iconic abilities!

It's also not as intimidating to get into as most crunchy systems, as its actually pretty hard to make a "bad" build in the game, the devs have been super cool about providing good digital resources like the Comp/Con app and the community is known for being pretty helpful!

Court of Blades: So this one is a bit more of a niche, but it's basically a system reskin of the critically acclaimed Blades in The Dark with some interesting new twists. Players take on the role of a group of nobles and courtiers in a low-magic fantasy setting inspired by Renaissance Italy's feuding noble houses as they attempt to bring their house to the top.

The real appeal of this system to me is how effectively it lets players play a group of scheming rich bastards, with mechanics around currying favor and having people to do things for you. If you've ever tried to run a noble in a different system only to be frustrated at how little the game lets you use your character's wealth and influence, you might like this game! It's a narrative driven game with a very different approach to structuring plots and missions compared to most ttrpgs that creates a much more engaging narrative flow. The player character playbooks can feel a bit linear and restrictive, but if more people play this one that means more homebrew options!

#pathfinder #pf2e #motw #monster of the week #lancer #lancerrpg #thirsty sword lesbians #TSL #Court of Blades #Blades in the dark #good for anyone jumping ship from D&D

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kitamars · 9 months

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hope you don't mind me sending in another ask so soon but i always find this kinda stuff interesting- now that you've survived two big serious arcs how would you rank the main cast in terms of like. favs & stuff?

don't apologise for the asks at all!! i love answering them and rambling about my thoughts so actually thank YOU for giving me a viable outlet haha

so I had to pull out my notes app to draft this one bc i can't do things simply apparently. i can't rank characters for shit so I'm just gonna rate the main ones (at least to me) out of ten and that's that lol, so onward beyond the cut!

Gintoki: I'm in love with him. 10/10.

He's captivated me with his dead fish eyes and pathetic charm, the way he subverts the general shonen protag archetype really works for me (bc i tend to get annoyed with the genre every now and then) but other than that he's such an interesting character on his own that I cannot get into for fear of rambling too much but yeah. I like him a lot. I might cry about someday in the tags of some art or whatever

(also beam saber arc is UNDERRATED (to me) and its very much overshadowed by everything before and after it but I DON'T CARE it has some of my favourite gin character bits this is my propaganda i just felt like i had to put this here THANKS)

Shinpachi: the human-wearing-glasses gag is absolutely hilarious and I hope it never stops. 8/10.

I love shinpachi a lot I promise, i love how dedicated he is to the straight man role and also the times when he's not. Honestly he could have very easily annoyed me after a bit, but he's genuinely just so loveable and a lot of his charm just comes from his VA's delivery, I've never heard anyone else able to convey the emotional range that I've heard from shinpachi in this anime fnsnjrjgjs

I do think he needs more screentime though (watch beam saber arc),,,kagura tends to get a lot of the spotlight (which I'm not mad about) but he also needs some love!! he's just some guy yk gotta give some appreciation!!

Kagura: queen of kabukicho and the queen of my heart. 10/10.

SHE IS LITERALLY EVERYTHING TO ME. i don't have words to express how much I love her, she's one of my all time favorites ever. She's just doing her thing, eating gin-san out of house and home and kicking ass while she's at it and she's so valid for that.

A big part of why I like her is also just her relationship with the yorozuya. the amount of times I've felt like exploding when I see her and gin or shinpachi just interacting in the background of a scene or something similar is impossible to count. She's my little mimi and she deserves literally the world

(Also there's this one compilation of her singing on YouTube and i listen to it RELIGIOUSLY kugimiya rie is a blessing for this character for real it's insane)

Sadaharu interlude: Big ball of fluff/10 (he's adorable)

Hijikata: this man makes me feel a similar range of emotions I feel cramming the night before a final, if not more. 10/10.

He drives me NUTS. you know me, i love my dark-haired chainsmoking men with issues, and he's just chock full of them, it's like a dream come true. Every arc that's focused on him has been absolutely incredible, and even on his own he's such an interesting and funny character. Fully biased towards his VA btw, i don't think anyone else could voice him as effectively, the delivery is always top notch.

His dynamic with the rest of the shinsengumi is honestly one of my favourites, he's got so much range as a serious and gag character, especially when the plot decides to chuck his coolness out the window with that little mayonnaise addiction of his (now everytime I put mayonnaise on anything at all i give myself a dirty look, idk why).

Also i should mention that tosshi was one of the only things that made my watching experience truly difficult. I'd just cringe out of existence everytime he opened his mouth it was. An experience. I still love him very much. Too much maybe.

Sougo: sadism has never looked more fun. 9/10.

I don't think I really have much to say about him? he's genuinely a really fun character, and his endless quests to smear hijikata across the asphalt is always the highlight of any viewing experience. i loved him regardless, but the mitsuba and farewell shinsengumi arcs gave him that extra bit of depth that really solidified him as a fav hehe

YOU DONT GET CHARACTERS LIKE HIM VERY OFTEN AND I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

kondo: gorilla gorilla/10 (9/10)

thi guy is just the fucking funniest. he's one of the perfect examples of how gintama does characterisation through comedy because by introducing him with all his hilarious gags, you start to care a lot more about him when things actually get serious. Plus the joke never really gets old with him, if he shows up in an episode I know I'm about to have a great time.

but as a serious character as well he's just so good. Him being the glue of the shinsengumi is incredible and sometimes in the plot (crisis and farewell arcs) you can see exactly what it is in this man that makes people want to follow him to the ends of the earth, he is just a good person and I love him for that.

also he's the reason i realised I have not grown out of my 14 year old dick joke phase so there's that

Otose: gintoki's overdue rent/10 (9/10)

I enjoy her so much actually, she's already incredibly fun, but whenever they show more background to gintoki and her's relationship, all of a sudden i am in a puddle of tears on the floor, it's one of the most important things ever to me, the foster parent trope is my weak point.

evidently, kabukicho four devas was my kryptonite (in a really really good way)

Catherine: the heavy accent is pretty funny. 7/10.

I don't really have strong feelings about her tbh, she's alright and funny enough, that's pretty much all I can say

Tama: total number of her leukocytes/10 (9/10)

I LIKE TAMA SOOOOO MUCH SHES SO SWEET AND KIND AND ADORABLE. all of the tama centric arcs have been really fun and each episode involving her is so nice. Finding out she was the time traveller in the bfy movie was such a great twist but immediately made sense bc OF COURSE she would go that far for her very first friends!!!!! i love her innocence so dearly and the way she simply just wants to help others, also otose seeing her as a daughter makes me so emotional

Hasegawa: the madaodog madaonaire episode made me choke at the speed at which I got that reference. 8/10.

Incredibly funny character, the fact that he cannot win a single W is both hilarious but also a bit sad and pathetic, but he's authentic to himself regardless.

He also ruined my later attempts at trying to watch NGE

Otae: the price of one dom peri/10 (8/10)

I love her SOOOOO much she's so entertaining...again I don't have much to say but it's not really in a bad way, i just like her a lot and that's mostly it hehe

Kyubei: otae love/10 (9/10)

as a nb person I have a huge bias towards kyubei, their struggle to figure out where they stand in the binary is pretty relatable, and while I can say that you don't always see a character like that in media who is also hopelessly in love with a woman (so real for that though) i can also admit that this show isn't the best handling of it all, but honestly it's a very "take what I can get situation" so I try not to be too bothered, dekobokko was a bit strange but the ending for kyubei is better than most other instances I've seen, even if it doesn't stay consistent in the series

Also where is jugem jugem? i miss that little bastard so much that arc was so good

Tsukuyo: where does she stash all that kunai. 9/10.

TSUKUYO IS MY WIFE AND GINTOKI NEEDS TO MOVE OVER BC I WANT TO KISS HER. thank you

no but seriously she's a really fun character, and I love everything about her and yoshiwara and her relationship with hinowa and seita and he hyakka and ACK. yoshiwara in flames and the red spider arcs were really good for her, and her slightly confused air at most times is so charming, i love her muah

Sacchan: uhhhhhh huh. 7/10.

I'm gonna be honest, she's one of the only characters I really didn't like since she was introduced, i just found her so incredibly annoying all the time. But then came shogun assassination and suddenly I could stand her a lot more when her personality didn't revolve around gin-san's massive d– (but like. I hate that I can relate to her)

also I don't know where her strange friendship with tsukuyo came from but I actually genuinely like it a lot..........sillies with sharp knives, what could possibly go wrong?

Okay I'm running out of steam here honestly so if I've missed anyone (I'm very sure I have) feel free to ask in replies and I'll tell you what i think jgjekkfkd

this is terrible. Everyone is a main character in my eyes

EDIT: I MISSED THE REST OF THE JOUI 4. I WILL DISEMBOWEL MYSELF. BUT FOR NOW HAVE A LIGHTNING ROUND

katsura: 10/10.

One of my all time favourite characters ever, literal definition of head empty no thoughts, he is so stupid and I want to kiss him passionately under the moonlight

Sakamoto: 10(00000)/10

He is my everything. He needs more screentime. I'm begging on my knees. He is the perfect man.

Takasugi: 9/10

He's great. Shogun assassination made me cry over him. I'm forever sad about him now he was so mochi.....and then the trauma.............ue

Anyways now I think I'm done. time to atone

#thanks for enabling me op #i like to talk too much about them but also holy shit there are so many words #i definitely havent gotten all my thoughts out but nevermind! I shall convey them through art~#i love this show. so goddamn much #nimki talks

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