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#that’s why i just edited the original url change post
elentiyawhitethorn · 2 years
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url change!!!
themoonthestarsthesuriel → elentiyawhitethorn
(going to pin this for a while so here’s my masterlist, will be updating links as quickly as I can)
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monstermoviedean · 2 years
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i saw a post today where someone stated that they often can't tell real information from misinformation online. i am not here to make fun of that person. that being said, the ability to figure out if information is real or not is a critical skill for everyone who uses the internet. you need to be able to do that on your own. it's great if you can get help or if people will tell you what's real and what's not, but you also need to be able to do it by yourself. simple, easy tips under the cut.
the most common style of misinformation i see on tumblr is the fake news headline. it's an image or multiple images of a headline and sometimes an attached story. easy tips to discovering whether this is real or not:
is there a link in the post? click it and see where it goes. no link? possibly fake, possibly the poster just didn't include it.
google the full headline, not just key words. even better, google the headline with the full headline in quotes so you get exact matches. can't find a match? probably fake.
is there a clear url/website attached to the headline? if so, go to the website and search for the headline. can't find a match? probably fake.
is there an author? google them. see if they're real. see if the subject of the article matches the stuff they usually write about. see if they have social media where they may have posted the headline. can't find an author, or they seem way off-track? probably fake.
if it's an image of a tweet, look up the person's twitter handle. can't find the tweet? possibly fake. it could also be a real tweet with the text or date edited.
is there a date? a story written in 2002 may have very different ramifications than a story written in 2022. it depends on the subject, but some subjects change rapidly and even a 5-year-old story may be out of date. see if you can find anything recent. if not, it may be fake or out of context.
go to google news and do a quick scan. this is going to work better for headlines that are about world news, but it's still worth a try. google news also allows you to search stories and limit by date. see if you can find a matching headline. if you can't, it may be fake or old news.
general tips:
don't trust social media. just don't. please. people can and will say literally anything they want. anything you read on social media that has real-world implications, you should fact-check.
you may think it's overkill, but google everything. even things you're mostly sure of. reading more headlines and more news can help you get better at discerning between real and fake headlines.
every source of information is biased in some way. try to seek out less biased sources. look up the bias media chart (here's a link) and use it to find sources that do less biased and more original reporting.
think about bias as you're reading. who is the author writing for? why are they writing? what do they want the audience to feel? what facts are they choosing to include or omit? how might the presentation of the facts change if someone with a different perspective was writing?
there are also websites dedicated to fact-checking. this works best for major world news, but try snopes or factcheck. the rand corporation has a huge list of tools for rooting out disinformation as well.
there's nothing wrong with asking for help, but if you genuinely cannot figure out if something is real or not on your own, and you give up trying to figure it out without help, you run the risk of believing and even spreading misinformation. some misinformation is essentially harmless (a celebrity's favorite color, for example). some misinformation is incredibly dangerous. please please PLEASE check your facts. it is quick and easy and worth it.
if you need more help, let me know.
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dduane · 7 months
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Judging books by their covers
Having spent the morning reading the notes on this post (and reading them, and reading them...), I realized I really needed to get to grips with a piece of work I'd been avoiding.
Some of you may remember me mentioning that the Young Wizards website's longtime ISP went out of business suddenly in July, necessitating the site's hasty relocation to a new home. In the process a lot of its internal URLs ceased to operate correctly, meaning that files weren't displaying. (As I was quickly reminded when looking for the original David Wiesner art for So You Want To Be A Wizard at 01:30 last night.)
Anyway, I just wound up spending the day rescanning book covers for the Young Wizards publication history page, and was reminded of some favorites while getting the work done. (And a note for the interested: if there's any particular cover from an English-language edition of the YW books that interests you, or you think the sight of one might jog your memory somehow, that page is where you'll find the images. Use the tabs under the header image to take you through the history of publishers and artists.)
Meanwhile, being reminded of what happened to the covers for So You Want To... alone is both funny and a bit sobering. Styles change, formats change, art directors change. Sometimes the covers get a lot better, and sometimes they, uh, don't. Look at the difference in styles alone among these, for example.
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Most of the time the writer gets to take what they're given, and like it. Sometimes, though, they get to give advice.
Here, for example, is one time that happened.
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This is for the UK hardcover of the first of the Feline Wizards books. The artist, Mick Posen, is a cat person... and he insisted on having pictures of the cats who inspired the NY worldgating team before he started painting. Just look at these three, especially Rhiow there in the foreground. Is this a hero, or what? :)
Here's one that caused a little controversy.
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The question of the day: Is Nita wearing anything? And if so, what?
The art won Greg Swearingen a silver Spectrum Award for that Deep Wizardry painting. But he and my then-editor on the series, Michael Stearns, apparently got into it a little regarding a conflict between the text and the necessities of painting a YA cover. If I remember correctly, I think Greg was holding out for "She's not wearing anything in the text in this situation, she just turned human again after changing back from being a whale, she shouldn't be wearing anything here!" and Michael was saying "But the parents, what if we freak out the parents...!" ...Eventually it seems like some kind of compromise was achieved. Swirly light = magic, or something. (shrug) Not my problem. It's a lovely cover.
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About this one I have, well, mixed feelings. At this end of time, the art looks clunky. Yet this is also my first bestseller. When the SF Book Club published this omnibus, Support Your Local Wizard quickly set records as their single most-requested item of all time for new members just signing up. Its print run ran to more than 250,000 copies, and it remained constantly in print until the Book Club itself ended.
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I've always been fond of this one for Deep Wizardry, and also of the one the artist, Neal McPheeters, did for the Dell Yearling and Dell mass market paperback editions of So You Want To... . There's a solid quality to both of them, but the second one in particular, that appeals to me.
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(For those in the notes on that other post who reacted immediately to Kit's antenna: This is one of the reasons why it features—along with one of Nita's wands from the rowan tree Liused—on all the covers of the revised/updated Young Wizards New Millennium Editions. I've seen a lot of memories jogged by its appearance.)
...Do I have a favorite favorite one of all these covers? As usual, it's hard to pick. But I have to admit that I smile, at the moment, when looking at this one—Greg Swearingen’s art again—since in a couple of weeks it'll be the fortieth anniversary of So You Want To Be A Wizard's publication.
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We'll see what the publisher does for the fiftieth. :)
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anistarrose · 1 year
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Hello, TOH fandom, I am here once again to talk about accessibility!
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[Image description: a screenshot of Lilith Clawthorne excitedly holding up a sign, which has been edited to read: "Image Descriptions for The Owl House (and why they matter)" in all caps. End description.]
Image descriptions, like the one I just used above, are exactly what it says on the tin: descriptions of the content of an image included to make the image maximally accessible.
Blind and low-vision people who use screen readers, people who rely on increased font size in-app or in-browser to read text, and neurodivergent people who have trouble interpreting elements of an image (for example, expression) all benefit from image descriptions.
And all images on the internet should be accessible regardless of topic, of course, but I've recently been trying to spread awareness in the context of The Owl House specifically because it's a show with multiple disabled and/or neurodivergent characters! In fact, Principal Bump is canonically low-vision with a service animal to help him in that regard — and I'd argue that making content about disabled characters accessible is extra, extra important!
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[Image description: a screenshot of Principal Bump with his palisman Frewin removed from his head, revealing the scars over Bump's eyes. Frewin is in staff form, smiling, and Eda looks on from the side. End description.]
I know it's within this fandom's ability to make our posts about the finale as accessible as possible — and I know that because I've already seen a decent increase in described posts over the course of Season 3! I've seen more artist-described posts especially, which means a lot to me, and even more to a lot of other people, too <3
So, on that note, how to write an image description? It may seem intimidating, especially if describing someone else's post or fanart, but honestly, there's no definitive "rubric" to follow, just a list of general guidelines:
Indicate where the description starts and ends, with "end description" or "end ID".
Place the description immediately under the image, not under a read-more (this allows people who rely on IDs to experience the post the same way anyone else would, whereas read-mores are inconvenient, especially if OP changes their URL)
Minimize caps lock, italics, bold, and strikethrough, which can be hard to read and/or troublesome for screen readers. Generally, it's just best to transcribe in lowercase without particular effects, then indicate in the transcription if something is emphasized.
Likewise, don't put descriptions in Tumblr's special small text. It's difficult to read and inaccessible to many.
Don't make jokes or add commentary in IDs. If an image is meant to be humorous, obviously it's fine to phrase things in a way that tries to capture that, but it's not the place to add your own jokes, nor is it the place to declare subjective qualities like "this art is beautiful".
Descriptions can vary in length, but if one is getting long (if you're describing a comic, for example), then be sure to break it up with paragraph breaks.
Specifically, while I've heard that too many breaks (ie, every sentence) are annoying for some screen readers, long walls of text are conversely difficult for people with visual processing problems to parse. So, it's good to strike a balance.
With regards to length and amount of detail, it varies by personal preference! Most images don't need a whole small essay, but there's also value in describing certain small and symbolic details, subjective as it is.
Speaking of which, if you're the original artist, then you are automatically the expert on what you wanted the image to convey — the nuances of expression and body language, which details are important and which details are not — and for that reason, I love seeing artist-described works!
Below the cut: more on describing Owl House images specifically, on IDs versus alt text, and other possible questions!
When I transcribe TOH related posts, there's a few other guidelines I use, though these rules aren't as immediately important as the ones above. I generally start by indicating the type of image we're dealing with (a screenshot? fanart? a photo of a cosplay?), then mention what characters are depicted.
Unless I'm describing something long, like a comic, and relying on summarization, I usually mention which character designs we're dealing with (is Lilith in her dramatic black dress from Season 1? or is she in her low-battery shirt?). If it's fanart and the artist has come up with original outfits to put the characters in, I'll summarize those too.
(This is the other reason I love seeing artist-described works: because I, personally, am just kinda bad at describing fashion lol.)
Now, I'd like to go over some other questions that I've either encountered before, or anticipate:
What about alt text? Doesn't that accomplish the same purpose as image descriptions?
In a lot of senses, yes, so alt text is certainly much, much better than no description! However, remember that not every person relying on descriptions is necessarily someone who uses a screen reader every day, or uses a screen reader period. Some people do in fact read the descriptions themselves.
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[Image description, identical to alt text: a screenshot of Luz Noceda from Season 2, smiling and blushing. End description.]
As you can see above, alt text takes an extra click (or tap) to access. In general, it's also prone to displaying walls of text, and — as far as I know — sometimes just doesn't show up if the Tumblr app isn't updated enough. (Not to mention that, in my opinion, making image descriptions visible to people who don't use them is an important part of spreading accessibility awareness in the first place!)
On the other hand, I've heard some people who benefit from descriptions say they actually prefer alt text, so I'm not going to come out and take a hard "absolutely no alt text ever under any circumstances" stance by any means. But, long story short, this is the reason that in my own posts, I almost always defer to in-post descriptions — the only exception might be if I'm writing a meta post, and functionally describing the images in the text anyway.
I've seen that sometimes you use [ ] brackets and sometimes you don't. Is there a reason?
Basically personal preference. I use brackets in posts like this when I have a lot of non-description writing, and want to make it extra clear where the description ends and the non-description begins. If I'm just captioning some fanart in a reblog and not adding any commentary, on the other hand, I leave off brackets because they're pretty redundant.
I'm nervous about describing images, but I still want to help make the fandom more accessible. Is there anything I can do?
Well, my first piece of advice would be to start small! Hell, start with just making sure you include a description whenever you post an image with just text, like a screenshot of a reply or someone's prev tags. You can build up little-by-little from there!
(My personal accessibility journey went from describing only tweet screenshots whose text I could just copy, to describing simple memes like cat pics, to deciding it was important to at least describe fanart of disabled characters like Eda, to finally describing almost every post I reblog. Trying to make that jump without any of the intermediate steps would've been overwhelming, but at this point, it all feels natural to me.)
But secondly, I would encourage showing some love to artists who describe their pieces! Queue up some described fanart, especially artist-described stuff, and help normalize it!
Get into the habit of checking the notes for descriptions (go to reblogs and filter by comments only) before you share! If someone describes your art, copy it into the original post, so the version of the thread reblogged directly from you will be accessible too! (And if you want to make some little tweaks, no one will be offended.)
You can also look into making your blog theme accessible, such as making sure the font size is large enough (and ideally sans serif, for readability). And if you feel more confident with describing audio, then writing transcripts of audio is always incredible as well, to help out those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have auditory processing disorders!
I've heard that AI is able to describe images for screen readers pretty well these days. Are descriptions still important/going to remain important as the technology advances?
Well, let me say first that I'm very glad this technology exists, for sure! But I'm of the opinion that human described (and especially artist described) captions are, at least generally speaking, still going to be the gold standard for the foreseeable future — AI doesn't have the context we do for our art and our fandoms; it's much less likely than a fan of the show to pick up on what's an important or symbolic detail.
Are there actually people who need image descriptions in cartoon fandoms? I mean, the source material has such a visual component!
First off, blind and low vision people do in fact watch things like TV, movies, and plays — ever notice the "audio description" option to add narration to a given show in a streaming service? That's there to provide basically the real-time equivalent of image descriptions.
And, second, I'll leave you with this — don't you think a lot more disabled people would participate in fandom if fandom were more accessible and accommodating to disabled people in the first place?
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12percentspider · 5 months
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12/6/23 Update: Kelly/Kellie/Stacy: Insulin Scam
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This is "Kellie/Kelly". At first glance, I'd say "oh, mood, I have type 1 also, I do fully believe everyone should be able to have life-preserving medication available to them.
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"Hold on", you might say, "I just got an ask in my inbox by someone with almost that exact situation, they just need more money than that." Well, that's the thing.
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"Is it a coincidence maybe? Two people that need the same thing? Type 1 diabetes isn't that rare..." Let's look at "Kellie/Kelly"'s twitter photos, huh?
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"They could have the exact same meter and exact same blood sugar?" Come on now. "What's that middle thing?" OH, GLAD YOU ASKED, HYPOTHETICAL SKEPTIC (good thing to be, not slamming that part, always check research for yourself)!
I have zero goddamn idea why they're pulling the "help i'm being impersonated" thing because it is extremely weird and doesn't make any sense. It's been tried on here, one of the accounts I've linked in another post through paypal addresses/names in common had a whole "this is a scam!!!" about one of the other vero-og variant urls.
BUT ANYWAY. The donation link on the "original" [using that term loosely] twitter account goes to a "Kelly Makau". The purported imposter is using the name "stacy owiti". <[important!]
@/vero---og is using that exact paypal donations url.
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So the hosted fundraiser id is 72YZVGLE8BA2S. [The first one this twitter account had was already terminated when I found it]
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This portion of the tumblr-tracking redirect on the donation link (captured by hovering over donation link) shows the exact same fundraiser.
I also do have another post that adds on proof they are using multiple accounts as the same person, but that's a reblog comment on an already extremely long and rabbithole-esque post. It's there if you need more, though. Especially if you want to get nitpicky about how the "original" twitter is calling the other a scam: the paypal addresses that have been back and forth between multiple accounts is clearly just the same person reusing and recycling names and accounts.
But hey, at any rate, this is a SCAMMER and if you donate you are losing money to someone who does not need insulin.
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bizlybebo · 5 months
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hey dsmpblr so since we recently lost our minds over eret’s planned-but-never-executed dsmp ending and the reveal that it’s possibly all one big loop, one that’s likely repeated several times before, i have some fucking thoughts about wilbur.
more specifically, the idea that someone else posted, that wilbur could have removed himself from the loop by leaving for utah.
(edit: the persons url is @/idkwatthehec !!)
see, i think this could go one of two ways.
one, maybe his fate was always to be from somewhere else, to appear and burn bright, so incredibly bright, but burn out fast, only to be revived months (granted, years for him) later. to eventually leave it all behind in a bittersweet goodbye. maybe there’s no real escape, maybe he’s just as much a part of this as everybody else and he has his role and he’s always going to fucking play it.
but maybe he really did remove himself from all of it. maybe he’s no longer part of the loop, and that’s why, like the original poster said, he didn’t have a room in mizu(?) from tales of the smp.
this can mean so many things.
what if he thinks tommy never wanted to (or never could) come visit him in utah?— never even wrote after that final letter. because the tommy that’s there now isn’t the same tommy as before.
what if tommy, in his newest incarnation, finds himself standing one day, overlooking a stretch of land; it’s water and it’s mountains and it’s grass, and he feels… off? like there should be somebody here with him, but he just can’t place who in god’s name it could be and he can’t even describe the feeling. tubbo calls his name and he forgets he even felt it, just continues on with his life and eventually learns to live with that feeling of something missing until it eventually disappears.
what if, although it’s somewhat out of character for him, wilbur ever came back?
what if he sees this kid, bright-eyed and young again, and he’s got tommy’s nose and his crooked teeth and his gangly limbs and his choppy hair but he’s not tommy. not his tommy.
what if, this time, it’s tommy who came back, but came back different?
what if tommy’s worse without him, but what if he’s better?
what if he doesn’t tense up at the mention of tnt? what if he doesn’t have that scar in the middle of his chest from his first(?) canon death acquired in that duel with dream?
what about everybody else?? what about phil. would phil ever even come to the main land if it weren’t for wilbur’s letter? what would that mean for techno, for niki, for ranboo, for literally fucking everyone??
how the fuck would wilbur feel seeing a world unaffected by him?
what if, knowing who he is, he has the impulse to come back to it, to wrap his fingers around it again and leave an impact. because wilbur was always someone who had to be in control, who had to be in first place, and although he’s now older and changed so much, what’s he going to feel in a world where he has no legacy? where there’s no crater for him to stand in after revival and laugh in surprise at (although that wasn’t his original crater)?
maybe, in the end, he throws himself back into the loop.
because maybe he never was free from it, at least, not in any way that matttered.
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kth1 · 1 year
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2023 New Year Announcement!
Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all enjoyed yourself if you celebrated! I also hope that you have beautiful blessings when it comes to the year of 2023! Make it something to remember in a positive way! ♡
I am announcing a little (confusing) change to my blog this year! So, Surprise!
I am officially shifting my writing to another blog named KTH1FICS! (@kth1fics​)
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Due to me being a multi-content creator, I have realized over a time - and battled with debate - on how to help people find my works. As this blog (kth1) is my main bts blog for all of my works and reblogs of bts stuff, I have come to an executive decision on pulling all of my writings work to a secondary bts blog! ♡
I want it to be easier for readers, writers, and gif/gfx content creators to find my blog/works on their own without the hassle of how undoubtedly messy my blog kth1 is (as I hardly use the tag system but I'm trying to get better with it).
Over at kth1fics, I have recreated my official masterlist. Please like and share. The masterlist post on my kth1 blog will remain here because I have edited it to where it’s now linking to the new writing blog for all of my readers!
I will NOT be reuploading any of my fics to kth1 anymore, however the current existing fics with remain linked to their original post if applicable. This is where it may be confusing and I apologize.
For example, my fic The Sheets (kth) is posted on blog kth1 and will remain there. However, kth1gifs will be linking you to that post.
From here on out, as of 2023, I will be reblogging and uploading all current and future writing works and interactions for writing to kth1fics!
Wondering why am I doing this (besides what I have said above)? I got you. I know that there are some people who don’t like seeing gifs/gfxs and want to be here on tumblr for writing, and that’s ok! I also know there’s people who are here specifically for gifs/gfx and don’t like seeing writing, and that is also ok! I just want to 1) make it easier to navigate and 2) accommodate to those who strictly want to see either or. I’ve grown so much as a content creator and expanded so far, I want to keep things as simple as possible for anyone who visits my little crafty corner of bts! I am doing this for both you and me!
Basic run down of this post:
I know this is confusing considering I have works all tagged to the urls kimtaehyunq, kth1, and now kth1fics, but please bear with me as I expand my horizon. @kth1​ will still be my main bts blog and gfx/gifs are located. @kth1fics​ from now on be where all my writings shall go.
Think of this as Maggie Chapter 4! ♡
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messier51 · 10 months
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an unfounded hypothesis but
i’ve been thinking about the collapsed thread posts potential update to tumblr a lot and the why because it’s always seemed to me that tumblr is probably hosting.... a LOT of content on their servers. and all of the images are just there, they don’t get deleted. you can upload a post with an image, copy the url of the image, delete the post, and the image will still be at that url.
but ALSO. and maybe i’m incorrect about this because i’m not actually brave enough and my coding skills are hack scientist “enough to get myself in trouble” level, so i am not going to actually go digging around (but maybe someone else knows what’s up). but it seems like every time you reblog a post you’re making a different copy? because when you reblog something, and then the original gets edited, the one you reblogged stays as the version when you reblogged it. and when someone deletes, all of the posts that have been reblogged are still out there, they don’t disappear just because the original post or poster has gone away. and it could be like images and it’s just the edit that’s a new version, but, since this is tumblr i’m not feeling super charitable about how much coding efficiency was put into this webbed site
so, images are a lot bigger than text. like, a lot a lot. but text is not nothing. so if you are hosting millions of blogs and everyone is making a few posts here and there and you have one copy of each post, ok, that’s going to be a lot of data to store, but in today’s social media landscape, totally manageable.
but then imagine that you start making copies of everything. 5 bytes but a few thousand people reblogged it. images are separate, they’re saved once and called up with the link in the html. but. text is small, so what if it’s 5 kb now instead of 5 b. or, whatever. but you’ve been doing this since 2007, it’s been 16 years, and very few things ever get deleted. and people keep reblogging things, and making new posts...
maybe it’s not a large percent of the server costs, i have no clue. but it still seems like this idea of trying to consolidate posts could be rooted in the idea of not keeping so many redundant versions of a post in storage.
and personally, i want to see the whole post! and i also SUPER love the post reblogs graph, and being able to navigate through more versions of a post than just the one that shows up on my dash, because the way reblogs and comments are displayed currently is.... not always the easiest to parse? it’s definitely gotten easier to access these things, even without some version of xkit! which is great. but having one version of a post like a forum topic with various chains under it (especially if all the different branches of the conversation were included?) could also be a very interesting way to view it....
plus, lbr, if it’s just collapsed like a readmore but for multiple comments in the middle, we will PROBABLY have (or have an xkit extension with) the option to have it expanded, just like when they switched to long posts being automatically hidden behind a cut. that took about 2 seconds and then i forgot they even changed that, because it did a very similar thing!
i guess it’s just very funny to watch people complain about tumblr breaking functionality, as if tumblr has ever been particularly functional. what gets changed will get modded or we’ll get used to it and find new ways to make it awful. we have always been at war with tumblr, this too is part of the appeal.
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capstone update #5
Hello! We're in the final stretch now... A lot has happened since my last post. Sorry, but I'm really not the blogging type.
So! Over the past two or three weeks, I've cut together my "extended trailer" for my doc. My goal was to have something between 3-5 minutes, and ended up with something around 4 minutes 40 seconds. I figured this was the way to go since there is so much information to share on the topic of Red Hill. If I'm making a trailer for something this complicated, I need to make sure that viewers are getting all of the context they need to understand why the issue is important.
The biggest struggle was figuring out what would make it into the trailer. I spent a lot of hours going through my footage, and collecting public domain clips from DVIDS, the "Defense Visual Information Distribution Service". (Anyone can use content from DVIDS: dvidshub.net is the URL. All of its content is produced by the US Military.)
After much hemming and hawing, one night it just came to me. I put together the first draft of my trailer, and it restored hope and light to my world. 😂
I got feedback from 9 people about it. Only two people had doubts, but I've been working to address the things they mentioned. Everyone else really liked it, which was very helpful to know. When you're editing something, you start to question whether it makes sense after viewing it 20 or 50 times over.
I have a corkboard that I used earlier this semester to help me wrap my mind around all of the different parties and topics involved in this Red Hill story. After making the first rough cut of my trailer, I decided to use the corkboard to visualize and rearrange my trailer's narrative. This was absolutely necessary, because of the sheer amount of sequences and clips I had prepared. Last weekend, I spent a lot of time standing in front of the board, trying to figure out what I could move, and where I could place new clips. It was well worth it, and I can't imagine trying to do this kind of work a different way. (Thanks Professor Farinella and Gabby Navalta for recommending this method!)
All in all, I'm really pleased with how my trailer is coming out. It has changed a lot over the past week! The storyline is mostly the same, but I managed to add in a lot more information at just the right moments. The narrative feels cohesive to me, and the people who have seen the new version agree. I did not, in fact, mess up the magic I had going in the original cut. Relief!
Until next time, please enjoy these photos which document my trusty corkboard's metamorphosis over the past week. I will treasure them always.
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Progress Update #5
Not that much has happened since the last update, but I still managed to hit some major milestones.
First of all, I got *almost* all of the preliminary sprites done.  I actually forgot to make sprites for the markers, though this is because the markers themselves were not part of the original plan.  Other than that, I did all the sprites for Sasha, the firewalls, the servers, and the buttons.  That being said, I’m going to have to redo them.  I will explain why pretty soon.
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Besides the sprites, I also made some sound effects.  I made them with the help of a website called jsfxr, where you can generate various sound effects for video games.  For most of the sounds, I just fiddled around with jsfxr and then downloaded them when I was satisfied with them.  However, I did a bit more editing for the sounds that play when you take down a server and run into a firewall.  For those, I made two different sounds in jsfxr and then blended them together in Adobe Audition.  I am mostly satisfied with the end results, but I ran into an issue with the firewall sound effect.
Now, remember how in the last post, I mentioned that I was going to do a playtesting session?  Well, I wanted to get all the sprites and sound effects into the game so that the students who would be playing it wouldn’t have to just look at squares; even if the sprites weren’t perfect, they would still be a step up from what I had in the first build.  So, the day before the session was spent importing all the sprites and sound effects into the game.  This is when I found some issues. 
First of all, Sasha’s sprite is super small compared to the play area (see the picture below - this is before I put in the other sprites; fortunately, their sizes were fine).  Her sprites’ current resolution is 22x22, so I’m thinking I’ll have to increase it to make it easier to see her.  Besides that, the firewall sound effect sounded different when I put it in GameMaker.  Specifically, it sounds less like an electric shock (which is what it’s supposed to be) and more like a really loud and annoying grinder.  I don’t know why the sound changed, especially since the others didn’t.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to fix those issues, so I just had to leave them as is in for the playtesting session.
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As for the session itself, it went rather well.  A lot of the kids had fun playing it.  They also provided a lot of good feedback for the game.  While they provided some suggestions that I do not think I can do (such as adding more levels), they also had some that I will try to do this month.  They include:
Polishing the graphics
Recoloring either the servers or firewalls so they look more distinct (most likely, I’ll make the firewalls yellow instead of orange)
Adding a working tutorial (fun fact: the old tutorial still used the squares, and I didn’t have time to add the new sprites in it, so I completely removed it from the build the students played.  As a workaround, I did demonstrate the game in front of the class.  Regardless, I want to get the tutorial done since I obviously can’t do that for all the people who play it).
Try to implement numbers into the grid (to make it easier to see where the coordinates are)
Fixing the firewall sound effect
This is quite a lot to get done.  I am a little nervous about redoing the graphics; I'm not 100% sure if my skill is up to par to make something better than what I have now.  Still, I’m going to try my best.
Also, here’s the link to the game; you can now try it out with the new graphics: https://aliyah-burruso.itch.io/capstone-sneaker-first-build.  (Yes, the url says “first build.”  No, this is not an April Fools’ prank.  I just didn’t want to change the url and confuse the teacher who let me playtest with her class.  I’ll definitely change it later).
That’s all I have for this update.  For the next couple of weeks, I’ll focus on revising the sprites.  Once I’m done with that, I’ll do the tutorial and add some more things I’ve been wanting to do for the game.  Let’s see how things go.
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blimbo-buddy · 1 month
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hey im not sure if you were aware but the link to the post about the various problems with warriors doesnt work anymore :(! at least not for me..
ah shit, thanks for bringing that up i wonder why the original post was taken down. i have a reblog version that I'll link to right now, thanks again!
edit: okay so it wasn't that it was taken down, it was just that op changed their url
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dni-archive-official · 4 months
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Sincerely, what is the point of this? A lot of these are going to be super recognizable anyway and still supports people being weird about just screenshotting other people (Usually teens to be honest) as content. Not everything needs to be archived, especially when minors can grow out of stuff and opinions/beliefs change over time. Kids don't need archives haunting them forever.
the point is that DNIs are a unique look into the internet culture as a whole. i, the owner of this blog, find purity culture morbidly fascinating. people, both minors AND adults, have gotten increasingly comfortable with
sharing their boundaries. definitely a good thing!
being assholes to other people based on in/out-groups, specifically through the veil of anonymity
and i find it interesting to document the place where this is the most obvious, the DNI / BYF page.
dni-archive is an asshole. dni-archive knowingly uses their blog to bring attention to people they dont like. they do not remove derogatory comments.
i, hopefully, am not an asshole most of the time. i can be kind of rude, blunt, terse, and sarcastic, but i do not tolerate bullying of any kind. dni-archive bullies people.
there have been submissions sent to me which included commentary shaming the OOP of the dni for its contents. i delete any and all personal commentary which shows an obvious bias. generally if you want to submit something with commentary, keep it informative and clinical and keep your voice out of it.
look, anon, i get your concern. i have it too. thats why i run this blog the way i do, and its why ive stopped copying dni-archive's posts as i cant look through every single one of them and there are SO MANY and undoubtedly they dont hold themself to the same standards that i do. a few of the posts i did take had to be edited to take out personal information.
these arent entertainment. they arent memes or jokes (though some of them have jokes in them) or anything like that. i get the apprehension, seeing someone post a bunch of DNIs in the same place can make you think "oh god, theyre mocking people for their boundaries!" but no. anon, if you see anyone mocking any of these posts, TELL ME! show me specifically so i can snuff it out, i promise i will!
finally, i just have one last point. i do not archive identifying information as best as i can (and im willing to take corrections on that!). tell me. if someone sees a DNI on this blog that has no names, blog names, urls, links, how will they find the person who made that DNI? if someone recognizes it, then they already knew who made it. most DNI's are screenshots taken with the snipping tool because they cant be copy-pasted like images. how could you reverse image search a colorful screenshot of text? if the original OP came back as an adult and saw a DNI they made when they were, say, 14, they could either politely ask me to remove it (as anyone can, at any time), or just not tell anyone that it was them, and nobody would know. anon, this criticism seems unfounded to me.
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autumnslance · 4 months
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Um - hi. We’ve never met before, but Happy New Year! 😅
I came across that Another Thing For New Tumblr Users post you made back in July, and… I’d like to confirm, does the read-more tag really still redirect people to the original post on your blog, no matter how far in the reblog chain? This would be unimaginably handy for a post of mine, which I expect I’ll have to re-edit later on, but another friend told me it’s been patched out…
Happy New Year! And Well. It depends. Especially since things change all the time around here.
In the Legacy editor, the "Keep Reading" will usually force someone on desktop browser to the original blog post (unless one has a particular XKit extension). But with the new editor more prevalent, even in a browser without XKit, if I click on a "Keep Reading" link, it opens the rest of the post directly on my dash.
(I keep a login on MS Edge sans XKit for testing purposes)
In the mobile app however it takes me to the mobile version of my blog post itself, which doesn't use anyone's themes aside from color choices.
Now, this is just how people access the post; on the dash or on the blog directly. You can still edit it! I do all the time! Anything below the "Keep Reading" cut should show updated in reblogs...with caveats. I fixed a format error in a post I put up this morning, "Missing Scars". It was reblogged before that by a guildmate. The format correction does appear on mobile when I click on the "Keep Reading" there, as it takes the reader to my blog. But that same reblog on browser, where it just expands the cut on the dashboard, still shows the old format error.
Which is. Well, Tumblr sure is a Functional Webbed Site.
Might be a cache issue and the dash just has to "catch up", but I had to log in after not using Edge for awhile (cuz why would I normally).
Of course, clicking on the header to go to the post on the fakey dash-like version of my blog, or the timestamp in the meatballs menu to go to the actual blog and post itself (I really hate that non-intuitive change just go to my actual blog, Tumblr!) does show the edited format correction.
So. The "Keep Reading" cut will open the post on the dash, OR take one back to the original (maybe edited) post on one's blog, depending on the text editor used to make the post, whether or not you're on browser or the mobile app, and whether you use the "Keep Reading" link or take extra steps to look at the actual blog post.
And if the original post is gone, or the URL has changed, the "Keep Reading" will not work to take one back to the blog (as there's no longer a valid link), but whether or not it can still show that content on the dash I haven't tested yet, and may depend on the age of the post, which editor was used, etc, but the source is still gone.
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druidx · 8 months
Text
Find the Word Tag - Alexis Dalliance vs the Evil of Titan - Part 1
I have a lot of Find the Word tag games. So I decided to put them all together to make me edit the Alexis Dalliance vs the Evil of Titan, a NaNoWriMo novel from 2012 based on the first TTRPG campaign I participated in the Fighting Fantasy World of Titan setting.
There was a total of 145 words to find so I've split these into batches of ~50. I've not removed any duplicates, and where there's not an exact match I've used synonyms instead.
I've grouped the words by the original tagger - though some of these are old enough the tagger has changed URLs...
Fair warning before you click:
I have tried to keep the snips short, but at ~7000 words, this post is 'colour of the sky' long.
Well, if we're sitting comfortably, I'll begin.
➤ @aquadestinyswriting
Bother
The dragon tilted its head, red scales flashing like fire and blood as it looked at her from another angle. "Well, if that's all it was…" It said, in a descending tone. Alexis nodded fiercely. "Then I suppose I can let you off… But I want you to do something for me, first." "And what would that be?" Richard asked. "There is a Blackguard," the dragon said, "who has been making a nuisance of himself in my territory. I would like him killed.” The dragon sniffed the air, gaze landing back on Richard. “A job, I suspect, for you, holey one.” "Why should we fight your battles for you?" Richard asked. Alexis hissed at him, but the dragon just. chuckled. It crossed its paws, laying its chin down, considering. "Quite frankly," it said finally, "why should I? Why bother sullying my claws when you have appeared at the perfect opportunity to rid this pest for me?" Richard pursed his lips, then gave a sharp nod.
Kettle (Tea)
While Kassandra stoked up the fire and set water over to boil, David, Richard's brother-in-law, bustled around fetching plates and bread for the travellers crowded around his kitchen table. When all had a cup of nettle tea and a plate of bread and jam, David settled into his explanation. “They came a few weeks back,” he said. “They told the village elders they just wanted to practice their new religion in peace. The elders agreed and gave them land to build a chapel. After all, there’re so many gods already – what could one more hurt? “Of course folks are curious. They dropped in to see what this new god was about. And these new priests started converting them.” Bastet raised an eyebrow. “That’s the problem?” “Doesn’t sound like it does it?” David gave a bitter laugh. “But something happened to the folks they converted. Became mindless and mean about it. Our neighbour Sam – you remember, Rich? The fella with the lazy mouser? – he always let me borrow his post-holer, and I’d always let him use my ploughshare. But I went up to ask him for it and he threw me out on my rear, saying the new god didn’t approve of it.” He shook his head. “We never had much, but we had each other. We were a community, see? Now, we haven’t even that.”
Language (Accent)
CW Swearing
Alexis paused at an intersection with Bastet and Victor on her heels and looked around. She couldn’t make head or tail of the street signs, so she grabbed a passer-by. "Excuse me, I’m looking for the trade district," she said. The woman she had caught looked down her nose, brushing away a wave of well-coiffed hair, from where it had fallen at her sudden stop. "It would be over that way," she said, gesticulating to the east. "Thank you," Alexis said, but the woman was already walking away, brushing at her sleeve as though something nasty had landed on it. "Spoiled bitch," Alexis muttered, turning to stick out a tongue at the woman’s back. Bastet winked. As the snooty woman passed, she stuck her foot out, causing the woman to trip. "Oh, my. So sorry," Bastet said, in mimicry of the woman’s polished accent. "I didn’t see you there." The snooty woman spluttered from where she sat on the cobbled street, as Bastet and Victor walked on. Alexis let them catch up and smacked Bastet lightly on the arm, but she couldn’t help smirking at the woman’s comeuppance.
➤ @corkythewriteblr
Citizen
Loyal
"We need to leave," Bastet said. "We don’t know who’s loyal to Dire. These people have their hands full right now, but it won’t stay that way.” "She’s right," Richard said, unfolding from his crouch. "Come on." Mute, Alexis stood, trotting to keep up with the others as they made their way down the castle bailey and into the city, swerving through the chaos of screaming townsfolk to retrieve their mounts from the Inn.
Qualify
Sand (Blacksands)
"Sirs," Richard said with a sharp salute. "I can confirm that both Zharradan Marr and Balthus Dire are dead. We have liberated Troll Tooth Pass, and the city of Castle Dire." "Excellent," Hengar said, his tone relieved. "This is just what I needed, some good news to cheer me up." "Good news? You mean there’s been bad news?" Alexis asked. "Yes, sadly." Hengar sat back in his chair. "Master Yastromo, if you please?" Yastromo inclined his head, long white beard swaying with the motion. "Of course, Captain." The old wizard sighed. "I am sorry, my children, to send you straight out again. However whilst looking through Zagor’s effects, I discovered something disturbing." He held up an amulet depicting a stylized eye in a circle. "He’s still dead, right?" Alexis said with trepidation. Yastromo gave her a sad smile. "Yes. I’m afraid this could be much worse. It seems Zagor was part of a cult called the Eye of Myurr. I have also received word that this cult of Myurr is gaining traction in the town of Port Blacksands. We do not know their aims, but given they worship a demon prince from the Pit, it is surely not anything good." Yastromo glanced at Hengar and stepped back.
➤ @talesfromaurea
Cliff
Desert
CW: Blood, animal death
"Very well. Good luck," Nicodemus said, gesturing at Cee-Jay. "Apprentice?" The boy nodded. With a flash and a jolting motion, the group were surrounded by torch-lit sandstone walls and wailing lizardmen. Victor sent a ball of flame rolling through the crowd, Richard close behind, cleaving a path. Bastet and Jay ran, Victor and Alexis, covering their rush towards the portal. Richard had turned aside, making his way through the press of bodies flung against his sword, towards the lizardman elder whose blade was already slick with the blood of desert rodents, and a wavering chant could be heard through the scrum for fighting.
Ocean (waves)
"Bast!" Alexis shouted. "I need you. Richard’ll take care of Victor. I need help now!" Goregut lifted Bastet around, dropping her next to Alexis. The two of them hunkered down, Gorgut shifting splintered planks as Bastet and Alexis lashed them together as best they could with freezing fingers in the torrential rain. It was a small, pitiful thing, but better than not having anything at all. The three of them tied themselves on long halters to the raft, and then with a joint effort, launched themselves into the heaving waves.
Storm
As is often the case the morning after a storm, a blisteringly clear blue sky beat down upon the sandy shore, with only the merest breeze to ruffle the black braids of the shipwreck survivor. Alexis coughed out sand and rolled over, pawing at the salt crusting on her eyes. She dragged out her water skin and washed off her face of sand and salt before taking a long drink. When she felt slightly more alive – certain that the Great Ever After wouldn’t leave her with crusty eyes – she stood up and started to explore the island and see if she could find her friends.
➤ @whimsyqueen
Fascinate
Alexis clenched her free hand as he walked towards her and forced a smile across her lips. "Most feared Lord Dire," she said. "We have come from the Fort at Trolltooth Pass, sent by your brother in darkness, my Lord Marr, to bring you this gift." "Now, isn’t this a treat," Dire said, stepping around her and Three, his eyes feeling as though they lingered on her as much as the patchwork construct beside her. Dire stopped in front of them, taking a few steps backwards. "Please, show me what it can do," he asked, his silken voice and sickly sweet perfume writhing about her, like the snake of temptation in books of yore. Alexis stepped away and glanced at Richard. They hadn’t planned any of this out, and she wondered how long she could keep the charade up before Dire would know something was wrong. Richard dipped his head, his eyes skittering to where Bastet was signing at her in thieves' hand signals. It was a pattern, followed by the sign for someone getting flattened. Alexis cleared her throat, brushing her nose, signalling she understood. “Three,” Alexis said, addressing the construct. “We’re going to play a little game.” "Goody! I like games," he said. “Please take two steps backwards, and then four forwards for me.” “Okay,” he said, and, squinting at his feet, walked back then forwards, quietly counting his steps. Delighted, he looked back at Alexis. “Done it,” he said happily. “What’s next, ‘Lexis?” “One step right, one back, two forward.” “Okay!” Again, Three’s face scrunched in concentration as he counted his steps, stopping right in front of Dire. “Fascinating,” Dire said, staring up at Three. “You can control it even without it’s crystal.” Alexis glanced back at the others. Victor shrugged. Richard loosened his sword from its scabbard. “Yes,” he said, “it’s a new system my Lord Marr is trialling. Woodling, show him the final command.” Alexis murmured her assent. “Three? Smush!” she yelled.
Gentle
Breakfast finished, Alexis slipped outside with a plate of raw steaks and headed towards the stables. “Good morning, Three,” she called. “Hullo, ‘Lexis,” he said, giving her a wave. She knelt beside her riding dog, placing the plate of steak in front of him. Neisk’s tail beat back and forth as she peeled one steak off and passed it to Three. “Eat,” she commanded, ostensibly to the dog, but Three also devoured the steak as Neisk gave a chuff and settled down to eat. “How are you this morning, Three?” she asked as the construct licked his fingers. “I’m fine,” he said, giving her a big goofy smile. “Your doggy is cute.” “Yes. My to'mae is a very good boy.” Three gave Neisk a gentle pat as the dog was licking the plate. “Listen, Three,” Alexis said. “Me and the others have to go into the city, but we can’t take you. You, um, stand out, a bit. Are you okay staying here with Neisk?” “Oh,” Three’s face fell. “Okay ‘Lexis.” Guilt gripped Alexis’ heart, so she reached over and hugged his arm. “I’m sorry, honey. We’ve got some very important work to do in the city and it’s… difficult when you’re with us.” She looked up into his big, trusting, mismatched eyes. “It’s okay, ‘Lex. I understand.”
Holy
CW swearing
"Yeah… It's some kind of powerful magical item, for sure," he said. "It’s glowing bright blue, but I can’t work out what it’s been enchanted with. Give me a sec, I’ll cast Detect Alignment to find out if it’s evil." Once again the rest of them exchanged looks but kept silent as Victor wiggled his fingers in a slightly different pattern. "Revelux in denomination!" he commanded. The wind sighed. Sand scuttled. Victor screamed. He dropped the dagger, falling heavily into the sand, and covering his eyes. "Holy mother of fucksticks!" Bastet rushed over to him and Alexis swiped the dagger. "What happened?" Alexis said. "Are you okay?" Bastet said, cupping the wizard’s shoulders. "Vic, talk to me?"
Ritual (Rite)
Nicodemus raised an eyebrow. "Indeed." He gestured to the viewing mirror again. "As you can see these cultists are devoted and stubborn fellowes. They have almost finished clearing the temple and preparing for their heinous rite which will allow them to open a portal to the demon dimension, or as you might call it ‘the Pit’, bringing their foul lord Myurr through to wreak whatever havoc he wishes on our world. We can not let this happen. As such I am sending you back with this." He handed Richard a cylindrical device, then waved a hand to bring forth a man in pale robes. "This acolyte will transport you back to the temple, and assist you in sealing this portal forever."
➤ @eli-writes-sometimes
Heir (Prince)
"Are you okay?" Bastet said, cupping the wizard’s shoulders. "Vic, talk to me?" "I… I’m all right. I think," he said, his voice shaking. "So. Um. Yeah. That thing is pure evil. As evil as a prince of evil in the dimension specially reserved for really evil things." "What did you see?" Richard asked. "Red," Victor said. "Only red. That thing is giving off an aurora of evil so strong that I see nothing but the waves of light from it. Give me a moment – I must wait for the spell to wear off."
Humanity (Human)
"Richard!" came the delighted cry of a woman. The door flew open and out sailed a middle-aged woman, long braids of ashy-yellow hair streaming out behind her. "Kassy!" Richard cried as the woman threw herself into his arms. "Kassy, what’s wrong?" Her fingers dug into his shirt, her face pressed against his chest for a long moment, before she looked up with reddened, haunted eyes. "Oh Richard, it’s terrible," she said, tears in her voice. “What is? Kassy? What’s happened?” "Richard?” Sticking out from around the door was the head of a human male. His eyes were heavy and his thatch of dark hair was in disarray. With one flickering glance, he took stock of the mismatched adventurers on his doorstep. “Richard, are these people your friends?” “Yes. David, what-” The man pushed the door wider. “You need to get inside now. Hurry!”
Take
"Ho! Whoa. You hold up a moment there, lassy," the captain called. Alexis stopped and turned back, arms folded and head tilted with a glare. The captain grabbed a line, swinging from the ship to the dockside, and landed, silken waist sash fluttering in the breeze. He struck a pose, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "Are y'trying to suggest that I, Captain Dragan Bloodbeard, of the beautiful Oaken Rose, is not fit to take a couple of poncy humans over the seas to Khul?" The captain took a few, stalking, steps forward, glaring down. "Well, are ye?"
Tough
(Word edited out for better prose) CW: Slavery
Once all the women had eaten, the guards unlocked their cell. The slaves filed out and, one by one, were locked to a long chain. The chain was dragged by a guard down to dim pits where veins of opalescent stone ran through the rock. The chain was locked to a staple on the wall, and pickaxes handed out. The other slaves began to attack the rock face. With a glance at Bastet, Alexis followed suit, struggling to even lift the pickaxe.
➤ @thewriteflame
Erase (Remove)
Alexis must have slept at some point, as she woke in a dog pile of small children and blankets. The sun was burning its way through the hall’s high windows, promising a fine day; what little the weather cared for mortal tragedy… She lay back, staring at the wide-beamed ceiling, exhausted down to her bones. At least it would make assessing the damage easier than if they had to manage it in the rain. Her thoughts turned to Richard and Ithanor, passing buckets in the rain, and to Bastet who’d vanished into the dark, and to Victor, throwing magic and water around with only one care. She should, probably, go check on them. Alexis slithered out of the warm pile, pulling the blankets over those who were left shivering with her departure, watching the children with a fond smile as they snuggled together, filling the hole she’d left. She adjusted her armour – apparently never having managed to remove it the night before – and found her travel pack and weapons close by. On soft feet, she padded out of the Town Hall and into the courtyard.
Flight
"Thank you, so very much," said the dragon. "I’m afraid I was in over my head there. If you kind folks hadn’t come along when you did, I would have been dragon kebab for sure. Thank you again, for saving me, Kypris of the Copper Dragon Flight. Is there anything I can offer you for your excellent service? Alexis instinctively held out her hand. "It’s very nice to meet you, Kypris," she said. The dragon extended a talon and they shook "Why didn’t you use your acid breath attack?" Bastet asked. "My my, you’re very knowledgeable, aren’t you little drow. Well…” Kypris scuffed a foot into the sand. “I was taken by surprise and they tangled my mouth shut before I could use it. I sadly haven’t yet learnt the full way of magic. So I couldn’t do much against those wretched little creatures. Now, please! What can I do to repay your kindness?"
Sleep
CW smoking/ drug use
Slowly they all woke, grateful to find both their necks and belongings intact. “Usually I do not let people sleep here,” the barman said, taking a suck from a long pipe, huffing out a cloud of scented smoke. “But I see you are new here, with no place yet to rest your heads. For the service of keeping the braziers lit and protecting you through the long night.. Eh, I will give you a discount for your newness. Two silver bits each.” He waggled his eyebrows and held out a hand. “Thank you, good sir,” Richard said, passing over his money. “Your kindness in protecting us while we slept is greatly appreciated. You are a godly man.” Silently, Alexis passed over her money. As the coins slipped from her grip, she signed in Thieves Cant, ripoff. The barman grinned widely. With a little prodding, Victor and Bastet also parted, grumbling, with their coins. "Now we’re all friends," Alexis said, "perhaps you can help us further. We’re looking for a ruined temple, somewhere deep in the desert. It’s rumoured to contain a portal to other worlds. Have you heard of such a place?” The barman shook his head. “I have not. But there is a man who sells maps from the marketplace. His name is Hassan. Perhaps he can point you the right way.” “Thank-” Alexis began, but stopped when the barman held out a hand, rubbing his thumb against his forefingers. “The desert is cruel,” he said. “A silver bit.” Alexis scowled. “Two copper is all that direction is worth, and we both know it.” The barman grinned as the copper coins landed in his hand. “Assamarra go with you, tree-child.”
Sound (Hearing)
Before she could get her answer, Richard came pounding over the hilltop. "She shall give it up over my dead body!" he roared, launching into the midst of the cultists, blade flashing in the sun. Fire roared from overhead, arrows zipped through the azure sky. Alexis felt like she’d blinked, and all the cultists lay dead, bleeding into the sand. “Greg damnit!” Alexis snapped, rushing over. “Why in the Pit did you kill them all? We could have gotten information from them. Like why they only wanted the dagger!” Muttering she began to riffle through the bodies for clues. “They… They were cultists,” Richard said, shrinking down. He toyed with the hilt of his sword. “Evil-doers. They were trying to kill you. You’re so small, and you hurt easily. I was just trying to keep you safe.” Alexis looked up, hearing the upset in his voice, and gave a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Thank you, for saving me. I just don’t understand why they wanted the dagger. It’s a piece of junk. I only wanted it because…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just wanted it.”
Space
"Arts, I want you to show these lubbers to their quarters, then report back to deck. We’ll be setting the sails in half a turn of the clock." "Aye, Cap’n. Passengers, if ye’d follow me?" the First Mate said, leading the way below decks to show them to two cabins. "Ladies, ye’ll be in here," Arts said, pointing to one. "Gents, this'll be your cabin." He pointed to another. "I'll leave ye get settled. It’d be appreciated if ye could stay in your quarters till the Oaken Rose is underway. Dinner will be shortly after then." With a nod, he left them to their quarters.
"Well this is cosy," said Bastet, as she and Alexis arranged themselves in the cabin. It was indeed a tiny space, with narrow bunks on one side and a small tin sink, recessed into a dresser, on the other. Opposite the door was a porthole, letting in the smallest amount of light, over which hung a hurricane lamp. "Mm," Alexis agreed.
➤ @the-writing-rat
Boiling
"Yes!" she said. "We have been sent to rid your menace from the face of Titan." To her surprise, Zagor laughed. "Oh my," he said, wiping away mock tears of mirth. "What an adorable notion. Whilst you all look the part, I doubt you have the skill. So you are welcome to try, but do not think you will succeed." "We have might and right on our side!" proclaimed Richard, raising his sword. "We cannot fail!" At that signal, he and Ithanor made their charge The villain’s smirk dropped and his black eyes became those of death. He flicked out a hand and the last thing Alexis felt was the hissing and boiling of an orange inferno headed straight for her.
Charity (Offering)
"Excuse me, good sir," Victor called up to the pirate. "We are looking to secure the services of a boat and a captain to take us to the continent of Khul, the new land of adventure. Might your good self be available for this service?" "’Sir’?" the pirate looked around as if confused, and his crew laughed. "Ain’t no ‘sir’s here. Ain’t none but us brigands and rouges." Alexis ground her teeth. The seaweed under the hot sun was pungent, the lack of beer from the ridiculous rules of this cesspit pounded at her head. “Your h'excellency might be in the wrong place, eh lads?” “Enough!” Alexis snapped. “Brigands and rouges it is, if you can’t even see your way clear to not making fun of someone offering you good manners. C’mon Vic, these fools aren’t fit to take us up the street, let alone to Khul in this rickety old tub.” She turned on her heel, marching away when the laughter ceased.
Puzzled
She sat down next to the former barbarian, his hair and attire neater than she had ever seen it. "So what of you, old friend?" she asked. "Business booming for you too?" "Oh aye," Ithanor said. "As if I wasn't busy enough with the repairs and upgrades on the town, they've got me drafted in building a host of new homes. All these new bodies want places to live." "That's excellent news." "Oh and," Ithanor said with a shy smile. "Roderick’s not the only one with a new addition to his life." "Oh?" Alexis gave a puzzled smile. "Yeah. I, ah, managed to find myself a wife as well. Very soon after you left actually. Her name is Maeve, and we’re expecting a child, late spring of next year." Ithanor fiddled with his tankard. "I’ve got us a cottage close to the northeast wall, if you ever want to pop on over."
Succinct (Terse)
It wasn’t until evening chow when the winds picked up, large globs of rain hammering into the deck and soaking through anyone foolish enough to not have an oilcloth. When Richard stood to offer a hand, Bloodbeard held out a hand, saying, "I do thank ye for yer help, these past weeks, and by the end of the voyage we'll have made crewmen of you, I’m sure. But for now, let my boys work. Go down to yer cabins, and kindly stay until the all clear’s been given." With a terse nod, Richard led the way below, the First Mate's orders receding as they did.
Weather
Eventually, Bloodbeard came below, his hat drooping with the weight of water and his beard hanging in a sodden mess as he put his head around the door of the larger cabin which they’d stuffed themselves into. "Ah, you’re all here. Good, good. We seem to be having a wee bit of a storm, lads and lassies. But ‘tis nought to worry about – this ol’ girl’s weathered her share of rough seas.” He patted the bulkhead. “It’ll just get a bit bumpy at times. If you could remain here for the time being, that’d be grand. Can’t be having you lubbers out on deck, under me crew’s feet while they try to save her…” Bloodbeard’s eyes darted, and he forced out a chuckle. “Or risk ye being swept off to the briny deep, eh?”
➤ @sleepyowlwrites
Settle
The dragon clapped its paws again. "One moment then, please." It stood on its hind legs, squeezing its eyes tightly shut. The sand around it kicked up in a sudden twisting wind, knocking Alexis over as the others coughed and struggled to shield their faces. The wind died as suddenly as it came, dust settling around a handsome man with golden-tanned skin in the clothes of a travelling merchant. Alexis blinked and Kypris winked at her, his eyes – slitted like a cat – flashed with copper flecks. "Neat trick," said Victor appraisingly.
Sideways (Open-sided)
"Thank you," she said. "We should find someplace to sit and study this thing… Wait a sec." Alexis stopped, looking around with a frown. "Where the hell did Bastet and Victor go?" Richard glanced around, a hand shading his eyes. "There." He pointed to where a group of people congregated around a low table. On dusty cushions sat Victor on one side, his competitor – a dark-skinned elf – on the other. On the table were a set of bone tiles and a large stack of cash. Victor, in his bright robes, was frowning down at his hand, while Bastet stood behind him, hands on his shoulders, cheering him on. "They appear to be playing a game.” Alexis squinted up at Richard. “For money." "Yes, thank you. I know what gambling is. They can use their money however they wish." "They’re probably cheating." Richard pursed his lips and huffed. “Be that as it may, the fate of the world takes precedence over the immoral actions of our friends.” He gestured to an open-sided tent. “Let’s get something to eat while we look at the map.” They took a seat under the awning within sight of the gambling table, and a waitress brought them a tray of hard cheeses, nuts and cured meats. ”I assume you know how to use the map to find the temple?” Richard asked. “If the map is good, then yes, easily," Alexis said.
Sound
Outside, the day was warming up quickly. The four of them wandered through the tented village in search of a marketplace. It wasn’t hard, following the sounds of hawkers and hagglers, to reach the center of the oasis and the packed market. Narrow lanes bordered with awnings and tents, were filled with people and livestock, braying and hollering. Trestles covered in a dazzling array of food and goods, bright fabrics – soft, diaphanous, silky – dangling from racks, piles of skin and fleeces. The smell was incredible: sizzling meats, perfumed flowers, woody spices, offal and dung. Bright fruits alongside mounds of powders in umber and terracotta. Weapons and clothes and scents Alexis could never have dreamed of in a million years, sold by people of all creeds, their dialects and languages swarming into one joyous conglomeration. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. Alexis trailed along behind the others, dipping fingers into pots of spice to smell the strange new smells, running her eyes over glittering treasures, laughing and playfully batting away the small children who thrust trinkets and flowers at her.
A lull in the tumult of sounds made her pause. Something like a whisper, a gut-feel, a tickle on the back of her neck made her look back at the stall she’d just passed. Under a lean-to awning of red and yellow were stacks of chests, some open with the papers inside spilling out. "Guys?" Up ahead Richard looked back to see Alexis wandering back to a stall of some wordsmith. “Victor, Bastet! Alexis has found something,” Richard called out, with a huff adding, “I suppose her ‘treasure sense’ is tingling.” Richard returned to her side, as Alexis was scanning the stall. Crackling stacks of papyrus, held down by painted stones, and rolls of parchment lay across the stall’s table. Idly, she picked up one of the rolls, peeking at its contents – a map, of some kind.
Spacious (Space)
Alexis reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, but Bastet shrugged her off. "It’s okay," Alexis said. “You tried, at least.” "When we get out of here," Bastet hissed at her. "That one is mine." Alexis backed away to give her some space and went to find the elven woman. "Nassurae," Alexis said “Yes, sá itil?” "I don’t know night from day down here, but I’m told you do. If my friends and I are to free everyone, I need to be awake three hours before the guards come to take us back down the mines. Do you think, if I sleep now, you’ll be able to wake me on time?" Nassurae looked thoughtfully at the other elven women in the cell. Each nodded, gripping hands, their eyes alight with hope. “Yes,” Nassurae said. "We can accomplish this. We will take shifts and wake you when it is time." “Thank you. I’ll rest now.” Alexis glanced at Bastet. “I would recommend leaving my companion for now. She’ll sleep when she’s able, and I’ll rouse her when it’s time.” "Quiet dreams, eshen," Nassurae said, as Alexis lay down and closed her eyes.
Supposedly
CW Racial slur - black american
A rustle came from behind them, causing the group to turn. Richard and Ithanor drew their blades as a human and a black-skinned elf emerged from the scrub. "Who are you?" Ithanor demanded, levelling his blade at the newcomers. "Umm, hi?" said the drow. "Well?" Nathardrin said. The human stepped forward, brushing down his shabby robes. "My name is Victor, with a monocle. It seems we both have had the same idea: to sneak into Firetop Mountain and destroy the evil Zagor who lurks within." "And what are you supposed to be?" asked Richard pointing at the drow. "Some kind of pointy-ear coon?" The drow straightened, shoulders pulling back as she looked down her nose at Richard. "My name is Bastet," she said coldly. "Despite your manners, I, and my comrade here, wish to assist you with your venture into the fortress to defeat Zagor." "Oh really?" Alexis said. "Yazty-" She turned back to where the wizard had been standing, only to find the patch of rocky grass empty. "Oh. Well, I hope one of you’s a spell-slinger." "Indeed, little one. I am the mighty Victor with a Monocle!" said Victor, swaying a little. "I will astound you with great acts of wizardry and maybe even set alight to some things." "And I am a fighter of great renown," said the drow. Those from the militia shared dubious looks. "Well, there’s not much point us standing around debating it," said Nathardrin. "We may as well get on with this."
Sweep
(edited the word out for better prose)
As the stablehand led their mounts out, Victor slipped him a silver. "We were never here, okay?" he said. Wide-eyed, the boy nodded, grasping his broom and vanishing into the stalls to send out little puffs of straw dust.
➤ @drabbleitout
Accept
Soon enough their packs were ready and armour had been donned, and now they stood in the blustery morning, the dirt of the courtyard underfoot. To one side their mounts stood patiently, as Hengar ran through the lists of evils they may face: Goblins, orcs. A bugbear, if they were unlucky. While Alexis listened with half an ear, she studied the mounts with concern, and when the captain was finished, raised her hand. "Yes?" asked Hengar. "Sorry, Captain. None of those mounts are short enough for me to ride." "Do not worry, little one," Yaztromo said, coming from the door of the Town Hall, tugging on riding gloves. "We shan’t make you walk. You’re to ride with me, if that’s acceptable?" "Oh." Alexis flushed and dipped her head. "I’d be honoured." Hengar tilted his head at Yaztromo, his eyebrows raised. Yaztromo replied with an allowing flourish of his hand.
Bark (growl)
"What did you find?" Ithanor asked. Quickly, Alexis outlined the layout of the fort, the two sets of stairs, and the pattern of the patrolling goblins. "We should take them out," Richard said. "Are you stupid?" Alexis growled. "What part of 'stealth reconnaissance' did you not understand?" Richard blinked. "Uhhh…" Alexis could see on his face that he didn’t understand, but before she could snap the answer, Ithanor beat her to it. "It means we go sneaky-sneaky-sneaky," he said, pantomiming a person stepping carefully. "We can’t take them out because it’ll make too much noise, and risk them raising the alarm. We just have to be like little mice, trying to steal grain." "Oooh," Richard said, in a rising tone of understanding.
Borrow (scrounge)
Alexis rose closer to noon than she would have liked, rolling out of bed with a series of groans. Her head felt ten times heavier than usual, and her mouth was as dry as pound cake. Aside from the snoring of the night watch, the barracks were empty. Victor, she supposed, was still in the pub, but where Bastet and Richard were she had no idea. By the neat folds, Richard would have risen early. Bastet, on the other hand, might have woken just before Alexis by the state of her bed, or been just as hungover. After dunking her head into the water ewer, Alexis wandered down to the mess hall to see if she could scrounge up something to eat.
Dry
CW Blood
Zagor was sitting in a chair by his desk on the far side of the room. He smirked at them as they entered and fanned out. "So. You’ve come back for more?" he asked, his voice the rasp of two dry sticks being rubbed together. Slowly the lich unfolded himself from his chair, as Victor darted around to fire off a Magic Missile. Zagor’s robe singed, but the creature inside remained unharmed. While Richard and Ithanor charged in, Alexis and Bastet took up flanking manoeuvres. The battle was arduous, but between the five of them, they whittled the lich down until finally, the pale creature lay deformed in a pool of its own black blood.
Fine
Slowly the group made their way down to the ground floor, exiting through the now open front gate and into the fort’s courtyard. "Yaszty!" Alexis cried, spotting the wizard perched on the back of a wagon. She hurried over to him, the others trailing behind. "I am fine, little one," he said, raising a tired hand. "I assume you were successful?" Alexis nodded. "Yep, we got that bastard and his phylactery. Is Lieutenant Nazaretian around? We should report our success to him." Yaztromo hung his head, letting his shoulders slump. "Sadly, the Lieutenant perished in the battle, taken out by an uncannily well-aimed goblin arrow. The men here have nearly finished their clean-up efforts, so I shall be returning with them to Toreguard soon. I shall convey our success to Captain Hengar on my return.” He cast an eye over the group, taking in their dented armour and bloody scars. “You should take some time to rest before returning. Now the Firetop is free, there is no rush.”
Large
"It doesn’t look like they managed to crack the combination," Marag said, running her hands over the outside of the vault. "Good ol’dwarven engineering, that. Everything inside should still be there, then." With that, she began to finagle the door mechanism, until, with a soft noise like a sigh, it opened. Marag pulled open the door, and Alexis’ jaw dropped. The walls of the vault were lined with gold and platinum ingots. The floor was filled with chests, weapons racks and armour stands, upon which hung the most beautiful items – plates of pale, glistening, silvery metal; bladed hilts crafted with tiny jewels; crossbows engraved with strange runes. Magar stepped into the room, gesturing for the group to follow her. With no regard for the horde of treasures, she went to a chest pressed against the left wall and threw open the lid. Inside, nestled in neat rows on trays, were hundreds of gemstones. Maga scooped up a handful, and moving through the group, doled out a large ruby to each. "I hope this will be compensation enough f’helping us. And as advanced payment for taking out that velskkus, feel free to choose an item that’ll help you in your coming fight."
Mercy
"And how much will this map and information cost us?" she said, squinting. "Ah ha! I see the little miss is shrewd, as well as beautiful," Hassan said with a wink, and without breaking stride, added, "Three hundred gold pieces." Alexis gave him a flat look. "Fifty" "Fifty! No no, I can not go lower than two hundred, seventy-five." "One hundred, and you throw in a compass." She cast her eyes over the pile of treasures. A beautiful curved dagger with a jewelled hilt caught her eye. "And this." "All for one hundred golden bits? No no! Lady, you are crazy. That dagger is five hundred gold alone. Two hundred and twenty-five, and that is like cutting my own throat." "Please," Alexis scoffed. "That dagger is thirty at most. You think I can’t spot coloured glass just because the sun’s brighter here? Two hundred and twenty-five for the map, information, the compass and dagger, and one misdirect should anyone ask about us or our destination. Agreed?" Hassan threw up his hands. "Gods have mercy on me! Beautiful, shrewd and cruel, tsh." He shook her hand. "It is agreed."
New
Twilight was falling, the sky banded with pastel rainbow shades, as Alexis returned from the market with her haul of fresh supplies. As she walked along the dirt track towards the pub chomping on a newly harvested apple, she passed a pair of elders gossiping over a fence about some scandal from a few villages over. She slowed down to listen in as one of them complained about the reign of terror from a monstrous elf who claimed to be a paladin. Back at the inn, Alexis knocked on the gent’s door. “Heads up,” Alexis said, tossing him an apple. Richard glanced up from where he was trying to buff out the dents in his armour and caught it with one hand. “Ah, we haven’t had apples in ages.” He sniffed the skin. “Makes me feel a little homesick. How was the market?” he asked, placing the apple aside and returning to his armour. “About that,” Alexis began. Richard’s head shot up. “No, not the market. The market was fine. I got everything we needed. I meant, um. The village you’re from. What was it called again?” “High Creek. Why?” Alexis bit her lip. “Um.” Richard’s brown eyes creased in concern and he set aside his work. “Alexis?”
Peel (skins)
"Hey," Bastet said, calling her back to reality. "I think there's someone in here." Alexis looked over to see Bastet peering through the bars of the cell door. "Hello?" Bastet called through them. From the other side of the door came a blistering string of curses in a harsh language. "Whaddaya dirty green-skins want with me now?" the voice said in common. "I think it is a dwarf," Bastet said, glancing at Alexis. "Whaddaya mean, ye think it be a dwarf?" asked the voice mockingly. "I most definitely am a dwarf, ye lousy stinkers." Alexis shrugged at Bastet. "Sounds like a dwarf, yeah." "You can pick locks, right?" Bastet asked. "Yes. You go get the others, and I will let the very angry dwarf out of his nasty cell." "'His'! I'm very much a ‘her’, ye cretin." Bastet tilted her head. Alexis nodded, making shooing motions. Baset shrugged. "That’s right," the angry female dwarf called, as Bastet hurried off to find their comrades. "You’d better run, ya mangey beskur!" "Hey, enough with the name-calling," Alexis said, looking up from her investigation of the lock. "You keep that up, and you can stay in there." "Och! Now I’ve heard everything. Yon gobbo thinks keeping me in here’s a threat!" "I’m not a gobbo. I’m eshen." "What’s that?" Alexis sighed, spitting the word. "A woodling." "A woodling? Tch! Can’t be. Woodlings never come out the Darkwood." "Well, this one did. Now will you please be quiet so I can concentrate."
Work
Tentatively, Ithanor moved forward, placing a hand on a tall warhammer. As if that was their signal, the others moved forward, selecting what they wanted. Richard selected a suit of plate mail, Nathardin a recurve bow, and new swords each for Bastet and Victor. "Excuse me," Alexis said as Marag was finishing up with Victor. "I don’t see anything smaller than dwarf-size…" "Ah, now, let’s see. What’re you after, hen? A weapon or armour?" "Armour, if possible?" Maga squinted thoughtfully. "Aye, aye. I’ve got just the thing for a quarter-pint. A masterwork project it is, and a bit of an experimentation for the crafter. I doubt he ever thought it’d be worn." Marag chuckled, pulling from a chest a beautiful set of supple black leather armour, studded with that pale, glimmering metal. "Aye, this should see you right well, hen." Quickly Alexis changed. The armour fit like it was made for her. She grinned at Marag. "Thank you."
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Get to know the blogger
Tagged by @raven-of-domain-kwaad (thank you ♥)
1. Why did you choose your url?
Tbh I just wanted to change my previous url to something funny. I don't think current url is funny, but at least it's accurate (procrastination is probably the only thing I've mastered).
2. Any sideblogs?
Two: @local-star-wars-kinda-nerd (it's supposed to be my non-SWTOR blog, but I very inactive there, even if I have things to post), and @spacetagram (blog for my SW version of Instagram, but I'm also not posting often. Though I want to be more productive there. have anyone seen my motivation).
3. How long have you been on tumblr?
Created account sometime in 2018, started posting somewhere mid-2019, so not for very long time.
4. Why did you originally start your blog?
My memory doesn't give me a certain answer, unfortunately (it was awkward at the beginning, so I guess my brain pushed memories away). Maybe because I've been seeing SWTOR blogs with their cool OCs and other SWTOR related posts, so I decided to share my SWTOR stuff.
5. Why did you choose your icon?
Because I'm sort of proud of that edit with Jett, plus she's basically main character here (but sometimes I change icons just because I want icon to match with new color schemes for blog).
6. Why did you choose your header?
Because I adore this commission from @palepinkycat ♥ (though I'll probably change sometime soon).
7. What is your post with the most notes?
This one
ofc it's a meme, I wouldn't expect anything else
8. How many mutuals do you have?
Tbh I'm still not sure who's considered a mutual (does it count even if we've never talked? or if we haven't interacted in months?), but I think there are more than 3, which is surprising, knowing that I can't maintain interactions well.
9. How many followers do you have?
215, wow (it's a lot to me). Some of them are inactive, but it's ok.
10. How many blogs do you follow?
101. Huh, I thought this number was higher.
11. Have you ever made a shitpost?
Some of my very first posts were shitposts (probably), so shitposting is the name of the game.
12. How many times do you use tumblr a day?
Uuhhhh... a lot. It's one of my 2 main social media now (the other is reddit), which probably says something about me, but these two are more comfortable for me.
13. Have you ever fought another blog?
People do that? Even so, I haven't because one of reasons why I moved to tumblr is avoiding constant fights and toxicity of Russian-speaking platforms, so I don't need that again tyvm.
14. How do you feel about “need to reblog” posts?
50/50. I don't mind them (because more often than not it's important), but I admit - I pretty much never reblog them (recent months aside, and even during that time I didn't it often). Mainly because I want to relax and not think about real world for some time.
15. Do you like tag games?
Y E S! I always get excited when I get tagged, and then passing it on (though thinking about who to tag is a struggle sometimes).
16. Do you like ask games?
Apply previous answer here.
17. Which of your mutuals do you think are tumblr famous?
Maybe no one, but how'd I even know?
18. Do you have a crush on a mutual?
I don't have a crush on mutual, but I love you all ♥ (it makes sense in my head).
I don't know who hasn't been tagged yet, so leaving it open (also coz no energy to think, sorry).
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rue-bennett · 10 months
Note
Hello. Sorry to bother you. But can you please explain how changing url actually work? Will my original posts be ruined? Like if people will try to go to my original post they will be see "post not found" or something?
No bother! They will be intact. If they are following a direct link (like say, “old-url.tumblr.com/post/12345” is tagged in the description of an edit you made), then it will say “not found,” however, tumblr adjusts pretty quickly and usually posts will change to your new url! (Again, direct links are the tricky part. People have often used redirect pages — search ‘redirect’ on @inbruges, I have some code tips & themes saved there. I promise they’re easy, I’ve used ‘em and that’s why they’re reblogged there.)
Someone else may be able to explain this better than me, so keep an eye on the replies, it’s 1:30am here haha. But if it’s any consolation, I’ve changed my url like 10 times and am an editor (I used to be a very frequent gifmaker and editor, just not lately) and haven’t had any issues that stopped me from doing it.
Another tip I have is to at least temporarily save your previous url as a sideblog and make the bio & headline into “now @*new-url*!” and you can make a post too so people can click to your new url easily. I hope this makes sense!
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